.fishbowl fanatics.

Stationery card

2011-12-15T21:18:00.001-08:00

This Much Merry Christmas Card

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Jameson's Angry Bird Party!

2011-11-02T21:26:00.000-07:00

Jameson-Waymeson is four years old!! To celebrate we threw him an Angry Birds party, his absolute favorite game. It was pretty fun, if I do say so myself. There's not much out there "pre-made" for Angry Birds so I had to get creative, which ended up being fun to do. I made a green pig pinata (my mom helped by doing the crepe paper decorating for me, at that point I was Angry Bird-ed out!), I got some red, blue and orange (for the new orange Angry Bird) balls and drew the Birds onto the balls so that we could play dodge ball, we spray painted, put nostrils on condiment cups and put elastic string on them so that all the kids could be pigs for dodge ball. We hid golden eggs around the park for the kids to find, had them decorate paper bags (with Angry Birds stickers... the only thing I *could* find in stores!) to put their candy in. We had an AWESOME Angry Birds cake made by a local lady, it was so good!! It was a ton of fun, getting creative like that. But I'm glad Porter's decided on a dinosaur theme for his party, it'll be a lot easier for my poor brain. Sorry for the lack of photos, I haven't downloaded from the camera yet, so these are off the iPhone. (the pigs in the ball photo are the thank you presents we gave out, I got them at the dollar store and spray painted them, then we put candy inside.)

Fire

2011-06-19T23:00:00.000-07:00

This has been a roller coaster week. Last Sunday a wildfire started in Coronado Monument and this last week it has just blown up. CJ doesn't think we're in any danger and our neighborhood hasn't been under pre-evac or evacuation at all, but seeing the black billowing smoke almost every afternoon has been pretty nerve wracking. The majority of our ward has either been evacuated or been in pre-evacuation and church today was only an hour, in order to let those who were in pre-evac stay close to home in case they had to evacuate, which most of them did. It's a terrifying looking fire, thanks mostly to how little water we got this winter and the 40+ MPH winds we've had this week. The Monument Fire, as the news is calling it, has burned over 20,000 acres and at least 47 homes, and they're saying it's going to be awhile before it's out. If you are the praying type (which I hope most of you are) please say a prayer for the brave firefighters out there fighting this. It's been a very unpredictable fire and they are all putting their lives on the line for us here in southern Arizona.
The news outside of southern Arizona hasn't really said anything about Arizona's wildfires right now, even our "local" news in Tucson didn't really talk about the Monument Fire until a few days ago when it jumped the highway. It's frustrating to feel ignored like that, like we're not big enough news. So many people are displaced right now, the animal vets and pet hotels are overflowing with pets that had to be evacuated, the riding club is housing over 200 horses whose owners had to flee the fire. This is not a minor event, at least not to us. But the Sierra Vista community has pulled together so amazingly. There's so many acts of service everyday, the first day that they put out a call for things for the firefighters they actually had to say "no more" because they got such a response.

The first night of the fire:

Tonight's fire: (it's gone through 3 canyons since the first night, possibly four)

Mercy's been fascinated by the fire. It caused her horse camp to be cancelled, and ever since then it's all she talks about. Well, that and her new library card. Go figure.

Playing Catch Up...

2011-06-09T23:40:00.000-07:00

Oh man. Did I ever drop from the blogging world hard!

Okay, what we've been up to...

Porter graduated from Pre-Kindergarten!! He'll start Kindergarten at PdS in August. Crazy... he really loved Pre-K and his teachers and classmates, he's such a social kid now and loves to draw! He draws the most amazing robots. He also finished up his first year of t-ball and forgive me for bragging but... he ROCKED it. He's definitely his father's son in how athletic he is; he's built for sports. He'll do soccer again this fall, and he's really excited for it again.

Mercy finished 1st grade!! We're really lucky where we live, that our elementary school won a national Blue Ribbon award this year for excellence. The teachers are all amaaaaazing, and Mrs. Faust is just the most perfect 1st grade teacher I could have ever hoped for. Mercy blew up in reading and math, the kid keeps pestering me to let her do math work and stays up late reading Geronimo Stilton, Thea Stilton, Babysitters Club Little Sister and Ramona books (talk about a blast from my past!) She finished her ballet for the year with her spring recital, where she danced her two dances beautifully, we're so proud! Now she's started horseback riding, for now she's doing Western seat but I have dreams of her starting English soon. Who knew watching your own kid learn to ride would give you heart palpitations though, my nails are shot. Part of me wishes it was me teaching her and part of me is glad that someone else gets to deal with it.

Jameson is potty trained! Waaaa. HOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I only have one kid in diapers, that's freaking awesome. He just clicked one day, and has been sporting his Thomas and Buzz Lightyear underwear ever since (maybe my threat of no preschool in the fall finally worked...) He's even waking up dry most days, but he's not quite ready to ditch the nighttime diaper yet. Or maybe I'm not quite ready for him to do that... He's really excited to start preschool at Cactus Wren this fall, he loves Mrs. Jenn already and I've already told her to do whatever she needs to to get that boogerhead to listen. I love him but he's definitely my child, his stubborn streak is a mile wide.

Quinn is almost 3 months old. Frick, time is flying. She's my little squishy, I just adore her, I'm so glad Heavenly Father sent her to us. She smiles all the time and has started laughing at us too. She loves when people blow raspberries at her or stick their tongues out, for some reason that's hilarious to her. She's pretty easy going, has no problem being passed around at Church, I think I only hold her when I have to nurse her there, she's so loved! She's starting to outgrow her 0-3 month clothes which makes me sad, but I'm trying to see the bright side which is, shopping time!

CJ's still loving his job. He's training new trainees again, which he loves doing. He gets done at the end of June, just in time for us to go on our Road Trip 2011 to NorCal. He recently got called to the Elders Quorum Presidency and he really likes the guys he's with, and lucky me, I love their wives! He played in a basketball tournament in Tucson in April and managed to break (he says it's not a break, it's a chip) his ankle but it wasn't a bad break and he healed up quickly. We had a blast styaing in Tucson for a few days anyways.

I'm still trucking along, still adjusting to four kids. It's crazy sometimes and I feel like I'm a complete wretch by 7pm, but they're such good kids to me that I know I'm really lucky. I'm enjoying my mum, who's been living down here since January but is leaving us next week; it's been so wonderful to know that I have her to help any time I need it. I'm also really lucky to have a great network of friends here, from church to school to preschool. Anytime I've been in a pickle I've had a long list of people willing to help me out, we've been truly blessed to live where we live. Our ward is amazing and I absolutely love every member, 8am church is easy to deal with when you know you're going to see so many friendly faces.

We got to have Newell, Sally, Trevor and Damien come and visit in April for Quinn's blessing and for the boys' spring break. It was wonderful, the kids really enjoyed having them here and we had tons of fun! We also got to go stay with Kenny and Myrna and see their fun petting zoo and animals and everything, they took us on a wagon ride and then made us delicious dinner. Mmm... We also got to see Shane and Nicole and their kids too, that was awesome since we hadn't seen them since we lived in Sugarhouse by each other!! Porter thought Nash was the coolest kid ever! CJ even got to have Shane take his place in the basketball tournament for a day too when he broke his ankle. We've been so lucky to see SOOO much family so far this year, hopefully we'll see even more at the Humpherys family reunion in Nevada City. Hint hint.
We had to give Mercy's cat away, Porter had an allergy skin test done last month and he's very allergic to cats, it turns out. For it to be considered an allergy the reaction had to be at least 3mm in size, and Porter's reaction to cats was 9mm. His allergist (who is amazing, I love her!) said basically if we want him to stop having breathing problems, the cat had to go. She said that the cat was probably the trigger to his pneumonia hospitalization in September. Mercy was very sad, it was a really hard thing to do, but we promised her a new pet in the fall. I'm hoping for a fish, but she's pushing for another dog. Sigh.
We're really looking forward to our vacation next month. Not as much traveling as last year, we're only going to California, but we're going to go to Monterrey for a few days and we're hoping to go to Tahoe for 4th of July. We're really excited for the reunion, it should be a great time!!
Okay, CJ just got home from work which means it's really late, so I'm going to try to go to sleep now. Whoops.

.:.Quinn Louise.:.

2011-04-02T21:07:00.001-07:00

Our final four is here!! Quinn Louise was born on her due date, March 17th, at 6:11am. Yup, a St. Patrick's Day baby! I was induced the night before so the labor from start to end was just under 12 hours. I won't bore you with her birth story, just that she was a 2VBA2C, very pleased with that! We could not be more in love, truly. She's the sweetest little baby, loves to be held and snuggled all the time. Makes sleeping interesting, but there's something about looking at a sweet newborn that makes the sleepiness a little bit more bearable. Mercy, Porter and Jameson are all great with her, I was a bit worried about J because he's so used to being the youngest, but he's actually the one who wants to be around Quinn the most, always loving on her and holding her hand. Mercy is a little mother to her, and Porter loves on her when he remembers that she's here but most of the time he's too busy playing to notice.

The mouse on my desktop isn't working so I haven't been able to upload photos off my camera, but here's one off of my cell phone. Can you see why we're so head over heels?

February Already

2011-02-06T21:55:00.000-08:00

Whoa. I feel like time is flying lately! It's probably because the beginning of the year is always so busy; getting back into the swing of things after the holidays and all. My doctor appointments are every two weeks now, freaks me out a bit. This pregnancy has flown by, I'm not quite sure I'm ready for March to be so close. But I'm reminded daily about how far along I am, thanks to the heartburn after every snack or meal, the constant need to pee every time I finally get into a good sleep. Good times, good times.
The weather last week was crazy, on Thursday we woke up to 6 degree weather. Yeah, not so typical for southern Arizona. In fact, it was pretty freaking crazy. A lot of water pipes froze, luckily not ours, and the gas company shut off gas to almost half the city because the high demand was straining the pipeline. We weren't part of the shut off, but Mercy's school was closed on Friday because they were worried about the pipes and students not being able to make it in. I was hoping the kids would take the opportunity to sleep in but no such luck. Booo.
Porter had his endocrinologist appointment last week and it went surprisingly well. They looked at his blood levels and while the specific levels tied to CAH are high, they're not as high as they typically would be with "full blown" CAH. They're going to do more blood work so that they know for sure, but right now they're thinking that he's a carrier for CAH but doesn't actually have CAH, just some of the signs of it. Does that make any sense? I'll admit, I'm confused by it, but they said that they're pretty sure he doesn't have CAH, so I'm pleased for now. Still cautious, but happy.
Mercy's been a cookie selling fool-- wait, that's probably more on my part than hers. Gotta say, I really don't enjoy this for the most part. The exercise is fine, but I wish we knew enough people in the city to sell her 250 boxes within days and then we wouldn't have to go sell door to door. Booths aren't bad, the girls have fun for the most part. Plus I get to hang out with some fun moms while we're out there. But I'm ready to be done with this already, I'm just a bad Girl Scout mom.

Alive

2011-01-22T21:44:00.001-08:00

Yes, we're alive. I'm just a slacker.

I won't lie, the last few months of 2010 really sucked, mostly medically speaking. The endocrinologist had us test the boys for CAH, since it's a genetic condition, and it turns out that those nice little odds of us having a 1 in 4 chance of a child with CAH were wrong. Porter also has it. His pediatrician wrote us our referral to the endocrinologist but made us (me) feel a bit better by saying that it's not as "bad" in boys as it is in girls, since boys produce testosterone anyways. Dr. Price is actually more concerned about Porter's asthma. Yep, the ped was right in cautioning us that the pneumonia could cause asthma to become active, and now Porter is armed with an inhaler twice a day and a pediatric pulmonologist who's keeping his eye on him. He does fine most of the time, it's the severe weather changes that seem to spark the coughing fits, and unfortunately Arizona doesn't like to gradually change weather, it likes to drop it fast and raise it fast. He's also been referred to an allergist to see what else could be sparking his asthma. All the kids managed to catch pink eye too, around the same time as we were finding out about Porter's asthma and CAH. I caught the stomach flu three, THREE times within a month and a half (stupid flu vaccine did jack squat). Mercy caught some virus or something in the last two weeks of school before break and they ran all sorts of tests and never did figure out what it was. She missed about 7 or 8 days of school thanks to it. And then Santa decided to be a big jerkhead and I got shingles on Christmas! The only ones to make it out relatively unscathed were Jameson (whose bloodwork showed that he does NOT have CAH, woo!) and CJ, of course. CJ rarely ever gets sick, it's not very fair. Excuse my whining, but really, I've never been so glad to say peace out to a year.
2011 so far is doing well, no news is good news, right? Baby girl is doing fine, other than still remaining nameless. You'd think it would be easy to name the fourth one, but not so. So we just keep calling her baby girl. Jameson likes the name Broccoli, but that's not going to happen. Mercy likes to make up names, usually combining some of her friends' names to make one wierd one, and that's not happening either. Porter can't be bothered trying to make up names, he's too busy playing Lego/Transformers/coloring.
Mercy's doing amazing in school, I fully credit our awesome elementary school and her wonderful teacher. She's an accelerated reader now, she tests at a second grade level, we're so proud of her! She struggles with comprehension but it's slowly getting better, when we read we question her on every page and even though it makes reading time really long, it's really helped her pay more attention to what she's reading, not just the words. She still loves numbers, and is fairly fascinated with math problems. It's a bit creepy to me, because I haaaaaaate math. HATE IT. Always have, always will. I can read a book in no time, but I totally use my fingers to count still. Sigh... I'm going to be useless once she starts the hard stuff!
Porter is rocking preschool. He loves it, and I can't blame him. His teachers are so awesome, I'm so glad that I've gotten to know them! He's a funny learner, you won't realize he's absorbing what you're teaching him until one day he just busts it out like he's been doing it all along. Numbers, letters, sounds, all that. He won't show you what he knows until he's sure he has it down pat. He finished playing soccer in November and is now anxiously awaiting the start of t-ball here. We just signed him up today and I think he's asked me when it starts about 10 times already. Considering it doesn't start til March, this is going to get old. He got a bike from Santa for Christmas and he looooves it. It's a bike that will last him awhile (it better...) and we go to the park to practice riding it about every other day (the benefit of living in Arizona, 60-70 degree weather in January). He'll probably lose his training wheels within a few months. Makes me wish we'd gotten him the bike awhile ago, but with so much going on, we just didn't even think about bicycles. Favorite Porter quote as of late:
Me- Porter, your nose is filthy!
Porter- Hmm... I will have to take a closer look at that.
Jameson is my thug. Not kidding, this kid is a thug, the most loveable thug you'll ever meet. Just watch, in 15 years you'll be watching him beat the crap out of people on the football field on ESPN. He might be the youngest (for now) but he definitely doesn't take crap from anyone. If anything, Porter bows down to him! He's independent, always wants to do what he wants, when he wants, and how he wants. Oh, but the snuggles he gives... I'm so glad he's still such a snuggler. He's a Sunbeam now, and not so happy about it. I think he misses the "freedom" of nursery, how he got to play pretty much the whole two hours. This sitting in a chair, listening to a lesson thing... not his cup o' tea. I walked by his class last week and looked in, his teacher was trying to ask him what color his hair was and Jameson was just sitting there with his fingers in his mouth, pulling the corners of his mouth apart to make that funny face, and saying "I dunno" while doing it. Punk.
CJ's doing well, still loves his job despite the sadness of December. For those who don't live in southern Arizona, we lost a good man in the BP. Agent Brian Terry worked at CJ's station before he started in BORTAC, and he lived in our neighborhood. Mercy sold him Girl Scout cookies last year and even though he lived alone, he bought about 10 boxes from her and her friends. I didn't know him except for the cookies and from running into him around town when CJ was with us, but I remember CJ talking about him when Agent Terry started at Naco. He rode with CJ and I remember CJ coming home and saying that Agent Terry could be teaching CJ more than CJ could teach him anything. His death sent shock waves around the community, and trying to explain to the kids, especially Mercy, what had happened was something I wish we hadn't had to do. She remembered selling him cookies, and would ask us about him or his family often in the days after the incident. I know CJ's job is dangerous compared to a lot of other jobs out there, but I just never really expected it to hit this close to home. CJ and I were able to go to his memorial in Tucson this week, it was a beautiful memorial. Before Mercy went to school that morning we took the kids to see the procession of BP vehicles on the way to Tucson; over 100 vehicles with their lights on. Sobering, but a beautiful show of unity and brotherhood.

In order to not end on a sad note, I will show you Jameson being Jameson.

Yes, that is a pickle in one hand and a Blow Pop in the other. GROSS.

But apparently it totally hit the spot for him.

Ewwww.

Isn't She Lovely

2010-11-04T22:06:00.000-07:00

Walk down memory lane with that song; I used to sing it to Mercy while dancing around the living room to get her to go to sleep when she was a newborn... it doesn't FEEL like that was so long ago, but 6 years... whoa.

Anyways, the title is actually not about her. It's about this one.

Yep, we had our 20 week ultrasound, with my mum and all three kids in tow. We let Mercy ditch school because she missed the first ultrasound and really, really wanted to be there to find out if Lizard {since J was so insistent that the baby was actually a lizard, not a baby} was a boy or a girl. We had an awesome ultrasound tech who pointed everything out to us, telling us what was being measured and how it all looked. Mercy was into it, Porter was 'eh' on it and J was a bit creeped out by it. Ha! Finally she asked if we wanted to know what the baby is. I think my mum was about to jump out of her skin with excitement. So she moved the wand down to the baby's bottom area and I knew as soon as I saw.

We are definitely thinking pink here.

Mercy is over the moon excited for a sister. To be truthful I think she would have been fine with a baby brother too, she's not one of those kids that really forms an opinion and is heartbroken to find out they're wrong. She's been quite... interesting... with her name suggestions, but none is better than Jameson's idea. He thinks baby girl should be named Broccoli. After his favorite food. Erm...

We're all very happy, but we're mostly just happy that the baby is looking happy and healthy. We don't have any name for baby girl just yet, but I'm sure she'll have one within a few days of being born at the latest. I'm having a hard time believing that the holidays are almost upon us and after they're over, the next big event will be baby girl's arrival. This pregnancy is flying by so much faster than any of my other ones, which is probably good because I'm not the most patient person in the world. Plus all the junk that's been going down lately... well, I'll save that for a post tomorrow perhaps. Let's just say that when it rains, it pours, and I'm feeling quite soaked right now.

Comic Relief

2010-10-11T23:37:00.000-07:00

So we haven't been having the best medical news lately, but we have to keep ourselves smiling, right? Mercy turned six in August and for her birthday CJ had the briiiiiiiiiilliant idea {sarcasm, yes.} to get her a cat. Ever since Isis passed away she's been asking for a cat, and being the sucker that he is for her, he told her she could have one. At first she had her heart set on one named Tootie at the Humane Society, but I have to admit I was secretly relieved when Tootie got adopted by someone else. I can just imagine the jokes and giggles that the boys would have at that poor cats expense for the rest of her life. So we ended up getting Sparkel from a vet's office. No idea on her background other than she's a year old and had a litter of kittens before she hit her birthday. What a hooch. She's fixed now, no more kittens in her future. Yes, her name is Sparkel. It *was* Sparkle as per Mercy's decision {she couldn't think of a name and after tossing out about 50, I blurted Sparkle out and she latched on. Sigh. Such a girl.} but when we took her back to the vet to get de-uterus'd, they wrote her name as Sparkel on her records. How you screw up the name Sparkle, I will never know. Anyways, ever since then CJ and I have an ongoing joke about it, and I can't call her Sparkle without sounding french and turning it into sounding more like "sparkelle". Childish, right? But that's how I roll.
Anyways. She's really not a bad cat, very patient with the boys. Porter doesn't really care all that much but Jameson finds her fascinating and can usually be found watching her and laughing hysterically at whatever she's doing. Even just cleaning her face. She mostly sleeps on Mercy's bed except for when Mercy locks her out of her room for playing with her Littlest Pet Shop toys when Mercy's trying to go to sleep. Sparkel is a big jerky bully to poor Molly though {our big, shmoopy black lab}. First time they met she about took a piece out of poor Molly, and ever since then Molly's been terrified of her and won't walk past her unless one of us is with her. Seriously, dog? You're 5 times her size. You could sit on her skinny butt and not even notice. Dog up, dude!! But no, poor wimpy Molly cowers in fear of her now, and Sparkel has taken to taunting Molly when Molly is outside by standing at the sliding glass door and just staring at her. Molly won't even eat her food when she does that.
Okay, so here she is, is all her ferociousness.

Wierdest colored cat.

Don't look her in the eyes!!

Ahhh!! The beast is out!! For the love of Pete, run for your liiiiiiiiives!!!!!

Other forms of entertainment in the house? Digging with dollies. I came out of my room one day and found this scene in the hallway. Completely abandoned, not a child in sight. I wish they'd stuck around because I would have loved to have their commentary on it...

Poor Cinderella didn't make it.

The scene of the crime. Apparently someone was trying to hide the bodies of some princesses and their pets. Perhaps a reenactment of a revolution? Who knows.

Jasmine somehow got turned into a mermaid, and Ariel... well, all that was found of her was her bottom half. *shudder*

8 Years, 10 Months.

2010-09-29T21:59:00.000-07:00

8 years, 10 months.

Wondering what the significance of that number is?

It's not my age {though I might possibly act that age on occasion}.
It's not a birthday.
It's not our anniversary.

It's how old Mercy's bones are.

{double take}

What? But she's only *counting years on fingers* 6 years and 1 month old. And 10 days, if you want to get technical. How is that possible?

Because Mercy has something called Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia. Ever heard of it? We hadn't, until about two weeks ago when the pediatric endocrinologist called to tell us that M's bloodwork had come in and that's what she has.

Need a bit of a rewind, don't we.

