Father's Day 2013

We sure love our daddy around here. Father's Day is about one of our favorite days, because we get to celebrate him all day long.

We wanted to make him breakfast in bed, but he got up early to smoke some ribs for dinner. So the boys had breakfast with dad on the patio while he smoked the ribs.

The boys after church with dad. What a handsome bunch of boys.

After church we had our Father's Day dinner. Sterling smoked the ribs and I made mac n' cheese, baked beans, fruit salad, and summer squash. All the delicious flavors of BBQ in one meal.

After dinner, we gave dad our gift. It was a photo book with pictures of all the fun things he did with the boys over the last year. The boys helped me pick out the pictures.

The rest of the day was spent playing rugby with dad. This might have been his favorite part of the day. It's pretty cute to watch these boys play together.

Right before bed, the boys did a bit of wrestling. 

The next morning, the boys all ended up in our bed, by their dad. I think it's safe to say that all of our boys are daddy's boys. I sure love these boys.

I'm so grateful to be married to such a great husband and father. He is such a great example to our boys. He is hard-working, faithful, funny, and the list goes on and on. I hope they all grow up to be just like him. 

Sourdough and Jerky

The boys have been making some fun and yummy projects around here. Sterling sent off for a sourdough start a few weeks ago. He started he with the boys. Here they are with our start. 

We've made lots of batches of pancakes with it and one batch of bread. The pancakes are out of this world. The bread needs a bit of tweaking, but the taste was still delicious. Sourdough pancakes are our new Sunday dinner. Easy and delicious!

Sterling has been dying to smoke some jerky with the boys. They finally went to work and made a couple of batches. The boys were thrilled to be part of it. Sterling is always so good to let them help with the whole process. He loves working with his boys.

After Sterling smoked it, he put it in the oven to finish drying out. Here's Little Man helping his dad.

The boys and their jerky. 

Our house has smelled like jerkey for two weeks. Not to mention the fact that someone packed it as a snack for church. The boys sat on the bench chomping away. Yes, we are that family.

Here's Sterling with his second batch. He did almost three times as much, since the boys pounded the first batch in just a few days. 

 I love that Sterling loves to do projects. I love even more that he lets the boys help so much. They love it and always have such a great time. I love my man and my little men.

Wrestle Fest

I have to admit that having a house full of boys can be pretty rowdy at times. Ok so it's pretty rowdy all the time and I love it. This winter had been pretty cold, so we have spent a lot of time indoors. Staying active hasn't always been easy. One thing that the boys can always count on is Wrestle Fest. This happens most nights, but especially on Sundays.

New to Wrestle Fest, is arm wrestling. I grew up with my brothers arm wrestling all the time. (They still do when we get together.) So it's only natural to have my boys wanting to arm wrestle too. This was their first real arm wrestling match. So intense.

Here are a few action shots from Sunday night Wrestle Fest.

I love how even little Gouverneur wants in on it. It's just a matter of time till Israel will be joining in.

I really do love my life!

The Klondike

Sterling has been serving as the Scoutmaster for the last year and a half. The scouts go on campouts about once a month. We are usually bored out of our minds on the weekends when dad is gone. This weekend, we got to go out and see him in action.
The Klondike is one of the biggest scouting activities of the year. The boys race on a course, pushing a sled, and performing all sorts of scouting tasks. We went out in the morning and spent the day with dad while the scouts were on the course. The boys were in heaven. So was I.

The boys made breakfast in the dutch oven with dad. He even let them crack the eggs. Something that mom never lets them do. They got to stir the eggs and sausage, and did most of it themselves.

We walked over and looked at the course a bit, but spent most of our time around the campfire with dad. It was chilly and windy, but the sun was shinning. It was a perfect day.

I get the feeling that we will be doing a lot of scouting in the the future. And I get the feeling that the boys are going to have a lot of fun with their dad.

LIGHTS OUT.

We have had quite a few power outages in the last year. Every time the lights go out, I'm always relieved that Sterling has flashlights for us to use. The boys always want to use dad's flashlights. And so for Christmas, they got their own.

When the lights went out last night, the boys ran and got their own flashlights. It was actually a lot of fun.

It also helped that dad is the fire master and started a big, nice fire for us. That gave us a lot of light. The boys grabbed books and decided to read by the fire. Their idea. Darling.

 

After we put the babies to bed, the big boys stayed up and played an intense game of Candy Land. They play almost every night. I love watching them play.

Thanks dad, for buying us all headlights, making us sweet fires, and playing games with us. We love you!

Christmas Eve

We had a very relaxed and enjoyable Christmas Eve. We started the day out right by going to Costso. Yes, I took four boys to Costco on Christmas Eve. We got there right when they opened and the store was empty. The boys were angels and of course were rewarded with churros!

I love to watch people look at my cart with four boys in it.  But seriously, I love to look at my cart with four boy in it too.

We came home and started a cosy fire that went strong for the next 36+ hours. We love our fireplace.

We had a delicious Christmas Eve dinner if I do say so myself. We had ham, rolls, asparagus, and mashed potatoes. It's always fun to have a fancy dinner with our boys. Note that the boys were already in their pajamas. 

We always got to open one gift on Christmas Eve which usually ended up being pajamas. My boys have ridiculous amounts of PJ's, so they got slippers. They were thrilled to open them.

