Easter Fun!

Our Easter weekend started out with our Ward Easter Breakfast. We had a yummy breakfast and the kids ran around and played with their friends. Landon mostly just climbed on and pushed his stroller around.

  

Then we heard the helicopter flying overhead and it landed in the baseball field. Then took off again and....

If you look really REALLY close (like you may need to click on the picture to make it bigger) you can see Easter Eggs being dropped from the helicopter onto the field for all the kids to hunt and gather!

The boys thought it was awesome! I couldn't find them anywhere... once I would find them, they were gone again running and finding more eggs.  So I didn't get any pictures of them actually getting their eggs, but here is their stash....

Brayden hates to get his picture taken outside... its always "too bright!"

Then later that night we decided it was time to color the eggs for the Easter Bunny to hide for us.

Which of course lead to the great Easter Egg Hunt the next morning. Since Patrick can't really go down the stairs, the Easter Bunny was nice enough to leave the boys baskets and lots of eggs to hunt upstairs so Daddy could see it too! There were some surprised downstairs for them too!

Then we ate home made cinnamon rolls for breakfast and played a bit before getting ready for church. I always try to get pictures of the boys all cute in their Easter outfits, but my boys just don't always want their pictures taken, so it was a challenge! But they are still pretty handsome!

Landon likes to stick his tongue out now... can you tell?!?!

Happy Easter from our crazy family to yours!!!!!!

The BC Clubhouse

I doubt you have ever heard of the BC Club... it's pretty exclusive. Not just anybody can get in. Actually you pretty much can only get in if your name is Brayden or Conner (hence the BC Club). 

Over spring break, the boys put up this "clubhouse" on their beds. 

They had a blast watching movies on the portable DVD player in their clubhouse, having snacks in there, and playing endless games with animals, Power Rangers, and Beyblades. When it came time for bed, they begged to sleep in it. So I said sure... why not! It is spring break and I could use some "cool Mom" points so I let them sleep in their clubhouse. They thought it was the coolest thing ever! 

They were sad on Sunday night when I told them they needed to take it down and sleep in their own beds so they could get some good rest for before going back to school. 

They are looking forward to the weekend so they can set it all up again!

I just love how simple things and a little imagination can provide hours of entertainment for little boys!!!

18 Months!

Seriously!?!?  Landon has turned 18 months old!!! Where has the last year and a half gone?!?!

I am a tad behind on this post too, but I've been meaning to get to it. It's the thought that counts... right?!?

He is such a fun little boy to have around our house. His personality is so cute and this age is one of my favorites! They look all cute and innocent, but they are not always so innocent, this kid gets into trouble where ever he can!

~He still only says a few words but his gibberish talk is just too funny. He has the hand and head motions to go along with it! He tries to repeat many things that we say, but hasn't quite mastered them yet. FINALLY, just this week, I started to go downstairs and he came running from behind me with his arms out, chasing me saying "mama! mama!" It made my day that he finally can say mama!

~He loves his daddy's hats... no matter if Daddy is wearing them or he is, they are a bit of an obsession. ~He also loves to put on anybody's shoes he can find. He thinks it's hilarious!

~He only takes one nap a day, but sleep a good 11 hours at night.... yay!!!

~He loves to play outside and gets into all kinds of trouble while inside. Anything that he can pull out, off, or into another room he does!

~He will run to Brayden with his arms out ready for a hug from his big brother... it's super cute!

~He loves to climb up on the couch or our big chair and jump on it.... I do not like this activity nearly as much as he does!  :) He has also just discovered how to climb up onto the table. He's becoming a monkey!

~When he's hungry, he will pound on the pantry door until someone opens it and then HE has to pick out what he wants to eat. Some of his favorite snacks are... Triscuts, granola bars, Poptarts, yogurt, and Nilla Wafers. He hardly will eat any meat... which is weird.... none of my kids have been like that before. If I try to give him a small piece of chicken or some meat, he will give you a disgusted look and spit it out. However, he does like pretty much all fruits and veggies I give him. He LOVES to eat with a spoon or fork.

