Dani and Jimmy

I solemnly swear......

2012-02-18T09:30:00.000-08:00

........never to allow my oldest son to get scruffy again.

His hair is way too thick!!! It took forever and he hated standing there. So many times he was begging for me to let him just get in the shower...but I had him only half done and I wasn't going to let him have half his hair twice as long as the other half. Where does he get this hair??? His younger brother takes a few minutes - buzz the back and sides and cut the top with scissors and walla!!!

But my oldest goofball of a boy has such thick hair, it's more like...try to buzz the back and sides as the razor pulls his hair and he says he hates the buzzer ("Scissors please!") and then attack said hair with scissors that seem suddenly too dull to cut through...spend as much time as it took to cut his brother's hair only cutting around one ear....aching arms, tired hands....let's try the buzzer again with a longer guard on it. ("Ow! Scissors please!") I was close to just shaving his head completely!!!!

Finally I got it done enough. It's still very uneven. The before pictures of their hair you can view in my post about making our Valentine pizzas. Their hair was getting quite long-ish.

Before he starts kindergarten this year, we'll make a trip to the hair salon. I think the professionals should handle this one. I've cut his hair myself all his life, and I think it's a job I am going to resign at. We'll see how well the pros do. If they struggle like me (which would surprise me with their expertise and all) then I'll go back to the grinding stone and just remember to cut his hair more often. I'm sure it will be easier if I keep it shorter.

Naughty and Nice Jars

2012-02-01T10:25:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I've been getting REALLY tired of the screaming meemees and the whining tears and the evil laughter going on my house.

So I've made a new behavior-encouraging tactic for my boys and we'll hope it works. So far it seems like a great motivator!

Putting these together was actually a pretty fun activity with my kids. I found two jars and one of them had some fun fruit at the top. I asked my boys to come watch me write out the words. They told me what each letter was as I wrote it down. Once the word was written, I asked them what kind of faces go with the word and they told me mad, angry, or sad faces for naughty and happy or silly faces for nice. So I drew those faces on the jars to remind them what the words are.

Then we counted out fuzz balls for each jar. At first, I had 100 fuzz balls and put 50 in each, but that turned out to be too many. So then I made it about 30 fuzz balls in each jar.

For every time I see them throwing toys, hitting or pushing, shouting or screaming, or getting into mom/dad's work stuff, or doing anything else naughty or disobedient, I will take one fuzz ball from the nice jar and put it in the naughty jar.

Every time someone obeys mom/dad right away, or says nice words to each other or to mom/dad, or if they do anything else that is especially good or nice that I see, I will take a fuzz ball from the naughty jar and put it in the nice jar.

Here's the best part! Once the Nice jar is full and the Naughty jar is empty, we will all go to Jump Around Utah! They have been wanting to go ever since we saw pictures of it on the internet. BUT if the Naughty jar ever gets full and the Nice jar is empty, we will have a BAD day where we will have NO computer or television time and they will have to go straight to bed without story time either.

I am going to be surprised if the Nice jar ever will ever be completely empty, but there you have it! The motivators for my little boys. We'll see how well this works! :) Happy Parenting!

Mommy Jitters

2012-01-23T10:15:00.000-08:00

This video was taken in December. Now the only big difference is that he's started to army crawl all over the place and can get to a sitting position all by himself. He's really getting around now. He does get up on his hands and knees too - just doesn't quite use that to crawl yet. What a cutie pants.

I'm not just posting this as a milestone. I'm posting this because I also wanted to say...on Wednesday he's going in for a surgery and I'm just a bit nervous about it. It should be a very simple procedure on his tongue. However, they are going to be checking other things in his airways and if they have to do anything with that, it will become much more elaborate and the recovery will take much longer. Hopefully all will be well there and we don't have to do anything, but any prayers about this will be much appreciated.

Jimmy gave him a blessing yesterday with the help of a home teacher that came over. I am so grateful to have the priesthood on the earth. It helped my jitters a bit to do this, but I am still...well...having mommy jitters.

Space Fun

2011-12-29T15:57:00.001-08:00

Krissy gave us a year membership at the planetarium for christmas and we just went the second time and got to see the movie about black holes. It was fun! Now we are taking home glowing stars and planets for their bedroom. :)

Zachy's 3rd Birthday Party! (Shark Theme)

2011-12-20T11:38:00.000-08:00

Greeting guests at the doorway, I had Bruce from Finding Nemo. I also used him in the invitation, which I posted already. :) When people arrived, I tried to have my television in the other room on the Fishtank-like scene from the movie going so it sounded like we were underwater.

My decorations were aimed toward the underwater scene where Bruce takes the fish to his "little get-together" and they see all the gray underwater bombs everywhere that Dori calls "balloons". I used blue plastic table clothes on the walls, blue streamers, and green, gold, and silver curly ribbons hanging from the ceiling like seaweed along with gray balloons.

I also cut a hole through this big box to make a tunnel and tried to make it look like a shark. We used this box for a game which was like musical chairs, but instead of chairs, they just crawled around in a circle and through the shark's mouth. When the music stopped, the one in the shark got a treat. We played until everyone got a treat.

Another game we tried was Octopus tag. All the kids stand on one side of the room and try to run "swim" through the room "ocean" to the other side. One child stands in the center of the room as the octopus and tries to tag them as they run by. Those kids that are tagged become part of the octopus, holding hands in the center of the room to act like octopus arms. The octopus gets bigger and bigger until everyone is caught. It didn't work for my age group very well. The kids all wanted to become part of the octopus so they just stood next to the octopus until they got tagged. :) Probably would be better for a 5 year old party or something. We just went on to the next thing and played a quick game of hide and seek in there. Which was pretty cute.

After they got their treats from the shark game, we sat to eat them while we watched the scene from Finding Nemo when the fish meat the shark. Then we went upstairs for the craft.

I used babyfood jars, googly eyes, foam hands and feet, and fuzzy pompom balls, rocks, and shredded pieces of brown paper (in the box in the back of the photo) and the kids made sea creatures out of them. This turned out to be a blast! I was surprised at how long the kids sat there making their sea creatures. It was at first going to be just jelly fish but I let them be creative and they made all kinds of interesting rock pets and sea creatures. You'll see a few in later pictures. They are sitting on the table in the pictures while the kids are eating.

I themed the food around fish. I taped "The Pledge" the sharks make about how fish are friends, not food on the wall by the table and then I had a sign by the food saying "I'm havin' FISH tonight!" etc.

I cut peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches into the shape of fish and called them Peanut-Butter and Jelly-Fish.

Then I also had Swedish Fish, Cheddar fish, and sour candies (they are actually supposed to be shaped like kids...but they worked). These were a hit!

This was the birthday cake I made for him! When I brought it out, the other kids said in a high pitched voice "It's a shark!" and then Zachy said "No!" and in a low growly voice he said "It's a SHARK!" :) It was cute.

So this is the kids eating their lunch and some of the sea creatures are on the table.

The birthday boy was so sweet! He shared very well and even later when he opened gifts, we told him "This gift is from Adalaide" and he tried to give it to her. He gets "for" and "from" mixed up. :) Still, what a sweetheart! :)

It was a successful party! Every child got a party favor bag before they left. I failed to take pictures of them, but I included little erasers shaped like a penguin, whale, sea lion/seal, and something else. Also little minny slinkies and a minny bottle of bubbles.

After the food and cake, I let them just play while I cleaned up a while and then we opened presents and handed out party favors. The party was a blast! Thanks to everyone who came! Those of you who couldn't make it, hope you can come another time!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Zachy's Party at Our House!

2011-12-05T09:13:00.001-08:00

Family home evening

2011-11-14T18:33:00.001-08:00

Tonight we built temples with blocks after reading in the scriptures about how they built temples like the temples of solomon. I said we could take pictures of them since they wouldn't let us put the blocks away at first. Then when I was about to take a picture, Zachy kicked his temple over. The cutie was about to really cry, he felt so bad that he had tipped over his temple before the picture. But it was all better when we helped him build it again. So we took his picture again. :)

Alright, lighten up!

2011-11-10T07:48:00.001-08:00

So for the past year we have been waiting for jimmy to get promoted. The promotion actually pays a little less, but he would get a company car to make up for it and be able to go out instead of sit at his desk all day. Anyway, he was trying really hard to earn it. When the position opened up he was optimistic until his boss gave him his performance review and it was about slouching and speaking to loud on the phone and stuff...it seemed like a negative review even though he'd been working so hard to do everything right. He got frustrated.

Then we thought well that's it. When jimmy's car died, we had quite the hassle. We replaced my vue with a honda pilot with more seating (ahhhh) and then were looking for jimmy's truck. We decided a truck since we always have to borrow trucks from people. We found this truck for a pretty good price, but its this ugly dark gold color. Can't complain about looks, right?

Well jimmy bought it.
The next day his boss gave him the promotion and company car. Go figure. (Did I mention that since the truck gets better gas mileage then the honda, I get to drive the ugly thing to school? Yay.)

But, what's funny but also sad is this. Have you ever heard of someone getting cussed at while receiving a promotion? Well that's how he got his. In the midst of giving the promotion, this guy is threatening to kick a** if he makes a mistake, blah blah...and he ordered the 2-wheeler jeep for him knowing he would have preferred the car. It's jacked up. Needless to say, his boss doesn't like him much. Well at least he got it.

And honestly, my husband can be a little annoying sometimes. Haha. I mean, he gets this promotion and doesn't bother to tell me until we are about to fall asleep last night. He even admitted that he thought about posting it on fb before telling me to see what I would do. (Smart that he didn't. I would have strangled him.)

Happy halloween!

2011-10-31T18:20:00.001-07:00

Hers our festivities!

Cutest shot

2011-10-31T10:03:00.001-07:00

My little sweetie.

2011-09-12T16:21:00.000-07:00

He's starting to sit up at the table to observe the eating thing. Hasn't shown much of an interest in solid foods yet, so we'll see if we can get him interested. It would be easier with the babysitter if he was doing cereal soon.

I'm overwhelmed with school. All I can say about that. What the heck have I gotten myself into?

Mr. Wiggles Is Growing!

2011-08-22T09:02:00.000-07:00

Chili rolled over the other day. I think it was accidental, but then he did it again right away after a bit of obvious effort. Hasn't done it again since though and I didn't manage to capture it on camera.

But I did get his giggles on camera for you. :)

Golfing with Jimmy

2011-08-22T08:06:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, actually it was for our anniversary sort of, I went to watch Jimmy golf. This is the first time I've gone with him. I got to drive the cart. :) Didn't get a picture of me in the cart though. I should have.

I took Chili with us but left the other two boys with a neighbor to play with her family of boys. As far as I know, they had a good time.

And it was fun to watch Jimmy and see how great he's gotten with it. If anyone around likes golfing, call him up. He's always looking for people to go with.

Pool Fun

2011-08-10T10:33:00.000-07:00

Recently we've got this pool in our backyard that I fill up sometimes and then have to dump out after a couple days so we don't kill the grass. It's a cheap pool - I was looking for the small blow-up kind but all I could find was this and big huge blow up ones with the attached toys that are expensive. So this one works, even though the walls always want to fall in.
Jameson is my fish. Zachy didn't get in until he saw us splashing and having fun a while. (The pictures loaded backward and I don't feel like switching them all around right now.)

As you can see, Jameson is a fish.

This was Zachy playing on the slide before he decided the water didn't look to intimidating anymore. It took some time but he eventually got in and had fun with us.

Before Zachy got in, Jameson and I did some running and jumping in. It was pretty fun. Ignore my terrible girly run. :)

Then I got them later after Zachy got in too.

The Baby's Brothers

2011-08-03T08:13:00.000-07:00

Lately Chili has started to really watch his brothers and he likes to talk to them sometimes. So I got a little bit on video to share. :)

Making Elephant Bookends

2011-07-27T11:10:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Today we had a bit of fun and made these blue elephant bookends.

It was fun! The boys helped me paint these washed-out milk cartons. I halved two paper bowls for the ears (although the instructions said to use gray felt, which I did not have.)

Then for the eyes I used pieces of egg carton instead of the construction paper in the instructions.

They colored the eyes with markers. Then I attached them and the ears to the milk jug with hot glue. The instructions say Elmer's glue- but I think it would work better for paper and felt then the materials I used so hot glue it is.

They turned out pretty cute. Then we went out back to the little gravel road and filled up the inside with a bunch of rocks until they were heavy enough to be bookends.

It was a pretty fun craft! Those of you with kids should try it. There is a suggestion to make them more colorful like circus elephants, but I just kept them plain because their room is painted like a jungle already - and we didn't paint any elephants on the walls so now we have elephants. :)

Take a Deep Breath

2011-07-26T15:57:00.001-07:00

Who knew what my reaction would be when ALL THREE are crying/screaming?

Pounding heart...Feel like fainting...Breathes come shallower because I want to cry too.

So what do I do?!?

Well...after I finally get us all to calm down (who knows how that happened), I throw away the leftovers I was trying to force onto them for lunch, make them both peanut butter and honey; and then I hold back the tears, take a deep breath, and separate them.

Oldest goes outside with his lunch, middle child stays at the table with his lunch, and the baby goes in my arms in the living room.

If this happens again....I may not keep it together. Stress is higher these days with all the daycare planning drama for when I return to school. Will I ever figure this out?!?!?!

Hm...meditation anyone? Maybe I need to splurge on a stress buster stone set to calm my nerves?

or I would just drink a hot chocolate if it wasn't so stinkin' HOT outside. Even on a rainy, overcast day it's over 80 degrees. Sheesh.

Painting a Cardboard Fort

2011-07-24T11:07:00.000-07:00

Jimmy went outside yesterday and told me to keep the kids in the house.

He's been very secretive lately. Kinda...fun. :)

Turned out he was making this awesome big cardboard box fort for the kids. He told them it was a fort and Jameson later said, "It's an airport!" ...Ok! :)

He had them paint it all sorts of colors! I went out and helped too.

We did hand prints too.

Turned out pretty awesome!

Daddy's Silly Dinner Idea

2011-07-23T08:51:00.002-07:00

Earlier in the day yesterday I texted my hubby at work because I hadn't made it to the grocery store and was lost of any ideas for dinner. So I told him I was delegating today. He came home and made dinner so I was happy. :)

Then he told me that I needed to change my clothes into something I wouldn't mind getting dirty. The kids too.

Ok.....

So we did that and then he had us go outside on the grass. I get out there and we say the prayer and then I notice we have no utensils. I'm about to go in for them when he says this:

" 'K guys! We're eating with our hands like the cavemen do!"

