Bear Lake

We just got back from a wonderful weekend with my mom and dad up in Bear Lake. Paul's sister has a cabin and was generous enough to let us stay there. We went to Who shot Juanito Bandito (it was excellent), north beach at Bear Lake, Minnetonka cave, church and lastly what would be a trip to Bear Lake without going to LeBeau's! Well, after we got home and I downloaded my pictures, I noticed that Buster seemed to get a hold of my camera and take some interesting pictures. I will tell you that these are only of a few of the pictures that were on there.

I just love this cute little face!

WARNING! THIS NEXT PICTURE IS VERY GRAPHIC! IF YOU JUST ATE YOU MAY NOT WANT TO LOOK!

Winter life

Well, I think I have been real bad this winter about updating by blog. We have managed to stay busy with USU basketball games and snow skiing. I got a new camera for Christmas so I have been playing with it and trying some new things. None of which I am posting, because they need work.

Buster has this fascination with guns. He has me tape a flashlight to the gun at least once a week. So here is a random picture I took while using my new camera.
The boys took swim lessons in January and loved them. I figured that is something they can do in the winter, since summers seems to be so busy. Carter is a great swimmer and passed off level 4 & 5 in one session. He said in level six he wants to take the diving course. He is more brave than I, since I am afraid of heights.
The boys also begged to take karate. I LOVE the original Karate Kid movie, and often find myself quoting it on random occasions. Anyway, last Friday the sparred (fought) for the first time. Carter got kicked in the stomach and Buster came away victorious.
I couldn't stop laughing while Buster was fighting, because he was dancing around like he had fought for years. Actually he has fought for years, just with his older brother. When I signed them up for karate, it told Paul that they are now just going to learn to fight correctly.

Not to sound conceited..

I don't want to sound conceited, but how could we not get better looking with age? Heaven help us! You know, I always have blamed my mom for all of my bad perms, hair do's, outfits.... Well now that I have kids of my own, I understand. There is no way I am going to take the blame when my kids look at their pictures 20 years from now and say "Why did you let me wear that" or "Look at my hair". Mom always used to say there are only two things she can do for us and hope that it is enough to get us all married off. Well, she paid for contacts and braces, then the rest was up to us :)

Why did we take our first day of school pictures with cats? I think my sister Tonya is wearing a banana clip.

If my memory serves me correctly, I think we were trying to look like idiots.
I'm speechless...
Again, speechless.....
My brother looks like he has a dead cat on his head.
I just can't wait to look back at my kids pictures and laugh!!! I just need to remember to take them more often.

Things that make you go hmmmmm....

Well, today was my first SEP (student, educator, parent) conference with Buster. It was fun to visit his classroom and have him show me all the things that he enjoys about school. He things his teacher, Mrs. Roghaar, has the prettiest name ever! When we started the SEP his teacher said that Buster was great at making new friends and that he always had something to share. That is no surprise, because he loves to talk. Anyway, she asked him who his friends were. He said a few names of kids in his class and then came the name of a boy in his class that was very interesting. His friends name was Breaker! Now what do you get when you have two 5 year old boys named Buster and Breaker?? Things that make you go hmmmm.......

Look alike...

What do you do when you babysit your little sisters child for a couple of hours? Let me add that it was in the evening and he took a bath at our house. He was all nice and clean and in his little PJ's. I was looking at his hair and had an idea! Do you notice a similarity?

I think Grant is cuter than Alfalfa :)

Is summer break already gone??

WOW, did summer break go by fast? I wanted this summer to be fun so I tried to plan quite a few activities. We started off with a bang and headed to St. George for Utah Summer Games. Carter's team didn't win a game, but we enjoyed Cedar City and St. George. He participated in another tournament call Cache Valley Cup, his team placed 2nd, which was great! Carter and Caleb took swim lessons, which they loved! We went down to Seven Peaks and that was great fun also. Denise and I ventured out into a couple of fun rides, and who doesn't love the wave pool! Carter went to scout day camp at Camp Fife. He rode a zip line and thought it was AWESOME! Carter went to Stew Morrill basketball camp and decided that basketball isn't his favorite sport :( Last but not least we headed to the Oregon Coast the first week of August. It was great fun and I would love to go back again. It was a few too many hours in a car with a bunch of kids, but which family vacation isn't??? The best thing about the Florence, OR vacation was our meals. We at 14 people, 9 adults and 5 kids. Our rental house had a nice big kitchen so we decided to cook all of our meals rather than eating out. We fed 14 people for 8 meals for a total of $16 per person!! Isn't that awesome??? I forget to take pictures, but here are some of them.

