A close call

This afternoon the boys and I were running a few errands. We were cruising down the road blasting the Kids Bop song "Life is a Highway" that we got from our latest visit to McDonalds. We had the windows down singing at the top of our lungs. Out of the corner of my eye I see him. A motorcycle cop...pointing his gun right at me.

Crap. His lights start to flash as he pulls out.

I am very proud of the fact that my last speeding ticket was all the way back in high school. I always boast to my dear spouse that I am a much more attentive and better overall driver then he is. (He really is a good driver...I just love to give him a hard time!)

All of a sudden I feel sick to my stomach. I start crying as I pull off on a side road. I had no idea how fast I was going....everything feels fast when the windows are down.

The boys start crying because I am crying. Landon doesn't know what the heck is going on.

I look in my rear view mirror and watch as the cop cruises right past me and nabs the truck that was right in front of me.

I start laughing...the boys are still crying.

We turn "Life is a Highway" back on and we start rocking on right where we left off.

Sweet...I am still ticket free.

To My Birthday Boy

Dear Landon Loo,

It seems like yesterday that we brought home this handsome little man. The joy that you have brought to our home has been overwhelming!!!

It is hard for me to believe that you have grown so fast into such a busy toddler!

You are full of life and laughter and we are so blessed to have you. Here are some of your favorites at 2:

Favorite toys: any kind of BALL..shape or size doesn't matter, three wheeled scooter...you insist on riding it every time you enter the garage and every time we go to the park, nerf guns (trying to be like the big brothers), your new basketball hoop, golf clubs, books, cars.

Things you LOVE: your BLANKETS.....yes that is plural...you are crazy about your 4-5 blankets and insist on sleeping with ALL of them every night, playing outside, when Daddy walks through the door, seeing airplanes fly overhead, taking your shoes and socks off, getting into my lotions and potions, you love to DANCE!

Favorite foods: spaghetti, eclairs (I'll never forget when we made some together and when I looked the other way for a second you had CRAMMED all of them into your mouth as fast as you could!) tacos, cheese, bananas, "Yeeareal" or cereal.

You are such a sweet and strong willed little guy. I love how each morning as soon as you get up you come running into my room and you let me hold you for a few minutes. Even though it seems like our snuggles get shorter and shorter I cherish those few minutes each day. My baby isn't a baby anymore!!

Happy 2nd birthday big boy. I love you.

Love, Mama

Women's Conference and MUCH more!

I feel like I have been gone for 2 weeks...not 5 days! We CRAMMED a lot in in the few days we were down in Utah.

The boys and I left on Tuesday and right before we went out of town I read all about the Shoshone Falls in the newspaper. The water level was at an all time high so I thought we would stop on our way since we didn't take the time to see it last summer. It was absolutely amazing. Hard to believe the falls are actually taller than Niagara.

Wednesday we met up with Ash and Ann for lunch. Afterwards, we went down to Lindsay's cute house to see their new little addition. Connor is darling! Later that day we did some shopping at IKEA. Man....I love that store.

The next day we headed down to Thanksgiving Point. Grandma was able to make her own glass flower as a birthday gift from Nat. Grandma had a great time and she was definitely in her "artsy" element!

After lunch we headed over to the Tulip Festival. It was just beautiful. It was a picturesque spring day and the boys loved playing in all of the fountains and running around the gardens. We'll definitely try to come down for the festival next year.

Friday I went down to BYU to attend Women's Conference. Grandma was such a saint for taking all 3 boys for me so I could go. It was so much fun spending the day with Marce and feeling uplifted and encouraged by the speakers. I just can't understand how so many years have gone by since we went to school there. It really doesn't seem that long ago! We had fun eating at the good old Cougareat and doing some shopping in the Bookstore. I thoroughly enjoyed my Cinnamon Bears and the famous BYU Mint Brownies! YUM!

After the conference we met Sarah and Jenny for dinner at CPK. It has been a long time since the Madison 9 girls had a reunion. (We missed you Erin!)

We had fun catching up and laughing about the good old college days! Such a fun night.

Nate came down to UT on Friday with Jared to do a race over at Antelope Island. We were going to go over and cheer him on but when we woke up Saturday morning to a major downpour I opted not to drag the kids out there. Nate had a rough race and wasn't able to finish because he ended up getting 3 flat tires. He was bummed but still had a fun time. Later that day we all met up over at his parents house to celebrate Kelsey and Landon's Birthdays!

MY BABY is 2 years old!

I will do a little post on him later but for now we had a great time seeing the whole family and he had fun opening his presents, eating fruit pizza, and playing with cousins.
It was a memorable week!

Chocolate Covered CInnamon Bears

Can I just tell you how excited I am? I am leaving today to head down to BYU to attend my very first Women's Conference. Why is anticipating this trip making me so giddy?

#1. I get to spend some time with my old college roomates who I haven't seen in YEARS.

#2. I get to visit my old "home" of Provo. I really did enjoy my time down there. Even though my husband couldn't wait to leave and never looked back I have a special place in my heart for that fun and quirky city.

#3. I'm looking forward to a little "battery re-charge" in a sense. Sometimes it gets hard not having the opportunity to attend Relief Society and feel of the spirit from the sisters in our ward. I'm not saying I don't love working with the YW becuase heaven knows I do...It will just be so nice to be surrounded by women for a couple of days.

#4. NO kids. Need I say more?

#5. Chocolate Covered Cinnamon Bears. These yummy bears of goodness bring back great memories of studying late into the night at the food-banning library and sneaking in my bag of non-drowsy bears tucked in the deep recesses of my backpack. I remember 1/4 lb bag-fulls taken to class and stashed under my register as I worked at the BYU Bookstore. Woo Hoo!

Look out cinnamon bears...here I come!

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!