Spring, Roses, and A New Hobby

I have always loved growing things. My favorite chore when I was growing up was working in the yard. I loved helping my mom pick out new flowers and things to grow in our planters. When we moved up to the desert I planted two planters full of beautiful flowers and they all died that very season. The extreme weather up here makes it difficult to grow many things.
I've never cared much for roses because of the thorns and I think the flowers look yucky when they start to fade away, but they grow amazingly well in the desert and there are so many varieties. Last year my mom bought me a rose book and we started making trips down to Guerrero's rose farm in Upland. I cleared my overgrown planters of weeds and ran a drip line. David was super busy with work so I did most of it myself. I planted fifteen roses last year and I've purchased two more already this year. My mom says she finally turned me to the dark side. My favorite thing about roses is that they all have cool names. I've chosen roses based on their names to represent my family in my yard. Kinda' cheesy but I love it. I still need a rose for Cy and Aaron so that's my priority this year. Next I'll start working my extended family and friends in. :) Here are a few of the roses that are already blooming.

*Berries N' Cream*
This is Traci's rose bush, it's a beautiful climber and I was planting this when I got "the call" last year. I remember standing in the yard staring at this beautiful plant and just letting the wind blow on my face, wishing that I could feel my sweet friend beside me...one of the most vivid memories I have.

*Yellow Ribbons*
I just planted this one because it makes a pretty ground cover.

*Home Run*
I love the red flower. It's not a typical looking rose. David loved them because of the baseball reference in the name. He had me plant one big Iceberg (white shrub rose) with one of these on either side because it reminds him of the white baseball with two red stitches around it.

*Just Joey*
My newest addition to the yard, these are Joey's. :)
This rose has HUGE flowers and they smell great.

I'm also trying my hand at a garden this year. We have to start our plants indoors up here because the weather is so sporatic throughout Spring. It freezes even into April. I put them out for sun everyday that it is warm . Otherwise they are in my kitchen taking up the little bit of counter space that I have. We're growing beans, peppers, pumpkins, watermelon, strawberries, carrots, radishes, tomatoes and sunflowers. :) This year is mostly an experiement for me to see what works and what doesn't.

Aaron's Special Day

Aaron has been waiting his whole life to play baseball. The little guy is as obsessed with the sport as David. He has had to watch Joey play for two years and it has been torture telling him that he just had to wait a little longer. Aaron's special Day finally came on Monday; he got to play in his very first tee ball game!!! :)

Joey is such a goof ball. I think he enjoyed being a specctator!
Cy cheering the guys on.

Aaron was just so happy, but when it's time to go, it's time to go! :)

Girls On An Adventure

My friend Wendy decided that the girls should get together and do something a little crazy since she was turning 30 soon. She decided to have a midnight Twilight party at her house. We went to the Hot Topic Midnight release. Then met some friends back at her house around 2:00am. The release party was actually pretty lame, they said they were going to have drawings and trivia games, but we just stood in line for 3 hours listening to the Twilight soundtrack. We had lots of fun visiting and watching the silly teenagers. I think we were the only Moms there without kids. :) Here I am all ready to go! I'm a dork and I don't care! :)

The fancy line.

Sabrina, Wendy and half of me.

The teen aged girls were coming out screaming when they got their movies so we tried to show some enthusiasm as well! :)

Blowing out the candles with Wendy!

We sprawled out on the carpet and had a picnic while we watched the movie. We mostly just laughed all night! I love the movie, but you have to admit, it's pretty cheesy.

Our friends Jennifer and Shannon.

The party ended at about 4:30am. I haven't partied that hard in a long time! We had so much fun and I think we're going to do it again for New Moon. :)

Kids say...

Sabrina made a list of the funny things her kids say and tagged the rest of us to do the same. I love writing these things down and then going back a reading them. My boys crack me up!
So here it goes:
Joey-
"At the end of the road, turn right, then turn left, then you have reached your destination." (In the accent of the British TomTom guy)

"Nobody understands me!" (David and I just died when he said this after he got punished for smacking Aaron in the backseat.)

Overall, I am just amazed at how grown up he's become since he started Kindergarten. He says "that's correct" instead of "yes" and and reminds ME to change the calendar when it's time.

He and Aaron both have the funniest list of favorite songs, thanks, in part, to Rachel's Singstar games. They sing We Built This City by Starship, Rock Lobster by the B52's, Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash and The Boxer (also known as lie la lie) by Simon and Garfunkel.

Aaron-
"Cy is the cheekiest baby in the whole world!"

