Yeah, I suck

So I was talking to a friend on the phone today and she mentioned that I needed to look at something on her blog. I admitted then that I haven't been on blogger in over a week -- which everyone already knew. So I'm back. I didn't know whether to start from where I am now, or where was I was when I left off, so basically I'm just going to post what I have pictures of.

We last left off at the birthday party -- where all of Ellie's friends came dressed up. Nate was a little jealous that he didn't get to stay for the party and even more jealous that he didn't get to get dressed up. The next week, we saw the resurgence of the pink dress: We tried not to make a big deal about it because one day Dustin walked into Nate's room only to hear Nate gasp and slam the door. Turns out he was wearing the dress and knew we would freak out. So we let him wear it for a few days and then it mysteriously disappeared.

Then there was Ellie's actual birthday in there. She requested breakfast in bed for her birthday -- pancakes. Dustin lovingly drove to McD's to buy it for her. Maybe we would have made them fresh for her if we didn't need to be at Janel's by 7:15 to get her hair done. She really wanted to wear a french braid that day and I am hair inept. She also got to take donuts to school, I brought her a special lunch and then she had field day in the afternoon. All in all, I think she can't really complain about a fast food breakfast.

Field Day was actually pretty nice, except that I got a little weary of explaining my station 15 times in a row. And I totally made the game up. It was suppose to be a relay where you try and fill the bucket with water from a sponge, but they didn't bring me buckets until half way through. By then I figured I had it going so well, why change now? So despite the directions reading, "Thanks for not making this a soak station," I had the kids ring the sponges out over their heads in their lines and pass it along. Then I sprayed the winning team with the bucket refill hose. It was actually really popular. I'm not even kidding. The kids loved it.

The next day my mom and sister came into town for a girl's weekend. We got pedicures, manicures, went shopping, Ellie got her special birthday present, brows and lips waxes, played Wii, made forts, ate way too much junk. . . and of course made Ellie's birthday cake. We really made a mess of it this year, but it was fun! And by we, I should probably say I made the mess. My sister has all the pictures of the weekend on her camera and she is currently driving across the country, so you'll just have to wait for her to unpack and find her camera cord to see Ellie's big birthday surprise.

Yesterday was the Kindergarten field trip. We went to the Broadway Palm dinner theater and saw Mulan. It was really cute and I got to make 5 trips to the rest room -- only once for myself. Can you guess what color group Ellie's class was? I can't believe they made the chaperons wear the same color as the kids. HA HA! They had a lunch and dessert buffet at the theater for all the kids with really healthy food choices. That's sarcastic, by the way. They did make a note that none of their food is deep fried in trans fats. But honestly, it was cute for little kids and I'm totally going to take Ellie there this summer for High School Musical.
And that was how I spent the last week :D

Saturday is a special day . . .

It's the day we wish we had valium.

Dustin was cleaning out the medicine cabinet and found some oxycotin and I asked if I could have one.

5:3o am
Wake up to shower, do my hair, stick frilly tooth picks in sandwiches, frost cupcakes, hand feather boas everywhere. . . all that good stuff.
7 am
The hooligans wake up. Feed them breakfast, bathe them, dress them, change diapers, curl hair. . .

9 am
Party time. 12 little girls. Lots of frills and a little bit of drama. Still a lot of fun.
1o:45 am
Drop the last little girl off at her house on our way to. . .

11 am
Swim lessons

11:3o am
Lessons over, drive home & drop Ellie off in time for Susan to pick me up for. . .

11:45 am
Stake Women's Conference -- ok, we were a little late. Yummy lunch, followed by Chieko Okazaki -- she was an AMAZING speaker, and then yummy dessert afterwards.

3:3o pm
Susan drops me off at home in time to grab a gift & head back to the Stake Center for . . .

4 pm
Cooper's baptism. I do have to say -- I appreciated the Lamb's staying on point and having a beautiful baptism.

4:4o pm
Home. Finally. Take off my skirt and high heels and change into my robe for dinner.

