mothers day

Mothers Day weekend was a good one.

Saturday was Sam's last soccer game with this team.  The weather was CRAZY!!  Right as the game was supposed to start, there was a huge downpour with thunder and lightening, so they postponed the game.  Once that storm passed, they started the game, but it began to hail like crazy, so the stopped the game until that storm passed.  Once they resumed again, the wind was nuts, but they kept playing through it.

The weather was so bad, that I was the only one that went to the game.  I was an idiot, and I was just wearing my gym clothes, because I had just finished working out.  I FROZE!!!

The game was good, and Sam had a great season.  He loved this team, and I feel like he learned a lot.  I noticed that Sam has become  much better with his foot work, and his confidence in taking shots at the goal has increased too. 

I am excited to see him continue on.

One last STORM cheer.

The rest of Saturday was spent cleaning, training the dog, and trying to entertain kids who were cooped up due to the weather.

Sunday, Mother's Day was a good day.  The kids gave me really cute homemade cards, and gifts they made in school.  The weather finally cleared up and the sun came out, which was a huge deal to me.  I really need the sun.
We decided to get everyone, including the dog, outside.  We went to the park.
While we were at the park, Sam asked me if I wanted to race him.  Somehow I had energy to spare, so I agreed.  I wasn't sure I could beat him, but I thought there was a good chance I could.  I run almost every day after all.

Once the kids heard that I was going to race Sam, they all wanted to race me.  We decided to have a family race.  Ben would be the finish line.  I figured Mary was the only one that would most likely beat me.

Well, we did the race and Sam and Mary completely smoked me....by a LONG way!  They blasted past me and got way ahead.  I didn't have a prayer!  I couldn't believe it.

To make matters even more crazy, William also beat me.  Yup, my 7 year old.  For real.  I did not go easy on them at all.

I was so astonished by how badly I was beaten, that I called for a re-match.  That one was only worse. 

I am not a competitive person, with other people, so I wasn't bothered, but I was definitely shocked.  It was actually hilarious!

That is me, way, way back there in the blue sweater, running my absolute fastest.  And that would be Mary and Sam, absolutely trashing me.  haha!!!  William wasn't in this particular race, but he beat me every single time.

It was really fun to play with my kids and to be together as a family.  We all had a good time.  One the walk home, William walked up to me and said, "it's ok mom, maybe when you're older, like 90 or something, you will beat me."
Thanks William.

Church was great.  Mary was asked to speak in Relief Society about women in her life who have been Tender. 
She wrote the talk herself, and she wrote all about me.  It was very touching and very sweet.  I kept the talk.  It was so special.
 We had a yummy dinner after church, and Mary and her friends worked really hard the day before to make cake pops (my favorite dessert) for me.  They were so yummy!

We hung out after dinner.  We did some push up contests, sit up contests, and talked about each child and their special story of coming in to our family.

It was such a great day.

I am so blessed with my beautiful children, and to be a mother to them.

Being a mother is my greatest treasure and gift.

and another big, Big, BIG weekend

Three weeks ago, we had our biggest weekend of the spring to date.  Whew!

On Friday, Ben went on a field trip with Sam.  Sam is at a really funny age, and he decided that he and his friend Blake would walk the mile to Walmart and another mile back, to buy some treats for the field trip.  Sam came home with a giant bag of cereal!?!?  haha!

The field trip was to a baseball game. 

Ben and Sam had a great time, and Sam enjoyed his fruit loops. 

Friday night, I was looking on KSL, like I always do, just checking see if by some weird chance the dog I have been trying to find was for sale, at a reasonable price.  There were TONS of goldendoodles for sale, but none of them had any lab in them, and they were all way out of our price range.  I knew that if we got a dog, it would need to be in the spring, and the kids were old enough, in my opinion, to finally help.

That night, I finally found the perfect puppy breed at a great price.  Half goldendoodle, half lap.  YES!
Ben was already asleep, so I waited until the next morning to tell him.

The next morning we went to Molly and Luke's last soccer games.  Molly finally scored a goal and she was thrilled!  Granted, it was for the other team, but still.  She was so happy.  Luke also scored 2 goals and ended his season well.

