Organized Bedlam

Where to Start

2012-02-06T22:06:00.000-08:00

Holy cannoli...it's been awhile since I've blogged! I am redecorating the boys' bedroom and I kept thinking the finished product would be my next great post but it's taking me a little longer than I anticipated. So, in the mean time...here's what we've been up to lately...

Kylie made gold honor roll again this semester...woohoo!

Brayden is taking an art class. I think he is enjoying it. Last time he came home from class he couldn't stop talking about his teacher and what he drew in class. Then the next morning he told me everything all over again. They're studying abstract art right now. Let's see if I can remember how Brayden interpreted his work for me...there's Mr. Bear in a tiger's mouth getting his head cut off, fire, a monster, not-so-abstract skull and crossbones and a rocket. There's more but I can't remember what they are. I'll have to ask the artist in the morning.

I started helping out in Bryn's classroom every other Friday. At "Back to School" night I had told Mrs. Hernandez that I wanted to help out and I would let her know as soon as I found a friend to swap babysitting with. Six months later I still hadn't gotten around to figuring it out. Life is just so crazy busy! So she stopped me at pick-up one day and asked if I was still interested because she was losing parent helpers and needed more. Bryn had also been asking me at least once a week, "When are you ever going to help out in my class?" It was fun seeing her with her peers and meeting her friends that I hear so much about.

I had forgotten how much of a chatterbox Bryn can be. She and I went shopping one day, just the two of us. She. Talked. The. Entire. Time. She pointed out all the shapes and colors and words on the street signs. I got to hear her opinion of daycare. It's for kids who don't know how to walk up and down stairs but Zander already knows how to do that so that's why he isn't in daycare. Kindergarten is for smarter kids because you get homework. She has two Barbies named Delancy and Delaney. Delancy (or is it Delaney?) is two and she's the big sister. Bryn wanted me to tell the cashier that she had too many tattoos and she shouldn't do that to her body. After the first hour I was reduced to responding with the occasional, "I see" or "Oh, really?" It was exhausting! And entertaining. Poor girl has three other kids to compete with so she has to take advantage of one-on-one time whenever she gets it.

I can't decide whether to enroll Zander in preschool in the fall or not. The lady who taught Bryn's preschool is no longer doing it so I'm faced with the daunting task of finding a new place. I've been asking around and every preschool that has been recommended is either a) too far...I am not driving 30 minutes one way for preschool, I'm in the car waaaayyy too much already! or b) tuition is more than I'm willing to pay. On good days I think, "I can teach Zander how to read and write and he has playdates and church to teach him about the social aspect of preschool. He's my youngest and I want to spend every minute possible with him!" Then there are the days where Zander is a needy little stinker who has to be entertained by me every minute and throws a tantrum when I have to take a break to do something like pick kids up from school. That's when I think, "I will pay any amount of money necessary and drive any distance just to get a break from this kid! He needs to go to preschool for my sanity's sake!!!" This battle will probably rage until he starts kindergarten...in 2013.

I'm reading "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" with all the kids. A beast of a book with 533 pages but ninety percent of it is pictures. It's a refreshing new format for us and the illustrations are fabulous.

I finished reading "The Grey Wolf Throne" and loved it! Justin is listening to it during his commute now. And we're happy that "White Collar" is back!

And there you have it, a collection of randomness that is our life :)

Race Day

2012-01-19T22:03:00.000-08:00

It's Pinewood Derby time folks. Justin and Brayden have been hard at work getting tips from friends and online on how make the fastest car possible. Realistically, Justin was just hoping not to finish last. Brayden was more confident. Kylie and I thought we'd miss the race because of her gymnastics class so Brayden told her, "I'll take a picture of me getting the first place trophy for you." Turns out, he was closer to the truth than he realized. And we did get to watch him race. Since it took them a long time to inspect and weigh all the cars we were there in time to see most of the races.

Here's Brayden's car. Aren't cars supposed to have names? I'll have to ask Brayden if he named his.

I would tell you what Justin did to make a car that came in first every time but all I know is it involves something about sanding and graphite and lead maybe? I'm sure they're not trade secrets I just didn't pay much attention.

Zooming across the finish line...

Sporting his first place Pinewood Derby pin...and trying not to look too excited but you can see that smile just itching to break free, lol...

Congrats, Brayden (and Dad)!!!

Sneaky Sneak

2012-01-12T22:12:00.000-08:00

Tuesday morning when my neighbor was picking up the kids for school she told me that Hobby Lobby had put all their artificial Christmas trees on sale for 90% off. (I've been wanting an artificial tree for a couple of years but haven't been willing to pay a couple hundred dollars for the ones I like.) So I skipped my morning workout and rushed down to Hobby Lobby because I knew with a markdown like that the trees wouldn't be there for long. I got there in the nick of time!

Another lady and I were looking at the same Christmas tree trying to decide if that was the one we wanted. The display tree had one of those little clear envelopes containing slips of paper that said, "To purchase this tree take this slip to the cashier". Well, that lady took the last two slips of paper. Yes, TWO! Now, the regular price of this tree is $499. It was on sale for $50!!! How rude, share the bargain find lady! She was talking on the phone and I overheard her say that she was going to hurry up to the cashier and pay for the trees. I was disappointed until I discovered that the boxes containing these trees were sitting right next to the display. There were four boxes to be exact. I'm assuming there were two other customers in Hobby Lobby happily holding their little slips of paper, thinking that all was well and they would be going home with a Christmas tree. Until I showed up.

The box containing the Christmas tree was huge and not light. It is a 7.5' tree. I decided to heft that huge box onto the tiny shopping cart and make my way to the cashier before anyone was on to my sneaky plan. I struggled with the box but I didn't want to risk asking an employee for help because they would probably point out that I needed a little slip of paper to take a tree. Whatever. If I can heft it to the cashier by myself, I deserve to buy it. (Evil Pamela comes out when an unbelievable deal is on the line!)

I saw the two-tree lady waiting in line to pay and I made sure to go to a cashier far from her, lest she spy the huge Christmas tree in my cart and report me. Just my luck, I get in the one line that isn't moving because the cashier ran out of cash. And the Christmas tree is too large to maneuver around all the displays to get in a different line. I stand in line for 15 minutes...sweating. I have to hurry and pay before I'm discovered! Meanwhile, I keep my eye on my competition. She has paid for her trees and is standing at the front of the store waiting for her trees to be brought up.

When I reach the cashier, she doesn't even ask for my slip of paper. She simply scans the barcode on the box, takes my credit card and sends me on my way. I tip-toe past the lady I may have just cheated out of a Christmas tree and to my car, fully expecting to hear a Hobby Lobby employee running after me yelling, "Ma'am, you can't take that tree!" I decided that if that happened I would show them my receipt and say, "Sorry, but it's mine now." What could they do? I really did have it all planned out in my mind, that's how nervous I was about getting caught. It wasn't until the tree was in the car, the trunk was closed and I was safely inside the car that I called Justin to tell him about the deal of the year and confess what I had done.

I don't feel too bad for the other lady. She'll still end up with at least one Christmas tree. I just wonder who the other two people were and what happened when they took their slips of paper to the cashier only to be told that one tree was unaccounted for. I'm not going to think about that. Let's pretend the whole slips of paper process was messed up anyways and everyone who wanted a tree, got one. That makes my conscience feel better.

I'm so happy to finally have an artificial Christmas tree...and a funny story to go with it :)

Sumo Wrestling 101

2012-01-11T22:18:00.000-08:00

Step 1. Stuff your footie pajamas or shirt with pillows and blankets and put your game face on.

Step 2. Find a brother.

Step 3. Run at each other with all your might, and bounce off your big bellies. Repeat. Again. And again. Until Mom and Dad start worrying that someone is going to bounce off a belly and onto the corner of the fireplace and they tell you to find something else to do.

U.S.S. Midway

2012-01-04T13:03:00.000-08:00

We went on the coolest little day trip last week to the U.S.S. Midway in San Diego. Actually, there's nothing little about the Midway...it's ginormous! Kim, Jack, Ella and Grandma Jake were staying with us for a couple days and we decided to venture south and check out possibly the most interesting and educational museum I've ever been to.

I had no idea how cramped sleeping quarters are on an aircraft carrier. These are the junior officers' bunks and lockers. The are luxurious compared to the crew's beds. The crew's bunks are stacked three high, taking up the same space as two junior officers' bunks. They are like little coffins. I wouldn't have made it as a crewman because sleeping would've made me claustrophobic.

Kylie and Brayden are wearing the audio tour headsets. They only give them to kids ages six and older. Kids five and under are free so I guess that's fair. It's a self-guided tour so you can linger where you want to or skip parts because your feet are aching too bad to continue. There are also a lot of veteran volunteers around to answer questions. The Midway is so gigantic we didn't even see all of it. If we had known what we were getting into we would've packed a lunch to eat so we could walk around for a couple hours, go to the car for a lunch break and foot rest, then go back in to see some more.

They have a scavenger hunt of questions for the kids to answer on their tour of the ship. As you leave, they turn in their completed questions and earn their pilot wings. For this question the kids learned what happens to misbehaving crewmen...

They all decided jail isn't a nice place to be because the cells have a toilet with no privacy and the inmates were fed bread and water.

Throughout the Midway there are photos of men who used to sail on the ship and quotes from them describing daily life aboard the Midway. The engine room must've been one of the toughest places to work. It was 120 degrees down there and the smallest men were chosen to squeeze into the tight spaces to adjust bolts and make repairs.

Another interesting fact: the ship's accountant was in charge of distributing the $42 million dollar monthly payroll. And the most common injury on the Midway? Head lacerations because the crew would forget to duck when passing through the narrow doors and halls. There was so much fascinating information on the tour! I have always appreciated our military but I am in awe of the way they live on these ships. I thought fighting and being away from their families were the only sacrifices they made but they gave up comforts of every kind.

There are lots of pilot seats you can sit in and play with the controls.

The upper deck has many airplanes and helicopters. Some you just look at, others you can climb into. I don't know why the photographer of this picture didn't zoom in but thankfully, the people in the picture are so tiny you won't be able to tell who's missing to blame them for their poor skills.

If you are ever in the San Diego area I highly recommend this museum! It's worth every penny.

Christmas 2011

2012-01-01T23:05:00.000-08:00

I know, it's 2012 and I'm still talking about Christmas. Is this a sign that I'm going to be falling behind schedule all year?!

Christmas Eve started with a delicious brunch at Mom and Duane's house with my brothers and their families. My kids are the ones making goofy faces, the boys that is.

Mom and Duane got each family a cool cake pan with dividers. I'll have to let you know how pretty and perfect our first batch of brownies turns out. The cousins exchanged gifts and afterwards Grandpa was a good sport and let the grandkids decorate him like a Christmas tree.

We headed back home in the afternoon to do Christmas with Barbara and Bob. I'm so happy to be able to make smoothies again! This super-blender even crushes ice. It's amazing how well new appliances work :) And the orange color is so fun to have in my kitchen...

We had a tasty dinner of carnitas tacos. When Barbara gives me the recipe, I'll post it. The pork was tender and sweet. After the kids were in bed Justin and I knew we had to fill the stockings and wrap a few gifts but we were totally unprepared for what we found when we opened the box containing Bryn's present....yikes!

It was a much later night than we expected! The screws were all very nicely color coded so it wasn't difficult. Christmas morning Bryn unwrapped the dollhouse furniture first. She didn't even ask where the dollhouse was, she was just excited to have Barbie-size beds and chairs.

Her dollhouse and Kylie's balance beam were hiding in the play room since they were too colossal to wrap. The balance beam was a last-minute bargain find at a second hand children's store.

Santa brought PS3 Move Motion Controllers this year, along with Just Dance 3 and a sports game.

We've been having a lot of fun playing together. I'm the reigning Just Dance champ in our house :) Sometimes it gets a little intense...

Everyone got a couple things from their Christmas wish list so they were happy campers. Except when they had to be in the same photo as their little sister...

No, Zander's not old enough for these Ninjago Legos but this way he won't steal Brayden's and Brayden still gets the joy of putting them together...smart mom :)

This Tomy Big Loader is more his age and strangely mesmerizing to watch. Check out the video and you'll see what I mean.

Brayden was so happy that Kylie liked the earrings he got for her...it was very cute.

The kids got Justin a pack of WoW game cards. Kylie and Brayden are old enough to play the game with him now and the three of them have a good time together.

I didn't get him anything fun this year...just a big hat so he won't get sunburned when he gardens, a pair of slippers and some clothes. Boring. The fun thing on his list was a Lego Death Star...for a mere $439. Santa's going to have to teach more piano lessons ;)

My awesome husband totally surprised me with "Asylum", the sequel to the "Insanity" workouts I've been doing. We did the first workout together on Monday and I loved it! A big part of it is that it's nice to have something new to do. Justin also gave me a heart rate monitor watch. It beeped at me a lot when I went above my target heart rate zone...oops.

We ended the day with a ham, yams and apple cider dinner on our nice china. It was a most excellent Christmas!

Christmas Traditions

2011-12-27T20:38:00.000-08:00

Whenever I'm asked what our Christmas traditions are, I have trouble coming up with things. I think it's because I don't always look at our traditions as just that, traditions. Even the simplest things, if done every year, become tradition. Since Christmas is still fresh in my mind I figured it would be a good time to blog about a few of our traditions.

** We always get our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. We go as a family to a local Christmas tree lot and pick one out. The kids like to run around the flocked trees and pretend they live in a town where it snows and they are cold.

This boy will never know what it's like to really truly shiver in the freezing cold...not while he lives with me at least (knock on wood).

** Every year towards the beginning of December Grandma Jake gives the kids an ornament. This year they were candy cane themed. The kids like to look at all of their ornaments from years past. The younger ones don't quite understand why Kylie has the most ornaments but we assure them that one day they'll have as many as she does.

** We like to drive around and look at Christmas lights. Our favorite place to go is Bainbridge Circle. There are a dozen houses that have a ton of lights and they are synchronized to music. You turn your car radio to their AM station and drive around the cul-de-sac a few times. It's pretty amazing. Justin researched it and has found his next hobby.

** What would Christmas be without goodies? We make white chocolate covered popcorn for teachers, friends and neighbors. We also have a goodie baking day for ourselves. This year we attempted cake balls. I followed the steps on this blog. I thought the kids would enjoy it since it's kind of like playing in mud when you roll the cake balls. Everything was easy until we got to dipping the balls in chocolate. Too many little hands in a small pot. I let the kids do a few then Justin and I finished up.

We never figured out how to get the balls off the toothpick without making a crater so I drizzled them with red chocolate to cover the holes and make them look more festive. Some have red glops because I wasn't exactly sure how to drizzle. I figured it out more or less by the end.

I've heard many people rave about cake balls but I didn't think they were that great. Brayden and I don't like them but everyone else does. I think I need to try another batch with different flavors. I used german chocolate cake with coconut pecan frosting and dipped them in melted chocolate bark. I'm not a fan of the bark. Maybe melted chocolate chips next time?

** Lastly, on Christmas Eve night we read the story of Christ's birth in Luke. Then I give the kids one gift to open. It's usually a smaller item or a not so fun present, like pajamas. This year all the kids put Pillow Pets on the Christmas lists they gave to me. The big ones are $20 each, times four kids...$80 for stuffed animals?! I think not. One afternoon I was in TJ Maxx and found the smaller, generic version of Pillow Pets for $5 each. Score! Zander was with me and I told him that he couldn't tell the kids what I had bought. I expected him to spill the beans the second the kids came home from school. But all he said was, "Mom bought somefing for Christmas today but I can't tell you what it is." Phew!

And that's Christmas at our house :)

Bowling

2011-12-26T20:47:00.000-08:00

My mom and Duane took the girls with them to visit my sister and her family in Las Vegas. They had a tough time choosing between missing their Christmas parties at school and visiting cousins but cousins won out. It was a quick trip, leaving on a Friday and coming back last Monday. Kylie and Bryn of course had a blast.

It's funny how when we have two less kids we think that going out and doing things is so much less expensive. And easier to manage. Saturday after the horrible stuff that happened at work, Justin needed some time out of the house, having fun, to take his mind off of things for a couple hours. So we took the boys out to lunch and then went bowling. It was Zander's first time and Brayden went so long ago he didn't really remember it.

Bowling has gotten more high-tech since we last went. The bumpers automatically come up when it's the kids' turn to bowl. Remember when the bumpers were blow-up tubes? Back in the day. Zander jumped right into bowling. He had his little ramp and was pushing the ball down it as hard as he could.

He tried punching the ball to get it rolling down the ramp...until he discovered how hard a bowling ball is. Check out the intense look on his face...hee hee.

Then there was Mr. "New-situations-make-me-so-uncomfortable-I-must-be-a-butt-for-the-first-ten-minutes-while-I-decide-if-this-is-something-I-want-to-do". He refused to wear the bowling shoes; then he wouldn't pick up the ball; when he finally picked it up he didn't want to roll it down the lane. Justin guided him through it all (it took every ounce of patience he could muster) and when I told Brayden he was winning after the first frame his outlook magically changed. Stinker. After that, he had a great time. He got Zander set up with the ramp on his turns and was very helpful.

The tongue helped him bowl a spare...

Justin was doing some fancy spinning thing with the ball. It worked...occasionally. He told the boys about how they come from a long line of bowlers and how he used to work in a bowling alley. I don't know if they were very impressed.

Do I even dare tell you what I bowled? I know I should be embarrassed but, it's bowling. I've never had stellar skills in this sport. I bowled a 55. Zander bowled a 54. Whatever, it was fun :)

A Tragedy

2011-12-25T20:46:00.000-08:00

I have been absent from the blogging world during this busy season because of what happened on Friday, December 16th at Justin's work. It has been too raw and difficult to think about, let alone blog about.

One of Justin's co-workers took a gun to work on December 16th, shooting and killing two people and injuring two others before turning the gun on himself. Thankfully, Justin was working at a different office that day and he wasn't involved. There was a bullet hole in the wall of his cubicle so who knows what might have happened if he had been there. I try not to think about that. We assume that he wouldn't have been an intentional target because the gunman went after specific people.

Justin returned to work Tuesday for a group counseling session. There is a temporary work place set up but Justin has chosen to work from home. He says it helps to be around family. We try to keep busy when he's not working to keep his mind off of things. On Thursday he attended one of the funerals. It has been an emotionally draining time to say the least. I can see it in Justin's face when he has to think about what happened.

My heart aches for all of those effected by this tragedy, especially for those who have lost loved ones. I know some of Justin's co-workers read my blog occasionally. If any of you are reading now, please know that you are in our prayers. I hope that your pain will be eased and that you will, in time, be able to heal from the effects the events of last week have had on you.

Justin's boss is in the hospital recovering from several bullet wounds. We've told the kids what happened and they include her in their prayers. I wish she could've heard Zander's sweet little voice the other night as he prayed, "Pwease bwess Angie that she will get bettew. Pwease bwess her to get out of the hospital." If anything can give a person strength and hope it is the voice of a child praying to our Father in Heaven on their behalf...so precious.

We have been reminded how fragile life is. It has also brought to the forefront what matters most in this life...family. We've found ourselves treating each other with a little more kindness and love. I know this is not the happy Christmas post you were probably expecting. We did have a wonderful Christmas and I will blog about it soon. The obsessively organized part of me wants to keep things in chronological order...sorry!

Polar Express

2011-12-15T21:19:00.000-08:00

Am I the only one who groans when my kids bring home a paper from school describing some super-fun event that their class is doing...and, oh, by the way, you have to make a cardboard train boxcar for your child to wear in the Polar Express parade.

One more thing to add to my ridiculously long "to do" list.

But this time Grandma Jake helped out by wrapping a cardboard box in wrapping paper, cutting out wheels and making handholds for Bryn's cute little fingers. All that was left for me to do was paint the wheels and add some ribbon and bows. Not too terribly painful.

Yesterday we went to kindergarten with Bryn and watched her walk around the playground in her snowman boxcar in the Polar Express parade. The kids had fun. And I felt a little guilty for wishing the kindergarten teachers would stop sending home projects for me to do. It's all about the kids, right?

