For Me (oh, and you too if you'd like)

I use to be an avid journal keeper. Really I did. I have several journals chronicling from my early childhood years through elementary school, Jr High (ick), through High School and beyond.
You get the point.
My earliest one has more pictures I drew then actual words but some of them are really funny. I will always be grateful to my Mom for taking the time to get me to do these entries. Looking back through the journals from Jr High and High school is fun but can also be painful. It's difficult to look back and see how immature I was. Most of the entries involve one boy or another. Funny but not a lot of substance. There are some (more then I care to admit) that contain things I probably wouldn't want my family, especially my children, to read about me. I have SERIOUSLY considered burning these or perhaps burying them in an undisclosed location. The verdict's still out.
Why am I rambling about this? Well that's why I started this blog. Since getting married and having kids I don't take the time to journal. At all. I've never enjoyed scrapbooking although I really wish I did. So I have all these memories and all these pictures that are piling up in my house and in my head. I thought this would be a good way to write it down and add pictures. It's quick, it's easy and it's giving me a chance to get some memories out of my head and into form.
I've been reading a few other blogs lately and realized that I have a lot of memories and events that I want to add to this blog so I have them down somewhere. So I guess this is a word of warning. This blog is for my memories and it may be boring to the rest of you (I hope not) but it's my way of preserving them. Consider yourselves warned! Hope you enjoy:)

Fun...Fun...Fun

Last Friday we loaded up the kids and headed up to Logan to the American West Heritage Center's Baby Animals Day. Matt took the day off so we could spend some time as a family during Spring Break. After stopping for lunch and a quick trip to Smith's Marketplace we pulled into the parking lot (which was very crowded) and made the long walk to the front gate. There was so much to see and do. We looked at the ox, ducks, ponies, turtles, cool skelatal remains of lots of different animals, we even ended up bringing home a new baby frog to live in our fish tank. Mason tried throwing a tomahawk (I may have slaughtered the spelling of that). They had a cute "mock" rodeo that all three of the kids participated in. They rode a stick horse around the barrels to see who could make it in the best time. I personally think Mason smoked the other kids but they awarded the prizes to someone else. Too bad.

Here's Mia taking her turn around the barrels.

Mason doing the same. Ride em cowboy!

Madden was so cute. He ran the whole way

and really gave it all he's got! He was so excited

to be able to participate.

After we were finished there we drove to Brigham City and took the kids to see Monsters VS Aliens. Cute movie but not the best. We ate lots of popcorn and candy and all went home with stomach aches. The upside to that......I didn't have to fix anyone dinner :) What a fun, exhausting day!

Graduation from Talking Time

Mia graduated from her Talking Time class and we're so proud of her. This is the class she's been going to every Thursday for the past 3 years. It's a Mommy and Me set up so it's given the two of us some great one on one time (thanks to Ruth, Celeste, various neighbors and Amber for babysitting Madden each week) . Every week they would read a cute story and then we would do a fun craft that went along with it. Then they would take each child one on one and work on individual sounds and letters. She's worked so hard. She reach a point where she is talking at her age level and they don't even recommend speach therapy when she starts kindergarten....YEAH!















Look at her working so hard on her project. She loves to color, cut, glue, etc so the craft projects were her favorite part.

This is one of her teachers, Ms Sandy. She is such a sweet nice lady (but between you and I, I think she scared Mia to death!)




















This is Ms Alicia. What a fun creative person! We'll miss both these ladies a lot!







Good job Mia, we are so proud of you!

THREE STRIKES.....OH CRAP!!

Madden has become very curious and adventuresome lately. It's not unusual to find him scaling the kitchen counters to look in the cupboards. Or climbing up on dressers to get whatever it is he wants up top. I've even caught him a few times in the process of sticking some foreign object into an electrical outlet (this one produces terrified screams from me and severe reprimands).

Tuesday I was in the bathroom doing Mia's hair for school. I knew Madden was in my room. What I didn't know was that he found a key on my dresser and proceeded to stick it in one of the outlets. I heard this terrifying scream and then he came running into the bathroom. He was crying so hard that it took him a very long time to catch his breath. Once he did, he cried and cried and cried and then kept repeating "IT HURT ME!!" I couldn't see anything wrong with him so I took him in my room so he could show me what had "HURT HIM". I saw him glance quickly over by the outlet and there on the floor was a key. It didn't take me long to figure out what he'd done. Then I quickly checked his hands for burns and looked over the rest of his body. Lets just say....he's a VERY lucky boy! We're just praying that it was "shocking" enough to teach a lesson.

The next day he was climbing up on Mason's dresser to get his Nintendo DS. He does this by opening the bottom drawer and standing on it. So he was standing on the drawer and the entire dresser tipped forward on top of him. I heard him scream and ran into his room. I don't know how he walked away without getting hurt but he did. I hope he'll learn a lesson from this one as well. Too many scary scenarios!

The past couple of days have left me wondering, if "3 strikes - you're out" is the rule, I better keep him tied to me so I can watch his EVERY step! (prayers in his behalf (and mine) are greatly appreciated!! :))

SURPRISE!!!!

Saturday March 7th was a HUGE day for us! Mason had his

9th birthday (WOW how time FLIES!) and Matt finished

his last class to complete graduate school (time didn't fly as

quickly in this case...hehe). I wanted to celebrate in a special

way so I planned a surprise party. The great thing was, it

really was a surprise, neither of them suspected a thing, yeah!

My Mom had Mason spend the night Friday and then Matt
picked him up on his way home from class about Noon so
they arrived home together. Matt almost ruined the plan
when he called at 11:00 and told me he was on his way home
from class AN HOUR EARLY!!!!!! Talk about panic. But
by sending him to Toys R Us to pick a present for Mason
and with some quick thinking by my Dad, we had him
diverted until the right time.....whew!


Ashton spent the night at our house Friday night
and as soon as Matt left for class that morning it
was a mad dash to get things ready. I have no idea
how I would have pulled it off without that girl!
She took care of my kids and helped me when I was
in the last minute panic. Thank you Ashton! There
were so many people who helped out, no way I
could have pulled this off on my own. Thanks to
everyone!

Here we are looking out the window as they drove
up.
Here they are, surprised.

We had about 40 people there. A few that couldn't

make it and several that we couldn't invite (our

house is just too small sometimes). We had a

great time! Happy Birthday Mason & Great Job

Matt!

The Emperor's New Hair

Mason's class has been hard at work practicing
for the plays they put on February 27th. Mason
was in "The Emperor's New Hair". Each play
was a spoof on a fairy tale. Mason was the
narrator & boy did he do a great job! They picked
the best readers to be narrators because they
had to do so much reading. He was fantastic!
The plays were so well done and you could
really tell they had worked super, super hard.
They did so well!!! Way to go buddy!

The final bow!

The emperor is the one in the bald cap! Everyone

took their part VERY seriously!! Awesome job!

GO BEARS!!

Me & Mia, (evidently stadium lighting
isn't too flattering)..............below is
Matt and the boys. Having a great time!
Saturday night, February 28th, Matt and I loaded up
the kids and went to the E Center to see Matt's high
school (the Bear River Bears) play in the 3A state
championships. They played Logan High, who they
had previously beat 2 times that season. It was a
GREAT game! The kids had a good time and it was
fun for Matt to see a lot of people he hasn't seen in
awhile. The best part is.....THEY WON!!! Go Bears!
Notice we're all in red. Just trying to show our
team spirit!!