The Joy of Being a Mom and of Being Me

All Things Cara

2012-01-27T08:01:00.001-07:00

I just can't help it. I have share all the cute pictures of Cara from the past 2 1/2 months.

Spending time with her older cousins in Arizona for Thanksgiving.

The little ones with Mommy.

We start them young.

Christmas morning. Can you see how excited she is? It's not just bed head, her hair always sticks up like that.

Santa did remember Cara. She loves her new car seat toy.

Hanging with Daddy while visiting Grandma and Grandpa.

The cutest thing!

Cara's new "bad" habit.

Don't I look like Elora Danon?

Crazy hair.

Hair fixed and all cutified.

Crazy hair, now with extra curl.

So sweet.

Cara's Blessing

2011-11-09T08:49:00.000-07:00

We had Cara's baby blessing this last Sunday. Almost all of my siblings we able to be there and KC's brother and family came as well as my uncle in his family. Only my immediate family needed to stay at our house and we managed to find places for everyone to sleep.

I somehow managed to get some good pictures of Cara in her dress as well. Enjoy!

Halloween!

2011-11-06T19:02:00.000-07:00

A little late on the sharing of the Halloween costumes this year. Our family theme this year was the computer game that has become a sort family obsession, Plants vs Zombies. Andrew wanted to be the Cherry Bomb on the game it looks like this:

Andrew looked like this:

Isaac wanted to be the giant zombie called a Gargantuar Zombie, he looks like this in the game:

Here is Isaac as the Gargantuar Zombie. In the game he sometimes carries a stop that he smashes the plants with instead of a telephone pole. Also on his back is an Imp zombie that rides in a trash can on his back.

KC wanted to one the more common zombies on the game. He chose a Cone Head Zombie. On the game he looks like this:

Here is KC as the cone head zombie, notice the detail:

I made a Pea Shooter costume for William that I wasn't sure he'd wear to go trick or treating. In the game the Pea Shooter looks like this:

But he surprised us all and actually wore the pea shooter hat the whole time he trick or treated around the neighborhood. Again he exceeds my expectations.

I was supposed to be a sun flower as seen here:

I didn't get a picture of me individually, there wasn't much to see, obviously my costume didn't get as much attention as everyone else. Here is the whole family just before they boys left to go trick or treating.

Cara here is in her leopard/cat outfit, she was supposed to be a bumble bee but she was sleeping and I didn't get a chance to change her... oh well. This picture is of her earlier in the day:

The Return of the Grapes of Wrath

2011-10-06T16:53:00.000-06:00

In June I posted about our garden and shared some pictures of our grape trellis and how big it has grown. There is also a picture of the little grape buds that were promising a nice crop. Well the time has come to harvest that crop and here is the bounty.

One vine produces a green seedless table grape. The variety's name is called Himrod. Fully ripened they are quite sweet but I had to jump on harvesting this in mid August because the birds were quickly making a meal of them. I juiced these and then strained the juice to make a white grape juice concentrate that I then bottled it for later use.

The other vine produces a variety called Catawba grape. (Don't ask me how to pronounce that.) It has seeds and has a sort of slimy insides (I think the concord is similar this way). Not really a table grape, although I guess this variety is good for juice, wine and jelly making. I chose the juice and jelly options.

Grape processing isn't really that complicated. First you have to wash the grapes and remove them from the stems. Then you crush them with the food processor, chopper, or potato masher. Then you dump them in a big pot, add some water and let them cook and soften up a bit. I forgot to take pictures of those steps, but here is a picture of the pot I used. You can see the level of the crushed grapes in this big stock pot. There were a lot, which became a problem.

I realized my folly when it came time to strain the grapes through the cheese cloth. For that amount I needed a huge strainer or a lot of little ones. I didn't have a big enough bowl to strain all those grapes at the same time so I fashioned three little ones. Doesn't that look lovely in a gross slimy Halloween sorta way?

Anyway after I strained it all off, I ended up with about a gallon of really sweet pink/purple grape juice. I used about 11-12 cups of that to make 22 half pint jars of grape jelly (8 of those are a grape crab apple jelly mix). Then I used the last 3 cups to make some grape juice. I added about a cup of sugar and boiled it to get it to dissolve then I added 3-4 cups of water. It was better than any store bought juice, hands down.

The awesome thing is that these grape vines have been so easy to grow. All we had to do this spring was to prune it back a little and then let them grow. Next year I want to put a net over it so the birds don't eat up my green grapes too soon.

* I made two posts today, and I don't want anyone to miss the two pictures I posted of little Cara. So check that out too.

Updated Photos

2011-10-06T16:11:00.000-06:00

She looks so different already! I just wanted to post some updated photos of Cara that show better how she looks. We went to the doctor the other day and she is already 7 oz over her birth weight. Isn't she just the sweetest thing?

Miss Cara

2011-09-23T15:33:00.000-06:00

Our sweet Miss Cara was born this last Tuesday morning, right on her due date (good guess Karen!). She is so prompt and efficient that once she decided to come it only took her 2 1/2 hours from the time she woke up mommy to where the nurse caught her at the hospital. The doctor (not nearly as prompt and efficient) didn't show up until more than 10 minutes after her. She weighed in at 8lbs 3 oz and 20 inches long. We didn't expect her to be bigger than one of her brothers at birth.

My "before" picture taken a few days before Cara was born. I actually expected her to be born that night as I had been having regular "contractions" about every 10 minutes apart. They should be called "teaser contractions".

Just after Cara was born. We were so busy laboring and trying to get the nurse in before she was born that we didn't get out the camera until 10 minutes after she was born.

KC with his little princess.

We got to spend the whole day with her and enjoy her.

Just before heading home.

Grandma came a few days before as we thought she was coming earlier. Grandma was thinking about leaving that day. Good thing Cara decided to come that morning.

Grandma likes to make "Birth"day cakes for her grandkids . Happy Birthday CARA!

First bath at home. The boys were excited to watch.

She didn't appreciate when her body was wet and cold but she loved getting her hair washed. Just like at a salon.

After we rubbed her hair dry it looked sorta curly.. then it straightened out... we'll see.

The boys with their long awaited little sister.

Welcome to our family Sweet Miss Cara!

Incoming Call

2011-09-14T14:33:00.000-06:00

I think for fun I'm going to call everyone I know just to say HI.

Then I get to hear that pause of anticipation or expectation to see if I'm going to say... "I'm in labor!" ... or "I'm in the hospital and just had the baby!", followed by the disappointment in their tone when I don't.

It sorta funny. I don't remember it being like this at the end of the other pregnancies. Maybe I just have selective memory.

Right now I am 39 weeks and 1 day. I can't imagine how disappointed people will be if I call them at 40+ weeks without having this baby yet. Don't blame me though.. this baby will come out when she is good and ready.

Andrew predicts she'll come on Sunday. KC hopes in the next day or so, or tonight even. I have no prediction, although I'd prefer for her to be born in the middle of the day or the afternoon.

Whenever it is, I promised my sister I'd take a belly picture before she's born. That will hopefully be the next post.

T-Shirt Design

2011-09-10T09:13:00.000-06:00

(obviously this girl isn't really pregnant, her belly looks too soft and the rest of her body hasn't grown to match)

I'm about to pop. Please be careful.

Do you think this t-shirt design could sell? I wonder how quickly I could get it made up for myself.

With a Matching Diaper Bag

2011-08-27T08:45:00.002-06:00

Though the kids, house, and dinner were thoroughly neglected, I made a messenger style diaper bag to match the mei tai that I made. I used a tutorial that I found online called the Hip Mama Diaper Bag. I made a few changes, but basically followed the directions.

I omitted the velcro on the pockets
I made the elastic 12 inches instead of 10
I changed around the style a little and added a couple strips of patterned fabric on the flap and back piece among other things.

There are a ton of pockets inside and out.

The back of the bag has a zippered pocket.

It probably took me about 7 hours total to make including the various child interruptions.

Mei Tai - Made!

2011-08-05T14:09:00.002-06:00

One down.. how many more projects to go... we'll see. I finished the mei tai this morning. I sorta followed this tutorial especially with the basic body design and the straps. I decided against the hood. Instead I decided to make it look more like a Baby Hawk mei tai with a top that can fold down, so I extended the top part a few more inches and added padding to that part.

Now I just have to get one of my neighbors to try it out on their babies to make sure it'll work... anytakers?

33 weeks and counting by the way!

Long Awaited Day

2011-08-05T13:56:00.000-06:00

The long awaited day has come. Isaac finally got to start kindergarten. Ever since Andrew started school Isaac has been wanting to go to school too. He is excited to be able to walk home with his brother and he loves his teacher. The only thing is that he doesn't like how he has to wait until after lunch everyday to be able to go.

End of Summer?

2011-07-24T21:30:00.003-06:00

Despite the continuing heat summer vacation is almost over, for our family anyways. Being on a year-round school schedule has it's benefits but also it's annoyances of course. I'm still not sure which are which. Andrew and Isaac will start school here soon but then have a couple weeks off at the end of August. It's not like we were going to be doing much in August though. We had to get get all of our trips in as with KC's newish job, August is a really busy month and he can't really take time off. The baby "should" be coming just a couple weeks after things slow down again for him at work. Perfect timing. I think there was some divine intervention in that. Also now that I'm towards the endish of my pregnancy I don't know if I want to be too out and about anyways.

So I wanted to share some memories we have made so far this spring/summer in all of our comings and goings. Get ready for a picture dump.

First, birthdays... I've been a bad blogger and neglected to share the boys birthdays back when they happened in late winter and spring. Starting in February through June we have 1 birthday from our family a month. It keeps us drowning in cake. A good thing I suppose. Will's cute cake was made by Grandma, the one I made at home wasn't even a cake.. just cupcakes, we LOVE Grandma! Andrew had a party with family this year and Isaac got to have his first big friend party.

In May we did a little vacation in Southern Utah with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa took us flying and shooting. We went to Zion's National Park and went hiking too. The weather was perfect.

Grandpa has a nice collection of fun old-timey shooters. KC really enjoyed being able to shoot these.

Compliments of the shotgun.

On Memorial Day weekend Grandma and Grandpa came to visit us. We took the opportunity to visit the zoo while the weather was still nice. The boys were really excited about the bird show.. at least Andrew and Isaac were. William only stopped covering his eyes after being there for 15 minutes. (Some birds were really loud)

In June KC participated in the local triathlon, Andrew played soccer (no pics, all I have are videos and you don't want to see those), we did some local sightseeing, and we went up to Snowbird for a few days with KC's Grandma. This year was the first time we could go sledding and then go swimming on the same day. This was the last weekend in June! The ski resort was open through the 4th this year. Crazy. Also

Notice the big pile of snow still melting in the swimming pool area. (upper left of photo)

Finally the 4th of July weekend came and we got to go camping with Grandma and Grandpa and cousins. Our campsite had a fun rope swing on which we tied a stick for the kids to sit. That was the main entertainment along with the 4-wheeler. We went to the Fillmore parade and enjoyed those festivities along with their cool fireworks show. We also got to spend time with extended family where they had a huge slip 'n slide set up.

We were driving VERY slow, otherwise there would have been helmets and less kids.

William didn't appreciate the sirens from the fire trucks very much.

Summer Features

2011-06-29T20:01:00.000-06:00

The Grapes of Wrath - who knew that a little pruning would go so far. (There is 6 foot trellis in there)

Double Feature:
Attack of the Onions and The Cabbage Patch Carrots - I predict that we'll be eating onions, cabbage and carrots through December.

And for the kids, Strawberry Shortcake Battles Potato Bugs from Mars - at least the ones that the potato bugs haven't devoured look good.

Baby Gymnast

2011-06-21T06:51:00.000-06:00

I don't remember the other boys being this active in the womb. Sure they had their moments when there was a flutter of movements but that didn't happen very often. This baby girl though, she sometimes moves so much it's like she has her own little fetal trampoline in there on which she is practicing her flips and twists.

She was moving so much last night that I had a dream she wiggled herself somehow how of my belly without me giving birth. (things make much more sense in your dreams, don't they?). I was holding her and looking at her and saying to her, "you gotta get back in there, it's not time yet". I tried to put her back in through the top of my belly but she wouldn't stay there. Then I looked at her and realized how healthy and big she looked and wondered if it was okay that she was out. Then I woke up.

It is going to be a long 3 months.

Is this considered nesting?

2011-06-16T06:49:00.001-06:00

I have been busy lately making a mental list of projects for me to do which will keep me busy for the rest of the summer. I've lately run across a bunch of great ideas for sewing boys clothes. I would like make some of these racer shorts from www.dana-made-it.com for the older boys.

For Will I would like to try to make some of these cute t-shirts call the 90-minute shirt. The tutorial is also from dana-made-it.com and the boy in the picture is her son. So cute!

Next I have projects for the new baby. I have been noticing a lot of women in my ward using various slings to hold their baby while they are at church and I'm sure they use them at home and elsewhere. So I've been researching the different kinds of slings and how difficult it is to make them and I'm probably going to end up making 3 different kinds.

Now the term I guess people use is called "baby wearing" since instead of holding the baby you are wearing them, duh. Here is a link to a post about the different kinds of slings/carriers for baby wearing. Some are easier to use but don't offer a lot of support/comfort and others are comfortable and supportive but use a lot of fabric. A neighbor gave me her extra pocket sling so I already have one of those.

I am planning on making a ring sling and a wrap sling by buying a bunch of yards of fabric, cutting it lengthwise, do some hemming and voila. They are pretty easy to make.

At first I ignored the mei tai, but then I started looking at them more and found them to be a compromise between support and not too much stuff wrapped around you like the wrap. You can also easily put the older child on your back. The only downside for the mei tai is that it doesn't seem as supportive and comfy for the newborn/little baby. I found some good tutorials for the mei tai and I believe I could fairly easily sew one up.

I'll probably end up using the pocket sling for times when I am sitting a lot, like at church. Or for quick baby wearing. I would probably use the wrap and ring sling for longer periods of time especially for the baby when she is little. Then the mei tai will be used when the baby is a little older and for longer periods of time.

