It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Summer

The boys were playing outside the other day, it was so nice.  They played with water guns for a long time and then Riley and Parker evidently thought they needed a spa day in order to relax and took a mud bath.  

Jack however was satisfied to just get himself a drink.  I love his tongue in the both the photos with Chewy.  I don't know if you can see it in the one with him running, but it is literally hanging out the side of his mouth like a dog.  And in the other one he is trying to show Chewy how to lap up the water... Which he also does

 whenever he thinks something is

 going to be delicious.  He is way too cute to actually be my kid.  

It was so nice to just let them play outside and not be in the house!  

The Boys Are Back In Town

We drove to Idaho on Saturday to pick up the boys.  We weren't supposed to go until Sunday, but we missed them too much and we were both done with work early, so we figured why not?  When we got there Jackson just looked at me and it took him about 3 good long seconds to realize who I was and then he just smiled and said 'Mommy!' and reached out his arms for me to pick him up.  When I did he laid his head down on my shoulder and didn't move for about a half an hour.  It was the best hug ever!  Riley even learned how to ride without training wheels while he was there.  The biggest shocker of all is that Parker played outside, bugs and all.  It was really nice to see them again.  Glad they went, but more glad they are back.  It was way too quiet around here.

It's a World I Don't Remember

Let me just say that the store is actually a nice place to go... when you don't have 3 boys asking to go to the toy aisle over and over and over again.  I went to Sam's with my mom, about half way through our trip I noticed it was REALLY quiet.  So nice.  

p.s. I really do miss them, just not EVERYTHING about them.

Playing Scouts

We went up to the Frontier Scout camp for the annual Simmons Family Reunion for the weekend.  I was so glad to be out of our house and the boys had a blast.  Riley fished every chance he got.  He even fished in his sleep.  Saturday night I  woke up 3 or 4 times because Riley kept talking about his fishing pole in his sleep.  Parker even went out of the cabin despite the bugs.  Jack was so cute in his boots.  He kept picking up rocks and dropping them in the water and saying "wah wah" (water)... It didn't do much for my nerves to have him around the lake at a family party thanks to my dream, but we all survived. 
Here we all are.
Sunday morning all 3 of the boys went home with cousins for the week and we won't get them back until Sunday... Whatever will I do?  Answer: Anything I want.

Hallelujah!!!

I am EXTREMELY happy! Today I was getting ready to go and just turned my camera on and it actually turned on... and worked! So, no more flash back blogging for me for a bit.

Then we went to Kelly's house and went slip n' sliding. Watching Parker try to slip n' slide will put a smile on anyone's face. This is one of the less painful attempts.

Usually he looked like a plane crash about 5 feet before he got to the slide. I finally had to just lay him down on his belly and push him down the slide. But check out this cute kid...
Plus, while I was there Kelly told me how to make this chicken, which will be my very first food blog... which is fitting, because it's my very first grown up meal to make as well...

Stuffed Chicken

First, pick ANYTHING you have to stuff it with. I happen to have broccoli and cheese...


Pound the meat until nice and big and flat (sorry, I guess I didn't take a pic of that.) Put stuffing's and seasonings (I just used salt & pepper) on top...



Roll up and tie or use tooth pic's. (I've heard you pliers might be involved if you use tooth pic's, so we just tied them.)

Brown them on the stove and then pop it in the oven for about 15 minutes.... Walla. Stuffed Chicken.

Freaking good stuff. Even the boys ate it. Next time I might try pineapple and ham.

Thanks Kelly for the adult meal... Rob even said thanks for cooking out loud.

The Final Act

This is the final broadcast I recovered from that fateful day when my camera was pushed into a coma, way before it's time to go. This is the last thing it saw before it became incapacitated.

No, I'm not crying... just grieving.

Little Miracles...

So, today was Parker's birthday.  Since Rob had to go straight to school from work we let Parker open almost all of his presents at breakfast.  It was nice for him to be able to play with them all day while Riley was at school... hard to get Riley to go to school though.  His favorite present was his 'Indiana Jones Sound Effects Whip'.  And that is exactly what he calls it every time he talks about it.  It reminds me of A Christmas Story.  So cute and so dramatic. 

We weren't planning any kind of birthday stuff tonight because tomorrow we are going to the Mayan to celebrate.  However, last night as he was going to sleep he told me he was dreaming of his cake.  It was an Army cake.  How could I deny him that?  So here it is.  Or at least this is how it started... 

