Halloween Hangover

I can't be the only one experiencing this. The kids are cranky, my house is trashed, and of course Joy School was here this morning. The day after. UGH! Nate has been searching for his pumpkin basket all morning. He still hasn't forgotten his stash of candy.

Last night was a BLAST! As always, we tried to pack too much into one night. We had a whole Halloween themed meal for dinner at our friends house. I brought the Wicthes Brew meatballs and Monster Eyes deviled eggs. There was also skull shaped pudding, blood punch with an ice cube hand, monster finger carrots, monster toe hot dogs (complete with red ketchup toe-nails), spider bread, intestine pasta, mashed potato ghosts. . . and I don't think the kids ate a bite of anything.

So after realizing we weren't going to get the kids to eat, we headed out trick-or-treating. Ellie is at such a fun age! She and the older kids ran everywhere and were so excited but still polite. Nate was adorable. At first he wasn't sure about the whole deal, but once he got the first candy bar in his pumpkin he was good to go. He walked the entire night. Just toddling along with his pumpkin. The big kids hit 2 houses for every one that Nate and the 2 year olds made it to, but they didn't care. I think the 2 year olds actually got more candy because they were so stinking cute. Everyone kept giving them more and more candy.

After over an HOUR of walking (please note the glazed over expression on the little ones' faces from pure exhaustion), we hurried back because we had to run over to another firends house to watch a Halloween movie -- during which the kids broke into their candy baskets. Always what you want to happen at 8:30 at night. We stayed there way too late, but it's only once a year right? So we now have waaaay too much candy and some badly taken pictures because I was too busy having fun. Luckily the kids got really yummy candy (lots of chocolate) so whenever I need a jolt I can just dip into that.

Happy Halloween!

We've just been partying it up over here. The kid Halloween party went well, except for Nate not wanting to wear his costume, and then we celebrated the rest of Dustin's birthday in style -- take out for us and cereal for the kids. Saturday I had Pack Meeting, so Dustin took the kids out for breakfast and then we spent the rest of the day shopping. That night we went out to celebrate Dustin's birthday with friends. We did dinner and a movie. I'll save you the boring details but it was a fun night -- good food, good comapny, good movie. . .and most importantly: good dessert.

Sunday we celebrated Nate all day. He loved all of his presents and loved his cake even more! It's ice cream cake from Cold Stone, so don't give me any credit for it. Nate loved hearing people sing Happy Birthday to him so much that everyone who called had to sing it multiple times. And he loooooved blowing out the birthday candle (a large pumpkin candle since he looooves pumpkins so much -- he was sad when we went to Target today and all the pumpkins were gone). I can't believe my baby is two!

Today Nate played with his birthday presents some more while Ellie had a little party at school (please note he is wearing ANOTHER Halloween shirt in the picture) and now we're gearing up for the evening. We have a Halloween party/dinner to start. I'm actually MAKING food to bring -- including "Monster Eyes" deviled eggs. Another shocker I know. Then we've got Trick-or-Treating and then we'll finish up the night watching a movie at a friend's house.

Oh, and I HAVE to share what I'm eating right now since a few people who read this blog were MOCKING my love of food this afternoon. YUMMMMM! So delicious. Someone brought me these cookies this afternoon, luckily both the kids were asleep. Hee hee hee.

Happy Birthday!

Yeay! It’s birthday weekend at our house. Today is Dustin’s official birthday and Sunday is Nate’s. We started off the celebration with a birthday party for Nate yesterday. Since he’s only 2, we just did a lunch with a few of his buddies at my girlfriend’s house. I put Ellie in charge of the games and she did a great job telling the “babies” what to do.
Nate helped me make cupcakes that morning, but I guess he got full from eating all the batter because he no interest in actually eating his cupcake when the time came. Instead he smashed his car into the frosting and drove it around the table. Gotta love boys.

He got a little tired towards the end, so that should explain why he has a blanket and his thumb in his mouth for the group shot. He knows what makes him happy.

This morning we did the whole birthday thing for Dustin. I made breakfast (SHOCKING) and then the kids gave Dustin their cards and gift. Then he had to take out the trash and now he’s off at work. Lame birthday huh? I had bigger plans, but the whole no grass thing ruined my party plans (and there is no way I’m fitting 50 people in my house), so instead we’re going out to dinner with some of our good friends tomorrow night.

Luckily for us, though, the partying continued today with a Halloween party with friends. I've got pictures from that to share too!

The Party's Over

. . .And thank goodness for that! Well, let me rephrase that: The party's over until this weekend. I am convinced that October is the worst month of the year. It always seemed chocked full of stuff. I will, however, buck up and deal with it and enjoy it like all mothers should!

So I guess you can tell that our weekend was crazy. We were running from one activity to another, which is better than sitting around being bored. So here are a few high lights.

