HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA B!!!!!



I just love this woman!!! Her birthday was yesterday on March 29th, and I am so grateful that she is my mom. She always gives me the best advice, she is always there to help me out with my kids, loves me and my little family endlessly, she is such a great example of how to be christlike, she helps me be a better person, she has been there for me everytime I have needed her help with anything, and I could go on and on. Next to Ben she is my best friend. I love her so much and hope she had a wonderful birthday.

(i love to see my cute parents holding hands, it think it's adorable)

ST GEORGE HIGHLIGHTS

We started off the trip with a great healthy cobb salad. I was just so proud of how pretty it looked I had to take a picture of my hard work. It was so tasty!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY!!!

We celebrated Honey's birthday down there. We went swimming at a local indoor pool. Not quite sure if it was what she wanted to do for her birthday, but it was lots of fun.

Here is the whole gang (minus my hurt husband, Lu and Duncan)

There was this awesome slide. You really got going fast. This is what Mason wanted to do the WHOLE time. He just loved it. The second he got off, he wanted to head back up again.

We all took turns taking him.

Right before we were leaving I talked/bribed Samantha into going on the slide. She liked it so much that she went about 5 times aftre that. She couldn'g get enough.

As you can tell, Mason was loving every second of being at the pool. When it was time to go, Jim and Ben actually both had escort him out to change his clothes. He is such a wild man, just no fear and loves to try everything and loves everything he tries.

Some people think I'm no fun (you know who you are!) Well, look I'm in a swimsuit, my hair is wet, I'm horsing around with my kids, I went on the slide probably 20 times. If that isn't fun, I don't know what is?!

Since Ben has been out of comition to play with the kids, it has given me a chance to really play with the kids. I never really realized how much Ben really played with the kids, and how tiring it can be. Well, it is tiring and fun all at once. The kids have had to depend on me, and I have had the chance to form a little bit of a different bond with the kids. It also gives me a chance to show Ben and my kikds that I really am fun.

It was such a beautiful day so we took our lunch and headed to the park. Sam and Mason just ran and played and had so much fun. Mason found a little friend, who he liked to call "my new friend". It was really cute to watch him play. He doesn't have many kids his age that he plays with, so it is always interesting to watch him play with other kids his age.

I just adore this little girl. Little Lu had her very 1st swing ride.

Sam was loving the slide, seriously can't you tell from that smile.

And look at this face . . . . That is another smile that I just can't get enough of.

I just love that these 2 cute kids have eachother. Love em!!!!

Look at my cute little family. I just love them so much!!!!

It was such a fun little family weekend. Of course there were some upsets with the kids, but there were way more fun times that outweighed the upsets. I loved that we jsut hung out the whole time, all together. That hasn't happened in a while, it was nice. Like I said, I just love em!!!!!

WHAT'S A PAJAMA DAY MOM?

It's been pretty busy around here, basically doing a 1 woman show. Don't get me wrong, Ben tries to help out but he can't really do much. So I've been driving him to work, picking him up, putting the kids to bed, ect, ect and so on. Monday I was really not feeling to great by the end of the day. My body was aching, I had a head ache, my stomach hurt, it wasn't fun. I got the kids in bed around 8 and hopped in bed myself.

Tuesday morning I was feeling really bad, Ben even had his mom come and drive him to work cause I just couldn't think about it. I had been up in to night, nothing sounded good to eat, and the only thing that helped was to be laying down. It was all I could do, so while I sat with my kids while they ate breakfast I told them we were going to have a pajama day. Samantha asked me "What is a pajama day mom?" I told her it is where you stay in your pj's all day long and we stay in mommies bed and watch movies all day long. They both seemed pretty excited. Movies all day, what could be better. I really haven't had a day where I was down all day, at least not while I've had kids. I mean life must go on, right?

So basically Sam and Mace layed on the floor and Lu and I layed on the bed. I would get up to make a bottle, feed Lu and then go put her in bed. She was so great to just eat, play on the bed and then take naps all day long. Samantha and Mason didn't really have very many upsets either, it was kinda nice. By the time it was 4:30 we were all ready to go out in the car and get daddy.

Lu baby just chillin on mommies bed. We brought everything we could've needed so we didn't have to get out of bed.