Anyone who's met Mercy has noticed how tall she is. Let's be real, she's a giant for her age. The tallest in her class, despite being the youngest. People don't expect it when we say that she just turned 6 last month. She also had some other things going on that I'm just not really okay with putting out there in cyberspace, but suffice it to say that finally I had enough and after talking with a good friend about my concerns, I was finally validated into feeling that I wasn't being the paranoid momma and that we needed to have a good talk with our pediatrician. Our pediatrician rocks. Really, I absolutely adore him. He remembers things that are going on with our kids {or at least bothers to write it on their charts and then read their charts before our appointments} and most of all, he TAKES ME SERIOUSLY. That's my biggest thing, after our last pediatrician blew me off about my concerns with Mercy's lack of speech at 2 years and made me feel like a worrywart. Thanks again Dr. L. So glad we're not with you anymore. Anyways. We went to the office at the beginning of June and I started telling Dr. Smith about my concerns with M's growth and other stuff, and began to feel like I was being overly paranoid. But he immediately did a physical on her and agreed with me that something wasn't right. WHAT?! I wasn't being paranoid? Dr. Smith wrote me a referral right there to go see the pediatric endocrinologist department at UMC in Tucson, and told me that while he didn't know exactly what was going on, we needed to get this checked out as soon as we could. Doctor crush, right there.

Being that they're the only pediatric endocrinologists in southern Arizona, our appointment was at the end of August. The office was great, the nurses very sweet, and Dr. Wheeler was awesome. He asked us for every concern that we could think of, even if it was small. He wrote everything down that we told him. Her height, her starting to get acne, her other things. He noted that she was diagnosed with a moderate to severe speech and social delay, but that she'd surpassed them and was excelling in school now. Just everything possible we could think of, he noted it. He did a thorough exam on her, and gave us a list of tests he wanted run. He wanted a bone scan and blood tests to the umpteenth. He explained that he didn't know what was going on, but that the bone scan would tell us the age of her bones, and the blood tests would tell us what was out of sync in her body. Very kind, very caring and very serious about finding it out. Mercy was a trooper, an absolute trooper. When we went to get her blood taken I got mine done at the same time {for the pregnancy} so that she would know what was going on beforehand. She didn't even flinch when the tech put the needle in her arm, all she said was "that hurt". They took 6 vials that day, just to give you a guess at how many tests the doctor had ordered. Six vials from my 6 year old. She thought the bone scan was pretty cool, even though they didn't show it to her then.

Then, about two weeks ago Dr. Wheeler called me and told me that the tests had come back, she has something called Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia and was not producing enough {or any, I can't remember exactly what he said as I was trying to process it all} cortisol so we needed to get her started on taking hydrocortisone pills. Basically she lacks an enzyme needed by the adrenal gland to make the hormones cortisol and aldosterone. Without those hormones, her body produces more androgen, which is a type of male sex hormone. If you really want to know more, I found the CARES Foundation to really be helpful but not overwhelming.

So what does this mean? She'll take hydrocortisone for the rest of her life, but CAH patients have normal lives for the most part as long as they keep up on their meds and are watched by their endocrinologists. This is not something she'll outgrow or be cured of. She'll most likely be on the shorter side of normal height due to the rapid growth early in childhood {which is why her bones are older than she is}, she'll stop growing when most kids are starting their main growing period. She may have fertility problems. Not so worried about that one just yet. Again, if you want to know more, the CARES Foundation website is really informative. CAH is the most common genetic "disease", so in our own way, we're lucky.

And yeah, it's genetic. In order for someone to have CAH, both their parents have to be carriers. It's recessive, so carriers don't have CAH themselves. The odds go something like we have a 1 in 4 chance of having a child who is unaffected, 2 in 4 chance of having a child who is a carrier but unaffected, and a 1 in 4 chance of having a child with CAH. The boys are going to be tested for CAH now, since it isn't as obvious in boys as in girls {due to boys having androgen present anyways}. And we're not sure what to do about this baby. The endocrinologist said the only way to really know is with an amniocentesis, but we are most likely not going that route since the risks outweigh the benefits at this point. We'll have our "big" ultrasound at the end of October and we'll see what they see then, I suppose, and take it from there.

Whew. That felt therapeutic. I still feel overwhelmed at times, but I'm trying to remember how lucky we are that this is all it is, if that makes sense. When we were talking to the endocrinologist on Tuesday, he told us they had a little newborn at UMC right now who has a severe form of CAH and is fighting for his little life right now. We made it six years before the CAH was diagnosed, which means she has a milder form called late onset CAH. Mercy is happy with the idea that she gets a pretty new bracelet that she has to wear all the time {she has to get a medical alert bracelet-if something happens to her she needs to triple her hydrocortisone or else get a shot of hydrocortisone, to keep her from going into adrenal crisis} and always reminds us to give her the pills at breakfast and dinner.

She's still Mercy, we're still us, just a bit wiser.

Mercy's bone scan. She was 6 years exactly when it was taken. Her bones date at 8 years, 10 months. That's a 2 and a half year difference.

March Madness

2010-09-25T22:18:00.000-07:00

Yes, the rumors are true. March madness will hit here around St. Patrick's Day 2011. That is the time that our final four will be announced. We're having another baby-- okay, really just me. CJ just gets to pretend like he's suffering with me. Not really that fair, if you think about it... anyways.
We've known since after the reunion in July, but I'm one of those paranoid people that doesn't like to tell anyone {well... *almost* anyone...} until I've either heard or seen the heartbeat. Unfortunately, while my doctor rocks and is the best doctor EVER, she doesn't usually see patients until they're in the second trimester, so we didn't have an appointment with her until last week. Mercy was in school but we took the boys. We hadn't told the kids yet, so right before Dr. Lotke came in CJ told them. Porter said "okay" {he's not one of many words} but Jameson said "no. no baby." Um... too late, little man. Luckily once the doctor went over the usual stuff, she busted out the ultrasound machine for us so we all got to see the baby. Well... what we thought was a baby. According to mister J, it is NOT a baby, but in fact a lizard. He's quite positive of that. Porter was fascinated by the baby, who was very wiggly and squirmy so the only photo the doctor got for us was of the top of the head. But a photo is a photo is a photo in my mind! When we picked up Mercy and got her home, we showed her the photo and told her about the baby. She's very excited, which is great! Last time she was still so little that she didn't really get/care about what was going on, but now I get to use this to my advantage. Example: she was playing with my hair {heaven...} and was stopping, but I told her that the baby gets mad when she stops, so she kept going. Evil? No... creative? Yes. Her teacher is also pregnant and due about a month after me, so she's already been hearing about baby talk.

To answer some possible questions:

No, we will not be naming the baby Patrick, Patricia, or Pat. And since I tend to always go past my expected due date, I'm not banking on having the baby by then anyways.

Yes, I'll be going for another VBA2C. I'm seriously almost as excited about this as I am having a new, snuggly being in the house, since my last delivery was absolutely what I wanted! And yep, my doctor is a-ok with me having another one, in her words "if you pushed out an almost 9 lb baby, why wouldn't you be able to do it again?" Again... love. her.

Yes, this is our last baby. Unless we win the lotto, and then maybe we'll reconsider. But even then... no, we wouldn't.

Yes, I've been sick. Not pukey sick, but lots of nauseousness. And you should all be proud of me, I've had to give up drinking Coke because apparently baby and my tummy don't agree with it. Sigh.

Yes, I'm having cravings. Apparently this baby is much more tied into my Canadian roots than my other three, because I've been constantly craving things only found in Canada, like All Dressed chips {thank heavens for saints like Dawn, who mailed me a package of them!! LOVE HER!!}, ketchup chips, dill pickle chips, Wunderbars, Crispy Crunch, poutine {don't ask, it's something you have to try before you get the definition}, Swiss Chalet... oh, to go home for just a week. I swear I could blow a boatload of cash just sending home goodies to stock up on. Luckily I have friends in high places as well as a mother who happens to be going to Canada in a few weeks, so I'm being stocked up.

Yes, I hid it from most of you very well. Please forgive me/us!! I really did want to tell those of you that we were face to face with, especially on our vacation this summer, but I'm a paranoid person by nature. I promise to share my Canadian goodies with you if you forgive me.

No, I'm not getting enough sleep. So if anyone wants to come and stay here for a few days so I can go off by myself and just sleep, that would rock. {end of October, here I come! CJ and I are going to San Diego by ourselves for his cousin's wedding, and mum is staying with the kiddos here. Can't wait!!}

Yes, we'll be finding out the gender this time. I know we didn't find out with Jameson and it was a really cool experience, but with this being our last, I just want to know.

Yes, Jameson has come around to the idea of a baby. He told me today that he was going to be nice and share his toys with the baby, so hopefully he's a man of his word and actually does. We'll see though... he's a trickster.

No, we're not really hoping for a specific gender. It would be nice to have another girl and even it all out, but I also think it would be neat to have another little boy and Mercy to be the princess of the family. So either way, it's a win/win situation in my eyes.

That's really all the questions I can think of... we should be having our gender ultrasound either at the end of October or the beginning of November, so we'll know soon. I can't believe it's that fast!

Sweet, Sick Boy

2010-09-21T21:43:00.001-07:00

I realize I haven't posted in ages, including our big family reunion and trip, but that will come. I've been wanting to post this for the record for a bit, but at first I was too emotional, and then I just wanted to avoid it, but now I'm just doing it. Follow all that?

My sweet, happy little Porter got sick a few weeks ago. He'd been having allergies, and I thought they were finally calming down, but then he got sick again. He woke up on Saturday and was fine at first, but then got tired and lay down on the couch and fell asleep. He woke up mid-morning and started throwing up, poor boy. I cleaned him up and put him in his bed, where he fell asleep again. We watched the BYU football game and he woke up towards the end, cheerful but coughing a cough that he hadn't had before and I hadn't ever heard before. He came and snuggled with me on the couch for a bit, then tried to eat a bit but that came back up too, so I sent him back to bed and he was fine with that. He fell back asleep and slept off and on for the rest of the afternoon into the evening, which is when CJ and I noticed his breathing was funny, he just looked like he was working pretty hard for each breath. We tried rolling him on his side and saw a big sweatmark the shape of his whole body from where he'd been laying in bed, but he had no fever. CJ took his pulse and it was at the very top of where it should be, and we counted his breaths and decided to call the doctor. We called the after hours service and the doctor called us back about an hour later, and once he heard our concerns he didn't like what we said about his breathing, and told us to take Porter to the E.R. Since it was after 10PM we decided that I would go with Porter and CJ would stay home with Mercy and Jameson, who were both sleeping.
We loaded Porter into the car with the stroller and his Thomas blanket and he and I drove over to the hospital. Once I told the nurse what was going on she checked his oxygen saturation (hopefully that's the right term) and it was below 85, I can't remember what it was but it wasn't good. They put him on oxygen and got us back into a room. They tried giving him a shot of epinephrine in case his allergies had gotten really severe and it was an allergic reaction or something, but that didn't have any effect except to make him cry. Then they gave him an albuterol treatment with the nebulizer, and then the doctor came back and ordered a chest x-ray. At this point I'm freaking out because I thought it was just severe allergies or something, but it obviously was something bigger. Once the x-ray came back the nurse came and told me we'd be staying the night, it looked like Porter had pneumonia. They gave him some more medication, again, no idea because it was about 1AM by this time and I was trying to process the information as well as deal with my own allergies, which were stuffing me up and making my head feel huge. We got into our new room about 2AM, the hospital put him in a private room and brought a bed in so I could stay in the same room with him. The nurses were really great and sweet, and Porter finally got to sleep.
SUNDAY: We were woken up about 7AM by the new nurses and the food services, and Porter must have gotten plenty of sleep the day before because he was wide awake. I was struggling, just not enough sleep! We were really lucky, the whole time we were in there we had wonderful, sweet nurses who just bent over backwards trying to make Porter comfortable and happy. And I gotta say, the hospital food was really good! Mercy's best friend, Willow, and her awesome family came to visit us and brought Porter a new Bumblebee toy to play with and a book and sanity saving things for me, Porter really appreciated the company! CJ also stopped by in the morning with our great friend Tim, so that Porter could have a blessing. Dr. Price (not our normal pediatrician, but he's in our practice) came around to check on Porter and update me. He let me know we wouldn't be leaving that day, Porter just wasn't responding to the meds as well as they hoped. That was a shock, and hard to explain to Porter why we couldn't go home just yet, he was really missing home. The nurse found out that he loves Scooby D00 and brought him this entertainment center on wheels thing with a DVD player and Nintendo Gamecube, and she brought him the Scooby Doo movie to watch, as well as some other cartoons and movies to watch. Again, so grateful for our nurses! They also let him take the oxygen tubes off, and he did great, kept his levels up. CJ brought Mercy and Jameson to visit for a little bit after they got out of church, and you could tell Porter really missed Jameson, and likewise for Jamie. Mercy was fascinated with all the things in the hospital, from the oxygen tubes going in Porter's nose to the pulse ox on his finger. It was hard to say goodbye to them when they left. The goal to get Porter released from the hospital was for him to be able to go all night without needing oxygen, but unfortunately that night, within about an hour of him falling asleep, his oxygen levels started dropping again, so they had to put him back on the oxygen. The night nurse kept trying to take him off it, but every time she did his oxygen would drop again. So another night for us.
MONDAY: Another day, another dime... Luckily we had fun visitors to help keep our spirits up. MaryBeth, Rick and Tatiana came to visit us and brought Porter a Play-Doh set (seriously... most genius gift ever. ever.) and candy and a coloring book and crayons. And sweet, sweet chocolate for me. The company was the best part, MaryBeth can make me laugh anytime I talk to her, and I really needed it then. CJ came to visit with Mercy and Jameson again, and they got to stay for a nice long time. The food services lady brought Porter lunch while they were there, and she went and got Mercy and Porter french fries, cookies and ice cream so that they wouldn't feel left out. So nice! Sister Steventon, our Primary President, came to visit too, how she heard about Porter in the hospital I don't know, but I'm going to suspect.... MaryBeth? I really don't know! Then in the afternoon Porter's best friend Isaac came to visit with Kim and his brother Spencer, along with a balloon. You can bribe Porter with a balloon, I swear. The boys got hooked on Scooby Doo and just hung out while I got to have chat time with Kim. Truly, we are such lucky people. The nurse also let us go out for a walk, which Porter loved. He was so happy to get out of the room for awhile. The hardest part of the day was figuring out what to do for the night. We got lucky in that CJ had Saturday-Sunday off, but he had to work Monday night. We were so lucky, again, to have great friends, and we had offers for Jameson and Mercy to stay with a few different friends. We ended up having Mercy stay at Willow's house since she's really comfortable with both Martha and Johnnie and I knew she'd be happiest with them, and then lovely, lovely MaryBeth came and stayed at our house from 7:30PM til when CJ got home in the early morning, so that Jameson could sleep in his own bed. His bedtime is between 7 and 7:30mPM so he was asleep the whole time and had no idea what was going on, since by the time he woke up, CJ was home. Truly a massive weight lifted off my chest when MaryBeth offered to stay at our house, Jamie's never stayed away from either CJ or me, so I was really worried what we should do. MaryBeth, you are an angel, really. Thank you so much. Porter also managed to stay off oxygen the whole night, which meant we could go home the next day!
TUESDAY: Home. The doctor gave us our marching orders in the morning, and we got out just before lunchtime, armed with a brand new nebulizer and list of instructions as well as medicines. Porter was so glad to get home, him and Jameson went right into their room and started playing with the toys that Porter missed, and then with the Play-Doh. I think that's about the time that I was hit with the emotional wall and sniffled my way through the rest of the day.
I know it's not nearly as scary as what many others have been through, but for our first E.R. visit, it was quite the ordeal in our minds. I'm glad that Porter's completely recovered, and so quickly, and I'm glad for the prayers that were offered for us, as well as the visits and the calls and the dinners (THANK YOU LAUREL AND LYNSY!!). They truly made us feel so loved.

The first night.

Sunday, when they let him take the oxygen off. Seeing him so pale still makes me sad.

Sunday night, started off good with no oxygen...

but then it started dropping.

So the oxygen got put back on.

Playing with Mercy and Jameson

Monday night, no oxygen all night!

YAY!!!!!!!!

Waiting for the doctor to release us!

Almost home!

(my kids are) Proud to be an American

2010-07-06T09:44:00.001-07:00

Happy belated Independence Day!! It was a fun, fun, FUN weekend.

On Saturday we went to the annual Sierra Vista 3rd Ward breakfast and water fight. This year was fun because M and P really got into it. J hates getting squirted, so he just wanted to water the plants with his gun. Hahah!

On Sunday CJ had to work, so when our friends Lyndsy and Travis invited me to go to Veterans Memorial Park with them and check out the festivities, especially the chili cook-off, I jumped at the chance.

For a Canadian, I did pretty good on dressing the kids up in their patriotic finest, eh?

Love this boy! Such a goof.

This was a neat moment for me. We had our governor AND a congresswoman in town for our festivities (our town isn't exactly big either, so that was cool), so they had the guard come in with the flags as well as the mounted patrol, and everyone said the Pledge of Allegiance... including my little girl. It was neat to hear her say it, made me tear up.

The F-14 flyover. {hopefully that's right... I don't exactly know fighter jets well, and I have no memory at all, so I can't remember what they told us.}

M and her friend Alyssa. They went to Carmichael preschool together, and I love this girl! She and M just get along so well, and the fact that they both have the white blond hair going... it's too funny.
I actually think that the chili on their chins plus where they're missing teeth, it makes them look like vampires. Maybe I shouldn't have gone to the midnight showing of Eclipse... ever since then it's been vampires on the brain...

We're leaving in three days on Road Trip 2010, and the kids are SO excited. We're going to be stopping in Sedona, Cedar City (to see Mandy and Sam! woo!!), Salt Lake, then up to Yellowstone, then to the Humpherys Reunion 2010, then to NorCal. It's going to be a blast I hope!! We're excited to see everyone, family and friends.

She's Crossing That Rainbow Bridge...

2010-06-16T23:30:00.000-07:00

And oh, how I'm going to miss her.

I've had the privilege and blessing of knowing Isis since I was 13 years old, I believe. She was a loud mouthed cutie patootie, and I had to have her. Her stripes, her long legs, her huge eyes... she captured me from the moment I met her.

She was my confidante during my teen years, when I needed a cuddle and someone who would listen to the ridiculous, what felt like drama-filled woes of an awkward girl in an awkward stage of life, and not try to correct me or guide me.

She used to wait around the corner for our other cat, a... ahem... large white grouch named Princess. Isis would watch the mirrors in our entryway for Princess to come waddling by, crouch down... and jump out right in front of Princess at the perfect moment, scaring the holy out of Princess, and then Isis would leap away down the hall. Oh man. Just thinking about it makes me smile.

She also had an obsession with never-blown-up balloons and elastic bands. She used to stalk them at night, pounce on them and then toss them up, play, all the funny stuff cats do with their toys. And sing. Oh good law, would she sing. The most unearthly, creepy, loud sound, I can't even imitate it without looking like a loonie. But as soon as the balloon got a few holes or the elastic broke, she was done. She wouldn't look at them again, apparently she only liked the good stuff.

She was such a great cat. Great with the kids, they all loved her. M especially. She just got to stay with my mum and Isis for two weeks, and got to take care of Isis. I tried explaining that Isis isn't doing well and that she was going to go to Heaven, but I don't know how much her 5 year old brain understood of that. We got on Skype tonight to say goodbye to Isis and let Mercy be able to tell her that she loves her and will see her again, so I'm glad we at least did that. We're going to miss calling grammy and hearing Isis meow to us when we would call to her on the phone.

I have so many more stories and all sorts of photos, but they're all in my head or not scanned in the computer, and sadly, this is all I have on here right now. I know she's "just a cat" to some people... but she was mine, and I've loved her even when she was driving me nuts.

Godspeed Icey cat. We love you so much, thank you for gracing us with your presence for so long. Cross that rainbow bridge and chase Princess across a field for me.

Maybe...

2010-05-20T21:24:00.000-07:00

Maybe I don't need to be rich, famous, have fancy things and a huge house, or any of the stuff that most of us secretly wish for.

Maybe being me is okay.

Because it means I get to buy $1 watercolors from Walmart, fill some sparkly shaky cups up with water, and then I get to watch masterpieces being created right before my eyes.

I get to see the intense thought process that goes into creating a work of art.

Oh, those eyelashes.

I get to watch beauty creating beauty.

I see bystanders who appreciate art being created in front of them, even if they don't want to create themselves. They just want to snack and watch.

Maybe seeing the annoyance of an artist at having a camera in their face, maybe that's more entertaining than watching the latest TV show. It's certainly cuter.

Yes, definitely cuter. Even the "really... you're doing this now? I'm a little busy." look.

I get to appreciate the sheer amount of color that comes into your life when you have children. And I don't just mean the amazing variety of shades that Crayola has managed to come up with.

Maybe having a mess to clean up is okay, because of what and who created that mess.

Maybe I need to remember that more.

Yes, I definitely need to remember that more.

Teetering

2010-05-18T21:43:00.001-07:00

Do you ever feel like you're teetering on the edge of something, unsure of whether to jump or not? The edge of greatness, edge of madness... the edge of something. That's where I feel like we are right now. Teetering. We're at the end of the school and joy school year, the end of ballet until August, the beginning of summer, the beginning of not having to do almost anything all week... I think that might be the scariest of all. Which is cuh-razy, since I love my sleep. Anyways...

I can't really say *why* exactly I'm feeling like this, it's probably just spring fever or the likes, but I still feel like it's time to take the leap.

I just need to figure out what that is.

I have a ton of things I want to do, or try to do, but the thought of starting to try them is giving me anxiety, because I'm kind of a chicken like that. For instance, I have a sewing machine, but the only thing I've made on it were tutus. Which turned out really cute, but if you think I've tried anything since them... no. Too chicken. I'd love to learn to make things, but I intimidate myself out of things so well.

So how do I get over these things? I probably just need to dive in head first and so on. But I am sooo not a good diver. Ugh. Sorry, I'm rambling all over the place.

And on another ramble.

We have been lucky lucky lucky enough to be getting a new Temple built that's two hours away. It's beautiful. Beeeautiful. They had an open house for it and my mum flew in so we got to go as a family and the kids got to see the inside of the Temple. P told me the Temple was NOT orange and blue like he thought it would be, but it is white and has lots of sparkles, and that he felt very happy when he was inside of it. Exact words: "mum, I was mad before I went in the temple, but then when I got i...nside, I wasn't mad anymore! It made me feel happy!" Be still my heart... J was most interested in the baptismal font, he said that it looked hot and that he wanted to go swimming in it. M was interested in the art, and really loved the celestial room. All in all, it was a beautiful, happy day. And of course I forgot the memory card for my camera, so this is from my mum's Blackberry.

