Money Well Spent

I warned the boys about the those claw machines at Wal-Mart.  I told them that all they do is take their money.  "It's a waste!" I said.  Yet, they still wanted to spend their allowance on them.  

It is never a good thing when a Mom has to eat her words.  And boy did I when Calvin won 5 stuffed animals with only one dollar.  Yes, that's right.  That means he picked up two at once.  

I have to find a new reason to use when they ask to play the claw game.  Any suggestions?

Now That Was A Good Time

 Over Easter weekend we had the best time.  Our friends, The Ortons, came over to see us all the way from Arizona.  Our first guests!  So much fun.  I only wish that I had taken more that 2 pictures and that I were smart enough to figure out how to steal their pics and load them to my own blog.  You'll just have to read Kelly's post as well.

What didn't we do?  Well, I'll you what we did do.  We ate a lot.  And then we ate some more.  Then Kelly and I went to Target for Easter goodies where I almost hugged a stranger on accident.  You would think there would be more to that story, but that is actually it.  I turned around, arms open wide, moved in for the hug, and then realized it was weird and bailed.

We had a great BBQ.  A great, windy BBQ and a trip to the petroglyphs.  And for all ya'll that don't know:  that means pictures carved into rocks.  I was smart enough to wear my dressy, slippery sandals for the short, but steep hike.   And I was lucky that Dave was spry enough to chase my two older kids + his two older kids up the mountains.

We had such a nice time with them.  Our kids were instant besties, but have since been trying to figure out where their friends went and why they don't see them consistently.  If you ever get the chance to host  The Ortons, you should really do it.  Their kids are so sweet and good.  And Kelly and Dave are okay.  I mean, we like them well enough, but their kids were the most fun.

Thanks to you Blade Toes and Mother Salt.  We had the best time and can't wait to meet up at the GrandCanyon.

Wyatt getting his picture taken with weird Mario at the community Easter Egg Hunt (which was horrible by the way).  We actually saw this poor Mario get pulled aside and chastised for not being friendly enough.  And I hate to go here, but since he wasn't friendly with my kid, I will:  What is going on with his front butt?  It wouldn't be so bad if he pulled it up a little.  

Here are all the kids at our Easter Egg Hunt.  I don't want to brag, but since it's my blog I'm gonna.  It was a kind of an awesome hunt.  Lots of eggs, good candy, and perfect weather.  Plus, the kids are cute.  

P.S.  Elliot - we found the exercise phone.  Du du du du dunt dunt dunt du.  Du du du du dunt bawr nawr nawr.  And that is how you phonetically spell the music to the exercise phone.

Yeah, they're pretty much famous.

This past winter brought some fun things for the boys.  Wyatt took a tumbling class at the rec center, and he loved it!  I really feel like he found his "thing."  I enjoyed watching him even though it meant dealing with run-around-boy (Cyrus) every week.

Calvin was in his first school play, "The Little Red Hen."  The only bummer was the mass amount of kids that stood directly in front of him, the mass amount of people right in front of us, and the lack of a telephoto lens on my iphone.  Other than that, it was so cute and sweet.  He had a part as a "singer."  At the very end, i ran up and got as close as I could and snapped this pic of him. He's the blurry kid in the middle with the white shirt.  

Then they both played baseball, and that was nothing short of funny.  Wyatt just meandered around the field, except when he stopped to lay down and put his glove over his face in the outfield.  Calvin, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy it.  I think that we will end up putting Cal on a team and letting Wyatt hang out around the concession stand with his Mom.  

Pure D-Light

Noah and I can't stop laughing at this picture of me taken at my very own birthday party.  Have you ever seen such delight or pure joy on anyone's face? What cracks us up the most is that I am so thrilled because Calvin blew out my candle.  You would think from that open-mouth smile fest that I was staring at a brand new car gifted to me or maybe I was just told that all of our student loan debt was paid off in full.  Nope, I'm just happy to have my match-standing-in-for-a-candle blown out by my six year old.  

I actually think what you are seeing is a girl who was ecstatic to bust a move on her birthday cupcakes.   

