Boggs Babes, Babies & Booty!

The Boggs girls got together at our house to shower Amy before little baby Bella arrives. She's due in 2 weeks!!

All the ladies helped out with dinner - we dined on delicious salads, bread, and pink punch! Pink for baby girls!! Amy scored with all kinds of hand made baby blankets, cute bows, diapers galore and cute cute clothes. Now we just need a baby to put all these items to good use.

Here are all the ladies that were there.

Melody & Amy/guest of honor - my 2 pregnant sister in laws!


Ashley & Claudia

My mama & sista Mica with fuchi face

Suzanne, Caralee & Allyson

Chelsy & Gma Boggs

Lori & Byron

Jenn and her 2 girls Lydia & Cambria

Hey, that's me! with Jackson crazy man and Lizzie intense smile

The whole group.

It was a great night of family and fun. Thanks everyone for coming and making it such a special time for Amy.

8 things

Tagged by Melody!

8 Things About Me

Rules:

1) Post rules on your blog

2) Answer the 6 categories

3) Tag others

8 Favorite T.V. Shows:

1. smallville
2. lost
3. scrubs
4. malcom
5. divine design
6. psych
7. chuck
8. designed to sell

8 Things I did Yesterday/what a wonderful life I lead

1. made 2 sack lunches
2. made 5 different breakfasts
3. threw a bday party
4. taught piano
5. cleaned 2 bathrooms
6. did the dishes
7. grocery shopping
8. went to mutual/pinewood derby

8 Things I look Forward To

1. blogging
2. all the kids in school
3. date night
4. shaver
5. pismo
6. disneyland
7. having a maid
8. going back to school

8 Favorite Restaurants

1. japanese kitchen
2. los charritos
3. me n eds
4. macaroni grill
5. fugazis - why did they have to close down???
6. mimi's
7. ruth's chris steakhouse
8. long john silver's

8 Things on My Wishlist

1. independent homework time
2. interior design degree
3. healthy kids/husband/family
4. going to hawaii
5. going back to NY and Boston
6. seeing oprah
7. a 6-slice waffle maker
8. more closets

8 People I Tag

see facebook

Happy Birthday Lizzie Girl!

Lizzie! You are 5 years old today! HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you!

There are so many special things that we love about you. Let us count the ways...

You were the most beautiful baby girl - especially on your blessing day in your white dress.

You were such a good baby! You started sleeping all night long when you were only 2 weeks old!
Dollies with yarn hair are your favorite.


You love to make silly faces.


You love to sing and know the words to so many songs.


Your teachers enjoy your enthusiasm for dancing and gymnastics.

Mommy loves your cute haircut. Daddy loves that you love In-N-Out burgers!

You are the happiest girl around, you are such a great friend, and always trying your best to be good.

We are so excited for you to start kindergarten after the summer. You are going to do lots of neat things when you are 5 years old. We love watching you grow and we are so happy you are a part of our family. Love you Lizzie Girl. XOXO

Trevor the Wrestler

Wrestling season is about to come to a close. There is only one more match this weekend and Trevor has finally decided that he actually likes to wrestle. When given the option for next year to wrestle or play basketball he says he'd rather wrestle. What a leap from the start of the season! He was initially terrified of this sport - he was sure he'd break a bone or have to endure some horrible injury (this is all thanks to the "cool stories" his coaches told at the beginning of the season - hellooo, these are little 9 year old boys you're talking to here!).


The awesome 4th grade wrestlers... Trevor, Jacob C., Jacob E. and Kishawn.


At last week's match Trevor got to wrestle THREE TIMES! Whoa baby. The first 2 matches were over in less than 12 seconds with Trevor getting pinned both times. When the coach came to get him a third time the conversation went like this:

Coach: C'mon Trevor, let's go!
Trevor: (with a confused/defeated look on his face) But I already wrestled twice?

My heart fell to my stomach in that moment. But he got up anyway and did what the coach asked him to do - what a good boy! And what do they say? - "third time's a charm"? Well, that day, IT WAS. That match lasted for 5 rounds - that's a record for Trevor! Even though he didn't win it sure felt like he did. He was completely red-faced, sweating and exhausted, but we could see that even he was proud of himself. What an accomplishment for our gentle boy! Oh man, I'm almost crying as I'm typing this out. I just love those moments as a parent. To see your child succeed is the most amazing feeling.

