April & May

I've been without my computer for some time now. We got new carpet throughout our house in April. In doing so we had to move everything into the garage and I lost my computer cord. It was lost until just recently. My laptop has all my pictures on it so now I've got to get caught up on the blog. Here's a little of what's been up since our last post:


April:

Benjamin had his 30th birthday. I always told Ben before we were married that I didn't want our kids to know I was older and that we were going to lie to them about my age, but Ben being who he is found a way to get to them. I am their mother who feeds them and loves them unconditionally. I have changed their stinky diapers and wiped their butts. I eat food from their dirty little hands which have been who knows where. I kiss their ouchies, I read them stories, sing them songs, and brush their teeth. Yet the little traitors believe him and not me! Travis reminds me on a continuous basis, "Hey Mom, did you know that you are the OLDEST person in the family!"

Both Travis and Natalie started soccer this year. The first day of soccer Natalie was walking out to the field and said to Grandma With The Yellow Hair, "I'm going to kick those boys butts!" It was actually 35 degrees and no tissues anywhere. She did not think it was very fun and it was difficult to get her to play in the games the rest of the season. She was really cute though. She's more of a people watcher than anything so she had to get some help from her coach occasionally. Travis was the one I was most concerned about more than anything when I first signed the kids up. I signed him up for softball two years prior and it was disastrous and I swore I'd never sign him up for sports again. He got into soccer at recess at school though so I decided to give it a try. He really enjoyed it. He played goalie a lot and he was really really good at it. I was so proud of him. 

We took the kids out to Cherry Springs a couple times. It was nice to get out of the house. We hadn't been out there since Travis was a baby. Charlie was glad to tag along too.

As I said earlier we got new carpet. To save a little money Ben did the tear out of the old carpet. It was a much bigger project than we anticipated, but he is a champ and got it done. He and Charlie stayed behind to do the work while the girls and I went and stayed with my mom. Ben said that Charlie was in great distress when all the carpet was gone. He didn't know where to go or what to do. I'm so glad that we were able to get it done. Our old carpet was getting pretty hammered and nasty. No matter how clean a room was it always looked a little dirty just because of the stained old carpet. We also have had an ant problem in the basement since we moved it. It didn't matter what we did we always had stray ants running around. After we tore the carpet out there was a ginormous crack in the cement that ran the entire length of the floor and a smaller crack on the other side. We were able to get some cement sealer and haven't had an ant problem since.

May:

In May we went to Travis' Parent Day that they put on at the school. I had both the camcorder and the camera. I decided I would probably take better pictures than Ben so I took the camera and gave Ben the camcorder. I got cute pictures of Travis, but Ben turned the camcorder off when the they started singing and turned it on when they stopped singing. We got lots of awesome shots of the cafeteria floor. We also went to Travis' fun run. I unfortunately forgot my camera for that one. We have some cell phone shots somewhere, but I have not uploaded them.

Natalie graduated from her first year of preschool. Grandma and Grandpa With The Brown Hair were able to come to that. We were sure glad to have them come. I learned my lesson from Parent Day and decided to assign Rulan to the camera while I took on the camcorder. He did an excellent job so it was a wise choice. I really wanted to be sure it got recorded right because Dad missed it. He was in Boise for school and was sad he couldn't make it so he wanted to watch it on replay. Natalie will be returning to her second year of preschool this year. She is super excited to be with Miss Kara again. Her birthday is early August so Ben and I  (probably meaning I) have to decided by February if we want to hold her back for one more year of preschool or let her start Kindergarten next year.

Travis turned 7 years old. He had a wild party this year. We decided to do it at Jump In at the mall which is a place with lots of bouncy houses. I wanted to forgo the party this year because Ben was gone most of the month and when he wasn't gone he was studying for his final or working. Travis really wanted it though so we decided to have it their so I didn't have to worry about the clean up. We didn't have pictures from that because I didn't want to bring my camera because I was too stressed about keeping the headcount. We did throw him a small family party on his real birthday though. We didn't do a cake because he wanted ice cream sandwiches instead. He got everything he asked for so he was super excited about that. Once more year and he will be baptized.

