Jump and Shout!

Well summer is here! Time to find some cool places to hang out. Jump and Shout is AWESOME! (Except for the price $10/kid!) On Tuesday's it's only $5 so we went today with Lindsey and her kiddos!) The kids had a blast and couldn't get enough of the climbing around, slides, and bouncing. Noah stayed with Sydney most of the time! He just absolutely LOVES her!

Mason and Colter were INSEPARABLE! They followed each other EVERYWHERE! They also wouldn't hold still for 2 seconds, so I didn't get any decent pictures!

Lindsey was so cute with the boys! At one point they convinced her to chase them. I am really upset because I thought I was filming Lindsey climbing through the maze (it was really funny because it's a maze made for toddlers not adults) but my camera had died! Oh-well live and learn! She sure is fun and the boys LOVE her! Even now Noah's helping me put up the videos on the blog and he's saying "LINDSEY! LINDSEY!" really excited!

At the end of our adventure we bribed them with fruit snacks to get a good picture of the boys!

FYI - I am thinking of buying a summer pass to Jump and Shout. $50 for 2 & 1/2 months (per kid age 2 and up). The package includes 1 free large pizza, 2 buddies passes, and some raffle drawing thing. I'd only have to pay for Mason so I am seriously considering it. It'll be nice to have a fun A/C place to go to.

Anyone else up for a summer play place? Or have any other ideas?

Gorgeous Weather

This past week the weather has been absolutely WONDERFUL!!!! On Tuesday, I think the high was 70 degrees! I love it. We definitely have to enjoy every moment of it while we can. Summer is just about here.
On Wednesday, spontaneously I decided to load the boys, Buddy, and softball gear up and jog over to my moms. (My sister Maddy and her 3 boys are staying with my mom temporarily until she has her baby, then sadly she is going back home to Puerto Rico where her hubby is!) We played Ring around the Rosies, T-Ball, and just goofed around!

This is our boys' attemp at a PYRAMID! I think they did pretty well between giggles!

Mason just LOVES his cousins! He is always saying "I want to go see my cousins!"

Jogging Delema... Solved!

OK! I really enjoy jogging. Mostly because it's free, burns lots of calories, and it gets me outside! I take my boys jogging with me most of the time. (Thanks to my wonderful husband who bought me an awesome double jogging stroller.)

I often think about what I'll do for exercise when I have 3 kids. (This is NOT an announcement. I'm not pregnant! :) I only have a double jogging stroller and I can't imagine trying to push a triple stroller around the neighborhood. (Do they even make those?)

Tonight while watching my adorable niece Ella, I learned it's possible to go jogging with 3 children and my huge dog. Mason was so sweet with her. (I think a little too sweet!) He took his responsibility very seriously! Poor Ella, he smothered her with "loves" the whole jog! (We only went for a 30 min. jog because it was getting dark.) All 3 kids did REALLY well.

Feeding the Ducks!

This last weekend we met up with family at the ASU Research park to have breakfast and feed the ducks. We had lots of fun. I think the ducks were more traumatized than fed. At one point Nate scooped up a goose! It was AWESOME!

Noah just loved chasing them and calling to the "duckies!"

Uncle Nate tried to help Mason get closer to the ducks! I think Mason thought he was going to throw him in!

Too bad Parker couldn't make it to the park! Poor kid was sick but we got this AWESOME picture of all the grand kids in a tree (Ella was sleeping)! Mason just LOVES his cousins! On the way home he kept insisting his cousins were going to come over and we were going to go to ANOTHER park to feed the ducks.

How cool is Uncle Nate! Tackling a Goose!

Dental Visit

Mason had a dental appointment today! He did pretty good too! Thanks to Sandy (RDH) we got x-rays (the bite-wing kind that are really hard to get on 3 year olds!), scaling and polishing, fluoride treatment AND the Dr. exam! He was a little "squirmy" but what 3 yr. old boy isn't? :)

Now for some dumb reason I scheduled his appointment on a Thursday. (I usually watch Lindsey's kiddos then which means I have 4 kids for the day.) Thanks to my sister Maddy I didn't have to have four little kids at the dentist (she graciously came over and watched Sydney and Noah). I decided to take Colter since I thought he might like to see Mason in the dental chair. (It always helps kids to see others they know at the Dr. or dentist to help them relate or get used to the situation!) Plus Colter is very well behaved so I wasn't worried about him.

Here the boys are patiently waiting in the waiting area! Zoned into the Alvin and the chipmunks!

Fluoride Treatment! YUM!

"Mr. slurpy!" Mason LOVED playing with the suction!

Thank you Sandy for the amazing work on my little monster! You are a fantastic hygienist!

The dental exam! Dr. Nia is such a great dentist! (And I should know after 10 years working with him!)
NO sugar bugs! (No cavities!)

Ok! On the way home the boys were thirsty in the car so... of course I gave them both their drinks! STUPID Shelly! Mason totally had a fluoirde treatment and wasn't supposed to have water for 30 mins! How long have I been a hygienist and giving fluorides? I can't believe I did that!

Girl's Retreat!

This past weekend I was able to enjoy an evening out with my mom and sisters! We had so much fun! Thanks Dad for paying for the hotel room. And THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU Ron for watching the boys!

