A Shooting Day With Dad

Saturday Chris and the boys went on a little trip to go shooting. My brothers both have a gun, and so does Chris, and they like to go out shooting once in a while. They went to a shooting range out by Utah lake. This was Brendon and Jayden's first time shooting a gun. They got to hold Chris' 9 mm, for the pictures, (unloaded I might add) and they got to shoot his b-b gun. They had a blast, with the exception of a few cuts they got from playing with wood and glass that was laying around, but other than that they had fun. Why Chris let them play with glass is beyond me. I guess most men don't worry about that kind of thing. He just figures, if they get hurt, they won't do it again.

We Can Now Call Him Space Face

Last night we decided to watch a movie as a family. Part way through the movie Brendon turned to me, with a drop of blood running down his chin, and said "Mom, look, my tooth!" He pulled his tooth out. It kind of surprised me because he hadn't been working at all to pull it out, and all of a sudden it came right out. We took him to the dentist about a month ago and he told us he had a loose tooth, but when I felt them none of them wiggled. Then, surprise! He was so excited. I was kind of taken back by how small it was. He is holding it in his hand in the first picture, but you can't even see it.

We explained to him about the tooth fairy. That night we watched Spiderwick, which is about goblins, and fairy's and things, the movie scared him quite a bit, so I thought the idea of the tooth fairy would freak him out, but it didn't. We had him put it in an envelope. I only had a 5 dollar bill, and, of course, I would never give him that for a tooth, so I ran over to the Bennett's for change. We weren't sure what the running rate was for teeth now days, so we gave him a dollar. Maybe that was too much, I don't know. I put it under his pillow about 11:00 and he woke up at 11:30 and came in our room with his dollar. It was so cute. He said "Mom, the tooth fairy gave me a whole dollar!" Kids are so funny. Today he has been showing everyone he talks to his missing tooth. He is so proud!

Our Trip to St. George

This past weekend the boys, my mom, and I took a last minute trip to St. George. Chris stayed home for work. My grandparents live down there so we stayed with them. It was nice to get away from the normal everyday life. We stayed from Friday to Sunday morning.

On Saturday it was 108 degrees, so we decided to take the kids to a water park they have there. It's pretty much like the water thing at the Gateway. When we first got there Brendon and Jayden just stood and watched the other kids. Then after a while they warmed up to the idea and got soaked. Ethan, however, the moment I sat him down on the ground took off through the water. He stayed in it for a good hour playing without a care in the world. It's funny the difference between him and the other two with water. Hopefully he isn't such a dare devil with other things though.

The ride home on Sunday was so long! The boys asked like every 1/2 hour if were there yet. Ethan was tired and tried to sleep but every time he settled down and attempted to do so, the boys would take his binky or yell out to get him to wake up. Then, of course, Ethan would start crying. It was so annoying! We also had to stop twice for bathroom breaks. Not just quick number 1 jobs, both times it was number 2. It was so nice to finally hit Nephi, at that point you know there is an end in sight, because it's not all weeds, and mountains.

Hopefully the next time we have to take a big trip we have a bigger car so we can stick Brendon and Jayden in the very back to fight amongst themselves, and Ethan in the middle seat all to himself where he won't get tortured the whole time.

Goin' Swimmin'

We bought a new pool for the boys recently. I don't know about everyone else, but it seems like we have to buy a new pool every year, because they keep getting holes in them. Hopefully this one lasts longer.

Anyway, I blew it up the other day and let the boys have at it. They had a blast. Ethan jumped right in, which surprised me because the water was freezing cold! He is definitely our water boy. In the picture of him standing with his mouth open he is yelling at the top of his lungs. He did it for about 10 minutes straight. It was pretty funny. Hopefully the weather stays warm so we can enjoy many days outside like this one.

Train Fun!!!

This past week Brendon decided to bring up their train table they got for Christmas from the basement. Normally I make them keep their toys down there, but I decided to pick my battles and didn't want to argue with him about it. I let him put it in Ethan's room. Well, that was the best decision I've made in a long time! They have played with that thing every day we have been home for the past week. What is great is that Ethan can play with them. I don't let him go downstairs to play. He was in heaven. It was so cute to see all the boys playing together, and best of all they haven't fought once while playing together with it. As you can see from the picture there are no trains, they prefer playing with cars. Whatever makes them happy I guess!

