*sigh*

This is what I want to do all week.  I'm so tired.  We've made 4 big trips this month.  One to Virginia.  One to Myrtle Beach.  One to the Smokey Mountains Railroad and one to Georgia.  Plus a few day trips.  Like today.  Today, Ammon and I were able to go to Raleigh.  It would have been nice to sleep in but we weren't going to give up the opportunity to visit the temple.  Gigi kept the kids and now we're all up here on the farm together.  We'll spend the night here and head off to church in the morning.  After church though, it's nap time. For everyone.  We've been running so hard.  So fast.  I feel like I could stay home all week and not get stir crazy.  We don't have much planned this month so I'm welcoming August with open arms.  What about you?

Sister Week

We're in GA for the week!  It just kind of worked out for all of the Hebdon sisters to get together.  : )  We're missing Steph, Drew's wife, but really enjoying our time together.  The boys are having a blast and are getting along really well.  From left to right we have Griffin, Noah, Tate, and Toby.  

What's gonna work?

Teamwork!!

We don't have cable.  Or satellite.  Or whatever you need to get more channels.  Specifically Nick Jr.  But, my boys watch some shows on the computer.  They love Wonder Pets and Griffin busted out part of the theme song a couple weeks ago.  We were finally able to catch it on video on Sunday.

Home too soon...

Our vacation was not long enough!!

Little Miss Sadie

Ammon and I were yard sale-ing a couple Saturdays ago.  We stopped at this crappy yard sale.  All they  had was boxes of junk.  As we turned around to leave, I saw this puppy on the porch.  She wanted to come down the steps but was timid about it because she was so small.  I made a comment about how cute the puppy was and the lady in charge of the yard sale told me that I could take her for free.  When I heard that, I went over and picked up this fuzzy, white, floppy eared puppy.  It was love.  Mutual love.  I fell in love with her right there on the spot and she did the same.  She was obsessed with me.  I asked Ammon if we could keep her and it was obvious that he felt like I put him on the spot.  The lady wrote down the name and phone number of her friend.  (her friend was the one trying to get rid of the puppy)  I told her that we would discuss it and I'd call her later.  I said goodbye to the puppy and got in the car.  We drove 30 yards to the stop sign and I couldn't go any farther.  Ammon agreed that we could take her and I made him turn the car around.  I stepped out of the car and the woman laughed that I was back so soon.  She said, "I had a feeling you'd be back."  : )  She emptied a small box and I loaded up the puppy and off we went.  We were told that she didn't have any of her shots, and that she was a pomeranian, chihuahua mix.

Introducing...  Sadie!!

She is a sweetheart and really LOVES us.  She wants lots of love and attention which is a good thing because she has two little boys chasing her around every chance they get.  We're still in the middle of housebreaking her which, I'm not gonna lie, sucks.  I get frustrated in the mornings when I have to clean her cage and the linens in the cage.  She's 9 weeks old, maybe 10 weeks now.  Her appearance has changed a lot since we got her.  She used to have adorable floppy ears and now they stick straight up.  I wasn't a fan at first but now, it's growing on me.  Life with a puppy is stressful but, seeing the way my boys love her makes up for all that.

Happy Weekend!

(photo taken Mother's Day 2010...)

We're gearing up for a great Saturday.  The babies and I need to do about 30 minutes of cleaning to get the house back in order.  Ammon is off doing some service.  He's always helping someone.  Usually, it's me.  But sometimes, other people get the benefit of his awesomeness.  He made an orienteering course this week and will have some of his scouts run it this afternoon.  After the boys have their nap/rest time, we'll head up to the mountains to spend time with family.  We're going to cook over the fire and enjoy each other's company.  Then I get 2 more days with ALL my men.  Not looking forward to Tuesday when I have to send Ammon off to work...

We were supposed to have a yard sale last weekend... It rained so we postponed it to this weekend.  Well, the weather dude was calling for rain again so we postponed it.  Again.  And you know what?  It didn't rain yesterday morning and it hasn't rained this morning.  What gives weather dude?

Petting Zoo @ Food Lion...

For our playgroup today, we went to a free petting zoo that was put up in the Food Lion parking lot... Random!

As we were approaching the stalls, Noah covered his nose and said, "Woah!  This place STINKS!"  He has a very sensitive nose.  Just like his mama.

There were lots of animals there.  Monkeys, lemurs, a kangaroo, tiger, baby tiger, snake, ponies, a calf, and a camel.  But the favorite among ALL the kids was, the goats.  I told these 2 (Noah & Peyton) to smile at the camera.  Noah was too fixated on the goat, so Peyton helped move his head in the right direction.

Griffin has no fear.  He was loving these goats.  He picked up feed off the ground and put his hand right up to their mouths.  But that's not the only thing he put up to their mouth...

Yes.  He's kissing the goat.

I think my kids would have stayed here all day.  This particular goat knew exactly where the food was.  As we were getting food out of the dispenser, he was wrapping his head around trying to grab the food out of it.

Griffin and Ammon watching the tiger...

After the petting zoo, we all headed over to the park.

Griffin loved this rocket swing...  I don't know why I call it that.  It doesn't look like a rocket.  Well, whatever it is, he loved it.

A good day.

Picnik - time...

Ammon emailed me yesterday and said that he liked this picture of us.  

I told him I'd photoshop it but it's just so hard to make it down to the basement during the day to work on the desktop.  I started playing on Picnik and after a few clicks, I came up with this:

Then this:

Followed by this:

And finally this:

How do you make it through the store?

