Sweet moments when they think no one is watching...

Last night when I was feeding the baby Nolan came and asked me to scratch his back. I didn't have a free hand at the time so I told him to wait until I was done. He then went into the living room where Madison was sitting on the couch reading a book. He asked her so sweetly "sissy, will you scratch my back?" She said sure and I decided that I would put the baby down and spy on them. It was so cute. She sat there scratching his back and he had his "serious back scratch face" on. She did it for a while and then he asked her for a back massage. It was pretty funny. She was a good sport, until she started tickling him and it broke out into a wrestling match. Ah, they really do love each other.

After many weeks of Madison having a loose tooth, it finally came out! Judd has been bugging her forever to let him pull it out. She would scream and cover her mouth and hide. On Saturday Judd and I went out on a date and Makenna and Gene were babysitting. She let Gene tie floss around her tooth but then she lost her nerve and decided she wanted to take the floss off. When she went to take it off her tooth basically fell out of her mouth. She says it was pretty funny. Then comes the best part: Playing tooth fairy. Except we couldn't find the tooth anywhere under the pillow! We searched forever but couldn't find it. So we left a dollar and hoped that she would forget about the tooth. Well, the first thing she says when she wakes up in the morning "Guess what?!?! The tooth fairy left me a dollar and she didn't even take my tooth! Maybe I can put it under my pillow and she'll give my another dollar tonight!" She's a thinker, that one. She's been playing with that tooth and even wants to take it to school. She put it back under her pillow (or so she thought) and hoped the tooth fairy would come again. Later that day she went in looking for it and it was gone. We told her the tooth fairy is out of money and snuck in to get it while she wasn't looking. (Judd actually found it on the desk) so at least we're not out another dollar. Now she looks like a little blond hillbilly. Judd calls her picket fence. It almost looks like she has one tooth in the middle of her mouth.

By the way, this is how she looks when she wakes up. Serious case of bed head!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

To the best papa and dad in the whole world!!!

WE LOVE YOU!

OH BABY!

I got the sweetest pictures of my littlest man yesterday. He's so handsome!

Quality Time

We had a really fun weekend! I probably haven't mentioned that I am a very cool wife yet (but I am) For Christmas I got Judd this really awesome Handheld GPS that is also a walkie talkie and can hook up to the computer and download maps and tells the weather forecast, its one of the greatest inventions of all time (besides microwaves and baby swings) It has given us many chances to have some fun family outings. We have been going geochaching a lot, and for those of you who aren't geeks and don't know what that is, I'll break it down for you.

There are these groups of geeky people (sorry if I'm offending someone, but admit it...) who place objects in inconspicuous places and then get the coordinates for that object. They then go and put the coordinates on their website so other people can go and look for them. So we've been searching for these things all over the place. On Saturday we went down to the Riparian Preserve looking around and found a few. One was a treasure box hidden under a bush down by the water (some of these things are really hard to find) It had a bunch of little items in it because when you find it you are supposed to leave something behind and write your name and date on a paper. People thought that we were crazy digging through trees at the park, but what can I say, we are pretty weird. The kids had a blast and I highly recommend it as a family activity, unless you are too cool.

Sunday we were all sick with colds and coughs and decided that we weren't going to go to church. It was such a nice day out, and such a shame that we were stuck inside all day that we lived on the edge a little bit and took everyone up to four peaks for the day. We shot Judd's gun and had a picnic and a hike. It was so nice out.

Coulson was such a good sport. He just chilled out in the stroller while we were shooting. Luckily it was only a 22, so it wasn't loud.

Don't worry, we've not fallen away. Monday night we had FHE on keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. We apologized to the kids and hopefully they are not going to beg us to miss every week now! You should have saw them when we said we weren't going, you would think I told them they won a million dollars. Madison is already giving me trouble about going. Last week I didn't get to go because Nolan was sick then too, so Madison started coughing on purpose hoping I would think she was sick. That girl's has some ideas, let me tell you!

In other news, Lets talk Cardinals. I am not an NFL fan. I am not a pro sports fan of any kind. They get paid too much money and are all a bunch of punks and whine about not making enough money. I can't find it in me to jump on the band wagon. Judd especially can't stand them and all he hears at work is CARDINALS CARDINALS CARDINALS. He is pretty annoyed. I was going through the baby's clothes this week and found a Cardinals onsie. I'm going to dress him in it and see what Judd says when he gets home. HAHA. No offense to my Cardinal loving Friends out there. Larry Fitzgerald does have a nice tush. I will watch just for that reason ;)

