Loves of my life

Mischief in Bethlehem again!

2011-12-16T12:29:00.000-08:00

Things have been pretty calm in Bethlehem this year. Surprising as last year we had several incidents. Then suddenly I saw these two on top of the train. They were running away from a "bad guy"! So Mary is leaving Baby Jesus?!? What is up with that?And I am sorry but this is very suspicious to me. He is suddenly missing his whiskers and a piece of popcorn is there? Very very suspicious!

Inventions

2011-12-15T19:14:00.000-08:00

I call this one inventions as one time I had mentioned to Butterball about his "crafts" and he said they were not crafts but inventions. I am beginning to think he does not always sleep well at night because he will get up and immediately have a whole idea he wants to create.

My son woke up one day telling me he was going to make a movie camera and show movies in his room. This is what he came up with. He hung the box up on the wall, inside is a bright flashlight. Then he turned on a book on CD and we reenacted the scenes with our hands on the door. It was so wonderful and inventive. I loved this one and he loved having us all in there participating.This is him doing the hand "puppet" on the door.One day he was not feeling well and was laying on the couch. He made this little remote holder so that he could just reach out and use the remote. It was so cute but a huge source of tension as his little brother kept knocking it over.
My son has begged me to teach him how to sew. So one day I was taking in some of his pajama pants and decided to let him do a pair. This is the job he did. Not too bad! I told him that he did not need to go all the way around like that but he said he liked it that way. It worked and he wears them. Yeah!He had show and tell one day at school. He came home and immediately started creating this. It is a little home for the raisin guy. He spent several hours on it. Funny thing was after he was done and had shown it to his class he was done with it. I find it interesting that he can spend hours on something and be done with it so quickly.He wanted me to get an up close picture of the raisin guy.And this is the ceiling with the light for him.Much to my husband's dismay I save containers and boxes and what not all the time. He will wander back to where I keep them and get so excited about it and will immediately come up with a use for it. One nice thing is he can use them for a week or two and then will be done and what them thrown away. Nice!

Happy Halloween at the Dinosaur Park

2011-10-31T12:08:00.000-07:00

For the past couple of years we have got a pass to our local Dinosaur Park. I have never taken part in the extra activities. This year I looked into how much the Halloween Spooktacular would be and the price was not bad so I decided we should check it out.

Thank goodness we have an older sister to do our face painting. He LOVED it! I did Butterbean's for something and she very politely said, "You did really well for your first time and I am sure your next time will be better, but can I wash this off?" Sweet girl.I am not sure if my kids are boring or just simple or can just use their imagination because for the Dino park they went quite simple. Butterbean just wore a cape.Butterball with his batman sweatshirt and face paint. And yes, he chose the batman pj pants to wear with it.
And my tired frog who I woke up to go to this.They had stands here and there throughout the park with candy, pencils, bracelets, etc. The kids also got to make their own slime which was a HUGE hit. We had a lot of fun and plan to come back next year for sure. And they had one scare factor which scared the pants off my kids at first but then later they wanted to go back and see it again. Then we sat on a bench near it and watched the others going through get their pants scared off. I am so glad we went.

Never a surprise

2011-10-11T15:10:00.001-07:00

Butterball's sense of style is never surprising. Especially when it comes to his shoe selection. It has become so normal now that I rarely notice it.Appleseed insisted on wearing his superman shirt but also wanted to wear the other one so this is how he spent most of the day.And when it is too quiet, this one is in trouble. He was caught raiding the watermelon. That turkey!

Racing

2011-10-06T11:37:00.000-07:00

My kids had a fund raiser race at school. I loved it! Butterball is the closest one to me with his ID tag flapping in his face. Needless to say he did not win but he was so cute. The first race he did he raced with his arms folded the entire time. I was glad he didn't this time.Now him with his ribbon for participating. He loves this ribbon.Appleseed and his friend sitting in the winners circle. (A little side note, Appleseed looked at what I was doing and said, "The blog is so cute!")After the Kindergartners raced Appleseed has his own race.Later in the day it was Butterbean's turn. You can barely see her head and her smile, she didn't win either but had a lot of fun.
And her with her ribbon for participating. The money earned for the races are going to build a bigger play ground for the kids as the current one is quite small.I have to admit I do love this school, I love the uniforms, and I love what they are learning. I am very glad I moved them to a charter school.

Alms for the poor?

2011-08-26T20:05:00.000-07:00

I was driving to a friends house to give her some money ($4). Butterbean asked me why I was giving her the money. I told her that she had bought something for me and I was now paying her back for it. Here is what came next.
Butterbean: "Did she ask you for the money?"
Me: "No, but that is what you do is if someone gets something for you that you asked them to get you pay them back the money."
Butterbean: "We can't afford to give her that money."
Butterball: "Yeah, look at them. They are wich. They have a house and a van."
Me: "We have a house and a van."
Butterball: "But we need the money cuz we are poor and they are wich."

This same "wich" friend of mine has a basement and he was telling her how he could not go in her basement to play. She turned on the light as that was one of the complaints of how dark it was. Then he proceeded to tell her how we don't live in that kind of house as we are not wich. Because one day we went to Lagoon and got food there and now we can't afford things. We went 2 years ago and apparently I should have NOT got the ice cream cones at that place as now 2 years later, we still can't afford things. At least in his eyes. Wonder if they hear from Mom a lot that we can't afford things. :)

One more note before I forget even though this is an -ism. For Family Home Evening I had asked Appleseed to repeat the thought after me. The lesson was about measuring our spiritual growth. Part of the thought was choosing the right. When I said that part this is what Appleseed said, "Choose the wight...the wight...train coming down the track!" Yes he is OBSESSED with trains.

Field Trip

2011-08-23T19:56:00.000-07:00

Appleseed has loved trucks for a long time so I started taking him to the truck stop gas station last year. The first time we went we stayed for over 2 hours just sitting on the grass watching them come and go. He loves it. Sometimes truckers will wave at him and every once in a while he gets a honk. We talk about what they are carrying, what their signs say, how the refrigeration trucks have two tanks to fill up. I have wanted to ask them how much it takes to fill up a tank because they can start that thing, wash the windows, the lights, the mirrors, go to the restroom, get a snack, and come back and they are still waiting for it to fill. Blows my mind. I now want to get a book on trucks so we can learn even more about them together.One of my sisters asked if there were any cute truckers. I told her that Appleseed had just taken a picture of one so I could post it for her. He was all about partying, proudly wearing his mullet. And no I have not seen a hunk yet. :) This is our typical trucker.Appleseed insisted he get a picture of his toes for you all to enjoy.And his cute face.He saw a man get a hot dog for his dog in the truck so he said he needed a hot dog too. So went and got a hot dog and some candy. He kept playing "basketball place" with the candy while we were in line. Nearly hit the poor man behind him several times.Lounging around eating his hot dog which was super good by the way.There was a grasshopper on the grate for a long time that was "watching the trucks". Every so often Appleseed would talk to him about the trucks. After he finished his hot dog he was gone. I told him that he had gone to find him some lunch too. So he is trying to see if he is down there.

2011-08-16T19:37:00.000-07:00

My step-son and his wife came to visit us. It was so amazing to see them. This was the first time I met his wife and I haven't seen my son in 10 years or so.

My daughter was staying with her grandparents for a week so they stopped off to visit them and see her also. He got her ATV going which she loved!I was worried about Butterball as he sometimes does not do well with strangers but he did amazing for most of the time. Course it could have been the money burning a hole in his pocket that he couldn't wait to take to the Air Force Museum. The minute my son and his wife showed up Butterball was pushing us to go to the museum. Thankfully they were game to go along.Appleseed was so cute with them. He would walk right up and reach for their hands. I loved seeing it.After the whirlwind tour of the museum from Butterball we took them out to dinner. It took a long time for it, it felt like. Here is Appleseed waiting for his pizza.Butterball bought a plane that you wind up and it flies, or is supposed to. It has been a very frustrating toy for him and has caused a lot of tantrums.After visiting I gathered them for pictures of course. My oldest son with his wife and my youngest son. I love it.After a long and very stimulating day Butterball was done. We had forced him out of his room, from under his bed, to take pictures. After I saw these it made me sick. I will never willingly force him like that again. He was tired and had had a lot going on that day and had had enough. It breaks my heart to look at his face in this picture.My husband with his son's. I thought these pictures would be like all the others with Butterball where he is usually crying but these just tear me to pieces looking at how miserable he is.I am so thankful they took their time to come and visit us. My son is only 3 years younger than me but started calling me Mom awhile ago. I have really loved it. And he is always good at calling me on Mother's Day. It warms my heart. We love you both!

School Days

2011-08-15T20:16:00.000-07:00

I am too tired to correctly edit these photos in the order I wanted so I will give you the story anyway. Hopefully it makes sense.

My kiddos started school today! Waahooo! My daughter is in 3rd and my son in Kindergarten. I was so nervous the whole morning. But they both did amazing. My biggest problem? The youngest one in this photo thinks he needs to go to school too and complains every day. I tell him that he has school at home and that I am the teacher. It is not cutting it.Notice the sneaky hand holding in the first picture? Butterball discovered that Appleseed was holding.....gasp! An ItCh BoMb!!!!!And this was supposed to be picture one. Ugh. Butterball insisted on wearing his belt to the very last hole so it is scary tight on him. And Butterbean informed me that she thinks she actually looks cute in uniforms.OK, back to the frightening story of the ItCh BoMb! Butterball insisted on throwing it away explaining to Appleseed that that is what he thought gave him hives (He has had hives for 4 days prior). As you can see, Appleseed did not like that idea.Now we are still explaining how bad the itch bombs are to him. It looks like he is seeing the light from the great wisdom of Butterball. :) And just so know one worries. It was the tight little dried up ball thingy, not the big puffed out bomb.Then we were finally able to move on to get my favorite picture ever. I want this one as an 8X10 on my wall. I love it!As I drive them to school, a nervous wreck as I had to swing back to grab a school lunch, my predictable Butterbean can't leave things calm and peaceful. She starts in saying that her and Butterball need to find some sort of a meeting place at school where he can wait for her if he is having a problem with bullies. I told her that he can't just sit somewhere and wait for her but that if he did have a problem he could tell his teacher and his parents. She said, "But what if someone is making fun of how he looks?" I told her that she needed to stop right now, she LOVES to freak him out. She of course got furious and started to plug her ears when he was explaining that maybe they just wanted to ask him to be his friend. Cute little positive guy. So I tried to click a picture but she wasn't happy about me trying to get a picture of her very grumpy, I know more than all of you and you are so out of it face. Oh yes, I can not wait to see that face when she is a teenager. NOT!!!Oh brother! Just saw this one. How in the world did they get posted so wrong! Appleseed is trying to explain that it was not yucky! Poor guy, so misunderstood.And that was our day. I missed them something terrible. Apparently they missed something else. Butterball came home and started picking on Appleseed in a BAD way! Thankfully it was nap time for Appleseed. Then Butterbean came home......I have a tendency to plug religious music on before she comes home because she is such a negative person. She immediately went on the rampage about what the other two may have got or done while she was gone, or how unfair it all is, or slamming the door and yelling about how mean we are. And then Butterball joined with how "Wude" I am. Yes, I can not WAIT to send them back! :)

Yearly date

2011-08-14T13:32:00.001-07:00

My daughter and I had our yearly "date" last month. We did take the youngest with us this time. We went to the eye doctor, an hour away, to check on her Ptosis.Appleseed was paying very close attention to the doctor. The doctor had some new "toys" that he was testing out on Butterbean. He would ask her if they were cool or lame so he would know. It was cute.She always enjoys her 3D glasses part. Every time I go it reminds me of all the other times she has sat in that chair. My sweet girl. She didn't have to have her eyes dilated yet again which she was thrilled about. Her vision is 20/20 in both eyes also which is nice. He did ask how she feels about her eye and I told her that this last year was the first year that she has made comments about it but that it is not a self esteem issue at all. So again we decided against surgery.The kids were thrilled that during our wait times we got to watch Despicable Me! What a treat to see my cousin's movie and our favorite.And of course we all brushed our teeth while waiting too. We had a good time, minus the drive. My daughter had such anxiety that she cried almost the whole way down. On the way back she did better would ask me to move away from vehicles if there were too many on the road. Next time I will take all 3 kids so I can take my time getting back when I need to.

