Once upon an April in a State far far AWAY!!

To make this readable to everyone who wasn't there to enjoy all the adventures the kids and I enjoyed I will give you the semi condensed version. Now that I got to down load pictures I am sad that there isn't more of them. I hope the other pictures of this trip will make their way to me. The best part of a trip like this one is that there is no plan so you can go where you want when you want with whomever is available. I left for Nampa Thursday morning and made it on almost one tank of gas, 2 stops, with 3 kids, 4 and under, by myself. The kids watched 1/2 a movie in 8 hours and entertained themselves the rest of the time. we packed some p & j and toys and they were AWESOME. I learned that I can reach Lucas if I HAVE too but a faceful of wind worked better than yelling. I just rolled down my window and let him have a little bit of "fresh air" when he wasn't listening. It worked like a charm. I have been traveling with these little bitties their whole lives so they don't know anything different. If you HAVEN'T ever planned an adventure with 3 kids by yourself I would recommend getting help, it isn't for the weak of heart. Even if your kids do awesome in the car, I got several looks of pity when we stopped and I was alone. We got to see Grandmas and Grandpas and Aunts and Uncles in Nampa as well as some friends that I haven't seen in about 5 years so it was a good stop.
Then onto Idaho Falls where my college roommates awaited me. Sarah met me in Nampa sunday night then we caravaned over to IF monday morning to visit the roomies. I am pleased to have found them just the way I left them. Sweet, spiritual, and just a touch sassy! It was everything I had hoped. The one fear, well two fears I had were that I would have tired cranky kids that wouldn't adjust to a new house and that my college memories of these girls would be just college memories and things would be different around them. BUT it was just like old times. Ashlee, Chris, Lenny, Sarah, and I (minus a few beloved girls who we still adore and wish we could have seen) were just like "peas and carrots again." We stayed up late talking and laughing, watched the kids play, put out fires, fixed rolled ankles, had F.H.E., visited houses, went to dinner, broke up fights, rocked babies, gave kisses and hugs, learned everyone's REAL name, got out of our comfort zone (playing basketball), listened to firealarms, saw the midnight garbage can fairy, caught up, washed pee pee clothes, and learned we loved the girls we were back then and love the women we've become since college. And though we are all catching up on our sleep now that we're home I think I can say for everyone that it was worth the effort on everyones part to have these precious couple of days together. I will be cherishing these memories as fondly as the first.
This isn't every detail but the stories require detail that I don't have the time to write. So hopefully those involved will all blog their version and we will have multiple insights to this adventure. Thanks to Sherri for letting us use the trailer it was perfect, Christina and Hondo for the adorable F.H.E.(on the good samaritan which proved useful later in the week when Lenny rolled her ankle and Alexa tried to help her up) and BBQ, you have a beautiful home. Ashlee for the lunch and vinyl ideas. To Kristen who housed us and fed us. Jason who helped and entertained us. All those babies whose personalities I now know. I will enjoy seeing on the blogs and smile because I know you a little bit better now. Thanks for making yourselves and homes available to us. May you all leave happy.I love ya to bits. And love is all a girls needs. :) AND THAT as they say IS THAT!!

Getting squished!!!!! You don't come back from that Luky!

This Monday for Family Home Evening the kids and I did an activity outside in the sun, and I think it is going to be one that they remember for awhile. I took this idea from my Mom. She demonstrated it to my older brother and sister many years ago and though I don't think I was around to get the visual demonstration I have heard the story and I thought it was a good one. (Feel free to use this in you own FHE)

We went down to Safeway (.25 miles) and asked for some of their throw away fruit (it's hard to pay for fruit you are just going to squish, kindof wasteful). Then we brought our oranges home (one for each child). We drew our faces on a piece of paper and taped them to our orange. Then I let the kids go put themselves out in the road (to represent playing in traffic :) then I got in the car and proceded to run them over. (they watched in horror as I destroyed their oranges) We then got to clean up the SQUISHED drippy mess off the road. After they stopped crying we had a talk about how much mom and dad would cry if one of my babies got squished on the road. We'll see if next time I say, "STOP! CAR! Do you want to get squished like an orange?" if they listen.

