Our Memorial Day

We took advantage of the holiday on Monday by riding bikes along the green belt, and then picnicing at the park. The weather held out, and didn't start to rain until we got into the car to go home. We had a great time with the Sayers.

Look at all those bikes. A lot of work for an hour's worth of riding.
Not sure what she is showing us here.
Hey Mom, look at my big blue eyes.
Assembling trailers and bikes
My baby boys.
Just can't get a good smile out of this kid.
Even though I am wearing a helmet, I will do my best model pose for you.
Eating at the park.
Heading home before the storm.

Miss Nicole

Part II.....

Nicole Anne Tueller, what can I say about her. Hmmmmmm...Let's see...

Nicole is finishing up second grade and is quite fickle about school. She really likes her teacher, Mr. Woolery. Yeah, that's right, Mr. He is a tall, skinny cowboy. He wears wranglers up to his chest with cowboy boots and a big silver belt buckle. On the down side, she isn't too fond of school work. She does her homework, but it is like pulling teeth.

She wants to be a teacher when she grows up and spends most of her playtime pretending to teach school. The other day, my sister was trying to figure out what to buy her 8 yr old for her birthday. She told me to ask Nicole what she would want. Guess what she said? An overhead projector. Yep, my seven year old wants an overhead projector. I might have to call the school supply store and order that right up. Recently, she invented her own overhead by setting up a chair in front of a mirror. She taped up a clear page protector and got right to work teaching addition. Quite inventive! While we were cleaning out the garage, she found some Vis a Vis pens, which she was super excited about because they are used for overheads. Her birthday is coming up, and I am just thinking, where are we going to store an overhead!?

She played soccer this season and really enjoyed it. I mean, I thought she enjoyed it, until she told her coach at the end of the season party that she would never see him again because she wasn't going to play next year. News to me!

She is a great big sister to both Hayden and Blake. I so enjoy when the clock strikes 4pm because I know she will be walking in the door from the bus. That means that she will play with Blake until about 4:30 when Joey gets home from work. I love having a built in babysitter. She will hold Blake while he drinks his bottle, feed him his dinner, get him more cheerios for his tray, and even get him out of his bed. My fav is when she takes Blake to her room and they play for about and hour! I love it!!!

Nicole's favorites and not so favorites:

Food: Orange Chicken from Panda (renamed Nicole's favorite chicken in our family)
Least Favorite Food: onions and tomatoes (really dislikes spaghetti, but I tend to ignore this and still cook it and get mad when she won't eat it.)
Favorite TV shows: iCarly, family feud and Drake and Josh
Favorite Pastime: Enjoys playing with friends, but is just as content to play by herself

Nicole sometimes struggles to find her place among all of the boys, but she has a very sweet spirit. She is usually easy to please. Example: We sold her bike last weekend because it was getting too small for her. All week, she kept saying that she needed a bike, and I was feeling badly that we didn't have anything for her yet. So, on Friday night we took her on a special date to Target to look for a bike. The selection at target was slim and kind of expensive. We told her we might want to look at Walmart before we made a decision. She didn't complain or get upset that we were leaving without getting her anything. At Walmart, we encountered the same problem. Again, we told her we might want to wait and see if we could find a better deal at another store. Again, she didn't get upset and just said ok! Now, he who will not be named (#1 child) would have been devastated when we left the first store empty handed and could not have functioned as a human being had we left the second store without a bike. I guess it is just the difference before #1 and #2. Before you start feeling badly for her, we did get her a bike today and she loves it. She is very content that way.


Her joys in life would be to have 5 otter pops a day, several pieces of gum and whatever other candy she could find. She is attached to sugar! Oh yeah, and she would want me to paint her toenails every weekend.


Nicole is a sweet little girl, and we feel very fortunate to have her in our family.

Tagged by Letia

I guess I will post about Nicole tomorrow even though some of you don't deserve it. Hopefully this tag will suffice for now.

Things about me
Four Movies I could Watch over and over:
1. Father of the Bride
2. Never Been Kissed
3. Stealing Home
4. Dead Poets Society

Four Jobs I've Had:
1. Gas Station Attendant (Horkley's, Rexburg, Idaho) A real winner. I added about 3000 free movie rentals to my account.
2. Sears Credit Central- Deceased accounts (We don't want Jr. stealing his grandma's washing machine that is yet to be paid for.)
3. File Attendant at Chatham Becker, La Canada, CA
4. Bagel Pusher :)

Four Places I've Lived:
1. Altadena, CA
2. Milwaukee, WI
3. Rexburg, ID
4. Boise, ID

Four of My Favorite dishes/foods:
1. Lettuce Wraps from PF Changs
2. Orange Chicken from Panda
3. Boom dip from Oreganos
4. Anything with BBQ sauce

Four T.V. Shows I Love: Way too many to list!!!!
1. Days of Our Lives (proud of it!)
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Brother's and Sisters
4. The Office

Four sites I visit daily:
1. Blogs
2. MSN
3. Cruisedeals
4. Craigslist

Four Places I have Vacationed:
1. Australia & New Zealand
2. Russia, Finland, Sweden
3. The Caribbean
4. Alaska

Four Places I'd rather be right now:
1. On a cruise eating a fabulous dinner
2. Laying on the Beach
3. Out to dinner with my husband
4. Shopping with lots of money in my wallet

Four Friends I Tag:
1. Karen
2. Jennifer
3. Aly
4. Aimee

I'm Pouting!

I finally posted, and all I got was two comments. So, I am withholding today's post until I see some support here.

PS..Joey said that Brendon's post was too braggy, so sorry if I sounded retarded.

I'm Alive!

