Reverse Bribery???

We have had a MAJOR problem with the boys thinking that they can eat food in the family room lately. We have said for a long time that the rule stands as.. "You have to be married to eat in the family room or anywhere on the carpet!" We have some who are repeat offenders over and over so it was time to change the punishments. Mark thinking that he was going to stop things for good decided that he would fine anyone caught with food $1 everytime he found them in the family room. So yesterday, without shame, Tate comes to Mark with a dollar in quarters and proudly announces that he is going to have his snack now while he watches t.v. !!! Way to go Tate... so much for our brilliant parenting skills!

Why I will NEVER go to a store again without my Floppy Seat!

O.K.... so that is really not Reese or I in the picture... but I owe much praise to the Floppy Seat company for inventing such an inspired product and I will never leave home without mine again!!!! Yesterday, Reese and I made a fast trip into Target for just a couple of items that I needed. In a rush to get out the door in the morning for her Dr's appointment, I did not put the Floppy seat back into the Yukon before I left. Knowing that I would not be in the store long, I thought ..."We can handle a few germs... I never had one of these for the boys... how bad can it be?" We grabbed a few things and were just about done when I was standing in the isle with her and she begins to cry frantically. I immediately looked down to see her arm stuck in the metal bars on the back of the seat. She had turned herself around to see what was in the cart and somehow had put her arm through the bars ELBOW first!!!! Her little arm was not budging AT ALL!!! It was so scary. In a frantic plead for help, I turned to two older women in the isle and said... "Please HELP me!!! Her arm is stuck!!!" All the while Reese is screaming at the top of her lungs and trying everything possible to get out of the cart. Imagine now... she was turned backwards when this happen so she is in a very awkward position now with her arm pinned behind her. It was nothing short of AWFUL!!! We pushed and wiggled on her her little arm while it is now bruising before our eyes and swelling from all the pressure. In a plead with Heavenly Father... out loud, right there, I prayed that she would be able to free her arm from the cart quickly. Then suddenly with a little more effort her arm immediately comes free! Thank you Heavenly Father for prompt response to prayer. I can't tell you how grateful I was to have those women there to help me. As I held her and comforted her after getting her out I was shocked to see how quickly her arm had bruised and turned purple. I am now a FIRM believer in taking my Floppy seat everywhere... even if it looks like I am hauling in my sleeping bag for a sleepover in Target! So to all you Mom's out there who thought that you didn't need the extra large germ-a phobic cover for the shopping carts.. THINK AGAIN! They do far more than keep the crud away!

The Week in Pictures .. or at least a few!

Tanner may think twice before having his next sleepover. After going to bed at midnight (sleeping out under the stars on the trampoline), all the guys decided to wake up at 4am for a little more time aorund the campfire and hot cocoa. By about 6am Tanner was ready to catch a few more winks. That didn't last long after some of the kids thought that putting whipped cream on Tanner's face would be fun. What a mess! Brock enjoyed his Family Fun Day at preschool... he had a great time sliding down the slides - especially the one from the Moon Bounce. Mark, Reese and I were able to join him for a picnic lunch outside and then all the games that followed. We squeezed in making Strawberry and Boysenberry jam... yum! Tanner had his board of review for his Tenderfoot in scouting and only has two things left to get his first class also. Missionaries for dinner... always a treat. We guarantee great journal writing material for the Elders when they come to our house for dinner. There's never a dull moment!!! Just when we thought we were making progress... Reese decides that it is still better to eat her bows than wear them! Does she look worried? Ha! That's just a few of the many moments at our house this week. Always fun and on the run!!!

And After...

Who needs a gym membership when I can buy enough trees and shrubs to keep any man in shape! Mark did an awesome job of completing the landscaping on the side yard. The picture just doesn't do it justice, but it really looks nice!!! There are two beautiful pink dogwood trees up closer to the house which should get their leaves soon and then they would show up in the picture too. Just don't tell Mark that I bought another climbing vine to plant out there and I think we need a couple dozen day lilies! We'll give him a few days before I dump those on him!!! After 4 loads of mulch, we think that we may still need to take one more run with the trailer, but the boys have been great helpers at hauling the mulch to the beds. It only cost us a few pairs of pants thanks to the beautifully stained backsides of a couple of little boys jeans. They just couldn't resist sliding down the piles of mulch... red dyed mulch... YIKES. Mark is also savoring the moment that Tanner is now old enough to help cut the grass. Mark could hardly wipe the smile from his face the other night as he finally was able to have Tanner cut the entire backyard. The only problem is that now Tanner and I fight over who gets to cut the grass. I LOVE to cut the grass...it's an hour of peace when no one can bug me!!! And thus begins another fun year of yard work...

