The Tray

It started several years ago when Kylie was sick one time. I filled a cookie sheet with snacks, drinks, stories and stuffed animals for her to keep by the couch to help her feel better while she was laying there. Ever since then, whenever somebody is sick she is always the first to bring them a tray and sometimes I think she tells me she is sick just so I will make her a tray. It is so cute to see her get so excited about something so simple, and it really does seem to work some magic. I surprised her a while ago when we graduated out of the cookie sheet tray and I bought her an actual breakfast tray. She loves it and finds every excuse to use it. So fast forward to yesterday....She came home from school and was in one of those moods. She was so whiney and was throwing fits about EVERYTHING and I totally lost it. My yelling only made things worse and I felt horrible for losing my temper, I really don't want my kids to remember me as a "yelling mom". I took her upstairs and layed with her in her bed. I've found that works the best when I'm trying to calm her down. She just cries it out while I snuggle with her and then we talk about it. So after laying there for awhile I realized how tired I was and soon dozed off. The next thing I know, she is standing by the bed with this tray filled with yogurt (she knows that's one of the few things I can actually eat), a water bottle, a butterfly to help me have good dreams and a picture of a rainbow that she drew to make me happy. She even gave me her special box that she had gotten from a birthday party that I told her that I liked and filled it with her favorite treasures. I know my horomones are a little crazy and I'm a little emotional, but I had to try my best to hold back tears. Not only was it so thoughtful of her to spend all that time preparing a tray with so much thought behind everything she put on there, but it was such a huge example to me of how forgiving I should be. When she gets in her bratty moods, it ruins my whole day and it takes me a while to not be so irritated with her. Not even 15 minutes earlier, I had screamed and yelled at her and here she was doing something so selfless and loving for me. Thank you, Kylie for teaching me through your example, I really lucked out to get such a sweet girl like you! (yes, I have a feeling that my posts over the next 9 months are going to be a little emotional, bear with me :)

The Things I Miss....

Their tiny toes; the way they wrap their little fingers around yours; their full body yawns; the way they arch their back when they stretch; their scrunched up, wrinkley bodies; their alert eyes that absorb everything around them; their little fat rolls on their thighs; dimpled bare bums; their first bath; snuggling up in a towel after a bath; the smell of baby shampoo; little drawstring nightgowns; tiny little baby hats; dressing them up in tiny little baby clothes; tiny little baby socks; tiny little diapers; tiny little everythings; chubby little wrists; their tiny nose; the little peach fuzz on their shoulders and back; their perfect little round heads; the way they suck on my pinky finger; when they discover their hands and toes for the first time; watching Jason hold a little newborn; their silky smooth skin; watching them sleep; snuggling up with them in bed; letting them fall asleep on my chest; rocking them; swaddling them in soft little baby blankets; the little swallowing sound they make when they're eating; their first smile; their first coo; when their eyes light up when you walk in the room; the way they are comforted only by mom; just holding them and not being able to take your eyes off them....these are a few of the things that I miss about little newborn babies, so that's why I'm so excited that I won't have to miss them for too much longer since we've got baby #3 coming in October! We're so excited and the kids couldn't be more thrilled. The day we found out, I wrote a note to Kylie and put it in an envelope and had her and Jayden open it before school. She started sounding out the words and as soon as she read "you are going to have a new brother or sister" she got the absolute biggest grin on her face. She told everyone in the carpool her good news and her teacher said that she didn't stop talking about it all week long, she told everyone: the principal, the PE teacher, the class aid, other parent volunteers, etc. It is so cute to see her so excited. She already has a Halloween costume picked out for him/her and is keeping her fingers double crossed that it's a girl so that they can share a room and have sleepovers every night. Jayden is so excited too and understands more than I thought that he would. He comes up to me alot and lifts up my shirt, looking for the baby. He always asks me "when is your baby going to be done?" It took a while for me to convince him that the baby was in my tummy and not my chest, he was just looking for any lump (as small as it may be :). Everyday Kylie keeps telling me how much my tummy is poking out and that she can see the baby showing. The more I try to convince her that I'm not showing yet and that what she's seeing is just leftovers from my other babies, the more she tries to convince me that my stomach is bigger. It's a losing situation. I'm only 7 weeks (I really tried to keep it on the down low for as long as I could and this is as far as I got. I'm just too excited to keep it a secret). So far I have been feeling pretty good, but the farther along I'm getting, the yuckier I'm feeling. At first I washungry all the time but now any type of food sounds so disgusting. Whenever I crave something for dinner I tend to make a lot of it, but I end up gagging just from the smell of the leftovers the next day. Or as I'm making it I end up getting sick from the sight of raw meat or all the smells and so I end up eating a bowl of cold cereal while everyone else eats the dinner. Cold cereal is my best friend, I can never get sick of that. Jason is cute to always make sure that I get enough to eat. I think he thinks I'm eating for 6 instead of 2. I just love when the protective/nurturing side comes out in him, it's really cute. He's great to take the kids out so I can sleep on the weekends and during the week they're gone to school alot, so I really can't complain. I don't get really sick like alot of girls, but it's just that all day yucky feeling that gets old really fast. But besides that, we are all so excited. I was 99% positive that I was pregnant, but when I took a test it came back negative. I was so crushed and that's when I realized just how much I wanted another baby. It's taken me a while (like 3 1/2 years) to be ready for another one, so I was glad to see that I really was ready for one. I waited a couple more days before taking another test. I couldn't wait until the morning to take it, so I woke up at 4:00am and was soooo excited when it was positive and woke Jason up to tell him the good news. I couldn't sleep anymore after that and I love that each pregnancy has been just as exciting as the first one. Anyways, this is a lot of journaling, mostly for my sake. I wish I would have written more about my other pregnancies, so thank goodness for the blog :)

