Em and Tom Outnumbered

Here we are again. It's been 3 years!!!

2011-11-10T20:55:00.000-08:00

Hank is doing great!

Right after Tom and I found out about Henry's condition, my Mom and Sister Angela packed their bags, jumped in the car, and drove all the way from Raymond(12hrs) to our house in Boise. We were so blessed to have them drop everything to come help us deal with the shock, fear, concern, anxiety, and all the other emotions. Thanks girls. We actually were blessed to have dozens of friends and family give us so much support, but Mom and Ang bought us Rock Band so that's why they got a special shout out. We love that game. Hahaha. The crazy thing is 3 years later we are living across the country, Angela is living with us, and my Mom is here for a visit. Can you believe that? It's like we planned it!
It's nice to have them here to "celebrate" how well Hank is doing TODAY.
He is so much fun. I can't say he is an Angel, but I can say that we love him even more because of all the crazy things that kid accomplishes.
So, to follow tradition, I'm going to say what I've learned this year.

I have decided that what I have really been working on re-learning(because we've all heard it at some point in our lives, most likely too often) is that even though the glass is half empty, I'm going to focus on the half full part.
EXAMPLE?
O.K.- If you read my Blog and thought- "Wow Em is so happy and is having so much fun in Virginia," well, you'd be partially right. Everything I put on the Blog is absolutely the truth. I just choose to leave out the "half -empty" stuff like how I've lived here for almost a year and haven't let myself open up to anyone to really be friends with them. Why? I really can't put my finger on it. I'm sure it means there is something seriously wrong with me, but what-eves right? Or I could tell you that it takes forever to get anywhere, Tom's commute is 15 minutes of me driving him, followed by a 65 minute train ride, followed by a 5 minute walk(unless leaf oil has anything to say about it). I could, of course go on, but I don't want too. I want to focus on the good stuff.
So to swing this back to Henry, every year he has a ginormous run down of tests. This time he didn't beat all the odds with a few of them. He is showing some signs that he may have trouble controlling his bowels, and bladder. I could go into lots more detail, but I really don't want to dwell on it. He is such a happy little trouper. It isn't bothering him now, and we don't even have to test him again till he's three. The scrapper is running everywhere, he falls all the time, and just gets right back up. I had the physical therapist over and she asked where a certain bruise came from and I seriously had to try hard not to laugh. how can you identify one from the many? One time he fell on one of his little wooden blocks and got a perfect triangle bruise.
O.k. so here is a little up date on the kids personality.
He LOVES Dora!!!!!

"Mom, a Dowa?"

"Daddy a D-o-w-a, a D-O-W-A!"

"Ang, a Dowa?"

"Ga-ma a Do-wa, a Do-wa, a Do-wa...!!!"

Nuff said.

As you can see
Angela and I give him special treatment
cause he is so delicate.

Halloween Happenings!

2011-11-02T07:39:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween.

I called my friend Staci on Halloween and she answered like this-

"Happy Halloween, even though you hate it."

Hilarious:)

It's true that I hate Halloween. I pretty much stop feeling like myself for two full weeks before it, and feel better right after all the decorations are down.When I was in 8th grade our family suffered a tragedy, I lost my little brother on the 30th and I just can"t quite stop the memories and sorrow from coming back. I think it's just that there are so many traditions that you do for holidays so it triggers memories of that time in my life. Over the years I've realized that if I just allow myself to feel a little "Mel-Un-cho-ly" then I get over it faster. By the way if you don't know why I wrote it that way then you really need to rent the kid movie "Mega Mind" cause it is super funny. Anyways...

Here is what we did this Halloween.

On Friday the kids had a "Wear red to stop bullying."

Nice smile Logan.

Then on Saturday we went to trunk or treat.

It was actually super nice cause the old boys went by themselves,

Tom took Hank around,

and Lays went around with "The Princess Posse,"

Wish I would have taken my camera for that sight.

There were about 9 of them

and once it was done they all huddled in a corner and traded candy.

The theme this year was "Hidden Identity"

Lays totally fits in cause no one knew who Cinderella was at the ball!

It's a bit of a stretch, but I'm proud of it:)

On Monday we went to the kids class parties.

This is Layla with her friend Lailah on the left.
Pronounced the same way so they call my Layla-
Layla-P

Jay was so excited when he saw me walk into his class. I'm certain he didn't
believe me that I was really going to come.

Logan was so sweet with Hank.

He made the mistake of letting him out of his stroller so we had to let him walk out of the school cause once that kid is free, he is so not going back into that prison.

I took a video of it and I don't know if you can tell,

but at the end he totally bonks his face on the hand rail.

Yes, I was counting seconds till he fell, but it was out of love for the little trouper.
He just wants to run everywhere and that was a steep ramp.
Last Sunday he ended up in Logan's class(for a number of reasons),
when I went to get him out he jumped up,
started running,
fell,
got snickered at by all the kids,
got back up with his head down(you could tell he was frustrated),
and since he couldn't see it,
ran right into the wall.
Poor kid.
He is just so determined to do everything faster than he probably should.

Monday night we took the kids trick or treating.
Angela is so helpful. She staid home with Hank so Tom and I both got to go with the crazies.

There was a pumpkin shortage on the east coast so we all carved this tiny one.

Today was 80's day

I didn't plan ahead so we just rummaged through the house and created this little gem of an

outfit for Lays. The boys would only do it a little, but I still think they look good considering their

Mother is a slacker:)

p.s. I still need to do the post for when Tom's family was here,
but I need to get the Pics from Tom's cell,
and keep forgetting to get them when he is home.

Still stealing from Staci.

2011-10-15T19:57:00.000-07:00

DC: Saturday

(And the blue is still me, Emily.)

Saturday morning we headed back over to the mall. We stopped by at the Washington Monument even though it is still closed from the earthquake. It is hard to really get an appreciation for how large it is unless you are right up by it! By the way, can you see how PERFECT the weather was for us?

It was SNOWING back at home!

(it has rained every day since the Starnes went home)

Then we headed over to the Air and Space Museum for a couple of hours:

Followed by the Museum of Natural History:

Then we spent some time at the Museum of American History
(Tom and I had to leave them their cause Logan had a football game, but they met up with
their "rival friends" so all was well)

And that evening we went to a couple of monuments...the Lincoln and the Vietnam War Memorial:

(The kids came with, and proved to be quite a match for Tom, Nate, Staci and me. I swear Nate and Staci saved more than one of my little ones from a number of catastrophes. Thanks guys. I am so lucky to have friends that aren't afraid to say stuff like "HEY JAY, GET OFF THAT LIGHT POST. DO YOU WANT TO FALL, AND GET SMASHED BY A CAR?"
I'm also super lucky that I didn't have to take them everywhere with us. Why you ask? Well I'm so lucky cause Angela is living with me so she was able to take care of my little crazies lots of the time. She even accomplished a first for her. She changed diapers! Thanks sis. You are wonderful!!!)

Over 56,000 names are on this wall. It is pretty powerful to walk by and see all of those names. On that somber note, another wonderful and exhausting day came to a close!

DC: Sunday

Sunday we headed over to Mt. Vernon. It was the perfect activity for a beautiful Sunday. I had an appreciation for Washington before this trip but that appreciation has grown in leaps and bounds after really getting to know the man and all he did for this country.(I started a little behind Staci on the appreciation scale. Shhhh, don't tell, but I had to be reminded that he was the first President. What? I am Canadian! I'm actually going back tomorrow with Tom's folks and Sister Sheena and am excited to learn more)He was a family man, a religious man, an amazing general and President.

(We took the kids again, and like before the Starnes were such a great help. I just loved watching Staci bond with Lays. Every time I looked for Lays she was holding Staci's hand and talking her ear off. I was so sad I didn't get to see the Starnes kids, but it was nice to be able to see Nate and Staci spending time with my kids.)

Later that night the Perry's introduced us to the glorious store.......WEGMAN'S. This isn't just your everyday grocery store. They have a 5 star chef working in there who will whip you up a gourmet meal at your convenience. The pastries and treats were to DIE FOR! We spent over 60 bucks on nothing but TREATS that night! I had died and gone to SWEET heaven.

