Hurting Cheek Muscles...

...from laughing so hard!

Pete and I, for our anniversary, went to see Brian Regan, the comedian last night. Needless to say, it was hilarious! He's a really funny guy. And the best part-he's a clean comedian! No bathroom jokes, no foul language.

I loved it!

Here's a clip from one of his stand-up shows. Enjoy!

Lazy/Crazy

Nothing new to report. We've been really lazy. REALLY lazy.

And it has been AWESOME.

Sleeping in. Watching movies. Playing outside. Playing inside when it's too windy or cold outside. Just doing the day to day, but it's filled with a lot of free time.

Jake woke up today, and said, "Mom! Today is the first day of summer!" He ate really fast, got dressed really fast, and then ran outside. After 3 minutes, he came back in and said, "Um, it's cold and windy out there!" I think he thought that, because it's now officially summer, it's automatically nice and warm out. Not so for Idaho.

Today is Pete's and my 8th anniversary. YAY! Pete sent me some crazy beautiful flowers. Getting flowers rocks! And tonight we're going to go to Toy Story 3 with our kids to celebrate.

And wanna see something way crazy? Watch this, from here:



Crazy, huh?

Like I said, nothing to report. Just being crazy and lazy.

The Buffalove Vay-Cay, Part 2

And now for the exciting conclusion of our trip! YAY!

On Friday we went to Palmyra and Fayette.

By the way, I need to do a little shout-out to my cute sister, Brianna. If the whole nurse anesthetist thing doesn't work out for her, she could open a bed and breakfast. She was all, "Here are three different towels for each of you. And here are some chocolates for you in your room. And I didn't know which of these three drinks you preferred the most, so I got all three." Seriously, just so accommodating. And even though she's been to all of these things a million times, she still drove us all over the place and went with us to all this stuff.

At Palmyra, we went to the Hill Cumorah, and to the visitor's center there. It was really fun to walk around and see all the things there.

We also visited the Grandin Building, where the Book of Mormon was published. They showed us the whole procedure of making books back then. I couldn't believe that they made 5,000 copies with such an arduous process.

Then we went to the Smith farm. It's so funny that Pete is way taller than the door frame to the Smith home.


All the buildings were just so teeny tiny. I couldn't believe it.


The Palmyra temple is on the Smith farm land.


I tried to take a picture of the stained-glass windows in the temple. Obviously, it would be way beautiful on the inside, but you could still kind of see the pattern on the outside. I love stained-glass windows.

Then we got to go into the Sacred Grove. I had no idea how big it was, nor did I know it was also part of the Smith's property. It was so beautiful, and so peaceful. No wonder Joseph Smith picked this spot to pray.

There's a stone wall running through the property. It's speculated to be part of an old fortress or boundary of some sort, but no one knows for sure.

We drove a little further to see Fayette, where the Peter Whitmer farm. They have a really cool church there.

Attached to the church was a visitor's center. They had pictures hanging up, drawings and paintings from the first Ensign. I liked this one a lot, of Joseph's mom getting ready to be baptized.

Here's the main room of the Whitmer home. Again, crazy small. I couldn't believe that they squished 50ish people in there when the church was organized.

I had no idea that Mary Whitmer, Peter's wife and David's mom, also got to see the Gold Plates. I guess she was a little overwhelmed and frustrated with so many house guests, and she went out to milk the cows. The angel Moroni came down and showed her the plates. How awesome is that?

See? Tiny.

Then Saturday we...just kind of hung out. We saw Shrek 4, and, um, hung out. I hope Brianna wasn't too bored with us. But it was just so nice to sleep in, and read, and play games, and watch movies, and not be time pressured for anything. Very very fun.

So, there you have it! I recommend going to Buffalo and seeing the nearby sites to anyone. Especially if you stay at Hotel Brianna and Spencer. (Love you guys!)

The Buffalove Vay-Cay, Part 1

Pete and I just got back from a fabulous trip! While my mom watched our kids (thanks a trillion, Mom!), we traveled out to see my sister Brianna and her husband Spencer, who happen to live near Buffalo, New York.

