Who Knew....

Who knew that this one scrap of material could be so many different things?

It can turn you into a baker!

A Cowboy!

A Pirate!

And last but certainly not least a Super Hero!

Thomas found this scrap of material and had so much fun with it yesterday. I love that my boys use there imaginations so much. Yesterday when Noah was down for a nap Thomas brought me this piece of material and asked me to put it on him to be one of these things. That is all he needed was a piece of material about 18x18 and was automatically changed into a different character. It is so fun to watch these little boys play. I feel so blessed and lucky that Heavenly Father entrusted me with them I just hope and pray that I am able to teach them everything they need to know to return to him someday.

What really goes on when mom is away...

Saturday morning I got up and had planned to go to the Super Saturday at the church. I figured it would be a great time to get to get to know some of the other sisters in the ward. That and it would give me a little bit of Heather time away from the kids. So I got up and headed out. It was a fun day there were lots of crafts going on and a class to learn how to make Canoli's, which were very yummy but in my opinion you might as well just eat the yummy insides by itself instead of in the shell. I was gone a good part of the morning and decided I should head home to my family. As I pulled into the driveway I thought to myself hmmmmm I wonder what the damage is going to look like when I go in there. As I get closer to the door I hear Adam telling Thomas he better get back up stairs and get into bed he was in trouble. This is a good indication its not going to be good when I open the door. So I open the door and ask what happened.....well to make a long story short this is what I found.





Sorry for the glare in the picture but if you cant tell this is the desk....with beautiful artwork colored with PERMENANT marker.

So I called Thomas down stairs to help me clean it off. I asked him why he was in trouble and his response was cause I wrote on the desk. I then asked him if he thought that made Mommy and Daddy happy...he said No. I asked him if he knew what he was suppose to write on and he said paper or a coloring book. I asked where he got the marker to draw on the desk his response.....Noah found it!

So anyways at somepoint in the day Adam found the boys drawing there pretty pictures on the desk was upset and sent them to there bed.....Noah knew he was in trouble and went right up stairs and went to sleep. Thomas knew he was in trouble but wasnt going to have anything to do with the nap.

As I was asking Thomas different questions and telling him that we dont write on the furniture we only write/color/ draw on paper or in coloring books I decided to ask Thomas about the picture that he drew.

This is what he had to say.

These are train tracks that the train travels down.

The 3 little guys in the middle are the Imagination Movers. The one on the top is the Imagination Movers spider. He is going to get the Imagination movers and eat them for dinner. If you cant tell they are all in a boat. And the little thing on the left hand corner is the boat dinarder??? (Incase you dont know what that is) It was there to rescue people and boys and protects them from the bears!

Yes it is super cute art work I only wish it was done on paper so we could hang it on the fridge or keep in a scrapbook. But no it was drawn on the desk. I asked Adam if he had tried to get it off his response no its permanent marker. So what did i do about it. First I took a picture so i could blog about it. Then i got a wet rag and a magic eraser and i gave Thomas the wet rag and said start scrubbing you dont get to leave until the desk is cleaned up. Then I gave Adam the Magic eraser and said start scrubbing you dont get to leave until the desk is cleaned up. And I must say with a little bit of elbow grease and the wonderful magic eraser....the desk has only a few traces of wonderful artwork left.

By the way Noah woke up shortly after it was all cleaned up. You could tell he wasnt sure if he should show his face or not he sat at the top of the stairs and you would hear a ocassional *thump* as he would scoot his little bottom to the next stair. As he got to the bottom of the stairs he just stood there and looked around like is it ok to be down here? Then as i called him over I asked him what was wrong his response "Me in trouble for coloring on the furniture."

Needless to say we have had many many talks about what they can color/write/ or draw on. I love that they like to express there creative sides with artwork. I just hope in the future its not on the furniture.

The wheels on the bus...

Friday when Adam got home from work we decided to take the kids for a ride on the bus t0 the train station and then a ride on the train. Both Thomas and Noah love buses and trains. So we walked out to the end of the street to wait for the bus.

Here we are waiting for the bus to come it didnt come fast enough for the boys

Here comes the bus.....so very exciting

Riding the bus

Waiting at the train station for the train

Finally on the train. This is how they rode the whole way. They had to tell us everything that they saw. Thomas was just positive that we were going to go underneath a bridge and through a tunnel. We went under bridges but no tunnel.

