Haleshere

Changes here, Changes there, changes EVERYWHERE!!

2010-08-31T21:09:00.000-07:00

I know. . . . There is absolutely no need to say it. I absolutely totally stink at this whole blog thing. Seriously though who has the time to sit at the computer and download pictures and write cutesy little things about their families. . . ok so everyone I know has time to do that but UUUUUUGGGGGHHHH!! Seriously I can think of a whole list of other things I would rather do then sit down here and try to figure out what they heck to tell people about what is going on in my life. And the first thing that would be on that list would be going into my room locking the door and hiding in the closet. Seriously I would KILL for a little bit of quiet time!! Oh so for those of you who don't know I started doing daycare out of my home. Yeah so you see I don't really need to go into detail about the whole need of quiet time! Also the same week that I started we found out that we had some sort of serious water damage in my basement. And by sort of serious I mean that I had mushrooms growing out of my carpet. What? Don't you have mushrooms in your basement? If not you should cause it's all the rage in food storage these days. . . ok so maybe it's not exactly up to health code but hey I did get new carpet in my basement out of it! It only took three weeks longer then the contractor said it would and some seriously crazy schedule keeping what with the day care kids and then the contractors coming not when they said they would. By the way just as a side note for anyone who does work on my house in the future if you say that you are going to be here at 8 a.m. then be here at 8 A.M. do not come at 6 pm with out your materials for the job and look at me with that freaking blank look on your face like I'm some sort of three headed purple alien when I ask you who you work for and why you can't show up on time! K so I'm good now. Seriously. . . ok so maybe my body temperature is doubling as we speak. Shoot was that a hot flash? Seriously I just had a hot flash! I'm way to young to be having hot flashes! Stupid freaking dry wall people. I need a baked good. Anyone have a baked good? Ok I need a time out I will re post after and I have a cinnamon roll and a little more self control!

Salt in the wounds

2010-04-20T09:29:00.000-07:00

With the first peeks of the sun this week I decided that I was going to do some very much needed yard work. So on Friday I put in all our sprinkler lines, mowed the lawn, tilled the garden area, and had close to 20 kids playing over. Then as if that wasn't enough I put in 8 more hours on Saturday forming my rows in the garden and getting my weed fabric in place and again we had roughly 20 kids playing over. I don't know how it happened but between our house, Erickson's and the Olschewski's it is party central! All those kids just run back and forth like a pack of animals. Needless to say come Sunday I was really struggling to keep my eyes open during sacrament meeting. Brian noticed that I was just completely burned out (it may have been the pool of drool soaking his shoulder) but he decided that we needed some quality family time before he put in some long hours writing his paper that he had been putting off all week. So my most awesome husband packed lunches and took us all to Antelope island for the afternoon! This was the first time our kids had ever been to a "real beach". Needless to say they were very excited to go to an island! Here are some pictures for you all to enjoy. And no it was not raining. I just forgot to reapply sunscreen during my 20 hours of hard manual labor in the yard and my whole neck was covered in blisters so I was avoiding the sun! And FYI water that is 5 times saltier then the ocean feels great on the feet but awful on a sunburn! Oh and it doesn't come out of navy blue shorts. . . . so now they are gray!

Pickles the Clown

2010-04-13T08:43:00.001-07:00

I don't know how it happened. One day I'm at home minding my own business having a nice day without a single care in the world and the next thing I know I'm at Kaden't school dressed in a tu-tu and tights jumping around like an idiot and having the time of my life! Ok actually I know exactly what happened. Laurie Rice. Several of my friends are in PTA and they asked me to help out with the carnival this year. Of cousre I said yes (because I say yes to everything) I just don't think that I realized what exactly I was getting in to. I think that these pictures speak volumes! I have to say . . . I look pretty hot. I think I might convert this to my every day look.

Miles of style!

2010-04-13T08:36:00.000-07:00

Gabby is going through this phase. I like to call it the "making Mom dread when I turn into a teenager" phase. She is so into fashion and makeup and to be quite honest no 5 year old should be able to put lip gloss on perfectly with out the aid of a mirror. Seriously though she came out of her room the other day wearing this and I couldn't help but smile! You have to admit though that girl has guts and style!!

Pics of Gabby.

2010-04-13T08:28:00.000-07:00

So I posted those pictures of the kids a few days ago and I decided that I didn't like them at all. So here are new ones of Gabby. I'm going to redo the boys as soon as I cut their hair and they both no longer have bruises on their heads. You would think that they would use the football helmets we bought them when playing football but no they are like billy goats when they play. One of these days they are going to knock each other out. Anyhow I think that these turned out really good so I thought that I would share them.

That is so SICK! And I don't mean that in the good way!

