2012

Some things I don't want to forget about January 2012.

-Drying Lola's hair after her bath. I turn the thermostat up a degree so the heater comes on (she thinks it's magic). We sit on the floor of my bedroom and she puts her little feet on the heat vent and covers them up with my robe.

-Forrest lost his first tooth a few weeks ago. The space in his teeth gives him the cutest lisp.

-Eli's chubby legs. I cannot get enough of them. I just want to squeeze them and kiss them all day. He's a honey for sure.

-Right now I am (sloppily) patching a quilt that Quinn's mother made for us after we got married. I'm patching it because our psychotic dog ripped it up while using it in a game of 'be annoying with a tennis ball'.

I realized that I have spent that dog's entire life being really pissed at her and then loving her afterwards. She's beginning to ail and I have to wonder...when she's gone and I use the quilt will I look at the patches and lovingly remember all the good times we had (most of them pre-children of course) or will I just remember all the times she made me want to push her out of the car while driving by the humane society.

Thanksgiving

Sandwiched inbetween "spiderman" and "my grandma and grandma" is...











Yes. Apparently, Forrest is thankful for his, uh, chicken bones.

hands down, best quote of the day goes to:

Forrest...






With, "Chuck E Cheese's rhymes with Jesus"

bits and pieces

A numbered list of blogworthy items:

1. We're currently knee-deep in an exhausting front yard makeover which should come to a head on Saturday (provided it isn't snowing). Maybe I'll post pictures when it's done. But if I'm being honest- it's not likely that I'll actually get around to doing that. We'll see.

2. Lola has taken an excerpt from a children's book about Samson: "Oh Lord, make me strong just one more time," and she keeps saying it at random times when doing something difficult. Like when trying to open the front door. Or going number 2.

3. Last Sunday, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Forrest shovel a huge handful of sacrament bread into his mouth while giving the deacon a sideways glace. Then, with a straight face he told me, "it wasn't more than one piece...it was just one really large piece."

4. Don't tell the environmentalists but I keep running my dishwasher nearly empty so I don't have to wash bottles. I hate hate HATE washing out bottles.

5. If you want a laugh and don't have cable, turn your TV to channel 16-2 after 10 pm. They play episodes of He-man. They are super-funny but I think the show would be a little more realistic if they showed Prince Adam or He-man in a tanning bed, getting his roots touched up, and having his little friend with the "O" on his nightgown injecting him in the behind with anabolic steroids.

The End

mother's day and pooheads

I think Forr got sick of Lola ceaselessly asking me if it was still mother's day and then upon learning that, yes, it was still mother's day, acting just delighted and wishing me a happy mother's day (on a side note: I did not get sick of Lola's adorable mother's day antics).

After one such sweet mother's day wish from Lola, Forrest said, jealously, from the backseat of the car, "well, happy boy's day to me because I'm a boy."

Just as an aside, he also called our local ecclesiastical leader a poohead several times on Saturday night. Is it bad that my first reaction upon hearing this was to laugh??

And I know that I have had a third child for six months and still haven't updated my blog header to include him. I am working on it...

the price you pay

On the morning these photos were taken (since I'm not a same-day blogger...wish I was) I did some yoga, took a shower, and had a nice lenghthy chat with my cousin.

I guess my rowdies were bored because they tore up this box.


No big deal really. Thing I really wanted to share with you was the reason this little girl's face and hair is wet.


You can't really tell in the photo but she's got wet dreds and her shirt is wet also.

The reason? She's been drinking from the dog's dish.

None of this really disturbs me all that much. I figure...it's the price I'm willing to pay for a bit of freedom. You know- to do the yoga and shower and talk on the phone.

Completely unrelated but Quinn painted the kids' faces over the weekend. They were thrilled.

The weatherman predicted sunny and 42 degrees. It sounded heavenly so we went to the zoo.

Apparently we were the only ones who thought it was a good idea.

We shared the road with a turkey.


And a peacock.


The kids didn't have to clamber around or crane their necks to get a good view of the elephants. Why was the elephant eating a Christmas tree? I have no idea.



The baby orangutan seemed excited to have some visitors.


Forr was impressed with the large machinery and struck up a conversation with the construction guys. It turns out they were building a bridge. It also turns out that Forr loooooves bridges. His knack for conversation makes me think of his namesake.


Losey was as cute as ever. Sugar and spice, this one. LOVE this girl

.

Oh, and Eli. He barely made a peep. Such a good baby.


Sigh. I can't wait for Spring.

Dear Diary

This is my husband.

What a handsome guy, eh?

