Sanity's End

Family Photos 2011

2012-01-29T20:04:00.005-07:00

Jade - eleven

Logan - seven

Aeris - four

Fall Catch-Up

2011-11-10T10:48:00.005-07:00

September

Jade's 11th B-Day

A new chandelier for her room adds the finishing touch.

October

Celebrating TWO years in our new home!

Making brew at Nani's Halloween party. An annual tradition!

Jade, Me, & Nate's beautiful mother at the Witchapalooza dinner show, The Taming of the Brew. The food was fantastic and the show was absolutely hilarious! What a fun Girl's Night Out!

Cheerleader Aeris posing with her "scary face" pumpkin. We're SO glad it was warm enough for this costume.

Draco Malfoy, AKA Logan. He felt the need to fully get into the role, so the lack of smile is no indicator of his excitemen.

He had a total blast trick-or-treating with his friend Harry Potter, AKA Braden.

Jade, "Luna Lovegood" and her happy faced pumpkin.

Jade and her colorful trick-or-treating buddies.

November

Logan's crazy hair the day after Halloween. He'd been begging to be shaved completely bald. We put it off so he'd better pull off the Malfoy costume. As soon as that was over, his hair went too.

Easter Photos

2011-04-24T17:14:00.004-06:00

I look forward to taking photos of the kids every Easter. I'm not sure they quite feel the same, but the above shots don't show it. Beautiful kids on a beautiful spring day! You can't beat that!

I'm behind...

2011-03-07T21:14:00.007-07:00

You know it's been too long when I look at my blogroll and find that practically everyone has updated their blog several times since my last post. Yes. Life has been busy, so once again this is a post that will be mostly photo evidence of what's new with us. The first of that news is our basement bedrooms project. We're thrilled to be past the dusty messy sheetrock phase, though we aren't finished with the clean-up of that yet. That will take YEARS. Closet shelves, doors, casings, and baseboards are on the schedule for Saturday.

There will be double doors here, separating the living section of the basement from the entertainment section. It will also close off the cold right now since we're not finishing the entertainment area yet. To the right is the staircase, hallway leading to the utility room, and door to the storage room. Through the double doors to the left is the doorway to Jade's bedroom and the bathroom. Aeris's room is the one straight ahead.

This is Jade's bedroom. The light from the window makes the photo a little dark, but she has a cool shelf on both sides of the window and a set of spot lights on the wall that will be over her bed.

Deep bathroom with lots of space for our girls to primp.

Aeris's future bedroom. We'll wait at least a year before moving her down.

View of the doorway to Aeris's room. She'll have a built-it desk in the corner by the door.

This is the view from Aeris's room down the hallway and into the entertainment space.

In other news, Logan celebrated his birthday on the 28th again this year. He loves football, so we invited 10 of his friends over for spring training. Coach Nate led them in calisthenics, hits, throwing, receiving, and the ever-important touchdown dance.

Mom and Dad, this is for you!

2011-01-24T22:12:00.008-07:00

October

Trip to Pumpkinland.

Seeing the witches at Gardner Village.

Making brew at preschool.

Costumes.

Ready to brave the rain on trick-or-treat night.

November

Thanksgiving feast at preschool.

December

Christmas morning happiness.

Lots of Details about Jade's 10th Birthday Celebration

2010-10-10T14:53:00.007-06:00

Jade loves animals of all shapes and sizes. We decided it was time for her to have a pet of her own since she had resolved herself to the fact that we'd never let her have one. Birthdays are all about surprises afterall! Narrowing the options was easy. She needed a pet she could play with and snuggle, thus fish and birds were out. I needed a pet that we could keep in a cage, thus we eliminated dogs and cats and horses and pigs. Larger animals make large poops and their cages take up too much space, so we eliminated guinea pigs, ferrets, and rabbits. I didn't want to constantly shop for live insects to feed to it, so we weren't going to buy a snake or a lizard. That left us with hamsters, rats, & gerbils. The pet store employee I talked to tried really hard to talk me out of a hamster. She couldn't say enough wonderful things about rats as pets. But REALLY??? I couldn't do it. Nope. I didn't see any gerbils at the pet store, but the hamsters were so soft and cute, all snuggled together in their little hideouts.

We wrapped up the cage and its accessories for Jade to open the morning of her birthday and told her we'd take her out in the evening to pick out the little critter. I think she told every person that day about the hamster she was going to get for her birthday. She was extremely excited.

She chose a cute little white & grey hamster that she quickly named Snowball.

Jade invited some friends over for a party on Friday night. As they arrived I had them take a little slip of paper and write down 3 clues about the appearance of the package they'd brought for Jade. We put these into a bowl for later.

We had homemade calzones, veggies & dip, and fruit for dinner. They all cleaned their plates and most of them had seconds or even thirds!

After dinner I gave Jade two choices, dress-up or dice. She chose dress-up, so we played a dress-up game. Before the party I had collected various funny items from closets and drawers and had them all in a bag that I put in the center of the circle. The girls passed a ball around while a CD played. When I paused the music whoever had the ball had to run to the bag and grab something to put on. The only rule was that they put it on, it didn't matter where. So we had shoes on hands, pajama pants on heads, etc. They all had a good laugh at themselves.

The next choice was balloons or dice. Jade chose balloons. I divided the girls into groups of three and handed them a pile of balloons. I told them the contest was to see which team could blow up the most balloons (with a tied end) in 1 minute. The winning team blew up 6 balloons. Then we used the balloons to play the balloon pop game. They each tied a balloon to their ankle and tried to be the last one with an upopped balloon. This was the loudest game of the night and I ended it with about 8 girls still in. I couldn't stand the jumping and screaming any longer!

At the end of each of these games I let the winners choose from my very fabulous prizes. Yes. I called them that over and over and the girls totally ate that up! At the end of the party they all wanted to choose some fabulous prizes and of course I let them!

Jade's next choice was bags or dice. I guess dice just didn't sound like any fun, so she went with bags. I gave each girl a bag and they used magazine cut-outs of eyes, noses and mouths to make a face that they glued onto their bag.

The next choice was nails or dice. Most of them figured it was nail polish, so they talked Jade into that one. I pulled out several bottles of nail polish in various colors. They each chose one bottle. I divided them into two teams. We went out to the deck and I gave them each a napkin to keep under their hand. We then had a nail polishing relay race! The girl at the front of the line used her nail polish to paint one nail of each girl and then sat at the end of the line. The next girl took her turn and so on until they all had all ten fingernails painted beautifully in a variety of colors.

After that we were running out of time, and I had their curiosity about the dice game, so it was next. I pulled out a giant bowl of candy bars and a pair of dice. Imagine the laughter that they'd been passing up this game all night! They took turns rolling the dice. If they landed a double or an odd number they chose a candy bar from the bowl or steal from another player. If someone stole their candy they chose a new one from the bowl. (I'd planned on only letting them choose a treat for doubles, but we were short on time.) We kept going around until everyone had a candy bar. If they already had a candy bar they didn't roll the dice.

Next we lit the candles, sang "Happy Birthday" and ate cake. I made pink & white paw print cakes, as per Jade's request.

Last we opened presents. Jade chose a slip of paper and read aloud the clues. Then she picked out which present fit the clues and the girl who brought the gift sat next to her while she opened it and posed for a picture with Jade.

Amazingly, we finished opening the present at exactly the 2 1/2 hour mark.

Transformation

2010-10-03T11:13:00.011-06:00

Last year, after a 6 month wait on short sale approval, we completed our home inspection and began working toward an end of October close. Nate took pictures shortly after we wrote our offer, and I took pictures when we were here with the inspector. Nate had his doubts about bringing the yard back from its miserable condition without a professional yard crew. I had full confidence in my husband and his green thumb. These before/after pictures are proof of his skills.

Front Yard June 2009

Front Yard Oct 2, 2010

Side Yard Oct. 2009

Side Yard Oct 2010

Back Yard Oct. 2009

Back Yard Oct. 2010

Rear of house June 2009

Rear of house Oct 2010

Biking is Cool

2010-08-21T15:10:00.004-06:00

Logan's favorite hobby is bike riding. We decided it was time he joined the big boys at the skate park where he did some pretty sweet tricks.

He even took a drop into the big bowl, leaving my heart leaping into my throat. Seriously. I wasn't ready for that.

Jade's bike is pretty tall for tricks at the skate park, so she rode her scooter.

They come in threes

2010-08-12T18:19:00.003-06:00

On Monday, a nasty little bug bit Logan a couple of times next to his right eye. The next day his eye swelled up so badly we started calling him Quasimodo. Wednesday he had an appt at the dentist's office to have his bottom two teeth pulled out since the 2nd set had come in behind them. An hour at the dentist wasn't enough I guess because we had to head back in this afternoon. The kids were a playing a "can't touch the clothes" game at the department store when Logan fell and landed his front teeth hard against the clothing rack stabalizing bar. I, feeling quite embarrassed about the scene we were causing, rushed to check out with my items. I took a quick look at his bleeding mouth before we left and decided I'd not been quite sensitive enough to his pain. His teeth were hanging from his bruised and bloody gums. GROSS. So we spent another hour and a half at the dentist today. And the tooth fairy will be making yet another trip to Logan's room tonight. I'm glad school doesn't start until Monday.

See You Soon

2010-08-08T19:31:00.003-06:00

My parents begin their first mission for the LDS church as a senior couple in 7 days. They will spend two weeks in training then drive to NYC where they will serve for 18 months. When they come home my baby will be starting kindergarten. I haven't gone more than maybe a month without seeing my parents in my entire life. As I've grown older I have enjoyed their company more and more. The closer we move toward their departure date, the more anxiety I feel thinking about that last hug. For now, we keep saying "we'll see you soon." I think when it's time for them to actually leave I'll just say that again. Then it won't feel like it's going to be such a long time.

Experience

2010-08-08T19:16:00.007-06:00

Nate has gained quite a reputation as a photographer among our close friends and family. Unfortunately, someone in my neighborhood was looking for a photographer for a funeral and Nate was working that day. Well, I know how to use the camera, so I agreed to do it. Out of respect for the family, I'm not including any that show their faces, but the photos below are some of my favorites. Funerals may be sad occasions, but they sure are full of color. The honor guard was especially fun to photograph. The gentleman playing taps is 93 years old!

No Time for Naps

2010-08-08T19:06:00.004-06:00

Aeris, though now THREE years old (where has the time gone?) still very much needs her nap. She never wants to miss out on anything, so when it's time for naps or bed at night she comes out of her room over and over. Some days I just plain don't have the energy to constantly send her back into her room, so the nap doesn't happen until her little body can't resist any longer and she crashes somewhere.

19 Kids, 12 Adults

2010-07-29T10:22:00.005-06:00

Every three years growing up my Canadian grandparents rented a huge house (everything feels huge when you're a kid. It'd be interesting to see it now that I'm grown up) in beautiful Waterton, Alberta. We'd spend the week catching up with cousins, playing games that drove the adults crazy (rousing game of spoons anyone?), and walking around town. I loved those reunions.

Now that we all have our own families, my parents decided to continue this tradition with our family. Last month my siblings traveled from 3 corners of the country for our 4th reunion. It just keeps getting better and better. We're all quite musical and Rock Band is a pretty big thing at all of our houses, so the theme was "We Will Rock You." Our group separated into 5 bands and during the reunion days we completed several challenges with our bandmates. We all really let our hair down and had some fun.

The original 7 stars.

Now we're a group of 31.

Jade's band performing "Eye of the Tiger" for the karaoke competition.

Logan's band performing "Surfin' USA."

Nate's band in "We Will Rock You."

Each band had a bandana and had to come up with a name for themselves. Logan's band was the "Space Rockers."

Jade's favorite cousin is Hunter from Washington. She thinks he's pretty much the coolest person on the planet.

4-wheeler rides are always a hit with our kids. Aeris, though timid at first, monopolized the front seat.

Jade, trying to put together a photo family tree. She knows all of the cousins and who their parents are, but knowing which order everyone was born in was tricky!

Funny

2010-07-13T09:05:00.002-06:00

My two nephews crack me up. This was their talent entry at our family reunion.

Teens Who've Got Talent

2010-07-13T07:57:00.003-06:00

My side just had a fun family reunion, complete with Rock n Roll theme (more details later). This music video features the older kids of the group. Behind the scenes is us adults in the kitchen below wondering if they're going to come through the floor. The thumping and bumping we heard over and over all made sense once we saw the tape!