1. Primary Program practice -- Almost every child was there. I was so impressed! And they had their parts ready to go. Two hours was a little long for them though so by the end the Sunbeams were sprawled out on the floor, the CTRs were all asking, "When do we get our cookies?" and the Valiants were stone faced. But what else can you expect? They perked up when we went outisde to eat cookies and wait for parents.

2. Seeding our lawn -- While Ellie and I were at church, Dustin and Nate were helping set up for the Ward party that night and mentioned we were seeding our lawn that afternoon. Two of the Young Men were sweet enough to volunteer to come over and help. So we got the work done in half the time (OK, maybe the same amount of time because the boys were talking so much, but they were so darn cute). So now the kids get to chase birds and we get to enjoy the smell of manure. Mmmmmm.

3. The Ward Party -- So much fun. Dustin made DELICIOUS chili (even though it didn't win), I made corn bread (GASP! I cooked!), and I even got to be a judge in the pie contest. YUM! We put the kids in their matching pumpkin shirts (I told you every picture of my kids for the next 2 weeks would involve some sort of orange shirt) so we'd be able to spot them on the field and I'm glad I did. They were all over the place. Ellie got her face painted, went fishing, ate way too many sno cones and sticks of cotton candy. She also went on the 4 wheeler ride a few dozen times. One of the Grandpas in the Ward brought his 4 wheeler with these big hollowed out buckets attached to the back and took the kids around the field at the speed of light. Nate got to sit in his lap for a few turns, but I made him get off once the rides started getting wilder and wilder. He then headed over to play football with the Dustin and some other dads. Ellie spent the rest of her time jumping in the bouncer, eating more candy, trying to peek inside the haunted house (she refused to go in) and being freaked out by the Fear Factor booth. I got to sit and chat. WOO HOO! By the time we helped clean up it was 9:30. Luckily our kids were wired from all the sugar, so they were able to stay awake for a much needed bath. Unfortunately the paint from the face painting stained a little bit, so Ellie still looked a little funny Sunday.

4. The Primary Program -- So the kids were a little tired from all the partying the night before, but they did a great job. Almost every kid with a part was there, YEAY! And they did awesome. Only one little girl got stage fright, and Ellie did turn the microphone off in the middle of a talk (grrrrr, always the Primary President's daughter), but the kids were so sweet and the spirit was so strong. I was so impressed with them. Afterwards we celebrated by giving the kids MORE candy, because who doesn't want to be in a room with 70 hyped up kids?

5. Meetings -- And of course, it wouldn't be the longest weekend ever if I didn't spend over 6 hours in 3 different meetings on Sunday. Ward Council, Key Scouters and Stake Leadership. All on same day as the Primary Program. Luckily I was still hopped up on all the sugar and left over cookies, so I made it through until I got home at 9:30 last night.

So today I plan on spending the morning in our PJs (Nate is still asleep) and doing as little as possible. Ellie has dance and a birthday party or else I'd REALLY be lazy.

Halloween Shirt #2

It's technically Halloween shirt #1 since it's the first one I bought (the Target one), but the second I've shown. You can look forward to seeing all of the shirts over the next 10 days because Nate will be wearing them MULTIPLE times. I think we'll just rotate through the 4 until Thanksgiving ;)

Other than that, we are crazy busy this weekend, so you won't hear form me until Monday at the earliest. I can't believe October is almost gone!

Oh, and can I add that I got a SUNBURN from sitting outside at playgroup today. Can you believe it? I know I can't complain about the weather since it's finally cooling down, but who gets a sunburn in the middle of October?

I think my kids are funny

Because the Primary Program is on Sunday, we have been playing the Primary music CD non-stop in our car. I just don't think it would look right if the Primary President's daughter didn't know all the songs. We've actually been playing the CD off and on for 6 months, but pretty much non-stop for the last two weeks, which means Ellie gets to hear each of the program songs at least twice a day. So today we're headed over to pick up Ashley for carpool and the song, "Dearest Children" is on. One of the refrains is, "Cherish virtue, cherish virtue, God will bless the pure in heart." Suddenly Ellie pipes up from the back, "Mom, why does it say Cherries Hurt You?" I couldn't help but laugh. Poor Ellie has probably been worried about that for months. And then of course I had to spend 5 minutes explaining exactly what "cherish" meant, which was easier to explain than the "virtue" discussion. Phew, I think we need easier words in the children's songs!

And Nate is also pretty funny too. I picked up my mail before heading out to get the girls from school. While we were waiting in the pick-up line, I started looking through all the magazines. In the back I can hear Nate begging, "Please, please." So I hand him back an Oreintal Trading Company catalog figuring he'd like to look at the toys. Nope. He's still straining in his car seat, "Please, please." After trying Pottery Barn and the ads, I try the Harry and David catalog. Sure enough, it's what he wanted. He looked at that thing the whole wait, the whole ride home, and even after we got back. All the time mumbling, "Mmmmmmm, berries" or "COOKIES!" So if any of you are wondering what to get Nate for Christmas this year, I believe he has picked out quite a nice wish list from Harry and David.

