Highlights from Last Week

I'm sure I'll forget lots of good stuff from last week, so if you think you should have made honorable mention, please take no offense, I have the memory of a gnat and am basing this whole post on things that I took pictures of...

Apparently one morning last week I got out of bed and found this and found it to be cute and humorous... Messes don't usually have that affect on me, lucky her...

That same morning, feeling guilty for having spent most of my weekly budget over the weekend, I decided I wasn't willing to pay for diapers any more and now I have this cute little bum running around my house...

  It's not so cute though when I catch him peeing in parking lots, drive-ways, sidewalks, or in grass.  I took all the kids shopping for flowers last week and he peed in three parking lots in one evening.  Good times.

I babysat for Rachael one day last week, Wednesday I think, and I was all for it since I knew I was going to be outside all day planting my flowers.  Since Addy is addicted to fresh air and front yards I knew it would be a piece of cake.  Why then did they all play inside more than outside? 

I sat in the rocking chair on the front porch and listened through the window as they played.  There was lots of tying people up and putting them in dungeons.  At one point I heard them say something about Carson not getting a note written for him because he hadn't been in the dungeon yet.  When I came inside I found these inside the laundry room door...

Clever kids had found the felt pads you put on the bottom of chairs in the junk drawer.

I was super excited when I finally went inside that afternoon and realized I had gotten my first sunburn of the year.  I was not so excited to find all the crumbs and uneaten food spread all over the house.
We finished the day off going to Easton's baseball game, that kid is so stinkin' cute in his baseball get-up.

On Thursday, my kid came casually strolling in the house after school and I turned to see this...Go ahead, click on it and check it out in it's full glory.

After scolding him, I explained that though I was still very angry, I needed to take pictures.  We both had a hard time not laughing. 

Immediately after pictures were taken, he was forced to take a shower and told he couldn't get out until all the ink had been scrubbed off his body.  Apparently there was ink up and down his arms and legs as well.  Needless to say, he was in the shower a really, really long time.

Sunday morning I was put in my place.  Saturday night we went out with Jason's family for dinner for Mother's Day.  I was complaining about how I under appreciated my first Mother's Day not realizing that having one, small newborn was going to be easier and more relaxing than any other M. Day's to come.  I wondered aloud about the day I would finally get the cliche Mother's Day when the kids finally understood what the day was all about and did everything they could to make it nice for me.  I laughed realizing that that day would probably never happen.  After all, I'm not sure I ever did that for my own mom. 

Without being prompted, the first thing Spencer asked me when I woke up was what I wanted for breakfast.  After telling him toast, I realized that he had headed to the kitchen to tackle the job himself.  Wanting edible toast, I encouraged Jason to go help him.  As the other kids woke-up, I could hear Spencer coaching them on the things they should say and do for me.  I was brought breakfast in bed, announced by Spencer yelling through a paper towel tube, "You are about to receive your food!"  Carson joined me and begged for bites, and the kids brought in the tray full of flowers they had bought.  Sophie and I went to Sacrament Meeting, leaving the two sick boys home with their dad.  The rest of the day was spent lounging outside watching Jason work on the railing we're putting around the patio.  The kids played outside and at one point Sophie came over and said, "One last present!" and threw herself on me for a huge hug.  They did whatever jobs I asked them and only got yelled at a few times through out the whole day.

In the evening we went to my mom's and quickly came home since I wasn't feeling very good.  I sat outside some more and ended up falling asleep for the night at 8:30.  When Jason woke up me at 1 am to get off the couch and go to bed, I found that he had cleaned the entire kitchen, exactly like I would have cleaned it.  Floor swept, dishwasher running, nothing on the counters.  It had been such a mess and while I am extremely thankful, I feel terrible that after the long day he had working outside and doing homework and yelling at kids he was faced with the kitchen from hell.  It was an awesome thing he did.

Somehow, despite all my complaining the night before, I had a pretty cliche Mother's Day.  Too bad it's only one day of the year.

The If, Then Cycle

I'm having one of those days where I've spent all my time thinking of all the things I want to do and playing out the if, then's to the point of deciding everything seems too complicated and now it's noon and I haven't done anything at all.

