All things redneck

So I must say first that the title is just that, a title. I have absolutly nothing against country folk. Moving on.

So we made it to Texas and I obviously did not die on the plane ride (which aside from the fact that we were not sure if we would make our flight since we were waiting for roads closed by snow to open so we could get to LA, was fabulous thanks to a smooth flight and a little pill called Xanax).

So my kids have been loving it here and have been going, going, going since Friday morning thanks to uncle Eric. Ethan and Landon have been knee deep in mud since then and loving every minute of it. Eric informed me that Ethan gravitates towards anything that might be considered "white trashy" and thinks it is awesome. Eric showed them where to catch crawfish which Ethan and Gunnar (eric's nephew) proceeded to maul to death. Although ethan did try to feed it a tiny lizard whose head he pulled off. Is this really my son? Landon wasn't so sure about it and the picture shows how close he would get. Later that day landon had decided that he had reached his limit and put himself down for a nap. So Eric took Ethan and Gunnar fishing in the pond on his land.

So this is where Teresa and I were laughing so hard and just decided that the whole thing looked very redneck.

Ethan and Gunnar fishing

Ethan catching his first fish

Ethan making his way to shore with his paddle. A broken 2x4.

Showing off his first fish.

I even had to buy myself some rubber boots so I would get everything I brought with me muddy. (thank you teresa for the nice shot from behind)

The next activity according to ethan and landon will be burning trash. Including the mattresses which have got the boys most excited. Eric told me that is the nice thing about living on this much land with no one near you. You never have to worry about how you are going to get rid of stuff. You just burn it.

We are having a great time and the boys are having an even better time being boys and getting dirty, riding the four wheeler, catching bugs and fish, and setting things on fire.

In One Minute.....

Lots of things can happen in a minute. Here are some fun and amazing things that happen in one minute courtesy of the book "Every Minute On Earth"

2,000 thunderstorms occur. 45 million gallons of water go over Niagara Falls. 2,271 working satellites orbit Earth. A hair grows 0.00027 inch. 954 camera phones are sold. 15,000 gallons of air are inhaled by a blue whale. 21,000 pizzas are baked. 180 Barbies are sold. 115 soccer balls are made -- and 61 of them are in Pakistan.

Then there are the not so fun and interesting things that can happen in one minute and since I have crazy children they are usually behind these "amazing things". Sometimes I wonder if I should call the world record keepers since I am almost positive that they can break a record for the "least amount of time it takes to deface property or persons." This is what my sister and I found tanner and landon doing about one minute after we left the room.

They had colored all over my granite (gasp) but since we caught them while that was still wet it came off. Hopefully it will come off the mirror and we can at least paint the wall. Now I hope it comes off Landon and Tanner's skin. Landon informed me later that he was trying to make his face look like the bulldog on the Tom and Jerry cartoons......Nice.

Global Warming at work!

I got this picture sent to me early this morning. Well early my time. This is my in-laws house. They live east of Houston near Beaumont. They are not to far from Louisiana. Needless to say snow is never seen during the winter months. Well, thanks to global warming (ha ha) this is what they woke up to this morning. To bad it didn't happen after we got there. My kids would have loved to wake up to this. Maybe it will decide to snow again next week. Anyone have Al Gore's email address? I would like to send him this picture.

Catching up

The month of November was a busy one for us. We did lots of stuff and I am now realizing as I sit here awake way too late listening to my poor fat boy baby cough away that I never made any posts about it. So here is a recap of November's happenings.

We went to see Carrie Underwood in concert. It was great. We went with my parents and my sister lindsay and her husband marc and some friends of theirs Zach and Nicole. We had a great time. We had great seats and although we had horrible service at the restaurant we ate at before the concert, it was still a very fun night. Jared I don't think was really sure if he would like the show that much but at the end of the concert she sang a

guns-n-roses song and I think it made it all better for him.

My sister, mom and me

Mackenzie and Chloe had their first sleepover. We had fun since both of them love to have fingers and toes painted and hair curled and all of the girly stuff. We only ran into problems when they needed to go to sleep. That was not happening. Even after I seperated them into different rooms to go to sleep my niece Chloe continued to talk to the dolls and to herself, then at one point she was singing all of us to sleep. It was extremely entertaining since she cracks me up.

