MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Last night we finally got our tree put up and decorated! It only took till the middle of December to do it but we DID IT! Darrell is so excited. All he talks about is the Christmas tree and Santa Claus. It is starting to get a lot more fun, the older the boys are getting. Darrell and Tad got to put the ornaments on the tree. It had a nice band of colorful balls around the bottom. I think there was to much tree for Tad to decide where to put his so he just put all of his on the same branch pretty much. Santa's little elf had to rearrange after they went to bed or it would have drove her CRAZY! We hope everyone has a Very Merry Christmas!

Somebody call Calvin Klein ....

Because he LOST his model! Who knew this years fashion would be Mr. Incredible undies and IRRIGATION BOOTS! This has been this young mans attire for the last 3 days and he is so stinkin' CUTE! Our little midge looks so silly in his little tiny undies!


Darrell made it to the end of his train chart!!!!! So this was the prize hiding inside of the treasure chest! He will not put it down for the LIFE of him! He is so excited about it. All day he has walked around the house saying," Mom, I'm playin with my prize!" or "Mom look at my present, it's a little baby tractor!" He is so funny. They both are doing great! Only 1 accident from each of them today and Darrell is starting to tell me when he needs to go before he starts to!

Hopefully the end.....

The end of diapers anyway! I am taking on my biggest challenge so far with my children.......

POTTY TRAINING!

I have been working on this task for I don't know how long with Darrell and he is finally starting to get the hang of it. I still have to take him to the bathroom but for the most part he will tell me when he has to go. As if Darrell wasn't enough, I decided I would potty train Tad as well. He is showing all of the signs of being ready so why not! Today was our first day and Tad only had 2 accidents and he had a dry nap! Hooray! Darrell had a good day also! I made these potty charts and they are the only thing that has seemed to work with Darrell. Tad wanted one so bad that his is working great! Wish me luck! This week is going to be the toughest!

This one is Tad's. He loves everything about horses, riding them feeding them and petting all over them. When the horse makes it to the sack of grain, Tad gets a surprise. If he has an accident, he has to go backwards.

Darrell is obsessed with trains so I knew Thomas would work great for him. If he has an accident, he also has to move back a dot away from the treasure. He does not like that very well!

Ahhhh.... What a good day!

Today was a great day! It was a day filled with great company, great food and a whole lot of laughs! Joe's brother Ky and his family came and had Thanksgiving lunch with us. None of us are big fans of turkey so we decided we would smoke some pork instead. It was sooooo good! We stayed up the night before making pies and smoking meat. Thanks Ky and Lynaya for keeping me awake and making the great food that you did! I normally hate posts that have what people made to eat in them but this just was too good not to share!

This is a really bad picture. At the bottom is our pork. It was so yummy! Just look at that smoke ring! Ky made the best rolls from scratch! They were whole wheat and to DIE for!


This is an apple cranberry pie. Ky made the filling and I attempted the lattice top. It looked so much better in person.


And this was my yummy Cherry Chocolate Chunk Pie! Oh my holy canolie was it good! If you can't tell the cut outs on top are leaves. Again much cuter in person!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Happy Anniversary Tisha and Jim!
We Love you!

Small and simple things....

I took my little boys for a walk today to the store for a treat for cleaning up their bedroom. It was so sweet. We got to the store and got our drinks and cookies and headed for home. We live right next to the park so as we were walking by, Darrell asked if we could go swing. I figured why not, it is such a beautiful day today. Most of the leaves have fallen off the trees. So as they were running to the swings they heard them crunching under their feet. Darrell is obsessed with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom right now so he of course knew he was munching bugs under his feet. I had to laugh. This is my absolute favorite season of the year. Some of my favorite things are.....

* The sound of leaves crunching under my feet.
* The sound the trees make when the wind blows through them.
* A roaring fire in our wood stoves.
* Sweaters that I get to pull out of my closet and wear.
* The crisp cool air in the mornings and evenings.

I am more thankful this time of year for obvious reasons. Thanksgiving is here to remind me to be. I want you all to know I am grateful for you and your love and friendship! I am thankful for 2 little boys and a wonderful husband that give me many reasons to be thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving Month!

Gummy Mummy

I haven't posted in forever so I have been looking for any reason so here it is. Lame I know but it was to cute. I gave Darrell his gummy vitamins around noon with his lunch. At about 2:00 he comes running in to me laughing as hard as he can and saying look mommy look. When I looked over at him he had his vitamins STUCK to his face. I laughed so hard. I asked what is on your face and he said, " look, my gummy's mummy!" He is a crack up some days. 

