Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! No our project is not finished, but I'm posting anyway. Thought I'd throw you off a bit. Honestly I haven't had much time to think about Easter. I'm pretty sure my brain is rebelling against me for all that I'm trying to do at once and now it just seems like I'm not with it at all. Hopefully the real me comes back sooner than later. Luckily the Easter Bunny remembered to show up at our house. That could've been a disaster. We did, however, forget to actually die our Easter eggs. We're going to do it post-Easter for family night. Better late than never I figure. Anyway, this week was another crazy one. Tending Anthony overnight while his mom's in the hospital, tending a neighbor kid whose mom needed to help someone else while their child had surgery, more painting, a 50th birthday party/girls' night out and a wedding reception Friday night, two birthday parties for four family members (two on my side of the family and two on Marcos' side) Saturday and then Easter. Oh, and Marcos got called into work at 11:00 p.m. Saturday night so I was on my own to clean up from my busy week, get Easter ready, and prepare all my Sunday stuff (I'd been thinking about primary, but hadn't found a good plan for singing time yet). Oh well, we're just getting used to the chaos now so it seems pretty normal to live in survival mode non-stop. Poor Marcos didn't get home until around 2:30 a.m. (when I was starting to fall asleep) and he still had to work on his lesson. He went to bed around 4:30. So let's just say we were a little less than enthusiastic when 6 a.m. rolled around and two bouncy, excited children sprung into the room. I tried to make them lay down and watch a movie first, but it didn't last long. Before you knew it, we were headed downstairs to check out the loot and search for plastic Easter eggs (since the real ones aren't died yet). Last night before we put the kids to bed we talked about the Easter story and the resurrection. I'm glad we at least got to put some spiritual moments into our chaotic life. I didn't even think about Easter outfits either so I was trying to match up the closest spring-type outfits I could for the boys this morning. Luckily we did get a couple somewhat decent family pictures too since another thing on my "To Do" list is getting new pictures taken. At least we have something until I get around to making an appointment to get new pictures taken. Anyway, this morning Preston basically wanted to play with a water squirter toy and the phone abuela gave him (Marcos' mom sent cute Easter stuff home with us after the birthday party last night - a phone for Preston, a dragon kite for Dylan and a basket with a fishing game and candy in for the boys to share - it was perfect!). Dylan's favorite part was finding eggs. He doesn't mind sharing, he doesn't care about the candy, he just wants to run around finding as many eggs as possible. And it works well because Preston maybe found 2 - and that was with help and much coaxing. He's way too easily distracted for finding eggs. The best part of everything was church. Preston is a gabber these days so he's a little noisy, but both boys were so well behaved today. Sacrament was incredible! I love Easter songs and I sang out with my whole heart while both boys sat more or less quietly the whole time. Primary went well too. Dylan came up to try to help me a couple of times, but sat back down when I asked him to and didn't throw a huge fit. I had some technical difficulties with my CD player, but one of the primary workers found another player at the last minute (like Brandy said, "a true Easter miracle.") My singing time wasn't perfect, but it went okay and all the kids were pretty quiet and trying to participate. I felt the spirit so strongly, which was the best part of all. Anyway, I just wanted to share a bit of our Easter with everyone. All kidding aside, I love this day. I am so grateful for a Savior who came to earth, who showed us how to live by example and who was willing to atone for our sins and die for us. And I am so grateful for the knowledge I have that He was resurrected - that He lives - and that we have that same opportunity to be resurrected and live again after we die. Happy Easter!

This is how the morning started - completely exhausted

Marcos was trying to film, but could not stay awake

I wonder what the footage looks like :)

Preston finding an egg

Dylan finding eggs (look how full his basket is)

Preston hauling around his new phone

Preston's water squirter (notice the cute basket next to him from abuela)

Dylan checking out his goods

Preston's loot

Dylan's loot

Mommy with her precious boys

My guys

Still exhausted, but happy and surviving together

Remodeling Update

Okay, okay, okay.  My readers have spoken.  I have had comments and phone calls about posting something so I figured I'd better.  I've been leaving ya'all hanging way to long apparently.  :)  Try being the one waiting on the project.  I just wanted to be finished before I posted, but this will have to do.  We're about 3/4 of the way through.  Kitchen, dining room and family room done, living room floor, baseboards, stairs and some hallway and door painting left to complete.  Okay, so I have to send a major shout out to Justin (my brother-in-law) who helped with most of the project (even though he doesn't read this).  We tried to do the heavy labor when possible, but he's the mind behind the project.  We are seriously so lacking in the home improvement area.  Definitely not great DIY-ers, but our goal is to become such.  Oh, and not only is Justin really good at fixing and building things, but he is super patient as well.  He let Dylan be his "partner" the whole time and follow him around.  I had to leave a few times to take the partner away because he kept stepping on wet tile, but I was the only one freaking out about it.  Justin just told him to be careful - oh to have that kind of patience with my monkeys.  The only other comment other than thanks that I have is that remodeling with young kids is NOT fun!  But we did what we had to do: ate out way too much, spent cold days at the Treehouse Museum, went to grandma's a lot, watched TV all day long, whatever it took.  At least we're finally to the livable stage again.  With bad weather, extra kids around and half of my house torn up, it was torture.  It was practically impossible trying to keep a somewhat normal schedule and keep kids safe and out of the mess.  My days were spent running after kids and the nights were spent pulling up floor, painting, etc. to help keep the project moving.  I'm definitely exhausted!  When this is over, I'm going to sleep for a couple days straight.  That's what I keep telling myself at least.  For now I'm living on Diet Mountain Dew.  I know, it's a horrible vice, but it's mine and I claim it.  Sorry, I'm totally rambling.  I guess this project fried my brain more than I realized.  Anyway, we ended up doing a little more than we had planned because of the carpet situation (didn't think through pulling up carpet and needing to lay it back down) but really, it was worth getting new stuff for the family room. The rest of the house will have to wait a couple years.  I'll be carpet cleaning all the old stuff when this is finished so it will hopefully look presentable next to the new nice stuff.  Our small project turned into like 5 projects, but we're thrilled with the whole thing.  I've been waiting for new flooring in the dining room since we moved in 5 years ago and my day finally came.  Hurrah!  I started to upload pictures, but it was taking forever so they're here for your viewing pleasure.  

Update

So we're getting there.  The kitchen, dining room and family room are put back together.  We are finishing the painting in the living room and then need to work our way up the hallway stairs. With extra kids during the day (Anthony and some others I'm helping with - never good timing is it) and painting at night, I feel like I'm going to collapse all the time, but we'll get through it.  It really has been relatively quick and painless.  I just want it done.  There sure is more trim and doors than I ever realized though.  We'll get a wall done and be so excited and then I've got to go around and paint trim and doors and...well, it just takes forever.  Oh well. Then we've got to put the new floor in the living room, which my dad is going to help with so hopefully that will be soon.  I'll keep you posted.  I may or may not post what's already done. It's a bit anti-climatic because it's not finished, but I'm too excited not to share so I might not be able to wait until it's all done.  We'll see.  For now, it's hard to even find a minute to post (or even check my email).  It's just been crazy!

