The Utah Portion of our UT/ID Trip

We had a jam-packed agenda while in Utah! The boys did great being always 'on the go' and only had a difficult time once we were home and there was no one left to play with and nothing on the itinerary.

A trip to Hogle Zoo with Uncle James, Aunt Marilyn, and Aunt Melissa.

Camping with all of the Clark Family. German really wanted to help grandpa set up his tent.

We saved on car-space by not packing a tent, which made for some really tight sleeping!

The boys loved this creek, which was really high and fast! Of course, Scotland was the most interested- he is all boy!

While hiking, Joshua discovered a cave with an entrance just big enough for him to fit.

Provo's annual balloon launch with the Joel Hallbergs. Probably not Joel's favorite morning:)

The nostalgic tour of BYU. (They're redoing the bathrooms next to the LRC, my former place of employment. These are the couches in the bathroom/lounge area where I took many good naps. It was sad to see them on their way out!) We also enjoyed a nice visit and lunch with Joshua's great-aunt, Eleanor.

After a delicious steak with our former mission president, we headed to the West Jordan Rodeo. Our boys have really been into cowboys and rodeos lately, so we thought they'd really enjoy it.

Fourth of July parade, games, and fireworks with the Joel Hallbergs. Plus some yummy food and homemade ice cream and root beer with all of the Clark Family.

Happy Birthday Grandpa Hallberg!

In honor of your birthday -

I updated my blog!!!

We hope you have a great day!

Pre-School Graduation & the Last T-ball Game

German with his teachers - this is probably the only picture I've ever been able to take of G-man with a real smile on his face! He loved pre-school - I'm sure glad that Ms. Christina only lives two doors down so we can see her all the time.

As t-ball team-mom I've learned that the most important day of the season is definitely 'Trophy Day!' These kids kept asking me, "Did you remember the trophies?" "Where are the trophies?" I love kids and their excitement for the little things!

Aren't these the cutest brothers?! They sure love each other. They learn so much from each other, but especially from their older brother(s). This new little #4 has got 3 great examples.

Fathers and Sons Campout

We told G & E last Sunday that they would be going camping with dad this weekend. I think German tried to convince us three times that Sunday the wisdom in packing the car that day, so that they would be ready for the next Friday! As far as I can tell, they had a blast and had a lot to talk about when they got home: forest golf, tug-of-war, Connect 4, and their early morning hike. These boys sure love their dad.

I think Joshua had a really hard time saying good-bye to Scotland. Scotie could tell something was going on and he went and got his shoes, kept trying to wear Eli's backpack, and then wouldn't go to me, but just wanted to stay in dad's arms. Poor boy! At the last minute Joshua was going to take him, but I reminded him that it would be no fun chasing Scotland around the forest and next year (I hope) he'll be able to follow directions a lot better!

So Scotie and I went to girl's night and he played with another left behind brother! S & Joshua got to hang out a lot Saturday afternoon at our friends' pool - Scotie loves to be with his dad! Scotland has taken a liking to the harmonica and walks around the house blowing his merry tune - he is quite the personality. I'm so glad he came to our family!

May

May is already flying by, which is making this pregnancy also fly by. I can't wait to have that little bundle join our family - I know he's just right for us and these boys are excited to have him here, but man am I not ready for those first few weeks - aah, don't think about that Julie!

A cute Eli-ism: He was patting my belly the other day and then asked me if he was making the baby cry. I love that Eli!

We don't think he's quite ready to play on an 'organized' team, but boy he sure wants to! Eli loves to help at practice and he knows all the names of the kids on the team, so the games just kill him when he can't be out playing with German or helping dad at third base. We keep telling him that his time will come, but I don't think that's much comfort to a 3 year old!

German is loving t-ball! Each game his confidence grows and he's able to perform up to the level we know he's capable of. His reserved nature makes it hard for him to go out in a crowd and perform, but when we play at home it is evident that he has a real talent and love for baseball.

These boys love them some corn on the cob! This was the last piece, so they were sharing!

