Signs of the times

It never ceases to amaze me the things that come out of our kids mouths, but today Tyler caught me off guard a little. I had just put all the little kids to bed and he was following me downstairs and I half heard him ask me what something was. I thought he had said "dragon" but knew that he already knew what a dragon was. So I asked him what he had said. This was what came next. "Mom...what is a dragqueen???" In a split seconds time, I had already thought to myself...WHAT???? You're five for crying out loud!!! I don't remember for sure how old I was when I realized what one was, but I'm pretty sure that I was somewhere close to getting out of high school. So I asked him where he had heard the word before. Of course, it was off just another one of the great DVD's we have in our home. This one came from the Bee movie. Before I could say anything else, he explained to me, what a dragqueen was and wouldn't you know it...he hit it right on the mark. Being smarter than his mom seemed to satisfy him and he went on his way. At least he didn't ask why any man would want to dress like a woman. Anyway, I thought I had been being pretty careful with his movie watching after the few weeks we had of taking the Lord's name in vain...thanks Monster House. That movie has been broken and half and thrown out with the trash and we've been watching a lot more of Toy Story. But it seems that more and more, no matter what we do to protect our kids, they find and hear things on their own. Anyway, other than that we haven't been up to much of anything exciting. I tried to load a slideshow from the 4th of July but my blog won't take slideshows, or videos...help!!! Anyone have any ideas for me? The most fun today happened when the fire department showed up across the street to check the hydrant.















Zach and Brylee were out riding their bikes and thought it was the coolest thing.
















All Zach could say was "that was a LOT of water!" Then he had to ride his bike in it for the next 20 minutes.

















This one's for you Amber. When Eli came home for lunch your kids were having a ball with him. Payson was laughing so hard. We took a couple of pictures but this one turned out the best. Brylee had just given him a big kiss on the forehead. (They were hiding from Eli under the piano).

Our Not-Camping trip

How hard can it be to camp in this place???? I have been wanting to take our family camping for over a month and we finally got things lined up to go last weekend. I packed 10 tons of crap into our Tahoe while Eli was at work. All the gear, hot dogs for dinner, all the stuff to dutch oven for breakfast, and about a million other things. As soon as Eli got home from work we took off. We had no idea where we were going but headed toward Ashton. We both decided that Cave Falls would be a good place to go and took off. We found one nice spot by a creek with a fire pit but the mosquitos were pretty bad already so we went farther down the road. We got to the Cave Falls campground and decided that running water and bathrooms were the way to go. We got everything unloaded. Eli went to work on the fire and I started on the tents. There were a few bugs, but that's camping...right??? Little by little there were more of them...and then more....and then about a million more. We had two tents set up, all the sleeping bags and blankets laid out, the fire raging and the hot dogs ready to put on the sticks and decided enough was enough. The mosquitos were SWARMING all over us. If we stood still there were so many on us that you couldn't see our clothes. They were up our nose, in our mouths and everywhere else bugs should never be. What took us about an hour to set up only took 10 minutes to get down and thrown back in the car. We hauled our butts back to Ashton and had dinner at Big Jud's. After that we ended up at home and sleeping in our own beds. It was so rediculous. How can camping go so wrong? On the way there the kids kept saying they just wanted to go to the hollow and make s'mores.....MAYBE WE SHOULD START LISTENING TO OUR KIDS!!!! I'm really starting to think they are smarter than me.

What a deceiving camping spot

Yes, I let my kids play in the fire

At least the kids were still happy

Spray Park Fun

Well, we finally bit the bullet and went to the spray park. I swore I wouldn't take the kids this year because I'd rather let them swim in a ditch than run around in the park's disease-infested water, but somehow I was convinced to give in by one of our friends. It was a short trip but the kids had a ball. Tyler would have stayed all day if I would have let him. Zach had fun but somehow kept getting cold, even though it was scorching hot outside. He would come and wrap up in his towel and curl up in the blanket I laid out. He was melting me, but still kept saying he was freezing. We went with the Walker kids and their mom had threatened them that if they opened their mouth and let the water get in, they would have diarrhea for weeks. Her little girl just kept walking around saying "poop." We'll see if we end up making any trips to the doctor. I still think I'm a bigger fan of my dad's pond water. You just have to wonder how some parents can let their kids run around and sit in a pool with a dirty diaper on and not think twice about it. Sick, sick, sick. I know I need to relax, but something about it just grosses me out! Next week, I call the sand bar or Rigby Lake. As long as the kids have sunshine and water, they'll be as happy as little clams.