Time Flies

2011-06-07T21:23:00.000-06:00

If you asked me when I made my last post I would have said it was a couple of weeks ago. Wow, time flies! I guess I've been busy with... life. We actually started work on the boy's bedroom on Memorial Day. We picked up the paint and covered the top half of the walls with dark blue and put in the chair rail. This last week I've been making the curtains and trying organize their stuff. Man, they have a lot of stuff.

Yesterday and today I got to work on making the bookcases for under the windows and designed and built some shelves for their closet to help organize and make the area more useful. I hope to finish painting them tomorrow and hopefully put them in the room on Thursday. Once that's all organized I get to start the fun stuff and make the big tree and paint stars on the wall. KC is a little anxious about me painting on the beautiful blue walls but I think the boys will love it.

In the meantime, bedtime has been fun with all three of them together. Will just thinks it's the most awesome thing to go to bed now, because to him, it is silly time. The other boys think it's way funny, so I have to go up multiple times to threaten loss of privileges if they don't shape up and show Will how you are "supposed" to act at bedtime.

Once I get the shelves up I'll take some pictures. I promise.

Annoying

2011-05-17T14:18:00.000-06:00

You know what's annoying? Being pregnant and having a cold. Especially when I get colds the the surprise sneezes can be problematic and the cough can last for weeks. This morning I had a mean tickle in my throat and coughed so hard I threw up, three times. Luckily I had only drank water so far, and I had to go to the bathroom at the same time. 'Nuff said.

It's a....

2011-04-28T11:07:00.000-06:00

Isn't she cute?

Boy's Bedroom Design

2011-04-21T14:30:00.000-06:00

We are thinking/planning on moving all the boys into a room together sometime this summer. I also have been promising the boys for six months that we would paint their room. I thought it would fun to do a jungle theme since they have cute jungle pillowcases and their grandma is making them sort of jungle themed quilts. I also wanted to cut out a big tree in a MDF board, paint it and put it on their wall. On the branches there would be pegs and shelves for their hats and trophies. (Doesn't that sound cool?)

So today I was trying to layout the room and "design" it a bit. I have this:

(click to make larger)

The tree is going to be also inspired by these two pictures:

For when you are not dieting or you want to splurge

2011-04-11T13:46:00.000-06:00

Strawberry Coffee Cake

Cook Time: 35 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Nutrition Info: 282 calories, 9.5 g fat, 1.2 g fiber - 6 points

Ingredients:

1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 1/2 cups strawberries, sliced

Crumb Topping:

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
Preparation:

Sift together the 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add milk, egg, and melted butter; beat 2 minutes. Spoon batter into a greased and floured 8-inch square baking pan. Top with sliced strawberries. Combine 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup sugar; cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add chopped pecans or walnuts. Sprinkle crumb topping over the strawberries. Bake at 375° for 30 to 35 minutes. Serves 8.

Random Update

2011-02-22T13:17:00.000-07:00

Despite the glowing post about cloth diapers have yet to make the leap, the chasm looks so big from here...
I made the Sweet Potato Curry with Tofu again. I suggested making it with light coconut milk to make it more healthy. It's more healthy, but like most health foods it loses a lot of the flavor. That darn fat in the coconut milk is just so yummy. We had to add a lot more salt to get some flavor. You've been warned.
I was thinking of getting Will off the pacifier when he turned two, but today out of necessity (I couldn't find a single pacifier), I put him down for a nap without one. Did he care? No, as long has he had his special blanket.
Andrew had his birthday last week. It was a small family thing with pizza of course. There is something about going from the age of 6 to 7 that makes a kid seem so much older.
I'm very ready for spring to come, it's so close! I am thinking I need to hurry it along by growing wheatgrass again.

A Matter of Money, Cuteness, or the Environment? I say all three.

2011-01-28T15:30:00.000-07:00

When I was expecting William I looked at possibly getting cloth diapers to use on him. I almost spent a few hundred dollars on it, but couldn't bring myself to make the leap. Lately I have been looking at the prospect again. He still has at least a year more of diapering left before he is potty trained so it's would still be economical to make the investment, though not as much if I started when he was born.

So now I that I am looking at it again I am leaning towards an economical basic one size cover from Econobum. Then I want to get a bunch of Indian prefolds and sew them into fitted diapers with elastic and velcro so I don't have to deal with pins etc. I also want to get a diaper sprayer to make easier to clean the yucky stuff off the diaper. (The boys will be told upon threat of death or something that they cannot touch it.)

Today I wanted to do a details price comparison for cloth diapering vs disposables for what I buy. I get Sam's Club Member's Mark diapers and figured that William will go to a size 5 when he is 2 and won't potty train until 3ish. I guesstimated the amount of time a baby is in each size of diaper and took current prices for each item from Sam's Club and Walmart for the Parent's Choice size 1 and 2.

I know it's small so click on the picture to see it blown up.

The table says that for diapering a child in disposables from birth to potty training at 3 results in 6909 diapers costing $1,228. That doesn't include the cost of wipes. To get enough diapers from birth to potty training expecting to do laundry about every 3-4 days will cost $208.70.

If cuteness is a factor you could spend a lot more on covers. There are some way cute ones by Bummis that cost about $13 each but you would have to get some in each size. But even the Econobum covers come with 3 colors of binding to add a little to the cuteness factor. You can also make your own covers out of laminated fabric (PUL), heavy fleece or wool.

A lot of people site environmental reasons to why they choose cloth diapers. They say that a child from birth to potty training will contribute 1 TON of stinky waste to the landfills. That is a lot of stink and diapers can take from 250 to 500 years to decompose (source). To borrow from the same source:

Disposable diapers generate sixty times more solid waste and use twenty times more raw materials, like crude oil and wood pulp.
The manufacture and use of disposable diapers amounts to 2.3 times more water wasted than cloth.
Over 300 pounds of wood, 50 pounds of petroleum feedstocks and 20 pounds of chlorine are used to produce disposable diapers for one baby EACH YEAR.

It sounds like I'm sold right? Well I have a neighbor that uses cloth diapers and she lent me some of her extras that would fit William. I have been trying it out and so far my only complaint is that they are a lot thicker than a disposable diaper. The poopy diaper and washing in the toilet thing is gross, but once I get the sprayer it will be a lot better (I hope). Finally it is really hard to beat the ease of a disposable diaper. I think I am still going to try it though. For William, instead of the almost $400 I will spend on disposables over the next year I can instead spend about $150 to get started with 6 covers, 24 diapers, and a sprayer.

Surprisingly Good

2011-01-09T11:50:00.001-07:00

A new year means making that goal again to eat right, so while KC and I were looking for good healthy recipes we happened upon this, Sweet Potato Curry with Tofu.

Upon first look at the ingredients I wasn't convinced that it would taste good. My experiences with tofu haven't been positive. But I promised KC I would make it and it turned out surprisingly good.

Now served over a cup of rice it isn't the most low calorie dish. The culprit? Coconut milk. But if you increase the number of servings to 8, reduce the rice to 1/2 cup, and if you can find light coconut milk all will be well.

KC and I like the count our calories using the weight watchers point system. Basically 1 point is about 50 calories and your daily allowance is based on your age, activity level and current weight. I am only allowed about 22 points a day. Before changing this recipe it would have sucked 12 points out of my day allowing me to eat hardly anything the rest of the day. With a smaller portion size and taking all the fat out of the coconut milk it is now 7 points per serving... awesome. Now the problem is only eating one serving.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

1 pound extra-firm tofu
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided use
1 large clove garlic, peeled and minced
1 1-inch piece fresh gingerroot, peeled, smashed with the side of a heavy knife, and minced
3 teaspoons curry powder
1 14-ounce can light coconut milk
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 cup water
1 pound sweet potatoes (2 medium), peeled and diced
1 cup green peas (frozen is fine)
kosher salt
Chopped cilantro and roasted peanuts for garnish
2 cups of rice (cook to make 4 cups)

Directions

Press the tofu to dry it a bit: wrap it in a clean dish towel, and set a heavy pot on it while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Heat one tablespoon of the oil in a wide skillet over medium-low heat and sauté the garlic and ginger for 30 seconds or so, until just fragrant. Stir in the curry powder, then add the coconut milk, tomato paste, and water, and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring.
Add the sweet potatoes and stir, then cover the pan and cook over low heat, at a gentle simmer, until the sweet potatoes are tender (around 15 minutes).
Meanwhile, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat in a large nonstick pan and slice the tofu into 1/2-inch cubes. Fry the tofu for 10 minutes, turning it to brown as many sides as possible (don't try to brown them all -- just a few is fine).
Add the tofu and the green peas to the pan of sweet potatoes, and simmer it uncovered for 5 minutes to blend the flavors, cook the peas, and thicken the sauce.
Taste for salt (you may need to add a lot or a little, depending on whether there's salt in your curry powder) and serve over 1/2 cup rice, garnished with chopped cilantro and peanuts.

Nutrition Information: 8 Servings - 364 calories, 9.8 g fat, 4.4 g fiber - 7 points per serving

Been Busy

2011-01-07T14:37:00.001-07:00

Where have I been? Of course there were the holidays, that always keeps us busy. We also spent most of November working on a project inside the house. Time to share the results. I didn't take any before pictures. Just imagine white walls with finger prints, scuff marks, and pencil from busy and creative boys.

First here is the dining room. We added blue paint, chair rail and made wainscoting boxes using pencil rail.

This the entry hallway. It is far from finished as we are trying to come up with the best way decorate this massive hallway. We thought a great first step is the paint and more wainscoting. We love the brown.

Then everything was continued into the living room.

In the bedroom we took a slightly different approach and made cornice boxes inspired from All Things Thrifty. Then inspired from Suzy's Sitcom we used the same textured wallpaper as on the cornice boxes and glazed it with the wall color framing it with chair rail on top and the pencil rail on the bottom.

Closer view of the wall decor. We also painted the bathroom the brown color from the bedroom (not pictured).

Lastly, KC got a new job that he started this December. Instead of working from home in his pajamas he now commutes on the bus to downtown and wears a suit everyday. Here is a hint at the new job.

Garden Thoughts 2010

2010-11-19T08:00:00.001-07:00

I am finally done with all things garden this year and wanted to record my thoughts for reference for next year.

What went well:

Tomatoes, they grew almost too well. I planted 12 roma tomato plants. One per square. I had buckets of them left on the plants when the time came to worry about them freezing. I pulled off all the green ones hoping they'd ripen and I could use them. Only the ones that were close to ripening worked. The rest just went mushy or moldy before they ripened.
Watermelons. I planted three seeds in the center of a 4x4 box and I got 4 good sized watermelons.
Raspberries. The canes from last year produced at the beginning of the summer. New canes produced from mid summer till even now. I just pulled off 1 1/2 cups of berries. I was able to make 12 jars of raspberry jam and some raspberry/strawberry fruit leather.
Strawberries. The everbearing plants from last year did awesome this year. Some just kept on producing and I probably have some strawberries and I pull off right now.
Green beans were easy again this year.
Cucumbers produced pretty well even though I only had one or two plants.
Cantalope did okay. I got two decent melons off the vine.
The boys planted Red corn in their square and even though we only ended up with a few ears they tasted good, unlike last year.
Onions were very prolific. They were easy to grow, they are harvested early and I still have a bunch of little ones left to use.
My potatoes didn't have brown spots inside every one this year. I did have a couple with brown spots but most were good and I got a bunch.
Zinna flowers. The boys picked these out for their box and I loved clipping them and putting them in a vase on the table. They remind me of gerbera daisies but more wild.
The spinach I planted last fall started growing again this spring and I ended up with a bunch of it early on.
The carrots I planted this spring grew well and I really enjoyed cooking them and eating them.

What didn't go well:

Peas, I think I planted them a little late, not all of them sprouted and I only got a few pods off the plant. They were also hard to open and get the peas.
The Peppers had issues this year and just didn't grow. They may have gotten too much shade from all the tomato plants. I probably only picked about 4 good ones off of 3 plants. Last year I picked probably 3 times that much.
Lettuce just didn't work out for me this year. It smelled and tasted bitter and I just wasn't motivated to pick it.
I planted 4 broccoli plants and none of them actually produced a head. Lame.
The carrots I planted last fall started growing again this year. But either I waited too long to pick them or they grew woody over the winter. They were no good after all.
I planted a couple cabbage plants. One actually grew a little head, not too impressive though.

What I will do differently:

Plant less tomato plants, not so close together. The plants in the center didn't quite produce as much as the ones on the edges. Also I need to stake them better the ones on the edges got so big and heavy with fruit that they fell over despite my cages.
Plant more red corn. Yum. Space out the plantings so they aren't all ready at the same time.
Plant more cantalope, and maybe try starting it inside if they can be transplanted.
Don't grow vining green beans. By the time they start producing the bush beans have already been at it for a while and I'm sick of them by the time they are there and they are a pain to take off the trellis.
Maybe plant pickling cucumbers. I actually don't like fresh cucumber all that much and they tend to go bad before we use them all.
Start the peas earlier or try a different variety.
Watch the strawberry runners better and keep their boxes more tidy.
Try different lettuce and broccoli.

I'm sorta burned out on the garden right now. Luckily it is winter now and by the time spring comes I'll be ready.

To All Yahoo Email Users

2010-11-16T20:36:00.001-07:00

I know I am not the only one getting spam from my friends who use yahoo email. I also know that often they don't even know that their email was used to send spam to all of their contacts. If you used yahoo email it is almost certain that your account has been hacked, possibly more than once.

Do you know why? SC Magazine does.. Hackers are using a security hole in Yahoo to access a login credentials page that allows unlimited attempts to login. They probably use some bot to try password after password until it works. Apparently the hole described in the linked article has been known since September 2009. Hello! You'd think Yahoo would have fixed this by now.

Also the attacks have only been escalating. I remember getting these emails back in the spring, only once in a while. This week I have deleted at least 8 emails from people that I know and people that I have happened to email in the past for some reason or another. In one case I deleted one from the same person 3 days in a row!

What do you do then? There are a couple of options.

