Tuesday's To Dos

Ok I am determined to get back in the swing of things so here's my To-Do list - We'll see if I can get it all done (not necessarily in the order listed)

• 3 loads of laundry - washed, dried, folded AND put away.
• Pack for trip to Tucson
• Shower and get ready
• Pack up some of the Christmas stuff
• Make dinner
• Make Cinnamon rolls (because I really want them and "wise eating" starts on Friday)
• Clean girls bathroom (actually get out a sponge and cleaning supplies and clean, not just pick up and wipe out the sink with my hand and whatever soap is lying near by)
• Call my sis and sis-in-law in Tucson and see what fun we can come up with for the kids for New Year's Eve and what yummy food we should gorge ourselves with.
• Download the last month's worth of pictures off the camera or is that uploading???
• Install Photo shop Elements on the computer!!! (and only spend 10-20 minutes messing around with it)
• Keep the children entertained
• Wash the car??? Is it worth it before a trip? Is it going to rain?
• Clean up the rest of the house before Seth gets home?

HERE GOES!!!

Brrrrr...

Is anyone else freezing? Or as my little AZ girls say "freezing cold to death." I'm not sure what's happened to me. "They" say that being here thins your blood and makes it feel colder than it really is but I don't believe that. If your blood actually got thinner then people with certain blood problems (I don't know of any in particular but I'm sure there is one where your blood is too thick, right?) anyway if that were the case then those thick blood people would all move here to thin out their blood. So if my blood isn't any different than it was 3 years ago then why am I so darned cold.

The high today was 58 degrees and I was freezing cold all day long. And not just a little chilly but full fledged goose bumped cold. I guess this means we'll have to stay here for a while because I'm pretty sure I would just curl up and die if I had to live where it actually gets cold. Speaking of 58 degrees I'm pretty sure that's only 2 degrees colder than sunbathing weather when I was at Ricks.

Oh and here is a list of the important things that I should be blogging about but I'm too cold to:

• Seth's Birthday and how much I love and adore him and all that sappy stuff
• McKay's new found fear of Santa
• Kimball's fear that Santa wouldn't bring her anything because he knows she was bad
• Amazing Christmas Eve with Seth's family
• Christmas
• Luc taking 5 steps!
  

Fa La La La La

I love Christmas time. People are so kind. I had dreams of a nice long post on all the things I love about it but the kids are sick, I am sick, Seth's birthday is in two days and I still can't figure out what to get him, I have 48 frosting roses to make by Friday and I just want to sleep all day.

So I'll just say I love how people decide for a few short weeks to be the way we should be all year long. Today in one outing I had two different people take my shopping carts back for me, one kind lady hand me some toilet paper when I discovered that Luc was more than just wet (of course I left the wipes in the car) in the Walmart bathroom and one very helpful lady stand with McKay and Luc while I carried (shoeless) Kimball into the bathroom at Frys. I didn't ask any of these people to help me. Granted, I look pretty pitiful when trying to handle the three kids by myself but I appreciate the pity and for some reason during this time of the year it just feels like pure, selfless, acts of kindness.

PS. Any ideas on a great birthday gift for a perfectly wonderful husband who isn't asking for anything specific???

Dragging

Luc has Croup... Now honestly how many of you actually knew that babies still get croup? First off I thought it was just a name that moms give to a certain type of cough and second I haven't heard of a baby getting it since I was a kid and my mom talked about so and so's baby having croup. It's a viral infection in the voice box which leads to constricted airways and makes breathing very difficult. And it stinks. Luckily we took him in yesterday and he got a steroid shot to help the cough and antibiotics for the oncoming ear infection. Now I just need an IV drip of caffeine to get me through the days after 2 nights in a row of up every 45 minutes.

You're allowed to feel sorry for me and tell me what a wonderful mom I am for caring for my sick little angel. Luc will be just fine. Don't you know this is really about me. Come on. Give me some love.

Total Slacker..

Or maybe not a slacker, blogging = slacking so I guess I've been working hard and not messing around at all that's why I haven't blogged (wink, wink)

So here's what's new:

My sister had her 5th child, first girl, Pepper Marie, born Nov. 25, she's beautiful, lots of shiny black hair, congrats Dawn!

We had an awesome Thanksgiving, I made two pies (french silk and cherry), rolls and the stuffing.

Got up early on Friday to get a present for the girls that coincidentally I still don't have. Then we went to the temple with my parents, followed by the boys going golfing and the girls going shopping.

Saturday we put up our tree and then helped my in-laws put up their outside lights and watched a little football.

Sunday we celebrated my sis-in-law's birthday.

Monday morning we dropped Seth at the airport and then headed down to Tucson. Spent the day playing with cousins and oogling over the new little bundle.

Spent all day Tuesday making Christmas nightgowns.

See I said I'd been busy. I'll post some pics when we get home tonight. (or tomorrow or maybe next week...)

