My Jeff

I talk so much about what's going on with the kids and my life, I have all but forgotten to mention my husband! HE doesn't care if I talk about his life on this blog, but I was inspired to post some of his antics after I got photographic proof.

Most people who know him would never believe that he was so weird, but let me tell you, they don't come much stranger.

First, a picture to show you how staggeringly handsome he is. I love his face. This is him being normal. It's rare.



This is Jeff being a good daddy. He's always a good daddy though. Jeff has a gift for fix-it, he's a finance guy professionally, but he can fix or remodel anything we've ever needed to get done. And he LOVES it. Last spring he took time off work to relax, his activity of choice to enjoy himself? He gutted and re framed (a little) and re tiled our shower. That's a relaxing activity for him.


Jeff and Nanos love to play catch together. Jeff's a very natural athlete. He favors basketball and baseball, but he'll never pass up a good football game. Luckily for me, he's not too die hard about any team (although he's a very red blooded Ute fan).




I only post this because I think I'm so cool for getting this action shot. Go me! Oh, and I guess he looks cool, too.





Jeff will do almost anything to make the kids or me laugh. I'm not exaggerating. He does a mean running man when I'm mad, and I just can not stay mad when he does it. Biting his tongue, furrowing his eye brows and pumping his arms side to side while he dances. He actually calls it "wild running raking man"- that's actually a good description. This is during the credits for Horton Hears a Who. We were the only ones in the theater, so to make the kids laugh, he went and held the baby up in front of the projector. It worked, they laughed.

You may wonder what it is he's holding. I'll tell you. I was telling the kids that people used to wash their kids mouths out with soap if they used bad language. So right then Jeff comes in the room, missed the target on the boys magnetic dart board, and says a word he shouldn't say. So I tell him that he'd better wash his mouth out with soap, which made the children giggle. Not to be out done because I made them laugh, he walks out of the room, comes back with a bar of soap and chomps it. I actually covered my face and screamed a little. EEEWWWWWWW!!!!!!! The kids howled with laughter.

Then they start chanting at him to chew it, so he does. AAAAAAA!!!! I'm grossed out thinking about it. Ew, ew, ew. At that point I'm laughing hysterically and can barely hold the camera still, which is why this is out of focus.

This stuff doesn't even scratch the surface, but it's a good start. At least we're never bored!

The carnage...the horror...

Strawberries: we love 'em, however, the children are under some sort of an assumption that only the first or second tiny bite of a strawberry is any good.


I should have known better than to leave them out...

Not long after I heard the kiddies scamper from the kitchen, I happened upon this: it looked like some sort of battlefield where the only casualties were poor defenseless strawberries. Their carcasses scattered about, haphazardly, left in cold blood...er, juice.

I then hollered at the children that they were supposed to "eat all the red" and that they needed to clean it up. Unfortunately they "didn't hear me" and then they "forgot". Only Jojy returned, who knows why, he piled them up and then smashed and squeezed, completely obliterating them.

Those poor strawberries never even saw it coming.

Fuzzy Wuzzy Was a Bear

Everyone, I'd like you to meet Bear's eyebrow.

That's right, that's eyebrow, singular, not plural.

He was about three when I took these pictures, but nothing has changed.

Bear's 5th birthday

Bear Bear has been begging me for months for a lion costume for his birthday. So I bought two colors of fleece (since it doesn't need hemming) and a brown hoodie and went to my mom's to make something. I sat at the sewing machine while my Mom cut the strips for the mane, and cut the ears and tail. I also figured that it's no fun to be a lion all alone, so I made a second costume out of a long sleeved t-shirt and made an extra mane.

He likes to be ferocious, but he also like to pretend to be the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz. He thought the baby in the costume was funny, but even funnier was when he pulled it off and the mane became a beard. (click the photos to see them better)

He wanted a Spongebob cake, so my Mother-in-law donated an unused wedding cake (Yay! I didn't even have to bake!), and Uncle Nate printed up some pictures from the computer for me to copy. I learned how to do cake decorating from my talented Mother, however, "frosting drawing" is all I'm able to do. I'm grateful for that much because as a mom, it comes in handy. (Like the sewing and hair cutting she taught me- Thanks MOM!).

Happy Birthday Bear Bear! Now, please, stop growing up...

Good Luck Natey!

Jeff's brother Nathan left for Navy Boot Camp last week. We miss him already, but we're proud of his choice.

Things I love about Nate: 1- He always lets me hug him, I'm a huggy person, so I love that he always hugs me back. Jeff and I got married when Nate was nine years old, so it's like he's always been my little brother.

