Random Pictures

Most of these pictures were taken about two weeks ago when we first got home.
The kids have been in heaven over the past couple weeks. The open spaces and big yards alone have been so fun. The boys love having room to run around and explore. Jacob and Caleb will stay out for hours playing in the trees, rocks, and dirt. Grandma's yard is a boys' paradise! They've all loved playing with Carly, and she's loved having young kids to play with again. Matthew especially has made a fond friendship with her and is always looking for the doggy.
They've also had fun playing with cousins, and had a fun afternoon with the Stevens kids and David at Grandma Stevens house. Each child had a big bubble wand so we played for a couple hours outside blowing bubbles and playing with toys.

Welcome Home Elder Stevens

This was a couple weeks ago, but we've been having too much fun playing to worry about blogging. :)

Jeff's brother Jonny came home from his mission to Argentina on Wednesday, April 29th. Originally Jeff and I were supposed to be in Mexico, but with everyone freaking out about the swine flu, we decided to just change our plans so we didn't make anyone upset.
The good news was that the boys and I were able to be there for Jonny's homecoming at the airport. It was so fun to see him and be there with all the family. Jonny looks great, it was so fun to see him again. I do think it's crazy how much Jonny reminds everyone of Jeff; Matthew went running right to him. It's so fun to see him again, we've missed him over the past two years and are grateful he's home! We love uncle Jonny!

The Trip Home

I've been enjoying time at home, so it's taken a week to get this up. I am very happy to report that we made the trip home safe and sound with little incidence. I was just hoping that everything would go well flying with the three boys by myself!
We left at 4:45am on Wednesday morning and made it to the airport in plenty of time. We actually had some time to kill, so we enjoyed a little 'kiddie' play area for a while before we boarded the plane. The boys were so cute with their little backpacks. I packed them beforehand and had all sorts of books, crayons, little toys, and snacks. It's helpful when the kids get old enough to help carry some of the baggage too!
Our first flight was only 2 hours long. We had the row to ourselves, and everyone did pretty well. It's always fun to change diapers on the plane, and do your best to keep kids and baggage contained, while trying to keep your legs from falling asleep. Matthew had some moments during the trip, but for the most part he was pretty good and didn't scream too much. :) I thought for sure that he would sleep; especially since we put them to bed late and got them up so early. He ended up only sleeping 20 minutes right at the end of the flight of course. When we boarded the plane, the stewardess was nice enough to invite the boys up to visit the pilot in the cockpit; they thought that was awesome!
We had about a 2-hour layover between the two flights, so after gathering up all our things, we made the trek across to the other side of the airport. When we got to our gate, the seats were already filled with people. Keeping three kids contained in an open, crowded area didn't sound like much fun at that point, so I decided to check and see if there was a kiddie play area in this airport as well. It took a little while to walk back down the terminal to the play area, but it was so worth it! It was awesome! It was like a giant play land designed after a real airport. It had a big plane with the cockpit, a play baggage area with pretend baggage, a big slide out the back of the airplane. There was an air traffic control tower with a phone connection to the airplane so the kids could talk back and forth; a play helicopter, and so many other things. There was a little wall that went around the whole area so I could let them run and play to their hearts content; after the first airplane ride that was heaven! Matthew especially loved his new found freedom. We stayed as long as possible before making the trek back to our gate where the passengers were starting to board.
The 2nd flight was 3 1/2 hours long and I was starting to feel ready to be done at this point; especially since it was a smaller airplane with only 2 seats per side. Originally I had Jacob and Caleb sitting together while I sat next to the other passenger on the other side with Matthew on my lap. The stewardess then informed me that the extra oxygen mask was on the other side, so I ended up having to swap Jacob places. I wondered how it would go for him and the elderly lady who was sitting next to him, but he did well and I'm pretty sure they had some entertaining conversations. This flight was a little rough for Matthew, at this point it was 11:30 our time, and he had been up since 4:45. It's hard when they're so tired, but have no room to stretch out and sleep. He only slept 20 minutes of the entire flight! Caleb on the other hand, conked out for about 1 1/2 hours which I was very grateful for. I had to do bathroom trips, change diapers and keep everyone entertained so it was nice that at least one of us got a decent nap. The boys really were pretty good and pretty much were entertained with books, toys, and snacks. I didn't even end up using the DVD player at all. The boys really didn't need it. I was definitely glad when the trip was done, I'm not sure Matthew could have taken much more of being confined on a lap in an airplane! We were all pretty excited to see Grandma. It's been fun to be home again. We've really enjoyed the past week with family. Now we're just anxiously waiting for Daddy to be able to join us!

