Appreciate Our Freedom 2010

Our annual trip to Los Angeles on Memorial Day was very exciting his year. I love to teach the boys about what the day is all about. Its not just a day off school and a BBQ. Jeremys grandfather is buried at this cemetery and we enjoy visiting it every year a seeing all of the flags. In addition to the cemetery we drove by the LA Temple, visited the jewelry mart, saw the Hollywood sign, had lunch at Century City Mall and a quick tour of Graystone Mansion. And a bunch of other stuff. Jeremy is a Los Angeles guru, he know where everything is and a ton of history of the city. All Preston wanted to do is see the Hollywood sign. He was so excited when Jeremy go close, I don't understand and am not to sure how he even knows about it. I have never been to such an upscale food court in my life. We enjoyed Lawyers Prime Rib and the kids had Fudruckers, on real plates with real silverware and glasses. It was to funny. There were a bunch of great restaurants to choose from. As for Graystone...its a great place to visit. If you haven't been there put it on your to do list.

I didn't take any photos of anything else but the cemetery.....next year!

The only way to stop chasing Emma was to put her on Dads shoulders.

My handsome boys. Emma wouldn't sit still for a photo all she wanted to do was run.

Preston rested in the sun while grandpa cleaned up the grave marker.

Emma occasionally straitened a flag or two.

All she wanted to do was run.......and run.........an run!

Not This Girl

This lovely lamp survived 2 boys and within 16 months Emma was able to destroy it. The funny thing is I told myself "you need to move that table before she knocks it over", well I didn't.

Directions Anyone

Apparently our house is so big that you can get lost so one afternoon the boys made signs and posted them around the house. They made me smile every time I walked by one, I especially liked the arrows. I was pretty impressed by the spelling to. We couldn't convince Harrison that restroom was spelt correctly, he insisted that it should start with a B. I finally figured out that he wanted the sign to say Bathroom. There were more upstairs, I think I was to lazy to walk up the stairs and later never happened. Most of them said STOP. I let them stay up for about a week. Does anyone else go through a lot of paper and tape?

Room 4 Is Open

The whole family gathered in Room 4 at Wagon Wheel Elementary. Preston was very proud to show us all of his hard work and his classroom. After all they spend almost 7 hours a day in it. I love that his class room is so neat and orderly, it even smells good. Preston loves his teacher and that is very important to me. We are very proud of you Preston and love to watch you grow into a young man.

On a different note, the bandage on his face was a burn from a light bulb. I came home one night after being gone a little over an hour and found this huge burn on his face. I asked him "What the heck happened". He calmly said "Oh I got stung, I told dad." "Preston that is a burn not a sting, Jeremy.....did you see this?" I guess it didn't hurt him because he never shed a tear. Jeremy had no idea what he was talking about because there were no bee's in the house at 8:00 at night. I hope it doesn't scar!

Why Is It So Messy?

A better question is why do I make it????

Unexpected Knock

A few weeks ago Harrison was outside on the tramp and long story short was trying to pee on the dog from the tramp. He was trying to perfect his aim with a moving target. Which is a whole post in and of itself. In my usual fashion I try to scare him by telling him if he doesn't treat the dog nice and make good choices someone is going to come take him away from us and give him to a family that wont pee on him! He cried for days sometime uncontrollable. Apparently I also made a bad choice.

Fast forward about 2 weeks....today I was upstairs and there was a knock at the door. Harrison quickly answered it and I truly thought it was a friend dropping something off. All of the sudden I hear a MAN say "you should not be opening the door to strangers, and I am a stranger!" It was not a nice voice but a strong mad voice. I raced down stairs and find an officer at the door. My heart was racing at this point and trying to give an excuse why my 4 year old answered the door, while trying to think why he was at my door.

He then says "Do you have a dog"

Me "Yes" I included a photo so you can see how ferocious he is.

Officer "Well then your going to jail"

Me "laughing" - if you know me at all you know this was the case

Officer "I am just kidding, show me proof of rabies and pay the $24 for registration that is past due right now we have an amnesty program right now."

Me "What, are you kidding me"

Office "No, just get your check book and then call your vet and on speaker phone have them verify he has had the rabies shot"

Me "okay" So I did what he said.

Seriously he came to my door for $24 bucks and took a verbal from the vet! Now mind you we have two dog in the backyard which he can see but says nothing about dog number 2 Otis.

Fast Forward an hour. We are picking up Preston from school. Half way home Harrison in the back seat informs Preston in the front seat "Preston, there was an officer at our house today."

Preston turns to me and says "What, Why" He is smart...he goes right to the reliable source.

Me "Oh it was nothing it was just about Oliver"

Preston says turning and looking at Harrison "HARRRISSSSON, HARRISON I TOLD YOU NOT TO PEE ON THAT DOG! Did they take him?"

I still can't stop laughing! I love my kids. I am sure I would not have as many enjoyable moments in life without them.

spectacular SEVEN

Kevin and Kody did an AWESOME job! They were perfect.

How is it possible that my little guy is already seven years old? What I love about Preston the most 1. How he ardors Emma, 2. compassionate, 3. full of life, 4. always prepared, 5. passion for learning, 6. dedicated and 7. loving.

Preston knows what he wants and when he wants it. This years birthday was no different. He wanted a Clones Wars party not to be confused with Star Wars. Most importantly we needed Anikan Skywaker and Count Duku. I was up for the challenge. Everything turned out great, 24 little boys and one little girl all waving light sabers, Anikan, Count Duku, pizza, cake, presents and a ton of laughter. May the Force be with you! I love you Preston.