Landscaping... BEFORE....

Here is the before picture of our current landscaping project. After 5 years, we have finally decided to landscape the side yard of the house. Mark and I went to Lowe's last week and bought some trees and shrubs... then I went to Home Depot again over the weekend and found several more for him to plant. He's got an entire nursery out there to get into the ground. He love's me so much! And then the mulch to top if off... should be a fun project... for Mark! Reese certainly enjoyed watching all the action and the boys are all enjoying digging holes in the yard and not being punished for it! I can do without the mulch fights and dirt wars.. but it's still worth it! Our landscapers... aka the boys.. don't realize this means a whole lot more flower beds to weed. Ah... more chores to keep people busy this summer. We'll post more pictures when the project is done.

The JOY of BOYS... the experiment gone wrong!

Some may wonder why these cute little shoes would be under the above caption, however if you knew what they went thru you would be amazed that they look this good!!! So yesterday we get ready to leave for church... late as usual... (joys of Mark being at early morning meetings already)... and we drive quickly up the street. We turn onto Providence Road and start heading off to church. Suddenly, I hear a thump...clunk, clunk and look in my rear view mirror to see something flying off the roof of the Yukon. My first reaction was... in my crazy rush to get out the door, did I leave something on the roof??? Why would I have ever put something up there. In that second, Tate exclaims... Oh NO... that was my experiment. Experiment?... I thought, what experiment? I quicikly pulled into the closest neighborhood entrance to find out what I had missed out on while loading things in the car. While the boys start taking shots at Tate for the issue... Tate tries to explain to me that he put Reese's shoes up there to see how far they would make it down the road. Yikes... how many other times has he tried this and what else have we lost that I had no idea about??? As we stop the Yukon I heard another thump on the roof... could it be? a shoe? I hurried out and stood on the running board ( in heals ) and amazingly one shoe survived!!! I thought great... we have one but a lot of good that does. Then Tanner and Brennan start claiming that they knew where the other one landed. I gladly sent them out to find the lost shoe. Quite funny to see them running along side the road in their white shirts, ties and blue blazers. Wasn't Easter a few weeks ago... the egg hunts over! I'm sure that's a thought that ran thru people's heads as they drove by. Then Tanner won the prize for finding the lost shoe!!! No scuffs... still in tack... AMAZING! We all giggled the rest of the way to church and unfortunately through most of sacrament meeting. But hey... Tate found out that experiments sometimes backfire and we all laughed instead of fought all the way to church! All for the love of a pair of clearance shoes from Gap! Ah.. the joys of boys! What will they think of next... I'm not sure I want to know!

He's created a MONSTER!!!!

Let it be known that Mark was the one who started this blog and he will forever regret getting me into this!!! Oh my, I'm going to have a blast messing around with this everyday. Dishes... what dishes??? Laundry.. who needs clean clothes??? Dinner... Take out anyone??? I'll never get anything done now... or at least I will never get to bed each night. I should be outside enjoying the beautiful day though. Finally a warm day.. where are the 70 degree days this year? I'm sure come August I will be wishing for a day like today. I won't complain anymore. It makes for a great day to get more landscaping done outside too. Hey Mark... get back to work! We are in the middle of landscaping the side yard and finish mulching all the beds. JOY. But oh how we love to mess in the yard. Mark has decided that he can always use landscaping as a back up if the market tanks! (Let's hope that doesn't happen... but he does a great job in the yard.) Well it's very quiet around here right now so I guess I better take advantage of it. Reese is sound asleep, Tate and Brock are playing at the neighbors and Tanner and Brennan are at Art Club at school. HOORAY.. peace if only for a minute!

Craig's List Does It Again!!

After one full year of Wendy telling me that I needed to sell my KX 250 motorcycle before I seriously killed myself, or even worse...I finally listened to her and put an ad on the internet. I listed it on Craig's List on Monday, and today a guy who is in the military came to the house, paid me, and drove off with it. He was all smiles, and had good reason to be. That bike had less than 8 hours of riding time on it, it was brand new!! But I had to shed a little tear as that beautiful green machine drove off into the sunset, but then I remembered how much I enjoy walking around without crutches and a body cast, and it wasn't so bad. Besides, we're going to use the money to pay for part of our trip to Nauvoo this summer, so that's a good thing. Wendy was happy, and she asked me what else we could put on Craig's list. How about a few of the 27 storage tubs of Christmas decorations? Or what about a couple of the 13 bicycles clogging up my 3-car garage so bad that I can't get a single car into it? I wonder if anyone would want a sack full of socks that don't have a match? Then there's the snow sleds that we moved here with and have used only twice in 5 years...I don't think we're going to need those. The possibilities are endless. Craig's List is our new best friend!