Mothers Day

Mothers Day was great this year. Davis didn't have meetings so it was a super special Sunday. He got up and made breakfast...yummy. He took the kids to the store the night before and got me some fun games of ladderball and croquet. I told him I wanted stuff we could do as a family. I love the fact that my kids are getting old enough to do fun things with them. We also went up to the mountains on Friday to roast hotdogs and marshmellows. It was great to be with our little family and they had such a great time being together. So back to Sunday. Davis helped me get the kids ready and we sent them downstairs with Tanner to watch tv so we could get ready. We weren't incredibly long, but it was long enough to come downstairs to find Bennett with a sharp knife (thanks for helping him Matt) digging into a bowl of chocolate. (I had hosted a baby shower on Saturday with a chocolate fountain and the kids thought the leftover chocolate looked yummy.)
So here is Bennett covered in chocolate, Davis got the knife away from him and we were very happy not to have blood and chocolate.


This is just moments before we had to be to church too. LOL Gotta love this kid!

Church was great, Bennett had his first official nursery time. I guess he cried until Andrew picked him up and then he fell asleep until church was over. Oh well, Mom enjoyed the break.

After church we got to go to Davis' parents and talk to Trevor, who is serving in Texas. It was too short, but good to hear from him. We then headed to my mom's for dinner. After dinner the kids talked Dad into setting up ladderball and the result was a nice shiner for Ady. Such fun!!!!



It really was a great weekend and even though it's a tough job, I love being a Mom to these four awesome kiddos. I enjoy the snuggles and hugs and kisses, there were lots this weekend, especially once Ady got hurt.

Drink Up

Bennett got into the bathroom AGAIN!!! I went in and found this......



And this.........



And my favorite.....this............

Man I love this little guy!!!! Some of you might not know Bennett's personality very well, few people do, but the most famous saying from Matt is, "Bennett is a goof ball!" And he's oh so accurate. Think of Ady's exploration/into everything, Matt's goofy smile and constant hugs, Tanner's creativity and someone...might be mom's horrible temper, and I mean horrible, not mine, his!!!!! This little guy is a sweet and sour firecracker. He makes us laugh daily. He still doesn't talk, so I'm hoping when he figures that out, his temper might not be so bad....who knows. He loves to dance to the song "Hot Chocolate" which I am trying to get on video. He loves his sister more than anyone but Mom...they are the most alike...scary huh!!!!

Easter, Jello and Projects

I wasn't very good at documenting Easter this year. The weekend before Easter my nieces and nephew were at my parents so we had a "flashlight" Easter egg hunt at our empty rental. The kids loved it, okay my younger niece didn't like the dark, but everyone else LOVED it!!! My kids kept asking to do it again. We also used the rental again this year for a neighborhood hunt. It was much smaller this year and lots of fun again. We took the kids to Davis' parents annual neighborhood hunt. As always they came away with way too much.
Easter was a bit unique this year, since it was general conference. It worked out nice, but was different. We didn't watch as much as we'd liked, so we are happy for DVR. We had the regular baked potato bar at my in laws on Easter Sunday between the two sessions, then it was off to home to make something for dinner. We decided to use a ham that my sister in law gave us from the pig they recently butchered. I am not a big ham fan, but I have to say it was the BEST ham I have ever eaten....Thanks Kierst and Bryan, delish!!!!!

We have a tradition and make jello eggs and jello "beans" around Easter. Here are a few pictures of the "littles" helping out. They were so focused, it was messy but fun. I'm almost sad to put the forms away with the Easter stuff.....almost.

I have no pictures of this, but I made a double batch of marshmellows this Easter. I then coated them with milk chocolate.....let's just say I was in heaven and now I'm at least 5 lbs heavier. It's taken all the will power I don't have to not make them again....ugh!

As many of you know April is the "season" on travel for Davis. This last weekend he headed to Seattle for his first of many trips. This found me home alone with four kids....and a cold to boot, for me and Bennett and Ady. Tanner and Matt came down with it by Saturday too. So Mom was super cranky and super tired. A big shout out to a girl in the ward who came to play for HOURS on Thursday. MUCH NEEDED!!! But on a side note, I figured since I had so much time on my hands....LOL, I would do a few projects.

With me doing camp this year I have been collecting lots of stuff and my stuff usually ends up in this room by the kitchen. Well I couldn't fit in to find anything.

