Random Question

Is it just me or does anyone else type a post, hit save and then wonder why the heck that post is not showing up on their blog? Whose genius idea was it to make a save button that didn't publish the post? Sheesh!

Here Goes Nothin'

As of midnight tonight, I am giving up dessert and other extraneous sugar for a month. Crazy? Maybe. I'm not giving it up entirely; really just getting rid of the dessert-y stuff and juices, Kool-Aid and soda and the like. I'm allowing myself gum, because that is a habit I am just not ready to give up yet. I'm doing this in an effort to curb my cravings for sugar, because let's face it--I love the stuff. Ice cream, cookies, cheesecake. Okay, I need to stop that! I'm hoping that by announcing this publicly I will be able to stick to it (N has already said he will ask me to make him cookies on May 2nd. He is THE DEVIL, I tell you!). Guess I need to head to the store and stock up on "good" sugars like fresh fruit and popsicles. Just kidding on that last one!

Sugar High and Convo's With the Kids

This morning I made pancakes for breakfast. Well, H won't eat syrup on hers, but she LOVES powdered sugar on them. Everyone else had finished theirs and left the table, but H is a pokey eater (I swear, if I'd let her, she'd never leave because by the time she finished breakfast it would be time for lunch. She doesn't eat a lot, mind you, just picks for-e-ver). Apparently she wanted another pancake and was going to do it herself. I happened to turn around to check on her and found she had lost control of the powdered sugar. A little while later she was still at the table and I went in the kitchen to get a drink. I could tell she was hiding something on her chair (mom's are just smart like that, y'know). Upon closer inspection I found she was actually eating the butter out of the tub! (Reminded me of that discover card commercial..."Are you eating butter?")

Yesterday, we were driving to N's parents' house for dinner. The kids fell asleep on the way, naturally. We had just exited the I-17 and from the back seat we hear, "Mom, my lips are drying out!" It was H. She had woken up. N and I just chuckled because earlier we had seen her sleeping with her head back, mouth wide open with her blue sunglasses on. It was quite a sight.
Next, was K's turn. He woke up and said, "That was a really big snore!" He repeated it about 5 times one right after the other. I think he woke himself up with his own snoring.

Then, today H and I were sitting at the table. I was looking for a bread recipe to try for dinner and she was putting a puzzle together. For some reason she thought I had lied to her (lately, she thinks I am always lying to her). I said, "Why are you so critical of me?" (as if she would know what critical meant.) She said, "Because I know all about you. And, what you do!" About 5 minutes later she said something was "Yummy as a hippo." Followed by, "I'm just kidding. It was a joke. You are supposed to laugh when I say something funny."

And, just because I can...here is a picture of K's baseball stance. It is definitely "one of a kind."

Update on the Kiddos

So, I think we have been starving M. He has been Mr. Crankypants lately and I couldn't figure out why. I've even been drugging him with Tylenol "just in case." I've considered early teething because he is drooling like crazy (he literally soaks his clothes) and chewing on his thumb like nobody's business. I've considered constipation, gas, tiredness. Practically everything but hunger. Just for fun, I checked out one of the papers our pediatrician gives us at well checks. It was for his 2 month check up (he is 3 months now). It said that formula fed babies should be getting 25-30 oz a day. I'm positive he hasn't been getting that much. He's probably been getting about 20! Poor guy. No wonder he's been chewing his thumb off!

Yesterday during bath time, H told me she wanted her hair cut like K's. Um...no. She said she wanted Grandma E to cut it like she does Daddy's. Um...no! I asked her if I could trim it for her and she agreed. What a joke! I can't cut a straight line to save my life. I pretended I knew what I was doing and tried to cut layers into it like I've seen the hairdressers do to my hair. I don't think it turned out half bad. She lost about 3 inches because I had to keep evening it, but I think it turned out cute. The picture doesn't really show the layers, but it was the best she'd let me take. Like the smile?

