Happy Mothers Day- a little late I know!

So now that I'm a parent I can appreciate my own parents alot more. I got this poem a few years ago and I have to so I hope I am a mean mother.

Someday when my children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates a parent, I will tell them:

I loved you enough . . . to ask where you were going, with whom, and what time you would be home.

I loved you enough. . . to insist that you save your money and buy a bike for yourself even though we could afford to buy one for you.

I loved you enough. . . to be silent and let you discover that your new best friend was a creep.

I loved you enough. . . to make you go pay for the bubble gum you had taken and tell the clerk, “I stole this yesterday and want to pay for it.”

I loved you enough. . . to stand over you for two hours while you cleaned your room, a job that should have taken 15 minutes.

I loved you enough . . . to let you see anger, disappointment and tears in my eyes. Children must learn that their parents aren’t perfect.

I loved you enough. . . to let you assume the responsibility for your actions even when the penalties were so harsh they almost broke my heart.

But most of all, I loved you enough. . . to say NO when I knew you would hate me for it. Those were the most difficult battles of all. I’m glad I won them, because in the end you won, too.

And someday when your children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates a parent, you will tell them. . .

Was your Mom mean? I know mine was We had the meanest mother in the whole world! While the other kids ate candy for breakfast, we had to have cereal, eggs, and toast.

When others had a Pepsi and a Twinkie for lunch, we had to eat sandwiches. And you can guess our mothers fixed us a dinner that was different from what other kids had, too.

Mother insisted on knowing where we were at all times. You’d think we were convicts in a prison.

She had to know who our friends were, and what we were doing with them.

She insisted that if we said we would be gone for an hour, we would be gone for an hour or less.

We were ashamed to admit it, but she had the nerve to break the Child Labor Laws by making us work. We had to wash the dishes, make the beds, learn to cook, vacuum the floor, do laundry, empty the trash, and all sorts of cruel jobs. I think she would lie awake at night thinking of more things for us to do.

She always insisted on us telling the truth the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. By the time we were teenagers, she could read our minds.

Then, life was really tough! Mother wouldn’t let our friends just honk the horn when they drove up. They had to come up to the door so she could meet them.

While everyone else could date when they where 12 or 13, we had to wait until we were 16.

Because of our mother we missed out on lots of things other kids experienced:

None of us have ever been caught shoplifting, vandalizing other’s property or ever arrested for any crime. It was all her fault.

Now that we have left home, we are all educated, honest adults. We are doing our best to be mean parents just like Mom was.

I think that is what’s wrong with the world today. It just doesn’t have enough mean moms.

Road Trip

This weekend we went on a quick trip over to Knotts Berry Farm. When we moved to Nevada we thought it would be so fun to go over to California for weekend trips. Well we've been here 2 years and this is the first weekend trip we have taken. But it was fun and worked out pretty well so it probably won't be th last. I didn't take alot of pictures so these are the best ones I have.


Kierstyn & Bentley are pretty good in the car. We made it all the way there with no stops.


Kiersty & Bentley loved Camp Snoopy and that is where we spent most of the day. Bentley however, did not want to get close to Snoopy so I had to go with Kierstyn to see him.


This is one of their favorites. They had a great time on all the rides and probably rode them all at least twice. For Blake and I we took turns going on the roller coasters but its not as fun going by yourself.


This was probably Kierstyn and Bentley's all time favorite ride. They were literally giggling everytime the car whipped them around the corner. Ben wasn't quite tall enough to go by himself so Blake got to ride too!

Last weekend Blake got to go on a golf trip. What a lucky guy! He's a little out of practice but I think he had fun!

Yesterday was my baking day. As I'm so lucky that I am able to stay home with my kids, I guess you could say I try to improve my domestic skills i.e. cooking, baking, etc. I've never been great at baking bread but recently decided to try it again. Yesterday I baked this loaf of whole wheat bread and was pretty excited about how well it turned out. This recipe I got off of everdayfoodstorage.net which is a great site for recipes and how to videos.

Several of my friends have been getting into the couponing thing, and a few weeks ago I saw how it could become addicting. I took advantage of a sale on cereal combined it with some coupons I found online and bought six boxes for .12 and received a $5 off my next purchase. So since this was such a great deal I stocked up and bought a whole ton of cereal. So I bought 36 boxes (yeah alot I know) spent $5.60 out of pocket and recieved a total of 8 $5 off my next purchase. SCORE!!! I have to say I'm not the best couponer and that has been my best deal yet.

My new hobby

So the last 2 months I have been taking a quilting class. I have always wanted to learn and never had the time. But I decided now was as good a time as ever. So here is a picture of what I've accomplished so far.

Our Easter Weekend

For Easter weekend we went to the county fair. Blake was hoping to would be more like the Southeast Idaho fair but he was sadly disappointed. And to top it off it rained on us all day long. So we walked around in the mud and saw and the exhibits, ate fair food, and watched a few animal shows and then called it a day. The kids stilll had alot of fun but I know Blake was not impressed so I doubt we'll go next year.


On Easter the kids had to search for their baskets and then were so excited to go play with their new sand toys. Lucky for us the weather was much nicer. Its on holidays that we really miss being close to our family but we are blessed to have wonderful friends. We had dinner with some friends and had a potluck. Much easier than making dinner all myself and more relaxing. Then we waited until dark to do an Easter egg hunt and used flash lights. It was alot more fun!!

Phoenix

Okay first of all a little explaination. We bought Kierstyn a camera for her birthday and she was soooooo excited. Then we opened it up and found out it didn't work and after calling around I couldn't find another store that had another one in stock. So we took a little side trip to Scottsdale to get the replacement. And she was so happy. She probably took a hundred pictures of just the hotel room. But she really had a great time of taking pictures of all the animals at the zoo.

Here are the kids at the zoo. We had a great time and saw all the animals this year. The kids rode the camel again this year but were big enough to go by themselves.

We also had a great time at the swimming pool. The hotel had a wave pool and a lazy river so we spent the day out in the sun and did get a little sun burn, too! Ben especially likes crawling up on his dad's back and floating in the water. Another great trip to Phoenix!