Spring has arrived!

This Spring has kind of been sad to me as we know it will be our last in Ohio.  Thankfully, it was the most beautiful Spring I can remember.  The blossoms stayed on the trees exceptionally long and kept the trees looking magnificent.  This flower blooms in early Spring right next to my back deck and I look forward to all year long.

Easter

We let each of the boys color 6 eggs and it turned out to be so much fun!  At first, it was just Daddy dropping the eggs in the dye for them but it quickly ended up a big mess of color dyed fingers and lots of giggles!

The evidence of a perfect night coloring eggs.  Ryan made all of his eggs a different color and then learned how to redye the eggs and eventually ended up with all purple eggs. He was so proud!

We found these hilarious stickers for the eggs and watched the boys play with their "egg people" for an hour as they laughed and made different voices.

Smiles all around!

Easter morning was wonderful.  Trent did the shopping for the gifts from the Easter Bunny and we couldn't wait for morning.  Last year the boys enjoyed finding the eggs more than eating what was in them so this year I only put one little candy in each one and they didn't even open them.  They were too excited to find another egg and eat their candy in their baskets.  Later than morning was not so good as I finished cooking breakfast and came out into the living room to find Ryan had dumped all of the eggs and grass all over the floor.  It literally covered every square inch of the ground.  I gasped as I walked in and then walked straight outside as I held my screams from coming out.  I went in and put Ryan into time out and talked to him about what he had done.  Raef said he didn't make the mess and he went upstairs to stay out of the room.  Good idea!  Ryan went into three time outs until he finally got the idea that he would be cleaning the mess up, not mom.  As he sat crying and apologizing to me, Raef walked downstairs crying.  He came over to me and said, "mom, I lied.  I went upstairs and said a prayer  to Heavenly Father and I'm sorry that I lied to you.  I made the mess too."  Trent and I looked at eachother as our eyes filled with tears also.  What a moment!  Our whole family crying!  Really, though we couldn't be prouder.  It was working!  Our boys were learning, despite our inexperience and craziness in teaching.  We are doing okay and we felt so grateful that our little boys were learning the most basic of principles.  So cute!

                                                                    

Not so easy

We wanted to thank everyone again for your thoughts and prayers in Raef's behalf this last week.  If you did not hear, Raef was back in the hospital again for 3 days due to a cold that induced his asthma.  The first day I took him in was the worse I have seen him.  Trent and I both apologize for not speaking with everyone about the situation and keeping you all up to date this time.  We went numb both of us.  I think perhaps to protect us from breaking during that moment.  We are so beyond exhausted and tired of this happening to our little boy and feel helpless as we watch his asthma progress to emergency status within 1 day.  It's scary to say the least.  In four years here in Ohio, we have been to the ER with Raef 6 times and ICU 3 of those.  We are tired of talking about it with people.  I feel like maybe if we don't talk about it anymore, it will go quickly and we can get him home and pretend it never happened.  We both know, looking back, that that is not the best path we should have taken, but until you have gone through something like this over and over again, it is difficult to explain.  So, please know of our gratitude to all of you and although we may not have been in contact with you, we knew that you loved us and that's what we needed.  We are optimistic and hopeful that Las Vegas will do miracles for Raef and allow him to stay out of the hospital and no more rides in the ambulance.  Please join with us in prayer for him that his lungs would heal and he would grow strong enough to fights this.  We love you all and are tremendously grateful for your love and strength you give us.
 

A day outside in the mud!

We hadn't gotten outside for awhile due to the weather so we all jumped at the chance, even if it was muddy. The boys couldn't wait to get their boots on and go tromp!  I hadn't taken pictures for awhile either so I enjoyed the time and found myself taking way too many as usual.  

It took a bit of work to get them all cleaned up but it was well worth my house staying clean for awhile and their big smiles!  Man, I love boys!

I wish I could somehow hang on to this age forever.  I butch chopped Ryan's hair and am under strict orders not to touch it again until after the graduation and wedding this summer.  Sorry bud!  Could he look any more like his Daddy?

The lighting on this photo is off but I still love it.  Raef has always had the most beautiful blue eyes and this picture captures that.

Muddy but still adorable.

This shot reminds me of the big brother, little brother relationship the boys have.  Raef tries his best to always protect Ryan and take care of him.  Although Ryan has a much tougher personality and can take care of Raef just as well.  They are a perfect pair.

Doing some stunts on his favorite possession!  Everytime we go outside for anything....anything at all, he runs for his bike.

We found Bumblebee!!!!!

While having our car fixed yet again, Trent spotted an amazing find!  He couldn't wait to get home and tell the boys who he found. But....it was a secret of course because if the deceptacons found him, they would try to kill him.  So, under strict instructions that they couldn't give away his location, off we went to see the real Bumblebee.  They were so excited they could hardly stand it.  Ryan was carrying his little car Bumblebee and kept saying, "I can't believe it, we found him Dad."  Bumblebee is Ryans favorite transformer!  They rode inside and then even got to rev the engine and turn his lights on.  He was decked out to the max with transformer symbols everywhere on the outside and in.  Good find Dad!

Poor Ryan hit a table on his nose and ended up with quite the swollen nose.  I left work to take him to the doctor because his nose was so crooked and swollen.  They x-rayed him and said it was just crooked because of the inflammation.  On the way to the doctor, I gave him a pb&j sandwich but he took one bite and said, "mom, I can't smell this, what kind of sandwich is it."  It was about 1 week later before he said he could smell and he was so excited!  He sounded funny because of his one nostril being closed off.  This picture looks bad but about 3 days into it was definitely the worse when it bruised and looked like a very bad black eye.  Poor guy!