Me?  I promise them candy...

Don't judge.  : )

Gentlemen

The other day, Noah told me that he saw flowers "over the bridge" and he wanted to pick them for me.  "over the bridge" means on the other side of the deck.  : )  Ammon is teaching our boys to be such gentlemen... All 3 of them pick me flowers any chance they get.  Noah treats me with respect and sincerely apologizes when he slips up.  Ammon and Noah (especially Noah) hold the door for me any chance they get.  : )  They all hug and kiss me and tell me that they love me daily.  We're raising some good husbands in this house.  They're going to make their wives feel so loved!

I need photoshop on my netbook.... I tried to doctor up this photo using picasa and i'm not happy with it.

NieNie love...

Do you read NieNie? I do.  This video is beautiful.  And so is she...

Griffin's morning routine...

Griffin is doing a little better in the sleeping department.  He still wakes up in the middle of the night at least once, sometimes 3 or 4 times, but all we have to do is tuck him back in his bed, and he falls back asleep.  Ammon and I alternate night duty.  One night it's his turn, the next it's mine.  Ammon spoils me occasionally and gets up with him on my nights.  I think he's beginning to understand how precious sleep is to me.  Griffin used to wake up anywhere between 4:30am and 5:30am.  He's now sleeping in til about 6:30am and instead of crying until we come get him, he comes out of the bedroom, shuts the door behind him and comes into our room.  He stands next to Ammon and whines until Ammon picks him up and lays him in between us.  Now, Griffin doesn't want to sleep.  No no no.  He wants to play.  And when Ammon and I refuse to open our eyes, he opens the drawer to the nightstand, pulls out the remotes and wants Ammon to turn on the tv.  We lay there, none of us sleeping, until it's time for Ammon to start getting ready for work.  This morning, the routine was the same except for one thing.  Once the tv was turned on, Griffin laid between us again.  He reached over to his daddy and pulled Ammon's hand on top of his chest.  Then, he took my hand and did the same thing.  After that, he put his little hands on top of ours and pushed.  It's like he needed to know that we were there.  Griffin is such a lover.  He loves to hug, kiss, and cuddle. He's such a big baby and I love that about him.  I hope he always loves his mama the way he does now.  I hope he never becomes "too cool" to spend some snuggle time with me.

Preaching it

Noah was asked to read the scripture in Primary last Sunday.  The topic was Joseph Smith.  Ammon had found 4 pictures for Noah to use to memorize this "talk".  They went through it one time.  ONE TIME and Noah had it down.  Gigi was visiting our ward and was able to see him do it in Primary.  The boy did amazing.  He held the microphone with both hands, looked at his pictures and recited the entire thing.  Made his mama cry.  Later that evening, he did it for Pap and the Huffs.  Nana and Poppy weren't able to see it so, we did a little reenactment the other night before bed.

Ammon thinks it's comical how he's banging his scriptures while reading.  Preach it, man!

Friday Flashback

Ammon is not home atm.  The babies are sleeping.  I'm being lazy.  I'm sitting on our bed watching "The One with the Cop" and looking through the pictures on Ammon's laptop.  I came across some pictures I had scanned in while visiting my parents about a year ago.  These were taken on July 17, 1993 - my baptism day.

Look at my parents!

My daddy baptized me.  I'm so grateful I've always had the priesthood in my home.  Then and now.

I remember the water was freezing.  I was so nervous even though Dad and I had practiced many times.  I wrote in my journal that day... I should dig that up and post it on here.

Look how tan my arms and legs are!  But not my hands and feet??  What's up with that?!

Being married is fun!

Ammon and I enjoy doing sweet things for each other.  One thing Ammon does is send me these sweet pictures via email.  Now, I'm not sure where he stole these images from so... if they're yours, please don't get mad.  

(apparently this is is from Paula... Thanks Paula!)

This is my favorite one... This happens to us all the time.

I love my husband!

Letter Sounds

I've been working really hard with Noah lately on his letter sounds. Cortney suggested I get Leap Frog's Letter Factory DVD. I got it at Target for $10 and put it in the car dvd player. I usually don't let the kids watch movies in the car if we're just running errands around town. Only on long trips but with this dvd, I turned it on every time we got in the car. I figured they were stuck in their seats and had to hear it. Then throughout the day, I would quiz Noah on his letter sounds. He picked them up SO quickly!

And here's what Griffin has learned so far. Adorable...

Train Expo

Gigi got word that there was a train expo going on a few weekends ago. We weren't sure what to expect but knew that we couldn't pass up a chance to let Noah see some trains. When we first got there, we happened upon this elaborate train set up with multiple tracks, multiple trains and all sorts of interactive city scenes and landscapes. Noah stood up on a metal folding chair and was in a trance. Trains are serious business to him. This was his expression the entire time we were there.

He hardly said 2 words. He wasn't interested in pushing all the different buttons to make the city scenes and landscapes do their thing.

He just wanted to stand on this chair and watch the trains. There was a Thomas train that he could "drive" but he didn't care.

This was the place for him.

Griffin enjoyed driving the Thomas train, though.

Here's what Noah did... He tuned everything else out, including me.

These are some of the things found around the track. A city fair.

A playground. When you push the button, everything moved. It was really cool.

A little target practice. The ducks actually fell over. Cute!

This was my favorite though. A drive-in movie. And what was the main feature? ME!! : )

Noah had a great time and asks me all the time if we can go back to the train expo. I guess we'll make the trip again next year.