The Randomness of My House

So Jason is a funny guy (I think I start off all my posts about him by saying this). His head is filled with completely random and usually un-useful bits of knowledge and his creativity and curiosity often drive me crazy. Sometimes it's great, like when preparing for a 4 year-old's pirate themed party. He loves to go all out. But other times, like when we were at a toy story 3 years ago and he found these little guys, it's not so great.

Since Spencer was only 18 months old, I convinced him not to send in our certificate right away. About a year ago, while cleaning our room, he ran across the fabulous little box, dug out the certificate, and him and Spencer made a trip to the Post Office to order our 'pet'. We shortly recieved a kit looking like this in the mail.

Unfortunately, that wasn't good enough for "Bill Nye, the Science Guy". He convinced me somehow to upgrade to this.

Which of course also included a new 'tadpole'. We had to keep them seperated however because the bigger, more matured frog was trying to eat the newest addition to our family. So the cool tube feature wasn't even usuable and I hated the whole contrapition. There was no good spot for it anywhere in the house. I eventually moved it to the middle shelf of a small bookcase until the fateful day that Sophie grabbed the whole thing and pulled it down. Luckily only frog water was spilled and no actual frog bodies. By this time they had grown to be about the same size and so we were able to move them into a new container. Unfortunately, it was one of my favorite clear cookie jars, and again unfortunately, it began it's residence on a corner shelf in my kitchen. We decided after a few weeks to 'loan' the frogs to my cousin Kimmie since the novelty of them had long since worn off for me, and was finally starting to wear off on Jason. We thought the move to Kim's would be okay with Spencer until it was 'Pet Week' at pre-school and he realized that not only were these his only pets, but they were lame. No dogs or cats around here. Just underwater frogs. Needless to say, they stayed and whatta ya know, a fish joined them. Seperate containers but now hanging out right next to each other. After all, lame pets are better than no pet at all to a four year old. Our frogs look something like this (sorry for the quality, I had to use an internet found pic since the water in our container is so dirty right now, this sentence is completely being aimed at Jason, but I know it won't do any good).

When we left for our vacation a few weeks ago, we kinda forget to ask anyone to tend to our 'pets'. Thanks goodness for Kim, the animal lover, who so kindly came over on her own and fed our frogs. When we got home, Jason remembered the poor little guys and fed them again. A few days later, I came out of the shower to find everyone looking around the house for an apparent lost object. Jason looked up and quite seriously and completely casually says, "Do you know what happened to Spencer's frog?" Uh, excuse me? I of course then realize everyone is looking around the house for a missing, underwater only, frog. Which in my mind translates to a missing, underwater only, DEAD frog. After searching everywhere and discussing the logistics of such a disappearance, we came up with nothing. No tracks, no evidence, no body. We're still not sure if one of them could have really jumped out, or if one of our frogs suddenly turned cannibalistic. For a few days I was super paranoid about any area that smelled a little funny or anytime a dark, stiff and dead looking object was found. Like one of these little scuba diver guys that Sophie so nicely scattered all over the house the same afternoon the frog went MIA.

It's unreal how 'dead frog like' these guys look when sticking halfway out from under a closet door, or the couch, or in the bottom of a toy basket...
And we still don't know where our frog is.

To the Batcave, Robin!

So, over here we have the future family salesman, while over here, Spencer's remaining true to his alter-ego's (yes, he has more than one).
Thanks to this movie...

I often catch him doing this...

and yelling things like, "Holy Shardines!" and pointing out to his dad all his "Batcave" entrances.

The Little Guy is on His Way

I had an ultrasound today to see if there was a reason I'm measuring 4 weeks small. We were a little worried and a little excited since we figured we'd get a good look at the little guy just 4 weeks from his arrival. Too bad he's wedged in there face down, butt up. The craziest thing was that one of his feet was directly next to his cheek. I can't even begin to visualize how he's crammed in there. The ultrasound tech showed us exactly where everything is sitting and he's sitting CRAZY low! His butt is up to the right of my belly button (from my view) and you can sometimes feel his spine when he bows his back. I was wondering earlier today what part of him was visibly sticking out on one side of me, happened to be his back. So, my fluids were fine, but he seems to be a little small and his growth rate percentage is slowing down a little bit. After we talked for a few minutes about the size of my other two babies, and how small Jason's family is, Dr Anderson looked up and said to Jason, "Yea, your head is a little small." Apparently that makes him feel better about Carson! So, on July 17th at 7:30 a.m. the last of our crew will be joining us. I can't even believe its just a few weeks away... And to all you crazy newborn lovers, I'll be passing around his appointment book soon. He's got a lot of dates open!