~He loves to give high five.

~He gets super excited at any mention of getting in the bath. He will try to pull his clothes off as soon as he thinks he gets to get in.

~He loves to "help" empty the dishwasher.

~He loves to go bye-bye in the car. Really it doesn't matter when we are going, he just loves to ride in the car. As soon as we mention leaving, he runs to get his shoes and then goes to bang on the garage door until we open it to leave.
~He really likes dogs. I don't know where this fascination has come from since we don't have a dog, and he really isn't around dogs ever. But if he sees a picture of one or thinks he hears one he gets all intrigued and yells "oggy! oggy!"
~He has this thing where he likes to pull up his shirt and show everyone his little tummy. Don't know what that is all about... but it's kinda funny!

~His first day in Nursery went ok. Better then I thought actually. He went right in and sat down (he loves the little chairs) and was in heaven when he saw they were giving out cookies and Goldfish. He did really good for the first hour... though snack time and coloring. But once that was done, I think he realized I wasn't there, and was NOT having it. When I got in there he was screaming bloody murder on the poor leaders lap. He's such a momma's boy, I think this nursery thing will take some getting used to!
~He apparently thinks its more fun to empty some toys out of the toy box play IN it then to just play with the toys. Adds to the fun I guess! This is the reason my house never stays clean!  :)

Silly Baby!

The other day I was looking through my photos and realized that I have a lot of pictures of Landon eating. I'm pretty sure that is because its really the only time he sits still long enough for me to snap a quick picture of him. Here are some of my favs over that past few weeks.....

I had some Crunch Bars left over after one of my Activity Days activities, and the boys each got to have one. Landon in particularly loved his chocolate! That's my boy!!!

This is his new favorite spot to eat his breakfast or sometimes a snack. Apparently food tastes better if you eat in on the rug in front of the the kitchen sink...

 And putting your foot into your cereal makes it taste even better!

He has decided that feeding himself with a fork or spoon is just about the best thing ever. He will NOT allow me to help him, so it gets pretty messy!

I'm so grateful for this little boy!

He makes me smile every day! And some days I REALLY need that!

A Decade Together!!

I know I'm a bit behind on this... but on March 10th Patrick and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary! It has been such a great 10 years with him. He is the love of my life! 

 

Since he is still not able to get around too well, we didn't do much for our 10 year. We did splurge and treat each other to some Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake and Patrick ordered me some BEAUTIFUL roses. Then we just hung out together and watched a few movies and we talked about some of our favorite moments over the past 10 years. That conversations was all brought up by the "gift" I gave him which was a Top Ten List of Our First 10 Years! It included funny stories, amazing trips we've taken, of course the birth of our children, and other great memories. We have been through a lot in the past 10 year...  some amazingly good and some incredibly hard. But through it all we love each other more and more every day!

Thanks for loving me for the last 10 years Patrick. 

You have made me happier then I have ever imagined!!!

Movin' On Up!

A few weeks ago, while sitting in the waiting room as Patrick was doing his 3x's a week physical therapy I got a text from a friend of mine who watches my older boys on Wednesdays (so I don't have to drag them with me to therapy appointments.) She told me that Conner decided he wanted to ride a 2 wheel bike like the big kids and he just hopped on and started riding! I was so shocked! The kid had never even tried, or wanted to try, to ride his bike with out the training wheels.  And he just jumped on and started riding like a pro! When I got to her house to pick them up, he was still riding all around her cul de sac so excited and proud to show us how well he could ride. He was doing an awesome job!

So as soon as we got home, we took off the training wheels from his bike, and he started riding up and down our street like he's been doing it for years! He was having SO MUCH fun!!