Our Weekend Away

Our parade pose

This past weekend Chris and I were able to get away for our anniversary. We decided to do something fun and different, so we rented a convertible for a day. It was a blast. Definately worth it. I felt a little bit awkward in it though, I didn't want anyone to think we were rich, spoiled, snobs. Anyway, on Friday we went to the temple, then went and ate at Famous Daves, which we really liked, then we went and saw Indiana Jones. Chris picked the movie. It was pretty good, but the first three are better, I must say. Then we went to Leatherby's and had some icecream. For anyone that hasn't ever been there, you are missing out. It is so good, just be prepared to be stuffed. Their ice cream servings are HUGE! We don't go there very often, because they are also more expensive, but we figured, what the heck, we're celebrating. We reserved a hotel through priceline, and ended up getting the Hilton downtown. I guess I expected a 4 star hotel to be nicer. It was pretty much just like any other hotel, just with tile and granite countertops in the bathroom. Plus we had to pay $12.00 to park at their hotel. Since we rented a nice car we decided to be safe and park it somewhere safe. What a rip off though!!

On Saturday we went out for breakfast, then went to Lagoon. We got there at 10:30. We got to ride 6 rides, one of which was wicked (it was great), then Chris had to get sick. He threw up after we went on Screamer. I'm grateful he was able to hold it until we were off the ride, that could have been disasterous! We walked around for a little bit, and then had to leave. We left at 1:30. So we spent $70.00 for 3 hours. So basically we spent 12.00 a ride. Why does it seem like someone always ends up getting sick when we have made plans? I felt bad for him, but I was mad about the situation. We went and got the kids, and Chris spent the rest of the day sleeping, and I spent it watching baseball, which I don't even like to watch.

So that was our great weekend. At least Friday was fun.

MY LAB RAT EXPERIENCE

My Right Arm
my upper left arm
my lower left arm

My allergies have been horrible the past few days, so I gave in and decided to go to an allergy doctor. Today they did some testing to see what I have allergies to. They had 48 samples of different things, like cats, dogs, grass, etc. that they pricked on different areas of my arms. 24 on each arm. I reacted to whatever I was allergic to. I can officially say I know how a lab rat feels! I reacted to all but 3 things, and my arms itched like crazy!! I had to sit there, without scratching, for 15 minutes for the full results to show. It was a very long 15 minutes! One of the things I wasn't allergic to was dogs, which is good because I love dogs. I reacted worst to Kentucky Blue grass, which explains why I end up itching like crazy when I sit in the grass. I have to go back in on Monday to get more testing done, which is costing a whole lot with copays. Hopefully it will be worth it and I will soon be able to breath again!

That's not a sucker Ethan!

The other day I left the diaper bag sitting out in Ethan's room. It was unzipped, so he decided to go through it and pull everything out. He found a tampon wrapped up and managed to open it. Of course, he thought it was a sucker. It entertained him just to suck on it for quite a while. If he only knew what he was doing. Chris had a cow when he saw these pictures.

TAG

Lindsey Boynton tagged me, so here it goes:

8 things I’m passionate about:
1. My husband
2. My kids
3. The gospel
4. My family (parents, siblings)
5. Sports
6. My friends
7. Music
8. Food

8 books I’ve read and enjoyed:
1. The Book of Mormon
2. Harry Potter (I’ve read them all, so if I can’t come up with 8, I believe there are 7 or 8 Harry Potter books.
3. A Prophet’s Friend (The main character is a relative of Chris’)
4. The History of Joseph Smith by His Mother
Okay, so I don’t read as much as I should, so this is all I can think of.

8 Things or words I say often:
1. Stop fighting!
2. Put Ethan down!
3. No lunch until your room is clean.
4. Chris, do you really think they are in the mood to be teased?
5. Close the bathroom door, it stinks!
6. Ethan, NO!
7. I love you.
8. Stop playing, and go to sleep!

