My Rant....

Please feel free to totally avoid reading about my rant. This is just me complaining about stupid things, and I get that. But I have recently seen, once again, that some things just never change.

This past week, I received an invitation in the mail to my 10 year High School Reunion. Which in some ways, it seems strange that I have been out of high school for 10 years already, but at the same time, Graduation seems eons ago! I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't a huge fan of high school. I was actually super glad it was over, and I moved onto bigger and better things. (i.e. college, marriage, kids...life!) I went to Prescott High School in Arizona. It wasn't a huge HS, like the one Patrick went to in Mesa, we only had about 300 in my graduating class. For those who don't really know, Prescott is a fairly small town (at least it was 10 years ago, it has changed quite a bit since I lived there) and there wasn't much to do.

I had a handful of good friends that I went to school with that made my 4 years at PHS fairly bearable (no I didn't flunk a grade, my high school had grades 9-12 on it). However, I have lost touch with the majority of them for one reason or another over the years. Some we just weren't that close I guess to make the effort to do so, some we just took separate life paths. Some I feel (and this is just my assumptions based off of their reactions and comments to my life) don't approve of me... and I quote... "JUST being a stay at home mom." instead of going to years and years of school and having a demanding career. Which I think that is fine if you want that, but I never did, I always wanted the family life.

On weekends in Prescott, there wasn't much to do except go out and do the whole party thing, which usually seemed to take place out in the Forest that surrounded Prescott which was constantly patrolled by my father and his other cop friends just doing their job. So not only did I never go to these parties because I didn't drink, but I also valued my life enough to NOT get caught out in the forest at one of these parties that my father broke up every weekend. I'm pretty sure that would have not been a wise choice for me to meet my father, in full cop gear, gun on hip, with his team of officers, at a drunken party like he had found on many occasions some of my classmates. So I laid low on the weekends just messing around with my friend in town.

Which brings me back to the whole reunion invite. It made me laugh and roll my eyes that every event for this reunion is at some bar in downtown Prescott. Seriously?? Has NO ONE grown up in the last 10 years that any "fun" we try to have in that little town has to revolve around some drinking party?? Why waste time at the bars?? Why not just head out to the Gravelpits or out Copper Basin to party like everyone did in HS?? Come on!!! Even the "Family BBQ" is advertising the drinking that can take place. Some things just never change! I can just see it now, it will be all the same cliches hanging out catching up on old times, drinking, people making fools of themselves, and acting like things have never changed. I'd like to think I've changed... for the better hopefully. I mean it's been 10 years! My priorities are WAY different now then they were back then. I don't care about 99.5% of the people I went to High School with. If I do, then I still keep in contact with them via Facebook, blogs, or email. I'm pretty sure you couldn't pay me enough money to go and partake of these festivities. Not that I could go... the reunion is the same weekend that my baby is due, so I hope to have a newborn in my arms by then instead of hanging out with all the crazy drunks reliving the good ol' high school days.

That is where I'd rather be anyways, at home, with my husband and kids enjoying the life I have made for myself. I like to think that I've done some great things in the past 10 years. I've gone to awesome places, gone to college, met many friends that I'm STILL friends with, experienced life... both good and bad, happy and sad. Married an amazing man and had... almost... 3 incredible kids with him. This is what I wanted for myself 10 years ago in high school. So I'm pretty happy with the way the past 10 years have turned out for me.

Water Balloon Fights

The other night, Patrick needed help filling water balloons for some scout activity they were doing for their Pack meeting.  So being the stellar wife that I am, I helped him fill and tie LOTS of balloons. We were given way more then we needed and told that any extras we could have if we wanted. So we filled them up for the boys so we could have what Patrick called a "good ol' fashion family water balloon fight." The boys were more then excited for that! They waited eagerly for us to finish filling and tying some balloons for us to use. And of course they laughed their silly little heads off if one popped and splashed Patrick or me.

Finally we had enough to have a little water balloon fight of our own.  (please disregard how horribly ugly our rocks and dirt of a back yard are, we are working on it!)

Brayden was ready for action!

Conner was just waiting for the right moment to throw it at me and get me wet!

Look at that pure joy on his face as he tries to get his brother!

First we had the boys go at each other... they loved it!

Then we had them get up on the trampoline and we would throw the balloons onto the trampoline to get them. It was funny though, because the balloons didn't break right away, it took a few bounces, so you never new when it would explode by you!

Then we all got our "ammo" in a bowl, and it was pretty much a free for all! 

The boys had the best time!

