The Rawlberry patch

Struggle

2012-01-31T20:51:00.003-06:00

So is it possible to be having post pardum when your baby is 16 months old? still? Or do i just call in anxiety? Or low self esteem?

I usually don't like posts like this, but lately (as in the last month or so) I have been down down down. I've been super emotional and snappy, I have been having a hard time losing any of the last few pounds I want to lose and it has made me hate my body, I have found it frustrating every day, all day to be a mom and not yell and get mad at little things. I am trying so hard. I have been praying And praying for patience with my kids, my hubby, and myself. I have been reading talks and trying and trying and trying. I feel like I can not ever get everything I need to get done, done. There aren't enough hours, there aren't enough times I could give enough hugs and cuddles, and kisses. I don't ever want to cook, and cleaning is a must but I procrastinate till the end.

Maybe this is just part of being a mom, and everyone goes through times like this, but I gotta say that I feel all alone in it. When i see other moms, i have to remember I am seeing their best front, on blogs they are writing the best things. I mean come on, Friday family night? It's great and fun and wonderful but do i mention the day and hours leading up to it? Oh no no no! So I have to tell myself that I am normal and everyone goes though this. It is part of life and being a mom, and human.

Really, i have to keep telling myself that i am here on this earth to become a better more Christ like person. There are obstacles along the way and things that we need to learn about ourselves. Patience is a big one for me, and I am working so hard to be that way. I kmow I can't just pray and ask for it, but i need to work at it daily over and over.

Thanks for reading my blah blah blah. I just had to get that out there. To someone other than me, And other than certain men who just don't get it sometimes, even when they a super sensative and wonderful, even they just don't get it sometimes.

Ps. Family fun Friday didn't happen this week. The kids were naughty and got it taken away. Instead I watched "eat pray love", and "hello dolly!" By myself. I enjoyed both... A lot.

Take that Trash out

2012-01-23T23:45:00.002-06:00

Look at this sweet sweet baby. She looks so peaceful. She IS so peaceful. Look at her grabbing her favorite blanky and shoving it into her little mouth, and sticking her fingers through any hole she can. Than girl LOVES her blanky. I just love her. And do you know why she was so peaceful? She couldn't hear what was going on in the rest of the chaotic house with her industrial fan on. Lucky her. Drown out the noise!

Then, I took the trash out. I dont do this as much as I should, and I realized this for 2 reasons today.

1. I dont take it out as much as I should for the obvious. The trashes just get too full too fast and they should be taken out more. I mean I am clean but somehow we accumulate so much trash in our little home, it is ridiculous.

2. When I shut the door behind me today while walking the trash bag to the dumpster, It hit me. It was so peaceful and quiet outside. I usually head right back in, but today I took a few minutes extra. I didn't care what crying, teasing, bugging, screaming, or whinning was going on inside at that moment. I didn't hear it! It was glorious!

I immediatly after coming inside and returning to the hot mess of inside the house, called Brian and just put it in his radar that someday soon, he should take me out on a date. No kids, no other couples, Just nice quiet adult time. We have been trying to be on a very strict budget this month, and that meant no date night outs... I have missed our weekly outing! So he gets home, gets a sitter, and off we went on a date. It was heavenly. I loved the sweet peace of adult time. My hubs is a winner! Oh, and that Creme Brule that I got was insanely good.

Just for kicks, this picture sums up Boots pretty good...

Gotta Love him.

Family Fun Friday

2012-01-20T21:40:00.003-06:00

Another round of our Family movie night tonight and it was another hit! I was saving egg cartons this week, so what can ya make with Egg Cartons? CATERPILLARS!

So the birth of movie night - A Bugs Life!

We had tasty buggy food(spider sandwiches, bug ranch dip, Caterpillar cheese ball, ants on a log, worm ice cubes, dirt'n'worms) face painting of bugs, making egg carton caterpillars, *kind of cotton candy*, and a hunt for the food before the grasshoppers came!

The kids loved it. We had 2 other families over to make it more fun!

As another week comes to an end-ish, I make a sigh of relief. I have been so busy lately that it feels good to have a night to watch TV, or read, or just sit here and not move. I love to sit and not move. The bad of the weekend? We have been trying to lose a little weight and weekends we kinda take off. This is great until what we lose during the week is gained back on weekends. Ug. I suck. No, losing weight sucks.

BUT its the weekend so...

Hi Laundry

2012-01-18T21:03:00.002-06:00

So when we got home from Canada, we came back and as I tried to throw in my first load of laundry, my washing machine malfunctioned. So we were about 2 weeks without a washer and poor courtney was wearing some teeny tiny outfits for her voluptious self. I love that girl. I also love that my washer is fixed and we have clean clothes again. Still working on the huge piles that accumulated over that time, but I am getting there.
The weather here is fab. I cant complain about our 50/60/70's given it was -30 something in Calgary today. We left at just the right time it sounds! We have been enjoying the park, the broken down trampoline in our brown backyard, and "riding" bikes. NAtalie loves it but boots has other things on his mind and on his agenda. That kid is too busy to even keep busy.

Family Fun Friday

2012-01-16T21:53:00.002-06:00

I will not take credit for this idea. Family Fun Friday's. While pinterest-ing the other day I discovered this great idea of having a Family Fun Friday. We do have days every week where we spend time together (its called every night) but I wanted to have something fun for the the kids to look forward to, and thought this would be fun to start.

So Family Fun Friday. We take a movie and make the day's activities, or evening depending on how much time you have to put into it.

Brian chose the first movie and he chose Ratatouille. So I got to work thinking of some fun things to do and eat. That afternoon the 3 kids got to be chefs and help me make some mini chocolate chip cookies. Courtney was a newby to helping cook and she loved it. She also LOVED the dough.
Dinner was already planned for the night, Taco's so I didn't change that to something french, but...
I made chef hats out of paper and grocery sacks. Easy Peasy. The kids loved their hats!! Then I got some black streamers and made an Eifell Tower from the ceiling out of it. Didn't turn out as good as I wanted, but still the kids thought it was awesome. Over Dinner we tought a little french. Bonjour, Oui, etc...

I made up some movie tickets, and if they wanted their movie ticket they had to finish their dinner. Sneaky I know!

Earlier, while I was cooking dinner the kids got the coloring pages out and colored up some rats and chefs. Boots doesn't really like coloring. He gets bored fast, so next week I will have to come up with an activity that is better for him.

After Dinner, we jammied up and we headed out to the couch for more snacks. I made a fancy plate of cheeses, crackers, grapes and mini cookies. They were all to be eaten with fancy toothpicks of course. Courtney LOVED the cheeses and just was happy tottling around grabbing handfuls and shoving them in her mouth. Classic Court.

So it was a really fun night. The kids loved it, Brian loved it, and I loved it. I will FOR SURE keep this up and continue doing something each week. It does take some time and effort to plan ahead, but lucky for me, my kids think a movie with popcorn is super fun so anything above and beyond is AWESOME! So although it is now Monday, and I am behind on this post, Happy Family Fun Friday!

Go to www.familyfunfriday.blogspot.com/search/label/FFF for more ideas! I love them all and they just got my mind turning!

I'll never

2012-01-10T21:23:00.002-06:00

I will never buy my kids gifts that are breakable and of any kind of significance. Like ever. I love to make them happy and get them things they love, but it is so hard when they turn around and break them... A few days later. Point in case;

First natalie's snow globe. It was adorable and musical and much more than Santa wanted to spend. First the snow globe it self was dropped and broken, on carpet. Ug! Then her wings somehow magically broke off. They were then glued on and then that night she came back out to me amputee without an arm. I'm tempted to throw it away but know that she loves it. I also know that she obviously can not be trusted with anything breakable and of worth.

Second was boots' gumball machine. Santa also decided to spend too much on this. Instead of just getting the plastic mini one from the dollar store, he got the real deal. Now HE didn't break it, but somehow it broke, and can no longer be used. Again, we have been home a week.

It's just frustrating to spend money on things that just get broken and thrown away. Lesson learned for future gifts. Go small or go home!

The gains and losses.

2012-01-08T20:45:00.002-06:00

The first week home after the holidays has been bitter sweet.

Let's start off with the flu on the plane. Nothing like being squished in a smelly airplane bathroom trying to throw up quietly in a little airsickness/dirty diaper baggy. Woof. I was happy to get home and get a shower and get in my bed.

We had some friends come into town so it was something really fun to look forward to. They stayed only a day but we managed to squeeze in a Dallas maverick game and some yummy Mexican food. Can i just say, I am slightly obsessed with the fact that Chloe and Lamar are in Dallas. Like love it. I spent most of the game scanning for sassy brunettes and finally found the whereabouts of Kim and chloe kardashian. They were hundreds of feet away, but i could stop staring. I will now try to be out on the town more to maybe one day run into them. Ok, probably not, but I think they are kinda radical.

Today was boots first day of sunbeams at church and he did great, other than the fact that he was half undressed when we went to pick him up, Natalie said all the sunbeams "they be'd so good mom!". I can't believe he is so big. Well i say that, but after receiving a bubble gum machine for Christmas, I should probably not think so highly of his maturity. Today we found gum smeared and stuck all over his body, clothes, and couch. How is that possible? You are thinking. Just trust me, boots makes things happen you never thought possible.

We had a tragic loss this week. I was jumping for joy and waiting for this day for a long time, but the kids took it a little different. They all have blankets. Natalie had loved hers since she was about 1. She rubs is under her nose and between her fingers. It is soothing and she loves that thing so much. It does not cause much damage, but she relies in it to go to sleep. Boots has had his since he was born and I swear has love that thing since day one. He has one corner that he sucks. It is nasty. It smells like old mouth and old wetness. The sounds are gross and the blanket is just gross. He also has a little tasstle and a giraffe tag on it that he loves to twirl in his fingers. Kinda cute, again relies on it to go to sleep. We had them on a strict only sleeping schedule for these things, but they got to a point where I decided it just had to stop. I think it is moving boots teeth a bit, and I can't take his and not natalie's, so we decided to take them both. It's has been hard. Boots has shed many tears. Natalie has been awesome and has learned to deal. No tears( although there were tears over breaking her new snow globe last night) but tonight there was minimal inquiry about the said blankets. We had put them away and I told the kids they could have them back when they go to college. Natalie thought this was awesome. I don't think boots get it as tonight while going potty before bed, had a little tear in his eye and sadly looked up and asked "is it college yet mommy?" man, he melts my heart. I would give into him if Brian wasn't home. But I'm proud of those kids. Hey are doing great!

So now, Christmas stuff is put away, hustle and bustle are over and it is a new year. Time to throw away all my junky fudge and goodies laying around, and start my health kick. Tomorrow is Monday, which for me is the perfect start over date. Tomorrow I start fresh and new, get rid of those x amount of lbs gained over the holidays from eating and eating and eating. Back to get my kids reacquainted with the gyms play place and me with my treadmill. Ahhh, it's gonna be a good week!

The Night before

2011-12-31T02:02:00.006-06:00

There is nothing much that comes close to Christmas in Canada. It hasn't snowed much at all but it has been so much fun. Brian and Robin and their kids came and everyone has had so much fun. I made the girls some matching santa skirts this year and they were so adorable. It was impossible to get a picture of them though!
We had a HUGE moment for Natalie and for me. She is 5 and she lost her first tooth. It had been sore and a little lose for a few months and it was getting more lose. That morning it was really lose, but I never imagined it would happen so fast! We went to the movie Aurthur Christmas, which was very cute, and while eating popcorn in the middle of the movie, she wispers over to me "MOM! I lost my tooth!!" She handed her tiny tooth over and although we forgot to put it under her pillow that night, the next night the tooth fairy came and left some sweet cash!

We had an adult date night out to Joseph and the Technicolor dreamcoat. It was...interesting. But the company is always fun and good for a lot of laughs!

Then the day before Christmas eve, we went on a sleigh ride. The kids were all bundled up and loved being out in the snow and trees. I, on the other hand, was freezing.

That night, we had a very special visit from the big guy. There was a knock at the door and in walks SANTA CLAUS! He was so awesome! The kids all loved him and all got a chance to talk to him, ask him anything they want, and sit on his lap. He left a little while later to start all his plans or Christmas Eve!

On Christmas Eve, we of course did our traditional nativity, thanks to Newby for helping participate with all the kids. Nat was an angel, Boots was Joseph, and Courtney was a half angel, half shepard, half wanderer. Singing Carols, opening some Christmas jammies, and then the Cousin gift exchange and the kids were all off to bed.

Christmas morning we headed down for Santa, the pitter patter of the kiddos was so sweet! I love to see the looks on their faces and see their excitment! We got ready for church and headed to a wonderful musical Christmas program about the Savior. SEE NEXTPOST BELOW!

Hustle and Bustle of joy

2011-12-29T19:50:00.010-06:00

I cant post all my pictures so here is the second half of Christmas, first half to come...

Christmas day after church was filled with pictures, presents, playing with new toys, bells, Food, and Christmas Crackers. What a wonderful day to think about our Lord and Saviour. The program at church was a musical program, and the most beautiful one I have ever attended. It made my love and testimony of Jesus Christ grow.

The Girls took a night to go see Beauty and the Beast the off broadway. It was cute and the girls all had fun. Nat loved getting dressed up fancy and acting like a big girl! She also enjoyed her ice cream bar Nana bought her at the intermission to get her ready for the rest of the show. She was hard to stay focused.

A day trip to Banff for lunch, candy store, and of course the hot springs. They have an option to rent the vintage swim suits. Since we forgot our swim suits, Dad, Brian, My Brother Brian, Courtney, me, Lizzy, Caty, and Carleigh all rented the sweet suits out. I wish I got a picture of those boys sporting their skirted 1920's suits! Courtney had the funnest huge bath she has ever had, she didn't stop smiling the whole time!

We went out to the Ranch for a marshmallow and hotdog roasting bonfire yesterday and it was a blast. It was cold, at least for us North of the border-ers, so the babies stayed warm in the car after Courtney indulged in hotdogs and chocolate. The kids love going out to the Ranch, it is so beauitful out there.

Special Night

2011-12-21T22:52:00.002-06:00

Brian, Nana, Grandad, and I took Natalie out for a night out. After trying many restaurants, we finally found one that was still open in this silly city. I swear good places to eat are so hard to find, especially coming from a place with HUNDREDS of yummy places. Anyway, we had some din and then headed out to the Ballet "Nutcracker".
Natalie coaxed Nana into buying her a little snow globe. It was instantly her favorite thing and she held it through the whole ballet. 3 hours later... So it has been a few days and the snow globe has been sitting next to Nana's bigger snow globes on display. Natalie picked it up and started running after boots for something last night and CRASH. It fell, it broke, and there were tears. I felt so sad for her. It was so special to her and now it was gone.
Anyway, she loved the ballet and we had a lot of fun taking her. It was my first ever ballet and I loved it too. Those people are so talented and strong! It is amazing.

Tonight Nana and Grandad took boots on a special date to the live Nativity pageant and he loved it. They came home saying that he asked a million questions but was an angel.

The kids love their one on one time! But more cousins got in today and we are having a lot of fun with a lot of people! The noise levels have gone up and so has the fun. We are just missing the rest of the family :(

A New Era

2011-12-19T16:05:00.002-06:00

I cant believe I am married to such an old man! Today was the big 30 for him. Really I'm kidding, 30 isn't old at all, but it is just crazy we have come to this time in our lives that we can put a 3 in front of our age. I guess I am still a little ways away.