2010-04-08T17:31:00.000-07:00

By nature I'm not a queasy person. I'm just not. Blood doesn't phase me, nor dose throw up. I can handle baby poop in the tub, gross food. I'm pretty solid when it comes to the EWWWW factor. That is unless there is spit involved. Seriously I will Clean up anything smell anything eat anything as long as it has NOTHING to do with saliva! So this brings me to my story. I'm giving you warning this one is not for the faint of heart so if you have a weak stomach stop reading. (And yes I know that by saying that it's going to make you want to read more. It's just like saying "Don't look!" and then everyone looks.)

So I was at Walmart today shopping with my kids, so not my favorite activity. And I'm walking down the bread aisle trying to explain to Dallen why he can't have hostess doughnuts at the same time that I'm telling Gabby to stop poking holes in the bread bags, and trying to get Kaden to stop twirling in circles while flapping his hands, When I glance up and I see the most horrid disgusting thing that I have ever seen in my entire life. There is a group of teenage boys in front of me a laughing and shoving eachother. In the middle of this group are 2 boys standing a couple of feet apart we are going to call them Boy 1 and Boy 2. And I hear one kid say "Do it! Do it man!" And he does it. . . . Boy 1 hocks a loogie that is the size of a gumball at Boy 2 that is standing a couple of feet away from him and do you want to know what Boy 2 does? He caught it . . . . . in his mouth. That's right he caught the other boys spit IN HIS MOUTH!!!! And do you want to know what I did? I did what anyother mature adult would have done in my shoes...............I threw up. That's right people I lost all control of my gag reflex and completley lost everything that I ate that day in the bread aisle for all of the world to see. Yeah It's kind of been a bad day.

New Pics of the kids

2010-04-07T08:03:00.000-07:00

So I keep hearing that I need to update the pictures of my kids that I have hanging in my front room. I don't know what everyone is freaking out about. I mean Dallen was 7 months old in those pictures. . . What's the big deal. Are you trying to tell me that just because he is going to be 4 in June that those are not current? Sheesh picky! So whatever I guess that you can see that I broke under the peer pressure. Here are so new ones of the kids. Now the trick will be getting me to print them so that I can put them in the frames!! :)

Disney on Ice

2010-03-30T13:02:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictues of the kids. Their Grandma Hales took them to go see Disney on Ice. They had such a great time!

Snow happy!

2010-03-30T12:22:00.000-07:00

So Brian and I were talking when he did the thing that I hate most in the world. . . He stopped our conversation mid sentence to pull his blackberry out of his pocket because someone was emailing him. ARRRRGH! For those of you who have witnessed this happening I'm sure you can picture in you minds exactly how I handled it. Yes it started with the twitch in my left eye and then my core temperature rising to the level of blood boiling. My hands balled up into fists my heart pumping. And just when the ticking sound from my internal "overreacting wife bomb" was about to stop and I was going to explode he looked up at me with a smile and said "You wanna go snowmobiling this weekend compliments of work?" I don't think that man has ever seen me go from a look of absolute irritation to one of dumbfounded so quickly! Needless to say I wasn't so upset about him looking at the email after all! So a little about our super fun unexpected but much needed get away. When we got up there the poor lady at the front desk had to undertake the task of finding snow gear to fit us both. Oh did I forget to mention that it is a ONE PIECE snow suit that fits a Victoria's Secret model like a latex glove! So now imagine if you will Brian and I trying to get into these suits! Needless to say after manipulating and contorting our bodies into these things we both decided that we would probably have to be buried in them cause it was EXHAUSTING just to get them on. Not to mention that the whole thing weighed a good 75lbs. We looked like a couple of walking tootsie rolls. And I'm not talking about the cute little ones that you get at Halloween I'm talking about the great big hunkin ones that break your teeth out when you try to bite into them! Now I'm sure that you all know how athletic Brian and I are. Once we got our gear on we just couldn't wait to get out there and catch some serious air on our double rider machine. We were planning on taking some serious jumps, some wicked curves and simply have a dang good time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Do you know what happens when you put 450lbs of people on a 2 person snowmobile and then try to take a jump? HMMMM Anybody? Well I will tell you. When your are going 50mph and try to ride up a snow bank you don't actually go "up" the snow bank. You go through it. Well actually that's not quite correct. What you do is you bury the front end of the snowmobile in a downward angle throwing both yourself and your wife up and over it only to bury your wife with both her arms and legs in the snow in the "bear walk" position and Brian on his side in snow that we are just now realizing is probably a good 9-10 ft deep. Oh and to make matters worse who do you think came driving to our rescue? Why I will tell you. The Boss of Brian's boss. Ya. Anyhow we learned the hard way that that much weight has about as much luck getting off the ground as an elephant with a hummingbird strapped to it's back has to fly. Needless to say we didn't try to take anymore jumps that trip. We did however have an awesome time. It was Beautiful up there and so quiet! I think that Brian and I both had forgotten what it was like to experience quiet. Here are a couple of pictures from our mini vacation!

