Buttle Family

Scouts From Jared's Point of View

2011-04-03T18:43:00.000-07:00

Me and my best friend are racing.

Jared has to write a blog for part of his badge for Weblos. He is working hard and having fun. Me holding my pine wood car.

My brother holding his pine wood car.

Me holding my third place trophy I was very happy.

My little bother holding his pine wood car.

This is my ribbon, my car, and my trophy.

This is my moms car.

This is my little brothers car.

This is my other brothers car.

This is all our cars.

This is me getting my weblos.

This is me getting my face painted.

This is me getting the pin to pin on my dad.

This is me pining my pin on my dad.

This is me with my face painted.

Happy Birthday CALEB

2011-02-16T05:24:00.000-08:00

I can't believe my baby is 4, time goes by way too quick. He has been so much fun to be around. He brings smiles to my face everyday.

Caleb loves playing with all his friends and all of his brothers friends. He thinks he is as old as them.

He always is there to help Mom in the kitchen. He loves to mix and pour.

LOVES playing with his Buzz and Woody. He has such a great imagination.

Caleb is do excited to be four.

We love you Caleb. Here are a few of his favorites:

Color: Red

Food: Chicken

Thing to do with brothers: Play and rough house

Breakfast: Cheerios(I should have bought stock)

TV show: Buzz Lightyear Star command
Movie: Any of the Toy Story movies

Toy: His Buzz Lightyear

Primary Song: One wear Jesus dies(Did Jesus Really Live Again?)

Thing to do outside: Plant plants

Be when he grows up: A big, big, big boy

Hero: My Buzz

Place to Visit: Grandma Rachel's and Fiesta Fun

Number: 100

Shape: circle

We are so glad Caleb is a part of our family. Life would be so boring without him.

Christmas With the Buttles

2011-01-26T13:32:00.000-08:00

I Love Christmas Eve. It is one of my favorite days. At our home, Christmas Day is about playing and having fun and Christmas Eve is about Christ and his birth. I love it. Some of the traditions we have are reading the Christmas story. It gets better each year as the boys come to understand it more. We get new PJ's which the boys love. We also will let the boys open their gifts to each other. We do this because I want those gifts to be special to the kids, and I think they get lost in the other gifts on Christmas. It is awesome. They treat those gifts like they are the best thing they have been given. The one thing I LOVE that we do on Christmas eve is the we measure the height of our boys. We measure them on the closet door. It is so amazing to see how much they grow each year.

This is what it looked like before the kids. This year they again woke up at 2:30am. I have a rule that we don't go down before 6am(I know I am mean) It took us a little over a hour to get them back to sleep(with two of them sleeping in our bed). Lucky of us they didn't wake up until 7am.

The boys coming down in the morning.

Digging through the loot.

Drew trying to find his gift.

Jared finding his gift.

At our house we open one gift at a time. We open our gifts in our TV even though the gifts are in the Piano room. This is Caleb asking to go next. The boys are so good and excited to have and wait their turns.

Drew wanted a butt pad for rollerblading.

Caleb waiting his turn.

This is the only thing Caleb talked about for months.

Jared has been wanting a robe. He wore it for two days.

Over The River and Through The Snow....

2011-01-13T15:31:00.000-08:00

Me(Jen) and the boys went up north for our annual family Christmas party and spend the week with Grandma Rachel. The boys had a blast. One of the things they were most excited for was to play in the snow. We got there on Friday night, so they spent all Saturday before the Christmas Party playing in the snow. I felt like all I did was put on and take off snow clothing. But they had a blast.

Jared spend most of his time making giant snow balls.

The boys LOVED sledding. My Mom has a hill in her backyard that is perfect to sled down.

Caleb spent his whole time sledding.

Drew loved to go down on his feet.

Caleb kept sneaking out to eat the snow. In this picture he didn't want his hands to get cold so put his whole face in.

The finished product.

At the party Grandma had the kids sing us songs. So cute.

Cousins- Gid, Drew, Adam, Jared, and Caleb.

Every year we do two pinatas. The kids were so excited.

Caleb.

Drew.

Jared.

The little ones waited,

and waited,

and waited the best the could.

At last the candy came and they enjoyed.

Grandma and the boys at Layton park. There is a park by my sister's house that has amazing lights. They have every animal you can think of done in 3D lights. It is so awesome. You can drive through it and get out and walk.

Me, my Mom and my Sister-in-law took the boys to the children's museum in SLC. It was amazing. I just wish that it didn't cost 8.50 per person. Lucky for us Jared had a pass that got 6 of us in for free.

They had a ton of things for the kids to do.

We had lots of fun.

This and That

2011-01-05T09:58:00.000-08:00

I have be SOOOO bad at updating my blog so I put some of our coming and goings. I am going to try and be better.

The boys playing Speed Racer.

So cute.

Drew and his team.

Drew playing football. His first year and he had so much fun.

Caleb loved driving the carts himself.

Drew and Caleb on the mini go carts. They are pretty slow.

The boys on the bumper boats.

Caleb was so excited to ride in the go carts with Jared. Jared was finally tall enough to drive his own.

Jared and Drew. They had lots of fun.

The boys at Fiesta Fun.

Caleb and his candy loot.

Caleb was Batman for Halloween.

Boys at Halloween.

Jared was a nerd. He did a good job.

Drew was Link from the Nintendo game Zelda.

Jared LOVED playing football this year.

Jared and his football team.

The boys at the ball field. To help business we have been selling stuff out at the fields. They boys love going and spending Friday night and Saturday at the fields. They like it because they get to run around all day, eat fast food and have fun.

Boys after rough housing with Dad. They LOVE rough house and they get it as a reward.

After our primary program. We buy all the primary boys bow ties and the girls flowers for their hair. It is so cute.

Cute Drew. Poor kid is the only boy in his class that has two years of kids in it. I tell him he will love it when he is old enough to date. Good thing they are all friends.

Jared at scout camp. For the 100 year celebration they had a big camp with ALL the cub and boy scouts from our district. About 3000 scouts. They had a knights of round table theme. We made shields, swords and had a big battle. Then dinner, fireworks and fun. Below or my scouts.

Keat, Kess, Jared and Drew waiting for the bus. They are best buddies.

Caleb on the first day of alone time with Mom. He loves it, but is happy when his brothers get home.

Drew on the first day of Second grade.

Jared on the first day of 5th grade and last year in Elementary.

First day of school.

Caleb. Love that boy.

Boys Loved going to the planetarium.

Cousins. We spent hours at Grandmas with a hose, a tramp, and LOTS of water.

We went to Grandma Rachel's house two times this summer for a week each time and had lots
of fun.

Jared and Jeremy Evans. Each year a Jazz player comes and talks to the kids for Jr. Jazz. This year they sent Jeremy Evans. I love having them come. When I was a kid, a player would come and there would be hundreds of kids and you would listen to them talk, they would sign a few autographs and leave. Here there is only about 30 kids that go and they all get to play basketball with player the whole time. My kids have a ball.

Drew and Jeremy Evans.

The boys playing basketball.

A Camping We Will Go!

2010-09-29T06:54:00.000-07:00

This summer went only got to go camping one time, but it was so fun and can't wait to do it again. We decided to go for 3 days and 3 nights. The longest we have been camping as a family. It worked out that our good friends the Gough's had those days off work, so we all went together. We went to Pine Lake. It is just outside of Bryce Canyon. We have never been there before, but we LOVED it. The camping spaces were huge. We had so much space for the kids to run and roam, and we were by a stream so it was just awesome.

Campfire was our favorite part of the day. We brought smores to do for one night, our friends brought smores for every night, so we ate A LOT of smores. They were so good. Chocolate chip cookie, chocolate, marshmallows, cookie. That is the only way I can eat smores now. The funny thing with going with two families that have done much camping on our own, we both brought enough food for everyone, plus some. We did not go hungry and we brought back half our food.

We went fishing everyday. The boys loved it, but got bored fast.

Caleb and Tanner fishing.

Drew fishing.

Jared fishing.

Caleb and Tanner walking to the car for a snack.

Caleb's favorite part of fishing. The Cheetos!

This picture doesn't do it justice, but Jared put on his own sunblock and didn't spread evenly.

Drew LOVED carving with his pocket knife.

Jared showing Drew how it is done.

Caleb helping with clean up.

The boys favorite. Roasting marshmellows.

Doesn't that look so good?

It is a wonder that our kids slept at night with all the sugar.

Caleb's favorite part. The chocolate.

The last full day we were there it rained ALL day long, hard. We(the adults) wanted to play games and we only had one small canopy, so we had the kids hang out in the tent and watch movies. It made for a messy tent. Hope to not do that again.

Caleb running around playing.

The cute boys on the last day of camp.

Keeping them self entertained while we packed up.

The car ride home. Way excited for a shower.

