Snowballs, Snow forts, and Snowmen!!

I have been a huge slacker when it comes to blogging for several months now. But after a morning as exciting as this I couldn't wait! There is nothing better than waking up to this much snow a few days before Christmas. Tucker absolutely hates going to the bathroom in the snow in the morning...He will NOT do it. He stands there looking at me while violently shaking until I shovel him a little path in the snow.

Spoiled I know but he's my baby. :)
A little later the snow games began. This is the base of the snowman that Jared, Gage, and Kyler is making. I do not have a final picture yet. The other pieces of the snowman were too heavy for me and Jared to lift (I didn't even want to try) and so it will be put together later when Josh or my Dad are around.

My nephew Zach sitting on the ginormous snowball.

Zach LOVED the snow! We had a sleepover the night before and so we weren't completely prepared with snow gear for him but that didn't stop him. He played and played and discovered that he LOVES to eat snow. He didn't want to go inside but Auntie Heather finally had to take him inside (while saying "No no no...Outside") since he was getting so cold and wet. :(

Then it was time to build the snow forts. I took Zach in before they were finished and the snowball war began, but I will get pics of the finished forts and snowman later.
Here is Gage with his....

Jared in his fort..... Jared has been the funnest Uncle!! Having him around to play with the nephews is awesome for me and them!

And here is Kyler starting his fort. I love living in Utah! Its fantastic that the boys can walk in the backyard and play like real boys without any electronics! Of course when they're done they're back inside...wet clothes, coats, hats, gloves, boots, etc. all over the place... and they're back to the video games!

Tucker has decided that he LOVES to play in the snow too! He was out there playing with the boys the whole time and I don't think I've ever seen him so happy! I'm sure he will still need his bathroom trail in the morning though lol!

Tucker

Last month we got a new puppy and we named him Tucker! Merry Christmas Everyone!

This year for Halloween we went to the Zoo with Josh and Michelle. It was so much fun! They had Trick or Treating for the kids. This was the Chick-Fil-A boothe. Zach wasn't thrilled about the idea of sitting with the gorilla...but I really wanted this picture.

But he sure was having fun collecting candy!

Very fun day!!

We love the Zoo!

We went on our first Zoo trip this year and it was soo much fun! We are huge animal lovers and so the Zoo is a little piece of heaven for us. We went with Michelle, Brooke, and Stephie and her man and we all got year passes and so we will be going all the time. I am so excited!

Kyler has decided to take on a more serious pose in all his pictures. Does this mean he's growing up? I am so sad! Next he will probably stop snuggling with me.

These are my favorite animals! They have 4 or 5 tigers now and the new Asian Highlands are awesome! This sign was so funny I had to take a picture.

For some reason I think this hat is sooo Gage!

Here is Gage with his favorite animal....

Here is Ky with his favorite animal....

Again with the more serious pose! I love my boys!

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all Mothers! My Mom is the best...this was my Mother's Day gift from my Mom.....Thank you Mom!!

There are certain holidays that are hard when you are a single Mom and Mother's day for some reason has always been one of them. I realize that is pretty selfish of me but when you have been a Mom for as long as I have and year after year you don't get a Mother's day gift from a Hubby and your kids are MY boys who just don't get it yet....well you get the point right? Anyways, this year was different and it was so much better. My Mom surprised me with this gorgeous Begonia bush a few days early and it made my whole week! Sunday morning my boys and I stayed in my bed all morning and watched movies and ate junk food. (I guess you could call that breakfast in bed?) This year Gage totally understood the meaning of Mother's day! He was doing everything he could for me. It was so sweet. We skipped church but I really don't feel guilty because that morning with my boys was one of those rare moments. So this year I got an awesome gift and my boys spoiled me! I also received the sweetest picture mail ever from one of the greatest Moms I know! I love you all and I hope your day was as special as mine!

Our new house and Easter

I realize that its been a long time since the last time I blogged....I have been very busy and had some major events take place in our lives and I have been waiting for life to settle down a little bit before writing again. Drew and I are divorced and and we have been moving on with our lives. Also I have rented a 5 bedroom house with Adam and Brooke and Brooke's sister Kaylee. It has been fun and the house is already a challenge (needs a little work) but the boys finally have a yard and swing set and life is getting better and better every day!
Easter came during the weekend that we were moving and so this year I was a major procrastinator and instead of Easter baskets and lots of candy I just got the boys these ginormous chocolate bunnies...HUGE mistake. Of course my boys couldn't resist tearing them apart into a zillion little pieces and so there was chocolate everywhere! Oh well...never again.

Then we went to Josh and Michelle's house for an Easter egg hunt and Easter dinner...YUMMY!

For everyone who is not on facebook ...this is Jason. He was my high school sweetheart and after 15 years of being apart we have reunited.

Thank you Josh and Michelle for a wonderful Easter and Dinner! I hope everyone had an Easter as awesome as mine!

