Lake Powell

We took our first ever trip to Lake Powell!  My brother often vacations there with his boat and toy hauler and invited us to camp out with them all week.  Camping in a 5th wheel with a bathroom and kitchen and bed and nearby showers is my kind of camping.  Camping in a tent with no showers and never being free of dirt or sand - not so much.  So we jumped at the opportunity and with the cold windy weather we have been having in Moses Lake, I welcomed the 106 degrees heat with open arms.

We spent most of the time out on the boat and we found out quickly just how much colder the water is in Lake Powell than here in Moses Lake.  Brrr!  But then again, it was 106 degrees, so it felt heavenly.  And the rocks and canyons are just so pretty!  So much exploring to do and cliff jumping!

With much convincing, Caiden jumped off the rock, but I was too slow and only got the aftersplash.  I couldn't convince him to do it again :(

Casey and his skills.....gotta love the look on his face in the wipe out shot.  That's gotta hurt...I don't know how he does it.

This is the extent of my skills...although I'm certain that one time I caught air.  It may not have been visible to the human eye, but I'm certain that for a split second of a split second I was airborne.....And gotta love the look on my dad's face - now, that's some concentration!

And this is what Paige does best - SNACK!  She kills me.  Completely kills me.  It makes me so crazy that she thinks she needs to snack every second of every day.  Did I mention it kills me? But she did do some major rockin out to the music and that was pretty funny....

Tanner found a lizard that became the kids' pet for a while.  They kept it in an empty water bottle and it rode around on the boat with us. 

And Caiden and Lauren were inseparable the whole time.  They had a blast!  Kids never get bored with water and sand around!  Now the sand was pretty dang hot so they took it upon themselves to "water" all of the sand so it wouldn't burn our feet.  Quite a job!  And so funny!  And speaking of funny, on the way home it was evident just how hard he played all week when he slept for over 16 hours.  My boy was tired!

And on the very last day Caiden kneeboarded.  We so tried all week to get him to wakeboard, but to no avail.  But he did kneeboard/bellyboard and I was a super proud mom.

Here's to Lake Powell!  I hope someday we make it back again!

F.O.U.R.

My little girl is FOUR!  Oh my!  We celebrated Paige's birthday a few days early since we would be in Lake Powell on the day of her birthday (that post is yet to come:).  We just had a small party with Grandma and Grandpa Gubler and Aunt Kimmy was here visiting too.  With all the craziness going on, there just wasn't much time for a party, but....I still came through with decorating the house with streamers and balloons and what not and I sort of had this crazy idea to actually attempt to make a cake - not just plain ole cake in a plain ole cake pan - but a REALLY cool cake, like in the shape of something.  My sister thought I was crazy, but I started to google around and found a cake that I thought I could manage - and HOLY COW!!!!  I AM AMAZING!!  Check out my Paige's super awesome butterfly cake!! 

Seriously, people do you see that?!?!?  Can you believe I actually did that?????  (Now, for all you fabulous and talented cake decorators who might be reading this please don't rain on my parade.  In fact, I prefer not to hear your comments all together :)  And the best part was when I was making it and Caiden and Paige were my audience and Caiden kept saying "Wow, Mom! That is the best cake ever!"  "Oh my gosh, Mom!  You are the best cake maker ever!"  "That cake is so cool mom!"  I know!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Except now, Caiden has big plans for his birthday cake, and I'm a little nervous).

Okay, back to the matter at hand - Paige is four!  My sweet, teeny, tiny, petite little girl is four!  Casey and I bought her her first bike with training wheels - and not just any bike - a BARBIE bike, complete with streamers, a bell, a basket, AND a mini-bike that you're Barbie can ride with you.  I couldn't pass this one up and she LOVED it.  I gave this to her when she woke up (that explains the jammies) and since it was raining outside, she rode it up and down the hallway all day.

Then later that night we opened the rest of her presents.  Caiden was struggling a bit with her getting all these presents. "It's not fair."  And so he convinced Paige to let him "hand" the presents to her and if she couldn't open it he would "help" her.  It basically drove me crazy, but I have to remind myself, he's only 6. 

Paige is big into dress-up right now and just starting to get into Barbies too - so what better than matching dresses for you and you're Barbie?

And then it was time for cake, and to be honest it was a bit hard for me to cut up my masterpiece.

