August 24th

On August 24th 1995, Mark and I entered the Temple to receive our endowments together. We were getting married just one week later. It was a special day. (I don't have a picture, how horrible is that?!)

On August 24th 2007, Our beautiful baby Will was born, our lives have been so blessed to have him in it. It was a special day.



Today, on August 24th 2009, the Oquirrh Mountain Temple (5 minutes from our home) is open to patrons for the first day. It was dedicated yesterday and Mark, Joshua and I were able to attend. It is a special day.







And today, this cute little boy turns TWO. It is a special day.




August 24th is a good day for us.

Happy Father's Day!

To the most wonderful, devoted, and loving husband and daddy in the world.

We love you!


(Totally lame that I couldn't get the picture to turn. It was too wide I guess. Grr)

What do you say...

When you haven't posted even a SINGLE word for TWO SOLID months?

Do you go crazy trying to catch up with everything you've said and done for the last 80+ days?

Do you just pretend it never happened at all and carry on like normal?

I'm not sure. I will figure it out and let you know. I will say this - my google reader has seven hundred and twenty two unread posts (yes, you read that right. Not Seven, not Seventy two, not twenty seven - SEVEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY TWO!) and I haven't checked private blogs since I don't even know when. I WILL catch up. I WILL return. Maybe not this last crazy week of school, but someday - I promise.

Until then, I will leave you with the latest picture that literally takes my breath away.


Oh my, they're cute - aren't they?!

oops!

SO, yesterday was really warm. AND, because you know - if you don't like the weather here just wait an hour or two and it will change - there is snow on the horizon this week.
Yippee. (please sense sarcasm - I would hate for my effort to go to waste)

Yipp-STINKIN-EE!

I promised the boys we'd go to the park. Thankfully I DID remember to call my friend and tell her to put sunscreen on her boys since they were coming over too and would be joining us for our adventure. The thing is, I am really good at suggesting the right thing, without actually doing the right thing and as such, all 4 of the people that depend on me for survival went without that sunscreen thing. I DIDN'T even think twice about it. That is until we got home and I noticed Will was a little flushed, then I noticed Josh was a tiny bit flushed, then I noticed my NOSE was flushed and I thought, "wait a minute, a nose doesn't get flushed" and then it hit me.

Uh-oh.

As the day wore on, the cheeks and nose of the three of us got pinker and pinker until it was official, Will had his first ever sunburn.

Thing is, he didn't seem to mind, and lucky for me and my guilt he looked LOTS better today. Whew.

So, I have learned a very valuable lesson - and it is called: Will looks SUPER cute with a sunburn er, always put sunscreen on your children when going outside for any given amount of time. :)

Oh, and how can this little one be so big all of a sudden? It seriously feels like yesterday when he looked just like this. Sigh.

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Hurry, QUICK!

It's not too late to rush over to my wonderful sisters' blog and wish her a HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Okay, it probably IS too late, since I'm quite certain that I'm the only one up posting right now. BUT, I'm sure she won't mind if you stop by tomorrow. Just tell her it's my fault. She can't stay mad at me for very long. I'm just too irresistible. wait a minute, that's Gabe. GABE is just too irresistible, and she loves him like he was her very own. Therefore - she can't be mad at his real momma for long right? Right! Oh the power!

HaPpY BiRthDaY sWeEt SiS. I LoVe yOu!

You know those days

when you wake up feeling energized and are determined to conquer the world and you just know you can do it because, I don't know why, but you just feel like you can?


This was one of those days.

The littles and I were excited to be going to lunch at 1:00 at Chic-Fil-A, we hadn't been in forever and better yet - I was so excited to be meeting a friend that I hadn't seen in AGES, literally like 2 years (and she lives 20 minutes - if that - away...so sad).

However, we've had a busy week and my house has suffered. A LOT. Plus, while laying in bed last night I decided it was high time that ALL AS.IN.EVERY.SINGLE.ONE of the toys were put in a happy home in the TOY ROOM downstairs. Why we have a perfectly capable toy room along with HUGE baskets of toys in EVERY CLOSET is beyond me. Where was I? Oh yeah.

So being a list maker and all and a happy flylady.com timer setter to boot I just knew I could handle everything on my list AHEAD of schedule. I got right to work by 8am.