Love the bald head.

Love love love the beard.

Love the crow's feet.

In this picture, however, the thing I find absolutely sexy is the dishtowel slung over his shoulder. It means he's been doing dishes and here he is washing the counter. Oh my. Someone get me a cold glass of water.

In other news:

Last week Forr told one of Quinn's co-workers that the blue eyeshadow she had caked on her eyes made him want to laugh. And laugh he did.
I realize my house is a hideous mess- we were putting away Christmas. Not to say it wouldn't be a hideous mess anyway.


Lola says adorable 2 year-oldish things like calling Alice in Wonderland Alice in Laundryland. And she named the little wooden puppet my parents brought her back from Italy Hokeydokeydoe which I'm pretty sure means Pinocchio.



Elias is now smiling lots. I think he is a real person after all instead of a cute little creature that just eats and sleeps. He is the best.baby.ever.



I realize he isn't smiling in any of these pictures. But he looks cute anyway.

If you should one day happen to find yourself…

With a 4 year old, a 2 year old, and a newborn, firstly you should consider yourself extremely blessed. Secondly, you should consider these things which might make your life a bit easier:

1. If aforementioned 4 and 2 year olds share a room and wake up in the wee hours (wee hours= any time before your sleep-deprived self would like to get out of bed) consider turning the channel of your tv to 16-2 (the channel that plays cartoons and Montell Williams commercials all the time) each night after you and the hubs finish watching episodes of Madmen. Also, teach your kids how to turn on the tv by themselves.
2. Put some food that they will eat (I would suggest goldfish crackers and chocolate teddy grahams) in a place where they can reach it. Warning: these items will disappear quickly and might constitute the children’s breakfast on some(most) mornings. However, this, along with suggestion #1 will allow you to sleep past 5 am. Also, don’t forget to put some plastic cups where they can reach them and don’t get mad when there is water all over the floor. Just be grateful you got to sleep past 5 am.
3. When you sit down to feed the newborn, bring the bottle of hand sanitizer with you. That way, when the other children immediately materialize and begin pawing at the baby you can kill the germs causing their snot waterfalls before they infect your teeny tiny baby.
4. Whenever the 2 year old asks you to “mawy” (marry) you must certainly agree to do it. Marrying or mawying means you go into the kitchen where the music is playing, join hands and dance. You must do this because your 2 year old is adorable, it really is fun, and finally, because she will grow up and someday mawy some guy for real.
5. Learn to appreciate the 4 year old’s…um…zest for life. Understand that his need to make random high-pitched noises and fire his toy gun repeatedly in your ear are a result of being cooped up inside for a month. Write down some of the awesome things he says.
6. Remember how quickly the newborn phase passes and snuggle this warm, soft piece of heaven all day long.
7. Also remember every day that life is a progress, not a station. Try not to feel so sad that these days aren’t going to last forever that you don’t properly appreciate and enjoy them.

Just so you know, I chicken-pecked this entire post while pumping.
Moooooooooo

The Fabricators

I just got home from pack meeting where Fabricator No. 1 told the nice couple that lives down the street, "my mom has shawp knives. She cuts my fingews with them."



She also kept telling me yesterday that "Forrest threw Grant down the staiws." Grant is my cousin's toddler who was over here yesterday but absolutely did not get thrown the stairs by Forrest. Unless I totally missed it. Which is a possibility but I'm 99% sure it didn't happen.

Fabricator No. 2.



This one keeps telling me that I fed him peanut cake and that that is why he keeps coughing. Seriously. When I tell him that the only only only time he has had peanuts was when he was a baby he tells me that what I am telling him is just not true.

Some Very Important Items

Much to our surprise yesterday after 2 months of flat-out refusing to be in the primary program Forrest decided to join the other children on the stand in the chapel. We didn't pressure him or make a big deal about but I really did hope he would decide to it. He also waltzed up to the microphone to say his part when it was his turn which surprised the heck out of me and totally made me cry. Meanwhile, Lola was beating up my mom and calling her names in the pew.




AND...Lola's potty-trained. All it really took was getting her some tinkerbell panties and she was there. She spent 2 weeks carting around armloads of panties and studying them every time she sat down.



Lola also got some new glittery Sunday shoes that obviously hurt her ankles. She refuses to let me put band-aids on the parts of her foot that the shoes rub raw but also insists on wearing the shoes so she just sort of hobbles around in them. My mom came up to watch the primary program yesterday and we had to laugh because both she and I were wearing shoes that hurt our feet. The three of us hobbled out to the car after the block. What can I say besides: beauty hurts.

