Peek-a-Boo

Sammy is the only one who can make Eliza laugh!

First Day of School

Well, school has begun again . . . thankgoodness! We had a very fun summer, but it was time to get back to a routine. Conner actually started school the day before Andrew. He absolutly loves his teacher and is making more new friends. In his prayers he says "thank you that we got to go to school today."

Andrew, on the other had, started kindergarten this year. Now, he is not as thrilled about school as Conner is. In fact we hates going to school and his reasons for not wanting to go are . . .

1. Can't watch TV in the morning

2. Misses mom and wonders if I miss him..

3. And, he doesn't get to choose his own snack.

Conner has tried to reason with Andrew. He told him the other day "Andrew, kindergarten is the funnest grade you are ever going to be in, so you better enjoy it!"

Trip to Utah 2009 Yahoo!

Our trip to Utah started out with Grandma's birthday! We got to Utah on her birthday and a couple days later we all surprised her with a birthday party! It was way fun!

You don't think they like grandma do you???

Sam was quite the treat on this trip. He is a mommy's boy and so it took him quite a while to warm up to all the new people around. He started this new grumpy face and he could even do it on demand:)

We went to the annual West Jordan Stampede on the Fourth of July. We love this tradition!

The kids were so tired because we kept them busy ALL the time!

We went to the open house for the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. It was so beautiful! I'm glad Conner and Andrew got to see it.

This is at Grandma Melanie's on the Fourth of July. We all had tons of fun eating Melanie's yummy food and playing in all the pools set up in her beautiful yard!

Here is all of us having fun at the Lewiston parade on the Fourth of July. That was a busy day!!!

Our trip ended with Jenna flying back to South Carolina and it was very sad to say goodbye. We miss everyone so much! Oh, and by the way, Andrew did not end up needing surgery on his arm. It's almost all healed. He just wears a small brace now and that comes off in a week! YAY!! Our prayers were answered!

Catch Up Time!!!

The last couple of months have been very busy for us all! I have my sister, Megan, reminding me on a daily basis that I need to update my blog. Her nagging has finally driven me to catch up on the last couple of months. The spring started off with Andrew in soccer. He likes to run, so this was a perfect sport for him. He has a little slide kick that he quickly became famous for. I wish I could of got that on camera:)

In the first part of April Jeremy and a buddy (Josh Riches), ran the Cooper River Bridge 10K in Charleston. Can you find Jeremy in this crowd???

Here is the bridge!

Now you can see him? It looks like he became his own cheer squad because the boys and I stayed home since. . .

. . . we all went to Charleston the very next weekend to spend Easter with the Riches! YAHOO! It was lots of fun. Wacky is the best cook and we love chillin' out with Josh and Mel. I always feel sorry for the nice and generous friends who invite us over, not fully realizing what they are getting themselves in to. . . the Hilton Hyperactivity!

Andrew, Davis, and Conner at the primary Easter activity the day before Easter.

Easter morning

This is the best I could get them to pose for a picture.

A couple days after we got back from Charleston, we were lucky enough to have a ton of visitors. We love getting visitors!! First came Anna (myBBF, best bosom friend) and her daughter Kaily. Kaily wasn't too sure about her new surroundings at first, but we broke her in. She didn't want to leave by the end of the visit.

Sam and Kaily.

We took them to the zoo while they were here and I was venting to Anna about how I can never get good pictures of my kids smiling. I was jealous because Kaily would pose for every picture Anna took of her. Well, Conner had been bugging me the whole day at the zoo for a quarter and I finally said if you will do a cute smile for a picture, then you can have a quarter. I honestly didn't think he could do it when all of a sudden . . . BOING! The biggest CHEESER I've ever seen!!!
These were taken on the playground at the zoo. I scored here with a smile from Drew. He also requested payment for his smiles, but unlike Conner he was not capable of producing a smile that didn't look scary at the same time.

SPLAT!

Andrew turned 5 YEARS OLD on April 21st! WooHoo! It's been crazy, but so much fun. Drew brings adventure and chaos into each day of our lives. He is so tender and lovable too. He is into batman right now and wanted a batman party. Sister Contini made his cake for him and did a fabulous job. It was so Yummy!

We played "Bat, Bat, Joker" (duck, duck, goose) and "Pin the Smile on the Joker" (sister Contini, with her many artistic talents, made that for us too).

Then the kids had to hunt for their treat bags because the Joker stole them and hid them . . . but he left behind clues so that we could find them.

Andrew chose to eat at Red Robin on the actual night of his birthday because, I don't know about ya'll, but when we eat there we hear the really loud and obnoxious birthday song about 20 times (there are two songs by the way and I have them memorized). j/k He loved it!

Well, our next visitor was Uncle Dave! YAY! We figured we would put him to work right away (we have a nasty habit of doing that to our guests). We figure he needed to earn his keep. So he helped Jeremy in the yard while the kids played on the slip n' slide.