Ethan had his last soccer game and party. Boy am I glad the season is over. He is now wanting to do basketball so I will have to gear myself up for more practices and games. At least I got a little break from it all. Jared and I were the team parents this year. It wasn't too bad but at the end of season party I kept thinking to myself..."note to self do not let yourself or jared volunteer for anything like this again." Then I also thought...."I need to remeber where I put all my notes to self since I am pretty sure there is one somewhere on this very topic."
We celebrated the boys birthdays. Their birthday's are only a few days apart so for right now they will be having birthday's together. This year we did not have a party, just family over for cake and ice cream. What a relief that was. As a mom I think birthday parties are overrated, and as a mom I am sure I will do one next year to make my kids happy. Oh well, I have got almost a whole year to not think about it.
This year I also decided to make the one of the boys birthday gifts. Now we all know what that means for me. Stress. Since my day never goes as planned, I never get anything done when I think I will. The boys did love their new magnet boards and are very excited to put things on them. That made staying up til 3 am the night before to finish them worth it ( well for the most part, I would have liked to have been asleep but things gots to gets done around here) now if I can get them hung on the wall we will be in business.

Lastly, Thanksgiving. This is my least favorite holiday. This might be the reason I have no pictures of the actual holiday. I only took pictures of Landon's Kindergarten Feast which was very cute and didn't involve any husbands watching football, me having to bake anything, or any clean up by me. I am telling anyone who would like to join us next year we will be eating Thanksgiving out somewhere and I will be ever so thankful to those people who will prepare my meal and serve it to me.

When will it end.....

For the past day and a half I have had to keep telling myself just let it go. Don't take it personally. Although that is an extremely hard thing for me to do (those that know me well I am sure are nodding their heads in agreement). It is all starting to get to me though and since all really want to do is vent and probably say things I shouldn't and be just as mean as everyone else, I will make a post about why it upsets me instead.

I love my blog and I love reading other blogs. I have been able to get back in touch with so many people who now live all over the place but at one point lived so close to me. It allows me to keep our families up to date with what we have been doing with out having to spend too much time on the phone since those of us with kids at home know how impossible it is to have a real conversation without being interrupted by screaming and fighting. I am also guilty of blog hopping/stalking. There are some seriously creative and crafty people out there that know a friend of a friend of a friend of mine. There is also tons of information on so many topics by so many people who have been there done that. Blogs have become a great resource for me which is why I have kept my blog public when so many I know have decided to go private.

I have also used my blog to vent. Vent about the things or kids that are driving me crazy. It is somewhat of a stress reliever for me and it also helps me feel better about myself when I see that others struggle with the same problems I do. Sometimes reading about someone else's bad day makes me realize that maybe mine is not so bad after all and I should stop complaining. I would hope that those reading my blog would realize that I am venting about personal experiences. Things that have happened to me and my family. Nothing I vent about attacks anyone I know in a personal way.

So yes, I was extremely hurt, mad and frustrated when yesterday I realized that one of my experiences was being used as a social commentary platform. I was then also used as a springboard for everyones frustration with people who do the same things I do. I was very hurt that people who didn't know me or my situation would pass such harsh judgement. By the time Jared got home last night I was on the verge of tears. I honestly thought that I would go to bed and everyone would move on from the day and that it would be somewhat forgotten. To my surprise that is not the case. Jared reminded me that blogging sometimes lets people feel anonymous and so they say things they wouldn't normally say about someone. Also that when you write something you cannot predict how the person reading it will interpret your tone. So with that reminder I am going to chalk this whole thing up to personal experience and move on.

One last thing I realized in the last 24 hours. It only takes one. One person to send the bandwagon rolling down the hill. One person to keep it rolling right towards someone with the intent of knocking them down. Although we should all beware that one day the bandwagon we were once on, might just be headed for us.

That is my two cents about my blog. Take it or leave it but please don't take it personally.

Kids say the........

funniest things. Mackenzie has a bad habit of coming into our room and climbing in bed with us every night. So in my attempt to not get smacked in the head with the books she likes to bring into bed with her I had the following conversation.

Me: mackenzie if you will try really hard and stay asleep in your own bed for the whole night tonight, tomorrow I will get you a strawberry milkshake. (while I was saying this I was scratching her back)

Mackenzie: if i stay in bed all night?
Me: yes all night.
mackenzie: okay and mom if you stay here and scratch my back I will let you get a diet coke tomorrow too.

yes even my 3 year old knows my love for diet coke.

This is what your tax money pays for....

