Look Who's Three!!

Jake holding up his three fingers. If you look closely, you can see how he holds his ring finger down, but puts his pinky up.

I can't believe three years ago, Jake came to our family! Tyson and I were talking this morning about the morning Jake was born. I was being induced, so we were just waiting for the phone call. We weren't sure when the call would come, as the schedule all depends on how busy their night is the night before. We got a phone call at 7am telling us they'd had a busy night and it would be a while before they could get me in. So, we just waited...actually, I decided to pass the time by mopping my floor and Tyson went to Wal Mart to get me some Trix, as that was the only that sounded good to eat. The crazy things pregnancy does! It was only an hour or so until they called and told us to come in, but at least I got to come home to a clean house. The kids had spent the night at my parents house.
Jake was my smallest baby, coming in at a very little 5lbs 9oz and 18in. He has maintained his small size and is still just little. He is only three pounds heavier than Jefferson who is two years younger than him!
He's such a sweet little guy. He's very quiet, yet has a lot to say when he chooses to speak. I think he's just decided that he doesn't want to fight for the attention Tanner and Tyler clearly demand. He'll say the most random, funny comments. Today, we spent the day at seven peaks to celebrate his birthday and both of our tubes were stolen by someone. In line to go down one of the slides, Jake told me, that wasn't very nice of somebody to steal our tube. When I find them, I will punch them! He's not a violent kid, but they way he says it is just so cute! As I sit here typing this, he is still up due to a late afternoon nap. He has a blanket on and is sitting next to me. He keeps putting the blanket on me because I'm cold. Or so he thinks I'm cold.
As I mentioned above, we spent the day at Seven Peaks, with Tyson and everyone but Jefferson, thank you Grandma Stauffer for watching Jefferson! Jake had so much fun going down the slides again and again and again! I couldn't believe it! We'd just barely get down the slide and he's say he wanted to do it again! Tanner and Tyler had fun on the slides as well, be wanted to spend more time in the wave pool and lazy river.

The life jacket didn't last long. I held him most of the time.





One tired little guy! He feel asleep not even two minutes after we got on the road home.
We headed back to Grandma's house to pick Jefferson up and have pizza and rootbeer for dinner, Jakes birthday request, even though he was asleep and didn't even eat it. He woke up just in time for Trufula Tree Cake and ice cream. What is Trufula Tree Cake? Well, Jakes favorite book is a book by Dr. Suess, The Lorax. He loves the trufula trees and around Tyler's birthday, mentioned he wanted a trufula tree cake. Ok, how do I pull that off? Well, I did my best, and while it didn't look like a professional cake, Jake loved it and didn't even want the cake, he just wanted the trufula tree.
Ok, I didn't realize how crazy Tyson's hair looks. It has a ton of sunscreen in it from Seven Peaks.



It was such a fun day! I'm so glad the weather decided to cooperate with us and actually show us that yes, the sun does exist still! I've got the nice sunburn to prove that.

Happy Late Birthday/Father's Day

So, I'm a little late posting on Tyson's birthday. It was last Monday, June 15th. He turned 31 yrs. old. Not that anyone cares to know his age. But I can't believe that I've shared 9 years with him! It was on his birthday nine years ago, in the back office of the Hampton Inn, Sandy, he first told me, "I think I'm falling in love with you!" To which I replied, "When do you think you'll know?" That first birthday we spent together, I'd spent so much time thinking of the perfect gift to give him. We'd only been dating a month and a half, so I wasn't sure what to give him. But I knew he liked the ice cream cakes from Baskin Robins, so ordered him a small one and made him a fleece blanket with the hand stitching around the edge. We still have, and use that blanket to this day. Never mind the fact its currently hung over the window as "blinds" in the boys room.
This year, I tried to come up with the perfect gift again. I have this same struggle every single year. To back track just a little, a few months ago, Tyson mentioned the BYU's opening season game was being held against the Oklahoma Sooners in the new Dallas Cowboys stadium, and he knew the perfect gift to give me for my birthday! The game is the same weekend of my birthday. He was half joking. Fast forward a few months to me getting ready for his birthday this year, and I had the perfect birthday present for him! I wish I could have kept it a secret just to see the look on his face, but having to spend that kind of money on airline tickets, I had to make sure it fit with his work schedule. But he was happy still the same and couldn't wipe the smile off his face. This will be the first vacation, just the two of us, since his last birthday trip to a Boston Red Sox game, three years ago. Are you seeing a pattern here? I need a trip just about every three years. As long as I'm spending time with him, I don't care where we are. I know, pretty cheesy!
So, we got him two tickets to the BYU opening season game, Wii Active and a Wii sensor to enhance the movements. Happy Birthday Baby! I love you!