BEFORE:

I know it might not look different to anyone but me, but this is 6 hours later. It was a beast!!!

AFTER:

And my Mom has been bugging me about the broken cover for Bennett's high chair. I am one with NO sewng talent and no idea what to do. So I went to the store and bought some fabric and figured we'd just make do. It beats the electrical tape my Mom put on it.

BEFORE:

Okay so it's not completely finished, but here's where it is at.

I will finish it next weekend while the Hubby is away. Until then I am going to spend time with him and the kids and enjoy the small moment of a break I get while he is here.

Blackberries, Strawberries and Asparagus

The other thing I have been working on is the garden/backyard. There are way too many projects and not enough time or money. So I am doing what I can little by little. So, two weeks ago Davis spent many hours tilling a large area for the garden. He scheduled to have dirt/mulch delivered only to get 3-4 inches of snow.
Discouraged, we waited it out. FINALLY it was dry enough to get the dirt, it was delivered late in the day last Wednesday.....Davis was scheduled to fly out the next morning. So we shoveled and moved dirt until it was way past dark. It didn't all get done and hopefully we will get to it today almost a week later.

But on a side note. I had my brother come over on Saturday and till an area south of the garden for me. Over an hour, 5 wheelbarrows of dirt/mulch and many rocks later, we were done.

OH SO PRETTY

This is a monster rock got out, I should've put Bennett next to it.

So this morning I called my awesome neighbor Krista and headed to her house. She told me to come and get some blackberry bushes out of her back. Over an hour later we had 5 or 6 blackberry shoots and a TON of strawberries. While I was there she told me about a few things in her yard and I happened upon her asparagus...my kids LOVE the stuff, so we talked about it and she gave me suggestions. After putting Benno down for a nap I was off to Lowe's to get my stuff......grabbed all the kids from preschool and Tanner from a friends house, made lunch and then it was time to work on the "little patch of love"!!! Two and a half hours later we have this beauty.

This is the left side, notice the rocks in the back. That is putting the many rucks in our yard to good use.

FUN!!!!! I know for sure the asparagus won't come up this year and most likely we won't get much from the blackberries or strawberries this year. My only goal right now it to not have everything die!!!!! I want to go buy some pavers to contain it all, I hear the strawberries and blackberries go crazy if not contained....let's hope!!!!!! Maybe in a few years I'll have fabulous balckberries and strawberries to share.

More to come, we got a bid on buring the tramp...we'll see if that gets done this year and my parents are giving us their firepit, I now need to clear a spot for it. I want to install it by the end of April when we have the youth in our ward over for a fireside, how fun would that be?!?!?!? We'll see if it happens.

Randomness

Nothing incredible or exciting has happened lately. So I figured I would clean off my camera....especially since I keep telling my friend I will send her pictures of her son. These are in no particular order...okay backward, I always forget how to upload them and then hate moving them around.

Yesterday was a miraculous moment. Ady and Bennett were playing nicely downstairs. This is actually a common thing now and I LOVE it. They are the best of friends. FYI:If you want Bennett to like you (I've heard from many he likes no one and that's not true.) but, if you want Bennett to like you a: feed him, this boy LOVES his food. b: take him outside. Those are his two favorite things right now and luck has it Ady does both with him often.

So, while this was going on, I figured I'd find where the other two trouble makers are. Tanner and Matt have a really bad habit of leaving Ady out AND letting her know about it. I hear a sad, tearful Ady many times a day saying, "Tanner isn't going to be my friend anymore." "Matthew says he won't invite me to his birthday party, only Tanner." "MOM, they locked me out of the room AGAIN, it's just not fair." In fairness to the boys, she is a bit of a pain. We are working on both problems, but then again, Davis had a little sister and he smiles and says, "I soooo understand."

So, this is where the boys were. So cute, Tanner has to read 20 minutes a day and Matt (by the way he will only go by Matt, no Matthew, Buddy, Baby (my favorite, I am working on it) just MATT) today. Matt was so excited.

Okay the book was a bit boring. I found Matt like this when I came up with the camera. Who could resist.

Spring is sprining. This is a pile of weeds in the back yard. I am gradually trying to clean up our mess. I have no before pictures, and only a few pictures of what i have done so far. I will try to take a picture of more later.

This is where we will put the garden. Davis raked this area for me. We will spray weed killer, till and get ready soon.

For now the plants are in the greenhouse and on my table. No pictures of that, sorry.

