Happy Father's Day!

 Happy Father's Day to the world's BEST Daddy!

P.S. Don't you love their matching outfits, including ties? They are both so cute!

Our Day Out With Thomas

Early Saturday morning, we woke the kids up and headed to the Mt. Hood Railway for the Day Out With Thomas event. We kept it a surprise from the kids because if we told them ahead of time that's all they would ask about!

We had to park in a lot a ways away from the railroad and ride a school bus to the train station. Gage was really nervous about the whole thing, and Maisey was so excited. She always asks if she can ride a school bus to school! 

When we got to the event there were 4 different sections. The first one we visited was the gift shop. The kids each got to pick out a shirt. Maisey picked out a hideous yellow one. Gage's is red. No pics of them in their shirts yet, because Maisey wanted to wait until Monday to wear it so her cousin Madi can see!

The next stop was the storytelling/movie watching area. They had a fun bean bag toss set up!

Maisey was actually good at it!!

Gage was too if you don't count that he cheated!

The kids got a Thomas story read to them!

 

The next area was visiting Sir Topham Hatt. He was creepy with a capital c! Check out Gage's face!

Seriously, Sir Topham Hatt couldn't keep his head up and some lady had to keep helping him move his feet. It was almost like he was drunk or something! We booked it out of that area pretty quickly!

The next area was the Imagination Station. They had all sorts of fun things for the kids to do there. But Gagey mostly wanted to do this:

He just plopped himself right down on the ground and watched that train go around and around and around!

While Maisey kept herself busy making a train necklace out of noodles and coloring pictures of Thomas, Percy, and James.

After we visited each of those 4 stations, we headed over to the bounce houses to play until our train arrived!

And then Thomas pulled up! You can imagine Gage's excitement!

We boarded the train

and enjoyed a nice ride! Haha! Actually Gage was a nightmare on the train! He spilled a water bottle, wanted to walk around all over but then he would fall over because the train was rickety, and he ate Cocoa Puffs off the floor!

The family of 5! Thomas is pretty much a part of our family everyday anyway. He rides in the car with us, he sleeps with Gage, and he eats meals with us! That counts right?

Gage much preferred this littler kids-only train!

And the bus ride back to our car, since he knew what it was all about this time!

This is what our back seats looked like about 5 minutes into the car ride home!

Oh yeah, did I mention that Grammy came with us? And our friends the Maughans? It was such a fun morning and the rain held out on us! We were pretty lucky!

Randoms

We've been keeping busy! What's new, right?

Today, Shaun and I played in the Rick Olsen Memorial Golf Tournament! It's a Stake golf tournament that my dad used to organize every year, and since he's died, his two good friends renamed it, and now organize it every year. We hadn't played since last year's golf tournament, and it showed! Haha! We had a few good shots here and there, but we were mainly there to have fun. We played with our friends, John and Tish, and my mom. My mom won an award for closest female to the pin! Way to go mom! But we finished at 10 over par! YIKES!

 Tonight, the kids and I had a movie night. We laid on their couches, ate popcorn, and watched Cars! My kids are so fun!

 Gage is so funny because he is very particular about things! Just like his mommy and daddy! He lines up all of his trains just so, then drives one out of the line at a time. He cracks me up!

 I happened to capture the 5 minutes of the day that they weren't arguing, hitting, crying, etc. Isn't it sweet?

 He tries to fit as many toys into this dump truck as he can, then wheels it around the house! He also does it with a stroller. He gets so frustrated when things start falling out!

Maisey is really into jewelry right now! Lately, she has been playing in all of mine, but I put that to an end quickly last week when she took out EVERY.SINGLE.PIECE of jewelry I own and laid it all out on my bed. Now she is limited to her own jewelry box, which apparently has PLENTY in it!!!

Father's Day Gift Idea

 I was in desperate need of a mutual activity on Wednesday night and I found this idea to make tin can treats for Father's Day. I ran to the store, got what I needed and my beehives and I whipped these babies out!

Not bad for 13 year olds!

This is the one I made! I gave it to Shaun and he already opened it and devoured his treats!

What a cute idea!

Daddy's Shadow

 Gagey sure loves his daddy and is always just a few steps behind him! Check out these pics I snapped the other day of the two of them working outside together!

I LOVE my boys!!!

Janel Came to Visit

My kids sure love their Aunt Janel! She came to visit us last weekend and we were on the go all weekend!

We visited family and friends on Friday, then we took Janel out for her birthday dinner at Red Robin.

 Janel was so nice to share her ice cream sundae with the kids. The waiter thought it was Maisey's birthday so they came out and sang to her and put the ice cream in front of her and she was so sweet and just moved it over to in front of Janel. It was funny! After dinner, we headed to my brother's bon fire and stuffed ourselves with smores! YUM!

On Saturday, Janel and I started out early with a brisk 3-mile run! It was GREAT! Then we hurried home for a baby shower (at my house) then we met up with some friends for lunch. During nap time we worked out back in our garden! Janel is so awesome for helping us! After the kids woke up we packed up our bikes and drove to Willamette Mission State Park for an awesome bike ride. Well, the bike trails were flooded over, so we ended up riding up to the Weatland Ferry and rode it across the river and back. Gage was in heaven riding on a boat! When we came back across we ate a picnic dinner on the river bank and then rode back to our car. On the way back, the bike trailer got a flat tire. Our evening definitely didn't go the way it was planned, but we made the best of it and it ended up being a great night.

 Look how beautiful it was on Saturday! This was the scenery on our bike ride!

 Maisey loves Aunt Janel!

Gage does not really like his helmet!

Shaun and I on the ferry!