Gracias

2010-06-10T14:21:00.011-06:00

We spent 5 fabulous days in Cancun, Mexico last weekend. I could write pages upon pages about how georgous this place is. I could go on and on about how relaxing it was to leave the kids in the capable care of their grandparents so we could remember what it's like to spend time, REAL time, with just each other as company. However, since my words would never do it justice anyway, I'll let the pictures do the talking. Nate is an amazing photographer, and he captured it beautifully!Our view from the 10th floor balcony of our room at the JW Marriott.Nighttime view from our balcony.

When we returned from dinner on our first night there we were greeted with a rose petaled walk into our room leading to a hot bubble bath and this cute decoration on the bed.

The pool was heaven! We spent a LOT of time there everyday.

We took a day trip to Coba and stopped along the way at this Mayan village. This is me helping to make a Magic Hammock. "Go to bed two, wake up three," our guide told us.

Here we are at the top of the 2nd tallest Mayan pyramid in the world. The tallest is in Peru. They added a new layer every 52 years. It is 7 layers tall, so it took them 364 years to build. It is the only Mayan pyramid in Mexico that you can still climb. They will be closing it to climbing next year, so we're glad we didn't miss the chance.

Another Mayan pyramid in Coba.

We swam in this grand cenote just outside of Coba. The water was crystal clear all the way to the bottom.

We'll ABSOLUTELY be going back sometime soon.

What were they thinking?

2010-04-21T11:08:00.004-06:00

We were pretty certain that some of our trees were dead. When their lack of leaves this spring proved it certain, we decided to dig them out. One came out easily yesterday, so I tackled another one this morning. Instead of cutting roots I found myself trying to cut a thick wire cage surrounding the roots. Our yard was finished by a professional landscaper. Why wouldn't they remove the cage before planting it? Poor tree. I wonder if the rest of our trees have cages under them.

Goin' Manly

2010-04-03T15:54:00.002-06:00

After years of wearing a wedding band that was too small for his finger, and a permanent indention in his skin where the ring was sitting, we decided it was time for a change. Nate said he wanted to feel manly so instead of going with the traditional choices of sliver, gold, and platinum, he went with the most manly of manly metals they make. Titanium. He chose a black titanium ring with sliver titatium rings cut into the side. He was very happy and felt like a man when he was leaving the store. Me personally, I think he should have just lost weight until the old ring fit, because now our rings don't match anymore.

Mom Vs Dad

2010-03-26T09:39:00.002-06:00

We're at the grocery store Wednesday when Logan noticed a large sign hanging from the ceiling was moving back and forth.

"Why is it moving?" he asked, pointing at the sign.

Mom's answer: "I'm sure there's an air vent just over the sign. The air coming out of the vent is making it move."

Dad's answer: "Ghosts."

Meeting Someone Famous

2010-03-15T07:38:00.005-06:00

Have you read the Fablehaven books? Jade picked them up from her school library and couldn't stop talking about them. I decided that if she was that excited about them then I should read them too so we could have conversations about them. They're wonderful books. So full of imaginative ideas and characters. They're completely clean too, so I feel great about Jade reading them! The second book is when the series really starts to get good. The first one has to introduce the characters and ideas, but the second one goes quickly to the action! The conclusion to the series is book #5. It comes out March 23rd.

When I checked the author's website and saw that he would be at a local bookstore signing books I knew we had to make the trip. Jade was in heaven meeting her favorite author and asking him where his ideas come from. He gave a lot individual attention to everyone in line so it was definitely a worthwhile experience for her. Unfortunately I took the pictures quickly and didn't notice until I downloaded them that the focus was off a bit. So you get the slightly blurred version of their visit. Actually they look pretty good here, but when I look at the big version on our photo viewer it's pretty obvious the focus is on the background instead of my subjects. (On the bright side, there are some really beautiful pictures of Christ, temples, and Joseph Smith in the background that are totally clear if you zoom in :).

She even met a friend in line. It always amazes me how quickly and easily she makes friends. The boy in line behind us was so much like her and they chatted and chatted all the way until we had to hop into the van to leave. She really wanted his phone number. Oh boy. What am I in for?

It Might Change What You Drink

2010-03-07T14:57:00.005-07:00

The wait is over.

Jade's science fair project is DONE.

We tested the effect of different drinks on teeth, using eggshells. The sugar in the drink has no effect on the shells like it would on teeth, so we weren't testing for decay, but the shells will soften and stain like tooth enamel does after exposure to certain drinks.

The results were pretty facinating and surprising. Jade loved it and the stained shells made for a colorful display.

I'm Sorry Chuck E Cheese

2010-03-02T14:12:00.003-07:00

A few years ago Jade attended a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. I dropped her off, ran to run an errand, and made it back in time to see some of the playtime. She LOVED it, as most kids do, but I was completely disgusted. It seemed SO DARK in there!! Is it just my bad memory, or were the lights really all on dim? Then there was that dreaded tunnel playset and slides. It seemed like it took up half the play area. All my fears were realized when another party guest had to remove his clothes because another child playing had vomited in the slide and he'd been the lucky one to go down after her. I cannot stand those playsets because I'm SURE no grown person goes up into them to clean them. Since then, I have shared my disgust with a TON of people and well, I'm now going to eat those words.

We visited Chuck E Cheese for Logan's birthday lunch with my parents last week. Since I knew who he'd be with, I agreed to the trip. I'm sure you can see where this is going. IT WAS GREAT! We had pizza which I had heard wasn't too tasty, but I actually really liked. The eating area in front of the stage was somewhat dim so your attention was drawn to the stage, but it wasn't dark like I remembered it. We ate at a booth away from the stage and it was completely lit. The animals on the stage were adorable with their moving bodies and eyes. Aeris stared at them for the longest time trying to figure it out. They do have a tunnel playset, but I think it's been moved, or else they took out the huge one I remember that was over by the arcade area. I still have fears about the cleanliness of it, but with all the other activities, Logan only made one trip in there. Everything takes JUST ONE TOKEN, including these neat picture taking booths. The kids weren't flocking to them, but I recognize a bargain item when I see it! Both Logan and Aeris had their picture taken and printed on a little credit card size ID card. Logan had a computer sketching done. Aeris wouldn't sit still for that one. There was a huge variety of games, all of which Logan could play. We'll definitely go back sometime.

Aeris mostly just wanted OUT of this truck. It's up and down and slanting motion was a bit too real for her. Logan LOVED it and couldn't get enough!

Another Successful Party

2010-03-02T13:02:00.006-07:00

We celebrated Logan's 6th birthday on Saturday. We had 8 kids including Logan, which was a PERFECT number! He LOVES Legos, so of course we had to have a LEGO party! We guessed how many legos were in the jars, had a tower building contest, raced with Legos on a spoon, and of course built some fun creations with Legos too! And the cake... LEGOS!

Love

2010-02-14T22:44:00.005-07:00

We had three days of Valentine's Day celebrations with the actual holiday happening on Sunday this year. Friday there were school parties with friends. Saturday there were more friends and a neighborhood bake sale. Today there was us.

What did I get for Valentine's Day?

Little smiles
Giggles
Feet running up and down the hallway over and over and over again (and it's a LONG hallway)
"Mommy" "Mom" and "Ma AHHMMMM"
"What's for breakfast," "Can I have a treat?" and "Cookie? Please cookie."
A brisk walk around the corner to church with a little body tucked into my coat
Tears and clinging fingers at the nursery room door
Dirty diapers
Stories about hearts and valentines, and one about a moon that I can recite from memory
An afternoon nap with Tinker Bell playing in the background
Toys on the floor in every room in the house
Beds made by little hands
Shampoo and Ivory soap
Lavender Lotion

Too many parents have sent their children to Heaven lately.
I'm sorry for them and their loss.
I'm grateful for the time I had with mine today.
They are my LOVES.

Gearing up

2010-02-09T13:33:00.003-07:00

Jade's science fair is a little more that two weeks away and her project this year is going to be a GOOD one... stay tuned!

Precious

2010-01-18T14:08:00.003-07:00

Sometimes I find myself wishing my kids would hurry and grow up. They require so much. It tries my patience. But then I remind myself what we all hear so much from others, "childhood doesn't last, so enjoy it while you can."

It's good to be reminded about the good in life. My kids... definitely good. Here's a quick taste of what I love about them.

Jade:
She absolutely loves science. She thrills in learning about the world we live in and the creatures that share it with us. Her favorite pastime is reading. So many nights I'll put her to bed only to find her later curled up in front of her night light with a book. The library would be on her top ten list of favorite places to go. She's easily pleased. A cooking lesson with Mom or an outing to the Home Depot with Dad is just as exciting as a trip to an amusement park. She has an AMAZING imagination. She and Logan prefer making up their own games with their toys to watching TV. She LOVES her brother and sister. Whenever she comes home with treats she always offers to share.

Logan:
He has such an infectuous laugh and smile and it doesn't take much to get him to share them. He gets along well with others. He's trustworthy and obedient. He's helpful with Aeris. If I'm teaching piano lessons, he'll take her into her room and play with her. He builds towers with her and reads her stories. He takes time to do his best. Sometimes this means coming home with unfinished papers from school because he wants to make it look just right. He has BEAUTIFUL penmanship! He would rather do just about anything instead of watch TV or movies. He loves to build his own lego creations and train tracks. He loves to eat bread. Sometimes he eats 4-5 pieces in one day. When he wants a snack, that's the first thing he goes after.

Aeris:
It's funny to me how different she is than both her older sister and brother. She definitely came with her own personality. She is an early riser and won't do anything until she's been given her breakfast. She's totally insulted if we try to put her into bed with us. She loves her blankets. Once she found out I was keeping her extra blankets in the closet, she insisted she have them all in her bed to sleep. She can't sleep without her music playing and lotion on her hands. She LOVES lotion! She's my pickiest eater. It's not that she doesn't like to eat, she can probably out eat most toddlers it just has to be what she wants. If it isn't, she won't even touch it. When she gives kisses it has to be one on each cheek. She loves clothes, jewelry, and shoes. She has sharp little mind. She already knows the colors black, white, red, orange, yellow, blue, purple, green, pink, and brown. She can name all the basic shapes. She loves to sing and can copycat a tune she's heard.

I keep a journal for each of my kids, recording everything from big occasions, to the everyday excitement. This wonderful idea came from a dear friend of mine when Jade was a baby. I write in them as often as time permits, hoping someday they'll have fun reading and remembering. I also love to look back. It's easy to see how each child is unique, hitting milestones at their own pace. Eventually I'll include some of these fun memories in their scrapbooks if I can ever find the time to catch them up!

Did you know

2010-01-04T20:47:00.002-07:00

Logan just came out of his room. "Mom, I just heard on my radio that someone will clean your drains!"
When you're 5 so many things are exciting!

Feasts, Noise, and Toys

2009-12-29T11:00:00.007-07:00

Christmas came and went with its usual excitement. There was plenty of snow, a few parties with friends and family, and pounds of yummy food.

The third grade at Jade's school put on a pirate themed Christmas program before she went off track.
Nate's mom put on a snowman themed party for the kids. They ate gilled cheese sandwiches drank hot cocoa. She gave them each a new pair of pajamas and a bag of goodies to open until Christmas.

We made a trip to Gardner Village to see the elves. We completed a scavenger hunt rewarded by a candy stick at Sweet Afton's and finished off the afternoon with hot soup and bread at the Naborhood Bakery.

Grandma and Grandpa came over for a baking day. So we all donned aprons and broke in the new kitchen.

We spent Christmas Eve at home with Grandma and Grandpa where we enjoyed good music, food, and a few gifts. My mom wrapped up each of our favorite foods and we had fun guessing what it was. The kids left out a plate with Twinkies and a Cherry Coke for Santa and headed to bed. Nate assured them that Santa would enjoy the menu change. For the first time, Logan seemed to really understand what would happen in the morning, and kept peeking out his window hoping to see Santa.

There were a few surprises in the morning. Santa forgot to take the training wheels off of Logan's new bike. It sure did make it easier for him to ride it all over the basement though. It's a whole lot taller than his little 12-incher!

We went to Nate's parents' house in the afternoon where their cousins' puppy was about all the entertainment needed.

Letter to Santa

2009-12-19T15:08:00.003-07:00

Well my job is certainly easy this year!

I'll try to be brief

2009-12-02T23:04:00.005-07:00

Since it's been a VERY LONG TIME since I've updated this blog and it's not because we haven't been doing anything worth writing about, but rather that we've been so busy that I haven't written, I'm going to make a list of all the noteworthy events in our household.

