Stinky Bottom Springs

Some of our friends in the ward invited us to go to their grandparents vacation house for Memorial Day Weekend. Camping with hot showers, and soft beds, sign me up! Not only that but there was a branch where we could go to church on Sunday, double score. They also invited up 2 other couples, 4 couples with their kids total. One family decided not to go. There were 18 of us including all of our kids. We had a great time. We left Saturday morning and drove up. The drive was beautiful. The "ranch" as they call it was about 30 minutes past McCall. It took about 2 1/2 hours. The house is huge. It has 9 bedrooms and 9 full bathrooms, 2 washing machines, 2 ovens, a huge open basement, a huge open kitchen/living area upstairs. There is a large swimming pool in the front that is filled with natural hot springs. (Hence the name stinky bottom springs, apparently there used to be a bed and breakfast with a swimming pool and that is what it was called). My friend's grandparents bought the whole property and build that huge house. The pool had not been cleaned out yet this year and was very disgusting so nobody went swimming. It also had a full basketball court, volleyball net, tether balls, swings and more.  It was super duper nice. I so wish we had something like that in my family.

Saturday the kids played in the sand by the river, adults played Tripoly, we ate dutch oven lasagna, had killer cake, and talked late into the night. On Sunday we got up and got ready for church. We drove about 20 minutes up to Riggins, ID to attend a branch there. The church building was so small. The branch was so small. Normally attendance is around 25 but with our group and other visitors there were about 75 people there. It still looked like hardly anyone to me. The Primary president was so excited when all of our kids went to primary as she and her two children are normally the only ones in Junior Primary. The rest of the day we hung around. That night we build a bon-fire and had smores', chatted and played card games. On Monday the kids played at the river all morning. The rest of the afternoon we packed and cleaned up the house. It was a ton of fun. We had so much yummy food including smoothies with flavors from our friend's snow shack. Delicious!

There were a couple of scary incidents. Gabby went missing again. That is frightening with a river in the backyard and a swimming pool in the front yard. She is not very adventurous so we didn't think she was there but we searched anyway. It's scary to go looking in those kind of places for your 3 year old. She had locked herself into one of the empty bedrooms with her blanket, sleeping bag, and movie player. Another scary incident was when I was looking for Corbin and we couldn't find him and 2 others (ages 5 and 6). We found them at the river by themselves. They were even crossing back and forth through a shallow part. Awesome! It turns out it was a big miscommunication. The boys had in fact asked for permission from Scott who was sleeping. Scott thought they were going to the river with the older kids but they did not. The older kids were at a different part of the river than the younger boys. After that I told Corbin he had to talk to me before he did anything so I could know exactly where he was and who he was with. Thank you Heavenly Father for watching out for our boys.

I thought we might not be able to go because I was horribly sick on Thursday. I woke up with a headache and I was feeling nauseous but I went ahead and did my yard work. It did not go away. I then took a trip to the D.I. to drop off something and had to pull over to throw up in Piper's blanket. I proceeded to barf violently throughout the rest of the day. I barfed at least 20 times. It was awful. I don't know if it was pregnancy + headache combination, or stomach flu, or what. Whatever it was it was terrible. Scott called our home teacher and they gave me a priesthood blessing that night. The next day I stayed in bed until 4:00 p.m. and I got up because I was feeling a bit better. Saturday morning I had to make up for lost time and go grocery shopping and pack for the camping trip all by 10:00 a.m. We were only 30 minutes late, not bad considering.

I'm 17 weeks and I'm feeling very nauseous today. If this doesn't go away I may have to go on anti nausea medication. I have never been this sick for this long. I did feel the baby kick for the first time last week so that's exciting. Other than that I do have more energy now so that is a good thing. I cleaned out our closet today and boy did it need it. The kids closet is next

Scott moved the car seats out so I could take some things to the D.I. The kids sat in them immediately and ate their otter pops.

Totally entrolled. The TV isn't normally on at this time and they were loving Danial Tiger's Neighborhood.

