hey hey we're the monkeys

"Hey! Hey! We're the Monkeys!! People say we monkey around!" Cameron had her dance festival at school this morning and her class's dance was to the Monkees. It was very cute. Here she is with her monkey hat, monkeying around in front of the school.

Cameron graduating from preschool

Adam & Luke at their preschool graduation
Adam, Luke and me graduating from preschool
Eric graduating from preschool....oh wait, he's mowing the lawn with Adam
Ashley, Paige & Laurie - After 3,465 tries, we got one good picture.
Eric showing off his BIG MUSCLES during a kickball game

We've been so busy the last couple of weeks! Lots of programs and graduations makes for one very tired mama.

Experiencing technical difficulty

Notice that I lost all my sidebar info? I was trying out a new layout and lost some content. My blood is boiling and I can't get things to work. Bear with me while I try to figure this out.
I played soccer with my ward ladies last night. It was so much fun!!! I even made a goal....for the other team, but who's really counting? Adam got hit in the head with a stray soccer ball. Of course it would be Adam. There were thirty kids and dads watching and the ball went straight for Adam. He is a magnet for head injuries.
Then I went to see Maid of Honor with the girls. As I was getting out of the car I stepped on a milk chug (you know the little ones that you get from McDonald's) and it exploded all over my shoe and pants. Nothing like curdled milk to make the whole movie experience a lot more comfortable.

GEORGIE!!!

We just got back from St. George on Sunday night. It was the annual Wimmer trip and we had the best time. My boys are still confused about who George is and have decided that everyone, including total strangers at the gym, is Georgie. They scream "Georgie" at the top of their lungs and then collapse into hysterical laughter. Personally, I think they wore out the joke within the first day of the vacation, but they don't agree.
Here are some photos from our trip.

Cameron, Sadie, Jacob, Carter, Adam, Sam & Luke at the sand dunes

This is our group hiking the petrified sand dunes

Sam is almost two years younger than my boys but they don't seem to notice the difference. The three of them are inseparable.

Sam & Luke

I know it was a Wimmer trip, but I took my little sister, Gracee, with me. She was loving life with my cute teenage nephews around. While we were out hiking we saw a snake and everyone was doing their best to stay out of his way, except Gracee. She caught him! You tell me if you have ever seen a 15 year old girl do that! I'm very proud.
Look at my father in-law in the background. He's more like Indiana Jones with his HATE for snakes.

Carter, Jacob & Cameron at Sand Hollow Reserviour

Jacob, Cameron & Sadie
Grandma and her posse - Sam, Jacob, Adam, Grandma, Cameron, Luke, Carter & Tyler
Calling all Boston fans....

Adam & Sam wearing their Wally t-shirts

The three amigos in the tub

Sam, Adam & Luke

We had such a great time on the trip. Thanks again for all the good times Wimmers! (and Gracee!)

another tag

Tagged!
I have been Tagged by my cute friend Marti. How to play this game of tag. Post these rules on your blog. List 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts about yourself. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

3 Joys
1. Summer. Summer. Summer. Summer. Summer. (If you've seen High School Musical 2, you understand.)
2. Food. As long as I don't have to prepare it, I like it.
3. Trashy tv. Desperate Housewives, Gossip Girl, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, The Hills... and the list goes on...

3 Fears
1. Backing over a child in my driveway. There is a major blind spot in my Mt. Everest driveway.
2. Having to teach Gospel Doctrine at church. I've never had to do it, but I live in fear.
3. Having another baby and going through postpartum depression again. No, this isn't any kind of announcement, the very thought just terrifies me!

3 Goals
1. Someday go back to school.
2. Get these dang boys of mine potty trained before high school.
3. Get these dang boys of mine to GO TO SLEEP within the next 20 minutes!

3 Current Obsessions/Collections
1. House hunting. I doubt if we'll ever move away from the house we're in (we LOVE where we are), I just like looking. I search lots of cities all over the country and I love to watch all the house hunting shows on tv too.
2. Making my own salt/sugar scrubs. I love a good body scrub but I'm too cheap to pay $35 for the Body Shop ones, so Paige and I figured out how to make our own.
3. Swimming suits. I'm always on the lookout for the perfect suit. It's beginning to dawn on me that the suit isn't the issue.....

3 Random Surprising Facts
1. I love Scrabble. I get together with friends in the middle of the afternoon to have Scrabble tournaments. We're a bunch of old ladies, I know.
2. I hate, and I do mean HATE, crickets. They freak me out from the way they look to the chirping sound they make. ICK!
3. I have embarrassing taste in music. I always cringe a little bit whenever anyone goes through my iPod. Milli Vanilli, Olivia Newton John, The Oak Ridge Boys, Elvis, Bangles, Go-Go's. It's bad.

