Breakfast a la Gage

Gage loves a good jam samich (sandwich). He asks for one at each meal and for most snacks. But we limit him to only at lunch time so he can try other foods and get some sort of nutrition in. This morning was an exception.
I asked Gage what he would like for breakfast, which usually means oatmeal or cereal. This morning he asked for "two pieces of toast, but not toasted, with jam on one and the other piece of toast on top of it, and cut in half."
Hmmm, sounds a lot like a jam sandwich, so because of his creativity I caved and gave him a toast sandwich, untoasted!

Noah

I don't know about all you other Utahns out there, but this past month has made me more grateful for Noah. Seriously, 40 days? We have only experienced 20 days or so of rain and I am rained out! And that's a lot to say for a northwest girl who loves the cooler weather and the beautiful green that accompanies it.
But yesterday I was able to make my way up the canyon to Jordanelle reservoir. Oh my, was it ever beautiful! I don't think I have ever seen Utah so green, especially in late June. It really was breathtaking, the reservoirs are filled more than I have ever seen them, and the waterfalls are roaring.
I have to go back because I was in a hurry to get back home to the family and had to rush past it all and I didn't get any pictures. But I did pick up a good sunburn and a case of the flu.
I was photographing the Rock Cliff Triathlon, which was pretty amazing, I am amazed at what people can do. Anyway, I loved the scenery and the serenity in the mountains. While I was photographing the running portion I was in a secluded part of the trail and all by myself between runners. Well, almost by myself. At one point I reached down to my backpack to get some water and found a visitor had decided to check me out - a SNAKE! I HATE SNAKES! It was a little disconcerting from then on out, amazing what those little slithering reptiles can do, goodbye serenity!

South Jordan Days

The rain broke long enough to watch the parade this past week. The boys loved it and had an especially great time gathering candy thrown in their direction. The highlight of the parade though was meeting Cosmo the Cougar, Connor was even wearing his BYU shirt and tracked down Cosmo to give him a hug- too bad it was too far away for a picture. But he was pleased with himself.

It was quite an eventful day. We spent the morning at the parade, the afternoon at Grandmas house and the evening at our house with the Jensens.

My sister and her family made it all the way from Canada. We were excited to show them the firework show that night. So we scouted out the best location, took our seats all wrapped in blankets and WAITED for the show to begin. An hour later we decided to pack it up as it was now 11 pm and the fireworks had not begun. We even tried to call the city engineer, but to no avail (seriously Nieltson, don't you answer your phone after 10 pm on weekends?). Come to find out the fireworks were cancelled due to rain. Oh well, maybe next year.

Family Pictures!

It has been WAY too long since we did family pictures, so we went with Emilie up the Garden Park Ward and had so much fun doing our family pics!
The kids absolutely adore Emilie, she is too much fun to be with, each of them love to pose for her and they welcome all the attention she gives them, plus the never say NO rule to her photo shoots :) It was a welcome change for them from the always say NO mom!

Thanks so much Emilie, this was so much fun, I love working with you, but even more I really love getting to know you!

Gentle Rebuke

Thank you Elena for getting me back on track with blogging, no amount of excuses can excuse my absence in the blog-o-sphere! I will attempt to get updated here and won't go into all the reasons for my blogging "vacation". Now on to more blogging....

When the cat's away....

... the kids and I will play.
Connor goes back on track tomorrow and Ryan is off doing some "playing" of his own, so we played today.
We worked first, for a few hours, but that had to end! At noon we went to the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple. It is just in our neighborhood, but we hadn't been to the open house yet. We planned to meet up with Ham (sorry Tony, but I just can't do it) and Sara! But we missed them somehow at the temple, we waited in the cookie tent outside, but apparently they didn't know about the cookie tent, how can you miss the cookie tent? So we enjoyed some cookies and talked about what the boys had seen and what they felt and liked. Tate's favorite part was the ... cookies! That's right, and his favorite room we saw? The cookie tent! Never saw that coming! Connor's favorite part was angel Moroni on the top of the temple, it was hit by lightning on Saturday and as a result his arm and bugle are blackened. He also enjoyed the cookies. Gage had a hard time telling me his favorite part, his mouth was full of cookies! The kids were excellent at the temple, they were on their best behavior. Not so at lunch ...
So off we went to Cafe Rio to meet up with Ham and Sara, we found them this time and had a nice visit, arranged a few marriages in the future and had a great lunch. They will soon be on their way from Boston to Alaska for the next 4 years, slight difference, but not a lot really, only more caribou and less people, but other than that, very similar. Anyway, the boys were not great at lunch, but as Connor put it, "we don't have to be as good at restaurants as at the temple."
We then went to visit Grandma Lani, but she was napping - that darn broken back! So we didn't stay too long and off we went to home to finish up a few chores before using our free kids meals at Chick Fil A. Why do free meals taste better? I thought I would try to give the kids a little more of a leash today, usually I keep them in eyesight and arms length at all times while in public, but Connor has been complaining that he is too big for that. So during dinner when Gage had to go potty and Connor asked if he could take him I decided that would be okay, since we were right by the bathroom and I could still keep an "eye" on them.
So off they went. Ten minutes later, literally, I sent Tate in after them to check on them. He was to come back immediately and let me know what was taking so long. Well, five minutes passed, then ten ... I started packing everything up because by this time I was very concerned and had decided that I would have to go into the men's bathroom to retrieve my boys who were probably flooding toilets by then. Just as I got up to go after them, they came trotting out of the bathroom, talking very loudly - "there is POO on the floor in there!"
Of course I was mortified that my boys had missed the potty, but NO, it was not them! Connor said to me, "even the man in front of us told us to watch out for that poo on the floor. He told us it was not him, but someone before him."
Perhaps he should have told the manager or an employee, not a couple of little boys who are fascinated with all sorts of disgusting things. The boys then proceeded to tell me all about the poo. How big it was, how it looks like half dog poo and half person ... I will stop there, as I tried to get my boys to stop, all the while ushering them out of the restaurant so as not to draw any more attention to us. That is the second nasty poo incident I have had in a week, none of which was my doing! Enough about that.
After dinner we headed over to the theatre to watch Night at the Museum. Can I just say that the kids were amazing, nothing like last time (you can read about that here). McCall slept through the whole movie, while the boys and I laughed our heads off, we actually liked it better than the first one! All in all a great day, and the boys were so tuckered out bedtime was a snap, 30 seconds after prayer they were all asleep, probably half way through really.

