Fun wherever we are

I can't always get my phone to work or stay on these days, nor can I expect my boys to stand still when theres a ton of toys to play on! There are certain places I go to shop just because there is a place for my kids to play and have fun. Fiesta Mall is one of them. It's not the closest mall to us but definately a preference. These boys have so much energy and I love to let them get it out!
I also have a MASON MOMENT: For some reason had been saying "Bad Mommy" everytime I do something he doesn't like or not allow him to do whatever he wants. We decided to try to have punishments that fit the crime. I told him I'de wash his mouth out with soap if he said it. I followed through and only had to do it 2 times. He now does not say it EVER and when he is about to he quickly says "Good mommy, Good mommy" even if it's something he really doesn't like. What a difference :)

Camping and shooting practice

Unfortunately we didn't get pictures of our campground or the kids or the whole crew but thanks to Ammon we got SOME pictures. Last minute we decided to go camping and invited my wonderful brother and his family to join us. Camping is so much fun with our boys and its a party when we add fun cousins to the mix. It was really quite warm during the day and freezing at night. Somehow the boys stayed warm but I was up all night worried they weren't. Brent's cooking skills really show when we are camping! We woke up and he made some delicious pancakes, bacon and cantalope. We packed up pretty early and went right on over to the spot right by Superior that we love to go hunting for Apache Tears. It's like treasure hunting! We had a lot of fun there with the Curtis's! Then Brent let me get a little target practice in. Who needs golf clubs when you have a gun and a HOT hubby? I was getting some butterflies! On our way out we went to a park and ate some delicious lunch prepared by Nikaela! That potatoe Salad was SOO good! couldn't stop eating it! All in all we had a great time with our family!! So much fun! Thanks for joining us all ;)

My Porter

This little man is already so much! He's a good student, a loving brother, a hard worker, a fun friend, an obedient son, an allergic person, an interesting teacher and so on. Everyday we love this boy more and more! I am in Awe at how much he learns everyday. I am in awe at how much he teaches me everyday. He is loving, patient and kind. Here are some things he's been doing lately...

On the 8th of Feb I taught the boys in preschool the other day and I wanted to see where all the boys were at with ALL their ABC's. Porter whipped these letters out in no time! It was awesome! The next thing we did was working on rhyming and I was really impressed and surprised how quick they picked this up. These boys figured out all these on their own and what letter it took to make the words...so neat to see them grow. Of course Porter was SOO AMAZING! WOW!

One thing we've had to look out for Porter more and more is what he's allergic to. Daddy's allergic to some things and we're finding that Porter is taking after him. He is so responsible when we tell him things he's allergic to that he needs to stay away from. We were at my aunts house one day and they had the cutest little kittens. We left her house and Porter was sneezing the whole way home and had very puffy eye's as well. Ever since then he is really good about staying away from cats, even though they are so cute. He'll even play in the sand at the park instead of the dead grass at the park. We caught him telling his cousin one time, who wanted to play in the grass "You know I can't go play over there, I'm allergic". Poor guy. We had just told him to be careful. The worst experience we had was when we went to play kickball with our Stake and the field was a huge field of dead grass. We came home and he was up most the night unable to breath, was weezing, had the puffy eyes and was just so sick! Couldn't even go to church the next day. Him and daddy both were home trying to get better. These puffy eyes are after going horse back riding for a few hours. We always have the whole family strip down, and shower ASAP when we get home from anywhere we think might be problem. Brent is so great to have around as he knows right away if we do need to take those steps once we get home. :). He knows just what to do and is great at empathizing with him.

We had an incident a few weeks ago. I dropped Porter off to a babysitter and as I was on my way to my meeting and my babysitter called me very frantic telling me how she could not find Porter anywhere. She said he had tried once before to escape through the gate but she caught him.Brent was out of town for work and happened to call just after I got word. He was ready to jump on a plane to come home to find his little boy. I immediately turned around to help look for him. I called some of my friends in the neighborhood and they started looking as well. Of course it felt much longer but I think it was only 15-20 minutes. My sitter was walking around the park near her house with 3 kids when I arrived and I went into her home and started calling for him, hoping he was just hiding and not responding. When we walked out front a couple of the neighbors she had told that he was missing was there and said they found him. What a relief. That was truly the worst 15 mins of my life! I am so thankful, however, for friends and other parents who are understanding and that single mother who saw a little boy alone in the park and kept him there asking where his mommy was and where he lived. Porter just told her that his mommy was at a meeting and our truck was red. We are ever grateful for those people who were the Lords hands in keeping our little angel safe.