March 2016

March was another fun month for us as usual. We've been a little on the lazy side because of the up and down weather. We got outside more in the month of February than we did March thus the kids had some pent up energy. Macie Jo got a little crazy with the easy cheese. Boy was she in heaven. She thought it was well worth it too because she got a bath afterwards and baths are her very favorite. When she hears the water running in the tub she comes rip roaring through the house tripping over her little legs as she's trying to rip her diaper off just so she can get into the tub.

I finally left my 20's and entered my 30's. It wasn't as quite painful as I thought it would be, but Travis is sure to remind me on a DAILY basis that I am the oldest person in the family because I am 30 and dad is ONLY 29. Hmm I wonder who started that one?!

Here are some more pictures of the kids. One night when Ben and I were going to bed we found Natalie sleeping in our bed covered in cookies. That little stinker got up in the night for a bedtime snack apparently. I got to hand it to her. She's pretty tricky. Macie is also a cute little stink. She tries so hard to fit in with the big kids. She's really been enjoying an education app I put on the tablet for the kids. She stole Travs headphones just to listen to it in the quiet. Travis is such a good brother. He really adores his sisters. He is so good to play hide and seek and tag with them in or outside of the house. The three are quite the trio together.

Travis has been enjoying basketball at school so we found a great deal on a hoop and Ben put it together with help from the kids. We all went and played a little basketball in the garage after. It was pretty fun.

On one of my very rare times where I leave the kids with Ben while I go out, Ben likes to make pizza with the kids. They enjoy their much needed Daddy time and I enjoy my much needed alone time.

The day before Easter we finally made time to color some eggs real fast. It was short activity, but the kids enjoyed it. Later on in the day Travis had his first friend over to the house. It was perfect because they were both wearing Batman shirts totally unplanned. They played video games the entire time. It was nice to see him playing with peers.

The Easter Bunny paid the kids a visit on Easter. Macie did not like putting the eggs back in the carton after finding them. She wanted to keep them all. Natalie taught Macie her tradition of biting the heads off the Peeps and then wasting the bodies. Such a morbid little girl, but we love her.

Back to Crazy

 Things are finally back to crazy after the holidays. We had a great holiday that we were able to spend with both our families.
 Ben was able to take time to spend with us which doesn't happen often because of school and work. We continued with our newest tradition for the second year in a row of making Gingerbread Men and then eating them as we watch a Christmas movie. This year we watched The Polar Express, per Trav's request.

 Christmas day was fun. The kids got everything they had hoped to get except for Travis who changed his mind after Santa's sleigh was packed, but he was still happy with what he got.

 Our first stop was Grandma and Grandpa Cook's house. Unfortunately I don't have the pictures from our visit with Grandma and Grandpa Cook's because we used their camera, but hopefully I will remember to get copies when we go for our next visit because we had so much fun with them there. We went sledding down the hill in the backyard and opened presents and ate a nice steak dinner. Travis had some major bonding time with Grandma as they built a Lego helicopter together along with a couple other things. It was really nice to be able to relax and enjoy our time with them.

 Kurtis and Tristan came for a Visit from Virginia which was really nice because we don't get to see them very often. My dad bought us all dinner and we were able to visit for a while.

 After the New Year we went to my mom's house and visited for a couple of day's there. That was also a lot of fun. The boys drug the grandkids around in the sleigh with the 4 wheeler. Haiden tested out her Christmas present of nail polish and it turned into a family party and we had the big family game with the ball of plastic wrap and dice that almost turned into a family feud. Ben and I of course won that game, 50 bucks and we didn't even cheat. The adults had a tea party with Natalie which just made her day! We also went paintballing, which I don't have pictures of, but that was fun as well. I'm not saying my husband is a butthead, all I'm saying is that he shot me in the butt and I still have a bruise and it's been a month and a half. That's all I'm saying. It was fun though. I might need the painful memory to fade a bit more before I go again, but I don't regret going like I thought I would.

 One last event of our holiday break was Ben taking Travis and Ethan out on a guys night. Those boys thought they were sure special. They went to the store and got their own drinks. While they were in line Travis made sure the cashier knew that Ben was not Ethan's dad, but it was okay because they were having a guys night! They had pizza. Natalie had a sleepover with Haiden and Macie hung out with me for the most part. It was a special night for those boys and they really enjoyed it.