Sick

I have been trying to post every other day so that I can keep better track of things. but I am failing at that. I have come to think that we aren't doing anything that exciting and nothing is happening.

Something is happening, just not fun. My boys and I are sick. Travis so far is the only one not sick, but I have a feeling he will get this wonderful cold or whatever we have very soon. It started with Brandon getting an ear infection on Thursday night, to Kimball have a tempature this weekend, and Nathan who just can't recover from being sick a few weeks ago. Poor guy is just coughing constantly. Now I am coughing and am feeling pretty crudy.

Taking care of sick kids isn't fun nor being sick yourself, what I am mostly upset about is the fact that I cannot exercise! I am going to loose everything that I had a week ago! Oh well I guess, but hopefully it will turn sunny soon so that cold weather will go away. Then it will be easier to exercise and want to exercise because it will be so nice and sunny out. That is my thought anyway.

Wordless Wednesday

My Father in Law, Richard.....this explains him well.

Spring Cleaning

As we enter into this Spring season I get a cleaning bug. I want the house to be sparkling, well as clean as it can get with 3 little boys running around.

One thing that I have realized is how dirty your walls can get, so that is one major thing that I am going to be working on, cleaning all the walls so that they will be completely white again (since we are renting no color on the walls).

Last night as I was vacuuming my bedroom my vacuum of 7 years has died. I received it as a wedding present in 2002. So it is time to get a new one. Since I am not made of money we got what we could afford. We got a Hoover Mach5. As I vacuumed the computer room tonight I am amazed how well it vacuums. Now one of the other things that I will need in my spring cleaning is a carpet cleaner. No matter how hard I try to keep our carpets clean they manage to get dirty and get spots!! YUCK! So this year I am going to get a carpet cleaner that I can use.

I have come to believe that when your house is clean you are happier. As much of you know this is extremely true, but as always every house gets dirty. So I like to have a nice once of a year deep cleaning. So I challenge all of you to do your own spring cleaning, and if you don't think that you house needs to have a deep clean, come to mine and help me!

After looking at different spring cleaning lists I have found one that I liked. http://candyheartsandpaperflowers.blogspot.com/2009/03/spring-cleaning-checklist.html

Enjoy!

Bragging....

Every Mother thinks their children are the best and that they are the smartest person in the world. I am no exception, I think my Brandon is so stinking smart! He does take after his Daddy in this area, but Brandon is one of the highest in his autism class and I am to bet in his regular kindergarten class as well. Brandon can read extremely well, do math exceptionally and can o through a workbook in less than a hour. He has gone through so many workbooks I cannot find any more that he hasn't done. We have been working on reading 500 minutes this month so that he can win a swim pass to a local water park. As we read I am just amazed at how well he can do. He can sound out words easily and knows words that I would have never thought he knew. I am just so proud of him!

Nathan is my lovey boy! He is so affectionate. He will do what he needs to, to make someone happy. He will do anything he can for his friends. His speech has improved drastically this year and has started making conversations and will actually engage in a conversation that he doesn't start. This is a major improvement for him. Nathan loves his family and adores his brothers. He always wants to be with them. Nathan is doing great at school and is improving with sitting still

for longer periods of time.

Kimball is my happy boy! He is always happy and willing to give a hug and kiss when asked. He is starting to begin his terrible two's but when he is not tired or hungry he is a great baby! He loves Brandon and is always calling for him, and lets not forget about Daddy. Daddy is his favorite person in the world! He calls for him after the boys go to school and when we go to Daddy's work and are waiting for him to come out, he will sit and call for his Daddy until he comes out. Kimball loves to run and explore but wants to make sure his Mommy or Daddy is close by to help him in case he gets scared. He loves to wear shoes but as soon as we get in the van he wants them off. He enjoys his daily walks with Mom in the park and just loves to be out.

I am so blessed to have my three boys. I would not have traded them for anything in the world, and yes even though my body has changed drastically with each child I would not trade it for anything. Even though we have our daily problems and we get to the point where we just can't handle it much more I cherish every moment. I love motherhood and I know that it is my calling in life and I am happy with it. I thank my Lord every day for what He has blessed me with. I am one lucky woman!

Missing...

Have you seen this Fairy?

There must be a crime wave going on, first I hear a Kitty is missing and now the Tooth Fairy is missing too!!

Yesturday Brandon lost his 2nd tooth! He placed the tooth under his pillow but in the morning there was no tooth and no reward from the Tooth Fairy! We found the tooth on Nathan's bed (Brandon sleeps on the top bunk). So we will try again tonight, but keep a look out for the Tooth Fairy!

Shin Splints

I HATE SHIN SPLINTS! Last week I was hurting really bad from them when I was exercising and preparing for a 5k. But this Monday I had a great workout and my legs felt great, come around Wednesday and Thursday they are hurting again! Could it be that we are running faster? No idea, I just know that I hate them.

Then it brings me to a thought, we all know that exercise is important and that it is good for you. I have been told that if you exercise it will give you more energy. WHEN does this ENERGY come? I have never felt the new ENERGY from exercising, or anymore energy that what I had before. But I do see that every day that I do exercise I am more tired that day. Maybe it is something that comes after 3 weeks. Not sure. Or it could be my size, I am no size 0 (like a cousin of mine).

What keeps me going since I am more tired and hurt? The exercise high. You have to wait until the very end but you get it and then you feel like you are doing something good! But I do have more respect for those who run!

Wordless Wednesday

January 2003

More...

I couldn't resist! Nathan came home with this adorable hat! I swear his teachers are so creative!

St. Patrick's Day

This is a nice canvas stick piece that my Father in law made for us. We almost have one for every holiday!