And I'm like...really? The kids and I watch him put his fingers in his chicken alfredo noodles and start feeding himself. He looks at me like I should be helping. So I try to play along. (I have never been one for getting dirty like this. I never liked anything to do with food fights, even as a kid. I was too girly.) So I humor him. Sometimes I made fun of him a little though. Where the heck did he get this idea?

So we tried to encourage the kids to eat with their hands. Jameson usually does (and it's something I'm constantly trying to get him NOT to do) and Zachy hates getting his hands dirty. So it was confusing to Jameson for us to tell him to use his hands. Zachy just looked at us like we were crazy.

Then later after I got Zachy to take a couple bites and Jameson to eat a little bit too (they mainly just ate their bread), I looked at Jimmy to find out what else he had up his sleeve. He kept hinting that there was more. So suddenly he says:

"It's a food fight!"

After a moment where we just sat there wondering if he was joking, he took a small handful of noodles and threw them at me and then Zachy next, then Jameson.

I was shocked.

Zachy was insulted and started to cry.

Jameson, well...this sort of thing is right up his alley! :)

I humored Jimmy some more, throwing pasta back at him (and cringing every time I had wet noodles hit me in the face and hair...yuck!) and Jameson soon was laughing his head off.

Zachy stood there looking at Jimmy like he was completely losing his mind. It was the funniest thing! He even started to shake his head at him a little! He was completely at a loss for understanding why his daddy was being so crazy. I tried to get him into a little more but he just sat there shaking his head, stone-faced.

I wish I had my camera for when it all unfolded because Zachy's reaction was so hilarious, but I only could run in and get it after it had all begun.

Jimmy's abilities to surprise me are a bit backward. Sometimes he tells me he has a surprise for me and throws off the entire surprise. Then there's times like this when I have absolutely no idea what he's up to and then regret his not telling me because I didn't have my camera. :)

Anyway, it was a funny evening. We went in and cleaned up and then watched Pete's Dragon together before bed.

My husband is a nutcase. Haha.

Almost Panic-Attack

2011-07-22T16:56:00.000-07:00

Well, we hit a milestone today. I'll try to see it in that kind of positive perspective. My child is growing up....and all that.

Today was the first time I lost my cool and cried because I couldn't find my child.

It's happened.

We went to an awesome clothing exchange that my ward was putting on. It was amazing! There was so much there! It surprised me. I was able to get myself a pretty dress and a couple pairs of much-needed dress pants for Jimmy for work (except they're a bit big so I'll have a little sewing project to do) and a new shirt for both the boys. Then I shopped the little girl stuff like crazy because Jimmy's sister found out she's having a baby girl! Woohoo! It was so fun to pick out the cutest little girl stuff! AWE! Then we went to get in the car.

I crossed the parking lot to my car and had Zachy following me. Jameson stopped on the sidewalk because he had only one shoe on and needed to put his other one on. I strapped the baby in and turned around and Jameson was gone. It's happened before, so I simply started the car so it would be cooling off and got Zachy strapped in. I then went back to the church to look for Jameson. I called around outside for him and he didn't answer so I assumed he'd gone back inside.

I looked around inside and he just wasn't there. So I informed the other ladies there that I couldn't find my son and what he was wearing (His fourty-two shirt...what a surprise, huh! It's been what, 2 years and he still wears it!). We went down the halls opening all the doors looking and he just wasn't there. I went back outside and called for him and no answer. That's when I started to let the feeling in my chest overtake me a bit more.

What if someone at the clothing exchange decided to just take him?

My voice cracked and I knew I couldn't talk to the other ladies anymore about it. They were so helpful! One had her daughter go back to my car to stay with my other two while we looked and another called for someone else to start running around the church while she ran the other direction.

They ended up finding him then around the corner of the church in the shrubbery. What...was he hiding or something?

My goodness I was almost having a heart attack. It was embarrassing and scary at the same time.

I think it comes from having three now. I just can't keep a hand on all three of them at all times. I guess that's where I jut have to trust in the Lord after all I can do and know He'll pick up on my slack.

Tricycle Time

2011-07-14T17:24:00.000-07:00

We went for a walk earlier this week and the boys rode their tricycles around this big circle they love again. Zachy takes his time and doesn't let anything bother him.

Jameson likes to approach any other kid that may be present and say all kinds of things to them.

This is him trying to shout at this boy from further away.

Zachy stays near me usually. This time he actually went riding all the way around the circle.
The bigger boy with his two-wheeler bike decided to race Jameson once. Of course he was lots faster on his bike. Jameson's little legs were pumping a hundred miles an hour and the other boy just sat there on his bike and let the wheels turn and was way ahead in no time. Made me feel bad. We have a two-wheeler for Jameson that has training wheels on it but haven't gotten it out because we need to pump the tires up. I felt guilty enough that I am really thinking I'll get a pump from the store soon.

Little Chili just sat in the stroller as content as can be. He's really such a sweetheart! We got this cute little elephant blanket from my cousin recently and I'm thinking I'll keep it with him as much as possible and maybe it will be his lovey. :)

Potty Training Gone Awry

2011-07-14T09:07:00.000-07:00

I was so excited that my boys were getting it.

Jameson has been doing so well. He can go by himself and never has accidents anymore.

But since the baby was born, he's decided to pee on things. I don't know why but he's just taken down his pants and peed on a random paper on the floor or on the carpet somewhere or on the couch even. I'm getting pretty put out by this obviously controllable bad behavior. He's doing it on purpose. I have no idea how to get him to stop except for time outs whenever it happens. He's been trying to lie about it lately or point fingers at his brother too. Grr.

And Zachy, well, he was doing FANTASTIC! I was so excited at how advanced he seemed to be with all this. He goes poop on the potty really well and was still having wet accidents here and there before the baby was born, but other then pull-ups at night he was doing great!

But since the baby was born, he's been having no enthusiasm to go on the potty or toilet at all. He still would go poop whenever he needed to on the potty (THANK GOODNESS FOR THAT!) but whenever he pees he just stands there and pees. He tells me he needs to and stands there. I tell him to run for the toilet and he looks at me like, really, I need to run? You want me to run? And walks slowly to the toilet as his pants go dark down the legs. He pees on the couch almost every opportunity he has - just sitting there. Every time he stands up I swear he leaves a wet spot!

So I've put him in pull-ups during the day.

What can I do? Until he wants to, I have no control. Maybe I'll try the chart thing to try to motivate him some more or something. Gaah! Wish me luck.

Father-Son Campout

2011-07-09T17:32:00.000-07:00

Jimmy and Jameson went on a camp out last night with other guys in the ward. My goodness my son is getting big!I let Jimmy take the camera. Sometimes he does a good job at taking pictures. Sometimes he doesn't.

Jameson told me about how he threw rocks in the water and toasted marshmallows. He had been so excited to go all day yesterday. That's his new blue camp chair. :)This must have been in the tent they shared with another in the ward. I think he's doing a thumbs up. :) Universal sign.
This looks like breakfast time. :)
Something must have happened to the camera. Who knows what. It's fine now. :)

Can't wait until next year when both the boys can go! :)

Funny Things

2011-07-01T13:46:00.000-07:00

Today Jameson was complaining about not being able to get up when he was falling off the couch. You know the game they play when they act like they're stuck or falling when they're just fine. Well, I told him he could do it. He said he couldn't. I replied, "You have the ability!"

After he fell on the floor and acted all injured he came to me and opened up his empty hands to show me and said,

"See! I don't have any 'bill-teeze!"

:)

Changing Fast!

2011-06-25T17:40:00.000-07:00

...and he already looks different from this picture too! I'm just soaking in this little baby stage. It passes by too quickly!

I Feel SO Productive!

2011-06-22T16:07:00.000-07:00

Day before yesterday...
I prepared a food list for a weekly dinner schedule
I went shopping
I made dinner
I had FHE!
I put the kids to bed all by myself!

Yesterday...
I did laundry
I picked up the whole house
I VACUUMED! (When I don't have a vacuum it's been an issue...I used Jimmy's wet-dry shop vac...on the whole house! Whew!)
I did yoga!
I made dinner!
I put the kids to bed all by myself!

SO today...
I've done almost nothing so far... :)

A New Blog

2011-06-22T15:29:00.000-07:00

I've decided to start up a new blog where I focus on more spiritual things and daily lessons. Head on over to check it out!

Crying Over Hair...How Ridiculous!

2011-06-17T08:43:00.000-07:00

Remember that part in Little Women when Jo cuts her hair and later they find her crying over it?

Well, I've never had any attachment to my hair, really. I always just couldn't understand some people's silly obsessions with their hair. Those crazy women who cry or gasp or sob over that first cut (if they succeed in getting it cut off in the first place) - or simply refusing to cut it, clasping their hair between their hands protectively as if they might bleed if those scissors got any closer to snipping.

I thought it was pure irrational behavior - my niece refusing to cut her long stringing hair when we were children. I kept just thinking - cut it off! You never brush it! But I always had shorter hair as a child. My mom didn't really give me the chance to form this irrational attachment to my own hair.

Throughout high school, I let my hair grow long. I didn't have really long hair up until that point as long as I can remember. I would get it past my shoulders as a child sometimes but not for long. But I got my hair down to my lower back by the time I was a senior in high school. I would curl it with hot curlers most of the time and loved to run my fingers through it. But during the whole four years I planned to someday chop it off completely so it would be a drastic and more noticeable change.

I did cut it my senior year, but it was just layered and still considered medium-long. I cut it again during college, but then let it grow out again.This was on my honeymoon when I had grown it out again - and then I cut it shorter after I had my first baby.

And cut it shorter still after my second baby...

And then even shorter!Which was actually quite fun!

I hadn't grown it out for quite some time when I moved into my new house, and because I didn't want to spend the money maintaining my haircut as much anymore I decided to grow it longer again. I knew it would bug me, but I persevered. I finally had it down between my shoulder blades on my back when I had this last baby.

And then yesterday was my birthday and I went to the salon. Keep in mind, my best friend has multiple-times been telling me she likes my hair longer. My husband said he liked my hair long (and makes comments about it more often when it's long and I do it). I have also really enjoyed the long hair! I was starting to braid it more often and I hadn't worn braids for a long time! No pictures of it, but I would start a braid at my part (I part on the left) and take the braid around the right side of my head, around the back, and down to my left shoulder. It was becoming a favorite hairstyle for me because it kept the hair out of my face and still looked pretty. I was having fun with it!

But when I got in the salon, there was no other customers there so they took me straight back to the chair.

Now if anyone reading really knows me, you also know I am pretty much THE most indecisive person alive. They let me look at the books a while but I felt bad because people started then coming in and waiting for their haircuts and I was the one making people wait - and I hadn't even gotten started on a haircut yet! I looked through all the cut hairstyles...short hairstyles, mind-you. And debated and debated. I started to actually feel the anxiety creeping up in my throat! Over a haircut!!! (A sign? I should have seen it that way...) I thought the haircuts in the book looked so cute and it would be fun to have a change - but am I willing to give up the braid? and running my hands through it - that lovely tickley sensation...well...

...apparently I was!

So here we go again. You can't see it in this picture, but it's stacked in the back. I wish it wasn't. If it wasn't it would still feel sorta long. But it's way shorter in the back. I'm glad I left the front longer at least.

DIRECTLY after she cut the first snip off the back I was thinking to myself "Ok, it's too late now. I've done it- the hair is gone. It's fine!" I could tell myself that over and over but I still felt regret creeping up inside me. When she was done I liked it. Really, I did. I walked out and waited in the little ice cream parlor for Jimmy to bring the kids for my birthday ice cream - and as I waited I felt more and more like I might start to cry. I kept going into the bathroom to look at my hair again and again. (Somehow, the shorter hair makes me look fatter....)

I never DID shed a tear. I didn't! Laaaaaah!

But I kept putting my hand on the back of my head and feeling my throat close up.

Ice cream was good - and I stayed in a good mood - I even danced to the music in the car on the way home!

I took a bath and got it wet so I could try styling it myself - and didn't really like doing it myself. SAD!

Then when I got in bed, I went to flip my hair out of the way to lay down on my pillow -and it wasn't there. And I was sad again. Jimmy keeps reassuring me that he loves it, but...

This morning I did it again before I took that picture...and ok, I like the cut. I do. It's just...my hair is gone! :(

I've never reacted this way to having a haircut. Never! And the only thing I can think is- it's because I hadn't had it long for so long - and I had worked so hard to grow it out over the past year - and it was JUST past that awkward I-hate-my-hair stage when it's in between - it was JUST long enough to really braid it! SO, what do I do? CUT IT OFF!

So now I can do it all over again.

(Wow! Looking at the procession of pictures here really shows my aging! Sheesh!)

Baby Blessing

2011-06-06T09:32:00.000-07:00

The blessing was yesterday and it was quite a group that came! It was great to see so many of there!

Our ward started at 1 o'clock and so people started to arrive after noon and then we headed to the church building. Another baby was blessed just before ours. Then when Jimmy got up with Chili, I hadn't realized how many men from my family we were missing, but the circle ended up being a small gathering of Jimmy, our bishop, and our neighbor Josh and Jimmy's best friend Steve. It was quite small in contrast to the blessing right before, but it felt cozy and was still just as meaningful and powerful.

I was grateful to those two for being there! Josh was supposed to have been leaving for Idaho for the summer the day before so we hadn't expected him. Steve made the drive up from Ephraim to be there and had to leave his wife behind. What good friends we have! I believe we could have asked more from the ward to step in as well, but we hadn't thought of it. Anyway, they've been saying the blessing circles shouldn't be so gigantic anyway, so it was fine.

In spite of the small circle, my house was FILLED to the brim with people! My kids were so tired that evening when everyone trickled away that when we got them ready for bed at 7:30 and had story time and prayers, they went right to sleep and I only had to read one chapter in D&C!

I really appreciate everyone who came, and I am also so grateful for the beautiful gospel in our lives and the testimony I have. It is so wonderful to share that spirit with so many in my large family! Love you all!

My Plan While Witnessing Destruction

2011-05-31T10:37:00.000-07:00

Lately I felt inclined to make a better daily schedule for myself so I can accomplish more and feel more productive. It's tough to do this right now. Everything moves slower when I'm breastfeeding...I wonder why - could it be because every two or three hours I have to sit down for a half hour or so? And in between those times I also have my arms wrapped around a warm cozy little shouting something so my hands aren't free? And if this said something is quietly snoozing and I have free hands, I'm then still distracted or busy getting after two other more actively time-consuming and destructive somethings who if left to their own devises could either break the house down one chip at a time or paint every inch of it with some assortment of liquid "finger paint" like baby sunblock, shampoo, lotion, or Mommy's make-up.

Am I complaining?

Well...it wouldn't be the first time, I guess - but no. I am not complaining this time. Not at all.

These three little somethings make up my world right now. Even if my master bathroom wall is now covered in pink scribbles and squiggles like a Sharpie doodle pad.