And I haven't called Cache Valley to complain about the unmeltable cheese because my to-do list is already too long:
1. Make DDS Appts.
2. Find out if Lola needs a booster shot for the flu shot she got last week.
3. Get Forr's bloodwoork done and get him into the allergist.
4. Get Lola out of her crib and into a bed.
5. Show Forrest pictures of what lungs looks like.
6. Many many household chores are also on this list but I am not going to mention any of them.

Q: What's big, hairy, and a bit scary?

A: Forrest's new pet, Flash the tarantula.

(sorry it's a sucky picture)

Quinn spotted the hairy arachnid on our front porch yesterday morning during the monsoon. I think he (I keep calling it a boy even though I have no idea how you tell if a spider is male or female??) was just trying to get out of the rain. When Quinn asked me to grab him a mason jar with a lid I had no idea it was so he could catch a tarantula.




It turns out that a tarantula is not a bad pet to have. Quinn did some research and apparently the biggest danger to your pet tarantula is being handled by a human so thankfully they don't need to be picked up and loved. However, they are very docile and when they get scared, their first instinct is to run- not bite.

All they require is a 5 gallon tank, dirt, water, occasional bugs to eat, and a place to hide. They don't even poop. Which I take to mean that they don't stink.

I have to admit that I keep imagining all the scenarios which would result in him getting out and being loose in my house---aaaahhhh! I am also wondering about who's going to reach their hand in his cage to give him a bug or more water. I can assure you that it won't be me.

On a completely unrelated note: my kids have been taking lots of pictures lately and amongst the pictures of carpet, curtains, and about 20 pics of some lady's plumber-crack at a parade, one of them happened to take a pic of my preg belly so here it is:


Can't wait to meet our new baby boy!!!

Forr is Four!

What!!!! How the heck did that happen?

I remember waiting anxiously for your birth. You were a week late. In August. It was brutal.

I also remember waiting anxiously for your birth in the hospital. Pushing for 3 1/2 hours and your chubby little self just didn't want to come out.

Finally....you decided to make your entrance into my life. I remember you laying on my chest immediately after delivery, all purple and your poor little head was so bruised and deformed. I remember that moment exactly. "We did it," I whispered to you. I thought you were beautiful. I still do.

You think you're so rough and tough now. Such a big boy but you are still my little strawberry. My little strawberry who gives me a biiiiig hug and kiss first thing every morning. I love the way you talk to and kiss your new little brother (who is still in my tummy). I also love your impossibly big blue eyes.

I often think about what you will be like as a grown man. I pray that I do right by you and am the kind of mommy you deserve.

I love you so much. Happy Birthday.

Love,

Mommy

bodily functions

This afternoon someone (I wouldn't want to mention any names cough*forrest*cough)peed inside one of my living room cabinets.

I'm still not sure why.

This evening, I had a "chocolate or poop" moment involving a brown blob in my entryway.

Unfortunately for me it was the latter.

At age seventeen, I truly had no idea how much my late twenties/early thirties would involve poop and pee.

My little Rock Starts

Rock Start is Lola-speak for Rock Star.



I swore I would NEVER buy my kids awful, plastic guitars. It was just a little rule I had like never buying them tennis shoes with characters on them. I don't know why, I just don't like them (sorry if your kids are wearing them).

We were at the DI the other day (I love the DI- go ahead and ask me if my shirt itches...'cause it did when you had it). Whatever, I love the DI. Anyway I let the kids each take $5 of their own money to spend (note: that was too big of a sum...next time it will be $2). Guess what toy Forr picked up and got all Tom Petty with? A huge, hideous, purple, Kawasaki toy guitar. He was into it. Man, was he into it. He was holding it all cool and just completely rockin' out. I was disappointed to say the least but turned it over to see if it was below the $5 mark. "Awe shucks buddy. This costs $10 dollars. That's more than you have." I acted sad when I told him but I sure wasn't.

Well, as luck would have it, a very sweet DI employee overheard this exchange and went to see what she could do about that $10 price tag on that guitar (no no no nooooooo nooooooooooooo I tried to mentally connect with her but she wasn't havin' it). She came back and informed Forrest that the Kawasaki "Mega Chords" guitar was really only $2. Her incredible kindness didn't end there. She also found a Hannah Montana guitar for Lola which was also $2. Lola could care less though. She has maybe picked it up twice since we brought them home a few weeks ago.

The kicker- the volume on Forr's guitar is broken. It's not broken on the soft end either- it's turned up all the way, all the time. It does not make beautiful music. It's mind-numbing and headache-creating and pretty much drives me IN. SANE. But what do I do? I pretend I love it.