Gloating

gloat: intr.v. gloat·ed, gloat·ing, gloats: To feel or express great, often malicious, pleasure or self-satisfaction.

So since this is in no way malicious it's ok, right? I'm totally not going to say "neener neener neener" or anything like that. Just state a fact and let it be.

Utah beat BYU.

Oh and it felt good. It was satisfying, but not maliciously satisfying.

I'm going in...

Luc loves his bath time! But he has to be watched really closely, he has no fear. He sticks his head under the running water and lays down on his tummy like he's swimming. I've tried to tell him he's only 9 months old and he can't do that yet but he doesn't listen. So when I can't sit in there with him, the girls bathe while he stands outside and reaches in to splash. Well today he decided he was sick of watching the girls have all the fun.

The girls started screaming "mom Luc got in the bath!" I assume he went in head first but he wasn't crying or upset. Just a little smug. I think his expression was saying "just try to keep me out of the bath."

9 Months (and a week or so)

If only the 9 months he spent in my belly would have gone as fast as his first 9 months out. This little guy has definitely won my heart. He can be such a pest yet we still love him more each day.
So here's what he's up to:

• Crawling like crazy
• Cruising around on furniture
• Standing for short moments by himself
• Climbing

Notice the food storage he's climbed on to get to that ball, at least it's being used for something

• Tackling (his sisters mostly)
• Blabbering (no mamas yet but an occasional dada)
• Cleaning

• Sleeping in 4 hour segments and wanting to eat all night long
• Eating anything and everything
  
  
  
  
• Playing the role of the family dog, begging for food and eating any food the girls happen to drop or leave lying around.
• Cat-napping (he loves a nice little 20 minute nap - you can guess how much I love that)

And he does an excellent Urkel impression with the help of Papa - If you don't know who Urkel don't is then you're too young to be my friend ;)

FYI

If you ever happen to use your brother's computer to check your gmail just remember that gmail and blogger are one in the same, in that if you login to one you're automatically logged into the other and when you leave your brother may just happen to notice this and he may put a nice post about himself on your blog. Just FYI.

My Wonderful, Incredible, Fabulous Brother and Sister in Law

I just wanted to take a few moments today to express my deep love and admiration for my Brother and his beautiful wife Sarah. They are the best people I have ever known (no offense to all my other friends and family). Their generosity and selflessness are an incredible example to me and my family. Every time we spend time in Tucson they take care of us better than our own parents. I don't know how to express my gratitude for all they do. THEY ARE THE BEST!!! We spent the weekend with them and when we left they gave us $1000 just because they felt we needed it. It came at the perfect time. Mckay and Kimball ask everyday when they can go back to Aunt Sarah and Uncle Bj's house. Just the other day Kimball and Seth had this conversation:

Kimball: "Dad you know what?"

Seth: "What dude?"

Kimball: "I love Uncle Bj more than you. I want to go live with him."

They are so cute. If you haven't had a chance to get to know the Bisel family, you really should. We love you Bisels!!!

I'm coming...

I have become my mom. My mom is wonderful in so many ways. Her faith is astounding. She is a loving and kind person in so many ways. She's about as innocent as a person at her age can be. Too bad these are not the ways in which I am emulating her. Not that she has any huge faults or shortcomings but the little things that she did while I was growing up that drove me nuts because I was a really really smart kid and I knew that my way was better... well now I've taken to doing those "little things."

There are quite a few of them but lately one has been overly apparent. I cannot for the life of me say "time to go" and walk out and get in the car and drive away. Seth's work is approximately 10-12 minutes drive from here so why do I have to "start" leaving at 3:30 in order to maybe get there by 4:00.

Let me just tell you why... here's how it goes: I send the girls out first because it takes them so long to get buckled (or because they have me figured out.) Grab Luc and my first load of "whatever" take him out (I don't even bother shutting the front door on this first departure.) I buckle him in, yell at the girls to get buckled and go back in for whatever else I forgot, usually a bottle or sippy cup, come back out and lock the door (which I know is a bad idea but I do it on the off chance that I might actually get in the car and drive away.) I then get in the driver seat, ask the girls why they still aren't buckled and promise something if they can please buckle before I start driving, and either rifle through my purse looking for my keys or get back out to see if I'm sitting on them which I usually am. Then I start the car, here we go, oh wait I promised the girls a movie if they buckled themselves before I was ready to drive away. So I get out of the car go back inside search for a dvd that they will both be happy with, run to the bathroom (because when I started leaving I didn't have to go that bad but now I'm pushing my luck), and then it's back out to the car. On a good day, that's it. On an average day I'd probably go back inside at least one more time and on a bad day at one or both of the girls also needs to use the bathroom and we start the whole process over again.

So I concede. Mom, you win. In this case, you were right. Or justified or whatever. I will hold on to hope that when my kids are old enough to be annoyed by this I won't do it but I'm assuming that by then it will be a habit and I won't know how to walk out of the house and get in the car. What now bugs me to death will probably be my norm. Such is life.