STUD MUFFINS!!!!!

I had to post these pictures. I bought these suits for my little brother in laws wedding next month. I couldn't resist! They are so stinkin' cute. They have a jacket that goes with them and I will post pictures of the boys at the wedding when they are wearing them. This was them today after church. I caught them on top of the kitchen counter. I snapped some pictures before I got them down. Is that good parenting or what!

                                   I love the whole hand in the vest pose he has goin on.

                              To get a normal picture of these boys is next to impossible!

                               I love this one of Tad. He is so lost in his own little world.

Quirky Tag!

My cousin Jill tagged me! I have never been tagged before so I am excited to do this! I like doing this kind of stuff. O.k. I am supposed to tell you six things that you don't know about me.

1. I hate my toes. They are short and fat and have always drove me crazy. I have always wanted long skinny toes for some reason. They always look cuter in sandels. 

2. I am a compulsive nail biter. I bite them so bad I make my fingers sore. No matter how hard I try I can't stop.

3. My servings of food on my plate can't touch each other. If it does, it takes all I have to eat it. Most of the time, I won't.

4. When I eat, I have to finish the thing I started before I move on to the next thing on my plate. I can't eat randomly off my plate.

5. I can't wear sunglasses. They give me a headache. I couldn't wear the safety goggles in science class in high school because of the same reason.

6. I want to go back to school to become a C.S.I. (crime scene investigator) I think it would be the coolest job in the WORLD!!!!

I Tag: Tiffanye, Lynaya, Stacie, Lindsey, Monika, and Janae.

Why not!

I got this off of my cousins blog and figured why not try! Like she said who couldn't use a new handbag.  Just go to this website and you can get registered to win a free hand bag of your choice! Go to - www.HandbagPlanet.com 

Our little vacation

Finally! A mini vacation. Well actually a day trip vacation. Joe has been working a ton of crazy hours so we haven't seen much of him. So when he suggested we go to the catwalks in Glenwood, NM I was thrilled. So this last weekend we packed up a lunch and drove the hour and a half give or take to Glenwood and had a BLAST!!!  Darrell and Tad had so much fun. They loved to climb up the mountains and as Darrell would say," Walk across the RIBER!" He loved walking across the bridges. They were a little uncertain about the grating they had to walk on but they quickly got over it and had fun looking at the ground and water underneath them. We don't get very many family days so this was extra special and super fun. We love spending time with DAD!  Here are a few pictures of our fun together. 

Us being the smart parents we are, forgot swim suits. I don't think they minded do you?

I don't get very many pictures of Joe so this is of course one of my favorites.

                                                        

                                                  Mamma's little turkeys!

This fly was so funny. It landed on Darrells hand and just stayed there. It would walk from person to person. Tad and Darrell started fighting over who got to hold the FLY! It was so much fun.

Darrell wanted to stay on this bridge all day if he could. He thought it was so cool as I said earlier to, " walk across the riber!"

They thought this cave was so COOL! I think it was just because Joe said so. Hopefully we get to go again soon. It was to much fun.

Old MacDarrell had a farm!

                                              E-I-E-I-O!

      

And on this farm he had a               PIG!!!!!

Don't ever make the mistake of giving your 2 year old  the little bit of your peanut buster parfait that is left. No joke there was probably only 2 inches of ice cream left in the bottom of the cup and this is what he did with it!!!! It was EVERYWHERE! I took him still buckled in his seat and put him in the shower, car seat and all.

I Looked out the window and what did I see . . .

POPCORN!!!! Darrell is so addicted to popcorn!!!

He gets it from his Grandma Rogers. Growing up we had this HUMONGOUS  silver bowl and my mom would fill it to the top with popcorn every Sunday!We grew up on it and now my kids live on it!

Happy Birthday!!!!

My sweet little Tad turned 2 today!!!! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. I couldn't help but spend the day thinking back 2 years ago. I would think at this time 2 years ago I was just being induced and at this time 2 years ago, he was only 45 min. old. It is bitter sweet. I love to watch all of the new things he is learning! He is so fascinated with learning letters and numbers. He has been a joy to have in our home and I can't wait to see what the next 16 years brings!!!! I love him to pieces and can't imagine life without him. Happy birthday Tadlet!

This was just after they weighed him and measured him. Minutes old.

Tad at about 2 weeks old. He's my little Tadlito.

This is him at 2 years. I love those eyes!

I LOVE IT!!!!!

