Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs might have been better than meatball sized hail! Meatballs would've been softer than these ice-packed balls.

These first few pictures are from the beginning of a 30 minute hail storm, before the community alarms went off telling us to take cover for tornado warnings. The hail started out about marble sized, but in the end they were golf ball sized. A friend said she had egg size hail at her house and the news reported of some tennis ball sized hail!
Here is one of them after it had melted some, it was 67 degrees outside! We took cover in the basement for awhile until the alarms said it was safe to come back up. I headed right outside to take pictures.
Chris came home from work and we had some friends houses to check on with them being out of town. So we decided to drive around the neighborhood a little bit to see the damage.

This car was pulled over, we saw one that had the windshield and the back window blasted out. I can't imagine how terrifying that would be especially with little kids in the car. We saw lots of cars with busted windows, and dents all over. Mailboxes were smashed in, broken garage doors, tons of houses with shattered windows, trees all torn up, snow plows, news crews, and insurance adjusters were already at work. Helicopters were circling the sky, cops were driving all over and I saw quite a few church vans driving around as well. We could hear sirens all over, I guess some people weren't so lucky. A friend of mine was stuck at an intersection behind 2 semis and sat in the truck with her two kids while her truck was being totalled. When she finally got to leave, she said she almost stopped at my house because she saw a huge funnel cloud above our homes and she didn't know if she would make it to her house or not. Thankfully they are fine! Lots of people have totalled vehicles, roofs, shutters, there was a lot of damage, luckily ours is minor, we have more than I initailly thought though.

Our door is swelled from the pressure of the storm

Broken flower pots and demolished flowers

About half of the sand toys were busted

There are holes like this around the whole trampoline mat

The boys jeep has a few holes blasted through it

The solar lights got holes

and so did the lawn chairs

Our strawberries were trampeled, and this is what Chris is the most upset about. They were doing so good, the plants were very tall and we had dozens and dozens of blossoms and a few berries, now gone! All the blossoms were torn from the blueberries as well. None of my flower plants in the flower garden have flowers anymore, and the new growth and the leaves were ripped from the trees. I have no idea what to think about the vegetable garden, I will probably be re-planting this week. Our lawn now looks like it has been airated. I heard that hundreds of homes will now need new roofs and I'm hoping ours won't be one of them. At first I thought it was fine, but then we noticed piles of granules from the shingles below all of the water spouts, so we will be getting our shingles inspected. So we have a few hundred dollars worth of damage, and possibly more! But I am glad it is minor and I'm glad all of my friends out there are okay. I'm greatful that the funnel cloud above us didn't touch down and that my kids are out of school and were home with me!

I think our tomatoes look pretty good though! I was excited about that. Later last night we had another storm, not quite the intensity of the first though. It brought more rain, wind and marble sized ice - I wouldn't even call it hail, it was solid ice! What excitement and now I have some clean-up to do as well as more planting. The boys are now playing cars that are in a tornado/hail storm, they keep telling the cars to take cover now! Then I hear, "It's all clear, the emergengy is now over".

School's over = summer break!

We are now well into our summer break, in fact a week of it has already passed!

Dusty had a breakfast party on his last day of first grade. Why is it that all of the class parties are all about food? Even in kindergarten and first grade! They get piles and piles of goodies, it kind-of makes me sick!

Josh and Dusty are the bestest of friends at school. Hopefully they will be able to get together this summer as well.
Ms. Berumen was Dusty's teacher this past year. I love that my kids are so loved! Ms. Berumen loved Dusty, she always said she wished she had a classroom full of Dustys. It was an interesting year for us with Ms. Berumen, she is Spanish and it is very hard to understand her broken English along with her Spanish accent. She struggled swith peaking English and we struggled with that! Chris was upset and concerned about the situation, especially since it is such a huge year for reading and writing. But Dusty was able to get past that barrier and did great. School couldn't be let out without a few tears, almost all of the first graders (4 classes of them) were crying when we went to pick them up. Dusty said only 4 kids out of his class didn't cry and he said he was one of them. One little boy was hysterical and had to be let out of the building early. One other little boy was hanging on to his teacher and his mom had to pull him off, it was kinda funny! I guess they all had a great time and are sad it's over, oh well they will all be back too soon.

We have had a fun summer so far, we have been working on a play area for the kids in the basement, we've enjoyed the outside, and time with friends. We got home from the zoo a couple of days ago about the same time that Chris came home with a surprise for the kids. Kyrie was in heaven!