Later that day we found a turtle in the yard. The kids wanted to keep it for a pet. We would have a house full of them if I let them keep every frog, lizard and turtle that they come across.

After Dave put in a good days work we decided to give him a break. I think he's getting tired of the same old zoo and Fatz Cafe when he comes. He wanted a theme park, so we went to Carowinds for the day. The kids absolutely LOVED it and I believe they will NEVER stop talking about it.

Doesn't Andrew look so mischievous in this picture and kind of evil? Wah ha ha!!!

The kids LOVE Uncle Dave. They wanted to be next to him or on his lap at all times! Sorry Dave:)

Everyone was pooped by the end of the day. It was so hot and humid!

Right after Dave went home we had to take Sammy in for another overnight PH Study. I felt so bad for him when they had to put the tube down his nose. He is such a trooper though. Even with that tube in his nose he was able to smile and play. It didn't slow him down too much!

The results of the test were very good and I am happy to say that Sam is sleeping through the night and having almost no pain!!! I feel very blessed to be able to say that. Our prayers were answered!

Our next visitors were Grandpa Lester and Aunt Jenna! Yippee! Remember what I said about earning your keep though? We took them strawberry picking and put them straight to work and then made freezer jam!

You can tell Sam was enjoying himself!

Later that day after picking strawberries we decided to go fishing (Conner's favorite).

We still kept Grandpa busy baiting the hooks:)
Sam discovered his nostril:) He also discovered some of our fish bait (marshmallows)!

OK, funny story! Conner and Andrew both cast out their own poles and then put them down in a hole down by the river bank. They played around for a while and then Conner went back to check on his. He yelled "Mom, I got a fish." I said, "No you didn't. It's just stuck on a weed." Next thing I know he comes running up after he reeled it in all by himself with a fish. His very first one that he caught all on his own.

Well, this inspired Andrew to go check on his pole. I was busy taking pictures of Conner when I heard Andrew yell, "Mom, I caught a fish!" I said, "No you didn't buddy, it's just stuck. Let me come help you." Before I could, he came running up with a fish of his own! You can see he is actually kissing the fish that he caught. We stayed and fished for hours and they were the only ones to catch anything for the whole day!

I don't think Grandpa wanted to leave without catching one of his own.

Jenna is a little angel and brought water balloons for the boys then spent hours filling up the balloons all so they could have a 4 minute water fight!

Our next activity with Grandpa and Aunt Jenna was the Civil War Reenactment! Our neighbor, Brother Spigner, travels around to do these Civil War reenactments and he was very excited when it came to Columbia. He rushed over to bring us some free passes. I had never been to one and the boys love Brother Spigner because he is always showing them his Civil War gear and he even had a real Civil War cannon sitting in his garage for a while. Needless to say, the boys started getting very excited about bombs and cannons and battles. Brother Spigner invited us on to the battle field after it was over and gave us a history lesson and introduced us to all of the cannons:) The boys loved it!

The cannons were EXTREMELY loud! Sam was not loving it. Even Conner and Andrew were getting annoyed.

Here is Grandpa and Conner sitting under the tree because it started raining during the battle.

Brother Spigner bought these bows and arrows for Conner and Andrew after the battle at one of the toy tents. I've never seen two boys quite that excited.

We were all pooped by the end of the week!

Mother's Day came next and Conner decorated this cake at school for me. It was so Yummy! Jer and the kids got me two bird houses for Mother's Day. We hung the first one out on our front porch and the birds love it and eat from it all day long. The other one is a humming bird feeder. We don't get many of those yet though.



About two weeks ago we went to a birthday part at Monky Joe's. It's a place with those huge inflatable bounce toys. The kids were having a blast. There is even a little one for kids age 3 and under. I was telling my friend that it was nice not to have to worry about the kids getting hurt becuase everything is soft and bouncy. Boy, was I wrong!!!
About two minutes after I said that, Conner ran up to me and said that Andrew was hurt. I ran over to him and he was in the corner with tears streaming down his cheeks, but no crying??? He was trying to be so tough. He said he hurt his arm. I told him to sit down for a while. He sat for about 45 minutes, and then got up and started playing again with just one arm . . . climbing, sliding, jumbing, ect. I thought there is no way it could be broken. It would hurt way more than this.

When Jer got home that night from his softball game and saw his arm all swollen he said it's for sure broken. It was so late by then that we waited until the next day to take him in to the doctor. It was a clean break right above his left elbow. He gets his cast off on June 22nd, the day before we go to Utah (thank goodness). Jeremy was the one that took him to the doctor. When he brought him home he said Andrew chose a red and black cast for University of Utah. I said, "Andrew chose, or you chose?" I think Jer put the idea in Andrew's head:)

Last, but not least, Conner is now playing baseball. He is doing really well and Jeremy is helping coach his team. He is going to miss his last game when we come to Utah, but that is ok by me because it is so blasted hot and humid at those games I don't htink I would survive that last one.