Oh and here's the latest on Dylan.  I think his glasses are going to be more for reading the board at school and stuff.  He'll totally wear them, but we've already bent them a couple of times and gotten hurt many times from something hitting the glasses, which hit him in the face. It's just a disaster trying to keep him from ruining the things so we're going to use them when he needs them to see far away, but not make him wear them all the time since he barely needed them anyway.  We went back and forth, but I think that's the decision on the glasses.  

And one more quick story before I check out again.  Dylan had his first cavity filled yesterday.  Yep, if it's not one appointment, it's another.  I explained the process and knew he was apprehensive about the shot.  Well, we got there and apprehensive became total and complete freak out over the shot.  I sat by him, Marcos sat by him, we talked to him, promised toys, offered laughing gas...nothing worked. The dentist finally asked what he was afraid of and he told him the shot.  The dentist said, "Well, we can try it without the shot if you want."  Dylan was thrilled.  Marcos and I were terrified.  What the ...?  I didn't even know you could get a cavity filled without a shot.  Sure enough the kid sat through the drilling and filling and biting down and filing without any numbing whatsoever.  Both Marcos and I were so impressed and freaked out at the same time.  We were both choking back tears.  Here's our kid so afraid of a shot that he'd rather have his cavity filled without it and he's braving the whole thing no problem.  Dylan informed me that he will not be having a shot next time either.  I told him that was fine, but that we should work on not having a next time.  Stupid cavities between molars. We brush and floss, but that's just a tough place to keep clean in kids' mouths. I guess my kid is tougher physically than psychologically.  We'll have to work on that so he won't psych himself out later in life.  Oh well, at least we didn't have to have an anesthesiologist put him out for the procedure.  That would've been a hefty old bill for the Uboldi clan.  Just another adventure in this springtime chaos that never ends.  

Dylan's New Look

One of our many appointments this month was to follow up on Dylan's eyes.  They're not horrible, but bad enough that they recommended he get glasses and get used to them before kindergarten next year.  I had no idea my little Dylan had a need for glasses at all.  Go figure. At first I was a little sad that my baby wouldn't look the same, but I'm quickly getting used to the idea and I think he looks pretty cute in them.  Anyway, they were supposed to take about a week, but were in two days later so we went to pick them up last Friday.  The whole process was another classic Dylan adventure.  When he got the glasses, he called them his detective glasses and walked around the store singing "Mysterious, very mysterious" (from Backyardigans).  I swear I can never get that kid to hold still for five minutes.  Just getting him fitted was quite the project.  I put Preston in a cart with a seatbelt on so I could at least worry about one kid at a time.  We got them at Sam's Club and went over to get some pizza for dinner afterward (remember, no kitchen at our house)  When I got to our table, Dylan was wearing the glasses down on his nose and I was trying to explain to him that he could see better and would look like a big kid with glasses if he pushed them on all the way.  I told him old men reading the newspaper wear their glasses down on their nose, not big boys who need to run around and play.  I finally had to say detectives wear their glasses on their face and it worked.  Of course he giggled at every comment I made. He looked around and said, "Like that old man over there?" I quickly replied, "Shhh, be quiet. Yes, like that old man," (so embarrassing).  He giggled again and repeated himself plenty loud.  Honestly child!  When Marcos saw him, he caught onto the detective thing and started singing the song from Inspector Gadget.  We got him transition lenses, even though he wanted these magnetic clip-on sunglasses because I knew he would not be able to keep track of those.  I helped get him excited about the different lenses by telling him they were magic because they change color all by themselves.  That got him pretty stoked about the glasses again.  So if you run into Detective Dylan singing "mysterious very mysterious" or "da da da da da inspector gadget" and telling you his glasses are magic, just play along. :)

March 2009 - Complete Chaos!

I know, I know. I'm sorry. I've practically fallen off the face of the earth. I can honestly say I haven't had a spare minute to do anything. You read my sob story earlier that summed up all the bad news we had had as of the beginning of the month. Well, very few things got worse, but we definitely added to the chaos. Here's the part of the list I can remember.

• At least two appointments (doctor/dentist/school) of one type or another every week this month. 
  
• Caught a couple of the bugs going around, although we've also managed to avoid a couple (let's pray it stays that way). 
  
• Tended Anthony extra days in the week, which always just adds to the chaos in my days.
  
• Trip to Idaho to visit my sister and help with birds (they have pheasants and had to catch and deliver them)
  
• More birthday celebrations (pictures to come later)
  
• Demolition of kitchen/dining room (and of course we did things the hard way - ripped out linoleum only to find out we needed to rip out the floor under it too...good times)
  
• Started laying tile
  
• Lived for a week with my refrigerator in the living room, tile everywhere, and just an overall mess
  
• Two Treehouse Museum trips, a couple trips to the park, hundreds of laps around the cul-de-sac and whatever else we could do to stay out of the torn-up house as much as possible during the day
  
• Started painting dining room/kitchen/living room (realized pretty early that none of that could happen during hours the children were awake - needless to say we haven't had nearly enough sleep the last few weeks)
  
• Finished laying tile, started a new smaller tile project only to realize we don't know how to lay the carpet back down (anybody know someone that can lay existing carpet back down really cheap?)
  
• Grouted (to grout...is that a verb or only a noun?)
  

Still To Do

• Finish grouting one last little tile project
  
• Buy new baseboards and paint them before next Saturday when my brother-in-law can hang them
  
• Finish painting living room and up the hallway upstairs
  
• Two more appointments (one per kid) this week and more next week
  
• Figure out a way to fix meals without a stove/oven for at least 4 days, maybe a week without spending any more money (the project money is going fast)
  
• Find someone to lay the carpet back down so we can put the couches back and pretend to live here this week
  
• Figure out when and with whom we will complete the second half of the remodeling project (living room/entry flooring)
  
• Clean EVERYTHING - tiling is much dustier than I realized. My once clean house has a layer covering everything I own
  
• Get some sleep
  
• Get back to the gym
  

So I'll be back and trying to catch up on blogging as soon as I can. Don't give up on me yet. I'm certain the level of chaos around here cannot remain permanently. I doubt I could handle it physically, mentally or emotionally! :)

Happy Birthday Prestonian!

So my baby turned 2 today. I honestly cannot believe it. For one thing, he was not supposed to be a March birthday at all - my due date was April 10. His birth definitely came as a surprise to us all. On March 14, I had a terrible stomach bug and could not keep anything down. By 5 p.m. I was having contractions, but I didn't think anything of it - especially since I still had four weeks left. Marcos took Dylan to Young Men's with him so I could rest and between 6 and 8 p.m. my contractions got stronger and closer together (from about 6 minutes apart to 4). I called my midwife and she told me to take a warm bath and try to sip on some fluids. By 11 p.m. we were on our way to the hospital with contractions 3 minutes apart. My mom was on her way to get Dylan for the night. I was pretty dehydrated, which had induced labor. Three bags of fluid and a couple of shots later, it was pretty obvious we were there to stay. Other than my epidural not taking the first time and my labor stopping when I was dilated to an 8, it was a fairly easy birth. At 11:50 am on March 15, my little Preston Santiago was born. It's been an adventure ever since. He spent 4 days in the NICU for low glucose, although he was the biggest "preemie" they had at 7 lbs 11 oz but was a fairly healthy little dude other than that. We've had to go to countless specialists the past two years, but everything has been minor and manageable. We are truly very blessed to have him in our lives. Well, the day wouldn't be complete without my little list of favorites from this little monkey. Here are a few that come to mind.