6 pm
Ding dong. It's Amy and Dax and Dustin lets them in our house -- while I'm in my ROBE! Good thing we're good friends and I'm not dying of embarrassment. OK, maybe slightly embarrassed. Dax is so cute! And so big!

Little bit later
DING DONG! It's Azure coming to drop off some carpet stuff to get rid of my vomit smell. And I'm still in my robe! Maybe I should get dressed? PS Thanks Azure!

8 pm
Time to grab the babysitter and head out to a friend's UFC party. I did get dressed, by the way. I should also mention that by this time I am sick to my stomach from eating jelly beans, cupcakes and brownies all day BUT I still manage to eat a pazooki at David and Marita's.

12:3o am
Come home to find this cuteness and crawl into bed and pass out.

Something old. . .

Can you believe she's almost six? Yesterday Janel and I went to the hospital -- luckily for me Molly and Jill were in rooms right next to each other, so I got to see them both -- and it was so fun to smell that new baby smell. YUMMMM! I can barely remember Ellie smelling that way. But no worries, no baby fever here. I got my fix holding the two boys. Oh my gosh, they are both so cute!

Something new. . .
OK, so I didn't chop it, but it i about 3 inches shorter. Maybe it's not all that new.

And why is that when I put a huge picture of Ellie on here I think it is so cute and then I see a picture of me on here and I freak out? Could my nose be any larger?

Something borrowed. . .
In order to make our house "fancy" enough for a Fancy Nancy birthday party, we've been decorating the last few days including these cute butterflies I borrowed from Meredith to put on my tree.
And I borrowed the birthday banner idea from Janel. Her's was a little too "boy" for me -- you know with 4 boys and all, so we opted for pink!

Something blue. . .


Just kidding. It looks like pepto bismol around here. Still more to do. I'm leaving the cleaning for tonight.

Highlights and lowlights

It's been a party around here for sure. My house is a disaster, but I refuse to clean it until Friday. Ellie's party is Saturday morning and between now and then I have so much to do that the house is taking a back seat. So if anyone wants to see "messy Maddy" stop by this week.

Monday night the girls on our street -- and two friends we wished lived on our street -- took Jill out for dinner before the baby comes tomorrow. It was so much fun; even after Abuelo's turned on all the lights on the patio and kicked us out. I don't care what anyone says, women need girl time!

WARNING -- really bad picture ahead stolen from Janel's blog

Last night Ellie had her Kindergarten concert. Try and find Ellie -- ha ha! She's on the very left hand side.

I know people will think I'm exaggerating, but it had to be the cutest concert ever. I think they should go on tour. I loved seeing all of them all dressed up. All their actions were so cute and they sang so loud. I especially liked that it was super informal. Your kinder could wave at you and they let the parents come up front and take pictures for awhile. Nate sang along to all the songs and waved at her the whole time. He was so proud!

After that we took the kids out for cheesecake.
Sadie was enamored with the "baby plate" at CF. Nate was enamored with the cheesecake.


Now to the low lights over the last few days.

* Sadie fell off a chair yesterday morning, landed on her head and started throwing up. Of course we rushed her off to Urgent Care, but the good news is that she is fine! It did make for a dramatic morning and lots of crying.

* Cleaning throw up out of the carpet.

* Cleaning up blue "gak" from the carpet. I discovered blue gak all over Nate's carpet right after I cleaned the vomit up. I totally started crying.

* Re-cleaning the carpet because it still smells like throw up. HELP ME!! I clean it multiple times a day and I can still smell it.

* My hair! I am so sick of it. I told Dustin and Ellie I was cutting it and you would have thought I was losing a limb. Ellie starts crying and Dustin insisted I go to his hair dresser to get it done instead of one of my friends. Whatev. But Friday afternoon, it's getting chopped.

* Too much dessert and not enough working out.