Caleb playing on the way home. He would put on the glasses and say "Whaaaaaat?"

Fourth of July(One day I will be caught up)

2010-09-28T14:36:00.000-07:00

We love going to the park for Fourth of July every year. Lots of fun things for the kids to do.

Jared's MOST favorite thing. He would get dunked all day long if I would let him.

Drew and his first time on the dunking booth.

Caleb on the big slip and slide on the little hill. I think you have to stand up twice to go all the way down, but the little ones love it.

Grandma Rachel was such a good sport. She told the boys to get her wet with the sponges.

Caleb AKA Mr. Muscles!

I think this was the boys favorvite activity at the park.

The Boys loved being with Uncle Gerald. My brother and his wife Janice came down for the weekend. We loved having them down.

The boys and Grandma in the back of the truck going to see the fireworks. We watch them up on the hill, great view.

SUMMER FUN

2010-09-20T08:33:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been so long. I hope to be better about blogging. That is my goal. We had a great summer, but very busy. Here are a few things we did.

We went to the Hanson Planetarium. Kids loved it and Mom loved it because it was free.

We went to Grandma Rachel's two times for a week each time.(The boys ask to stay the whole summer and would live there if I would let them.)

We played outside in the water a lot.

We went to Wheeler Farm with cousins. They boys love being with family. We had at least 12 kids under the age of 13.

Caleb at Wheeler farm. He LOVES the tractors.

Jared with his cousins, Victor and Devilin.

Drew Bear.

Caleb milking a cow. He was so excited. Drew wouldn't milk one this year because last year it went pee on him. I guess I can't blame the kid.

Grandma let the boys try on Grandpa Bill's hat.

We went to the zoo with cousins. I LOVE LOVE LOVE hanging with my family. In case you don't know, I LOVE LOVE LOVE my family.

Some of the kiddos at the famous fountain.

Darrin being Darrin.

We got to watch two of my great-nieces and two of my great-nephews while my brother and his kids and their wives went to a play. So we had 7 kids 10 and under. I have never had 7 kids play so well together. Not one fight all night long. One thing Darrin did to keep them entertained was his magic trick. They made him do it over and over.

We spent a weekend at Grandma Buttle's helping her around the house. We got to take the kids swimming a couple of times while there.

We went up Provo canyon a couple of times.

One thing I don't like about summers in the Popsicles. I try not to be them very much because that is all Caleb wants to eat, but it is hard not to when it is so hot.

They love to rough house. When they want a reward for being good they ask to rough house with Dad.

So cute.

Birthday Boys

2010-09-20T08:20:00.000-07:00

Drew opening up his gifts. It is hard to have two boys have their birthdays one week apart. They both received most of the same things. They got tennis rackets, skim boards, golf pull carts and a few other things.

This year I let the boys choose something to put on their cakes. Drew choose a Lego set, so we made a pirate ship cake.

Jared opening up his gifts.

Jared choose Woody, and he wanted a skateboard cake. I think it turned out pretty good.

I love my boys!

Jared, The Cowboy Runner

2010-08-11T13:46:00.000-07:00

Isn't he so dang cute.(Don't tell him I said that) I can't believe I am so far behind with my blog, but school started today, so maybe I will catch up. Every year the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders have a track meet. Each child has to do two events. Last year it was so hot we got sunburned and ate Popsicles. This year,

it was so cold we had to wear coats and drink hot chocolate. I had to give me jacket up to a kid because he was shaking he was so cold. It was a crazy spring. Caleb loved cheering on the kids.

Jared getting ready for one of his races.

Running.

Jared did great. He isn't really a runner, but he came in 4th in his heat.

Great Job Jared!

For Jared's fourth grade program, they dressed as pioneers and cowboys and did a program with dancing. Jared hates to dance, but he was selected to be one of a few to do a dance.

Saying his part.

Waiting to sing.

Can you tell he gets bored easy?

Buttle Boys

2010-07-26T15:08:00.000-07:00

I will say sorry now for so many pictures. I couldn't choose just a few, so a chose many. For Father's Day I wanted to update our pictures for Darrin, so I took the boys and we went around and took pictures. Here are a few. Enjoy!

Kind hearted Jared.

Funny Drew.

Silly Caleb.

School Fun!

2010-07-26T14:51:00.000-07:00

It is pretty sad how bad I have been at blogging. The summer has flown by. Here is a couple of things we did during the school year. This is Drew with his class. At our school the 1st graders get to do the egg drop. You get a raw egg, drop package it up and drop it off the roof in hopes that it won't break.

Drew was pretty proud. He wrapped his egg in quilt batting, put air in some Ziploc, put them around the egg and put it in this box.

Taking the egg up.

The Janitor throwing the egg off the roof. Notice how he throws them up in the air.

Drew getting his box.

Hoping it didn't break.

Success! No broken egg.

Our school had a science night. It was awesome. Students from the college came and told the kids all about space and stars. They had fun activities and at the end they had amazing telescopes to show us several stars and plants.

The boys LOVED it. I LOVE our school.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JARED

2010-07-06T08:21:00.000-07:00

Ten years ago today I started on the most hard, fun rewarding amazing jobs of my life. Being Jared's Mom has bee amazing. He is such a great kid. He is so loving and kind(most of the time).

He is such a polite kid. We even have people tell us that he is the most polite boy in his school.

He is a great friend and big brother. He will play with anyone and is friends with many. He considers everyone his friend.

He loves school and has loved being in choir the past two years. His teachers always love having him in their class.

He love sports and most important he is a good sport. He is not down if his team loses a game. He just plays because he loves sports, having fun and friends.

He is a helpful child and always wants to have fun.

He loves Book of Mormons and is collecting them.

Thanks Jared for being a great kid.

Here is some of his favorites:

Food: Chinese

Breakfast Food: crepes

Number: 8

Shape: Triangle

Free Time Activity: TV/Computer

Place to Visit: Grandma's

Thing to do with your Family: Play games

About school: Recess and Read a thons

Color: Yellow

TV show: Unnatural History

Movie: Percy Jackson

About Primary: The activities

Primary Song: Book of Mormon Stories

Where want to go on mission: Hawaii

how many kids: 4 (2 boy, 2 girls_)

What wants to be when grows up: A sports man.

hApPy bIrThDaY DREW

2010-06-29T06:06:00.000-07:00

Seven years ago today I became a Mommy for the second time. Happy Birthday Drew. I was so excited to find out I was having a boy. I wanted Jared to have a brother so they could grow up as best friends.(So far, so good) I always tell people he was by best pregnancy and delivery. Even though I threw up the whole time, I sleep so good every night and I had no heartburn. And when I was in labor, it was 4 1/2 hours from start to finish. Such a good kid.

Things I love about Drew are he is a happy kid. It is hard for my to think of him as 7 because he thinks he is the same age as Jared.

He loves being with his brothers. He is a great little brother and a great big brother.

He likes to tease and be teased.

He puts his whole heart into things.

He loves to be goofy. I also LOVE that he still asks to snuggle with me.

He loves school and is very smart.

He likes to be the center of attention. I love that even though he is my most stubborn and moody child, he is my most loving and hugging kid.

I asked his brothers what they loved best about him and they said:

Jared: He is my brother and we wrestle.

Caleb: Nothing(I am sure there is lots Caleb loves)

He LOVES playing and going to Grandma Rachel's. He would live with her if I would let him.

Here are some of Drew's FAVORITE:

FOOD: Pizza

BREAKFAST FOOD: pizza bagels

NUMBER: 3

SHAPE: Star

TOY: Toy Story toys and Lego sets

FREE TIME ACTIVITY: Play with Lego's

PLACE TO VISIT: Grandma's House

THING TO DO WITH FAMILY: Family Home Evening

THING ABOUT SCHOOL: Recess and Math

COLOR: Green

TV SHOW: Tom and Jerry

MOVIE: Percy Jackson

HERO: my Family

THING TO DO WITH BROTHERS: build stuff and rough house

THING ABOUT PRIMARY: playing games at sharing time

PRIMARY SONG: Book of Mormon stories

WHERE WANT TO GO ON MISSION: Japan

HOW MANY KIDS DO YOU WANT TO HAVE: 3 kids(2 boys and 1 girl)

WHAT WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP: 1. Play football

2. Scientist

3. Musician

4. In the Olympics

5. Cowboy

Man I love this kid. Happy Birthday DREW!

Tuachan Superstar!

2010-06-09T15:22:00.000-07:00

Once a year Jared has the opportunity to perform at Tuachan with his choir and 10 other schools. They do a few songs together and then they each do one song. We love it.

Last year it was so hot, not this year. We have had weird weather and we had to bundle up in blankets.

This is Jared's choir. They have about 100 kids in it. They looked so small on the big stage.

All schools singing a tribute to the troops.

