That's Not My Name

Lauren & Rachel love when the boys get in trouble because their middle names get used. To them it seems like extra punishment to hear that middle name. They have no middle name. We wanted them to use Conder as their middle name after they got married, so we skipped the middle name.

Rachel didn't quite understand the concept of the middle name anyway. Anytime she gets mad at someone she inserts Ben's middle name. For example, Mom Gerald or Lauren Gerald-you get the idea.

It drives Lauren INSANE!!!
So one fine day the argument began...

"Lauren Gerald you stop that."
"THAT'S NOT MY NAME! Stop calling me that. That is BEN'S middle name. NO ONE ELSE."
"Then what IS your name?"
"It's Lauren Carl...no wait, I mean Lauren Conder."
"Well then Lauren Carl Conder you stop that."


I almost fell over laughing. Of all the middle names to invent for herself why would Lauren choose a boys name? Since Rachel doesn't have a middle name either we decided to stick with Lauren's theme and dub her Rachel Lenny.

So the not so official role call of names that gets thrown down when the kids are in trouble is:


Lauren Carl

Benjamin Gerald

Rachel Lenny

Hayden Richard

Kicking Bear

When I was pregnant with Hayden, we didn't find out gender on the ultrasound. We thought it would be a fun surprise to wait-which drove a few family members & friends insane-heehee (we also did that with Rachel too).

Since we didn't know gender we knew we needed to have both a girl name and a boy name picked out.
Easier said than done.


We had already used our top two girl names, but Rob & I still managed to agree on Abigail or Ashley. Girl name...Done.

Boy names were WAY tougher. We knew his middle name was going to be Richard, after my dad, but beyond that we were stumped.Anything I came up with Rob shot down for one reason or another. Yet he wasn't contributing anything usable. While Cletus is a great name for a cartoon character or a hound dog, I will NOT use it for our child! He did manage to save me from making the horrifying mistake of naming him Harrison Richard...the nicknames of that combo would have haunted me FOREVER!!!

Oh that funny husband of mine!


We were running out of time, so I asked the kids one day what they thought we should name the baby. Never wise to let the older siblings name the younger ones...you get some kooky names that way!

Ben's answer was a classic...
"If it's a boy name him Kicking Bear. And if it's a girl name her Dancing Cow."

Since we have about 0% Native American in our bloodline I didn't think those were going to fly.

Rob instantly piped up, "Son, learn now that no woman, no matter how small she is, EVER wants to be called a cow". Wise fatherly advice, dear!


Rob & I finally agreed on Hayden Richard (Rob more or less acquiesced since he couldn't come up with something better).

Once we were at the hospital, we knew that if it was a boy, we were going to put 'Bear' on the nursery name card. Ben would be thrilled! That is exactly what we did and you should have heard the comments in the nursery!


"Did someone REALLY name their baby Bear?" (a nurse)
"I wonder if they named him after, Bear Grylls, the guy on Man vs. Wild." (a dad)
"That is so cool, I wish you would have let us name our kid something cool like Bear" (a young dad)
The nickname Bear stuck. That is the ONLY name Ben calls Hayden (unless he's angry at him, of course).

All considered, it's a pretty good nickname...although sometimes Hayden is more like a monkey than a bear, but that's a horse of a different color worthy of it's own post!

End of an Era

I finally decided it is time to move Hayden out of the crib. He has stayed in it the longest simply because there is no baby coming behind him to boot him out of his spot. BUT since he was using it for go-go-gadget-legs to manage feats like this...it was time!You might assume that I would be the saddest person in the house about this "end of an era" occasion. I WAS NOT! I'm not saying I wasn't sad, I'm simply saying Hayden was sadder. Actually he was absolutely devastated.

He sat and stroked the crib, weeping, saying "bye-bye bed". I would have filmed that but I was too busy disassembling (I had to get the crib to the basement before we had a full blown meltdown). Now, I'm unsure if he was sad to see the crib go or if he was thinking he wouldn't have a bed anymore. But after we got the new bed moved in he finally was smiling again!


Now if I can just get him to stay in it & go to sleep...it's not looking promising!
How typical is this? New bed & Rob finds him asleep on Rachel's Cinderalla rug on the floor! Oh well, I tried!

