I love peas!

No kidding! Fresh garden peas are one of my favorite things. This year since it was so cool I was able to get peas planted-at least 4 packages. So we have a million peas. I didn't even care if nothing else grew. I just wanted peas. Although everything we planted has done well, even among all the weeds that I don't have the energy to pull. I made the boys pick peas one day so we could have fresh peas for dinner-they had a lot of fun shelling them with Jocelyn and Riley. It didn't take Riley long to realize there were peas to pick and eat. He's pretty cute. He finds a pod and points and makes some weird noise(not sure what he's saying) and if I say yes he picks it. If I say no, he moves on until I say yes. It's pretty funny. His tummy has been full of otter pops and peas each afternoon for the past few days. Yum!

Summer fun has begun!

Finally it's summer. The weather is hot and the kids are bored. Luckily we've been able to keep busy. Our swing set was intsalled a few weeks ago and the kids have loved it. Jocelyn loves to swing and constantly asks to be pushed higher even though she can go no higher. Riley has learned to climb the ladder well and also learned that a hot slide on a bare tummy is not good. Ethan and Jake have their friends over a lot and everyone is entertained. It has been wonderful!
The kids and I made a trip into Salt Lake one day-last minute- I forgot my wallet at work!!! Anyways the kids wanted to go to the church museum and how could I say no-it's free. We had a picnic lunch and a short trip to the Gateway to shop. Although it was pretty cool that day, the kids played in the fountains and had a good time.
How can it be summer without a few snakes being caught and also ran over by the lawn mower. The neighbor found a snake and let Ethan have it-Ethan took it to a field down the street and let it go. Funny thing is yesterday it had returned or maybe it was his brother. I almost stepped on it!-bare foot!!! I screamed so loud. Ethan again got hold of it but couldn't get it out of the weeds. So now I carefully inspect the back porch each time I go outside. yeah I know pretty pathetic Huh?
For the past couple of months every time we go to walmart Jocelyn rides the same barbie bike and says "maybe one day huh mom?" So we finally bought it for her only because her b-day is in October and by then it's too late. It had to be this barbie bike because of the small barbie bike on the handle bars for her barbie to ride along. She needs a little more practice but does pretty well.
One of the things our family has started to look forward to each summer is Strawberry Days in Pleasant Grove. The kids walk in the kids parade and get a ticket to the rodeo,a ticket for a free carnival ride, and a popcicle. This year we decorated their scooters and the wagon. Lakota crashed hard on her scooter and less than 2 minutes later Riley fell out of the wagon! What a rough parade. We headed for the rodeo after the parade. Mom and dad met us there and Ben's mom went also. She was in town for Bonnie's sealing. It was fun-we only made it half way though. Riley is just a little too young to sit still and I'm just a little too pregnant. So we went home. It had been a long day. The next night was the carnival and more strawberries and cream. It was all worth it for strawberries and cream! So summer has begun and so far has been fun-tiring but fun.

Summer Fieldtrip

What time is it? Summertime-but not really. The weather has been anything but summery. We have only reached in the 90's for 2 days and that was when the kids were still in school. Bummer! So yesterday it rained pretty much all day and by dinnertime I was ready to runaway. Unfortunately Ben had young mens so I couldn't go anywhere. So today with the weather rainy again I decided there was no way we could stay home again. After a quick orthodontist appt the kids and I all loaded up, gave Laura 10 Mins. notice and met her and her kids at Krispy Kreme doughnuts. The kids love this place! They get to watch the process of making doughnuts and then of course they get to pick which yummy doughnut to eat. The kids actually spent a lot of time watching the doughnuts cooking and at one point everyone including Riley were chanting "Fall,fall,fall". At the end of the conveyor belt the worker puts the fresh doughnuts on a tray, sometimes she would walk away and the doughnuts would get close to the end of the line. Somehow she always knew when to return much to the dismay of the kids. They had a lot of fun and it was good to do something different. On the way home we stopped at Ben's work and delivered him his favorite kind of doughnuts, lemon and raspberry filled. What a great lunch! It's now no longer raining and hopefully it will be dry tomorrow-they come to set up our swing set-the kids are so excited and I can't wait either. The summer has begun- a little wet but I'm not upset the cooler the better for this pregnant girl!

What were the chances...Really!

