At my expense..

A couple of days ago I sat down to type this blog when as soon as I typed the title some trauma developed in our house. In all the hype of thus said trauma I accidently hit the publish button and unfortunately until now I have not been able to have a quiet moment to blog. So here is what I was going to blog about on tuesday and Ben has anxiously awaited (monday he asked how my day was and I just gave him the "don't even ask or I may not be able to stay calm" look.). Definitely a blog worthy day!
Monday when I got home from work I was exhausted from lack of sleep and thought that a day of running errands was just what I needed to keep moving and stay awake. First on the list was a new remote from comcast because a couple of weeks ago ours died and heaven forbid if I had to get up to change the channel again- although I got pretty good at using the cable box buttons for using the dvr which I didn't know what half those buttons were for. Anyways we were successful at the comcast place and then headed over to the Harbor Freight tool store in search of something to unclog the downstairs toilet which has been clogged longer than the comcast remote has been broken! It's all priorities my friends! So again I hauled all three kids into the store and down the plumbing aisle. Way too many toys for kids to keep hands to themselves- I should have known this. I found kinda what I wanted- a snake to unclog drains but it wasn't a toilet one. So if you've ever seen one of these it's a thick metal wire(for lack of a better description) that winds up in a plastic disc like thing and the wire comes out on one side and theres a crank handle on the other side of this disc. Well while I was searching for something that might better suit our purpose, Riley decided to figure out the snake thing. Before I could catch him he had pulled out about 4 or 5 inches and handed it to me to fix. I have never worked one of these things but thought turning the handle one way would make it come out and surely turning it the other way would make it go in. Oh HOW I WISH THIS WAS TRUE!!! The second I tried to crank it about a foot of the snake shoots out, so I try again and this time about 3 more feet shoots out and you know since I'm such a slow learner I thought sure enough one more crank would do the job .... and it did- the entire snake shot out of the disc emptying about thirty feet of wire on the floor where it hit with a loud crash! Immediately I made the Oh MY GOSH face and looked up- directly down the aisle were TWO harbor freight employees looking at me as if to say "What in the world is that crazy lady doing!".
All I could do was shrug and mouth the words help- because of course I was speechless and embarrassed. Also by then the kids had huddle down by Owens carseat for shelter from the snake thing which made it look even more like the whole thing was because of some dumb lady! Of course the employees came to help although the one didn't look too happy. I apologized about a hundred times and they were able to return the snake to the shelves a few minutes later for some other poor soul to buy. So in this situation do you run out of the store with three kids running beside you? (Which to me basically admits that I had no place in a tool store! Which I am tool savvy- right Ben?) Or do you stay and look around pretending you have other tools to purchase. I did the latter and actually found a new tire for our wheelbarrow! See, I belong in a tool store -not just home depot!!!! Anyways I always tell Ben- kids are kids and they are not out to "get" you. This day I begged to differ and may (only may) never say this again. One day my kids will get a good laugh at this story at my expense!

Beginning...middle...end...

We survived! What a crazy spring break! I think we all had a lot of fun but everything was so unpredictable- especially the weather. The pictures pretty much tell the story.
This is how the BEGINNING of spring break started-beautiful weather, the blossoms were full and the kids could play outside on Monday. So nice compared to the previous week.


Tuesday was rainy-yuck the kids were not happy- and little did we know how the MIDDLE -wednesday would look- yup snow - alot of snow- for about a 1/2 second I thought about sending them all out to play and then poof the thought was gone and unspoken and the kids suprisingly didn't even ask- I think the snow was very, very old news!


Luckily thursday things started to look up-kinda. After taking Owen in to the doctors Wednesday night for a high fever (has his first ear infection- poor guy!) we were all looking forward to heading down town to Salt Lake. Ben's convention was being held at the Radisson this year and luckily he was able to get 2 adjoining rooms reserved for us. The kids spent most of the time at the indoor pool while we were there. Friday we headed to temple square and actually were able to see a few things that were new to us. Of course we had to go to the church history museum- the kids love this place! Thank goodness they get excited about the gospel and the history even if it's just to get dressed up, or push the display buttons and to watch movies, they were happy-except Owen -ear infection was rough on all of us! After Temple Square Ben had lunch with us at the Gateway and then back to the hotel for Ben to do one quick thing and then again to the pool- this time with Ben. The kids had a lot more fun with Ben swimming with them- I wonder Why?! Anyways dinner at mcdonalds where we scored free dessert since 4 of our burgers were made wrong! yeah for us! The kids were exhausted and so was I (hotel beds aren't the most comfortable anyways and yet I slept most of the nights in an arm chair with Owen! Yuck!) so we headed back to the hotel and crashed. Saturday Ben was off for a busy day and the kids convinced me to let them go swimming one more time. Why not, it's free and I really didn't look forward to hanging out at home all day without Ben again.





So not a really eventful spring break but it was nice to see Ben since usually we don't see him at all during convention and I think it was nice for him to have us around to take his breaks with. So the END of spring break we had nice weather again and the kids played the rest of the day outside. So yes I survived spring break( i think I need a t shirt that says this on the front and on the back it should say without my husband!) and Owen is finally my happy guy again. Thank goodness- I need some sleep!

