Do I Actually See a Halo?

I so badly had to blog about what's coming next before I forgot. Not so much for you---but for me.
Like many of you I blog as a way to keep track of all the insanely crazy and sometimes mundane things that occur everyday with my family. I don't ever want to forget these moments...and since I can't find the time or willpower to put pen to paper, I put my fingers to the keyboard and let them type away.
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After dinner tonight I took Bubba to Barnes and Nobles with me to try and find some audio books to listen to on our trip. We are leaving for Utah and we are all very excited. We will be taking Luke's Jeep and making our way to Salt Lake for General Conference weekend. Then on Monday we are headed to Moab for the Easter Jeep Safari. (If you are looking at your screen cross-eyed and wondering what the heck it is, you'll have to google it!) :)
Anyways---back to Barnes and Nobles---
We get into the kids section and the first thing Bubba spots is the religion section. He has been watching a lot of church videos from "The Living Scriptures" collection lately and he is motivated. He looks through some Bibles and finds a Bible story book he really likes. We end up not finding any good kids' books on CD so we settle on purchasing the Bible for Bubba and an Easter book for Tubbs.
On the way home Bubba cannot stop talking about the Bible stories and asking a million questions about anything you can imagine that is related to the scriptures, church and Jesus.
It made me smile. My little boy is seven years old and he is such a big boy.
After Luke and Tubbs get home from wrestling practice I headed off to a friend's house for a Jewelry party. When I got home my boys were tucked into bed.
Luke tells me to go take a look at my big boy. As I walk into the bedroom I can see a little light shining from Bubba's top bunk. Bubba is up there laying on his tummy, reading his Bible storybook with his book light attached. He was reading about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and needed my help pronouncing their names.
It was really a moment that I wished would last forever. If only my little man would stay this little angel forever. He told me he wanted to play "Nephi" at school tomorrow with his friends. Knowing that only a few kids at school would know who Nephi was and would probably look at him strange, he reminded me there were 3 other kids in his grade that are in his primary class.
Little Bubba---he thinks everyone knows about Nephi and all of the other characters form the scriptures he has been learning about. I wish that were true!
Even if Bubba's halo doesn't shine all the time---I am glad it was shining tonight.

Slip-N-Slide Fun in March?

Bubba's friend came over to play Saturday and they all decided they wanted to jump in the pool.
We settled on something else. Big Papa gave in and let the boys dig out the slip-n-slide.
I frankly thought they were all crazy, but when they all looked at me (pleading)--I said, "whatever......go ahead."

I sat in a lawn chair on the grass, trying to catch some much needed rays on my pale skin. I didn't pay much attention to how long we were all out there, but it didn't seem like that long. I was really surprised that night when Bubba tells us his back hurts. Luke has him take off his shirt and his shoulders are red. 7 years old and Bubba got his first sunburn---in March!
I totally blew it.
I was so proud of the fact that I always lube my boys up with sunblock in the summer time and they had never had a burn before.
Now my record is blown.---- I guess the 75 degree weather just threw me off.
I'll do better next time. :)

The Husband Quiz

1. He's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen? Truck U or Xtreme 4x4

2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad? Ranch, but lately he is on this raspberry vinaigrette kick.

3. What's one food he doesn't like? Tomatoes (but he LOVES ketchup. Weird.)

4. You go out to eat and have a drink. His drink would be? Anything Diet

5. Where did he go to high school? Tehachapi

6. What size shoe does he wear? 12

7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? Jeeps. (But he couldn't collect anything else because he is always purging our house)

8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? turkey with peppercinis

9. What would he eat every day if he could? It used to be pita pockets. I am guessing---and would say---good tri-tip??

10. What is his favorite cereal? Banana Nut Crunch or Frosted Flakes

11. What would he never wear? I am going out on a limb and guessing a speedo

12. What is his favorite sports team? Arizona Cardinals & the pathetic LA Dodgers

13. Who did he vote for? Not Obama

14. Who is his best friend? Me

15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do? Leave the house everyday looking so HOT! :) Mmm...probably losing my patience with the boys and yelling.

16. What is his Heritage? White boy---but I think his mom's side is Dutch/Italian. His dad's side has some American Indian (and I am not sure what else)

17. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind of cake? Instead of baking one I beg Gayle Montana to make her famous carrot cake :)

18. Did he play sports in high school? Wrestling and football (Is dating considered a sport?)

19. What could he spend hours doing? Talking about 4-wheeling or Jeeps

20. What is one thing you appreciate about him? He loves our boys more than anything and is very much a family man. He is always thinking of them ---even when he is at work he will send me e-mails about the boys.The boys very much have him wrapped around their fingers.

My Boys....

They are crazy---and there is never a dull moment when they are around.

Every morning getting ready for school and work is an adventure. What kind of mood are they going to wake up in? :)

Bubba told us this morning that he wasn't wearing green to school because there is a "no pinching" rule at school. But I told him there wasn't a rule like this at home and I would pinch his booty until he wore his green shirt----and I won.

Yes, they are wearing matching t-shirts again---even to school. But they picked them out. I gave them the option for different colors when I picked out the shirts at the store, but they wanted the same ones.

Darn.

I love it when they match---and I love that they don't care. (The joy of having boys) :)


Tubbs with his leprechaun catcher for school

Bubba giving me his biggest (most mischievous) smile

Matching "Breath-Right" strips on their noses.