• I love his smile. You can see the love radiate through him when he gives you his grin.
• His eyes are so honest and pure. They really are the window to his soul.
• He's such a tease. It's relatively new, but it's so funny. He loves to turn and run away when he thinks I'm going to chase him and he doesn't understand the concept of being in trouble yet. Everything is a game.
• He is so sweet. Preston has a heart of gold. He loves and cares for people in a way I've never seen a child do before. At such a young age, he would put his arm around Dylan to comfort him when he was sad. So precious!
• He is the cutest little brother. He's recently started calling Dylan D-O (I think he's trying to say Dill). When Dylan was riding in the car with my sister, Preston called out his name over and over - just devastated to be separated from his lifelong buddy.
• Preston is so simple and easily entertained. He's so content with just a ball or a balloon to throw around all day long. He loves to play ball and has a great aim already!
• He is so happy! I don't know what it is, but the kid is just naturally happy. He loves life and is just okay to be living it. His sad moments are short-lived and then he's back to being happy Preston again.
• He is so snuggly! He gives the best hugs and cuddles ever! You can't really ask for them or tell him to give someone a hug - it has to be his idea. But when he wants a love (or to show you love) be prepared for a great snuggle.
• He is getting to be such a big boy. He loves trying on everyone's shoes and pretty much copying everything Dylan does (or trying to). It's cute to watch!
• Preston loves music and dancing. The kid's got rhythm and is happy when the music's on.
• He shares. For a two-year-old, he's very patient and will wait his turn. He already knows how to share and doesn't get jealous when other people use his things.
• He is our little peacemaker and we love him for it. Life would not be complete without this little bundle of joy around our house.

Happy birthday, little man!

The day we left the hospital (4 days old)

Just after his 1st birthday

(if you missed this one the story is here)

My mischievous litte 2-year-old climbing on the table, jumping around and giggling

Dylanisms

Here are some of the latest and greatest from my funny little guy.  I thought I'd lighten things up a little and try to get back to normal, despite all the craziness we've had.  

- You were showing Anthony a trick one day. You asked him which hand the coin was in and then showed him one hand and then the other. The coin wasn’t there. Anthony was pretty excited and asked, “Hey, how’d you do that?” You replied, “A good magician never reveals his secrets.

- Out of the blue, you said to me, “Mom, when I grow up to a husband, you are going to be my wife.”
- One day you were asking so many questions and would just not stop talking. You were interrupting everything I said and just driving me crazy. I finally said, “Enough!” You said, “What, am I just too questiony?”
- You lost your 1st tooth on Saturday, February 21. We were all a little sad and nervous at first and then you were thrilled when you realized you would get money from the tooth fairy. I couldn’t help but laugh at all the questions you had about the tooth fairy though. “Why does she need all those teeth? Is it a girl or a boy? Does she have lots of babies that need teeth or something? Where does she get the money she brings me?” You are so inquisitive!  

- You lost your second tooth a week later - two teeth gone before your 5th birthday!
- We bought a little pump to blow up balloons. You were asking me if they were the kind of balloons that would float in the air. I told you no because they only had oxygen in them. You asked me what the floating balloons have in them and I told you helium. You replied, “Oh yeah, Helaman.”
- One day you said, “Mom can you shoot me with those bedtime bullets?” I was only sort of paying attention so you asked again. I finally realized I didn’t know what you were talking about and said, “What do you mean bedtime bullets?” You said, “You know the kind they shoot the bears with.” “Oh tranquilizers? No, I will not shoot you with a tranquilizer before bed.” I guess you really are having a difficult time getting to sleep if you’re asking for a tranquilizer.
- One day you put a cup on your foot and asked if you looked like a pirate. I said yes and you said, “Yeah because I have a peg leg on my foot.”
- You told me you were going to marry Kambrie in the temple and I told you that was a good idea. You said, “Yeah and we’re going to have 15 kids.” Sure, why not?
- Another day you said, “When I grow up to a dad, would you like to meet my kids?” Yep, I’m pretty sure I will. Funny boy, you say the silliest things!
- In church you were learning about prophets and your teacher said, “Dylan, do you think one day you could be a prophet?” You got a serious look on your face and thought for a minute and then replied, “No, I’m just going to be a cowboy when I grow up.”
- I usually bring bread to church since sacrament meeting is during lunchtime. After the sacrament (bread and water) I will get out a little food if you are hungry. One day you were eating your piece of bread and leaned over to me and said, “Mom, guess what. I’m thinking about Jesus while I’m eating this bread.” I told you that was good and gave you a big squeeze and kissed the top of your head. At least you were thinking about Jesus at some point, even if it was the wrong bread. Later you were breaking off pieces of bread to share with Preston and leaned over to me and asked, “Mom, do you think Preston is thinking about Jesus’ skin too?” Cute! I guess flesh and skin are pretty much the same thing to a 5-year-old.
- On your birthday I said, “Yeah, it’s your birthday. Cuantos tenes?” (how old are you)  You held up 5 fingers and I said, “Cinco?” (5)  “Yeah cinco.” I said, “Wow.” You said, “No mom, you’re supposed to say “no me digas.” (don't tell me that - it basically means I can't believe it)  Funny boy! You have no idea how much Spanish you actually know.
- You were telling Anthony, “When I’m 5, you’ll be 4; when I’m 6, you’ll be 5; when I’m 7, you’ll be 6; when I’m 8, you’ll be 7; when I’m 9, you’ll be 8…” and Anthony said, “And then we’ll be teenagers.” I said, “Oh no.  Don’t tell me that.” You both giggled and then Anthony said, “Teenagers listen to strange music.” Funny!
- You were telling me about Danimals crush cups and how you crush then slurp them. I told you maybe we’d try them one day when they are on sale. You said, “Yeah, right now they’re just on buy huh?”
- You asked me what a circle and a line meant and drew it in the air to show me. I told you it meant no and asked you if you saw that on the Danimals commercial with a spoon. You said yes. I told you that meant you no spoon was needed to eat it and sometimes you might see that sign with a cigarette behind it which would mean “No smoking”. You just said, “Oh.” The rest of the night every time I asked you something when the answer was no you said, “circle and a line” and drew the sign in the air.
- Your sense of humor is so funny. You try to memorize jokes and share them with others, but you get them all mixed up. You also try to finish the punchline of a joke, but rarely get it right. I taught you the knock knock joke where you say banana a couple of times and then say orange. You finish the joke with “orange you glad I didn’t say banana.” You have turned that into random banana knock-knock jokes. Knock-knock, who’s there, banana Uboldi (giggling at yourself).
- One day I read you a few jokes off of a piece of laughy taffy. One joke said, “What do you call a lazy baby kangaroo?” You thought about it and said, “a hoppy Joe.” Hey at least you try. The answer was really “a pouch potato.” It’ll be interesting to see when you actually start to understand the jokes for real.