I did like going to the school and seeing all the other students' trains. You know how there are always certain parents who invest a ton of time and money into their kids' projects? I often wonder if those kids are either a) the oldest child in their family so mom is very excited about kindergarten and hasn't realized yet how little is actually expected; or b) an only child...enough said; or c) their parents are needlessly stressing themselves out because they want their child to be a superstar even if it's only for a five minute walk around a playground. Some parents put a ton of effort into these projects. There were trains that looked like they took hours to assemble and decorate. Then there were others that looked like the parents woke up that morning and slapped something together with paper plates and scotch tape...and it worked! One child didn't have a train at all and he/she (honestly couldn't determine the gender!) looked like he/she was going to burst into tears at any moment...so sad.

After the parade we went to Bryn's classroom and they sang some Christmas...excuse me, Holiday...songs for us.

Bryn was hidden by the giant child next to her most of the time so this was the best shot I got. Zander's new favorite Christmas song is "Feliz Navidad" after hearing Bryn's class sing it. He was singing it all morning, just the two words he could remember, "feli navida", and then he made me sing the rest of the words every time. I finally turned on Spotify and let someone else sing all the words for him.

And that snowman boxcar is going in the garage so when Zander brings home the Polar Express parade flyer in two years, I will be prepared :)

Santa Letters 2011

2011-12-13T22:40:00.000-08:00

The tree is up, the house is decorated, the bushes and short trees in the front yard have lights on them (because they don't require a tall ladder) and last night we wrote our traditional letters to the big guy at the North Pole. Here's a glimpse into our hearts this year...

^^^^^^^^^
Dear Santa,
I want him to get his two front teeth. I want gum on my Christmas list and an airplane and penguins and a Voltron hat and two socks that are Christmas socks and that's all.

Love, Zander

(We've been listening to a lot of "Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas" CD. And poor kid has holes in most of his socks.)

^^^^^^^^

Dear Santa,
I like your sleigh and I want a Barbie and I want a tea set and Just Dance and I want a new Littlest Pet Shop.

Love, Bryn
p.s. Leave me a cookie.

(Bryn wrote her whole letter all by herself this year. I usually type the kids' letters exactly as they wrote them but it would take a kindergarten decoder ring for you to figure her's out.)

^^^^^^^^

Dear Santa,
Can I please have Lego Ninjago sets (any kind), Play Stashin Move, for it to snow, Japan and Germen army men, some houses for army men and a new art set, Delex membership for Webkinz. That's all for this year.

Love, Brayden
p.s. Say hi to Budy for me.
p.p.s. Leave a cookie for me please.

(We have also done our other Christmas tradition of watching "Elf", in case you were wondering who Budy was. )

^^^^^^^

Dear Santa,
(Read this in a singing voice)
All I want for Christmas is a Just Dance 3 and some comphy pants. But that isn't all don't stop there there's more to the list than that. What about some Webkinz for me and a Delexue membership. There's still more now, a (sing fast here...) Littlest Pet Shop emergency house, earings (ones that hang down), a puppy dog calendar and if you can manage a cookie for me. Thank you very much Santa Claus.

Love, Kylie
p.s. Can you say hi to Buddy for me?!

^^^^^^^^

Dear Santa,
That sure is a nice Christmas tie Mrs. Claus got for you. Tell her she has great taste in fashion.

As you may have noticed, many things in our hosue have broken over the last year. The latest casualty was our blender. I am going through banana-peanut butter smoothie withdrawals. If you could bring me a shiny new blender in red, green or yellow that would make me happy. Also, my eye sight is not what it used to be (okay, so it hasn't been good for 25 years) and it's really hard to see those tiny music notes. Can you bring me a piano lamp please?

Lastly, I was wondering if you could give me just a tiny bit of the magic you use up at the North Pole. I'm thinking I could sprinkle a little on the children when they're behaving like they belong on the "naughty" list and it would turn them into happy little elves. What do you think?

Thank you, Santa, for working so hard for our family. No matter what you bring us this year we have love and peace in our home and that is the BEST gift ever!

Love, Pamela

^^^^^^^

Dear Santa,
Thank you so much for all you do. Without you and the Christmas spirit December 25th would be just another day. And even better this year: with Christmas on a Sunday, church is only one hour!

Since this is the season of giving, I would like to request the gift of happiness for my wife. As everyone knows:
happy wife = happy life.

If you feel you have to get something for me, I would like some World of Warcraft Trading cards, a dungeon deck (or 2) and a few days off to spend with family. Also, a promotion at work wouldn't hurt. Thanks Santa! Your'e the best.

Love, Justin
p.s. Don't forget about the gift for "someone special."

(The p.s. is yet another "Elf" reference:)

Worse Tooth Fairy Ever

2011-12-05T21:20:00.000-08:00

Bryn has been waiting to lose a tooth for at least two years. Seriously. Once she realized her older siblings were losing teeth, she wanted in on the action. She would periodically claim she had a loose tooth and insist on "wiggling" it for us as proof. Of course, when she actually did have a loose tooth we didn't pay too much attention because we thought she was up to her usual antics. When her tooth did fall out she was super-excited. She'd been anxiously waiting for two years for this moment after all!

Bryn was so excited to put her tooth under her pillow and await a visit from the Tooth Fairy. Meanwhile, we were trying to squelch Brayden's claims that the Tooth Fairy isn't real, that it's Mom and Dad who leave the dollar under your pillow. Bryn was visibly torn...she wasn't sure who to believe. But in the end, the Tooth Fairy won :)

After we tucked the kids in bed the Tooth Fairy got her dollar bill all ready and waited patiently for Bryn to fall asleep. Unfortunately, while she was waiting the Tooth Fairy got sucked into a good book and, as is her nightly ritual, she fell asleep reading. But knowing this would happen, the Tooth Fairy reminded her second in command of his duties. He claimed to have the situation under control.

The next morning, Bryn came into our bedroom looking so downhearted. She sadly proclaimed, "Loosing a tooth in this house isn't any fun!"

Oh, man.

Justin insisted that the Tooth Fairy had to have visited during the night and Bryn just must've missed the dollar so he would help her conduct a thorough search of her bed. Daddy saved the day by "discovering" that the dollar bill had fallen to the floor next to her bed. Phew!

I don't know how the Tooth Fairy rolls at your house, but the one who visits ours needs to be replaced by a more competent fairy. She frequently leaves the dollar bills on the floor next to the bed or in the crack between the wall and the bed. The kids just cannot find the bills. Justin or I always have to help them. Worse Tooth Fairy ever. But with four kids in our house, maybe she'll get enough practice to one day do it right. Maybe?

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-27T20:49:00.000-08:00

Backing up to Thanksgiving Day...

My friend, Melissa, has been getting back into shape after having her fourth baby and she set a goal to run the Oceanside Turkey Trot 5k. She asked me to do it with her and I excitedly agreed. We were going to be in Oceanside on Thanksgiving Day anyways to eat turkey at my mom's house. The race was at 8:30a.m. and it was a great way to start the day. The weather was perfect for a race, just a little chill in the air to keep you cool while running. Over 8,000 people participated in the Turkey Trot. Some of those people did the 5 mile run and there were also kids' runs later in the day.

They started the race in waves, of course, so we got in line behind the 11 min/mile mark because that was what Melissa thought her pace would be. I was running to support her and push her harder when she needed it. Well, turned out there were mostly walkers in our wave so we spent half our time and energy weaving in and out trying to get around them. Next year, we'll start farther up in maybe the 9 min/mile wave just to make sure we aren't slowed down by the walkers.

The course was great. It was mostly flat and the last stretch we ran along the boardwalk on the beach. It was awesome running next to the ocean, listening to the waves crash. There were quite a few houses along the beach where the residents were sitting out watching the race and blasting music. One girl was on her balcony playing classical music on her violin. Pretty cool.

Before the race, Justin took Zander and Bryn to Grandma's house and exchanged them for Grandpa. They went out for doughnuts then came to watch me race. It was great seeing them along the course. I even got to give them high-fives as I ran by them in the middle of the race. They moved to the finish line and took pictures of us crossing there.

We're approaching the finish line...

(in the pink and blue shirts)

We did it! We averaged 10:52/min mile, a personal best for Melissa and she had never run 3 miles before, another personal best for her. It was fun to share in that accomplishment with her. And I always enjoy running with a friend :)

We got to collect a bunch of free stuff from the race sponsors afterwards. The entry fees went to support local schools and charities. Here's a pic of my personal cheerleaders...

After the race we went back to Mom's house and I showered so I would be allowed to sit at the dinning room table with everyone. My brothers and their families came over and we enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving meal. The cousins played together and the adults played a few rounds of "The Great Dalmuti" card game. I was beat after running and traveling the previous day so we headed home early so I could crash.

On Friday we had Thanksgiving all over again with just our little family. We love eating Thanksgiving leftovers for a few days so I baked a turkey and everything that went with it. Justin helped with the meal and it was delicious! I brought out the china and fancy glasses and silverware. The kids were most excited about drinking sparkling cider out of wine glasses. Justin and I were most excited about the homemade cranberry sauce from our friend Jon. He gave us two jars of it last Christmas and we devoured the first jar. The second jar we've been saving for Thanksgiving. It made the meal perfection! Thanks again, Jon :)

We ate early so Justin could head over to a friend's house to play "Risk" with a few guys. The kids and I relaxed, played some video games, built some Legos, and I read some more in "Inheritance". It was a fabulous day!

Brayden's Baptism

2011-11-26T21:52:00.000-08:00

We've had a busy week over here! Monday - Wednesday we were in Las Vegas; Thursday I ran a 5k race and we had Thanksgiving with my side of the family; Friday we had Thanksgiving again with just our family; and today Brayden was baptized. Busy! (I'll blog about Thanksgiving activities later.)

Being the center of attention is not one of Brayden's favorite things. The prospect of having all eyes on him as he was baptized made him not so sure he wanted to go through with his baptism. But it was a nice service and he did great. We even got some smiles from him :) Brayden was baptized by his dad...

It's been awhile since we've had any kind of photo with our whole family and we were lucky enough to have everyone looking at the camera and no grumpy faces...yay!

Both Grandmas spoke at the baptismal service. I played the piano and Kylie and Bryn sang "When I Am Baptized", a cute children's song about looking for rainbows. They learned it just the night before and I'm impressed they did so well for having such a short time to practice. Their song brought a sweet spirit to the meeting.

After the baptism we came home, had dessert and Brayden received some nice baptism gifts. We bought him his very own set of scriptures with his name imprinted on them.

Grandma and Grandpa House gave him a case to carry his new scriptures in and some scripture marking pencils.

And he got a tie with little Captain Moroni pictures hidden in the pattern, a journal and scripture stickers from Grandma Jake. Brayden spent the rest of the evening putting the stickers in his scriptures and writing in his journal.

Justin is wishing he had a cool zipper tie like Brayden's :)

I did my usual job of stressing out over getting the house clean and dessert made for everyone. Every time we have a big event I do my best to prepare ahead of time and tell myself not to stress over the little things. Sometimes I do better than other times. But I think everything went well and it was a great day for Brayden. I hope he remembers today. I know it's hard to remember things that happen when you're only eight years old but I hope he keeps some little memory of today. I'm so thankful to be able to raise my kids in the church. In this crazy world of mixed-up morals it's reassuring to have a path to set my kids on and to be able to teach them right from wrong. I know that Brayden will make his own choices in life but I hope he stays the kind, sweet boy that he is and continues to have the desire to do what is right.

Speaking of making good choices, I had to laugh at what Kylie wrote to Brayden on the card we gave him today, "You can be mean to me but remember, I will always love you." Hahahaha. This is what siblings are for, to call you out when you're being less than your sweet self but love you anyways :)

Vegas Trip

2011-11-25T21:25:00.000-08:00

Since the kids had the whole week off from school, I decided to take a trip to Las Vegas to visit my sister and her family. I was nervous because this was my first road trip without another adult to help drive and make sure a child wasn't left behind at a rest stop. But the drive was easy and the kids did great.

We arrived Monday afternoon and I didn't see my kids again until bedtime. On Tuesday Patty and I took everyone to the park. It wasn't just any park. As the kids said when we pulled up, "This park is AWESOME!" And it was.

The kids ran around for two hours at the park then we went back home and I had to play Barbies with Bryn and Zander until Azie came and rescued me...

The other kids played a wild game of Bunco...

Zander fell in love with Darion. Except he couldn't remember her name so he'd whisper in my ear, "Ummm, where's that big girl?" I would tell him that she was at school to which he indignantly replied, "Awww, again?!"

Tuesday night Patty fixed us a nice Thanksgiving Eve Eve dinner, with cloth napkins and sparkling cider even.

Actually, all the meals Patty made us were delicious. I enjoyed not having to plan the menu for two days. I don't know why but that is my least favorite part of cooking. I'll cook and clean, just somebody else please decide what we are having.

The kids and I drove back home Wednesday morning. Thankfully, we didn't hit any holiday traffic, it was all going the other direction. As we left Patty's house Brayden said, "I wish they lived closer."

Pulling Pins

2011-11-10T22:22:00.000-08:00

Forty eight days ago Brayden was jumping on the trampoline and broke his elbow. Thirty five days ago he had an ORIF (open reduction internal fixation) of his left elbow. Today his left arm finally saw the light of day and breathed fresh air again.

Brayden with his cast sawed in half, ready to have it removed for good! He was just a little excited :)

We took one last picture of the pins in his elbow. His arm didn't hurt this time so he was enjoying looking at the pins and all the attention he got in the waiting room.

So the doctor told me at Brayden's last appointment that he would remove the pins during a regular office visit...without anesthesia. Say what?!?! That just sounds unbearably painful. The doctor explained that they distract the kids while they pull the pins out with a pair of pliers and he promised that Brayden wouldn't be in any pain. I think a doctor's definition of pain is much different than an average patient's. I was nervous about today's appointment so Justin took the day off to handle the rest of the kids so I could deal with whatever Brayden would have to go through.

The doctor got out a pair of pliers and pulled the first pin out no problem. Brayden watched him do it and all he said was, "Ow." But the second pin was a little more difficult to get out and that's when the pain and tears started. I also think Brayden got a little freaked out by the sight of the pins coming out of his arm and the blood coming out of the first hole so I told him to look at me instead. But it was too late. He was scared and in pain when the doctor had to do some tugging to get the second pin out. The third pin came out as easily as the first. The pain didn't last long. By the time the doctor had put gauze on the three holes and wrapped the elbow in an ACE bandage, Brayden was okay.

Here's Brayden pointing to the aftermath...the big smile no longer on his face, poor boy.

I'm so thankful we live in a time when doctors can do amazing things to repair the human body.

We discovered that skin that has been in a splint and then a cast for forty eight straight days is nasty! Add in an incision and all the goop they used to put you back together and what you get is a truly disgusting sight.

Being with Brayden when the pins came out and afterwards cleaning his arm and putting lotion on it proved to be too much for my weak stomach. It also didn't help that I hadn't eaten in a while. I had to stop suddenly and sit down because I felt like I was going to pass out. I never considered myself to be effected by things like needles and blood but apparently I have my limits. A doctor I will never be.

Brayden's prognosis is good. There is no sign of the fracture on the x-rays and there is new bone growth. The holes from the pins will fill in from the bottom up and that will take about two weeks. He can take a shower on Saturday...he's very much looking forward to that...and then we can take the ACE bandage off and just use plain ole Band-aids. Brayden is allowed to baby his arm for the next couple of days but by Monday the doctor wants him to start using it. The doctor didn't prescribe physical therapy because he said kids heal well and they are usually so active that physical therapy isn't necessary. We have a follow-up appointment in one month to make sure he has re-gained full range of motion and use of his elbow. So, while we aren't officially at the end of this ordeal, we are on the homestretch and all of the pain is behind us. Oh brother, listen to me, I keep saying "us" as if there was someone besides Brayden who had to suffer here. He is an amazingly brave boy. Sure, he was scared at times, cried when the pain was too much and lost his patience the last two days because the skin under his cast itched constantly. But, overall, Brayden handled everything incredibly well. I am so proud of him. And so happy for him that this is mostly all over!

So Clean, Yet so Gross

2011-11-02T21:06:00.000-07:00

This was our tile yesterday...

And this is our tile today, after a professional cleaning...

Want to see it again?

Before

You can see all those black grout lines

After

Grout and tile magically restored to their original colors

Part of me is amazed at how clean the tile and grout are now, the other half of me is totally grossed out by how much dirt we were living in. The dad of two of my piano students owns a tile and carpet cleaning business so we swapped one month of piano for tile cleaning. So worth it.

Trick-or-Treat

2011-11-01T21:05:00.000-07:00

There is nothing cuter than a three year old all dressed up, excitedly running to every door, saying "twick-ow-tweat" and just as quickly running back to hold mom's hand. Seriously, funnest Halloween ever. Here are our two pirates, angel and cat...

The dollar store had great costume stuff this year. Bryn's halo and wings, Kylie's cat mask and tail and all the boys' pirate paraphernalia came from there. Except for the awesome pirate shirts. I found red t-shirts for two bucks, cut them up and drew a pirate skull with swords on the front.

We didn't make it to our church's Halloween party this year. (Okay, okay, we bribed the kids to stay home. Kylie was the only one who wanted to go so we told her if we stayed home we'd get a movie and on Halloween we'd trick-or-treat until we dropped. Honestly, it was nice to enjoy some relaxing family time after a busy week.) So we trick-or-treated until the kids asked to go home. Zander, the Energizer bunny, would've kept going all night he was so excited about Halloween this year. Bryn was the first to tire out so she hopped in the stroller that Justin was wise enough to bring along. Her sweet siblings gave her candy from every door they hit. Except for Zander. He saw Kylie give me an Almond Joy (my favorite!) and he immediately stated, loud and clear, "I not sharing." Just in case we were hoping. When we got home it was time to refuel with sugar...

And a classic picture of Dad moving in for the steal...

...usually this happens after the kids go to bed but I guess he just couldn't wait this year :)

Pumpkin Dinner

2011-10-24T20:58:00.000-07:00

I'm in a cooking slump. I'm totally bored with the dishes I usually make. Tonight I tried something new and fun. It was a little more work than I'm normally willing to put into dinner but I was in the mood for something extra tasty. I made chicken pot pies (from scratch) and cut the pastry tops in the shapes of jack-o-lanterns.

When I didn't get the super-excited reaction from my family that I was hoping for I shamelessly fished for a compliment, "Isn't this a fun pumpkin dinner?" Hey, I have to get my little reward somehow ;)

^^^^^^^^^

There have been some funny comments around our house lately. Last week we had another hot day and I was trying not to turn on the air conditioner. Bryn and Zander were in the living room discussing the weather. Bryn was saying how hot and sweaty she was while Zander was saying that he felt fine. Leave it to kids to turn talk about the weather into an argument. In exasperation, Zander said, "Well, I just think girls are hot!"

Today we went to Bath and Body Works where Brayden, Bryn and Zander had to try EVERY bottle that said "tester". When we got in the car I said, "Wow, I can smell you guys all the way up here."

Brayden: We smell like an old lady.

Bryn: Why do we smell like an old lady?

Brayden: Because when girls get old, like Mom will, but not for a long time, they stink. So old ladies use a lot of perfume to cover up their stinky smell.

We were watching the Disney movie "Earth" this afternoon. Great movie by the way. My kids were fascinated and entertained. They were sad about the animals that became prey but the movie always cut off before anything gory happened. Except for maybe one part. I was in the kitchen making dinner and I heard something about a shark attack and blood. Anyways. I laughed and also felt sorry for my kids when the movie was showing how the trees change colors in the fall. The scenery was breathtaking. They showed time-elapsed footage of this hill of trees as their leaves changed. With each new color my kids would say, "Look, yellow leaves!" "Orange leaves?!" Then, "Ooohhh, red leaves!" And, "Wow, trees have pink leaves?!?!" Poor California kids who will never know true fall. They were also a little perplexed when the movie did time-elapsed footage of some crystal-looking white stuff as it melted. We need to travel more.

Brayden's 8th Birthday!

