So Much Has Happened...

So much has happened since I last posted on our blog. The biggest thing was we had another child. We welcomed Gage Thomas to our family in October 2011. He entered this world nice and healthy at 11 lbs 4.8 oz and 22.5 inches long. Everyone was surprised at how big he was. I guess since he is our last child, he wanted to come out with a bang. Tyler and Garrett are wonderful big brothers to Gage. I am very lucky to have three healthy, strong willed, caring, adorable boys. I thank God daily for my three wonderful gifts named Tyler, Garrett, and Gage. One of these days, my boys are going to roll their eyes and tell me to be quiet. Until then, I can continue to tell my boys how much I love them and hug them all I want. Since I last posted on our blog, Garrett has started school. I now have two kids in elementary school. Tyler is in 3rd grade this year. He loves PE and recess. He likes math. Tyler does not like reading because he struggles with that subject. Overall though, I think Tyler likes school. Garrett is now a 1st grader. He is an amazing little sponge that soaks up everything he learns. He likes to read. Yesterday he recited "Brown Bear" to me word for word after he read it three times to Grandma Joni. Gage is turning two. Gage does not realize he is as little as he is. He thinks whatever the big boys do, Gage can do to. Gage does not like to be left behind. Gage loves trucks, balls, four wheelers, and being outside. Justin continues working as a HVAC installer. He has been with the same company since March 2007. I continue to work as a RN at the hospital. When I am not working, I am busy at home. The four boys (everyone says I need to include Justin in this description) keep me very busy. I will try to be better at updating our blog. I will get a picture of Gage soon.

Sorry For NO Posts...

I am sooo bummed! I just wrote a nice long post updating everyone on our lives since I have not posted anything for over two years and it all disappeared! I am too tired to rewrite anything at this time. The main reason I have not been on the blog was our email account was hacked into and I had trouble signing on to our blog. The other big reason was we welcomed our third child to our family in October 2011. Gage Thomas entered this world a healthy 11 lbs 4.8 oz and 22.5 in. Since he was our last kid, he wanted to make a BIG appearance. Tyler and Garrett are both in school. Tyler is in 3rd grade and Garrett is in 1st grade. I will post more at a later date. Please forgive my lack of posts over the past couple years. I will be better.

Coloring Easter Eggs 2011

This year, we colored Easter eggs the Saturday before Easter.  Our friend brought her two kids over to help join in the fun.  We had boiled enough eggs so that each child had 18 eggs to color.

 It was a beautiful spring day that Saturday, so we colored eggs outside.  We set up a couple of card tables and let the kids have fun!  This way, it helped save the dining room in case we had any accidents.  While the kids decorated their eggs, Justin, Mike, and Trish played basketball.  That was distracting for Tyler and Tristyn because they wanted to play instead of dye eggs.

 I was so proud of Garrett.  He had lots of fun this year.  He would put an egg in every color of dye and then take it out as fast as he could.  He was the first kid done coloring all of his eggs. 

Garrett was pretty proud of all of his eggs.  A few of his turned out really cool.  Tyler was asking Garrett how he made a few of the colors he made.  All in all, it was a great day and beautiful day!

Long Overdue Update

Sorry there has not been any exciting new posts from our family.  We have been busy and I have not been on the computer.  I thought I did a good job changing our music from Christmas music to normal music.  A quick update from December till now:

We went to Utah for Christmas and spent the holiday with Justin's family.  The boys were really excited.  They love to play with their cousins.  Santa brought the boys each a basketball and a note stating he left a basketball hoop at our home in Montana.  Tyler was really excited about that.  The boys also received pillow pets, nerf guns, books, and other toys.  Each year I try to limit the amount of gifts from mom and dad because I know they will be spoiled by everyone else.  As I get told repeatedly, they are not spoiled, just well loved.

We spent a quiet New Year's Eve home with the kids watching movies and hanging out.  I think we even went to bed early.  I guess that means Justin and I are getting older.  To quote Justin's t-shirt "growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional."  Everyone who knows Justin knows this saying is particularly true about him.