So for the last few months I have been so irritated with one of the dads that picks up his daughter at the same bus stop as landon. Just to give those reading a heads up if you have never done what I did because you can't believe people like me actually do that, don't judge me just agree with me that this man is a jerk and wasting your tax dollars.

Anyway, some days I will be at home and realize I am supposed to be at the bus stop at the end of my street to get landon. His bus driver likes to have parents there to make sure kids get home. Well when I am running late which is almost daily, I tell mackenzie to hurry and get in the car so the bus doesn't have to wait for us. Some days she gets in and buckles her seat belt others she climbs in the front and buckles the big seat belt and to be honest I don't worry about it. We are driving down the street at 15 mph and I think everyone has had the experience of helping mom or dad drive when they were very little. For those freaking out, yes I do know that it is not the safest thing in the world and yes it is against the law but get over it. So every time I drive up to wait at the bus stop this dad gives me this disgusted look and just shakes his head. It drives me crazy. Some days mackenzie will be buckled in her seat but when I stop the car and turn it off she gets out of her seat and climbs up front and even then he still shakes his head.

So the other day I was telling my friend Laura about this guys since she lives in our neighborhood. When I told her where he lived she told me that he is a highway patrol. So then I was thinking okay so he has good reason but why not just come up to me and tell me you know as a highway patrol I see lots of accidents blah blah blah. Don't just stand there and shake your head at me like you have perfected parenting. I also thought to myself well one of these days he is going to show up in his car and try and give me a ticket. Well that day was today.

My sister was over and I needed to go get landon so I took her car with no other kids in it. Landon gets off the bus and I open the back door for him and who do I see stopped behind the bus. My friend the highway patrol. He is waiting for the bus to put the stop sign down. Well, I laugh to myself because I am thinking this bus is ten minutes late and he has not been parked here since I have been waiting. He has been following the bus for who knows how long to try and surprise me. Well surprise to him I have no other kids with me today.

I start driving back home and he is stuck behind the bus. I turn the corner to my house and he isn't behind me so then I think well maybe he was just going home not coming for me. I get in the house look out my front window to see him pull up in front of my house and then turn around. Really? I am guessing he was hoping that he could write me one fat ticket to make up for the tax dollars wasted by following a bus for 40 mins. to try and catch the lady who lets her daughter ride in the car without being in her car seat some days. I can think of 5 people driving home from the grocery store that were doing something illegal that he could have given tickets to if he hadn't been following the bus. The war is on mr. police man and I promise I will win.

Fat Boy

So my mom and i went to the mall yesterday. We went into one store and found this onesie. We both started laughing since it obviously described ashton. I wasn't sure if i wanted to get it since it wasn't on sale, but my mom said he needs to wear this. So she said she was going to buy it for him as his christmas present and just let him wear it now. I put him in it this morning and just started laughing. I love his chunky legs with all the rolls.

Last one

So this is my last little rant and then it will all be out of my system. Then I will proceed to put up my Christmas Tree (yes I will do it this early) and listen to Christmas music to put me into a better mood.

How in the holy freakin' crap can prop 8 pass and prop 4 not pass. Are you kidding me? The same people that decided to preserve traditional marriage decided that they wouldn't want to be notified by the doctor that their minor was going to be having an abortion? Honestly this state is loading up in the hand basket to hell faster than I thought it would. I am wondering what the next medical procedure they will be able to perform on my child without my consent will be. Did they even read what they were voting for? Honestly, I did not know that I was surrounded by that many morons.

Now I am done.

And so it begins......

So it is officially over. Well, it really is only just beginning but at least I know the outcome now. The next 4 years are going to be an even bigger disaster than the last 4. My kids were almost as disappointed as I was that Obama was elected. Ethan is very concerned about what is going to happen to our money, now is when I am regretting that I even tried to explain any of it to him. My only hope is that Mitt runs again in 2012 since we will surely need someone who knows a thing or two about economics to even begin to fix what is going to happen over the next 4 years. The only satisfaction that I will get out of all of this is listening to the people who put him in office complain. I am fairly sure the woman in the video below will be pretty disappointed with the next 4 years. If what she says is true, I will need to write Mr. Obama and ask him if he can add student loans to the list of things I will no longer have to pay for.

I VOTED

DID YOU?

Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote

-Andrew Lack

Photos.........done

Hopefully you are able to tell what the kids were for Halloween. It is a good thing we only had to wear them one night. By the time we got done with the trunk or treat and then going to a few house's in the neighborhood Ethan had less than half of the "bristles" he started with. Ashton lasted in his costume for a little while before he decided that he wanted it off of him. All in all we had a fun night. This morning I told Jared "Now I need to start thinking about Christmas Cards so I can get those ordered and ready to go." He just shook his head and ran his hands through the hair that used to be there.

Hallelujah Halloween Has Happened

Kim is always on my back about not posting to the blog, which I know I can't write on now that she has taken it over(I always start stuff and she takes it over because she is better at it or I am too scatter-brained to finish it). However, I am taking her up on her challenge tonight to say that I have never been happier to have such a meaningless holiday over with. The stress around this house lately has been incredibly high and I was starting to wonder if my wife had been swapped by a network television station without me knowing just to have cameras buried all over the house to get my candid reactions.

We did make it through with no loss of limb or life and I am still awake past 9:30. I will say that now all I have left to deal with is the Christmas flight to Texas on the stressometer, since Thanksgiving will most likely be at a restaurant(thanks Hodel's). I just hope some Asian people don't come out and start singing Jingle Bells and Deck the Halls, if you know what I mean. Kim is definitely an amazing woman and I am lucky to have her(every once in a while I just wish I could put her in her own rubber room around holiday times, somtimes.) Thanks Kim for making this Halloween special. Our family would be nothing without you.

My least favorite

I have decided that Halloween is my least favorite holiday right now. It takes so much time and effort on my part and my reward is a bunch of fighting with my kids about how much candy they are allowed to eat.

This year I decided to make my kids costumes since I am just tired of having to spend large sums of money on cheaply made costumes for one nights use. Now I can't decided if my time is worth the amount of money I save (not to mention my sanity). This year Mackenzie is the tooth fairy, Ethan and Landon are both toothbrushes, and Ashton is a tube of toothpaste. Sounded pretty easy to me, nothing to difficult. Wrong. Mackenzie's is turning out to be a "ghetto" version of what I had envisioned, I haven't even started to do the boys since somehow I think I might need an engineering degree to put it together, and Ashton's is still in the planning stages.

I will continue to be stressed about it and will also still be putting finishing touches on the costumes in between going to a costume parade, working at Landon's carnival, helping in Ethan classroom cookie decorating day at which I am supposed to make the cookies and bring the supplies for the cookie I am in charge of, making chili for trunk or treat, and then getting kids ready for trunk or treat. After that I will then be fighting with my kids to stop messing with the costumes, telling them to stop whining about how they are hot and/or itchy, trying to keep track of them at the trunk or treat, making sure they are not sitting somewhere at the church shoveling handfuls of candy into their mouth, listening to them cry because they don't want to leave the trunk or treat and that they need to hold their pumpkin full of sugar on the car ride home, try to figure out where they got the candy that they are eating on the ride home since I am holding their pumpkins with the candy, tell them they cannot sleep with their pumpkins even though they promise not to eat all the candy, and then listen to them cry themselves to sleep. At which point I am hoping that some really really nice person has decided to go all out this Halloween and hand out full size candy bars which I will then quietly take out of my kids pumpkins and enjoy eating as payment from them for participating in this beloved holiday. Is there such a thing as bah humbug for Halloween?

My heart is racing and my palms are sweaty and we still have just under two months before it happens. In 53 days I will be boarding a plane. The anxiety may just kill me but it is going to happen. Originally we were going to rent a car and drive to Texas for Christmas because flights were too expensive. Jared was able to find some cheap flights that made it the same cost as driving. I am not sure how to explain that spending two days and 25 hours driving with my 4 kids in a car will cause me less stress than a 3 hour plane ride but it does. I have somehow managed to avoid having to fly since Oct. of 2005 and I think that it has probably made it worse. Jared has promised to medicate me. Although he did say he would give me enough to just take the edge off so that he does not have to try and get 4 kids and a doped up wife on and off the plane, I am pretty sure he can take whatever he thinks will take the edge off and double it. The last time I was medicated while flying I was given a Xanex. The dentist I worked for wrote me and Rx for some. I don't' remember the dosing on it and for that matter I really don't remember anything that happened after I swallowed the pill. All I know is that I somehow got on the plane in Salt Lake, got off the plane in LAX, boarded another flight to Hawaii, and woke up to the flight attendants telling everyone how to say hello and thank you in Hawaii. I think I'll take another one of those please and thank you.

