cure for grouchiness.....

I enrolled Kaysen in swimming lessons this summer.

The first day I had to wake him up from a much needed nap in order to make it to lessons on time.

As we walk through the door to the pool, the instructor smiles and say, "Looks like somebody isn't too happy to be here."

Kaysen looks up at her.

Then looks back down and with a pouting lip says, "No. I don't want to be here!"

I'm thinking to myself that this lady must think I have one grouch of a kid.

They took him over where all the other kids were and did a little introduction then asked them to go hop in the shower before they got in the water.

Needless to say Kaysen wouldn't go.

Finally I convinced him to go and just stick his head in, not his whole body.

Soon it was time to get in the water.

Water must be like medicine, or like chocolate.

Because instantly this boys attitude changed.

He started being the spazzy little boy I know.

Making funny faces, and really just acting spaztic and loving that his instructors were laughing at him. They later told me that he was the most hilarious kid they've met...

He still listened well though when they were talking, but as soon as they would finish he'd be go right back to acting like Kaysen.

At the end of the lessons they took all of the kids over to the diving board to let them jump off.

I was shocked that Kaysen wanted to do it.

He's umm....my logically thinking kid. (and a bit of a scardy (sp?) cat)

Here's the video of it....(ignore the wierd sound at the beginning...don't know what it is!)

He was a bit too scared to jump himself so he told his instructor to drop him in...

Swimming cured the grouchiness...until lessons were over.

Then he cried the whole way home because he wanted to keep swimming.

At least he has been excited every day since to go to swimming lessons.

I knew...

This picture is a scene from my life eight years ago. (although I did not take this pic...I have many similar ones that I didn't feel like digging out of my hope chest.)

I was a bit naive about the situation that was before me though.

The Rodeo-Chediski fire was blazing all around and I really thought that it was a simple small fire that would be under control by the end of the day.

However, by the end of this day 8 years ago I had over 30 family members that were evacuated from Linden and they were staying at my parents house.

When standing on the hill above our house, I could see the flames dance across the tips of the pine and oak trees just a few miles away.

This moment I realized how scared I really was. I thought my little home town was going to be completely engulfed in flames.

8 days earlier I had just met Jerry on a blind date. 1 day earlier he had met my family for the first time.

On this night I decided to call him because I needed someone to talk to, even though there were plenty of people close by for me to talk to.

It was 9:00pm when I finally got the nerve to call him.

I told him about my family coming over to my house.

For some reason I started crying.

I really don't know why??

Looking back now I kinda laugh at myself...was I really that scared?

I guess so.

"Do you need a hug," Jerry asked.

"Yeah I do, but that's not going to happen. It's 9:00 pm and you live an hour away." I said.

"So..." he replied.

"So that's not going to happen."

"I'll be there in a hour."

"How's that going to happen. Your car isn't working and I'm sure your parents won't want you taking theirs here when a fire is raging close by."

"I'll find a way."

"Okay. Thank you. Be careful."

For the next hour I sat on my parents front porch. All of the kids were sleeping on my parents front lawn, with ashes falling like snow all around, while the adults got the comfy beds inside.

One hour later Jerry pulled up in the drive way.

We walk to each other and the first thing he does is give me a long and very enjoyable hug.

"You okay?" He asks.

"I'm fine. Thanks for coming."

"It's no problem. Glad I could."

It was this moment I knew that I would marry this man.

It sounded foolish to say.

I'll admit I thought I was crazy.

I was 2 days away from my 16th birthday.

How could I possibly know this already?

Needless to say, I kept this to myself because I knew people would laugh and call me a love struck teenager or something like that.

It didn't matter though...I knew it and that was what mattered.

We sat on the porch and just talked to each other for the next few hours.

We talked about his mission...he had just submitted his mission papers the week before and was waiting for a reply.

We talked about me being mad because my birthday was in 2 days and here I was about to be evacuated from my home. I was also mad because I was supposed to be getting my driver's license but couldn't because the DMV was closed, due to the fire.

"Wait," he said, "your 16th birthday is in 2 days."

"Ummm...yeah." I said guiltly.

You see, when we met on June 8th, at a blind date I told him I was 16 years old. I mean, I was 12 days away from being 16 and after talking for 5 minutes he asked my age, so I just said I was 16. What were the chances that I would be seeing him in the future right??? So what did it matter if I told a little fib??

"Oh...cool." He says.

I later found out that the age difference did bother him a little bit at first...but luckily not enough to quite dating me.

2 days later, Jerry was in the valley moving his stuff back to his parents house for the summer. He gave Rachael my birthday present since he wouldn't be able to see me.

What was my gift??

A fire extinguisher and a card that said, "Hopefully you don't need this but just incase. Happy 16th birthday." The 16th part was written larger than the rest.

I laughed pretty hard when I got the gift.

Here I realized that when I married this man he would keep me laughing forever.

Now 8 years later I still know that he is the man I was supposed to marry and he is still making me laugh every day.

Hart Canyon...

Last week we went camping at Hart Canyon for 3 days and 2 nights.

Just while Jerry and I were setting up camp our boys looked like this....

Like Gage's Elvis impression??? He always does a cheesy smile so I had the brilliant idea to try and wait a couple seconds until the cheesy smile goes away then hurry and snap the pic...this is what I got. Still cute huh?

Kaysen thinks he is a stud....he is.