Here is my list:

As you can see, I gave myself 15 minutes for the "toys" project. I wasn't ORGANIZING the toy room, just adding to it for now, I even allowed myself to place the boxes just inside the doorway. Two loads down, I hear Will playing happily in his crib. I think to myself quickly "he's awake, but he's happy, I'll let him play there until he starts to sound unhappy" this sounds good, so I proceed with load #3. Upon returning back up the stairs I start to hear his absolutely irresistible "muh-ma?" (Seriously, I've got to record it for you someday) I try to resist, and I can't. He's heard me shuffle baskets, he KNOWS I'm out here, he's calling my name and he just knows I'll be there soon. My heart and head battle it out. My heart wins. Afterward a flurry of diaper-cereal-more.cereal-more.cereal-oops.too.much.cereal-mopping.up.cereal.and.milk-clothes-Sesame.Street-MOM.GET.WILL!-MOM.GET.WILL-round 2,3,4 and 5 ensues. My 15 minute timer has easily gone off 8 times by now and I am 2 STINKING hours behind on a job that was supposed to take me 15 minutes. Grr.

I cross it off and move on to Laundry. I'm not too put out, I can make it up. The laundry is done after all, it shouldn't take more than 1/2 an hour to fold it up, right? Wrong. One very valuable lesson I've learned about myself is I am an EXTREME time UNDERestimator. Oh, and that if you type "cereal" more than a few times on your blog it starts to look really weird and you'll have to go to the pantry to verify that you've spelled it right, and that actually finding the WORD "cereal" is really hard to do on the cereal box, oh, and there it goes looking weird again. Where was I? Oh yeah.

It is now noon, lunch is in ONE HOUR and I've yet to do the kitchen, and I absolutely REFUSE to come home to a messy kitchen after lunch, so I put Gabe to work on getting dressed on his own and RUN AROUND LIKE MAD trying to take.out.garbage-nevermind.Josh.can.do.that-remove.toys.from.floor.of.kitchen-yes.some.of.the.very.toys.that.had.just.been.taken.downstairs-empty.dishwasher-rinse.dirty.dishes-load.dirty.dishes.... Where was I? Oh yeah.


It is 12:30 and I'm done-ish enough to satisfy for now, but I look like I've been cleaning all morning and lunch is in 1/2 hour. AS in being PRESENT AT RESTAURANT in 1/2 hour. I'm happy to report that I made it only a few minutes behind schedule, right Cindy? :) We had such a great time and leave with tired kids in tow. It is 3:30, I know that for the rest of the day not much is going to be accomplished, and I'm TIRED too. The bigs walk in at 3:45 fighting with each other. JOY. Josh had a rough day at school, and wouldn't tell Sam about it. Sam HATES being out of the loop and wouldn't quit pestering him. I can see Josh is upset and that he needs me ALONE for a minute to talk it through. Turns out, he had to stay in for recess to talk to his teacher about re-doing a math sheet. I couldn't tell if he was more upset about the teacher needing to talk to him or about missing recess, apparently, he didn't know either, both I guess. We hug for a few minutes and I purposely don't tell him what I'm thinking (because I was kind of thinking that it was a lot of hype for just one little missed recess - but I remind myself that I am NOT 9 and I keep my mouth shut). Whew. Where was I? Oh yeah.


I don't even know what time it is now. I know that I denied the boys their after school snack because their room looked like tornado-ville, and I insisted they clean it up in 20 minutes or less or they're waiting until dinnertime. I give them 20 plus 10 minutes for good measure and they still don't cut it. Now they have to wait. This does not make them happy. They are hungry. I am trying to teach them a valuable lesson. They don't see it that way. I start to wonder if I do either, but decide I've got to stand by my word. I learn something else. Whiny kids are no fun. Add HUNGER to the mix, then throw in a 3 year old who tuckered himself out playing with his "New fwends" and is crying on the couch for no reason (again, I'm not 3 - so what do I know) and a one year old who can NEVER handle the evening/dinnermaking/losing.mom.while.she.bustles.about.the.kitchen hour and you've got a recipe for DISASTER.

