Shop till you drop! (Literally)

I freely admit that being a mom of 3 kids can be exhausting and there have been quite a few times where I felt like I could just curl up and fall asleep ANYWHERE. I was one of those high school kids who occasionally fell asleep in class and I did the head bobbing thing through many a BYU Biology and American Heritage class. Well...last night we decided to take a trip over to the mall as a family and here is what we saw:
I kid you not...this couple was out COLD. People were walking by and laughing and I wasn't the only onlooker who pulled out the camera!

The 3 bears....Starnes style

Parker loves the story of Goldilocks and the three bears. Every night he begs and begs to hear the story before he goes to bed. Dallin gets a little bit irritated with the repeated request every night so some nights we change it up a little. For example, we made up the story of the "3 little robots" which is basically the same story except for the fact that Mama, Papa and baby robot all have silly voices and we add some "bleeps" and "blorps" in there. We've also come up with the "3 cowboys" and the "3 monsters."
Anyway, the other day we made some chocolate cake and the boys wanted some as soon as I took it out of the oven. I told them that we had to wait for it to cool off just like the 3 bears did with their oatmeal. Dallin suggested we go for a walk.....great idea! Parker became very concerned and asked, "What if someone comes to eat our cake just like Goldilocks ate the oatmeal?" I told him no little girls would get into our house while we were away. Dallin was like, "What about other people....or bears?" I assured them no one would get into the house and away we went on our walk.
As we finished up our walk I see this little sign in the window by the front door. Here is the note Dallin left in the window:

(No kids in home and no bears and no adults) Dallin was sure that because of his note...our cake was saved. It was so darn cute....love it!

Baby shower invites

My good friend Nikki is having a little girl this June. She has two boys already and so I INSISTED that I get to throw a shower for her. I decided that I would make the invitations so I looked around for a little inspiration. This is what I found:


So yesterday I went to 2 scrapbook stores and over to Michael's (with 3 boys in tow). I worked on the stupid thing all day and (by the way) the circle punch I bought was faulty so I had to hand cut each invite. Here was the final product:
It's only about 500 times cuter then the one that I saw! (Okay...enough bragging) I guess I was just impressed that it turned out so cute. Especially for a girl who fell off the scrapbook bandwagon a good year ago.

Like Father....like son

One of my all time favorite stories from when Nate was little was when his mom caught him coloring all over the kitchen counter with a permanent marker. When she came in and saw the disaster she didn't know whether to cry or choke the kid. She asked him, "Nathan....why did you do that?" His response was, "Jesus made me do it."

So last night I got home from mutual and it was about 8:30pm. Our kids are usually in bed by 7:00 so I was surprised to see Parker still up. I said, "Hey Parks....you need to go to bed right now." His response, "Jesus said I didn't have to...he said I could stay up for 10 more minutes."

Like father like son I guess!

Elder Rock pics

This kid seriously makes me laugh so hard I can hardly stand it. I can't believe he is almost 6 months from being home! Happy 1 1/2 years out little bro!

Happy Easter!

Look at these handsome boys in their new Easter outfits! Pretty darn cute if you ask me!!

Cadbury Eggs try to make me fat every Easter!

Well...it is officially SPRING now and that means it is Cadbury Egg season. I’m not a candy nut. I’m not a huge chocolate person. I don’t really like candy bars. I don’t even care for the other Easter candy. Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs. The big Cadbury Eggs (the ones with the gooey cream center that, quite frankly, freaks me out). Peeps. Jelly Beans. Boxes of chocolates. I don’t need ‘em.

That being said....Cadbury's Mini Eggs are by far the BEST candy ever created. When they show up in stores every Easter, I end up buying too many to mention. The point is that I eat an unhealthy amount of Mini Eggs every year, and I know I probably shouldn't. So, anyway, does this mean I will stop eating them? No. they're too good. Hooray for mini eggs!

A fun and BUSY week!

It is hard to believe that it will already be Friday tomorrow. This week has FLOWN by! We have been having way too much fun having Grandpa Ric and Grandma Lee Lee up for a visit. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate with the outdoor plans we had made but we still had a good time. We spent the first day at the Discovery Center which is always fun (as long as there is no Jr. High field trips going on). That evening we left Dal and Parks at home with a sitter and showed them Nate's office and enjoyed dinner at the good old Beanery. Nate took the next day off so we decided to go bowling. Unfortunately the Sub was closed so we went over to Gameworld where they had this strange teeny tiny bowling ally which was PERFECT for our boys. The balls were only about as big as a softball and there was NO ONE else there so it was such a blast.

After bowling, everyone went to "Hortin hears a Who" and I took Lando home for a good nap. (Apparently it was really cute!) When everyone came home we took advantage of the nasty weather and went outside to fly kites. What a fun time! Dallin came into my room right after they took off for the airport this morning at 5:00AM just SOBBING because they left. I assured him we would go down and see them soon...poor kid! Thanks for coming to see us Mom and Dad!

