dribble, dribble, shoot, shoot, take that ball to the HOOP HOOP!

{will you check out that eye on the hoop technique there?! so proud.}

...

yep, the basketball hoop is still there.

even though i said it wouldn't be.

it's there.

and i like it.

brennan made 10 "dunks" today.

ross made 6.

for half an hour they shot

and shot

and shot

and shot.

two sweaty messes afterward.

and that is why it's still there.

sean, his dad, and brother landon are on day 2 of attending 

the NCAA march madness basketball tournament games in salt lake city today.

energy solutions is their mecca this weekend.

{minus all jazz icons and advertising i've been told.}

i don't know how they can sit through two full days of basketball,
one of which was 12 hours straight.

but they can and they did.

and they love it.

hot dogs, soda, and chatting about life and basketball.

less about life.

more about basketball.

probably nothing about life.

and just all about basketball.
whichever.

{landon and his big gibson tongue.}

{sandie, i'm sorry.}

and

FYI

i picked harvard AND cal to advance on thursday,

and they did.

i'm telling ya,

pick by your favorite colors and the name you like best

and you

will

go

far.

it's never done me wrong.

bahahaha!

really though,

works like a charm for me EVERY almost every time.

:):):)
obviously i have since fallen in my glory,
but for that one moment i was the leader of the pack...
sing it with me,
"one shining mooooooooomeeeeennnnt!!!"

"snowstaches"

she was so mad that i wouldn't let her go outside like this.

woman, put your dang pants on!

that's what i was thinking as i tried to reason with her yesterday morning.

even i have standards for clothing at this level.

i didn't make either of my kids put on socks,

but pants,

those are not optional in the snow.

not even in march.

i love my utah kids:)

and their thick blood that keeps them warm in the winter.

she put on her pants.

in case you were wondering.

and then played in the snow with ross and brennan wearing her boots without socks on.

the boys kept dunking their faces into the snowy table to give themselves "snowstaches."

snowy mustaches.

chase and i watched all of it from our back porch window.

and then he ate the snow off of the ground that they brought in on the bottoms of their boots.

it was great.

the morning's comings and goings {line up}

they love to line up their guys on the front window lip.

every morning i open up the shutters {and all of the blinds for that matter} when i come down.

we are just not "going" until all of the shutters are open.

sometime after breakfast, sometimes before, 

all of the guys get placed in their front row spot to the morning's comings and goings of our neighborhood.

it reminds me of how my grandfather used to line up 

tiny little rubber animals 

on the window lip of his dental office when we were kids.

go to get your teeth cleaned.

come home with an assortment of differently colored rubber animals.

once he pulled out my snaggle tooth.

i puked immediately after he used his pliers to pull it out.

i got extra rubber animals.

little treasures i collected over the years.

no idea when they were thinned out of my toys.

what i would give to take my kids to his old office 

to get their teeth cleaned 

and pick out a little rubber animal.

:):):)

{grandfather and me on the beach.}

{don't you dare call him grandpa. he'll come back from the dead to haunt you for it.}

{grand-FATHER.}

wasn't he just so cute:)

body blockade

max: i'm telling mooooom!!!

brennan: good luck. i bet you can't get there.

{and then he puts up the body blockade.}

the secret to changing {it's not that deep}

this morning we woke up to snow.
i don't know why i was surprised to see it,
but as i was coming down the big stairs it caught me off guard.
almost excited like it was the first snow of the season all over again.

it will be melted by the time we eat dinner.

thank you west facing house.

i love me a spring snow:)

and that i don't have to go out and water my peas.

...

in other news...

i have discovered the secret to changing chase.

give the man a cookie.

the end.

mom-1

chase-5 million.

he looks older this week.

i blame the collared shirt entirely.

the elephants we face.

brennan is terrified of the huge metal elephant at the zoo.

when he was one he crawled up out of his stroller 

through the straps, 

and then clawed his way up onto my head.

imagine a 26 pound monkey on my head.

b/c that's what it felt like.

when we go to the zoo now he still worries 

about how we are going to get by that big metal elephant the entire way there.

when we walk in he decides we'd better just turn around and go home.

very matter of factly.

then i finally talk him into holding my hand, 

walking around the long loop by the apes, 

or hiding on the side of the stroller to get him to go by it.

today was one of his more fearful days.

i could feel my patience wearing thin.

cade and max were running ahead, 

and i didn't wanted to lose sight of them in the crowds.

brennan was walking backwards, crying, shaking in fear.

i finally got the other kids back by calling them over {christmas miracle}, 

and we played a spy game all together, 

hiding like ninja power rangers to get by.

cade and max put their arms around brennan and completely validated his fears.

it was so so cute to watch.

he shuddered the entire 20 yards it took us.

but we all helped him together.

as we were walking past that big scary metal elephant, 

i kept thinking that one day he won't need me to get him past the elephant at the zoo anymore.

and i tapped my impatience on the back and kicked it out the back door.

and i thought about how there are always elephants that we face in our lives,

and i just want to try my best to enjoy the chances i get to keep helping him face his.

no matter what form they present themselves in.

and then on the way back i got impatient again 

b/c by then max was crying,

cade wanted to ride in the stroller with chase,

chase wanted to get out,

and they all wanted to hang on the stroller that i to push up the big hill to get out.

and i wondered where that lovely perspective of blissful motherhood had gone...

BELOW:

the infamous metal elephant.

brennan's nemesis.

brennan hiding on the side of the stroller so the elephant wouldn't see him.

it took me 10 minutes to convince him that even though the elephant has two eyes,

the stroller would be big enough to hide him.

it really is the biggest stroller on the planet.

yet it still fits through any door that a wheel chair can muster.

all hail the BOB.

he was shaking he was so scared.

poor chap. 

fears are a funny thing.

awful funny things.

"mom, hurry, take my picture, then get me off." 

-brennan

brennan's face cracks me up!

{click on the right hand side to make it bigger. i couldn't stop laughing.}

he was the one that wanted to sit on the rhino's horn. i was just the facilitator of his creativity.

you make your bed, and then you lay in it buddy, bahahahaha.

then we all came home and collapsed.

THE END.

taste the rainbow {st patty's}

"the leprechaun ate my boogers."
-brennan
{to his sunday school teacher}
...
so rude that he didn't even lift up the seat.

he left us green glitter and skittles. 

green footprints and green pee.

and green milk.

...

things i learned on st. patty's day:

1. sugar highs are real things.

2. even when i have an extra week, i still procrastinate until 9:45pm on saturday night to buy my corned beef and then all the stores will be out of it. thank you linsey for making me rainbow jello. it was our only festivity of st. patty's at the dinner table. chase will eat anything smothered in rainbow jello.

3. if you put kool aid into sprite, the entire thing explodes rapidly over the sides {faster than you can make it to the sink} and it loses all of its carbonation in the process.

and last but not least...

4. if you try to say "enjoying" and "gorging" at the same time, you'll end up saying "engorging." as in chase is "engorging himself in jello." and then you will think that doesn't sound right...

OH

and chase is the cutest little leprechaun.

EVER.

i couldn't get enough of him in his little leprechaun man suit.

size 3 months from ireland.

brought back by grandma and grandpa ryan for brennan 5 years ago.

it was a tight squeeze, but it really took it to the next level in my opinion.

 sing it with me,

"fat man in a little suuuuuuuit..."

THE END.