Virus Paranoia!

Man, I might post more often if my computer is this fast. Yay to fast blog posts! So I came down with some crappy bug this weekend. I seriously thought I was going to die (whimpy I know)! Who knows what it was, but it made me slightly (er, completely) paranoid. Marcos took today off work since the Comcast people would be coming to install everything and that can get pretty crazy with kids running everywhere. So...he was my brave little knight in shining armor this morning. I always feel like we will be fine if we catch all the crap going around, but this thing seriously kicked my butt so I decided we needed to get vaccines. Marcos was nice enough to go stand in line for us. He left at 6 a.m. and called me at 7 a.m. to tell me he was freezing but he was about 100th in line. Yay Marcos! I went and got him some hot chocolate and breakfast and then went back since I had to take my turn driving carpool to school...but I kept Dylan. Thankfully it didn't take too long so Marcos just checked him in a little late for school. And Dylan was brave (not that it's scary but whatever...sometimes bribes are necessary) so I promised him I would buy Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. I have to say I was going to post about this anyway, but Marcos informed me my next post had to be all about what a nice husband he was to go freeze so that my precious little babies could get H1N1 vaccines. BUT...the funny part came later. He was on a role and wanted to continue to be a helpful husband so he told me he would go pick Dylan up from school. Okay, we talk about this ALL the time, but apparently I should have given detailed instructions. I got a call from Courtney (Kambrie's mom) laughing as she told the story. Another neighbor was at the school picking up her daughter. She knows Courtney and I switch off picking up the kids from school and realized Marcos must not know he was supposed to pick up Kambrie too when he left with just Dylan. How embarrassing! The amazing part is that Dylan didn't think anything of it. He didn't say a word! Hello kid, are you not used to waiting for her every single day? He told me he was just too excited about Ice Age so he forgot. Anyway, vaccines, leaving children at school, Ice Age and Comcast made for a very full and crazy day! But thanks to my wonderful husband who stood in line so I didn't have to. What would I do without you! :)

BRUNETTE...again!

So I've been feeling a little too blonde lately and was in desperate need of a fun fall color. Those who know me, know I've pretty much had long blonde hair most of my life and been plain and predictable most of that time. I did have a wild, brave moment a couple years ago though when I chopped my hair off and went super dark. It was fun for me, but just about shocked the crud out of my entire family (my "baby" was 9 months old at the time and didn't even recognize me at first :)) so this time I was less dramatic and went for in between. Something darker for fall, but not extreme makeover. My sister decided to style my hair all fancy and curly cute for fun so that's why the hair do is a little more than I would do myself. Anyway, here's the new fall color.

COMCAST BABY!

Okay, so I'm not one to endorse anything, but I have to say, I'm pretty happy right now. I've been a cheapskate (as always) and refused to upgrade anything we had. I hate monthly payments and contracts so I downgraded our directv, our phone and kept our internet where we had it. We've had so many problems with our stupid DSL but I ignored it because overall our bill for phone and internet was relatively cheap. We paid for a new modem twice and for a service technician to come out and tell us something was for sure wrong with the line, but he wasn't sure what. Nice! So even though I'm not one to enjoy salespeople, I listened when the Comcast guy stopped by. They were having a promotion, and yep, I caved. I'm sure when the promotion is over they'll kill me with the price (I'm guaranteed the same price for 12 months and then it goes up by $20 for another 12 so for 24 months I'll be happy). But by then I guess I'll just renegotiate or switch providers. But for now...WA-HOO! My DSL was so flippin' slow! It's no wonder I never wanted to get on this computer. Now my blog actually loads in less than 5 minutes. SERIOUSLY! So yay to having faster internet, lots of channels and all the phone upgrades....for now! :)

Frantic Thursday Moments

Oh Dylan! What am I going to do with you? We are definitely going to have a good talk about this tomorrow! It's been kind of a week...or two. Nothing big, just constant running and doing. I feel like I have been on the go a lot and like my to do list just keeps growing. And I watched Anthony today so I had added chaos. I had great intentions of getting tons of projects done, but I seemed to go from one room to another and never really accomplished much. So I did nothing. Okay, nothing is a relative term. I started out doing the kids' laundry so that's not nothing, but still. The list I had planned to do and what actually took place were completely different.

