A Shout Out To My Magnificent Mom!

I don' t know if you know my mom or not, but she is absolutely amazing. She is the type of person who is always helping others and who goes the extra mile to make people happy. I don't know if she and my dad knew what they were getting into when they moved closer to us, but we LOVE it. She is always willing to come babysit for date night or let me drop off some or all of the kids so I can go run errands. I am truly spoiled and I freely admit it. I am afraid though that I don't reciprocate as much as she gives. She is especially going the extra mile right now while we are living in our rental house. She picks the girls up everyday from school since Lily and Isaac are napping at that time and it is too far for them to walk. She and my dad are also watching the dog right now which I know is not always a picnic.

My mom had a really crappy day yesterday. Let me tell you about it. In the morning she called me in a panic telling me she thought Cooper got into some rat poison she forgot she had hiding in her yard. So I had to take him for an emergency pet visit where they had to make him vomit. Lovely. Here he is on the way. Poor dog, doesn't know what he is in for!


Here he is on the way home. He is not so chipper now! He had to get a blood test as well (see the pink bandage?). Luckily he did not ingest it and we found out last night we were in the clear. Nothing like spending a couple hundred dollars for piece of mind right......?

Later on in the day my mom went shopping at Walgreen's. She was walking out of the store and she saw someone driving off in her car!!! No joke! So she ran after him screaming that it was her car. The guy seemed clueless and said he thought it was his car because his key worked in it. I have no idea why he didn't recognize all my mom's stuff she had piled on the passenger seat, but he got out of the car and proceeded to go drive off in his car that was the same make and model as my mom's (although his had a spoiler on it!). Did you know that this really can happen? Is that CrAzY or what??? So needless to say my mom had a bad day.

I hope you are having a better day Mom!! We love you so much and hope you know how much we appreciate all you do!

P.S. We still would have loved you even if you had killed our dog.... :)

Memories

This seems to be popular on some of my friend's blogs so I thought I would give it a try.

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments. I can't wait to see what people remember.

School Day Flash Back

(I had to copy this idea from my friend Nicole)

My girls went back to school this week. It seems so weird to start school in July but that is the way year round school works. The track that they are on is only in school for four weeks and then they have a month off. Here they are cheesing it up for the camera. Emily is in 5th grade this year. I am still trying to figure out how that happened. At back to school night the teacher had "goodie bags" for the parents. Inside she had some scissors that we were supposed to cut the apron strings with. She also had some Kleenex we could use if we needed to cry about it. Brutal.
Abby is in third grade this year and is bitter that she now only has one recess besides lunch. Last year she had two. Ahhh the joys of growing up.

Here I am in 1st grade. I can't really tell if I look like the girls or not. I wish I had some school age pictures of Chris to post as well. I will have to get some sometime. Me in 2nd grade.

My Secret Confession

I know I whined about getting up early for the gym in a past post, but here is my secret confession: I really love it. I love getting home from the gym at 6 am and having the house quite. I love being able to do my stretching, read my scriptures and catch up on blogging all before my kids wake up. I have a good hour before Isaac and the girls make an appeareance and sometimes a good 2 -3 hours before Lily wakes up. It is divine! Sometimes it makes me cringe to think of how early I am getting up and how disciplined I have to be at getting to bed at a decent hour, but it is all worth it. I feel like I have so much more time in the day now and really feel more productive. So tell me, what is your secret confession? I promise I won't tell anyone!

A View From The Top!

Here are some house update pictures. It is exciting to finally see it take shape. This is a picture I took from across the street. Can you see Chris and the bigger kids, they are on the top of the stairs!

Here is Chris on our new stairs.

This was taken yesterday. They are really moving along with the framing.

Some of the upstairs.

The view from the top!

We still have a ways to go, but it is fun to see the progress and it makes me excited to have it done sometime in the future......

Emily and Abby Euro Jumping

Familes are Forever

I wasn't sure I was going to post about this but it has been on my mind constantly today. When we got home from Tahoe my friend called me to tell me that our friend, Ginger passed away this morning quite unexpectedly. She left behind a husband and four children between the ages of 1 and 8. I know she will be dearly missed by many. What a great blessing we have of the gospel and knowing that families are forever. Here is a picture of me, Melinda and Ginger at the Rose Bowl Parade ages ago. (Melinda, I know you won't be mad at me for posting this picture since we are all looking so great.....)

Ginger and her beautiful family.

Tahoe Fun

We just got back from a super fun vacation to Tahoe with all of Chris' family. We had a good time despite both Chris and I being sick at different times. Luckily it was a pretty fast recovery and we were able to still enjoy the trip.

Isaac had lots of fun golfing.

