Lazy Sunday

WARNING: LOTS OF PICTURES/LONG POST

You know those days when your kid is sick with green snot and a little cough and you think she probably shouldn’t be going to church today? And then her initial grouchiness from morning wears off and she starts running around with energy bursting at the seams and you think, ‘Maybe she’d be OK to go to church.’ But then at the drop of a hat (literally), she melts and the harder she cries, the more the green slime seems to pour out of her nose and it’s evident she is not going anywhere. Yep, that’s where we are today. Well, that’s where I am, anyway. Maggie started getting sick about Wednesday and at first we were a little worried because she kept saying, “Ear huwt.” Thankfully, that only lasted that first day and since then she’s been OK, except for the nasty boogers.

Yesterday, Joe ran in the Crystal Classic 5K here in Green River. It was a “Guess Your Time” race, where each participant had to guess how long it would take them to run a 5K (3.1 miles). Joe had been running it, prior to the race, in about 25 minutes. He guessed it would take him 24:50, but unfortunately (and yet not so unfortunately) he ran it in 24:06. Way to go Joe! Joe’s mom and dad also ran the race, and his mom ended up running it in 2 seconds off her estimated time, making her the winner of the whole race! She tried to play it cool, but was actually super excited! WAY TO GO TAMI!

The Crystal Classic actually lasted 2 days and had all sorts of events. A soup cook-off, Boy Scouts pancake breakfast, human dog-sled race, ice cube hunt for the kids, free kids games with free prizes, free smore making, ice sculpture contest (Amazing!), lots of yummy food and awesome door prizes! We took our kids and spent the majority of the day there yesterday, but missed Friday night when they had a live band and the soup contest.

Here are the kids at the pancake breakfast.

Connor loves everything “Cowboy.” Gramma Tami gave him this “cowboy bandana” for Valentine’s Day and he literally hasn’t taken it off since. We have to make him at bedtime!

(Photo below by Haylie Photography ;) Gorgeous centerpiece, don’tcha think?

And the race begins! Joe is the 2nd guy from the right.

While waiting for Joe and G’ma and G’pa to get back, I let Connor walk out on the ice, to the middle of the river.

HA! YEAH RIGHT! What kind of a mother do you think I am? That picture is just zoomed way in. He hasn’t even left shore yet; you just can’t tell because of the snow. Other people, however, were much braver than I am as you can see the footprints behind Connor.

Maggie was saying “cheese” in this picture, but a big fork-lift was distracting her.

And he’s back! He came in 13th overall and beat his predicted time by 44 seconds!

And the WINNER of the race, although we didn’t know it at the time! Way to push through!

Great job Grampa Mark!

All (except one) of the Rose grandkids: Haylie, Naomi, Lucy, Maggie and Connor. We were really missing baby Grant this day… poor Connor is always so outnumbered! The man pushing the swing is Lucy and and Naomi’s other Grandpa, Grampa Whipple. He and his wife, Gramma Chris (who basically is like a 3rd grandmother to my kids- they even call her Gramma Chris), came up for the weekend and were nice enough to hang out with us yesterday, even though they don’t get to have much one-on-one time with their granddaughters.

Thanks Chris and Doug! We are always so happy to see you! Sometimes we forget we aren’t actually family… ;) Thank you for putting up with us yesterday! And sorry I cut your head off, Doug!

Haylie watching the ice-sculpting contest. This guy was making a mermaid.

This artist got 1st place in the Peoples’ Choice contest for sculpting Cpt. Hook and the crocodile which is always chasing him. It was amazing! Captain Hook’s coat even had texture lines all over it.

Rachel and I roasting marshmallows for the little girls.