Because there was enough trauma for one night I brought him to my meeting and had him write an apology letter to her. (This is his first letter and it turned out so good)

FHE lesson he planned and taught us. What a big boy!
It is so fun to watch Porter on a bike! He's loved them and was such a quick learner! As you can see his little brother is following after his tire prints. Is there anything better in this world than seeing your children playing together and enjoying the same things

FHE Tonight

What a beautiful day it was today. It is rarely cloudy here so when it is we LOVE IT! After daddy got home and we ate some warm stew (my favorite) we decided to start our Family Home evening night with a family Bike ride! We all rode our bikes, daddy on his roller blades, around the block a few times. Even saw A family in our ward doing the same things and ended up hanging out with them for a bit. I was freezing but boy did it feel SO GOOD!

THe best part of tonight was when we got home Porter said " I thought we were going to have a lesson too so we could learn about Jesus." Then he offered to teach the lesson, he said "I need a battery, some paper and glue." I helped him gather the tools he needed to teach and we all sat down for Family Home Evening. Porter was so anxious we had to remind him the song and prayer came first. He's been enjoying conducting lately too. So he started by opening up the Ensign and showing a girl getting a blessing, then showed us a battery and told us how this is has power in it. He then started to cut up paper and have us guess what shapes he was cutting out. After cutting several of those out he told us how Jesus created everything and how he was pretending to be Jesus by creating it all. Then took the glue and started gluing pieces of paper onto another paper, we then got to guess what he was making, which ended up being a road, a bridge, a long road and kept saying " I'll give you a hint" so we could better guess what he was making. When he put the circle paper on there he had us look around the room pointing out things that were also round.

So we had a great time laughing, learning and guessing. It was so neat to see our oldest child taking charge and teaching US about Jesus, or his take on how things usually go. It was really a combination of everything we teach him, he brought it all together. I should also mention that I have NEVER seen Mason so captivated by a lesson before. He sat there LOVING Porter's lesson. What fun!

Day on the lake

Dad (Olsen) invited us to go wake boarding with him and Kathy a while back. We got babysitters and had a great time. Brent is a NATURAL! He can do anything! I on the other hand took about 20 tries before I got up and had a blast. We had quite a week to recover. The weather was great! Water was warm and it was cool outside :)

Work/Family Trip

Brent's job takes him up to a power plant in Joseph City or Holbrook every month or so. SOMETIMES (like twice) we get to go with him! This last time it was absolutely beautiful! There was a little bit of snow on the way. We stopped and threw rocks into a frozen pond and went to the hotel. We got upgrated this last time so we had two rooms and felt like kings!
We found a dinasour by the side of the road and tried to make friends but it tried to eat us. Mason totally got into "fake running away". It was Hilarious!!
We went to the Chinese resteraunt Brent always goes to and had to get all that sticky rice all over
...Porter on the other hand couldn't jump back into the car fast enough. He wasn't totally convinced it would stop at just me.
We went for a ride and walk together. Again beautiful weather

Boys Trip

Porter got to spend a couple days with daddy! They went camping with a friend in the ward and his son. They had a great time and Mason and I did as well. It's great to have some one on one time with each of them! I love these pictures of them.
Porter just looks so grown up here. Him and his buddy. Is he really that old? Can't believe it!

Chores Books

Although we haven't been excellent at it lately, when we are doing our chores everyday and are organized life is so much better. I'm so proud of the responsibilities these boys take on! Porter is really getting to the age he can do things on his own. Today I told them to go clean their room, usually I have to help them stay focused and working, but today Porter really surprised me and said "mom! I'm done!" I went to check it out and sure enough, he had cleaned his whole room! BY. HIMSELF! He does a great job folding laundry, unloading the silverware from the dishwasher, loading the dishes, Putting the books away in the right place on the bookshelf (mom is kind of particular), clearing his plate after meals and making the pillows look pretty on the couch! Mason is great at picking out clothes for himself and getting dressed (usually putting things on backwards), making pillows look beautiful on the couch, cleaning up pieces of paper after a scissor attacked it, clearing his plate, getting his blanket on him all the way, picking up certain toys like all the cars up to put in the box. My friend gave me an idea to add variety to our chores, so one of the boys chores is to "pick a stick" and it's a different job every day. These chores are usually ones that are new that I get to teach them how to do and some are more fun like playing educational computer games. They really like it.