The silver lining: I get to listen to the songs he makes up while he plays it. I heard one about an ugly woman who only wore her underpants and she was mean because she didn't want any playdates.

Summer 2010

So I feel so uncreative in my blogging technique lately. My brain has pretty much turned into oatmeal...not even hot fresh steel cut oats with butter and brown sugar...it's the stuff that gets left on the stove for hours and turns cold and globby. That's my brain. For example, yesterday I was getting so frustrated because the dryer wouldn't turn on. It took me a great while to discover that I was trying to turn it on with the door wide open...

Preg update: feeling great! Loving yogurt, fruit, and cereal. I think it's a boy but we will find out for sure in a few weeks.

Have you all been dying for another slideshow full of pictures of my children? Well, you're in luck!

To begin, did you all know that Lola is a princess? Well, she is. Thanks grandma and grampa for the outfit (SO ADORABLE!!) Notice that she is wearing her "ball shoes." They are called that not because she could wear them to a ball or something, just because of the balls on them.


Everytime I bake something, Forrest goes about the very serious business of washing all the dishes for me. As you can tell by his face, he takes the job very seriously.


These are all pictures of mommy's belly with a baby inside drawn by Forrest. Pretty good I'd say.


Mi familia. How I adore them...


Quinn was "moving the lawn" as Lola calls it and came around the corner to find these babies sharing a moment. So adorable.


Oh yeah. Here is our 2nd strawberry harvest. Crazy, right? Yep, crazy yummy.


Everyone have a great 4th!!

bloggity blog

whatever. Have I really not updated since April 27??

I have approximately 5,000 pictures on my camera that I need to download and everytime I think about a blog post I feel really overwhelmed.

So I haven't downloaded any pictures (maybe tomorrow??) but I will share something I overheard while I was weeding this morning.

I hear Forrest making Lola hold the turn-the-sprinkler-on-thingy, do you know what I am talking about- that metal thing?? Anyway he is making her hold it and pretend it's a cane. I hear him tell her over and over that she gets to be the old woman and teaching her how to moan and groan while she is walking all wobbly with the cane. She was getting into it too- really playing the part. Then she came up to me and whispered into my ear that she was an old woman.

Where do they come up with this stuff?

A three-year-old's idea of treasure is...

Me: Good morning, Forrest! Did you have good dreams?

Forrest: I did. I had a dream about you mommy (points directly into my face).

Me: What happened in your dream?

Forrest: You and me and Daddy and Lola were hunting for a treasure.

Me: Did we find it?

Forrest: YES!

Me: What was the treasure?

Forrest: It was a box with a TELESCOPE and a SWORD (totally shouting)!

I'm Still Alive

Well, in case you were wondering, I am still alive. Things just keep happening that I want to blog about and then I don't get around to it and then I just feel overwhelmed whenever I think about blogging.

Should I post about our little trip to the sleazy city of sin? Quinn had to go to Las Vegas for work and (after checking the weather forecast) I decided to tag along. Save for the sleaziness it was fun. I spent an entire day all.by.my.self. laying out by the pool. It was incredible. Thanks to Jen, Sara, and Mom for caring for my little preciouses while we were gone. I love you guys.

Should I blog about the tithing jars we made for fhe last night? So cute. Quinn's idea. Aint he something?


Should I blog about how I love Dave Ramsey? I was on my way to the bird refuge with the scouts last week when my car exploded and ended up costing $940 beans to repair. Thanks Dave Ramsey because without you we probably wouldn't have had the emergency fund sitting around waiting for something like this to happen so we could pay for that instead of new furniture.

Should I blog about how we had a fun Easter? Since it doubled as conference, we spent the day at Grams and Gramps.




Should I blog about how much I love my family? Well, I do.



Should I blog about how Forrest just told me, "I like ninjas. Ninjas are cool. I would like to meet some ninjas." He also told me this morning that he wanted to meet the lady from my workout video. Hmmm.

Should I blog about how Lola insists on changing her own diaper. Or about how she talked to and giggled with the snowman we made this morning? Since this is what we awoke to today:


I'm not kidding about how much she loved the snowman. She gave him a kiss goodbye when we had to go inside.

You now probably need to check into detox because you've had an Our Esprit overdose.

A few reasons why Forr is the funniest

1. The muffins I made this morning were, "dang yummy."

2. He told the brain-eating zombie (aka mommy) that he needed all of his brains back in order to keep his head big.

3. When he spilled his milk all over the table today he muttered "what the..." under his breath.