So for his birthday, we had the surprise Christmas sweater party which was a HUGE success! He was surprised which was the goal! That was surprise #1... Then last night we celebrated with my parents and I gave him surprise #2. Many people helped me out putting together a special book for Brian. There were some wonderful words, stories, poems, and songs for such a wonderful man. Really he is so special and so loved by so many people! I just wanted to make sure he knew how much he is loved. Pretty sure that came across as he started to cry on page 1.

We just arrived at Nana and Grandads house and we cant wait to spend the holidays here. Love being around the snow, whether it is brown, white, or yellow! haha (boots learned all about the color of snow you can and can not eat). The kids have been outside everyday at least once, last night they even went for a late night sledding in the dark. They LOVED it.

Party of 5

2011-12-17T00:28:00.001-06:00

My friend Julie is an awesome photographer. She did our family pictures a few weeks ago and we are so happy with the results! I was CONVINCED that every picture would look how this first one did... but worse. I even had a nightmare about it a few days before we got the pics back. haha
It was cold and poor Courtney was a little ice cube by the end (which is when this picture was taken) there was a lot of tick tacks, whining and a lot of snot...but I think we ended up with some cute ones! I actually love this first one here when she is crying. She was sooo done. Thanks Julie! Check her stuff out!

Big Guy

2011-12-11T20:51:00.009-06:00

Brian is a super cool guy.
...and he was turning 30. So I decided to throw a big surprise birthday party for him last night. It of course had to be something outrageous, like an ugly Christmas sweater party. and it, of course, was awesome! I have never EVER been able to keep something a secret and surprise from this man, so I really wanted to pull it off. He was very surprised! The only complaint I got was after we arrived, we were changing into our ugly sweaters and he said he was a little mad that we aren't going to BRIO (the place we were "going" to eat). Other than that we had MOST of our good friends there. A few were out of town, couldn't come into town, or I just am that awesome and forgot to put them on the list. Im really great like that. daah!

We had a photobooth set up and played a whole bunch of minute to win it Christmas games. It was a lot of fun! I am just glad I pulled it off and surprised him. A LOT of good laughs! We have great friends and GREAT family! There is no way we dont have fun when we all get together!

His actual birthday isn't for another week and a half but I didn't know when else to have it!

That was followed up with he and I exchanging our Christmas gifts to eacother. We are going North for a white Christmas, and didn't want to haul it up just to bring it back.

What's in a name...

2011-12-05T22:22:00.003-06:00

I have never asked for approval, or asked what people think of my sons nickname. Boots.

Obviously he was born and we legally named the kid Stephen Tony after his 2 grandfathers. They are both amazing men and so we thought he deserved a special name. At first I was reluctant to call a baby Stephen. It seemed very mature, but then it slowly became the right thing.
Well, shortly after he was born, I'm talking weeks, Brian came up with the nickname boots. Natalie was into Dora at the time and as you may or may not know, her sidekick is boots the monkey. I don't think this is what Brian had in mind when assigning the nickname, but as it just so happens I would Definitely compare our boots to a monkey. He is crazy, climbs everything, gets into everything, is curious, and is just so stinkin adorable!

Thinking that this nickname would never stick, I of course joined in with the crowds and call him boots. Everyone at church knows him as boots, his soccer team calls him boots(they actually never knew his real name), and the list goes on. Brian, Natalie and now Courtney call him exclusively by the name boots. when he is in trouble, of course it is still Stephen to me, bur mostly he is boots.

So I don't know why it has taken me this long to notice how strange this name is. His name is a type of shoe. Last week this sent ace came out of my mouth "Natalie needs boots, and boots needs shoes." ya, that's strange. So tonight, minutes ago, I was thinking about him and his name, boots. It is sooo weird. It's like one of those words you don't think about too much bit when you do you think about it too much and then it becomes weird. 3 years it has taken me to realize it is sooo strange. But I think the name is here to stay. There is no changing that pattern.

Here's to my boots!!

Easy Peasy

2011-12-03T22:35:00.002-06:00

I took the kids to see Santa at the mall this week and the kids had a lot of fun. I was kind of disappointed in the Santa though. He didn't ask their name, or take much time with them. I didn't want pictures because I wanted them to be used to him and happy for a picture, so it was just a visit, and I feel like since we were just a visit, he wasn't into it. His breathe stunk. Anyway, it was short and I felt rushed. Natalie was really curious afterwards too "Mom, was that the real Santa?" I said yes, but I am now seeing that I have to be ready to explain that each Santa we see is just a helped, because she is beginning to think that everyone gets their own Santa Clause, because they all kinda look different. haha She is a smart cookie!

Anyway, when asked what they want for Christmas this year, Natalie has a list that could be miles long. She has a few top items that if she is good, she will get.
Boots, on the other hand, is asking for 2 things 1. a candy cane he can eat and 2. chocolate coins. EASY! We have candy canes on our tree and he gets in trouble if he touches and breaks and eats them (which happens often) so all he really wants is one that he can just eat. Done.

Courtney is quickly becoming the cutest little one year old I have ever met. She has a huge belly that is always full of food. She is learning like crazy! She knows where her belly button is, ears, head, eyes(kinda - she can say Eye and point to mine), nose, mouth, and toes. She can say woof woof and MEOW, which is the cutest sound ever! She says Daddy, Momma, Boots(bbbbb), Nani, Nana, Food(fbfbfbf), please(eeeeeeEEE!!), Drink(Diii), ya, Cheese(Chhee), and nap. She gives SWEET SWEET kisses to everyone, sweet cuddles and hugs, waves to all she sees, and blows kisses around like they are air. She LOVES the ABC's and will "sing" along. "A O A A E A O A A" and hold the leapfrog fridge thing that sings, to her ear like a telephone and walk around the house singing. She is seriously Winnie the Pooh. With the belly and the waddle. OH she is just adorable! Love that girl!

We also took the kids to a beautiful nativity display at one of our churches here. We talked to the kids about what they were and they loved it. Boots didn't get it and kept touching what he couldn't touch, and making uncle garrett(the live Joseph) laugh. Natalie and I walked around for about a half an hour looking at all of the different Nativity exhibits that they had on display. There was over 700 on display, everything from one made out of rice, chocolate, cupcakes, a dog nativity, and ones from different countries all around the world. It was beautiful and very neat for Natalie to see it and talk about it. What a wonderful time of year this is when we can think about our Saviours birth. My sadness around this time of year is that I cant participate or watch the Calgary West Stake do the Handels Messiah performance. That is my holiday favorite.

I am also proud to say that my children have perfect teeth.He made some comment about how good I am at brushing my kids teeth... Oh if he only knew the truth. They must have really good genetic teeth from Brian's side. They have no problems, good spacing, did everything the dentist asked of them and walked away with some sweet prizes. Seriously, Natalie got her teeth cleaned, polished, and fluoride, and didn't budge! IF you live in the area and are looking for a good pediatric dentist, LET ME KNOW and you can go to ours. HE IS AWESOME! I mean he got Natalie and that is hard to do!! Good news for her, bad news for me... She has 2 loose teeth. The tooth fairy is coming which is cool, but my little girl is growing up which is not cool.

Testing testing

2011-11-28T21:08:00.001-06:00

This is a test. Ignore this if you aren't into iPads. However, If you are into them then this is a cool app.

Thats New

2011-11-27T19:40:00.004-06:00

Brian and I are in the Marriage class at church. Brian actually is teaching it, but that makes us participants in the class. I love it. It makes us think and do more for our marriage every day. Last week there was an assignment to do one of 4 things. We decided to "do something different".
Brian planned it out. He got a babysitter bright and early in the morning and we were off for a breakfast date. Even when we were dating we didn't have one of these, so it was totally new to us. The original place he wanted to go was a place he has heard is great ever since he was small. We walk in and the smell of bacon in this place was just enough to make me want to leave. Sorry babe. He was sweet to plan it all out, but I couldn't do it. So we went to a place a know I can eat a good breakfast, La Madeliene. MMMM they have the best french toast. It ended up being really fun and some of the best conversations we have had since being married, that I can remember!

It didn't stop there. Last night we went out to dinner and then decided to play pool of all things. So random, since we have never ever done this before either. We went out with Brian's Brother and his wife and it was a blast. The girls ruled the table. I wanted to be able to brag and say "Ya, I had a pool table growing up" But lets get serious, it was all fluke!
You wanna know something BRAND New that we got to see? HARPER GRACE JONES. Our friends Justin and Andrea had their first little one and she is just the sweetest, prettiest thing ever!

Thanksgiving this last week was really great. We had the whole Rawlins family together, with a little Miller mixed in there. It was over at my cousin Heathers house and it was seriously the best Thanksgiving I can remember. I did decide against black Friday shopping this year though, just the craziness of it all was too overwhelming this year. I did do a little online shopping, that is the way to go!!

I have so much to be thankful for this year. I am thankful for loving family, a warm house (or a cool house!), Healthy beautiful sweet funny lovely children, the gospel of Jesus Christ and my testimony of it, Texas pride, Canadian Pride, Pest control, Treadmills, a good pillow, Pie, chocolate, prophets, technology, ease of traveling...and the list could go on and on. We are truly so blessed to live in this Country with all that we have.

Im thankful for a daughter who wants to be good...

Im thankful for a daughter who loves to get into mischief...

I am thankful for LOTS of good friends who know how to have a good time and enjoy the same silly things together.

I am thankful for sweet Cousins we can take out for her 12th birthday and have cheesecake factory.

I am also thankful for a son who keeps us on our toes all day long. Whether it is hand cream smeared on desks, toothbrushes jammed into printers, honey in the carpet, sneaking loads of candy in his room during a "nap", or just cracking us up with his comments, or whatever he throws our way. I am thankful for him, even though he drives me crazy!

And Last but not least I am thankful for a husband who loves unconditionally, works hard, plays hard, makes me laugh, makes me cry(from laughing of course), makes me good food, cleans, gives sweet kisses, Has a strong testimony, "helps" me make the bed, and can make anyone be a better person. I am one lucky girl. He is one of a kind.

We have had a really fun and eventful week, full of NEW things to be thankful for!

cran crazy

2011-11-21T23:05:00.002-06:00

Our kids are nuts. I don't know if every family has kids who are nuts, but mine are crazy and crazy and crazy. I love them, but they are nuts. When the noise goes away finally at night and the kids are all in bed and I get to sit down, those moments are soo nice that I don't want to do anything.
The other day Natalie and Boots were playing house and Natalie said something about going to the kitchen to cook because she is the mommy. Boots was the Daddy and he quickly chimed in that mommies don't cook, Daddy's do! haha I busted up. so true in our house! Daddy definitely cooks!
So i got a white tree on clearance at the end of last season and was so excited to get it up this year. I spent a long time deciding on colors to do on it, and finally we've got it all up and decided on red and white. So I did a little research on some DIY decor in red and white and have gone Cranberry crazy. THESE little things are my favorite though. Ignoring the bad photo, these are foam balls with cranberries hot glue gunned onto them. LOVE them! I also have these crans in rows on the tree, and in other places scattered through our house. I love them, and Courtney likes the ones that fall on the floor. And then I like stepping in the ones that she finds that I had dropped on the floor, after they had been chewed. yum. So the first chapter of Sports in our family has come to an end, until after Christmas. The kids soccer ended and they both got their trophies and final game. Natalie really was improving with every game. This last one, she wanted a goal so bad! She worked hard and I am so proud of her! Boots on the other hand just likes to run. I am not even sure he knows there are rules to soccer! haha

And yes, I am super behind and lacking with the blog. AHHH!! I need that extra hour or two in a day. Or better yet, I need 15 minutes of uninterupted me time to just sit and not be asked for a snack, or a drink, or to help them go to the bathroom, or cleaning someting, or folding, or cooking, or coloring, or buidling block towers, or cleaning, or cleaning, or cleaning... UGH! Anyway, I will try to be better becuase I am sitting her and forget all the good stories I had to tell about the last few weeks.

Misteak

2011-11-09T12:24:00.004-06:00

Hi.
We are sick.

In the last few weeks we have been through croup, Ear infections, pink eye, and strep throat. My Dr is sick of seeing us, and really going in multiple times in the week for multiple things is really pathetic. I have had headaches, but lucky for me that is the worst of me. The only thing worse than a sick kid, is having 3 of them passing snot and slobber all over each other. One word DISINFECT please!!
On a much brighter note, we have been prepping for Thanksgiving. We are hosting the family this year and we also have decided it is the year to start the fried turkey tradition. Its juicy, its super fast and hello... its fried! So we did a trial and it turned out superb! Now I'm even more excited for Thanksgiving to come to eat eat eat till my belly is full of turkey and gravy. The only problem is the place settings and decor. I have no FALL decor and really want something on the tables that is EASY and inexpensive. ANY IDEAS?!?! PLEASE I am desperate.

We, as in the whole extended fam, like to get together for fun and always for food. This last week the piano was involved and the mood was set for some lovin', Dancin', and swinging of the arms. Embarrassing for them? Maybe. But I had to catch it, and post it!
COURTNEY - Ever since this little one has started to walk, which has been the last 2 weeks, she has gotten a lot more curious and bold. She will climb onto chairs, beds, and apparently fireplaces. Good thing we don't actually burn fires in ours! She is turning into a little girl version of Boots. I don't know if I can handle another one like that!! The good news for her is that her iron levels were low for a few months and after working really hard to remember to give her her supplement daily, her levels are back up. I hate feeling stressed about making sure they are healthy. Really I am so grateful for healthy kids. I mean, yeah they have croup or pink eye or a cold, but I will take that any day! They are so healthy and happy. Especially Courtney, our VERY healthy and plump eater!

BOOTS...

Originally we had some friends over and it just so happened that they have all girls, so play turned to dress up, pink, and princesses. Boots started out as the prince, escorting, marrying, and just being the only boy. Soon things started to change a little... he felt left out and just wanted to join in, he ran in right as I was fixing to take the picture of the girls fully clothed in princess dress and tiara.

Brian cooks around here most of the time I would say. This is partly because he is better and partly because I am lazy... and he is better. So the other night he made steak and it was so great. Our kids all are meat lovers and when there is medium cooked steak up for grabs, they are the first to take fourths and fifths. Well there must have been a miscommunication with what it is called because boots kept asking for "mistake" or should I say misteak. haha

And as I am listening to him play in his room right now I can hear him singing. Usually there are kid songs coming out of his mouth but today it was "say you, say me. Say it for always, that's the way it should be." perfect spot on. over and over. That kid is classic.

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-02T21:18:00.003-05:00

Halloween is not a good day to start a new diet. Actually the whole week is a bad week to start. You will be eating the candy and sneaking it past the kids. For whatever reason it is OK for the mom and dad to have as much as we like of it, but the kids are so limited to what they are allowed to eat.
One reason I justify not letting the kids eat as much as they want is the lack of normal food that my son consumes in a day. Today, before dinner, he had eaten 1 yogurt. He spread it out throughout the day and finally finished it right before dinner. He only did it because he wanted a piece of bubblegum. That kid, I don't get him and food. It is a battle every single day!

SOOO, Halloween this year was great. We usually always go to grandma and grandpa's house for a quick dinner then on to trick or treating with the kids. They totally loved it and we went out for about an hour and a half. They carried their own heavy bags and there was little complaining.
Although we were all bugs for our earlier trunk or treat, the kids wanted to dig through the dress up box for a new costume. Natalie was a bride and Stephen was last years pirate. We spunked it up a little since he has a new found love for Jack Sparrow. Thanks to an old blond wig and a little black paint, he got a little jack sparrowed!