Pretzels

I know I said I would post this forever ago but I wanted to get a beautiful picture to go along with it... too bad I keep forgetting to snap a shot of them. So here's the picture-less recipe.

INGREDIENTS
4 teaspoons active dry yeast (I haven't tried using half yeast yet)
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
5 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 cup baking soda
4 cups hot water
1/4 cup kosher salt, for topping

DIRECTIONS
In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center; add the oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough. If the mixture is dry, add one or two tablespoons of water. (I've found it needs about 4-5 more tablespoons of water) Knead the dough until smooth (or just let it mix in a stand mixer for 5 minutes or so.) Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in hot water. When risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope and twist into a pretzel shape. Once all of the dough is all shaped, dip each pretzel into the baking soda solution and place on a greased baking sheet. (Don't skip this step, it's what makes the pretzels golden brown)Sprinkle with kosher salt.

Bake at 450 (425 if your oven cooks hot like mine) for 8-10 minutes, until browned.

ENJOY!

PS. Don't you just love it when you hit spellcheck at the end of a post and it says "no misspellings found." It's my favorite. It doesn't happen very often for me.

I know, I know, you DON'T care!

I can't help myself. Regardless of my readers indifference on the subject I have to do it. I am incapable of letting the moment pass without sharing my feelings about it.

Last night I almost peed my pants. It's been quite some time since I've actually wet myself.

But last night I came really, really close. I was inside, there was a bathroom close by but it really had nothing to do with the proximity of a toilet or my ability to get to it. It was more a "scared into uncontrollable urination" moment.

Just picture it, Seth, my father-in-law, my brother-in-law and my three sweet children all sitting around a computer, listening to a radio broadcast and thinking, nay,believing that all of our hopes and dreams are about to be crushed just a few short minutes...

Are you on the edge of your seat? Are you wondering what could be that BIG?

With only 2 minutes left the Utes were down 10-6 to TCU, I could hardly bare the thought. Seth literally gave up. Said "it's over!" But not me, I told Seth to take his negative pants off and get back in the game. And, partly because of my positive thinking I'm sure, they did it!! They marched down the field and scored with just 47 seconds left. And then they held them. Intercepted and WON!!! 10-0!!

Do any of you comprehend what that means? Let me just tell you, right now in college football there are only 6 undefeated teams, SIX. (Oh and by the way BYU is not one of them, in case you were wondering) (Oh and also, BYU lost to TCU a couple weeks ago.)

I can still sense a little bit of indifference from you all.... Humor me. Pretend you care.

And no I didn't end up peeing my pants... is that all you care about?

Halloween with Nana Betty

We spent Halloween in Tucson with my parents and my sister's and brother's families. The kids had so much fun being with their cousins. It was a bit nostalgic for me. When we were little we always trick or treated at nana's house with cousins. So it was good to see my kids get that experience. And as an added bonus we took all the kids over to see Nana at her nursing home. I thought at first that she was a little overwhelmed by all of us but when my mom told her we had to leave so she could go have dinner she said "to heck with dinner!" I wish we were closer so I could take the kids to see her more often.

Nana Betty with 9 of her ??? great grandchildren. I thought I could figure that out but it would just be a guess, ok I'll give you my best guess 33-35?

Ready to go get some candy. They brought in quite the haul, the younger one's didn't last quite as long but McKay outlasted all the other littler ones, what a proud mommy moment.Luc lasted about 40 minutes. Every extra piece of candy helps. My little fairy princesses. Aren't the adorable.

Seriously, have you ever seen a cuter clown? Can you see his red hair? How did I get a redhead?

Smorgasbord

It's time for another edition of blogger smorgasbord, a de-cluttering of my brain, if you will.

• I have a love/hate relationship with Halloween. I absolutely love how happy it makes my kids (and my husband.) I love seeing them all dolled up and looking adorable. I love stealing the "good" candy from their treat bags. I HATE the lame candy that seems to linger in my house forever. I hate the fighting over when they can and cannot eat their candy. I hate the bickering about who's had how many pieces. And I get really tired of all the wrappers every where, on the floor, in the car, outside, inside, in pockets, in my purse and inevitably in Luc's mouth.
• We went to the fair last weekend with my parents. It was fun and the food was, well it was fair food, which means it tasted good in a weird "I think I might die of a heart attack if I eat any more" kind of way. The fair attracts a certain kind of person. It's one of those places that makes me feel really smart. Not because I am but because there are some really, um, let's say, "less intelligent" people there. We actually overheard one guy tell his girlfriend (or cousin, not sure) that "sheep don't have teeth." And another lady explain to her friend that the "chicks are 22 days old, it says right there 'gestation 22 days.'" Ok. Nuf said.
• My fridge. Does anyone else struggle with this. I love my girls' drawings and art work and I know they love seeing me put it on the fridge for them but it drives me nuts. Fridge clutter is one of my pet-peeves and I'm just learning to deal with it. Seth and I have taken to using the "someday" term to refer to pretty much everything we want but can't/don't have right now. Well I will "someday" have a clean empty fridge (on the outside, hopefully it will still have food on the inside.)
• I grew up in Washington and have inherited a devotion to the Seattle sports teams. Which if you know anything about sports you know is not the greatest of inheritances. But I've loved them and supported them and hated them and given up on them and loved them again, year after year. Well the Seattle Sonics (basketball) are gone. No longer to haunt my winter and spring with almost but not quite good enough teams. They are now the Oklahoma City Thunder (what a wussy name) and while I should be grateful to be rid of them I am sad. I don't have a team. I need a team but haven't quite given in to the Suns mania. Maybe someday. Or maybe I'll pick a team that actually wins championships and enjoy being on top for once.