Hayden wasn't so sure about touching it, and Dusty was more concerned about going to the store to buy it a cage and getting it some food. We didn't agree on getting it a cage, but we have been feeding it and it keeps coming back to our yard. We will see how we feel about that when and if our garden produces anything.

Just for the memory

I just wanted to post a few things for our memories sake.
*Last year we had our first experience with a tornado warning and it was quite frightening for us. The community alarm went off and told us to take cover so we headed down to the basement. Dusty almost had a panic attack, he was crying uncontrollably and was very terrified. Hayden, on the other hand, was as calm as could be, he had no fear what-so-ever. He said he knew we would be okay because the Holy Ghost is real.
*Hayden asked me the other day if I knew what was more powerful than lightning, his answer-Jesus.
*A couple of weeks ago Dusty had told me that one of his primary teachers had broken her foot and had a cast, but now she is better and doesn't need the cast anymore. Hayden said, "You know why? Jesus, it's the only way".
* Tonight we had a big thunderstorm with rain, hail and more funnel clouds. I looked out the window and mentioned that I should have gone outside to take our flag down. Dusty said, "You are not going outside like that, that weather is dangerous, Mom, think about it, what is more important to you, you or the flag? You better not go outside right now." (Cute huh!) Then Hayden asked, "But do you know who is more imoprtant to you than you?" - his answer - Jesus!
* Tonight we headed upstairs to get ready for bed as the storm raged on and Hayden said, "We are not going to be safe until we say a prayer".
*And another cute one, Hayden made a knecklace at preschool the other day and when Dusty got home from school he said, "Dusty, I didn't think that I'd ever say this, but look what I made FOR YOU!"

Hayden cracks me up! He is an amazing kid, and what faith he has! My kids teach me so much, I wish that I could be more like them!

Bitter-sweet

What cute boys! Today Dusty had a field trip/picnic at a nearby park and I was able to be there for the last half of it. These boys are some of Dusty's best friends. Pictured here is: Dusty, Daniel, Josh, and Gabe. I love this picture of the 4 of them. Things like this make me sad when I think of the possibility of another job transfer sometime down the road, hopefully a long time down the road. Wouldn't it be awesome if they could grow up together and be friends all throughout high school? They have a lot of fun together and I guess all we can do is be greatful for what we have and enjoy it while it lasts.
Today was a bitter-sweet day, it was Hayden's last day of preschool. He had school 4 days a week, 3 hours a day, and what a wonderful thing for him and our whole family. When I first arrived at school this morning this I what he was doing during free time.

We celebrated with pizza, rice krispies and icees. We watched a slideshow that Ms Jillian put together, made a craft, and did circle time for the very last time. It was really sad to see such a wonderful thing end. Hayden's teachers and class have made a HUGE impact on him. His class was the best, he loved it and so did I. I loved being a part of it. I went in to help a lot and really loved the other students and all of the teachers. I almost wish somehow there was a way to keep him there in that same group forever. His teachers are absolutely the best and I will eternally be greatful for them. I don't know how I could possibly tell them thank-you enough. But this is a two-sided situation here, you see, Hayden's teachers want to keep him forever too! Ms Jillian raves about how wonderful Hayden is, that he is the star leader of the class. The kids fight over him, they want to play with him, and sit next to him. Ms Jillian said he makes her proud to be a teacher. She also said if she ever has a son, she hopes that he is just like Hayden. Wow! I am so lucky that he his mine!

Here is his class, minus a few.

This is Ms Missy. She has been his speech therapist for the last year and a half. We love Ms Missy. She is so much fun to play games with and has found the perfect and very interesting ways to help Hayden produce the very hardest sounds. She has worked so hard with him, and has helped him make lots of progress. We will definately miss her, she has become a great friend.

And this is Ms Jillian. She moved to Colorado all the way from New York to teach this year at Henderson. She moved alone, away from her whole family, but I am so glad she did! She did so many wonderful things for the kids, I don't know how she did it all. She is so fun and so cute!

This is Ms Jill

and Ms Ronda giving Hayden a kiss! Seriously these people are like heros to me. I eyes get tears thinking about them and the huge positive impact they have made for my little guy. I love them and consider them all my friends. We have been so blessed by being here in Colorado. I love and miss Vernal. But the move was worth it just for Hayden's experience with this years preschool. It was just what he needed, our whole family has been blessed by it. It is hard to say good-bye to something so good, but we will forever have fond memories of Ms Jillians class.

May 14th

Dusty has waited and waited for May 14th to arrive. School is almost out, but not without a few last activities. We got ready for the day a bit early to freeze outside at the school playground for 'Moms and Muffins'. There was a variety of fruit, juice and muffins. We ate, we froze, we put Dusty in line to enter the building and headed home. We had just enough time to grab us all some gloves and hats and headed back to school for Field Day. Luckily it warmed up a bunch and was perfect to spend some time out in the fresh air.