This is a funny side note. A Jaceyism as Christina might say. Jacey was placing her orange in the road and told Lucas "now watch out Lucas, you don't come back from being squished." This is something I have told her a number of times.





Might I suggest if you do this demonstration that you buy enough oranges to feed some to the kids afterwards, cause they were a little distraught when I didn't have any for them to eat.

Interview with the Kids... kind of.

I finally did it! I did the kid interview after dinner tonight and I got a whole lot of blank stares and shoulder shrugging but when I put some of the questions in simpler terms these are the answers I got. Lucas lost interest after question 6. So mostly this is Jacey trying to play along but it would be interesting to see this again in a few years. However Lucas is now asking if we can go to town. Enjoy.


1. What is something mom always says to you?
(Jacey) "Eat my food."
(Lucas) copying Jacey- "eat my food." adding on his own. "POPCORNNN!!!"

2. What makes mom happy?
(J) "kissing momma and giving her love...and eating our food."
(L) "YOUUU!"

3. What makes mom sad?
(J) "spilling my milk and dinkin' around."
(L) "because."


4. How does your mom make you laugh?
(J) "playing around with me and tickling me."
(L) because


5. What was your mom like as a child?
(J)"baby toys" what? then she says "goo goo- ga momma"
(L) "You"

6. How old is your mom? this took some explaining, You're 4, Lucas is 2, how old is momma?
(J) Holding up all her fingers, "Jacey, how many is that?" then counting, "10,11,12" "So how old am I? "4?... 8?...9?"
(L) "you"

7. How tall is your mom?
(J) she stood up and reached into the air, "this big- no" reaching higher "this big!"
(L) leaves the room at this point.

8. What is her favorite thing to watch on TV?
(J) "cats and dogs swinging on swings" that made me laugh. then she says and "flick." I'm assuming that is bug's life the movie.

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
(J) "Worry" I thought that was interesting, but probably some piece of a conversation we had long ago.


10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
(J) "choices" if only I could be famous for making choices.

11. What is your mom really good at?
(J) "building a tower"
(L) "power lines" (this is what daddy is really good at), somehow he thinks all the good things done in the world originate with powerlines, wonder where he got that idea?? :)


12. What is your mom not very good at?
(J) falling down- (I'm not sure but I think she was saying something I don't like doing. Then again it could be I'm not very graceful when I fall down, and therefore not good at it. :)) I asked her-what else? "climbing a tree" what else Jacey? "drawing a man" (which surprised me a little bit cause I thought I was actually pretty good at that.)

13. What does your mom do for her job?
(J)sewing
me- what does mom do all day long?
(J) take care of us. (I'm glad she knows that IS what I do.)

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
(J) "chicken pot pies" (we had them for dinner the other night)


15. What makes you proud of your mom?
(J)"when you put on a movie."


16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
(J)Sponge bob square pants (I knew that was coming) who would you be? "patrick"
who would Lucas be? "squidward" who would daddy be? "mrs. potts" what about Taylor? "a little stinky baby"


17. What do you and your mom do together?
(J)"build a tower" what else? "watch T.V."

18. How are you and your mom the same?
(J) "we both have a red shirt" she didn't really get this one or the next one. (neither of us were wearing a red shirt)


19. How are you and your mom different? (this was after much expaining about other things that are the same and different.) What makes you, Jacey- And me, Mommy?
(J) We don't have the same names.


20. How do you know your mom loves you?
(J) "Because your the best"

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
(J) "flowers" (I'm not sure if that's him bringing me flowers or him smelling like flowers?) hahaha.

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
(J)"the zoo, and the restaurant."
(L) "to town" now all he wants to do is go to town.

Well this was a tag type thing but I won't hold anyone responsible for doing it, but feel free to copy. We had a little laugh doing this, but I bet it gets really interesting coming from 6-9 years olds. These guys were still just a little bit too little.

Count your blessings, name them one by one.....

You can't help but love a picture like this. Completely innocent doing headstands naked. Someday she'll ask me "Mom, what were you thinking?" And I am pretty sure I will tell her "I still love this picture."


Someday these will be the pictures of the past that they will reminisce about. When a giant lollipop was all you needed in the world to make you genuinely happy.


When 4 bottoms still fit on a couch.




