Mickey Mouse

Just to make you laugh, here is another Maysie story:

I did Maysie's hair today in pig-tails which is not that unusual, and then I tied matching ribbon's around them, which is also not that unusual for us. After I get done with Maysie's hair in the morning she always has to look in the mirror to see the finished result. Normally she will just say she is pretty or it is so cute or something of that nature... Well today, she said, "Look Mom. I look like Mickey Mouse!" Ha Ha Ha. :)

Mean while here is a picture of what she looks like today. I just love this kid.

Big Changes

Last week Rob was offered a job working full time for Maverick as a local truck driver. A couple of his 1/2 brothers work there already and they asked him if he wanted to work part time during the slow season with our company... Well, 2 weeks later they gave him this option: We were faced with the decision to close the doors on our company or continue on in this draining economy. We really didn't know what to do, and so luckily, we had until Thursday to decide (It was on Tuesday when we got the offer) since the guy we had to talk to went out of town; we just had to have the answer the day he came back. So of course we fasted and prayed, wrote down all the pro's and cons, and decided then re decided then decided and re decided. again. and again.. and again... If you know my husband, you know what a huge decision this was for him. He loves being his own boss and having that freedom and/or responsibility that comes with that. Needless to say, Tuesday night we came to the sub-conscious decision to Just Do It. So Wednesday, we went into Salt Lake and searched all over town to find FR rated clothes (actually it was only 2 stores). On Wednesday night we went to bed knowing that we would have to give our decision in just a few short hours and we were only 1/2 confident of our decision so we were going to rely on faith that Heavenly Father will let us know during the night. Luckily for us, when we both woke up with the same conclusion that we need to do change jobs. Right after we called the boss man Thursday morning, we see all these strange things from the people that Rob hauled the Walmart stuff for... Like I checked our business e-mail which of course was random because Rob hadn't been working so there was nothing for that company to e-mail us for (they would only e-mail us pay rate confirmations after we did a trip) and to my surprise we found a whole bunch of e-mails with different load options he could do if he wanted to and then the people called him and left him a message. Weird - I know. Anyways, I know that this was just Satan's way to rock our decision and let us doubt ourselves. It almost worked, but it didn't in the end. Rob and I got looking at our pro's and con's list again and we know that we are making the right decision. So I'll share with you our pro and con list. :)

PRO's
#1 : steady income/ guaranteed work
#2 : insurance benefits
#3 : home every day
#4 : our taxes will be so much easier to do
#5 : set schedule
#6 : home every day
#7 : the yard is just down the street - he can walk if needed
#8 : steady income/ guaranteed work
#9 : home every day
#10: work with his brothers (will make the company parties more fun since I know the people :) )

CON's
#1 : give up our business - sell our truck
#2 : work rain or shine - no choosing
#3 : work weekends until who knows when
#4 : have to work nights until who knows when
#5 : can't go to Church very easily
#6 : no weekends off - yuck
#7 : will have to drive a Kenworth (Rob is a Peterbuilt guy - the difference is like Ford, Dodge and Chevy)
#8: Taxes this year will be UGLY- we'll probably have to pay an obscene amount of money if we
sell our truck
#9: No weekends or holiday's
#10: miss going in the truck as a family

So there you have it. Rob's schedule is not completely ideal but at least he can get his foot in the door and work his way up into a better schedule. Right now his schedule is set for Saturday - Wednesday from 1:00 pm to 1:00 am so Thursday and Friday is his days off. Luckily we were able to choose the day's off and we figured that if he had Friday off then it is kinda like a weekend day, and then we are also super lucky because he starts at 1:00 which gives him alot of daylight hours and less night hours (most of the other shifts are from 4:00 to 4:00 so if you are on the night shift you are basically all night driving). There is a good chance that he could be done for his day between 10:00 to midnight which is awesome because his hours won't be so messed up when he has his "weekend". Church will be tricky but he should be able to attend Sacrament meeting for the rest of the year. Next year will be alot better since church starts earlier but we can make do for the time being. Maverick is trying to get a truck lined up for him so he can actually start but in the mean time he does the part time stuff so he'll work every other day or so since he has already been through his training. He was supposed to start this last Tuesday, but they are having issues with leasing a truck or something so we have to wait... but I am guessing it should all be sorted out by the beginning of next week.

