The last day of school has arrived!!!!!! I am so excited and a little scared.

"A day late and a dollar short."

I am 2 months behind on this party post, but we did celebrate in a timely manner. :)
Emma is FOUR!










Nathan's tradition...

Other dads need to do this. I have seen such special amazing smiles on our girls faces when he gives them their birthday rose. They feel so special.











The princess girls... (And one goofy prince).









Other moms' should understand this picture. For some reason the activities never fill in the full time of the party, so I get to quickly brainstorm for 4-year-old "games". Creative, I know...

I get that I am an inch away from being the "annoying blogger from Vernal who keeps talking about her animals". So here's a little Mason cuteness. (Above: I think there is a picture of Dad Dale doing this, only in black and white because it is so old. Below: His new favorite game. So stinkin' fun playing with that boy-boy.)
Hailey stealing third base:
Awwww....little girls are so doorbell. (Emma's version of adorable)
Funny picture alert! We were at the city offices signing up Ty for football and who happened to be on the wall? Mr. Vernal Youth Mayor of 96', that's who.
Our dinner tonight: BBQ steak and vegetables.It was easily worth a 100 bucks plus tip, but we got it a fifth that price hand-grilled by the previously introduced 96' Vernal Youth Mayor. SOOOO delicious when we grilled in our backyard and watched the entertainment of kids running through the sprinkler.
And looking back at those sprinkler pictures I found this one:
(Yes that is the rooster). Oops, I talked about our animals again.

gulp

We could have had.... (hold on, let me get a calculator)...19 rabbits. Nineteen. Niner+teen. Do you get that number?

Saturday morning Tyler ran in terrified because there were "alien babies on the patio". We ran out and there were 8 cold "passed on" rabbits. It happened again yesterday morning with the other female adult rabbit. Apparently they came to us pregnant and we had no idea. They had their babies and created a VERY heartsick family (us) because the babies fell through the cage and didn't make it because the mommas couldn't get to them. We feel so terrible and hoped they didn't suffer too much.

Rabbits are busy.

(I might be a little grateful that this is the way mother nature worked. Just a little. Don't tell.)

We are responsible animal owners and are going to separate all of them and give the male away. Anyone? Anyone?

Surreal morning

Life has been busy. I feel like I am up to my eyeballs in baseball, (both Tyler and Hailey), and I am surround by mess, chaos and animals all the time. But this morning Emma went to a friends house and Mason is STILL ASLEEP. (We are going on 19 hours people). He apparently is wiped out, too. I keep checking on him and he goes from stink-bug to flat on his back every half hour. 

    Anyway, I can't believe how much can be done around the house when I am alone. I did a ton of house work this morning (even touched up the scuff marks on the walls with paint!), and then finished my new "project". A reading corner in my kitchen. "READ" and "I cannot live without books".-Thomas Jefferson, with a picture of a never-ending path in the woods to stimulate and inspire my children to lose themselves in a good book.  When Tyler saw it last night he rolled his eyes and Hailey pretended she was dying because she "needed a book RIGHT NOW!", so my plan has only inspired mocking from my children, but I just KNOW that they will want to curl up with a good book soon.

My answer:

Boys.

The question: Which are harder to raise?

What a disgusting lunch I had.

A red pepper dipped into hummus and a bowl of plain brown rice. blah...I think I need to eat less healthy.

Hailey's 8th Luau Birthday Party

Super fun. We had some great decorations, (thanks Carol!) but I especially loved the hung pink flamingo (I was in a huge hurry). Great to be 8!

FHE is the best.

Had to write this down. Last night we had the simplest Family Home Evening reading a children's book called "I am a Child of God" which I picked up at BYU during Woman's Conference. Read a scripture, sang some songs, and then went and played catch in the backyard. Afterwards we sat in a circle to eat ice cream sandwiches together and our entire family except Nathan got the "giggles". Nathan kept saying, "Everybody be quiet and listen to the birds and crickets," and sure enough we would all try and then start cracking up. Tyler had tears running down his cheeks and he asked, "Can someone die because they are laughing so hard?" Then Emma tried to walk like the rooster while being cross-eyed. (Wish I had a picture). Then we dog-piled on Nate. Then me.

When I was putting Hailey to bed she said, "This was the best family home evening I ever had."

Sweet.

Mother's Day 2009

My kids are awesome. All day long I received homemade note after homemade note. In sacrament meeting I led the Primary in singing "The Dearest Names", and I a) loved watching Tyler, Hailey and Emma sing that for me, and b) I loved seeing all the Primary kids sing that for their moms. (Although they were all watching me because I had a poster in my hands with the words on it). I absolutely love kids and their total innocence, exuberance and sweetness. Even when T, H an E ask me two times EACH to go to the bathroom after the sacrament was passed. Oh, and I love my new weed wacker from Nathan. :) BUT, my Sunday nap was interrupted by Cherry the Stinking Loud Rooster cawing, (crowing, croaking? whatever they do) outside my bedroom window. 

