Aloha!!

I'm off to Hawaii in the morning with my favorite Love. We'll meet up with my parents, brother, and sister and their other halfs in LA, and then off to the sunny beaches of Maui! I'll have pictures and stories to share when we get back I'm sure. Aloha!

Sad

This is a sad post. Well, I guess it depends on how you look at it. To some it's sad, to some scary, and to some anger and bewilderment. I was supposed to fold clothes, but instead I found myself flipping through the channels. The 5 o clock news came on with a breaking story of a boy in Portland who is lost. He is 7 years old, and after he and his mom went to school, she watched him walk inside, and no one has seen him since. HE WAS TAKEN FROM THE SCHOOL! From inside the school. His mom watched him walk in, and he never made it to his classroom. So in the minutes it took to get from the front door to his classroom, he vanished. I am sick! I told Tyler when he came home from work, and we both are stunned. Our FHE lesson quickly changed to safety tonight and talking about strangers. We even roll played with both kids and Tyler was a stranger and he said to Mason" Are you Mason? Your little brother is stuck in a tree. Come with me, he needs help." And pulled him out of the living room. Then we told him that if a stranger does that he needs to scream his head off and run. We couldn't push the point enough that following strangers was the worst thing they could ever do. We talked about who it was safe to get a ride home from school with. And to top it off with we made child identification pamphlets. They were giving them out at the school carnival for free. We have their information, fingerprints, and pictures. Tyler had already planned for weeks to do this tonight, but I've never really thought about filling one of those out until today. I mean, this kid vanished from inside his own school. What next? I would strongly encourage everyone to get one. Just to be safe. Sorry for the downer blog, but in life...... well...I don't know. It's just part of life.

Camp, cows, and sweatin

Sometimes when I get behind I think, well, I have nothing to say . But then when I look at pictures I guess I have more than I thought. Start with Father and sons. Tyler took the boys to overnight camping- father and sons. And they had a medium good time I think. It poured rain on them starting at around 10:30p.m. until sometime in the early morning. For those who are unaware of what it means to "pour" in WA, it means rain so hard that even our gutters can't keep up. Despite that, they stayed dry and had a good time.

And Nat and I had a good time eating pizza and finding the dress up your Disney princess website. She was in heaven for that one. Then we watched Sleeping Beauty and she slept with me. Everyone wins when the boys go camping!

Next cows. Nat's preschool class took a field trip to a hands on pioneer farm. It was actually really neat. They had log cabins that were built by the pioneers back in the late 1880's. They told the kids about all the chores they had to do. When the guide then asked,"Who would like to milk the cow?" And my sweet girl pipes up that she will. And she was the only one! She grabbed those udders and away she went. A couple drops of milk actually came out! Oh my little farm girl. After we left she informed me that when she's 17, she'll be a pioneer. You go girl!!!

And now for the moment you've all been waiting for. How is level 3 going with your BFF Jillian? Well, I'll tell you. I have lost 8 honest to goodness pounds with Jillian. Level 3 makes me sweat. Period. I don't remember sweating that much since pushing out the kids. I find myself in a little bit of a discouragement. I thought I'd have lost more by now, but chin up Beck. 8 pounds is 8 pounds and I'm still doing Jillian everyday.

Now, let's see if we can work on your tan. Your ghostly white. No really.

Happy Birthday to my squishy princess!!!

Yesterday the 18th, was my girl's birthday. I know she turned 5, and that calling her a squishy princess may be a little kids name, but she IS still my princess for the rest of her life. And Squish is her nickname. And can you believe that this girl is 5!!!! We're talking Kindergarten in the fall! Tyler and I always comment on how we wish we could freeze her right now, just the way she is. And on super great days, I wish she were triplets. :) Well, she had her first all girls party and was it pink! She had 5 friends over and she wore her Cinderella costume.

We had presents and games and pizza etc.... and she was in heaven. And she got some nice presents too. We played Plinko with the Plinko board that Tyler made. And at the bottom I had different prizes. Sparkling lip gloss, sidewalk chalk, princess jump rope, princess figurines, glow in the dark bracelets,candy. These girls were having so much fun! Then we went cow bowling. The pins look like milk bottles and the ball looks like the head of a cow, and as you roll the ball it moos. It's pretty awesome.

And then the cake. AAhhh the coveted Barbie cake. Go back in time with me for just a minute. Now, when the squish turned 3 she wanted said Barbie cake. I had just had Dallin and was home from the hospital for my first day when her birthday came. I didn't want to disappoint her, but I was also exhausted and still water filled. (Boo for water filled bodies. Seriously I could have filled up some lakes. Anyway.) Step in my super massive awesome husband who took on the job. After showing him a picture, he went straight to work.

This was the front.

This was the back.

I gave him 5 stars for making the best princess cake ever! Who would have thought to make her do the backwards splits??!! Your awesome Love!

And now we have the cake done this year.

I can't believe that I forgot to take a picture when I was done. Well, here's a side view. And here's what it looks like in the front. Just imagine the cake a little fuller. Hurray!!!

