Summer preview . . .

We officially kicked off boating season last night. I am certain that we will spend a lot of time on the lake in our backyard this summer and all who check in on this blog will get sick of all the boating pictures. Here are a few . . .

Benson was pretty nervous about the whole boating experience. He went a lot as a small baby, but didn't go at all last year. Hopefully he will toughen up a bit.

Boating with snow on the mountains and sweatshirts on. Keith and Gabe were the only crazy (I mean brave) souls who got in the water.

The boating crew, us and the Rojas. Melanie and I are seriously outnumbered by boys. That is seven boys to two girls. Yikes.

I love this picture. Benson, the future Dr. Totally random installment, but I couldn't help myself.

And the remodeling continues. I have been doing dishes in the bathroom sink for the past week, but no longer my friends. We got lovely granite counter tops and a new sink installed today for a steal of a deal. The color is called "peacock" and I am officially in love.


The deep sink. Woo hoo!

A full shot of the art that is our new counter top. Isn't it fabulous?

25 Random Things About Me.

Here's the list in no particular order with plenty of randomness.

1. When I met Keith, my diet consisted of saltine crackers, icey pops, and diet coke. No joke. It was the diet that helped me lose the "freshman 15." Don't worry, I have definitely expanded my eating horizons since then.

2. One of my most embarrassing moments (there are many) was when I tripped and fell climbing a pole after leaving the Alanis Morisette concert. Only about 20,000 people witnessed it. Awesome.

3. I named my second child the wrong name. I should have let Keith have his way.

4. I prefer toddlers to newborns, because I like my sleep.

5. I think the hardest part about being a mom is cooking and cleaning three meals a day. Why can't I have a personal chef?

6. My favorite movie is Wayne's World. Actually, it's quite a raunchy movie and I can hardly watch the whole thing anymore. But, it has some of the best lines ever. I don't think a day goes by that I don't quote it. "Exsqueeze me, baking powder, it sounds like you're going to pay us to do Wayne's World." hahahah, so funny.

7. I really want to take a vacation to New York City with my family, but when it comes time to plan a vacation I have a hard time not choosing a place that is warm and has a beach.

8. I do not like to camp. I really like hotels.

9. I like to think of myself as laid back, even though I think most people would totally disagree with that.

10. I really really want a baby girl . . . someday. I think if I had another child right now, I'd have to be admitted to the loony bin. I don't think I'd be that sad if I had another boy though, they sure are fun.

11. I am a girly girl. I don't like to wear tennis shoes unless I am working out. I never go anywhere without makeup on. I don't ever wear sweatpants or pj pants, unless it is time for bed. I am not good at sports, especially volleyball. I hate to be dirty. I am 100% girl, just ask Keith.

12. I really like diet coke. Not so much that I drink it in the morning, but I do like it.

13. My favorite color is pink, but I love to decorate with red.

14. I want a minivan, have I mentioned I am totally weird? :)

15. I am not on facebook, maybe I should be. I don't really get it though.

16. I like to vacuum.

17. My favorite jeans are Calvin Klein. I have three pairs that I love.

18. Growing up I wished that my parents had named me Ariel. Now I am really grateful that it is Lisa. I like my name.

19. My husband plucks my eyebrows. I really have to beg him to do it though, or just let them grow out until he notices and says it's time to pluck.

20. I think being a mom is amazing, especially when I say "I love you Benson" and he says "I yove you dama."

21. I always wish I could dye my hair darker, but every time I try to I hate it. I was just meant to have white hair I think.

22. I can't run for longer than about a block. I think there is something wrong with me. I like to take long walks though, on the beach. haha

23. I currently take voice lessons. I recommend this to everyone, even if you think you can't sing. It is so fun to learn how to sing right. Our voices really are an instrument.

24. Swimming in the ocean really freaks me out, but I still like it. Most of the time I get out because I am too scared to stay in any longer.

25. A few days ago I fell down the stairs carrying the vacuum. It hurt pretty bad, but I laughed so hard because I was certain that it looked funny. I wished someone had been there. And last night I tripped over the demolition mess in my kitchen and now I have a huge bruise on my leg. Basically, I am clumsy.