A Crappy Couple of Weeks

Okay, so Dylan had a birthday and I've been busy working on that.  He was thrilled and had a great time, but I'm so glad it's over.  Aside from his birthday, it's been just about the busiest couple of weeks, not to mention the most stressful couple of weeks we've had in quite awhile. And the part that sucks the most - nobody knows and for the most part nobody will.  No, I'm not soliciting virtual hugs, but sometimes it's just hard to take when everything happens at once.  A month or two ago when I talked about my friend and all the trials she had had and how it's best just to give people the benefit of the doubt because you never know what they're going through.  It's one of those moments.  Let me see if I can sum up the weeks for you without divulging any of the CRAP we're dealing with here.  

• Sick as a dog, potential ER visit - luckily crisis managed (we think)
• Kindergarten registration (no, not everything is totally devastating, but all this added to the stress)
• Well check - need to follow up with a specialist (didn't see that one coming)
• Helping friends move (this part was actually fun, but I had to add it to the list of things we did the last couple of weeks)
• Specialist during the snow storm with other child and yep there's a problem, we'll send you to another specialist
• 2nd specialist: nope what they thought was wrong isn't, but let's send you to the other specialist again
• Third specialist: oh the problem's still there so we don't know - come back in a month and we'll check again (what the...?)  I wonder if we will have any flex spending money left by the end of March with all of these appointments.
• Friends with bad medical news - what can it all mean?  Hopes up, but fear is setting in.
• Devastating, life-changing news...rip your heart out crap that you just can't talk about...
• Neighbors with sad news that we are trying to support and be there for - misunderstandings, hurt feelings, accusations and thanks to mature adults and friendships, some sort of resolve
• Another appointment for one of the kids that basically confirmed some of our fears - it'll be fine, but it adds to the list
• Oh and that appointment helped us realize just how close to the poverty line we actually are (how many years of grad school later?) At least we won't have to pay as much I guess - although I'm not one to enjoy freaking handouts.  
• Picking out tile, no laminate flooring, no tile...oh, and paint (I'm thrilled, but it's super bad timing of course)  And can we still afford it?  We did have a tax return...we'll see after all this.
• Helping during Dylan Day at preschool
• Birthday party planning
• More people misunderstanding and getting their feelings hurt.
• Even more medical complications from the friends...this time a hospitalization

Honestly, there is only so much one woman, mother, friend, neighbor, person can deal with!  So you can see why I nearly had a meltdown when I got home with three kids in tow and realized the lady at the drive-thru Chevron gave me 44 oz of Mountain Dew instead of Diet Mountain Dew.  The last thing I needed was extra calories!!

Dylan's Dinosaur Party

Dylan had his first real "friend" party this year.  The weird part is that many of his friends happen to be his cousins, which makes it kind of seem like a family thing.  It was a little stressful planning everything and getting it all ready since it was definitely a crazy week (which I'll probably gripe about later).  He invited his cousins on both sides of the family (Tony, Connor and Kamyn on my side of the family and Gabi, Mason, Diego, Leah & Mylo on Marcos' side of the family).  He also invited Anthony (the little boy I tend) and Kambrie and Shannon, who are friends from church.  Everyone was there except Gabi, who had another birthday party that day.  It was quite a few kids for a 5 year old party, but he wanted them all so we went for it. The kids started to arrive and played with toys until everyone got there.  Then we headed out back for a dinosaur egg hunt.  That turned out really fun.  I had put their loot in the eggs and color-coordinated them so that each person would get one egg of every color and then get one of everything we had bought for little handouts (dinosaur stamp, dino tatoos, stretchy dinosaurs, plastic dinosaurs, bubbles, dino bone candy, dino ring...I don't remember what all we bought).  They didn't quite grasp the concept of only finding 9 eggs each so we divided them up when we went inside.  After the egg hunt, we had a little fossil dig, which was pretty fun too.  I found these little fossil dinosaurs in goo that were perfect so I didn't have to create my own. We buried them in the sandbox.  Apparently we did too good of a job though because we were still missing a few at the end.  Oh well, I think it was still pretty fun.  After the fossil dig, we came in and played pin the pteradactyl on the dinosaur picture.  Then we headed out front for the pinata.  Didn't quite think that one through as neighbors on bikes start heading down to the house.  Luckily their mom noticed and called them inside.  Our neighbor on the side of us had friends over with kids though that sat there at the border of our houses ready to play.  I finally whispered to one of them that we'd throw some candy over later, but to just let the kids at the party play.  Kind of awkward, but what do you do?  Honestly, watch your children or teach them manners.  He was probably 9.  Whatever.  Anyway, that was fun and each of the kids got a turn and then Tony busted it open.  He hit it hard enough that a couple packets of candy opened up.  Strong kid!  After that, we headed inside for some cake and ice cream and then straight downstairs for presents.  Dylan LOVED everything!  He got a dinosaur, some dragons, four Little Einstein games (go fish, bingo, a memory game...) and then a scooter from Marcos' side of the family and one of those kid-proof digital cameras from my side of the family.  It was perfect!  The kids headed out back to play (which was just as fun for them as the party itself) and we gathered up their bags and dinosaur masks to send home.  It was tricky to get pictures and lead everything so we have some, but not as many as I would have liked.  Oh well, the memory is in our head as much as anything.  We also set the video camera up on the tripod during the games and presents, but I saw kids "helping" with the videography so it should be interesting footage.  I'll break that out later.  It was tricky to figure out what to do.  We have always invited family, but Dylan really wanted a friend party and the idea of having three parties made me a little crazy.  And unfortunately, my house doesn't fit 35 people very well (not with having enough room to actually do the games at least).  I was feeling a little bit judged and criticized over the whole thing until Dylan came up to me after the party and said, "Mom, thanks for my dinosaur party.  You throwed the best party ever!"  Wa-hoo!  I accomplished what I set out to accomplish.  My kid LOVED his party and wouldn't have asked for anything to be different.  So here are the pictures I did manage to snap during the fiesta.  Yep, my baby's 5 and now we're all partied out - at least for a week when Preston turns 2.  Man, what were we thinking?

Happy Birthday Dylan!

So my "baby" turned 5 today.  I'm not sure  how I feel about it yet.  On the one hand, he's getting better in Primary, he's excited for kindergarten (I'm going to be a mess when that actually happens) and is pretty helpful around the house and with Preston.  So 5 could be good for us.  On the other hand, he has very little "baby" left in him.  He's pretty much a tall, skinny, curious ball of solid boy energy at this point.  No baby fat, good word pronunciation, can do so many things without help...  It's sad, but good. The only "baby" left in him seems to be the need for snuggles and reassurance. We had a simple day today, but still wanted to celebrate his birth. He's having a little party with his cousins and a couple friends this weekend. This morning we went to the Treehouse Museum.  He chose McDonald's for lunch and then he and Anthony played treasure hunt in the backyard. After Anthony left, we went to my mom's house for pizza, a small cake and a birthday present from grandma (since the party's just for kids). He got a new track to add onto his geotrax train and a dinosaur book.  It was a really fun, easy day.  I spent a lot of time reflecting on our life with Dylan.  I don't know what we would do without him.  He's a handful at times, but lights up our world.  Here are some of my favorite things about my little Dylan.