Spring!

2010-04-12T23:07:00.000-07:00

What have we been up to since I slacked off blogging...

Easter? Check! Photos of it? Not really! We went to an easter hunt put on by the station, it was awesome. P found the winning egg, the chocolate bunny in the winning basket he got melted in about 2 minutes, we did sack races, ate yummy food, got suntanned... and I left my camera at home for all of it. I stole Jessie's 40D and took photos on it, but I let her take it home and forgot to steal her memory card first. hahah! Must. Remember. And I have only a few photos from Easter Sunday because SOMEONE {cough, little miss M} woke up earlier than anyone else and decided to do the easter egg hunt around the house all by herself. And then woke up her brothers to give them their easter baskets that she'd found on her joyously alone hunt. Yep, by the time we woke up to the giggles and thumps, 50% of the candy had been eaten and all three were rapidly approaching a 8:30AM chocolate high. We made them stay in their rooms while we re-hid the eggs, so the boys still got to find eggs, but oh man. I wasn't very happy. It's funny now...

Sleepovers? Check! M has had her first, second and third sleepovers, all with her bestie Willow. The two of them... crackheads, that's all I can think of. I think this photo sums it up better than any words.

Coolest birthday party ever? Check! I'll save those photos for later. Adam=coolest kid in the class. We got to hold snakes, touch a live rattlesnake, touch a gila monster {google that if you don't know what it is}, I actually held a boa constrictor, we held chickens, {attempted to} hold turkeys, mice... super cool. We also went on the longest nature walk ever. Ever. I'm surprised we didn't lose anyone on it.

See old-new friends? Check! Ashley and her boys came to town and we got to play for a bit. I loved seeing J and Owen play. They're less than 6 hours apart in age, and right now they're about the exact same in everything. I know I keep saying it, but I'm gunning for them to be roomies in college or at the MTC. I wonder if you can put in requests for these things... Also got to see Amber and Brian. That was fun! Amber was the first friend I made here in Sierra Vista, and even though they moved back to the Promised Land {Utah}, we've kept in touch. No photos of that either, I forgot my camera yet again.

J and Owen hugging (so. CUTE.)

The almost-birthday twins.

The clan. (M has a musketeer mask on her head. Yeah... I don't know.)

Lost a dog? Check. Macey either got out or someone got her out. No idea how, because we're pretty sure she couldn't fit through our gate... This makes me horrible, but... I don't really miss her. She was nutso. The kids were a bit upset, but she knocked them down a lot, so they aren't as devastated as they would be if The Great Snoring One disappeared. That would be Molly, the one snoring away next to me now. I lub Molly, we've had her since we moved here in 2006 and she's the best dog in all of Sierra Vista {sorry Laurel. Molly totally rocks the socks off of Ziggy. I know you're crushed.}

Bless her cotton socks...

Got a new dog? Psych! Nope. Molly's loving being able to be with us all by herself.

Aaaaand.... that's all I remember. Or have photographic proof of...

Questions You Always Wanted to Know

2010-03-25T07:33:00.001-07:00

Saw this on sweet Laurel's blog, and M is off to school and the boys aren't up yet, so why not!

1. What time did you get up this morning?
6:45. I sleep as much as I possibly can before I have to get the girl child up and ready.

2. Diamonds or pearls?
Diamonds. Duh.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
Valentines Day. Really liked it too!

4. What is your favorite TV show?
Hmm... probably Psych. I have a thing for Guster.

5. What do you usually have for breakfast?
I don't usually eat breakfast. {I know. bad habit. trying to get better at that}

6. What is your middle name?
Anne

7. What food do you dislike?
Tofu. It's just gross.

8. What is your favorite CD at moment?
Hmmm... probably Train's Save Me, San Fransisco. Or else Michael Buble's "Crazy Love". {how's that for a random pairing?}

9. What kind of car do you drive?
Toyota Sienna

10. Favorite sandwich?
Hm. Depends on the day, but sometimes all you need is a PB&J sandwich.

11. What characteristic do you despise?
Ignorance

12. Favorite item of clothing?
My ratty old blue Roots hoodie.

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?
Right now it's Kenya. Ask me next week and it'll be completely different.

14. Favorite brand of clothing?
Roots. They're super comfortable and they last forever and a day.

15. where would you retire?
Nowhere. I see us getting one of those huge RVs and just putting around the country.

16. What was your most memorable birthday?
Hm. I really can't say, I've had some great birthdays. I guess my 21st, mum took me on a trip to London and Scotland, just the two of us.

17. Favorite sport to watch?
Anything other than baseball. I just can't get into it.

18. Furthest place you are sending this?
Uh... this is the world wide web, right? So... the furthest it chooses to go, I suppose.

19. Person you expect to send it back first?
You can't really send it back. You can repost it, I guess.

20. When is your birthday?
October 5th

21. Are you a morning person or a night person?
Night owl.

22. What is your shoe size?
Anywhere from 10 to 11, depending on the shoe. {darn pregnancies, blah. i used to be a 9.5, i'm not even kidding}

23. Pets?
We have Molly and Macey right now, but Macey is hopefully going to a new home soon.

24. Any new and exciting news you 'd like to share with us?
Nope. lol

25. What did you want to be when you were little?
A professional horseback rider

26. How are you today?
Pretty good. Only today and tomorrow and it's the weekend!

27. What is your favorite candy?
Swedish Fish or a Crispy Crunch. Yum yum yum.

28. What is your favorite flower?
Gerbera daisies? I don't really have a favorite, it's fun to get ANY kind.

29. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to?
July 11th. We'll be on our trip by then, with almost 3 WEEKS with CJ with us, not working!

30. What is your full name?
Eee. This creeps me out a bit too much to put out on the internet.

31. What are you listening to right now?
P asking to watch Playhouse Disney, and J slurping the last of his cereal.

32. What was the last thing you ate?
A bagel

33. Do you wish on stars?
Not anymore.

34. If you were a crayon, what color would you be?
Cerulean or Unmellow Yellow {that one is just for the name.}

35. How is the weather right now?
It's a gorgeous spring day!

36. What is your natural hair color?
Depends on the season. Summer-light brown. Winter-medium brown.

37. Favorite soft drink?
Cokecokecokecokecokecokecokecokecoke. Coke.

38. Favorite restaurant?
Olive Garden or My Big Fat Greek Restaurant

39. Favorite color of nail polish?
Dark purple or dark blue. Once I get used to spring being here, it'll be light pink. lol

40. What was your favorite toy as a child?
Oh man, I was the perfect child of the 80s, loved Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, Popples, My Little Pony...

41. Summer or winter?
Summer as done in the east.

42. Hugs or kisses?
Depends... who's giving them?

43. Chocolate or Vanilla?
Chocolate

44. Coffee or tea?
If it's herbal, I'll take the tea. If it's not... I'll have water please.

45.. Do you want your friends to email you back
Of course

46. When was the last time you cried
Last night. I was reading www.laylagrace.org

47. What is under your bed?
Nothing. lol!

48. What did you do last night?
Watched Human Target and House Hunters with CJ

49. What are you afraid of?
A lot of stuff. Spiders being the biggest thing.

50. Salty or sweet?
Salty, salty and salty.

51. How many keys on your key ring?
Which set am I carrying? One has only the van key, the other has about 5 keys I think.

52. How many years at your current job?
5?

53. Favorite day of the week?
Thursday or Friday. We have nothing on those days.

54. How many towns have you lived in?
Oh man. 12 I think?

55. Do you make friends easily?
Sometimes. Not as easily as in high school or college.

56. How many people will you send this to?
However many check the blog.

57. How many will respond?
My guess is none. hahahaha!

Forgotten Memos

2010-03-18T23:19:00.001-07:00

So I realized, in my slackiness that is my blogging abilities, I've not really mentioned many day to day things that have gone or been going on. So, for the record or just because, here they are.

M lost her first tooth on February 20th. Sigh. Yes, my firstborn is officially a big girl now. That sucker hung on forever and no matter how much CJ tried to bribe M to let him take it out she wouldn't fall for it. Mum was visiting and that morning we were selling Girl Scout cookies so we had to get up earlier than we usually do on a Saturday, and M called me as I was getting her clothes ready, and there was the tooth, just sitting in her hand. The funny thing is the tooth that fell out was the first tooth that came through when she was a baby, and mum was there when that happened too! She wanted to save the tooth and bring it to show and tell on Friday, and she did it, and then... we lost it at the park right after school. No joke. So she drew the tooth fairy a picture of what happened, and the tooth fairy was very understanding and left her $3.

Valentines Day was lovely, CJ got me beautiful roses and some presents, and then surprised me with a babysitter for the kids and he took me to dinner and a movie. Dinner was good and the movie was great. We saw Valentines Day, and I loved it. Even CJ admitted it was funnier than he thought it would be. I'm all for shmoopy movies though, I'm a sucker for them!

Our new Temple is opening soon!! I'm excited to go to the open house. You can bring children to the open house... right?

Some friends and I threw a surprise baby shower for a sweet friend last week and made oreo pops. WAY easier than cake pops, lemme tell you. And then she had the baby three days later, and we got to see her on their way home. Oh heavens... what a little doll.

J has graduated out of speech therapy!! Yep... just 7 months into it, and he caught on so quickly and just excelled through it, and they retested him, and he even tested above in some areas now! So proud of him, it's just amazing how different he is now.

P is really starting to participate in Joy School now, which is really nice, I won't lie. He's a smart kid, but just never really participated in lessons both at Joy School and in Primary. But now he's coloring so much more and actually is drawing people now! He's never really cared for coloring, but it's amazing how detailed he can get. It still looks like scribbles, til he tells you what everything is and then you get it.

M is getting ready for her spring ballet recital, and already has one of her costumes. Not gonna lie, I totally get giddy whenever I see it. It's hanging in the coat closet with strict instructions from Miss Hilda for nobody to touch even the bag that it's zipped up tight in. Her second costume comes in April, I can't wait to see it. May 22nd, here we come!

CJ's big 3-0 is coming up! May 27th... dum dum duuuuummmmmm. Oh, you bet I'll be rubbing it in. He was meeeeeean when it was my 30th, he's getting it right back. Not sure how we'll celebrate it, but it'll be fun.

The reunion!!! I'm getting so excited for summer, ferrizzle. We're going to drive it and just take our time and camp out, so it's going to be fun! SAM AND MANDY, here is your forewarning. We will be seeing you and stopping and harassing you and so now you will be happy and giddy until we come. M'kay? :) When we get to Salt Lake/Provo area we'll stay in a hotel for a night or two so that we look presentable for seeing any friends who want to hang out while we're there (lemme know!). Then it's on to Wyoming and Yellowstone, and then off to NorCal for about 10 days. Anyone who will be there in mid to late July, let me know (Karin?). Such fun!!!

Need to get the kids swimming. (Jessie...... oh Jessie....)

Okay, I really can't think of anything else right now, but I'm sure I forgot something. Because I have no memory left at all. Oh... but my bracket is looking ama-za-zing right now, I love the first round!!

Ghost Hunting (lots of photos again)

2010-03-16T21:46:00.000-07:00

So bad. Over a month since a post, what a rotten blogger I am. But at least I have photos!

It's finally spring here so this past weekend we decided to take the kids ghost hunting. In the middle of the day. That way nobody {read: me} gets too scared. It was a lot of fun, no ghosts and we're not really sure one of the buildings we found is actually the ghost house we were looking for, but we got to throw rocks in the San Pedro, see a marker for where the Mormon Battalion fought its only fight {against bulls} , and play pooh sticks on a bridge {P won} . Oh... and got some fun photos out of it!

From Ghost hunting

"Heeeyyyy!!! That says Mormon! I'M Mormon!!!!"

From Ghost hunting

Yes. J is carrying a bone. GROSS, right? Well, tell him and his dad that. They found it on our trek to the first ghostie housie, all sun bleached and blah, and thought it was super cool. Yucky thing stayed with us the whole rest of the day. And to make it worse, CJ told the kids it was a witch's bone. Um, ew.
Big, fat, icky ew.

From Ghost hunting

Love. Love him. Right here, Cards hat and all.

From Ghost hunting

Looks like a sweet father-son moment, right? Until you realize he's throwing pebbles/rocks by me and splashing me. Nice. Wait, no, not really.

From Ghost hunting

Don't worry, he didn't drop him. Both this time or the time he did it holding J upside down.

From Ghost hunting

Blast Off

2010-02-09T22:06:00.000-08:00

WARNING: A huge, massive amount of photos ahead. You've been warned.

Oh what fun it is to be... in southern Arizona? Well, yeah, sometimes. We might not have an Olive Garden {yet! it's already being built though, booyah} or a Michael's, but we know how to have fun!

CJ got P a rocket for Christmas, so this Saturday before we had the thrill of doing our grocery shopping {that's right, we. we all go. on a Saturday. certifiably craaazy!} we went to our park and shot off the rocket. It was pretty cool, unless you ask J. CJ let him push the launch button and J did NOT like what happened. But all in all, it was really fun. I just wish we'd had more engines so we could have shot it off more than three times.

{wiggly waggly tooth is still in place. dentist wouldn't yank it for me last week, boo.}

J trying to help by bringing the starter to CJ

poor buggy, so scared!!

so he sat with me instead. love.

I know, the shirt is short on her. But she grows constantly, I swear! It's hard to find shirts that are long enough in the shirt and not too long in the sleeves.

We also got to go on a trip to Yuma to watch CJ play in a football tournament. It was pretty fun, we got to stay at a nice hotel and eat at Olive Garden for dinner. Mmm. His team did well, they came in 4th out of 12. Not bad! We brought a bunch of Girl Scout cookies for M to sell and we actually sold about 40 boxes there, and we just found out she's reached her goal of selling 200 cookies already! Yay!! {but we're still selling cookies if you need them. seriously. we have a bunch of girls in the troop now so we need to sell a LOT more cookies.} Back to football. Lots of fun for the most part, but once the playoffs started and the sun went down, it got cold and fast. The kids were done with the day and we still had a 5 hour drive home. It wasn't fun and it wasn't pretty but we made it home in one piece, hallelujah. Some photos from the day:

Shorn

2010-01-27T08:31:00.000-08:00

I love watching the boys went they wake up. Still fuzzy brained from sleep but so happy to see me. And to eat breakfast. After breakfast they get to watch one of their favorite shows, "Handy Manny", before we get ready for the day. Two days ago the sun was streaming in through our sliding glass doors and landing on the boys on the couch so perfectly that I had to grab my camera.

Look at those eyes! His eyes still can't seem to choose what color they'll be, but they're mostly blue. But they were greenish that day.

Rosebud mouth. Just so kissable! He'll give us kisses but after he does, he grins and says "eeewwww!!!"
Such a boy.

"Anny Manny!" Look at how much he loves that stinkin' show. {me, not so much. but it's better than a lot of the childrens shows out there.}
Wait a minute... why is his hair short around his ears?!? Laurie... what have you done...

YOU CUT HIS HAIR?!?!? Yes... that sweet, baby soft hair has been clipped. And yes, I cried as I did it. And laughed at myself for crying over it. What a sight I am.
{man, he looks like P in this photo}

What have you done to me...

Rock on, mom. Rock. On.

A Rare Treat

2010-01-23T20:51:00.000-08:00

Tonight J is having a hard time falling asleep. He was almost hysterical when I put he and P down at bedtime, and two hours later when CJ got home from football he started moaning again. CJ went in to comfort him but he just wanted momma. Swoon.

I went in and knelt beside him, but he reached out and held my hand and said "momma" and when I asked him what he wanted, he repeated "momma", so I tucked him in a lay down beside him. I usually just leave when they go to bed, staying longer just drags out bedtime. But this was sweet, just me and him, laying in the dark. I left the door slightly open so I could still see a bit, but it was still like looking at a very dark black and white photo. Oh, how I wish I had a camera with me in there. It's something I want to burn into my memory forever. Just laying there, looking at my sweet little boy, watching him try to fight off sleep. I wanted him to sleep because he desperately needed it from the days activities, but I didn't want him to sleep because then I'd have to leave, and I just didn't want to be without him.

Big yawns, drooping eyelids.
Little hand reaching out to brush my shirt, a whispered "mama". Making sure I'm still there.
Blink. Blink. Another yawn.
Little hand searching, found the beloved toy fish.
Pulls fish close to him, snuggling it tight to his chest.
Eyes close.
Is he asleep? I can't tell... no. He turns over.
Finds his blanket, the blanket he's snuggled with since he was a few months old. The blanket I couldn't resist buying even though we had plenty of baby blankets. So plush and soft.
Turns back to me, saying "ma" and hands me his blanket.
Sigh.
I snuggle the blanket in between us so we're both touching it.
Stroke his newly shorn, not so babylike hair. Still soft, but I miss that tie to him still being my baby.
So sweet, still so innocent.
Whisper "I love you" over and over. Try to hold back emotional mommy tears.
Try to move away a bit so he can finally drift off into dreamland.
Another reach out, this time to pat my face. Yes I'm still here, little man.
I want to be here in this moment forever.

Oh, how I wish I had a camera to capture that, but a blog post will have to do.

Potpourri

2010-01-21T20:46:00.000-08:00

I used to love potpourri. Before the days of Scentsy {inventors of Scentsy, you rawk.} and way back when I was in high school, my mum used to use potpourri to make our condo smell pretty. I loved just looking through it and seeing the random stuff they would add scent to. Now I get why they call a mishmash of random things combined into one purpose "potpourri", and here is a post of random stuff with a pretty name, because there's no real "theme" to this post. {how was that for a random paragraph too?}

Mum came out to visit for the weekend and to take Isis {the 18 year old wonder cat} back with her to Santa Fe, and we decided to go to Bisbee. CJ found something while at work and wanted to bring it in to the Bisbee Museum. If anyone ever comes down here, definitely check out the museum, it's really neat! They let us go through it for free because he "donated" his find, but seeing the amazing rocks that have been found by miners are worth the admittance fee! They're on my other camera, so I don't have any to post, sorry. But they're so neat. And reading the history of the area was pretty cool too. Who knew this county had such neat history.
We also hit up the Copper Queen Mine Tour. We've never done it before, and while it was really interesting, next time I don't think I'd bring the kids. The kids thought it was really neat, especially the train/tram you ride down into the mine, it was a lot of standing and listening to the guide talk about the history. Interesting for us, not so much for the 2, 4 and 5 year olds in our company. J ended up falling asleep on me, which was a sweet relief since he was NOT happy to be in the cool, frigid mine and having to wear a slicker and helmet. P had fun if only for the flashlight they gave each of us to wear. Anyways, here's the photos from the mine tour:

The entrance to the mine. Our guide is in the jean jacket at the front. He worked in the mine for I think 30 years when it was still open, and was actually the very last miner to come out of the mine when it closed. So he definitely knew what he was talking about.

P listening to the guide talking about dynamite.

I know this is blurry, but I LOVE it anyways. Such a serious boy sometimes.

J asleep on me. Again, sorry for the blur, but it's hard to take a photo 1500 feet underground while hefting a 25+ lb boy and trying not to wake him.

M looking at her flashlight pack. It kept slipping off her. Not surprising, since it weighed 8 lbs.

Home and asleep. I just love the face of a sleeping baby. So sweet and innocent...

And because I haven't posted any photos of her in awhile, heeeeeeeere's Macey! She's 8.5 months old now, and oh my gosh, she's gotten so much taller. I won't say bigger because that implies she's wider, and I swear this dog only grows up, not out. But she's adorable. Jumpy and playful, and adorable.

Macey and P. She's still just a bit too jumpy for the kids most of the time, but they find her hilarious with how much she just bounds around. Leap, leap, jump, stop. Leap, gallop, stop. Rinse and repeat and you've got Macey.

Oh yes. One last thing.

That's right. That is UNDERWEAR you see on P. Fistbump! The boy is about 98% potty trained. Yesssssss!!! I say 98% because he still has teeny tiny accidents, about once/twice a week. But I'll take that over diapers any day. {and yes, my boy is sporting Calvin Kleins. But before you get all "pshht, that Laurie." on me, Marshall's had a bunch on clearance so I only paid $12 for them. That's cheaper than Old Navy AND Circo, thankyouverymuch.}

So that's what has been going on here lately. It's a new adventure every week!

Lucky.

2010-01-07T13:53:00.001-08:00

My kids have been driving me crazy lately. Between them each getting sick and then the bickering, whining and all that comes with having a long holiday, I was at breaking point. It's not that we didn't have fun during the Christmas holidays, but towards the end we were all just ready for a return to routine. I love them, but sometimes I'd find myself drifting away from the sounds of chaos and dreaming of when I used to be single or when we were first married, and how freaking awesome it was. {I know... totally seeing the past through rose-colored glasses.} My feelings were starting to spill over into reality too much. I was getting too frustrated when M would ask me to spell Willow (her BFF) or another friends name for the 1,000th time, I was being too short with my temper when P would ask me to yet again put Bumblebee back into his car form and I was ready to cry at J spilling his water. It's all calmed down a bit in the past week, but not a ton since it was my turn to teach Joy School and I was stressing a bit over that.

And then I found Natalie Norton's blog from someone on Facebook.

My heart crumbled. Her little baby boy, who was fighting so hard for his life, passed away today from Pertussis combined with other factors. Her beautiful little Gavin was born October 24, 2009, the day before J celebrated his second birthday. He wasn't even three months old. I can't imagine what they are going through right now. Babies should never die. Children should never die. It's not fair, and it's not right. My heart breaks for them, these strangers in so much pain, anguish.

Natalie's faith is in every word she's written, and she has shown amazing strength through her writing and for that I need to thank her, because in her fight for her sons life she's shown me how much I have, and how much I need to be grateful for:

This girl, this mini lady. Who teaches me as I teach her. Quiet but loud, friend to all. Ballerina in the making, with legs meant for an antelope. Full of attitude and love. Imaginary queen. Beautiful blessing.