We went crabbing, we didn't catch anything we could keep and it was really cold!
This sand dune tour was AWESOME, I would do it again in a second!
Doesn't this picture spell TROUBLE???

The disfunctional family!!!

Carter and his awesome kicking skills.

Tomorrow, is a big day! I need to mentally plan to send my baby to kindergarten. I know, this is weird.

If you play with the big boys....

We live in a wonderful neighborhood where none of the kids suffer from childhood obesity. Kids are regularly playing outside whether it is in one of the many kiddy pools, playing football, soccer or lacrosse or maybe jumping on the trampoline. Buster is one of the younger boys and he wants to play with the big boys and they are always nice enough to let him join in. Well, one day they were playing a little rough and so Buster took matter into his own hands.

Who does he think I am???

For preschool Buster filled out a little questioner about me, with the help of his teacher. Here is how it went:

How old is your mom? 15 ( you couldn't pay me enough to be 15 again, maybe 25)

What is your moms favorite TV show? The news

What does your mom hate doing? Watching TV

What is your moms favorite food? Ham ( I think ham is ok, but for sure not my favorite)

What is your moms least favorite food? Potatoes ( I love potatoes in any form, I would eat them for every meal)

What does your mom enjoy doing with you? playing games, domino's ( I am not sure I have ever played domino's with him)

It is funny do see how your kids see you. Personally I think that I am a pretty cool, hip and happening person, but to my 4 year old I like the news and eating ham.

Not so bad

I am liking no TV week. We have been playing games quite a bit. Soccer has filled up most of our spare time. We went to the Fun Park on Saturday and the kids roller skated, we went to a fund raiser and purchased some raffle tickets and Buster won a Lego Hockey set. We have actually been really busy and I might have watched the news to help take my mind of fasting :)

No TV week... ugh

Don't get me wrong, I don't let my kids sit in front of the television for hours! When they wake up in the morning and to calm down out night they like to watch some shows. Well, Carter came home with the contract this week and was willing to give it a try. The contract said no video games or TV from April 30 (after school) to May 7th. I am wondering if he can still use the computer?? I told him we can build cool stuff with the Lego's, read, hopefully the weather will cooperate for outside play and board games. After Carter was home about 1/2 hour from school he said "This no TV week is going to be easy", I sure hope so was my reply. I am pretty sure that Buster and Paul are not going to participate, since the Jazz are playing and there is a new Star Wars the Clone wars on tonight. Carter and I are going to give it our best. I am already dreading Saturday, fasting along with no TV, what am I going to do? I would watch TV to take my mind off of fasting and now that isn't an option! Wish us luck.

Spring Break

Last year was my first time to visit St. George Utah. I fell in love with that city. Keep in mind is was April and not August. If I were old enough to retire and had my house paid off I would TOTALLY buy a winter home down there. This year we went on some awesome hikes. We went to a place called Pioneer Park which is above St George by the Dixie Rock. It had great view and lots of huge rocks for the kids to climb on. Sometimes the kids would get a little close to the edge and my toes would start to tingle, it happens when I get real nervous about heights.

Above are some of the view from Pioneer Park.This is Snow Canyon. There were some great hikes there also. There were petrified sand dunes that they kids played on for quite a while. It was so amazing to see such awesome creations.
Ya, you guessed it, my toes were tingling when I saw Carter up there.
The rocks were nice and warm and Buster was ready for a nap!
This was at Pioneer Park, the pioneers had built a house inside one of the rocks.
We also rented 4-wheelers and went riding out at the an ATV area. We had a great time and were covered in red dust when we were finished. Carter enjoyed driving the 4 wheeler while we relaxed for a while.
This is a picture inside a lava cavern of some sort. It was so weird, you would be walking and come up to this big hole in the ground and there was a bunch of lava rocks and you could climb down into them and check things out. You could crawl into the caves and explore, but not a closterphobic person like me.
Ya, I hate snakes and this is what I thought was a stick, until I noticed it moving. Yes, it is a rattlesnake. Luckily I was up on a huge rock about 30-40 feet away. I felt the need to warn anybody on the area about the snake. That dang bugger ruined my whole day because then I went in the "watch" mode and I was always on the look out for any creepy crawly things. I can't wait to go back to St. George in June when Carter with be participating in Summer Games.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket!

