Rescue Fest 2011

This was seriously a blast. The Air Force had Rescue Fest about a month ago and the little kids had a great time. We learned all about the different ways they rescue people. Carter was especially excited and told everyone that that is what his uncle does. They had a helicopter come in and as they repelled down the ropes to get to the ground Taylor just kept shouting, "That's Ben, Mommy that's Ben." They were a little disappointed that it wasn't really Ben and that Ben does do that, but he is in Las Vegas. :( Poor kids!

Take the hint Ben.... we want you to move over here! :)

Anyway, we got to climb on boats, 4 wheelers, and even a climbing wall.

Rhett's favorite part was playing with the guns. They had all sorts of huge guns set out for people to look at and hold. The babies kept trying to look in it like their daddy was looking through the scope, but they would just put their head near the end of the gun. They looked at the butt of the gun instead of through the scope. :) It was funny to watch them trying to copy daddy!

They had face painting and the kids loved this. It was such a mess and we were all pretty stained toward the end of the day.

They also had a guy showing how to make fires and how to survive. He pulled out crickets and passed them out for people o eat. Rhett decided to man up and eat one. I'm trying to post a video. By the look on his face, he really hated it. Right after he asked me for a piece of gum. :) He had the guy give one to Ryker and it was so funny. They guy put it on his tongue and it just hopped around in his mouth before it hopped right out. I was dying laughing so Rhett told me I had to eat one. I just grabbed it and popped it in my mouth. It actually wasn't that bad. I've made food that tasted worse than that cricket... so I definitely could survive for a day or two on bugs.

A few days ago Taylor was in the kitchen grabbing me a plastic bag and I heard a high pitched scream... very similar to my own. :) Anyway, I ran in to see what it was all about and there was a cockroach the size of Hunter under the sink. I asked Taylor what we should do with it and he looked up with a very panicked voice and said, "Do you want to eat it?" "No Taylor, I'm good." It was pretty gross. Bugs don't normally freak me out, but this baby was HUGE!!! I grabbed it with a napkin and squished it between my fingers and it squirted guts all over my hand and on Tay. We both let out a little scream. GROSS!!!

A few moments of the week I don't want to forget-

Taylor at the park- "Mommy my belly is hurting a little." "Well Taylor, maybe it's because you ate the whole bag of grapes by yourself." 10 minutes later in the bathroom--- "Mommy HELP it's pee poop again!" Priceless!!! :)

Lately Hunter has been a little like the lady in the King Solomon story that wanted to cut the baby in half. He and Ryker were fighting over a frisbee and I finally got sick of it and shouted, "Do you want me to throw it away?" To which Ryker immediately started crying and saying share. While Hunter just looked over at Ryker and stated, "Yeah Mommy, frow it away." He has done this quite a few times in the last week. If he can't play with it by himself.... he doesn't want anyone to play with it! Little twerp!!!

The big boys checking out the boat-

Mommy could really use a jet ski. It would be totally rad here!

4 wheelers were a definite hit-

We recognize these little feet- They are for the rescue combat, but to us they mean Uncle Ben!!!

Big boy toys- Hunter looking in the butt instead of the scope. lol

Trying!

The tent set up.

Carter wanted his own picture without the buggy boys! :)

Wow! Face camo.

Ryker asking the guy abut the bug.

Right as he put it in. I wish I had it on video because it was about the funniest thing I have ever seen.

Demonstration of how they get the guy out of the car. Very cool!!!

NOT Uncle Ben, but still very awesome!

Here is Rhett eating the bug... He made it look really hard, but we are still very proud of him. Remember to pause the music in the right hand corner so you can hear.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We got a really fun package the other day and it came right in time for St. Patrick's Day. I let the kids open it and they had an absolute ball trying everything on.