Baked goods blues!

2010-01-22T11:38:00.000-08:00

K so have you ever had one of thoes days where you were just in a funk? And I'm not talking about how just stuff goes not your way and things fall apart. I'm talking about one of those days where you go running from your basement upstairs, streak through the kitchen grabbing any and all baked goods in your wake. Hurtling down the hallway pinballing off the walls as you try to keep your balance and keep all the pilfered baked goods in your arms, only to launch yourself in bed, throw the covers over your head and sob uncontrolablly to your kids to "Just leave me alone" As you shove loaves of bananna bread and chocolate chip cookies into your mouth and search frantically for every crumb that you dropped in the sheets cause you don't want any eviedence left behind for your hubby to find later when he gets home. Umm yeah so I'm having one of THOSE days. It started of simple enough. I woke up to Gabby in our bed jabbing her FREAKING cold talons into my side and my husband trying to "nicely" wake me up to get the kids ready for the day. Well I'm sorry but I don't care how "nice" you are being, but anything that happens before 10 am needs to be done with that person wearing a helmet and other protective gear because this lady just doesn't do "Good mornings" Do you hear what I'm saying? K so anyway after making breakfast, lunches, doing showers, hair, and finding the always lost and impossible to find shoes. I was finally ready to start my day. And I have to say that I was doing really well. I found a smoking deal on the gift that My sisters and I are giving my dad for his big 5-0 and I was able to get rid of the bunkbeds that have been taking up space in my storage room since before Christmas. I had already done 2 loads of laundry and my house was clean! "insert choir of angels singing here" Yes it was going very well but I just couldn't shake this feeling of unease and doom. I knew deep down that something was coming and it was coming fast! I could feel it creeping up on me as I walked downstairs into the impending doom of our dungeon (also known as the laundry room) The overwhelming feeling of nausea and unrest started to sink in deeper as I approached the dryer to take out the kids clothes. As a reached into the hirroble snarling beast also know as the dryer the feeling became too much and that's when it happened. This horrible awful thing that threw my whole day into a dowward spiral of chaos, tears and baked goods! I fear that my life may never be the same again. But at least I now know that I should always check the laundry after I have let Dallen let me load the clothes into the dryer. After all he was just trying to help me make the clothes pretty. And to answer your question. Yes at one time that was a box of crayons.

Just FYI

2010-01-06T15:26:00.000-08:00

I'm using this background because it reminds me of yummy desserts. I just thought that you would like to know that! Oh and I thought that the song was appropriate to the theme!

Christmas

2010-01-06T14:46:00.001-08:00

Christmas was a little spread out for us this year. Brian recieved his gift in November thanks to my wonderful older sister bailing me out with the perfect gift for him! We spent most of the day together at the BYU game which turned out to be alot of fun for me! I know you are shocked as you should be. Tye and football. . . who would have thought! I think what I enjoyed most was the people watching. I swear people will do the weirdest things when they think that no one is paying attention. . . hee hee hee but I was so, to that guy in the Y hat that was sitting 3 rows down from us thinking no one was looking at you. . . I so saw you pick your nose and wipe it on your wifes jacket! Ok on to the rest of Christmas. The kids were so cute. I found the good majority of Christmas at the D.I. this year. We got lego tables and blocks for all of the kids as well as scooters for them and a great big train and track table. I was worried that they would be bummed that all of their stuff except for their santa gift was from the D.I. Boy was I wrong Christmas morning they came in and litteally threw their santa gifts and stockings out of the way to get to those legos! It made me feel good to know that my kids loved those gifts more then the "new" stuff. It was an awesome Christmas. We did tons of stuff together as a family and were able to spend alot of time together. . . All good things have to end though and as awful as it sounds I think that Brian's vacation ended and Kaden's school started just in time! After all you know what they say about too much of a good thing. . . . It drives the mom crazy to the point that she starts locking herself in the craft room!

the kids at the Hale's family party

Brian and I at the game. The guy in the white hat behind us is the booger offender! HAHA

UGH!!

2010-01-06T14:23:00.000-08:00

Ok so it been awhile. . . . or more since my last post. Let me just say this, yes I do feel the guilt every time I log in and see that my sisters have updated their blog 6 times to my one, which is totally disgusting since they both have more going on in their days then I do. And not only do they just update the blog but they post pictures, PICTURES! UGH! Do you have any idea how much I loathe my camera that still has pictures from Dallen's birthday in June? But I have fixed the guilt problem! I just bury it with baked goods and empty excuses and rationalizations and I feel so much better! So see I guess that I can be perfect too! ;) Anyhow so here is a crash in the last few months of our lives. Enjoy and try not to feel too overwhelmed!

Kaden's favorite saturday activity!