Election and Lazy People

So the other day I was watching fox news (the only news station I can handle until Nov. 5) and they showed some clip of Obama. Ethan starts asking about him who he is and what is he doing. So I start to tell him and realize there is no easy way to sum the whole thing up into an answer a 6 year old can understand. I tell him he is running for president. Then we proceeded to have the following conversation

Ethan: Are we going to vote for him?
Me: No
Ethan: Who are we voting for?
Me: McCain
Ethan: Why?
Me: because we agree with his ideas more than Obama
Ethan: What does Obama want to do?
Me: take more of our money away from us
Ethan: What is he going to do with our money because if they really need money I can give them mine.
Me: No you are not giving your money to the government. Obama wants to give our money to other people.
Ethan: Why, because they don't have any?

At this point I was starting to get frustrated since I wasn't even really sure what to tell him since it is hard enough for me to understand let alone explain it and what can you really tell a 6 year old. So in my "I need to get out the door to get to my parents house and I am in a hurry" frame of mind this is what I told him and I am pretty sure it is going to get me in trouble somewhere along the way.

Me: Obama wants to take the money that daddy earns by going to work and give it to the lazy people who don't want to work and earn their own money.

Crap! Did I just tell my 6 year old that? The kid that will repeat anything you say to anyone at anytime and has the longest memory of anyone I know? Yes I did and in the time it took us to drive to my parents Ethan had Landon and Mackenzie chanting McCain win, Obama lose, and when he walked through the door told my mom that she need to vote for McCain because Obama wants to give all our money to the lazy people. Nice. The only good thing about it is that it is hysterically funny to listen to Landon try and say the name Barack Obama.

Well, I finally got all my pictures off my camera. Either my computer or my memory card is not working. I had all these pictures on there and they would not load on the computer. I thought I was going to have to hunt down the USB cable that is somewhere in this house to get the pictures off. I thought I would give the card one more try and wallah it worked and I got all my pictures off. So I thought I would take one more picture and see if it worked again. Unfortunately it did not so I will be unable to post the picture of all my Tai Pan treasures which I am sure disappoints so many of you. We will be getting a new camera, a way better camera and a new computer in the next few weeks so hopefully nothing exciting happens that I need to take pictures of. Scratch that Halloween is in a week so jared now has a tighter deadline and for those that know him well decisions take him longer than anyone I have ever known so today I will become the nag until it gets done. Moving on though......

Mackenzie had a bike parade at school to end their transportation unit. It is very funny to watch this parade. You have the kids that zoom past with no problem, then you have the kids that are a little shaky and you hope they don't fall off and you are nervous for them, and then you have the kids who are really not sure about the flow of bike traffic and end up somewhere they shouldn't. Anyway, it was very cute and mackenzie was very excited to take her scooter to school

Of course Fat Boy was there and having a good time as well.

Later in the month we took the kids to the pumpkin patch. They have this great pumpkin patch about 5 min. from our house. It is a family that turns their small farm into this fall setting with pumpkins everywhere and corn maze. They have the cheapest pumpkins around. We loaded all our pumpkins into the little wagon and then took them up to the front. I think we had about 9 or so pumpkins in all different sizes. She counts up the pumpkins and says let's say $20. I love that pumpkin patch. It's close, cheap, and very cute for pictures.

Amazingly enough we actually got a shot of all the kids together with everyone looking in somewhat of the same direction and no one is crying.

Like I said before, on Mon. I headed down to Tai Pan. They told us that all Halloween stuff was 50% off. So my mom and I loaded up on stuff and then checked out. For some reason the registers were not ringing up all the Halloween stuff at 50% off. The lady ringing me up said I will just have to input it manually. No problem. She tells me my total is $98. What? I have never left that store spending that little. I thought it must be that some stuff was half off. We drive home and my mom left her receipt in my car. I start looking at it and think why is her total more than mine I actually got more items than her. So I lay out all the stuff I got and start adding up. My total should have been much higher. I look at my receipt and start to look at what they charged me for the items. When I was watching her scan the stuff all the totals were coming up right. The very last thing she scanned was something Halloween and she had to manually give me the 50% off. Well in doing so she gave me 50% off all but 3 or 4 things. I kind of felt bad about it but realized that they had forgotten to put 2 mugs I bought into my bag. So I didn't get 2 of the .97 cent mugs I paid for but I think I got way more in return.

Happy Birthday to You!

You know who you are.

The one who mends all our clothes and sews many things when visiting.

