Stay-cation

So we haven't even been home for 2 hours and the laundry is piled up. . . but hey -- a girl's got to blog!

We decided to take a little stay-cation to the Arizona Grand Resort over the Memorial Day Weekend, and then stay a little longer. It was such a great time, if you can't tell by the grin on Nate's face.

I think I gained a zillion pounds from eating out constantly, though. UGH! And Dustin came home with a nice burn. Is it bad that every time I look at him, I laugh. Poor guy did not apply sunscreen often enough and doesn't have the same skin tone as the rest of the fam.

The kids had a great time at the water park: wave pool, kiddie pool, lazy river, water slides, hot tub. . . It's amazing how kids just meet someone and make new friends in an instant.

I was shocked that I could actually get all 3 kids to sleep in the same room and actually go to bed at a decent hour, but they were awesome. Sadie even napped a few times, usually on the lazy river. Sadie is definitely more of a lounger than a water-lover.

Dustin and I will even make an appearance:

We tried just about all the restaurants in the 4 days. I'd definitely skip Aunt Chilada's next time, but Rustler's Rooste really was fun. They have a band and a dance floor, and even a slide for the kids to ride into the dinning room and way too much food. We did decide that Sadie is a NIGHTMARE at meal time. She completely refuses to eat anything other than fruit and french fries.


Anyway, we're home, tired and tan!

It's been awhile. . .

Last night Dustin and I went out on a marathon date -- shopping for a new shirt for him, dinner, then we met up to play laser tag with some super rockin' friends, dessert afterwards. . . and then Dustin decided to go watch UFC and play Rock Band with some friends and I stayed home to crash. I got on to blog and ended up searching everywhere for my camera, gave up and decided just to watch some TV. I was yawning about every 5 seconds when I realized that I was forcing myself to stay up because the house was so quiet. In the end, I had to give up the quiet for sleep. Which is good because Dustin got home at 4 am. So guess who got up with the kids this morning?

So since I can't find the camera, I'll save the picture stories another time and tell you how much I hate cleaning my kids rooms. About once a month, I go through all their toys and make sure everything still works and is sorted properly. Each room takes me a whole day -- probably because Sadie can pull everything out faster than I can put it away, so not much gets done while she's awake. I almost had Ellie's room done on Wednesday when Sadie woke up from her nap, found the sack full of garbage and broken toys, decided it was a purse and dragged it all over the house, dumping trash everywhere.

The depressing part is, by Saturday it was starting to get messy again, so I asked her to clean it up. It was torture of course. She sort of sat there pouting until I broke out the Mama drama. I believe I pulled something like this:

"Do you think I like to clean you room? NO! So why do I do it? Because I love you." Yes, I had to supply my own answers because Ellie was laying on the ground writhing in pain at the notion of cleaning her room. "So you know what it says to me when you don't you clean your room when I ask you? That you don't love me."

Oh yeah, I was that horrible at the guilt. And the room got cleaned.

Thursday was Nate's room -- which is so much easier than Ellie's room. I love that boys don't have Polly Pocket clothes, and barbie shoes, and dress up, and doll house dolls, and baby doll clothes. . . He basically has 3 main categories -- trains, cars and action figures. So I tell Nate we're going to clean up his room. "I don't want to clean my room, that's so boring. Boring. Boring. Boring." Yeah Nate, I know it's boring, I don't find it fun either. So I drag him back to his room and he just sits there. I ask him to help me clean. "No, I just watch you clean my room."

Now why do we torture ourselves into thinking they will help us cleaning willingly and gladly? For instance, a few months ago we told the kids they couldn't have dinner until they cleaned Nate's room. Nate sat around and did nothing and Ellie cried for 2 hours, "We're going to DIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE." Finally I had to go in and supervise the cleaning. It took less than ten minutes.

Afterwards Nate was washing his hands and he tells Dustin, "This make mommy happy. Mommy make me happy clean my room." Then he comes out and hugs and kisses me, "Thank you helping me clean my room mommy." And that is why I clean his room for him. Even if it is boring.

No pictures

I don't even know what I am writing about, just that my family has been bugging me about not blogging.

We've been busy -- birthday parties, play dates, end of the year stuff, Stake Carnival, washing and folding way too many loads of laundry, dance, sick kiddo, and yesterday I did my last Art Masterpiece for the year. The kids sang a little song for me and I totally started crying because Ellie has gone from this:

to this:
She has grown so much -- not just her legs and hair! I can't believe how much she has learned and how much self confidence she has now. She went from a little toddler to this mature grown-up sort of thing. She can read chapter books for heavens sake.