This is a CA-razy blog world isn't it? I can check in on friends I haven't seen since college, yet I feel like I still know them the same as I left them all those years ago. I found 2 college roommates on facebook today and it made me smile to see their beautiful faces and reminisce over the past. The good 'ol days of stayin' up too late, driving too fast, and way TOO much pranking, not enough studying and plenty of laughs. Good food, (I have been craving a Crago's pizza bomb for quite a while now), funny pictures, good friends, and a memory that holds them all so near and dear to my heart. Life twists and turns and doesn't always take you the way you anticipate it going, yet here I am in a B-E-A-U-tiful life that is full of blessings. As I wander around the blogs of friends and family and look into some of their friends and familys blogs I see adventure, spirit, love, and laughter. Something we all have in common I've noticed is a desire to live the best life we have the opportunity to live. We all want to teach our children how to become successful, wise, responsible citizens. We write our struggles and successes and lots of us find happiness in the gospel. So what is it I'm getting at? I guess I just wanted to throw out a warning to myself and to others who might be like me and occasionally compare your life to those around you. I sometimes find myself wondering when my adventure is going to come. When am I going to get to see more of the world I live in? And I think I found my answer as I was reading back over my previous posts... I am having an amazing adventure right now and by searching for more I am missing all the growth, changes, laughter, and fun all around me. Satan works with any negativity you keep lying around so bottle it up, get onto your knees and start counting your blessings. Mostly this was for me and anyone whose life hasn't taken the exact road they expected. I am leaving this here and going out to contemplate some more in my own head. I love you my near and dear ones. :)

Bitty Bowlers!!

So Jacey's shoes were pretty much the cutest thing ever!


I have noticed the last several posts of mine have all been about primping, shoes, shopping, and minus the one about politics that I ranted about they all had some sort of picture of me in them and that just makes me feel a little bit vain. So here is a post completely free of shopping and fake hair. Justin went on a scout campout tonight as part of his calling so I took the kids bowling for the FIRST time EVER! THEY LOVED IT! They were pretty sure they were going to hate it because I told them we are going to do something fun but it didn't involve going to a friends house so they were pretty sure I was full of it. Well I didn't fail them, we had a blast. We had a short version of the rules and for the most part they did really good. They tried to keep their toes off the line when they went up to throw the ball. They took turns REALLY good. There wasn't even one tantrum! NOT even a single POUT. It was a really good Friday night. We needed one of these together, I was feeling a little like we didn't like eachother. (cabin fever) It was a happy time seeing them enjoy themselves and high five eachother. It gave me a huge sense of accomplishment that we could enjoy ourselves as a family.
They kept up with me, which isn't hard to do. Lucas rolled the ball down the neighboring lanes twice while we were switching turns but luckily no one was using those lanes so no one got ticked. Taylor sat in her seat for the first 30 minutes and then I finally freed her just so she could have a break, otherwise I am sure she would have watched buckled in her carseat perfectly content for the entire hour. What a nice girl. Jacey was loving clash of the pins being knocked down and had a dance for everyone. I am going to try to get the video of her on here cause it is pretty comical. We had a good time being out together having some fun that didn't involve windexing anything. Maybe next time I ask if they want to go do something fun they won't look at me like I don't know what fun is! Thanks for checking in on us. We are happy to be in this family together, and tonight it showed. :)

The fasination with the ball coming back- AWESOME!
Watching Jacey bowl was really funny, you would have thought she'd done this a dozen times before. She would find her ball and put her fingers in the holes (correctly of course) and then procede to her approach. Everytime, she would put her fingers in the holes, just like a little pro.
Lucas really showing off that form! It was so good to enjoy them.