1. Drop your yahoo account. Open a gmail account or some other more secure one. Export or copy all of your contacts down and forward any important emails to your new account. Strip the yahoo account of all contacts and emails. See if you can forward new emails to your new account or set up a vacation message with your new email.

2. If you keep your yahoo account first change your password to something really difficult. Lots of letters, numbers and special characters. Even then you are not completely safe. Get rid of any sensitive emails. Maybe empty your contacts too and keep them on a file on your computer to use when you need to send an email.

There is not much else you can do. It's not a virus or a malware attack that you can clean up off your computer. Yahoo is aware of this but seems to be pretty silent about it. When you do a search for this problem not a lot comes up. Except the article I linked to and this blog post, http://dagblog.com/humor-satire/who-hijacked-yahoo-mail-3151. The guy in this post has been in contact to some extent with Yahoo and has not had much success. Interesting.

My Heroes

2010-10-31T08:25:00.001-06:00

Is your land in danger from an evil king, sith lord, emperor, or magician? Never fear! Call 1-800-MY HEROES and we'll provide you with the right hero for the job.

The hero, Andrew Who Could Fight always has the right weapon for the job. With his magical sword, super hammer, bombs, and arrows, he is ready to fight both dungeon bosses and evil magicians.

If a samurai ninja is more your style, we have Ninja Isaac to protect your people.

With Scottish heart and fighting skills, William Wallace is ready to free your people from the tyranny of kings.

Do you have a Sith Lord Emperor plaguing your galaxy? What your rebellion needs is a good Jedi Master.

Does organization, structure, and cleanliness bog you down? Pumpkin Boy with pumpkin power will fix that with his ability to empty cupboards and throw food. His signature mess of pumpkin innards lets organizers know who's in town.

Is your city overrun by mental crime bosses? We also have special relations with a bat obsessed group who can put those criminals behind bars. Sign up now and we'll include a free signal light.

Best Dinner Ever

2010-10-01T08:00:00.002-06:00

Through a combination of a raffle and work incentive KC "won" a new BBQ grill and a gift card to Omaha Steaks. So the other night we decided to try the new grill out and grill up some filet mingnons. After using youtube.com to research grilling methods KC fired up the grill and turned out some good looking little steaks. KC made such a fuss over how good they tasted that the pickiest eater in the world (Andrew) wanted to try some. I quote,

" Daddy, I can't stop thinking about that meat, it tasted so good."

I bet my mother just passed out, because no one who knows him would ever expect to hear that boy say anything like that about anything but pizza. Isaac then wanted to try some, and he said,

"That meat makes me feel so awesome."

I also made some yummy baked potato wedges and a salad to go with the steak. Andrew eats the potatoes and says, I quote,

" I could eat these forever they are so good."

Isaac finishes his food and says, "Mommy, that was the best dinner ever you should make it again."

"What was your favorite part?" I asked.

He says, "The carrots."

Make sense of that.

Disneyland and Cruise

2010-09-29T10:00:00.001-06:00

After KC and I went on a little Mexican cruise early last spring he started talking with his friends about doing a cruise again but this time with friends and kids. So we ended up planning the same cruise for six months later, but this time we'd hit Disneyland before hand and be with a lot more kids and friends.

We dropped Will off at Grandma's house and our two families with 2 kids each squeezed into our van and drove down to California. We spent two fun but exhausting days touring Disneyland Park and Disney's California Adventure Park. Then we went to Newport beach and played in the surf. Then it was time for the cruise. We left Monday when we met up with another of KC's friends and his 5 kids and spent one day at Catalina Island and another day in Ensenada before the ship headed back. The boys loved being with the other kids and in the kids program on the ship. They of course LOVED Disneyland and want to go back next week. Andrew's favorite rides were, Soarin' California at DCA and Space Mountain. Isaac really liked Big Thunder Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean. KC loved Indian Jones and Screamin' California. I liked Space Mountain and Screamin' California the best. We all love watching the boys and their friends participate in the Jedi Training Academy. (video to follow)

So after a ton of money spent and 5-10 pounds gained we are back and feeling the post-vacation blues. Here are some pictures to make you jealous and us more depressed.

The photo from the Tower of Terror, I don't know how KC convinced me that Isaac and Andrew should go on this ride.

We made the time to wait in line to see Mickey at his house.

The kids waiting to see Captain EO. Not sure what they thought of it.

Newport Beach. Not that warm of weather and the water was cold, but the boys still had fun.

The whole group outside the ship in Mexico.

We took the boys horseback riding in Mexico, at the same beach we went to before. They loved it. It was sorta windy and chilly.

We made signs ahead of time to help ensure that the boys got picked. Before fighting Darth Vader or Darth Maul they did some "training" learning the sequence of moves that they do to fight them. The costumes and "acting" were done really well. It was blast to watch.

Cast Off

2010-08-31T15:59:00.000-06:00

The cast finally came off yesterday. Before they took us to the cast room, Will was happy as a clam since he had full access to the computer.

Or so he thought, darn password protection.

Then they took us to the cast room, but Will thought it was the torture room.

After a few minutes his leg was finally free.

But it wasn't over as we had to go to torture room number 2, the x-ray room. Then mommy wasn't allowed to let Will down on the ground until the doctor reviewed the x-rays. Torture for both Will and mommy. Finally we were free to go and we could get candy.

Won't this make a great keep sake?

Of Course

2010-08-05T21:26:00.004-06:00

Will is walking finally!

Wait... scratch that.
Here he is the day after he broke his left leg on a trampoline last Friday. He needed some Motrin for a couple of days, but he's in no pain now as far as I can tell.

And here he is yesterday after he got is cool blue waterproof hard cast. So Will won't be doing any real walking for 3 more weeks. He can sorta crawl. On the bright side he has developed a nice way of telling me he's awake in his crib without having to cry. The hard cast makes a nice loud sound on the bars of the crib, so when he's bored and awake he just bangs away.

A Motivating Factor

2010-07-19T14:17:00.002-06:00

Through the grace of the exercise god, (is that blasphemous?), I managed to get a free month of unlimited exercise classes at our local community center.

Being one not to let anything go to waste, I got up at 5:25 on a Monday morning to go to the first exercise class of the week. The class only had one description, it's name, PUMP. Not knowing exactly what to expect I showed up and got my butt kicked. This is why I like exercise classes. They push me to do what I would never willingly force myself to do exercising on me own. I would never do that many squats and lunges with extra weight. I wouldn't do that many bicep curls or tricep extensions. I would give up at the first sign of my muscles working and figure that's enough.

Now I can barely hold my arms up enough to type this post and you know what, I feel better for it. Although I might be a little tired today and a little sore tomorrow, I'll feel better about myself and more productive knowing that I did something good for me and knowing now that I've started I can keep on doing it.

I posted the above 3 paragraphs on my private weight-loss group blog today. I feel compelled to offer an invitation to any of my blog reading friends and family to join up with us. Basically it's a website that helps us cheapskates do the Weight Watchers program without paying the dues and going to the meetings. There are a lot of web resources out there to help so I point you to those and offer some downloads. My weekly to bi-weekly posts are there to motivate and keep on track as well. Let me know in the comments if you're interested in gaining access.

Catalog Living

2010-06-28T10:19:00.002-06:00

Did you ever wish your life were like the ones depicted in design catalogs? Perfect scenes where people must be living the perfect easy life, may not be all they're cracked up to be.

http://catalogliving.tumblr.com/

The Many Faces of KC

2010-05-30T21:46:00.002-06:00

It was Mustache May at KC's work. He decided to take the less creepy looking route and start with a goatee. I thought it looked sorta distinguished, though it wasn't fun to kiss.

The guys at his work started complaining about the itchy mustache's so they ended it early. It was time for KC to shave. First he went with the handle-bar style. I wish we had a cowboy hat lying around it would have looked perfect.

Then he took the plunge and shaved it into a more typical mustache. I gotta say, it's not the best look for him. After the picture was taken the rest of the facial hair was gone and we were back to the clean-shaven normal. Yay!

Problem Solved

2010-05-09T16:07:00.004-06:00

"Mommy, Will turned off the TV!"

"Will, don't change the channel!"

"It's too loud! Will turned it up!"

Problem Solved.

Twilight Zone

2010-05-05T08:01:00.005-06:00

I wonder how the rest of today is going to be. It sure started out odd. It was 7:50 am I was still in bed asleep even though the sun was up. The house was oddly quiet. KC had gotten up to work an hour before and was in his office. The garbage truck woke me. I needed to get the trash bins to the street today they were really full. After rushing through the quiet house and donning shoes and a jacket, I went out into the bright, cool morning and lugged the bins to the street. Mission accomplished.

Once back inside I thought, "Almost 8, Will must be awake." Now Will is an interesting baby, for the last few months when he wakes up in his crib he doesn't cry. He doesn't make noise. He just sits there and plays with the blankets and stuffed animals. I could leave him there for an hour and he'd not cry, not that I've done that, no way. Maybe after two hours he'd make some noise and cry. I haven't fully tested this one. Anyway I couldn't hear him but that didn't mean he wasn't awake. He's always awake by now and usually I have no idea how long he has been.

I go upstairs and look in on the older boys. Still sleeping, even though Isaac was up at 6:30 with a leaky pull-up, but he wanted to go back to bed so I didn't argue. Fully expecting a happy baby smile when I opened Will's door, instead I see a baby still zonked out sleeping on his belly. I'm not one to wake up babies unless necessary so I quietly shut the door and went back downstairs not sure what to do with myself because it was almost 8 am and I wasn't getting bottles or bowls of cereal and refereeing requests for the TV.

So I decided to blog. The magic of course only lasts for 5 minutes before Isaac came down then Andrew but it was there. As KC said though, by Saturday they'll be back to their usual thing of waking up at 6:30 and making plenty of rukus.

A Pink Cake for Isaac

2010-04-27T07:57:00.004-06:00

Isaac has finally turned 4. Now when people assume he's 4 almost 5 at least they will be right that he is 4 years old instead of 3. He had a friend party last year so this year it was just family. We went swimming at the community indoor pool. The boys just finished swimming lessons so they were excited to be able to play there as much as they wanted. We then picked up some pizza for the birthday dinner then had cake and ice cream.

A word about the cake. KC wanted to hang out a little with Isaac on his special day so they went to the store together to pick out a toy and his cake. Originally Isaac had been saying he wanted a chocolate cake with blue frosting, but they came home with a strawberry cake with strawberry frosting. Isaac really loves strawberries so I guess he couldn't resist it. I didn't think much about it until later when I realized this kid who is very much boy was going to have a pink cake. Oh well it tasted great.

Screen Free Week Results

2010-04-10T14:55:00.003-06:00

After the boys helped me do some Saturday morning chores and after we had some lunch I declared Screen Free Week to be over. It is now almost 3 hours later and they are finally using a screen. I would say that this week was fairly successful.

My purpose in torturing myself this week was to help the boys get more used to finding entertaining activities to do without resorting to the computer, TV shows, or video games. This last week I heard "Mommy, I'm bored" plenty of times but soon they got used to playing with toys, making up games, and playing board games. Here are a few highlights for the week:

Andrew and Isaac learned how the play the card game War and love it.
They played, Sorry, Mouse Trap, Chutes and Ladders and Memory.
They spontaneously read books in their room.
Andrew took a book down to the basement and joined his Daddy who was studying
The boys spontaneously cleaned up their toys once.
Isaac willingly helped me vacuum and do the dishes.
I was entertained with puppet shows for nearly an hour.
They both willingly let me cut their hair. Isaac actually said " I want a haircut."
KC got more studying done than usual since he wasn't tempted to watch TV in the evening.
I read 3 books. (probably didn't help with the productivity)

So in the future I think we will do this again. Maybe not once a month, but as needed.

Screen Free Week

2010-04-04T00:00:00.001-06:00

Beginning this week, on Monday April 5th, our family is going to attempt to institute our first SCREEN FREE WEEK. If any of you have kids like mine they are often either on the computer or watching TV or playing a video game. If any of you are like me you are often on the computer, checking email, blogs, and Hulu. Heck, even my baby watches Baby Einstein.

Typically this isn't a problem but sometimes I find that me and my boys become too attached to our screens. Case in point my boys earlier were fighting because on was watching something on the computer and the other was on the TV. The problem was that they each kept on turning their show up louder because "they couldn't hear."

So we are going to have a week of screen detox for the family. KC can only partially participate because of his job, but told him that he can't do any extracurricular screen stuff while working. There it is KC, you now have to follow it, ha!

So I'm going to print off my SCREEN FREE WEEK signs and tape them on each screen. Why don't you join me? Click the sign for a larger version and print it off.

Assuming we don't strangle each other by the end of it we are going to do this the first week of every month. Wish us luck!

Family Photo

2010-03-31T09:47:00.004-06:00

For the first time in over 2 years my family, my siblings their spouses and all their kids were together for long enough to take a big family picture. It is surprising but not so much when you think about it, how hard it is to get 9 kids 6 and under to hold still. You'd think that the "babies" would be the hardest but it was the older kids (my boys) that gave us the hardest time while taking the pictures. Even after 10 photos I still had to use Photoshop and switch out a third of the faces.

(Can you imagine how hard it was to get everyone to hold their pose at the same time?)

We were also able to get a picture done of our family that included Will. I can't decide which photo I like best. Of course our older boys were getting restless and had a really hard time holding still to look at the camera at the same time.

So these are the two best.

Which should I print?

It was a little easier to get the boys to hold still for individual pictures, especially since I let them climb the trees.

Sweet William

2010-03-21T20:18:00.003-06:00

It was William's birthday this week. He didn't know what was going on, but he loved getting lots of cupcakes. The photo is of him after his third cupcake. I think the older boys enjoyed his little party more than he did.

We have really enjoyed having Little Will in our family. He is so excited and full of life. I can already see him being a fun loving kid. He loves to do silly things with his body and make odd noises with his mouth. His feet are almost as important to him as his hands. He loves to slam his feet on the ground continually (you can see that in the video of him crawling) and almost as soon as he could clap with his hands he started doing the "foot clap" which I will share in a video.

Happy Birthday Will, we love you.