• His creativity.  Ever since he was little, I haven't had to guide or direct his play.  He has such an imagination.  He can turn anything into playtime.
• His sense of humor.  The kid is funny and he knows it.  He spends his time trying to entertain others and won't stop until he gets a laugh.
• His kind heart.  Even though it's not obvious at first, the kid has tender feelings to spare. When Preston fell off the bench in Flaming Gorge and hit his head on the cement, you'd have thought Dylan was the one hurt.  He screamed and then cried for his brother.  He was so concerned.  
• He's a great friend.  He's protective of those he loves.  Whether family or friend, Dylan is protective of everyone he loves.  He forgets the rules about being kind to others when he thinks  he is defending someone he cares about.  
• His smile is to die for.  The kid first smiled at me when he was about 3 weeks old and I didn't believe he could really be smiling already.  Since then, he's been winning hearts with his charm and captivating smile.
• He's a natural leader.  Kids listen to and follow Dylan.  For some reason, even older kids will listen to my little one.  
• He's brave, social and a performer at heart.  Okay, except for when it comes to speaking into a microphone - for some reason he freezes up when he hears the echo from the microphone.  But he has such courage.  He'll ask older kids to play with him, ask an adult for something he needs, you name it, he'll do it.  It takes him a minute and then he goes for it.  He also loves being the center of attention, which I'm sure comes from his dad.  :)
• He's strong and naturally athletic.  The kid is just coordinated.  He's got little baby muscles and abs that I could only hope to have one day.  If we can get his emotions in check, he'll probably be quite good at sports. 
• His observant nature.  He catches everything.  Even when you don't know he's listening, he'll ask you questions about the subject at hand.  Scary, but I'm glad.  He notices when I wear different earrings, do my hair or wear lipstick.  Nothing gets past him.

Well, there are a million other things I could say, but I won't drag this on too long.  I just wanted to say how grateful I am to be Dylan's mom.  The good, the bad and the crazy!  

The Invisible Mother

I got this from my cousin, Gail's blog, who got it from a friend of hers.  I loved it and wanted to repost it here.  So I'm not sure who to give the credit to, but here it is anyway. She also had a way cool post about Abraham Lincoln that you can see on her blog if you so desire.  Good stuff!

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response,the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, 'Can't you see I'm on the phone?' Obviously, not. No one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I'm invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this? Can you tie this? & can you open this? Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, 'What time is it?'; I'm a satellite guide to answer, 'What number is the Disney Channel?' I'm a car to order, 'Right around 5:30, please.'
One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England .. Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there,looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, 'I brought you this.' It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe . I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription: 'To Charlotte , with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.' In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.
A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, 'Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it.' And the workman replied, 'Because God sees.'
I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, 'I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become.' At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride. I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on.
When I really think about it, I don't want my daughter to tell the friend she's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, 'My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table.' That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want her to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to her friend, to add, 'you're gonna love it here.'
As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot see if we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.

Poor Little Preston

Sometimes with a big brother like Dylan, you end up in the shadows a bit.  That's at least my maternal fear with my little Preston.  Preston is my mellow, loving little peacemaker.  He is exactly what this family needed!  He is a happy little dude and just content to live life and learn things as he goes.  He is overall a healthy little boy, but has had many referrals to different doctors and specialists.  Everything is pretty minor, but it still makes me feel bad for the little guy.  But he's tough and he's tolerant.  He is truly such a blessing!  The kid seems to attract bad luck though.  I know it happens to all little kids, but seriously...it is hard to keep him safe! Most of the time he just doesn't pay attention.  He has a habit of looking back at people as  he walks away so he is constantly running into things and getting hurt.  Last week, his "owie" of the day was my fault though and it was a doozy.  I was getting him a piece of candy from the candy jar (which is basically old Halloween candy - gross I know, but it's fun for them to have a treat even if it's 5 months old). The candy jar happens to be a heavy glass jar with a lid that weighs like 7 pounds.  Why?  I don't know.  Someone gave it to us for our wedding.  As I was getting the jar down, the lid slipped off and flew across the room with lightning speed.  The handle hit him right on the eyebrow, bounced off and hit him on the top of the head.  Poor little dude!  He had a huge bruise on his eyebrow and it's hard to tell from the pictures, but he also had a big old bump on the top of his head. But with Preston, all it took was a love from mom and a sucker and he was back to his cheerful self once again.   

Pajama Party

I should've taken a picture with kids in it so you could see it better, but it was cool!

The boys' pajama party

Last Thursday, Dylan had snowman day at preschool.  They were out playing in the snow and it was a nice day so we decided to continue the fun at home.  Dylan wanted a snow fort so we set out to build one.  Preston was shoveling water from the gutter that was trapped between the two massive piles of snow, but was easy to keep an eye on.  Needless to say, I was sweating and the kids were soaking wet with dirty slush and water by the time we were finished with our outdoor fun.  I stripped them both down and headed up for a bath before dinner.  I knew Dylan would fight me on pajamas at 5:00, but I didn't want to go through another outfit so I came up with an excuse for early pajamas - a pajama party.  I had a stake Relief Society dinner and fireside so it was perfect for the boys at home.  We made pancakes and eggs and Dylan had Marcos get changed into pajamas when he got home from work.  Dylan LOVED it and thought it was a planned party.  Brilliant!  Marcos said they had so much fun playing together that evening.  It's amazing how cheap a fun family activity can be if you use your head a bit.  We usually don't and end up spending money on something stupid, but this time we were smart about it.  So if you ever have soaking wet kids that need a bath WAY before bedtime, just have a pretend pajama party that evening and they'll think life is great.  :)

Another Big Coupon Week

I know, I know.  I'm such a geek for blogging about groceries, but I cannot help myself.  I get such a high from saving money when I'm used to spending and wasting it :)  Last week was a pretty awesome coupon week.  This is my picture of most of the groceries I bought.  I forgot to include some of my regular groceries like milk in the picture.  But it was my best savings week percentage-wise.  I spent $59.51 and saved $291.56.  That's 83% savings!  Here's what my $59 bought.  

• 8 brownie mixes
• 12 cake mixes
• 35 boxes of fruit snacks
• 5 boxes of granola bars
• 2 bags of chex mix
• 20 cans of soup
• 8 cans of pillsbury biscuits
• 6 cans of pillsbury crescent rolls
• 4 cans of pillsbury cinnamon rolls 
• 2 tubs of ice cream
• 4 packages of sliced cheese
• 8 loaves of bread (our favorite kind was on sale so I'm freezing some

plus regular stuff I needed 

• 2 gallons of milk
• 2 tubs of clorox wipes
• 1 scrub brush
• scrub brush refills