I'd say all in all it was a very successful birthday. I am happy to report that I had a very happy 5 year old by bed time. What a girl. I love you Nat!!! Happy birthday to my squishy missy moo miss princess face.

My sweet little Dilly Dal Pal

Oh my sweet babe! Today you turned 2!!! 2 years old and now you are a toddler. But you will always be my sweet moopty moo, schmoopin schmaps, biddiest bid, Mr. Schmee. I love everything about you, and secretly I like when you come in our room around 1:30 every morning to crawl in by mom. :) We started the day early. 1 A.M. to be exact, when the Dal started to come in our room, saw the balloons I had blown up and put on the floor, and stopped to play. Normally I would say,"Aawww how cute." and take a picture. Not so this time. I scopped him up and we waved goodbye to the balloons until morning, and back in his bed we went. And he stayed there until 7:45. Tyler did the traditional carrying of the birthday boy/girl to our bed for presents.

He got hot wheels, and fruit snacks, goldfish, new suit for church (yeah it's a snappy one) magnet board, fire truck remote control..... But I have to say that I was most impressed with Mason's gift. Dallin loves dogs. Just loves them. So every morning for the past 2 weeks after Mason gets up, he has been drawing a picture of a dog for Dallin. He drew a Dalmashan, Golden Retrever, and a Beagle. (Spelling done by Mason) Tyler got a frame from Michaels and we framed his pictures really nice and Dallin pointed to them and kept sayin,"Buh buh. Buh buh." (puppy) It was great. We played outside because it was gorgeous!!! And then I made us a picnic and we headed to the park. Good times! We came home and had a couple families with kids from the Nursery over for cake and ice cream.

O.k. so here's my dog cake. I know, it looks like a bear, but who cares it was super tasty! Yum yum!

We had a tricky time with the candles but only because he knows they are hot. Enter mom stage right to help with the blowing out of the candles. And now, after cake and ice cream and presents, after a scrub in the tub, he is in bed. Oh how I love that boy! Happy birthday pal! I love you more than ever!!

Last night was a Father/Daughter dance at the high school. It was a princess ball actually and so Tyler took Nat. We put on her Cinderella costume and away they went. Tyler said they had a great time, and Nat danced the night away! He got some video of her dancing and then of the two of them dancing together. It is so priceless! What a great dad! Thanks Love, the Squish had a great time! Man I love this family!! Thanks family, for making it a great, great day.

Well...rats!

Rats because I have nothing really to say, but I feel bad without blogging when so much time goes by. I sit here, waiting for the Dal to fall asleep so I can mop the floor. And that's about it. I did however, have a fabulous Mother's Day. Breakfast in bed with chopped up strawberries and bananas to go along with my pancake that spelled M O M. The kids didn't fight all day, the sun came out, and we grilled on the grill. I LOVE the grill. (Thanks Ems!) I love the smell of cooking food thats on the BBQ. I love that it was turkey burgers and my kids gobbled (no pun intended, haha) it down thinking it was hamburgers. I loved my homemade card. I'll save it forever. Thanks family for a great day!

I know your all dying to know how level 2 is going with my BFF Jillian. It took me 3 days to finish level 2 to the end. It was so stinkin hard, and I was really discouraged at myself for pooping out and watching the rest on the floor. But finally, I am now able to finish. I overheard Mason ask Tyler, "How come mom makes screaming sounds and the girls on t.v. don't?" Hahahaha- well son, mom is not as flexible and in shape as the girls on t.v.. But I didn't scream last night, so I guess that means it's getting better. I think I'll finish out level 2 this week and start level 3 on Monday. We have a weekend full of cakes with it being Dallin's birthday on Saturday and Natalie's on Tuesday. Hurray!! I actually have an idea for a dog cake. In my head it looks awesome. Hopefully I can transform it. I'll let you all know. Time to mop I guess. O.k. just do it already!!

Friday at our house

From Tyler, taken from our family website:

Yesterday was an exciting day. On my way home from work I stopped and talked to a pavement crew working near my home and I asked them to pave over a low spot in my driveway. So they came over and paved about a 30 sq. ft patch and told me not to drive on it for about an hour. Beck was at the optometrist at the time and I had a bunch of chopped up tree trunks lying next to the driveway. I blocked off the driveway with this firewood and presumed Beck would stop the van prior to the obstruction and the fresh asphalt. Minutes later she comes barreling in, monster trucks over my "speed bumps", over the new hot mix, and on towards the house. I'm beside myself in frustration and as nicely as I could, open the van door and ask her if she's blind. Immediately I notice her wearing disposable sun glasses that could only come from a doctor's office. She takes them off and shows off her massive beady black eyes and says,"Yes!" We laughed hard about that and then I realized that those wood stumps could have just as easily been our kids greeting her in the driveway- "Mommy's home! Mommy's home! Mommy? MOMMY?!" thump, thump, thump.

Despite being blind with pupils dilated like basketballs, I let her run my new backpack blower that I also bought yesterday. I'm such a nice husband. I love my new toy. Now I know how I'm gonna clean the inside of the house the next time Beck is away.

from Beck- I'm pretty sure I would have seen the kids. :)