(And yes, Jeff and I will NOT being going to Mexico after all....bummer...oh well)

On the Move Again

I haven’t had much time to write lately. Once again we’re packing up and getting ready to move, and once again we still don’t know for sure where we’re moving to. Only this time, we also have a trip at the same time. We’ll literally be ‘homeless’ when we leave for the trip…fun times. I will fly out early to spend some extra time with family since Jeff only gets so much time off work, but that also means I’m flying alone with the three boys on the 8 hour trip. It’ll be interesting to see how that goes, especially considering that an hour sacrament meeting just about pushes the maximum limit. Maybe I should just take some benadryl for myself! We’re so excited to see our families though, it’s been over a year since we’ve been home and our kids can’t wait.

In other fun news…I have two cousins who found out that they would be coming to our area to sell security systems. My cousin Danny and his wife Branae, and my cousin Tiffany and her husband Kolby will be here in the area all summer long! I’m SO excited! Of course the husbands have to be gone long hours working most of the day, which isn’t great, but that does leave lots of time to spend with the girls! I’m so excited. In fact, on Saturday I was able to go up and get Tiff (Branae had to work Sat) and after she showed us her cute new apartment, she came and spent most of the day with us. Jeff had a big exam Saturday morning and afternoon so he was gone too. So Tiff and the boys and I ran around running errands and introducing Tiffany to some of the fun parts of city life; pretzels, water ice, row homes, accents, etc. It’s been forever since I’ve seen Tiff, so we had lots of catching up to do. The boys absolutely loved her! Matthew especially decided that he’d found his new best friend was continually attached to her side. Later on in the afternoon we headed back home and met Jeff who had finally come home after his exam. I did some packing while we visited, and then Tiff was sweet enough to stay with the boys for a little bit while Jeff and I make a quick trip to the storage unit to try and locate a few things before our trip home. We had lots of fun visiting and hanging out together. We finished off the night with pizza and dessert, and then Matthew came with me to take Tiff home to meet Kolby after his long day. It was so much fun and left us excited for all the fun times we’ll have in the future!

Please Touch Museum

I took the kids to the Please Touch Museum on Wednesday. It was fun and they had a good time. It was definitely crazy! Take three busy, active, independent boys who all want to run around and see everything plus only one mom, plus about 6,000 other people doing the same thing, makes for an interesting equation. I think one of the hardest things is the different ages; Matthew isn't big enough to play where the big kids play, and the other two are too big to play in his designated 'toddler' area. So we had to try and alternate play times and places, or try to stay together as a group in some of the other areas...not easy. :) Fortunately we only had a couple short 'lost child' incidents. We stayed for three hours...we made quite the exit scene, well, Matthew did. I think he was tired of being restrained from wandering where he wanted to go, and he was hungry. Not a good combination.I wish the pictures gave a better idea of just how many people were there! It was a rainy day, and I think everyone had the same idea. We did have a good time though! I just think next time we go we'll try to take Daddy with us!

Happy Easter & Happy Birthday Jeff

Happy Easter, and Happy Birthday Jeff! Today was a special day for a few reasons! It was fun to be able to celebrate the two events together. First, the Easter part; we really didn’t do too much for Easter today other than go to church and spend time talking about the real meaning of Easter. I’m grateful the kids have a knowledge and appreciation of the real meaning. (And happy that they had their ‘sugar’ day on Saturday instead of Sunday!) It was a nice morning with a yummy French toast breakfast to celebrate Easter and Jeff’s 32nd birthday.

Church was great. The sacrament program was wonderful and there was a really nice spirit present. I was filling in for the Primary chorister and was a little apprehensive about how the kids would be. Sometimes you come to dread Easter Sunday in Primary because all the kids come so hyped up on sugar, but I was very pleasantly surprised. It was a great day, and the kids all did so well.