8 things I want to do before I die (not in any order)
1. Serve a mission with Chris
2. See all my children married in the temple, and raise faithful children
3. Be one of those grandma’s that still plays sports
4. Have a girl or two
5. Coach basketball again
6. Live up to my full potential
7. Graduate from college
8. See all my boys, and maybe girls, serve full time missions faithfully

8 things I have learned, or remembered this past year
1. Three boys is not a cake walk
2. You are blessed when you pay your tithing
3. Sometimes you just have to let your kids duke it out
4. Don’t worry about what other people think
5. When you potty train boys, teach them to sit, not stand (the worst mistake I ever made)
6. The first year of sports for kids is mostly for the parents entertainment
7. How to make Jam
8. My boys are normal

Chris' Cool and Awesome Blog

Chris has his own blog. Check it out

Havin' Some Fun With Grandpa Staheli

My dad decided to get out his tractor today and do some tilling, in the neighbor's yard. Being the awesome grandpa that he is, he let the boys tag along for a ride. They had a blast! It's not very many kids that get to experience a tractor ride!

HAPPY 29th BIRTHDAY CHRIS!!!

Yes, we are celebrating yet another birthday today. We really should have planned things better with our boys birthdays. The months of May and June kill us! It seems like many of the boys friends birthdays are around this time also. Then there's Mother's Day, Father's Day, and our anniversary. Good thing he has had overtime!
Anyway, so you all know, in all fairness to Chris, before I posted the post about men I read what I had written to him, and he laughed at every one because he knows they're all true. But with it being his birthday today I am going to shift gears from funny to serious, and I am going to list the reasons I love Chris. So here it goes:

THE REASONS I LOVE CHRIS

1. He makes Sunday dinner every Sunday we are home.
2. He is always willing to watch our boys so I can play rec sports, or go out with the girls.
3. He works 10 hours a day, 5-6 days a week, and I vary rarely hear him complain.
4. He cleans the bathrooms without being asked. Quite often, I might add.
5. He thinks I look the cutest when I'm mad, but, of course, sometimes he makes the mistake of telling me during my maddness and this makes me even madder.
6. He loves the gospel, and lives it the way he should.
7. He makes me laugh every day.
8. When I'm worried or stressed about something he strengthens me through his simple faith by telling me that everything will work out, and it always does.
9. After 7 years (almost) of marriage I can hardly recall a time he said something negative about someone else. He is the most loyal person I have ever known.
10. He loves our boys. Even though he is not the best at outwardly showing it, I see it everyday in the way he looks at them, the way he smiles when they score a goal, the nights they spend wrestling in the living room, and his proud expression when Brendon first learned to read, when Jayden took off the first time he attempted to ride his bike without training wheels, and the first time he saw Ethan crawl. I love Chris because he definately loves our boys!

FINALLY, I LOVE CHRIS BECAUSE I KNOW HE LOVES ME!

Happy birthday Chris! I hope it is a good one!

Because I Am The Mom Song

I was emailed this clip a while ago, and thought I'd share for any that haven't seen it. It is hillarious!!

10 THINGS I HAVE LEARNED ABOUT MEN

So since our anniversary is a week away, I decided to write a few things I have learned about men from being married to one for 7 years.

1. Men pretend they don't know how to do something so they can get out of doing it.
-Examples: When he does the boys hair it looks like they did it. When he does the laundry it is all inside out. When he dresses the boys, their underwear is on their head, or their onesies are snapped on the outside of their pants. When he feeds Ethan most of the food ends up on his face and in his hair.
2. Men are proud of their equipment and often flaunt it.
3. If you promise you will make out with him later, you can get him to do anything.
4. Men are stubborn drivers. Many times when he is driving we end up argueing about how he is driving, or why he refuses to follow my directions. If anyone ever has to follow us when he's driving, you better have some powerful divine inspiration to guide you to your destination, because he will lose you!
5. If there were only men in the world, they would all run around naked. All day, every day. Clothes would never have been invented.
6. If he says he's right, there's no changing his mind, even when he knows he's wrong. It's a pride thing, I guess.
7. When he asks you to make out with him, and promises that's all that will happen,
HE'S LYING!!!!
8. Scratching is their worst habbit, one a woman will never understand. It's like they rolled in poison ivy, or something!
9. There is one good thing about periods. I know that for one week I can come to bed and I won't get mauled!!!
10. The 4-6 weeks after childbirth for a man are pure "HELL." Whatever, they know nothing!!! When I say "hell," I am quoting my brother.

The Piano Man.... (I mean baby)

Ethan has found a new toy that he thinks is his..... my piano. I sat him on it tonight and he went to town. I'm sure he could have gone all night if we let him. He actually played softly too. The only drawback is that he has to stand up to turn the pages, which, of course, is a necessity for him in order to play the piano, and once he got up he couldn't figure out how to sit back down.