The funny part of the story is Brayden's reaction. Brayden learned pretty quickly to ride a 2 wheeler a few years ago, but has not even touched his bike for probably a year and a half or so. He's been all about his scooter. His bike needed a few repairs (new inner tube for the tire and a new seat) but we never took the time to fix it because he just never wanted us to and never wanted to ride it. But as soon as he saw his little brother riding, he was all about his bike! So that weekend I went and bought a new inner tube and we fixed his flat tire. The seat is still not fixed (apparently a replacement for the kind of bike he has is not common... annoying!) but it is still usable. Luckily its been awesome weather and they have gone outside to ride their bikes almost every day after they finish homework. They are loving it! And I'm loving all the energy they use up by playing outside and riding their bikes!

After all .... isn't that what little boys are suppose to do?? They need to take advantage of it before it gets too scorching hot in the summer time!

To our Grandpa....

It's a birthday miracle that I got Landon to sit still long enough to take a picture. He must really love his Grandpa Shumate!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!!!!

Blue & Gold

Last week Brayden has his first Blue and Gold Banquet. He was so excited about it. He was excited because he was getting his Bobcat, and he got to make a cake, and the skit... oh the skit was a highly anticipated event of the night!

The theme for the night and the cakes was "Resourcefulness". WHAT?!?! That is what I said too. This is all new to me, so I was like, I gotta make a cake for this thing??

So this is what we came up with. Brayden was pretty happy with the end result...so that is all that matters. But lets just say, I have done better cakes in my day. The frosting was pretty runny and so it looked like it was oozing off the cake, but boys don't care about that kind of stuff, so I didn't stress about it too much. 

 I pretty much raided my pantry to find things that we could use to make a camping scene. We only had to but a few things.... how RESOURCEFUL of us!!   :)

 I thought the Fruit Roll-Up as the fire was a nice touch!

Look at that handsome little Cub Scout!!!!

So proud of his cake!

 It turned out pretty good!!

Just have to say that one of my favorite cakes was from my friend Lindsey and it was made to look like Duct Tape, after all, what IS more resourceful then duct tape?!?!  haha!! Very clever!!

Brayden also got his Bobcat that night. He was so excited, especially since he was actually suppose to get it at Pack Meeting last month, but ended up with the stomach flu that day, and wasn't able to go. 

 He really didn't know what to do once he was upside down. I had no idea this was a "tradition" to hold the kid upside down to pin the award on their mom... he was laughing too hard to do much of anything...

 ...He needed a bit to help!  

It was a good night, and Brayden loved everything about it. 

Congrats Brayden on all your work so far in Scouts. He has loved every second of it!

Grandpa Oranges

Every one loves Grandpa's! They are always so great! 

My Grandpa Shumate is one of those awesome Grandpa's. He is now 90 years old, with his health failing, he is still giving to his grandkids. 

Every year, for as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed "Grandpa Oranges".

Each winter, my Grandpa gets these amazing yummy oranges from an orchard near his house in Arizona. When I was growing up, we always got several boxes a year from him, as well as lemons and tangerines from his trees in his back yard. Even once I moved away to college, he mailed a bag of oranges to me. Then once I got married, it evolved into a small box of oranges. Now that we have a team of boys to help eat those oranges, we get a huge box full of yummy juicy oranges on our doorstep from the good ol' UPS man. My boys now call them "Grandpa Oranges". He sends them to all of his grandchildren every winter. 

This year I'm cherishing the oranges a little more. They are SO GOOD, but with the knowledge that my Grandpa may not be around next winter to send them makes them even sweeter! He is a great man, always making sure everyone in his family is being taken care of. Even with the simplest act of sending a box of dang good oranges, that is his way of letting us know that he loves us. Our family is super duper lucky to have him... and our immune systems get an added boost with all the extra Vitamin C!!!!  :)

Grandpa's are GREAT!

Chopped!

A few weeks ago I suddenly got in the mood to chop off my hair. 

5 year ago, after Conner was born, I started growing it out. It has never been as long as it was the past few years. I have had short hair most my life. I really liked my long hair, but was just ready to do something different. 

So I found a picture online of a really cute short hair style. After debating about it for several days, I finally chopped off my hair yesterday. 

Before....

 After....

That is some MAJOR inches off there!!

Totally different, but I love it! It's a little stacked in the back (almost a-line) and choppy and textured and so super fun and easy to do.