Olivia and Avree were so adorable in their thing 1 and thing 2 costumes that Kathleen just happened to throw together! Somehow I slipped not getting the other kids in their getups. I just love that kids transform and think they are what they are dressed up as. I did get the group shot of all the cousins.

After the big dump out, sorting, and eating way too much candy, we watched a little Cat and the Hat cuddled up with Daddy. It was a great day! Love days spent doing fun things with family.

So just a side note about Natalie, she has been attending preschool twice a week and is loving it. I just started her in a little extended program which keeps her an additional hour each time she is there for help on her letters. She really has a hard time with them and she does not learn well from me. She gets real frustrated and mad whenever I try to work with her, so I hope this works better. She is so smart and sharp, just letters and numbers are not her thing. Not so good when you are preparing to start kindergarten!

And nothing like ending the post with a BOOTS story. Tonight after soccer we were on our way home and he was complaining about red stuff on him. When we stopped the car and got out, I noticed that red stuff was blood all over his hands. I had a moment of panic, until I noticed the blood coming out of his nose. I said "Boots, stop picking your nose!" He quickly responded how he always does with a whinny "OK! Im not mom!". Sorry bud, you cant hide it from me. The proof is all over your fingertips! haha

9-er Days

2011-10-30T21:25:00.000-05:00

I think I am 9 or so days late in posting things that happen around here... so here is a huge post to show all the fun.
I love fall, the weather has FINALLY cooled down to a light jacket and boot weather, and the smells of fall are coming all over the place!
We have some pretty awesomely fun pumpkin patches here, so after a failed attempt at one of them (closed for the season would have been good to know before the 30 min trek out there) we finally found one that was so fun!

The pic above, I am showing just how difficult it is to get pictures with all your kids looking. Parents out there, you know what I mean. And non parents to diss us parents for our bad pictures... YOU TRY! haha

Then last week before my momma came into town, we had our ward trunk or treat at church. I love to dress up in families and so I was trying to be cheap and easy this year. I came up with a bug theme. Nat was a butterfly, Boots was a spider, Court was a bumble bee, and I was a lady big. I tried and tried to get scrooge (is there a term for a Halloween scrooge?) to dress up but all I could get him to do was carry a fly swatter. It turned out cute enough, but next year I will have to step up the game! Kimberly came over and painted butterfly face, and wiggly spiderweb face on boots. He wouldn't hold still enough for anything really!

btw, she is up to about 9 steps now. She walks all the time but just isn't willing to give up the lazy ways of crawling. I think it also has something to do with the fact that she is so tubby, she cant balance too long! BUZZZZZ!!

Later that night, Momma got in and we had such a fun visit with her. The kids ate her up! They left tonight and for about 20 minutes after the airport Natalie had tears running down her face. She cried and cried and was so sad she didn't want to talk about it with anyone. Her sweet little spirit was just so tender! We miss you guys already mom and Dad.

While here, we took Courtney on her first Merrigoround ride, although I think she may have already done it this summer, but it was her "first" time and she loved it! All smiles and bouncing around!

So then on the weekend My brother and his wife came into town for the BYU/TCU football game and it was a hoot! I love to have family here!! Dad proudly wore his old BYU uniform from when he played back in the day and it was rad. He rocked it! We lost which stunk, but the company is always the funnest part anyway. Downer of the night though was the Rangers losing the World Series. We wont even go there any more than that.

Soccer games, Show home hunting, eating yummy food, Shopping, and lots of belly laughs made it a great unforgettable weekend! The kids both lost their soccer games and we forced everyone over to watch them running around kids who don't get the first thing about soccer. They sure are cute in their uniforms though!

Seriously, LOVE my family. We come up with the silliest funniest things to giggle about and we had the biggest laugh attack of both Brian and My life on the way home from dinner last night. I was hyperventilating with tears ROLLING down my cheeks. To top it off Brian(husband, not brother) had been growing his facial hair for the Rangers being in the World Series and just shaved it into a nasty Stache that night. As the laughing tears streamed down into his mustache, we couldn't help but laugh even harder.

Baldy

2011-10-25T23:11:00.002-05:00

On discussing a hair cut, Stephen explained that he wanted his hair to be all gone...as in bald. I am not a huge bald fan on a little 3 year old, so I of course said no. I did, however, tell him that if he still wants it a few days later that we can do it.
We went for the big chop!! But now every time he looks in the mirror he gets upset that it isn't all gone and bald. Should I give in and shave it? I mean SHAVE it. I just dont know!

But this funny guy is as handsome as ever, and with his new haircut he looks older already. I was sad to see those blonde lockes go to the ground, but it was time.

So we were sitting at Dinner the other night and Brian had cooked up some beets. He offfered some to the kids, but the only thing that made them interested was the possibility that it could turn their Urine red. They immediately jumped on it and ate a little bite right away. All of a sudden as he is swallowing, boots is struggling to get his pants down a little. On questioning him, he told us that he needed to check to see if his "little part" was red, because it was going to turn his peepee red. We tried to discourage him and tell him that he wouldn't be able to tell yet, but that didn't stop him from pulling his pants down to check, and inform us that indeed his little part was a color. haha it was very funny and inapropriate conversation for the dinner table. But that is the only was we roll around here! If it wasn't inappropriate, it probably didn't happen. This kids keeps us on our toes all the time!

Side note. Nana is here and we LOVE to have her come and visit. She has come into town for the BYU/TCU game which is Friday night and we cant wait for the other members of our party arrive into town!! Thanks for coming early Nana bear. We love you so much!! Sorry you have to sleep on the floor on a too short for your legs matress! We know you must really love us!

An Extra Day

2011-10-20T14:54:00.002-05:00

I say it all the time, but I wish there was just a little more time in the day, or an extra day in the week. I have a million things that seem to always get pushed to "tomorrow".
Blogging has become one of those and I hate that. I just got my 2009 and 2010 blog books in the mail and I love them so much. I have done such a good job of documenting my kids with stories and pictures that they make the best journals. HOWEVER, This year I seem to have gone into a rut and cant quite find the way out.
Every day I think that I need to blog, but then something alittle more important comes first- always. So here I am to rededicate myself to the blog and sharing the wonderful stories of every day. I feel like I have gotten into a big events phase, and not so much the funny little stories that amuse me daily.
SO, with that... I have been painting our bedroom and our bathroom. I took the whole day Tuesday to do it and I love it. I was sick of the ocean blue color I had going on in there and the new OATBRAN is much more what I am feeling. Now I just need to find the right bedspread and curtains. I love redoing a little bit of something in the home, it just feels fresh and new.
So the story on the hair... I feel like every time we have painted a room in the house, I am 9 months pregnant and there are 2 things that ALWAYS get paint on them; my belly, and my hair. This time around, I have no pregnant belly but somehow I did get the paint in my hair. I swear, I did not do this on purpose! It is so bad right? I also get it all over my clothes, face, and legs, and Stephen managed to get some on his pants too. I'm awesome.

Last Saturday was Natalie's actual birthday and we decided after a long day of garage sale and soccer that we should go to Chuck-E-Cheese. Natalie loves the CEC and has been begging me to go soon. She was too scared to go see Chuck himself, and also too scared to go in the awesome ticket machine, but they had a lot of fun playing the games and getting their prizes at the end. Yes the adults had fun too, I love playing the games and get a little greedy when it comes to the kids coins. I found myself taking from boots' stash. Nice.
But Grandma, Grandpa, Eric, Kathleen, their kids, Garrett, and his cute girl were all able to come and have fun with us!

I can't believe my little girl is 5. It brings me to tears to think about this little beauty. I still remember when she was the first little addition to the family, VIVIDLY!! She is such a joy to have in our home and she is growing into the most beautiful little girl. She is kind, caring, gentle, Loves friends, Loves her Cousins, loves her sister, LOVES her shows, loves her babies, gives great snuggles and cuddles in the morning, and one of my favorites is she still loves her blanky like she did when she was a baby. She rubs and rubs that thing and sucks her little lower lip as soon as she gets in in her possession. I cant imagine our home without her sweet spirit and am so thankful everyday that we made the decision to have the little princess. Also, every year since she turned 1, I have thought it was the year of the hair. It wasn't until the last few months that I have truly noticed her hair growing in... so with that being said, I think 5 will be the year of the hair!! Love you Babe, Happy Birthday!

Nana and Grandad sent her this delicious cookie bouquet which was quickly eaten!! Thanks for making her feel so special you guys!

Rainbow Madness

2011-10-08T19:48:00.004-05:00

My little chunk. I love this girl so much!! She has had Croup this last week but she still has big smiles all the time, and hasn't lost her appetite at all! She eats all day long and Loves her some milk to top it off. She is also getting in all of her molars, I was surprised to feel those coming since she has been such a great baby! She enjoyed the festivities today, and some cake... we had Natalie's birthday Party for some of her little friends.
She insisted on rainbows this year, and I was on board since it was going to be a budget party. If you remember last years Fancy Nancy party, we went all out. I scaled back this year but it was so fun to get creative. We made all the decorations from construction paper! We played some "what time is it Mr. Wolf"(Natalie's favorite) duckduck goose, red rover, and pin the Cloud on the rainbow. We did made some tissue paper rainbows and made some fruitloop necklaces, and I tried my hand at the fancy rainbow cake of many colors. I don't know if Natalie or I have more fun at her Birthdays! Loved this theme this year, so many easy colors!

So for YEARS Natalie has been obsessed with Lion King. 2 years ago when we went to Disney World she got her first Simba doll, and she has since learned all the music and LOVES Lion King. We have been waiting and waiting for it to come out and finally it came out in perfect timing with her birthday. That is what we gave her for her Birthday and we watched it tonight for a little movie night. It was so cute to sit there and watch with the kids. Boots gave me comments like "Ah, they are fighting. They don't have guns though. I have guns, and I can shoot Lions." Natalie was more emotional. Her emotions go from So excited and happy to so sad and back and forth. She is such a sweet emotional little girl. Her birthday is next Saturday and I love a birthday week so I am sure we will be in for some fun this week!!

I just have to add in a little soccer note. The kids have been loving soccer. They practice once a week and then play on Saturdays. Brian and I haven't been able to see both kids yet as the games are at the same time, Brian has to assistant coach Boots' team, and I go with Natalie. Boots has successfully been silly and had a lot of fun with his team. I'm glad it isn't competitive or serious for him yet. He loves it. Natalie's team is actually pretty competitive and she has taken a while to "get it". She is just starting to though, and this week she did pretty good. She was able to turn the ball around to go the right way and actually kicked it a few times. She was working on her Defense too and stood in a goal for a bit! I am so proud of her progress over a few short weeks. Hopefully in the next few weeks we can watch the other kid and cheer for each other!

Oh ya

2011-09-29T12:19:00.002-05:00

Remember that last post when I talked all about Laundry? It again has taken over my living room. It is thursday, and Monday are my laundry days. So with 7 loads to fold sitting on my floor... I tend to lose my kids sometimes. Ill will claim that I am taking the time to spend good quality time with my kids instead of folding. Ya that sounds good!

So we like to park, and we like to ride bikes, and we like to just play out side. I dont like the ice cream man, playing his little jigs so loud for the kids to hear. I wouldn't mind it so much if it wasn't 2.50 for a little popsicle. MAN! That is expensive for an ice cream! That is borderline, they wont even have that kind of money in their piggy banks! But it is hard to resist when they love it so much!

Rounding it up

2011-09-27T21:38:00.003-05:00

Birthday week had to come to an end, sadly. No it was great and we had a lot of fun. We had cupcakes one night with some friends, then my girl friends took me out for bowling and dinner. It was so much fun. I really am so blessed to have a few different circles of friends here. Really they are all amazing and I know I am a lucky girl to have this many great friends. I know that they would all be there for me if I needed them and that they will always have my back. I love you Ladies! The best part about it all is that I have another group of girlfriends from another circle in my life that are equally as awesome as these ones. I really am so blessed, cause good girlfriends are hard to find.

The kids and I also made our way to fun day out at something called Grapefest. It really is a wine tasting event, but it was free and there was a huge kid area with face painting, petting zoo and the kids loved it! Natalie had also been learning the letter M is school that week and insisted on taking her mustache with us wherever we went.

It was a wonderful week, but this week is already almost half over and I feel so behind on life. I find that this happens every week. Laundry needs washing and folding and putting away. In our house that means like 7 loads of it. Ug, it is sitting on the chair of the living room waiting for me, calling my name.

We also all had the privilege of getting the flu last week (hence no posts) but lucky for us it is gone and we are all better. With this illness though comes MAJOR disinfecting of the house so we don't go through another round of it. EW. I hate puke, and I hate cleaning the toilets after other people are sick on them. woof. The only good thing was a little bit of sickness weight loss and really clean bathrooms!

I love this Day

2011-09-16T19:35:00.005-05:00

I know it sounds lame, and maybe selfish, but I love my birthday. Love it. I look forward to it all year, and in the last few years I feel like I have been so busy with babies that I haven't been able to really LOVE it. Last year I was 3 days post baby and I was tired!

I decided that this year I wanted a party, but not your traditional birthday party. I decided that I needed to eat a lot, which is totally normal, and we needed to do something casual and fun. baseball!! We went to a Rangers game and invited a bunch of friends to come. We sat in the all you can eat seats, and we all had a blast. The highlight for me wasn't the hot dogs or the nachos, but when they all sang happy birthday and made me stand up. This normally embarrasses me, but this year I LOVED IT! Thanks to all who came, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!

So I am 28. I am not old, but I am. I don't feel old, but it sounds old. I still look at myself and at my life and think that I am so young. Last weekend was my High School 10 year reunion, that I obviously didn't attend being in a different COUNTRY and all. But it is crazy to think that I have been graduated that long and to think that I am 2 years away from being 30! I still think of myself as 17, and that I haven't aged at all. I cant believe I am married and have 3 kids. I cant believe that I live the life I live and I am only 28 years old! I also decided that I never ever want to be one of those scared and shy to tell how old they are. I will always embrace my age. 30, 40, 50, 60 I want to OWN it!! Loving life at 28!!

Birthday Week

2011-09-15T08:03:00.002-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WEEK! I love September. The weather starts getting cooler in most of the Country... obviously not here, but everywhere else they seem to be enjoying fall. Hi 107 degrees still! Uck! So not only the fall perks, but it is My, Courtney, and many other birthdays!

Monday the baby girl turned 1! I cant believe that the year is gone and has flown by so fast. She is such a joy to have in our home. Always happy, always making us laugh, and always getting into everything. She really is the perfect child(other than her screaming fit yesterday, it's like she knows she is one and can start throwing tantrums). Anyway, the little one who started her life 9lbs4oz is still a healthy 22 lbs and LOVES to eat. She crawls everywhere and gets into all cupboards. When she See's my bedroom door open, she hawls in and gets right into the bathroom cupboard. She has 7, almost 8 teeth and can say mama, dada, hi, ohhhh, ahhhh, ewww, baba(whatever that is) and LOVES to talk. She can wave, blow kisses, clap, and Loves her blanky(I wouldn't expect anything else out of my kids). We love her and she is a perfect addition to the family.

We got to get together with our friend Matt and his little guy Cade the other day which was so fun to see Stephen and him together. Boots kept talking about his best friend Cade. I always just feel bad for boots cause Natalie has a lot of friends to talk about and Boots doesn't have a lot of boys his age around so he loved that! He is just so silly though. Natalie and I were working out(ya, she likes to do it with me) and boots ran in crazily in her gymnastics leotard. We were cracking up bad! He is hilarious. Its like he knows he funny too. BTW, Gymnastics, that's another story.

