back to normal

summer is over - boo! school has started - yay! and things are back to normal - somewhat! we had such a fun and fabulous summer! as busy and hectic and tiring as it was, i wouldn't have changed a thing about it. jensen and burton have been back to school for 2 weeks and are loving their new teachers and being back in touch with their friends. jensen is in 3rd grade and burton is in 2nd...where does the time go!!!??? fall soccer has started and i must say that with soccer 4 nights a week, i am counting the days until it is finished! only 2 more weeks!! we will have to make sure to have the boys' soccer on the same nights in the spring! and maybe brent will only coach 1 team instead of 2??? as fun as it has been to watch the jensen and burton improve their soccer skills and really enjoy playing, it has been crazy! i really have become a soccer mom - washing uniforms, filling water bottles, driving to practices/games, and cheering from the sidelines. it has begun!! and i really do enjoy watching the boys excel and grow in their abilities.

evan started preschool this fall. he goes on tuesday and thursday afternoons and is really liking it. he is such a confident and social boy and already loves his teachers and classmates. and everyone loves evan! with his big brown eyes, cute little grin, and adorable personality, it is hard not to love evan! his preschool teacher has already told me what a special and wonderful little boy evan is and how much she would just love to take him home. and all i can say to her is, "take a number." really, that seems to be the response he elicits from just about everyone he meets. i am just glad that i DO get to take him home every day and keep him forever and ever...because i am his mom.

paigey continues to be a delight in our home. being the only girl makes her that much more special and we all love her so much! she loves to dance, play hide and seek, play with her brothers, and be a part of everything. her hair has lost most of its curl and really bleached out this summer. she loves to explore! and she is my little shadow - she follows me around the house, helping where she can, and gets the biggest kick out of throwing her diaper in the garbage. all i have to do is look at her and she smiles. and as much of a mommy's girl as she is, she is always SO excited to see her daddy when he comes home from work at lunch time and at the end of the day. paige's giggles and smiles bring such joy to each of us. and i love her little, or rather BIG, personality.

things are good. life is great. we are happy!

phew!

so, i am finally sitting down and updating our blog. we have been busy!!!! of all the weekends we have had since the end of june, we have only been home for 2 of them! although the summer has been a blur with all the traveling and activities, it has been G!R!E!A!T!! first and foremost, we have spent so much time with our kids. waterskiing, wakeboarding, kneeboarding, wakesurfing, tubing, and dancing it up on our new toy - the one that has been sitting in our garage since last november, waiting to be used, our best purchase to date, totally worth the scrimping and saving, and so much fun!!!!!!

our new boat. we love it! we have put so many fun and fabulous hours on our boat. with friends and family. jensen and burton have both learned how to waterski and kneeboard this summer and get better every time they go. even evan goes out on the kneeboard and has found a new love for tubing. paige loves to "shake it" when we crank the tunes and loves cheering her dad on when he is doing his sweet tricks.

brent continues to amaze and impress me. yes, even after 10 years he still does it for me! i love to watch him wakeboard, pulling flips, spins, twirls, and superman's left right and centre. he really is amazing to watch. and he assures me he loves to watch me ski...

i sometimes wonder if he is just being nice because he is also a brilliant water skiier! regardless of my skill level, i do love to waterski! there is nothing like throwing rooster tails on a lake, skiing across glass like water. seriously one of my most favorite things to do!!!!!

we camped with friends, stayed for a week in a SWEET lake house on hayden lake in idaho with family, welcomed a new niece, gretchen, in to the family (and a nephew, jasper, in may!!), went with my beautiful sister jessica to the temple for her first time, spent a week at the farm with mom/gran and dad/papa, had my brother rob out for a camping trip that turned in to just days at the lake while sleeping at home, went camping again on lake pendorielle
with brent's brother jeff and his family and my brother rob tagging along (again!! i swear it has been the "summer of rob" around here...and i love it!!!!!!!! he is leaving on his mission in october and i LOVE all the time we have been able to spend with him!!! i love him a lot!!!), found a new favorite local spot to cliff jump in to crystal clear water - a truly beautiful little mountain lake!!, not to mention all the day trips to the beach with the kids while brent is at work.

we really have been going and going and going! i must admit that i am starting to feel a bit worn...but i wouldn't have it any other way! we have been able to have so much fun and make some lasting memories this summer with those i love the most - and i wouldn't trade that for anything. it is worth being tired for!! even as i type this blog, my younger bros are coming out for the weekend. i am glad that andrew is able to come this time!! he has been busy working all summer and i have missed hanging out with him! i am grateful for any time that i get to spend with my siblings! so, another weekend of the lake and boating, followed by YWs camp next week, then another week at the farm with my family, my mom's 50th birthday party on labor day weekend and then back home for a while.....just in time for school to start again.

like i said before, PHEW!!!

click here and here for a photo representation of our summer of fun!

rewind

this is a picture of me roughly 27 years ago. i am standing on the stairs at my gran and papa's house.

here is a picture of paige, taken a few weeks ago, on those same stairs.

i love the feeling that these pictures give me. kind of like things coming full circle. i love my grandparents and cherish the relationship that i have with them!! how it warms my heart to have them so involved in my life and the life of my children - that jensen, burton, evan, and paige have a relationship with them and have been able to feel of their love as i have.

looking at these pictures also makes me realize (yet again) how much i love and adore my little girl. how precious is my paigey! how beautiful is my daughter. how blessed i am to be her mother.

