Preschool Graduation

Bo wrapped up preschool this month. Of course it all comes to an end with a cute little program.
He is still not a fan of "cheesyness" or being front and center, but at least he gets up on the stage now - that's better than last year. We grade by improvement around here.

Just don't ask for a smile

oh my, did we catch him almost singing?

and surely he can't be attempting some hand motions? Wow, improvements galore!

But we sure love our Bo. He is our "middle" and our star whether he steals the show or not. He is on his way to kindergarten!

And watch out preschool, you have this monkey coming your way in the fall!

12 Happy Years

This guy and I...after 12 years together, we have learned to be good at just a couple of things. One of them is making time to be together - just the two of us. We have been faithfully having weekly date nights for 12 years running. They usually aren't extravagant and often not even planned out. We just get the babysitter and get in the car and drive and figure it out from there. But we do it... and it has been one of the greatest joys of my life with him. So when our anniversary or a speical occasion comes along I never worry about planning or expecting anything different. I am just as happy with same 'ol-same 'ol (because the same 'ol makes me happy). But somehow in the midst of all the traveling he's been doing for work, bishoping, and the hecticness of life with 5 crazies (our kids) he pulled out a little "Bart"-style anniversary. My awesome husband always seems to find a little way to make our anniversary new and special and unique year after year. This year it was a day together skiing on Mt Hood.

The weather was gorgeous and the view breathtaking (even with some guys finger blocking part of the landscape :))Perfect spring skiing. Then when our legs had enough, we scarfed down a feast at Famous Dave's and did a little shopping together - yep, he even shops!.

When we got married, we were young and dumb and pretty unprepared. I took a chance on this guy and boy did I get lucky! I knew when I married him, he was a good man. I just didn't know how good he really is. I knew I loved him then, I just didn't know how much I could. Here's to 12 happy years together and an eternity more. Love you babe!

Look Who's 2!

My BABY, that's who!!

ALL ABOUT LUKERS

-He is loud, bossy and rough (what choice does he have as the 5th of 5 boys -He fits the bill well!)

-His favorite food is cantaloupe and sunflower seeds (shell included)

-He has a scowl that he has practiced and perfected

-He's so ticklish you can hardly change his diaper or dress him

-He loves books and trucks

-He loves to be goofy and crack himself up

-He is a daddy's boy BIG TIME

-He loves piggy back rides down the stairs

-He loves to wrestle (or swordfight or anything rough)

-He loves showers by himself

-He is LOUD! (maybe I mentioned that)

-He is bossy (and that too)

-He is rough (in case you missed it)

-He gives the BEST "tight squeezes" any 2-yr old could!

-He has the most contagious laugh

-He's world's cutest little guy

-He is absolutely loved and adored by his brothers

-He'll always be our Baby Luke

Lukers had his 2nd birthday party at Red Robin (original, huh?), after cubscouts and inbetween baseball practices - but we made sure it happened and that this sprightly boy had a night that was all about him. I still can't believe my baby is officially a terrible-two year old, although we think the terrible"ness" began a while ago (if it starts early, does it end early??)

I love you sweet boy!

BYU Women's Conference

My mom has been going to BYU Women's Conference every spring for the past few years. This year, I finally wasn't pregnant or nursing a new baby, so she invited me to come along! I undertook to task of getting the planets to align to make it possible for me to slip away for a weekend. With the help of an amazing babysitter who even braved an overnight stay with our 5 crazies, and a husband who juggled all of his tasks and mine...I was able to spend 4 days in beautfiul, snowy Provo and enjoy some much needed "girl" time.

The conference classes themselves were amazing - truly inspiring! They alone would have been worth going for. And time alone with my mom - just the two of us was worth every effort. But if that wasn't enough...the rest of the company of ladies and the accomidations were to DIE for. Explanation: My mom and dad are part of a special Leadership Council for BYU (my mom always tells people jokingly..."if you donate enough, you could be to!") So BYU uses the conference as special retreat for the council women and makes it an absolute "retreat" in every way. The other 70 ladies who attended were incredible woman - beautiful, kind, generous, and involved in wonderful things. We kicked it all off with a special tour of This Is The Place State Park in Salt Lake City, and then continued on to Sundance where our cabins awaited us. I've seen some beautiful things in my life, but the cabin used for the group gatherings and the second one where my mom and I slept in were unbelievable.

This was the cabin that we had all gatherings and ate all our meals. It belongs to an amazing family that has 11 grown kids and 50something grandkids! The woman in the red suit standing in the middle of this picture is Sister Kristen Oaks...yep, she came and spoke to us one evening.

The cabin that my mom and I slept in was just walking distance away. We didn't get to spend a lot of time there, but it was gorgeous - I could have just sat in the quiet rooms all weekend and drank in the beauty. It was like an enchanted fortress.

Beautiful views from about every window

A grandkids bunkroom that slept 16 and was simply amazing

And a game room with that had EVERYTHING imaginable! My boys were drooling over the pictures.

There were amazging meals, evening devotionals, beautiful luncheons, shuttles that drove us to BYU campus and dropped us off curbside for our front-row seats in the Marriot Center, sweets on our pillows each night before bed, See's candies set out at every table, a goodie bag for conference filled with a journal/candy/gum/mints, and Ogio luggage with BYU logo embroydered on the front as a take-home gift.

To say we were pampered was an understatement. To say "thanks" to my mom for toting me along is simply not enough. It was a wonderful weekend in everyway!