Sweet, smiley boy. So happy, so friendly. Coming into his own, yet still thinks it's cool to be BFF with mom. Ridiculously athletic, shy to the nth degree. Friend of dinosaurs and Autobots alike. Sweet surprise.

Little man. Wise yet young. Fiesty, opinionated, adorable. Quick to get angry, quick to forgive. Laugh of an old man. Has already overcome a lot for someone so young. So proud. Adoration complete.

I'm also grateful to have such a great family, both immediate and extended.

I'm grateful to have a courageous mother who, in spite of being told she was making a huge mistake, decided to keep a baby she never expected, and raised her alone while working. And also managed to get her degree, get amazing job opportunities, and still find time to kick some disbelieving butt to those who thought she couldn't do it all.

I'm grateful for a stepdad who has never been anything step-like, who worried and looked out for me even when I thought I didn't need or want it. Sarcastic and funny, fits right in with us. His gentleness and love with both me and, later, my children is something that we have all been blessed because of. Thank you.

I'm grateful for a husband who loves me no matter what, no matter when, no matter anything. His unwavering faith in me and in us has made me a better person, a more complete person. Wonderful father, adored by the three short ones that trail after him. Stands tall and stands strong, and I couldn't be more lucky. Simply could not be.

I'm grateful for inlaws who raised a little boy into such a great man. Adopted him and treated him as if they had birthed him themselves. Taught him as best they could, instilled in him wonderful virtues and strong beliefs. Fought with him and fought for him. Stood by him as he grew, and now stand by us as we grow. Treat my children as if they were treasures to behold every day they spend with them. So very lucky to have them.

I'm grateful for a sister in law and then two brother in laws that make me realize how much fun it is to have siblings. So many laughs, so much great conversation. Endless playing with my children, so much love from my children for them.

I'm grateful for the wonderful, huge extended family that marrying CJ gave me. As someone who was an only child with a small extended family, coming into the Humpherys and the DeMartini clans was just so awesome. So awesome. So many cousins, aunts and uncles, so much love. I love following everyone's lives, I love the family reunions {we're coming this year, woo!! anyone else?} and getting to laugh hysterically with the family. So grateful for the examples and the fun that they all bring.

I'm grateful for friends new and old. SO grateful for friends. {and yes, family falls into the friend category as far as I'm concerned.} Friends have lifted me up when I was down, cheered me up, made me laugh at the world and at myself. I'm grateful to "re-find" some of those friends through Facebook or other channels. I'm grateful to look and see that I've surrounded myself with some truly awesome people. I wish you all lived closer, much closer, so that I could play with you more often. I'm grateful for "invisible friends", you know who you are. You are most DEFINITELY not invisible to me. I'm also grateful that this town has given me some amazing people to know, whether they live here still or have moved on.

God has been so good to me, to us. So many blessings in my life that I've not realized and not shown enough appreciation for. I'm {strangely} grateful for my calling as a Relief Society teacher. When I was first given it I didn't understand why anyone would want ME teaching anyone else about the Church, but I've come to realize it's not so much about me teaching them, but about me being taught. I've learned so much through this calling, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to share what God is teaching us. If anyone wants to read a beautiful piece of work, read The Love of God from President Uchtdorf. It's one of those pieces you can read over and over and get something new out of every time. Better yet, listen to him give the talk. With his accent... it gives you chills but makes you feel so utterly warm and loved.

Life is good.

No, life is great.

An almost, sort of white early Christmas

2009-12-30T10:11:00.000-08:00

Yes, I realize Christmas was a few days ago. But considering how late I've been lately at blogging anything (if I even blog it).... I'm blogging this first.
It snowed here!!!! I know most of the country has way too much snow already for the end of this year, but we're in southern Arizona, so bear with us. The kids were SO excited. So so excited. There wasn't a ton, and it didn't stick around our yard for long once that toasty AZ sun rose, but they had fun with it. So much fun that I called up our super cool friend Jessie and her super cool girls and asked if they wanted to hit up one of the canyons to play in the snow, and they said yes! They brought their cool friend Jen and her cool sons, and it was seriously a blast. The kids had their very first ever snowball fight, they built their first ever snowman (and baby snowman for mister J) and did snow angels. It was already starting to melt by the time we left Ramsey Canyon, but that was fine, by that time the kids had discovered the downside of snow: The icy cold numbness it gives you!

M and our snowman! Yes, that is a leaf for its hair. You improvise in Arizona.

This kid just had NO interest in staying with everyone else. Nope, he decided to explore everywhere, and could have cared less where I was. Boo... where's my baby gone??

Funny M!

Baby snowman, just for J (sorry, you have to look kind of hard to see it.)

Wilderness explorer J!

The only photo I got of all three kids

Building a snowman

Eating snow. Such a delicacy.

Still eating snow.

All done!

Maile throwing a snowball. Such concentration! I see a future in softball perhaps!

The road up to the canyon

Bah Humbug

2009-12-22T14:41:00.000-08:00

I. Am a grouch. Sad, especially considering the time of year, no? Why am I grouchy, I have no idea. Maybe it's the fact that I'm a moron and I've lost/misplaced/lost my iPod Touch, and I really don't think I have any hope of finding it, because I'm fairly sure I lost it outside the home {wwwaaahhhhh...} . Maybe it's the lack of any Christmas decorations other than a {very festive and pretty, if I do say so myself. and I do} garland hanging around the low wall around the kitchen. There's nary a Christmas tree in sight. It's all for a good reason, of course. I'm very grateful for the really pretty tile that's almost completely installed. But the timing is just plain sucktastic. One of my favorite things about Christmas is decorating, it makes it *feel* like the holidays. Know what I mean? Plus the fact that half of our furniture is in the garage and our fridge is in the backyard. It makes for a grumpy Laurie. Hopefully it will be completely finished by tomorrow night, and CJ thinks putting the Christmas tree up on Christmas Eve after the kids go to sleep will make Christmas morning even more exciting for them. Which may be true... he's obviously feeling more festive than I am.

But now that at least the oven is back in the kitchen I/we can start Christmas baking! I've already made one batch of Christmas cake pops with Jessie, Susie, Maria and Christie, and while they were a pain in the patootie at first {the cake pops, not the company} we finally got the rhythm of them... right when we ran out of cake. Doh! So hopefully I can get some cake made tonight and maybe make some cake pops tomorrow or Thursday. The kids absolutely love cake pops though, all three of them just snarf them down whenever allowed. And when they're not, as seen right now in my room. J just stole another one and is running away from me. Little cheeky monkey.

Photographic evidence of the deliciousness of cake pops:

J biting into cake pop #1. It started out as a Christmas tree, but little mouths make things look messier than they used to be.

P eating a santa hat cake pop

M finished too fast for me to even get a photo of the Rudolph cake pop she was eating, but apparently it tasted as good as it looked.

Lucky for you, I took a photo of it when we made them!

BTW: if you want to try making cake pops yourself, I highly recommend it! Once you get the hang of it, they're really kind of fun. Bakerella is a freaking genius. We couldn't find any lollipop sticks anywhere so we got creative and cut some shish kabob sticks up instead. You can find candy melts at Walmart and at Kmart, and you can order them {and everything else Bakerella uses} online. Here's the link to Bakerella's post on how to make cake pops. Enjoy, and let me know if you try them!!

Oh Me, Oh My...

2009-12-15T21:46:00.001-08:00

Where has the time gone.

I kept meaning to post, but it's just been such a great fall, and by the time I'm sitting at the computer with no one around to interrupt, all I want to do is veg and just surf. Lay. Zee. Right? Well... so be it.
I won't do a full on recap, because who has the time and patience to read that from me, but here's some highlights of the past few months, some even include photographic evidence!

I turned 30 {gulp} and got lovely, lovely presents. One of those being a laptop, which is another reason I haven't updated in ages, because I don't like to update without photos, and all my photos go on my desktop. But I'm always on my laptop lately. Oops...

J turned 2 years old {as seen in previous letter-post to him}. No party for him, but we took him to Peter Piper Pizza with Granny and our awesome friends the McDowells, and that was perfect in his eyes! Look how big he is. Sigh...
{mister pizza face himself}

We had Halloween, and a bunch of parties and school fun that goes along with that super awesome holiday. Seriously... is there anything more fun than walking around an elementary school on October 31st {or around then} and seeing all the costumes??

M was a queen. Contrary to what her face may be saying, she LOVED her costume. She picked it out herself and all!

P was a knight in shining armor. I have to say we got a ton of compliments on this outfit and people asking where we found it, and they're actually pajamas. Yep, I let my kids wear pajamas as costumes. But how freaking CUTE are they!!! Mum brought them back from her trip to England this summer, and they were just too cute to only use at night, when others can't appreciate just how awesome British clothing is. Hahahahah!

J was a dragon. If you asked him what he was, he'd say "RAWWWRRRRR!!!!". Everyone at once... awwwwwwwwww! P wore this costume two years ago, so yay for only having to buy one costume this year. Sweet.

We had Ps very first ever birthday party! This was the first year that he's really had his own friends that he could have a party with, so we decided to git er done. It wasn't a big party like Ms, but he had a blast with all his friends. We watched Up and ate pizza and Thomas cake. A perfect P party!

I've made cakepops about three times now, and I think I finally have them mastered! They're SUCH a blast to make, I always make them with friends because it makes it way more fun. Plus you don't feel like such a dork when you can't figure out why something isn't working right!

We had Thanksgiving with some great friends, and laughed lots. The food was so great, and it was so much fun to not have to worry about making everything. We all split up the menu so that we all could contribute. CJ and I made green bean casserole and a spiral ham. Mmm.... makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

And M was in her first ever ballet production! She was in The Nutcracker and did GREAT on both nights. We were lucky and Granny came to see her, as well as her Kindergarten teacher Ms. Wolfe and her sweet friend Willow and Willow's sweet mom Martha. I'm so proud of her, she really was great, she remembered both of her routines perfectly both nights!

And this past weekend we had a princess tea party here for Ms friends from Daisy Scouts. We decorated cookies and crowns and played, and then.... we all went to see The Princess and The Frog!! Oh, adorableness. It was a great afternoon, J even decided he wanted to dress up, and he wore his dragon costume. After all, what princess tea party is complete without a dragon protecting the royalty.
And the movie... awesome. I didn't catch all of it, thanks to a certain squirmy 2 year old, but what I saw I just LOVED. I'll be going back to see it again, but I loved that Tiana was so independant and didn't need a man. I love that Disney Princesses are starting to get attitudes! Yessss.

Currently we have no flooring in our house other than the bedrooms, because we're having tile put in! Yaaayyyy, we're pretty excited. It's bumped our Christmas decorating off because we have nowhere to put a tree, but as long as that cruddy yucky carpet is gone... I do not mind one iota.

But really, what we've done is a lot of this. Hanging out, goofing off, and laughing.

I love these kids. Love love love. They make me smile, make me laugh, make me furious, and make me melt.

What a wonderful world!

To Mister P

2009-11-05T20:15:00.001-08:00

Brand new:

1 year:

2 years:

3 years:

4 years:

Mister P-Man...

4 years old. Wow! I can't believe how time flies... you've definitely come into your own this year though. That's good and bad, by the way. You've become so independent, but oh the attitude that can come with that. But you're usually just so happy and laughing, everyone comments on how infectious your laugh is. When you get giggling, there's just no stopping it, and half the time the people around you start laughing too, just because of how much you laugh.

I love how much you love me. You still love to cuddle with me and talk with me and laugh with me, and I love it! It makes me so happy that you still feel so close to me. You're starting to play better with daddy, which makes me happy too. The two of you find it so funny to wrestle and throw pillows at eachother, and J is starting to get in on it too. You boys and your games!

You and M are starting to butt heads more often, but I suppose that's just because of the both of you getting older. I still catch you giggling hysterically with eachother about some silly thing you two have discovered or are doing, hiding in your room. You keep eachother up at night doing little things that annoy the other too though. You just loooove to send M over the edge so that she's practically spitting nails! Oh, the two of you...

But I just can't get over your smile. You're one of the sweetest little boys, just so caring and sensitive. You always know when I'm sad, you come over and give me hugs and kisses. One time you even said "I don't want you to be sad, mummy... I want you to be a happy mummy" which of course, made me cry even more. Such a sweet boy. Your uncles adore you too, and you had such a blast with them on our vacations this year. The three of you spent the majority of your time together laughing and playing and just having a great boyish time. Your grandparents all love you and think the world of you, and how could they help that? You're just so charming! People warn me that you'll have the girls chasing you before long, and I don't doubt that. Not that you'll notice for awhile; you're too into your cars, trains and dinosaurs!

I love you P-man. I truly truly do. You make my heart happy, and I'm glad you're mine all mine.

Happy 4th birthday!!

Love,

mum

To My Littlest Man

2009-10-25T20:31:00.000-07:00

1 week:

6 months:

1 year:

1.5 years:

2 years:

Oh sweet baby J,

What a funny little man you're turning into. Easily one of the most easy going kids I know, but you sure are learning to assert yourself and stand up for what you want, at least with your brother! You're still my sweet cuddler though, you love to come over and say "up!" and of course I can't resist you, my baby boy. And so we cuddle, and play, and laugh. You always make me laugh. Right now your favorite thing to do is for me to sing "yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for... ME!" and then you say "no ME!" and we go back and forth until we're laughing too hard to go on, and when we calm down, you give me the sign for 'more', and it starts all over. You've even got M and P playing it too, they think it's just as hilarious as you do.

Your Torticollis is virtually gone, people don't even notice you have a tilt anymore unless I point it out when you're tired. You worked so hard at everything that Shelly taught you, and both she and I were teary when you graduated out of physical therapy. Such a strong spirit already! You certainly haven't let any speech impediment stop you either, and you've only been in therapy for it for just over a month, and already you've learned over 20 new words! We always knew you had them in you, it was just a matter of us learning to help you express them. And you pick up sign language so fast as well! You just continue to amaze us every day.

You just have all of us wrapped around your little finger. We all think you're such a doll, your brother and sister included. M loves to cuddle you and tell you stories, and you and P are learning to play together so well, even though you both have moments of not wanting to share, especially when it comes to Thomas and Elmo. "Meemo" was one of your first new words, which surprised us since we don't watch Sesame Street and M and P have never really been into Elmo at all. But you just love that red furry monster with a fiery passion. Above Elmo is your "ish"-es though. You love all things fish! Daddy got you and P each a Commerson's Dolphin toy at Sea World, and you clung to it right away. You love your "ish"! And then you found this funny rubbery clown fish toy and that has joined with Ish to be your two favorite sleepy toys. When you wake up, you grab them before I get you out of bed and bring them out to play with. I know of no other boy with such a passion for fish!

I love when you wake up in the morning and I go get you. You're just such a sweet, happy thing. I see your still somewhat sleepy face just smiling so happily to see me, and I just wish I brought my camera everytime I go to get you! You are the epitome of adorable in my books. And daddy feels the same. The way you see him when he wakes up and you point and say "dada", and go play in bed with him, just starts his day off right. You truly are a joy.

I love you so so much, little handsome. I can't wait to see what a wonderful human you become, but at the same time I want you to stay my baby forever, just this way. I don't want you to grow up and not want to cuddle with me, or sing with me! But time marches on.... I'll keep my chin up and just keep being happy that you chose us, this family, to grace us with your life.

Happy 2nd birthday, J bird.

Love, mummy.

M's 5th Birthday Party!

2009-09-28T00:05:00.000-07:00

Sorry, almost a month late (and over a month since my last post, eeps), but Blogger and I weren't getting along, and then Photobucket wasn't playing nice either. Plus we went to Northern California for a week and then decided to play "pass the sick germs" in the house. Yuck. I'll hopefully get another post up pretty soon of our time in Nevada City, we all had a great time, and got to see cousin Doug marry gorgeous Becky in the Sacramento Temple. Just beautiful.

ANYWAYS... here's a slideshow of photos from M's birthday party. It was a blast! Perfect weather other than the wind that refused to let us light the birthday candles, we ended up just telling her to pretend to blow them out, heheh! The kids had a blast, didn't hurt that we had it at our park and we have a playground right there. Hot dogs, chips and watermelons made it delicious, not to mention the cake AND the pony pinata that wouldn't die. Seriously, every kid got two turns trying to break it, we ended up getting CJ to bust it open. The kids didn't care, which is the best part about being a kid; who cares about the process as long as you get the candy at the end! The party made me realize how much I love our friends here, we had a blast just talking and laughing with everyone, I'm just so lucky to have such a great network of people that I know I can turn to whenever I need help. Thank you to all who came, I hope you had as much fun with us as we did with you!

To A 5 Year Old

2009-08-19T21:12:00.000-07:00

Dear Miss M,
Well, we survived another year of each other. Happy 5th birthday, stinker pinker.
We've had a rough go of it sometimes this year, I think from both of us still trying to find our place in this world. You've tested me and pushed me, and I'm pretty sure I've done the same to you, but at the end of the day, you still smoosh my face, plant a wet one on me, and say "I love you, momma". It amazes me how quickly you can forgive and forget things, especially wrongs I've done to you. It must be hard, being the firstborn in a family, because you're basically the test run for everyone else, but you handle it with grace for the most part. You definitely have your moments, don't get me wrong. When you get really mad you jumble up your words and get even more frustrated, and come out with some great one liners like "I'm in a time out!" "it's not your fault, momma!". You never seem to lose it on non-family though, which amazes me. You still have such an innocence to you, you can't even seem to fathom when someone is being mean or rude to you, you just brush it off as if it wasn't at you. I wish I could be like that. I feel so protective of you still, but you're so big that people think you're older than you are, and expect more out of you for it. I feel like carrying around a sign that says "She's only 4(now 5), and yes, she has a speech delay. Please be nice." but that would be a disservice to you and your spirit. You catch on to things so much faster than I realize, and I need to learn to let you fly, even if there are some bumps and branches in the way.
Even though you fight, P just loves you. I love walking by your room before you've fallen asleep, and hearing you two playing or talking, or just sitting together reading a book. I hope you stay close as you both get bigger, you could be such great friends. And J just always wants to play with you two, wherever you are, he wants to be. You're SO good with him too, when we go on walks and he doesn't want to hold my hand he'll always willingly hold yours. You can be protective of him, and I hope as you all get older, that role is reversed and he and P protect you from any dumb boys who don't treat you well.
You've always been such a daddy's girl, and this year it's the same. I know you love me, but there's something about daddy... he loves you so much, and I know he worries as much as I do about how you're doing, especially now that you're in Kindergarten. Are you being shy and quiet, like you always are at first, in new situations? Are the other kids being nice, even if your words don't make complete sense sometimes? You got a great teacher, so we're hopeful... but still. We're parents, we worry.
I can't believe you're 5 years old, sometimes it feels so close since I woke up in the hospital, still very sleepy and out of it, and someone handed me this wrapped up bundle of squirm. You started to whimper and even though I was ready to nod off again, I started stroking your feet and saying "it's okay, it'll be okay", and you calmed down. It amazed me! Those first few days were such a blur, what a way to come in the world, but that's you, making an entrance. I also remember waking up the next day and there was your daddy in the rocking chair, holding you and just staring, stroking your hand. He wasn't even saying anything, just staring at you with this look of complete awe. It's a look I'll never forget, ever.
Happy 5th birthday, bubbas. I lovah lovah love you so very much.

(t-shirt by the lovely, awesome Miss Katey, click to see her cool knitting blog!)

Smile

2009-08-17T20:50:00.001-07:00

7 years ago CJ and I were married. Whoa...

Yep, it's been seven crazy, beautiful, stressful, wonderful, lovely, interesting, travelling, moving, laughter-filled years.

We were sealed in the Mount Timpanogos Temple at 6pm, a

nd I remember how packed CJ's "side" of the room was, and how there were like 3 people on my side. That's what happens when you're a convert from a teeny tiny family I guess. Don't ask me what the sealer said, or who cried, all I remember is kneeling across from CJ and just smiling the whole time, and trying not to laugh, because both of us were this.close to laughing. Sheer joy or hysteria, you choose.

We've never really had a song that was "us", but driving home from the gym this morning Uncle Kracker's new song "Smile" was playing. It was like the lyrics were written for us! So I played it for CJ and he actually agreed (he doesn't like to do that much on the first try, something about not wanting my ego to get too big?), and so, 7 years in, we finally have a song.

The lyrics:

You´re better than the best
I´m lucky just to linger in your light

Cooler then the flip side of my pillow that´s right
Completely unaware
Nothing can compare to where you send me
Lets me know that it´s ok yeah it´s ok
And the moments where my good times start to fade

You make me smile like the sun
Fall out of bed sing like bird
Dizzy in my head spin like a record
Crazy on a Sunday nightYou make me dance like a foolForget how to breathe
Shine like gold buzz like a bee
Just the thought of you can drive me wild
Ohh you make me smile

Even when you´re gone
Somehow you come along
Just like a flower poking through the sidewalk crack and just like that
You steal away the rain and just like that

You make me smile like the sun
Fall out of bed sing like birdDizzy in my head spin like a recordCrazy on a Sunday night
You make me dance like a fool
Forget how to breathe
Shine like gold buzz like a bee
Just the thought of you can drive me wild
Ohh you make me smile

Don´t know how I lived without you
Cuz everytime that I get around you
I see the best of me inside your eyes
You make me smile
You make me dance like a foolForget how to breatheShine like gold buzz like a bee
Just the thought of you can drive me wild

You make me smile like the sun
Fall out of bed sing like bird
Dizzy in my head spin like a record

Crazy on a Sunday night
You make me dance like a fool
Forget how to breathe
Shine like gold buzz like a beeJust the thought of you can drive me wild
Ohh you make me smile

My favorite part is "Cooler then the flip side of my pillow", because CJ is constantly trying to

snag my (much better and more squishy comfy) pillow, and I love to sneak into bed before him and read a book/play on the iPod/watch TV before I go to sleep, and then switch to my side of the bed to fall asleep. Why? Because that way my side of the bed is still nice and cold for me when I'm ready to sleep. Mwahahah!

