Going to Dinner

Tonight Chet was taking the boys shooting. Since he was taking them when it cooled down (7pm), and we had not eaten yet, I told the babies that we would go to dinner. They were so excited! I told them to put on public clothes (no athletic wear or holes in clothes or shoes) and get spiffy. They are flossing their teeth, putting on cologne, getting cute clothes on, etc. Cael just came and told me that him and Colby have decided that the princess and two guards are going to dinner. That they will be my body guards. Gotta love boys and their love for their mamma!!!

You are so pretty!

Today we were walking out of the house and I was in church clothes. I walked down the stairs where Colby was waiting for us to leave the house and he looked at me and got big eyes and said, "WOW! You are so pretty! You are a real princess mom!" Then he held the screen door open for me and we walked out to the car.

Later in the day Cael was writing on the front entry with sidewalk chalk. I sat down next to him and wrote I love Cael in block letters. He asked why I wrote that. I whispered to him it was because he was my favorite. He looked at me and said, "Really? I always thought it was Colby! Cool." It broke my heart. I want all my kids to think they are my favorite. Colby is by far the most complimentary to me, and shows me the most affection, like the earlier story! However, I need to do better to make every boy feel like the favorite, even if they don't show me!

I'm a Good Man

I always tell Chet that he's a good man. And when the boys complain that dad is always gone, I always remind them that he is gone because he is a good man. He is either serving for church, or gone working (which he has been doing a lot more of) hard for us, or serving in the community as a chairman of the United Way Board. For about the last year, he has been gone way more nights than he is home, so they have heard it a lot. And rarely is it for himself to have fun. Well today we went to a baptism at the church and as we were leaving Colbs held the door for me. I told him thank you and he said, "Yeah. I am a good man." just so matter of fact and walked away with a bit of a strut. It was so dang cute!

YouTube

I have this super sick fascination with zip popping and I have serious issues with yucky ears. Mine are always yucky and I have to clean them every morning. I'm always inspecting Chet for ANYTHING to squeeze. On facebook I saw a little video about ear wax build up, so I watched it. The boys were gathering around my phone to see, so what does a good mom do? She pulls up youtube on the computer and looks up ear wax removal. That lead to black heads and huge zit pops. Carter was watching with his head turned half way. He was saying, "This is disgusting but really interesting (he wants to be my doctor) Cars watched for a little and then said, "I can't eat dinner tonight" and got up and left. However, he came right back and kept watching. Cael just kept saying, "This is why I clean my ears everyday!!! See boys!" (my little OCD boy) Colby looked for about 2 seconds and said, "Gross!" and he left for good. Caden wanted no part of watching! He watched for just a quick second and then says, "Mom, what job is that, because I'm making sure I don't do that job!!!" He said it about 5 times as he did an art project at the table. He was not interested in watching, thought we were crazy for watching, and will most definitely want nothing to do with it as an adult for a job! So funny! I wish I could have gotten a picture of all of them when we started watching. Oh my!! Funny times!!

Caden Reading

This is Caden reading to his class in the first grade. He got to bring his favorite book from home and read it to the class. He has always had a lying problem so we bought him this book called Don't Tell Lies Lucy. That's the one he picked to read. His teacher, Mrs Jones, and I got a good laugh out of that one! Love my little Cade-A-Babe.

 

 

Popcorn

Every time that we make homemade popcorn, this is what you'll see at my house. All of the boys think that it is so cool to watch it pop. They all gather around it and watch every kernel until the end. Someday we will look back and wish we had these moments again I'm sure! Weirdos!

 

 

Side Note: I do not like buttered popcorn. I don't like scraping the crap off the top of my mouth. YUCK!!! Therefore, my kids have not had buttered popcorn. Also, I like to make it homemade with coconut oil and sea salt. My boys had buttered microwave popcorn at Nana's and Papa's and they were SOOOOO impressed! They thought it was soooo cool. They ask me every time we pass the popcorn if we can buy butter flavored. It's the little things in life. I'm sure we'll hear all about it when they are older!

