Some things are worth the price

There are some things that are well worth their price. Let me name just a few that I am not willing to budge on. Running shoes. You can't go and get any brand of running shoe. There are brands that shouldn't even make running shoes. Like, Nike, Reebok and Adidas. I am sure that these companies make wonderful products, just not running shoes. Item number two, chocolate. I use to really like Hershey's. Then I met Lindt and Hershey's no longer stood a chance. Let's not leave out Cadbury eggs. There's no substitution for these heavenly inspired treats. We can't forget Glide floss. I know that it's over $3 a box, but it is indeed worth every penny. The way it glides in between my teeth makes me almost gitty! I know that you can get floss for a lot cheaper, but we are floss nazis around here. We start flossing our children's teeth as soon as the cute little teeth are in their mouths. No, that's not an exaggeration. So, we need really good floss. Glide is the only way to go. Rounding out our list is Harper's Homemade bread. I have only been able to find this wonderful bread in Utah and Idaho. Leave it to the Mormon's to know how to make bread. B says that Grandma Sycamore's is better, but I do not concur. If you can't have homemade bread from your own oven, Harper's Homemade is truly the only way to go. They have bran bread that I imagine the angels help make. Yes, it's that good.
Now, at the risk of sounding like a total snot, let me mention some things I don't mind finding for a lower price. Children's clothing. I love finding a good second hand children's clothing store. The one in Florida, what's it called? One Special Child or something like that, I didn't totally love. I felt like their prices were too high for used clothing. I have found one here that I totally love! We found pants for the baby for a dollar! They had bags of toys for $2.50. Bags of toys! Not just one or two toys, but bags of them! I love getting used toys because then when the offspring decide they don't like the toy that they had been begging for for months, I don't care if they don't play with it. I love a good clearance rack. Target has awesome clearance. When I see their red signs that say clearance, I have to go look. It's almost like an addiction and I should probably get some professional help. Toothbrushes. I love going to the dollar store and getting a pack of five toothbrushes for a dollar. I haven't had a cavity since seventh grade so I'm guessing the the name on the end of the toothbrush doesn't really matter. The dollar store in and of itself is pretty awesome! You can get children's fluoride rinse there. That's a steal because at Target it's like three or four bucks for the same thing. There is one more thing that I don't mind buying used or at a discounted rate. I didn't say cheap here, just used or on sale, and that would be a car. Now I know that we got our car in March. But when we were in Utah my sister asked why I hadn't done a post about our car. I told her that I felt weird. What was I suppose to do? Put a picture of it on here and say,"Look at our awesome, amazing car we just got that we love so much that sometimes we just open the garage door and stare at it."? She told me yes, so here's a picture of our car that we love and sometimes we open the garage door just to stare at it. No, I'm not making that up, we really do. When you upgrade from a clown car that burns oil, shakes violently at high speeds, has windows that don't close all the way, two blinkers that don't work and an A.C that blows hot air, anything would be amazing. But this car takes the cake.

Isn't she lovely?! Just looking at these pictures almost has me shedding tears of joy. Tears. Of. Joy! I am a snot in the matter of transportation. I absolutely refuse to drive a mini van. I know that they get better gas mileage. I know that they have more trunk space and are great for families. Blah blah blah. I know, but I LOVE our Acadia. We know that there's no trunk. Truly there's not a whole lot of space back there. When we go to the grocery store we usually have to put the back seat down to fit the bags, and we don't buy a whole ton of food. We also know that the gas mileage isn't that of a mini van. But oh what joy feels our hearts when we load the kids in and go for a ride. When I drove from Florida to here, the ride was so wonderful! There was no violent shaking. The windows went all the way up. The children were not sitting on top of each other. They were able to plug in their headphones and watch a movie and I didn't have to listen to it. We (my parents and B's mom rode with me and two of the three children while B drove the moving van with K) could have a conversation and didn't have to shout over the sound of the road. The A.C blew cold air and guess what? When we came to a stop sign and flipped the blinker, it came on! It even made the little clicky sound that blinkers make.