 

Immediately after Molly's game, Mary and I headed down to Spanish Fork for her cheer tryouts at Hive.  Yup, Spanish Fork.  Mary had a great tryout and I was very, very impressed at the parent meeting with how the gym is run, the vibe of the coaches and the parents, and the entire package.  It will be a great place for Mary to be.

 

During all of this, Ben was deciding if he wanted the puppy or not.  We had to pick it up that very day if we wanted it.  I was pacing and trying to be patient, but Ben was definitely needing some time.

 

While I was at Mary's tryouts in Spanish Fork, Ben took the kids to Sam's soccer game in Alpine.  As soon as Mary's tryouts were over, she went home with Alina, and I drove to Alpine to watch Sam's game.  It was such a busy morning!

 

Sam had a great game, and Ben decided after the game that he was cool with getting the puppy.  I loaded all the kids in the car, and told them we were going to get a puppy.  They were more than excited!  It was so cute. 

 

Ben drove his car home, so he could do a bike ride, and I drove to Layton with the kids to get the puppy.  So, that morning, I drove to Midway, Spanish Fork, Alpine and Layton.

 

There were 10 puppies in the litter, and we had our pick.  They were all so cute, but one of them stood out.  He was the only one wagging his tail and he had an immediate connection to Sam.  We picked that one, and made the long drive home with our new puppy.

 

That night, after everyone had a chance to hold the puppy and to play with him, we decided to name him Charlie.  He is the cutest stinking puppy ever!

He always sleeps with his teddy bear.  If it is not in the crate, he will find it and drag it into the crate.  Heart melter!

 

It has been a very busy past 3 weeks training the dog.  Everyone has been pretty good about helping, but naturally, the bulk of it falls on me, because I am home all day.  He is a very smart dog, and has only had 2 accidents in the house since we brought him home.  It has taken a LOT of time and diligence on my part though, and yes, it is absolutely exhausting some days.  If he is out of his crate, he has to be watched like a hawk.  I am very obsessive about this, but it will pay off, it already is.
The nice thing is that Charlie is very smart and seems to be catching on quickly.  He loves to play with the kids, and he responds really well to love and treats.

I am totally in love with this dog, even though I am also exhausted.  The kids love him and they are so good to play with him and give him loves. He is definitely here to stay with us forever.

It is so amazing how much can be crammed into one day.  Wow.

disposal, dishwasher saga

As I mentioned in my last post, our disposal went out.  This caused our dishwasher to flood our kitchen floor, because the water in the dishwasher couldn't drain into a full disposal, that also couldn't drain.

When Ben got home from his bike race, he bought and put in a new disposal.  We used youtube and my dad to figure out how to do it, and we got it all installed and done.

That evening, I ran the dishwasher through.  I was so excited to not be doing dishes by hand anymore.  I know, I know, we are a spoiled generation.  BUT, doing 7 people's dishes by hand all freaking day long, is actually a lot of work.  Not to mention, we ran out of dish soap, so we had to do a few loads with baking soda and vinegar.

After the dishwasher was on for a little bit, it flooded the floor again!!  What the??  I soon realized that the dishwasher was not draining.

I called my dad and asked him if he knew what the problem could be. He mentioned that maybe the hose was blocked with something when the disposal wasn't working.  So, Ben and I pulled the dishwasher out, which made a huge flooded mess all over the floor, because the dishwasher was full of dirty water that was not draining.

We used every towel in the house.  Nice.

We too the tube off, and nothing seemed wrong.  ugh.  Ben called some plumbing places, but didn't really get answers as to why our dishwasher wasn't draining.  We finally accepted the fact that we had horrible luck, and that our dishwasher broke within days of the disposal also breaking.

Two days later, and two days more of doing dishes by hand, I took Molly to home depot to buy a new dishwasher.  I was so frustrated.

I picked out the dishwasher, someone had come to put it on a cart to get it in the car, and I was on my way to pay for it, when an employee walked by and asked me about our "dishwasher situation."  He ended up being a plumber, and for some weird reason, I told him about our disposal also breaking.  Right after I told him we had just installed a new disposal, he asked me if we had punched out the stopper in the disposal so that the dishwasher could drain into it.