We had a blast hanging out in our fancy hotel room. Ok I know it's cheesy but we brought crafts to do and movies to watch.

We stayed up way too late and acted WAY too silly! Ok... Just Maddy and I stayed up late and acted silly! Notice how there is no proof of my silliness! ha!

My brother Nathan crashed the Girls night with baby Ella! That was a fun surprise! Nathan even modeled one of the projects Rinn was working on! (Isn't my sister Corinne tallented! Super cute craft apron idea!)

If you look closely you can see Maryann under the covers and her arm by Ella!!

Saturday morning my sister Maddy (who is due any day now) and I went to go work out in the hotel gym. I couldn't help but laugh at her "belly band". It was HILARIOUS! So of course then I had to let her make fun of me wearing it! (You can't really see it on top of my white shirt) Like I said we acted silly! Crazy Faler girls!

To sum it up: We ate a little too much, acted a little to crazy, and had A LOT of fun!

Happy Easter!

This week my mom came over to color and decorated Easter Eggs with the boys! They had a lot of fun. My mom also brought over her sidewalk chalk for us to play with! They had such a fun afternoon with Grandma Faler. Thanks mom.

Here's my mom teaching Mason how to draw a race car track!

Easter morning! Before we let them find their baskets we sat them down and talked about the real meaning of Easter. I'm not sure how much Mason absorbed or understood. After General Conference yesterday, I was reminded that it's important to have those small teaching moments. Where did the Easter bunny come from anyways? I get the whole getting gifts part. Christ gave us the best gift of all. But... where did the bunny come in? Oh-well the boys sure enjoyed their Easter.

The boys didn't have any trouble finding their Easter baskets.

Noah kept saying, "cheese!"

Mason announcing his "Scooby-Doobie-Doo! movie!!!" He absolutely LOVES Scooby-Doo!

One of my patients at work gave me the idea of getting the boys swim suits for their Easter baskets! I LOVE it!

How to properly Push start a car!

So... I gave a talk in church a couple weeks ago and I thought I'd share a personal story.When I was Pregnant with Mason I worked full-time (sometimes 6 days a week) so OB appointments were always tricky. Well, this particular day I had my Glucose test scheduled for 4:30pm. This meant that all day I couldn't eat ANYTHING with ANY small amount of sugar in it. All I ate that day were 2 hard boiled eggs and tons of water. BLAH! After my appointment I headed out to my car (in a parking garage) I discovered my car wouldn't start! It was the middle of August (super hot), I was huge and pregnant, and I was STARVING!! Well, my brother -in-law Jeremy came to the rescue! He drove out to Scottsdale to help me start my car. After several attempts he decided we needed to push start the car. Jeremy turns to me and asks "Have you ever push started a car before?" I reply "No but, I've seen it done. How hard can it be?" Now keep in mind it was really hot and we were in a parking garage (so there was limited "pushing space"). We position the car and he starts pushing... and instructs, "OK Shelly. Turn the key. Start the car"... NOTHING happened. We stop the car and he comes up and asks me, "Well, did you have the clutch in?"... I respond, "Ohhhhh. No sorry I didn't know you had to have the clutch in." So he pushes the car back to the starting point, (because we are in a parking garage and we can't just keep pushing). He starts to push me forward. "OK Shelly. Turn the key. Start the car."... NOTHING happened. "Shelly, did you have the car in gear?"... "Ohhhhhhhh. No. Sorry I didn't know you had to have the car in gear." At this point I am feeling really stupid. He pushes the car back AGAIN to the starting position and asks "Are you ready?" This time is it! I am ready. I have my foot on the clutch, hand on the key, and the car is in gear! "Yes! Let's go!"... I then hear some groaning and grunting as he starts to push the car again.... Pause... "Shelly, is your foot on the brake?"... after which I reply very sheepishly, "NO?!" and quickly removed my right foot off the pedal! Ha! What a nice guy! It was 100+ degrees outside, he drove all the way out to Scottsdale to help me out. He NEVER gave me a hard time about that incident. He also followed me the whole way home and gave me strict instructions to just go home with no pit stops, and no Air Conditioning so the car wouldn't give me trouble. (Also, probably so he wouldn't have to push start my car again!) Thank you Jeremy for being my hero that day. I know I'll never forget that! This story has a point. All I wanted was to get out of that parking garage and eat IMMEDIATELY. In my talk I referred to our own lives and the things we want instantly. We want a strong testimony, we want a close relationship with the Savior, and we want so many things NOW. But we don't think about the necessary steps it takes to get us to that point. Praying, Scripture Study, Service... etc. With these necessary steps we fail to progress and move forward in life. As humbling as this experience was for me I am grateful for the life lessons we are given to help us grow and develop. The whole point in me sharing this humbling experience in church was that there are necessary steps for us to take in life to help us reach our ultimate goal of returning to our Father in Heaven. Just like you have to push the clutch in, have the car in gear, and foot off the brake! We need Prayer, Service and to live a virtuous lifestyle. All I could think about was getting out of that hot garage so I wasn't focusing on what I needed to do to get there. It's common for us to do that in our own lives. If we don't take the necessary steps and build that relationship with our Father in Heaven then we won't progress in life ("get out of the hot parking garage!").