I truly love it so much that when B is driving I hope and pray that we can go in front of a building that has a lot of windows so I can see our reflection and say,"sweet ride!" B took this to Virginia when he went to the football game a couple of weeks ago. So we got to drive our white car for a couple days. Everytime we got in it both M and K would say," I hate this car! I am so squished in here! Holy cow it's so hot in here!" All of these comments made us even more happy that we have a bigger car and that it isn't a mini van!

It's all about who you know

This past weekend marked the kick off of football season. Oh BYU football, how I loathe thee! Not the players of course. I am sure that they are very nice young men. I meet each football season with a sense of total dread. I know that our Saturday's will now be planned around when the game starts. I know that moods might be affected by the outcome of the game. I know that I need to keep the blue sheets on our bed. The red ones are strictly outlawed due to red being Utah's colors. Trying to look on the bright side, at least I know what I will be wearing every Saturday until November. A BYU football t-shirt is almost a requirement on game days. So, no standing in the closet trying to figure out what to wear. Now, you might be thinking, get to the point, so I will. I have a really smart older brother. We're talking REALLY smart. He has invented a seat belt for Audi. The NFL has hired him to invent new thigh pads and shoes for the players. He receives phone calls to go talk all over the world on how to be cool like him. Well, this same brother has a pretty sweet set up and connections at UVA. BYU's first game just happened to be against Virginia. This same brother was able to get tickets to the game that included pregame access to the field and locker rooms. When we went to Utah this summer he was there and told B that he could get all of these things and invited him to go up for the weekend to accompany him to the football game. I'm pretty sure B cried he was so excited. As he was leaving on Friday morning to make the drive he tried to pull off that he wasn't so excited that that's the reason he hadn't been able to sleep for three nights, but I knew better! He was like a fat kid in a candy store, just real excited!

 When he showed me this picture I'm pretty sure I peed a little. I was laughing so hard. I'm little Johnny rain cloud, Or maybe the only one in our family not in denial, but BYU football just isn't that great. This is where my confusion comes in. I ask B a lot,"If you know they're going to lose, why do you keep watching?" He just shakes his head, gives a heavy sigh and walks away. There is no limit to his devotion to this team. If garments came with the BYU insignia, B would wear them proudly. We have gone to games where it is so cold that I can't feel body parts. There was one game where I was so cold that I thought we were trying to emulate the Willie and Martin handcart companies. I got enough courage to ask if we could leave early. He looked at me and asked if I was cold. I thought the frostbite settling on my cheeks was a dead give away. I was only able to nod. He said we could leave early, and we did! There was still 4 seconds left on the clock when we left. He just loves his team! Anyway, so I thought the sign was funny and he did too until they lost to Virginia, then the sign wasn't so funny.

Being able to go into Virginia's locker room was cool. But being able to go into BYU"s was like a dream come true! I am actually really surprised that he didn't take Taysom Hill's jersey off the hanger and put it on. It must have taken a whole lot of self control. I can just imagine that when they walked in that he had tears in his eyes. He probably felt like an Olympian walking into the opening ceremonies, humbled and so excited to be there!

Once they left the locker room they were able to go to the field. Thankfully B had grabbed his football at the last minute before he left home. My older brother told B to go long, so he did!

 The equipment manager saw them throwing B's little BYU football around. He walked over to them and handed them this ball. This is one of the balls that the team warms up with. He told them that they could throw this one around for a little while. The reason B has his sunny's on for this picture is to hide his happy tears! Ok probably not, but he was to excited to hold this ball in his hands!

Here's the crew in the end zone. My younger brother is on the end with one of his son's. Then there's the brother that hooked them up with his two boys, and then there's B. He said being on the field and in the end zone was so cool. One security guy said they had to be off the field at three. But then that guy left and another guy said they could stay as long as they were off the field by kickoff. So...

Stay on the field he did! You can only imagine his joy when the Cougs came on the field to warm up! If he hadn't cried yet, which I'm sure he had, he started crying now! Him being this close to them is almost enough to make his heart burst with joy! All he could do was stand a stare at them. If you can't imagine his life getting any better, just wait! Just picture yourself standing there being so excited you know you have a ridiculously huge cheesy smile on your face, you can hear your heart beat in your own ears and then...

