Meet Paco...

So I finally gave in to Jacob's pleadings to get a puppy... (sigh). Jacob loves dogs so ever since we FINALLY put in a fence (hallelujah!) Jacob's been on the prowl for a dog. We found this little guy on KSL.com for FREE! and just couldn't pass him up. His previous owners paid quite a bit for him so he was quite the deal. He's the perfect size! We've had large dogs before and they were just SO much work-hence the reason that I have not wanted another dog. I didn't realize that small dogs were SO different! And now that we took up all of our carpet and put in concrete floors, I don't stress as much about having a dog in the house. We are currently training him to not step foot on any piece of carpet (in the bedrooms) or rug in the house. :)This little thing is a 15 month old Chihuahua mix (we think mixed with terrier so he's quite a bit bigger and longer than a Chihuahua) and he is so sweet and animated and playful. He's just about fully housebroken and kennel trained. He is very submissive. Anytime he thinks he's in trouble he immediately shows his belly to show that he knows you are the boss. The previous owner's took him through puppy preschool so he comes when you call him and sits when you tell him. He's great with the kids and they just LOVE having a puppy. I'm just excited that now I have a running partner! I forced Jacob to get him some "Bling". He said that boy dogs don't need bling but I insisted and since I have such a wonderful husband, you will notice his pretty sparkly collar. :)

Easter...

...was SO much fun this year! My mamma came up with my brother the night before and spent the night. That night we colored all of our Easter eggs and hid our easter baskets filled with a carrot for the Easter Bunny. The next morning, Grandma got to see the kids wake up, find their Easter baskets and find all of the eggs out in the yard. At our house, the Easter Bunny always hides the eggs that we color plus plastic eggs filled with candy. The funniest part of the Easter egg hunt was that Trevor would ONLY pick up the plastic eggs because those were the ones with candy in them. Every time he picked one up, he would shake it to make sure it had candy, then put it in his basket. If he didn't hear it rattle, he would throw it back on the ground then move on. After all the fun, we had a super yummy breakfast of bacon, eggs and cinnamon rolls (drool). This year was special because I discovered a new talent of mine. My mom bought the kids a package of baloons with instructions in them on how to make balloon animals. I rocked at this! I made a hat with a bunny on top for lizzy, dogs, dinosaurs, swords, flowers and much more. It was SO stinkin fun.

After that, we got all spruced up in our Easter best (I got the boys THE CUTEST matching shirts - Thanks Papa and Grandma Lingy!) and then we all took a walk to church (it's just across the street). After church it was a mad rush to get Easter dinner done. On the menu was herb-crusted lamb, roasted asparagus, fresh rolls, candied yams, and jello salad. We stuffed ourselves full then bid farewell to my Mom and brotha...and Jacob. He had to drive to WY that night for a business trip. It was a great Easter...until everyone left me. :)

Twilight DVD Release

So my girlfriend and I are the ULTIMATE dorks! We thought it would be fun to head over to Wal-mart for the midnight release of Twilight. When we pulled up, it was about 11:30. There was already a huge line! We were just about to turn around and leave when we spotted our friend sitting right in the front of the line. We asked her how she got there and she said that there was a Blood-Donation Van (get it, blood...vampires?! We thought it was pretty hillarious) out in the parking lot and if you gave blood, then you got to go to the front of the line! Well, my friend is prego but we bolted out there anyway. I gave blood and we convinced them to give her a ticket anyway for being my "moral support". We ran straight to the front of the line with 3 seconds to spare and about 1 minute after we got our 2-disc DVD, they announced over the intercom that they would be selling out of the 2-disc DVD's in about 1 min! We totally scored. I felt like the HUGEST dork because after we got our copies, we went to the back of the store to get some grub (the line was wrapped around the store) and then...get this...people started CHEERING at us when they saw that we had our copies! Wow...I've never felt that dorky in my life. We were feeling pretty good about ourselves until we saw a poor little 12 year old crying and her mom consoling her. We almost gave her our copy...almost. Anyway, it was a fun night.

We're so glad when Daddy Comes Home...

We tend to MISS Daddy a whole bunch when he has to go away on business... We love him for working SO hard for our family!

My New Fence

Halliejuia! Now I can send my kids outside with (relitively) NO worries. :)

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Look at these handsome boys working so hard for me...

Ryan absolutely ADORES his daddy and wants to be just like him some day.

Today is a good day...

I know that I still have so much catching up to do since December but I had to post this today:

Today is a good day...and it's only 9:45! Here are the reasons why:

1. I made some fantastic berry-oatmeal pancakes (so easy!)

2. Lizzy officially declared her Tomseth liniage by actually saying the words : "I have a better idea" out loud.

3. Trevor actually RAN to the potty all by himself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been taking his diaper off for the past 2 days (since we are finally putting in concrete flooring in soon!) and he is finally "Getting It". I had also been denying him access to the bathroom since he could open door for two reasons: 1. He destroys it. 2. The initial reason that he started wanting to go to the bathroom was because he would do anything just to be able to get into the bathroom like his brother and sister get to do. Turns out, once I took the child door handle off a couple of days ago, he was glad to run in there. It gave him a sence of independance and was actually much easier to just run in there himself instead of trying to find someone that would open the door for him or waiting for someone to tell him it was time to potty. I guess he doesn't like being told what to do...he totally gets that from me! :)

Anyway...today was a good day.

Ryan turns 5...and joins the Circus!!

My little boy is 5! I know this sounds cliche but time really does FLY and get away from you. This little guy is so sweet. For his birthday, he wanted a "Mario" cake so this is what I came up with. Ryan loved it. We started the day by having our traditional birthday breakfast of blueberry, bannana birthday pancakes (in the shape of the first letter of their name and the age they are turning) then, we had our traditional birthday lunch at McDonalds where the kids all get to get a happy meal. He was pretty excited about this. We brought along Ryan's best friend, Jason. That kid is hillarious and so sweet.

It just so happened that the CIRCUS was in town that weekend!!! How increadible is that?! We even got free tickets for the kids! They had Elephants that could dance, The ball of death where 3 motercycles spun around in at the same time! (this was Ryan's favorite part), dancing poodles, pony rides, Some guy that did a handstand on like, 10 stacked chairs, Airialists (this was my favorite part), Lions, Tigers and Bears!!!! OH MY! It was an amazing show and they did not dissapoint.

After the circus, we went home and had pizza (Ryan's favorite) and invited Jason's family over for some cake.

Phew!...what a super fun day!

Dear Ryan,

You really do bring such a sweet light into our lives. You love to help. You love to be "awesome" and "cool". You LOVE video games...thanks to your father! You are so smart. You love to figure out how things work. You LOVE to learn. You can retain anything that you are taught. You are so excited to be enrolled into the Chinese Immerssion program at your school. You love to be outside and be active. You are so social. You love to play with your friends. You are a sweet, sweet boy who loves to give mommy hugs and kisses. You love it when I sing you your bedtime song. I will be so sad when the day comes that you will get to "big" for that. You love to be big and help your little brother. Trevor really does want to be like you and do everything that you do. I love to call you "Captain Awesome" but you get embarrased when I do. You talk so much now. It's so funny to listen to you chat away at the dinner table. You idolize you daddy...as you should. He is such a good man. Your favorite thing in the world is to wrestle with daddy. You love when he comes home from work.

You already have a deep love for Jesus Christ and love to do things that will please him. You love to read the scriptures and learn about the characters and warriors in the book of Mormon.

I love you with everything that I have my little Ry-Guy.

Love,

Mom