"No Joey! You are not the boss, only Mommy, Daddy and me are the bosses!"

He sings "When Christmas Comes to Town" and "Yo Ho Yo Ho" all the time, but it is funniest when he sings it on the john!

Cy-
Cy is a man of few words but my current favorite is Mama! Except when he is cranky and he follows me around the house repeating it over and over and over and over and over...while I try to do laundry or dishes. :) I also think it's hilarious to listen to him babble when he is trying to tell us something. The only signs he knows are please and cookie. He rubs his hands all over his chest and his head to say please, it cracks me up. :)

Cy's latest tricks...

I was reading my cousin's blog about her sweet baby girl turning one and I realized that I posted pictures of Cy's birthday but I didn't document his milestones. Since I'm horrible at journaling and my scrapbook cart is covered in two years worth of dust, I should probably do that here! :) He's learned a few new words since October but other than that things are pretty similar to 4 months ago, so here are some of Cy's sixteen month tricks...
He walks, dances (it looks like he's doing squats),rides his little cars, gets into everything, and tackles his brothers. He must think he's their size. His favorite game is "make mommy hold the bottle of water while I try to put the lid on." This is what keeps him quiet during church. He says, Mama, Dada, Goo-ma, ball, dog, what's that, and bottle. He says lots of other things but they all sound like "baw-baw" or some variation of that, so I've only listed the words that people other than his mom would understand. :) Oh and he said Buddy for the first time yesterday! :) He has 6 teeth, his first two came in at twelve months. He loves to eat the organic Disney animal cookies from Costco. Aaron gets him the tub and he pushes it around the house munching on cookies. Gotta' love the help from big brother.

Buddy is home and the world is right again...

My brother-in-law Daniel left his mission in Charlotte NC on January 23rd. We were all ready meet him at Ontario Airport that night but his flight from Salt Lake was canceled so we had to pick him up Saturday morning at John Wayne in Irvine.

Here we are, making our way into the airport. We got there with 5 minutes to spare. :)

Daniel and Nancy! We were all just SO happy!

Daniel and Rachie!

We have a picture just like this one of Daniel and Joey at the airport when he left. We didn't know if Aaron would even remember him, but he did. He even made him crafts and picked a toy to give him. He adores him and he still won't leave his side! :)

Naomi had these shirts made for the boys. We stayed up late Thursday night making this sign. The boys colored the letters and they chose what pictures to put on. Aaron insisted that there be a gingerbread man with balls on it! :)

David's parents took us all out to El Torito right after Daniel got released. David and Daniel are doing "something" in this picture.

The Jacobs and Team Y were there of course. Steven just got home from his mission in August.

Here is Daniel with his girls! :)

This is me being a "torito"

Here's Steven leaning in for a kiss. Daniel's first bit of action caught on film! ;)

We met the Wheeler clan at Disneyland yesterday and the boys had a blast!

Here they are getting ready to go on Midway Mania

Daniel took Aaron for his first ride on Space Mountain. He is just under 40in so we put him in snow boots to add a little height. It did the trick and he got to ride all three Mountains last night. We even got to ride Splash Mountain twice.

We are so proud of Daniel. My boys adore him and it means so much that they have so many awesome role models in their lives. They are already talking about serving missions themselves.

Joey's Tooth

Joey lost his first tooth last week. We tried to let it work itself out but it started dangling and flapping when he talked, so we tried everyday for three days to pull it out. He didn't like it much but he was very brave. One night, I told him I was going to dry it off and when I did, it popped right out. He said "Ok Mom, no more tries tonight." He was so happy when I opened my hand and he saw his tooth inside. The one right next to the gap is almost ready to come out and he says that he'll let us pull it when it's time. I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank Grandma Ruth for teaching me proper tooth extracting methods. :)

Some Fun With JibJab

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Cy's First Haircut

Cy is the first one of my babies to have a nice full head of long beautiful hair. Joey was totally bald and when he got his first haircut it was really just a formality. Aaron had little wings just above his ears, and I begrudgingly allowed those to get trimmed when he was about a year old. I wanted to let Cy's hair grow out a while longer but it is just unmanageable. The back is always frizzy and nappy from the car seat so I finally broke down. I don't take the boys to the salon because, in my experience, they wiggle just as much for a stylist as they do for Daddy, and a crooked haircut from Daddy is free. :)

I think you'll agree that it was time. It's getting a little unruly, no?

He didn't cry but I wouldn't say he loved it either. LOL

Here's the finished product.

He looks like a little man, doesn't he?