1. Jade ran in a 1-mile race and won 1st place in her age group, 3rd overall for female racers.

2. We celebrated Halloween with parties, parades, and trick or treating resulting in so much candy that Logan told someone we'd been to every house in the whole world and that he had about a million treats.

3. We closed on our new home.

4. We scrubbed our new home top to bottom and painted the cement basement floor. Now our kids can roller skate down there all winter.

5. We moved into our new home.

6. We enrolled Logan at his new elementary school.

7. We unpacked and put our house together in less than a week. I can't stand to live in disorder.

8. I started teaching piano lessons again.

9. We put a water softener into our new home. Hard water is the WORST!!! I've used a TON of Lime Away and haven't even made a dent in some of the hard water build up on the counters and in the master shower. The toilets and sinks are clean, thanks to a pumice stone.

10. My grandmother passed away peacefully at 90 years old... the last of my grandparents.

10. We enjoyed visits from all of my siblings who came into town from out of state for the funeral.

11. We celebrated Thanksgiving with visits to Nate's parents' house and mine. It was nice to visit my parents' house without all of our stuff cluttering it up! Aeris really misses them and she was so thrilled to be there that I let her skip her nap.

12. We decorated for Christmas. The last few years, I've struggled to find space for all my decorations, and now it feels like I don't have quite enough. I LOVE THIS HOUSE!!!

So that brings us to today, where we are trying to create some routine after a pretty crazy year. I hope it won't be so long before you hear from me again.

This is what our kids can tell their friends at school tomorrow

2009-10-18T21:26:00.011-06:00

How did our kids get the VIP treatment with the local fire department? They made a house call yesterday morning.

The day started out pretty normally. Breakfast once. Breakfast again... (LOVE living at grandma's house:). The kids were downstairs watching Saturday morning TV. Nate was sleeping in. I was upstairs enjoying a chat with my mom while Aeris played. When the smoke alarms went off we both assumed it was a malfunction. REALLY, how many times do your smoke alarms go off when there's an actual fire??? Jade came running up the stairs, "everyone needs to get out of the house!"

We were assuring her that everything was okay when Nate came up, looking dazed. "Something's wrong with the smoke detectors," we told him.

"Ummm no. There IS smoke in the basement."

So, at this point, we're supposed to follow Jade's advice, right? Of course, my curiosity to blame, I went downstairs instead. Sure enough, the laundry/storage room, hallway, and Logan's bedroom had a lovely smoke layer covering the ceiling, and it reeked of something burning. There was no heat though, no flames, and it wasn't difficult to breathe. I sent the kids outside in their pajamas and bare feet, and then proceeded to change out of my own pajamas and grab jackets, shoes, and pants for them. Duh. I guess all those lessons on fire safety have just gone over my head.

The fire department, thrilled to have some excitement on a quiet Saturday morning, came with three engines, one battalion truck, and an ambulance, all with sirens screaming. They used a fan to blow out the smoke, checked every room in the house, as well as every light, both furnaces, and the dryer in the basement. The last thing they checked was the washing machine in the basement, which apparently had burned up it's belt or something. With the source found and determined safe, our dramatic event drew to a close.

The kids loved keeping warm in the fire truck and can't wait to tell all the kids at school that "their house was on fire and they got to dress in the captain's clothes in the fire engine." We'll see if the story ends up embellished even more by the time school gets out tomorrow.

This post is for the AMAZING inventor of flu mist

2009-10-11T23:59:00.003-06:00

Whenever we talk about our favorite seasons with our kids and someone brings up fall, the color drains from Jade's face. "I don't like fall." she says.
"Why not? Your birthday is in the fall." we remind her.
"Yeah, I know. And I like that. But I can't stand flu shots." At this point she talks on and on about why shots make her miserable. We, of course, then explain why shots are good for us.

I have several great flu shot stories to tell about Jade. Last year's took place the first week in November and I wrote about it on this blog. My favorite story to tell though is the year I took her up to a clinic at Nate's workplace. I told Jade nothing about why we were there. We waited in line for 45 minutes or so. When we reached the front she began to pay attention to what happened there. I completely avoided her questions. Finally it was her turn. She took one look at the lady at the table, then at me, and took off running. Some nice bystander kept a hold of Logan for me while I attempted to round her up. I brought her back kicking and screaming. Apparently we made such a scene that Nate's co-workers all went back to work to tell him about his daughter's performance.

We went last Monday for this year's shot. I brought along reinforcments, since I had learned the hard way that year at the clinic not to try it alone. I figured between the nurse, my mom, and me, we should be able to hold her down long enough for the poke. But, I have no story to tell because all three kids got flu mist this year. Jade's eyes brimmed over with tears just for a second and then it was over. No Pain = No dramatics. WOW! Maybe now she won't dread fall.

Movie Review: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

2009-10-04T15:47:00.002-06:00

This movie got three thumbs up from the viewers at our house. The only disappointment was that the food they kept catching in their mouths had no substance. Tricky 3D!

Babies, Babies

2009-10-04T15:16:00.006-06:00

There are so many new babies at the zoo this year. I knew the chance to see them as babies was passing us by, so we made a trip just before winter arrived. (It snowed the next day!) I've been to the zoo lots of times, and I always enjoy it, but it seemed like the animals were more active this time. Baby Zuri the elephant put on a little show with her ball.

The monkeys screeched and jumped and swung from their vines. The black bears wrestled. Those adorable little amur tiger cubs snuggled with their mother and attacked their toys.

It was Aeris's first visit to the zoo. Though her favorite of the animals was the cats, she actually thrilled the most in seeing that there was so much water. At every cage, we'd point at the animals, and all she was interested in was "Water! Water!"The kids had fun using the map to plan where to go!Of course the train ride was a hit.

Surprise!

2009-09-30T13:13:00.005-06:00

When I told Jade there was no way I could pull together a big party for her birthday this year she didn't question it. That's when I knew I needed to do it. More than any other year. The best part was, she would have no idea. She has been planning surprise parties for her toys for years, so I knew she would LOVE it. And actually, the preparations were minimal. I sent out Evite invitations and we had the party at a park, so there were no decorations. I made a cake for dinner on her birthday and she didn't ask why I had her decorating a bunch of cupcakes too. I put the favors together the night before and planned some outdoor games. Not everyone could come, but she didn't know who I'd invited, so there was no sadness about who wasn't there, just the thrill of seeing the friends who did come. It was a great day!

I Miss My Clothes

2009-09-14T23:21:00.003-06:00

Of all the things packed away in the POD or in one of the many boxes piled up in the basement family room here at my parents' house, I think I miss my clothes the most. I brought only what would fit in our luggage. Since it was early May when we moved, I do have some for cold weather and some for warm weather, but there's just not as much variety as I'm used to. I brought my favorites, but by the time we're out of here they'll no longer be favorites because I'm going to be so sick of them. That goes for the kids' clothes too. At least Aeris's clothes bins are here. And that's good, because as fast as babies grow, she'll be needing the next size up for the winter.

And we still have no idea when this little adventure is going to end. I wonder what qualifications you need to handle short sale negotiations at a bank. I'd really like to get that job so I can find out WHAT IN THE WORLD IS TAKING THEM SO LONG! AND WHY IN THE WORLD THEY CAN'T GIVE US A STRAIGHT ANSWER ON WHERE THE FILE IS AT!

I've been patient. I'm DONE with patient.

Hair Wars

2009-08-19T22:54:00.003-06:00

Before...
After... You gotta love the "yank everything out of my hair" phase. We're going through this 3-4 times a day.

Baby it's Your Day!

2009-07-26T17:40:00.004-06:00

Whenever someone has a birthday at our house, we do whatever they want to do that day. We spent yesterday celebrating Aeris’s 2nd birthday. We ate her favorite breakfast, Cheerios. We went outside so she could swing on the swings. We blew bubbles. She had oatmeal with peaches and milk for lunch and then had a nap. That probably wouldn’t have been on her list of favorites, but she slept for three hours, so it was much needed. Jade and Logan played in the little swimming pool with her until dinner. We ate pasta with tomato sauce and lots of cheese and garlic bread. We finished the day with a cookie and a walk to the park.

Happy birthday baby girl! I can’t believe you’re two years old!

I love the way you laugh whenever someone else laughs.
I love your dimpled chin.
I love the way you pick up on musical tunes and start singing along no matter where we are.

We ate cake at the park with family last week.

Too Old for Lagoon and I'm Glad Movie Theaters are Dark

2009-07-19T22:52:00.004-06:00

Jade talks about Lagoon a LOT. We went twice the year Aeris was born, but then didn't go last summer. It was nearly unforgivable, so when discount day arrived for our church ward, she wouldn't let the opportunity pass her by. I used to love Lagoon. I'd invite my most favorite of friends and we'd see how many guys we could pick up on before the end of the day. Well, now that I'm married, THAT side of Lagoon has lost it's charm and without that, you just have the fact that I'd probably throw up if I rode anything. So, being as nothing will make Nate throw up, he had the honors of taking her.

As a consolation for missing out on "Lagoon Day," I took Logan and Aeris to see a movie. Deep down, I guess I knew how it would go taking a two-year-old into a movie theater, but it was an acceptable replacement activity as far as Logan was concerned, AND it was out of the heat. We arrived part way during the previews, so the theater was already dark. Aeris wasn't sure what to think at first. She clung to me for ten minutes or so, peaking out of my shirt just enough to see that something was showing on the screen. Once that wore off, she wanted out. Out. OUT. She fussed and complained, and climbed. I finally took her in my arms, assured Logan that I'd stay close by, and stood in the aisle with her. That lasted about ten more minutes. After that, it was pure torture. She walked up and down the aisle, giggling at herself. She found her way around the back of the theater and noticed someone else went out that way. She banged on the door. I proceeded to hold her some more, until she'd squirm her way out of my arms, then it was back to walking up and down the aisle and giggling. Oh, and while all this was going on, Logan kept turning around and standing up on his seat to see where I had gone. As soon as the movie was over I grabbed Logan's hand and told him to RUN. Thank goodness for the protection of darkness. No one from the theater will recognize me or my unruly children.

Nate brought Jade home before 10 pm suffering from a major headache. Maybe Lagoon has lost its charm for him too. Apparently Jade ran him from ride to ride ALL DAY. And now... well she's talking about Lagoon more than ever.

Restaurant Review: Asian Star

2009-07-12T23:08:00.001-06:00

Click here for location & online info

http://www.dininginutah.com/asianstar.htm

Dishes ordered:
cashew stir fry with assorted veggies and chicken
sweet and sour pork
hot and sour soup
egg flower soup
*both dishes came with soup, rice, fried shrimp, egg roll, & cream cheese wanton

We ate here for our anniversary this past weekend. Nate had been before with some friends from work, but it was my first time. They have a very small parking lot, so they offer free valet parking (tips optional). Otherwise, you have to park across the street. They seated us quickly and had water on the table within seconds of us sitting down. The waiter came immediately behind the person delivering the water to give us menus and take a drink order, which came out seconds later. Within minutes of taking our order, we were brought our soup. It was hot and delicious! I had the hot and sour soup. I have no idea what was in it, but I could have eaten that and nothing else! It’s a good thing the soup portions are small though, because the dinner portions were HUGE! Nate and I used the extra plates on the table to share the meat dishes. The cashew chicken was LOADED with cashews. It’s a good thing I love them! The veggies were carrots, zucchini and celery. I’m glad I ordered a dish that had veggies, because the sweet and sour did not have any. Between the two of us, we probably ate about a third of the food. It warmed up nicely as left-overs the next day. If you come with a large group as Nate did, you can order several items from the menu and rice ala carte and then eat them “family style.” We saw the table next to us do it that way.

The service was super fast. In fact, I almost felt rushed. This was not a place to sit and stay to chat. On a Saturday night, we were in and out in less than an hour.

The food was so delicious, of high quality and came in large portions.

The price was expected for the amount of food. It’s a little more pricey than your fast-food Asian restaurants, but well worth it.

What I will try next time: lettuce wraps. I’ve heard they’re amazing! We just didn’t have any more room in our bellies this time!

Chocolate Relief

2009-07-10T14:49:00.004-06:00

Picture this: kids fighting, yelling, for the upteenth time that day. Me, hiding in a closet to get away from the fighting, yelling, and eat a chocolate treat of some kind because it DOES make me feel better and somehow gives me the energy to manage the fighting, yelling while still maintaining my cool.

Are you in need of some chocolate relief?

Mars is giving away 250,000 coupons every Friday until September for a FREE CANDY BAR. Visit this site to get yours!

https://realchocolate.com/default.aspx

I love free stuff. Don't you?

