Home Depot

We love going to Home Depot. First, because my Dad works there. We love to go see Grandpa Kenison at work! And second, it's just a cool store. Lots of tool, machines, and for me... wood! (I love to cut out wood and paint!)

We had to run and get more chainsaw blades to use for the trees so we stopped by and said hi to Grandpa. He works in the plumbing section there. He's one of the only one's who really knows anything there. You can ask him anything and he'll tell ya how to fix it. Usually when we come to see him we have to wait to say hi cause he's always helping people. Guess we caught him on a good day today.

Walking through the store with Grandpa. We needed to replace our yard light while we had that lift, so he showed us the light bulb we needed. He should know, since he's the one who put it in for us.

Grandpa's "ROBOT" he built for the store. It holds lots of ends for pipes and helps with the organization. He's pretty crafty.

Waiving goodbye to our boys. Isn't he so cute! He loves when they come to see him. (He also built the cubbies behind him and painted them rainbow so there was better organization there, too. They should just have him organize the whole store. He'd do a much better job!)

A trip to Home Depot with the boys usually brings out the monkey in them though.

See what happens when we walk past the lawn mower section. It's like there's a magnet on those things that sucks them in. When they start turning the wheels and doing everything they can to make it move, that's when they're done. Typical boys.

Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma & Grandpa Kenison's House

We had our fun annual easter egg hunt at my parents last sunday before easter. Jamie, Grandma and I always do a fun hunt for the kids outside at their house. This year my brother John helped us hide the easter eggs, too. 

We couldn't get the eggs hidden before so the boys had to stay in the house while we hid them. Ya, they didn't see where any got put at all. (Can you hear the scarcasim in that?!)

John almost broke the garbage trying to hide one up there.

It fell down. So he ate the candy and then hid the wrapper in there.

I thought it would be funny to put one in my mom's exhaust, but somehow John slid it in too far with his knife while trying to get it back out. Oops! I laughed so hard! I love hanging out with my brother John. He cracks us up!

So we got the shop vac and sucked it out. Luckily it worked so I wasn't in trouble.

We always hide one in this cow skull. We found this up at Smith-n-More House. Pretty cool.

The hunt begins!

The boys love finding them out on the playground.

John put it way up high in the tree.

Jamie put one on my truck just resting there and it fell into the wheel. It took Jared a little bit to get it out. John ate the candy and filled it with rocks and hid it. Poor Cody found that one.

Had to pose by my dad's new tractor. He bought that cute little thing for a 100 bucks! And it runs!

My mom and sister Jamie with the boys.

Isn't he just cute?! And old!

Hunter playing with his bubbles Jamie gave them.

It's so fun to celebrate easter with my family. Dinner, playing on grandpa's playground he's building for the kids, and the fun easter egg hunt. One of the best times of the year!

He Passed!!!!!

Jared got his results on his final this morning (I know, that was quick!). He passed!! He more than passed! He got 91%!! I'm so proud of him. He said he missed 4 questions and got a lower score on one case study he had to do, but he did great!! (He had to do 3 case studies of 3 different people and exercise and nutrition programs he had to put them on. One was of a golfer. If anyone knows Jared, you know he HATES golf! So he put the guy on a lower impact routine so it wouldn't kill this 55 year old cause Jared doesn't think golf is a sport at all. Poor Jared, should have known he'd get a case study about golf of all things. It's the Morse Law he's cursed with!)
I'm so proud of him!! I couldn't stop smiling all morning. The boys were all excited, too. Cody told him congratulations. Jared started training me at home today using the exercise ball to lift weights with. Let's just say it is so different then lifting in the gym with him. (I've lifted with him for almost 3 years now.) He kicked my butt today! I was going to make him a cake to celebrate his graduation but that will wait until tomorrow when I can use my arms again. He's going to make a good trainer!

I can tell Cody and Hunter walked past the mailboxes. It bugs them to have the flags down and they immediately run after me and put them up if I put them down. Hunter looks in the neighbor's mailboxes and if he sees mail in there, he thinks they are mailing it so the flag needs to be up. Cody just thinks it's fun to have them all up. I know my boys have been out there when it looks like this. We never all mail something at the same time. Cute boys and their fun little quirks.

My CPT

I know I haven't posted much on Jared's CPT course he's taking, but I am so proud of him. He finished his final today!!! He did it in just under 2 months! When he signed up they said it usually takes about 8 months to finish everything, but he worked as hard as he could and got it done fast. It seemed like whenever he had time, he was always studying. He did great, too! There were 33 quizes he took. And throughout all of them, he only missed one question. He's nervous about the final, but I know he did good. He really knows his stuff. He had 7 essays he had to write on different major things he learned, then he had 3 case studies he had to come up with exercise programs for plus nutrition habits. He'll find out his results in about 3 days. Now all he has to do is get certified in CPR/AED (defibrillator), send in his certificate of completion, and then his CPT certificate will come. I think he'll take that course next week. He just wants everything to be done. He's thinking about certifying in nutrition to go along with being a personal trainer. They recommend doing this to have better luck with jobs. Jared already has one client though (besides me) and that's my friend Tobie. She's supposed to start this week. Jared's nervous, but so excited!

Jared taking his final. He lucked out at the timing of everything. He was originally supposed to test at the Salt Lake Community College, but the week before he took it, they opened the online testing. It helped so much since the final took him 3 days.