I'm grateful! You know why?

Because I am able to stay home and witness the destruction of my own home, as funny as that may sound. I'm not witnessing the destruction of someone else's house as I have had to endeavor to tolerate before, if you remember. I'm also not missing the destruction because I have to work every day like some mom's out there I know (who are wonderful troupers, by the way! *HUGS*). I'm also not at school right now- which means when I'm home I can really BE here at home to witness the destruction, as opposed to somewhere in an obscure novel or MLA-style essay or other miscellaneous class assignment.

I am grateful for that.

I'm also grateful that instead of someone else, I get to manage the destruction the way I would like to. "No - don't color on that wall" (color on the other one while I'm not paying attention). or "No - don't hit your brother on that arm" (kick him in the head while I'm in the other room). You get my drift? Well, at least I try to manage it.

But because I get to manage it for the summer, I decided I need a little more self-guidance. So I've made myself a little sketchy schedule. I'm sure it will be subject to variability because of my many moments (about a half-hour at a time, to be exact) of being tied down by a hungry little bundle of joy during the day, but it's a schedule nonetheless.

Mornings: Jimmy puts the kids in front of PBS (usually Curious George and Cat in the Hat) before he goes to work and I am out of bed. So when I get up to make breakfast, we discuss what the funny monkey was up to or what the Cat taught them about that morning. After breakfast I have scheduled I clean up - including the wiping of counters and table tops and sweeping the floor, which often has gotten neglected in the past. Then it's free playtime for the kids while I do some productive task at maintaining some sliver of cleanliness in my home, like cleaning a bathroom, picking up clutter, dusting or vacuuming. I also decided to schedule in some sort of meal planning here and laundry time if it's needed. If there's still time before lunch, I can use the computer or sit with a novel. Right now I've been reading The Count of Monte Cristo which has been fun. :)

Midday: Make lunch and eat with the kids while making an afternoon plan. I have a manual that has some activity ideas for small children. Right after lunch I'll do a little dinner preping if it's needed and clean up and then we will be doing an activity. It will be much more fun for the kids and give me time with them. One of the ideas is to do a scavenger hunt-type thing while going for a walk to the park. I'll bring along a list and a little paper bag for them to find rocks or leaves or other things. Another idea is to give them colored paper and hole punches at the table and let them have a hay-day with those. I'll try to keep up something in the afternoons like this. And on specified days this time will also be for going to the library or shopping at the store.

Late Afternoons/Evenings: We'll have a little down time for the kids while I make dinner - they can watch a short movie or a little PBS or Kubo. If it's the right time, we could put on Max and Ruby. Maybe I'll start recording that on the DVR. Then Daddy will get home and we can have dinner and discuss what to do for the evening together before bedtime. We could do another activity with Daddy if he doesn't have other things to do - or help with gardening. Play catch or something. Watching a movie as a family is an option, but I think I'm going to limit this one to once a week.

Bedtime Routine: We already have a routine, but I'm adding to it. We'll do pj time and teeth brushing, then storytime or a bath if needed, bedtime prayers and scriptures time and then Goodnight and the leftover evening time will be for Jimmy and I to talk, play a game, watch a movie, or do something romantic.

This is my plan for weekdays. I'm hoping it will save my sanity to plan activities for the kids more. Maybe keeping them more busy will prevent or at least delay the destruction of my house. Let's hope. :)

A Dr. Suess Birthday!

2011-05-22T17:19:00.000-07:00

We celebrated my son's fourth birthday on Saturday at the park. We were lucky the weather cooperated with us - it was raining all week and then the clouds parted for a day of celebration. The wind picked up once in a while and blew things around a little, but other than that, things held down pretty well. :) In all , it was a fantastic success.

I themed the party around Dr. Suess because they're our favorite books and lately The Cat in the Hat show on PBS has been another favorite in the mornings. I was going to theme it around just the Cat, but I decided there were too many fun characters and so I just went with them all...well, as many as I could include.

So here are the plans I had that worked out. I held it at the park near my house. I used the color scheme of blue and yellow and red and white and put streamers up as well as taped little quotes from the best Dr. Suess books all around the gazebo thing we had the party in. I ordered Cat-in-the-Hat hat stickers online to put on each quote. I also got two balloons of each color for the tables: blue, red, gold, and white. Those are the things I didn't get pictures of, sadly.

I have had a sneetch ever since I was little that I have loved all my life and used it for the table decorations for where the presents go as well as a little stuffed elephant for "Horton". My sister gave us a new sneetch for my son a while back and I used that for another decoration near the party favor bags, as well as another little stuffed elephant. I printed off a bunch of Dr. Suess color pages and activities and put them in the favor bags with a bag of Pop Rocks and a little box of crayons. There was a little certificate page as well I printed off for the names on the front of each bag. These printouts, I found at Suessville.com. I also displayed a few of my own Dr. Suess books around as well.

For the food table, I got a bunch of different ideas to add to the theme. I got a 2-gallon container of pink lemonade through Oriental Trading and made my own (using my lovely drawing and tracing skills) Yink's Pink Ink label for it so we were drinking Pink Ink. I labeled the bag of popcorn (dollar store item, as well as the cute popcorn containers I got) to be Pop's "Do Not Hop on Pop" Popcorn and I had a big container of cheese pops that I labeled to be Horton's clovers. :) I also labeled the playdough ice cream carton to be Schlopp. (It ended up pretty schloppy too after sitting out and getting all melty during the party. My attempts to keep it on ice packets wasn't so successful, but the kids liked them anyway.)

The cake, I made myself. I had lots of different ideas for how to make it. I thought about making a cake shaped like the Cat's hat, but that was going to be more work and since I just had a baby I knew I wouldn't want to do that. So I was going to make a cake that looked like the two-layer cake that cat eats in the tub in The Cat in the Hat Comes Back - or the cake he balances when he's up on the ball in the first book. Then when I started frosting the cake, it just sorta turned into this 1-Fish 2-Fish cake.

I also laid out a long sheet of paper from this roll I have for all the kids to color and sign when they got there as a giant birthday card for my son.

And I found this awesome hat at Oriental Trading as well - it's not actually a Dr. Suess version, which would have straight stripes - but a candy cane type hat, but it worked well enough for me and my son loved wearing it with his adored 42 shirt which he's actually been in love with for over a year. I finally got an audible answer that morning for why he likes that shirt so much. He told me he likes it because he looks like a basketball player in it. :) Go figure.

Another Oriental Trading order were these personalized lollipops that I stuck in a wad of playdough at the bottom of these dollar-store plastic glasses. I had them print 'Jameson is a Who who's 4!" on them. They were a big hit! I had like 25 so I thought I'd be stuck with a bunch left. There were only 2 left (and I actually stashed them so I could have a taste when I heard they were blueberry flavored! Haha!)

Activities: I had the kids make little Horton the elephants out of egg cartons. The craft I found here. It's the third one down that's little mini elephants from egg cartons. It was pretty fun. I was worried the glue wouldn't stick well enough to put the heads on the bodies, but it worked out. If I had had more scissors for the kids, it would have been better. Cutting them all out myself wasn't so fun and I didn't end up cutting out enough for everyone to do it, but it didn't matter.

I read them Cat in the Hat and then we played a Cat-in-the-Hat version of Simon Says with silly tricks and then I had them do more tricks of whatever they could think of to be silly like the Cat. I thought about doing another game where we'd do this animal guessing game - but it ended up being thrown out because the kids were having fun playing more and the game would have been hard for the age level.

In all, the party was a blast and I'm grateful to everyone who came! We got to have a little pizza party at my house afterward for the stragglers, my sisters and their kids, and it was great to have a nice visit with them. :)

The Big Brothers

2011-05-14T09:00:00.002-07:00

Although they're still so little, they're the big boys now! We went to the park a couple days ago. They love to ride their tricycles around at this park. Jameson was trying to ride up a steeper hill and asked Zachy to help him. Zachy pushed him all the way up the hill. I got this shot at the very end. It was cute but at the same time I was thinking - man, Jameson, you can get him to do anything for you! :)

Jameson loves his scriptures! He's a big sunbeam now and they do scripture counts and give stickers to the kids who read during the week. He was so worried about not having scriptures so we found him a Book of Mormon and he just loves it. He "reads" them all the time. :)
I love my boys!

He's Here!

2011-05-14T09:00:00.001-07:00

Would have posted earlier but Google wouldn't let me log on. But here we go!

Charles Noble
May 4, 2011 at 6:41 pm
7 lbs. 6 oz. and 19 inches long

He's named after my great grandfather Charles Embry and a great grandfather on Jimmy's side, Noble.
Jimmy got the name "Chili" from the movie Get Shorty with John Travolta. His name is Chili Palmer in the movie. I didn't like "Chili" all the way up until after he was born, but somehow it fits and I like it now. So his nickname is Chili. :)

The boys are adjusting well to the change. Jameson loved him right away. Zachy needed a little time but he's lovin' the baby now. It's so fun to hear them say things like, "Ah, it's da baby!" or "Dat's baby Chili!" or "I lub him!" and yesterday Jameson was giggling away at having the baby's toes in his lap while he sat next to me during a feeding. He loves his little tiny toes! :) It's a joy having this little one around. I'm soaking up the tiny time while it lasts!

A Party Comin' Up!

2011-05-03T07:55:00.000-07:00

Yes...I'm going to attempt throwing a real party even though I'll be three weeks post-childbirth. :) Let me know who can come!

Thank Goodness for...

2011-04-28T13:28:00.000-07:00

...NESTING!

Finally!

Well...yesterday I had consistent contractions from 6 am until we went to the hospital at about 8:30. I left the kids with a nice lady in my ward until Jimmy's mom could come get them.

But at the hospital we got all hooked up to the monitors and...nothing. I had like 2 contractions during the entire hour and a half I was there. I was dilated to 3 cm. but that didn't change and so they just released me saying they wouldn't induce unless I was either on the induction schedule or past 39 weeks. Guess what. Today I am 39 weeks. PTH!!!

SO we went over and got put on the induction schedule for next Wednesday just because. I don't really want to get induced because it's not the most fun way to go into labor. I'd really rather this just happened on its own. So we're waiting now.

So yesterday Jimmy and I spent his day-off from work together while the kids stayed with their grandmother. It turned into a fun day. We ate out, walked around the mall and I got a huge pink flower ring with white gemstones in it (those humongo rings that are in style right now are hilarious and I tried on a whole bunch of them to make fun of them...then I found that one and it's so pretty! Haha!). We walked around Home Depot, Khol's, and then went to the IFA. I had contractions and went to the bathroom a million times but other than that, no action.

I was SO TIRED after that, so we picked up the kids and went home. My mother-in-law was SO NICE to send us home with home-made dinner of meatloaf, sweet potatoes, and beans. <3 HUGS! <3 I so didn't want to make dinner. (Jimmy would have been stuck with it, most likely.) It was yummy!

THEN it hit. I started picking up toys during AMERICAN IDOL! I missed most of the end of it...which this season is strange because I've been following it so close, I record the days I miss. I couldn't stop cleaning! I picked up toys, then moved on to picking up the clean laundry upstairs to put it away. I picked up the whole house! Jimmy vaccumed some and I got the kids ready for bed, read to them, and then realized it was 10 pm! I had completely lost track of time doing all that! I read scriptures to the kids while they fall asleep as a nightly habit now and I never have started reading a chapter in the scriptures that late before! I'm usually SO TIRED in the evenings. It was crazy!

PLUS, when I finally crawled into bed, I started shivering because of all the adrenaline in my system still! It was crazy! I didn't go to sleep for a while, but when I did - it was a GREAT sleep, let me tell ya! I haven't slept that well in a while!

And today it hasn't stopped yet. I wiped down the dining table and chairs with disinfectant wipes (something LONG overdue) and swept and mopped and washed the window on the sliding door in the kitchen. I did another load of laundry AND put it away right after. I even walked the kids to the park, them on their tricycles - then came back home and sat outside for a minute - and then walked them to the OTHER park and played there a while, came back. Made lunch, ate, read library books, and now they're relaxing watching a Dr. Suess movie for quiet time and I'm hoping they'll fall asleep for a nap. This has been one of the most productive days since...forever! It's so nice not to feel like a lazy butt! :)

As far as labor signs- I know I have contractions but I'm not paying attention to them because I don't want to unless they're real. And I've passed that plug thing, I think. So it's still just a waiting game, but at least I keep thinking of more things to do and actually having the energy and enthusiasm to do them! I've even thought of washing out the refrigerator! That might be the next on my list! And cleaning the bathrooms too.

But I hope this baby comes before I run out of chores to do!

Easter...The End.

2011-04-26T07:09:00.000-07:00

OH! I guess I should say Easter was fun! Even though it was overcast and the ground was wet, we had the hunt in the grass on my front lawn. Surprisingly, doing that melted the hollow chocolate bunnies before we could get to them, but other than that it was a success! Jimmy's sister came down with her little 2-year-old boy and we had his mother and other sister here as well. So it was fun. The day before, on Saturday, we had decorated eggs - just me and the kids. It was fun to do something as just our little family. One of the firsts. We usually try to get together with other people. I'm starting to realize it's not quite necessary to do that and still have a good time.

My oldest son is turning 4 this coming month and his birthday has been in the back of my mind a lot. I love to host parties and see people - but with a tiny less-than-one-month old around, I don't know how excited I'll be to host a big shazzam. I'll just have to see how it goes. If anything, we'll do something to make sure it's a good time, at least. Even if it is small.
---

Yesterday was my ASL Final and I turned in my final project (12-page paper) for my Contemporary American Lit class and so now I'm done!

I had false labor about a week ago and ever since, things have been pretty quiet. So now I'm just waiting...

And I feel like I don't know what to do with myself.

It's like now that school's over I don't have anything to do. Of course, I could clean more around the house...
...fun.

So we're headed to the library sometime today. Funny how after all the reading I've done this semester, I still want to read. :) At least it hasn't killed me off, huh.

So the little ticker on the right says 10 days until this baby comes. Hm. I was 10 days early with my first when my water broke. My second was on the due date when the doctor broke my water for me. Right now I feel like heartburn and a splitting pelvis are the only things ailing me and I haven't had hardly any contractions for some time. I guess I'll be doing some exercising of those little "how-to" ways to induce labor.

I still feel like I'm just going to be sitting around wondering what to do with myself until this baby comes. I was thinking before how much I didn't want the baby to come before I was done with school. Now I'm realizing that in a way I was hoping it WOULD happen so I wouldn't have any of this in-between blank of time to just wait for it. Oh well.

Just Shoot Me...

