Love

I love my boys more than I could ever say. Yesterday we spent the whole day snuggling.. literally!  I just finished putting the boys to bed.  After prayers & stories I always say.. time to close our eyes!! Joey proceeds to put his pudgy little hands over his eyes.  He thinks to close his eyes, his hands have to be over them, & it is the cutest thing in the world.  I love their little voices & I couldn't live life without the crazy boys!!

Joe-sy & Samsy

 can we help?

Today we made chocolate, chocolate chip cookies w/pecans :)  YUM!  The boys love to help in the kitchen, & if you've ever had 2 boys under the age of 4 trying to help you.. you know how that goes!  I think they ate half a dozen of the first batch before Sean even got up to get one! Of course, Joe's face is a result of beater licking :)

This week has been good. I actually had Thursday- Sunday all to my  family :)  I only work Mon-Wed consistently, but occasionally work Thursdays or Fridays & with vacation & extra work, it's been a little hectic around the house lately!

Yesterday my niece Jolie got baptized.. I can still remember watching the 3 older kids while Michelle was in the hospital having Jolie (side note to remind myself how old I feel).  Earlier in the day we went to the lds bookstore to find something special for Jolie.  Sam & Joe fell asleep in the car, so my mom (who is awesome) rode along with me & sat in the car while I ran in the store.
Since we were already over there, I had to stop by & snap a picture of my favorite place in the world :)

It was a very nice baptism- minus the totally out of control little boy that wouldn't stop making car noises & yelling papa (Joe).  The Ayala girls sang a beautiful song that brought me to tears.

 Jolie looked beautiful in her pretty white dress & smiled big for the hundreds of pictures that were taken.

Afterwards, we went to the Ayala's for hot dogs &  a pluthora of goodies.  

Last Sunday we took a little car ride out to the new Gilbert temple site.  I thought it would be fun to see how it is looking... amazing, by the way.  There is a construction trailer on the site with some nice older male missionaries that explained everything you would want to know about what the floor plans are & how the grounds will look. It was awesome! 

Some day the boys can look back at this picture & feel old that they were around when this beautiful temple was being built.  Maybe one of them will even get married there :)

As for Brucey.. he is fitting in very well with our family.  The boys like to run him ragged, but he seems to like it just fine.  He is pretty obedient & very loyal.  Somehow he always seems to dig a hole to get out the side gate.  But when he does, he just ends up sitting on the porch for us.  Funny dog!  He also likes to spend some meditation time in the wagon out back.

Joey is saying more & more words & turning into a little boy instead of my little baby.  He started saying Sam's name this week.  Sammy!!
Sam's toe nail finally fell off yesterday.. yuck, I know.  A few weeks ago Joe threw a huge rock on Sam's foot.  Hopefully the nail will grow back quickly!

My nephew Des got his mission call on Friday to the Guatamala,  Retalhueleu mission.  We all went over that night to watch him open his call.  I seriously can't believe he is 19.  On the way to the Steven's house Sam jumped into the car & said " We've got a mission!!!!".  Then when I explained to him that he would go to South America & speak Spanish, he said - "with Dora?".  :)  :)  :)

We had some pretty amazing meetings at church today. I'm so grateful for a loving Savior, & for an amazing  & forgiving husband.  I only hope I can deserve all of my boys someday :)