Hmmmm, Butterball-ish?

2011-07-22T18:42:00.000-07:00

I think I need a new title for the things my sweet Butterball does. Suggestions?

This is how my son went to a scout meeting with me. And believe me, this was the toned down version! Where in the world did this boy come from? The other day someone asked what was up with his glove at church. Yes my son was sporting one yellow flowered glove while he went to turn in his tithing to the Bishop. I made a deal with him that he could wear it during Sacrament Meeting if he did NOT wear it during primary. He cracks me up.

More camping

2011-07-16T20:57:00.000-07:00

So surprise surprise we had a rough night sleeping. Appleseed does not do well out of his own crib. He did give everyone a very enthusiastic rendition of I Am A Child of God in the night. He cracks me up.Right before we left we went down to the creek again and my friend convinced me to let the kids go in the creek. Something I would normally do. Darn, I hate being so overprotective and cautious now. They had a blast. Butterball found a piece of wood that he called his surf board and kept trying to get on it.Appleseed was my scary one. He kept climbing all over.While we were packing Appleseed was having his own cooking lesson apparently. He had cracked every single one of the eggs. Look at that guilty face. So cute.
When it was time to go I had put Appleseed in his car seat as he was dead set on returning to the creek while we packed the last of our stuff. It cracked me up because his friend and him are very good together but also have times of not sharing. I all of a sudden heard him in the car saying, "Mine L Mine. Mine L Mine." He and his friend L say that all the time to each other. She was no where near him at the time. We decided it was their friendship language.

Camping!!!!!

2011-07-10T19:37:00.000-07:00

I was THRILLED when I found out my husband did not have to work the weekend that the Stake campground was open. He asked me what the name of the campground was and I of course said, "Stake campground. I am sure you can google it" I was kidding.

I had asked my husband to bring something that we could use for rain as I heard it was supposed to rain while we were up there. He was amazing! He brought a tarp for over the picnic table and a big mosquito tent also. I loved it! And it was nice when the kids were in it because you knew where they were.My kids are like me. If I let them they would be off exploring to the end of the earth. I love their desire to do so but I have become more of a worry wart lately so as long as I could see or hear then that was as far as I would let them go.There was a small creek by the campsite that we went down and threw rocks in. My kids wanted to get in and walk around and for some crazy reason I told them no. Normally I would say yes and get in with them. I am not sure if it is all the injuries I have received in the last year or my husband wearing off on my (he is more protective where I normally am more relaxed).Then we went for a walk, something I LOVE to do while camping. I have always loved exploring things and just being out in nature. We enjoyed it. At one point in the road my daughter said it looked like 1/2 of Jesus' cross.We found a playground and I let the kids play for a short time. We ran into a counselor from my daughter's old school and she said that she had heard I was moving her to a new school. When I told her that I was she said that she felt I had definitely made the right choice in doing that. Hmmmm, makes me wonder about the old school.Silly Appleseed was swinging like this and kept asking me to push him. Nut, hello you can push yourself buddy.This is what I get lately from Butterball. That kid! :)Butterball is always very good at packing his own stuff, toys and what not included. But I was curious about this. You can't see it very well but he had packed a ton of hair bows, flowers, and clips and came out of the tent wearing them in his hair.We had friends that camped with us in our site and we loved it. They are an amazing family and I always enjoy spending time with them. The Dad made homemade fries that night. I INHALED them! They were SOOOOO good and I am been dreaming of them since. I plan to make some soon.

Home again, home again, just not the way I planned.

2011-06-30T19:11:00.000-07:00

This is a long one, sorry.

We leave early in the morning from the Ranch to head home. On the way out there was quite a bit of bison. At least I think that was this day. I don't know.Now I know it is no big surprise, but I can be pretty immature sometimes. My husband asked me to follow my sister home. I HATE that because I feel like I have to be babysat. I know he only does it so that he can feel more comfortable when I am not with him but it still drives me bonkers. So at one point I passed her up. DUMB! In fact her friend that was driving said that she wouldn't follow me because she didn't think I was driving save. DOUBLE DUMB!! Me, not her. We were doing good, yes I made a massive wrong turn and ended up going the wrong way on the highway. I hate that Pocatello exit. We stopped for lunch and it took forever as there was a TV on cartoons right by our table so my kids were GLUED. But apparently it didn't take long enough.
Right around Malad, ID we hit a sudden freak hailstorm. I saw a car that had rolled over in the median so I decided I better slow down. Right as I touched my brakes I started hydroplaning and rolled into the median. The worst part was I had my 3 precious angels in the car with me. Scariest thing EVER!!! When we stopped my daughter was screaming, "I love you Daddy!" over and over. The boys were crying. Butterball had a cut on his finger but not a large one, his window had broken out. Appleseed was just terrified. I found my phone on the dashboard and tried to call 911 3 separate times. It was busy. A man came up to me and I told him that I couldn't get through to 911 and he said that he also had been trying and couldn't get through. But obviously someone did as it was not long before a cop was there and then EMT's. The EMT's were actually responding the the first roll over but they had refused service so we got them.I was very sore on my chest and neck from burns I had received from my seat belt and I had a sore neck and back. Butterbean had hit her head so her and I were attached to back boards with neck braces. NOT FUN! Then the boys were cut out of the car in their car seats and all of us rode in the ambulance to the hospital. The EMT's said I had done such an amazing job putting their car seats in and that they were very tight and that is why they had to cut them out. On the ride I was told I would feel better at the hospital as my doctor was "cute". That cracked me up. I had asked them if they knew what it was like to ride like this and they said that it is part of their training to ride in the ambulance on a back board and in a neck brace. I just couldn't help thinking that I bet when they rode they weren't frightened and in pain.The boys were not emitted as the doctor said they were acting fine. My daughter and I went through several x-rays and me a CAT scan. My wonderful sister, who I was supposed to be following, came back to be with us. Her friend and kids entertained the boys and my sister relieved a lot of my stress by just being her. I love her dearly. My brother-in-law came from quite a ways away to get my stuff out of my car and take me, the kids, and my husband (who met us at the hospital) home. I am very thankful to him for doing that. My husband was asking us about a huge rock that was in the car. I told him that we didn't have any huge rocks with us. Apparently we had picked it up when we rolled. We were very lucky that it didn't hit any of us. The man that saw our accident said we were very lucky. I truly believe that we were watched out for. One thing that made me impressed and grateful is, at the hospital I had asked for a Priesthood blessing for my daughter and I. My EMT and one ER doctor were right there and did it in no time. To have two worthy priesthood holders right there was an amazing feeling.Now an update....I still go to physical therapy twice a week but I am getting better. I still have quite a bit of pain and I have to watch how much I do or I feel worse. My daughter is getting better and better. She did have some neck pain tonight with a headache (poor thing). The boys are fine except for the mental anguish. And my kids have now grounded me from eating, talking on the phone, or "texting" (I don't do that anyway) while driving. No I wasn't doing any of those things at the time of the accident but they are very stressed while in the car now so I will do anything to help them out with that. Thank you so much to everyone that has helped us this last month with the kid sitting while I and my daughter go to NUMEROUS doctor appointments, the food, weeding, lawn mowing, weed eating, borrowing of car, goodies, flowers, and prayers. You have no idea how much we appreciate it all. We are truly blessed to have such amazing family and friends in our life.

Parade Rest Ranch - Day 3

2011-06-29T18:58:00.000-07:00

During one unruly meal, can you imagine my kids being unruly? The waitress brought out these cute masks to color. The kids loved it. This is Butterbean's.And Butterball's adorable one.
Yep, that is Butterball, asleep with his helmet on ofcourse.Sunday it snowed nearly the entire time we were in the park. I was very glad I had gone in Saturday as on Sunday there was hardly any animals out. I was joking that they thought it was time to go back into hibernation.Hmmmm, blue skies in that picture. Must have been on Saturday. :) This late in the game I can't remember what happen what day. Except ofcourse the last. Not a good one. I will fill you in on another post.

Parade Rest Ranch - day 2

2011-06-21T21:26:00.000-07:00

The kids love to play on this cute wagon at the ranch. Appleseed always makes me nervous that he will get the door open and fly out.This is the day the kids get to go on a corral ride. Sometimes my daughter won't go but she decided to today. I was glad. The kids very patiently waiting their turn to ride.Butterball was so excited and giggled quite a bit. He loves this part of our trip. Not as much as the hot tub but he still loves it.Butterbean will be so excited next year. She will finally be able to ride a horse, by herself with no guide, and go on a trail ride. I am not excited for that. I will be more nervous than anything.This was Appleseed's first time. I had told the wrangler she did not have to take him very far. I wasn't sure how he would do for his first time. Half way through he said his trademark, "Need you." So I took him off the horse and we walked back. Sweet little guy.

Parade Rest Ranch - Day 1

2011-06-08T17:55:00.000-07:00

We went to our favorite place on earth. To Parade Rest Ranch. It was quite cold but beautiful. Last year, my son decided to switch his birthday with his Dad's as his Dad's is always at the same time as we go to the ranch. So we celebrated his birthday there. My daughter, getting a little jealous, decided to have her birthday there too. She sure changed her tune when we got home and realized she wasn't going to have another party on her actual birthday.

Little Appleseed loved sitting where he could look at himself in the mirror. He loved to watch himself while he was chewing.And of course, who could resist kissing that sweet face.I made cupcakes and took up to sing Happy Birthday to the kids. It was nice having both birthdays at the same time. he he. Saves me on money.In our cabin with our cousins that come up too. We love having them there with us every year. It makes the place even that more special.