Celebrating Independence Day

2009-07-05T22:37:00.005-06:00

Parade

As you can imagine, by the end of the parade, this little trailer was loaded with treats. Aeris was quite content on the ride sampling each one as they came in!

Aeris was facinated with splashing in the water puddles on the tarp under the water slide.

Aeris showing her cousin Will how to make a splash.

Lining up the fireworks.

Don't get too close to those fireworks little girl!

Preschool Grad

2009-07-05T22:18:00.004-06:00

I'm a little slow posting about Logan's big preschool finale. The last couple of months has been hit and miss with preschool attendance thanks to that long drive back to our former neighborhood. The graduation was the culmination though of those pre elementary school years, and I wanted to keep taking him (even if it was only once a week) until that finishing moment. It makes him seem more ready for kindergarten.

His teacher shared a few of their favorite things as she presented their certificate of graduation. Following is Logan’s list. It cracks me up that whenever my kids make up this kind of list they mention several things that aren’t what I’d call “favorites.” It’s just something they did that particular day.

Food: Cake
Color: Red & Gold
Animal: Panda Bear
Game: Light Bright
Song: “Popcorn Popping”
Book: Easter Eggs
Toy: Cars
Cartoon: “Word World”
Movie: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Holiday: Easter, “The Easter bunny lives at my house” – Jade has a big stuffed rabbit. She has Logan convinced that it comes to life on Easter to deliver all the eggs.
Season: Summer, “I love to be hot!”
Favorite part of Preschool: Snack time

Before the graduation we made our half-yearly visit to the dentist. No cavities! And Dr. Johnson removed Logan's thumb-sucking appliance. Our results have been true to the research. The habit is totally gone. Hooray! Now we're REALLY ready for kindergarten!

Speedo Man

2009-06-07T22:07:00.005-06:00

For anyone who saw our Jon Lennon nursery, this may come as no surprise, but Nate's quite an artist! A friend of his from work was racing at a swim meet on Friday. Nate decided to embarrass him with our two very loud cheering children and a poster. Well, Nate never does embarrassment half way, so he created the poster in the photo below. The kids thought it was the greatest, especially since Speedo Man won his race and gets to go next week to California to race with the best swimmers in the nation - Phelps, Lezak, etc.

Cousins Visit

2009-06-07T17:57:00.003-06:00

We enjoyed an unexpected visit from my sister, Diane and three of her kids this weekend. I saw Diane last fall, but haven’t seen her kids for a year. I can’t believe how much growing up they’ve done in that short time. They’re all so tall! Jade & Curtis are almost exactly the same age and see how much taller he is?

Jade and Logan loved playing with Sydney & Curtis in the backyard.

Thomas

2009-05-24T22:08:00.005-06:00

We spent a day with Thomas the Train on Saturday. Logan and Nate rode the train while Jade, Aeris, and I visited all the other sites. They were having so much fun that lunch time came and went without one of them begging for food. Now that's amazing!

Fun at Grandma's

2009-05-24T21:26:00.003-06:00

The kids haven't needed any adjusment to life at Grandma & Grandpa's house. They quickly made themselves at home. Jade & Logan thrill in being able to sleep in the same room. Luckily there are enough other rooms in the house that we're able to remind them that if they don't actually go to sleep, other room arrangements can be made which won't be near as fun for them.

Here are some photos highlighting our past couple of weeks.

Last Saturday Nate took Jade on a hike up Bells Canyon.

Bubbles are a popular activity!

They all love to play in the backyard. There is plenty of grass, flowers, and SHADE! Something we didn't have much of at our house. Aeris puts on her shoes, asks for her hat and knocks on the door, saying "outside!"

We've Moved

2009-05-10T22:52:00.005-06:00

I've been putting off this post. Mainly because I didn't really believe this day would ever come. Maybe partly because I didn't want to face the reality of it all. But I guess since our house is sitting empty and I'm sending this e-mail from my parents' house, where we're "camping out," reality has officially hit.

We have spread out all our "stuff" among a storage POD, my parents' basement, the realtor's house, and a neighbor, while we look for a new house. The plan was to have another house lined up, but the process is SLOW. So, though we have found several that we like, we haven't secured a deal on any of them. YET. We hope to make it a FOREVER home, so we want it to feel just right.

Saying goodbye to our home of ten years was tough. We watched our house be built from the ground up, and then watched the neighborhood be built as well. I have pictures (I'll try to attach them later if I cn ever find them.) of our lot before we built the house and the surrounding area is amazingly empty. There was practically NOTHING else around. Now there are thousands of homes, as well as shops, restaurants, etc.

The neighborhood felt like home the first time I drove out there for a baby shower for a friend. I immediately called Nate. "This is it!" I told him. "I found us a place to live." We've felt at home there ever since. We had neighbors that we could call on at any time of the day or night for any favor. They called us when our garage door was left open. They took in our kids when we had errands to run. We knocked on their doors for cooking ingredients we'd run out of. We invited them over for dinner, to watch movies, and to play games. They became our closest friends. The ones who really know you inside and out, but choose to like you anyway.

I drove down the street at about 5 miles an hour yesterday, watching the rear view mirror, wondering what in the world we we'd done leaving it all behind. The tears finally ran once I drove into my parents' garage and I saw all of our boxes piled up. I've cried several times since then and will probably continue to cry until we have a new house to look forward to. Life continues, but it will not be the same.

Not Just Another Number

2009-05-01T10:17:00.003-06:00

Aeris had her official weigh-in at the pediatrician's office when I took Logan for his 5-year check-up on Wednesday. Just in case you can't see the numbers on the scale, it says 21 lbs!

Easter Photos

2009-04-26T20:42:00.004-06:00

As usual, we enjoyed a variety of activities to celebrate the Easter holiday. We battled the crowds at the neighborhood hunt and were not disappointed. The weather, though chilly, wasn't unbearable in our thin layers, unlike last year. The kids thrill in the annual hunts at both grandparents' houses as well. Aeris didn't like hunting for the eggs much this year, but quickly discovered the eggs weren't too difficult to pop open, and so really liked eating the treats.

Payoff

2009-04-15T21:08:00.006-06:00

My job can be exhausting.

"Let's count that rhythm." "Are you using your metronome at home?" "Dynamics really add depth to a piece. Let's try it again, and this time play those volume changes so I can hear them!" "How much are you practicing at home?" I say these things over and over again. Sometimes to the same students week after week, never hearing much of a change in the areas I've pointed out. One 30-min session each week hardly makes a difference if they aren't spending the time at home and I have very little control over the "at home" time.

And let's not forget what lesson time is like with my three little kids. As soon as I sit on that chair next to the piano someone starts crying, remembers they're hungry, wants to show me what they made at school, needs help turning on a movie, etc., etc, etc.

Tonight my students performed the two songs we've been working on since early February. A few of them came to lessons as recently as yesterday and were still stuggling with some crucial areas, as well as their ability to play from memory.

So how did it go? It was amazing. THEY were amazing! There were no major flaws, no giant slips. They performed their pieces better than they've ever played them. I sat in my usual spot on the front row, beaming every time one of them nailed their "trouble spot," my skin tingling with every powerful chord, brilliant crescendo, and continuous run up and down the keys.

THIS is why I love my job!

She's decided to do it

2009-03-29T21:56:00.003-06:00

Aeris has put off walking long enough and finally took those first steps... about twenty at a time. I can't wait to have a "graduation" celebration with her therapist on Tuesday.

Floating Eggs

2009-03-17T21:38:00.004-06:00

Jade completed another science fair project last month. I'm just now writing the post because everytime I thought about taking a picture of her with the board, she was in her pajamas. I must have thought about it a dozen times. That kid spends an awful lot of time in her pajamas! Actually, it's just that the only time of day when I start to remember what I need to do is when the day is ending. Of course by then we're all in pajamas.

Anyway. About the project. I found this idea both on the internet and in a book. I loved that it would be fast and the results easy to see. Jade loves anything hands on. We lined up 5 cups of water. We added salt, sugar, flour, and oil to four cups. We left one as just plain water. Then she hypothesized, would a raw egg float in any of the cups. Then she delicately used a spoon to place a raw egg into each cup. She wrote down observations and we talked about why it happened the way it did.

I called it a success and couldn't wait to go with her to school the next day to see what her classmates had done for their projects. Last year, even though it's optional for 1st and 2nd grades, nearly all the class participated. This year she was one of only four kids who came with projects. FOUR KIDS! I can't believe so many parents would miss this opportunity! We already have a project planned for next year's fair!

5

2009-03-12T13:05:00.004-06:00

We celebrated another year with Logan a couple of weeks ago with a super hero themed party. We dressed the guests up in a cape and mask as they arrived. It's tricky keeping 6 very excited 5-year olds (and one big sister) focused on organized games, but they loved hunting for the magic rings the Joker had hidden. We laughed and laughed as we took turns stuffing balloons into each of our super hero's clothing to make them look super muscular. They completed a super hero obstacle course to "rescue" a baby and tried to avoid the kryptonite in a hot potato style game. Every year I try to talk myself out of having a big birthday bash, and every year I'm glad afterward that I went through with it.

Logan's a pretty great kid. Here are 5 things I love about him.

1. He still loves to snuggle and gives great hugs and kisses.

2. He treats his sisters like gold.

3. He has the most adorable laugh.

4. He's easy to please.

5. He cooperates well with his friends.

Just Spit It Out

2009-02-14T21:10:00.004-07:00

I won't be making Logan finish any veggies to earn his dessert. A few months back he loved eating yogurt. Actually a more accurate statement would be he loved tasting yogurt. He'd open a container just to eat a couple of bites and then declare, "I'm full." Half-eaten containers of yogurt gross me out, so I'd throw them away every time. Finally I'd had enough. He asked for yogurt one day and I told him that unless he finished it he wasn't getting down from the table. The look on his face after the first bite told me he didn't like it AT ALL, but he persisted. Next thing I know, he's gagging. Whatever, I thought. Then he threw up. I won't let him eat yogurt anymore.

This week it was a banana. He eats them all the time. He was sitting at the table. I was making him a sandwich, and he started gagging. Yup, then he threw up. "What's wrong with you? Are you sick?" I asked. "That banana was yucky," he said. "You touched it with your wet hands so it was wet. I didn't like it."

We had a nice conversation about not continuing to eat something that he doesn't like.

18 mo. update (a little late)

2009-02-08T21:12:00.004-07:00

Aeris turned 18 months a couple of weeks ago. She's changed from a baby to a toddler overnight it seems. Though not walking independently of the walker yet, she tests her balance by letting go of the handle. She's always so proud of herself, and makes sure to do it when somebody's watching.

She LOVES books. She has some favorites which she pulls from the shelf and brings to us several times a day.

Her favorite letter of the alphabet is "B". How do I know? Practically every word in her vocabulary starts with "B"... bunny, ball, book, baby, buzzz, blanket, baby, blocks.

At her check-up she weighed a petite 18 lbs. 14 oz., so no forward-facing carseat yet. That still leaves her off the chart for weight, but at 2'7", she made it to 25th percentile for height. Her head measured 18.3", 50th percent! Maybe that big head is why she hasn't been able to keep her balance to walk!

She's Gotta Have 'em

2009-01-26T14:05:00.003-07:00

I took advantage of a sale to replenish our stock of cold breakfast cereal. Jade and Logan had a terrible time deciding which cereal to eat and finally settled on Kellogs Pops. Aeris, strong-minded little girl that she is, pointed and babbled until I clued in that she wanted what they were having. Immediately she was hooked. Mind you, she's tried a lot of cold cereals, some sweetened, and she's never reacted this way. If I even try to pour any other cereal into her bowl, she screams and shoves it away. "Pops!" she yells. Keep in mind, she has about a fifteen word vocabulary, and "Mom" is not included in that list. This afternoon, after having had three bowls of Pops for breakfast, and a full lunch, she was walking (pushing the walker) through the kitchen when she noticed the pantry was open. SCORE! She crawled in and pointed and babbled. I, playing dumb, picked her up to see if she would grab up what she wanted (if she even knew what she wanted). She reached up to the boxes of cereal and picked out the Pops from the six boxes of cereal tightly packed on the shelf, some of which are even the same bright yellow and similar in size. She knows her Pops and she's gotta have 'em!