All kids on stage at once. It is so cool to see this many kids singing at once. It makes a parent proud.

HAPPY EASTER Finally

2010-06-09T15:09:00.000-07:00

The boys before I would let them look for their baskets. We loved Easter this year. We got to watch General Conference while the boys got to eat their candy. It was great.

Caleb found his basket behind the bathroom door.

Drew found his in the popcorn machine. It was hid a little better then shown.

Jared found his in the trash under the bag. Promise it was empty at the time.

After we find our baskets we collect our eggs hidden around the house. the Easter bunny leaves us a cute poem and tells us which eggs to find. The boys love it.

Showing their loot.

Fun Times!

2010-05-30T06:19:00.000-07:00

I took the boys and their friends ice skating before the rink closed for the summer. We love to do things with our friends the Johnson's. We have a great time together. What makes it even better is that my three kids are the same ages as 3 of their 4 kids.

Making ice so they could put it down each others back.

Drew after he a great fall.

Drew being Drew. Don't tell him this, but this is the girl we want him to marry because she is so cute and we love her family.(You might as well enjoy the in-laws of your kids) So we(me and her Mom) have decided they need to get married, but we won't tell them that for another 15 years.

The kids on the ice. They had fun, but as the day got warmer the ice got wetter, so by the time we were down the kids were pretty wet.

Jared and Keat.

Brothers being brothers by putting ice down each others back.

Jared, Keat, Drew and Kess on a Hot Chocolate break.

The kids in front of our sign.

Racers Start Your Engines!

2010-05-28T13:47:00.000-07:00

We had our pinewood derby at the end of March. The boys had fun. This year I made Darrin buy a scroll saw.(We have 7 more derbies) It made cutting out the wood SO much easier. Jared was so proud of his car.

This year since we had so few scouts(our troop has about 8 boys) we let the siblings build and race cars too. Drew was in heaven. I think he was more excited than Jared was. He made his car in the shape of a Y for BYU.

Drew waiting to race his car.

Jared with his ribbon.

Jared getting ready to race. This track is so cool. Each car gets 4 races, one on each track, then they average the time and that is your official time.

Drew racing his car.

The boys watching their races.

Fun Times!

2010-05-26T11:27:00.000-07:00

This was one of those days I thought it would be a good idea and take 6 kids to the park. The kids always have fun with their friends.

Jared and Keat. They loved rollerblading around the park.

This is the first thing Drew always goes for at the park.

Caleb and Tanner. Caleb was riding it with a little girl and Tanner told the little girl she needed to get off because Caleb was his friend. I am glad I was there to tell him that is not how things go. After the park we went home and had ice cream sandwiches. In all it was a fun day.

Should Have Been A Cowboy!

2010-05-07T06:33:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago Drew had his 1st grade program. At our school they do a "Ho Down". The kid learn a line dance, the Virginia Reel, The Chicken dance and a couple other dances. So cute.

Drew doing the Virginia Reel. SO cute to see kids this age doing it.

Drew getting ready for his line dance.

Drew and his partner. So funny, he didn't like holding hands with a girl, which is weird because he mostly plays with girls since that is what is in our neighborhood.

Drew being Drew doing the Chicken Dance.

Drew in his class. He loves school.

Buttles on Ice

2010-05-04T11:09:00.000-07:00

We haven't had an ice rink in St. George ever, until this year. A temporary rink was put up to see if it would be successful. It was and we can't wait till next year. Darrin was on the board of a group called "Kids on Ice". It helps get equipment for kids so they can play hockey. In Feb. they had a fundraiser at the ice rink. It was a raffle and skating from 9pm till 12am. My boys were so excited to go. They had never been ice skating and they got to stay up WAY late.(My boys are in bed at 7pm) We were a little worried because they haven't done this before, but we knew they would be OK since they both roller blade. We had no idea how fast they would pick it up. As soon as they hit the ice it look like they had been skating for years.

Drew in my old Hockey jersey. They skated non stop until 12:30 am. They loved it because everyone had to leave at midnight, so they got the rink to themselves while we cleaned up.

My cute Jared.

Jared in Darrin's old jersey.

Drew getting his skates on.

The boys watching the Zamboni clean the ice.

Jared skating.

Drew skating.

The boys standing by our sign. We were one of the sponsors of the rink so this was up all season. We can't wait for next season. They boys want to play hockey.

We had Grandma Rachel come down and spend two weeks with. Caleb LOVED it. They had picnics all the time and he followed her everywhere.

2010-04-28T14:46:00.000-07:00

So every so often Caleb goes in stages were he gets into EVERYTHING. This was one of those days. I had just showered and came down to this.

I guess Caleb wanted a bath too, he just forgot to take of his PJs and get in the tub, not the sink.

This is when he got caught.

He knows he is cute and if he smiles and says, "I love you Mommy". It is hard to get mad. I guess there are worse things he could make messes with.

A great honor

2010-04-28T14:03:00.000-07:00

While in Vegas we had an awards lunch. Our store won an award. We got an award for bringing our used sales up 50.7%. Fun to get an award. Lets us know we are doing something right.

Darrin being not so happy I made him take a picture.

This is the group in our region who won some awards. Way to go!

Blue and Gold

2010-04-28T13:47:00.000-07:00

The Blue and Gold banquet came on the perfect day for us. It took place on our crazy busy week with us going back and forth to Vegas. I had to help out so we came back for it, and it was Caleb's birthday that day. Lucky for us the theme was Birthday Celebration, the BSA is 100 years old this year. We told Caleb it was his birthday party. He LOVED it. They sang Happy Birthday to him. He now tells everyone when we go to church that this is were his party was.

This is Caleb and his buddy Kolter. They are showing us how old they are. They are so cute together.

Jared telling jokes. Our cub master Loves finding jokes for the boys to tell.

We ate then played some games like pin the badge on the scout, musical chairs and a couple of others.

The boys had a blast.

DDrew didn't do so well with his badge. I love our troop. We have a small group of Cub Scouts, right now about eight boys. They are close and we have lots of fun.

Basketball Jared

2010-04-24T09:20:00.001-07:00

yJared loves playing basketball. He has so much fun. He was a very dedicated, tired boy after each pratice. He would go to karate where his teacher works him hard, straight to basketball pratice were his coach would run them for 70 minutes. He loved every minute of it.

Jared had a team that had a bunch of small kids. They wouldn't take the ball away, and were very timid. We would lose every game by like at least 15 plus. I would go to the games a pray that we would only lose by 6 or 7. It was that way for the first five games.

Then on there sixth game, Grandma Rachel got to come watch. I told Jared that she was his good luck charm. They as a team won. It was amazing. They were playing great defense and going after EVERY ball. Jared now believes that Grandma Rachel is his good luck charm. She went to his two last games and they w0n them by 15 plus points. They even won a team by 22 points that won them by 25. What a great way to end a season.

Jard play good D.
This is the first game they won. I took a picture because I didn't know if it would happen again.

Jared watching the game.

This is Jared's team. He was one of the biggest on the team. His team had a bunch of boys that were small for their age.
So proud of his trophy and boy did they earn it.

What a cute, wet, and stinky boy. I love him.

Drew, the basketball star

2010-03-31T14:24:00.000-07:00

This was Drew's first year of basketball. This year they started something new in our city. In the past they are able to start basketball when they are in third grade. This year they started Iddy Biddy League. This is were K-2nd get to play. It was great. For the few "games", they had four stations and had the kids learning different things about basketball. For the last 1/2 of the season they did drills the 1st half hour and a game the second half. It is a great way to get the kids to learn how to play the game.

Drew is always a ham when it comes to the camera.

This is one of Drew's best friends, Kess. They are good buddies.

Again, Drew the Ham. I love that boy.

Drew playing one of his games.

One of Drew's favorite things to do was jump up and touch the rim. They attached some backboard thing onto the hoop, so the kids hoop was shorter. Drew loved it because he could touch the rim.

The thing I love the most about city league is that every child gets a trophy. Drew was so excited and proud.

Sing A Song

2010-03-25T19:24:00.000-07:00

This is Jared's amazing choir group. They have over 100 kids, 3rd-5th grade. They practice twice a week before school. They(the choir and their teachers) were asked to teach a workshop on how to have a successful Elem. Choir. They were chosen over all the schools. They worked very hard. Over Christmas break, their choir teachers gave them a CD with about ten songs and asked to memorize two on their break. When they came back they had choir three mornings a week and learned the rest of the song with dance moves. They learned them all by Feb. 5th for the workshop. They did an amazing job.

Jared and one of the funny faces he pulls when he sings, I think his nose gets itchy.

Jared has loved being in choir. This is his second year and he is excited for next year.

He is such a good, fun loving, kind kid.