So in honor of Paige, here are some things that describe you at age 4:

* you LOVE, LOVE your baby dolls and are always tucking them in their beds and pushing them around in your stroller
* you also LOVE your big brother and can have just as much fun with legos as with your dolls.  (And sometimes he makes you angry and I see a small little violent streak come out in you :)
* you LOVE the color pink - actually "obsessed" might be a better word
* you are SO, SO shy!  Not at home - in fact, you are very loud at home, but in public and around strangers you are terrifyingly shy.
* you prefer to play with boys than girls - maybe that's just cause there aren't many girls around your age
* you are a TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE eater and it makes me so crazy!  All you want to do is snack all day and when it comes to meals, I want to pull my hair out - but I still LOVE you.
* you are very afraid of bugs, but surprisingly not dogs, which makes me wonder how you are related to me.
* you are also afraid of automatic flushing toilets and there aren't too many things that make me laugh harder
than watching you panic that the toilet is going "flush you".  Seriously, so funny.
* all your "l's" come out as "w's".  We love to hear you say "Lauren loves lollipops."  It never gets old.
* you LOVE to watch movies - ALL DAY - and it makes mom a little crazy too.
* you LOVE Max & Ruby, Hello Kitty, Tom & Jerry, & Bolt - yes, you're very random.
* you refuse daddy kisses if he has "whiskers"
* you LOVE to play with daddy's Ipod and it is shocking how good you are at it.
* you are just so FUNNY and SWEET and I never want you to get big!

And one more time, just in case you forgot, I did this......for you Paige.

AMAZING!

The Marlins

Caiden finished another season of T-Ball with Team Marlins.  ("Like Nemo's dad??")  And he LOVED it.  I don't know if baseball is gonna be his thing, but he sure loved every minute of it and constantly wanted to practice in the backyard, even after an hour long game we'd get home and he'd say "Mom, can we go practice some more?"  So cute.  Some say T-Ball can be a boring sport to watch, but I found it to be quite hilarious at times.  I watched as the coach struggled and struggled to explain things to them and they were completely clueless.  And I watched how at times, it would turn into a football game as they tried to tackle each other to get to the ball.  Most of the kids still had no idea where 1st, 2nd, and 3rd base was and that made things entertaining.  Some of my favorite highlights this season were:

* watching Caiden catch (or pick up off the ground) the ball at first base and instead of touching the base to get the runner out or throwing it to 2nd, or even 3rd, he decided to chase after the runner all the way to 3rd base and personally tag him with the ball.  Classic.

*watching Caiden nearly pee his pants in the middle of a game.  He had to go so bad he was holding himself with his mit and jumping up and down and spinning in circles.  Against his will, I took him out of the game and MADE him go.  He was VERY mad at me and insisted he didn't even have to go.  Yeah, right. But then later that night he said to me "Mom, I was dying in my game"  me- "I know.  Let this be a lesson that mom knows everything."  him- "I know! I know!  That's what they always say in school.  Mom knows best!"  Ha!Ha!

*watching the ball bounce right off his helmet as he ran to first and he hardly noticed.  Also, noticing that he was pretty much the only kid whose head filled up the entire helmet.  What can I say?  He's got big brains!

*and lastly, watching him and another teammate running at full speed towards each other to catch the ball and they completely collided!  Caiden sort of held a grudge against that kid for the rest of the season....

Hmmm....what do I do next?

Goofing around....

Go Marlins!

Memorial Day in Missoula

For Memorial Day Weekend, we drove over to Missoula, MT to stay with my brother.  My mom and dad, sister and brother-in-law came up too.  We were hoping for a nice sunny weekend, but unfortunately it was rainy and chilly.  But we made the best of it, of course!  The girls did some shopping and eating out (duh! - we do that come rain or shine :)  The boys had a football game going on in the front yard....

Caiden could often be heard saying "Come on guys! We need to make a master plan!" Hence, the intense huddle.

Then, everyone participated in some basketball games created by Uncle Jesse's family...and it was a hoot!

We played "Poison" and "Lightning".  Now I don't so much remember all the details and rules to the games but one involved screaming "Poison!" and everyone had to FREEZE in their tracks (hence, the crazy poses) and the other was a bit of a race to make a basket before the person behind you.  I didn't so much rock at the second game, despite the picture of my mad skills below, ha. 

And this is what Paige did while everyone was playing and running around.....Play with the kitties!  And she told me many times over the weekend "this kitty so really likes me."  Yes, Paigey.

And count on my child to find immense entertainment out of a window well.  Note to self:  Get a daylight basement in our next house.

Then we decided to take a stroll on their property to a nearby creek and unbeknownst to us all the drama that awaited us...dun! dun! dun!

It all started with completely calm and normal driving done by Papa...

Then we get to the creek and as everyone is calmly peering into the flowing stream, Papa obnoxiously throws the largest rock ever into the creek and drenches us all.  Well, mostly just Paige, of whom doesn't exactly take a joke so well....but she got her revenge by splashing him back and then she was all smiles....

And THEN, in the midst of the crazy rock throwing and splashing, Caiden runs up the hill and happens to stand in the one and only spot of a giant red-ant hill.  All of a sudden, he comes running down in a panic that a bug was on his hand.  Now, don't judge me, but my initial reaction was to roll my eyes deep into the back of my head.  It drives me crazy that my son and daughter are more afraid of bugs than me.  They panic when a housefly gets into the house and Paige thinks the tiniest of moving creatures is a black widow that is trying to eat her.  So, at first, I paid no attention, and then all of a sudden I see my brother run up to Caiden and start attacking his legs.  And then I noticed the tons of red ants crawling all up his legs and all over his shoes.  And then I felt bad.  So we ripped his pants off and there were several ants that had gotten inside and he was freaking out and I was freaking out.  I so wish I had gotten a picture of him in his underwear!  (and I'm sure he's thankful I didn't, because you know I would have no shame in posting it).  So we get the ants off and his pants back on and I take a closer look at this ant hill, and oh my! Those are some HUGE ants.  And I grew up in Louisiana.  Trust me, I know my red ants!