The one who will always tell us to go have a night out without the kids when here.

The one who has more patience than should be humanly possible.

The one who makes really really good Mody Rolls.

The one who will stay up really late after kids have gone to bed to talk to us.

The one who lets my kids be kids and play in the dirt, put together hay rides for them, build blocks with them, and takes them on tons of walks.

The one who keeps telling us we are doing a great job as parents even after witnessing a major meltdown from one of our kids followed by a meltdown from me.

The one who is always willing to help in anyway and who thinks that there is nothing better in the world than having all of her kids, their spouses, and all her grandchildren together.

Landon says: He really likes it when you come over

Ethan says: Loves to go on walks or bike rides with you

Mackenzie: Likes when you color with her

So here is a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the one we all love very much.

Jared and Mom (June 2007)

Happy Birthday Mom/Grandma Simpson!!!

Whew!!!!

Well I am down to less than 24 hours. Jared gets home tomorrow night. All I need to do is make it through church tomorrow and my mom is making dinner and having me and kids over so I am not by myself the whole day. I have to say I am pretty impressed with myself. I am still somewhat sane and will require no medicating to recover from the past few days. Jared has been in San Antonio since Wed. for the dental convention. I was a little jealous he got to go back and eat at some of my favorite places Rudy's, Gringo's Chris Madrids to name a few (although knowing jared he didn't eat at all of them in order to save a few bucks), he got to see his sister Teresa who is a hygienist and was getting some of her own CE credits, and he got to walk the exhibit hall floor which is usually full of all kinds of good free stuff. We are all very excited for him to return. Tomorrow I will get a nice 2 hour break from my kids during primary. I don't like to think of my kids primary teachers as babysitters but for tomorrow that is what they will seem like. I did get lots done while jared was gone since after the kids go to bed there is no one else to worry about so I just start cleaning and organizing. The very best part (besides jared getting home safely) is that early Monday morning (like 6 am) my mom and I are headed down to TAI PAN TRADING!!! That's right, it opens on Mon. and I will be there with money in hand. Jared happens to have monday off so he is going to shuffle the kids around and hopefully finish my attic while they are at school so I can put any of my seasonal Tai Pan treasures in my new attic. Happy shopping to me!!!!

Mother of the Year

Maybe I should try this next time. If I saw someone do this I would probably give them a standing ovation.

I don't think it is safe for me to be out anymore. This morning I left my house at 9:30 am picked up cookies for a lady I visit teach, went visiting teaching. So far so good. Went to pick up Landon and then it all went down hill. I then proceeded to drag three of my kids all over Bakersfield looking for unfinished wood frames and sheet metal in order to make a magnet board that I am convinced will help my kitchen become more organized. We walk in the door and my mom shows up with my aunt and uncle from utah. They were just driving around looking at houses and thought they would stop by. Oh and this morning when I left my house it looked extremely frightening and for someone reason the cleaning fairy did not show up for work today while I was out. So I then proceed to show them my house all the while repeating how I knew I should have picked up my house before I left today. Although they kept saying they didn't care and that they wouldn't expect anything else for someone who has 4 kids. After they leave I try to get Ethan's and Landon's homework done. Then I load my kids up and head to the grocery store with all of them to get salad to take to my mom's for dinner. On the way there while asking or yelling insert which ever one you like at my kids to lower the volume, I stop at a red light and then proceed to go through it. Stop half way through the intersection think to my self why am I in the middle of the intersection and then make my way through it to the tune of many honking horns. Get to the store and wonder if I should be driving anymore, repeat all rules that need to be said before entering the store, grab a cart and enter the 9th circle of hell. My cart won't steer the way I want it to go, I almost run over a few toes of strangers, Landon knocks bunches of lettuce onto the floor and then ethan announces it to me and the rest of the produce section, mackenzie is crying because she wants to not be walking, have a cookie, get gum out of my purse, and then not be in the cart. We leave the store with only a few minor glares and I am sure a few comments of "doesn't she know what causes pregnancy". So now it is late, I am off to bed and hopefully off to a better tomorrow.

The longest day

I do have to say that there are some great perks about conference.
1. I do not have to get up and run around crazy in order to get me and my kids ready to go.
2. I do not have to hurry and try and get my house picked up before we leave so that when I get home from church I can just relax instead of cleaning up things.
3. I do not have to get ready and try to find something that will fit these days.
4. I do not have to worry about how we are going to make it through sacrament without any meltdowns.
5. I will usually make a big breakfast of Swedish pancakes, eggs ,bacon and OJ and will be able to eat some of it myself.
6. I get to hear some talks that I am pretty sure were written just for me in order to make me a better person.
7. Jared has no meetings and no visits to make so he is home!!