Janel just happened to be coming on the one Sunday in 3 months that I had to teach. And the value for the month was Good Works, so I asked if she would giver her BYU Women's Conference presentation to the young women in my ward. It's all about service and finding opportunities to serve. I was so excited to be able to hear her presentation because I wasn't able to make it to the conference in April. But I ended up having to take Maisey to the doctor after sacrament meeting, so I missed it again! But I heard it went great!

We played games all Sunday afternoon, then drove Janel up to the airport so she could fly back to Utah! I'm sure it wasn't the most relaxing trip for Janel, but we were so glad that she was able to come and visit us and that she was a good sport with everything that we dragged her along to do!

The Significance of a Quarter Pounder

It kinda seems like we've been living at the pediatrician's office lately. We can usually go several months without having to stop in and see him but we've been 3 times in the last month and will be heading there again next week.

On Sunday (YES, our office has Sunday hours, cool huh?), I had to take Maisey in because I suspected a UTI. The nurse weighed her and was 32 pounds exactly. She peed in a cup, they tested it, and I was correct in my assumption. She had a UTI. This is her second infection in 5 months, so the doc wants to do some more searching to see if there is an underlying cause to the infections.

This morning, I took this little mischievous guy in for his 2 year old check up!

He weighed in at 31 3/4 pound! That's right! My kids weigh a McDonald's hamburger of a difference! Crazy huh? He is in the 84 percentile for weight! He is such a big boy! He is 35 1/4 inches tall, which is the 63 percentile. Keep growing little buddy! Daddy wants you to play football!

Everything else looked good with him and the doctor even thinks his scars on his bum from last month will go away completely! YAY!

Swimming Lessons

Maisey has been in swim lessons for the whole month of May. This is her last week. I haven't been great about taking pictures of her for 2 reasons. 1) I'm trying to keep her fully-clothed brother out of the water and 2) Once a week, I've been trying to swim laps during her lessons.

There was a day last week that we weren't swimming and Daddy came to help with Gage, so we have pictures!

She is still very timid in the water and doesn't like getting her face wet. She is a strong kicker though, and is starting to get the arm motions down.

Finishing Up May: Baptism, Pump it Up, Yard Work

I can't believe today is the last day of May! Here is last week's update!

 We were driving down the freeway last week and happened upon the Wienermobile! Imagine Gage's excitement. Now imagine Gage screaming "dot dog, dot dog, dot dog" over and over again. There, it was like you were in the car with us!

 We had Maisey's end-of-the-year preschool picnic party. Maisey LOVED it and is really going to miss going to preschool this summer.Teacher Angela made these cute pillow cases for the kids and each of the kids in the class put their hand prints on all of the pillow cases. Maisey also got the book "Clifford's Graduation" and she got to take home her seat spot and her name! It was a great night!

 In preparation for our vacation, we tried putting Gage in his big boy bed for nap time and bed time last week.We really don't want to have to take our pack n' play with us, but it looks like we will have to. The bed time lasted about 3 minutes! Oh well!

On Friday, my mom babysat for us so Shaun and I could go to dinner and then to the temple to help with our ward's youth baptisms. It was a nice night out!

 Saturday was a very special day for us! Remember when I posted about this family almost 2 years ago? Well, Shaun had the opportunity of baptizing Victoria. She is such a smart and determined young woman. We are so proud of the choices she has made and for the chance that we had to be a part of her conversion process.

 

 Maisey loved being at the baptism. She can't wait to turn 8!

Also on Saturday, we got to meet up with my Aunt Judy and Uncle Alan from Idaho and my cousin and her husband too. It was fun visiting with them over lunch! I love my family!

 Our van hit the 100,000 mile mark! I know I'm lame that I took a picture of it, but I always love when I notice cool number patterns on my odometer. Shaun makes fun of me! We are praying that our van will hold up for the rest of this year and then we will be in the market for a new one early next year!

On Sunday night, we told the kids we had a fun surprise for them the next morning. Maisey was guessing all night what it was. She guessed it right several times but we never told her that she got it right. When we pulled up to the parking lot, she almost jumped out of her car seat. She LOVES Pump it Up and always, seriously at least once a day, asks if we can go!

 Getting ready to box it out!

 Daddy putting Maisey in her place!

 Maisey haulin' down the slide! I love her face!

 Gage caught some major speed!

 Maisey rockin' the obstacle course!

 

 And Daddy showin' everyone how it's done!

After Pump it Up, we came home, put the kids down for nap and got to work! Every time I look at our yard, I cringe. We have so much to do! We mowed, weeded 3 of our 9 raised garden beds, and spread 3 1/2 cubic yards of bark dust! We worked until 7:30 pm. It was a looong afternoon but we made significant progress. Our yard debris bin is overflowing so I will have to wait until next week to do anymore out there.

The kids loved flinging the bark dust all over the driveway with their shovels. We put an end to that pretty quickly when we paid Maisey $2 to push Gage in the swing!

Gage thought it was pretty funny to ride his four wheeler up the mound until he fell over backwards and hit his head on the driveway and got bark all up his back and down his shorts.

He was quite the helper spraying off the driveway.

*Note to Self: DO NOT make husband pressure wash driveway earlier in Spring if you are planning on spreading bark later on. It WILL NOT make him happy!

We promised the kids a bike ride earlier on in the day, so after all of the yard work was complete and we were completely exhausted, we loaded them and their dinner up in the trailer and went for a ride. They loved testing out the new trailer!

We had a great week last week and we are looking forward to a slightly less busy week this week. Janel, and possibly Ryan, come into town on Thursday and we are looking forward to hanging with them!