I am trying to hold it together but everything is unraveling behind me. Mark gets home and starts doing the only thing he knows how to for the screaming one year old and that is to feed him anything his heart desires, all the while the bigger kids BALK because they've been denied such goodness, and Sam wails that he hasn't eaten in like TWELVE HOURS (apparently breakfast and lunchtime don't count as eating - who knew!)

Mark wants to talk, we haven't seen each other all day but quickly gives up, even he can see we're losing this battle. He has to go to a meeting, I start to wonder if he actually skipped out the door, or if I'm just hallucinating - I think he did. I would have. It is now 6:30, dinner has STILL not been served, the boys have lots of homework, Will is still wailing and the cat - not to be left out - is scratching at the door to get out. (he thinks he's a dog) I need to lash out at something. I do the math. By process of elimination the cat's self confidence is by far the most impenetrable and I scream (really)
I'M.SORRY.TOBY.BUT.YOU.ARE.NOT.GOING.
OUT.RIGHT.NOW.SO.JUST.DEAL.WITH.IT!!!

He understands me, I just know it. He takes a few steps back, LEAPS onto the blinds, and hangs from the middle as the blinds crash over and over against the door. Even I must admit, it was revenge at it's finest. I totally jumped, HIGH. Well played, Toby.

But I don't stop there, I continue my rant, all self-confidence worries now put aside. "YOU STARVING KIDS SIT HERE AND EAT AND DON'T TALK - well, you can talk a little, but EAT, I am going OUT OF THIS ROOM FOR A MINUTE, AND PLEASE DON'T FOLLOW ME! The thing is, I never made it out. Turns out, I just needed to say it, then by the time I dished up my plate I felt better. Where was I? Oh yeah.

Daddy gets home, I hear him come in from the garage. You know it's bad when the first words out of his mouth are "Hey guys! You're still alive?!" oops. We sit for a minute on the couch, he puts my legs on his lap and we talk about our blessings, he makes sure I'm okay. This helps for the time being. But now dinner is done, the kitchen is deSTROYED again, and I'm helping with homework which is ABSOLUTELY.THE.LAST.THING.IN.THE.WORLD that I want to be doing at that moment - I am just SPENT - and so are they, but we persist and get through it. Meanwhile, I turn to Mark and announce that UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES am I going to bed anytime soon (this cuts pretty low, as we both know our favorite time of day is our unwinding time - watching tv, or talking about the day and being together) and that he might as well just go now without me because I need time ALONE for a long long time while everyone else is asleep. He gets me there after all with a little plate of warm apple cobbler - he's sneaky that one. (that or I'm totally easy, the least I could have done was hold out for a foot rub!) The day ended with kisses and hugs all around, heartfelt ones. And you know what? Not ONE time in the midst of the craziness or my increasingly rotten mood did one person tell me to "snap out of it", "just get over it" or to "go away", none of them went screaming into their rooms, slamming their doors. They all endured the mommy of the moment and saw it gracefully to the end. Doing exactly as they were told, without hesitation. Once when I was complaining to Mark that I was frustrated because this, this, this, this and this all piled up at once and I felt really overwhelmed, Sam said lightheartedly "but, that's what mom's are supposed to do, right? They're supposed to handle everything." That's the only chastising I got, and it was more than deserved. Where was I? Oh yeah.

You know those days when you wake up feeling energized and are determined to conquer the world and you just know you can do it because, I don't know why, but you just feel like you can?

Today was one of those days.

Except it wasn't. Not EVEN close. That's okay, tomorrow is another day and I will try again - this time hopefully with a few extra helpings of patience. just in case.

Life is good.

Do you think...

now that I've changed my blog design to brighter colors that Spring could perhaps stick around for more than a day or two around here?

If it works, then you're very welcome!

**come on, who are we kidding. We're going to have snow for DAYS! The weather man said not to forget that sometimes in our state it even snows in JUNE!

Stupid weatherman.

Oh, and sorry that the header is HUGE. It's either too big or too small, it's driving me CRAZY!


Happy SPRING!

*edited to add: Okay, I think I've got the header worked out. At least on my computer you don't need to scroll to the side to see the whole thing, but mine does have a wide screen. Please let me know if it looks funky when you pull it up on your computer and I'll keep tweaking if I need to. :)

A Mystery...

Do you think the little boy that donated these items to the sleeping kitty also helped him brush his hair and teeth? ...thing is, I can't ask him, because all he does is grin proudly, point and say "uh, uh, uh!"