Em and I were bugging the Wegman's boy at the treat counter. He hooked us up with some sweet hats.

Yeah, we're embarrassing like that. We even had a couple of people ask us for assistance while we were rocking the hats. They thought we worked there!

(I hate this picture. It looks like I have horn-nubs growing out of my head, but I'm keeping it in cause I love how Staci will be a dork with me. She doesn't even seem to do it to humor me, she just is as dorky as me. It is so hard, and special to find a kindred spirit in this world, and Staci is one of mine. Love you)

We had muffins, apple tart, fruit tart, a chocolate flourless cake dome, pumpkin cheesecake and donuts.

YUM!

DC: Monday...last day!

Sick of my DC wrap up yet? Well too bad! One more to go!
(yay, no kids today!)
Monday we got up early and went straight to the Holocaust Museum. It was very emotionally draining to see the actual shoes and personal belongings of some of those men, women and children sent to death and work camps. Pictures aren't allowed in the museum so I have no visual documentation of the day but it definitely makes a lasting impression on everyone who enters that museum. It is hard to believe that human beings were capable of such brutality and evilness. Some of the images we saw are pretty much burned into my mind forever. Horrible. (Truly HORRIBLE)

After the museum we headed up to Baltimore for the rest of the day. Baltimore was SO SO SO much fun! We went over to the National Aquarium, watched a dolphin show, wandered through many different fish and animal exhibits and enjoyed an evening on the docks overlooking the harbor.

Here is the aquarium:

(Wow Staci you are one fantastic photographer!)

(I love the way we posed juxtaposed with the way the boys posed)

(These boys are pure nerdy fun)

(Stac, I am shocked that you forgot to put in the magnet story. It's probably my favorite part of that day. Don't worry I'll tell it for you. - So Stac and I were in the gift shop looking at all the crummy overpriced stuff and came across some magnets. You had to turn them over to see the price and I noticed that this worker kept going over and fixing them back into rows. Like he literally followed right behind me the whole time I was looking at them, and was sliding them back into perfect rows.

When we walked away "evil Emily" said -

"Hey Stac, lets go over and move them again."

She agreed that he needed to be messed with so as soon as he left his post

I started to pretend that I was looking at them, moved like 2 askew, and walked away thinking I was so funny, and feeling quite proud of myself.

Then I turned around and

"evil-er Staci" was over there moving like all of them every which way!!!!!!!!

I swear I've never had so much fun, or laughed so hard in a gift shop before.

Seconds later,

from a safe distance,

we watched that poor,

poor,

O.C.D.

worker-

#1. Turn around

#2. Spot the wreckage

#3. Freak out

#4. Dash over

#5. Rectify the situation

#6. Relate the atrocities to the other workers

#7. Set up a more vigilant lookout

ta-he-he-he

It was all I could do to stop "evil Emily" from doing it again.)

Em and I decided to pose all crazy with this silly cutout when suddenly, the ACTUAL man came walking up. We all took a picture with him! Totally random and SO hilarious!

As we were snapping these last few pics on the pier, I couldn't help but think about how BLESSED Em and I both are. We both married such GOOD and honorable men who love us (kiss us in public ☺) and take good care of us. They adore their families, work SO hard, and don't take life too seriously. They are FUN to be around and they make us LAUGH so hard we cry! They put up with us and our crazy antics.

We put up with them too.

(That's exactly how I feel)

On the way home we stopped at the White House.

And THAT was our AMAZING trip to DC!!! Great friends, great food, great sites, and LOTS of caffeine(or as Tom likes to say "pep-sua") to keep us going. WE LOVE YOU PERRY FAM! Thank you for everything.(Love you too, and It's us that are the lucky thankful ones) This was the absolute highlight of my year!(Ditto) Move to Idaho Falls....will you please?☺(Find us a job and it's done, and done)

What? She did more than one post!

2011-10-14T07:15:00.000-07:00

DC: Friday

(By the way, the stuff in blue is me, as in Emily!)

Friday we got up early and headed to DC. We opted to rock our Bronco attired since BSU was playing Fresno that night.(Darling Staci brought me one so I could be in the cool B.S.U. club)It was fun having various people strike up conversations with us about our BSU shirts. Most people wanted to talk about the infamous blue field! We parked at Tom's building which overlooks the capital building. We went up on top of the roof to see the capital and the mall. Incredible views to say the least!

Then we went over to the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress. Nate and Tom decided to swear themselves in at the Supreme Court since they didn't actually get to do it this time. ☺

Em was in love with the golden doors!(I just think it's cool how they make everything pretty)

The Library of Congress was BEAUTIFUL. It really was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

Later that day we got a personal tour of the Capital building that Tom had set up through Senator Risch's office. The girl giving the tour was a bit on the "so quiet we can't even understand her side" but we still enjoyed it. So much history, so much information....pretty sure my head was spinning.

Then we jumped in the car and headed to Arlington National Cemetery. We pulled up to the gate at about 4:45pm and the last changing of the guard takes place at 5:00pm SHARP! The lady at the gate told us we'd never make it.
We decided we'd show her.

We took off running:

Oh, it was painful.(I, being a Canadian, had no idea where we were trying to get. I just kept thinking "why are we running? We already saw that big Iwo-Jima flag statue from the road! ) Our feet hurt so bad after walking for what seems like MILLIONS of miles already that day. Emily had blisters(cause I was stupid and was wearing plank-type-flip-flops with zero cushion), I was dying of heat. We were laughing/crying the entire time but YES. We MADE IT......with time to spare even! Yeah, we showed that chick. (this is where I realized what we were doing, and I was super glad I hadn't quit.)

It was pretty sobering seeing all of the WW2 vets in their wheelchairs right behind the tomb...as was the never ending crosses and tombstones that go on and on as far as the eye can see. It is a peaceful place. Really makes you stop and count your blessings.

After Arlington it was time for dinner. We headed to the National Harbor for one DELICIOUS dinner. We had crab cakes, pasta, steak, fish overlooking the harbor. D to the LISH.(ditto)

After dinner we walked over to the PEEP's store! Fun place! We thought about our friend Missy who is a peeps fanatic!

Our silly men:

It was one BUSY day. We went home to watch a very uneventful BSU game and fell asleep.....FAST!

We miss the Starnes already.

2011-10-13T20:31:00.000-07:00

So my friend Staci is "T"amazing, and super fast with her posting of their trip to come see us, so I think I'm going to steal it:)

(just a little F.Y.I.- The day after they left TOM'S FAMILY CAME and will be here till Monday, and then 2 weeks after that MY FAMILY IS COMING, so I really am swamped)

I know it's super lame of me to steal her posts, but I really like what she wrote, so I'm going to just do it. That's right people, I am STEALING Staci's blog post, and it start's like this-

Wow. Where to even BEGIN?? The past 6 days have blown by and we have definitely made some lifelong memories. I guess I should start out our adventures by just saying how much we LOVE the Perry's.(we love you guys too) We met in our old Boise ward a few years ago. Em and I hit it off right away serving the Beehives in our ward and we soon became fast friends. Who would have guessed that a couple of years later we would BOTH be moving away from Boise. Friendship knows no distance and this is a very rare and special thing to find...especially when both wives and husbands get along SO well. Emily is a dear and treasured to friend to me. She is such a light in my life and I am so grateful to both Tom and Emily for rolling out the red carpet for us.(aw, it was nothing) They made us feel so welcome and we had an INCREDIBLE time. The friendship we share is unfathomable(she wrote that cause we made them watch Mega Mind). ☺

I think I'm going to have to break up this post as not to completely OVERWHELM myself. I took about 500 pictures so, I have some major condensing to do!

We flew in on Thursday evening. I had a sneaky suspicion that Em would so something silly(what the "cuss," I was under the impression that it was mandatory) at the baggage claim. Sure enough, everyone was all lined up with some beautiful Gem State signs for us! LOVED it!!!