Goodbye Ghetto

When we first got married, we thought that we scored big time when Jason's old apartment complex was selling their couches and we got, not only this sofa, but the matching love seat as well for only $30!! Now I am left wondering if we actually thought that these purple velour Navajo Indian print couches were actually attractive. We attempted to spruce them up after they adorned our home for 3 years by buying slip covers for them. It didn't help much. We always knew that we would replace them, but there were always other expenses that took priority. Finally, 8 1/2 years later they have officially been retired. They've seen alot...our first little apartment, our first house, our first baby....these were the couches that friends and family slept on before we had a guest bed. These are the couches that Jason slept on when he was in the dog house--totally kidding :)....they've been thrown up on, peed on, pooped on, colored on and spilled on by my kids. They've definately seen more in their lifetime than any couch ever should. So with all these memories immersed in the fabric of these couches, you would think that I would be a bit nostalgic about parting ways. You would think--but no. The day we got rid of these was the happiest day of my life!! They are now basking in their white trash glory on the side of our house until we can convince the D.I. that it is worth their time to come and pick them up. They got replaced by this cute little funky sofa, I think it's the perfect couch for the loft. Now I just need to work on stuff for the walls, drapes, rug, end table, yadda, yadda...the list never ends!

Happy V-day!

I was sad that I didn't get to spend much time with my "Valentine" on Valentine's Day, but I did have fun with the kids. After a breakfast of heart shaped stuffed french toast (yum!) Jayden and I went to the Valentine's party at the preschool where I teach. He scored and got to go to another party at his other preschool while I got to go and help out at Kylie's classroom party. She was so cute and I love that she gets so excited everytime I come to her class. I'm going to be so sad when she outgrows that! It was a fun day and it was cute to watch the kids get so excited about exchanging valentines with their friends (although Jayden was a little disappointed to get princess valentines from the girls in his class, so he gave those to Kylie). Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to spend much time with Jason on the big day. He brought home a heart shaped pizza for dinner for the kids while I helped my friend cater at a wedding, which was actually a lot of fun. I didn't get back until really late and was sad that I missed the pizza, it's a tradition that he's done since the days of "5 Buck" pizza at Provo when we were first married. We did get a chance to go out and celebrate this weekend with some friends at a comedy club. It was an improv comedy place that is run by some LDS guys so it was clean and a lot of fun (Chelsea, I never realized how tall Jeremy is until I saw this picture, wow! I love the guy standing on his tip-toes behind him just so he can peek his face over his shoulder!). It was definately nice doing something different for our date night besides dinner and Wal-mart! :) Thanks, Alisa for planning it! Jason was sweet and got me a shelf that I've been wanting for the entry way. I know that doesn't sound romantic, but I'm not much of a flowers girl. I'd rather spend the money on something that lasts longer than 2 days. I gave Jason money for new snowboarding boots since he's getting all geared up for his big boys trip. It's hard to believe we've spent 9 Valentine's together. Our first V-day together we spent with some friends in Vegas. It was so romantic, he took me up to this mountain overlooking the lights on the strip. I was expecting a diamond ring, instead I got a frying pan and back massager. It's amazing to see how much our lives have changed since then. I love you, Jay and thanks for making me feel special every day!

Ya Think?

