It's my Birdday!!

Cookies. Cake. Chocolate. Balloons. Compliments. Kudos. Whatever floats your boat. Today is my bird-day and I plan on relishing every moment. I don't believe in horoscopes, but every year on my birthday I read mine. Call it tradition. Sometimes I like what I read. On the rare occasion that I read it and I don't like it, I read one I like, like a Sagittarius for instance, and then I just mentally re-label it as an Aries. Instead of boring you with my horoscope I thought I would post a picture of my sweet Chad cooking my birthday Cake.

He is sooooooooooo sweeeeeeeeeeet!!! He loves me so much!!!!!!!!!!! Here is a picture of how my cake turned out.

Am I luckiest girl in the world or what?

Confession:

1. I finally hid the strawberry shortcake boots from Tanno. I haven't thrown them away yet, but I plan to this weekend.
2. I cut Taylor's hair two weeks ago with paper scissors. It really looked bad, but I told him it ROCKED!!!
3. I tell my Dental Hygienists that I love flossing..........really the only days I floss my teeth are the day before and the day of my dental appointment.
4. I will consider sluffing church if my boys agree to clean their rooms (has yet to happen, but I have laid it out on the table several times).
5. I tell most people that they have a cute baby, even when I think it is ugly. (O.K you all have had cute babies, but for some reason this line had me rolling in laughter).
6. My kids have gone to school on multiple occasions without underwear on. I noticed, but I just kissed the top of their heads and sent them on their way.
7. I think I swear more times in my head during sacrament meeting than any other time during the week.
8. I prefer ice cream in the morning. My children have the same preference and it doesn't bother me one bit when they eat it for breakfast.
9. I was never a swimsuit model like I told everyone that I was ---ha!ha!
It feels good to get a few things off my chest. If you need to you can to.

Happy Bird-day to you, Happy Bird-day to You
Happy Bird-day dear EVERYONE........Happy Bird-day to you!

One piece of plywood.

Seven bricks Two future civil engineers.....

along with one supportive dog.

Add it all up and you get..........................

The perfect jump..............................

The perfect afternoon..................

For two little boys and one sweet dog.

Why is it, simple moments and simple things always bring the most joy?

Hoops and Hooters

March Madness is in full force at our home. Every year Chad and the boys take filling out their college hoops brackets very seriously. Look how intense Carver is while he stews over which team to place in the empty blank.

This year the person who gets the most games right wins a fifteen dollar gift certificate. Taylor and Carver have Duke winning the whole enchilada (smart boys!!).

Zach on the other hand has Utah State and Butler University in the championships. Zach quickly became a fan of BUTler University, for the mere sake that he thought the school was named after a body part --Go Aggies!!!

And speaking of body parts, I was laughing when I noticed that our brackets were sponsored by Hooters. You know.............. that new movie about owls. Have you seen it? I haven't seen it personally, but the reviews say that it falls flat.
The following conversation took place:
Taylor: What is hooters?
Mom: I think it is a show about owls.
Taylor: Huh?...........owls.
Mom: Yeah see the picture. See the big eyes, those are owl eyes. It is a show about trying to save endangered owls -It was hard to keep a serious face as I said it, but I was able to do it, for the sake of those poor, little helpless owls. Spread the word, hug an owl. Fill out your brackets and Please for Zach's sake say a little prayer for Aggie the BUTler.

Saturday Morning

In the wee early morning hours of Saturday, while the rest of the world slept, Chad, his brother, uncle and friend began hiking up Ben Lomond, skis in tow, in pursuit of the chance to ski down the famed mountain's face (doesn't that line add some nice Discovery Channel drama to the story). The Round trip in all took about six hours. They started at 5400 feet and top out at 9700. Pretty impressive for a lazy Saturday morning. Here are some cool pictures of their grand adventure.

Chad near the beginning of the climb.

This picture was taken about half way up the trek. You can get a clear picture here of how steep of a climb it was. They started on skies then switched to ice axes and crampons when it got too steep for skis.

This is a shot of them hiking right up the face of Ben Lomond.

Morning light breaking over the mountain.

Looking back over Mt. Ogden.

I love this shot of where they broke trial. It is a great shot with a nice In To Thin Air vibe to it. I love Paul's shadow of him taking the picture. This is the final ridge line to the summit.

Chad and Ben standing on top.

Getting ready to take the plunge.

Isn't this a cool shot. I saved the best for last. The funny thing about this picture is he was trying to take a picture looking out over the horizon, but he slipped and instead took this picture, which ironically is my favorite one.

Nanner and his No-nuts

Nanner (Tanner for those of you who are slow), is obsessed with No-nuts (doughnuts). Every morning he wakes up he wants a no-nut -a big one not a leetle one. Nanner (like his older brother Zach used to do) addresses himself in third person. There is no "I want" or "me wants" it is always, "Nanner do EET," "Nanner Does," "Nanner's no-nut."And don't you dare mess with Nanner's no-nuts he defends those things like a badger. This is Nanner's don't mess with Nanner look.

Our family has caught on to the thrill of talking in third person like Nanner (try it for a day, you will laugh your head off)................we have also caught onto thrill of Valley Market No-nuts (They are the best!!!) And the best part of a Valley Market no-nut(besides being fat-free...ha!) is watching the boys try to steal a bite of Nanner's no-nut.............the score thus far is Nanner 100...................... bros ZERO!! Who knew little badgers have an innate instinct to defend their no-nuts to the death??

