Getting Bigger

Brandon and I went to Boise for an overnighter last week. We are lucky enough to have fabulous friends and so we left our little ones at Gwen's house for the night. Cooper had school the next morning and so he got to ride the bus to school with Lydia and Kameryn.

Apparently it was a life altering experience because when we got home Cooper was positive he had grown 5 feet overnight.
He ran from appliance to appliance in the kitchen.
"Look Mom! Look how bigger I am. I'm bigger than the dishwasher."
"Whoa Mom! I'm as big as the 'u-ben' "

He even told me:"I ride the bus now 'cuz I'm a big kid. Only big kids ride the bus."

My favorite however took place the next morning. Cooper had just woken up and he was sitting bare chested on the couch admiring himself. He flexes his toothpick appendage and then says with a voice brimming with male pride.
"Whoa! my muscles keep getting bigger bigger!"

Boys are so silly. And they're my favorite.

Cool Kid

Brandon stopped in to see us for a couple minutes at lunch time. When he left to go back to work Landon was completely devastated he couldn't go with and so he stood by the screen door crying hysterically as he watched Brandon pull away.

What happened next is one reason I absolutely adore Cooper.

"Landon bud, I cooler dan daddy! You can play with me. It's okay bud, I cooler dan daddy. Wanna watch how cool I am? (shoots a basket into his basketball hoop ... and misses.) Woohoo! See how cool I am! You wanna play with me cuz I'm cool?"

Just makes me smile. His cute little higher pitched "comforting" voice assuring his little brother "it's okay Landon bud, I cooler dan daddy."

It's true. If anyone is going to beat Brandon in cool kid points, it's going to be Cooper.

He's cool like that.

It's days like these that help me remember that my boys actually do love each other.

Freshly Mopped

Today something fun happened.
I went to post it as my status on facebook and then realized that I had too many words for a status update. Do you know what? I have a blog! Perfect. Just the right amount of space to share.

I was teaching Kameryn piano lessons this afternoon, getting her prepared for our annual Halloween Recital (epic! as always.) And, because I am a mother, at the same time I was also picking up the mess in my kid's room getting Landon prepared for a desperately needed nap. (Why the child can't sleep in is beyond me).
I had just sat my bottom end back in the chair to help Kameryn pick a spooky sound for her recital piece when Cooper waltzed into the room. He had been having quite the time taking care of some business in the bathroom when I last saw him (while picking up the kid's room) so I was pleased to see he had completed the task at hand. (sorry if that's too descriptive)
Cooper came and stood next to the piano. I noticed a bit of water splashed on his shirt and thought perhaps he had gotten a little thorough with the hand washing. I remember looking at him. He had an interesting look on his face and I wondered why he was just standing there. But he seemed in no rush to say anything. So I just let him stand there, calming looking at me, as if he had nothing better to do.

3 minutes later....

"Mom, I flushed the toilet but it won't go down. So now there's lots of water coming out everywhere..."

{shrug.}

(the kid was calm as ever.)

What!?

I bolted out of the chair and into the bathroom.

There was a toilet plunger in the toilet, a single towel wrapped around it's base, and 15+ gallons of water on my bathroom floor and it was still gushing out of the top of the toilet tank like old faithful. I had never before seen a toilet overflown like that.
I plunged like there was no tomorrow, certain that at any moment my toilet was going fall through the floor and go crashing down into the basement below.
When I finally got the toilet plunged it was surrounded in 3+ inches of water. Water had seeped all the way onto my bedroom carpet and was flowing like a river straight for the kid's room carpet. (We have a jack and jill bathroom. 7 feet wide from door to door.)
I screamed at the kids to get as many towels as they could and we bolted in every direction, scrambled over beds, and digging through the laundry basket to obtain every towel we own.
When I finally laid the last towel down mere inches from the kid's carpet, I looked around to survey the damage.

Here is the conclusion I came too: I now get to finally use my shop vac to suck water out of my own home and I get to do 2 more loads of laundry. (I was 1 load away from being finished.)
Oh, and from what I just heard my children say from the basement, it looks as if I might have some water to sop up down there as well. (Just checked, probably at least 3 gallons of water made it's way down stairs.)

And, on the bright side, I'm thinking this might count as mopping my bathroom floor.
And that wasn't even on my list until Monday.
That makes me feel good.
It's about time I was ahead of the game.

Happy Anniversary

It's probably true that my anniversary came and went and there were some of you sobbing by your computer screens because the annual "Ha-pee Annie- vair- suri" post never came (see episode 1 and 2)

Well, don't you fret little friends. I was saving it up for something EPIC!
This year marks the 7 year anniversary of my husband and I's love. I know, seems like only yesterday. Well, way back in March, we decided to do something amazing. And do you know what? We did. Do you want to know what it was? I'll tell you. Just let me show you some pictures first:

We invited some people we love to join in the festivities with us. We did it because, well we like them.

Steve and Alyssa

Dad and Mom - with me in the middle.

Joe Swain, KeiLani, and Handsome Husband man

We had to stop and eat some dinner before. The irony of this all is we ate at Texas Roadhouse last year for our anniversary. That wasn't even planned. In fact, we weren't even the ones who picked the eating spot. Silly silly. (You know what? They even have Texas Roadhouse in Utah! What?! Imagine that.)
Oh, by the way, this pic is me and my mom. It was kind of a bright sun.

he he

See, I love my husband. He is so photogenic.

Mom and Dad.
Mom kept making angry faces at me when I tried to take her picture... I don't think she really likes me.

