{Monster vs Aliens}

What is the appropriate age to start taking kids to movies at the theater? I'm sure it varies between children, but after our "Shriek the Third" disaster . . . I was a firm believer that 3 was too early. (I'm exaggerating, it really wasn't that bad)

So when my friend Texie asked me if I wanted to take the kids to see "Monsters vs Aliens" I was a little leery. It sounded fun . . . put with the potential of being very very painful at the same time.

We decided to give it a go . . . and even though Sophie was all movied-out one third of the way through the movie, the pictures made it totally worth it!

My little bugs:

Ayden and Brinley:

Sophie and Brock:

The back row of cool boys: (Bronson, Bridger, and their friend)

The front row: (Ayden, Brin, Brock, and Soph)

And of course . . . the crazy moms that took 7 kids to a movie!!

It was such a fun afternoon with my babies. Sometimes I just have to take advantage of the fact that I'm lucky enough to stay home with these monkeys. They make me so happy.

{ the ants go marching }

So as soon as the warm weather kicks in . . . the ants go marching one by one. That's right . . . they march their way right through my garage and into my pantry! Yuck! I don' t like bugs in general, and even though ants are by far the least scary, I still don't want them in my house! 

In the summer, I exert a lot of energy trying to keep the floor around the pantry free of any crumbs in hopes of minimizing the number of little visitors.  

Well this morning I was getting breakfast for my kids and looked down to see a whole trail of cracker crumbs lining the garage door, covered in ants! I went to my kids with patience and love and began to explain to them that we have to be really careful not to leave crumbs by the door! Ayden interrupted me mid sentence to explain,

 "NO MOM!! We put the crackers there last night to feed the ants!!"

 I almost wet my pants, I was laughing so hard. He told me that he put the crackers there so they could take them back to their hole. 

I tried to explain the best I could, in my most serious voice (cracking a smile in the meantime) that they don't take them back to their hole, they just bring MORE ANTS!! 

Feeding the ants . . . what a silly boy.

{playing catch-up}

HOly cOw! We have had a crazy month! I don't know why but April always seems to be our busiest month! From our anniversary, to Easter, family visiting and wedding, this month has flown by! But we had a lot of fun along the way and I want to document it so we can remember the madness! 

My sister Laura lives in Tuckahoe, NY which means we only get to see her a couple times a year, if we're lucky. So when she comes, we want to spend as much time with them as possible and the time always goes too fast. The first day they were here we headed to, what has been named by our family . . . the Dead Zoo. (known as the Bean Museum on BYU campus to the rest of you) 

The kids always get a kick out of the animals and it's just a fun educational place. 

They even have live animals (or reptiles I guess) sometimes. My kids really loved seeing this cool lizard:

It was fun to see how much fun these cousins had right off the bat! You would think that since they go so long between visits that there would be a little warming up time, but they are best friends from the first minute. So cute! 

Sophie compromised on this one . . . she called it a monkey baboon.

Laura called us to come around the corner to see this crazy new exhibit! Check it out!

Sorry Jen, but that's priceless.

One of the nights we were lucky enough to have a girls sleepover at our house. The girls were so cute together! And even though Abby doesn't like being away from her Mom, she was a good sport and they had a good time!

Cute PJ cousins!

Watching a show in Ayden's bed!

I love Abby's face!

In the morning Abby was crying for her mom and I reminded her that in my house we eat sugar cereal and watch TV during breakfast! She cheered right up!

While we were waiting for the boys to meet us at Gateway, the girls had fun shopping with me.

Supermodels.

{ Easter Sunday }

Happy Easter

{precious moments . . .}

Man I love these kids.

{ We are counting down!! }

The kids were watching some videos on my sisters blog and they wanted to tell their cousins how excited they are to see them!!

 

We can't wait to see you!!

{Stop me if you can . . .}

I was cleaning up my room today and made the mistake of picking up

 

Breaking Dawn

I've been wanting to read it again because I read it so fast and I've read all the other books multiple times, but I also know what happens to me when sucked into the world of Twilight. 

I'm useless.

Well, I opened it. And I'm in trouble! Somebody save me from myself!!!

{ my favorite things }

Both of my parents just posted about some of their favorite things. They posed the question, 

"What are some of your favorite things".

 I started thinking about it and wanted to share:

Driving.  For some reason I just really like being behind the wheel.

My kids.  Sometimes they drive me crazy, but when they're gone . . . I just crave them.

Dancing.  I love to turn on music and just rock out in my kitchen.

Candy. I could eat candy all day long. Especially anything gummy.

A fresh bev. (meaning a fountain drink from the gas station) I honestly feel strangely spiritual about a lovely beverage. Strange.

The Temple. I know a lot of people find it a little boring, but I truly think it's fun.

Getting dressed up. Not like Sunday clothes, but more like getting ready for a hot date with my hubby.

Baking. I like turning individual ingredients into some that looks and tastes good.

So I ask you . . . "what are your favorite things?"

The Hammers would like to wish you a . . .

