Finished

Well folks, I did it. I blogged everyday for a month. (I don't count the day I missed because it was blogger's fault and not mine.)

I feel like I got all caught up in everything that I had been meaning to put on here. I'll try to stay more on top of things this time.

I really liked blogging everyday. It made me think back on the day and remember things that I might have otherwise forgotten. I admit, there were a couple days in there that were just nonsense, but if that's what it takes to remember all the good then it's worth it.

I guess I'll have to decide what my next goal will be. When I actually set a goal, I'm pretty good at sticking to it. Imagine all the things that I could accomplish... :)

Memorial Day

For a Memorial Day activity today we took the boys bowling. They LOVED it. I thought that Zeke would love it the most, but Porter was all smiles.


This is the face we got from Porter after each time he bowled.



I just want to say that I love my country. It wouldn't be the country that it is without the people that have fought to make it what it is. I am so grateful for all the people that have fought for my country including my Grandpa Limb who served in the US Navy.

My secret is out

Well, I guess I can't hide it anymore. Not that I was really trying to, but now it seems like everyone knows.

I know how to play the piano.

Yep, people in my ward finally figured it out. There are many talented people in my ward and they really didn't need another piano player, but every now and then people get in a pinch and need someone to bail them out.

I guess that person is me.

Today I got a call at 8am to ask me if I could accompany the choir in their performance today and to please be there at 8:30 to run through it before church.

After church I showed up at choir practice (yes I just joined last week) and was asked if I could step in and play. It's a good thing I know how to sight read.

After that I was asked if I could fill in on the piano tonight for an eagle court of honor.

I don't mind doing it, but it sure was a crazy day. Maybe I took one big turn today and now will be off the hook for a while.

Love You

A sad day has come.

When we tucked Zeke into bed tonight and said, "Love you" to him, he answered back with, "Love you".

This may seem perfectly normal, but it kind of breaks my heart. You know how when toddlers are learning to talk they mix up their pronouns. Instead of saying, "hold me" they come over and say, "hold you". Well, up until tonight, Zeke has always answered, "Love Me".

I guess I have to live with the fact that he is growing up. I love seeing him learn new things, but sometimes I wish I could freeze time and keep some things the same.

And now for a couple pictures that I dug up from Thanksgiving that I finally got around to changing the format.

Don't mess with my routine

I hate it when basketball gets cancelled.

It really throws off my whole day. I was babysitting this morning and part of my plan to survive having 5 kids under 5 all day was to take them with me to basketball where they would have room to run around.

Foiled.

Good thing it wasn't raining and not entirely too cold so we could play outside (twice), otherwise I don't think we would have made it.

Not only that, but I have the major urge to eat junk food all day long. Seriously not good. Granted, I eat a lot of junk food anyway, but exercising during the week helps make up for that. So when they cancel basketball, it really is bad.

Knowing all this about me should help me make better decisions, but instead what do I do? I buy cheesecake :)

GOOOAAALLLLL

Let me paint you little picture.

The other team kicks the ball out about a quarter of the way down the field closest to our goal. They all line up at about half field waiting for our player to throw it in. Zeke is standing about 10 feet in front of his own teammate.

His teammate throws him the ball. He dribbles down the field and...

SCORE!!!

We are not dwelling on the fact that he scored in his own goal and the other team was still watching from half field. He was all smiles from ear to ear! He came out and gave me the biggest high five and all he talked about was scoring that goal. I'm pretty sure it was the only goal our team scored. The other team was pretty big and it was our most physical game yet. However, the goal is just what Zeke needed to have the desire to get in there and participate. The last couple games he just hung back about 10 feet and watched everyone play. This time he was right in there with everyone else and doing his best to stay on his feet with the rest of his small team.

This is Zeke playing around at half time, but this is just what his goal looked like so we will pretend that I managed to catch the shot.

Look how big that kid is! Zeke is not small, but man that kid is huge!

A couple of our favorite spectators.

