Bennett's Birthday

Bennett's b-day was last Tuesday. I'm a week late with this...I know.

It was a pretty low key event. We celebrated a day early, and opened presents in the morning.

Grandma Julie bought Bennett a tool set, which he is in love with. The only thing missing...gloves. "Because Handy Mandy has gloves"

Not only did we open all of his presents in the morning...we even had birthday cake before lunch!

Bennett went and picked it out as soon as the bakery opened and came home with a Bolt b-day cake. It was just waaay too exciting to wait until after dinner (or lunch).

Happy 4th Birthday Bennett!

Preschool

The day Bennett and I have been looking forward to finally arrived. Woo-Hoo!!

He's off to preschool.

I thought Bennett would be a little apprehensive about me leaving him with a total stranger...he wasn't. Did he even say good-bye? I don't think so. He was sooo ready to be rid of me.

I secretly wished he had cried. (Bad mom...I know)

Random Pictures

I finally got a battery for my camera. These are a few pictures from our time up in Idaho.
Brotherly love. There is nothing like sharing a bed with your brother.

Jacks at the Riot Zone. He LOVED the blow ups

Bennett lounging at the 25th ST park.

Jemma loves to watch Ella do all her cheer jumps. She laughs and laughs. If babies can have favorites...Ella is definetly it.

Jemma's first taste of rice cereal. She loved it! (Just like her mommy...will eat anything)

Another famous face from Grace. She gets sooo board with me.

Ethan at the Riot Zone bouncing away with all the other kids.

The 4 - 3 year old having a hair session.

The Evil Retail Empire

I'm not talking about this...

I'm talking about this...


Matt had some CE training he attended down in Scottsdale. I decided to brave the 110+ heat and take the kids on a mini vacation. Unfortunately I learned that the heat plus me and my kids, DOES NOT equal good attitudes. So off to the air conditioned mall we went. Fashion Square Mall off Scottsdale RD rivals the Mall of America in Minnisota. I was in love...so was Bennett when he saw that the mall included a Build-A-Bear Workshop.

He had never seen a store like this before. When he realized that he actually could stuff an animal himself ...forget it!!!

"We are ONLY looking" I warned as we walked in.

"Right" Bennett smirked at me.

Bennett went on a frenzy picking out animals for himself, Jacks ,and Jemma. He headed to the stuffing station and before I knew it we were the proud owners of 2 dogs and a Hello Kitty. Bennett and Jacks both got into "bringing them to life". They shook the hearts and gave them a kiss before jamming it deep inside the animal. A quick trip to the grooming station ensured that our animals were cleaned and properly fluffed.

Outfits were donned and matching shoes were found. The birth certificates were authenticated by the store manager's signature. When Bennett and Jacks came back to me, arms full of dog houses, backpacks, hats, and a red convertible for the dogs to cruse around in, I knew I had to get out of there. I pulled out my card to make the purchases feeling very foolish because I knew, that the sales clerk knew, that I had just been inducted into the "Parents Suckered Into Making Absurd Purchases For Their Children" club.

I won't divulge the exact amount I spent in that store. (It's waaay too embarassing) Let's just say I was shaking in my booties thinking about going back to the hotel and showing Matt our purchases.

Build-A-Bear Workshop is definetly on my list now. The excitement they prompt from the little ones is just to great to resist. At least I learned my lesson - 3 year olds DO NOT know how to window shop!

Just Another Day

Since my life has been soooo uneventful lately, I had to borrow a page from the exciting life of my sister, Michelle.

No matter how hard I try, I just CANNOT top her.

When I announced my first pregnancy, she announced she was having twins.

When I have a cold, she pops up with the Bubonic Plague (Not really. She's disease free for the time being) But I think you catch my drift.


Last week at my Relief Society Presidency Meeting I was floored to hear about the bear problems popping up in the community. The lady we were visiting, lives in a subdivision not far from my home. She and Marsha were discussing the bears that are constantly in their garbage. What!!!??? Kathy, who lives across the lake from me chimmed in including how a bear walked right past them the week before as she and her kids were sleeping outside on the deck. Patty informed us that her son had to stay in his car the other night to wait for a bear to mosey off their front lawn (They live one street over from me).

As we left the house, I frantically searched for some sticks to smack together. (That's how you scare preditors away, right? I learned it from Parent Trap.)

By the way...The women tried to comfort me in saying that black bears are pretty quiet and harmless. They mostly eat berries, roots, and people. (Okay, I added that last one to make my story a little more dramatic.)
Does that look harmless!!!???