January was filled with school, work, and snow.  We did not do anything too special during this month.  Just spent time doing family stuff.

In February, we went to Powell, WY for Lan's return from his mission.  The boys love to go to Aunt Alana's and Uncle Pogo's.  They love to play with Tellese.  The boys were excited to play with Savanna, Morgan, and Steven.  They had tons of fun swimming with them at the hotel.  We were also able to visit with Grandma Olsen, Grandma Kathy, Grandpa Earl, and Aunt Teresa and her family.  Neeedless to say, the boys had fun with everyone.  Trevor was a good sport about wrestling with Tyler and Garrett.  The boys are all boy and like to wrestle and tackle the "big" boys.

The boys went down hill skiing in February for the first time.  They loved it!  They did an awesome job!  We just were on the bunny hill, but they had to use the rope tow to get to the top.  Garrett needed assistance getting on and off the rope tow.  He was awesome with his pizza wedge.  Tyler is a little dare devil.  He would get to the top and point his skis towards the bottom and just go.  We would have to yell at him to pizza wedge so he would stop.  Sometimes, he would just fall down to stop.   They have been after me since then to go back up, but is just has not worked out.  Maybe next year.

The boys tried wrestling for the first time during the end of February and beginning of March.  Justin and I both agree, this is not our favorite sport.  I believe in letting the boys try something once, but I will probably not push wrestling again.  Garrett did not like it.  He would say it is scary on the mat.  Garrett is quite comfortable goofing off with his brother, but during matches, he really did not care about wrestling.  Tyler took third in three out of four tournaments we went to.  I really did not care for Tyler's attitude with wrestling.  He did fine if we told him to try his best and think about the moves, but a few coaches did not say that before the match.  Needless to say, during those matches, Tyler would loose and get mad.  Even though I did not like his attitude, Tyler was pretty impressive to watch.  Luckily, spring soccer starts in a few weeks and both Justin and I are happy about that.

That about covers what is going on in our lives.  We pretty much just work, go to school, do family stuff.  We have been fighting the crappy cold bugs which are going around.  Hopefully, I will be able to post some picture soon.  I was able to take some cute pictures of the boys skiing and wrestling. 

Our Family Update

I am sorry that I have not written anything on our blog.  I like to put pictures with my posts and I have not had pictures to post.  Our family is doing well.  Tyler is in kindergarten and likes it.  He has trouble going to school when his brother does not have school, but he is getting better about it.  Tyler is a very caring, energetic little boy who loves sports!

Garrett is a busy 4 year old. He goes to preschool two days a week and loves it!  He is too smart for his own good.  Garrett is a busy boy...he loves to push buttons...figuratively and actually pushing buttons.  He is my little "Dennis the Menace" and is a precious boy.

Justin is Justin.  He may be getting older by age, but that is the only part of him that ages.  I always tell people I have 3 boys because sometimes Justin acts younger than Tyler and Garrett.

I am still a busy, working mom.  I will try and update our blog later.  I hope the holiday season is going well for everyone!

Tyler's Pre-K Graduation

In June, Tyler had his pre-K graduation.  Tyler's teacher, Mrs. Fischer, puts together a little program where she speaks and hands out diplomas to the students as a send off for kindergarten.  She had parent helpers tie-dye tee-shirts so that every student had the same uniform on.  The kids all made their own hats.

 This year, the kids all had yellow tee-shirts on and they walked into the sanctuary wearing sun glasses.  The yellow represented the sun.  Mrs. Fischer said all of the kids are so hot and bright just like the sun that they will go far with their education.

 Tyler was really excited about his big graduation day.  Tyler thought it was pretty neat his family was at his graduation.  After the little ceremony, there was refreshments which both boys loved.  My boys think cake and punch is great!  Tyler was able to say good-bye to some of his friends since all of the kids will be going to different schools this year.  It is hard to believe my son is in kindergarten this year.  Time does fly by.