See how he is getting in there and playing hard.

Yet another huge player. Seriously, are these kids really only 4?

Zeke was so excited to get his medal after the game. I can't believe we only paid $10 for 4 games, a shirt, medal and entertainment. Not bad!
(Oh, one more funny story. There was a kid on the other team that was kind of a punk. You know the kind. He was staring our kids down and stuff. Anyway, as Zeke was running past him on the field a little behind the ball and the rest of the pack, he turned toward him, stuck his tongue out, and ran past. SOOO FUNNY!)

Preschool Ends

Today was Zeke's last day of preschool. They did a little program for all the parents and received a certificate. I recorded it for Toby, so I didn't get pictures. I took a few pictures at the end, but I'll have to figure out how to get them off the video camera first.

I'm not sure how I feel about preschool being over. One part of me is excited to be free of that obligation. I didn't mind being there 3 days a week and Zeke certainly loved it, but it's nice not to have things that you are forced to do. I hope I can find ways to fill our days without getting too lazy around here.

Progression

Zeke gave me a little book for Mother's Day. I loved seeing how much he has progressed over the past school year. Here is a picture that he colored at the beginning of preschool

Here is how he colors now.

And lastly, this is how he writes his name... can you see it?

It is so fun seeing him learn new things and master new skills.

Yuck

Ok Seriously, why do I always have bad nights with the kids right after I write how well they are doing. Not Fair! Let's just say that last night wasn't one of our best.

Oh and one more thing... Zeke gets car sick.

I drive over the mountain and back again twice a week (long story). It's kind of a winding road and when I'm running a little late I may drive it a little bit too fast.

Today I was running a little late.

Usually, Zeke tells me that he is starting to feel yucky in his mouth and I roll down the window and he is fine. Unfortunately for me I didn't leave the windows down long enough or I took the turns too tight because when I turned into the neighborhood where Zeke's preschool is, he threw up all over himself.

Not my best morning.

Luckily, when I brought him home again and got him in the shower he started feeling better immediately. Since he was only car sick and not real sick he was still able to go to preschool (a real concern to a 3 year old). Needless to say, I drove a lot slower and took the turns wide and smooth the second time over the mountain. We managed just fine with the window being down, but you can't blame me for having a paper bag on the seat next to him just in case. :)

Early morning isn't as bad as it used to be

Every morning between 6:00 - 6:30am Porter wakes up. I go and get him and bring him and his blanket back to my bed. On the rare occasion he is up for the day at that time, but normally he cuddles up in my arms and goes back to sleep. He sleeps there for about 20 min. before I put him on the bed and find a more comfortable position to go back to sleep myself. I probably get another hour of sleep in this way. I've tried getting him to go back to sleep in his own bed, but it usually lasts about 15 min. if at all. I'm not sure how good this habit is, but I kind of like it. He has always been a cuddly boy, but as soon as he started running around he didn't need as many snuggles from me. I like getting my cuddle in first thing in the morning before the day gets away from me. My only rule has been no kids in my bed before 6am. At least he is compliant with that one. Someday he will grow out of our morning ritual, but for now I'm just going to enjoy the special time I get with Porter in the morning.

just a good day

To finish off our anniversary week, Toby and I headed to the temple. I LOVE going to the temple and how it feels being there. It was a much needed visit and I left feeling peaceful. I am so grateful for temples and that I can have my family forever. After all, what would I do without these 2 cute boys?

Secret Date

I planned a surprise date for Toby tonight. I'm excited. I hope things go as planned. We really should do this more often. I wish I could say that I faithfully get a babysitter every Friday night so we can go out, but unfortunately I'm not that on top of things. It's been fun celebrating our anniversary all week and remembering when we met. Toby and I figured out last night that we have known each other for 9 years now!

Remembering the Waterfall

6 years ago, Toby and I were on our honeymoon in Vanuatu. To celebrate our anniversary this year we have been taking turns coming up with ways to remember our honeymoon. In Vanuatu we hiked up an amazing waterfall so for my turn we took the kids and went up to the nearest "waterfall" and had a picnic dinner. Zeke took this picture of us.... not bad huh?

