See us Run

We recently went to a run fundraiser for THESE KIDS. There was a race for all of us. First up, the little ones. They ran .87 miles. It was harder than they thought it would be. Above is a picture of them at the start of the race ready to go and unaware of what they were about to endure. Reagan is barely awake, but looks focused.

Julianne running in with Maddie. Maddie was the first girl to finish in her age group. Is that Superman trailing behind you?!
Aubryn and Reagan came in last. Here they are with Brian running the last bit, both of them balling. I felt bad for them. Reagan had fallen asleep shortly before we got there. I think it would have gone better for them if he had been in a better mood.
Here they are finishing their race so sad, but they DID IT!Brad, ready to start!
Ethan and Adam running into the finish line.
Brad coming into the finish line.
I did a stroller walk.

Brian running the 5k. Go BRI!!Julianne running the 5 k with a smile!Brian sprinting in to the finish. He came in 2nd place to a teenager. The race route was full of hills. He did a good job.

How to get the Super Ratty Hair Look

1. Begin by playing with your brothers outside.

2. Go for a walk to vacant lot full of crazy weeds and stickers.

3. Go to the back of the empty lot to see the goats on the other side of the fence and fall into the craziest sticker bush ever. Make sure you get your head right into the sticky bush. The stickers should be, of course, very sticky! It really helps to have your hair pulled up into loopy piggy tails so that the stickers get stuck underneath and in the loopies.

4. Cry.

5. Have your mother rip the bush apart so that you are free.

6. Take time to pull the millions of stickers out of the bottoms of your flip flops so that you can walk home without pain in the soles of your feet.

7. To help cope with pain, play paper dolls while your mother rips the sticky pointy balls out of your hair. “Sleeping Beauty, can you play?” Ariel said.

8. After all 10 sticky balls have been removed enjoy extremely ratty hair.

This look is rare, but I did spot it at the local 24th of July festivities.

Work Clothes

This is SO my husband.

Rocket Motor Launch

We went to the ATK recently to watch them test a rocket motor they are building for NASA. See that here. We enjoyed some bubble gum while we waited for the test and listened to the engineers on the radio.

Reagan's bubble

Brian's bubble

Aubryn's bubble

The rocket motor is the white horizontal line on the right. It is set up so that the fire ( or whatever the stuff is called that comes out of the motor) will hit the mountain side. I'm not sure what they use to stabilize the motor from moving.30 seconds after ignition. (imagine rumbling and the ground shaking)All done, we are driving away. It ignited for 2 minutes. We checked Brad out of school to see this. He said, "I'm going to miss science!" I'm pretty sure no teacher could do an experiment in class as cool as this.

The Birthday

"What do you want for your birthday dinner?" I asked.

"Ice cream." He said.

"No, for dinner, before the ice cream." I said.

"I want ICE CREAM!"

Later, after he woke up from his nap, I asked him a new question.

"What do you want to do for your birthday, Reagan? Do you want to go swimming?"

"I want ice cream." He said.

"What do you want to do for fun?"

"I want take (cake) too. I want to have my birthday now. It’s going to be yum."

All he wanted all day was cake and ice cream. I went to the store to buy a cake for the first time. They had a cute little cake for $3.99. So I grabbed it and asked the lady if she could write his name on it. "Sure! I can also put a little Spiderman on top and some balls."

"Okay." I said, "That would be great."

She did those things, then put a new price tag of $9.99 and gave it back to me.

We came home and immediately Aubryn stuck her finger in the frosting. It then said, “R agan”. Aubryn reassured me that we could still eat it like that.

Reagan was excited when he saw his cake. He didn't notice his smeared name. We did the festivities: sang, blew out candles, opened gifts, and dished up the cake and ice cream. Reagan really enjoyed his THREE bites. "I’m DONE!" And off he went.

Happy Birthday Reagan!

I had a hard time narrowing down pictures!

Reagan is THREE today! (September 8th) Reagan is awesome. I love him so much. He brightens up any place he goes. The kid is jam packed with personality. He is animated. He is friendly. He always says hi. He gets noticed. Friendly hellos to us usually go like this, “Hi guys. HI Reagan!” People are always happy to see Reagan. Including me.

Among Reagan’s talents, Reagan has a really keen sense of smell. I often hear [inhale loud, long, SNIIIIIFFFFF] then, "I Smeaw (smell) it!" [as he exhales] Once he did that in Sacrament meeting. "[Sniifff] I smeaw YOU! You smeaw yuck!" That made me feel good about myself. He often smells Rylan’s diapers before I do. One night as I made dinner he kept sniffing and repeating to me that he could smell it. I asked what and I he didn’t know, but it smelled "yuck". Then we sat down to eat and he refused to eat. He didn’t like it. I realized that smell he kept complaining about was the dinner I was preparing. The longer it cooked, the more it smelled. The more it smelled, the more he complained. Apparently my cooking not only tastes great, it smells great too.

I LOVE YOU, REAGAN!! Happy birthday to YOU!

"Mom, where is Brad and Dad?" Aubryn asked me.
"I don't know. Did you look downstairs?"
"Yes."
"Did you look in the back yard?"
"Yes."
"Did you look in the front?"
"Yes."
"Maybe they are on the moon." I said.
pause
"Mom, our cars don't fly."

"I jumped off the diving board, at the farm, in the booty."

-Reagan

Can someone help me understand this? He says it to me all the time.

My Spot!

Early this morning Reagan came into my bed. He climbed up and laid right on top of me! He had his belly right on my head. His legs on my belly and his head on my pillow and said, "Mom! You're in my spot!"

Chuck E Cheese

We went to Chuck E Cheese. What a place! I had not been there. The kids love it. I mean really love it! They can’t get enough. Did you know they give out free headaches to parents when you go there?

Mr. Reagan has been a little champ in the potty department lately. He even went all by himself one day when no one was nearby to help out. Sad thing happened to him at Chuck E Cheese. He went up into the tunnel slide thing and could not find his way out! We could see him the bubble window crying and we were trying to point to him which way to go. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to climb up in there. He finally found his way out. But it was too late! He had peed. He was SO SAD! He said, “I was sad in the slide.” I comforted him and cleaned him up. We sat back down with the family to finish our $20 pizza. But I knew there was a puddle of pee up there and the trail that followed down the slide. I knew if my kids went up there to discover some other child’s pee puddle, I would not be happy about it. Brian agreed and told me, “You better go tell them.”

So I did my duty. It was embarrassing.

But it was a little rewarding when I got to see the workers climb up in there.

Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa for the gift certificates! We had FUN!!

Who doesn't love a little wack a mole!?