Daddy's Day

Lately I've discovered that I have more in common with my dad than I thought.. This week I have been a little impatient, wanted to say "you're fine" to several incidents, had conversations with the dog and the raccoon, and have been a little obsessive about having the windows clean. All of my life I've been told I'm just like my mom, BUT I think my dad has rubbed off on me over the years :) I just wanted to write a quick post about how much I love my dad and everything about him that makes him so special!

• First off, my dad is a good shopper. This I inherited for sure. I love to shop, and so does my dad. Not something my husband really appreciates :)
• My dad is a master window cleaner, I only learned from the best- you should see the glass doors I just cleaned- he would be so proud. 
• My dad has this way to make me feel motivated. For example, this week every time I talked to him over FaceTime he would say, "Have you caught the raccoon yet?" It became more of a pride issue for me to catch the animal than to actually stop it from eating the dog food. (Don't worry we caught it).
• He has a way of making conversations and then getting up and leaving in the middle of them, it makes it easy to know when you need to stop talking. Phone conversations are pretty similar, When he says "alright talk to ya" that means goodbye and click. Conversation over.  No dilly dallying with him. 
• He calls me sweetheart and the next thing I know he is calling Mya (our dog) sweetheart too. Kind of disheartening. 
• This quote with forever be ingrained in my memory, "Once a job has begun do not leave it til it's done, if a job be great or small do it right or not at all." We heard this over and over as children. I recited it to Nate while we were working it in the yard this weekend, he was pretty impressed. Thanks Dad. 
• Whenever us kids would get hurt and we would run in crying the first thing that came out of his mouth was "You're Fine." Pretty sure that these words came out of his mouth all 4 times that I had broken arms. 
• My dad can talk to animals. Any kind, you name it, he can have a conversation with them. I caught myself talking to the raccoon when we caught it.. Maybe it's genetic. 
• I've always been a daddy's girl. He always rocked me to sleep, took care of me when all I wanted was daddy, loved me through all my mistakes and showed me what I wanted in a future husband and daddy for my kids.

I'm so grateful for you dad! I hope you are having a fabulous Father's Day! I love you.

The Besties

So officially today. I have missed all of my best friends weddings. This is not really an accomplishment that I am proud of, actually it makes me really sad. I love you all girls and I am so glad you were bridesmaids at my wedding! I'm so sad I couldn't even be at yours!

Jessie got married the day after me so that made it a little difficult to be to hers.. haha

Becca got married on June 2nd and I'm miles and miles away 

Heather got married today! June 14th! 

Love you all! Congratulations! You all make such beautiful Brides!

New York CITY

Today Bryant came down stairs and asked me where my sheets were? I told him they were in the wash. He then proceeded to ask me if Nate and I wet the bed :)

They love it when Nate comes home from work! 

Taking Turns tying each other up.. Boys. 

It's been a fun week. This past weekend we were able to take the train back to the City. Nate told Blake that we were going to New York and Blake said, "NO you are going to NEW YORK CITY that is different." Good to know. We better be more careful.

We spent the night with Matt and Nat. It was their last night in New York! It was so nice of them to let us stay with them on their last night. We went to Shake Shack and walked along the Hudson. The next morning they took their taxi to the airport and home they went! We are going to miss them, Luckily Nate and I get to go home for the big wedding in like 10 days! woot!

We are going to miss our Tay Bug!

Sunset on the Hudson

Nate and I wandered around lower Manhattan for a little while just looking at the new World Trade Center building from a distance, we were meeting the Layton's in the city but hadn't heard from them yet. When Lara texted us we decided to jump on the subway up to Times Square... well it was kind of a little more complicated than we planned on because they had closed the whole red line because it was "under investigation" in other words someone probably like jumped in front of a train and died. creepy. But we made it.

so pleased about his toy.

Toys R Us was the first stop! Everyone got to pick a toy and a treat. Highlight of the whole day for sure. We all went to lunch at Carmines and then to visit Dave's office building. Beautiful View! He works about 7 minutes from Grand Central and has a PERFECT view of the Empire State building. Also right below him is Bryant Park. (Hence why they named Bryant, Bryant- They would eat lunch their when Lara was pregnant with him.. cute).

Bryant wanted to know if we were going to go to HIS park :)

Daves office Building 

The view!

