Happiness is......

...a super clean, fresh smelling dog. (Although I'm sure Buster would not agree. He likes his STANK.)

I Love Having a Handy Husband!

Our Spring Break started out rocky. The weather was wet and cold, Rowan was sick, and the Wii broke. The children greatly lamented the loss of video game time. We assured them that they would live.

Meanwhile Paul got online and did some research into Wii problems. He diagnosed the possible problem and ordered a special screw driver to open the Wii and a new laser. The children doubted that it could be fixed and every day begged us to buy a new one.

Today the tool and the part finally arrived and after 3 hours following "how to" videos, Paul put it back together and we all crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. It worked! A true Spring Break miracle! I have the HANDIEST husband!

Grayson also "helped" in his own special way, and now the kids are happily back to arguing about who's turn it is.

Rowan's Special Day

I like to look for rainbows whenever there is rain
and ponder on the beauty of an earth made clean again.

I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain.
I want to be the best I can and live with God again.

I know when I am baptized my wrongs are washed away,
and I can be forgiven and improve myself each day.

I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain.
I want to be the best I can and live with God again.

Sharing a Birthday

With birthdays just 6 days apart Fuller and Rowan have shared many a birthday celebration over the years. This year they each had their own friend party, but we also had a family birthday dinner with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma and Grandpa have never missed one of the kids' birthdays, and they always bring something for everyone!

After dinner it was time for cupcakes!

I thought that since they each had their own cake and candles at their individual parties, they could just share for this celebration.

But then a certain older brother blew out all the candles but one, and a certain younger brother made THAT face.

So we did the only thing we could do at that point, we re-lit all the candles and let Rowan blow them all out by himself.

Birthday disaster averted!

It's Great to be 8!

Today my baby boy is eight years old! Where has the time gone? In honor of his special day we had a party with some of his buddies yesterday. They ate pizza and cake, had a limbo contest, went on a scavenger hunt, and ran through the house like maniacs. Rowan loved every minute of it!


A few facts about Rowan at 8:

Favorite food: hot dogs
Favorite movie: Open Season 2
Favorite restaurant: Miyako
Favorite TV show: Pink Panther and Pals
Favorite game: Phineas and Ferb for ds
Favorite music: "Eye of the Tiger"
Favorite thing to do: Play video games
Favorite toy: Ninjago legos
Best friends: Sam, Landon, Dasher, Chris and Kent
Most important thing you learned this year: how to do times (multiplication)

Happy Birthday Rowan! We love you!

14

Tomorrow Fuller will be 14. So this weekend he had a couple of friends over to celebrate his birthday. They ate, played video games, ate, played video games, ate, played video games, and sometime in the wee hours of the morning actually went to sleep. Then in the morning they ate, played some more video games and actually went outside and played some real basketball for a few hours. Perfection.


A few facts about Fuller at 14:

Favorite food: lumpia and burritos
Favorite movie: Inception and Lord of the Rings
Favorite restaurant: Chipotle, or Aprisa
Favorite TV show: sports, ESPN, etc.- favorite teams are Oregon Ducks,Celtics and BYU basketball
Favorite game: Golden Eye for Wii
Favorite music: rap (yuck!)
Favorite thing to do: Play basketball
Favorite toy: ipod touch with skullcandy headphones
Best friends: Talon, Tyler, Jake, Mitchell
Most important thing you learned this year: how to shave

(As you can tell by the picture, Grayson and Rowan were being their most "entertaining" selves for Fuller's friends.)


HAPPY BIRTHDAY FULLER!

Snow Day- Take 3

In the last week we have had some weird late Winter weather. Last Thursday and Friday we woke to a dusting of white, which ridiculously made them close school out here.

Grayson and Rowan went on a quest to find enough snow to use the sleds they got for Christmas.

But sadly they couldn't find enough. By late morning the roads were pretty much clear and there wasn't enough snow to be fun to play in.

This morning we once again woke to a dusting of white. This time we had way more than the other days they had closed school, so we knew right away it was going to be a day off. Grayson and Rowan headed outside right after breakfast and made the most of it.

Rowan set about trying to get enough snow to make a snow fort,while Grayson tried to convince me to pay him shoveling snow.

By 9:30 the snow had turned to rain, it had warmed up over freezing and the snow plow had hit our street. Everything was quickly becoming a soggy mess outside. In my opinion, if there isn't going to be enough snow to keep the kids occupied all day, then we shouldn't have a snow day.

(Fuller has apparently reached the age where a little bit of snow just isn't exciting enough to leave the house for. That's why he's not in any of the pictures.)