New Look

So I got my hair done today. . .I have been getting brown and blonde put in my hair for as long as I can remember. Well today the girl who does my hair encouraged me to do just blonde to look more summery. Well I am DEFINATELY blonde, plus I had my bangs cut a little shorter so I seriously am shocked whenever I see myself in the mirror. Joel doesn't really care for bangs so I don't think he really likes it but my answer is they will grow out in no time!!

Zachary

Ha ha so I decided to break it down by child--I am a bad person and my blog is my way of keeping journal so this way I can make sure to get everything about my kids. Feel free to skip over any of this.

Zachary had a fairly easy going week. We were in charge of bringing the snacks for his game and I let him pick out what we would bring--donuts of course. His game was on Wednesday night (which was just a crazy day. Joel had to work late all last week and on Wednesday Cole had a dentist appt, we picked up the boys from school came home did homework hurried up and fed the kids, took everyone to mutual with me for an hour, came home got the snacks and everything ready. Took all 3 boys to the game. I had to park far away from the fields and I didn't feel like making multiple trips back and forth to my car so I piled my arms with 2 boxes of donuts, a cooler full of drinks and a purse full of Gatorade for Cole and Nate. It was the longest walk of my life and I was sure the whole time I was going to drop them but luckily I didn't). Zach's game was at 8--yes 8 at night!! Luckily once again my kids were great, I think they sensed that I really couldn't handle them being stinkers. I looked over at one point and Nate had a whole group of kids playing soccer with him. During Zach's game a couple of the coaches got very annoyed with one another and it was INTERESTING. Luckily everything turned out fine and everyone was excited for their snack. Who doesn't love a donut at 9 pm. The next day Zachary had a swim day fieldtrip for school. He was up and ready at the crack of dawn. He had such a good time and has been talking about going back any chance he gets. He was so tired and grumpy by dinnertime and was honestly almost asleep before his head hit the pillow. These late games may be the death of me.

Zachary has been begging me to make strawberry jam. I finally took pity on him and got everything while he was at school on Friday. When he got home he was so excited until I told him I thought it would be a good Mom & Zach activity. He hung around for all of 5 minutes until I finally told him he could go play with his friends. I made 6 batches of jam!! Zach has had jam as some part of every single meal since lunch Saturday. We have already gone through 2 containers--I have a feeling I should have made more.

I don't know if you can tell but they tied a rope to the back of Zach's bike and he pulled around the little neighbor girl on the scooter. It almost gave me a heart attack to watch but they loved it and no one got hurt.

Zachary entertaining himself at his game. I am totally the mom that hurries up and takes pictures and then scolds. There are 14 kids on his baseball team so there is a lot of down time when they bat, so why not climb up and hang out. . .

Another month gone

I can not believe how fast this year is flying by already--I feel like we only moved up here a couple months ago and it has been 6 months already. I have totally been procrastinating posting with everything that has been going on so I am going to do a picture post.

A couple weeks ago I came out and found Nate & Cole were sitting on the couch reading the scriptures. Nate would read for Cole and tell him what to say--he was doing a pretty good job. His favorite thing to say is 'It came to pass' he loves it when he reads and his verses began with that. When he was telling Cole what to say about every other thing he told him to say was it came to pass--it was sweet and it actually entertained them for awhile.

Last Saturday we decided to do something fun. We took the kids to McDonald's and then went bowling. It was tons of fun. I was a little concerned at first because the place was packed and we were put next to 3 older ladies who were very SERIOUS bowlers. Luckily my kids were on good behavior and the ladies loved and adored them. They gave them high fives anytime they knocked down any pins. Zachary would hurry up and throw the ball and the run over to watch the screen (they had little graphics that popped up and showed the pins getting knocked down with funny little phrases). Nate was actually doing pretty good but he was very distracted by the vending machines and kept going and checking out all the candy. Cole loved bowling. After Joel helped him throw his ball down the first couple times he insisted he did not need any help so he would walk up and throw the ball down all by himself. It took forever to roll down and would only knock down a couple of pins but Cole couldn't careless and was very proud of himself. Oh, at McDonald's the happy meal prize was some Kids Bop music. Zach and Nate loved it and now insist on listening to it anytime we are in the car--Cole hates it which explains the below picture.

I have so much more to post but this is at least a start for now!!!

Odd Experience

So the other day I took all three of my boys to the library and they were quite well behaved. When we went to go checkout the man who helped us asked me if they were all mine. When I said yes he told me he had 3 boys in a row and it was very 'interesting'. He told me that about 2 or 3 times and I didn't get a good interesting feeling from him. Just for the record while I would have enjoyed a girl, I love and adore every single one of my boys and all the funny things they do. I love how close in age they are and how they are all good friends. Plus they are very fun just to be around. While I realize they are young and I have a lot of time left I hope I never describe my life with them as interesting--eventful, crazy and great yes!!

Nate reminded me the other day that Jaren (my oldest nephew) told him he (he being Nate of course) would be 6 when Jaren got home from his mission. WOW to think I am old enough to have a RM for a nephew--I believe he will be home in the next few weeks. I am thinking of sitting down with him and making specific rules of when I can become a great-aunt. In all reality he is an amazing person (and quite cute) and any girl would be lucky to have him!! I used to look at some of my yw and think about playing match maker.

