All I can say is a BIG thank you girls for a wonderful laugh my guts out time in Ceder City/ St. George last weekend. We went down for the cultural experience to watch plays at the Shakespear Festival and I ended up with stronger stomach muscles from all the laughing. It is great to just be with the girls some times and then it makes me grateful to come home and be a mom again.
I love to blog for a variety of reasons. It's a great way to stay in contact and it is a fun way of keeping a journal if you don't mind that complete strangers may be reading it. But recently I have another reason to blog. I get free stuff!! My sweet friend Amy Vanmorlaham sent me this great t-shirt in the mail for Wyatt and it says, "My mom is blogging this". It didn't take long for Wyatt to do something worth blogging. He really is my little bud but if I am every trying to accomplish something during the day, ie dishes or laundry, he finds ways to entertain himself. His latest entertainment would be the toilet experiments. I think the toilet fascinates him and he wants to find out exactly what can fit down a toilet when he flushes it. A few weeks ago he tried a rock, or more like a small bolder. It was just small enough to go down the hole but too big to go all the way through the pipe and the only way we found out it was a rock was when our friend Chris had to take the entire toilet out from the floor and turn it upside down and out came the rock. This week it was another toilet but the same type of experiment. When the toilet wouldn't unclog Chip followed the same process he had seen Chris do and 5 hours later after he had taken the toilet off he found the experiment was a golf ball. Oh I can't wait when the day Wyatt has children and I hope it is payback time!!!!
As of the first of August all spontaneous activities have come to a halt. There is something bigger on the schedule now and that is football season. Brayden and Tyson are playing on the gremmies team for Jordan. They are having so much fun playing because this is their first year of tackle football with pads and every]thing. Chip is one of the assistant coaches and I love the fact that they get to spend so much time together but I on the other hand get a little sad because I feel like I've lost my boys. They leave to school at 8:00 in the morning, come home for a quick snack/dinner and homework and they are out the door by 5:30 to football and don't get home until 8:30 every single day five days a week and games on Saturday!! It's hard to believe that when they were little I thought that my life of Tellatubbies and play dough would never come to an end and now I feel like I never get to see them any more. It defiantly makes me appreciate the stage of London and Wyatt, or at least on some days.
Now that I have blogged Tyson's special day I only find it fitting and therapeutic to write what happened to make that day a special day. Now before you read this just know that none of it is fabricated or exaggerated. It all happened exactly as I am writing it.
My best friend Cindy was so kind enough to offer her services the day before the baptism to help me get ready. She came up to my house on Friday and the kids went swimming and then they were going to football so she came to my house about 5:00 to help clean up and cook. Before we got started we called in some take out food. As we were about to leave she couldn't find her keys and she was parked behind my car. We started looking frantically and blamed the boys who were at football because we couldn't find them anywhere. I had also lost my cell phone with the coaches number. We looked for an hour and a half. Finally I borrowed a car and left Cindy at home with Wyatt, London, and Crew. She was going to make the poppy seed bread. While I picked up the food I got a phone call from Cindy saying that the kids had gone crazy spilling blue Gatorade all over the kitchen floor, had markers running around the house and there was mysterious green paint on the carpet. And to top it all off she had left out a few ingredients in the poppy seed bread and only realized it after it was in the oven for 15 mins. So I quickly ran to the grocery store to grab more ingredients. As I walked in the door I saw Cindy holding her eye. When I asked what happen she said the vacuum handle came off the vacuum when she tried to pick it up and it hit her in the eye. She also quickly told me about her adorable son Crew (2) who was loving baby London so much that he hit her in the face with a book. I turned around to see London who was falling out of her car seat on to the floor. Cindy did tell me some good news, she had found her keys after she bribed Wyatt with a quarter to tell her if he put them anywhere. He had put them in a special place at the bottom of his electric Thomas the train. Cindy gave him a quarter then he put it in his mouth and ran around the house. Cindy had to tackle him down and tell him if he didn't spit it out the doctor would cut it out with a knife. Hey you have to do what you have to do, don't judge. We took a deep breath and decided to take our food outside and eat before we tackled this huge mess. We were outside for a minute when the boys came home from football and we went inside to meet them. As I walked into the house I smelt an overwhelming burning smell. I suddenly realized what had happened. I have an upper and lower oven and I had turned on the upper oven to cook the first batch of poppy seed