Have you all been missing me? I know, I know, I have been a total blogging loser lately. It has been pretty busy around here lately. Nothing of a national emergency sort, but just life with 4 kids. Here is the rundown of what everyone has been up to:

Brendon:

Brendon has been playing baseball and loves it. His team could use a bit on the talent side, but he is still really enjoying it. He gets a chance to pitch every few games and enjoys that. He has two more games until the season ends.

He has learned to play the violin this year. He has done this without any encouragement from me, and has done it despite my negative attitude. He approached me in the fall and asked if he could play in the school orchestra. I told him that wasn't a good idea. (Note, my great parenting skills of encouragment) I just knew he was going to decide it was too much work after I had rented the violin for the whole year. But, he kept pushing and pushing (as only Brendon can) and I finally relented. To his credit, he stuck with it all year and I am truly amazed at how much he has learned. He asked me to print him some staff paper on Mother's Day. Again, using my best parenting skills, I reluctantly printed it, but was thinking the whole time at the cost of getting new ink for this "POS" printer I have. Guess what, he wrote me a song. I know, I was shocked also. Not only did he write me a song, but he played it for me on his violin. Amazing! The song even had measures with the appropriate beats per measure with some rests added in and those two lines at the end that lets you know the song is over. He has learned to read music, write music and play the violin all during his lunch hours at shool. He might be the next August Rush. But, I am pretty sure that Heavenly Father knew better than to send me a child prodigy. Apparently, I am more into the theory, "Let's not learn anything new, just go outside and play." Brendon's final orchestra concert is today, where he is playing in a quartet.

Brendon is looking forward to summer, but not looking forward to a summer without his Dad. He keeps asking Joey why he can't go get another job. He will live. He will spend most of his summer riding around the neighborhood looking for kids to play with, swimming and playing in Heber with his cousins. I am going to try to throw a few chores into that schedule, but who are we kidding, getting my kids to work is more work for me. So, I will ask, but if it doesn't get done, I will just pretend not to notice. (Boy, I am just painting myself as super parent!)

Brendon is one achievement away from getting his Bear. This has been a goal for him and he is really excited. He will probably get that at the next pack meeting. He will then be a webelo.

What else, what else....

Favorite Food: Salmon
Least Favorite Food: Almost too many to name. Mayo, Tomatos, Mustard and Onions
Favorite Sport: Football
Favorite Team: Colts
Favorite Player: Peyton Manning
Favorite TV Show: Drake and Josh, iCarly, Zoey 101 (Must admit that I quite enjoy the first two, but haven't really seen Zoey 101)
Favorite Pastime: Playing with friends

Is a major over achiever. Would NEVER dream of showing up at school without his homework done. Is quite positive that he is going to get a scholarship for college and that one math test with an 80% in 4th grade could ruin his chances. Not quite sure where he got that drive, but am quite sure where he got his smarts!!! :)






I had every intention of discussing all of my kids, but this has gotten so long that I thought I would break it up. So, today you only get Brendon. Check in tomorrow for update of another one of my children. (I am just trying to get into your good graces with many posts in a row.)

Just so you know, I am not going to proof read this before I post it. I am in a hurry, and I don't really need to, because Karen and Jennifer will point out all of the grammer and typo mistakes within 10 minutes.

Tune in tomorrow.....

911, What's your emergency?

I am 34yrs old, and until today, I have never called 911. But, today was the day, and I have to admit that it wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be. In fact, it was rather humiliating. Here is the run down:

6:00 pm- I give Blake a bath and put him on his changing table to get dressed. I lotion him up, and put a diaper on him. I realize that it is kind of hot, and should get some lighter jammies from the closet. I turn my back for one second and hear a loud thud. I turn around to see my sweet baby on the floor. (Now, I will admit that on more than one occasion, I have run down the hallway to the laundry room, or answered the phone in the other room while Blake has been on the changing table. But, this time I only turned my back for one second. Really, only one second!!!!)

I pick him up and he starts holding his breath and I can tell he is going to pass out. After what seemed like 5 minutes (probably only 30 seconds) he starts breathing and crying. I yell for Joey and he takes him from me to make sure that he is breathing. He then starts to struggle to breathe and his eyes and head start to droop. I freak out! Every once in a while he would start to cry, but mostly he would be in and out of a lethargic state. So, I call 911. I knew Joey didn't want me too, but I thought at any minute he was going to pass out. What if he didn't come too? Could I really wait? Did I over react? Maybe, but I was freaking out.

The 911 operator connects me to a paramedic and he starts asking me questions. By the time I have given him a rundown of what happened, and he finishes asking me all the questions, and let's me know that help is on the way, Blake has calmed down and seems fine. Here is where it gets embarrassing. I start to hear sirens when they are still about a mile away. Then the fire truck and ambulance pull up in front of my house with full sirens blaring. I can only image what the neighbors are thinking. Out jump 4 firemen and 2 paramedics. I start to get hot and am dreading the minute that they knock on the door and see my baby who is now smiling in my arms. Maybe I should have pinched him so that at least he was crying when they got there.

Those cute men entered my home and asked lots of questions and listened to his lungs and checked him out. Guess what, he was just fine. He just got the wind knocked out of him. (Just what Joey was telling me when I started dialing 911.) Then they packed up all of their bags, and took their trucks and left. It was awfully humiliating.

So, help me out. Make me feel better about being a paranoid, over reactor! I know some of you might have done the same thing. I think Joey is going to give me a few days to calm down, and then he is going to me a very hard time. I can't help it, I love my babies and do not handle these kind of situations very well.

I am going to run upstairs and give that baby a kiss. Good Night!