A Bracelet's Trip

This may look like an ordinary bracelet, but no, it is a special bracelet. LeNae had gotten it from Zion's Camp and had left it at our house. Roger immediately noticed that LeNae had left her bracelet and commented that we must give it back to her. I agreed but thought to myself that I was not going to worry about returning a cheap little thing to LeNae. My boys have a couple of this style of bracelets and use them as toys so I really did not see a problem with another bracelet joining the ranks.

The bracelet definitely joined the ranks, even made it to the swimming pool a couple of times. It was used, abused, and initiated into the boys' toys.

Upon packing for our trip to Utah, I told each of the boys that they could bring one small toy for the journey. I did notice that William grabbed two toys, but since they were both small and cheap, I did not make a fuss about it and just let him stuff his his toys into his little monkey-leash-backpack.

William kept his monkey backpack on for the entire duration of traveling. Between two flights, three airports, 7 hours of traveling, William kept his backpack buckled to his back, not the most comfortable thing in my opinion, but he didn't complain and he did not want us to remove the backpack.

Once arriving to the Las Vegas airport, I met my dad and Lyndee at baggage claim. After retrieving our one bag (I pack light, I do not like hauling lots of baggage) we proceeded to make our way to the car, where LeNae, Lana, and my mom were waiting. Upon seeing LeNae, William started insisting that we take off his backpack, I couldn't figure out why after so long he would insist on such a thing, but I helped him. He immediately opened the back and brought out LeNae's bracelet. "Nae, your bra'set".

None of us could believe it. He had remembered that entire time and intentionally brought LeNae her bracelet. Not only was I impressed with the sweetness of his act, but the fact that he could calculate that far in advance is just way impressive to me. The bracelet is truly an amazing bracelet.

The sad thing is that Todd and I had gotten my dad a really nice Father's Day gift, but had forgotten it at home. Had we assigned William to bring it, he would have remembered.

Tour it Tuesday

Seeing that I am out of town, I decided to do a Tour it Tuesday of my mom's home.

My mom moved here a few years ago, so I never lived here, but have visited often. Her house is the highest house on the hill, so it has some amazing views.

On the main floor there is a living room, kitchen, eating area, all very open and connected to each other. Then there is a office, two bedrooms, a bathroom, laundry room, and the master bedroom. It's usually cleaner, but it has been attacked by four boys.
On the wall opposite of the bed, my mom has these pictures hanging. The one on the left is what we used to set up my boys' picture as. My mom had found it at a store and purchased it because it reminded her of my boys. The boy in the picture on the right looks very similar to Grant.
My mom has some very random decorations. Notice the guy on the right, he is a caroller from a Christmas decoration set, my mom keeps him in her room to remind herself that she doesn't need any men. Then the stick on the left is very interesting. Todd is always joking about getting a tumbleweed or some other stick lying around and tying it up on our wall.

When my mom bought her house, she purchased some of the decor and furniture. This painting was one of them: as my brother pointed out, it's a picture of an animal and the tools that are used to kill it...interesting.
From the main floor there are these stairs leading to the basement. Can we say Death Trap? Unfortunately this guy likes to hang out here. The basement has one bedroom, one bathroom, many storage rooms, a living room area, and great views of the valley. From the basement you can walk out onto the porch where there is a great pool to swim in. The kids will mainly play in the basement, that's where Grandma has all the toys. My favorite thing about the basement is the bookshelf...or is it just a bookshelf?

Ya, pretty awesome. If I were to get a TV for our living room, I would want something like that to hold it.

