An update on life....

Life is good! I can't really complain. It is even better that the house is quite, all of the kids are asleep and with the lights not on... I can't see all of the housework that it awaiting me! :)

I am totally worn out today. We have had a fun day of swimming at the PG pool for Strawberry Days and watching Braxton play baseball. It was our turn for treats and I made round sugar cookies and frosted them like baseballs. They were cute. I am proud of myself for only eating 2! (yes- that is good for me!) Mason was getting REALLY restless at the end of the game so I let him have one of the extra cookies. He was head to toe frosting! And so was the stroller. After a dinner of spaghetti tonight-- I wondered why I was doing this to myself. Not planning the best dinners as far as cleanliness.

Bryce is again missing out. He is currently in Texas and will be heading to LA tomorrow. He has had to travel quite a bit the past few weeks so we miss him. He works super long hours when he travels and comes home wiped out. I am glad that he is still loving his job and always has lots to tell me. I just try my best to keep it all straight so I can ask meaningful questions.

Baseball consumes our evenings. Braxton has games on Monday and Wednesday nights. Landen has games on Tuesday and Thursday nights. I love cheering my boys on! Some days are a bit more hectic to get there than others. Landen can't seem to focus enough to get his stuff ready (shoes on, mitt in his hand and buckled in the car). He finds lots of other things to do along the way. My agenda minded personality wants to blow a gasket every time. And sometimes it does. I am trying hard on that though. His random thumbs up, winks, hugs and raised eyebrows from across the counter during dinner at me make me laugh and melt. He should probably try winking at me a little more during his fits....

Abbey is loving gymnastics again this summer. It makes me want to consider her doing it year round. She is amazingly flexible and is cart wheeling all over the place!

More Mason just cut 3 teeth this past week! A top molar on each side and a bottom tooth next to his two little middle teeth. He hasn't been the happiest camper. Not bad, but not the happiest.

We survived our first week of summer. It was almost constant bickering, power struggles, life isn't fair complaints and so on from the kids. I was ready to go NUTS! It always takes about a week for them to figure out how to get along all day long. Today was much better so I hope that we are on the road to peace and friendship around here... or I am on the road to the looney bin!

I am still going running in the mornings. With Bryce being out of town it hasn't worked out for me to go every day but I am getting out at least 3 - 4 times per week. I am now up to 2 1/2 miles with still some good hills in that distance. I could probably go further but I still want to stick to my 30 minute workout time and I need enough energy to keep up with the kids all day. I am seeing some improvement on my stomach and I know that my legs are a bit more toned up. I am frustrated though because a lot of my stomach roll issue is skin and I don't know what I can do about that, except surgery to remove it. And that isn't happening any time soon... or ever in my penny-pinching future.

Oh- one more thing! We are going somewhere for our anniversary!!! This next week we will be celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary! Usually we celebrate by going somewhere for dinner (in mid-July). With Strawberry Days, Father's Day, Landen's birthday, etc... our anniversary always gets pushed aside. This year with Bryce being gone so much-- I needed some time and a good break! We get to go to away for the weekend and my sister, Karen, is taking the kids! WAHOO!! Bryce has asked me a few times what I want to do... and of all things that he can't believe I am saying... is SIT! I LOVE to go, go, go but I am tired, tired, tired! I just want to do NOTHING! I am sure that won't last super long but I can't wait for a completely relaxing weekend with my favorite person. Homestead... here we come! In a few weeks. :)

Braxton playing coach-pitch baseball

Braxton has now moved up to coach-pitch baseball. He is a great player and a real "go getter!" He seems to be loving it and his favorite part is wearing cleats. He wants to wear them all day, every day. He doesn't understand why I get upset when he wears them to run around on the wood floors in the house. Hmmm....

I wished that I would have gotten a better shot of his big hit! He has a great coach, Victor Johnson, who is helping to teach them a lot about the game and some strategy to it.

Braxton got to have a chance at being catcher today. He did pretty darn good.

He is dashing off to 1st base!