bread. When Cindy made her "oops" she turned on the bottom oven to pre-heat for the second batch. Little did she know that earlier that day when I did all my food shopping and I mean ALL my food shopping, I had put the food in the lower oven to hide it from my boys so they didn't eat it. There were donuts, bagels, muffins, breads and all the plastic that was surrounding and protecting this food was now securely melted to it. It was a laugh or cry moment and it was really hard to choose which emotion was going to win. We frantically tried to save what we could. We still need to eat so we went outside again and ate a few bites while watching Cindy's son Luke ride our little electric motorcycle. It is a rule that all kids have to wear a helmet while driving. I looked at Luke and saw that the helmet was just sitting on his head but not buckled. Luke is, well let just say not the most coordinated. I told Cindy, "Luke doesn't have his helmet on and he is going to fall" As soon as the "L" left my mouth sure enough Luke had skidded on the pavement and the helmet went flying as his body became road rash. We took Luke back inside to start the clean up and start another batch of poppy seed bread. By this time it was dark and we noticed it was way to quiet so I went to look for the two little boys and saw them riding down the middle of the street on scooters and suddenly a car was headed their way. I ran into the street waving my arms and yelling as the car with the teenage driver came to a screeching halt. Thank heavens the boys had made it safe inside. We bolted down the house so no one could get out and started the cooking process again. Meanwhile I was supposed to be making a slide show, writing a talk on Tyson and preparing food for 100 people. It was about 10:00 p.m. now and suddenly the older boys were hungry again. We started to make a second dinner which made me forget to set the timer and the raspberry bread came out too early and the inside caved in, not to mention the 3 degree burn that Cindy got on her arm while trying to pull the bread out of the oven. I finally sent Cindy and her adorable 3 boys home about 11:00 that night after I went on and on thanking her for all of her services. The great thing is we pulled it off and it was a really great day. I just think it is funny how most of us don't know the real story. Sometimes when we look at peoples lives it seems so smooth and normal but when you look a little deeper everyone has a story and this one was worth sharing. If any one is planning a large and important event in the upcoming days I would be happy to give you Cindy's number and rent out Wyatt for the evening. One thing is for sure, it guarantees a good laugh.
Tyson was baptized on Saturday with his cousin Dallin. It was so touching to see these two adorable boys that are such great friends be able to share this special day. They were born only 5 weeks apart from one another so it was only fitting for them to be baptized on the same day by their dads. We were so blessed to be surrounded by so many family and friends who came to support Tyson and Dallin on this special day. It will be something I hope they remember forever.
BEFORE
AFTER
As part of my "get back in shape after baby" mode I set a goal to accomplish a race. My first goal was the Provo Triathlon with Niki and T.J. at the end of June. I trained through all of my weakness (swimming and biking) and was ready to go but I caught the flu about 3 days before and couldn't complete the triathlon. I was pretty down so I decided to quickly pick another goal. I chose the Provo 1/2 Marathon. I had ran one before in Boston but I was not used to the long runs for a while. I trained with my friend Charlynne which I have to say that was the best part. There is nothing like great talks on those long runs to get though them. We had to wake up at 4:00 last Saturday to make it up Provo canyon on time. It amazed me to see all the people there standing in the dark waiting for the buses. Another thing amazed me was the variety of people. There were people of every age and size, it didn't mater we were all reaching for the same goal. The race was stunning as we wound down through the beautiful canyons and when Charlynne and I crossed the finish line it was an amazing feeling, painful but amazing. Im sure glad it is done but everyone should try it at least once.
Everyone has dreams. Some are for health and family and others are completely frivolous but not matter what the incentive we can all dream about something and when it does come true it can be the best day of our lives. Chip had the opportunity to have a dream come true. He is a golf purest and one of his dreams has been to play golf at St. Andrews in Scotland. St. Andrews is believed to be the oldest golf course, a place where golf started and it hasn't changed in over 500 years. His older brother Trevor was taking his parents there as a Christmas gift. Trevor doesn't golf and he thought it would be more fun for his dad to have a golf partner so he called Chip two weeks before they left and invited him to come if he could get a plane ticket there. Two weeks later Chip was on a plane to Scotland. He golfed one of the most memorable rounds of his life and he was able to do it with his dad. After he came home I asked what it was like to complete his dream? He said, "Now that I have that out of the way I can't wait to go to New Zealand to golf." I realized that I need to dream bigger!!!
