Loyal

We sure love our sweet golden boy. I wish he listened better but he is a really good boy. He is SO good around our kids. I love that they can play out there now without him getting so excited and knocking them down. It helps that our kids are getting older and he is getting older as well. He will be 3 this year. So exciting. I am hoping it is the magical age where he starts mellowing out a little. At least that was Ren and Heidi's experience with Hurley. This golden is a true golden through and through. He is an absolute goof ball, fetches everything around the house, loves his kids and family, and smiles all of the time. He never has a bad day. I love how he is fur is maturing and getting more older golden looking. His tail is all filled out and it looks like he is getting a skirt on the bottom half of his body. He is such a pretty boy.

A while ago, Jeff and Gunnar slept outside in a tent. Jeff told me that Diesel slept outside the door the entire night. He probably wanted in so badly but settled on being this close. He sure loves to be a part of the family. What a sweet guy.

Revamp

Some things around my house need revamped every once in a while and I am sure your house is no exception. I found these awesomely huge square frames at Savers a while ago. The best part is that they happen to be 50% off that day making them like $2.50 each. I bought all that they had and finally got them up. Well, Jeff got them up after I botched the task. I've gone back and forth about painting them. Who knows. I just wanted them up. I kind of like the gold in them. The colors work well for our front room. The prints in them are 12x12 so the frames are a nice size.

Another project that I worked on was our dining room light. I love this light! I found the idea on Pinterest and just made my own. The wire baskets are actually those plant hanger baskets that usually have the cocoa liner in them. Then I found an old brass fixture at Habitat for Humanity ReStore. My dad and Jeff worked on rewiring it and putting it together and I spray painted it and Jeff hung it. I love it. It makes TONS of light.

I also love the color. Just a little something different than I would usually pick. We plan on painting all of the walls gray. You should see all of the paint samples painted around my house right now. I think we finally have that narrowed down to the choice.

Spring break was a couple of weeks ago so I had all three kids a couple of days a week. Gunnar was thrilled to have Cami over and it was actually pretty easy having them all together. Some of you are probably laughing right now but Gunnar can get out of control and disruptive to the routine. He was actually really helpful and fun to be around for 2 weeks. However I was glad that it was over and he went back to school. Summer break should be interesting.

Easter 2012

I love Easter and I think it has gotten better since I've had kids. I think every holiday has. Easter was even better this year now that Brecken was old enough to really participate. We decorated Easter eggs with our good friends the Sartell's. This was the first year that their daughter Paige decorated eggs and she is 4 years old! We had so much fun. I saw this idea somewhere of putting the egg in a wire whisk and then sticking it into the dye. It was awesome and worked SO well. It was perfect for Brecken!

Saturday before Easter we had a BBQ and Easter egg hunt with my family and the Sartell's. The Sartell's have all family out of town so they have pretty much become family. My family really likes them too and everyone adores Paige. Anyway, so they were there too and we had a blast. The best thing about our egg hunts right now are that there is little competition if you are a bigger kid and we put out TONS of eggs. I get a laugh every year at kids running aimlessly and as fast as they can looking for eggs. There is something so funny about it.

This little guy kept picking up an eye and then eating the stuff inside. If he did that, he would get no where and have a huge belly ache. We had to speed things along a little and after he got the hang of it, we couldn't stop him.

Gunnar was a nut. Because there were so many eggs and him and Paige were so fast, they got a lot. So when his basket became full, he moved onto the little kid wheelbarrow. He took forever to open the eggs. He takes forever to do anything like this, but he had tons of fun and that is all that mattered. Easter egg hunts were high on his list of things to do this year.

It was my turn to teach my primary class and it was on the Resurrection and how it relates to the Book of Mormon. I felt so blessed to be able to teach that lesson and to be reminded of what Easter is really about. I am so thankful for my Savior and his atoning sacrifice for all of us.

Is That Really Comfortable?

Gunnar is a pretty funny kid and he totally thrives on having friends around. I guess most kids do. I really don't thrive on having his friends around but I know it is good for him. The other day we had one of his really good friends over while her mom went to an appointment. Now I love having Abbie over because her and Gunnar play SO well together. They just get along. They are 6 months apart and have known each other since Gunnar's birth. We have known this family that long. They were lucky enough to be in the same kindergarten class too. They are moving at the end of the school year. Boohoo!

Anyway, she was over and our rule is that nobody can be on Gunnar's new bunkbed. For us it is more of a safety thing and it shouldn't be played on anyway. I pulled Gunnar aside, reminded him about the rule and had him go in and explain it to Abbie. Oh man, the conversation of 5 and 6 year old's was hilarious.