My intent had been to do the kids' laundry AND all the sheets, but by the time I got finished with their big load I was dead. I hadn't even made the beds because well, I was going to wash the sheets. I finished putting away the laundry to find Preston at the top of the stairs tossing all the bouncy balls in the basket down one by one and yelling "bombs away." Nice! He thought it was so much fun that he continued to toss a box of small board books down too. Trying to make the day fun, I had set up the train track in the family room for Anthony and Preston. They played with it for quite some time, but before long, it was just pieces of track and tons of little trains all over the place. And Preston has an obsession with dragging out ALL of the blankets and trying to walk with them over his head or whatever other extremely dangerous game he thinks he should try. So there were blankets, toys, balls, books, jackets, and shoes everywhere. I hadn't unloaded and reloaded the dishes so the sink was pretty much full and the beds weren't made. Oh, and I haven't cleaned the bathrooms yet this week. Yep, I'm a big slob!

When Dylan got home from Kindergarten and the kids wanted to play outside, I decided it was a great plan. They dug for fossils in the sandbox and pulled the toys out of the shed. Oh, and smashed a bunch of the old tomatoes in the lawn, which I made them clean up and toss back into the compost/garden area. GRRRR!! But because they were playing well together, it was such a good day outside and I was feeling tired and lazy, I decided to do nothing. So I sat...and watched a couple episodes of Glee I hadn't seen yet. I NEVER watch TV during the day so it felt practically criminal sitting there on the couch while my kids played outside, but still I couldn't muster up the courage to face my task list again. So I didn't.

Anthony's dad was supposedly coming late today so I figured I had extra time to clean up the mess. Plus, Marcos had a work thing tonight so I knew he would be late too. Just no incentive to do anything. So when Anthony's dad called and said he would actually be there at 5, I got Anthony's stuff ready and we went out front to play for a few minutes. No sense bringing him in to my disaster. This is what my world looked like when I heard a sweet little voice talking to David (Anthony's dad). "David, would you like to stay and eat dinner with us tonight?" Gulp. I smiled and he looked at me questioning. "Well, sure. Of course you can stay. What should we have? Should we go get a pizza?" Hello, I hadn't even fixed dinner. I hadn't even thought about dinner yet. I told him I could call Marcos to pick up a pizza on the way home from work, but he offered to go pick one up instead. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

I tried not to look to frazzled as I told the kids they could go play baseball in the backyard so they would be safe while I went to turn the oven on. What I meant was, while I preheat the oven and attempt to make some sense of this mess I had decided to ignore all day. I had maybe 20 minutes...maybe. I took all the toys up and tossed them in the toy room. They weren't put away, but at least they looked a bit contained. I didn't even attempt to make beds. I shut the door to my bedroom and tossed the kids' comforters back towards their beds. I folded blankets, unloaded the dishwasher, reloaded, swept the floor...and in walked Marcos. He was vacuuming the family room when David got back. Holy crap! At least it looked presentable, but it was still so embarrassing. Seriously, I am nowhere near as clean as many of my friends, but I keep a fairly tidy house. But I also don't consider cleaning the most important part of my "job." I have kids to raise and I like to live my life. So cleaning has to fit into my life somehow. I clean up the kid mess (with their help when possible) once or twice a day, do the dishes and straightening up every day and try to do most household chores once a week. If you catch me any time between those clean up moments though, there's no telling how it will look.

I have to say, I'm glad I just went with the moment though. Anthony loves our house and David and Anthony have dinner alone most of the time. I should really invite them to stay for dinner more often. I just have to inform Dylan that he has to ask permission before he so cordially invites friends over on his own. Just because he's polite and sounds very grown up when he talks, does not mean I had any part in the formulation of the plan. So if you get an invite from Dylan that sounds very official, give me a call first just in case ;)

But if not...

I saw a link to this on my friend's blog. I was touched by the words and thought I'd share it here as well.

All Boy!