This was Dusty's favorite relay for the year. He is now trying to think of the best way for him to make his own stilts. He has come up with a few ideas already.


This is how Hayden spent his time watching the relays. I bet everyone looked amazing through his new proudly owned 3-D glasses.

And Kyrie, all she wanted to do was get in on the action. She wanted so badly to get down on her own two feet, but everytime I gave her the chance she was as fast as Lightning Mcqueen and I feared she would get ran over, so she spent alot of time in her own 4 wheels, in my arms, or on my shoulders.

After field day was over the school served a bbq picnic lunch. Hayden was so excited to eat lunch at Dusty's school. This little girl next to Kyrie is our cutest little neighbor. She likes to be called Kali. I am in love with her. She has got the cutest personality, even the cutest walk. She is so happy that her walk is kind-of a hop. She is so much fun and she loves to hang out with us. I would have no problem if... ya know 15 years down the road if Dusty married her! Just saying! Love her! We had a great day, I didn't even do much but it wore me out!

Mother's Day

This is what I woke up to on Mother's Day

And this. The boys have been planning Mother's Day for a couple of months, they kept on asking when it was. They both made me several cards. Dusty told me that I am the best mom ever. He also gave me a flower that was supposed to change colors. And he used his own money to buy me a little rock with an eagle sculpture on top. He bought it at the rock store when it visited his school one day and he has hidden and saved it in his dresser for about a month to surprise me. So thoughtful! Chris got out of bed earlier than his normal to make us all some breakfast. He also gave me some ornamental grasses to plant to replace some ugly bushes. I loved my surprises.

After church we headed to the park. I was wishing it was our favorite mountains in Vernal. Mother's Day was the first time of the year that we would head up to the mountains. We would start a fire, roast hotdogs and marshmallows. We would go for little hikes or walks and just play around for a bit. It was a fun tradition. It's what I wanted to do this year, so I revisited my memories, it wasn't quite the same, but still fun. And the park was fun too.

It was especially fun to watch my kiddos. Kyrie gave me a great gift. She told me "NO" for the very first time, and it was with attitude. She had raised her shoulder and turned her head when she said it, kind-of like in this picture. She has said other things before to disagree, but until this day she had never said "NO".

I think Chris made everyone sick on the tire swing. Dusty got on there all by himself and Chris spun him so hard he started to cry, until then it was all fun and games.

I love being a mom. It is my lifelong dream come true. It is the greatest! This Mother's day I had a very overwhelming feeling of gratitude for my children. My heart felt so big and so full. I love my kids so much that it hurts. Hayden even told me that sometimes I cry because I love him too much. And it is so true! I had a great Mother's Day! And I hope my mom did too!

oio - that's what you do when you can't think of a title

We have been working on our tiny little construction zone at our house and somehow I broke one of the stepping stones. It took Dusty about 5 seconds to take it over and think of something to do with it. Him and Hayden searched the basement for my paints and went to work.

So creative, they used the broken off piece for the easle. I would have NEVER thought of that.


Here is another one of Dusty's latest creations. Seriously this kid never stops!

Kyrie has been working on some of her own creations as well. She loves to help with everything. This time it was making bean burritos and zucchini bread. We had been getting our itty bitty garden spot ready and I realized I needed to work on using up some more of last years zucchini. YUM!

Here is a little glimpse of our construction zone and Ky found the only muddy spot left from the heavy rains. She did not like the way it felt to have mud stuck between her toes. It was like torture for her to have to stay there long enough for Chris to run to get the camera.

Chris took this picture of her cute little upside-down footprint.

Both of the boys love to play with Kyrie. Hayden loves to lay on the floor and let Ky climb all over him, he giggles the whole time -he loves it. Dusty loves to play toys with her, cuddle her and read to her. He is very good to watch out for her. I loved walking in on them the other morning to find this!

And while Dusty and Kyrie read stories, Hayden sat about 4 feet from the t.v. Man, he could spend hours doing that (and sometimes I let him). He loves to watch out for Kyrie as well, he loves to "babysit" her. A funny story - Hayden saw Kyrie heading for the cupboards under the sink which has a few cleaners in it. The cupboards were left unlocked and open, I probably planned on getting back in there right away or something. Anyway, Hayden ran towards Kyrie and tackled her. She cried. He said, "Sorry Mom, I had to do it!" I guess he was trying to protect her.