Surprisingly there's still de-cluttering to be done but I fear I have lost most of my dear readers by now with my overload of nonsense. So I will stop. Oh wait one more thing, my beloved Utes are ranked #10 in the country right now!!! GO UTES!

Too Soon

Seth just opened the following can of worms:

McKay: Who's is that?
Seth: It was mommy's when she was a little girl.
McKay: I don't remember mommy when she was a little girl.
Seth: That's because you weren't alive yet.
McKay: I wasn't?
Seth: Nope we made you.
McKay: You made me? How did you make me?


Me: You open the can of worms you deal with the can of worms. Not it.

Color Shock

I have lived in AZ for almost 3 years and finally last week on the deadline for registering to vote I went and got an AZ licence. I know you must be in shock over how extremely efficient and timely I am. But that's not what this post is about.

After standing in line for 25 minutes I was given a simple application to fill out. Name, Address, Prior Addresses, you know all the normal stuff. Then I got to that dreaded identification line where they ask you all those super personal questions that are really none of their business and honestly if I were to put 110 would the guy behind the desk have the nerve to say "um I don't think so sweetheart, can I have you step on our scale?" No. So why ask the questions and make me stress over my answers. I like to say I'm 5'2", I don't know that I've ever actually reached the full 2 inches but since I know they won't put 5'1 3/4" on my license I just round up, so I feel pretty good about that. Weight, well who really knows? Between pregnancy and post-baby weight loss I'm not really sure what my "average" weight is. And honestly I don't care, as long as my jeans fit over my butt I'm good to go. So I just took a guess and hoped he wouldn't produce a scale from behind his little desk. Neither height nor weight gave me much trouble on the application.

It was the blasted hair color question that I milled over and nearly made me miss my number being called. I've always been blond (unless you count that time in college when I went for a nice burgundy color and nearly got kicked out of Ricks for having "extreme hair color.") I was a toe-head as a toddler and while it darkened gradually over the years I've still always considered myself blond and done my darnedest to convince others of that too. I highlight my hair just to add a little bit more blond. But I AM BLOND. Right? So feeling like blond is my true hair color, the color I whole-heartedly embrace, I checked the little BN box and called it good.

Forget the scale, judging from the picture I should be grateful the nice gentleman didn't pull out a mirror.

Love Tag

Tagged right at the right time. When I'm bored and can't think of anything worth blogging about.

*What is your husbands name? Seth Ryan
*How long have you been married? 5 wonderful years.
*How long did you date? Dated for 3 months (though it seemed A LOT longer), engaged for 5 mo
*How old is he? 28 (3+ years younger than me)
*Who eats sweets? He does, although his sweet tooth has rubbed off on me
*Who said I love you first? He did, he wrote it on my hand while we were driving from WA to UT after meeting my parents for the first time.
*Who is taller? He is.
*Who can sing best? Definitely him, I can't sing to save my life.
*Who is smarter? That's a dumb question, probably him but why would I admit that.
*Who does laundry? I do. I do. I do.
*Who pays bills? Me, except for some unknown reason he pays just the cell phone bill.
*Who sleeps on the right side? I do.
*Who mows the lawn? The landscapers. (doesn't that make us sound snobby!)
*Who cooks dinner? Me. Unless it's grilled cheese sandwiches.
*Who drives? he does unless I'm sick of dealing with the kids then I do.
*Who is first to admit they are wrong? Him. Always. I need to work on that.
*Who kissed who first? he kissed me and I liked it.
*Who asked who out first? He did, kind of. He made it sound like he was just paying me back for a favor I did for him but it ended up being a date.
*Who wears the pants? I pretend like I do but in the end he's the more logical one and better at making level headed decisions so he just lets me pretend like things were my idea all along.

If you were reading this and at any point thought "this would be fun to do" consider yourself tagged.