On Tuesday it was Garretts birthday. The big 22!! Love this guy. He has always had a special place in my heart as my little brother and I love him tons! Happy Birthday Gar!! We celebrated at Uncle Julio's with some great Mexican! No other way to celebrate really!

Soo, there will be more updates later but for now Happy Birthday WEEK!!

Hot Dates

2011-09-09T23:21:00.003-05:00

This week has BLOWN By so fast! Seriously, I feel like I just blogged and here I am almost a week later. WOW! When you think of your life in regards to blog, you know you have a problem.

Anyway, tonight we decided to do girls and boys nights out. Both kids fell asleep on the way to their dates! Natalie and I went for fondue. Yum to me, EH for Natalie. Don't worry, I licked her cheese clean. I love cheese fondue. Next we headed to Kung Foo Panda 2. It was real cute. I mean, I cried, i laughed, I smiled, I was a little scared. It was really good. The best was spending the night with my girl. Love ya Nanners.

Boots and Daddy went to cheesecake factory were they shared nachos and fries, then onto see Winnie the Pooh. Boots had a lot of fun, so Brian said. Love those kiddos.

So another hot date was the night before. WE live in the coolest, most interesting place ever. There is so much to do, and so many different things to do. So we went with Justin and Andrea(and New York life- who they work for) to TOP GOLF for the evening. Top Golf if straight out of a movie. It was so much fun. It is like a mix of bowling and darts, but with golf. So each golf ball has a sensor, and you hit the ball out and try to get it in the target nets out on the range. It was so much fun! I would for sure do it again!

One of Courtney's favorite places to play is my least favorite place in the whole house. The tupperware cupboard. UG! I have no idea what to do in here. I know... I will buy a new house. seriously, I hate this cupboard. So tomorrow is packed with first soccer games, Brian's throwing a work party, and Stake youth act ivies...I am so tired just thinking about waking up in the morning. Looking forward to Monday when we can celebrate sweet Courtney's first birthday!

uh-huh!

2011-09-04T22:57:00.003-05:00

Let me introduce you to Super Sleeper. He's the goofy one on the left.
Lets go back a few hours to church today. Courtney was a pill. She woke up poopy and on the wrong side of the bed. So church was really.... well lets just say I should have stayed home because I would have gotten more edification out of that. I was roaming the halls with a crying pouting, snotty, fussy, puking baby for 3 hours. YEAH! I'm not complaining, cause that is motherhood, but still, it stunk. So when we got home Brian was so sweet to me "Jeni, why don't you just lay down and have a nap!"
I never ever ever nap, so this was strange. But I decided to give it a shot and quickly fell sleep. I woke up suddenly a little while later to Natalie and Boots crawling up on me with sticky fingers, juice, and a laugh attack. As I woke up I hear Courtney crying in the back coming from her room. I wait... it continues... I wait "BRIAN?!" nothing. "Natalie where is daddy?" She goes on to tell me that he is laying down having a nap. THIS is why I don't nap people. Because even though Brian is a fabulous father, and I would trust him with my kids and 10 more of other peoples, when he wants a nap he doesn't wake up to anything. UG!! I was really annoyed! Why can't a girl just take a nap once in a while without the house falling into shambles?

So this last week was full of action around here. The kids both started up soccer, and they both LOVE it. They had a lot of fun at their 105 degree practices and although Brian doesn't think either of them are naturals (after a 3 and 4 year olds practice) I think they will do great and have so much fun.
Before Natalie's practice, we tried something totally new with her hair and it worked! We were both giddy about it. FRENCH BRAIDS! Crazy that it is long enough for it, but doesn't it look sweet?

Yesterday we had all sorts of Cousins and friends over to the pool. Brian and his brothers, and their buddies from high school days, are all still really close and we all got together at our pool for the afternoon. The kids had a blast together, as always, and they all got worn out so we could all go out SANS kids that night.

So this week is just another week of craziness for me. Just the usual mommy, house, kid stuff.. but then I feel like I have a million things to do for my calling and then there are another million birthdays coming up (including mine!!! I love my birthday!) so I just am feeling overwhelmed. I don't know what I am going to do when there is actual school and after school and homework involved in our life!

Sock thief

2011-09-01T16:27:00.003-05:00

It wont cool down. I am running out of ideas of things to do that keep us cool. I also have been putting off riding bikes till it was at least under 100 degrees, but that isn't happening any time soon. So I finally decided to take the kids down the street to the elementary school parking lot to ride their bikes the other day. It was 105 outside but I brought a cool treat, hoping that would keep them happy. WRONG. This "riding" (walking and whining) lasted 30 seconds and they were onto their snack and the park. They got their bikes a few months ago but haven't had any time to practice riding them because of the heat!

When I first moved here, I thought it was impossible to not wear shorts in the summer here. Now I wear jeans all summer long. I feel crazy putting on hot jeans in this weather, but seriously, I get so bored of summer clothes! I cant wait for fall to come and I can wear boots and jackets and long sleeves! Really, I shouldn't complain though. I love Texas and I do love that it is so warm most of the time. It makes the pool more fun and it makes winter so enjoyable! This summer is just brutal.

I have been trying to be a better hands on mom lately too. I didn't want to waste away the days with laundry and cleaning and doing things that don't allow me any time with the kids. So we have been crafting A LOT lately. I have a hard time finding new and exciting crafts though, any ideas?
SPEAKING of laundry... Mondays are my cleaning day and laundry day. I get most everything done and then take another day or so to get the folding done. I never ever get out the ironing though, just add to the pile. I also throw all of the unmatched socks into the same basket. It has been probably about a year since I took the socks out and ironed. But last night I got in the mood. I did all the ironing and realized that Brian has a lot of nice shirts and Natalie and Courtney have a ton of church dresses. I just forget all about them when they sit in the ironing pile. So I dump the socks out and I seriously folded like 40 pairs of socks. What really confuses me is the unmatched socks. I swear that the washer or dryer eats them. I don't really see any other reason why there should be THIS many socks without a mate. The worst is when they are really cute socks and you only washed them once and then BAM, there is only one coming out of the wash. I will solve that mystery one day.

Just a tear

2011-08-30T15:27:00.005-05:00

Today was a big day for me.

It was the first day of the rest of what our life will be full of - growing up.

Natalie is 4 and since her birthday is in October she just missed the cut off for kindergarten. So all of her friends headed off to elementary school, and Natalie headed off to pre-school this morning. She went to sleep smiling last night asking for a story about school. She woke up smiling and was so giddy! We got a new backpack, and some new school shoes (kind of a pain that they need socks and closed toe shoes when we are a crock and sandal family!).

So we drove up, brave mom and all. She got out, I snapped a quick picture and then as she walked into the door with her teacher the water works came. I totally cried! My baby is growing up and there is no turning back.

It was kind of like that feeling when I was pregnant with her and it hit me, "you will never be alone again. You will never have your time to be selfish again. You now have another somebody that will depend on your for everything." I was kinda scared then that there was no turning back, and I am a little scared now. She will only go to the next grade and get older and older. AH!

THEN I started to think about when she is a teenager and the things I will worry about. The things that will keep me up at night, like "why isn't she home yet? Why does she think she can wear that? who is that boy?"etc. and decided that I LOVE to be woken up by bad dreams and wet beds. I would much rather deal with that then staying up all night worrying.

I AM SCARED FOR HER TO GROW UP! I know everyone says it happens way too fast, but when you are living it everyday and are tired and worn out, it is hard to remember to cherish the moments we have.

While Natalie was at school, we decided to head to the mall for some TLC with the other kids. It is supposed to be Court's nap time but it just wasn't gonna work out today. 2 of the cousins started pre-school today too so we met up with them and we played, Carousel-ed, shopped, and they did awesome. We had fun, but I couldn't wait to pick up Natalie and hear about her day. She was excited to tell me that she got to be the leader to go outside and that she got to go to the bathroom. She didn't give me much else. Why am I expecting a play by play of the whole day of a 4 year old?

This last weekend Brian and I had the chance to go to the Temple. It was beautiful and wonderful and it is always a great few hours. We went with some friends and luckily I brought my camera for a little photo op.

Brian made me laugh in this picture because after he saw it he said "I totally look like a professional athlete. Look how tall I look! Its like you were walking around the temple and saw me and said 'wow! There is that pro-athlete, I need a picture with him!'" haha

Then off to Uncle Julios, one of the best Mexican places to eat, our opinion. It was as good as melty frothed garlicy Mexican butter, guacamole, and homemade tortillas can be. AWESOME! Ending the night having friends come over for late late night of games like Settlers of Catan is always right up my alley. I'm a gamer, total gamer.

So having an emotional day today. Hopefully nothing else unexpected or "grownup" happens because I don't know if I can take it! Here's to losing my babies to the world of adults.

AHOY

2011-08-27T13:11:00.015-05:00

Our Final week in Canada this summer was spent out in British Columbia at my Dad's boat. It was super squishy but really fun and totally worth it. The kids faught a lot, colored a lot, Ipaded a lot, teased, snacked, pee'd over the boat, rode with grandad on the dingy, took lots of hikes, didn't sleep much, and had so much fun!
The Adults didn't sleep much, thanks to Courtney, talked a lot, joked a lot, ipaded a lot, hiked a lot, and we had even more fun than the kiddos. Thanks to Grandad for an awesome week on the coast. The weather was great and everything was just awesome. Noone went over board and we didn't need to go to the hospital so I count that as a successful sailing trip!

Stay cool

2011-08-23T17:29:00.003-05:00

I still have pictures from Canada to post, but I figured with trying to get caught up on those pictures, I was getting behind with my month here back home. SOO here goes the marathon post of what we have been doing since being home in the heat over 100 degrees everyday.
Little miss Courtney is 11 months old and she is more curious than my other kids. I thought Stephen was bad but she is into everything. When we are in the kitchen, she is opening every cupboard and pulling everything out. Same goes for any and every room in the house. She is so busy. She is standing and walking around furniture but not walking by herself yet. Im ok with that. She is the happiest little thing to have in our home though and we love her SO MUCH! I cant believe she is about to be 1!

Natalie has turned into the little fish of the family. We go to the pool almost every day and she can now front float, back float, and swim about 15 feet by herself. She wears herself out every day swimming around for hours. The girl doesn't nap ever, but one day I went to go find her and there she was sleeping in her bathing suit in bed.

On the weekend we went to a hot air balloon festival. The balloons all took off at 7 am and to get there for that I would have had to wake the kids up at 530, that was not happening. So we went a little later in the morning and we all were sweating so bad. There is another one in a few weeks that I think we will make it to. Brian was golfing and Kathleen was working so Eric and I brought all the kids. It was slightly awkward. haha

Later that day I had a feather party. Kathleen came over and did feather hair extensions for a ton of me and my friends (and all the way down to Natalie's friends!) It was really fun and the food looked really good. Most of it was eaten by the time I made my way there. I hate that!

Finally, Yesterday was the kids last day of swim lessons. Natalie and Stephen have been doing them for the last 2 weeks and seriously, best 120 bucks I have spent this summer. It was so worth it as they are both swimming my themselves. I actually do not worry about them at all! So earlier that day we had some practice time at our pool with cousin Avree. Boots doesn't need a life jacket but he sure loves his shark one!

WHY are my kids always teasing each other...or teasing me and testing my patience. IT DRIVES ME CRAZY!

Onto swim lessons... They loved their teachers!

Gramma, papa and uncle garrett came for support to the last lesson and afterward we went for some yogurt. This was my dinner and my bowl was sooo full of goodness. Thanks to the strep throat I am so pleased to have right now. Loved the nice thick shot my tushy got the other day too. Yes I am still sore and still not eating food. :(

LASTLY...BOOTS! He is nuts. We have decided to let his hair grow a little this summer and see how it goes. He loves it, I love it, and I think it will stay a little longer. He is such a funny little man. I wish I had a better memory to remember all of the funny things he does and says, THATS were daily blogging would be(and will be) awesome. I am getting there.

GI-NORMO

2011-08-21T21:40:00.007-05:00

Once again, I cant limit my pictures enough. There were hundreds to post, but I chose a few. I don't like to limit to a couple because when I go to make my blog book I want all of my pictures in there!
So I know there are a lot of posts from Canada and there is one more biggie from our sailing trip that will come soon, maybe today, maybe not. But this one sums up the rest of the trip other than that.
Well we celebrated my little man's birthday there. He turned 3 and I cant believe he is that old already! He is truly such a joy and blessing to have in our home. He has this low kind of raspy little voice that makes everything that comes out of his mouth that much cuter. Tonight he was watching football on the TV in our room, in hopes he would just fall asleep. We went in to check on him and at first glance thought he was asleep until we heard him singing "buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks, I don't care if I..." and he looked up and noticed we were there watching, then he laid back down and finished his song. He is so sweet.
He gives the sweetest kisses and boots hugs, is so kind and generous with his sisters, still loves to love his blanky(ew, he sucks and rubs it raw. its nasty), he is very active and is always going going going, he asks for a nap everyday, he takes hours to eat a meal and 30 min to chew one bite(no joke), he loves books, he loves to make everyone laugh, and he is just suck a joy to have in our home. I wouldn't be who I am without his spirit in my home. Love you dude.

So he wanted a pirate party so he got to color pirate faces on all of the balloons, and after dinner we did a treasure hunt and then a pinata. HE LOVED IT ALL!

We had fun every day and every night. I feel like we never are not engaged in either a good serious talk or a good silly something! This night it was silly for sure. *someone* took out their extensions and everyone wanted a turn.

EVERYONE took their turns being sick and laying around. I don't know how many bottles of kids Tylenol and Advil we went through, but A LOT! 104 fevers, puking, and a lot of laying around. It was gross and I'm glad its over!

Like I said, the kids loves books right now and while we were there he wanted me to read this to him at least 3 times a day. At night if we couldn't find it he would just recite it to me or I would to him. He LOVES the very hungry caterpillar. So for his birthday he got a lot of really fun good books that he now has as his favorites!

We took a trip to Banff, which turned out to be a slight waist as kids were either sickly, or tired and we couldn't do anything but eat lunch, see the waterfalls, and stop at the candy store. It is so gorgeous out there though. It was worth it!

fresh and clean

2011-08-11T15:02:00.005-05:00

I just mopped my kitchen floor. This is one of my all time favorite chores to do. Not because it is fun to do, cause it isn't, but because the result is awesome. I love to have a clean kitchen floor. With 3 kids you get scrambled eggs, juice, cheese, liquid iron supplement, pee, milk, crumbs, and every other sticky substance you can think of on your floor(in one day, thank you yesterday). So to sweep and mop is dreamy on my toes! I just cant stand to walk into the kitchen and have my feet literally stick to the floor. woof.

Courtney hasn't been feeling 100% this week and it is hard on me. When you are used to a baby being completely happy all the time, it sucks having her be grumpy and sad and clingy. So after sleeping for 6 hours worth of naps the other day and sleeping in till 11 yesterday she has been a little bit better to be around. Her appetite is back which is good. She had gained 4 lbs while we were in Canada so I dont want her to lose the chunk we have worked so hard for her to have!

Speaking of Canada, here is another instalment of pictures. We went fishing at my Dad's friends place out in the middle of nowhere. It was beautiful and fresh and clean. Thanks to boots for throwing his cup and orange peels in the clean pond, we can always count on you to spice it up boots! The kids loved it, although we didn't catch any fish, we tried really hard.

When we were just chillin at my padres place, we were usually in the backyard. We were building forts, exploring with the explorers club, suntanning(which I couldn't do in a bathing suit because I was too cold, so sad for me), eating, breaking up water fights and just normal fights, or scootering around.

