in a nutshell...

Over the past couple of weeks we have:

Celebrated a little girl turning one

I just had to buy Kimber some squeaker sneakers like Ryan wore when he was learning to walk,

hearing the little squeaks each time he took a step was just too cute.

Cheered Ryan on as he earned his Tiger Yellow belt, he soon will be moving up to the big kids class.

Luke was my only kid to make it to school all week long, Cody missed three days & Ryan two. 

Thankfully we are all back to healthy.

I enjoyed a kick boxing class with lots of the family, always wanted to try one and now I can say that I did.  It was fun, I liked it.

We have watched a couple of Luke's flag football games in not the greatest of weather.

The coach put nicknames on the back of the jerseys for the kids.

Luke's just says McMullen, he wanted either Falon or Terrance (names from a wolf book he likes) but I wouldn't let him because we have never called him those names but he was hoping that we would start, sorry dude not happening.

Over spring break we watched a few movies, The Life of Pi, Parental Guidance (again) and The Croods.

We also picked out new carpet for the house so that meant a whole new list of projects to be done.

Things like painting a couple of rooms, painting all of the baseboards, and ripping out all of the old carpet.

I'm already tired but only ten more days of work and it will all be done.

Easter at my parents with the family.

Pictures after church, which always makes everyone so happy.

(I uploaded them too small so they don't look so good)

but I promise you that we were all looking fabulous.

The egg dying, Easter egg hunt, angel food cake, golden eggs, ceramic painted bunnies

all things you see year after year

We also celebrated this big guys birthday.

It was a little early but the family was all together so it worked out best.

Ryan didn't care he was loving every second of it,

plus he still has a friends party and his actual birthday coming up, so it's a win win win for him.

 He loved all of his presents but we all had a little fun with this one.

The weather was absolutely beautiful, it was so nice being outside.

Easter day was wonderful, 

it was that night when Cody, my mom and sister all happened to get the flu

the rest of us were thankful that it didn't spread anymore.

 Life is not slowing down at all 

if anything it's about to get a lot more crazy around here.

stay tuned

overstuffed weekend

 Friday...

the tournament started for Cody's basketball team
I couldn't be there because I was at Luke's football practice
it was a bummer that they were at the same exact time
but Heath was there and said Cody did great
Coach wanted him to get more aggressive and confident
and that's just what he did, he's come a long ways
getting the game updates by text was killing me
I was getting so anxious
 sadly though his team lost by two points
even though they were in the lead up until the last quarter
Cody was so bummed that it was all over with
he had a great season and he is already thinking about next year.

Saturday...

I convinced  asked Amanda and the girls to go out shopping with me

there were some things that I had to get checked off of my list

they just had to get done no matter what

but one stop was just to check out a great sale that was going on at the GAP

we had no idea that everyone else was planning the exact same thing

the place was packed and the lines were at least forty people long to check out

We did try on a lot of things but I was just grabbing things along the way too

throwing them into my bag

I was sweating bullets as they were ringing up all of my things

my receipt said that I saved three hundred and twenty one dollars,

I didn't know if that was a good or bad thing?

but I do know that our Easter outfits are now bought 

so that makes me very happy 

and I love how bright and colorful we will be.

Sunday...

morning the boys enjoyed a little Saint Patrick's feast before church

we all were wearing our green like most everyone else at church 

but somehow we missed getting a family picture taken

oh well

Right after church we headed over to my brothers house

where we were having a family celebration

to celebrate our two March birthdays

one who is just barely in her twenties and the other who is at the tail end

Brooke turned 21 and Summer 29

it's funny to think that they are just eight years apart and 

that Matt was just eight years old when Brooke was born

They both deserved the day to be celebrated

we sure do love them.

Even though we will be celebrating this little girls first birthday

in just a couple of weeks

she was still the life of the party

This is how happy she was all day long

she is just the sweetest thing

we can't get enough of her

Spring break is starting in just a few more days

and we couldn't be more ready.

what's making me smile these days

it's the little things like:

Ryan's outfits that he picks out for school. 

