Quick Funny from Brekken

Aaron and the boys were driving through an area with a lot of construction equipment and saw a crane with a big hook hanging from the arm. Brekken's comment:

"Hey, look at that hooker!"

A Brand New Car!

Last night, Aaron and I impulsively decided to get a new car for me. Because mine can't actually fit the whole family, and even to fit all the kids in it, we have to have Haley in the front seat. So even though my old car was completely paid off and still runs great, we decided it was time to replace it.

So I got up this morning and spent the whole time I was getting dressed, feeding the baby, etc. worrying over this new car. I was thinking things like: "What were we thinking?" "We can't afford another car payment right now." "Sure, it's nice, but we were managing with my old car." "How did we even get approved? Surely the financing company can see that we can't afford this!"

I was really stressed out and trying to figure out what we were going to cut from the budget in order to pay for this new car. It wasn't until I got to the driveway to see my old car still sitting there that it dawned on me that it had all been a dream. No new car. No new car payment. Whew!

Quick Funny from Brekken

I told Brekken I would fix his lunch as soon as I'd had a chance to use the bathroom. Anxious to help, he raced ahead of me to the bathroom. He insisted on helping me out by raising the lid and waited for me while I used the toilet.

When I had finished, he clapped his hands and exclaimed: "Great job, Mommy! You didn't pee in your pants or your underwear!"

Quick Funny from Preston

"Mommy, we should get a pig. Because a pig is a good pet. And when we had leftover food or food we don't want, we could feed it to the pig and he would eat it. He would be lots of fun.

And when we got tired of the pig, we could turn him into bacon and eat him."

Quick Funny from Haley

Overheard while the kids were playing:

"Preston, let's play a game where we pretend like we're brother and sister."

Rylen's Blessing & Vacation Time

It took me a while to get to this, but I had to finish up the 30 day blog challenge first. ;) So here is a collection of picture from our vacation in Vernal. I started out the week with big plans to take the kids to the dinosaur quarry and the natural history museum and other stuff... we didn't manage to do most of it. The time just went by too quickly! But we had a great time just hanging out with the family.
My grandparents and my parents in the picture with us. Yes, Haley is crying in this picture. She was upset over something, so she sobbed through most of the photos.
Aaron's parents and his sister were able to come out for the blessing, too. It was so nice to be able to have them all there. (Notice that by this point we gave up on trying to have Haley in the photos.)

I felt like I'd better share one picture with Haley smiling. All the kids love hanging out with Uncle Brian. They actually have 2 Uncles Brian... my brother and my brother-in-law. This confuses the kids a little - as evidenced by the time that Haley and Preston tried to explain to Aaron's parents that my sister Melissa was married to my brother Brian! We were quick to clarify that while I do have a brother named Brian, he is married to Michelle, not Melissa. Melissa is married to a completely unrelated Brian. :D

A nice picture of the star of the day... Rylen in his sweet blessing outfit. We were relieved that it still fit him, since he was 4 months old by the time he was blessed. (The other boys were not that old when they wore the outfit.)

While we were there, I took the kids out to roam around in my Grandpa's fields. I grew up running wild in those fields every day. We would hang out in the gulch, play on the rope swing, play at the pond, pick watercress from the creek, pick asparagus along the fences, play on the hay piles in the corral, stomp out "rooms" in the tall hay (we got in trouble for that one, actually), run from the cows (there was a cow named "Hot Dog" who did NOT like us and would chase us whenever she saw us in her fields)... so many fun memories! And in all these years, I've never managed to take the kids out to play in the fields. For that matter, I've never taken Aaron out there, either! So I finally got them all out into the fields and the kids had a ball. They loved roaming around out there. We didn't go see all the places I used to play - Grandpa has 80 acres, so it's a lot of ground to cover! But hopefully we'll have a chance to do it again soon so I can take them to more of the fun spots in the fields.
Preston in his leather "rock star jacket," as he calls it. He is VERY proud of that jacket.
We went to the park one afternoon with most of the cousins - my brother Brian was not in town, so his two kids were not there. But we had all the other cousins there. What a crew! Here are all the grandkids with grandma (my mom).
Two of my sisters - Melissa and Sarah - with their kids. I loved spending time with them during the visit! The girls and I had fun hanging out and playing Wii Tetris with mom.
No big story with this picture... I just think it's very cute! Brekken in his "Grandpa hat." Which means any hat he has stolen from one of his grandpas.

30 Posts: Day 30

I did it! 30 posts in 30 days! Here we are at post number 30...

Day 30 - A picture of someone/something you miss. And yes, I know the enormous dinosaur statue is an odd choice. But it's really what the statue stands for. This is the T-rex statue that stands in the middle of main street in my hometown of Vernal, Utah. And for me it symbolizes the fact that I miss living near my family.

As much as I like Colorado, lately I've been really wishing that I lived closer to my parents, siblings, and grandparents. It really hit me when we spent a week in Vernal visiting everyone lately. I enjoyed the chance to just hang out with my family doing nothing special. I loved watching my kids play with grandma and grandpa and their aunts, uncles, and cousins. And it really made me wish that we could do that all the time.

So yes, I miss the giant (23 feet tall, FYI) dinosaur just because it makes me think of Vernal and miss living by my family. I'd really like to just move back there. I could actually even keep my same job and just work from a home office. But there are the issues of Aaron's job and how to sell the house in a neighborhood where NOTHING is selling right now. *sigh* But I have hopes...

(By the way... this is far from the only dinosaur statue in town! There are numerous versions of Dina, the town mascot. She is an cartoon-like and cheerful brontosaurus in various shades of orange and pink. And then there are the more realistic statues at the old Fieldhouse of Natural History museum. And the statues at the new natural history museum. And a little bit outside of town is the dinosaur quarry - part of Dinosaur National Monument - where they dig up actual dinosaur bones.)