Projects

First of all I have to show a funny picture of Rex. He is so into rockets, space, hero guys and basically anything boy. Today he was looking at a Rocket book we got at the library. We needed to go run some errands so I told him to go get his shoes out of the front closet so we could go. He came running up to me with these on and said, "Mom look I am wearing Rocket Boots!" Granted it was 70 degrees outside today but how could I say no?

You would think that since Mark has been recovering from surgery that I would keep things quiet around here because I can barely make it through an entire day without a break from my kids, but no, I have been doing projects galore! Saturday Rex and I got out into the garage and repainted an old table we have had forever. I think it was one of Mark's grandma's tables and it used to be a dark wood but it was so scratched and beat up so I finally got around to painting it. I didn't take a before pic, I completely forgot, but I don't really want to remember the before anyway! I love how it turned out. Our dining room table and chairs is next on the list!

Then Monday, the kids and I went outside and tackled the backyard. We pretty much finished it all last year, but we still have a couple of unfinished spots. One that was driving me crazy was in between the sidewalk that leads from the patio to the garage and our house. It was filled with dirt, rocks, trash, cardboard, cement, old sod and nails and gutter scraps. The worst part was Rex would go straight for it when he would go outside, turn the water on it and make a huge mud puddle! I was so tired of it so I got rid of all the crap and leveled all the dirt. Next the kids and I went to Lowe's and picked out a bunch of bushes. I came home and they helped me lay the weed barrier and I got 2 plants in the ground before the downpour came! I finished the rest tonight, all we need to do is fill it with rocks. This is another one I was proud of because it was quite a bit of hard labor! Mark was proud too and happy that he doesn't have to do it!



Now after all that I have to add a quick note about Sam. He is such a talker!! Rex never said this many words at this age, it's crazy how different kids are. Sam literally mimics everything we say and I can't even list how many words he says. Tonight his new one was every time I finished a book, he would go "ah don". It's so stinkin cute and I love that we can communicate so well with him.

Mark

I just remembered that Kindra tagged me awhile back to do the ABC's about my husband. I thought since he is down and out right now it would be the perfect time to do it.

Here's the ABC's of my best friend, Mark.

A -ATV of choice? I don't think he is really into ATV's but he enjoyed the 4 wheelers we rode once.

B - Born? November 3, 1975

C-Cookies or Candy? Cookies

D-Date of Choice when you go out? Dinner and an action movie

E-Essential Item? A computer

F-Favorite Foods? He loves Mexican. The favorite meal I ever made for him was Cafe Rio pork salad

G-Gas or Diesel vehicle? Gas

H-Hobbies? Soccer, Basketball, Wii, and flyfishing

I-Ice Cream Flavor? Chocolate

J-Job? Senior Network Analyst for the City of Boise

K-Kids? His boys, Rex 3 1/2 and Sam 15 months

L-Last Vacation as a couple? Salt Lake when I was preggers with Sam, way too long ago!

M-Morning person or night owl? Lately morning person, depends on what's going on in our lives

N-Number of Siblings? 3 brothers

O-OCD or sloppy? OCD about weird things but totally sloppy with the things I am OCD about! :)

P-Pet Peeves? When I let the kids play with something they shouldn't play with because I am too tired to care

Q-Quiet or Loud? Loud

R-Restaurant? Mai Thai and Cheescake Factory

S-Sports? Soccer and Basketball

T-Tight wad or spender? Again, tight wad on most things, but spender on some things (mainly electronic, especially computer stuff). I am beginning to think he has multiple personalities!

U-Unknown Fact about him? Anything I could think of he probably wouldn't want you to know that's why it is unknown!

V-Vegetables? As long as it isn't brocolli or cauliflower

W- Worst Habit? Snoring and piling papers and crap on our kitchen island, drives me crazy!

X-Xtra Curricular activities in high school? Football I think was the main thing but I think he played other sports.....

Y-Your favorite things about him? I can talk to him about anything and he deals with my drama. He is also an amazing dad!

Z-Zodiac Sign? I just had to look it up because I am not really into astrology anymore but he is a Scorpio

I tag Emily Smith since I have never met your husband and Emily Gage since I don't really know your husband and finally Dana because Charlie is kinda quiet!