26. I know I am only supposed to do 25, but I just thought of one. My first concert was Kenny G, with my parents. It was totally rad.

Whew, that was intense. There's my list. Tell me some random stuff about you . . .

Sleeping Beauty

We had a fabulous Easter weekend with lots of friends and family coming to visit and lots more kitchen demolition going on. Keith is shopping for kitchen cabinets as I type. As many of you know, we have a hot springs pool in the community where we live. We go swimming all year round and the kids love it. We love it too. When we first moved here, we used to wrap up Baby Benson in a ton of blankets in the stroller and he would sleep while we would swim in the winter at night. Ahhhh, those were the good old days. Now we generally take the whole family swimming, and occasionally Keith and I will get a sitter so we can swim by ourselves. . . anyway, this weekend we all went swimming with our family that was in town and our friends too. Apparently Griffin was tired because this happened while we were swimming. . .

It's kind of a creepy picture, but there is my sweet 15 month old taking a nap in the pool with his very intense Coast Guard approved life jacket on (we have some pretty serious life jackets). He slept for about 20 minutes like this in the pool, until I had to wake him up so we could leave. Pretty precious huh? We sure love this sweet boy.

P.S. this is Austin

An addition to my post below . . .

This one is for you Wendy. While Keith was doing some serious re-wiring action for our kitchen in the attic, he slipped. Now we have a leg sized hole in the ceiling. Amazingly, I slept through it. Makes you feel safe doesn't it?

Demolition is my mission

The other night I left to the mall to get some Bare Minerals makeup before the mall closed. When I left my house looked like this:

When I came home it looked like this:

We've been dying to rip out this wall since we moved here and Keith decided it was time. We are in the beginning stages of doing some serious demolition to our kitchen. Let's just say I currently have bits of sheetrock in my freezer. I can't wait to get it all finished. We have holes in our walls, ceiling, and places on the floor where the bare wood is exposed. Let's hope it turns out!

On a different note, my parents and brother were here for Spring Break. It was sure fun having them here. We went to some Jazz games, went swimming, ate a lot, and watched Brian play some serious Lacrosse. It was awesome, except for when Brian got a concussion. Poor kid.

Here we are dancing it up on the top row at our first Jazz game (the men went to two, they had much better seats the second time). We had a blast. Poulsens can have fun anywhere.

I think this pictures is awesome. My brother and I keeping it gangsta!

While my parents were visiting, my kids got very sick. Our first sickness in a very long time. Let's just say, the boys were a mess. Sleeping all day, going through lots of diapers and barf bags, the works. Griffin has definitely had the worst of it. Benson didn't get it quite as bad, but he sure was grumpy. This is my best impression of his grumpy face.

Poor Bishop was a mess. Look at this sad face.

After the sickness seemed to flush through our house, we decided we needed a vacation. So we went on an impromptu vacation to Phoenix, Arizona to escape our freezing cold Spring weather and visit Keith's oldest brother Bill and his family. It was a lot of driving (about 20 hours in three days, yes we are insane).

We stopped and stayed at the Grand Canyon on the way there. It was amazing (and very cold so we didn't stay very long).

I thought this was so cute. We stayed in a little cabin right on the rim of the Grand Canyon. It was very small and we all slept in the tiny room together. We made a pillow bed for Benson and Griff slept in a playpen. They thought it was so funny. Here they are touching hands through the playpen net.

Dad and Benson looking over the edge.

Me and the kiddos.

Our little cabin. Keith told me to do a cool pose, this was the best I came up with.

While we were in Phoenix, we went to the Home Depot kidcraft. Apparently all Home Depots do a kidcraft the first Saturday of every month and it is free. They made a bird house. It was really fun, Benson loved it. I would definitely suggest finding out if your nearest Home Depot does it.

Keith helped Benson a little.

Playing at the park.

Feeding the ducks.

Feeding the ducks again.

We're home and trying to convince ourselves that we don't need to move to Arizona. It sure is nice there.