Playdate at McDonald's

When I woke up this morning, I was really dredding the day. We have had a few really rough days. This kids have been OUT OF CONTROL! They have been getting into everything, fighting a ton, crying, complaining. When I saw that it was raining today, all I chould think about is "what are they going to get into today." I know that they have been couped up in this house way too long. They have so much energy that they keep using it on things that get them into trouble. So I had an idea, I called my cousin that I hadn't seen in a long time and asked her if she and her kids wanted to meet us at McDonald's to play. So we went and had lunch there today, and the kids got to play for a few hours. This was the best idea that I have had in a long time. The kids are now sound asleep, and I am hoping that they are going to be a little less wild for the rest of the week!

Here are some pictures of the kids playing. (FYI, my flickr sight will be working tomorrow! YAY!)

Dooce, the Master of Bloggers!

A few years ago, when I was a working mom, a friend told me about a blog that I had to read. http://www.dooce.com/ At the time I didn't even know what blogging was, but my friend said that she was funny, from Salt Lake City (where I am from) and that she has been all over the news because of her blog. She is practically famous. She got fired from her job because of her blog.

So I thought it would be interesting to check it out. I have been a faithful reader ever since. I have been reading her blog through pregnancy, post partum depression, being in a mental hospital, family changes, funny moments with her daughter, and even funnier momments with the "Avon's World's Sales Leader". Most of which have been things that I have gone through as well. She has shown to me that no matter what people think of you, you are you. It only matters at the end of the day what you think of you.

Her post today really touched me! "Celebrating Five Years of Public Stupidity, The Post" It is a subject that is dear to most of my readers. Staying at home with your kids. So I would love for you guys to stop by and read it. Let me know how you feel on the subject. I would love to see what some of my readers think about it.

For me, staying at home was the hardest decision that I have ever had to make. At the time my husband wasn't in the work feild that he wanted to be, he was still going to school, and I made more money than him. These were all things that we stressed about daily. I knew that I wanted to be at home with my kids. I knew that I wanted to raise my kids, not the babysitter. I knew that I wanted to be there for them when they needed me. I also knew that if I quit my job, we may not be able to pay our bills. This was a very hard time for me. Well, with a lot of thought and a little planning, and a ton of praying, my husband and I decided that I was going to quit.

I am not going to sit here and say that every day has been wonderful. From the name of my blog we all know that it isn't. But I have been blessed in so many ways since I have been home with them. I have been blessed with patience, more love, oportunities, great times, the ability to teach, and to learn, the means to make it work financially every month, best of all a relationship with my kids that I wouldn't have had any other way, and many more ways than I can even count.

Mostly I love being at home with my kids. They are the joy of my life. I wouldn't have changed the last year and a half for anything!

Eternal Flowers

My husband always says that he has a hard time buying flowers because you spend so much money on them, then they die so fast. Well, I told him that I love to get flowers because they add so much joy to my day. Even if they only lasted an hour. So that is part of what he got me for Valentine's Day. It has been almost two weeks now and they are still sitting on the table looking so beautiful. Since I do photography I thought that I would share some of my pictures with you. These are my Valentine's flowers. Aren't they pretty?

ROCK ON!!!

Here at our house we sing. We don't just sing a little, I swear that we are ALWAYS singing. The kids love to sing so I am always trying to teach them new songs. I try to teach them nursary songs, or disney songs, songs from church, or just any kids song I can think of. For the past coupple of days my kids have made it well known what is their favorite songs. My little dude's is Sean Paul, Temperature http://www.sean-paul.net/ (you can hear the song by changing the song in the top right hand corner on this link's page).
My little princess' new favorite is Ashlee Simpson, L.O.V.E http://www.ashleesimpsonmusic.com/default.aspx (click to listen). I think this is totally funny because whenever Temperature is on little dude will turn the radio ALL the way up and dance. My little princess will sing "L-O, L-O, L-O, L-O-V-E" in the car, in the bath, when she plays, ALL the time.
I have tried to teach them good songs to sing, but it is apperent that my kids like to rock!

F.Y.I The song that has been stuck in mommy's head, The Backyardagains
http://www.nickjr.com/home/shows/backyardigans/videos/yetistomp.jhtml
How backwards is that?

Once you learn it you will never forget it!

Ok the funniest thing happened today! (Everytime I think about it I have to laugh!) We all know that potty training has been quite the adventure, but what happened this morning makes it all worth it!
After my little dude got up this morning he went potty and took off his diaper. (he only wears them in bed). While I was making breakfast he ran down stairs with his pants pulled down. He was laughing so hard, and kept running around pulling his pants up and down mooning me. I was laughing so hard that I was almost crying! My husband came down stairs and I said something about our son keeps mooning me. My little dude picked up on it and started yelling "mooning" while he was running in circles mooning the family. Oh it made my day!