Dallen just likes to "stir" the water!

The perfect cast!

Kaden, Gabby, and Dallen carved these for Halloween

Mine and Brian's I did the 2 on the right and Bri did the scarecrow.

O.M.H (Oh my hair!)

2009-10-13T18:37:00.000-07:00

Soooo, I'm still trying to figure out what posessed me to do this? Perhaps I'm looking at this from the wrong angle. . . Nope it looks scary when I turn to the left too! oh well, So what do you think? Is it all sorts of scary wrong and I should be running over to Sally beauty supply tomorrow to fix this really bad mistake. Or should I just tell Brian that it's like having your mistress and your wife all in one. . . meaning that I will still do all the same annoying things that he hates but look like a different person while I'm doing it!

2009-09-28T22:02:00.000-07:00

Ahhhhh this is my favorite time of year. I love that things start to cool down enough that I don't have to water my lawn all of the time so of course this means that we don't have to mow the lawn either. This time of year also means no more weeding HOOOORAH!!! (Insert fist pumping action while saying this. It's the only way to get the full effect.) But absolutely best of all is that Fall means that the leaves are turning and MOST important of all . . . HALLOWEEN!!! We always go to at least 2-3 pumpkin patches in October. I think mostly because Brian doesn't want to see me pout about not getting to go to all the neat ones that they have around here. We went to the patch at the Red Barn this weekend to pick out little ones for the kids to paint. I think that the best thing that I found was the praying mantis that I tried to convince Brian and Mike to pick up. What a couple of sissy's! Who would have thought that a small little bug could turn my hubby and father in law into whimpering little girls! :) We did find some cute pumpkins for the kids Dallen kept picking one up only to put it down 2 seconds later for the one that was perfect! Seriously though I really did think of taking that cute little bug home for Bri. Maybe that's why he keeps looking at me out of the corner of his eye every time that I walk into the room. He knows that I have sneaky intentions! Something else we do every year around this time is Brian taking the fam on a drive up into the canyons so that we can see the leaves changing. This has very quickly become one of my all time favorite traditions! The mountains and canyons this time of year are absolutely beautiful! The only draw back I would have to say is the hiking. There is seriously few positives that I can come up with where you combine A great big woman chasing after kids who have way more energy then should be humanly possible UP HILL! This just tends to make me fell grumpy. . . I feel the need to cheer my self up with a brownie.

Ok better now. This year we went up Payson Canyon which was a new one for us. This is my new favorite spot. As we drove up the canyon we saw a sign for Maple Lake. Now this could have gone either way. We knew that it would be either a super cool place where the lake was surrounded by pine trees and the maples that were turning colors or it could be a mud hole. Lucky for us it was not a mud hole. We got to show the kids what cat tails were. I think that Kaden and Dallen were disappointed to find out that they were plants and not cats that had been buried with their tails sticking out, but hey that's little boys for you. We were really disappointed that we hadn't brought our fishing poles though. The fish were literally jumping out of the water. It was just such a neat place. I'm going to have to talk Bri into taking us back there. Something tells me that I'm not going to have to twist his arm too much though.

My favorite picture of Maple Lake

Our most recent Family picture. . . Get it while you can cause it will be the only one for a while.

Cutest punkins I ever saw!

Finally the perfect one. He only picked up and put down every other one in the patch!

Super amounts of FUNNESS!

2009-09-14T07:41:00.000-07:00

Ok so I'm still trying to play catch up. I know, I know it's taking forever but I've had a lot going on lately and by a lot I mean very little. But hey at least I'm still updating everything. So these are pictures from our Anniversary weekend. Brian being his awesome self, planned a whole day of super funness! And yes funness is a word. . . or at least I say that it is. Anyhow back on topic. Bri planned an entire day for all of us. It started by going to the Dinosaur park in Ogden. We have been here once before when Dallen was only 5 months old so it was really fun to see all the kids running around and enjoying the park! Maybe the best part was that I had NO diaper bag seeing as how the last time that we came I still had 2 kids in diapers this also made for a much more pleasant time for me! After the dinosaur park we went and had a picnic and then went to the Tree house Museum. If you have never been here you MUST go. It was so much fun. There was so much to look at and there was so much to do. I've decided that I was to remodel my house to be just like the tree house museum! I really did have a hard time deciding who had more fun. The kids or Brian and I! Here are some pictures from our super awesome day for funness! ENJOY!

This would have to be the one time that the boys actually listened to Gabby. Good thing that we got a picture to prove it!

The next three pictures would be my solution to who should really be running our country!

We to told Gabby make a "serious" face. She looks like she just got in injection of botox!

I thought that Kaden's face was pretty good in this. He looks pretty good behind this desk don't you think?

Music to my ears!

Of course Gabby honed in on the Baby hospital! I think that she looks good as a doctor. HMMMMMM.

