Birthday Bash

My parents, both brothers, and my little sister came up last night to celebrate my birthday last night. (We missed having Holly and her fam. there) It was great to be able to do that since I haven't had a birthday with them for a long time. Here are a couple of pictures.
Vance was embarrassed for me as everyone sang "Happy Birthday".

Of course, I needed help blowing out all my candles. Vance knew just what to do.

Thanks for a great birthday everyone!

Birthday Dress

I'm not a huge fan of posting pictures of myself, by myself, but I thought someone might like to see the dress I got for my birthday. Yes, today is my birthday. I'm 26 years old. When I was complaining to Stephen how I was now going to be closer to 30 than 20 he pointed out that I've been that way for a year now. Well, thanks sweetheart! :) Anyway, here's the dress he got me and I'm wearing a necklace from the boys. I showed it to Vance when we got home and told him that it was my birthday present from him so that makes it official. Thanks to my brothers and little sister, who watched the boys Stephen and I were able to go dress shopping kid free. So I only had one bored boy instead of three. Stephen is a good sport, he even held my purse while I was in the dressing room. It pays to have a husband who had three older sisters and no brothers!

My children are adorable

...if I don't say so myself. My boys are constantly doing cute or funny things that I mean to write down, but I don't get around to it and then I generally forget. I seem to get things down on this blog sooner than anything, but I forget quickly. I even have a hard time remember things long enough to share with Stephen when he gets home from work. I thought I'd try and remember some things they do or have done or said lately.
The week before Easter we made Resurrection Rolls. Basically you wrap a marshmallow in a crescent roll and cook it. The marshmallow represents Jesus Christ's body and the crescent roll the tomb he was buried in so I was telling this all to Vance each time we wrapped the crescent roll around the marshmallow. I didn't think he was paying a bit of attention to me. He wasn't acknowledging anything I said and he was trying to stuff as much in his mouth as he could get away with so yesterday when I opened the cupboard and he pointed out a bag of marshmallows and said, "Jesus Christ." I could not help but bust up laughing. I guess something sunk in after all. I then told him what they marshmallows were actually called. I can just picture someone bringing some to church and Vance calling them "Jesus Christ" oh they'd be wondering what the I was teaching my children! Vance is very into anything that has to do with birthdays. He loves talking on the phone and taking pictures with the camera on my cell phone. In fact he refers to my cell phone as his. "Where's my phone?" Um... I hid it from you so you...

Tanner is so funny to listen to and watch. If you tell him to march he will march around the room saying, "March, march, march..." as you can see in the video below. He loves to try and boss us all around. Yesterday he told me to "Come back" twice. One of my favorite things he says is, "Vance (or whoever he's looking for) where are you?" He also likes to wave and say hi. "Hi Mom" "Hi Doggie" The other evening we were in the kitchen and the door opened and Tanner said, "Hi Dad!" and waved before he even saw Stephen come in. I guess he knows Dad had better be the only one coming in without knocking.

The two of them are little partners in crime. I'm pretty sure they plan to have one keep me occupied while the other gets into something. Tanner fights back now when Vance tries to bully rather than just take it like he did when he was younger so I get to break up fights all the time. They do love each other though. When they get up in the morning they say hi to each other and if I tell them to give each other a hug they will both open their arms and hug (most of the time...). If one is doing something fun they will tell the other to come play.
Anyway, I guess I've babbled on long enough about my cuties. I want to do better at writing the little things they do down because I already know I've forgotten so much of the past three years.

My brother's videos

I thought I'd share a couple of videos that my brother, Eric has done. I think they are fun and I think it's cool that Eric knows how to do that kind of stuff. He is my younger brother even though people always tell me he looks older...
To explain the videos, I'll just quote Eric himself.
"I wrote this song in late 2004, recorded it summer 2007, and decided to make a video for it this past week. Edited on Adobe Premiere Pro."


Second video, again quoting Eric:
"I made this video for my class on Final Cut Express. My roommate Ryan came up with the idea and laid out the scenes and I filmed and edited. It was also featured in the BYUI film festival April 1, 2009."

Hope you enjoyed the free entertainment and Eric, I hope you don't mind me sharing them!

Cheap Entertainment

I love how children have fun with the simplest things. He even enjoyed helping me pick it all up once the box was emptied.

Uncle Eric

My brother, Eric finished up his semester at school and is home for the semester. Since his job doesn't start for a few more weeks he is bumming around. Today he bummed around our house and we were sure happy to let him. The boys LOVE Uncle Eric. They think he is wonderful. I know Vance looks mad in the picture, but he was throwing a fit about something else when I made him have his picture taken. It had nothing to do with Eric (don't take it personally, Eric). We moved away from Eric when we moved, but we are happy he is closer again even if it is just for a few months out of the year.

