Cutting Back

If you added some dog food to this fridge it could very well be my mom's. Every year when my dad leaves for 2 months to go to the desert (palm springs) for the beginning of the grape season (he comes home on the weekends), my mom tries to save some money. Not by cutting out things people normally do like not eating out as much, saving on gas, or not shopping for clothes as much, but by not buying food. You can count on her having some dog food, cereal, sweet pickles, cheese, and bread. After that it is a toss up as to what you will find. It is a family joke and my kids have even caught on. Now they are teaching their friends how Grandma operates. This conversation happened the other day when Ethan and his friend Davin were swimming at my mom's and I thought it was worth recording.

Davin: Hey Ethan let's have a snack.

Ethan: What kind of snack?

Davin: Just some food.

Ethan: Well my grandma's house isn't the best place for a snack because she never has any food in the fridge.

And the family joke continues...........

Best Birthday

This year my sister and I were trying to come up with things we could do for the girl's birthday's. Since Chloe and Mackenzie's B-days are so close we always celebrate together, for right now anyways. So we thought of many things but then thought of the greatest idea for a birthday yet. Shopping at Target, pedicures, and lunch at BJ's. Could it get any better? We told the girls they could each bring one friend. Mackenzie brought Kea and Chloe brought Ryder. My mom and sister in law Rachel joined us as well. I did mackenzie's hair as she requested, like ariel's (it looks nothing like ariel's but she was pleased with it so whatever works right?) and kea who normally has the most beautiful natural curls wanted her hair straightend. It pained me to do that to those curls since i would kill for curls like that but request granted. Then it was off to target.

Could there be a better picture? Four little girls running through one of my favorite stores on earth thinking they have hit the jackpot? I think not. They went hog wild in the dollar bin section and then we headed over to the chapstick and nail polish section. They filled the little bags we gave them, then the big girls wandered a little bit through the store and then we were off for the real treat.
I have to say these girls did great at the nail salon. They had to wait a little bit and there was not one melt down or bunches of whining from any of them. This picture was at the end of all of it. They were all getting hungry and were pretty much done with us taking pictures of them. So off to BJ's for lunch. Oh and the big girls also got pedicures too. Can it be that giving my little girl a birthday means that I can go shopping and get a pedicure? Yes it can.

We had lunch at BJ's complete with pizookie, and a good time was had by everyone. There was no stress as to how to entertain lots of little girls, no party favor bags to fill, no games to plan and no deciding on whether or not to feed them lunch or just have cake and ice cream. I am thinking I will do this for my own birthday next year.
Later that night we had a family party at my sister's where we had pizza and ice cream and cake. The girls and I mean all the girls had a great day.



Mackenzie's day got even better when she got this. Now she can keep up with the boys.

DISNEYLAND 2009

(click on photos to enlarge)

So way back in Feb. we went to Disneyland. We were able to meet up with some of Jared's friends from college and their families as well. We were there for two days with them and we had a great time. There were 10 kids there between us and I would say all the kids did really well with all the walking and lack of napping (the parents were coping pretty well also). Ethan will go on anything and so some of the time I took the other kids and went on some other rides they could or wanted to go on, and then Jared would go with Ethan. I have to say that my new favorite ride is the new Toy Story ride in California adventure. I love it and if the line hadn't been a little long I would have ridden it over and over again. Ashton did great with all the rides and when he seemed tired I just put a blanket over the stroller and he would take a short nap. We did have to take Landon on Pirates of the Caribbean kicking and crying. I am sure the ride workers were thinking "poor kid, he's got some mean parents" but you can't go to Disneyland and not ride Pirates of the Caribbean. He'll thank me one day.

Like it was yesterday

That is how I remember it. It really does seem like just yesterday I was at Costco with my friend Laurie telling her how I just felt not so good the last few days and she said to me "maybe you are pregnant?" To which I thought with a laugh in my head, "are you crazy I have two and the youngest is only 9 months old!" She did get my thoughts racing though and so pregnancy tests were purchased in bulk at costco and the test taken in the restroom at costco while Laurie sat with the kids at the costco food court. I was shocked when it came back positive. We were trying not to get pregnant since our last "oops" was not even a year old yet. So I went home, had a good cry, prayed that my friend Amy would be pregnant with the in vitro she was doing because I would feel horrible if she wasn't, and then prayed even harder that it would be a girl. Thankfully prayers were answered. Amy and I were both pregnant, in fact we had the same due date and we were both having girls.

Jared literally ran in to see Mackenzie being born. She was born while Jared was getting ready to take his boards for dental school and was running around trying to make sure his patients had all the paperwork and instructions they needed. He did make in time for the important part and since I had my epidural I didn't care that he missed the boring part.

Mackenzie Rae Simpson arrived on April 21st, 4 weeks early and weighed in at 7 pounds. I was very glad I did not go all the way to my due date since I think she would have been 9 or so pounds easily and I don't think I am built to deliver a baby that big.

Landon was 17 months old and Ethan was 3 1/2 when she was born. We drove from San Antonio to Bakersfield when she was two weeks old. She was the best traveler since she slept almost the entire trip. Can't say the same for the boys. She took her first plane ride at 4 weeks when we flew back to see dad graduate from Dental School. Then we moved to phoenix for Jared's job. She and I had a very busy two months. No wonder I thought having this third baby would send me over the edge of insanity.

She can pull some of the greatest faces and come up with the funniest sayings. Her latest is when she is told she can't have or do something, we give her a reason why and if she doesn't like it she will say to us "Tell me the truth mom, I want the truth" I am sure we will have our hands full with her when she gets a little older. She is such a girl and I am loving every second of that. She loves to try and keep up with the boys but it must be done with jewelry or a princess gown on. She loves her music. Her temper rears its ugly head when we are listening to the radio in the car and we change the station from a song she wants to listen to. So we moved her to the very back so we could soften the screaming. She is our little princess and we love her.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY MACKENZIE!!!!!

