New Callings

Well...we have successfully avoided getting callings in our ward up until this week. Nate was very sad to leave his old calling as the Young Men's President. He really loved those boys and he had such a good time with them. He is now a Ward Missionary and he is looking forward to that. I have just been put in as the Beehive advisor. I think Heavenly Father knows that I am needing a little female interaction in my life since I am surrounded by BOYS all day long! I am looking forward to getting to know the girls and spending time with all of the awesome YW leaders.

Fish and fun!

Nate is out of town playing golf for his annual "attorney outing" so we've been trying to stay busy while he has been gone. I guess I should admit....I am basically wearing the boys out during the day so they will go to bed early for me!! haha. Today we went to Municipal Park with Nikki and her 2 boys. The boys loved seeing the fish and playing at the park.

More new house pics

Everyone keeps asking to see more pictures of our new house so HERE IT IS!!! It's still a work in progress.These are some of the rooms that are done or almost done.

First off is Dallin's sports room. Its so hard to get a picture of the whole room. Landon's crib is on the other side.

This is the boy's jungle bathroom.

Here is Parker's "surfing monkey" room. He really is a monkey so the theme here is quite fitting.

Here is our bedroom. 6 1/2 years of marriage and this is our first bedroom set! Hooray! The armoir is on the opposite wall.

Here is our master bathroom. 2 sinks in our bathroom has reduced the stress level in our home tenfold. Especially on Sunday mornings!
Last week we got our backyard lawn and sprinklers put in! This weekend the fence goes up. Hallelujah is all I have to say! These boys keep escaping out the back and getting into the dirt so i am THRILLED the fence will be up soon! And yes..that is Parker in the back with no pants on.
The best part of the house is probably the view from our front porch. I LOVE just sitting back in my rocking chairs and watching the boys play.

So...there you go! We still have lots to do but everything else will have to wait! Time to start saving again!

Weekend Recap

Hooray! I found the camera. What a relief! It was in Nate's jeep under the seat. It must have fallen out of my purse on the way over to my Dad's birthday party. Phew!

Now I can post pictures from last weekend! Dallin had a great time at Chuck E Cheese with all of his friends from preschool. We also had lots of fun playing miniature golf with the whole fam (except for Yamo of course!).

We wore Parker out big time. I have never seen him fall asleep hanging off of the couch before! We were all tired after such a busy weekend but it's always fun being able to spend time with the family.

O where, O where can it be??

It's so ironic that a couple of posts ago I was writing about how I almost lost my camera and during the course of this CRAZY busy weekend...I think I really did lose it. I have searched the whole house...through toy bins, under couches and beds and its nowhere to be found. I am SOOO upset becuase it has all of Dallin's pictures from his birthday party from Thursday and all of my Dad's suprise 50th birthday pictures from Saturday. Hopefull we'll find it soon...I am going absolutely crazy wondering where it could be! We did have a very fun weekend. We took Dad to breakfast, spent the day at Boondocks playing miniature golf and driving race cars and then we had a party for him over at Smokey Mountain Pizza with a bunch of his friends. Nat and Robby came up and brought their little puppy "Minnie." I am not sure how it happend, but we have been persuaded into buying Minnie's sister. My sister and I will have sister puppies...how cute! She will be joining our family in a couple of weeks once we get down to Utah to pick her up. The boys (including Nate) are SO excited about having a dog. She is REALLY cute...but I do have my concerns. Another creature to feed and clean up after...agghh! What was I thinking when I agreed to this??!

Minnie is the one in the middle. We will be getting one of the other pups. They all look the same!

My Dallin is 5!!!

5 years ago today, Dallin Nathan Starnes was born! I can't believe I am seriously the mom of a 5 year old! I keep thinking about that night when the nurse handed me this little boy and how ovwerwhelmed and scared I was. My life changed forever as I realized what life is all about and what pure and unconditional love feels like. Dallin has such an inquisitive mind and I love experiencing life through his eyes each day. You mean the world to me Dallin and I love you with ALL my heart!

