Riding Bikes (no training wheels for Matthew)

I tried a few weeks ago to teach Matthew how to ride his bike without training wheels - but it didn't work.  But, as soon as Ed stood by Matthew, he was off and could ride without training wheels almost instantly.  It was so much fun to see how happy he was when he realized he could do it.  It was also fun to watch Gavin ride his little tri-cycle.  We tried the big bike with training wheels but it was just too hard for him to peddle.  He was so proud of himself!  He just wants to be big like Dallin & Matthew.

Gavin's Quote of the Day

Last night, while I was teaching and Ed had the boys, Gavin was pretending to be a robot so Ed asked him if he was Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. Then Gavin said,

"Robots don't have names. Just guns."

I have no idea where he got that - he is definitely all boy!

Peter B. Concert

For girls night out this month, we went to the Peter B. concert at Thanksgiving Point.  My friend that was in charge, actually is friends with Peter B. so she was able to get in early and save us a GREAT spot on the grass (thanks Brooke).  We try to go every year so some of us brought our husbands (since they like his music too).  I love Peter B.'s music but I also love going because it is a blast to my past.  My friends and I went all the time back in our single, college days.  I had more energy to dance back then but I still tried and had fun!

Bath Time for Brecken

I love this guy and luckily, he loves to take a bath - wherever I happen to give him one!

New & Fun Treats

Last night was mini-Enrichment and since I am on the mini-Enrichment committee, I took dessert (along with another one of my friends).  Well, lets just say I went a little overboard.  I have a bunch of recipes I have been wanting to try but didn't have a place to take them.  So, when I realized I had to take dessert to this, I jumped on it.  I tried 3 new recipes - all of which I got from the Picky Palate blog.  And if that wasn't enough, since it was my last mini-Enrichment in this ward (our ward boundaries are changing on Sunday) I also made my Chocolate Cake to make sure I took at least one really good dessert.  Anyway, from what everyone said, they were all really good.  I am on South Beach right now so I haven't tasted them - but they seemed to be a hit.  Apparently, you can't taste the Oreos or the brownies in the Brownie Swirled Peanut Butter Oreo Cookies - be careful to not over cook them (that makes them dry) - but they tasted good and look kind of fun.  Anyway, have fun with them!  When I made the Chocolate Chip Cookie Cup Treats, I made a full recipe of cookie dough (with 2 kinds of semi-sweet chips, a little bit of dark chocolate chips, and white chocolate chips) and only but the Rice Krispy treats on half.

Up Goes Brecken!

After being thrown up on yesterday and today by my sweet little Brecken, I thought I should make a page reminding me how cute he is and how much fun he is when he isn't throwing up.  For some reason, whenever his has an ear infection or his tubes are just plugged, he throws up (and wakes up in the night).  I thought there was something wrong a few weeks ago, so I took him to his ENT.  She had me put drops in his ears because one was plugged.  A day after putting drops in, he stopped throwing up.  After 6 days of drops, I stopped.  He was fine for a day or 2 and then started throwing up again (and waking up in the night).  So, I started the drops again but for some reason, after a few days, the throwing up started again.  Ugh!  I need to call the ENT again.  Oh well - there are much worse things.  He is a sweet little guy and is loving that he can pull himself up.  Soon, he will be walking (well, maybe not that soon).

Basketball Skills Class

For the past couple of weeks, Dallin & Matthew have been going to The Factory (formerly Open Court) on Thursday's for an hour learning basketball skills.  It has been great!  They are learning how to shoot, dribble, pass, well - you know, basketball skills.  I think part of why Matthew likes it is because one of their coaches is a tall, long hair, blonde, girl (kind of like "my Manda" - my cousin (Big) Gavin's now wife who Matthew LOVES).  All the coaches are ex-college ball players and are really good with the kids.  They have a couple of weeks left of this session and then I will sign them up for the next one (especially since it will be getting cold & snowy here by then).  It has been a lot of fun to get to watch them learn so much and have fun!