I must admit it was pretty fun for the parents too. It would have been more fun if we actaully had our backyard landscaped so it wasn't just mud splattering all over our legs and feet when a balloon missed it's target, but we still had fun, nothing a quick shower before bed couldn't fix. 

The boys are already begging us to go buy some more balloons so we can do it all again. I think we will have to give our poor fingers a rest... we tied about 100 water balloons... it left injuries. But we will most defiantly do it all again soon!

Conner's Big Day!

Conner is such a funny kid!! If you remember from a few posts back, I mentioned how he had quite the agenda for his birthday. Well he got to do pretty much everything on that list... and then some!!  He had a great day!!!

 

We of course had to get ready, so he had picked out some balloons and streamer at the store so we could decorate the house a little...

He of course wanted to help out... in fact, being Mr. Independent that he is... he wanted to do it all, and pretty much only let mom help to tie the balloons after he blew them up, and tape the streamers up where it was too high for him to reach.

He helped to mix the cake batter and mix up the frosting. Then much to his dismay, mommy did the rest. Coloring frosting is not exactly a child-friendly job. He taste tested the frosting though to make sure each and every color tasted good enough. Mom then made his Optimus Prime birthday cake.

Not 100%, but it was good enough for Conner to say "thanks for making me such an awesome cake mom!" So at least he thought it was the best cake! That is all that matters!

He made sure we sung to him, like we wouldn't have done that anyways, but he just had to make sure!

He asked for "the biggest" piece, so Patrick cut him a pretty big piece, and despite his best efforts, he was only able to eat half, but it was a good effort!

He also got to go to swimming lessons on his big day, which he loves. He is doing so awesome at it, he's getting better and better each time he tries something.

After swimming lessons, it was off to McDonalds for his birthday dinner!!  

(I can hear the members in my family laugh about this, because every year when I was around his age, I chose to go to McDonalds for my birthday dinner too. It was my favorite place to eat. Granted, there were only like 3 fast food restaurants to even choose from in Prescott at the time, so I didn't even have much variety. I am happy to say that both I and the great town of Prescott have expanded out from just McDonalds. I prefer to eat at much better places these days!)

We let the boys play for a while in the play land after they ate, and Brayden saw this chair and told Conner he needed to have his picture taken in it since it was of course his birthday!! Conner was super excited about that idea, and it did make for a cute photo op!

Conner also got to hunt for his presents, as requested, one was hidden upstairs, and lots downstairs!

They were hidden in the food storage closet...

...the pantry...

...everywhere!

He got lots of great presents for his birthday! Brayden and Conner have had so much fun playing with all his new toys!

Things we love about our Conner:

~he is a ball of energy!! 

~he always makes sure he says "love you" to everyone

~he loves to give everyone in his family hugs and kisses

~he loves to cuddle with pretty much anyone who will cuddle with him

~he's such a sweet little boy

Some of Conner's favorite things:

~Dogs

~Playing with his big brother

~Riding in his Daddy's truck

~Going to friends houses

~the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie

~Spongebob

~helping mom go shopping

~his blankies

~playing games with his family

~donuts and/or ice cream

~riding his scooter

Conner is such a happy kid!! We are SO LUCKY to have him in our family!

WE LOVE YOU CONNER!!!!!

**Click here if you wanna see info/pics from when Conner was born that I wrote about last year. He has some pretty stinkin cute baby pictures!

Our 4th of July Weekend!

I love the 4th of July!!!

I always have. I love the BBQ's, fireworks, events, patriotism, the decor, everything. Growing up in Prescott, everyone from there knows that the 4th is like the biggest holiday that town sees all year! There are parades, events on the Courthouse Square, TONS of tourists, fireworks, and of course we cant talk about the 4th in Prescott without mentioning the Worlds Oldest Rodeo! Which I have only been to once in my life, but one day I wanna take my boys there, just for fun. Not that we are Rodeo kinda people, but everyone has to go to the Prescott Rodeo at least once in their life... right?? 