We drove to Salt Lake Tuesday, and ate at-where else?-Benihanas. YUM! We stayed with Pete's brother's fam that night, and flew out early Wednesday morning. We landed in Detroit, where they had this crazy tunnel in the airport that was playing trippy water-like music, and had the lights along the walls change colors. It was a little creepy. Kind of like the tunnel on "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". Pete's doing the move that Jakob does when he...just doesn't know what to say.


On our flight from Detroit to Buffalo, there was a chick that had gold shoes. I don't know if I should be appalled because they are so tacky, or reverenced because she has the gall to wear them.


Once we arrived, my cute little sister picked us up, and showed us where she works. She has two jobs; one is right next to the airport, where she is on a flight rescue team as a nurse. Beej thinks the flight tower looks like Isengard from "Lord of the Rings", which it totally does.



Beej showed us the flight helmets. Pete looked like Luke Skywalker on "Star Wars IV". Beej even wears an orange jumpsuit like Luke's when she flies.


Speaking of helmets...

...we also got to see where Spencer works. He works for the Buffalo Bills. So we got to see their equipment and gigantor shoes and unlimited supply of gum.

Yep-that's us on the 50-yard line at the Bills' stadium.


We visited Niagara Falls on Thursday. It's really close to Buffalo.


A random fortune-telling machine, that looks just like the one from "Big":


So, there are kind of two parts to Niagara Falls. There's the U.S.A. part, a.k.a. the Lame part, and then there's the Canada part, a.k.a. Mega Powerful Insanity. They are right next to each other, so to speak, so we got to see both. Here's the Lame one:


And here's the Mega One, the one so-far-down-that-you-can't-see-the-bottom,-and-even-if-it-wasn't-that-tall-you-couldn't-see-the-bottom-anyway-because-of-the-mist-rising-up One.

We took a little boat ride that takes you past the Lame one (which, even though I call it lame, it's still very very cool), and rides right up to the Mega one. They give you ponchos to wear, and for good cause-they barely enter the edge of the horseshoe shape of the falls, and it feels like you're in a rain storm-because of how much mist is coming off the falls. So. Awesome.

And, just as we were leaving, an actual rain storm started. I've only seen it rain like that once or twice before. Beej's windshield wipers were going as fast as they could, and it looked like they might as well have not been on. It was crazy.

Thus concludes part one of the telling of our awesome trip. Stay tuned for more!

In This World

I love the things that little kids say, when they get phrases mixed up. I also love the phrases that kids make up as well. Here are a few examples from The Nat Pack:

Jakob, to his brothers: "Trees like to drink root beer." I explained that no, trees like water, but I can see where he's coming from with the root beer. After all, trees have roots, don't they?

Brock: "Are there ___________ in this world?" Fill in the blank with anything. Seriously, anything. Vampires, elephants, plants, houses, aliens... you name it, he's asked if it's in this world. I think he's asking if it exists, if it's real. But it's such a funny and cute way to ask.

Brock: if he's asking for "chee", he wants just one slice of cheese, thank you very much. Which makes sense. He's just taking off the "s" to make it singular.

Troy and Brock: if either asks you to "slip me up", they are asking if you could zip up their coat or jacket. They can both say the "z" sound, but for some reason, it's slip, not zip.

All: you will be considered naked, or called a "naked guy", if your shirt is off. Pants on, but shirt off? Naked guy.

All: Special adventures. Not bonus features, not special features. Special adventures, like deleted scenes or previews, are included on DVDs.

Troy: Flow-up. No, not what may first come to your mind. It's actually a Fruit Roll-up. Go figure.

Brock and Troy: getting fired? It doesn't mean losing your job. It means something is on fire. Like the part where Muntz sets Mr. Fredrickson's house on fire on the movie "Up". The boys say Muntz "fired his house".

All: "We're playing a drinking game!" Nope, no booze involved. They were copy-catting each other while drinking at lunchtime. If one would pick up his cup, all the others would, and they'd all drink at the same time.