I tried it and now I like it (I am listening to Yo Gabba Gabba as I type)

A little while ago costco had really good coupon for photoshop elements. Although I have gone back and forth over whether or not to buy this for a long time the coupon was so good I just couldn't pass it up and since everyone raves about all the wondrous things it can do for your photos I bought it. We got our new camera (cannon rebel xsi package from costco) and I was in heaven. I had a great camera and the end all of photo editing for amateurs at least. I installed it and you know what? I hated it. It is not user friendly, and although all the reviews on the internet said it is just one of those programs you have to just mess around with to figure out all the tips and tricks which could be kind of fun, I do not have time for that. I needed to know how to use this program. So after it sat installed on my computer for a few months I decided to give it another try and wallah!!! I finally figured out how to do some basic things like get rid of unwanted things, adjust my lighting and colors, make some vintage looking photos, and enhance my kids eyes since they have such beautiful baby blues. Now I am pretty sure this will suck up a ton of my extra time since I have discovered that if I google what it is I want to do to my photo I can find a step by step tutorial on how to do it. Don't ask why it took so long for me to think of doing that. So here are some pictures from Easter this past weekend. I realize I have none of kids actually hunting for eggs, but since they were all running in different directions I'll take these instead. There are more of Ashton not because he is the favorite (I am listening to Mackenzie scream and Landon kick things because he is mad so by the end of today he just might be the favorite) but because he was the only one who would sit still and not shove handfuls of candy in his mouth.

Mackenzie and Chloe
Fatty Ashton

Ashton

Ethan

Ashton

Landon

I am going to get this one framed. This picture shows what Landon lives for...Frosting. According to him, if it doesn't have frosting on it, it is not dessert.

Basketball 2009

Well, I am way behind on the basketball season post since it ended in Feb. Better late than never though. This year both boys played basketball. Landon did so well and was very good at doing exactly what the coach told him to do. Sometime he was a little to good at it in the beginning. He would go to the spot the coach told him to for defense and his feet would not leave that spot until coach said to. He would lean forwards, side to side, and wave his arms all around to play defense but his feet did not leave the spot. When I told him he needed to move a little bit to play defense he informed me that coach told him to go to that spot. He finally figured it out just in time for the season to end.

Ladies and gentlemen, we found Ethan's sport. Constant movement, being loud is necessary, and he can steal the ball and not get in trouble. He loved basketball. I was a little worried that he might a whiner about other kids running into him or bumping him but he didn't care one bit if the game got a little physical. In fact, at the end of the season Jared ended up on the court having Ethan apologize to one of the other players since Ethan decided if you shove I'll shove back harder even if they did it on accident. He is very excited to play next year. Ethan's team was the ideal set up for me. One of our neighbors who is in our ward said he would coach and since you can request coaches 5 of the nine kids on the team were from our ward which meant carpooling and lots of time to chat with friends.

We also realized a few things this season as well. I cannot watch any game that gets to physical with teams that don't seem to be evenly matched. I encouraged a few elbows and some "pushing back", hence the problem later in the season. My dad can only watch about 10 minutes of games and should never coach a kids league. When he started yelling " Do you think these kids are playing for full rides to college, let the other kids have a chance at the ball!" and "Does that coach think that scouts from Duke are watching these kids, they need to back off" we started tuning him out, although the other parents didn't. All in all it was a great season and the boys had a great time.

I just have to say Landon's coach was so entertaining to watch. We never saw him in the same athletic attire or matching athletic shoes twice, he wore shirts and ties to the games just like a professional, his love for the Lakers and Kobe was extremely apparent when he wore a shirt with the number 24 done in purple and gold rhinestones ( given to him by his girlfriend I'm sure), and the fact that he coached three YMCA teams and he has no kids shows some serious love for the game.

(my favorite children's book)

My last few posts have been not so happy. Today I entered what felt like the 9th circle of hell and at the very end made my way out of it.

I was up late the night before so I was tired this morning. Not out of the norm as usual. Then it began, the running around trying to find things for school, get kids out the door on time, etc, etc. Ashton cried most of the day (except while at mackenzie's dance, I am grateful for small miracles) he won't eat much and he just keeps tugging at his ears so we are headed back to the doctors tomorrow. Mackenzie had one meltdown after another today, went through 5 different outfits to ensure I had enough laundry to do, and pooped on the lawn in the backyard which resulted in the mother of all meltdowns after she got in ginormous trouble for that. Landon complained all afternoon that "it's not fair". You name it, it's is not fair for him. Eventually I found him outside in his underwear peeing on the rocks in our backyard. Why? Because it's not fair that mackenzie got to poop in the backyard.

Someone please have mercy on my sanity.

I met jared at the door when he walked in from work and I walked out to stop by a friends and run some errands. I left 3 dirty kids and a house that looked like a natural disaster had occurred inside it. This could have been a picture of me at the very moment jared got home.

I left. I came home just over an hour later a little less stressed. Walked into the kitchen and found it all cleaned up, no toys on the floor, no cupboards cleaned out and on the floor courtesy of ashton, no shoes strewn throughout the hallway, and best of all no kids awake. Jared rescued my sanity and made tomorrow start off a little better since I can now sleep without having to think about what I didn't get cleaned up. I also have to say that Ethan did his best to help me. He did everything I asked him to when I asked him to do it. That I would say is a giant miracle and I am even more grateful for those ones.