thoughts

Even though I didn't go to bed til 1am, here I am at 7am up.. the life of a mother.  Actually, I should probably consider myself lucky that I got to sleep in that late!  Joey: " Milk mama.. milk!! Bot, Mama, Bot! "  - what I wake up to daily.  Bot is the character from umizoomi, Joey's obsession.
Last night Sean & I finally got a little time away together.  It's been awhile since we've gone on a date.  Grantylicious babysat for us & got both kids to sleep pretty early when... da duh da.....Joey woke back up freaking out for a good half hour for him :(  Hopefully this doesn't mean he will never babysit for us again!
We went to Pizza Al Forno in Glendale.  We saw it on diners, drive ins & dives last week & wanted to try it.  The pizza was amazing!
This last week was one of those rare weeks that I ended up working 5 days. YUCK!  It wouldn't be so bad, but.. oh wait.. yeah it is.  It's really really hard for me to be away from the boys that long! & my house suffers alot too.  It looked like a bomb went off yesterday before I kind of started cleaning.  Today Sean is starting his tutoring for the lsat.  His tutor is coming here, so me & the boys gots to scram later on.  Meaning, I gotta clean like a madwoman here in a few minutes!
Sam starts preschool in 3 weeks & I can't tell who is more excited, Sam, or grandma ! :)  My mom is going to be his preschool teacher & she it is really cute how much she prepares & really cares about the kids, I'm lucky to have her to teach him!
Why did I seem to think when I was young that as soon as I grew up, got married & started having kids that my life would be magical & easy?  Each day presents new stressed & problems. I feel lucky to have been blessed with a husband that really cares about me & who I know I can share all things with, & grow with.  I never thought a males opinions would matter more to me than my dads :)

Alright, one last note-  if you are reading this, & have never looked at my picture blog, feel free to check it out HERE.  Even though there have been a few times I've even gotten pretty far behind on it.. it's probably the closest thing to picture how my life has been this year & I LOVE to share it with people :)  & nobody ever comments on it, so feel free to do that do if you want  :) 

here we go!

I'm taking my sister JoDee's advice & just starting to blog again.. not necessarily catch up... just start to blog.
I'm trying to type while my boys climb all over me & Sean teases them relentlessly.  Sounds about right.
My boys are growing up so fast!! Joey is saying more & more things that just astonish me.  Yesterday he told me "cuckoo clock mama!".  He likes to repeat Sam a lot, & since Sam NEVER stops talking.. it's not hard to pick things up quickly!
Things at our house are, of course, insane busy.  We went on a trip to California & Oregon a week &  half ago, & I still haven't recovered.  I just barely finished going through my pictures, & I can't quite get the house to feel clean.  I'm working 5 days this week & I'm not sure how I'm going to make it through!!! I think of Sam starting preschool next month & Sean starting his new classes & my mind gets so overwhelmed.  The months fly by & I feel like with work, I can't seem to keep up with the days!  Sean starts his tutoring for the LSAT next week.  & it very well could be that in 6 months he will be applying/interviewing at a few schools.  Where is my life going?  I'm going to make a stronger commitment to blog a little each day.  So many things the boys say & do are going undocumented, & I feel badly about it!
The other day Joe teased Sam for the first time. Sean thought it was hilarious.  Joey held a toy up so Sam couldn't reach it & then just giggled & giggled that he couldn't get it.  Joey LOVES watching Team Umizoomi right now. He asks for Bot over & over again.  Joey's vocabulary ...(real meaning cereal, apes -grapes, milk, Bot, Bruce- the dog, mama- for both me & Sean, clock, B- for blanket, daha-soda, bac bac- chicken, his numbers, some letters, set.. go! ). just to name a few.  He has the cutest little voice in the world, so to hear him say anything just melts my heart.
Sam's vocabulary increases all the time also.  I guess I've been saying the word sweetie lately- Sam asked me, mom, what is sweetie?   :)
The boys play together all day & love to be outside, as usual.
ok, more to come, every day.. hopefully :)

Memorial Day fun!

We had such an awesome Memorial Day Weekend!! I loved it so much because every single night we were hanging out with family, bbquing, homemade ice cream, swimming, eating, & enjoying each others company.  I made a few collages of the fun times we had so that we can remember them. 

swimming & bbq at Philip & Melissa's

 

 bbq & homemade ice cream with grandpa & great grandpa Johnson

 the last one is Max's awesome graduation party.

It's been awhile since we spent so much time with both our families. I'm looking forward to the next few weeks when all my family is together.  Good times :)

Fun Times

Yesterday evening I decided to take the boys down to the dinosaur museum in Mesa because it was their 35th birthday anniversary & they decided to party!!! They closed off the street & had games & crafts & gave free admission to the museum along with some cake & ice cream to polish it off.  It was tons of fun!! The boys colored dinosaur pictures, chiseled away some rocks to find toy dinosaurs in the middle, bounce housed it up & guzzled it all down with sugar :)  I only had my phone camera, so the pictures aren't amazing, but the time we had was!