2011-04-16T10:57:00.001-07:00

I said that today and Mr. Giggles kept asking me if I shot myself or if Mr. Grins shot me. He kept looking at my foot and then asking me if I spilt my hot chocolate. He was so confused as to why I said "just shoot me" and couldn't figure it out. I kept telling him everything was fine...but he didn't lose the concern in his eyes. For a two-year-old, he's pretty perceptive. I should remember that.

So, why did I say that?

Well...this baby is SO STINKIN' LOW it's starting to really kill me. And I'm having some pretty hard contractions daily now. Just nothing I know is absolutely and certainly real labor pains. I get concerned once in a while when they make me stop and breath or when I can't stand up straight through them. But they aren't consistent enough so I guess I'm just living through it for now.

The doc said yesterday I'm about 85% effaced.

My mom said that could last weeks.

So, I'm still trying not to go onto labor for the sake of school - but if I have to feel like this for the next two weeks.......
....................
.........................heaven help me.

Yesterday

2011-04-06T09:35:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I had my 36 week check up and they did the first internal exam. The baby is really low and so the doctor was optimistic as to having the baby come whenever and told me that I should just come in if I feel like it's starting at all.

I told him I hope not. :)

I wonder how many times he hears from a pregnant woman as far along as I am that I am hoping NOT to have the baby sooner then later. He was pretty surprised to hear it - but in my explanation about school he understood. But still he came back into the room later saying he could induce me at 38 weeks if I felt like it. I then said...um, I'd rather not. :) That would be the week before Easter and finals. I'm going to try to wait it out as long as possible.

In spite of the pinching I'm experiencing from this head between my legs.
And the midnight, 2 o'clock, and 4 o'clock in the morning trips to the bathroom.
And the other interruptions of sleep because of pinching or other discomforts.

I can honestly say I'm feeling closer every day because of the braxton hicks and what not. However, unlike most pregnant women I'm trying to ignore it as much as possible. When it's happening, I won't be able to ignore it I'm sure - so for now I'm focusing on school as much as possible.

Then I realized.

If I did go into labor sometime - if it's at home during the day how in the heck am I getting to the hospital? Am I going to drive myself? If I was at school? ...hm...that could be interesting.

I do have a great ward neighborhood around me for support so hopefully someone would be available - and someone else available to watch my kids too.

Maybe I should make a plan...huh.

Kids Benefits from Pregnancy Cravings

2011-03-19T11:51:00.000-07:00

So, since the last post was so negative... (sorry about that) I thought I'd incorporate a more positive perk of pregnancy.

Eating.

I ate like four of these. No feeling guilty there.

The kids didn't mind so much that I suddenly had a sweet tooth either. :) We had some fun decorating them.

These cupcakes are made from a regular ol' yellow cake mix, but I perked it up by adding the juice/syrup from a jar of maraschino cherries that were gone. Use that instead of the water (adding water if needed to get the full amount of liquid needed) and follow the instructions for everything else. Then I made some cream cheese frosting and we added the cherry chips instead of chocolate chips. I'm not a fan of maraschino cherries, but these cupcakes were de-lish! Might have some cousins over to share with today - but even if we don't, it's some good stuff!

Feeling more productive today. Cleaned up the clutter, including the toy room (bribery works on kids, you know - "help me clean up the toys and you get a treat! only helpers get a treat!") and I've made these yummy treats too! And it looks like today might be a good park day! Hooray for us!

sometimes i wonder...

2011-03-17T20:30:00.001-07:00

i have always thought that when i get married and move forward in my life with my own family i would have lots of kids. i always thought i'd be that mom with all those many kids - big family. hey, i come from a big family. when i was a tot i loved babies. i was practicing mommyhood when i was not even a year old yet. so i thought by the time i become an actual mom i would have had the practice it takes to really be that mommy i dreamed about being. plus because i have had so many nieces and nephews and been the designated babysitter for them for years, i thought well hey - this gives me a foot forward in the department, right?

well sometimes i wonder...

this is me before kids, after marriage: i was pretty confident but silly. i was still young and thought differently (like a wacko, to be exact) because of it. i had only been married for a year or less, so i was still sliding into the identity of a married woman and wife. i had expectations of my self as said married woman/wife to take care of my husband by cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, and all the other wifely duties i felt were my obligation and responsibility. i felt guilty if i didn't. i wanted to be perfect.

pregnancy changes things. during my first pregnancy i still worked so i felt justified in slacking at home sometimes, but hey - we didn't have kids making big messes everywhere then. during my second pregnancy (which happened when my first baby was only 10 months old so i didn't really get a break) i knew i wouldn't feel up to some things and spoke to my husband about it so i had support. i didn't like being lazy but sometimes i wondered if it was just who i was or something - it became something i hated about myself, but something i couldn't necessarily change because i was just so tired!

this is where the lights came on

i had enough of a break that i got back to normal. i was a mommy i loved being. i had energy - i could run around in the yard with my little boy and have fun while cooing at my little baby as well. i wrestled, i kept the house cleaner, i played, i cooked, i kept my hubby happier - i mean, my sex life was much better, if you don't mind my saying so (bleep, this blog i guess isn't rated G anymore because i used that word - sorry if it throws off people's internet blocking systems), and it felt like life was good.

so when jimmy said, hey let's go off birth control again, i was pretty hesitant. i knew things wouldn't be like THIS anymore. i knew being pregnant makes me tired, makes me hormonal, emotional, ornery, lazy, and feeling guilty on top of it all. but like every oddly selective-amnesia victimized woman after childbirth thinks, i said oh what the heck. i knew i wasn't necessarily DONE having kids.

now we know.

when i'm pregnant, i turn into someone else. someone i loath. someone i hate.

on top of that, i'm a student who has homework and studying.

so what do i do? i sit on the couch reading for a couple hours, or on the computer reading or studying or writing essays. then i sit on the couch staring at the mess of my house and thinking to myself about all the things that should be done. then i stand in the kitchen staring into the pantry or refrigerator at all the canned food, boxed cereal, gallons of milk, and other remnants and ingredients of food thinking to myself that i should make something.......anything......

then i pick up a bag of bagels and a jar of nutella and a butter knife, sit on the couch watching "Cake Boss" or recorded "American Idol" and feeding my kids bites between my own of the lazy concoction i've created for nourishment.

of course, sometimes i make mac-n-cheese, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and when they're lucky i even make (well for the older one) tunafish! (the mixing of mayo and draining of the can sometimes is just too vigorous for me.) and sometimes they're lucky in the mornings when i make pancakes or scrambled eggs. (can't help it, i love morning food.)

still...

i hate that i don't feel structured with my kids right now because i just don't want to do it.

the last few days of good weather have been great because i can go out and let my kids ride their tricycles and that at least makes me feel like a better mom because they're enjoying themselves and getting sun and exercise (and not tearing up baby wipes, toilet paper, or mail - or writing on the walls with markers, highlighters, or crayons - or emptying the contents of their dressers - or the contents of my purse - or the contents of every storage receptacle in the toy room - or their father's cologne or deodorant....and i'm not setting them in front of some sort of square, flat, screen emitting colors and music at them as much as they love it).

i can't wait until i have grass in the back yard and a fence so i can sit back there and let the kids play without having them go too far up the sidewalk or too close to the road. or better yet, because of said fence i can send them outside unaccompanied and worry free - even without pants on and i wouldn't be judged for it.

my house has a waste down nudity policy right now. it's not an argument i can usually fight, let alone win. visitors be warned.

so sometimes i wonder...

how many more times am i going to do this? once this next baby is here...when will i want to do this again? i hate the person i am during this process - and with THREE kids, i am sure to be worse than now. my patience is thinner and i'm not as strong at the same time. i sit there saying "don't do that" nonchalantly because i know i am not going to get up and make them stop. instead i'm going to sit there and watch them destroy something or make a big mess that i know i'll eventually have to clean up - or worse, i'll have to watch my husband clean it up when he gets home (SO FAUX PAS! I WANT TO CRY - and sometimes i do.)

is jimmy serious when he says he's not going to stop trying until we get a girl?

well...i know he'd stop at some point, but ....yeah, i do want a girl....
(and here comes the big ol') BUT
WAAAAAAA!
WAAAAAA!
WAAAAA!

i probably cry as much or more as the newborn when i'm pregnant. good practice for daddy, i guess.

maybe i'm not cut out to be a mother of a little girl.
i bring enough drama for the entire family - even with all the overwhelming testosterone - i think maybe i balance it out well enough on my own.

Venting

2011-02-03T17:34:00.000-08:00

SO my dilemma is this:
Jimmy bought this fancy shmancy entertainment center with electric fireplace for his humongo hdtv for the basement. (I'm not complaining about THAT - it is nice.) We were planning to put it against the red wall down there, which is the narrow wall, but it was hard to arrange the couches that way, so now we've got it so the entertainment center is in the opposite corner and the couches are against the wall. BEST set up. Seriously - corners are the best places to use space! Problem? The entertainment center is NOT a corner TV stand by any means.

So now we've got this big wide thing in the corner that's too heavy for me to move (especially when I'm pregnant, not that I could move it an inch even when I wasn't pregnant) and things get thrown back there or fall back there and I simply CANNOT get to them! The thing is as tall as my chest and even if I climb on top of it, I can't reach far enough back there to get the the things on the floor. It's making me want to rip my hair out!

I had a little crappy computer desk once that we bought at a department store (I won't even mention the name of for popularity's sake); and it worked ok, but then my sister (bless her!) gave us this awesome computer desk that fits in the corner and I LOVE THAT! Corners are the best places for it! It uses the space! (It won't fit down the stairs so we have to have it in the front room right now, but who cares! I love that it goes IN THE CORNER!)

We have our tv in the corner too.

But there's a whole lot of crap behind it.

A Very Crafty Christmas (I Know It's Late)

2011-01-14T12:27:00.001-08:00

So I realize this is pretty late for this, but I just barely uploaded these to my computer so there you go. These pjs were so exciting for me! These are my first real sewing project and they turned out pretty cute, if I say so myself! I was pretty proud!

This pictures are of when we made wreaths out of apple slices. You slice it the other way to make circular slices of apples and then spread peanut butter on it and add "decorations" of whatever you'd like. We used dried berries and cereal. I bet fresh blueberries would be delicious too. And cream cheese would work instead of peanut butter if you want, but this was pretty yummy!

So there you have it. I didn't take any more holiday pictures with my still-shot camera. I was a slacker.

It's a......

2011-01-06T09:34:00.000-08:00

So, Christmas went well. We had a good time with my husband's side of the family on Christmas Eve and had a pretty quiet Christmas with just us (If you can call Christmas with a 2 and 3-year-old quiet) at home. Then on Monday, I had my ultrasound appointment and we headed south my visit my parents for a few days until New Years, which was spent at my sister's house. It was lots of fun! Great celebrations and family time! I love the holidays!

Anyway, this post is mainly going to be about the baby that's now wildly active within me. During the beginning of this pregnancy and all the way up until the last week or so, I wondered why this baby seemed so still and quiet. I got it in my mind it was to be a girl and I even bought a yard of adorable pink Strawberry Shortcake fabric to make a blanket out of for her. I imagined the little girl within me being so gentle and sweet and it was just ingrained. Then I was sitting there as the doctor looked at all the baby's vital organs, waiting to hear him tell me we were having a girl. The baby's head looked good and I got to see the arm wiggle around and a bit of the upper lip and nose at one point. I wondered if there was some thumb-sucking action. Oh great, here we go again! The spine looked good, the stomach and heart, and upper leg bone, one of the kidneys was a little big but we'll just check back with that later because it's not uncommon and more common in boys. It didn't phase me. This wasn't a boy. "It's a boy." he says. I couldn't help my knee-jerk reaction of "What? It is?" and that startled the doctor. He looked at me me for a moment and pointed with his little clicker to the obvious display between the two legs on the screen. "Yes. See?" I was pretty speechless for a minute and then just giggled a little, Strawberry Shortcake fabric the furthest thing from my mind.

There's a lady who lives a couple houses down from my on my street who has a houseful of boys with no girls, ages ranging from 11 down to I think something like 2? maybe and she spoke recently at church about preparing her children to be missionaries. She said something that stuck like glue to my subconscious. This was what she said, for the most part. "When I found out I was pregnant with my third boy, I realized that I was going to be the mother of boys." At that, some other women laughed those little polite appropriate laughs that go along with when someone speaks in public. Then she went on to say, "So then I realized I needed to really start investing myself in missionary preparation, scouts, and priesthood responsibilities." Somehow what she said really stuck with me...even though at the time I thought to myself that what she was saying didn't apply to me because I was having a girl.

Now I'm looking back at myself and realizing that I was just being stubborn.

I spent my first day on campus at my first day of class yesterday sitting in my desk trying to listen intently to what the professors said while a little kidder kicked away like crazy inside of me seemingly trying any venue of distraction. I think maybe he's making up for his quiet demeanor early on in this pregnancy and giving me quite the beating now that he's larger. Waiting for the best time, I guess?

I'd post the ultrasound video because I have it on a disc but it doesn't seem to be letting me, so you'll have to use your imagination.

Upsides of having a boy:
-I get to really do some digging for a name (generally considered as a downside, but hey, I can be positive about it now that I have to do it!)
-Most of the things I need, I've got already. (except now I need more crib bedding which I would have needed either way)
-This time when I come home with a baby and his sore little diaper area, I'll know what to do and I won't get the diaper stuck to his healing skin again and rip my heart out again or any of that. I am PREPARED! (Which was something I was hoping I wouldn't have to deal with at all...but hey, I can use another bout of experience in the department I guess.)
-I've heard girls can be evil. I've escaped from her evil grasps a while longer now, I guess.

Happy New Year Everyone!

My resolutions?
*Do my homework on time.
*Don't go into labor until after finals week.
*Pass all my classes with flying colors.
*Hold FHE on Tuesdays because I'm not home Monday nights anymore.
*Read the scriptures between the required texts I have to read for school
*Get really good at sign language
*Keep a clean house the best I can
*Read to my children every night

Doable? Let's hope so!

Zachy is turning 2!

2010-12-07T13:34:00.000-08:00

Come celebrate with us!

His birthday is Wednesday, the 15th, but we're doing a daytime party on Saturday the 18th, if you'd like to come! It will probably be at 3 pm and we'll just go to the play place at the nearby Arctic Circle to have ice cream. I know it's so close to Christmas, so don't feel obligated at all. Let me know if you can make it! I'll be happy to see you there! :)

Heartache and a Goodbye

2010-12-06T16:56:00.000-08:00

Today has been a rocky rough day for me. Probably why I have been online so long today. I got up this morning thinking that I would get lots of cleaning done as well as keep an eye on my potty-training son. Well, he peed on the potty for the first time this morning and I was so excited, I called my mom to tell her. We talked awhile and then she informed me that my dog has died.