Now, today, Father's Day, sad to say, wasn't any better than any other day. In fact tonight, Tyson mentioned he was surprised that we didn't make him cookies or brownies. We woke him up with his gifts and had to rush to get ready for church, and I think that's what threw his whole day off. I just wanted to give tribute to the man my children call dad. What a fun dad they have. He works so hard to provide for them yet knows how to come home and rough house with them. Even Jefferson knows when dad gets home, its nothing but fun and games. But at the same time, he knows how to discipline and teach them important lessons to life that will hopefully sink in as we continue to repeat them. I'm so grateful my children have such a wonderful, hardworking, loving father. I don't think they could ask for anyone better!




Now I've realized while looking through all of my pictures, I need to take more pictures of Tyson and Jefferson! I need to take more pictures of all of them, period!

where to start!

I haven't updated anything in a while, which now means there is so much to blog about, I don't even know where to start!!
We are now out of school. Tyler's last day was Thursday and Tanner's was Friday. Each of them brought home their report cards for the year. Tyler got mostly four's with a few threes. Tanner got strait fours! They have both made so much progress, I can't even believe it! Each of their teachers gave them nice little notes about the progress they've made and all the things they've learned. We are excited for a long summer and are going to work hard to keep up their academic skills! I've bought workbooks, looked online for spelling tests and Tyson set up a system with them to check books out every day to read. Hopefully we can keep up on things so they don't lose all that they've learned...that's the bad thing with traditional school.

A little while ago, Tyson had a coworker who was diagnosed with Malignant Melanoma. Long story short, her family decided to put together a silent auction to raise funds for her treatments. They asked for donations to help out with the auction. Tyson and I talked about it and decided I would make a couple blankets to donate. Well, that conversation was the last time we talked about it. Until this last Wednesday when Tyson called to see if I was still planning on donating some blankets. Sure, that was the plan. Well, the auction was for this Saturday, yes, that's in three days. I hadn't even started the blankets, nor had I been to the fabric store to even get the fabric together for the blankets. Tyson said he'd contribute by watching the kids so I could go get the fabric. I informed him that if these blankets where to be finished and ready for Saturday, the house was going to be neglected...and that it was. This house was the worst its ever been! It wasn't gross dirty, just cluttered with bits and pieces of fabric. That drives me CRAZY!! Anyway, I started cutting Thursday and had most of the fronts put together by Thursday night. I was up until 12:30 doing that. Friday night, I was up until 3am getting the backs put on and the binding half way done and up by 7:30 Saturday morning to get them finished. Now, all this work was not just for two blankets. By the time I got the fabric from the store and went through my fabric at home, I had enough to put five blankets together. Anyway, if that wasn't a long enough explanation. Here are some of the finished products.













Sorry, lots of pictures!

A few Saturdays ago, we decided I told Tyson we had to clean out the other side of the basement. Its just gotten way out of control! Plus I thought maybe cleaning it out would start an itch to start working on the other side...that didn't work, at least not on Tyson. I wouldn't mind finishing the other side of the basement, but I guess its not bad enough to bother Tyson yet. Oh well. Anyway, the kids found the costume box and had a really great time.
Jake was the only one we got a picture of just because the boots were too stinkin cute on him!



Tyler had her school program a few days before school ended. She had a speaking part and did a great job! She's a bit scared to go into 1st grade because she really loved her teacher Mrs. Morgan.


Anyway, there are a lot of pictures but now we are updated on things. I'll try not to wait so long so my posts aren't so long. Tyson's birthday is Monday, so hopefully I'll have some good birthday things to write about. :)