ANYWAYS, of course I had to do a scrap page for this momentous occasion: hitting our 7th anniversary and finally getting a song. Tah dah!

Happy 7 years, CJ. Here's to many, many more.

And Away She Goes...

2009-08-10T15:15:00.000-07:00

I have a Kindergartener. *sniff* Excuse the overabundance of photos, but it's my blog and I'll be as cheesy sentimental as I want, and you'll like it. :D

Daddy putting on her brand new shoes...

Eating breakfast (toast, cereal and OJ, if you want to know)...

On the way to the bus stop...

"Are you still taking pictures, mother?" (yes, she really does call me that these days. I think it's from Aristocats) ...

Big girl...

Piggies and LPL bows for her first day...

A bit confused as to why there's a bunch of big kids at the bus too...

P was so sad that he didn't get to go to school too...

There goes my baby...

Watching the bus drive away...

We're lucky that there's about 4-5 other Kindergarteners in our neighbourhood. There were three of us moms sniffling, while CJ and Russ (our friend Laurel's cool husband, their son is in M's class) stood there making jokes about women or something. We all know they were crying like babies on the inside...

Her first day didn't start well. She managed to put her backpack in the wrong pile or something and lost it, so she didn't have any of her supplies or her lunch. Luckily her teacher is awesome and tried to help her find it, but they couldn't so they got her a hot lunch (cheeseburgers, applesauce and green beans, mmm). When she came home and got off the bus she started crying because of her bag, it was so sad! I'd held it together fairly well all day, but seeing her cry got me crying. I took her back to the school and asked the office, they hadn't seen it. We went and talked to Mrs. Wolfe, and she told me they'd looked and couldn't find it. So we went back home and I called the transport to see if maybe it was left on the bus. Nope. I took her back to the school once CJ'd gone to work and we walked all over the school looking, but nothing. :( Just as we got home from school I got a call from a 5th grade teacher who was just leaving her classroom, she found M's backpack outside her class!! Huzzah!!!! So as a relief treat, I took the kids to Wendy's. I needed a Coke at that point.

Next day we had dentist appointments for all the kids, so M didn't go on the bus to school. We had her go first in her appointment and she LOVED it (wierdo), and when she was done and I was driving her to school she said "I got my teeth cleaned, I got a new toothbrush, and now I'm going to school. This is the best day EVER!" Aww... made my heart happy!

A New Addition!!!!

2009-07-31T23:17:00.000-07:00

Meet Macey!

Hahahahahah. Not what you thought it would be, was it? "About that time", you're thinking... well, neener neener, gotcha! Sorry, the only new baby I plan on dealing with for now is this widdle cutie.

We adopted her because we'd been talking about getting another dog for awhile, and we happened on her, and she just snatched up our hearts with her little paws and took off. She's a black lab cross, but I think she looks more german shepherd than black lab. And who knows what gave her that skinny long tail!

The kids adore her, she's pretty good with them too, other than the odd excited puppy nip. Molly gets along with her too, good thing Molly's such a calm dog, because Macey has some spunk in her. The second night we had her she was trying to get Molly to play with her, and kept rearing up on her back paws and hopping at Molly with her front paws extended to the side. CJ and I were laughing so hard, it was the wierdest thing to see. And Molly just lay there like "you've socked three kids on me, how much worse can one puppy be..."

I have to admit, I love having her because she totally makes for a great target to practice with my camera. I'm paying for it through potty training her though. Blech. Have to say this makes me appreciate diapers a whole lot more.

Macey and Molly (and Ps hand, I believe)

How she lays sometimes. Cracks me up!
Can't leave the Mollster out!

Sleeping and hoping for food drops

Just SO CUTE.

The Rest of the Trip

2009-07-18T11:01:00.000-07:00

a month later. Sorry...

This isn't all of them, you can see them all on Facebook. Here's the link if you're interested.

Sorry, these are out of order, we actually went to Disneyland before the beach, but rearranging photos on here is a huge PITA.

J harassing grandma for another sandwich
good thing they checked the spelling...

J and a tennis ball some players gave us at Venice Beach

passed out after a hard days work.

mmm... peaches.

family football

Boogie boards and surf

P and daddy

Damien and Trevor. Crazy boys, that water was cold!

Goofy

P and uncles Trevor and Damien
P and auntie Camille
J and his balloon.
They wouldn't let P on Thunder Mountain, even though he got on Splash Mountain. He was just so upset, crying and saying "but I am a big boy now, mummy! I'm a big boy now..." ugh. Just broke my heart. Here he is, waving at the people on the ride.
P and uncle Trevor
P meeting Goofy. Wasn't really a fan.
J looooved the petting zoo
Cool girl

P and his owie. He was at the Pirates Lair on Tom Sawyers Island, and he fell and cracked the side of his head on a plank. Lots of blood, but no stitches. Absolutely wonderful nurses at Disneyland!

The Trip, finally.

2009-07-03T22:00:00.000-07:00

Now that I'm finally over that gross spider...

Highlights of our trip to southern California this month, part one: (there will be a second post in a few days, I have too many photos for one post, oops.)

Staying at the Comfort Inn & Suites Zoo SeaWorld Area hotel. The kids had a bunk bed and a separator in between where our bed was and where they were. It was great, worth every penny (other than the parking. that was horrible, they were all compact car sized or something)!

Breakfast with Shamu. Absolutely amazing. Honestly one of my favorite memories of the trip. We had a table right beside the whales tank, and when we had started eating, P was standing in his chair looking over the border into the pool, and up slid Nakai, one of the orcas! Not even 5 feet from P, I'm not kidding. P just stood there on his chair, staring at Nakai. You could almost see him thinking "what the... am I supposed to... he's not going to eat me, right?!"

Pure. Awesome.

All in all, the kids were fascinated all day and next. Really, I think SeaWorld was more exciting for them than Disneyland. M loved the Journey to Atlantis ride, P loved the Sesame Street play area, and J loved all the different animals. J is firmly attached to "Ish", his Commersons Dolphin stuffed animal CJ got him. CJ got one for him and for P, he thought they were Shamu ones. Heheheh!

dolphin show (didn't stay long, we sat in the splash zone and P freaked out at being splashed. duh.)

from the Believe show:

Mission Bay Beach was fun too, M loved the ocean, P loved the sand, and J loved chasing the gulls.

Next day we swung by Sea World again for a little bit, then got to see the San Diego temple:

there was the largest, most vibrant hibiscus flower there:

then we went off to Anaheim to see Grandpa and Grandma, and uncles Trevor and Damien. We walked around downtown Disney (I think?), saw the way overpriced and massive Disney store, and then hit one of the slowest-to-serve-you restaurants I've ever been in.

P and grandpa and grandma:

M and the only thing I felt was decently priced at the Disney store:

P and grandpa

P and uncle Trevor

So We're Back...

2009-06-23T00:28:00.000-07:00

.... and my first post from being back from SoCal should be all about how great SeaWorld was, how crowded Disneyland was, how awesome it was to see so much family that we haven't seen in forEVER, and how pooped out we all are....

but it's not.

This is about how very much I HATE ARIZONA CREEPIES.

Hate.

haaaaaaaaatehatehatehatehate.

And I'm not even talking about the really creepy ones, like Tarantulas or Rattlers. Nope. I'm not even going to go there, because I already have a headache from thinking about what I saw tonight, no lie. My head actually hurts from how creeped out I am still.

I went to change the laundry, since I'm only now finally starting to wash clothes from being home, and out of the corner of my eye, I see a big lump of something by the washer. Hmm... it's about 10 PM, so it's that time, the time when ickies come out. I stay nice and clear, and turn to look, and it's some kind of spider that looks like it's on steroids or something. I get goosebumps, my voice goes up about 5 octaves, and I start "ewwwww"-ing like the wimpy girl I am. I run inside and do the first thing any normal wimpy girl does. I tell my mummy, since she happens to be visiting.

Me-"Mummmm!!! ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh. Mum, there's something totally creepy in the garage!!!"
Her-"well KILL IT!!! And did you bring the clothes in? What if it goes in the basket with them!!"
Me thinking: crap! I have to go back out there??
Me-"noooo.... but mum, it's just THERE. And it's funny looking."
Her-"well KILL IT!! Oh no, what if it's a tarantula?! GET THE CLOTHES!"
good to know she's concerned about my safety.
Me-"fine... but I'm taking my camera and getting a photo of it."

So I go out there and use the zoom on my little camera, but it's blurry. So I grab the clothes basket, give it a good shake (in case anything was hanging onto the bottom, you never know) and drop it inside the door (it's CJs day off tomorrow, he can put them away because I assure you, I am absolutely *not* touching them) . I grab the trusty Rebel and get brave enough to get closer. Still not good enough, so I stick my arms out as close as I dare and hold the camera and take the photos, hoping it's close enough. It is, woo! Quickly run back inside and look at the photos.

Me-"Oh my gosh. THOSE ARE BABIES ON ITS BACK. ewwwwwwwwwwwww... ewewewewew!!!"
Her-"well KILL IT!!!"
Me-"I can't... I'm having some kind of twisted mother-sympathy for her. She's in the garage, not the house... and she eats cockroaches, which creep me out more. Plus she's carrying all her babies, training them to eat the nasties I hate. I... can't do it."
Her- just stares at me, shakes her head, and goes back to watching the movie.

Yep, I did not kill her, which I am sure is a wolf spider (from looking it up online, which has aggravated my headache by the creepiness of other things I have seen on these sites). She's a fellow mommy (granted, of many more kids than me), just trying to teach her babies their way of life. In a sick, twisted way, I understood a spider. Gross.

If she comes in the house though, it's on like Donkey Kong. My empathy goes out the window.

**if you want to see the photos on here, too bad. I am not okay with getting creeped out everytime I come to my own blog. but they are posted on Facebook for the next few days, before I get too creeped out by them even being on there.**

Before You Meet My Children...

2009-06-08T23:52:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I feel like I need to slap a Surgeon Generals Warning on my kids, before they see people they don't know or haven't seen in awhile. Seriously. My kids are slightly crazy, even by my standards (and I'm sure those of you who've known me for awhile, especially pre-marriage, who say I have some ~~strange tendencies~~ cute quirks) . CJ thinks they're just toddlers/pre-k'ers, so people will just think it's cute. But, to be a totally honest person here, if *I* met my kids for the first time and they did some of their moves on me, I'd think their parents must only feed them by throwing Cheetohs at them or something. Okay, maybe not... but I'd think "Whoa. That's.... interesting... MY kids would never do that."

So, since we're going to SoCal in a few days, on the off chance we run into anyone who reads this blog, consider yourself forewarned, try to be more like CJ than like me when you see my kids. And remember, they're freaking adorable to look at, so maybe just admire from afar and pretend they're the poster children for normal life.

When M meets someone new that she likes or gets excited about something, she acts like a dinosaur. You think I'm lying, but I'm not. She bends over, puts her hands out like claws, and kind of marches on the spot on her tippy toes, and starts growling/roaring. She (and P) think this is hilarious, and it usually results in her chasing P around the room while he giggles hysterically and she giggles/roars at him. And sometimes, if you're really lucky, she'll start going in a circle by herself, not chasing anyone, almost like a ~~dog~~ dinosaur chasing its tail.

M loves to make up random stories that you won't understand half the words in. And if she mentions that it's Jeremy, Isis or Mollys birthday, just nod. That's her toy cat/real cat/real dog. Every week one of them has a birthday, apparently. Luckily I cottoned on to that before she suckered me into buying Molly a present. I wasn't quick enough to figure it out before Jeremy's birthday though, so the toy cat she carts around with her has a very nice green collar with a bell on it. Happy birthday, Jeremy.

P will not look at you. At all. Chances are he won't look at us either. And he won't answer any questions, from you or from us. Sorry, it's my shy side coming through in him. But give him a few minutes to warm up, and he'll charm the candy away from you with his infectious laugh though. The kid can get almost anyone to laugh, just by hearing his giggles. Best sound in the world.

When one kid gets crazy, chances are the next in line will too. M and P are known for almost literally bouncing off the walls. They like to pretend to be very odd animals, and you end up laughing hysterically or else slightly embarrased to be seen with such mini hooligans. We try to calm it down, but they're 3 and 4. They don't really "do" calm, unless you catch them sleeping.

P loves to play WAKE UP! To play with him, you have to tell him "go to sleep!", he'll lean/fall over and pretend to be asleep by half closing his eyes and snoring. Then you have to yell "WAKE UP!" and he jumps and yells "aaahhhh!" and starts giggling. Then it's his turn to do it to you. Make sure you do it right, or he'll whack you in your pretend sleep. No joke.

J has taken to playing WAKE UP! too, and can drop down and pretend sleep better than most kids can. But he'll hit you everytime, just because that's how he rolls. Sorry, we're working on it. But he's 1.5 years old, he doesn't really get it, and he's not trying to hurt you. He just doesn't really talk yet, so he can't yell "WAKE UP!" at you yet, so he does the next most effective thing.

J loves to be a lizard. Yeah... I know, sounds wierd. He does it when he sees something he likes, or gets something he likes, like ice cream. He just flicks his little tongue in and out of his mouth, making a "thip, thip" kind of sound. Bad description, but once you see it in person, it's the cutest thing ever.

P is three right now. And acts it. He has a very dramatic side and a very sweet, funny side. I'm hoping on the trip the dramatic side stays at home to chill, but I'm not getting my hopes up. He has no problem yelling at me about very odd things, for example:
Me-P, would you like some Goldfish crackers?
P-NO! NO GOLDFISH FOR ME!
Me-okay, I'll put them away.
P-Nooooo! I said I WANT the Goldfiiiiiissssshhhhhhhh!
Me-err... right, okay, here you go.
P-THANK. YOU. *stompstompstomp*
And then, 5 minutes later:
P-Mummy, can you pwease pour me some juice?

It's all very disconcerting.

J hits CJ when J gets angry about something. It could be you that has made him mad, but it'll be CJ that reaps the punishment. We're still trying to figure that one out and nip it in the bud before it moves on to hitting others... like moi.

J is slightly very attached to me. Slightly. Actually, he'll play with other people no problem, just don't pick him up until he's ready, or he'll start pointing at me and saying "mama, mama, mama" until you hand him over or put him down.

I'm sure there's more things, but I can't think of them right now.

And no, I will not give you photographic/videographic evidence. That makes it even more obvious that it is in fact our fault that the kids are so bizarre, if we would film it just for the viewing by others.

But I'm totally willing to do it if you pay me.

Comments and Blogs

2009-06-03T23:46:00.000-07:00

So, this has been niggling at me for a bit, because I'm like that. I hold onto random things that aren't really important to life, but I still hold onto them.

What makes someone comment on a blog? Is it a witty thought, or a good photo, or just a connection you make to something in the post? For me, I love to post comments just because I love *getting* comments back. It's nice to know that people are reading your blog, even if you can see they're reading it because you have a widget of some kind on the side of said blog. (yes, I have two of those. It's just fun. Besides, I still don't even know who it is half the time.) I love seeing photos of friends that I haven't seen in awhile, children that have been born since we last saw eachother, little funny stories... it makes me feel like I'm not as far removed as I feel like I am. We don't live near most of our friends that have blogs, and sometimes you read things on blogs that wouldn't come up in phone conversations. Plus I'm not very good at keeping up with people via the phone, for some reason talking on the phone makes me nervous (there's a random little fact most people don't know). There are some people that I wish I *could* talk to on the phone because I miss how much I used to laugh when I got to talk to them (Jesse... miss you and our prank calls... do you even remember that?) but am too chicken to be like "hey you. gimme your number so I can nervously phone you in hopes that you want to hear from me." So I read their blogs and comment, in hopes that somehow they can read between the lines and see how much I value them, even from afar. There's also family, all CJs, that I love to read up on and see how they're doing. We don't live close to anyone really, so this is the best way to keep up on family happenings. Who's pregnant (yay Melanie and Michelle!) who's going to the reunion, who's moving, who's.... and so on. There's almost no family left in my own family, so to have so many relatives through marriage now, well, it was a bit of a shock to the system, and I love it. Especially when there are so many around our age. I wish we were going to the Humpherys reunion this year, but it's too far for us to go this time, but hopefully we'll get to see some soon (Vegas cousin reunion, anyone?) . Sometimes I'm too chicken to comment, but I'm going to work on that...

Oops, I rambled again. Comment! Even if it's nothing but "I'm here!" or "zombies are attacking me, but happy to see things are going well for you!". I'm going to try to make sure I comment more, because I know that I get happy when I see comments, so other people must love it too... I hope? I should add, I'm not just talking about this blog. I'm talking about all blogs! Sometimes people get discouraged from posting in blogs because they don't get any comments, so why not encourage them along?

Ooh. I should give some motivation for people to post here, right? How's cute kid photos?

Our backyard wall is perfect for sidewalk chalk and practicing letters:

J trying to give the cat a kiss:

One of the BEST Books Ever. EVER.

2009-05-31T10:36:00.000-07:00

**I've never done a review on my blog, and no, no one asked me to or anything. We just love this book so much that I want to share it with everyone, because it's that good of a book.**

I love books. Love them. I think it comes from growing up with a mum who worked in an amazing university bookstore, so I spent lots of time there after school, waiting for her to get off work. I loved their kids section, they had such a great selection of books. Plus we had a great library system in Hamilton, the kids section was huge. Or at least, it appeared to be at the time... I don't know if it actually is... anyways. We had a good amount of childrens authors come to read to us there, it was great. I wish our library here could get childrens authors to read here.

ANYWAYS.

When M started preschool at Carmichael, she started getting the Scholastic flyers every month to bring home. Heeeaaavvveeennnn!!!!! I loved those things as a kid, and now as a parent, I could finally order whatever books caught my fancy. And I ordered. Oh, how I ordered. The prices are just so great, who can resist! We've gotten some great books from that, but I want to tell you about one book that caught my eye. I'd never heard of it, but the bright colors and great illustration on the cover drew me to it, and I had to get it.

Let me introduce you to Grumpy Bird.

Isn't he adorable??? Don't let him hear you say that, it might make him angry. See, he's grumpy today. He doesn't want to even fly, he's so grumpy. Lucky for him he has some (equally well drawn and cute) friends around to cheer him up. Raccoon, Sheep, Rabbit, Beaver and Fox all find Bird's walking fascinating and decided to walk too, which ends up making Bird realize that he doesn't need to be grumpy when he's got great friends around.

The author is Jeremy Tankard and I have to say, even though he only has three books out at this time, for me his writing and illustrations (yes, he does both in his books!!) are in the same elite category of adoration as Robert Munsch. Plus he's a Canadian, just like Robert Munsch (and meeee!), we must make creativity really flow up there.

Sorry, back to the book.

The bright bold colors just catch your eye, and the storyline is so cute that you can't help but get into reading the book, voicing each animal in a different way, and getting louder to show Birds frustrations.

The kids love Grumpy Bird, they get really into it and now that we've read it so often they call out Birds replies to his friends. Even J loves this book, at 1.5 years he's hard to keep still to read to, but the bright colors and details catch his attention and he loves it. I often find him in M and Ps bedroom, looking at the pictures in the book.

This really is a perfect childrens book. It's not too many words that the kids lose interest halfway through, the illustrations are bold and whimsical and just demand attention. The storyline isn't boring for the parent either, I get as into the book as the kids do. And best of all, it's one of those books you can pull out when someone's getting grumpy (even yourself!) and by the end of the book, everyone is giggling and happy again.

Mr. Tankard also has Me Hungry! out, and just published Boo Hoo Bird. My mum was generous enough to snatch up Boo Hoo Bird for us at her local Borders, since our book buying abilities have been weakened from M getting out of school, and not many local places sell a good selection of books. Boo Hoo Bird is just as perfect as Grumpy Bird, and the kids are already getting into the boo hoo'ing in this book. I really hope Mr. Tankard keeps publishing childrens books, because I will definitely keep buying them. Now... we just need to get our hands on Me Hungry!

I'll stop raving about this book now, especially since the kids are outside on their bikes, and I have a feeling we might just need to read Boo Hoo Bird soon, in case of a fall or two.

Happy, Happy Birthday!

2009-05-26T23:43:00.000-07:00

A very happy 29th birthday to CJ!

Celebrated with chinese food, a new barbeque grill and a bike. Score.

29 reasons CJ is great:

He's one of those sickening people that everyone likes and gets along with.

He's got faith in everyone.

He thinks he's really funny and he's not, which makes it funnier.

He's an awesome father.

He'll watch chick flicks with me with minimal complaints.

He's convinced me that basketball is a great fun sport, at least to watch.

He doesn't mind changing diapers.

He's great at surprising me. (even when that is jumping out of a dark room to scare the heck out of me.)

He supports my crazy ideas.

He cried when our children were born. (I love that.)

He loves his family, immediate and extended.

He's comfortable to fall asleep on watching a movie.

He's good at game shows.

He loves the outdoors.

He loves his job and does great at it.

He is easy to talk to.

He talks in his sleep and makes me laugh at what he says.

He tries hard at everything he does.

He's mostly fun to play board games with. Even if both of us hate losing.

He has a blast with the kids, and they adore him.

He loves to clean.

He treats us all like royalty, even when we don't deserve it.

He smells good. (hey, that's important if you're going to be with some one for eternity.)

He is the best guy I have ever, ever, ever known.

He will go "window shopping" with minimal whining.

He will try eating anything I put before him.

He'll go for take out if that food didn't work out so well.

He forgives really easily.

He loves me.

Happy birthday, husband of mine. As M says, we "luva luva LOVE you".

Potty Training Woes

2009-05-21T21:06:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I'm going there again. Sorry, but it's something that I have to deal with everyday because SOMEONE... *cough*
*cough*... still doesn't want anything to do with the potty or losing the diaper butt. Sigh. So we're sucking it up and getting some Pull-Ups and trying those, because bribery, begging and threats of no Thomas just don't work. Yeah yeah, they train in their own time, but M didn't potty train til she was 4 years old, and frankly, that kinda sucked.