That phone call went from a small celebration to rock bottom pretty quick.

My dog.

Lady became my dog when I was in the eighth grade. She showed up at our house. We never figured out if she was dropped off or had gotten lost - because she looked well groomed, but was starved. She had had puppies once before but didn't look very old - 2 years at most maybe? I loved her from the very beginning. My parents tried to find a home for her at first - but I didn't want to let her go. These people came to see her and when she threw up in front of them (symptom of eating so much after being so starved) I told them she does that ALL THE TIME and made it really dramatic. They didn't want her. So we kept her. She was an indoor dog - which took some talking-into for my parents actually, too. She slept on my bed with me for all my teenage years. She followed me everywhere in the house that I went and whenever I sat down I never lifted my hand from her head or back. She was my best friend.

She had these really dark brown eyes that listened to everything. She knew me better than anyone. I loved her SO MUCH! I remember I would play hide and go seek with her. She was an eye-dog more then a nose-dog and so I'd hide behind the door and she'd walk around and around the house until she finally caught sight of my feet sticking out and found me. We'd also play fetch and tug-of-war. We'd wrestle. If I ever went anywhere I missed her. I remember talking to friends about her when I was away on a school activity for a week and I bawled my eyes out and felt like a moron. :)

Then I went to college. It was SO HARD to leave her with my parents but there was no other way. When I came home on holidays she was SO HAPPY to see me and I felt a piece of myself tear away every time I drove away. Once my mom said that when I drove away, she ran after the car and didn't stop for a long time. My mom called for her and waited out on the road until she came slowly walking back with her head down. It made me so sad to hear about it- but in a way I was glad to know she felt the same way I did. I would be in tears sometimes leaving her behind. I always swore I'd take her when I had my own place.

When I got married, we didn't ever have an apartment that would allow animals - and if we found one we couldn't afford it. Newlyweds don't have all that much money -especially when we were still going to school. So my parents kept her. By this time, Lady had formed her attachments on my mom and dad pretty well. She still loved me, but I think she'd let me grow up. My parents moved to a new house and took her wherever they went. She loved the car rides and walks they'd go on. They'd go to Zions Park a lot and she'd come along. But then she started getting old. She didn't keep up as well and would fall down a lot so they started leaving her at home.

A couple years ago she was bitten by a snake and it was a close call - we don't know how she got through it. But she did. The last few times I've seen her she's been happy and bright and comfortable, but she was definitely getting old. My sister-in-law brought her dog down with us for a visit and she would go running around in the yard, zooming here and there, and Lady would get excited and try to run with her but only get a couple yards before she'd have to rest and she got so out of breath. It was cute. :)

I knew the time was coming - I just wish I could have said goodbye.

Today when my mom told me, I held myself together long enough to get off the phone but then I fell apart and my two little boys gave me little hugs and said it was ok and kissed me on the cheek. I felt bad they saw me fall apart like they did. I was fully sobbing, to the point I couldn't stand and I got a headache. But I couldn't hold myself together. I kept imagining her resting her chin on my knee or laying next to me on the floor when I finally had to just lay down. I still am tearing up thinking about her. I'll miss her so much.

If you'd like to see a picture of my dog and read the little tribute that my nephew wrote about her, go here: http://thehoganfamilysite.blogspot.com/

She was a beautiful dog.

Monster Emotions

2010-12-04T09:21:00.001-08:00

Yesterday Mr. Grins came up with sunglasses on his head and stated to me, "I'm like Dr. Horrible!"

Now if you don't know who Dr. Horrible is, visit this link when you've got the time and watch all three parts. The music is fantastic. I ended up buying it on DVD for Jimmy last Christmas and he's shown it to any friend he can force it upon. :) It's a very entertaining show and won awards for being an internet series. I think they're working on adding more to the story because, frankly, the ending really surprised me with how dark and sad it gets and I feel unfinished. But it IS the story of why Dr. Horrible is a villain and became who he is.

Anyway, it's little moments like when Mr. Grins said that which really make me smile and those moments make up for all the screaming tantrums when I make him get out of the tub, or the getting up out of bed over and over and over again each night, or the hitting his brother or throwing a wooden block at his head, or the laughing at everything that is supposed to be a consequence.

You know, having a three-year-old is a major challenge. They can be SO EMOTIONAL and DRAMATIC sometimes, and yet they're really starting to express themselves more and you're getting to know who this little individual inside them really is. Mr. Grin's sense of humor now makes me wonder at all the smiles and grins he gave when he was a baby...what was he REALLY thinking when he thought that was so funny? Probably that someone got the butt of something or other. :) Mr. Grins is a huge tease, and yet SO loving.

Lately we've figured out a way to help when he's having a melt down as he does. He's one of those who will not stop crying (or howling or screaming) for hours! Truly! HOURS! Especially if we're in a circumstance where I cannot hold him to calm him down. His love language (go here if you're not sure what I mean) is physical touch, that is for sure, and if he can't get that - say, when we're in the car - he gets even worse with his melt downs. I think it's the way he feels acknowledged. I can say all I want to him but until I'm holding him close or something, it doesn't get through to him at all.

So at times like this I can get truly frustrated, or just plain sad because I don't like him feeling like that for so long. Especially when it's something tiny - or something I really have no idea what - and I don't know how to help.

Such a time happened just last week when I was driving my mother up north to Idaho. When I got to him sister's house to pick her up, but the boys were asleep in the backseat already so I didn't get them out of the car. We gathered up her things and got in the car to see they'd both woken up. I was sure Mr. Grins would be upset that he knew we were at his cousins' house and he hadn't gotten out of the car at all. I thought that was why the melt down started. But I didn't know for sure. As we drove away it got worse. Luckily, Mr. Giggles seemed a little half-asleep and stunned and didn't join in on the howling or I would have gone insane right there!

It lasted...

and lasted....

and lasted....

We'd driven for close to an hour and he was still carrying on no matter what we tried to distract him with. My mom talked about the fire coming out of the top of the smoke stacks we were passing and that made him silent for a few seconds or perhaps a full minute, but he was then right back to his first thought and screamed some more. (This is the difference between 2 and 3, by the way - 3-year-olds don't get as distracted and need more acknowledgment and understanding but they can't communicate it well enough to get it so it's a huge catch-22.) I asked him questions about why he was crying and all he could get out was "...'Cause....'Cause....'Cause......" until I started talking to my mom about the last time he'd cried like this and how Jimmy had brought up monster emotions. Then I realized that's what I should do.

I asked Mr. Grins which monster emotion he was. We have a book with monster masks inside and each monster is a different color and represents a different emotion - and the book talks about each emotion and the reasons that monster feels that way. It's been one of Mr. Grins' favorite books ever since we got it, and it's pretty torn up now, actually - all the monster masks are missing their noses. So when I asked him that he was silent. And he was silent for a LONG TIME as he thought about which monster he was.

While he thought about it, I finished telling my mom about what had happened last time. Jimmy had asked him if he was the red angry monster and he'd screamed NO at him. So he asked if he was the blue sad monster and he still said no. So we started naming them all off...the orange worried monster, the yellow happy monster, the green scary monster, or the pink loving monster and finally he said, "I'm the pink loving monster!" and we said "Oh you are! That's great!" and he smiled and gave us both a hug and that was it!

:)

This time in the car after he gave it lots of thought, Mr. Grins finally said. "I'm the sad blue monster." in between sniffles. I asked him what makes him sad and blue and he stuttered a lot between saying "a'cause....a'cause...." and his infinite "uh....uh....uh....uh...." which he's done a lot of for most his talking life. I'm not sure if it's necessarily stuttering or if it's just that he's thinking to hard about how to say what he wants to say. I think it's the latter. Finally he said he toe hurt. I'm not sure if that's how it started...I don't know if it was even the truth or just something he came up with because he couldn't even remember how it had started himself, but talking about the monsters helped a lot! He was done after that.

I went ahead to explain to him that sometimes it's hard to let go of a feeling, but it's not fun to stay sad and blue and if we really want to we can decide to feel a different way. Just like how he'd done before when he said he wanted to be the pink loving monster instead of the way he'd been feeling. It's much more fun and a much better feeling to be a positive monster.

I'm not sure how much of that he soaked in, but I know that talking about emotions helps out a lot! For all other mothers out there with three-year-olds, that's what I've learned so I hoped to share it with you too. :) It may save some of the hairs on your heads from being pulled out. :)

High Chair Dilemma

2010-11-04T15:43:00.000-07:00

I think high chairs are a pain. They are so hard to keep clean, and so they often aren't. Plus the space they take up in the kitchen is so inconvenient! Lately, our high chair expired so I've taken to allowing my children to sit at the table at regular chairs, their plates at chin-level. I've had them sit on books and other things, but it's really quite ridiculous. I've though about getting those extra tall bar stools for them to sit on, but then I'm taken back to that time when I was young and sat on a bench at the dinner table. I leaned back to find there was nothing to catch me and I fell flat on my back.

Recently, my mother-in-law called telling me she found a nice high chair for me. She knows ours has completely fallen apart and we got rid of it - and with another baby on the way I know we're going to need another one someday. But really, how can we solve this high chair issue? Having a high chair that folds up into the wall might help...and are there high chairs out there that are self-cleaning, maybe?

Halloween 2010!

2010-11-01T10:59:00.000-07:00

This year has been a great one! The kids had their pick of costumes to try out, so of course they took advantage of wearing different ones. :) We had a couple hand-me-down costumes (a skeleton and a dragon) and a couple new ones from Gramma Joanni (Woody and a cow). So, the kids switched off to whatever they felt like wearing. Over the last couple weeks, we got to go to Cornbellys a couple times, but I forgot my camera. It was great fun! We went last Friday with some cousins, the Waltons, and had a great time. The weather cooperated really well, even though we were prepared for rain with my backpack full of sweaters and hats. :) Then the next Monday, we went again with more cousins, the Herbst family, and since they are relatives to the owner of Cornbelly's we got in free. Which was a blessing because it was SO COLD. We hadn't thought we'd end up going at all because of the weather. They weren't going to open it all day, so we were just chatting when we got the call that we could go. So we weren't as prepared this time and it was cold enough that we didn't do as much, but it was still a great time. :) Then we went back home for some nice hot chicken noodle soup that my sister, Cami, made. Great fun!

That, Saturday, (weekend before Halloween) I had a Halloween party with some friends. I also failed to take pictures. :( Sad day! But it was lots of fun to get together with my old college buddy, Tiffany, and her husband and their new little baby dressed as a little skeleton. My neighbors came over too, Cassie and Josh, and Jimmy's cousin Devin came with his wife, Lydia. We played games and ate treats and it was a jolly evening. My kids dressed up as skeleton and cow but not for too long that evening. I was a butterfly but didn't do my makeup yet.

The next fun thing for the season was a ward Halloween party on the 29th that ended up a bit smaller then I'd expected. But it was still fun to dress up and go. :) Jimmy put on my old pumpkin costume last minute so I didn't get a picture of him dressed up, but the rest of us were all festive! Zachy chose to wear the Woody costume and we had all kinds of fun comments on how cute he looked. Jameson dressed as a dragon. :) We carved a few pumpkins at the party and the kids won a couple little prizes.

We really got into carving pumpkins this year! Jimmy got a bunch of pumpkins from work from someone with a pumpkin patch that brought them in, so we had a little variety to work with. I carved the cat pumpkin from a stencil but I didn't punch it all the way through (for the first time) and so then I felt I could do a free hand after that. There's a pumpkin carving contest going on at deviantArt so I thought I'd try my hand. I did a "The Last Unicorn" pumpkin, and it turned out pretty good, and I'm proud of it. :)

Jimmy did a Dr. Horrible pumpkin that got quite a few comments from trick-or-treaters, actually. Then he did a monster pumpkin eating up a girlish figure-like green gourd thing. :) It's a fun display.

The kids chose their pumpkin faces painted onto their pumpkins and they drew on their only little pumpkins - they then hammered in the face of a cat on a larger pumpkin together. It was much fun. I got some video of them doing it, but on my other camera, so tough luck to you. :)

Trick-or-treating on Saturday was a bit late because it's also Jimmy's brother's birthday and we got together for a family dinner and also had family pictures taken, which I'm so excited to see! *fidget fidget* We got home just in time to catch some trick-or-treaters coming to our house and I think we missed most of the young crowd, but our kids went out in the cold a little late as it was getting dark. They went as skeleton and cow because those are the warmest costumes. These pictures aren't so good because my living room has dim lighting and they were too excited about candy to hold still, but you get the gist of it. :)

Hope everyone had a great Halloween this year! :)

A Review Coming Up!

2010-10-22T11:36:00.000-07:00

I have recently been browsing around some of CSN Store's many online stores for Christmas shopping. One of my sons also has his birthday in December, so it's a big task for me right now. It's time to get on with that Christmas shopping, and I think this is a real go-to store for online shoppers. They have everything from bar furniture, to cookware, or even shoes and toys!

As those of you who are also readers at my other blog, Dani's Daily Drop, you may know I often do giveaways for CSN Stores there. Lately I have been given the opportunity to write a review for an item I receive from one of their stores. So, stay tuned for my review! :)

Taking it day by day...A RANT, really - Ignore me.

2010-09-28T08:35:00.000-07:00

So now I remember what it feels like to be pregnant, and now I'm wondering what I've gotten myself into - and now I'm thinking to myself "what have I done?" and now I'm thinking to myself "is this something I can handle?"

My days have become bathrobe days. I'm rarely getting myself really READY for the day beyond getting clothes on at some point. I have ceased to make dinner because I can't stand being in the kitchen on my feet smelling the disgusting scents of what regular people call good food. (I'm lucky to have a husband who's agreed to cook for the time being if I clean. Isn't he an angel?) I have become an addition to the couch cushions, only resurrecting from their depths in order to put clothes on my little boys, change a diaper before there's a sore bum as a consequence, or try to prevent some other kind of disaster like falling off some sort of high place they've succeeded to climb up to or take away a crayon or other such item of interest they decide to mark up my walls with. The house seems to be falling apart in the process of my hibernation, but of all things considered, I think I'm doing pretty good. No one's began bleeding yet, no one including myself has starved yet, and I actually put up our Halloween decorations yesterday. Of course, that was the ONLY thing I succeeded in doing all day, but it's been done and somehow creates a festive cheerful atmosphere in spite of my nauseated state.

I know I shouldn't complain. Isn't the miracle of life glorious? I should be shouting praises and celebrating the joys of my swelling stomach, which seems to be ballooning at a much quicker rate this third time around. I could barely fit into my blue skirt for church on Sunday, hiking it up a bit higher over the little baby bump so I could fasten the back, and in doing so I noticed I really already have started looking pregnant. In the past it's taken me to my third month before I look like this. At this rate, maybe I'll actually LOOK like I'm in my 7th month by the time that comes. But of course, although Jimmy could tell (he thought I was actually sticking my tummy out on purpose on Sunday) no one else said anything at church because it's still in that gray-scale stage when if someone were to say something they could be mistaken and seem very rude.

