Little Rikk and Little Doug

We have always thought that Hunter looked like a little Rikk and Walker looked like a little Doug, Rikk's younger but always bigger brother. And they proved us right last week in our thinking. When Rikk and Doug were little, Rikk pushed Doug off a bed and Doug ended up getting hurt and getting stitches in his eyebrow. Last week Walker was teasing Hunter and Hunter pushed Walker. Walker fell and hit the side off his head on the corner of my box spring mattress. While I was getting Walker and myself ready to go out to the ER, Hunter kept gagging every time he saw Walker's head or the cloth I was having Walker hold against it. Serves him right!!! I took Walker into the ER(we have been there at least five times in the last five months and the same guy has checked us in and luckily has laughed and not called children services on me!!) and he didn't have to get actual stitches, they just glued the wound shut. He was a big boy about it. We have a picture floating around here somewhere of Rikk and Doug at Hunter and Walker's age, and they really do look alike. When I find it, I will post it.

The Office

(For those of you I have emailed you can ignore this post!) Okay, so I am asking for some help here. I got invited to a party for the tv show The Office. Some friends of mine are real fanatics of the show and are having a party for it coming back on the air. What I need help with is I need to bring an "Office" related appetizer, finger food, something eatable. Rikk is the real fan of the show, I like it but didn't start watching it really until about a year ago. So, I know that there is going to be a stapler in a jello mold and possibly a cake, but if anyone could help me with this that would be great. If you have never seen the show, just disregard this post!!! Thanks for your help.

Getting caught up on Rikk...

Rikk has sent some pictures of him over there in Iraq, so I thought that I would share. Right now he is the station captain over his shift and now he is getting promoted to Assistant Chief. He is really happy about that because now the only person he will have to answer to is the Chief. He also got awarded today the NCO of the Month award. He didn't even know he was up for the award. They usually ask for all the things you have accomplished for whatever period of time and they didn't ask him. He was standing at roll call and they said his name for the award and he was stunned. I am soo proud of him!!! If you get the chance send him an email and say hi and let him know how you are doing. He is really a bit homesick. Oh and look how "buff" he is getting!!!

Taking a tanning break...just kidding!!!

He took this one for my mom.

Another tanning break!

His old Rescue Crew

His new Rescue Crew

Hide and seek, plus a zoo!

The boys and I were playing hide and seek today and it was my turn to count. I got done counting and couldn't find ANY of them anywhere. Then I heard these little giggles coming from Kyler's room and figured out where they were. I ran and got the camera and this is where I found them, all three of them together...

We were also playing with blocks today (as we do everyday, multiple times a day!) and the kids built a little "zoo" for their animals. They had fun doing it and even added slides to the side of the cages. Silly, yes, but they had a lot of fun doing this!

The boys' accomplishments...

I have had the hardest time getting Hunter to understand the sounds that letters make and how to learn to read and spell words by sounding them out. I am almost 100% sure that it is all my fault, I just didn't really know how to teach him. I mean we would sit there at the table and do it and to be honest, it was just frustrating and boring for both of us. So, I got some help. I bought some Leap Frog videos, one for learning letter phonics and one for starter words. I know what you are thinking, "She put her kid infront of a video to teach him what she should be." I would probably be thinking that too. But we sat down and watched it together and it was wonderful. It has a littel frog named Tad who is trying to learn letter phonics and how to spell and they really are cute videos. Hunter, Walker, Kyler and I were singing and dancing along with it, it was fun. The best thing is that Hunter KNOWS how to make the sound of each letter and how to spell and read now. It is amazing how fast he caught on. He is soo proud of himself and so are Rikk and I. He was talking to Rikk on the phone and was having Rikk ask him to spell three letter words. He also does this to just about anyone he talks on the phone with now or sees!!! He has also learned to tie his shoes! I know, he's five and should already know how to do this by now and he would have if it wasn't for Rikk and I. He has been asking for about a year and a half for us to teach him how to do it, but it was always when we were getting his shoes on and having to run out the door. But we were cuddling in the chair Saturday morning and I just told him to go and get his shoes, that we were going to learn to tie them. He got it right on the first try and was soo proud of himself. He was smiling ear to ear and was just giggly. He wanted to call Rikk right away, but of course we couldn't. But when he did tell Rikk, Rikk was just as proud of him as me and Hunter was soo happy! He is becoming quite the big boy and can't wait to start kindergarten now.