Now let me dive into why every conference I scratch my head and think why do I even bother I should just read the talks in the ensign when they come out in peace and quiet while my kids are at school.
1. My kids are home with us all day inside (they got in trouble and couldn't go outside, why do I punish myself like that)
2. My kids will not listen to any part of conference. No game, bribe or distraction would work.
3. Landon informed me that BYU (we were watching it on the BYU channel) is the most boring thing and he never wanted to go there. This was actually the funniest part of my long day.
4. We spent more time trying to get the kids to at least be quiet so we could hear than we actually got to hear.
5. My kids would not play in their rooms yesterday.
6. Jared and I were both in bad moods because our kids were driving us crazy.
7. Jared told the kids that next time we are going to the church to watch conference. At which point I told him I am not going to go to the church to embarrass myself with the way the kids act.
8. It was honestly the longest day I have had in a long time.

We have a new rule in our house. Whatever time you get up in the morning is what time you go to bed. My kids are constantly getting up beyond early. Ethan sometimes 5 or 5:30 and then he proceeds to wake everyone else up. He told me the other day he was going to sleep til 11 and then I would have to let him stay up til 11. I said okay that's a deal. The kid couldn't stay in bed if his life depended on it.
So Sat. morning they got up at 6. Since jared was at priesthood on Sat. night I took the kids to that park so they did get out of going to bed at six that night. So Sun. morning they get up around 6 again. Well they were so horrible yesterday with all the fits, and meltdowns I told them they all had to be in bed at 5 pm. Yes 5 pm. So we ate dinner at 4 and they were all in their beds at 5. Jared read to them for a little bit. Landon was asleep for the night by 5:30. Mackenzie was asleep by 6 and Ethan read in his room until he fell asleep. All was pretty quiet until I hear the sound of water on the floor. Then ethan saying why are you doing that. I go in the back and there is landon half asleep standing with his back to the toilet peeing all over my floor. Really? I thought I was done with this stuff for the day but once again my kids made a liar out of me.

Soccer, Dance and Fatty

I am finally getting around to posting these pictures. This year we have the boys playing soccer and mackenzie doing dance. FYI this will be the last year I do soccer. It is hot and such a pain to lug my chunk of a baby (17 lbs at 3 1/2 months), make sure mackenzie is still following behind me, plus take all of the other stuff chairs, snacks, etc. all over the fields at Cal state where they play soccer. I really want to sign the boys up for swim club but if is a little more expensive so we will have to work on that to convince jared. Landon is loving soccer and Ethan likes it when he makes a goal and thoroughly enjoys the snacks and treats that come along during halftime and at the end of the game. If eating were a sport ethan could medal in it. I have only taken pictures during their first games. Jared and I haven't been at a game together since the first one so it is too hard to take pictures when you don't have an extra set of hands to help with other kids. Thankfully my parents have been here to help with going to games when the boys games overlap and to take the two younger ones when I am by myself. So a very big thank you to them.

Then we have the princess. She really loves dance. She listens to the teacher pretty well and follows what they are doing. I am hoping she did not inherit my sense of rhythm. I only have rhythm in my hands while I am playing the piano. This rhythm does not extend to my feet. So far so good for her though. They don't let parents in the class (except on the first day when I didn't bring my camera). You watch the class on a TV. At first I thought it was a little weird but after seeing that some of the girls stand by the door waiting for their parents the first few times I figured out why they do it that way. According to Mackenzie she thinks it is "awesome" she is on TV.

Then there is fatty, chubabubba, chunky monkey, fat ash, buddha baby, or chunk. These are a few of the names we use for ashton. Honestly the kid is so heavy. I have always had chunky babies but he wins the prize. I now have to put cream in between his rolls. His cousin sent him a bumbo chair a few weeks ago. His fat little legs barely fit in the openings. When you go to pick him up out of the chair, the chair comes with him. I know he will work it all off when he starts to get mobile and then I will miss his chunky little legs and cheeks. I am hoping that he starts to sit up better really soon otherwise I am going to need some surgery on my back to repair it from lifting and carrying the infant seat with him in it. He is still a very happy easy-going baby and for that I am very grateful.