The Great Pumpkin Caper

One day while Nate and I are on our bi-weekly Target run, I see the CUTEST Halloween shirt for Ellie. Seriously adorable, so I have to buy it. Which is weird since I actually HATE Halloween because it gets done to death every year. But the kids are super into it and I know Ellie will like it, so I cave. Of course then I feel guilty for Nate and cruise over the toddler boy section. The shirts are hideous. Really disappointing, but I want him to have a shirt too, so I buy this weird Monster Rock shirt since it's the only one in his size. Whatever.

Of course we get home and I show Ellie her shirt and she loves it. The only down fall -- nate loves it too. He's chasing her around, begging to put it on. So I go get his ugly shirt and he of course rejects it, just as I would have if I were him. So for the next few days he keeps bringing Ellie's shirt to me and begging me to put it on him. He cries, "PUMPKIN" anytime he sees the shirt. So of course I realize I'm going to have to buy him his own stinking pumpkin shirt. I can't get him one like Ellie's since hers is REALLY girly, puffy sleeves and such.

So Tuesday rolls around, Ellie's at school and Nate and I set off in search of a pumpkin shirt. We try Wal-Mart first -- no boy Halloween shirts. Can you believe it? There were some cute girl ones, but not one stinking boy shirt -- at all. Not even with skulls. So I try a few other stores around our house. Nothing. We're talking 4 other stores. I resign myself to treking up to Old Navy. But guess what -- nothing cute at Old Navy for boys. GRR! Can boys not have pumpkins on their shirts? Nate does see a GIRL Halloween shirt with Pumpkins on it and insists on having it. It's not *as* girlie as Ellie's shirt, but it does have capped sleeves. He loves it however and wears it for the rest of the day.

I call all of my friends and family to complain about the lack of boy pumpkin shirts out there. With each call, it only strenghtens my resolve to find a boy pumpkin shirt. So the next day, Nate and I pick up Ellie from school and head to the mall for lunch with Dustin where we plan on searching for a pumpkin shirt. The first few store we hit are a bust (not that I didn't spend plenty of money on other cute things for the kids) and we finally head for the GAP which turns into me scouring the materninty section and completely forgetting the whole reason we were there. Luckily I brought Dustin along -- and being a man, he doesn't forget the true purpose of the shopping trip. He searches the store and finds ONE last pumpkin shirt. Size 2T, BOY! I kid you not. There was great celebration in the land and much purchasing of clothes for all.

So fast forward to me getting home and checking my phone messages. I have a message from my Aunt, "Maddy, I found a pumpkin shirt for Nate and I'm going to mail it out." (It's actually the shirt he's wearing in the picture above -- he's still sick hence why he won't sit up for me to take a stinking picture little booger). So the person who HATES Halloween, now has FOUR Halloween themed shirts for her son. He's wearing those things until SPRING! Luckily my Aunt got a 3T so we can avoid this whole fiasco next year. And I guess baby girl can wear the girlie pumpkin shirt when she's 2, so not all is lost.

Phew, that was a long story. I'm sure most of you have actually already heard it and were just DYING to rehash the saga ;)

Short Update

It's been a whirlwind of activity over here. If you can believe it, I'm starting the last trimester and all that tiredness is back. So basically when I would have time to blog, I'm sleeping.

But today, Ellie is off playing with a buddy and Nate is curled up on the couch, so I've got a few free minutes. Poor Nate is sick. . .AGAIN. I don't understand how Ellie never gets sick and Nate gets every disease that passes through. Is it the day care at the gym? Is it nursery? Is it from all the shopping carts he touches? I have no idea, but I miss hearing his little voice. All he does is whisper as few words as possible right now.

Yesterday I went out to lunch with some girlfriends and I get a phone call from the sitter, "Ellie and Nate keep telling me they're tired. Do you want me to put them down?" Little stinkers. They've caught the sleeping bug too.

And so now you know where we've been -- either we're out or we're sleeping.

Happy thoughts

So usually I dread this time of year. It seems like things just go insane, but I've decided to embrace the craziness and I'm actually excited. It was Conference this weekend, so that meant NO PRIMARY! :) Not that I don't love the munchkins, but I like a little break now and then. Plus I got so much done. I turned up the volume on the TV and cleaned the house. I got my baseboards cleaned, everything dusted, blinds cleaned, tiles all hand cleaned, the fridge cleaned out, my kitchen cabniets and drawers cleaned and organized, wiped all the shelves in the pantry and re-organized that, did the kids' bathroom, a few loads of laundry, cleaned and conditioned the leather furniture. . . it's a disease I tell you!

