I think I can, I think I can

Am I setting myself up for failure by deciding to get back in the saddle again? Maybe...but it's worth a shot. As I was walking down memory lane looking at old blog posts, I realized how grateful I am that I actually wrote a few thoughts down about the ups and downs of our life. Sooo, I am NOT going to try to catch up but just simply start from here. Today. Right now.
The mornings are actually bearable now so Quinn and I spend a lot of time on the driveway after we send the boys off to school. Each morning she drags out everything she can out of the garage onto the driveway one at a time. Three tricycles, two strollers, two beach chairs, one bike pump, one booster seat and anything else that is light enough for her to move. If you were to drive/walk by our house you might think we were having a garage sale (it's a good thing she isn't strong enough to pull out all my old furniture that I am going to redo someday).

Yes, that is a QT slurpee in her hands. On occasion- oh, who am I kidding?- more often that not Quinn and I will visit QT with Jackie, Jessica, and Chea for some breakfast of the champions, a soda and a donut!

ketchup

I realize it has been a really, really, really long time since I have posted anything but I wanna ketchup, or rather catch up. This is what we have been up to the last 4 months:

maybe not the end, just an addition

Obviously Star Wars and Ninjas have not ended at my house. So I guess I should rephrase my last post to "an addition to Star Wars", not an end. Reed and Blue were ninjas and Beau was a power ranger. For so long, my boys weren't allowed to watch power rangers and I'm not sure why. I take that back, I know why- it's because my mom detested power rangers and refused to let us(my brothers) watch it growing up. I have decided that there are far worse shows out there for my boys to be watching so now they are allowed to watch power rangers. Quinn was still the cutest witch ever, even the second time she put on the costume! Before we went trick or treating we headed over to Chea's house for pictures and pizza and a little bit of whiffle ball. In the past, we have walked neighborhoods that have half acre lots. We've always had a great time but it required so much walking and so much time. So, this year we went to a neighborhood where the houses are closer together. It was perfect. One loop of houses equaled less walking and more candy! The boys had a blast! They get so excited over the cheesiest decorations. I should probably suck it up and hang more decorations like that. I just can't bring myself to do it. I know I'm a selfish mom.

An end to star wars

In years past, Halloween around our house has been all about Darth Vader, clone troopers, Luke Skywalker, Obi won, and a ninja here and there. Well, I finally have a little girl to play dress up with at Halloween! Good-bye to the dark side and Star Wars, and hello to the land of enchantment and princesses and fairies! Yesterday was our ward trunk or treat and I still didn't have a costume for Quinn. I had bought a mini witch hat that I was going to tweak a little. Well, I put it in the microwave to loosen up the hot glue and within three seconds the innocent little hat burst into angry flames! Whoops. After cleaning up that soggy black mess in my microwave and trying to get rid of the burnt plastic smell wafting around my house, I tried again. This time with no microwave involved. Take a look at the cutest good little witch ever!

Movin' right along

I just can't get enough of this little baby girl! She is crawling everywhere. She is having a great time exploring every room downstairs. She will go into Colby's office and just stare at all the deer mounts. I haven't decided if she is scared or intrigued. She doesn't cry so I assume it is the latter. She likes to explore the kitchen and will sit at the back door watching the chickens scratch in the backyard. She loves to play with all the plastic bowls and lids, they are probably her favorite toy. She likes to come into my room and mess up all my primary papers. Leaving a big crumpled mess. I even caught her on the second stair the other day! Won't be long before she will be climbing up the stairs and getting into the boys' stuff. Before Quinn was born, we talked with the boys about what they would do if she got into their toys. They all agreed they wouldn't get mad and would let her play with them. We'll see how true this is within the next few months. Her two bottom teeth have come through also. She loves her brothers and will laugh at any silly thing they do. They boys get a kick out of this and they are constantly trying new ways to make her laugh. Yesterday morning Reed said, "I'm so glad Quinn came to our family!" I couldn't agree more!

chicken wings

To keep our chickens from pooping all over the back porch and in the barn, we (when I say we, I mean Colby) clip their wings so they stay in the pasture. Well, last week we needed to clip the wings on the younger batch chickens. The boys were in charge of chasing, cornering and catching the chickens. It was hilarious to watch as they tiptoed behind the chickens, trying to sneak up on them and then pouncing on them and still missing the chicken. With some help from Colby, all the chickens were caught and clipped.

Blue was the self appointed gate keeper. This allowed him to sit around while Reed and Beau chased the chickens.

The boys have a punching bag in the barn to practice their "moves" on. Sometimes the punching bag gets the last shot, but not on this day...



Reed is a tough guy when it comes to the goats. He likes to push around the babies and ride around on the mama. He looks like on tough cowboy, doesn't he?

american pickers

We love to watch American Pickers at our house! In fact, our boys love it so much that Reed has decided that when he grows up he wants to be a "picker". Colby has tried to explain to him that it isn't a profession but just a hobby (in hopes of encouraging Reed to aim a little higher). Last month we held a boy scout yard sale (Colby is Scoutmaster) at our house. The week before the big day, the scouts went around our ward picking up donations and then put them in my garage for safe keeping until Saturday. There was so much stuff/crap crammed into my garage! I couldn't believe it. This was a dream come true for my boys. They went picking in the morning before school, after school, and late into the night. Oh the treasures they found- a radio alarm clock, a remote control robot, a gazelle exercise machine, all sorts of '80's vhs tapes, and all sorts of toys! I told them that they were going to have to buy what they wanted just like everyone else. So, on Friday the boys were doing all sorts of jobs for me to earn enough money for all those treasures they just had to have. Bright and early Saturday morning, my boys purchased their finds. By eleven o'clock, we were winding down and there was still a ton of junk! So my boys went to town buying as much as they could for mere pennies. I was so exhausted and overwhelmed to put up a fight with them.

