These Boots Are Made For.....

...... Walking

.........Modeling and Looking Cute

......Riding the belt to Big Brother's Robe

........ Constructing Stuff

.......Dukes of Hazzard entries

.........Cruising for Chicks

.......Playing a little ball

........... and herding and corralling Elephants

........ And so much more.

The boys have both insisted on wearing their cowboy boots all morning today. They are having so much fun being silly and playing so well, I'm not sure if I will ever get them dressed today. It's almost nap time and I'm thinking these cowboys will be sleeping with their boots on ;).

Wordless Wednesday

That's my Caleb

Sometimes the best pictures are those you take when you aren't even trying to get "good pictures". This picture was just a snapshot I took of Caleb during our trip to the zoo today. When I got home and started looking through pics it immediately made me smile and say, "Yep, that's my Caleb." Don't let that pout face fool you, those mischeivious eyes are telling you a story just like they always do. He was trying to pretend to be annoyed that Mom kept snapping pictures. But I think you can tell deep down that he was loving it.
How could I not want to play with at least some basic touchups on this one? So first I cropped out a lot of the background. Who wants Rhino's when you have a subject like this anyway?

Then I had to zoom in onto this wonderful face and brighten those blue eyes of his, just a smidge.

And of course because I love them, I had to do at least one black and white of the same style.

So there are 3 great shots that I think any Mom would be proud to display on their walls or in their office. I am loving the new camera and happy to get a little more photography taking and editing practice in. Little by little.

Play Ball!

Today was Caleb's 3rd Pee Wee game. This year his team is the Tigers. The coach has been playing and practicing them a lot. We thought that might deter him a little bit, but he is still loving it so far. They lost 17-8 today. Caleb played short stop for a couple innings then center field for the rest of the game and fielded a couple balls . At bat he struck out once and hit once making it to first then ended up scoring one of the runs off of another players hit, so he was one happy guy. Here are a few pics of the action to share. First mom of course had to get a picture of him all dressed up in his uniform.


Throwing the ball to first base

Running after a ball

At bat the first time. A swing and a miss!

On first after his hit

And running to second

The twins also had an entertaining time and were loving being outside. Here's some shots of Zaden playing with Caleb's batting helmet.

And my Zaric was happy as can be running around, playing in the dirt and with sticks. Yes sticks are so fun.

Lots more games and I'm sure more pics to share this season. Gooooooooo Tigers!

Groupons

Just thought I would share a new site I found via the wonderful world of Facebook this week. Businesses around the area offer great coupon deals(50-60% 0ff) if they get enough people to buy from this site. So if you are like me and love saving some money, check out www.groupon.com or become a fan on FB to keep up with the daily deals. I have only checked out the ones for Salt Lake but go to the site if you are from our of town and search for deals in your own city. I've already scored 2 great coupons that I can't wait to go use. Enjoy!

Earthquake!

We had a tiny bit of excitement last night at work. We were all sitting there doing our thing when the building felt like it was shaking then I was feeling like I was on a boat and kinda rocking back and forth for a few seconds. I've been pretty tired this week and a little dizzy here and there so I thought it was just me having a spell. Until the others spoke up and one of the ladies said "I think that was an earthquake." What? Earthquake? And then as we all talked about it and we realized all 5 of us there at the time had felt the same thing, it kinda sunk in. I immediately texted Mike and asked my friend Wes to see if they had felt anything, both of whom replied with a "no" and thought that maybe I was just a little crazy. That was until Wes started checking some message boards he visits and sure enough other people through the valley and a couple other counties started posting about feeling something too. After a little research we found it on the U of U website. It was a 4.9 and it was centered about 77 miles NE of SLC. It traveled quite a ways to give us a little shake. So far there has been no reports of damages or injuries but it was a nice reminder that we tend to forget we are living on a fault line here in Utah and need to be more prepared/alert for when "The Big One" hits.

Here's a link to the basics of this quake if you are interested.

Window Seats

I think I need to take these boys out more. They have taken a liking to making their own window seat out of the end table and watching the cars go by out the front window. I think they are dreaming of all of the care free summer days to be spent outside soon enough.