We've tried:
Sitting him on the potty in front of the TV *didn't work. he happily sat there for 2 hours*
Letting him walk around nekkid *nope. he got very upset at the zig zag of pee following him down the hallway and that's it.*
Put him in underwear and tell him Thomas/Lightning doesn't like being wet *again, nope. poor Thomas.*
Sat him on the potty every 15 minutes *peed 2 minutes before and 2 minutes after being on the potty*
Telling him that they don't let big-little boys in to Disneyland if they have diapers on *yeah, I'm a crappy mum, but desperate times...*
Begging him *didn't work*

I'm on the mailing list for Huggies and Pull-Ups and they just sent me a grrrreat coupon for $5 off any pack of Pull-Ups, so it's not like it costs me a ton to try it. And I really think the "cool alert" just might shock P into realizing what's happening before he feels the trickle on his legs. He gets upset when he has an accident, so it's not like he could care less... I've looked around on the Pull-Ups website, and they have a new thing going on called the Potty Project, and it makes me feel like I'm not alone in the vast crazy world called potty training. Some great ideas, and great advice! I'm going to try to relax again about it all, and get CJ to relax too. If he had his way, they'd be born potty trained... if only.
Truthfully, I wish P went to the preschool M went to, because they worked magic with getting her out of diapers/Pull-Ups and into panties. They definitely did the majority of the work, and I think the "peer pressure" aspect really had something to do with it too. But P could care less that M gets to wear undies and is such a big girl, even his best friend is potty training and P doesn't care at all. So no peer pressure to work with I guess!
Hopefully Pull-Ups and rewards chart will work, because I'd love to have him at least partially trained when we go to SoCal for vacation next month. A soggy diaper at the beach is just so unappealing sounding!

Written in thanks to the Parent Bloggers Network, who clued me in to the Potty Project.

These Kids

2009-05-17T22:22:00.000-07:00

This girl...

oops...

I mean THIS girl...

is a graduate of the Carmichael Elementary Special Ed Preschool, and I could *not* be prouder. Last year she tested at 18-24 month range in many of the areas, and she has caught up AND surpassed in all the areas except for speech, which her speech therapist said she will probably test out of within 6 months!! When she first started at the preschool she was very shy and it took a lot to get her to participate and open up, and Miss Bonnie said that her classmates now seek HER out for playtime and activities, and none of her teachers or therapists have ever seen her ever be mean, even when being pushed!! (I have seen different, but siblings don't count with M I guess?) She stands up for herself but has never been aggressive. Even when someone was trying to get her off of a tricycle on the new "racetrack" at the preschool and was trying to tip her off, I hear! So we are on to Kindergarten come August, which her teachers and therapists all said they think she is more than ready academically. I'm worried because she is so shy in new situations, but her teachers are sending their notes to her new teacher and I'll get the chance to talk to the teacher (we don't know who it is yet) before she starts as well.

And THIS boy...

graduated out of physical therapy!! Shelly said that he's doing great with his walking and can do pretty much anything she needs for him to test out of needing PT. It was bittersweet for me, because Shelly has been so great with him and me, but my boy is getting big. His walking is great, he can get up from sitting to standing with no help, he's even climbing onto chairs and standing in them (almost gave me a heart attack when he discovered that one). Looks like we may be on to speech therapy though, the ped wants him to be evaluated. I'd rather get him into it now than when he's three, like our old ped waited with M. It still makes me so angry to think about that.

And then THIS boy who is the "norm" in our therapy family...

Got to live out a dream and visit a firehouse! Our awesome mothers group leader arranged for the group to tour the firehouse by our Stake Center, and P was in heeeeeaven. Got pretty freaked when one of the firemen got in full fire-fighting gear, O2 mask and all, and refused to stand by him until the fireman took off the mask and helmet, and still had to have his best friend Isaac stand with him for a photo with the fireman. (absolutely LOVE Isaac's "cheeeese!" face)

But he got to sit in the fire truck, see the lights go on, watch the water spray aaand....

Got to actually spray water from the fire hose! Oh, joyous rapture!

Overall, a great month of May so far, I'd say. CJs birthday and my mums birthdays are coming up, so my mum and stepdad are coming into town for Memorial Day to celebrate early, woo! Cupcakes-- I mean, family time!

I Got First Pick In The Mum Pool, nahnahnah!

2009-05-08T22:30:00.000-07:00

So I like to brag about my mum. A lot. And to anyone. Sorry, but she rocks, so I'm gonna sing it to the world! And you can ask any of my friends that have met her face to face. She. Is. Awesome. Face it, I was first in line in the "pick your mum" line in Heaven. (maybe that's why I screwed up in the "pick your dad" line.... ah well, I made up for it in the "pick your second dad" line, so whatevah! (Yes, I really do say "whatevah" in real life. I am THAT dorky) ANYWAYS. At the request of The Parent Bloggers Network and in honor of Mothers Day... (look at me, ahead of the game for once! But if you moms have been given free reign to buy your own pressie, check out the Celebrity Mom Auctions on eBay. Totally want Jessica Alba's Mac stroller that she has up for bidding!)

My mum gave me:

A love of books
A weakness for Broadway musicals
A slight paranoia as a passenger in a car
A great family history
An appreciation for yummy ethnic foods
A great last name (come on, Campbell is just SUCH an awesome last name, I'll admit I miss it)
Blue eyes (well, they're my papas, but he's her dad)
So many opportunities to try new things (soccer, hockey, violin, piano, flute, clarinet, english seat riding, ballet, tap, jazz... I could go on)
The chance to spread my wings and grow on a completely different continent (Scotland)
An awesome step-dad
Faith that I could be a better person than I thought I could be
The nose to sniff out a good deal
A love of Toyotas
Faith to let me lead sometimes, even if I tripped up once in awhile
Belief that I could do what I put my mind to (I credit my VBA2C (vaginal birth after 2 cesarians) to her and to Mandy, both of them really helped me believe I could do it, so thanks Mandy too)
My sarcasm mixed with a bit of crazy
Pride in where I come from
Hope for the future (in terms of our long political discussions)
Love of a good British TV show (Hamish Macbeth, how I miss you)
A good solid upbringing
Great, long lasting friendships
Furniture when CJ and I got married
A complete weakness for Buche de Noel, oh yum.
A secret addiction to Law and Order
Inability to turn down caffienated sodas (it's got to be the genes, right?)
The ability to speak French
Fear of creepy crawlies
Being able to cry at the drop of a hat
The 17 year old cat that's sleeping peacefully next to me (though M is positive that Isis (the cat) is HER cat, no one else's)
A shoulder to cry/rant/sob/laugh into at any time
A built-in babysitter willing to drive hours on end to be here in desperate situations (I don't mean a date to the movies, I'm talking in terms of needing someone to watch the kids while I have surgery/pop a kid out/etc)
A great example to follow.

Love you, mum.

How To Potty Train A Boy.

2009-05-03T22:16:00.000-07:00

Step 1: Let him pick out his very own big boy underwear.. Since it's what his big sister calls her underwear, try not to laugh hysterically every time he calls his underwear "panties". (be aware you'll probably fail at not laughing.)

Step 2: The next morning, put the potty in the living room in front of the television, and turn the TV to the Disney Channel.

Step 3: Two hours later of him sitting half naked, happily watching Ooh and Aah (the monkeys), change the TV to "The Price Is Right" so you don't lose your sanity to overthinking the plot lines of "My Friends Tigger and Pooh".

Step 4: Now that he has a nice red ring around his butt, give up and put him in a diaper.

Step 5: 15 minutes later, change said diaper since it's already soaked to breaking point.

Step 6: Tell boy that Disneyland only lets big boys in if they don't wear diapers, so we can't go if he doesn't start using the potty.

Step 7: Change another diaper.

Step 8: Put him in ~~panties~~ big boy underwear and put him on the potty every 15/30/45 minutes, whichever you want to set your timer to.

Step 9: Clean up the accident in the kitchen that occured 2 minutes before/2 minutes after boy sits/sat on the potty and comfort boy who is wierded out that his leg magically got all wet.

Step 10: Tell boy that Thomas/Lightning McQueen on his ~~panties~~ big boy underwear doesn't like to get wet, so we have to put the peepee in the potty. Boy nods.

Step 11: Clean up accident on carpet and again comfort boy who doesn't understand why it keeps raining on his legs. Let boy apologize to Thomas/Lightning McQueen as you put ~~panties~~ big boy underwear in the growing lump of mini clothes needing washing, despite just doing them the night before.

Step 12: Slap a diaper on that big-little boy butt and admit defeat for another day/week/month.

Apparently my children aren't fans of potty training before turning 4, or at least that's what I feel like we're on track for. But they're so freaking cute and wierd, I think I'll keep them anyways.

Cinderella

2009-04-25T22:48:00.000-07:00

I know, two posts within almost 24 hours? Whaaat.

Anyways, was cruising iTunes looking for something else, and stumbled {yeah, I stumble a lot} on Steven Curtis Chapman's song, "Cinderella". Listened to it once, bought it, and scrapped it. First scrapbook page since the Great Computer Crash of 2009!

{and yes, I still cry when I listen to this song. I can't help myself.}

For you digiscrappers, everything is from Shabby Princess' new kits, Blossom and Barefoot. Both are so cute, and yep, used them in my new blog header, as well as her Promise kit, I think.

Guess Who

2009-04-24T22:58:00.001-07:00

Guess who...

has finally figured this...

walking thing out!!

Oh that's right. It would be him. Mister J, just shy of 1.5 years on this earth, has finally realized how much more junk you can mess with when you drop the whole crawling thing.

And he's pleased as punch about it.

Take that, Torticollis!

A Week From Down South...

2009-04-07T21:42:00.000-07:00

...way way south. That dirty little words we're not supposed to say but it always slips out when something crappy happens. To be Mormon, H-E-double hockey sticks. Oh, screw it.

Hell.

This past week sucked royally. My computer stopped working on Tuesday, a bit annoying but meh, we thought we'd just take it to Best Buy the next day to get it taken care of. Took it in, and waited while the tech said he would back up all my documents before he got started fixing it. Looked at/drooled on the laptops, tried to figure out the Wii, totally failed at it, wandered... finally the tech came out and said "I'm sorry...." and my brain went to mush. He couldn't find any of my documents and he'd exhausted all efforts. My photos, my programs, my scrapbook pages. Gone. Three years worth of my babies lives, disappeared without a glance.

I started crying in the middle of Best Buy. Red faced, eyes pouring, nose running, words not forming properly... yeah. I tried to compose myself in the bathroom but didn't help much. A sweet Best Buy employee tried to comfort me a bit, but didn't help much. The tech kept saying he was so sorry, he understood because it happened to him too, but really... didn't help much.

I picked up my desktop, walked out to the car, put it in the back of the van, got in the drivers seat and called my mum, and lost it. I'm pretty sure I scared the living daylights out of her, but I had to cry it out with someone, and bless CJ but he wouldn't understand like another woman would. Yes, I have some of my photos uploaded to various photo sites, and some on CD, but I haven't backed them up on CD or another harddrive. Stupid of me, right? For the past few months, ever since Jesse lost her photos, I've had that niggle in the back of my head that I need to back up my photos, get an external harddrive, burn them to CD/DVD... it kept popping into my head constantly, but I was comfortable in my ignorance I guess? I just kept ignoring that whisper... that was the worst part for me, afterwards. That I could have totally prevented the heartbreak that I was feeling, by listening! It's like I told my mum, I felt like such a hypocrite. I stand at the front of Relief Society every other month and tell the sisters how they need to listen to the Spirit, to the still small voice, and then I totally blow it off for months?! Really?? Seriously!!? Ugh. UGH.

Anyways. I talked to my mum and she told me I *had* to get a second opinion, if I did a system restore without getting another opinion then I needed my head checked. So I arrived home somewhat calmer {not really} , CJ came out to see why I hadn't come in, and that started me on a fresh bout of tears. I sat on the couch, vacantly staring at House Hunters and randomly spouting off "I'm so frickin' STUPID" and "it's all gone. It's just... gone" and the likes, and then got out the yellow pages with CJs prodding. I found a local store called The Technology Nook, and called them. They said to bring it in and they'd see what they could do, so I did. I told them I didn't have a ton of hope, but I couldn't just not try.

Thursday came. No word from them, so I called. I couldn't really understand them, so I went to the store. Lovely lovely man talked to me, got some more info, and said he'd call me when he knew anything.

Friday came, and he called. And he found my photos. I cried and then started laughing hysterically. You know that laugh you get when you're slightly crazed about something? That's what came out of me. Don't ask me how he found it, he told me but I'm just not that technical. I know what I need to in order to play with my computer, but the deep codes and all that... nope. I just know that something, probably a virus, got in and destroyed my partition I believe, and did something to hide my documents in a deep, dark corner. He found them on the last option he had, and I'm so freaking grateful he did.

I just got my computer back today, because I have just SO much stuff on this computer. I believe over 40 GBs of photos and programs and such.... eeks. Plus they were being a bit difficult in coming out, but I do NOT care. I would wait a month for them. It's ALL my childrens photos, all their births {not the gross stuff} , their firsts, their ups and downs, MY ups and downs... all of it. I went to bed on Wednesday and as soon as I turned the light off, photos started flashing through my mind, memories that I'd never be able to show them evidence of... my stomach cramped up and I would start crying all over again. Those huge, gut wrenching sobs that you just can't stop. A bit extreme for photos, I'm sure some people are thinking. But photographic memories are a huge thing to me, huge. I'll keep anything that I associate with a memory, and photos even moreso. Sometimes they're all you have left of someone or something. I only have 2 photos of me and my father, and as much as I dislike him, that's a huge part of who I am. The thought that something could happen to me or CJ in the next year and all the kids would have had of us were some photos I may have uploaded to a website? That terrifies me.

I'm SO grateful. I'm grateful for a man in this little town who knew computers well enough to find my treasures for me. I'm grateful that he only wanted $180 to do that for me, especially when Best Buy said they could send it to some place in California to look for my photos, but that it would probably cost me $1000 to do it. I'm grateful for my photos being given back to my ignorant self. And as bizarre as this sounds, I'm so grateful for this lesson. Not the lesson of "make sure you back everything up" {but really... make sure you back everything up} , but the lesson I learned in not just listening a little better to that still, small voice, and the other lesson I learned.

I finally, FINALLY learned to say "Thy will be done, just help me find peace in it". Sounds whack, right? But it's true. It's something I've struggled with all my life, but this really finally taught me. Maybe it was the combination of following MckMama and their struggles with Stellan {they still need prayers, but she and he amaze me} or hearing MaryBeth talk in Relief Society {you are amazing, woman. you can Zumba me anytime} , but as much as this hurt me to go through, there are so many other things that are more trying to go through. As much as it physically hurt me to say at first, I finally learned to mean saying "Thy will be done". That's NOT the reason I got my photos back, this happens to great and wonderful people who deserve their photos back so much more than me. But I do believe that Heavenly Father knew that I could learn from this no matter what the outcome. There's a purpose in everything, I hope I truly did learn the purpose in this. Trust that voice, and learn to let go... If that's not what I was meant to learn, I really hope I learn it soon.

So there is my spiritualness all typed out. Don't expect anything remotely classy from me for a good while, it takes too much out of me. Bring me the shallow goodness of Psych (THANKS MUM FOR THE SEASON DVDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and the mundane blankness of exercising at the gym (I hate it, but it's necessarily evil).

And I'm SO freaking glad the man thought to find my iTunes. Couldn't live without my new anthem. What is it, you ask?

All-American Rejects.

"Gives You Hell".

Yes, yes it does.

If you can spare some time...

2009-03-24T15:40:00.001-07:00

Please read this blog, and spare a prayer for this family. MckMama isn't LDS, but her story and her faith make me want to be a better example and better mother. What they have gone through with their miracle Stellan is enough to make you know the power of God. Stellan is in a dangerous position again right now with his heart, and they could truly use all the prayers that they are offered. She is still such a great example of having faith no matter what, her blog posts really inspire me and lift me up, despite all that they are experiencing and feeling right now.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go hold my babies and remember just how lucky we are.

Random, anyone?

2009-03-12T23:10:00.000-07:00

Okay... exciting is lacking here, other than me actually getting down and dirty with dirt, I rearranged/planted new things in our little front garden. Nothing very fancy/overwhelming, some snapdragons and other pretty flowers. I took 2/3 of the kids (J was napping, don't worry, CJ was home with him) to Lowes a few days ago to get some more snapdragons, since half the garden is stuffed with snapdragons and the other half is naked. I ended up finding some really pretty and interesting flowers that I really do not remember the name is, but bought them and planted them in pots. They are now greeting people walking up the walk to our door. I need to get some pics of them... they're so neat looking! Mum and Richard are coming to town tomorrow and I've already told them that Richard is helping me figure out how to build a square foot garden. I, Laurie, am excited for a garden. Wierd. M and P loved "helping" (aka watching and running around with Molly) me while I planted the flowers, so I'm thinking of getting them each their own planter and letting them pick out seeds, and letting them have their own little gardens. Unfortunately they'll probably have to be in the front, because lovely Molly has a tendency to dig where she shouldn't, hence the need for us to replace parts of our cable wire twice. We have learned our lesson there, and not only are they reburied, they're covered with heavy bricks. Ha, take that, clever dog. (I give her another month before she figures out a way around it.)

What else... had our Emergency Preparedness Fair at the Church last Saturday. It went pretty well, CJ did most of the talking because he's the one that put together our 72 hour kit anyways. I got to learn about couponing (who knew, seriously... I'm intrigued) and also made sure J didn't wander too much. Towards the end of the fair the kids were getting crazy, and P was kneeling on the hardwood floor playing with a car, when a little girl ran into him and he smacked his head on the floor. It wouldn't have been a big deal if he hadn't also run into a doorknob the day before... ouch. So his already egglike bump doubled in size and just looked so painful. Poor boy was so upset, I really couldn't blame him. Mean mum that I am, I took some pictures, but they don't really show it to its full bumpiness. This was the day it happened, you can see the bump extends down to his eyebrow. Don't worry, he got a trip to Target and a Lightning McQueen shaped "owie" (cold pack) to help with the pain.

We've been dealing with the sicks for the last 10 days. In all honesty, if I don't see anymore throw up for, oh... ever, I'll be totally fine. Every single person in this house other than me threw up at least once, and guess who got to take care of all of it, other than CJ. Sorry, but when my 1 year old and my 28 year old husband are both throwing up, I'm going to take care of the 1 year old. The 28 year old can make it to the toilet. Then I had to also deal with J and P and their diaper dilemmas. Ew, that's all I'll say. P better potty train soon, this is getting really old. There was so much blech in the house for the past week that I started getting nauseous just at an innocent cough from one of the kids. Luckily (??) I didn't get sick, I almost wish I had so that *I* could have been babied. Waah waah, right?

I'll try to upload more photos tomorrow, my uploader wasn't working properly so instead of actually dealing with it, I just didn't download my photos. Niiiice. Then I started forgetting to take a photo a day of the kids, aagh!!! Why do I always screw these things up! Bah. I'm not giving up yet, just ticked that I'm missing some days.

M has spring break next week, should be.... fun, hopefully. I wish we could go somewhere, but not right now. We're hopefully going to Disneyland in June, woo hoo! It'll be my first time, I may just be more excited than the kids will be. Anyone in the area, let us know, we'll try to meet up!

Bedtime, M has early school tomorrow. Ugh, so not an early morning person.

The Bachelor... JERK!!

2009-03-02T21:18:00.000-08:00

WARNING. IF YOU HAVEN'T YET SEEN TONIGHTS EPISODE OF "THE BACHELOR", BUT PLAN TO...

DO. NOT. READ. ON.

With that out of the way...

Just... can you believe he... omg, for real... did he just... poor girl... I would kill him... SERIOUSLY?! Did anyone else watch After the Final Rose tonight and just want to THROW UP!?!?!?!?! What. A. Jerk. Jerk jerky jerky jerk jerk. CJ says I get way too involved in these stoopid shows, and it's really true, but oh man. I was muttering obscenities at the TV all night. Hope the TV doesn't take it personally. But man... since when does following your heart lead to breaking someone else's on national television. You'd think he of all people would be a leetle bit more kind and compassionate. Jerk jerky jerk jerk. Hmph. And Melissa... bless your cotton socks, girl. You handled it so much better than most of the population would have. The worst thing you called him was a bastard? Class, that's what you have.

Back to real life now, since the only Molly my kids care about is covered in black fur, walks on all fours and can't speak.

Ah... what's better than a bag of Goldfish each, so they don't have to fight over who holds the bag?

They made kissing hands in preschool and gave them to us for Valentines. I started crying when I opened up the "pwesent". (great book, btw, if you haven't read it!)

Doo Bee Doo Bee Doo...

2009-02-23T22:12:00.000-08:00

So... yeah. Really not that much exciting, it feels like. Maybe I should start making stuff up just to feel like I have a reason to post more!

I taught in Relief Society this weekend. I taught on Elder Bednars talk "Pray Always", which is amaaaazing. Really, I think it's one of my favorite talks ever. It's one of those that you can read over and over and have something new strike you each time. I had a scare that I had prepared the wrong lesson, but luckily the note was from the other ward. *whew* Then, just as I stood up to give the lesson, the Bishopric walked in. Are you KIDDING me?! I am NOT teaching in front of them. Almost had a heart attack, I swear. Luckily they were just coming in to talk about the emergency preparedness fair we're having March 7th *ahem, anyone in Sierra Vista, please come! I'll be there in all my coolness*. So I got to teach my lesson with no testosterone in the room other than the babies. I'm SO thrilled to say it went great! Sometimes our Relief Society doesn't participate much, which can make lessons drag out, but yesterday everyone seemed to have a comment, and I can really say that I learned some new thoughts. Yay!

After that I went visit teaching, and the sister we taught had some square foot gardens, and she really lit a fire in me to try it out! She had grown some parsley and it was HUGE. She gave us each a bag full of it, mmm, I love the smell of it! We have a retaining wall in the back that seems the perfect size, so I'm thinking of trying my hand at it. I'm excited/scared, I've never really "done" a garden.