Motherly Instinct

2010-03-16T22:05:00.004-06:00

KC has developed a strong motherly instinct. G.I. Joe needn't ever to go hungry.

Crawling With A New Doo

2010-03-15T11:52:00.006-06:00

William is 1 year old this week. Wow, time flies! A couple of weeks ago he got is first hair-cut. That baby hair was just crazy all the time. He looked like a little mad scientist.

He looks so much older now.

The week after that he finally started crawling, much to the dismay of his grandma who was babysitting him for a week. She was hoping for a happy stationary baby. Oh well, we can't stop progress. I'm sad he won't be walking at one like Andrew was, but I am also happy he won't be walking at one. More time to baby proof the house. I'll share pictures of his little birthday party. I'm sure he'll love his cake.

Here he is showing off is crawling skills along with his waving skills. He's pretty narcissistic as I can always guarantee a wave if he sees himself in the mirror.

Vacation Hang Over

2010-03-08T15:01:00.008-07:00

I am experiencing a vacation hang over. It's not the first time either. Why is it when you look forward to a vacation, especially one sans kids, that you expect to come back all refreshed and ready to face life head-on? The reality is that you come back unused to the kids and their "energy" and unused to housework, and it can be overwhelming.

I woke up this morning, my first full day back and I didn't want to get out of bed and couldn't think of a good reason to. All last week I didn't have to make anyone a meal, I didn't have to wipe any bums, pick up anyone else's clothes, clean up anyone else's messes, or even make my own bed. It is almost depressing to come back to normal family life after that. So I call it a vacation hang over.

One good thing about coming home after a vacation is the bed. Oh how I love my bed. It was sorely missed every night we were away. Literally, my hips and back were sore. Yes, I'm spoiled, bedwise at least.

Where was this no kids, no cooking vacation you ask? KC and I thought we'd try to get away to warmer weather by going on a short cruise out of LA. We stopped for a day in Catalina and then in Ensenada, Mexico. It was fun, there was more green and a little more sun, but it wasn't that much warmer since the wind was chilly. At least we tried.

Besides the vacation hang over I am still a little dizzy sometimes as my head is trying to sort out the unmoving earth vs. moving boat thing. When will it end?

Pictures? Here you go.

Here is KC looking good.

Some seals by Catalina Island. We were on a whale watching excursion that ended up being a seal and dolphin watching excursion.

We went horseback riding at a beach near Ensenada. Highly recommended. More padding for the saddle if you have a bony bottom like me is also highly recommended. Ouch, one hour was plenty.

Here's me looking okay, it was windy. My horse looks crazy.

Ships Ahoy!

2010-02-24T08:34:00.004-07:00

This year it was Andrew's turn to have a friend birthday party. Thanks to some help from my mom with the pirate themed goodies and decorations it turned out great. Andrew invited a bunch of boys from his Kindergarten class and his cousin Matthew. A house full of 8 boys is a crazy house, let me tell you. I made a desert island cake complete with ocean. The kids each made an ocean in a bottle, they got a paper pirate hat if they didn't bring one, we fished over the side of the boat for fun surprises, played Cannon Ball Blast with black balloons, decorated cupcakes, and ate pizza.

One mishap was when I realized I didn't check to make sure I had candles, which I didn't. Some quick thinking and we ended up with 6 votive candles floating on the ocean.

For how fast this first 6 years went by, I won't be surprised when he turns 12 in a blink of an eye. One thing to look forward to when that happens - I'll have a free babysitter, YES!

Kindergarten Romance Update

2010-02-18T11:51:00.003-07:00

Andrew is still developing his kindergarten crush. Despite not really wanting to make a special valentine for Purple Coat girl (I'll call her that because she wears a purple coat), he told KC the other day that he would like Purple Coat girl but KC couldn't have her because she was born at a different day. I think he means that she is too young for KC. KC pointed out to Andrew that he has already found a special girl so he didn't need to worry about daddy. Did Andrew just stake his claim? Is it like how male animals in the wild will say to all the other males.. hey this one is mine!?

The next day while driving to a family outing Andrew announces that he thinks he loves Purple Coat girl.

"Andrew, what do you like about her?" I asked.

"I like her hair," he sighs.

"What else to like about her?" I continued.

"I like her face. And her smile. I like it when she smiles. I think she likes it when I smile. I think she loves me too."

KC and I had to hold back the giggles and shock at the romancer we are raising. KC says his first crush wasn't until 2nd grade. I can't remember if I even had a crush in elementary school. All I can say is that we are going to need to watch this kid he is going to be a ladies man.

A Change of Heart

2010-01-26T12:47:00.002-07:00

Andrew has a lot of simple child-like faith. Sometimes he adds odd requests to his prayers. He prays that no one he knows will ever die or that he will always live with his mommy and daddy. With his faith, the fact that he prayed for it, no question, it will happen. For the first request I told him how everyone dies eventually, so he amended his prayer to say only let the old people die. That's nice of him.

Regarding the second prayerful request I've told him that when he gets married he'll want to move out of the house, but he could stay with us forever if he wants. His response is that he'll never get married. No big deal, right? Of course we all know that when finds the right girl and wants some independence that would change, I just didn't think he'd change his mind so quickly.

Enter the new girl. Only a week after the new girl came to Andrew's kindergarten class he told us that he was going to marry her. He would talk about her sometimes and he made a Christmas card for her. I thought he might have forgotten about her since he has been on winter break and track break, but just last week after reading the scripture telling us to love one another he mentioned again that he was going to marry the new girl. KC didn't realize that he'd already need to be dishing out advice on girls, but here we were. KC advised Andrew not to mention marriage just yet, he didn't want to scare her off. He suggested that instead he be friends with her. Good advice Daddy. Andrew says he still likes boys better than girls, I mean he still 5 years old, but there is something about this girl than made Andrew peg her for his future wife. Go Andrew.

Goals For The Week - January 11th

2010-01-12T09:39:00.002-07:00

Spiritual - Go to the temple.

Home - Declutter and clean master bedroom and bathroom.

Family - Do learning time with the boys.

Health - Exercise!

Preparedness - Get food for 72 hour kits, and shop case lot.

(I figure if I post my goals for the week, I'll more likely get them done.

Merry Christmas and Resolutions

2009-12-24T08:01:00.003-07:00

Merry Christmas! We sent this picture along with our Christmas cards this year. I wish I could send one to everyone, but that would be a butt load of cards. So I'm sharing it here at least. Along with the photo we sent a little letter that included our family's resolutions for 2010.

2010 New Years Resolutions

KC's Resolutions

Do not move again.
Finish at 284 or better in the triathalon.
Pass CFA Level 1

My Resolutions

Keep the house clean more than 1 day at a time.
Make a home grown batch of salsa.
Do not read more than 1 book a week.

Andrew's Resolutions

Get the Dragon Award (read 20 minutes everyday among other things)
Clear Super Mario Sunshine
Make one goal every soccer game.

Isaac's Resolutions

Learn the numbers and letters.
Don't kill the cat. (on accident)
Grow taller than Andrew.

William's Resolutions

Start walking.
Say first word.
Start Nursery.

Befores and Afters

2009-12-16T07:51:00.003-07:00

At the time when you look at yourself in the mirror you think, "yeah I need to lose a few pounds." A check on the digital scale confirms that thought. But the thought is often never strong enough to translate into action.

After having a baby this year, I knew I needed to at least get back to where I was before I got pregnant. I had been working out and was in an okay spot. KC had been fighting an uphill battle ever since we got married. His desk job didn't help since he spent a lot of his days sitting. In the end though, food is just so good! It's hard to resist that bedtime bowl of cereal, or that handful of cheese and crackers. So at the end of August after a year of trying to get motivated KC told me that he wanted to do the Weight Watchers system without actually joining Weight Watchers. He said he wouldn't do it unless I did it with him. So with the help of the Internet we "joined". We figured out our points and bookmarked some calculators. It turned out that I get 10 extra points for nursing William, so my points were the same as KC's. So we took our measurements on the last Sunday in August and started.

Fast forward 2 1/2 months and we were amazed at the results. I lost 15 pounds, KC lost 30... 30! He didn't even do that much exercise. All I did was just start walking 3-4 times a week until it got cold. Throughout the 2 months and especially at the beginning our favorite phrase was, "so that's why we were 'fat'." when we'd find out how many points something was. A cheeseburger... 12 points. When you are only allowed about 30 a day that is a lot. Each cookie is about 4 points, we'd often eat 3-4 each sometimes 2 or more times a week. No wonder.

KC is thinking he's about done. I want to reach an ideal goal and lose a few more. I was looking at some pictures this morning and was amazed at the difference in our faces. KC said it looked like we had been stung by a bee.

Arrr Matey!

2009-11-03T18:45:00.004-07:00

We had a lot of fun this Halloween. This is the first time we've really gotten into the dressing up and decorating. We even had a little party for the kids and their friends. Inspired by William's hand-me-down costume from when Isaac was a baby, we all ended up being pirates. I made all of my costume minus the hat and boots. I made none of KC's, most of Andrew's, and some of Isaac's. William rode in style in his own pirate ship. He was the highlight of our trick or treating outing.

Something came over me when I envisioned turning our long, boring, and tall front entry hallway into a Haunted Hallway. Armed with large rolls of black plastic, some black lights and fluorescent paint we created a pretty cool little spook "alley". The visiting trick or treaters loved it when the fog spilled out when we opened the door and they saw spooky ghosts, bats, spiders, skeletons, and graves. I put together a track of spooky sounds that played in the background on the porch. It was a lot of fun to open the doors and give out candy this year. Next year we will probably do the same and may expand it out to the porch a little more. I can't wait!

Garden Thoughts

2009-10-19T11:18:00.005-06:00

I've been meaning to write about the garden we did this year but never really got around to it. Now that the gardening season is almost over I wanted to make some notes about my garden and what I would do again and what I would change for next year.

Because our soil is, well, rock, I wanted to build some boxes and do raised bed gardening the Square Foot Gardening way. You can see my main box here it has 4-4x4 areas. This one had a pumpkin at the end, corn in the next area and a variety of vegetables in the next two. My second main box has 2-4x4 areas. I put a cooking pumpkin plant in one area and a watermelon in the other.
Next I did two boxes that are only 1 foot deep. One I made 4 feet long and put everbearing strawberries in it. Seen below. I had to put a net up to keep animals from snacking on them.
The other one I made 8 feet wide and attached a conduit trellis to the back with a net. I planted cucumbers, tomatoes, pole beans and cantalope in this one.

Here is my first large harvest of vegetables and some strawberries. Later I would harvest lots of carrots, raspberries and potatoes.For next year I wanted to make a few notes about what went well, what didn't go well, and what I would change.

Vertical Garden
We grew 2 cucumber plants and got about 4-5 good sized ones. We ate about 1-2. I would say since the vertical garden space is so limited that we don't grow cucumbers next year and just buy them at the store when we want them. Instead plant peas or more tomatoes.

I want to try peas next time. I didn't start the garden early enough for them this year.

I want to plant more tomato plants so I can have more ripe at once for salsa. I liked the grape tomatoes for salad. I want to get some roma tomato plants (they're KC's favorite) and maybe an Early Girl or two.

The pole beans were great once I got the beans to sprout. Two plants in the square seemed to be enough.

Plant the cantalope plants a lot earlier and give them more water maybe. They grew very slowly and didn't get very big before they died from the frost. Watch for squash bugs on them.

Large Plants
I got some good sized pumpkins but the issue with squash bugs was really annoying. Pumpkins are pretty cheap so I don't know if it's worth the space and the yucky squash bugs.

Maybe I will do water melons again, if I have a whole box available. I need to be more aware of when they are ripe this time and pick promptly. Also the squash bugs can kill the vines if I'm not careful.

Fruit
We loved the strawberries, they turned out great. I want to build another box and put in June bearing strawberries. This year they were everbearing which was great for making strawberry yogurt snacks or fruit salads perodically.

The raspberries turned out awesome. We need to put in some stakes and supports for the canes so they don't droop on the rock.

Other Veggies
I planted too many corn too close together.. maybe just one or two per square. I need get a different variety the ones we had didn't taste very good.

I planted 4 pepper plants and still have peppers left over. I would use them for salsa or something but I never have enough ripe tomatoes at once to make a large enough batch. I made salsa once this year and it turned our pretty good. So maybe plant just 2 bell pepper plants and another with another kind for salsa maybe.

The bush beans were great. Keep an eye on them because they last a lot longer then I thought they would and put out beans more than I was informed.

Plant broccoli, lettuce, spinach and carrots earlier to take advantage of spring cool weather plants.

Herbs
Start the herbs earlier or buy the plants at the store, plant just one basil and one oregano, plant maybe 2 cilantro. Try to get parsley to grow again.

Maybe try garlic next year.

Root Vegetables
Plant some onions next year.
Do carrots again, they were great.
Do at least 4 squares of potatoes, maybe more. Plant earlier to avoid those brown spots.

Don't put a mother's day petunia in the same box as an herb. They get hugemongous in the Square Food Gardening soil.
Put in marigolds again and do nasturtiums for insect issues. Also get some organic vegetable insect spray like neem.

Overall it was pretty successful. I just need to train myself to use vegetables more in my cooking. I am a recovering picky eater and it is a long process.

Motherhood and Guilt

2009-09-22T16:15:00.004-06:00

I was talking to KC the other night and told him that some days I feel like I can only do a few things at a time well. It's like each thing is a ball to juggle and if I add one, then invariably I drop another so I can concentrate on the new one for a while. Some days I can handle just one or two balls at a time, other days I can handle 5. Some days I let myself feel guilty for not being really good at everything I want to be.

Today I read a blog post about guilt from Diapers and Divinity, written by Stephanie, a funny LDS mom of 3. When I finished it I felt that I needed to share it with other moms I know. Please, check it out.

I am going to finish with a poem I was emailed earlier this month. Ironically I sometimes feel like a lot of this is expected of me.

The Girl in a Whirl
by "Dr. Sue" (aka Vickie Gunther)

Look at me, look at me, look at me now!
You could do what I do if you only knew how.
I study the scriptures one hour each day;
I bake, I upholster, I scrub, and I pray.