3 Comments and that's it.

1. Thanks for all the "hissy fit" advise. I was in serious need of an outlet and I think mostly what I learned is that I do what everyone else does and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

2. At this very moment there is a pot of homemade chicken noodle soup on the stove and homemade rolls in the oven. I think I have finally become a "homemaker." Remind me to give you all an awesome recipe I found for big soft pretzels (like the one's at the mall that you pay $3-4 for.) Delicious and CHEAP!!!


3. GO UTES!!!

Hissy Fits

What do you do about TANTRUMS?

Ignore them?

Try to reason with the child?

Lock them in a room?

Punish them after they're done?

They don't happen all that often at our house but sometimes we can produce some real doozies, like right now. An unnamed child is in the living room screaming because I said no more applesauce this morning. So how do you handle fits?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIMBALL!!

So much to cover about this past weekend but nothing as important as my little angel. Happy 3rd Birthday Kimball Pants.

Top 3 Things I Love about Kimball:

3. She is so smart. She was talking in sentences at 20 months and although she's rather shy she always has brilliant ideas. Her latest coming to her while she was on the top bunk in time-out... "hey dad wouldn't it be fun if we put a slide on the bed, that would be a fun way to get down"

2. She is extremely compassionate and thoughtful. We were at my in-laws a couple weeks ago helping trim some trees and she ran past me into the house saying she needed to get some waters. I asked her who asked her to get them water, she said "Nobody, they just look really thirsty." What a sweetheart.

1. She makes us laugh. Constantly. We're hoping to get past the toilet humor, right now she knows how to make us crack up by talking about poop or bums or other bodily functions and while it's a little "8 year old boy" for me she does have impeccable timing. And if you laugh at what she says you will most definitely be rewarded with her amazingly contagious belly laugh.

On our way to St. George for the weekend celebration - as far as she knew the whole trip was about her and her birthday.

Thank goodness for a child who wants something other than chicken nuggets for her birthday meal. Pizza Factory... mmmm that's almost worth the drive just by itself.

I just love this picture, Luc's face is like "is this really what I'm going to have to put up with for the next 15 years?" Yup. Sorry bud.

After Birthday Lunch we went to this great little water structure at city hall. They had a blast.

Then Saturday after the race we had a party in the park. All she asked for was a butterfly cake and a pink hat.

You know you're in Utah when...

I love these little quirky things about Utah, love them now that I get to see them as an outsider.

Run, Sethers, Run!

I don't run. I try every once in a while. I even pretend to like it for a little while but in the end I just don't enjoy it. I spend the whole time looking at my watch or trying to force myself to go one more block. I think it has to do with my inability to entertain myself with my own thoughts. I get really bored. Ok, maybe it has to do with the fact that I'm lazy but I'd like to blame it on something other than that.

Seth on the other hand enjoys it. He enjoys it most, I think, when it's mixed in with some other type of exercise like biking and swimming but none-the-less he enjoys doing it. When we were dating I kind of resented his running. I felt like it took the place of some of "our time." It didn't take long for me to figure out that "our time" was more enjoyable if he got his running time as well. So I thought I was a pretty darn good girlfriend/fiance when I had no issues with him running a marathon the week before our wedding.

I've now realized I may have been a better girlfriend/fiance than I am a wife. That was the last marathon he ran. He had done 5 or 6 in as many years (pre-me) and now it's been 5 years since his last one. Ooops. Sorry babe. But he's doing St. George this weekend I am really excited for him. I hope its not another 5 years before the next.

GOOD LUCK SETHIE-POO!

Side-note: McKay was extremely disappointed to find out that daddy has no chance of winning this race. Her poor little heart just broke, when I told her he wouldn't be "first" and she was mad at me for my lack of confidence in her hero. So cute.

Dinner Success!

This is a "stolen picture" had I known the meal would be so successful I may have snapped a pic but who could have guessed?

There are only 4 of us (who care about what's for dinner, Luc will eat whatever we throw in front of him.) It shouldn't be all that difficult to make a dinner that pleases everyone but it's a near impossibility here. Basically the only thing that I know won't be served with "whines" is breakfast for dinner. Pancakes, waffles, french toast, they are all appreciated by my little family so we end up having "Brinner" at least once a week.

Tonight I found a second meal. Pulled BBQ Chicken Sandwiches (with or without the bread, I don't care as long as they eat it!) McKay even asked for seconds!!! Oh the sweet taste of success.

The best part is it was just bbq sauce and chicken breasts in the crockpot, shred and throw it on a bun!

Thanks for the idea, Jenna!

Kimball Quotes

I remembered and then she gave me another good one this morning, so I guess the blog lives on. (Besides, what other hobby am I going to start up?)

Conversation #1
- Mom come look what happened!
-What?
-It's not gonna be pretty!
-Oh great.
-No mom, NOT great!

Conversation #2
- Kimball do you want some popcorn?
- You have some?
- I can make some.
- All by yourself.
- Yes.
- Without daddy's help? How you gonna do that?

