I Mustache You a Question...

I think I've mentioned before that I recently discovered that my boys like peppers.  I've bought green peppers a few times, but never really liked any of the other peppers unless they are cooked or something.  Anyway, I knew Allie liked them, and I buy them for her once in a while, but now the boys are hooked too.  I think it's nuts, but I'm happy to see them gobble them up.

The other day at lunch, the boys discovered that they make lovely mustaches.  :)  

So Sleepy

Jason still creeps into my side of the bed every night.  Sometimes he tries to go it alone, but it just doesn't work.  Sometimes he gets so sleepy that he doesn't make it all the way into my room, but collapses right there in the hall on the way to me.  

I used to be oblivious when he came in to snuggle, but now he's huge.  He's a big kid and he takes up a lot of space.  It's also summer, so when he comes in with his body heat and brings Hedwig along, we just get too hot in the bed.  I think his days of sleeping in our room are numbered.  One of us has got to go and I don't think it's going to be me.

A Good Mom

Allie always asks if I'll come in and check on her before I go to bed.  Sometimes I go in there and she's having a tea party or something.  Sometimes I go in and she's fast asleep.  This time, I found this...

She was feeding her baby a bottle and the poor exhausted mother fell asleep.  Her little Claire was wide awake.  It's a good thing she's such a good baby and just let her momma sleep while she hung out and stared at the ceiling.  I can imagine that one of these days, this picture will be duplicated in real life.  Allie will be a wonderful mother.

Conversation with Jason

Jason: (after getting a particularly yummy piece of gum)...Momma?

Me:  Yes, Jason?

Jason: I'm going to keep this gum in my mouth until I am five.

Me:  Wow...Okay!

....quite some time later....

Jason:  Momma?

Me:  Yes, Jason?

Jason:  Atchully, I'm going to keep this gum inside my mouth until I am a grandpa.

Me:  Oh really?  Well, that's fine, but what will you do when you need to eat food? (as I handed him the piece of string cheese that he had requested)

Jason:  Oh.  Well, I think I'll just put it on the table when I eat.

Me: (laughing)  The table is out of your mouth!

Jason: Oh...yeah.  It is.

....minutes later...

Jason:  Momma?!?  I accidentally swallowed my gum. (as he tried to keep it in his mouth while he ate his string cheese.

Poppies

When Mike and I were only married a year, and didn't have any of our crazy kids yet, we moved into this house.  It was a repo and our intention was to fix it up and sell it in order to buy a lot and build somewhere else.  My dad had looked around the place and told us we couldn't build this house for the price it was going for, so we took the plunge and bought it.  We fell in love with the area and then, as the kids came, it became a perfect place for them to grow up.  We obviously stayed.
The point of this story though, is to tell you about poppies.  This house didn't have a yard.  We did the sprinkling system and put grass in the first spring that we lived here.  I always dreamed of having hundreds of flowers in my yard and I spread tons of seeds on the hillside in hopes of having them all bloom and be a beautiful thing to look out at as I did dishes.
Mike and I were on a drive in the old car one day.  I remember that I had a dress on, so it must have been a Sunday drive.  We were out in Cove and we came across a field of poppies.  There were hundreds of big beautiful blooms and I made him stop so I could take pictures.  The house I grew up in had poppies on the corner in the back yard and I always loved them.  I took a seed pod from the place in Cove and I planted them in our back yard.
I have had a few wild flowers on the hill, but they haven't lasted through the years.  I'll have to plant them again.  The dream of hundreds of flowers and a thriving garden just hasn't come to fruition...I guess I've been growing kids instead.
As for the poppies...they have lasted and they keep growing bigger and bigger.  They are amazing to look at and bring me so much happiness.  Like tulips, they don't last very long, but they sure are beautiful.

24 Dollars

As mentioned earlier, Allie spent all her money on the hover board and was feeling the pinch of being poor.  When the weather got warmer, she was super excited to have a lemonade stand.  I don't know many kids who have as much success as these two have.  They made out with 24 dollars!  They hit it on the perfect day with lots of runners coming down the canyon and lots of nice neighbors.  

These two sure are cute little saleswomen.

A Spring Snow Storm

I woke up on the morning of May 17th and looked out the window thinking that my eyes must be lying to me.  I could not believe how much snow had fallen in the night.  Mike was out of town, so I stayed up pretty late and there was no indication that snow was on the way, so it was a total shock.

We've had spring snow storms before, but this was unreal.  I felt so bad for all the poor trees.  We had some limbs break, but most of the trees were just extremely bent.

Later on, as Jason and I drove into Logan to get some groceries, we saw just how much damage had been done to the trees all over town.  There were so many branches scattered around and it made my tree loving heart hurt.  I totally cracked up when I heard Jason say "Woah, mom...if this is from Dad, he's going to be in big trouble".  He knows that his dad likes to trim trees and that sometimes I get mad when he goes too far.  I guess he thought Mike was out there trimming trees all over town and got a little carried away.  "Big trouble" is right.

This Year's Tulips...