Once Upon a Time 13 Years Ago

This May Rob & I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary! I can't believe we started our "once upon a time" 13 years ago! I am more in love with him now than I was way back then...I am grateful I married my best friend. Thanks for making my journey through this life AMAZING!!!! I love you babe!

Dating-1996

Married May 23, 1997
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P.S. Thanks to my friend, Katie, who did a post like this on her blog...the idea was ingenious!

Pioneer Day Extravanagaza

We all survived our annual camp-out/boating Pioneer Day Extravaganza this year! We stayed a couple of nights at Rock Cliff's up at Jordanelle and then headed down to Deer Creek for the 24th fireworks over the water.

The mosquitoes were voracious. Ben & I continue to tally our bite marks. We are each above 15 bites...and sadly over half of mine are one one of my bum cheeks (don't ask because I really do NOT know how that happened)!
Fortunately none of us got a tick, although I told Ben that if he did have a tick it completely trumped any number of mosquito bites that I have and he could be the grand champion of the nasty bug bites contest! We were all wearing bug spray with 40% deet, but it still wasn't enough to keep us bite free! Stupid mosquitoes!




I love that my kids and amazing hubby love to go do fun things like this! In my family growing up, we didn't camp...unless you count staying at a hotel or cabin camping. So other than the bugs, the occasional pit toilet (gag), and the deer (anyone who has known me since high school knows I have a deer phobia) this outdoorsy lifestyle is quite enjoyable!

There is a deer next to the bush in the background of this picture (look up and right of the fountain drink on the table). It took all of my will power not to scream & try to scare this deer away! We also saw 2 moose near camp...I thought deer were scary, but being that close to a moose was horrifying!

Ben would spend the ENTIRE day running & jumping off the boat & swimming if we let him! The kid is a total fish!

Rachel & Rob being lounge lizards


Lauren & Aunt Jill



Waiting for the Fireworks
We love how the fireworks reflect off the lake & the sound booms down the canyon walls!
I know that none of this has anything to do with pioneers, but we had a great time out and hopefully someday our kids will remember that!
HAPPY PIONEER DAY!

PLOP

Hayden gave us a HUGE scare when he fell off the front of the boat this weekend.

No, the boat wasn't moving.

Yes, he had a life jacket on.

And yes, I just about cried when he was plucked out of the water.

It's terrifying how little noise he made when he fell in. If Lauren and Brooke, my niece, hadn't been watching him we wouldn't have pulled him out as quickly as we did. He dropped his fishing pole, and rather than lose the beloved SpongeBob pole or ask for help, Hayden decided to reach for it on his own.

PLOP!

I have often thought that a little fear would be a good thing for Hayden to have (since both he and Ben seem to be lacking in common sense...actually I think that might be true for all boys but that is another issue all together); HOWEVER, this didn't seem to do the trick like I thought it would. Oh well, live & learn I guess. He came up sputtering and slightly alarmed, but he did manage to save his fishing pole! He didn't let go of it for at least a half an hour...it was his death-defying trophy! I think I was more terrified than he was! I am SO thankful for life jackets!

KICKBALL

We went out last night for a group date night.

Group dating after you're married...What?

It was a lot of laughs...until today, when my poor tired knees could barely bend (I am terrified how bad they will be when I get another 30 years of use on them!). But I digress, back to group date night...

It started with a lovely picnic in the shade by a creek and ended in a lengthy game of KICKBALL! We went to a park to play night games and YES my children were LIVID that we left them home (really a bunch of adults want to play night games?). We came prepared to play several games...capture the flag, squirt-gun tag, kickball, kick-the-bucket (since we are all older we figured kick-the-bucket was more accurate than kick-the-can). We put it to a vote & kickball won.

I discovered that Rob is an all-star kickballer. That man of mine kicked the ball so far on his first kick that it was a homerun! Woohoo!

It was a good time and I think we will do it again next month...maybe by then my knees will bend again and it won't be quite as hot!

Oh, by the way, and not that it really matters BUT...our team TOTALLY WON (don't believe anyone from the other team, we defeated them soundly)!