Celebrations

This past Friday night we decided we need to celebrate. We were celebrating that TROY FINALLY HAS A JOB! AND that Hinckley received all + signs on his progress report! WAY TO GO TROY and WAY TO GO HINCKLEY. We had a family prayer of thanksgiving that Daddy finally got a job and that Hinckley was excelling in school. Then we all shared what we wanted to do to celebrate.

Troys answer: Go to the store, buy steaks to grill at home, and rent a redbox movie
Hinckleys answer: He wanted to go to the library (it was closed)
Mommys answer: I really wanted to go bowling but I also suggested Chuck E. Cheese....


So can you guess which answer won?!







CHUCK E. CHEESE! We actually enjoyed it with our little coupon and they have changed the pizza so it is better tasting. Oh and we stopped of at Dairy Queen for dilly bars on the way home too!
The kids who danced with Chuck E. got tickets...
Can you see the excitement on Hinckleys face? I LOVE HIS ZEST FOR LIFE!
Chandler riding the train with Barney... Sorry these pictures were taken with my phone
Hinckley feeding the mad dog
Chandler feeding the mad dog

Mommy, Chandler and DADDY DATE

We ventured up to Explora last Thursday to have a little Mommy, Chandler and DADDY date. It was so much fun. Explora is a childrens museum that we love and have yearly passes too. Thank goodness I remembered to put Troy on it(see below post for why I was thankful)

We made a few wishes here...


At the airplane again
Playing music
Daddy playing with the bubbles
Chandler having fun
Oh there goes our penny!
This is Hinckley at school with his fohawk and his disguised turkey!
Hinckleys new hair!
Gotta love gel and hairspray, his hair doesn't like to move like at all so to get it to move is like pulling teeth and lots of gel.
Oh dang what is going on with my pictures? Oh well here is a picture of bubble time at Explora


Have you ever heard the story about the foolish man who built his house upon the sand? And the wise man who built his house upon the rock? We did that story for Family Home Evening a few Mondays ago. The boys loved it!


Wanna guess what happened to the house on the sand?

Catching up on the catch up

I have so many things I need to catch up on and so many things I want to elaborate on but for now it will be short and sweet which I think people like, right?


Troys brother and his wife sent Chandler a birthday present and BOY WAS HE EXCITED FOR IT! They sent Hinckley a gift too which I thought was very thoughtful of them. For some reason Hinckley really struggled during Chandlers birthday. I think it had a little bit to do with the fact that daddy missed his birthday this year. *SIGH* BUT HE WILL BE HERE NEXT YEAR FOR HIS BIRTHDAY!!! YAHOO!
Woops some how these got mixed up


It was a Thomas the Train pillow pet. Chandler LOVES ANYTHING TRAINS! LOVES THEM! THANK YOU UNCLE TRAVIS AND AUNT JENNY! YOU ARE THE BEST!A few Saturdays ago we took Daddy to the aquarium in town. He was such a trooper because #1 Chandler peed through his diaper on his shoulders. YUCK! #2 He watched the boys while I ran to K-mart to buy new pants for Chandler and trying to watch these 2 at the aquarium alone is tough they both want to run in different directions. Don't worry we scrubbed Troy down pretty good. Thank goodness he had the jacket picture below that he could just take off his other shirt and put this on!

After the aquarium we rode the train to the zoo but we decided to just ride it to the zoo and back I guess we were all a little tired. PS we went to show our year membership to get into the aquarium and I was shocked to find out I didn't put Troys name on it. It was one of those moments of oh yeah thats right you were gone a year... THAT SUCKED BAD. I am glad you are home. I hope none of you ever have to go through a deployment because they are horrible. WAY TO GO RACHEL D. FOR MAKING IT THROUGH WITH ME! And any other military mommas who read this blog! We have been listening to this radio station that is playing Christmas songs and there is this one song that Josh Groban sings,"I'll be home for Christmas" and it has soldiers on it saying, I am going to miss my 4 year old this year opening presents, I want to give a shout out to my family back in Alabama, Etc. Troy and I both cry like babies when it comes on. Tears of pain of him missing last year, tears of joy knowing he is home THIS year, and tears of sorrow for those still over there. GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS AND KEEP THEM SAFE. Okay now I am all tearing up just thinking about the song.

Okay side tracked. Sorry... Look at this picture. Is it not precious of 2 of my favorite boys?!