Then we jumped into the car and were off to see the DC temple. We found ourselves in some SERIOUS traffic which was a bit of a shocker to this small town gal(I just remember thinking that it was a mater of seconds before I was not going to make it to the restroom). Once we got there though, we knew it was TOTALLY worth it!(you forgot to put how I freaked the workers out at the visitors center cause I went tearing in their to use the facilities. They told me after that they thought someone was chasing me. Oops, I probably should have thought that through, but it sooooo could have ended badly if I had tried to pace myself)

After the temple we grabbed dinner and headed back to The "Perry Estate."(it's amazing how much house you can get when you're a renter) Homes over in DC are all HUGE and BRICK and GORGEOUS! Em had a beautiful basket of all sorts of treats and goods for us laying our bed. She is the cutest ever!!(stop... you're making me blush)

And The First Friends to Visit are...

2011-10-04T18:27:00.000-07:00

The Starnes!!!!!

We cannot wait. They are going to be here in less than two days:)

You two win the prize!!!!!

This is actually a pic from my 30th birthday party where they actually did win my "Birthday Party Party game Prize."

Seriously, knowing we had you guys coming to visit has helped us through zillions of bouts of HOME SICKNESS!

Where would we be without friends like YOUZ GUYZ?

First Day Of Grade One Traditional Cookie!

2011-10-01T17:38:00.000-07:00

I didn't post this when I should have.

We actually did give it to Jay on the first day of school, but I didn't download the pics till now.

My mom started this tradition to get her kids excited about going to GRADE ONE because it was for the whole day, and not just half day like Kindergarten, and we all loved it!

Well, I did it for Logan on his first day of GRADE ONE, and he loved it!

Then last year I did it for my friends web site so the kids ended up with one even though none of them were starting GRADE ONE, and they loved it!

But I had a harder time deciding what to do this year cause-

it was Jay's first day of GRADE ONE, but he had already gotten one last year, and he had already been going full time for half of last year, and it was actually Lay's first full day of school so wouldn't it be more like Lay's first whole day? So after all that back and forth, I just decided to stick with the "first day of GRADE ONE"celebration!

The middle child in me supported this decision thinking that Jay deserved his very own cookie and I didn't want him to feel slighted.

Well, when he got home he said-

Jay-"Mom, I got one of these last year. Shouldn't it be for Layla?"

Oh well, I don't mind making another one next year:)

Come on, I know you were thinking- "But what did they do on the 4th day?"

2011-09-24T21:01:00.000-07:00

All right I'll tell Ya.

DAY 4

We finally took our turn on the Sky wheel.

Sorry for all of my shushing Logan, I swear it seemed really loud!

Then we hit the pool/beach.

I love it when you can actually "tucker" your kids out don't you?

Day5
We had so much fun in

Charleston,

that we went back again! It was only 2hrs, and a really cool place!
So on the way we found-
Jameson's Hotel Franchise,
a cool new construction sign,
the strangest gas station,
a church alert sign,
and the monsters that put the green in Tom's blue.

This park is right on the bay.

Best ice cream ever!!!

They pour chocolate in the cone first, then it hardens, and pools at the bottom.
DELICIOUS!!!

The boys both found a quarter! Odd.
I swear they will tell you that was one of their personal Highlights:)

The buildings there were so amazing.
The top right was a plantation.

Loved this beach. It wasn't the same one we went to the first time.
We had so much fun just playing in the low waves, and it was way empty:)

Poor Henry, he sure had a lot of under water experiences that day...
ya, I know they were all under my watch. I really should hang my head in shame,
but he's always so cute before it happens.

2nd installment. I know you didn't get enough right?

2011-09-24T19:05:00.000-07:00

I have to report two severely nerdy things about Myrtle Beach-

#1. Is that it is the mini golf capital of the world!!! You can seriously see 2 per block.

#2. They think it's absolutely normal to have at least 5 "touristy buy this crap" stores per block!

These are a few of the mini golf places that we saw.

I remember the "Piggly Wiggly" from a movie.

So I had to take a pic:)

Tom took us to a crazy fish joint for dinner.

Can I just say how much I love love love crab legs?

If you don't, I bet you will after this video!

This place was seriously hilarious!

It was all you can eat, there was everything from crab legs to prime rib,

and Logan came back with a plate full of fruit!!!

That kid is so funny, don't worry Tom made him eat some "Manly Meat" before we were done!

Here is the sky wheel at night.

So on day 3 we went to

Charleston!!!

It was so cool, and so much fun:)

We went to their Aquarium.

Super cool Albino Alligator!

Jellyfish are "Space-Ship-Wrecked" Aliens, I'm sure of it.

And here are my ALIENS!

This otter was so cute, but the pic really only shows how cute Lays is.

Speaking of Lays, let me just come right out and explain that she only wore that dress for dinner the night before, then I let her wear it the next day. So although the pictures don't reflect it, I swear she did wear other things!:)

We got to see Fort Sumter, and check out their museum at Liberty Square!

Then we checked out one of their beaches.

It was super fun. The water was very calm.

p.s. Those nerdy beads came from the
Fish Joint and they wore them the rest of the trip.Uh-Hu:)

What? You wouldn't let your kids miss the first week of school? Come on, my Mom always said it doesn't really count till they're in Junior High!

2011-09-22T15:05:00.000-07:00

We agree with my mom, so..
Myrtle Beach

is where we spent the first week of school!

It was 8hrs, and

they watched "Rio" almost the entire trip:)

I have never seen Hank try to sing before.
It was so darling.

I'll give you a quick run down of the sights during the drive-

pic #1-I loved this bridge.

pic #2-We actually got to see cotton fields.

pic #3-Have you ever seen pink garbage cans?

pic #4-I love palm trees too.

We also saw a store called "Clothing and Such!"

Hilarious:)

And here they are,
8hrs later,
singing songs from "Rio" again!

After we dropped our stuff off at the kit-chi-est condo ever,
that actually had a clock where every hr was #5,
so it can always be "5 o'clock at the Oasis",
we went to dinner at

STICKY FINGERS,

for Logan's Birthday,
which was the next day.

Man was it ever De-E-licious!
That night we went to the condo and watched B.S.U. beat Georgia!
Good times:)

So the next day,
because of that dang clock(so he couldn't tell what time it was),
and because we let the kids open their gifts first thing in the morning,
Logan woke us up at 6 o'clock!

We couldn't get Tom up so we had to bring the gifts to him.

Logan got new shoes (which fit me),

and he got a new jacket (which also fit me)!!!

Can you believe that?

My very own kid is almost as big as me!

See in the picture below. He is already past my chin,

and the rest aren't far behind.

Logan finally got "cool Celtic's" bedding,

then we finally sent Hank in to drag his daddy out of bed.

The first day, Logan's birthday, we drove down and checked out all the sights.

I don't mean to be braggy-pantsy, but I took this next pic while Tom was driving.

I'm as shocked as anyone at how well it turned out.

That night we went to the beach for a walk. It was so empty, and beautiful!

The only people that were there were fishing,

and Tom and some of the kids saw

a shark!!!

Not a huge one, but definitely a SHARK!

I was so sad I missed it.

Nothing like a little B.S.U. football toss on the beach:)

1st Day of School!

2011-09-12T20:51:00.000-07:00

Poor Poor Henry...

and Poor Poor ME!!!

We both got left behind today.

I've been dreading this day for so long.
What day you ask?
Well I'll tell ya...
I've been dreading the day
that the school system gets more of my kids during the day than I do!
It's tragic isn't it?
...

Lays started all day kindergarten,

Jameson started his first day of grade one,

Logan started 4th grade,

and little Brother got left behind.

This morning while I was driving Tom to work Lays said-

"Mommy while I'm gone just think about all the things we like to do together and you won't forget me."

Ouch:(

Then she told Tom, who was going to go to a dinner tonight-

"Daddy just look at the pictures of our family, and you'll remember us while you're gone to dinner."

Before school started Logan was talking to Lays and he said-

"Layla if anything happens, you just tell your teacher what room I'm in and I'll come take care of you."

"Jameson and I are your big brothers and we won't let anyone bully you!"

"Mom I need you to get me Layla and Jay's room #'s so I can take them to their class this morning."

What a sweetie. He is such a great older brother.