I guess we'll never know. I'm sure glad it isn't my toothbrush. ...sorry daddy.

Aaawwww Phooey.

For the Soul

Good-bye dreary February.

Hello, dreamy March!

Why will he taste chalk, and not bow-tie pasta?

Ahh, glorious, blissful 58 degree day!

Couldn't get this picture to rotate. Sorry.

Wait! Stop. Come here. Look at Mommy. Smile. Hey! Come back here. Stop. Hey Will?! Grr.

Gotcha!

Mr. Incredible and Mr. Spidey and Friends. Watching Enchanted. Could life be cuter?

Sunshine at 9am.

Life is good.

Once again, out of the mouth of Gabe

Hey mom?" (thanks to his big brothers, this is how every new sentence starts)

-Yes?

"We are not supposed to drink Al-toe-hall, right mom?"

-Yes, that's right, we're not supposed to drink alcohol, it is very bad for us.

"Yep, and if people see that you are drinking alcohol they might think you are like a pirate or a skeleton, right mom?"

-Hmm, maybe!

"Yeah, but it's okay to dress UP like a pirate, but just not if you're going to the Temple, right mom?"

-Yes, it would not be a good idea to dress up like a pirate to go to the Temple. How did you get so smart?

"Bee-tuz."

"Mom?"

Yeah?

"I have a booger in my eye, can you get it?"

Ah, the randomness that comes from this little boy constantly astounds me. Another one of our favorite "Gabe-isms" is his song that combines "I.AM.IRON.MAN" (black sabbath) with "I am a child of God" he starts out with the Iron man and ends with the Child of God. Seriously, WHERE did he come from?! He is such a fun, and funny little kid. We love you "super Dabe!" (his favorite nickname for himself - and also appropriately the name for his Mii character)

Valentine Wrap-up

Wow. What a CRAZY week! We are just now recouping from a week's worth of Valentine's days. I told Mark on Sunday that it's pretty sad when you need a weekend to recover from your weekend!

It was fun though. Joshua got to make a Valentine box for school and he was really excited about it. He has some of the funnest ideas. One of them was to put two box lids together to make a Wii fit board (one of the newest and well played with toys at the house), then he thought about using a giant cereal box for it, which was even better. We actually ended up trying to craft a basketball out of paper mache instead. We used paper towels and a 50/50 glue/water solution, instead of the newspaper technique. We've never tried any type of paper mache before so we had no idea what to expect. I vaguely remember doing it in elementary school, but not much - so we were pretty clueless. We covered a ballon with the paper towels on Wed. night. I figured it would have plenty of time to dry before Thurs. night to get painted and ready for Friday morning. BOY, was I WRONG! It was still goopy and wet on Thursday morning and I knew it would never dry in time. I began to prepare Joshua for the worst, and we tentatively planned on making the Wii fit board when he got home from school. As the day wore on it got a little drier and hardened a little more but was still pretty flimsy, we had almost given up when I remembered one of our valentine decorations that I thought might help. It has a circular spring with a support and when full is about the size of the balloon. We cut the balloon out, added the spring and counted our blessings that it WORKED! HOORAY! There's no way we'd have been able to use it without the spring to support it, when we popped the balloon it all scrunched up inwardly and completely deflated. Whew! Joshua was able to prime it (Jenna, the primer came through AGAIN, I swear it is bottomless!) and paint it all by himself! Then we cut out a "SPALDING" logo and pasted it on and I painted on the lines. What a task! I was glad we'd worked so hard when I went into his classroom on Friday and saw all of the amazing boxes. WOW. There was a furry monster, a candy eating machine with blinking lights, a box with a crank that pulls the cards through a hole, and a castle with a moat and a REAL GOLDFISH swimming inside. Man, I thought WE had worked hard!! I figured Josh would win a prize for SURE, but he didn't, there wasn't really a category for his though so he didn't feel too bad. The categories were things like: Most creative, most animalistic, funniest, most technological, etc. Nothing sporty or I'm sure he would've won, the other kids kept telling him how cool they thought it was so he was happy and so was I (that it was DONE!) :)

Here is a picture showing what Will did while we were making the Valentine box. It was LOUD.

