Hanging with Grandpa Harris

My Grandpa has been in the hospital (in Idaho Falls) this last week. He has a not so good heart and needed quadruple bypass surgery. You better believe I was up there to see him when I found out. I freaking love my Grandpa Harris. Mom, Brant, Summer and I drove up together on Thursday (my boys stayed with my Aunt Syd...Thanks Syd!!). We got to the hospital to visit at 2:30 p.m. and stayed until 7:00 p.m. He was telling us jokes, and stories (they were hilarious) and making fun of a "heart healthy diet". It was really great visiting with him. The next morning he went into surgery at 8 a.m. so we got to the hospital at noon. It ended up taking longer than planned and he did not get out until around 4 p.m. He made it out okay, and was doing well. He was in recovery for two hours but we had to be on the road by 4:30 so my uncles called us to let us know he recovered well, and he will be moved out of the ICU tomorrow (Sunday). We are thrilled everything went well.
Love you Grandpa!

Crackin' Jokes givin' hugs.

Reading my book, waiting to go to the hospital.

Hanging out with some of the crazy Sibs. I was the lucky one and got to sleep with Brant. I woke up and told him he was a good bed mate because he didn't snore, fart, or move very much. He said "thanks" then leaned over and farted. Yeah, nice!

It was also fun seeing family
Uncle Scott, Uncle Pogi (even though I see him almost every day), Aunt Debbie, Aunt Loree, Uncle Harold, Aunt Vieane, Carolyn (grandpa's wife).
We laughed and joked around in the waiting room and the hospital staff said he loved family's like us who kept the mood light and had fun in a time of trial. We're pretty awesome! :-)

Valentine's Date

My Mother was so kind and watched the boys for us overnight so Ben and I could go out for a "Day Before Valentine's Day" date. We went to the Gateway to go to Tucano's (love this place!). The wait was 1.5 hours because we are smart and did not make reservations. We decided to wait, they were doing a Valentine's thing where they put a red table cloth on the table and put special meats on the menu gave the girls a long steamed rose and gave us both chocolate covered strawberries. So nice! So anyway...
I am a genius and forgot about my last post about high heeled shoes. Well, with the wait being 1.5 hours meant that I had to walk around the Gateway Mall for 1.5 hours with HEELS on. Yeah, that was NOT happening. Ben was pretty tired of me saying "ouch, ouch, ouch" with every step. So we bought new shoes for both of us. We could not resist, look how cute they are (above).

My feet literally breathed out a "thank you" when I took the dumb boots off.

So Ben was SO sweet. He knew I needed some running shoes (because I've been running...go figure). So he got me some for Valentine's Day. He also thought it might not be super fun to get "running shoes" for a love holiday. So he also went to the mall and looked around forever and finally went to a girly store and had a girl help him pick stuff out for me by saying, "she likes layers and sweaters and jewelry. So he got me two shirts with layers underneath and a cute necklace that matches. Super thoughtful!
I feel super lame...
I got Ben his favorite cologne, some of his favorite body butter, and wrote him a super funny/lame poem (it was really funny, because I suck at writing poems...but it's the thought that counts right?) Like, I actually rhymed "school" with "while I drool". Yeah, I'm awesome.

Hope you all had a fabulous Valentine's Day too.

p.s. if you have not seen "Valentine's Day" the the movie yet...don't waste your money. It just was not as good as it was hyped up to be.

First Time

Over Valentine's Weekend we decided to take the kids on an overnight "vacation". We went to Ogden, Utah. This was the boy's first time in a hotel. They loved it! We went to dinner at The Pie, then went swimming at the hotel. In the morning we went to the Treehouse Children's museum. The coolest museum ever! Then we went to lunch at The Pizza Factory. We sure love pizza! Those are our two favorite Pizza places. After lunch we took the kids to Ben's school where he did his undergrad, Weber State. The kids love seeing where Ben goes/went to school. Then we drove to Provo to take the kids to the "donut factory" (Krispy Kreme). We had a really great time, it was SO nice to take a break and get away. Poor Ben had a lot of homework to catch up on when we came back though. Hope you enjoy the many, many pictures.

