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.