you know you're a mom when...

...you look forward to doing the laundry just so you can see your daughter's reaction to her favorite cinderella underwear being clean.

And she makes it worth it, trust me.

thanksgiving

A day later than promised, but here's the post about thanksgiving. Little Ty man had a fever of 103 last night so not much got done. He seems a little better today, no fever at least.

We'll start with Tyler and the urinal because I know you are all so curious. On Wednesday night we went bowling with Jeremy's family and it was a lot of fun. The kids were both being pretty good but it was getting late and Tyler was tired so I was trying to find ways to entertain him. Finally I decided to just let him walk around and he headed straight for the mens room. I thought about running in after him but Jeremy was close by so I just asked him to go get Tyler, and then I thought to myself and probably said out loud, "he's going to find him with his hand in a urinal". I was close. After a few minutes Jeremy comes out and announces that by the time he got in there Tyler had picked up one of the blue urinal cakes and was walking around with it! GROSS! The minute he saw Jeremy he threw it, like he does with everything. I didn't think to ask then, but I'm wondering now, did Jeremy pick up the urinal cake and put it away or did he leave it on the ground? Hmmmmm. Anyway, it was fun overall and Alexis only got her finger smashed in the ball return once!

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. Jeremy's parents and two brothers drove out from Iowa, then his sister came down from BYU-I, and his brother and two other sisters and their families all came to our house for Thanksgiving. It wasn't as crowded as it sounds and it was fun to have everyone together. I did realize, though, that I am not equipped to prepare food for 13+ people! Thankfully I have a good neighbor who let us borrow some pans, and her oven, and a table and chairs.

I thought about putting on a list of all the things I'm thankful for because I've been thinking about that lately, but it would be long, and in-depth, and I've already gotten emotional enough on this blog for one year. But just know that I'm thankful for lots of things, I've been very blessed in my life.

Last night we made our annual Christmas countdown chain. This is only the second year we've done it, but I think that counts as annual. Last year I got this idea to make a chain so Alexis has some visual to help her see how soon Christmas is, but I didn't want to lose the spirit of Thanksgiving either, so on each link we put a picture of something we're thankful for. I think last year was a little easier because Alexis didn't realize that things in the magazines are for sale, but she knows this year. So every time she saw something she wanted she'd say, "I'm thankful that I can get this for Christmas". But we eventually got through it, and here's something she's thankful for that I couldn't find a picture of last night:Don't worry, she's thankful for Jesus and her family too.

Here's a cute picture of Tyler with a mini broncos football Jeremy got him. He loves it and carries it everywhere! And he's wearing his broncos jersey, which thanks to his cool Aunt Tricia and Uncle Anonymous, he's got another one when he grows out of this one!

b-b-b-broncos

This past week has felt like an eternity, but a good eternity. Here's a fill-in.

On Monday Jeremy and I drove to Denver. It took us about 7 hours, and we only stopped twice. Why? Because we had no kids with us. The car was quiet, except when we turned our music up really loud. Why? Because we had no kids with us. We got to Denver, checked into our hotel, got ready for the evening and set out. What did we pack? Warm clothes, that's it. No sippy cups, no diapers, no snacks, no toys, nothing that resembled kid paraphernalia. We walked around the stadium, going where WE wanted, doing what WE wanted and stayed there for hours, long past a kids bedtime. Then we got on the light rail and went home. We contemplated going out or something, but even though we didn't have kids with us at the time, we couldn't escape their training and sleep was calling us. The next morning guess what we woke up to? Nothing, not a sound. No crying, no talking. The plan was to sleep in, so we did, until 8:30 am. Again, we've been trained. When did we have breakfast, not until 11:30 and no one screamed or cried about it!! Can you tell I enjoyed my carefree self?

Now here's a serious report. For those that don't know, Jeremy is a huge Denver Broncos fan. He has been since a little boy and his childhood dream has been to go see them play a game at Mile High stadium. Since they tore that down he made due with a game at Invesco Field @ Mile High.
I am not a football fan, not at all. I think there are a million better things I could be doing than watching a 3 or 4 hour football game. Plus it has a million little confusing rules and I'm afraid that if I learn them something important will fall out of my brain, because it's really not that big. But I have to admit that I had a lot of fun! I think it was mostly fun because I knew how exciting it was for Jeremy. Plus I'm a people-watcher, so if I got bored I just watched all the people around me...there were 76,000 to choose from. Also, I took a book so while all the pre-game stuff was going on I read that. And I got a cool orange hat. Who doesn't like orange?The drive to Denver was really nice, the weather in Denver on Monday was a warm 72 degrees. Can you believe that? I couldn't. The next day was not so warm, but I didn't have to sit outside for hours that day, so I didn't mind. Our seats were about as high up as you could get, but they were still awesome because there was no one behind me to spill beer on me. Jeremy thought that was a weird thing to think about, but he changed his mind when the lady in front of us spilled beer on the lady in front of her.It was an exciting game, and the crowd was really great. They really played up the fact that it's a Monday Night Football game and on ESPN, so they gave everyone orange pompoms and had skydivers drop in and had lots of fireworks and orange balloons. It was all very fun. And the Broncos even won, which made it more fun.