Fun Run 2008

This year, the PTA fundraiser at Dallin & Matthew's elementary school was a Fun Run.  Each kid runs around a "track" and does as many laps, running or walking, as they want to in 30 minutes.  The PTA makes money from the kids registering ($5 each) and from people pledging flat amounts for the kids running or per lap.  Each kid gets a gold medal (which my boys LOVE) and they have popcorn & snow cones that you can buy.  Then, after the kids race, parents can race as well - just one lap.  The last part of the evening is drawings for fun prizes.  Matthew won 5 tickets to Boondocks - he was so excited!  Dallin didn't win anything (again) - he was pretty sad, but I think he is over it.  Dallin & Matthew both did great!  It was a fun night - and we didn't eve get rained on.

Hawaii!!!!

So, we have been back for over a month and I am finally going to post about our FABULOUS trip.  We really had the best time.  Sorry there are so many pages to look at.  Just click on one if you want to see it big.  I would write more, but you get the idea from all the pages.  It was FABULOUS!  And thanks to my cousin Angela who watch our boys and to my other cousin Amanda (okay, she is a cousin in law but same thing) who happened to be up photographing a wedding and was soooooooo nice and stayed at our house and helped watch out boys as well & even took their pictures while we were gone (and then our family pictures when we got back.  Oh, I am going to add the memories Amanda put on her blog that she would always remember from her trip & taking care of our boys:

-taking them to craft day and watching them play with all of their friends and getting to know Shelley’s (my dad's family calls me Shelley - no one else) cute friends
-sending them to the basement to play so we could snooze on the couch
-making them lunch and dinner and the boys all wanting ketchup with everything….soooo nasty!
-grabbing fast food for dinner one night and having to go to McDonald’s and Pizza Hut to make them all happy
-reading them bed time stories
-Gavin coming down from bed one night three times for more white milk (let’s just say he woke up in the middle of the night with a full bladder and grumpy)
-taking a drive to find a place to do family pics and having Matthew vomit all over the car….words can not describe the smell.
-having to drive with the windows down for a couple of days because it still stunk like vomit
-watching Dallin try to push Angela around….he is seven and almost the same size as her….these kids are huge….power breading baby! ha ha. Dad is 6′5″ and Mom is 5′9″….I think that’s right.
-being adventurous and taking the boys out to do pics of just them….and then watching Brecken face plant into the dirt…yes, we felt awful!
-dropping Matthew and Dallin off at day camp and realizing you can do anything with two kids but nothing with four kids
-taking them to a new park and watching them explore every piece of it….oh wait….Gavin decided to sit by himself most of the time…it was funny
-watching their faces as Mom and Dad walked in the house and realizing how much they missed them! and yes, Mom and Dad looked pretty relaxed….and that lasted about two minutes! ha ha

Thanks Amanda and Angela - you guys are the best!

Money Lessons

For the past few months, my boys have been earning "We-bucks".  We-bucks are just little toy gold coins I bought at a party store.  They earn them by going to bed well, doing extra jobs around the house, doing their jobs without being asked, being nice to each other and to mom & dad, etc.  Anyway, the boys each had to earn 100 We-bucks to get to go to Disneyland.  Dallin & Matthew both just recently earned enough We-bucks.  Ed, being the smart dad he is, turned it into a great lesson.  The boys have been making deposits to the We-Bank (because I didn't buy 300 toy coins).  Ed told them that since they had enough We-bucks, they needed to pay mom so they could go to Disneyland.  He told them they needed to write checks to mom so that the I would have their We-bucks to pay for the trip, instead of the bank.  So, they wrote their checks.  Dallin actually printed checks on the computer.  Matthew just had to say how much the check was for and sign his name (he signed it 5 times as part of his homework).   Now, we are counting down until we go to Disneyland!!!!!!  20 days and counting!!!!!!

Oh, I LOVE Matthew

Today, after Matthew got home from school, he said,

"Mom, you don't have to exercise because you're already skinny!"

Of course, the real reason he said that was he wanted to play the wii and he knows that when I exercise I watch my shows and he can't play the wii.  Oh well.  I will take what I can get.

Matthew Singing Today is a Wonderful Day

Matthew is so cute.  When I asked him what his favorite part of school was today he said singing time (normally, I get the, "uh, I don't remember").  I thought it was so cute when he sang this song that I had to record it and let everyone see how cute my Matthew is.

Super Saturday - It's OVER!!!!!

