Father and Sons Outing

I remember loving the weekend of father and sons outing growing up. My dad was asked a lot to cook his amazing sour dough pancakes for the whole ward. With three brothers and a dad leaving for a weekend there was always something fun for mom, me and my three sisters to do. We usually took advantage of it to watch a girlie movie and stay up late, putting off the chores for as long as possible. Thanks mom, those were good times.

It's now my turn to kick out the male specimens in my family and Darren is such a great dad to take the three year old with him as well. The three amigos just as they are heading out.
The boys went two hours away and stayed overnight in Payson, AZ. I miss the mountains. It's nice that everytime we drive to see our parents we have to pass through them. I was a little jealous of the fact that they were all camping that weekend without me. They went on a hike while they were up there and look...Darren took pictures for me. Thank you sweetheart.Parker told me all about his overnighter with dad. His favorite part, he said, was that late Friday night they watched a movie (on a projector in the woods) on the restoration of the priesthood. He said that it was really awesome and special and that Bishop said that the dad's should talk to their sons and teach them about the responsibility of the priesthood and so he and dad still needed to do that. He told me that he could feel the spirit during that movie. And then he told me that he at two scones and stayed up with dad and everyone else and watched Bedtime Stories and that it was just great and so much fun. I'm so glad that he got to go and that his daddy (who doesn't LOVE camping like his momma does) was a trooper and took him and his brother.

Now when they boys are away...the girls will play. A few friends adn I took our girlies to TGIF and hit up the $5 menu. Those girls were a cheap date. A man at the restaurant came to our table and asked us if this is what the ladies do in our church when the boys have that father son camp out.Kristin and LorenRenae and KalissaAlexia and IHeidi and TatumErin and KateKobi, Kylie and Shanen
After dinner we headed back to Heidi A's house for some treats, dress up, and the movie Enchantment. Alexia and I didn't make it home that night until 11:30pm. We had such a great time! Thanks for inviting us.

Any guesses on which feet/legs are Lexi's?

My Mother's Day

I just wanted to make sure I put up this picture of me and my kids on Mother's Day. Darren had to take like 50 of them in order to get the yay-who's all in the picture with shirts down, smiles on, hand signs terminated, and eyes looking at the camera. Phew! We finally got a keeper.
Darren made me dinner. I love it when Darren cooks and lately (since being pregnant) he has done a lot of it. Darren is a great cook. I got him his own gender neutral food network apron for Christmas. Lesser men would scoff. He loves it. Our family loves seafood so that was the menu for the day.Here is another one of the kids taken that day. I sure do love these hooligans.

Now can we take a minute and look at these pictures taken a week later? These pictures are nothing short of a miracle. Elijah is my stinker. That isn't coming as news to anyone. I cannot get him into church clothes. This boy is super stubborn and he hates church (button down) shirts. I think I lost a box of Parker's old clothes and so he has been wearing polo shirts and sweater vests to church for forever because that is all I had. But grandma sent a cute shirt/tie combo for Easter this year and we fought him tooth and nail to get it on for Easter. I can't remember what I did to distract him as I was getting him dressed the day these pictures were taken, but I do remember it was pretty painless and he looked so stinkin' cute I had to document it, and then throw big brother in the picture as well. And then, since we were already late to church I put daddy-o in the middle of them as well. These men are my favorites.

We love a good tea party around here

I can't help it. Whenever my kids come to me and ask if they can have a tea party I cave. Tea parties are the best. Especially after working hard all morning pulling weeds with dad. Especially when mom actually has snack food in the house. Especially when you get to use your play dishes. Especially when the littlest brother no longer dumps his cup of tea on the floor. Especially when it is 107 degrees outside and mom has run out of chores and fun stuff to do. Yeah tea parties are fun.

On the tea party menu:
Pretzels
Oreos
Popcorn
Fruit Snacks
Chips
Apples
WaterLooks like I was cleaning out the pantry that day. Phew...at least I snuck something good for them in there, but knowing me I probably salted the apples first. And it had to be water that day because they wanted to have it back in Alexia's room.