Ah, what a cute bunch of kids. These are Matt's preschool friends. We have a co-op thing where we swap houses each week. My week was last week and we planted carrots. AHHHHHH

This is the monkey. Bennett is a ball of all sorts of stuff right now. He has a horrible temper, the worst I have ever seen. His temper tantrums are actually quite hilarious, it takes all my effort not to laugh out loud. He is busy busy busy. Worse than Adylin, thank goodness I don't have a Matt 9 months behind him or I would be in a looney farm. He's pretty funny. He does have horrible ezcema and no matter what I try it won't clear up. I think he might have some food allergies, but since he's a bit picky right now, it's hard to cut foods out. I think we will try harder this summer when the yummy fruits and vegis come out. This child is like Tanner and won't eat meat....an occasional hotdog, but is that really meat?!?!?!

His new favorite thing to do is climb, sit on and move the barstools. He dislikes his highchair most of the time. He would much rather sit on a chair or barstool, but if I can't stand next to him he goes to the highchair. As long as food is infront of him, he is usally okay with it. His favorite foods right now are bananas (I think he's allergic, so we are trying to stop giving them to him, after this batch I won't buy anymore.) craisins, raisins, chocolate (his all time favorite) oranges, peanut butter crackers, yogurt (I think he's allergic to this too.) marshmellows, and kidney beans. Yes weirdo!!!!

A little while Tanner had to do a biography. He chose Andrei Kirilenko (whatever kid) and then they had a "wax museum" at school where he had to dress up as the character and when you walked past the kid you pushed a "button" and they would give you a spill on their person. It was really hot in the library and I seriously just wanted to find Tanner and get out of there. He of course was the LAST child. SO I skipped ahead. Tanner is into the Jazz right now and loves to watch the games with Davis. I guess the other night Davis had friends over and he said Tanner tried so hard to make "cool" comments on the game and feel included. He even made everyone popcorn and got them drinks. If any of you know my brother in law Scott, Tanner, is very much like him.

Bennett and Grandma went to see Tanner. Notice Bennett is only concerned about one thing, the ball. One of his favorite things. That and he is into hats right now. I will have to start taking pictures.

We did it!!!!

So, last night was the big "reveal" for girls camp. We had all the young women and leaders over to our house last night to reveal our "M&M" character/theme. Well, let's just say when we first announced, showed them, it was COMPLETE SILENCE...okay a few not so kind words were spoken, but the silence was pretty BAD!!!!! I thought our YW president was going to cry....seriously. Well, luck had it we had them sitting at the table with TONS of card supplies and had them get going on those. Us leaders had a few words with one another and we finally decided to let it "simmer" and we would address it in a little while. If they wanted to dicuss other ideas, we would....okay, the idea of BumbleBee from transformers and SpongeBob were brought up with a resounding "NO" from the adults. Soon giggles and laughter and good girl fun came from the tables and all was well...for a moment. One of the girls moved over to the couch and I went to sit by her. She basically told me that she didn't like making cards and so she was just not going to do it....Okay! She then asked me what other ideas I had for camp (she was one of the verbally disappointed girls). We chatted for a little while and then the other verbally disappointed girl joined us. Hmmmmm, well I just told them how it was and a few ideas and reasons why I decided to choose what I did. They started to get more excited....I guess I should back up for a second. The old YW pres was in for 4 yes I said FOUR camps. They always had a Disney/Princess theme. Well, I for one wasn't into the whole Belle thing and neither were the new leaders, BUT we would do it if the girls really wanted to. We thought it would be fun to switch things up a bit this year......what were we thinking?!?!?! Okay, so the rest of the girls finally gathered around for the "BIG TALK" okay not THAT big talk, just the camp character. I had plugged Davis laptop into the TV, so we had a big old version of what I wanted to do. In the end we got much more excitement and joy for camp. The nay-sayers were much kinds and actually excited. So we spent about 30 minutes making our ward "M" Inroducing you to CANDIE yes, that's what we named her and I LOVE IT!!!!!



So, she is our MAIN girl and each of the girls will get on the M&M site (with me) and make their own M character. We have LOADS of ideas, but can always use more. We are still in need of craft ideas and a service project. The STAKE theme is virtue. We were learn more about that next Thursday.
So here's to another 136 days until camp is over and hopefully more sleep filled nights. Last night suce wasn't one of them.

