Movie Review

Carter has been playing the computer lately and has loved to watch the Wall-E trailer over and over again on Playhouse Disney's website. He was so excited when we told him we were going to see it last night. I was a little nervous about taking Preston too, but figured with enough popcorn, treats, and drinks we might make it through. Little did I know that I would be the one needing the treats! I thought the movie was so BORING! Basically you just hear little robot noises and follow him around picking up stuff for about an hour. Then the story starts to somewhat pick up but not much. If I never hear another robot noise again, I will be a happy girl. I have loved all the other Pixar movies, but this one I just couldn't get into it. I think I laughed maybe once, and the rest of the time just was waiting for something to happen. They had a little movie short called "Presto" before Wall-E started and I enjoyed that way more! My boys did pretty good, but even Carter by the end wanted to go home. I give it two thumbs down! Don't waste the 20 bucks to take your family, just watch paint dry, it might be more interesting!

Summertime and other random thoughts and stories

I just love summertime. I am so much happier in the summer. I love to have my kids outside all day playing in the water, sandbox, mud, sprinkler, tramp...you name it and then putting them to bed exhausted. We have been gone for the past two days having so much fun with the cousins and just really enjoying the sunshine. Today we had so much fun playing at my sister-in-law Bethany's house and then going over to my mom's house later. Carter turned on the water outside which completely flooded her flower bed and made a huge mud pit. Preston was in that within a matter of seconds and was covered in mud from head to toe. At first I tried to get him out of it but then I could see there was no hope in keeping him clean so I just let him enjoy himself. It looked like so much fun! He kept slipping and would get mud in his eye then would try to wipe his muddy hands on his eyes to get it out. So you can imagine what he looked like by the end of it! We took pictures with my mom's camera that I will have to get later. We also got out the hose and Carter stripped down to his birthday suit and ran under the rainbow of water and let Grammy hose him down quite a few times. The kids loved it! I have so many memories of growing up playing with the hose in the backyard for hours. Summer is the best.
I also actually biked to Bethany's house from my house today which is about 3 1/2 miles with the two kids in a bike trailer on the back. I seriously was dying from the heat and I definitely need to ride a bike more because the hills killed me! I have never really been into biking and James has been bugging me for atleast 2 years to get a bike so we could ride together. I kept putting him off saying that I don't want to spend the money on it if I don't like to do it that much. So on Sunday we get the paper and they had an add for a bike for a WAY good deal at Sports Authority. It got me thinking how much fun it would be to get a bike trailer and go on family bike rides around the neighborhood and such. So I caved and we bought me a bike and the boys a bike trailer (both were a great deal I might add). We also got Carter an orange helmet that should fit a 5 year old which is almost too small but the 8 year old helmet was too big on the sides! I got a sweet pink one to wear, I'm stoked. So as we are going to buy the bike, Carter sees a kids bike with training wheels that he just had to have. It was 90 bucks, no way was he getting it. Of course he freaked out and he left the store with James holding him kicking and screaming. He screamed all the way home and didn't want a ride in the bike trailer because he wanted to ride his "own" bike! He is definitely my challenge right now. I feel like I am getting mad at him for something all the time! He is VERY stubborn and strong willed and also very dramatic. Bad combination. There are times that he can be the cutest, sweetest, most thoughtful boy and then two seconds later he is screaming and kicking me. It is very frustrating! Any suggestions on what to do with a 3 year old? I don't want to be mad at him all the time and I try to let the little things go, but he definitely can push my buttons. My sister made a good point today saying that some kids just have to have more sleep than others. Carter has to have a nap or he is super sensitive and emotional and you can't reason with him at all. The last two days he has skipped his nap and I know that has made a difference. Anyway, sorry this is probably boring to you all it's just nice to get your frustrations out sometimes! Being a mom is hard work and very challenging sometimes. I love it too and am grateful for all that my boys have taught me about myself and how I need to improve everyday. Kids tend to humble you pretty fast, especially when you carry them out of a store with people staring at you wondering what you did to the kid to get them to that point. Hopefully some of you have had an experience or two like my Sports Authority one that you would like to share...

Happy Birthday Melanie

I know you were all expecting a Father's day post, since it is Father's day, but it is also my awesome sister Melanie's birthday too. Since she got the bad end of the deal having her birthday on Sunday and a holiday I figured she deserved her own post! She turns 32 today so here are 32 things that I love/memories about her. (you know you are special if you get one of these posts!)

1. Her strong loyalty to family

2. What a great mom she is-Her kids are all so well behaved and just genuinely good kids-which shows what kind of mom she is!

3. What a great aunt she is to my boys-I know I have mentioned this in the past, but she truly loves them which make them love her right back. Her and Carter have a little connection where if he is totally upset, (probably with me) she can make him feel better in no time. It's magic!

4. Me being her slave until I was about 8 or 9. Maybe longer. She could always bribe me to get her a drink or whatever she needed.

5. Sharing a room together growing up-I was the messy one, she was the clean one

6. Singing Hark hear the bells in bed and laughing our guts out

7. How she can convince you to do almost anything. About 95% of the time you thank her later for talking you into it!

8. She is the glue that keeps our family together. She is the one that heads up gatherings, getting things done, I love that about her. She gets annoyed that she is the one that has to always do it, but we love her for it.

