Swim Lessons

I know it's still early spring around here but I have decided that my kids are doing swim lessons EARLY this year. It seems like our summers get so crazy that we have a hard time sqeezing in the all important swim lesson. The boys had their first class today over at the YMCA. The had a great time! The best part (in their opinion) is that they get to head on over to the kiddie pool and play as long as they like afterward!
I'll tell you what this mom's LEAST favorite part is....having to take all 3 of my BOYS into the WOMEN'S locker room to change. Obviously I can't really let my 6, 4, and 2 year old head into the men's changing room by themselves so I have to be ON GUARD at all times for those crazy ladies that walk around wearing nothing and think nothing of it. Parker looked down an isle of lockers where a woman was standing and immediately whispered LOUDLY...."Hey Mom....I think I saw a Big BumBum." Needless to say, all 4 of us crammed into a bathroom stall so the boys could change and I could hide from the Big-Bummed lady.

Teeing up!

When you are 50% Rock and 50% Starnes you are genetically predisposed (when you are male) to become a HUGE golf fanatic! These boys love to go hitting the links with Dad!
We are lucky to live about 5 minutes from the course. I'm sure the boys will be spending lots of time over there this summer! (And MOM always enjoys some peace and quiet for a little while! :)

This and that

I've been in a bit of a blog funk for the past few days. It just doesn't seem like there has been anything "worthy" enough for a post. It was a pretty low key week...we've spent the majority of our time outside enjoying SPRING in all it's glory!

Nate was able to travel up to good old Spokane for a hearing. It was fun to have him call me and tell me that he just "drove by the hospital where Parker was born" or he "drove by our old apartment." It is so crazy to think that Law School was 3 years ago...time is just flying by. I made him promise me that next time he goes up there that he has to take me with him. It would be so much fun to take a little walk down memory lane.

Dallin only has 3 more days until he is off track again. I have really enjoyed year round school this year. It is fun to have 3 full weeks to spend with him at random times during the year. I love having him around...and Parker is thrilled. They do butt heads a lot but they always prefer to be together. Today we had stake conference and when we told Dallin we only had to go to the sacrament meeting part of church he was very excited. (We opted not to tell him it was for 2 full hours) After about an hour and a half he looks over at me (body slumped over) and says, "Mom...I really don't think I can take much more of this....it is going on and ON forever."

Parker is just Parker. He is the coolest 4 year old ever. He got a new bike this week and has insisted on riding it ALL DAY. He wanted to ride his bike to preschool so I had to drive next to him over to his school. He has become quite the little skateboarder over the last couple of months. He is always wanting me to watch his "shuv-it" and "ollie" tricks. We went over to the park last night and all of these 10-13 year old boys saw Parker and they were like, "Hey Parker...whats up man...wanna come skate with us?" I could overhear them saying that Parker was a "sick little skater." We were driving somewhere the other day and Parker was looking out the window. He suddenly chimes in with a "I could totally rail that picnic table." The kid is 4...is this REALLY starting already??

Landon is almost 2! My baby isn't a baby anymore. He started sleeping in a big boy bed about a month ago. He has also started saying ALL sorts of things. He is quite the little parrot. I always thought that Parker would be the child that tried my patience but Landon seems to be getting worse and worse. He poured 2 full boxes of cereal all over the downstairs of my house last week. Thank heavens for vaccuums and for those baby door handle things. We have them everywhere now. I also couldn't find my toothbrush the other day...then I finally found it in the sandbox! Lovely.
Good thing he is so cute....

Alright....time for bed.

Our Easter Weekend with family, friends, and an Olympic Gold Medalist

What a wonderful Easter weekend! The Pitcher's came up to visit us for a few days and we have had such a great time playing with our cousins!!! We started things off right away with a fun Easter egg hunt that we put on over at our park. We had lots of friends and neighbors come and the kids all accumulated WAY too much candy! Saturday we drove out to Middleton to watch Nate and Justin and the rest of Team CF compete in the Bike and Trike Race. The kids had lots of fun playing in the bounce house and we had fun cheering all of our guys on! They all look so cute in their new jerseys! After the race our team met Kristin Armstong (Olympic gold medalist-the winner of the Women's Time trial in the 2008 Summer Olympics.) She wanted to know more about what team CF stood for and was impressed with the team's message.
*Maybe I haven't mentioned that Nate's team and fellow riders formed TEAM CF to raise awareness about Cystic Fibrosis. We have some dear friends that have 2 sons who are dealing with this disease. One of the boys (Kim) rode in the race on Saturday. He is such a great kid..we were proud of him for even attempting to race with all of these crazy biking men!
After the men raced there was a kid's race. Parker was VERY disappointed that his tire popped before the race started. I found an older kid and asked him if we wouldn't mind racing Parker and letting him win. We let Parker ride on Dallin's bike and Parker thought he WON the race. He went from bawling and sobbing to happy and elated. Shhhhh...don't tell him what I did! haha



After the race we came home to celebrate the twins birthday! Kaiden and Keagan are 3!!! Easter morning was fun! The kids were all thrilled to see that the Easter Bunny had come. We did a little hunt in the backyard and got all ready for church. No pics of my kids in their Easter shirts.....too much going on!