...You see Taysom Hill! The quarterback walk onto the field! He said he wanted to stop him and get a picture with him and throw the ball back a forth with him, but he didn't think that would go over very well. He said he knew football players were big, but in real life,"They're huge!"

Watching his team warm up was just almost more than his proud heart could handle! When he showed me the pictures when he got home his whole face was excited. He didn't mind that there was a 2 hour 9 minute lightning delay. He didn't mind that during the third quarter it started to pour rain. He sat through it like a champ. He didn't mind that his socks didn't dry from the rain and that his white BYU shorts got brown. He just loves that he was able to go. I'm not gonna lie, I'm so glad I didn't have to go. The drive alone would have been enough to push me over the edge, let alone getting to the stadium at 12:30 when the game didn't start until 3:30. Having a delay for lightning, getting poured on and then not even winning. Not to mention staying there until 9:30. It just sounds awful and I am so happy that I was able to happily bow out and let him go and enjoy the weekend with people that enjoy watching a game where someone gets the ball and runs into the biggest pack of guys they can find. Why don't they run around the pack of guys or throw the ball over the pack of guys? It's maddening to me that they go right into the middle of the pack. it's not like they can't see them, they're right in front of them! Anyway, I'm so glad that he was able to go and that he had such a great time!

Cars and the blues

Well, I was going to put a picture on of what K does with his cars everyday, but again, it won't upload it. He loves to build traffic jams. We line up some of his cars mess them up, move to a new location and build another traffic jam. The other day while I was helping him line up the 105 cars it took to go from M's bed, out her room, around the corner into K's room and to his bed, I asked him why he likes to  build traffic jams. he told he me just does. He likes to line all of them up. He loves when Lightning McQueen is in front of Chick Hicks because Chick wants to beat Lightning, but he can't because he's stuck in the back of the traffic jam. I'm always amazed that we use so many of his cars for these traffic jams and yet he still has boxes with cars left that didn't make it into the final cut for the traffic jam that day. One morning we lined them up along the banister at the top of the stairs, turned, went in front of the laundry room, around the corner into the master bedroom. Along the wall to the bathroom and almost to the nightstand that sits on the other side of the bathroom doorway. When we didn't quite make it to the nightstand he said,"Oh dear, I wish I had more cars so we could make it all the way there. Maybe I can get more for my birthday." The kid just loves cars. He never tires of playing with them.

Now, onto the blues... I just finished the last half of the package of chocolate chips that were in the cupboard. Bummer! I hate when I eat the last of them! Mostly because that means they're gone and I don't get any more. Want to know the worst part? I had lined them up in the groups of two's that they have to be in before I can eat them.(My OCD kicking in right there!) Anyway, they were lined up so nicely in their groups. I thought to myself, "Self, that's a whole lot of groups right there. You'll be totally satisfied all night with that many!" Then to my total horror, I went to grab another set of two and...(pause for dramatic effect) they were already all gone! Not great! Thankfully I hadn't counted how many groups of two I had, but I know that it was more than a few. And they were already gone! Ya know how you feel like the trial you're going through is worse than what ever anyone else is going through? That's how I'm feeling tonight! A half bag of chocolate chips set up in beautiful groups of two and their already gone! Woe is me! 

First day of school!

