Relay Season is Here!

This year I am starting a mini blog about relay to talk about all the different reasons I participate and support my local relay for life benefiting American Cancer Society.

Stop on by and follow my mini blog at www.whyirelayforlife.blogspot.com

The Oh-So-Fun Easter Pictures

Part of Easter for my kids is the excitement of their 'Easter Outfits'. Okay, I retract that statement. That is just purely my excitement as a mother wanting to dress her precious, cute kids up in matching outfits and torment them into taking multiple pictures....which of course they hate.

This year on Easter Sunday my church had General Conference. For General Conference we get to listen to the general authorities of our church speak and it is broadcast on TV so we did not attend regular church meetings on Easter. So we all wore our Easter outfits the Sunday before while we were in Sacramento visiting my sister. My sister's church building is on the same property as the Sacramento Temple and we were excited to take some lovely pictures of the kids on the temple property. After church all 9 of us(the kids and I and Amy's family)headed over to the temple grounds. After telling the kids 192,877,487, 897 times not to run I saw Alex out of the corner of my eye, trip and smack her head hard on the concrete. Let the fun begin. Poor little girl smacked it hard, too. After some kisses and hugs I thought we might be back on track. At least Olivia was ready for the photo session.

Okay, no lets try and add in the other two. Here's where the fun gets more fun.

Here is where Olivia sees a bee and then starts crying while Alex is still trying to find it and Cody thinks it is too bright.

Here is where both girls are mad because I making them sit 7.2 feet away from a bee minding his own business. Apparently it is still too sunny for Cody even thought it is overcast and they are facing away from the sun.

Here is Olivia still mad and now I am trying to talk Cody into putting his hands in his lap and actually opening his eyes.

Okay.  Cody, can you please just smile and look at the camera at least, even if you can't stop messing with the tie? Olivia, maybe a little smile and forget about the bee?  Alex, mom understands you just bonked your head, your a trooper sista!  ....Please can mom just get one decent picture?

Whatever, forget it.  Let's just add mom in and get a group shot.

Maybe everyone could open their eyes?  Cody, hands in the lap man.

I guess this is as good as we get.... But aren't those outfits cute?

  The fun just continued on the way to the car when Alex let me know she needed a Kleenex.  Of course I just had used the last Kleenex cleaning the tears up from the head trauma that happened 5 min earlier.  I tried to just start walking to the car to get one from there when she turned to me with her mouth closed as a stream of snot was running into her mouth.  Next thing I know she was in a full on melt down, without noise of course, as her mouth was closed to prevent the snot running into it.  Arms flailing, screaming without opening her mouth, jumping around.  The whole 9.  The car was far enough away I couldn't leave her there and come back so when I tried to pick her up she ran away from me and got down on her hands and knees and started spitting on the sidewalk.  What's a mom to do but throw her hands up in the air and have a good laugh.  Here's to better pictures next year!

Someone misses Daddy

The blog has been really neglected as of late. Thanks for the request to update the blog Mel!

For spring break I took the kids to Sacramento to visit my sister Amy and her family. She is expecting twins in June and won't be making her annual trip home to CO to visit this year so we went to her. Jon did not make the trip with us. He had his boys trip to Moab this last weekend and couldn't get the entire week off of work. All of the kids have missed him. Olivia had a huge break down when he left on Wednesday. She decided that she wanted to bring her daddy/daughter dance picture with her on our trip. This is how I found her asleep last night.

Good night sweet girl, your daddy misses you too.

The Quackin' Code-man

So I need your help...yes you! So read on and help a woman out.

 
Here he is. Cody. The Code-man. The Code-miester. Sportin' the $3 hoodie I found on clearance at Target. Who doesn't love a good deal?

This is how he rolls...

Although... I did have to drop the bomb on him his ride doesn't have four wheel drive.  He was a bit aggravated when he had to get out and push the thing across the snow packed street.  Maybe we need to pimp his ride?

I know you can tell by these pictures that this kid is no momma's boy. He is one tough cookie. Check out those guns! He is already in the 10th percentile for his age, I mean does it get any better? He strikes fear through the hearts of all the bigger kids in his class...because EVERYONE (including his sister) is bigger than him in his class. That's my boy.


Okay just kidding, he is not a toughie, but man is he a cutie.

Ok so back to the story that poses the question I need answered...

