One year down...Fourteen to go....

Mason has finished his first year of preschool!! Woohoo!! What an awesome year it was! He had the BEST teacher...Miss Kara! She is a saint. He had a FUN year and we can't wait for the four year old class next year!

Same fat head - just a few inches taller! {He went from a 3T to a 5T from September to May!} 

Mason with his cousin Emma...who was in the four year old class and graduated to the kinder-benders! 

Mason at the Spring Program/Graduation! 

Woohoo!!

Mason with his buddy Tug! I'm sure these two will be life long friends...and probably drive their teachers crazy with their abundance of energy! 

Meanderings in May

Daddy turned 29 - we had a BBQ and the boys had a camp out with him in the back-yard. It was a fun day! Miller is getting to be a busy as big brother. He thinks he is one of the big boys - can't believe he'll be two next month! 

After Dad left for work we went up to Seattle to visit Josh, Erin and Ty! I wish I would have taken more pictures of these cute boys! They had so much fun playing together. Ty is going to be a big brother this summer and we can't wait to meet Baylee! It was so good seeing Erin - it had been too long! 

Miller got some sweet shades at the dollar store that we've been rocking EVERY.DAY!

Mason is his usual wild self - asking for German pancakes every morning lately. He calls them his birthday pancakes and says pretty please, they're my favorite!

Once Auntie Shey gets to Argentina we won't be able to send her packages - so they boys and I mailed her come cookies and pictures while she is still at the MTC! We love and miss her! 

Bear Hunting - 2014

Kevin spent the first week of May hunting with Mike, a friend from work. They got a bear and had a great trip! Kevin loved it there - they went to the Wenaha Unit. It is steep beautiful country!

This was the closest town, Troy, OR. I guess the population is 25! 

A Mother's Day we'll NEVER Forget!

I'm debating posting this "publicly" but considering my Mom is the only the really "reads" this and this is basically my journal - AND my children REALLY need to read this SOMEDAY {AND MAKE THIS DAY UP TO ME!!}... I decided to lay out the nitty gritty details of the worst Mother's Day ever.  

What started as a normal day..turned into quite the fiasco. The boys and I left for church. We always struggle in church - busy boys needing to sit quietly never works out well. Mason has had quite a few issues with Sunbeams {he doesn't love his teacher and has decided to fight me about going every Sunday stating that he want to go to the "other church" meaning nursery!}SO we were having our usual debate outside primary while Miller grabs the "use this to break the glass" part of the fire extinguisher and manages to break the glass... SO I take them outside the door to the front of the church. Mason gets put in timeout by a flag pole and I threaten him with everything {losing his privileges, fishing pole, bb gun, toys, etc...} to try to get him to just go to Sunbeams. {Sunbeams started in January and we were still throwing a fit in May - my patients over this issue were worn thin to say the least, our sweet Mason brings a whole new meaning to the word stubborn.!!!} Meanwhile Miller is running in the road {he won't got to nursery without me - I have had a calling in Nursery for the past year so he's never been without me.} After warning Miller to quit running in the road multiple times and finally over trying to negotiate with Mason. I spank Miller for running in the road...again. I tell Mason he has five seconds to go to class or he is getting a spanking and we are going home. He chooses to NOT go to class so I drag him to the car, spank him and buckle them both in their car-seats and head home - crying. Thinking it was just a horrible Mother's Day. Little did I know...it was about to get much worse... I have a good friend who is a dispatcher... I get a text from her asking what I was wearing... Thinking it was a very strange question I tell her I had just got home from church and was in sweats. She then proceeds to tell me that she got a call about a "lady" spanking her kids in front of the Mormon church, two boys, dark short hair, orange dress, and my car description... Well my friend put two and two together that it was probably me. At this point I am mortified, crying even more, I tell her it was me...asking if it was illegal to spank my kids and telling her she could give my number to the cop if he needed to talk to me. She spend the next twenty minutes being a good friend and reassuring me that I am not in trouble, that she vouched for me, that I am a good mom and that people call 911 if you breathe wrong and they are just required to follow up. I cried basically the whole day. I felt awful and embarrassed... Then I woke up the next day just feeling pissed. Parenting is hard - especially with stubborn strong willed kids - and having to do it alone half my life. I don't beat my kids. I yell, they get spankings for serious things {like running in the road and spitting on me telling me I'm the worst Mom ever (on Mother's Day!)!!!} they test my patience daily but they also bring me joy daily! I just wish I knew who called so I could drop my stubborn 4 year old off on their door-step and they can discipline him.. {although apparently they don't believe in discipline!} 

The lack of discipline and follow through is what is wrong with so many children these days. I refuse to raise a child that has no accountability and believes that there isn't consequences for your actions. I have to be a parent. And while I know I could work on my patience and many aspects of my parenting - I love my kids and discipline them out of love. I want them to be decent human beings someday. Not entitled little brats that think they can do whatever they want.

