Happiness

Brennden wrote me a note yesterday. It reads; Dear mom hope you have a great day. ps I love you. The only word he asked for help with is have. dear is spelled de, hope is hop, you is spelled both u and you right together, i can't tell what great says, day is on two lines, and love is spelled luv. It was so cute, it made my day. He then wrote one for Dustin and Candice. Such a sweetie when he wants to be.

Charity has been singing about everything. She has also been saying, excuse me sir all the time. She also loves giving hugs and either telling you "Your the best...(mom, dad....)" and "you make my heart happy (or sad)" It's just cute.

Dalin still doesn't say much. He prefers the primitive method of grunting. Cars are his favorite toy along with swords and guns. He even makes shooting sounds. It's really cute. He is definitely a boy all the way. He also blows kisses all the time and is trying to say 'love you'.

I can't believe this year is almost over! It went buy way to fast.

Its My Birthday!!! Actually, it is Angie's Birthday.

This is the new truck Angie made me buy. It is a 2009 Dodge Ram 1500 SLT Crew Cab 4x4. It has 46,046 miles and a 5.7L Hemi V8 with MDS (Multi-Displacement System, it will switch to 4 cylinders when you don't need the power). Speaking of power it has 390 HP and 410 Lb Ft of torque. It also has several aftermarket accessories that should have it over 400 HP.
Note the larger rear doors, it is about 9" larger than the quad cabs. I can sit in the rear seat with the front seats all the way back and still have about 6" of room between my knees and the front seat. The kids also can not kick the seats either. It also has what they are calling the Extra Short Bed at 5' 7" due to the longer cab. The cab is just shorter than the Mega Cabs (which is 13" longer than the crew cabs from Ford and Chevy).

You can't see it but it has a line of fire tail light that runs under the tail gate for an extra degree of safety. Actually I didn't know it was their until after I bought the truck, I could care less if I had it or not. I will also be getting a specialty plate for the truck, it is going to be a "In God We Trust" plate, follow the link to see it.
http://www.tax.ok.gov/plates/GodTrust.jpg

As noted, the Hemi. For the 2009 model year it had been ranked in the top 10 engines for 6 years running. Also to note is the 12 mpg you can expect from this power horse. That is were the MDS comes in to help out. The truck really has more power than I know what to do with. I will be putting a Hypertech Max Energy programmer on it in the future to help with the fuel economy, it allows you to change the MDS setting to kick in as low as 15 MPH instead of the factory 45 MPH if you want.

The Front door, nothing to exciting here.

The rear door, as noted it is 39" long and helps keep little feet off my seat backs.

The truck also has remote start. I now never have to walk outside to start the truck on a cold morning again.

The instrument panel is fairly nice, along with the normal, it also monitors transmission temperature, oil pressure and temperature and coolant temperature. It is nice to have an exact number instead of the, it is in the "normal" range.

The radio and climate control. It has satellite radio built in, but Sirius will not allow my lifetime subscription to be added to the car unit, hence the wire running to the stereo. It also has heated mirrors.

The 115V outlet.

I believe this is fairly standard now, but I still love the dual glove boxes.

The front windows from the drivers side are all automatic, both up and down. The rear windows also go all the way down.

The truck has a center console and under the seat it also has another storage compartment.

This option is unique to my truck, the rear seats in Dodge trucks do not fold forward. I do not like this, so I took it into my own hands. It only took about 15 minutes a saws-all and a 19mm wrench. Angie told me that it scares her that I can figure out this kind of thing, but it really excites me.

Angie insists on rear A/C in her cars, and it followed into my truck.

The truck also has storage under the back seat. I really like the lid so you can't see the junk I keep in it.

On the drivers side, I transferred my on-board compressor from the Nissan to the new truck. It really comes in a lot more handy then you would realize, especially when most gas stations charge you for air, not to mention the low tire in the mountains that somebody always gets. I haven't wired it in yet, but that should be done by the end of the week.

I also have in floor storage in the back seat. It is about the right size for my jumper cables on the passenger side and a first aid kit and toilet paper on the drivers side.

Brennden has also been replaced with cup holders.

Brennden's Actual Birthday

Friday was Brennden's actual birthday. He got a Star Wars cake of course.

He got to open gifts from the Family.

We got him exactly what he has been asking for for months now, and this is the reaction we got. Ha ha. It's a Lego Star Wars game.

My parents got him some Star Wars action figures.

