My Two Priesthood Holders

I/we feel so blessed to have these two members of our family holding the priesthood now.

Lil O was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood as a Deacon on Easter Sunday by his own Dad!! I was so happy and proud at the same time, it's hard to describe with words. Oscar (dad) was ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood as an Elder this last Sunday the 26th! I have waited so long to have the blessings of the priesthood in our home, again it's hard to describe with words. This past year has had its ups and downs more so than at any time in our almost 15 years of marriage, but I can easily say the ups are winning!! When I stop and 'Count Our Many Blessings' I am amazed, humbled, brought to tears (which right now is easy to do), and feel truly blessed, like the Lord is watching over us and holding our hands as we tred along. Some days it's just better to think eternally than temporally.

I think they like each other. *smile* How cute.

Parker's Photography

Parker loves to take pictures of everything. Most times I tell him he doesn't really need a picture of whatever it is, but this week I just let him take some pictures.

Here are the flowers on the cherry tree, he was trying to get a picture of the bees in the flowers. The tree smells great and we really hope we get some cherries this year. As we sat by this tree for a picnic lunch there was a constant humming of the busy bees.

Here is a picture of a robin. He was able to sneak up to it to take this picture. He is still trying to figure out how to zoom in.

Apparently he was trying to get a cute shot of Mason, but Mason wasn't cooperating. *smile*

Here is one of his forts with Daddy and Mason.

And of course another one of his and Mason's forts.

Keep up the good work Parker *smile*

Spending Time At Our House

This past week we had some very beautiful weather!! We all took advantage of it and we were outside alot, proof written all over our bright red bodies *ouch*, We had a number of picnic lunches and dinners, and Parker's creative side was coming into play with photography. Mason was still sneaky as ever, and of course my boys will always be boys.

Here is Oscar proud of himself for catching a live fly by the wings. Mason was pretty impressed with him too and has now taken upon himself to try and catch flys that are trapped by the windows. Thank goodness he has only been able to come close, although he caught a dead one, and I now have lots and lots of fingerprints on the windows.

Here is an example of Mason's sneaky side. Apparantley he thought it would be fun to color the inside of a shoe. Poor Oscar. He found the marker in his shoe that morning, took it out, and forgot about it, until he took his shoes off later, this is what he found. It took a whole week to wear off.

Here is Parker trying to get himself in the picture with his daddy and Mason and their cool fort.

Mason loves to build things, here is his latest design.

And of course here are all my boys with their homemade lightsabers. Lil O came up with the designs and dad took him to the store to get the supplies needed. They are made out of pvc pipe and only one has broken so far. *wink*

A pretty busy/normal week here.

Another Preschool Field Trip

4/21/09

This month's preschool field trip we went to the Eagle Fish Hatchery. It was a beautiful day and Mason LOVED throwing food for the fish. The fish were HUGE rainbow trout and loved the food! I don't know why it smelled Awful! There is a food dispenser there you can insert your quarter into to get food, but I couldn't seem to get it to work. Sara tried too and then she went and got someone to look at it, and wouldn't you know the darn thing worked right away!! I felt like a moron.

Mason and his class got some stickers and coloring books, ran around in the grassy areas and had their own snack 'gold fish'.

It was a great time, thanks for the idea Angie. *smile*

I Passed - Hallelujah

Thank goodness!!!!

So after spending 4 hours in the hospital waiting area, being poked too many times, almost fainting, and waiting 3 days for results.....I passed that blasted test!!!

I am so happy I don't have to go on a 'diet' and prick my finger every couple of hours! However, I am still a little paranoid to eat too many sugary things or lots of carbohydrates. I am glad that my arms are not sore anymore and that I am back to feeling better, after fasting for so long I just felt wrong for a day or two.

Good news is I can still fulfil my craving for chocolate milkshakes in the middle of the night *wink*

Prenatal Visit

Tuesday I went in for the dreaded glucose screening test. I really dislike this test, mostly because of the drink they give you, and you have to fast before hand. I thought it would be pretty simple - check in, drink the stuff, see my doctor, and then go draw my blood - 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours tops. Yah right!! I sat in that hospital for 2 hours, and nearly had a panic attack because I knew I had to leave to pick up Parker from kindgergarten.

