My little angel

Here is a little story about Matthew. When I got pregnant with our first two children, I started praying after I got pregnant that I would have a girl. After having two sons, I decided to wise up with the third baby and get serious about my prayer efforts before I got pregnant. I do believe in miracles, so although I thought it was possible to end up with a girl after the ultrasound showed a boy, I thought I should make it easier the third time. I really planned this out, and started fervently praying a few months before we got pregnant. I poured out my heart to my Heavenly Father and let him know that I really really wanted a girl, but I ALWAYS was clear that I knew he had a plan for me and our family and I would be happy either way. When we found out we were having a boy I was pretty shocked. I cried for a couple of days, mostly because I wanted to buy pink things. I felt very strongly that we were supposed to be having a third boy. Matthew is our miracle baby. First of all he was born over 5 weeks early and did not spend one minute in the NICU. As soon as we brought him home it was very apparent that he was going to be a very sweet, loving, calm baby. Because of a great delivery and great baby, I was able to go to my sister Karen's wedding in Oregon 5 days after giving birth (we were living in Utah at the time.) All of my children have been, and still are, very sweet. But, I know that Matthew came into our family at the exact time to be my angel for the past two years. Over all the stress and difficulties we have faced the past couple of years he has brought me so much joy and love and happiness. He has just been a gift in my life, and in the lives of Jeremy and our boys. I know there might be some tough times ahead(see previous post), but I am so grateful to have Matthew in our family. Happy Birthday Matthew!

Tiptoe in the Tulips

I am so excited for my first tulips!! I am quite pleased except for that one super tall yellow one. It is like this one giant tulip that had to be taller than all the rest. What is up with that? It really bugs me! I think this might be something from my childhood coming out...

Every Spring I get so excited to see the tulips, but now also sad too. Tulips remind me of my Grandma Ricks. One year my family went to my grandparents house and planted about 80 tulips for her birthday in the Fall. Then the next couple of years we would always get reports on the tulips. It just makes me so sad that I will not get my tulip report anymore. I hope my Grandpa can still see them and think of her as I do every time I see the tulips in the Spring.

My first tag

Thanks for tagging me Amanda, I feel like a real blogger now! I think this is kind of a fun one.

What I was doing 10 years ago: I had just finished my third year at BYU. I was just going into Spring term at BYU. Jeremy and I had been hanging out already, but the fun part was just about to get started. We fell in love in the Spring/Summer in Provo. I highly recommend it!

5 Things on my to do list: clean refrigerator, fold laundry, get new ironing board cover, shop for Matthew's b-day, make hair appt.


3 Bad Habits: Smoking, Drugs, and Gambling.


Places I’ve lived(that I can remember): Yorba Linda, CA; Placentia, CA; Dublin, CA; Walnut Creek, CA; Hilsboro, NJ; Tualatin, OR; Rexburg, ID; Provo, UT; Boston, MA; Alexandria, VA; London; Salt Lake City, UT; Meridian, ID;


What would I do if I became a millionaire: I hope this means lots of millions because thats what I would need for my list. Besides all the savings for college, missions, retirement, feed the poor, blah, blah, blah....I would buy lots and lots of clothes, tons of purses, loads of jewelry. I would travel all over the world and stay in the nicest hotel in town. I would buy lots of fun electronic gadgets for Jeremy, a couple of different cars, definitely a porsche. Well, we would both need one of those. I would definitely get a vacation home or two. For sure I would get a housecleaner and probably a chef too. I would buy a ride on lawn mower. I would buy all the property behind my house. Hmmm, I better stop before I embarass myself. Too late?

Jobs I’ve had: Hostess at Sizzler, Cashier at Sizzler, Server at Red Lobster, Administrative person at PacifiCorp, mailroom, Hostess at a A Place to Eat, several administrative jobs at BYU, Administrative Assistant at Boston University, Paper route, several temp. administrative jobs.

