Fun Family Weekend

We had a great time spending the day together on the 15th. Earl ran in a 10k in Folsom with some friends early in the morning (Ron, Earl, Cameron (aka Bishop), & Rebecca). The kids and I met him there... it was already so hot, and the course was really hilly, but they all did a great job! Way to go Earl!

No, the kids didn't sprout feathers overnight... these are the wild turkeys that like to run around outside Earl's office. We stopped there after the race and the kids had a great time chasing them down to get a few pictures.

After lunch we went to Earl's friend and coworker, Brenda's house in Lincoln. She breeds and raising racing horses and has almost 20 right now. We learned so much about them, the care she gives them, their names (didn't know horses could have so many names!)... they are amazing animals. And they all have such distinct personalities. Here is Jill meeting one of the horses. She got a little spooked when the horse started sniffing her and checking her out. It was fun! The only problem was Jonathan... the poor guy couldn't stop rubbing his eyes. He was miserable... don't know if it was the horses, the hay on the farm. He was glad to leave!

The rest of us had a great time. Thanks to Brenda for letting us come! We had a great time!

Happy Birthday Jimmy!!!

Jimmy turned 4 on May 11th! Every day he asks me if he is still 4... it's so cute! We went to McDonald's with a few friends for lunch... his favorite lunch hangout!

Jillian sharing french fries with her buddy Malia

Love this picture!

Then we had some more friends over that night for ice cream cake and presents.

Jimmy has been fighting his brother Josh for months now over riding his scooter. We figured he would love one of his own for his birthday... and boy were we right! He loves his new scooter and helmet!

Happy brothers now!

We love our sweet Jimmy! He is adorable and funny and I love his big eyes and quirky smile! It's hard to believe that he's 4 already! Happy Birthday big boy!

Happy Mother's Day

Mother's Day was the BEST! I was given the most beautiful homemade cards, love coupons, and gifts from my boys. My sweet honey bought me beautiful roses. He also made sure I didn't have to cook or clean during the day... I loved the breakfast burritos and bbq hamburgers for dinner. I requested all of it and the food was great! Thanks honey!

I'm so blessed to be a mom and have the most wonderful children! They are all so unique, so sweet, so beautiful in every way! I'm also so blessed to have a wonderful husband who helps me more than he can ever know! I don't tell him enough just how much I love and appreciate him.

Time to blog again...

I've been spending so much time working on getting pictures off of my computer and onto a portable HD and DVDs. I'll just do a quick update and try to do better this month!

We went to a cool bbq and easter party the Saturday before Easter. There were about 12 kids there and our gracious hostess, Sarah P. (with the help of some friends), filled 475 plastic eggs for an extreme egg hunt. I've NEVER in my life seen so many eggs! The kid's baskets were FULL of candy when we left ... oh, and I forgot to mention there was a pinata too! She is the ultimate party thrower!

Jonathan fishing for eggs on the covered pool!

Say "cheese" Josh!

All the kids got a money egg... James was thrilled! What a sweetie!

Jillian crawling around with a carrot in her mouth the whole time.

Easter morning we had our own little easter egg hunt and French Toast with strawberries and whipped cream. We've discovered that Jill loves to have the whipped cream sprayed onto her finger or in her mouth! Hahahaha

The following weekend we went to an air show at Beale Air Force Base with our friends Ron and Rhonda. It was BLAZIN' hot that day, but we had the best time looking at all of the different planes, helicopters, aircraft carriers and much more! And the air show was crazy! I've never seen planes do stunts like these planes... going straight up into the air, flipping and flopping... makes me nauseous just thinking about it! Here is Earl and Jimmy in the cockpit of a fighter jet!

This is my pretty princess wave as we were going up the ramp into the aircraft carrier.

This is all of us minus Earl who took the picture under the belly of a B-52. You can't believe that a plane this big can even get up in the air... the wings are longer than school busses! Ron (upper right) used to be the mechanic for a B-52 bad boy in the air force. He was in heaven! It was fun to spend the day with Ron and Rhonda!

Oh, and Jonathan's baseball team finally won a game a few weeks ago! At least they won ONE game this season! He's hangin' in there... but is really afraid of batting right now! He's been hit a few times at bat :( Poor guy!

Our New American Idol

He's trying out in about 13 years for the 21st season of American Idol... does he get your vote? He might not be David Cook, but he's a close 2nd to me!

Baseball Season

Jonathan wanted to play baseball this spring, so I took the plunge and signed him up a few months ago. Of course, as I was finishing the paperwork, he got his first bloody nose playing catch with a friend. Needless to say, that's just the beginning... but Earl and I both warned him that "everyone gets hurt in baseball at some point". It's a fact! I'm sure if you are reading this and used to play yourself, you are nodding your head right now :)

We've had a few "bruisers" already, but overall, our young man is doing exceptionally well for his first season EVER! He's a little old to have never played, and thankfully there is one other boy on his team that is also new to the sport. He learns something new every game, every practice, and it's great. It's a big commitment for him and our family (2 nights a week practice, one week night game, one Saturday game... EVERY WEEK! 18 games total!), but it's been so fun to watch (and sooooo hard at the same time!).
2 stories:


1) Jonathan was walked, got to first, STOLE second (way to go!!!), base hit... ran to third. Looked at his coach and said, "This is the first time I have ever been on third base. (Pause)... this is the first time I have EVER been on base!" So cute! So innocent!

2) Jonathan goes up to bat... probably the 3rd time he had ever been up to bat. Goes and stands in the "box"... wrong box... home plate was behind him! Oops! The Ump helped him move to the correct position. It was so funny (and hard to watch... I was yelling at him!)

OK, it's just not funny anymore!

My wonderful son Joshua sleepwalks occasionally. Actually, more like every other night lately. It's always about 10:30 or so at night, he "wakes" up (he's asleep with his eyes open), tromps around the house like he's mad or upset or crying about something, we have him go to the bathroom (and sometimes have to pull his pants down for him!), and direct him back to his bed where he immediately falls back to sleep (except one time when he kept sitting up and laying back down while saying some sort of nonsense about how he just couldn't do it? I don't understand!). Now, many of you (family mostly) know that I used to sleep walk when I was his age too. Yes, I did some pretty crazy things (set the table in the middle of the night, tried to pee in the bath tub) and I'm sure some of you will add more in my comments. You won't embarrass me... I was little. But Joshua pulled a stunt tonight that he better not EVER pull again!!! I'm downstairs checking on blogs (about 10:30 again), hear a door open, hear another door open, hear Jillian start crying, then crying louder. I go upstairs and find Joshua giving Jillian to Earl in our bedroom!?! What the...?!! I don't get it? She was sound asleep! I totally yelled at Josh "What the heck are you doing?" He said "She was crying so I got her." I could tell he was totally asleep! He has no idea what he just did! Tomorrow we are putting extra locks on 1. the front door and 2. Jillian's room. I never thought I would have to lock my boys out of their sister's room for this reason! What a nut! Boy are we going to be laughing in the morning!