Happy Mother's Day

Last night as the kids were getting ready for bed, I heard Brianna discussing all the things they could do in the morning to surprise me: unload the dishwasher, wake up early and make me breakfast in bed, clean up the kitchen... This morning was nice, I didn't have to wake Gabe up 3 times before he got out of bed, the kids were fed and dressed without my help, and I got a yummy breakfast served hot to my room. The other things came to pass eventually and the nicest thing is that I didn't have to do any of it. This one day almost makes up for the other 355 days of the year that I do have to do it, almost.

The girls club!

Sandbox creations

Eleven Years and Counting

Gabe and I celebrated our 11th anniversary on the nineth. Sometimes I feel like it's been that long and other times I can't believe it's been eleven years since we were married. This is our life together so far in a big, big nutshell: 1998- Got married, moved to Provo where Gabe attended BYU and worked delivering pizzas and Anna worked as a preschool teacher. 1999- Moved to WA to live with the Gosney's for the summer (there were 9 people living in the house), Gabe delivered newspapers and worked for a cleaning company while Anna taught preschool at a daycare center. In the Fall we moved back to Provo and shared a 2 bedroom apt. with Devon (fun times). Gabe continued with his schooling, started working for Big Planet and Anna worked for a telephone survey company. 2000- Gabe continued his schooling at BYU, we moved to American Fork to nanny for a single dad of 3 children in exchange for free rent. 4 months later, we moved back to Provo into BYU family housing, Anna quit her job and Brianna was born. 2001- Gabe continued his schooling and working for Big Planet and Anna starts working for a cleaning company. 2002- We move to a 3 bedroom apt. still in family housing and Hayden is born. We move again to a 2 bedroom duplex that has a yard and washer and dryer (yay!) 2003- Gabe gets a job with Verio, Anna starts teaching preschool again, we buy a new car and our first home. One month later we are surprised to find out we are pregnant! (too bad the new car wasn't a van). 2004- Gabe continues working for Verio and Anna teaches preschool. Tucker is born and Anna starts cleaning houses again. Gabe transfers to UVSC and continues working towards his computer science degree. 2005- Gabe gets a promotion, Anna is busy with 3 kids and cleaning houses. 2006- Gabe gets another promotion and starts working a small side job he can do from home on the computer. Anna is still cleaning houses and Brianna starts kindergarten. Gabe buys his Audii and baby #4 is on the way. 2007- Gabe receives another promotion, Anna stops cleaning houses (ya-hoo!) We sell our town home, Mason is born, we move to our new house in Spanish Fork then pack our bags and attend the family reunion with a 3 week-old : ) 2008- We landscape our front and backyard ourselves, Anna visits the chiropractor many times and Hayden starts kindergarten. 2009- We buy a dog, we sell the dog. Gabe finishes his last 2 classes at UVU and is on the doorsteps of graduation (he just has his senior project that he'll finish in the Fall). Gabe buys his BMW (we're not expecting this time!) Tucker is enrolled into kindergarten and on May 9th we celebrated surviving it all so far.

Of course it's not all about surviving, it's about enjoying the voyage. My motto for this year is : "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain".

Caught on tape

This morning I heard some noise coming from the computer room, so I ran upstairs to make sure the kids were not getting into trouble. This is what I found:

After wards I went downstairs to check on Mason finishing his breakfast:

While I was working on my play list for my blog, Tucker came into the computer room and got inspired by the music. He picked up my weights and adorned a head band (I told him it was for exercise) and he wanted me to video tape "his moves".

Fun in a box

We got a new trampoline last week and the kids were so excited for us to set it up. We didn't finish until sun set so the kids only got to jump for 5 minutes. They were excited for the next day when they would have hours on end to jump. The next morning the boys were up early and out jumping in their pajamas. After breakfast they raced back outside to play some more. I poked my head out the door a while later to check on them but saw that the trampoline was deserted. I glaced to the lawn and saw both boys sitting in the boxes that the trampoline had arrived in, they spent the rest of the day in those boxes. I don't think it matters what your kids receive or for what occassion, they will always have the most fun playing with the box.

Hayden and Tucker's home for 3 days and counting...

I gave the boys summer hair cuts this week, so here they are, the cutest (I mean the handsomest) trouble makers you ever did see.