Sam was kind enough to help us out too. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that it was PAST bedtime and offered a chance for him to sit on top of the counter. :)

Project complete! Sam's class made bags to hold their cards in, I am really thankful that we only had ONE box to do this time. I'm not looking forward to making 2, or 3 or *gasp* FOUR boxes!

I made their Valentines this year. It was so fun! I took a picture of them holding a straw, then cropped them and turned them into Valentines. We stuck suckers in their hands where the straw was so it looked like they were holding them. They turned out really great, which was good since I didn't have a plan B, and it was late Thursday night when we were putting them together!

I also got to help in Sam's class party Friday. I'm the room mom for his class and am in charge of the parties. I REALLY don't like being in charge, but there are a lot of GREAT moms in his class that always help out and that makes my life SOOOO much easier. We made darling candy necklaces, played bingo, passed out Valentines and made these cute little kisses mice.

Tutorial found here.

They had lots of fun, Sam loves when I help out, I know this is fleeting so I am grateful for it while it lasts. After helping with the party a friend and I went to Josh's class to play bingo with the kids after they passed out their valentines. We had a fun time embarrassing them. Every time we pulled a card that said "I love you" my friend made a big deal about how this one was for her son that she LOVES SO MUCH, he finally couldn't take it anymore and said "JOSH, tell YOUR mom to do that to YOU too so it's not just MY MOM! I took his cue and found Josh and kissed him right on top of his head, I figured I'd be dead when he got home but he didn't say a word, he's actually not the type to embarass easy, and still seems to enjoy the attention I give him. I'm sure that won't last much longer either. I'll soak it up while it lasts!

Saturday was CRAZY. The boys play Basketball in the morning and evening on Saturdays so our entire day seems full. I was planning on getting up early to make the boys our traditional heart pancakes and strawberry milk but the night before Mark and I decided we'd just get up and go to the game, then make breakfast afterward. At the game Mark leaned over and said, "how about I buy us breakfast on the way home and we can make a Valentine breakfast tomorrow when our morning isn't so busy" that sounded even better so that is what we did! Then because our night was busy as well, we just ate quickly and saved our candlelight Valentine dinner for Sunday too. We got home on Saturday and the boys opened their fun Valentines (a game and some crafts) and played with them for the day while Mark and I worked on organizing his office downstairs. We were so happy to get it DONE! For lunch on Saturday I made cute grill cheese sandwiches with wheat/white bread to make hearts, they were fun!

Sunday we had our heart pancakes with strawberry syrup for breakfast, then napped all day after church (none of us were feeling too well) skipping lunch completely, then had candlelight dinner with sparkling red punch and strawberry jello with whip cream on top. Whew. what a weekend. FUN as it was, it's good to be back to normal once again.

We hope you all had a wonderful weekend too!

Tender Mercies

I woke up grumpy today. Really grumpy. I don't have that mommy filter that others seem to posses, the one where they wear a smile every day while talking to their kids, rain or shine, sickness, health, grumpy, ungrumpy...you get the idea. When I'm grumpy, everyone in the house knows it and can sense it.

Poor children.

While putting something in the garbage this morning Joshua replied:

"Ooh, this garbage is full, don't worry about it mom, I'll take care of it when I get home today"

3/4 of my grumpiness melted instantly.

One of Sam's friends rang the doorbell and pounded on the door frantically yelling "SAM, you're going to miss the bus, it's at the end of the street, you have to HURRY!"

Sam ran after him while Josh ran back to the bedroom to get his backpack. After running 1/2 way down the street Sam suddenly stops and runs back to the front yard.

"Love you MOM!" He called.

There went the last 1/4.

These boys! They play me like a fiddle! :)

My very own font!!

I got the tip for this fun project on the Design Mom website (scroll down a bit to find it). It literally took me less than 20 minutes to create my VERY OWN FONT and it was all FREE! I'm going to do it again with a better pen so it's not so thick. I actually didn't really think it would work so I wasn't taking it too seriously but it DID work! I really can't believe how easy it was. I think this is SO COOL and I'm thinking about taking Design Mom's suggestion and having the big boys create one too. How fun would it be to do this yearly to see how their handwriting changes?!

If you have a scanner and you'd like to create your own font too go here. have fun!

OH.... Mamma Mia!

