Pasko Life

Easter at the Cabin

2012-04-12T21:31:00.006-07:00

For Easter this year, my cousins invited us to spend the weekend up at the Greer Cabin (my Uncle & Aunt's cabin in Pinetop) with them. It was a great weekend!

We woke up early Friday morning to ride bikes and scooters for a while. Then took a little break to hard boil some eggs for dying later on. While the eggs were cooling, we took a little walk down to the lake where the kids had a great time slinging moss and other gunk onto each other. That fun ended when Gage tripped into the lake.

The rest of the weekend was spent coloring Easter eggs, having a fun Easter egg hunt, building forts, riding bikes, playing outside, watching movies with the cousins, hiking and caterpillar hunting.

Finally, Easter arrived. All the kids went on a fun scavenger hunt for their baskets and after checking out the goods, we all got ready for church. Grandpa Pasko bought the boy's Easter outfits this year and they enjoyed modeling their new duds for everyone prior to being, by far, the loudest children in a very quiet sacrament meeting at church. I'm not sure the Pinetop ward knew what hit them. But they paid us back by asking Kyle and I to be the nursery teachers for the last two hours of church. :)

Halloween

2011-11-03T20:56:00.001-07:00

Halloween feels like it lasted all month long. Considering that it's my least favorite holiday, this might not have been such a great thing. But luckily we had lots of family and friends to experience all the fun with.

Grandpa Greer came out the week before Halloween and carved pumpkins with the boys (but because of the sweltering AZ heat, those pumpkins ended up in the pumpkin graveyard long before they could debut as our Halloween Jack-o-lanterns).

We went to a fun Halloween party at our the Fessler's house.

Gage had a couple Halloween parties at school (he's in 2 preschool classes so he gets double the parties)

Grandpa Pasko came out for our ward's Trunk or Treat & carnival.

We had dinner and carved pumpkins (again) with our super fun cousins, the Votaws and got yummy prizes for the awesome pumpkin carving.

And finally it was Halloween and I was tired of taking pictures. Mimi and Papa came over and we headed out for some trick or treating with our friends, the Medleys. Brigg really enjoyed trick or treating. He was running and skipping down the street yelling, "I love this! I love this!!". Days later, he's still walking around our house saying, "trick or treat...thank oo" as he pretends to trick or treat some more. Gage was ready to call it a night after a few houses. So we went around the block and came home to check out their stash.

I let the boys pick out their three favorite pieces of candy to eat that night. Then they left the rest of their candy out for the "candy fairy" who took their candy while they were sleeping (to give to the kids in Guatemala who don't have candy) and in return left the boys new toothbrushes, toothpaste, coloring books and stickers. They were super excited (not joking at all...they loved it).

But now the candy fairy has a HUGE box of candy that she has no idea what to do with. We planned to give it to my dad to take to the kids in Guatemala (if you want to see what he's up to in Guatemala you can check out his travel site where he posts about it every day: http://www.twittertravel.com/) but it looks like he won't be back until Thanksgiving and I really don't want all that candy hanging around waiting to be found by the little sugar monsters.

The Farm

2011-11-03T20:45:00.001-07:00

Gage's awesome preschool teacher took his class to Vertuccio Farm for their field trip in October. They had so many fun things to do that Gage had a great time despite his total disinterest in animals of any variety.

Fall Fun

2011-11-03T20:27:00.000-07:00

I love camping. Kyle prefers cable TV and comfortable beds. So all summer long I have been asking him to commit to a family camping trip but he has been too busy at work to take a weekend off. October came around and the weather cooled, pools stopped going green and Kyle finally had a weekend off. So we headed up to Payson for the most perfect camping trip ever. Gage was born to be a mountain man. He ran around (half the time without a shirt, even though it was really cold!) collecting wood, building us a firepit, setting up our campsite and exploring the woods for two full days without having a single tantrum or bored moment. He was totally in his element. Brigg on the other hand was terrified of fire and takes after his daddy when it comes to the importance that creature comforts play in his life...so he spent a good part of the weekend crying.

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He even played in the FREEZING creek...