When Lays got to the bus stop she went right up to some "older girls"
and said to them-

"Hi, I'm Layla!"

"I have a Hello Kitty lunch box"

(then she does a 180 craning her head back around)

"Do you like my backpack?"

"I like your hair!"

The girls were so nice to her,
but you could tell that they wanted to talk to each other.
It was so darling.
I just kept picturing her getting into trouble (just like her mom, and dad)
for talking in class too much.
She came home and told me that her teacher taught her-
"One two eyes on me," then the kids say "one two eyes on you!"
Then she said- "I like saying that a lot mommy!"

When Jameson came home I asked him if he made any new friends and he said-

"Mom, you don't have to worry about me, I have friends from last year in my class."

"I accidentally called my teacher by my old teachers name!"

"I really like my new bus driver. I think I like her better than my old one."
He is such a sweetie!

Well, they all said that they had a great day,
and Hank and I actually had lots of fun today too, so I guess it's
good that they are learning things and having fun.

It's S'Dang Tornadic out there. Posted live from Virginia!

2011-08-27T21:29:00.000-07:00

Wow!

So Angela has been here for 4 of the 6 months I've been here,

and is going home tomorrow:(

It has been so nice having her around.

I am so homesick tonight I think I'm going to have me a little pity party.

She truly is one of those

"Life of the party"

types.

When someone comes up with a ridiculously ridiculous idea, you can count on Ang to not only do it,

but make it so much fun!

I also need to give a shout out to Brigham and Julia.

We are going to miss youz guyz! Thanks for hanging out with us,

and putting up with the crazies:)

I still can't believe you talked me into posting this hideous video of me!

Angela and I got to go to my first real Broadway Play!!!!!

2011-08-22T18:03:00.000-07:00

We got to go see-

At the Kennedy Center!

It was so fun to see this place.
I liked it so much I want to give you a little tour so...

This is how it looks from across the water. Wow right?

This is us in front of the creepy statue wall.

This is us with our super cute shoes.

This is us with our beautiful tickets.

This is us super excited to see our Canadian flag, but you can't see us cause it was in the ceiling.

This is us with the super cool-biggest-most-ginormous-head I've ever seen statue!

This is the super cool dragon with the map of Oz stage.

This is Angela and the ceiling.

This is us being super excited.

Those were some of the best parts of the play.

So all in all-

It was an amazing performance.

We had amazing seats.

I got me some amazing blisters

from my amazingly high, high heal shoes.

It was amazing we got home in one piece!

(It's no big deal,

but I happened upon a dead end,

and almost got high centered

in a huge rut-ish dirt road

before I could turn around)

But apart from that it was just an all around amazing experience!

Tom took us on a surprise trip to...

2011-08-16T07:07:00.000-07:00

So we were just sitting around on Saturday trying to figure out what we were going to do for the rest of the day when Tom came over and said-

Tom - "I've got an idea, do you want it to be a surprise?"

Me-(after a moment of hesitation) "Yes!"

I said yes for two reasons.

#1. I didn't want to ruin his plans because I can usually find a reason why we shouldn't do whatever it is he wants to do, and he usually ends up calling me a
"wet sandwich" from our new favorite movie "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" it is so strangely funny!

And is one of those movies that can generate lots of "quotes" for Tom,
hence the "wet sandwich" expression which I was trying to avoid this time.

#2.- Who doesn't like a good surprise?

I really like them, but Tom usually can't keep the secret by telling me too much info.

So we packed some supplies, and all jumped into the car.

Right before this I was talking on the phone with my friend Nikki and we were discussing this way fun little book that we both just read. I am so excited about it, but I guess that if I kept going on about it I'd be rambling, so I'll just get back to the story, and if you need a good book give me a call and I'll tell ya about it!

So while we were driving Henry tried on Logan's hat, which I thought was, well, adorable!

The roads around here are not what we are used too,

so I took some pics of the drive.

Guess what, Tom didn't ruin the surprise this time, but Logan did.

Oh well it was a great idea anyways.

Tom took us to-

BALTIMORE!

It's a pretty cool city.

We wanted to go to a game, but right when we got there it started to poor.

So we took some pics, then ducked inside their museum to wait it out.

So all in all

apart from the fact that the rain stopped us from going to the game,

and apart from the fact that Tom walked us 6 blocks into the wrong side of town,

and apart from the fact that Logan was staring at a man

who was wearing at least 12 gross filthy coats and had no shirt or teeth,

and apart from the fact that on our other side there was a Lady digging through the trash,

once we got back to the right side of town walking as fast as we could,

we had a pretty fun trip!

p.s. We wanted to just rent a hotel and drive to New York the next morning and see the sights, but in the end I put the kabosh on that idea, so I actually did end up getting called a "wet sandwich" for the the rest of the weekend.

What do you do?

2011-08-15T06:35:00.000-07:00

Oh what do you do in the

SUMMER TIME

when its like 115 outside?

Do your boys run around with no shirts?

Do your girls run around in winter jamies?

Do you make strange crafts?

Why yes, yes we do!

Day Trip to

2011-08-09T18:07:00.000-07:00

Luray Caverns
Yesterday we went to these way cool caverns.

They are only a little over an hr away and the drive was so nice b/c

for starters we haven't seen open spaces for 6 months,

and it was nice to see some mountains again! Hahaha!

They actually call these mountains!

Oh how I want to take them all home so they can gain some perspective:)

Anywho it is, of course, way beautiful despite the ill named landscape.

And just look at what can be found below the ground.

At one point lays says to me-

Lays-"Mmmm, Mom it smells like marshmallows!"

It actually kind of did, but then shortly after that it started smelling slightly of feet.

Henry was so good.

He loved it!

This was a little pond that perfectly reflected the roof. Really cool.

I love this shot of Tom and Lays.

You can really start to feel how huge it was down there.

This musician figured out that the stalactites, and stalagmites were musical if you tap them,
so he built this amazing "player piano" thingy, and it plays a rendition of "A mighty fortress is our God."
I only got a little bit of it, but it was "T"amazing!

I so did not know that Hank was hanging out of his stroller by the end of it.

Poor kid, it was a lot of ups and downs:)

24 Hrs of fun and what does Logan say?

2011-07-30T18:06:00.000-07:00

We started this

Thursday by building some pretty awesome forts

which are still up, and are actually a lot of fun.

I just love watching my little terrors having crazy fun...
of course that's until one of them is screaming...
and one of the other ones caused it.
Then we went

SWIMMING

which we do at least twice a week.

Then Angela came over to play with them for the night.
She was so awesome.
They got to stay up way late,
They ate junk,
They made tie dyed shirts,
Then they played hide and go seek.

Then on Friday morning we had a dance party.
Then after all of this,
(once I dropped off Angela at work)
do you want to know what Logan said?
Logan- "Mom, I'm bored."
I think I may be trying a little too hard.

Sunday Dinner Guests.

2011-07-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

So I Have a Little News,

Angela has a really cute new friend.

So I usually have Angela, and my cousins over for Sunday dinner about every other week, but this time she brought a "friend" of hers instead of our cousins!

He is from Benin Africa, and is training for the Olympics. He does Tai Quan Dao.

He also isn't half bad at racing Logan, or letting Logan teach him a little American Football.

I really like him, and am thinking Angela does too,

but as I had to point out to Logan right now while I was writing this-

Me-"I don't think I like him the same way Angela does."

To which Logan replied-

Logan-"Seriously? Oh gross!"

I love that he still doesn't "like" girls.

Three embarrassing things happened while they were here.

#1. When we told Lays that he kicks people for his "job,"

she ran over and kicked him in the shins.

#2. He showed us how high he could kick which was way cool, so

Logan tried it and fell flat on his back.

(a lot of screaming ensued, but he was fine after about a minute)

#3. Angela decided to make Logan feel better by

falling flat on her back 3 times.

After her first fall Rostand(her "friend ") told the boys they needed to take it easy on her

cause she was delicate. hehehe

I haven't laughed so hard in a long time.

2011-07-21T17:38:00.000-07:00

Happy July Everyone!

Whether it's the 1st, or the 4th I'm just glad we can celebrate our freedom!