This is the cutest thing you will ever see!

My sweet husband is such a great dad! Last night I caught him painting my little princess' finger nails and toe nails. It was so cute! He is funny about things like this because he likes painted toe nails. He used to paint mine all the time when we where first married. Now I must admit that he has painted little prinecess' nails more times than I have. This is ok because I think that it is a great memory that she will have! He will also do her hair too! Just look at her! She loves it!

"There are only monsters in stories and in Texas."

The other day we went to take a valentines card to my nieces. One of them is one month older than my little dude and has a very creative imagination. Just before we left their house she told my little dude a little story (obviously made up) about something to do with witches in her house and in her car. I didn't think much about it really, I kind of laughed and walked out of the door. I was helping my little dude get into the car and I noticed that he had a very disturbed look on his face. He then asked me if there were witches in my sister's car. I just said "oh no, I don't know where she got that from." Well, on the way home my little dude in a very shaky voice asked again, "Mommy, are there witches in [her] car?". I said no and then he asked me if they were in their house. I said no again. Then he started to cry and asked if there were any witches at our house. At this point I could tell how scared he was and didn't know what else to tell him other than there wasn't. After I again tried to assure him that there were no witches in our house or in our car he said "I just want someone to keep me safe." Oh the tug on the heart strings! It was so hard not to cry myself. To see him so upset and crying, then asking for someone to keep him safe made me so sad. I had to call my sister and have her tell him that there are no witches, and that my niece was making it up. After he got off the phone he felt better. We were talking about how there are no witches, just like there are no monsters.
A few months ago he was afraid of monsters. We tried to tell him that there are only monsters in books. One day we were talking about it again, and he said "there are only monsters in books and in Texas." To this day I have no idea where he got that idea from, but I think that it is TOTALLY funny. So now if you ask him he will say "There are only witches and monsters in books and in Texas."
It is so funny how kids understand things! Who knows what we will do if we ever have to go to Texas!

Texas Bound.

My sister-in-law just moved back to Texas just a few days ago. She has three kids that where here lots this last summer. We had such a great time with her and her family! I am going to miss them. Here are just a few of very many pictures that we took of the kids playing. I wish them luck, and I pray for them every day!

A day of massage, chili dogs for dinner, an entire night of drugs.

Three years ago tonight I was in the hospital having my first child. Oh the memories. I had been in labor I swear for three months, bed rest for two months, and nine months of emotions that wouldn't stop. So naturally when my friend offered to give me a massage that is supposed to put women in labor, I was there within the hour. The entire rest of the day was labor pains, and excitement. It was wonderful! Then my mom fed me dinner, chili cheese dogs ( I do not advise for anyone in labor to eat chili). But when you are nine months pregnant you will eat almost anything.

I had worked myself up for nine months to have this child. So when I went into the hospital thinking that I was in labor, and they wanted to send me home I was not happy. I had it in my mind all day that it was THE DAY! I was not going to take my fat, pregnant butt home. Trying to keep my cool, I started to walk out the door. When one of the nurses came running after me and said that the doctor felt like he needed to do an ultrasound, I had never walked so fast. They found some problems and needed to start labor as soon as they could. So what do I do? Cry. After nine months of wanting to have that baby, I was so scared that now was the moment. All night I had great drugs, and things went great! He was a big kid, but we were so happy that he had joined our family.

Three years later we have our little problems, but he is such a joy to our family. He makes me laugh and cry, sometimes all in the same day. I am trying to be greatful for every moment. I want to have the good moments to out weigh the bad. The next three years are going to go by just like the last three. Time will keep going faster and faster. He will be driving, then having his own family before I know it. I need to make sure that I don't miss anything. I need to make sure that the things that we remember are the best memories that we can have.

Happy Birthday My little Dude.

Parental Control

There is this new show on tv that is called Parental Control. It is a show where the parents get to set up their son or daughter on a blind date with two potential replacements for their current boyfriend or girlfriend. I get the biggest kick out of watching it because it makes me think of all the guys that my parents would have loved to kick to the curb for me. In the beginning of the show the parents always go through the list as to why they hate the boyfriend or girlfriend. It would be so funny now to talk about all the things that my family thought was wrong about the guys that I brought home. (Maybe not, it might bring up too many bad memories for all of us.) This has sparked a little thought for me though that I must share.