This is me on Mother's Day. I don't normally post pictures of myself, but I want you to take special note of the STEAK there on my plate! As many pregnant women do, I wanted steak and I wanted it badly. Instead of hinting around to my husband, I went out and bought it - now, we probably haven't purchased steak in two years, because I try to be frugal, so I have no idea what is good steak and what isn't. But I knew if this wasn't good, I would be bummed, so I followed around a man in the meat department who looked like he had had a few steaks before and then chose what he chose. It was a great idea - I highly suggest this method for any first time purchases! Also, my husband is the great experimenter and this time he scored on the marinade! It was delicious!!! I made sure to eat sparingly, so that I could make this steak last for multiple lunches and I didn't even share on Tuesday at lunch when German asked for more of that 'beef stuff.' Is that bad parenting? I hope not, and I do justify my behavior with the fact that I was sharing it with one of my sons. YUM

April

Let's see...
April came and is now gone. I know we were busy and did lots of fun family things, but aside from celebrating Easter, I have no idea what else we did - so sad!

We give the kids a list of things to hunt for: a ring pop, a bag of cookies, one money egg, a capri sun, etc. It's fun because then it's not just candy and it spices things up a bit. I found these cheap video games at Target and they seem to have been the hit, at least with my kids.

Scotland finally got a minute in the bounce house alone! He's tough, but he's smart enough to stay away from the other 6 little boys who were pretty physical.

We have a three-year tradition now of celebrating Easter on Friday or Saturday with our 'AZ family', where we eat, play, and best of all - the egg hunt. We have church at 8:30am, so our Sunday basket fun was over very quickly and the only picture was blurry - oh well.

A Proud Moment for Joshua

Scotland now says "ice cream" - his dad couldn't be prouder!

German's First T-Ball Game

German started t-ball this month and today was their first game. No score keeping, no outs, everyone bats, everyone runs after the ball, and everyone gets cheered on like they're a pro! I could use a boost like that to my confidence:)

Eli also started a community sports class this month, but parents are only allowed to watch through the window, so no photos. He sure enjoys it and always asks if it's Tuesday yet.

We're Proud to Announce that we are Expecting A...

That's right folks - Boy #4 is on his way! The only downer to his gender is that we have the hardest time coming up with boy names. If any of you are having girls and want suggestions - I've got tons, but nothing for fun little guys. We're really excited for this boy to come and join our team!

February in Recap

Sorry to cut out Eli's face, but this was the only picture of all the boys that showed how Scotie fell asleep while enjoying one of their forts. Building forts has become a Sunday tradition. German even convinced us to let he and Eli sleep in this fort, which was fun initially, until 3am, and 4am, and 6am.

The Niederhauser's are always good for a fun adventure, and Chuck Wagon World, or whatever it was called was no different! They must have advertised their free weekend to more people than us, because the place was packed! The hour long line for the 4 minute train ride was definitely long, but Scotie sure liked the "choo-choo". We did decide to pass the two hour line for the burro rides, which was the coolest event there. But hey, the kids all got hats and bandannas out of it!

We also took advantage of the Children's Museum's Free Friday night. I'm learning that free events are not always worth it - I'd rather have tons of money and pay, than get all excited when I here some event is free. That way we wouldn't have to deal with every other person in the world who also likes a good deal.

We made this homemade play-dough (thanks for the idea Melia) one afternoon and it was the hit for an entire week. They still pull it out once in a while and entertain themselves so well. I'm not sure what magical power it has that regular play-doh doesn't have, but I'll take it!

Our BIG News!

As one would expect by the title of this post, yes, we have some big news. Now, if you haven't heard from us personally and you feel that you ought to have, please don't be offended - we just aren't very good communicators, but more than that it always feels kind of dumb to call someone and say, "Hi, how are you? We're pregnant!"

That's right, baby #4 is on it's way! Now for the answers to all of the FAQ:
1) No, I don't care if it's another boy! (It would actually solve a lot of problems - like how to put 3 boys in a tiny bedroom)
2) August 29th
3) I feel good, just really tired.

The Moment You've all Been Waiting For...

I like to blog like I have some huge following, even though I know the truth!

I'm not even going to try and catch up on such large events as: Thanksgiving, Eli's B-day, Christmas, New Year's, or German's B-day. We'll just move on...