ALSO TOO, We had some dark clouds and thunder outside this afternoon. We have been praying and praying for rain. Natalie looked outside and said "Jesus does hear our prayers momma." Sadly it was just a teaser and it never rained. We will have to pray harder I guess. The clouds made it drop to around 100 today and I hate to say it, but it was really quite pleasant!

Longer please

2011-08-09T11:48:00.001-05:00

I need to just blog all of my pictures from Canada so I can get back to today blogging, but there are soo many pictures and fun things we did!
We had Lots of cuddles, reading with grandad, daily bubble baths, Caloway Park, and girls nights outs. Ahhhh I am still missing it! I was there for a month and it still could have been longer!

But back home now we are settled back in and I felt like we were thrown full throttle back to life. The kids both started swim lessons yesterday, Natalie was really excited since her teachers name is Ariel. Who better to take lessons from right?! I don't know what it is but in the last week since we have been home, she has taught herself to swim. She can now swim about 10 feet underwater all by herself! At the beginning of the summer this girl would SCREAM if she was out in the water above her waist. LEAPS AND BOUNDS PEOPLE!

Natalie also is getting bumped up in gymnastics. She already got bumped up to the next level but last week at class, they pulled me aside and asked if they could show another coach what Natalie can do. I mean she cant do anything crazy but her skill and form is really good. So this week she starts with "hot shots" which is like the gymnastics team (well pre-team.) and I am just so excited about it. Make fun of the proud momma all you want BUT PLEASE I am sooo far from being a toddlers and tiara's crazy mom. I am just proud, not pushy! haha go Nat!

Brian and I are BACK on the work out and eating good train. Seems like we are constantly making stops! But we are back on and feeling good. I seemed to have stopped running after my half marathon and I really want to get back to it so I can do another race this fall. We will see if it happens though, it is just sooo crappy to run here in the heat. And I wont do it, so there is only so far I can run at the gym! To go along with this though comes healthy cooking and I have an all time favorite meal that is so low in calories. CHICKEN TACOS. OHHHHHH YUM! But I struggle to find a lot of change in the meals and cooking, any healthy recipes to share with me?!

31 days

2011-08-01T17:01:00.003-05:00

31 Days of over 100 degree weather while we were gone for all of it. What stinks is this week it is supposed to be up to 110 all week. It was 109 today and even the pool was too hot. Walking into church on Sunday through the parking lot Natalie started to cry and said "I hate Texas Mommy!" So here we are back in the heat.
We just got back from another fabulous trip to Canada. It was beautiful and great company. My Sister and her kids were there the whole time we were and of course we got to spend the whole month at my Mom and Dad's place. July weather there is perfect and we just went went went the whole time. I have HUNDREDS of pictures so I will split it up into a few posts but we basically just laughed, ate and had a lot of fun!
Love ya Mom and Dad and thanks for such a fun month.

Mom got the funnest bouncy castle for the backyard and one rainy day we foolishly decided to bring it inside, it was fun but totally a mad house!

These two had a love/hate relationship the whole trip. They were best friends and then worst enemies. Lots of pushing, fighting, pony playing, movie watching, Nana hogging, ipad fighting, and lets not forget lots of love! We are determined to make them best friends. We all know they really love eachother.

Now there is something I HATE about Canada Summer, the mosquitoes. We don't have them down here like they do there. Check out Drew's bite one night. THEY WERE MASSIVE!

THE BEST PART of the whole trip is that NONE of us got sick of each other (although we all had our bout of prolonged sicknesses) and we cant wait to do it again soon! LOVES!

Suckers from the bank

2011-06-21T01:24:00.003-05:00

Passing a local walmart tonight, we noticed that there was police tape up, fire trucks, police, and news trucks all over the walmart and a bank. We were talking about what it could be. We brought up a bank robbery and Natalie asked me what it was. I explained about stealing something and that the bank has money that robbers might steal.
After thinking about it for a second, boots joined in very sad and asked "so did they take all of the suckers mom?".

Daddys Day

2011-06-19T16:01:00.002-05:00

We started today off with breakfast in bed. I am only a little irritated about this though because 1) I didn't get breakfast in bed on Mothers day and 2)I hate crumbs in my bed. But cheesy scrambled eggs, bacon, berries, cheese puffs, and Gatorade was the choice of the kids. Good breaky, all of his favorite things!

My kids are just about the luckiest kids in the world though, whether they know it or not. They have the best dad on this earth. He has the kindest and most gentle demeanor with them and there is no doubt in their heads that their Daddy loves them. He is amazing. Thanks for being such a great example to our kids and to me of what a parent should be. Yesterday we ventured out in 111 degrees to a little league game and it was soooo unbelievabley hot. Courtney did not like it at all! I am not so sure how this summer is going to go, but so far it is HOT!!!

I have wonderful men in my life all over the place. I know great Fathers and have great Fathers. My Father in Law is great and has raised 4 amazing sons.

And Last, but certainly not least, is to my Daddy. I love him more than he will ever know. He is amazing and wonderful in every way possible. I love you Papa bear.

Happy Fathers Day to all the Men in my life!

clip clip

2011-06-17T09:10:00.002-05:00

Last week we finally decided to give Natalie an even up trim and she did so good. It was only a little hair taken off but it made a huge difference to how it looks. Thanks Kathleen.

We had a lunch date with the Ladies yesterday. Every time we get the 3 Rawlins babies together we remember how awesome it is to have babies the same age! Hopefully they like it just as much! It was a chick-fil-a conference.

So I keep little journals for the kids and I had been pretty good at Natalie's until boots was born, then Boots' I was late on getting it. Last night I pulled them out and found that I had only done one entry in Stephens, and Courtney hadn't even had an entry yet. I always write a few pages so this can take a long time with 3 kids. I fell sleep while trying to write in Stephens, so that will have to take me a while today. Journaling is hard to keep up on when you aren't in the habit. I really think it is important though, especially since I have a memory like I do (BAD).

So we have been pooling it every day and I am so proud of the kids. Stephen is much more free than Natalie is and was but she is doing great too. Yesterday she took the huge leap of swimming by herself in the big pool. She usually screams at me until she cries but after hours and hours of convincing, she finally did it! She can do it in the kiddie pool without touching the bottom but for some reason the deep pool scared her. I told her that if she can jump in, sans floaty, and swim to the edge that I would take her out on a date for ice cream.

Stephen jumped into the pool and swam to me yesterday. I totally tricked him and it scared the littles out of him, but he did it!

All three of them are browning up like they are in an oven. They have passed me up on tanned and are just so cute all browned up!

hoarders

2011-06-14T17:33:00.003-05:00

I went into Natalie's room today and saw her dresser covered in trinkets, shoes, flowers, cards and many more things. I said "Nan, stop hoarding! Put your things away where they go!" She turned to me and asked whats hoarding. I told her it is when you keep everything and don't put it away or throw it away. She looked at me and very sternly told me "Im not hoarding mom, I am making collections!"

So on Sunday we had a FIESTA for family and friends. It was our month for our monthly rawlins dinner and get together and we decided to invite a few more. We had about 50 ppl in our tiny house. The air was turned down to 58 and it was still 80 degrees in our house! It was really fun though. Gotta love a Mexican feast with everyone we love! We even had the cake with EVERY ONE'S name on it and a pinata that got beat down in the family room. haha I know we couldn't invite everyone, but I promise we will have another! I think this was our max, so we will hit you next time!

Natalie's Dance recital was on Saturday night and she did fabulous! She was spoiled to have so much family come and support her and the gifts and flowers afterward were awesome! She did so good, she didn't miss a beat! I wish I could have recorded that night! But we are so proud of her!! She did say afterwards that she wants a break from Dance. I hope that doesn't last because she was so stinking cute!

sveaty

2011-06-09T20:58:00.012-05:00

I cant believe how fast 9 months go. Courtney is there and she is crawling and "talking" and just growing up so fast. I actually had the thought today that I wanted another baby. THAT is crazy talk, because IF that ever happens it wont be for a long time. But she is just so dang cute it is hard to resist!! She officially says "mama" and the occasional "dada" will come out, but I am pretty sure it is on accident!

I was sweating a lot today. This is half because of the heat and half because of my stress level when I am out with 3 kids under 4. I went to Target, sweat. I have to say, trying to keep 3 kids quiet in the target bathroom while taking us all potty, keeping hands clean and stopping them from touching everything and boots from licking everything he sees is hard. Lets just say Bathroom floor, Bathroom sink, or lollipop... there is no difference to this kid. Then as I finally take my turn to quickly empty the bladder after taking care of the kids, its always fun when Boots opens the door to the store as I am squatting there. Nice. Thanks Boots. Then it was off to Dollar Tree and Hobby Lobby where there was equally as much sweat. Why do I take them out when I actually have things to buy? WHY?! (ps. why are little boys ALWAYS touching themselves? Like always? and how do you stop that?!)

So we have started doing charts in our house. These first charts were for bicycles. My kids don't know how to ride a bike and with Natalie being almost 5, it is well overdue. So with Natalie and Court being in the same room, we had some problems in the mornings with Natalie being so excited to see her and play that she woke her up, or would give her toys, or get in her crib. It is really sweet and cute because Courtney loves her so much, but it sucks when I know that she would have slept longer.

Boots on the other hand had a hard time staying in his room at night. He would come out time after time all through the night and it was tiring. So we got a lock and it fixed it fast.(by the way he has a loft bed which is about 6 feet off the ground and he totally fell off the top the other night half asleep while trying to climb down. I walked in to a crying little heep on the floor. It broke my heart. I want to sell that thing so bad!! word of advise, DONT buy a loft bed for a 3 year old!)

and ALAS Stephen and Natalie's charts... and their rewards!

Phase 2, learn to ride them!

So a big perk to having a hair dresser in the family is that we get in on the hot new trends. This week I got a feather. They are feather extensions and I love it! The best part? Natalie got one too! She got a pink one and purple zebra striped one. She also got her first trim and she looks sooo rocker chic! I love it. Pictures of her hair are to come!

Earlier this morning I took Natalie to her dress rehearsal for dance. They don't let you take pictures on the day of, or video, so today was my day. She is sooooo cute and did such a great job.

I am so proud of her. I thought she would tense up on stage but she did excellent. She danced it all and was perfect. She did not smile at all though and was very serious about it all day. She is not a shy girl to me and is just a happy little chatterbox most of the time, but for some reason she has been closed off and serious all day. I think she is in the recital mind set! The video wouldn't post, so I will try it later. One of Natalie's little besties goes to the same dance studio. They did such a cute little number too! I love watching these little girls perform! It is so sweet.

Lastly, as if this isn't long enough, our washing machine has been out for almost 2 weeks now and it is such a pain. I have been to a few peoples house doing laundry and I hate that. I don't like to feel like I have to rely on others but honestly, my laundry baskets are running over. Its like there has been more laundry just because the machine is broken! Luckily Saturday is the big fix day. I will give a huge sigh of relief!

Anti tooth

2011-06-06T07:56:00.007-05:00

We headed down to Houston last weekend for another visit to the dentist for my tooth...aka another root canal. The good news is that we may be done! HOORAY! The other good news about those trips, we get to see good friends every time we go!

Other than a trip to the endodontist, we beached it, went to a water park, had some fogo de chao, and of course we topped it off with our ER trip with Boots.

So there was a water slide the kids all loved and they went down dozens of times. This time around, they let Natalie go with Maria down and it was all fun and laughter until Natalie went under in the water. She isn't super familiar with going under(because she is a water wuss) and when she came up she threw up. It was sick since all she had eaten was a Slurpee and licorice. It looked like blood. But after a quick rinse of the mouth she was happy and playing again.

After coming back into Dallas on Memorial Day we went to families house for a pool party and it is never complete without a basketball game with the brothers.

I found a new blog called the Tidy mom. It gave the best tips on keeping a clean and tidy house. I feel so overwhelmed when the simple things aren't done so I am going to do everything I can to keep the simple things like laundry and picking up under control. I mean, who doesn't feel better when their house is organized? Its just finding the time for everything else when I am trying to keep my house tidy. I have a million projects and fun things to do and just cant get to them.

Another fun blog is Oh Happy Day. She is having an amazing giveaway right now of a trip to Paris! One of my most favorite places in the whole world!!

what else??

2011-05-31T23:39:00.003-05:00

a few hours ago I walked into the kitchen and stepped right into a half an inch of water. WHAT? The washing machine was leaking and had flooded the kitchen and laundry room. It took me a good 2, maybe more, hours to clean it up.
Earlier today Brian got a flat tire on the way home from work and had to change it in his suit. The jack wasn't working so he called me to bring him another and of course I didn't see he called. So he had a rough long day and then I get to deal with that.
AHHHH!!! I feel like it never stops!!

Last weekend for Memorial Day weekend we headed to Houston for a dental apt and to see some friends. More Pictures and details of that to come.
BUT While we were there something happened, obviously. With boots something always has to happen. Sunday we were just sitting down to a delish meal when boots started running around the house, like a crazy man. All of a sudden we see him run towards the door and SMASH....The window pane on the door breaks. My first reaction was anger and WHY?! Why are you running around so much?! This quickly changed as I discovered he was all cut up and bleeding all over. Brian rushed him over to the ER just to make sure there was no glass or that an artery wasn't busted or anything. He was all cleaned up and sent home bandaged up. BOOTS YOU KILL ME KIDDO!!

I love a sleeping baby. I also love a sleeping son, there just seems to be a lot more peace when Stephen is asleep. There is a part of me that gets sad when Courtney sleeps though. I get really excited when she wakes up, and yes, I spy on her all the time! Love this girl.

He can fall asleep anywhere. If 3pm hits and he is somewhere not running, he is asleep. Like today in the grocery cart. It was awesome. It made grocery shopping super easy without worrying about another little running around, but also made it very very crowded in the cart!

I have a lot of pictures and updates from the weekend but this is all I had in me tonight!! LOVE THESE 3 CRAZIES!

Girls Talk

2011-05-24T23:38:00.005-05:00

Lets talk about the girls:

NATALIE - We went to Hobby Lobby today. She was sweet as usually checking everything out, touching everything, talking to everything, and so on... well at one point she had stopped following me and I turned around to see what had caught her attention this time. She has a big grin and it looks like she is brushing her teeth. haha cute right? NOT. I look a little closer and she really is brushing her teeth, with one of those disposable little brush up toothbrushes that was sitting right there on a shelf. SICK! Someone Else's toothbrush in my little girls mouth. She just laughed and said "what mom?!".

THEN...

Tonight after Telling a butterfly story and tucking Natalie in for bed, she came out really sad asking for me. Brian told her to go back to bed and she sadly and quickly went. I heard her whimpering, which isn't unusual. But I went in to talk to her. She was balled up at the bottom of her bed crying. I asked what was wrong and she proceeded to tell me that he MINI MOUSE boots were outside and the rain was going to ruin them. I promised her I would go out right then to get them. After she was content, I kissed her and said I love you. Her response was quiet but sweet. "Goodnight butterfly Queen!" haha so I said back "Goodnight Butterfly princess". I love the way that she loves her stories. Her face just lights up when I say certain things and I know she is pretending she is in the story!

She is getting really good at gymnastics. I am really proud of her and love to watch her. The pic above is her doing the limbo. Nice. 4 year olds trying this is hilarious!

