My Blogging Absence

I must apologize and explain why I haven't been blogging. These last couple months have been very stressful. I am taking a college course and that has taken up a lot of time. I didn't realize doing that with kids would be soo hard!
We also found out that we are going to be having another baby! This one is due May 11th. So I have been dealing with feeling SUPER tired and sick...needless to say I haven't been in a blogging mood. I am now in the second trimester so hopefully I will start to feel better soon, and I can start blogging again! Yeah!
So thanks everyone for understanding.

Brian writes kids books?

Many of you probably didn't know, but it's true, I write books for children. So far haven't been published, but I'd like take care of that in the near future. I just finished a writing a story that I'd love some honest feedback on. The book was written for children under 6 years of age. It's on my book writing blog. So go to the site, mark it as a favorite (tell your friends if you'd like) and let me know what you think.

Brian

Quick Update

Three growing boys!! Three words: busy, busy, busy! Kaden has fully discovered stairs. He gets up them quick as lightening. Sometimes he comes down just as fast...
Zach's birthday is Sunday, he'll be ten! I can't believe that he is getting that old. Spencer has been using the word MINE a lot more. I am afraid for when he turns three. He is getting a lot more vocal, and that doesn't mean that he is using words more!
One thing that brings me comfort is the Lord is on my side. I know I could NOT do this without His help.

HOPE

Today was the funeral for Scarlett Hope Gamel. On Thursday the 10th my friend lost her little baby girl (3 months old) to SIDS. Honestly it has been a rough week for me...not as rough as it has been for Scarlett's mother though. I want to badly to take the pain away, but I know that I can't and that that is an unwise wish. She was such a sweet and beautiful little girl. I am so thankful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Without the understanding that comes with it I would be lost. I kow that all she needed was a body...she was able to spend a few short months here with her mommy and daddy. What a great gift that was. She will continue to bless them and guide them from where she is now. She is in the best place that she could possibly be.
"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child does submit to [her] father." (Mosiah 3:19, Book of Mormon)

This child is with her Father in Heaven. We need to emulate those child like qualities that she had in abundance if we want to live with our Heavenly Father.

Bobcat in the giraffe exhibit!

We went to the zoo last week and as we walked by the giraffes I noticed that there was a bobcat loose in their exhibit. Luckily all the giraffes were unharmed.

New Blog!

I have just started my new blog! It will be about all the children's books that I am reading for my Children's Lit class. I know that it has been a struggle for me to find books that I know are good or that Spencer will like. So hopefully this blog will help! Check it out!
www.comealongandread.blogspot.com

I wanted to ask everyone's opinion. I am currently taking an online class: "Children's Literature." I really like it so far! I get to read all these cool kids books! So one of my friends suggested that I should do a blog to go along with my class. So I started thinking about it and that sounded like a pretty fun idea. I'm not sure exactly what would go in it, just book reviews or other stuff....I'm not sure I'll have to think about it. But I wanted to know what you guys thought about that. Is it a good idea? Is it something that you all would be interested in. I've already read some books that a really do like.
I know before I took this class it was a struggle to go to the library because I had NO clue what were the "good" books. I didn't want to get a book that was boring or just plain stupid! That is one of the reason I took this class.
So anyway let me know what you think!

So I guess this is how my children view my dinner meals. I made a fabulous cheesey chicken potato skillet!! Yummm! I would think that even my 2 year old would like that!

No! I was wrong. Kaden did eat some, but I guess it didn't do it for him because he then stopped eating my food, and begun eating the highchair straps. He had some hanging out of his mouth and was chewing on the rest. He blames it on teething, but I know better!

Spencer on the other had didn't even bother with trying to sooth my feelings by eating some, he decided that dry, uncooked oatmeal was WAY better then the food that mommy cooked!

It was odd watching him with a measuring cup scooping up the oats and "slurping" them up! "Sigh!" Oh, my children! I should have some interesting diapers after this dinner!

Charla, my sister came to visit from Utah with her husband Sterling and their little boy Brayton. It was so much fun to hang out with them and to see the cousins playing together! They all really enjoyed the pool. They stayed for about 5 days and I miss them already.

This is my other sister Andrea....she got thirsty....;).
She is such a wonderful role model for her nephews...mmm pool water.

Poop....yes Poop!