Went to Kim and Tims for dinner, turkey and mashed potatoes and pie. OMG, yum. We all tried to watch the Oscars, but sad to say... it was boring. What's with that!! Poor J had a fever and was coughing a bit, so we went home and put him to bed. He seems a lot better today, I'm so glad. It makes me so sad to see him upset, he's such a sweet little man. Doesn't this photo look like it's from the 80s? I love photo editting a bit too much I think.

Going to try to get some digital scrapbooking done tomorrow, stay tuuuuuuuuned.

Whoop!

2009-02-15T22:16:00.000-08:00

I *KNEW* she could do the dance... little stinker. Here she is, in all her glory! Excuse the nose picking... she's four.

Valentines day was woooonderful! I love V-day. I got to sleep in and I woke up to the scent of crepes, yum! M gave us a beautiful little tantrum because it was Ps turn to say the prayer, what a great way to start the day... we gave the kids a bath and then set off for the mall to try to find CJ a Arizona Cardinals shirt. No dice, apparently Sierra Vista doesn't support the Cards....? I'll have to order one I guess. Wandered around a bit, which, in our teeny mall, doesn't take long. Went to Texas Roadhouse for lunch, mmmm. Funny that CJ and I ate there for V-day a year ago too, mum was here (when I got my gallbladder removed) and watched the kids then. Deeelicious, my steak was perfect and the kids hot dogs were snarfed down. J loves the mashed potatoes there. I love going there for lunch because there's never a wait! After that we went to Target to look for presents. CJ decided to get a new Gerber knife, and I couldn't pick, so CJ said we would go home and I could chill out with the kids and he'd go find something as a surprise. Okay...

So we got home, I cleaned a bit and tried to get J to take a nap. Didn't work, so I put in the "move it move it" movie (Madagascar 2 to those who don't speak Humpheryese) and we watched that then played/destroyed J's room. I did some ChaCha and CJ came home and woooo!!! He got me 2 dozen roses (1 dozen white and 1 dozen various colors), and a bouquet of gerbera daisy and such. He also got me an iTunes gift card, the new(ish) Taylor Swift CD, the book "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister", and some truffles. The man doesn't do surprises much, but this... this was great. He rented Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist too, which was good.

What else... M had her V-day party at school on Friday. I made up some cute little Valentine treat bags, and was worrying that she shouldn't bring candy... no worries! She came home with a ton of candy, which she and P and J proceeded to eat all of. Apparently I need to hide things better. Anyways. I used Shabby Princess' new kit Yours Truly to make M's valentines, they turned out pretty cute!

cough hack

2009-02-07T22:07:00.000-08:00

It was a pretty fun week, despite the fact that my voice decided to go on vacation on Sunday, and still hasn't really returned. Super Bowl was fun, we had a little party here with Kim and Tim and Jessie and Aaron, and kids of course. Suzy and Joe, we wish you'd have been able to come, I'm sorry you all got sick too! This town... anyways, I can't say I really cared too much about the outcome of the game, but the last few minutes WERE pretty thrilling. Sad for AZ though, but now CJ's decided to hop off the 49ers ship and onto the Cards, and has decided to become a permanent Cards fan. Which mean I absolutely *must* find him a Cards shirt to wear. But I found this instead, and think it's so much more fitting for him...

So perfect for him... happy Valentines honey!!

Anyways, back to the SB. It was a blast, but I think I'll be perfectly content to not eat another chicken wing for at least 100 months. Soooo winged out. Curse you, Buffalo Wild Wings.

So... I killed another vacuum. What. The. Crack. This is the second vacuum in 6 months. Our old one was a wedding present, so it was 6 years old, but this was my parents vacuum they gave us, not that old. I think I killed the motor... or maybe it just hates me. I'm going to say it probably just hates me. Too bad, it was a great vacuum, cleaned way better than our Hoover did. And our carpet is cheap and cruddy enough that lack of vacuuming shows within, oh, I'd say minutes. Anyone have an extra $330 to give me to get the Dyson that's on clearance at Target? Anyone? Bueller? I *KNEW* I should have worked more on ChaCha this month...

Now that I've figured out my sewing machine finally, thanks to making M's tutu for the dance recital (yeah, that's right. I MADE THAT PIECE OF ART. yay me! All us awesome mummies made the tutus!) I feel like I want to make more, like a dress for M. But I'm still intimidated, especially at the thought of where you have to gather fabric and sew it or something. Eeeeks! I know I just need to be brave and conquer my fears, but I have so many other things that I keep thinking about that I want to do... and then none get done. Like the vacuuming.

One thing I finally DID get done was hanging up J's planes in his room. I love it!! Now I need to paint the walls, but we'll see. I got the planes a few months ago in the Target Dollar Spot (sweet...) and painted them to match J's bedding. He loves them, when he wakes up in the morning or after his nap he loves when I hold him up so he can bat one around and watch it spin.

Next project is the photo wall... I finally ordered the photos, I got 5 8x10s, 5 5x7s and 5 4x6s from Winkflash for only $10.55 shipped! Score. That's where I ordered our holiday cards from too, their quality is pretty good. I have the frames, I just have to spray paint them black since the wood is a wierd color. I've been thinking about getting a vinyl word quote on the wall, still not sure. Should probably figure that out soon though.

We went to Jessie and Aarons tonight for dinner and games. It was so fun, even though I can not BELIEVE the guys beat us at Catchphrase. I swear it gave them such easy questions... they had to have rigged it. We laughed a lot, and Jessie and Aaron know some of CJs cousins from BYU-Hawaii, so they were swapping stories. M and P had a blast playing with Maile and Emmy too! And ooooh my, their house is gorgeous, Jessie your decorating is great! It made me realize how tired I am of our white walls. Hahahah!! We should paint, but our living/dining room is so intimidating because it's so big/tall and attached to the kitchen, painting will be tricky tricky. I'll have to talk CJ into it, I think. I have other home decorating thingies on my mind too... like painting our bed, our room, our bathroom... why I didn't really care two years ago when we moved in is beyond me, but now it's starting to niggle at me.

Okay, it's getting late and I'm frickin' freezing in here, to quote Dr. Evil. Oh!! One more thing: thanks for the M love and laughs at the video. Seriously, this child gives me so many opportunities for blackmail in the future...

Dancing Queen

2009-02-03T14:11:00.000-08:00

M and her class had their dance recital last week, and... well.... just watch.

More photographic evidence, and yes, some will be saved for blackmail opportunities of the future...

I Must Be Crazy.

2009-01-25T22:53:00.000-08:00

I have to be. There is just no logical reason I feel like this!! Any sane person {stop snorting in laughter at the thought of me being called sane, Mandy and Sam} would not feel like this, they just wouldn't. What am I feeling?

I want to move back to Utah.

*gasp!*

This is the same crackhead who was soooo excited to move to SoAZ and away from the "bubble" and the snow? Yes. But I miss it. We were watching the local news and they mentioned that it had snowed all day in Salt Lake, and what was my reaction? My heart twinged and I said "aww... I miss snow." Remember, I'm a Canadian, so I'm not a wimp about snow, but one does get tired of it after awhile, but I guess I'm over that tiredness. I miss snow, and it makes me sad that J has never seen a real snowstorm, and that P and M have never gone sledding. When I was M's age I'd already sledded my way headfirst into a cement pole, for cripes sake! Come to think of it, that might explain my personality... but I digress.
I miss the Mormon-ness too. I complained my way all over about that, but in all honesty, I really miss that. I hate walking into the supermarket and having to wave smoke out of my babys face. Plus the shopping in Utah is so much better. One word: IKEA. *swoon* Mum and I used to go there all the time back in Hamilton, to peruse and to have lunch. Great food, so cheap! The housing market is so much better there, bigger houses for about the same as we paid for our house, whaaat.
And I miss the family and friends there. Half of CJ's family lives there, and even though we didn't see them all that often, it was nice knowing they were there. Plus my polygamist husband and wife Sam and Mandy live there, and I miss going out with them and getting looks!
Not that SV is so horrible, it's not. The shopping is eh, Target only gets you so far, but the ward and the friends we've made here are INCREDIBLE, and CJ really does love his job. I wish I could combine the two worlds.
Maybe we'll get back there soon, for good. Fingers crossed, right?
So, to end on a high note, here's something that makes me crack up laughing every freaking time I watch it, it just never gets old. Thanks to Crazyland for making me think of it, and making me snort soda out my nose watching it.

In Honor of the New President...

2009-01-22T21:14:00.001-08:00

I had a dream. I dreamt that I was at the inauguration. It was so cool!!! Patriotic flags flying, people crying, cheering, so on and so forth.

But.

It wasn't Barack Obama, or George W. Bush on the stand. It wasn't even the Presidential inauguration. It was our Bishop that was being released, and a new one being sworn in. Fanfare and all. And the {old} Bishops wife was up on the podium with him, he escorted her off to band music playing, as the new Bishop took his place, but not before being sworn in on a Bible by a Supreme Court Justice. Or maybe it was a Book of Mormon... I can't remember. But I remember crying and thinking how special it was to be present on such an important day.

I think I need to stop watching the news so much.

Calming Down...

2009-01-19T21:51:00.000-08:00

Ahh... okay. Breathing again. :) Still feeling a bit in limbo, but meh, it's fine.

Parents came for the weekend. Kids were in HEAVEN. It was short, but very fun! Their hotel (which was soooo nice) had an indoor swimming pool, and the kids loved playing in it. P even got used to the water a bit more, and even jumped to CJ's arms. Woo! Haven't uploaded the pics yet tho. We also went on a {long} drive to a lake and had a picnic and CJ and the kids fished, but didn't catch anything. Didn't get M and Ps room painted like we planned, but we had fun and that was much more important.

So, since I don't have any pics of the weekend up yet, how about some of my favorite 365 photos? You can see all of them at A Year of Fish ...

Like A Dog...

2009-01-13T22:02:00.000-08:00

Ever feel like a dog chasing its tail, just going round and round and never really getting anywhere? Well... that's me right now, or at least how I feel. I have so many things that I want to get done or do, but as soon as I start on one thing, I start thinking about something else that I want to do. Ugh! I just need to get it cleared out already! Ha.

M told me an interesting story at bedtime on Saturday. I was about to leave she said "mummy, I have to tell you a story."
Me: "okay"
M: lots of mumbling and wierd word placements, arm waving "the boys.... they were fighting... and they HIT." *mimics punching*
Me: "oh... someone hit you?"
M: "Nooo. The boys. They HIT."
Me: *slightly lost* "Who did the boys hit?"
M: *exasperated* "THE BOYS. THEY HIT."
Me: "They hit eachother? The boys?"
M: "yes!!"
Me: "Oh... why did they hit?"
M: "The boys just hit. Like this." *mimics punching again*
Me: "Oh.... okay."
M: "Yeah. They're naughty boys." *shakes her head*
Me: "Yes, they are."
M: "Night, mummy, I love you!"
I leave, still wondering what exactly we're talking about.

Ah... gotta love kids.

I Hate HTML

2009-01-06T22:15:00.000-08:00

Well, took me most of the time I was home today to figure out how to get the three column thing going on in here {smooches to Lacie for listening to my ranting and helping me figure this crap out} but taa daaahhh!!! New blog look for a new year. Score. Seriously, I swear I'm fairly good with a computer, but HTML and I just do NOT get along. At all. A few expletives escaped my saintly mouth while trying to figure this out, I'm not ashamed to admit it.

M is back at preschool, and I'll show my crappy parent side by admitting just how glad I was to see her get on that school bus. P, J and I celebrated by sharing a personal pan pizza at Target. Getting out with just two kids is so much easier than three, trust me. I admit, I'm one of those moms who secretly rolls my eyes at the overdramatic people who complain about getting out with one kid and mutter to myself "I remember those days...". And secretly I wish I could go back in time and smack myself for thinking it was just so hard to get out with one OR two kids. Teehee. Now I'm not saying I roll my eyes at people who have a hard time with two kids, I've been there and done that. It's the people who think they have it SO much worse than anybody else POSSIBLY could, blah blah blah. Really, it's a select few people that I've ever met, and chances of them reading this blog are slim to none, so untwist your knickers, because I'm not talking about you.

Tried to start potty training P this week... yeah. I stopped. My kids enjoy their diapers too much. The boy is scared of the potty, so I had it out in the living room. Well, J thought it was mucho fun and P still wanted nothing to do with it, so that idea tanked. So I set the peepee timer, and about 2 minutes before it went off I hear P start crying, I turn around and he's walking towards me like he'd just been horseback riding for 5 days straight, and there's a zig zag of a pee trail behind him in the hall. Really... crappy parent in me *still* wishes I'd gotten a picture of it. All I could do was laugh hysterically, which instead of making HIM laugh too like it usually does, upset him more. Oops. So I comforted and stripped the undies off of him and slapped a diaper back on. We'll try again in a week. Or more. Another hilaaaaaarious part of this was him calling the Thomas underwear I got him "panties". Oh law, it's awesome. CJ hates it, it's not manly blah blah, but oh my gosh, I crack up. Especially in Target when we walk by the toddler underwear and P says at the top of his high pitched lungs "look mummy! Look! It's CARS panties! Look look! I want those panties!". Even the Target worker was snorting in laughter. Priceless.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T21:36:00.001-08:00

And, to celebrate the new year and all its potential and possibilities and blah blah blah, I have reopened my 365 blog!

*cue applause*

http://ayearoffish.blogspot.com/

Three pics of three cute kids, what better way to celebrate January 2nd.

Ah, what else.

Oh.

Yes.

Congratulations to the Utes for a games freaking awesomely played. {I think I threw up in my mouth a little typing that.} Yes, pains our Cougar blue blood to say so, but the Utes kicked some Bama butt. That should shut Nick Saban up, and maybe get some more respect for the MWC. So three cheers for the Utes, and BYU alum Kyle Whittingham. {sorry, had to tie the win to BYU somehow...}

Took the tree down yesterday, and spent today wandering around our not-design-oriented enough town looking for fun things to dress up the entertainment center with. I want to decorate with pink and red and cheesy Valentiney shtoof, CJ's a totally party pooper and wants to be klassy. Boo on that, I say! But we found some nice vases which I have promptly put Valentines M&Ms in, which took me too long because I'm anal and had to sort by color, and M&Ms TOTALLY skimped on the white ones!! I had four times the amount of red ones as I did white. Rude. But I got clever and figured out a pattern I like... not that it matters. Grubby little CJ hands will eat them within the week, I'm sure. Although I got the peanut ones too, to use as distraction... we'll see.

Christmas

2008-12-30T19:08:00.000-08:00

Christmas was great. As much as I wish we could be with family, it's fun to have it just our somewhat-little family. M and P still don't fully get Santa, but they got that he brought presents and wouldn't come if they were naughty. Great motivation to be good...

It looked like Toys R Us threw up in our house in the morning, it was awesome. We ended up having to get P some plastic totes to put all his Thomas in because we have no more storage left. And I've stepped on quite a few sharp little trains already, and came very close to "accidentally" chucking them through a window. Good thing the shades were closed.

M got a kitchen and seeing her face when she saw it... it was so great. She got really shy as if she wasn't sure it was for her, and then was just SO excited. She loves it. ALL of them love it, actually.

J got some fun toys, but it's hard to find toys for his age that we don't already have in some way or another. Not the best picture, but you can see the load of Thomas crud everywhere.

And what did CJ and I get for Christmas? Tee hee hee hee.... one of the best presents I've ever gotten.

A new TV!!!!!! To sound like TAMN---Squeeeee!!!!!!!!!! Yep, we used CJ's bonus to get a new 42" HDTV. No, we're not being wasteful with money, we did need a new TV as our old one was starting to go, and watching movies with green corners just isn't as fun as on a new TV. We'd had that TV since we were newlyweds, and my parents had had it before us. I'm such a suck and teared up in the van as CJ was donating it to Salvation Army here. What a dork. Sucky thing is, our cable company doesn't have HD channels yet (bah) so we're switching to DirecTV. CJ's like a little kid on a sugar high, thinking about watching the Super Bowl in HD. And now you've also seen part of our house, aren't you all so excited? In all it's white walledness? I should take more pics of this room and have you guys tell me what to paint it, if even to paint it. It's so whacky shaped it's hard! Oops. There I go on a ramble again.

So Angie, Jesse and Staci will be proud, but I've been thinking about getting back into scrapping (both ways, digi and paper) again. I took a big fat break because I was just feeling.... overwhelmed I guess. I had other things going on IRL and in the online world, and I let it slip off my radar of things that relax me. But I'm like a fly drawn to a bug zapper with all the pretty doodads out there for both kinds of scrapping, and I've been collecting a bit here and there. I made a mini album for my friend Kim for her baby boy Spencer, turned out cute. Of course, forgot to take pics of it, durr.

J is finally standing with support!!! And he's figured out his feet and takes STEPS while holding onto our hands!! AND he's crawling on his hands and knees now!! Really, the amount of progress he's made in the last month just makes me burst with cheesy mummy pride. Shelley is so pleased she's letting us go to an appointment every two weeks instead of every week, which is very nice since our copays are going up to $50 a pop. J is also very proud of himself, and loves to show off his skillz anywhere. Little lovebug. He also has discovered that tipping the bowl straight into his mouth is mucho faster than bothering with silly things like spoons or fingers.

Another Fun Visitor!

2008-12-22T08:50:00.000-08:00

From Wednesday until today, my mum came to town for a pre-Christmas visit, since she and Richard are ditching the States in favor of the beaches of Bermuda for Christmas. Color me jealous... but never mind. We had a BLAST.
The kids loved having her around.
We made gingerbread cookies.
We decorated gingerbread houses. {and made a huge mess doing so}
We went on drives to look at Christmas lights.
We ate at the peanut house. {Texas Roadhouse to those not speaking P-ese}
We shopped our feet off in Tucson.
We watched Mamma Mia! Over and over and over.
We hit up Target multiple times.
M sang Love Story for her.
P showed her his plethora of Thomas trains.
J charmed the senses out of her.

It was a great time!

I'll have to remember to upload the pics ASAP, which probably means I won't remember til new years.

Maybe that should be a new years resolution, to upload my pics faster....

Speaking of new years, one of my resolutions that I hope I'll actually *keep* this time is to restart my 365 project, but with a different spin. Instead of me being in all the pics, I'm going to try to take a pic of each child each day, and if I succeed, at the end of the year I'll print them in a hardbound book. Fingers crossed I can keep it up this time!

One out of three...

2008-12-18T08:24:00.000-08:00

likes Santa.

At least in our house.

Oh well. We'll try again at breakfast with Santa this weekend. Maybe I'll get two out of three this time.

Please, please PLEASE read this and sign!!

2008-12-11T10:35:00.000-08:00

I'm a huge fan of mom and pop businesses. Like my favorite bowmaker, Karyn, who runs Little Pink Ladybug. But she's closing her business as of February 10, 2009. Not because she WANTS to, but because she HAS to. Likewise, many sellers on my favorite addiction, Etsy, will have to shut down. I love to get second-hand clothes at great deals, but I won't be able to anymore, from garage sales or consignment stores. And do you love going to the handmade crafts sections at fairs and such? Well, no more buying childrens products there, or selling them yourselves.

New Product Safety Legislation Needs Clarifications Now
Urge Your Members of Congress to Help Now

In August 2008, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) (PL 110-787) was passed by Congress to strengthen product safety laws to ensure only safe and compliant products are sold to our nation's children. While well-intentioned, this legislation imposes several new and burdensome requirements that increase costs at a time of economic upheaval but that do not offer any improvement in the safety of children's clothing or footwear.
Urge your members of Congress today to work with the Consumer Product Safety Commission to develop a pragmatic approach to the implementation of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. Strengthening our product safety system is an important goal, but this can only be achieved if there are predictable and commonsense regulations that address safety risks.

In "mom" words:

Congress passed an act called the CPSIA - its intent is to keep lead and phthalates out of childrens' products. Which is obviously great. HOWEVER, this act means that everyone who sells products intended for children will have to test each and every one of their products for lead/phthalates. If someone knits baby booties, they'll have to test each yarn they use, and each dye lot of that yarn. Each test costs upwards of $1k. In other words, as of 2/10/09, most small businesses dealing with childrens' products are going to be forced to close up shop.It's not just toys - it's clothing, cloth diapers, cribs, strollers, slings - EVERYTHING meant for children under 12. And it's not just businesses, large or small - consignment stores cannot sell untested/uncertified clothing. **You yourself cannot sell untested/uncertified clothing on eBay, message boards, or even in a garage sale.

Please, please, please take the small amount of time that it will take to email your Representatives and Senators to let them know of this huge problem. Whether you create things by hand yourself, or enjoy being able to buy something beautiful and support a fellow mom or dad. Even if you haven't ever bought something handmade, chances are you know or knew someone that this will affect.

Places to find out more information and to sign petitions/email your Reps:

Etsy's Open Letter
CapWiz - they'll email your Reps for you, with your info
Handmade Toy Alliance
National Bankruptcy Day - they have a petition to sign in the colum on the right, as well as updates.

Taggiola Time

2008-12-08T18:04:00.000-08:00

Hilary tagged me a bit ago, and I kept meaning to do this, but then my computer got a virus and it took me forever and a day to get rid of it, blah blah blah. So here it is:

8 T.V. Shows I like to watch:
1. Psych (totally have a crush on Gus)
2. House
3. NCIS
4. Imagination Movers (it's the one kids show that I can really get into)
5. House Hunters
6. Numb3rs
7. The Hills (guilty pleasure)
8. Parking Wars

8 Places I like to eat:
1. Texas Roadhouse
2. Bushwhackers
3. Rodolphos
4. McDonalds (kid friendly. what can I say...)
5. Chilis
6. Olive Garden
7. Outback
8. Golden Dragon

8 Things I did today:
1. Went to M's IEP evaluation
2. Avoided going to the gym
3. Finished making the gingerbread cookies
4. Fixed the computer
5. Changed my kids diapers
6. Sent CJ off to work
7. Took M to dance class and chatted with the other moms
8. Watched J learn to get up on his feet!!!!!!!!!

