Snaggletooth Ca-nicky

Kesley chipped her front tooth--:( Good news is it is getting fixed today. I have been calling her Snaggletooth Canicky, a phrase Brent coined years ago. It's not Kesleys favorite nickname and it gets a very irritated reaction every time. She actually made me promise I wouldn't put in on the blog...but I was crossing my fingers when I answered that one.

This pic I took because she would NOT look at the camera and smile for me. It was my blackmail photo that I said I would use if she didn't cooperate. I COULD NOT STOP L-AUGHING!!! She tried for the next hour to steal my camera and delete this picture. She also made me promise not to put it on the blog--but like I said, CROSSIES! C'mon, we all need a good laugh to start out the day!

Biker dudes & dudettes

Seriously, why is it so grainy? Click on it and its way cuter.

Emily invited us on a bike ride up the canyon trail. The plan was to go all the way up to Vivian Park and Emily & I would walk with her littles in the stroller. Sounds lovely, right? Well, it took us about 10 steps into it to realize we wouldn't be walking much or we wouldn't see the kids again for a couple of hours! When we gasped our way into Canyon Glenn--2 1/2 miles up the trail--we had to call it a day. I was redder than a beet and had pools of sweat puddling around my eyes...as well as everywhere else. Not the picture of beauty that I normally am. We kinda slinked past the truck load of city worker boys and found a great spot for lunch. Then began the 2 1/2 miles back down the trail.

Funny thing is, I have been doing INSANITY workouts for over 2 months (and lost 20 pounds--thank you very much) and I'll tell you what--I WAS SO SORE I COULD BARELY MOVE for the next 2 days! Running is a serious workout!! Looks like I found the key to loosing this next 20 lbs...barf.

FATHER'S DAY!!

First a shout out to my dad--I sure love you! Happy FATHERS DAY! Thanks for being a great Dad. It takes being a parent to really realize the JACKPOT I hit with my own parents. LOVE YOU GUYS!!

FATHER'S DAY MORNING 2011

Big breakfast of Eggs Benedict (for Brent) and waffles with strawberries and whip cream (for everyone else)-YUM. Then the cards and presents. This year's shirt has glow in the dark hands and feet! Hard to see in a picture--but COOL...in a dark room. Gavin found these AWESOME Mt. Dew jammy pants at Walmart and could not stop laughing--he just HAD to get them for Brent. He sure got a kick out of it all over again when he gave them to Brent--love that kids sense of humor. Jenna gave him a great hammock for his scout camp-outs and Kesley gave him some new flip flops for summer.

Later we had a huge dinner and all took turns going around the table saying our favorite things about our great dad:

Gavin: Loves to just hang out with him--which they do a lot.

Kesley: loves that he is so kind to her and that he is so fun--which he is.

Jenna: Loves nights out with just him and her--and that was immediately followed with this word for word hilarity: "And guess what? I ate blood before. One time, at Paiges, Paige got a bloody knee and she let me taste her blood." ...awesome.

I said that I love that he sings them bedtime songs and always makes time to take them on fun hikes--what GREAT memories they will have of their dad! I love that you love being a Dad. Happy Father's Day! We sure love you.

Torture--I mean, ballet recital

They don't get any prettier than these ballet ladies, it makes the once a week trip to ballet worth it---(but the jury is still out on the the 2 1/2 hour recital we had to sit through...)


I like this picture because it shows the face Kesley made through her entire 30 second dance...(again, WHY did we have to sit through the ENTIRE 2 1/2 hours????)LUB, LUB that Jenna belly!--and just fyi, her torso is not abnormally LONG--it's the XL outfit they stuck her in--but I still lub me that belly.

p.s. if you click on the pictures they will enlarge and not be so blurry. I don't know why they always have to look so grainy--just another thing I am choosing to be annoyed at today!

Anyone have spare car?

Brent wrecked his car on Friday. Boo. Of course it just had to be his fault and the other car just had to be a newer Jaguar. Double BOO! Everyone was OK and that is all that matters, but I sure wish we had reconsidered the liability only insurance we went with...TRIPLE BOO! Funny side story to this fiasco: I was swimming with the kids when I got the call from Brent. I knew he was OK and I just needed to get down to the accident scene fast (with insurance info so he wouldn't get two tickets...). I made the mistake of telling Gavin that Brent had been in an accident and I needed him to get out of the pool fast without any complaints. He did and so did the girls and I dropped them all off at Emily's and told them I would be right back. I DID make sure to tell them Brent wasn't hurt and everything was OK--I made sure of that. But we all know sweet Gavin is a DADDY'S BOY and has his Dad's anxiety--poor little dude.