2011-10-22T21:12:00.000-07:00

Brayden's birthday was Friday and today was his party with friends. There were only three friends he wanted to invite and he wanted a video game party. When Brayden first told me that I thought, "Oh, that'll be so easy!" Then he told me he wanted cookies shaped like PS3 and Wii controllers. Gulp.

Brayden also wanted to play 'pin the monitor on the computer'. So the boys drew whatever video game they wanted on their monitor then pinned it onto the keyboard I so expertly traced from the real thing.

After that, the boys played video games on the PS3 for awhile. Trash-talking eight year olds are funny to listen to. At one point they did get a little contentious because they couldn't agree on a strategy so we nixed that game and did a different one.

Brayden will be starting Cub Scouts next week so the scouting lady (den mother? I'm a scouting noob) came over to explain scouts to me. Did you know there is a video game belt loop? Brayden will totally be earning that one :)

It was time for cookies and presents. I had printed a picture of a PS3 controller and cut it out to use as my cookie pattern. I used bite-size Oreos for the knobs and cut black licorice for the buttons. The rectangular Wii controllers were much easier to cut out and I just used grey frosting to draw the different buttons on. If Brayden ever claims that I don't love him, I'm going to pull out this picture and remind him of how many hours I slaved over these controller cookies just for him!

Brayden and all the kids thought the cookies were pretty cool, so it was worth all the work :)

His friends gave him some nice gifts that Brayden enjoyed playing with the rest of the afternoon. For party favors I put together a Wii candy dispenser, Mario Bros fruit snacks and chocolate coins.

I think it was a successful party. As a side note, Brayden won't be getting baptized right away since he is still in a cast. We'll just have to wait until it's off and he can get his arm wet :) Here are some additional birthday photos...

Happy Birthday! Brayden

2011-10-17T22:10:00.000-07:00

Warning: There is a graphic picture of Brayden's arm with pins in it in this post. So if you don't want to be grossed out, don't look.

Last Thursday Brayden started complaining that the pins in his arm felt like they were burning and that it felt like something kept hitting the pins. From what he was describing I was guessing he was having muscle spasms. Brayden hadn't asked for Tylenol for a couple days but with this new pain he was asking for it again and he woke up a couple times during the night Thursday crying in pain. It took me four hours Friday morning to get past the Kaiser front lines to speak to an actual doctor....grrrrrr. The orthopedist said he wanted to see Brayden because the burning pain could be a sign of infection. So we made the trek up to Riverside and did a whole bunch of waiting, three hours worth.

They removed the splint and took more x-rays which showed the pins were still in place. The doctor inspected Brayden's incision and pins and determined there was no infection, thank goodness. He said the muscle spasms can cause the pins to move and feel like they're burning. The muscle spasms are normal apparently. The doctor did decide to put a cast on instead of re-splinting Brayden's elbow. The cast is much more comfortable. Before, it was hard to get his shirts on and off over the splint without hurting him. Now it's a cinch and doesn't hurt because the cast is more compact and protects his elbow better. When we go back next Monday they'll remove the cast to make sure Brayden's elbow is continuing to heal properly then put another cast on.

I have to admit, I couldn't look at Brayden's arm for very long when it wasn't covered by the splint. I started to feel woozy. I can handle the sight of needles and blood just fine but this was too much. I'm posting this photo, not to gross you out, but because this blog is our family journal. When I eventually get it printed I want this photo to be in there. The incision is much longer than I expected and his elbow still doesn't look normal. You can see the pointy little elbow of his right arm but the elbow of his left arm is still lost in all the swelling. I'm assuming that's what it is. Many nurses and doctors have commented on what a hard surgery Brayden had to go through and how brave he is for handling it so well. Now I understand what they mean by a hard surgery...that's a pretty gnarly arm my boy has.

Passing on the Fitness Gene

2011-10-11T20:45:00.000-07:00

Amid all the trauma with Brayden, Kylie qualified for and ran in her first cross country race on Saturday. It was hosted by a local high school and they invited 5th graders to participate. There was a steep hill on the course that slowed her down but she still finished the mile in 8:20! Kylie was wearing a new (and her very first) pair of running shoes which I'm sure made her so speedy ;)

For 5th grade the boys and girls ran together but they placed according to gender. Kylie placed 3rd among all 5th grade girls! And you had to be one of the top 15 finishers to get a medal, which she did.

Also on Saturday was Kylie's awards ceremony for her level II gymnastics class. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to graduate to the next level this time. The skills the girls are required to pass off are much more difficult. It seems to be the "weeding out" level because when they announce the gymnasts in the level III class they are very few in number. Kylie was a little disappointed but wasn't expecting anything different. She'll take the class again starting later this month. I'm glad that Kylie's found a sport she really enjoys. It's fun to watch her become a better gymnast. I'm very impressed by some of the moves she can do.

And we'll have to see where her running career leads. Maybe I'll have a buddy to run the Ragnar with someday ;)

Brayden's Surgery

2011-10-09T23:42:00.000-07:00

Thursday afternoon I took Brayden to the orthopaedic doctor for a follow-up check up as the urgent care physician had instructed. We were expecting the doctor to cast his fractured elbow and send us on our way. Instead, we were told that Brayden needed surgery ASAP. The doctor's exact words were, "This is a bad break. He should have been sent straight from the urgent care to the operating room. We'll be filing an official complaint against the urgent care doctor." Holy cow. The doctor showed me the x-rays of Brayden's broken elbow which I hadn't seen before because Justin was with him the night he broke it. Brayden's humerus was clearly out of place and the tip was broken all the way through and pushed back at an angle. The new x-rays showed that, since it had been 12 days since the break, it was already starting to heal but in the wrong position of course. The doctor had reviewed Brayden's file earlier in the morning and had scheduled his surgery before we even got there. He wanted to do the surgery right then but Brayden had already eaten lunch and your stomach needs to be empty before surgery so you won't get sick. We scheduled it for the next day, Friday, at 1:30p.m. He needed an open reduction of his left elbow fracture. Which means they needed to push the bone back into place and insert pins to hold it there.

This was all so unexpected. I almost started to cry in the doctor's office as he explained that this type of break should be operated on hours after it occurs (not 13 days!) and the kids actually feel a lot better after the surgery because it relieves the pain and pressure of the broken bone. So all the pain Brayden was in after the break first happened could have been avoided. Or, I should say, he would've only had to go through it once. Now he's going through it all over again. We will be filing a complaint as well against that urgent care doctor. And we are done with Kaiser. DONE. They've screwed up many times, as you've probably read in my blog, but this screw up was the most serious. The doctor explained that Brayden could've lost circulation or had nerve damage from the lack of proper medical attention. I'm not willing to put my kids at risk to save money on health insurance every month. As soon as open enrollment comes we'll be switching.

Thursday night Justin gave Brayden a blessing and it was very comforting. Among other things, he told Brayden that Heavenly Father would be with him to comfort him and he blessed him that he would make a full recovery. I can't tell you how much that blessing put my mind at ease. I knew the road would still be rough but I didn't need to worry, Brayden would be okay.

Justin took Friday off of work because our original thought was that we would divide and conquer. I would go with Brayden to Riverside for his surgery and Justin would stay home with the other kids. Then I talked to a friend who had recently gone through surgery with her daughter and she said she wished her husband had been with her. It was more traumatic to watch her child go through surgery than she had expected. So I took her advice and Justin went with me. And I'm so glad he did! My mom came out and stayed with the other kids. Brayden was up crying in the middle of the night Thursday because he was so nervous about the surgery. I laid in bed with him and answered his questions and told him about when I got my wisdom teeth out and was put to sleep. I promised him he wouldn't feel them putting the pins in his elbow. Brayden couldn't eat anything when he woke up Friday morning but he could drink water and apple juice until 11:30a.m. and then nothing after that. I thought it would be hard for him to go that long without food but we let him play video games all morning with Zander to take his mind off of things. He never complained about being hungry.

Things progressed quickly when we arrived at the hospital. Despite all the horrible experiences I've had with Kaiser, I have to say I was impressed with Brayden's team of nurses, anesthesiologists and doctor. They did a fantastic job of making him feel at ease. The nurse put a numbing cream on Brayden's arm so he didn't have to feel them insert the IV. They all commented on how great Brayden was coping. He really did well. He didn't cry at all and was even smiling as they wheeled him away to the operating room. He was most upset by the gown they made him wear...

They told us the longest the procedure would take was an hour and a half. It all depended on how difficult it was to reset the bone. Normally they try to push the bone back into place manually but they were unable to so they had to make an incision. He was in surgery for an hour and a half. The doctor said it was more challenging but that everything went well. Brayden now has three pins in his elbow. They aren't permanent, thank goodness. They'll be in for about a month to keep the bone in place while it heals.

Only one of us was allowed to be with Brayden when he woke up from the surgery. I wish the doctor had prepared me for what it would be like. Brayden was in so much pain as he came out of the anesthesia that he was shaking. I've never personally seen a human being in that much pain. The nurse was giving him something in his IV to put him back to sleep a little bit. As she said, "We can't always take the pain away from the patient but we can take the patient away from the pain." The only problem was she couldn't give him the full dosage all at once because it may have caused him to stop breathing. She gave him a little bit every five minutes. It was the longest twenty minutes of my life. Brayden was sobbing, "Take the pins out! Take them out! I want to go home." He was much better after the drugs kicked in and he was still awake but very groggy and not in pain. He kept asking where his dad was and saying he wanted to go sleep in the car.

Here's where I was grateful Justin was with me. (And I know Brayden was really glad he was there, too.) As I was sitting by Brayden's bed, the nurse handed me a prescription for Tylenol with codeine for Brayden and told me I needed to take it downstairs to the pharmacy and get it filled so they could give him his first dose before the current pain med wore off, which would be in about 40 minutes. She fully expected me to leave my child who was suffering, just abandon him when he needed me most. There's no way in the world I was going to do that. I would've chewed that nurse out and told her to run her butt down to the pharmacy and bring that medicine herself. What is wrong with Kaiser?!?! They have computers for crying out loud. Can't they send the prescription electronically to their own pharmacy and have someone run all the way downstairs to fetch it? Thank goodness Justin was there and a kinder nurse offered to take the paper out to him in the waiting room.

We left the hospital about 7:00p.m. The Tylenol with codeine seemed to be keeping Brayden's pain under control. My poor boy...

Are you wondering what we're doing with a wheelchair in the parking lot? Kaiser doesn't even wheel out out. You have to take care of that yourself. The parking lot is littered with abandoned wheelchairs. It's creepy.

I had told Brayden that I'd buy him whatever he wanted after the surgery. He requested pirate stuff from the 99 Cent Store and a Webkinz. Here he is with his hard-earned toys...

And that's his set up on the couch. He stays there most of the day and sleeps there at night. I've been sleeping on the couch with him. The nurse recommended giving him the pain medication during the night whenever he would start stirring. It's easier to keep pain down with overlapping doses than to try and bring it back down after it gets high.

Brayden did fine Friday night and all day Saturday until about 6:30p.m. Then he started complaining that the skin under his splint felt like it was burning. We were told to call if that happened. When I called the nurse she asked if Brayden could stand and walk. I assumed he could but when he stood up he was super wobbly and couldn't walk! Then she asked if he was having chest pains and if it hurt worse when he took a deep breath. He was and it did. She said we needed to take him to the emergency room...in Riverside, 45 minutes away. I told her how far away we were and asked if he would be okay during a drive that long, to which she replied, "I can't guarantee that." She then informed me that I could go to an emergency room that Kaiser was contracted with which was located fifteen minutes from my house. But she kept pushing the Kaiser Riverside emergency room because they would have all his medical records. Ummm, let's see...there's obviously something wrong with my son and you can't guarantee that he'll be okay on the long drive but you still want me to go there? Freaking Kaiser.

I went to the ER closest to us and worried the whole way as Brayden kept moaning that his skin was burning and the lights were really bright. It was frightening. When we got to the ER Brayden asked me, "Are you sure you can carry me?" I said, "Of course I can. I work out so I'm really strong." He said with a smile, "Okay, muscle woman." It was good to hear him make a joke. I have to tell you if you ever want a ticket straight in to see the doctor just tell them you're having chest pains. We went right in for an EKG. It was normal. They did blood work and it also came back normal. They tried to reach a Kaiser orthopedic surgeon (I told them good luck) to get his advice. In the end, they had no idea why he couldn't walk. They ruled out everything dangerous such as a blood clot. The doctor said his son had a similar break and pinning and he had weird symptoms for about a week. He explained that this is how kids' bodies react to trauma sometimes. We got home from the ER at midnight. Brayden slept really well all night. When he woke up this morning he was in a super good mood and is walking around just fine. He did good all day. Justin made sure he took a nap while the girls and I were at church.

While I was playing the organ at church this morning I just wanted to cry. I feel emotionally drained. I've kept up a good front because I didn't want Brayden to see me upset. But all my worry and fears just wanted to come tumbling out. The opening hymn was "I Believe in Christ" and as I was playing the last verse the words, "I believe in Christ, so come what may" really touched me. I think it was Heavenly Father reminding me that with my Savior I can handle whatever comes my way. It doesn't mean it will be easy, but I can do it.

I hope the worst is behind us. Brayden goes back to the orthopedic doctor in two weeks to take the splint off and get a cast on. Two weeks after that the cast comes off and the pins come out. They take the pins out during a regular office visit so he won't have to go through surgery again. I forgot to ask the doctor when he can return to school. The discharge papers they gave us say an adult having the same surgery should take 1-2 weeks off of work. I was nervous before about Brayden's elbow getting bumped at school but now I'm even more worried about the pins getting hit. He can barely tolerate the pressure of an ice pack on them, having someone bump into them would be unbearable. We shall see.

Surf's Up

2011-10-05T21:41:00.000-07:00

I fell like blogging about something fun tonight. I could recommend you read "Heist Society" by Ally Carter because it is a light-hearted, fun novel with a little romance, some action and good humor. But that would be a really short post. So I'll share photos of my other favorite thing to do...I painted and decorated the kids' bathroom a couple of weeks ago!

I haven't painted the kids' bathroom until now because bathrooms are my least favorite room to paint. But the white walls were looking dingy so I decided it was time. There were a couple of things that weren't working for us in the bathroom...the towel racks. I failed to take "before" photos before I moved things out of the bathroom so you'll just have to envision a towel rack hung in this part of the bathroom behind the door directly above the light switch. First problem, the rack is too high for the kids to reach so their towels are forever on the floor. Second, if I hang the towels on the rack you can't see the light switch, such a brilliant design. One thing that was working was this bright beach-themed shower curtain. So I used that for my starting point.

I decided to go with a warm yellow on the walls to make it feel like a sunny day at the beach. This space looks so cheery now...

My solution for the towel rack dilemma was to replace it with hooks. I hung them low enough that the kids can reach them. Okay, so the two shortest ones have to stand on the toilet but they can do it. I got double hooks so each kid can hang up their towel and a wet swimsuit at the same time. No more swimsuits all over the tub and floor anymore!

Now, I had hooks in my bathroom growing up and I hated them. Why? Because it was hard to get that darned towel to stay on the hook. I didn't want to put my kids through that aggravation because the towels would just end up on the floor again. So I had the idea to sew a loop of ribbon on one side of the towel to make hanging a cinch. I was going to use a shoelace type of ribbon, but Barbara said grosgrain ribbon would hold up well and it is much nicer to look at. She also created the crossed loop design...genius!

There was another towel rack above the hamper, again, too high for the kids to reach, plus it was farther from the shower so they'd drip water all over the floor while retrieving their towels. So I took it down.

I've had this surfboard rug for years and now it's finally on the wall! I'm still searching for a piece of artwork to hang next to it to fill up that empty space. I spray painted the hamper a brighter red and it works for now but I'd love to get one of those bamboo hampers.

More blah walls and ugly "theater dressing room" lighting that I'll have to live with for a few more years...

But now you're too busy admiring the fun decor to notice the ugly lights :)

No more hand towels cluttering the bathroom counter. They are hanging nicely right next to the sink. I think this is a cool picture because you can see the towel on the other wall in the mirror. I found some beach-themed painted wood cut outs at JoAnns that matched my bright color scheme perfectly.

The towel rack that used to be above the hamper is now behind the door so guests have a place to hang their towels when they come.

See, wasn't that fun?! That section of the house is now all painted...hooray! Until Zander grows out of his toddler bed and I get to re-do the boys' room :)

2011-09-25T21:50:00.000-07:00

If you have one of these...

You're bound to have a child end up with one of these...

The springless trampoline will protect children from getting caught in the springs. The net will protect children from falling off the trampoline onto the hard ground. But there is nothing to protect children from themselves and their own brilliant ideas. Saturday night Kylie and Brayden were trying to do "tremendous falls" on the trampoline. Brayden instructed Kylie to grab his leg and pull it out from under him while he was in the air. She did, and he landed on his elbow, fracturing his humerus. (Is that why they call it a funny bone?) I was at a church meeting when it happened. I felt bad that I wasn't there to comfort and take care of Brayden but he was in good hands with his dad. Justin said he knew something was wrong as soon as he saw Brayden. His arm just didn't look right and he could tell Brayden was in a lot of pain. They went to urgent care and I hurried home from my meeting. The urgent care doctor put Brayden's arm in a splint and I have to make an appointment for him to see the orthopaedic surgeon.

What would a visit to Kaiser be without a scary story to tell? The radiologist at Kaiser took x-rays of both of Brayden's arms so they could compare his normal right arm with his injured left arm. She showed Justin the x-rays and pointed out where the left elbow fracture was. When the doctor was reviewing the films with Justin she said, "I don't see anything wrong, no breaks, everything looks fine." Justin said, "Um, you're looking at the x-ray of his right arm. It's his left arm that's hurt." He said there was a big "R" in the corner of the x-ray to indicate "right" arm. If he hadn't been paying attention, Brayden would've walked out of there thinking his arm was fine, just a bump and a bruise, a little ice and in a couple days his arm would be good as new. Yikes! Kaiser strikes again. I still hate Kaiser.

Poor Brayden had a rough night. He is in so much pain he can't sleep for more than two hours at a time. The Tylenol just isn't cutting it. If I can get past the Kaiser gestapo to talk to an actual doctor I'll ask for something stronger. About 30 minutes before it's time for his next dose of Tylenol Brayden gets really pale and the pain intensifies. I wish I could wave a magic wand and take the pain away. He threw up as soon as he got home from urgent care last night. I think it was a combination of the trauma, crying and the nurse giving him Tylenol when he hadn't eaten anything for awhile. He finally kept food down around 10:00 this morning. We've been playing board games and watching TV to keep his mind off of his arm.

Our new couch arrived Saturday afternoon, just in time for Justin and Brayden to camp out on it all night. It is such a super-comfy couch! You sink into the fluffy cushions and pillows. Seriously, I'm so thankful it came when it did because it's as cozy as a bed so Brayden can find a comfortable position and dose off for a couple hours.

Our old couch is sitting in the garage waiting for somebody to take it off our hands. When we compare the worn cushions of our old couch to the new one I can't believe we waited so long to replace it. We broke in our new couch by watching the old classic "Swiss Family Robinson". I forgot what a fun flick that is.

I have a feeling Brayden will be doing a lot of sitting on that couch this week :(

We're In!

2011-09-18T23:00:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago we got the phone call that we've been waiting two years for. Kylie got into the charter school! Hooray!!! Although Justin and I were very excited, poor Kylie cried for an hour when I told her the news. She didn't want to leave her friends at French Valley and start a new school. I understand it's awful to leave your friends and have to make new ones. Why put her through this? Because the charter school has so much more to offer. She has Spanish three days a week, science lab and visual and performing arts weekly, and regular field trips. Their field trips reinforce what they learn in the classroom. For example, in sixth grade they study a piece of artwork then go on a field trip to the Getty Museum and give their report while standing next to the actual art. How cool is that? I love the idea of hands-on learning. Their class size is smaller. Kylie's class at FV had 32 students. Her class at the charter school has 25. We do have to volunteer for 12 hours per month at the school. Yes, I'm adding something else to my already crazy schedule. I admit, I'm a little stressed out about it but I'm just going to take it a month at a time. They had to let their librarian go because of budget cuts and I'm hoping to fill my hours by helping to organize and operate the library. I've always wanted to work in a library :)

The silver lining in Kylie's cloud was that she was put in the same class as one of her very best friends, Charis. She met us at the gate the first day and showed Kylie around. Unfortunately, Kylie's first day was "horrible". I was surprised because Kylie really has a talent for adjusting well in new situations. Turns out her class had a substitute. Her name wasn't on the attendance roll and nobody knew where she was supposed to sit. Her teacher had announced to the class the Friday before that Kylie would be coming so I was a little disappointed that the teacher hadn't been better prepared for her. They had Spanish that day and, of course, she understood nothing and wasn't given any homework to start learning Spanish, which frustrated her. She didn't like how small the school is. It is a huge difference from FV which had 6-7 classes per grade. The charter school only has two classes per grade.