Ethan doing a craft.

Ethan playing music.

Ryan banging on some drums.

Ethan in the "Oval Office".

Ryan in the "Oval Office".

Ethan loved being a fire man. He wanted to do this the whole time we were there...too bad we had to share with other kids. :-)

Ryan driving the Fire Truck.

Ryan and Ethan eating donuts. So cute!

Basketball

Yes, I do realize this is baseball, not basketball.
My Uncle Pog lives across the street from us and he was playing baseball in the street with my cousin Bailey. Ethan wanted to join, so Pogi helped him and Ryan ran after all the balls. It was super cute!

That was a metal (aluminum, whatever) bat. And Ethan was able to swing it himself. He was so proud!

Ben's youngest brother Marshall set up a brothers only basketball game at their church in Tooele. All the brothers showed up except Peter and Rick (he has 8 brothers). Ethan loves any kind of sport if it has a ball involved.

Ryan sitting on the stage watching the game and being super cute.

During the game Ryan was pulling 2 cousins, Lane and Raygan and Brother Ethan in the wagon all around the church halls. They loved it!

The brothers playing.
I read my book, chatted with the sister-in-laws and played ball with Ethan.
My husband is the hot one in the red shorts.

John Deere...I mean Dear John

My Mom, Sister and I went out to lunch and to a movie for my sister's birthday this last Saturday.
Yes, I know we all looked washed out here, it was really bright. We went to San Gelato for lunch.
And then to:

For the movie.
It was good.
I leaked tears from both corners of my eye. When you have 4 streams of tears coming down your face, that's when you know it's a good movie! :-)

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Ryan told me this morning he had a dream. This was our conversation:

Mom: What was your dream about?
Ryan: I had a dream that I had a different Mom that was not you.
Mom: Oh really? What was this Mom like?
Ryan: She was a better cook than you Mom.
Mom (with slightly hurt feelings): Oh yeah, what did she make?
Ryan: Well, you make macaroni and cheese and apples, and this mom made peanut butter and ham sandwiches.
Mom (feeling better because that actually sounds gross): But Ryan, you are allergic to peanut butter.
Ryan: Well mom, in my dream I was 8.

Ah, so apparently Ryan thinks he's going to grow out of his allergy. I sure hope so. I was afraid he'd say his "other mom" would make something gourmet and I'd have to step up my game. I was relieved.

Organization

We were driving home from Tooele one Sunday night and Ethan said, "Mom look".

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I love when friends influence you for the better. I went to a friends house this week and all her toys are nice and organized with labels and everything. I thought, "wow, wouldn't it be nice if my toy room looked like that". So I decided to make it look like that "with labels and everything" :-) (p.s. I don't really know what "everything" entails).

These photos are just to show off the awesome labels. So that way the kids and I know exactly where everything goes.

See how clean it is?

Every single toy we own has it's own place. It feels so good. Sometimes I just walk upstairs and stare at it.

Until it looks like this...

So much for a clean toy room.

I am determined to have the kids clean it all up every night before bed.

We'll see how it goes.

Mascara Boogers

How is it that I choose the wrong Mascara every time I go to the store? Here are some issues I've had with Mascara:
1). Having to apply 49 coats before you can remotely see the Mascara.
2). The brush is too big to get into small corners.
3). The brush is too small so #1 applies.
4). Mascara dries too quickly
5). It clumps weird on the brush so then it gets all over my upper eye lid
6). Mascara boogers. (seriously when I take off my makeup at night, how do I avoid the Mascara from clumping IN my eye...YUCK...it's like I'm washing my face with my eyes open).

Here are the different brands I've tried:
(although I have not tried EVERY Mascara in each of those brands)

-Maybelline
-L'Oreal
-Cover Girl
-Estee Lauder

I need help. Which Mascara do you use? And do you like it?

P.S. I will do a post with pictures soon