The kiddos went back to school. It was a dark day in my life. The morning of was actually a lot better than I thought it was going to be. The night before was a whole 'nother story! I hear a lot of parents say they can't wait for their kids to go back to school. But as for me and my house, I don't like it. I know that they fight and they drive each other crazy a lot, thus causing me to go a little crazy. But truth be told, I love having them around. I love the rare moments when they play good together and when I ask them to do something they say OK. The night before school B asked me to say the family prayer. I made it through being thankful for the day, then the flood gates broke. I cried through the rest of the prayer. By the time I got to the part of blessing M and K with a good day, school year and being able to make new friends I was a total mess. We're talking snot running down my face so I was wiping with my hand. Disgusting I know! After family prayercame the start of school father's blessing. To say that I was a wreck through those would be a gross understatement. I was so sad that when he finished giving them their blessings he looked at me and said,"Um, I think it should be your turn." I thought the tears would never stop. I truly cried most of the night. When I woke up in the morning I thought it would start all over. Thankfully it didn't! K was so excited that rather than walking to get dressed, make his bed, brush his teeth etc, he ran/jumped. He talked even louder than normal and carried his backpack and lunch around. M was excited too, but didn't want anyone to know. K started to calm down about ten minutes before we had to leave. As we got in the car he was pretty quiet. As we drove down the street, in a very quiet voice he said,"Mommy, I'm a little bit tiny nervous." I told him as I blinked back tears that he was going to have so much fun and that he was totally going to love it. Things are done a little differently 'round these parts. All the kids go into the gym. Their teacher's name is on a piece of paper on the floor. They find their teacher's name and get in line. Then the full time assistants take the kids to their classes. So, I waved as M left the gym. Thankfully there was a really nice little girl in front of her named Kaylee that looked at her and said,"We're friends!" That made M really happy! K was more than a "little bit tiny nervous!" He wouldn't look at anyone, he just stared ahead. They did let me walk him to his classroom. When we got there he wanted me to come in with him. I gave him a hug, told him that I couldn't go with him but that I loved him and would see him after school. I walked away and didn't even cry until I was back at the car. And even then it was only a couple tears. I took a picture of them before school, but blogger is being a bum and won't upload it. After school they both said that they had a really good day. M thinks her teacher is beautiful and wears really cute dresses. So, that makes everything ok in her book. K likes that he has two teachers. The one that teaches and the one,"in the blue shirt." I'm pretty sure the one in the blue shirt is the full time assistant, but I could be wrong. We don't know her name or what she did all day we only know that she wore a blue shirt. I'm glad that the first day is over and that they didn't have as hard of a time at I did!

Rainy day

The last few days have been pretty rainy round these parts. We (meaning me and B) have actually really liked it because the rain has made it even less humid! It's already significantly less humid here than in south Florida. So even less humid is like less humid squared! It has been awesome! Anyway, there are two small children that live in this house that don't totally love the lack of clear skies. When it was still rainy yesterday they were more than a little done with it. The arguing started early. We're talking like sun up and they were already at it. I was trying to think of something we could do to help them get along more. Then it came to me! There are two steps down into our living room. We could take pictures of them jumping off the steps! Holy cow, they totally loved it!

 They were able to work out who went first. K was to go first and set the bar. He set it pretty high! I think because he's a boy, he has a better natural jump than M is. We didn't have to tell him to pull his legs up.

M on the other hand needed a little coaching. We had to not only tell her what to do, but show her too. Once she got that she was supposed to keep her legs bent and held high, she was in jumping heaven! We jumped for a really long time. That lead to a rousing game of hide and seek. By the time the game was over, lunch was ingested and we had watched Tangled, did an exercise video and went running, the rain had finally stopped and we were able to go ride bikes!

This wasn't taken the same day as the other ones. He's just too cute to not put a picture of him on here. He rolls and talks and loves to blow bubbles, especially when he has carrots or sweet potato in his mouth. We love him so much and are so thankful that he's part of our family!

Utah part II

Just because you didn't get enough from the last post, here's another one! This is a three generation picture. Not as cool as a four generation picture, but it's still pretty awesome!

 We were able to spend one blessed morning with the Tuckett's. Oh how we love this family and are so happy that we were able to see them. M loved having E to play with. Once they saw each other, they were inseparable.

 The same went for these two. We played and played and then we ate and played for a little while longer. When it was time to go, K cried and wanted to know when he was going to be able to play with C again. I know it's good for life to change, but it's so hard to make such great friends and then have to live so far away from them. Being able to spend time with them was really great!