Getting them to all sit down for a picture was almost impossible. Gouverneur wanted to march around in his new slippers. Here's the best we got. 

We put the boys to bed after have a special scripture reading that dad had prepared. They were in bed and asleep by 8 which was good because Santa's elves had a lot of work to do. Daddy elf stayed up late assembling bikes, while momma elf wrapped gifts and arranged things.

The bikes turned out great. We knew that they boys would go nuts in the morning. It's fun being in charge.

Here is the loot under the tree. We made special Grandma Fillmore Cookies that day. The boys loved putting them out for Santa. 

Sarah came over and joined in the prep fun. She stayed over to be there with us on Christmas morning.

I married a lumber jack...

 ...and I love it. Every night, Sterling makes me a big fire in our fireplace. It is truly one of my favorites times of the day. It makes our house so cozy and warm. Because we loves to have fires every night, this requires a lot of wood. Luckily I am married to a lumber jack.

We have big piles of wood stacked all around our house. This one was in our driveway for a while. I love how neat it looks.

The boys love it too. They help dad make fires every night. I'm so happy to be married to such a manly man!

Father and Sons Campout

The boys went on the annual Father and Sons campout. Last year was a bit of a bust. When they arrived, the camp was already full, so they came home early. This year was a great year all around. The boys had been looking forward to going and had a great time. Sterling is such a cute dad. He always remembers to document everything for me.  

They stay in cabins which is a bit wimpy, but the boys love it anyway. Here they are in the morning. As you can see, they love being with their dad. 

I must admit that I looked forward to spending a nice quiet evening with this cutie.

We went to Joanns, got my favorite salad takeout from California Pizza Kitchen, put Gouverneur to bed, and spent the evening sewing and watching girly movies.  

I finished the boys capes for their Halloween costumes. They turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself. They are double sided so each side is something different. I doubled up on Batman and Superman. 

The boys ditched the camp breakfast and headed to Cracker Barrel in the morning. That has become a tradition for them.

I was quite antsy to see my boys again in the morning. Gouverneur was completely bored of me by the time they got back. He really loves his older brothers and like having them around.  It was a fun weekend all around.

WE LOVE CHARTS

We have found that our boys respond really well to incentives. We usually have some sort of a chart going at our house. It all started when we were potty training Little Man and we realized the power of charts.

In the spring the boys really wanted baseball gloves. I made up this chart for Little Man and Dellin was part of it too. He help Little Man with all his jobs and helped me decide if he was a nice brother that day. At first I thought the chart might be a bit too much, but it was perfect. It took them about a month to get all their stickers.


While my mom was here, we found some brand new baseball gloves at my favorite thrift store that were brand new for 2 bucks a piece. Here is the unveiling of the long awaited gloves.

Here is dad and the boys with their gloves. We have played lots of baseball in the backyard with these this summer.

Recently the boys just finished up these charts. Sterling Henry's is a "staying dry" chart. Dellin's is a "no eye poking" chart. The boys both needed to work on these things.

They got their last stickers the day we got back from McCall. They both wanted a Grave Digger Monster truck. I mean don't all boys?!? Little Man had his heart set on a remote control one and Dellin just wanted one. The week before we left to McCall I scored the exact ones they wanted at Target marked down 70% off. I must be living right because the remote control one was originally 35 dollars and I got it for 10.

Here the boys are with their LONG awaited monster trucks. They just woke up and this is seriously the best picture we could get.
Yay for charts. Yay for incentives. And yay for darling boys who make life so much fun!

Turning 32

I had a great birthday this year. I turned 32 and it feels pretty good. My actual birthday was exhausting since we had only just returned from our trip. Sterling had to work late and so we planned to go out on Friday and celebrate.

He still managed to bring home the most beautiful flowers. This bouquet of Gladiolus' was insanely beautiful. He also surprised me with a new wheat grinder which I have been wanting for a long time.

Here I am with the bouquet. This picture is evidence of just how exhausted I was. The flowers are my saving grace here.

They were way too big and tall for any vase we had. I'm not completely sure they make vases that can hold these beauties. Look at them.

Luckily we had a really attractive bait bucket on hand that did the trick. The flowers are so gorgeous that you hardly even notice the bucket. I love everything about these flowers, bucket and all.
I don't have pictures form our amazing date night. We went to dinner at the Carlyle, a restaurant that I have been dying to try for years... Most amazing food ever. After, we went and saw the Bourne Legacy. I don't even remember the last time we went to dinner and a movie but it was a ton of fun. My fabulous friend Sarah watched the boys for us which made the night even better. We didn't worry about them for one second. That is our second date in 2012... Good thing it was a fun one! THANK YOU SARAH!

On Sunday, Sterling made me my official birthday dinner. I know, I was spoiled. We had Matt and Eliza and their kids over for the dinner. I don't have any picture pictures of the actual delicious dinner but I did document the boys making homemade ice cream for the dessert.

Here are the boys "helping". I'm quite certain that we got more than enough salt on that ice.

Sterling is so good to let the boys help with anything he does. No wonder they adore him.

The boys sat patiently with the ice cream while it churned, making sure that everything was working properly.

They made Chocolate Mint Oreo. It was out of this world... Just ask Dellin.
Like I said, I had a great birthday and was completely spoiled. As I look forward to the next year, it only makes me smile.