Anyway - It was basically the worst Mother's Day ever. Don't spank you kids in public either --- you never know who will call the cops on you... 

This picture was the next Sunday. We had a lot of long talks about Sunbeams that week. Mason kept saying he didn't want to be alone - so we took his scriptures and put pictures on some of our favorite people {family and friends} so when he feels alone in class he can look at his special pictures. It has worked for the past two weeks so hopefully getting the cops called on us was the peak of our struggle and things will get easier from here on out... 

And Mason - when you read this when your older - remember you OWE your Mother a STELLAR Mother's Day to make up for this disastrous day!! 

Mason turns FOUR!!

May started off GREAT celebrating this sweet, stubborn FOUR year old! We love him to pieces and had such a great time celebrating! 

New chalkboard! 

Nerf bow - Dad inspecting it thinking it looks nothing like his old Nerf bow ;)

We had a birthday BBQ for Mason and Auntie Jordan {who share a birthday!}! Mason wan't "green turtle cupcakes" so we went with lemon with "green" frosting!

Instead of having a party this year {because having a house on the market means your life is in limbo and I didn't want to worry about planning something that might not happen!} we decided to take the boys to Great Wolf Lodge! We had such a great little getaway!

Mason LOVED the story time!

And the water slides...he was 1/2 inch short for the big one {darn sticklers wouldn't let him on!} BUT next time he'll be tall enough! 

Miller loved the warm foot of water at the edge of the wave pool when there were no waves and nothing dumping on him... No really. He is NOT our water boy! He did have a little fun in the wave pool and kiddie area with Daddy! Hopefully he'll grow to love water as much as his brother!

Mason LOVED every minute of it and would have stayed forever! 

What a great memory with these two boys! 

Auntie Shey's Farewell!

On April 27th Auntie Shey had her farewell! It was a beautiful day. She and Parker both gave wonderful talks, we are so excited for their new adventures! She left for the MTC on May 7th! 

The whole family {minus Kevin!} 

She is the best Aunt! 

The original "9"! 

Sisters!

Mom got all the girls bracelets that say "CTR, Child of God" that we can all wear and remember our Missionary while she is gone! We sure miss her but we are so proud of her! 

We love getting her emails..she is loving the MTC. She has a few weeks left and should be leaving for Buenos Aries around June 17th. She is going to be the best missionary!! 

Oh what a month April was...

April was a busy month that included a two week trip to Burns for Easter and Auntie Shey's Farewell! 

The month started with a fun field trip on the Trolley for "T" week! We had fun with our friends, Tug, Turner, Tucker and Trey! We were just missing our Trigg!

Mom turned 28 {my ten year reunion is this summer - crazy!} AND my sweet boys surprised me with a beautiful necklace! 

This was our date night to Fultano's and Rio 2 - Mom came down with a nasty stomach bug and had to puke on the side of the road on the way home. And was miserable for days... Then Daddy got on the boat and...

Guess who else got it...

Then it was this guys turn hours later... 

We spent LITERALLY the ENTIRE night puking non-stop! And of course I was by myself! Daddy offered to come home but thank heavens the symptoms for these two only lasted 24 hours.

So I called our doctor - since we were suppose to leave for Burns and I didn't want to give them the bug. She said we wouldn't be contagious after 24 hours symptoms free.. 

So we drove to Burns... and they literally slept for 6 hours straight - I didn't even stop!

We got to Burns the day before Easter and we colored Easter Eggs with our cousins!

Then we had a great Easter as church, followed by an egg hunt and dinner at Grandma Root's. 

We love GG!

THEN... that night Shey started puking, then Mom. then Shery, then Dad, then Jeff, then Bosty, then Balen... The doctor lied. Although they got it way worse then us and were sick for DAYS!! We've never seen Grandpa spend so much time at home. I felt awful...it was awful! Skye's family was so afarid to get it they cancelled their trip and JUST came for Auntie Shey's farwell. They ended up taking Mason home with them and he got to spend a few fun days playing with his cousins! 

We did catch a branding and got a dirty as possible!

Miller got to try Jitters for the first time...he was a fan! 

While it certainly wasn't the trip we expected...we still had fun! We felt awful that everyone was so sick. We really didn't do much. I got Mom's scrapbook room painted and we got to hang out with Auntie Shey! We know our trip in July is going to be MUCH better! 

We also had an unexpected trip to LaGrande (to meet Becca and pick up Mason) and got to spend the night with Amaya and Kasyn! Kasyn is going to be a big brother in September and we can't wait to meet the new little guy! It was so good seeing them and we can't wait to play more this summer!