I'm thinking it's time to go grocery shopping. I'm not sure how well received a dinner of scrambled eggs and peas garnished with salsa and a dallop of sour cream would be. Poor Kylie also got the shaft with her school lunch. She is still too nervous to buy a school lunch by herself, so I made a desperate attempt to pack a semi-edible lunch for her. Here is the result: turkey sandwich, mandarine oranges, peanuts and chow mein noodles. Yes, I said chow mein noodles. I did mention that I was desperate, didn't I? I absolutely despise grocery shopping, so I tend to wait until the absolute last minute. It's such an ordeal and entails a two day process. The night before I spend hours coming up with a 2 week menu, making my shopping list, categorizing my list for easier shopping, going through the adds to find price matches and last but not least, clipping coupons. Then comes the daunting 2 1/2 hr. shopping trip. It's not so bad when I can do it during the day while the kids are in school, but there are the rare occasions when I have to do it at night after Jason gets home. I dread it. Wal-mart becomes a totally different place after dark. Instead of being taken over by all the mormon moms and their kids, a whole new crowd comes out. Like my experience with the "Wal-mart Woody" guy, who followed me around and was, well, let's say...easily aroused in the toy aisle. CREEPY! I knew last night would be no different as I am walking in and a guy gets tackled right in front of me and is slammed to the ground and hand cuffed while screaming like a little girl. Oh yeah, that's why I love Wal-mart.

Let's Go Fly A Kite....

....up to the highest heights--yeah right! How hard can it be to fly a kite? Apparently for me, it is pretty darn hard. The kids were running their little hearts out around the cul-de-sac and only managed to get their kites like 10 ft in the air. After they were sufficiently worn out, I decided to waltz in and wow them with my impressive kite flying skills. I spent the next 15 minutes running my hiney around in circles while the kids and neighbors cheered me on. I was feeling the pressure. I completely failed. Oh well, the kids decided it was still fun dragging the kites around on the ground. By the next day their spirits weren't too crushed and they decided to give it another try. This time Jayden wised up and rode his bike around instead of running. His kite still didn't get much altitude, but he had a lot of fun (should I be concerned that his helmet is completely covering his eyes??). Kylie had a little more luck and got hers a little higher this time. Apparently there is a very fine line between too much wind and not enough wind. It's definatlely not as easy as it looks, but it was still plenty of fun.

We've been enjoying a beautiful weekend. Saturday we went to the Mesa swapmeet (which really isn't all that it's cracked up to be, unless you're in the market for coyote and cactus decor. Unfortunately I'm not.) We got some great deals before on art there, so we thought we'd give it a try again. We didn't find any art, but we didn't leave empty handed either. Kylie announced that morning that today was the day that she was ready to spend her life savings from her piggy bank. $14.89. After paying her tithing and having a little talk about budgeting, she decided that she wanted to buy Jayden a present and a toy for herself, then save the rest. She loaded up all of her pennies, nickles and dimes into a little back pack and we were off. After visiting booth after booth, she couldn't find anything for herself, but decided on a high quality $4.50 knock-off Power Ranger action figure set for Jayden. It was the sweetest thing to see her get so excited about giving him a present. We took the present and her 5lbs of change to the register and the sweet old man thought that she was so thoughtful to spend her life savings on her brother, so he gave it to her for $3.50 and even threw in a doll that she had been eyeing earlier. It was so thoughtful and made her day. It was a great lesson for Kylie to realize that good things happen when you make good choices. Jayden was so excited to get the present and hasn't set them down for one minute (which probably explains why I've had to glue gun 4 out of the 5 figures back together. Of course the high quality of the product has nothing to do with it :). He's lucky to have a sister like her!