I liked my long hair, but this will be a great change. I'm loving it so far.... so is Patrick!  :)

Stairs of Doom

Really, who knew that 8 stairs could be such a game changer.

Really??? 8 Stairs???

Two days before Christmas Patrick fell down the first section of our stairs, 8 stairs... doing back flips all the way down and banging into the wall at the bottom. Scared the *#$! outta me!!!! He was really sore and dizzy at first, but nothing too serious was obvious, so we just hoped that a little rest and ibuprofen would get everything back to normal. So we waited. But instead of getting better, he just kept getting worse. Remember Brayden's baptism on New Years Day, well Patrick was hardly able to stand or walk that day. I still have no idea how he actually was able to baptize him when his body was in such bad shape, but he did.

So finally once we realized that he was just getting worse and worse as days went by, we decided it was time to go see a Dr. So we decided that a medical Dr. would only give him mild pain killers that wouldn't help much and we would be out a ton of money for nothing. So we found a Chiropractor to go to. I did some looking on the internet and found one that was pretty close to us, and did the first visit for free. Free is good when you are without an income or health insurance. We went, and so our journey began. 

We found that when he fell down the stairs, he compressed the vertebrae in his lower back so much so that his nerves were pinched to the point that he had no feeling in his feet and legs and they were at times cut off so much that they couldn't even send the "messages" that his brain was sending them to move...making it pretty much impossible to walk, drive, or even stand for any length of time. Not to mention the rest of the damage to his spine, you could literally see in the x-rays how his spine looked like a snake, all curvy and back an forth instead of straight and in line like it should be. So the Dr. set up a treatment plan to "decompress" his spine and relieve the pressure from those nerves that are being cut off. We were so blessed that we happened to end up at a Dr. that specializes in spinal compression injuries...seriously a huge blessing since we didn't even know that was what his injury was!

So for the first 3 weeks, he was in "intense therapy" meaning that he went to the Dr. and Physical Therapy everyday, Monday through Friday, for 3 weeks. They were not kidding when they say intense. It was all that and some! Through this whole time, he was pretty much down for the count, on bedrest sort of, and not able to do much, including finding a job.

Last week he went in for his re-evaluation. The Dr. was hoping that he would've made a 10-15% improvement. Patrick was at 38% improvement. While that is FANTASTIC news that he had made so much more progress then the Dr. was hoping for, he still is only functioning at 38% of what he "normally" was. (I have no idea how or what makes up those numbers, I just was happy to hear there were improvements being made!)  So while this is a great stride in recovery, there is still a long way to go. He has good days and bad days. He "graduated" from everyday therapy to 3 times a week therapy. Spinal injuries like this apparently take a long time to heal.

As we have gone through this, it is absolutely amazing to us how much we have been blessed and watched over by a loving Heavenly Father. 

First, who would've thought that being unemployed would be a blessing, but it has! Had Patrick had a job during this, it would have been so super stressful because he would not have been able to work and with the kind of job he had, the stress of NOT being at the office would have killed him! 

Second, our families have been so supportive of us and helped us any way they can. Especially my sister has been such a huge support for me over the past several weeks...always knowing what to say to help me through that day.

And our ward and friends (near and far) have been amazing!!! Several times I have gotten random calls form people offering to bring dinner that night for our family, and it was always on a night that it was a lifesaver! Neighbors and friends taking my kids while I had to take Patrick to his therapy appointments or picking them up after school for me. Random phone calls, emails, or texts checking in on us to see how we are doing. The Bishop and Stake Presidency have kept a close eye on us and given words of comfort and encouragement that we so needed. The help and love we have felt has been overwhelming and most definitely an answer to prayers each and every time!

Patrick has been able to make it to Sacrament meeting for the past 2 weeks and is currently practicing driving. He pretty much has to re-teach himself to drive, but since he is getting feeling back in his right foot again, he is able to move his foot and push the pedals. So far it's just trips around the block, through the neighborhood, or to Circle K for drinks, but as we are learning, even small steps in the right direction is a good thing. 