Primary PJ Pancake Party

2010-03-08T14:19:00.000-08:00

We had a great PJ party with our primary. It was for the kids to get to know their teachers. We had a great turnout. Everyone(including our bishop as seen above cooking) wore their PJs and had breakfast. The bishopric came and cooked for us. They are the best. The kids had fun.

Caleb and his friend Kolter. Even though Caleb is not in primary yet, he gets to come to the activities. He wants to be in primary so bad, he cries when we take him to nursery. The only thing that keeps him going is the fishy crackers.

Here is most of our kids waiting for breakfast. In the back is Jared's class. It is the only picture I got of them because they didn't want to sit still.

Drew with some of his class. His class and the class above him were small so we combined them to make a class of 5 kids. Drew is the only boy in his class. I tell him he will LOVE his class in when he is older. Good thing two of his best friends are in that class.

Now he is Three!

2010-03-02T14:26:00.000-08:00

Good thing Caleb is young and doesn't have much concept of days, because we were only able to have cake on his birthday and that is because Grandma Rachel made it for him. That was a crazy busy week for us. On Sunday, Darrin and I headed down to Las Vegas for a trade show for our business. We were there Sunday, Monday and part of Tuesday(Caleb's Birthday). Tuesday afternoon we headed back to St. George to spend sometime with Caleb and for the Blue and Gold banquet(I am over scouts in our ward.) Wednesday morning we headed back to Vegas. We bought a bunch of sports equipment from the vendors. We had four guys in our ward help us. We got home about 11pm after a non stop day. Thursday was my birthday, but no time to celebrate because Darrin had to work all day and Jared had a basketball game. So Friday we had a joint birthday for me and Caleb.

Grandma Rachel made this cake which we sang to him after the blue and gold banquet.

He LOVED us singing,

and him blowing out the candles.

He loved it so much he made us do it,

THREE times.

We waited to give him his gifts and little family party on Friday.

So happy to open his gifts.
Caleb's Handy Mandy Motorcycle. It was what he wanted for Christmas, but Santa didn't want to spend 35 dollars on a small motorcycle toy. Lucky for his Mom she found it for half off after Christmas.

Grandma Rachel got the boys glasses for Caleb's birthday. So cute.

The thing that he seemed most happy about was the crayons he got from his Grandma Rachel. He kept hugging them and saying I love them, I love them.

Little Boy For Sale!

2010-03-01T18:29:00.000-08:00

Little Boy for Sale!

He likes to build things,

He likes to play games, will only take out one at a time(and not put them back, only took me one hour to do that.)

And LOVES to help in the kitchen. Good thing he is so cute and tells me twenty times a day he loves me. Guess I will keep him.

Cousin Fun!

2010-02-23T10:47:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the long/late post. This was our New Years Eve. My brother Jeff, his wife Sandra, their kids Izabella, Adam and Gid along with my Mom came for a visit. We had a blast. Here is a few of the highlights:

Kids enjoying the sun on the back deck.

Aunt Sandra took the kids for a hike. They hiked to the top of the mountain next to our house.

Caleb's first time holding sparklers.

Drew.Doing fireworks with the kids on New Year's Eve.

The kids eating pizza at Fiesta Fun. We took the kids there for lunch and playing around.

Caleb waiting for us to clean up so we could go play.

Gid and Caleb waiting to ride on something. They were too little to ride on the kiddie karts, but that didn't stop them from trying. They both fit their little bodies through the fence and sat on the carts.
Drew playing putt putt golf. He had fun.

Jared trying for a hole in one.

The gang: Drew, Iza, Jared, and Adam.

Drew, Jared and Adam excited to ride the kiddie carts(before they found out how fast they went.)

I laughed so hard. They were going so slow. They wanted to get off.

After they found out that they could walk faster then the kiddie carts go.

Getting each other wet.

Caleb LOVES the bumper boats. This was Drew's first time driving Caleb.

The kids on the bumper boats.

Drew and Iza on the go-carts. They boys were too short to drive but tall enough to ride and they were OK with that.

Jared and Iza riding the go carts. They all had a ball, we wish we lived closer.

HaPpY bIrThDaY CALEB!

2010-02-16T19:26:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Caleb. I can't believe my baby boy is three years old today. He has brought so much joy in our family.

He started out little, is still little(about 29 pounds), but has a BIG personality.

Caleb with Grandma meeting his brothers.

Going home from the hospital. Little did he know what he was getting himself into. He brings his spunk to the family and his brothers will do anything to make him laugh.

He Loves BYU. He is so smart, that anytime he sees BYU logo he says: "There's BYU" . My favorite thing he does now is anytime we are watching a game on TV he will ask "What color
eHe loves to play with other people's things. Even though sometimes they may not like it.

Caleb LOVE, LOVE, LOVES his brothers.

He is always quick with a smile,

but more quick with a silly face. Caleb we LOVE you.

Here is some of his favorites:

color: yellow
food: eggs
thing to do with his brothers: play
breakfast food: Cereal
TV show: Blues Clues
Movie: I Ba Know(aka I don't know)
Toy: guitar
Primary Song: I am a Child of God
outside activity: ride bike and play with brothers
thing to do with family: Watch shows
what want to be when grow up: a mommy or a daddy, no a singer
hero: DAD
place to go visit: Grandma's House
number: 1
shape:Circle

Golfing on Christmas. Lucky Us.

2010-01-22T11:19:00.000-08:00

Every year we try to go golfing on Christmas. It is FREE! When Darrin and I were first married we started this tradition. When we first started doing it, no one was on the golf course. Over the years more and more have come and now there are a lot more. We went to Red Hills first because it is less then one mile from our home. The parking lot was pretty full so we left.(Darrin is VERY big on golf etiquette and we didn't want to slow anyone down with our kids). So we went to Southgate which is about 5 miles from home, less crowded but not much. We decided to play the last three holes because no one was there. The kids did great walking the course carrying their clubs. We were so lucky with the weather. It was so nice and sunny we had to take our jackets off.

This is my favorite picture. I love my boys.

Caleb waiting his turn. The boys were so good at waiting their turns and falling ALL the MANY rules.

Jared hitting the ball of the tee. He got new clubs for his birthday.

Drew with his "Happy Gilmore" pose.

Caleb with his own golf clubs. Owning our own store the boys have always had their own clubs. They have so much fun golfing.

Darrin showing the boys how to golf.

Drew loved playing. He is a child that has to do good when he first does it. If he can't get it right then he gets upset. He started out struggling but by the end he picked it up.

Caleb putting the ball in the hole. He had a ball.

Caleb after golfing, he loves to sing and walk. He would not let anyone touch his ball or golf club.

Drew got his YELLOW Belt

2010-01-19T13:16:00.000-08:00

Drew is such a good kid. Since he thinks he is 9 like Jared he picks up on thing quickly. So we thought we would ask Jared's karate teacher if Drew could take karate. He doesn't take kids until they are 7, but he said let him come and see if he could handle it. He went and has been doing it for six months.

If I haven't told you yet, we LOVE karate at our house. The teacher lives at the end of our street and teaches out of his home. So the boys get themselves to and from. He is a VERY strict teacher and expects them to do their best. To test for a belt, his tests are hard and he expects you to know it all. A lot of teachers will let you pass and give you a new belt to make you feel better, not this one. You don't earn it, you don't get it. He teaches them to eat healthy and he applies a lot of gospel to karate. He teaches you that karate is not to be used unless absolutely needed.

Anyway Drew earned his belt in 5 months, but it took us a month to test because of weddings, being out of town, etc. He is very proud, and so are we.

Christmas Time Finally!

2010-01-14T13:43:00.000-08:00

Christmas time with kids is the best they bring all the happiness. It makes all the stress worth it. Anyway this is the kids in their new PJs they got to open for Christmas eve. We let them open this gift and the gifts they give to each other. It has been great for us, by opening the gifts from their brothers makes it more special, and not just another gift they got on Christmas.(Plus we don't have to hear the nagging of opening up a gift.

Caleb being Caleb.

Waiting to go look under the tree. I like to be the first one down so I can get their picture. They weren't too happy about that.

Jared and his new bike.

Drew and his wiggle car.

Caleb and his wiggle car. The boys loved them.

At our house we take turns opening a gift one at a time. The boys are very good at it, but sometimes they get too excited and so this year we sat in the TV room and had one gift brought in at a time. We LOVED it. It wasn't so rushed and the kids really enjoyed each gift. We will for sure do that next year.

Caleb choosing a gift for his brother.

Caleb with his favorite gifts, his wiggle car and guitar.

Loved getting a new pillow.

Jared and Drew got down comforters. Now I can have mine back. They were taking turns using it.

Jared being Jared.

Teamwork on opening gifts.

Drew was so sad. For Christmas I got a BYU snuggie and they boys got one to share. He wanted his own. He was so tired by this time. In all we had a great day.

