bens baptism day

What an amazing day it was today, because today Ben was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!! Time seems to fly by most of the time, but still, it always seemed as though this day was forever away, and now here it was. Because Ben had his last lacrosse game this morning (coming in another post), we scheduled his baptism for this afternoon. His baptism was combined with another boy, Peyton, in his primary class who just moved into our ward.

I put together a program for the baptism, but by the time the meeting started, it had almost completely changed. (Thanks so much to Mom for the time she spent helping me put these together, along with so many other things she helped me with over the weekend!!) Of course, that's a whole other story in and of itself--the doors to the dressing rooms were locked, the curtains to the font were locked, and a bad traffic accident delayed everyone who was coming from north of Salt Lake, but in the end we got started and it was a great meeting. Many thanks to all the family and friends who came out to support Ben today, and for all those who wanted to be there and couldn't.

By the time the boys finally got their baptismal clothes and got them on, we had very little time for pictures, but I did get this cute one of Daren and Ben.

Ben and Peyton were still a bit wet after the meeting was over. It was a great meeting, including the talk Ciera gave on the Holy Ghost for Brenda, who had surgery yesterday and couldn't make it. When I asked Ben tonight what he would remember the most about his baptism, he immediately said, "Ciera's talk." Brenda gave the best talk on this for Ciera's baptism a few months ago, and Ben wanted Brenda to do the same talk today, and although she couldn't come, Ciera filled in and did a great job.

Most of the Mortenson family, and a few Peel's, just after the baptism.

What a nice, helpful, loving, and sweet boy Ben is!! He has had to endure a lot as an oldest child while we, as parents, try to figure out this parenting thing, but he is so good-natured and loving...thank goodness! And even though he loves to tease his brothers, he would do anything for them at any time. Thank you, Ben, for being you, and for being the good example you are to us, your brothers, your friends, and to everyone else--we love you!!! (This is his first tie! Ben changed his clothes so fast when we got home this is about all the pictures I got.)

The party back at our house after the baptism was filled with good family, good food, and fun! (Seriously, if you haven't ever tried Pat's BBQ in Salt Lake, look it up and get there--the best bbq EVER!!) The weather mostly cooperated with only a few sprinkles toward the end of the party.

Ben was thrilled about his new scripture quad. Of course, he did pick it out so he knew it was coming, but when he finally had it in his hands, with his name on it, he was so excited. It was a great day all the way around!

Today was also cousin Garrett's birthday, so they brought a cake along and we all sang happy birthday to him. Isn't he cute in his new glasses?! We topped the day off with Ciera and Garrett sleeping over before we go up to JD and Brenda's ward tomorrow morning where JD will be blessing Sydney Sue. (They are all sleeping downstairs in the movie room! Ben made cute little signs to put at everyone's little beds, "reserving" their spot.) What a great day it has been.

memorial day/weekend...and then some

Memorial Day turned into Memorial Weekend this year. We had lots of family time together, which was great. It started the Friday afternoon before Memorial Day--we went to Morgan and met Daren's family there to visit the graveyards.

I have gone to Morgan with Daren's family every year to visit the graves ever since Daren and I have been married. Daren's grandpa died over 20 years ago, and his grandma died over 10 years ago, so it's nice to go visit their graves. Daren's dad grew up in Morgan and there is still a lot of extended family there, so it's a fun place to visit. Plus, this time of year it's so green and beautiful.

Most of the family attended, and somewhere in there is Gpa and Gma Mortenson's gravestone.

Saturday afternoon we made the trek to Manti to visit Gpa Cox's grave. It was sunny and warm when we left Riverton, but cloudy and quite chilly when we got to Manti--we were completely underdressed, but survived. I love this thumbs-up picture of Jake and Chad...Jake is always calling Chad his "little buddy."

I love that the cemetery is right next to the temple--when the flags are up it makes for a beautiful picture. Grandma, the oldest of the Cox's, and Elyse, one of the youngest of the family. Will was begging for a Dr. Pepper the whole time at the cemetery, and he finally found a willing sucker, I mean dad, to give him one! But remember: what goes in, must come out...

...and so Will took off to the port-a-potty, which I have decided there are an abundance of at cemeteries on Memorial Weekend and Will managed to find every one of them! Daren was in high pursuit after Will. And this little Nathan was just the cutest thing all day. He was decked out in his camo in honor of his dad who was away working for the army. He was so cute at the park we went to after--he wanted to play football all day with the guys!

All the cousins who came that day: Jake, Paige, Will, Ben, Elyse, and Nathan.

This is the park in Manti we went to after leaving the cemetery. The sand volleyball court was a kid's sandbox paradise!! And this time we remembered to bring our yellow Tonka trucks!

Will just parked himself in front of the food and didn't move for a VERY long time!!