And that was the beginning to all the hustle and bustle. I'm getting so excited for everything we have coming up. D turns the big 3-0 this month, Nate will be 2 (sniff sniff), Halloween, Fall Festival, the Primary Program. . . In November all of Dustin's family is coming out for a week and Ellie is so excited to see her cousins, plus Thanksgiving dinner, my birthday and decorating for Christmas (I am getting so excited to get the tree up and buy wrapping paper). . . In December my Aunt and Uncle are coming to visit, Christmas Eve (my favorite party of the year), Christmas, my sister coming to visit and then we'll top all of the fun off with a beautiful baby girl in January. I can hardly wait.

So here's hoping everyone else is as excited as me for all the fun ahead!! :) Come on, you all know you've got some fun things just around the corner.

Check, check check

Well, I did it all. All the icky things I've been "meaning" to do that have been weighing over my head. And the thing is -- they were all easy and pleasant. Is that crazy?

1. I went to the Post Office and mailed off the packages to my family. In my head it was this horrible ordeal of driving to downtown Chandler, waiting in line forever and Nate running everywhere. It was an easy drive, the line was short and Nate just sat there the whole time.

2. I changed my PIN. I don't think I ever memorized my PIN when Dustin and I set up our accounts, so for YEARS I've never been able to use an ATM (maybe not a bad thing). So today on my way home from the Post Office, I swung by the bank and got a PIN!

3. I got my teeth cleaned. It's been way too long and I kept having to reschedule my Dentist appointment, but I finally made it today. YAY! Not a single cavity. Phew. Dustin had to have a root canal a few months back, so I was freaking out imagining what on earth I would have to go through. But I was in and out and now my teeth feel sooooo good.

Oops

Well, I don't know where on earth I've been. Under a pile of laundry I guess because I haven't blogged in forever. I can't believe September is almost over. We've just been busy running around and playing. Here's some random pictures of what's been going on when we're actually at home.


Grandma Joachim sent Ellie and Nate some new pajamas

Nate wrote me some love notes.
Ellie found a box of dolls my Great Grandma made for me and decided to keep them for herself. So they now sit in her room and get played with every night.

Nate found the box the dolls were in and made it his new bed

The weather has cooled down enough in the morning that the kids can actually go outside and play, so weekend mornings are so relaxing.
And that's about all the excitement around here.

My apologies

OK, I cannot find where I put my camera. It is stashed somewhere I'm sure, I just don't know where. I usually have to throw it somewhere before one of the kids gets ahold of it. So that's why there haven't been any updates -- who wants to read a blog when they can see pictures of my kids?

We're so boring anyway. Went to the gym this morning, came home and had Girl School here (which is now actually girl/boy school, but I'm so used to Girl School that i cna't change over), and then one of the little girls stayed to play until nap time. Now Ellie is sitting naked in her room refusing to clean up the mess, Nate is napping and I jut finished up boxing up some clothes and toys for a charity to pick up tomorrow morning.

Nate did end up with a bloody nose today. I knew it would happen sooner or later. He is always trying to use things with wheels as climbing tools. Today it was using the barbie cars as shoes that did him in. He face planted on the tile and ended up with a bloody nose and a split lip. When I got the toilet paper, he kept blowing his nose. I don't think you're suppose to try to blow the blood out are you? I couldn't get him to sit still long enough to keep pressure on it either so I followed him around for 5 minutes continually wiping the dripping blood (which horrified the two little girls).

I was going to spend the night scrapping, but I made the mistake of telling Ellie she couldn't go to the gym with daddy tonight unless she cleaned up her room and we all know how that's going. So I think I've really only punished myself.

Update wise, I got my little packages all set to mail out to my family with the sex of the baby, but I don't have K's address at school. Will some one e-mail me or call me? You all have to wait until I get it so you might as well. . .

Shake your groove thang

Woo hoo -- Fall is finally here (if someone would just let the weather know) and we're back in the groove of things. Life is crazy, but at least it's organized craziness. I can handle that.

This weekend the kids did not nap at all between a birthday party, a work party and a mission farewell, so you'd think they'd be all tuckered out, but they seem to have some source of endless energy. Not to mention baby #3 likes to kick me continually from 10 pm until 5 am so if I'm not asleep before 10 or if I have to wake up to pee, all hope of falling asleep again is lost.

We finally spilled the beans on the baby, but not the sex. I came up with a cute way to tell everyone what we are having, but of course everytime I go out to buy stuff I completely forget. DOH! I'm pretty sure my family is going to kill me if I don't tell them soon.

Annnnnd, I've officially started my Christmas shopping. Yay! I love this time of year. A valid reason to shop. I bought Ellie a bunch of stocking stuffers and a new backpack which I filled with crayons, pencils, coloring books. . . all those school supplies that are on sale right now. I got Dustin a two presents (which I can't mention here since he can actually read -- not that they are anything exciting), and I got Nate some big boy bedding for when we move him out of the crib (which could be another year, who knows). Poor Nate, too young to get any fun toys, he just gets practical things. Actually, I did buy him a Shake N' Go car which then proceeded to make noise the entire drive home. I also bought Ellie a doll. I was going to splurge and get her an American Girl Doll, but then I found a doll at Target that's the same size for $20, so we went with that instead. And the outfits are $10 each instead of $28. I'm so cheap.

