We were on a break...

Dear Blog,
You may have noticed that I have been a little distant lately. Don't worry, it's not you, it's me.
You see, in the beginning of our relationship I had all of these hopes and dreams as to where it could take us. I realize that any relationship takes effort and I haven't been doing my part. It's not like I have been unfaithful. I have never written another blog. I have just been having difficulty finding the time that it takes to nurture a bond such as ours. You have been so great standing by and waiting for me to come around. I will try to be better. I hope that for now we can at least still be friends.

Love,

Becky

Is this disturbing to anyone else?

Christmas is coming...

I thought I wouldn't change our background until after Thanksgiving, but I couldn't wait.
Check out our Christmas tree at the bottom of the page and leave us a present!
Happy Holidays!

TRICK-OR-TREAT!

This was our inspiration this year:

These are the final products:

Leo had to be Darth Vader after he got such a cool light saber for his birthday.


Evan had different ideas every day, but was pretty consistent with Spider-man.
He has about the next five Halloweens planned out though.



Jack as Iron-man. He plays the part well!

And of course, our Ollie-gator.

What do you think? Would you give these guys candy?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!


p.s. Evan thinks that all moms use the day before Halloween to finish making costumes.

Let's not tell him any different...

All types of "ADD"...

At our house we apparently suffer from several forms of "ADD". I'd have to say the most common among all of my boys is "Always Distracted Disorder". This they get from their dad.
I am sitting at the computer researching some items on our Christmas wish lists and I happen to find a great deal on one greatly desired item. As I bounce the little one on my lap and Jack climbs under my legs, I realize that my purse and debit card are ALL of the way downstairs!
I ask Jack if he would like to get mommy her purse from the diaper bag. Off he goes on excited little feet repeating his mission to himself...
2 minutes later...
He arrives with a package that I have been meaning to send off. Sorry again James... "Always Delayed Disorder"?
I take the package and send him again to collect my purse. He runs off happily and soon I hear him playing downstairs with his brothers... distracted...
"Jack, are you bringing my purse?"
2 minutes later...
He comes proudly into my room with his hands held out in front of him, fingers and thumbs pinched together holding what I can only imagine are the two smallest invisible purses one has ever come across.
"Thanks Jack"
Here's where you will begin to see how lazy I can really be.
"Leo, Evan"...
"Leo, Evan"...
This is where they develop "Alittlebit Deaf Disorder".
This combined with "Always Distracted Disorder" can become quite the mess.
"Huh, I didn't hear you, I was too busy trying to reach the breakable Halloween decorations which made me want to go dump out all the crayons and draw a spooky bat, which made want to dig through the drawers to find the bat cookie cutter and make a peanut butter bat sandwich...
Sorry, were you talking to me?"
Several minutes later Evan finally arrives with the purse and hurls it across the room at me.
What, Paypal session timed out? How could that be?
After logging back in and trying several times to enter the correct card information with Jack trying to climb on and off the half of my lap that is still unoccupied, my mission is finally accomplished. Evan better really appreciate his Dora, Journey to the Purple Planet PS2 game.
Then I begin to smell Oliver's current form of ADD. "Alotof Dirty Diapers"
Crap (no pun intended), I just used the last diaper off of the changing table. I guess I will have to get one from downstairs.
"Leo, Evan, Jack..."
Here we go again.

A little vacation.

We haven't really had a vacation as a family... well... ever. This year Tracy was able to get some time off for the Elk hunt and so we packed up the family and headed down to Loa to visit Grandpa Rob. We also got a wonderful chance to visit Great Grandma Margean in Escalante.

I have to say that after spending 11 days away from home with four little boys... I was just about ready for a vacation! We had a great time though and here are a few highlights:

This is what the campsite looked like

when we first got there...

by the next morning it was snowing and so

we decided to go back to Grandpa's.

At least the boys got to experience

sleeping in the trailer for one night.

They were so excited to be in the "forest".

The favorite activity at said camping spot?

Everything to do with DIRT!

This is what the boys looked like

for pretty much the whole day.

Ollie was the only one who stayed clean.

Brrr... Cold.

Rides on the 4-wheeler with Grandpa.

Leo couldn't be convinced this time,

but he was a trooper and got his turn when he

went hunting with the Big Boys.

It was too cold for the boys to have a campfire at the

camp site, so Grandpa lit one up for them in his fire pit.

Evan was the only one who actually

attempted roasting a marshmallow.

I don't think it was edible when he was done.

Brrr... still cold... and windy!


Jack's favorite thing at Grandpa's?
The "trampapleen"!!

Gathering apples and flying airplanes in Great Grandma Margean's backyard.

All piled on Grandma Margean!

We hope it won't take us so long to do this again!

For James...

I know of a girl who is lame.

But has a cool older brother named James.

His birthday came and went,

but his package wasn't sent.

Just know she still loves you the same!

It's not much, but I'll send it soon.

Please know that we were thinking of you on the 13th when you turned 35. (right?)
p.s. I bet you still look great in knee socks!

Love,

Becky

Evan doesn't take naps.

Here's proof:

He was almost too shy to have a birthday!