I've been coming down with a nasty cold these past couple of days and since the kids started coughing Saturday night too we decided to stay home from church. I felt bad missing church, but it turned out to be such a nice relaxing day. The weather was beautiful (I decided that in heaven it will definately be 75 degrees) and we enjoyed eating Sunday brunch out on the patio. I didn't shower until 4:00pm and the kids stayed in their pj's absolutely all day. We definately all needed a day with no responsibilities, nowhere to go and nothing that needed to be done. If only my head wasn't pounding and congested, I would say that it was a pretty perfect day.

Tonight for FHE we watched a documentary about Pres. Hinckley on KBYU. It was really cool and I was glad to see that Kylie was so fascinated by it. Jayden on the other hand was our amusing commentator. He kept referring to him as Pres. "Hinckle" (like Caillou's neighbor) and was sooo excited that Gordon and Thomas the trains are prophets (I never realized the name coincidence with Gordon B. Hinckley and Thomas S. Monson). He was also very impressed that Pres. Hinckley used to be a station master, just like Sir. Topham Hatt. What a funny kid.

Last night I had a dream. Actually a nightmare, A blogger's worst nightmare. It was like the ones where no matter how hard you try to run, you just can't move. This time I had captured the perfect picture, but no matter how hard I pushed on the button, I could not make the camera work. I woke up in a cold sweat, it was horrible.

So there are some ramblings from our past week.

"...It's Girl's Night Out...Let's Go GNO!..."

It was all about the girls last weekend and we had a blast, compliments of Hannah Montana. Her 3-D concert movie was in theaters for one week, so a group of 5 of us moms and girls all went to go see it. Of course you can't have a girls night without ice-cream.We hit up the Gelato shop before entering the world of screaming girls and dancing moms at the theater. I was laughing (silently, of course) at the mom sitting next to me who was singing and dancing to all of her songs, but by the end I even found myself engaged in a little foot tapping action while humming the words. Kylie was so cute and loved every minute of it, the 3-D thing was really cool. She was so exhausted (we went to the 9:15 show) and was trying so hard to keep her eyes open so that she wouldn't miss a minute of it. She finally crashed during the second to last song, but woke up to see the big finale. She didn't take the glasses off the entire night, even when she was in zombie/sleep walking mode as I buckled her in the car. She knocked out before we even left the parking lot. The next morning she woke up and the first thing she said was, "last night was the funnest night ever!" Awww, what would I do with out my girl? (probably take Jayden to go see it...you better believe he can spot Hannah Montana a mile away. He says it's "for Kylie, cause it her faborite", but I know a crush when I see one).

Super Bowl Stats


Some women use lingerie, perfume, candles, etc. to spice up there marriage and keep the romance alive. Not me. I use sports stats. It is true, I have found that nothing gets Jason in the mood more than when I start spouting out random facts related to sports. He immediately devotes all of his attention to me, he gets an affectionate look in his eyes and a smile that says, "you are the woman for me". As I was running on the treadmill at the gym I was forced to watch ESPN and so I stashed away a few little helpful stats in the back of my mind to store away for future use. It worked like magic, and I thought that I would pass them along in order to help out my fellow ladies. So when you're hanging out watching TV, just casually mention: "man if Belichick would have won today, he would have tied Chuck Noll with the most Super Bowl wins as head coach". Just incase he asks questions, here's the background info: Bill Belichick is the head coach of the New England Patriots and has 3 Super Bowl wins. Chuck Noll was the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers until 1991 and he has 4 wins. There you have it, you may just get lucky tonight! By "lucky" I mean you may get lucky and he'll do the dishes tonight. What did you think I was talking about? Get your mind out of the gutter...