I remember my family always asking what color of hair my new boyfriend had. This was always a game to them because it was usually not your typical blonde, or brown. It was usually blue, purple, green, whatever. The second question would always be where is their piercing? Looking back I am not sure that I ever dated a guy that didn't have any piercings. The last question was something never really asked, but I am sure that it was always thought. What has she gotten herself into now? This was never funny at the time, but looking back it actually is pretty funny. I dated some very interesting people. Some really tought me some good lessons in life, some I am really not sure what I was thinking. Even at a young age I knew that I was going to have an interesting time dating. When I was asked in church one day to write a list of all the qualities that I wanted in a future husband here is what it consisted of:

Tall
Handsome
Long Hair (this was popular at the time, but still a trend for the crazy hair)
Has a tattoo (crazy that I wrote this list when I was 12)
Strong
Spiritual
Strong testimony
and a Good personality

Go ahead laugh. I know that it all sounds funny with that combination of things. I was asked to put down what I really wanted, so I did.

Any guy that I ever brought home was always kind of scared of my family. I think likewise for my family. When my husband now came to meet my dad he had a bald head (for the record, he shaved it all off back then. He really can grow a beautiful head of hair) he had his ears pierced twice in each ear, had his tounge pierced, has a tattoo, and was a little rough. My dad told me once that he knew he was going to be the guy that I was going to marry from the minute he met him. Hummm. What was it that made him so different then? Well, I will tall you. Going back to the list of my idea of a perfect man, my husband has every quality on that list. I think that even though his outward apperance was a little rebellious, my dad knew from the minute he met him that he had all the other traits that was needed to make me happy for eternity! I hate to say this, but even though the road was long and really rocky to find my perfect guy, I knew what I wanted. Even at the age of 12! I wasn't going to back down either. I found him and he truly is everything that I wanted!

Happy 6th anniversary next week hun! I love you!

Winter.

I have always loved the winter. There is just something very calming about watching snowflakes fall, covering everything, making the world look clean and pure. Things seem so peacful. I don't really like this in-between crap where is it sunny outside, but cold, and there is snow still on the ground. To me this is a tease. Only because my kids are too young to understand that even though is it sunny outside it is still too cold to blow bubbles outside every hour. It is just to muddy to go play in the sand. And for heavens sake we just can't wear shorts yet. I don't know how I am going to convince them that they need to stay in for a few more months.
Now that I have been a stay at home mom for just over a year, I see winter in a whole new light now. This light unfortunatly isn't as bright. The kids get restless. The house gets messy from doing every activity inside. I get fat from not being as active. I am lazy because all I want to do is cuddle in a blanket to stay warm. We sleep in every morning because it is just too dark and cold to get out of bed. My skin gets so dry from taking 45 minute showers because that is the only time that I have any peace and quiet.
There are a few good things though. The kids are getting pretty creative. They run in circles around the living room, dining room, and kitchen. My husband and I call this game "running around like their hair is on fire." They have been building bridges out of the kitchen chairs. Swimming in the bathroom sink. Making the couch cushions into a trampoline is another favorite. The newest game is pillow fights. As for me and my restlessness, I have my blog. Oh, and for exersize, I get to follow the kids around picking up after them. Putting things back where they belong, and telling then that if they are not careful I am going to put the couch cushions in the basement with the kitchen chairs.

Today I am a nurse.

Well, my crazy kids were at it again today. Doing crazy things in their crazy way, making mommy go crazy. Today's little episode was a little funny, but kinda sad. We have two birds. These bird were a replacement of another bird that we got over the summer, Pollo. (Which means chicken is spanish.) Pollo died so we got two new birds Pollo Junior or we call him PJ and Pavo. Yes we have Pollo (or chicken) and Pavo (or turkey). Kind of funny, but anyway the kids love these silly birds, I will admit so do I. Here is what happened to our little PJ and Pavo.
I was down stairs working on stuff for my guitar students. When I got upstairs the kids had decided to wash the bird cage with Resolve carpet cleaner. The poor birds were drenched in carpet cleaner. I dropped both of them in a sink full of water to try to wash them off. I put them both in the bathroom to stay warm and FAR away from the kids. We are praying that the birds don't die. I am trying to nurse them back to health, but you never know what carpet cleaner will do to a bird.

OH BOY!!! See, my kids keep me busy!

My little Princess!