It was seriously chilly that day, and I was not prepared for it, but fortunately Daren was. He found the electric blanket that is stored in our car, plugged it in, and Will and I cuddled in it for the longest time (Will slept most of that time).


On Monday morning, you know, the actual Memorial Day day, we went to see the new movie, Night at the Museum--Battle at the Smithsonian, and we all LOVED it!! We watched the first one last week just to get prepped for this one. Ya, we're a little psycho ;) The rest of the day we played around in the yard, mowed the lawn, and did a lot of "underdogs" on the swingset!!

Jake was so tired that night, but he didn't want to leave the dinosaurs out, so he put them to bed too. It was so cute.

**WARNING** the following pictures are kinda bloody and gross!!!!

For the past 11+ years we have lived here, it was nice and peaceful when there weren't any ice cream trucks allowed into the city limits. I don't know who had the hairbrained idea to change that, but someone did and now I hear that music all the time and it drives me CRAZY! All the kids, who had just eaten pizza at our house, ran after said annoying truck, got it to stop, and then ran back to ask for money for the ice cream. During the run back to the house, Will tripped over himself and did a face plant on to the road. It seemed kinda bad at first, but not too bad; at least not at the time. Daren, being the softie that he is, gave in to getting all of the kids an ice cream. Will was happy to finally get his Sonic ice cream!!

Like I said above, Will's face didn't seem so bad...until he woke up Sunday morning with this puss all over his face, and the beginnings of a good scab. When we were at church, Will pointed to his owie and asked me if he had peanut butter on his face!! Poor kid! (It's looking SO much better now!)

This is how these boys got to and from church on Sunday. I don't know if they will ever walk to church again! You gotta love the goggles on Jake!

And for my final random picture, I took this of Ben in the tub the other morning. He has gotten into the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series lately and just likes to read it everywhere!!

two week rule

So I've hit my 2 week rule--Daren got home from Mexico two weeks ago today, so I have to hurry and get this out tonight or it will be lost forever!! Daren and a couple of his friends from the fire department take an annual spring trip together. For years they have gone to Las Vegas, but this year they decided to shake things up a bit and go to Mexico. (This is what happened to my car four years ago when they were on their way home from Vegas...totally not their fault;)

Mexico

I don't know much about the trip...only that one morning they got up early to go fishing and these are the pictures Daren sent to me. We communicated through email everyday. It was fun to keep such a detailed account of what we were doing here.

Daren looking pretty tired on the fishing boat so early in the morning. This pelican actually landed on the back of their boat.

The fire-dudes: Kelly, Chris, and Daren. They had a great time. We were glad they made it back home safe and sound, and the boys were thrilled to see their daddy again!

wanna-be-runaways

Ben has been into this thing lately where if he doesn't get his way, he threatens us that he will run away. The other day he left us this note on our bedroom door, and left similar notes on Jake and Will's doors. Then he packed up a few things.

Funny thing is, last night when Ben and I were talking, I was asking him what he was so mad about that he was going to leave for, and neither one of us could remember. The only thing I remember him saying, as he was calming down that day and starting to get his senses about him, "Well, I'm not sure when I'm going to leave. It will either be tomorrow or when I'm 18 or 19 years old. Probably when I'm 18 or 19." Needless to say, he still resides under our roof! He pulled this on me again on Monday night. Once again he was threatening to move out, this time with both his brothers. Ben started packing, while Jake grabbed all his favorite PS3 games. He reluctantly put them back when I explained that over at the park (where they were going to go live) there isn't even a TV, let alone a PS3. It all seemed fun to them until Jake realized what moving out was going to mean--leaving home!! Poor Jake was in tears and his little lower lip was trembling as he said he didn't want to leave anymore. (perhaps it was wanting to play his games that kept him here!!)

A few minutes later, this note showed up for me...from the President. Ben really wanted to know what it said, so I told him if he brushed his teeth and put his p.j.'s on, then I would tell him when he was in his bed. After I told him, Ben said he didn't want to leave anymore, but what could he do--after all this letter was from THE PRESIDENT! I told him that the president wasn't the mom of this family and that he didn't have to go. He was relieved! ;) Ben and I are a lot alike when it comes to "heated discussions." We can both argue to the death, and then once it's over, it's over and life goes on, never holding a grudge. I've always been like that, and it's funny to see that Ben is like that too.

"Mommy's office"

Seriously, how could this have gotten so out of control so quickly?!! This is my next job to tackle--cleaning up my office. It absolutely drives me crazy to walk in here, but because it's the first room after you come through the laundry room, everything gets dumped in here, i.e. lacrosse bag & gear, etc. I hope to have it more orgainized...soon!