Today was our big 20 week ultrasound. In the past this has never been a big deal considering that I can get a free look at the baby whenever I want-the perks of working in the x-ray dept. This time was no different. We already knew what the sex was. At around 16 weeks I had a scan to check the sex-not sure if I really wanted to know- I had the tech write it down so that I could decide with Ben if we were going to find out what it was. Well in the past I have always found out first and told Ben after the fact. This time I wanted Ben to know first, so I let him read it first. I kinda already knew what it was because it took the tech 1 second to go "oh". Not hard to miss boy parts. Yes, another boy!!! At first I was a little disappointed but realized no matter what I love my boys, they are fun, energetic, and are definately boys!! Jocelyn was perfectly fine with another brother. Maybe she's too young yet to realize the fun of having a sister. Growing up with sisters has some perks. But now as a mom, there are very few days that my sister and I don't talk, and laugh, and cry about motherhood. I'm sad Jocelyn will not have that. Maybe she will call me when she is a mom and we will be just as close. Anyways the boys are thrilled, of course, and I will have lots of rough housing, cars, legos, starwars, loud body functions that boys think are funny, a lot of smelly socks to wash, tons of food to buy when they are all teenagers, and 4 possibly 5 missions to pay for. Wow! Oh and 1 wedding for the princess. We are happy the baby is healthy and can't wait for him to be born. We're not sure about a name it was hard enough to name Riley, as for now BABY BOY ALLEN!

We're back!

This is the year we decided to finally take a vacation somewhere other than Washington. We had been promising the kids for a couple of years that we would one day go to disneyland. In January we thought this is the year. So plans were made(before I knew I was pregnant),quarters started being earned for souveniers,and a paper chain count down was made. Before I knew it April was here and luckily I was feeling better-tired but better. We drove down and endured a millions "are we there yet?" and started a crazy and busy week. We had so much fun! The kids loved going from ride to ride and luckily we never waited more than 15 mins. Ethan started out going on everything but then decide some rides were just too scary. Jocelyn did the same thing. On the first day she rode everything even splash mountain, but by the second day she started asking "Is it dark?" and "Will I get wet?". She was still a good sport and really liked A bugs land. She especially loved the princess lunch just the two of us had. She was able to meet quite a few Princesses. Jake rode everything except for the big california screamin. He really liked the tower of terror and the pirates rides. Riley just loved everything. There was actually a lot that he could go on. I think nemos submarine and the buzz rides were his fav. He was the most animated on those. The kids loved picking out their souveniers. They had worked long and hard doing chores to collect quarters and it paid off. They each had 40 bucks! Ethan bought legos, Jake bought a star wars gun and legos. Jocelyn of course picked out jewelry and Riley of course got buzz lightyear stuff. One of the best things was that as part of their Year of Dreams at Disney land we won an hour at the park after it closed to ride any of the rides we wanted. This part was unforgettable for the kids-no lines . We rode the carosel 3 times in a row because Jocelyn kept seeing a different sea creature she just had to ride. Ben got to ride cal screamin 3 xs without a wait also. So us and a few other chosen were let loose to ride the rides with no wait.Needless to say we were disneyed out by friday so most of the day was spent at Huntington beach and then back to Disneyland for the fireworks. I am so glad we decided to go to Disneyland. It was crazy,a lot of work but so much fun! and now to still hear the kids talk about it is just priceless. They have already talked about next time. Not for a while and definately not when I'm pregnant!

Happy Happy Birthday!

What a day! I can't believe Ethan is 9 years old! Ethan arrived home from school and was suprised by a large sign and balloons in the front yard. He was so excited to see that I was making his request of a space rocket cake come true (blue and red with a monkey or dog in the window) because everyone knows a monkey and dog were the first life forms sent into space. Only Ethan would want to be so specific and acurate. His love of science shows up in every part of his childhood.
He was so excited to recieve the book he requested-Fablehaven and since that was the only thing he said he wanted- I had to come up with somethingelse. A 9 year old shouldn't just get a book for thier Birthday. So after a trip to Toys R Us and searching the science section, I decided on the eye clopse. I'm so glad I got this toy. It is so cool! For those of you who do not know about this thing- it is like a microscope that hooks up to your tv and magnifies anything you can find onto the tv screen. We started out with stuffed animals and hair and Ethan tried my arm-Which is never allowed again for the finding was a very small mole made very big and ugly on our tv. Yuck! The best thing was a couple of spiders I found but Ethan caught. Jocelyn and I couldn't even watch the tv-two hairy legs were all you could see. It's been a lot of fun. He had a great day- his choice of dinner-Little Caesars pizza, renting his own movie,cake, and presents. The only thing missing was Ben who was at his annual ForeverGreen convention. We didn't see much of Ben that week. Ethan didn't seem to mind too much although he wants to go to the movies with Ben since "Dad missed my birthday and I missed him".

Unexpected Cuteness

Just really quick-the boys are coming home from school any minute and the world seems to stop for homework,snacks and piano practicing. So last night Ben was gone forever at young mens and finally at ten I decided to head to bed. So it fell upon me to turn off the computer and I'm so happy I did. This is what I found...

I had let Jocelyn play games at playhouse disney.com while I made dinner and at some point she used photo booth to do some modeling. It's time like these that I realize how smart a 3 year old can be and how incredibly cute kids are. I couldn't help but laugh and smile all the way to bed.