Blogger's Block

I know I had something really important to blog about this morning... something to do with something one of the kids said, ok so that narrows it down to McKay or Kimball, probably Kimball because she's the witty one... so something Kimball said since the last time I blogged.

Sometime in the last 6 days Kimball may or may not have said something blog worthy.

That's all I've got for you. Maybe it's time to find a new hobby.

This Month's Random Post

There comes a time about every 4 weeks or so that I just need to empty my brain of the random thoughts that don't justify a full post but need to be freed from the clutter of my mind. (That sentence alone freed up some much needed space.)

Kimball is me. Mothers always warn that someday you'll have a child just like you as a form of payback or karma or whatever. That's my Kimball. Into everything and not ashamed in the least. It used to drive my mom nuts that I had to touch everything, actually it still drives my mom nuts. Kimball is the same way and despite driving me a tad bit crazy I love it.

My mom has an almost identical picture of me with her make-up on.

How do I explain to McKay that I cannot pause our tv? Nana's tv pauses. The DVDs pause yet I, the all powerful mommy, cannot pause Barney while she goes to the bathroom.

I have come to the conclusion that instead of thinking of cleaning as an awful, mundane part of my everyday life, I need to think of it as part of my "job." Really I am very fortunate to be able to be home with my kids and if part of that requires cleaning everyday well then I guess I better just buckle up 'cause its better than dropping them off at daycare and going to a job that really is mundane and boring.

It seems like there was so much more clutter up there, but that's I'll I can come up with for now.

AHHH Now doesn't that feel SO much better!

McKay's Song

I am mostly posting this because I wanted to show Seth but can't get it to go through on my email, must be too big.
McKay loves to sing. And she loves to make up her own words. This started out as the song from Poccahontas. I about peed my pants while I was watching her, she is such a drama queen.

Remembering...

Seth and I were talking this morning about where we were when we heard about the attacks on September 11, 2001. I was in my apartment in Salt Lake City, getting ready for class. My little sister and I had just flown back from a weekend trip to San Francisco the night before. I turned on the tv to see what the weather was going to be like (jeans or shorts?) and saw the plane down in Pennsylvania. It took about 10 minutes before I figured out what was going on. I ran in to tell my sister, "someone attacked the United States." The words hit me like a ton of bricks. I thought, "is that true? Could that be true?" It was obviously something our generation just couldn't comprehend.

Seth said he was in a sociology class and his teacher (obviously not knowing the extent of the circumstance) said "it's kind of like that wierd thing in New York this morning, people are just crazy." Nobody in class even knew what he was talking about.

Anyway, I think we should remember. Remember how we came together, remember the heros who gave their lives trying to save lives and just remember how precious life is.

So where were you when you found out?

Slackers

Pet Peeve of the Day:

People who slack, don't do their part and then expect others to do it for them. (Obviously there's more to this story but I'll leave it at that. I promise you don't want to read what I'm thinking!)

7 Months!

Where does the time go? The days and weeks are flying by but the nights sure aren't. My once perfect sleeper is struggling. For the past 2 months he can't seem to go longer than 4 hours and mommy needs more than 4 hours in a row. He's still an angel during the days though so I guess we'll keep him (my dad always said that phrase when people complimented us kids and it drove me nuts, now I say it and hopefully someday I'll drive my kids nuts too.)


Luc's newest adventures:

Eating anything he can get his hands on.

Crawling

Driving his sisters crazy by getting into all there stuff

Pulling himself up on furniture (just two or three times, but that's enough to stress me out.)

Screeching whenever he's left in a room alone.

Luc's favorite toys are straws and spoons and he LOVES being outside.

He was getting really good at rolling right before he started crawling, this may have been the last straw. He did it all by himself.
Now if that's not a stylish kid....Not only is this a cute picture because he's such a doll but also because those jammies were Seth's when he was a baby.
Daddy is nicer than mommy, first off I don't think I would just hand him a piece of licorice, secondly, on the carpet???

3 Wonderful, Terrible, Difficult, Exhausting, Faith-Promoting Years

On Labor Day weekend three years ago, Seth and I drove from Bountiful, Utah down to Cedar City, Utah. I was 8 months pregnant with Kimball. Seth's dad had been diagnosed with stage 4 Mantle Cell Lymphoma about 2 days earlier and on a whim we decided to meet his parents there for a weekend of ... relaxation? Reflection? Mutual sadness and depression? I'm not sure what our intent was, I think mostly we just wanted to be together. I remember going down to breakfast on Sunday morning with Steve (everyone else was fasting) and thinking "he looks really bad, how long can he possibly hold on?" I don't remember a lot about that weekend, in fact I asked Seth yesterday "what did we even do that weekend?" All I really remember is being so grateful that we had decided to have a 2nd child so soon, I just wanted Steve to know Kimball and for us to be able to show her pictures with her Papa. As you can tell the prognosis was pretty grim. He now tells us in his mind and from the research he did and the little the drs would tell him about his chances he thought he maybe had 3 years to live.
Fast-forward to Labor Day weekend 2008, Steve is healthy and cancer-free. So we had a party. He thought it was just family but we invited a few other families that were right there with us through the whole horrific 2 1/2 year ordeal and celebrated life. Miracles happen. This one wasn't an "overnight go back to the dr and the cancer is gone" kind of miracle, it took a lot longer than that. But thanks to amazing drs, Steve's will to survive, a german donor who was willing to give part of herself and lots and lots of prayer and fasting, we got to see how miracles happen.

