Sleepy

We had a super moon and a solar eclipse just a few days apart. The boys loved seeing them both, but were SO TIRED! We stayed up late looking at the moon and then we had to wake up super early to see the solar eclipse. It was pretty overcast, but made the eclipse nice so we could see it without hurting our eyes!

Another note- We watched Harry Potter and cleaned out the closet under the stairs for Carter and Taylor to camp out in for a few days. They LOVE it. lol. Kids are so funny. I prefer my nice comfy bed thanks!

Allowance... or not?!?

The boys and I sat down together and made a new RULES list. We needed to change things up with Rhett being gone and it was nice to have them help make the rules. We also made new chore charts. I felt like they were ready to start earning a little bit of money and I really need them to help out a little more. I saw this little container and thought it would be perfect for them to keep their money in.

I thought wrong for the little boys. I came downstairs to this a couple days ago. I asked Hunter and Ryker why they ripped their money and they said," Now we have lots more money." Hmm.... I can see their point, but from now on they will be getting paid in coins not dollars. lol

The Avengers

Hey Dad, look who we saw---

Captain America was handing out posters in front of the theatre. We got so excited when we saw him that we made Mom stop so we could go and tell him we saw his movie. It was so cool! He talked to us for a long time. As we were leaving I said, " Thanks. You just made their day." He laughed and said, "No, they just made my day." I guess not everyone was as excited as my boys to see a grown man in uniform! The kids talked about it all day long. I didn't have the heart to tell them that he wasn't the "real" Captain America.

Airport

I love watching the little boys follow their Dad. They just adore him. It reminds me of a mother duck and her ducklings. 

We had to drop Rhett off at the airport for his deployment last week and it was such a hard thing to do. Rhett will be gone for about 7 months and we will really miss him. I was a lot more emotional than I had anticipated, hence the sunglasses on. I was pretty weepy and I hope the days fly by so we can be back together again. 

The kids had fun following Daddy through the airport and giving him lots of kisses and hugs before he had to leave! We love you babe! 

Final snuggles... for awhile anyway.

Congratulations Rhett

Rhett is such a great dentist. I am so proud of all the hard work that he has done. This year I have even gone in and had him do a little work on my mouth. :) I think he is on a mission to get all the metal out of my back teeth. Yikes!

In the military they have something called the CGO of the quarter. I think it stands for Commissioned Grade Officer or something like that. I don't have all the acronyms down yet, but you have to work your butt off to get it. They do it to honor all the hard work and I guess give you something to work towards. Rhett did so much volunteering and extra duties. He has been in charge of the crash cart and teaching people how to properly use it if they need to and has done countless volunteering opportunites in the community from running the dental booth to elementary school carnivals. :)

They also have something that they just started doing called the Top Producer of the quarter. Rhett and his office mate Aaron always have the highest numbers when it comes to dentistry and I have laughed many times when they are in their office comparing who has made the most money for the Air Force that month. They tend to be a little competitive. Anyway, Rhett really wanted to get it for last quarter since he will be deployed for the next several and I am happy to say that he got it. I guess he will be presented with a little gold tooth plaque or something like that. Way to go Rhett! 

You Rock Rhett!

We celebrated by having our very talented neighbor make a cake in honor of Rhett! She always does such a great job! It tasted amazing.

Apology

My sister called an informed me today that one of the songs that I had on my playlist had some "naughty" words in it. I am so sorry! I took the music off the blog so that won't happen again. Over here when I pull up the blog it doesn't play the music because I am not in the USA. I am so sorry if anyone was offended! It was not my intention!

Model Behavior?

We have had the opportunity to attend 3 baptisms this month. I decided to take my camera to one of them and take a few pictures of the boys for their Dad. 

I think my boys are so adorable! Yes, I am totally biased. They are such posers. lol I love it! :)

I really miss you Rhett especially on Sundays. The kids are not great at church. 

We have the 9:00 branch and It seems like we are always running late. We always end up sitting out in the hall waiting for the first meeting to be over. Anyway, on Mother's day I made sure that we got there early. When we walked in my big boys walked straight up to the front of the chapel and sat down next to The Jenks family on the second aisle. I thought maybe they had a program for Mother's Day so I didn't really think twice about it until they were passing the sacrament and had announced the program. No primary singing. Hmm, weird. I quietly walked up the aisle and retrieved Taylor and Carter. When we got back to our seats it dawned on me that they went right to their primary chairs. We are ALWAYS late and so when we went in they just assumed it was time for primary. lol. I guess I need to do a better job of being on time. For the record, Ashley Jenks just rolled with it. She just thought we weren't there and had sent the boys with someone else. She is so great! :)

Oh, and apparently when you put your hands around your eyes it makes you yell louder! lol

Fishing.... for tadpoles-

Sometimes you just need a break to PLAY with your kids. I love this. I mean really love being able to just relax and laugh. You just seem to enjoy them more when you aren't stressed about cleaning or what you're going to make for dinner. I know my kids love it too and often say, "Mommy can you play with us?"

