Valentine's Day

This is what I woke up to this morning. Aww, I love my boys!

Prison Break

It happened. That momentous occasion every parent dreads. The event you know will change everything from that moment on.

For almost two years we could control Ryan by tossing him in that wonderful piece of furniture shaped like a prison cell but often times referred to as a crib. If only cribs had a top to them we might still enjoy the piece of mind knowing the toddler is behind bars.

But alas Ryan has escaped. He discovered the classic joke played on every child and perpetuated as long as possible. He realized all he had to do was get that leg over the edge and he was free of the crib.

Yep. What used to be predictable in our life is now a crap shoot. Will he or won't he decide to get out of bed and wander around?

That first night of escape we waited until he opened the door of his room and then we put him back in his bed. Oh was he mad. He kept it up at least 20 times until he just collapsed.

Here is what a little boy looks like when you are ruining his new found freedom.

Heaven help us!

It's Girl Time!

While Logan and Mason are at school Sabrina and I have "girl time". It only happens twice a week for a couple of hours but we make the most of it. Long ago I bought a whole sack of dress up clothes from a garage sell in Mesa when Mason was just a baby. Brent thought I was crazy but I knew this day would come. (or should I say, hoped this day would come!)

Hi-
Two wonderful things happen to me this week, the first of which I won't mention any names BUT I needed to go and baby sit a certain person at our lawyers office while they looked through boxes of papers, all of which they already had copies! Yes, I was excited to go and spend the day because I had nothing better to do! After looking through 4 magazines that I had brought with me & 4 hours later, I pulled out my trusty ipod & watched the video of my grandchildren. I suddenly felt very sorry for that person because I have it all - everything that matters & they don't! I felt very much at peace about the whole situation. So when you are ready to wring a neck or two just remember how they made me feel on that long 5 hour day!

The second wonderful thing that happened to me is that my 4th grandchild is now a member of the church!! Allison Kate Lee has now joined the ranks soon to be followed I might add by Zach & Logan! What a wonderful day, she looked beautiful but Allison was too fast for me, the minute she got home, she changed her clothes & I missed the picture of her in her pretty white dress. Melissa had a feast for us after the baptism, we enjoyed a good visit with everyone.

Today was our ward conference. Our Stake President said, "Pray to know how often the Lord would like to see you in the temple. And pray to know what you can do for your spouse." He said we would be shocked at how fast we would get answers to our prayers.

Sunny is doing some beta testing for Family Search for the Church. They asked her to sign up 10 more people to help test. She asked us. We have submitted our names now we will see if they select us.

Life is still busy & now I have to stop & figure out this blog thing. As you can see I still can't get the pictures where I want them. They just go where ever. So just be glad they are even on this blog!!!
Technology is a great thing but my brain got left back in the 20th century!!!
I love every one of you!!

To Blog or Not to Blog...

That is the question...whether it is better to enjoy the bowl of ice cream offered by completing the obligatory blog or suffer in silence, un-sugared and unspoken.

I guess I'll blog - I want the ice cream carrot Cindy's offering me, and I made Eldon a promise that I'd do better.

Ok, this is a blog that should have happened a while ago, but since today was such a beautiful day - 75 degrees, partly cloudy and not much of a breeze, I couldn't resist:

You see, we got a call at 9:30 p.m. that fateful night from Mom, Dad and Melanie at the park - come they said - there's snow in Mesa! I thought, "Wow, there are snowflakes in the air, how cool!" "It's snowing?", I asked. No came the reply - "it snowed three inches just east of us. We're at the Alta Mesa park east of Higley Road having a snowball fight!" Well, we had put everyone to bed, so I figured going out there by myself wouldn't be much fun and what would the chances be of finding Mom and Dad there anyway. So I told Mom that we wouldn't be able to make it...throw a snowball for us :-).

But as Cindy and I got to thinking after the call...why not!?!