Doh!  No, we definitely had not done that.  We didn't even know that was something you had to do.

This man saved us $550.  Not only that, but we would have taken our old dishwasher to the dump, unpacked the new one, installed it, and then been right back to square one, because it would not have drained either.  Who knows how many floods, how much money, and how much frustration it would have taken before we realized the problem. 

This little tiny piece. 

I am sooooo grateful for this man, and for his perfect timing.

I came home, told Ben, he punched out this little piece from the disposal, and BAM, dishwasher drained, disposal worked, and all was back to normal.  Hallelujah!

Kinda crazy that a few days later, I got in the car to go to the gym, and this was the scenario.

Tire was irreparable, and we had to buy a new one.

Things happen in three's right??  So, we are done.

Geesh.

big, Big, BIG weekend

Two weeks ago, we had one of the biggest weekends to date. 
Ben left on Thursday for a bike race in Moab.  He has been training hard for this race, and he was ready and excited.  It was an enduro race, so it was going to be a long race, and would require a lot of endurance.

Friday was the usual for me.  Pick up Boston and Beckham to babysit.  Get my boys off to school.  Take Boston to school.  Head to gym. Run 10 miles at the gym.  During my workout, take Beckham to school (his school is in the same building as the gym). Finish at gym. Pick up Luke from School. Feed Luke and Molly lunch.  Pick up Boston from school.  Feed him lunch.  Pick up Beckham from school.  Feed him lunch. 

After everyone was fed, I rushed over to the school, to take William's Birthday treats to his class.  William's birthday is a week after school gets out this year, so his teacher let him pick a day to celebrate it with the class.  I took donuts in to his class, and he was so excited!  He is a total ladies man, and when some of the kids in the class were telling me that William has crushes on ALL of the girls in his class, William just proudly said yes.  The girls just giggled.  It was hilarious.  Go William!!!  We all sang happy Birthday to William, and I stayed for a little bit to share the moment with him.  I love this cute kid.

After doing William's birthday donuts, I waitedt for Mary to get home, then went grocery shopping for the week.  After grocery shopping, I came home in time to greet my boys at the door from school.  The kids played until Boston and Beckham's dad picked them up.  Then, it was off to Sam's soccer game.  I dropped Sam up for warm-ups, then came home, fed everyone dinner, and packed us all up to head to Sam's game.  Sam's team had a GREAT game!  They finally won, and it was a big win.  6-1.  Sam had several shots on the goal and 2 assists.  I was so proud of him.

Sometime during the day on Friday, our disposal in our kitchen sink went out.  This was a huge pain, because it was backing up all of the water in the sink and making a smelly gross mess.  I made the mistake of running the dishwasher, and it backed up and ended up flooding the kitchen floor.  It was an epic disaster.  I spent the rest of the evening after Sam's game doing all of the dishes by hand and cleaning up the flooded kitchen.

Saturday morning Molly and Luke had soccer games.  I packed up the family and we went to their games.  They did awesome!  Molly has caught on quickly, and Luke scored 2 goals for his team.

After the games, I left Mary and her friend in charge, and I went for a long run. I didn't have a distance in mind, it was just a gorgeous day, I needed to get out, and I could feel that I had a long run in me.
It ended up being 16 miles!!!  It felt so good to be back outside again!  It was so pretty.
I about died the last few miles, but I pushed through. 

This view from my favorite running trail will never get old.

I came home to complete chaos, as expected.  I got everyone settled, took them all out for ice cream for babysitting, took some ibuprofen for my seriously cramping muscles, cleaned the house, packed us all up, and we headed to another one of Sam's games.  I was completely exhausted, but sometimes that has to be pushed aside.

This was another awesome game!  The team tied, but Sam had several shots on the goal and an awesome assist.

Ben got home Saturday night.  He did great at his race!  He felt good about it, had a good experience and placed well. I was happy for him.  This was a big deal to him, and he worked hard. 

We all crashed Saturday night.  BIG weekend.