Trevor in action...

Here's a quick video of his last match.




Here's proud Daddy with his boy. Jeremy was stoked to see Trevor wrestle and to see him try his heart out.

And now, as wrestling comes to an end, we wonder... what is in store for Trevor during the next sporting season?

kids say the darndest things

Mommy: Jackson, do you want to go see Grandma Elizabeth?

Jackson: (Shaking his head yes) Gam-ma Biff!

Ha! I laughed out loud! He sure is a crack up sometimes.

Does that remind anyone else of Back to the Future movies? And do you think my mom would appreciate it if this new nickname stuck?

my house is what?!

here's a story inspired by a post by the pollack family...

it was a cold frosty fresno morning. (about 2 weeks ago - can you believe it?!) i had gotten up early and switched the laundry. the kids rolled out of bed around 7 and began the school day morning routine. it's almost time to leave for the bus - a.k.a. CRUNCH TIME. i'm freaking out as usual, blood pumping, yelling reminders, packing lunches and sculpting hair spikes. 7:30AM some lady rings the doorbell again and again and again. ok. something must be wrong. i opened the door and the lady says, "i think your house is on fire - there's a lot of smoke coming out the roof." i knew EXACTLY what she was seeing - the dryer vent blowing steam! i reassured her that everything was fine and she went on her way. of course i shook my head at her silliness, and was mildly irritated that my morning routine had been knocked out of whack, but then felt guilty because stranger lady was just trying to save our lives after all! and what guts it would take to knock on a stranger's door. so to that woman i say, thank you for your kindness - that must have been some serious stream coming from our overworked dryer.

He's learning...

Remember this post from a couple of days ago? That was where I admitted that my almost-three-year-old is still sleeping in his crib. Here's a little update on that...

So yesterday I put Jackson down for a nap. He screamed for about 10 minutes and then was quiet. "Ahhh," I thought to myself. "He finally fell asleep."

Two minutes later I'm working in the kitchen and I hear, "Mommy! I wake up!" And he's standing right behind me grinning a proud grin. (His expression was so funny I laughed outright.) Yeah right, he did NOT take a nap!

It dawned on me that the day before I had asked Lizzie to help him out of his crib. She decided to push the step stool next to the crib and I never moved it.

I said, "Jackson! How did you get out of your crib?!"

He says, "Step!"

Oh great. He's finally learned that he can escape. Now begins the bedtime battle.

Yo Quiero la Chihuahua

So I cannot believe that we forgot to review this movie after we saw it over Christmas Break!

I remember first seeing this movie poster hanging in the theater lobby about 2 months before it was supposed to come out. I stood there in front of the poster just shaking my head and thinking, "Is Hollywood really for real?! Seriously? A movie about chihuahuas?"

Well, when this is the only kid friendly movie at the $3 theater and we want to take the kids out, I had to buckle down and prepare for the worst. How's that for a bad attitude?

My parents and sister Mica were brave to come with us. They've been in a movie theater with Jackson before so they knew what they were in for. Jackson was still for about the first 3/4 of the movie and then he was ready to move around a bit. Mica busted out her new iTouch and distracted him with the iFart application for awhile - that was hilarious! Then Grandpa Louie walked him around for a bit.

The movie was not terrible. It was actually pretty fun, but it's always better when you're watching with children and can see things from their perspective. It was a little difficult to get past the talking dogs, but other than that the story itself was good. The cast had some pretty big names as well. Drew Barrymore, George Lopez, Andy Garcia and Jamie Lee Curtis.

We'd definitely call this one a rental, but overall we give it 3 out of 5 diamond doggie collars.

Here comes the sun...

The sun finally came out this week! It has been gray and overcast for about 12 straight days and more than the weather has been gloomy around here. The sun is so refreshing after all that darkness! We took the kids to the park to soak up as much vitamin D as possible.


I think the kids were happy to be outside too - what do you think? Those happy faces say it all. WELCOME SUN!

Do you tint?

Years ago someone introduced us to these Crayola bathtub tints. They are so cool! Our kids are not into the bubble baths so much because they get bubbles in their eyes, then there's screaming, and the crying - bubbles are just not worth it for us. So these Color Dotz are a good replacement for bubbles. The kids love to take a bath in colored water. I also love that they can learn about colors: red + blue = purple!