Yup, It's Reality

2009-01-20T22:35:00.003-07:00

Several seasons ago I watched a full season of the Bachelorette (Trista & Ryan anyone?) . I got fairly caught up in the romance of it all. I watched the one after that as well (Andrew Firestone). How disappointed I was when he and the girl he chose broke up. Such a tragedy, REALLY! Since then I've given it up. I couldn't bear to spend several weeks becoming attached to these people and their happiness only to have them break up after the show ends. I know. I'm pathetic. Why would I care so much.

Anyway. I caught the last 15 minutes of the latest Bachelor run last night. Yeah. This is what life really is like in a house full of girls all fighting over the same guy. It was quite the cat fight, followed by a run to the bathroom by one of the girls who was just so sick of it all. Fake and lame! My apologies to anyone who may love this show. I practically ran gagging to the bathroom myself.

All in a day's work

2009-01-18T20:36:00.002-07:00

We're right in the middle of the emptying EVERYTHING out of the cupboards, off shelves, out of drawers stage with Aeris. It's such a crack-up because I remember my other two enjoying the same past-time. So I just laugh, and try not to leave her alone in a clean room.

Growing up too fast

2009-01-14T21:16:00.003-07:00

Today was Nate's day off. He planned to pop some corn and settle the kids in the basement to watch Prince Caspian while I taught my piano lessons this afternoon. Well, Logan begged to play with his friend Matthew instead. Jade had an activity for church. Is this the future? I thought we had a few more years before the kids had so many other goings on to have time to sit and watch a movie with dad. Hopefully this won't be the norm.

Breaking the Habit

2009-01-09T22:58:00.004-07:00

My little Logan has been sucking his thumb for quite some time. In fact, he was caught sucking his thumb by the ultrasound technician during my pregnancy with him. Apparently many children give up thumb sucking on their own before their third birthday. I watched, and hoped, but his third birthday came and went and he was sucking his thumb as much as ever, day and night, not showing any signs that he would ever quit willingly. Well, Logan will turn 5 next month. When I took him to the dentist in December I told him we were ready to try any method necessary to kick the habit. He told me about an appliance cemented into the top of the mouth. Within a couple of weeks the habit is gone. The advantage of the appliance method is that it's stuck there even in the middle of the night when he'd suck his thumb without realizing it. It cost a pretty penny of course, but I'd recommend it highly. It's called a Bluegrass appliance. He whined a little the first night about wanting to suck his thumb, but hasn't complained since. He's had some trouble with food sticking in it, but taking small bites seems to help. We'll leave it in for a couple of months, just to make sure the habit is completely gone.

Little Angel

2008-12-23T22:15:00.000-07:00

If you’re looking for a good cause, I have one. Follow the link below to read a Deseret Morning News story about a family dealing with some difficult health issues.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20081214/ai_n31135573

Their daughter, Caitlynn passed away on Saturday, December 20 following complications related to a fever.

They have a fund set up at Cyprus Credit Union under the name “Williams Family.”

Did You Need a Hint?

2008-12-20T10:15:00.003-07:00

I posted the word list for the mixed up words on our 2008 Christmas Greeting. How did you do?

P.S. UFMC stands for Utah Federation of Music Clubs

For the Birds

2008-12-18T21:05:00.003-07:00

Have I told you how amazing Jade's teacher is? They have this great line of windows on the north wall of the classroom. Just out those windows sits a set of perches and bird feeders, each filled with a different variety of seed. The kids write observations of the birds in a bird journal. When a child has a birthday, the teacher sends home several recipes for treats for the birds they can make and bring in. The kids love it! Jade loved the birds a little too much in fact, and had to be moved so she was sitting facing away from the windows. For Christmas, Jade brought home one of those pine cones covered in peanut butter then rolled in bird seeds. We hung it up just before it snowed. As you can see in the photo, the birds love it. We were all so excited when our feathered friends noticed it and munched away.

Socializing With Kids

2008-12-16T15:03:00.003-07:00

I love the social events of the Christmas season. We mark up our calendar with party plans all month long. Well you’ve heard the scripture (Eccl. 3:1) “To every thing there is a season, and a time...” I’ve decided this just may not be the time and season for me to enjoy all these get-togethers. If you notice my absence at an event, here’s the explanation.

Last night was our 3rd annual “Open Garage Party.” Some neighbors and I coordinated our efforts to start a tradition where instead of taking around neighbor gifts we bring a food bank donation, a treat to share and visit in someone’s garage. My kids have been talking about it for weeks. Of course, our first real snow storm of the winter decided to happen yesterday. Since the party was only 6 houses away, we walked. Aeris wasn’t at all happy being bundled up, but once the stroller started moving she was fine. Once we arrived, Jade and Logan immediately headed for the treat table (of course!). Aeris started to fuss. I took her out of her snow clothes, but she continued to fuss. I shooed Jade & Logan out the door to play in the snow rather than eat themselves sick. I tried to converse with the neighbors, but Aeris cried harder and harder. She’d had dinner, a good nap, and a diaper change before we left. Was she too cold, too hot? I had no idea. In the mean time, Jade and Logan kept coming back in saying they were cold. Logan didn’t have on snow pants since the pair he wore last year is too small and I haven’t dug out the bigger size from the basement yet. They both opted for knit gloves instead of waterproof mittens because they could put them on without help from me. Their hands were frozen. So after spending 30 minutes getting dressed and ready, and another 5 walking over, we left after 20 minutes. Logan screamed the whole way home because he was wet and freezing. They stripped in the garage and headed to the tub. I spent the next 20 minutes sorting/hanging their wet clothes and putting some into the washer. Once I had Aeris back at home she didn’t cry once. Unfortunately this isn’t an isolated event. She had acted the same way at our church Christmas party.

I have these visions of attending holiday parties where the kids play and enjoy treats in moderation and I chat with my friends. The reality is my kids are attracted like magnets to any food at a party, especially anything with sugar in it. I distract them with other activities, but they just can’t stay away, so minutes later they’re back. Because of this, I spend parties hovering at the food table so I can turn them around every time they head over. Since Aeris isn’t walking, I can’t put her down because she’ll be trampled by the crowds. Instead I hold her in my arms, squirming and fussing because she gets overwhelmed easily in large groups. I can’t manage much of a conversation because I’m constantly focused on how far Jade and Logan are from the food and because Aeris is crying in my ear.

Someday. Someday.

Opportunities to socialize with my friends will come again, but my children are growing older by the second. For now I cherish that they still feel the magic of Christmas, even if most of that magic comes in the form of cookies. I’m glad Aeris still prefers to be at home. Those times will be gone very soon and I’ll wish I had them back when they are.

Tricky

2008-12-09T21:49:00.003-07:00

It's so exciting when your baby hits a milestone. I'm thrilled to share Aeris's latest tricks!

Hands and knees crawling!

Wow! Two handed walking. This one happened all of a sudden. The physical therapist has had me praticing the two hand hold. Aeris hasn't liked it at all. She definitely wouldn't take steps. Then on Sunday night, during family prayer of all things, Nate had a hold of her hands and she started taking steps. I was the one praying, so my eyes were closed. Thank goodness she was loving it and kept going so I didn't miss it! She is now totally comfortable stepping.

This is romantic?

2008-12-02T11:32:00.006-07:00

Nate, being the wonderful husband that he is, put Made of Honor into our Netflix queue with the idea that it would nice little romantic comedy that I would enjoy. We watched it last night. I couldn't figure out who they were writing this movie for. Generally, romantic comedies appeal to women, so I figure this must have been their intended audience. I was turned off from the opening scene, where the main male character in the show, the one you're supposed to be rooting for in the end, roams around a college Halloween party, obviously drunk, looking for someone to sleep with. You find out in this same scene that he's known for sleeping with a lot of women. Fast forward ten years and nothing has changed. He loves to sleep with lots of women.

Then there are the two "geeks." The writers of this movie obviously introduced these characters thinking it would be funny for the main characters to hide from, ignore, and be rude to them.

Oh yes, and they always have to include their one allowed F word.

I actually felt sad for the girl at the end. She was a pretty likable girl. Too bad she had to end up with such a shmuck!

Two Wheels

2008-11-23T21:07:00.006-07:00

Early in the summer I talked Logan into letting me remove the training wheels from his bike. We didn't have much luck with it though, and within a week we put the training wheels back on so his bike wouldn't sit untouched in the garage all summer long.

Yesterday I had just started reorganizing the garage when he announced that he was ready to ride his bike on two wheels. Remembering the episode in June, I told him no. I didn't have time to practice with him and I didn't want to take them off just to have to put them back on again.

He insisted he was ready and went to find his dad, who came out and took them off.

Nate ran along behind him for 10 steps or so and Logan was totally balanced and riding on his own. I was shocked to say the least. What an amazing kid!

What having kids has done to me

2008-11-09T08:48:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I was having a conversation with a friend and after four words had absolutely no idea what I'd intended to say. There wasn't even an interruption. I just uttered the four words and then... blank. Nothing. I definitely think having kids has sucked out a ton of my brain cells.

Check-Up

2008-11-09T07:47:00.005-07:00

I plan doctor appointments on Nate's day off with the idea that I can take the one child and leave the other noise/chaos makers at home with him. Since it's fall though and none of them had been given their flu shots, I decided to keep Jade home from school that morning so she could come to get hers. If I was bringing Jade, of course Logan needed to come for his shot also and if I was going to have three kids at the doctor's office, then Nate had better come too, for extra help and support. It was an interesting appointment to say the least. We arrived right on time, but waited for several minutes while the secretary entered our new insurance information. The whole while I'm not allowing the kids to sit down or touch anything for fear of what germs my "well" children will pick up from the waiting room. Jade had been whining and crying all morning about having to get a shot, so she's standing right up there next to me with her chin quivering over the desk at all the secretaries and occasional passerby nurse. The doctor had finished with her last appointment and was available, so all six of us piled into the little exam room and the doctor gave Aeris her check-up amid the sniffling from Jade, Logan turning on and off the lights, and Nate grumbling about how he wished they'd just give the kids their shots so we could leave. The doctor was thrilled with Aeris's progress. She hadn't been weighed yet, so we had no idea what weight progress she'd made, but she's finally comfortable pulling herself to stand! We're working on learning to cruise now. In hindsite, I wish I'd left Nate out with the other two kids playing with all the germ-infested toys, but oh well. So then the nurse came in and Jade started into the glass breaking scream. I'd warned the nurse that Jade freaks out and that if she'd just poke her as quickly as possible that would be best. Nate proved his need to be there by holding Jade down on his lap. Just to illustrate the personality difference, when it was Logan's turn, he just sat there wide-eyed and wimpered for a couple of seconds after the poke. Aeris definitely cried, but she had three shots, so I'd say she's allowed. We visited the scale last. Aeris weighs 16 lbs 15 oz. She's 29 inches tall.

Tons of treats and not so many tricks

2008-10-31T23:19:00.004-06:00

We had a great day... a great month! I love fall and I love Halloween. The remarkable warm weather has had us spending a lot of time outside cleaning up the summer plants and playing in the leaves. Every year our trees get a little bigger, but we still don't have enough leaves for a really great pile to jump in, so Jade and Logan (along with their neighbor friends) proceeded to gather armfuls of leaves from the neighboring yards. They had a blast raking, jumping and re-raking. Someday leaf raking may be a chore.

This month involved the usual fun Halloween activities, a party at Nate's mom's, school party & parade, and trick-or treating. Tonight I took Logan and his friend Matthew out for trick-or-treating, while Jade went out with her friend Ella and her dad.

Here's a little conversation the boys had about their candy as we roamed the neighborhood:

Logan: I have the biggest bag so I can get lots of candy. (Mind you anytime someone tried to give him more than one piece of candy he handed back the extras and said "just one please.") It's one of my Mommy's pillowcases.

Matthew: How much candy can fit in there?

Logan: Umm I don't know.

Matthew: ten?

Logan: Probally (Logan's pronounciation, not my misspelling) more than that.

Matthew: A hundred?

Logan: Umm I don't think a hundred. Maybe... like ten hundred or something.

They did make quite a haul. It's a good thing Mom and Dad are around to help them eat it.

What my kids know about me

2008-10-23T10:22:00.004-06:00

Last May Logan's preschool teacher asked the kids a bunch of questions about their moms. Then at a Mom and Me party she read them out loud. It was hilarious. Then I read a post on a friend's blog that listed some questions she'd asked her kids about her. Since Jade hadn't answered the questions last time I thought I'd do it again.

1. What is something your mom always says to you?

Logan: no (sad, but true)
Jade: I love you (also true :)

2. What makes mom happy?

Logan: being nice (absolutely!)
Jade: when we give her hugs and kisses and make her feel special (and they do it a lot!)