The only picture I took to remember this whole ordeal is of Beau in his first purchase of the morning, a size 18 month-24 month santa suit (nevermind that he is almost 5 yrs old) He loved it and wore it for the next week!

Quinn Ruby Shepherd

I can't believe that she is 7 weeks old already! Yes, it seems to go by so quickly but not without those individual days (and nights) that seemingly go on without any end in sight. We are so glad that she is part of our family! I am so lucky to have my three boys, and Quinn is just icing on the cake. The boys love to "pet" Quinn's head and it is hilarious to hear their voices go up a few octaves when they say, "Hhhiiiiiii Quinn". They are all so good about feeding Quinn and very persistent in trying to convince her that she wants to suck on a pacifier (she's still on the fence about her pacifier).

When I changed the title of my blog to "Where The Boys Are" I thought my family was complete. I thought I would be a lonely girl in a boys' world. But now, this title is even more fitting. Quinn loves to be in the same room as her brothers and to hear their voices. She starts to coo whenever they look over her and offers big smiles to them. She wants to be where the boys are.

No doubt, Quinn is daddy's little girl.

Macaroni

At the end of July we let our boys in on a little secret... we're going to have a baby! They were so excited, to the point of telling everyone they knew and didn't know for that matter. We told them at the dinner table. Blue peeked under the table at my belly for confirmation. Thankfully he must have thought my belly was still small because when he came back up from under and table he had a confused look on his face. "No you're not." We explained that the baby wouldn't come until February. Then we discussed possible names. For boys, names like Hans Solo and Luke(no surprise there), and Percy(from Percy Jackson) were on the top of their list. Alex(I'm sure from Wizards of Waverly Place), Hermione(from Harry Potter, of course) and Halley(Reed's school teacher from last year) were suggestions for girl names. But the best name of all came from Beau- Macaroni. If we have a girl, he wants to name her Macaroni.

Well, we took our boys with us today to the ultrasound. It looks like we are having a Macaroni!

Our little slugger

So the boys have just finished the baseball season. This is the third season Reed has played baseball and I must say that he has improved tremendously thanks to his coach, Eric Lamb (Wayne's brother). Although his skills have grown, his aggressiveness not so much. This comes to a surprise to both Colby and me since we both played sports growing up and are a little competitive (just a little). Nonetheless, we have truly enjoyed watching both Reed and Blue "swing away".

I should also tell you that we have become a fearsome family when it comes to the game of "Slug Bug". Colby does not go easy on the boys when it comes to this game. His rule is that is isn't just one punch to the arm, it is a double hit and then you have to make sure you wipe it off. So technically you are hitting your victim four times. It is usually me against Reed or Colby against Reed. But on occasion, it sure feels good to give Colby a few slugs:). Reed has shown a little bit of passion for the hunt of a bug, a VW bug. A few of our favorite places that have plentiful slug bugs are the Gila Valley. We took our family down to the temple open house and the boys were amazed at how many "really old bugs" could be found down there. Our trip to San Diego was a great place for the game of Slug Bug also.

Back to my first story, Reed's baseball games. During his last game, Reed was playing out in the outfield. His coach was out there also. Halfway through the inning, his coach flagged me out to the outfield. He told me Reed needed me and that he(the coach) couldn't let him walk off the field in the middle of the inning. So I hustled out there, worried that Reed might need to use the restroom, which seems to be a common occurrence at the most inconvenient times. As I get out there, he slugs me with a big grin. "Slug bug yellow" he says. Are you kidding me?! I don't know that he was even paying attention to the game, he was scanning the parking lot for bugs. We have a slugger on our hands, just not a baseball slugger.

Land of Legos

Colby and I decided to avoid the summer crowds and take our boys to Legoland this past weekend. Not just drive over to California but FLY. Our boys were almost as excited for their first airplane ride as they were to go to Legoland. We figured an hour flight is a good test run to see if any of them get airsick (Blue has a tendency to get carsick very easily). Let me just preface that Legoland is a great place to go only if your children are Lego lovers. Don't expect an over the top experience like Disneyland or amazing rides like Six Flags, set your sights a little lower- like county fair lower, but with Legos. No complaints from my boys, they are at the perfect age for Legoland! The weather was beautiful and lines were nonexistent- a great combination!

The boys are "ready for take off"

Beau thought he was Joe Cool when it came to driving the bumper cars. Here he is kicking back as the rules are discussed. They got their own driver license and now he says he's ready to drive dad's truck.

There is a water attraction at Legoland also. It looked like a lot of fun, but my boys didn't want to spend a whole lot of time there.

The vacation experience started off with their very own rolling carry on luggage. The boys thought this was so cool! In fact, they packed themselves the night before we left without my help. Good thing I took a peek into their bags the next morning 'cause all Beau had was six pairs of underwear and two pairs of pajama bottoms along with one pull-up. This was all stuffed into the small compartment on the outside of the suitcase. Inside the actual suitcase I found six books. That's it.

On Saturday, before we headed back to the airport, we stopped off at the beach. We couldn't have asked for better weather, not that bad weather would have stopped the boys from chasing waves and rolling around in the sand. I guess the good weather was a bonus for me, since all I wanted to do was sit on a towel and soak up the sun.

Don't you just love the expressions on their faces? I'm not sure if they were trying to pose for the camera or just didn't want their pictures taken.

To sum up our trip, the best part of it (from the mouth of our boys) was take off in the airplane (it was as fun the rides at Legoland), picking out just ONE toy from the huge assortment at Legoland, and the swamp meet (swap meet- I forgot to mention we made a stop to the San Diego swap meet which is one of my personal favorite places to go- all that junk lined up for me to dig through).