Gramma Tami after getting her 1st place plaque! The boy on the right side of the picture I think was a little perturbed because at first they announced him as the 1st place winner and Tami as the 2nd place. But after realizing their mistake, they had to switch plaques. He looks a little bummed. :(

Lately, Naomi has been OBSESSED with princesses. Obsessed doesn’t really do it justice, actually. She talks non-stop about the fact that she is a “pincess”. Sometimes she lets Connor share in the glory and says that he is a “pince,” because after all, a princess has to have her prince. Right? It’s really so, so cute the way she goes on about it. However, talking about princesses is sometimes portrayed in a negative way, as a while back (who knows how long really), Naomi broke her crown. When she says it, she puts both of her hands up to her eyes and does her best to show us just how sad she is about the whole ordeal.
Well, yesterday, Haylie was playing one of the games they had going on in the pavilion and she got this “beautiful princess crown” as a prize. We decided that Naomi should have it, so she rushed across the room to give it to her. The look on Naomi’s face says it all. Now she can be a real, true princess!

I had to add this picture in of Connor. We call this “The Connor Face.” Uncle William will know exactly what we are talking about.

Sometimes, what seems like a good idea, really isn’t a good idea at all.

Lucy, Haylie and Connor participated in the Ice Cube Hunt. It was such a cool idea! They froze prices inside giant ice cubes and then let the kids find them! And then at the end, they drew names for door prizes. Lucy won these cool FOX biking gloves and Haylie won a pair of SCOTT ski goggles! Poor Connor was so sad that he didn’t win anything- thankfully I remembered there were prizes inside the ice cubes (and just in time too). He perked right up. Later, Lucy gave him the gloves she won because they didn’t fit her and he literally wore them all day! I have a feeling there was more to it than just not fitting though- Lucy, as well as her momma are such tender hearted people. Neither of them can stand it if someone they love is feeling bad… Thanks Rach. You really are an amazing person. :)

Such fun was had by all! What a cool idea, to have a fun community activity in the dead of Winter. The sun came out later and warmed us up a bit too!

Blah blah blah…

I am having a really hard time with the fact that instead of having only about a month left of Winter, like we would have had in Washington, we have 2 months or MORE! The fact that this Winter has been extremely mild (or so we’ve been told) helps a little bit, but still. It’s freezing!

Lately, I’ve been getting the spring cleaning bug. Today I threw out a few things I had on my countertop- a recipe book holder, a bunch of papers I’d been saving and I moved a big jar of pasta so that my counters would look less cluttered. It’s SO cold outside, but when the sun shines, I pretend it’s Springtime and that it’s time to start cleaning out my house.

A lot of times, I find myself doing “projects” during the Winter, but it’s so hard to paint in the cold weather. And since my Spring fever has gotten so bad lately, I’ve realized I have been looking for something to “fix.” SO, today, I bought this. For $30! Yeah, I’m serious. It’s heavy and sturdy and I’m going to paint it red. Or maybe a light blue. Or maybe dark blue. But probably red. It needs a little work, and thankfully my awesome and talented brother-in-law is here to help me. The hutch is only barely taller than me, so I think I will have Joe remove the bottom part (under the doors) and attach a taller base. Also, there are no stoppers to keep the doors from swinging all the way inside the hutch, so I’ll ask him to attach some latches or something. And the COOLEST part is that the doors have no knobs! YAY! I can’t wait to go find some really fun ones! (I think I will NOT decorate the top with a doily. Or anywhere else for that matter. ;)

I can’t wait to start this new project! And like Sam (my b.i.l.) said… if I hate it in my house, I can always use it for storage in the garage if I need to. 

Some other things I’m stewing over… recovering my dining chairs, using the oodles of vinyl to finally make my signs, and repaint a little round lamp table (the people I bought it from painted it lavender… :O ).