Last night I made brownies -- from scratch, very un-Maddy like -- and while Dustin was off at the store getting ice cream, the kids were driving me crazy. I looked at them and said, "I'm going to lose it you guys." They so sweetly stop arguing and look at me, "Lose what?" "My temper!" "What's a temper?" Nate asks as he starts looking under the couch. It was pretty funny watching him look for my temper.

The other day we also told Ellie we were going to a hotel for a little vacation. She then asks if she can have a sleep over with me. I told her that no, she was sleeping with Nate in their very own bed. "OK. But only if it's a bed that comes out of a couch." In fact it is! "Oh yeay. When I grow up I'm going to have a bed that turns into a couch in my bedroom. And an ottoman." Dustin then asked her if she basically just wanted a living room for a bedroom. "Yes, so I'm going to need a TV in there too you guys."

And if you live on my street and read this blog: Don't forget Girl's Night tonight. We're meeting at 7pm and Janel's :D

Kid pictures

Here's some stuff I've taken pictures of this week:

Ellie had Dance photos on Monday. I feel like a totally inept dance mom. In fact, it is the one area of my life that I don't even strive for perfection. I don't even own pink lipstick and blush for her to wear for heavens sake! We made do with pink eye shadow from her make-over kit and Jill helped me spruce up a few curls at the last minute. I was happy when I showed up for pictures and Ellie fit right in. Yeay me!

The next day, Ellie was a little bored after school so Nate and I were the subjects of her make-overs.
Poor Nate is going to die when he's a teen ager and has to see these pictures. He did pick all the nail polish off, so maybe we're ok!

And I can't show you how I turned out -- due to never wanting to put my picture on here again, but let's say that I did get my revenge. Of course to a 6 year old it was AWESOME!

Sadie just develops more and more personality ever day. She is by far my most determined child. Today while I was getting everything out of the car, she toddled off onto her bike and let it roll down the drive way and straight into the street. I was sure she would fall off, or even worse that a car would come by, but she survived. Then she started walking off down the street shouting, "BYE!"

She also has this great new face -- the "WOW" face. Everything new is "WOW." And in case you're wondering what she's wearing around her neck -- it's her "Pretty." She loves to find my exercise clothes drawer and pull out everything from it and put it around her neck. Then she comes to show me. "Pretty," she tells us all. Today she found Ellie's dacne drawer as well.Can you spot the leotard?

As you can see, my Mother's Day flowers need a little TLC. I don't have a green thumb!

Happy Mother's Day

Well sorry Mom and Cheryl, it appears that I am the. . .
I had such a great Mother's Day. It started yesterday with flowers from Nate -- which were suppose to be for today, but Nate can't keep a surprise -- and then Dustin sent me to the spa for a massage.

This morning I got to sleep in! Which was good because I was up until late last night sprucing up the flowers the kids made last week at church. Some of them were in pretty bad shape, but I think I made them look decent. It was so fun to see all the Primary moms at church with their tissue paper flowers pinned on.

I got breakfast and then my cute cards and gifts -- including an awesome new bathing suit. Then Ellie showed us her loose tooth and Dustin yanked on it. Next thing I know Ellie is screaming and there is blood coming out of her mouth, but the tooth is still hanging on. Little booger. We were trying to convince her to just let Dustin finish the deed, but in the end I actually had to hold her in my lap for the last little bit. It's our first lost tooth! I had Ellie help me decorate a little match box for her to put it in and it's now under her pillow. "Does everyone worry that the Tooth Fairy won't come?" she asked me earlier. I think the Tooth Fairy is worried she'll forget herself. Luckily the Tooth Fairy has some cash on hand! Big things always seem to happen on the Sabbath in our house.

Ellie also finished off the last of the coupons from her coupon book that she made me for Mother's Day Tea. I got:
*do your har
*do your nails
and
*make a free necklis I even got to wear it to church, along with my freshly manicured nails. They're pink and blue! Then the men/youth took over Primary for the last hour and I got to go to Relief Society. Ann gave an amazing lesson, but I really missed the hustle and bustle of Primary. I got up to go check on everyone and got kicked out.


Dustin cooked my favorite dinner -- square steak and mashed potatoes -- and then we had dessert. Sadie was pretty excited when she found a stool and climbed up to reach the cake. I moved the cake to what I thought was a safe distance in, only to find Sadie could still grab the wax paper and pull it over. She wasn't too thrilled to have it taken away from her.

We also got to talk to both of our moms today. They live far away, but we still love them so much and are so lucky that we can still talk to them whenever we need to. They are both such amazing moms and even better Grandmas! We love you!!!

I also noticed the amazing amount of photos of me this month on the blog. GAG! No more! I think I need to go through and take some down. I'm so sick of seeing my face every time I get on the blog!

