Newest Addition

We got a new addition in the backyard. A 14 foot trampoline with safety net. I was just bumming around on ksl and craigslist last night and the kids have been asking for a trampoline. Connor doesn't like to leave the neighbors house because of their trampoline. I found one without the metal springs (they are the fabric kind) and with a safety net for $140. Looking up trampolines, the cheapest one like that was around $500. So we took the long trip out to Tooele to pick it up. It took us 4 hours to get there and back--that included a trip to the gas station and McDonald's. Hopefully it was worth it! We will see tomorrow. I'm excited for the kids. And Connor can practice his gymnastics stuff on it. He is already a dynamite jumper on the ground--I think he'll be really good at doing jumps on his snowboard and wakeboard and all that when the time comes. There will be a little less room in the yard for playing soccer, but I guess we can cope with that. I'll have to be careful, since I have taken to peeing a little every time I'm bounced high on the trampoline. Now our backyard will look like all the other backyards in Utah....playset, trampoline, playhouse, motorized kid cars. Yikes! I always found it funny flying over California there were pools in tons of the backyards. Then you fly over Utah and there are a ton of trampolines.

T-ball

Today was Josh's first day of T-ball. He played last year and loved it almost as much as I loved taking him and playing with him. Today he would not get out of the car. Brad took him and Josh was crying and saying he just wanted to go home. So Brad brought him back and I had a go. Josh does this at everything we go to. Cries and whines and says he wants to go home. Then we get him in and involved and he loves it and doesn't want to go home at the end. Well, I tried everything. I tried asking, begging, bribing, reasoning, using reverse psychology, and anything else I could think of. Nothing worked. He said he just wanted to stay in the car and go home. I told him I was going to go have fun. I went and got his shirt and hat and came back to see if he'd changed his mind. Nope. Still buckled into his car seat sulking. I went back out and watched the kids play. Went back to the car and he still wanted to go home. I told him that if he didn't play he wouldn't get a snow cone on the way home (a tradition from last year.) That didn't phase him. I told him he could go home after and play the computer and that didn't work. I begged him to play because I wanted to play and couldn't without him. Nope. I unbuckled his car seat and unlocked the doors and went and sat on the grass, thinking that I would hear the car door anytime and see him getting out. Nope. 15 minutes later he was still sitting in his car seat. So finally, I thought 'We're not wasting our money and time on this. Connor would absolutely love this more than he has loved anything, ever. Even monster trucks and licking dirt.' So I took Josh home and got Connor. Connor is less than a month away from his 4th birthday anyway. He got to play for only 10 minutes, but that kid was so excited! He was hopping, hopping, hopping. He could not keep still. If he wasn't running bases, he was hopping. He is going to have a blast. Good thing we've got a back-up player.:) Josh is so stubborn, I can't believe it. I cannot see Connor ever doing anything like that. Kaytlynn, on the other hand....she takes after Josh. Oh, well. It will be more fun with Connor anyway. *Sigh*

Blah!

I have not been feeling well for about 2 weeks now. The best way to describe my symptoms is pregnant. I feel like I am pregnant. Headache, nautious, a little dizzy, heartburn, emotional (I keep crying for no reason), and a few other not-so-nice things that pregnant people get. Now, I am hoping and praying that this is not the case. I have not been drop-dead tired like I was with the other kids, so that gives me hope. Brad had a vasectomy a little over 2 years ago, so that also gives me hope. What does not give me hope is the 5 different stories I have heard of failed vasectomies lately. We planned to have only 2 kids, and as you all know we have 3. It took a lot of talking and begging and time for Brad to consent to having the v-word. And our third child, and a scare of having a 4th.
There are so many good people out there who would take the news graciously, saying that their surprise is a gift and all that, but I am not going to lie to you, I would be devastated. We'd love the kid and everything, but, yeah. Kaytlynn was a devastation. Of course I absolutely love that naughty, fiesty little girl and I'd never want her to not be a part of our family now. So if it is true, we will take it as it comes. And if I have a terminal disease that makes me feel pregnant, well, we will also take that as it comes :) Hopefully I've just been working too much.