Dallin's Favorites at Five....

favorite toys-his fire truck, matchbox cars, play dough, BIG balls

favorite movies- Curious George, Monster's Inc, Toy Story

favorite songs- any song by Tim MaGraw (he has the whole "Greatest Hits cd memorized!)

favorite games-memory, jumpin monkeys, wormy apples

favorite foods- pizza, apples, go-gurts

favorite books- Dick and Jane, Green Eggs and Ham, Click Clack Moo

joys- playing with friends, doing "homework" (his math and writing books), riding his scooter, playing at the park

Discovery Center

After a week and a half we finally made it back over to the Discovery Center today. I checked online to MAKE SURE it was open this time! The boys had a good time. I will admit..its not nearly as much fun as the Children's Museum down in Utah. O well...every time I go to the D.C. its definitely a trip down memory lane. A lot of the stations are the same exact ones I remember playing with when I was in elementary school!







After that, we went over to feed the ducks. It was the most perfect day. 68 degrees and sunny. The boys were disappointed when only one duck came over and didn't even eat the popcorn we threw to him. I told them to hang on for a minute and then all of the sudden about 30 geese came flying over from the other side of the pond! They were loving it after that! We drove all the way home when I realized my camera was no where to be found. We got right back in the car and drove all the way back to the park. It was sitting right where we had been...next to the pond. It must have fallen out of the stroller right after this picture was taken. Good thing we went back....this picture was worth it! (And Nate would probably be ticked if I lost the camera too!)

Wake up call

Today we went to the bank to deposit a check. As we pull up....Parker says, "Mommy, I want chicken nuggets, french fries and a root beer.....pleeeeeease!" I couldn't stop laughing! Perhaps we are hitting the drive through a little too much lately!

Game night

Last night was lots of fun! We had my great friend from high school Heather and her husband Samuel over for games and treats. They have a baby boy who is just a few weeks younger than my Landon. It was fun seeing the babies smile and accidentally bonk each other. Heather and I met way back in those awkward junior high days. I was a cheerleader at Les Bois and she cheered at East. We met at girls camp and became really good friends. We've kept in touch all these years and we've had some fun over the past year being big and pregnant together! Last Saturday night we had the privilege of attending the sealing of Heather, Samuel and baby Adrianne. I have been to many marriages but never to a sealing with a small child. It was such an awesome and spiritual experience. The baby was SO adorable in his little white outfit. He was so alert and calm...its was precious! We are so thrilled for them and glad they asked us to attend!

New Pictures!

Time for new pictures again! Dallin is turning 5 next week and I always try to get the boys pictures done around their birthdays. Landon is usually such a smiley baby but for some reason he was just really calm and pensive for these pictures. O well...things could have been worse I guess! They turned out pretty cute all in all!

3 strikes and we are OUT

As I watched the news last night and saw the perfect 80 degree forecast I decided that I was going take the boys to the zoo today. We got up and got dressed for the day. I told the boys we were going to do something fun...but it was a surprise! As we get on the freeway, Dallin says, "Mom, I hope we are not going to the zoo." Great. Just what I wanted to hear. So....I decide to go with plan B. We'll head to the Discovery Center today.
Everyone is hungry so we stop in at Pizza Pipeline and get some cheese pizza and drinks. Dallin frantically says, "Mom...I need to go to the bathroom right NOW." I remembered a park a few streets over so we head on over there. The park looks like a perfect place to eat our pizza and then we'll head over to the Discovery Center. As we pull into the parking lot we notice there is only one old car. A scary looking man is sitting in the passenger seat and he is totally starring at us while he smokes his cigarette. Call me paranoid...or whatever...I wasn't feeling good about the situation so we left. Dallin is screaming because he still needs to go to the bathroom. Parker is screaming because he saw the park and now we are driving away from the park. Landon starts screaming because he is getting hungry. Aggggh!
So...I drive down the road a little ways and we find this grassy area with a picnic table. Dallin jumps out and finds a nice big tree trunk to hide behind to take care of business. (One great advantage to having boys!) We start getting out of the van when we are pretty much attacked by meat flies or bees...or whatever those things are called. We all jump back in the van and decide to just have a picnic in the car.
Finally, we are on our way to the Discovery Center. We pull into the parking lot and there are only a few cars. Dallin and Parker are cheering in the background, "O thank you mom...this is our favorite place!" "I remember this fun place with the bubbles and the small grocery store!" We walk up to the door and sure enough....CLOSED. Now that school started they have winter hours. All Mondays are closed.
So much for a super fun day. These weren't the surprises I had in mind. Guess we'll try again on Wednesday.

