No Training Wheels

I have been trying to get Parker to try to ride his bike without training wheels for a while now. We tried at the end of the summer last year, but he wanted nothing to do with it. As the weather has gotten better here, he has been out on his bike quite a lot. I talked to him and he decided that throughout the summer he would try to learn to ride without the training wheels. Well the other day our neighbor girl who is about 1 year younger than Parker learned to ride her bike without the training wheels in a few hours, Parker didn't want to be out done by a girl so he came in to the house and said, "mom take my wheels off" I took the training wheels off and he practiced quite a bit that day. He was doing pretty good, but still not great at stopping and steering. He kept getting frustrated that he wasn't getting it in a few hours. But I told him it would take him a lot of practice and then all of the sudden he would get it and he will be able to ride a bike for the rest of his life. I know he will get it in the next couple of weeks and we will all be amazed!
 

Mint Chip Thief

I made cookies the other day and decided to split the batch in half and do half chocolate chip and the other half chocolate dough with mint chips. Paxten loves chocolate chips/peanut butter chips...any kind of "chip" and he happened to be my "helper" on this day. I had given him a few chips to eat and before I knew it I caught him stealing chips from the batter. He thought it was funny and cute and well, so did I!!

Don't mind the scrape on his nose, he experienced being outside in the nice weather and he had to wear shoes outside, which made walking a little difficult for him. He ended up tripping and getting a little skinned nose... poor baby! But he was tough and only cried for a minute. I know this will be the first of many owies outside! But he sure loves being outside...and so do the rest of us! We are so excited for the Spring weather!

St. Patrick's Day

I am a little behind so it is Blog catch up day! For St. Patrick's Day I wanted to do something fun for the kids, but I kept forgetting about it and ran out of time to do a treasure hunt to search for a pot of gold. Maybe next year! So instead I wanted to do all green meals for them for the day. I started with breakfast, Leprechaun pancakes, scrambled cheesy eggs, and milk. I told the kids that a Leprechaun had come and colored all our food green. Parker loved that idea, since his favorite color is green. Paige wasn't too sure, in fact she refused to eat any of it because it was green. She kept telling me she wanted "regular" pancakes and eggs. Paxten ate some of it. I do have to admit that the eggs were kind of on the far side for me as well. The tasted good, but they sure didn't look appetizing. It is true that how a food is presented affects the taste. I am not sure why, but I had a hard time eating them too. Probable wont do these again next year. The pancakes and milk were fine and Parker ate all of his breakfast! Since breakfast didn't go over the way I had envisioned I changed my plans for dinner. I was going to do a pot roast with green potatoes and green gravy, pistachio salad, green beans, and green sherbet for dessert. Instead I did "regular" potatoes and gravy and the rest of the "green" themed meal. It was a fun day and we enjoyed spending the Saturday together as a family!
 

Wedded Bliss

Today Matt and I are celebrating 8 years of wedded bliss. Hahaha (is there really such a thing?) We are still in love, but marriage is not all roses. There have been struggles and hard times and I am sure there will be more. But there have also been really wonderful great times, many more of those! We are very lucky to still be married and to still love each other. I am really grateful for that. In those 8 years we have moved 3 times, had 6 different vehicles, 3 beautiful children, 5 fish, 1 college degree, 6 different jobs, a lawn business, and a mountain of school and business debt. But I wouldn't have it any other way.

We celebrated over the weekend by going on an overnight vacation to....(drum roll)....Pocatello! Yeah we are adventurous like that. No, really I decided to book a room at the Black Swann Inn and surprise Matt. We stayed here on our honeymoon 8 years ago and I thought it would be fun to stay there again. Back then we stayed in the Romeo and Juliet Suite. This time we were in the Caveman Suite. It had the most amazing jetted tub!! It was fabulous!! We went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse, one of our favorites. Then we went to the movie The Hunger Games. It was amazing. We slept in in Sunday, just because we could and we ate lunch at Jack In The Box before heading home. We had to keep the tradition. On our honeymoon we were both starving because we hadn't eaten anything since before the wedding reception and it was after 10 before we got to Pocatello. The only thing open was a Jack In The Box. So Matt and I joke with each other that one of our first meals as husband and wife was Jack In The Box. So now we have to keep that silly tradition. It was wonderful to spend time together and to not have to worry about the every day stuff. We were excited to come home and see the kids and both feel recharged to get back into our every day routines. I love you Matt and I look forward to eternity with you!

For Granted

Some times in life you are reminded of the things that you have and the things that you take for granted. I was reminded of quite a lot of things I take fore granted this last week. 3 of the most important things in my life....MY KIDS!!! Matt and I were very lucky to have been able to be blessed with 3 healthy, beautiful children. And not just the fact that were we blessed with them, but the fast that we were able to easily get pregnant with each of them and that my pregnancies were relatively easy and no major complications occurred. I truly have taken this for granted and I feel very humbled and very grateful to a loving Father in Heaven that has allowed this to happen for us. I feel blessed and honored to be able to be a mother. I hope that I can raise good children, that they will feel loved in our home and that they in turn will love others and be good people.

Sometimes I get all caught up in the hustle and bustle of life and the routine of the every day and I do forget how lucky I am and how fast time does go. I am so glad that I have the time with my kids to capture and create memories and that I have the knowledge of Eternity that we can be together always. I am so glad that I have captured memories through scrapbooking and blogging so that I can remember all these precious times with my kids. I am sure there will be one day, 20 years from now, when I look back and it will seem like yesterday these kids were so little. They keep me busy and sometimes I get mad, frustrated, and overwhelmed, but this is just a moment in my life right now and I wouldn't have it any other way!!!

Not So Cozy

I got out of the shower this afternoon (some days this happens, at least I got one today!) and this is what I found....





Paxten asleep on the floor. It doesn't look like the most cozy place in the house, or a place that I would choose to fall asleep, but he did. And I left him there. I was afraid that if I moved him he would wake and then I wouldn't get a few things done while he was asleep. So here is my kid asleep on the floor, at least it is pretty clean, I did vacuum recently!

Favorite Hiding Spot

This is currently Paige's favorite hiding spot. When Parker gets home from school or Matt comes home from work, this is the first place she runs to hide. She is little enough that she fits perfectly between the couch pillow and cushion and you don't even know she is there. She has hidden there a few times and I have sat on the couch not knowing she was there and then I heard a noise from her telling me she was being squished! She is quite the good hider at hide and seek here at our house!

Preschool Field Trip

I was lucky enough to be able to go with Paige and her preschool on their field trip yesterday. They visited the Kindergarten center so that the kids that will be graduating from preschool and who are 5 years old would see the school they will be going to. They also went and had a tour of the local fire department. I think Paige's favorite parts were riding on the bus for the first time and visiting "Parker's" school. There were 32 kids in all and 11 adults trying to corral the kids. I thought the kids were very well behaved and did what they were asked to do. I was in charge of Paige and 3 other little girls. It was a fun day and I was glad that it worked out that I was able to go and spend some time with Paige. The fire station was pretty boring...I think they forgot the preschool was coming and they didn't really have a presentation prepared for the 3,4,5 year olds. They kept talking to "us adults" about the cost of the vehicles and stuff like that. The kids were bored to death and to top it all off, it was a windy day so they didn't take out the fire engine and the kids didn't even really get to see it. They didn't even get a sticker!!! The last two years when Parker went he got a picture in front of the fire engine and he even got to sit inside it. He came home with a sticker and had a great time. Paige could have cared less. The funnest part was when one of the firemen came out in his uniform and let a few kids try on his hat and jacket. It was kind of a bummer, but the kids still had fun and enjoyed their field trip!