Both LOVE getting to read books! We were having a hard time at bed time lately. They want to play all night long. Then we said they could take 2 books with them to bed and they are much better. Maybe even enjoy bedtime. The other day I caught them reading or looking at the words in the Book of Mormon. What a fun thing to catch your children doing :) I love that they enjoy reading and hope it's something they'll always like doing. One of our favorite places to do together during the day is the library, that happens to be just down the street.

DC Trip

Brent and I were due for a trip, just the two of us. I had two airlines buddy passes from a client doing her hair a couple times. Southwest flies anywhere in the US, so we basically picked the farthest place we could go that would have lots of free fun stuff to do. What better place than Washington DC? We had a great time. We spent most of our time at "the mall" that had tons of museums and historical things to see. We went to the congress building, Abe Lincoln monument, Air and space museum, Arlington cemetery, Holocaust museum, Museum of natural museum, outside the white house, Washington monument, my cousin's house, plenty of yummy restaurants and even found a fun store where I got a great deal on some name brand clothes. What a trip. 5 days came and went too fast!

Going Camping

One of our favorite things to do as a family is going camping! It gets to be more and more fun the older our boys get! It's tough when you have a baby that doesn't sleep through the night in odd conditions and hard when they are crawling around eating bugs and dirt and getting all sorts of dirty. Even when they are in diapers and you have to go to the tent and change them every few hours. All that is behind us now. We love to go and have little adventures and discover the nature. Brent somehow ALWAYS gets up and makes us a delicious breakfast and then takes the boys for a fun long hike while I pull out a good book and get some beautiful quiet time. Porter can go FOREVER and has so much fun discovering new things. Last time they came back telling me what deer droppings look like and how to follow it. Dad is always excited to teach them the ways of a man and so good at teaching them new things! Its a special time to bond and get away from the busy world!

Sometimes even packing up for our camping trip (or rather watching mom and dad pack) get's us tired before the fun even begins. Tired Mason...

Sunday Naps

Wether you plan it or not, it seems sunday is the day of rest and relaxation. I came downstairs and found all my boys asleep on one chair. It was so sweet. I couldn't help but pull out the camera. Those boys sure love to snuggle with their daddy. I can't blame them! I love to snuggle with him too :)

Future Missionaries

For Fathers day last year we took pictures of the boys in missionary attire. It was fun and turned out great!

Soccer

Coach Daddy and Mister Porter man



I had a friend that played soccer growing up and I loved how his mom was always there at every game to support him. I loved that he was part of a team. I loved that he was working for something and getting better at something and being productive. Ever since then I've always wanted to be a "Soccer Mom"!!! I don't know if I am quite considered that from only 2 seasons of it but I loved every minute!! Our first season was interesting. Porter was so excited to play and couldn't wait for his first practice. After weeks and weeks of waiting it was finally time to go!! After only about 10mins he fell his first time and was so embarrassed didn't go back out on the field, not once. That was hard to not be able to give him enough confidence to go back out. The next season, however, Daddy got to coach and it was a totally different ball game. He couldn't get enough of it! He wanted to play any minute he could and was so excited to be out there running around with friends and even scored a point by the end of the season!! YEAH! The greatest part lesson came just the other day when Mason fell down on his bike and Porter went over and told him "It's Ok Mason. Everyone falls down. It's ok" He made Mason feel better and was excited he was able to help him feel better. It was the sweetest thing. Lesson learned. :)

Errands...an adventure!

Just one example of what fun boys are on a daily basis! I find my "short" errand to the grocery store, the library, target becoming an adventure where ever it may be! It's not uncommon to turn around and see both boys one the floor with some kind of gun they've made out of a pen or a stick or anything really defending the ranks from enemies ahead. I may find them hiding from an attack between towels. As we walk out to the car they are sneaking carefully behind any cart, column or bench looking out for enemies that may be ahead. I can sit and watch them for minutes before they realize I'm even in their make believe world. If they aren't defending the universe they may just be playing Clark Kent for the afternoon before they turn into superman. I love these little boys! Life is an adventure with them and so much more fun!