Hogel Zoo- Snow Day -Off

We went to the Zoo with the Richins. It was a snow day so the kids were off of school. It was a bit cold and considered not going but it was too late the kids had their hearts set on it. So we tufted it out, it rained on us half the time but just a sprinkle. There are lots of improvements going on there the Zebras, penguins, cougars, and bears are all getting their habitats remodeled. They are going to focus on Bears having a Grizzly, Polar bears and reintroducing the seals and sea lions to Hogle Zoo. It looks really nice and we are excited to see the final project in a few years...I think.
Jack was in a mood for a while as he thought he forgot his wallet with his money that he planned on buying a toy from the gift shop. He later found it in his lunch bag and got active again, testly little thing.


There was an angry monkey that kept slapping the window at our faces and showing us his teeth and very mean faces, the kids thought it was hilarious. Man good thing there was a thick glass in between us! I think the funnest part of the whole thing was the playground, so ya I paid $16 to go to the park...parks are free at home. We did go at a good time though not a lot of people were there and it was lunch time so we got to see a lot of animals come alive to eat!
Since the zoo day Kyle, Jackson and Jack having been playing often.

Adults night out

Last week end we had a fun night with some friends. We went out to dinner to Texas Roadhouse with Colby's friend Christian, Cody and their girlfriends Halie and Rori. We then went out to a bar named Maggie's in SLC. It was a karaoke bar and was good for some laughs, half of us sang. I signed Colby up and them me and Halie together the one for myself. But by the time it was time for us to go up, it was time for us to call it a night. We had our boys with Colby's parents so we thought 12 am was late enough. Ended up forgetting that it was daylight saving night so it was actually 1. They were all zonked out by the time we got home. We had a fun night with the friends though, a different kind of fun that we don't do nearly enough. I Michelle of course was the designated driver and got to drive Christians truck. Which made me nervous, I just don't like being responsible for such a pricey thing ya know! I really enjoyed Haley she's my type of girl, we kind of bonded that night finally, we've hung out before but never made the connection. I hope we hang soon. I'll have to invite her Zumba dancing next week. I need more girlfriends I can be my true self around, Since the best of them moved on me.
Tonight we are going out with some other friends of Colby's, Dave, Michelle and their kids. They are a whole different type of friend, Great type just different than all the rest, they are very interesting people. Different ways of thinking and believing, I enjoy their point of view. We're going Disco Skating, we'll see how that goes, can't say I'm that great of a skater, although it would be fun to get better at, I do have my own pair of roller blades I've been wanting to get better at "Whip It" inspired me!

Poop again!

Avery has been doing OK on his potty training. BUT he seems to have a hard time pooping on the Toto and not his pants. It seems to be when he eats yogurt, so I'll try to monitor that a bit more. But Wednesday he had an accident about a half hour before Colby got home from work. That day I had been watching Daphne which by herself and my boys are OK but then I took on my neighbors three boys and then two more boys came to play and all of them at the same time was a bit.....um should I say freaking Crazy. So my nerves were a bit shot when he had this accident. Colby came home and I fed them dinner and said good by for the night! I was at the grocery store searching for chocolate gold for the boys St. Patrick's gift the next day when a text came in from Colby. This is how it read. I thought it smelled like poo, so I asked Avery if he did it. He responded with "Dad, dont shit your pants!" with this face....
Lets just say ...Yes it was a recent memory he had of my reaction to his sweet little gift! Oh Avery one day you'll get it......hopefully...sigh

St. Patrick's Day

St Patrick's Day, is a small but fun holiday when you have kids, every holiday is in my opinion. I live for holidays, sometimes I need an excuse and date of which to celebrate something fun. Poor Jehovah's Witnesses, do they know what their missing. So we don't usually celebrate the actual meaning of each holiday, but it makes life fun!
Jack had a party at school ad was asked to bring in a green finger food. So we picked up some green shortbread cookies, man that short bread is the best, last cookie for me for quite a while! 3 months! We went to the park later to celebrate my completion of my design job, man does it feel good to have that done.
We went to the store to put together a Holiday Feast as Jack called it, he was excited. We went with Spinach fettucini Alfredo Pasta with pine nuts and green peas mixed in, Green beans, Grilled asparagus, chicken breast with a green tinted Cream of Celery sauce, Garlic Bread, Lime Jello with Marshmallows,and green mint Brownies. Yes very filling and not what I consider the healthiest oh ya we polished it off with Root beer in the bottle, jack looked Irish alright.

Happy Birthday Azure, sorry we missed you on your birthday, we love ya!

