A little recap

Jake turned 6. That was a big number for me. I don't know why, since it really is just like 5. Maybe because he is starting 1st grade in 2 months and that means gone are the days of a little buddy to run errands with me. I'm a little concerned I'm going to forget how to talk without Jake around to constantly badger me with questions about the most random things. The highlight of his life right now is he got a "web slinger" (Spiderman) you see in the left picture. Thank you Hasbro for the opportunity to clean silly string off my yard.

Tyler and Abbey have formed a bond I never would have expected. The problem is that Ty asked Brian for a dog for Christmas. Brian said, "sure, if you can manage to be nice to the cat for a year". Well, It's June, you look at the picture and tell me if you think we're going puppy shopping this December....

This one belonged with the Jake turning 6 but I'm too lazy to drag and drop it. :)

Tyler earned his Bobcat award. He LOVES scouts like nobody's business. He was pretty proud of himself that day.

A bunch of other random little fun fam facts:

1. I have attempted to grow a garden this year thanks to my wonderful parents who gifted me with 2 very Large planter boxes for mothers day that my dad made for me. I'll let you know if anything grows!

2. Jake has started realizing that uncomfortable feeling in your tummy actually goes away if you sit down and eat some real food besides cereal and water. I'm already dreading the grocery bill for the teenage years.

Actually, we're pretty boring...We'll have to work on that!

Tyler's birthday

Turning 8 is a big deal around here so we went all crazy and took all of Tyler's friends to Classic skating...again...to celebrate. The really crazy part of this was that I bombed out on the cake. I just couldn't manage a Snake eye and Storm shadow cake with them both fighting. They are really detailed people and, well yeah, I just wanted to buy a cake like all the other smart moms out there.

So here's the story. Brian, being the fabulous savior that he is in situations like this called everywhere. When I say everywhere, I really mean EVERYWHERE. After several failed attempts at going to cake places that said they had what we were looking for and didn't he finally struck gold...sort of.

What you are seeing is a Winnie the Pooh cake, turned GI Joe cake. They had the plastic characters for a GI Joe cake, but everything else was really girly. So they took off the winnie, scraped some frosting off and made it into a "forest fight". If you look close...closer...see that little bee happily buzzing on the side there? We left that for laughs. We didn't tell Tyler until the party was over, he never knew the difference!

Tyler's Baptism

Years of preparation finally came to a close and now we begin a whole new chapter in raising our oldest. Tyler was baptized April 10, 2010. After fasting and prayer he made the decision that this was the right choice for him. I'm so proud of the choices he's made and his decision to be baptized. We were lucky enough to have all grandparents there for it as Brian's parents were in town attending a BYU dance team reunion. Brian's mom, Diane danced with the BYU traveling dance team performing in all sorts of competitions including Blackpool. I was lucky enough to get to join her in the friday night performance of the current BYU dance teams. It was amazing and I'm so grateful for my mother-in-laws willingness to share the evening with me instead of Doug!

We had a great turnout for the baptism with family and friends. The room was so filled with love and our wonderful bishop was so great in his talk, pointing out to Tyler that everyone was there because they love and care about him. It was really special.

Here we are with our dude. Tyler just looked so grown up that day!

Ok so the hug from Jake was a little forced, but he didn't argue about it, maybe we are on the road to making better choices already!

I might point out that I was wearing 3 inch heels and Tyler was slouching. That's why he looks shorter than I am. Those of you who see us in real life know this picture isn't quite accurate......

My handsome boys. We clean up pretty good. You'd never know these were the three guys that putter around my home in ratty jeans and baseball hats.

Mothers day

Tomorrow is mothers day and it lends me time to reflect tonight. I know what my breakfast is going to be. It's a classic burrito with potatoes, no pico and a side of ranch from Eggs in the City.