Cuz that's what you do!!

Tyler had his first t-ball game yesterday and it was so much fun! He was so excited and has waited so long to play. It was the most fun thing I've been to in a long time. All of the kids were so cute and funny and clueless. Tyler was ready to go though and his team had first bats. Before anyone was ready he grabbed his bat and walked right up to the tee and swung away. I didn't even have the video camera going yet so I missed his first hit. He got a triple and was so excited. The highlight came at his next at bat though. He smacked it past first and all the little kids took off after it. He just kept running and running. When he got to third he looked to see where the ball was and all the kids were still chasing it down so he kept going. When he got there he Pete Rosed it into home plate! It was so awesome and we were all dying laughing so hard. I asked him later why he slid and he just looked at me and said "cuz that's what you do!" Maybe he's seen a few too many of his dad's and uncle's games. Our little homerun king was finally in baseball heaven. It was a day I had waited for long before I even had kids. I'm just glad our boys love sports as much as we do.

Has hell really frozen over???

Did the universe stop moving??? I didn't feel it, but I've had to wonder ever since our last doctor's appointment. The verdict is in, the truth is out.....the Peña's are having a girl!! What?!?! Can it be real? I thought only testosterone ran through Peña veins. Girls are so rare in this family???? We really couldn't believe it even after we saw it, even after Tyler got his Chuck E. Cheese cheesy face, even after he grabbed his brother around the neck and said "did you hear that Zach???? We're having a cheerleader!!!!!" even after we tried to tell ourselves that people have girls everyday. So Susan was nice enough to sneak us back in this morning for a better look. (Brooke, your mom is the best!) She was so stubborn yesterday and had her legs all tucked into her butt, but today she gave us a better show. Her feet were in the way for a while, but then there it was.....no boy parts!! We looked from every angle...top, middle, bottom and back. There just isn't anything there. At least nothing our other two have. So now we have a 99% chance that it will be wearing pink. Eli is still convinced it will come out needing blue but for now we'll just get ready for big changes in our boy proof house. The boys are so excited now....we'll see what they think when they start parking their hotwheels and throwing their baseball gloves next to some pretty pink princess shoes!! Even if it was a boy we would have been excited...maybe just a little more prepared. It will be a good change for all of us.......I keep saying I need more patience. I guess heavenly father thought that meant I needed to learn to live through emotional breakdowns and moodswings instead of black eyes and bugs.

Fun in the Sun

Fun on the slip n slide



Nothing like a cold, fresh drink of water


Payson helped keep an eye on everyone


Our future swimsuit model

It has been so nice over the last few days. The kids are loving the good weather and are so excited to be able to get their swimsuits on. I decided to get a couple of pictures of them having fun before it gets cold again and they're stuck inside. Friday we just put on the sprinklers but Tyler was the only one that had a good time. It was still a little cold for the littler kids. Over the weekend we picked up the slip n slide and it was a huge hit! They didn't want me to turn it off. Payson wasn't so sure about the water but he loves being outside and was a good sport. The other three would have played all day. I've really enjoyed the nice weather and am looking forward to the summer months ahead. Looks like we'll have to wait just a little bit longer since the weather man says the rain is on its way and it should only be about 55 degrees tomorrow!!!! You've got to love living in Idaho!

Happy, Happy Birthday!

Oh my goodness, the day finally came. I have hit the ripe old age of 30!!! After a year of relentless teasing about diapers, walkers, etc. from Eli, the big day finally came. It was one of the best birthdays I've had in a long time. Eli made a huge breakfast for me, and cleaned and did dishes all day and wouldn't let me lift a finger. Then he made steak dinner......it was soooo good. After that, some of the family came over for the big party. I got so spoiled!!! I don't know if I deserved it, but it was so great. Eli even gave in and got me the cricuit I wanted so bad. He is so sneaky, all that time I thought I was getting Mario Kart to play with the boys!! They probably would have liked it a little better, but one day they'll appreciate all the great things I can make for their scrapbooks now. Once presents were over we had the best cake. Eli made strawberry shortcake and it was awesome! Definitely better than any I've made. It was a day I'll remember forever (if my memory doesn't give out on me any time soon)! All the attention made getting older a little bit easier to bare. Thank you honey for everything!