3. What makes mom sad?

Logan: not being nice
Jade: when something bad happens

4. How does your mom make you laugh?

Logan: tickling
Jade: umm... telling funny things

5. How old is your mom?

Logan: hmmm I just don't know
Jade: 32

6. How tall is your mom?

Logan: Let me count how tall you are... (he proceeds to tap me from my toes to the top of my head, counting). You are 17 tall!
Jade: 5 ft (she shorted me two whole inches!)

7. What is her favorite thing to do?

Logan: read books
Jade: Read. Mom LOVES to read!
(Since they both came up with this one it MUST be true!)

8. What does your mom do when you're not around?

Logan: well, hmmm ... (a couple of minutes later) ... I can't even figure that one out. You tell me what it is, 'cause I don't know.
Jade: go shopping (without the kids? You bet!)

9. What is your mom really good at?

Logan: exercising (Nice... I wish!)
Jade: being a mom and a piano teacher

10. What is your mom not very good at?

Logan: ummm I'm thinking... hmmm... riding scooters (I guess I need to show off my scootering skills some more)
Jade: doing gymnastics (pretty much, yup!)

11. What does your mom like to watch on TV?

Logan: hmm... conference. Was that right?
Jade: uh oh. That's a hard one. All kinds of shows.

12. What is your mom's favorite food?

Logan: oatmeal
Jade: cooked vegetables
(funny answers here... they both picked something they WON'T eat)

13. How do you know your mom loves you?

Logan: by snuggling with me
Jade: because she has a big heart and she forgives us

Ahh, they're adorable.

Half Time Entertainment

2008-10-21T22:05:00.001-06:00

How in the world...???
HalfTime Basketball Creighton University Omaha Nebraska - Watch more free videos

What kids are seeing on department store TVs

2008-10-19T09:47:00.005-06:00

I doubt this is new, but I just noticed it recently. As Nate and I browsed the electronics department at our local Wal Mart I glanced at the numerous TVs all playing the newly released DVD Iron Man. If you've seen this movie you probably enjoyed it, as I did, but I wouldn't find it appropriate for my young children who were with us at the time. Note that this movie is rated PG-13 for "some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and brief suggestive content." View an online parents' guide here. Three weeks later, they were showing the latest Indiana Jones movie, rated PG-13 for "adventure violence and scary images." View an online parents' guide here.

I don't think this is okay and I'd like to do something about it.

I sent the following comment at this address.

"Why are you showing PG-13 movies in public viewing areas of your store? Twice in the last month I have shopped this store with my three young children and twice I have seen movies (Iron Man & Indiana Jones) being played on every TV in and around (several directly in the aisle) your electronics department which have been rated PG-13 for violence and scary images. There are scientific studies proving the negative effects of violent images on young children. These movies are NOT appropriate for young viewers, so I choose not to allow my children to see them. Let's protect our children from these things, not put them in plain sight. What are you going to do about this problem?"

If this concerns you, you may want to take a minute and send a comment as well. They will likely not see a need for change unless they hear from more than one customer.

Rejects

2008-10-13T23:17:00.011-06:00

Taking family photos with little kids is always a priceless moment. We tackled this task last weekend so we'd have an updated picture to hang up before Jade's baptism (more about that in an upcoming post). For us it's extra fun since we're both the subjects and the photographer (Nate). He sets up a tripod, then uses a wireless remote to take as many pictures as the memory card will hold, knowing the majority of them will have to be thrown out, but amongst the rejects will be the jewel that makes it to everyone's mailbox as our holiday greeting. Just for fun, I thought I'd give you a sneak peak of some of the trashed photos from this year's shoot. Logan's expressions are always my favorites!

The conversation behind the scenes goes something like this...

Nate: "Okay, smile!"

Aeris: WAAAAHHHH

Logan & Jade: "CHEEEEESE"

Flash & Click

Aeris: WAAAAHHH

Nate: "No. Don't say cheese. Just SMILE. Ready? Everyone SMMMIIILE!"

Flash & click

Nate (directed at me): "Can't you bounce her or something so she stops crying? Ready? SMILE!"

Logan: "Lightnening McQueen!"

Flash & click

Jade: "I'm not saying THAT, Logan! I want to say something girly!"

Aeris: WAAAAAAHHHH

Nate: "No. Just SMILE! (directed at me again) I can't believe you can't get her to stop crying."

Aeris: Slurp, slurp. (now holding and sucking on my bracelet)

Me: Remember we'll have cookies when we get home if you be nice"

Jade & Logan: "We'll be nice. We'll be NICE"

Flash & click

To those in my neighborhood

2008-10-08T19:56:00.005-06:00

In the fall a new elementary school will open in the new city center (along with the rec center, library, etc.). A committee has been working hard to determine where the boundary changes should take place to fill this beautiful new school (two story... houses 1000 students!) As of now, my house will not be affected by any of the possible boundaries in that my kids will not be moving to the new school. However, my family IS still affected by this change. If you live anywhere near this new school, your family will be affected as well. Why? Our neighborhood schools are overcrowded. That's the whole reason they're building new schools. So, they take a few students from each of the surrounding schools and put them into the new schools to lessen the overcrowding. We want to attend this meeting and "vote" for the boundary change that is best for us. We want to lessen the crowding problem at our own schools. The kids hardly have any asphalt left the way they've been building portables out here! Please, if you can, attend this open house. It will only take a few minutes of your time to look over the maps and other information available. Rate the maps in order from the best to worst, and offer any comments about the boundaries. Though this vote will not decide the boundaries, the commitee will use the information to assess the feelings of the neighborhood. It will greatly effect their final decision.

The meeting is tomorrow, Thursday, October 9, from 6-7:30 pm at Fort Herriman Middle. If you have any further questions, check the district web page http://www.jordandistrict.org/general/boundaries/herriman/ or call or e-mail me. Thanks!

Jury Duty, with lots of little details

2008-10-01T22:03:00.007-06:00

I spent time online the night before my big jury assignment, planning the best way to get downtown at rush hour and determined that TRAX was my best option, even though it meant walking a couple of blocks from the nearest station. I looked forward to reading my book on the train and a leisurely walk in the quiet morning. I planned to leave home at 7:15, hopefully arriving at 10000 S. in time to catch the 7:15 train, but would still be on time if I made the 7:53 train.
The alarm clock blared early. I drug myself out of bed anyway and was ready and pulling out of the driveway at 7:18, three little minutes behind schedule. I could catch up if I hit the lights just right. Heading down 13400 S., I considered the possible routes to the station. I-15 would be crowded, it might be best to take Bangerter all the way to 11800… just then I glanced down at the dash. My van was full of gas. I’d filled it myself late last week. But I didn’t take my van. I left it for Nate in case he had to take the kids somewhere. His car was empty. At least that’s where the needle pointed. How empty was it really? I had no idea, and wasn’t about to take any chances. So I stopped for gas. Then one wrong decision after another left me stopping at a ton of red lights.
The train station parking lot was packed. I could see the train waiting there. I jumped out of the car and started walking toward the train. Then I ran. I looked ridiculous but whatever. I no longer had the time cushion I’d been planning on. I had no idea what they did to late jurors. Then the train left. It actually left! I debated chasing after it like you see in the movies. I stood there on the curb dumbfounded. Did I get back in my car and try to make it on the crowded freeway? There was absolutely no way I would be there on time. It didn’t matter what I did now. I might as well wait for the next train and prayed I wasn’t held in contempt of court or something. Worse… I didn’t want to have to go again the next day.
Have you ridden TRAX lately? I started to read my book, but it felt like the train was bouncing all over. I’d remembered such a smooth ride the other times I’ve ridden. Without my book as a distraction, I kept checking the time. The minutes rushed on by, like the scenery out the window. I don’t know what time it was when the train stopped at Gallivan, all I know is I practically flew out of my seat and onto the sidewalk. I speedwalked those two blocks and took the steps in the building two at a time. There were a bunch of people in the waiting area, but none of them looked official. I asked one of them if they had any idea where I needed to be for jury duty. A lady directed me to a room. I peaked in the window. They were watching a video in there. I was sure to make a grand entrance. The lady at the front gave me a nasty look as I stepped in the door and found a seat. After the video all about the glories about jury duty they called roll. Only my name wasn’t called. I panicked, thinking maybe was in the wrong place. Then I’d really be late to wherever it was I needed to go. She asked for my name. I was on her list afterall. I filled out a questionnaire, ate some taxpayer provided snacks, and received my $18.50 cash for my service. Then we moved in to the courtroom next door where the judge asked us all a bunch of questions. “These are the attorneys. These are the witnesses. Do any of you know any of these people? Do any of you have any close ties with law enforcement?” This was my opportunity. My hand goes up. “My husband spent the ten years working in law enforcement… No, it wouldn’t effect my ability to make a decision in this case… blah blah blah.” Following a quick potty break, the judge announced the 4-member jury. I wasn’t called. So that was it. The end of jury service. I walked out of the building at 10:30 am. I enjoyed my leisurely walk to the train station in the quiet morning. I read my book until the train began to bounce again. I stopped at the mall, the bank, and made it home in time for lunch.

Crap

2008-09-29T18:13:00.005-06:00

Just in case you've been dying to know, my luck finally ran out. After putting off jury duty five times, I finally have to serve! When I didn't have to appear today I hoped that meant I'd be safe for the whole week. When I called tonight I had to listen to the message twice thinking I'd heard it wrong. So, I'll be driving in rush hour traffic to arrive at the Salt Lake City Court at 8:30 am tomorrow morning.

Breakfast at Jade's

2008-09-27T21:56:00.002-06:00

We celebrated Jade's 8th B-day with a fun "come as you are" party. We served a stack of pancakes (thanks Nate!) decorated with whipped cream as a birthday cake, fresh fruit, egg & bacon casserole, and juice. We had a pajama fashion show, decorated book marks, and made shrinky dink charm bracelets. It was tons of fun!

Sisterhood and Some Really Great Pants

2008-09-21T22:01:00.008-06:00

When I still lived at home I spent many nights up late talking with my sisters about friends, clothes, and boys. After we all grew up, my sisters moved away, life got busier and busier, and the telephone conversations never quite compensated for those missing late-night talks.

To catch up on lost time, we planned a weekend just for the girls at a condo in Park City.

We enjoyed singing along LOUDLY at Mamma Mia and dancing WILDLY in the aisle.

We shopped the outlets without complaining husbands and whining kids.

We celebrated our Mom's upcoming birthday.

And we tried on each other's clothes... Actually it was ONE pair of Lynnette's really great pants!

Preschool & Pigtails

2008-09-15T12:29:00.006-06:00

So it's been a while. As it usually the case when I don't have time to write, we've been busy having fun. So here's a quick update.

We took a fun little weekend trip to Midway for our annual Swiss Days reunion with Nate's family. The kids loved "camping out." Actually they slept in a trailer the first night and at the Homestead the second night. It hardly qualifies as camping. They loved swimming in the pool, feeding the horses, and making boats to float down the creek.

Logan started his second year of preschool last week. He's attending at A Step Ahead with Carrie Palmer just up the hill from our home. She's a real gem. I happened upon her preschool when I needed one for Jade's Pre-K year. She had just moved to the area. I was immediately impressed with her organization and academically focused curriculum. So far Logan loves it! His favorite part is playing outside on the tramp and swing set, and eating snacks. Typical! He already took a sick day on Thursday thanks to a random 24 hr. fever. Whatever it was went away without any other symptoms and without spreading to anyone else in the house. Thank goodness for that!

After attending a Jade's friend Ali's baptism on Saturday morning (thanks for inviting us Ali and congratulations again!), I left all three kids with a new babysitter (one of my piano students) for nearly five hours while I attended a Utah Federation of Music Clubs luncheon at Thanksgiving Point. It always makes me nervous to leave the kids with anyone, but this girl is so cute. She came toting a bag of "goodies!" I resisted asking her what she had in the bag until I came home so she could reveal the surprise whenever she wanted to. Can you believe she brought Polly Pocket toys for Jade and dinosaurs for Logan. It was the best idea! She has younger siblings at home, so I think she probably raided their toy boxes so she'd have something new and exciting for my kids. The kids thought she was the best! I'll definitely call her again.

Aeris weighed in at 16 lbs. last week at her weight check. Since she's continuing on an up pattern, there are no major concerns. Her hair is really growing out. I was thrilled to put it in pigtails for the first time yesterday! She now has two bottom teeth and pulled herself up to standing on the side of her crib today when I put her down for a nap. The nap got put off for another hour while I (FINALLY) moved her mattress down from it's newborn position. The therapist came last week and loved all her progress!