Knocked out

So our poor little Kaytlynn knocked her tooth out yesterday. Actually, the floor knocked it out. This is a tooth that we just spent I don't know how much money on capping last month. Probably close to a thousand dollars. She had an accident with the recliner and ended up face down on the floor with no tooth. The dentist said that we should probably just leave it, because 90% of the time they die anyway and it is likely to cause an infection if we try to put it back in and it's a baby tooth. Luckily it's not a middle front tooth, but it's a tooth next to the middle. I always think these little kids with missing teeth look like little trailer park white trash kids. Isn't that horrible? Not to be mean or anything, because I lived in a trailer park when I was Kaytlynns age. So she will be missing a tooth for about 5 years until her adult tooth grows in. Tonight the tooth fairy came and left 2 little "pwetty dwesses" under her pillow, since she's not old enough to enjoy money yet. Poor girl. So when you see her with a missing tooth, that is what happened! Will post a picture when I get one.

Kaytlynn is such a girl

Kaytlynn likes to change clothes about 8 times a day. Usually the outfits are...well....she has no style. Brad got her a cute little pink sun dress with white hearts. When she woke up from her nap, she came out and did that heavy panting thing with a little bit of a squeal or a squeak coming out and started stripping as fast as she could so she could put on the "petty dwess" She is officially out of the stage of wanting cars like her brothers. She wanted to show grandpa the pretty dress, so we got on the webcam. She wanted to go to his house and had a little angry face down on the ground fit when she found out it was just the webcam. What a girl!

Mothers Day Hike

I had a great Mothers Day. First I came home from work and got to sleep for 6 or 7 hours. Woo-hoo! When I got up, it was such a gorgeous day that I decided I wanted to go on my favorite hike for mothers day. So we got everyone loaded up into the mini-van and headed up Provo Canyon, past Sundance, to the hiking spot for Stewart Falls. This hike is really pretty, nice, and easy. It doesn't usually take very long. We made it there by 5:45 and started hiking. Brad-well geez. I don't think I've ever been hiking with him before! A little walk in the hills of Scotland is all. He came armed with a knife with a compass, those dinner ration packs, solar blankets, 4 bottles of water, jackets, M&M's, diapers, a filter water bottle, flashlights, and more. I don't know how much that backpack weighed, but it must have been heavy. Soon after we got there Brad had a walking stick. I brought my cell phone. That's all I needed. You get in trouble, you call someone :) Usually I just bring my cell phone, a bottle of water, and some toilet paper. Brad didn't bring any toilet paper or wipes. Funny.

This is a hike that I used to go on on summer nights with a full moon. A bunch of us would get together wearing shorts and sandals and hike to the falls by the light of the moon in under an hour there and back. Well, this hike took us just under 3 hours! It was great though. The weather was perfect. We climbed over some patches of snow at places. The kids had a good time figuring out which animals each of the footprints belonged to. Mostly bear, reindeer, and tigers. They also liked looking at the holes in the ground and figuring out what lived in there. Connor decided that birds lived in the holes in the ground. It took awhile when Kaytlynn wanted to walk and had to "climb" over every small rock and branch. If there was anything over a short step up, she would put her hands down on the ground and "climb" over it. But she did well. And Josh peed for the first time in the wilderness. Yay Josh! I didn't have to work last night, so we didn't have anything we had to get home for. Just didn't want to be out there in the dark. We had perfect timing getting back, though. Just as the sun was going down. Then we went for some Slurpees. Yep, it was a good Mothers Day! I'm looking forward to doing more family things like this now that I know the kids can do it.

Loads and loads of food

So Beehive Homes asked if I could work this last Saturday, May 9th. Usually the regular at the post office loves to work on a Saturday and take one of the weekdays off. But last Saturday she was going on a trip, and I think I know why. I got some others to cover for me on Saturday at Beehive and told them I would get there when I was done with my route around 2 or 3. That is when I usually get done on Saturdays. I got to the post office at 7:15 after working at my other job all night long and found out it was National Letter Carrier food drive day. Yikes! It made for quite the long day. Luckily I got someone to cover for me at Beehive, because I was done at 6:15 p.m. I do not know how much food I picked up, but it had to be a ton. Literally. I'm sure I picked up 2,000 pounds of food. It just filled the truck.

The first few bags that I picked up brought a tear to my eye. It was so wonderful how giving everybody was! I was excited when I saw another bag filled with canned goods and non-perishable food items. It didn't take long, though, for me to see another bag and be bummed. Where was I going to put this bag, and the next one, and the next one? I saw bags tied to the mailboxes and out on the sidewalk far down the street, and on the other side. There are around 600 houses on this route, and I probably picked up around 200 bags filled with food. Or more. Who knows. I wish I had my camera. So it was kind of rough doing this on no sleep, but then I really am happy to have helped. And not just because they rewarded us with Krispy Kremes! But, yeah. It was good, but I'm glad it only rolls around once a year!