long weekend

Heidi and her kids and Tana came to visit this weekend. Since there was no school yesterday we enjoyed them an extra day. Even better, though, was the snow we got last night...because then it was a late start for Reed this morning. He definitely needed the extra sleep after going full speed all weekend long. I do believe Cy wins the award for most die hard snow lover. He didn't even have a pair of snow boots but yet he stayed out in the snow the longest. I sure hope he didn't get frost bite. Josie enjoyed the snow as long as her mom was pulling her on the sled. My boys loved having other people to play with so thanks guys for coming up! Tana and Blue built a snow man (it was started by all the kids but only Tana and Blue persevered). I didn't have any carrots but asparagus works just as good for a nose. Oreo's seemed like a good idea for the eyes. Here are a few pics...









And we can't forget baby Macy. I think the only time she ever left the arms of Tana was when Tana was building the snowman. Gosh, what a baby hog!:)

our aluminum anniversary

Colby and I have been married for ten years yesterday. Traditionally this is the aluminum/tin anniversary. What kind of gift do you get that is aluminum?
I was telling Colby that I don't FEEL any older than when we got married ten years ago, I sure LOOK alot older. I'm just glad he still thinks I'm beautiful. Love you Colby.

i wuv fronk

Beau is really into saying he loves everything. He loves Tom & Jerry, he loves comercials about Alvin and the Chipmunks. His latest is Ze Frank, a chef who is dog on the disney channel. It is only a five minute clip but Beau just "wuvs" him. He has taken to cooking up a few things of his own. He totes around this play pot with a pretend corn cob in it. He will open up the pot and say "fwala" (voila).

best exercise ever

When we first moved to Flagstaff I couldn't figure out why our neighbors would go outside while it was still snowing and shovel their driveways. They would do this two to three times a day. Now that I am a seasoned "Flagger", let me enlighten those who don't know either. It is to keep up with what is coming down. If you wait till the next day to shovel your driveway for the first time, you are looking at at least 2-3 feet of snow. But if you shovel at intervals it isn't so hard. Well, yesterday afternoon I went out, while it was still snowing, and started to shovel my driveway. I had already paid two guys earlier in the morning to shovel it. They did an excellent job and by the afternoon I was regretting not having them come again. So while I was just shoveling two small lines for my tires to get through, a friend of a friend shows up. Amber and Chad had company this weekend and due to the snow had to stay over on Monday. I'm so glad they did because that was who showed up to help me shovel my driveway. Thank you Zack!

This morning my back was sore, my legs were sore, and my arms were sore. And I didn't even shovel my driveway by myself. I was dreading going and shoveling AGAIN since it had snowed most of the night. I mean, come on, just because it was great exercise doesn't mean I wanted to exercise again. Well, I opened my garage and to my surprise, my driveway was already shoveled! Once again, I'm so glad that Rachel and Zack were stranded here in Flagstaff. What a relief! I was/and still am so sore!



My front walkway got shoveled too! I usually never do that because I am so exhausted after finishing the driveway. Thanks again!

snow days

This is what was going on all day yesterday at our house:


I didn't think it was ever going to stop. Since we got dumped on so bad, today was another snow day. This afternoon my boys ventured outside. Of course, it takes a good 15 minutes to put on the snow suits, jackets, boots, and gloves. Then there is the adjusting of the snow pants over the boots to prevent the snow getting into the boots and adjusting the gloves over the jackets so the snow doesn't get into the sleeves- times that by three. Whew! That is alot of work, but worth it when I see how much fun my boys are having out there.

Reed started to dig himself a little snow cave on our driveway.

{This is our front walk way. The snow hadn't completely melted from our last storm over a month ago, so this is snow on top of a big mound of ice.}

Blue and Beau love to eat the snow. I do too, as long as it is fresh:)

I couldn't find Beau's real gloves so he was wearing those cloth-like gloves. He never complained even though the snow stuck to them like velcro.

The snow was so deep that Beau kept getting stuck up to his waist. He wanted to keep up with Reed and Blue so bad that he would try to contort the top half of his body to see where the other boys were headed so that when I got him out he would chase after them.

no thanks

So for the past few months I have been trying to prep Beau for potty training. I will ask him if he wants to sit on the toilet like a big boy, and he always replies,"no thanks". I ask him if he wants to wear big boy underwear like Reed and Blue; again his reply- no thanks. I guess I should be glad that he is so polite about it, but come on, I just wish he would show some sort of interest in getting rid of his diapers. No such luck. Well, after reading Sara's blog and her experience potty training Aiden, I was a little more motivated to try. Today, being a snow day in all, I thought would be a perfect day to start. To say that Beau was not interested in putting on underwear would be a understatement. He went into hysterics when I tried to put a pair of underwear on.

{The pictures are so blurry because he wouldn't stop rolling around. You would have thought he had ants in his pants}

I finally relented. We made a compromise: no underwear and no diaper. He let put on pants without anything. The problem in this is that he is so skinny and has no butt so his pants just slip right off of him. Even if he doesn't wear a diaper, how am I to potty train him if he won't sit on the "potty"? So I decided for right now I will respect his "no thanks".

packed and ready to go

Last week our realtor came with a few other realtors to look at our house. I spent the previous day cleaning the house and asked Blue to help me (Reed was at school). Blue's idea of helping was to put all of his star wars guys into three of his back packs so that he would be ready to move when someone bought our house. He has carried these three back packs with all around the house, up and down the stairs all last week. It's pretty amusing since they probably weigh as much as him if not more.

Occasionally he will pull out all the guys and set up a "battle". I have found them set up in the living room, on the stairs- a guy was set up on each stair, in my room, at the kitchen table. He is prepared if we move out of our house at a moments notice. I guess it's kinda like his own little survival/72 hour kit.

something is wrong in this picture

There is definitely something wrong in this picture. Can you guess what it is? No, it's not the mounds of snow still sitting in our front yard. I came home from Farmington on Sunday and the first thing that caught my eye was... yep, you guessed it, the realtor's sign. We are officially selling our house here in Flagstaff so we can be together on a daily basis and not just a weekend family. I have been pretty selfish lately, trying to figure out a way to stay here in Flagstaff. I don't want to move because I love my house, I have a great ward, and great friends. But I realized that I am the only one in our family who doesn't want to move. The boys are ecstatic to move closer to cousins, grammy and papa, and grandma. Colby wants to be there obviously because that is where he works. So I need to give up my selfishness and be grateful that I have a wonderful family and my husband has a job. I'm still allowed to feel a little sad though, right?

road trip

This past weekend my boys and I headed over to Farmington New Mexico to visit Channy. Our normal road trips consist of visits down to the valley where it is MUCH warmer than here. So when we arrived in Farmington and the weather was pretty comparable to Flag I was sorely disappointed. If I'm gonna go somewhere, I want it to be warmer than where I came from(at least in the winter). Although the temperature was in the low 50's, this did not stop the kids from playing outside. Beau wanted to jump on their "trapline" and Shani was nice enough to join him on it. Even though it was late in the afternoon Beau did not want his jacket on. His blood must not be as thin as mine. I wear a hoodie all day long, even when I'm inside the house.

On Saturday afternoon, Trey decided he was gonna dig a swimming pool on the side of their house. All the kids got involved in the digging and then the water hose was turned on. Again, keep in mind of the 50 degree weather. Trey is in shorts and a t-shirt and Beau can't help himself- he just keeps stomping in the puddles of mud. Of course Reed steered clear of it all and kept clean.

And we can't forget about Princess Paige. She rules the house, doing whatever she pleases. Look how cute/naughty she is in her pettiskirt!