After church we went over to my parent's house for a classic ham and funeral potato dinner! YUM! We walked down to the river to throw rocks. The kids had a great time.

Such a fun weekend! It's just too bad that it went by so fast!

Don't MESS with mother bear!

In this life I am a woman. In the next life, I'd like to come back as a bear.

When you are a bear, you get to hibernate.

You do nothing but sleep for six months. I could deal with that.

Before you hibernate, you're supposed to eat yourself stupid. I could deal with that too.

When you're a girl bear, you birth your children (who are the size of walnuts) while you are sleeping and wake to partially grown, cute and cuddly cubs. I could definately deal with that.

If you're a mama bear, everyone knows you mean buisness. You swat anyone who bothers your cubs. If your cubs get out of line, you swat them too. I could deal with that.

If you're a bear, your mate EXPECTS you to wake up growling. He EXPECTS that you will have hairy legs and excess body fat.YUP! Gonna be a bear.

Today....mama bear emerged.

I let the boys head over to the park while I spent some of the afternoon weeding and cleaning up the front yard.
A couple of neighbor kids were over there as well. Within a few minutes Dallin comes running home just hysterical because one of the boys said that Landon was an ugly little boy. Dallin is very sensitive and protective of his brothers. I calmed him down and told him that what he heard was just silly and not true. Of course inside I was a little offended...come on, seriously...kids don't get much cuter then my little Landon. (In my HUMBLE opinion)
I told Dallin to go back to the park and ask the kids to please be nice and not call other people names. I watched my very determined Dallin march back to the park ready to deal with the situation. I watched as Dallin recited all of the things I told him when all of a sudden one of the kids SHOVES Dallin to the ground and yells "You are ugly and your ears stick out!" right in his face. Dallin starts sobbing again.
THAT WAS IT! Nerve definitely struck.
The garden gloves were taken off and slammed onto the ground. I came trucking over there...blood boiling. Literally, I was shaking. "DO NOT.....I repeat.....DO NOT TOUCH my children or call them names. If you CAN'T be nice at the park then you better get your butt home....NOW...And I WILL be having some words with your mother."

Both kids left.

So.....yeah. I got all up in some 6 year old faces today...and I don't feel bad about it one bit. Grrr!

Why not?

Stephanie had this on her blog and I couldn't resist giving it a go! Honestly...who makes these quizzes up??

A Spring Saturday

Phew! It's been one crazy day around these parts!

Having 2 boys (and eventually 3) playing multiple sports at the same time can get kind of SPENDY! Dallin and Parker are both going to play baseball a little later on this spring and both wanted to do soccer again as well.

LUCKY for me.....we have fun and creative friends who agree that paying all of this money to let our kids run around to kick a ball was outrageous. SO...we have formed our own league! Check it:

* $20 for a soccer shirt and a picture

*games for 1 hour on Saturdays and both boys play games at the same time (Takes up less time on our Saturdays! Hooray!)

*Kids get to play in the actual games for the full game...no waiting to play!

*NO PRACTICES (I can't tell you how awesome that part is)

*Moms and Dads coach and ref (which they usually do anyway)

*Kids are divided up into different age groups and skill levels(Dal and Parks play eachother 3 different times during the season.....this could be very good or very bad :)

AND all of this takes place at the park in my front yard!

Doesn't get much better than that!

I figure my kids are little and have plenty of years ahead to play for expensive leagues! !

We had 50 kids sign up...crazy huh?

In other news Nate and Chris (a fellow team CF member) participated in their first time trial today. My man ended up getting 3rd place! Pretty impressive for a first time racer!! Proud of you Daddy!

All this...plus we started working on the garden AND Conference! A crazy and wonderful day!

Spring Break

When I hear the words "Spring Break", this image does NOT come to mind:

Our Spring Break in Utah looked more like Christmas Break but hey...what are you gonna do? We made the most of our trip anyway!

We played with cousins at the Children's Museum (forgot camera), went to the zoo which was really nice becuase the cool temps scared everyone away. We had the place to ourselves!

We went to the aquarium too. The boys were THRILLED to touch the sting rays. They have a whole new exhibit on the rain forest too. The boys loved the piranhas and the anaconda!

Nate hopped in the car with his parents and headed down to St. George to do another century ride (100 miler) with Grandpa Ric and brother in law Justin. They drove down and back in 2 days so I opted to stay in Salt Lake. Adding another 10 hours to our drive didn't sound very appealing to our already short trip.

This particular ride included a 6,000 foot climb. Nate was ready for the challenge with all of the training he has been doing over the winter. He had such a blast. It was the first time that he has been able to actually ride with his dad and he was VERY excited about it to say the least.

(Actually, I am not sure what he was MOST excited about.....riding with his dad or eating at In N Out!)

