Liam The Leprechaun

We had a great St. Patrick's day at our house! Liam the Leprechaun came a made a little mess and left a little candy--the boys loved it...Trevor loved seeing the messes Liam made and Jacob loved collecting the candy! The trail of candy went from mess to mess ...he dumped the books from our bookshelf, he turned over the dining room chairs, he turned our milk green (Trevor loved this!), and then he went downstairs and dumped out the Lego's, messed up the cushions on the couch and turned the kids table over!

Here is Trevor amid all the mess downstairs (our Leprechaun is a very neat mess.er.up.er :)) If you notice in the very far corner there is a note and letter from Liam the Leprechaun to the boys.
Jacob with his stash of candy...he didn't even look at the messes, he would find a piece of candy and run it over to his pile...it was so funny!

Mom and Trevor reading the letter from Liam.

The note and letter from Liam. (sidenote...The leprechaun stayed up very late to write this letter and I am not sure it had the effect the Leprechaun was hoping for, but I think he will leave it year after year with a few modifications. Also, I love that our Leprechaun's name is Liam...because it is short for William.)

Our St. Patrick's Day breakfast...Nick wanted to make green eggs and ham; so he did. And then we also had Lucky Charms, fruit kabobs, and green milk! It was delicious!

That night I tried to make something "Irishish" for dinner...I decided on shepherds pie minus the lamb meat (I used hamburger). It was a great idea in theory (I like shepherds pie), but I tried a new recipe and it wasn't good at all...thanks for eating it though Nick! For dessert we decorated fruit pizzas shaped like a rainbow.

Here are the boys getting ready to start...
Trevor taking a bite. This is the only bite he took, he didn't like it.
Jacob eating the frosting. This is all he ate, but he loved it!

Until next year Liam the Leprechaun!

Our New Rides...

...and nope, we didn't go buy new cars.... Nick and I decided that we really want to try and get outdoors more with our boys this spring and summer and enjoy this wonderful area that we live in and be a little more active...one way we are going to try and do that is to ride bikes! So you are looking at the proud new owner of a bike (Nick would say to you I already had a bike, but now I have a new one!)

(Nick and Jake and Trevor right before we set out...)

Saturday was our first bike ride as a family...I was so excited, I was so giddy...I had such high expectations how I saw this going (I was pretty sure there was going to be music playing in the background as we were riding down the road happily as a family). Well, let's just say it didn't go quite how I envisioned...
We set our from our house and about 10 feet from it this was the scene...

(Trevor standing by his new bike, before the ride)

Trevor had just gotten a new two wheeler with training wheels and he was scared to death to ride it, he wouldn't pedal it, and he jumped off and said "I am done"... so I was trying to help him by remaining calm and encouraging, but all the while I was telling Nick (behind Trevor) we should just go home, this isn't going to work, because I was trying to ride my bike, and Nick couldn't do much because he had Jake on his bike...finally Nick took my bike, I walked by Trevor and we headed to the nearby school to ride in the parking lot...we finally made it...Trevor improved somewhat while we were there, at least he would ride it if I held on to it...Jake had a wonderful time with Dad...and I got to ride my bike for a moment. As we headed home Trevor wouldn't ride his bike at all, (he had just fallen off of it, and yes, while I was holding it) so he walked beside Nick and Jake, and I walked my bike and Trevor's bike home...

(me walking Trevor's and my bike home)

Not exactly how I planned... I told Nick after we got home that I had moments of, why are we doing this...to this is the greatest thing ever...to I will never do this again...to I loved every minute... but it was great, and we will do it again and again....yeah for more bike rides! (Side note...I am not sure why on earth I thought Trevor would/could just ride a two wheeler with training wheels without any practice whatsoever... Nick did think it was a little ambitious of us! But Trevor will keep practicing and he will get it, because as I tell him, sometimes we just have to do hard things!)

At the car wash...

On Saturday, we needed to get our car washed so we took the boys...they love it! I remember as a little kid loving it as well...the water getting sprayed on car, the soap running down the windows, the big huge cleaning brushes rolling over your car...there is just something about it. These two pictures of Jacob and Trevor show how mesmerized they were by the car wash...they were just in ah the whole time!

Happy 100th Birthday Oreo!

Oreo celebrated their 100th birthday on March 6th. We couldn't let the day go by without us celebrating in some small way, because we love Oreo's in this household! So, we picked Nick up at the train and headed to Macey's to buy some Oreo's and milk...and then we went home and ate them. The boys loved it! Happy Birthday Oreo...here is to another 100 years!

Trevor all finished with his...

Jacob getting ready to dig in...

A Conversation with Trevor...

Setup: Jacob was a pretty early talker (in comparison to Trevor who was a little later)... by his second birthday he could carry on a small conversation with you.

About 5 minutes ago Trevor and I had this conversation...

Trevor comes running up to me--
Trevor: "Mom he is learning to talk!"