Poor K. Nothing to really update about him. He is cute as ever and so much fun (when he isn't throwing a tantrum). He likes to give kisses and once he gets the idea to kiss someone there is no relenting until he kisses them. Today, he chased H around the house trying to kiss her. She was screaming the whole time, but secretly I think she was really enjoying it. I ended up grabbing her and K kissed her on the leg. Apparently, he wasn't satisfied with the original kiss, though, because he insisted on kissing her leg again. I'm surprised he didn't get hurt from her kicking and twisting. As for his picture, this is the best I could do. Every time the camera is pointed at him he starts jumping around and laughing and he makes it darn near impossible to take a picture.

The Wedding

K and P were sealed yesterday. It was such a nice sealing. The sealer did a wonderful job and gave them both some really good advice (most of which I will be taking to heart). After the sealing, N, the kids and I went to the Visitor's Center to see the new exhibit my Mark Mabry called Reflections of Christ. It is so good. H and K really loved seeing the pictures of Jesus' life. I was so proud that H actually knew what some of the pictures were. She even knew who baptized Jesus. Maybe I just don't give her enough credit, I just figured she was too young to actually remember those kinds of things. She and K were also very excited to see The Christus (or as H calls it "the statue of Jesus with the holes in His hands"). We watched some of the testimonies of the Apostles. I realized while we were there that we don't utilize the Visitor's Center like we should. The kids loved going and seeing everything. What a great tool to teach them the principles of the gospel.
So, back to the wedding. We went to a luncheon at Olive Garden and had a great time visiting with everyone. After that we went to mom and dad's house to help load up last minute decorations and then to the church building for family pictures. The photographer was awesome. She did great. I'm really hoping that my family's picture turns out and that the 4 generation picture I've been meaning to do since H was born turns out. During the reception H and P danced. H asked P at the luncheon if he would dance with her and he agreed. She just absolutely loves her new uncle. The pictures are so cute. Uncle P is such a great uncle to do that for her. I think it completely made her night--seriously, after that nothing could have ruined it for H. She was on cloud nine.
It was such a long day (we didn't get home until midnight), but the kids were so well behaved. Even little M was so good. They had a great time playing with their cousins and eating cupcakes and I had a good time visiting with friends that I haven't seen in a long time.

Civics Quiz

On Monday I was at my parents' house looking through the Sunday paper. I came across the USA Today Weekend magazine and saw an article about how poorly American college students did on a civics test. Shockingly, no school averaged higher than a D+. Harvard scored the highest with a 69.56%. There was a website to visit to take the 60 question test to see how you fared. Well. I'm sad to say that I only scored a 60%. I got only 36 questions right. So, click here and take the test yourself. Then, post your score in the comments (you can't do much worse than I did!). I'm curious how everyone does.

I Scream For Ice Cream!

The other day I was lamenting the fact that I didn't have any ice cream in the freezer and money isn't exactly free-flowing around our house. Not that I need ice cream, mind you. Anyway, Friday night I went to bed before N got home from work because I had to get up early. Well, we have this alarm system on the house and whenever a door or window is opened it beeps three times. We have a keypad in our bedroom which means the beeping is loud and clear in there. I was half awakened by the beeping and was vaguely aware of what was going on. I heard a plastic bag rustling and the freezer open and shut. I will admit that even in my half-asleep stupor I was slightly giddy at the prospect of there being ice cream in the freezer. I fell back asleep almost immediately, but the next morning I did check the freezer. I saw the ice cream carton...Dryer's Loaded...and then there it was. PEANUT BUTTER CUP! Does my husband not know me? I mean, yes, I love peanut butter, but I do not like peanut butter cups. The peanut butter in those things is just not right. I knew I should be grateful; he was trying to do something super nice for me. So when I saw him I was semi-gracious. I happened to be holding M at the time and so I told M that daddy tried to do something really nice for mommy. N vowed never to buy me ice cream again.

Fast forward to today after church. I got home and was getting ice water for the kids. I opened the freezer and there it was. Rocky Road! One of my many favorites (I can't pick just one). You should have seen the smile that crept on to my face. Thanks, N. You're the best!