By blowing a little piece of it up!
Poor Henry.

Story Time!

2011-07-18T10:50:00.000-07:00

Can any one guess whatz up?

So we have

Chick-fil-A

Over here, and every so often they give out free food if you come dressed like a cow!

So when Angela came over it was one of those chick-fil-A days and she said we should do it.

The thing is that you have to have something on your head, chest, and legs.

This is how it went down-

Angela- "Hey, we should take your kids over to chick-fil-A and get them free food!"

Me-"I don't have anything for them to wear."

Angela-"Em I've seen lots of people go wearing garbage bags."

Me-"Hmmm."

so yada, yada, yada...

Logan-"I am not wearing that!!!"

Jay- "It looks like a dress!"

Angela-"You guys are wimps.

Uncle Peter would do it,

He'd wear it for no reason,

He'd wear it to SCHOOL for no reason!

Jay-"O.k., but you can NOT put these pictures on your blog Mom!

If you do I'll rip it off right NOW!"

(Too bad he didn't really think that threat through b/c I got it on here anyways, don't tell Jay!)

After all that finagling,
Angela finally convinced them to go,
and as soon as we got there,
this little girl walks right up to Logan and says-
Little brat-"Why are you wearing a dress?"
Logan gives Angela this look containing a mixture of embarrassment, anger, and pleading in his face
so Ang mercifully says- "You can take it off, we already got our food."
Poor Logan!

What's wrong with us?

The crazy things we make kids do!

Speaking of crazy things...

sort

dyed

hair

pink!

No, I'm not going through a little middle aged crisis!

Layla's darling C.T.R. 4 teacher who is so sweet and would always have the kids do

"group hugs"

Has just been diagnosed with cancer.

It has shaken our little ward.

I don't know her well at all, but wanted to send her love by joining the ladies in our ward,

and I mean almost all of us, by dying our hair pink.

Everyone wore PINK to church for her too.

This is her in the center of the first pic.

Isn't that so cool? No one asked anyone to do it. We just all showed up, and everyone was in pink!

Oh, and Angela did my pink hair for me when Tom and I went to the movies

with some new friends of ours.
I was worried they would think we were too strange b/c we are Potter crazy,
but then I figured they needed to find out some time right?

She took a video, and I realized that this is pretty much the first video of me ever on the blog.
Tom's not much for taking pictures and what not.

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?

2011-07-14T08:03:00.000-07:00

Playing Football in Virginia

is like

Making Pizza in Italy!

We take our ball S-E-R-I-O-U-S-L-Y!

Logan spent 2hrs a day for a week going to Football Camp.

He is going to be spending all of August going to practice for 2hrs a day, and has practice and games from Sept-Oct!

Logan loves it!!!!!!

I love that Logan loves it!!!!!

Tom loves it, and loves that Logan loves it!!!!

Lays and Jay just Love that they can find critters

Yuck!

The week he spent at camp was also fun cause Logan slept in and was rather calm during the days.

I've actually been thinking about sticking him on the treadmill when he starts acting crazy.

What do you think, too mean?

I'm thinking it's nicer than sending him to his room,

but my judgement could be clouded cause it just sounds fun to get him running!

Each day they went to a different station. I only remembered my camera on the kicking day.

Random funny pictures.

2011-07-14T07:59:00.000-07:00

Lays fell asleep during morning scripture study.

By the time I took the third pic you can tell she had woken up, but wanted to pretend she hadn't.

Darling!

Hank's favorite place to sit
while the rest of us watch
the T.V.! He is so going to crack the glass
one of these days!
I also had to get another
shot of him
sporting the Dora Jamies.

I am in love with Jameson's smile. His eyes are so crinkly:)
I also like the contrast between Henry's girl P.J's and his ones that are clarifying that he is not a girl!

Lays was so excited when she discovered this little trick.

Awwwwwwwwww.

So I was helping with a Daddy Daughter sock hop and made this car for photo ops.

I just realized that there aren't any pics of Logan.

The next post is all about him though so I don't feel bad for him.

Better late than never.

2011-07-14T07:54:00.000-07:00

Happy Fathers Day!

No need to tell me how annoying I was in this video. I promise I already know. I just couldn't stand how distracted Logan got. I'm hanging my head in shame... promise!

I think that's why I didn't post this on the actual day. Despite the interruption it is a pretty cute song that the kids sang for their daddy at church so I decided to post it.

They actually forgot the ending in that video so I got Lays to sing the whole thing for you.

Tom had her sing it for him like 5ooo times so she knows it really well!

Fathers Day was actually easier than Mothers Day cause I didn't have to get the kids ready all by myself! HeHeHe I promise I'll stop bringing it up eventually hunny!

We woke up to all of the kids giving Tom their gifts, and Jay brought Tom "Breakfast in bed." Which consisted of the entire pack of Costco jelly rolls, and the great big pitcher of O.J.! Adorable!

I wrote Tom a poem, which was a lot harder than I thought it would be.
Angela came over for dinner and had a little-tiny-food-fight with Hank.
He kept throwing stuff at her so she retaliated!

I can think of only one word to sum that up.
NERD-OS

End of SCHOOL!!!!

2011-06-16T19:20:00.000-07:00

Each grade had their own "End of school picnic" over here.

This is Logan's good friend.

Logan loves to go to their house cause they have more than one computer.
While we were sitting with his mom Logan told her that we went to Australia to visit his cousin Asher.

To which I replied- "No we haven't."

To which he replied- "Yes we did, the last time we went to see him it was Australia!!!"

Strange kid.

Logan had tonz of fun doing the tug of war, which is why his clothes are filthy, and don't even get me started on what he wears to school, cause I bought him that outfit for p.j.'s.

So you might be thinking that Logan is my only story teller, but Jay told the dad that we were sitting by that Boise is right by Mt. Everest.

What is up with my giant misinformed story telling kids?

When I got home with Jay I told him the bad news about Boise being on the other side of the world from Mt. Everest and he said to me- "How do you know?"

So I was like- "The Internet."

Which for some reason made him finally believe me.

Pool Day!

Goggles, goggles, goggles!

It makes swimming so much more fun.

I got them these from Costco. They came in packs of three, and their were two choices.

One pack had bright green, bright blue, and white, and the other is the one you see.

The boys were like-

"We want this one mom!"

And I said-

"If you get that one Lays won't get to have the pink one."

What?

Oh, I know what you're thinking, you're thinking that two out of three getting what they want is better than one being happy, but you would be wrong cause Layla doesn't have a sister to play with, so to substitute for her lack of a built in friend, I give her things like pink goggles.

And yes, I know how dumb that sounds, but

it seems to be working o.k.'ish.

She made a friend at the pool this day, and that always seems to help too.

Layla told me they were friends cause they both have floaties.

This was actually my first time at the pool without Tom!

Right when we got there Henry saw this DORA paddle board.

He started squirming, and screaming, and lunging for it.

So I finally just asked if I could borrow it.

He hugged it for like an hr, and kept saying- "A Dowa!"

Do you notice a family resemblance? I've never really thought they all had the same smile before.

Henry kills me.

These kids live on our block. I was so excited to see them playing together.

It's June 10th 20011 and It's my 11th Anniversary!

2011-06-10T08:27:00.000-07:00

Wow I'm getting old!

So I woke up this morning and got the brilliant idea to make Tom some heart shaped toast.

I know it would have been way nicer of me to have done fancy pancakes,

or heart shaped strawberry stuffed french toast,

but he gets up way too early for that.

I also have a very nice of me gift that I'm getting him,

but I can't tell you what it is b/c he frequents my blog from work sometimes.

So I was skyping with my cousin Sara this morning and she asked me what I was going

to do for "The Big Day" and before I could tell her she guessed it by saying

Sara- "Don't tell me you're doing something sad like grocery shopping."

-insert sheepish smile here-

Yep, we are actually going to a grocery store tonight.

Before you go feeling sorry for me, let me just say that this store is the

most magical grocery store on earth,

I'm going there with my favorite person on the planet,

and I won't have any of my darling little "can I get this, I need that, and please mom" kids!

Speaking of the kids,

In honor of the day

Lays

and I staged a barbie wedding.