You might recall my ramblings about our house being a lemon, well the main reason was that we had some water damage and would have to replace our entire flooring! That was July - now in January we have completed, well nearly, our project.

This is our new wood and tile, we also put carpet in the bedrooms - soooo much better!

This is what our hall bath looked like for a few days.

My laundry room.

The boys sure enjoyed the living room sleep-overs. We also were housed at a hotel for a week (no pictures), which would have been fun with the heated pool and all, except that my kids were sick the entire week - bummer!

Patience is a Virtue...

A virtue that if you're dying for new stuff from us, you must keep practicing. Our home is in reconstruction stage and is covered in dust! We should be done this week and then maybe life can go back to normal - though I'm not holding my breath!

Happy Gilbert Days!

When we found out there was going to be a parade in AZ we planned to definitely be there! Due to the excessive heat warnings we rarely get a down-home parade! This had the potential for a great parade - If only it had a few more than 2 junior high marching bands and a lot fewer "train your daughter early how to sell herself" dance groups.

Here are some of our favs:
Eli's choice - because he continues to dream about one day receiving a light saber!

This is a random photo of German taken that same day, showing his first painting of an actual something.

Joshua's choice - no explanation needed.

Scotland informed us of every animal in or around the parade and went nuts over these little goats.

You'll see that there is no photo of my fav, so please try to visualize 40 elderly ladies in cheer leading uniforms marching and dancing with their pom-poms to popular show tunes - WOW!

More Bats, Because they are so Cute!

Cheeseball Attempt

What can I say? I tried. I will never be Martha Stewart.

Halloween 2010

Who saves pumpkin carving for Halloween morning? Apparently, we do! The carving was actually a nice family, pre-church activity. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Clark for growing the three smaller pumpkins for us - they were the perfect sizes! The sad part was when we got home from our friends' house we found our lovely pumpkins in pieces all over our yard. Why do teenagers still do that?

German loves bats and was pretty set on being a bat for Halloween this year, so Eli was also pretty set on being a bat. And if you have two, why not three?!

These are all the kids at our annual Halloween dinner. We enjoyed yummy soups and bread bowls and pumpkin custard. Thanks again everyone, especially Tiff and Dylan.

A Moment of Reflection...

Please feel free to skip if you don't want to read my thoughts! A former mission companion reminded me that it was 10 years ago today that we entered the MTC (Mission Training Center). I'm feeling a bit old all of a sudden. I guess a lot has happened in those ten years: I served in Germany for 18 months, finished college, taught 3 years of school, was married to my Man, and have had 3 children. Okay, so I guess the ten years haven't been wasted. Sometimes I'd like to go back and fix my mistakes or just relive a few of those golden moments in my past. Thanks to everyone for being a part of my life - it's a good one.

A Crafty Post...

My sister-in-law recently held a "pay it forward" on her blog and I responded and was thus given this beautiful pillow! I saw it in her house and said a silent hope that it would one day be on my bed and then what do you know, it was given to me that very afternoon and now resides on my bed. Thanks Ang!

Now it is my turn to "pay it forward" and so I am offering something homemade for the first 3 people to respond to this email, who will then in turn make a similar offer on their blog. (Disclaimer: I do not profess to be a great crafter/sewer, but I do enjoy it and I don't promise anything before the new year, but I am good for it!) Since our blog is such a hot one, I would act fast - mostly, acting fast will boost my self-esteem, so thanks in advance.

Last week my friend Jen and I (and her mom and our boys) got together and did some spooky Halloween projects. The ghosts are the old classic cheesecloth ghosts and the Frankensteins are made out of wide-mouth mason jars and have tea lights inside. The ghosts were more of a mom project, but the boys loved painting their monsters. German even painted the face on his all by himself (far right).

Random Photos From our Utah Trip

We had a great trip to Utah. We got to go to Will and Amanda's wedding, go to a BYU football game with the Hallberg's, take my first trip to Tai Pan, and spend time reading with Grandma Clark. We also celebrated Joshua and my's birthdays, got to see lots of Joshua's extended family, and see almost all of our immediate families. Chad and fam - German asked us if we would pray so that Payton would know that we were missing you all! Sorry to the Hallbergs, I never think about taking pictures until it's too late, hence the one photo of G and Sydney!