Here's how this works for me...

I really want to make the new chicken enchilada recipe I found on online but if I do then I'll have to decide whether I clean my house first, which prolongs going to the store, or go to the store first and come home to a messy house that may or may not ever get picked up.

If I decide to go to the store, then I have to decide what to do with my kids.  Do I take them?  Do I leave them somewhere?  If I decide to take them, then they have to be dressed nice, with combed hair.  Ugh.  If I leave them, I have to call around and beg, then spend the time taking them and picking them up.  Ugh, again.

And what do I do about Carson on his third day of potty training?  If I take him, then I have to put him in a diaper, which he doesn't want to do.  If I leave him, then I have to beg whoever will watch him to deal with reminding him to go. 

If I go to the grocery store, then I'll be faced with real shopping, not just picking up ingredients for enchiladas.  If I do that, then I'll be spending money I don't really want to be spending, we've overspent this weeks budget already.  I'll need hairspray, new 2T undies for the little guy, socks for Spencer on top of all the groceries needed to stock an empty fridge and pantry.  But, if I stay home, then I'll just keep feeding us creatively and washing the 4 pairs of 2T undies I can find and the only 3 pairs of socks we can find of Spencer's. 

If I stay home and do laundry, then I'll have to deal with all the clothes on my bedroom floor.  If I am in my room taking care of laundry, then I'll have to call AHO and remind them again that my light fixture has fallen off the ceiling and is hanging by the wires only.  I know, I know, I really should be taking care of that dangerous situation right now but if I do, then I have to clean my room first.  And the rest of my house.  And if I do that now, then I won't go to the store.  If I don't go to the store then I won't know what to make for dinner today.  If I don't know what to make, then I'll be hungry and crabby all day.

If I am crabby and hungry all day then I'll start thinking of all the things that make me crabby.  Like an under-developed backyard and an unmowed front yard.  If I start thinking about the front yard needing mowed, then I'll have to decide whether to buck up and go get gas for the lawn mower myself or wait for Jason to get home and send him on his lunch break.   If I send him on his break then he won't have time to show me how to remove and empty the bag on the mower.  If I don't catch the grass then I'll have clippings all over since it's so long.  If I go outside and mow the yard then I'll have to decide whether I clean the inside first.  If I decide to mow then I'll have to decide if I eat before I mow or after.  If I try to find something to eat, then I'll be faced with the inevitability of going to the store.

And if I have to think about going to the store then there's 4,553 other decisions to make and I don't think I can make any of them. 

If I get up and walk away from the computer, then I'll have to deal with the mess in my house, the undressed children, the empty refrigerator, the unmowed yard, blah, blah, blah.

If I just stop thinking about all of it, then I won't have to make any decisions at all.

If I end this post, then what picture am I going to add since I can't blog without a picture?  If I go pick out a picture, then I'm going to feel guilty about how little I've used my camera lately.

And the decision after that?  If I open a can of diet coke then what am I going to eat with it?

Ahhh, man.  If I keep looking at these pictures, then I have to face the fact that Carson and Spencer need haircuts.  If they need haircuts, then I have to leave the house.  And it's pretty obvious that I can't make a decision today to save my life.  But, if I put off everything today, then I have to deal with it all tomorrow.

And then he turned 7...

Seriously?  7...seven...4+3?  I can't believe it.  For this experiment loving little boy we threw a pretty wild science shindig, eye protection required.

 Which turned out to be the best $10 I spent on the party.  The kids loved the googles and the pictures are priceless.  Full collage of everyone coming soon.

Aside from constantly telling him to quit yelling, this kid is a pretty cool kid to have around.  

He is very independent and reliable.

He loves watching/listening to the news.

He watches documentaries almost as often as he watches cartoons.

He loves any and all things BBQ.

His reading skills are amazing.

He still asks to be tucked in everynight.

He loves to know how things work and still asks a gazillion questions.

He is a great enforcer of the rules.

He is honest.

He still wants to be a spy.

He says the best family prayers.

He still asks everyday if we're going somewhere or if someone is coming over.

He loves to show off all the interesting things he learns.

He loves his family.