Brian and the kids drove to Sugarhouse today to get it for me. It's in the fridge. My gift was dirt. Seriously, 2 cubic yards of really beautiful dirt to go in my freshly made planter boxes. In which I plan to provide myself with lots of healthy cooking additions to our meals this summer.

Although I know these things and I'm excited about tomorrow for how cute the boys are trying to do nice things for me, tonight I'm really realizing that I've got my gift, it's love. And the best start to my day comes not from a tray with a newspaper, eggs and cocoa but a little almost-six-year-old-my-birthday-is-in-three-weeks warm person climbing into bed and knowing with every piece of his soul that this is the place to be if you want to be cozy. Then the day gets better as his older I'm-too-cool-for-hugs-in-public-but-there-better-be-a-spot-for-me-in-this-bed brother comes in to join the party. This is what my life is made of.

Now it also is made of not so Hallmark moments. For example when Jake made Tyler laugh so hard today he threw up all over the freshly cleaned carpets. I was not amused. Or that moment when you realize your kids really don't care about helping you out at the moment, they just want to play with their stuff and you have to beg for help with the groceries. You don't see that on a greeting card. As I stood in the card section perusing for the perfect card for my mama, I did however see a lot of "I know I didn't appreciate how wonderful you were then mom" and "All your suffering has made me into such a successful person" and I felt gratified. At least someday those moments will have some happy light shed on them and they will then officially be a Hallmark moment. For now they are the beats on a drum that marks the rhythm of my life and I"m happy to report, it doesn't sound like a funeral march.

It's one of those crazy African drum beats that you just want to swing your arms and dance to even thought the tempo and cadence will change at any given moment and then you look like a moron jumping around. Would I change it and stop dancing? Nope. Mommy hood has been the single most wild, crazy, silly, funny, sad, unpredictable adventure I've ever been on. Those of you who know me the best, that's saying a lot. I love this. Let me say that one more time and this time say it with me.....I LOVE THIS!!!

As Jake was laying on me the other day I could feel his heart beating and I realized it's been beating next to mine for 5 years 9 months and 15 days. That's something. He said he could hear my heart. I asked what it was saying. "I love you" he said. Brilliant.

Happy mothers day. To everyone who is a mother, and everyone who wants to be and everyone in between. What a gift.

Just a few of my favorite photos from this section of my life. And no, it doesn't get any better than this :) I don't think my heart could handle that much love and happiness.

Turning Eight

It's happened, I've reached one of those big mommy milestones, My oldest turned eight. I may be a little partial, but doesn't he look handsome in his scout uniform?

Tyler lucked out for scouts, the space derby (pinewood derby with rockets instead of cars) landed on the day before his birthday so he got to participate. He was so excited! The rocket got painted red with a lot of help from grandpa in his workshop. Tyler won 2nd place! His rocket was super fast.

He's been looking forward to scouts for a really long time. It doesn't help the anxious waiting when his mom and dad are the scout leaders for the 8 year olds. We're excited to have Tyler officially joining our group!

Catching up! Let's start with Vegas Baby!

So I got one of my wild hairs a few weeks ago and in a two day period Brian and I decided it was time for a trip so we picked close by; Vegas. Now we've only spent time there once and it was really really hot, so we didn't LOVE our experience. We packed up, dropped the kids at our best friend's house, (thank you Glenn and Kecia!!) and hit the road. We just took our time driving and really enjoyed our time together. The trip itself was relaxing and fun, a little colder than we thought ( we just can't win with the weather there). We rode a gondola which was fun, ate at Maggianos where I stuffed myself silly but it was so worth it! We basically enjoyed each others company. With that being said, I'm not sure we're Vegas fans. It really wasn't our favorite atmosphere so we probably wont be doing that again. And blogger is having serious struggles getting my pictures on for me, so I'll have to add those later! We were able to totally fool the kids that Brian really stood by Indiana Jones at the wax museum!

Grateful for UT?!