The kids loved getting a chance to be outside in the rare moment that it wasn't raining.

The water was really high so we had to watch the kids pretty close.

This was a little scary, but we were super careful.

The boys ran around loving every second of exploring the woods.

Family Home Evening Activity

A few weeks ago we received some sempervivum plants in the mail from Grandma. We planted them for our Family Home Evening activity. The boys loved digging the holes helping figure out where the put the plants, but their favorite part is watering them.




Sempervivum plants are super easy to grown, have fun colors and varieties and are very hard to kill (which is one of my favorite things about them). Toby, his brother Tyson and his mom have a business selling them online. It's been a fun side project for them to work on together and they have done better than I expected.

For Mother's Day, Toby took me to the nursery down the road and let me pick out a bunch of flowers to fill the spot by the door. I was going to buy a pot of plants already done, but got convinced that it would be more fun to create something myself. I'll have to put a picture up when the flowers are blooming.

Time

Time passes too quickly.

How is it possible that the month of May is already half over? I feel like it just started.

Sometimes I wish I could freeze time. Which really doesn't make any sense because I'm always anxious for the next thing to come.

Each day passes and sometimes the days seems soooo LONG, but then before I know it, a week, a month, a year has flown by.

Alright, that's enough of my totally random thoughts on time.

Mother's day program

They did a Mother's Day program at Zeke's preschool a couple weeks ago. It was so cute. Zeke escorted me in and seated me at the table and then brought me some food. He even sang some of the songs this time. At the end he gave me a book that he made of memories from the past school year. It was a great program.

Just imagine him singing "L" is for the way you look....

"O" is for the only one I see....

This is a cute poem they learned about moms.
I love being a mom.

Home again

We made it.

Yep we are back home and ready for another week. Well, kind of ready. It always takes a while to get back into things after being out of town. I've had that old song "Back to life, back to reality" (you know the one I'm talking about right?) stuck in my head.

The boys traveled pretty well. Zeke was great. He slept for about 45 min. and then watched movies the rest of the way. Porter slept for about 4 hours! He woke up a couple times and screamed for a few minutes but then went back to sleep. After he woke up for good we only had to endure about 30 min. of screaming.

Zeke told me that after the weekend (he has no concept of time yet) and after preschool he wanted to go back to Nana and Popi's house.

We all had a great time and can't wait to go back, but more than that we are glad to be back with Toby! We missed him and are glad to be back together. Now I need to get some sleep to rest up from my vacation :)

Another Busy Day

This is how much we were able to get done yesterday. Can you guess what it is?
We are building a playground similar to the one we grew up with in Wilsonville. We worked hard! Well, some of us did and the rest kept us company :)

Then this morning we woke up super early to go run. All of us combined ran a total of 110.3 miles. Jenica was the only hardcore one that ran a full marathon. My dad, Trent and I ran the 10K and the rest ran half marathons. Considering I only ran a couple times before the race I feel like I did pretty well. It was nice to just run with my dad without worrying about times or anything.

Tonight we had a very special ceremony for these 2 people. Trent just finished his Bachelor's Degree from BYU and Kendra is graduating from High School. Trent didn't get a chance to walk and Kendra's graduation is at a time that none of us can come so we celebrated tonight.

Happy Friday the 13th

Yesterday was not my fault.... I tried to post. I really did. Blogger has been down the last 2 nights. I managed to wait it out Wednesday night, but last night I just couldn't. Anyway, yesterday was a busy day getting ready to start a big project today. Here is a sneak peak at the beginning.

We spent all day outside and some of us have sunburns to show for it. The boys loved playing with everyone there and tried to be good helpers.

Another crazy thing for the day.... Toby and I have been married for 6 years today! We were even married on Friday the 13th! We will have to party hard when we get back together.