You know those dang grocery carts that your kids always want to ride in at the store? They are huge and they are shaped like a sports car or the carts THAT have a section where two kids can buckle up? You need a CDL to drive those things and they are a big pain in the butt especially when you just wanted to get some yogurt and maybe a carton of eggs. Well, yesterday I ran to the grocery store and Buster wanted one of those big carts and I just needed to get a few items. So, thinking I was real smart I talked him into getting his own "little" grocery cart. You know the carts, the ones that are the perfect size for a little kids to push? This one needed to have the wheels oiled because it had a really high pitched squeaking sound the whole time he was pushing it. For some strange reason, kids feel the need to run really fast when they have one of those carts. So, Buster started running with the cart and then he needed to turn his cart well, of course it wouldn't make sense to slow down ?!?!?! So, he takes the corner at full speed and he had the little cart on 2 wheels then it was laying on it's side with the grocery rolling all over the store floor. You guessed it, my carton of eggs were on the floor also, I had super sized my eggs and was getting the 18 pack that day, bad choice on my part. Anyway, Buster felt really bad and we proceeded to pick up the items and when I picked up the egg carton and opened it up, there were a few casualties. I was honest and I purchased that carton of eggs and ran home and boiled them before the slightly damaged ones went bad. All in the day of a life with a little boy!

We love the Olympics!

Carter and I have been enjoying the 2010 Winter Olympics. We have watched quite a few of the competitions, I think Carter enjoys them because that means he gets to stay up later at night. I have loved watching figure skating ever since I was a child. My sisters and I would try to copy the moves in our living room. We would wear our slippers that had slippery bottoms and we would slide around on the carpet. So Carter and I watched the pairs "ice dancing" and then the next night it was men's figure staking. When we were watching it all of a sudden Carter says " Mom, this is very disturbing to me." , then a minute later "I don't think I can keep watching this, it is very disturbing to me" I was thinking, "What is so disturbing about this?" Then when I really looked I noticed men wearing feathers on their hand and puffy sleeved outfits. They way they were dancing on the ice all by themselves. Then I realized that I was glad that Carter found it to be disturbing.

Super Buster to the rescue!

For Christmas Buster received a foam padded hockey stick (p.s. it still hurts when you get hit with a padded hockey stick) and roller blades that are especially made for kids. The roller blades start out with one wheel in the front and two in the back, then when they get better you can move the wheels in a straight line like roller blades. Anyway, he loves to put them on and play hockey in the house. Then he added the blanket so it looks like a cape! He is so funny because he love to pretend, that kid can play all day in dress ups and pretend he is 100 different people ( robot boy, army guy, hockey star, spider man, ninja.......) you get my drift!

Andrea the Slacker

I haven't posted anything for quite a while, probably because I am really bad at taking photos and I feel that when I post I need something to show everyone. I am grateful that the inversion is gone and I can see what the blue sky looks like again. I am grateful for the snow that we received these past couple of days, I especially love to look at the trees when there is snow outlining every single twig and branch. How can we not know that there is a Heavenly Father that created all of this???

I have realized lately that since I have younger kids I really need to embrace everything that comes with that. So, I have discovered a couple of things that I don't want to give up since I am OLD! First of all I realized that I love to put together Lego's!! I know, weird! All of those little pieces fit together, that is how they are made and I just think that is amazing. The other night Paul and I went out and I told the boys if they were good I would buy them a Lego set. Well, the Lego's weren't really for them (shhhhh) they were for me! I didn't them that, but I spent most of the next day putting them together. I am so pleased with my quaint little villa! It is so cool, it has a sliding glass (in Lego world they are plastic) door and you can remove the roof and there are little stairs that lead to the up stairs so you can play with your little Lego people. I let my kids do that, I just like to build them.

The other thing I realized I enjoy it the Chipmunks. Carter got the Chipmunks movie for Christmas and we watched that I thought that it was cute. I know some people find their little voices annoying, but I think they are cute and they make me smile. We went and saw "Chipmunks- The Squeakquel" and I thought that it was cute also. I find myself tapping my foot and singing the words to the songs in my head.

