Saying yes instead of no-

I've had a come to Jesus moment a couple of weeks ago.  Let me set the scene.  We had to wake up really early to put up flags in peoples yards for a cub scout fundraiser.  Bryan was hiking so I had all 4 kids by myself.  I talked our neighbor Kristin into help me poor girl.  We were out for over a hour and a half trying to put 45 or so flags up and my kids had had it.  I went to grab them a donut after because he hadn't had breakfast and got a call from a find inviting us to a parade.  We took her up on her offer and my kids did pretty good for the most part.  At one point or another every one of my kids but Brett was crying about something.  It was embarrassing.  I decided on the way home to stop at McDonalds because I wasn't in the mood to make and clean up lunch. While we were ordering my food Stockton started to cry that he needed to go to the bathroom.  I told him to hold on we were only a couple of minutes from home.  So I paid and waited for our food.  And waited, and waited and waited! 10 minutes in the drive through line with a kid what ended up peeing his pants and Bretty falling asleep was not my idea of a good time.  When we got home the boys were yelling enough that Bretty started to wake up and I started to loose it.  I was done. Lucky for me by the time I got Brett into the house he feel back asleep so I could have a little break.  I went back in the garage to get the food and Blake offered to help me.  On his way up the stairs he dropped the bag spilling food all over.  He looked at me and his eyes started welling up with tears.  He was scared I was going to go off on him.  Gratefully I didn't and I picked him up and hugged him.  He lost it.  I told  him he was much more important to me then some fries and he helped me pick up the food (that was still in the wrappers) and threw away the few fries that were on the ground. 

This is what I learned from that moment.  I'm a horrible mother. Seriously.  My little 6 year old is scared of me because he accidentally dropped some fries. I think that my life is so out of control feeling some days that I take that frustration out on my sweet kids.  I decided that things have to change.  

Blake also taught me another important lesson this summer.  He asks me to read him a book before  bed a lot and usually I'm so done for the day and it's way past bedtime which is always is.  I tell him I'll read to him in the morning.  But in the morning craziness I never get around to reading then either.  Then one day I just couldn't tell him no again so I told him to pick a book.  I couldn't believe how much he loved it! He lite right up and hugged me while I read to him.  So I've decided something.  I need to quit saying NO AND TRY TO SAY YES! 

I just read this awesome post on a blog I like to follow how she says no to some people to say yes to more important people.  Saying no to hurrying and texting someone back or looking something up online to read a book or play a game.  Every time I sit and text someone and ignore my kid trying to talk to me I'm making them feel like they are less important then my phone.  I suck at this. So my goal for the week- baby steps you know- is to say yes as much as possible. 

 Saying yes to playing on the tramp- like Bryan did when he was wrestling with my boys the other night.

 Tying out some cool photos with my boys and allowing every one of them to blow them out.  They got relighted a lot that night.

 Remember the parade we went to? In the end they were glad they went.  We were lucky to go with some good friends.

 Saying yes to playing with bubbles.  This is my niece Kiya laughing at my boys.

 Saying yes to Stockton when he wants to dress up like camptain america around my house.  Or when he wants to dress up as Robin at Maceys.  Why not?

 Saying yes to the rare moment when Blake asks me to take a picture of the "gun" he made with blocks.

 Saying yes to giving my full attention to Ty while he does his math.  Well full attention minus me taking a few pictures while he works out some problems.

 He counts on his fingers a lot.  I wanted a picture of that.

 My little boys laying out a blanket on the floor to watch tv.

 Bretty in my favorite PJ's of his.

They were pretending to be johnny appleseed.

So Wish me luck.  Here's to being a better mother.

Outdoor Photo contest

It all started with this picture: I took it at Tony Grove this summer.  Is the the greatest picture in the world?  Heck no!  I would have loved the sun coming through the trees better then that. But I thought I would just throw my hat into the ring of the local papers outdoor photo contest.  There were two categories.  Scenic and wildlife. In each of those categories they had a peoples choice award and a grand prize they picked.  When the voting opened I didn't think a lot about the first week.  Then I decided I could at least vote for my poor little picture and I noticed you could vote everyday and I thought why haven't I been voting already?? I made my mom get on and vote that day too.  When I went to vote the next day my picture was on a different page of the gallery.  I noticed it was moving up the ranking.  After a couple days of this I was on the top page! So I decided to bother my friends to see if they would vote. I was hoping that if it at least my picture was one of the few top voted pictures they may print it in their photo section that went with the contest.  All the sudden I was in 5th place- then by the end of the day I was in 3rd.  I couldn't believe it.  Well long story short my picture won the peoples choice award.  I'm still amazed by that.  I have some awesome friends.  Because, like I said, it isn't the best picture.  It's cool, but not the best. 

It was printed in the paper and it said that I had won peoples choice award. I won a nice sleeping bag that my kids thought was fantastic. 