I found this on a friends blog. It is from Emma Bombeck who I love reading. Stay strong mothers of young children!:

"A young mother writes:  "I know you've written before about the empty nest syndrome, that lonely period after the children are grown and gone. Right now I'm up to my eyeballs in laundry and muddy boots.  The baby is teething; the kids are fighting.  My husband just called and said to eat without him and I fell off my diet.  Lay it on me again, will y,ou?"

OK.  One of these days, you'll shout, "Why don't you kids grow up and act your age?"  And they will.  Or, "You guys get outside and find yourselves something to do... and don't slam the door!"  And they won't.

You'll straighten up the boys' bedroom neat and tidy:  bumper stickers discarded, bedspread tucked and smooth, toys displayed on the shelves.  Hangers in the closet.  Animals caged.  And you'll say out loud, "Now I want it to stay this way." And it will.

You'll prepare a perfect dinner with a salad that hasn't been picked to death and a cake with no finger traces on the icing, and you'll say, "Now, there's a meal for company."  And you'll eat it alone.

You'll say, "I want complete privacy on the phone.  No dancing around.  No demolition crews. Silence!  Do you hear me?"  And you'll have it.

No more plastic tablecloths stained with spaghetti.  No more bedspreads to protect the sofa from damp bottoms.  No more gates to stumble over at the top of the basement steps.  No more clothespins under the sofa.  No more playpens to arrange a room around.

No more anxious nights under a vaporizer tent.  No more sand on the sheets or Popeye movies in the bathroom.  No more iron-on patches, rubber bands for ponytails, tight boots or wet knotted shoestrings.

Imagine.  A lipstick with a point on it.  No baby-sitter for New Year's Eve. Washing only once a week.  Seeing a steak that isn't ground.  Having your teeth cleaned without a baby on your lap.

No PTA meetings.  No more car pools.  No blaring radios.  No one washing her hair at 11 o'clock at night.  Having your own roll of Scotch tape.

Think about it.  No more Christmas presents out of toothpicks and library paste. No more sloppy oatmeal kisses. No more tooth fairy. No giggles in the dark. No knees to heal, no responsibility.

Only a voice crying, "Why don't you grow up?" and the silence echoing, "I did.

Chicken wings, rabbit stew or ham?

Remember my quiet Friday night? (previous post). Not happening tonight. Introducing Chip, Cherry and Snowball (nickname: Crystals, who actually is not in this picture but is a small white bunny, thus the name). These are the prizes at our ward party, which we were so excited to get until we were driving home in the car and Nate and I looked at each other. Um, can you say reality check....

And this was our dinner...

Quiet Friday Night

So Masey-poo is transitioning from 2 day naps to one.  Which mean he goes to bed around 7:00. (1 down). 

Emma and Hailey have had birthday party mania the last two weeks and are exhausted. (2 more down). 

Tyler and Nathan are up in the mountains somewhere for Father and Sons. (Again, 2 more down). 

Which leaves me in my quiet office listening to the insanely loud birds tweeting outside at 8:47 p.m.  Sounds like a good night to lay in bed with a string cheese/pepper cracker/grape snack and read a good book. The small personal delights of a slightly worn-out mom. 

A weekend with the females...

Women's Conference at BYU. (Not "busybody" conference!) I think we all enjoyed some alone time together. Next vacation will be to Virginia for Jamie's delivery. Can we all come in the delivery room?Mr. Stucki's graduation. Good job little brother.
For real, I came home to a SPOTLESS house (love ya Nato!) and a big batch of homemade cookies. But that night the kids all decided to CHANGE ROOMS!!! (Those are sarcastic exclamation marks). Which means everyone is honky-dory for about 30 minutes and then quit working so I ended up with a house looking like this: 

(Mason was really annoyed that he couldn't crawl). And yes, every room looked/looks like this. I am still chipping away at the disaster.

My Cup Runneth Over

Whomever Mason is named after (that would be Dad) gets him. Now. As in right now I am Fed-exing him down to Highland. Tonight cub scouts, new scouts and softball practice were all simultaneous so I had Emma and Mason at Pack Meeting by myself. WITHIN MINUTES Mason zip-crawls to the front for that never-annoying "baby banging on the piano" that happens occasionally. 2 minutes later he is somehow in the front of the room again with his hands reaching up to the platter of frosted brownies right during the Pledge of Allegiance. Yes, the whole room watched as it tips over onto the carpet/Mason's head and he starts grabbing brownies like the world is going to end any minute. He sees me coming and  stuffs them as fast as he can into his mouth and behind him. Covered. In. Chocolate.  And so is the carpet. That is only the start as he tries to crawl out of the room every time someone opens it and yells at Emma to get him his toy a bazillion times. Oh yea, his command for EVERYTHING (and yes it is a command) is "Mom".  But in a LOUD-barking-chinese-torture-demanding-army-sergeant kind of way. Nice.

   So why is my cup running over? 14 months ago I specifically prayed that this boy could one day be a toddler and that he could enjoy this stage by being a terror and making messes. I was blessed tenfold. Or maybe a hundredfold.  Seriously. 

I love that boy.