When we lived in Utah, Patrick and I discovered that we LOVED going to Sugarhouse Park to picnic, feed the ducks, play, and watch the fireworks. It was really the only place in Salt Lake that had a big firework show. We did this every year we lived up there. The last time we went to the Sugarhouse Park Fireworks I was literally about to pop from being so pregnant with Conner. Seriously!! He was born 5 days later!!! The following year we joined in on the Prescott 4th of July festivities with my family, then we moved here to Vegas. The first 4th we had here, I remember being soooooo disappointed. I was still getting used to being in Vegas and trying like mad to survive my first killer summer here with temps hovering around 118!!! So we didn't want to melt by going to watch fireworks, so we just went and parked in the vacant lot by Patrick's office where you could see fireworks from all over the valley. This did NOT satisfy my craving for 4th of July festivities. I missed Utah a lot, and we still didn't 

even know anyone around here to even ask about where to go for good fireworks or events or anything like that. So last year, I wanted to get back to our normal way of celebrating, yet to no avail again... it was still 110 degrees at 10 pm as we sat in the back of Patrick's truck from the same vacant lot by his office watching fireworks. We were all roasting to death, and it wasn't that much fun. So this year I was desperate to find a way to make one of my favorite holiday's successful. We wanted to get outta town, we were gonna go up to Utah and go through the new temple during the open house, see our wonderful friends we left behind up there, and of course... go to Sugarhouse Park. However, the closer it got to the 4th, the more apparent it became that we wouldn't be able to go anywhere for multiple reasons beyond our control. I was really bummed!! I wanted so much to have a fun 4th of July all together as a family. After being depressed about it for a few days, I went to work trying to figure out what to do to make this a great 4th of July.  And I'm very happy to report that we were SUCCESSFUL!!

Here are the boys watching the ducks and hunting for turtles.

Such cute brothers!!

Conner being cheesy!

Apparently Brayden thinks he's Mr. Cool gangsta as he chows down on his pizza and lemonade.

Patrick finally getting some relaxation!!!

We spent the weekend at the Rec Center pool with the boys, who loved every minute we were there. We ate ice cream cones in the hot summer afternoons. Ordered take out one night. We took a picnic to the Dinosaur Park not far from our house and watched a pretty decent fireworks show from Aliante Station. And the best part of all.... it WAS NOT a million degrees and we didn't feel like we were melting! We all had fun, ate good food, laughed, and I am happy that maybe now we have finally found a good way to celebrate the 4th here in Vegas!

FHE Fun!

Last night we had a lot of fun together for Family Home Evening. Usually after having a lesson or whatever we have done, the boys want to do something fun. Many times we have a "Family Wii Night". However, our Wii had a run in with Conner a few weeks back, and mom and dad have yet to fork over the money to get it fixed. So we have found other fun things to do. Playing Truth or Dare Jenga is one of the boys favorites! Patrick and I have had this game for a long time, and usually thought the truth or dare part was dumb, so we would just play as if it was regular Jenga. But the boys love the truth or dare part. So it is usually pretty entertaining around here when we play. Last night was no exception.

Yes, generally I do keep my children clothed, but one of the dare blocks Brayden got was to remove an item of clothing. Glad he was the one that got that one!

Conner was laughing so hard when his dare block dared him to switch an item of clothing with someone. So him and Brayden had to switch shirts. It was pretty funny, Brayden's shirt looked a little like a dress on Conner because it was so big!

Conner is getting pretty good at playing this game. He never was the one to knock over the tower. He loves it!!

Here is Conner after he was dared to slow dance with a broom (so we just used the Swivel Sweeper) He was so embarrassed!! He didn't know what he should do, so Brayden stood up on his chair, and showed him how to slow dance. Patrick and I were busting up laughing at it all!

(see the shirt is a bit big on him!)  :)

This may very well be the highlight of the game....

Brayden was dared to give the person next to him a raspberry on their tummy. Conner was laughing so hard  well before Brayden even got his face close to his tummy. Conner kept laughing and pushing away so Brayden couldn't do it. It took quite a few tries to give his brother an acceptable raspberry, but he finally did it! We were all dying of laughter!! 

It was good times!!!!!

The Happenings at our House

Not that it is all that interesting or anything, but I figured it had been a while since I blogged, so here is what is going on....

Conner's birthday is next week. He will be 4. I often sit back and am amazed at how different Conner is then Brayden in several ways. Conner is VERY independent. He'll just decide one day that he wants to do something himself and you can't change his mind about it. He will argue till he's blue in the face about something. He has been cracking us up lately because he has his whole birthday planned out, and has informed me that this is how his birthday will play out. 

Here is his agenda: 

~Wake up, go have pancakes at "The Pancake House", come home and play a game. 

~Then we will go to swimming lessons (they start next week, and both boys are very excited for that!) and then go to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner. 

~Then we are to come home and Brayden and I are to hide behind the couch, and Daddy is to turn off the lights, and then when Conner walks in the house, Dad's job is to turn on the lights, and we all jump out and yell "SURPRISE!" 

~Then he will hunt out his presents that we are to hide (a few upstairs and lots downstairs) once he finds them all, he will open them. 