Not my favorite costume that he tried on. I preferred him behind a desk if you must know.

we took this picture only after we convinced the kids that the dinosaurs were not real!

I just loved this face!

Again one of my favorites!

The kids didn't get it quite like Bri did!

This is a little

more believable. This was one of the first pictures that we took when we got there. The kids still were under the impression that the dinosaurs might be real. . . . I don't know why they would have thought that. :)

My favorite way to spend my time!

2009-08-31T18:28:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not one of my favorite ways to spend time is with my sisters and their families. I know 10 years ago those words would never have even crossed my mind but what can I say I finally grew up! The 24th of July weekend we got to take a road trip to Mandy and Tyler's new house to see their very adorable 3 little girls and be there when they blessed their newest arrival Cloe! And as an added bonus Tara and Kevin came with their whole crew and my Mom and 2 youngest brothers showed up !! HEAVEN!! Seriously you can stop going into shock now I told you I've matured!! I think that hands down one of the better moments of this trip was when Tyler pulled out the ultimate fly swatter! I kid you not this thing was a bug catching fiend which is good since Matt informed me today that every time a fly lands it throws up. Yep so grateful for that juicy little nugget of knowledge. Thanks Matt! Anyone else have flash backs to Gabby's dead fly collection (insert gagging and shuddering!) Unfortunately the kids killed the fly catcher. Let's be honest it really didn't stand a chance against 12 kids under the age of 8 (yes I am including Jake in that count!) all competing for a turn to catch anything and everything that moved. It was only a matter of time till it kicked the bucket. Ahh well this will just give me something to look for to give to all of the families for Christmas. :) Another great moment was at the parade. And let me tell you I'm not exaggerating when I say that Monticello has more tractors then people and every single one of them was in that parade! Some of them were pretty stinkin cool and others maybe just stinkin since they were barely hosed off before they left the cow fields. Needless to say it was hilarious to watch all the kids run out in the middle of the road trying to get candy before anyone else. I was very impressed with how polite our little troop of kiddos were. They all made sure that everyone got something and were quick to share with their cousins when they were not quick enough. I always knew that my sisters were good mom's it was just nice to kick back and enjoy chatting with my fam and not have to worry about the kids cause they were all getting along so good. After all that's what you want on a vacation isn't it. To have fun snuggling babies that when they poop you can give them back to their parents, spoil rotten the older ones to seal your place as the favorite and laugh your self sick with your sisters and their husbands. It was the perfect weekend for us, so nice in fact that I'm having a hard time finding some sort of sarcastic remark to balance out all of this sugary gooeyness. Hmmmm maybe I hit my head harder then I thought when I was putting Gabby's bed together. So here are some pictures of the weekend. I promise to be back to my normal non gooshy self in my next post.;)

Mandy and Tyler's new baby Cloe - They let me give her extensions! I think that it suits her.

By the time Kaden got an apple his entire head was wet to the back of his neck.

I'm the skinny one. . . . I dare you to say otherwise! Seriously though how could I not be self conscience with sisters who look like this honestly!

Mine and Brian's dream car!

The cutest group of kids you ever did see!!

Singing in the Rain.

2009-08-31T18:19:00.000-07:00

Not really much to say to go along with these. We just had so much rain in June and July that it was inevitable that I would have to get pics of the kids playing. These are some of my favs!

I believe they call that a face that only a mother could love!!

One more thing to add to my list of things that I love!

2009-08-31T08:43:00.000-07:00

OK so I have the greatest calling in all of the world. . . No Tyler it's not in scouts!
I'm on the Family Home Enrichment Committee in my ward!! So too add to my addiction of doing all things crafty I get to teach this fun class that I call Stitches and Staples where every month we make some type of craft that costs under $5 to make. This is my solution to tough economy times during the holiday season. OK who am I kidding this is just my excuse to Brian to try to make all the cool things in the stores that I see and say to my self "I could make that!" So any how I have started a blog that is updated every month with instructions and material lists of what we are doing. If you get curious go over and check it out. Since I know that I have super creative family members ( uh hem Tara and Mandy this is directed to YOU!!) I would love any ideas on things that you have seen or made that you just thought were the greatest ever! I'm always looking for a new challenge! Any how the website is www.stitchesandstaples.blogspot.com. Love you all and let me know what you think!

Shake what your Mama gave ya!!