I tag anyone else who wants to do it! Sometimes I need a good tag in order to get my creative juices flowing. So, please - do it!

Here's to good women!

On our way home from the cemetery visiting Eric's mom's grave, we stopped and got some burgers for the kids. Half way home I turned around to see Luke. He was dead asleep, peed his pants, red Popsicle all over his face, hamburger laying in his urine-drenched pants and his mouth half open revealing half chewed burger in his mouth. I am the Mother of the Year. Eric wanted to take a picture but I begged him not to. Believe me, I don't need a photo to remind me how white trash we're becoming.
I've been a little down this week. I don't even know if it has anything to do with Mother's Day at all. I was in tears at swimming lessons because Luke wet his pants for the 326th time of the day. Most days I want to tear my hair out at the very thought of having to prepare food 3 times a day for kids who "don't like that". The amount of dirty laundry, the syrup stuck to the kitchen chairs, the broken crayons all over the house, the petrified chicken nuggets under the car seats, the loss of my flat tummy, the runny noses, the noise -oh the noise.... most days it doesn't seem worth it. How nice would it be to actually take a shower in the morning, put on dry-clean-only clothes and heels, go to an office and get a paycheck!?!?
But then there are those little moments.... when I carry Adam all wrapped up in a towel after a shower (and the boy smell is gone), when Cameron plays so well with the boys and gives them piggyback rides, when Luke tells me I look pretty. I realize that I'm shaping these little lives for better or for worse. What's better than that? Or maybe the question should be what's scarier than that?
I am not one of those people who hates Mother's Day. I like opportunities for my family to worship me. I like taking a day to tell all the women in my life how much I appreciate them.

Here's to good women -

May we know them,

May we be them,

May we raise them!

The good and the not so good

Just catching up on things...

Good - nieces' Libbie and Sophia's first birthday party

Not so good - had to hire a plumber to retrieve more goodies that Luke flushed

Good - going to St. George with Paige

Not so good - feel like my throat is closing off allergies

Good - Cameron is Ridgeline Elementary Student of the Month

Not so good - my boys know how to flush everything but their own feces down a toilet

Good - Lacey and her family came for a surprise visit (from Delaware)

Not so good - they left again

Good - Emily and her family came for a visit (from Switzerland)

Not so good - they left too

Good - the kids are playing outside 14 hours a day

Not so good - I have to bathe them multiple times a day

Good - Eric made it home safely from his 2 week trip to the Philippines

Not so good - he brought a foot fungus with him

Good - I took the kids to the Mayan restaurant to dinner and they loved it

Also good - the divers at the Mayan were not too hard on the eyes....

Not so good - Luke dropped out of swimming lessons

Good - Adam gave his first prayer in primary

Not so good - I dumped two 44 oz. Diet Cokes in my car....AGAIN!

Good - Cameron started taking piano lessons

Not so good - I had to buy a keyboard (we don't have a piano) that the kids pound on all day

Good - Celtics are doing well, which means I have a happy hubby

Not so good - the Celtics are doing well and the games never stop

Here are some pictures of the last couple of weeks.

Emily and baby Kennedy

Gracee somehow turned into a supermodel.....

Libbie and Sophia are having their cake and eating it too!

Crappy as it is, this is our only family picture.

Cameron and Ali having fun at Nana Montana's house

Luke, Adam and Parker doin' boy stuff at Grandpa's house.

The picture doesn't do it justice. The kids were trying really hard to not put their fingers in the frosting on the cake. I'm not ashamed to say that I started it. It was goo-ood frosting....

vay cay

It's been a while. Sorry. I just got home from St. George with Paige. She ran a half marathon on Saturday and I went to be her support. Not so much support as relaxation consultant, I guess.

We watched lots of movies and ate our own weight in junk food. It was a great break from all the kids and very relaxing. We stayed at Paige's grandma's house which, sadly, does not have a pool. So we borrowed a pool key from our friend Jenica who owns a home with a community pool. Saturday morning, after the race, we put on our suits, grabbed our iPods, got Cokes, tanning oil and headed off to the pool. We were giddy with excitement at the first pool day of the year. The thought of our husbands at home tackling the kids (probably literally) made it even sweeter. You can probably guess the end of this story because it is 'something that would only happen to Laurie'. The pool was closed!!!! There was a huge chain wrapped around the gate with a sign that said "because of extreme vandalism, the pool is closed until further notice". Are you freaking kidding me??????

So we carted our sorry buns back across town and decided to lay out in Paige's grandma's backyard. I am not sorry to report that I am sunburned. There is nothing quite like a sunburn to make you feel like summer might actually come again. Sunburns and yard work....the two necessary evils of summertime.