1 out of 145

So about 6 weeks ago I got a new calling in my church....Young Women's Camp Director. For those not familiar, the girls (ages 12-18) in our church go to week long camps each summer. Lucky for me this one is only 4 days 3 nights. So to explain the title, last night was my first official restless night thinking about camp....and there are 145 days until the end of camp. So without going into too much detail yet, our color is yellow and the value for yellow is good works. I all ready have a few ideas but I am always in need of more. So, our first activity is making cards and Katie in our ward has kindly offered to help out with that (she is super talented, so I am THRILLED!!!!) So my first blog request is, if you have any scrapbook, card supplies you are willing to part with, we would love donations. Also, if you have any cute ideas for camp, I'd love to hear them. Yummy recipes, craft ideas....I will announce our theme and "character" in a week, after we tell the girls so that will help in the idea department too. Our budget is limited, so keep that in mind.

I am super excited for this calling. We have the BEST girls ever. I know quite a few of them and I know this will be LOADS of fun. I even heard they are all super talented and I have only briefly seen this, but can't wait to see more of it. If you don't want to leave a comment or have LOTS to say, feel free to email me at addisonsmommy@gmail.com

I can't wait to get closer and closer and get more and more ideas.

On the family front, my kiddos have been sick the past few weeks so that hasn't been fun, but we are surviving. Bennet is my crazy child and into EVERYTHING, but he's pretty hilarious so it's all good. Matthew is finally enjoying preschool and Adylin can officially write her name. Tanner recently did a biography report on Andrei Kirilenko...sigh, I like the Jazz and all, but really!!!!! Oh well, he is excited to be in his wax museum at school and we just bought him a Kirilenko shirt to wear for it, so he is very happy.

Shame on you Sesame Street

*Preface* This might be a lame post to you all, but it's been bugging me since I saw it, so here goes. Also, I've been wanting to do more post on how I think and stuff....

So the other day Bennett, the other littles and I were watching Sesame Street. Okay, yes I know Bennett is only one, but he loves Elmo and it gives us a little down/together time...deal with it. SO, if you watch Sesame Street you know that they have a "word of the day". Well the word of the day was "brilliant"...for those that don't know, they have a little blurb at the beginning beginning (before the opening song) that has this red monster (I don't remember his name) asking all these regular people what the word of the day means. I usually like it, people express their "opinions" on what it means and usually they are pretty right on. They then use the word throughout the show and at some point in the show they have a "popular" person that comes on and does a little spill on the word. WELL, this day, they did "brilliant" and they said it means someone is smart!!! I was seriously bugged the whole day about it. Okay not bugged enough to grab the dictionary and write a letter to Sesame Street "bugged" but, in my mind couldn't get it out of my head bugged. I was really disappointed that they used THAT and only THAT definition!!!!! It means something is BRIGHT not SMART!!!! Seriously, how SMART is a STAR!!!! Come on Sesame Street, get it right!!! I even told my kids that it means something bright (through out the whole show...since we were talking about it...) So, Ady goes, "No it doesn't Mom it says it means someone is smart!" UGH!!! Since I know better than to argue with a 4 year old about something she watched on T.V. (we all know that T.V. is much more BRILLIANT than Mom!) So, that is my soap box, I will get down now and hopefully stop thinking about it. LOL!!!!!

PS. My eyes are getting better, but not perfect yet. They dry out fast and I get headaches if I "strain" much, so I haven't been able to read (totally bugs me) and t.v. is half eyes open half eyes closed. I still can't drive comfortably, so I don't....which means I am stuck home and a bit bored at times. My doctor said everything healed great so far and that each week will get better and better and I should be 20/20 by the end of February. Crossing my fingers.

PRK

No pictures just a quick post. Yesterday I had PRK done. It's basically LASIK but much more old school. My eyes are too bad for LASIK and this was the next step before implantable contacts. So it is done, it was a crazy weird experience...I am glaad it's over. Too bad recovery has been a bit of a bear. I didn't sleep well the night before surgery. They told me to go home and sleep after surgery...no good, I layed there in and out of sleep and it was not restful. Finally at 12:30 the next morning after no sleep, I took some medicine to help me sleep. It didn't work but luckily at 9:30 am after my follow-up appointment, I finally slept. This Loritab is kicking my butt. I tbrew up the whole way home and I'm not in a blur of ickyness. I do have to say there have been good things. Davis has been a great help. He's been staying up until the wee hours of the morning trying to get work done so he can chauffer me and watch the kiddos. My Mother in Law came and watched the kids during my surgery and stayed for hours past, since it took that long for Davis to get my prescriptions filled, since the store only had one and didn't tell him until he'd waited over an hour. She also made dinner for us! YAY!!! My neighbor took my kids this morning and got the two oldest to school while I had my follow up appointment. She then worked all day and brought dinner over tonight...she truly is a Saint!!!