Live Nativity

2010-01-11T15:10:00.000-08:00

For the second year in a row he were able to participate in the Live Nativity at Tuacahn. Tuacahn is a beautiful outdoor theatre that has plays every summer/fall. At Christmas time they have the Live Nativity. It is a 25 minute play with music and a narrator. It is so amazing and you can feel the spirit so strong.

I am amazed how good the boys are. We had a talk before we went. I told them they are there to help everyone who comes to see them feel the spirit.

They thing the boys love about it is the animals. They have horses for the soldiers, goat with the Shepard's, Mary and Joesph have the donkey and the wise men had a camel. Nothing like kneeling down 20 feet from a camel. Good thing he was a good camel.

Drew and one of his best friends, Kess.

Boys in their townspeople customs.

The boys and Kess during the walk through.

Me and the boys at our "Inn" we were the first inn to turn Mary and Joseph away.

Jared pretending to be one of the soldiers. We had such a great time this year. Only about 40 people came. Therefore we had to play bigger roles this time. The boys loved it. We got to go under the stage to get from one place to the next and go through secret doors.

Drew pretending to be one of the soldiers. The thing that I loved the most was sharing this spiritual experience with my boys. It is the most amazing thing to be able to kneel to Jesus. It makes you realize what it may have been like when Christ was born.

Sing a Song

2010-01-09T18:54:00.000-08:00

This is Jared's Choir. They are amazing. There are about 110 kids and the teachers do an awesome job. They have even been asked to teach a class to teach a class to all the music teachers in Utah on how to have a great choir. When Jared first told me he wanted to be in choir I thought he was joking because I am with him in primary and he doesn't sing. It also requires him to get up and go to school early twice a week. But he LOVES it and is in his second year. This is his Christmas Concert. By this time I am a little tired of the songs because by now I have seen their Christmas song 5 times at different places. But it is still awesome to see it.

Poor Caleb has also seen it several times and wasn't too happy to see it again.

This is what we started out doing. Good thing it was only 40 minutes long.

Here is Jared he is on the third row up, third child from the left or the cutest one there.

This would be Caleb in time out because he wanted to be loud and run around.

We went back in to listen because Caleb loves the Twas the Night Before Christmas Song.

But that is about it, so we were in the hall AGAIN.

Jared did a great job.

Caleb was ready to go home.

Drew did great. He loved going and listening. I love my boys so much, they make me happy(most of the time)

Weblos and wolves and BEARS oh my!

2010-01-07T10:50:00.000-08:00

Thanks for bearing(no pun intended) with me as I try and blog our happenings in December. I might have it done by April. Any how in December Jared received his Bear advancement in Cub Scouts. He really earned it in October, but I didn't know. I thought you had to do all 20 sections in the book, it turns out you only needed to do 12. It turned out good though. We just had him receive it in December when Darrin could be there. However Darrin was very sick and couldn't be there anyway.

Jared after he received his Bear. It only took him about 6 months to earn it.

In our ward we paint their face with some story about talking a trail to get to where they are. The boys love it and I enjoy doodling on Jared's face.

This is Jared and his AMAZING scout leader. Bonnie has done a lot to help Jared get many patches, belt loops and pins.

This is all the boys who received advancements. Pretty awesome since that is about half of our pack. I love working with the scouts. They are AWESOME!

Let It Snow!

2010-01-06T09:01:00.000-08:00

You can't tell from this picture, but before Christmas we got snow(about 1/2 inch maybe). When it snows here the kids get excited, get dressed and play in the snow. He find that the neighbors driveways are the best hills. The kids had a ball sliding down.

They always try to go down on feet. Even Caleb.

Drew trying to climb the hill, I told them to use the stairs, but what does Mom know?

You get very creative with no sleds. Caleb had a ball.

Drew trying to get down the hill, he was a little heavy for it to work.

Caleb keep trying to eat the snow. Sad to say not enough on the ground to get just snow. You got dirt too.

We finally pulled out a tube. It worked like a charm.

Amazing the tube worked so well with so little snow.

Isn't he so cute.

Drew's favorite was the tube.

Jared just loves it when it snows.

All I want for Christmas is....to be on the nice list!

2009-12-31T09:28:00.000-08:00

The tooth fairy is going to be broke. After coming to our house this season. In a month time Drew lost 3 teeth and Jared two teeth. Drew lost his two front the weekend we went up for our niece's wedding.

This is Caleb and his best friend Tanner. They love being with each. This is how they like to watch TV. Too cute.

Caleb thinks he is a builder. Which is a good thing. Those of you who have facebook hear some of the things Caleb gets into. He thinks he is as big as his brothers and can do what they do. Even if he is only almost 3. One thing he did that I haven't told was one day Darrin was getting ready for work. He came downstairs and saw the Caleb had cereal and a bowl in front of the TV and he had poured the cereal in the bowl. Darrin was impressed that Caleb didn't spill. Darrin was going to pick it up but wanted to start his car and get it warming up first. By the time Darrin got back in, Caleb had got out the milk, poured it in his cereal(amazingly only spilling a little on the floor) and was stirring the milk with the drumstick from rock band. He LOVE to get into things as you will see down below.

Good thing he is so cute.

I don't know what it is about him and cereal on the floor and no clothes. He has done this twice.

This is Caleb claiming his chair. In our house if you want your chair back you say: "Tap, Tap"
and it is your chair when you come back from the bathroom and helping a parent. Caleb would "tap, tap" this chair all the time.

VanderToolen Christmas Party!

2009-12-26T08:08:00.001-08:00

December has been a busy month for us. It started off with our camera breaking(which I didn't mind because I wanted a new one anyway.) So I am behind on blogging. I will start with the first of the month and show you how our month has gone. Crazy, but tons of fun. The holiday season started off the week before Thanksgiving. Our niece Kara got married in the Draper Temple. So great to go up and see so much Buttle family. Lots of fun. Darrin took the two older boys and went with Ron, our amazing brother-in-law and awesome nephews: Juston, Mason, and Brad to the BYU football game. The boys had a blast.

Two weekends later we went up North again for the VanderToolen Family Christmas party. So fun each year. My sister RaeAnn was the host this year. She cook TONS of food. It was lots of fun, everyone brought their favorite ethnic food. I am so blessed to have all my family close that we can get together often.

Caleb loved the tables. His cousin Marinda put candy at every table.

Boys had fun playing basketball. Lots of boys to play with.

The favorite part of the night. The pinata. The boys always have fun hitting it. This is Jared and Dallin(they were baptized on the same day) waiting for the candy.

Dallin, Wyatt, Drew, Devin and Gid waiting for candy.

Caleb and his cousin kid. They are one year apart in age, but the same size. Caleb is a small fry.

Caleb got a couple good hits.

Drew hitting the pinata.

Jared gave it a beating and made candy fall out.

This is the "Big Kids" pinata. My brother makes it each year for the adults. It is a box in a box re-enforced with steel. All who want to beat on it as hard as they can to try and break it. We beat it until the candy turns to powder, then open and dump the candy out.(the "big kids" love it.)

Collecting their treasures. They had way too much candy.

By the end of the day the kids were ready to go home. Lots of fun. I love my family.

Football Fun

2009-11-23T15:32:00.000-08:00

This year we put Jared in football for the first time. He wanted to do tackle but his Mom said he had to do one year of flag football. I wanted him to get the rules down. He LOVED it and can't wait for next year. We had a great coach that had all the kids play all the positions every game. They learned a lot. Darrin got to help out with a couple of games and found that he really enjoyed it.

Drew and Caleb had fun coming to the games. They loved playing football too. This was my favorite game they played. Caleb saw Drew kicking the ball.

Caleb would tackle Drew, sit on Drew,

take the ball and RUN! They had so much fun with this game. It was too funny. They did it over and over again.

They boys loved watching the game in the back of the car.

Caleb showing Drew who is boss.

Jared and his team playing.

Coach, Jared and his team.

Jared throwing the ball. That is all he does now.

Haircuts by Caleb

2009-11-08T16:54:00.000-08:00

Isn't that a cute boy. Caleb is such a fun boy. Caleb decided he wanted a change so he cut some of his hair. Story goes like this. Caleb and Drew were taking a shower. They got out and were drying off. Drew come to me and says "My tummy is bleeding" I ask him what happened. He said: "Caleb did it." I thought that he meant with his finger nail. Caleb then come in and Drew says "and Caleb is bloody too." I am looking in his mouth all around till I see a tiny bit of blood on his head were hair should have been. I asked Drew what happened. He tells me I don't know. I finally got the story out of him.

He said him and Caleb were in the shower and my razor "fell"(or his brother got it down for him) and Caleb touched Drew with it and then "combed his hair." I guess I am lucky that it was only a small spot. I buzzed his hair in hopes that it would blend in better. It is on the left side of his head.

It is about 1/2 inch by 2-3 inches.