I always keep all the commandments completely;
I speak to my little ones gently and sweetly.
I help in their classroom! I sew all they wear!
I drive them to practice! I cut all their hair!

I play the piano! I bless with my talents!
My toilets all sparkle! My check books all balance!
Each week each child gets a one-on-one date;
I attend all my meetings (on time! never late!)

I'm taking a class on the teachings of Paul,
But, that is not all! Oh no, that is not all.
I track my bad habits 'til each is abolished;
Our t-shirts are ironed! My toe nails are polished!

Our family home evenings are always delightful;
The lessons I give are both fun and insightful.
I do genealogy faithfully, too,
It's easy to do all the things I have to do!

I rise each day early, refreshed and awake;
I know all the names of each youth in the stake!
I read to my children! I help all my neighbors!
I bless the community, too with my labors.

I exercise and I cook menus gourmet;
My visiting teaching is done the first day!
(I also go do it for someone who missed hers.
It's the least I can do for my cherished ward Sisters.)

I chart resolutions and check off each goal;
I seek each "lost lamb" on my Primary roll.
I can home-grown produce each summer and fall.
But that is not all! Oh, no. That is not all.

I write in my journal! I sing in the choir!
Each day, I write "thank you’s" to those I admire.
My sons were all Eagles when they were fourteen!
My kids got straight A's! And their bedrooms are clean.

I have a home business to help make some money;
I always look beautiful groomed for my honey.
I go to the temple at least once a week;
I change the car's tires! I fix the sink's leak!

I grind my own wheat and bake all our bread;
I have all our meals planned out six months ahead.
I make sure I rotate our two-year supply
My shopping for Christmas is done by July!

These things are not hard; 'tis good if you do them;
You can if you try! Just set goals and pursue them!
It's easy to do all the things that I do!
If you plan and work smart, you can do them all, too!

"It's easy!" she said,
And then she dropped dead!

Awkward

2009-09-03T13:06:00.004-06:00

The word "awkward" is awkward itself. It's hard to say, hard to spell and once you spell it right, it looks funny. Lots of things in this world can be described with the word awkward. Here are a few:

Going on a first date
Dialing the wrong number
Saying no to sales people
Riding in elevators with a stranger...
Who has flatulence
Asking a person's name more than once
Sharing an armrest with a stranger in a movie
Using public restrooms
Taking family photos. Some just turn out awkward too, at least in the case of the photos found on this website, AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com. Take a look, some are pretty funny.

I was wondering, do you think this photo counts as an awkward family photo?

August Pictures

2009-09-01T19:39:00.002-06:00

Apparently I haven't posted any new pictures of Will lately and my sister didn't let me forget it today. She made me promise to post something soon. So here are a few pictures I took of the boys with Will a couple of weeks ago.

First Day

2009-08-04T20:55:00.003-06:00

It's hard to believe that it's been 5 1/2 years since I held this baby boy, small and helpless in my arms. I look at William who looks so much like Andrew did as a baby and wonder how we got here.

Andrew has been ready and waiting for this day for years. He learned to recognize all his letters by 2 1/2 and knew his numbers 1-10 before Isaac was born. He was ready, and today was finally the day.

I asked him how it went. "It was good." I had to probe a little more. "We read 3 stories." and finally his dissapointment, "I didn't get to play in the room yet or on the playground." We agreed to get there earlier tomorrow (we were almost late) so he could have time to play on the playground.

Today marks the beginning of a new phase for him and for me. I am now a mom of a school age kid. From now on I will be dealing with homework, projects, school bells, homework, teachers, PTA, and homework. And so will he. He will also be dealing with the new social experiences. I worry about that part. What will he learn from those other kids? Will he bring home garbage words to teach Isaac? Will he learn too early about things 5 year-olds have no business knowing about? I know it happens. I guess I will have to take the bad with the good.

I'm excited for him to learn. To learn to love learning. I hope that happens. I hope he learns to make new friends and learns what a best friend is. I hope he learns to try things even though they are hard. I hope he learns of the joy from accomplishing something even though it was difficult. Here's to hope, here's to our First Day.

What a difference a few months make.

2009-07-13T11:02:00.008-06:00

After months of work we finally put grass in this last week. It is such a stark transformation. We didn't just go from dirt to grass, we went from sloping rocky expanse, (seriously one guy who did our cement commented repeatedly that they should have put a gravel pit here and sold all this rock, cha-ching)
to dirt with about 6 truckloads of dirt,
add some cement, a garden, trees, and plants
Finally there's grass. Such a difference.
The last step is to add a pathway and a planting area along the left border and put plants and rock/bark in the rest of the areas. (This is a photoshop mock up of what it might look like, yay photoshop.)

Family Bull Ride

2009-07-02T17:05:00.002-06:00

We had a fun week at Snowbird this last week. Here's one of the activities we did.

Where am I?

2009-06-11T12:33:00.001-06:00

Did something pick up my house and move it to Seattle?

Who's Who Answer and Stuff

2009-06-09T09:15:00.004-06:00

Those who guessed were right. Picture A is Andrew, he tends to have the longer face. Picture B is William. Finally picture C is Isaac. I think William and Isaac look most alike although when William was first born I though the looked most like how Andrew did when he was born.

In other news we are making our way through more active little boy injuries. Andrew was at the doctor yesterday with some cuts on his eye lid and right below his eye. Isaac threw a play sword at him. The doctor glued them up since we couldn't put bandaids on them. Isaac was at the doctor a month ago when he took a head dive into a door frame at the bank. He got a gash on his forehead that was pretty deep. He almost needed stitches but we ended up only needing the derma glue stuff. That stuff is a miracle invention for moms of busy boys and girls. Last night I had to put 5 bandaids on Isaac's toes. I don't know how it happened, but he has cuts on the underside of his toes. I think he needs to wear socks and shoes outside for a while and stop running around without shoes on. We are still waiting for our first broken bone, which will now come soon since I mentioned it. I'll post photos of that one.

Who's Who?

2009-06-03T15:56:00.006-06:00

These are pictures of Andrew, Isaac, and William all at about the same age. Can you tell who's who?

Blessing William

2009-05-08T09:12:00.003-06:00

Last Sunday we had William's baby blessing at home. We were going to do it during sacrament meeting, but since he was still a bit sick from RSV we decided to hold it at home.

(As an aside William and I were at Primary Children's for 24hrs last week. He had a fever over 100 so as a precaution they had us go there so they could do all the tests to make sure it wasn't something more serious. Turns out he had RSV though he was hardly coughing and had a bit of mucus. I all sounds more worrisome than it actually was. We came home after the 24 hrs and he is doing awesome now and back to himself.)

William manged to sleep through the whole thing, which made the blessing go fairly smooth. Casey thought that doing it at home would be better since he wouldn't feel the pressure of feeling the spirit for the blessing in front of the whole congregation, but he said afterwards it wasn't that much different doing it in front of a bunch of family either. Any way he does it, he always does an awesome job.

Casey's brother from Arizona was already visiting so he was able to attend along with his other brother and his family. I had my family come up from Southern Utah to stay and be there for the blessing as well. I have two sisters who have 3 kids each, all 5 and under. So we had 9 kids in the house for 2 days. We couldn't go outside much since it was rainy most of the time. Sometimes it was very loud, but we managed to enjoy it still. Andrew and Isaac loved having their cousins here to play. No matter how stressful or hectic it is when the house is crazy with visitors I always feel a little depressed with how suddenly quiet and lonely the house feels after they leave. I also miss having the extra people to help with the cooking and the dishes.

Mountain of the Lord

2009-05-04T17:24:00.003-06:00

This is going to be an exciting summer for my little family and my neighbors. Two blocks from my house this temple, the Oquirrh Mountain Temple, is about finished being built. From June 1st to August 1st the open house will be open to the public. On the 22nd and 23rd of August it will be dedicated. It is projected that around 1 million people will visit the temple during those 2 months. That's a lot of people.

This will be a good opportunity to let my boys see what a temple looks like inside. It's an opportunity to teach Andrew about temples and how they are important to us. It is also an opportunity for my friends and family to come see the temple themselves and then visit me... hint, hint. So go on, get your reservations, and come see the temple and me!

You've Had A Birthday Shout Hooray!

2009-04-27T16:36:00.005-06:00

Happy 3rd Birthday to Issac. His birthday was last Thursday. The Tuesday before that we had an impromptu family reunion in Fillmore with my family and we had a small birthday segment for him. He got a got imaginext dragon that walks. He loves it. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! He also got some fun little toy trucks from Great Grandma, THANKS!

Then last Saturday we had some of his neighbor friends over for a play date party. The kids played and made a thorough mess in the play room upstairs. I then fed them some lunch before letting them gorge on cake and ice cream. KC and I got him a Radio Flyer scooter and helmet and his friends gave him a cool batman toy. They would have played outside a bit afterwards but the weather turned almost winter like with the cold and rain.

Isaac is a fun and sensitive kid. He loves to play with his brother and he LOVES our cat Leo. He loves all animals for that matter even when they bite or scratch him. He still loves his duckies and often tells me how cute they are. He is still a cuddler which I love, but he is getting a little big for it. We're sure thankful for him and his energy in our family. I can't wait to see what kind of person he turns out to be.

Progress

2009-04-23T18:45:00.005-06:00

We've begun the first steps on finishing our backyard, sprinklers. We had the trenches dug last Saturday and laid out the pipe. KC and I (mostly KC) spent all of Wednesday making all the connections and we basically got it all done this morning. A few truckloads of topsoil is going to be delivered tomorrow. If you can't tell from the pictures our "dirt" is mostly rock so we'll need a lot of topsoil.

This is Isaac helping us fill in the trenches when we were done.

Check Up

2009-04-02T16:20:00.002-06:00

Yesterday we packed up all 3 boys and took them to the new doctor. Andrew and Isaac both needed their yearly check-up and William was due for his 2 week visit. All was fairly uneventful except Isaac refused to let the doctor look in his ears for some inexplicable reason. We did all the necessary checks and measurements and found that these boys are growing like weeds.

Andrew is a tall thin weed at 45 inches and 41 pounds. He's about average for his age in weight but is at about the 90th percentile for height. We call Andrew the future basketball player.

Isaac is a proportional weed that is simply big for his age. He is 40 inches and 38 pounds. He is above the 95th percentile for weight and almost off the chart for height. So basically he looks like the average 4 year old and he's not 3 until the end of this month. We call Isaac the future football player.

William, the newly spouted weed is already showing his potential since he is now already 8.6 pounds and 20.4 inches tall. He has gained almost a pound and an inch over his birth measurements. The interesting thing is that when he left the hospital he was 6 lbs 12 oz and they were a little worried about his weight loss. That was just the last two weeks. I think he is in a growth spurt right now as he is voraciously hungry about every 2 hours. He is a promising little weed for sure. We're not sure what to call him, except "little guy" since he was born the smallest of the three.

ps. Don't mistake comparing my kids to weeds to mean anything more than their growth. I certainly don't view them as unwanted and homely. I definitely think they are the cutest and most lovable little boys.

Introducing....

2009-03-22T09:34:00.004-06:00

He's finally here. I am now happy to introduce William Joseph to the blogging world. He had his own plans for what day he wanted to arrive and he decided to spring those plans on me at 3:45 in the morning on the 18th. My water broke, waking me from the last night of restful sleep that I will have for a while. I had my very generous cousin come over to stay at the house while KC and I headed to the hospital.

They eventually got me started on pitocin to get my contractions going and after a while I decided an epidural was in order. I had felt enough labor pains for this one, or so I thought. After the epidural I found that I could still feel all the pain on one side of my body. So they injected me with more anesthesia which helped, but my legs soon felt like they were the size of elephants. That dose wore off and I was again feeling the contractions on that side. The pain was dulled, but still painful. We were getting to the end though, and I figured when it was all over I'd want to walk sometime in the next day so I didn't ask for another large dose of anesthesia. Feeling the contractions a bit proved helpful as I eventually had to call in the nurses to inform them that William didn't want to wait much longer. So the doctor was called back in and after a couple pushes he was out. It turns out that the cord was wrapped around William's neck. This explained why his heart rate would go down quite a bit during each contraction. Despite expectations for a larger baby, like Andrew and Isaac were, William surprised us by being just 7 lbs 8 oz and 19.5 inches long. In the end though he was healthy and looked great. That's the exent of the gory details I am wishing to share.. aren't you glad?

Here are some photos from the last few days.
Look at that head of hair.
We thought we'd be able to go home after 24hrs, but Williams PKU test showed high levels of Bilirubin so he had to do some fake baking during the next day. He levels went down quickly and we were able to go home without having to take home any extra equipment.
Finally able to go home.

His brothers think he is the cutest and can't wait for him to crawl and be able to play with them.

The Safe Side

2009-03-17T15:30:00.004-06:00

I wouldn't really describe myself as an over-protective parent. I am intrigued and sorta like the idea of Free Range Kids. But if I plan on giving my kids some freedom in the future, I need to make sure they have the right information and tools to deal with the real world.

So, for a recent Family Home Evening lesson, KC and I wanted to discuss stranger safety with the boys. I found some free amateurish videos on youtube.com but wasn't satisfied completely with the messages. I didn't want to scare my boys from ever talking to people. I didn't want them to run screaming "STRANGER, STRANGER" if an adult tried to talk to them. So I kept on looking. I found on youtube a preview of the Safe Side video called Stranger Safety. It is made by Julie Clark of Baby Einstein fame and John Walsh of America's Most Wanted. It looked sorta fun and interesting, so I picked it up from the library and we showed it to the boys. Not only was it educational, but the boys really enjoyed watching it. We had it for a week and Andrew must have watched it at least 8 times.

Inside there is a pamphlet with an article from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, by Nancy McBride. As a mother of two small kids I was surprised to learn for example that they don't actually support the "stranger-danger" message. The article also says:

When we tell children to “never talk to strangers,” we have effectively eliminated a key source of help for them if they are in trouble. If they’re lost they may be surrounded by many “strangers” who could conceivably help them if they would only ask for it.