Sam and Mason made themselves a little bed on the floor.
We did have 1 little upset, but it wasn't between Sam and Mason, it was between Mason and Molly. I'm not quite sure what happened, but Mason insisted that Molly had bit his teeth. He really wanted a bandaid to make it feel better. The only problem was that the closest I could get to his teeth was his upper lip. This picture seriously makes me laugh everytime I look at it. He looks so dang cute with that face and the bandaid taking over his lip. But he was happier once I put it on him.
Wednesday I woke up and felt tons better. I must have felt better if I had the stomach to make some really yummy salsa and some cookies. Those are a few of our favorite things.

Then of course it is always an adventure when Samantha dresses herself for school. It stared out ok but by the time she got to her socks and shoes, I'm not quite sure what she was thinking. I just have to let it go. I took her picture and then she asked if she could take my picture. I told her she could take my picture when I looked silly, then she told me to go change my clothes. Pretty clever little girl.

You don't realize how not fun it is to be sick, especially when you have stuff to do. It basically just gets in the way. Glad to be back on my feet and feeling better!

MOAB

Ben and I headed down to Moab Friday morning for a fun filled weekend. He was planning on a mountain bike ride, and I was planning on running the Canyonlands 1/2 Marathon. My sister Jessica and my mom were heaven sent to help us out with our kids, so the weekend was set up to be perfect.


The only problem is that plans never quite go as you plan.


It rained/hailed right when we got down there, but luckily that cleared up so the guys could head out on their ride. While the guys were gone, we girls went and got our packets for the race and tried to find something interesting to entertain the kids with for over 4 hours. A library and a park, PERFECT! We spent tons of time at the library and then headed over to the park. Right as we were pulling into the park the phone rang. Tiffany answered and I kinda knew something had happened to my Benji.

8 miles into the bike ride Ben goes head over his handle bars and lands on his shoulder.

He definately feels like something is majorly wrong with his shoulder.

He has to hike 5 miles out back to the car.

Coby walked with Ben and Wade and Dave took 2 bikes each

I went and picked up Ben and Coby and we headed to the hospital. Ben and I headed in while the others went and got ready for dinner.

The boys jimmy-rigged this great wrap so his arm/shoulder could be totally still.

That bump on his shoulder is his bone actually floating/separated from the other bone.

If you ask me, it doesn't quite look like it is supposed to be like that.

The doctor came and looked at his shoulder (after we got his jacket off and his shirt CUT off), and they took x rays and the conclusion is . . . . . . . AC SHOULDER SEPARATION GRADE 3.

So the best thing the doctor could do for us is put him in a sling, give him some pain killers and tell us we need to go and see an orthopedic surgeon. So there you go, my new title will by NURSE, along with all of the other job titles that I am currently trying to juggle.

CANYONLANDS 1/2 MARATHON

I was totally psyched for the run on Saturday morning. Except for the lack of sleep from the night before (poor Ben was snoring and I didn't have the heart to wake him), I was ready and excited.

This is exactly what the day looked like. Beautiful and sunny! It was such an empowering thing to see all the others runners. Having so many people around me running definately kept me going. It was such a great feeling.

Here we are before the race. It was so much fun to be down there with

these 3 other cute girls!!!!!

So I just have to say that nobody got my picture when I originally came in, so Coby had me jump back in after I had finished and got a few shots.

Side note . . . . I need to work on my running stanse for pictures.

Ann and I jumped back in when we saw Tif and Summer coming.
Fun to see us all running together.

So a preview of the race . . . . .

I ran with Ann until about mile 8 when I had to make a little potty break.

After I jumped back in and started running I caught up with Ann around mile 9, but unfortunately her IT bands were killing her, so she had to walk. I offered to walk with her, but she just said to go on ahead. It wasn't til mile 11 that my own legs were starting to bother me. Mile 11 was the longest mile of the race. I walked a bit, and when I got to mile 12 I knew the end was really close. It was such a great thing to come down the home stretch and see my cute hubby, there watching and waiting for me. That gave me the extra boost to get to the finish line that much quicker.

There were a couple times where I was close to tears while I was running. I wasn't about to cry because of the pain, but just because of the accomplishment I was making. Really, the most I had run in training was 6 miles, so the fact that I was running over twice that was a great feeling. The fact that my baby was only just over 4 months was another tear jerker. I just had a baby and I had challenged myself to run this race, and even though it was hard, I was doing it!!! I really was ok running until mile 10, but I figured I only had just over 3 more miles. 10 miles of running without much problem is huge for me, even though I wasn't running way fast. I just kept telling myself that the only thing I had to do was keep running. Don't walk, just keep running, even if it wasn't way fast. So that's what I did.