Happy Mother's Day! What did you do?

Mother's Day Tea

Today I got to go to Ellie's class for Mother's Day Tea -- so cute! When we first walked in, we got to walk down the red carpet and then the kids had made us all crowns and these cute little books and papers. After being served our treats, we got to walk down the red carpet again while her teacher read some "facts" about us. We didn't get to take them home yet, but I did learn that my favorite thing to do with Ellie is "the dishes." Then they sang some super cute songs for us.

Please note Ellie's super curly hair. We put it in sponge curlers as a dry run for dance picture day on Monday. She thought she was hot stuff.

At the end I had the kids give Miss Kogel her big gift for Teacher Appreciation week. We gave her a GC to Dolce spa and salon. Yesterday I went in and did a little scavenger hunt for her with the kids and it was *darling* if I do say so myself. I know you all want to read all my clues ;p Just kidding, scroll on by if you're bored:

Kindergarteners need a lot of love and care
But Miss Kogel has proven she'll always be there.
She's awesome, no great! NO! She's the best!
At teaching us everything we need to know for each test.
Even better - she has a big heart and a gentle touch
And this treasure hunt will remind us just how much.
We'll need to use our brains to finish in time
Luckily Miss Kogel taught us all to rhyme
To find the first clue and prove that this class is able
We'll know that the rhyme means we should go to the back TABLE

*the kids had to figure out the rhymes and tell her where to go look

She pretty, nice, lots of fun and more
To find the next clue look on the front of the DOOR!

Miss Kogel taught us to read, just look!
This clue is hiding by a BOOK!

She make us use our brains and really think
and reminds us to wash our hands in the SINK

Each day to grade our papers she spends hours,
but she can use some pens that look like FLOWERS

She even does crafts with us, but what else is new?
To find this clue, let's look by the GLUE

She remembers our birthdays and made our name tags
Well find our clue by the birthday BAGS!

She grades our papers and put them in holders,
We take them home to mom and dad in our Eagle FOLDERS!

To make sure our writing is nice,
She has a friend who lives on the ICE!

ER as in HER, ey and OR
She taught us our phonograms on the BOARD!

When we're sad or worried, she'll give us a hug
Or read us a story when we sit on the RUG!

Last clue:
2-4-6-8! It's Miss Kogel that we appreciate
But after all this, she'll still have to wait.

Until then, come and share a yummy treat
for an awesome class that's super sweet

Tomorrow's the day she'll get to see
What we have for her, after Mother's Day Tea

Until then, listen close and follow each rule
For Miss Kogel is the greatest treasure in school!

And now Nate and Sadie are sleeping and I'm ready to take a little nap myself! Or eat some protein. I just reviewed my meal choices for the day:

Breakfast: Sprinkles cupcake.
Oh my gosh, they are soooooo good. Totally not overrated.

Snack: Cheetoes at playgroup

Lunch: A bite of a pay day from Enrichment last night and a swig of Nate's Sprite

Snack: A cookie at Mother's Day tea

No wonder my head hurts.

Pictures you thought you'd never see. . .

*WARNING* The pictures ahead may shock you. These are pictures you thought you would never see on my blog. Do not scroll down unless you are properly prepared.



OK, I warned you.






OH MY GOSH! It's Nate in *BOY DRESS UP* I know, you're still in a state of shock.
Last night we were hanging out outside with all the neighbors and Nate came running out of the Lamb's house with the Spiderman costume and actually asked me to put it on him. I just about fell over from excitement. Even better, they said we could borrow it for a few days. Doesn't he look cute? He did some crazy poses for me all night until I talked him into a bath.

And just wanted to do some quick pimpin'

1. Go vote for my friend Lara here. Scroll down and vote for Overstuffed with Polkadots -- you don't have to register or anything. She is so talented and since I actually know her, I can vouch that she totally deserves to win. You never know about the rest of those people ;p.

<---- See her cute picture here. It's a photo contest for Mother's Day. And I must admit, I stole the idea to put her picture on here from Tara. I was reading Tara's blog and thinking what a great friend she was to put a plug in for Lara and then I figured, hey, I could be just as good of a friend!

2. And while I'm pimping one friend, go buy my friend Michelle's book here. It is amazing and she is awesome. Saturday she took us all out to celebrate and I had so much fun. Thanks M!

3. And Gap.com is having a sale on uniform polos if you need any. I suggest buying long sleeve polos now while it's hot. I tried to find some in the winter and struck out.

Anyone else need me to pimp them out?