9. Making fun of her braces

10. Bunco group and making fun of some of the gifts people bought-shameless!

11. How she is not a collector and throws things away like me. I guess we get that from my mom!

12. People are just drawn to her and want to be her friend

13. She has the cutest little dainty nose

14. How Kate looks just like her...and acts like her too!

15. How I know she will always be the first person to my defense if I need her

16. She is one of the first people I want to call to tell good or bad news to.

17. Her generosity with everything. We went out to eat last night for her birthday dinner and at the end of the meal she told everyone that she picked up the bill.

18. Finally getting to go on a cruise with her this year! It was a blast!

19. Her lice mullet- I guess I am not one to talk, I had a mullet too and didn't even have lice! thanks mom!

20. Her blue geo metro

21. I loved to wear her clothes and thought I was so cool in them even though they were way huge on me! In fact we were just talking the other day about how ugly that style was in the 90's with the HUGE shirts tucked in. What were we thinking?!

22. She loves James' cooking and is always so complimentary, he loves the attention.

23. She is a doer. If she gets something in her mind that she wants to accomplish, she gets it done no questions asked.

24. Her decorating style, we are both obsessed with Rod Works!

25. Her bangs in 7th grade. I really need to find that picture, it's amazing.

26. She made me put the stickers on her countdown chart for Carl to get home from his mission. I kept it up in my room and when she would come home from college she would love to check on the progress.

27.Visiting her when she lived in California-I miss San Francisco!

28. How she is always so spontaneous. We make plans in about 1 minute and are off for the day!

29. Being her babysitting buddy

30. Going up to stay with her at Utah State-she made me get the love for Logan and go to school there myself!

31. Getting a car wash in her old Acura-trying to get the window rolled up in time and getting soaked, then hitting a bump on the way out and having water dump down from the sunroof. I really honestly don't think I have ever laughed that hard!

32. Just being the best big sister a girl could ask for. She does it all-gives great advice, comfort, love, everything a sister should be.

I love you Mel, I hope you have the best birthday ever!!

Old Habits Die Hard

Yesterday while getting the boys ready to get in the car, I couldn't find Preston's shoes for about the millionth time. I remembered that I had Carter's cowboy boots that would now fit Preston up in his closet. I got them out and tried to put them on but Preston was having none of it. Meanwhile, Carter sees his precious old cowboy boots and is crying wondering why he doesn't have any to wear. This goes back to two summers ago when he became OBSESSED with them. What 18 month old loves wearing cowboy boots? In the summer no less! He wore those things until he just couldn't squeeze into them anymore. I knew he wasn't going to stop bothering me about getting new ones. Where would I even find cowboys boots that little? I was actually given the old ones by my sister because she got them as a baby gift and her boys never wore them. We decided to go with the trusty Walmart first. We scoured the aisled looking and thought all hope was lost. Then suddenly out of the corner of James' eye there they were. Black cowboy boots. Just in Carter's size. I really don't think I have seen Carter that excited in a long time. He waited until we paid for them and then they were straight on his feet with the stretchy string still attached between both boots. It was funny to watch him try to hike up stairs! He woke up this morning with one thing on his mind. So he ran downstairs grabbed the cowboy boots and posed for picture. YEEHAW!!

Toilet Troubles

Remember that cute, sweet, adorable face from the post below of Preston? I think I need to keep looking at it because he is not on my good list right now! I just spent the last 5 minutes trying to fish my cell phone out of the toilet. Not only was it in the toilet, it was in the hole at the bottom and got stuck. So disgusting. The silver lining is that we are getting new phones anyway in about a week so until then, call me on my home phone if you need to get a hold of me. I hope he gets over this throwing everything in the toilet phase soon because it is getting really old really fast!!

Alone time with Preston

Could there be a cuter face? This afternoon while Carter was taking a nap I was of course checking blogs while Preston was in his room playing. I was reading my neighbor Marie's blog and thought what a good mom she is, so I decided right then to get off the computer and go play with Preston and have some one on one time. I am so glad I did! I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. While feeding him lunch he kept looking up at me and giving me this cheeser smile that he used to do all the time about six months ago, but just resurfaced again about a week ago. I love it! I had to get out the camera and take a picture of it and then he kept doing it so I kept taking pictures!! We read books, snuggled, laughed, and exchanged lots of kisses.

I love when he tilts his head back to cheese it for me!!

He thought he was so funny that after he would smile he would do this really low fake laugh. So hilarious.

Another game that he and Carter love to play is me or James pretending like we are asleep by making a snoring noise and then they come and growl to wake us up. Today Preston wanted to be the one to pretend sleep so here he is laying down on his pillow "snoring" with his eyes open. It's little moments like these that make me love being a mom so much.

Birthday Celebration

Texas Roadhouse did not disappoint! We had such a blast with my fam(some of them). If you have not been to Texas Roadhouse for your birthday, they pull out this huge saddle that the birthday boy has to ride while they sing to you. It's great! James loved being the center of attention and the lady behind him in the blue shirt thought he was pretty hot.

Kevin, Bethany, and mom
Mom and Dad

Carl, James, and Heather
Us with my brother Greg...any cute single girls interested in a date with him?
After stuffing our faces with delicious ribs, we drove back to our house for cake and icecream. I made James a BYU cake (thanks Andereggs for the idea!) since football season is coming up in a few months again, I figured I would get him ready for it. The writing icing was the same color blue as the regular frosting so you can't really tell what is says, oh well!
I think we all know his wish already came true since he got to marry me, so what else is there to wish for really? hehe I love blowing out the candles pictures because it always seems like someone in the background is trying to help out...in this case it's my neice Katrina.