Hold the Nuts Please

2008-09-03T21:41:00.002-06:00

I'm officially an EpiPen carrying mom. I took Logan to the University of Utah Health Center this morning for allergy testing. First of all, for anyone who hasn't experienced allergy testing, it's totally miserable. After the nurse spent probably 30 minutes getting a very detailed history of Logan's health, the doctor came in and again discussed every detail of Logan's health. We then talked about which items to test him for. I was all for testing for plants as well as foods. Why not get as much information out of this appointment as possible? The doctor, though, limited the list to a couple of controls (items we knew he wouldn't react to), a histamine (to show what a reaction from him would look like) and 11 nuts. Then two nurses came in. As he sat facing me on my lap, they drew 14 dots on his back with a purple sharpie, and then brought out the pokers. One at a time, they gouged his skin next to each dot inserting a liquid just under the skin's surface. He flinched at the first one, then when they didn't stop there, he started to get mad. "Hey, that hurts!" Finally, he turned his head around and told her quite seriously, "DON'T do that again!" Luckily they were about done by then, because his patience had definitely run out (thank goodness I hadn't told the doctor to test for plants too!). Unfortunately the fun was just starting. They told me we had to wait for fifteen minutes while his body reacted. In the mean time, even though the spots itched like crazy, he wasn't allowed to touch them. Poor kid. So I took him outside for a walk. We counted all the Jeeps in the parking lot and admired the motorcycles, etc. When we went back in, he had three huge welts on his back and three smaller ones. The biggest welt was from a cashew, the other two big welts were pistachio and pecan. The smaller welts were the histamine, and two different kinds of walnut. The nurses measured the welts and surrounding redness, then the doctor came out and measured and inspected them too. Then they finally applied some hydrocortizone cream to his sore little back. The doctor recommended a blood test as well, so we'd have a better idea of whether he'll ever grow out of the allergies. As if he hadn't been through enough, then I had to put him through a blood draw, from both arms! It was all so sad! He'd earned a big treat when we got home. We meet with the doctor again in a month to discuss the results of the blood test.

What would you do?

2008-08-26T10:34:00.004-06:00

I have a little dilemma. Driving Jade to and from Riverton Elementary twice a day five times a week just wouldn't be prudent, so I arranged a carpool. All of last year I drove every morning and the other mom picked up in the afternoons. This worked out perfectly considering my piano lesson schedule. A couple weeks ago we added another mom to the arrangment. She drives two mornings and one afternoon each week. After picking up/dropping off Jade a few times I noticed that her vehicle drips a little oil in our driveway. Nate's extremely particular about this. I have a piano parent who drives several different vehicles to piano lessons... ALL of which drip oil. It makes Nate absolutely crazy. He's told me over and over that I need to do something about it. The problem is, I can't stand the thought of making them feel bad. After all, these are people I care about... and need to maintain a relationship with. Offending them is simply not an option. The first carpool mom told me yesterday that she's going to arrange some after school classes for her kids and won't be carpooling anymore. That means if I don't do something about it, I'll have new oil drips in my driveway every day of the school week! I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Here Comes Trouble

2008-08-25T12:24:00.005-06:00

It's been just over a month since the occupational therapist came to work with Aeris on her gross motor skills. Normally she'll come twice a month, but she's been on a European vacation. In the mean time, we've been really working with her so we'd have lots to show her when she came back. The progress has been amazing! She's started pulling herself up onto her knees and even climbed up a stair last week! A couple days ago I heard some noise in the kitchen and came in to find this:

It was total deja vu since I have memories of Jade playing in the very same cupboard. In fact, I have a picture of her doing just that! I'd say they look a little bit alike, wouldn't you?

I Love To Laugh...

2008-08-17T23:13:00.004-06:00

at myself! This spring we pulled out some struggling bushes from a flower bed in front of our house. The ones we put in their place haven't been thriving either. I decided I needed to be better about watering them. I turned the hose to barely dripping and placed it at the base of one of the bushes. Then I forgot about it. The next morning I was outside when Jade's carpool arrived to pick her up. Waving at her as the van drove down the street, I glanced at the flower bed. This is what I saw:

My hose was still dripping away of course. After confirming that it was really a sinkhole with the bush safely inside, and not a "bush napping" I had a good laugh at my own idiocy.

Then I jumped into action. Frantically, I shut off the hose, grabbed a shovel to dig out my little plant before trying to fill in the hole, all the while crossing my fingers that I haven't created a bigger problem by putting huge amounts of pressure on some sprinkler pipes under the bed. So far so good on that one. The sprinklers have come on twice without any pipes exploding beneath the surface. I'm glad Home Depot offers a guarantee on the survival of their plants within a year. I'm not sure these can be saved, expecially now that I'm afraid to water them.

Firsts

2008-08-10T20:44:00.005-06:00

For anyone short on time, here's a bullet list of our recent "firsts." Read on if you're interested in the details!

Jade's first two weeks of 2nd grade
Aeris's first tooth
Our first garage sale
Logan's first allergic reaction

Jade started 2nd grade July 28. We love her teacher! On Monday Jade brought home a weekly homework page (I can't believe she's planning to send home one of these every week of the school year!) The topic for the week was worms. They measured gummy worms in math, for art they made a worm out of a nylon stocking filled with a stuffing of their choice, wrote in a "Worm Diary" at home as a creative writing assignment, and shared it all on Friday with the rest of the class. In class they made a worm home out of a 2-liter bottle and dirt with a water bottle inside the middle to keep the worms closer to the outer wall. Jade could hardly wait to go back to school Tuesday so she could check on their live little friends and the tunnels they'd made.

Aeris acted more clingy and grumpy than usual this week. I'm glad she actually had a reason this time! I was so excited when I felt a tiny tooth in her bottom gum. It's about time, right! I guess I'd better take some last picture's of that gummy grin before her mouth's all full of teeth!

I've been on a de-cluttering kick lately. We keep aquiring more and more stuff, and I'm terribly sentimental, so a lot of it piles up. Using potential monetary gain as a motivator, I've been working on clearing it out. On Saturday we held a garage sale. Our more valuable items sold, so I'd call it a success! It was fun spending the morning hanging out with our neighbors and my parents (they sold some stuff too!) and giving my stuff new life in new homes! I had the hardest time parting with my Nintendo. I know that probably seems silly, but it was such a part of childhood for me. Super Mario Bros 3 is my all-time favorite video game. I'm not really much of a gamer, but that one stole my heart! I made it to the end, but always ran out of lives before I could reach the finale. It was so frustrating that the console didn't have the capability to save your progress along the way, so you had to spend hours in one sitting to make it to the end. When I dug it out to make sure it still worked so I could price it for the sale, I tried out the game one last time. It was great for nostalgia's sake, but there's no way I have enough time in my day for that anymore! It sure felt good to sell it. The man who bought it also bought Nate's old Sega and our original Playstation with all the games. Apparently he stocks up on garage sale bargains all year then makes an annual trip down to Mexico to give them to the kids there. What a wonderful project!

Tonight we attended a birthday dinner for Nate's dad. *Happy birthday Eddie!* Logan scared us when he threw up then broke out in a rash and swelled. Nate had given him a cashew nut about 5 minutes before. We figure that was the cause, but will have to have some allergy testing to be sure. So far this is the first major allergic reaction for any of our kids. Neither Nate nor I have any food allergies (I have scary allergies to certain medications), so this is new to us. I'm nervous about what this might involve since his reaction was so extreme for having had only one little nut.

Sibling Rivalry

2008-08-04T14:27:00.007-06:00

Any parent will attest to the challenges associated with raising kids. Prior to having my own children I'd heard many stories about wild uncontrollable kids. I'd even seen a few of them myself. I, however, was not going to experience any of these struggles because I was going to be the perfect parent. I'd taken psychology courses. I knew how their little minds worked and I'd be prepared to deal with them. I'm sure you already know where I'm going with this. It took me about 6 hours after Jade was born to realize that I did not, in fact, have parenting all figured out.

One of my hugest frustrations is the constant competing that goes on between them. It's not so much that they're competing that surprises me. It's what they're competing for.

First to grab the placemats when they're setting the table.

First down the sidewalk when we're out riding bikes/scooters.

First to tell Dad it's time for prayers at bedtime.

First to grab the baby wipes for Mom.

Etc, etc, etc.

I can always see it coming, but I can't always stop it from happening. I ask Jade to go downstairs to grab a box of cereal from the storage room. Next thing I know, Logan's yelling and thundering after her, Jade's screaming that Logan's hurting her, and I end up with a smashed up box of crushed Cheerios.

Jade loves to sing… loudly. She’s always singing or humming something. A lot of the time it’s a tune she’s made up herself and usually with words that pertain to the moment. Once she’s come up with it she’ll sing it over and over and over again. Logan gets annoyed pretty quickly and yells at her to stop humming/singing. Well instead of stopping, she takes this as a challenge and turns up the volume. He yells louder and louder to be heard and will finally physically attack her. She’ll sometimes stop singing/humming only to start screaming that he’s hurting her.

It's all just so baffling to me. What's the big deal? Why can't we all just get along?

Jade started school last week. This means she's not around to fight with Logan for the majority of the day, which is nice. The problem is, in spite of the fighting, they are the best of friends. Without her he doesn't know what to do with himself half the time. He follows me around wherever I go. Irritated I say, "Logan, why don't you go play with your toys?"

"I just want to be with you Mom. I love you Mom." He says, wrapping his little arms around my legs, giving me a big kiss right on the upper thigh.

Maybe parenting isn't so bad.

Still Not On the Chart

2008-07-30T14:23:00.004-06:00

We visited the pediatrician today for Aeris's 12-mo. check-up. Though she eats anything I offer, she still hasn't made it onto the weight percentile chart.

Her stats are as follows:
weight: 15 lbs. 4 oz.
height: 28 1/2 in., 27th percentile

She has highly developed problem solving and fine mtor skills. An occupational therapist is coming out twice a month to help develop her gross motor skills since she doesn't get up on her legs at all yet.

One Year, Twelve Months, 366 Days

2008-07-25T22:40:00.011-06:00

Whenever one of our kids has a birthday it's as much a celebration for me as it is for them. I love to reminisce about their birth. Today is Aeris's first birthday, so bear with me as I remember the day she was born...

This was my third pregnancy. My due date was July 27, three days after the last special occasion in July and just over a month before the school deadline, putting her three years behind Logan in school. I spent the month riding a 4-wheeler, working in my garden, and bouncing on the Dinosaur Bop ride at Lagoon. If none of those activities caused early labor, nothing would, right?

When I woke up at 5:30 the morning of July 25 feeling a little funny I denied the possibility that it was labor and tried to go back to sleep. After a half hour of tossing and turning I took a shower. It would be nice to have a good start to the day since it was Jade's first day of first grade at a new school. I looked forward to walking her into class and settling her in.

Once I'd gotten dressed I just couldn't shake the feeling that something was going on. Nate rolled over, half asleep, and asked me why I wasn't sleeping. When I told him we'd be going to the hospital his first question was, "Are you sure?" Yeah... I'd just spent the last 45 minutes trying to decide that very thing. He asked how far apart my contractions were. Nice... I hadn't even thought to time the contractions. I looked at digital clock in our room as the next one came on. It said 6:14. The next one started at 6:16. That was all the information he needed.

While he showered, my water broke. So in between trying to pack the last minute items (make-up, toiletries) I kept making trips into the bathroom. By the time we walked out the door Nate was about crazy. The drive to the hospital was pretty comical. Nate was freaking out at any car in our way. We hadn't really hit the morning commute traffic, so I thought it was quite pleasant driving, but Nate was on edge the whole time.

We checked into the hospital and were settled into a room by 7:15 am. By 7:30 I started feeling the contractions. Immediately I began having flashbacks of Logan's delivery and decided that I didn't want to deliver a baby after all. I had promised Nate that if he agreed to stay in the room I'd order an epidural if I thought the contractions would be miserable enough to scream. The anesthesiologist was available right then, so he had it all put in by about 7:50. In the mean time, my doctor hadn't arrived yet, so he'd told the nurses to grab another doctor, because the baby might not be willing to wait. I was already a 10 and 100%. Once the epidural took effect, I wasn't feeling the need to push anymore, so they waited for my doctor to arrive. Aeris entered the world howling at 8:26am.