So Proud

First off, let me say that when it comes to computer-ese I am completely not fluent (heck, sometimes I can barely speak English!). I mean seriously. What is HTML? What is a widget? What's with all the <, >, px, &, = "true"/"false" stuff? I have no idea what any of it means, but I am proud of myself because I was able to manipulate the HTML on my blog and fix some things that were bugging me.

For instance, the header. I don't know if anyone else is bugged by the fact that the pictures go outside the border on the right side, but I was. I resized my picture so many times thinking the problem was me. It wasn't (I should have known better). I found the part in the HTML code that dealt with the header and fixed it. Yea! Now my picture is completely inside the border and I was at peace. Until I looked at my playlist.

I was so irritated that my playlist was too big for the sidebar. I saw someone else's and hers wasn't so I knew it was possible. First, I searched for info on how to resize the playlist, but when I tried it it didn't work. Bummer. So, I made my main blog part a little wider. The playlist still didn't fit so I moved it to the bottom of my blog, but I didn't like it there. I swear it took me over an hour of messing with the code (and copying and repasting it over and over again after I had completely botched it up) to get it to fit. But I did it. I made it narrower and taller. Then I decided to figure out how to get rid of those links at the bottom of the playlist. More cutting, previewing, copying and repasting, but I figured it out.

Next, I tackled the pyzam link at the top. Serously, that thing is UGLY and has bugged me since I got the code for my background. Well, I found that info in the HTML and deleted it. Bye-bye pyzam link and orange-eyesore-of-a-bar at the top of my blog. I am now satisfied with the layout of my blog. Well, until I see something else screwy.

Smile!

M has finally started smiling. He had been kind of hit-and-miss, but lately he will smile at anything: me, dad, Big Sister, Big Brother, the fan, nothing. I love it! Just today he actually let me take his picture smiling. He used to smile and smile until I got the camera out and then...nothing. This morning, though, he was laughing and smiling (at nothing) and I decided to give it another try. He just kept giggling and smiling it was awesome. (The pictures of him in stripes are from this morning. The other ones are from previous attempts.)

Conference, Crayons, a Trip to Town

So, this past weekend was General Conference. We had all four general sessions on TV, but I think I might have actually seen a total of one full session (if that). Some of that was my own fault (stayed up too late, woke up too early and was super tired). Some of that was the kids (fighting, playing and causing general chaos). I wish I could say that just having it on in the house brought a peaceful spirit, but I can't really even say that. I did love Elder Ballard's talk on mothers. I think I will print that one out and blow it up for N. I also loved seeing a different side of President Monson. I loved that he talked about his wife and family. I couldn't believe all that he has been through recently and marveled at how he was/is able to handle all the stress.

During conference, we gave the kids pictures and stuff to color. Now, we got new crayons for Christmas and the kids haven't broken or peeled them. Until now. K decided he needed to break all of them. Then, he decided he needed to throw them all over the house. So, I asked him to help me pick them up and he refused. I threatened to throw them away, but I think the kids have caught on to me making threats I'm not going to follow through with (need to work on that). I decided that crayons aren't that expensive and I could afford to follow through in this instance. So, I started to throw them away. H started crying, "Please, mom, don't throw away our crayons. We neeeeed them." Of course she didn't bother to help pick them up. I kept throwing them away and what does K do? He starts helping me throw them away! UGH!

On Monday we went to N's parents' house to spend the night and run some errands "in town." We heard that Jamba Juice was giving away free smoothies Tuesday from 6-10am and we decided to take the kids. H was so excited to get a smoothie. Well, we got to Jamba and H said, "I changed my mind. I don't want a smoothie anymore." She wouldn't even try one! K loved his. From there, I went with my sister to go to the distribution center to help her buy garments and temple clothes (she is going through on Saturday). I don't know that I was much help to her since garments are such a personal preference kind of thing, but I told her what I like and tried to help her out. Then it was on to pizza night at my parents' house while N went to work. Every Tuesday my parents have pizza night and whoever can make it comes. It is a lot of fun and gets the fam together quite often. The kids love it because they play outside all day long with their cousins. I love it because I get to see my family and get caught up on all the family gossip.