The plain camo looked pretty cool, but I just couldn't leave it at that.  So I had to set up a fight scene.  And add dirt.

I didn't count on the camo being quite so good at hiding the army guys from the top view, but I guess that's kind of what it does.

When I turned around I found Jackson eating out of the frosting bowl with the bridge from Indiana Jones Life as his spoon.  I wish I had taken a photo of him in action, but I sacrificed the photo op for the game so this is all I got.

The boys were really wound up after cake and playing all afternoon, so I tried something a little different.  I think I hypnotized them.  I told them they were on the plane with Indy in Temple of Doom and Indy had just put the hat over his face and fallen to sleep and so they did the same.  While they were asleep they went digging with Indy and he started to bury them with sand, starting with their toes and working his way up.  By the time I got to the belly button Riley said 'Mom, I really can't move my legs.' Which is when I had to tell them that if he didn't close his mouth Indy might put sand in it so he wouldn't talk... it kind of killed the mood from all the giggling, but it was worth it.  The were still asleep within 5 minutes and I don't think they have moved a muscle in the past 3 hours.  It was a fun day with the boys.  My favorite gift that Parker got today was actually from Riley.  It's not the Lego Indiana Jones Set either.  Riley did this one all on his own with NO parental prompting involved.  He trated him like a great big brother should... he opened doors for him, let him go first, he didn't fight with him at all and he shared like a champ.  He even showed him how to strap the whip onto Parker's pants instead of his own.  I hope Riley saw how much love was in Parkers face today for him.  He looks up to him so much and I'm glad that today Riley gave him a reason to.  Today, he was the best big brother you could ask for.  I hope Riley understood how proud I was of him today when I told him.  I guess some things really are priceless.

Ah, Little Boys

Some days as a Mother are better than others.  I think a lot depends on how long my fuse happens to be that day.  The longer the fuse, the more little things I take time to notice and appreciate, which in turn, I think the rest of the family appreciates as well.  Yesterday on the way to take Riley to school I was privy to a great random conversation.  I was asking Riley the regular questions of do you have your backpack, your lunch, yes, it's a short day, etc..  All of a sudden Parker asks "Why doesn't Patrick have a nose?" Riley's comment was of course, "uh, because he's a star fish!"  So Parker in his most inquisitive almost 5 years old voice replied, "but sponges don't have noses either.  Do octopuses have noses?"  And then for the remainder of the ride they had a great discussion about which sea creatures actually have noses and which don't.  I was pretty impressed that there was no yelling involved.  Which is kind of unusual for a ride to school, let alone a discussion of that nature.  

Later that night Jackson took the controller for a boat into the backyard where there happen to be a moth/flying bug with wings and he started moving the control knobs.  He got so excited when the moth started moving around that I swear he thought he was controlling the moth with the remote.  Then of course he thought that it might be best if he just tried to eat the remote.  But the best part of the day was being greeted by these flowers that the boys picked.  Some days are just better than others.

Just a little side note about one of my boys... Parker is currently writing a song titled "Gotta Aim My Pee."  It's a #1 best seller for sure... No pun intended. 

Alta Concert

Last night we went to a concert at Alta High School.  Rob's dad is retiring this year and his is one of his last concerts. (He's been the choir director for 21 years at Alta.) We were a little worried if Riley and Parker would be able to sit there the whole time, but as you can tell, Parker did just fine.  In fact, I'm guessing he was the most well behaved kid there.   It will be nice to have Stephen home for the holidays instead of always out doing concerts.  We're excited for you to finally have some puttering time.  Congrats & we love you!

Rites of Passage

This may not seem like a big deal, but Riley helped Rob mow the lawn for the first time yesterday.  He really is getting older.  I guess that's better than the alternative.  It just seems as if so much is changing so quickly.  He's only in kindergarten, but he is so independent in so many ways.  There is so much that he is so determined to do, I guess I should be grateful that he still lets me give him a kiss goodbye in public.  I'm sure that will be coming soon too.  I only wish I had a better memory.  I feel like there is so many details that I have forgotten and so many more that I forget to notice.  

The Retard That I Am

Holy crap I am a totally defunct photographer!  Right now I am totally ashamed to say that I ever worked at a studio... and the studio probably is too.  I totally wasn't thinking about them being squirmy little kids when I was taking these photo's as you can witness by the blurry Jackson in the back.  I full on admit to being temporarily stupid for the day.  Sorry Davy, Michelle and all our kids.  Anyway, here are the best of the bad photo's, we'll see what Davy can do with them...