I'm typing, but not saying too much...

I haven't taken a picture since Sunday. Can you believe that? I'm also officially firing myself since I forgot to take a picture of the boys with their Jeppson grandparents while they were in town for the weekend! Next time. We had a fun weekend, thanks for making the trip.
Today is my dad's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! We love you. I really wanted to go celebrate (I know the boys would have wanted to as well), but Stephen couldn't get off work early so no visiting for today.
I have seriously been lacking motivation to do anything this week... I guess someone needs to poke me with a stick, but please don't do it in my back because that is bothering me.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter from our family to yours!

Pants

You know that you've got yourself a great pair of pants when they last

Not one...
Not two...

Not three...

But four consecutive Easters.

Unfortunately, Tanner was too big to wear the shirt and sweater this year but hey, the pants still fit!

Dying Easter Eggs

We dyed Easter Eggs yesterday. Here are a few pictures I took. I couldn't take many because I was too busy supervising, but here's what I got.

Fun Outside

Stephen mowed the lawn after he got home from work last night and so I took the boys out to play for the second time that day. They were sure happy about that! I got them to sit for a couple of minutes and watch their dad. Tanner would wave whenever Stephen walked by and say, "Hi Dad!" Too bad, Stephen couldn't actually hear him. Here's a picture of him waving.The boys wanted me to chase them around so we did a lot of that. They like to count to three and then "Go" and of course at some point they tell me to stop as well.

I have no idea what Vance is doing in the picture below, but it sure cracked me up. He is such a ham sometimes.

Here's one dirty boy in the bathtub. Tanner got a little dirty, but not like Vance.

Pathetic

I stood in front of my closet last night staring. Surely, it couldn't be true. I began to look through each dress that I own and to my horror my fears were confirmed. Stephen and I have been married for 5 years, 8 months and in that amount of time I have bought ONE dress. That is it, just ONE. It was a black dress I got ridiculously discounted this past fall. (Now obviously I have bought maternity dresses in that amount of time.) We are talking just a good old dress to wear to church. Some of you may be thinking, "Okay, but what about skirts?" Slightly better- my mom bought me a cute suit jacket and skirt for my birthday four years ago and I have bought two other skirts since we've been married. I am not lying or exaggerating the truth although I wish I was. That is pretty embarrassing. I own and wear more dresses that I owned and wore in high school than I own since I've been married. Yes, they are worn out, yes there have been times where these dresses fit more snuggly than other times. The fact of the matter is I just need an entirely new wardrobe to wear to church on Sunday. If I wasn't a church going person I suppose this wouldn't be a big deal, but I am and therefore it is. No wonder I stare into my closet every Sunday wondering what on earth to put on. One might think that I don't like clothes or to be in style, but I do. I just have let that take a back seat to not having a lot of money. I am a practical person. I'm going to pick more practical things than clothing for myself, to spend money on, but there comes a time when this is the practical thing. So I turned to Stephen and told him, "You are buying me a dress for my birthday." His response was, "I am thoughtful like that." I'll settle for one even though I need half a dozen more or so. :)

Conference Weekend

We slipped up to my parents last night in time for Stephen to go to Priesthood session with my dad and Glen. It was nice for Stephen to get to go with someone, nice for me to get to have the company of my mom and sister, and nice for the boys to get to hang out with Grandma and Aunt Rose instead of just plain, boring Mom. Hopefully today our boys weren't too distracting for everyone as we watched Conference. Here are some pictures of the boys having fun. I brought some "quiet" things for them to do, but of course they were at Grandma and Grandpa's, they wanted to play and have fun with what they have. Forget quiet! They weren't too bad-I don't think anyway. In fact, Tanner slept through most of the afternoon session today. I hope you all enjoyed Conference and got out of it all or more than I did. I love listen to the prophet and apostles. I know what they say is true and it is SO wonderful to hear what they have to say. I showed Vance a picture of President Monson they other day and asked him if he knew who it was. His reply? "Jesus Christ." Um...no, guess we need to work on that one. ;)

What do you do?

What do you do on a Friday afternoon when your children are tired of you and you are tired of them? Let them sit on the counter and help you make a mix of some yummy junk food for them! Do you think someone is going to report me for giving my 18 month old some mini oreos? I figure I'll pay for it later when they're both hyped up on sugar, but at least it gave me a few moments of happiness for all of us.

Vance is...

• Playful
• Funny
• Energetic
• Bright
• Buoyant
• Determined
• Creative
• Alert
• Dramatic
• Strong
• Honest
• Persistent
• Perceptive
• Entertaining
• Tenderhearted
  

And much much more! Now if I can only remember that these things are/can be positive things when we are both tired and I am at the end of my rope! :)