Each day the report improved. On Thursday Kylie announced, "I love the charter school! Everyone there is so nice and there are no bullies." Phew! My prayers were answered. She had science lab on Thursday and they made an animal cell using a gobstopper for the nucleus and other candy for the different parts of the cell. She thought it was fun and she learned something!

Acceptance into the charter school is done by a lottery drawing. If there isn't space for your child, they are put on the waiting list in case somebody moves. Brayden and Bryn are still on the waiting list. Since Kylie got in they did get bumped up to the sibling list which gives them priority. Bryn used to be number 31 on the waiting list for kindergarten but she is now number one. Brayden also has the number one spot for third grade. I've already started preparing him for his move to the charter school. I know it will be super-hard on him. But the more he hears Kylie talk about the things they do at the charter school the more he is warming up to the idea. Bryn asks every day when she will get to go to the charter because she wants to be with her best friend, Avery. Meanwhile, having kids at two different schools is going to be challenging. Luckily, my neighbor across the street goes to the charter school so I joined her carpool. There are three of us so I only pick up from the charter three afternoons a week. Here's what our school schedule looks like right now...

7:50a.m. Kylie starts
8:55a.m. Brayden and Bryn start
12:20p.m. Bryn is out
2:50p.m. Kylie is out
3:20p.m. Brayden is out

Five drop-offs and pick-ups every day. Thank goodness for carpools! And thank goodness Zander isn't in preschool this year. The charter school is K-8th so all the kids will be at one school until Kylie goes to high school.

Interestingly, I've had a number of people give me a hard time about moving Kylie to the charter school. Parents have told me that I'm sheltering my child. Which doesn't make any sense to me. What am I sheltering them from? It's not like I'm removing them from society and placing them in a bubble with only perfect children to associate with. It's a regular school with regular kids. Yes, parents are more involved because they are required to be. That could be a reason behind Kylie's comment about there not being any bullies. If you're spending 12 hours of your time working at the school and paying $200/year/family to attend, you probably aren't going to let your kid screw around too much. If that's what they mean by sheltering, then I'm all for it. All I know is that I think my kids will do well at the charter school and enjoy the enriching activities that the other schools don't offer. Plus, unlike FV, they let you bring cupcakes or whatever sugar-filled treat you want to share with the class on your birthday :)

Bryn the Kindergartener

2011-09-13T12:06:00.000-07:00

Bryn was chosen to be the student of the week the first full week of school! When her teacher called to tell me she said, "I chose Bryn because she is such a good listener. She always follows directions." Wait, are you sure you have the right girl? Bryn, the one who doesn't respond when I call her name and I'm standing two feet away? The one who I have to tell three times every morning to get dressed for school? Justin and I had a good laugh because at home Bryn is easily distracted and lives in her own little world. I'm glad she's doing so well in kindergarten. Brayden and Kylie prepped Bryn for the assembly. They told her how to walk up to the front and where to stand. When her name was called her teacher, Mrs. Hernandez, was all ready to escort her to the front but Bryn stood up and marched right up there on her own like a pro. It pays to have older siblings!

Bryn's second day of kindergarten she was very excited when I picked her up. I thought maybe she had made a new friend. Turns out, "The sinks have drinking fountains in them! So I can wash my hands and get a drink at the same time whenever I want!" It's the little things that make school fun. Her favorite thing to do at school is ride the tricycles and play tag with her friends. When I ask her what she does in the classroom and what she learned she says "nothing". She may be right. They are reviewing the alphabet and counting 1-20 right now...easy peasy. I love the work she brings home though. Every day it's a new sentence with one of Bryn's beautiful drawings. It's kind of hard to see but this sentence says, "I am big" and that's a self-portrait. Kid art is my favorite :)

Double Digits

2011-09-05T22:27:00.000-07:00

Kylie had her big double digit birthday last Friday! Birthday breakfast this year was monkey bread...yum!

Kylie had a birthday party this year with five of her closest friends. I love, love, love birthday parties for older kids because they are so easy to plan and carry out. Kylie wanted to do a craft, swim and decorate cupcakes. We found a snow globe craft which the girls had a lot of fun creating. The clay is stickier than your normal molding clay so everything stays together in the water. The domes made me a little nervous because they didn't feel really secure after they were screwed onto the bottom. I put hot glue around them to seal it a little better. I hope nobody's snow globe leaks and gets glitter water on a desk or carpet!

The girls were very creative and the snow globes all turned out cute...until they wrote on them with a marker, but whatever ;)

Kylie opened her gifts then everyone swam in the pool and jumped on the trampoline for an hour.

I brought the cupcakes outside for them to decorate which ended up being a wise decision because those silly girls got a little crazy...

We also found some great things in JoAnn's dollar bins to put in the party favor bags.

It turned out to be a good party! Justin took the other kids to see Cars 2 in the cheap theater during the party so they weren't around to pester anyone. Kylie had a fun time with her friends. They are all such great girls, which I'm very thankful for.

Grandparents came over on Sunday to celebrate. Kylie requested spaghetti for her birthday dinner. We'd already eaten the birthday cupcakes so Justin whipped up a delicious berry pie, homemade crust and everything. Who needs Marie Calendars?!

Kylie will be busy doing Shrinky Dinks and making an American Girl organizer!

Kylie got her ears pierced on her 8th birthday and I told her when she turned 10 she could start wearing hoop earrings...a fact she reminded me about often. Thank goodness Aunt Kim gave her some very cute hoop earrings!

Kylie has always enjoyed taking pictures. In hopes of encouraging her to develop her talent we bought her a camera for her birthday. I got lucky and found a refurbished one on Amazon...it was even purple! There were many exclamations of "Oh sweet!" and "Awesome!" as she unwrapped her gift. I love seeing a child so excited about a gift :)

I really wasn't trying to match her glasses...purple just happens to be her favorite color.

Turning 10 is so fun and I think Kylie had a great birthday. Thank you to everyone who called, sent cards and gave her gifts...you made it a great birthday for her!

Old Wiki Wiki

2011-09-02T10:28:00.000-07:00

It's official, we've been cursed. At least that's what Brayden has decided. He says we have the "old wiki wiki" curse. (This will sound familiar to any "Good Luck Charlie" fans.) How do we know? Because many things around here have decided to break. They all got together and timed their demises to happen within weeks of each other.

Breakage #1...Justin's car stalled on the freeway on his way home from work. Luckily, one of those patrolling tow trucks came to his aid and got him going again. The only way to keep the car from stalling again was to keep his foot on the gas at all times. Justin was still maybe 50 miles from home so that was pretty deft maneuvering on his part to keep the gas on the rest of the way. He even made it off the freeway and one block from the mechanic's before stalling again. A good Samaritan helped him push it the rest of the way. Diagnosis...a new engine. Every cloud has a silver lining though and this one was no exception. His "check engine" light has been on for a really long time, maybe a year? We were lucky it lasted as long as it did. Also, this happened the week before school started so Justin was able to drive my car to work all week while the mechanic brought his car back to life, perfect timing. So while the new engine hit the checking account pretty hard, the situation wasn't without blessings.

Breakage #2...the couch. Our couch is about nine years old. It is in horrid shape. I've looked into dying it but they said it would last about six months before it started cracking again. And slipcovers for a sectional cost almost as much as a new couch. A couple months ago the couch sprouted a tiny hole but this week that hole grew. And is still growing. The stuffing is threatening to escape. We'll probably hit the Labor Day sales this weekend.

Breakage #3...the mixer stopped mixing. I was making banana bread Tuesday morning when first one beater stopped spinning. I thought, "No problem, the other one still spins and gets the job done." Two minutes later the other beater died. Nooooooooo!!!!!!!!!

Soon to be breakage #4...the blender is making awful screeching noises. It's happened a few times while blending smoothies and I'm just waiting for the old wiki wiki curse to take the blender too.

On top of everything biting the dust, we've lost things around here too. Bryn's very favorite blanket that she's had since she was born is nowhere to be found. I'm going to conduct one last top-to-bottom search of the house today before declaring it lost forever and embarking on an internet search for a replacement. Zander's favorite Indiana Jones Legos t-shirt has also disappeared. He wore it days in a row before I had to confiscate it and wash it. Then he put it right back on as soon as it was out of the dryer. He asks for that shirt every day. I have no idea where it went. Kylie lost her flash drive for school too. Though I'm not sure that's the old wiki wiki curse as much as it is the result of a 10 year old not keeping track of her stuff.

Bother. Maybe we should do an old Hawaiian ritual dance to get rid of the curse...somebody find some grass skirts before something else breaks!

Supermom

2011-08-26T23:20:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have days that are jam packed with things to do? This whole week was a little crazy. Unexpected things happened, like getting a nail in my tire and having to wait almost two hours for it to be repaired. There were extra things like a doctor's appointment. But the mother of all busy days this week was Thursday. Let me recap...

6:00a.m.-8:00a.m. Get myself and everyone ready for the day, pack lunches, cook breakfast, etc.

8:00a.m. My neighbor brings his three kids over who I will be watching every Thursday. Two of them are in school so really I just babysit Dylan who is two and a half. He and Zander get along fabulously so it's a piece of cake!

8:20a.m. Start loading all 7 kids in the car. Yes, seven!!! We really didn't need to leave until 8:30a.m. but I wasn't sure how long it would take everyone to find shoes and backpacks and get buckled. We ended up being 5 minutes early to school and the gates weren't unlocked yet but I would much rather be early than have to rush because we are late.

9:00a.m. Chiropractor appointment. They have a Wii so Zander and Dylan stay busy and quiet :)

10:00a.m.-12:00p.m. Swimming at a friend's house. This was the highlight of my day. It's a treat getting to hang out with other moms. I enjoyed adult conversation and the boys had a blast staying cool in the pool.

12:20p.m. Pick up Bryn and Reid from kindergarten.

12:45p.m. Dylan and Reid's grandma pick them up and we eat lunch.

1:30p.m.-3:00p.m. Zander goes down for a nap. I do a reading lesson with Bryn, get dinner in the crockpot and do a short workout and shower for the day.

3:20p.m. Pick up the three older kids from school, take Ashlyn home and dash to piano lessons, which we were late for because Brayden decided to stay after school for five minutes and help his teacher straighten the classroom for back-to-school night. Helpfulness is great, but next time how about doing it any other day except crazy Thursday?

3:40p.m.-5:10p.m. My friend, Lori, gives Kylie and Brayden a piano lesson and I teach her son, Jack.

5:30p.m. Kylie's weekly gymnastics class. Justin meets us there and stays with Kylie since I have to attend back-to-school night.

6:10p.m. By the time we get home, we've been in the car for an hour and the kids are done...I don't blame them! I have five minutes to feed the kids and take them to my neighbor's. Chicken nuggets it is!

6:25p.m.-7:30p.m. I go to Brayden's and Kylie's classrooms. Of course, I walked into the first classroom and was looking all over for Kylie's name. The teacher stops her presentation (yes, I'm five minutes late, again!) and asks who I'm looking for. I tell her and she says, "Who?" To which I reply, "Wait, which class is this?" She patiently responds, "I'm Mrs. Patino." "Oh, then I'm looking for Brayden's desk, sorry!" I was feeling a little scatterbrained by this time! Back-to-school night was informative. I like both the kids' teachers, and so do they, so I think it'll be a good year.

7:45p.m. I get home and finally wolf down some dinner so I can go to my book club meeting which starts at 8:00p.m.

8:00p.m.-10:00p.m. I had an enjoyable evening chatting and discussing "Emma and Joseph: Their Divine Mission". After I got home I was still so wound up from the day that it took me longer than usual to unwind and relax enough to fall asleep.

But I did it...I survived the day. I didn't even forget to go any place and I didn't loose any children along the way. Success!!!

It all caught up to me today though. I barely pulled myself out of bed this morning. My neighbor was going to take all the kids to school but I got a call from Bryn's teacher to tell me that she is student of the week. My vision of spending the morning in my pajamas in my air conditioned house is shattered. Instead, I load up six kids and and stand in the 100 degree heat for almost an hour. Okay, maybe it was really only 97 degrees, but it was 9 o'clock in the morning! I'm all for school spirit but can we cut it a little short when everyone is on the verge of getting heat stroke?!

Birthday continued...

2011-08-24T20:46:00.000-07:00

As I was reading comments on yesterday's post I realized that I forgot to mention what our moms gave me for my birthday. I got tangerine body wash (I love The Body Shop!), necklace and earrings, cupboard organizers and a spice organizer for the drawer.

These are all being put to good use! Well, the cupboard organizers have yet to be put to work but that's because I'm still trying to decide which cupboard to put them in. Putting the spices in a drawer has opened up a whole realm of possibilities :)

Happy Birthday To Me

2011-08-23T22:15:00.000-07:00

On Sunday Bryn asked me, "Mom, are you turning 30?" Why, yes I am! ;)

Kylie, in all seriousness, said, "Really? You're 37? You don't look 37 AT ALL!" I gave her a humungous hug...but I should've known there was more. Deep in thought and scrutinizing me head to toe she said, "You look more like 35." Ttthhhppphhht (<--raspberry).

Whatever. Yes, I am 37 and I feel like I'm in a great place. I've never been in better shape in my life. Thanks to Shawn T and Insanity and the fact that if I don't workout my hormones get out of whack and I become a sad, angry little elf. Working out keeps me happy :) The kids are at good ages. Zander still won't go into another room by himself...EVER...but other than that, nobody is dependent on me for every single physical need. I'm learning how to juggle three kids in school. I'm getting better at finding balance in my life. It's okay to leave dirty dishes in the sink while I paint a laundry room or read a book. It's important to make time for the Lord and look beyond myself to others who I can help. I'm trying to serve my family with a more cheerful heart.

Which leads me to my great birthday gift...orange Rachel Ray pots and pans!!!

Aren't they fun! Not to mention, they cook food amazingly well. Justin made fun of me for wanting kitchenware for my birthday. But these will make me smile every time I use them. A gift that gives every day, sometimes two or three times a day, what could be better?!

Justin got quite creative this year and sent me on a scavenger hunt to find my pans. The first clue said, "The dog we saw at the pet store yesterday wasn't too happy that we didn't bring him home. So he took your present. Luckily, we got a picture of the accomplices as they were getting away."

I followed six more clues involving Lightening McQueen, thieving faeries and a Lich King dragon. It was a very clever tale. Turns out my pans were already nicely put away in the kitchen. Justin made Emeril's Ooey Gooey Blueberry French Toast for breakfast. He also bought Broguiere's chocolate milk. It's the smoothest, creamiest chocolate milk you'll ever taste. You can't see it very well in the picture but the back of the bottle says, "Conserve water, drink milk" hee, hee. Just don't look at the price tag or the calories when you get it. Trust me, it's worth it.

I also got this super fun lip balm from EOS...

Something about the unique shape and great flavor makes it fun to use. I think I put some on every time I passed through my bathroom today.

Mom and Duane came over Sunday to celebrate my birthday. Mom made my favorite dessert from my childhood, a four layer pistachio pudding dessert. Scrumptious! I had a little help blowing out the candles.

It was a good birthday...thanks everybody!

Date Night

2011-08-15T19:23:00.000-07:00

Friday night we went to dinner and a movie. We saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2!

Since it's the last movie we decided to go out with a bang and see it in IMAX 3-D. What is the big deal about IMAX? I honestly have no idea. They spent the first five minutes giving us a commercial about the wonders of viewing a movie in IMAX. It felt like they were trying to convince us that the extra money we paid really was worth it. The 3-D was very cool though! I wasn't excited about it at first because I'm not a fan of wearing the glasses. And the only 3-D movies I've seen are kid ones where something pops out at you every once in awhile. But Justin wanted to try it and I'm glad we did. It was very cool! It felt like we were in the movie the whole time. I won't give any movie spoilers but Harry Potter 7.2 moves along much faster than Part 1. The first Deathly Hallows movie they spend a lot of time wandering around confused, angry and depressed. Part 2 you never get a chance to relax before something else happens. And the epic battle at the end is awesome! Being the wimp that I am, I closed my eyes at many parts. That darn snake kept attacking...too scary for me in 3-D.

After the movie we got a bite to eat at Red Robin then picked the kids up from my neighbor who was watching them. I'm going to babysit my neighbor's son for four hours a week while she goes to nursing school. She wanted to pay me but I asked her to just watch my kids a few times so Justin and I can go on dates instead. By the time you go to a movie and/or dinner and pay a babysitter it adds up to a rather expensive evening. Taking out the babysitter fee will be very nice. Plus, my kids love going over to my neighbor's house and playing with her kids. They all get along and entertain each other quite well.

Justin planned on making us creme brulee after the kids were in bed. But it's a lengthy process and it was late so he made it the next night for us instead. It was delicious! It meant a lot that he would go to all that work to make something he knew I would enjoy. I love date nights. They are relaxing and rejuvenating. It's nice to reconnect with Justin and feel like I'm more than a taxi driver :) Hopefully it won't be so long before the next one!

Full House

2011-08-14T19:23:00.000-07:00

My sister and her family (hubby and five girls) recently moved to Las Vegas, just four hours away from us. For the last few years they've lived in a teeny tiny town in Colorado where you can still buy things at the local hardware store and say, "Put it on my tab." You had to drive twenty hours, ride mules and get a forest ranger to lead you to their homestead. Needless to say, we didn't visit them. So we are very glad to have them back in civilization. They drove down last Saturday and stayed with us through Tuesday. It was a house full of fun, lots of food and good times.

Sunday morning all thirteen of us managed to get ready for church on time. Amazing!!! Darion even curled the girls' hair. Pretty good-looking bunch of cousins...

...with a silly side, of course.

After church the kids disappeared and played together nicely, only reappearing when they wanted to eat. The adults and Darion played a competitive game of "The Great Dalmuti". The Greater and Lesser Dalmutis did an excellent job of keeping the Greater and Lesser Peons in their place ;)

Monday we took the kids to the Lake Skinner Splash Pad. Carly and her clan met us there as well. Justin couldn't hang out with us since he had recently taken time off for our Big Bear trip. You might think keeping track of all those kids would be a little crazy but since there were always five or six of them sticking together I wasn't worried. I just kept my eyes on Bryn and Zander. Bryn tends to get lost in her own little world and wander wherever her heart leads her. We made it home without losing anyone :)

Brayden, Kayja, Kylie and Annika

Darion, baby Tamzin, Patty, Cameron and Azie

Monday night the kids put on a show for us on the trampoline. Tickets cost $0.16 for adults and $0.08 for kids. Unless your birthday was in August, then you were free, so Patty and I didn't have to pay. They called it "Parents' Life, Kid Version". It was hilarious! Basically, it was Kylie acting as the mom, we never could figure out if there was a dad. Everyone else played the part of her kids. The "kids" would act up, fight and argue and Kylie would run around saying, "Stop that! Time out! You kids are driving me crazy! Finally, some peace and quiet." Their interpretation of our lives was scarily accurate.

Taking a bow...

Tuesday we headed to Pennypickles Museum. I hadn't taken my kids there in a while so it was kinda new to them again.