All in all I LOVED IT!!!!

My final time was right around 2:22.

I was really feeling the pain of running that far after the race, but it is something that I would do again. I even told Ben I would love to come back down to Moab next year and run again. It was one of the most beautiful runs I have ever taken.

Even though Ben got hurt, Moab was a great weekend away. There aren't very many times that I can take over 2 hours to go running and feel ok about it. Thanks to my Mom and Aunt Jessica for helping me out with the kids, I could take that time and Ben and I could have a weekend to ourselves.

CRAZY COUPLE DAYS

So far this week has been such a whirlwind! It is half over and I don't feel like I got much done . . . . lets think back and see what has been going on.

Monday . . . . .

It wouldn't be a normal day if my Mace didn't hurt himself in some way.

As you can see he has 2 owie.

The owie on his nose is from last week and we don't even know what happened.

His lip is swollen and red, he tripped up the stairs.

I heard him screaming and found him with a mouth full of blood.

I'm in total aw that he still has all of his teeth.

Mason was getting pictures taken, so of course Sam wanted her picture taken.

Monday night Ben went night skiing, so the kids and I headed down south (just as far as Orem) to go to a Uah Flash game with Aunt Jessica and Uncle Pencer. They are so good to help me out with my kids . . . . all the time. They gave Mason a ticket to the game for his birthday, and since Ben was gone I thought it would be fun to take all the kids down.

BY THE WAY, Mason is exactly like his Mom. He gets extremely grumpy when he is hungry. Before the game we went to Jessica's and we were fixing dinner, but aparently not fast enough. He was so unhappy, but as soon as he got some food . . . all better.

NOTE TO SELF, take snacks every where you go.

Samantha was less than thrilled to get her picture taken here, weird right.

Masson on the other hand was very excited.

Mason was having such a blast. He was cheering and clapping. But every 30 seconds to a 1 min he would ask where the Fox was (their mascot) and when the airplane was coming out. (the airplane that drops prizes) Samantha loved watching the dancers, but about the time that they started doing the pelvic thrust moves, that's when I told Samantha that she couldn't dance like that, ever!

Tuesday . . . .

We got up, and hurried our little selves to the doctors office. I had appointments for Mason and Lu at 9 am. That is really pushing it for us. Some mornings my kids aren't even out of bed til 830. As I was getting out of the car and heading in through the parking lot, there was the nicest guy. I guess he saw I had my hands full, or just felt sorry for me, but he offered to hold Lu's car seat. He carried Luella in and all the way up the elevator so I could just hold the diaper bag, and the other 2 kids hands. It was such a nice, refreshing act of kindness.

Mason and Luella are growing like crazy.

Mason

Weight 36 lbs

Height 40.2 in

He is a big kid. 90th % for his height and 50-70th% for weight.

The doctor said that if he was in kindergarten he would be about the same size as the other kids, if not bigger. He is going to be a tall kid.

Luella

Weight 14lbs

Height 24.5 in

She is just such the average little girl. She is 50th % for both height and weight.

Not too big and not to small, just as a cute little girl should be.

The doctor said to go ahead and really start giving her solids. SUCCESS She had a jar of carrots and didn't cry. I know once she figures out that it is food, she will be totally into it. But it was really cute to watch her figuring out how the spoon works.

St. Patrick's Day is usually such a fun holiday. But as soon as we woke up I got a phone call from none other than Ben, telling me that he had car trouble on his way to work. So of course I had to load the kids in the car and drive out to take him some tools to fix his tire. Mind you that none of us have had breakfast, or even gotten dressed. Lu was actually still in bed. I packed a little sack of cereal for the kids, and made a bottle for the road. And right then I knew it was going to be a wild day.

Sometimes I bite off more than I can chew. I drove carpool, attempted to go on a run with Tiffany (but both of our strollers were giving us trouble . . . . BUST), picked up carpool, went out to Grandma B's to visit, made dinner to take t a neighbor, and never even got into my favorite green St Patty's Day shoes. I might have to sport them tomorrow a day late or something. But really by the time it was 3 I could hardly believe the day was almost over.