~Then we will have cake and ice cream. However, what kind of cake we are to have keeps changing. It has been everything from Spongebob, Wall-E, Doggy, and Spiderman, but I think he has decided on a Transformer cake. At least for now. That may change once or twice again before the big day next week.

He is such a funny kid!!

In other happenings....

Brayden has been getting so good at reading! He really loves it too. Yesterday I took them to a new Library that has recently opened (which is a MILLION times better then the one that is closer to my house, so it's worth the extra drive time) and Brayden was so excited to pick out his own books that he would be able to read on his own. Since he is on track break I figured it would be good for him to keep up on his reading skills. I have found him more then once reading a story to his little brother... so sweet!!!

Patrick keeps crazy busy as always with work. There is never a dull day at his office.  So he is defiantly looking forward to the long weekend he has coming up for the 4th. He has also been keeping busy earning the 

BESTEST HUSBAND OF THE DECADE 

award. He has been massaging my tired, sore, swollen, pregnant legs and feet, almost daily over the past few weeks. It has been heaven!!! One night when Brayden came in the family room while Patrick was doing this and Patrick and I were talking, Brayden asked "Dad, why are you doing that to Mom??" Patrick simply replied, "because this is how you treat your pregnant wife."  Well, I'm not gonna argue that! I'm so glad that he is teaching our boys how to treat girls right. He tells them all the time that we let girls go first and open doors for them and things like that. My boys try all the time to open the door for me, sometimes they still need help, but they always give it a try. I sure hope my boys grow up to be nice gentleman like their dad is!

As for the pregnant thing... its going fairly well. I'm still NOT a fan of being pregnant. I'm almost to my last trimester, and I'm feeling it. Last time I went to the Dr. he told me the baby is measuring a little big, but nothing to be concerned about yet.  I have been starting to get sore from just about anything I do, especially sitting or laying in the same position for too long. I get up and I look like a 100 year old lady wobbling around. This was only confirmed last Sunday at church when I got a few comments about how I have "the pregnant walk", not sure that I'm a huge fan of that either! I'm pretty sure this kid will be like Brayden in the way that he's already so low that it hurts to move my legs up to do simple things like put on pants or get into bed. Oh the joys!!!  :)  Do any of you remember seeing Brayden when he was born, he had a huge dent in his head from grinding it into my pelvic bones, well I'm thinking this kid may have the same thing... good thing it goes away quickly. I asked my Dr. about the pain from that last time I saw him and he just nicely smiled and said it will only get worse as the baby gets bigger, and even worse still if I was to have yet another baby. Gee, thanks!!! So if you see me wobbling around, looking like I'm in pain, and holding my stomach up, that is why. I am in pain. Feel free to laugh, I know is a funny sight... Patrick and the boys chuckle at me often. Hey, I even laugh at myself, you just have to laugh at things like that sometimes!   However, I am happy to report that Conner has come around to the idea of have this baby. He often gives me hugs and then whispers to my belly "Hi Baby!" It's so cute.

I signed...will you???

What an important cause!!  Thank you Jimmy Fallon for realizing what is important in life. Bringing back the good ol' days with the gang from Bayside!!  I used to L-O-V-E this show, at one point, I even had the board game... and I knew all the answers!  lol!! I admit, I have caught a rerun here and there, and why yes, the acting I have come to realize leaves much to be desired, it is still a classic show!! How can you not just love it?!?

Go to this link here

There, Jimmy Fallon has an online petition to sign to reunite the cast of Bayside High on his show. You better believe that I signed!!!! He has clips on there from his show of the cast agreeing to a reunion that are pretty funny!! They totally spoof the show! It's awesome!! For any of you SBTB fans, you'll love it!!

Brayden's 1st year of T-Ball!!

This spring, our Stake started a baseball league for all the Primary kids. The 5-6 year olds got to play T-ball. Brayden was really excited to play for the first time. He wasn't too bad either for being the first time playing baseball. 

He had a great team, and the coaches were awesome and did a great job helping the kids learn how to play. Brayden loved his coaches. He would point them out to me every Sunday at church and tell me "There is Coach Ben" or "Coach Bishop" (the Bishop was one of the coaches since his son was also on the team) He could never remember the other coaches names, so he just referred to them and whoever's dad they were. lol!

Brayden is #32. Here he is in action trying to get the ball. T-ball is kinda a free for all!

However, this is usually what we would see Brayden doing while in the outfield...
...not paying attention and goofing off, watching something else, or covering his face with his mitt so the sun wasn't in his face. (the last game he was doing that, and didn't even realize the ball landed right next to him. It was kinda funny!)