Date night

Friday night the boys meaning Ben, Ethan, Jake, and Riley had the chance to go to the Utah Valley University game courtesy of Fox Hollow. Tickets were handed out last week after an assembly and each day the boys would bring home another ticket a friend would not need. We ended up with 9 tickets- how many kids do they think are in our family??? Anyways Jocelyn had still needed easter shoes(yes a little last minute -I know!) so we made plans to head to Target and a list of other stores knowing Target would probably be out of shoes-as always, anyways Jocelyn was not too fond of this idea- I was surprised. What girl would not want a pair of new shoes? So when I say Jocelyn wasn't fond of the idea, fond as in all out crying huge crocodile tears and hanging on Ben every chance she got. I was speechless- seriously I wanted a new pair of shoes and she was trying to avoid it!!!! For weeks she has talked about seeing the new Hannah Montana movie and I had promised her that just the two of us would go see it together. So I resisted all feelings of panic over the lack of Easter shoes and the boys and girls went their separate ways. I honesty thought the movie would be sold out but we lucked out and let me just say I was so glad we went. Jocelyn could not stop smiling. It was the cutest thing ever- she would try so hard not to smile but in the end she was just beaming. The movie was CUTE! The music was fun although Jocelyn refused to get up and dance- still she had that cute smile on the whole time. Not to mention for once she got her own popcorn and soda. She informed me the top half of the popcorn bag was mine and the rest of it was hers-I couldn't figure out how she thought she could eat my top half as well as hers. I couldn't help but think of all the future occasions the two of us would be able to share and my heart was just so full. She was just so fun to hang out with. We had a great night and so did the boys- the Flash won their game and the boys were even able to score free noise makers. The next day Jocelyn came up to me while I was making breakfast and said "Mom, that movie was great!"-Priceless!

Too much fun....

So the last couple of weeks have just been completely filled for us, hence the reason of no blogging, and actually there are a million things I could be doing right now but thoughts and pictures and milestones are piling up in my head and in our camera so hold on, this may be a gigantic blog.
March ended with the beginning of soccer season for Ethan- a very cold beginning! I think it was 40 degrees-gloves and hats required. What a way to play soccer. Jocelyn and Riley didn't seem to mind the cold and enjoyed being outside for a change.



April began with the all anticipated Pine Wood Derby. The boys have been working hard for a couple of months and with all that hard work and a book of secrets the boys did pretty well this year. It was Jakes first official year to race. He has always made one along side Ethan just to race for fun but this year he's official. Ethan received third place and Jake came in fifth and with the sportiest car. They were both happy and have started to devise plans and tricks for next years race.



Ethan turned ten-yes ten! Oh my! What a weird thing to say when people ask how old my oldest is. We woke up to 2 inches of snow and a blizzard and Ethan had a soccer game!- luckily they cancelled. As if the week before was cold enough I couldn't imagine soccer in a blizzard! Thus began the day of birthday fun. This year Ethan picked golden corral for his birthday dinner-although we went for lunch since I worked that night. Just before lunch though we headed to toys r us so Ethan could spend his birthday money from grandma Allen- more pokemon cards. After lunch we headed to see monster vs alien in 3D. It was so fun. The movie was just ok but the 3D was what made it worth it. The kids were entertaining to watch as well. They kept ducking and reaching out when things came towards them. What a full and fun birthday. Ethan received a new squirt gun and lego indiana jones for the PS2. He was very excited! He wasn't sure what to think when he opened his present to find a picture of the game (I ordered it just over a week before his birthday which obviously wasn't early enough) So 4 painstaking days later, it arrived and has been played a ton since.


Conference sunday we headed to my moms for an easter egg hunt and dinner with Ethans birthday cake for dessert. After golden Corrall the day before, no one could even think about cake or any other food either! So we decide to do cake a day later at moms. This year he picked an alien cake and this is what I came up with- not too bad. The kids had fun playing soccer and egg hunting and just hanging out with cousins.





Owen officially started sitting up and somedays really hates it. He would rather roll around and be moving.


Easter started out a little less spiritual than I would have liked. I got home late from a very very long night at work and Helped Ben and the boys get to church while Jocelyn and I finished getting ready. I really hate being late to church but Easter sunday! That's just the worst!- oh well, not as bad as falling asleep in relief society- Mary if you read this, the beginning of your lesson was great and the testimonies at the end were wonderful I just wish I could've heard more of your lesson! Falling asleep in no way was a reflection of your lesson. I probably would have fallen asleep during sunday school also but it just so happened I was walking the halls with Owen. I guess I'm just lucky I made it to church at all. After church we ate a small lunch and the kids each got their easter baskets. It was fast sunday so we told the boys we would hold off candy until after church.
They seemed pretty relieved to not have the temptation of breaking their fast. Jake even said it would be hard to watch the little kids eat candy so everyone waited till after church. After a quick nap and a visit from mom and scott we sat down for the Easter dinner Ben had prepared complete with yams, mashed potatoes, and ham. He did great! What a great husband to do all that and let me sleep.
So now I just need to get Ben and our family through convention week which happens to be spring break- which translates into- we're not going anywhere and we'll be lucky to see Ben at all this week! ARRGGHHH! I'm going to have to get pretty creative this week for all of our sanity sake! I'm just looking forward to some time when things will slow down a bit- just a bit.