We went to the boys room and tried to wake everyone up. Benjamin was up in a flash and ready to go! Zachary sat befuddled in his bed unsure if he was dreaming or not. Eventually, he decided that if he wasn't dreaming, the pillow looked quite white and fluffy, thank you very much, and he was having more of that. Nicholas said he didn't want to go and rolled out of reach. Christopher just wouldn't wake up.

So leaving the three younger boys to their sleep, Benjamin, Cindy and I tried to find clothes worthy of a snowball fight. It took a while - they were buried somewhere in a closet.

We finally procured gloves and marched out to the garage only to realize we didn't have a sled. Or a garbage can lid, or a plastic tray, or anything that would resemble something to slide on the snow with. We began calling around to see if anyone else had toboggans of some sort. Then Cindy suggested our "boogie-board". No, I said in despair, I'm pretty sure it's got fins on the bottom like the surf board.

After another 5 minutes of searching, I opened the attic door and began a desperate search for something....anything to slide on. And there it was in the attic - the finless Boogie-board! Moments later, cameras in hand, Benjamin and I set off for the park to see if this was real!

I think the pictures speak for themselves:

Benjamin posing with the boogie-board!


Found the elusive snowman in Mesa!


Benjamin hits the slopes!

This story ends with the Mesa police showing up (we got there at 10pm right as the park closed) sirens flashing and bullhorns warning all winter wonderland revelers that their cars would be impounded and would not be released for days so MOVE IT NOW!

Needless to say, we moved, but not before we scooped up enough snow to take the snowball fight we were having home to Cindy! :-)

It was a night not soon to be forgotten - the night it snowed in Mesa!!!

Harper News

Our news... hmm. Well, last weekend Russ entered a mountain biking race. We laughed a bit because his group was called Rock Crushers. It was for 220+ lbs. I think he was tentative about racing because he thought he was pretty good, but when you compete it really shows you where you stand. He did fantastic though. He came in 3rd in his group and passed most of the guys in the group that left 3 minutes before his. I had fun, Russ had fun, and we both agree that he needs to do it again.

What else? Well, I thought of Cindy today as I was prying a piece of crayon out of Lindsay's nose with tweezers. What in the heck are they thinking? "Hmm, I think I'm going to shove this up my nose." I'm sorry but that's weird.

Well, we are finally taking steps to move from our charming, 1940's home. The charm has worn off. :) It's been one big remodeling project in the works for the 3 years that we've lived here and I am really excited to leave it behind. I'm excited to leave the foot traffic traveling down our street at all hours. I'm excited to leave the endless list of remodeling to-do's that take forever to get done. (I'm excited for different to-do lists.) I am sad to leave our neighbors and our ward though. But the part that I'm really not looking forward to is the finishing of all the remodel projects. For example, every single room and ceiling has to be painted because we relocated the a/c vents. Holy cow I'm glad this is a small house. And what really stinks is that we won't get the chance to enjoy all the improvements. Oh well.

I've started going to the gym again and I'm taking a yoga class. I love it and I see Christian Neilson and his wife there. Small world.




Haylee is Cinderella. No really, if you didn't know already, she insists that you call her Cinderella. She tells me that I'm the nice step-mother. :) I love it. She is so sweet and I love age three, most of the time. She loves to sing, dance, go to the park and play with friends.

Lindsay is my monster but she's at that age. I told Russell that she is absolutely the cutest kid ever, except when she's going AAAAAH! AAAAAAH! in the most obnoxious, screaming voice I have ever heard.

Rusty, well what can I say, I am absolutely spoiled. He is 15+ lbs. of happy bliss. He smiles, he laughs, he rarely cries and he's been sleeping through the night since 1 month. He is the love of my life. Whenever he sees me, he looks at me with such love in his eyes, how can I not be smitten? However, I keep laughing when I think about how different my thoughts will be when he's Lindsay's age. :) I'll enjoy it now.

So that's it.

Mischeif Managed

When I'm talking on the phone my kids find the strangest things to do. This happens to be lotion. Sabrina thought her hair needed a little more moisture.