* The party -- it's my own fault. Usually this time of year is really slow, so I have nothing but time and energy to devote to Ellie's party. I assumed it would be the same this year so I planned a lot of fun stuff. Holy cow, it is so busy and I am so behind. I am having nightmares every night that I wake up the day of the party and nothing is ready. So I guess we'll see how it turns out.

Chillin'

After a crazy week, I am so happy to be sitting on tush right now.

This morning we had our annual Primary Talent show. The kids are so amazing. I just love watching them get up and there and perform. Nate and Ellie did art -- Nate drew race cars since that was on his brain. Other talents ranged from doing the crab walk to playing the violin. Just a really fun -- and easy -- activity.

After that I ran Ellie to swim lessons. I can't believe it's starting to be swimming weather already. I've been in denial, but I finally turned on my AC today when I saw it was supposed to get up into the 9o's.

Then we hurried home to get Nate and Dustin ready for NASCAR! Our friend Dave was nice enough to offer us some extra tickets. He even had enough that Daven and Mike are going to go too. When I told Nate he was going to get to go to see NASCAR he was pretty excited until he realized he had no idea what I was talking about. Finally I explained what it was and he totally got it. "Are the cars going to crash?"

Ever since he woke up this morning he's been asking when it was time to leave. I was trying to figure out what he wanted for lunch and he told me, "No thanks. I have fruit snacks in my backpack for NASCAR." Dustin has the camera so hopefully he'll take some picture and not lose the camera.

They finally left at 2, I kidnapped Ellie's BFF, Lindsay, for the day and Sadie is taking a nap -- so I've got the next few hours to relax. I should probably clean or fold laundry, but what's the fun in that? I'm off to play some Wii with the girls and then out to dinner and shopping once Sadie wakes up.

Update Sunday morning -- when I really should be getting ready for Ward Council, but *had* to get up pictures for my parents.

The girls and I had fun. Dinner at Chili's, shopping at TJ Maxx where the girls bought a make-over kit and Sadie picked out ANOTHER baby, dessert at McDonald's, and then home for MAKE-OVERS! Oh yeah. They would do each other's faces, wash them off, and start all over again.

Nate and Dustin got home around 1o pm. Nate was pretty happy until he realized he forgot his NASCAR car in Mike's car. Luckily we convinced him to sleep with the DVD instead.

Dustin said there was a LOT of walking, which might explain why there weren't a lot of kids as little as Nate and Daven, but Nate did really well. He is still just beaming from all the fun last night. He slept in until 8, so it must have really worn him out.



The next few pictures are just to illustrate what happens when you send the camera with your husband. Parachutes? Race cars? I only want pictures with my son in them!


Nate stayed awake the whole time, but poor Daven was asleep for most of the race.

Sneak Peak

So I came home from Playgroup and found this:


I'm so excited. I'll post a real picture once the bedding is all done in the wash and on the bed.

Now all we need is to find some more furniture to match it.

Wii're crazy!

I will admit that I am horrible at making final decisions. I'm really indecisive and I hate committing to anything, especially if it costs a lot of money. So how is that I made two big purchases on the same day?

Monday afternoon, Dustin and I went out for lunch at The Farmhouse in downtown Gilbert. Absolutely yummy, by the way. When we were done we realized we had an extra half hour so we ran into the furniture store next door to look at beds. I've been looking for a long time and it seems whenever we have the extra cash, I can't find one I like, and the second I find one I like, we've already allocated those funds somewhere else. back to the story -- we had decided to use our tax refund to stimulate the economy like my buddy GW wants us to, so we have been on the hunt.

Looking through the store we found some stuff we like, but we're really particular and nothing was perfect. Browsing through we did find one bed we thought was semi cool but the matching furniture was HIDEOUS. A saleswoman found us and was so sweet to take down all our requirements and promised to send us some possibilities since we were on such a tight time schedule. Dustin ran out to get the car while I showed her a couple of bed styles we liked. One of them was the bed with the hideous furniture. I mentioned we liked the bed, but not the matching furniture. Sales lady tells me that she's sure she can find furniture to co-ordinate and the bed is on sale. Then I run out to the car because we're late picking Nate up.