Pirate ships and airplanes

2011-05-23T12:43:00.000-07:00

My son has been working for hours on that pirate ship that you may remember reading about and now his airplane. He told me that I don't need to pack his suitcase in the car because his airplane will be done by then and he will just pack his suitcase in the airplane. I told him how amazing he is and he said, "Yeah, I bet people will see me in my airplane and say, 'Holy Cow! How did that kid do that? He is amazing!'" I agree with that. Then he was explaining whose doing what to build the airplane and he was saying how people will see him at the Ranch and be so surprised that he had such "capabilities" to do that. And they will ask for a ride to get candy at the store. His eyes twinkle so much when he is talking about building stuff. He also has been raiding our tool box and has gotten several tools out that he now wants to put in his own tool box. This kid really will be amazing. Now if only I could learn to incorporate the ABC's and such into all this stuff.Yes! I was just given permission that if I get to tired building the airplane that I can stop but none of the other guys can stop.

Renaissance Fair

2011-05-22T07:49:00.000-07:00

We went to the Renaissance Fair with some friends the other day. Boy am I glad she got me in on the discounted price because I almost had a heart attack at the regular prices.

I actually get nauseous taking these darn "in case we get lost" photos.We saw a really good magic show done by our friend's Uncle. I enjoyed it quite a bit. And I loved how the audience would yell "Huzzah". It was fun. And all the costumes were amazing. Our friend's Uncle bought us all these HUGE turkey legs. They were pretty good.We enjoyed feeding our faces on them. And of course Butterbean wouldn't eat one and then complained about being hungry. She also refused the orange I had because it was "smooshy". So she had to starve.This was when we were near a pirate boat getting our pictures done. Captian Jack Sparrow was there and he looked AMAZING! The guy had that character down to a T. It was so cool. I wanted my little pirates picture with him but he huddled next to my leg instead.Thank you to our amazing friends for inviting us. We had a great time, mud and all.

Talent show

2011-05-20T17:40:00.000-07:00

We had our first Family Home Evening talent show the other night. It was so much fun. We each picked out something to show off to the rest of the family. Dad played some music on his flute. I said the first 4 Articles of Faith (That is right, I had them memorized). After I said them my daughter ran up to me, "Yay! You finally got them all right!" My daughter was showing off how she is good at taking care of animals. She had a litter box made from a cake pan and a scooper was the spatula. She then had a bowl and some "cat food" (the confetti in the measuring cup) and she fed her stuffed animal cat and then cleaned out the litter box. Butterball made a guitar and a microphone and played the guitar while "singing" I Am A Child of God. He actually had to have his sister whisper the words to him as he sang it. Appleseed pointed to various body parts. It was so much fun and the kids really enjoyed coming up with their own talent. I can't wait to do it again.

Appleseed-ism

2011-05-18T17:11:00.000-07:00

This post makes me happy in a big way. Anyone that remembers how Butterball used to talk will understand.

Today Appleseed saw a statue and yelled, "Jesus!" Then he said, "I goes to a Jesus house. And I play with cars.......my turn.....my turn.....my turn. So fun." He actually went on for about 5 minutes about playing with Jesus and cars. It was adorable. Then Butterball said, "Does he think I am Jesus?" I explained to him how he didn't but that when you are young you can sometimes still remember what it was like to live with Jesus in Heaven. Butterball said, "Oh that is sad because I can't remember it at all." Poor guy, as when he was Appleseed's age he was ALWAYS talking about Jesus.

Easter

2011-05-06T19:23:00.000-07:00

Last year I discovered the awesomeness of naturally dying our Easter eggs. I was so excited. With my kids allergies to red dye I try to limit them when I can. So here I am boiling some beets and red cabbage for starters. I simmered them for a long time to get a more intense color. We also did hot peppers and coffee.This is what the red cabbage looked like after simmering forever. I thought it was so weird to see it stripped of so much color.And here are some of the eggs. The blue on the left is the red cabbage. I loved that it turned out blue from the purple dye. Then we have coffee, hot peppers, and beets. I am so glad we discovered this method and I will continue to do it that is for sure. I hope you all had a great Easter.

Counting down!

2011-05-05T19:12:00.000-07:00

Here we go! Counting down to my son's birthday trip. He can not wait. Yes we have the countdown chain and yet he still asks if we are going today. My kids both decided they would rather we sell our current house and move to the ranch. He even "switched" his birthday with his Dad's so he could have it there. Funny! My only problem is he has been packing for this trip....since me left the place last time. I frequently get the, "I don't have any....." And then I have to tell him that if he would unpack some stuff he would have clothes to wear. He cracks me up. And even though the cost of gas has made me SERIOUSLY want to forego this one....I don't think I could do that to my sweet son who can't wait. Neither can the rest of us!

Help needed

2011-05-03T20:00:00.000-07:00

So I need some advice on this one. My Butterball is so wonderful, sweet, caring, sensitive, and helpful. But he is also the most confusing to me. I took him to school screaming today. I have had to do that more times than not in his 2 years of preschool. I would home school him more but even when it is time to do that he starts crying, whining, and runs away.Also he started sucking his thumb or chewing on his shirt. That was driving me nuts! I realized that it started after he stopped sleeping in our bed. He also stopped needing me to sit next to him when he watched TV or did things. So I was telling my husband that I think he had moved his security blanket from me to his thumb/shirt. That night he had him come sleep with us. He ended up sleeping 6 nights with us. Guess what? He STOPPED sucking his thumb and shirt. What? I am so lost as to what to do with him.I did give him a crystal rock and told him I had used my special magic powers to help him feel better when he needed it. And of course when he showed his sister she immediately told him there was no magic powers and that it was just a rock. Argh!Any ideas people? Because this Mom is LOST!

Crafting

2011-04-20T12:50:00.001-07:00

I was sick one Sunday so we had a quiet day at home that day. My kids were so good, which is surprising as 2 of them tend to throw a fit if they can't go to church.

Butterball worked 4 HOURS on this project. I was shocked. It is a pirate ship. I tried so hard to suggest he have the box top open and tape the sides up and have it be an open boat but he refused to listen.This is the steering wheel. I also tried to add suggestions. I love how creative he gets. The problem came when he asked me to put the steering wheel in the ship. I of course had to bend it a bit to put it in and he threw a raging fit! I totally understood, poor guy, after working on it for 4 hours and then Mom does something crazy like bend the steering wheel? He hasn't worked on it since but he talks about it a lot.And this is what my daughter created. It is a pom pom town. On the left side you will notice the 3 pom poms. The red is the Fire Warning light. The blue is the Tsunami and Flood Warning light. And the white is the Earthquake Warning light. I thought it was adorable but a little sad that kids think of that.

Buddies and Bikes

2011-03-29T20:07:00.000-07:00

I caught Butterball comforting Appleseed when he got hurt the other day. So cute. They have always had such a special bond.This was Butterbean's tooth 5 days ago. Gross. She kept playing with it and even talked kind of funny. It is STILL in there. It is very very loose but she won't let anyone near it.My buddies wearing their hats. And Appleseed with his constant companion, cars. If he sees a semi or a van he gets all excited and says, "Truck!" and then proceeds to talk about the truck and admire it.Appleseed "riding his bike". It was hilarious to have him go up and down the street.

A Wedding, cooking, and falling?

2011-03-22T20:34:00.000-07:00

My children were playing dress-up one day and this is what I found. Hilarious. They had a friend be the flower girl and she also had to catch the bouquet. There was quite a bit of discussion about who she was supposed to marry as my Butterball was "already married". They never decided on a partner for her. So cute. The happy couple.
Here is our little chef helping Daddy cook dinner.My kids all dressed up with their green hair for St. Patrick's Day. Butterball was so upset thinking that no one would be able to see his green hair. I put a ton of the spray on but his hair is a bit darker than the others so it took a lot to show up.Butterbean is the only one that I was able to get an individual picture of . She was actually reprimanded during library time for having the spray painted hair. Yet I see kids in there with semi-permanent dyed strips of hair all the time. Atleast hers you could wash out in one day, not like the others. But oh well. Now we know.Appleseed fell and cut his eyelid. Poor guy. I of course freaked out. Those darn head wounds with all the blood.I told him that he should probably start wearing that helmet all the time.This is what he looked like the next day. Poor guy. He would cry in the night saying, "Owwie owwie."

The exercise fiend

2011-03-15T11:15:00.000-07:00

My little crafter

2011-03-10T22:22:00.000-08:00

Appleseed can be quite the little crafter. Course he tends to always make a HUGE mess. But honestly, who cares. The guy loves it.And who doesn't do a little foot stamping with their crafting. He was cracking me up on this part. He had me watch him and was grunting. It was hilarious.He cracks me up so much some days.

Coolest Snow Fort EVER!

2011-03-08T22:12:00.000-08:00

My crazy Appleseed out enjoying the snow. That kid is funny. Notice he has no gloves. They last a few minutes and then he takes them off and refuses to put them back on. Yet he will stay outside for a very long time before he finally can't stand it anymore. He is my big one on being outside. I like that!So we don't need those silly snow fort building thingys that cost $10. We just need some old icecream buckets and a stock pot and we were good to go.And they were both so good at helping and really doing a great job of it.So maybe not the coolest ever but we loved it. That right wall accidentally fell over right as we had finished. By then I was exhausted so I just bundled it together. Butterball loved it the most and had hid some items in it's crevices. But the next time some meany kids kicked the walls in on their way home from school. Next time we will build it some place else.

Possible Ebay item?

2011-03-03T12:59:00.001-08:00

I was asking my son to pleeeeassse clean that room!I told him that if he did not I would be in there with a garbage sack to immediately take the stuff left out to DI. He promptly came out with this item and told me to take this to DI. Hmmmm, do you think I could sale it on ebay? he he On another note. I turned in the recycling and found this great box. I knew my son would be so excited with it and it has been an absolute blast! He watched tv in it the first day.

You've been Minioned?!

2011-02-28T15:21:00.000-08:00

What may you ask do these goooooorgeous shoes have to do with Minions? I will tell you how. I was wearing these shoes one day after my super tacky flat shoes fell apart in the washing machine. And when I say tacky I mean it! Tragic I know. So when I was wearing them I twisted my ankle 3 times all before 11:30 AM!The last time I was holding Appleseed, I fell dropping him on the cement and then my knee smashed his head a little more into the cement. So sad. But all I saw was a slightly scratched face. It wasn't until after nap time that I noticed his front tooth was broken and crooked. Very sad. After a couple dentist visit we found out his tooth has to be watched but may be fine. Whew! As for me? I pulled some serious muscles in my back and can barely move.So one day I had to go get my Bountiful Basket and when I came home I found this sign with several balloons taped to my door.Inside we found these adorable minion Twinkies. I ate WAY TOO MANY of them and the scale showed it. Totally worth it.And of course a nice bottle of my favorite soda with "Get well soon!" on it. I actually had given up soda per my son's request. But he gave me permission to drink just this one. YUM! But day 3 and I still have about 1/2 a bottle. Normally that baby would be gone by now.The kids all had individual gift bags with fun things in it like sticky hands, hand made notepads with their name, jars with erasers, and a minion. They were screaming like it was Christmas.Appleseed LOVED his sticky hand. And my good boy took a few bites of his Twinkie and then tackled some strawberries. My boys are good at eating more healthy then bad.Licking those chops!And here is a sample of our minion balloons that were on the door. Thank you secret minion decorator. My cute kids guessed who it was and wanted to break into her home and decorate it with "robbing stuff". Silly kids!