One Bag of Hershey's Kisses


Through past experience, I've learned that it's not always a good idea to send Jason to the store for me. If there's more than 3 items needed, then I am required to write them down and I'm guaranteed atleast on phone call for each item in order to specify the amount, brand, size, color, smell, location, purpose, expiration date...etc. (It's okay honey, it goes both ways. I know that if I were put in the middle of Home Depot on a mission to find a lag screw, we would have to take out a loan to cover the cell phone bill). Bless his little heart, Jason was so nice to volunteer to go to the store for me Saturday night because I needed a bag of Hershey's Kisses for Young Womens. I thought that we would be okay with just the one item on the shopping list. However, as soon as he got to the store, my phone rang:

Call #1: What did you need again?
One bag of Hershey's Kisses.
Anything else?
No, thankyou though.

Call #2: Where are they at?
Ummm, probably the candy aisle.
Why are you laughing?

Call #3: What size bag do you need?
Ummm, just a regular bag.

30 minutes later he comes home with a bag of potato chips, a carton of ice-cream and a bag of Hershey's HUGS. Did I not specify kisses? Maybe next time I should be more clear :) I love you honey, thanks for the valiant effort and for putting a smile on my face. Thank you also for confirming the fact that you couldn't survive without me! :)

Before and After


8:00 AM: Every hair is curled and held in place by maximum strength hairspray, then adorned with a perfectly tied bow, or strategically placed head band. A sweater is perfectly buttoned in place. The knee socks are in the position to accurately reflect the name "knee socks". The shirt is tucked in and attention is made to every detail before trotting out the door to school.

3:00 PM: The "maximum strength" hairspray has failed and proves to only maximize the tangles. The bow or head band is either: A) lost on the playground B) left stashed away somewhere in her desk or C) tucked in a secret compartment in her backpack, only to be discovered weeks later when I'm tired of buying more ribbons--but it is never left in the secured position in which it started. The sweater is now wadded up in the bottom of her backpack, collecting crumbs from her leftover lunch. The knee socks are at best rolled down and transformed into anklets, and at worst they are removed completely and balled up somewhere beside the ribbon in the secret compartment in her back pack. Whoever said that little kids don't have foot odor, never smelled the feet of a 5 year old after running around sockless in leather shoes.

Definately a sign of a long day of playing and having fun!

Howard's Visit

As if you snow-bound folks needed another reason to crave the sun....sorry, but how perfect is this day for hiking? Jason's sister and her family were so nice to make the extra drive to our house on their way home from Disneyland and we had such a great time with them. We had a blast hiking with the kids on New years, so we decided to let Kylie play hookie from school and go explore some more mountains. Who would have known that we had a regional park right in our back yard with such great hiking trails? (thanks, Lori!) I have to admit that it is kind of nice having the kids get older, there are so many more things that we can do with them. Even last year when we hiked the Y we ended up carrying Jayden the majority of the way, so it was fun to watch them both explore and run around with their cousins this time. Besides the hiking, we also just had fun hanging out. The kids love playing with their cousins, although it seems like this is the first time that we're starting to notice the boy/girl division. Last summer Kylie and Trenton were inseperable (they're a little over a month apart), but this year I think Jayden and Trenton were feeling a little left out and out numbered with all the girls. Jason saved the day and would form "boy clubs", which they thought were pretty cool. They are such a great family and we were all impressed with Amanda and Kelsey's spelling bee skills. What other 3rd grader knows how to spell "anachronism"? (I don't even know if I spelled it right!) We were all coming up with different words to quiz them with and Kylie shouts out, "how do you spell 'frickin'?" Yes, we have quite the elaborate vocabulary at our household. We were so glad they were able to stop by for a visit, even if it was a short one!