That moment, that tiny voice... amazing. There were so many people in the room and yet I heard only her. The bond between mother and child solidified for me right then. I felt such an overwhelming love for that baby. I wanted nothing but to snuggle her close so I could kiss her cheeks, count her perfect little fingers, whisper in her ear and soothe her. Because of the meconium in the amniotic fluid the respiratory specialists spent time checking her lungs and letting her cry to clear them. It was an eternity before they handed her to me. Looking at her was like seeing a familiar face.

I absolutely love to take her picture. I probably have a dozen "favorites" of this same pose, all with different facial expressions. I love this one because it's her crinkle-nose smile.

We celebrated with a little gathering on Sunday evening. I alternated between still and video shots all evening. Unfortunately, I kept the video camera rolling while she smashed up her cupcake, but missed taking even one still shot. She dug right into it with her fingers, but had to be forced to taste it. She's great at playing with her food, but needs some more practice feeding herself. We invited some neighbors who have babies/toddlers close to her age. I missed getting them all in the group picture, but Emersyn and Julia are in the pictures below, helping Aeris open her presents.

It's Great To Be Young... At Heart

2008-07-17T21:11:00.006-06:00

The Beatles wrote many songs that became classics. One of my favorites is the one titled, "When I'm 64." I've always envisioned a cuddly old couple who has grown old together and are now enjoying their golden years comfortably sitting in rocking chairs.

Where do you picture yourself at 64?

Are you riding four-wheelers and dirt bikes in the mountains? Maybe you'll be braving the rapids on a raft in Cataract Canyon or up in the Pacific Ocean on an Alaskan Cruise? It would be nice to relax on some white Hawaiian beaches.

Since retiring a couple of years ago my parents have been doing all of the above... and more... minus the growing old part! Last weekend they went on a ten-mile bike ride... not the motorized kind this time! I love that they're in good enough health to truly enjoy their retirement years. In between their adventures on bikes, rivers, cruise ships, and beaches, they travel to visit their kids and grandkids all over the country and occasionally tend our kids so we can have a night out. Good for you Mom and Dad! We love you!

Paying for Baby

2008-07-03T22:54:00.003-06:00

I took the kids to Classic to ride the waterslides today. I want to be sure to get my money's worth out of our summer fun passes. (For those of you who aren't aware... you pay $10 per person for the pass and then only $1 for each activity for the rest of the summer. Since the waterslides are $7, you already have a better deal with the pass if you only go twice.) It was our first time at the waterslides. Last time we skated. I didn't have to pay for myself since I wouldn't be participating in the activity. I had Aeris with me, but didn't even ask about her. Duh... she's a baby. She wouldn't be skating, right? Well today I let a couple of people go in front of me in line while I dug the passes out of the bag of gear and then had plenty of time to read the many signs concerning the rates, rules, etc. With their passes, Jade and Logan did indeed get to slide for only $1. If I wanted to accompany Logan down the 4 bigger slides (he's definitely NOT big enough to slide alone... though I did not see any age requirements for sliding alone) I had to pay $7 for myself. Since I plan to bring them again I purchased a pass for myself too. Then I asked the cashier about the "spectator" policy. The sign clearly stated that "all non-swimsuit wearing spectators, regardless of age pay $2." So that means my baby, who isn't walking, crawling, wasn't wearing a swimsuit and so would not be swimming AT ALL, could only come through the doors if I paid $2 for her. If she had been a week old I would have had to pay $2 for her. If I'd wanted to dip her feet into the pool water I'd have to pay $7 for her. Is it just me or does this seem ridiculous? The kids had a ball today, so we'll be back regardless, but I really don't want to pay $2 for Aeris to sit in a stroller on the side and I'm certainly not going to pay $7 for her to splash in the kiddie pool. I plan to write a letter addressed to the GM or maybe even the owner. Babies who are less than 1 year should be free if they're not using the water. They should have a reduced rate for them to swim since they will only be using the kiddie area. If they get several letters, maybe they'll change the policy.

Slip Slidin'

2008-07-02T14:59:00.004-06:00

Last September for her birthday, Jade wanted to have a waterslide party. I told her the weather was too unpredictable in the fall, but perhaps at the end of the school year we could invite her class over for a summer kick-off party with the wterslide. Her class this year was small (18 kids) so I didn't have many reservations about inviting the whole lot, especially if they were going to be in the backyard the whole time. The highlight of the party was when Nate came out with the GIANT water gun! The lowlight was the sunburn afterwards. We were having so much fun I forgot to re-apply the sunscreen... oops!

Always Forgetful

2008-06-26T13:51:00.004-06:00

Nate's youngest brother tied the knot yesterday. Nate took the day off work and we kept Jade home from school so we could all celebrate with them. I started making a list a couple of days before of all the things we’d need since I knew we’d be out all day. We all needed a change of clothes. Of course that meant a change of shoes as well. I also wanted to bring hats just in case the kids would be in the sun. I needed Tylenol and Logan’s Singulair so I could continue to manage his cough (YES! He’s coughing AGAIN! He stayed cough-free for a total of twelve days!) We also had to have snacks and diapers and toys and crayons and I Spy books. I packed extra make-up, hair elastics, hair spray, curling irons, nail polish, and a pocket sized mirror. Aeris would be sitting in the stroller, so we had to have that. Obviously I could keep going on and on. My point is, I tried to be very organized. I was looking forward to having a fun day downtown with our kids. We had a cousin watching the kids during the ceremony and we’d be having a nice lunch at the Lion House. I knew I needed a few tricks in order to keep them under control. So what did I end up forgetting? There’s always something you know. Nate had a second pair of pants, but didn’t bring a second belt. I needed a button-down white dress shirt for Logan. I brought the long-sleeved one that’s a little short and kept coming untucked instead of the short-sleeved one that fits better. The biggest thing… all day we were taking pictures but never once thought to have someone take a picture of us… TOGETHER. We have great pictures of Jade and Logan and dozens of the bride and groom. I even took a couple of Nate and he took one of Aeris and one of me, but in the 126 pictures we took yesterday there isn’t one family picture… not of the five of us… not of Nate with his Mom and Dad and siblings… not of his family including spouses and kids. Of course the photographer was taking some (though not of the five of us), but they’ll cost a whole lot more than I would pay to print our own. How sad!

Another Year

2008-06-22T14:09:00.006-06:00

When you're a kid, birthdays never seem to come fast enough. When you reach adulthood, birthdays come so fast that sometimes you have to take a minute to think when someone asks how old you are.

Today, We're celebrating Nate's birthday. Here are some things we love about Nate.

He works super hard. Our yard stays green and trimmed. He always leaves in time to be early to his job. He helps with the laundry, dishes, and is a great cook!

He's great with money. He's arranged a carpool to work to save on gas. He makes his own lunches so he doesn't spend so much eating out. He doesn't make big purchases without discussing it with me first.

He takes time to play with our kids. He practices soccer with them in the yard. He buys them drinks at the Chevron. He taught Jade to play chess and Rock Band.

He thinks of others. He's always mowing or edging someone else's lawn or giving out lawn care tips.

He's a dedicated home teacher. He visits his families every month even though he's never been assigned a partner who will come along regularly. He's never had one who will help out calling for appointments or give a lesson.

Cheetos

2008-06-19T20:16:00.008-06:00

You can't miss these players out on the field. Every year I can't wait to see what fun color jersey Jade ends up with. The kids get to choose their own team name, usually coordinated with their jersey color. The first year she played they had blue jerseys. Their team name was the Rainbow Waterfalls. Jade came up with that one. Before she went to their first game this season, I talked to her about some good names... that you wanted a name that sounded like you could clobber the other team. They chose to be the Orange Cheetahs. Well on Saturday the other team misunderstood when they told them the team name so they cheered for the Orange Cheetos. Besides the fact that Cheetos aren't very intimidating, it fits pretty well.

The end of spring soccer is always bittersweet. Jade's team played an excellent season, only giving up two goals to the competition the whole season and it was great having Nate out there coaching. In the past he's complained about the rotation of players. Nate worked out a system so that every player had a turn playing the various positions and sitting out. Their team rarely had more than one extra player, so they all looked forward to playing goalie and defender so they could catch their breath a little. When they recruited Nate to coach I wondered why there weren't any incentives offered to coach. Well, we were pleasantly surprised to be handed a complimentary team photo on Saturday. Since I don't splurge on the photos (I stand there being tacky behind the photographer to take my own pictures), this was a nice little plus.

My Sister, My Friend

2008-06-09T11:43:00.008-06:00

Happy birthday big sis! I dug out my scrapbooks today so I could post some pictures of us together over the years. They brought to mind so many fond memories. We've shared joys and tears, clothes, cars, and phone time. I know sometimes it was hard sharing all the time, so THANK YOU! What Mom always told us is so true. Friends in your life come and go, but sisters are your sisters forever. You aren't just my sister, you are one of my best friends. I love you Taralee! I hope you have a wonderful day!

The Bright Side

2008-06-04T13:23:00.011-06:00

I am reading a book called Focus of the Good Stuff, the Power of Appreciation by Mike Robbins. The basic premise for this book is that no matter what happens there is always a reason to be grateful. So, I’m going to give you a quick run-down on what we’ve been doing lately and let you know the positive of each.

Logan’s preschool graduation was on May 22. I know he’s pretty reserved, so I tried to build up the whole thing, asking him if he was going to sing with his class. I told him I’d have the video camera ready, watching it and wanted to hear his voice! He spent nearly the entire program sitting on his chair sucking his thumb!
The bright side? I don’t think he’ll ever get in trouble for talking in school.

Jade, Logan, and now Aeris have all come down with a cold and nasty cough. Logan got the worst of it, still coughing after two weeks and finally coming down with an ear infection too which meant a trip to urgent care on Sunday. He’s now taking an antibiotic and a steroid and sleeps with a humidifier.
The bright side? Jade is off track so we’ve been able to stay home, sleep in, and get well!

Nate’s new job has him studying constantly.
The bright side? I’ve had more time to read also. I’ve been reading the Book of Mormon every day and am trying to catch up on all the books my friends and family have recommended.

On Monday night we were visited by an ambulance, a fire truck, and two police cars. We called 911 because Aeris gave us quite a scare when she stopped breathing after Logan had stepped on her belly.
The bright side? They left WITHOUT Aeris. It took them so long to get here that by the time they arrived and checked her she had started breathing again on her own, though shallow at first. She had regained her normal color and was acting like herself.

Oh and I took her back to the pediatrician for a weight check last week and she's gained 7 ounces! That still doesn't put her on the chart, but at least it's progress!

What's in YOUR mailbox?

2008-05-20T22:48:00.004-06:00

I love it when the mail arrives. I guess there isn't enough excitement in my day because I really want to run out to the box the minute I hear the mail truck. Sometimes I jump the gun a little and run out after I've heard it, only to check my box and find it empty because the truck was actually on the opposite side of the street. I walk quickly back inside, hoping none of my neighbors have seen me and notice that I have nothing better to do than listen for the mail truck.
Well, I received an unfortunate piece of mail this week... jury summons. Four years ago I received my first summons and I was actually a little excited. Once upon a time I wanted to be a lawyer when I grew up. I've always been facinated with the court system and feel like my opinions are terribly important. I was nursing Logan at the time, so I requested to be excused until I was through. I figured they would forget all about me, but no... I received another summons the first day I had said I'd be available again. I had no more excuses, so I had to phone in every day for an entire week, wondering what in the world I'd do with my two kids and piano lessons if they told me I had to come in. I'm sure I didn't sleep well as I never do when there are huge unknowns in my life, but the week went by and I never had to make my appearance.
They sent me another summons at the beginning of last summer. I said I was expecting a baby and would have to be excused... again. So this week I received yet another summons (if you're keeping track, that's FOUR summons in as many years) and I told them again that I'm nursing a baby and will have to be excused until September. I think once August is over I won't be running to the mailbox anymore. This time I have three kids to arrange babysitting for and their $18 pay won't even reimburse me for the gas it'll cost me to get to court.

Congratulations Josh & Amy

2008-05-15T15:23:00.007-06:00

Nate's brother Josh and his wife Amy brought their first baby into the world on Tuesday.

Jaxson weighed in at 9 lbs 2 oz and was 22 in. long! Aeris will love having a cousin close to her in age, even if he is practically big enough to beat up on her already!

Nest Photo

2008-05-15T15:18:00.003-06:00

Here's the photo I took of the nest the birds were working on in our barbecue. I didn't include it originally because I didn't think the photo did it justice. I should have taken a top view picture so you could see all the stuff down under the rack.