Here's Logan in his aqua blue bath (2 blue and one yellow tablet). Doesn't that water look so refreshing?

Lizzie loves the red color - it's actually more hot pink than red.

The only uncool thing about these babies is the yellow tablet. It looks a little strange taking a "yellow bath". Hmmmm.... someone should have thought that one through a little better.

Do not worry, they will not stain your tub or floor. The water goes right down the drain and the tub doesn't even need to be rinsed out! You can find these Crayola Color Dotz near the bubble bath and bath salts at Walmart or Target type stores.

Does anyone else use these things?

January Book Club

The book for this month was entitled Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. It was written in 1970 so be prepared for some serious meaphors to seagull life. Tommiann did a great job leading the discussion - I think she may have parts of this book memorized from reading it so often! We learned in our discussion that this book can be relevant to a person at different phases in life and the characters may even switch places to fit your life each time you read it.

We dined on picnic food to go with our seagull/beachy theme. Thanks to Kari for delicious bbq chicken paninis and Deena for croissant sandwiches. Patti and Kristie/Erin brought chips and dip. Heather a yummy spinach pasta salad and Debbie's potato salad. We had tasty lemonade to drink and ice cream cones for dessert. What a feast!

Here are all the ladies at the dinner table. They just love it when I bust out the camera while they're eating!

As always the food and company were great. We are so lucky to have such a fun solid group of ladies in our ward that enjoy reading and getting together to discuss good books.

Is anyone else involved in a book club? And please feel free to share any titles that sparked good discussion from your group. We're always on the hunt for good ones.

The eyes of a child

It is amazing to me how our children do NOT have brown eyes. I was so sure that my dominant brown eyes would carry through to them, but they didn't! They are all so unique and beautiful - I love looking at them whenever I can get them to hold still for 2 seconds. I especially love to look at the kids' eyes when we are out in the sunlight - they just look so clear and perfect!

Trevor's are hazel, but varying in color. You can see the outside edge is almost green and the iris has a rusty brown ring around it. They are also freckled a bit. There is a rainbow of colors in there!

Logan's are also hazel. His are the lightest of the bunch - and the most consistent in color. Not so much variation as Trevor's. His are the closest to Jeremy's golden hazel color. (Did I almost just say, "Liquid topaz"??!)


Lizzie and Trevor have a similar trend. She also has the greenish around the edges with the darker rusty brown surrounding the iris. Hers are darker than his though. I just love the multi-colored eye.

And now for Jackson. Mr. Wild Card himself. Where the BLUE eyes came from we do not know. Jeremy swears that recessive=recessive no matter if your recessive gene is green, blue or hazel. So somehow, my mom's green eyed recessive gene and Jeremy's Ward family recessive gene carried on through to give Jackson boy these gunmetal gray blues. They are definitely blue too.

So to tally things up for you - our family has:
4 - hazel
1 - brown
1 - blue

I love our family's rainbow of eye colors. They are as unique as the children themselves.

Jackson's Monkey Business

Every morning he wakes up (still in his crib) and calls in his loudest yelling voice, “MAH-mmy!” No matter if it’s 6AM or 9AM - the whole house can hear him. And if I don’t answer right away it turns into a stern, “Mo-m!” (And why has he not learned how to climb out of that thing yet?)

Yesterday he pulled out the bottom drawer of the dishwasher and pushed it around the kitchen/family room for a good half hour. The other kids would walk through and say, “What is Jackson playing with?” They recognized it of course, but could not place it. When it finally clicked that it was part of the dishwasher they tried to correct the problem, but 2 minutes later he had it pulled out again rolling on the brick floor.

He sneezed a big productive sneeze right into his hand. And what else is there to do with a big booger mess than to lick it off your hand? He had himself cleaned up in no time.

It was one evening just before bed. I go downstairs to collect Jackson and what is he doing? Filling cups of water and shamelessly pouring them onto the ground. Not into any container – straight onto the ground! All for the sake of watching water flow from his cup.

Lizzie the Gymnast

Lizzie took dance lessons at a place that also offers gymnastics. She would ogle the gymnasts every time we went for a dance lesson. So after one semester of dance she decided she was done and wanted to try gymnastics. (I have to say that I'm glad she chose gymnastics because after her first day I realized there are still so many things this girl needs to learn - somersaults for one and cartwheels the other. What girl does not know how to do a somersault?! I guess Lizzie.)