Ironic

Isn’t it ironic that sleep is one of the things your body needs to function properly, be alert, and be on top of things, however; when children come along sleep is the one thing you are deprived of when you most need these skills?

My night: baby goes to bed at 8:00pm so I rush around trying to round up Dal and Parks and get them to bed soon after. Dallin will go right to sleep but Parker fights it until 9:00 or so. Finally all the boys are asleep and I try to get some things done around the house. (bills, dishes, pick up toys, etc.) Nate and I are usually in bed by 10 but I figure the baby will be waking anytime to eat so I don’t bother going to bed. I check my email, eat something, read my book or watch Jay Leno…finally it’s 11:00pm and the baby is STILL asleep along with everyone else in my house except me. I decide to wake up the baby and feed him so I can go to bed! After a good feeding I imagine he’ll sleep a good 5 or 6 hours. Then the baby crying alarm goes off at 3:30…feed the baby again, back in bed by 4:15 thinking he’ll sleep a good 4 hours at least! Well, he does but his brother wakes up at 5:30 and needs a drink of milk. Occasionally we'll have a boy who wakes up and wants to snuggle at around 6am. His noise wakes up the baby who wants to eat again. Brother is in the other room calling my name so I go in his room and sternly tell him to go back to sleep, it’s not morning yet. After a few minutes of crying he falls back to sleep. At 6:00am dad gets up to go to work…I hear the alarm go off and the sound of the snooze button being slammed a few times before he gets up. He leaves for work and mom thinks “wow, I can go back to sleep”. One hour later everyone is awake and its time to start another day! So....here it is almost midnight....I guess I should get some sleep! Oh well, at least it’s quiet.

Back to School!

This week Dallin started preschool again! Dallin has been looking forward to going back to see "Miss Buffy" all summer long. You can tell he was VERY excited to get back to learning and playing with his friends! There was someone else in the house who was NOT happy that Dallin was going back to preschool.And there was someone who didn't even know that Dallin was going back to school.

Even though Parker isn't too excited about it...I sure am! It will be nice for the boys to have a little break from each other a couple of days a week!

Fun, fun and more fun!

What a week! The boys and I just got back from our whirlwind trip down to Utah. Nate had a really busy week so I decided that we would get out of his hair and enjoy some change in scenery for a few days. I figured it was a good time to go since Dal starts preschool on Tuesday.We had so much fun spending time with family and friends! Here's a quick recap:

We had tons of fun going to the Children's Museum with my mom-in-law (Grandma Lee Lee) and my sister in law (Ashley) and her cute kids (Makayla, Kaiden and Keagan) Dallin and Parker LOVE to spend time with their only cousins!

The next day we went to Heritage Park. We had a great time learning about the Pioneers, riding the train, petting the animals and even riding horses! It was a really neat place...I hadn't been there since I was really little.

We spent the evening up at the cabin. I absolutely LOVE the cabin. We were able to spend some time with G & G Whitaker which was great. We don't get to see them very often. As always, it was fun staying up playing double 12s until everyone becomes a little bit delirious! The kids loved playing in the sandbox, and riding the 3 and 4 wheelers.

Then we were able to visit Nat and Robby and EE. We went over to Swiss days which would have been a little bit more fun had it not been 100 degrees outside. It was still fun to see all of the cute things though! We also ran over to see Nat's classroom and meet her 4th graders. They absolutely LOVED meeting Mrs. Bleazard's nephews. All of the girls wanted to hold Parker (which was funny because he only weighed about 10 pounds less then they did!) Dallin just plopped into a seat a pretty much joined the class! I read part of a book to the class but as soon as Landon woke up everyone just ran over to see the baby. It was fun to see her in action. She's a great teacher! You can see Dallin in the very center of the class. He was loving the attention!

I was able to see Marcy (one of my best friends from the college days) and meet her new boyfriend (John). He was a really nice guy. They were SO incredibly cute together.I give that guy a BIG thumbs up Marce! We enjoyed going out for a little Leatherbys. Mmmm! My favorite!

Saturday we met up with Ashley (my best friend since birth), Lindsay and Jenna, Nat, EE, Yvonne, Jody and little Sophie. Then we headed over to IKEA! I was bracing for the worst but the crowds really weren't too bad. I got some cute things for the house. It is easy to get carried away in that place!

And those are just SOME of the highlights! We had so much fun seeing everyone this week!. Its always fun to get away but its also great to come home!