Oh Canada!

My uncle Scott sent me this picture today. I didn't even know he had been on vacation, apparently this is Mt. Rushmore from the Canadian side. Thanks Uncle Scott! I have never made it over there and I always wondered. Now, you all know what is on the other side!

Life/Love Lessons

On a recent trip to Lake Powell with a lot of family my mother-in-law broke her back (you can read about it here). I was not in attendance so I won't re-tell the story and get it wrong.

Suffice it to say there were many miracles and blessings and everyone is safe and sound. Well, maybe Lani isn't "sound" but she is safe and will make a full recovery in time. In the meantime she is VERY restricted in what she can do and it will be a long recovery, she won't be able to pick up anything heavier than a gallon of milk for 4-6 months, that makes one of McCall's legs!

For all of you who know Lani know that she is a very active person who loves to hike, exercise, play with her grandkids, go on weekly dates with her husband, spend time in the garage ... all sorts of active things.

So this will be difficult for her, not to mention, this is the second time she has broken her back. The last time was four years ago in southern Utah on a four wheeler. This is the time I like to interject that Southern Utah is not her friend and that she never got hurt while visiting us in Canada, but that is beside the point.

Really I am just writing to say THANK YOU to all the people who have stopped by to bring meals, visit with Lani, do extra work around the house, yard work, etc. Tom has been with Lani around the clock to help her get around the house, take her daily walks across the church parking lot and take care of everything. Because he has had so much to do he hasn't been able to do as much in the yard as needs to be done for an August 1st wedding (Jessica & James), so on Saturday we came to help in the yard, by the time we got there, the back yard was FULL of men from the neighborhood and ward. They were able to get so much done and make a HUGE amount of progress.

Why is it that people are so great? Why do they fill in when needed and donate their time to help a neighbor/friend out? Simply because they are good people who see a need and fill it. Not to mention that Tom & Lani have done the same for so many and are having that help reciprocated to them.

So thank you to all for your love and kindness and your service.

I neglected to take out my camera for some of the action shots before the lunch break, but really, everyone worked HARD! I will have to post some before and after shots of the waterfall in the back yard.

Financial Lessons

I am sure you think this post is going to be on how to become a millionaire, well ... it's not! It is about a silly kids game my boys love to play. It is Webkinz.
My mother bought each of my boys a Webkinz for their birthdays when she came to visit earlier this spring. For those of you who don't know what these are, they are really just a brilliant marketing ploy to get kids addicted to the internet and waste their youth online. You buy a stuffed animal Webkinz, which has a bar code assigned and you register your new "pet" online. Then you play games over and over again to gain virtual cash for your pet. With your riches you purchase a home, food, furniture, toys, vacations, etc.
Well, our little boys LOVE this and beg each day to do it. I hear this line quite often, "if I don't play with my pet he will DIE!" Yeah right I thought! But they do in fact decline in health if they are not played with online! If they are not put to bed each night they decline in health and have to be taken to the doctor, given medicine, etc .. which all has to be bought!
Anyway, Tate enjoyed playing so much that he accumulated a lot of nice things for his pet, including a yard, BBQ, bedroom set, food, clothing, and two motorcycles. Now, just so you know you can choose from a top of the line BBQ or a cheap one, expensive Harley Davidson motorcycles, or dirt bikes, and the list goes on. Come to find out that Tate is not a cheap kid, he enjoys the high life, purchasing the biggest and best that he could offer his pet, whose name is Parley by the way, he is a dragon.
Well, Tate was enticed by the travel agency online and sold everything he could to send Parley on a vacation around the world, because, as you well know, every virtual pet needs a vacation, their lives are pretty difficult and they need to get away from the daily grind. So everything was sold, except his two very expensive motorcycles. So when Parley got home from vacation he quickly declined in health because he no longer had a bed to sleep in, food to eat, clothing to wear, but dang it, he had a great vacation! So Tate went to bed in despair because his Webkinz was about to die.
Being the good mother I am, I played the children's games online for a little over an hour to get enough cash to buy some medicine, food, a trip to the doctor and a bed. Seriously, how many Cash Cow games do you have to play to earn enough money? The answer is about an hours worth! So Parley is now healthy and we hope that Tate has learned an important lesson about finances. But I doubt it, since his mother bailed him out and he suffered no major consequences.
Because it is raining today they will each have some time to play with their Webkinz, but they will have to hurry, there are a few games I need to play....

WOW!

If you want more of this and have time to spare (lots of it), check out this blog full of "sexy people". It will take you back and make you laugh out loud, sooo much fun! And some great photography tips (how not to's)!