Bye-bye Lincoln

So after 5 weeks of owning a dog, we are now happier non-dog owners. We decided that since it was so much stress and work for mom, it would be better to find him a new home. Puppies are cute, but they require a lot of time and training and I don't have that right now. I barely have my 4 kids trained : ) The kids were sad for about 1 mintue, then they ran off to play with friends. So I'm glad we tried it because now we know it will be a few years (or more) until we're ready to ready commit.

Spring Break: sick with a side order of snow

We had fun plans for the kids Spring Break this year, we thought we'd go camping and do some hiking at Goblin Valley. After my foot surgery we decided to post pone the camping and do some fun activities around town such as swimming, going to the movies and picnicking at the park. Three days before Spring break, Gabe got sick with a horrible head cold and had to stay home from work to recuperate. Now that it is Spring break, I have the horrible head cold but I don't have the luxury of taking time off "work" to get better. I just get to stay at home and watch the house fall apart while I "try" to stay in bed. Of course the kids need to eat, the toddler needs a diaper change, and no one can find the remote, so it's mommy to the rescue. Naturally the kids are bitterly disappointed that all the fun activities had to be canceled and to top it all off we were hit with a Spring snow storm. So we're all stuck in the house and I no longer care if rooms are clean, beds are made, if someone is eating their 4th bowl of cereal or if the kids have surpassed their allotted tv watching time. If I can get an hour of rest in bed without kids barging into my room, I think I just might survive.

Boys bedroom

Book Nook

Kitchen Counters

Back yard

View from Patio

Fun with Family!

A few weeks ago my mom came to help out shortly after my surgery. During her visit she took some great photos of my kids and I wanted to post them on our blog. My sister Allie was also able to come visit with her two kids, Keith age 19 months and Natalie age 3 months. Although we were only able to get out of the house once, due to weather and my foot, we all had a fun time!


Anna, Claudette & Natalie -------Tucker's Luigi mustache


Brianna's curly hair-do --The three boys at park


Brianna's butterfly wings


Keith & Mason sipping the time away

Easter Egg Hunt

This evening we went to Kelsey and Ben's for some more Easter fun. As soon as we walked in, the kids were set free to hunt for eggs. The older kids were good at finding only their allotted amount until the little kids had found some too. Then they were allowed to search for whatever was left. Mason was really excited to find the eggs and drop them in his bucket. He spent most of today walking around saying "tee" which means treat.

Brianna had a lot of fun coloring eggs with her cousins. I helped Mason dye one egg, but he didn't get to help very long because he kept popping it into his mouth. So I took over and set him at the counter to eat eggs rather than color them. Hayden and Tucker opted to play Mario World rather than color eggs, which worked out for the best since 6 kids at the table decorating eggs at the same time was enough of a juggling act.

Mason's happiest when he's eating

Brianna coloring her eggs

Easter Baskets

Our Easter Bunny came Saturday morning and left the kids baskets hidden around the house. We let the kids dye eggs last night and they had a blast. Tucker insisted on using markers instead of crayon, unfortunately they were the washable kind. He spent a half hour decorating the eggs before putting them in the dye, luckily we could still see a few of his scribbles on the eggs : ) This year our bunny brought less candy and more books and activities, so the chocolate high didn't last too long this morning. Later we will be going over to Kelsey and Ben's for a Easter Egg hunt, egg decorating and pizza. I'm probably the most excited since I've been confined to the house since my surgery.

Recovery

So it's been 10 days since my surgery and I assume my foot is healing fine. I can't walk on it "normally", but I'm hoping in a few weeks I'll be able to get around without the walking boot. Recovering is not as easy when you still have the daily demands of cleaning, feeding kids, going up and down stairs to find the ringing phone : ) and of course putting the dog out to eat and do his "thing". If I don't gain 10 pounds from my inability to exercise I'll be surprised. After I read Heidi's blog about being inspired from listening to the Miley Cyrus cd I logged on and got hooked too. Although I can't do any aerobics, I need to start doing my pilates since that is the only thing I can do. Brianna loves Miley's music and luckily she's old enough not to be embarrassed that her mom likes her too. Give her a year though, she already has a pre-teen attitude, aghhhhhhh!!!

This is my idea of recovering