Sleep cont'd.

So I got off the computer and this is what I found. I love spontaneous nap time. I might regret it tonight though. :)

Sleep! Sweet, beautiful sleep! (and other not so fun things)

Last night M slept through the night. It was wonderful! I put him to bed at 7pm and he didn't even stir until about 5:30-6ish this morning. I really can't complain because lately he has only been waking up once in the night to eat so it hasn't been bad. Hopefully, this new sleep pattern will stick. Now...if I could just figure out how to get the other 2 kids to go to bed earlier.

On a very different note, I ventured out today with H and K. We went to Walmart to buy formula for M and look around at everything else in the store. Well, H decided to teach K a new "game" called "Grab It." Anytime I got close to something they would yell "Grab It!" and try to pull it off the shelf. It made steering very difficult and me very angry. Then, at one point during our excursion, we were walking along and I had to stop abruptly so as not to crash carts with an older lady. Well, stopping abruptly and flip flops don't quite go together and I nearly fell to the ground trying to stop. I actually screamed which scared the other lady and embarrassed the heck out of me. Then, as if the trip hadn't been stressful enough, we made our way up to the check out. I decided to do the self check out and as I started scanning items I realized that H had opened one of the cans of formula and had lost the lid. Nice. At the same time, K was trying to help me and started pushing buttons on the scanner pad thing. Apparently, he thought we were buying yellow onions. So after I fixed the scanner thing I reached in for the pizza we were buying and saw that K had ripped the plastic open and was eating the cheese off it! Argh. I vowed that I would never take both of them shopping together again. Of course, I say that pretty much every time I go shopping with both of them and invariably I take them both the next time I go. I think I am a glutton for punishment. Well, that or a mom.

What a Day!

I gained new respect for my mom today. My mom had 8 kids in 11 years with only 1 set of twins. Yikes, I know! Today, I had 7 kids under 7 with what would be considered 1 set of twins. Tiffin went to the hospital today because of some pains she was having in her chest and back. I watched her 3 plus Skylar, whom Tiffin normally watches after school. You should have seen me walking to the bus stop with Hailey, Kade, Amberly and Carrigan while slinging Matthew. Of course, as soon as we got to the bus stop Hailey and Amberly both told me they had to go potty and couldn't wait. Fortunately, they did (thanks to some silent prayers on their behalf). We all survived, but I think I might have gone temporarily insane. It was very loud at my house and there was quite a mess when all was said and done. Side note: They didn't find anything wrong with Tiffin, but are treating her as if she has a back injury. Her girls went to stay with the in-laws for a couple of days and I am on bus stop duty for a couple of days.

Making Memories

There is an article in the April Ensign about making memories with your kids and how important it is. Nathan and I decided that we want to do fun things with the kids more often, including at least one "big" thing each month. By big I mean more than just going to the park or riding bikes outside.

Last month we went to a place called "Pump It Up." It is basically a huge building with a few inflatable bounce houses for the kids (and adults) to play on. We made plans to go and decided to invite Heidi and Preston to come along. The kids had so much fun. Nathan got to play with them, but Heidi and I had to stay off because we didn't have socks. We found out later that we could have bought a pair of socks so we could play. Maybe next time.

After "Pump It Up" we went with G-ma and G-pa E to the Desert Botanical Gardens to see the butterfly exhibit. The kids loved being in a garden with butterflies flying everywhere. The butterflies would even land on us if we were still enough.

Then, yesterday we took the kids bowling. Heidi had a coupon for free bowling for 10 people so we decided to take Carrigan and Amberly with us to meet her and Preston. Hailey had really been enjoying bowling on the Wii and couldn't wait to go real bowling. All of the kids had so much fun. They wouldn't use the 6 lb balls, though, and opted instead for the "prettier" 13 and 14 lb balls. After bowling we went to McDonalds for ice cream cones and then to G-ma and G-pa W's house for dinner and playing.

I'm not sure what we'll do this next month, but hopefully the kids will enjoy it and have many fond memories from their childhoods.