2009-08-30T22:22:00.000-07:00

Gabby's dance recital was on the same day as Dallen's birthday as I mentioned before. I know, I still get a twitch every time I think about that day! Anyhow I have to say I was very impressed with her! We had tried practicing a couple of times at home and she just was not into it! Every time that I said to her "Gabby, let's go do your dance!" The child would slow blink me! Seriously if you have ever been on the receiving end of this from her you will know just how irritating it is! I mean how many 4 year olds do you know that can make you question your own intelligence by just sitting there and looking at you while making a blink last for 15 minutes. Seriously it's like you can see the words scrolling like ticker tape across her head. - - - You are a stupid woman if you really think that I want to do that freakin dance again!- - - Yeah so needless to say I was a little worried come recital time that she would just sit there slow blinking the entire audience with her arms folded! Well either that a run crying from the stage cause she was to nervous! Oh boy was I wrong. This little girl LOVES to be center stage. She even threw in extra little turns and steps as if the dance didn't have enough going on anyhow. All I know is that I was one proud mom! That girl has some skills! I mean we are talking serious hip action from a 4 year old! All I have to say is that she got all her best moves from me! Seriously though. . . If you have ever seen Brian dance you know that she got nothing from him. . . actually there were a couple of times I thought I saw her do his "molding the clay" move or maybe it was the "q-tip move". hmmmm.

who is ready for some updates?

2009-08-19T12:47:00.000-07:00

So ummm it's been awhile since I got on here to update everything. I would like to say that I have a better reason then being to lazy to go downstairs to download pictures to my computer to go along with the updates but. . . I don't! So this is going to have to be a huge post or maybe a bunch of not so huge ones cause we have done a ton of stuff since you last heard from us all. You will all be happy to know that Gabby has been her usual self and by that I do mean that she cried her self sick when I threw away her fly collection. Yes, you heard me right fly collection. Believe me I can hear you saying "What the crap?" from miles away. So let me elaborate slightly. . . The other day I was cleaning the bathroom and I hear Dallen shout out all excited, "Gabby, Gabby I found a fly for your commection.(it is spelled this way on purpose cause that's how he said it)" Followed shortly by Gabby's exclamation "Ahhhh Dallen you are the best brother ever! Thank you Dallen!" Naturally my interest has been sparked, Fly commection? This definately deserved some investigating. So I peek my head into Gabby's room to see her climb under her bed and pull out a ziploc bag full of dead flies. (Insert gagging and skin crawling here.) Oh yeah just one of the happy little treasures that kids spring on you. Needless to say Gabby and I had to have yet another long talk on why she can not bring live animals, dead animals, or bugs in any level of life into our house and put them in ziploc bags! How many times have we had this talk you ask? More times then any mother should have to with her little girl is my answer! So now on to more exciting things with our family. Dallen turned the big 3 in June! He was such a trooper on his birthday! We had to split the day between b-day party and Gabby's recital and a friends birthday! Oh man I'm getting all exhausted and crabby just remembering it! Grandma Hales came to the rescue in the morning and took him to Toys-R-Us (which he was very excited about cause it was a "big kid thing") and then he got to have all of his Aunts, Uncles and cousins over that night for car cake and ice cream! He was so fetching cute! But then again when isn't that boy a cutie pie? He got a super fun train set from his Cookie Grandma and us and some sports balls (he can never have enough!) golf clubs, water guns and just lots of fun stuff from his aunts and uncles and cousins. It was such a fun birthday for all of us to share with him! Now if only the next 15 birthdays would hurry up and come I could take a breather. Just kidding. . . Sort of.

Rain, Rain go away! My kids need to go outside to play!

2009-06-12T09:32:00.000-07:00

So for the past week it seems like every time I look out the window I'm looking at a downpour of rain! Which wouldn't be so bad cause I really don't mind the rain. It saves on the water bill, gives me an awesome excuse to not have to do the dreaded weeding of the massive garden, makes everything smell fresh and clean, and I get to drive Kaden to school instead of looking like Violet from Willy Wonka when she blows up like a blueberry waddling after my kids as they run screaming down the sidewalk to be the first one to the crossing guard. Yes Rain does have it's advantages, that is unless you have to try and keep the three little, and I use this term VERY loosely , angels that I have entertained. As an example of what I mean let me tell you the following story. For those who have not heard the story, Gabby has decided to become the next crocodile hunter. She finds all sorts of weird scary looking bugs in my yard and insists on naming the things like Stevie and Jhonny and then bringing them into my house so that they can "play". Well the other day I let them go outside between rain storms while I was cleaning the kitchen. After being outside for a few minutes Gabby comes to the front door all excited yelling "Mom, Mom, come and look at what I found." And what did she find you ask? Why a bird of course a hurt but very much alive little bird that she has caught and decided to bring into MY HOUSE! And the moment she sees my face and hears me telling her that she can't bring a bird in my house what do you think she does? Why she lets go of it of course. So now imagine if you can a woman of my . . . . ummm, generous size trying to sneak up on a bird so that she can catch it. Yeah not really working great. And each time that I try and catch this stupid foul thing (yes pun intended) it gets a little more scared right up to the point that I'm literally scaring the crap out of it as I am now chasing it around my upstairs yelling at it to stop pooping. Apparently I don't speak bird cause it wouldn't stop pooping. Eventually we got the bird out and I was able to shampoo all of my carpets before my sister and her family came to spend the night but needless to say I had a terrible night with horrific dreams of my family getting bird flu and we all sprouted feathers and beaks and flew around the house squawking at each other. Oh man I really need a vacation cause just now I was thinking that becoming a Toucan was sounding pretty good. At least they live somewhere warm.