Appleseed's addiction

2011-02-26T16:28:00.000-08:00

If we would let Appleseed, he would play with the Wii all the time. He is so cute to watch when he does it. Not that he really has a clue, especially as we took out the batteries out of his remote.

Butterball - isms

2011-02-25T11:32:00.000-08:00

These are my favorite posts. I have tried to take notes and record things that he says so that I can remember them because I forget things extremely easy now.

Here he is with his face armor that he made out of toilet paper rolls. He was so excited.Well, I was excited. Until I went to find my notes on my computer. I spent over an hour searching over and over. They are GONE!!! What? I was so upset but later I remembered that I also had some recordings on my phone. So when I went to go look I was stunned to find....NOTHING. How can it be that every note I have made over the last several months about what cute things this boy of mine has said is GONE. Every...last...one. I am not going to trust this lovely thing called technology again. Down on paper they will go.

Those are his wings he was wearing with the hangers. He cracks me up.So the only thing I can remember that he said the other day was that when his head gets as big as mine then he will be able to drive my car. Then he asked if it cost a lot of money and I told him about car payments, insurance, gas, oil. He then decided he was going to drive Dad's truck and then he would take it whenever he wanted to just go places and that when his Dad would get ready to go to work that he would say, "Oh no! Where is my truck? I can't go to work now?" He thought that would be cool.

Oh no!

2011-02-23T12:46:00.000-08:00

I realized something the other day. Boy do I wish I would have realized this a couple years ago. And for those of you that may have noticed and kept your mouth shut? Shame on you! See that sweet boy above? I think we have done him a disservice. I blame it on how easy my daughter was. Yes her stubborness drove me absolutely bonkers at times but she learned very, very easily because of it. She would insist on trying to dress herself before she was 2. She would take sometimes 30 minutes trying to do so. She insisted on doing and undoing her own seatbelt. Yes sometimes I would get sick of waiting and just help her which would cause her to be upset. But this sweet boy fails to try and do a lot of things on his own. But we have finally reached one very big milestone.....he can do and undo his OWN seatbelt! Yes everyone has to be super quiet the whole time, the radio must be off, and beware if you even make a squeak as he lashes out at you. But hey! Whew! FINALLY!!!!

Free Zoo Trip

2011-02-15T11:22:00.000-08:00

There are some Free Zoo Trips that the boys and I decided to take advantage of. We have never been to the Zoo in the winter but I really enjoyed it. Butterball was our tour guide and this of course was first on his list.Appleseed on the other hand hated it. Course every time you asked him if he wanted to see an animal his answer was "NO!" Boy does that sound familiar. :(And of course they thought this was the coolest thing ever and could have cared less that one of the tigers was very close to the fence. Silly boys.Butterball named this giraffe Brownie like their cat. Brownie the cat licks plastic all the time and it was funny to see Brownie the giraffe lick everything. He seriously licked the entire time we were there. Either this thing, or the wall, or the door. It was weird.This ape, monkey, whatever was right up close and the boys liked it. It was kind of gross though as he kept squishing his chin and gunk would come out and he would lick it. He did that over and over. YUCK!We sure had a blast though and I can't wait to go on another free trip again. The funny part was I remembered at the end that we had forgot to take our "in case we get lost photos". And even funnier? I panicked about it. What a dork as at that time we were almost ready to leave.

Temple visit

2011-02-13T18:36:00.000-08:00

We went to Stake Conference for the last time at the Ogden Temple. My daughter, who feels very strongly about this Temple as she swears she went in it when she was younger, was somber about it being the last time for a few years there. So we took the opportunity to wander the Temple grounds a bit. This is what happened when I asked them for a group shot. Of course...She loves this place and is almost a whole different person here. She is very calm and wanders around singing church songs. It is precious.We had to get this picture as that will be changed after the Temple gets redone.Her touching the Temple. She was told that you can feel the spirit when you do that.Finally a half way decent group shot.And I just love this one. They are so cute together.

War update

2011-02-11T18:20:00.000-08:00

Tonight the kids and I drove up to our place where we fought the war. Butterball informed me that he was just teasing about needing to fight a war and teasing about his pretend friends. My boy is growing up. So sad.

Snow fort

2011-02-10T09:56:00.000-08:00

Up the street there was this big snow pile that Butterball LOVED to dig in. He was always wanting to go up there so he could dig windows and doors so he could have a "fort" in it. One time he got so excited because he had found "pirate treasure" and had me come up to see it. It was a very cool STICK! And he was digging for more. He was very disappointed when that turned out to be just a garbage sack.Taking a break from all that digging. He would spend hours up there. He loved it. I hated it because I thought it was too far. I would stand at my open door watching him or be up with him. I did start accidentally riding over it when I drove by to help mash it down so it would melt faster.

Wordless Wednesday - box sleeping, etc

2011-01-05T11:41:00.001-08:00

The Lost Spirit

2010-12-24T12:55:00.000-08:00

One day I was sitting in my living room looking at the lights on the tree and wondering how to get more of Christ into our Christmas. My kids think too much about the presents on all these religious holidays and it bothers me. Yes, I know they are young, but it still bothers me. So I started looking around and I saw something.

First off, I love my tree. Yes it will never be featured in a magazine but it means a lot to me.A lot of my ornaments are homemade by family and friends from when my husband and I were going to get married. The tree is from my niece and the Santa from a client of mine (I used to work with people with disabilities).My friend put cute bows on a bunch of these cooking pig ornaments. She knew I that I love pigs.So as I am hanging them up it always warms my heart and I have wonderful memories of the amazing people that have touched my life. Like this one. My sister made them with two of my kids hand prints that were then made to snowman. They are one of my favorite ornaments on the tree. And when I see them they will always remind me of what a wonderful sister I have and how much I love her.So I am still thinking of how to teach these special angels that have been put into my care about the true meaning of Christmas.I look some more and notice I have a lot of stuff that is "commercial", as one sister would say.And this cute one likes the commercial aspect of it all. He HATES the stories of Jesus when he knows they are Jesus stories. When he found out I was going to be telling a story about the birth of Jesus tonight he groaned. (This is how he dressed for our ward Christmas party. He chose to wear the tie but whenever someone commented he would put his hands up to cover it. It was very cute.)And then some more commercial decorations.I do have A TON of Santa decorations. But these are from my mother-in-law and mean a lot to us because they came from her.So I had an idea of maybe how to at least help bring more of the Spirit into our Christmas.A family member of mine buys a new Nativity every year. This is one she got this year. I LOVE it. It is so beautiful.And this is one of hers also. I don't know why, but I just love it.So this year I have an idea for a Nativity that I want to make. A simple one with wood blocks and stickers, but the kids can play with it. And that is a good thing. :) And I hope to add more in the coming years and less of Santa.

So as I tell the story of the birth of Jesus tonight, I hope that somehow I can get a small spark into my children about what it really is all about. And hopefully next year it will be about Our Saviour and less about the man in the red suit.

P.S. I saw a picture once of Santa bowing down in front of the Nativity scene. It was very beautifully done. If anyone finds it, feel free to get it for me. he he. Or just let me know where I can get it. I know it has Santa in it but it just felt amazing when I saw it. And if you have any ideas, let me know.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Time to celebrate!

2010-12-23T16:16:00.000-08:00

Guess who I FINALLY found? He was packed away in the car in this Leapster holder. Now what in the world do you think he was doing? I would like to think he was headed to the Temple to teach. And I took a guess at what else he could have been planning to do by the items he had packed away. First off he is living a little modern with the cell phone. I thought that was interesting, picturing Him with a cell phone. So lunch would probably be packed away in the mini backpack. He was probably going to teach construction and that is why he had the screw and the tape measure. A toy car for the children. And let me see......a game of dominoes with the Disciples. Sounds good to me. Alas, he looks a little shocked that I found Him. Poor guy. And the pacifier? Interesting...... :)

Best toy ever!

2010-12-19T15:04:00.000-08:00

Dear Progressive,

We would like to thank you for making the BEST TOY EVER! It has been through 3 children, as you can tell. And they still claim that it is their favorite toy.Yes, we have lots of missing windows and only one tire, but it has been the most loved toy ever. And thank you to my sweet mother-in-law that gave it too us many years ago. You can still see the kids attempting to push the car around to play with it. Thank you again. :)

Lemonade stand

2010-12-18T12:11:00.000-08:00

I know this was a long time ago but it was cute and I just found it. My son woke up and said he had had a dream that he was going to have a lemonade stand that everyone was going to come. He even called his Grandparents who live 2 1/2 hours away. They said they would come!So we spent almost the whole time outside waiting for them to come.
It even got a little cold while we were waiting.He was so excited though that he wasn't about to give up.He barely hugged them before he ran back to get them their brownie and lemonade. Enjoying the spoils.

Yion eye Stabbers

2010-12-15T18:00:00.000-08:00

Butterball is a packer. Not a pack rat....a packer. He is CONSTANTLY packing for some unknown trip. It can drive me nuts.Sometimes he will come to me asking me to help him find some toy and it can take quite a bit of hunting to find it. Seriously if there is anything missing in the house, you can almost bet that it is in his room.Once I could not find a pair of nail clippers for nothing. I asked and asked and asked. No one had a clue. Shocker, they were packed away. And remember the missing camera? Yep, in his room. Many times it is my utensils...ugh. That is frustrating.So in the hunt for Baby Jesus I decided to tackle the packing and try and unpack it. SIGH.....I guess I can see the need for...let's see, one of my essential oils, some game pieces, a medicine cup, and dropper.When I started packing he came in and stayed quite close and anything odd he would explain right away. Like this brad? It is needed to "stab yions in da eye if they are tying to attack us." So there you go. On your next trip, please remeber to pack the yion eye stabber.

Oh no!

2010-12-14T19:49:00.001-08:00

Has it really come to this? Someone has called the cops! I am guessing to help look for Baby Jesus as that is one of the manger sheep in that car. Now either the sheep is British or there is someone else driving because he is clearly on the wrong side of the car. I gave the sheep the suggestion that I was given, to go look in the Temple. Sigh....I just hope they find him soon. Poor Mary and Joseph. It must be hard not knowing where your son is and having the wisemen get a little funky with their dress.Here is what else is going on in the stables. I am not sure who the visitor is but....Jesus isn't there again. He must be off teaching or something. Love the modern visitor though.

What?!?