We rode the train to Union Station in Downtown Dallas were we hopped off and then hopped back on the train to head back home.

Here we are waiting at Union Station waiting to head back home.

It was a fun trip and the boys loved it. We rode on the top level of the train so we had a good view of everything around us. Noah kept saying "its going wealy wealy fast." Every time it would toot its horn Thomas would tell us it was so loud. We had a lot of fun the boys are still talking about it and want to do it agian.

Splish splash I was taking a bath.....

I just thought I would add some cute pictures of the boys in the tub the other night. They love there baths.....especially if they get to take a bubbly bath. When ever i tell them it is time to get out they always have to look at there fingers and toes and see if they are all wrinkly and if they are not they tell me they havent been in long enough to get clean. I seem to remember telling my mom something similar to that when i was a little girl.

Fireman Sam and Handy Manny

All week last week the boys pretended that they were Fireman Sam and Handy Manny. Thomas was Fireman Sam and Noah was Handy Manny. I love to watch them play when they are using there imagination. But I had to get a picture of Thomas when he was pretending to be Fireman Sam because of the googles he had found and wore all week long. It cracked me up when ever I would see him wearing them. He had then tightened as tight as they could possibly go so when he put them on they squished his face and bugged out his eyes. I sure do love these little guys and dont know what I would do with out them in our lives. They can always make you laugh no matter how you are feeling and it never fails when you are having a good day they come up and tell you " I wuv you Mommy.....i weally weally do." or "I just want to snuggle you for just a minute." It is moments like these that make it all worth it. Im sure lucky that I have my very own Fireman Sam and Handy Manny whenever I get into a fix to help me out. I hope they they always remember and know just how much there Mommy loves them.

Butterfly Flutterby

Saturday morning we got up and headed over to Grapevine to go to the Butterfly Flutterby. It is a Celebration that Grapevine puts on to celebrate the migration of the Monarch Butterfly from Canada to Mexico. They have a parade for all the kids/parents/families that are dressed up as butterflies. Butterfly exhibts with butterflies from all over the world on display. Lots of diffrent arts and crafts you can do and over all just a fun day for families. We got there a little late so the boys didnt get to do any of the arts and crafts but they had fun looking at all the different butterflies from around the world and the neatest part was at three difrent times they do butterfly releases. We saw the release at noon and they let off 200 Monarch butterflies. It was alot of fun. And if we are in the area next year think it would be fun to go agian. I have added a few pictures from the day.

Here the boys are enjoying there popcorn

After we left the Butterfly Flutterby we walked back to our car and stopped by a park for the boys to play at. Texas has great weather this time of year to do outdoors activities.

Right before we left the park all three of the boys had to have one last trip down the slide.

We love being able to do things as a family and all the time that we now get to spend together with Adam not being in school.

Grapevine Fire Department Openhouse

On the way to the Pumpkin Patch we saw a sign for a Firestation open house. We decided to go and check it out. Both of the boys love fire engines. It was a lot of fun and we were glad we stoped to check it out. We learned all about fire safety and what you are suppose to do in case of a fire. We got to check out all the different fire trucks the boys loved that they were able to climb into the big trucks and get a good look at them.

One of the things that we learned was how to exit your home if there was a fire. This is Noah sitting a listening. They did this in a travel trailer and after they tought the kids what to do in case of fire they took them back to another room and started the fire alarm and had some fake smoke come into the room and showed the kids how to climb out the window. After they got out the window they had to run to the mailbox and call 911 where they were asked the routine questions....Whats your name, address etc.

We got to look up close to all the different fire truck. I was quite surprized when Thomas knew all the different names to the trucks. Im sure the firemen got a kick out of Thomas he had to know what everything was on the trucks and what it did. He would point to something ask what it was and what it did. After the fireman gave him a response that he was ok with he moved down the truck to the next thing. We learned all about all the different pulley's, cables, Axe's, shovels, wood, buttons, knobs etc.

We also go to watch them rip apart this car with the Jaws of life.

Noah loved talking into the headsets.

This was right before we left. And headed on the the pumpkin patch. We all had fun and learned alot about fire safety. I highly recommend doing this with little kids. The boys loved it. I even think the Firemen had just as much fun explaining it all to the boys and sanswering all the questions.