Five years ago yesterday, after a little more than fifteen hours of labor and two and a half hours of pushing, Leo made his way into the world with a small sigh-like wimper. Maybe he was too shy to cry. Leo is our helper, our cautious child, and yet has a great sense of humor. He is quite the budding artist and loves playing video games with his dad. He loves to play outside and recently got a new baseball bat and a ball which he can hit clear across the yard. He can create just about as much noise and commotion as the next kid, but for the most part he is our quiet, thoughtful boy. He began to worry about all of the attention he would be getting on his birthday when he saw me hanging up his birthday banner. He did begin to relax as the day wore on and he realized how nice it could be to be so loved and celebrated on his special day. Here are a few pictures of him opening some of his presents. These shots seem to have a recurring theme...


Did you see it? You probably did as long as you weren't wearing the same expression as Leo.
I promise the kid has eyes. Big blue ones at that, but he works really hard to get the "cheese" out when someone takes his picture. Funny boy!


And here it is... the grand daddy of all presents from grand daddy Rob. A "real" lightsaber.
And below are Ollie and Grandpa Rob enjoying said lightsaber.

Thank you everyone who sent cards, presents, and Happy Birthday wishes. Leo had a very special fifth birthday! We love you Leo!

Happy Birthday Leo!

Today Leo turned five! How did that happen so fast?

I will post pictures of his special day when I am not listening to the snores of all of my babies and wanting to join them in dreamland.

I should get a punch card.

I've joked with our pediatrician before that I should just have a standing appointment with four kids so close together. One of them gets a stuffy nose and we are suddenly knee deep in snot. In addition to well visits for all of them, we have had several ear infections, one set of tubes, some asthma, rotovirus, hand foot and mouth disease, chicken pox (yes even with the immunization),

allergic reactions.... You know a little of everything. Let's add into the mix that they are all boys and then I think I deserve a punch card for the Emergency Room/Instacare.

Pay for nine visits and the tenth one is free...

Leo has had a broken arm and an emergency visit to the eye doctor after being shot close range with a velcro nerf dart. You could actually see the velcro pattern on his eyeball. The local instacare is starting to recognize us after Evan had to have his chin glued shut and Jack had to have stitches above his eye just a few months apart.

This is our latest mishap.

I can guarantee that his face didn't look like this when they were putting that bugger on!!

That's not much of an incentive...

I'll just have the tacos please.

Just to be fair...

He does have a very sweet side too.

Here's something else he did the other day when I wasn't looking.

Margarine Mayhem!

Things like this don't just happen when I am home alone with the kids.

Today, Tracy had the day off and decided to vacuum out

and wipe down the inside of the van (bless him).

I was busy feeding a cranky Ollie and trying to get him to take a nap.

This is what Jack was doing....

Once you get past the sheepish, I'm-up-to-no-good grin, you may notice the margarine masterpiece behind him. Yep, that would be all six cubes of margarine that were neatly wrapped in their foil and closed in their boxes only minutes before. Now the boxes are hanging out of and lying near the garbage can. The wrappers? They are ever so discreetly tucked under the front of the refrigerator. The cubes, now full of fingerprint personality, are carefully lined up awaiting their next pot of Mac and Cheese. Jack? Greasy and very proud.

Tagged! Google images about me...

See Sarah, I did it! It just took me a while.

Since I don't really have anyone else to tag, I'm just going to tell anyone who wants to know how this one works. I answered the questions and then did a Google image search and chose a picture off of the first page.... here's what I came up with:

Age on my NEXT Birthday:

I dunno, maybe it's because I'm just about as old as the stars now?

Month my Birthday is in:

As a kid, I usually had at least a few birthday presents wrapped in leftover Christmas wrapping paper.

Place I'd like to visit:

I've always thought I'd like to visit Scotland. Maybe it's because of my ancestry, or my love of bagpipes. The latter is definitely not something I got from my dad. He is of the belief that a real man is someone who can play the bagpipes, but DOESN'T.

Favorite place:

Currently I'd have to say this is it. Whether it is at that rare nighttime moment when all is finally quiet or during the wee hours of the morning when I am finally returning to it... It just beckons to me. Of course all of the pictures on the search looked much too serene to be my bed, but even this little spindly sketch represents to me the possibility of SLEEP!

One of my favorite things to do:

I love being creative. Making things. Being artistic. Too bad it can't make us any money. Then maybe we would be able to pay our bills.

Favorite Color:

Usually.

One of my favorite foods:

Mmmm, love pasta. Especially when it has alfredo sauce AND steak. What could be more lovely and more fattening?

One of my least favorite foods:

Another trait I did not inherit from my wonderful dad. I like them cooked into things, or in salsa, but watching Tracy bite into a whole raw one just gives me the chills. Maybe it's because of a dare at an office party to chug a cup full of them followed by warm orange soda...

Favorite flower:

Ahh, how romantic.

City in which I live:

Love it here.

Name of a past pet:

This even looks like her. I guess naming a Keeshond, Keesha is something that a lot of people think is a fun idea.

A nickname that people call me:

And sometimes I do feel like a loser, baby. Did everybody get the reference? I know, I'm a geek.

College Major:

Was. Hopefully it will be again someday.

My first job:

Technically babysitting, but my first job that generated a W2 was at Northpoint Indexing with my best pal April. Now those were some memorable times. (see answer to least favorite food above)

A hope for 2008:

For 2008 and probably every year to come judging by my lack of discipline. What you probably can't see on the mug is that one stick figure is saying to the other, "Oh my gosh! Did you lose some weight?"
Not that I want to be a stick figure, but it would be nice to have some straight lines rather than being all round!