So I know this probably isn't kosher to talk about but Kaden had the nastiest diaper today. I have never seen one like it so I had to blog about it. Needless to say he exploded....he exploded all the way up to his shoulders and the tops of his arms....ewwww!!! I tried to take his clothes off without smearing everthing (kind of succeeded in that) and then I plopped him into the bathtub. So I thought everthing was cleaned up but while Brian was putting Spencer to bed this evening he bent down to get a book to read and....yes there was a big glob of poop on the book! To make it worse...it was a library book! Don't worry we sanitized it and it didn't get on any pages, but gross! Now everytime I get a book from the library I'm going to wonder if some kid pooped on it!

Kaden loves his food!

Our Super Duper Denver Trip

So Brian had the day off on Friday so we decided to take the train downtown. This was Spencer's first real train ride. He loved it!! It was a last minute trip so we had nothing planned. It was actually really fun. We took it to Union Station and walked around 16th Street Mall and then found a park and walked around. It was a ton of fun! I will be doing this again. Sometimes it is just so much more fun to not plan your little adventure trips. My sister Andrea and I used to do this, we would just start driving and taking random turns and see where we would end up. We found a favorite hiking area that way.

Here we are at Commons Park. Spencer and Brian are being "Strong Men."

In our journey downtown we explored the Platte River. Did you know there is a place to swim right on the river! I don't know how clean it is but we let our kids go in anyway!

Hiccups and anger don't mix

About a week ago Spencer had the hiccups. He got angry about something and started trying to say "NO!", but all that would come out was "Nnnnnnn-hiccup....Nnnnnnnn-hiccup....Nnnnnn-hiccup....Nnnnnoooooo!" Priceless.

Setting the Table

Thank you Laurie for the great idea! We have started a chore chart for Spencer and one of his chores is to help set the table. So I made this placemat with all place setting things on it. Spencer had fun sticking stickers all over, so now all I have to do is get it laminated and also make three more; for brian, me, and zach! I may not be done with this project for a few weeks....

Random

Isn't Kaden just super cute! He is my jolly boy.
This is our first salad out of our garden! It was very yummy. Yeah for being healthy....sometimes.

The Cherry Creek Lake

Rainy Day Summer Fun!

It's summer time!! So that means no school! So Zach is here for the week!! Yesterday he got ALL the pillows in the house and built a super cool fort! He slept in it last night and will probably be sleeping there the rest of the week. Then this morning Zach let Spencer and Kaden play with him in the fort. Spencer loved it...Kaden really didn't notice. But I'm sure if he were older he would love it too. Aren't kids fun. When was the last time any of us built a fort. I know all I think about is having to clean it up if I were to build one. Adults worry too much.

I know it's been raining for it seems like forever, but I love it! It saves me from having to water the garden. I love the sound of rain and the smell, and I love the lightening and thunder that sometimes comes with it! Brian thinks I'm nuts when I get all excited and rush outside to watch the lightening. Maybe I am.
....Spencer just got up AGAIN! So much for me time. Well I hope everyone who has rain is enjoying it. Remember at least around here it will be gone and dry by the middle of July and then it will just be hot hot hot!
Sorry, random thought: does anyone ever use the Webdings font?? Hey everyone, happy friday!
Did anyone get that sentence?

Golf anyone?

We had a pretty awesome hail & tornado storm come by our neighborhood on Sunday. The tornado ended up about 10 minutes from our house, but I found a few of these in my yard.

Long, thin, slimey ones...

Isn't that one of the best parts about blogging; coming up with some clever title for your post. Anyhow...

A couple weeks ago, walking to work after a morning storm, I happened to look down and saw the biggest worm I've ever seen. Whatever that food is next too the worm looks pretty good too.

Eating at our expense!

There is something eating our lettuce and spinach plants!!
I've been looking and looking for any sign of bug or animal...I can't find any! Maybe I don't know what to look for. Our spinach is not too bad (maybe it doesn't like spinach), but our lettuce is getting eaten to bits. We have five rows and they all are being munched on!
I think we are going to try some homemade pesticide and see what happens.

Bolder Boulder 2009

Jaci and Zach are pumped! We had a fun drive all the way up. No one was grumpy at all, or super sleepy! Zach surprised us all...we ditched us and took off with Jared (soon to be uncle jared) and beat Brian and I by a minute! He is a stud!

These pictures are of our beautiful, no sweaty selves "running" the race. Brian was so nice and stayed with me during the whole thing. What a fantastic husband!

Here is Tiffany and me and some smiling half naked girl....what is she trying to make us look bad! Just because we're not dressed like here doesn't mean we can't...we just didn't want to...it was too cold.

These are the people that were in our wave....oh, I forgot to mention, we finish it in 1 and 1/2 hours! Yeah!