For St. Patrick's day this year we went to the BX and had lunch with Rhett. The little kids all picked out something special to wear and were keeping their eyes peeled for somebody without green to pinch. Taylor really wanted to pinch someone, but he only saw one little girl that didn't have green on and I wouldn't LET him pinch her. :)

Carter put on a green shirt and this adorable little headband for a quick picture before school, but would have dropped dead before riding the bus with this on. He has started to get older and gets embarrassed pretty easily now. :)

Taylor and the babies loved wearing everything green and I had to peel everything off for bedtime. They had a fantastic day and we were definitely feeling lucky. We even played around outside and looked for those tricky little leprechauns. Taylor even swears that he saw one. :)

What a fun day!

On another note- We have finally moved into the new house and LOVE it. It is a two story with all the bedrooms upstairs and a huge backyard for the kids to run around in. I got everything unpacked fairly quickly and even made Rhett hang up pictures to make it a home. :)

A few setbacks of the week were when I got locked in the upstairs bedroom with the three little kids. Luckily, the cable guy came and let me out. Super embarrassing!!! Another setback was just trying to keep up with all the laundry, cooking, cleaning, and being a good Mom while trying to unpack and put everything together. I am s glad that the week is over.

Carter is still going to Killin, but his last day with be April 7th. I feel that it is important for him to make new friends that live close by that he can play with over the Summer. He is nervous, but excited.

We are SAFE-

I have had a lot of phone calls and emails regarding our safety. I just wanted to let everyone know that we are safe.

On Friday afternoon we received an evacuation warning at 3:55 p.m. We were told that mainland Japan had an earthquake of 8.9 magnitude and a big tsunami that followed. We were told that a tsunami was coming our direction and was due to hit at 5:45 p.m.

I started packing bags overnight bags for me and the kids and we had some friends call and tell us to come over and play games for the night. They live on higher ground and our apartment is RIGHT on the water. I was just waiting for Carter to get home from school. I tried calling Rhett to let him know what was going on, but all the cell phones were down. It was a scary time for me waiting for Carter to get home. He is usually home by 4:15 and it was almost 5:00. As soon as he got here at 5:25 we headed out the door.

We got down to the car and the babies were really nervous. The sirens were blaring with people in Japanese telling everyone to head to higher ground. We got about a three blocks from our house when they said on the radio that it was due to hit in 10 minutes. Me and Rhett made a quick decision to head back home. We were in stop and go traffic right down the road. We both felt that it would be safer for us and the kids to be on our sixth floor apartment than on the ground if the tsunami were to hit us big. We turned around, got home, and rushed everyone upstairs. Then, we waited. We watched outside and NOTHING came. I have never been so thankful to see calm water.

Japan was still receiving large aftershocks so we stayed on the tsunami warning for 48 hours. It was odd to see all the boats out on the water. We watched the video of all the devastation that had happened on mainland and are so grateful that our little island of Okinawa Japan was safe.

It has been amazing to see so many military members step up to help out. Everyone wants to go and help the people in need. The military base in Yokota had planes rerouted through them so that planes could still land. The same day the Combat Rescue flew to help in search and rescue. It is great to see so many willing to help out. :)

We received many phone calls and emails regarding whether we were safe and are thankful for being in people thoughts and prayers. We are just over 1,000 miles from where the earthquake hit and even though we are still a little nervous about the plants and the radiation coming our way, people are monitoring everything very closely.

The day of the tsunami everyone had a recall to make sure all military members were safe and accounted for- phones were down so this was difficult to get. Little airmen ran from home to home to make sure that all members were accounted for. I know my family was so grateful for them doing so so they could sleep at night knowing we were okay.

I feel bad for all the people that were affected by this and my thoughts and prayers go with the families that have lost members. Thank you for thinking about us and I am happy to say that we are completely safe!

Here is what we saw the day of the tsunami. The water fell and rose, but no waves.

It was interesting to see all the boats camped out in the water for 48 hours.

The second day it was a little stormy and I felt so bad that they had to stay out there.