Dylan's Tooth

Tuesday morning, Dylan came running up the stairs screaming and crying. He'd done something to his tooth. He was playing dinosaur and biting on something and pulled the tooth loose. I called the dentist worried and wondering what to do, but apparently he's old enough that it was probably going to come loose anyway. What? How did my kid get old enough to have a loose tooth. Dylan was devastated and cried for the better part of the morning. I got a few tears at the idea of my baby growing up too. By preschool that afternoon, he decided he liked the idea of a loose tooth. Great! I kept telling him not to touch it in case it could harden back up again. I still thought a loose tooth before his 5th birthday was premature. So last night, Dylan comes running downstairs from his bedroom. Again I thought he was just trying to get out of going to bed, but nope, he came to tell us his tooth fell out. Oh man, here we go! Luckily the tooth fairy, busy as she was, didn't forget to come to our house, and Dylan was thrilled this morning when he found money under his pillow. Although, if you know Dylan's little inquisitive mind at all, you will understand how my morning went. Mom, why does the tooth fairy want to give me money? Why does she need all those teeth? Does she have a lot of babies or something? Do the babies need my baby teeth? Can she fly? Is the tooth fairy a girl or a boy? I can't even tell you how many of those questions we went through this morning. I don't really have great answers for any of them, but was trying to wing it. I told him we could get a book and read more about the tooth fairy. Any suggestions? He wants some answers here. Then he informed me that his other bottom tooth is loose ... and sure enough, it is. There goes my baby! He's going to have permanent teeth grow in before he starts kindergarten. That kid does everything way too early! No wonder he wants to play with the 8 year olds. :) Here are a couple pictures of the momentous occasion.  

Dylan's new toothless grin

Checking out his lost-tooth look in the mirror

The tooth

I'm So Done!

This is pretty much how I felt too.

My little snowman.

Dylan loving the snow.  

It's hard to tell in the picture, but the snow was almost to his waist.

Our big snow pile.  I wish I would've zoomed out a bit so you could've gotten a better idea of the massive amounts of snow.  As you can see, the pile was almost as tall as my car.

I get so excited the first time it snows.  I get all geared up to build snowmen and snow forts and have fun snowball fights with the kids.  It gets me in the Christmas spirit (provided it snows before Christmas).  It's really fun...and then it's not.  So I'm to the it's not fun part now.  I'm so over the snow and am seriously ready for spring.  Now that I'm a big, mature grownup, I sometimes wonder what in the world I'm doing in Utah since I feel like I need a warm vacation spot after the first two storms.  Yesterday there was a HUGE storm here.  It seems it didn't hit hard everywhere, but I was one of the lucky ones.  Yep, and of course I had a big errand day too. Preschool, doctor appointments, grocery store...  What was I thinking?  Luckily I made it through the crazy storm safe and sound and got home with my groceries with an hour and a half to spare before I had people over for a coupon class.  I had just spoken to Marcos, who informed me he'd be a little late (again!)  I clicked the garage door opener, turned my steering wheel and hit the brakes with lightning speed.  The stupid city snow plows had blocked me out again.  Freak!  I've got Preston in the backseat crying, a trunk full of groceries, Dylan begging to go to the neighbor's house, tidying up to do, refreshments to bake, dinner to fix, and I hadn't gotten ready for the day, which I thought might be a good idea with guests coming over.  Oh well, here we go.  I got my boots on, grabbed all the gear, got Dylan out and got him in snow pants, coat, hat, boots and gloves and then did the same with Preston.  I grabbed my trusty shovel (heaven forbid we get a snowblower - it's like 93rd on the list of things to buy) and started to heave snow onto the already humungous pile.  Let me just say it was the heaviest, wettest snow ever!  Holy crud! I did not think I was going to make it.  Oh, side note.  Dylan is now whining about going down to the neighbor's house who has a 4-wheeler with a plow on it because he's let him ride on it before.  I finally ignored him enough that he just walked over there himself.  By this point, Preston was feeling much as I was.  He couldn't even pick his feet up with all the gear on and the snow was so deep he kept falling over.  I finally resorted to undressing him, grabbing a sippy cup and putting on a Baby Einstein video for him.  At least I knew he would sit still that way.  Back to the task at hand.  Shovel, shovel, I don't think I'm lifting properly because this is killing my back, shovel, shovel.  And then, voila, a ward member just shows up in his shorts and boots with a shovel and starts helping me.  What the heck!  So I let him.  As much as I hate help, I knew it would be twice as fast with both of us and I needed to buy some time.  I guess if you look helpless enough, eventually people come to your aid.  Next thing I know, a neighbor two doors down comes over with his snowblower and minutes later, I've got Dylan back.  He's recruited the 4-wheeler plow guy to come help with the driveway. Oh, how embarrassing!  But at least they got the job done.  At this point, my hair is dripping and I'm so tired.  I thank everyone shyly, get my groceries in the house, peel off my wet clothes and get to work on the rest of my night.  I kid you not, Marcos walked in two minutes later.  Perfect timing!  Then when I need his help most, he sits outside talking to all of the friendly neighbors. Okay, important, but bad timing.  I had SO much to do and it had just been one of those days. Anyway, I finished pretty much right when people arrived and ran upstairs to sort of fix my hair.  I didn't have time to change clothes though, but no big deal.  The bottom 8 inches of my jeans were wet, but whatever.  This is WAY longer than I had anticipated, but I had to share. I just need the spring.  I need some sun, kids that aren't cooped up and a little less shoveling/begging for help.  Oh, and we got the friendly little postman notice today that says we will not be receiving mail until we clear a path to our mailbox.  Nice!  I HATE the city plow people. Other cities plow curb to curb.  It's a law.  Here, they plow all the snow to the end of the cul-de-sac (poor people at the end), back up and do it again and call it good.  Oh, I forgot that part.  On my way to take Dylan to preschool the guy was there plowing.  I'm sure it was his first time too.  Holy cow.  I was at the stop sign and he backs up the street and about hits me.  Now I can't just pull out into traffic with slippery streets and get killed, but he was seriously not looking at all.  I honk.  He keeps coming.  I honk again.  He's still coming full speed.  Four horn honks it took to get any reaction from him.  I don't know if he had the radio cranked up or what, but really.  You're going to back up a street without even looking behind you?  I don't care if it is a cul-de-sac - people still might be there. Okay, enough.  I just had to vent a little.  I swear I'm trying to have a better attitude, but sometimes you just need to vent.  

AAADD

This was an email I received that I thought I'd share here.  Apparently my age is catching up with me because this describes most of my days plus some added kid chaos.  Sad, but true.

Recently, I was diagnosed with A. A. A. D. D. -- Age Activated Attention

Deficit Disorder. This is how it manifests:

I decide to wash my car. As I start toward the garage, I notice that there
is mail on the hall table.

I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.

I lay my car keys down on the table, put the junk mail in the trash can
under the table, and notice that the trash can is full.

So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the trash first.

But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out
the trash anyway, I may as well pay the bills first.

I take my checkbook off the table, and see that there is only one check left

My extra checks are in my desk in the study, so I go to my desk where I
find the can of Coke that I had been drinking.

I'm going to look for my checks, but first I need to push the Coke aside so
that I don't accidentally knock it over.

I see that the Coke is getting warm, and I decide I should put it in the
refrigerator to keep it cold.

As I head toward the kitchen with the coke a vase of flowers on the counter
catches my eye--they need to be watered.

I set the Coke down on the counter, and I discover my reading glasses that
I've been searching for all morning.

I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to water
the flowers.

I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a containerwith water and
suddenly I spot the TV remote.

Someone left it on the kitchen table.

I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I will be looking for the
remote, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to
put it back in the den whereit belongs, but first I'll water the flowers.