After the museum we walked across the street to a Mexican food cafe. I love carne asada! After lunch Patty and family drove to Oceanside to stay with my mom and Duane for a few days. Tuesday night our house was suddenly empty and quiet. The kids didn't know what to do without cousins to play with. I have fond memories of hanging out with my Utah cousins almost every summer when I was growing up. Cousins are the best! I hope my kids get to create good memories with all of their cousins too :)

Off to a GREAT Start

2011-08-10T20:59:00.000-07:00

Or not. This will be the shortest report of the first day of school EVER. At least I hope it won't be repeated anytime soon. Tuesday night Brayden began crying about having to go to school. It continued into the next morning. His big fear this year was not having any friends. He said that usually the other students talk to each other the first day but he sits at his desk and writes or does nothing. I reassured him that there is nothing wrong with that. If sitting at his desk writing or observing the other kids is what's comfortable for him then that's a perfectly fine thing to do. I am speaking from experience. That's exactly what I liked to do in school. Except I was painfully shy whereas Brayden isn't, thank goodness. He will eventually feel comfortable and make friends. He always does.

Brayden managed to pull himself together as soon as he put his shoes on. Meanwhile, Kylie was complaining that her stomach hurt. She gets herself so worked up when she's nervous and/or excited about something. Bryn was blissfully clueless. It was just another day to her. I don't even know if she would've realized it was her first day of kindergarten if I hadn't kept reminding her all morning.

Here's the first day of kindergarten, fifth grade and third grade...and a short kid who's job is to keep Mom company every day...

Once at school, I walked Kylie and Brayden to their lines and they both marched off with no tears...phew! The first day of kindergarten is just an orientation. Bryn was most impressed with the hopscotch and tricycles on the playground. The kindergartners went home with their parents at 10:00 a.m. Tomorrow will be Bryn's first full day. She has the same teacher Brayden had in kindergarten, Mrs. Hernandez. I really like her. When we saw Mrs. Hernandez she said, "I saw Bryn's name on the kindergarten list and I snatched her up because I wanted her in my class. I hope that's okay?" Of course! Good thing Zander is at the end of the line so he can't sully our good name for any younger siblings ;)

After kindergarten orientation Bryn, Zander and I headed to Wal-Mart to battle the crowds in the school supply section. As we pulled into the parking lot I got a call from the school nurse. I saw who it was and I thought, "Oh no, Kylie is starting this already?!?!" Turns out she really was sick with a fever. We finished our shopping quickly and headed back to school to get sick Kylie. We got home, she went to bed, Zander fell asleep in the car, and Bryn and I had just finished eating lunch when I got a second call from the school nurse. Another one bites the dust. Brayden had a headache and fever so I went back to school for the third time in three hours to pick him up. They will both miss the second day of school as well. Poor kids. It's like having to do the first day all over again when they return. Kylie and Brayden both said they liked what they saw of their new teachers though. Brayden even found two friends in his class and they got to pick desks next to each other.

I really hope our second attempt at starting school this year goes well. On a positive note, we get to avoid the masses of parents that overrun the school the first couple days of school. That will have died down significantly by the time we go back. We just wanted a couple extra days of summer :)

Zander Mander

2011-08-03T15:33:00.000-07:00

This boy cracks us up. On Sunday Grandma Jake and Aunt Christine were visiting us. The boys kept asking if they could play games on the computer but we said no because we had company and also because it was Sunday. Later, Zander was sitting on the couch 'reading' the rule book to a card game. I sat down next to him and asked...

Me: What are you reading?

Zander: A book about Jesus.

Me: Will you read it to me?

Zander: Yes. It says, "Jesus says play puter [computer] games."

Nice try, kid!

I have to give a little background for this next story to make sense. I was rear-ended by a tow truck a month and a half ago. My back has been pretty messed up since then. I often ask the kids to pick things up off the floor for me so I don't have to bend over because it hurts my back. I also have to turn down Zander's requests that I pick him up for the same reason. I didn't realize just how much I was saying that my back hurt until Zander and I had this conversation...

Zander: I want fruit snacks.

Me: Okay, go get them out of the pantry.

Zander: No, you!

Me: If you want fruit snacks, you can go get them.

Zander: No I can't, my back huwts (hurts)!

Get those three-year-old bones off the couch and get your own fruit snacks silly kid!

Zander has also decided to change his middle name...

Justin: Zander, do you know your full name?

Zander: Yes. Zander.

Justin: But your whole name is Zander Corrin A____.

Zander: No. I Zander Mander!

Okay, whatever makes you happy :)

Summer Stuff

2011-08-02T15:32:00.000-07:00

This is a collection of random summer happenings at our house...

This summer we harvested the first crops from our garden. The apricots, peaches, strawberries, cilantro, basil and tomatoes are so flavorful. You just can't beat homegrown!

The best way to eat grape tomatoes is right off the vine when the sun has warmed the juices inside.

I used our basil leaves to make fresh pesto sauce, yum!

^^^^^^^^^^

Cooking dinner during the summer is always a challenge for me. When it's ninety degrees outside, the last thing I want to do is stand over a hot stove. So this is what I scraped together for dinner one night...

There's some dairy in there, a little protein from eggs and, most importantly, four smiling little faces to gobble it all up :)

^^^^^^^^^^

A favorite summertime activity for the kids is having "sleepovers". They sleepover in exciting far away places like Brayden and Zander's bedroom floor. There is often talking and giggling and warnings to Bryn that she better not wake everyone up in the morning.

They're so adorable when they're sleeping!

^^^^^^^^^^

Have you ever played the "cut the nickel out of the flour" game? Put a nickel in the bottom of a cup, fill it with flour then turn the cup upside down on a cookie sheet. Everyone takes turn using a butter knife to slice away the flour. The person who makes the nickel fall has to fish it out of the flour with their mouth.

The game lost a little of the suspense when Kylie declared she wanted to make the nickel fall and get it out with her teeth...and she did.

Then everyone took turns putting the nickel back in the flour and getting out.

Or in Zander's case, playing in the flour like it was sand and eating it like it was sugar. Ick! He seriously loves flour. When he helps me bake cookies his favorite part is when we put the flour in and he can lick his fingers and eat it. I don't get it.

Big Bear

2011-07-28T23:36:00.000-07:00

We finally went on a family vacation last week! It's been so long since we've traveled anywhere I didn't even have a "vacation" label on this blog...which I started in 2009. But now that everyone is potty trained, capable of driving in the car for a couple hours without crying and can sleep in a bed, we feel like we can get away without it being a big, stressful production. And boy were we right...it was wonderful!

We had been thinking about going to Big Bear for awhile when one of Justin's friends offered to let us stay in his cabin in Arrowbear...for free! Couldn't pass up that incredibly generous offer. Since we had originally budgeted for renting a cabin we were now able to spend a little more on activities which made the whole vacation doubly nice.

The kids were so excited to go to Big Bear. We left Thursday afternoon and drove the short two hours up the windy mountain. The drive was fine since we we all took Dramamine. Did you know they make chewable tablets now? When we got to the cabin the refrigerator had quit working since someone had last been there. The smell of rotten food filled the air. We spent some time cleaning out the fridge, moving it outside and buying Styrofoam coolers and ice to keep our food in. Despite that little hiccup, I have to say a cabin is the greatest way to vacation for our family. We had two bedrooms. The kids thought it was fun sleeping in the twin/full bunk beds. It was convenient having a full kitchen so we didn't have to eat out. I brought a lot of frozen meals that were easy to prepare and fun food that I don't usually buy, like instant oatmeal with candy eggs that melt and reveal baby dinosaurs. And it was nice to have space to hang out in. Every morning we took our time getting ready and even played some board games together.

When we got to the cabin Zander kept asking, "Where's Big Bear?" He wasn't satisfied until the next day when we got to the actual town of Big Bear and started seeing bronze and wood statues of bears EVERYWHERE. Three year olds are very literal ;)

Friday we started our adventures at the Big Bear Discovery Center.

Have you ever seen a pine cone this ginormous?!

They have quite a few activities for kids. We signed up for Saturday's activities to pan for gold and build rocket ships out of recycled material. There are a number of nature walks/hikes to do but since the time we "hiked" one mile on the Santa Rosa Plateau and everyone hated it I didn't think hiking was something we should attempt. There was even grumbling as we walked down this short bridge...wimps...

We found the Alpine slide and decided to give it a try. You ride the ski lift to the top and ride this summertime bobsled down a cement track to the bottom. You can control the speed with a joystick. They have two tracks, one for fast riders and one for those who like to take it a little slow. Kylie and Brayden went down by themselves and Justin and I took turns riding with Bryn and Zander.

This ended up being Brayden's favorite part of the whole trip.

Sometimes I find myself looking forward to when the kids are older and we can all do the same activities and I forget to enjoy the time we have now. When he's older Zander won't sit next to me on the ski lift and we won't get to have conversations like this...

Zander: You don't need to hold onto me, Mama.

Me: Oh, yes I do! I don't want you to fall off.

Zander: Mama, are you going on da supew[super] fast one or da swow[slow] one?

Me: This is my first time so I think I'll go on the slow one.

Zander: Yeah, you go on da swow and I go on the supew-fast. Okay? (Then we got off the lift and up to the track and he had a change of heart.) Ummm, Mama? Let's twade. You go supew fast and I go swow.

There are good things about this stage too. Like the funny things they say that make me laugh.

There are two water slides in the same park as the Alpine Slide. Zander was too small to go on them. Bryn had to wear a life jacket to go down and nobody could go with her. She was brave and tried it once but didn't like it. I don't blame her, it's hard to just sit up in those bulky life jackets. Brayden and Kylie went down a few times though. That's Kylie coming down the slide...

Saturday we headed back to the Discovery Center to pan for gold. They even had a man who looked like an original gold miner ;)

We took our new-found riches and headed to the lake for some paddleboarding and kayaking. Paddleboarding is much easier than I thought it would be. The boards are so wide it's pretty easy to balance on. Of course, we stayed in a cove so there were no waves from boats. I imagine it would be much harder to paddleboard in the ocean waves.

Kylie was even able to do it. She had a little trouble steering and Justin had to jump in a couple times to keep her from crashing into shore but she didn't fall off.

We took Bryn and Zander out too. They would kneel in front of Justin or me. Brayden was reluctant to try it. Well, refused was more like it.

Our hour was up and we had to return the paddleboards but we weren't done being on the lake. It was a gorgeous day. The weather was maybe 85 degrees and the lake water was cool but not cold. So we rented a kayak. Now that was a workout! Perhaps it had to do with the fact that it was a long double kayak and the kids didn't exactly contribute any rowing power. My abs were feeling it. But we got Brayden to try it!

The kids didn't mind waiting their turns because they were busy snacking and playing on the rocks, feeding the ducks and trying not to let the "spaghetti" in the water touch them...

Such a great day!

After Saturday we felt like we had done everything we wanted to do so we left the cabin Sunday morning instead of staying until Monday. On our way up to Big Bear we had passed Pharoh's Adventure Park in Redlands and it looked like a cool place so we played there for a few hours on our way home. They have miniature golf and bounce houses but we just did the water park. It has something for every age group. There was a large wading area with tiny slides for toddlers and bigger slides for Bryn. The last hour she found a friend and they went up and down the slide over and over. There was also a deeper pool but Bryn isn't a strong swimmer and there were so many people her way to the side was often blocked. It was too stressful for me to keep a constant eye on her and Zander both so we mostly stayed in the wading pool. Justin, Kylie and Brayden went on the big water slides. Kylie will try anything and nothing scares her. Which is great because she will have fun wherever she goes. I was very proud of Brayden for trying the water slides. He got worried on a couple of them because they were fast or dark but he went right back and slid down some more. There was also a lazy river we all floated around a few times together. It was another beautiful day!

Monday was still vacation, even though we were back home, so we called Grandma Jake and took her to the beach. We went to Doheny and there was hardly anybody there. Which meant I could actually relax a little instead of having to count kids every minute. We bought some good sand castle building equipment and Brayden the builder was in his element constructing castles with moats that could withstand the waves.

Zander was hilarious to watch. He would run up close to the water but as soon as a wave came in he would run away as fast as he could screaming. Then he would jump up and clap his hands so happy that he beat the wave and it didn't get him. He did that over and over. We asked him if he wanted to hold our hands and go in the water but he didn't. Standing in water in a bucket was enough...

Here's poor Grandma Jake with her two fractured wrists. We haven't seen her in awhile since she can't drive so it was nice to spend some time with her.

Monday afternoon we went home and got all the sand from the beach off of us so we could end our summer vacation with a giant pizookie at BJ's.

Though I'm not sure why we bothered cleaning the kids up because they all looked something like this when they were done eating...lol...

What a fabulous vacation! Now when the kids start school in two weeks they'll have something to write about when their teachers ask them what they did over summer break :)

Fire Engine Bed

2011-07-15T10:09:00.000-07:00

My neighbor was given a fire engine toddler bed and she didn't want it so she gave it to us. Zander was so excited about his new cool fire engine to sleep in!

Actually, Brayden and Bryn were just as excited.

When I checked on the kids before I went to bed, Brayden was curled up at the bottom of Zander's bed. In the morning I asked him, "Were you comfortable sleeping with Zander last night?" He got a sheepish look on his face and denied sleeping in the fire engine. But he confessed when I told him I'd seen him when I checked on them. Apparently he slept there all night until about 5a.m. when Zander kicked him in the head and he moved back to his own bed. Then Brayden laid a guilt trip on me asking why I never got him a fire engine bed when he was three and asking if he could have one now to make up for it. Geesh! The kids all played in the fire engine for two hours in the morning. New toys are so entertaining.

The crib that we've had for almost ten years is now sitting in my hallway disassembled. I am not a sentimental person but I'm having a hard time letting it go. All four of my babies slept in that crib. There are still splatters of milk and spit-up on the bottom rail. I can't part with it, not just yet. As I was looking at all the pieces of it today my creative wheels started turning and I'm thinking of turning them into headboards. I could sand and paint them. Hmmmm...I'll have to look into that.

My babies in the same crib throughout the years...

Kylie...this is the only crib shot I have of her with her cute little bum in the air :) Notice the crib bumpers are present with the first child but none of the others. Those things were such a pain to keep in place. Whose brilliant idea was that anyways?

Brayden...who is this kid? I hardly recognize him.

Bryn...she still sleeps with the same blankie. It has a little more character now in the form of holes and stains from being well-loved.

The day Bryn learned to climb out of the crib and onto the windowsill.

Zander...when did he turn into the three-year-old with boundless energy?!

Bye, bye little baby toes... :(

Laundry Room Makeover

2011-07-09T19:47:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you've been waiting anxiously for the unveiling of my laundry room...drum roll please....

Well, I have to start with the "before" pictures so you can be properly impressed with the "after" shots later :) (The second picture is a little dark, it's really all white like the one with the washer and dryer.)

Before I started decorating, I had to put my mad organizing skills to work. I needed to get my mopping bucket out of the corner and hide it under the sink. In order to do that, I had to move the cleaning products. When we first moved into this house Zander was only 5 months old. So I kept all the bathroom cleaning supplies in the laundry room where he couldn't reach them. We don't have to worry about that any more so I bought three plastic tubs for $2.50/each, stocked each tub with cleaning supplies and put one in each bathroom. So much more convenient! And each tub fits nicely under the sinks and out of sight.

I also needed to get the broom and mop out of sight so Justin put some hooks up behind the door for me to hang them on. Next step, I found material at JoAnn's that I absolutely LOVE and that dictated the theme for the laundry room.

Laundry rooms can be a dreary place since you only go in there for one reason, to do chores. I wanted to lighten it up with bright colors and fun decorations. I used a lighter version of the yellows in the curtains to paint the walls. Yellow is my favorite color after all :) I made a super simple swag curtain for the window. All I had to do was hem the edges then drape it over and around the rod. There are hooks in the wall holding the gathered part up at the bottom and I tied ribbon around it to give it a more finished look. Material is such an easy way to add color, pattern and interest to a room. Taaa daaa...

I found these pitchers at Target for $8...one for fabric softener and one for laundry detergent. They look much nicer than the huge Costco containers. The blue bowl ($1 at Target) on the sink holds essentials like the sink plug, detergent measuring cup and fabric softener ball.

This fun, vintage-looking birdhouse goes with the birds in the curtains. Who says you can't add decorative items to a laundry room? The glass container is one of my favorite finds. Goodbye bulky box of OxyClean, hello slender, clean jar with a chalkboard label ($5 World Market).

I hung my newly re-covered ironing board on the wall. It's organized and decorative at the same time. Above that is my extendable clothes drying rack. I looked everywhere for something to hang on the one big empty wall but couldn't find anything I liked. I wanted something to do with clothes, it is a laundry room after all, so I pulled out a blank canvas from my garage and painted something myself.

I'm not a great artist but like Kylie said, "It's good enough to hang in a laundry room." I found some clipart online and used others' ideas to create this painting.

A green rug was the final touch. It makes me think of walking on grass while I throw dirty socks into the washing machine.

From stark, boring white...

...to bright, fun and cheerful...

Sometimes I walk into my laundry room when I need a little "pick-me-up" in the middle of the day...shhhh, don't tell anyone ;)

Fantabulous Day

2011-07-07T22:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was such an enjoyable day. We had a relaxing morning, no rushing to get ready. The kids watched a little TV in the morning then played Legos together for a couple hours without fighting. Always love it when that happens. We have a jar that the kids get to put rocks in when they are good. Any good behavior...doing chores without complaining or without being reminded, helping a sibling with something, sharing, playing nicely together, etc. I'm sure people have raised their eyebrows when they hear me say, "You guys are behaving so well in the store, you can each put three rocks in the jar when we get home." What kind of reward is that? Hee hee. Well, it takes a long time to fill up this big jar so I've drawn lines on it and they get rewards along the way. They reached the second line on the jar so to start off our day we went to the cheapo theaters and saw "Hoodwinked: Hood vs. Evil". Of course, there was the traditional stop at Winco before the movie to get candy. Zander provided everyone with a running commentary during the movie, including "Why is it dark in here, Mama?" (Repeat at least five times.) The kids all liked the movie. I'd say it's a good rental.

After the movie we ran a couple errands looking for cologne and beauty supplies. We had to make a group visit to the restroom and a lady waiting her turn said, "I think those are the best behaved children I have ever seen!" I just smiled and said, "Thank you...they are great kids." :) Good thing she didn't follow us to White Lime later. But the kids really were doing good especially considering it was so uncomfortably hot outside and we weren't shopping for anything that interested them. Next stop was the library to claim their prizes for the summer reading program. This week it was free frozen yogurt from White Lime, yum! I stopped for gas on the way over and then we enjoyed a nice cold treat to cool us off. The kids got restless while we were waiting for the last person to finish and that's when they discovered the tables and chairs could be raised and lowered. Good grief. So much for sitting still and relaxing.

We got home around 4:30p.m. Making it until 5:30p.m. when Justin got home was a cinch. I think it was such a good day because we stayed busy. But it wasn't a stressful kind of busy. It was a laid back, having some summer fun, just enjoying the kids kind of busy. So nice!

4th of July

2011-07-04T21:39:00.000-07:00

To celebrate the 4th we went to a ward activity at the park. They served breakfast and played family Olympic games. It was 105 degrees at 10a.m. We came home and jumped in our pool to cool off. Then the neighbors invited us to come swim in their real pool so we went over there for a couple hours. After so many hours in the sun we were worn out. We relaxed at home until it got dark then lit a few sparklers to commemorate the day.

Happy 4th of July!!

Ugh

2011-06-30T22:17:00.000-07:00

Why oh why do summer nights have to be so very, very long? The sun is my nemesis when it refuses to set before 9p.m. And by set, I mean gone, as in completely dark. The kids will not go to sleep until then. This wouldn't be such a big deal if everyone would sleep in the next morning. But they don't. They are up at their usual 6 o'clock hour. Except for Kylie. She finally learned the art of sleeping in when she turned nine...hallelujah! So the oldest child, the one who is completely self-sufficient, who doesn't cry every five minutes, who is a huge help with the youngest siblings, is the one who will sleep until 7a.m. or 8a.m. Why couldn't it be the three year old????