Slacker

I know there have been a bazillion things to document this week but I just have not had the energy. This week has been so crazy that now that I look back on it, I can't even remember most of the week! That is sad. I have been meaning to document Rex's first talent show experience that was a week ago Saturday, but haven't. Since he is my first child and we are just starting to get to the age of performances and lessons, I completely dropped the ball and forgot the camera and video camera! A member of our ward videotaped him though so I am just waiting to receive it. I'll post it when it becomes available. So the primary had a talent show a week ago Saturday, the weekend right after we got home from California. We had been gone so didn't know much about it. I got a phone call asking what Rex wanted to do. I couldn't imagine what a 3 year old would do in a talent show but she said the other kids were doing somersaults or riding their bikes or jumping, just really simple things. So I told her Rex would do a somersault. We got their on Saturday and luckily they let the Sunbeams go first. Rex was sitting there waiting for his turn and watching all his friends do cute little things. His two best buddies both did somersaults so he was getting pretty excited. The little boy right before him, Ethan sang an adorable church song. It was so cute! Rex loves microphones so I think that made him a little jealous when he saw that. When it was his turn he ran onstage and headed straight for the microphone and started saying a prayer!! It was so hilarious! I couldn't understand a lot of what he was saying because he was touching the microphone to his mouth and because I was laughing so hard. But I did make out a bunch of "thankfuls", and he did say he was thankful for somersaults. Anyway when he finished one of the leaders said "Thank you Rex for that wonderful talk!" He wasn't paying attention though because after his "talk", he ran back and proceeded to do his somersault! He was so proud of himself when he came off that stage that it made me proud! It was definitely a cute moment and I am so thankful that one of our ward members was able to capture it for me!
Mark had surgery this week again. He was having a lot of pain in his stomach and when pressed on, it felt like a bubble in there. He went to the Dr. and found out he had 4 hernias! They say not only is he genetically susceptible to them since his brother has had them, but also they are really common after having your appendix out, which he had in October. So Friday he got them all taken care of. He did well, but had a hard time getting his Oxygen levels back up so he had to be observed for awhile. He's doing pretty good now, just really tired and sore. We are just glad he is alright. I am exhausted from being a single mom the past few days!! Getting myself and 2 kids up for 8 am church this morning was not fun! I have a new found respect for the moms in our ward that come without husbands every week, I could not do it!
We had a great Young Womens today. As a presidency have been trying to come up with a way to help the girls gain a testimony and understand their worth. We decided to do the Hinkley Book of Mormon reading challenge with them. I spent the time this weekend that I wasn't running around after my kids planning the lesson to introduce the challenge. The lesson turned out well and I really felt the Spirit, I hope the girls did also. We are making sure the parents are on board and are really making sure to stay on top of it and remind the girls each week about what they should be reading. I even set up a blog for them so that we can share experiences. It's amazing how technological this generation is so we thought we would use that and heed Elder Nelson's advice on using "new media" for good. I am really excited about it and pray that the girls will get into and gain or further their testimonies. If they can at this age, they will be so ahead of the game.
Hopefully I won't be such a slacker this week but with Mark not able to do much, I just may be!

Walking, planting, creating and of course NKOTB!

I need to talk about my boys a bit, but this post is going to be full of randomness!
Sam started walking right before we left to California and he is really cruising now. Since we have been home all he does is cruise around the house exploring on two feet. He has always watched with envy as Mark and Rex play chase, so imagine my delight the other day when he coaxed me into a came of chase. Of course I had to grab the video!

Rex was being a bit of a booger yesterday while we were upstairs playing and so I made him sit in his room by himself for a bit. When I told him he could come out he informed me in his sweetest voice ever that he had made me something. I came in to find this. According to Rex it is a mosquito that eats ants! Very creative if I do say so myself!

We have been working really hard in our yard so far this year. Mark has been outside all day cutting out sod because we are getting curbing done next week and putting rock in a lot of places. I planted one of our gardens yesterday and this year I have really gotten into flowers. I decided to plant my own pot full of flowers to see how it would turn out. I have to say I am really happy with the results and I love my flowers! Here's a pic.


And finally, I know you guys were all waiting for me to comment on NKOTB! They were on the Today show yesterday and I do have to say it was pretty fun to watch and I got a little excited! Sam and I were rocking out, he has his mommy's taste! Here's a clip if you missed it, it's practically TV history!

California Part 4- last one I PROMISE!!

Friday the 9th was Mark and I's 5 year anniversary! We had a pretty lazy day, I did a little shopping because who can resist when you are in Cali! That night Mark's parents were kind enough to babysit so Mark and I could go out. We went to a restaurant on the wharf and sat by a table that looked out on the ocean. It was so beautiful. He got some shrimp and I had the YUMMY Lobster tail. Nothing like fresh seafood! Afterward we drove to where all the shops are and walked around, did some more shopping, and just enjoyed being together. This is what I love about Mark, he is my best friend. There is no one else in the world I would rather cruise around doing not much of anything with! We were going to go to a movie but they were all too late and we were tired so instead we went home and played Settlers of Cataan with John and Lucy and finished the evening with a relaxing soak in the hot tub. It was great and I LOVE YOU Mark! Thanks for an excellent 5 years! Sadly I didn't take any pictures. :(
Saturday we decided to take a little trip up to a Danish town just half an hour from Santa Barbara. It was settled by the Dutch so all the buildings are so cute and there was awesome food! Unfortunately, we didn't plan it so well and it ended up being during nap time so both the boys were ornery and didn't last long. We did get some cute pictures though.