After church we came home to a delicious turkey dinner. I did a turkey breast in the crockpot today, and it was the best turkey I’ve had in a long long time! We enjoyed the dinner, and then it was time for Jeff to open his gifts. Some years it’s hard to come up with great, exciting presents, but I was able to come up with some fun gifts this year. Jeff got a swimsuit, a t-shirt, a couple pairs of needed dress shoes, a waffle maker, some awesome Teva sandals, and an Iron Gym exercise bar. Some of the gifts should come in handy for our upcoming trip to Mexico.

We finished off the night with brownies and ice cream. I couldn’t find the candles anywhere so I thought it would be fun to just put 32 matches in the brownies. They definitely don’t burn well like candles, and they burn out fast, but it was amusing and fun for the kids.

We had a great night together. Happy Birthday Jeff! We all love you so much and we’re all so grateful for you!

The Loot

The boys were all excited to see that the Easter Bunny made his traditional Saturday morning appearance at our home. They were up early and ready to get started. Even Matthew caught on quickly and was running around picking up the treats and putting them in his basket, I thought he might end up with more candy than the other two boys. He was doing great until Jeff told him to taste one and that was it, he decided it would be better to just sit down and eat everything within reach. I wasn’t thrilled with Jeff about that, but eventually Jeff got him going again putting treats in the basket.

Jacob and Caleb had fun running back and forth getting the treats and then taking them to their baskets, then they decided it was faster to carry the basket at the same time.

The cleaned up pretty well, and then I made them try on their new Easter outfits. We went simple and functional this year, I was pleased that I was able to get all of their outfits for just over $30. Not too bad.

We enjoyed the rest of the morning at home. We were supposed to do an Easter egg hunt with friends at the park, but it was pouring rain and since we had just done our own, we figured we’d stay home and enjoy a nice brunch. Plus Jeff had to start studying again, so it was a laid back morning and afternoon.

It's amazing how difficult it can be to get three kids to look at you at the same time with a smile!

Easter Fun

Jacob and Caleb both had an Easter egg hunt today at preschool. They were pretty excited about it, and made their own cute little paper bag Easter bunny baskets. It’s always fun to watch the kids run around having fun, and the weather was perfect.

Jacob still can't keep his eyes open in the picture, he told me the sun was too bright for him. :)

Matthew was excited about the Easter egg hunts too, especially because he has sweet brothers that are willing to share.

Matthew while waiting in the car.

Matthew, after Caleb so graciously shared a couple treats with him on the ride home.

I’m still not sure how he manages to make such a mess from one little treat, but I’m glad they all had a good time.

Conference Weekend

(Written Saturday)

It’s conference weekend this weekend, and I’m really excited. It’s nice knowing we have a weekend where we kind of have to stay around. Of course, we did find the time to have some fun this morning. The weather has been all over the place lately, and this morning it happened to be extremely windy so we decided to take advantage of it and go fly our kite. The boys have been wanting to do it forever. I was able to go for a morning run, and met up with the family at the park. It was a little chilly with the wind, but we had a blast. All three of the boys loved running around chasing and watching the kite. I loved watching them laugh and get so excited. Eventually Matthew discovered the roller-hockey rink and decided he wanted to go play over there. I admit it was pretty nice, there was no one else using the place so he had full reign to run around to his heart’s content and it's a big but nicely enclosed area. He found a ball that had been left behind and was happy to throw it, chase after it, pick it up and repeat the entire process over and over. Towards the end, Caleb decided to come over and join us for a little while. Matthew and Caleb had fun together, and even took a moment to snuggle up together underneath the goal. I thought that was sweet. We finally decided it was time to head home so we could watch conference, and I think the boys had finally gotten cold and hungry enough that they were pretty eager to run to the car without too much of a struggle.

Conference was wonderful, every single talk was amazing. We got a new apostle, Neil L. Anderson, and the entire day was so uplifting and inspiring. I’m grateful for these wonderful men and women. At the end of the 2^nd session Matthew was asleep in his bed, and Jeff and Caleb were both asleep on the floor. I knew they were tired, that’s another nice benefit of the park is that the kids usually run out a lot of their energy!