2010-12-12T13:06:00.000-08:00

So in my quest to find Baby Jesus I found this. Hmmmmm, have one of the wiseman gone hippy? He is wearing a hair tye around his head like a head band. What is going on here? And yet, not Baby Jesus yet. This is getting very weird.

Case #1: Missing Baby Jesus

2010-12-11T12:43:00.000-08:00

Remember Mary cruising around disobeying the laws? Crazy woman....

Well, I finally found Joseph! I was surprised that he had a crazed look in his eyes. The same crazed look that Mary had. Now I am beginning to wonder if she was looking for Baby Jesus and not actually crusining the joint. Poor Mary and Joseph. And did you notice next to Joseph is part of the babies manger. Gasp! I hope Pooh Bear didn't eat him.

Case #2: The missing camera.....results

2010-12-10T10:17:00.000-08:00

So we had been playing in his cave all day having a blast. We told stories and ate lunch....yes that is lunch on the floor now. :)I asked suspect #2 where the camera was and this is what I got?

When I asked suspect #1 he told me the following: "I don't know, yets look in my closet." So playing along I went with him to look in his closet. He offered to climb the shelves to look in the top and I told him no. Then I was moving his shoes around and low and behold.......MY CAMERA!!!! I about died. I asked him how he knew it was in his closet and he said, "I don't know. I dust guessed. Maybe a skeleton took it and hid it in there." Hmmmmmm, a skeleton? So my hypothesis is: Suspect #1! I mean look at that face. That is a guilty smile if I ever saw one. Alas he won't admit it, he still insists it was a skeleton. Sneaky kid!

Haircuts

2010-12-09T09:57:00.001-08:00

Butterball was in need of a haircut and money is a bit tight so I borrowed some clippers from a friend and did it myself. I probably should have youtube'd it to find out how to do it right but the computer was in use so I just did it. He is NOT excited at all about this.Here is the after picture. I know...... Honestly I miss my boy the way is hair looked before he ever had a haircut back when he was 2. It looked so cute and I swear I haven't been able to have it look as cute since then. :(Like this picture. I just like the way his hair was back then. Longer on top but short on the sides and back. And I have not been able to get anyone to recreate it like that. And his hair is tougher now and not as fine so it doesn't always cooperate. And he refuses to let me spike it. He only likes "regular hair".I decided to trim up Appleseed even though he didn't need it real bad.I was actually surprised how much came off though. My handsome boys.

Case #2 - The Missing Camera

2010-12-06T21:25:00.000-08:00

There was pure chaos! We had looked in the car, under the car, on top of the car, in bags, in boxes, in couch cushions, under couches, behind furniture, shelves, counters. I even looked in the freezer and fridge sure that my mind had gone completely crazy. My husband had gone through the garbage piece by piece. We were going nuts. We both knew we had had it in the car, we came straight home, I took everything out of the car and placed it on the couch while I unloaded the boys. Then I came in and put everything away. I went to get the camera to look at the pictures I had taken and.........it was no where to be found. I had given up that it was gone forever as I had searched everywhere! Even in my boys rooms as anything that is missing is in their room. And I came up empty handed every time. I was distraught as I knew I could not afford another one at this time. But.........you will never believe what I have found. MY CAMERA!!!!!!! Waaa hoooooo, Yipppeeeeee, aiiiiieeeeeee! I could not believe it! So......who did it? Hmmmmmm......

Suspect #1????
or Suspect #2????What do you think?

We will return another time with our results, and our Case of the Missing Baby Jesus and Crew.

Tsk, tsk, tsk

2010-12-02T18:34:00.000-08:00

Mary has frequently been seen cruising in the house lately. It is not a problem as far as I can see. I am sure Joseph is at the stable taking care of baby Jesus. My problem came today when she repeatedly went over the red line which you see behind her. We recently put up that line to show to our toddler who thinks the kitchen is his domain. Our rule is that they cannot go over the red line. Mary unfortunately repeatedly kept going over the line today even after she was told not too.Of course she pointed her finger at her accomplice when I questioned her.And how is Joseph and Baby Jesus during all this? You tell me! The stable is empty except for one lone Wise Man. And he had no idea where they were. Upon further inspection I was unable to locate the rest of the party. I will fill you in on there where abouts and what they have been doing later. If they can be found........

Off to War!

2010-11-13T18:56:00.001-08:00

Some of you may remember a LONG time ago when I posted on facebook that we were off to war and to wish us luck. This is my war post. A long time overdue.

My middle child gets obsessed with things and will fixate on it for awhile. For a time he had several imaginary friends and he was ALWAYS requesting that he had to go play a football with them. It would drive me nuts because he would ask over and over and get furious if I refused because I wasn't sure where this "football game" was at. One day we were driving by an old store parking lot and he claimed it was right there. Being stubborn myself I told him I was not stopping to get out and play a football game. DUMB of me. He was furious. His next fixation was fighting a war. He would beg to go fight the war and it was just like the football game. I kept refusing and he kept getting upset. One day I decided to take him to this war. First off his sister and him decided to ride their bikes to the war. This is Butterball's war face. Ummmm, not very intimidating. This is Butterbean's war face. Now that is better.I drove for quite awhile turning whenever he told me to. After we had gone in a very large circle I started asking him questions of what the place looked like. It was "in da mountains and has lots of woods." Ah ha! I can do that. I drove up to a place I knew in the mountains and when I parked he was ecstatic. I had found the place. Here is our faces as we are getting ready to go fight.Every one's fighting shoes.Wandering around trying to find the "monsters" that we were fighting. He seriously loved this.Butterbean looking terrified as it was starting to get dark. We fought our "monsters" for about 15 minutes before it got too dark. Butterball was very happy.Appleseed however is not. Apparently he was not done fighting.Guess what? He only asked to go fight a war one more time after that. Waaa hooo! What a good Mom. The imaginary friends are gone now and our latest and longest obsession is caves. He wants to build them ALL the time. It is cute.

Here is a video of him on a separate day when he wanted to go fight a war.

Halloween

2010-11-06T18:48:00.000-07:00

Phase one of our many different costumes. Butterbean wore just a cape to this party. But Dad offered to put make-up on her. They all had to have the make-up on. Then right before we left Butterbean had me wipe it off.Phase 2.Appleseed wanted a cat nose like his sister.Butterball is the cutest frog in the world.We went to my in-laws house for Halloween again this year. The kids love that their cousin is there and they love to go to the carnival and then trick or treating with her. I was SUPER sick so it was not a lot of fun and we ended up coming home early. We actually got to the carnival when it had 30 minutes left. I thought that was the perfect timing. My sweet cousin was the outhouse. So funny. I didn't get a picture of inside. She had a roll of TP and I think a toilet seat.Butterbean has been begging me to take her to a "real" haunted house. Yeah...I don't think so. So I told her she could go to the one at the school carnival. She changed her mind back and forth a couple times and settled on not going. Butterball went with his Aunt T. Half way through she said that he started saying he wanted to go back. When I told Butterbean she said, "That's why I didn't go is because I didn't want to listen to that crying boy." I told her he had not been crying. She said, "Oh. Well that's why I didn't go in because I didn't want to listen to that screaming boy." Told her he hadn't been screaming either. That meanie head girl!It was a wonderful holiday with all the shindigs. My kids went to 6 houses trick or treating before we decided to go home because I was so sick. Lucky for the kids we got to our town right at they had the trunk or treat. So they got to do that.

First Haircut

2010-10-08T14:52:00.001-07:00

Appleseed had his first hair cut today. I wanted to cry ofcourse. I hate my boys first haircuts. I swear they look like big boys after that instead of my little guys. :( He was so good and I was so impressed. He does look cute.Thank you so much Miss N! He looks awesome!

Dinner and Dancing

2010-09-24T09:05:00.000-07:00

Parade Rest Ranch - Last Day

2010-09-20T08:04:00.000-07:00

Here are the kiddos in front of our cabin. Sob sob. I hate leaving this place. I think I would like living in Montana. It is so beautiful there. My poor sister knows better than to travel with me. She was sick the whole trip. I had asked her if she wanted to just head home, go to the park, or what. She said she didn't care. Big mistake sis! he he. I set the GPS for least use of freeways. It took FOREVER FOREVER to get home. But I seriously loved the drive and want to do it again. But take more time and stops for the kiddos. It was gorgeous. But I think my poor sister wanted to kill us.
What do you do with a baby who want stop fussing and nothing is working? Give him a container of wipes and let him go at it. :) Notice how he still doesn't look happy though. I think he was just taking is frustration out on me through the wipes.

Parade Rest Ranch - Day 3

2010-09-18T08:31:00.000-07:00

We went into Yellowstone park today. It was a very windy day but nice. And surprise surprise, Butterball would not turn around. Check out the next couple pictures of him. :)Here is the kiddos minus my Appleseed. I had forgot a stroller so he was on my back.And here is all of us minus one. I am so sorry I didn't think to get D in here too. So dumb. Sorry D. Next time for sure.We stopped for lunch on the grass.There was this huge hole that was fenced. It was amazing. I don't think I would want to live in this town.After we got home Butterball wanted to watch Toy Story with his new Woody toy. It was so cute. When he first got back from Yellowstone he went right into Woody and asked if had missed him. Woody talks so he pulled the string and Woody said, "Ha ha ha ha ha." It was so funny.Appleseed is always a monster at night, even at home. But when we are out he is not as easy to deal with because he is in the same room as you. He was sucking water out of his cup and spitting it out at 11 PM.

Parade Rest Ranch - Day 2

2010-09-17T13:52:00.000-07:00

Here is my boy waiting for his corral ride on the horses.Riding the horse. He loves it. Surprisingly my daughter had no desire to do it this year.Appleseed sitting on the horse. Funny to have pictures of all 3 of my kiddos as babies on these horses. Love it.Here are my sisters, sister's kids, and friend riding off on a trail ride. They seemed to have so much fun on their rides. Our friend was riding a donkey/mule, I don't know which. And it kept laughing at her when she would say things. And her reenactment of it was hilarious. I laughed so hard.My Butterball always holds my hand. I love it as the other two don't.Poor Appleseed all tuckered out from the walk back from the horses. I was able to get him out and put him down. NICE.It didn't matter if you put food on his high chair. He still liked standing up to lean over and eat. I think this was the day he insisted we have a prayer. He had folded his arms and kept saying, "Mom, Mom, Mom." So we had a prayer. Later he was doing it again and so I quickly said a Heavenly Father blah blah Amen. He wasn't going to let that slide and made me say another one. What a good boy.Singing Happy Birthday to my Butterball. It was a cute cake. They had put a bison and bear picture on it. His little friend, T came up while we were singing. They had a good time together there.After dinner my nephew and our friend were playing football and Appleseed had to join in. It was cute. He adores our friend and called her name a ton while we there. Even in the night he would do it. And just so you know D, he still calls your name. Especially if he sees a vehicle that looks like yours. :)

Parade Rest Ranch - Day 1

2010-09-16T11:12:00.000-07:00

Our before trip picture. Is this the in case we get lost on the way picture? :) Funny.My sister drove up with me. She was so patient with my kids. It was cute. Especially when poor Appleseed threw up, causing Butterbean to FREAK OUT! These are my, "Thank you for cleaning up the throw up" flowers that my sister had her give to me.Butterball waiting for everyone to come and watch him open his birthday presents. His real birthday was in July but he wanted to wait till we got here to have his birthday. On the way up I remembered I had forgotten his dairy free cake I had made for him at home. So I went to the local grocery store and they only had two yucky options. Found out where they had cakes in town and went and ordered one for the next day. Then I explained to him about the cake. My sweet boy said, "That OK. I don't need a cake." Darn, I had already paid for it.Opening presents.Butterbean cuddling with Dad at the cook out that night.Appleseed eating his corn that he had dropped on the ground. I figure any extra vitamins we get is all good.The manager, Marge, had called my son up and had everyone sing Happy Birthday to him. That was so nice.Butterball got to help drive the horses home that were pulling our wagon. He loved that!We all had colds/allergies. This is how Butterbean fell asleep, with a tissue up her nose. Don't worry I didn't let her sleep like that.

