Brace Face, Metal Mouth

Before, well, kind of before. At this point he has had an expander on the bottom and one on the top. The expander on the bottom did a nice job of making lots more space up top, spreading his top two front teeth apart.
During, we got a kick out of this thing, I should have gotten a better picture, one of him sitting up, it looked too funny.

Here come the brackets.

After. There will be more pictures as his teeth straighten up.

Perfect Attendance and Personal Responsibility

By some strange fluke neither Micah nor Jacob got sick this year, so we went with it and didn't let them miss a day to go to Father's and Son's early. They were both awarded with perfect attendance and received a cool medal. Jacob also recieved the Personal Responsibility award. I had never heard of it, but it's apparently quite an honor. Tyler and I are both so proud of our boys and how well they have done in school. I know I nag them a lot and sometimes feel very frusterated with them, but when I really think about it, these kids are good and smart and responsible. Thank you boys, keep up the good work! I love you.

This is Jake with his Personal Resposibility award

Perfect Attendance. I'm really very proud of both the kids and myself for this one. It was a combined effort, and honestly, something I never even got close to.

We had more than half an hour between lower and upper grade awards so the little ones (mine, Margaret McCauley's and Alicia McFarland's) had fun running around the cafeteria and enjoying bags of snack mix kindly donated by the cafeteria lady. I have to say, when Peyt wears her hair in piggy buns, I love her even more.

Micah with his Perfect Attendance, the kid to the right is his buddy Colton.

The Family Camping trip that wasn't

Every year the boys look forward to Fathers and Sons and I look forward to girls night with my daughter, mom and sister. This year however, the ball got dropped and Fathers and Sons, which is usually Mother's Day weekend, or very close to it, fell into the same weekend as our Family Camping trip that had been planned and on our calendar for many months. So, the boys went to Fathers and Sons and Peyton and I went to Soda Springs with my family.

Diego sat on Peyton's lap almost the entire way, she loved it.

She is the cutest little camper ever.

Well, Dustin is pretty darn cute too! He loved the fire, his mommy did her best to set up barriers, which he climbed.

Morgan found a very pretty adult king snake with the same coloring as her baby at home. It bit her and musked her but she stunk herself back to camp so we could get some pictures of it.

Peyton slept well, I watched her many times during the night. I was cold, the ground was hard, and I didn't leave enough room too stretch my legs out. What happened to the days when I could sleep anywhere, anytime and in any position?

While Larry, Lindsay and Morgan were fishing, My Mom, Dustin, Peyton and I hung out at camp and my Mom and I had a good conversation about "the old days" and my dad. It wasn't girls weekend by any means but it was good.

Morgan, me and the kids had some fun playtime and nap time in the tent. What was so not comfortable the night before was feeling surprisingly good!

Peyton, my little nature girl, found a really cool frog on the window of our tent.

Diego had some nap time too.

All the specks you see in this picture are ladybugs, billions of them. They were everywhere, EVERYWHERE. It was awesome.

Whats camping without getting dirty?

Food

I had a lot of food pictures building up so I thought I'd combine them in a post. Tyler laughs at me everytime he sees me taking a picture of something I've cooked or baked but oh well. I have only made one pie in my life, a few months ago, and then the other night I made the one below. I had always heard pie crust was hard to make but I just followed the recipe and it turned out perfect. This one is an "invention". I made a dinner pie with roast beef, cheese, green beans, cream of chicken soup and diced tomatoes. Micah hated it.
A few months ago Tyler decided that we needed to have a dessert or treat every Monday night for Family Home Evening. So I decided I would use that request as an excuse to go through and bake different things from my cookbook every week. I love baking and I love making new things. The cookies below are Peanut Butter cookies, I have made them before, but I had to make something we had the ingredients for! I also hope to someday make a recipe book and include pictures, at least for many of them. I want to digitally scrapbook my recipes and print them into a photo book, wouldn't that be cute?

I made this cake for Ben's 5h birthday, nothing amazing by any means, but it's our family's favorite chocolate bundt cake, this time I put frosting on it, usually we just have powdered sugar on it. Micah was worried it wouldn't be as good with the frosting, but I did light frosting and everyone liked it. You can't really see, but Ben picked out a spider and a snake as we were headed out the door, he wanted his cake to be decorated, so cute he is.

This was Ben's birthday dinner. I didn't plan anything out ahead of time, I'm always so unprepared. Ben's favorite food is fish, and of course that's what he'd request when I asked him an hour or so before dinner what he would like me to make for dinner. We had no fish, but we always have tuna, so I improvised and made tuna patties and fried them in Olive Oil. They were quite tasty and Ben was happy.

Lemon bars! Another FHE treat. Tyler's mom used to make these for him often when he was a kid and he loves them. I made them once before (Ty insisted) but it was from a Krusteez box so I don't think it counts at all. These are my first from scratch using lemons from our wonderful neighbors tree that hangs over the fence into our yard.

Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies. Benji and Peyt both helped me, again, I used what we had on hand. I do plan on picking some new things out and getting what we need to make them.

Below, Snicker Doodles, mine and Papa Louie's favorite cookie. Made it dozens of times but we had all the ingredients.

Oh my word, just a little bit fat, ok.

So, Ben is turning 5 tomorrow, June 3rd. I can't believe it. He is starting Kindergarten this fall! He is my sweetheart, my nearly constant companion. This boy does not do "self-entertaining" He loves games still, all kinds of games. Today it was chess, I hate chess, but I love Benjamin. He is always talking and always saying funny stuff.
I have been really trying to lose weight and I've been doing Jillian Michaels 6 days a week (workout video). I switched to doing it at night to help me lose weight. Well tonight I actually did it in my sports bra and shorts because it was so stinking hot. After I finish Ben looks at me and says, "Why do you look a little bit fat?" I guess he saw my look of death, or maybe he heard the gasps escaping from the mouths of his brothers, but he emphasized, "a little bit fat." Oh boy, I was thinking, "Hmm, I don't know why I only look a little bit fat because I'm much more than a little bit fat." Or, "Maybe I look a little bit fat because I carried 4 babies that were big and stretched my skin way out and you were the biggest of my babies weighing in at 10 pounds Ben!" No, really, Ben is a sweetheart and never means to hurt feelings, he's just an honest kid. He speaks the truth. I am a little bit fat, and it is just a little bit, it's ok. I have 4 beautiful children to show for my fat and stretch marks. They're worth every bit of it!
On another note, Last week when Ty was in LA for work he stayed at a nice hotel and brought home some Bath and Body Works Orange and Ginger bath stuff. I thought there were 2 conditioners and one shampoo so I put them all in the shower. Tonight when I was in there and I picked up one to make sure it was the shampoo, and it was the lotion...LOTION?! Yep, that's what it said, and it was half full. I lotioned my hair last night. I thought it felt a little different than most conditioner.

Happy 5th Birthday my sweet Benji!