Yeah!  Saturday was finally my ward's Super Saturday (for those who don't know what that is - all the women that I go to church with, get together for a couple of hours and do crafts).  I think it turned out really well - we had a great turn out and did some really great crafts.  If you are interested in seeing all the crafts we did, here is the blog for our Super Saturday - http://lehi33supersaturday.blogspot.com.  I made some clocks that turned out great (one for us, one for my in-laws for Christmas, and one for my sister that she ordered - hope you like it Gina).  I was in charge of 3 of the 5 crafts and did a cooking class (see Tasty Treats handout in pictures above) - it was so yummy and I think everyone liked it because they were simple recipes that didn't require any weird ingredients or tools (fruit salsa & cinnamon sugar chips, brownie pops, frozen hot chocolate, & chocolate curls).  I meant to take pictures of what I made but it was a really crazy day - I will make the stuff again and take pictures.  I also had a handout of quick gift ideas (cute sayings to go with candy bars, etc.), but I can't figure out how to get that on my blog without Ed's help and he is out of town until tomorrow - I will try to put it up then.  Ed is happy it is over as well - he made ALL 132 of the picture frames!!!!!  Thanks Ed!!!!!!  Anyway, it ended up being a great day - a lot of work, but I think it was worth it!

Why Ed is Super Awesome - According to Gavin

Gavin is so funny.  Ed flew out of town early this morning for work so Gavin talked about daddy a lot today.  But the comment I remember the most (which came out of no where) was:

"My daddy is super awesome because he can make paper airplanes."

I guess it didn't really come out of no where - Ed had made the boys paper airplanes on Saturday and Gavin was playing with one at the time.  I just think it is so cute the things little kids think of.

Halloween Preview - in September?

I really shouldn't be blogging right now, I have tons to do to get ready for my ward Super Saturday tomorrow - but I had to show you have much fun Matthew & Gavin are.  Hopefully their costumes won't be ruined by the time Halloween gets here.

Gavin's First Day of Pre-School

Gavin was so excited to finally get to go to school like his brothers.  When we got there, he let me take some pictures and went right in without ever looking back.  It was so strange to be at home alone with Brecken in the middle of the morning - and even more weird since he slept the whole time.  The house was so quiet!  It was kind of nice.  Even with it being nice and quiet, I was so excited to go pick Gavin up - he came running out when he saw me and was so happy!  We both LOVE pre-school!

Back to Teaching

Last night was my first night back teaching Statistics at BYU.  I took a little over a year off to have Brecken and then to recover (and get him over his reflux and ear infections).  It was my first big break from teaching since I started back in January 1999!  It was nice to get back to teaching - especially since we are in the Triad Center now - it is so nice there.  And Ed did great with the boys, as usual.  He comes home early on my teaching days (just one night a week) and takes care of the boys - they love it!

I don't even know what to say . . .

So yesterday, we were at our friends (Jason & Michelle) house for dinner (well, some of us, Ed was home with sick & sleeping Matthew and Brecken - why take a baby that gets into everything if you don't have to).  We had eaten dinner and the kids were playing down in the basement.  All of a sudden, Gavin is calling for me.  I ignore him for a minute and finally go see what is going on.  I get to the top of the stairs and Gavin tells me that he had peed and pointed to the tile at the bottom of the stairs.  I hurried down the stairs to see what was going on - I was very confused because his pants (on the front) were dry.  He then proceeded to show me where he had peed.  He had peed in a toy bin (luckily no toys were in it) - unfortunately (if peeing NOT in a toilet wasn't bad enough) the bin had slits in the sides so some of the pee got on the carpet.  I wanted to die.  I had to go upstairs and tell our friends (who recently finished their basement and have FABULOUS carpet) that my 3 year old had just peed on their basement floor.  I just don't know what he was thinking!  Gotta love 3 year olds!

Roll Recipe

Here is a FABULOUS roll recipe.  I got it from my friend Michelle, who I believe got it from our friend Dani - and now you are getting it from me.  They really are the best rolls I have ever had (especially when you put all the salt in them - sorry I messed them up when you came over a few weeks ago for lunch Angela).  If you do try to make them (and I suggest you do), you will get better at them the more times you make them.  Good luck and enjoy!

Soccer Time

Dallin is loving soccer again this year.  He got to play goalie for the first quarter and I am proud to say, no one scored a goal on him (and he did learn that as goalie, he can use his hands).  He also did great the rest of the game.  Practicing with his daddy earlier in the week really helped.