Wordless Wednesday - Helmet Boy

2010-09-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

Gorgeous!

2010-09-09T13:00:00.003-07:00

Wouldn't this dress look gorgeous.....on this little princess? There is a drawing to win it and I am trying for my "baby big girl".

The Mending Seed

2010-09-07T22:43:00.000-07:00

My cousin and her husband are in a band. My cousin is the singer and her husband is the drummer. Their music is AMAZING! I love it. Plus they are some major hotties in that band. Check them out!http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DlgqlX6z3No0&h=fbf33

Forgotten -ism of Butterball

2010-08-30T20:27:00.000-07:00

One day Butterball was talking about Jesus. He doesn't do it as often as he used to, so I was really listening. He was telling me how Jesus and him played a game and "Jesus had a fridge and freezer and hands!" I said, "Really?" He said, "No I just teasing. Him don't have a fridge and freezer but him do have HANDS!" So cute. Imagine that, Jesus has hands. My sweet precious boy.

Butterball -isms

2010-08-29T21:27:00.000-07:00

Is my boy growing up on me? He doesn't say as many "isms" like he used to. Very sad. The other night he was looking at his sheet, which has several patch marks on it from holes that he has cut. He said, "Hebenme Fader watched me cut these hoes didn't he." I told him that He probably did. I asked him if Heavenly Father had said anything to him and he said, "I couldn't hear him." (That alone made me a little sad). I said, "What do you think he was saying?" He said, "That He wove me." I told him he was right that Heavenly Father does love him. Still my sweet angel.

One day he started saying "Bloody fingers". I asked him where he had heard that, knowing it was a kids scary story. He said his cousin had told it to him. I have wanted to film him telling the story as he is so cute when he does it. And he finally let me.

Appleseed

2010-08-27T19:16:00.000-07:00

Garden

2010-08-25T20:17:00.000-07:00

My garden. What can I say. It has been the most troublesome thing this year. First off my baby mixed up the seedlings and took out the signs so it was a guess of what was what when I planted them. I had several flower plants in my seedlings but not many flowers in the garden. At the beginning I just let things go because I was not sure if it was a garden item, flower, or a weed. Then when I started realizing I started the insane process of weeding. Or should I say trying to weed. I do have a very large marigold plant that I love. I would totally do one that big again. Not sure how it happened but I like it.This is one view. My tomato plants are almost as tall as I am. They are EVERYWHERE. I later learned you are supposed to take out all old plants from the prior year so they don't sprout up new plants the next year. I have way too many and way too close. Several don't have cages on them as I just didn't get them on there in time.And the other view. There is a TON of weeds still, sad to say. I just can't get to it and I got very overwhelmed. My grass in my yard is considered a weed, Bermuda grass, and weeds do not process well in a home made compost. So I had a ridiculous amount of grass growing in the garden. Now that I have found out I don't put grass in my compost if it is the Bermuda kind. And please ignore the crazy weeds in the lawn too. I just can't seem to get to it all.I had a few vines that I did not know what was on them. I wandered around and found 4 good size cantaloupes. I am excited about that.And a couple, I think, watermelons. Excited about that too. Yippee!This is my massively huge broccoli plant. At least I was sure it was.And there it is. My teeny tiny broccoli head inside this huge plant. So funny.I have several of these throughout the garden. I have had people tell me it is a green bean plant. I have not found one green bean on any of them. Hmmmmm...And I have several regular pumpkin and dwarf pumpkin plants. And this is my only one growing. Sob. I don't think I will have enough for the Halloween season.I have big plans for my garden next year. At least I hope I can do it. :)

Camping - Last Day

2010-08-23T08:37:00.000-07:00

Here is Appleseed helping me pack. I woke up feeling really well that morning and then it got worse. So I would sit down and rest, then pack a bit, then rest. It was crazy.Sitting around chewing the fat. I love family camping.The kids were so funny. It was our last day and they kept sitting around instead of playing. It was odd. Then they went off to play right as we are getting ready to leave. Silly kids.I seriously had the best time and I am so glad I have such a great family. I love them all a ton and can't wait for next year. But after suffering with a concussion for the past week from the fall.....I don't think I want to do that hike again. :)

Camping Day 2

2010-08-22T13:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has taken me forever to get this one posted. I have been so sick and darn computer was not loading stuff.

This is how Appleseed started Day 2. Cuddled up all nice and warm. There was this tree that was stuck in between two other trees and we had been joking how the kids should try and use it as a teeter totter. Later we decided to get it down. Crazy but it was fun and took a lot of work.My hubby and I getting ready for our ride. I seriously LOVE trail bikes. It is such a rush. I had a blast and it was fun to be with just hubby for a bit. Thanks to my sweet family for watching my kiddos.We went hiking later (seriously typing this makes me realize how much we did that day, it was awesome). We went to this waterfall. The kids loved playing in the water and the older ones went behind the waterfall. So cool. My smart brother-in-law tried to tell me that I should stop at a smaller waterfall and let my little ones play there as the hike to this was a little hard. Ofcourse I didn't listen.This is what we had to climb up and down on the way to the waterfall from the top. This mountain of loose shale rock. It was crazy and I was surprised none of our kids got hurt.Then on the way back I was carrying Butterball on my back as he had had it and was tired. He is my whiner when it comes to walking, hiking, doing stuff. :) We started to fall and I decided to brace my fall with my head instead of my hands as they were holding Butterball. And this is the result. My sister saw me and came back down telling me I needed to wipe up the blood so I my son wouldn't see. I told her I had wiped it twice already but it wouldn't stop bleeding. My BIL (the one that suggested me and my kids stop at the smaller one, remember? Gee is he smart. :)) gave my sister his shirt which she very tightly tied to my head. We just pretended to the kids that I was hot and that was why I was wearing his shirt on my head.When we finally got back up my Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy sister cleaned out my wound. OUCH!!! And then glued me up as I did NOT want to quit camping to go and get stitches.I felt OK. I had a bad headache though. My sisters had me rest while they watched my baby and the others went to shoot guns.Thanks to my sisters for taking care of me and my kids up there. And thanks to my sister Y for most of the pictures on here.

Random Photo Tuesday -- Appleseed

2010-08-17T21:04:00.001-07:00

I randomly picked a number of folder and then a number of photo. This is what I got. My sweet baby. He loved to sit in his toy basket to play.

Camping - Day 1

2010-08-16T16:35:00.000-07:00

It was time for our Annual Family camp out. I seriously love it and can not wait till next year. Those L's know how to camp right I tell you.

First off the trip down to E town was crazy. My baby threw up 5 times in the normally 2 1/2 hour drive. Very not cool. Poor guy. I had to wash all the towels and the car seat the minute we arrived.

The next day we got ready and left for the mountains. My oldest two got to ride in the back of my sister's truck. They love it and it helps with their car sickness. Baby rode with me, windows down the whole dusty way, and with the help of some medicine he made it the whole way without throwing up. Big surprise!We played Trail Master the first day. I love that game. Then my nephew climbed very high up this dead tree. Before my husband made him come down I quickly took a picture. Man do I need a better camera. :) Once I saw it I actually wanted to climb it myself. :)My niece celebrated her upcoming birthday. As my kids and one nephew can not have dairy I made us some brownies instead. I thought it went well but my baby apparently wanted that cake. People had put their plates with small bits of cake into the fire pit for when we started a fire later. He went in the pit several times and ate quite a bit of cake. Every time you turned around he was eating some. Silly guy.My baby was quite the fire wood collector. It was precious to see him carrying these small little sticks and trying to throw them in the fire.My big boy was a major wood collector. Nothing was going to stop him from getting wood after wood after wood. He loved it.It was a blast. There was only 4 of us sisters so hopefully we will have more next year and also the married nieces. That would be great! Hint hint!

Wordless Wednesday - Saying Goodbye

2010-08-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

Base Family Campout

2010-08-06T12:42:00.000-07:00

We went to the Annual Base Family Campout. It was fun.....for most. :) Butterball whining about throwing the bean bags. I seriously do not know why.Butterbean was very very sick the whole time. That is part of the non-fun part. She was too sick to want to go play, the other 2 were dying to go play. It was not easy at all.Eating their free sno-cones. Seriously the worst tasting things ever. :)A local place had brought some birds to look at and talk about for several hours. That was fascinating.After making binoculars, eating free food, talking about birds, getting tattoos, playing on the bouncy castle, the splash pad, and the play ground we settled down at night to watch the movie, Brother Bear.And this is Appleseed at 1:30 AM!!! Not funny. Butterbean fell asleep right away, thank goodness. Butterball fell asleep about 1 AM. And this little monster fell asleep finally at 2 AM. He kept running in circles making noises and trying to peak out the windows at the people near us. It was nuts!Eating our free breakfast in the morning. It was a little crazy but fun still. Can't wait till next year.

TROUBLE!

2010-08-03T19:11:00.001-07:00

I have always said that Appleseed is my HARDEST child. And I honestly thought no one could be harder than the other two. HA! But none of them have done this.
Climbed on the couch and climbed up a bit so he could reach the computer and tap buttons. Argh. Climbing on the flour bucket to play with what I have on the counter. After shooting the picture he picked up the knife. He will even move the buckets around to where he thinks he wants to climb.This was classic. You have got to be kidding me!
Later he had also climbed on the kitchen chairs to eat what he could find on the table. This was all today. I am telling you now...he will be our first broken bone. GROAN

Cookout

2010-07-28T20:31:00.001-07:00

My kids have been begging for a fire to have a cookout. Dad came through with a pit from his work and earned a major Gold Star. The kids were so excited. Butterball was telling people we were going to cook "real wive hotdogs!" So fun. And my cute kids had to dress up in their "Indian" clothes. They recently watched the movie Jungle 2 Jungle and so this is their new obsession. My son had just his red underwear on under this cuz "Boys just wear no tank tops and are naked when they look like this."Appleseed spent a lot of time chatting and laughing to his pretend person on the phone or stealing food off the kid's plates. He is very good at that part. It was a lot of fun. Thanks honey!