Decisions, Decisions

Mike and I sometimes have the hardest time making decisions. Our normal babysitter threw us for a loop a couple weeks ago and told us she didn't want to care for the boys over the summer months. Which meant it was major decision time again for us. We have been weighing the options: try to find another sitter who will charge the same for 2 hours a day and is nearby (not likely), changing work schedules will work for a while but not forever, me quitting which means less "play" money and less money for our upcoming vacations. We've gone back and forth with each other and even the babysitter on changing around my schedule to meet her schedule and to work it out.
To add to it, Mike has been extremely busy at work lately and that has required him to stay later a lot of days which means he's been late picking them up or I've been late to work etc. So we started thinking ahead to what will happen when the summer months have passed. Sure I can change my schedule and endure it through then, but at the end of July Caleb starts first grade and will be in school all day, which means one of us needs to be home at 3:20 everyday to pick him up. There is no room for "running late" for this since we have no family or friends nearby to ask to pick him up for us. And that's not do-able for Mike on an everyday basis.
After much discussion and going back and forth we decided that we really needed to make a decision and stick to it. So we are splitting the difference of 2 options. I will change my schedule for the next 2 months to be 3:30-8 and have Mike meet me at the college to pick up the kids everyday. Then I will be quitting at the end of June. This option will also split the difference for the 4 months I had left on my one year temp position with SLCC. I will work 2 of it and not work 2 of it. I have offered to help at SLCC here and there when needed and I hope they will take me up on that.
I turned in my official letter this morning, so the cat isn't out of the bag quite yet for the rest of the office to be notified. We'll see how that goes when my supervisor returns later this week. 79 days until I am again a full-time SAHM. I am happy and sad about it all at the same time. But I think this is the right decision for everyone. I'll let you know if anything changes.

What a Week!

This past week just flew by! I can't believe how fast time seems to be going now that we got past the month of March. We haven't seemed to slow down since we kicked off April with the twins birthday party and Easter.
On Monday we took the boys to their 2 year old well-baby checkup. Zaric weighed in at 23.1 lbs and was 32 inches long. Zaden is slightly (but not much) larger weighing in at 23.3 lbs and measuring 32.3 inches. Although they are still a little under the curve, we are pleased with these measurements, it's miles away from my tiny 4.2 and 4.6 lb babies when they were born. They are doing great as far as motor skills go. The Dr and we are slightly still concerned in the language dept. He suggested we try early intervention (as we had to with Caleb). We talked it over and have decided to wait it out a little longer and see what happens. considering that they are gestationally still 8 weeks away from technically being 2, we aren't super concerned at this point. We'll keep you posted. The overall appt went great until the immunizations were given which was a total scream fest.
A couple of hours after leaving the Dr.'s office Zaden came down with a fever. We assumed it was just from the immunizations and took him to the sitters house while I went to work. It hadn't gotten any better by the time I got home and in fact started reaching up to 104 degrees. We called the night nurse and she told us to just keep watching him and trying to combat it with Tylenol and Motrin. We did so and made it through the night. We had a decent morning and then around noon it came back reaching 103.3. So I called the nurse again and they got us right in. Good news : Probably not caused by the immunizations. Bad news: Virus, nothing we could do for the poor Doodle but wait it out and keep up with the meds. The next morning, Caleb came down with it too. We decided to keep them home for a couple of days which led to me going in late and Mike having to leave early from work several days in a row. All of which resulted in more stress and crabbiness than we really needed.
Finally the weekend hit with much relief to not have to juggle schedules. Friday night was time to catch up on the grocery shopping then I spent time giving all 4 boys haircuts. Saturday came and we got an early start with baseball opening ceremonies and Caleb's first baseball game. We hit the park at 9 am and it was still too chilly for the babes. They were pretty miserable so I brought them home with me while Mike stayed and watched the game (sorry no pics this week). They ended up tying at 6-6 and Caleb struck out twice and got one hit while up to bat and also fielded a ball so overall he was pleased. After we picked them up we grabbed some lunch and ran an errand then it was home for a bit while we got ready for our next outing. Family Pictures. We met an old high school acquaintance of mine in Lehi and did a little photo shoot. It will take a couple of weeks to get them all and show them off but below are a few she sent me early. I will be sure to share the favorites when I get the finished product. Then we decided since we were all dressed up with nowhere to go, we should do something. So we ended up going to The Pie for dinner and getting some ice cream together as a family. After we got home Mike and Caleb went on a little Daddy-Son outing and went to see "How to Train Your Dragon" while I stayed home with the twins and started laundry and watched a movie of my own. They loved the movie and can't wait for it to come out on DVD to add it to our collection. Then came Sunday. Caleb and I spent a good chunk of the day in Lehi again getting my hair dyed and playing with possible hair styles for our Vegas trip next month. Holly did great as normal and Caleb loved being able to play at her house with his friend Braxton. Then it was home to finish out the afternoon/evening and finally get a little bit of rest. According to the calendar, this next week is shaping up to be just as crazy. So we'll brace ourselves for the ride and hang on!