I'm so proud of him!!!!

Lemonade Stand

I know every parent says this about their kids, but I have to say that I have the cutest kids ever! They crack me up with all their little adventures they come up with. One of their favorite things to do with their best friends - the Kent's -  is a lemonade stand. They've done this with them the last few years. If we let them, they'd have a lemonade stand every weekend. But they know it would loose the cuteness so they'd also loose customers. I guess it's a good lesson in patience, right?! (It's hard being a kid sometimes, isn't it!)

First they hung up signs on the road advertising. This is on a pole out front of our yard.

Aren't they just cute?! They made signs to hold up as well. Hunter turned his upright for the picture. They were having him hold it upside down because it looked cuter and more people would stop. They know how to work it! Plus, when people would stop, Brodie would tell them he was doing it to earn money for the sick (It took everything I had not to laugh at this!).                                                                                                Don't they look so official. The Kent's have a cute little lemonade stand and Tobie let them use her glass pitcher. Plus, she made the yummiest lemonade, too!

It cracked me up watching these kids as a car drove past. Hunter was usually in the road dancing and all the kids were smiling and waiving.

See.... Hunter is in the road! Sometimes he was almost in the middle. Stinker!

He's so dang cute!

Curb side service!!! Cause it's my sister-in-law Cherie... hehe.

They did so good!!! They made $45 dollars to split between them!!!! T.J. and Brodie felt so big doing this. The next day they walked down to Maverick and bought themselves lunch with it.

Had to put this movie clip in. I love how excited they get when that car comes, then watching them as it drives past. I love these kids!!

Spring!!

Here's some of my favorite signs I found around the yard that show spring is FINALLY here!!

I love when the leaves start popping out!

I love when the lilac bushes start blooming again. It won't be long before I'm smelling that perfumed air all around our yard from our dozen lilac bushes. Can't wait!

I loved when the snow would melt and I could see my wagon wheels completely again. But I'm sad to report that those lovely tree branches that fell a couple weeks ago hit this and broke it. I need to find a new one. I love my wagon wheel.

I love the tiny purple flowers that grow in the field behind us. Makes it look so pretty. Reminds me of where I grew up and also going to Aunt Mame's every easter for the Holt family party. She had the funnest farm ever!

My bulbs are starting to bloom which means they will only be out there for everyone to see maybe a couple of days before my boys attack them. I let them pick as many tulips and daffodils 3 years ago so they could bring them in and show me when I was stuck in the house nonstop with a blown knee. Now they can't get enough of picking them. Good thing I love them so much.

Did I mention I love when the leaves pop out? I love this tree against this wood fence. Makes for some awesome pictures here! And I can't wait for these leaves to turn their pretty bright yellow in the fall. Makes for some even cooler pictures! (Yes, I'm already planning for fall. My favorite!)

I love when it's time for us to get the garden ready for planting. Jared's digging up horse poop to till in.  T.J. and his friend Brodie helped. Their payment... a trip to Maverick for some gas for their 4-wheeler and a drink.

Cody loves helping Jared in the garden. That's the little farmer in him.

Because this spring has been so wet we've got to let this dry out a couple days before we till. We've had so much rain we're late getting our peas in this year. Hopefully we get it in soon. Peas are one of my favorites to grow!!

First Soccer Game

Hunter had his first soccer game last Saturday. Technically it was supposed to be the week before, but with all the rain we've got lately, it was cancelled.

This was from his orientation day. (I'm just not on the ball with getting these pictures on here.) He's getting his uniform. He's number 3! They decided their team would be called the "Tigers".

Hunter was so shy. Around those he knows he's his typical self - the class clown. But around others or when he's doing something for the first time - like soccer - he's really quiet.

Hunter and one of his best friend's - Savannah Drury (Possum). Aren't they just the cutest! They could pass for brother and sister. I asked them to stand and smile for pictures, so Possum posses for me with her little hip thrown out. They are going to get married someday. (Hunter's told me this for a couple years now.)

Now onto his first game....

Hunter takes his soccer very seriously... can you tell?! He's quite the clown sometimes. He couldn't wait for his game. Once we finally found his socks (this kid looses EVERYTHING!), he wore his uniform for almost 4 hours before his game.

I had to throw this in. Love this picture. I think Cody spent almost every minute we were home that day on the 4-wheeler hauling his little brother around on back.

Hunter practicing before his game. This part I'm not too happy about. His coaches don't know too much about soccer. They only volunteered because we didn't have a coach. So they've decided to only hold a practice 15 minutes before each game. These kids are not going to learn how to play. We're working with Hunter at home. And my brother Jim is going to help. He played soccer for years. He's really good.

T.J. and Cody watching Hunter's practice.

Hunter did really good in his game. He played most of the time. He was always going after the ball and payed good attention.

Doesn't he look so cute in his cleats! I couldn't get over how much he looked like a real soccer player, and he hadn't even had much practice yet.

You can't see Possums face clearly but she totally had on a players attack face. She took this seriously when they were playing, then did cartwheels while there were time outs.

This is a good example of why we need practices during the week. They decided they weren't going to let anymore goals get through so they lined up and held hands right in front of the goal.

Coach giving Hunter and Possum "5".

They did really good for not knowing what they were really doing. They lost 3-2. You could tell the other team had practiced, too. Good job cute kids!