And go figure that this one gets the best reaction. What is it?.... A Birthday Card.

Brennden's Birthday Party

Today Brennden had is 6 year old birthday party. He was stocked! He has been asking for 2 weeks "How many days left til my party?" I tried not to put any pictures up with other peoples kids since I didn't ask if I could, but they were there.

He loves Starwars so I made Lego Starwars invites.

We started by gluing legos onto picture frames. Sorry, no pics...

Then we playing pin the lightsaber on the Jedi. At first the kids complained, but they each wanted a few turns.

Then the big hit! Throw bouncing balls down the hall to knock out the bad guys. We played this for a good 20 minutes.

And of course, a pinata. Dustin thinks I'm crazy, but I think they are fun.
Little Miss Charity could barely move the thing.
Then we frosted the cupcakes. I also made cake pops. I tried to make lego faces on a few, but the marker wasn't writing too well so only a few heads got made.
And time to sing.
Then we opened gifts. Once again, no pics because other kids were in them. Brennden had a good time. The only thing that made him a little sad was that he didn't get a Lego Starwars game. We bought him one, but we want to give it to him on his actual birthday because you still have to do something on your birthday, right.

Camp McFadden

Saturday we went to Camp McFadden for a Halloween thing. It wasn't that good this year. Although we did get to go canoeing and kayaking this year thanks to Candice helping out. Dustin has never been able to go because of work.



We spent an hour or more on the little pond.



Of course Dalin couldn't go out on the water, but he did have fun on a beached boat.


Brennden talked me into letting him go out alone. He did a pretty good job.

We got a free pumpkin to decorate.

The kids got to go on two horse rides. Charity was in heaven.
Oh, and when we first got there a deer walked into the camp and we got to pet it.

Yes, it was a wild one.

One of very few pics of Dalin smiling instead of scowling.

Lost and Found

Friday night our ward was having a fish fry and a camp out. Although I wasn't going to brave the camp out alone with 3 kids, I did go to the fish fry. The kids ran around and had lots of fun. I even got a few good pictures. It got dark but we stayed for roasted marshmallows and glow in the dark Frisbee. That's when things went south. Brennden got mad and tossed his glasses. In the dark. Outside. Plenty of people got out their flashlights and helped me look for them, but it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. I had a lovely 30 min drive home to stew over the glasses. Keep in mind that he is currently of pair 4 for the year. We did have 1/2 a pair at home. (he lost a lens at football practice one day) so I thought maybe we could order just one lens. I would have to wait for Monday to order them though so I just stopped thinking about them.
Then, Sunday morning someone walks up to me and handed over Brennden's glasses. One of their kids had found them Saturday morning! What luck. I thought for sure they would never be found. And they weren't even scratched up (more than they were in the first place that is). Needless to say, I was very happy.

Here are a few pics of the night.

Charity had a blast 'climbing' this tree for an hour.

Favorite pic of Dalin there.

The boys playing Frisbee.

Potty Training Woes

Let's rewind to this time last year. We had just moved here and Charity was completely potty trained. No need for diapers, pull-ups, nothing. It was wonderful. And then.... I don't know what happened. Charity always went in the potty, now she hardly ever goes in the potty. It's so frustrating! Today she came up to me soaking all the way to her socks with a foot print trail from where she peed. Her story; "I didn't pee mom. I'm just muddy." Really. Where'd she come up with that one?

Dance and Gymnastics

A few weeks ago I enrolled Charity in dance and gymnastics. She absolutely loves it. I have to hide her outfit so that she won't ruin it. Well, the tights are already getting to look sad, but what do you do?
I love her face in this one. She is singing while stretching.

She is a little shorter than the other kids so she needs help reaching the bar. She is pretty good at swinging on them. No surprise to me though, in Bloomfield her and Brennden would swing on her closet rod.
Tumbling isn't her strong suit. She doesn't like to do somersaults. Can you tell by her expression that she is a little concerned?

She is so slow on the balance beam if she isn't holding on to someone. This one surprised me. She climbs on everything at our house. Fridge, dressers, counters.... you name it. I thought she would be a little braver here.


Just doing a little stretching and rhythm. I really enjoy watching her. There is also a rock wall that they climb over a foam pit that they let the kids play in during the last few minutes of class. It can sometimes be a challenge to get Charity out since she loves to climb (and is pretty good at it to) and the foam pit doesn't really help in trying to wade through to get to her.