We spent most of our days riding the quads. We saw so many elk, deer and coyote. They boys loved it. Almost every time we hopped on Gage would fall asleep though. I guess he just felt it so relaxing....and everytime he fell asleep I handed him over to Jerry. I trust him driving one handed much more than I trust myself.

Showing us their muslces...and Gage almost falling off the stump because he got a bit too excited when showing those muscles off.

The crazy couple that decides to take two boys camping for 3 days.

Helping gather fire wood.

Waiting for his marshmallow.

Blowing the fire out.

Making sure he gets every last bit of marshmallow.


Brushing our teeth in the morning.

Then we went crawdad fishing in this beautiful creek.

There were some monster crawdad's in there. Kaysen and Gage loved it. Jerry tried to get me to eat the ones we caught....heck no. I made hime through them back.

My boys. Kaysen loves to point out that, "I'm drinking a BIG FAT coke." Camping is one of the only times he gets to enjoy his very own.

Camping was really fun this year. My boys were covered in BLACK dirt from head to toe within five minutes. Luckily they could jump in the creek to wash a bit of it off...but it didn't really matter because within 5 more minutes the dirt was back. They had so much fun, riding quads, playing catch, shooting water guns, shooting Kaysen's bow, swinging in the hammock, roasting marshmallows and just being outside roaming the woods.

Spills...

I have a 21 month old son.

A 21 month old son who keeps me on my toes even more than I ever thought possible.

At breakfast this morning Gage decided to dump his bowl of Capt'n Cruch on the table and floor. Then proceeded to rub it into the table really well making it into a nice paste.

After cleaning up this mess it was time to go outside and feed Ruger and water the garden.

Gage decided to dump Rugers dog food in his water bowl. And was waaaayyy to close to getting ready to scoop doggie doo doo (with a shovel thank goodness) into the water also.

Once we were finished outside I was ready to hop in the shower. I got the boys some cheez Its and turned on the Backyardagains so they would be good until I was finished. Gage wanted more Cheez Its but I asked him to wait until I got out of the shower.

He couldn't.

He got the whole box, I mean a brand new box, and brought it into the living room and tried to fill up his bowl. He did really good from the looks of the bowl.

However, there were way too many crackers in the box and they "just kept coming out," according to Kaysen.

Then Gage proceeded to jump up and down on the crackers that had spilled over the bowl and onto my carpet, making one heaping mess of the smallest cracker crumbs you've ever seen.

Later, I wanted to change the scent on my Scentsy candle warmer. So, like always, I heated up my wax and planned on pouring it back into the original container. However, Gage really wanted to help me. Even though I was trying so hard to finish it without him. I took it all into my bathroom thinking that was the shortest and safest route.

Nope.

Not with a 21 month old jumping up and down pulling my legs and arms. Lime green, hot wax went flying all over the countertop, walls, mirrors and cupboards.

It is only 10:30 am and all I have done so far today is pick up after this 21 month old.

At times I want to scream...but for some reason, I have ended up laughing. Let's just hope the rest of the days goes by a little less messy. (and that I'm still laughing, not screaming)

Feeding Chickens

Yesterday while Jerry and Kaysen were gone Gage and I went over to my friend Cayla's house to hang out. Cayla and I were inside cooking dinner so Greg, Cayla's husband took Gage outside while he fed all of their animals. He took this little video of Gage feeding the chickens. You can see the moment when Gage realized he was holding a chicken, he looked down and practically threw the chicken on the ground. He sure loved going around feeding the chickens, horse and dogs. He would chase the chickens aroudn and try to get them all over to the water to take a drink. Ever since we got Ruger this boy has been chasing animals and loving to play with them, he's turning into quite the animal lover.

Newest hobby

For Christmas I bought Jerry a 257 Weatherby rifle. He has loved it. However each bullet cost $8.00 so we don't really shoot it around for fun much. We could easily blow a couple hundred dollars within less than an hour.

So now he has bought a new .22 rifle. I prefer this one because it kicks much less than his 257 and because it is more affordable to shoot. Jerry's new hobby of guns has now turned into a family affair. Kaysen loves this gun because it is a Ruger .22, like what we named our dog after. He thinks it is sooo cool. Kaysen and Gage both love to go shooting. And now we live in one of the most perfect places to go shooting. Many times we do it 100 yards from our own home. Here are a couple videos of the boys shooting too....don't worry we were safe...even if Ruger kept running in front of it.

Father and Son

Jerry and I have been trying to set aside days for each of us to spend time alone with one of the boys.

A few weeks ago Jerry took Kaysen to Father and Sons camping. It was onlyl one night but they both had a lot of fun. Jerry's brother and his son went and so did Jerry's dad. Acording to Kaysen, they all went on a hike to a cave, they ate squeeze cheese and crackers and of course some hot chocolate. Now he thinks we have to have hot chocolate everytime we go camping.

I asked Jerry to please take the camera for me. He knows that I love to get pictures of everything but I can honestly say that I didn't think he would remember to take any. He didn't just surprise me by taking pictures, he actually took pictures like I would. See th picture of those dirty hands??? I would take a picture like that. I found out that this picture was taken just 5 minutes after pulling up to camp.

Doesn't this kid look like he was just having a blast?? I'm excited thaty they will have this memory and many others to share.

Today, Jerry has taken Kaysen to a Diamondbacks game with a few other boy cousins and uncles. It sure is strange just having Gage home. The poor kid is pretty bored without Kaysen around. I guess I'm just not as fun as his brother. I sure am enjoying the little cuddles he continually gives em though.