It has been a while since I have posted anything so I thought I would need to do something drastic to make up for lost time. Just kidding. No really, I got sick of my hair. All I did was pull it up in a bun, every single day. I looked like an old librarian. So I decided to go with a newer more updated look. I will get better pictures later but I am to excited about how it turned out that I can't help but post tonight.

 This is me before. This is my everyday look! Very bland and very boring. Hair pulled back into a bun.

This is my new hair cut. A lot more updated and even it I don't spend hours on fixing it, it still    looks nice and done! I love it!!!!

INTRODUCING . . . .

Our new baby! Ella Bleu. She was a doogie calf that a local rancher had and didn't want so we took her. I'll spare you the details of what will happen to her, but for now we will enjoy having her as a pet. Darrell and Tad go nuts over her. They want to climb in the pen with her and play. I think they think she is a big ol' dog.

Rain, Rain, come to stay!!!!

My old post was driving me crazy because, I am not a negative person or at least I try not to be and my last post was very negative. So I am posting a much more positive post today. It rained like crazy yesterday and we all absolutely loved it!!!! I hate the song," Rain Rain go away, come again another day." Who says you can't go play out in the rain? I can't keep my boys out of the rain or the mud, they LOVE IT!!!! I have to admit I love it too. Here are a few pictures of them playing out in the mud after the storm.

Thumbs up for playing in the MUD!!!!!! We bought these little rain boots for Darrell and he wouldn't have anything to do with them but Tad, we can't keep them off of him! He is a crack up! Don't mind Encino Man in the background.



 Darrell had so much fun playing in the mud. He just happened to rub his eyes right and it gave him a mask. He is my little raccoon! 

When it rains, it pours!!

I haven't had a post where I just tell about all the crazy things that happen in OUR everyday life, so I am going to share the last 2 days with you. Yesterday, I was getting ready to go help my friend babysit and have a little play group. I had just gotten the boys ready and I was getting ready myself back in our bathroom. When I opened the door to leave I found a trail of shaving cream that went from the bathroom, through the laundry room, through the kitchen, into the front room. That is where I found them playing slip and slide across the room in shaving cream. They were slapping their hands together and it was flying everywhere!!! They were having a blast. I was trying to figure out how to clean this up! I got it clean and we were on our way after showers again! Darrell had a few accidents ( we are attempting to potty train ) but for the most part, the evening was good. Sometime in the night, Darrell climbed in bed with us. At about 3:30, Darrell wet the bed! So I got up and got everything and everyone clean and Darrell back to bed. Joe got up at around 5:00 this morning to get ready for work. He hollers out for me and when I go to the back room, I walk into about 2 inches of WATER!!! At some point the hose blew off our washing machine and water went EVERYWHERE. Our back room and bathroom was flooded! We hurried to mop it up and we got enough up that Joe could get in the shower and get off to work. He left and I finished cleaning up the water. Just in time before the boys woke up. Darrell did not do very well at all with potty training today. I was moping up little accidents all day and Tad fussed over EVERYTHING!

But at the end of today I was able to sing Tadlet to sleep, lay Darrell in his bed with his trains, tell him I loved him and without a fight, he went to sleep, Joe crashed on the couch and I have some time to myself! It wasn't that bad. Just another crazy day at our house! I LOVE MY LIFE!!!! (seriously)

I know a few of you are wondering about the house so I will give a little update. We have the kitchen/living room painted and half of the upper cabinets hung. Joe and I are going to finish putting cabinets in tomorrow and ceiling fans and light fixtures. We are very excited!!! I can't wait to get this project behind us.

Fun in SAN JUAN!!

I have gotten a little behind on my blogging but I am going to play catch up. Darrell and Tad and I got to go on vacation to ST.Johns for 10 DAYS!!!! It was so nice. The weather was perfect. It wasn't to hot and we even got rain on one of the days. The best part was that we didn't have to do anything. We were able to just sit around and chat all day with my brothers and sisters and cousins! On Saturday the 28th of June I had a wonderful invitation to go through the temple with one of my really good friends from high school. She is going on a mission to Canada and I got to go through with her to get her endowments. When we got to St. Johns, we found my dads latest project on his lawn. He is building a little airplane and was almost finished with it when we got there. Darrell was in heaven!!! He loved playing on it and Tad couldn't get enough of all of the motorcycles my family has. It was a little boys heaven there! It was nice and I just thought I would share some of the pictures with you guys!








On one of the days I took my little brother Dylan to Luna to get some fireworks. These elk were in Alpine and we got a little more than a cars length away from them!!!! AMAZING! They were so cool looking we just sat there and stared. The one picture is just of the sky there. I love Alpine it is so pretty!