Ellie has obviously caught the Christmas bug too because she keeps asking when we can put up the Christmas lights and the Christmas tree. It's never to early to start celebrating Christmas if you ask me :)

Grrrrrrr

OK, I've been "tagged." I normally don't play along with these sorts of things (not that I'm a bad sport or anything), but I have a feeling I'll be lynched if I don't do this. . .so, here we go:

IF YOU COULD BUILD A HOUSE ANYWHERE, WHERE WOULD IT BE?
Somewhere close to a big airport and a beach so we could get away often

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ARTICLE OF CLOTHING?
my pajamas. I wish I could wear them everywhere.

FAVORITE PHYSICAL FEATURE OF THE OPPOSITE SEX?
Eyes and dimples.

WHAT'S THE LAST CD YOU BOUGHT?
I'm so uncool, I don't really buy CDs. I just make my sister burn me all my favorite songs.

WHERE IS YOUR FAVORITE PLACE TO BE?
With my family

WHERE'S YOUR LEAST FAVORITE PLACE TO BE?
The dentist

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE PLACE TO BE MASSAGED?
My upper back

STRONG IN MIND OR STRONG IN BODY?
I guess mind

WHAT TIME DO YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING?
around 7

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE KITCHEN APPLIANCE?
The microwave

WHAT MAKES YOU REALLY ANGRY?
Whinning about the same thing over and over! Just pick up your toys!

IF YOU COULD PLAY AN INSTRUMENT, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
The cello -- not that it is at all useful, but still would be cool

FAVORITE COLOR?
I'm kind of into pink lately

WHICH DO YOU PREFER, SPORTS CAR OR SUV?
suv

DO YOU BELIEVE IN AN AFTERLIFE?
Yes.

FAVORITE CHILDREN'S BOOK?
Any books that my Grandma had at her house. We snuck a few back to our house when she passed away, so I love reading them to Ellie. Right now we're really into Miss Mopp's Lucky Day.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SEASON?
fall

WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE HOUSEHOLD CHORE?
Cleaning the showers

IF YOU COULD HAVE ONE SUPER POWER, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
I would love to be able to make myself invisible

IF YOU HAVE A TATTOO - WHAT IS IT AND WHERE IS IT?
N/A

CAN YOU JUGGLE?
Puh-lease! I can barely walk straight half the time.

THE ONE PERSON FROM YOUR PAST YOU WISH YOU COULD GO BACK AND TALK TO?
My Grandma. I miss her :(

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE DAY?
Christmas -- is there any question

WHAT'S IN THE TRUNK OF YOUR CAR?
Two flats of bottled water.

WHICH DO YOU PREFER, SUSHI OR HAMBURGER?
Depends on my mood and what Dustin has been making me watch on Fod Network.

First Day of School

WOO HOO! School has officially started and we are back into a fall routine. Add the GORGEOUS weather we've been having (ie it was only in the 90s this morning) and things are only looking up.

Not much else to report. Nate and I did some cleaning this morning, got our hair cut, tried to do some laundry. . . Dustin and I spent the weekend painting our bedroom, and I got some girl time on Friday night. Everything is great :)

Being helpful. . .

Dustin stayed home Monday and Wednesday to give me some time to get around to all the projects that I never seem to get around to. So Monday morning, I get home from the gym, we eat some breakfast and he asks me, "Sooo, what do you normally do on Mondays?" It was then that I had to say, "uhhhhhh. . ." I usually get a bathroom cleaned and that's about it. Other than that it seems like I spend the whole day cleaning up after children, feeding them, running them places, talking on the phone while they insist on sitting in my lap (I admit, half of those calls are just me yapping away with friends), reading stories. . . you know the drill.

Anyway, I got sooooooooo much done with Dustin around to entertain children and deal with Nate's need to always be in someone's lap. I cleaned out the entire office, shelves and all, shredded 4 bags worth of credit card offers, old bills. . . organized and de-junked my linen closet, caught up on all of the laundry, de-junked the laundry room, vacuumed every inch of our house, did all the base boards, de-junked my bed room, sent an entire truck load of crap off to DI so my house feels sooooo much roomier now.

After I accomplished so much on Monday, I decided to be ambitious on Tuesday and tackle rearranging Ellie's room. I quickly realized why I never get anything done with the kids around. They make everything about 5 times messier. They knew I was putting things away, so they were drawn into the room in order to pull everything back out again. For every 5 books I got back on the bookshelf, 10 came off. Everytime I got the freaking Pooly Pockets picked up, I'd find a trail of minature shoes across the carpet. Finally they decided that crawling into the oven of Ellie's kitchen and shutting the other one in was more fun than continually hearing the clean up song. Even though it took me all day to accomplish a seemingly easy task, it was totally worth it. Her room seems so much bigger now. YEAY for me. And yeay for the fact that I should be done with a good cleaning for another year or two.