About 1/2 hour later we are sitting at the accident scene and we get a call from Emily. Gavin just had to talk to his Dad. Again, we reassured him everything would be OK. After we got things squared away and the car had been towed we drove up and picked up the kids. About this time the adrenaline rush Brent had experienced was starting to wear off...que the ominous sound bite, "Dun, dun, dun."

Once Brent begin to think clearly, he realized his truck was now at a storage place and he was going to be paying out the nose until he got it back. He called the place to find out how to get it out and found out it was going to be $300 to finalize the towing bill and get his truck! You can imagine the EXPLOSION of emotions that this caused.

Gavin had been audience to all this emotional trauma. He was already tired from a cousin sleepover and swimming all morning and this event was a little too much for him. Brent took his mom's car to go "work things out" with the towing guy and I took the kids home in the suburban. I was watching Gavin walk in the house when I noticed him slumping and looking really dejected. I said, "Gavin, are you OK?" He turned around (sunburned and still in his swimsuit with no shirt--skin and bones) and just started bawling, "NO! I'm not all right! How is Dad going to get to work?" Poor little man was having a breakdown. I tried to give him a hug and he pulled away and said, "I think I just need to be alone. I'm just having a bad day." I picked him up and carried him into his bedroom. He was totally bawling (but not fighting being carried) and sputtering, "S-s-t-o-p. I'm n-n-not a b-b-aby!" I love that kid. I let him lay in the cool of his room until he could settle down enough to talk.

Brent came home shortly after. He had calmed down and fixed things with the tow truck driver (he ended up apologizing--hee hee) and explained that the guy was on his way up to our house to drop the truck off here. Gavin came out to meet him and was obviously still a wreck,

Gavin: "I hate that guy! D-dad, you know what I am going to do? I am g-going to kick that guy in the shins and tell him he is just an ASS!"

Gavin and I spent the rest of the afternoon reading a book together.

Brent and I discussed a few things:
1. Kids hear and pick up on EVERYTHING you say and do
2. How can we help Gavin work through his anxiety issues
3. What word still has the meaning and brings the satisfaction of our favorite "go to" swear word...but won't get Gavin sent to the principles office...

The AWESOME Olivia!!

Still smiling at mile 23!!

Olivia (my sis-in-law) ran a MARATHON this morning! Me & the kids jumped up and went to cheer her on. WAY TO GO!! You did amazing!

10 YEARS!!

Today is our 10 year anniversary! I can't really say that it "flew" by...hee hee, but it has been a journey worth taking. I'm not going to slob this all up with a love fest note to my husband, but I will say this: Brent, I love you! I'm looking forward to the next 10 years together.(I know, I know. Someone please save me and buy me scanner--until then we can all suffer together. Oh, and maybe throw in some photo editing classes--I REALLY suck.)

I had this great idea for the perfect anniversary gift, a throw back to where it all began. You see, when we were dating I made this cute little "60 seconds to happiness" card for Brent. It was a wallet size list of 60 things I loved about him. A few years ago, in the middle of a huge fight, Brent pulled it out of his wallet and chopped it up into a thousand pieces and threw it in the garbage saying, "I don't know why I even have this--it's more like the list of 60 things you HATE about me!" Part of me was so sad--(but the other part really did hate a lot of those things...funny how a little time can change some things! :) Well, I picked all those pieces out of the garbage can when he wasn't looking and I thought that I would someday put them all together again along with a list of new things that I loved--but now I can't find the pieces...dang it. Guess I'll save that for our 20th!Kesley took this pic and we were laughing hard enough for all three chins to pop out...like I said, I NEED some editing classes.

Today we spent the afternoon swimming with the kids and then we dropped them off at cousins and went out to eat. We went to Tepanyaki and ended up sharing our table with a family with 3 kids the exact ages of ours. Made us wish we had just brought ours along. Life really is better with those beautiful people in our lives.Here is Jenna eating some of our wedding cake--well a little cake with a lot of frosting! That is one tradition I do follow through on every year. Happy 10 Year!