Easter part Dos

Rob's family held their annual Easter party the week after Easter. This year they had the bulk of it at Vern and Sharon's house (Rob's 1/2 brothers house). They started off the event with a dinner. I don't think I have seen that much food in a really. long. time. There were a ton of people, many of them I don't know (Rob's family has this habit of inviting pretty much anyone they have come in contact with in the past to these things.... There philosophy: the more the merrier - my philosophy: oi, eye, I (can you tell I'm not always a huge fan of this :) ) Rob's family is extremely health conscious and I learned really fast to only try things that you recognize because if not.... beware! They said that the main entree was sloppy joes and for everyone to bring a salad or dessert. And for some it meant to bring a salad and a dessert. Well, their sloppy joes was just chili on a bun (not my vision of a sloppy joe - healthier yes- yummier, not so much) and alot of the salads were tofu something or other. Needless to say, I ate alot of fruit and chips. The desserts on the other hand was fabulous! I am pretty certain that there was sugar in them. (This is practically a huge no no in the family) There was rice krispie treats, cheese cake, brownies, strawberry danish dessert (Rose's specialty- its super yummy) and even homemade snickers that actually tasted like the real thing. :)

After dinner they had an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Vern and Sharon's back yard is ginormous which made it perfect for this. Rob helped Camden with the egg hung (he liked it alot better then on Easter morning) and my brother in law Joe was awesome enough to help Maysie so I could take pictures and video the hunt. (Did you know how hard it is to capture this when both kids are going in opposite directions.... I finally gave up on getting them in pictures together and just followed one for a while and then the other.) :)

Camden finding an egg...

Maysie getting ready to go find them.. (sorry this picture should have been first)

Maysie was funny, She went to the middle of the area then turned around in a circle and then started running all over the place collecting eggs... (I thing she was using a mental radar thing or something) :)

This is when both kids met up again.... they were counting their eggs since each kid was allotted 12 eggs each.

Camden was fascinated with the eggs, he kept taking them out of his bag and then putting them back in...

After the egg hunt, then the kids ran around like crazy people playing on the swing set kingdom while the big kids went down the street for their activities and the other adults sat around and talked. When it started getting cold, then we rounded everyone up and took them inside where the kids enjoyed watching the movie Tangled or playing in the basement with all the toys while the adults talked still... Of course, the guys run out of things to say way before the girls do so Rob rounded up a couple of them and then got me so we could play a game or two, or maybe 3 or 4 of pinnacle. Needless to say, the cards were cursed, and Rob and I definitely didn't have the luck on our side because we lost every single hand/ game. We only took the bid once the whole night where as the other team shot the moon (won the game) 3 times then took all the other bids the rest of the time. I am sensing that there will be a rematch in the future since Rob and I are sore losers (not that you could tell or anything). :) By the end of the night, we were all full, and exhausted from the fun time we had spending it with the pretty much the WHOLE family and practically the entire state of Utah! :)

Easter part 1

Easter this year was quite an enjoyable and exciting experience for our family this year. We prepared our family for the more religious setting throughout the week before by watching multiple movies, reading stories and even just trying to discuss the subject of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Of course we still did the whole Easter Bunny thing, but we tried to clue in on the true meaning of Easter with our kids. The Saturday before Easter we colored Easter eggs with the kids. We drew pictures on the eggs first with color crayons, then we put them into the dye mixture, that way, wherever we drew the dye wouldn't stick. We also just colored a few by themselves so that Maysie could decorate them with stickers. And for Camden we did the same thing we did for Maysie's 1st Easter, where we just gave him some acrylic paint and let him finger paint his eggs. It got incredibly messy of course, but we had alot of fun spending the time together as a family. Rob unfortunately had to leave half way through the activity to go to work, but he still had his few eggs that he did.

Maysie putting stickers on some eggs.

Camden painting an egg

Maysie displaying one of her favorite eggs.
(She called it the rainbow egg. :) This is one that I decorated)




this is just a handful of the eggs that we did... in total we decorated around 20. Rob's egg is the green one at the top (if you look closely he drew a picture of a semi and then labeled it Daddy's truck. Ha ha. - If you know Rob then the only thing he really draws is a semi - go figure) Maysie put the stickers on the blue egg in the middle. The eggs that she colored didn't turn out too well because she didn't push hard enough with the crayon. :( Camden's egg is the tie-dyed looking one at the top right. It looked pretty cool. I gave him 2 eggs to color, but unfortunately he dropped the 1st one on the floor as soon as he was done and it broke all over... I did the rest of the ones in this picture. Well actually I drew the pictures, then Maysie put them into the dye. The only one that I did completely by myself was that rainbow one.

Sunday morning, we woke up and of course the Easter Bunny had made his appearance at our house sometime during the night. In our family, we set out one big bowl as our Easter Basket and share it as a family instead of doing individual baskets... This year we received a kite, the movie Tangled, Cotton Candy and other various goodies.

The Easter Basket

The kids searched all over the family room for the hidden Easter eggs. Maysie was all over the place and totally into it. Camden was satisfied with the 1st egg that he found. He kept walking around shaking it. :) He found one with some money in it 1st off. Thankfully Rob stepped in and helped Camden find some more so Maysie wouldn't get greedy.

Camden and his egg.