Here Comes the Bride

Saturday morning I left these chunks and went to help Lyndee out as she and Nathan got their temple pictures taken. I rode in the backseat of the car as the two lovebirds were anticipating what was going to be happening in the next couple of hours.
We pulled off of the freeway and turned the corner. I thought to myself, "That is a funny looking building", then I realized it was the San Diego Temple!!! It had scaffolding all the way around it, all the way to the top. In my shock, I asked Lyndee if she had known about this, she said she did, but that they were okay with it.
I helped in any way that I could as the photographer snapped photos of Lyndee and Nathan. Lyndee looked stunning, a picture perfect bride. They were so incredibly happy, it was so sweet to see them together. Then we went in to the temple for the marriage. I was able to go with Lyndee and my mom to the bride's room, to help Lyndee get ready. It was beautiful, and she was beautiful. After getting her all ready, I met Todd and the rest of the clan in the waiting room. There was some paperwork complications, so the wedding started later than scheduled. We waited for a long time...or at least it felt that way.
When we were finally in the Sealing room and Lyndee and Nathan came in, I was overcome with emotions. Yes, I actually cried...I think for the 5th time in my life. In some small way I was preparing myself for the possibility that Lyndee may back out at the last minute. Not because she didn't love Nathan but because Lyndee can be a little fickle. I was so happy to see that my sister was actually getting married.
Lyndee getting married has been like the highlight of my year, not because I love weddings, but because now she has joined the "ranks". Lyndee and I, even though we are quite different, have always remained close, been there for each other. We have kept this closeness even though her life has been living the single life in NYC, eating out every night, partying with friends, shopping, and flirting with men as my life has been living the married with children life in OH, cooking every night, trying to break up the partying going on with the brothers every night, grocery shopping (VERY different than "shopping", I spend more, have a miserable experience with 4 kids hanging on the shopping cart, and not only do I not get a new outfit, the outfit that I am wearing (that consists of yoga pants and t shirt) looks worse than when I went into the store) and disciplining boys. I am just so incredibly excited that she will now have more in common things to discuss with me...but now having thought about it, maybe it's more misery loves company.
All joking aside, I am so excited for her. I love seeing her with a husband!!!!, and boy does Nathan dote on her. He cannot keep his hands off of her. He is like a schoolboy let loose in a candy shop, brimming with excitement. I cannot wait to meet her children, and to see her as a mother. I am so happy for both of them.
After the wedding and the usual zillions of pictures, we went over to a nearby hotel and had a luncheon/dinner, followed by a dance. We had a great time.Here are the three sisters, happy for their sister.Here is a picture of what Lyndee and Nathan do ALL of the time. Whisper. Whispering was not invented to say nice things!!!! You almost hate being with these two because all they ever do is whisper. To make it less expensive, Lyndee had Uncle Jason serve....not really, he just grabbed this himself, but I thought he sported it really well.You will never guess who busted out the dance moves!?!! Reagan! Yes, that's right, Reagan. He has been taking some dance classes at school, and boy is he good. It is so surprising to me that he doesn't get more dates!!!!

Bug Sharks

For the first time in my experience of raising kids, one of my children got an ear infection. Pretty good track record.
Roger was complaining on the way home from my soccer game about his ear. The longer and longer this went on, I started to get worried. It was about 10:30 at night, we still hadn't gotten home and Todd was working at the hospital until the next morning. I decided that I would contact Todd to have him look at Roger's ear.
We got to the hospital, Todd came out and immediately after looking in Roger's ears announced that our child had an ear infection. It is nice to have a husband that is able to get our boys medicine.

When Roger was trying to tell me about how his ear hurt, he told me, "Mom, the Bug Sharks are biting my ear". I love 4 year-olds.