Justin and his dog

Everyone knows the saying, " a dog is man's best friend."  Well, in our household this is true to a point.  In our household, the saying should be "man is a dog's best friend." 

Justin and Miley

Miley is our family dog.  She is a cross between a lab and a walker hound.  She is one and half years old and still has puppy tendencies on some things (she likes to chew on balls and other toys left in the back yard).

Miley and Rocky

Miley also loves Justin.  On the weekends, Miley follows Justin around and does not let him out of her sights.  She is afraid Justin will leave her.  Justin usually takes Miley when he goes and gets his coffee in the mornings when he does not work.  She is very spoiled by this little routine.  If something changes and she does not get her "Justin time" she pouts and is very sulky.  Sometimes Miley can be as bad as the boys.  Even though Miley is a lot spoiled, we love her.  She like to play with my mom's dog, Rocky, and the boys.  Life is never dull around our house with the dogs and the boys.

Our Camper

We got a camper from Kathy and Earl over Easter weekend.  It is a slide-in camper which had been sitting in their field for about 5-6 years.  Justin has been excited about the camper ever since he asked his mom for it.

Justin spent the Saturday of Easter weekend getting the camper out of the field and cleaning it up so we could bring it home.  He threw all of the trash away and vacuumed it out.  He also did an initial wipe down on it.

The camper was not in too bad of shape considering it had not been used for 5-6 years at least.  Justin did kill a bunch of hornets that made it their home while it was in the field.

Kathy came to visit us at the end of April.  While she was here, she reupholstered the whole camper.  The cushions were this tan, white, blue and green stripped stuff.  Kathy and her good friend, Jeanne, picked out some neat maroon and gold western fabric to reupholster the cushions with.

Kathy and Jeanne also picked out some fabric with chickens on it for the curtains but Justin said "NO" to that.  He liked everything else they picked out except that.

Kathy made new curtains to go match the cushions. 

Besides doing all of the sewing, Kathy also helped clean the camper. Justin and I painted everything bright white. Kathy wiped down all of the paneling stuff and cleaned all of the blinds.

Before Kathy came to Montana to see us, she went to Wyoming to spend time with Alana and Pogo.  While she was there, she showed Alana the fabric for the cushions.  Alana had a some left over western fabric from a quilt so she cut it up into squares for another quilt.  Alana and Kathy put together a quilt top for our camper.  While in Montana, Kathy and I tied the quilt and I sewed the edging on after Kathy showed me what to do.

Our camper has turned out very nice.  A huge THANK YOU to Kathy for giving us the camper and for all of the hard work she did on it!  We love you!  Thank you to Alana for the quilt top!  It looks very nice in the camper and it is warm.  Thank you to Jeanne for going with Kathy and helping pick out the fabric.  It looks really nice!

We tried out the camper over Memorial day weekend.  It works great!  The heater really works nice.  So does the stove and sink.  We have decided to get rid of the ice box and put in more shelves in that spot.  We tried the ice box out but it leaked.  We had one leak in the roof, but Justin now thinks he has it fixed.  Tyler loves sleeping on the top bunk and Garrett loves his spot where the table is.  The camper works great for our family.  Thanks again for everyone helping get it into shape!

Tyler's lost tooth

On April 19, Tyler lost his first baby tooth!  He was so excited!  He has been wanting to loose a tooth since January.  I have been telling him that everyone looses teeth at different times.  I told Tyler I was about six when I lost my first tooth.  Tyler was not very impressed with that story.  He does not have a lot of patience about some things.  His tooth started to get loose around March 31.  He kept wiggling it everyday.  On the day Tyler lost his tooth, it was barely in. Justin kept trying to pull it but Tyler told him no.  Tyler eventually let Grandma Joni tie some floss around it and pull his tooth out.  Tyler was so proud.  He showed everyone his tooth.  That night the tooth fairy came and brought him money.  Aunt Alana tried to convince Tyler the tooth fairy should given him ten dollars a tooth.  Justin told Alana that was a little too much since Tyler still has a lot of teeth to loose.  Now Tyler has a second loose tooth.  We will wait and see how long it takes him to loose this tooth.