COURTNEY- She is all over the place, not crawling but wants to and she can get around and reach ANYTHING she wants. And yes I know she is only 8 months old but she is now "saying" babababababa and dadadadadada. I swear dadadada is Daddy, and she knows it. ALSO I swear babababa is byebye and she waves her hand while she does it. I swear. haha She has started pulling herself up on things too, which mostly ends in face plants :(

MOMMA- Do you know what I hate? You buy a new shirt and it looks and feels like a normal Cotton shirt. You buy it at a non fancy place at your most favorite store. You wear it once and then you wash it. When you pull it out of the dryer, it looks really funny... and small. Then when you look at the label it says dry clean only! AHHHH I HATE THIS! There should be a warning and alert of shirts, especially tshirts that are dry clean only. So annoying. I loved it. Is there any hope for it? probably not. Unless you know some surefire way to fix a shirt?!

Then, I sat there tonight watching biggest loser with a bowl of popcorn on my lap. Smooth. I love to eat, and I am not strong. Brian made some and it smelt so good, I made him make me some too! I caved. But on the better note, I made this amazing weight watchers cake that I saw on my Cousin Gina's blog and it was awesome. Bad sad to this? I had 3, maybe 6 pieces of cake. It was so good. I am slightly, a lot, obsessed with food. The good, the bad and the ugly.

Our weekend was full of food, as always.

First we went to Taste of Addison. Lots of food, lots of fun. We went with Brians brothers and wives, and my cousin Heather and her hubs. It was rainy but fun and lots of good grub.

Then Sat we headed to six Flags for our friend Phils birthday. MORE FOOD? YES! Funnel cakes in Texas are amazing and this one had OREOS all over it, how can you pass that up? Seriously good. But I lost my voice and I am still recovering from screaming on every ride. I haven't been to an amuzement park kidless is a long long time, like before I had kids, and it was so much fun to ride the big ones and really let it all out. I can tell I am getting old though, because I was starting to get scared and claustrophobic!

I truly feel blessed to have such great family and friends all around me. Brian and I were talking about that the other day and we just feel so blessed. Not many people have the opportunity to love all of their family and get along great with them all, but also had not just one awesome couple and family to hang out with but MANY! It seems like every week we hang out with a different family and we so much fun with all of them!

bore snore

2011-05-16T15:53:00.006-05:00

This is what I have been wanting to do all week...
SLEEP. I feel like kids have been up, neighbours have been up, and other things have just been keeping me from sleeping at night and then no naps in the day. I am tired. Luckily, I dont sleep with a hand down my pants like boys obviously do! Who knew they did it this early?! haha

Seriously though, our neighbours are up LOUD and outside until at least 2 am all the time, it is totally obnoxious! Who does that? I thought moving out of an apartment complex 5 years ago would rid us of that problem.

I just have to shout out to my wonderful kiddos. Even though we have our moments or mean bad and ugly, I love them more than anything else in this world. They are awesome. They keep me laughing all day and keep me on my toes. They get sooo bored if i am not right there playing, so I have to get creative, but I love them so much!

(one of our creative crafts his week. Im really cool like that. Toilet paper rolls cant go to waist in this house! haha)

Natalie has been such a poser for a little bit now, I hate that I cant just get a sweet normal picture of this girl, it always has to be posed.

For whatever reason this weekend just didn't feel like a weekend to me, and I need a weekend! Tomorrow night I am going to the temple with a bunch of women and I am really looking forward to a night out of the house. No disasters to note of this post, just drama and drama and drama!! Drama that makes me want a night out kidless!

Happy Pull your Hair out Day!

2011-05-11T15:18:00.003-05:00

SO Mothers Day came and went and was wonderful. I miss my own Mom a lot this year and wished I could be with her. She is amazing and wonderful and deserves a meal made and cleaned up for her and some good girl time. Maybe one day!

The Day started off with me secretly hoping to have breakfast in bed, that didn't happen :( So I got up and had my yogurt and we headed off to church. Church was great and the best part came after when Stephen handed me the best gift ever. It was a little box and inside there was a little poem:

sometimes you get discouraged
because I am so small
and always leave my fingerprints
on furniture and walls.

But everyday Im growing-
Ill be grown some day
And all those tiny handprints
will surely fade away.

So here's a little handprint
just so you can recall
exactly how my fingers looked
when I was very small.

So I cried, and cried, and cried. pretty sure I am crying again. I loved this. It is just so exactly boots and then to look further into the box, the nursery leader had shrunk their hand prints onto some plastic, I have NO CLUE how they do that! But It is beautiful and wonderful. I love it so much.

Then we went to Brian's Mom's House and the boys cooked up some gourmet burgers and other treats. It was awesome. I love being served! It was a great day to think about Mothers and women in my life. I love them all. My Mother, Mother in law, sister, sisters in law, Grandma's, and every woman that is an example to me.

So the best gift came the next day, Monday. We had gone to a park and Natalie had found a sparkly rock. She had to come home and clean it up so she put the plug down in the sink and filled it with a little water. Off she went to go play. A little bit later she came back and ran into my bathroom to check on her rock. Time passed and I went into my room for something. The bathroom light was on and I faintly heard some water. I open the bathroom door to find water overflowing onto the floor and the floor was a half inch deep with water. It was leaking into the carpet in our room and was a terrible mess. AHHH! I was so frustrated but tried my very hardest to kindly explain to Natalie what happened, and why we cant do what she did.

Well the day got even better when we headed to walmart and as I am getting Courtney out of the car, I had the older 2 stand next to me. "MOM! LOOK!" She was really excited about whatever she was doing. I look over and she had picked up a rock on the ground and was literally drawing circles on this truck, scratching circles into this bright red truck. AHHH! Again, something awesome. I swear this girl is going to be an artist, or better be, with the way she colors on any and everything and has no guilt about it.

So that was great. I love my kids but sometimes I just want to pull out my hair, and then theirs. Yesterday was like that, and Today is another one of those days. I feel like I need a vacation. Its like when I need them to be quiet and sit and stay out of my way, they hear me say "please annoy me, please stand by me, please ask me for a million things, and please have excessive laugh attacks so loud you wake up Courtney". I came to the conclusion today that I need a bigger house ASAP.

Sweep

2011-05-07T10:21:00.004-05:00

Growing up in Canada it was tough to get into pro sports like I have been able to here. Not that I was trying at all growing up, but now that it is in my face all the time, I have become a huge fan of the Dallas teams. This year The Mavs are in the playoffs and this round was with the Lakers. Brian surprised me last night with tickets and we were both soo excited to go see Kobe Live. So Yes we love our team but I also have a love of Kobe. I know you either Love him or hate him. He is good, real good. And lets be honest, hes kinda really good looking(again you either Love him or hate him). So to be able to see Kobe live was really cool for us!
The whole place was a "blue out" so they had blue shirts on every ones seat so everyone would be in the same royal blue. The mood and energy in there can only be described as ELECTRIC. It was soooo awesome. We left Hoarse and soo happy that we won game 3, which makes us one game away from advancing. I have a feeling it will be a SWEEP!!!

Before we went we went to a little place called La Duni for some South American food. IT WAS AMAZINGLY GOOD! This just hit the top of our list for good places to eat. That's another thing there is no shortage of here, especially when you compare to Calgary. But not only was the food excellent, service excellent, but there is a bakery that just won best of Dallas and the piece of cake we had was as Brian said "The best cake I have ever had in my life". So good.

Now for the pictures I was too lazy to get out earlier. My lovies. Since Mothers Day is tomorrow Brian went out with the kids this morning to let them get their Mothers Day gifts. They are so sweet to me! I just couldn't resist their cuddles this morning at 6am(normally I send them back to bed).

#1. Courtney - Sweet

#2. Boots - Curious (and classy, he likes to go commando when no one notices)

#3. Natalie - SASSY, although this picture just shows her sweetness.

Theyre cool

2011-05-05T21:54:00.002-05:00

I just got a call from Brian just to tell me he was on his way home from whatever he was doing tonight. These kind of phone calls happen all the time with us. We are very much in touch with eachother through out the day, and I am sure this drives him crazy. I just like to know where he is so I know when he will be home... so I know when to worry when he isn't home. You never know what could happen and I like to be informed. Anyway, not the point I am making here but on my way to it. So we talk all the time in a day, just short conversations. They can be anything from what do you want for dinner, when will you be home, Did the Mavs win the game last night, or a funny story I want to tell him about the kids. Well I am so happy to say that EVERY SINGLE phone call we have with eachother ends with I love you. We just had one like this:

Hello?
Hi. Im on my way home.
Ok. See you soon.
Love you. Bye.
Bye.

Isn't that awesome? I had never thought about it before but really I love that we do that. Just a little ditbit that noone else cares about but me!

So I think that the nickname BOOTS is slowly going to be phased out. Dont tell Brian because I think he would be so sad, but Stephen tells everyone he meets that his name is Steve. haha The other day at gymnastics he had a new coach and I thought he would be too shy to even tell her his name and as they were all leaving she came up and gave him a high five and said "See you late Steve! You did awesome today dude!" He loves it and just gives big smiles. He LOVES to find out about other people named Steve. When he realized that Grandad, my dad, was named that he was pumped. Then a family member moved to town who's name is Steve, awesome! And anyone he hears "Steve" He gets so excited. I do not have the guts to call him Steve as that is an adult name, but you never know, maybe it will grow on me like Stephen Did. But I do love Boots. That will be a hard one to say goodbye to!
We went to the pool today for the first time this year and it was sooo nice to just sit and relax, as much as you can with 3 crazies, and be in the sun. My kids are terrified of water going up past their knees but at least that makes them more cautious around it right?! haha easier for me! But today as we were out I was putting some sun screen on Stephen and I noticed something on his nose... on closer inspection he has FRECKLES! I was so excited to see these adorable little marks coming through on his cute nose!

This post is mainly just for me to feel better about not blogging in forever. I have been so busy that I havn't had time, but things are always happening that I think are blog worthy! For example, we went Laser Tagging this last weekend and it was so much fun. I have never been before and I seriously can't remember the last time I had that much fun, and we have a lot of fun! Also after 2 weeks of really not cooking once, I have been cooking all week and just want to put it out there that everything I have cooked has been awesome. That is rare for me.

Now Just a snippet on the girls. I love having them in my life. Natalie is a riot and she cracks me up all the time with her playing and singing and exaggerated everything. She is so theatrical in everything she does! But her hair is totally growing. I need to take a good picture of it but her bangs totally come over her eyes, and a few strands (maybe just one) touch the end of her nose! ahhhh! This is huge! I love that she sleeps with either a hat or a headband on every night. She will brush her hair for about 10 minutes before she goes to bed to make sure it is perfect.
Courtney is almost 8 months and I am amazed by that. She is still so little, yet not at all! She is moving around a lot, not crawling, but getting to everything around her. She is so happy and really truly never cries. She is just a joy to have with me all the time. She has started to say "BA BA" and Loves to eat. She is picky though and likes to stick to carrots, sweet potatoes, and cereal. not much of a fruit girl. She is messy and loves every bite of what she can get her little sticky hands on though!

So no pictures this post. I havn't had my camera out at all. But I will, and I will blog more. This is lame but, I miss my own blog!

be sure to put some flowers in your hair!

2011-04-26T22:34:00.003-05:00

Brian and I celebrated our 6 year Anniversary this last week. It was really back in March but since we go on a trip to a new place every year, we have decided that April is a little better to travel. (not spring break, a little warmer, and baseball season has begun) So off we went to SAN FRANCISCO. Mom came down to take care of the kids which makes her the best person alive. Seriously, best.NANA.ever. Thank you so so much mom for that, we couldn't have gone without you!
THIS IS LONG....So before you STOP reading this at least read this first VERY funny story... We usually keep the destination a secret, and this year was no different until about a week ago when Brian guessed our destination and I have no poker face. So he knew and we were able to catch a few mishaps in my planning. So Wednesday morning we drive at the airport. On the way, I called the airline to check out gate. HMMM, that's odd, the time is a little different but I don't remember getting any emails informing me of this change. Strange, but whatever. So we get dropped off and cant check in at the machines. ODD. So I go up to the desk and after some strange questions and looking at our itinerary, the airline agent passes it back to me and says "Oh these flights are booked for March" My response, "NO. I booked them for today. April." He then shows me the date of my tickets and low and behold they indeed are in March. We were a whole month late for the tickets I had bought. NON refundable tickets I will add. So we searched on line for the next best thing which didn't go out for another 10 hours that night. We took it and although we didn't lose out on anything that day on our trip, we were out a lot of money just buying tickets last minute like that. UGH! I felt so stupid. I immediately started to cry and I was just waiting for Brian to reem me out for doing this. He is always getting on me about my memory and doing things a little wonky... well I was ready to hear it. Instead, he amazed me and was the man I thought I married. He laughed, and laughed...and laughed. And I cried and cried and cried. These things happen right? It will never ever happen again to us, but it happened and that is what makes our trips so memorable!

Day 1. Travel to San Fran, hop in a cab with a TRICKY cab driver, check in and go to sleep.

Day2. Wake up early for Alcatraz. This was awesome. This prison island was crazy and so interesting to learn about. I would never last in prison.

The Island is a preserved state park of California for the extensive flowers and nesting birds all around the island. It was beautiful!

We were trying to take some pics of the view to the city and there was a man KINDA in our way. Brian had already taken a pic and it was gross so I was making him retake and so we had to wait a minute. I didn't know this is actually what face I make when I am irritated. Yes, it looks like I was posing to be annoyed, turns out I have a naturally stink face. SWEET.

Check out where they got to have their activities. Brian would have rocked this place. It was creepy.

LUNCH at Boudin. The famous Sour Dough bread bakery. YUM! We had sour dough french toast and soup in bread bowls. It was divine. If I liked seafood, I am sure I would have liked the clam chowder as much as Brian did.

Golden Gate Bridge was huge and fun to go and see. There were tons of people out there and the weather that day was gorg! We are really into the history of things, so this was fun to read all about it. I feel silly saying this but it was here that I "clicked" to why they call it the GOLDEN GATE bridge. Am I retarded or are there others out there who dont know?!

This is one of the big cords that holds up the bridge, it is full of tiny cords inside a large one. Then there are more tint ones wrapped up around it.

China Town. Fun. Bought cheap presents for the kids and were SUPER silly!

Day 3. We rented a car and headed out to Oakland to go to the Temple. Best smelling temple ever! The landscaping was awesome and seriously smelt like spring! The temple itself was of course gorgeous and simple. You can tell it was built in the 60's!!

He didn't want to be in any pictures because he didn't pack his white shirt. I finally convinced him it didn't matter.

The cable cars were fun to ride on. HUGE LINES were not worth the wait but the few times we hopped on, it was cool to see the steep hills they could climb, and we were not going to climb those on foot!

We had some DELISH food. Italian in Little Italy, with some gelato. We had Steaks one night, sushi, Mexican, crepes, and so much more I cant ever think of it.

That night we went to the baseball game, the Giants. We tried many many times to catch the bus over there but kept missing it, getting in long lines, or just didn't want to wait 15 min for the next one so we ended up walking 4 miles to the ballpark.

We were tired. It was totally worth it though. The ballpark is right by the Bay Bridge and it is right on the water. People actually sit out there in canoes waiting for home run balls to come out to the water! Also home of the original garlic fry. It was GOOOD! But made my breathe super smelly!

Silly Seals out of the pier. They were barking and there was something so interesting about watching them that I couldn't stop! I turned to find Brian just standing there staring at me, as in "Whenever you are done you crazy lady! They are just seals!"

The Crooked road was fun to walk and see. The roads in this city were nuts. Steep!!

And remember FULL HOUSE? I loved and love that show. We had to go check these out. The funny thing about this picture is that I think the people around the park thought we were serious about the poses we were doing. We really have to not care what other people think of us in order to get our usual silly pictures. This whole walk we were singing the full house theme song.