Having a kid like him made it super fun and easy to throw a party with his friends with volcanoes, fake snow, crazy mixing drinks, and all sorts of other experiments.  When I'm done sorting through the 200+ photos Lisa took, I'll post all the details of the fantastic time we had. 

And then she turned 4...

There's was cake and candles (and crappy lighting)...

Cousins and crafts (and one crappy picture).

There were cookies and carameled apples...

There was cleverness...

                                             (Magic Mirror program that talked to the girls)
And cute little men with cupcakes...

Cute drinks and cute toppers (made by me!)...

And a whole bunch of other stuff that doesn't start with "c"...

 

(Tulle Snow White skirts)

 

(Wishing Well for tossing bean bag apples)

Massive amounts of gratitude to Cake/Cupcake Baker- Mallary, Cookie Maker- Grandma Lo, Caramel Cooker- Rachael, Hair Stylist- Katie, Co-Photographer Lisa, Wishing Well Constructer- Jason.  Thank you to Lydia (and Josh) for providing the most played with gift so far, the Princess Hair Style Set.

Blogging for Therapy

Instead of yelling, again, or crying, or throwing my own tantrum, again, I'm going to see if blogging can help me through.  Today has been one-of-those-days.  The kind where you find yourself wishing you drank, or swore, or locked your children outside, or had a way to beam yourself out of your own home.

I don't even want to go into the details of all that was wrong.  Anyone who has a 4 ft. or shorter human being co-existing in their house will know that it's not worth itemizing.  It's not only painful, but it may even start to sound funny, or less stressful than it feels, and sometimes I enjoy this pity pool I'm sitting in too much to ruin it.

Okay, I changed my mind.

Here's just a few of the things that have caused constant weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth for the last three hours (in no particular order):

Being grounded made Spencer cry.
Having a diaper rash made Carson cry.
Not being able to find "Arr, Arr" (pronounced like a seal barking), her stuffed seal at bedtime made Sophie cry.
Getting applesauce on his pancakes made Carson cry.
Getting yelled at made Spencer cry.
Being pulled off the counter that he climbed up on made Carson cry.
Not being able to watch a show made Sophie cry.
Being told to get back in the house made all three cry.
Getting applesauce on his fork made Carson cry.
Not being fed 10 minutes after dinner was over made Sophie cry.
Not being able to brush his teeth made Carson cry.
Being told his punishment was being extended til tomorrow made Spencer cry.
Taking the fake, decor only carrots away from Carson made Carson cry.
Me answering the telephone and ignoring their yells while on it caused at least one of them, usually two of them, to start crying.
Giving Sophie a hug made Sophie cry.

Explanation for above mentioned incident:
I put all three of them to bed at 7:58, which caused more crying, of course.  Ten minutes after she had been in bed, Sophie came out wanting her seal.  After playing instead of looking for him, I told her she had to go back to bed.  Cue more crying.  After 20 minutes of her crying my name from her bedroom, I decided to go in there and offer her a hug.  I asked her if she wanted a hug and to be tucked back in and she sniffled and nodded.  I sat on her bed, hugged her and she started crying.  I told her no crying during a hug.  Then she started talking, I said no talking during hugs.  As I tucked her in she pleaded with me for one question.  I nodded and she said, "But mom, why are you so mean?"  I shushed her, brushed the hair off her forehead and left.  For the next 10 minutes she yelled/cried from her room, "BUT WHY ARE YOU SO MEAN?"  I called Jason and he could hear her (she was now standing in the hallway).  He told me to put her on the phone, he reprimanded her, and she of course started crying again.  As I'm typing this, she's yelling from her room that she needs someone to tuck her in and that her head hurts.  Now she's just yelling my name.  Afraid I'm not going to make the same 'mean' mistake I made earlier.  She can cry herself to sleep tonight, after all, I'm just a mean mom.

Fun Times

Friday morning, Sophie woke up with some pretty crazy hair from her pigtails the day before.  As the lioness sat down at the table to color some left over leprechauns, she casually said, "Hey mom, is there a spider in my hair?"  I turned to look at her and said, "Um, nope.  Why?" As she was slightly shaking her head and touching her hair she said,  "Cause I just feeled something on my head..."