And I will have you know that we passed mile marker 273 in Wyoming and had plenty of gas, and I marveled at the fact that Jeremy has still never gotten mad at me for running out of gas at that spot in the cold nighttime on our way to Iowa back in April. He's great isn't he?Here's a cool picture Jeremy took, the smoke is from the fireworks.
Some of you are wondering what we did with the kids. No we didn't leave them to fend for themselves. Though I had a dream like that once...it was horrifying. Jeremy's parents were in town for Thanksgiving so they watched them for us. I'm not sure I'll ever let them again because my kids did not want me after that! (Except I will let them, that was a joke.) I thought for sure Tyler would at least be happy to see me, but he walked right by me into Jeremy's arms. And Alexis appeared happy to see me but she wouldn't let me touch her or hug her or even talk to her. But the next day when I was about to go outside for a minute and she thought I was leaving her, she got kind of panicky. So I guess that says something.

This post is already really long, I'm not sure I should continue or just save it for later. It's late, maybe tomorrow I'll post about the giving of thanks and Tyler's hand in a urinal. Yeah, that'll get you to come back!

Peter

I apologize in advance if this is hard for anyone, particularly my family, to read. It's written more for my sake than anyone else.

27 years ago today this boy was born, and the world became a better place.A year and a half later I joined the family and could not have asked for a better big brother. I was the epitome of the annoying tag along younger sister, but Peter was not a typical older sibling. He always let me come along, even if I got in the way, and he never made me feel like he wished I wasn't there. And I believe that is quite possibly because he rarely did wish that. And as we got older he even invited me to tag along. He loved and respected my parents and taught the rest of us to do the same. He is part of a family that loves each other and respects one another, and I believe he was the example for the three of us that followed him.

I wish I had been wiser when I was younger because then I wouldn't have complained so much. I wouldn't have complained when he turned his classical music up sooooo loud in the car, I wouldn't have complained when he practiced the piano while I was watching TV, I wouldn't have complained that I had to sleep on the couch when he came home from college so he could have his own room.

But there are so many more memories that I hold dear to my heart. I remember keeping the doors to our rooms open when we went to bed so we could talk down the hall to one another. I remember seeing my big senior brother in school while I was just a little freshman, and him always saying hi and sitting by me at lunch. I remember feeling so sad for him when he ran for class office and he didn't win. I think I was more sad for him than he actually was. I remember attending the symphony with him, and how he taught me the appropriate times to applaud. I remember taking him to BYU and returning home, knowing that it wouldn't be the same there without him. I remember missing him so much while he was on his mission, but so grateful that his goodness finally got to spread further and help more people. I remember visiting him at his apartment after his mission, seeing him on campus, and having a class with him. And I remember him being kind to every person he met. Every person. In a class I had at BYU with both of my brothers I remember our teacher coming in and asking how our weekend was. Some replied while others didn't say anything. Then Peter said, "and how was your weekend?" It struck me then that he considered people as people and nothing else. He respected her as a teacher, but he treated her as a friend, like he did everyone else. Because of him I try to remind myself everyday to be more kind and less judgemental of the people I encounter. I'm afraid I fall short all too often, but I continue to try and follow his example.
I am indebted to my Heavenly Father for many things, but on that list is his allowing me to be in the same family and so near one of the best people ever to live for as many years as I was allowed. And I'm grateful that I have the rest of my life to remember Peter and try to deserve the love and pride he always showed me.

beat me with the drumsticks...that's gotta be less painful than dinnertime

Tyler's favorite toy is a drumstick. So today we gave him the accompanying drum. He sat there and beat it (left handedly) again and again and again and again. Then he figured out that if he hit the metal side it makes a different sound. So then he hit the drum head, side, drum head, side, repeat, repeat, repeat. It's a simple rhythm, I'm sure you've got it. And though it's simple he beat it out better than I would have I'm sure. Any rhythm he gets will be thanks to Jeremy.