So, if there are mistakes in this...too bad, I can't see the screen well enough yet. LOL I am grateful to have this done and look forward to the results. THought I do see MUCH better now then I did before, just not clear yet. My kids have also been great and helpful Ady is my super duper helper and wants to put my eye drops in...no thanks sweet! So that is it for now. I will update at a later date.

Date Night

So Davis and I decided to do "date nights" with the kids this year. January he gets Tanner and Matthew, I get Adylin and Bennett. Wehave a $10 month budget per child, so they have to learn to spend it wisely. We made a list of things that were free and other fun ideas. The $10 is total (they have to pay for Mom or Dad.) So this month, Davis got free tickets to a Jazz game. They were AWESOME tickets (thanks Randy, you are the BOMB!) Davis and Tanner went on Monday to the Heats game where the Jazz KILLED!!!! Tanner loved it. Unfortunately,Davis didn't take the camera (are you surprised?!?!!?)

Last night Ady adn I had our date. She's been begging to go iceskating, so after dinner we were off to the Olympic speed skate oval. Unfortunately it didn't open until 7 and it was 6:10. I figured we would just go home, but Ady wasn't thrilled (or understanding) she thought we weren't going on her date and she'd been excited for a week. So we went to Arctic Circle for icecream.

Next we were off to skate. Despite the weird pictures and faces she is making, she LOVED it. This is just after we got our skates on. Gotta love the walker.

She spent the first 20 minutes like this...

and this.....

and this......

Pretty soon she got the hang of it and was off.

At one point she found a cute little 4 yr old boy to "skate" with. Let's just say the girl came out in her and she fell down a lot at first, and giggled. Then the competative part came out and she went ahead of him at lightning speed, where he was left to call after her. It was pretty funny. By the end she was going around with only falling about once and having a great time. It was hard to get her off the track, but when I did she realized "her feet were killing her." amd she had a nice scrap on her leg. Oh well, she wants to go back.

For Bennett, the kids have a primary thing on Saturday, so I will get to spend the morning with Bennett. I am sure we will play and then go get an icecream and fries, his two favorite things right now. Matthew is asking to go bowling. We'll see what he and Davis decide on.

Un Guard!!!

So the other day Bennett found this VERY LARGE knife in a drawer. (didn't even know I had it....isn't it just like kids to find something you didn't know you had.) Well, I was a bit concerned about it but decided to grab my camera anyway.

So anyone that knows these two, it is a constant "fight". I really hope one day they will be friends, so it was only appropriate taht the second Bennett got this knife, he went after Matthew. All in fun (in Matt's eyes) he got two small knives to fight back.

Pick up your weapon, this is a dual to the finish...un guard!!!!

Do you think you are man enough for this fight?!?!?!
First try to kill...not a success!

There it is, the kill shot!!! Victorious!!! Bennett lives for another match.

Okay, I know most of you all are thinking why in the world I would let them fight. For one that huge knife is basically a glorified butter knife. It wasn't "sharp" for the most part. But it did have a little seration at the end. I put the knives away and to answer the second inquiry I am sure you are all wondering...did he get cut. Well, not this round. He did go and find the knife again and cut his finger. So needless to say the knife has a new home in a bag in the gargage. The drawer that held such knife is now converted into Bennett's toy drawer.

Sledding

We've done some sledding and I keep forgetting to get the pictures off the camera. They aren't great, but oh well. Davis took the kids with the Sweet's so I still need to get some pictures from that. I hear Sam took some great ones of Ady going off a jump. We also went with Aunt Alyssa and Aunt Darcee. I think Alyssa and Darcee had more fun than the kids. Matt LOVES sledding. He will even bring up his own sled. Ady is a bit more lazy and either has someone else carry it up or they would pull her up in it. It was a bit icey and she is clutsy. I tried to get her to bring it up once and it didn't work too well. I'm hoping for a new batch of snow so we can go again.