I've just spent a lot of the day reflecting and whether anyone sees this or not, because it's probably been 6 months since I wrote last, no one even knows this blog still exists! Part of the reflection comes from a large up coming event. Tomorrow is the 8 year anniversary of when I became a mommy. Which also happens to be a big birthday for Tyler. My darling little Tyler is getting baptized Saturday. I'm so excited for him! I don't know if it's all the growing up going on around me but I just feel a little like life is just beating me today. Like I'm trying to run with it, but I just can't run fast enough. Those of you who know my competitive side, this is not a recipe for inner peace. I walked out my front door today to get Jake from school and felt the sun mixed with extreme cold and wind and something about the air made me miss Washington so bad it hurt. Which lead to a what am I doing here? Which lead to where have the years gone? And suddenly I'm in this melancholy state, which doesn't bode well since my amazing in-laws are due to arrive in 2 hours and I haven't showered yet. (It's 12:01 pm) And then by the time I got home from getting Jake I had moved to grateful, which I thought was a quick and nice turnaround. I don't usually admit this, but there are some things about UT I'm grateful for. Listen up, this is the only time this list will appear in public. ;)
1. I do love the mountains, they are majestic and at any given moment can turn you gaze upward, which automatically changes your life.
2. I love the lack of mold. As beautiful as the rain forest look in Washington is, I do not miss the 40 days of straight rain which then make your yard smell like last years fridge science project.
3. Family. Although we are all from Washington, somehow we are all here. Why is that? Until we can answer that, there's no where I'd rather be than near the people who have to love me no matter what!
4. Glenn and Kecia. they live here, so for that reason, we need to live here! Life just wouldn't be as much fun and filled with as much love if we didn't live by our best friends and their darling little Emma
5. I love my gym. I'm sure I would have a gym in B'ham I loved, but I LOVE this gym. They have amazing instructors that have changed my life, literally.
6. Along with the gym, I'm grateful for a new found love of Eastern arts. I've spent at least 40 hours in the last year practicing yoga and although Brian teases me that he never thought I'd be able to be still long enough to even remember how to breath much less meditate, this has brought a peace to my life that I never realized could exist. This is because of my amazing yoga instructor Abbey, whom I absolutely adore. She makes it real and personal even in a class full of 30 people. Washington doesn't have Abbey, so she goes on the UT list.
7. The running trails. They don't have many hills here, not like home anyways, so running seems a little more lazy, although the altitude just kills....still....
8. Jake and Tyler's friends. I love the kids they hang with. I've heard more moving, sweet, funny things come out of the mouths of these children I've grown to love and respect than I've heard from most adults.
9. The opportunity UT provides to make me really reflect on who I am and who I want to be. I find a lot of cookie cutter people here...uh a lot....and it just makes me have a profound gratitude for my ability to be myself. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't just be comfy in my own skin, I would hate to have to dance to someone Else's tune, I'm glad to live in a place that reminds me that being yourself is one of the most important things you can learn.
10. I love the sunshine. Even the word looks beautiful, let me say that word again..SUNSHINE!!!! You can't write that word in Seattle. (well you can, but it just looks funny)

So there you go, silly sappiness from me. I guess a day of reflection is what it take to get me back to the blog. Maybe I'll go all out and change my blog decor from Autumn to spring!

Edited at 1:17 to add:
I must be having a grateful day! I keep thinking of things I love!
11. Eggs in the city. Although finding places to eat that fit our strict requirments are hard here, this place fits the bill !!! There is nothing like a basic burrito with side of ranch..oh man, I'm hungry!
12. My chili's chillins...I've made some friendships that will last a lifetime! Ry, Stogs, this one's for you :)
13. Coffee connection. This is the only place that has it right. An avid hot cocoa drinker, this place suits me to a "T"! Comfy couches, good tables, unique service....yes I do drive 36 minutes for a hot chocolate.
14. The radio stations. I love that there is more variety than hip hop and Neil diamond.

I might have to just keep this list going.... it's probably good for me :)