Check

WHOO HOO! The Primary Activity is ov-ah. For those of you who don't know, I got stuck throwing an Activity I wasn't very hip on because the previous Presidency planned it. Then it was supposse to be a Ward party, so I planned on some help and the Activities committee bailed on me last minute. Plus my Secretary and 2nd COunselor were out of town. But boo hoo, enough whinning on my part because it went well. Of course my measure of success was the fact that we didn't lose any kids and everyone left smiling.

So now all we have left is the Elder's Quorum FHE tonight, which Dustin is in charge of. Yes, we're throwing two major Church function within 2 days of each other. You may calll it poor planning, but I'll just balme it on the Activities Committee. Doesn't matter anyhow, we like to live at the Church ;). As one little girl put it, "I get to come to Church three days in a row? This is the best Church ever!" So we're off to Costco later today to pick up 17 pizzas for dinner.

Ciao!

Boating

Our friends just got a boat and they were sweet enough to take us along for one of the maiden voyages. Susan just sent me some pictures she took and they were too cute to pass up. Ellie was pretty brave about the whole boating thing. I was suprised when she jumped off the boat and straight into the lake. She was also the first of the kids to ride on the big raft that they pull behind the boat. She had sooooo much fun until Dustin took a turn with her and Nate on the raft. His weight must not have been balanced correctly because as soon as the boat started up, the raft flipped and there was poor Dustin holding onto both children as they floated down the lake. Thank goodness for life jackets.
Nate and Ellie decided not to spend anymore time in the water after that and chowed down on snacks in the boat. Other than that, we just spent the day relaxing on the boat. Susan and Royce water skied, we all went for crazy rides on the raft, the kids played around, went swimming, Ellie even peed in the water for the first time in her life (that was stressful enough convincing her that she could in fact *pee* in the lake).
Nate got a little tired of the wind by the end, so he just sat on my lap and did what little boys do best -- whine unless their mouths are full. By the time we were done it was pretty close to 8, so we had to hurry home, wake the kids up to feed them dinner in the car and put them straight to bed. All in all, one of my favorite Saturdays this summer.

In other news

Ellie got stripey tights. You'd think this was the most exciting thing ever if you asked Ellie. It's probably because I haven't bought her tights since she was 2 and she's just excited to have some she can actually fit in again. Ellie will only wear skirts, so I thought I'd better get something to cover her legs this Winter. Of course, Winter is still months away. . . it's so hard to wait sometimes!

Nate needs a brother. Seriously, the poor little guy is really into too much girl stuff. He *had* to have his toenails painted last week, loves lip gloss and this week we hit a new all time low -- the ballerina costume. Ellie had a birthday party last weekend where she had to wear a princess dress. As soon as we got her dressed, Nate ran into her room and grabbed the pink tutu and yelled, "Pllllleeeeeeasssssse," which is so cute in his little voice. I gave in way too easily, to which Ellie told me, "Dad is going to *freak* out." Luckily Dustin is so laid back he didn't have a coronary. Nate did insist on wearing it Sunday morning as well, but we all thought it would be best if it went into hiding for a little bit after that.

Holbrook -- Part 1

So, I had this whole blog about our trip to Holbrook all typed up and then my stinking computer froze up on me yesterday. However, I snuck in here to do some stuff for Primary and the kids have miraculously left me alone so maybe I can get this up today after all. (Of course as soon as I typed that Ellie started screaming something and I hear them running down the hall. . . oh, they’re laughing, all is good).

My good friend Susan is from the itsy bitsy town of Holbrook. It’s up in the part of the state where the summers are actually bearable so we’ve always talked about going up for a week when school was out. So the time came, I hemmed and hawed, but decided last minute to go for it. So we packed up our 5 kids in her Sequoia and headed off on the three hour drive. It was full of all the fun road trip things you remember as a kid – fights, peeing in bottle, trying to keep the babies awake until we stopped for lunch, are we there yets. . . but just fancier now because all the kids have to be strapped in to the most uncomfortable car seats imaginable. At least we had the DVD players.

Now Susan had told me she lived on a farm, but being a city girl, all a farm means to me is that it has a horse, maybe a cow or two. I didn’t realize she really meant a farm. Her dad owns well over 10,000 acres which is littered with thousands of cows and goats, a few horses, some of those bee boxes you always see on tv and lots and lots of trees. If you look at the picture of Nate, you can see part of her dad’s land in the back. It stretches all the way down to the river, and then East and West for miles. And yes, I realize Nate is happy in the picture. He didn’t cry the WHOLE time we were there. Just 80% of the time we were outside.

The trip can best be described as fun peppered with moments of disaster. I don’t know how we could have expected any less with our combination of kids. We rode horses, ate breakfast at the truck stop (you can see it in the distance in the picture of Nate), climbed hay, chased cats and dogs, got dirty, went swimming in the river (which is a blog all of its own), got lost, let the kids run wild. . . just did the whole country living thing.

