My Own Personal Hell

Untill recently, I thought that no one could possibly be more obbessed with anything that could annoy me like the CONSTANT talk of everything transformers. That was before my children were introduced to the parent-hell that is POKEMON. For those of you who are still blissfully unaware of Pokemon, it is a game of trading cards that no children actually know how to play, but they must obtain gazillions of cards anyway to organize and "trade". Every card has about eight thousand facts about the particular Pokemon on it which my children, especially Hayes, need read aloud. Several times. For every card. There are situations such as the one that happened today: Dax just walked in the door from school. Hayes (with a naughty smile): Dax, guess what I did today while you were at school? Dax: What? Hayes: I secretly traded your cards! Chaos ensues. And of course, Asher never misses anything so he is constantly trying to mess up someone's most important card-But mom! That one's RARE, REALLY RARE(as if they know what rare is)!-or take off with as many cards as possible. And then there's the whole no you may not take them to school, I don't care if (fill in the blank) does. No, you don't need to trade at the bus stop. NO NO NO NO!!! Just to top it all off, did you know that you can rent Pokemon movies and even see the cartoon on tv? JOY! Ok, now I've got that off my chest, I think I can breath through my nose again.

Like a Kid on Christmas

NO, its not really Christmas but according to Tyler it is the most wonderful time of the year-the college football season has offically started. So, in order to really experience the wonderfulness of it all first hand, this year he purchased BYU season tickets-just like his dad did when Tyler was growing up. AND THIS AFTERNOON IS THE FIRST GAME!!!! AND THIS YEAR IS THEIR YEAR! (He says that every year) So here's a great big WOO HOO for Tyler:)

Kindergarten FINALLY Started!

Yay for Hayes! Today was the first day of kindergarten, and let me tell you it was a loooong week between the first day of first grade and the first day of kindergarten-there were a few times there I thought we wouldn't survive the wait. He was very excited and not nervous one bit. Thus the blurry picture-he couldn't hold still for two seconds, the excitement just wiggled out of him:) He also couldn't wait to finally ride the bus with Dax after walking him to and from the bus stop for so long. I realize that I'm biased, but I think that he just may be the cutest kindergartner I've ever seen!

Dax is a Grader

Daxon started first grade today! As he puts it, this offically makes him a "grader" (you know, a first grader, second grader, etc.) and no longer a little kid. This is a bittersweet day for me. I always thougt I would jump for joy the day even one of the boys got into all day school, but I have to admit this is almost harder for me than it was to let him go to kindergarten. He really wanted to ride the bus with his friends, but I insisted that I should take him the first day and make sure he was ok. When we got out of the car, he started speed walking in front of me and when I called for him to wait, he told me that it would be weird if I followed him the whole way. Excuse me! I didn't think he would be embarrassed of me until at least second grade! I guess he really is growing up.

Payson Lakes

Dax made friends with this dragon fly

All my boys:)

Saturday evening we REALLY needed to get out of the house before some member of the family ended up with some form of bodily injury-either by accident(them wrestling until I wanted to scream) or purposeful(them wrestling until I wanted to scream). We decided to drive up Santaquin canyon and ended up at Payson Lakes. It was absolutely beautiful there and totally worth the gas money it took get everyone away from the tv and video games and outside. We had a great time exploring together and it reminded me how much I love my little family. Yes, sometimes I do need reminding:)

I can already tell, Asher is going to be the ONE...

In the ER-no I'm not crazy enough to bring my camera here, this is from Tyler's phone:)
About one week later

Almost two weeks later

After three boys and almost seven years of major accident-free living, a trip to the emergency room was bound to happen. And of course, we made the trip for Ash. I have a sneaking suspicion that he is going to be the child that really gives us a run for our money-or our lives. He has absolutely no fear and is constantly trying to keep up with his brothers. About two weeks ago he fell off his scooter and sliced around his eye in an almost perfect circle. Of course, because I'm such a wonderful parent, I wasn't watching and I'm not sure exactly what happened. He was already on the ground bleeding when I got to him. It looks like he somehow fell on the end of the handlebars. It turned out not so bad. By the time we got to the emergency room and actually saw a doctor, the worst cut had stopped bleeding and was staying shut, so they just glued him up-no stitches. Now I'm just going to cross my fingers and hope this is as bad as it gets. Knock on wood:)

The Grotto

Taking a break 30 seconds in-this is the point where I thought, oh boy, this might be a loooong hikeCrossing the bridge-and I think Dax has to go
We made it to the waterfall!
Ash spent the whole time throwing every rock he could pick up

Last Friday we hiked up to the Grotto in Payson canyon with my friend Jimi and her adorable boys, Hayden and Rylan. It was so much fun! It's a pretty short hike but with a lot of fun adventure-y stuff for the boys. The found several "short cuts" from the trail which were really long cuts up a steep hill and back to the path again, and they had to cross the raging river on a log twice. They definitely felt like Indiana Jones. At 21 months, Asher thinks he is at least 6 years old. There were some pretty steep up and downs on the trail, but he WOULD NOT hold my hand or let me help him. He fell flat about 26 times but was very tough and now has some scars to impress the girls. The waterfall was perfect to splash around in and the boys even found some dinosaur bones to bring home. Literally, Hayes carried an entire backpack full or rocks all the way back to the car without once say he was so tired he couldn't take it anymore, which is what he usually says. And I have to thank Jimi for inviting us because my mom and Tyler both told me what a good mom I am for doing fun things with the boys. I had no idea I had them so fooled-especially Tyler! He's around to witness all the meaness. Secretly my reason for taking the boys anywhere is usually totally selfish-its because at home THEY DRIVE ME CRAZY!!! So thank you, Jimi, for helping me keep up the act:) Plus, we had a blast.