Quick check in

We had a very LONG car ride to Nana and Popi's house today, but we finally made it. The boys were very excited to get here and we are ready to have some fun in the next few days.
Toby, I miss you. Love you lots.

Cook-ie

Porter has really started talking these last few weeks. It is so fun to hear him say new words. My favorite word right now is "cookie".

I've tried to remember all the words that he is saying but I can't even keep track anymore. Here is a list of words that I can think of right now.

Mama
Dada
milk
cookie
dog
ball
bye
buckle
go

Anyway the list is ever growing and he's really turning into a little parrot. And a picture for your viewing pleasure.

If you look close you can see the teeth that are trying to come in and that are causing everyone grief. Just hurry up and come in... please!!!

Sledding the last day of April... seriously?!

I hate how much my mood can be affected by the weather. When I woke up on April 3oth and saw that we had a few inches of snow I was a little ticked. Luckily for me, Toby was excited and the mood spread. We pulled on our snow clothes and headed up the mountain. This is our 2nd excursion up the mountain to sled this year, but we left our camera home the first time. Toby took Porter on his back this time and I got to help Zeke walk up.


When it got steep and Zeke got a little too tired, I pulled him up on the sled. Toby even did double duty for a while taking on both of the boys.

We found the perfect little trail coming off of the main trail that was just right for sledding.



Zeke wanted to do it by himself and did so over and over and over.



When it was time to head home I strapped Porter on my back and Toby pulled Zeke on a crazy ride down the mountain. We had a great time together as a family doing some end of the season (I hope) sledding.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

I never really understood what an amazing mother I had until I became a mom.

It's hard work. It's tedious, overwhelming and exhausting, but I wouldn't want to be doing anything else.

Sometimes I want to crawl in my bed and hide, but then I remember these cute little faces. I get the best hugs. I see the excitement of learning something new. I experience the joy of mastering a skill. I love being a mom. I love watching these 2 little boys grow.

And to my mom: Thank you. Thank you for being my friend. Thank you for teaching me what is right. Thank you for raising me to think of others and to find ways to serve. I love you!

And to my other mom: You are such a great example. I am so glad you taught Toby how to be a good man. You are an amazing mother and I'm so glad my kids get to have you as a grandma. We love you.

Sneakily Healthy

After working hard outside on the yard, I thought it would be appropriate to eat something a little bit healthier for dinner. I have a hard time getting my family to eat vegetables, so I finally tried a trick that I've been hearing for quite some time.

I added spinach to a smoothie.

I made a pretty healthy smoothie with sugar coming from the juice and fruit with nothing extra added and then threw in a couple handfuls of spinach.

It worked like a charm. Toby even drank it even though he knew what I was up to. The boys loved it and were begging for more.

I think I might be onto something.... weird looking, but yummy tasting smoothies here we come!

I know I'm a little late on my Saturday post, but at least I got it up right?

What are those tiny brown dots?

Yesterday was beautiful! It was the best weather we've had all year. I needed a day like that.... Bad!
Yesterday was also the day that Zeke had his Mother's day program at preschool (pictures coming soon) and the day that I had to teach a piano lesson.
Those 2 things required me to need a babysitter twice. My wonderful friend and neighbor watched Porter in the morning at the park and a different wonderful friend of mine let them play in her sandbox in the afternoon.
Both times I completely neglected to put sunscreen on Porter. Bad mom! When you have a fair skinned red head you need to carry sunscreen with you at all times.
The picture shows a little bit of his sunburn but it looked way worse yesterday. The point of this long story....

Porter's has freckles!

Toby pointed them out to me when he was checking out his sunburn last night. There is no way I could take a picture close enough for you to see so you'll just have to trust me. They are there right next to his little nose. So CUTE!

Late Birthday Post

I know this was a month ago, but I wanted to document that I did have a birthday. Toby is not the only one growing older around here. I had a fabulous birthday with some of my greatest friends. The Snows joined us for dinner at the Olive Garden and then came over for a party afterward.