Next stop. The MET. The Boys loved the museum way more than I anticipated and we spent quite a bit of time their because Dave took sweet little Elle on a date to Newsies. So fun.

Not the best picture.. but here is the Metropolitan 

Best quote from the museum. We were in the area with guns, bows, spears and things, you know, a little boys dream. Blake was looking at the guns that were being displayed by Tiffany and Co. They were super fancy with diamonds and all- Blake turned to us and said, "Are these for sale?" He was pretty bummed out when he couldn't buy his Tiffany and Co. Pistol. haha.

Everyday is an adventure. We are loving it here!

A Trip to the Spa and the Pool

This week has been full of adventures with the kiddos. Who knew going to the store could be so complicated? Someone wants a toy, someone wants a treat, someone wants a different store, someone wants in the cart, someone wants out. Whew.. luckily we made it through Costco, Wal Mart, Target, Homegoods, and the awesome Fairway Market all in one week!

After making it through all these stores the boys were able to talk their mom into a summer pool! It was a hot hot day and they came home and got right in their suits. The next few days I guess it was just too much of a hassle to get the swim suit on so they just got in in their clothes. Made for some wet laundry.  Lucky for them they had lots of water guns so I got cooled off pretty quick too.

Squirting my toes!

Bryant is sure that these are flowers....He picked me one and made sure it went in my hair for the rest of the day. 

Nate and I were able to babysit the kids while Dave and Lara went to the adult Stake Conference session. We had pizza and puzzles. Later, I walked in after cleaning up and the kids were giving Nate a nice spa treatment haha. He had an eyemask, some really girly lotion, hairspray, water, a brush etc.. Bryant was pounding on his back- He informed me that this was a massage- and Blake was smearing lotion all over Nate's hairy legs- while Eli was styling his hair. It was quite the treatment. Nate smelled really nice afterwards.

Unfortunately after the treatment we had to put them to bed. They went down pretty good but they have quite the routine. My favorite part was prayer time. Blake said “Heavenly Father and Jesus we love it when you are close to us because it makes us happy and safe.” Kids are so sweet. I can’t get enough of them.

Isn't the eye mask a nice touch?

The most exciting part of the week was the raccoon trap. Don't worry it's a "Have a heart Trap" so it's safe and it says- for frequent use! awesome.  It came in the mail and the little boys could not leave it alone. They thought it was the coolest thing ever! Then the big boys got home and they couldn’t leave it alone either ha. Dave and Nate came up with some awesome bate. Pirates Booty and Dog Food was the first night. The raccoon ate it all but he was smart enough to get to the food without getting inside the trap. Nate and Dave weren’t too happy about that. The next night they got a little more creative and made a trail of rice crispy treat into the cage.

Nate and I were getting to bed a little later than usual because it was the weekend. The motion light popped on and Nate popped right out of bed and ran for a window. Then I hear him loudly whisper “MCKEll  IT’S HERE!” not sure why he was whispering we are the only ones in the basement, but I got up and sure enough there was the big raccoon. He ate the trail and walked around the back of the trap to see if he could reach in and grab the food, he couldn’t so he just scurried right away. Once again, outsmarting the boys. Nate was so mad. Haha

The next night we made an even better trail that traveled all the way through the cage so it just couldn’t resist. Nate popped out of bed at 5:30 am and sure enough there was something in the cage!! But it sure wasn’t a raccoon… it was a POSSUM! Yuck! Nate sent a message to Dave and we heard him racing down the stairs to come see haha. It was quite the morning. The kids were going crazy, eli was crying because she was worried her dad was going to shoot it with the bbgun. Lucky for all of us we just released it right back where it came from.. I would be happy to never see one again.

A few awesome quotes from the kids:

Blake: “Guys! It’s all right if it looks dead, possums play dead!

Blake: “McKell, Posumms are nocturnal so he is probably going to go to sleep soon because it’s the day.”

Bryant: Dave was saying how he wanted to get all of the scary, crazy animals off his property and shoot them all, Bryant (remember he is 3): “Dad, Listen to yourself!” he said it probably 5 times. 

They say the funniest things I wish I could just write them all down. This week Blake explained to Nate how gravity works as well. These kids know their stuff.

One last little update.  Here is an aswesome video of the frogs, oh yeah they are still there, don’t you worry. We basically live at the zoo.