After all this talk about my little dude, I really wanted to write about my daughter. My little princess is the cutest, most adorable little girl on the planet! When I was growing up I was a little bit of a "tom boy". I never pictured me ever having a girl just because I always thought that I wouldn't know what to do with one. Well now that we have her I have been able to figure it out and with her help to find out the little girl inside of me. She loves to dress up, put on makeup, have her hair done, and play with dolls. Things I never did when I was a little girl, but enjoy doing them with her.
One of my favorite thing about my little princess is her eyes. Her bright blue eyes. They are in a way so sweet and so innocent, but in another they are so mischievous. She will look at me and I know how she is feeling, what she is thinking, or even if she has done something wrong. Just by the look in her eyes. I truly believe that you can see her soul through her eyes. (and they are so beautiful! or as she would say "beuffiful")
Another thing that I love about her is that she has the most amazing spirit about her. I don't know even how to describe this. The best way I guess is that when you are around her you can just feel so much love! She is, even at her young age, so amazing!
She is my little doll, I love her to death and I am so glad that she joined our family when she did. She has tought me so much about so many different things! She is going to grow up to do many great things in this world, and hopfully an amazing representative of a faithful daughter of God.

What a day!

Today is going to be a day that I will never forget! Not only was thismorning insane, but as the day went on it didn't get any better. When my little dude was crying to go with grandma I felt so bad for keeping him cooped up that I let him go. It was a little bit more peaceful this afternoon until my mother-in-law had called me to tell me to not freak out. My first thought was what in the world is wrong, and my second was what am I going to freak out about. (Everyone knows that when someone says not to freak out, we all end up freaking out in the end.) She had explained to me that she needed to take my sister-in-law to a lady's house that she cleaned for. I still don't know why, I just know that there were a few problems at that house a few days ago that my sister-in-law knew about. So she packed up all the kids in the van and headed out to this lady's house. Well, when my mother-in-law got there to drop her off, there were police everywhere and they were arresting the lady that they were there to see. Well, apperantly she had an argument with her boyfriend and he went crazy and started shooting a gun. Someone called the cops and he ran. My mother-in-law showed up right in the middle of all this. So the cops made her stay there and not get out of the car. (I need to add a little note that she had a van FULL of kids, one of which is my little dude.) They kept her there all afternoon. They needed my sister-in-law to make a statement and get things cleared up before they would let them go. With hearing all this I could just feel my blood pressure go up because all I could think about is that my son is stuck in a car, at a house where there was just a shooting. They didn't even know where the shooter was. They wouldn't let anyone leave or even get out of the van because they weren't sure if he was going to come back or not.
I was in such a panic! I turned on the news and sure enough, there it was breaking news! My heart started to pound, and all I could do was cry. My mother-in-law put mt little dude on the phone and he started saying "mommy these police cars are really neat! There are lots of them. I am having fun, and I haven't gone pee yet." (ok that was really cute of him to say that, because with his track record in the past few weeks, that was another thing that I started to worry about.) But he didn't even know how stressed out I was. He thought that he was in a movie or something. Well, to sum up the rest of the story, the shooter was later arrested, they let the lady and my family go about an hour and a half later.
This was a crazy experience for me. I realize that maybe I stressed a little too much about it, but it hurt me to know that my son was surrounded by such violence and I wasn't there to protect him. Every time I think about this afternoon I cry. I was so worried for him, and my family.
When you have children all you want to do is protect them from all the evil in the world. All you want to do it hold your hand over their eyes when something is happening that they shouldn't see. Or hold your hands over their ears when there is something that they shouldn't hear. I know that as my kids get older this will not go away, but be worse. I will want to put my hands on their heart so they will never be hurt, so that it will never break, so they will never feel pain, or be sad. That is the hardest part about being a parent. I can't protect them forever from things like this. I know that all I can do is teach them to survive when it does happen. Teach them where to turn. Teach them to choose the right, and pray for them when things get rough. After today, I am not sure that I am prepared for any of that.

Cousins, Bread, Toys, Mayham, Ibuprofen

Today we had a little get together with my in-laws. My mother-in-law wanted to spend some time here and wanted to make bread. My sister-in-law wanted to sort through some things before she moves. The cousins came and had nothing but play, play, play on their minds. I was a little nervous when I agreed to let every one come over, but excited to see everyone, and I knew the kids would love it. I thought that maybe this was the break that we all needed.
Here is a very brief explanation of the day:
Hellos, toys, clothes, chips, cries, time outs, yelling, apollogies, bread, movies, noise, no more movies, toys, more bread, nerves, things being flushed down the toilet (not sure even now what it was), toys all over the place, more clothes, more yells, find shoes, "get out in the car". "mommy, I want to go with them", more cries, more yells, goodbyes, headache, ibuprofen, hopefully later- a nap!