Jake made this picture for me a while ago, but it's so cute I had to include it. It's from the book, "The Ugly Pumpkin," which has been a favorite around here for years. "I am the ugly pumpkin, I shouted to the sky, and then it started raining, so I began to cry." Not a bad interpretation I must say!!

in a nutshell

So the past few blogs I've posted have been kind of long ones and have taken lots of time to do. I promised myself that I wouldn't let this get more than 2 weeks behind and I'm pushing that now, so here is our lives the past couple of weeks...in a nutshell.


It looks completely different outside now, but a couple weeks ago this was how beautiful spring looked in our yard. Now most of the blossoms are gone, but it still looks nice.

Two weeks ago yesterday my brother-in-law JD brought their 2 boys, Garrett and Gage, out to our house for a couple of days while Brenda took new baby Sydney to California to show her off to all the family down there. We had a great time!

Gage, age 2, and Garrett, age 4 (almost 5), had fun exploring all over the yard. At that point my garden wasn't planted yet so I let them dig to their hearts content. It's a fun play area for kids--plenty of fertile soil and plenty of worms!!

A real hit was Ben's new remote control monster-buggy. Jake really loves it.

Brenda came home on Tuesday the 5th, which was also her birthday. We made her lots of cupcakes, each and every one of them decorated by the boys!

That Saturday our neighbor and friend, Preston, was doing his eagle scout project at the cemetery close to us. We thought it would be nice to help out, so off we went.

The boys were all gung-ho about it at first...until they started fighting over the same shovel. They had their little gloves on and their little shovels, ready for action.

We stayed for almost 3 hours, and I don't know how much help the boys really were, but it was good for them to get out and get in on the action. The twins didn't mind getting pushed around by Preston throughout the cemetery! When Preston's mom, Jeanna, brought out the Otter Pops, Will had a quiet and sneaky way of finding almost all the green ones in there. Every time I looked over at Will, he had a new green Otter pop!

Finally, all those popsicles took their toll on Will and he couldn't resest lying down for a breather!!

Next was Mother's Day last weekend. Daren got me a couple of beautiful hanging flower baskets and then totally shocked me with tickets to see the Eagles in concert on Saturday night! He took me to see them in concert just before we got married over 14 years ago--they still look old, but dang can they still sing!!! I'm still kicking myself for not taking our picture as we headed out in all our leathers on the motorcycle! It was a blast!! I love being a mom to three of the greatest boys ever, and I love all the mom's, especially my own, who have influenced me to be a better mom.

And I was completely surprised when I got the "Legos Indiana Jones airplane and oil tanker." I let Will play with it all the time, though, because he has been wanting it for the longest time! ;) He sleeps with the box almost every night, and he likes to tell me bedtime stories about Indiana Jones. Yesterday at church he was wearing his Indy jacket and told everyone, "Just call me Professor Jones." He is such a character!!

This past Wednesday was Ben's first day of Cub Scouts!! He had such a blast with all the boys there. He came home from it and read his scout book all night long--I think he is really going to love the scouting program.

On Thursday Jake and Will's friend, Adam, came over for the day because his mom went out of town...to NY, no less! The day started with Will leaving for school just before 8:30am. Adam arrived just about the same time--since Jake had just barely woken up he was in the tub, so Adam thought it would be fun to join him...for the next 2 hours! They had a blast in there; so much laughing and giggling. Silly me forgot to empty the water out of the tub, so when they went in there later, around lunchtime, they thought it would be fun to open the window and throw the toys into the dirt below it. What could be better than that, except to throw buckets of water out onto the toys?!

What a mess!! I'm just sorry I didn't grab my camera soon enough to get a picture of the toys in the mud. After I got over the initial shock of it, I got a big bucket full of water and a couple of sponges so they could clean up. Can you see into the bucket? How clean do you think those really got?!

They returned to the scene of the crime to clean up, and as I was taking pictures I heard Jake say to Adam, "Hey Adam...This is a lot more fun than being bored, isn't it?!" I had to laugh pretty hard at that point!!

They had dumped all the dirty water into more dirt, and thought it would be fun to play in. You just can't keep boys away from dirt, can you?! Needless to say, they ended up back in the tub again, with all their clothes in the washing machine....and this time I remembered to empty the tub. :)

Friday was field day at school, and I was in charge of the "crazy soccer" station. It was a beautiful day, not too hot like last year.

Ben's class was in my second to the last group. He played scorekeeper at first and then went out to play and scored a goal.

And finally, what would be a week without pictures from Ben's lacrosse game?! This week they got to play in the stadium at Juan Diego School. It was totally different for them to play on astro turf rather than regular grass.

I didn't get great pictures because we were looking into the sun (Will actually took the 1st picture here), but photo 2 is Ben in a face-off. This was kind of a rough day for us--Daren had been out of town (to Mexico...post coming soon!) since Tuesday and I don't think any of us had had enough sleep so we were all grouchy! Daren came back last night and it's all good now. So is this really a nutshell?!