Coming to a close

I am SO excited to say that a week from today I will be in San Francisco with Todd. I drive down to Salt Lake EARLY Wednesday morning with Holland and hop on a plane to CA (technically I go to Denver first). I get to spend three days with him sightseeing and catching up. Thank you a bunch to Lacey for taking on the other three kids while I'm gone. I owe you big time! Hopefully the weather cooperates since we plan on walking most every where, and I could really use some sunny CA weather. I can hardly believe this is almost over and I'll have my husband back. This has really made me see how much I rely on him and made me appreciate him even more.
I Can't Wait, I Can't Wait, I Can't Wait!!!!!!

Todd

Happy Birthday Todd!!!!!

Yet another important day we get to spend apart. At least I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. I leave April 1st to fly out to San Francisco to spend a few days with him and then we fly back together.

Hope you find something fun to do for your birthday, we miss you and can't wait to have you home for good!

Who Knew????

For Christmas this year I wanted to get the kids a wagon and a new picnic table for the summer.(thanks again mom & dad) Well with the weather being the way it is I thought it was time to break out at least the wagon. Problem was it was still in pieces in the box and Todd's not available for assembly. Ok so how hard can it be??? (notice there are only three wheels in the picture, it took a minute but I found #4)
I think it was my big helper that made all the difference.


Who knew I was so handy?? It even rolls and the wheels stay on.

Blast Off

We thought we'd be a little adventurous this week and try something new. I'd heard about this place in IF about a year ago and finally got it together enough to try it out. It's a play place kinda like McD's only HUGE. They have three ball pits.




can you find five heads?

A zip line


and all kinds of tubes to crawl through and slides.


I wouldn't say that this was the highest quality establishment but the kids loved it and it was a nice way to run off some pent up winter energy. We of course wanted to go with cousins so we had that much more fun with Ryker and Conner. We'll be going back again I'm sure.

At Least it's not white!

I never thought I'd be so excited to see brown grass. This is a much better winter than last. I know we'll probably get the freak snow fall in May but hey I can live with that. I am so excited to see my daffodils and tulips again! Come on spring. I think the kids are just as anxious as I am to see the snow go. They know they have a better chance getting outside if it's gone. These pictures are for Todd to see how much it's melted here while he enjoys the sun and warmer weather of Cali. Look what you get to come home to. (he also told me I should get out there and rake it so it grows green faster, we'll see)

I love that the mailbox is finally clear of it's snow bank, true sign spring is on it's way

Happy St. Patricks Day

I have never been one to really get into St. Patrick's Day. I don't intentionally wear green or even care. But now with a kindergartner things have changed. Quinton has been so excited for this St. Patrick's Day, he's been sing songs about rainbows and leprechauns, and pots of gold. Last Friday they sent home a note saying that each year a leprechaun plays pranks in their classroom and if we'd like our child could make and bring a leprechaun trap to school to see if they could catch him. So I looked on line first to see what a leprechaun trap was before I talked to Quinton about it. Well it didn't seem like such a big deal so I asked if he would like to make one. You'd think I'd asked if he wanted ice cream for dinner. He was making plans on what he was going to do with the leprechaun when he caught it. So here is Quinton and his leprechaun trap, we'll see if it works when he gets home from school today. Good job bud!





Happy St. Patrick's Day! Hope we catch one!

Ten Year Anniversary!!!!

Happy anniversary to us!
(warning this is a long one)

For my anniversary post I thought I'd share how Todd and I met and how he proposed.

The year was 1998, ok seriously though, I had seen Todd at a few young single adult dances and I was friends with a few of the guys he was also friends with but we never really talked. He always seemed to be with some girl or another. Well a friend and I (a guy friend) went to this huge concert in the Seattle area called End Fest. And when we got there we ran into Todd and our other friend. We ended up hanging out together the entire concert. I was so glad I was with him because he protected me a few times from going down in the crowd. (thanks hon!)

Leaving that night with my friend he asked me if I thought I'd hear from Todd again, I said I hoped so and crossed my fingers.
I did hear from him in the next day or two and a little over two weeks later we were engaged.

Of course he didn't just propose, he had a great day planned out for me first.