My summer days feel very long around 7p.m. I start to lose it then. My patience abandons me and the smallest things become aggravating. I think I'm particularly sensitive on Thursdays because Justin comes home from work at 5:30p.m. and leaves fifteen minutes later to play softball until it gets dark. I'm the only one on kid duty for about 15 hours. I know I'm being a huge whiner-bucket right now. There are women whose husbands are serving in the military and they are on kid duty 24/7. And women whose husbands are frequently out of town for work. My situation could be much harder than it is. I'm grateful that Justin has a good job with a stable company. I'm so glad we are able to live in a great community, even though it means he's commuting 3-4 hours a day. I'm blessed to be able to stay home with my kids. I need to remember these things.

Since I knew today would be long I focused on doing something that would make me feel happy and productive....I organized Kylie's bedroom. Nothing like cleaning or decorating something to put a smile on my face :) I've mentioned before how Kylie is a collector of stuff (a.k.a. trash). Hopefully she won't miss the empty gum boxes, used Kleenexes and candy wrappers too much. I also went through her clothes and took out what doesn't fit anymore and boxed it up for Bryn. In one of the boxes I found some Barbie underwear in size 4 so I gave them to Bryn. She tried them on and said, "These fit good, they aren't tight like my old ones." Guess you can only squeeze a 5 year old in size 2T/3T underwear for so long...oops, poor girl. I now have a trash bag of Bryn and Zander's old clothes to give away. It feels so good to purge!

Ironing Board Cover

2011-06-20T20:31:00.000-07:00

As I stated in an earlier post, I am working on giving my laundry room a makeover. I am making it more organized and decorating it so that it is a bright, happy place to be. My tabletop ironing board has been in a sad state for a long, long time. I admit, I rarely use it. I NEVER use it to iron wrinkly clothes, heaven forbid. That's what the dryer and a wet towel are for. I only iron when I have a sewing project that requires hemming. My ironing board cover got all gooped up many years ago, I'm not even sure exactly how it happened. But this is what it looked like...

The ugly ironing board has been hiding in the narrow space between the dryer and the wall. I wanted to give it a new cover so I could hang it on the wall...in an organized fashion as well as making it a wall decoration. I found a few ironing board cover tutorials online but they were more involved than I wanted to get. I looked at the reverse side of my ironing board and discovered that the manufacturer had simply stapled the cover to the back. I can do that! I simply used pinking shears on the edges to prevent fraying, laid the new material over the existing ironing board cover and stapled the material to the back. I chose a fabric that was a little heavy but not as heavy as outdoor canvas.

After very little work and very little cost ( I only needed 1/2 yard of fabric), my ironing board looks brand new and will look fabulous hanging in my laundry room!

Happy Father's Day

2011-06-19T21:20:00.000-07:00

I think Justin had a good Father's Day. I haven't had a chance to ask him because he's been playing with his presents all afternoon with the kids...

Kylie also decorated a mug for him at activity day girls. When she said, "If anything rubs off I have the markers so I can fix it" Justin got a little afraid to use it. I told him to take it to work ;)

The kids made sweet cards for him...

Kylie----"Fathers are the best, especially if you're my dad! #1 Dad"

Brayden---"Thank you for being my dad. xoxoxoxoxo Have a great Father's Day" and great drawings of him and his dad.

Bryn---"I love you Dad! Happy Father's Day! I love you very much. I always want to give you alot of hugs. I always like how you do stuff. I know that we could be a family forever. I love you very, very, very, very much!"

Zander---drew lots of scribbles and happy faces :)

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers and grandfathers out there!

Beautified

2011-06-13T21:09:00.000-07:00

One TV show Justin and I both like watching is "Yard Crashers". Professional landscaper, Ahmed Hassan, wanders home improvement stores looking for people who are willing to take him home with them and let him design their backyard. Unfortunately, we've never bumped into Ahmed on any of our many, many trips to home improvement stores. So we've been left to our own devices to make our backyard beautiful.

Justin's mom got him an early birthday gift on Friday and bought some flowers for the backyard! We went to the same nursery where we bought our trees and brought along pictures of our space. Luckily, the girl driving us around the very large nursery in a golf cart (the kids' favorite part, especially when the sprinklers came on and we all got wet) is starting on small landscape design jobs for the nursery. We got to pick her brain and have her show us the best way to lay out the plants we chose at no extra charge :)

We're working on beautifying our yard one section at a time. This time we added to the area between the peach tree and the apple tree.

These are some of the flowers we got from the nursery...

Echinacea (my favorite)

Rasp Swirl Dianthus

Verbena Blueberry (which we also got in red and white)

Neon Star Dianthus

We also got two Dahlias which will bloom later. When they do, the Awaikoe Dahlia will look like this...

And the Bed Head Dahlia will look like this...

Yes, Justin chose the Bed Head because of its name, silly man;) He and the kids worked hard Saturday morning planting our new flowers while I went and got my facial from Mother's Day :)

Working hard...or hardly working? Hmmmm...

Nearing completion...

These plants will all grow of course and fill in the space completely. The ones in front will stay low and spread out about 2 feet. The ones in the middle will grow up about 2 feet and spread out about 2 feet. And the ones in the back will always be the tallest so they'll always be visible above the rest. It's fun to look out our windows and see color in our yard now!

On Friday, after spending a couple hours at the nursery we were famished so we headed over to BJ's for some crazy delicious pizza, calzone and Oreo and Ghiradelli Triple Chocolate Brownie Pizookie...a gift from our friends Jon and Nicole, thanks guys!

Gotta love weekends like this :)

Preschool Grad

2011-06-08T16:14:00.000-07:00

This is a little late but Bryn graduated from preschool last month :) Her teacher, Miss Sandy, made the kids graduation caps and gave them a certificate, followed by a hot dog lunch complete with Cheetos and cupcakes. Bryn's certificate said, "Bryn is a quiet giant among her peers. She is so consistent with her love of learning. I have appreciated her willingness to always obey the rules of the class and know that her obedient heart will lead her far in school."

My scanner was giving me issues so I just did it the old school way and took a picture of the photo of Bryn in her cap and gown. Our Brynners is ready for kindergarten!

In more recent news, this has been our first full week of summer by ourselves. Monday started out not so great. The kids kept fighting and pushing each others buttons. After the fifteenth time of hearing someone tattletale to me I made a new rule. We would not be inviting any friends over or going anywhere until the kids could show me that they could get along with each other for the rest of the day. It was like a fairy came and waved her magic wand...everyone was suddenly able to play nicely together and even go so far as to help each other without being asked. The rest of the day was so NICE! Since they were so well-behaved they got to invite friends over on Tuesday. Unfortunately, nobody was available to play :( So I made big huge chocolate chip cookies to make up for it. Justin and the kids set up the swimming pool last Saturday and the kids swam in it for a couple hours. I love our pool. I can't/don't want to face the daunting task of hauling four kids to swim lessons or any other organized activity during the summer. The pool in our backyard makes them happy and wears them out. And Zander's head is above the water when he stands in the pool so I don't have to worry about anybody drowning.

Tuesday was our first day of real piano lessons. I've been teaching Kylie and Brayden for over a year but 2-3 weeks go by in between lessons because there's nothing to make us stick to a set time. A friend of mine teaches piano and her son is now ready to learn how to play. So we are swapping lessons. I warned her that I have no training as a piano teacher. She is letting me observe how she teaches. Maybe someday I will venture into the field of piano teaching.

The most fun news, for me anyways, is that I am in the process of decorating my laundry room! It's painted and the curtains are up. I'm looking for some finishing touches and looking at options for wall decor. When it's finished I'll post pictures!

Splash Zone

2011-06-02T22:14:00.000-07:00

Our summer vacation is off to a great start. On Saturday Justin's mom, his sister Kim, and her kids, Ella and Jack, came to stay with us for a few days. We always enjoy their company. Bryn and Zander especially liked having Ella and Jack to play with since they are the same age. Bryn and Ella would disappear into Bryn's room and play for hours. Zander took Jack's hand and led him into the nursery at church...or onto the trampoline...or into the playroom.

Saturday we toured the model homes by our house. I don't know what it is about going into model homes but kids love it. They run from room to room checking out cupboards, opening doors and staking out which bedroom they want. Cheap entertainment. One house had a skateboard-themed bedroom that I thought was cool. If we ever decide to move Zander out of his crib and into a real bed I might steal ideas from that room. Of course, Brayden wants the Star Wars-themed room. Alas, no characters allowed in our home decor because they grow out of them too quickly. But Justin is 34 and he would love it if I decorated our bedroom with Star Wars paraphernalia. Some things are timeless...or some boys never grow up...maybe both ;)

Monday we checked out the new Splash Zone at Lake Skinner. It's a great place to cool off. There are two separate splash pads. One area has a small waterfall, water guns and various falling, spurting water things.

The other area has a giant faucet and knobs with small spurts of water, a less chaotic area for the younger crowd. I thought the faucet was clever.

Zander, Bryn and Ella taking a rest.

There are grassy areas where you can lay out a blanket and have a picnic and watch the kids run around.

Next to the splash pads is a little playground. I think the kids liked playing there because the water was a little cold in the Splash Zone. It would be the perfect temperature on a really hot day. Our weather has been unusually mild for this time of year. Which is wonderful because we can still go to the park and play outside without melting in the heat.

After the Splash Zone we came home and barbequed black bean chipotle burgers from Costco...tasty veggie burgers with a little kick and lots of flavor, yum! After the kids went to bed we played card games. Justin and I have a good collection of board and card games because we used to play often...in our pre-kids era. We pulled out one of my favorites, SkipBo. My family really got into it one summer when I was home from college. I bought my own deck when I went back to school and started up some SkipBo tournaments in our apartment complex. Barbara and I whooped Kim and Justin. Okay, not really, it was a close game. And I may have helped my partner out more than is legally allowed according to the rulebook ;)

We went through withdrawals when Grandma, Kim and the kids left. As Brayden put it, "There's more fighting now that Ella and Jack aren't here to play with." Bryn told Ella, "I'm going to cry and be so sad when you leave." The girls made pictures for each other to remember each other by...sweet kids. Thanks for making the drive down and for the fun times!

Neighborhood Hot Spot

2011-05-26T20:51:00.000-07:00

We brought Kylie's friend S home from school with us for a playdate. I always bring my neighbor's daughter home from school but she was running late and asked if I would keep A until she got home. She and Brayden play great together so he was happy to have a friend too. When A's mom got home she wanted to stay and play longer so I invited her brother over to play with Zander. R is five years old but is small for his age so he and Zander are the same size. You wouldn't think he and Zander would get along because of their age difference but R bosses him around and Zander thinks R is so cool, he willingly follows orders.

Seven kids at our house. Jumping on the trampoline with the misters, eating popsicles, chasing each other, having a gymnastics competition on the trampoline, everyone is happy. But, wait, there's more.

Kylie's friend down the street, K, calls and wants to play. She is also friends with S so all three girls dance in Kylie's room and chat like 4th grade girls do. Then A deserts Brayden to join the girls. Feeling outnumbered, Brayden walks across the street to find a fellow male playmate, H. H brings his little sister V along because she and Bryn are best friends. Bryn is so happy to see her best bud and the boys commence fulfilling their duty as pesky little brothers.

TEN kids at our house!! And the amazing thing is they were all playing nicely, except for the occasional complaint from Kylie and/or Brayden that the other was being mean. I simply told them to work it out and sent them away. Compromise is a life skill, tattling is a cop-out. (You're going to see that on bumper stickers soon, just wait;)

I could hardly believe there were that many kids at our house because it didn't feel like it. While the kids all played, I cleaned the bathrooms and occasionally made a run to the freezer for popsicle requests. I would take a headcount every once in a while to make sure nobody had slipped out the front door undetected or was painting the bathroom with fingernail polish. Our house was full for about two hours. It was FANTASTIC! I love playdates like this. I also am so glad that our kids like to play at our house with their friends. Don't get me wrong, I like it when they go to other people's houses also. But I want our house to be a place they like to be. Especially when we get to those preteen and teenage years, I'll feel much better having my kids under my roof where I know what they have access to and who they're with. I don't expect to be the party house all the time but I hope our kids see it as an option. Pick me, pick me, pick me! Looks like we're headed in the right direction...for now :)

Fond Farewell

2011-05-18T17:31:00.000-07:00

Farewell, smelly diaper champ. You've been with us for nine and a half years but it is time for us to go our separate ways. So long, humungous box of diapers that made me gape in astonishment at my Costco receipt. Zander...we'll be keeping you ;)

Of course, this also means saying goodbye to the tiny bums that were swaddled in diapers. There are moments when I wish I could hold and cuddle my babies again. Just for a moment. But I love, love, love having big kids too. And Zander will still sit in my lap and snuggle with me...when he's in the mood.

Zander is the best potty trainer ever! I did nothing, it was all him. He decided one day to wear his "Buzz undies". The first week he had two accidents. That was it. He stayed dry during naps and at night from day one. I never even had to use pull-ups. Now I know what it truly means when a child is "ready" to potty train. I wish I had known all this with the other three! Of course, with Kylie and Brayden I had little choice in when to potty train them. They were both going to start preschool shortly before they turned three and they had to be potty trained before they went to school. I didn't have the luxury of waiting for them to be "ready". I honestly don't remember potty training with Bryn. That period of my life with a fourth baby and two moves is all a blur to me.

We are all so excited that the diaper train has left the station...woohoo!!!!

Professional Photos

2011-05-15T22:56:00.000-07:00

I took Bryn and Zander to Picture People for their birthday photos. I think I've found a career for Zander...modeling. He absolutely LOVED smiling for the camera. He posed exactly the way the photographer said and had such fun doing it he's asked many times since that day, "Can I get my picture taken again? Can I?"

I'm a noob at scanning and cropping.

He's centered in the real photo and his foot isn't cut off either, oops.

And here are Kylie's and Brayden's soccer pictures this year. Both kids like playing defense the best. They give the ball good hard kicks away from the goal...or out of bounds, I still don't get that strategy. Kylie played goalie for the first time Saturday and did an awesome job in that position as well.

We reached a milestone for our family this weekend. Friday night Justin and I went to a friend's house to play board games and we left the kids home by themselves. Before you call child protective services, we were only five minutes away and our neighbors across the street were home and knew the kids were by themselves. Zander is the biggest troublemaker so we put him to bed before we left. Kylie and Bryn watched a movie and Brayden played a computer game. We told them all to go to bed when the movie was over. Kylie even called us to let us know everyone was tucked in and she was climbing into bed herself. I'm so thankful we have such good kids! We won't leave them alone if we're more than five minutes away or if Zander is awake until they're older. This was a successful trial run though! It'll be so great when Kylie is old enough to babysit for us all the time :)

Saturday we went to soccer games, dropped Justin's car off for its monthly oil change, cleaned the house and watched "Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" as a family. Zander didn't have a nap that day so I knew he'd fall asleep. Which was best because he's too young for Narnia movies. Bryn and Brayden hid their faces during the sea serpent fight and Kylie cried at the end when everyone said their farewells. It's nice to find a movie the whole family wants to see. Usually Justin and I tolerate the kids' movies because we know they enjoy them. "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" was a good flick.

Too bad the weekend is over but good news...there's only two weeks of school left until summer vacation, hooray! Seriously need a break from all the driving, homework, projects and packing lunches. I fully plan on vegging at home the first week of summer break. I'm going to be a couch potato and bask in the beauty of doing absolutely nothing. Realistically I won't get away with that for long because the kids will get bored and start fighting. But we do have a backyard now...I'll just send them out there and lock the door. Big summer plans ;)

Walmart Woes...Again

2011-05-13T14:56:00.000-07:00

I don't know if all Walmart bathrooms are designed this way but ours has one of those switchback entrances that looks like part of a maze. The point, I imagine, is to provide privacy without the need of a door. A possible secondary purpose is to discourage you from bringing shopping carts into the restroom. The carts can barely make the zigzag turns. I understand stores discouraging shopping carts in restrooms as a way to cut down on shoplifting, the whole "no unpaid merchandise beyond this point" thing. But these restrooms are located at the front of the store. You have to go through the cashiers to get to them. So chances are, if you're visiting the restrooms you are either stopping there before doing your shopping or after you've paid for everything and you have a cart full of bags...and kids.

Bryn, Zander and I had finished our shopping, paid and needed to visit the restroom before heading out to the car. I deftly maneuvered the cart, which was full of bags and two kids, through the turns of the maze entrance and into the restroom. Two women had to wait at the sink area for me and my cart to get past before they could leave. One of the women said, "You're not supposed to bring carts in here." Now, normally, in situations like this I apologize because I hate being a rule breaker or inconveniencing anyone. But this is Walmart. As soon as I walk in the doors of this wretched store I am prepared to deal with not-so-smart people. I stood up for myself and replied, "Well, I can't carry all the bags, plus the kids by myself. Sometimes you just do what you have to do." She walked away. I know, I'm so scary.

There was another mom in the restroom changing her baby's diaper. As soon as the Walmart-minded woman left we just looked at each other, she rolled her eyes and said, "Oh, brother!" and I said, "Leave it to the woman without children to make a comment like that." I appreciated being validated. Us moms have to stick together.

So that was my Walmart story of the day. But speaking of shopping carts...do you let your kids stand on the bottom part of the cart and hang on while you push? I do. I love it when the kids are tall enough to hang on to the sides or end of the cart. They think it's a fun ride and it keeps them from running around the store like banshees (okay, that still happens sometimes). I never thought anything of this practice until the other day when a little boy in the store pointed to my kids and said, "Look Mom, they're riding on the cart." To which his mother said, "But you're not, so don't even think about it!" So now I'm curious to know if I'm in the norm or if I'm one of those moms everyone looks at and becomes scared for my children because I'm endangering their young lives?

Mother's Day

2011-05-10T21:42:00.000-07:00

I had a great Mother's Day this year :)

Though sleeping in is impossible with all the noise the kids make, I got to relax in bed while Justin got up and filled all the requests for milk in sippy cups, potty visits, wrapping my presents and making cards (why are dads able to wait until the very last minute and still pull it off?) and he even made breakfast. If the day starts off with french toast with homemade strawberry syrup and fresh strawberries you know it's going to be fabulous!

I received my year's supply of lotions and soaps from Bath & Body Works. So many good smells! The kids made me cute cards and even decorated their own wrapping paper (read: Justin grabbed the nearest stack of scratch paper and told the kids to turn it into wrapping paper).

I orchestrated my Mother's Day presents this year. A lady in the Costco parking lot was selling gift certificates to a salon that just opened and is trying to build their clientele. I get a haircut, manicure and two facials for only $45! I bought the gift certificate, gave it to Justin and told him to give it to me on Mother's Day along with some new lotion because I was running low. I get pampered, Justin doesn't have to stress over what to buy...it's a win-win ;)

The kids made me cute, heartfelt and funny cards....which I just have to share, of course...

Bryn made a card in preschool and her teacher helped her write, "To help Mom for Mother's Day I will help her with the laundry room door and the laundry basket." She drew a great picture of herself, me, the door and the laundry basket. She also gave me homemade strawberry jam they made in preschool. It was tasty but I think my mom makes the best strawberry jam ever. She used to make a ton of it and our freezer would be stocked for months. I'd take a spoon and just eat it straight out of the bowl.

Brayden made a fancy card with a pop-up "Mom" sign inside, very creative. It read, "Happy Mother's day Mom. I hope you will not get mad or get sleepy. Well I'm off to. What was that? Oh yes, I forgot to say goodbye." He included a coupon that said, "Dear Mom, This is a coupon for me to play 2 hours of video games to keep me from trouble. I will also brush your hair for 1 hour and a back massage for 20 minutes." What a goofball. And of all the things I do, the ones he remembers most are the times I get mad and sleepy?! I'll have to try harder to change his memories of me.

Kylie's card was sweet. She made it at school with a list of statements to fill in.
My mom is special because...she makes sure that I grow up to be a great person.
I like it when my mom...does things that she doesn't do for my younger siblings.
My mom can do many things! I think she is best at...being the best mom I could ever have!
My mom has a pretty smile! I like to make her smile by...cleaning the house without her asking me.
My mom is as pretty as a...rose during springtime.
My mom is smart! She even knows...everything she could possible know about me!