My Birthday

On April 8, I turned another year older.  Justin likes to remind me I am on the downhill slide to forty.  This year, Justin and the boys made my birthday cake.  The boys had fun helping their dad.  Justin really enjoyed putting the candles on the cake.  As you can see from the picture, they made the cake really bright.  I surprised Justin and blew out off of the candles in one breath.  I did not have any help from the boys.  Tyler and Garrett were disappointed with that, but they were O.K.  Justin made sure I got my birthday spankings.  He then encouraged the boys to give me my birthday spankings.  I Justin's family missess him tons on birthdays since he never forgets about the birthday spankings.  I can hardly wait to see how bright my cake will be next year ( I am joking about that).

Easter 2010

We spent this past Easter in Salt Lake City with Justin's family.  We got into town on Thursday afternoon.  Our first stop was Teresa's house so we could see Grandma Olsen.  We had a nice visit with her.  The boys kept her entertained.  Then we went to Kathy and Earl's house.  Tyler and Garrett were excited to spend time with their cousins.  The kids spent Friday playing with all of their cousins while Justin and his brother put in his stepbrother's air conditioning.

Saturday morning we went to the Easter egg hunt Bluffdale city hosted.  It was cold and windy.  Justin went with Garrett and all of the younger kids.  Tyler and Morgan were in the same age bracket.  Tyler did O.K. gathering eggs.  We moved down from the sign where it told for him to stand because there were sooo many kids his age.  Tyler was only able to find 3 eggs in his age bracket.  I think Morgan did better than that.  Garrett picked up a lot of eggs as long as they were not pink or purple.  Justin would point the pink and purple eggs out to Garrett and he would tell Justin, "those are girl eggs.  I am not picking them up."  I have a real character on my hands.

After the egg hunt, we all went back to Kathy and Earl's house.  Justin worked on getting the slide in camper out of the pasture with the help of BJ, Earl, and Jim.  While he was doing that, the kids played.  Saturday afternoon all of the cousins dyed Easter eggs together, minus Braxton who was at a friend's house.  This was the first time in three years the boys have dyed eggs with their cousins.  I think everyone had fun.  After all of the eggs were dyed, the kids went outside and played.  Justin helped Morgan learn how to ride a two wheel bike.  She was so excited.  Morgan and Tyler were riding all over the yard while the other kids played in the mud and rode their little bikes and scooters. 

Easter morning, we woke up to snow!  The Easter bunny swept all of Kathy's back yard to cover up his footprints so the kids would have to look for their Easter baskets and eggs.  Tyler found his basket in the bushes on the side of the house.  Garrett found his basket behind the climbing wall of the swingset.

After all of the eggs were found, we went inside for pictures.  Also, all of the kids were dying to get into the candy!  Everyone knows kids love candy, especially mine.  The big kid, Justin, kept trying to get Tyler and Garrett to share their candy with him.  Tyler is good about sharing, but Garrett really does not like to share.  Next year the Easter bunny may have to bring Justin his own basket. 

Monday morning, we woke up and drove home to Montana.  We had a nice weekend visiting with everyone.  The kids had fun playing nonstop with their cousins.  We hope everyone else had a nice Easter too.

Haircut Time

The boys got their haircut in March.  Tyler really wanted a mo-hawk haircut.  Their hairdresser, Lanny, is a sweetie.  She gave him a faux hawk.  Tyler could style it as a mo-hawk or else he could wear it normal and it would still look good.  Garrett is funny.  He wanted his haircut to be the same as usual.  Lanny was going to put some gel in his hair and give it a little spike and Garrett kept saying, "No, no."  He then would take his hands and flatten his hair down.  I had one boy who wanted a spiky look and the other one wanted his hair flat.  Tyler and Garrett are so funny!  I love them tons!