A Good Day for a "DO"

So I mostly wanted to share Jacey's festive St. Patricks Day hair, but I had these funny ones of Taylor and cute one of Manda so I thought I would put all the funny hair pictures on together. Thanks Christina for your always fun blog with the cutest holiday hair ideas. I am always happy to steal a cute look from your blog.
Beyond playing in new hairstyles we have been cleaning house and hanging out. Justin goes to Canada in a week to start work, he is stoked to get back to work, it isn't natural for him to have nothing to do. He hung a curtain rod for me yesterday in an attempt to be busy but it took a maximum of 2 minutes so he is now bored again. He is a champion helper so he has been doing laundry and cleaning house but now he's looking to go provide for his family. We have been happy to have him these many weeks. I already know I've been spoiled having him home all this time. So back to the grind stone for both of us next week.
Well I have to go make some dinner but I hope you all enjoy the pictures, we had fun creating them. Love to all you friends and family looking in on us. I love your comments so keep 'em coming. :)

So this is me before extensions

This is me after extensions, Justin was trying to take of a picture of me eating so this is the face he got. You can kind of see how my hair is longer than normal. I think they're fun. As does everyone else. I got one clipped onto Lucas before his Dad put the KI-bosh on that one, thus no pictures of Lucas looking like Joe Dirt. It was pretty histerical.

The St. Patricks Day "do" courtesy of my friend Christina's blog. She has a link on her blog with the directions for this CLOVER hairdo. It took about 15 minutes. Had I been prepared with some green ribbon I might have wrapped the twists in green, out lining them in their clover shape, next year we'll have to try that.

The baby with some extensions- yeah I am aware of it's creepiness.

MORE CREEPINESS

Manda Before the extensions- this is from this summer but it gives you an idea of how long her hair really is. She is cute with short or long hair.

And Manda with some EXTENSIONS, from short to long in as easy as 1-2-3! Her hair has been short for so long she couldn't even remember what it would look like, but with extensions you get a quick look into the future.

Killer boots man....

Well I am sure you have all notice the lack of posting going on over here, but I do have a good reason. Justin surprised me and came home on the 18th of February so we have been catching up and hanging out. The kids were excited to see him and he couldn't help it and told me he was coming. I didn't know he had been on the road for a day when he told me he was coming though. So we are happy to have our daddy back for a little bit. He will be headed off to Canada here shortly but we are just going to ignore that fact for a minute and enjoy his company.
Another fun surprise was that he was home for our 5 year anniversary on the 28th so that was fun. We tried to plan something really exciting at the last moment but finally ended up going to Portland and shopping kid free at the factory mall down in woodburn. Which wasn't an adventure so much as a really relaxing weekend, and who couldn't use one of those. I think in the end (even though I REALLY wanted to go somewhere new) it was really nice not worrying about being a tourist and seeing "everything" we just got to enjoy eachother and really relax. We have to tell Manda and Bryant, Em, and Jill and Kirk Thanks a MILLION for taking the kids, we had a really good time just catching up and sleeping in. We know how much work our kids can be so we know we owe you all!! Thanks SO SO much. We are so blessed to have such a generous family and amazing friends. And also thank you to those who offered to watch kids when we weren't sure how we were going to work it. It was really nice to know you were there for us if we needed you...
Justin and I in our new cozy jackets. That was the only thing he bought for himself while we were there. (He did get a new pair of boots before we left- Happy Birthday, happy anniversary, and happy you work really hard so buy something that makes you happy) Don't ask me what that face he is making is about.
I took a few pictures of the trip, mostly the fun things we got at the factory malls and such.
These are my KILLER boots man. Justin keeps asking me where I will wear them but I think he will be surprised at how many outfits I can use them in. Jean with just about any shirt for starters. I am really excited about em. I know I don't expect them to be that white for TOO long. I will just have to try really hard to not mow the lawn in them or anything.
These are my "Manda" shoes they made me think of her when I got them, I have a very cute outfit I put together at Ross that they are going to be great with.
Here is our freak of nature child who thinks at 7 months she is going to start getting up and walking. She has been crawling since she was five months old and I am watching in disbelief as she makes her way around the house. She like Lucas started out pretty mellow. Really she has been the happiest baby I have ever seen. BUT now that she is getting older (she is still REALLY nice) she is beginning to develope an opinion just like everyone else. I knew it was coming. She is still very easy to please and makes your heart melt with that little bitty face.

There has been much more going on but for time sake I will have to skip the details and do some more another day. However I will tell you I bought a router so we are wireless now and can type from any room in the house. I am stoked about that. I spent a good 45 minutes organizing the mess of wires that live behing our printer. AHhhh deep breath of satisfaction...YES now I am off to B.E.D. next time I sit down to the computer I will be reading your blogs cause I haven't done that for a LONG time. Miss you all. take care. Have a happy Thursday.