This is why I liked the Safe Side video. Instead of teaching the kids to be afraid of everyone it tells them what to watch out for. It's awesome too that the video teaches about "Kinda knows." Statistically children are most often harmed/taken by someone they know. The video teaches how although the child may kinda know someone they shouldn't completely trust them unless they check with their "safe-side adults."

Mostly I like that it's not boring or scary, which is important in helping the kids to actually learn. Check out the whole article, it's not long, and if you want, check out the video. It might be a good idea to talk about this now in the spring before our kids start heading out to the playgrounds. I think I'll make it a yearly spring tradition in our family.

Almost There

2009-03-16T10:22:00.003-06:00

After nine months of waiting, the time is near where I start another phase of life. I will be the mother of 3 boys. I will have more boys than I have hands. When I am paired with my better half, we will still be out numbered.

We are prepared as much as we can be. The baby clothes are out and sorted. The poor kid will be using 2 and 3 times used hand me downs, but he won't care, and he still will look cute. The minivan has been acquired. The boys already love having it. Diapers have been purchased. They are so small. And a name has been chosen, though Andrew doesn't like it. He still thinks Whitey House is a great name. He's also leaning towards Andrew2 or Zachy.

Unless little Will has other plans, he will come on Saturday the 21st. I really hope he doesn't have other plans. I am 45 minutes from the hospital I am going to and I do not want to drive that long having painful contractions. No thankyou. So of course all last night I kept on dreaming that I would go into labor this week sometime. I kept on worrying that it would be today because today is the only day this week that KC is not working from home. Preparation is the best insurance that something won't happen so I made sure he was prepared and sent the cell phone with him, just in case.

Wish me luck.

Effects of Nostalgia

2009-03-04T08:37:00.005-07:00

Don't we all get nostalgic now and then for our younger years, our years of innocence, our childhood and all that came with it? We remember our friends, our favorite toys, or favorite places to play, and of course our favorite TV cartoons. Now, thanks to the wonderfulness of the internet you can find almost anything online, especially on Youtube.

Periodically KC and I will spend a few minutes looking up our favorite cartoons and watching the opening credits or some clips from the shows. They are never what you remember them to be. I can't believe I actually enjoyed some of them. I think some shows though are classic. They still inspire the imagination and delight in a little boy or girl.

One of those shows I guess is He-Man. I never really watched it as a kid, though I think I watched She-ra a bit. KC says He-Man was his favorite cartoon when he was about 5 or so. So it's no suprise when the other day KC pulled up the opening credits to He-Man on youtube to show the boys. He was hoping to find an episode to show them, but didn't have any luck. For some reason I remembered seeing that Fancast.com had old cartoons on it and sure enough they have a bunch of He-Man episodes available to watch. So we all gathered around the computer screen and watched it.

Now it's no wonder then, that the night before last I had a certain song in my head all night and the next day, and I had certain phrases run through my head willy nilly. Why? Andrew and Isaac have been watching episodes of He-Man on the computer every chance they get. Isaac has been pointing his play sword in the air and trying to repeat the phrase "By the power of Grayskull!" He only get's out the skull part though. It's cute. They've really been into swords lately and since He-Man uses a Magic Sword, well it's a no brainer they they are drawn to it.

I have to leave the room when they watch it. It annoys the heck outtta me. Why to do they care so much to protect or conquer a land that has no plants and is filled with craggy rocks and mud? Why do they live like they are in stone age/medieval times but they have flying vehicles and computer guidance/targeting systems. Why is the cat/tiger so afraid? Why is Skeletor's voice so high pitched and annoying? What is the deal with those circle shapes on the women's outfits? If you've seen it, you know what I mean. I could go on, but I won't.

There is one redeeming thing about the show. At the end of each episode they have a short moral or uplifting message about something that happened in the show. That is something that a lot of the cartoons out there should have. Still, I'm hoping that this phase blows over soon and I can enjoy more episodes of Wow, Wow Wubbzy and The Backyardigans again. I get those songs stuck in my head too, but they don't annoy me as much.

Kindergarten Here We Come!

2009-02-17T19:38:00.002-07:00

Yesterday we celebrated Andrew's 5th birthday with some of my family visiting. Last year we had a friend party for his birthday, this year was just a family party. Grandma and Papa came from Southern Utah to visit for the day and they brought Andrew's cousin Dean with them. We had a great time bowling. Andrew was old enough to handle the ball himself although he couldn't get much speed on the ball. Suprisingly Isaac didn't run off more than once and was a good little boy. I would have never thought the day would come. We went home and had a pizza and chicken nuggets lunch with grapes and hawaiian punch. All Andrew's choice. We then had cake and cake batter flavored ice cream and finally he got to open presents. KC and I got him a new bike since we sorta broke his old one trying this and the old one was a garage sale special. We'll have to work on the no training wheels thing this summer.
Now that Andrew has turned 5 he is quite anxious to go to kindergarten. I feel bad having to explain to him that he has to wait 6 months before he can go. I think he understands though. In the meantime we spend a little time each day doing pages from a Kindergarten workbook.

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Rrroar! Yikes!

2009-01-15T10:25:00.008-07:00

"Rrroar!"

"Yikes!"

Sitting next to Isaac in the Energy Solutions Arena during the Walking With Dinosaurs show last night was a treat. A few months ago KC heard about the show and thought it was be a fun thing for the family to do, so we got tickets. The boys have been looking forward to it for a while, and they weren't disappointed.

(We went sledding yesterday morning and Isaac scraped his cheek a bit on the ice.)

The first dinosaur came out was a smaller scary one and Isaac literally yelled "Yikes!" to the delight of all sitting around us. Each one they showed was a wonder to the boys. They had a huge mommy brachiosaur (not sure on the spelling) protecting her kid and later a huge scary Tyrannosaur protecting it's baby from two larger armored dinosaurs. Three Utah Raptors where shown eating a dinosaur corpse. "Yucky!" Isaac said. Andrew says the end with the Tyrannosaurs was his favorite part. They loved the fight between two triceratop-like male dinosaurs as well, Andrew compared it to a Super Smash Bros. fight from the Nintendo. He wasn't fooled by the wires used to make the flying dinosaur fly, but thought it was pretty cool still.

Here is a shortish video showing some of the boys' favorite parts.

Our December in Photos

2009-01-08T11:34:00.014-07:00

December flew by so here is a fly by of pictures from our December.

Andrew telling Santa what he wants for Christmas. Isaac wouldn't get on Santa's lap. Maybe next year.
The Christmas card we sent out to some friends and family. Sorry if you didn't get one. Let me know if you want to be added to the list :-) We couldn't get a good family picture of us all at once so we decided to pose and take them separately to create a winter scene courtesy of photoshop.

One of the photos we decided not to use for our Christmas Card creation. Yes our house is really that yellow.

My boys and friends at a Christmas Party.

Transportation to and from the sledding hill. The snow packed roads made it easy.

Isaac at the sledding hill.

Our church meeting time was during Isaac's nap time. So this is how we found him soon after coming home from church once.

Andrew's favorite thing that Santa got him. Santa must have listened when we visited him.

The backyard after the Christmas snowstorm. There are a couple steps down right in front of Isaac so it was pretty deep back there.

Isaac and his cousin sharing the scooter. He was nice to let her ride and she was nice to always let him drive.

Make It Stop!

2009-01-05T16:39:00.004-07:00

I can barely pull out of my ice covered driveway into our narrowly plowed snow-packed alley already. Right now the snow is coming down sideways and it's currently 25 degrees. The ground has been covered in snow for only a couple of weeks, but I am already sick of it. Maybe if it were warmer I'd tolerate it. I know it could be worse. My little brother is on a Mission in Spokane, WA where they have had at least 5 feet, that's 60 inches, of snow in the last few weeks and are expecting more.

It's not all bad. We have had fun in the snow with the boys. We went sledding a few weeks ago, they loved that. I have found that Isaac would stay outside in the snow all day if I let him. Andrew only lasts until his wrists get cold or the snow gets down his neck. Once I can get on the other computer and download pictures I will add them.

It is also nice to know that lots of snow is falling on the mountains. Here in the desert we really need that snow from the mountains. Still I can't help but wish for at least 50 degree days. Here's to another 2-3 months of white stuff and cold.

Bling Duckie

2008-12-18T21:13:00.007-07:00

Meet, Bling Duckie. It was created when three Isaac phenomenon's merged together.

1. Isaac's love of rubber ducks, especially this one of late, who he calls "baby bird."

2. For some reason I had a bag of plastic easter eggs among my Christmas decorations. Isaac found them and started pulling them apart and playing with them of course.

3. Isaac loves to get into my bedroom when I fail to lock it. His favorite thing to do is get into my jewelry box and put things in his pockets.

Thus, Bling Duckie was born. Doesn't the egg make a great rubber duckie helmet?

A Conversation

2008-11-26T15:12:00.006-07:00

Andrew: "Where does Santa Live?"

Daddy: "The North Pole."

Andrew: "Does he make little boys?"

Daddy: "No, he makes toys for little boys. But do you remember? Mommy has a baby brother in her tummy."

Andrew: "OH YEAH!"

Daddy: "What should we name your little brother?"

Andrew: "I already named him. His name is Whitey House."

Daddy: "Do you like that name? What about William or Ethan?"

Andrew: "No, I don't like those names, but I do like Happy Yoshi."

Camera Fun

2008-11-13T10:42:00.006-07:00

After complaining enough to KC about our camera we started looking at different models and prices. We gravitated towards the SLR-like digital camera group. They aren't true SLRs since you can't fully remove the lens and they are smaller than an SLR but bigger than a typical point and shoot. The reason I like this class is that they tend to have powerful zooms, larger LCD screens, SLR features like hot shoes and the option of getting lens add-ons.

We settled on the Canon S5 IS after reading reviews checking picture and video samples and finding one on sale at Walmart for 50-100 dollars less than anywhere else. It has a flash hot shoe, you can add a wide angle or a telephoto lens to it and a 12x zoom. It has all the point and shoot features plus advanced camera features and a cool super macro feature.

The one thing we love is that the video quality is comparable to camcorder quality. I can even zoom while recording! The great thing for me is that the video is recorded on a memory card so I can just drag and drop the video onto my computer. EASY!

This was supposed to be a Christmas present for me from KC but since it was on sale and it was the last one we had to get it soon. I couldn't see any reason to let it sit in a box while we had family over for Thanksgiving, so we broke it in yesterday.

KC had the idea, after playing with the features of the camera for a while, to make a movie with the boys using their toys. He thought it would be fun to reenact a scene from The Incredibles. I imagined he and the boys would sort of record a play by following the sound and moving the toys around. Boy was I wrong. He went all movie guy on me and started composing shots and scenes to go exactly with the sound of the clip. The boys got bored after a while, but still watched what we were doing. After they went to bed we loaded the video onto the computer and edited it with Windows Moviemaker. So here's the family spoof on the opening scene of The Incredibles.

The IncrediToys

(if the video doesn't work let me know in the comments, it was working fine for me at first but won't play now.)

Happy Halloween and Why I Now Hate November

2008-11-03T07:54:00.006-07:00

So this Halloween Isaac must have really been into the spirit. No fake mummy bandages for him. He wanted it to be authentic so he bumped his head on the coffee table so he'd bleed and need a bandage until it stopped.
Actually it wasn't that bad, I didn't put the bandage on until later after it had already stopped bleeding once. A mummy would have been too "scawee" for him any way.

Both boys were really excited to finally get to wear their costumes and go trick or treating. Andrew had to be Tigger this year. I'm not sure why, but I think he thought if he had the costume he'd be able to bounce on the tail like Tigger does. He was a bit dissapointed that he couldn't really do it, but he still loved being Tigger. Don't call him Tigger though, he will say, "No, I'm Andrew." We asked Isaac a few months ago what he wanted to be and we got, Duckie. Big surprise there, although he hasn't been playing with the duckies as much lately. He refused to try on the costume until the time came, but he always said the the costume was, "Aww, cute." We just loved the tail of the duckling costume, it waddled when he walked. Too funny. I think he'll hate us in 10 years for this. Most of my pictures came out blurry, but here are a couple okay ones. ( I hate my camera now, anyone want to dontate one that is newer than 4 1/2 years old?) This is the first house they visited, see the tail?This is on our porch. The pumpkin on the left was painted by Isaac and the one on the right by Andrew. The other side of Andrew's pumpkin had an "ahhhh, scawee" face.

So October was great. Weather was nice and we had fun. November hasn't been fun yet. I don't like November anymore, well at least the beginning of it. Why? Daylight Savings ends. It used to be so cool, fall back. Yes! Another hour to sleep in! Until I had kids who have amazingly accurate internal clocks, who demand cereal first thing. I bet most moms agree. Get rid of it all together. Why mess with our delicate sleep schedules? I used to not like Spring forward, now with kids I can use that time to have a week where they sleep an hour later, YES! But I'd happily give that up to keep it simple. Maybe I can convince KC to move one more time to Arizona? Hey there's one reason to vote for McCain, he's from a smart state.

Here's one last picture, Isaac really likes the suckers.

Baby's Costume

2008-10-30T18:58:00.007-06:00

As of yesterday Mystery Baby is not a mystery anymore. HE even had a costume for Halloween. Doesn't he look sort of freaky?
After 4 different checks for gender by the doctor we figured it out. One was a "does that look like a hamburger?", the other 3 were "That looks suspicious." My doctor tends to be vague, can you tell?. KC said, "More like a hot dog then, right." That's more specific. In the end we all agreed, boy #3 is on his way. We are keeping up a tradition as well, since KC grew up in a house of 3 boys as did his father.

There are other important things to check on the first ultrasound besides looking for boy or girl parts. There was the counting of the body parts, (Yup, 2 arms and 2 legs.) checking the head and spine, counting 4 chambers on the heart, and the measurements. I love the measurements part. That was when I first got an idea that Andrew and Isaac would be tall. Their femur measurements were always on the larger side. I worry for this baby though. His measurement was average. Fifty something percentile. Maybe he'll hit a growth spurt the next few months. Keep your fingers crossed for him.

P.S. - Name ideas anyone. I'm fresh out of boy names.