Does anyone out there speak Kid? I don't obviously because I've sat here for the past 45 minutes trying to get Alexis to eat 1/8 of a potato. I've been speaking English and I'm beginning to wonder if that's the problem. The thing about Kid that is so tricky is that it's really a variation on English, but just because you speak English doesn't mean you speak Kid. So while a child may understand your English words, until you hit on the exact right combination of them, with the right inflections and facial expressions, nothing clicks. Here's what I've tried so far, and none of them seem to translate.

*sit down and eat your food please.
*SIT down and EAT your food!
*SIT DOWN and EAT your FOOD NOW!!!
*do you want to sit in the highchair? Cause that's whats going to happen if you don't sit down.
*eat your food and you can have that granola bar.
*eat your food and you can have some candy.
*eat your food and you can have a new car.
*sit down and eat and I'll never make you do a chore in your life.
*sit down and eat or else you'll have to go in your room.

So anyone want to guess where Alexis is now? I'll give you a hint, it's not in a new car.

snow or leaves...which is more fun?

On Thursday night I went with my dad to a free snowshoeing clinic at REI. This is where they make you so scared of avalanches that you don't leave your house all winter. And then they try and sell you on all this gear that you won't really need because you won't be leaving your house. Actually, it was fun and it's made me excited to try snowshoeing, so for the first time in my life I'm actually excited for it to snow. I've always been scared of being buried alive in snow anyway, so I won't be doing anything risky like going in the back country.

So here's a bunch of pictures of Tyler doing cute things.
This one looks a little indecent, but everything's covered. I debated about posting it but there's nothing cuter than those fat legs, so I had to share! Tyler's favorite thing to do is get up in the middle of a diaper change (after he's been wiped) and run around half naked. He hasn't yet peed on my carpet or furniture, but I'm sure once he does I won't be so willing to let him do this.

Looks comfortable doesn't he? This is how he was sitting as he ate dinner the other day.

Where's Tyler?

Peek-a-boo!

This weekend we went up to Ogden to rake up the leaves in Jeremy's grandparents backyard. We enjoy doing things like this because we don't have a yard with leaves. In fact our yard requires pretty much no maintenance, which is good because it gets neglected. We had lots of help from my parents and Jeremy's sister and her husband. It only took a few hours and the weather was gorgeous!! I couldn't believe it was November! And during a bit of down time we climbed a tree, sorry, there's no pictures of that. You'll just have to take my word for it.Alexis buried in the leaves.

We sat Tyler down in the leaves and he didn't dare move.

Piles of leaves and the tree we climbed.

Cramming 20 bags of leaves into the truck bed!

We've got a busy week ahead of us while we get ready for Thanksgiving, and a visit from Jeremy's family, and our trip to Denver to see the Bronco's play. Which means I'll have more to post about later!

gross freaky fast freak bug

There is a bug on my computer monitor...right now. I'm not sure what to do. I don't want to flick it because sometimes when you flick bugs they don't move because they are either freakishly strong or extra sticky; and both options disturb me. And I don't want to get toilet paper and squish him because then I'll have to clean the monitor. Fortunately he's sitting on the right side of my wide-screen monitor, so he's not in the way of much. I don't know what kind of bug it is but I'm pretty sure he was sitting on my wall yesterday. Well, I usually only do something about the creepy crawlies that move, like spiders, so there's a good chance that this guy will just sit here until Jeremy comes home and is bugged (pun intended) enough to do something about it.

Oh my gosh, I think he can read! Just as I typed that he flew towards me, I had a minor freak-out, and then he flew away. It's good to know that bugs feel threatened at the mere mention of Jeremy's name.

So this has reminded me of something I hoped to never be reminded of. Except that I took a picture of this thing once so obviously I will be reminded. Here is the thing.
I looked it up once years ago and I think it's called a House Centipede. I prefer to call it the "gross freaky fast freak bug". Say that 5 times fast. Just looking at this picture is making my stomach knot up and I'm pretty sure I'm going to throw up. Then I'll have to take a shower just to make sure there aren't any crawling on me.

Fortunately the only place I have ever encountered the "gross freaky fast freak bug" was in our basement apartment in Provo. And not the weird apartment like you might think, it was the normal one. We lived under a chiropractors office and the apartment was actually very nice, but one day I saw one of these things in the bathroom. Be sure that I screamed and panicked and possibly even cried. Then I killed it, but not without a chase first. They are incredibly fast (who wouldn't be with that many legs?), plus I had to keep a reasonable distance because I was worried that it was going to grow wings or super jumping legs and come at my face. After that I started noticing them all the time. They seemed to like door frames, probably so they could try and drop onto my head when I wasn't looking. Of course this was all at the time that Alexis was a little baby and would wake up at night, which required me to walk into her room IN THE DARK. I kept my slippers right by my bed, turned upside down like I was camping, to make sure that the bug would not crawl inside, and I'd put them on in case I accidentally stepped on one. And here's another crazy thing about them, their blood was blue...but maybe that's not so crazy for a bug, what do I know?