Nolan's Birthday

We had Nolan's birthday party this past Saturday. I always try to convince myself that I will take it easy and just do a casual party that doesn't take a lot of work. At least that's how it started out. Then I found all of these cute ideas on web sites and I couldn't resist. I wanted to do sack races, but I couldn't find sacks so sweet Wendy gave me some material and I was able to sew all of the sacs. They turned out really great. Thanks Wendy! The kids had so much fun, except Madison, who couldn't quite figure out how to hop inside of the sack, and just sat on the ground and pouted. We played kickball. That was probably my favorite part. The kids all lined up to kick and the adults were in the infield. Every time a kid would kick we would catch the ball and throw it at them before they could reach first base. They would all crash to the ground and oh my gosh, it was so funny!! I don't know what's so funny about hitting someone with a kickball, but it was hilarious. Sorry again to all of the moms who's kids I injured while playing. Then for the rest of the time the kids just ran around and played on the playground. I made these fun cupcakes that took up most of my party preparation time. They are supposed to look like frogs, but they kind of look like, well I don't even know what they look like, but they were cute. All in all it was a fun morning, and all of the kids took a nap afterward, even me :) This is Nolan and his really cool Batman bike. He was so excited! Don't mind all the crap in the background. That's Judd's weight room/tool shed/storage unit/garage/what ever else we need it to be. Hey, at least my car fits in there!

WARNING: don't look down if you are easily grossed out by a severely messy face.

Coulson had his first experience with one of those teething cookies. (his first little tooth came in last week) He loved it for about 10 minutes and then he would just drop it on the floor and stare at it. That was one of the messiest things I've ever had to clean up. It was a big sticky slobberfest. I think I'll take Marianne's idea and give him a carrot next time.

My Husband: the hard worker

This is a shout out to my man. I've mentioned before how he is so wonderful and does my laundry for me and also lets me get away with buying senseless things now and then (as long as he is properly distracted) and he also bakes. But this is not about all of the wonderful things he does at home, no, this is about the wonderful things he does at his job.

Arrives at work 15 minutes early every day (I think its just to get away from home before the storm hits...)

Gets chased and sometimes bitten by dogs, mostly small ones but the occasional one will be big and he gives it a good "kick to the dome" is how he phrases it.

Gets to see countless numbers of people breaking the law

Nasty toothless ladies hit on him

One time while he was working an order some guy started going to the bathroom on the ground right next to him.

He has been almost jumped several times, threatened with weapons. He has had his stuff stolen. He definitely deals with an interesting lot.

One time on the way to work his car broke down. He was so worried that he would be late that he ran to work. He is very dedicated, like I said.

I am grateful for a wonderful man that gets up and works a hard, honest days work to support his family. I've never once heard him complain in the morning that he doesn't want to go. I'm so glad its him and not me that supports our family.

I'm going to be honest here. I could never keep a job. I don't ever want to go and I would always call in sick. One time I even told my boss that I had been bitten by a scorpion, another time my house caught on fire. Seriously, I was that person at work. I'm so glad I can stay home now!! Thank you to my wonderful husband!! I love you!

Resolutions

Happy New Year!!! I can't believe its 2009! I remember watching some futuristic movies when I was little and the year was supposed to be 2010. They had flying cars and everyone lived in these weird little bubbles. I can't imagine that happening within the next year. Oh wait, with our new president who knows. Maybe we will all go and live on the moon or something.

Judd and I went over our resolutions together last night. There are so many so I've decided to write them down.

My biggest being... to give up sugar and white flour. This is a hard one for me. I have done it in the past though so I think I can totally do it again. The past week I've been doing this grapefruit diet. Where I eat a grapefruit before every meal. Its been awesome. I've lost like 9 lbs in a week!! Its great because all the grapefruit helps you to feel full longer and helps you not have cravings.

Another one was to say "I'm sorry" more. I've said it probably twice since we've been married. Well, really I'm never wrong, so technically I don't have to say sorry, but I'm going to do it just to be nice.

Then my favorite one is to laugh everyday.

Also, I want to enjoy my kids more. I was at the Dr. with the baby a few weeks ago and there was this little girl there in the waiting room with her mom and grandma. She was probably around 4 and very curious. She was trying to talk to her mom and grandma and they just had the meanest looks on their face. She would say "Ooooh Grandma look at this!" and the grandma with her hateful look would say, "Don't touch that, or what do you think you're doing?"

I felt so bad for that little girl. She didn't seem to notice, probably because she sees them looking at her like that all the time. But I couldn't help but thinking how it must feel for a little child to try to express themselves to the people they love most in the world and get a scowl in return. How would I feel if I was scowled at and talked down to all day? Poor little thing. So I guess I'm going to try and be more accepting of my kids, even when they are naughty. That's going to be a hard one.

IN OTHER NEWS!!

Texas is coming to Glendale to play in the Fiesta Bowl!!! Here are the kids representing!!