Dinosuar Museum

For the last year we have gone to the Mesa southwest Museum Aka: The Dinosuar museum. We have had so much fun and learned about, aligators, turtles, poop, evalution, Indians, old west lifestyle, jail, minners (we have so much gold), rocks, cavemen, feathered Dinosaurs, fossils and of course Dinosuars.This place is also the reason I have 2 baby t-rex running around my house all day everyday! Cotter's obssesion has not only grown but become a way of life for him. Everyone who knows Cotter knows his love for the Dinosaurs. He can't help himself. His Primary teachers taught a lesson one Sunday about family and asked each sumbeam to draw a picture of their family. Cotter drew a cute picture of all of us...in Dinosuar form, and when his teacher asked him what his Mommy did to help his family he said,"Mommy takes us to the Dinosaur Museum". I'm so glad the boy has something to love! He also has countless books about dinosaurs which he wants me to read to him every night. Poor Quinci-she just wants to read Cinderella. Everytime we go they are facinated and I always have to bribe them with DQ ice cream to get them to leave. Our membership is expiring so we took some pictures the other day:

The List

So Dane And I are comfortable enough in our relationship to come up with our own list. Anyone who has seen the TV show Friends should know what the list is and those of you who don't know what the list is...I'm sorry. I can't explain what it is cause you would think less of us. :) We just thought it would be fun to do a post on our lists. Dane and Jacob wanted help me pick my top five but before I had even said a name they both shouted out,"ooooo what about the guy from Casino royale"! Then I had to tell them I would pick out my own guys and that they both were extreemly gay! It turned out to be a very hard decision but all three of us were able to finalize and even laminate our list, well except for Dane. He may bump one of his international people for someone who is more local. So here they are:

Dane's List:

1. Kate Hudson


2. Kiera Knightly


3. Natalie Portman


4. Crush (She'll kick any girls A)


5. Jennifer Aniston (For the sake of "Friends")


Carli's List

1. Bear Grylls


2. Connor Jackson


3. Shia Lebuff


4. Travis Barker


5. Bataman (Christian Bale)


Jacob's List (Dane's Brother who is living with us for a while)

1. Blake Lively


2. Megan Fox


3. Mandy Moore


4. Jessica Alba


5. Kierra Knightly


For the record we do have morals and we are totally joking, we just thought that this would be a fun memory. Ten years ago Dane would have picked J-Lo, and maybe in ten years when Travis Barker OD's I'll pick someone with higher standards. Big booty's and tatoos are just a phase. Since Jacob is still single I say go for it! Get your Mandy Moore!

A Photo Finish!!!

Despite tripping at the beginning of the race Brandon was still able to hold on by a hair. I guess for all us fat guys...fat can beat fit....sometimes!! = 80% Mental 20% Physical

Fit or Fat?

Who would win in a 100 yard sprint a 19 year old (Benson) who has never been fleet of foot, but is in the best shape of his life,

or a 29 year old (Brandon) who is married with kids and is in bad physical shape, but was a sprinter in college.


Who would win this one time race?

Fit or Fat?

Did they work?

Ghetto Wash

My husband comes from a long line of riggers. His Grandpa built a spaceship out of iron scraps, his Dad could fix anything without spending a dime as long as he had enough tie wire and duct tape, and Dane has been able to go into the garage return in about three seconds ready to fix anything I need him to. Although this trait seems to be so wonderful it has it's ups and downs. For the last year I have had scrappiest dishwasher known to man. It even got nick-named "THE GHETTO DISHWASHER". It all started when we moved into the house and my kids threw away the utensil holder (rig job number one)but Dane rigged up something that worked just fine. Then the door broke (rig job number two). This was the worst! Dane wasn't home when this blessed event took place, so I panicked then I thought to myself, "what would the Patterson Men do?" Then I ran as fast as I could to the garage in pursuit of the duct tape, but when a dishwasher is spraying water all over your kitchen duct tape doesn't hold it shut so well. That's when Dane started using the Clamp. It has worked perfectly while being the biggest eye sore at the same time. Today however has been a day that will live in infamy for our family! The dishwasher blew up and Dad can't fix it! I loaded the dishwasher, started it up and black,smelly smoke filled our kitchen. I tried to shut it off but it wouldn't stop working!(rig job number three)After the door broke the handle fell off so Dane of course rigged the dishwasher so that we could still turn it on. (We are so white trash).Anyways we finally fixed the problem. Welcome Maytag dishwasher to your new home. We promise that we will use you to the fullest,and even when you areyou are dying we won't let you forget your purpose in life. We went to home depot today and got an amazing deal on this dishwasher plus an extra 10% percent off, and another $30 off for a scratch I couldn't even see! R.I.P Ghetto dishwasher!
Little clamp let me brief you on your next assignment:

Sunday

Sweet things happen when you don't know it. It dosen't take much for these kids to melt my heart. They scream at eachother and fight like normal kids do but at the end of the day they still love eachother so much. We were on our way to church and I decided that we needed to take a quick family picture. The best part is we captured one of those precious moments! Cotter holding his sweet little sister's hand even though no one made him! We are such a happy family and feel so blessed to have eachother! Happy Sunday!

The Prison I Want My Kids to Remember

Some of you know about my kids and their favorite hobbies. Some hobbies I love and some I would rather eat crap than deal with. I finally did the one thing that I hope will teach my kids a lesson or two about what normal kids do for fun. My kids love to destroy their room. Not a few toys on the floor, but EVERY toy on the floor. I really tried to teach them the importance of taking care of their things and keeping their room clean, but I don't think that they were paying attention very well.
Soooo...I got rid of EVERYTHING! No clothes, toys, bedding, nothing. They are sitting in their prison room right now in their underwear stareing at the walls. The Ice breaker was when I went into their room and they were ripping apart one of their new books, cover and all! Ahhhhhh! "I love you, but why?!" I have been threatening to take away their toys for months and months now, never really wanting to because of all the work that it would bring for me. Today I don't care! I feel bad for them, but I have actually done it. Now everytime I threaten to take all their things away they will actually believe me. Good luck Cotter and Quinci the next three days will not be fun!