And as blessed as we have been, I really can not wait to get our normal boring life back!! :)

Come What May and LOVE It. That is our new motto in our house!

Funny Stuff...

So since Patrick has not had a job, we have obviously had to cut back on things. One of those things is taking the boys to get haircuts. 3 boys getting haircuts gets pretty pricy. So around Christmas time, I found a fairly cheap set of clippers and we cut our boys hair for the first time EVER on our own. It didn't turn out too bad!!

This was our first time around. We tried to tell Brayden this was what his new hair style would be. It was pretty funny. No worries... we finished the other side too!

This past weekend it was time to cut their hair again. Last time, I thought we did Landon's hair too short, so this time I wanted to leave it a a little longer. So Patrick told me to use the #4 guard. So I look through the guards, find one that has a 4 on the back, ask my hubby is this is the one I use... he says yes (apparently without even looking), snap it on and start cuttin Landon's hair. As I'm doing it, I tell Patrick it seems really short. He assures me it is longer then it was last time. So I finish his hair and move onto Conner's hair. Patrick tells me again to use the #4 on the sides of Conner's hair and a #6 on top.... that is what we did last time I guess... and it turned out pretty good. Well as I was doing Conner's hair, I just couldn't get rid of the "line" in the middle. Frustrated, I decide to try another guard. That is when I realized what I THOUGHT was a #4 guard (because it said 4 on the back) was ACTUALLY a #2, which was clearly printed on the FRONT of the guard. It took some work, but we were able to salvage Conner's hair without buzzing it all down super short. But poor little Landon was a lost cause. His whole head had been buzzed even shorter then it was the last time. Dang it!!! At least is grows back quickly!!! 

And note to self..... the numbers on the BACK of the guards are not what you need to look at. Those are on the FRONT. 

My question is though, why is there a number on the back anyways, it's way too confusing for rookies like me!

I Occasionally Make Stuff!

Really I do! And once in a while it turns out semi good. 

Last week, my sister added this little cutie to her family....

(Please note... I had NO PART in making this.... just to be clear!)  :)

Sweet little Baby Carter can't hardly wait to meet his (sure to be fav) Auntie Melis!! 

She was on bedrest for the last few weeks of her pregnancy, so as she was surfing the internet one day, (she discovered the awesomeness of craft and food blogs during her down time!! Yay!) she came across several blogs that gave tutorials on how to make a car seat canopy. She really wanted one. But they are ridiculously expensive online, so as we were chatting one day I was like... dude... I'll totally make you one and mail it to you! So I did! I really wanted one when I had Landon, but just never got around to making one. Now that I have made one, I'm so bummed I didn't make one for him. It was so super simple and I made it in just a few hours one evening after the boys went to bed. I fell in LOVE with this fabric that I found too. (same as what was on the picture in the tutorial!)  Here's how it turned out....

I found the tutorial here.

And I had a bit of the super duper cute fabric left over so I made some cute burp clothes to send to her as well. 

Also... for some reason last week, I suddenly had an urge to try to make home made cinnamon rolls. Now, to really understand what a huge accomplishment this was, you must first know that I'm NOT the worlds best bread maker. In fact, I have rarely make home made bread, rolls, or anything yeast-y well. I followed some suggestions from friends and got some new yeast (apparently it doesn't last forever in my cupboard, never realized that! ha!!) and used bread flour. Maybe that is what made the difference, I always used to use all-purpose. I have never braved the beloved cinnamon roll though... ever. But I have had my eye on this one for a while now, and I finally decided to try it. I even pulled out my bread maker and used it. (possibly another reason for it's success, the bread machine did all the work, therefore I couldn't mess it up!) I haven't used that bad boy for YEARS!!!! But I quickly remembered how awesome bread makers are! Here was the finished product. 

So dang yummy!!! Patrick was even impressed with my skills!! He told me they may possibly be the best thing I have ever baked. Nice!

I always have a list of "stuff" I wanna make, rather it's something to sew, cook, or craft.... I just wish I had more time to do it. But when I do find that time, it's so fun!