This is the wedding, and

Here is the reception.

We had delicious watermelon sized strawberries,

and all the Disney princesses preformed

for the program.

I have those on video, but they were too long to post.

I do, however, have a silly video I wanted to put up for your viewing pleasure.

Lat Friday we rented "Gulliver's Travels" and the kids watched the end 50 thousand times so they could dance to it.

Do you know the part where he saves the town by pulling all of the enemy boats away and when the enemy boats fire their canons they all bounce off of him?

Well right after that part I paused the show, ran into the kitchen, grabbed a bag of marshmallows, and started a ginormous marshmallows fight. I aimed them all at Tom's face. Which meant he got hit about every 4th throw cause I have terrible aim. Tom was merciless, and has very good aim. Good thing I was wearing my glasses. Every time Henry got hit he just grabbed the "mallow" and downed it saying "YUM" in a silly high voice. Jay kept stock piling the "amo" in his shirt, Lays just ran around screaming "We're being attacked daddy,"and Logan ran upstairs to throw them at us from above which was brilliant, man he is getting old too!

Is it still too soon to post another D.C. post? What if I add some pics of the kids at the D.C. Temple?

2011-06-06T18:38:00.000-07:00

Lets play "Guess that Famous Dead Guy"
Any ideas?

Nope, not George Washington.

What about this guy, any ideas?

The first one was George Mason,

and the second one was Thomas Jefferson.

Don't feel bad if you couldn't get them. I had to have Tom remind me and I was even able to read the plaques while I was there.

I don't even know who's on the horse in this one.

I think I have found my favorite building.

Well, it's probably a 15 way tie, but I love, love, loved the botanical gardens building!

It was so hot and humid the day we went that when we went in the building, which is essentially a huge green house, it was cool and felt dry-er-ish!

Logan loved this guy who was teaching you everything you needed to know about VENUS FLY TRAPS. He wouldn't even look away to smile for a picture.

Wish I could say this shot was taken on our "spur of the moment tropical romantic get away."

Maybe some day Tom, maybe some day!

So we can't afford a babysitter for 6-ish hrs to go to the temple together. So we all go, and Tom and I take turns doing a session while the other one walks the grounds with the kids. It was Tom's turn this trip so I took some pics with his phone while we waited for him.

It was so nice just to be there. They have a little visitor center and everything.

Logan and I knew that it is the tallest Temple so we tried to figure out how tall it is. We guesstimated about 250 feet.

Does anyone know how tall it really is?

While we were walking around

Jameson said- "Mom I like it here. It is so peaceful."

He also got his foot sliced open by a metal door. It was bad and got really dirty so I took him back to the car to clean him up and all I could find was hand sanitizer so I said-
Me- "Jay this is going to hurt. Do you think you can handle it?"
Jameson- "O.k., but can I pray first?"
tears,
some from me, and some from him, but he was tough and it didn't hurt long.
What a sweet little kid.
I also got to be in primary today and when the chorister asked why we needed to be reverent at church
Jameson raised his hand right up and said- "Because this is God's house."
awwwww

Henry's 2nd M.R.I.

2011-06-05T10:29:00.000-07:00

I hate doing this!

It is so hard on Hank.

He has to fast FOREVER(10 hrs which ended up being around 20 b/c it's through the night)!

I had to lock him in his high chair in the morning while we got ready so he wouldn't steal a drink, or any food. The poor thing just kept lunging at the faucets.

Then when we get there we have to wait forever(they were running late so we had to wait an hour and 40 mins longer) before he can go into the M.R.I.!

Then the M.R.I. takes FOREVER(2 hours)!If we hadn't had Layla to distract us I think I would have lost it.

Well, Lays and Dora! We heard some other kid watching it but couldn't find the right channel so Layla and I went "through the curtain" which is generally frowned upon and got the channel info from them. It put our starving little Henry in a nice little T.V. coma while we waited,

and waited,

and waited.

Then we had to wait without him.

While we still had Hank with us we all fasted with him, so once he was gone

I bet you can guess what Tom and Lays did.

They left me in the waiting room and came back with chips, pop, and a giant milkshake!
Healthy!

This is when we F-I-N-A-L-L-Y

got him back.

I LOVE this part.

We fed him a popsicle and then, of course, I had packed him a banana so he downed that.

The rest of the day he was super tired, and groggy so the two of us just hung out on the couch all day.

Later on that night I was starting to get worried that Hen was still so lethargic, so I asked Tom to get me the "Duo tang" the nurse had given me so I could check the list of warning signs. Well after almost 11 years of marriage Tom discovered another "Canadian" word. I guess Americans call everything a "folder" even if they have the little silver clipies in them. He thought it was so funny, and just had to text our friend Nate immediately. Americans! I ask you?

Tom's a Fans FAN!

2011-06-05T09:54:00.000-07:00

BOSTON TRIP!

So I know this post is out of order, but that's cause I have been trying to figure out how to get the pics off of Tom's cell phone.

I finally figured it out and now I'm up and running.

So when Tom went to the Celtics game he went with my cousin Jessica's husband Kyle.

If you recall I told Tom that there was no way we could go to the game cause we didn't have anyone to watch our kids. Well Tom figured out a way around that little problem.

This is how that came about.

Tom was walking down the hall at church one Sunday and ran into Kyle (his ward meets after ours, but we overlap)

Tom- "Hey Kyle I want to ditch Emily and jet on over to Boston to watch a playoff game. Want to come? We'd miss Mothers day morning, but our wives are so cool they wouldn't care."

Kyle- "You know Tom this wasn't just a chance meeting. I could definitely be persuaded to do that."

Tom would probably tell ya that that's not "exactly" how it went down but it's not his blog and I think it sounds funnier that way.

They got their early and decided to run on over to Fenway Park just to see it, and the Red Sox were playing so they went up to the ticket guy and told them they were just stopping by cause they were going to the Celtics game(I'm sure he believed them cause Tom was a walking advertisement for the Celtics) and the guy let them in for $20.00 all together. So they got to go to two games in one day.

Then they ate at a pizza joint that did paintings of the players on the wall.

By the end of the day the boys said they probably spent $20.00 on diet coke!

Before the game they stalked the players.

The seats were awesome

and the game was "T"amazing

Kyle swears that Tom started a stadium wide chant of-

"D-Wade Sucks!"
When he fell and injured Rondo.
Kyle said that going with Tom was what made it so much fun. Tom literally screamed himself hoarse, and didn't ever stop cheering.

He lost his voice for like three days.

I swear if that wasn't Tom's own personal fantasy camp, then I don't know what it would be.
I know I tease you a lot, but the truth is I love you Tom, and I'm super glad you got to go.

Backyard Slip and Slide... and Henry's Hiney!

2011-06-02T13:25:00.000-07:00

It has been soooooo hot here.

Like 101 degrees F

By the way did you know that 96*F is 36*C? Cool eh? I was in my car the other day when I figured out that little tid bit of information.
I normally don't remember #'s but those ones stuck. Maybe all that SUDOKU is really working after all!

So yada, yada, yada, it's been burning hot here, and we pulled this out yesterday.

The water was cold, and it was in the shade,

but I didn't hear any of them complaining!

Henry just parked his hiney at the bottom of the slide and expected everyone to dodge him.

It didn't always work out that way.

One time he got his feet taken right out from under him and went

s-p-l-a-t

on the ground.

before I could reached him he-

stood back up,

raised both arms over his head and said-

Henry- "Woo Hoo!"

And as you may have noticed in the video...

He also ripped off his diaper and went running around. I just had to get a shot of it. The little Tank.

Jay the Giant Tomato!

2011-05-10T16:36:00.000-07:00

Jameson had his first school concert last week.

He was darling.

They did a play about gardens with flowers,(the 1st class)

weeds,(the 2nd class)

and veggies.(Jay's class)!

I felt bad for the boys in the first class. -They had darling little flower heads,

and their song was all flowey with swirly actions.

The weeds song was all cool, and rap-ish, so Jay was jealous of them.

The Veggies had a ho-down type song,

which was very gender neutral, so it wasn't the best, or the worst.