Walker is going around singing his ABC's and sounding them out. He can tell you just about what sound every letter makes now and thinks that is pretty cool...and so do I. He'll hold up one of his letter blocks and tell you what sound that letter makes. He also has no problem with his colors, which I know really shouldn't be a big deal because

he is three, but you would really have to know this kid to understand why it is. He is the strong, silent type and just lets on enough that he knows something to make you not loose your sanity. I have had many conversations with my mom and just been frustrated over his colors and she just kept reassuring me that he knows. And then one day he just started naming them all, it was great and he just had this look like, "Mom, what's the big deal, I've known these forever!"

Kyler went to the doctor on Friday for his two year check up. He is in the bottom percentile for his height...no surprise, look at me and Rikk. But what did surprise me was that he was only in the 50 percentile for his weight...you may now pick your jaw up off the floor! I know he is a chunky little guy, he weighs in at 28 pounds and is squishy all over. The doctor said that he wasn't showing any signs of being a premie at all and that he actually was able to do things that a two and a half or three year old were doing. It is nice to know that he is right where he should be and better, that he isn't behind at all.

The Tag

10 years ago:
I was hanging out with Laura Brunner, Kristin Bloom and Meagan Fox. We were driving around town singing, watching a chick flick or just hanging out. It was also senior year of high school

5 things on my list:
1) Fold two baskets of laundry
2) Do the dishes from making cookies (I chose to make cookies instead of fold laundry!)
3) Play on the computer with Hunter
4) Build castles with Walker and Kyler
5) Make a good dinner for the boys and I

I enjoy:
1) SLEEPING
2) Making the boys happy, laugh and smile
3) Spending time with my mom
4) Accomplishings things...even if it's just picking up the house, again!
5) Seeing the boys' faces when they get to talk to Rikk on the phone

3 bad habits:
1) Losing my patience with the boys
2) Getting frustrated when I feel my clothes don't fit right or hair doesn't look right
3) Getting frustrated during sacrament because I am not getting anything out of it because the boys sometimes make it seem more like a circus

5 places I have lived:
1) Fairbanks, AK
2) Rexburg, ID
3) Mountain Home, ID
4) North Pole, AK
5) Will let you know in about 3 months

5 jobs:
1) Counter person at Winchell's
2) Housekeeper and hostess at West Mark Hotel
3) Service Rep for Arctic Circle Inc
4) Merchandiser for American Greetings
5) Full time Wife and Mommy

5 things people don't know about me:
1) I love to sing in the car by myself
2) I would LOVE to take a cooking class
3) I wanted Rikk to kiss me on our first date, but it was two weeks and he will say I kissed him, but he kissed me
4) I hate my eyebrows
5) I secretly would love to have a maid or housekeeper

The five I have chosen to tagg are: Dahlia, Jenny, Emily, Mandi and Laurel

Boy will be boys!!!

I went out and got the mail today and came back inside and set it on the lower half of the entertainment center for the kids to fight over as I always do. They kids came running over and started to fight over who gets to open what junk mail as usual. I went to the bathroom and came out to hear little muffled giggles...you know, the kind where someone or two someones are doing something they shouldn't be. Well, I came out to the living room and this is what I found...


The first one they didn't even know I took and the second one is the realization that they had been caught and knew they were being bad. Walker looks up and says, "Mom, I see boobies!" It's not even a magazine that I get, it's from the previous owner. I threw it away and they kept getting it out of the garbage, so it had to go out to the trash cans on the back porch. I have heard of boys sneaking their mom's Victoria's Secret before, but at this age?!!!