This always happens on my doctor appointments, the doctor is always running late so I should have expected it. So I got the blasted drink and downed it in 5 minutes like I'm suppose to and off I go with my timer to the doctors across the hall. There I sit for nearly 45 minutes waiting to be seen. The nurse comes to get me and then I sit in the room waiting for the doctor while I watch the minutes tick away on my timer. I waited until 2 minutes and I had to leave, the nurse said she would hold the room. So now I race across the hall trying to beat the timer, which I don't so it starts beeping LOUDLY and I can't turn it OFF!! How embarassing!! The lab people heard me coming though and met me at the door and took the loud thing and silenced it. Thank goodness. I sat down they took my blood and then off to the doctors again. I sat for another 15 minutes. If the doctor hadn't shown up when he did I would have left! Good grief! He measured my tummy, listened to the heartbeat (which was very fast considering all the sugar), I'm sure everything is normal because he doesn't say anything other than see you in 4 weeks.

So for a 3 minute check up it took 1 1/2 hours of waiting, I really don't like that!

To make it all worse I get a call from the nurse yesterday telling me my test results were a little high and they want me to come in for a 3 hour glucose test. GREAT!!! The first thing I did when I got off the phone was cry (of course, I am always crying) then I was mad. I didn't want to take the test and I wanted to be able to eat what I wanted and not worry about it. So I called my sister who has been through this before and had her explain what she could remember. Basically you just have to change your diet a bit AND prick your finger all the time, I'm not looking forward to that. Of course all of this is only if my numbers are high again, I sure hope not! I should have seen this one coming though since I was so sensitve to sugar during my first trimester, and I was starting to get light headed in the hospital after the drink.

I sure hope all will be fine, and most importantly our baby girl will be born healthy and safe. With no more complications along the way. So tomorrow I go in to sit for 3 hours, wish me luck.

Easter

4/11/09 & 4/12/09

The boys started their Easter celebration with a breakfast and easter egg hunt at the church. I forgot the camera so I don't have pictures, but they all had fun. Oscar and Zachary thought the breakfast was the best part, especially because they got to have seconds!! The easter egg hunt was fun for them, Mason was more interested in watching what the other kids were doing that he only got 1 egg. Parker raced around the grass and picked up his 10 eggs. I had him pick up a few more for Mason too. When they came into the church and opened their eggs, Mason didn't like any of the candy he had, so when Oscar and Zachary went out I let Mason go out again, and this time he was happy.

The next morning the boys woke up to find their easter baskets full of goodies and fun. Mason and Parker got kites and sidewalk chalk, while Oscar and Zachary got frisbies and huge bubble wands. Of course their favorite was the candy, which they dug into right away.









After breakfast of cinnamon rolls, muffins, and eggs we headed off to church. It was such a nice day that all the kids played outside for hours, so it shouldn't have surprised me to see little red noses and necks. *smile* Later that night we enjoyed a ham dinner with my mom and sister and her kids. We had a nice relaxing Easter. It was so nice to have my mom and sister here with us too.

The next day my mom helped me out by climbing up onto those tall ladders and cleaning off all the dust from Oscar's animal mounts. What a job it is! She only got a third of it done, but she said she would come back and finish. The area that is clean is AWESOME!! Thanks mom, hopefully this will help with the allergies in our house.



We love you.

Happy Birthday Oscar!!

4/7/09

It's official, Oscar (Lil O) has turned 12!!! I feel extremely old!



Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday
Dear Oscar
Happy Birthday to You!!!



His actual birthday was Tuesday, so we had pizza for dinner, watched a movie together, and had brownies and ice cream. We also gave him his presents too! We loved seeing the smile on his face as he opened a box full of colored paper, for his origami projects, and Fablehaven Book 4!! He had the book read in 2 days! It would have taken 1 but mom made him go to bed (darn mom *wink*)

My sister and mom came up to celebrate with us. My sister commented that Oscar was getting very tall, and was his voice changing? *wink*

This was the first year Oscar wanted to do something different for his birthday. He decided he wanted to have a paintball war party. I started to panic when I heard the word War, because I am patheic, but we made it work. Since I knew nothing about this, Dad got to help out a lot! Oscar and his friends had a great time. They came back covered in paint, poor Jayden got shot at close range and now has a 'third nipple', and all were laughing and high fiving each other.