*The funniest/worst part is when Jason came home last night and said, "Just don't have any more kids before July 18th." I looked at him and said, "Uh, that is when we're having him." His face completely fell. You see, The Dark Knight (the new Batman movie) is coming out on the 18th. We both loved the first one and have been anxiously anticipating the 2nd. We've spent all day discussing the appropriate age to leave a newborn with Rachael so we can go to the movies! If Jason disappears from the hospital and is gone for more than two hours I'm going to send someone to the theater to drag him out!

One Bad Friend

I forgot this girl's birthday yesterday. I hope she will forgive me. I actually remembered twice during the day, both when I was not at home and not near a computer. I am up to my eyeballs in busy-ness, entering inventory for the Halloween Store and having doctors appointments since I am nearing my due date and have completely lost track of real things, like the date. So, I am hoping to scrounge up some good pics of her and me and post them this weekend. Maybe then she will not hate me.

Beachy Bums

Here's a rundown of how we spent our week in Lincoln City.
DAY 1
Departure time: 6 a.m. Arrival: 1:00'ish

This is me cleaning up Spencer since he decided to puke literally the second we pulled in. Not the best timing, but certainly not the worst.


After getting everyone cleaned up and changed, we headed to the beach. Thank goodness we got there early, this was probably the nicest, warmest day we had.

DAY 2
Due to rainy, cold weather we didn't take many pics. Spencer got to head to Depoe Bay with everyone while Jason, me, and Sophie went shopping for some warmer clothes for her. They found a delicious place to eat called "Avast, A Pirate's Bite" that we frequented throughout the week. Her brownies were to die for.

DAY 3
Also a cold, rainy day. My camera got another break, until the evening. We were all sitting around when Colton comes busting through the door telling us he had broke one of Uncle Jason's teeth. We didn't take him seriously at first, there were no tears, no yells from next door, no visible signs of any mishaps. Then Jason walks in, smiling and holding in his hand the temporary cap he's had on his front tooth for 5 or 6 years now. Uh, this is late Friday night. What is there to do? We checked the Yellow Pages for any dental places that would possibly be open on a Saturday. Not much luck in a tourist town. We already had plans to head to Walmart so we added 'teeth glue' to our list and headed out. I'm looking around trying to locate their raingear when I notice that Jason isn't with me anymore. I turn around and find him searching the ground. Takes me a minute to realize what he's doing. He's searching the main aisle of white tile looking for his tooth. You see, he had decided that rather than be embarrassed looking like a hill-billy, he would just keep shoving the cap back on as best as he could. He never anticipated it falling out, especially in the middle of Walmart. 20 minutes later, the little piece of plastic was found, along with some glue that claimed it would work. It didn't. The rest of the weekend was spent with me doing most of the talking in public, but occassionally I would forget and leave him open only to realize he had popped the cap back on so he could communicate without looking like white trash.

$90 later, late Monday afternoon, Jason had two full front teeth.

DAY 4
We packed a lot in on Saturday. The dads and boys went fishing at the hatchery first thing that morning, they all caught some trout and my dad had it smoked. Mmm, good stuff.
Then we headed to the bay to crab. Not a lot of luck in the crab department this year. Lots of catching, not much keeping, they were all too small.

Getting the pole ready.

Digging a hole. Later, Spencer climbed in it.

She was a total beach bum. We couldn't believe how much she loved it!
We met up with everyone else that evening at a park they had found the day before. It was a great playground and had a gorgeous view of Devils Lake.


Since the weather was great after two days of rain, we headed to the ocean after the playground.

Aunt Rach and Aunt Lisa jumped waves with the kids. They loved it!

DAY5
Another sunny day, so we headed to the other side of Devils Lake where we rented two pontoon boats and cruised the lake for a couple hours.


It was a little cool and breezy but the kids loved it. We also got to see a bald eagle flying above us out on the lake. It was pretty cool. After going home for lunch, we headed back to the bay.