Brock: "I'm so exciting!" Yes, while he is a very exciting child, he was trying to say he was excited.

Troy: In an attempt to also say that he was excited: "I'm so sexing!" I'm glad he's just three.

So there you have it. Just a few translations, in case you get confused in this world.

Brave New World

I'm the kind of person that likes to start a project, and finish the project, without having other projects that are half completed.

My current life? So not like that right now. And it drives me crazy. I have a bunch of half-way, kind of started, PROJECT projects laying about. Like, big humongous, can't tackle in one sitting kind of projects.

For instance, I've started in on my genealogy. That's not just a one hour, or one day, or one week project. It's actually kind of an ongoing thing.

Or painting. Sure, I got Ivy's room done, but I have a huge 5-gallon thing of paint, sitting in my kitchen, just waiting. Waiting for me to clean walls and fix dings and move furniture and cover up carpet in my downstairs family room, and get kids out from under my feet so I can paint the dang white walls a beautiful blue already.

Scrapbooking. Neverending. About, oh, two plus years behind on that now.

Anyway, because I'm crazy, or JUST NOT BUSY ENOUGH, I've taken up a new "hobby", if you will.

Couponing.

Week after week, I'd go grocery shopping. And week after week, I'd get more and more frustrated at the prices of the items that I'd be buying, and my grand total.

I had heard the whole schpeal before: get coupons, hit the sales, yadda yadda. But I had never put forth the effort. Then my cousin and his wife came up not too long ago, and my cousin starts bragging to my dad about his wife's mad shopping skills, how she can literally come home from the grocery store with a car full of groceries, having not spent a single dime. And I got all jealous, and motivated, and thinking, maybe I can do that too.

So I started. And it sucks.

Don't get me wrong. It's good. And I'm still very motivated. But that first Sunday, when I sat down with 5 newspapers, attempting to separate ads and coupons and all that, it took me hours upon hours to get through it all. That was two weeks ago. Last week was better. It didn't take me as long, and I actually found some things that I knew were a good price, and was able to actually match up a coupon with a sale. (Yes, singular. But hey, I'm still just starting out.)

I figure if I can save even $25 a week on groceries, that's $100 a month. That's my starting goal. The first week, I spent just as much on groceries, but I got a ton of frozen chicken (it would normally have cost me $60 to get the amount of chicken that I spent $28 on). Last week I spent about $20 less than I normally would have. And this last shopping trip, I spent $103 but saved $100. YAY! I also got hot dogs, which normally I'd spend $1 on a package, but each package was 38 cents instead. So, thus far, I'm shooting about 50% off on 50% of my grocery needs. That's not too bad. Not too good, either, but I'm just starting out.

I've realized that this new "project"/way of life is going to be slow going. That I'm sure I'll get frustrated. And, I hate shopping, and making several stops. I know that there will be a big learning curve. But, I love saving money. I love that I feel smarter with my money. I know that there are a lot of ladies out there that know the system, and can help me out. I know I'll get better at it. And even if I can't hit $0, at least I'll be spending less than what I was.

Coupon world, here I come!

The Graduate, Take 2

Well, it's official!


Brock is done with preschool! It was just barely nice enough that we had the "ceremonies" outside in his teacher's backyard.

Brock has had a blast this year. His teacher, Miss Karla, is super awesome. I think about how I was (*ahem* absolutely batty) with Troy's preschool group (6 kids, twice a week, only 6ish times the whole year), and I am in awe of Karla doing two groups of 12 all year long. They learned the pledge and a whole bunch of songs. She taught the kids a lot of sign language signs.



They also did a play not too long ago: The Three Billygoats Gruff, and Brock was the Troll. SOOO cute.


Brock has grown so much this last year! He knows some of his letters, can color and draw really well, and I guess is quite the puzzle guru. He can even write his name! Kind of! (Well, if his name is "Byonx", then he's got it down perfect. That's another thing we'll be working on this summer.)



They did field trips, and Zoophonics, and tons of crafts. I love Miss Karla, as do my kids. I am really excited to have Troy go to her preschool in the fall.

Good job, Brock!