 

 

notice the birthday hat on the dino in the second picture.  It was cute- they had party hats on alot of the dino bones in the museum.  There was also a live band on the street playing alot of oldies.  Sam stopped when we walked by & proceeded to dance to the music. It was so cute, I had to let him- after 4 songs, I had to break it up & we headed back.  Only down side of the night... my flip flop broke about half way through the evening, so I was shoeless on one foot. I was kind of embarassed, but what are ya gonna do?
Because we participated in all the crafts & games, Bookmans gave us a "prize" which turned out to be a $10 gift card for each of the boys, to Bookmans!  cool :)  So this morning we headed over there to cash them in.  The boys had alot of fun looking for books & there was a craft activity going on when we go there too! So Sam got to make a cool superhero mask & both the boys got juice boxes & gummy snacks!!
What an awesome FREE score we've had :)  The boys both got 2 books with their gift certificates.

My Sammy

Just a few Sam tidbits...
I am in love with this kid.  He is such a happy, independent kid!  Today we were in the car & I said: Sam, you are just so cute!  & he said:  Mom, I'm not cute... I'm a big boy!. Apparently you can't be both.
When we were eating homemade Popsicles, he kept looking at me bite into mine & told me if I bite into a popsicle, that I would become frozen.  Sometimes I wonder how he comes up with things.
He wanted to play with David today, who just moved to Florida.  I told him that he moved & Sam said : He doesn't live in Onizona anymore?  No Sam, David doesn't live in Onizona :)
He can now tell you that his birthday is Awtober 15th :)
Love :)

Sad day

Today the Schorns left us & moved to Florida :(  Last night & today we've spent time helping them pack up & get ready.  I know it will hit us more as time goes on & we are without them here, but we are SAD!!!  We will miss you guys so much!!!  We are so excited for you & all the fun you will have in your new life.. & hopefully we will get to visit you soon!!!

Tiffany & Sean

Tiffany & Julia

Tiffany & Caio

Sam& David.. bff

on the way to the airport.  When we left Sam kept saying- this is so sad!

It's so amazing how different people are in your life at different times, for different reasons, to make you a different person.  Part of my heart moved to Florida today & we won't be the same without them!!!

A glorious name

dearer than any other...
I never knew what it meant to be a mom til I became one. I never told my mom when I was growing up how amazing she was & how much I appreciated her selflessness.  How much I  appreciate sleepless nights, cleaning up things not so pleasant to clean up, laughing with me, crying with me.. but most of all, teaching me.  I love you mom.. more than I could ever say.  Thank you for my life.

:)

no pictures, just wanted to blog..
I feel so grateful today for my life. I love my husband & my boys so much.  My Heavenly Father blesses me by meeting every need I seem to have lately.  Sean & I have started trying to go to the temple more, & I can already see such an improvement in my attitude about life.  I started exercising more also & feel my energy level increase also.. much needed!!!
Sean just finished fixing our "new" (used) motorhome & took it to get some gas.  We are going to take it on a maiden voyage tonight, just up to the superstitions to test her out.  The boys are so excited they can hardly contain themselves!!!
Sam learned to spell his name this week & it made me a little teary eyed.  S-A-M. He is very proud to tell you, because he sees how happy it makes me.  I'm grateful that we can make our lives work with me only working 3 days a week, cause I don't think I could handle being away from my kids any more than that!  I can tell by Thursday they are dying to spend time with me.  I guess I should appreciate this while it lasts :)
Sean planned out his next semester so he can study for the LSAT.  He is planning on taking it this year & applying for law school.  I am so excited for all his accomplishments.. he is such a well rounded person!  I am also already starting to freak out about change to come in the next couple of years.  Sean will hopefully start law school next fall, which may or may not lead to a move.. & the year after that Sam starts kindergarten too!!!  I can't believe how fast my boys are growing up!!!!
the end.. for today.