80's Party

In March, my friend Trish celebrated her 30th birthday by having an 80's themed party.  Justin, Mike, and I went as the Ghostbusters.  Justin and Mike made our costumes.  Justin painted the Ghostbusters decal on our sleeves and put our names on our shirts. 

Justin bought the Ghostbusters movie so he could watch it and make sure our costumes looked authentic.  Justin and Mike were really getting into the costumes.  I just wanted to go have fun!

My friend Trish, was Rainbow Bright.  Some of the other costumes there were Debbie Gibson, Daisy and Luke Duke, Heavy Metal groupies.  Everyone had lots of fun!

Justin borrowed some one's big wig and funky hat.  This is how Justin would look if he had lots of hair!  Justin had a good time at the party! 

St. Patrick's Day

Tyler was really excited for St. Patrick's day this year.  His teacher, Mrs. Fischer, kept telling the kids how they were going to build a trap at school to try and catch the leprechaun, Norm.  Well, Tyler was excited about trying to capture Norm.  He misunderstood his teacher and thought he had to build a trap at home.  Tyler and Grandpa Bill spent hours deciding on how to build the perfect leprechaun trap so he could catch Norm.  Tyler and Grandpa Bill made the trap and Tyler decorated it in green for St. Patrick's day.  Tyler and Grandpa also went to the store to by leprechaun food...Lucky Charms cereal.  Tyler was so excited! 

On St. Patrick's day morning, Tyler had Grandpa Bill take him to school to show his teacher his leprechaun trap. Unfortunately, Tyler was unable to catch Norm at school. Then he took his trap to the babysitters and should her how it worked. Tyler did not catch Norm at the babysitters either. Tyler came home and played and he frequently checked his trap but he was unsuccessful in catching Norm the Leprechaun this year. Tyler was disappointed. Maybe next year, Tyler will be lucky with his leprechaun catching. We will see...

G.G.'s 81st Birthday

On March 8, my Grandma Lois (G.G.) turned 81!  The boys helped me make her birthday cake.  They also helped me frost the cake.  Then they helped her blow out the candles on her cake.  I think G.G. was a little nervous about all the candles on her cake.  It was either that or she was nervous about how Garrett is a little pyro and was liked looking at the cake with all of the candles on it.  The boys love all of their grandmas!  They really like it when they get to help their grandmas do things.

Wrestling with Jeff

Tyler and Garrett love to go with Justin when he goes to see his friend Jeff at his house.  Tyler and Garrett love to attack and wrestle with Jeff.  Jeff is a big kid like Justin and he just encourages the boys.  Usually the boys will take turns and tag team Jeff.  One day while we were visiting, Jeff jokingly tied the boys up.  First he tied up Tyler.  Garrett helped Jeff tie up his brother.  Tyler and Garrett just laughed and laughed.  Afterwards, Garrett helped Tyler get free.  Then the next thing you knew, the boys were attacking Jeff again.  While they were wrestling, Garrett kept asking Jeff to tie him up.  So, Jeff tied him up for a minute.  Tyler and Garrett just laughed and laughed.  I kept telling the boys to settle down, but they were having fun.  Jeff was just laughing at how the boys kept coming back for more.  I have always said, my boys are all boy.  I love them to piece but there are many times, I just sit back and shake my head.

Over view of February

I am sorry that I have not posted anything for a couple of months.  Life continues to be busy with the boys, work, home life, dogs, etc.  Add to that, my camera broke and I don't like to post stuff without pictures. 

During February, we went to Powell, Wyoming to visit Aunt Alana, Uncle Pogo, and Telesse.  Kathy and Earl were there visiting from Utah.  We were there over Valentine's day weekend.  Tyler and Garrett were excited to go see everyone.  They helped Aunt Alana and Telesse gather eggs one day.  Tyler did not like all of the chickens coming close to him, but Garrett had no problems going in there and collecting the eggs. 