Nuts for Bolts etc now open!

so, this post is a few weeks late but oh well! our online fabric store is now up and running. check us out at www.nutsforboltsetc.com. also, we have our own blog for our store so add it to your blog lists! it is www.nutsforboltsetc.blogspot.com. we are so excited to FINALLY have our website up and running!! we have some really great stuff and i encourage you all to check it out....and, all subjectivity aside, we really do have some great stuff:)

2 birthdays and a baptism

we ended our birthday month with paige's first birthday last friday, april 30th. with 3 kids all in april, our house was full of balloons and decorations for weeks! it really was the party house. jensen turned 8 at the beginning of april but we weren't able to get all the family together for jensen's baptism until the last weekend of april. as it was also paige's birthday that weekend, we were also able to have a fun party for her! paige was in good form for her first birthday - charming the crowd, "saying" cheese for pictures, laughing at everyone, and just being her regular happy, delightful, and adorable self.

how we love our paigey cakes!!! what a wonderful addition she has been to our family. i can hardly believe that it has been a whole year since she was born!! i LOVE having a little girl - i love having a daughter. she definitely holds my heart in her hand. one look with those big blue eyes and i am all hers - and i think she is starting to figure this out!! not good. i think this will eventually catch up to me but for now i can't help but spoiling her with all the attention she asks for and more! paige says a few words - hello, hi, daddy, mom. i think it is funny and somewhat telling that her first word was hello and she always says it when the phone rings...indicative of things to come!? this girl will never be getting her own cell phone! unless she smiles really sweetly at me with those baby blues. then i just might change my mind! seriously, we are all so in love with our little paigey!

moving on, jensen was baptized on may 1. i found my self questioning whether i was even old enough to have a son getting baptized!!!?? and, yes, sadly i am! actually, not sadly as it was a wonderful weekend with my oldest son! how touched i was by the spirit as i looked at my oldest boy, all dressed in white, with his dad, waiting to be baptized and then entering the waters of baptism. what a sweet and special boy he is and i am so thankful and feel very blessed to be his mother. it really was a wonderful day, filled with family and the spirit. how i love jensen! and how thankful i am that he is gaining his own testimony of our Heavenly Father and His plan of salvation.

i feel very blessed.

and last but not least, we celebrated brent's 33rd birthday a few days after jensen's baptism. i am so in love with my man and am fully convinced that he really is the world's best husband. after all, he has to put up with me and all the angst that i must cause him!

and poor brent - all i "made" him for his birthday was drumstick ice cream cones! really, i was so birthday caked out that i just couldn't muster the energy to make another one. with 3 birthdays and a baptism in 4 weeks, can you blame me?? the kids and i made up for it by taking him out to dinner on the weekend. the birthday dessert they brought for him was WAY yummier than anything i could have made!! we sure love you brent - even if you are an old fart!

another birthday

this little baby turned 4 today. my littlest boy, my sweet evan is now a whopping 4 years old. i remember jensen was 4 when evan was born! and now our evan is 4. wow! and he is just as adorable now as he was then - seriously....



this last year with ev has been especially fun for me. with jensen and burton both in school all day, it has just been paige, evan, and i at home. and it has been a great experience for me to spend so much time with evan. we play bakugan's, transformers, animals, pets, finding eggs, and all sorts of other made up games. we color, do stickers, make stuff, play video games, read books, draw, snuggle, watch movies, go to the library, go swimming, and ride bikes. evan is my number one helper, whether we are grocery shopping, running errands, or just hanging out at home. he is always up for a snuggle and loves to give me, his mom - who, for whatever reason, he adores! lucky me!!! - special things (which are hugs and kisses). he thinks i am the best mom because i let him be in charge and make up the rules when we are playing. evan has a handful of imaginary friends that he likes to play with and talk on the phone to - annika and stephen (they are both boys) have been around for about 9 months now. others, like zeebee and coleman, have just recently joined the group. he talks about these friends as if they were real and sometimes brent and i wonder if they just might be? we sure hope not as annika and stephen are both 48 and live in australia. evan constantly makes us laugh with the grown up things he says. and also makes our hearts melt with his big brown eyes and sweet and sincere personality. he really is a blessing in our home and we love him to pieces!!!


happy birthday evan!! or, as evan said today, "happy furball!!" apparently that is how you say "happy birthday" in spanish.


p.s. funny evan story - this last week evan and i picked up decorations and a pinata for his birthday party. he was so excited that he wanted to have his party that day - i think it was on thursday. we weren't having his party until saturday (yesterday) and i kept telling him that we couldn't have his party that day. finally, after asking a million times and getting the same negative response, evan looked at me and said, "mom, if you tell me one more time that i can't have my party today, you're fired."
nice.

nuts for bolts etc. blog in the works

so, i will be creating our own blog for nuts for bolts etc. in the next week or two - as soon as i find the time to sit down and do it!! but, for now, this will work. we posted some more pictures of some new flannel we just got in on our facebook page and flickr site. click here to view (the last 7 pics are the new ones)! my mom and i are getting together this coming weekend for jensen's baptism (yay jensen!!) and paige's first birthday (that came fast!!!!) and will be sitting down, finalizing our price list, final checking our inventory, taking pictures, and getting ready to open our online store!! we should be good to go by the second week of may!!! YAY!!!!!!! i am nervous and excited! i guess if we don't sell anything, we will just be stuck with some really great fabric that we will have to use - i guess there are worse things:)

TTFN!