So no one said anything and I don't plan to tell anyone until I feel more comfortable about the whole idea myself. That is ... I won't tell anyone ELSE, but that doesn't mean the whole world doesn't already know. My whole family probably knows by now via Facebooking and other word-of-mouth venues. I don't mind that. And all of you know, although my readers on this blog are a pretty small group of people, I gather. Anyway, I just don't feel excited yet so I don't like announcing it to the world of my ward building or Facebooking the announcement myself to all my friends online yet because I think it's a little odd to hear from a woman "Hey, I'm pregnant" only to shock or surprise shortly afterward when asked if she's excited and she replies with an apathetic "I don't know." It shoots all kinds of feelings of guilt and betrayal through be to feel this way, but I haven't gotten butterflies yet...all except for the nauseating ones that are battling for that tuna fish sandwich I swallowed yesterday only to find that it made things worse.

When I was pregnant with my second, I was in denial for the first couple months or so. The baby came so close to my first I felt like I hadn't hardly recovered into being a regular woman again before I was thrown back into the pregnancy hormonal rollar-coaster once more. I mean, it takes a long time before you feel like you're back to normal - of course you're never the same afterward, but there does come a point when you feel like a regular woman again. But that's after you're finished breastfeeding and all of that. I had a few wonderful months of that myself this year, but of course it couldn't last forever. And WHY NOT? I ask myself.

Jimmy is to blame, honestly. He was the one that really pressed for another kid...but I did concede to it, so it's not all his fault - he couldn't do it all by himself, of course. That would be an interesting circumstance - yet a relief it would be if he could do it all himself. Of course I'd hate having to care for any man who had to go through the months of pregnancy. They act all macho about things, but if they had to do it, I think they would complain even more than we do.

Anyway, I really hope that at some point I will see the light and really get excited for this baby. There is a little inkling inside me that is excited, I admit - I love babies. And if it's a girl that would be a whole new world for us. Yet I really don't know if I'll be able to go back to school as planned now. I could to do one semester of it during my pregnancy but it depends on when my actual due date is. It would suck if I had my baby during the last month of school or something. So we'll have to see about all that.

Then... I'll have three kids... under the age of five. My oldest will just turn four after the baby is born. The other will be almost two and half. It seems good spacing to them...but to me, it's a bit nerve wracking. If I was more like Jimmy, it might be better. He is so task oriented - always doing something or thinking about doing something productive. I sit around and thing, "I should probably do something productive." or "what can I do today?" or there is something I know I should do and whether I actually do it or not really depends on my mood. I'm just so LAZY! Ok- so there are times when I'm more productive then others, but for now, this is just how it is. I don't feel like doing anything.

Maybe today I'll take the kids to the library. If I get dressed, that is.

Oh and By the Way

2010-09-08T10:31:00.000-07:00

I've applied to UVU and been accepted - the semester is already going so I'll register for classes to start in January. :) Here we go! *faints* I'm thinking there should be some kind of affordable babysitter or daycare near the campus so I can take the kids with me and they don't have to spend the commute time with the babysitter...but I'm going to try to get as many online or night classes as I can. I'll major in English/Writing and let's hope I yield some good results with that. :) And by the way I'm pregnant too. Just thought I'd throw that in for those of you who really read this and care. Not very far along yet so I'm not jumping up and down - not that I would be anyway because let's face it, having a third is scary. I should be due probably late April or early May (see - told you I wasn't very far along - don't even know why I'm telling you here in this post, but I suppose I don't have too many faithful readers on here. Facebook will wait. That is, for everyone that doesn't know my mother-in-law on there. She's already posted about it. Might as well tell the world now!)

Friends

2010-09-08T10:28:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd share this cute picture of my son with his cousin. This was at the zoo a little while ago - probably about a month. :) I know, it's late, but I was just looking at pictures and saw it. Pretty cute huh. :)

Commentary

2010-09-07T09:23:00.001-07:00

The other day I thought there was a replay from Finding Nemo going on in the kitchen. The kids were the seagulls: "Mine! Mine! Mine!" and Jimmy was a crab "Hey...Hey...Hey!" :)

Lately Jameson has gotten into this shooting thing. He will take anything- blocks, sticks, whatever - and shoot you with it by pointing it at you and saying "PSSH!" and sometimes we play the game where I fall down dead and he has to give me a kiss to wake me up. It can be fun but exhausting and it gets monotonous as well...he never gets tired of that game.

Well one day he started shooting me in my stomach and he said

"Shooting baby in tummy!"

So... I'm hoping that wasn't some kind of prelude to the future.

A Trip to the Zoo

2010-08-08T18:34:00.000-07:00

Isn't complete without

a ride on the merry-go-round. :)

PSYCHE!

2010-08-03T18:09:00.000-07:00

I guess not.

Well, I've looked further into how much Stephens Heneger College costs and it's INSANE! I'm getting full pell grants from the government, and I still would end up with $30,000 worth of LOANS! Um...no thanks! PLUS take a look at these reviews! The review site for this college gives them an average of a D or D+!!! Everyone's reviews say the school is all into recruiting to make money but once the student starts they don't give a crap as to whether they graduate.

I felt like the people who helped me get everything read to go were extremely nice. It went smoother then I had expected and was SO easy to sign up. They say they'll give you laptop to use during school and keep when you graduate, but I'm sure that's just another lure for their school.

After all that, I was really put out. I was so excited to be starting school again and for it to all fall apart really REALLY sucks. We're going to look into other schools, but now I feel like giving up.

Back to School....Tralala...

2010-07-26T17:47:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's happening, but it is. As long as everything goes well, I'll be starting online classes on August 30th to work for my Bachelors degree in Graphic Arts!!!

I just called about information and talked about financial aid, filled out my FAFSA, applied, sent all needed materials by email, did a couple applicable thingy-majiggars online for them, and it's a go! So far, it's saying they don't expect me to pay anything for school, so I'll probably be covered there...and I'm also going to be applying for every scholarship possible too. WOOHOO! Here it comes!

I'm excited, but I'm nervous too. I haven't taken a class for three years! Does my noggin still work? Well...I'll find out in a month! *faints*

Family Trip

2010-07-21T09:40:00.000-07:00

This was at our reunion in Boise, ID.

We visited the Discovery Center there- there was loads to do and it was so interesting. This is when we pullied our little one up on this little chair. Only one of the many fun little things we did there.

My son got a ladybug on his nose and I couldn't resist. :)

We also visited a rose garden there and this is my little boy walking around in it. I was a bit depressed because when we first went there the sprinklers came on and there was all this mist and it made rainbows in the sunlight around the roses- so picturesque! But I didn't have my camera batteries!

When we went back with my camera ready, of course the sprinklers weren't running anymore and I just got bright sunny shots. Oh well.

We went to Shoshone Falls on the way back from our reunion. It's located near Twin Falls, ID and it actually drops farther then Niagara! Would you believe it! It just doesn't get as many tourists because of the location, I think. It was beautiful! I have more pictures at my dA gallery - soon to be uploaded, that is. It was gorgeous!

And my boys are cute.

Dirty Face

2010-07-21T09:38:00.000-07:00

He went outside with his brother for a simple moment. His brother likes to play with the water hose and get muddy. It looks like he took his muddy fingers and rubbed them over his nose...

What a dirty face.

What a Big Boy!

2010-07-07T11:47:00.000-07:00

Mr. Grins got on the bigger two-wheeler bike for the first time and really rode! I had to adjust the seat for him, but now he loves to ride it. Mr. Giggles needs to catch up and learn how to ride the tricycle now and so they can ride together better. I was so excited! Yes, I know, he's in the middle of the street, but it isn't a busy street. I made a rule that he can only ride with me out there with him. He usually stays on the sidewalk, anyway.

I just wish the driveway wasn't so sloped! It's a bit scary. Mr. Giggles got on the tricycle at the top and started down the slope full speed with his little feet in the air and then turned at the bottom and crashed in the rocks. He landed gracefully so he wasn't hurt at all, but man it gave me a heart attack! Anyway, here's the little video of my little adorable boys for your enjoyment. Ignore me, I'm a horrible commentator.
Sorry, the video won't upload...I'll have to try later.

Trip to LaVerkin

2010-07-05T14:35:00.000-07:00

My parents have a pool in their backyard that we got to play in a lot because it gets so hot down there. It's perfect!

Jameson had a blast because he got enough floaties that he could swim by himself. Zachy was a little too small, so we tried floaties and then we tried a life jacket...and it was all too tough. I need one of those baby floaties...

His cousin, Chris, came down for the last couple days we spent down there- and that made it all the more fun!

This is taken at the top of Zions Park. It got a little colder so we put oversize t-shirts on the boys. :)

I love this picture of my parents at the bottom of the top of Zions Park. :) It is a panoramic shot taken sideways.
This is in the camper.
We stopped for lunch. :)

This picture was too dark, so I had to do lots of editing, but I just love his face!

Naked Journeys

2010-06-25T07:24:00.000-07:00

Well, Mr. Grins decided to take off all his clothes yesterday. He then ran outside and before I could stop him, he was riding his tricycle with none but his skin.

I'm glad it's a friendly neighborhood, at least. I had to snap a couple pics but then I was out there right away to put some clothes on him, so no worries - I didn't let him stay out there like this for long. I just thought it was too funny to resist.

More Birthday Party Pictures

2010-05-28T08:03:00.000-07:00

So finally I can upload the rest of the pictures. Sorry about that - hope you can tell what's going on in the pictures - read the last couple posts I did to see what happened at the party. :)

More about the Party

2010-05-27T17:30:00.001-07:00

The last post stopped allowing me to upload pictures, so I'll do another post here.

GRR! It's not allowing me to upload pictures for some reason. I'll put more pictures up tomorrow then.

ANYWAY
After that, it was food time! Hamburgers, hot dogs, salad, and then cupcakes, and cake. I made them! And it turned out to be just the right amount too! I did a 9x9 cake and then put the rest of the batter into make cupcakes. We had two pieces left the next day that went fast. The cake was the white kind with the party confetti colorful specks in it - I forget what it's called at the moment. The frosting was a store-bought cream cheese flavor kind that I dyed and I used dots candy for the flowers. It was pretty easy and turned out really cute!

After we ate, we opened presents! He was so pleased with his Toy Story gifts from Krissy and "Nama and Gampa" Palmer. There is a stuffed Woody doll (which he immediately turned over to see if he could pull the string but, shucks, it didn't have one), a towel, and storybook. He wouldn't let any of it fall off his lap! :) They also gave him some Thomas the Train jammies.

Then he got some other gifts including a swimming outfit and a car which is one of the Thomas the Train characters from Grandma and Grandpa Hogan, a bucket of plastic sand-molding and gardening tools, a Thomas the Train outfit and movie, a dollar-store gun that shoots balls (which Zachy picked out himself for him), and a new Thomas the Train set with an automated train this time. (By the time we're done he may be finally sick of Thomas the Train, you think? Nah.)

Thanks everyone for coming!

Later that same afternoon, we all went to the Mayan to celebrate a combined birthday dinner for Jameson and Amy. It was lots of fun. Jameson wasn't so sure about the dim lights and sometimes they flashed them and so it was dark. But the divers were SO fun to watch. I think everyone had fun there.

Then all the kids piled in the car with Jimmy and he took them home so us moms could enjoy some away time! :) Thanks hunny! We went to see "Letters to Juliette" in theatres together, which ended up kind of corny but cute! It was fun to spent time together. It was my mom, Cami, Kim, Krissy, Amy and me. Kim's son Aaron (who took most of these pictures, by the way) went to see Iron Man 2 while we were there too. So Jimmy was home with the rest of the kids all by himself and I'd say he did pretty well considering.

We got home kind of late to a houseful of tired kids running around still, but were able to get them in their pajamas and into bed pretty quick. Thanks everyone for coming!!! In entirity, the weekend was a success. What was all my stressin' about anyway? :)

BIRTHDAY PARTY!

2010-05-27T16:40:00.001-07:00

The weekend was a blast, thanks to everyone that came! Even though the weather didn't cooperate, we had a good indoor party. :) I decorated the house and didn't take good pictures of the decorations. Silly me. I took pictures of the party, though. The guests were greeted at the front door by a sign that read "Jameson's Station" and "this way" at the bottom. This sign had been meant for the street at the entrance to the little road that leads to the park, but since we had in inside, I put it on the door. :) Then once inside we had yellow, red, and blue streamers across the ceiling and balloons floating around losing their lift because I'd gotten them the day before. :)

I also put a blue plastic table cloth taped to my dining room floor so the kids could sit there to make their messes. :) It was pretty smart, actually.

The party started with a choo-choo whistle that blows bubbles and everyone sat to color a picture of their own train. Then we played pin the face on the train.

Each little face was a different emotion and before we had the kids take turns they needed to tell us what emotion the face had. Everyone had a turn and I thought it was pretty fun. The blindfold fell of Jameson's face for this picture, but he had it on when he stuck the face on the train.

After that, we went into the living room onto these home-made-out-of-construction-paper railroad tracks. It was like a musical chairs kind of idea, or more like a cake-walk actually. We would walk around the train tracks as I shouted "Choo Choo! Chugga-chugga-chugga-chugga!..." and then when I said "PSH!" They stopped where they were. My sister-in-law, Krissy, called out a number at random and the person standing on that number on the track would get a little prize out of the bowl I was holding. It was a hit! The kids had lots of fun.

Jameson tried to drive his little train on the tracks at first and then ended up just sitting in the middle eating pez candy while the others played, completely content. :)

After that game, I sat down and read some stories to the kids. We read "Parts" by Tedd Arnold, which has become one of Jameson's very favorite books to get from the library. It's a hilariously adorable book about a little boy that feels that his body is falling apart because he keeps finding peals of skin or loose teeth and things it's abnormal. The first time I read it, I thought there were gross parts (about boogers and ear wax) that I cringed at and Jameson thought that it was so funny he fell in love with the book. Note to self: If I think something is gross, maybe I shouldn't be so animated. In all honesty, the book is adorable enough that I don't mind.

Then I read The Three Billy Goats Gruff because both my boys love the troll's voice and the goats' voices that I do and I always loved that little story when I was growing up. Then I read the Monster's Emotions book that my friend, Amy, sent me in a big box of fun stuff for kids a while ago. It has masks for each monster emotion and the kids love it.