Some quick updates.

2009-05-13T08:45:00.000-07:00

Ok so it's been just a bit since I did an update so I'm going to have to rush through the last couple of months here. So . . . Let's see, there was easter. That was fun. Egg hunts, candy, sugar rush. Ok next.

ummmm

Oh Gabby has been doing great in dance. They just got their costumes for recital which are very cute. Purple huge tu-tu outfits with little tiaras. Her recital is June 17th if any one would like to know. k next.

Oh yeah. We just got back from turkey hunting. SOOOOO much fun. The weather we pretty great and we all had so much fun catching everything but a turkey! We went fishing and Kaden caught the only fish. We caught several lizards and a couple of scorpions. It was the first time that we took out our little pop up trailer which I have to say I loved so much more then doing the whole tent thing! It was one of the funnest family trips that we have had so far. Here are some pics for you all.

Evil thy name is tiller!!

2009-03-25T17:08:00.000-07:00

So ever since we first looked at this house I have been DIEING to put in a garden! There is nothing that I love more then being outdoors and getting my hands dirty. Had I known however the amount of work that would be required to get the garden spot ready I may have reconsidered the size of it. I guess that you could say that I was a little over ambitious from the start. On friday we decided to have a "campout". Which I have to say was a good idea in theory. We started the evening by smoking our hotdogs over the billows of smoke that was coming out of the pine logs in our fire place mmmm yummy. And then we loaded the kids up on smores and other goodies while we watched movies in our tent trailer. Everything was going wonderful untill we all started to freeze which I guess happens when you are sleeping outside in the middle of March in the state of Utah. ( You may insert your "what were they thinking?" comments here.) So at 1:30 in the morning Brian and I dragged the kids back in to the house to see if we could all raise our body temperatures above hypothermia levels! None of this would have been so bad if we hadn't planned to till our garden first thing in the morning. So at 8am Bri ran over to South Fork hardware and picked up the tiller which from this time out will affectionately be know as Behomoth -the bringer of pain and and poor self esteem. As Brian and I mapped out where we would like to put our 400sq foot garden we figured that we would be able to have the whole project done in about 1 1/2 hours. Ha Ha Ha Ha!!! Everything started off well, Brian started to till and I followed behind him throwing out the rocks, and then something happened. . . Brian hit something . . . .BIG not once, not twice but six different times! Behomoth had unearthed Mt. Hales in our back yard. Seriously these were not just rocks they were BOULDERS!!!! Now in my minds eye I am still the teenager that can rip tree stumps out in a single pull. . . I was seriously humbled to find out that this was not so much the case anymore! Theses suckers had Brian and I wimpering like school girls trying to get them out. And it doesn't end there. To be nice I offered to do some of the tilling for Brian so that he could take a break. At the time I couldn't understand the huge smile on his face as he handed the reins over to me and went inside. Needless to say when he came back out I was being dragged around likea rag doll screaming at the tiller "Where are you going you stupid machine? WHERE ARE YOU GOING??" This was the first and the last time I will ever get behind Behomoth untill I have arms the size of a body builders and even then I will have to think long and hard about it. Needless to say after 5 hours (yes 5 not the 1.5 we had estimated) six boulders, lots of tears, and all of my pride we were finally finished and have a very nice garden spot, which Brian has informed me better pay off or else!

Big Birthday wishes!

2009-01-21T13:26:00.001-08:00

So I'm feeling older then ever so naturally I would want to get in touch with my inner child. Which would be throwing the ultimate little girl birthday tea party. Ummm so some would say that I may have gone a "little overboard" . . . just a teeny tiny bit. But I will tell you that we all had the time of our lives the young and the young at heart! Gabby wanted to have a fairy tea party so I made little fairy tu tu's and wings for all of the little girls and we had crowns and wands for everyone. It was a blast! I don't know who had more fun at this party! But I think that it was a close one between the mom's and the kids. I'm so excited to have a little girl that plays Barbis with her mom and thinks that it is cool. I hope that lasts for a long, long time!