Cute to Us

Wyatt likes for us to show him youtube videos of his favorite things.  He loves the Yoshi's Island theme song (from the video game).  We think it's cute that he tries to act out all of the different parts of the video.  This is mainly for grandparents, so don't stress if you don't know what the crap I'm talking about.

A Mish-Mash of Pics and Witty Descriptions

 We've just been plugging along, doing our thing day in, day out.  Here you can see little ole' Cy doing his thing.  Namely, climbing on all of the furniture and risking his life for leftover bowls of oatmeal.  He is so adorable right now as he is desperately trying to talk, but he can't actually say anything except "puppy."  Go figure.  You wouldn't have seen that one coming, given Wyatt's obsession.  And speaking of Wyatt, check him out in the background in his uniform.

 Calvin.  He's too cool for school.  Just look at him in this picture.  It totally cracks me up.  He is always telling me about how his "team" (a.k.a friends) at school are soooooo busy.  They HAVE to dig up a huge rock at recess because, you know, that's what boys do.  Then they have to make a leprechaun trap, and he doesn't know if they are going to have enough time to beat the girls in a race by the end of school this year.   He is a reading machine, and it warms my heart to hear him reading so well.  As always, he works hard and plays hard.

Poor Noah was targeted by a bunch of rowdy teenagers late one night.  Alright, not just Noah, several cars in the neighborhood got rocks thrown through their windows.  It has since been motivation to get garage door openers put on the garage doors.  I hate to admit this, but it was a little exciting to deal with.  You know, walk outside, see the damage, call the police.  I even took the rock in the backseat and put it in a bag for evidence.  Errrr......and look like a nerd when the police didn't stop by to pick it up and dust it for prints.  I guess I've seen too much CSI.  

 And so sad, allergies have been pummeling the family here.  We've all had itchiness and hiviness.  Bleh!!! AND, believe it or not, this desert has been making my skin D.R.Y.  I'm afraid I'll be a piece of leather before we get outta here.  I'll take any moisturizing advice you have.  Seriously.

 Wyatt is going through a Donkey Kong/ Diddy Kong phase.  Needless to say, that involves costumes.  He's been wearing them everywhere, including the store and to school to pick up Calvin.  I can't act like I don't love it.  I think it's adorable.

And last but not least, here I am in my P90x before pics.  I know, I really don't have too much to improve on, but it's fun to have a new workout regimen.




Oh, here I am flexing my biceps.




I know.  Really.  Why would I want to work out these abs that are already sooooooo washboard-ish.



(Don't be silly.  There are not before pics.)

A note to family:  we miss you guys so much, especially grandparents and can't wait for you to come visit.  xoxoxo

Santa Fe

Did you know that we live very close to Santa Fe?  Me either.  Until recently.  So we took the trip on a Saturday and found out the following:

• The burritos were not as spicy as we thought they would be.  I kept waiting for someone to jump out from the back in the restaurant and throw some extra spicy peppers on our food, but it didn't happen.  Wyatt is not mad about that.  We aren't sure why he is mad. 

• There are about, uh, fifty ba-zillion art and jewelry stores.  Which turned out great because my kids are totally into art, jewelry, NOT touching expensive things, and not being bored with those kinds of stores.  We hardly ever had to say, "don't touch that or stop running."  We did find one super sweet dog statue that only cost $6000.  I think there's a good chance Wyatt might get it for Easter.   

• There are some cool benches somewhere around that town, and we sat on them, though not very comfortably.  I like the shadows in the pic. 

• Plus, it was super cold, and we had to order an overpriced and not big enough cup of hot chocolate.
• You know, rereading this post, I feel like I'm giving you the impression that we didn't have a good time, but we did.  Noah summed it up best: as we were driving home he said, "I'd be fine if we never went there again."  Ha. Ha.  Noah is so funny.  I, however, would like to go back someday and peruse the art and jewelry stores and eat at one of those fancy pantsy restaurants.  I think it's more of a date place.  Maybe I'll convince the mister to take me back on a date.  That's probably also the same day that I get that $10,000 necklace I thought was so cute.