Things you may not know about me: I had my appendix out at 18, I have never been pulled over, I have always wanted to be a dancer

I tag Stacey, Juliana, Heather, Becky

2 Year Old Boys

Ok, really, I don't like them that much. I mean, I love them because they are my kids and they can be cute sometimes. But, really, most of the time they are not that fun. They kind of turn into little monsters. Since, my third boy is turning 2 next week I thought I would just share a few thoughts. Two year old boys seem to be in destructo mode all day long. Whatever they walk by they have to throw it, stomp on it, knock it over, break it, whack their brother with it, or some other form of destruction. Whatever is in their path will not exist in the same form it began. Two year old boys are always walking around the house with some weird item in their hands that you didn't even know how to get to or didn't even know you owned. They seem to get into every drawer, cupboard, nook and cranny and dig things out to destroy them. Two year old boys are always dirty. They have food all over them no matter what time of day it is, no matter how often you wipe it off. They are usually covered in some mixture of snot, dirt, food, marker, crayon drool from eating them, or any other liquid that might exist in your house somewhere. Two year old boys do not like taking naps. They might miss out on an opportunity to destroy something in your home. Two year old boys do not walk around the mall or any other store with you. They do not sit in shopping carts or strollers for any period of time that will allow you to run even a simple errand. Two year old boys do not come to you when you ask them to. Most of the time they run, first they give you an evil grin, then they run. Two year old boys can run really fast, even when you are not pregnant. Somehow they can outrun you, and it is really embarassing! And lets face it, two year old boy diapers are completely nasty. This is due to the fact that they are eating who knows what all day long. Two year old boys think it is funny to pull off their diapers. This leads to unimaginable problems.

Although this may sound negative, this knowledge has really been a positive for me. As I go into my third 2 year old boy I feel much more relaxed and confident. Now instead of yelling at my two year old, I can just look at the costco size bag of pretzels dumped all over the floor, stomped on, and then spread all over and say, "Oh, Matthew you are so two. " So, bring it on little one, I am ready!

It's A Boy!

I heard that over 7 years ago, and have never been the same since, especially since that seems to be the theme for us. Spencer has brought so much joy and happiness and laughter into our family. I know you are not supposed to have favorites, but maybe just for yesterday and today he is my favorite. It is so amazing to think about the past seven years, lots of great memories! We love you Spencer!!

I have a 7 year old

Happy Birthday Spencer! We are having an airplane/pizza/transformer party tonight for him. We opened some family presents last night, and this is the amazing optimus prime transformer cake Jeremy made for the party. He is our official cake decorator for the boys birthdays. Spencer got another big wheel for his birthday. This will be his third one. The first two Jeremy bought at a garage sale for a couple of dollars. He rode them until they fell apart so we decided to get him another one. You are only a kid once, so why not? I wish I could still ride one, they are the best!

You gotta say it

I think I better just get this out there. Otherwise, I could end up at the pulpit on fast sunday giving a crying, gushing, thanktimony about Hawaii and how great it was to get away. When you go on a trip like that you just come back feeling sooooooo grateful! Grateful to Jeremy for fulfilling my very expensive dream, grateful we took this trip when he had a job with paid vacation days. Loved sitting on the beach saying, oh we are getting paid for this right now. Ok, lets not do the math on the actual cost, blah, blah, blah. We were getting paid to snorkel, leave it at that! Grateful to all the people who helped with my kids, especially Karen, Sally, and Connie who were at the house. Grateful to all the others who pitched in with rides and support. So grateful to the people who called me when I got home to hear me blab about how great it was. Grateful no one got sick or hurt during the trip. Grateful I reallly really like spending time with Jeremy. Soooooo grateful to experience such joy and peace for one entire week! Really grateful to come home to such a clean house and happy children. Thanks everybody!!