The trade off.

So my little dude has been doing awesome with his chart! It seems to be working. There is a trade off though. He still doesn't want me to help him. (I do try to hide around the corner though.) The times that I haven't been there to help him we have had a few problems. First, he doesn't really know how to wipe yet, so he has been getting it all over the toilet. (I am ok with this. I now have the cleanest floors AND toilets in town.) Our second problem is this, today he used an entire, let me repeat that, AN ENTIRE ROLL AND A HALF of toilet paper. This trend needs to stop, but I didn't get mad because for heaven's sake HE DIDN'T GET IT ON THE FLOOR!
He is really trying and we are so proud of him! I know that I will laugh about all this someday. He is growing up so fast, I need to just enjoy this time in his life because I am getting some good stories to tell his girlfriends some day!

My solution- Hope it works!

Here is my solution to our little poop problem. We have tried to get him to clean it up himself, he didn't really think it was that bad. He still doesn't have his train and he asks for it every day. We never took away his spiderman underwear because quite frankly I just don't want to do more laundry than I have to with less underwear.
So this is the plan. I have made him a chart that has two sides, one that says "Dry" with a picture of his train at the bottom. The other side says "Wet" with a picture of a birthday cake with a big X through it. These sides mean that if there are more sad faces on the wet side beccuse he went in his underwear, then he can't have his birthday party at the end of the month. But if there are more times that he keeps his underwear dry and goes in the potty, he gets his train back and gets to have a party.
I am praying this will work, because I really don't know what more to do! I will keep you all posted!

Who knew that laundry day was going to make my week!

Every Friday is laundry day at our house. (Well, ok most Friday's) I hate doing laundry, but you know, after the kids get peanut butter and jelly on every outfit they own it is hard not to do it. There is one thing, however, that I get a kick out of when I do laundry.
Have you ever seen the Simpson's where Homer and Bart put pots on their heads, and run down the hallway to see who can get knocked out first? Yea, this same type of thing happens at our house EVERY time I fold laundry. I have these really tall laundry baskets and the kids put them on their heads and run around and knock each other over. I think this is SO dang funny! The best part about it is that this is their time to play rough, no one cries, no one complaines, and we are all laughing our heads off! This is something that can change my mood anytime! I love my crazy kids!

Ok, ok, ok

So I am sitting here thinking about things, and I had a thought. I needed to make a post about something other than poop! So here are a few more things that are on my mind. (This blog isn't supposed to be about poop. I need to stop that trend right now.)

First, my little dude is really a good kid! All he wanted to do today after he got into trouble was to cuddle with mommy. I love that. Even though I had just yelled at him he still wanted to cuddle.

Second, I did the photography for another wedding this morning. I love shooting weddings! It reminds me of the day that I was married. Even more so now because my anniversary is at the end of this month. Anyway, it is so fun to see their newley married, glazed eyes. I remember that when I got married, I didn't even care how sick I was, or how cold I was, or who was there. All I cared about is the fact that I had just started my life with the neatest, most caring and loving guy on earth. Every time a do a wedding it reminds me that no matter how long I am married, I can still have the loving glaze in my eyes.

Third and last, it is amazing what life throws at you. If there is one lesson that I need to learn is that I HAVE GOT TO BE PATIENT! Being impatient doesn't make things come faster. Infact it makes it come slower. I can not predict what is going to happen! I need to stop trying. There are many things that are waiting to happen on my little road called life. You can't get to point C without going through point A and point B.

I love him, but.........

He just HAS TO STOP!!!! When I signed up to be a mother, I knew there was going to be times that I would have to clean up poop. BUT 6 TIMES IN 5 DAYS is enough for anyone to go crazy!
Now this wouldn't be a big deal if he had on diapers, or if he wasn't almost 3. This wouldn't be a big deal if mommy and daddy hadn't made a HUGE point the last 5 times he did it that he was going to loose his favorite train, and his spiderman underwear. Now his favorite train has been taken away, and he is well on his way to loosing his spiderman underwear. I really don't know what more a I can do!
AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I need a vacation.

10 reasons why mommy is going crazy!

#10 Poop!
#9 Tv drenched in windex
#8 Poop!
#7 The kids keep moving those dang kitchen chairs.
#6 Poop!
#5 Having a spitting contest at lunch.
#4 Poop!
#3 Throwing toys down the stairs.
#2 Poop!
#1 Because I have had to clean up poop off the floor 5 times in the last 4 days!

Oh yea! The tv thing it was kind of funny! The chairs are now in the basement. and I have the cleanest floors in town!