Let's hear it for warm weather!

And nights out in the backyard running around with nothing but shorts (or a diaper, depending on your age), and lunch in the back yard, and playing in the park, and turning on the hose and getting wet, and picnics with ice cream for dessert!

Summer... Bring it on!

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as NASCAR 6.0, NFL 5.1 and Golf Clubs 4.1.

Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system.

Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed,

Desperate.



DEAR DESPERATE,

First, keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system.

Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.HTML and try to download Tears 6.2 and do not forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1.

Please note that Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Farting and Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT under any circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.)

In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Cooking 3.0 and Hot Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck!

Tech Support

(Disclaimer: I love my husband, and am so grateful I get to be his and all, but I thought this was pretty funny...)

Wait, when did he grow up???

OK, when did this happen??? He's not supposed to grow up this fast! Last week, my little boy turned 12. Do you realize I only have 6, maybe 7 years left of him being home??? I thought, this is not that big of a deal. Another birthday, another pokemon cake... But as he graduated from Primary, and received the Priesthood, I realized that he's really growing up. dude, where does the time go...?
age 5

starting 1st grade

Baptism day with his dad

With his buddy, Alexander (2007)

Hiking the "Y"

first day of 6th grade!

So here's to Jordan, my first little man... Blow out those candles and wish that these next (too-few) years are as great as the last 12 have been! Oh, how we love you!

The Apron

Last week I got a call to see if I could go into Zachary's classroom the next day and help the kids decorate an apron for their teacher for teacher appreciation week. Surely I can come up with something, I thought... Problem is, I'm just not a creative kind of a chick. I thought I could have them put handprints on it. But there wasn't enough room for 30 handprints, and it would have been oh so very messy. So then I thought, they could just sign their names. But where's the creativity in that? Remember, this is Utah, the mecca for creative women. The pressure is intense! I only had 25 minutes and really didn't want to make a mess. Finally, an idea: I could have the kids do thumbprint insects. You know, where you stick your thumb in ink, press it onto the fabric, and then draw the eyes/wings/legs/etc. I found a few instructions online, then had the kids do butterflies, ladybugs, spiders, caterpillars, frogs, bumblebees, and even had 2 dinosaurs and a mutant (there are a few free-thinking creative kids in the class!) It took a little longer to do it than I thought, but we finished before the bell rang. Here's the finished project:


Not too bad, and I think she liked it. Zachary said that she wore it all day yesterday!

It's that time of year!

Time for the Pinewood Derby!
Zachary and his dad have been working hard on his car the past few weeks. They've carved, sanded, drilled, glued (then had to saw and drill again because the glue got on a wheel!), and lubed and weighed in. We were really close to the 5 oz limit, so we glued 2 dimes onto the bottom to bring it up to 5 oz. It was so much fun to watch Zachary as his car raced. He was so excited - he really hoped his car would do well.
Here's his car on the track - ready to go!


The race begins...watching the boys was so much fun!










Here come the cars... GO! GO! GO!















So, how did we do? Really, do the results actually matter? Uh, to Zach, the answer would be YES!



He got 2nd place! (Pretty awesome, especially when you consider there were about 24 cars entered - give or take a few!)











Zach with his trophy.














And how does Zach feel about it?

Really, do we need to ask?!

The secret weapon...

We have a secret weapon in our house. It is strong enough to get the boys out of bed at 6:42 am. It causes them to get dressed, make their beds, and even brush their teeth. They find themselves powerless against the morning grumpies, and even can be found cracking a smile now and then. They are drawn to even to do a chore or two. What is this weapon?



Ahh, the power of the donut.

(sorry for the swedish chef clip, I was feeling nostalgic... :-))

Something to think about

I came across this quote last week. Maybe it's something I need to consider a little more often:

"My sink of dirty dishes means we have plenty of food. This pile of dirty laundry? Nice clothes. Those unmade beds sure were warm and comfortable last night. This finger smudged refrigerator that needs defrosting so badly? Enough leftovers for several meals. Even that slamming screen door means my kids are healthy, able to run and play. Chores? I do 'em gratefully."

A "Fort"-ifying Sunday

OK, Jordan came up with the title for this post...

Yup, it was another Sunday filled with fort building, which means another Monday of demolition! The boys love to build them, and, hey, what can I say? They worked together to make an "apartment fort" with 5 different rooms to accomodate all of them.
It did make me laugh, however, when they came up with a plan to keep Levi out of their way...

They put him in his wagon and buried him with dinosaurs.

Hey, whatever makes him happy...

Don't judge a book by its cover...

My sister Kelly introduced this video to me. You can't help but smile through tears at this Susan Boyle.

Click here to see the video from Britian's Got Talent from Saturday (April 11th).

(I tried to embed this, but the code has been disabled... bummer!)

Our Easter Weekend

A pretty good load of sugar!

Happy Easter y'all! I hope everyone had a great weekend! We sure did. We were able to go on 2 Easter egg hunts. One was at my cousin Wendy's home. She hosts one every year and my boys always walk away with a big basket full of candy!
Levi was a little clueless this year, but soon got pretty excited once he realized that there was candy in them there eggs...


After the hunt, we were treated to lunch, then a pinata! The pinata started out as a flamingo, but the head and legs were the first to go...

Zach takes a pretty good swing.

Jordan tried to power through a swing. He later got frustrated and started a swordfight, and pretty much speared the flamingo.

Caeden was so intent on getting candy out of the bird that he actually went airborne... Brady was making it tricky to hit the pinata!

After a good sugar rush, we headed home to prepare for Sunday. I had a talk and a lesson to prepare, and a few other things to do to get ready for Sunday!

Sunday morning the boys all got their baskets. The Easter bunny didn't leave eggs in the yard this year, and my boys were bummed. I figured that with the egg hunt at Wendy's home and another at Grandma and Grandpa Gilbert's home after church, we didn't need to make the bunny work harder than necessary... (besides, I'm trying to steer towards a more Christ-centered Easter, less toward a bunny and plastic egg Easter). I tried to reason with them, "You don't need 3 Easter egg hunts, do you?" I heard Caeden stomp off, muttering under his breath "Yes, we do." Yeh, I think I have a little work to do regarding our efforts towards a less sugary holiday...

After church, we headed up to Grandma and Grandpa Gilbert's home (that's Aaron's mom and stepdad) and had fun searching for eggs. Grandma and Grandpa worked really hard to hide - and I mean HIDE - eggs in their backyard. They live up on the side of the mountain, and have great pathways and bushes and trees for egg hiding.

Jordan found an egg!

Zach checks out the water wheel for eggs.


Levi and Aaron on the path.

The kids had a great time looking for eggs with their cousins, then we all enjoyed a barbeque. It was a fun weekend spent with family and friends and we hope everyone had a great Easter, too!