Until he saw these right next to his feet:

Summer of Fun

2011-11-03T19:32:00.000-07:00

We experienced lots of summer fun this year consisting mostly of getting up, going to swimming lessons, coming home, eating lunch and going back to the pool for the rest of the day. Because we spent so little time at home, our meals suffered a bit (things like scrambled eggs and carryout pizza became regulars in our dinner rotation for a while), but it was totally worth it. The boys LOVE to swim. It is the only "sport" so far that Gage has shown any passion about and was the perfect outlet for all of his extra energy. He's an amazing swimmer and is totally ready for swim and dive team next year. He's already doing flips off the diving board. And despite Brigg's total fear of the water at the start, he was jumping in and swimming underwater to me by the end of the summer too.

And in between all the swimming, we took a couple weekends off to have some fun with friends and family.
I went to girls camp with my amazing young women again. It was even better than last year. I love those girls so much!

Per our annual tradition, we spent the Fourth of July in Anthem with our good friends, the Harbecks. Our boys love their kids and we all had fun watching fireworks and enjoying spending time with our friends who live WAY too far away.

And we made our annual trip to visit our family in California. We miss them SO much and had a stellar time hanging out with them. My aunt, Kara so graciously put us up and fed us amazing food as usual. Gage had the best time spending all day and night playing with his cousin, Mia (who he refers to now as his best friend). We loved seeing all of our wonderful family and convinced Great Grandma and Grandpa to come to the beach with us one day (I think the last time I saw my grandparents step foot on the beach was when I was about 10 years old). My dad even joined us for a couple days while we were out there so he could spend time playing in the ocean with the boys and teaching them all about snail poop (we don't have snails in AZ so this was a really thrilling discovery for them).

And then, before we knew it, we were back home, the pools closed, school started again and our summer of fun came to an end.

Wanna guess who cut Gage's hair right before his first day of school?

Too far gone

2011-08-20T10:35:00.001-07:00

I know, my blog is a bust. I never update it. I would love to catch up on the past year of exciting times, but I am too far gone to come back full force so here's a condensed recap:

Thanksgiving came and went. We had a fun mismatched group of family and friends to enjoy the food fest with.

Brigg got a little bored during the food preparation, so he found some things to entertain himself.
Watercolor "Makeup" and Candlestick Noses.

Then came pre-Christmas festivities like the visit to Santa, Pre-Christmas dinner with Kyle's parents, Annual Christmas Eve nativity reenactment with my family, visits from lots of the family and cool Christmas morning hairdos.

New Year's eve brought some major weather, so we headed for Payson to let the boys have their first experience in the snow. Brigg obviously hated it and Gage had the time of his life.

After we braved the holidays, birthdays snuck up on us.
Brigg went to chuck e cheese on his actual birthday. He LOVES Barney.

Gage went to Jeepers indoor amusement park for his birthday (the most ghetto fun place on earth)

Then the big carnival birthday party happened...and will never happen again. We put in way too much work to have the wind foul up my plans at the last minute. More on that soon...

Family Photos

2011-04-14T22:37:00.000-07:00

We had Dawn Fessler take our family photos this year. She did an amazing job, especially considering what she had to work with. Our boys lasted for about ten minutes and in that time she got at least 100 shots. And a lot of them turned out to be better than I expected from two goofy kids who really despise posing for family pictures. She was awesome!

Here are a few that offer a more realistic image of our cute boys:

Inaugural Doughnuts

2011-04-14T22:30:00.000-07:00

I try not to give my kids sugar most of the time, but every once in a while we splurge and it is completely worth it. :) This was our first ever visit to Krispy Kreme doughnut shop. Needless to say, the boys REALLY enjoyed it.

Halloween Continued

2011-04-14T22:09:00.000-07:00

Wow, Halloween was a LONG time ago, and I never got around to posting the rest of the Halloween photos (and now that I think of it, I also never got around to sending Gage's class photo I took to Gage's teacher who requested a copy of it back in October. Darn. Stay at home mom's should be entitled to administrative assistants).

I have to admit that I am overly impressed with myself for "making" these costumes for my boys. I experience an inordinate amount of pride every time I look at the photos because I sewed the decorations onto these plain old boring sweat suits. :) I don't sew, so this is really major for me.

