My Hubbie Comes Through

My husband is an all out kind of Man. This is the get-up he bought for me to wear on my b-day morning- the house was decked out w/ streamers and balloons, jambas for breakfast. Thanks hon- You really are part Man, part Amazing :)- Great gifts and cards from family and friends- Thank you! We had a Girls' lunch w/ the Fillmore girls- I just LoVeD our visit and those sweet potato fries :) Then My Mom & Dad decided that 11 years was too long to go w/ out seeing me on my b-day and met us for dinner. It was an awesome day- the real 29! The next day my Mom & I got to go to the temple while my Dad babysat. I love seeing my parents interact w/ my kiddos- you can see their love in the way they look @them- it's gotta make a grandkid feel special. We went to the zoo and then they had to leave- Jacob said- "Are you going to come back?" then Tyler said, "I wish you could live in a little house in our back yard." I LOVE all my family & friends so much- thanks for making my day!

The Easter Festivities

I love living by family, especially during the holidays! Easter traditions: the story of the Ressurection, hiding the easter baskets(don't look inside my dirty oven :), matching easter clothes (the picture is of my friend's family in our front yard- the looked SO cute all in pink and green), cousin easter egg hunt @ G&G Fillmores, Ham, rolls, deviled eggs, lemon meringue pie... and dressing up like spies? No, these are just other random pictures I threw in from the day before :)- enjoy

Easter Outfits!

I love the way Joshua is looking at Benjamin. He is such a Daddy's boy right now!

I love these pink outfits- they're from my Sister's wedding two years ago for Tyler & Jacob- and now they fit Jacob & Joshua. Then my next door neighbors' gave us some hand me downs 2 weeks ago- and they included pink church clothes for Tyler!!! Usually, our boys have a thing against pink and won't drink out of pink cups, or pink straws, they won't even eat pink vitamins even. I was happily surprised, when they were all happy to wear these pink Easter outfits to church :) Now, I just have to talk Benjamin into the hue.

Spring is in the Air

Potato Sack Racing!

Guest of Honor

The brothers that melt my heart

The hoop is bigger than him :)

You should have seen these Elvis hips!

Jacob was SO determined. They were a cute little team. (The boys reminded me several times how their team won every tug of war.)

Tyler's school had a Track & Field Day where they did different, P.E. stations around the school yard. They invited families to come and cheer them on. Jacob got to do a little more than that & he joined in every activity with Tyler. They were wearing the same shirt & looked so cute holding hands and always standing right next to each other. I heard 3 of Tyler's friends ask him to be their partner on different activities. Every time he'd say , "no, I'm partners with my brother." It was SO sweet :) You never know how well your kids are doing at things 'til you see them with other kids their age...and Tyler is really athletic. He did all of the activities so well, and quickly and with such ease. He was the only one in his class who could hula hoop- and he could do it for a long time. A couple months ago he told me he was disappointed he couldn't hula hoop in P.E. (I thought lots of other kids must have been able to). Anyways, he told me he came home from school and prayed that Heavenly Father would help him be able to hula hoop and the next time in P.E. he was able to hula hoop. So, when I saw him out there as the only one who could- I realized what a faithful answer to his prayers it was.

Silly Sister picture from Christmas

Sisters

I was walking around the neighborhood talking to my sister, Rebe, on the phone. I had to marvel at how awesome it is to have a sister. Someone who knows and understands you, your family, your growing up years. Someone who remembers the shirley temple drinks we coveted on family vacations, remembers the year we had to attend 3 different schools- and hated it as much as you, someone who you can laugh with dumb things about, and dream up exciting sister weekends with... all in one phone call. A sister, what a wonderful invention.

Gotta Love Him

Jacob had a really busy day and then for family night we ran errands to the mall & Costco. We sent the boys up to their room to put their pajamas on. Tyler came down, and after ten minutes of no Jacob I went upstairs to see what was going on. This is what I found...

He fell asleep naked, under the bed waiting for someone to help him put his jammies on.

One more

Brooklyn showed up at my house with her pink sunglasses, pigtails, bows and this adorable Valentine's outfit her Mom made. I hope I have a girl someday...

Pre-School

The kids are pretending to be monkeys in this one ^

It was a goal of mine to start Pre-School for Jacob when the New Year started. Simple things: learning to cut well, writing his name, numbers and letters, etc... It's actually been a really fun thing for me. When I was a little girl one of my favorite games to play was school- and I was always the teacher. (yes, I was one of those kids who was always a teacher's pet- I have just always loved the learning environment of a school.) Anyways, I was talking to my friend, Kristin, about it and she was looking for something for her little girl, Brooklyn. So, it was perfect- Brooklyn would help balance the class out and Jacob LOVES the company. (she already knows all of her letters and how to write- she comes for fun) Anyways, each day- (T or Th) we have a theme based on the letter of the day. Astronauts, Ants, Bears, Bees, Caterpillars... you get the picture. Then we learn cool facts about those things, make crafts and letter projects to go w/ the subject matter. These are pictures from our "field trip" to the Zoo.