Abbie: "oh I know why friends are not allowed on the bed. Your mom and dad do not want friends to put lice on your bed."

Gunnar: totally silent so I know he had a perplexed look on his face.

Abbie: "You know, Mrs. Huddleston told us about lice and how your head itches and you have to let it be there for 10 days until they die." They went on about it for a little while.

Gunnar: "oh ya..."

I wanted to bust a gut it was so funny. For one thing, I know she does not have head lice but it was more of a funny thing that pops out of the mouth of kids that age.

They love to get games out when she is here. They asked to get Don't Spill the Beans down. I taught them to play and went into the other room. The first time Gunnar ran out saying he won. We figured out they had the rules backwards and Abbie really won. The second time Gunnar ran out and he really did win. The third time Gunnar ran out and said he won. I hear Abbie in the other room yell that he cheated. Gunnar ran back in and I heard this: "My mom said that I won. She said that it is okay to cheat and that you lost." What!? I quickly yelled from the other room that I DID NOT tell him that and Abbie is the winner if that happened. I was laughing pretty hard inside on that one too because really kid...I told you to cheat. No way!

I love my kiddos so much. I really do. I am trying to take more pictures of Gunnar's school projects, so I can have that memory and then toss them. He comes home with so many random papers. It is amazing really. This particular day they were both sitting on the counter. Brecken was doing what he does best...eating and Gunnar with a school project. I love Brecken's face in this last picture. Kind of like a "Brother what on earth are you doing!?"

Speaking of eating...this kid is INSANE! We have been telling other's how much he eats and we are hardly believed. Until they get to watch him and feed him. Then they believe us wholeheartedly. He can easily eat 3-4 packets of instant oatmeal. Easily two pieces of toast in morning. His favorite, two whole bananas every morning. A corn dog or two. Lots and lots of dinner whatever it is. Sour things like chewy Warheads (yuck) don't even create a reaction one bit and he does enjoy salsa. But Jambalya is a tad too spicy and he starts to claw at his tongue not knowing what hit him. Salad is a little tricky to eat but most everything else he is up to trying. He is just so different than Gunnar who is not considered picky but will eat light some days and then other days you wonder what hit him. My joke is that I am working with Paparazzi just so I can afford the food for my boys. I am so worried for the teenage years.

Back in Time

Jeff is such a cutie, even when he was a little boy. I was asked to submit a picture of Jeff when he was a baby or young boy for some adult church activity. We ended up not going and went on a date instead but I hope the other ward members enjoyed it. This goes to show where Brecken gets his wild, blond hair and developing curls. Jeff's hair was pretty curly then.

Totally random thought but since it is Sunday today, it was on my mind. I was just now looking at Brecken's name as I wrote this post and it comes up with that squiggly red line underneath for spelling. I laugh every time I pick up Brecken from nursery. He has his little picture that he never colors on because he is not really a fan of coloring. Both my kids aren't for long periods of time, and his name is always spelled wrong...Brekan. I'm pretty darn sure it is spelled correctly on the records of the church because it was his middle name that we had to get corrected...Maunakea. Is it really that hard to check the rolls to get each child's name correctly. Looks like it is because Gunnar always has his name spelled like Gunner on most everything in Primary.

On the flip side, both my boys love Primary. And Jeff and I love that they love Primary. We have to be very careful when we talk about nursery because if we do it too soon, Brecken is ready to go that very minute. I am the 9 year old Primary teacher this year and LOVE it! We have the best kids ever. My teaching partner is the Bishop's wife who I adore and love as well. We were visiting teaching partners a couple of years ago and were so sad when we were split up. We work so well together. We were ecstatic when we found out we would be partners again. Primary for me this last half a year has been a nice change and I love it. Jeff is the Young Men's President so really we needed our kids to be in Primary to really focus on our callings.

One of Like Three Snow Days

It randomly snowed on March 1st. Enough that it stuck around for about half a day. I had a feeling this would be my last opportunity to throw Brecken out there so he could experience snow. We got back from our weekly library time and I quickly gathered his stuff, threw it one and stuck him out there. He loved it!

I just love this little boy so much. He wondered around for a while. Had to try out the snow by licking his glove, fell and acted like he couldn't get up and just loved it. After our short romp in the snow, we had to get ready to go to Cami's house for the afternoon. Now he loves that girl cousin of his, so we packed up the snow gear so she could experience it too. Unfortunately, she was taking a nap and by the time she woke up, the snow was all gone.

I do have to admit, this was the BEST winter ever. Snowed about 2-3 times, rained, and was overall completely bearable. My favorite to date. I am not a huge fan of you snow.

Fifteen days later we had these beauties blooming in my flowerbeds. Crocus, I sure love you! You bring sunshine to my day.