But the four wheeler rides with his cousins seemed to help him forget about the killer ants...

A fun weekend in Montana!

Paige's End of the Year Preschool Program

Paige has officially finished her first year of Preschool at Happy Hearts and they celebrated with an end of the year program. According to her teachers, by the end of the year she finally would talk to them and occasionally smile at them. Her teacher even told me of a time that she talked in class and another little boy exclaimed, "She can talk! Paige can talk!"

My sweet little Paige is just so, so shy! (Certainly not at home, of course. She is at times the only thing I can hear. But in public.....that's a different story.) I can barely get her to smile and pose for me in pictures, so I wasn't too surprised to see her not smiling in her school pictures. Oh well. On a side note, I will always remember this year as the year of the hair disaster followed by the missing chunk of bangs - a very sad day indeed. But both are beginning to finally grow out and think I just might be over it completely....

It is one of my favorite things to see at the end of the year what all the kids want to be when they grow up. They are always posted along the walls for all to read and Paige did not disappoint...
I love that she got confused! And for the record, that is the first I have heard about her wanting to be a teacher. Maybe she loved preschool more than she let on!


And then all the preschool children serenaded us with tons of cute songs and to my utter surprise, I witnessed my little Paigey actually singing along and doing the hand motions. So cute. And of course, she is standing next to best friend, Adam.


And this was her favorite song to sing (peanuuuuut - peanut butter - and jelly!) and I couldn't get enough of her cute little hand motions.

Talent

An ode to Mothers....

I hope this is as inspiring to you as it was to me...sure makes all the bad days worth it....

::Invisible Mothers::

“It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I’m on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I’m thinking, ‘Can’t you see I’m on the phone?’ Obviously not; no one can see if I’m on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I’m invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this ? Can you tie this? Can you open this??

Some days I’m not a pair of hands ; I’m not even a human being. I’m a clock to ask, ‘What time is it?’ I’m a satellite guide to answer, ‘What number is the Disney Channel?’ I’m a car to order, ‘Right around 5:30, please.’ I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude – but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She’s going, she’s going, she’s gone!?

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England. Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, ‘I brought you this.’ It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I wasn’t exactly sure why she’d given it to me until I read her inscription: ‘To Charlotte , with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.’

In the days ahead I would read – no, devour – the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: No one can say who built the great cathedrals – we have no record of their names. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, ‘Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof, No one will ever see it. And the workman replied, ‘Because God sees.’

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, ‘I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you’ve done, no sequin you’ve sewn on, nocupcake you’ve baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can’t see right now what it will become.

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride. I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don’t want my son to tell the friend he’s bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, ‘My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table.’ That would mean I’d built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, ‘You’re gonna love it there.

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we’re doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.”

-written by Nicole Johnson

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Lots of Randoms....

First off....Books!  Caiden's reading has just taken off in the last couple of months.  He loves books and he's now read cover to cover "Green Eggs & Ham", "Hop on Pop", and "The Cat in the Hat".  (We love Dr. Suess, can you tell?)  He came home from school one day and very excitedly said "Mom, we got to read like bosses today!"..."Bosses??"...."Yeah, you know...with our feet up on the desk."  Love it!  And love Mrs. Nash for making reading so fun!

So lately, Caiden has been noticing that the books I read are "fat" books and he says he wants to read "fat" books.  I told him next year maybe (or maybe the next) he might be ready to start Harry Potter.  He was very excited at this thought!  But for now, he just likes to pretend he's reading "fat" books.  And I just had laugh when I saw this Sunday afternoon....

...of all books, he picked "Lord of the Rings" which I have to admit that I couldn't even get through.  It's not the easiest of reads on my book shelf.  But Caiden has inspired me to attempt to get through the trilogy as soon as I'm done with the next 15 books in line I have waiting :)  Anyway, I'm just so glad he has a love for reading I hope it lasts!

And speaking of reading, this is another one of his favorite things to do, although I don't think there is much reading going on as there is wishing.  We get these lego magazines in the mail every so often and they are filled with amazing lego sets that cost about $200 (yeah, right!)  But a kid can dream....

And lately, this little guy has days where he is so eager to help me around the house.  What?  Yes, it's not often but I take advantage of it to the fullest extent! 

Now on to Paige....

I have a store that I go to where I sell my old clothes and the kids old toys and what not and once in a blue moon I find some half-decent clothes for the kids.  I found this dress for Paige (it's a little big) but she FELL.IN.LOVE.  It was so funny.  I've never seen her so excited to go to church!  And she couldn't stop talking about her new dress.  Casey told her she needed to blow her nose and her reply was "I know. But I just really like my dress."

Crazy kids!