Of course Braxton has to slide into every base, especially home plate. I am just glad he wore a pair of ripped jeans for the game. It might be worth getting a pair of baseball pants for this kid or everything is going to be grass stained and torn to shreds.

Landen playing t-ball

Landen's 1st year playing t-ball! He seems to be having a great time! He is on a team with several of his friends and he has a fantastic coach who is SO patient with the kids!

Landen turned his hat sideways cause "he can't see to get the ball if it is on straight!" This is serious business!

Landen is in the middle of this hussle for the ball. Everyone wants to be the guy to get it! So much so that while Landen was a runner on 1st base he had a little misunderstanding of what he was supposed to be doing. He intently watched his teammate hit the ball and instead of running to 2nd base he ran after the ball, wrestled the other team's player to the ground and it took a grown man to peel him off of the kid and to peel the ball out of Landen's hand. He was SOOO excited that he got the ball!!! ...Then he had to run to 2nd base. I was on the ground rolling! (and was no help to the situation) Luckily in all if it-- nobody was hurt.

Landen- keeping his eye on the ball.

A big swing and he is off!

T-Ball at home

After a fun Saturday playing in the little kiddie pool with neighbor friends, Landen and Mason played a little bit of t-ball. Landen was so sweet to help Mason and the two of them were getting along fabulously!!!

Thanks to my great friend, Stephanie, for taking these fantastic shots! I took some pictures but they didn't turn out nearly as good as hers.

I love Landen's tongue sticking out in concentration! It was fun to see them laughing and having a great time together. I hope it will continue on later in life!

My little men in their ties

I think that taking this picture made us a minute or two late for church... but what was I to do? They were all wearing the ties that I made them on the same day! :)

Pretty handsome aren't they!!! For sure keepers.

May Madness 2011

This post will be in reverse order again starting with the end of the month first! :) I am one proud mom!!! Both Abbey and Braxton won the Academic Excellence Award!!! Only two per class were awarded and they both earned it! As they explained in the awards assembly-- this is for the best of the best! Way to go Abbey and Braxton! I am grinning from ear to ear. What a way to end 3rd Grade for Abbey and Kindergarten for Brax.




























Here is Bryce's brother, Trent, on his sweet new bike! We had a great time having him come down to pick it up. Our garage isn't the same without it sitting there.

Trent had to take it for a quick spin up the street. Immediately afterwards he and Bryce packed up the bikes and headed out to Eagle Mountain for a little bit better ride. They just couldn't wait to test that baby out! Then they headed down to Green River the next morning with Tim, Dustin and Bryce's buddy, Brook Monroe. They all had a BLAST! I didn't get up at 4 am to take any of those pictures. :)

Here are some new ties that I made for the boys. Mason's orange one was up in his room and since he was sleeping I didn't go get it. It wasn't worth interrupting a nap for a photo. I was just going to make a tie for Mason but the other boys wanted to match him and it was easy to throw together a few more. Now Mason's ties go a bit beyond his mid chest. He was starting to look pretty funny having such a short tie with his big gut! Now I just need to take a picture with the 3 boys wearing them.

I am also excited cause I made a total of 6 ties so far and have material for several more and only paid $10 for my stuff!

Grandma Christensen's 90th Birthday Party!

I took a picture of just Bryce's siblings and parents. This was at the very end of the party and I didn't want anyone to shoot me for trying to get all of the spouses and kids gathered up for a picture. Half of the kids probably would have been crying anyway. L-R (Barry, Bryce, Brooke, Dustin, Trish, Trent, Tim & Celeste w/ Grandma Irene Christensen in the front on the chair)

I had to laugh at this shot. She is reacting to something funny and I love her body language when you talk to her. She gets right into whatever you are saying.

Isn't she SO sweet! It was great to see so many people come out to wish her a happy birthday. She is a wonderful woman! She will randomly send us a letter in the mail and always include stickers for the kids. She is a teeny tiny lady. In fact, Abbey is just a few inches shy of being the same height.

Here is Grandma Chris (as Bryce calls her) with her kids. L-R: June, Van, Grandma, Tim & Bud.