2- He LOVES LOVES LOVES his nieces and nephews. The kids always light up when they see him and he always indulges my boys in wrestling matches. Not only will he wrestle, but he'll get drinks, food, read books, turn on videos, take them to play outside, and cuddle with them. He's a super uncle.

3- Nate is FUNNY. He's loves stand up comedy and will often repeat comedy sketches word for word. I love it.

4- He has a good heart and good intentions. I know he'll be a great asset to the Navy.

Uncle Nate gave Bear Bear this Navy hat. He also gave Nanos a Navy backpack, which Nan started using for school as soon as he got it. They both love their mementos from Nathan.

These photos were taken the day he left : Susan, Nathan, Katherine, and Carol in front.

Good Luck Nathan! We hope you get to come home to visit before you ship out to your station.

80 degrees?!

Monday, April 14, was SO delightfully and surprisingly warm that we couldn't stay inside for one more blasted minute. Janet invited a bunch of moms from the neighborhood to get together with the kids at this awesome playground.

Coolest playground EVER.

Paislee REFUSED to let me take her picture. It's funny because I've taken plenty of photos of her before.

My friends have the most freaking adorable children. I'm serious. Aren't they so so so cute?

Janet was my baby's buddy this day. It was nice to have my hands a little more free I must say, and he perfectly happy with her. Thanks Janet!!!

Me and three of my guys on a swing.


The moms in big plastic sunglasses

Jesyca and Kristie

Courtney and Melinda

Me and Janet

Thanks for a nice afternoon in the sunshine girls!

Who knows?

At the beginning of blogging this trip I told you that Jojy had a sickness that left him incapable of looking at the camera for a photo. It's true...mostly- sometimes as a complete fluke we happen to snap the picture right as his eyes dart past so it looks as though he's actually responding to us when we are screaming his name and wildly waving our arms. We must look like morons. So I went back and counted up the photos. I posted 92 photos of the trip (out of the 357 I took). Jojy was in 47 of those photos. Can you guess how many of those photos he was looking at the camera in?

(in case you don't know how- at the bottom of the post you can click on "comments" and post a comment or take your guess!)

One last shot- Our trip

I shouldn't complain about the long drive home, because as the kids play, and snack, and cry in the back, Jeff and I get lots of time to spend talking and laughing and getting rather ridiculous. Our long drives always leave a lot of fond memories of Jeff for me. One of the things that made me laugh was a truck that passed us. Sure a truck isn't funny, until your husband point out that it's carrying steer manure. And I know steer manure isn't funny, but then when he says "Do your realize what that means?- bull crap." That's right ladies and gentlemen, this truck is carrying a load of bull crap. A whole truck load of bull crap. I've heard tell of loads of bull crap, I've accused things of being bull crap, I've even handed out my share of figurative bull crap, but I never thought I'd actually see it.




And now you have, too.

(P.S. To see the beginning of the trip and follow it through to the end, go to the list of blog posts on the right side of the screen and click on the post titled "And we're back". Then read up from there.)

The Last Day- Our trip

This was our last night on the beach. Our favorite thing about the trip was our days we spent on the beach. Right before we were about to pack up our beach things for the last time, Bear suddenly panicked that he hadn't made a sand castle. So Daddy helped him throw one together and he loved it. He topped it off with his "magic stone" (that he found on the beach and wouldn't be parted with- it even came home with us).

Jeff and I spent the last evening (after the beach) packing up all the stuff scattered around the condo. It took a few hours and we completely ignored and then indulged the children to keep them happy. So at 9:30 when they realized they hadn't eaten their little ice cream cups, we let them go for it. When we came back into the room this is what we found. Our kids in mini sugar comas. You can even see the ice cream dripping pathetically from Jojy's face and clothes.

All packed up. Off for what would be a horrid drive... but somehow still worth it. Bye California!

The Condo- Our trip

Since we were there for so many days, we stayed at a couple hotels, but the longest stay was at this condo on Mission Bay. I wanted a condo especially so we could do laundry and have a kitchen. Eating out would have been ridiculously expensive (not like the rest of the trip wasn't). I loved this condo! It was pretty and comfortable and sunny with all it's windows. Aaahhhhh.


This is the patio off the bedroom.
This is the view from the patio- look how close we were to the beach!

Easter Sunday- Our trip

San Diego Temple. Beautiful, no?
AWWWWW!!!!!!!!
Again, AWWWWW!!!! This shot was totally candid.
We did our egg hunt in the sand.
Bear pretended he was a bird protecting his nest- he's so weird.

Look at those cute little piggies!

He's so handsome.