 Yellowstone! We did a family reunion up at Island Park, Id. We were only about 20 minutes away from west Yellowstone. That just happens to be where Old Faithful is. We were able to go see it! We got there right after it had gone off. So we waited around for an hour and a half until it went off again. It was so awesome! We were right in the front and so B was able to get this awesome picture! The only bummer was that M and K were sick of sitting there waiting for it to go off. So, in the video we took of it you hear me saying things like, "knock it off! stop arguing! leave each other alone! turn around and watch it!" At least this picture turned out! Hopefully in the future we can all laugh about the screaming, fighting children and the frustrated mom that you hear on the video!

 This was at the huge craters that are in Yellowstone. The waterfall is boiling hot water and the river is cold. I wanted to touch the water a little ways away from the waterfall, but it was all fenced off, so I couldn't. I wonder if it would be warm or hot or if the water in the river is cold enough that it would just be cold. I'll add that to my list of questions I want to ask when I get to heaven.

 Boating at Island park was fun except there were green floaties in the water. It looked like lawn clippings. When you were launched into the water at high speeds from a tube behind a boat, the green stuff got all over you and had to be scrubbed off in the shower at home. It turned the inside of swimsuits green. It was pretty gross. Not gross enough to not get on the tube of course, but gross nonetheless! Little B didn't love being squished into a life jacket but was ok as long as the boat was moving.

 B was able to waterski! He hasn't done it in a really long time, so he was sore for three or four days, but loved it anyway. I guess it's like riding a bike and you don't forget how to do it. I think this picture is pretty sweet!

 M learned how to ride a four wheeler alone. She was really scared at first, but then she loved it and that's all she wanted to do.

 She even let K get on the back and get a ride. Now before you go call DCFS on us, this four wheeler has a governor on it that won't let it go above a certain speed. I totally love this picture!

 When we got home back from Island park, we went on a group date with some of my siblings and thier spouses. Clearly we went shooting. Shooting a gun is not fun for me. It actually scares me a lot. I don't like that a gun has so much power and that they're so loud. We had ear plugs and I still had to put my fingers in my ears. I will say that I love this picture. B loves to go shooting so he was like a fat kid in a candy store!

 This is the girls that went. From left to right it's, my youngest sister G, then my younger sister, S. I think her shooting with a pregnant belly is so cute! Anyway, I'm next, then my sister-in-law, J and then my older sister,S.

This is the boys. We didn't even plan to have them stand so when the pictures are under each other, they are lined up with their spouse. Left to right, my brother-in-law, J, my other brother-in-law, J, B is next. Then my younger brother, B and then my brother-in-law, J. If you go left to right the boy goes with the girl right above him. That's cool right? Anyway, our trip to Utah was fun. it was totally exhausting because we just went and went and went, but it was a lot of fun! We loved being with family and making so many good memories!

Utah part I

Now, I know that it's been a long while since I posted anything. But, we were on vacation and so being a vigilant blogger wasn't a huge priority. Actually, it wasn't a priority at all! Anyway, we went to Utah, were there for a while and then came back to normal life. I shouldn't say normal life. It doesn't feel normal at all to be here. Normal would be going back to Florida, suffocating in the humidity as we walked to Tuckett's and bumming at their house whilst B was at school or studying for a test or writing a paper etc. It feels really weird to be here, not know anyone and see B and not have him be doing school, talking about school or looking on Gasworks for a job that catches his eye. Anyway, I digress, going back to Utah was a fun filled adventure! We were able to see all of my siblings at my youngest sister's wedding. Well, not all of them. I had one sister that didn't come, but that was to be expected. The wedding was real swell! I got to see my three older brothers that I haven't seen in years. That was awesome except for when I saw R for the first time and he said,"You look the same except you're older and fatter!" Rude! Why I ask are brothers rude no matter how old they are?! I would have punched him in the face except he's like two feet taller than me... We were also able to see all of B's siblings. That was awesome too! I feel so far behind in the blogging area of my life. So, I'll spare myself the ache that comes with typing a ton and just put tons of pictures on instead. I know you've all been waiting with bated breath to see our vacation pictures,so here's just a small taste! 