 I do give the kids advice sometimes on what they should wear but not all of the time

as was the case in this outfit.  Can someone remind me why I bought red sweat pants in the first place?

Cody's writing from school, nothing to explain there other than it makes me happy to read.

When Luke gets mixed up with his words and called his football team The Beagles instead of The Bengals.

Listening to Cody and Luke sing songs like Fallen Kingdom from Minecraft, it's fun seeing them getting more into music even if it does have to still do with a video game.

Speaking of singing, does anyone else get the McDonald's Fishy McBites song stuck in their head?

Cody loves eating the McBites but I had to laugh when Ryan told us that shrimp is the only sea creature that he will eat.

A portrait of myself that Ryan drew of me (Minecraft cube style), I'm looking amazing.

In Luke's class the kids had to each pick out a musher to follow in the Iditarod race, Luke picked his out because of the way his hair looked. Too bad it's not paying off though, his guy is in forty something place and Luke's not very happy about it.

Hope you have plenty to be smiling about in your days too.

you know what they say

about paybacks...

so last week Heath left for two and barely a half days to go steelhead fishing
when he got back he asked me if I missed him
and I told him, "no, you weren't gone long enough to be missed."
I know that was so mean of me, right?
anyway so he's gone again to go steelhead fishing some more
but this time he's gone for six days
and I can honestly say that I miss him already.
the time he's gone just happens to be the week where all of the kids activities overlap
Cody's last week of basketball practices to get ready for his tournament
Ryan's karate classes that happen to be at the same exact time and days as
Luke's football that just started up with practices this week
not to mention the fun of adjusting to daylight savings time
and taking care of all the other day to day stuff.
so lesson learned
I'm keeping my mouth shut next time and just missing my husband.

last call

for the month of February...

we actually have been busier than what the blog shows

I've just been slow moving this month

but that is all going to change really soon

because I always seem to  forget how much goes on in March

So here is what the last few weeks have looked like

An afternoon drive over to Emmett to have a Lenten lunch with my mom.

This is something we do every year during the Easter season, 

usually I have the boys with me but this year I was riding solo.

It was a quick but fun afternoon hanging out with my mom

and we always love our deserts.

 Speaking of desserts...

doesn't this look like a breakfast for champions

Over the long weekend Amanda and I took the kids out 

for the above mentioned breakfast

and then a trip to Jump Time to work it all off

Sadly though this (riding together all in one vehicle)

was probably the highlight of their day. 

Afterwards we took them to McDonald's

for yet another healthy meal

then out for a little shopping

and lastly a trip to our local library

This little girl was baptized on February 17th

a date to remember for sure

What a doll, right?

She was so adorable and she loved all of the attention

that she was getting from the whole congregation.

 Matt and Summer asked Heath and I 

to be her Godparents so that made the day even 

a little bit more special for us to share in.

It was a great family day for us all to be together.

We finally got a new to us vehicle that will fit more than just our family of five.

This will be so nice when Teresia comes to visit so we won't have to take

two vehicles everywhere that we go.

Our new Yukon has affectionately been called the station wagon 

because after the girls got their new expedition the boys

kept calling it a van which we thought was just hilarious,

so I guess that we are even now.

Sunday we went out with my sister and Jim after church.

It's crazy that they are almost empty nesters with Hailey doing her own thing most of the time, 

so she always gets to experience eating out and shopping with my crew.  Thankfully she's great with the boys

and has learned and perfected patience over the years so she handles our craziness just fine.

We usually split up from the guys at some point, my boys usually always pick to go with the big boys

because they are going to places like Best Buy and Sportsmans so Nicole and I get some fun shopping time together with no kids, lucky us.  

One of our finds was this super cute bird butter dish

and this new mirror fit perfectly just where I was hoping it would.

It was a successful shopping day.

This kid, I tell you...What am I going to do with him?