Gotta love boys. PS. Drew finally fest up and said that it was him, but it was an accident and Caleb turned into him. I guess we will see how the story ends.

Halloween FUN

2009-11-02T05:11:00.001-08:00

I will start off by saying sorry this post is so long. I couldn't choose what pictures to show you all. So I choose a few of my favorites, which turned out to be a lot. We had a fun busy two days. Friday started off with the school parade. So fun.

Jared wanted to be a hobo. He made his own costume and loved it.

Drew wanted to be a football player again. I didn't mind at all.

This is Drew's 1st grade class. I got to go to it and help with the party. Kids this age are so fun.

I helped them make scare a crow cookies. We had fun.

After school we went to the High School. The teachers and students do trick or treating for the kids. The boys loved it but kind of a pain for Mom. It took 45 minutes, but the kids had fun.

After the High school we went grocery shopping. Drew loves to sit in the cart. This time we had lots to buy, so he got buried.

Friday night we went to trick or trunk at our church. Boys had a ball and we didn't see them most of the night. We had dinner there. The young women did carnival games for the kids and the young men did a spook alley. Jared and Drew had a blast, and of course trunk or treat.

Caleb kept playing under the car. Weird, because he never does.

Caleb and his best friend Tanner. They didn't want to take pictures. Thus Caleb kept going under the truck.

Caleb was a cow. He was so excited for Halloween. He kept telling everyone he was going to be a cow, that cows said MOOOOOOO, that he would say trick or treat and get candy, then say thank you. What a good boy.

Jared at trick or trunk
Drew at trick or trunk.

Caleb looking at his loot.

On Halloween day we carved our pumpkins.(I loved it and will always do it on Halloween Day.)

This is Caleb because his mean Mom wouldn't let him use the knife.(Such a tough life)

His friend Tanner came over and they rode skateboards. I told them they had to have helmets to ride. They found helmets in the Halloween stuff. Now every time they ride the skateboards they HAVE to wear the football helmets.

Drew's mummy.

Jared's finished pumpkin.

2009-10-29T13:20:00.000-07:00

So they have opened up this new park about 1 1/2 miles away from us and the boys(and I) have decided that it is our new favorite park. It is called Firehouse Park(across the street fro the Fire House) It has everything we love in a park.

They love to see who can go the highest.

The swings were a little tall for Caleb, but he still got on them.

Drew's favorite thing at any park. The monkey Bars. He does them at recess everyday.

Jared's favorite thing at the park. These cup things. You sit in them and move your body and it spins you.

Drew and Caleb loved the this. I love how they have tires under them. The kids are able to climb on them themselves and us them to push themselves up and down. Smart idea.

Caleb will climb ANYTHING.

Jared having fun swinging. He was so happy because he went really high.

As you can tell this is Caleb's favorite thing at a park.

Man they are so cute.

Darrin's New Ride

2009-10-24T15:31:00.000-07:00

Darrin and I both own big vehicles. We LOVE them and need them for work and carpooling reasons, but they are gas hogs. One day Darrin was doing a delivery to a customer's house and he saw a motorcycle for sale. He got a great deal. It has been so nice to have it for Darrin to do service calls and run errands.

Caleb and Darrin. Caleb loves to go on rides all the time.

Drew and Dad. He loves to get rides too. Rides are fun(from Drew). Wish I had gotten a picture of Jared.

cowBOYS

2009-10-06T08:57:00.000-07:00

This picture has nothing to do with this post. It is just cute. Caleb has his own back pack and loves to wear it. He thinks it makes him a big boy like his brothers.

A couple a weeks ago I took the boys to the rodeo they have in town here each year. We always go on Thursday because kids get in free. Since Darrin was spending some time with his Mom in Provo, I took the boys myself plus a friend. Silly me, 4 boys and one Mom. Good thing they were good(I guess bribing them with ice cream helps.) This is Jared sitting with his friend watching the rodeo.

Caleb in the cowboy hat. He thought it should be his and would share it with his brothers.

Drew, the cutest cowboy. He was so excited to dress up like a cowboy. He has been waiting for a year to go to the rodeo dressed up.

The boys talking to Jared's friend. Before the rodeo, they let anyone who has a horse come ride in the arena if they want.

Highlights of the night.
1. cotton candy
2. boys were good
3. Drew saw his teacher
4. Jared saw his 1st grade teacher.
What a fun night.

One a different note. The day before the rodeo I got a call from the boy's school. I always hate getting calls because the 1st thing that always comes to mind is" Oh great, what has my child done?" When they say this is the school counselor, you think: "Wow, they must have done something REALLY bad." Anyway what he told me was that Jared was playing with some kindergartners and he slipped and fell on the ground. One of the kindergartners jump on him and bite him. He told me Jared was OK, but that the bite was going to leave a bruise. He just wanted to call and let me know what happened. All I could think of was "Man I am glad it was that and not something my child did." It had so much effect on Jared that when he came home from school I asked him if anything happened at school. He said No. I asked him What about someone biting you. To that he said, "Oh yea, I forgot about that" Funny how kids don't let things bug them, wish we all could be like that.

CAMPING

2009-09-11T10:14:00.000-07:00

We love to go camping. Sad to say we only got to go once as a family this summer. But it was an adventure. We went to go for two night, but ended up spending one night. It was so windy and rained the whole night. We tried spending the day in the tent because it was so windy, but that is a HARD job with a two year old. Lucky for us we have a Spring Bar tent. So you couldn't feel the wind or rain at all. In fact we were all hot.

Jared and Drew helping set the tent up. They were big helpers.

Caleb's idea of helping us out.

Were we camped was nice, lots of rocks for the kids to climb. Our table and fire pit was in the middle of rocks, so it helped block the wind.

Caleb providing the music for us.

We kept having squirrels all around our camp. They must always get fed my humans, because they were not scared by us at all. The boys had fun chasing them away.

Drew getting ready to roast marsh mellows.

Caleb and Drew climbing rocks. Caleb is not afraid of anything unlike his mom who had to kept getting him down.

Reading while waiting to go fishing. Darrin took the older boys fishing. They came back sooner than I expected. Darrin was trying to get to a better fishing spot and got the truck stuck in a ditch. He brought the boys back and went to flag someone out so they could help pull us out. Thanks for having good people there.

Caleb LOVED his bed.

Boys had so much fun. Can't wait to do it again next season.

Excited To Be Back At School

2009-08-25T12:34:00.000-07:00

My boys were so excited to go to school. I know it was to see friends and have fun. But in Drew's word he said "I can't wait to go back to school. Then I won't have to do Mommy school and chores." I told him he still had chores. He wasn't too happy about that.

I put them to work at a young age.

Caleb at Mommy school.
Poor kids. I made them do math each day.

And handwriting.

And reading.

I hope that it helps them get back in the groove of school. They have been in school for 8 school days now and are LOVING it. I hope they enjoy it the rest of they year.

First Day of School.

2009-08-21T19:51:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday school started for us here in St. George. I don't know who was more happy. Me or the boys. They were ready to see all their friends and meet new ones.
This year Jared started the fourth grade. I can't believe I have a fourth grader. He is so excited and loving school. His teacher is Mrs. Hansen and she has been great so far. Jared loves her and loves to learn all that she teaches them. He is going to have so much fun learning about Utah this year. He is excited.

My Drew Bear is in the first grade. He is glad to finally be in all day school. His teacher is new to the school this year. Her name is Mrs. Manning. She is nice and Drew loves her. He LOVES school and says it is too easy. It was not a hard change to go to school all day. He was most excited about lunch on school.
Caleb really missed his brothers. He is so use to having them home all day. It is taking sometime for him to adjust, but he is finally starting to. He loved going to see the school bus.

Drew being silly.

Jared being silly.

Caleb being silly because Jared and Drew are silly.

Aren't they the cutest grade school kids.

Jared and Drew with their friends Kess and Keat at the bus stop.

The boys in their school shirt.

Take me out to the BALL GAME

2009-08-17T06:57:00.001-07:00

Day two of our vacation was also awesome. We woke up, went swimming then checked out of our hotel. We drove to see the Newport Beach temple. It is beautiful. It was closed for cleaning, so we were able to wander around the grounds with just our family. The boys keep saying how beautiful it was.
We had a great time there even though Caleb was in a sad mood at first. After the temple we took the boys to TOGOs. Darrin's favorite sandwich shop growing up. He loves to have a #9(hot pastrami). The boys thought it was the best and it is now their favorite sandwich place. We then drove to Ontario CA and checked into our hotel and rested before the game.

We took the boys to "Mormon Night" at the Dodgers VS Braves game. I was so excited because I LOVE the Braves. They had some Mormon sing the National Anthem and God Bless America(which turned out to be our friends sister) and Elder M. Russell Ballard threw out the 1st pitch. Because it was Mormon night we were able to get a good deal on tickets in the "all you can eat" pavilion. So we had all you can eat foot long hot dogs, nachos, peanuts, popcorn, water and pop. The boys were in heaven.