Tour it Tuesday

Momma's Nice Room
Just off the entry way is "Momma's Nice Room". It is our formal (if you could say that we're formal) living room. We call it Momma's Nice Room because we wanted it to be a more special place, one where everything was kept nice, one where we could use for more quiet and reverent times. My grandma had a Celestial Room that as a young grandkid we were not allowed in, if you even put a toe into it...watch out.This is where we have Family Home Evenings, Home Teachers, Music lessons, and reading time.
This is the "Learning to Read Chair"It use to be where I would sit with the boys to read books, but now that the boys are getting bigger and Grant is joining us, we have had to move to a couch. Now it is used for when I am doing more one-on-one work with the boys, such as teaching them how to read.
The Loveseat Notice the picture above the couch. It use to hang in my parent's formal living room. My mom said it always reminded her of me and my sisters.
I use to have an electric piano. My then sister-in-law was getting a new piano and offered me her old one. I eagerly accepted and therefore got a gorgeous, almost new piano for free. I do need to get it tuned again, though.
Todd and I were married in the Nauvoo, Illinois temple - if you can't tell. There are a lot of Nauvoo decorations because of that.
Notice the little red sign Mikey had put up. It says Please Don't Go - meaning no going through the spaces to the adjoining room.Got to love the Angel Moroni
My mom use to make fun of me because when I only had babies and toddlers I couldn't think of what else to say to my kids, so I sang a lot to them. It's only very humorous because I am not a good singer with any stretch of the imagination (funny that I am now the Primary Chorister). Nevertheless, I found it to be a great way to connect, and the boys enjoyed it. My mom got me this tile thing.Here is our longer sofa. It fills in the doorway to the not-so-formal living room. I really wish there were french doors right here, but right now, this will do.
The boys love to go through the tunnel between the couches - they (including Mikey) do not obey Mikey's sign.

The Amazing Race

My boys love to run and run. They know they can run up the street (on the sidewalk of course) to a designated fire hydrant, then have to return. They will run back and forth saying, "Mom, how fast was I?" "Mom, watch me run so fast" "Mom, could you see me I was so fast?".

Then my boys will go up to where my medals are kept and wear them around. If you have ever earned a medal from a race, you know that those medals are priceless, they are not to be treated like toys.

I got some cheap plastic medals (like the ones you get as party favors) and decided we would have our own ONeil Race. In preparation, the boys painted a good-luck sign. I cut up some bananas, filled up a water bottle, and grabbed some pretzels to set up an "aid station".

We rode our bikes to the local recreation center which has some walking trails around it. We picked the .9 mile trail. I went and dropped off the sign and food off halfway for the aid station, then made it back to the kids to start the race.

Mikey began with a disadvantage. He rode his own bike to the rec center, which is over a mile away. Not only did this make him a little more tired, but while riding his bike he started coughing, which led to him throwing up. Poor kid, he handled it all like a champ. Just kept riding.

Before we started the race, we had the boys stretch out. It was hilariously cute.We started the race, Roger quickly took the lead, with William and Mikey close behind. Grant refused to run, and Todd ended up carrying him on his shoulders. The boys were so good and they were not competitive with another. Every time Roger would get ahead, he would stop and wait for his brothers. Then he got sidetracked looking at the scenery.

The boys loved the aid station, it gave them a little boost to keep running.

When we got to the end, Todd and I ran ahead so that we could hold a ribbon at the finish line for the boys to run through. At first the boys didn't understand what we were doing and were quite upset that Todd and I were running ahead, but once they understood, they were excited.

The boys finally have their own medals...hopefully they'll leave mine alone.

Funeral

Mikey asked me for a stick. As I was helping him to look for a stick I asked him what he needed it for. He told me he needed to see if the bird was dead or just sleeping and he didn't want to get any germs on him. Wait a second...what bird. Turns out that my storm door is so clean that a bird mistaken it for an open space. (He obviously wasn't looking at the bottom 3 feet of the door)
Unfortunately for the bird, this mistake turned to be fatal.My boys know that any dead animal could have "germs" jump on them (yep, that's what a four year degree in Microbiology has done for me), so they knew to not touch it. Todd had just returned from a 30 hour shift, so he helped the boys dispose of the body. We were just going to throw away the corpse, but the boys asked if we were going to bury it, so we transported it to the backyard, dug a hole, put the bird in and had a mini funeral. The boys asked if the bird was going to the Heaven. I'm pretty sure of it. While digging, Roger found a wormy. The joys of boys.