One other note.....last night was Em's birthday so all the girls met over at the Cheeeeeeeesecake Factory to surprise her! I love these girls! We have WAY too much fun together! It is so amazing to me that we have all met over the course of the last year or so yet we feel like we have known each other for years. O yeah...and if you have never tried the caramel topping at the C.F. it is to DIE FOR!

St. Patty's Day Party

O my gosh.....last night was such a blast! Nate and I went to a St. Patricks Day party. I haven't laughed so hard in YEARS. We played all of these ridiculous games and we even rocked the limbo! haha! We played these "drinking" games with energy drinks and water and whoever had to use the bathroom first was the loser. (Of course it was me...I have the bladder of a hummingbird)Nothing like a fun night with friends and NO KIDS!

Happy Day!

What a relief! Our prayers have been answered. We found out Dallin was selected to attend a math and science magnet school today! I am so thrilled because this is EXACTLY what he needs! Dallin has always LOVED to learn. The kid has know his ABC's since he was 18 months and could read by the time he was 3. Yesterday I asked him if he wanted to go play over at the park. His response was, "No thanks mom..I want to work on my math homework." He even takes his workbooks to bed with him at night. Honestly...who is this kid?

I have been so incredibly worried about him being bored to tears when he starts kindergarten next year so I am so thankful that he was able to get into this school where they can work with him a little more and where the class sizes are smaller. It is a year round school which I am surprisingly excited about as well. He will start school at the end of July and then he gets 3 weeks off in September, January, and 4 weeks off in May. This will be awesome for traveling and because Dallin loves school so much he will only have a few weeks off and then he's back to work instead of the full 3 month summer break. What GREAT news!!

Just for fun...if you are bored!

1. )YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: Mister Bill Dodge (Your first pet/current car) Doesn't sound too rock star-ish to me. Sounds more like a car salesman.
2.)YOUR GANGSTA NAME: Strawberry Snickerdoodle (fave ice cream/fave cookie) haha...I love that one! It's SOOO gangsta!
3.)YOUR FLY GIRL/GUY NAME: S-Star(first initial of first name/first 3 or 4 letter of last) That one is actually pretty cool!
4.)YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: Green Dog(fave color/fave animal)
5.)SOAP OPERA NAME: Lynn Sandy(middle name/birth city)
6.)STAR WARS NAME: Stast (first 3 letter of last name/first 2 of first name) The one is just weird.
7.)SUPER HERO NAME: Blue Ice Water(2nd fave color/fave drink)
8.)NASCAR NAME: Tommy Bob(first names of grandfathers) LOL! That one is hilarious!
9.) WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: Lynn Louise (mother and fathers middle names)
10.)TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: Trumbo Tremonton(5th grade teachers last name/city that begins with same first initial)
11.)SPY NAME/BOND GIRL NAME: Summer Rose (fave season/fave flower)
12.)CARTOON NAME: Raspberry jammie (fave fruit/something you're wearing plus -ie or -y at the end)
13.)HIPPY NAME: Pancake Willow (something you ate for breakfast/fave tree)
14.)YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: Read vinyl sun tour(fave hobby/fave craft/fave weather element + tour) huh?
I think I have too much time. Oh well, it was fun!

Why private?

I have thought long and hard about changing my blog to private, so why am I doing it?
First off, I am am a pretty open person and I love to share stories about what goes on in our (sometimes mundane) lives. Sometimes I probably share a little bit too much! I do love that fact that I am documenting many things that I want to share with my children and look back upon in the years to come. I guess I just don't want to be so vulnerable to who knows who might be trolling and stumble upon my little ol' blog and pictures of my children. So for that reason, I am going private. I have thought about this for several months now, and frankly, the only reason I haven't is because everyone who has contacted me or commented has been nothing but kind. I have not had one single nasty comment or anything that made me feel a little bit creepy, but that doesn't mean it can't happen.
I love the fact that I have reconnected with so many people and have grown closer to some that I never would have if my blog had been private from the beginning. I just feel like I need to be the one in control of who is reading about us and looking at pictures of the people I care most about in the world. I have every intention of keeping it up, just password protected. As for all my bloggy friends that I visit regularly, I am not going anywhere! I will continue to visit, comment and watch your families grow as long as you will let me! :D

Landon's latest pictures

It's been a BIG week for our littlest guy. He took 4 steps, said "mama" and cut his first tooth!

A word to the wise....

Don't accidentally leave your phone in your jeans pocket and then proceed to wash your pants. It is expensive, time consuming and EXTREMELY annoying. If you have been trying to call me over the past 3 days and I haven't answered, it is because my phone is out of commission. Why do I always do such stupid things.......

What a FUN night!

Last night was a blast. My parents came over and said, "Take our car (with the 4 wheel drive), here is some money, we will take care of the boys, now go and have some fun!" We headed up to Bogus for some night skiing. I haven't been on skis since Nathan and I were very first married. It's been about 6 years. I thought I was going to be falling all over the place but I managed to get my ski legs back after the first run. There is something about skiing that really makes me feel ALIVE. I just loved sitting next to my hubby in the chair lift looking over at the Boise lights below. A huge THANK YOU goes out to my parents. We needed that!