The boys had a great time playing in the water. After a bit, Steve and Lisa and their fam joined us. Easton and Graycie took the alligator and shark out into the bay and Easton ended up a little too far out. Startled by a little drop off, he let go of the shark and it went floating across the bay. Gramps decided that he would go rescue the shark. A mile or two down the highway he accessed the beach by a little restaurant and waded in up to his mid-calf to retrieve the shark. He provided a little entertainment for all the window-side diners.

This is what one looks like after throwing one of those face-planting fits straight into the sand 'cause mean Aunt Rach wouldn't let her eat a piece of sand covered licorice.

She loved playing in the water, no matter how cold it was!

DAY 6
We headed into Newport to the aquarium. While we were there, we got to watch one of the biologists suit up and climb into a tank. She was removing two of the eels, who had been sick, to see if they were responding to some medication they had been given. After catching one in a net, a volunteer from the aquarium carried it down the ladder and placed it in a bin of water right in front of us. It was pretty cool to watch.

They added some funky artwork to some of the tanks.

Spencer in the shark tunnel, always a super cool part of the aquarium. Even Sophie loved watching all the sharks swim by.

We had lunch then stopped in Depoe Bay to do some quick shopping. It was just me and the kids with my parents at this point, Jason had headed in for his dentist appointment. Soph and Gramps had stayed in the truck. Lucky for him she decided she needed a little nap!

DAY 7
We woke up to another rainy, windy, cold day. We lounged around most of the morning and then hit the outlet mall that afternoon. By evening it had cleared and we spent the last evening of our trip walking down the beach. I was totally lame and forgot to tote the camera down to the beach with us.

DAY 8
We try to drag out our vacation as long as possible so we plan to make some sort of stop in Portland for some last minute fun. Last year we went to the Enchanted Forest, this year we went to the Portland Zoo. We spent 5 hours there and still didn't see all the animals! We took a little train ride which was super pretty and went through the "Dinosaur Walk" which is a temporary exhibit.

They were a little shocked when this one spit at them!

This is before T-Rex growled...

This is after. Needless to say, it caught Easton off guard! We ended the day with a quick bite to eat then headed home. After all that walking, and being 33 weeks pregnant, it was the quickest trip home since I slept almost as much as the kids did. I would wake up, check on Jason, and immediately fall asleep again!

Thanks so much to these two amazing parents/grandparents for all they sacrifice, especially peace and quiet, to take all of us with them when they could so easily leave our sorry, poor bums at home!

Spotlight on Sophie

Much like this post, I have felt over the last couple weeks that my adorable little girl had been snatched and replaced with a much less appealing clone. The last day or two has given me the slightest hope that my original child may still be in there somewhere, possibly buried underneath 28 lbs of pure chub. It's seriously hard to believe by the following pictures that she could be anything but pure sweetness, but if you don't believe me ask anyone who's been around her lately and they will back me up. Is it possible to hit the "terrible twos" at 13 months? I'm posting these in an attempt to bring my real daughter back, or maybe just to remind myself that things aren't as bad as they seem...

I think she see's them coming to snatch her...

Happiness really can be found in chocolate...Just don't ask how many puddings I let her have that morning, all in the name of getting housework done. I could be turned in.

How sweet are they? In still-life form at least.

Maybe you have to be the same height in order to get hugged. The rest of us, we just get hit. We're working hard on correcting this behavior, though it is the tiniest bit funny when she hangs her head, pokes out her bottom lip and pouts when she hears the words, "Sophie, be soft!"

Maybe today's tragedy will jar a little something and in the morning my sweet lil Sophie will be back. She didn't fare well trying to get out her Aunt Rachy's sliding glass door today, or the other day when her thumb got smashed in the gate, or when her cousin bit her twice in 10 minutes a few days ago...Poor thing. The bruise above the scratch should look lovely by morning.

Up for a Vote

We've recently decided that its time to buckle down and pick out a name for the next baby boy. He'll be here in just a couple months and I don't want to come home from the hospital with "Baby Boy Buchanan." Here's what we're considering...
1) Larson Momake
2)Carson Delmer
3)Shiner Goben
It's up to you to decide which two were provided by Spencer.