Transplant Day - 1 year after diagnosis

Happy 3 Years!!!
Steve also beat melanoma 10+ yrs ago
Luc "Steven" Avey - named after Papa.

GO UTES!

In case you somehow didn't know, I am a HUGE college football fan. So needless to say I was overjoyed when we realized the Utah game was playing on ESPN. We very rarely get to watch any of their games since we're "out of market." We don't have ESPN, much to my chagrin, but Seth's parents do and so we invited ourselves over for the afternoon and I left the laundry to be done another day.

Kimball fell asleep on the way up there and McKay joyfully ran off with her 14 yr old uncle who is so good about entertaining the little ones. So all we had to deal with was Luc. I'll spare you the details (since most of you couldn't care less) but it was an exciting game. Utah wasn't picked to beat Michigan in the "Big House" but we went in and took care of business. We almost gave it up in the 4th quarter but I never lost hope. I knew we would prevail. Seth and his parents weren't as faithful, it is quite an experience to watch a game with those three, especially if a team they love isn't playing up to their expectations.

So the point of it all. GO UTES!!!

(I could make a point to mention that my dear brother went to Michigan and has watched them get beat in their opening game to seasons in a row, but I won't. I'll save it for the BYU game.)

Breakfast of Champions

I was nursing Luc in my bedroom yesterday morning when the following little incident occurred.

Kimball comes running in at full speed (which isn't all that fast since she's only 2 and there isn't much room in our house to get up to full speed), yelling "I DID IT, I DID IT!!" My first thought, "oh no this can't be good," my actual response "you did what sweety?" "I MADE MY OWN HOT DOG!" "You got your own hot dog out of the fridge?" "Yeah and I put it in the microwave and now it's cooking." Oh wow, maybe I should go see what's going on. Sure enough there is here hot dog cooking away... She really is a brilliant child.

Is it a Sign?

I decided this weekend that the time has come to rid myself of the lingering baby weight. Mine doesn't just go away. (I have a really hard time not detesting people who walk out of the hospital looking like they just had lipo instead of a baby. Amy, Breanne... I don't detest you but I have to force myself to love you despite your skinny little thighs)

So I ate "well" this weekend to prep myself for the upcoming event. Then started off great Monday morning by actually eating breakfast as to avert the snacking that happens when I skip it. I did good all day but realized at the end of the day that I hadn't weighed myself. So first thing this morning I jumped on the scale (which I have purposely ignored for months) and there's just a little problem.... it says I weigh 20 lbs. I've kicked it and hit and even calmly pleaded with it to tell me the truth but to no avail. Is it a sign? Does a broken scale mean I should be dieting or shouldn't?

Motivation...

I have a LOT of stuff I could be doing right now but no motivation. I made it through my weekend alone and actually had fun with the kids right up until church. If it hadn't been for the fact that McKay and Kimball go to class for 2 hours of it (which seemed like it could be a nice little break) I probably would have gone home about 20 minutes in. About halfway through I decided to go out to get the girls a drink and let them settle down a little. On our way back to the chapel Kimball took off running, she ran right into the chapel singing at the top of her lungs. Here comes me trying to run in heels while carrying an over sized 6 month old, with McKay laughing behind me. I'm sure it was quite entertaining for the rest of the congregation, I was mortified, I don't normally get embarrassed easily but on top of being tired and frustrated it nearly brought me to tears. I can almost laugh about it now, almost.

The rest of the weekend was actually a pretty fun. We went to the splash pad, the mall play area, Costco for a few quick items and pizza, out to lunch with Nana, and played a lot and read a TON of books. It was a good weekend despite missing daddy. Oh and I cleaned the whole house, vacuumed from back to front, every inch was clean, was. Which is the reason for my lack of motivation. It all goes away so fast. Hours and hours of hard work and now it looks like it did 2 days ago.

I Think I Can

Ok, so here's my chance. My chance to be a better wife and mother. About 3 weeks ago I blogged about Seth having to work all weekend and how I just didn't know how I could possibly do it. Blah blah blah. So that weekend he actually didn't end up having to work as much as we thought and I got bailed out. I didn't have to prove myself. I whined and got my way (although it had nothing to do with my whining, just pure luck.)