After the stories, Jimmy started on the barbequed hamburger and hot dogs while we danced to a musical cd (also from the package I got from Amy) and then listened to a couple stories on cd to wind down.

Birthday Party Time!

2010-05-11T12:33:00.000-07:00

Hey! Everyone who follows this blog are invited to my son's 3rd birthday party! May 22nd (it's a Saturday) at 11 am! I'll most likely be holding this at the park behind my house. There's a little road you can take back to it and park near a gazebo. It's going to be themed around Thomas the Train. Come one and all! Everyone who wants to come is invited! Let me know if I should expect you! We'll have a small luncheon, treats, and games for kids who come. It's going to be FUN!

Saturday

2010-04-19T15:42:00.000-07:00

I didn't take my camera! Oh no! But I had to tell you about it nonetheless.

Saturday was Jimmy's dad's birthday so he came to our state to visit and we went out for breakfast as a family, everyone but Brenden (miss you) was there and it was a nice get-together.

After breakfast at the Village Inn, we went to the Dinosaur Park to take pictures (well, for everyone ELSE to take pictures) and it was so fun! The boys had a great time looking at all the big dinosaurs and Mr. Grins especially loved the automated ones indoors upstairs in the museum. He was nervous at first, but when I held him and kept him calm, he liked it a lot and didn't want to leave the room once he was comfortable and knew he was safe. What a cute kid!

There was a great playground in there that both the boys loved to play on. They loved the slide and got more sun then we had planned for the day, but it was all-around a great day! Wish I had pictures to share... but you'll have to use your imagination. :)

TRIcycle! TRIcycle!

2010-04-17T22:39:00.001-07:00

I want to ride my tricycle, I want to ride my trike...

I want to ride my tricycle, I want to ride it where I like....

EEEEEEeeeeewwwww!!!!@$#%&*

2010-04-17T22:06:00.000-07:00

That's right.

We found them ALL over in our sprinkler system in our yard.

Yuck.

It creeps me out. We sprayed them all and all inside the openings, but I'm paranoid now.

SOOOOO Sleepy!

2010-04-15T13:51:00.001-07:00

Just now I noticed that Mr. Giggles was being extra quiet over there in his high chair and when I went over there, he was falling asleep, his head bobbing to the side. It was adorable! But alas, my first instinct at the moment was to grab him up and so he can go to bed, I felt too bad to grab the camera. Sorry fokes.

But I had to share the little story because it's the first time that has happened to me as a mother and instead of laughing it off like most mothers do when I hear about these stories, I can't ignore the guilt! I'm so weird!

Today it is SO NICE outside! We went outside at around 11 am and didn't come in until around 2 pm and I noticed the time and made them lunch. We usually have lunch a bit earlier so Mr. Giggles will get some lunch before he takes a nap. Since the schedule was backed up a bit, I knew I'd have no trouble putting him down for a nap right after lunch this time, but I didn't realize how tired he was!

Poor kid!

But of course! We've been out in the sun for some time today - first they rode their little bikes (tricycle and pull-along tractor) up and down the sidewalk while I sat lazily in a camp chair watching them and reading various materials. Then they played awhile on their little slide and the kitties that roam the neighborhood. It was all so nice I lost track of time and I guess Mr. Giggles did too.

It is a comfort that we had a good time and I know he's only tired because he was having so much fun before and had to hold still and sit in his high chair long enough to get sleepy.

At least I got some protein in him before he zonked. :)

Word Verification

2010-04-06T12:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry I have to put up word verification here. I hate it, but gotta do it. I was spammed. Dumb things.

Easter Cousin Photos

2010-04-05T08:53:00.000-07:00

This was their Easter gift from Grandma this year. Bath-time finger paints! It was a crazy afternoon bath, but they had more fun this time then they have ever had in the tub before! It was a blast and I hardly could get them out of the tub!

This was Easter Saturday afternoon. We do most of our Easter celebrating on Saturday. Easter Sunday was pretty relaxing actually. Lots of naps going on. :) The kids had candy to snack on and we watched conference and layed around. Or I did at least. Jimmy made dinner for us! What a sweetheart. I've caught a terrible bug and feel absolutely rotten. By Saturday night I knew it wasn't just allergies like I had suspected before and Sunday was just full of sneezing and feeling rotten. I'm still getting over it. Today I'm still in my bathrobe - and no immediate plans to remedy that, really. :)

I was so proud of Mr. Grins sitting next to his brother and cousin so well for these pictures! Maybe he's better at getting his picture taken than I had thought. We really need to go get family pictures done! We've never had our little family photo-shoot professionally, and we really should. Mr. Grins just loves his cousin! They play like best friends already. They both are a lot more energetic than Mr. Giggles, but he'll catch on eventually I'm sure. Mr. Giggle's wouldn't smile for the camera, silly boy.

We had lunch together between conference sessions and then an easter egg hunt after the sessions. I didn't get pictures of the easter egg hunt! Snap! I just used my video camera. But they got plenty candy! They're still working on it.

Wondering how the tub looked after that crazy painting frenzy we had in there?

Well, what do you think? Surprised? Yeah! The paint all turned into soap suds! I don't think my shower stall has ever seen so much soap! The kids were covered in suds and I had to take them into the other shower to get the soap out of their hair and make sure there wasn't any left on their skin. Mr. Giggles is a bit sensitive to stuff like that on his skin. But it all worked out lovely! Clean kids and a clean shower! Nothing can be better than that!

Size and the 42 Shirt

2010-03-31T11:16:00.000-07:00

They're getting closer and closer to the same size. I'm not sure how much longer it will take before they're wearing the same clothes and fighting over which shirt to wear. Mr. Giggles is now wearing the size clothes Mr. Grins was just growing out of when we moved to live with my sister this past fall! He is a little sweetheart that lets his brother push him around a little too much but I have a feeling he'll get good payback soon when they're the same size!

Lately, Mr. Grins has gotten so attached to this shirt that he wears every single day! I don't know what's so special about it. I know he likes orange and numbers but honestly! It's just a shirt and it has a stain on the front too! Today he chose the red pants for the gastly combination, I know. But he just loves that 4. 2. as he calls it. I have to fight him to get it off him to wash it. Last night he wouldn't let us take it off so he wore it under his jammies and as you can see he still wouldn't take it off this morning. I'll have to force it off him tonight so I can get it washed again. Silly boy.

Clapping Bubbles

2010-03-31T11:12:00.000-07:00

Neither shot is really in focus, but I thought it was cool that I ended up with both pictures like that. :) Thought I'd share.

Bath Bubble Boys

2010-03-31T11:07:00.000-07:00

The boys had a great bubble bath recently and I had to get pictures of them with the bubbles. They were already sort of dwindling for these shots, but I guess it's better than nothing right?

Spring Fever Visit to the Park

2010-03-15T15:13:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd share some photos of the boys playing in their hugely marshmallow like coats. :)

Sour Faces

2010-03-02T08:46:00.000-08:00

I gave them each a half of the lime I squeezed and this was the results. They made faces, but didn't stop putting it in their mouths again and again... silly kids. :)

The Joys of Nutella

2010-02-22T18:42:00.000-08:00

On Sunday after dinner the kids still wanted more food (because they didn't like dinner so much) so I gave them each a slice of bread.

But it was not just bread.

It was Nutella.

Heaven is in chocolate faces.

Just so You Know

2010-02-16T10:28:00.000-08:00

I'm finding that I post much more often at my other blog and I have followers here that don't ever read my posts over there- so I thought I'd send people from here to there if you are interested in seeing my daily thought-process and potty-training updates. I really only post pictures of the chillins and bigger family-type updates here on this blog.

So go on over to Dani's Daily Drop to see more about what goes on in my daily life. If you want to know. :)

Happy Valentines Day!

2010-02-14T13:50:00.000-08:00

This morning, I got up and arranged a little table display with love coupons, conversation cards, chocolate chip cookies, and heart-shaped Reese's peanut butter cups on a heart-shaped plate for my three boys. They were right on top of it!

Then guess what Jimmy had in a box for me?

Awe! The bracelet matches my necklace and earrings that he gave me for our wedding.

Then I got the boys into their "I Love Mommy/Daddy" shirts with button-ups over them for church. These are the pictures I took of the boys.

Mr. Grins kept wiggling so much, this was the only picture fit to even post of him alone. The others were either too blurry or he was faced the other way.

Can you tell by that face how much he loves his daddy? *snicker* They usually just get upset and want the camera so it's always a hard process to take pictures with them knowing it. Then if they don't know I'm taking their picture, I get the backs of heads or various other body parts. Boy, I need to take them to a professional photographer again sometime soon. *shaking head*

Sliding Down the Stairs

2010-02-13T13:42:00.000-08:00

Now that we have stairs, it just adds to the acrobatics that go on in my house. It's quite funny actually. I'm just glad that Mr. Giggles caught on to the stairs thing quickly and I haven't had any falls. Yay!

As for more updates? Well, Mr. Giggles has started trying to walk more now. He takes a few steps, falls, gets back up and tries again and falls... it's pretty fun! Most the time, he keeps a hand on a wall as he walks down the hallway or whatnot, but he's making progress! I can't believe how time flies! They grow way too fast! By the time the weather gets warmer, I'll have to little munchkins running all over the place and riding their little bikes out front on my driveway. :)

As for the house - Jimmy has been working like a maniac! He already has the main room downstairs to the point where we're painting today! He's been down there almost every evening working on getting the walls and ceiling done. We're giving it a nice accent wall with a dark burgendy-like color. The rest will be an almost white, but brown color - I can't remember their names at the moment but I'm sure they're a lot more clever than what I just said.

I am so grateful for my husband! He's the kind of guy that starts a project and works on it every day until he's finished. This basement is going to be a cinch. Whenever we have the funds, we'll get it done! I don't know what I'd do without Jimmy!

We had a superbowl party with a bunch of family, which was a success. But we didn't have it in the basement. Right now we've got our big tv sitting on top of my piano in our front room. Can't wait to take it downstairs! We'll be just laying rugs for the time being once that room is done so then we can lay carpet when more of the basement is finished. Wish us luck!

Why You Don't Bother Newlyweds

2010-02-02T11:23:00.000-08:00

Bishop's Business Card

A Bishop was visiting in the home of two Ward members, a newlywed couple. At the garden apartment where they lived it was obvious from the giggling inside that someone was at home, but no answer came to his repeated knocks, he even called out to let them know it was he at the door.

Everything had gone silent. Then he took out a business card and wrote "Revelation 3:20" on the back of it and stuck it in the door.

The following Sunday his card was placed in one of the tithing envelopes and given to one of his counselors who in turn returned it to the Bishop. Added to the card was this cryptic message, "Genesis 3:10." Reaching for his Bible to check out the citation, he broke up in gales of laughter.

Revelation 3:20 begins "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." Genesis 3:10 reads, "I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid for I was naked."

Remember when the funniest jokes were the clean ones? They still are! "A cheerful heart is good medicine" (Prov. 17:22)

Another Party and My House!

2010-01-15T08:31:00.000-08:00

We were able to go to our little cousin's birthday party a week ago. He's 1! He was born exactly 3 weeks after our own Mr. Giggles. He's a little sweetheart - and Mr. Grins had quite the fun playing with him. He's got higher energy than Mr. Giggles has. My sweet Mr. Giggles is pretty calm and slow-moving for his brother, but their little cousin definitely surpasses energetic expectations! When they visited our house, Mr. Grins would race up and down the hallway with his little cousin crawling like a maniac behind him and they both giggled like crazy. Mr. Giggles sat calmly watching at times and other times he just played something else. Haha!This is our adorable little cousin!

The best part about the party, of course was the cake! :)

And now for that sneak peak I promised.

This is it! Welcome to our humble abode! For more pictures, please go here. :) I already uploaded them there and don't feel like doing it again here. Ya know, I'm feelin' lazy. (Not really... I just want to do something else today besides sitting on the computer! "WOW," you're saying! "It IS possible, then!")

Christmas 2009

2010-01-12T14:51:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning was fantabulous!

We spend the holiday down at my parents house and it was such a peaceful getaway from the chaos happening with the move and all.

In the morning, Mr. Grins slept in a bit with Daddy and we all waited patiently.

Then came the fun when he came in the room and spotted the Thomas the Train set waiting for him. Mr. Giggles loved his rocking horse too!Thanks for everything, everyone!

Stay tuned for pictures of our new home!

Happy Birthday Mr. Giggles!

2009-12-14T14:16:00.000-08:00

Mr. Giggle turns 1 tomorrow! We had his party on Saturday and it was lots of fun. It was small, but that was great anyway!
Grandpa and Aunt Krissy came earlier in the morning and we all got ready and headed to the McDonalds with arms full of children and presents. It was a fun time.

The kids played and played first while we ordered food and watched. Aunty Krissy even took Mr. Giggles in to the playplace tubes for the first time - and down the slide!

He liked the little slide too.

Then we all sat down to eat

-and Mr. Giggles had his first kids meal and kids meal toy!

It was a blue guy from Avatar that lights up when you talk to it.

It went right into the mouth, of course. :)

We opened presents before the cupcakes, so we could do that cleanly. It was great fun!

Jacob gave him new pajamas and a neat glittery bouncy ball (which he adores).

Adelaide gave him a xylophone piano with another pair of pajamas (clothes are needed right now because he's grown out of the clothes we had and the rest is in storage until we move!) He LOVES this piano - you can see it on his face!

He got a shape sorter bucket with stacking cups from Mommy and Daddy.

And another ball (a squishy one) from Mr. Grins.

Aunty Krissy gave him a Mr. Potato head. (Jacob said "I'm a married spud, I'm a married spud, I'm a married spud." when he saw it.)

and Grandma and Grandpa Hogan gave him a cute outfit (that looks great on him, by the way) and a pull-along puppy that barks. :)

The presents were great... but the cupcakes were even better!

After he finished his own cupcake, he grabbed the remains of Jacob's who was sitting next to him
!

Look at this face!

Isn't it to die for?

Yum!
Look what I got!

I want more!

After the cupcakes, we cleaned everything up and headed back home to play some more.

After the party, play-time, and the sugar high wore off, he was exhausted and laid down easily for a nap.

It was a very great day! Thank you to all that came! I can't believe my little guy has grown through this first year so quickly! There's only more fun to come!

One Year Old Already!

2009-12-10T14:53:00.001-08:00

Mr Giggles is having his 1st birthday party! Saturday, December 12th, noon, at the McDonald's Play place near where we live.

We'll have lots of fun and eat cupcakes!

If you would like to come, let me know! You are invited! :)

Zions Park over Thanksgiving Weekend

2009-12-10T08:50:00.000-08:00

We went down to Grandma and Grandpa's for Thanksgiving and they live near Zions Park - so we spent a day out there. It was great fun.