Caleb did so good at the game. He sat and watch the whole thing. I thought I would have to walk him around and I brought things for him to do. Didn't have to do any of that. He just loved to cheer for the game. So if you see him ask him what you say at a baseball game and he will tell you "GOOOO Dodgers" It is too cute.

It was a great game. Braves were winning 4-2 in the bottom of the ninth. That is until the Dodgers hit a home run with two people on base. My Braves didn't win, but it was an awesome ball game.

We let them eat what they wanted and how much they wanted. Caleb ate 1 1/2 hot dogs, and 1/2 a nachos. Pretty good for a boy so small. Drew ate 2 1/2 hot dogs, 2 nachos, 2 waters and 1 pop. Jared ate 2 hot dogs, 3 nachos, 1 peanuts, 3 waters, and 1 lemonade. We got our monies worth.

The game started at 7:00pm CA time which is 8:00pm UT time. My boys go to bed around 7:00pm when we are home so by the 8th inning Drew fell asleep.

On the way to the hotel, they all fell asleep. Overall it was an amazing time and we will be doing it again next year. You are all invited to come.

Life is a BEACH

2009-08-15T16:29:00.001-07:00

We decided to take the boys on a little vacation to CA before school started. We went to CA for two nights. We had so much fun and have decided that mini vacations are the way to go. Not enough time to get on each others nerves and the whole time was fun.

We left our house on Wednesday morning about 5:30 am our time. We wanted to get to the beach by 11 ish CA time. Boys were so good in the car. The first night we stayed in Newport beach. Our hotel was maybe 1 1/2 miles from the beach. We drove straight to the beach and stayed and played until it was time to check into our hotel room. We brought boogie boys and that is all the older boys did. They had so much fun.

Caleb loved the Ocean. His favorite was when we would sit and let the waves get our legs. He would say: "Bring it On". He loved looking for shells and wading in the water.

Jared LOVED boogie boarding. He only left the water long enough to get some lunch and water, because I made him.

Caleb loved playing in the sand.

This is Drew running Jared over with his boogie board.

Jared and his baywatch moment.

Drew had SO MUCH fun. He didn't want to leave.

Caleb even tried to boogie board.

We had so much fun. But we found out that when you boogie board you get sand in places you would never think of. We kept finding it for days.

Lions and Tigers and Bears OH MY!

2009-07-25T07:31:00.000-07:00

Sorry for so many pictures. Thursday was a fun filled day. We went to the zoo in the morning. Tons of fun. It was me, Grandma, the boys, brother Jeff and his three kids:Izabella, Adam and Gid, niece Marinda and her little girl Sophia, niece Tarina and her little boy Aiden, and my two great nephews: Victor and Devilin. Saw all the animals and an awesome bird show.

Jared, Adam, Caleb and Drew(very back) on the lion fountain.

The gang. Grandma gave my boys orange shirts so I could find them easy. It was the best idea.

Sophia and Caleb at the bird show. I think they were a little bored.

Jared and Drew at the bird show. They loved seeing the bald eagle in person.

The gang again. They were all so good. We didn't even loose one.

After the zoo we went back to Grandma's house for lunch and water playing.

Caleb and Gid in the pool. They play well together.

Caleb and Gid were playing baseball. So cute. Caleb would throw the ball and yell home run.

Jumping with the sprinklers.

Kids favorite way to use the water guns. They would shoot about 30 feet in the air.

Caleb running from the water fight.

Adam and Drew water fighting.

Jared getting Uncle Jeff.

Caleb didn't want to get wet anymore.

After we were done in the water Uncle John helped the boys shoot a pellet gun. They had so much fun.
They were both good shoots and both hit the target each time. Jared even hit the bulls eye once. This ends our fun time up north.

I Love To See The Temple!

2009-07-24T07:12:00.001-07:00

So we started the day off playing in the water. (We did that everyday) They boys had so much fun. My Mom has a big backyard. They would put a sprinkler under the tramp and jump. Run through the sprinklers and play on the slip and slide. They had a blast.

Drew loved going down the slip and slide. My mom has a little hill in her back yard so slip and sliding is so fun.

This was all Caleb wanted to do.

Jared like the slip and slide, but not as much as the tramp. We also had a little pool and we brought up some fun water shooters.

In the afternoon we went to the Temple open house at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. I was a little worried taking 3 boys. Two minutes into the movie they show Caleb said: "Movie all done lets go bye-bye. I just walked around in the back. Then we went into the temple my boys were amazing. They only talked twice the whole time. Caleb wanted to go swimming in the baptismal font and the boys wanted the elevator to come faster(We took it because we had the stroller. One elevator took about ten minutes.)
After the tour we went and took some pictures. Me, the boys and Grandma Rachel.

The boys on the east side of the temple.

Aren't they so cute?

Grandma Rachel and the boys.

Drew went to lay down so Caleb went to lay down, so Jared did. They were ready to go home. I love the chance to take my boys to the temple.

Old McDonald Had A Farm! E-I-E-I-OOO

2009-07-23T13:19:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday we went to Wheeler Farm. It is a farm in SLC. It is there to teach kids about farm life and show them animals from a farm. My Kids LOVE going to it. Me, the boys and Grandma Rachel went. We brought my nephew Adam with us. My sister RaeAnn came with three of her daughters and 4 grand kids and my Sis-in-law Janice came with her daughter, her daughter-in-law and 5 of her grand kids. In all we had 22 of us there. So much fun. We started off with all you can eat pizza. A boys dream. We played in the little stream until it was time to go feed the cows.

We brought some bread to feed the ducks. All the kids had so much fun. Here is Drew being loving. Caleb is only in a shirt because 5 minutes after we got there he fell into the stream, then into the dirt. Not a good combo.

Drew, Jared and Dallyn feeding the ducks.

All the kids that went to the farm. From left to right(and names probably not spelled right) we have: Devilin, Sophia, Victor, Adien, Drew, Wyatt, Beckett, Meagan, Charlie, Dallyn, Adam, Jared and Caleb.
Meagan and Caleb looking at the farm animals.

Adam, Caleb, Drew and Jared at the tree house. The boys love playing in it.

Caleb after he milked the cow. He wasn't a big fan of it.

Drew milking the cow. Also, not the biggest fan. He was so funny though after milking we went around and looked at the baby cows, chickens, turkeys, pigs and other farm animals he would walk up to them and say "Hello lunch", "Hi dinner" to the pigs, cows and chickens. He is a funny boy.
Jard and the cow.

The boys playing in the stream. They had so much fun.

Out Of This World!

2009-07-22T11:47:00.000-07:00

Last week we went to my Mom's house to spend some time with her and my family. Sad for us Darrin wasn't able to come with us, but we had lots of fun. Here is what we did the first day. We went to visit my Aunt in the hospital. We had a fun FHE dinner with my family and earlier in the day we took the kids to the Clark & Hansen Planetarium. They had lots of exhibits for the kids to see. This is Jared and Drew walking on Mercury.

The boys got to be weather men. They thought it was so fun because it was on a TV.

The Boys walking on the moon. I wanted them to just stand still and smile, but I think this picture turned out much better.

This was a big machine were the ball went all around and around. It had a couple of levers were you can make the balls stop. Boys loved it.

Grandma and the boys. I know we wore her out, but we had tons of fun. Hopefully very soon I will post all the other fun we had.

Jared's Birthday Bash

2009-07-09T13:34:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Jared. We had a fun time with him on his birthday. We woke and and opened gifts. He is such a good thankful child. I love it. For his birthday he got some Bakugans, clothes, a couple games and,
some new golf clubs. He was so excited. Darrin took him and Drew to the driving range so they could hit some balls. For breakfast he chose to have crepes. That kid loves them and can chow them down. He ate 6.

For the fun activity we went to Fiesta Fun. We did the bumper boats. The perfect activity for the heat.

Jared had so much fun driving them, going under the fountain and shooting water at people.

Drew was so excited he was tall enough this year to ride it.

We then went inside and played LOTS of arcade games. The boys had a blast.

While the two older boys played games, Caleb played on the indoor playground.

Jared wanted a science cake this year. If you can't tell the cake is a beaker, with a potion in it.
For dinner we went to Red Robin. The boys love the idea of all you can eat fries.

Caleb always the big helper in blowing the candles out. Birthday week was fun, but I am glad that we don't have another birthday until birthday week in February(Caleb's on 16th and mine on the 18th)

Drew's Birthday Bash!

2009-07-08T15:52:00.000-07:00

Drew had a great birthday. He wanted McDonald's Sausage McMuffins for breakfast. Nice and easy. We loved it.

On to gifts were he got Bakaguns which he wanted so much. He was so happy.