Here she is on the balance beam.

The picture is not so great because she was running, but she's just about to vault.


Enjoy 2 short videos of her fabulous gymnastics.

Floor Exercises:



The Bars:


She's had 2 lesson so far and is loving it! She has so much energy and is very enthusiastic the entire time we're there. While she waits for her turn with the teacher at each station she literally jumps the whole time. She stays in one spot just bouncing away because she's so excited to be there. She has also taken a serious nap after both lessons. Lizzie is WIPED OUT by the time her hour is up.

I just have to say one more time that I am LOVING having a girly girl around this house. She is too much fun!

Check out the new baby

I started a new blog to keep up with the Young Women happenings in our ward. There aren't too many pictures on there yet, but I have some good ones I'll post later today. I love that it's girly and pretty - different than our family blog. Stop by and check us out! fresno7thwardyoungwomen.blogspot.com

Hanford - here we come!

We all know that Jackson LOVES trains right now. Every morning the first thing he asks for is, "Choo-Choo Thomas?" It really is too cute.

So Jeremy and I had this great idea to take him for a real train ride during Christmas Break. We thought it would be the perfect family outing. The Minnicks and the Other Wards came along for the ride. We braved the cold 40 something degree weather and ventured out on this overcast day.

Jackson was in hog heaven! Just look at his over-excited grin. He could hardly contain himself.

We did this same "trip" several years ago when Trevor was about 4 years old, Logan 2 and Lizzie was just a baby. We drive downtown, hop on the Amtrak train, ride 30 minutes to Hanford, walk about 1/4 mile to the nearby park, eat a picnic, stop at the creamery across the street for the best ice cream around, and then head back to the train for the ride home.

Here's a short video for your viewing pleasure. Jackson is my favorite. He's so camera shy, but it's too cute.



Logan watching the fields pass by. Fresno sure is green in the winter - I love it!

Here is the brood waiting to get on the train. We've been called "a school field trip" several times when we're all out in public together. Today was no exception!

The weather shaped up when we got there. The sun came out just in time for our picnic and the kids' game of football. It was still chilly out there, but not too bad. And Aimee always says that the best time to get ice cream is when it's cold outside. I still don't know why that is, but she was right on this day! It was mm-mmm good!

Here we are about to board the train to go home. This picture was the best of everyone, but who is that lady? Didn't she realize we were taking a family picture?! Maybe we can get Robb to photoshop her out...


Waiting for the train....

The whole adventure was worth it when we watched Jackson in this moment. He stayed just like this at the window for about 5 mintues. And if you know Jackson - you know that 5 mintues is an eternity for this kid.
It was a great day. Good memories and a full heart from seeing a happy child.

Christmas craft idea for next year

We had some fun decorating "Christmas Trees" for Joy School at our Christmas Party.


Here's what you need:
1. sugar ice cream cones
2. green frosting
3. sprinkles
4. anything else you can think of to trim your trees!


The kids thought it was great. And so did I! There was nothing to cook ahead of time. I debated making sugar cookies or buying the ones from the bakery. I saw this idea and was immediately sold! It was quick and easy and the kids got to eat them when they were finished. These trees would also look cool next to a gingerbread house.

Tuck this idea away for next year. It's a keeper!

Wrestling season has begun

Trevor chose to wrestle this year - thanks to a little peer pressure from Jacob and Jacob. He's finally old enough to participate in the sports offered (FREE) at the school. He's having fun, but is scared out of his mind (thank you to his high school age coaches) that he will break some part of his body before the season is out.


So far he's wrestled 2 matches. He has filled in on Varsity both times because there weren't enough players to fill the spots. He tried his best both times, but has yet to win. (Notice Trevor is under this guy, most likely a 6th grader, had him pinned in about 12 seconds, but not before he picked Trevor up completely off the ground and threw him down on his back. Trevor was stunned and couldn't move for a full 3 seconds.)


He got some great advice from all of my brothers. None of them broke anything when they wrestled and that was a great comfort to our gentle boy.

He does like to tell people that he wrestles Varsity. He thinks he's pretty hot stuff. So make sure you ask him about it.