We all loved all of it, and cheered way loud for our Jay-Man!

He gave us a thumbs up!(adorable)

This is Jay with his new friends.

The kid is a giant eh?

And Angela takes third!

2011-05-09T19:30:00.000-07:00

I am soooooooo excited!

My little Sister Angela

(For some reason I've started calling her Smangela)Came out here to sell pest control this summer!

I also have some cousins who came to sell too.

These two are Will, and Brigham.

I'm pretty sure that my kids are driving them crazy,

but they are really nice, and take it like the champs they are!

Brigham seems to be holding up a little tiny bit better than Will, don't ya think?

We love having family come over!!!

Happy Mothers Day Grandmas!

2011-05-08T09:47:00.000-07:00

We love you!

Hope you had a great one!

I wish I was there right now!

2011-05-06T17:06:00.000-07:00

When my computer isn't being used it goes through all of my pictures.

I just walked in here right now and saw this one on the screen.

All four of my crazies are screaming some sort of song(Henry is actually just screaming)

and I thought-

"I want to go B-A-HA-HA-CK!!!!!!"

I guess I should be happy that I have actually been there.

Bright side right?

Now that went well!!!!

2011-05-05T10:13:00.000-07:00

Aren't they Sweet?

I have had a terribly crazy morning!

First of all, I went to bed late cause I watched

"Fiddler on the Roof"

for the first time,

which by the way was so not the light hearted musical that Tom had promised!

I had to get up at 6ish for scriptures and breakfast,

because I had to drive Tom to work at 7:00 sharp!

Meanwhile all I could think about was my terrifyingly horrible nightmare about a crazy super lizard

that was chasing me all around a "Hoarders" disgusting bathroom trying to kill me.

Then I had to spend 7:30-8:30 getting the boys off to school.

Once all of this was accomplished I thought to myself-

"Self, you are not feeling quite up too snuff,

why don't you turn on the T.V.,

let your 2 little ones watch a show,

and take a nap!"

Well for the first 10 minutes Henry kept jumping on me so that didn't go well.

The next 20 Min's seemed to be pure bliss till I woke up to see that

HENRY had got into my

CHILD LOCKED fridge for the

TEN HUNDREDTH time and smashed

EGGS all over the kitchen!!!!!!!!!

While I was upstairs starting the wash so the eggs didn't turn his p.j.'s into cardboard,

I heard this crash and then a sound like marbles rolling all over the freshly washed kitchen floor.

My darling Henry had dumped a bucket of crayons off the table!!!

He has had 3 messy diapers, and one wet blow out.

Each one of those is a huge job cause Hank refuses to

HOLD STILL,

STOP GRABBING FOR EVERYTHING(and I mean everything)

or LET ME PUT HIS PANTS BACK ON(to stop him from ripping off his diaper)

the way we remedy the problem is one of the kids has to help me by holding his hands.

So while we were doing this for the fourth time today

Lays said- "Mom what are you going to do when I go to kindergarten?"

And that's when the tears came.

I do not want Lays to go to school!

But after lunch I was laying Henry down for his nap and

he put his head on my shoulder,

patted me on the back,

and said-"Awwww"

So I guess that's why I don't lock my little terror in a closet.

He loves me, and I love him too.

Tom is on cloud nine!

2011-05-02T17:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess I am coolish, or just crazy cause

TOM IS GOING TO THE BOSTON GARDEN

for the first playoff home game of

THE CELTICS

THE HEAT!!!

I am 5 shades of GREEN with envy!

He wanted me to go too, but we couldn't figure out how to accomplish it. I'm just glad I can see my guy so happy. You deserve it Tommy!

I must Love the guy cause

it turns out that he isn't going to be home for Mother's Day morning!

This means that I have to schlep my four kids to 9:00 Church all by myself!

I actually didn't realize this till yesterday, but don't worry, I won't allow myself to be a martyr. I've already planned the rest of the day out, and it doesn't include me being responsible for anything.

I'm also toying with the idea of making him address me as Queen Emily for the day.

What do you think?

Too much, or not enough?

Go Celtics!

2011-04-20T10:07:00.000-07:00

Tom has been a

CELTICS FAN

since he was little.

The last time he saw a game Larry Bird was playing, and signed something for him!

So what kind of wife would I be if I didn't say "count me in"

when he called me up and said-

Tom-"Hey Em, should we go to the Celtics game tonight?"

Yep, that's how much time he gave me to whip up some green gear, and drag all my kids to D.C.!

It was so much fun!!!

We had been toying with the idea of going to this specific game since Tom got the job,
but had decided we couldn't be away from the kids(paying a babysitter 1 million dollars)for so long.

Well, Tom solved that by taking us all to the game!

If 5 "nose bleed" seats instead of 2 "o.k." seats meant we got to go, I was all for it.

The kids all had tonz of fun, even Henry, cause he loves to dance to the music.

4th time's the charm. I wanted to show how much fun Henry was having, but whenever I pull out the camera now days he starts to scream,

cause he wants to see the picture, that we haven't even taken yet!!!

Lays fell asleep at the game, and fell back to sleep on the metro.

Jay zonked right out on the metro too!

Does this make you laugh as much as it makes me laugh? I was cracking up. I felt like all the people around me on the metro were thinking how mean I was, but I just couldn't not take a clip of it.

And here is Hank still up on the metro.

He actually stayed up till we got all the way home at 12:30am!
I forgot his soother.

All in all a pretty good day, and I got props for being a "cool" wife.

Fast forward to today,
the Celtics have won their second play off game,
and Tom is dying to go to Boston to see a game in the garden,
because-
Tom-"Emily, it just isn't the same as a play off game, in the GARDEN.
I need to go support the team!!!"
Guess what, I'm not that cool!

Jacklyn takes second place!

2011-04-13T18:20:00.000-07:00

Lily and Lays

got to get together for Layla's Birthday Party!

Gracie(my cousin Jessica's daughter), Layla, and Lily had so much fun!

They had a little 'Tea" Party.

You might think that "Bubda" was only there for the food, but he loves to play

"Tea Party"

with us, even when we are only drinking air!

They did lots of

"CLINK'S AND DRINK'S"

We spent the next day shopping.

The kids just got into this car and it started going on it's own.

Is that stealing?

This was on the day Jessica did Jacks hair,

and Jack did mine.

Of course no trip to see me is complete without a trip on the metro to

Washington!

It was Luke's favorite part.

After we had to eat our lunch sitting on a park bench in the rain,

we joked that we should have just rode the metro all day.

I guess Jay and Henry don't think it's worth the time it takes to smile for a pic

if it means they have to stop chewing!

The kids were quite excited to see a "Dum-Dum!"

We were so lucky we got to spend time with our family.

I miss ya already Jack!

Next time Ramsey needs to come,

and we'll get Tom to take some time off too.

Oops. False alarm!

2011-04-12T19:15:00.000-07:00

Tom just went to lunch with a friend who is from here,

and he said that it wasn't a cotton mouth.

So I'm super excited!!!

Apparently you can't trust a jogger who happens to be running past and says-

"That looks like a moccasin."

I guess they don't come this far north.

No Kidding!

2011-04-10T18:00:00.000-07:00

We went on a family walk today around the paths by our house,

and Logan found this!

A WATER MOCCASIN

OR COTTON MOUTH!

Around the corner from my house people!!!!

What the heck am I supposed to do about this?

. . .

I'll tell ya what I'm going to do,

absolutely nothing!

Absolutely nothing

cause spending my time worrying about something that I can't control is a little crazy isn't it?

I mean I told my kids not to go near them,

and to watch out for them,

but I can't make those creepy little things go away!

. . .

I'm feeling a little homesick tonight.

Birthday boy!

2011-04-01T19:40:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

HENRY!

We cannot believe you are 2!

Where does the time go?