One day Carter decided that he wanted to build a snow fort so he could have snowball fights. So, he got a 5 gallon bucket and filled it with snow and build the "Great wall of Carter" as I have named it. This picture was taken about 2 weeks after he build it so it was getting a little sluggish and falling down, it was a little taller in it's prime.

Kids say the darndest things part III

Once again Buster takes the cake with his quick whit! The kid just comes up with some of the most creative things. Tonight I was helping him get dressed for bed and he didn't want to go to bed. So he was letting me know that in his own 4 year-0ld way and he decided to stick his tongue out at me. I let him know that it isn't a nice thing to do especially to your mom! He said "Mom, I was trying to stick my tongue out at the door and you got in the way". Once again, I had to turn my head because I started laughing.

Family pictures.... and a whole lot of threats

Man, I thought that since our kids were getting older it would be easier to have family pictures taken. So we prepped the kids about the pictures and promised rewards if they were good. I had quite a few talks with Buster about smiling good and listening to Nathan and Denise (photographers/ aunt & uncle). Carter had a soccer a 8:00 am so he wasn't excited about getting up so early. Then we went to change clothes and get ready for pictures he decided he didn't want to have pictures, not Buster the 4 year old, but Carter the 9 year old!!! By the time we were done with pictures I wanted to hug Buster and spank Carter! Well, despite Carter's efforts of boycotting the pictures, we did manage to get some good ones. Let me know what you think.

Kids say the darndnest things part II

Yesterday Buster decided to take my church bag and dump it out all over his bedroom. When I saw this I told him to pick it all up. Well, he threw everything in the bag including all the crayons that were once in the crayon box. I said that this isn't the way you found the bag, so I dumped it back out and told him (yes I was being mean) to put the crayons back in the box. He was just sitting on the floor crying and I started feeling a little guilty, so I said I would help him. Through his sad little voice he said " Mom, Jesus said love everyone, treat them kindly too, why aren't you obeying Jesus's commandments?" I had to start laughing, because this kid can make the biggest mess and wonder why I get so angry. He always say's he is to little to pick up his messes and he needs help. What is a mom to do with such an innocent question??

The Big Apple

I had the opportunity to head to New York for a conference for work. I was apprehensive because I hadn't ever been away from my children for more than a night or two. Can I just say that I LOVED NEW YORK!! There are so many things to see and do. I can't wait to go back and take my family. We did a lot of walking I guess I was able to get my exercises in while I was there.

When I go back I would love to go to the Manhattan temple and also attend church. I was only able to catch a picture as we were walking by, we had one day to fit in these sights.
I is so weird when you walk down the street not to be able to see mountain or even sky most of the time. The buildings are so tall, so have to make an effort to look up and see the sky. I needed a compass while I was there because I couldn't ever tell what direction we were heading.
It seems that even the hard times have hit the street vendors and I couldn't help but chuckle when I was this sign.
Our family loved the movie "Night at the Museum" and so when I saw the Museum of Natural History I could help but go in a snap a shot of the dinosaurs.
We asked somebody on the street (I know totally touristy) where a good place would be to go and get authentic New York cheesecake. The nice gentleman told us Junior's which is on Broadway between 44th & 45th street (you need to say that with a New York accent). I tell you what, it didn't disappoint. We went to Central Park and had a seat so we could enjoy the view and enjoy our food!
How could we resist not having our pictures taken with a couple of cops, we loved the horses.
Lady Liberty! She is an amazing view. I could have spent all day on Ellis Island listening to the audio tour, but like I said only one day. No matter how crappy politicians are sometimes, we do live in an amazing place!
A great view of the New York skyline, and a very bored Hispanic lady!
This is the sight of the World Trade Towers. Hard to believe the 10 year anniversary will be coming up in 2011. They are still working on the memorial sight, but I am still in wonderment over the whole 9/11 thing. It is so weird how the buildings around the towers are fine.
OK, so the girl I was eating cheesecake with a few pictures back, is a big fan of Tim McGraw. Well, of all the people, guess who was preforming on the Today show the Friday that we were there??? I was hard to get a good picture, but he is the guy in the black cow boy hat.It is very obvious that they don't enforce the above sign!!!!
I had to try on this cool had, I thought that maybe I should buy it for snow skiing, what do you think?
I can see why people love Central Park. It is the only place that has grass! We found this bum sleeping under his blanked in Central Park. I had always heard about that, but didn't think I would actually see it. We braved the subway, the air bus and the train. It was a great time and I can't wait to go back and visit again.