I mention that the bed is on sale to Dustin, who can barely remember the bed. Anyway, long story short, he calls the lady and talks her down a little bit, runs to go look at the bed again and calls me from the store to ask me to commit. AHHH! Deer in the headlights moment for me. I must have been feeling impulsive because we bought a bed. It comes on Friday and I am so excited.

Also on the same day I'm on the phone with my sister. I mention that Dustin wants to buy a Wii as soon as Rock Band comes out for the Wii because he loves that game so much. Kathleen then tells me to start looking now because they're really hard to find. I tell Dustin who informs us that he can find a Wii no problem. We sort of challenged him to find one that day, joking that knowing how "golden" Dustin is, he'd be able to find one in a manner of minutes.

So of course he found one. And now we own it.

And we love it! The kids have been having so much fun -- even if they're terrible. Nate actually doesn't pay attention to anything at all. He sort of just throws his arms around and does really stinking well. We're talking home runs, strikes, birdies. . .
The bad part about them not paying attention is that they roam and run into each other. We've been lucky that no one has been whacked in the head yet.

Sadie finds the Wii very entertaining and is our best cheer leader. She is also a gangsta with her one sock.
So gives us the heads up on good Wii games for a 5 year old and a 3 year old. And maybe some D and I can enjoy too. We of course have the sports and we have Wii Play as well. Plus Mario Super Smash Brother I think?

Also, I think Dustin and I have done a part to stimulate the economy enough -- so maybe we should be Republicans now ;p

Liberty Bear

Liberty Bear is a pain in the butt.

There I said it! I know it's horrible to think that, but it's true. All year long I've heard about who got to bring Liberty Bear home and dealt with the pouting when week after week it wasn't Ellie. Finally on Friday, Ellie comes running in the door wit a big red back pack -- HOORAY! We finally got Liberty Bear.

Then I open the binder and DANG! LB is a lot of work. First there's the poster we have to make, plus you're suppose to bring in a jar full of stuff for the "estimation jar," the spotlight sheet, the scrapbook page, the journal entry. . . whatever. Liberty Bear is over rated. Maybe not as much as natural child birth, bu close.

And I can only say this here because when Ellie's around I think he's the *coolest thing EVER*

Knowing how much there was to do and how little time we were going to have Ellie and I set out for some shopping right away. First we visited the scrapbook store where Ellie picked her cardstock based on it's name rather than color, like "lipstick" and "pajama." She picked out a sheet of patterned paper, some flowers and ribbon. . . $14 later we headed to Target.

At Target Ellie picked out some peppermints for the estimation jar. These are the details she gives me: "You have to pick a big number to put in. Like you can't put anything with twenty in it. You have to put way more in." OK, so I'm thinking we have to fill the jar and I buy this Costco-sized bag of peppermints. Yeah, get home and re-read the instructions and it turns out the number is suppose to be between 25 and 5o. Which really doesn't seem to be a very good exercise in estimation to me, but I like to follow the rules and now I have an entire canister full of leftover mints.

We come home and Ellie and I argue over the poster. Basically we weren't seeing each other's "artistic visions." We decided to let it rest for the night and Liberty went to sleep with Ellie.

Saturday we ran to the gym, ran home watched Conference, ran to our friends' house to swim and have a BBQ and watch afternoon Conference/play Rock Band, ran back home in time to pick up a sitter to go shopping with some girl friend's during Priesthood. . . And where was LB -- in his backpack in the back of the car. We totally forgot about him and there was no time to make our poster.

Sunday turned into the same thing. Poor neglected Liberty Bear. Of course we get home around 7 tonight after brunch at our friend's and had to make the star student poster. When things have to be done at the last minute, compromising becomes a little bit easier. I gave a little -- who cares if all the pinks actually match, Ellie gave a little and we popped that baby out in under an hour. Most of the time was spent looking through pictures which was really the fun part of the whole thing. I know I have a baby and all, but I wish I could hold Ellie as a baby again. Elder Ballard's talk totally made me cry and then those pictures did me in!

