Todays secret

Tonight while I was making dinner, Nick approached me and announced that he had a secret. I leaned in with interest and said, "Okay... What is it?" He tilted his head up and said in his "duh mom" voice: "I can't TELL you... It's a secret!...... But maybe if I just say it soft so no one hears me..."
I say "OK." And then he says so sweetly to me "Ok. My secret is-- why do you cook food SO GOOD?!"
I laugh and smile down at him and say "'Cause I'm AWESOME!"
Nick looks up at me, tilts his head, kind of squints his eyes and says "Um.... I think cause of Grandma."

LOL

True story dude. Grandma (my mom) totally taught me how to cook. Can't slip one by him, can I?

Pictures

I know. This doesn't exactly qualify as "soon", and I'm not journaling in depth, but here are some pics anyway!(They're a little out of order... sorry!)


The boys playing Missionaries. They love their little missionary tags!


Andrew showing me what missionaries do.


Nicks version of how it's done.


Paul loves being a missionary. He played this EVERY day for like a week. He kept begging me to let him go out around the neighborhood and "teach".


Couldn't resist a shot like this! =)
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Every time we go to Primary's we pay a special visit to Spiderman! Currently he resides on the 3rd floor.


And here the brothers FINALLY meet Dr. Cowley. They were so excited to meet the man that we talk so much about, that "helps Nick's heart, and is "better than Santa Clause!" It couldn't have gone better either. He was engaging and kind and totally lived up to their expectations. Thanks Dr. Cowley! We love you!


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Playing at a park in Soda Springs one Sunday-- SO FUN. My favorite pic is Josh playing with the scooper thingy. Forgive the terminology... =)

















And below, we are checking out the Man-made geyser in soda. It's cool. It goes off every hour and stays up for about 5 minutes!



This is another park -- at Hoopers Spring-- Cool toys. The kids loved those HUGE tires! We were going to get some water from the spring and try using it with kool-aid, but some other people had used it as a wishing well, and so we opted out for that idea. Still kinda cool though.












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Fathers Day



These boys sure love their daddy!


Happy Fathers Day Josh!
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Nine years of marriage and on to the 10th! Happy Anniversary!
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Two little men conked out and collapsed on one another... so tired from all the playing this summer!
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Andrew a little unsure about riding his bike in the rain, but he did it anyway.


Rain Rain Rain can't stop us!


In fact, we CELEBRATE! .... With S'mores!


Oh the sticky, gooey, sweetness!


What do YOU do on a Rainy day?We run around outside and get soaking wet! After all, our skin IS waterproof... =D
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Some Family time weeding the garden.
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Our version of Blackjack-- using dinner mints and M&Ms as $$. Good fun!



My "girls weekend in Vegas. Late nights, good comapany, a much needed break and lots of fun. Wish it could happen more often!

Updates are coming! Soon! =)

OK- So, I hope I got everyone who wanted an invite to the new "PRIVATE BLOG" lol.
I'll be posting some updates super soon. Thanks for the patience! =)

Changin' it up

Hey All! We've decided to go private on here. We love y'all, and anyone who's interested in still keeping up with us, please email us at joshndarla@hotmail.com or leave a comment on here with your email address so that I can send you an "invite".

Ta da!

Today Nick graduated from preschool! (And since I'm planning on NOT sending Andrew again next year-- just want to spend more time with the little guy-- I put him in Nick's gown and cap and took pictures of him too and told him he had graduated too! LOL) It's hard to believe that Nick is going into kindergarten already, I only have 1 more year at home with Andrew before he goes to kindergarten, and that in about 8 or so months Paul will be getting baptized! Time slips through my fingers like sand!











We've been letting Paul make some decisions on how he wants to wear his hair the last few months... he has been choosing to grow it out which has been cute on him-- although I think it's made him look older. Tonight he decided that he wanted me to cut it.... INTO A MOHAWK. So, I did! He looks so stinkin' cute. We're in the last 2 weeks of school and I figure there's plenty of time for it to grow back into a regular old hairstyle by the time school starts up again in the fall so why not?
He's such a little stud! Take a look!













As you can see, I wanted a picture with each of my little men today. I just know I will be thankful later that we have these! =)

Put in place and getting called out

I was having a nice little conversation with Andrew about cool StarWars stuff. I tell him that he sure knows A LOT about StarWars. He says "Yes! I do!" followed by a short pause, and then ever so sweetly and matter-of-factly says "And YOU don't!"

Ok... Well, I guess we're clear on that one.


We had this crazy fun day today with a field trip to the sand dunes, then friends over for playing in the sprinklers, borrowed some movies from the library, and since it was cookin' hot, I decide I don't wanna turn on the oven so we head to Craigo's (inside Broulims)for a fast pizza pick up. While at the store waiting for the pizza to get done, Paul finds one of my bosses and says "Do you know why we're having pizza tonight?? .... Because my mom doesn't feel like cooking dinner for us."

Thanks Paul. Way to call me out.

Then before leaving we run into a lady from Paul's school. He pounces on the opportuninty to once again point out my lack of parenting today and blurts out to her "My mom didn't make me read today!" and then giggles.

Yes. I am the mom today that took the EASY road and made someone else make my family dinner, and wasn't diligent about ensuring that my kids got their reading in today. On the bright side, we DID have fun in the sun today and the boys DID get a bath and brush their teeth! Not to mention the other number of chores that I accomplished today including laundry, dishes, watering 50+ outside plants, paying bills, cleaning rooms, etc. Why won't Paul tell people stuff like that? LOL

YIPEE!!

Nick turned 5 today! We had a lot of fun.
First there was preschool, at which they just happened to be celebrating all the Summer birthdays, and with today being Nick's ACTUAL b-day, he got to "be the leader". He was WAY happy about that.
Then after preschool, Josh and I picked Paul up early from school and took the boys to lunch in Blackfoot with Grandma and Grandpa Johnson. Following lunch we all headed down to Pocatello to go to McKees petting zoo!
McKees was SO MUCH FUN. And FREE!! We saw all kinds of creatures, from bunnies and chicks to a monkey and HUGE tortoises.


I still shudder when I think about the tarantulas they had!

One of the fun things was feeding the little mini goats.(can't remember the correct name, sorry.) When the little goats ate from our hands it tickled alot and made Andrew giggle and squeal.




They also have a little mini town set-up and each of the kids took a turn behind the pretend jail bars.

There were little horse rides for a quarter, and even a playground to use up any extra energy. AWESOME. Just right for a young family!
After McKees we stopped by a dollar store to pick up a Birthday Balloon for the Birthday kid, and then headed back home to get ready for the "party".
At 5:00 tonight we had Grandparents from both sides, and Jason and Chelle and their family come over for presents, cake, and ice cream! There were 10 kids for most of the time running around having a ball. For a short while we had a couple of neighbor friends stop by, which upped the kid # to 12, but after 10, who's counting?? LOL


Nick had so much fun. I had so much fun. I think we all did.


We are so blessed to have this boy, and we know it. I don't think a day goes by without us giving thought to how precious our time with our children really is. All our boys are such good, fun, smart, kind and AMAZING kids! They are the light in our life! I know every parent feels this overwhelming love and appreciation for their own little ones, but I can't help but feel just a little extra thankful that Nick's doing so well and that we've been able to celebrate FIVE birthdays with this mischief maker. Looking forward to 100 more!
Happy Birthday Little Man!