I think this is a super cool picture and makes it look like Isaac totally knows how to play tennis. He doesn't.

Emily on the yellow board at the lake.

More golf with dad.

They have a super fun water slide that the kids all love.

Isaac and his cousin Brayden on the boat.

Abby on the yellow board giving the slow down sign. She hates going fast.

Emily and Abby Euro Jumping. I have video that hopefully I can upload of this....

It is back to reality for the girls now since they start school tomorow. For me it is back to the huge laundry pile......

Is This Cute Or What?

Enough said right?

Odds & Ends

SIDE NOTE: Chris mentioned my blog posts didn't show up on his computer at the office.....So now I am curious if others can even see my posts after I changed my blog backgound. Let me know if you can see this!

Here are some updates of what we have been up to lately. Lily turned three months yesterday. I can hardly believe it! She has really enjoyed being on her tummy lately and surprised us all when she ROLLED OVER yesterday from her tummy to her back! The first few times she did it you could tell by her face she was wondering what was going on! She did it more than a half dozen times or so. I just want her to stay little longer! She also has been giggling for the past week or so which of course the kids love. She is sleeping around 12 hours at night, which mom loves!

The nice home owners agreed to let us keep Cooper outside at the rental house until my parent's come home from their trip. The kids have been so happy to have him around again. Since it has been super hot (108 degrees) we have been trying to keep him cool. I have been going out and hosing him down a few times a day! He loved laying around in this little cheap pool I bought for the kids.

We went to Old Navy last week when they were having their huge 50% off sale. The girls found these "boy" swimsuits and really wanted them. I told them I had already bought them swimsuits for the year but if they really wanted them they could buy them with their own money. So they did. They are actually growing on me and I think they are pretty cute (and very modest!). They are already telling me that next year they want boy ones as well. Is this weird that I let them wear these?

I had to take this picture of Lily. We wrap her like this for her naps and lots of the time she will kick her feet until they are out of the blanket.

Our house is coming along slow but sure. We are a bit behind due to some things beyond our control, but our contractor has committed to making up the time by working overtime to try to get us caught up. They started framing last week so hopefully I will have some fun framing pictures soon.

My Favorite Holiday

We had a low-key but fun Fourth of July. Here are some pics of the kiddos. I got the girls these cute Fourth of July tee shirts last year on clearance at Khols and they both complained that they were too tight. They posed for the pictures (can you see how fake happy they are?) and then I let them take them off. You gotta choose your battles right? Fourth of July is my favorite holiday. I love it because you get to just relax and hang out by the pool with friends and watch fun fire works. It is a holiday (at least for me) that there isn't much to do for preparation (picture Christmas.....) yet it is super fun. We spent the day having breakfast at our wards flag raising ceremony, barbecuing and swimming at our good friends' new pool and going to our traditional spot to watch the fire work show. Isaac was so excited all day to see fireworks for the first time and was asking all day when we got to watch the "fire workers!" It was a fun day.

True Love

Something has happened that I never thought would happen. My husband has stolen my early morning gym time. This is the guy who usually doesn't get up early for anything but golf and skiing yet he has now warped into a consistent gym goer. Don't get me wrong, I am glad he goes and I love that he is tring to be healthier, but I do miss my time slot! I confess I am the one who taught him the novelty of going to the gym at the crack of dawn. The last few months before Lily was born we were going to the gym together before the kids woke up for school. Em was "in charge" and usually just getting up when we would get home. Chris dilligently went every day with me and grew to see the benefit of getting it done first thing, even if some days I had to drag him there! After we had Lily he took a few weeks off from the early morning routine and then started it back up. Without his gym partner he didn't quite go everyday but he has still been pretty consistent. I wasn't able to go in the morning after she was born so I would go in the evenings which is not my favorite time. However now that Lily is on a good sleeping schedule I started going early again a few weeks ago. Unfortunatly my definition of early has changed. Instead of getting up and going at 5:45 am I am now getting up and going at 5 am and getting back at 6 am so Chris can go. Now I call that true love.

Hey Where's MY Puppy?

Our rental house doesn't allow dogs, so Cooper had been shuffled around. My parent's watched him until they went out of town and he is currently at my wonderful in-law's home. Isaac misses Cooper. Whenever he sees a dog on the TV he will say, "Hey, where's my puppy?!" In response to his question, we ask him, "I don't know where is he?" and then Isaac will reply, "At Grandma and Grandpa's." He knows where he is but I guess when he sees other dogs he is reminded that Cooper is not at our house. He misses his playmate and wrestling companion. Here are a couple pictures of Isaac and Cooper when they used to lay under his crib!

Isn't he cute? If you want some of this cuteness we are currently trying to find someone to watch him for less than a week while both our parents are out of town. Any takers?