Bunny Visit

Even after a big day of partying, the Easter Bunny still managed to make an appearance at our house. The boys woke up to some fun filled Easter buckets this morning.


Caleb loved everything in his bucket. He received some SpiderMan goggles, Spongebob stickers, a new book, A Crayola Color Explosion kit, some baseball and football cards, modeling clay, a parachute man and of course some candy.

The twins had fun taking things out of their baskets too. They didn't do it as neatly as Caleb though. They each got a new book, new airplanes, a new mini bat and ball and some candy of their own.

By this time Caleb had already cleaned out the family room of eggs and we set off with the twins to find some of their own.

Zaden had to take a break in the middle of finding eggs to take a spin on the new Sit and Spin from Aunt Tracey and family for their Birthday.

Then back to eggs and filling up his bucket.

Zaric was also busy finding eggs.

One he figured out there was candy inside of all of them, we had to open every one and hear him yell "num nummy!" for each one.

It was a fun start to the morning. We woke up once again to a blanket of new snow so that will cancel any activity ideas that we had been talking about today. Sounds like the rest of the day will be spent resting and recuperating after such a fun weekend. Now if the maid would show up to clean up the rest of the party and Easter morning messes, it would be a perfect day.

Hoe-Down at Ouren Ranch

Today was the day for the big 2 year olds party here at Ouren Ranch. As you can tell from the slideshow, the Little Buckaroo party was a success. We had some of the cutest little cowboys and cowgirls I've ever seen join us. My entire family was able to make it from Price as well as a few of our friends. The decorations (both made and bought) we also a success and super cute (especially the outhouse door cover for the bathroom). We had a good time watching the kids and we also broke out my new Just Dance game on the Wii to shake our booties. Thanks to everyone that came to make this a special day for the twins.

Colorful

One word to sum up today: Colorful. This morning we woke up to a fresh blanket of White Snow. I had the day off since our sitter is out of town and had some things planned like family photo's. However, since they were supposed to be outside they were canceled due to the above said white! So I planned a trip to Lehi anyway to deliver a Birthday present to a friend's boy who's Birthday is tomorrow and we had to miss his party yesterday while I was working. Well they too had presents to deliver to the twins since they have to miss our party. So we decided instead to meet in the middle and have lunch together. We decided to go with a simple IHOP trip and met up and exchanged gifts. The waitress noticed that it was all of their Bdays and gave all of the kids balloons. We ended up with an Orange and 2 Yellow ones. Then after our meal they brought out dessert for all 5 kids and sang to us. Bonus!


After lunch we headed back home and were met with loads of mail containing cards for the twins Bday. We didn't open them all but the couple that we did were filled with some Green cash for the twins to spend (Thanks Bert and Sam). And also a big package from Grandma Braska. Normally her packages of gifts contain very nicely wrapped gifts inside so I thought nothing of opening the box and getting out the gifts to save for the party. To my surprise they were unwrapped because she had made them their own Colorful stuffed hippos to pack around. Ooops! early Bday presents it is! Mike and I each have one from her and they love them so they were excited. They packed them around a bit and then also tried to ride them like horses.

Well since our family pictures were canceled and by now we had received a phone call letting us know that baseball practice was cancelled (thanks again White), Dad came home, so we started up the egg dying ahead of schedule. I think the pictures speak for themselves of all of the Multi-colored fun we had.

I don't know if the eggs or the kids or mine and Mike's hands won the most Colorful. Let's just say we were all recipients (willing or not) of some unnatural hand colors.

I'm not sure if this day will hold any more colors for us, but after a day like today who could be Blue about that?