Safely Gathered In

2008-10-01T18:25:00.004-06:00

After getting quite a few gems from this oft-updated blog I just can't keep it from my friends and family any longer.

Safely Gathered In is a "Step by step guide to food storage and emergency preparedness." Awesome! I just had to share this after reading a post about making your own oven with a cardboard box. After my sister endured a week or so without electricity after Hurricane Ike I think it would be great to know how to do this so you can still bake in that situation. There are often great recipes for food storage/pantry food items. They also encourage their readers to work on 72-hour kits and on a 3-month supply. If you need a little help and motivation in this area or just want some great tips this blog is perfect.

I am looking forward tomorrow to a wheat bread recipe that looks yummy.

Fine, I Give

2008-09-30T08:56:00.002-06:00

My sister Marie tagged me for the Crazy 8's meme. I think I've been tagged for similar things by other friends and family, but I have avoided responding until now, I give in.

8 Favorite TV shows

Heroes
Fringe
House
Criminal Minds
Survivor
My Name is Earl
The Office
Lost

8 Favorite Restaurants

Quiznos
Bajio
Taco Bell
Los Hermanos
Ottavios
Ihop
Fazoli's
Thai Chili Pepper

8 Things that Happened Yesterday

Went to Walmart
Cat almost peed on the floor
Stayed in my pajama's until dinner time
Watched Heroes
Watched market go down the tank
Cleaned something
Did some laundry
Yesterday was pretty boring

8 Things I am looking forward to

Christmas
Halloween
Thanksgiving
Getting my house organized
Have a baby in March
Class reunion
Winter being over
Isaac being potty trained

8 Things on my Wish List

Casey will keep his job at least until after the baby is born
Casey will keep his job until he finds something else he likes
Isaac will continue to potty train himself
I will make some friends in this new area
Andrew will make some friends in this new area
We can get the yard done in a year
We can get a larger vehicle before the baby comes
This whole financial mess will come to an end and things will normalize

8 People I tag

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 people that haven't done this yet and want to.

Day at Lagoon

2008-09-24T17:33:00.008-06:00

Last Saturday our little family spent the day at Lagoon. For anyone who may not know, Lagoon is Utah's amusement park. As seen from the pictures the boys had a lot of fun. There were a lot of really cool kiddie rides and a lot of rides that we could go on with the boys. They had a kid type drop ride like at the Stratosphere Tower, I saw kids crying to get off on that one but my boys handled it okay. Isaac screamed for fun at first, and then got a little tense at the end. They loved the rides like this one where they could "drive."
Look at their faces on this one. They are loving it!Here is one ride that Andrew didn't want to go on but Isaac agreed to go. Anyone who has been on this type of ride knows that it can really drop your stomach and be intense if you're on the ends so that's why Isaac and Casey are in the middle.This is a close up of Isaac and Casey on the ride. Isaac has his head up here but the rest of the time his head was in Casey's lap.
Isaac and Andrew are both tall for their age and so they were both able to go on rides that normal 2 and 4 year-olds wouldn't qualify for. One ride Andrew was tall enough to go on with an adult was a ride called The Bat. KC was about to put Andrew on this one for his first ride, but I made them wait and go on some of the other rides to see what he could take. Andrew still wanted to go so they went. I guess Andrew really liked it because as soon as he got off he wanted to go again. This is the second time right before the ride started.
We also went on the haunted house type rides 2-3 times. I was surprised the boys weren't more freaked out from them. I saw a 9 year-old girl come out of one crying. Isaac only said at the end of the second time, "scarrry." At the end of the day we rode the rides that get you wet. There were 4 different rides, including one where you are on a raft going through a tube just like you would at a water park, but we were clothed. At the water rapids ride we all got soaked, but the boys loved it all. After Isaac fell asleep in his stroller we decided to head home, good thing because as we were heading out of the gates it started pouring rain. We were very glad we already had a full day of fun on a beautiful mild day and didn't have to quit early because of rain. We plan on doing this again next year, so let me know if you'd like to join us.

Summer Update

2008-09-16T08:14:00.016-06:00

With the selling the house and moving business I never got around to updating about our many summer adventures. We started out with lots of camping. We camped in Mapleton, up Payson Canyon and later, twice in the Brian Head/Panguitch area.

We then had some excitement from our backyard with a homemade water slide and a forest fire on a nearby mountain.

We went bowling and spent some time with family.

Then just before the move we spent 4 days in Park City with the boys. We went on the Alpine slide, which the boys really enjoyed.

New Place and The Injury

2008-09-11T19:34:00.007-06:00

So last week we packed up all of our junk, (Seriously, it seems like a lot of it is junk, but we took it with us anyways.) and moved farther north to a place to be kept secret from this blog. (I know you are reading bad blog stalkers.) Anyway with a lot, I mean a lot, of charity from old friends and new friends we were moved in fairly quickly.

One great blessing was that my parents volunteered to take the boys to their house while we moved. They were playing with grandparents and cousins for almost a whole week. They didn't really want to come back, but we made them. I'm mean like that. No, I guess I missed them too.

We are getting everything set up slowly and trying to cover windows with garbage bags so the neighbors won't see us in the shower and changing clothes. Not a good way to introduce yourself to the neighborhood I'm thinking. The boys are really enjoying it here. Andrew has already had a rousing game of 4-square with some neighborhood boys even though they were all 2-4 years older than him and he had never played the game before. He brought the bouncy ball so they let him play I guess. There are a lot of trails and playgrounds for us walk to as well.

Speaking of playgrounds, I now segue to The Injury. Last Tuesday I took the boys for the first time to one of the fun playgrounds. They were having fun on the spinning things when out of the blue, Isaac was on the ground screaming with his hand to his eye. I run up to him, pull back his hand and see a half an inch gash next to his right eye. My first thought was that he needed stitches. The next thought was to pick him up and take him to the house next to the park where I just saw a mom with two boys go in. The last thought was to not get blood all over myself. I ring the doorbell and introduced myself to my new neighbor by showing her my bloody son. She got some paper towels and once Isaac calmed down we were able to put a band aid on the wound since it stopped bleeding quite a bit. When we left to walk back home and go to the doctor, I said thank you to her as did Isaac which made her laugh.

So we went to the quick care place instead of an emergency room. Isaac fell asleep on the way there and stayed asleep until the doctor pulled the band aid off.They agreed Isaac needed stitches but they worried about his age and how it was close to his eye. They almost had me go all the way to Primary Children's Hospital so they could put him under to do the stitches. I decided that we would try it there. Poor Isaac. They couldn't do the topical anesthetic so they wrapped him up like a mummy and held his head still while they numbed the area with a needle. OUCH! He didn't like that one of course. I had to hold his body so he wouldn't squirm and make his head move. Once the doctor started doing the stitching he started calming down. By the 3rd stitch he was answering the doctor's questions about our cat Leo to distract him. After 5 stitches he was done. Once he picked out a sucker for himself and Andrew he was fine and chipper even. I told him to say thank you to the doctor which he did and which the doctor thought was humorous since he had just finished torturing the kid. He ran around and played the rest of the day even though both the doctor and nurse thought he would need to take another nap. What a trooper. He gets the stitches out in 3 more days, hopefully there won't be much of a scar.

Busy, Busy

2008-08-18T19:28:00.002-06:00

I was reading a friends blog just now and was looking at her blogroll like I have on the sidebar here. I noticed that it said 3 weeks since my last post. I thought, that must be some technical mistake. I went back to this blog and sure enough, 3 weeks. I can't believe August is already more than halfway through. I guess I've been busy.

For the last 4 months we've been trying to sell our house and figure out what the heck we are going to do if we do. Last week we surprisingly had a family come back for a second visit. Two days later they gave us an offer, we countered and they accepted. They want to close by September 1st. Uhh, yeah. So luckily we already have a loan started on a house that we were still debating on buying, which we think we will buy now. So we may not end up homeless after all.

There, updated. See ya in 3 or so weeks.

The Best of: Confessions of a Sneaky Mom - Part 2

2008-07-28T11:48:00.004-06:00

In my post last week I shared the best mealtime and chores confessions. Today I have bedtime, punishments, and just because confessions. What's your favorite?

Bedtime

Sometimes I put them to bed really, really early. There are days when it's either put them in bed early or completely lose my mind. It works out great because a) I'm not yelling, b) they aren't that great at telling time yet, and c) they're happy as clams playing in their rooms, thinking they've tricked me into believing they're asleep. If I need to walk by their rooms, I just stomp my feet extra hard so they have time to jump in bed and pretend they're snoring. (It almost makes me proud, what good fake sleepers they are. They do the slow breathing and everything.)
When they were too little to read, and I was too tired to read, I'd turn over the pages of the book two at a time. Somehow, they didn't seem to notice the disjointed plots.
When they got older I'd say, "Hey! How about reading MOMMY a story? In my bed?" Then I'd keep telling them I was listening with my eyes closed.
I got so annoyed when they started teaching A. to tell time in kindergarten. It works very much to my advantage that I can tell him, "It's bedtime! That's not the sun still in the sky...they're testing nuclear devices across the bay! G'night!"
Back in the day, when our kids were little, we would let them watch one episode of RugRats before bath, stories and bed. My cunning husband videotaped several episodes so we could pop one in, say "Hey, RugRats is on!" and get them to bed at 5 p.m. if necessary.
My children always thought they were pulling one over on me at bedtime. They knew they could stay up later if they got me talking about dating and marrying their father. It did work, but what they didn't realize is that I also got to bear my testimony about the importance of temple marriage and living the gospel. Ha!!! Now, that was sneaky.
Second off... it is a family TRADITION to mess with the clocks and send your kids to bed early every now and again. My mom did it, and her mother before her, what the heck kind of ingrate would I be if I did not take the superior parenting tools I have been given and USE them?
We always turn the clock forward on New Years Eve and when the first countdown happens in NYC, we tell them that is it and make them go to bed.]

Punishments

I "punish" him by taking away or making him do things that we were going to do anyways, like "that's it! you know your not supposed to make your sister cry so now we can't go to Grandpa's to go swimming!" when really grandpa's not expecting us until the weekend.
I might say something like "Well, since you didn't clean your room, I'm not taking you to the movies!" When I had no plans to take them there in the first place.
I also confess to early bedtimes, mac & cheese or cereal for dinner on many occasion, going to long between baths, going to bed without brushing teeth, and turning the door handles so I can lock bedrooms from the outside, effectively locking my children in their rooms.
Sometimes I'm just waiting for the offspring to do something naughty so I don't have to read them a bedtime story.
Well I once handcuffed 2 of my boys together w/gb (garbage bag) ties. They were fighting terribly and it stopped them cold.

Just Because

One time, we were really poor and my daughter (13 years old then) had a growth spurt. Needed all new clothes. And she was very fashion conscious. She would die before she'd step into a thrift store. So I gave my sister $20 and sent her to the thrift store and she bought a bunch of clothes, put them in big black bags and brought them over saying they were hand-me-downs from a cousin in another state. My daughter loved them and wore them happily. I waited until she was 20 before I told her the truth.
K, I'm confessing. When I had 4 kids under 6 and the 1 pm church schedule, I used to give the 2 youngest a spoonful of Triaminic before heading off to church. Primary was first, so by the time they got to Sacrament meeting they were asleep after the Sacrament. All the other moms in the ward would comment on how lucky I was that those two kids slept through the meeting. Little did they know!
I ate all the good candy from halloween and I still blame them for my gas.
My kids were really old before they learned batteries can be replaced. The toy would die, and I would say, brightly, "Oh too bad! The batteries are dead." And they would be sad, and the obnoxious piano/crying doll/whatever it was would mercifully be quiet. I was soo annoyed when a well-meaning, childless man said, "But batteries can be replaced!" and ruined it for me.

The Best of: Confessions of a Sneaky Mom

2008-07-24T13:29:00.008-06:00

Yesterday, Sue, at Navel Gazing at Its Finest, wrote a blog post about true mom confessions. You know, things that many moms do but don't usually admit to it. I thought a bunch of the confessions were shocking, funny, and good ideas. So I decided to gather together the best ones, categorize them, and post them here. For credit to the original moms I am just going to link back to the original post and comments. The examples below are not necessarily representative of this blog poster's opinion.

Meals

Last week, everyone wanted pancakes for dinner. My response was, "Fine, but you'd better have vegetables too!" Which is how my family came to have broccoli and buttermilk pancakes for dinner.
I will confess for a friend, though. She is an obsessively good parent (her kids eat every vegetable known to man and they like it!). However, one morning when her twins were toddlers and she couldn't fathom making breakfast for them, she just poured a pile of Cheerios on the floor under the dining room table and let them help themselves. (I should talk--typical scenario in the van: "Mommy, I'm hungry!" "Find some pretzels in the crevices of your car seat.")
I used to give them bran muffins and tell them they were cookies.
Oh, and, like all kids, my girls always want to have a bite of my food, sip of my drink, etc. So, I discovered the only way to keep them from siphoning all my food is to put hot sauce on it - so far so good.

Chores

When my kids are irritable and bored and at each other's throats, I sometimes like to help them bond by pitting them against me. I tell them to go clean the playroom and not to come out 'til it's sparkling clean. They'll angrily trudge in there, but a few minutes later I'll hear whispering and the sweet sounds of plotting. Every so often I'll bellow out "You'd better be cleaning!" and I'll hear them giggle because they are SO not cleaning. They get along independently for hours because, hey, THEY SURE PUT ONE OVER ON MOM.
My daughter saves everything too...Trash, candy wrappers, packaging from toys. It's disgusting! So every now and then, I "help" them clean their room. When I clean, I make "piles" of stuff to put elsewhere in the house. When it's about time to be done, I tell the girls, "Wow, you did such a great job helping mommy, why don't you go downstairs and play, and I'll finish the rest" They can't get out of there fast enough, and it gives me time to take the trash outside without them knowing!

That's it for today. I still have 3 more categories to share. As a teaser they are, Bedtime, Punishments, and Just Because. I'm now curious if my mom had any tricks she used on us kids.