While we were up in Idaho we took a day to prune 2 apple trees in Bryce's parent's yard. They were planted in memory of twin babies that Trish lost in mid pregnancy. It had been a few years since they had been pruned and what we cut off was at least as tall as what was actually left standing. It was a lot of work but I love to do this kind of stuff!

Here is Bryce tying up a few limbs to haul off. Since they were to big and heavy we used tie downs to hook them to the truck and drug them back to the burn pile.

The before shot.

After a fun day of being outside at their Grandma Christensen's house, cousins Brayden and Mason are getting washed up in the tub. Mason is about 5 months older than Brayden. Two cuties!

We always have such a good time in Idaho! It is fun to see and hang out with everyone.

Landen's Preschool Graduation! Here is Landen with my cousin's little boy, Aiden. We had fun carpooling together this year. I was hoping to get a shot with Landen and his other little buddy, Jake Hurd but we didn't ever see Jake at the openhouse and he was out of town for the end of the year party. :(

Here is Landen with Miss Heidi. She is the BEST preschool teacher EVER! We love her to death and I am happy that Landen gets to come back next year. Miss Heidi needs to keep teaching till all of my kids are done with preschool. She is so sweet, patient, creative and loves the kids so much!

Heidi mentioned how Landen was always happy at school and did every activity that was going on. They never had to ask him twice to do anything. He just loved preschool! A few fun things from this year:

Landen: "If I were President, I would do my chores."

Landen: "I love peanut butter sandwiches."

When I grow up, I want to be... "a dishwasher."

I like fall because... "I like to go trick-or-treating at Lisa's work."

Landen: "I am thankful for my bike."

I must do my motherly duty now and help Landen fulfill his dreams of being a dishwasher and doing his chores as President! Maybe if I make him president of his room he will do his chores now!? --In his credit- he is getting better about doing them if we can keep Braxton and Landen seperated during chore time.

A few other things to note:

May has been a great month with lots of good things to talk about! We started off the month taking the kids to the Carl Bloch Exhibit at BYU. His paintings of Christ are AMAZING!!! I was glad that we took the kids so that they could see and feel how special it all was but I also wished that we could have spent more time there just looking and thinking. I waited too long to order tickets and could only get times in the middle of the day and there aren't many babysitters around so we just checked Abbey out of school and went! I am glad that we didn't miss out on it all.

Mother's Day was awesome! The day before, we spent a sunny day outside doing yard work and Bryce cleaned my car inside and out! For me-- that is true love!!! He knows how much it bugs me to have a dirty car and he spent 2 hours cleaning it. Such a sweetie! Of course the kids gave me cute little things and Abbey made me muffins for breakfast. They were delicious! We had all of my family (except for Dave and his family that are in AZ) over for dinner. It was raining so we all had to be cramped inside. It felt like good old times to be together and that was nice. Dinner was easy since everyone pitched in and for ONCE I didn't stress out the whole day about it! Being with family was the best.

As far as Memorial Day went-- it sucked. I was dying to get out of the house and go do something. It was raining that morning so we didn't go to the Memorial program at the cemetary. As we were getting our stuff done that morning Braxton crashed on his pogo stick in the garage. He hit a puddle of water and it made his pogo stick slip out from under him and his face smacked right into the concrete floor. No hands breaking is fall or anything. It knocked the wind out of him, instantly gave him horrible bloody nose and fat lips. He was pretty beat up. I held him for a while and he just cried and cried. The poor kid. I was worried about a cuncussion but he was good on those signs. He felt yucky all day and wasn't even up for a treat from the store till later that night. Besides sneaking down to the PG Cemetary to put out flowers on Grandma Bezzant's grave- we didn't go anywhere. I was bummed. More than bummed. I felt trapped but what do you do. I was so hoping for a change of pace before the regular week began and Bryce was back out of town, but no luck. The random rain all day didn't really help either. We survived and I am really glad that Braxton is ok. His lips are finally not so swollen and it doesn't kill him to brush his teeth. He is one tuff kid! I have a feeling that there will plenty more injuries in his future since he is such a goer.