 

 Um, yeah, that would be your mane.

We tamed it down for good measure.  Didn't want anything to start nesting in there for real.

This afternoon on the way to Rachael's she informed us that "Everyone is puppets."  When I questioned her she told us, "Yea, except the fairy turned us all into persons but we have puppet bones and puppet blood."  Hmmmm....I can usually trace back or guess on the origination of most of her random thoughts but I am totally lost on this one.  I'm thinking maybe Pinocchio, but she's only seen that once, like three months ago.


Carson, Sophie, and I walked around the neighborhood and then met Spencer at the bus stop.  They decided they needed their 'Grand ol' Flags' while they were cruising the neighborhood.  Made me anxious for the 4th of July and some warm weather.  On our way home, Spencer was excited to see a whole bunch of birds on a rooftop.  His yelling made them fly from one house to another and Carson was not okay with any of it.  He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and started shouting as loud as he could, "Birds!  GET OFF THEM HOUSE!" Then he turned to me and excitedly told me, "Mom!  I dot them birdths off them house with my 'lag!"  ('lag = flag).  He was so proud of himself, and he was yelling soooo loud.

And did you catch it in there?  I walked.  I made myself leave my house and I used my legs the way they were intended to be used, other than standing in the kitchen making homemade calories that I consume almost entirely by myself.

Over the top, and we know it.

As Rachael and Lisa already mentioned, we were all visited by the leprechauns this year.  Each leprechaun left identical goodie bags for the kids but did something a little different at each house.  It amazes me how much they love to compare with each other and speculate on the reasons for the differences.

Spencer started talking about his plans for the trap a couple of weeks ago.  One afternoon he asked if I could take him to the store so he could look for a steel trap to use this year!  Things got busy, I was lazy, and at the last minute, like at 9:15 p.m. Wednesday night, Jason came up with this idea with the kids.  You can't see, but under this grass are little drops of glue, so he'd get stuck!  Spencer was pretty upset Thursday morning when he realized that the leprechaun stole his trap idea by knocking down the crayon and propping up the trap with that gold coin you see laying in the grass after his escape.  He was not happy about the design flaws of this years trap!

Though he got away, the leprechaun left the kids Rolo's and rainbow sour strips under some little hats, along with some glow wands, and a box of Lucky Charms.

I didn't find out until he got home that Spencer actually wore the little hat with it's elastic chin strap to school...Not my proudest moment but it made us all laugh super hard.  Good times.

The little fella played some tricks on us by turning our milk and our apples green.  He also left a trail from the trap, down the island, and out the back door.

 At about 3 o'clock that afternoon, I suddenly felt inspired by my balloon rainbow to whip up some rainbow cupcakes.

 And since a simple idea can never stay simple, I decided we should have everyone over for a dessert party.  It was actually an idea mentioned by Rachael as we shopped at 10 o'clock Wednesday night for everything we needed for our ideas on Thursday.  I'm not sure when we're going to learn that our last minute/late night conversations always lead to over the top events.

By 7 p.m. my kitchen was full of goodies.  Cookies made by Grandma, Irish mint brownies by Lisa, homemade caramel topping made by Rachael, and my rainbow cupcakes.

(I hate terrible lighting!)

The kids spent the evening running around outside trying to track down the leprechaun.  They were convinced that he was still around since they kept finding his "tracks" (confetti) in new places.  There's no genius's here since it never occurred to them that the tracks kept getting carried around on people's shoes/feet!  We also had our second jug of milk mysteriously turn green after dinner while I was doing the dishes, again confirming their suspicions of him being close by.  At 8:30, after everyone left, I had to tell Spencer to come in from the dark (in the backyard) because St. Patricks Day was over and that was the only day the leprechauns run around searching for gold!  Every year I wonder why in the world we started this tradition but it always seems worth it in the end.

After seeing Rachael's post I felt like a loser for not taking pictures of my kids wearing all their green.  Then I felt stupid for realizing that we do all this for them and I didn't take a single picture of them.  I decided to take pictures of them today enjoying their afterschool snack (rainbow vanilla pudding left over from yesterday).  The results from my attempt were worse than hers.