Giant Block Letters or Typography for Kids

2008-07-17T12:57:00.011-06:00

When our little family is on the road, we are always on the lookout for an exciting GIANT block letter inconspicuously painted on a mountainside. Ever since Andrew learned his letters at 2 years old it has been exciting to spot these letters. First it was the "Y". That is probably the easiest letter to find in Utah Valley. Last year he found the "P".

And then on a trip to the Salt Lake valley we noticed the harder to find "G". Last year he talked often of wanted to touch the "P". He would mention this to pretty much everyone and I had to qualify that it was the letter P not any other kind of P. Anyway on July 4th, 2007 Casey took Andrew and they found a trail that led to the P. So now it was, "I touched the P". I still had to do some qualifying for that one.Andrew at the P.

This last June we took both boys out to Provo and we hiked up to the Y. It was a much more difficult hike than it was to the P. I used the monkey backpack for Isaac so he didn't wander off a cliff, but I ended up carrying him on my back most of the way anyways. Andrew was very exciting about being able to touch the Y. His only comment afterwards was that it was cold.

Andrew at the Y.

We drove past the G the other day and he seriously asked if we could stop and hike to it. So now I think we have a tradition here. We drove past Nephi recently and there is a J there on the mountain. Why a J for Nephi? Does that make sense to anyone else? So now Andrew wants to hike to the J. He told his Grandma all about this recently and she suggested we visit the giant H that is near her house. How many more giant block letters can there be in Utah?

Duckies

2008-07-06T17:51:00.005-06:00

So recently Isaac has ended up with his own little family of rubber ducks. He calls them his "duckies." The first ducks to join our family were the blue and the green one. I bought them for the boys for Easter this year since they needed something to play with in the tub other than the shark and the killer whale that doesn't swim anymore. Andrew thought his was okay and played with it, but Isaac stuck with his and soon adopted Andrew's blue one as well.

The next duck to join the little family was the larger yellow one. We were shopping at D.I. when I found the duck for Isaac to play with since he was getting bored. He was attached immediately and I couldn't bear to part him with the duck so we paid the $.50 and took him home.

Than, while we were in Hawaii, Grandma found out about his duck family and how important they were to him. (Even now he's upset because he saw the picture of his duckies and he can't find one.) While at Thanksgiving point Grandma bought him the tiny yellow baby duckie. That same week she brought the black duck which has sunglasses, horns, a puka shell necklace, and the word AXE on his chest. Uncle Rich had this at home and she figured he'd want Isaac to have it. He's on a mission and so doesn't have much say in the matter. Anyway his flock quickly grew in one week. This last week he added one more prize duckie. Grandma bought him a key chain duckie about the size of the baby yellow one. It's not a rubber duckie, but rather it is electronic and brought a big smile to Isaac's face. You press a button on it's side and a LED in it's mouth lights up and it says "Qua-Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack."

At least two duckies accompany him to bed every night. I let him take a ducky on car trips and even let him take the quieter small duckie to church today. His flock is so large that when he tries to carry them all, one inevitably falls and when he reaches to pick it up another falls and so on until he gets upset. So now we have a duckie bucket for him to carry them all together. What a cute little family.

I Won!

2008-07-02T07:03:00.004-06:00

I actually won something for once. Actually it's my second time winning something in the last 5 years. The first time was at some crappy website where you click on crappy offers and every time you click you are entered to win a satellite radio. My purpose in subjecting myself to this was to win one for a Christmas present for my big brother. One day I clicked on at least 100 of these and actually won. COOL! I believe my brother enjoyed the present and I was glad I could get him something cool for Christmas.

So recently I did one of those, comment on this blog post and we'll draw a winner for such and such, comments on the Light Refreshments Served website. The blog is a group blog featuring 4 women bloggers talking about life with a LDS twist. The blog is sponsored by Excel Entertainment which has something to do with Deseret Book. So about every month they have a give away. I entered for the Baskin Robbins gift certificate, but didn't win that one. :-( Then I entered for the $50 movies gift card and YES I surprisingly won. We're exciting because the gift card will be for Cinemark theaters. There is a nice theater in Provo we can go to for new movies, but the coolest thing is that Cinemark also has a dollar theater in Provo, cha-ching!

So see ya at the movies this summer!

Don't be Jealous

2008-06-18T17:47:00.012-06:00

So a friend from high school told me last Thanksgiving that she was getting married, most likely in Hawaii. I was surprised when KC said that if she did, it would be a good excuse to take a vacation there. I didn't hesitate and we booked the trip. So the first week of June we pawned our kids off on my parents, sorry mom and dad, and flew out to Maui. It was an awesome trip.

Highlights were:

Snorkeling and snuba diving at Molokini crater
Spending as much time as we wanted doing nothing
A Helicopter trip around Haleakala Crater and the rain forest waterfalls
Sunrise and sunset walks on the beach
A Sunset dinner cruise, which was also the wedding reception
Not changing one diaper or wiping one bottom

It was nice to spend some time alone together. I also enjoyed spending some time with old friends and making some new ones. The plane ride home and jet lag wasn't the funnest, but it was worth it. Here are some photos of the trip for you to drool over.

KC on the beach just a bit down the hill from our condo.

Sunset at Kaanapali Beach

Just before we did our snuba dive, like scuba but instead of a tank on your back you have a hose and a tank on a raft at the surface.

Our helicopter trip stopped partway through on this secluded beach where we explored and had some snacks.

The wedding ceremony was held at these privately owned botanical gardens, it was beautiful.

The sunset as viewed from the cruise boat. It was hot but beautiful.

A decent photo taken by me. Aren't we cute?

It's Better!

2008-06-18T16:23:00.005-06:00

So I think it was a phase. Not too long after I posted about Isaac's no diaper policy he stopped doing it. That was after he tried it out in church during Nursery. It had to be the day he had new teachers. I bet they regretted taking the calling after Isaac took off his pants and diaper and hid under the table. Thanks for the words of support from my 5 readers. As a mom of two young boys I'll need advice from time to time.

Coming soon: The travelogue of KC's and I's trip ALONE to Hawaii. I repeat, no kids for 1 whole week, it was awesome.

It's Worse!

2008-05-22T16:46:00.006-06:00

Before it was just his pants and sometimes his shirt. Now it is the diaper too and he's not very consistent about it either. His desire to remove his pants and diaper are quite random. It makes it worse because I get used to him being good and not taking them off then, SURPRISE! The diaper is off or almost off, as the case was today. I found him in the process of taking a POOPY diaper off while SITTING on the COUCH. That was fun. Earlier this week he took it off while sitting on a carpeted step. I didn't know he had done it until he came to me and showed me his poopy hand. Nice. It was smeared on the step.

I went to get him out of his crib today from his nap. No pants, no diaper. Luckily it was just wet. You might think he was ready to be potty trained. But he's not. I think he's scared of sitting on the toilet. He likes to flush it and pretend to wipe, but when I tried to have him sit in the Blue's Clues potty seat he started yelling and squirming.

The only solution I've been able to think of is putting pants on him that he has a hard time pulling off. Do you other mommies or past mommies have any other suggestions?

Is that a Backpack or a Leash?

2008-05-14T20:18:00.007-06:00

So I am very, very tempted to get one of these for Isaac. We were at the park the other day having a nice picnic with friends. He kept running off despite my best efforts to keep him in view. Tired of chasing him I took to watching him play near the fence of the tennis courts at a distance. He's a smart one though and once he figured he was far enough he just started to book it outta there. I had to book it after him myself cause he was headed straight for the little road that cars use to get into the park. After crossing the road safely he then ran straight at an elderly man and grabbed his legs as if he wanted him to save him from his Mom. Later he ran off in the other directing again.. running straight for the same elderly man and hugging his legs. The man may have wondered if Isaac was asking to be saved from his restrictive mother.

Isaac is always looking for a way to run away. One day the boys were in the backyard playing. I let them play out there alone because it is tightly fenced. The doorbell rang and when I opened the door, there was my neighbor from across the street with a little boy that looked a lot like my kid. The gate had been left open. Another time we were doing some yard work and the gate was open for about 1 minute before he sneaked out and went to another neighbors house and started pounding on their door.

So a leash.. I mean cute monkey backpack with a long tail and a handle at the end could be a great help in keeping him in line while we are out in public. Is this demeaning?

UPDATE: So I picked up the monkey backpack leash at the store. The boys thought it was a great toy. Isaac wore it around the house for the first day. Last night we were able to use it for the first time outside of the house. It worked pretty well. When he'd run off while I was holding the tail he'd basically pull on it until he fell to the ground, not very graceful. But it kept him near me. Later he wanted it off because he realized I was keeping him from getting into everything. It's not a perfect solution, but at least when I turn my back he can't run off.

Pacifier Gone

2008-05-07T17:33:00.002-06:00

Well Isaac is off the pacifier during both day and night. I decided that since he is now 2 years old he shouldn't have it anymore, especially since it was fast becoming his best friend, even when he didn't have it during the day. He has always been a easy child when it comes to going to sleep. This is mostly thanks to the pacifier.

The night I took it away I didn't know what to expect. He asked for it at least 5 times. "Fire?" he'd say. I told him that I couldn't find it, it was lost, it went bye-bye. I guess he accepted my answers eventually. So now at bedtime sans pacifier I give him a bit of milk in his crib and luckily he doesn't protest much. He's been sleeping better at night as well, since he's not waking up needing help to look for his "fire." It has been nice, so pacifier problem solved.

Cold Spring

2008-05-05T10:13:00.005-06:00

Spring here in Utah has been quite abnormal. The last month or so has frustrating, especially with two young boys who want to play outside. It has been going like this, 2 days or so of beautiful weather, but maybe a bit windy. Then a warm turning cold really windy day, when the cold front comes though. The next day is cold. The day after that is also cold. Third day is a bit warmer but still chilly then we finally have a beautiful day. The day after is almost summer like weather, then the cycle starts again. We might finally be getting out of this cycle now that it is May.

Because of the periodic warmer weather we turned our automatic sprinklers on last week. The first day they went on at 6 am I found this a few hours later. It was very pretty in the morning light.
The sprinklers sprayed the bottom of the tree and since it was a very cold morning we had a tree full of icicles. Sadly the cherry blossoms had just come out so there may not be any cherries growing at the bottom of this tree, but the other blossoms seem to still be fine.

Isaac Turns Two

2008-05-01T10:16:00.007-06:00

Last week Isaac officially turned two years old. I can't believe the little guy is already two. My parents, sister and her kids came to celebrate the weekend before his birthday. We had cupcakes, opened presents and played outside with bubbles. The weather was actually really nice that day which has been really hit and miss lately. Here is a picture of the boys and their cousins on one of our rarely warm spring days. The boys sure love seeing their cousins and grandparents.

For more celebrations, the next weekend we met up with some friends at Kangaroo Zoo in Pleasant Grove and had a fun two hours playing. Isaac is fearless even with the biggest slides. He could climb up the ladder and go down the steep slide all by himself. He and Andrew LOVED it.

The boys also had their yearly check-up last week and here are the updated measurements for them.

Andrew - 4 yrs old
weight - 37 lbs - 57 %ile
height - 42 in. - 77 %ile

Isaac - 2 yrs old
weight - 34 lbs - 97 %ile
height - 37 in. - 97 %ile

Big 4 Year Old

2008-02-24T20:41:00.009-07:00

Andrew turned 4 years old this past week. We were visiting Grandma on the day of his birthday. When we'd say "Happy Birthday" to him he'd say "No... it's not my birthday yet."
"When will it be your birthday Andrew?"
"When I get my cake and blow out the candles," he says. I guess it's gotta be official with him. So after dinner we finally got out the cake and he got to finally be 4. Nevermind that months before he was saying he was 4 already. I guess he was tired of waiting for his birthday, but once he realized his real birthday was getting closer he consented to being 3 again for a while. He refused to even try any of the special ice cream cake we got him. We sorta knew he'd refuse so mommy and daddy chose the flavor.

Five days later we had a real birthday party for Andrew with some of his friends. Surprisingly he ate 3 cupcakes that day, I guess he's willing to eat some cake now. But no ice cream for that boy. He blew out 4 candles again and announced to another mother that he was now 5 years old since he blew out more candles. Nice try buddy.

The birthday party theme was Disney Pixar's Cars. Lightning McQueen was every where. I made a poster size McQueen for the kids to color. They did a good job for a bunch of 3 & 4 year olds. They played with cars of all types and we had a lot of fun with balloons. What's a party without a bunch of balloon wielding sword fighters?

I See London, I See France,

2008-02-08T19:19:00.000-07:00

I see Isaac's underpants. I can't keep this boy's pants on. Every chance he gets after I put pants on him he tries to pull them off. If I stop him, he runs to hide and then pulls them off.

When we are out of the house things are a bit more difficult. The problem (for him)... shoes. He can't get his pants past his shoes. While at Andrew's preschool this week, twice I was notified,

"Isaac's taking his pants off."

I look at him. His pants are around his ankles.

We make eye contact.

He starts waddling away as fast as he can.

He doesn't get far.

Is it a sign of bad parenting if he walks around half naked in the winter?

UPDATE: February 11, 2008 - Isaac is now into pulling off his shirt after he's had his pants off for a while. So now he's practically naked (besides diaper of course) part of the day. I'm a great mom.

Life is an Education

2008-01-04T12:58:00.000-07:00

Things I've learned this year.

Take all food and dishes away from toddlers as soon as they are done. Although the sign that they are done is when they (Isaac) start throwing the food. Then it is almost too late.
Splashing in the tub is no fun if the glass door is shut.
Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. are much more fun to a 3 year old than educational computer games.
Learning to walk doesn't make a needy child less independent and needy. They just have an easier time getting into things they shouldn't, and can follow you around crying more easily.
Forbidden fruit is much sweeter. Toddlers have a 6th sense knowing when a door is open or unlocked that normally isn't. (That is how Isaac disappeared for 5 minutes on a cold Christmas morning.)
Child proof knobs aren't always child proof.
Six adults CAN get along for 9 days together in a RV.
You always have a lot more stuff in your house than you think.
Two little boys are tough, but a lot of fun to raise.
Being positive is essential being a happy wife and parent.

I wish everyone a happy 2008 and hope your 2007 was as good as mine.