Now lets just talk about that lunchroom tray there. I found it about five years back at TJ Maxx. It seems we don't use those in our schools anymore. It's too hard to have to wash the dishes now for the lunch ladies in our school. Now we pay for the styrofoam tray too. School lunch costs $2 in these parts. That's crazy. And our lunch ladies don't cook anymore - they just heat up. I'm not disgruntled at all...can you tell? Wow I'm off on a tangent. Anywho...We love our tea parties - yes we do.

Alexia's Choice

It is hard for me to believe that Alexia has reached this important milestone so quickly. For months we have been talking to her about what it meant to be baptized and we are so proud of her for making this decision. I have such a testimony of eight being the age of accountability. For a while I have known that Alexia truly knows the difference between right and wrong and the knowledge that she will have the Holy Ghost help her make decisions is a huge comfort to me as her mother.We were excited to have so much family come for her special day. Grandma and Grandpa Stewart, Darren's sister Rachelle, brother Nolan and his wife Megan and their baby Olivia came from Darren's side of the family. Grandma and Grandpa Wells, my sister Alena, her hubby Andrew and their daughter Kurstyn, and my sisters Rebecca and Melissa came from my side of the family. While the day was not without surprises, everything turned out wonderfully.Alexia with her Aunts Melissa and Rebecca.Alexia with her daddy.

Alexia with our wonderful bishop, Bill Guttery.We had a quiet dinner afterwards and the cake that I had fought long and hard for at the service exchange showed up as the main event. My talented and wonderful friend Trish made it and it was beautiful as well as delicious.
Right after she was baptized I was helping her get dried off and back into her dress. It finally came to my attention that she was crying. When I asked her why she was crying she told me that she just felt so happy inside. I know that baptism is a big decision and an eight year old may not fully understand what she was doing. It is a comfort to me to know that she had confirmation of her own that she had done the right thing. It was a very special moment for her and I.

Happy Mother's Day

We have some pretty special mothers in our lives. I'm so glad that they both make such an effort to be a part of our lives even though we live far apart.My mother is truly one of the sweetest women I know. I love the small moments that remind me of my mother and make me smile. Here are a few of them...

...whenever I give one of my kids a "spit bath."
...when I brush my teeth I look up once in a while and see my mother in the way I brush. It never fails to bring a paste filled smile to my face.
...whenever I cut a tomato and salt and pepper the juice drippings and slurp them up.
...whenever a movie, commercial, song makes me cry - I'm just missing that foot wiggle of my mom's.
...whenever I open my pantry and see a canned bottle of something. My mother is the canning queen!
...whenever I think about clear days and mom making fudge.
...whenever I tell my kids to bend over and pull weeds instead of sitting on the ground or squatting.
...whenever I see the rocker from my pressure cooker sitting on my window sill.
...whenever I use a kitchen spoon as a spade while planting flowers.
I could have never gotten any luckier in a mother in law. Teressa is so fun to have around. My earliest memories of her were sitting side by side eating sunflower seeds while watching Darren play high school baseball. She and I talk on the phone at least once a week, sometimes more often, and I love it. My kids soak her up when she comes for a visit. She was such a powerful influence on who Darren became. I love her for raising such a wonderful and faithful son.

Happy Mothers Day to you both and to all of the other wonderful mothers in my life in the form of grandmothers, sisters, sister in laws and wonderful friends.

In case you were wondering...

It's more snips and snails and puppy dog tails...

The ultrasound confirmed the following wives tales:

Pick up a key test
Craving salty or sweet foods test
Spit on Drain-o test
Carrying high or low test

And the Chinese Birth chart had it dead on. :)


The little stinker wouldn't show us his face, but was more than willing to show us his hiney.

Easter this Year

Happy Easter!