A few weeks ago we were all sitting down to dinner as a family when Cody announces he needs to go to the bathroom. Of course the kids always have to go to the bathroom when they sit down to the table. Don't ask me why, it just seems to be the norm in our home. Since it is the middle of the winter and the sun goes down around 5pm it was really dark in the house and Cody runs into my room slamming the door behind him and then we hear him slamming the bathroom door shortly after.
While the rest of us are enjoying our spaghetti in as close to silence as you can get with kids at the table we hear the "Quack, quack....quack, quack, quack." Coming from the bathroom. As we are all looking around the table at each other, we all begin giggling. We all realize that Cody is in the bathroom. Alone. For some reason the kid is quacking. hmmmm... Ok, stranger things have happened but it was funny. As we continue eating we continue to hear the quacking coming from Cody in the bathroom sporadically through the next 5 minutes. Of course this leaves the 4 of us at the table going from giggling to laughing out loud. If you have ever heard either of my girls laugh it is just contagious so that leads to even louder laughing.
Shortly Cody comes whirling out of my room slamming the door behind him with wide eyes. He stops by the door staring at all of us who are now silent wondering what is going on. As he stands there we all erupt into laughter again and I could see the embarrassment and hurt on his face. Of course I rush over to him when he bursts out into tears. After awhile I finally coax the story out of him.
That week at school the kids went to library where the librarian read aloud a children's book. Piecing together the story from my two 5 year olds, it was about a little boy who was afraid of monsters. The boy had pictures of ducks or birds hung in his house and his dad had told him that monsters are afraid of ducks so if you quack it will scare away the monsters.
Since Cody was in the dark room and then in the bathroom alone, he was petrified. He thought the monsters were going to get him and was quacking to scare them away. Poor kid, we were all laughing at him. Another gold star for me in my parenting book. (That thing is filling up quick)
After hearing the story I thought it would be nice to go and get this book and maybe write this story in it for him to keep for later. I wrote to the school librarian but she still cannot find or remember this book.

So here is where your assistance comes in. Does anyone know the name of this book or does it sound familiar to anyone?

I WANT IT!


p.s. He still is doing this when he goes down to the basement alone or is in the dark. I will hear this quacking on the other side of the house at random times. Oh yeah. That's my boy, and that's how he rolls.


Nothin but love for ya Code-man!

Christmas break

Jon had this last week off and kept very busy at home. Back in October Jon surprised me and painted the kitchen one day when I was with Olivia at a cheer competition. We have been wanting to paint and add color to the house for awhile but couldn't come up with colors we wanted. Here is what we ended up with after that day.

A rust orange in the center and yellow around the kitchen and dining room. The colors did look good together in the magazine he had seen them in but neither of us really liked them after they were on our walls. A few weeks ago I had been at my sister's baby shower and the hostess had her home painted in a maroon and an olive color that I loved. She gave me the color numbers and Jon spent all day Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday painting the entire upstairs. He painted the tan color we have on the walls downstairs on the other walls and the ceiling since we haven't painted those walls since we moved in. It was a ton of work but I love it now. Here is what we have now.

It was dark outside when I took these pictures so the room looks really dark now but it isn't as dramatic during the day. I had all sorts of red in the room before so it looks really empty. I have to go and get some new stuff to decorate the rooms now. This huge black vase is something new I picked up this weekend. I think it looks really cool. Jon did a great job, huh?

Especially considering that I got the flu on Monday and Olivia got it Monday night. It wiped both of us out for the entire first part of the week. Being sick at the same time as your kiddos is no fun. I am glad it didn't last any longer than a couple of days.

Jon and I had some friends over on New Year's Eve. We played Rock Band and Band Hero. The kids really love playing the game. They are total rock stars!! Here they are practicing the night before.

After a long week we decided to take the kids to Denver for the night on Friday with our friends Desi and Aislinn. We took the kids to see Alvin and The Chipmunks 2 which we both hated, but the kids loved. Then we went to eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory. That was a fun atmosphere and the kids had a blast with the balloon artist that was there.

The kids all loved the trolley car in the middle of the restaurant and food was really good.

After dinner we walked down the 16th street mall back to our car and the enjoyed some of the Christmas lights that are still up in the city.The hotel we stayed in had a junior sized Olympic pool so the kids loved having a big area to swim and play in and were swimming until 10:30 at night. They had a blast. Thanks for the fun times Valdez family! I suppose it is now back to reality tomorrow and time for Jon and I to start back to work. The kids don't go back until Wednesday so then next couple of days will be busy for me with work and kiddos!

Christmas Time

I love Christmas time. The music, the excitement, family, and the celebration of the birth of our Savior.

Truly the most wonderful time of the year....

We were able to celebrate with extended family for the last few weeks. Jon's uncle John and aunt Clara came up a few weekends ago and the kids were able to go to their hotel and swim during the evening, which they loved.

We had a fun family night on Monday. The kids helped us get some holiday treats ready for friends and neighbors. They are expert chocolate pretzel makers now. And look at these beauties! Yummy!

On Christmas Eve my Brother-in-law, Doug and nephew, Jack came over and went sledding with the kids and Jon on the four wheelers. I love it when it snows enough to cover the streets and sled on the street. Everyone had a blast!

On Christmas Eve we spent the afternoon and evening with Jon's parents. The kids had picked some things out for Jon and I with grandma and grandpa Brock that we opened. They were all really excited to give us their presents. It was cute and Jon and I both made some awesome faces for those pictures.

The kids were excited about their toys from Grandma and Grandpa Brock.

Christmas day Olivia and Cody were up in our bedroom at 4:45am.  I told them they had to go back to bed for at least 45 min and so they crawled into bed with Jon and I and finally went back to sleep until 6:30.  Of course I didn't go back to sleep with Cody jabbing me in the side every 2 seconds.  I couldn't believe they were up that early. 

We went to my parent's house for the rest of the day to hang out. (If I could only get Cody to stop making the "picture" face) 

We also were able to meet my new niece Brea Kate.  What a cutie!