Here are the girls from my family at G's wedding. My oldest sister wasn't at the reception. She's really sick with Lupus, so she was at the temple, but couldn't come that night. My second oldest sister wasn't there either, but her not coming is for another Opera. Not to mention it's Sunday today and so I'll try really hard to only say nice things, so we'll just say she didn't come. ;)

We were able to bless this dude while we were there. I'm so glad we waited to do it until we got there. That way so many of our brother's were able to stand in the circle. B said when he finished the blessing and opened his eyes, little B was laying there with a huge smile on his face. The bishop stood up and said that during the blessing he had opened one eye and little B was just laying there being very attentive to what was being said. It was really awesome!

Here we have a four generation picture. We have been able to get one of these pictures with all three of our kids. I think they're so cool. I just love the people in this picture!

Stadium of Fire! If I knew how to spell the sound a firework makes, I would have done it. If you know the song then you know that after the word fire there should be a firework sound. Anyway, I love that we were able to go this year. Kelly Clarkson and Carly Rae Jepson were there. Needless to say, I was able to sing my little heart out. It. Was. AWESOME!! Now you might be looking at this picture and thinking,"Why, K?! Whatever did you do to your spectacles?!" Just in case there are other five year olds reading this and they happen to have spectacles... glasses don't bend in half. Now that you know that, you won't have to try it out for yourselves.

This little dude slept through the entire Stadium of Fire, including the fireworks. He woke up as we got to the car. He was so happy from his three hour nap that he was smiley the whole ride home!

We went to a farm for my nieces first birthday party. M got brave enough to feed a horse. K was brave enough to keep putting hay up this poor horses nose. B and I kept asking him to stop, but he thought it was hysterical to hear the horse try and blow the tickley feeling out of it's nose. One time the horse had had enough! B was standing on the other side of the horses head, K inserted a piece of hay, the horse moved it's head really fast. My younger brother ducked out of the way, but B didn't move, the horse's head stopped right in front of B. The horse stomped it's foot, showed it's clenched teeth and spit/blew it's nose all over B! I know I shouldn't laugh but every time I think about it, I crack up! I see B in my minds eye getting horse spit and snot all over the front of him, standing there and saying,"Sick! That's disgusting!" Oh my word, it was so funny! Even now as I write it I'm weeping from laughing so hard! 

One night we went camping. We picked the only night of our entire trip that it rained. It started to rain as we pulled up to our campsite. I'm pretty sure it stopped raining as we drove out of the campground the next morning. Even though it was raining we still had so much fun! The mountains are beautiful! My older brother that lived in the checz republic said that when he told people there that he was from Utah they would tell him they'd been saving money their whole lives to go to the mountains in Utah. He also said that the mountains in Utah look just like the swiss alps. We miss the mountains so much and totally love that we were able to go camping even though it rained the whole time.

I don't know how the boys made a fire stay through the rain, but I'm glad they were. I had forgotten that in Utah when it rains, it's cold rain. I hooked B on to the front of me and wrapped him in a blanket. That was on top of his long pants and jacket. When I took him off of me to put him in bed, his hands and feet were still cold even though he had been wrapped up so much.

I don't know why these pictures are not in a neat orderly line. It really bugs me but I can't figure out how to fix it. Anyway, our best friends in the whole world were able to come up to the canyon for dinner and to just hang out. They couldn't stay the night because it was a weekday, but we still loved to hang out and spend time with them. M and K loved having R and R there to play with. We love this family so much and we are so happy that we were able to hang out with them a few times while we were in Utah.

We had to hike to Stewart Falls while we were there. It was so awesome to be able to be outside in the middle of the day and not die of the heat. M and K said more than once that they loved that it wasn't so hot there like it had been in Florida. The falls were more beautiful than I remember them being. It was an awesome hike!

We floated down the river too. The water is still freezing cold! It didn't take too long before my bum was numb. K refused to sit in the little raft we had for them. I secretly wanted to push him into the water and if it hadn't been so cold, I would have! Now, that's good parenting right there!