McDonald's for lunch

Michelle and I took our boys to McDonalds for lunch. This was Zach's first McD's playground experience. When we first got there it was so crowded it felt like a bad idea but after about an hour it emptied considerably and the boys were able to play play play!

This little slide in the toddlers section was so cute! It played music like you were really sliding down a piano.

Zach loved it! After he went down it and he got back up, he would walk away with a little skip and giggle that was so freakin cute! Here is a video of it.

Peices of my Life

So after being a mom for as long as I have, I realize that scenes like this are not that unusual. Gage was sick the other night and he was very grateful for this fairly new bath rug that is really thick and soft. I tried to get him to go to bed, but he was afraid he wouldn't make it to the toilet if he threw up. He said that he didn't want to move and he was fine on the rug. Poor kid!

So I got him his pillow and a blanket and he spent half the night there. He never did throw up.

Now that my boys are getting older they have grown out of the quarter machines that give you candy or prizes...until they spotted one that produced fake mustaches!! How random. Then we went to the movies after and Kyler actually wore his. It was so fun.

Friday has turned into my favorite day of the week. It is the start of the weekend AND I get to spend the whole morning with this handsome little guy! While Michelle sleeps after working all night I get Zach. Here he is with chicken nugget in his cheek. So cute!

Yes he is eating on my unmade bed... He is the only kid allowed to do that. I absolutely love to spoil this kid! Being Auntie Heather is as awsome as being a mom!

Just one of the kids

This post has a few repeat pics since I accidentally deleted the post about our new dog Sandie. Since this blog is our scrapbook I needed to get these pics back in here. On Jan. 1st we got a new dog named Sandie and we are loving her! She is a sweet little Jack Russel terrier. Of course I made sure she was girl so that I had someone to buy pink for!

She has separation anxiety and HATES to be left alone. She rarely gets left home alone since I'm currently a stay-at-home mom but when she does get left, she claws and bites at the front door and this is what we have come home to a few times! Poor girl! So after some advice from my dad we did some re-arranging in the living room so that the couch was under the window and now she can look out and watch for us to come home. Yay! It worked... her nose is getting better.

Sandie is definitely one of the kids. She gets into mischief and always makes me laugh. One night at my parents house she ended up with white all over her. It took me a while to figure out what she had gotten into. Long story short...she climbed into my little brother's bathtub and rubbed along the side of it like a cat and ended up with soap scum on her sweater and face! Time to scrub the bathtub Jared! lol She has an obsession with bathtubs. It's the funniest thing.

Often she has her tongue out a little. Cute huh? She doesn't drool at all when she does this in fact her tongue gets completely dry. We just LOVE it.

Sandie is definitely fitting in perfectly with our family. This is my dad she is snuggling with in the above pic. He shares his food with her which is code for I love Ya! Sandie really loves my mom too. Every time we go to my parents, if my mom is sitting on the couch, Sandie rolls around in her lap for a minute. It drives my mom nuts! It's really sweet though.

I want Sandie's previous owners to know that she is doing great. She moped a lot the first week but I really believe that she is happy with us now. My boys LOVE her and she is played with a lot every single day. She sleeps with my youngest son and when I say "Go to bed" to my boys she gets up and goes too! She is so smart! We love her and she is truly a part of our family.

Piano lessons for Ky

Kyler had his first Piano Lesson on Tuesday. He was so excited that he started watching the clock an hour before and counted down the minutes! How cute is that? He smiled through the whole lesson. This is his teacher Jenni. She is in our ward and I know that she is going to be awesome. She is fabulous with kids. She just started teaching and so if your looking for a piano teacher...

The curse of ADHD!

So...Gage is your typical ADHD student. Growing up in a house where ADD and ADHD is common, we knew he was ADHD probably by the age of 3. School of course has been a challenge. Last year was the worst! He was in a class that didn't have any structure. This class was chaotic without Gage in it! Some kids do very well in a class like that but NOT Gage! And of course it was the biggest year for Drama at home. I do need to take a lot of the blame. So he has gotten very behind in reading and writing. Now the reason I say he is TYPICAL ADHD is because he is ahead in Math and Science. We just got done testing him...and I mean the whole pack of tests that looks for learning disabilities, IQ, and all that jazz. He is in 5th grade this year and his Math is on a 6th and 7th grade level. His reading level however is way behind. The most interesting part is when he does his math he doesn't show his work. It's seriously like he doesn't know how he got the answer. He has the answer and it makes sense to him but he can't explain it on paper. AAAAHHH! We all know that you have to show your work to get credit in math! It is sooo frustrating. Poor kid! I remember my mom having the same trouble with my siblings. It is the curse of ADHD. Anyways, this year he has an amazing teacher, Mrs. McClain. She has been so wonderful. Today I met with his teacher, school psychologist (another wonderful lady Mrs. Crandall) , the special ed teacher and Vice principal for our Post testing meeting. I'm happy to report that he does not have a learning disability and his IQ is NOT below average. Gage is going to be in special ed for about an hour every day to get caught up on reading and writing. The 4th grade was just a horrible year for him... Hopefully we can get caught up!