Cruddy

I don't have a lot of excitement going on in my life right now. Just a lot of cruddy stuff that *needs* to be done and I'm a little stressed out getting it all fit in. The only thing is -- when it's stuff I don't *want* to do, I procrastinate a lot. And then it comes back to bite me in the tush and I end up way too stressed and in full spazz mode.

Today I went to the gym, came home and fed the kids, started a load of laundry, cleaned out the office and then sat and talked on the phone for 3 hours. It felt really good! And now I'm on the internet. So yeah, procrastination mode is in full force.

So in honor of all the crummy things I have to do, here's a list of some crummy things that have happened:

1. I bought a new shirt. I loved it. Dustin put it in the dryer and it shrank. Dustin goes to buy me the same shirt and it is no longer available. Plus all the shirts he brought home to "replace" it were hideous or too small.

2. Everyone is moving. One day I pulled up to my friend Michelle's house to see the "FOR SALE" sign -- I guess it was a secret at that point, and the same day I get an e-mail from Kerry saying they're moving. Plus our great friends and neighbors the Lambs are getting ready to put an offer on a new house. Maybe I should move too.

3. Last Monday, I spent the entire day cleaning my closets. I pulled out bags of clothes to give away, sorted and folded everything. I even color coded my sweater shelf. The closet looked amazing. Then Sadie found it. And she pulled out every single article of clothing she could reach. Then she went and got a stool so she could pull more clothes down while I was cleaning the kitchen. All my skirts were pulled off their hangers, shoes were all over the house. This is all in like 15 minutes.

So then while I'm trying to clean it all up, she wanders into Ellie's room and does the same thing!
The trouble maker -- reveling in all her naughtiness!

4. Friday night I stuck a load of laundry in the wash and forgot about it all night. Saturday morning, while I was in yoga, I remembered the load, so I came home from the gym, put some laundry detergent in the washing machine so I could re-wash them, and started the load. 5 minutes later Dustin hears the washing machine going and tells me that he already re-washed the load while I was gone.

5. While Dustin and I were out on Thursday, the kids and the babysitter lost our garage door opener.

So wah wah wah. Poor me! Dang it feels good to whine and get it all out sometimes. Now I need to go clean out my linen closet. Or clean up the mess in the living room the kids made while I was blogging. Or make up a Scavenger hunt. Or feed my kids. Or fold laundry. Or pick Ellie up from school. See, none of it sounds very fun, does it?
Oh dang! Of course I went to get my kids a very nutritious lunch of dry cereal and uplaod the pictures when the Bishop's wife stops by! See -- it always bites me in the tush!

Crafting

I love to scrapbook and make cards and cute little decorations and all that stuff -- but kid crafting is a whole new thing to me. I really like things to be perfect, which usually doesn't work well in school/church settings. Unfortunately for me, I have spent the last 3 days entrenched in kids crafts.

Thursday I get an e-mail from Ellie's room mom telling us that the Miss Kogel's door needs to be decorated Friday afternoon. The theme is "solid gold" so her plan is stick up some wrapping paper and stick gold coins on the door. I don't think she realizes that this is over-achiever school and that is not going to fly. Plus I know a few other room moms and I knew they were going all out for the door. I called Mer and we brainstormed a little, came up with a theme and I e-mailed the room mom. She loved it, long story short, I ended up doing the whole thing on less that 24 hours notice. I don't think I would be so cranky about it if the room mom had stayed to help me put the door up, but she totally ditched me too! Every other mom is gone and done because they've had the stinking thing planned all week and it completely stressed me out. In the end, I relied on 4th graders and Kinders to help me glue the stuff up. I don't have high hopes for the door staying together over the weekend. But it looked cute when I was done!

On the bottom are little shamrocks, I HAND freaking CUT, and I ran in Friday morning and had the kids write some nice things about her on them. One of the boys wrote: You are big. I know he was being nice, but it made me laugh. And BTW, she's not big at all, she's adorable!

I've also been getting the stuff ready for our Primary Mother's Day craft. If you're in our Ward and want to be surprised next Sunday, read no further!

We're sining, "I Often Go Walking," and having the kids hold a flower out at the end. So tomorrow for Sharing Time the kids are making the paper flowers. I went on a bazillion sites to figure out how to make paper tissue flowers and they all made it sound so easy. I, however, cannot seem to make them look cute. I guess that's what the kids are for! I got to reuse the tissue paper from the door and I even found some cool bling to put in the center of the flowers for cheap. Then we're going to attach safety pins to the back and the kids can pin them on their moms. As modeled by me ;p
In my head these were all going to be so fabulous looking, but I hate having to face reality. . . Plus I remember that they're all going to be thrown away soon and suddenly perfection seems overrated.

At least they're done!