So I splash some water on the flowers, but most of it spills on the floor.

So, I set the remote back down on the table, get some towels and wipe up
the spill.

Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day: the car isn't washed, the bills aren't paid, there
is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter, the flowers aren't watered,
there is still only one check in my checkbook, I can't find the remote, I
can't find my glasses, and I don't remember what I did with the car keys.

Then when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really
baffled because I know I was busy all day long, and I'mreally tired.

I realize this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get somehelp for it,
but first I'll check my e-mail.

GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY.
GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL
LAUGHING AT YOURSELF IS THERAPEUTIC!

FHE

Tonight we had a pretty good family night thanks to an idea I found here. It was the first lesson listed under faith and was pretty good for young children. Here's the basic idea. There was a little poem about faith we read, then the kids touched some beans, smelled an orange, saw a picture of the prophet, heard a whistle, and tasted sugar. Then I held up a picture of Christ and talked about how even though we can't touch, smell, see or hear Jesus we know He lives and that is called faith. We read Matthew 20:17 - the mustard seed scripture - and talked about how small a mustard seed is and used a measuring tape to show how big a mustard seed can grow when it becomes a tree. So it was a pretty good experience and Dylan's prayer was cute. I think he used the word wonderful 20 times - wonderful family, wonderful night, wonderful blessings, wonderful family night - but at least he was showing his gratitude! Now before you think how lucky we are to have such inspiring family nights, let me tell you the rest of the story. Dylan loves to be my helper (part of the problem he's had in Primary) and basically just loves to be in charge. Before I could even get started he was interrupting me a million times with his questions about giving a lesson. The first time he asked me if he could give the lesson, I was touched with my son's eagerness to participate in spiritual matters and quickly agreed. We were blessed with a less-than-inspiring lesson on animals and then voted on whether or not we should watch Planet Earth. He hasn't quite caught on to the fact that family night should have some spiritual undertone. So tonight he was begging to give the lesson so we compromised. I would give my lesson and then after we finished, we would have a family night lesson by Dylan on rodeos. Hey, whatever works. It helped him listen and participate. So here is a picture of the second family night that took place in the Uboldi home this lovely evening. We built a rodeo from the jenga blocks and then the kids took turns riding on mine and Marcos' backs. I just pray that down the road they remember more about family night than rodeos. :)

Playing Animal Shelter

Dylan has a never-ending imagination.  I don't have to give him ideas of what to play (although I often have to remind him of the rules of the house).  The kid has plenty of ideas to spare. Today, after his homework, he decided he wanted to play animal shelter.  It's a long story, but about a year ago when I was working, Marcos had the kids and decided to take them to the animal shelter.  They were all practically in tears when they left.  I will not be visiting until we are ready for a pet because my heart is far to tender to have big brown eyes staring me down. Now that's where Dylan talks about going to buy a pet (which for now we've told him is when he's 10 years old - we'll see how it goes).  Anyway, I was folding laundry and had the kids' hamper out so after I bought "Dylan the little puppy", it was his kennel.  He whined and whimpered until I let him out.  No big deal - I don't mind playing a role once in awhile. Anthony woke up from his nap and I was in hopes that Dylan's need for me would now be over.  Nope, the roles just shifted.  Could I have been the little kid buying a dog? Or even the cashier? Nope, I got to be the dog because they needed to buy a big dog they could ride on.  Anthony got to be the cashier who helped with all the crap Dylan bought for me.  During all the excitement, I slipped away to straighten up the kitchen and was promptly reminded that dogs do not stand. So my afternoon has been on my hands and knees carrying stuffed animals in my teeth during our games of fetch.  Ah, the things I do for my children! 

Tagged

Rules:
1. go to the document/ my pictures site on your computer
2. go to your sixth file
3. go to your sixth picture
4. blog about it
5. tag 6 people


This was fun.  My computer's a little different in storing pictures so I treated each month as a file (since that's how my PC used to store them).  This was the sixth picture in my "folder". My sweet husband, Marcos (how appropriate since it's Valentine's Day).  This picture was taken the day of the Bairgutsman (the crazy 12 + mile up the mountain race I ran in August).  I'm not sure who took the picture, but it was either Dylan or a friend he saw at the race - I hadn't crossed the finish line yet.  So here is Marcos... sweet, happy, helpful, loving...and waiting with our precious children for me to finish another crazy goal of mine.  Doesn't that just tell all!  I love you, Marcos!   

I tag:

1. Laura P.

2. Laura T.

3. Lisa

4. Courtney

5. Tiffany

6. Ann

Yellowstone Trip

We're back from Yellowstone and I'm up in the middle of the night blogging about it when I should be catching up on some sleep. But anyway, it was super fun.  I'll try to give the condensed version without leaving out anything important.  

The first night we had dinner as a big group.  There were my sisters and their families, my dad, Suzanne (my step mom), and six of their friends with three more kids.  I think there were 27 total, but my count might be off.  It was so much fun to get together as a big group in the activities' room and hang out.  After dinner we brought down a cake and present and sang to my dad whose birthday was the day before.  He was totally surprised, which was awesome!  

The next morning, we had a snow coach pick us all up at 8 am and take us through the park.  It was amazing to have a guided tour with such an awesome tour guide.  He knew so much about all the little trivial things you would never notice.  It was so informative and fun to be able to take even the little kids with us through the park in the snow.  Dylan was a sponge - as usual -and could not get enough of the animal and nature talk from Doug (the guide).  One of the kids who came with us was the co-pilot and before long, Dylan was the co-co-pilot sitting up there with him.  He was best friends with Doug in no time.  They were true kindred zoologist spirits! We ate lunch in a yuert (warming dome thing) at Old Faithful and spent some time there. Most of the group took a walk after we watched Old Faithful in action, but it was nap time so I hung out with Marcos while Preston took a short nap on my lap (it was all we got nap-wise that day). We went on a little hike with Doug and learned all about geysers and ancient bacteria and physics and chemistry that I really should remember, but didn't.  So cool!  We got back to the condo at 5pm, made dinner and headed to the pool for a couple hours.  Preston took a minute to warm up to the idea and then couldn't get enough of the water.  That night we gave Connor his month-late birthday present.  We hadn't seen them since New Year's.  It was the Geo Trax airport and he loved it! 

Morning number two, we woke up early and got the guys packed up and on their snowmobile trip.  Apparently there were some issues with climbing difficult hills and rolling off of machines, but I'll leave that for the guys to tell.  They had a great time and came back around 1pm for half of us to head out.  Nate, Alicia, Marcos and I went out for a couple hours and holy cow it was AWESOME!  I forgot how much I love the great outdoors.  I really am just a sporty chick deep down!  I have to say I impressed my hubby with my so-called "skill" and daring moves.  The kid kept egging me on trying to pass me.   I mean, what's a girl to do?  Nate found a couple of play spots for us that were awesome. He found a huge hill to climb and went on up. After he came down, I tried to get Marcos to go up and finally decided to hold my breath and go for it.  SO BRAVE!  What an adrenaline rush, not to mention earning major bragging rights with Marcos.  After a few minutes I was able to convince Alicia and then Marcos to try it and I'm glad I did.  It was pretty cool!  Then Mr. Confident followed Nate up a little side road, didn't lean his weight and ended up riding off the side of a little hill into a patch of trees.  We were chest-deep in snow trying to dig the machine out and ride away, but no harm was done.  Just a little eating of humble pie by Marcos.  :)  We headed back with some serious speed and switched the other half machines so they could go for a ride.  Melissa apparently had a little sinking moment in the snow when she followed Justin off the path for a minute.  Good times! We had another delicious meal (Melissa and I shared a condo so we cooked together) and headed to the pool yet again.  After that, Tony and Dylan went to Grandma and Grandpa's condo to listen to the wolves howl and have some birthday cake.  Everyone was exhausted after tending kids, playing on the snowmobiles and swimming so we headed to bed.  