My son's forts

2010-07-18T16:00:00.000-07:00

My son LOVES LOVES LOVES to build caves or forts. The only problem is they are very big and very extensive. And usually require every available blanket, pillow, spare box, whatever. And of course he doesn't just sit in them and enjoy himself. He goes in and out and in and out to where I am constantly fixing them. But.....I realized this could be a good incentive for him to finish those chores. So our new rule is if chores are done in the time limit then he can build a cave/fort for that day. Maybe it will work.

Grandpa's Birthday Surprise

2010-07-17T17:00:00.000-07:00

My son decided to give his Grandpa P some birthday presents. He picked them out himself and wrapped them. He has them in this big garbage sack. I had to convince him to put them back in the cart to carry them closer to the house. My little Santa Clause here.Watching Granda open his presents. They were some kids books and some pants that were "too big for me so Ganpa can gow into them."My big kids posing with Grandpa.See that smile? Melts my heart everytime. He was so proud of himself and so excited. My daughter gave Grandpa the idea to decorate his bedroom with them as they are "antique pants". And that is exactly what they did. The pants fit him OK but he is very very picky about clothes. And if he is anything like his sister then there is no way Grandpa can give them back to us anytime soon. They have elephant memories.Showing Mommy how big he is. Those shorts......fit him perfectly. Hard to find because he is so small for his age. I couldn't believe how well they fit so I checked the tag. They are my babies 12M pants! So funny! He now checks his pants labels and will say, "Yep these are my big boy size." He can't read them but even when he wears the 18M shorts that fit him great I just smile and tell him they are his size.

My baby is growing up...

2010-07-16T20:58:00.000-07:00

Butterbean came to me in the morning telling me her teeth hurt. I didn't think anything of it at all. Her teeth always hurt, she got the lovely sensitive teeth from me. :( Then as she was trying to tie her shoes with her teeth one of them came loose. She was happy and hysterical all at once. She asked for a washcloth and it was all down hill from there. She went over to my parents to show them and Grandpa told her it would be a few days. But this is my dramatic one, big time! She carried that washcloth around in her mouth the WHOLE morning. She talked with it in her mouth and if I made her take it out to go into a store she promptly replaced it with her fingers. She was driving me nuts! Later that afternoon she went back over to Grandpa's. I felt so bad for the poor man as she would be bugging him a TON over whether that tooth is ready to come out. I think he knew that too as she came back with her tooth in hand. I thought when they walked it was all down hill....but this? Very sad to see my baby big girl growing up.

Sitting 11 hoodlums

2010-06-13T19:02:00.000-07:00

A long long long time ago....he he. I am so behind on blogging. Is it bad that I would rather read a book then facebook or blog? That is where I am.

Anyway, a long time ago I watched my brother-in-law's 8 children and my 3. OK, most of his kids are older and don't require a whole lot of sitting. It was a wonderful and amazing time. Minus the flu that out of 13 of us total, 11 had it. Including me. NOT FUN! And also they have this horrible curse that something happens every time they are out of town. I have demanded that curse be lifted. So when the garbage disposal broke I was not too worried. But when the leaking happened in the girl's downstairs basement, that was where I wanted to draw the line. Lucky there were some calls made and a nice man in the ward fixed the garbage disposal that was also causing the leaking.

This is how I spent one of the days. Me, Butterball, and my 6 year old nephew all woke up with the flu. Not fun taking turns using the bathroom and cleaning up when you are also very sick. It was horrible.My sons LOVED the older boys. It was so precious.This is one of my Mother's Day presents that I received. So nice. And this is the cutie I got it from. Yes those are hot pads on his hands. He played with those for quite awhile.My 6 year old nephew and Butterball doing their fighting poses. On Mother's Day the older boys made me and one of their Mom's breakfast. Eggs, toast, sausage, and a quiche. It was amazing. I had to share mine with the little someone in the picture. Darn it. :) This is how Appleseed was 95% of the time there. I swear. It was not easy at all. I even took him to the doctor after several days of this sure that he was really sick or something. Guess what? He isn't. He is just unhappy. What? Are you serious? The doctor said, "You have him on a new allergy medicine, you stopped nursing, and you are in a new environment. He just isn't happy." Oh joy! But guess what? He was better the minute we got home. Sooooo not funny.Appleseed went upstairs and found some of the kid's gum. A LOT of gum.
Appleseed loved the older boys. OK....this older boy. He has loved him since he met him. It is adorable.I love taking care of this family. They are truly some amazing kids. And the spirit is so strong in their home that it was amazing to feel. Thank you again for the opportunity and I look forward to doing it agian.....minus the flu and curses of course.

Wordless Wednesday -- Accidentally joining

2010-05-26T09:48:00.000-07:00

Temple Visit

2010-05-25T20:12:00.001-07:00

My daughter has a Birthday book that she had to do for school. For the page titled: When I grow up I want to be....she had chosen a missionary. So we went to the Temple to try and get some good shots for that page.

One of the few shots I got of Butterball. He was his ususal self and didn't want his picture taken.Here is one of our so called missionary shots.Here is the other. It was so nice of the Sister Missionaries to let here pose with them.Butterball kept wanting to get his feet in the water fountains. They both kept begging to take their shoes off and put their feet in. Don't let the short sleeves fool you. It was CHILLY that day.Butterbean said the most precious thing. She said, "Mom you have to come over here and put your hand in the water. You can just feel all that Jesus did for us when you touch it." Just melted my heart when she said that.There is a pioneer cabin there and in front was this mailbox. Butterbean said, "Wow this is the pioneer's mailbox. See you can tell that it is really old because of that dent right there." It was so cute.Butterball again. That little stinker. He wanted to go in the Pioneer Museum and see if the pioneers are still in there but it was closed.I was laughing at my daughter's bruised up legs and had to take a picture.Then I got home and noticed my own bruised legs. Like Mother like daughter apparently.Butterbean really must have been feeling the spirit on the Temple grounds. She touched everything with such reverence and was singing Primary songs most of the time. We stayed there for 1 1/2 hours. I didn't mind at all staying that long because I enjoyed the spirit there myself. It was a wonderful time.

2010-05-20T10:00:00.000-07:00

We had a pizza and suddenly the pizza cutter was missing. I knew it had to be Butterball as he had asked to use it earlier to cut a carrot and I had told him no. So I asked him where it was and he kept telling me he didn't know. A week later it magically appeared in the drawer. Here is what came next.

Me: "Hmmm...so who took the pizza cutter?"
Him: "Ummmm, hmmmmm, hmmmmm."
Me: "Who took it?"
Him: "I thinking."
Me: "Butterball, who took the pizza cutter?"
Him: "I counting. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11."
Me: "Who took it?"
Him: Maybe my fend, or...."
This went on forever till I finally told him he had to erase one of the marks on his behaviour chart. Then he said, "All right! It was me." Geeeee, you think? You want to know why? Because he was mad at me because I wouldn't let him use it to cut the carrot with. Ugh! To top it off, earlier this week he had cut his shirt and then his pants (his favorite pants) all because he was mad at me. I already had the scissors put up high because of his hair cutting sister. He had used the kitchen prep scissors to do this. That kid!

He came to me with this picture and said, "I wore those clothes for two weeks. And then you came and took your clothes off and danced around and then put your shirt on and then I came home with you from Heaven." I used to tease my sister that there was naked dancing in the Temple. I was wrong, apparently it is in Heaven.

My daughter told me earlier that if anyone was older than me they had to be atleast 100. Now she is watching a movie and said, "What?! That guy is really old and he is younger than you! He is like 45 and you are like 54 or 55 or something." Sob!

The FINAL injury?

2010-05-18T13:39:00.000-07:00

First off I need to apologize to my husband. I know I will not do this post justice as it still makes me very upset to even look at the pictures.

He was on a snowmobile trip in the mountains. It is so beautiful up there.I think this is the hardest picture for me. Seeing his beautiful smile before he was hurt.The evil rock that jumped out and bit him. He had gone down a hill to help some customers and when he was coming back up he hit this rock that was covered by snow.He triaged himself and told his volunteer, BD what to look for while one of the customers took notes. Another customer rode up the mountain to try and get a signal to call 911. It makes me glad we do have cell phones. Thank you BD, your awesome.I bet this was kind of cool to see. He had the customers place their snowmobiles in a large T so that life flight could locate them easier.He was trying to give the life flight people instructions on what NOT to do and they had to tell him to shut up and let them do their job.Our wonderful friend and her daughter showed up to my house and the first thing she said to me was, "Has the base called you yet?" I said, " Oh no. What happened?" I am afraid seeing her come to my house will give me anxiety now. :) It was wonderful of her to come just a couple days after having knee surgery and give me the news and drive me to the hospital. Thank you so much D. You are an awesome person! Love you tons.My poor drugged up husband with the kids visiting him at the hospital.
So he ended up having 4 broken ribs (those xrays were GROSS), a broken right wrist, and a banged up left knee that we are actually getting ready to have surgery on tomorrow. Someone told me that it was only broken ribs so why was I so upset. My husband has been injured so much lately that to me it is another set back on the ladder to him being whole. And was very frightening to me.

I love you dearly hon and I am so glad that you are alive though broken. You are so amazing and an inspiration to us.

Really?

2010-04-29T21:42:00.000-07:00

My 16 month old throwing a fit because I would not let him write on a book. None of my other kids did this at this age. Geez. My Dad has always said he has a temper but come one. This is crazy at such a young age.

Wordless Wednesday -- Yep, she is definately my daughter, poor thing.

2010-04-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

My Bountiful Basket

2010-04-27T17:00:00.000-07:00

Do you think I had enough? And the wagon was NOT big enough. Funny. Actually it was for two families so that is why there is so much. Here is my precious little helper. I was so happy to have her along with me.So I think I need to learn the whole potato thing. I have confessed to being a potato idiot. Meaning I never cook them because I really don't know how. I did make baked potatoes today and I enjoyed it. Whew, one recipe down. he he. Thanks to my awesome neice for all the other recipes that I can't wait to try.And what is this about? I heard they start growing if the environment they are in is too moist. So it is in my kitchen cupboard. How is that area moist? I guess I could move them to my crawl space. I just don't know what I would put them in down there. That place is atleast cold and dark.

What in the world?