We again, are just so thankful that we were all kept from harm. Please pray for the people of Japan. They have a rough road of recovery ahead of them.

Ryuku Mura

We went to a little place called Ryuku Mura a little while back and had a blast together. It must have been one one of Carter's days off from school. I'm thinking it was a teacher prep day. I Love when we get to go on adventures with Carter Barter!

This was one of those trips where we just decided to go on an adventure last minute, hopped in the car, and drove until we found something fun to do. These are the kids very favorite kind of adventures. We have found tons of fun little parks by doing this.

Anyway, this place sort of reminds me of the PCC (Polynesian Cultural Center) of Japan. They had the Eisa dancers, little Japanese huts, and a sweet Habu snake show. After the show they even had me try the ground up Habu. It was GROSS!!! I was trying to act brave for the little boys, but I seriously wanted to spit it out and vomit.

They had a huge wall with all types of fish. Carter thought this was the coolest one on the wall and therefore wanted his picture in front of it.

This was for the Habu snake show. The Habu snake is the most poisonous snake here in Japan.

They had a part where they had a little 3D movie portion. Again, we had a great time, but ALL of it was in Japanese so we were a little lost as to what he said. For all I know he could have been talking about us. :)

Ryker LOVED the guy doing the show and went up to him afterwards to be held. As you can see he still had "his" haircut. Poor ugly kid!! :) The guy held the snake out and it was literally less than a foot away from the kids. I almost peed I was so scared!

Poor poor Taylor. Carter always make him be the girl.

Funny happenings and conversations of the week-

We are coming back from the park and Taylor pipes up from the back of the van, "Hmm.... my feet smell like a garbage can. That's so weird." They actually really did. I have got to buy that kid some new shoes. His feet are SO GROSS!!!

Carter and Taylor are having a conversation about who they are going to marry. It went something like this-

Carter is telling Taylor that he wants to marry Grace. Taylor replies that he is going to marry Mom. Dad says that Mom is already taken and he'll have to pick somebody else. Taylor pouts for a minutes then says, "Fine, I'll just marry Carter and HE will be the girl." Carter gets mad and says, "Taylor if you want me to marry you... YOU have to be the girl!!!" Hmm.... weird! I then told everyone to stop fighting and that NO ONE was getting married for a long time and that boys don't marry boys, but when the time is right, after their missions, they will meet a pretty girl that they will fall in love with, marry, have kids, and live happily ever after with! To which they all started laughing.

Daddy was tickling Carter last night and I hear Rhett saying, "Eww... Carter stop. Seriously just stop peeing." I guess he had tickled him until Carter peed all over himself and Rhett. I guess Carter got the last laugh on that one. Carter was actually so mad at Rhett that when I told the boys to clean up the pee... he yelled at Rhett and said, "You have to clean it up because it was ALL your fault!" I'm sure in years to some that Carter will loved that I shared this with everyone. :)

Here are a couple videos from the snake show. Make sure you pause the music in the top right hand corner so you can hear the video.

Ultimate Football~

Every Saturday lately Rhett has been going to Ultimate Football with some buddies from work. We usually tag along and enjoy being outside in this beautiful weather we have been having. Carter thinks Rhett is so cool and tends to really watch him play. He also likes to bug the little kids while we are there.

Hunter is such a little adventurer. He loves to look around and can find something fun to play with everywhere we go. He loves to run in the grass and crawl on his belly down steep hills. :)

Carter also can keep himself entertained. He loves to tease his brothers and play ball. He is really into basketball and soccer. I tried to get him on the team, but they filled up the first day of registration. Hopefully, we will get him in next year. He would really love to learn to play.

Ryker wants me to entertain him. It's really kind of annoying. I am constantly saying, "Go play with your brothers." He loves balls of any kind, but GOLF balls are his ultimate favorite toy right now. Taylor on the other hand can make a toy out of anything. Here he found a brick that he rolled down the hill the whole time we were there. He loved being able to play out in the dirt.