I had to laugh at the end of the day when I overheard Justin talking to his mom on the phone saying, "Yeah, we had a relaxing day. Well, relaxing because we didn't have to go anywhere except for church. But I was busy all day. I had to get everyone ready for church, get dinner in the crockpot, help Kylie make cookies, then do Family Home Evening." It's nice to hear someone else walk in my shoes for a day :) Thanks for the terrific Mother's Day everybody!!

Bryn Turns 5!

2011-05-05T22:08:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it. I have three kids old enough to go to school now. Bryn was so excited to turn five. And she's very much looking forward to going to kindergarten in the fall. What a big girl!

Wednesday morning birthday breakfast was french toast with strawberry syrup...yum! Strawberry syrup is easy to make and tastes so much better than plain maple, I don't know why I don't make it more often.

Bryn's birthday presents were sitting on the kitchen counter and it was torture to have to wait until evening to open them. So I let her open the present from Jack and Ella...Disney princess colorforms. They kept her entertained all morning :)

Wednesday was a preschool day so Bryn got to take cupcakes to share with the class. This was almost as fun as opening presents. She had her morning in the spotlight all planned out, "Miss Sandy will let me pass out the cupcakes to my preschool friends. The one in the middle is for the birthday girl. Then they'll all sing happy birthday to me!" Bryn was a little wishy-washy on what birthday theme she wanted this year. She couldn't decide between My Little Pony, Princess or flower. The only thing she knew for sure was she wanted purple frosting. I found purple (raspberry) yogurt covered pretzels so I decided to make butterfly cupcakes. She was happy.

I experienced a bit of mom guilt over Bryn's birthday. I did not spend as much time thinking about her birthday as I should have. Tuesday it hit me that I hadn't planned party activities. Even though it was just our family we usually play some fun games so it feels more like a party. When I asked Bryn what she wanted to do at her party her only request was that we do a craft and she wanted to go with me to pick it out. She let me off easy ;) So Wednesday after preschool we headed to JoAnn's and she picked out birdhouses from the dollar bin to paint. Along with some pink paint and foam princess stickers to decorate with. Done!

The boys added foam fire stickers to their birdhouses so it looked like they were burning down, lovely. Brayden did his best to paint his, "...like a bully birdhouse so no birds will want to come in." Boys.

Brithday dinner was "lulus". Bryn couldn't say "noodles" when she was learning to talk. Around our house any kind of pasta is called "lulus". Barbara threw some spaghetti sauce in the crockpot for those who wanted to jazz up their lulus.

The birthday girl was happy with her new box of sparkly papers, pens and stickers from Grandma Jake and Papa Bob. Who knew paper could be so exciting? She was seriously thrilled. She also got a unicorn pillow pet (now everyone wants one), make-up and a styling doll.

The highlight of the evening was when the doorbell rang and a princess vanity mysteriously appeared on the doorstep. (This was my $10 garage sale find, yahoo!) It lights up, talks, plays music and Sleeping Beauty and Belle appear in the mirrors.

Our little girly princess looks pleased with her new beauty toys :)

Kylie and Brayden gave Bryn creative birthday cards. Kylie's said, "I know a very special boy...who's not a boy but is a very special girl! Dear Bryn, Happy Birthday! Hope you'll be a princess with this gift. I can't believe your 5! Love, Kylie" Future Hallmark greeting card employee ;) Brayden's card said, "Have a fun brith day Bryn!" He drew two flags with skulls and crossbones. One flag was a symbol for, "You torcher (torture) me" and the other was a symbol for "I torcher you." He included a coupon good for "Play anything with Brayden 10 times." But at the bottom he drew the flag that meant he got to torture her when the ten times were done. He thought he was pretty clever.

This cupcake cake started out looking like a flower but it turned in to some sort of butterfly design thingy. Whatever. Bryn thought it was great. It had giant purple butterfly gummies, what's not to love?!

Bryn was only two years old when we moved to our current house. Little people change so much in three short years! Bryn makes us all laugh with the silly things she does and says. Conversations with her are rarely dull. I think her obsession with princesses is fitting. She changes clothes 2-3 times a day just to have something new to wear. And if life doesn't go her way Bryn has humungous meltdowns. Occasionally her emotional breakdowns are warranted. It can be hard being stuck between an older brother who's life mission is to torment and annoy and a little brother who is crazy and plays rough. Poor thing. Preschool has been great for her this year. It gives her something that is her own, no siblings tagging along, and she can handle her brothers better when she's had a couple hours away from them. I can tell preschool has given her self-confidence a boost. I'm in the process of teaching Bryn how to read using the "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" method. The day she read her very first word she jumped for joy, "I did it! Yes!" It's been so great spending those 15-20 minutes with her every day. Sometimes she gets lost in the craziness of our house but reading gives her and me some one-on-one time together. Happy birthday sweet girl, we love you!

New Toy

2011-04-30T20:12:00.000-07:00

I've been looking for a bike trailer/stroller for a few weeks. I just missed getting one on craigslist for a great price a couple weeks ago. I shopped garage sales this morning and imagine my surprise when the third house I drove by had a bike trailer/stroller for sale! We took our new toy for a spin this evening. Bryn and Zander think their new set of wheels is pretty fun, especially when Dad swerves crazily and makes them go "head bonking".

We all rode our bikes over to the model homes that just opened by our house. They aren't decorated yet so we'll have to go back when all the furniture is in and get some decorating ideas :) It was nice to be outside as a family. I think we'll go on more family bike rides this summer. There will still be a couple hours of sunlight left when Justin gets home from work and it will be cool in the evenings. I'm excited to have a new jogging stroller too. My current jogging stroller is really old and super heavy. I stopped using it when one of the tires popped. This one is so much lighter and it actually turns corners.

I also found a birthday present for Bryn at a garage sale...yay! After my exciting finds, I went grocery shopping and made it home in time to leave for Brayden's 9a.m. soccer game. After the game, Kylie and I ran to the mall to get a birthday gift for her friend's party at 2p.m. Luckily, I found a 40% off coupon online for Justice...score! We made it home just in time for Kylie to get her uniform on for her soccer game at 12:00p.m. We ate lunch at the field while watching her game. Both kids played exciting games and it was fun to watch. After Kylie's game she hurried home to shower and go to the birthday party. We cleaned the house...except for the sticky floor which I still can't bring myself to tackle...and I finally showered for the day at 3:30p.m. At 5p.m. we picked Kylie up, went on our bike ride, ate dinner, bathed kids and now they're enjoying brownies with strawberries and ice cream before bed. What a crazy busy day! But a good one:)

Last Saturday the girls and I got our nails done. I love being able to do girly things with Kylie and Bryn. They get so excited about it. Kylie is fun because she actually has opinions (and pretty good tastes) about what colors look good. Bryn is cute because she's tickled pink that she gets included in 'big girl' stuff. And I love having pretty toes :)

Ouch

2011-04-29T11:41:00.000-07:00

It hurts to walk. My calves scream in protest every time I move. After Ragnar I wanted to find a different workout. I enjoy running but it's time to switch things up so I don't get bored. This week I started Insanity.

I don't think I could do Insanity if I hadn't already conditioned myself with P90X and running. I really really like that these workouts are only 40 minutes. It's easier to fit it into a busy day. I'm only on day four but so far each one has been intense. I'm dripping with sweat, literally. That means it's working, right?!

Anytime I workout I need more sleep. Last night I had plans to be asleep by 10p.m. That didn't happen. Kylie came home early from school yesterday because she didn't feel well. By 7p.m. her eyes were all bloodshot, tearing and goopy. Pinkeye. So we headed to urgent care because she was in pain and I know pinkeye doesn't get better without antibiotic eye drops.

Never go to Kaiser urgent care at 8:00 at night. They almost didn't let us in because we didn't have an appointment, although they say you do have the option of just walking in. Kylie saw the doctor, he wrote us a prescription and we headed upstairs to the pharmacy to get it filled. We waited for over an hour for them to get the prepackaged bottle of eye drops and give them to us. I know, there were other people ahead of us and we had to wait our turn. Turns out, the pharmacists were filling all the prescriptions that were coming in. But not everyone was waiting for their prescription, some chose to come back another day. Could they possibly have a more inefficient system? At 9p.m. they closed the doors, asked for all of us still inside to give them our numbers and then they filled our orders. One bonus of our hours spent at Kaiser was that we found out what Brayden's mysterious bumps were. He's been getting red, itchy bumps off and on for over a week. I couldn't detect a pattern. And I couldn't really make an appointment to take him to the doctor because we never knew when the bumps would appear. So I dragged him with us last night and, thank goodness, as we were waiting the bumps showed up. The doctor said they were hives and there was nothing to do about them. I give him Benadryl at night if they're keeping him awake and put hydrocortisone cream on them during the day. After we left Kaiser I had to buy milk before heading home. I finally ate dinner at 10:30p.m. I must've gotten a second wind because I had trouble falling sleep and then Kylie woke me up at 1a.m. because her eyes were hurting again. Needless to say, I'm feeling a little tired and unmotivated today.

This isn't a good day to be unproductive. Kylie's friend is having a birthday party tomorrow afternoon, which we just found out about last night. We have soccer games in the morning so I'm not sure when we're going to make it to the store to buy a gift. Bryn's birthday is Wednesday. Yikes! I bought one little present but that's all I've done. I don't know what cake to make, games to play, presents to buy, etc. Kylie's mission diorama is due next week. We need to start working on it. Also, clean clothes would be nice to have and the floor is sticky in many spots. /sigh

What I really want to do is curl up on the couch and watch season two of my new favorite show, Drop Dead Diva.

As soon as the nanny shows up, I'll be sequestered in my room if anybody needs me.

Happy Easter

2011-04-25T20:59:00.000-07:00

Despite the drizzle we woke up to, I think Easter was a success this year. Each kid got a book and a gift.

Kylie is too old for her Disney princesses bike helmet so she got one she won't be embarrassed to be seen in.

Brayden can load all those CDs he likes to listen to onto his new MP3 player. No more looking for lost CDs! (And I found a speaker for $7 at TJ Maxx!)

One of Barbara's friends gave us a pack of Disney princess stencils and I've been saving it for Bryn. She loved it...thank you Betty!

Now Zander can take out his boyish aggression on the Toy Story punching bag. He looks hilarious with those huge boxing gloves on :)

This picture cracks me up because Bryn and Zander look like they're best buds. You'd never guess that they'd been fighting all week. Yes, WEEK...they're lucky they lived to see Easter morning.

We were so excited to hunt for eggs in GRASS this year!

Have I told you about our egg hunting system? Each plastic egg has a simple picture drawn on it with marker. Kylie gathers the eggs with hearts, Brayden gets the stars, Bryn gets the flowers and Zander gets the squiggles. It makes the whole hunt go smoothly. I don't have to police any of the kids to keep them from getting an unfair number of eggs. Everybody gets the same amount, thus ensuring the same amount of candy. I love our system.

Zander was so excited every time he found an egg he wanted me to take a picture. He was even more thrilled each time he shook an egg and it sounded like something was inside.

We ate candy for breakfast until someone actually complained that their tummy hurt. I made Paula Deen's Baked French Toast Casserole for breakfast. It's delicious and I can make it the night before so all I have to do is throw it in the oven in the morning. After we gorged ourselves we rolled into church then went home and came down off our sugar highs. There was some much needed relaxing going on. I may have even napped for a bit :)

Hope you're all enjoying your Easter goodies too!

We FINISHED!!!

2011-04-17T14:38:00.000-07:00

There were a few bumps along the way but team Green Leggs & Van ran 200 miles from Huntington Beach to Coronado! And we have the aching muscles and finishers' medals to prove it ;)

When two of our teammates dropped out three days before the race we should've taken it as a sign of what lay ahead. After much scrambling we found two people to fill in. One just happened to be someone's brother's sister-in-law who was visiting from BYU Hawaii where she runs on the cross country team. Lucky us! The other replacement could run her first two legs but had prior commitments she had to get back for on Saturday before the race was over. Her last leg was only 3 miles so one of our other teammates was able to add that leg to their run. Phew! You're not required to have 12 runners but it would've been near impossible for us to cover the mileage for 2 runners...24 miles total. There are ultra teams who run with only 6 people. I can't even begin to imagine how hard that must be.

I woke up Friday morning, took the kids to school, then met up with our van #2 team at 10 a.m. and we headed to Yorba Linda to sign in and watch for van #1 to come in. They had started their runs at 8:45 that morning in Huntington Beach. Unfortunately, the weather heated up to 85-90 degrees this weekend so they were all feeling pretty drained. Even when you drink a lot, running in that kind of heat is not fun.

We had two couples on our team so in order to keep them with their spouses I changed over to van #1. They had all finished their runs that morning and I wasn't due to start mine until 5p.m. in Corona. We got lunch then relaxed on the grass at Corona Lake waiting for my leg to start. I texted Justin and told him I was bored to tears. The other ladies had been up since 4:30a.m. so they were napping and I had nothing to do. Justin stopped by a bookstore on his way home from work and bought "City of Fallen Angels" for me to read. What a good hubby! He came to see me start my run. It was nice to have him there. Here I am waiting to take off...

I had no idea what I'd gotten myself into for that 8 mile leg. There were some pretty good hills at the beginning. It was almost 90 degrees. There was no van support on this leg so I carried a water bottle with me and Ragnar had one water station on the trail. They handed me a nice warm cup of water and asked me to stay there and drink it so I could throw the cup in the trash. Not helpful really. Ragnar had circled a section of road in red ink that said "rough dirt road". They were not kidding! This road wound through the hills and was full of deep ruts and parts that were covered in gravel, which is like running in sand almost. There were no houses or anything along the road. Some guys in a pick up truck came along and it would've been so easy for them to mug me and dump my body in the bushes. It was not safe! I ran a little faster because I didn't want to be on that road as the sun went down. Mine wasn't the only rough trail. Carolyn ran through a horse trail and had to jump over the little horse jumps. Missi ran through sand traps on a golf course. Jenn ran by a community of homeless people under a bridge and a guy on a bike rode circles around her, looking her up and down. Ragnar should post a few of their volunteers along the course to keep everyone safe! I think we all assumed that with 5,000 runners or so participating in this race chances were pretty good that we'd be with other runners. Not so. Everyone was very spread out.

I got sick during my first run. I threw up but kept running. The last part of the trail was great. It was downhill through a neighborhood in Lake Elsinore. I was able to pick up my speed and make up for lost time. I actually felt pretty good after I finished running. The other runners in our van started their night time runs. My stomach continued to be unhappy. I'd get sick and feel better, only to get sick again. Bleck. The lady who joined our team at the last minute and had to go back home after her second leg offered to drive me home so I could rest in my bed for a couple hours. I felt horrible. The BYU cross country girl said she could cover my second leg. I went home and laid in bed sick for a few hours. Not how I pictured the race going for me. I was very sad and frustrated. Mom and Duane were at my next leg calling out the runners and marking their time. I didn't get to see them :( I will be beating myself up over that for awhile.

I felt much better by Saturday morning. I drank Sprite and ate saltine crackers all morning and rejoined my team in Chula Vista for my final leg. I was ready to run! We were a little behind our estimated schedule. Tara was throwing up on her run so she had to get picked up and her husband took over for her. Beth got lost on her 9.7 mile leg, which added a mile or two. Someone had moved the Ragnar direction signs. Everyone was feeling pretty beat up at this point. My family dropped me off then they went out for frozen yogurt and played on the beach waiting for me to cross the finish line.

I took off around 6p.m. The weather was nice with a cool ocean breeze. I ran on a paved bike trail along the ocean. It was beautiful. I watched fish jump out of the water in a reservoir. One section along the trail smelled so bad I wanted to gag. It was either a sewage plant or really stagnant water. I turned my head so I was breathing upwind of it and ran fast. My goal was to pass one runner on this leg. I passed two! I got so frustrated on my first leg because runners kept passing me. It wasn't even that they would slowly come up behind me and gradually pass me. They zoomed past. One moment I hear their footsteps behind me and the next they were telling me, "Keep it up!" as they ran past and were out of reach the next moment. I even got passed by an old guy with a full head of gray hair! And a girl wearing a pink tutu. Hence, my goal to pass just one runner.

I was feeling tired near the end of my 6 mile run. Saltine crackers don't give you a ton of energy. At the one-mile marker I started running with another girl who was running at the same pace as me. We chatted a little and kept each other going. We ran through a maintenance yard to the tunnel that led to the finish line. When I saw all the orange t-shirts of the Ragnar officials at the end of the tunnel I wanted to cry. The end was in sight! The cheers from the crowds at the end of a race are the best thing ever. It has magical powers that suddenly make you think all the pain you went through to get there was worth it. My team was waiting in all their green paraphernalia and we crossed the finish line together. Great job Green Leggs & Van!!!!!

I asked someone to text Justin when I started my run so he would know when to be at the finish line but they forgot...grrrrrrrr. He got a text saying I was going to be crossing the finish line any minute. He hurried and rounded up all the sand toys and kids and started walking over but I had already finished by the time he got there :( I was looking for my family as I ran in and was a little sad when I didn't see them. But it was still really great having my family there supporting me. I think it's important for the kids to see Justin and I pursuing our personal interests and achieving our goals. I hope that I can inspire my kids to do great things through my example.

Ready Or Not

2011-04-14T21:53:00.000-07:00

It's Ragnar Eve!!! I am both excited and nervous. I've worked really hard training for this race and I feel like I'm ready. Ragnar had to make some changes to the course due to construction and other issues. The changes resulted in my total mileage being increased to 20 miles. My first leg is 8 miles through Lake Elsinore. My second leg is 5.9 miles through Carlsbad. And the final leg is 6.1 miles to the finish line in Coronado. It doesn't sound so bad broken up like that ;)

This week I've gotten to bed at a decent hour every night and tried to eat well, not skipping meals and eating lots of carbs. I ran all the errands I needed to get done this morning so I won't be thinking about my "to do" list during the race. It's hard for me to turn my mind off and concentrate on something if I have a lot of things that I need to get done looming over my head. After going to the library, the bank, JcPenney, and getting gas ($4.03/gal--yikes!) in the morning I came home, put Zander down for a nap, did a reading lesson with Bryn, washed my running clothes so I can at least start out the race smelling good, put my bottles of water in the freezer/fridge so they'll be cold for the race, picked Kylie and Brayden up from school, hung out with our neighbor for bit before it was time to take Kylie to soccer practice (which I forgot to make sure all the kids were wearing shoes for so I watched them gingerly walk around the woodchip park while other mothers looked at me with disdain), found out Justin wouldn't be home from work until 8:00 p.m., got all the kids fed and bathed, tried to skip reading scriptures because I had no energy left and still need to pack for the race but Zander said, "No. Wead scwiptures fiwst!" (leave it to the three year old who doesn't even sit still, let alone listen, to scriptures to be the one to call me out on it). Man, what a day. I need to go run 20 miles in a relay race to take a break from all this!

Justin helped me out by getting my food together for me tonight. I keep trying to give him 'instructions' for the next two days. I'm just trying to make it a little easier on him. I'm normally the one that packs snacks to keep the younger ones happy while we're at the older one's soccer games, etc. Justin has assured me that he is a capable man and all will work out fine without my "helpful" tips. I know. I just can't stop being a mom! Barbara has graciously agreed to come stay with the kids tomorrow since Justin has to be at work to complete his training and get certified. Mom and Duane are brave souls who have been awesome enough to volunteer for the Ragnar. (Each team has to provide 3 volunteers to help out during the race or pay $360.) Mom and Duane will be in Carlsbad at 4:00 a.m. Saturday. It will be great seeing them along the route! I'll be finishing up my second leg at their station.

It's time for me to relax and get some sleep. Be looking for Ragnar photos and results on Sunday! Good luck Green Leggs & Van...may we all cross the finish line :)

When Strangers Meet

2011-04-12T22:29:00.000-07:00

I've heard of people getting together with other people they've met online. And I don't just mean matchmaking scenarios. One of my friends arranged a get-together with someone who reads her blog. They had never met and since they lived reasonably close to each other, they had a playdate with their children and a good time was had by all. I always thought that was a risky situation. What if you get along fine online but not so much in real life? Can you then go back to just being online friends or is that ruined after the real life meeting is a bust? It's risky, right?