The boys have been so excited for St. Patrick's Day. Brandon has told me it will be March 17th about 50 times. We "had" to have green everything! We already had green sweats so I got them each a green shirt, but at the last minute we got green flip flops! We mostly needed them because Nathan and Kimball needed sandals.

Although since Kimball doesn't really care at this point in time I just made sure that he was wearing green because Brandon and Nathan WILL pinch him if he isn't.

Brandon HAD to wear his coat because it was green. I told him that he didn't have to wear it all day long and that he was already dressed in green but we will see if it did stay on all day or not.

I bribed them with a green oreo if they would let Mommy take their picture. So you will see that they have some in their hands.

I love Nathan's smiles. He tilts his head and says cheese! I love his moon eyes! He looks a lot like his Uncle Joe.

Brandon is silly and it is extremely hard to get him smiling his "good" smile. But mostly he just puts up with Mom when she has the camera out.

Kimball has gotten into a phase where he will not look at you when you have the camera in hand. No more posing :( Oh well. I was able to get his face this time because Brandon was on the other side! Cute boy!

We wish everyone a Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Running?

Every time I see people loosing weight they jog/run. And guess what they come to love it! So I am going to give it a shot. I have always hated it but think I will eventually come to love it like so many other people.

My friend Shanowa and I are doing this program "Couch Potato to 5k" to help us in our adventure to start running.

http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml

Last week when we started I got bad shin splints! I mean killer. So I was not able to walk that fast or jog that fast so we were only doing 1 1/2 miles in 30 minutes. All last week I iced my shins after every workout, stretched every night, stretched before and after my workouts everything! So this week when we got started again I was very nervous about it. But guess what my shins were better! Taking a nice easy weekend helped! It was awesome! So we were able to go from 1 1/2 mile in 30 minutes to 2 miles in 30 minutes. Not the 3 miles in 30 minutes yet, but we will get there. As we add more jogging to our workout we will get faster. I was just so excited and proud of myself. It is hard but after you exercise you get this high, a natural excited and satisfy high. It is nice.

So since the weather is getting nicer all over I would challenge anyone who can to start doing any time of exercise. Make a goal. My goal is to run a 5k, and I am taking the steps to do that. But make a goal and go for it. Everyone knows me and my size (slightly large, okay so large) so if I can do it, anyone can do it! So get up and get moving!

Field Trip at the Dinosaur Museum

Today we went to the Dinosaur Museum for Nathan's class. This is the first time that Kimball went and knew what was happening. We went 2 times last year but was only a baby.

Kimball was so excited to get out of the stroller and run around, he was very interested in everything around him.

Nathan would stop and pose for me when I called his name. He got bored later on with it.

This was a tunnel that they had that showed what some dinosaurs lived in. Nathan thought it was fun. But not interesting enough.

Kimball was so afraid of it and wouldn't go in, but after 5 minutes watching the other kids go in and out, he decided to go in. He thought it was pretty cool and I had to drag him out.

Kimball grabbed that puzzle piece and would bang it all around the table. Thought it was a good music toy.

This is the area where they had sand and water to play in. Nathan was so excited to play.

Kimball was so afraid to go in, and then once he crawled under the table to play inside of the circle of sand and water. He finally stood up and grabbed my hand before he played in it. He thought it was pretty cool.

This is a Nathan smile. So cute! He would just rub the sand and water, he didn't want to explore more. A very different action than Brandon and Nathan.

Doesn't it look like he is picking his nose? So cute.

By now Nathan is very bored with me taking pictures of him, he is barely smiling now.

Kimball thought it was very awesome to sit on this step and play with the stuff.

By now Kimball is not thrilled with me taking pictures of him either. Although this look is definately a Nathan glare. SO CUTE!

Nathan wouldn't even come near this shark but Kimball walked right up to it. He would have crawled into it if I had let him.

Digging in the sand now for dinosaur bones! Later on Nathan would say that his legs were stuck in the sand!

Kimball just played in one area. He thought it was pretty fun, but no exploring again.

Bad Mother Award

I deserve the Bad Mother Award this week. Kimball has fallen down again. And I wasn't there when it happened so I have no idea what he did to cause this problem, I just know that he got hurt by probably falling down. This seems to be his style. Or it could be a horn growing.

I think my poor child is getting used to the pain, because I didn't even think it was bad because he only cried for litterly 30 seconds, but when I saw him crawling up the stairs it was this.

Now today it looks fine, he just has a cut on his head that has a nice scab, bruising around it, and it is no longer swollen. Those that know us just understand that our kids enjoy getting hurt.

FHE

For FHE this past Monday, we signed up to go and help clean up our ward building. We were thinking something easy or the boys like washing door knobs or wiping tables, but when we got there we found out that there was a lot more things that needed to be done, like mopping the gym!

Brandon was pooped by the time we left, I guess the super powers have their limits too.

Us as we were leaving...no makeup, beautiful I know!

Kimball had fun running around the church, so as we were leaving we had to pick him up so we could leave.

Brandon and Nathan went in their costumes, Brandon was Batman and Nathan was Optimus Prime. I think it gave them super powers. They helped me with the classrooms by washing tables and trim in the rooms.

Kimball would go around and inspect the rooms!

They had fun watching Dad mop the gym floor. I swept it and Trav did a mop job. It went surprisenly fast.

Nathan is supervising from the stage, and Kimball had fun just running!

It was a good experience for the boys. We talked about service and how it makes us feel good. They seemed pretty excited when we left and were still pretty happy when we left. I was proud of them and how hard they worked. It was a fun FHE.

Early Flash Back Friday

Kimball is now wearing those shoes that Nathan is wearing and Nathan has already grown out of the cloths that Brandon is wearing (a lot of hand me downs in this house)

They would always play in the dryer, never shut the door, because that would be scary, but they liked to get in there. This was taken in March of 2006. Nathan was 1 1/2 and Brandon was 3.