I love this picture of Alyssa. So pretty and happy.

And here are Brandon and Nicole.
Brandon had work in Sandy so he met us there and Nicole had school so she had to drive up separate. But, they made it and we were happy.

Do you notice how we are missing Gina and Dave? Yeah, we noticed too. Wish they could have come... but Gina was sweet enough to watch all the kids for us. (Talk about a slap in the face. I love you Gina.)


Now, enough chit chat. Are you ready for the main event?!

dun

da

da

dun!

Lion King!
Right?
Right?!

Yep. We went there.





I look like I have Jay Leno chin in this one. ha ha.
Alyssa always looks pretty though.

I'm waiting on more group shots... maybe I'll get them forwarded soon and then I'll upload them. Until then, enjoy this completely highly illegal video I shot for you:

My Cute Husband Took Me Golfing Because He Loves Me The Most!

And do you know what. I love him so much and it was my best. date. ever.


My sister Alyssa was the craziest golf cart driver IN EXISTENCE! She ran over our cart... um ... well I lost count. Here is an instance I got on film. She drove behind us and I was actually driving the cart. Until, of course, I got nervous because she kept bumping into us and screaming obscenities. But in my defensive, our golf cart was really slow and it kept backfiring.
(That part was kind of funny actually)

Do you want to know something else? Alyssa even ran into my pregnant sister Nicole. She probably almost had her baby on the golf course, she was that scared.
Oh, and then, Steve, Alyssa's husband, tried to kill Nicole with a renegade golf ball. I don't know what she ever did to them... but they are out for revenge so she better watch her back. Apparently.

Here we are at the top of the mountain for hole 1 (actually hole 10. We shot the back 9)


Funny story about this picture. Seconds after I took this Brandon chucked his golf club at me and almost killed me. Not. Exagerrating.
No worries though, it wasn't on purpose. My man is just super buff and he can throw really far. And, I was saved by the hood of the golf cart.
Quite literally.

Look, I golfed.
I even hit the ball "super" far and it hit the pipe. Which was a huge deal because it was super far away and my only goal was to make it to the pipe.

We were on a date.

It was such a beautiful night. Brandon and I had a fairly lengthy conversation about how nice it was actually. The views were spectacular. The weather was spectacular. The company was spectacular.

Honestly, if you are ever in Utah Valley, or you live in Utah Valley ;) Make the trip to Cascade Golf Center and play the back nine (get a 6 pm tee time, it's the prettiest) Even if you don't golf.

It was so nice to be together outside enjoying the outdoors and doing something active together.
Fun note, Brandon and I had our wedding reception at Cascade Golf Center. I recommend that as well, naturally.

Me and Alyssa!

Me and Gina!

Me and Nicole!

My sister Alyssa and her husband Steve.
(Remember, she's the crazy driver who kept trying to run over the top of us.)

My sister Gina and her husband Dave.
And, if you can believe it, this is the most G-rated of all the photos.


Brandon (my brother) and Nicole his amazing 8 months pregnant wife.
She is having a cute little girl baby and she is going to name her Ermengarde or Cocomella. true. story.

Our attractive man beasts!
left to right Dave, My Man (he has the cutest bum), Steve, and my brother Brandon.

The boys naturally couldn't take a serious picture to save their lives.

The women golfers (don't let the clubs fool you... we spent the majority of the excursion in the cart.)
Left to Right: Gina, Me, Alyssa, and Nicole.

Look at those pregnant bellies! (Mine isn't one of them so don't make assumptions.)

Watching the ball.
Look at those views!
That is what Utah has that Idaho doesn't. I'm not going to lie. I got semi homesick for my former home town. It was really fun to look over it from this view.


Utah Valley


Look I zoomed in. That's my parent's house there. I bet they didn't know the had a house on the golf course.

Look at this cute date moment. Steve was teaching Alyssa how to "golf."

I'm pretty sure I want this picture as my screen saver for my phone.

Our group shot.
Best date ever.
I obviously forgot the sun was going down and sun glasses were not necessary...
By the way. My husband is cute. As always.

Do you want to hear how our night ended? We were on our way down the steep mountain, Brandon and I were 3rd in a line of 4 golf carts. All the sudden we hear a very loud and frantic "Oh swear word!" and there come Dave and Gina barreling down the mountain side and very unsafe speeds. Seconds before crashing into us and sending us to our doom, Dave, the police man, uses his "skills" (keep in mind, these are the same skills that got him in this mess) to swerve the cart up onto the green and narily misses us. Of course he narily missed rolling his golf cart as well. Poor sister Gina ended up with a big bruise on her bicep, lost sunglasses, and a husband with a guilt complex. Crazy drivers!

My family is the best and I love them so much. What I love the most is that all our husbands love each other. They get along really well and always have a great time together. It's another pang in my heart that kind of makes me wish we lived closer.
But, no worries friends. I love my home in Idaho so much.

Ra Ra Ra!

This was so flattering. Seriously. I don't know where she came up with this stuff.

Picky Eater

This morning Cooper asked me to make him a roast beef sandwich for breakfast.

Two problems:
1. I don't have any roast beef
2. Are roast beef sandwiches breakfast food??

I regretfully told Cooper of my decision:
No roast beef sandwiches for breakfast. Instead, I was going to make sausage egg burritos.

I waited for the meltdown.

I was pleasantly surprised when instead I heard:

"Hmm... okay, I can eat that all gone."

Cute boy.