The two things in this world that really excite Brigg are balls and candy. Halloween covered both bases for him when we went to our church Trunk or Treat carnival. He spent the first half of the night tossing footballs and the second half with both hands and his mouth filled with candy. By the time it was over Brigg was zooming back and forth across the street in a sugar and exhaustion induced frenzy.

Halloween Parade

2010-10-29T10:34:00.000-07:00

Every year when we were kids, my mom made us the most amazing Halloween costumes. They were unique and awesome. I always thought it was cool that my mom could make our costumes so we didn't have to have one of the cheapie costumes from the store. Unfortunately I did not inherit any amazing seamstress genes. But I thought this year that I would attempt to make (or really just modify) simple costumes for the boys. Gage has been SO excited about this costume for weeks. He has been talking about being a superhero, asking when his costume will be done, begging to wear it all the time when it is done, and pretending to fly around the house. So yesterday was the costume parade at Gage's school and the official unveiling of the costume I created for him. He gave me a huge hug after I showed it to him and said "I LOVE it mom! Thank you for making my super hero costume!" Tonight is our ward Trunk or Treat so Brigg will get to test out his matching costume soon.

Gage goes to the BEST special-ed preschool (EMECEC). He adores his teachers and they go to this campus that is designated solely for preschool. So most of the special-ed preschools from the east mesa schools all go to this one campus. Every Halloween they have a costume parade & carnival for all the preschool classes. It is so fun and the kids absolutely love it. They invite the parents to come and take pictures. Gage's class is so cute! I really wish I could have this kid named Frankie. He's the one dressed like the astronaut in the class picture. He's SO funny and cute. I think he gives Miss Debbie a run for her money, but definitely no more than Gage does. Gage told me one day that Frankie bit him. Gage and Frankie are a match made in heaven.

Pumpkin Carving Party

2010-10-29T09:42:00.000-07:00

We had our annual neighborhood pumpkin carving party last weekend. It was fun!! It's great to have so many good friends in our neighborhood.

The FRIENDS!

The FOOD!
Our friends are impressive cooks!
I totally want to make this veggie pizza that Jen brought! It was as tasty as it was pretty.

Jen made this awesome pumpkin fluff too. Kyle loved it!

These Alien cupcakes that Lisa and Lauren made were a huge hit. They were gone immediately. Are they not the cutest things you have ever seen?!

We dry-iced the rootbeer (witches brew). It started out a little scary but it didn't explode and ended up being really cool after it calmed down a bit. :)

We ate wayyy too much good food.

Bring on the FUN!

The PUMPKINS!

Thank you craigslist!

2010-10-29T09:31:00.000-07:00

After a long and boring summer spent desperately trying to think of things to do while Gage was out of school, we finally found this great deal on craigslist just in time for the weather to be too cold to use it. :) We put it up for two days and Gage was in heaven! Brigg was terrified so he just watched from the grass. We now have something cool enough to lure all the neighborhood kids to our house. Hooray! :)

Camping

2010-10-26T09:16:00.000-07:00

Last month we went camping! I LOVE camping (real camping with tents and campfires). Kyle is not a big fan. So we compromised and camped out in the backyard of the Harbeck's cabin in Forest Lakes. It was so fun! I still got to cook over the campfire and sleep in a tent, but we had friends to hang out with the whole weekend (and clean bathrooms to use) so it was a great experience all around. Gage kept telling me all weekend, "I love camping mom! Thanks for taking me camping!" He loved sleeping in the tent. Brigg didn't like that as much so he was a little tired and cranky. But we all managed to have a great time.

Gage loved running around outside!

Brigg loved throwing rocks into the pond.

Anden taught Gage how to catch bugs and frogs in the net.
Gage is a bit grossed out by the actual bugs and frogs, but loves the fun of catching them.

Gandpa Pasko came with us on the camping trip. The boys loved having grandpa around.

Kyle took the boys for many fun rides on Anden's little quad. They LOVED it.
I am NEVER buying one of those. :)

I spent a lot of time trying to keep Brigg happy despite his exhaustion.

Gage had so much fun playing with his friends, Anden & Taylee!