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Have a great green day!

{MOmmieS GonE wiLD!}

I feel like I post about my friends quite a bit, but it's just because they are so awesome! For a while now, we have been wanting to do something FUN (and low budget) with just the girls.

Introducing . . .the ladies:

{Lacey and Wendy}

{Michelle and Addy}

{Texie and I}

(Our good friend Anna couldn't make it. We missed her.)

 Logan's parents have a nice little cabin up by Sundance and they are always willing to lend it out to us. They are so generous and it's a great place to make memories.

Our adventure began at 4 on Friday when we headed down to Utah County. None of my friends know the area very well so they asked me for suggestions on where to eat dinner. I introduced them to a family favorite . . . a mexican restaurant called 

Los Hermanos! Yummy!

After dinner we loaded up on junk food at Harmons and headed up to the cabin. It was snowing up the canyon and they closed the road to Sundance, but luckily we were able to get through!

Our pampering began with our feet! Wendy does gel nails, and was kind enough to do all of our toes! It was quite a task and I'm sure her back and shoulders are still sore. 

But they look so cute!! Thanks Wendy!!

We also did face masks (curtosy of my parents and Tahitian Noni!) Aren't we beautiful?!

(the best I could get with the timer)

We stayed up talking and watching Juno until after 2. Unfortunately for Texie, Michelle, and I . . . Addy forgot to turn off her 5:30 gym alarm and couldn't go back to sleep once it went off. She didn't want to be awake while everyone else was sleeping so she decided to climb on us in our bed and wake us all up! As hard as we tried to sleep through it . . . she succeeded and we were up! No kids and I was up at 6:30!! We did have a nice little talk and snuggle though. 

Texie made us some delicious Egg McMuffins for breakfast! Before we left, we had to watch The Notebook and cry our eyes out. Let's face it . . . that's what girls do.

Then we stopped at The Riverwoods on our way home.

 It was such a fun weekend and I'm so lucky to have such good friends who I love and adore. Special thanks to all the husbands that stayed home with kids so we could go get our 

"girl time" in. You guys rock!

{knock on wood }

So just the other day I was commenting on how much better Sophie has been lately. She is still much more of a stinker than any other child I know, but compaired to her previous self, she has been doing better.

Well, at that moment I should've knocked on wood because as I was teaching dance last night Logan sent me this picture titled, "ready to fix this?"

That's right! 2nd time for Sophie giving herself a haircut. I guess she decided she didn't like bangs. So this morning I had to chop it and try to make some kind of style out of it. 

This is the best I could do:

Just didn't want it to look like this:

Like I always say . . . at least she's happy right??

{ brave guy }

I had much anxiety over taking my son to the dentist . . . seeing as it is a hard thing to do myself.  I have had many bad experiences there and although I consider myself to be a relatively tough person, I do get anxiety over the dentist.

Ayden was not blessed with Logan's teeth but cursed with mine.  Even though we brush his teeth a lot, he still gets tooth aches quite a bit and even with that knowledge . . . 

I wasn't prepared for this:

6 fillings

3 root canals 

and 2 caps

I wish someone could've been there when the dentist was reading it all off to the nurse. My face was white as a ghost and they thought I was going to pass out. Wimp. Needless to say . . . we will be going to a pediatric dentist and have him partially sedated for the procedures. 

Man . . .  he was a trooper though!

I am so proud of my brave little guy!

{A LITTLE CAUGHT UP . . . }

So I've gotten a little caught up in the fun of exercise. My friends and I all have memberships to the same gym and have fallen in love with the classes and instructors. So what does that mean you say . . . ?

Oh that means, 8 classes in 6 days! 

(my poor body)

So when they say that Sunday is the day of rest . . . I am going to take that very literally and try to rest this weary 28 year old body that I have abused this week. Hopefully I'll be able to control myself from here on out.

{ ZUMBA }

About 8 months ago my good friend Addy (who I've been gym buddies with since I moved here) decided she wanted certify in Zumba and teach it at the gym. For those of you who have never heard of it, Zumba is a relatively new form of cardio exercise in which you do a combination of Latin dances. (salsa, merengue, mambo, reggaeton, samba, etc) Seeing as "dancing" is kinda my thing, I was sold from day one. Once she was certified, she need to practice teaching so she could get ready to work at the gyms. She held a class 2 times a week at the church and I was definitely her biggest fan! I don't think I missed a class in the 3 months she taught there. Once she was ready, she got a job at 2 of the local gyms. 

She is a rockstar and I'm so proud of her.

Well about a week ago there was a master Zumba class down at a club in Salt Lake. It was a fundraiser for a single mother in our ward that just had a tumor removed from her brain. 

We loaded up the whole crew and it was awesome!

{Lacey, Wendy, Michelle, Anna, Addy, Me, Martha}

 The instructor is pretty high up in the Zumba world and she was incredible!

And she even pulled my friend Anna and I up on the stage during one of the songs!

I really love it, and I'm so glad I found a way that I still get to Dance a little!