The boys and I enjoyed playing with Grandmas and meeting up with friends for lunch. We tried to do a little shopping as well but 3 boys and shopping don't always go hand in hand.

We had a nice Spring Break even though the weather didn't cooperate as we had hoped! I guess the weather doesn't REALLY matter when you get to hang out with the people you love!

Got Kids?

I saw this car in the parking lot today and couldn't resist pulling out the camera. WOW..that is a whole lotta kids!

Dallin and Parker were in the backseat fighting (again) about whether or not Dallin was happy about Parker joining our family 4 years ago. They have been having this reoccurring fight now for about a week and it is really starting to get on my nerves.

Parker thinks Dallin hated him when he was a born.

Dallin insists that he has always loved Parker, even when he was a baby.

It really is the DUMBEST fight I have ever heard but for some reason it stopped bothering me as soon as I saw the back of this van.

Spring has Sprung!

I haven't blogged for a couple of days becuase it has been so BEAUTIFUL outside this week! We've spent almost everyday at the park. Yesterday Parker's preschool was able to go to Krispy Kreme for a little tour and a treat! I was happy to come a long and help. (I don't think I helped my waistline out though!)In the afternoon we headed over to the zoo and met up with Aunt Nanny and Uncle Robby and baby Carter. Apparently EVERYONE had the same idea as us. I felt like I was at the San Diego Zoo...not the Boise zoo! Didn't take very many pictures...but here are a couple. We're SO excited that Spring is finally here! Happy Spring Break!

Hey....where is Landon?

It is a busy Sunday morning. After an hour and a half of bathing, combing, putting some coordinating outfits together, going on numerous "sock hunts" feeding everyone for the second time, packing the bag of things to do, AND getting all of the shoes on we are FINALLY ready to get in the car and head over to the church.

Hey....has anyone seen Landon anywhere???

I think I just heard a little noise coming from the pantry. (The door is closed AND the light is off.)

We found him!

I can't take my eyes of this kid for 30 seconds. Ths kid drives me absolutely NUTS!

Yikes

I have somehow been able to avoid this type of situation for a full 6.5 years. But today.......it finally happened.

I took Parker to McDonald's for some pancakes. We call this our "secret" date. We don't tell Daddy and we don't tell Dallin about it. It is our special one on one time.

As I order the pancakes Parker says to the (rather large) woman ringing us up......"Wow.....you are a very BIG FAT lady."

One word......AWKWARD.

Perfect Little Family

A friend who reads my blog once told me, "You have such a perfect little family." She was right. My family is perfect. Here on this blog, that is.

I decided a long time ago that the main focus of my blog was not to write about ALL of the frustrations and disappointments that go along with parenting. Oh, I do let a few get into print...especially the ones that I know I will be able to look back on and laugh at. But for the most part, I like to "accentuate the positive" and keep my blog upbeat and hopeful. So, you probably won't see long posts about my Parker's lazy attitude about chores, or our fights with Dallin about his picky eating at the dinner table. And I'm not going to vent about the piles of toys I find scattered all over my house, or the fights we have over bedtime, or the stubborn inability of Dallin and Parker to sleep past 7am as of late. When I look at the BIG PICTURE, I see the good things outnumbering the bad by 100 to 1. So why focus on the negatives when they mean so little in our daily lives?

Even on my worst day, when I'm tired and the boys are talking back and I feel like I could scream...I really try to remember the good.

So, do I have the perfect little family? Of course not. But in my memory, and here on this blog, they come pretty close.

3 amigos

I just love these 3 boys. They are best friends worst enemies and everything in between. Yesterday they were just AT eachother ALL day so we went outside to play for a little while to burn up some energy. While we were there a big kid started to tease Dallin becuase he had his little stuffed bunny with him. (I know I know..the kid is in kindergarden...he really SHOULD know better) Dallin's feelings were hurt. Parker marched right up to that big kid who was 2 times bigger then him (with his big red Cars helmet on, and skateboard in tow) and said, "HEY KID....YOU better KNOCK IT OFF and be NICE to my brother!"

They may get after each other but they are always looking out for eachother. Makes me smile.

Unfortunately......

Have you heard of the "unfortunately..." meme? You do a Google search for the phrase "Unfortunately, (your name here)". Don't forget the quotation marks around the phrase. Here are some of mine:

Unfortunately, Staci wasn't in Hawaii to see this beautiful sunset. She is in, of all places...Antarctica, which has got to be the antithesis of Hawaii.

Unfortunately, Staci stares eerily at everyone. Eddie and Ginger are confused. So very confused.

Unfortunately, Staci, the manager in charge of the schedule, has taken it upon herself to schedule me wayyyy too much.

Unfortunately Staci was feeling a little "Travel Sick" ha ha, OK so she was hungover.

Unfortunately, Staci is an ugly baby. (Whoa...this one is a little harsh!)

Unfortunately Staci has some symptoms of this...mostly just headaches, but she tends to act more like she has Blepharospasm.

That was pretty entertaining! Give it a try...you know you want to!