They think they need to wear these to bed when their noses are stuffed up because they see me wearing them. (They rock)

Fun Weekend

We were supposed to head north for my nephew's baptism LAST weekend...but Cooper's little brother (Holden) decided to steal the show and arrive early. He ended up being born early Saturday morning 14 hours before the scheduled baptism.

So---the baptism was moved to this weekend.

Lucky for us, that meant we would get to meet the newest member of the Baer family earlier than expected.

We arrived Friday night to my parents' house...and to a few bags of my mom's baby girl shopping. This little girl is off to a great start.--- I love that my mom is so excited and always thinking of others. (Until my youngest brothers Dari (21) and Bert (18) have kids one day this little girl will be the last grand baby for my parents for a while)

The boys absolutely loved baby Holden. They wanted to hold him right away---and touch his face (and "pet" his head). Bubba has a hand fetish and I watched him play with Holden's little hands. Tubbs kept commenting to Aunt Lindsay on random things he liked about the baby. It was so cute.

This reaction from the boys got me more excited and ready for our baby to get here in August. It got me so anxious I actually went out to the Galleria mall on Saturday with the boys, my mom, SIL Lindsay, Holden and Natalie to look at some baby girl dresses at the GAP.

It was much harder than expected.---- The stress.

Which dress to pick?

Why did I want a dress?

I don't know---probably because I have never got to buy a little dress before. I also had a 30% off coupon so it was a good excuse to shop for something.

(My first purchase for Baby girl Hogue)

Saturday evening was the awaited baptism for Cooper and it was wonderful. The boys have never been to a family baptism before so I was excited for them to see their cousin be baptized. We had lots of family show up and it was great to see aunts and uncles as well as siblings, nieces and nephews. After the baptism we came home to lots of my dad's famous enchiladas, Luke's guacamole, and some cake! Happily I was able to eat everything!

My uncle Glenn did manage to get me all worried about actually having a boy. He told a few stories about friends who had ultrasounds which told them they were having a girl ---and out pops a boy. (All I can say is I will not be washing or removing any clothing tags until this little girl arrives)

I should have taken more pictures---but this is all I got from the weekend.

Brother Robert and his family

Me and my little brother

My mom and youngest brother Bert

Muffins!

If you ask my boys something that their mom does well one of the first things they will tell you is she makes the best muffins!

I have achieved my definition of success---I have reached my pinnacle---

I am the BEST banana chocolate chip muffin maker EVER!

(Or as my husband says, "Mama makes a mean muffin.")

Can you tell by how they are eating that they can't get them down fast enough....?

Do you think I can fit anymore in there?

Yummy

Don't touch my muffins....

There is nothing better than milk and mama's muffins

Move Those Cheeks

Like any parent I love it when my boys can burn their energy with good old fashioned exercise. (If I could I would get them an exercise ball or a wheel like Jack the Hamster uses to get exercise! :)

Bubba had the opportunity to participate in his school's jog-a-thon last Friday. He had 20 minutes to do as many laps around the field as he could. Its fun to watch the kids come around the track and the expressions on their faces. Some are sprinting across, some are holding their sides in exasperation....

Tubbs is participating in wrestling at one of the high school's two nights a week. He absolutely loves it and its great to see him so motivated to leave the house before each practice with his bottle of Gatorade. He has tried using some of his take down techniques on his mother and his father is very proud. :)

Getting ready to take off

Mama and Bubba after his laps

Laps Around the Mat

Tug-O-War on the Mat

Its great to see the boys using their pent up energy on something else besides fighting or chasing each other around the house---even though I wish I had the energy to run around my house! :)

Can You Guess?

Could it be that Heavenly Father is playing a strange joke on us?! He is a very clever guy! :)

Luke, the boys and I got to see the baby tonight after work...and discover if we are adding a crazy little girl to the pack---or another stinky boy.

Can you tell from the pictures?

I am popping more Tums just thinking about the upcoming arrival! :)

It appears that Heavenly Father does answer prayers---(and a lot of people's prayers from what I understand!)

Tubbs is thrilled and has been planning on a girl from the beginning. Bubba on the other hand gave a loud gasp and sigh when he heard the news. (We'll have to work on that over the next 5 months)

We got a DVD of the ultrasound so I am excited to watch it all over again. She was moving and kicking all over the place! (....Could of been the large rice krispy treat I ate on my way home from work)! The technician kept getting some good shots of her booty because she was kicking and flipping all over the place! Thankfully we only got one or 2 pictures of that for posterity.

We didn't know if it was a boy or girl for about 10 minutes when she finally typed it up on the ultrasound screen. Luke squeezed my hand and I didn't know if I should laugh or scream. I am still in shock, even though Luke has assured me over the past few weeks that he thought it was a girl. Luke has assured me that he is very excited...he just hopes his little girl looks nothing like him---with his head and broad shoulders. I think he referenced "Princess Fiona" in there somewhere.

I have to agree---I hope she isn't built like a wrestler either. I'll be sure to work that into my prayers over the coming months! :)

Love My Boys

I love Sundays before church. I especially love them now that church doesn't start until 12:30pm. I thought I was going to hate it when we had to switch times this year, but its absolutely fabulous!

Friday I got the boys some matching dress shirts so I made them model for me before church. Bubba and Tubbs have a hard time being serious for more than half a second so I got some interesting faces and poses.

It was March 1st so it was appropriate they were the boys in green!