Me: Have a confused look on my face

Trevor: "Ya Mom, he is learning to talk"

Runs over to Jacob
Trevor: "Jacob say ball"

Jacob says "ball"
Trevor: "See Mom, he is learning to talk!"

Me: Laughing in my head..."Yes, Trevor he is learning to talk!"

Trevor just cracks me up sometimes, oh how I love him!

"Let's Eat Out!"

At the beginning of February, our stake had a wonderful opportunity to listen to Elder Dallin H. Oaks for our Saturday evening Stake Conference Adult Session. It was such a neat experience to listen to him talk. Cyndi and Brad came to watch the boys so that Nick and I could go together.

I am not the best story teller so I won't try to retell his stories (except the last one), but I am going to put down a couple of reminders for myself so that if I read this in twenty years I might be able to remember what he talked about...
1.) Trust in the Lord and go forward with faith. Make a commitment and then do it.
2.) The shower story (praying)...this story was so funny (you just had to be there!)
3.) Executive secretary conversion story...broken back.
4.) Scripture Annie...Temple Square newsletter
5.) "Our church is not a retirement home"...
6.) "Now the Lord knows where I stand"...a tattoo cut out of a hand ( by Elder Spencer Condie)
7.) Now the story I am going to try to retell:
Elder Oaks told us 5 things a husband should say to his wife: love you, sorry, yes dear, you look good in that, and we can't afford it. And then after one stake conference after he had told these a women came up to him and said "Elder Oaks, I know the best three words a husband can say to his wife when he walks in the door." Elder Oaks said, "Oh, what is it"...thinking he knew all along what the three words were 'I love you'. But then the women replies..."lets eat out!" I just started to laugh, and I turned to Nick and said those are the best three words a husband can say when he walks in the door!

Now fast forward to Valentine's day...Nick had to go out of town for business, but, in the middle of the day he sent me a text that said, "Here is your valentine's gift-three words-let's eat out! Be prepared to eat out for dinner. I will let you know where a little later but it will be about 5:00!" It was so cute, sweet and made me smile! I was a bit confused because he wasn't home so I wasn't really sure how it was going to work out, but what he did was he ordered take out for me and the boys from one of my favorite places to eat...Zupas, and I just had to go pick it up! It was such a great gift for me, I loved it! (side note: I didn't even have to go pick it up, Holli Murphy did because she got take out as well and we had dinner together because Mike was out of town. Thanks Holli for picking up the food and for hanging out with us!)

It is happening again...

When Trevor was little he loved to take his stuffed animals and line them up on the stairs.......now it is happening again...but with books this time! I was cooking dinner and I went to go check on the boys and I discovered they had done this...it made me laugh! And yes, Trevor is sporting one of my t-shirts! The last couple of weeks he loves to go upstairs and put one on and then he comes and shows me. He thinks he is so funny. I think the only reason Jacob helped line up the books was so that he could climb onto the bookcase!

Once there was a snowman...

About a week ago, the kids and I went outside and played in the snow (we actually had a little). The boys loved it! I am glad I let them go out; I don't love playing in the snow so I wasn't going to let them but, they had such a great time and loved every minute of it, which made me love it as well!

Trevor is standing on our snowman, or what is left of it! We made one and then destroyed it, all in about 5 minutes.

I broke out the sand toys and the boys loved playing in the snow with them.

Jacob decided that he didn't need to wear his gloves.

Trevor throwing a snowball...notice the snowball is behind him :)!
Look at their concentration on building a snowball!I am glad we went out in the morning to play because by the afternoon it was all gone!

The Creamery we will go...

On President's weekend, my sister, Janessa and my sister-in-law, Melissa and her five kids decided to come into town! Melissa was surprising her sister that had just moved to Provo. So Saturday morning we headed to Provo and we went to the creamery with everyone! It was so fun to see them, and I just love going to the Creamery...best ice cream ever!

Here the group is walking to the creamery...

Here is the kids table...(thanks Josh for supervising all the kids!)

Everyone is enjoying their ice cream!

And then four other adults sat at another booth! We kind of laughed about how Josh was all by himself, but he is a great sport!

It was fun to see them, and hopefully they will come back to visit, even though they had a very eventful time here...someone split open her knee and it required a tetanus shot...someone threw up in the car twice...two kids got fevers...and nessa was sick for three days after she got home...but I am sure they will come back...right?!

Cousins...what would we do without them?!

My sister and I had our first two kids around the same time (by no means was it planned that way, just how it worked out), so I love that they have a built in buddy whenever we hang out! (I dropped the ball on the third one :))The other day Jake and Kate were sitting on the stairs playing with each other. I got a couple of pictures of them. It is so cute how much they love each other. Jacob calls Kate "Katers" it is so sweet, I love it!

And as I was uploading these pictures on to my computer I remembered I had a picture pretty similar of Trevor and Brooke! I think they are a little younger, but not by much. Trevor and Brooke are the best of friends as well, more brother, sister relationship as they love/hate each other at times...but still the best of friends!

Cousins are the best!