The "ranch." It has a weird design and doesn't look great from the outside but the inside is really nice. Each castle structure has 2 bedrooms. The upper deck shows the size of the kitchen and family open room. Awesome!

Riggins Branch Building

Who needs a swimming pool when you've got a gutter.

A couple of funny things from Corbin and Gabby. I really want to teach Corbin how to read and so I make him read 4 BOB books and write a sentence everyday. It does not take very long if he just does it. Sometimes he is not such a good sport and hates it even though it's really short. He will say thing like "this kills me" or "this is killing me" or "I can't handle this." It's pretty funny. It's even more funny when Gabby hears him and then she uses it herself. One day we were doing flashcards, her suggestion by the way, and in the middle she put her head back and said "this is killing me." Hilarious! Another time we were making her clean up her books and as she was cleaning them up she said, "I can't handle this." So funny.

A funny Piper thing is she still isn't saying very many words so any words she uses is hilarious to me. If I don't know where she is I will call out her name and she will yell back, "what!" Oh my heck I can't even tell you how funny it is. Another funny thing is when she wants something and I tell her no sometimes she will say "uuuhhhhh!" I can't type it but it's funny. She's a crazy girl and she can be super hilarious and super ridiculous. She can have a total freak out melt down in 1 second. It's unbelievable. It's like her body is over taken by the devil.

We had some library drama. We could not find a stupid Max and Ruby movie for a couple of weeks. I couldn't renew it anymore so I went in and asked them if they would override it and give me another week to find it. The library worker did that and she told me that the replacement cost would be $22. For real! Okay, I'm not surprised but we are serious cheapskates. Why do you think we use the library all the time  in the first place. I had already searched several times. Scott searched everywhere, (and he always finds things I can't). I searched more. We were on a mission. We had to find this stupid movie. We were not going to pay $22. Scott had ordered a replacement movie for $6 on Amazon and was just going to put that in it. I wasn't convinced that would work because I was sure it was against a stupid rule and they would know it wasn't their movie. Finally even though we had both looked under the couch several times he lifted up the couch and low and behold we found Max and Ruby. I can't even tell you how excited we were. It was like Christmas, only better. Ha! He went and cancelled his amazon order and that bad boy went back to the library. Victory!

I'm starting to feel less nauseous I think. It comes and goes but I think I'm over the worst. I think this pregnancy has been my worst in terms of morning sickness. I was pretty vocal to quite a few people that I wanted to take a 3 to 5 year break after Piper. Having Gabby and Piper so close together has been difficult.  I think I needed to tell myself that just so I could breathe and deal with my two babies. I was still thinking I would take a bigger break but around Christmas time I got that good old feeling again that it was time to have another baby so here we are. I know that our family is blessed when we follow promptings from the Holy Ghost and I know that having 4 children 6 and under is going to be a challenge but I know I'm up for it. I know that I'm up for it because we have the Lord in our boat. Scott has made the analogy several times that when you go to church, pay your tithing, etc the Lord is in your boat and it will not sink. I believe that whole heartily.

It broke record highs on Monday. 95 degrees. Luckily it cooled way down the rest of the week. I'm not quite ready for summer heat.

I turned on the sprinklers so they could run through it but they much preferred the gutter.

Piper was sucking the water off the ground. 

We took a family trip to Lowes to buy some flowers for my yard for  Mother's Day. Hooray!

Happy Mothers Day

First and foremost Happy Mothers Day to all those great mothers out there. I look up to so many mothers and want to be like them. Motherhood is a blessing, it is a calling, it is a sacrifice. I'm rereading the General Conference Ensign with my pen and I can't help but mark everything that has to do with motherhood and parenthood. This is something I take very seriously and I want to do the best job I can.

This week has been an interesting week in the chores department. Corbin often asks for new games on his iPad that cost money, even if it's $.99 we say no. He was particularly interested in a game for $.99. Instead of saying no, I decided that he could earn the game by doing an extra hard job. He was interested in this. Our back yard was full of weeds. (I have been slacking back there). I told him if he picked all the weeds he could buy the game. It was hard work. It took him 3 separate attempts spending about 30 minutes each time. He was nearly done and I was talking to Scott about how close he was and how he wasn't motivated to finish and wouldn't it be sad if he was so close and didn't get it done. Scott brought up the point that it was important that we helped motivate him to finish so he could understand what it feels like to accomplish a goal. I encouraged him a few more times to finish his job and he finally did. He earned the game. Victory!

