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!").

Sleepy Heads!

Ok I love how kids can fall asleep in the most random positions and places. Noah is my "early bird" baby! No matter what time I put him to bed the night before he gets up super early the next morning. I'm lucky if he sleeps in until 6am! Seriously.

A couple months ago Noah decided he was going to get up for the day at 4AM! No joke, he did this everyday for almost a month. He really has a set of lungs too, so I can't just let him cry himself back to sleep! Once he's made his mind up that he's awake there is NO putting him back to sleep. So... during this time period I would finally give up, let him come out of his room, and put Baby Einstein on for him. For a few weeks it worked! He'd be entertained by it for about an hour and then would come looking for me in my bedroom. So, at least I got to go back to bed for a little nap.

Now he just wakes up around 5 or 5:30am so Ron and I take turns getting him. (Ron's turn to get up with Noah seems to be more frequent than mine?!!?! Thank you Ronnie!)

Mason has ALWAYS liked sleeping in bed with Ron and I. It started when he was really little. He wouldn't sleep in the bassinet very good. So occasionally I'd let him fall asleep in bed with us. Initially I'd wake up worried that I would accidentally roll onto him or something. But of course I never did. Then when he started sleeping in a crib if he ever woke up and we couldn't get him back to sleep we'd just bring him to bed with us.

Now Mason sleeps in his own bed. Most mornings Ron and I wake up to find Mason in bed with us. (Keep in mind he ALWAYS starts out in his own bed). We wake up having NO recollection of him crawling into bed with us or anything during the night. At night just before bedtime he usually tries to coax us by saying "I want to sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed." It's really hard to say no when he asks so nice but I know it's best for him to learn to sleep in his own bed. I just don't know what we are going to do about him sneaking in at night. I honestly NEVER hear him come in! Crazy how kids can be quiet and sneaky when they want to!

"That's Disgusting!"

Yes, this is edible. And Yes it actually tastes really good. I've been trying to figure out how to get more raw fruits and veggies in my diet and this has helped. I've had this yummy smoothy everyday this week.

Ingredients:

1/2 c. strawberries (or more)

1 banana

1/4 c. milk

1 c. of raw baby spinach

1 c. crushed ice

1 T. sugar (optional - SERIOUSLY I forget to put sugar in half the time and it still tastes great!)

According to Mason "That's disgusting!" I told him it's really yummy and he should try it. He replies, "No, that's DISGUSTING for Mason!"

Farm Animal FUN!

Last weekend my sister Maryann invited us to her a rodeo her ward puts on annually. My boys of course loved the animals and being outside.

"MOO" (Maybe this is his "moo" dance!)

Ok... FYI this little chick did survive Mason's death grip! :)


Patiently WAITING their turn to ride the horses...
(They are looking at the horses in this picture. We had to wait in line for like 25 mins. I was SHOCKED at how good my boys were!)

Mason absolutely loved riding on a horse while Noah on the other hand didn't really know what to think.

This is totally MASON! Pure joy to be on a horse!

Noah LOVES riding his rocking horse but apparently a real horse is a different story! He was like this the whole time on the horse. Not upset or happy just... "processing".

Thank you Maryann for helping out and for inviting us!

Grocery Store Fiasco!

Well, today was quite the grocery shopping experience. I'd gotten all my produce and began to make my rounds through the aisles. Noah is in the shopping cart and Mason next to me. I was down the Rice aisle grabbing the SAME box of rice I always get (I WASN'T distracted), I throw it in the cart, look up and... Mason is gone! I'm not too alarmed because he does wander a little but still I rush my cart to the end of the aisle. He's Not to be seen anywhere!! I am still trying to remain calm as I look down the next few aisles. I can't find him! I walk around aimlessly for about 7-10mins. with NO sign of Mason. At this point I'm crying and decide to go to customer service. Where they announce a "CODE ADAM" and ask me for a description of what he's wearing. I'm crying so much I can barely describe it. Luckily, I remembered everything he was wearing.

So I'm waiting at customer service feeling stupid and useless and I ask the lady if I can go keep looking for him. A WalMart employee accompanies me to help. We didn't get very far before I see some nice lady walking with Mason, who by the way is smiling and carrying a feather duster! He wasn't worried or upset one bit! The nice lady said she was looking at the Toilet Paper when he popped his head up from behind the boxes of TP and was dusting the area! (The TP aisle was like 8 rows down from where I had been by the rice!)

I am really grateful that I found him and that he wasn't traumatized ONE bit! Me on the other hand... I was totally embarrassed, felt like a bad mom, and kept picturing him being kidnapped or running out of WalMart into the parking lot.

"My Ear Hurts!"

My friend Lindsey is a SAINT! Mason had been coughing on and off through out the week but no fever or any other symptoms! So, we decided Friday morning to go ahead and take the boys to Lindsey's so I could go to work. I didn't hear from Lindsay all day long so I assumed the boys were both doing good. I got off a little earlier than normal and went to pick my boys up around 1pm. Lindsey explained that Noah was fine but Mason had been complaining that his right ear hurt for the last hour or so. At one point Lindsey found Mason with Colter's breathing machine (turned on) holding it over his right ear!!! I wish I had a picture of that one! :) I felt so bad! Lindsey is so sweet to watch and take care of my kiddos!

When we got home that day he hung out all afternoon until his Dr. appointment. He sat on the couch holding his ear and whining occasionally. I kept asking him if there was anything I could get him. Finally an offering of stickers was accepted. I got him some stickers out and he then proceeded to place the stickers over his hurt ear. It's so funny that he felt like that would help. Later that day the Doctor confirmed that he did have a pretty bad ear infection. Thank goodness for antibiotics!

And NO I didn't put soap or oil in his ear (he wouldn't let me put the oil in).