Dylan is my extreme child. Okay, I hate to label kids, but let's just say that his highs are high and his lows are low compared to many. He's super fun and happy and then really sad or mad. More to come on this. But as such, he can be an amazing son. He is thriving in school, taking it seriously, learning (well nothing new, but paying attention) and has yet to be put on the "power chair" (or time out). To be honest, this shocked me because at home he often visits the naughty mat. The other day, we were playing outside and he was trying to perform some death-defying stunt that I warned him against. When he refused to listen, I sent him across the street to sit on the curb. It was supposed to be the porch, but he gets nervous if he can't see me so we improvised. I played with Preston and he sat on the curb waiting out his time. The kid can make a game out of anything though (a glorious thing I know - we rarely hear "I"m bored mom") but a curse when attempting to discipline. Within seconds, the kid found a pile of grass clippings in the gutter and was digging around during his time out. He was THRILLED when his time out was finally over so he could run across the street and show me the pile of worms he'd found. Seriously, I think we counted 14 from one small dirt/grass pile in the gutter. I told him to move them to my garden (we can use all the help we can get) but he was so sad to leave them. He sat out there watching his worms wriggle around for a half hour waiting for Papi to get home so he could share his find with him too. Yep, he's all boy!

Coupon Jackpot!

I'm going to miss Albertson's. I really am! But thankfully they had another GREAT sale. Maybe the last one. Who knows? Anyway, I've been a bit burned out with coupons and shopping so I've been doing kind of the minimum lately. I happened to mention my burnout to my friend, Courtney, and she told me there was actually a really good sale this week. Thank goodness I checked it out. This would've been a bad one to miss. Even without coupons, this is a pretty dang good sale. There are a million things on sale, but oatmeal and pasta are two major staples at our house so that is what I focused on. I spent $125 and saved $282. It came out to be just under 70% savings, which isn't my highest percentage of savings, but for all this stuff that we use on a very regular basis, it's awesome. I know it's lame, but here is the breakdown of what I got for my $125.

• 24 boxes of instant oatmeal (10 packets per box)
• 10 tubs of regular oatmeal
• 6 bottles of syrup
• 2 packages glad cling plastic wrap
• 1 package glad press n seal
• 4 boxes glad quart & gallon storage/freezer bags
• 50 boxes whole wheat & smart taste pasta
• 5 tubes colgate toothpaste
• 8 bottles softsoap hand soap
• 5 packages steamers meals for 2
• 1 package nestle refrigerated cookie dough

Discovery Gateway

This is why my house is a mess and I'm so far behind on everything - I would much rather play than work. I didn't used to be that way at all, but I'm learning with kids that the mess is always there tomorrow, but sometimes the moments with the kids aren't. But it's probably time to find a balance again. We'll see. Wednesday, I picked up my nephew, Diego, after Dylan got home from kindergarten and we headed down to Discovery Gateway. Those two LOVE playing together and it's perfect because they both have school in the morning. We decided to just pack a picnic lunch to eat while we were there so we would have more time to play. The plan was to eat first (since it was about 12:30 when we got there) and then play, but the kids were too excited. We played first and then ate at the end before we had to go home. Our YW group was doing baptisms for the dead at the temple and our appointment was early that day so I had to get the kids back by 3, drop them off to Amy, and then get home to change and get over to the church. It was a busy day, but really fun for everyone.

Pumpkin Patch

We're pretty much the luckiest family alive. Thanks to Anthony and his dad and their connections, we got to go on a private hayride to the pumpkin patch and pick out pumpkins for Halloween. It was a little muddy, but a beautiful day and we really enjoyed ourselves. For those of you who may not know, J&J Nursery in Layton does a hayride out to the pumpkin patch every fall and lets you pick a free pumpkin as a thank you to their customers. I think they may be doing it a few different days, but this Saturday (tomorrow) is the one I know for sure. It's from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and you just meet in the parking lot and wait in line for the hayride. If you want details, give me a call. It's really fun! We have done this twice now and it's been a really fun experience for our family. You can't beat free pumpkins! Here are a few pictures of our pumpkin patch adventures.

This is what it means to have a best friend!

These two crack me up. They love each other so much. They really are like brothers and miss each other so much when they don't see each other on a regular basis. These pictures make me want to cry every time I see them. Anthony means so much to me. He really is like a son to me. We are so blessed to have Anthony and his dad be a part of our lives.