Really long Hawaii Post

So, here we are two days into our trip when we finally remembered to pull the camera out. We didn't take too many pictures because most of the time we didn't bring the camera. And, really it was difficult and frustrating to try and capture the beauty and vivid colors of Maui. It was the best trip!! Maui is so peaceful, or did it just seem that way without the kids? Whatever, it worked! I feel refreshed and renewed. A couple of surprises about Hawaii. Where was the fruit? I thought we would be eating plates of exotic fruit every meal. No. One time at a breakfast buffet I found some decent pineapple, but nothing exceptional. Weird! Also, not crowded at all. Most of the beaches we went to there were only a handful of people, and sometimes we were alone. Fabulous. Also, very windy. I know this should not have been a surprise, but it was really windy! Except for the day we rented our own little sailboat, a hobiecat. No wind. Thats life I guess. It was really nice actually, just awesome hanging out on the boat together as we slowly drifted by some sea turtles.

Jeremy's favorite thing of the week. Snorkeling is his true calling in life I think. We went every day, and it was amazing! This was a big crater reef thing we took a sail boat trip out to. It was really a highlight, especially the trip back with the winds, we were soaked and loving it.

Thanks to our excellent guide book, we hiked out to some remote beaches.

And, here is where the fun began. We hiked up to this waterfall over these big boulders. Our guidebook said we might have a chance of being alone up here since it was one of the lesser known waterfalls. He was right, and I think we found out why. It was so beautiful hiking up there, and we were so excited to do some swimming in the pool below the waterfall. As soon as we got up there, the exact moment we arrived we heard this loud cracking noise. Then it sounded like an earthquake. It was so confusing and scary and then the rocks started to fall. You can see there are rock walls on both sides of the waterfall. Huge rocks started to come down. Thanks to my earthquake training in Cali I dove under a large boulder and tried to protect my head. Jeremy was stuck out in the open and tried to cover his head. Rocks were falling all around us, and it seemed to go on forver. The scariest part was not knowing how long it was going to last or how much of the rock wall was going to come down. You know those falling rock signs on the roads you see sometimes? Yeah, I guess they actually mean something. It was completely terrifying and really a miracle that neither of us got hit. As soon as it stopped showering rocks we moved as fast as we could out. Halfway back another rock slide started and we tried to duck again. I really didn't think we were going to make it out. So, here we are to tell the tale. We were so in shock we kind of just had to sit in the car for awhile. We abondoned the rest of our plans for the day and just went back to the beach by our hotel, with lots of open space and no rock walls.

This is a picture or our hotel. It was right on the beach. We usually went to other beaches during the day, but would always come back here at night and walk around. We did do some good bodysurfing on this beach one afternoon though.

We ate at a lot of great restaurants thanks to lots of research before out trip. We always forgot to bring the camera. We had it this time when we stopped for a little refreshment. You know, it is important to try and stay hydrated.

The Best

Aaaaahhhhh...... Watching the sunset with your sweetie in Hawaii. Fantastic! More to come...

The Cleaning Team

Yesterday I was cleaning frantically for my party last night. Sam asked to help. I gave him the window spray and some paper towels and let him go for it. Next thing I know he and Matthew have set up this very efficient team window washing. Sam would spray and Matthew would wipe as fast as his little hands could move. They moved from window to window without any coaxing. They were serious about their work, and Sam made sure Matthew didn't miss any spots. Obviously I have understimated this duo.

Here we are

Just in case anybody was saying, "What is Molly doing this morning?" First of all we have declared warm weather in our house. Sam has been wearing shorts for at least two weeks and today Matthew joined in. I don't even know if we have hit 40 degrees yet today, but no turning back now! The other picture shows you how my shades look every morning. In this house I decided to get the shades without the strings because, well, I have boys. They use the strings to swing like spiderman. After so many years of trying every gadget to keep the strings up and away from the boys, I went stringless. It has been great, with one exception. Matthew thinks it is his job every morning to push each shade up at a different angle and height. This drives me crazy!