Pictures

These are two of my favorite pictures from Eli's friends party plus the cake that Chris's sister Harmony made. James is his favorite engine from Thomas. You can see the three places that Isaac ate the frosting while we were all outside.





This is Eli opening his presents. I don't know why but I really like this picture. He was totally surrounded by kids. They were helping him open his presents and he didn't care. He was loving every minute of it.

Parenthood

Yesterday Eli had his first friends birthday party. He had been looking forward to it for months and had a lot of fun. It went well and we were all really happy for the rest of the afternoon/evening. I went to bed feeling really grateful for a great day. I was thinking the same thing this morning, “yesterday was such a good day.” Then I remembered yesterday before the party.

We had gone to bed late the night before and all morning either Eli or Isaac was crying over simple things like wanting the bowl that the other one has, spilling their milk on their pants, not wanting to get their diaper changed, etc. I had to go to the store and pick up a few things for the party that afternoon. Sometimes when we go to this store I let the boys get a donut if they’re good. I didn’t want them to have one this time because I didn’t want it to become a habit and I also knew they would be having cupcakes and ice-cream later. Eli was okay with this but Isaac was not. He tried to run away the whole time at the store (heading for the donuts) and when we were leaving without a donut he threw a fit. He was screaming and kicking while I paid for our stuff and continued as we got in the car. He wouldn’t get in his car seat. I forcefully put him in enough to do the top strap and left it at that. (The store is only a few blocks from our house.) He screamed and cried the whole way home. After a whole morning of this it was just too much. (This wasn’t just a one day thing. Isaac had been acting this way a lot lately and it was all building up inside of me.) I ended up in tears on the way home thinking that I was at the edge and I didn’t know how much more of this I could stand.

We got home and I put Isaac down for a nap, which is what he needed all along. Then Eli and I made cupcakes and got everything ready for his party. Isaac woke up right as the party was starting and was happy for the rest of the day with the rest of us. We all went on to have a really fun afternoon with no crying or fighting, just laughing, playing and fun.

This one day shows me a lot about motherhood, or parenthood. It is a struggle and a challenge and there are so many times that you are at the end of your rope and you think you just can’t go on. Then there are those times when your kids are having the time of their life and it brings you so much joy. Seeing your children so happy brings much more happiness to a parent than anything that could happen to the parent itself. And the glory of it all is that the good times are the things that we remember most. It hadn’t even been 12 hours and I had already almost forgotten the horrible morning because of the wonderful afternoon. I guess that’s why we go on, why we have more kids and keep doing what we can do make our kids happy. Or maybe it’s because at this point we don’t have much of a choice. Either way, I’m glad we tend to forget about the bad and remember the good times in life.

Fishing

Eli told Chris yesterday that he wanted to go fishing. I don't think he had really been which is kind of sad since he turns 5 tomorrow. So, we woke up this morning and went up to Vivian Park and went fishing. We were lucky enough to actually catch a fish. And by we I mean Chris. Eli reeled it in. (unfortunately I was in the bathroom when all the action happened.) I spend the whole time taking pictures. I ended up with 150+ in an hour and a half. It was well worth it though because I got some great shots. Here is a slide show of our first fishing excursion.

Isaac's pole had a jig (or a lure, I don't know the difference) on it that looked like a small fish. He would look down into the water and see it and say "There it is" over and over. It kept him occupied for quite awile.

I will also add that I LOVE where we live. How great is it that we can drive for 15 mintues and be in such an awesome park in the mountains.

A Day Out With Thomas

We went to Heber today to attend the annual Day Out With Thomas event. It's hard to pass up because of how well liked Thomas and Friends is in our house as well as the fact that it's Eli's birthday weekend. We had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures of our trip.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Chris's Photo Shoot

I got a new camera last week and was taking some pictures with it on Sunday. Chris decided to pose for me. I got some great shots don't you think?

How did I get so lucky to snag such a catch!!

This is his sexy pose. Pretty sexy isn't he?

And we will finish off with this beauty.

I feel (a little) bad for posting all of those crazy

pictures so I will leave you with one good one

to show you all how hot and sexy Chris

really is.

Questions

I've seen this on a few blogs and was interested what Eli's answers would be. They weren't as bad as I expected. I asked him the questions and these are his responses.

1. What is something I always say to you?
To clean up

2. What makes me happy?
When I do the right thing.

3. What makes me sad?
When I don't do the right thing.

4. How do I make you laugh?
Making a funny face.

5. How old am I?
28

6. How tall am I?
He didn't answer this one. He put one hand on my head and the other on my foot and looked back and forth between the two for a few seconds.

7. What do I do when you're not around?
Stuff that I can't do, clean up what I left out

8. What am I really good at?
Setting up movies for me

9. What am I not really good at?
Nothing (isn't he an AWESOME kid)

10. What is my job? (I had to rephrase it as what do I do everyday?)
Help me

11. What is my favorite food?
Cereal

12. What about me makes you happy?
When you kiss me

13. What do you and I do together?
Clean up

14. How are we the same?
I don't know ( I asked him this several times and he couldn't think of anyway that we are the same.)

15. How are we different?
We have different voices

16. How do you know that I love you?
When you kiss me

17. Where is my favorite place to go?
California

Happy Mother's Day

Lesson learned

It isn't a good idea to drive from Utah to Washington and back in a weekend, especially if you have two small children with you. My niece, Shelby, got baptized on Saturday and me and the boys drove up to be there. I'm really glad that we were able to go.

This was early in the trip as Isaac was still smiling. Actually, he did really well, much better than I expected.

This is what Eli looked like most of the drive. Thank heavens for portable dvd players.

The weekend we were there happened to be the Apple Blossom festival and there was a parade on Saturday morning. This is Eli and his cousins Kacey, Shelby and Sydney watching the parade on the top of the truck. The highlight of the parade was the on the larger side male flag twirler who was wearing a purple and black full leotard. I felt bad for he poor kid and I'm really sad I didn't get a picture of him.

Eli and Shelby after her baptism. She was so excited to get baptized. I'm glad Eli could be there. He loves to play with Shelby.

After the baptism Isaac kept telling me (and the rest of the people in the chapel) that Shelby got wet. He was pretty concerned.

We had fun spending time with family and I am so glad that Eli and Isaac have cousins who are good examples to them.