Conner is 8

Aug 16 was another birthday in our house. The week between the 2 boys birthdays is hard for Conner because he has to wait one more week for his!! He is so excited to be 8. This is a big birthday...... scouts and a baptism. He had his interview with the bishop and is excited for the big day (it will be the 2nd Sat in Sept). He also gets to go to scouts tomorrow with his good friend Riley. He has grown up so much and I know it is hard sometimes being the middle child but we couldn't have asked for a better kid. He is very helpful around the house and he loves to tinker ie: take things apart, build things, use tools, learn about everything. He has a soft heart and has been helping my friends little boy adjust to kindergarten because he still gets scared. I can always depend on him to help others. He loves to help his teachers at school and church and people just love him and we love him too. Happy birthday Bean!!!

He wants a turtle (real one) really bad but he had to settle for turtle cakes, maybe for christmas..............

Nickola is being funny again

She has just been saying some crazy things again. The other day she told me her eyes were burning and they were red from her rubbing them but she insisted they hurt BUT if she could have chips to eat that would make her eyes stop hurting! We were in Taco Bell last week and she was obsessed with this guy because he was eating the volcano taco. She kept watching him and waving and making comment about his taco. When she finished eating she wanted to go over and meet him. He was very nice about it and I had to apologize for her "awareness" of him.
Today she took off her clothes and laid around in her underwear and told me she was being the jungle boy.....you know off that movie (Mowglie off of Jungle Book). She has done this a few times before. How to teach modesty to a little girl who wants to be the jungle boy???

Arizona heat

Dar was just making the comment that it has only been 105 degrees that last few days and how it is weird that we can really feel the difference from the 112 degrees it usually is. Friday night we had the scouts over to swim and it was a nice night and Sat the pool water was actually chilly and we keep saying what nice days these have been. I bet you never thought you would say it is a nice day when it is 105 degrees?

Bakugan anyone?

A couple Sats ago the boys and I went to a bakugan training "class" at the mall. For those of you not familiar with this it consist of round balls with magnets that pop open when they come in contact with metal, gate cards, ability cards and good math skills. On this day they were teaching kids the right way to play the game. I now know how to play so my kids can't cheat with each other any more!! If you need to know the rules ask us because we were trained by Bakugan master Ray (ranked number 7 in the world, #1 is the inventor of the game, go figure) The boys loved it and even though they still like to argue the rules I can now intervene.

zack is 10

Our little man is now 10!! He has been so excited about his birthday. We as parents were not. It is hard to see your kids getting bigger and realizing how fast it is happening. I find myself wondering if I have taught him all he needs to know to tackle this new age and all that comes with it...like more independence! He told me the other day that he was scared to tell me something and that something was that he likes a girl. I am glad he did tell me but where did the time go!!
He is becoming our little man instead our our little boy and it is scary sometimes to think what is ahead.
He has a lot of his dad in him, he is very artistic, very smart, very loving and is concerned for other people. He is a good friend and a great son. We love you Bug!!

This is the bakugan cake that we invented. I love making their cakes each year.

That is so inappropriate

Sometimes when we are trying to teach our kids we never know if we are getting through or not. And sometimes my kids are just set on doing the wrong things or not showing their "good side" and choosing the "dark side" (that is the star wars analogy going on in our house). Well the other day the kids and dad where watching a movie meant for kids and there was one part that did not need to be there and Zack told me this after: I told you this was not an appropriate movie, why do they always have to put that "one" part in movies? Maybe things are sinking in!?

Anniversary part 2

On our actual anniversary, we took the kids out to dinner with us to Chilis. Conner was alittle upset because he doesn't like chilis and he thought they only served chili. They won him over with the food and chips and salsa, which is Z new favorite food. Then came Dars favorite dessert: the molten lava cake. We all five dug in and it was good!! We came home and the Skabs volunteered one of their kids to babysit (thanks Kyle) and we went to see "The Proposal," Good movie just could of cleaned up the one part, isn't that how it is with all the movies lately.

Nicks room...check!

After 2 years (when we first started Nics room) I finally go around to painting the fish in her under the sea room. She was so excited and I just have some ribbon and tulle to hang and then it is done. (just in time for anther theme haha)


The hangers from the fan is how Nic decorates her room. It is what she refers to as "her party"

Young at heart!

R big win as we were waiting in line to trade in our tickets. He just had to have one last try to win big and it paid off.


K big win!!

What great looking people huh.

Show me the tickets babe


Way to go honey

For our first anniversary date, we went out with the Skabs. We had a great and long night. It was the longest we have ever been out w/o our kids (thanks to those who took our kids!) We went and ate at Toby Keith's and we were serenaded and enjoyed some great food. We next headed to the musical "Wicked." I love musicals and plays. My mom and grandma use to take me and my sister to the local high school and town plays when I was younger and I loved them. I tried to listen to the music before we went but I never got around to it (it makes the experience more enjoyable) but it was still fun and relaxing. Note: Bathrooms get a line very quickly so don't drink water or make like a crazy person and quickly hurry as soon at intermission starts. We wanted to see if we could recreate our younger kid free life and stay out late so we went to Dave and Buster after (like a grown up chuck e cheese) and played till 1:00am Woohoo! I won in the horse race but Darin won most of our tickets!! He has always been good at stuff. What a fun night and we are itching to do it again!

Death is not an issue

(Be prepared for a bunch of post in a row and sorry for the blurry pictures. My camera has a lot of functions and I have not taken the time to learn them and lately I have been having issues with pictures so until I take time to learn the functions I have to make do with some bad pic.)









Zackery decided to make a bed out of the pool vac box and he did take it with him and slept in it at Uncle J house. It looks a lot like a coffin don't ya think. Well that's what my kids were discussing later and here is a paraphrase of me and Nics conversation later that day:
Nic: Mom look at me I'm dead you need to put me in the ground
Mom: You want me to bury you
Nic: Yeah in the dirt with Jesus
Mom: You think Jesus is in the dirt
Nic: When your dead and you go to Jesus in the dirt.
She was a little surprised and disappointed to learn that Jesus doesn't live in the dirt.