 Who knew my hobby would win me stuff???

My little boys

I started to take back to school picture of all my kids and I'm just getting around to posting these of the little boys.  I took these the first day of school too.  

 Brett is turning into a cranky kid.  He is two what can I say? He yells at me a lot.  He bit me the other day! Right in the butt! Then he is the sweetest thing the next minute.  I loves to play hunting with the boys.  He loves his stuffed animals and we line them up in his bed every night.   He always wants to say the prayer. He had this winny little funny voice.  He would play outside all day if I let him.  I'm started to really love that because as kids get older you have to push them outsides some days.  He likes to jump on our tramp and play "Macho" (Nacho like the movie) on the tramp.  He always likes to play ghost busters with Stockton.  He is mean to poor Stock! He is always hitting him and screaming at him to get his way.  Bretty is still daddy's buddy.  Bryan never gets after him.  Blake is his best buddy.  He likes Elmo and curious george. He loves to play on the ipad and screams when you try to take it away from him.  I try not to give it to him every often because he is two! I want him to play! Brett loves cats! He chases them around and meows at them. He loves for me to read to him.  Brett is a pretty good eater.  He is the best kid at eating what I put in front of him. He still loves his hot dogs.

 If I had to guess Stockton's favorite thing I would say bugs.  This kid loves bugs.  He loves ladybugs, rolly pollys, slugs, worms.  He has been stung like three times by bees this summer because he is trying to pick them up.  If I'm working in the garden he is right by me waiting for me to find him a worm.  He is little mr. independent.  Max and Ruby is still his favorite show much to the dismay of many of the rest of us because we have seen the show so many times.  He loves batman, star wars and hunting games.  He likes to build and create things on his own and the older boys get mad because he gets in their room and plays legos.  Unless he is on the ipad (which he could honestly do ALL DAY) and Brett is asleep he is following me around the house.  I don't think he likes to be alone if he doesn't have something else to do. Stockton likes to draw.  He really loves chalk.  He has drawn all over the outside of my house with chalk this summer.  He draws on my walls inside too.  Boo to that! He is a picky eater! It's so hard to feed him! Seriously I dare you to hang out with him and not fall in love with  him.  I love the way he talks about stuff and the expressions on his face when he is talking about anything.  He is the most loving little guy you will ever meet.  He is so social! He makes friends everywhere! We were at mcdonalds the other day and he made friends with his cute little girl.  If she wasn't right with him he would say "where is my girl?" When people walk by my house he always wants to take to them.  Our little toy motorcycle is his favorite toy.  He rides that up and down the sidewalk forever . He loves to be mommys helper.  I call him my stuffed animal because he is a snuggler.

I really, really love just spending time with these two crazies all day while the other boys are at school.  They go with me everywhere.  I feel so lucky to be their mom.

Naomi Peak hike

"The biggest mountain in Logan is Naomi peak" says Tyson.  "We named a place called rattle snake peak and lizard green springs.  We also saw a tree that got struck by lightening.  Blake almost shot a spider on it.  Like he was like very close.  Being on top of the mountain felt so high.  You could see the other mountains.  It's such a big peak.  We also saw cheery peak.  I would go again!" 

Bryan has been wanting to do this hike with his boys for a long time now.  I've been scared to let him take them because it's like a 5-6 mile hike.  Maybe I'm off and if I am I bet it's not enough miles. I knew Bryan would be careful and I hoped more careful when he took them on china wall where there is a huge drop off on one side.  That made me sick.  Ty is clumsy!! Here are some pictures from Bryan's iphone.  Its my favorite that he finally has a phone that takes good pictures and video because he does it ALL THE TIME.  So when I'm not there he always takes a picture.  Come to find out he loves photography too. 

 Were on top of the world! or at least 9,980 feet.  Ya know, pretty close.

A scout troop was hiking to it as well.  My boys were doing better then a few of their scouts.  Pretty good for a 8 and 6 year old. 

 Bryan said I would have died over the wild flowers.  I really wanted to go with them but the little boys would have been way to hard to take with us.

 The lightening tree.

Look at my hubby adding in the sun to the side? He is getting good at this photo thing.  I love it.

Summer at the pool

I hurried and downloaded Byan's camera to my computer one day because I wanted some of his pictures and found these treasures.  My boys kicked trash this summer at the pool.  Ty overcame his fear of the bullet slide at the pool.  After he saw Ty do it Blake decided to try it.  They both ended up going down that dang thing over and over again.  Then Ty decided to jump off the diving board.  He loved it!  The best part was his face when he came up out of the water.  He was so proud of himself for overcoming a fear.  Which honestly I hate doing so I was super proud they are not like their wussy mother. We enjoyed the family night deal the pool does that makes monday nights cheeper for families that are bigger like mine.  Even Brett did awesome this summer at the pool and quit crying the whole time like last year.