I remember sitting in my room at my parents (I had recently moved home) and my mom came down with some daisies and a note. The note was from Todd explaining that I was going on a little scavenger hunt and where I was to go first. So my dad dropped me off at a friends house where I had to solve my first clue. He had taped phrases to individual monkeys from a barrel of monkeys and I had to put them in order to get the next clue. Well lets just say this took way longer than I think he planned. (not a good start to showing him how bright I was) Eventually I figured it out. From there I was off to Applebee's where I told them my name they sat us at a table (my friend was with me from here on out to take pictures) brought me lemonade and a plate with a plastic crab on it. Inside the crab was my next clue. I then headed to a local miniature golf course where we had gone on dates and had too look in the flowers for the next clue. Now I should say these clues were not just worded "go here next" they rhymed and were in a riddle, it was so fun! So at the golf course they gave me a paper crown to wear and I found my next clue. I was off to a church building where we had gone to some YSA dances. In the parking lot there I found a car (was that Doug's? I can't remember) covered in streamers and stars that said Todd loves Tiffany

and on the dashboard there was a plate of fortune cookies. In the fortune cookies was my next clue which I had to piece together to know where to go next.


So this final clue led me to Point Defiance, which is a park on the beach. So I'm walking up and down the walk along the water looking for him and I see this guy in a rainbow wig, red shirt, yellow pants, and those glasses with the big nose and mustache attached walking towards me. He is also carrying a bunch of balloons. Of course this is Todd, I now have to pop the balloons to find my ring. (side note: one of the balloons had gotten away, lucky for Todd it wasn't the one with the ring in it.)


He then gets down on one knee and proposes.


It was one of the best days of my life!
(I've had a great time going through the "our dates/engagement book" you made for me)

Seven months later we were married in the Seattle temple (the BEST day of my life).


It has been an amazing 10 years with some surprises along the way, but I wouldn't change any of it. I am so lucky to have married someone who makes me want to be better, someone who treats me like I am the most important person to him. I love you tons Todd and can't wait for the next 10 and the next 10 and the next 10 etc . . . . . .
Happy Anniversary!!!!

Thank you so much for the beautiful Tulips, they're perfect!

(My bouquet was made of white tulips)

Family Night

For Family Night tonight I thought the kids could use some time out of the house and a treat, especially since I've been pretty grouchy for almost a week. (reasons have been made clear) My intention was to check out the new play place in Rexburg at Artic Circle but when we drove by it was packed! So we oppted for McD's. The kids didn't complain they had a blast running around and going down the slides. I'm always a little nervous when small children come to play, small meaning like 1 to 2. Ellie is miss mother and will help them if they need it or not or want it or not, tonight was no exception, poor little girl. luckily her mom was very understanding. We also got a treat while we were there which the kids thought was so great!



Ellie and Quinton got ice cream cones while Weiland went for the strawberry sunday.


And Holland of course had her favorite thing, her fingers.



I'm really trying hard not to be such a grouch and speak kindly to my children. I don't want them to be afraid of me, or remember me as always being mad. This is a huge worry of mine, and something I'm always working at. I am so not that mom who always has a quiet, calm voice with my children, even when they're in trouble. But I am working on being better.

Thoughtful

Todd does it again. I'm trying to get motivated enough to get on my treadmill again (which I actually did on Saturday) and so for Christmas I got myself an MP3 player to listen to while on it. Well since Christmas I have had no luck getting any songs onto it. I think trying to use our Mac was the problem but I was so frustrated with it I'd given up any hope of using it.

Well my surprise arrived today, not later in the week like I had thought, and it was an IPod shuffle with a sweet note from Todd. It is so tiny! I'm a little afraid of loosing it, but I think I'll manage. So now because it's also an Apple product I can put the songs I like from his extremely long play list he has on I-tunes on to my shuffle and truck away on the treadmill happy that I don't have to listen to "Little People".


if anyone is interested in this MP3 player let me know, I'd sell it cheap!

isn't it cute!

Thank you again sweety, that was very thoughtful of you. I love you a bushel and a peck!

fashion sense

Last night we're sitting and listening to the stories my mom sent on CD and the boys hop up and disappear in their room and they come out again dressed like this. What brought this on is way beyond me. This is why girls should dress their guys.

Then they were getting their PJ's on and Weiland comes out to get help with his and he's got this getup on underneath. And this morning I sent Quinton to get dressed for school and he comes to me to help with a button and he's still got it on under his cloths. What is the deal? They made me laugh.

No news is good news

I should just leave it at that. This week had been fairly uneventful, which is actually a good thing. I could use something on my calendar in the near future to look forward to, sorry hon five weeks is a little too far out right now. Todd did say he got me a surprise and it should be coming this week so that's definitely something except I have only an approximate date to go with it. I'll be sure to post once it arrives what ever it may be.

Kids are healthy, knock on wood, no major disasters to speak of. Holland has become much more vocal and I'm afraid she's already teething, watery eyes, runny nose, grouchy in the evenings, loves to chew on what ever she can manage to get to her mouth, and of course slobbery.

Looking forward to another fairly uneventful week, only a few thing on the calendar. Lunch with the girls this week, FINALLY a Red Robin run some night this week. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to this! So enjoy your week as well.