Lucy says she has a picture of Mark when he was little sitting in this same shoe, so of course we had to take one of the boys!



Sunday was spent at church and then the plane ride home.
We had a great time and had so much fun with the family! Thanks for letting us stay at your houses and invade!
I do have to say my favorite part of the trip was watching Rex interact with his family that he rarely sees. He loves family and enjoyed every moment of the trip. He and Emily especially hit it off and became two little peas in a pod. They rarely fought and had hours of fun! I think these pics say it all!

California part 3- L.A. and the zoo

Monday we went down to Moorpark which is about an hour north of LA to spend the next few days with Mark's brother John and his family. They just bought a beautiful, HUGE home there and so we were lucky enough to have practically a whole wing to ourselves! The kids had such a great time playing together and we got a lot of great pics of them!
Blake and Darth?

Blake and Sam!

Sam's feminine side

Rex never took this outfit off!

Whitney being quite the ham!

The HUGE beanbag!

Wednesday I headed down to LA to spend some time with Emily, one of my best buds from Idaho Falls. She lives literally like 5 blocks from the temple which is just a hop and a skip away from Beverly Hills and Hollywood. She has been privileged to see many a random celebrities since living there and so she took me on a celebrity finding mission! Sadly, the weather wasn't so good and all the celebrities were hiding but we did have some highlights! We saw where Christina Aquilera lives (formerly the Osbournes house). We saw the studio where the rehearsals for DWTS take place. I got to see the infamous Chateau Marmont. And we ate at trendy Toast, where you Hills fans might have seen LC and Stephen dining just a few short weeks ago!

All in all a great time Em, thanks!
Thursday we went to the LA zoo. It was an absolutely beautiful day, probably the best we had so we had a great time. After the zoo we drove over to the Pacific Coast Highway for our return trip to Santa Barbara. This was the scenic route so we could see all the gorgeous beaches. We stopped on the beach in Malibu, it was gorgeous! I was hoping to see Britney or Jennifer Aniston but all we saw were some loud, obnoxious teenagers and a bunch of pelicans.

California Part 2- Disneyland

Tuesday the 6th we went down to Disneyland for the day. We had such a great time! Thanks Grandpa John for funding it! Grandpa brought cousin Kalista down and we came down with our sister-in-law Tracy and her little ones, Blake and Emily. It started off rough and I was a bit worried because the night before Sam had been puking and throwing up the night before. Normally I would have cancelled it but everyone was planing on it and I didn't want to disappoint. So Sam wasn't feeling very good and Rex was exhausted from being to excited to sleep so he was so ornery. Luckily, once we got in the park, everyone perked up and had a great time. Sam did fine and even enjoyed himself. I was so proud of Rex, we kept just taking him on all these rides and he did them. I think it helped that he had no idea what they would be like! He did Splash Mountain with us because he is so tall for his age that he just made the height requirement! He hated it, but I think he was proud of himself afterwards. His favorite ride by far was the Buzz Lightyear laser gun ride! He had so much fun! He also loved being with his cousins Emily and Kalista. We met my friend Emily there with her friend and her 3 girls, but Disneyland is kind of a hard place to catch up so we didn't get to spend much time with them. Unfortunately our camera battery died about 2 hours in, so I didn't get a lot of pictures. :( Mark took a few after that with him cell phone camera, but they are a little grainy. My favorite are Rex's facial expression during the parade, he was mesmerized! We had a great time! Disneyland really is the "happiest place on earth"!

California Part 1

We are back from our vacation and after a lazy day of doing nothing yesterday and trying to recover, I am ready to get back in the swing of things! We had a great time on our vacation and did so many things I think it's going to take a couple posts to cover it all. We left Friday the 2nd and flew to Phoenix, where we had a hour and a half layover and then we were on to Santa Barbara. Unfortunately all this traveling was during Sam's naptime so he was pretty fried. This face says it all!

Saturday was a beautiful and sunny day and in hindsight we should of taken advantage of the morning to hit the beach, but we thought we would have plenty of days like that. We forgot that mother nature always decides to cool off the sunniest state on in the US when we visit! Anyway, we did go feed the Koi at the pond where Mark's grandma used to live. The kids loved that so it was totally worth it!




We did go to the beach later that day but by then the clouds had rolled in and it wasn't warm so we just went to look and dip our feet in. Rex loved it and Sam was intrigued. Luckily with the cloud cover I got some great pictures!





Next we met up with Johnny and Tracy and their kids who just got back from camping on the beach. Rex and Sam had a great time with their cousins at the park.
Rex and Emily

Sam and Blake

We are on VACATION!

We will be in California until May 11th, enjoying family, friends, the sun and Disneyland!! Have a great week!