One of Holbrook’s claims to fame (or maybe its only?) is the Wig Wam motel. I guess right before we came up, Oprah had been in town and came to visit them. She did not stay in them in case you were wondering. In front of the Wig Wams, they’ve parked a bunch of old cars like from the movie Cars so the kids were dying to go see “Doc” and “Sally” and “Mater.” It was definitely one of those moments of disaster – the kids were all bickering and Nate was crying because it was windy – but the pictures turned out kind of cute. And that’s all that matters right?

Dance

So today was Ellie's first day of fall dance and it was beyond adorable. See how sweet her teacher is? I just think little girls in tap shoes have got to be the cutest things I've ever seen. Ellie is beyond enthused about her "tapper shoes" and ballet shoes and that she is back in a leotard and skirt. The class is about 20 minutes tap, 20 minutes ballet and then 20 minutes in the gym on the bars and beam and doing sommersaults. I must be the worst mother in the world because Ellie was the only one who didn't know how to do one. By the end she was doing it all by herself, though. So we can all breathe easier.

They learned first (as seen to the left -- does she not have that natural dancer figure -- ha ha) and second postion (below -- once again, a BORN natural, what other child could stand with their legs apart so effortlessly?) in ballet and then top taps and heel taps in tap. I just love all the little plies they do. Sooo cute. Plus the class is nice and small (just 4 girls) so she got lots of individual attention -- which she loves.

Just in case you thought I was exaggerating how much Nate hates nature

For my mom

I'm gearing up to write about our Holbrook adventure, but I'm still working on getting all the pictures from my girlfriend's camera to tell it properly. However, my mother INSISTS on seeing photos of the kiddos, so here's a few teasers.



You may be wondering why I don't have any pictures where all of the children are posed and smiling. That is mainly because Nate decided that he hated nature while we were there. SO look forward to a montage of photos with Nate in full screaming mode. I had to laugh about it or else I would cry.

Home -- again

OK, before you all mock my outrageous amounts of vacations this month, I want it noted that THREE of them were here in Arizona and all involved at LEAST a 2 hour drive with small children.

So now I'll tell you about our latest vacation. We went with a bunch of friends up to a cabin in Pinetop -- and it was heaven. 4 days, 6500 sq ft, 7 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, friends (4 families went), cool weather and 2 babysitters. I don't think I ever saw my kids. In fact, I think I only put one of them to sleep the entire time we were there. They were having waaaaay too much fun with all their buddies and the babysitters to worry about us. I read an entire book, saw two movies, went out to lunch with just my husband, stayed up way too late, and went out to dinner without the kiddies. It even managed to rain a little bit every day we were up there. It was cute to watch Ellie dancing in the rain. Dustin managed to get some basketball and a late night game of Rook in there too.

We did take the kids to the 24th of July parade in Snowflake which was really fun. (See- I spent SOME time with my kids). I haven't been to a Pioneer day parade since I was little. The floats threw candy and all the kids loved running out and getting it. Between Nate and Ellie, they filled my purse. Some floats even threw bottled water and otter pops, so I was pretty happy too. At the end a big old fire truck comes down and sprays everyone. That had to be my favorite part (insert rolling eyes here).

It was pretty uneventful, but completely relaxing. Now we start the countdown until Lola comes! One more week!

Oh and in case anyone thinks I don't love my children -- I DO! I just like a little break now and then. It's a good feeling to actually miss them every once in awhile.

Excuses, excuses

OK, so every time I get on this stinking computer, I end up doing stuff for Primary. But I figured no one really wanted to hear about our trip to Sedona, they'd just want to see pictures of the kids. Unfortunately, Nate is at the age where he doesn't sit still, so there aren't very many (which is fine since I think blogger only lets you do 3 pictures anyway). But I think we can all forgive me for my slacking as I am *obviously* not in true Maddy form -- I mean, my Christmas cards aren't even done and we're over half way through July (I may have to buy them this year GASP)!

So for the 4th of July holiday, we drove up to Sedona with the kids. It was such a fun trip. The weather was so much nicer down here and the kids had a blast. We did some shopping in Anthem on the way up and then spent most of our time at the pool. Ate way too much food, walked around down town and ate more food (ice cream, chocolate, all the good vacation stuff). PLease note how Ellie thinks she is some sort of celebrity. She wore my sunglasses and that oversized hat the whole trip. Ellie and Nate shared a room for the first time in their life and managed to stay up late chatting.

Basically just a lot of fun. I even got a massage at the Spa while I was there. That was probably my favorite part of the weekend. We then came home Tuesday night in time for the fireworks (they didn't start till 10pm!) which we went to see with friends. I then managed to be hit by a rogue glow stick straight in the nose leaving me with a HUGE bruised nose for a week. Oh how I love the 4th of July!