My tulips are slowly dwindling away.  They have just quit coming back.  Also, the deer eat them freely.  So, when we see them pop up, we bring them in to enjoy.  The boys loved picking them and presenting them with a "happy mother's day!"  They were beautiful.

Dead

Our peach tree didn't survive the winter.  I was so bummed.  It was finally starting to give peaches and they were so good!  It's really annoying to baby something and then have it just up and die.  We let Jason cut it down.  He thought he was pretty tough.

 On a side note, the boys have dressers side by side now and Mike doesn't know what one belongs to what kid.  Half the time, Jason is dressed in Nate's clothes.  I really should just combine the two because even though they look big on him, they do fit.  Crazy kid.
As another side note, if you are wondering why Mike is the one getting Jason dressed, it's because Jason doesn't like to wear clothes.  I don't mind letting him run around as "underwear boy" (as he calls it) all day, but Mike doesn't like it.  Since he's the one who cares, he's the one who forces clothes on the kid.

Last Days for Nate

Nate finished school a day earlier than Allie.  I got to go help with his field day.  We decided to do gunny sack races.  I think they had a good time.  Nate sure liked it.  

 Jason tagged along and got to do all the same activities as Nate.  He thinks it's going to be pretty awesome going to kindergarten.

I got to go in and read with the kids once a week for a while and I grew to like them all.  They were a really fun class.  Cute kids for sure.

Mrs. Hamp was a wonderful teacher.  Jake had her too.  She enjoyed having Nathan in her class and helped him go from a wiggly non reader, to a wiggly reader.  She is awesome.

I'm sad for Nate because next year he'll be in school all day.  The life of ease and fun is about to end for him.  We'll have to live it up this summer for sure.

The Last Days

The kids had a lot of fun things to do the last few days of school.  Allie really enjoyed fourth grade.  She had Mr Graham.  He was a wonderful teacher and always had nice things to say about her.
She was worried about going to his classroom at the beginning of the year because he has a snake, Nickoli, but she grew to really like the snake and was so glad to have had Mr. Graham.
When we asked to take this picture, he chatted with me a bit about Allie.  He really enjoyed having her in his class too.  He said "It's crazy, as we were reading Harry Potter (as a class), she kept correcting me if I said a word wrong.  I started to just pause and let her fill in the blanks if I didn't know how to pronounce a name or something.  Sometimes I'd look up and see her mouthing the words.  Who knows Harry Potter word for word?!?"  We laughed about how it's been on repeat in her bedroom, sometimes all night, for years.  I don't know if there are people out there who have listened to it more than her.  Even me.

 Speaking of reading/listening to books...one of the things Allie was looking forward to most was to "Rock the School".  If you had a certain number of reading points, you could rock the school.  All the parents and kids in the school lined up outside and cheered as the kids ran through.  There were a lot of kids who earned the honor, but it was hard to earn.

Allie really wanted Mike to come, and he was able to take a half hour off to come.  She was pretty excited to see him there.

They gave out noise makers and ribbons to run with,

They also had a candy cannon.

I just think it was awesome that they went to such effort to make things fun for the kids that read.  Allie loved the carnival that they put on for the whole school too.  She got her face painted and had fun playing all the games.

I love elementary school!  I'm sure Jake did fun things, but I can't even make a post about him because I don't go to his school and humiliate him with pictures.  :)  I'm glad Allie still has two years!

Hop on Pop

The kids are getting bigger and bigger, but they sure do love wrestling and jumping on Mike when he decides to lay down on the floor for a nap.  They can't help but jump and act like a bunch of crazies. He tries to make them stop, but until he goes to the bed for a nap, they will think it's a fun party to hop on pop.

Two Wheels

As much as Jason likes to be wild and crazy, he really doesn't like to step out of his comfort zone and try new things.  He is a pro with a strider bike, so that's what he likes and does.  When there are places to go on a bike, he grabs the one without pedals and zooms away, but he won't get on the one that is the same size with pedals.  One night in early summer, we were all out enjoying the evening and Mike thought it was time for Jason to ride a pedal bike.  Since he could already balance, he had no trouble at all taking off.

The brakes were a different story though and he was a bit scared.

Eventually, I insisted that he put on shoes.

Seconds after mastering it, he went right back to the strider bike.  It might be a while before he prefers pedals.

He is so full of intensity when he rides...it cracks me up.

Happy Father's Day!

My kids have a pretty great dad.  I think of all the things I've done in my life, the decision to marry Mike was one of the best.  He's pretty awesome.

He works hard to keep a roof over our heads and clothes on our backs.  Not only does he meet our basic needs, we are downright spoiled.  We all love him so much.

Happy Father's Day!

Orchestra Concert

Jake's final orchestra concert was a few weeks before school got out.  I was sad to have him pack up his cello to take back to school.  I love that he plays the cello.  It's such a beautiful instrument.  He's going to take it again next year.

He had orchestra with a few kids he was friends with from elementary school.  I think they all enjoyed figuring out how to play Star Wars songs, or how to pluck other familiar pieces.  I can't imagine being an orchestra or band teacher.  It's so loud and annoying to hear those kids as they learn to play.

They have all improved from the beginning of the year though, so it will be fun to see them get better and better.  Way to go Jake!