In the morning, the guys decided to go for a ride again. A little more than we had planned, but I'm glad we decided to do it.  The girls stayed back to be mommies (sometimes you've got to sacrifice a bit, but we've got a serious girls' night out coming after this) while the guys (and my dad, Suzanne and their friends) headed up to Two Top.  They said it was awesome.  Apparently Justin and Marcos rode their machines on some ice so I'm glad I wasn't there to freak out about it.  Good guy bonding though so I'm glad Marcos could go with them.  We got together to have cake and hang out in our condos together.  It was fun chatting, but the snowmobilers were exhausted and we were pretty much done too.  That day was a little long in the condos with the kids and trying to clean and pack.  Melissa and I took our kids and headed to a gift shop to see what we could find and get out for a bit.  Angie headed home that night (in a huge snowstorm) and Melissa and I tended Alicia's kids while she and Nate went to the store (basically so she could have a little break after a long day).  We went to the pool until 9pm and then got the kids to bed again.  

The last morning we got up, packed up our things and got ready to go.  We said goodbye to Dad, Suzanne, Barry & Lisa and headed over to a bear and wolf preserve.  They actually have a cool program where kids 5 and up can hide the food for the bears to find and eat, but it wasn't until later so we just looked around.  I kept the kids (mine and Tony) at the exhibit while Marcos and Melissa headed back to help Nate pack up the truck.  Nate, Alicia and their kids came over to look around, we got a couple things at the gift shop and headed out.  We hit a couple of snow flurries, but it wasn't as bad as we were expecting.  We made it home in one piece, after several bathroom breaks and a lunch stop, got partially unpacked and put the kids to bed (which took forever because Dylan and I had a talk about being nice to ALL the cousins and hurting Tony's feelings and it turned into a sob-fest, major remorse, and apologizing on the phone to Tony). After that, Marcos and I stayed up way too late catching up on some of the recorded shows we missed and then when I should've gone to bed, I came down to blog about it all. :)  So there's the short version.  It was awesome time spent with family and friends! I'm so grateful Dad and Suzanne invited us and were able to provide such a nice trip for all of us.  Thanks again!  There were too many pictures to try to post so you can find a bunch of them HERE.  

Dreaded Questions

Okay, maybe the more appropriate term is annoying questions.  I'm not sure.  Today I received a phone call needing some information on Preston.  I had to "register" him so to speak.  I won't get into that right now though...maybe later.  The point is, we got to the part where they give you the little disclaimer that the state wants to know (since I'm sure people get mad about it) and then they asked if he was Hispanic.  I hate questions that try to fit people into some pre-defined category for statistics purposes.  I kind of paused and said, "Well, I guess yes technically.  My husband is from Argentina so I think he would be considered half Hispanic." I'm guessing she checked her little box and moved on. For me, it's a little more complicated.  I think in many people's mind being "Hispanic" means you're from Mexico, are probably here illegally, have tan skin and  don't speak English (or at least not very well).  For us, it's none of those.  My kids look much more Caucasian than Hispanic, Marcos was born in Argentina, lived in several different countries and since he came to the United States, was always here legally. Our children do understand Spanish (and speak it to some degree) but we both speak English very good (I mean well) ;)  But Marcos is very proud of his heritage and doesn't want part of our children dismissed from a checkbox answer.  So they'll probably think I'm crazy when I bring in my child after registering him as Hispanic.  I haven't had to deal with this a lot yet, but I'm sure I will once Dylan starts school.  Actually, I think Dylan was marked as Caucasian when we got his tonsils taken out, but not from anything I filled out.  They must've marked it themselves.  Marcos and I have talked about it a lot and still aren't sure what to do - check both boxes?  Check other?  Check Hispanic?  Check Caucasian?  I mean, even Obama who everyone talks about being black is really half black and half white.  I hate race and ethnicity questions for this very reason.  I'm not sure what this post is...just my venting about stupid things that shouldn't matter.  But it bugs me.  Enough said!  

Preston's Big Find

I was rearranging some things in the garage yesterday while the kids were playing in the yard and ended up bringing in a couple of baby things.  The plan is to put them in the shed or maybe even in my mom's storage (since she has more space).  We don't have a very big garage and not much storage space either...I was just being my usual slightly OCD self moving and reorganizing things.  I left this bouncy chair sitting next to the door, walked upstairs for a minute and this is what I found when I returned.  My "baby" in his new favorite chair.  He looked at me, smiled and said, "Ni-night".  Cute little stink!  I pulled him out of that poor chair bending with his big boy weight five times before I finally put it out of sight so he wouldn't be so tempted by it.  Kids are so funny.  I can't get him to sit in the high chair anymore, but he wants to sit in the baby bouncer.  

Tender Mercies

I debated back and forth between sharing this story, but was prompted to share it during church today so I feel like it's okay.  

Last night we had tucked the kids in and I was downstairs on the computer trying to finish up my preparations for singing time today.  Dylan's been horrible about staying in his bed lately so it's one of those hold your breath and hope for the best after we get the kids in bed.  Sure enough, he comes wandering down the stairs.  He practically ignored Marcos on the couch when he warned him to get back to bed.  Thankfully I was preparing spiritual things and so a little more patient than normal.  I told him to go back to bed and waited calmly.  He said, "But Mom, I want to tell you something."  Let me preface this by saying he does this ALL the time and usually throws out some random fact or story, but I decided to listen to him before taking him back to bed.  "Okay bud, what did you want to tell me?"  He responded in the sweetest, most innocent voice I've ever heard, "Mom, I heard Heavenly Father spoke to me."  I'm not sure what that does to you reading this, but hearing my child say it, my stomach jumped into my throat.  It's not at all what I was expecting.  I said, "What did He say to you?"  He replied, "He was just loving me, Mom.  He told me to sleep well and not to be afraid."  Holy cow, I was floored.  Of course the water works turned on immediately and I hugged him and told him that was great.  Then he said, "Goodnight Mom, I'm going to go back to bed now."  What the heck? How grateful I am for the tender mercies of the Lord and for my children who are so close to heaven that I don't even realize it most of the time.  It was truly a sweet, sweet moment that I hope to never forget.  It gives me such hope that someone loves, understands and appreciates my children even more than I do.  Sometimes I forget this partnership I have with the Lord to help raise HIS children.  Hopefully with the Lord's help and our earthly efforts we can raise our children in a way that would be pleasing to Him.  Sorry to ramble, but my heart is so full.  It truly was a special moment.