In Memory

I'm so glad my sister, Gina, lives so close to where we buried Garrett. She is such a terrific 'babysitter'. This past week she bought flowers, cute little figurines and a pinwheel to decorate his headstone.


The frog and turtle are so perfect! I always think of Garrett when I see frogs for some reason, it's the same with the color green!

The snow has finally melted and the grass is green. It's going to be a beautiful summer, we can't wait to visit.


Thanks, cousins for visiting for us.



I've been thinking a lot about my mom this weekend as well. We sure do miss her.


I'm so glad she is keeping Garrett company!

Mookster Chronicles: Toilet Training

Yep, we're in the middle of toilet training. It's going well, I guess. It's really hard for me to not get frustrated when I've cleaned up 3 accidents and done 2 loads of laundry in one day. Not my idea of fun.

She was doing so well for a week and now she seems to have regressed! Like I said, frustrating!

BUT, she is completely fascinated with the process. She follows me into the bathroom, watches, listens (with her head cocked and eyes rolled up to the ceiling and a smile on her face) then she claps when I'm finished and wants to help me wipe! How grand! Toilet training for everyone! She even offers treats when I'm done! So nice of her!

One thing Maura taught me is why we call it #1 and #2. According to her: "It's because when you go pee you get one treat and when you go poo-poo you get two!"

Ah, ha! Now I get it!

Mookster Make-up Chronicles

Looks like lipstick!


Twists like lipstick!



Spreads like lipstick!


Tastes a little funny...


Nope, not lipstick!


This was the discovery Mookie made today. It didn't dry at all like what she expected. She will think twice before trying this brand of 'lipstick' again. YUCK!

It's a Sad, Sad Day...

It's the last day of school! You may be thinking that I am sad because now I'll have to come up with things for Dallin to do with me at home all day-not so! I'm excited to have him home and do some really fun things this summer.

Dallin is the sad one. I met him on the sidewalk as he was coming home and sprayed him with silly string and shot him with a water gun. We do it every year. It's a tradition and it's fun to celebrate the end of the school year. There was not much of a reaction. I stopped and looked closer and he was crying! Huge crocodile tears streaming down his face. He is SO SAD to be leaving third grade and his teacher Mrs. Montgomery.


Mrs. Montgomery is the absolute best teacher in the world. She loves her kids. She is such a dynamic and fun teacher.

Dallin has learned so much this year. I am so sad he is leaving third grade and Mrs. Montgomery (big crocodile tears streaming down my face).

His classroom was such a fun place to be. They are silly, silly kids.



He had a rough year last year. It was rough all around, but he suffered in school. His teachers really did not work with him well and his confidence and education suffered. He came into third grade needing extra help in a lot of things, especially reading.

Now at the end of the year he is one of the top readers in his class! He was one of only three students to get special awards for getting more than 80 points in AR. (AR is a reading program that tests your comprehension after reading a book. You get points based on the difficulty of the book. Some books are worth 1 point, others 2 and so on.)

One of the first 'awards' he got for reading was he got to be wrapped as a mummy!! (Mrs. Montgomery is nuts about Egypt and every prize she gives out has something to do with Egypt.)

Dallin chose his friend Alonte to wrap him up.

Almost done!

I wonder how many rolls they used?

NICE!

Now the best part, breaking free!

Another reward was getting his face painted.


He came home one day with a "Real Egyptian artifact, mom!". It was a giant (and REAL according to Dallin) yellow diamond on an ornate gold stand. It sits in an honored place in his room.

Another reward was getting to dress as an Egyptian God.

Very cool!

They had super fun field trips to Goldfield Ghost town and went to several musical performances. This is their trip to hear Peter and the Wolf.

Mrs. Montgomery's class was always noisy. I heard her on several occasions say "I don't hear you talking! You are suppose to talk to your neighbor and figure this out together! Come on, gotta hear you talk!"

She had so many hands on activities and exciting projects that helped her students become life-long-learners.

We were truly blessed to be part of her classroom this year. She answered many prayers on behalf of Dallin.

We love you Mrs. Montgomery!! *Sniff* *Sniff*

Weekend Recap

Adam came home from work early on Friday sick again...That's two weekends in a row! Poor guy spent all day in bed on Friday and most of the weekend lying low. He is feeling better this morning and back to work. I'm keeping my fingers crossed he keeps his breakfast down.

We did go to Dallin's soccer game on Saturday and then...

Dallin's Piano Recital!

He has done so well this year practicing and doing a terrific job. His piano teacher is tremendous! We love her a bunch!

He worked really hard to have his music memorized.



He had to work especially hard on making sure he didn't go too fast!

At the beginning of the recital the power went out! One of the students was playing at the time and just kept going like nothing had gone wrong. It was off almost the entire time and Dallin was happy he had memorized his music because he wouldn't have been able to see it anyway!


We are going to take a short break during the summer and start again in August with weekly lessons. As an added bonus his teacher has a summer packet of music he can play just for fun!

Dallin and his teacher Kailei

Mookster Chronicles

So, I've given up hiding the lipstick. It's much easier just giving it to her and letting her use it. She loves to hold it and put it on and carry it around.

Today we actually went and bought some just for her (love the cheap bonbon lip gloss).