You are so much fun!
You get into everything, which is fun for you,
but is the exact opposite of fun for the rest of us!
You have passed Jameson, and Layla in the dust,
but still haven't even come close to causing the chaos that Logan could contrive!
Don't feel bad, Logan is a genious, and the fact that you came in second is saying something.
You are our only SOOTHER(binky) kid, and you ask for it like this-
Henry- "Mom, Mum, A Soo! A Soo! MuM, A Soo! MO-om! A SOOOOOO!"
You love food.
You love to snuggle.
You are a mommas baby, and I love it.
You like to play Tea Party with Lays and me. We won't let you play with the breakable ones, and you are always trying to steal them from us. You copy everything we do. You even do the "CLINK" part.
It's so cute!
You snore when you sleep, it's adoreable!
You are obsessed with Dora!
Henry- "Mom, Mom, a Dowa!"

We love you so much, and can't believe what a miracle you are!
Although it's hard for us,
not knowing what the future holds,
and wishing you didn't have to deal with all you do,
you teach us to be grateful that you are doing well today.
After all,TODAY is all we have.

"One of the challenges of this mortal experience is to not allow the stresses and strains of life to get the better of us — to endure the varied seasons of life while remaining positive, even optimistic.”

Elder Perry

Oct, 2008

Your Dad had me read this news article, and this was the final quote from Elder Perry. I instantly thought of you, and how I want to help you grow up knowing the truthfulness of this quote from an apostle of the Lord.

I know the future might be difficult for you. I wish I could take it all away, but I know our Heavenly Father can see past our wants, and desires, and does what's best for us.
We'll be there for you, whatever that entails.
Love you baby!

Awwwwwww. What a change from last year!

2011-03-31T08:34:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

LAYLA-DARLING

Layla we are so excited you are 5!

You are growing up so fast.

I'm dying that you are going to ALL DAY kindergarten in the fall!

I'm going to miss you so much!

You are still a sweetie, but you have some silly little character traits that all fall under the category of

LAZY LAYS

"I don't like walking!"

"My feet/ankle/legs/back hurt, I need you to carry me up the stairs!"

"I don't know how to clean my room!"

"I can't eat that! It takes too much chewing!"

"I'm too tired to wake up!"

You like to use the phrase- "You betcha!" We love it!

You still say good morning Mommy, if I let you wake up on your own.

If I don't stop him, you can still get whatever you want from your Daddy.

You miss your friends a lot.

You talk about them all the time.

I don't know what we'd do if your cousin Grace didn't live down the street!

6:30AM

We surprised her with a little table and chairs.

She has been wanting one forever!

She requested

pink

princess

pancakes

This shot is when she opened her "Tangled"

DRESS!!!!!!!

She may not look excited about the Popsicle molds, but she loves them!

We had to immediately make some for her Birthday dinner tonight!

She was soooooo excited about everything!

We played Tea Party all morning!

Yep, all this happened before most of you were awake!

Sometimes I'm jealous you're sleeping, and sometimes I like thinking "I'm already done with all my morning chores when you haven't even started!"

We Love You Lays!

P.S. The other day we went to LUNCH with Tom for the kids Birthdays.

Are you a good "HOP SCOTCHER?"

2011-03-28T18:59:00.000-07:00

It snowed yesterday, but last week it looked like this!

While Henry was sleeping "Just us girls"

(counting Zepp)

went on a walk around the streets by our house,

and then we played in the front yard forever! We played read the letters, Lays usually did stuff like this-

Y-A-E-B

R-T-E-P

B-U-B-R.

We played under the sea, and eye-spy,

but the thing we liked doing the most was playing,

HOP SCOTCH!

Lays decided that I don't know how to play hop scotch!

She broke the news like this,

Lays- "Mom, I need to teach you how to play,

because you aren't a very good

HOP SCOTCHER!"

She apparently learned from "Special Agent Oso"

with "Three Special Steps!"

So that pretty much makes her "The best

HOP SCOTCHER ever!"

To be fair, I actually didn't know all the rules that she knew!

Behind again! After this really big post, I'm going to be more consistent. At least I want to be!

2011-03-23T10:51:00.000-07:00

Lays was so happy when I finally got the computer hooked up.

I have finally started waking up(@6:30) and making breakfast for my family.

Missy gave me this recipe, and we all love it.
Can't tell ya what it is cause if I try to spell it you will laugh at me.

This is Henry's favourite place to be in the morning cause it pumps out tonz of heat!
Through that door is the garage, and the other day Henry tried to walk down the three stairs, and fell.

He discovered that he isn't ready to walk down the stairs,

and the rest of my kids discovered that if you use the jets, the bubbles keep coming!

I just had to put these pics of Henry in Lays "Hello Kitty" robe!

HeHeHE. I love that he is probably going to be mad at me in like 4 years.

Speaking of, wait I can't think of a good transitional sentence, except to say that I miss all of you, and I'd love you to come visit. Since we found out we were moving, Tom and I have been wondering which one of you would come first so we could take you around Washington,

AND

THE

WINNER

IS......

MIKE AND SHANNON'S FAMILY!!!!!!!

We are so excited!!!! They came for their spring break, and we had tonz of fun!!!!

The first day we ditched the kids, and went with Tom on a private tour of the Capitol Building.

It was so cool. We even got to tour the House, and Senate.

This is a cast of the statue on the top of the Capitol Building, and the other statue is of Brigham Young!

The top pic is from the top of Tom's office, and the bottom one is when we were on the underground trolley in the Capitol Building. We saw 4 Senators when we were there. We were about 10 feet from them, and I made eye contact with Senator Lieberman, but didn't know what to say, so I just kept following the guide who told us we shouldn't snap pictures, so I don't even have any proof.

Senator Lieberman

Senator Kerry

Senator Udall

This is Senator Jim Risch. Tom has worked with him since he was Idaho's Governor, so when we saw him we stopped and Tom talked to him for a bit. Tom introduced me to him and he said "Nice to see you again." Which was really nice of him to think he remembered me, because I actually hadn't met him before.

Senator Jim Risch

This is the mural at the top of the dome. If you laid it flat it would stretch out to be the length of three acres!

Right when I started filming this video the guide was telling us that only V.I.P.'s can get you up to the catwalk to go up into the dome, so that's what you hear me joking about on the clip.

The next day we took the kids to the museums.

Ruby Slippers

Michael Jackson's hat.

Hope Diamond

It was a long, fun , and busy day. Lays, and Jacob had to be carried A LOT and I wished Tom had been there to lend a hand, but he had to work. I don't know if you know this, but Tom takes the train to work every day, and I drive him. on this day I still had my camera with me so I decided to snap some pics of him.

Tom(Harry Potter),

hated that I was all touristy. So he wouldn't smile for the camera.

The next day we did the monuments. Tom had to work again, so we went and bought 2 strollers.

One for Jake, and one for Lays.

After I took this video Logan discovered that he was stuck!
I was pretending to be all calm b/c we had about 30 people watching us,
but I was freaking out!
It took 20 minutes,
me climbing up after him,
and Mike talking him into taking the first backwards step,
till things started getting better!
I wish I had a video of that, but hindsight's 20/20 right?
When Logan got down he said "I think that has ruined me for tree climbing!"
Now there's the silver lining right?
Oh, and Logan was getting so much attention that right after we got down Jay started yelling,
"Mom!!! My HAND IS GETTING INFECTED!!!!!"
Translation, he needed a band-aid. It was really funny, but you probably would have to hear him yell it.

The WW2 Memorial is beautiful.

Henry munching some oreo's. He is so loud, and happy when he is eating. You should see him eat a banana!

I think this is my favourite monument. Honest!

This was after lunch, and Jay was running out of steam, so I carried Lays for a while, but when I ran out of steam she did this...

She hadn't even walked past one of the museums yet when she did that.

But when she was in the museum she thought it was fun to do this!

We were all little sad to see that "Night At The Museum 2" Is not accurate!

Nerdo's

This is the back of the White House!

We went to the Temple for my Birthday.

Thanks for all the calls, gifts, cards, and messages!

I had such a great Birthday, even though I was way over here!

We had a yummy dinner with my cousin Jessica, and her Husband Kyle and Kids.

Mike and Shannon, and their kids were so much fun, and so helpful. I wish they didn't have to go!

But I did fall asleep on Sunday for a 3hr nap.

Touring Washington is a lot of walking.

Just had to add this for your viewing pleasure!