A new Family Dollar opened up right by our house. I am super excited mostly because I can go get a box of candy for $1 just a few blocks away. I have also bought 2 maxi skirts there. Score! I took Corbin with me to check it out and he saw marbles for $1 that he really wanted to get. I told him he would have to do a hard job to earn them. He was asking me what job he could do and as I was trying to figure it out I thought of a most brilliant idea! I want Corbin to ride his bike, Corbin never wants to ride his bike, but Corbin wants marbles. I told him if he rode his bike extra hard and got really good at it I would let him buy the marbles. We came home and he immediately went to work. He rode his bike up and down our street for 30 minutes. He is so good at riding his bike now. He has to have me push him started but he can do it all by himself. We went right back to the dollar store before it closed in 10 minutes and got him his marbles.

Gabby on the other hand has been a big fat fail in the job department this week. Corbin has to empty the dishwasher and Gabby has to put the silverware away. Gabby can do this job very well when she decides to do it. The last two times she needed to do her job she wouldn't do it. She sits on the stool next to the silverware drawer for up to 30 minutes not doing her job. I've tried so many approaches to getting her to complete her job that have been big fat fails. She's had to go to her room until she completes her job, (she'll stay there for hours). I've set a timer and promised a spanking, she gets spanked, still doesn't complete her job. I've tired promises of rewards. Fail! Last night we were all outside playing while Scott planted the garden and she wouldn't finish her job so she stayed in the house crying. Still never finished her job. Luckily for me my mom just gave me her trusty parenting manual. I will have to study it up.

On Wednesday I got together with 3 of my sister in laws for a dinner. Anna needed to hand out my mom's parenting manual to us so why not get together to get it? It was fun. I don't know why we all don't hang out more often.We decided to celebrate Scott's birthday again with just our family on Thursday. We went to Tucanos for lunch per tradition. He gets a free meal and kids under 6 eat for free. Score! That night I made him a special birthday dinner and cake. On Friday Corbin and Scott went to the father and sons camp out. Corbin was so excited! I tried to have a fun girls night with the girls so we painted nails and ate M&M's. We also made popcorn and watched Tangled.

Tucanos. You should see how much meat Corbin eats at this place. Unbelievable!

Jazz Hands!

Apparently Corbin was the most filthy boy of all.

Cute nails Pipes. Gabby did not want her nails painted.

Silly Girl.

These blanket loving, thumb sucking girls crack me up.

My friend Jen gave me her old picnic table. Thanks Jen.

In case you aren't Facebook friends with me we are expecting. Part of the reason I have been slacking in the weeding department and others. I'm almost 15 weeks so my energy is coming back and it's time to get to work. 

SLC Baby

This week Scott went to Texas. While he was gone I had to go decorate the church so luckily my regular babysitter is home schooled so she could come over while I went to the church for a few hours. I was on a stake decorating committee. The first meeting there were 8 people there, after that only four of us ever showed up. A few of us ended up doing all the work. Typical. I thought the decorations turned out cute though. 

Scott is now thinking about building a tree house in our backyard or building an outdoor playground. That would be sweet! We really need something back there. My kids never want to play outside unless we are playing in the front yard. I won't let them play in the front yard unless I'm out there with them. Hopefully they would play by themselves in the backyard if it were more entertaining.

On Thursday we headed down to Salt Lake for the weekend. Carole blessed her baby today and it was Scott's birthday yesterday. We woke up early and headed down and met the family at Hires for lunch. Yum! After that I went to the outlet malls in Park City with Carole and Amanda. That night we went over and had a visit with our good friends Phil and Micaela. We love seeing them!