2009-01-21T13:05:00.000-08:00

K so I know that I have alot of catching up to do. So here we go. Christmas 2008 was a great one for us. We went to Cookie Grandpa and Grandma's house the week before Christmas and spent some time with all of my family which was Definately one of my top 3 favorites things to get to do for the holidays. My second favorite thing was that Brian got the kids a puppy. When they opened her we didn't quite get the reaction that we expected at first. I think that they were not really sure what to say. Once they realized that she was their dog they totally freaked! The decided to name her Christmas a.k.a Crissy which I thought was a great idea. We had to eventually put the puppy downstairs to get the kids to open their other presents. We then went over to Brian's parents and spent the afternoon there with his family just relaxing. It was a perfect day! My 3rd favorite thing was the we got to be the "pit stop" for traveling family. I LOVE having family stay with us so of course I was incredibly excited to have my Aunt and Uncle stay with us on their was to Washington and then to also get to have Mandy, Tyler, and their crew ( which now includes my awesome little bro Jake) stay with us! The only down side was that they could all only stay for one night. Needless to say I was happy to get exactly what I wanted for Christmas time with all of the people that I love. . . Well that and a Cricuit!!

2008-11-15T14:02:00.000-08:00

8 TV shows I love to watch:

1. The Office It makes me giggle ( That's what she said)

2. Sanctuary

3. HGTV

4. DIY Network

5. Dirty Jobs

6. Food network

7. CSI

8. Scooby Doo ( I know I have never grown up)

My Favorite 8 Restaurants

1. Good Wood.

2. The Magik Wok

3. Melting Pot (once every 5 years is all I can afford though)

4. Sweet Tomatoes

5. Famous Dave's

6. Braza Grill

7. Godfather's pizza

8. My Mom's house. Her food is as good as most restaurants, sometimes better.

8 Things that Happened Yesterday.

1. Painted my T.V. Room and put molding around my "fire place cornor"

2. Killed a black widow in Brian's side of the closet ( not my favorite thing from the day)

3. Read the Land Of Elyon to the kids

4. Deep cleaned my entire house! HURRAY! I love a clean house.

5. Folded laundry, but only one basket cause I hate to do laundry!

6. Went to dinner for Kaden's birthday

7. Finished Reading the first book in the Work and the Glory.

8. Watched Sanctuary

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To

1. Thanks Giving with Mandy and Tyler

2.Going to IF around Christmas

3. My Aunt and Uncle going through the temple

4. Dallen being potty trained. I'm so ready to be done with diapers.

5. Brian being done with school

6. Brian being home from his trip.

7.Christmas being over with

8. Painting the last ugly rooms in my house.

8 Things On My Wishlist

1. That all of my children will stay active in the church ( sorry Mandy I'm coppying you too)

2. For a Dyson vaccum. I'm so tired of vaccums that don't suck.

3. That we could pay off the van and the house and the student loans.

4. That Brian wouldn't have to travel for his job anymore

5. That I could get down to a healthy weight without giving up brownies

6. That the cleaning fairy would visit my house everyday

7. That I could learn to say the word no to certain people

8. for a blender that will not break.

8 People I Tag: Whoever wants to do this...

A wicked witch and here little monsters live here!

2008-11-03T16:02:00.001-08:00

I am constantly reminded how lucky I am to have the family that I have! We went to Idaho Falls for halloween this year which is a first for us in the 7 years that we have been married. The kids were so excited that we have been counting down for the past month so when it was finally time to pack up the car and go I was excited by the fact that I didn't have to answer the question "How many more days till we go to Cookie Grandma's?" For those of you who don't know this is my FAVORITE holiday! And yes I do mean FAVORITE there is no such thing as a small halloween production at our place so it was very different to go to someone elses place for halloween. I have quickly realized that I'm the only one of my siblings who feels this way about this holiday. As an example I will relate a Kaden story. On Friday my Mom went downstairs while the kids were getting their costumes on and getting all hyped up for trick or treating and the carnival. My Mom as her usual had on a halloween sweatshirt and black pants "her costume" (insert eye roll) She asked Kaden what he was going to be for halloween which he replied that he was going to be the Hulk. Kaden then asked grandma what she was going to be for halloween. Grandma pointed to her shirt and Kaden looked at here with on obvious look of disgust and said "So you are just going to be lame then?"

I will admit with no shame at all that this was a phrase learned directly from me and I couldn't be prouder that I have passed on my love for this day, I may however have to tell Kaden that it might not be such a good thing to tell his grandmother that she is lame. hmmm ;)

By popular demad. . . random thoughts by Kaden!

2008-10-15T10:09:00.000-07:00

OK So most of you are I'm sure aware of Kaden's talent of saying the most off the wall things in the most unexpected moments. Well everyone keeps telling me that I should write them all down so Walla! I'm posting the random thoughts by Kaden section. there is no telling how often this will be updated considering it will be dependent on the brain of a rather spontaneous 5 year old. There may be some days that I have to update it several times. Kaden can really get on a roll. And I may have to go for a week or so without touching it you never know! It's like a pleasant little surprise that you never know when it will show up. I hope that you enjoy! I know that we never stop laughing at our place!