Ben has been busy at work. Leaving early and staying late. It has been a true 1 woman show around here. I've been trying and trying to make conscious efforts to be a better mom. But as I am not perfect, I have had to just keep trying. I got the kids to bed before Ben got home tonight, and then as I always check in on them right before I got to bed, I love what I find. Luella is always just a little angel sleeping. Mason was about on the edge of his bed, but he was asleep, so we left him be. Cute Samantha had her head on BoBo the Bear. But the cutest part was that she had a picture on her pillow. It was a picture of Ben, Sam and me (i was pregnant with Mace) and a monkey while we were in Mexico. Ben had given her the picture this morning, and she has carried it around all day. It was just so precious to see it sitting on her pillow right next to her. I just love that little girl.

Even though I am running a 1 woman show, I still need to remind myself what I am really doing. Who I am taking care of. These kids are on loan to me, and I need to do the best job that I can. I need to keep that in mind when I am about to have a melt down because noone is listening to me, or the kids are fighting. They are on loan to Ben and me. Really when you think about it, people only loan things out if they know they will be taken care of. Heavenly Father must have great faith in me and my abbilities to take care of these little kids. I just need to be patient and work at it. And maybe keep working at it!

I also can't forget my mission.

I AM A MOTHER AND WIFE 1ST AND FORMOST.

I CHOSE THIS JOB AND I LOVE IT.

MY MISSION IT TO ACT LIKE I LOVE IT,

EVEN WHEN IT IS HARD.

BABY BURRITO GONE BAD

Every night when we put Luella to bed, we burrito style wrap her. It works perfect, so perfect that she sleeps all night long. This morning around 9 when I still wastn't hearing a single thing from her room, I went in to see if she was still sleeping or just laying quietly. This is what I found . . . .

She had shimmied (the wrong way) out of her burrito.

The blanket was completely over her head.

Lucky that she was ok.

Funny that it didn't even bother her one bit, she wasn't crying or anything.

She was just waving her hands in the air.

Once I uncovered her and she realized it was morning she was pretty happy.

As most mornings she gave me a huge grin!

I love going and getting her out of bed in the morning.

Wouldn't you love to see this beautiful, happy face every morning?!

Really I am so dang lucky, this is the temperment of my baby Lu almost all the time. Her head was totally covered with a blanket and she didn't even make a peep.

Thank goodness for my easy, mellow, heaven sent baby. She is so much fun!

COMBINED PARTY

3 years ago when I was pregnant with Mason, and I got to decide what day I was having him; I actually just picked the first available date. (that is as soon as the doctor and insurance will let you) It happen to be the day after my sister Jessica got married and on my nephew Stillman's birthday. It worked out perfect! I made it to the wedding, very pregnant and then went to have the baby the next day.

So Mason and Stillman share a birthday. Even though we celebrated Mason's birthday on the 11th, Taylor had his boys this weekend so we had a little combined party. We got together at Grandma B's. We had pizza, salad, chips, cake and ice cream. It was so much fun. Samantha and Mason LOVE to see their cousins. Especially since they don't see them much. Mason just adores Bridger, I don't know what it is but he just follows him around and wants to be right there with him.

After we had dinner and before dessert we played a little game. DON'T EAT PETE!!! This was one of my favorite games growing up. I think we must have played it every family party, FHE, Sunday nights, basically all the time. It is a board with squares and numbers in the squares, about 31. Then you put a piece of candy on each of the squares. You send someone out of the room and while they are out, you all decide on a number/square to be pete. The person comes back in and one by one start taking the candies off the board. When they get to the chosen square, everyone yells "DON'T EAT PETE!!!!!" I don't know why we loved it so much, because we all got pretty scared/nervous for everyone to yell at us. But we must have liked it cause we played it all the time.

I thought it would be fun to show these little kids, and let them play. We started with Mason and he nearly cleared the board before he got to Pete, he really liked it. Then Stillman and Bridger went and they also really liked it. But then Samantha went. She started taking the candies off one by one and then as soon as we yelled "don't eat pete" she got way scared. She didn't even want another turn (unlike the 3 boys who all wanted another turn) Samantha told me she didn't want to play that game any more. At least the other 3 kids liked it. I remember it being alot more intriguing when I was little. There were alot more people playing and everyone was really into it. But that wasn't the case last night.

It was a fun night to get together with my family. Taylor, Stillman, Bridger, Hilary, Micah, Nicholas, Rebecca, Charly, Grandma B and Grandpa were all there. Thanks for such a fun night.

Grandma explaining the game/rules

Of course, what's a game without a little

sibling rivalry

Most of the gang who was there, minus Grandpa,

Hilary, and Micah

I just have to say that it was priceless to see Mason's face while he was playing the game. He was totally loving it, had such a big grin on his face!!!! That is what I love to see!