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.

"Working" from Home

Let me start by just saying that I am very grateful to have a little part-time job that gives us a little extra cash each month. (I think there is a pattern in my blogging, first show gratitude for something then complain about it... ) I only work as much as I can. My "bosses" are very good about letting me get stuff done at my own rate... which is very good because working with my kids around is a joke. Here's how my 40 minutes of work went today.

8:55 Luc finally falls asleep (he had a very bad night.)

8:57 Put a movie in for the girls and explain that Mommy needs to work so McKay can go to Pre-school and we don't have sell Kimball on Ebay.

9:00 Sit down at the computer and IM Seth to tell him I am actually going to work today.

9:02 Open all the applications and sites that I need to get started.

9:05 Kimball comes in screaming because the movie isn't starting. (Amazingly if I am in the room with them they can work the dvd player without any problems but if I leave the room all the sudden my button pushing expertise are desperately needed)

9:06 Sit down again and "start working"

9:10 McKay comes in needing a new dress, where is the pink dress mommy, I need the pink dress, (she's been in her jammies all morning but now that I'm working a dress is absolutely necessary right this minute) The pink dress is in the wash (washing for the second time because I left the load in the washer over night.) So we make a compromise and off she goes.

9:15 Twenty minutes of completely uninterrupted work. They must be destroying something but I'm too scared to go look and I need to get this one thing done.

9:35 Kimball is STARVING!!! Give me 15 minutes and I promise I'll give you anything you want.
9:45 I can hear Luc starting to fuss in the other room but he's going to have to be screaming to pull me away from this one last thing.

9:55 Hit save on the docs, send them off to the "bosses" and go save Luc who is now screaming loud enough to be picked up.


(So you're probably wondering how I can blog if it takes so much effort to work, well all three of them are at my feet and this takes much less concentration.)

Banana Bread

Here it is... the famous sour cream banana bread. Thanks to my sis-in-law for the adorable recipe card. You rock Sarah! FYI - this recipe makes 4 loafs of bread so if you only have 2 pans it's probably best to 1/2 it. Enjoy.

Where is my husband?

I am so dependent. Which is kind of funny because I lived on my own for almost 10 years after high school before I got married and I was extremely independent. So What happens in 5 years of marriage that makes me completely incapable of dealing with life without my significant other. Maybe it's the fact that I now have these little ones that are wholly dependent on me that makes me feel like I need help. Mostly I think the problem is that I have a very very helpful husband, so I've never had to do it by myself. I count the hours 'til he comes home every day and I cherish my weekends. I love having him around and can't stand doing things without him. We have been really blessed because Seth normally only works half days on Friday so I get a little extra time in my weekend.

So what's the point of all of this? Seth's company is going through a big transition right now and he has been working a lot of hours. Even when he's home he's on his laptop and now I find out he has to work all weekend, including Sunday.... I think I may go lock myself in my room for a good cry. Except if I ever shut a door with my kids on the other side of it they think I've left them forever and scream outside my door until I reluctantly emerge.

Oh well. I guess right now what I need to be grateful for is a husband that is normally such a huge presence in our lives. So there it is. I am grateful for my very helpful husband (and I am ready to have him back.)