But no one's coming to my rescue this weekend. Seth's gone. He's running a big race up in Portland and I am all alone.... as "all alone" as you can be with 3 kids hanging on your legs. So instead of pouting about it all weekend, I'm just going to keep myself nice and busy and enjoy my children. I mean really enjoy them. Watch them play and join in.

I was in Circle K this morning with Kimball and Luc and the checker said "oh man I had to have my kids really far apart so that I could work." To which I responded, "I'm really lucky I get to stay home with them." Her response was "oh I couldn't handle staying home, my kids would drive me nuts." How sad. Sad for her, sad for her kids. There are very few jobs that I would trade for being a mom and I can guarantee you one of them would not be a Circle K cashier. No offense to working moms I can't imagine how hard that is but come on, you'd rather work because your kids annoy you, sad, very very sad.

So back to what I was saying, I want to keep busy this weekend. We have playgroup tomorrow and I might take them to the play area at the mall. There will definitely be some swimming. But what else? What is the one thing you love doing with your kids or watching your kids do?

My BFF, Grandma Vegas and a Crooked Politician

Ok this is a little late but about a week and a half ago we went to Vegas to see Seth's grandma and my bff. It was a blast. We took the kids to this awesome children's museum (I forgot my camera at grandma's house, I'm still kicking myself for that one) and just hung out. It was great. I don't love Vegas but I love it if I get to spend time with people I love. So here's some pics.

Grandma is not your average "sit around and nit booties" grandma. She is definitely a vegas grandma and we love it. She and grandpa (whom I never met, he passed away about 10 yrs ago I think) lived in Iran for a while and traveled all over so her house is just loaded with crazy stuff that the kids love to touch and drive me crazy that they're going to break some rare artifact. But its fun.

McKay loved sitting on grandma's lap all weekend. Kimball barely gave her a half-hearted hug when we left.
Meet Diana. We were roommates at Ricks (still can't call it that other name.) My first semester there stunk, I hated it and wanted to go home. Then I met these girls in my brother's ward and one of them (Diana) pulled me into the back room of her apartment and told me she wanted to kiss my brother. I hadn't really even met her and I thought this girl is crazy. And we've been great friends ever since. She's pretty much the reason why I could have my first two kids so close together, she was their second mom and I HATE that she won't move down here to be closer to us.



Ok so this little billboard is right down from the temple in Las Vegas. Talk about a politician. You can't claim both Ute fans and Cougar fans. I think people should not vote for him purely because he's trying to toy with our devotions. Not cool.

Just Good Fun

This just made us laugh so hard I had to share. Enjoy.

Espanol

Hablo espanol. I have my degree in Spanish. I love Spanish. I love that I speak Spanish, it's probably one the few things that I am truly proud of (besides my offspring and spouse.) I'm sad and nervous about my Spanish speaking abilities. From the time I got home from my mission until we moved to Arizona I spoke it on a very regular basis. I've been here for 3 years and used my Spanish probably a total of 10 times. It makes me sick to think about losing it. So as a stay-at-home mom who has very little contact with the outside world (besides church) how do I find ways to use it? I have thought of reading books in Spanish, which is a good idea and I need to follow through with that but that doesn't help my speaking. There has to be something. Help!!!

Olympic Glory

Am I the only one that's so incredibly sleep deprived that everything in my world is being completely neglected? The Olympics are killing me. We don't have TiVo or DVR or anything special like that so I spend every evening trying to balance putting the kids to bed with watching Michael Phelps break another record, both of which are SUPER important (even though half the time I already know the results.) So is it almost over? I need to get back on a normal schedule. I'm not complaining though I love it. I've cried at least 4 times.

So what's better than the Olympics? COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!! I should start a countdown. I think I'll make a paper chain so I can watch the days go by and dream of my college football Saturdays where I can watch back to back games while completely ignoring my family's needs. Oh I can't wait!!! GO UTES!

Feelings

My baby started preschool this week. I think I'm supposed to be sad because my little girl is growing up and I probably should have cried when I dropped her off or be thinking I'm not sure how I'll make it through the morning hours without her. I'm not. Kimball is so in need of some alone time that it doesn't seem sad at all. Maybe I'll cry next year when she goes off the kindergarten... but I doubt it. So how did McKay feel about leaving home for a few hours each day???? I'll let you decide.

Happy 1/2 Birthday!

Luc is 6 months old! It has flown by. He is such a good baby, although the last 6 weeks his sleeping habits have forced me to revoke his "best baby in the world" title. He's working hard to earn it back, starting with sleeping through the night last night and taking a stellar nap right now. I'll keep you posted.

Luc trying to crawl -- the mommy part of me is saying "Go Luc, YAY!!!" but the practical tired part of me is saying "NO!!!"

He really is so so sweet.
What a perfect little bald head. Oh I just want to squeeze him.
He is constantly sucking on a finger or thumb or his whole fist. He's a slobbery mess most of the time.