Justin has been playing World of Warcraft with Jon for about three years. They chat as they play and many times I'm in the same room overhearing their conversation. So Justin, of course, knows Jon well and always has good things to say about him. Jon's wife, Nicole, blogs about their family so I know her a little bit from her blog. From our online friendship they seemed like decent folk who we would get along with in real life...so we tried it out. Jon, Nicole and their daughter, Freyja, flew down and stayed with us for three days. And it was SO MUCH FUN!!

Conversation flowed easily and was both entertaining and interesting. My biggest concern was that our crazy and sometimes loud house would drive them a little batty. After all, they only have one toddler so their house is nice and calm and peaceful. My kids (thankfully) behaved themselves, more or less, and Jon and Nicole are both wonderful with kids so my kids thought they were the greatest. They played games with them and Bryn and Zander warmed up enough to park their little behinds in their laps a few times. In fact, Zander was still talking about Jon yesterday. I was making peanut butter sandwiches for lunch (which Jon had made for the kids the day we went to the museum) and Zander said, "Jon made peanut buttew sandwich fow me 'cause he likes me. He's my favowite fwiend." Aawwww. Their daughter, Freyja, probably thought she was at Disneyland with all the new toys and four kids to play with. Kylie was really good with her. I think she enjoyed having someone young enough to baby. Plus the fact that Freyja is such a cute, easy-going little girl...don't let the fact that she's giving the finger to the camera fool you ;)

I think Zander made her cry a couple times...sorry Freyja!...but other than that everyone got along. We went to the Discovery Science Center one day. We were all excited to go because they have Bubblefest going on right now. The clips make it look like a pretty cool show. Unfortunately, Freyja wasn't in the mood to sit still so Jon and Nicole only got to see maybe fifteen minutes of it. Zander wasn't a fan either so he sat on my lap the entire time asking every five minutes if it was over yet. Some of the tricks were fun to see, like the smoke rings inside the bubbles. Most of the tricks I thought anybody could do given the right bubble mixture and some very large bubble wands. The finale was a laser show with bubbles blown by bubble machines and the Bubblefest guy standing on stage waving his arms around. Where's the talent in that?! The museum itself was okay. The last time I was there they had an area devoted to toddlers and preschoolers but that had been replaced by ice hockey stuff. Not so conducive to the younger crowd. We may have had just as good a time going to a park and letting the kids run around while the adults relaxed and chatted. At least I can say I've been to Bubblefest...cross that one off my bucket list.

We stayed up until midnight just talking. I think it's safe to say the real life friendship was working out ;) Oh, I almost forgot the highlight of the day Friday...creme brule. Jon whipped some up like it was nothing. It tasted like a little slice of heaven with that crispy brown sugar yumminess on top.

Saturday morning we went to Kylie and Brayden's soccer games, grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch and relaxed the rest of the day. Jon, Nicole and Freyja left Sunday morning to visit other friends before heading back home. We were a little sad to see the good times come to an end. Okay, we were a lot sad. It feels like something is missing after a visit with good friends or family you don't see very often comes to an end. Know what I mean? The house goes from being filled with laughter and fun times to...well, back to normal. And everyone at Justin and Jon's places of employment who thought they were crazy for meeting up with online friends can tell them that everything worked out fine and nobody was murdered in their sleep....yes, some people were worried about that. Guess you gotta watch out for those men traveling with a toddler and a pregnant wife. It might just be a cover ;)

What the Parenting Magazines Don't Tell You

2011-04-05T19:41:00.000-07:00

We went to a friend's house for games and dessert last night. The kids played and watched a little bit of "Tangled" while the adults played "Settlers". We left around 8:30p.m. and as we were driving home Bryn asked, "Did we eat dinner already?"

Me: Yes, you ate before we left home.

Bryn: Oh, you mean those orange crackers?

Me: Cheez-Its, yep, that was your dinner. And the chocolate covered popcorn.

Bryn: That's awesome! We had crackers for dinner then went to someone else's house and had cookies for dessert.

Me: I'm such a great mom, aren't I?

Bryn: Yes you are! I'm going to draw you a beautiful picture first thing tomorrow morning. And I'm going to glue those noodles on it that you didn't cook.

Go ahead, nominate me for Mother of the Year. I'll start preparing my acceptance speech.

Too Good To Be True...But It Is

2011-04-04T21:41:00.000-07:00

I love Sears. Not for everything. In fact, only for two things...kids shoes and Brayden's jeans. Why? For their KidVantage program. This program is such a steal I'm worried they're going to come to their senses and discontinue it. I bought Brayden's shoes almost ONE YEAR ago at Sears. I took these beat up shoes, along with my receipt, back to Sears today...

...and came home with these...

And it cost me NOTHING! According to the KidVantage club rules, normally you have to exchange your item for the exact same style and size but they were out of the Bakugan shoe in size 12 so we had to get the other character shoe they had in stock. Which Brayden liked even better. I buy his jeans at Sears also because, like most boys, he wears holes in the knees before he outgrows them. He's on his second round of jeans since November. All I have to do is return them to Sears and I get a spankin' new pair for FREE. I was so excited about the new pair of free shoes that I completely forgot to pick up a belt for our vacuum. So now I have guests coming on Thursday but no vacuum to clean with. But Brayden has cool shoes ;)

Change of Scenery

2011-04-03T18:03:00.000-07:00

We had a fun time visiting Grandpa and Grandma Jake for three days. It was nice to change up our schedule and get out of town. Justin stayed home and enjoyed a couple quiet, less-hectic evenings.

The first stop on our spring break tour was Pretend City, a hands-on children's museum. Very cool place with lots of things for the kids to do.

Life size Lincoln Logs to build with at the construction site. (This was our first stop and Brayden wasn't comfortable yet in this new place so he hadn't decided if it was okay to have fun or not. He eased into things and had a good time. His favorite activity was stopping at all the ATMs and making cash withdrawals :)

Being a farmer for a day, working in the garden and picking produce to deliver to the grocery store. My kids were the ones "cleaning up" and putting all the produce back in place...wonder where they get that from ;)

Everyone enjoyed the counters and appliances that were just their height. It must get frustrating being in an adult-sized world where you can't reach anything without great effort.

I hope when I'm a grandma I can be like Barbara and my mom. They are both great at doing things with the kids. Of course, if I take my grandkids ice skating I'll try not to break my wrist like my mom did ;) Hula-hoop looks much safer.

Zander was busting a move on the stage. I have no idea where he got his dancing gene from.

I think this little Italian cafe was everyone's favorite spot. Bryn was the waitress while Kylie, Brayden and Zander worked in the kitchen filling our orders. When I was a kid I thought being a waitress at Denny's was the coolest job ever. Yep, I dreamed big.

Bryn and Zander only got slightly wet while fishing in the water play area. I think they were supposed to be getting the trash out of the water and recycling it or some other green peace mumbo jumbo.

Kylie and Brayden built their own sailboat racing track.

After Pretend City we visited our friends Shauna, Kate and Blake. Why do most of my friends not live close?!

Wednesday was a relaxing day. We went to Stacks Pancake House in Dana Point for a scrumptious breakfast. Have you ever had french toast with peanut butter in the middle coated in crushed Captain Crunch cereal? I may be trying to recreate it at home. After breakfast, we made the beautiful drive up Pacific Coast Highway to the tide pools in Corona. Bryn was excited by all the hermit crabs.

After the beach we ate lunch at the park then headed back to Grandma Jake's. The kids kept themselves entertained the rest of the afternoon. Since I wasn't at home there was nothing I could do but relax and read my book...it was hard work but somebody had to do it ;)

Thursday we headed to Downtown Disney. It was Bryn and Zander's turn to get a friend from Buid-a-Bear. Bryn chose the sparkly cat with a glittery pink nose and Zander wanted the monkey. Both very fitting choices.

I'm not sure if they were fascinated or worried as their friends were stuffed with fluff.

Introducing Lulu and Buzz...

Brayden got to build a car at Ride Makerz. He chose one with flames. When you push the button the lights flash and there are engine noises.

Kylie wasn't left out. Grandma had taken her shopping at Justice earlier and then bought her socks at Little Mismatched. All their socks are in packs of three and they coordinate but don't match exactly. Kind of a fun, quirky concept. Everyone was happy with their new stuff. We drove back home Thursday afternoon. It was a fun and relaxing little vacation!

Let The Fun Begin...Tomorrow

2011-03-28T22:23:00.000-07:00

Spring break officially started today. I was really looking forward to today, picturing myself lying in bed until at least 7:30a.m. getting in a few chapters of my book, lounging around in my pajamas until noon because we had nowhere to go and enjoying the blissfulness of not having to constantly watch the clock and be in the car running kids wherever they needed to go.

It wasn't meant to be.

I woke up at 6:30a.m. to the sound of Zander crying because Brayden wouldn't let him play "wittle beeg planet" (Little Big Planet) on the PS3. Put out that fire then Kylie comes along and gives Zander the "dummy remote". This used to work great because Zander would think he was playing with everyone but he wasn't, therefore he wasn't messing up their game. He's too smart for that trick anymore. More crying ensues. I invite Zander to come in my bed and watch Go! Diego. He watched and I got one chapter read before he started doing the potty dance. Yes, we are potty training. But it is not the horrible experience it was with the other three because I'm letting Zander call the shots and he decided last week he was ready. So I have to get out of bed and help him to the toilet. Once I'm out I decide there's no point in getting back in bed.

I make pancakes for breakfast. Bryn requests they be purple. Purple they were. I had to go visiting teaching at 10 a.m. No pajamas until noon after all. That was okay because I enjoyed chatting with friends. Then it was off to the bank and grocery store. Home in time to get lunch for everyone and put Zander down for a nap. I did a reading lesson with Bryn then put her in front of Barbie Fairytopia.

I spent the rest of the afternoon doing homework. On spring break. I do not like these projects. Brayden had to make a heritage doll out of a clothespin. I kind of made up our heritage to make it more interesting to Brayden....shhhh, don't tell his teacher. We have ancestors that came from Denmark, Germany and England. I took it back in time just a tad and Brayden made a clothespin Viking. A helmet with horns, a sword, a spear...can you see how a seven-year-old boy would find this much cooler than a German potato farmer? I rest my case. And what has he learned? How to use a hot glue gun maybe? Somebody tell me what the point of these spring break projects is other than giving mothers one more thing to do?!

After the heritage doll was made I moved to fourth grade. Kylie had spent all morning researching the La Purisima mission. I proofread her paper and spent ten minutes trying to convince her that earthquakes do not last for four minutes and she must've misread the information. (I will feel horrible and kinda dumb if it ends up that she was right...but can you imagine a four minute earthquake?) We couldn't find the source of her information so I just hit the backspace key a few times. She has to make a diorama of her mission also. Seriously??? I understand doing the report. Kylie and I both learned a few interesting facts about the mission and the Indians that lived there. But what the heck is she going to learn from cutting out cardboard, painting it, gluing on some fake grass, a macaroni roof and some cotton ball sheep? One more spring break project to keep mothers from relaxing. We did as much as I could mentally handle then I checked out and went and worked out in my bedroom.

Zander joined me the last twenty minutes of my workout and tried to crawl under the 'tunnel' as I did push-ups. Crazy kid. I finished sweating and got showered just in time to dash off to Kylie's gymnastics award ceremony. She passed level 1 this session...hurray! She was so happy. I'm very proud of her for working so hard and having fun with it, too. We got an Oreo shake from Chick-Fil-A to celebrate.

I came home to a wonderful surprise. Justin made dinner, steamed rice, chicken and carrots...delicious! He even got the boys bathed and put away three loads of clean laundry. He must love me or something ;)

Tomorrow our spring break will really start. The kids and I are heading to Grandma Jake's to play for three days. I will take my camera and report when we get back on Thursday. The second week of spring break Grandma House will take Kylie and Brayden for a couple days then we have friends coming to stay with us, which I'm really looking forward to.

Maybe some little elves will come and magically finish the mission diorama while we're gone :)

Goodbye Dirt, Hello Grass

2011-03-22T22:14:00.000-07:00

We moved into our current home in August 2008. The backyard was just dirt and rocks. We got a patio poured about six months after we moved in but that was it. The rest of the backyard remained a wasteland of dirt and dust that constantly blew into my house and got tracked in on my floors. Justin has been working hard the past few months digging a hole to sink the trampoline into, including a drain underneath it so it doesn't become a swamp when it rains. The ground is so rocky that you need some serious muscles or a jackhammer to do any major digging. It was HARD work but he persevered and the finished project is wonderful! After the trampoline was in place we decided to hire someone to do the rest of the yard. It would've taken us another three years if we tried to do it ourselves.

The trampoline looks like part of the yard now. The height is great for short people like Zander who can get in and out with no trouble.

We went to a nursery last Saturday and bought a few trees. The nursery was huge so we got to drive around it in a golf cart. The kids thought it was like a ride at Disneyland...only much cheaper ;) Here's our apricot tree. It actually has little green apricots on it so we'll get some this year! Crawling up the wall are some blackberry plants that we transplanted from our previous house.

The tree with the pink flowers is a peach tree. I love the color! There's also an apple tree next to it, behind the trampoline, which will produce four kinds of apples. They grafted four different apple trees together and they all have different growing seasons so it will produce for a few months at a time. Pretty cool.

On the other side of the yard, we had a wall built to border our garden area. We put a mandarin orange tree in the far corner, with a smaller lime tree in front and we'll add a small lemon tree as well.

This area houses our blueberry bushes which should start to grow well now that we've replaced our Justin watering system with a more consistent automatic one ;) We'll also plant two rows of strawberries here. My mouth is watering just thinking of all the fresh berries!

In this section along the back fence we are going to grow cilantro, tomatoes, lettuce, bell peppers, squash, sunflowers (Brayden's request), pole beans, basil and snap peas. We have the seeds, just need to find the time to plant them. Fresh vegetables from the garden have so much more flavor than what you get from the supermarket. I can hardly wait! And the kids love eating anything that comes straight from the garden. And I do mean, straight from the garden to their mouths, no washing or anything :)

Costco had a good deal on jasmine last week. We planted three of them on the side yard to eventually spread along the fence. They smell so good!!

And one of them I can see out the laundry room window. It's nice to see something pretty when I'm up to my elbows in dirty socks.

The other side of the house is the chicken area. Nothing beautiful. It did get leveled and covered in wood chips which is nice.

That's our new yard!

We've truly been blessed to be able to do all this. This may sound strange, but it feels like we've finally finished moving in. The yard really is an extension of your home. I hope the kids will want to go out there now. It'll be great this summer when we put the pool up and can play on the grass and eat dinner on the patio. Oh, I forgot to mention that we had the landscaper put a spigot next to the trampoline so we can attach a sprinkler and put it under the trampoline or misters around the top. Fun times!

Leprechauns Beware

2011-03-17T21:07:00.000-07:00

St. Patrick's Day is somewhat of a big deal at our house. I think it all started when Brayden was in kindergarten. He went to school the morning of March 17th and discovered all the classroom chairs had been tipped over, gold glitter sprinkled everywhere and tiny little footprints were left on the chalkboard. Leprechauns! In first grade the pesky little people struck again while the kids were at lunch. Two years in a row...Leprechauns must be real!!

Leprechauns are usually responsible for turning our milk green at breakfast. They must've slept in this year though because Brayden poured himself some milk as soon as he woke up and it wasn't green...so disappointing. Turns out, the Leprechauns had a different plan this year and they turned our oatmeal green while everyone was out taking care of the chickens ;)

Green oatmeal grossed Brayden out so he stirred his melted chocolate chips in to turn it brown, a much more appetizing color.

The kids worked hard last night making Leprechaun traps...Brayden's idea. They got quite creative. We had nothing gold to bait them with so they settled on silver (a.k.a. foil). When the unlucky Leprechaun goes in the little door in the milk carton in search of more silver, it triggers the green popsicle sticks to fall and the red ones swing down, blocking the exit. Brayden put his trap out last night but those sneaky little green people managed to snatch the silver without getting trapped. They tore pieces of the vein of silver on the back off to take home with them, too ;) Brayden took his trap to school to set in his classroom in case the Leprechauns caused mischief during lunch.

Kylie made a comfy house with silver accents to lure the Leprechauns. During the night they slept in the bed, moving the silver blanket and denting the foil pillow, as well as, taking chunks out of the silver pathway.

I was a little worried when Justin told me that last night Kylie was crying becuase she thought Brayden made a better trap than she did. Justin whispered to her, "It's okay, Leprechauns aren't real." She was still upset. I'm thinking she is on the fence on the Leprechaun issue. Dad says they're not real but there's so much evidence to the contrary! I still remember my parents telling me Santa wasn't real but I didn't believe them. I often heard the bells of his sleigh on the roof of our house Christmas Eve :) It's fun to believe.

Bryn wanted in on the action but we were all out of boxes so she used an empty can. Her sign says, "Beware".

The kids also bought their lunch at school today because they were serving shamrock cookies. Hope those Leprechauns didn't wreak too much havoc at your house this year :) If so, I know where you can get some pretty good traps made.

Zander's 3rd Birthday!

2011-03-15T22:39:00.000-07:00

I'm still not used to saying my baby boy is 3!!! He will always be the baby in my eyes. I was thinking about what the other kids were like when they were three and I remember them seeming older than Zander seems at the same age. Maybe it was because by the time they were three they had lost their place as baby of the family to a new sibling. Whatever the reason, I'm going to baby Zander as long as he'll let me :)

Grandparents came over on Sunday for a Buzz Lightyear party. Yes, this is the second year Zander's favorite character has been Buzz. The kids decorated sheriff badges with Grandma Jake's fabulous collection of cowboy stamps and glitter glue.

I drew a poster-size Woody so we could do the traditional "pin the badge on Woody" game. Zander was so cute. He didn't want the bandanna over his eyes so he covered them with his little arm and he didn't even sneak a peek!

I found a set of three Toy Story puzzles and we split into teams to see who could put their puzzle together the fastest.

When the puzzles are complete you can put them together to make one big puzzle. One of Zander's favorite things to do is puzzles. He's pretty good at it and can do them all by himself. The Toy Story puzzle is still on our floor and he has taken it apart and put it back together again at least five times every day.

Zander had been patiently waiting ever since he woke up Sunday morning to open his presents. Every once in awhile he'd come up and ask, "Can I open pwesents now?" I think he was super-happy with everything he got.

Toy Story books from Sacamento cousins. I like them because there are only a few words per page. Every time we read books Zander insists, "I good weader! I wead fiwst, then your tuwn." He asks what every page says and then he repeats what I say. It's much easier to tell him what one sentence says than to summarize a couple paragraphs ;)

Zander drools over Brayden's collection of army stuff so Grandma and Grandpa House bought him a helicopter of his own.

Grandma Jake and Papa Bob fed his fascination with Toy Story. Zander dumped Brayden's scriptures out of his scripture bag and uses it to carry his new figurines around in...it's just the right size. I don't think Brayden knows yet ;) One of the figurines is the robot who took the screw out of Buzz's back when they set him back to factory settings in the movie. Zander was playing with the robot and Bryn was playing with the Jessie figurine. Zander had his robot chasing Jessie while he said, "Scwew you, scwew you, scwew you!" I'll have to make sure he doesn't take the robot out in public.

Kylie wanted to buy Zander a present with her own money so she got him a bag of M&M's. He loved them.

The Buzz tent Zander just had to have turned out to be not as much fun as his other toys...grrrrr. Nothing is wrong with the tent. Just the boy. He wouldn't even go in it so I could take a picture. So Justin and Brayden filled in.

Isn't this a fun cake? I can't take all the credit. The design is my idea but the frosting is the work of a professional. I stopped by a friend's house on my way to buy frosting for Zander's cake and she insisted on helping decorate it. She decorates cakes for a living. This is not up to her standards because we were limited on time but I think it's fabulous.

The birthday boy was pretty pleased with it, too.

Apparently his fork just slowed him down...

I think he was tired of smiling for the camera so he started being silly...goofball.

Happy 3rd birthday, Zander! We love you!