This is the group that went out to the pumpkin patch. It was so serene wandering around this great big pumpkin patch with such a beautiful view of the mountains. I loved watching the kids try to carry their pumpkins and stomp around in the mud looking for just the right one. I just stood back trying to take it all in. It was definitely one of those life moments that you wish would never end!

Homemade Bread

Sunday was a lazy conference day. I took Mason and Diego home and my SIL, Amy, had just made homemade bread. She got a bread maker and wheat grinder a while back and hasn't bought a loaf of bread in over a year. Insane! I was telling my mom about it and she gave me her old Kitchenetics bread maker/food processor/pasta maker machine that was all the talk back in the 80's. :) I can't believe she still had it and everything but the blender works. She had an old wheat grinder too, but the seal is broken so flour sprays everywhere. You have to either duct tape it or hold a towel around it while it's grinding. So I hadn't tried making bread yet since the grinder made me a little apprehensive. Amy told me she would just grind me some wheat while I was there so I could take it home and try it out. She sent me home with the recipe she finally found and loved. Now, if you don't know me very well, I have very few domestic skills. Why, I don't know. My tomboy self refused to learn too many girlie skills when I was younger and I'm regretting it now. Plus it just doesn't come naturally to me. I know what I like with crafts and stuff, but am I great at thinking up an idea - NOPE! I have to see it first. Oh well, I suppose my gifts are just different than so many of my cute, creative friends (although I'm not sure what they are). I can organize like there's no tomorrow, but I have to be in the mood for it. Maybe that's something. ;) Anyway, sure enough I did it. I made this bread all by myself and it was the best bread I've ever had. Marcos and the kids were pretty impressed and could not stop eating it. Let's just say it did not last us a week - or even close to that. But I thought in case I forget that this type of thing is very much possible with a decent machine, I decided to post about my bread making experience. So here it is. And it wasn't even that much work. I just had to keep track of the time for it to rise, but at least I didn't have to sit there kneading the bread over and over.

Cousin Slumber Party

Saturday afternoon my sister-in-law, Amy, called. Dylan's cousin, Diego, had been asking to have him over to play. We still had cousins from the other side of the family over and I didn't know how long they would be there so I told her to bring them to my house instead. The other cousins had to leave soon so it turned into a fun play date with Mason and Diego. They were having so much fun so we decided to turn it into an impromptu sleep over. The kids had so much fun playing, wrestling, watching movies and just hanging out together. Dylan told me he wanted a snack at 11:00 and Mason and Diego informed me they hadn't had dinner. Whoops! We had already eaten dinner when they got to our house so I didn't even think to ask them if they were hungry. And they were way too busy having fun to realize it until much later! They all ate grilled cheese sandwiches, macaroni and cheese and ice cream at 11:30 p.m. Yeah, I'm THAT mom! :) I set up the blow up mattress in the family room and they fell asleep watching movies. Preston didn't want to go to sleep on time either so I let him watch his favorite "Go Rocket" (a.k.a. Little Einsteins) in my room and went upstairs to discover he was completely out. Not quite a die-hard with slumber parties yet! :) Here are a couple pictures I snapped during the fun.

Posing for the camera in their somewhat matching pajamas

Somehow we ended up with matching hand-me-down pajamas from Tony - perfect for a cousin sleep over when they all want to wear the sports pajamas!

During their wrestling and dinosaur moments. Boys are so funny!

Preston made it until about 10:00 watching his Little Einsteins movie

I found him sound asleep on my bed with his "woofer" next to him

Watching movies on the blow up mattress

Tony's Birthday Party

Tony had a birthday party at Surf and Swim this year and it was so much fun! My kids were total die-hards and did not want to leave the water for anything - including food. We played hard, ate yummy pizza, had a delicious ice cream cake for dessert and watched Tony open his presents. He got some pretty cool stuff - I was definitely wishing I could turn 9 again! :) Marcos "babysat" Tanner during his nap and was able to sneak in his own little nap. Dylan swam around with his snorkel the entire time. He LOVES that thing - best $10 I ever spent! :) I love watching the cousins interact. I would sit back and just watch them if I wasn't always so busy trying to keep kids safe! :) Tanner and Preston are both so sweet. Marcos told them to give each other a hug and they just sat there in the cutest cousin embrace ever! What an awesome day!

