The After Effect of Tending

When we came home from tending this is what the dogs gave us as a present. They destroyed their beds! Not too uncommon actually.. if you will remember back to when we went to Hawaii and we came back to a destroyed love sac. This is much easier to clean up:)

After shopping around a little bit I found Costco dog beds!! I think the dogs like them. I took this as I was carrying in grocery's!

Nixon liked them too!! He would dive off the first stair and fall onto them...with or without the dogs sleeping on the beds!

A train of dogs! How random are these too??

Nana and Papa Wally came and visited for the weekend! I love that they can fly for free, it's so fun! We went to The Onion for dinner all together! Thanks for coming Nana and Papa Wally!

A Day At The Park Anyone????

It has been such nice weather here the last few days!! Nixon, Gauge, Darby, Jon and I ALL went to the park and played and had a lot of fun!! I feel SPRING in the air, of course there will be snow again I am sure but for a few days the sun was out and warm and it has been nice. Nixon and I have been really enjoying it!! It is a little strange this time of year but we will take it, although my ski's are still calling to me to find a day to go to the mountain and test them out:)

Tending the Christensen Clan for 9 days!

Well it was 9 days with the Christensen Clan!! It was a learning experience and a rush of craziness everyday. Emily and Kirt went on a cruise and Jon and I went and stayed at their house and watched Tanner 9.75, Katie 5.75, Garret 2.75 (their birthdays are all coming up in a just a few weeks). Jon and I made a list..

TOP 20 THINGS TO REMEMBER FROM OUR TENDING EXPERIENCE:
( we start with the mellow and end with the tragic )

20. We went through 7 gallons of milk... and I didn't even have any! Can we get a cow anyone?
19. Katie LOVED playing games and we played Clue, LRC, Hullabaloo and we colored every day!
18. Katie took one for the team and watched shows with Garret some of the early mornings!
17. We only saw Tanner in the mornings before school and for a quick flash of him at dinner every night. He was so busy with school, math club, tempos, basketball, scouts and practice, it was easy to watch him:)
16. Nixon and Garret could NOT play in the same room together, you had to watch them all the time or there was crying from one or the other or both.
15. I made at least 5 sippy cups of Chocolate Milk a day!! Those kids LOVED their chocolate milk and Nixon thought it was pretty great too:)
14. Tanner got to shake hands with John Stockton and play basketball against his son!
13. Hearing "Sponge Bob" at 5:30 in the morning when Garret would come running into our room... Emily said this would happen every morning but it only happened once or twice!! Lucky us!!!
12. Katie had a really bad headache one night and Grammy was the hero and came over to help her settle down and get her to bed. Poor girl!
11. Doing homework with Katie, I have never seen a girl so excited to have homework and so quick to get it done!! It was fun to do it with her.
10. Doing homework with Tanner and having to look up something on Google to make sure I was telling him the right information... sad that I can't help a 9 year old with his homework:)
9. Hearing "What's That?" from Garret at least 40 times a day...
8. Garret changed his clothes at least once a day AND THEN changed his pajamas once a night before going to bed. USUALLY he put them on backwards to boot:) It was really hilarious!
For example:
Side note: Garret wanted to wear this t-shirt EVERYDAY
7. Katie responding one day in the kitchen "my mom's farts stink."
6. The kids saying "I'm hungry" and then me asking "What do you want to eat" and the response was usually "fruit snacks." Did I really need to ask??? What kid doesn't want to eat fruit snacks...Yum!
5. Garret had 4 poopy diapers in ONE day and I happened to be home with the pups all day so Jon had to change them ALL!!
4. While making cookies one day with the kids I dropped the flour and spilled about a pound of flour on the floor and trapped the kids on the counter! Oops!!

3. Nixon bit Garret right on the cheek and left marks... so sad:( Luckily the marks healed quickly, so that no one saw them.
2. Garret broke the lamp in the living room seriously 2 minutes after Emily and Kirt walked out the door! What a way to start the 9 days of tending!
And Last and the worst!
1. Garret put his hands down his pants into his poopy diaper one night!! YUCK!! This was two days into the tending and Jon and I just about DIED... This was the worst part of the whole 9 days!!



