He's hoooooooooome

He's home. And I survived (ok, I've done is donzen of times before, but it has been a long time since he last had a trip and Nate naps a lot less now). I cleaned the house, read 5 books, fed the children totally nutrionally unsound meals, organized the closet (which was still a disaster from Nate's-sleeping-in-the-closet phase), got the washing machine fixed all by myself, then did laundry -- folded AND put away, had one sleep over with Ellie (never to be repeated again after she talked in her sleep all night), went swimming three times, made sure everyone KNEW I was alone so they could pity me, took a nap almost every day and actually enjoyed having the kiddos all to myself for the week -- so you don't actually have to pity me.

In fact, now that he's home, I've noticed the house is a zillion times messier (not that I'm complaining since most of it is from home cooked meals that actually contain meat and green leafy veggies). I have decided that men are inherently messy. Just by entering a room, they invite chaos. Stray crayons, empty cups, and dirty diapers are all magnetically drawn to them. And then promptly left on the floor.

However, I'm glad mine's home. Chaos and all.

Bad Mommy

OK, I thought I'd better "confess" my mommy sins, that way I won't feel badly anymore! Plus, I didn't want everyone to continue carrying the notion that I'm the perfect mother, which I knew you thought anyway. ;p

1. I forgot Ellie had a talk on Sunday. No talk prepared at all. I didn't even remember she was assigned a talk until we were on our way out the door after Church.

2. We spent two days this week in pajamas for the entire day. It's in between school and swim lessons and it's too hot to go outside without a really good reason.

3. Kerry sent some cookies home with us on Tuesday, and I ate them all. By myself. While the kids were napping.

4. Let's just say the meal plan for this week has been: pizza hot pockets, frozen pizza, pizza bites and chicken nuggets. We're all constipated and 20 pounds heavier. Luckily a friend brought by some fruit last night, so we have some roughage.

5. I made Ellie go to the bathroom on the rocks outside when we were swimming because I didn't want her to trek her wet body and bathing suit across my freshly mopped hallway.

Sooo, there's the scoop! Someone call CPS!

Testing

Crossing my fingers that this works (sorry it's at a wonky angle)

Grrrrrrr

So I have this super cute video of Nate that I wanted to put on here to show Dustin. The only way I can figure out how to get it on here it to use google videos. So I go through this huuuuuuge long process, go t oget the video only to find out it's being "verified." WHHHHHHHHHATTTTTTTTT? I want it NOW! The verification process takes a few days. That chaps my hide. Sooooo, don't expect to see video of the poor boy soon. If anyone knows a better way, please let me know!

And so you will have to live with some pictures of danger boy. It seems I catch him climbing on everything these days. Ahhhhh, that's the life with boys. Otherwise we're just hanging out over here. Spent the day over at Kerry's. She cooked lunch AND baked cookies for us. She's the BEST! Plus, now the kids are napping, so I'm off to read a book! YEAY! Best day EVER! Seriously though, I love a good low key week -- which is what we're keeping this week.

Blogging Title IX

There is some rule out there that my parents enforce which states that for every blog about a female offsrping, there must be one about a male offspring and vice versa. Soooo, here's my Nate post.

Nate is trouble. All boys are so it wasn't a huge surprise. We like to call him Danger Boy because he's always into something dangerous. He likes to try to walk along the back of the couch and his newest thing is climbing onto my computer desk and unplugging all the cords. However, he is so stinking cute! I can't resist his trouble smile. Whenever he is doing something naughty, he just grins this adorable little grin and I want to eat him.

These pictures are of Nate trying to get up to the shelf in my closet that has some scrapbooking stuff on it. See how he was smart enough to go into the bathroom and get a stool? Luckily, he hadn't figured out he needed to be muuuuuch closer to the door yet.

The sleepover

So Monday was Ellie's official "first" sleepover. I blame Gina who told Kenzie that she could have a sleepover when she turned 4 because then Ellie got it into her head that she could have one when she was 4. So of course Ellie was 3 for an entire year and I was sure she would forget about it. She then made the mistake of telling Erin that she could have a sleepover when they were 4, and Erin never forgot.

Soooo, we had the sleepover and it was actually pretty funny. The girls played, went swimming, did the Banzai slide (I have sooooooo gotten my money out of that thing), ate pizza for dinner and then watched soem movies. I made the mistake of sending Dustin to the video store. He rented Valiant (lamest movie ever) and Little Einsteins (HELLO! Was there nothing with BARBIE in the title??). He obviously doesn't know 4 year old girls very well. I also told him Erin doesn't like popcorn, so he got chocolate covered nuts for a snack. Yuuuum, melted chocolate on my carpet.