April was busy this year. I was scared of my April calendar back in February. Obviously I knew Easter was coming but Grandma Stewart took care of the new duds and I seriously forgot about coloring eggs until about 8:30 the night before. What a slacker. So no pictures of that here because we were scrounging just to come up with some dye, much less document it.Thanks Teressa for the Easter finery. I think that making the boys match once in a while is so cute. They will probably have a different opinion when they get older. ;)

Aaaaaaah! I swear I could just eat those ears!
Here are the kids just before the big egg hunt. It's daddy's job to hide the eggs. I still don't understand why he hides some of them so high up they need his help to get them down. We need a bigger yard with more junk in it to form good hiding places it seems.
Elijah was so not diggin' the plastic eggs with candy. Right after opening this one he dumped it and all the jelly beans it contained on the ground. If it wasn't a real egg or one with a few coins inside, he wasn't interested.Will someone tell this girl's mother to teach her to act like a lady in a dress? Sheeze!
Oh this girl can melt my heart.
I started messing around with my camera during dinner. I love my baby girl's hair in this one. The curls from the morning had calmed down and she looked beautiful to me.Lijah was done posing for pictures. Let's all pretend that that is a really clean back door he is standing next to.
I cannot understand why everytime I want to take his picture now he wants to flash me some hand sign. It's starting to bug.Now let's take a moment or two to look at those curls. I just LOVE those curls. It hurts my heart each time he makes me cut them off.

Nine

Every other Monday is a bit louder than usual at my house. I watch two different three year old boys for two friends and excitement is sure to follow. So as if I didn't have enough on my hands, just before Parker left for school yesterday he came to me in all seriousness and had the following conversation with me.

"Mom, would you babysit my stuffed animals today for me?"

"Umm, sure Parks."

"Well they take naps at one o'clock and eat lunch at two o'clock."

"Okay but hon, you usually feed kids lunch and then they take their naps."

"Well then they eat at one o'clock and take their naps at two o'clock."

"How much are you paying me Parker?"

"Nine."

"Nine what?"

"Nine coins mom."

"Like nine pennies? (He nods his head.) Okay it's a deal. I'll babysit for you today."

You can be sure I made him pay up last night too. That puppy barked all day long and the dinosaur and teddy fought constantly. Not sure it was really worth "nine." ;)

Alexia Turned Eight

Baby love is eight years old today. We had a few of her friends over for a fun party. The girls each decorated their own purses and with all of the ironing (of iron-on sparkles), hot gluing and fabric painting I was so glad my two sisters Melissa and Rebecca were there to help out. Here are a few pictures from her day.

This is why I had kids

Our lawnmower has been on the fritz until recently (thank you Jerry!) and so we borrowed a friend's self propelled mower a few weekends this past month. Darren took advantage of that situation to let Parker have a taste of what is to come...for forever.

Look at the concentration on that face.

And then I step inside and find this?

Yep, we're all about breaking child labor laws around here.

MISS-PRO-NUN-SEE-A-SHUN makes me giggle (on camera too).

How could I not include this video? If you know me at all you know I really had no choice. Seriously. :)

Birthday Follow Up

Elijah was so fun this year on his birthday. The first words out of his mouth when I got him out of bed were "Eat cake?" He was finally old enough to appreciate that this was a different day. We went Lightning McQueen themed this year mostly because I've had my fill of Thomas the Train and it was a huge hit.

Two weeks ago Parker asked if he could buy a toy truck with his own money. I do not buy toys...evva! But it was his money so if that is what he wanted to spend his money on, so be it. We went to Walmart and hit the toy aisles. Lije zeroed in on "Queem Mac" and held it for ten minutes. There was no way I was going to buy him that toy just two weeks before his birthday so while he slid down the slide on the off limits swing set in the middle of the store, I hid Queem Mac behind some other toys. He cried for 20 minutes and Daddy eventually had to remove him from the store while I checked out. Now a smart momma would have headed back and picked it up and hid it at home for the next two weeks. It took me a few stores and I finally found it the day of his birthday, took it home and wrapped it. He was so excited when he opened it. It totally made the hunt for the stupid thing worth it.

Happy Birthday Elijah!

Holy cow looking at these two pictures makes me baby hungry. Lijah you were such a pretty little thing. So little compared to the other two. You were 8lbs 5oz at birth and you came home at 7lbs 12oz. We almost didn't know what to do with you.

I can't believe it has been three years! You make momma smile. Everyday is an adventure with you. What are we going to do when it isn't just you and I anymore? Happy Birthday sweet baby boy!