4th of July

2010-07-23T12:38:00.000-07:00

As soon as I got home from girls camp, I showered (oh my gosh, it was SO great to shower after spending several days living outside!) and we headed up to Anthem to spend the fourth of July with the Harbecks! We love the Harbecks, not only because they are SO fun and great friends, but because they always host the fun holiday weekends so we have somewhere to go and something fun to do. ;) We went to the Anthem fireworks where Gage spent a couple hours going on every one of the 10 or so inflatable waterslides over and over and over. He LOVED it. Then we settled down to watch the fireworks and then headed back to Katie and Jeremy's house. The next day we hung out and let the kids play in their fun backyard and bbqed. It was a great fourth of july. Katie gets major props for hosting the party despite being deathly ill all weekend!

Girls Camp 2010

2010-07-23T12:06:00.000-07:00

This year I had the awesome opportunity to go to girls camp with my young women. I have never been to girls camp as a leader before and it was SO fun. I have the most awesome girls and it was so fun to hang out, learn and work with them for a week. Of course we had the usual problems with bugs and mice, a few bouts of homesickness, a hair color catastrophe, and some vomit her and there, but overall we had a great time!

The boys

2010-07-23T12:01:00.000-07:00

Our boys are growing up fast. Brigg has crazy long hair that we need to cut. Gage is just crazy. But we are having so much fun with them. This has been a fun, but kind of long summer. Gage is excited to go back to school soon. And Brigg is excited for Gage to go back to school soon. :)

Totally Rad 80s!

2010-07-20T13:19:00.000-07:00

My cousin threw a totally rad 80s birthday party for her hubby. We attempted to dress up, but my teased hair sort of just went flat and sticky by the time we go there and we don't actually know what Kyle was supposed to be. I think it was an old fat lady in the bahamas. We aren't great at thrift store shopping...

Slide Rock

2010-07-20T10:48:00.000-07:00

Grandpa Pasko came out for Memorial weekend and wanted to go to Sedona. We were about due for a trip to cooler weather so we decided Slide Rock would be fun. Unfortunately, Brigg didn't agree. He cried for the entire four hour drive to Sedona (it took four hours instead of the usual three because a car drove off the cliff halfway up there so there were some serious traffic delays). Once we got to Slide Rock, Brigg was thrilled but this was Gage's turn to be miserable. He refused to go in the water, wouldn't go down the slide and spent most of the time we were there asking to go home. That was the last road trip we will make until our kids are much older (teenagers).

Makeover

2010-07-20T10:43:00.000-07:00

Little did I know, there was a nice dark pink tube of lipstick in the back seat somewhere. When I pulled into the driveway, I turned around and saw this:

Lipstick is very difficult to remove from one's hair. He had pink hair for a few days.

Girl's Camp Fundraiser

2010-07-20T10:34:00.000-07:00

We did our annual girl's camp fundraiser for my young women. They made SO much cookie dough and sold it. I was so impressed with their hard work and they raised all of their money for camp.

Our new pet

2010-07-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

Brigg went through a short phase of wanting to be a dog. We were constantly fishing dog food out of his mouth and whenever we turned around he would crawl over to the dog's filthy water bowl to get a drink. It's a miracle he hasn't contracted a nasty dog disease.

Easter

2010-07-20T10:06:00.000-07:00

We had a lovely Easter this year as we spent time with friends & family, ate a lot, did a few Easter egg hunts and watched General Conference all weekend.

Gage colored Easter eggs all by himself.

We got to hang out with the cousins at Mimi & Papa's house

Papa hid a LOT of Easter eggs for the boys to find.

Brigg was not very interested in finding Easter eggs until he pried one open and found out that there was CHOCOLATE inside! (yes, that's chocolate all over his face and shirt)

Lucky

2010-03-18T12:35:00.000-07:00

My little bro's wife had their baby yesterday evening. He's a St. Patrick's baby so we call him "Lucky" but his name is officially Owen Andrew Greer. We are thrilled that he's finally here...seemed like we were going to have to wait forever for Brock and Tara to start adding some cousins to our family. :)

2010-03-15T14:57:00.000-07:00

We started potty training today. It's not going very well...

2010-03-15T14:43:00.000-07:00

A few fun pics of the boys...