Conference Favorites

As if General Conference weekend isn't cool enough - a weekend twice a year (for our church)when you get to stay home and watch uplifting and faith promoting messages from the prophet, apostles and church leaders, from your couch, in your very own family room, on cable television, with your family. A Sunday without meetings, no rushing out the door so you won't be late, no high-heels that hurt your feet all day. I LOVE IT! But I love it even more because we have some family traditions that make the day even more special. Not only do I love these traditions, but my kids look forward to them for the 6 months inbetween and expect now every General Conference Saturday and Sunday. This year, I even added a new one! My sister sent me this idea from "Brown Paper Packages" website and I thought it was awesome. *Buckets with gospel words on them and filled with your kids favorite treats - as they listen to conference and hear the words on the buckets, they get to come up and take a goody* So I mostly copied, with changing a few things. I wanted to be able to change the words on the treat buckets. So instead of having gospel words written or stuck directly on the buckets, I painted some wooden rectangles with chalkboard paint and attached them to the front of each bucket. Then I just wrote the words with chalk - and now I can change them as often as I want! Also, as you can see, my buckets were green (I also have some smaller white ones, I liked them both) not because I painted them, only because that is what the $1 section of Target had (probably left over from St. Patrick's Day). But I thought they were more fun anyways! I left off the ribbons the the handles because...well, I have boys, and I didn't want the ribbon to obstruct the view of the TV.

The kids LOVED it. It really did work - for the bigs and littles! This one is a hit for all the ages. They listened and heard words even at times when I didn't!

They like to keep busy with work sheets too. Busy AND quiet are good. So I always print out Conference packets - you can find them on the internet. Sugardoodle.net had some great ones this Spring for all ages.

And of course - our traditional breakfast of homemade cinnamon rolls. I only make them twice a year -April and October (General Conference time!)

I love General Conference weekend. And I love having these simple family traditions to go along with it. I see that it fills my kids with feelings of love and excitement for these weekends and I hope that they will associate that love and excitement always with listening and following the Prophet.

A Bracket for Brothers

March Madness wasn't the only intense tournament going on in the month of March. The bracket sketched out neatly on the chalkboard at the front of the gym last Wed night had every cubscout (and their dad) nervously sweating as they waited their turn for a chance to make it into the Pinewood Derby Final four. Bart couldn't even get blamed for doing the cars for the boys this year. Since he has been traveling so much, it was up the our 2 cubscouts and good 'ol mom to put together some winning vehicles. Uncle Bill and his power tools helped with the cutting - but the sanding, painting, and and wheels were all them! (and yours truly) So, on March 30th, it was off to the races with the BYU Jimmer-mobile and the TrailBlazer car (would you expect anything different from my two boys?) Their motto: "We don't want them fancy...just fast." After the grueling round robin tournament where everyone's car raced each others, it was on to the bracket. Tyler was number 1 seed and Caden number 2! As the tournament played out and the bracket shrinked - soon it was only 2 remaining! Yep -the Dickson brothers!

Here they are at the end of the track, waiting for the final race - and their final fate-1st or 2nd place...(notice their positions - do they look like brothers of what?) And the TrailBlazer wins!!! Tyler took 1st, and big brother Cade lost only to his little bro. And he was an amazing sport about it too. I was really happy for them and proud of them both - and myself in fact!

The winners pose with papa.

The boys show off their prizes, Red Vines and DumDum pops - oh boy! What a fun night. Now I just have to figure out what we did, so we can do it again next year...and the next, and the next...only 11 more times!

Spring Break 2011

Our Spring Break wasn't warm or tropical or very "springy" but it was a getaway to our favorite place with some of our favorite people. We went to grammy and papa's house at Black Butte in Central, OR with our friends who have 3 boys of their own. What could be more fun than 8 little boys and a week with no real plans? (Just go with it, *wink *wink) The kids and I spent 10 days. Bart came and went for work throughout the week but that didn't keep us from all our playing, relaxing and enjoying the snow. We woke up to beautiful snow at the ranch most mornings, swam at the indoor pool, played a TON of board games (rummikub and banagrams were worn out by the end of the week), ate yummy food, hot tubbed, read, relaxed and of course watched a lot of March Madness basketball.

We even headed up to Hoodoo for an afternoon with our oldest 3 for skiing. I was amazed at how fast the kids picked it up. It was our 5 yr old's first time and he was hopping on the chair lift and whizzing down the bunny hill by the end of the afternoon. My sister, who now lives in Central OR was a doll and watched our littles for the day so both the hubby and I could be in on the fun!

The parents were tuckered out from a day on the slopes, but leave it to little boys to have boundless energy and enough grit to decide to climb the huge snow bank out at the parking lot.

This one must have climbed and slipped a dozen times before he made it to the top! But he kept smiling and trying. It proved to me how much growing-up he has been doing...he's now one of the big boys!

The all finally made it!

Crazy group up top.

Daddy got pulled into hottubbing with this motley crew...lucky for him since he had some sore skiing muscles that needed attention.

Another highlight of the week was taking the sleds to the snowpark. It was fast and furious down the hill ones the pathways were blazed. Only minor casualties were had. I still think there were more smiles than tears. It was so fun that it deserved a return trip before the week's end.

By our second trip up, the snow was REALLY deep! Here's our oldest waist deep taking a break to eat some snow.

Me with my neice (just in case you wondered how a girl got in our family photos - my sister and her kids joined us the last part of the week. Fun, fun and more fun!)

Bart and I made a pact that we would do no more boring, wet, spring breaks at home. For me, it means a week to spend with the kids and to just get away somewhere. This beautiful place ALWAYS does the trick. Thanks Black Butte for the break!