Pumpkin Patch Fun

This weekend we took the boys to Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch. It was super busy but still tons of fun. There were tons of things for them to do and the best part it was completely free. They had lots of fun looking at all the pumpkins. They had any kind of pumpkin you could possibly want from HUGE to very Small. We tried to get some fun pictures of the boys with the pumpkins but there was just way to much for them to see. The last thing that they wanted to do was take pictures.

I love this picture of Thomas you can tell he was obliging mom by taking the picture but that he really wanted to be some where else, doing something fun.

The boys loved going for a ride on the train. Thomas really wanted to ride in the Orange train car. Cause Orange is his favorite color. But when all that was left was the Blue one that was ok to. Thomas held on to Noah the whole way around making sure that he didnt fall out. What a good big brother.

We also got to ride the Hayride.

But I think the boys thought that all of the different bounce houses were the best. The really loved this one that you could climb all the way to the top and then slide down the big slide.

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Sorry about the smudge on all the pictures I didnt notice till we got home that when Nobody got ahold of my camera they left there finger prints all over the lense.

Over all it was a fun day. We plan on going back it will be there until Thanksgiving then it turns into a Christmas tree farm. It was a fun way to spend our Saturday.

Homemakin' Mama

The last few weeks I have been playing around with the idea of starting to make homemade bread instead of buying bread in the store. After all this was what we always had growing up. I have lots of memories of coming home and Mom just pulling out the bread from the oven and us kids getting a slice of warm bread with butter and honey on it for a afternoon snack. And every so often when we would get home mom wouldnt be only pulling out bread from the oven but also homemade cinnamon rolls. I have lots of good memories of not only eating these delicous foods but also of being in the kitchen helping mom make them. I just wish that I would have paid a little more attention when I was helping Mom. There are alot of things I am now wanting to do now that I am a wife and mother. But slowly I have started picking Moms brain and learning how to do these things. I know it would have been easier to have her teach me when we lived close to each other. But when I lived at home there was other things on my mind.....like finding a husband, having fun with friends etc. I had no idea that when I finally did find myself a good husband he would move me all over the United States. Making it hard for me to spend the day with my mom having her teach me how to do all of these things. So this is what i do.... I attempt what ever it is I am wanting to learn how to do......and call Mom many many many times asking questions like.....Why is it like this? I dont remember it looking like this? Is it supppose to do this? But I tell you I must be the luckest girl in the world cause no matter what when I call Mom to ask her a question she will always take a few minutes to answer questions or tell me what to do next. No its not like having her in the kitchen teaching me how to do it....but it is second best. And I know that there is no way that I would have ever made it as a pioneer going across the plains and not being able to pick up the phone and call Mom.

So anyways here is proof that yes I finally gave it a try.

My boys (all 3 of them) loved it. Thomas came down stairs with his nose in the air saying " Mom something smells so good...what is that good smell". And when I pulled the bread out of the oven I had 2 little boys there wanting some hot bread. Just like when I was a little girl watching mom take the bread out of the oven. Then when I pulled the cinnamon rolls out of the oven i had two little tasters by my side agian. Adam got home from work and as soon as he walked in the door headed straight for the kitchen tasted the homemade goodies and said "so no more store bought bread right." I guess you could say the homemade bread and cinnamon rolls were a hit and we can say goodbye to the store bought stuff.


I am so lucky that I had a Mom that made this for me when I was growing up. Im so lucky that I have such a great Mom that doesnt mind me calling her a thousand times during the day asking her questions or just to talk when I am a little homesick. Im so lucky that I have a Mom that has inspired me to be a better wife and mom. Wanting to be more like her when I grow up. Im so lucky to have such a great relationship with my Mom. Im so lucky that I have a Mom that showed me how much fun it could be spending the day in the kitchen making such good food. It was really neat today when the bread was baking all of the memories that came rushing back by the smell of the bread baking. And im so greatful that my Heavenly Father knew just what kind of Mom I needed when he sent me to my family. I hope that my own kids look back some day and feel these same feelings for me. I love you Mom and thank you for everything that you have taught me and still teach me. I dont know what I would do with out you in my life showing me how to do even the littlest things in life. I Love you Mom!!!