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.