OK, vent over. I think I can enjoy Liberty Bear now. I vow to spend the rest of the week making sure he has some fun --outside of the backpack-- and feels a little bit more at home.

Books, books and more books!

Yes, there is a theme to this post

1. Book club -- we've got our book club coming up next week and at the end we always try to decide on our next book. Usually we sit around for hours and can never really decide, but I know a lot of you out there are avid readers and have your own book clubs, so I'm looking for some suggestions I can bring with me. We read just about anything and everything. We've read classics like Wuthering Heights and Great Expectations all the way to Harry Potter and the Twighlight series. Fiction books like The Alchemist, Kite Runner, The 5 People You'll Meet in Hevaen. . . We've done self help books -- Dr. Laura, Love and Logic, Bonds that make us Free, The Millionaire Woman Next Door, religious books, non-fiction books. . . basically we do anything.

So does anyone out there have some great recommendations for us?

2. My uber-talented friend Michelle's book just hit the shelves. I am so excited for her. The book is named Lifted and it's for all the scrapbookers out there. Basically it's about "scraplifting" a page and making it your own. She's got some really awesome ideas in there and I'm so excited to actually see it in print after all her hard work.

Congratulations Michelle! I'll definitely be making my way to Mesa/ Scrapbooks Etc. to see it on the shelves.



3. And last but not least. . . My Aunt Kristine is extremely generous and always the send the kids lots of packages, which they LOVE. Gifts, cookies, holiday decorations. . .she really is so sweet and so thoughtful and my kids adore her. Recently she sent a bunch of gifts for the kids and I saved the books to stick in their Easter baskets.

One of the books was this little cutie to the left. It has a fuzzy little puppy face on the front and Sadie really loved to touch it. Later on during the day, Sadie was wandering around the house with the book whining, "BOOK" to try and find someone to read it to her. Ellie starts reading it to her and I thought she was making up the words to try to be funny. "Read the right words!" I yelled at her. Turns out she was.

My Puppy by Salina Yoon

I go walking down the street. I have things to do and people to meet.

First things first, what's that I see? A fire hydrant -- time to go pee!

A couple of friends come down my way. They tickle me -- it's fun to play!

Back to business, one-two-three. Look what I made -- a little poopy!

I always want to come back home. I get a big hug and a juicy bone!

Now my Aunt is a phlebotomist, so she very well may have known the book talked about bodily functions because she has always entertained us with us with songs about these things, but I'm guessing she just though the book looked cute and bought it without reading it. Either way, it is a source of great entertainment! And I'm sure to find out since she reads this blog. I expect a call soon Kristine!

I made dinner!

Yes -- you read that right. It's not even an April Fool's joke! I really did. I even threw in cleaning up and the dishes because I'm that nice.

I made meatloaf in cupcake tins and then used mashed cauliflower as the frosting. You should have seen the excitement on my kids' faces when they thought they were having cupcakes for dinner. Nate was shouting, "It's my birthday?" and Ellie said, "I knew we were having cupcakes!! I want pink."

Oh poor kids! Nate went in to get a lick of frosting and shouts in horror, "That's mashed potatoes." Nate warmed up after a minute and ate them, put Ellie pouted almost the entire dinner because she didn't like being tricked. Ha ha! Totally worth it.

I tried to trick Dustin by telling him my sister called me this morning to tell me she was pregnant. His response, "You know it's April Fool's day right? She was tricking you." Well, DUH! I knew it was April Fool's day, but I didn't expect him to remember. Oh well. Maybe next year. Anyone have any great pranks?

According to Ellie's class work:
During the 15oo's, the calendar was changed. The official start of the new year moved from April 1st to January 1st.

Some people still celebrates the new year on April 1st. These people were thought to be "fools" and had jokes played on them. They were given invitations to fake parties and were given gag gifts.

Despite the mean origin, HAPPY APRIL FOOL'S DAY!