He loved his Speed racer remote control car. He also got a lava lamp, some clothes, some legos and some other odds and ins.

When took the kids to Jumping Jacks. The kids loved it. They played for a few hours. All the bouncy slides they wanted. Caleb loved all the slides.

Jared didn't stop running the whole time.

Drew was jumping off the slides.

It was then off to Chinese. Our families favorite restaurant. All you can eat Chinese. What could be better. They waiter are the best there. We go maybe once a month. They know what we drink and love our kids(but who doesn't)

The waiters brought Drew his own cake and sang to him. He loved it.

Here is the cake Drew wanted this year. A skateboard. It was nice and easy to make this year.

Caleb helping Blow out the candles.

Happy 9th Birthday JARED

2009-07-06T06:31:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Jared. We love you. We have been so lucky to have Jared in our family. Jared is such a good big brother. He lets Drew tag along wherever he goes. He is a good helper with Caleb.

Jared LOVES to be with his friends and be goofy. He will do anything to make you laugh.

Jared loves the outdoors. Climbing trees and just playing are his favorite.

He loves school and is a good student. He loves to go places and is always saying his please and thank yous.

Jared LOVES the water. Especially boating. He loves knee boarding and tubing. He loves to go fast.

Here are some of his favorites:

color: yellow
food: pizza
thing to do with his brothers: play
breakfast food: crepes
TV show: I survived Japanese Game show
Movie: Up
Toy: Battleship
Primary Song: I am a Child of God
outside activity: ride bikes and PEG
thing to do with family: FHE
what want to be when grow up: inventor
hero: Jesus Christ, Heavenly Father, my DAD
thing about school: recess
place to go visit: Grandma's House
number: 82
shape: triangle

Trip To The ZOO!

2009-07-02T16:33:00.001-07:00

This is a little late, but here are some pictures of going to the zoo with family. It was tons of fun. I got to see lots of my awesome family. We went up with us, my Mom, my sis.-in-law Sandra, my nephews Gid and Adam and Iza my niece. When we got there we met up with my niece Marinda and her daughter Sophia and Marinda's friend Jessie and her son Grayson. While there we also got to meet up with My niece-in-law Laura and her daughter Meagan and also with my nephew Josh, his wife April and their kids Tyce and Cadance. So much family so much fun.
Jared, Adam, and Drew at the end of the day. They didn't want to smile for the camera.

I remember this sign from when I was a kid.

Train ride. The kids loved it.

Adam and Jared. Behind them Grayson and Sophia.

The kids on one of the many metal animals around the zoo.

Caleb and Gid.

The gang. Caleb, Drew, Jared, Adam, Iza, Gid, Iza's friend, and Sophia.

My VERY cute boys.Caleb pretending he is scared. He loved all the animals, but if you asked him what he saw at the zoo he will only tell you a turtle because it was the first animal we saw. We had lots of fun.

HaPpY 6th BiRtHdAy DREW

2009-06-29T05:50:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Drew Bear. He is so excited for his birthday he has been counting down for four months. He is such a fun person in our family. He loves to give hugs and has such a fun personality. He loves to play with his brothers. DREW we LOVE YOU!

Drew loves Speed Racer. He pretends all the time that he is Speed.

Drew loves the water. Swimming, splash pads, boating. He loves it all.

Drew loves all sports. This is the first year he got to start playing it and he can't wait for next year.

Drews Favorite.
color: green
food: pizza
thing to do with his brothers: play with them
breakfast food: BACON
TV show: Whipout
Movie: Speed Racer
Toy: Bakugans
Primary Song: I am a Child of God
outside activity: Play with friends
thing to do with family: spend time together
what want to be when grow up: a race car driver
hero: Dad
thing about school: PE
place to go visit: Grandma's
number: 50,000
shape: triangle

Happy Father's Day to the Best Dad!

2009-06-21T05:28:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to wish Darrin a very Happy Fathers Day. He does a lot for the family and I am thankful everyday that he is the Father of my children. I couldn't have asked for better. Just a few things we love about Darrin, our Dad. He loves to wrestle and pillow fight. The boys have the best time jumping all over Dad and hitting him with pillows. It is their favorite thing.

He is always taking care of us. There is so much work that goes into taking care of us. He does a good job.

We love to spend time as a family. He always makes sure we are together.

The boys love to hang out with him. When he is home, were he is, they are.

He helps us to have fun. Darrin, thanks for all you do. WE LOVE YOU!

Lets Go Fly A Kite!

2009-06-12T14:31:00.000-07:00

Here in St. George we have had this amazing reading program. It is called the Kite Festival. Starting in January until mid April the kids have to read a certain amount of time. In the past I haven't really wanted to do it. I thought they would be cheap kites and a ton of people. This year is the first year the kids really wanted to go, so we went.

The boys turned in their papers and got their kites. I was very impressed with the quality of the kites. There was a lot of people so it did make kite flying hard, but the boys still had fun. There were booths of food and other stuff and big slides.

Here is Jared with the kite he earned.

Drew with the kite he earned.

I was very impressed how well run it was. They hold it at a senior community golf course. The residents all volunteer. They bus you in and out so you don't have to walk very much. We can't wait until next year.

Summers Here! Let's Boat!

2009-06-03T05:17:00.001-07:00

As a family we LOVE to go boating. We have had a lot of fun in the past. One thing we love is taking other people to the lake with us. Our nephew Kyle has been living with us for about 7 weeks. He leaves us soon so we wanted to take him boating before he left.

Here is me, the boys and our friends the Goughs: Kathy, Big Jared, and Tanner. They come boating with us a lot. We love to boat with them. This is the boys favorite thing to do boating. Park the boat, everyone get out and swim around.

Jared and Dad tubing.

Caleb and Mom tubing. Caleb loves riding on the tube.

Jared and Drew. We are trying to get Drew back on the tubes. He went under the water a few years ago and it really scared him. We are still working on him liking tubes.

My cute boys. I love them so much.

Jared knee boarding. He loves it all.

Drew and his famous goggles.

Caleb trying to be like brother. So cute.

We didn't get to boat for as long as we wanted to. We saw black clouds coming. The clouds got worse, the wind was bad. We had to call it a day. It took us a long time to get off the lake. Everyone else was also trying to leave. With the wind so strong it is hard to load the boat. Lucky Darrin is so good.

The wind so strong. Caleb was wet, cold and tired. We wrapped him in a towel and put the heater on him and he was a sleep in minutes.

FUN TIMES!

Digging For Dinos!

2009-05-22T05:10:00.000-07:00

Can I just say I LOVE scouts. It is so fun. Jared became a scout in July, and I became the counselor in primary over them September. It has been so fun. Jared has the best leaders in the world. We have so much fun at pack meeting. Last months theme was about dinosaurs. So for pack meeting we got to do a couple of fun things. Our unit commissioner made each of the boys a dinosaur slide for the neckerchief.

We went to a local park and had it on the beach volleyball court. In the corner we built a volcano with dinosaurs around it and let it explode. The boys of course loved it.

The boys with the help of the cub master each got to tell dinosaur jokes.

Then for the boys to get their awards they had to dig for them. In the sand each of the boys had a flag with their name on them. Their awards were in a bag that was about two feet from the flag. They had to dig to find it. So fun.

They even had a section for little brothers and sisters to dig so they could find toy dinosaurs.

I LOVE SCOUTS!

Kindergarten Grad

2009-05-18T12:12:00.001-07:00

Drew graduated from kindergarten. He is so excited to be moving on to the 1st grade were he goes to school for the full day.

This is his wonderful teacher Mrs. Olson. She truly loves her kids and lets them know. I hope she is there when Caleb goes to school.

Drew walking to get his diploma.

Drew giving his part. He is so proud of himself. They sang 11 songs and he memorized his part in ten minutes.

He was an astronaut. For his part he had to say: When I grow up and finish school an astronaut I'll be. I'll get in my big space ship and visit my friend ET.

He did great. We are so proud.

Track Star!

2009-05-13T12:13:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Jared's school had a track meet. Lots of fun. They got out of school for the day, and we got to go watch.

Jared run two races and did the softball throw. Jared getting ready for his first race.

Jared ran the 50 yard dash and the 400 meters.

He did a great job. He didn't know how far 400 meters were till I showed him at the track.

Way to go Jared.

Soccer Season is Over!

2009-05-11T13:17:00.001-07:00

Drew finished up his soccer season. He had so much fun. Me and my friend coached the team. It was fun, but a big challenge. Nothing like trying to teach a group of 5 year old kids soccer.

This is my team, the Bears. Aren't they cute?

Drew loved it. He soccer 5 goals. The second most on his team.

The moment he waited for. His trophy. He counted down the days till he got it.

This is our last game. We had to end it after the 1st quarter because of the wind and the rain.