I helped out in Ryan's classroom the other day and when he came in from recess he told me that some kid was punching him in the face over and over, (don't feel bad for him just yet, keep reading) I wasn't too concerned because Ryan wasn't even crying and didn't look like he had been beat up so I figured that there was more to the story.  When I got ready to leave I reminded him to tell the duty if something like this happens again at lunch recess and that's when he told me the rest of the story. He say's, 

"So mom, the only thing that I did was say to the kid, Hey Loser!

Then he came up and started punching me, Who does that?"

We had a long talk after that and I hope that he learned a lesson or two.

Luke will be starting spring flag football soon.

He is very excited to be playing, he is all about the football (and his hair) and

seems to have a pretty good understanding of the game. This will be so good for him

because we are hoping that he will gain some confidence in trying new things.

He has now added playing professional football to his list of things to do when he grows up.

 Same ole same ole going on with Cody.

The kid loves school and is still enjoying basketball.

He was the only kid in his class to get a 100% on a paper so his teacher let him

teach his class in the computer lab.  He was wanting to wear a bow tie to school and have 

the kids call him Mr. Amazing but he opted for his normal attire and to just be called Cody, 

good choice. 

I'm in love with these sunshine and blue skied filled days,

I hope that there are plenty more of these for us in March.

Good bye February, Hello March.

cool as a cucumber

 Really I don't know where the time goes

I had no intentions of slacking off on my blog

Once again.

The kids each had a spelling bee within their classrooms to see who would qualify for their school's spelling bee.  Cody showed no interest in wanting to be in it but when you have a memory like his, you win in your class without even really trying.  He wasn't too excited about moving onto the school's spelling bee but we did put in some time and study for a few days.  There were only six fifth graders total in the spelling bee so the odds were in his favor and he ended up coming in second place with spelling deception and juvenile correctly but getting out on the word disastrous.  So this meant that Cody was moving onto the multi-school spelling bee and that we would really need to start studying.

My family has a little history with spelling bee's and spelling in general. Growing up my dad always told us the  story of when he went to a small country school that had many grades all in one classroom.  He told us how he would take the higher grades spelling tests and that there was only one word that he ever missed, which was the word bouquet.  We have heard this story so many times that we would never forget how to spell bouquet.

Fast forward to my sister in fifth grade and she was also in a spelling bee.  She earned third place, getting out on the word garment, this is yet another story that we have heard many times and another word that we all will never forget how to spell.

Next up was me and I was in the spelling bee in sixth grade.  Apparently I felt very sure of myself and my abilities and I did very little studying which is why I got out on the first word which nobody seems to remember what it even was.  Sad story but a lesson learned and I didn't want Cody to follow in my footsteps so we studied as much as we could.  Studying words is really so boring but Cody and I managed to have a little fun with trying to come up with ways to remember some of the words spellings.

The day finally arrived and Cody had no worries, he was as cool as a cucumber.

I had to laugh at how serious some of these kids were, they were pacing around out in the hallway and having parents recite words over and over and then there is Cody just hanging out playing on his Ipod and goofing off with his brothers.

He wasn't really nervous at all until he had to walk up on stage and even then he seemed so relaxed.

This Spelling Bee had a total of ten kids and Cody hung in there for three rounds spelling luncheon, obvious and kerosene correctly but getting out on the word amateur for a seventh place finish.

It was a good experience for him and we were so proud of him.  He has been so busy with homework, basketball and trying to study the words that I am just happy that life feels a little bit back to normal now.

one step forward...

Cody asked me last night where all of his jeans were

this came as a complete shock

because until recently none of my boys liked wearing or 

chose to wear the so called "fancy pants."

I told him he has two pairs of jeans

the rest of them are cargo and athletic pants.

 He wanted to make sure that he had a clean pair for the next day

because he likes to wear jeans now,

something we never thought we would ever hear him say

So he got dressed this morning

in his jeans

and his home made tie dyed shirt from last summer

that happened to have a pocket

a pocket that he thought was really cool

and that would be perfect 

to fill with pens

so there you have it

two steps back...

I told Cody it did look a little nerdy

and he just laughed

I sure do love this funny kid.