Josh's Birthday Surprises

Yesterday was Josh's birthday. We celebrated it last week with Josh's family with cake and presents the whole deal. But anytime you do that, when the real birthday comes along you still want to do SOMETHING special for them that day. Earlier that day I had taken the kids to the Dollar Store and gave them each $1.00 to buy their dad something special. My only request was for them to pick out something their dad needs or would like to have. They walked around for what seemed like forever! They took the challenge very seriously. After about 45 minutes they had their special hand picked gifts ready. And I have to admit there was thought in each and every one.
Katelyn was pretty quick in picking out her gift. She remembered Josh and I complaining about our newly discovered ant problem. She knew this would be something he could actually use. Ant bait. I laughed and laughed when she showed it to me, but I knew she had put thought into it. Katelyn, always so practical.
Mason went straight for the candy isle. He's always using his head. He knew if he got his dad some candy there would be a good chance his dad would share. One of Mason's and Josh's favorite games to play together is Mario Kart on the Nintendo. When he saw this Super Mario Kart candy, he knew he had to have it. I thought it was very cute.
Emma took the longest to find something. In fact, at one point she came up to me and asked where all the "dad stuff" was. I told her to be creative and that the store was filled with things her dad would like. She eventually came up with this paddle ball set. Everyone knows Josh loves sports. This was something he didn't have already. I told her it was perfect. In fact, the rest of the night Josh and I were up competing against each other to see who could paddle the ball the longest. I got up to 183 feeling pretty good about it. Well, once Josh got up to 621 I knew it was time to go to bed.

All in all, Josh had a pretty good birthday. Combined with our dinner to Johnny Carinos he loved all of his gifts and could see each of the kids personalities in each of their choices. It's fun to see as your children get older to see how predictable and sometimes UNpredictable they can be. But on this occasion there were no surprises.

My Little Sluggers!

Today marks the end of T-Ball and Softball season. I have had so much fun helping coach Mason and Emma's teams this year. They are so fun at this age. Between coaching 2 teams and Katelyn's games we were at the ball fields 4 days a week. Yesterday we had a pizza swim party for Emma's team combined with the other neighborhood team. The girls had a blast! Katelyn has really improved this year. In fact, she caught a fly ball at pitcher's mound the other day and it was the talk of the game! I was so proud of her. As fun as this season has been it's always nice when it comes to an end. We're definitly ready for the next chapter. Swim lessons...here we come!

 

My 7 Quirks

I've been tagged twice to list my 7 quirks. Trust me I have many, but here are a just few. (In no particular order).

1. I talk to myself quit a bit. I’ll talk to myself while I’m getting ready in the morning, or in the car or cleaning the house. My family teases me and says that I look like a schizophrenic.

2. I talk and walk in my sleep . . .a lot. At least once a week I have an episode where I’m freaking out that someone’s in our room or one of the kids is hurt. There have been many nights where I’ve sent Josh on a hunt for someone that was in our room. Josh has just learned to just sleep through it now.

3. My family thinks this is weird, but I don’t think it's that bad. I don’t like milk. When everyone else is having milk with their pancakes, chocolate chip cookies or chocolate cake, I’ll have a glass of water. I’ll even drain the milk out of my cereal spoon before eating it.

4. I have to sleep with 4 pillows every night. I HAVE to sleep with a pillow in between my knees for sure. (2 in my case, because they’ve gotten kind of flat.) I don’t like my knees touching when I’m sleeping. Then I sleep with 2 under my head. It makes it tough when packing for an overnight trip. Josh has had it with packing all of my pillows! I’ve often thought about if I was ever in jail and they only gave me one pillow would I use it for my knees or my head. I hope I never have to make that decision!

5. Sometimes when Josh or one of the kids is talking to me I’ll subconsciously start writing the words they’re saying with my finger as if it where a pencil and write in the air or on my leg. And if I mess up I’ll erase it with my hand. It’s hard to describe but I really look like a dork doing it.

6. I LOVE to sing in the car. But my kids are to an age where it is getting embarrassing when I sing with their friends in the car. But then again, I have heard Katelyn brag to her friends that her mom knows the words to almost every single song on the radio. And Katelyn recently pointed out to me that I apparently say “Oh, I love this song,” to almost every song!

7. I’m always paranoid when I’m washing my face that someone is going to get me. Because I’ve often thought if someone was going to get me, wouldn’t it be smart to do it when they have soap in their eyes?? I know... I have issues.

Okay, now Teri, Jen and Marilyn let's hear yours ladies! I'd tag you Kim, but I know you have issues with being tagged. :)

So what?!

Okay, so I'm addicted to changing my blog background! Does that make me a bad person?! I'm just getting into the 4th of July spirit. It's one of my FAVORITE holidays!!

What a week!!

This has been a busy, crazy fun week! Last week my family came up from California and we all met at Bear Lake to watch my sister run in the Bear Lake Marathon. We decided to turn it into a vacation! We had so much fun. Although the lake was pretty cold, there were lots of activities to do around us. After a few days at Bear Lake they all came up to Idaho Falls for a visit. During this past week we managed to watch my sister run a marathon, celebrate Katelyn's birthday, Father's Day and even squeeze in a trip to Jackson Hole. I'm exhausted! But we had a great time and have lots of pictures to show for it!

Race Day!

My sister Teri did so great in the Bear Lake Marathon! I can not even imagine running 26 miles! I don't know how she did it. It was nice to be there as a family and support her.




My friend Julie ran her first 10K on the same day. It was neat to be there when she finished as well.

Happy Birthday Katelyn!

While we were at Bear Lake it was Katelyn's 9th birthday. So we celebrated at a Bear Lake Pizzaria with the whole family. It was a great way to spend her birthday!

A new helmet. Just what she NEEDED! Our family is real big on helmets these days!

Yeah! Kidz Bop 13, just what she WANTED. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

The whole family around the table. We had the whole room to ourselves, it was great.