If you want to do a little one of your own www.first-school.ws/ is a GREAT Web site for free downloads.

Avoid them like the Plague

Friends-
My Dad just forwarded this helpful info. to me. I am posting this because I'm sure you've had tele-marketing calls during dinner, when all your kids are screaming, after you ran up both flights of stairs to make it to the phone , etc... So, call this number, it takes less than a minute.

REMEMBER: Cell Phone Numbers Go Public this month. REMINDER.... all cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sale calls. YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS *To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone: 888-382-1222.*

What are the Chances?

I barely remembered my login info...

Last night Benjamin & I went out to see "A Christmas Carol" with Anne & Clint- it was really good. Of course, we almost made them late because Benjamin's clothes, quote "looked like they'd been smashed in a trash compactor," and a few other little hang ups. But none the less- we made it and it was a nice evening. We stopped into Oregano's to have appetizers and dessert afterwards and when my ring brushed my face I felt hard metal. Yes, my diamond was missing out of my ring! That day I had been to a birthday party, a soccer game, Cafe Rio, the play, and Oreganos and the chances of me finding that diamond...not so good. Benjamin was talking about my new cubic zirconia (sp?) ring and Anne felt guilty- like it was her fault. Anyways...now looking back it was a funny situation. When I got home I was feeling VERY drained (and Annie thought I'd stay up all night looking ;), so I said my prayers and went straight to sleep. My prayer was that if it was Heavenly Father's will I'd find that little diamond. This morning for no reason I walked over to a small corner of the house and looked down in my carpet and found that little tiny diamond. It wasn't sparkling- it actually looked like a piece of lint or something. Anyways, it was just a little morning miracle to help remind me of the Lord's tender mercies. It was also pretty amazing that he helped me find it so quickly w/ such little effort on my own.

Binge Blogger

I realize I post every other month & then over a couple days post like 5 activities! Sorry- my life just seems to go in spurts. Anyways, it was a very low key b-day, but sometimes those are the best. Joshua was really happy and animated all day. When we would sing happy b-day to him he would clap over and over at the end. Simplicity is GREAT! Anyways, first b-days are all about destroying the cake that moms spend a couple of hours to create- right? At first, Joshua was so interested in the licorice and Necco candies that he didn't want to touch the actual cake- Benjamin quickly showed him how to stick his hands in the cake and then he was sold- the cake was history.

Joshua Turns 1

Family Reunion/Beach Trip

Last One Tonight!- Fillmore Family Reunion

I'm going to post a slide show w/ all of the family reunion and beach pictures. More fabulous events I missed. You will see it in the slide shows- but I can't help but feel so grateful for my kids having so many cousins around to grow up with. So for the family reunion picture two cabins filled with 9 different families- 29 grand kids (two on the way) and 18 adults! I've heard love gets lost in big houses- but can the same be said for too small of houses :) j/k- it was a great reunion!!!
Grandpa Fillmore built an amazing (and I do mean the true sense of the word) tree house with two levels, a balcony and stairs! Grandma Fillmore did a really fun heritage night where we learned lots of fun facts about ancestors and then she passed out family history books she had made to each family. Did I mention how lucky my children are? Thank you to the whole family for your hard work and a great memory for my kids!

Benjamin turned 30!

Another HUGE event I didn't post was Benjamin turning 30! He threw himself a smashing birthday party. (In my defense- I did throw him a great surprise party a couple years ago) 2 hours before he decided he was doing it- called his Mom and invited all of his family- borrowed the Merwin's bounce house (thanks), bought pizza, ice cream, drinks, slip-n-slides and some pool toys and had a great party. His Mom & Dad brought over some really fun family slides- I REALLY enjoyed seeing that cute little Benjamin. Benjamin is so real- he's the sweetest Daddy- the funnest Uncle- a very loyal friend & we all love you! (He will probably never read this. He admitted to me that he's only visited our family blog site twice- oh, did I mention he's honest!)

2 months!!!

Yes, I do realize it's been 2 months since my last post. I had to share this cute pic. of my boys and how much they've changed. Joshua is now 11 months and I feel his baby-ness slipping out of my reach. He's such a doll- I couldn't have asked for a sweeter, cuddlier or better sleeping baby. We went to visit some friends tonight and Jacob said, "I love Tyler and he loves me, we love Joshua and Dad loves us and Mom loves us." We've been singing a rendetion of that in Nursery, but it was so spontaneous and cute to hear. Tyler met his all-day (no half-day :( ) kindergarten teacher today, Mrs. Dyer. She is so sweet- Tyler loves her and asked if he could start school tomorrow! I'm so not ready for this. He picked out a blue back back, a transformer Bumble Bee lunch box and a shark folder!

Beach/Wedding