The boys liked it when the doorbell rang and their Valentine's gifts were left on the doorstep.  They thought that was neat.  It did not help that they were spoiled as usual.

The boys and I made a couple of day road trips to Missoula and Deer Lodge in February.  Other than that, life was normal...school, church, work, going to the babysitters.  We live a fairly boring life with the exception that the boys are very active with very active imaginations.  In February, the boys were carrying around calculators for a few days.  Garrett kept saying he needed his PDA.  We could not go anywhere without the PDA (calculator).

Family Love

As Valentine's Day approached, one heard lots of commercials about love and how much do you love your husband, family, children, and friends.  This Hallmark holiday made me think about how important family is to me and that I may not always let my family and friends know how much they mean to me.  This Valentine's Day, I wanted to acknowledge my special family.

Every night, we have the boys say their nightly prayers (Garrett is better about this than Tyler, but we are working on it). The boys ask God to please "bless my family near and far".  This is what Tyler will say, but Garrett will then name everyone in his family.  Even though we are not always near our family, we think of everyone often.  I have realized as I was working on this entry, I don't take as many pictures of the family we see often.  It seems that I make a point to take pictures of the boys with family who are visiting or when we go places, but I do not have many pictures of the family we see the most (including me and the boys).

I am thankful for all of Justin's and my family members.  Each and every one of our family members are unique and special.  They touch our lives and make differences for us without sometimes realizing they are doing it.  No matter what life may bring, we always have family we know we can count on.

I am thankful for my family and I love everyone.  Tyler and Garrett love their parents, their grandparents, their great-grandparents, their aunts and uncles, their cousins and all of the other family members I did not mention.  We hope all of our family knows how much you mean to us and that we love everyone, even if we are not close together physically.  We hope everyone had a Happy Valentine's Day!

Ice Fishing

On January 2, 2010, we went ice fishing with our friends Robie and Kurt on Canyon Ferry Lake.  Their nieces were there along with some of their other friends and Kurt's dad.  We invited a friend of mine from work and her two kids to come along too.  Mike also went out with us.  The ice was 15-16 inches thick that day.  We all had lots of fun.

There were six fish caught while we were out on the lake.  Everyone had caught at least one fish except for Kurt's dad.  He caught two fish while we were there.  Garrett loves to help dig the holes in the ice.  He also loves to hold the fishing poles and jig them.  I am always truly amazed that he sits still for that considering Garrett usually does not sit still unless a movie is playing that he likes.  Garrett seems to like fishing more than Tyler.  Tyler likes to be on the move.  Trish's little girl loved to help catch the fish along with Garrett. 

Besides fishing, people were playing hocky, ice skating, four wheeling, and sledding.  Kurt brought out his tiny grill and we grilled hotdogs and drank hot chocolate.  Tyler was playing hockey and he fell on the ice and hit his head.  We had him put on his bike helmet to protect his head.  It seemed like a good idea until he fell and hit his cheek.  After that, Tyler had to wear his four wheeler helmet when he was playing on the ice.  Even though Tyler had a few little mishaps, he had lots of fun!  He enjoyed playing with the other kids and getting out.  We all had fun out playing on the ice.  This was one of the first times when the wind has not been blowing when we have been out on the ice.  It was a beautiful, fun filled day spent with good friends.

4 Wheeler Sledding

On the Sunday after Christmas, we went over to Jeff and Shawna's and let the boys play in the snow. Jeff's house is in a cul-d-sac where there is no traffic. It had just snowed and it was pretty slick out. Jeff invited us to come out and let the boys ride in the sleds behind the four wheeler. Needless to say, the boys were pretty excited. All three of them! Justin and Jeff took turns taking the boys up and down the street. Justin was the first one to dump the boys into the snow. Tyler and Garrett just laughed and got back on the sleds. Tyler and Garrett love to play in the snow. They enjoy it even more when their dad is playing in the snow too.