"What ever happened to predictability?

The milk man the paper boy, evening TV.

You miss your old familar friends,

But waiting just around the bend.

everywhere you look everwhere,

theres a heart, theres a heart,

a hand to hold on to.

Everywhere you look everywhere

theres a face, theres a face

of somebody who needs you.

When youre lost out there,

and your all alone.

A light is waiting to carry you home,

everywhere you look.

ah ah ah ah ah!"

Last Day we did most of the touristy stuff and sights. We weren't leaving until 10 that night so we had the day to relax and enjoy. Ghirardelli square was fun, although we didn't get all around the square. We got in and ordered the classic fudge sundae, waiting almost an hour for them to come and jumped into the best ice cream sundae of my life. YUM!!

So basically it doesn't matter where we go, we have so much fun together. I am so lucky to be married to the most amazing man ever. He overlooks my faults and loves me for them. He is more incredable today than he was when we first met. We always talk about when we met and how fast everything happened and we feel so blessed that we were able to find eachother. He lifts me up and truly makes me a better person. He makes me laugh all the time, if you know Brian, you know that there is never a dull moment and he USUALLY crosses the line and goes too far. I love you babe! Thanks for another amazing year and another awesome trip!

Waiting

2011-04-17T15:37:00.005-05:00

The AC in the suburban went out. It has been going out for the last year or so and it sucks when it does. It is humid and hot and horrible. With summer time coming fast, it has been in the 90's and we are feeling it. So we finally brought the car in, which means we all get to squish in the little car. It was NOT fun. Lets just say my kids ALL need to be separated all the time. This week we also had our friends from Houston come over for a pajama party, we had decided against a sleepover. But the party was a success with Pool time, painting nails, making rice crispies and watching movies. Boots felt a little left out of the nail polish scene but finally I gave into the clear polish.

We also went to a baseball game with them and the kids all got their very own camera jumbo tron time! Court knows how to work it for the camera!!

We are just waiting on the edge of our seats for the afternoon to hurry on by. Nana gets here today and we cant wait to see her and pick her up to spend the week. Brian and I are going on our annual anniversary trip and Nana is always awesome to come and chill with the kiddos. This year we are going to San Francisco and we are both really excited since neither of us has been there before. It is usually a surprise but Brian "got it out of me". He guessed states and cities and since I have NO poker face, he knew it when he guessed it. That little sucker. But it turned out better this way, now we can plan before hand and apparently I am not a good planner. Thanks for pointing that out B.

Chase that Davy Crockett

2011-04-12T15:01:00.007-05:00

We have been training the last 3 months, well honestly just 2, and finally the day has come and gone of the payout. We, my sister in laws and I, did the Davy Crockett Bear Chase Half Marathon in Groveton, Tx. I guarantee that no one has heard of that town, it is REALLY small! So after weeks and weeks of getting together Saturday morning at 530am for our long runs, we did it and it feels sooo good!! My Mother in Law Tori, and my two sis in laws (Anna and Kathleen) and of course me, we all headed down for a girls night in Crockett Texas and then over to the race in the morning. We arrived looking forward to a fun night and yummy pre-race food. We definitely had fun, and pre-race food, just not so yummy!! Thank you Elementary school in Groveton! Also highlight of the night was getting into our swimsuits and headed down to the Whirlpool we all had been so looking forward to. The best was going outside to find that it had been filled in by rocks and flower beds. Come one people, change your website for crazy hot tubbers like us! Not impressed! After one of those night where you wake up every hour in anticipation, we headed out to the race. We met up with pals Jake and Kelly who were doing the Marathon. No marathon for me thanks! We brought our camera running to try and take some fun shots, that plan didn't work so well! We all had a good run though. My time was 2:14. My goal was to beat Brian's time a few months ago or 2:17 so I beat that. During the race though I changed my goal to under 2:10. I was bummed I didn't make it, but I think we are doing another one in a month so that is my goal to shoot for then!

Way to go Kel!! You rocked those 26 miles GIRL!

So I'm running along, we had all kind of split up near the end and as I am running my last mile I look up ahead and see a shirt that looked very familiar. Our families chose to stay home as it was a 4 hour drive to the race. Well upon closer inspection, it was Brian and the kids there to cheer me on. I started to get emotional and I cried. It was the most wonderful surprise. I am totally tearing up just thinking about it again! Talk about motivation! It was awesome.

Nothing like a DQ Blizzard for a post race treat. Oddly enough my kids barely touched theirs, they must not take after mommy with this, MORE FOR ME! I love me some blizz!

So I was tired, my legs felt close to numb on the last mile, but I did get some energy boost around mile 10 so that helped me a ton. I think that if it was a few miles longer I could have done it, it was just knowing I only had to do 13 miles that made me tired on that last mile. I was definitely not as tired as my fam though. They got up at 330 to come and surprise me! So the kids zonked the whole way home.

Today was one of the cutest things I have ever seen. Natalie talks about her cousins all of the time. "Remember when we went to Disney world with BriBri?" "Remember when we went to Hawaii with Melia?" "I cant wait to play with Taylor this summer!" and so on and so on. She seriously talks about them ALL all of the time. So today I was skyping with my sis and Taylor and Natalie started to talk. Taylor asked her if she wanted to play pony's. They totally got all their pony's out and skype-played pony's together. It was so precious! I wish she could see the Miller cousins more. I feel so blessed to be near all of the Rawlins, how awesome though if she could see them all!

WHY am I up?

2011-04-08T01:32:00.002-05:00

It is late, real late. It is almost 2. I haven't stayed up this late in a long long time. Like months. I used to a lot, then I had kid #3 and it all went down hill. I get tired early, like 10. So tonight, I am up and I think I have caught my second, maybe third wind. We started the night off with a surprise date night in this: To go watch this:

It was really fun. I feel so blessed to have the perks of Brian being who he is, knowing who he knows, and being able to do this kind of stuff all the time. He is making his week a triple header. Monday was the Rangers, Tonight was the Stars and Tomorrow night it is the Mavs. 3 Pro sports teams in one week, that is awesome!

Ok so why am I up? Well we went there and then while we were there I remember what Brian had told me only earlier today - He lost a bet at work and now I have to make him a homemade Strawberry pie and a peach pie. PEACHES are not in season which bothers me very very much. I dont like to make homemade things without making them totally 100% homemade. So the peach pie had canned peaches. ANYWAY, I was just waiting for the pie to finish up in the oven. I cleaned, swept, mopped, and listened to 3 conference talks. By the time my pie was finished I had decided that I was no longer tired, So I blogged.

Can I just say, Thanks to my momma who taught me how to make a killer pie? I mean her dough recipe is AWESOME and I think I make a pretty radical pie. Strawberry and Pumpkin are my 2 favs and I think I am best at them, but really I make a good Nana pie of any variety now.

Tomorrow (today) I leave for our Half Marathon. I am nervous, excited, pumped, giddy, and kinda nauseous about it. I am sure we will do fine, at least I know we will finish and we will have fun doing it! Good luck to us! Probably not wise to be up so late right? OK off to bed!

Take me to another

2011-04-06T15:32:00.003-05:00

Things have been busy around here as always. I think things are always busy for someone who has 3 little kids all at home, all 4 years and younger. I am so tired. but something about me, I hate missing the action. So I might be falling asleep on the couch but I will not take myself to bed without Brian because he MIGHT watch something fun, or someone MIGHT stop by... or I might miss food being made or whatever it is at 10 at night, I don't want to miss it. Lame I know. Then I am so tired at night but I know there are so many important things that I need to get done, that all of my fun things just don't make the list. Right now it is 815, I chose to blog but I just got the kids to bed and I have 5 loads of laundry to fold, kitchen floor to mop and then my room to clean. Then I need to listen to some conference that I missed and then read my scriptures, so by the time I get to my "fun" book or some fun TV show... I will be ready for bed. Oh and I just remembered that I haven't eaten dinner. But I have had a lot of fun with the kids lately! Cousins Avree and Olivia came over today while their momma went out and we made paper plate Easter bunnies, made a fort (forest as Stephen calls it)and played LOTS out side. Thank heaven for a trampoline and deck, and sprinklers!

This picture is kinda goofy, but this face is my FAVORITE face that Courtney makes. She sucks in her bottom lip and smiles the cutest, cheekiest smile! Love that girl. We are always kissing on her!

On Monday we went to our First Rangers Game of the season. We are haven't lost a game yet, I mean I love the Rangers of course, but really I think they have a shot again this year of going all the way. It was so fun and so full. I always always always love these games! Just the first of many for this season. We went with Garrett and our Cousin Brandon. We all had a lot of fun!

I am going on 2 weeks of not making dinner. I suck. I will do so well for a few weeks, then I have these patches of falling into my old habits. I make the kids something easy and then we scrape something up or buy something, or Brian cooks, which is always yummy. But I need to step it up and cook some food for my family. I really do feel bad!

So the kids have been talking about their birthdays, and Halloween, and Easter. Natalie has decided that she is going to have a my Little Pony birthday, dress up like Nala for Halloween, and then she is going to dress up as Izzy (Jake and the Neverland Pirates show) for Easter. hmmm, I think we missed that teaching moment of what Easter is. NOT A DRESSup HOLIDAY NATALIE!

uplifting

2011-04-03T20:44:00.003-05:00

The days have been flying by. I don't have time to do much of anything "fun" for myself. The old me found the time, but instead I would miss out on fun time with the kids. I played a full hour of Barbies tonight. I was Jasmine, Natalie was Rapunzel, and Boots was Pocahontas (who was a mans voice named Garrett and he killed bugs) It was a lot of fun! Then we took out Fancy Nancy Parfait game and played countless rounds... me and boots kept dominating! So we had a wonderful weekend of course. I love Conference weekends when we get hours and hours of spiritual edification. This weekend was no different, except that even little Natalie got something out of it. The kids were able to make it through a bit of this morning playing bingo for words. Boots made it through a talk and a half, and Nat made it an hour and a half! I will give Boots some credit though, he got excited about almost every word he heard. "Jerusalem!" "Holy ghost!" "temple!" He was shouting them from the playroom when he would hear them said!

Nat wanted to sport boots' jammies tonight (sorry I mean Steve, that is what he has been wanting to be called!) Then we had some friends over for a crepe buffet... it was SOOO GOOD!

I have been begging and begging Brian since we moved in, 5 years ago, to do something to the nasty lawn. Finally on Saturday he went out and mowed, aerated(sp?) the lawn, and then seeded. I cant wait for some new green lush grass to grown in! And he finally put to use his aeration shoes I gave him for a gift years ago!

So I love sleeping kids. There is not much sweeter than the moment you tippy toe into their rooms after they are all asleep and see them so sweet. All wrapped up in blankets, toys in hand, blankets over faces, all over the bed.. and in Natalie's case, diva-licious.

Also last week we had a chance to go the womens elite 9 NCAA game here in town. It was awesome in the box again, and we got to tour the Mavs locker room... again. Seriously we have gotten some radical perks this year! It was fun to take the train in again and have a night out with hubs. I love that man!

So onto another week of busy busy, and my last week of training before the big race on Saturday, I am super excited. ANY TIPS from other half marathon runners out there? I need anything I can get!

LATE

2011-03-28T16:30:00.004-05:00

After church yesterday we had some awesome conversations with boots and Natalie about what they learned in church. Boots went on to us that on top of the temple is the angel pepper-roni, that Is one of the funniest things I have ever heard. Natalie learned about the holy ghost and so after asking about when she is 8 if she can get baptized, she then told us that the holy spirit would give her presents. We confirmed if she mention gifts, she said yes. We then put it together and explained to her that it is the gift of the holy ghost, not that he gives you gifts. She was disappointed to discover, candy wasn't the gift. Then she drew this awesome picture for me today, it is her with the holy ghost inside her head.

So now that Courtney is 6 months old, she is old enough to go to the gym with me, the kids went this week and she Did awesome. Having them all happy, no crying, is one of the best things when I am trying to get in a workout! She has also started sitting up and continues to smile ALL the time.

We are getting creative with pony time over here, they all were chillin on the fireplace, who knew that pony's were magnetic?!

I got home from girls camp last weekend and I was so happy to be back with my family, although this last week was packed with church stuff. I swear, i am as busy as my dad...who is super busy! But it was awesome. The weather was perfect since it was over spring break and fairly low drama level, for girls camp! I missed all my runs while there, including my 10 miler for the week, so when i got home I had a really hard week last week trying to get back in. Then Saturday was our 11 miler and it killed me. Less than 2 weeks till race day, I am hoping I don't feel as bad! So since my training has started in February, I have been trying to lose weight, mainly the baby weight. I am back to pre pregnancy weight but i tell ya, we sacrifice for those kiddos. It is hard!!

Awesome

2011-03-15T21:39:00.004-05:00

We have a family of 5 and we are all awesome. My kids are the best and so is my hubby. So this post is really just to post the random pictures I take of their awesomeness...

Boots and Natalie(aka little Bo peep) entranced by Elmo, this is the first time EVER I have let them watch a whole Sesame Street and they LOVED it.

Obviously Boots has some killer muscles.

Natalie did a fashion show and her "babies" all watched, one of the audience members was very lively!

Late night with Boots. He hasn't done well with the whole day light savings and just doesn't like going to sleep, surprise surprise! So we let him stay up late and watch some TV with us. He loved it.

Awesome.

Awesome Aunt Kathleen.

Awesome "Dinosaur Hair"

Awesome "Unicorn Hair"

Daddy is Awesome to give me beautiful flowers for our 6 year anniversary last week. You are the best hubs ever babe! Seriously, life wouldn't be anything without you! Happy A day! Thanks for celebrating at a stake church basketball tournament. Thats Love!

And the new canopies in the girls room. Bad picture, cute canopies.

Awesome Hair

And Again an awesome Daddy.

and now I am off to GIRLS CAMP FOR AN AWESOME WEEK!!!!

2 little ears

2011-03-10T13:18:00.004-06:00

Nana came for a very VERY fast visit this week. She stopped in for a few days and is now gone. I wish she could come back and just chill with us. We always have so many things to cram into her stays that really we never get to just relax and hang out. Next time. Although Next time she will be babysitting my 3 crazy kiddos while we go on a relaxing vacation for our anniversary. Oh Nana, just move here!! She discovered something very special about Courtney while she was here. Her left ear is a little large and sticks out a little bit. We just thought she had special cute little ears, but mom pointed out that she has the exact same ear and it is missing a fold. We checked both of their ears and it is true, they have twinner ears!

We drove her to the airport this morning and Natalie, who has been really battling with her temper, was fine until we said good bye and shut the door. She bawled and bawled for 10 minutes straight. It wasn't a tantrum cry either, it was a sad pitiful cry straight from the heart. She loves her Nana sooo much! COME BACK!

Courtney will be 6 months on Saturday. She is almost sitting up by herself and is now holding her bottle all by herself. I hate that though because I immediately lose some of my time with her, little Ms. Independent!

I don't think this picture needs explanation, but here is the conversation that makes it funny...

in walks boots looking like this

Me:Boots Did you get into Nana's makeup?

Boots: No Its your make up mommy!

OK I thought the convo was way longer and it doesn't sound funny now but it was hilarious.

Nat and Boots love to play outside and they always play pretend. They get along well for the most part and this week and I peeked out at them to make sure all was well and no one had escaped or was laying tangled in the trampoline. I watched them play for a few minutes and they were darling, giving hugs, kisses, and dancing around as Prince and Princess!