We got the girls into bed at 9:30 after an hour or two of playing with every toy known to man. But for the next hour all you could hear was giggling. They were in there telling knock knock jokes. But not knock knock jokes like older kids tell, the knock knock jokes 4 year olds tell.
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Silly Goose.
Silly Goose who?
Silly goose cookie!
And then they turned to potty humor as the hour progressed. At one point I went in there and they insisted on telling me a joke.
Knock Knock.
Who's there?
Buuuuuuuuuu. . . (breaks into hysterical giggling)
Buu. . . (more giggling)
(continues giggling)
Buuuuuuuuttttttttttt (uncontrolable giggling).
I'm surprised no one wet their pants. But they did go to sleep, together, in the top bunk and slept form 10:30 till. . . 6:30. Luckily Dustin was sweet enough to get up with them.

It was totally adorable and fun though, and I'm sure we'll do it again sometime!

Pre-school graduation pictures (even though she's going BACK to pre-school for another year in the fall) that I promised my mom. Ellie did a great job at her part, which is good because we practiced and practiced that thing. It was fun, then we did the whole "brunch" thing afterwards. Nate and Dustin showed up late, so I think the waitress thought I was a little crazy when I kept ordering food and getting a high chair for a baby that wasn't there. You could tell she was relieved that he existed when he arrived and she excalimed, "He's HERE!!" Good times, good times.

Lola is gone to "Italy." She's actually in Virginia, but ELlie likes to carry around a little knick knack of the Duomo and point to the top and tell us that Lola is there. Sometimes Nate gets ahold of it and Ellie shouts out, "MOOOOOM! Nate is ruining Italy."

This week school is out and we are ready to relax. Well, she actually has Girl School two days this week, so I'm planning on getting my Visiting Teaching done. That means I'll get to eat the cookies they pass around 3rd Sunday. YEAY! Dustin had a root canal this morning -- FUN! Ellie is having a sleep over to night and Nate and I are planning on having some serious snuggle time. OK, I'm probably planning it more than he is. If he were to plan anything it would involve dare devil stunts like walking on the back of the couch. Gotta love boys!

No pictures, sorry to disappoint

Well, it's summer time and the heat is on. Ellie graduated from preschool on Thursday (wait, was that really only yesterday?) and it was ADORABLE! I have some pictures to share, but I'm waaaaaay too tired to upload them tonight. My dad and Lola are gone so the house is a little empty and sad. Luckily my kids are officially worn out from the family parties and sleepovers, so they have been sleeping like angels.

Tonight was the Stake Fair. Our Stake has the most amazing fair. We're talking real wooden booths with fun games, prizes, bands, pie, contests (limbo, jam, bread, chicken dance. . .), a talent show, pony rides, cart rides, a petting zoo. . . Just a great time.

We did the whole picnic thing and then headed into the fair grounds for an evening of allergies and animal germs. Ellie got her face painted, played basketball, drew pictures with marbles, threw apples into baskets. . . and Nate ate popcorn. And ran around. We did the whole pony ride thing. That was Ellie's favorite part. The line was killer though, so we took turns standing in line with some friends. Nate loved petting the ponies that were "resting" nearby. Apparently he has lost his fear of animals. Then the kiddos went on a pony cart ride. The line for that was muuuuch shorter. After that I headed off with Nate to get some pie while Dustin, Ellie and our friends went to stand in line for the petting zoo. I manage to balance 3 plates of pie to share, Nate, and a bottle of water when Dustin informs he's going to go get his own pie. About this time, Ellie decides she has to go to the bathroom. So now I have Nate, three pies, a bottle of water and Ellie doing to potty dance. So I put Nate down to set down the waters and pie. Michelle (our firend who is waiting in line) then offers to watch Nate. I then realize, Nate is not standing next to me. Of course then over the microphone we hear "We have an unidentified preformer on the stage. He's been dancing since the very young age of 3 months. He's pretty cute and has mastered the art of spinning. . ." You guessed it! Nate is on the stage dancing. The HUMILIATION! So of course I had to run up and get him and the announcer looooooved that. "It seems his partner has arrived. She's going in for the lift. . . PERFECT!" Luckily there were only a few hundred people watching since the talent show hadn't quite started yet.

But the kids did get to do the petting zoo. Nate looooooooved it. He was all about chasing the big old turkey and letting the goats eat him. He would just laugh anyti,e he got near an animal. Ellie was more into petting the bunnies and chasing the chicks. Then we watched a little talent show and headed home for our very tired children to go to bed. Dustin's off with a friend at a movie, so I'm checking out and hitting the sack.