The boys have expressed a little interest in wanting to watch the movie Mamma Mia lately. They are plenty familiar with the songs, thanks to a mommy that likes to blast the soundtrack while cleaning the house. Plus, their cousins Kyle and Kole mentioned while visiting a few weeks ago that they've seen the movie and liked it so that piqued their interest a little more. They are off track right now so we thought it would be a fun activity to do yesterday. They laid out blankets and popped a bowl of popcorn while I laid the squeaky Will down to nap.

There were 4 parts I knew I didn't want them to see so I was ready for them. I diverted their attention during the "part" in the beginning of "Dancing Queen", made them close their eyes so as not to see Bill's bum (but Sam peeked, I know because he couldn't supress his giggle quietly enough), skipped completely over the "does your mother know" song, and made them study a speck of dust on the ceiling fan during the man-to-man "embrace" at the end. I'm positive that the other innuendo's (and there are plenty) went completely over their head. We had a wonderful discussion about "traditional" vs. Temple marriages, and a touching discussion over why I don't like the song "Slipping through my fingers" because though they are still small I can't help but feel like they are growing up too fast. They thought this was funny because apparently they don't think they are growing up fast enough. Groan.

Later on they tried to remember the words to "Super Trouper" while putting on their pajamas. They came out to the kitchen and practiced outloud to see who could remember the most words using me as their helper and judge. It wasn't until Gabe started to orbit the kitchen table showing off his newly acquired dance moves and singing "Mamma ee-yuh, here we doe uh-den, my my...." that I began to wonder if maybe they should be spending a little more time with Daddy.

the Squeaky "Will"

There is something to that theory, isn't there!? You know, the one about how the squeaky wheel gets the grease?

It sure seems to work that way around here.

While making waffles this morning my little Will was screaming, crying, weeping, wailing and thrashing about. tugging at my toes, getting in between the table and my legs and pushing with all his one-year-old might in hopes of pushing me backward and getting my attention away from the beating of eggs and toward his current predicament....which the cause of such is still unknown...except that I think he was just hungry and we've learned that when this kid is hungry you better feed him like two minutes ago.

SO, let's all take a guess at who got the first waffle.





Oh, don't let that charming little face fool you, look closely at the red cheeks and the watery eyes! He is deceiving you and you are all falling for it!



Don't let his attempt to make it all better by happily signing "thank you" fool you either! ....okay, nevermind..go ahead and let it fool you. Even I have to admit that that is pretty irresistible.

Seriously though, this kid is lucky he's so cute. I'm talking really really lucky. My mom thinks it's pretty funny. You know, being as I was her youngest and so "irresistible" too. :)

But hey, do you guys want the YUMMIEST Belgian Waffle recipe ever? It's from my sis-in-law Charlotte and it's AWESOME. I think the beaten egg whites is what makes this so fluffy and YUM. It's not hard either. The first time I made them it took me forever, but we've had them 4 times in 2 weeks (yeah, I'm kind of getting sick of 'em now) and I can whip them up in just a few minutes now.

Here goes:

2 eggs seperated in 2 bowls - white/yolks

beat egg yolks until they are yellow in color (I know.... they're ALREADY yellow...I just beat them for a minute or so until they are a little lighter yellow)

add:

3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup half&half (I substituted Evap. milk and it worked great)
1/3 cup veg. oil

mix well.

in another bowl add:

1 3/4 cup flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 tsp. salt

pour into egg yolk mixture.

Beat egg whites until they are white and stiff

Fold into yellow mixture. Poor into Belgian Waffle maker and enjoy!!

A Serenade

We were honored to be the recipients of Gabe's first official solo last night. These were the words to the song he sang so beautifully to us:

I am a chi-deld of Dod. (Should I capitalize the D as I would if it was pronounced the correct way with a G? - I think so)

and He has sent me hewe.

Has diiven me and er-free home

wif pear-wents tind of dear (our favorite part - I guess we're just "kind-of dear") :)

weed me, died me, walkt (always the "t" at the end) besides me, help me find duh way.

Teach me all dat I must do, to wiive wif him someday.

Pretty good, don't you think? We were so impressed! For the proper words to the song (if you need them)go here.

Oh, what's that you say about Christmas? Well...it's not February yet, right Trish?! :) hee,hee.

Soon...I promise.