Our Week of Fun

My sister, Angie, teaches school in Idaho, but was off last week for Spud Harvest. They get two weeks off so the kids can work on the farms harvesting potatoes. Cool huh? She stayed at my mom's house for a whole week, which was awesome. We surprised my mom and had a girl's night out for her birthday. We went to see Love Happens and then out to dinner - just us five girls! Thanks to Nate and Marcos, we were able to leave the kids behind! I haven't laughed so hard in a LONG time. We had SUCH a good time! Unfortunately we were having WAY too much fun to think about bringing a camera along.

Later that week, we decided to take all the grandkids to the Dinosaur Park with my mom. Dylan hit the jackpot - two times at the dinosaur park in one week! He was in seventh heaven! Anyway, we had a great time. We brought a little picnic, played on the playground and then walked around looking at all the dinosaurs. It is always so much fun to get together with ALL the cousins at the same time. That doesn't happen very often since Angie lives in Idaho, but when it does we try to take full advantage of our time together. All the cousins play well together, but you never know how they're going to pair off. This time, Dylan was Tony's shadow, Connor and Kamyn were best buddies, and Preston and Tanner occasionally played together but mostly wandered around like 2 year olds. Luckily Kenya, the one and only girl, is too young to notice that she is surrounded by boy cousins. :)

Where's Preston?

Preston is getting to be so much fun lately. I need to start writing down some of the things he's saying now that he's actually getting to be quite the little chatter box. Two is one of my favorite ages, but it does have its challenges. Preston has always been a pretty content child and as such, he's been more quiet than Dylan. He can play by himself and I rarely hear from him. Because of that, I've gotten used to the quiet that comes with Preston. But this quiet is not all good. I have realized that quiet can mean a few things. 1. A content child playing nicely by himself. 2. Mischief - things dumped, poured, spilled or broken. Some sort of tornado of chaos that has made its way through the entire house. 3. Preston has actually disappeared. This is the one that causes me the most concern. The kid will actually just take off and I have no idea that he is gone. A few months ago, I put him down for a nap and got busy working in the basement. When I went upstairs, the back door was open. (This was back when Dylan was still in preschool and gone during this time). Yep, my good little napper had decided he didn't need a nap and let himself out to play in the sandbox. Ever since then, I have been locking his door when he takes a nap. I know it sounds barbaric, but it's the only way I can make sure he stays put during his nap. I have a monitor on so I can hear him if he needs me. The past month or so he's been really fighting naps, but he still seems to need them (and heaven knows I do) so I put him in there and let him wander around and pick which bed he wants and read his little books or whatever. A few times I came back to a sleeping child on the floor and piles of diapers and wipes all over the room, not to mention clothes. Once I came in and found his wet diaper on the ground. He was curled up on his bed with extra shirts on he had found in the closet and had peed all over his bed and the extra clothing. After a few days of time outs, the destruction during nap time seems to have tapered off a bit. Now the main question is where am I going to find the kid. Before we put the crib away, I would make nap time more appealing by telling Preston he could sleep in Dylan's bed. Now he still wants to sleep in Dylan's bed for his naps...but he doesn't stay there long. He drags Dylan's comforter with him all over the room and ends up in the weirdest places. Here are a few of the odd places I have found him recently when I needed to wake him up early from a nap.

Inside the clothes closet (with Dylan's comforter)

One day I walked into the bedroom and all I saw was the comforter next to the fire truck bed on the ground. I went to the front of the bed and sure enough...

Preston was sound asleep under the bed.

There are his feet after I pulled the comforter away from the bed. Keep in mind that the bed is really low to the ground so there was probably only an inch or two above his head. When I pulled him out from under the bed, he was pretty sweaty. Poor kid! I wish he would just stay put!

The other day, the kids were playing in the backyard. I was in the kitchen getting dinner ready when the doorbell rang. It was Dylan. He said, "Mom, your baby's on the loose." I guess the fence wasn't completely shut and Preston was running down the sidewalk looking for a friend to play with. I swear I really am a decent mom. My kids are just really busy and completely CRAZY!