I am going to make a goal for myself to play more often and just enjoy their sweet little personalities. They are growing up so fast before and I don't want to miss anything.

The other day Carter was begging to go and catch some tadpoles. This is not a weird request and we go "bug hunting" quite a bit together. We grabbed some containers and Noah and off we went. We found a small little pond where the rain runoff ends up. Their were hundreds of tadpoles in it. We all had such a blast dipping in container and seeing how many we caught. We made it a little competition of who could catch the biggest one. I am proud to say I WON! Yes. I rock! :)

I love their expressions. It was like, "What Mom? We're busy right now!"

Taylor making a handoff to Carter of one he caught! I love those hands.

Ryker helping Carter and Noah. :) Or maybe he's just admiring their catch!

They were all pretty little, but we did catch quite a few that had some hind legs. Carter begged to bring them home and I actually said yes..... until a couple days later they were attracting mosquitoes and starting to stink.

Carter volunteered to go dump them back in the pond. I think I'm more of a catch and release kind of girl. I don't like them coming home.

I love this picture of Ryker checking out his bottle seeing if he caught any. We used all sorts of containers that the little boys found. We had water bottles, a milk jug, tupperware, and I even saw Hunter using and old pop can to try to catch the little buggers.

Taylor preferred his hands and caught a lot. They were a little to slimy for my taste and I stuck with the milk jug. It's funny that the kids are completely in the water. I stayed on land and dry.... and still caught the biggest one! :) Fun day with boys!

Boys will be boys-

I love that my boys love the outdoors. They play outside as long as I let them. They are constantly climbing trees, making rope swings, and jumping on the tramp. They also love to make slides down our steep hill and forts. I caught them in action today! 

I felt bad they really wanted to sleep in it, but it started raining!

Carter really wants a pocket knife. We have a couple, but he cut himself so he isn't allowed to play with them right now. Noah did let Carter wear this wooden one around though. :)

Carter, Noah, Liam, and Taylor

These four can be found together daily. They catch all sorts of bugs from bees, spiders, tadpoles, grasshoppers, and even caught this little bird one day. Taylor always gets so excited when he sees pigeons. Yesterday he exclaimed, "I need to shoot that pigeon so I can eat it." Gross! I have NO IDEA why he wants to eat a pigeon, but he mentioned it often!

On another note-

These naughty monkeys are going to kill me- I just pulled them from the bath and put on pajamas. They immediately took off outside in the rain. I promptly put them in time out and here was their reaction. It hits their personalities perfectly. Hunter thought it was hilarious while Ryker just gave me his stink face! I love these little guys, but they are going to give me a run for my money!

Basketball Boys

Rhett had me sign up the big boys for basketball this year. Then, he left! Grr... that left me taking them to practice twice a week and games every Saturday. It is bittersweet that today was the last game!  I am thrilled that I don't have to wrestle with the babies on the bleachers anymore, but it was so fun to cheer them on.

Minus the one fight I got into with another Mom it was a great season! Lots of fun for the little boys.

Carter is getting to be quite the shot. We need to work on the dribbling a little, but he is doing really well!

He is pretty tall and it works to his advantage when rebounding. Good job Carter!

That is Carter's coach. Coach Walker was great for the boys. He was pretty competitive and taught them a lot about basketball! He is on the Air Force team and is really good.

Taylor was an absolute RIOT to watch this year. The very first practice he came home and said, "My basketball teacher said that I just need to work on spinning it on my finger... I'm good at EVERYTHING else."

I then, went to the next practice which just made the statement even funnier. He is getting better, but is more interested in dancing around the court while waving and smiling to me in the stands. :) He is such a funny little guy!

Tell me that defense doesn't make you nervous? lol. He is such a little peanut!

 Today was the last game so they each had a fun party at the end where they received a trophy. Taylor was in heaven. His coach came up and said, "I am going to miss Taylor the very most. He always has the biggest smile on his face." It made me smile to know that he is such a joy to other people as well.

We got pictures done and already got Taylor's back. Still waiting on Carter's. Sorry about the flash. He had such a fun coach. She had so much patience! :)