Well, since the bug is gone I guess I can quit thinking about this horrible stuff and move on with my life. I hope none of you out there have to deal with "gross freaky fast freak bugs", or anything else equally horrible.

i hate daylight savings

I really do hate it. I never knew I would, because really, how could anyone hate an extra hour of sleep? But it's really just a trick. For people with kids its not an extra hour of sleep, it's an extra hour of awake. And it has turned my kids, mainly Tyler, into monsters because their schedules are all thrown off. Tyler had FINALLY started sleeping in until about 8, sometimes 8:30, every morning. Now he's up at 7, and this morning he got up about 6:30, and I believe that no one should have to interact with their kids before 7 am. Plus, he still doesn't get to bed until 8, and his extra hour of awake has not been pretty. Right now he's in his bed screaming and I'm down here praying that he'll fall asleep for just an hour so I don't have to listen to him whine!

But here's something cute he's doing. He's learning to feed himself with a spoon. I have a love-hate relationship with this stage because it's so cute but it's sooooooooo messy. And did I mention he uses his left hand? It's funny to watch him dip his spoon in his bowl, get absolutely nothing on it, and hurriedly put it in his mouth with on obvious "I'm proud of myself" expression on his face.

On Saturday night Jeremy and I went to a club in Park City to see Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers perform. They aren't really radio played so they don't have a huge following compared to some bands but I'd say that the fans they do have are loyal. It was probably the best show I've ever been to! They played for about 2 1/2 hours and sounded just as good at the end as they did at the beginning. The band was having fun and everyone in the crowd was having fun, and it was just awesome. Downside? They didn't finish until after 1 in the morning, which means we didn't get home until 2 am. For an old mom like me that's late! But it was fun to go with Jeremy and some of our friends and I remembered how much I like going to concerts and how much I've missed it! But between getting a babysitter (thank you rachel!) and getting no sleep it's not worth it unless it's going to be an incredible show, which this one was.

And guess what? Tyler is asleep! Everybody celebrate!

halloween horrors

So since I'm not big into Halloween Jeremy was on his own for finding a costume...again (he likes to wear one to work when possible). This year he decided to rent a costume. And what did he rent? I'll give you a clue.

I love you, you love me,
we're a happy family,
with a great big hug
and a kiss from me to you,
won't you say you love me too?

Barney. He said it was the dumbest thing he could find, but I think really he just wanted to upset Alexis, which he did. The video isn't super high quality, but I didn't feel like waiting an hour for the larger better quality one to upload. Also, please ignore the piles of laundry in the background. I'll have you know they are at least clean AND folded.

My favorite part of this video is what she says after she discovers that barney is really Jeremy. After 4 minutes of near tears and fear she says, "oh, I like your costume"! But she changed her mind again when we went trick-or-treating, she kept looking at him like, "why are you still following me?" And when she would get tired of walking she would NOT let barney touch her. Good thing Tyler was okay with him or else I would have wound up carrying them both around the neighborhood. I may be pretty super but I'm not superwoman.
Once we got home from our Halloween festivities Alexis wanted to look at her candy, so we dumped it all out on the couch. After awhile I noticed she was "playing family" as she calls it, with her suckers. There was a mom, a dad, a brother, a sister and about a million little babies. Lollipops are her treat of choice and they made up 1/3 of her bucket of candy this year. I even counted them. There's 24. Well, today there's only 23.
And no, we didn't carve any pumpkins. And yes, I'm glad this holiday is over.

brought to you today by my 3 year old

Don't let the title confuse you, Alexis is not writing this post. It's just inspired by her.

Lately we've been playing a funny game at our house named by Alexis, "You be wrong and I be right". She called it this because she hasn't yet figured out that moms are always right. This is how we play. Everytime she puts different clothes on (so at least twice a day) she says, "okay mom, you be wrong and I be right". That means I then have to pretend that she needs to put her pants on her arms and her shirt on her legs. And then she'll say, "no, you're wrong mom, let me show you". To which I respond, "no, I don't think you're right, it doesn't go like that". And then when the object of clothing fits the way it was designed I act shocked and amazed. We've been playing for a few weeks now and she hasn't gotten sick of it yet. It's actually been good to play because it lets her feel like she has more control.

And for fun, here's a list of the things she's asked about their ability to pee. Sheep, cows, spiders, and monkeys. She says none of them pee, they "just walk around". Leave it to Alexis to make me lie awake at night wondering if spiders really do pee. Do they?

Halloween pictures to come later, and maybe even a video!