Neighborhood Watch

I got a phone call from a neighbor telling me she saw someone peeing around her garbage can. She and her family couldn't identify the man, just that he was sprinting away like that Jamaica runner in the Olympics. I put a neighborhood watch sign for every one to keep an eye out for this mysterious runner-man who seems to mark his trail along the way regardless of who is watching. Feel free to leave any tips or info you might have on this subject.

The Latest and Greatest

You have probably heard of Jennifer Aniston's famous coif called the Aniston cut. And have you heard of the POB, it is the haircut that Posh Spice made famous. Well, new on to the scene of the latest must have hairdos is the Zach Attack. It is a look we are hoping will catch fire and take off.

The interesting thing about this haircut is that it JUST happens. No hairstylist required (which can be a bonus in these tough economic times). When Zach had this haircut appear, there were no witnesses, there were no recollections of how a chunk of beautiful hair disappeared. Conspiracy theory?............possibly. A friend with scissors at school?.................maybe...........rubbing your head against the carpet?................could be!! All we know was that it JUST happened, "one minute I had hair and the next minute it was gone." Haircutting fairy??..................Most definately!!

"The difference between an ordinary life and an extraordinary life is finding extraordinary things in an ordinary life."

Brace Face

This morning was spent in the office of a very over enthusiastic Orthodontist. I mean seriously....could putting metal spacers on teeth really be that much fun? I soon found out I would smile too when I discovered how much he charges to glue those pieces of tin foil on. I was there with not one of my children, but two. They smile, they tell you how beautiful your children are, how lovely is the morning, they offer you cold refreshing water, food and prizes. Then they have you watch an instructional video that is a tear jerker of before and after braces and how braces are changing the world. They tantalize the children with what color they can have for their elastics and retainers (Carver is getting a retainer). Of course having fine tuned style sense from their mother, my children choose the best and most unnoticeable color to draw attention to their soon to be braces. Fluorescent Green and glow in the dark yellow for Taylor, and for Carver Fluorescent green, mixed with glow in the dark blue. Like I said fine tuned sense of style. The colors threw me for a loop right up until they then told me how much everything is going to cost. And I left in a daze wondering how I could manage to craft braces out of tin foil, glue and hair elastics.

THE BIRDS AND THE BEES

"The sun is out, birds are singing, bees are trying to have sex with them ....... as is my understanding." – Bart Simpson

I found this on a blog I read. Once I got it it made me laugh (this is something my boys would say). The sun was out today. I heard a couple of birds chirping. No bees, just birds. I am ready for spring..........could someone please let the bees know that a few birds are in town. Maybe that would help get this spring season here a little sooner.

Lipstick in School (You've got to love this Principal).
According to a news report, a certain private school in Washington was recently faced with a unique problem. A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the Bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints. Every night the maintenance man would remove them and the next day the girls would put them back. Finally the principal decided that something had to be done. She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night (you can just imagine the yawns from the little princesses). To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required. He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it. Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror. There are teachers.... and then there are educators.

Living on Ecstasy

Today, I have been gnawing on raw meat, swinging from the chandelier and I didn't comb my hair until two minutes ago. What has changed in my life??? MUSIC!! I received the below CD last night compliments of Haun Home. This is not your bishop's running mix! Jenny Phillips say goodnight. MoTab hold onto those pearl necklaces and stuff some jello in your ears. Jack Johnson you better go buy yourself some silver plated snake skin boots -your gonna need them! AND Dark horse saddle up -It is time to get the horses charging. Thanks T&T for the music "living on ecstasy (a chorus to one of the songs)" is everything its cracked up to be and more!!!

***When I sent a thank you email for the rocking music to Haun Home, this was Troy's response and advice: Please only use the Thunderstruck sparingly.... I learned that the hard way at my first Moab half marathon... I began running to that song and let's just say I was running faster than my pace....It was a long rest of the race....Usually you can only get two good Thunderstruck bursts per half-marathon....Troy

Music WANTED!!

I am on the hunt for some new good music. I signed up for the Moab half........which has turned into the Moab five. I need some tunes to suffer to as I pull a hail mary and try and run a couple of times before the race. I prefer music that;
A. drowns out the loud sound of my heavy breathing (when I run I sound like a horse breathing through its' nose).
B. I need musica that will inspire me to keep running or.......
C. Music that makes me angry and therefore makes me want to run through the anger.
D. I Prefer music that omits the f word, b word, s word, a word or d word. These words might cause me to swear in my head, which could easily trigger a relapse, to me swearing in my head again.
E. No Christian Rock. I do not need to be born again as I am sucking wind and clutching my side ache, the pain alone will be enough for me to remember how much I love Jesus.
I would love any suggestions, running to the Carpenters is getting a little old.

Z Bugs....... T Bugs..............

And C Bugs.......

Afternoon assault on Snowbasin. This is what they look like before they take to the slopes. There is something about little boys in ski gear that just makes me smile. I love how Z Bugs mittens, basically incapacitates his hands........hmmmm.....if only I could get Tanno to wear mittens around the house all day.