But when it was his turn to bat, he was ready!!!

I think batting was his favorite part. Who can blame him....
RUN BRAYDEN!!!!
He did score a few runs. He was always excited if he made it around all the bases. Patrick and I absolutely loved watching the kids play T-ball. If you have never seen a bunch of 5 and 6 year olds learn how to, and play T-ball for the first time, it is pretty entertaining!

However, by the last few weeks of games, it was starting to get pretty hot. So Brayden didn't like playing as much because he said he was too hot. I don't blame him, so was I! But I think overall he had a great time. He loved practicing with his Dad in the yard. And we only had 1 incident where he used Conner's head for batting practice. Conner came running downstairs to me screaming, and Brayden instantly knew he was in big trouble. No major injuries though, just a bump on the back of his head. Later, after Conner had calmed down a little, he was cuddling with me, he said with all seriousness on his face, and tears still in his eyes... 

"My head is NOT for hitting with bats!"

So true Conner, I couldn't have said it better myself!  :)

Conner the Graduate!

Today was Conner's Preschool Graduation. It was so cute!! The kids were so funny. They all marched in wearing their graduation hats, and sang a song. (Lindsey, I think Brendan looks a little disgruntled about the whole thing!!  lol!!)

He got to hold the letter C, of course for Conner!

Conner absolutely loves his teacher Ms. Tanya! She does such an awesome job with the kids! Conner gets so excited whenever he sees Ms. Tanya at church. He always informs me where she is sitting, and if she is there, and waves to her whenever he gets the chance.

Conner is looking forward to another year with Ms. Tanya next year before he goes to Kindergarten.

I just had to laugh when his teacher was giving out awards for completing preschool. She also told something about each child. What she had to say about my little Conner was RIGHT ON!!!  She told everyone how he is just a big ball of energy, and he runs everywhere he goes, and always wanted to make sure he was the first one done with his work. This might explain why sometimes his pictures had like 2 scribbles on it, and his name, and that was it.  LOL!!  Conner does have a ton of energy. He wears me out just watching him somedays! He doesn't want to miss out on a single thing!

He was apparently being shy for us, so I couldn't get a good picture, however, don't let  that fool you. He had a huge grin on his face because he loved all the attention!  :)

We love our Conner!!!!

What are they thinking??

Both the boys made me wonderful Mother's Day gifts at school last week (and at a Primary activity on Saturday they made these fun tiles. Brayden's is on the left, and Conner's on the right.) and proudly waited until yesterday to give them to me. I, of course, loved them. There is nothing better then your children making you something special. However, I think there should be a rule that you can't give such a sweet present to a hormonal, crazy, emotional pregnant mom! What was Brayden's teacher thinking?!?!  This is what he made me at school...

I could barely read it through the tears in my eyes. Then the look  and sweet smile on  my little Brayden's face after I read it and he asks, "do you really like it?" made my heart SO HAPPY!!! I am so blessed with such sweet little boys and an amazing husband!  BTW Patrick totally outdid himself making me an amazing Mother's Day dinner, complete with a Cold Stone Creamery ice cream cake!! You can never go wrong with that!!

Las Vegas 51's Game

Last weekend we were able to take the boys to the Las Vegas 51's game. 

It was a great time to go also because they were playing the Salt Lake Bees, which we always wanted to go see when we lived up in SLC, but never did. Brayden especially thought it was great to go since he has just started playing baseball too.  We had so much fun!! The boys thought it was great. 

The boys thought it was just about the coolest thing ever to eat peanuts and throw the shells on the ground. Ah, the little things that amuse kids! (and YES my back was killing me by the end of the 4 hours of sitting on these benches. Good thing Patrick is good at back massages! It was worth it though!)

Brayden begged us to buy him a big foam finger. So we finally did, and he was loving it the whole game, waving it in the air every time they hit the ball, or scored. Since Brayden got something, Conner couldn't be left out, so he chose a little bat and ball with the LV 51's logo on it. 

I apparently didn't get a picture of Conner with his bat and ball, but he really loved the foam finger too!

After the game, they had a fireworks show, that the boys just LOVED!!  

We made the mistake of telling Conner there would be fireworks after the game, so he asked us after every inning if it was time for the fireworks. So he was defiantly excited when the fireworks finally started. The weather was perfect that night, and it was a perfect way to spend an evening together as a family. I hope these are the kind of things our kids will remember as they grow up, these fun kind of family memories!