Snakes, Snakes, and more Snakes!!!!

Where has Matt brought me!!! I have finally been awakened from my blissful ignorance that snakes only exist on the tv or in the zoo. The other day the boys and I were walking around the neighborhood and came upon a snake bathing in the sun. Fortunately Bennett didn't see it or, I'm sure, it would have become his new favorite toy. I gave it a wide birth and headed on home trying to put it out of my mind and convince myself it was just a wicked trick played by the neighborhood boys, setting out a plastic one to see who they could get to scream...it almost worked on me.
Last night Matt was in the backyard, only two steps away from our deck and started yelling for Bennett to come quick. I went out to find Matt excitedly showing Bennett a snake that was slithering through the rocks and weeds. EWWW!!! I packed myself up and headed immediately into the house, only to have nightmares all night long.
Today as Matt was mowing the lawn. Jacks was wondering around, he had gone without his shoes, as I bent to pick him up there was a snake that was only a reach away from his feet. Jacks is super lucky I thought to take him with me when I started running for the house.
Who knew snakes were real things that lived in your backyard!! Matt tried to assure me it was probably a different snake than the one I saw last night...Oh, thanks Matt, that really helped to know that we're infested!

Apache Fair

Everyone at work kept telling Matt how fun the fair down on the reservation was. There are booths galore, a rodeo, carnival rides, good food, and just tons to look at. So we packed the kids up, drove through a monsoon, and after about 40 minutes in a traffic jam due to the parade we finally made it to the fair grounds. What a HUGE disappointment! There were like 5 food vendors where they served either slimy greasy hamburgers or greasy oily pizza. The two booths that were selling things included a Bart Simpson plastic blow-up doll and spray painted shirts. We decided to wait around for about 30 minutes until the rides opened up before we headed home. We walked around looking at the different games they had until a carny accosted me. He just wouldn't take no for an answer. He had ahold of my wrist trying to force me to throw the stupid toilet paper into the stupid toilet bowl for a stupid toy. He wasn't too happy when I finally told him that I wasn't going to pay good money for his junky toys. Finally, Matt, who had been inspecting a four wheeler noticed my dilemma and came to my rescue. As we were walking away the carnies were yelling at us and being super rude. Honestly! You'd think we had were the first ones to turn them down. Bennett and Jacks got to ride a couple of rides. The carousel was okay, but they LOVED the airplanes. Good thing Matt was sitting with them though because Jacks kept sliding off the seat to the floor of the plane. We topped the day off by bribing Bennett into his car seat with a bag of cotton candy.

My Favorite Pass-time

Okay, we all know one of the most fun things to do as a mom is to dress our kids up and then make them parade around for our pure entertainment. Bennett is now obsessed with costumes so when I found our past Halloween costumes, I couldn't resist. Jacks wasn't too happy at first until I told him to growl at Bennett and chase him. Then he couldn't get enough of the costume. Every time Bennett would come around he would hold his little tiny hands out to make claws and then growl as ferociously at an 18 month old can.


Matt took this picture the other night. The monsoon season has been a crazy experience for us. It can be sunny and calm one minute then the next we are in a down pour so heavy you can barely see 5 feet in front of you. After the storms there is usually a beautiful sunset or something like unto it. This night there were several rainbows in the sky all at one time. This picture was taken from our front porch and has two in it. It was a really beautiful night.

Happy Birthday Cake!!!

I guess you can guess by the title what Bennett's favorite part of his birthday was. Bennett turned 3 today, but we celebrated this weekend. He kept dancing around asking me all day Saturday "When time happy birthday cake?"

This is Josh and Mia (Matts nephew and niece) they came from Phoenix. As you can see Bennett and Mia started earlier than the rest of us on the frosting.
But Bennett throughly enjoyed his happy birthday cake. When he smirs his food all over his face, I take that as a compliment.
Matt and I got Bennett a bike trailer and a bike helmet. He was so excited to get his very own. He usually wears Ella's pink princess helmet around when we're down in Utah.