Jacks TaeKwonDo TEST

We have been very busy with all sort of things. First Jack has been practicing hard for his TaeKwondo Belt Test. This was on March 12th. He happened to be sick for it although I didn't know how bad at first . He had just gotten over the flue three days prior, then the Saturday morning of his test he said he felt sick again, I didn't imagine it was the flu again. SO I forced him to go to the belt test since he would have to wait a whole month till he could test again. He was definitely ready and we needed new material to practice it was getting a bit redundant.
He shook it off for the time being once we pulled up to the studio in Lehi. His Papa L was there to support him, I love those freakin grandparents, they are such supporters we love it! He was very well behaved and brave. There were a lot of viewers there and 5 kids in his age range, testing as well. In the end 4 of the 5 kids promoted including Jack. It was a surprise to him that he got to break boards" He thought he was the shit for that. and he was he later broke them 3 more times at home to my surprise, the smaller they get the harder! Here is him doin his thing!
Avery gets very excited to and yells just like all the other Taekwondoers' Colby was there as well and I let him help Jack with the board braking as I took pictures!




We are so proud of Jack with his new Yellow belt and his entry into the older age group class 3 months early! its quite a privilege to be asked to move up! He has proven his dedication and will continue doing Taekwondo for at least another 6 months, hopefully years to come but we'll take it in smaller increments!
We went to Taco Amigo to celebrate!
3 hours later, Jack started puking for yet another day....Awesome!

The Passing of Noram Nell Haris - Grandma Nell

Colby Grandmother on his Mom's side passed away yesterday just after midnight.
Norma Nell Harris was her name. We spent most the day at his parents house just hanging out. Kathy is doing fine, she's somber but not extremely emotional. This has been coming for a long time and Kathy has been preparing for months. I'm glad she did, no one else in the family was willing to face it the way she did.
She passed in the night, alone unfortunately but the way I see it, that's fine this women was quite a strong women and didn't need anyone there for her to pass on. She was visited consistently and had family all around her the day and night before and got to see every one recently. She suffered from Kidney failure and was having kidney dialysis for the past year. She had an unfortunate stroke a few months ago that landed her in Heritage home. This is where she spent the last few months of her life. We tried to surround her in things from home and had the family portrait there so she could start recognizing all her family members. She went in and out of confusion but always seemed to remember us when we visited. It was wonderful to see how she would light up when my kids would enter the room. She got such and angelic smile.
We will miss her and keep in mind all the teaching of which she gave often. She was a fountain of knowledge and and inspiration for that, in my mind.
Family will be flying in from Tennessee and Montana. She is now with her mother father and brother and daughter Lauri, having the time of her existence I am sure. Colby and I have been going down a new path this last year and have been enlightened on a new way of thinking about life death and the times in between. So this passing was looked at in a whole new light and was very comforting knowing what she was encountering this time around.
Norma's viewing is on Thursday and her funeral, Friday morning. Colby will serve as a casket barrier as well as all the other grandchildren of Norma's.
We unfortunately never got real close to her. She was a stone that you couldn't brake and there for, never saw much of her except holidays and birthdays when she would come for dinner. Of course after a passing like this you always regret that and wish you tried harder, I try and keep this in mind with the remaining grandparents and strive to bring my kids closer to their Grandparents for this reason. I wish for them all to be great friends and form close relationships to all of them in their own special ways.
Beth, Norma's younger daughter, was very close with her and will be sorely missed by her family. They seemed to form that mother daughter bond early in the relationship as a child but Kathy's childhood was extremely different than Beth's. Beth doesn't seem to understand how she can be so non-emotional. Kathy and Beth had different fathers Beth's was a typical father as Kathy's was very abusive and hurt her often, physically. So when the times Norma didn't intervene, Kathy got tough and closed out some of her family. I feel the tension often and wonder what really went on but Kathy is not very open to sharing the stories.
I feel bad for the both of them, I hope all works out afterwards once Norma is buried and they start moving on. I guess the second shift of hard work starts now cleaning out the house and passing it off to Norma's ex husband Henry who lives in Arizona, yet another we are not close to. I've seen him twice. We do always get a card for Christmas an Colby gets one every birthday but that's about it.
Norma,I'm sure you found your way home and are being guided in your next journey, we love you and will miss all your elaborate detailed stories you gave, you had a brilliant mind and for that we had some interesting conversation.

Couples Night Out

We had a fun night with some friends from the neighborhood. It was game night at the Clarks. Colby and I really like the two of them, they invite us over quite often but we seem to never be able to go very much. Its usually always couple only and we simply don't have regular baby sitters. When we go out we like to sty out since it doesn't happen very often, girls in the neighborhood usually watch I would think until 10pm. But we really should get someone other than our family members all the time. We really enjoy it when we get out with our friends. We'll have to try harder.
So there were four other couple there and we played some card game that Colby and I did not get At ALL... i don't know why we never caught on but the game seemed completely pointless until the end when two players had no points and Colby and I were in the 200+ points which is bad.
Colby came in last and previously before loosing I threw in for some interest that the winner had to come up with something that the looser had to do. A dare thing!
Colby Lost Jocelyn won and she dared Colby to drink 2 oz. of baby formula. Warm formula that had already been guzzled by Zane Clarke, Jenny's boy.
It took quite a few minutes and pushing for him to finally do it. A lot of laughs were had and it made the evening end with great humor.
All the couples were very enjoyable and we were able to meet a couple new people which is always nice.