So basically, I'm not comforted.

I raced home to pick my kids up from the lady across the street. (Of course I ran quickly, bears smell fear.)

I retold the tales to Jill who then relayed her own. She was shocked that I didn't know it was a bear that had dumped their garbage can over and littered the street with it the past few weeks.

I would like to say I casually walked home pondering this new development, but lets be honest, I set a world record. You never know when you're being stalked by a bear.

A few days later as we were getting ready for bed we hear something outside. It's a bear. It sounded pretty close. (Now I don't quite know how to phrase this) but it was making it's call, or yell, or whatever sound it makes when its traped. It went on and on all night long. At church I found out they had trapped a 500 lb bear just up the road from us. SCAREY!!!!

I'm still a little upset I didn't get the memo about Bear World relocating to my neighborhood.

Anyway, I recounted all of this to Michelle over the phone, who was duly impressed. YES! I had finally out done her! All of the sudden a blood curling scream sounds over the phone then goes dead. She called back quite shaky exclaiming that a snake had been hiding under her rug. It was small and not poisonous...so I was still ahead, until....Bear Lake.

Friday her family took the boat to Bear Lake.

This is AFTER they pulled it up from the bottom of the lake. A wave crashed over the front and immediately sunk it.
RATS! She wins again!!!!!

Cousin Pictures

We tried to get a few group pictures of all the kids. What a work out! But it was worth it when out of the 300 pictures, we got these 4.

Rexburg Splash Park

We went to the Splash Park in Rexburg. It was a lot of fun. However the kids being the wannies they are, didn't want to get into the water. It was too coooold! Seriously Kids! Buck up!
At the end of the day we could only get a picture of the girls...the boys were all pouting (typical for their gender)

Grace and Felicity look like professional carousel riders. Good form Girls!

The carousel rides were a huge hit with all the kids, so of course there was lots of crying, whinning and complaining when we got off. Jemma was good as usual. Very content and happy to play with her rattle.

Jacks enjoyed playing with his shoes.
Ethan made sure to say just outside the splash zone.

Ella enjoyed toting Bennett around.

Porter Park really is a fun place. The kids enjoyed playing at the park, running around in the field, riding the carousel, and watching the other children there get wet.

Tauphus Park

We made the trip to Tauphus Park. Luckily the weather cooperated and it turned out to be such a nice day.


The boys had a blast. The biggest hit was the lion drinking fountain. What's so fascinating? I don't know.

After I let Jemma sunburn her legs...in the name of fashion (She had the cutest capris).

The boys spotted the rides, so we headed over there.

The rides were an obvious hit.

Until....

Jacks realized he had to get off.

Once again he forgot what an awesome mom I am for letting him have some fun, and threw another fit when we left. Apparently he thought he had an all day pass.

Soooo Much

I've been on hiatus the past month, and let me tell you, A LOT has happened.

First off, we moved...next door.

The owners of our previous house moved back and luckily the man next door wasn't able to sell his 2nd summer home (He's from the valley a.k.a Tempe and has 2 summer homes up here... just 20 minutes from each other.) (A waste? I think so.) Anyway, his bad fortune was our good luck. He asked us to rent from him until the market goes back up. Little did he realize how much 2 toddler boys and a baby girl can quickly depreciate a property. I'll let him know when our year lease is up.

My mom, Heather, and Ethan all came the first week in June to help me move. I passed it off as a vacation for them when in reality I needed help cleaning and babysitting...Thanks you guys.

When our task of moving ended, we all headed back to Idaho, minus Matt who had to work for another week.

On our way back we stopped at Gardner Village so I could do a little shopping. Unfortunately, I forgot about the tiny horses. I was drug through the stores at neck breaking speed by a 3 year old and a 2 year old who were desperate to "check out" the animals.

I'm actually surprised Bennett had a good time. He's more of an animal lover...from a distance.
Jacks loves animals. He mauls them any chance he gets.

This is the after picture. Jacks obviously thought he was going to ride the horses all day long. How quickly he forgets what a great mom I am for even letting him look at the horses.

A lot more went on while up in Idaho, but I'm just exhausted thinking about what we did up to this point. I'll save the other stuff for the next post or two, but I'll give you a quick preview. There were sun burns, stomache flues, lots of cousins, great food, and tons of fun.

Jemma Rolls Over

Jemma started rolling over (one way) about ten days ago. But like most things in my life, I am just now getting around to taping her amazing skills.

I know...it's nothing earth shattering. The video is mostly for Grandma.