We had a great weekend. I did a ton of cooking, yes thats right, I did cook, and it was edible. Well actually, Julie helped me a ton. It was a team effort, but I thought all the good food would be gone once I moved away from my mom's expert cooking and of course our other favorite eating establishments. We were really glad Glen and his family came. It made it a little more special having family around. I can't believe Bennett is 3 already. The time really has flow, and even though I can't really say I miss the "terrible 2" stage, it's a little sad to see him growing up so fast.

Finally Settled

We are finally moved in (sorta). The moving truck finally showed up after over two weeks of holding our stuff hostage. Now I am in a mess of boxes and moving paper, but it's nice to have a chair to sit on and a computer to blog at. Bennett was absolutly thrilled to get his box of clothes. He is a mad man when it comes to clothes. He ripped everything out of the box and tried it all on at the same time. Jacks was just happy to get his stripped blanket that had been accidentally packed. He hugged it and carried it around for hours.
We're really liking the area and the house that we've moved into. Bennett and Jacks love to be able to go outside and play, and I love having them outside playing and not having to worry about them running into the middle of the road. We were out on a walk in the neighborhood the other night and met a family. When we told them where we had moved into they said that it's too bad we moved onto the busiest road in the neighborhood. Matt and I just wanted to laugh. I maybe see a car every 30 minutes or so. It's nothing like Woodruff.
Bennett and Jacks love the playset. Bennett especially loves the fort.
Jacks loves to roam around the yard. He just walks around enjoying the scenery.
They both love having the deck off the back. They will take their snacks out and just sit. I'm really enjoying this. Bennett has seemed to calm down a bit since he has more freedom to come and go. That's one major benefit to this move.

Fell Short

No that title isn't a pun for all those vertically challenged people. It more accurately discribes my dinner last night. For those of you who know me, we all know I'm no Rachel Ray. My culinary abilities consist of dine out or order in. But last night I hit an all time low and feel the need to publicly apologize to my unfortunate children. I wasn't feeling all that great yesterday (which IS my excuse and I'm sticking to it) so when dinner time rolled around and the kids where wanting something to eat...Jacks got a cup of pears and a bowl of cheerios, and Bennett got a cup of mandrine oranges and a plate of tortilla chips. I know, I'm awful!!! So now here is my plea to all of you wonderful cooks. I need ideas for quick and simple meals for the kids. Especially since I'm moving to the middle of nowhere in Arizona and won't have too many options on the whole take out thing. (I'm actually going to have to attempt to make meals)The boys are both tired of my mac & cheese, peanut butter sandwhiches, and chicken nuggets. I need your ideas on how to feed them. Please help me!!!
(On a side note, we leave July 21st and will arrive in Arizona, I am told, right at the start of their monsoon season! Great! Just what I needed!)

No Pictures!

Wouldn't you know it! It seems like every major holiday I slack on the picture taking. Yesterday was no exception. Every time I left the house I would forget the stupid camera. Oh well! These are some pic that I took on Wednesday.
I love this picture. It captures Bennett being his most devious self. He just got done dumping a cup of water over Jacks head and looks pretty pleased with himself.

We had a great 4th of July. The morning was a bust, we had someone call and want to look at our condo, so Matt and I spent the morning cleaning. Then we had a hurried picnic at the park, we all shoveled our food in fast so we could make it to the Menan parade. The parade was only fun because Ethan and Bennett got so excited about the candy and music. They were both bustin' moves, it was hilarious! We then stopped by the carnival to let the kids have some fun. Bennett of course gravitated to the water slide. He went home sopping wet and loving it. We put Jacks and Ethan on a little train thing that went around the field. Jacks cried the whole time. He stood with his small hands wrapped around the bars of his cage with his face pressed through. You would have thought we had put him in there as punishment. After we left Menan, we went for a quick swim at our condo, then rushed to Matt's brother's house for a bbq. The food was great, but once again we had to shovel the food in as fast as we could. We raced out to Menan for the fireworks, and made it with only about 10 minutes to spare. Good thing they were late this year. I was so worried they were going to start without us, but we made it in time for Bennett to run away and get lost in the crowd a couple of times. The fireworks were great. Both the boys loved it. Bennett was sitting in his camp chair (I know, a very unusual occurance that he was sitting, it didn't last long) anyway, he would stand and clap his hands exclaiming "Beautiful!" everytime a firework went off. Jacks was sitting on my lap clapping his hands and screaming and laughing the entire time. It was so fun to watch them. Although we were dead tired when we got home last night we had a great 4th.