We went on this incredible trip to Jackson with all our friends from our neighborhood for the second year in a row and it was pure 24 hour fun the whole time we were there. We camped by the Snake River while we do about 3 trips a day taking turns running this white water river. There were 9 families including John and Debbie Thomas, Tyler and Bonnie (Debbies sister) Sue and Nad Thomas, (Debbies Parents) Pete and Roxanne Duennebiel, Ben and Kellie Pack, Jill and Rich Green, Heather and Cy Waldron, Lisa and Chris Opfar but of all the people that were there Tyler was by far my favorite. He is Debbie's next door neighbor who was born with all of his joints fused together so his has only a very small amount of movement in his wrists. Even though he can not move his sweet personality is bigger than life!! He has not been very many places in his life so to see the excitement in his eyes while camping, hiking to waterfalls, watching everyone run the river was unbelievably humbling. I am so grateful that I was able to become friends with Tyler and he has changed my life for the good. Thanks Tyler for making this trip so much fun!
Brandie Black is one of my college room mates that I have stayed close with through the years. She is one of those incredible people that is so fun to be around and yet always thinking of others. I have learned so much from her over the years and am so grateful for her friendship. It was a bonus that her husband Tim and Chip get along so well and now so do our kids. They invited us out on their boat on Utah Lake and we had a blast. I feel so blessed to have so many great people in my life.
This just goes to show how behind I am in my blogging but I wanted to just say that John Mayer can give one great concert. I haven't been to a big concert since pre-kid days. We went with Lisa and Chris and saw Tiffany, Celisa, and Debbie while we were there. It was so fun and the Colbie Caillet was such a bonus. It was a great recharge my mom batteries night!!!
The story of my life is that I never do it right the first time, it usually takes me 3 or 4 tries and so it goes with family pictures. I wanted a cute picture with all my kids but with busy football schedules and school starting again it seems like there is never time. The only time they were available was in the middle of a hot sunny day, in fact so sunny that no one could keep their eyes open. I still insisted so even though these are not the cute pictures you want to send to grandparents but I wanted to post them as a reminder to me that in life, timing is everything.
We started a tradition last year with the Packer cousins for one full night of fun. Brayden usually does most of the planning so this year we started out with dinner, hat and beaded necklaces, relay races with the gigga ball, several games of Red Rover, we made chocolate chip cookies, had a dance off, (which lasted far longer than my energy did), midnight movie and snacks until everyone finally passed out, and chocolate cover waffles in the morning to pump them full of sugar before the moms came to pick them up then it was all over. I want to thank sweet Auntie Celisa for all her help, I couldn't have done it with out you Cee's especially when it came to staying awake until two year old Dawson finally fell asleep at 1:45 a.m. I love my nieces and nephews and I feel so grateful to live so close to most of them and create these wonderful memories. We had a blast!!
I love to share Wyatt stories for all my mom friends who think, "Wow that was a hard day with my kids but not as hard as if Wyatt was in my family." Now I never want anyone to doubt my love for Wyatt. I actually think that he will always be my most adventurous child because he loves to have fun as much as I do but I share these stories to get though the toddler years. Late last night Wyatt woke up hysterically screaming. I was so worried I jumped out of bed and I met him in the hall way to try and clam him before he woke up the people in Riverton. He would not stop crying. I asked him if it was a bad dream or if he was hurt but nothing would stop the blood curdling screams. I decided the only thing to do was pick him up and he and carry him to bed. As soon as he was securely straddled to my hip I suddenly felt a warm sensation all over my torso and the crying came to a screeching halt. Yes my sweet little Wyatt was just waiting for the moment to pee on his mother and the second his goal was accomplished the crying stopped and everything was alright. At least it was alright for him.
I realize that these are pictures that only a mother and honorary mothers of London might enjoy but I just started with real food and it reminds me how grateful I am to have teeth! I love to enjoy the finer things in life like turkey sandwiches, Costa Vida pork salad, and most important CHOCOLATE. These are all wonderful joys in life and she will soon partake but I guess it's good we start at the very bottom of the taste bud chain with this tasteless mush. You can tell by the looks on her face how much she loves it. It could be due to the fact that Uncle (Pediatrician) Zak has already given her soda at 3 months while I wasn't looking, thanks Zak! Im not to worried because it won't be long until chocolate becomes one of the 4 food groups for London. It's just a Packer thing because Im convinced that it makes us sweet, or at least it's my makes me sleep better excuse.