Maysie and her sack

Camden still standing there shaking his egg, and Maysie's sack is getting fuller and fuller :)

Rob helping Camden find one on top of the piano

When all the eggs were found, we enjoyed a quick breakfast and then got ready for church. We took family pictures right after church because of 2 reason: #1 - lack of time, and #2 - we were holding a family dinner at our house after church (I know totally brave of me to cook up 98% of the meal by myself- right!)

Maysie wasn't super happy about having to put down the Easter egg she was playing with to take this picture. One day we are bound to capture a good family picture where everyone is looking at the camera WITH a smile on their face - right. Well, I can only wish can't I?

This was taken right before church, thus the smile on her face...

Camden sportin his new tie. He was one happy boy pretty much the whole day. I am beginning to wonder if he got into some candy or something? :)

We tried to get a picture of the kids together in their awesome Easter attire, but of course, we didn't think about it until after church when Maysie was a not so happy camper. This was the 1st attempt but it was the best one since in all the other pictures she is pushing away my mother in law who was just trying to get them standing next to each other...

Despite Maysie's attitude, we had a wonderful day together as a family where we could show gratitude to Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father for the ultimate sacrifice that was offered for the salvation of all mankind. How blessed I am to have this knowledge and this testimony where I know of the unwavering love that Heavenly Father and of Jesus Christ have for us and where we have an opportunity to have a special day once a year to really take special notice of this sacred, but special event.

The Pinewood Derby

Since I am still a den mother with the Cub Scout program, we had our annual pinewood derby in April. The theme this year (I know what your thinking: A theme for a pinewood derby- but we have this OCD cubmaster that has to have themes for everything) anyways, our theme was F.A.I.T.H. which we turned into some acronym about super hero's which is what the boys had to base there car around. This was the first time that Rob was able to go with me since he normally has to work. I didn't know what was more fun to watch... the cars, the kids reaction the the cars, or Rob. He was so amazed the the kids could build these cars (lets face it, some of them were pretty incredible) and jealous at the same time. When we got home, he told me that he couldn't wait until Camden was big enough to make one. :) Umm, yeah, that will be a while... like 7 years, but... he has something to look forward to. :) This year there were 15 entries, a ton - I know, but we had it pretty organized and it went by pretty fast. We had quite the battle for 1st and 2nd place and had to keep rerunning the race multiple times to determine the winner.

Here are a bunch of pictures from that night....

all the cars

Let the races begin...

and there off..

The boys getting there cars at the end of the race

Getting ready to start another race.... Rob is in the middle holding Camden checking out the score that was being displayed on the wall... yep, he had to be in all the action. :)

Camden... He was walking all over the place. He is totally rockin' the hat. I think he is starting to look more like Rob, especially with a hat on.

Maysie looking all cute...

There were a few restless younger siblings so one of the mom's opened up the nursery closet that was in the back of the room.... Once the toys were out, then it was really hard to keep my kids from gravitating to the toys too. Maysie would play with pretty much all of them and she was really good about helping the babies get a toy too.... Camden would only touch the cars. Yep, he knows what he wants. :)

and the winners...

All in all we had a fantastic time and loved being able to spend the time together as a family and cheering on all the cub scouts in our ward.

Sleeping Camden

Does this look comfortable or what? This is how I find Camden sleeping quite often lately. It is either an arm or a leg, or sometimes even both hanging through the rails.... I think it is hilarious so of course I took a picture so I'll never forget, and I thought I would just share it with everyone. :)

Maysie's Colors

I have been working repetitively on getting Maysie to recognize her colors. She knows the names, but has a hard time identifying them.... well, she used to, but she has been getting alot better the last couple of months. Lately, to keep her interested on car rides, we have her look for a certain color of car and when she finds it we will say another random color to have her look for. This tends to keep her entertained for most of the car rides around the valley, but we have yet to make a long road trip since we started doing this. Anyways.... We went to eat lunch at Chuck-A-Rama on Saturday, and Maysie wanted a slushie for her drink. Normally she doesn't get such luxuries because we have the waitress bring our drinks out (Actually, since most of the waitress know us so well, they have the drinks out to us before we are back to our table with the food :) ) Anyways, the choice of the slushies were jolly rancher green apple (way sour) and I am guessing cherry flavored. Maysie really wanted the green one, but I knew she wouldn't drink it so I gave her the red instead. She of course voiced her opinion about the whole thing so me feeling generous (actually I was just avoiding a scene) put alittle bit of the green on top. She look at it and gave me a huge smile then said, "Look Mom. It is Strawberry Shortcake" Umm, yeah, I guess that could be the name of her drink. Never the less, she was so happy and drank the whole thing. Then one the way out to our car, Maysie started telling us all the colors of the cars in the parking lot.... She got to a tan one that was parked only a couple of spots away from ours and she paused for a moment before exclaiming, "And that car is dirt." Just typing this still makes me laugh out loud... :)