2010-04-26T23:45:00.000-07:00

You remember that silly boy who doesn't wear most long sleeve shirts because he doesn't like them touching his hands? What is up with this then? And what is strange, he also will still pick a long sleeve shirt on most warm days because "It warmer." Apparently it is not warm enough for my boy yet. And to think I thought he would be hot dressed like this. He was probably quite comfortable. :)

Misc hubba bub

2010-04-25T17:01:00.000-07:00

You know? I don't even really know what I was typing for that title. I am so tired. :)

Butterball dressed up for war. Quite the outfit.I have a jar that my kids can put candy in when it has milk or red dye in it and exchange it for money. My kids have gotten very good at it. They both filled it up to the $5 mark. I am so proud of them.Yeah, someone learned how to take the lid off of markers. And of course it is a permanent one. Argh.Butterball......ugh! These are the ONLY long sleeve shirts he will wear. One day he had a huge pile of clothes in the hall and I asked him what that was about. He said, "I don't yike them." And to be honest he refuses to wear them. He doesn't like shirts that the sleeves are so long they touch his hands, or pants that are so long they touch his feet, or pants that are too loose around the waste which is like ALL OF them. You would think that when I pulled out his short sleeve shirts that all would be OK with the whole hand touching thing. No! He won't wear most of them because they are too big, even if he wore them last summer. Argggghhhh. That boy.

Butterbean's Eye Doctor Visit

2010-04-24T20:41:00.001-07:00

Our yearly eye doctor appointment. She was so excited and doing a dance. Normally she has HUGE anxiety about it as she has had to have them dilated sometimes. So I didn't even tell her till we pulled up to the hospital. But she did very well.Still doing her dance about being there. She cracked me up. As we were trying to find the office she saw a sign that said "Primary Children's". She said, "This can't be where it is as I am not a children. Children are like this big (hand held about chest level) and I am not that size. I am a kid not a children."I had told her that this was our date. I know, mean Mom. But hey, this is what she thought of it! Our waiting area was major lame. Down the hall they had a Wii, Playstation, or Nintendo you could play and some awesome toys. Ours had books and this doodle machine.Cracked me up having her trying to hold her other eye open while she took her vision test.And her with her cool glasses. She passed with flying colors again. The Ptosis on her eye is the exact same again. Meaning it has not gotten worse or better. Her vision is perfect. He asked if she gets teased about her eye and I told him no so he again asked if we wanted surgery to fix it and I of course said no. We come back in a year.

One of my Top Ten Loves

2010-04-23T15:39:00.000-07:00

Gardening....ahhhhh. Yes I may complain later about how the weeds are overtaking it and I don't have time to take proper care of a garden but I LOVE to do it. It is very stress relieving to me. And hubby? I am fully prepared to shun all your teasing about how my garden looks. Pppbbbbbtttt! :)

I haven't gotten my garden ready yet but this plant decided to grow smack in the middle of it. So I found a group on facebook that identifies unknown plants. Turns out the leaves will turn green and then grow pink flowers. It's nickname is "Pigsqueak". I think it is perfect! I do plan to move him to a different place so he isn't in the garden though. I started my garden in the house with seeds this year. It really is cheaper! I am a slow learner.On the left is them really starting to grow and of course I got crazy and bought a second one. I am planting everything! So excited.I had won some flowers and this pot and my sweet Mother gave me some more flowers. Butterball and I planted them together. I also had dug up the tulips that grow in the middle of my grass and put them in here too. It doesn't look as good as I wanted it too but Butterball "helped" a ton so I had to keep it just the way it is.Happy Gardening everyone! I can't wait!

Earth Day

2010-04-22T19:09:00.001-07:00

When it finally stopped snowing the kids and I went out and planted some plants to celebrate Earth Day. It was fun.

In our compost we found a caterpillar that Butterbean claimed as a pet and named Squirmy.Here is Appleseed "helping". I know, what a pretty face.Then Butterball found a worm that he wanted for his pet. He named it Crawly. In this picture he is showing me how Crawly is giving him a hug. So cute.My kids between my two peach trees. They were planted last year. I didn't think the little one would make it but she did! Yeah!Butterball was so upset because we would not let "Crawly" come live in the house. He was so worried that he would get out of his jar and crawl away. Especially as it is Crawly #2 in the jar. Crawly #1 got loose when he was showing him the outside and he fell in the grass. But Butterball thinks he crawled to the backyard and dug another hole and that is where we found him, of course. He was crying and telling my husband that he could get out of the jar because "him have little hands". He had seen them. He is so precious.

Wordless Wednesday - Helmet / Bike Obsession

2010-04-21T19:23:00.000-07:00

My yummy BB!

2010-04-17T09:11:00.000-07:00

Boy do I need to eat more veggies. I slacked off the last couple of weeks. But I am going to a BBQ today and plan to take a veggie tray. he he. So the big green leafy thing on the left.....swiss chard. It is up for grabs people! You want it? Come get it! And I will offer up some broccoli too. Just because I have not ate last weeks either. At this Bountiful Basket site today they had a trading table that I thought was a nice idea. But the only thing on there was chard. Now if someone would have placed a nice pineapple up there or blackberries I would have gladly traded the chard. Now if only I didn't mix this good food with candy, chocolate, amazing cheesecake or birthday cake from friends. :)

My new pet, child, ?

2010-04-16T18:05:00.000-07:00

I am not sure if I adopted this little guy or if I was babysitting or what. The neighbor boy brought it over one day and asked if I had a bowl to grow it in. I filled a small bowl with warm water and we proceeded to grow this little guy. One day that same neighbor boy came to my door and asked the kids to speak to me. He said, "You haven't changed his water so his water is cold and he isn't growing. And I think he needs a bigger bowl now." Gee what kind of a slacker parent am I? So I did what he said and he came over and saw it and told me that I had "Did good." I fully intended to change his water tonight and take him over to the neighbor boy, after he was in bed, with a little note. I was too late though. Today he saw him and said that the water and gotten dirty which made him "too light" and he is supposed to be dark so he threw him away. Is that me failing as a parent? Yikes. :)

Butterball sleeping habits

2010-04-15T13:07:00.000-07:00

You may remember this...or this.....or this.....We have gave up "cave sleeping" and now sleep like this.
or like this...Yep, there is more.That is his glow stick in that Lone Ranger mask.And yes, since we gave up "cave sleeping" we end up in Mom and Dad's bed.

Wordless Wednesday -- singing

2010-04-14T12:40:00.000-07:00

Cauliflower side dish

2010-04-13T10:55:00.000-07:00

I know a terribly boring name. I didn't come up with it. I made this with my orange cauliflower from my Bountiful Basket one week. It was very good. I do love onions though. My son, Butterball, loved it. And my daughter acted like it would kill her. She usually does.1 head cauliflower, quartered
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup minced onion
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup Italian-seasoned dry bread crumbs
salt and black pepper to taste
Directions
1.Place the cauliflower into a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until fork-tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Drain and allow to steam dry for a minute or two; chop into bite-size pieces.
2.Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the onion in the butter until the onion is browned, about 5 minutes. Add 3 tablespoons of butter and cook until the butter is melted. Stir in the bread crumbs and cook until the mixture bubbles. Mix the cauliflower into the skillet and cook until the cauliflower is warm, 3 to 5 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper; serve hot.

Enjoy.

Baby Animal Days

2010-04-09T19:57:00.000-07:00

We went to Baby Animal Days. I love going there. My kids had no desire to go but we ended up having a blast. We didn't go last year so I didn't even remember what it was which is why I think they didn't want to go.

Our in case we get lost photo. Have I said how bad I hate these but continue to take them because I have actually needed them. Ugh!One of the first things was a massively long wait to ride the ponies. By the time we got up there Appleseed was not having any of it. He was so mad he wouldn't stop screaming and the pony kept wiggling his head and stamping his feet so I gave up and took him off. I swear I heard that pony sign with relief as we walked away.It actually made me nervous having Butterball ride by himself without me pacing by him. I don't know why. He did awesome. Butterbean on hers. Yeah the helmet is TOTALLY going to protect her in a fall.My cute cow and sheep. Aren't they precious. Wait till you see my duck.My duck!We got to watch this man shear a sheep the old fashioned way. That was interesting and took a really long time.I felt bad for the poor thing.Appleseed was sure that the bag of popcorn was his. If anyone dipped their hand in the bag he would pull theirs out and yell at them. He is so bossy. :)We ran into my sister, her friend, and the kids there. We always love being with them. My kids were super excited. And I loved that until they found us my nephew kept texting me asking me where I was now.Appleseed was super unhappy when I put him back in the stroller. He had not slept at all today and was exhausted. And yet he didn't sleep the whole way home either.I loved that we were there for hours and just took our time doing things. It is was fun. There were about 5 different farm equipment machines that my kids loved climbing on and pretending they were using them.We can't wait to go back next year.

Happy Easter

2010-04-05T19:13:00.000-07:00

My kids actually slept in and I was so worried I would miss their morning as I had to go get my Bountiful Basket. But they woke up just in time. Butterball, of course, threw a fit as he had one of Butterbean's eggs in his basket and we had taken it away. He dumped his eggs and scattered them all over. Lovely.Appleseed was so excited to have snuck into Butterbean's basket. I was glad I grabbed a picture before she found out.

His first whole mini chocolate bar. Boy was that a mistake. That is all he asks for now is chocolate. I can not wait for it to be out of the house.My sweet niece and nephew had been to an Easter Egg hunt earlier and decided to share their eggs with my kids. My sister made sure they were red dye free as we are newly-discovered dye sensitive. They came over and hid the eggs in our backyard. So nice! Here is Appleseed with his find.And all the kids together. Thank you so much kids! You are the best and we love you! Thanks Sis!Because of our dye sensitivity I didn't want to take a chance and so we decided to naturally dye our eggs this year. I am so glad we did. The instructions say to boil them in the juice or small cut up pieces but I juiced most of them and then added vinegar and then had the kids just dip them in that. My daughter at first was very mad and was not interested in doing it. She came around though. Here we are juicing our produce to make our dyes.I wrapped some in yellow and purple onion skins and boiled them. Most of the skins ended up falling off during the boiling process. Here is what they ended up looking like. I don't think I would boil the yellow and purple onion together next time. I think the yellow overpowered it all.Dying the eggs.Eating eggs as this one ended up dropping 3 on the floor so we had to eat them.And our final result. The beet and blueberry ones turned out good. I think next year we will boil them in the colors like we should have. :)

Butterbean's Flowers

2010-04-02T17:53:00.000-07:00

Butterbean was brought flowers by a boy in our ward. It was so cute. When her Dad called to tell his parents he had said to them that it was her boyfriend. She said, "He is not my boyfriend. I just love him so much though. Even though he is smaller than me." I told her that he would grow and someday would be taller than her maybe. She said, "I don't think so. He is only like 3 or 2 years old." I told her he was 4. She got so excited that he was almost her age. It is cute. When they sit near each other in church they pass "love notes". Once after a session of note passing she said, "He gave me so many notes that said 'I love you so much' all over them." I told her that I had seen the notes and that they had a picture with her name on them. She said, "Clearly you had not seen them as they said 'I love you' all over them." So funny. She has given him a gift of dried fruit wrapped in a picture she colored once. Then he gave her a hair flower that his Mom had made. Now she is trying to guess what he would like next. So precious.