Doesn't Hinckley look so GROWN up in this picture. Oh man I CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF THIS KID! LOVE HIM TO PIECES!
This is at the aquarium steering the boat
Oh I guess I liked this picture so much I put it on here twice!
Friday nights are my absolute favorite now! I use to dread them when Troy was gone. A few Fridays ago we rented a dance wii game and laughed and laughed and laughed until I almost peed my pants. Not really since having my 2 boys something has changed with my bladder. OKAY! SORRY TMI I know but does anybody else have that problem? It totally bites! I can barely jump on a trampoline anymore.
SIDE TRACKED AGAIN! Okay I am focusing... No really I am going to focus

This is Chandler at the mall a few weeks ago. As we went in the doors we saw this little beauty just sitting there with no little kid to play with so we snatched it up and he was in HEAVEN driving it. HEAVEN I tell you
We also stopped by Best Buy. Can you tell they are related?! LOL!

How long have you known me & door open/closed

Here are the stats from my latest poll.

Do you sleep with the door opened or closed?

OPEN 63%(7)
Closed 36%(4)

I sleep with my door opened so I can hear the kids but I really love to sleep with my door closed.

How long have you known me?

1-2 years 11%(1)
2-4 years 11%(1)
4-6 years 11%(1)
6-8 years 22%(2)
8-10 years 33%(3)
10 years PLUS 11%(1)

When I put this poll on my blog I was shocked when I realized it has been almost 10 years since I have graduated!!!!!! WOWZER!

DOUBLE WHAMMY POLL AGAIN THIS WEEK!

Nov 16th thankfulness

It is about time I catch up on my thankfulness! I sometimes do it at night on my iphone but for some reason it wouldn't let me write text. So I need to catch up while my boys are sleeping.

November 16th: Today I am so thankful for my mother in law (who is pictured above). It was her birthday on the 16th! Do you want to know whats pretty awesome? I GET TO SEE HER IN 3 DAYS! YES! And spend Thanksgiving with her. It is going to be pretty epic I think to be together as a family. My kids are stoked to see them and me and the hubs are too! HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY KATHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (BTW I am thankful for Don too!)

November 17th:

Today I was thankful for cool places like Explora that I could take my kids and husband. And also that my Hinckley got ALL + signs on his progress report for school. WHAT A STUD! I have pictures I need to post on here... I will get there someday.

November 18th:

TODAY I AM THANKFUL THAT TROY HAS A JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES YOU READ THAT RIGHT. TROY HAS A JOB!!!!!!! More details to come!

Nov 15th today I am thankful for people in our life who make a difference

NOV 14th

Oh hello MONDAY! I hope you all had a great weekend. Today I am thankful for my NEW NEW MEXICO license. HA! I am no longer a resident of Idaho. I am officially a NEW MEXICAN.

Thank you walmart

A few days after Halloween we went to wal-mart and bought some costumes for cheap. We made our annual thankful chart too.

We always sing with shakers for FHE

This is our Uncle Ben on our thankful chart... It makes me smile
Happy Thomas
Scary Thomas!
Darth Hinckley
Oh my boys decided to play nice with each other! YES!
Chandler Vadar

Trip to Idaho

We had military meetings in Idaho the first weekend of November. Before we left I had to help Hinckley with a school project. We had to disguise Mr. Turkey... He wanted it to look like a power ranger.

When we turned down our road to the our old house this is what greeted me. I felt at home.
The people who are renting my parents house have done a beautiful job decorating it.
It made me feel good because I knew it wasn't my home anymore.
So cute!
Every little nook an cranny had stuff
Even though we were up there for the National Guard meetings we were able to go to my Grandparents party. They were celebrating 65 years of marriage! YAHOO! My grandmother is wearing her original WEDDING DRESS! YES HER WEDDING DRESS. Her wedding dress was made out of a WWII parachute. ITS TRUE! Coolest thing ever! We walked in just as they were ending their speech. And Grandpa was wearing a military uniform
We also go to see my brother and his wife and 5 kids!!!!!
When Troy and my Grandpa embraced they both teared up and so did I. Something about 2 Veterans from 2 different wars embracing.... It was truly a sweet experience.
They cut a wedding cake. Something they didn't do 65 years ago! It was so cute
It was the craziest weekend ever. Plus it SNOWED! We took all of our stuff to a shipping place to send it to NM. We drove A TON. SLC to Idaho Falls to Rigby to Idaho Falls to Rigby to Pocatello (first day) about 6 hours of driving plus we were up at 3:30AM. Next day Pocatello to Rigby to Pocatello (2 hours) and the next day back to SLC. It was so worth it!

It was awesome to see Troy hang out with his buddies. It was awesome to hang out with the wives. It was great and I can't wait until next month when they put us up in a resort in Park City, Utah.

(OK I am going to vent for a second just to get it off my chest. I have never been close to my moms side of the family. Its not really anybodies fault we lived across the USA. But when you put together family posters that say stuff like see how your family has grown and you put everybody in the family on the posters EXCEPT the Scott Shumway family I am going to get offended. NOT 1 picture of my family was put on the posters. But some how my cousins girlfriend made it on there? YAH. THANKS A LOT! And then you wonder why we aren't friends on facebook. OKAY VENT OVER!