My worries are over...or so I thought!

When we got home from the store I was busy unloading the groceries. I hadn't seen her for a while so I went looking and this is what I found.



Now she puts on the lipstick, then kisses the mirror!


Over and over and over again!


I guess it didn't label this as a bad behavior as I ran and grabbed the camera!

Well, at least she's not drawing on the walls, carpet, headboards or couches any more!!

Weekend Warrior

Weekends around here are full of playing catch up. During the week we just don't have the time to spend on the house or the yard. With the past few weekends being full as well, our house and yard have suffered.

Sprinklers are a never ending chore especially when the pipes are as old as the house...

Luckily my Weekend Warrior was up to the challenge.


Dig those muscles and the war paint!


He spent his entire day trying to fix the pipes under the valves of our automatic sprinkler system. Even with Maura and Parker helping he didn't finish. He spent another couple of evenings after work trying to finish up and still no luck...


Looks like this project was a little more than my Weekend Warrior could tackle in one weekend.

To be continued...

Mookster Chronicles

Oh, what would I do without this fun little one? Lately she has had a fascination with poop. Maybe it's the potty training, or maybe she's just nutty, but she is seriously enamored with it.

A couple weeks ago while we were at a park for Dallin's soccer practice, she walked around finding all the little piles she could. She found bird poop on the sidewalk and sat and looked at it for a while. She never touched it, just looked.

That all changed when we went camping. She was seriously crazy about it! As we went hiking or just walking around the campground she had to stop and investigate every little pile of animal droppings and in a loud voice would announce "Mom! Poop!".

I thought it was pretty funny until she decided she wanted to pick it up and hold it.....nope, those are not chocolate covered raisins...

Oh-my-freatin'-dosh! (as Garrett would say)

Guess what my hubby got me for my birthday...

an iPad!!

Sadly, I had absolutely no idea what an iPad was...when he got home late last night he excitedly handed me the white box with the apple logo on the side and I still had no idea. I opened it and still had no idea. He spent 10 minutes telling me all about it, and I still had no idea!

I was terrified to open the box. I'm really that retarded when it comes to techno stuff. All I could think about was is this a gift for me or him?

He looked at me with the "what-planet-have-you-been-on" look and stormed off to his room. I hurt his feelings. I'm stubborn and resistant to change. I couldn't imagine what I would do with this gigantic cell phone thingy he just handed me....Then I turned it on!

Holy Guacamole Batman! This is about the coolest thing ever!!! Even a moron like me figured out how to set it up and sync it (okay, I asked for his help twice) and spent the next two hours playing with all the apps.

I took it with me to work this morning and when I had a few minutes I played with it and...EVERYONE walking past stopped to gape and ask me questions and wanted to see it. Ha! I'm the cool kid at school!

It is the coolest thing I have ever seen. I can now imagine myself using it for all kinds of things, carrying it around, buying a new bag it will fit in so I can take it wherever I go. I want to buy accessories for it (which, if you know me is WAY out of character)! Oh yeah, this is MY iPad.

Don't even think about messing with it, honey. Thank yooooou! I love it!

You are the best hubby ever! I'm so glad you drag me kicking and screaming out of the dinosaur age. I love you!

(ummm, you're gunna' have to help me figure out how to add new apps. I need them!)

This past weekend we needed to have some family time, so we packed up our stuff and headed for the hills.



We camped about 20 miles outside of Payson. Dallin learned some valuable scouting skills like starting a fire, how to use a compass, how to build a shelter, gather firewood, and what to do if you get lost in the wilderness (he didn't get lost, we just talked about it a lot).

His fire building skills came in handy in the mornings when it was cold and we didn't want to get out of our sleeping bags, we just sent him out and told him to build a fire...and he did! What a good scout!



S'mores were on the menu of course. Hey, Adam, you've got something...never mind.


Maura wanted hers uncooked and separate.



Dallin burned his marshmallows...twice!

Dallin learned some handgun skills,

and did a little hiking.


We had some light rain and it even snowed on us! We were driven to all kinds of interesting ways to keep warm! Luckily, we brought some hand-warmers and put them in everyone's socks and pockets at night and it kept us nice and toasty.


We all climbed a mountain and sat on the rocks at the top and enjoyed the view.


We explored all kinds of places,


Adam's sneezes took out a few trees...


overall, it was really a great time.

Adam says we should do it every weekend....hmmm, maybe!

Happy Birthday to Me!

The big 39! Seriously? I'm that old?? How did that happen?

I have gotten so many nice cards, texts, emails, phone calls, tweets and facebook messages! WOW! I am really up with the technology! AWESOME. Thanks friends for thinking of me. It made my day!

Goldfield Ghost Town

Dallin's 3rd grade class had a field trip last week and I got to go with him! It was so much fun! the town is great and it's a beautiful place this time of year, but the best part was hanging out with Dallin. We got to ride the bus and everything!

Part of the trip included panning for gold! Dallin got a few flakes, some iron pyrite (fool's gold) and he also found small chips of amethyst.

We went into the mine and put him to work.


It was a motley crew!


But we kept them well contained.

It was a blustery day and a little on the chilly side, but it was a great day.