Raef's big 5!

We are still in disbelief that our baby is 5 years old!  And he is just the coolest kid we know.  We love him so very much and feel tremendously blessed to have him in our little family.  He wanted a dinosaur and transformers themed birthday party and we let him invite a few friends and family.  Papa was there to celebrate with us also!  It seems like he is smiling in every one of these pics because he was smiling the whole night.  This is what he loves most!  We had pizza first and play time and then cake and icecream and presents finally at the end. 

Ryan kept asking why it isn't his birthday.  We felt bad after he endured a party for Raef on Friday night by Uncle Cam, a friend party for Raef on Saturday night, and then a celebration for Papa on Sunday.  "No birthday for me," he kept saying.  He hung in there though and was a good sport, just very sad and confused. 

These are the nicest dinos I've ever seen.  They are very heavy and look quite real.

Raef was very spoiled with presents everywhere and tons of cool handmade cards.  Phone calls poured in the entire day and he actually got annoyed by the end of the day and I just spoke to people.  If I told him the phone was for him, he would hit his forehead and say, "what, another call just for me?" "I'm so lucky!"  It was a perfect day!

A visit from Papa

Papa surpised us and called to say he would be flying in the next day. We were excited for the visit but had a busy couple of days planned. We decided not to change plans and just have Dad join us. He had game night with us and some friends at our house and was definitely voted the MVP after willingly embarrassing himself over and over and making us laugh. Thanks dad! We spent much of the time together relaxing at home and dad got to enjoy putting his feet up and watching some football. Lots of play with the boys and plenty of magic tricks and wrestling filled th days. then we had a few birthday parties for Raef and then celebrated Dad's birthday on Sunday before his plane left(well kind of). It was a bit rushed and then Dad ended up staying the night again due to fog so he enjoyed his dinner and dessert when he came back to the house. The boys loved playing with Papa and Ryan now calls everyone he sees with salt and pepper hair "Papa". There is one gentlemen in our ward that I literally have to hold Ryan back each Sunday as he yells "Papa" and goes running up to the stand where he sits. Too cute!

Christmas Break!!!!!

We always wonder if we really need to go home to Idaho for Christmas until Christmas gets close and then we know. We love going there and it has always been a very magical time for the boys at Grandmas house. We get to hear for months later that they want to go live at Grandma's house. We some how ended up in first class for two flights and Raef questioned the pilot if there would be a movie and expressed his disappointment in there not being one on thelast flight. The pilot apologized but said he could make it up to him and led him up to the cockpit. He spent 15 minutes up there learning the controls and using them too! I could hear the plane saying, "not able to take off at this moment, please press yellow button." He was turning the seatbelt sign on and off again dinging for 5 minutes but no one seemed to notice as they were all busy getting seated. He loved it! Christmas was perfect. Trent had to study for boards but was able to juggle his time very well so we didn't notice too much! Grandma and Erin and Uncle Auz watched the boys many nights for us so we could go see our dating sights and feel young again! It was so much fun! We went on more dates in two weeks than we usually go in in 6 months! It was fabulous!

Erin and her little love bugs. They remembered her immediately and adored her as usual. What a treasure to be loved by these little ones. They can really make you feel so very special! And she kept up to her usual activies of entertaining them for hours. She was the perfect babysitter for many nights so Trent and I could sneak out for dates. thankyou!!!!

Goobs yelled, "Hold on Dad, that's very dangerous." Of course minus all of the "r"s.

I just don't know if Trent ever looks sexier to me than when he is in his snow gear. That's how I remember him from when we were first married as he was out skiing almost daily. What was I doing? Oh yeah, working!

Tractors plowed the snow into a huge pile in the middle of the cul de sac and it seemed to call to us. We had to stop 4 wheeling for awhile and watch the tractors but then we had a monster mountain to conquer. The boys couldn't get dressed fast enough. We even convinced a couple of missionaries out that day to go down. They screamed all the way, and not exactly in a deep manly voice. Too funny!

Daddy and Raefsters with grins ear to ear

Ryan helped Grandpa drive the truck over the big snow piles so they could even drive into the cul de sac.

We took turns driving the 4wheeler and pulling sleds through the neighborhood. Goobers usually wouldn't get off the 4 wheeler but when he did, he laughed hysterically as the sleds bumped into eachother. He still loves driving them better. Raef stayed out there for hours and Ryan stayed out for an hour and then inside for hot cocoa with Grandpa. He would rest, warm up, make Grandpa make the hot cocoa exactly how he instructed him too(no milk Grandpa) and then get dressed back up and out he would go for another hour. He did that all day. We even got Grandma to take a wild ride too.

Ryan is obsessed with Bumblebee on Transformers and loved his way too big helmet. He still wanted to wear it though so we had to take turns holding it on him. Is that not the cutest thing you've ever seen? He gets a low voice and says, "Transformers...more than meets the eye. Autobots, roll out!"

The boys did very well waiting patiently for their aunts and uncles to get their bahookies out of bed. But once they started they were not about to quit. It was pure torture for them to wait to open presents after breakfast. They made it though and then disappeared with their new toys for day. Aaahhh. Much better. We could go back to bed!

Gramps and Goobs