This all makes me feel giddy and like I have a new reason to live. Also, I’m going home! My dad is having back surgery on the 27th, so I am using it as an excuse to go home and help him out for a week. I’m taking the kids but poor Joe has to stay here and hold down the fort. And THEN… just a couple weeks after I get back, my mom, sister and her awesome boyfriend are coming to visit me! All the way in Wyoming! Both Kelli and her boyfriend live in Seattle, so we feel very grateful and blessed to have them make such a long trek. It’ll end up being about 15-16 hours of drive time for them. Thank you Kelli and Cody! And thanks to my momma for using her car to haul everyone here. My mom is super mom… like really. Last summer/fall she hauled about 8 boxes of fresh produce from home so that I could have some home grown fruits and vegetables to can. This will be her 3rd trip here since September of last year. Isn’t she amazing?! Can’t wait to see you, Mom!

Sorry this post was so “all over the place.” I’ve just been feeling so unsettled lately. Like something big needs to happen.

CABIN FEVER

We get bored around here. Lately, it’s been SO cold! Since it was a whoppin’ 38 degrees yesterday, as soon as Joe got home from school, the five of us and Rachel, Steve and their girls all bundled up, loaded up and drove out and took a little hike out along this fun trail that goes up the mountain, next to the cemetery, South of Green River. It felt so warm and the trail sort of runs through two big hills, so it’s perfect for the dogs. Steve and Rachel brought their lab Brutus and we brought Lady and Lucy. They were in HEAVEN!

Maggie and her cousin Naomi.

Haylie, Lucy and Connor all walked about halfway up the hill. They quickly realized that it was much harder to come back down as the hill was quite steep!

I was zoomed in all the way in this picture of Lucy…

And zoomed in only about half here… so you can imagine how far up she was!

This is where Maggie stood as I was taking the above picture. She stopped dead in her tracks and wouldn’t move until Joe went back and picked her back up. She thinks she runs the show here…

Haylie told me she was pretending she was holding baby Simba up on the big rock, like in Lion King. Silly silly.

I remember reading Rachel’s blog last year, and thinking she was absolutely out of her mind, CRAZY to take her kids out in the freezing cold (literally). She would blog about how the wind was blowing super hard but the sun was shining, so she’d bundle her kids up and they’d go out walking.
Living in Wyoming has definitely changed my mind about Rachel being crazy because I understand now. We’ve been told that this winter is super mild compared to most too, which blows my mind! I cannot imagine it being colder. And it seriously felt warm yesterday, even at 38 degrees. BUT- as soon as that sun started going down, the breeze suddenly turned frigidly cold and we had a few whiny kids wanting to get back into the car!

PLEASE COME SOON, SPRING!!!!

I’m Back!

It’s been 7 long months, but I’m back! My blog strike started out as just lack of motivation to update, but then our computer got some nasty virus, which killed the hard drive. We had to send our computer into the manufacturer. We were on pins and needles, waiting to see if they would be able to fix our hard drive instead of replacing it, as we had thousands and thousands of pictures which we hadn’t transferred to our external hard drive. Sadly, they weren’t able to fix it. So- I am grieving for the pictures and Joe is grieving for our tons and tons of music which was also lost. :( Thankfully, I still have all the pictures from on my blog, so not all is lost!

I’m just going to be doing a little bit of catch-up… no significance in the order of the pictures I put on here.

12/7/11 Haylie at her Christmas program. After this night, I am about 99% sure she was made for the stage… She was totally in her element and took it very seriously! At one point, she was giving the kids next to her some irritated looks because they weren’t standing still and singing the songs.

She got to be a bell ringer for one of the songs and she was SO excited!

The kids’ cousin Lucy got to come and watch Haylie’s program. I think Haylie liked being the center of attention…

The day after the kids got out of school for Christmas break, our family and Rachel’s family, as well as his parents, and other brother and sister and their families all headed to Salt Lake City to see the lights at Temple Square. They’d all seen the lights before, but it was my first time and I have to say, I wasn’t expecting every single tree and bush to be covered in lights. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I heard someone say they start putting up lights in August! Can’t you imagine that being your job!?! Sheesh… Before walking around the temple grounds, we took the kids into the church History Museum. The kids loved it and all cried when it was time to go. After we went got home and were looking at the pictures, Haylie came across this next one and said to me, “Oh I LOVE this picture Mom. It’s my favorite!” So funny! She was totally into the dancing, if you couldn’t tell.