We sang 'Happy Birthday', ate cake and ice cream, and opened presents - all in the garage! Wow what a different party for me, but very easy clean up.

This was Lil O's design as well, he has a great imagination!








Happy birthday buddy! We're so blessed to have you in our family! Love you.

Preschool Field Trip

4/1/09

Today Mason and his friends from preschool went to visit the old train station in downtown Nampa.




It was fun for both the kids and the moms. The kids loved looking at the little model trains that actually moved! Mason liked pushing buttons on everything he could put his hands on.









I thought this was cool. It is a huge bird house that was a replica of a hotel that once was part of downtown Nampa. How beautiful!! It's too bad it was torn down in the 60's. I believe it sat where the bank now does kiddy corner from the public library.



This is a menu used on the train. WOW I would love to have those prices now to enjoy a night out!



After we got to see all the cool things inside we were taken outside to see a caboose, we even got to go inside!











This was a great place to visit!!

Just Hangin Out

Here are some pictures I've captured over the past month.

Oscar had to make a 3D model of the natural disaster he had to make a report on. He chose earthquake. The buldings are made out of paper origami style, and clay for the broken up road with the cars on their sides. I think he did great.



Boys playing dress up! *wink*

Snuggle time/Movie time/Nap time, take your pick! *wink*

One of many forts, this one is a small version. Can you see Mason?

Oscar's origami flower! WOW *smile*

Whistle Pigs

3/27/09

Lil O has been itching to get out and shoot his gun, and Dad came up with the idea to go 'whistle pig' shooting (which is code for ground squirrel). Zachary was sooo excited that he got to go too. It was a nice sunny day, but a little chilly and a bit windy, they had a great time though.

Zachary thought Dad was going to kill him with his crazy driving, and swore his head hit the ceiling when they went over bumps. Dad quoted Zachary as they were going down a steep hillside "WE'RE GOING TO DIE". I had to laugh at this because I could easily picture him saying it with his feet braced against the seat in front of him and arms out spread. hehehehe Lil O had a hard time at first spotting the whistle pigs, but soon got the hang of it. I laughed and teased him that he was related to his mom because I never see the stuff Oscar points out. Most times I mistake a rock or stick with an animal, I'm pathetic. However Lil O claims he's not that bad. hehehehe







Oscar recently purchased a GPS unit that goes in the truck so he can locate homes for work. The boys think it's awesome so they were using it today to find a good place to shoot. The funny story comes when they are driving across the desert and decide to stop and read the GPS. The found the only mud hole in the whole area, and when they decided to start driving again realized they might be stuck!! hahahahaha Dad quickly put it into reverse and frantically started rolling up the windows before the mud came flying in!! After a few minutes of maneuvering they were free and were laughing, the truck was a good site to see, but the camera battery died.

When they were out driving they came across a lone cow, and Dad told them it looked like she was going to have a baby. They drove away and came back the same way about 20 minutes later, and there was the cow with a baby!! The boys were astonished!.

I'm glad they got to get out and have some fun father/son bonding time, doing boy stuff. Zachary was very excited and came home to give me the story. I had to stop him when I started getting details, Dad had to remind him that mom doesn't like that stuff! He'll learn fast, Lil O did. *wink*

Fishing-Wilson Pond

3/14/09

Today Oscar was invited to go fishing by his good friend Carter Andrews. He thought it would be a great idea to get out with the kids and enjoy some of the warmer weather we are having. So he went through and dug out all the fishing gear and made a quick trip to Walmart to get some supplies that were lacking. The boys were very excited to go, but I chose to stay home and relax. It looks like they all had a great time!!

Parker all ready to go - hat, moon boots and all! :)

Mason was excited for all the SNACKS!





My boys! *smile*

The 'Gang'

After fishing they all headed back to our house for Pizza and a movie. I however was invited to see Twilight again at the dollar theater, so of course I couldn't miss that opportunity. *wink*. I also brought Tendra with me. When I got home this is what we found. Ahhhh