Where I've been

I know. . .you all thought I was dead. I've got a zillion e-mails and a hundred phone messages to answer, but we *are* alive. We've just been on vacation for two weeks. We went to Idaho for awhile, came home to do Primary, left for Sedonna, came home for 18 hours to pack some fresh clothes and then headed up to Holbrook until Saturday night. Sunday was spent sleeping, preparing Sharing Time and at Ward Council. I've got lots of fun stories and cute pictures, but I'm waaaaay too exhausted to update all of it. So you'll just have to wait in anticipation. . .

Better late than never

OK, so I was going through my pictures when I came across these and I was laughing all over again. I meant to post them way back when, but time got the better of me and months passed. . .so they're going up today!

A few friends and I spent last year decorating each other's yards on our birthdays. It ranged from heart-attacks, to McDonald's cups, pop rocks and even altered fly swatters (don't ask why, we're just crazy). Anyway, in an attempt to keep my yard clean, I lied about my birthday. I told everyone it was february 15th. So my birthday passes. I got a very nice Target gift card and some other cool stuff. WHEW! I'm off the hook. Well February 15th, the doorbell rings (we also like to be really mature and doorbell ditch) and sure enough my yard has been decorated it. Of course there was the really large LIAR sign. Gotta love that one. And all the little hearts had little comments like WWJD? Or There goes your temple recomment. It was stinking funny. And who could forget the confetti? Probably my favorite part :P I'm still finding random pink heart confetti.

The LIAR part of the sign was done in this super cute paper and the letters were the big nice block kind and they were decorated so cute that I had to keep them. So I put them in my office/scraproom, which is also our guest room. So of course nay time someone stays over they *have* to know the story. The funniest was my mother who was freaking out about the signs (she was here while we were out of town, so she couldn't even ask me). And so that is the story.

OH.MY.GOSH

I was just on the phone with a friend asking her when the girls started pre-school again. September 5th. I have TWO.WHOLE.MONTHS.LEFT. Seriously, shoot me now. I'm not going to make it through the summer.

Haircuts

Soooo, I actually decided to put some pictures up on here. The kids actually got haircuts! I chopped Ellie's off. She looks so much cuter with short hair, gets waaaay less tangles and it's so much cooler for the summer. It looks adorable on her most of the time. We've been swimming every day for 3 weeks, so I've let it "air dry" and it has my unfortunate wave to it. But it looks really great on Sundays and Monday mornings.

Nate's haircut was long overdue. My girlfriend said she'd do it one day when we were scheduled to come over and play, but then her little boy got sick, and then my kids got sick, and then her kids got sick again. . . it was a vicious cycle where we never saw each other, so Nate's hair grew longer and longer. Of course I didn't want to offend her, so I rejected BOTH my neighbors offers to buzz his head for me (their both hairdressers). So Nate continued to use his hair to store food, liquids. . .whatever he thought he might need later on.

So 2 weeks ago, he finally got it cut. YEAY! He's so cute all buzzed, and I made sure it was a 3 this time. In this picture, he's doing Ellie's chore -- putting away the silverware. The silverware was sitting on the counter all morning, so after lunch, Nate pulls over a stool and starts putting them in the drawer (not in the right slots, but I'll take what I get!). So I run to get the camera and then suddenly Ellie is soooooooooobing because she wants to be in the pictures (see picture below to witness Ellie's selfish attempts to get in a picture by kissing her brother and pretneding she likes him). And of course she's FREAKING out because that's *her* chore. Like they hadn't been sitting on the counter ignored for the last 4 hours. I thought it was so smart of Nate to figure that all out.

And that's all the pictures I've got right now. Susan took some pictures of the kids when we went boating last weekend, so I'll have to upload those when she sends them over, but I doubt they'll get up before I leave town. Can't wait for some cooler weather :)

Geeeeeeeeeeeeeez

OK, so I haven't updated in a week. Sooooooooooory ;)

Not much to report.
Nate has been throwing up since last night. YEAY!
Ellie started swim lessons last week.
Dustin still has a job.
I, um, I don't know what I do all day.

Silly Nate story: Nate thinks every animal says MEOW. So he'll see a kitty and say, "meow." Then he'll see a dog and chase it around saying, "meow." The best was when he saw a cow the other day. Sure enough, "meeeeeeeeow."

Silly Ellie story: Ellie and I were pretending to be Charlie and Lola last night. So we're playing and Nate wanders in the room and I ask Ellie who Nate should be. She says, "Nate can be Charelie's friend. What's his name?" Well I couldn't remember his name and I told her that. Ellie says, "I think his name is Muff." "No," I said suddenly remembering his name, "It's Mark." So Ellie and I argue back and forth a little bit whether it's Mark or Muff. Finally I say, "Ellie, Muff isn't even a name. Have you ever met a person named Muff?"

"Yeah mom, Charlie's friend."

Like DUH! So sure enough, nate was Muff for the rest of the evening.

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!