Haylie, Naomi and Lucy all doing some flamenco dancing!

Connor was totally into this touch screen computer. There were a bunch of different puzzles and to put it together, you use your finger to drag the pieces and put it together. He sat there almost the entire time we were there!

Maggie having fun with the chalkboard!

Pretty picture of the Salt Lake Temple, all lit up.

There was a Nativity there and a man telling the story of Jesus’ birth. Very impressive!

Haylie and Lucy watching the Nativity.

We brought our wagon with us and the little girls rode in that, all bundled up in blankets. But after a while, they got restless and so we let them out when we lost half of our group. Bad picture, but they were so excited to get out and “ooh and ahh” at the lights.

 

Christmas Eve tradition of opening up Christmas jammies. Haylie has been begging for a nightgown so she can be like Wendy on Peter Pan. They had one Maggie’s size too, so I got each of them one. They aren’t the cutest nightgowns, but the girls love wearing them! And Connor, of course, got camouflage jammies.

The kids on Christmas morning, getting ready for Church.

After church, we went over to Joe’s parents’ house to exchange gifts with them. Haylie got a cute dress with necklace and a super cute hair tie. She doesn’t look it, but she was SO excited!

You wouldn’t know it but 5 minutes before this picture was taken, Connor was opening that camo beanie towards the bottom of the picture. He thought that’s all he was getting (spoiled stinker) and he started throwing a fit. Needless to say, he got in big trouble by his dad. When he came back out, and apologized, there was another present for him- new cowboy boots (which he’s OBSESSED with) and some undies.

Santa got confused and put Maggie’s gifts under our bed.. whoops! So she had a couple more gifts to open when we got home that night- her own purse with cell phone, lipstick, credit cards, etc. included, and a little toy piano. Silly Santa… ;)

A few days after Christmas, we drove to Malad, Idaho to spend some time with Joe’s grandparents and Aunt and Uncle. On the way, Haylie’s other front tooth came out! Unfortunately, the tooth got lost in the car so the Tooth Fairy never came… whoops.

We stayed at Joe’s uncle and aunt’s house- we love going there. His Uncle Brett has become someone of an idol in this family… our kids just hang on him, they love him so much. Most of the time, they call him “The Brett,” but during this trip, they started calling him Grandpa. I can’t believe I didn’t get a picture of him! His head is cut off in this next picture.
Brett owns a bird farm, so we took our dog Lucy. Brett took us out to some of his land and let some of his birds out for Lucy to hunt. The kids loved helping round up the birds!

Lucy’s first time out in the field was near perfection! I can’t believe at almost 2 years old, she is a natural. After this trial run we went back and gathered some more birds and the rest of the family (and all their dogs) and went back out for a  real hunt. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of yelling at dogs during a hunt, and because Lucy was abused before we got her, she got really scared of the yelling and went and hid in the back of the truck.
Here she is on the trial run, on point.

Haylie with the rooster Joe got. She carried it around like a baby… (sigh).

Apparently there weren’t enough birds to go around, so Connor and Lucy co-carried this rooster back in together.

Joe’s sister and her new husband came to visit! The guys, of course, had to go out and shoot guns and bows and arrows- a must when the family gets together! Connor was glued to Lis’s hip, almost the entire time they were there. At one point, he asked her if he could sleep in their bed with them.

Everyone got a turn shooting Grandpa’s new pellet gun. Lucy shot this one with her eyes closed- good thing her momma was right there! haha

Who let this child wear shorts in January?

We basically have to hold Naomi down in order get a picture of her, so when I snagged this one, I was pretty proud of myself! She got really mad at me after she realized what had happened… Sorry Nome, but you’re cute!

OK. I feel better now that I’m a little updated. Hopefully I can keep my posts coming!