It's quite late and I have been battling a very sore throat. That last few days have been very baseball filled practice, games for Zach and Nate and then Joel started playing with his brother so he had two games tonight also. Tomorrow there is no baseball--not really much of anything going on and I am seriously considering spending the day in my pjs in bed.

So much to say

Okay so once again another event filled week. It was Nate's birthday on Friday. The night before I put him to bed and he was trying to sneakily make sure that I was I was going to decorate his bedroom and make him a poster--I think I started a new tradition which is good but I informed Joel I am not listing out 32 reasons why I love him. We Joel's family over Friday for the party and Nate invited his really good friend from down the street. They played and ran around all night. I let Nate pick out a dinosaur cake with a big dinosaur on top that actually roared it was cool. While opening his presents he made the comment that he has seen tons of commercials for everything he got. Pretty much every commercial the child sees he runs and tells me he has to have for his birthday. Zach and Nate have been sharing a scooter ever since we moved up here (Nate got a Spiderman scooter for his 3rd birthday that he sold to Cole for $5--he set it outside with a home made taped on price tag and Cole bought it. Very odd children I have) and Nate has told me a time or two that he would really like one of his.

On Saturday we dyed Easter eggs. I think Joel had as much fun as any of the boys he kept stealing their eggs to dye them himself. Easter morning we told the older boys they had to wait until Cole woke up to look for eggs and check their baskets. At 8:30 Cole got up but kept telling me his tummy hurt. The boys found all the eggs and were looking through their baskets and Cole threw up all over me. He spent the next several hours throwing up every time he took a drink. Obviously Cole and I stayed home from church, right about the time the bigger boys got home he started feeling better and ate lunch and dinner fine. I am pretty sure it was his random throwing up thing he used to do in Phoenix--we shall see if it happens again next month. I hope for his sake that isn't what it is. . . Later that day all of Joel's family came over, we did an Easter egg hunt with kids and had a yummy dinner.

Zachary had another baseball game this week. He got two hits and when he was in outfield was very good to chase down the ball although he didn't really get the concept of hurrying up and throwing it in but he is learning. His last time up he got tagged out and didn't even question it or get his feelings hurt. Nate was very upset because his game had been canceled the night before and Zach still got to play.

The cool cake

Opening Presents

Dying eggs

The egg hunt

Checking out the prizes

Baseball Day #2

Holy cow life has turned CRAZY. I picked the boys up right after school, went to the store and ordered Nate a birthday cake. Came home helped both boys with their homework while making dinner. Ate dinner way early, went to Zach's school for Literacy Night/Book Fair and still managed to get to his game 30 minutes early (the boys get out of school at 3:30 and we were all at the game by 5:30). All I can say is WHEW. Nate has baseball practice tomorrow and then we get a good baseball break.

So Zachary's game went pretty well. They have a pitching machine that shoots pitches out at them and the rules are more strict on how many pitches you get. Zachary's first time up he struck out his second time he hit the ball but right back to the pitcher so he was able to grab the ball and tag Zach out. Zachary tried really hard not to be sad but was a little confused why he was out. Joel went over to talk to him and Zachary told him, "He tagged me--this is baseball not tag." I was very proud of him--he never cried and still managed to have a good time and said he was excited to play again. Oh and on top of that it was FREEZING. The wind was blowing and it was sprinkling it felt like winter in Phoenix.

After the game Zach was complaining that his head hurt and his stomache was unhappy. I took him upstairs and he started freaking out. Within seconds he was throwing up everywhere. Poor kid was so sad and confused. He has a field trip tomorrow that he is very concerned about missing so hopefully it was just a fluke and he will start feeling better.

Nate's First Game

Nate had his first t-ball game tonight. I seriously almost fell off the bench laughing hysterically through the whole thing. Nate ran so STINKIN cute in his little cleats and way to large helmet on his little head. One time he hit the ball and ran all the way to second and passed his teammate who was just hanging out on second base not really wanting to move. There are a couple of kids on the team who are really good, Nate is definitely not one of them but I think he will have fun and get better as the season goes on. Zachary has his first baseball game tomorrow. It should be fun--the next few months are going to be very very baseball filled.

My parents went up to general conference this past weekend. On the way home they stopped by. They were just going to stay the night and leave first thing Monday morning but as seems to be my case I convinced them they didn't really want to leave and they stayed an extra day. After the older two boys were at school, Cole, me and my parents went out to the monument for the Mountain Meadow Massacre and then Jacob Hamlin's home (early pioneer). It was fascinating!!! There was a missionary (a young guy) at the monument cleaning it up, he was missing his legs from his knees down. Cole of course commented on it as soon as he saw him and the guy was really nice and told me he loved kids. He actually took the picture I have posted of all of us. My mom grew up in Utah and my grandfather was her history teacher so she is quite knowledgeable and can tell fascinating stories. It was a good time and I already am counting down the days until I see my family again.