This was another fun game Carter made up. It's called shoot your brother up in the air. He would hold down the branch and have Hunter grab on. Then, he let him loose. I love the expression on his face. It is just pure naughty! Hunter had a ton of fun though. We have really enjoyed when Daddy gets to go play football. It's nice to get on base and enjoy being outside. I can't wait until next week when we have a backyard.

We have decided to move on base. It will make it easier for the kids to be able to play outside. The movers are coming this Friday and will get us all moved! Woohoo for a new adventure. Wish me luck that this time I will actually get everything unpacked before we move again! :)

OLD post- Residency Graduation!

While Melanie was here visiting I copied all the pictures onto my computer from her camera. She had pictures from Rhett's Residency Graduation! I had to post these. This was seriously one of the happiest days of my life and I'm sure that Rhett has NEVER been happier to be done with something. This was the hardest year of our lives-

Rhett would be gone from about 6:00 a.m. until Midnight most days of the week. My poor kids would wake up every morning and say, "Mommy, do we get to see Daddy today?" It was so sad because the answer was usually, "Not today, but maybe this weekend." It was seriously so much work for Rhett. I had actually moved home for a couple months so my Mom could help me with the kids. It was a very trying year for the marriage. I am happy to say that things are definitely starting to look better for the future.

Anyway, here are a couple pictures from the ceremony. Rhett, I am so proud of you! You have worked so hard for the family. We love you!!!

At the ceremony they called up each spouse and presented us with a certificate and a beautiful arrangement of flowers because they too know how hard residencies can be on families. It was neat to walk up and have Rhett give me a kiss and some flowers. :)

Here are the six residents- Left to right- Vera, Kim, Jake, Rhett, Tann, and Karen. The three guys are all LDS and have families. :)

Rhett with his Mommy.

Me and Rhett after the ceremony. I had been so rushed to get the kids to a babysitter and get ready I had totally forgot to even bring my camera. Thanks for saving the day Melanie!

Congratulations Rhett! I am truly your biggest fan! I have seen how hard you have worked over the years and really am so proud of you!!! :)

Comprehensive Park

We have been stuck in the house for a little while due to the baby we are watching, but we did get to sneak out a couple weeks ago and hit up Comprehensive Park. My little LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this park. We went and fed the fish and then I just let them around like little indians until they were all pooped. :) What a great day.

This post has a ton of pictures... in fact all of them do lately. I would apologize, but we are on the other side of the world and I really want the family to get to see them growing up. They are getting SO BIG!!! It's very bitter sweet to me. I love that they are better helpers, but it makes me sad that my kids are no longer babies. :(

Ryker by the "cool bridge."

The fish love when Hunter and Ryker feed them because they throw HUGE pieces of bread in.

My sweet Taylor hamming it up for the camera!

Taylor on the climbing portion of the playground.

This toy was hilarious. It bounces back and forth and echoes super loud. The funny part was that the babies could climb in, but then they both got stuck rolling around the bottom. I was laughing so hard. After I snapped the picture I helped the poor little stinkers out. :)

Sweet Ryker

Sweet Hunter

But really... isn't this playground totally awesome. Another one you would NEVER see in the states. You can actually climb up to the top of the tower. You are probably at least 15 feet off the ground.

I think they were starting to get a little sleepy by this point of the day. Overall, we had another great time.

Mommies Little Helpers-

So lately the little ones have really liked to help me in the kitchen. My kitchen is WAY too small for me plus eight little legs running and trying to help in the stirring, pouring, and tasting. I started a "Helper Night." They take turns being the helper and it has been GREAT!!! They don't fight about it anymore. They know when it is their turn and they know they are only allowed in the kitchen when they have the hat and apron on. It's been a lot of fun to get to spend a little one on one time with my sweet little ones. :)

Now if only I can find a solution for the twins making castles out of all my canned goods. Grrr...