And now for a few random pictures:

My mom was there for the first day when we started tending, this is my mom coloring with Katie....AND Nixon might be trying to help too.

Katie and Garret. Garret liked to dress up in the cheetah outfit of Katie's and growl around the house.

On a snowy afternoon Katie and Garret got into their snow gear and played in the backyard. They kept asking for me to take their picture..it was cute!
Swinging!!

Jumping on the slippery trampoline!!

Sliding down the frozen slide.

Go Katie!

And of course Garret needed his swimming goggles!

Fun in the cold!

We brought out the mini basketball hoop and all played basketball.

Katie did some head stands!

THIS is ONE moment of only a few where there was peace among the little boys!

Tanner, Nixon and Garret

Jon did his hair CRAZY one day!

It's a mix between a spike and slicked back...hmmmm, put the hat back on!

Nixon!

Giving LOVES to Tanner

Giving LOVES to Garret, someday they will be bust buddies... right???

Pompa reading a book to Garret and Nixon...and they sat so nice and listened.

We played Rock Band

There was A LOT of playing in Katie's room and A LOT of picking up Katie's room from all the toys!

Tanner had a basketball game against John Stockton's son's team and it was the BIG event of the week. This is the best picture Jon could get of Stockton???!!! He is hiding behind the other coach.

This is John Stockton's son..number 12.

Tanner played great, and had a lot of points for his team.

Tanner has a lot of fun playing basketball!!

So there it is, a week with 4 kids was crazy but now that it's over I look back and it went by pretty fast. If Garret and Nixon had gotten a long a little better I think it would have been a lot easier... those silly boys!!

Welcome Nana!!

NANA came to visit the first week in January and it was SO fun to see her!! My brother got a job with Delta so now my mom can fly for free, HOORAY!! Hopefully she will visit us more now!!

Nana and Nixon giving each other "fish" kisses!!

Nixon being a FISH

So again I didn't take very many pictures when Nana was visiting...OOPS!! Next time I will take more! Thanks for coming Nana!!

Welcome Pikes!!

Our dear friends from California came into town and sadly I did NOT take any pictures. Man I really am bad at taking pictures sometimes!! Well they came and it was great to have them here.
They even tended Nixon while we went to a New Year's Eve party, what troopers!! It did snow for them too and gave them a "glimpse" of the craziness of snow being everywhere... sadly it didn't stay long:(

Here is a random picture of Gauge sitting like a person on the couch... what a stinker!

Here is another random picture of ALL our Christmas cards we got this year, it is so fun to see family and friends each year on a card that they send!! Thanks everyone for your wonderful cards!

Ugly Sweater Party!!

UGLY SWEATER
NEW YEAR'S EVE PARTY!!
Some of Jon's friends had a second annual Ugly Sweater party for New Year's Eve. It was classic and a lot of fun!! Joey's sweater, the host, lite up with lights!
Here is a group shot, of those of us who dressed up in ugly sweaters.

Me and Jon. My sweater is one I found in my cedar chest that I actually wore in Elementary school. Now it still fits because back then it was the style to wear a sweater big and stretch pants... Jon's is from his dad, it has camels on it, Jon DOES NOT wear sweaters so he went with the prep look.

We played taboo, where Jon was awesome! AND we played a game called Left, Right, Center (LRC). It's a dice game that was SO fun, and hilarious!

Instead of using 3 chips each we all put in 3 dollars.. I SO almost won!! But here is Biesen who won the pot!! In his Mr. Rogers sweater. Next to him is Showgun in an old lady sweater that has should pads... it was SO funny!!

Just the BOYZ!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
I actually stayed AWAKE until 1 am... I know shocking:) It was fun to party!!

You missed me...

Just a short note.. while I was in Utah I am sad I didn't get to see any of my friends or much of my extended family. BUT you will be glad I didn't see you because Nixon and I got sinus infections and gave it to my mom, my step dad, my grandma, and my cousin in law. SO be glad you missed out and we will see you next time we visit.