The zoo...AGAIN!

We ventured to the zoo today...AGAIN! It is now Bennett's favorite thing to do. He wakes up every morning asking if we can go back to the zoo. So we did. It was fun. Matt got to go with us this time, which made it alot easier. I stayed with Jacks while he chased Bennett down. Seriously! That boy has issues. He runs away all the time and I have no clue how to curb that. I lecture and threaten, but he just rolls his eyes at me. On a side note from the zoo...Last Saturday I was cleaning the condo, getting it ready for people to come look at. One of my friends came and took Bennett with her family to the neighborhood carnival that was going on down at the church. About 30 minutes later, I heard Bennett banging on the door yelling "MOM!" I let him in, but Holly was nowhere around. He came in all wet, tearing his clothes off, announcing he needed his swim suit. He quickly donned his swimming attire and was ready to race back out the door. I realized right then, that he had probably escaped and ran home by HIMSELF! I got myself and Jacks ready to accompany Bennett back to the carnival and let everyone know where he was. Now that might not seem too scary except for the fact that we live on one of the busiest streets in Idaho Falls. Our church is located on 12th St and Woodruff. Our condo is on Woodruff. When I got down to the garages, Holly was walking up the driveway. She was so relieved to see Bennett. We all walked back to the carnival where everyone kept asking where he had gone. That night when Matt got home we were both thinking about how lucky we were that Bennett had made it home safe and sound. SERIOUSLY! What am I going to do with him!

1st Fishing Trip

Matt took Bennett down to Soda Springs on his very first fishing trip ever. They have a pond down there where they release trout and kids get to go and fish for free. Matt proudly bragged that Bennett caught (or rather helped) catch the two biggest fish of the day. His 1st fish was about 5 lb. and the 2nd was about 6 lb.

This is Matt's dad, Tom, and Bennett catching one of their 1st fish of the day.


If you look closely you can see Bennett's tongue reaching out to the fish. I was so throughly disgusted. I got upset with Matt, but he promised me that was the last time Bennett would be doing that. Immediately after licking the fish, he threw it down. He was aparently just as disgusted that he'd licked the fish also.

A Day At The Zoo

We went to the zoo on the only warm day we've had this entire summer! It was really fun. The boys enjoyed it so much. We went with my friend Holly. She invited us to go with her since her son, Andrew's kindergarten class was going that day.

One of Bennett's favorite parts of the zoo is the ducks and other water fowl. I think that's really odd since he sees ducks all the time, but thats what he wanted to stand and stare at. If you notice the backpack he's wearing. That was my attempt to keep him close at hand. He's a runner. He's one of those kids that are Hudinies (i actually don't know how to spell that so you'll have to sound it out) basically he's an escape artist. I thought he would like the bear backpack and then I wouldn't have to push him around in the stroller. He did like the pack, he just didn't like me holding the leash.

Jacks rode in the stroller through most of the zoo. So he just kind of chilled. He did seem to perk up during the monkeys and the ducks, but that was about it. Poor boy. It seems like he misses out on everything.

The lions and tigers were also a big hit. Bennett and the other boys stood forever growling at them. When it was time to go he got really sad and said in a pouty voice, "See ya later tiger" Then he took off running.