8 Things I'm looking Forward to:
1. Mum coming to visit next week
2. My arms to stop hurting
3. To FINALLY see Twilight
4. Christmas
5. Shopping in Tucson this weekend (yesssss)
6. Sleep
7. Getting our new TV finally
8. Painting the kids room... eventually

8 Things I can't live without:
1. CJ
2. M
3. P
4. J
5. The Church
6. Extended family
7. The computer
8. Coke

Now... Tag 8 people

umm... really, whoever wants to do this. :) Amber? Shila? Staci? Bueller?

Oh owww...

2008-12-07T19:30:00.000-08:00

We had a visitor this weekend. The kids loved her being around. I did too... as long as we weren't in the gym. Because she kicked my arse into gear, and oh good gravy, I'm SO FREAKING SORE now.

Yep, aunt Camille came to visit us for the first time in SoAZ! M and P loved it, they had such a blast playing with her and laughing hysterically. We took her to see the sights, which was basically just Tombstone and Bisbee... yeah. Not that thrilling when she was only down from Thursday until today. But it was fun! She helped me take the kids to the Christmas parade last night. OOOOOOOH my gosh, that sucker was long! It started at 5:30pm and we took the kids home at 7:30 because we were too cold to keep standing there, even though the parade was still going on!

Some pictures...

Thankful

2008-11-27T22:49:00.000-08:00

I am thankful...

for our health, as whacky as it can be.
for M's preschool and all that she's learned already.
for baby smiles and growls first thing in the morning.
that I didn't burn the roast today.
that I have some amazingly great friends both near and far.
for CJ's job, as skeery as it can be.
that Kim drags me to the gym.
for House and how much he makes me laugh.
that my mum is in a happy place, for the most part.
to have a husband who never discourages my whacky ideas.
for the memories I have so far, happy and sad both.
that dinner tonight was just SO good.
to have a roof over our heads, and a fridge full of food.
that Mercy said she was thankful for tomatoes {even though she meant potatoes}.
that my printer finally decided to work.
for my roots and ancestry.
that MaryBeth kept her promise and came to playgroup this week.
for a healing P man.
that our neighbour takes our garbage to the curb for us when I'm busy cleaning up a puking P.
that J find burps so freaking funny.
for Bolt.
to have some amazing people for in laws, both immediate family and extended.
that there's a park right behind our house, so burning toddler energy isn't a car drive away.
for Canada.
that I didn't name my son Bronx Mowgli like I'd planned. {who knew Ashlee Simpson was thinking the same thing!}
for yummy smelling candles that make the room smell so lovely.
to live in a country where I can say all these things and not be muted.
for a religion that is so sound and firm.
to have faith surrounding me even when I don't feel it.
for a cat that wakes me up at night with unearthly sounds. {wait...}
for a dog that is better with my babies than most babysitters.
for a fish that just won't kick the bucket. {we're down to 1 out of 4}
for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and me crying while watching it, for no good reason.
that this town has a Target.
that P still loves to cuddle with me, and pats me on the cheek and says "i loe loo, mummy."
for J's physical therapist, Shelly, and how well she does with him.
that M loves to sing the Mamma Mia! soundtrack with me, and can shake her booty doing it.
that CJ is such a funny and fun dad.
that I finally got to say "peace out, girl scout" in a sarcastic way to someone this year.
to have so many blessings.

Happy Thanksgiving/Black Friday!!

Peekture Time Again!

2008-11-24T13:15:00.000-08:00

I have a few things I've been thinking about blogging, but instead I'm going to let you see some really cute kids. Sound fun? Yes! BTW, if any of you want a Christmas card {that will probably include one of these pictures, if that's more incentive for you} email me your address or post it in the comments, if you're that brave. Email is cjandlaurie@gmail.com

I took the kids to the park to take these pics yesterday. I have a big blank wall that's begging for a photo collage, and so I need some new pics of the kids for that, as well as for Christmas cards. I need to take some more, but here's what I have so far. Enjoy!

{the reason they're all black and white is because they're for the photo wall, and I love B&W photos.}

Time Flies...

2008-11-19T21:24:00.000-08:00

When you're trying to pretend it doesn't.

What have I not been posting about... hm.

How about my joy boy, P, turning three. Three?! What? When did... How on earth... WHO LET TIME FLY WITHOUT ASKING ME!! That's it, someone's getting fired tonight.

Yes, my P-man turned three years old two weeks ago, but because we wanted to have his 3 year checkup and J's 1 year checkup at the same time, he just had his appointment today. 33 lbs, 39 inches. I *knew* he was growing! Little dude's always been on the smaller side, but he's starting to catch up to M. Watch out world. He is the perfect image of health, his speech is beautiful {not something most worry about, but after what we went through with M... well, I'm paranoid.}, he's beautiful. He didn't need any shots, but they offered a flu shot for him, and since he catches everything and I'm a sadist, I said yes please. Poor kid, I guess it hit the muscle funny or something because today while M was in dance class he'd fallen asleep in the van, but when I got him up he could barely walk and was just so upset. Yes, it was a bit of dramatics, but this is the boy who can jump three feet forward from a standstill, and rarely stops moving. So I know he really was in pain. Poor bug. M did excellent in class so I treated her to a kiddie cone from Mickey Dees and got P a chocolate chip cookie to help him feel better; it seemed to stem the tears.
J did well too, charming the doctor and smiling and playing like the cute bubba he is. 20.3 lbs, 29 inches. Thought he'd weigh more than that... huh. He looks great, his head tilt is less and he's starting to pull up on things and figuring out how to tuck his tooshie in so he can stand better. Unfortunately he didn't fare as well as P did in the needle part of the exam. Poor bubs got 5, yep FIVE, needles. Le sigh. He. Was. PIIIISSED. We had P's done first, and I held P {who was sobbing} while CJ held J down so the nurse could stick him. Oh, the anger and hurt in his little man voice!! And then M wanted to know why J was crying and went over to see, and saw him get a needle. *She* burst into tears too. Oy vey, I was glad CJ was able to be there to help me. Three crying bubbies is just not fun. Funny enough, J seems fine now whereas P is in so much pain from his one shot...

Thanks to everyone who commented on my photos. I love taking photos, I hope I'm getting better at it. Helps that I have fun kids to practice the skill on, I suppose! I have some wonderful friend/teachers, check out my blog links and you'll see their names. Kate Crafton is one of my most favorite people I've ever cyber-met. The talent she has... it makes me drool. I keep saying one day, when I win the lottery or something equally impossible, I'm going to fly her somewhere exotic with my family, so she can be my camera-love slave and take ridiculously gorgeous pictures of us all. {hah... totally made you read my blog now, didn't I, SK?}
And yes, I love editting pics too. I don't completely destroy a photo, but I like the pop that a bit of editting gives photos, so crucify me if you're a naturalist, but me and my PS will keep on truckin'.
Anyone local who wants to goof around with cameras and take pics, let me know!

Because I Suck.

2008-11-03T20:06:00.000-08:00

**apologies to those of you trying to see the pics this morning, I didn't realize Blogger would cut half my pics off, so I had to redo it**

I've started and stopped two --no wait, maybe it's three-- posts, but just ran out of steam. You'd think with the past week I'd have plenty to say... but nope. So how about some pictures instead?

Mister J is now one year old, much to my chagrin. He suddenly seems so much bigger too, and he's doing great in his PT and starting to climb up on us too.

Halloween! J was a pony, P was a tiger, and M was Cinderella. Some random pictures from throughout the day:

Isaac and P. Best friends until there's a Thomas toy at risk.

Tatiana, one of the cutest kids. I foresee P and J fighting over her in 15 years...

Lips courtesy of MaryBeth, her wunderbar mother.
Peekaboo

Our house all ready for trick or treaters.

Some videos:

2008-10-22T21:19:00.001-07:00

Okay, so just to follow up, I did call the billing department again and basically said "I got a bill, the lady was useless so I called the PT department and Melody double checked everything and said you're all wrong and I owe nothing, so I want this bill removed." {seriously, that's pretty much what I said} The lady who answered said "ummm... oh... okay, hold on..." got put on hold for awhile {really, they could use some better on-hold music} and then she came back and said "okay, I talked to [I couldn't understand her] and we're going to go ahead and get rid of that bill." Yeah, thought you'd say that.
We went grocery shopping today, before M went to school. Monday shopping is fun because it's usually mostly older people who are much more understanding of our kids yelling across the store "mum. MUUUUMMMYYYYY. Wook at the apples, they're WED!" We take two carts, with P and J in the seats and M walks with us, "helping". Anyways, we split up every now and then, and twice CJ had someone come up to him and ask if both the kids he had were his {since P was with me}, accompanied with a look of incredulity. Huh? Is it because it's a man with two kids? Or has two children suddenly become a rarity in society? Most couples we know have two or more kids, but then again, we're Mormon, it's expected. Maybe we just don't notice these things...

Okay, nuff of that. Pictures, anyone?

Seriously?

2008-10-16T17:00:00.000-07:00

Let me start this by saying I'm still ticked about this, despite talking to CJ, mum, and various friends. So excuse the sarcasm with a hint of venom.

We got a letter in the mail from Sierra Vista Regional, where J gets his PT sessions. Hm, okay... open it, and it's a bill telling us we owe $40 for a September visit. Huh? We pay our copay after every visit, on our way out the door. And yeah, it's $40 a pop. Every appointment. Ouch.

Anyways, I can't find my paper where I have the list of J's appointment dates, so I call the PT office and lovely Melody gives me a list of when he was seen. I look up on our banking website to see when we paid, looks caught up. I call and the billing department can be considered less than helpful in my books. Half an hour of being on the phone and on hold, they can't give me the specific date that I supposedly missed paying, yet insist that I missed a payment. Color me angry, I get snarky and say "forget it, it sounds like the PT department has it more together than the billing, so I'm just going to deal with them from now on, thanks." and hang up. Seriously, they expected me to just say "oh, I missed it somewhere, but you're not sure where? Okay, let me pull $40 out of the air and send it off, thank youuuu!" {there's that snarkasm coming out, sorry.} So I call back to the PT office and stutter off what's going on {stutter because by this time I'm completely flustered and my words are choosing to not come out properly} and Melody, yet again, rocks the vote. She says this happens sometimes, don't stress, I'll go through your appointments and compare them to the receipt records we have. So she's going to get back to me about this tomorrow, and I'm finally chilling out a bit. Thank heavens for sane people sometimes.

This might not be such a huge deal to some, but we've been having medical billing problems all over the place this year, and I'm just done with it. Really, I'm sick of having to sit on the phone and repeat myself over and over about billing and coding and incorrect blah blah blah, and just feeling like it's falling on deaf ears. I'm frustrated because we've shelled out a good amount of money so far this year for therapies and such, and while I love the therapists we've been blessed to have for J, the money part just sucks. SUCKS. And I know there are people who have much heavier payments and get treated worse, but that doesn't make it easier for me, know what I mean? Especially seeing as I'm Canadian. I know the medical system up there isn't perfect, but from the crap I've encountered this year, I'd rather be up there right now. Sigh.

Okay, going to snuggle my expensive but so completely worth it baby boy. {but he better have d@mn straight teeth, because he's used up his braces money.}

Meandering Minds

2008-10-13T22:14:00.000-07:00

So I really thought that I'd posted on Friday, but apparently it was Wednesday. Ooooops. Yet another sign that kids kill brain cells. {in a good way, of course}
Another sign? Totally turned the alarm off for Church. Shake your heads at me now. Shame shame. Woke up at 8:40 and said "well, there goes that good idea." It might not have been such a bad thing, since CJ got home from work at 3, so he would have got 4 hours of sleep, and that makes one grumpy man. So we took the kids to the "big park", which they appreciated, poor things needed to burn some energy. Other than little man J, who pooped out on the way to the park and slept through most of it. Went home and piddled about til CJ went to work. I took the kids to the park behind our house, and then we decided to go for a walk, since they're levelling some roads since they're building more houses. M had a blast running on the dirt, and P did too, til he biffed it. Then he thought walking with me and holding onto the stroller was a good idea. I'm glad I brought the blanket for J, it got nippy!! Anyways, a nice calm Sunday.
M's picking up some.... special... sayings. My favorite is she went up to CJ and said "I need twenty five dollars." CJ kind of looks at her funny and says "um, why do you need twenty five dollars?" She replies "I want to buy candy, so I need quarters." Good law, that child remembers too much. Our mall has candy machines everywhere, so when we go we always talk about whether we have quarters or not. Why she wanted twenty five dollars worth of quarters... well, the girl loves her candy.
I should mention, she's completely day trained now!! Whoop whoop! Both number one and number two. Niiiice. Apparently waiting til she cued us was the right choice, even if it meant waiting til she was 4. And pull ups are of the debbul, if you ask me. Those things are just the diaper industry's way of trying to suck as much money out of you for as long as it can. Jerks. I shake my fist at you, Huggies. {and ask for more coupons please. I still have two in diapers, after all. You'll be getting money out of me for awhile.}
M's off school this week... pray for my mind, dear people. One day down, four to go. We're going to make her run around the park a bunch of times, maybe help the roofers who are working on the new houses in our development, go chase the cows in the field next to our development... just kidding. {watch, someone's going to go CPS on my butt now.} We're going to go to Apple Annies on Saturday, anyone want to join us, oh local ladies? Other than that, not a big planned out week. Some crafts, some Disney {yep, I'm a bad tv watching mum}, some park.... so on so forth. Oh, and some trips to Target I'm sure.
So here's my latest grrrr-session. COSTUMES. M has hers, she's Cinderella {not my choice, but unfortunately doesn't bow to my whims anymore} , but P and J, nothing yet. They were all going to be a character from Toy Story 2, but M had to go and get an opinion on me. So then I thought we could dress P up as Gus Gus and J as a pumpkin, and they'd still be theme-y. But do you know how hard it is to find a mouse costume that A) isn't ugly and B) doesn't have the word "Mickey" in front of "Mouse"? So we asked P what he wants to be. Finally he says he wants to be a dinosaur. So we sit down in front of the computer and google "toddler dinosaur costumes" and find the freaking COOLEST costume. It's a Triceratops, it looks great and is reasonably priced {I hate cheap looking costumes, if I'm blowing money on something it better be worth it} and it's completely sold out. Like I can't find it anywhere. ANY. WHERE. What the deuce am I supposed to do?! I ended up finding two on eBay, one in J's size and one in P's size, so we'll see if they stay reasonably priced. If not.... you may just hear me ranting and raving about it some more. Sorry, my blog my rules!
And on that note, The Duggars show is almost over, and hark, I hear my bed calling my name.

*someday I'll post new pics of the kids.... someday.*

Shmoopy time, anyone?

2008-10-08T21:52:00.000-07:00

I fully admit two things. 1) I listen to some country music. Really, I listen to whatever catches my ear, I'm not picky. 2) I have a shmoopy streak. What's shmoopy? Shmoopy is cheesy love songs, over the top romantic gestures, PDA, all that stuff we all gag at publicly but secretly kinda wish it was us.
The problem is, CJ is not shmoopy. He just doesn't thought-process like that, which is so fine. It's obviously not a deal breaker for me, I mean, I obviously married him anyways. And he does have his moments, like when I turned 20. He'd just left on his mission (as in *just* left, 13 days earlier) and I was feeling so sorry for myself. I walked into the house and there, sitting on the kitchen table, was a vase filled with 20 beautiful, perfect white roses. He'd ordered them before he left, and I had no idea.
We're a great example of how opposites attract. I love hanging out with other people and doing things as a group, CJ could be alone in the mountains for weeks and be perfectly fine. He loves sports, I didn't until we got married. CJ falls asleep early, I'm a nightowl. I love working with computers and programs, CJ... well, he's not good at it. He loves horror movies, I do NOT. Point taken? But we work, dunno why.
We didn't have an easy courtship for a bunch of factors that I won't get all long winded about plus I don't need them floating around the internet. We started dating almost 10 years ago, before his mission. I knew two months in to dating him that I wanted to marry him, but I really didn't think it would happen. How often do people date before missions and swear they're going to get married when the guy comes back, and they don't, for whatever reason? Ask Jesse or Mandy, I was sure it would never work out. I moved back to Canada, he went on his mission, I taught at a summer camp in Maine, I moved to Scotland... life happened. I even stopped writing him, for a variety of reasons that had nothing to do with him. He came back from his mission, and I was playing on the internet with some friends while in Scotland, and found him listed at BYU. Shock to the system. I ended up writing him a letter apologizing for how things happened, and I felt at peace with whatever happened. And then I got a phone call, asking me if I knew who it was. Like I could forget his voice. We long-distance dated until I flew home in March and he came to visit me at my parents house, and it was all over. We got engaged in May and married in August. Haven't looked back since.
Back to my confessions. I was listening to the top music songs on iTunes and "Love Story" by Taylor Swift came up. It's at the bottom of my music playlist in my sidebar, to the left. I fell in love with it. I love the lyrics, it makes me think of some of the things that CJ and I have been through in the times we've been together, some of them I've never told most people about. Especially the line "this love is difficult, but it's real. don't be afraid, we'll make it out of this mess. it's a love story, baby just say yes". I just love well written songs, no matter what genre they fit into. Anyways, I finally opened up my PhotoShop and did a page about it, I don't think I've ever scrapped about CJ and how I feel. It usually has to do with the kids and him. Excuse me if it's too shmoopy for you, trust me, I could have gotten even more shmoopy on you.

So here's to my unRomeo. I'm so very glad I said yes.

Youth is Wasted on the Young.

2008-10-05T14:57:00.000-07:00

I'm 29 today. Well, tonight, at 9:36 PM to be exact, I believe. But that's not my point. I always pshawed when people would talk about what a downer turning 29 was, but now that I'm here, I see their point. "Pish tosh, young one!" some of you may be saying. Well, I'm hormonal, so suck it up, princesses, you get to read my age related rambling.

I woke up this morning feeling very sorry for myself, but there's really no good reason, other than another birthday bites the dust. No big celebrations, that's one of the side effects of having a birthday that always falls on General Conference whenever I get lucky enough to have it on the weekend. Plus let's be real, what would I do even if it weren't General Conference? I've cheered up as the day's gone on, especially when I got a call from my in laws singing Happy Birthday to me, and then another one from my mum singing too. Plus some nice emails, and of course who doesn't appreciate happy birthday wishes on Facebook? Whoop! (Sorry, MaryBeth, no cake today. But swing by tomorrow, I'm so going to get me a big fat cake from Safeway) Life ain't so bad, I guess. Plus I just had M come in half nekkid and shake her butt at me and then run away giggling, who wouldn't crack a smile at a good mooning? Reminds me of my uncle Neil... that's a story for another day.

I should make a list of 29 things I want to do before I turn 30... no, that requires motivation. I don't have much of that. Although I did dust the ceiling fan off today, that was gross. That's what I get for having it on for most of the summer, I suppose. But now that it's fall, and the weather is freaking perfect, we have the AC off and the windows open, and it's heeeeeaven. (And nice on the pocketbook too) That's one thing I love about my birthday, fall is my favorite season. If we were east coast, it'd be even better. I love the changing colors, the leaves crunching underfoot, going apple picking... here, well, cactus don't really change colors. Or have leaves, come to think of it.

See, there goes the rambling. How many trains of thought did I hit up there?

MaryBeth was kind enough to tag me too (what a great birthday present! Better than any expensive bag or perfume)

I was tagged! Six weird and random things about me! (like that's hard.)

The rules are:
*Link to the person who tagged you (MaryBeth)
*Post the rules on your blog
*Write six random things/unspectacular quirks about yourself
*Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them
*Let each person you have tagged know by leaving a comment on their blog
*Let the tagger know when your entry is posted

So, here they are...
1. I still have a huge crush on Joey from New Kids On The Block. Huuuuge crush. He's totally gotten better with age. I still love their songs too.
2. I cry really easily, even at cheesy, stupid commercials that I'll make fun of while crying.
3. I have pack rat tendencies, which clash with CJ's cleaning overdrive.
4. I love surfing Etsy and finding all sorts of random stuff.
5. I'm a crunchy wannabe.
6. I secretly love teaching my kids bad things to say.

I tag Amber, Mary Lynn, De Ana, Melanie, Renee, and Staci.

An addiction

2008-10-04T15:28:00.000-07:00

Okay, I love bags. Diaper bags mostly, at least right now, but I'll admit to drooling over some Coach bags and the likes. Anyways, there's a new site launching, Handbag Planet, and to celebrate the October 15 launch they're giving away a free handbag every hour for 24 hours on the day of the launch. I signed up. You should too. Do it. C'mon, do it.

.fishbowl fanatics.

Stationery card

Jameson's Angry Bird Party!

Fire

Playing Catch Up...

.:.Quinn Louise.:.

February Already

Alive

Isn't She Lovely

Comic Relief

8 Years, 10 Months.

March Madness

Sweet, Sick Boy

(my kids are) Proud to be an American

She's Crossing That Rainbow Bridge...

Maybe...

Teetering

Spring!

Questions You Always Wanted to Know

Forgotten Memos

Ghost Hunting (lots of photos again)

Blast Off

Shorn

A Rare Treat

Potpourri

Lucky.

An almost, sort of white early Christmas

Bah Humbug

Oh Me, Oh My...

To Mister P

To My Littlest Man

M's 5th Birthday Party!

To A 5 Year Old

Smile

And Away She Goes...

A New Addition!!!!

The Rest of the Trip

The Trip, finally.

So We're Back...

Before You Meet My Children...

Comments and Blogs

One of the BEST Books Ever. EVER.

Happy, Happy Birthday!

Potty Training Woes

These Kids

I Got First Pick In The Mum Pool, nahnahnah!

How To Potty Train A Boy.

Cinderella

Guess Who

A Week From Down South...

If you can spare some time...

Random, anyone?

The Bachelor... JERK!!

Doo Bee Doo Bee Doo...

Whoop!

*cough* *hack*

Dancing Queen

I Must Be Crazy.

In Honor of the New President...

Calming Down...

Like A Dog...

I Hate HTML

Happy New Year!

Christmas

Another Fun Visitor!

One out of three...

Please, please PLEASE read this and sign!!

Taggiola Time

Oh owww...

Thankful

Peekture Time Again!

Time Flies...

Because I Suck.

Seriously?

Meandering Minds

Shmoopy time, anyone?

Youth is Wasted on the Young.

An addiction

cough hack