Denver 2013

Every year since 2013, we have been vacationing with the Lee's. They have 5 kids almost our kids same ages. They understand when it's time to eat, time to be done, and also that kids will be kids. We know each other well enough that they can discipline my kids just the same as we could, and vice versa. Our kids do wonderful together. This trip was a BLAST! We started out Thurs at the zoo. It was super hot but was still fun. Then we went to the aquarium. We started out at dinner there. They had a play place for the kids while we waited for food. They also had mermaids swimming in the tanks next to us. Super cool. Erin and I just sat and chatted while Chet and Clint took the kids to play. When does that ever happen? On vaca with 10 kids and the moms just sit and chat?!? By the time we ate we didn't really care to go into the aquarium, so we just went and hung out outside and made smores. This was almost the only time I took pics.

 

 

 Carson, Parker, Carter

 Cael

 Kate

 Parker, Carson

 Guin, Cael, Colby

 Thompson, Colby (This is Colby's little bff. They play SOOOOO well together)

 

 

Then we went to Elitches the next day. That was FUN!!! Who doesn't love amusement parks right!

 Cael

 Colby, Cael, Kate

 Kate, Cael, Colby

 Kate, Colby, Caden, Cael

 Carter, Parker, Colby, Carson, Vivian, Kate, Tommy, Guin, Caden, Cael

 Caden, Cael, Carter, Chet, Colby, Carson

 Parker, Carter

 Cael

 Kate

 Vivian, Colby, Thompson

 Parker

 Carter, Erin, Kate, Thompson

 Carter, Erin, Clint

 Parker, Cars, Colby

 Colby

 One cool cat!

 Carter

 Guin

 

 

The next day we went to Water World. We switched kids all around in the cars. This is Cael and Kate on the way to dinner. We took all 10 kids to cheese cake factory. We called ahead and they saved seats for 14 of us. I don't think they realized 10 were going to be kids. They about died, you could see it in their eyes. We went to a sit down restaurant every night and they were AWESOME!!! On the last night they were so tired that most all 10 kids just sat and ate. A few fell asleep on the dinner table. But no fit throwing. When they were tired they just layed over and went to sleep.

 

 

We love our annual vacas with the Lees. 2014 we went to Flaming Gorge and camped for a week and went to the lake, toured the dam, went to Vernal to the dinosaur museum and swimming at the rec center. 2015 we plan to go to Bear Lake and stay with the Andersens in Marks cabin. The Andersens also have 5 kids. We get together all the time with them but we will be staying one week with 6 adults and 15 kids, the oldest being Parker at the ripe age of 12. Fun times!!!

Track Camp 2013

 Gotta love the cheesers!!!

 Parker Lee, Cael, Carson, Colby

 Parker Lee, Carson

 Alex Draper, Carter Matthews, Carter (Carter and Carter have always been really good friends. It cracks me up because Carter M is super short and my Carter is tall. They look like the two from Twins)

 Carter doing the triple jump. He has always done really well at it!

Carson at the high jump. He can't get that bubble butt up over the bar. Carson loved track camp, but learned that it will probably never be his sport. He just couldn't find his event!

 

Carter LOVED track camp and goes every year. He is best at triple jump, discus, and he is learning some stategy at the 600 (what they run here is middle school) I think the 800 might be his race. He has a hard time getting into the front pack from the get go, but by the end he is steadily passing people. 200 more yards and I think it could be his! He will work on getting out faster and getting in front of the main pack and he will do great. He also cannot wait until 6th grade when they can pole vault.

 

Side note: We have always encouraged Carter and Carson to remember that although they are twins, they are two different people. They are some competitive boys with each other, but they are very secure knowing they have different strengths. Carson excels in bball and diving, while Carter just manages through. Carter excels at soccer and track and field (same season, bummer) while Carson just manages through. It works really well. They tease each other about how bad they suck at each others sports, but they both just play and don't get crazy about it! I hope and pray that they are friends throughout their lives!

Carter Climbing

One of the major perks to Gillette is the amazing rec center that we have. They have belayers in the afternoon that will belay for anyone wanting to climb. Carter has always loved climbing from the first time he went. He is good at it and not at all scared of being 42 ft in the air. I love his adventurous side

Random Colbs

Here are some random pics of Colbs I just got off my phone! Love that baby of mine!!