On Friday Corbin wanted to go swimming. He has been wanting to go swimming for a long time now. Mandy bought the kids swimming suits since I forgot to pack them so we figured we had better go. Unfortunately the pool wasn't open for free swim until later than would have been more convenient for us. Corbin and Gabby were in their swimming suits all morning waiting to go. We ended up going at 1:30 and swam for 2 hours. Scott joined us for awhile but had to leave for a meeting. I'm glad he was there because Piper was not liking the swimming pool so I was happy he could take her home with him. Corbin and Gabby were loving it and were not ready to go. Finally after 2 hours and mildly trying to convince them to go I pulled the mommy card and said we were leaving in 10 minutes. Swimming for 2 hours is a long time. I was tired. That night we drove down to Lehi to have Scott's birthday dinner at Porter's Place. That place is yummy.

On Saturday we got up and went to Saturday's Waffles. It was so good! It's a little business that is run in the back of a trailer in a parking lot. They are only there on Saturdays. Their waffles are amazing! Scott wasn't too enthused to start his birthday doing two things he didn't like, waiting in line and waffles. Ha. Well much to his surprise they were so, so good! We will have to go again. Love! We came home and played around in the backyard. Scott's sister Nicole bought a house right next door to Jeff and Janet. We had tons of fun sneaking into their backyard, it is crazy big and has a huge hill and is wild like a jungle. Many adventures to be had for little kids in that yard. Papa took Corbin and Piper on trailer rides, they were loving it. Gabby is much too frightened for such activities. Birthday celebrations continued at Iron Man 3. It was good. Everyone liked it. A few of the men were off to buy new Sunday suits with Janet, (buy 1 get 3 free). After that it was time for Cannonball and burgers on the deck. Poor Janet had to plan, shop, and execute 2 big parties in a row. She deserves some royal treatment now. After burgers on the deck they set up and cooked things for the baby blessing. Scott and I snuck away and got caught up on Parks and Recreation.

Gordon did a great job blessing cute baby Greta. Afterwards there was a fabulous brunch at the Cannons. We slowly got packed up and came home. We couldn't decide when to come home and just decided to go. It's such a terrible drive. This drive home seemed to be particularly terrible! Piper is not our best little traveler. Corbin and Gabby do well. Those were our many Salt Lake adventures. It was a great trip as always.

Lastly I just have to say a few quotes from the kids. They are so funny. Piper came downstairs and she was wearing her bib and Corbin said "take Piper's bib off she's really cute without her bib." They took her bib off and he said, "see, look how cute she is." Funny. On the way home I had to stop at the rest stop (big surprise) Corbin joined me and he was taking his sweet time. I was trying to tell him he needed to hurry and he asked why so I explained it to him to which he replied, "well mom, people need to be patient." Ha! So funny. Don't you love it when kids throw things that you say to them and put it back on you? Hilarious! Gabby says cute and funny things all the time. She also has the cutest voice so it's so funny. Gabby told me there was a spider in her room. I went and checked it out and told her it was a box elder bug to which she replied, "oh, I hope it doesn't get on your pretty skirt." So random and funny. Then she was eating a white popsicle and said, "it's white like Aunt Mandy's dress (wedding dress), me: "oh", Gabby: "but I don't need a dress," me: "you don't" Gabby: "no because I'm little, (pause) like chicken little."

Scott is seeing if he could build a tree house up there. He also cut  down tons of branches.

Seriously Corbin, you get that dirty from coloring on the porch?

Decorations.

Saturday's Waffles!

Uncle Rustin and Piper at breakfast.

Waffle Time!

Corbin and Gabby are so funny they move around like crazy while they are sleeping. Corbin is sleeping at the bottom of the bed here. 

Gabby is sleeping horizontally with her head resting on the suitcase to prevent her from falling off.

Gabby fell asleep under the bed. After we got back from swimming I couldn't find  Gabby anywhere. I wasn't too alarmed, I didn't feel like she was in danger but I sure wanted to find her. Scott was the one that found her. What the heck?

Cannonball. Nice kick Scott!

Presents! Yes my husband is a nerd. Why he likes fakes swords, I don't know?

Carole, Gordon, and baby Greta.

Colie and Rustin's backyard. Adventures with Papa.