So I picked up 2 new Books at the book store. What I wish I picked up was "city of bones" but of course children not only take up all of my time, but also my free time. I got "Temper your child's Tantrums" by James Dobson, and "Kids are Worth it" by Barbara Coloroso. Like I said, Natalie has been having a really really hard time controlling herself and we have spent 2 out of the last 4 days dealing with a day full of temper tantrums that will not go away, Power struggles, screaming, doors slamming, kicking, hitting, threats to me, and anything else you can think of. Obviously my way of dealing with her is not working so I am PRAYING that the books shed some light on my style of parenting. That girl has been special since the day she was born, and although I don't want her to lose her spunk, she has got to lose the tude!

Lucifer

2011-03-01T15:14:00.007-06:00

Brian was playing with the kids the other day and Natalie looked up at Brian and said "Daddy, you are like Lucifer!" He was shocked and asked her why he was like Lucifer. She went on to explain that he was like a kitty cat crawling around on the floor and finally he realized that she was talking about the cat from Cinderella, Lucifer.

I wish I had video of that girl doing the things she does, because she cracks me up. I watched 20 min of her dance class today and watching Natalie try to do pirouettes is the funniest thing to see. She leans down and pulls her toes apart, because her feet cant do it on their own. And then her whole body does a front bend trying to curtsy. Oh, she is doomed to be uncoordinated like me. Poor thing.

Courtney was looking extra sweet yesterday and so I whipped out the camera to document her little life. There is no peace anywhere in our little house, so of course we were joined by #1 and #2.

Now, there is something I do not understand. You peeps out there who have time to sew and craft and cook and clean and actually spend time with your kids and take them where they need to be and make sure everyone gets food and gets clean and sleeps etc etc etc, HOW DO YOU DO IT? I only have 3 and they aren't even in school yet but I feel like I need an extra 6 hours in the day to get done everything I need to get done. Either I really suck at time management or I have just gone crazy. How do you do it? I have a stack of crafts and "to do" things but cant ever seem to get to them. Its too bad we BARELY miss the kindergarten cut off next fall because another year with 3 at home - lets just say I am not sure how this is going to work out.

I will tell you what I am squeezing in though, my training. I am up to 8 miles this week for my long run and I am feeling great. Yesterday I did a 4 miler at 9.5 min miles. I am super proud of the number because it seems like I have been doing around an 11 min mile until then. So I am 4.5 weeks into the training 5.5 weeks left. I haven't missed a day (other than Sunday) and I don't plan to either!

This is our "library", at least that is what the kids call it. Since we moved Natalie out of the room, it cleared up a bunch of space under the bunk and so in moved the books and the chairs and.... LIBRARY. Instant fun, at least for 2 minutes until Books starts ripping up books. I spent about an hour yesterday taping some books back together. Flap books are no good over here. I remember Natalie going through that phase where she would just rip them out, and now Boots is in that phase and it sucks. I feel like I cant let him play with the books!

And I just have to shout out to the most popular person in our home, Justin. That is the Bieber. We "heart" him around here. Boots knows most of the words to all of his songs and has been asking to go see his movie. I guess it was kinda dirty, but last night after the kids went to bed Brian and I went to go see Never Say Never, his movie. So I know there are a lot of non Beliebers out there, but seriously this kid is amazing. His songs are not just poppy and catchy, he is so talented. I promise that if you doubt him, go see this movie and you will fall in love too. It is only in theatres until Friday, and I totally want to go again (I wont) but I want to.

I am not afraid to say it - I love JB.

Jus Chillin

2011-02-24T10:31:00.000-06:00

I look like rudolph right now. I have been trying to re-learn how to curl my hair with a curling iron right? I mean I knew how the old way, but hair styles change so much and I have to learn the new "it" ways to do and curl your hair... so I was trying and of course I got to my growing out bangs that get pinned back anyway. I thought to myself "hm, I should just straighten them with this curling iron instead of plugging in my straightener!" a little straighten action was easily done, till I did just ONE LAST TIME and sizzle. I totally burnt the tip of my nose.Bad. Blister has now turned into big red scab. sick.

Happy note, I got a new camera for Christmas, which I returned, and then went and bought myself another one a few weeks ago. I love it. So we have just been having fun playing around with the fun features. Brian has absolutely no interest in these "fish eye" etc features as he sees NO REASON to ever use them. But love my new clicker!
Man do I love my kids. They are my everything. They make me laugh and scream all day long. I want to hug them and then pull my hair out all in one minute, sometimes a second.
Today they were playing outside in the 86 degree weather, yuck, and Natalie ran in in a panic. "MOM!! MOM!! There are bugs!" I try to explain to her that when you are outside there are bugs, that just happens. She is still terrified and shocked every time she goes out and finds one though. She will SCREAM until I come to save her. The other day there was a TINY little nat or fly type of thing on the trampoline, and she wouldn't budge. She was flipping out! So anyway, today she runs in to tell me about this bug, and with terror in her voice she explains that it is a "pire ant" which in Natalie means Fire Ant. We do get these around occasionally but no biggie with pest control. So Natalie continued to explain the situation to me: "Mom, there is a pire ant and it was really big and it looked at my toe!" She looked at me waiting for me to be horrified at this information. So I went out to check it out and of course there was nothing, but she refused to step on the grass at all. When I went back in and shut the door, she stood there screaming out of fear until I let her in. What a wuss! haha She cracks me up! Man, I probably scared her with my spider experiences (I scream when I see one, and I have done it around the kids).

And boots this week has been really into his pirate pants. Like the ones from his Halloween costume. He wants to wear there all the time, everywhere we go. I can occasionally deal with a little princess dress up, but this? haha It is ridiculous, but so cute I have to let him do it.

But today the not so cute kid thing happened. There is always something with these 2. I dont like them to be in the bathroom because they LOVE the soap, and the toothpaste, and the toilet paper, and the water, and the toilet, and the hair gel, and anything else they can get their hands on. Their "thing" of the week is doing little baths in the sink for her barbies or pony's, or in this pool.

Super fun right? Totally! So Brian taught Natalie how to plug up the sink so she could put a little water in and play. BIG MISTAKE when today they weren't even in the bathroom, but had plugged it and left the water running. Can you say OVERFLOW! I was out on a run so I couldn't get the picture of this wonderful event, but both kids were in serious time outs when I got home. I am beginning to think I shouldn't leave the house EVER!

side note, the locks on the bedroom door are working out great. Kinda cramping his nighttime peepee runs, but I will deal with that if I dont have to deal with the other option!

Natalie in Courtney's room is having its ups and downs. She is so excited to have baby in there that she feels like she has to put her babies in the crib to comfort Courtney and touch her head/hands/body when they are trying to go to sleep. This is a problem since we are "let your child cry" type of parents. Parents who have done this... does it get better and go away? PLEASE SAY YES!

More Crazies

2011-02-21T22:42:00.003-06:00

I don't know what my deal is, I always say that I will do a better job of blogging more since this is what I use as my journaling these days. But here I go again, almost a week has gone by and I am stuck with a ton of pictures and stories and I will probably forget most of it! I say I don't know what my deal is, but really lets get serious. It is because I am crazy and have 3 kids who are all 4 and under at home all day every day. At least they are ADORABLE!

This last week and today have been crazy. I want to pull my hair out sometimes, like last night. So Lets just start off by talking about our crazy crazy weather. It was in the 80s last week. Just take a look back a few posts and you will see the 12 degree weather and snow. This week was sweaty and outside everyday! And Penguin days at the zoo (cheap admission) so we took advantage!

That isn't the crazy part. The crazy part comes as no surprise to me, BOOTS.

Saturday I went out on a run, a 6 mile run to be exact. This is the longest I have run in 5 years. YEAH for me! So I was gone for a little while, and as I was leaving the house I distinctly remember telling Brian that if he wants a nap, do go do it on the couch so he can hear the kids when they get up from their naps.

I leave... I come back... I find this...

CLOSER LOOK: Spilt Gatorade all over the carpet, a can of whipping cream, and an entire snack pack "pack" of Pringles. That is like 6 mini containers of pringles. Then there were juice boxes and twizzler packages as well. What is this kid thinking? And more importantly what was Brian thinking sleeping in our bed with his ear plugs in?

Speaking of sleep, this is something Stephen hasn't been getting a lot of lately. He has been waking up in the night on and off now for months and some nights are horrible, some are not so bad. He usually will fall out of bed a few times in the week, but nothing that even wakes him up - obviously!

So Last night was my final straw with this kid. He got up at 930, 12, 1230, 1, 130, 2, 230, 3 and then again at 330. (The times are an estimate but close enough) He wanders into our room each time and either just stands beside my bed and sucks his blanket, or he whines about something that doesn't make sense. So each time we bring him back to his bed and tell him to go back to bed. We have had to start more strict discipline though because it is so out of control, and we sometimes give cold showers. Don't worry they are fast, and I am telling you - nothing else works. So he actually had gotten 2 already by the last time he got up to come in our room. Brian put him back again, and 30 min later we hear giggling. Last time this happened Boots was up on Natalie's bunk naked jumping on her bed at 4 am. So Brian goes to check it out and Boots had gotten 2 yogurts out of the fridge, opened them for him and Natalie and they were both in the toy room with their pillows and blankets eating them with their fingers. Natalie was still kinda out of it and tired, but boots was alert as ever. He had been up since midnight pretty much too, since he never really went back to sleep.

AHHHHH! What is he thinking? So today we invested in a bedroom door lock, a fridge lock, and moved Natalie right on our of that room. She and Courtney are sharing now. No more bacon runs, yogurt runs, or bedroom runs for that Mr. Boots. I am tired just thinking about last night!

Courtney is by far the most popular one in our house on a daily basis though. She is happy and sweet and loves getting kisses from Nat and Boots. She actually has no choice and I am sure she really doesn't love it all the time, but she gets it! When moving A bed back into Court's room today for Natalie, we had to move the change table up to the attic for more space, and I have to say, something about that move made me very very sad. I am pretty sure we will be having another baby sometime in the future, at least we would love to, but I am still so sad to be putting it away! That has been happening with so many things for me. I know I could never be a hoarder, but sometimes I find myself having a hard time letting go of things. #1 thing I am guilty of, my old sewing machine sits old and broken in the attic but I refuse to throw it away, it was my Moms first and it is kinda sentimental to me! It cant be fixed and is useless but still! haha I have issues!

Lovey Love

2011-02-15T10:54:00.003-06:00

I am not scared to admit that I love Valentines Day. I mean, I do have a man that shows me he loves me and tells me he loves me every day, but it is always fun to have a holiday just for that! We made and decorated sugar cookies(thanks libby for your too delishious recipe), and then made a mess with glitter for some valentines.
Then in the mindset of being healthier, I received an EDIBLE bouquet of pineapple, grapes, and strawberries from my hubby this year. I LOVE chocolate covered strawberries, so those were my fav. Apparently those were the kids too since they ate THEM ALL! We then went out to CARRABBAS for dinner, for our favorite Italian dishes. Oh I am watering at the mouth just thinking about how good my dinner was.
We got home to a cookie bouquet sent from Nana and Grandad thanks you guys - we Love it!

Brian and I spent the night thinking back on the good old days. "When I was a kid" type of days. I dont know what started the convo but we went off about cassette tapes, 8 tracks, and then started thinking about computers and how far we have come in the 2000's. When I was in elementary school they JUST got a computer lab (in like 4 th grade) and I remember going in to the old school computers and learning to type and use the keyboard. Then in high school Internet came out, which was a crazy thing to learn. We talked about our cell phones and when we got our first ones, mine was in high school. I had an emergency only phone in my glove box that really didn't ever get used. In college, 2nd semester I finally "gave in" to the trend and got one. Brian didn't get his first until we got married. Even then we didn't have texting because Brian thought it was something that would die off. haha OHHH how even those times have changed. Basically we just realized what amazing things have happened in the last 10-15 years.

On Sunday the girls looked so pretty for church, and boots had already changed (since he does it the second he gets in the door with a big "ahhhh" sigh of relief- literally) so I tried to get a quick shot of them. Courtney always always has this look on her face, tongue out, double chin, and just a blank stare. I will catch a smile and a cute picture of all 3 kids one day.

Now I just need to touch on boots for a second. He always drives me crazy, but this week he has shown an extra interest in the toilet. When he was younger he would do this, and I thought he was over that stage of his life. WRONG. Yesterday he took himself #2, then emptied most of the toilet paper roll into the toilet, with a lot of overhang onto the floor (like something you would see in a book), and then he added a few toys on top of it all and all mixed in. I pretty much rotate putting the bathrooms in quarantine with this kid. When I find this I have to close it all down long enough for me to disinfect since I despise toilet water, and toilet anything.

So today I was standing there talking to my mom on the phone when I hear the sucking sound coming from behind me. He was standing over the toilet, holding one of Natalie's slippers. It was dripping wet into the toilet and he was sucking on it drinking the water. SON! If you are that thirsty, seriously I will get you a drink! EWWWW! I don't know what to do with him. It is always something.

The weather is back up to beautiful 70 degrees today, and it is funny how fast I can go from "It is so cold here!" to "Ug I am totally sweaty today!" I need to just not complain and be positive about whatever the weather is. At least it isn't 20 and at least it isn't 100!

Underground

2011-02-12T23:17:00.006-06:00

When asked her favorite color this week, Natalie didn't reply with her usual PINK! She instead told me that her favorite color is glitter. It figures since she has 3 pairs of glitter shoes, glitter tutus and glitter everything else you can dream of. So we decided to make her Ballet class Valentines glittery. She had a little party and came home with some loot! It was like Halloween! I am not one to talk, as I couldn't just buy some little cardboard ones, I am lame. But they turned out pretty cute, and the mini cupcakes I made were divine!

Today was a big fun day for us. We love sports around here, and we especially love the Mavs. They are the NBA team here in Dallas, for those who are totally out of it! We have season tickets to the D league team, and so we get some really cool opportunities. One of those was today when we got backstage passes to the Mavs. They, of course, were out of town but we got to go downtown and check out their grounds.

We took the train down, which the kids loved, and then went in and underground, literally. We got to check out their practice gym, their locker room, their workout room, their training stuff and even the showers and toilets. There are a TON of pictures, but I know there are some who actually would want to see this stuff like we did!

We all went in for a big cheer "MAVS!" And Natalie had to get in on it. She would put her arm in, and then shout when we all did, but then get really shy and scared right after. It was pretty funny.

Their locker room was posh. Someone there said that it is nicer than the cowboys NEW locker room. We got to try on their jackets and sit in their chairs, but we were not allowed to touch their personal things as they are superstitious about certain things!
I liked this, it was Jason Terry's stuff in his locker. I just like how I act like they are so big and famous and untouchable and then you go and look and see the books they are reading, and games they are playing and remember they are just people.
They had a sweet set up. Cooshy chairs, poker table, pool table, ping pong, and pretty much anything you could think of!

Even their toilets were sweet. Stained glass!! We did get REALLY personal with them! Their showers are really tall, like 7 something, to make sure all of the players can stand under them.

Natalie is becoming quite the artist. Here is her rendition of the court.

Donny Nelson is the president of the Mavs. We got to hang out with him in his office. This was really cool. That big board in the back has all the players on all the teams, with their contract info beside them. This is where the magic happens, trades, firing etc. We got the inside scoop!

Then another train ride home and we were all pooped out. It was so much fun, I just wish we could have met the players too.

I also ran a 5 miler today. I came home and literally dropped to the floor. I have run a lot more than that before but for some reason today it killed me. I was, and still am, so tired and sore. UG!

Dont forget about this sweet thing. 5 months old today! She is growing way too fast. Love that girl.