There's a place where the rock rains - there's moisture inside the rock that has been inside the rock for years and years, so it constantly weeps. Some of the kids caught the moisture in their mouths. I'm sure it has a strange flavor. It was a cooler day, but that didn't bother me so much. It was much warmer than it would have been up north!

Mr. Grins has a cousin his age - and they played and played. It's so fun. They find someone their height and it's like they're instantly friends.

Hey

2009-11-24T18:35:00.000-08:00

Jimmy told me to put a link up for you to see our new house - but it has been removed from Utah real estate, so you'll have to wait until we're moving in and I'll take my own pictures.

Nothing Tastes Better Than Blueberry Pancakes!

2009-11-24T09:20:00.000-08:00

So YUMMY! I couldn't contain myself- this face was too adorable!

A Story to Tell

2009-11-21T09:51:00.000-08:00

Thursday, Jimmy noticed a house come onto the realty website that was not a short sale, but in our price range. So he called our realtor to ask about it. It was already owned by the bank, and the agent selling it said the bank was ready to accept any offer that was around the asking price. We scheduled a time to go see it that night.

When we were driving through the neighborhood where the house is located, I felt different than I had when we went to look at any other house (since we've looked at so many!). Somehow, I felt like this was going to be my neighborhood. This was it. This is going to be my neighborhood. Before we even started looking at the house, I was glancing at the houses surrounding it, looking at the Christmas lights and wondering who lived there- what kind of people they were. I never had done that around any other home. I felt something inside telling me this was right.

So when we saw the house, I got even more excited. It is beautiful. The driveway curves in the front of the house into the garage - which as windows in the front. There's a nice porch-like deck in front of the door. You walk in to a nice little sitting room with kitchen and dining behind it in view and a stairway to go downstairs in front of you to immediate right. A hallway further to the right takes you to a bathroom and three bedrooms (with a master bath). The basement is unfinished and it has marvelous prospects - wall frames are already put up to create two more bedrooms, a bit living room, a bathroom, and more storage space, including a room underneath the porch that is cooler. It's beautiful.

So we got right on it and made an offer first thing the next morning. By the afternoon we heard back that our offer had been accepted!!!

~~ACCEPTED~~

MUSIC TO MY EARS! THE ANGELS WERE SINGING!

I get tears in my eyes thinking and writing about it now. That house I just described to you is going to be mine. Those neighbors - in that beautiful nice neighborhood - are going to be mine! I'm going to have a house for Christmas!

Our closing date is set to be around the 18th of December. Warm fuzzies await!

My Giveaway

2009-11-15T19:20:00.000-08:00

HEY!
For all you people here- head over to my other blog - Dani's Daily Drop to enter my giveaway! It's awesome! Seriously! Take a look- enter - and you may just win a magical mirror! :)
GO HERE!

House News... NOT... and Time for Gratitude

2009-11-14T14:19:00.000-08:00

If you're wondering what's goin' on with our family, well.... nothin'.

That's right. The bank was supposed to give us a yay or nay on the house ...let's see - the second to last week of October? Yeah. They didn't. But for sure by the next Monday! Nope. They still didn't. Then, for SURE they would let us know by the next Monday.

Guess what.

Nope. They didn't.

My Realtor said "You'll close by Christmas for sure!"

Now I know we won't... "for sure!"

Yesterday Jimmy came home and said, "Hey! I heard back!" He'd been calling the agent to check up on the details pretty much every day for the last week or so, and wasn't able to hear anything. So for a moment I was excited... then his mood made me dread what he was about to say - I thought the bank had denied us. But, nope.

"Nothing yet."

SNAP!

So... we're still playing the waiting game, living with my sister's family (and trespassing while doing so, I feel), and taking it day by day.

Blessings?
Well...
I'm grateful that my little boy has been given the opportunity to live with other kids around to play with and learn from. His vocabulary has expanded a lot since we started living here. It's been lots of fun to watch him play with them when they have a good time together.

I'm also grateful to have the opportunity to live with my sister and have constant daily time with her- we've been able to reconnect with conversations that we probably never would have had if I had not been living here.

It's also pretty good for the two of us to learn from the two of them, and vise versa, as married couples. They have this polite kindness between the two of them that I fear is not quite as polite or kind between the two of us. It makes us try harder to be better toward each other. It's also interesting to see things from other perspectives as well. I feel that my love for Jimmy has grown through this experience, and I feel his love stronger as well.

So in spite of how hard it has been, there are the good things about this experience, and I am determined to learn what God wants me to learn. (The sooner I learn whatever that is, the sooner I'll get my own house!)

Halloween

2009-11-01T12:10:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we carved pumpkins first thing in the morning. I didn't get pictures of us carving, but I got the results of our efforts! :) It was a fun time. We bot a new kit for Mr. Grins so he could just hammer in a face on his pumpkin. That was fun for all the kids! We turned on "Blackbeard's Ghost" for them to watch while they took turns hammering the pumpkin's kitty face. It was a good time.

We met up for lunch in the middle of the day with Jimmy's siblings because his brother celebrates his birthday the day before Halloween. It was great to get together with all of them and just enjoy each others' company for a couple hours. The babies were happy to see each other. It would have been nice to get pictures of that too... but I didn't. *shrug*

We came back home after lunch, finished up the pumpkins, decorated our trunk, and went to our neighborhood trunk-or-treat which was a BIG hit! There were so many people there and the costumes were great! It was such great weather for Halloween- I always expect it to be so cold, and this year it was warm enough that I actually got hot getting everything ready! Poor Mr. Giggles also seemed to get pretty hot in his fuzzy tiger costume. *sigh* You can never win! You get a costume that's light and they freeze, so you buy a nice warm costume and it's miraculously good weather that day.

Mr. Grins was Thomas the Train, and his costume was so convenient! It has a built in pouch in front to put the candy- so he didn't have to carry a pail or anything - but after a while he started to waddle under the weight of all the goodies. :) It was pretty cute!

The little cousins, A and J, were Bell and a transformers - Optimus Prime (who knows if I spelled that right...) - they were both adorable about their costumes and it was a great day together.

I was a witch and my sister was a fat (pregnant) monarch butterfly. It was fun to just throw something on this year. But I was pretty amazed at some of the other adult costumes at the trunk-or-treat! There was this guy on stilts with a long black robe on and scary skull-type mask. He was SO tall and skinny- it looked awesome! Mr. Grins stood in front of him, rather stunned, and held up his hand for candy. *heeheehee* Nothing phases him when there are goodies involved! :) I wanted to take a picture later but never got over to him again to do it--- too bad.

There were lots of other fun costumes. One boy was wearing a huge clam with fake legs sitting it in so he looked like a sea-diver sitting in a huge clam - then he decorated his legs to look like sea weed. It was a pretty fun costume!

Later, Jimmy's sister came by and we had dinner together and then chatted and watched another movie until bedtime. The others went out for more trick-or-treating, but I thought we had enough candy - especially after going to my mom's trunk-or-treat down south last week. It was a really fun day - and night, as I stayed up until 3:30 (slash that! 2:30, daylight savings!) talking before she went home.

So -needless to say- I am tired today.

*yawns* it's time for a nap.

Don't Worry, Mom. I Got It!

2009-10-27T15:45:00.000-07:00

This morning, I got side tracked doing dishes before Mr. Giggles got all his breakfast. I looked over to him complaining to see Mr. Grins pick up the spoon and start feeding him. It was too cute. What a cute little helper. They're getting to be better and better friends every day.

Fun Weekend!!!

2009-10-19T10:04:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a blast!

One of my sisters and her family came up from the south and we went to Cornbelly's!!! I hadn't ever been there, but my brother-in-law's brother runs the place, so we all got in free! It is the most fun place to go during the harvest season, and it was a hit with the kids!

Jimmy didn't come with because we went while he was still at work and then he went golfing with a buddy, but he joined us later for dinner and got to hear about everything he missed out on. I'm sure we'll want to go again, but we might not make it back this year before it closes. I think it's only open for about a month and then closes on or just after Halloween.

My brother-in-law's brother first started out making corn mazes... in fact I believe he's one of the first, if not THE first, that made a corn maze. That used to be all that was there at Cornbelly's, but over the years he's added a little bit here and there and now it's a full-blown carnival area, yet it seems to be set from an era of simpler times.

There's a place you can shoot corn husks, they had pig races, and all kinds of wooden cars or trains to climb on. They had a big stack of hay bales with big slides from the top, and other smaller hay bale stacks for smaller slides.

The girls loved the princess place where there was all kinds of princess dress-up clothes they could just wear and go in a bouncy castle, or color in another castle, or dance on a stage. Then there was a play area of younger kids where there was smaller mazes made out of hay and a corn sandbox, and a ducky water-trough races spot. Those last two were the biggest hits for Mr. Grins!

We rode a train around and there was also one of those barrel trains running too. My dad made one of those when I was a kid and so I have lots of fond memories of riding around in a barrel train- and then driving it through the fairgrounds when I was older.

We also went on a hay ride through a portion of the corn maze. This wasn't as scary for the little kids as going in the actual corn maze. The bigger kids went through the corn maze later. They have people dressed up in all sorts of scary costumes to jump out at you during the month of October. I also didn't go in the maze. By that time it was sundown and getting colder anyway- so we went to get hot chocolate and dinner. I think the big kids that went through it had a good time though.

Mr. Grins loved the slides! That big huge one was a bit nerve racking at first, but I went down with him and he wanted to go down again and again and again!

The whole place was full of the most fun activities!

There were also these huge plastic pillows with their edges buried in sand that the kids could bounce and jump on. That part was lots of fun too. You can sort of see on behind Mr. Grins on the red bouncer thing he's sitting on.

What Is a Sweet Reward after a Long, Hot Day?

2009-10-19T09:50:00.000-07:00

Ice cream!

Our Life Now

2009-10-08T12:26:00.000-07:00

So, as we house hunt and make bids and have our hopes high in this craziness, we're staying with my sister.

Things have been fun - the boys like to play with their cousins, and they're both learning a lot! I'm starting to realize my little boy isn't just a baby anymore, and needs to learn more about how to play with others.

He's gotten into a hitting, pushing, and biting phase (it IS just a phase) and I've been practicing my disciplinary mothering techniques. I never know what really works with him because so many things are just a joke. He either laughs at me and it doesn't bother him at all, or he gets extremely mad or hurt. I've been trying to do 2 minute time-outs. I have him sit next to the wall with no attention and he can't move the whole time. It seems to be working alright. Spanks don't work on him, it seems. (Besides, I don't like doing it.) He's growing up, nevertheless, and with growing up comes boundaries and rules and "mean mommy" s. He's now stopped taking naps completely. It helps him go to bed in the evening better, and we're now down to binkies only at night. Hip-hip-hooray!

Mr. Giggles is also doing his fair share of growing. He needs to stop it! My baby needs to stay my baby! But, thus is life.

He's getting up on his hands and knees now to crawl, which is so big! He also has more teeth and hair. He got his right bottom tooth, then the top left- and now his bottom left and top right have broken through. He's going to look so old with four teeth! His hair is longer and coming in thicker but because it's the same color as his skin, (maybe a tiny bit different) he still looks bald. That's ok with me. *smile*

Our favorite times of the day are when we get to play outside during good weather- which has been great lately - it's a little on the cool side, but perfect in my opinion. My sister has a great back yard and they play together wonderfully (usually). We also love story times. We've gone to a couple story times at the library and get a great collection of books to take home every time we visit. Then we have story times at home. Jimmy read to the boys the other night and I had to get pictures- it was too cute.

Other good habits we've made here are tooth brushing in the evening before bed- Mr. Grins loves this! So, we'll be keeping up a good habit when we move into our house, I'd hope.

As for our house searching, we've been putting in bids on short sales and have heard back that we're first up on one house and second on some others- it's just how fast the bank goes in whether they will accept or reject us. Wish us luck- can't wait to get into a house of our own!

Musical Fun

2009-09-26T19:23:00.000-07:00

Mr. Giggles recently started to dance to music. He just can't help himself. It's the cutest thing ever! But, I don't know, I might be biased. :) What do you think? :)

The Kitty's Little Present

2009-09-21T10:06:00.001-07:00

So I'm sitting in my room (my home at the moment) in my sister's basement and my sis comes down the stairs and squeals like a little girl, jumping back in horror and skipping up the steps backwards as if something is going to jump up and grab her.

"Cat!" she yells after she's composed herself.

I look at her in question and she asks if I've seen the cat down there recently and I couldn't remember seeing her since much earlier in the day. I imagined there was some sort of mess on the floor- perhaps throw up? The litter box and cat food were just at the bottom of the stairs- perhaps there was some other sort of mess there.

I come out to the hall to see a little mouse with longer back legs sitting there at the foot of the stairs rubbing it's face and hardly paying any attention to the giant two-legged creatures staring at it. After further inspection, it had a missing eyeball and the other eye was squinted shut- probably injured. So it was blind- and I can imagine pretty banged up to allow people to stand around it like it did. I don't get the chance to see a little rodent like that very often and I didn't expect the reaction it had on me. It was actually kind of cute, and I couldn't help the excitement that arose in my chest. Awe!

Ha Ha! - I know some of you are probably horrified right now.

I don't know- it probably just reminded me of a little rodent I saw on Cute Overload... here's that post. Click that and go take a gander. It's worth it, really.

I'll wait.

Really.

La...dee...dee...da.

Cute, aint it!?

Anyway

So I swept the little thing into a bucket and took it into the back yard. My sister said it was dying and she didn't want a dead mouse stinking up her house. (I believe her point of view is most likely shared by most my readers... and other sane women in the world... but as most of you know, I am rather insane.)

Honestly I don't think it was going to die- or not soon anyway. Because although it didn't go very fast, it did go hopping around in the grass pretty well.

After I let it go into the grass, I went in and grabbed my camera. I kept away from the yucky side of its face. But I did a little bit of a chase to get good shots of it.

Awe!

Heeheehee. Well... have a nice day!

Fun in the Nice Warm Rain

2009-09-15T09:38:00.000-07:00

It rained yesterday and is supposed to be rainy all week. We're excited since it's been so hot lately. Mr. Grins went out with his cousins, A and J, to play and it was so adorable.

Bare feet in the rain! It was so cute, the splashed and splashed on the deck with their little feetsies.

J was collecting snails and "saving them from the rain" as he said. "Oh now, they're getting all wet!" He started grabbing them and putting them under the skateboard to save them.

They had fun until something bossy happened and someone pushed someone and slipped and oh the drama. :) But they still love each other. It was so sweet. After the tears, his little cousin came back to him to say sorry and give hugs. She was so shy about it and hesitant about getting closer. So after a while Mr. Grins came to her and gave her a hug and kiss. It was so sweet! What cute kids.