Fallen off the planet

Yo!

I did fall off the planet there for awhile-sorry!! It's my sisters Lisa's fault. She told me that blogs without pictures are "boring and no one reads what you write." Rude! So since my computer is on its last leg, and patience has never been a quality of mine, I didn't put pictures or words up! I will post about 4 months of pictures soon- I promise! A lot has happened. Thatchers soccer, Madeline's gymnastic performance, Thatcher turned 5, My 31st b-day(!), Jack being dang cute etc. We are all good! Madeline just finished 2nd grade. I really don't think I am old enough to have a 3rd grader! Thatcher is going to start kindergarten this year, and luckily it is Madeline's teacher so I can prepare her for Thatcher. (-: Damn cute, and a damn handful! (-:

Thatcher's latest funny thing he said. We were at Wal-mart, and a man walked by with 2 hook hands. Thatcher dropped the toys he was holding and came over to me freaking out, and said in a loud whisper, "Mom, Mom that guy has hooks for hands!" So I started to explain to him that he must have lost his hands in an accident, those were his hands, lets not stare, etc. He cuts me off and says "No, he just has those to scary little children!"

SPRING!!

At last Spring is here! I can't tell you how happy I am. Stewart commented last night that" why do we live in this state when we hate the winter so much." Hmmmmm I have been saying that same thing for years. We are forgetting that we even have a winter right now, and focusing on how great it is to be outside. Last week we went to the aquarium, the park to play and have a picnic , and played outside whenever we could, used an entire thing of sidewalk chalk, my kids swam on Sat. outside (not quite warm enough for me but good enough for them.) Yesterday I went on a 5 mile glorious run. Today we went to the petting zoo at Thanksgiving Point. Jack was studying all the animals, and wasn't sure if he liked them or not. So cute. Madeline feed everything the corn and was licked by giant animal tounges. Thatcher refused to hand feed anything, and was wearing his hat sideways all day (like a gangster) and said that how rock stars wear their hats. I promise to post pictures of all the above activities! Life is good, if you need me you can find me outside!!

Goodbye baby-hello toddler!

Jack started taking steps this week. Sad! I no longer officially have a "baby" - he is a "toddler"!! I can't believe how fast this year has gone! Anyways, he has been popping up to a standing position from the floor all week, and all the sudden decided to add some steps. So cute-he looks like a little robot, all stiff legged. I will some day include pictures of all of this.....maybe. (-: Where did my baby go? Whoever took him please bring him back! I just have to remind myself of my New Year's resolution- "to be present". "What?" you may say. Well let me explain....I am what you could call an obsessive planner. I know many of you already may know my little dirty secert, it's time to come clean about it. I can't live without my day planner, and it has every detail of my day carefully planned out to maximize time/people/and energy, and doing it all while multitasking everything. I get a lot done. I am efficient. I am organized. And lately I am worn out, tired, and grumpy. I've been reading a really good book about being present. It is really interesting and has got me thinking and reflecting. I always tell myself "when ____ is done, then I can have some fun/relax/play/etc." Well guess what, blank is never done. There is always, always, some mundane task ahead, waiting to pull me from my "moment" with my kids, at work, with my family, or my good friends. I am sick of it, and realize that I have missed, and am missing a lot of moments. I want to be in that moment fully enjoying it with my kids, not always rushing to make it to my next thing to check off my list. So guess what I signed up for: a sewing/quilting class with my sister, possibly a dance class (minus the spanadex after 3 kids), and am going to run a half marathon or two this summer. So is there going to be panic attacks along the way, and lists of how not to have lists? Sure, but I'm going to try to relax, leave the messy house along with the stupid lists, and force myself if I have to, to be present. Wish me luck!

Big...... I mean REALLY big news!

So I have an announcement..... you guessed right I AM PREGNANT!!! It was a bit of a shock to us too! O.k. dumb april fools day joke, I am sooooo not. I may still look it but there is not a fetus in this gut. We made the mistake of telling the kids today that it was April Fools Day so every 5 sec. they are playing a joke on us. Stewart played a joke on the kids this morning by putting green bean baby food in a diaper, then showing it to the kids and telling them it was Jacks poop and then he licked it. Not really funny just disgusting-Madeline about threw up. Oh last year he put real milk in one of my breast milk bags and in front of Madeline dumped it on his cereal and told her we were out of milk but could use mom's breast milk. She started screaming and gagging, poor girl.

Thatcher was being naughty in his bed last night. Stewart went in, picked him up, and carried him to our bed, and tossed him unto it. Thatcher said, " Hey man...... thats not cool" is this surfer voice. The kid is so funny! Last night I also bought him a new swimming suit that he was wearing around the house. He jumped out of my closet with my bra on swaying and singing some song he made up. I never know what he is going to come up with next.

So its spring break and it is snowing!! Insert F-word here. Seriously. Next week we are going to go on a vacation here- downtown. We were going to go to disneyland before Stewart starts his job, but decided to wait until our annual October trip. It is so fun to go around Halloween time. So next week we are taking the kids to a hotel downtown, and taking them to movies, swimming, the childrens museum, zoo and planetarium. Should be tons of fun, I am really looking forward to it.

The latest on everyone

Good ones from Thatcher this week-
1) Comes in the bathroom when I'm in the bath, and says staring right at my chest, " I'm not lookin' at your privates Mom." The kid is going to be 5, and will probably have horrible flashbacks of that moment.

2) Snuck Stewart's hammer and a nail, went outside, and was hammering it into our wood swing set. (The day before he had done the same thing and smashed his hand.) I looked outside right as the hammer was being raised above his head very, very close to his eyes. I yelled, "Thatcher DON'T! Do you remember what happened yesterday?" He gives me this look with his head tilted to the side, and says " M-ooommmm, I KNOW about safety because I am totally, totally safe. What happened yesterday was just a joke. I was just joking when I smashed my hand!" Then he does this little fake laugh. We have since hidden the hammer.

3) Thatcher HATES going pee. HATES, HATES, HATES! I don't know why but he will dance around for hours before he finally breaks down and goes. The other day Stewart walked in, and Thatcher is watching T.V., dancing around, and has "it" out and is squeezing it as hard as he can, as pee droplets are slowly dripping on the floor. Yum!

4) He does air guitar. Ha Ha hilarious!

Jack is crawling everywhere, and will walk behind a walker, but REFUSES to walk with me holding his hands. As soon as he realizes that he is walking he puts both legs up and starts whining. What brave boys we have! Thatcher was 15 months and I think that Jack will be 3 when he starts walking. He is such a love bug baby. He loves songs, and books but his favorites are dipping his hand in the toilet and then sucking on them, and emptying the dishwasher or sucking on dirty dishes. His latest discovery is outside. He wants to be out his every waking moment, eating dirt and bugs and watching for planes. When he hears one (he doesn't miss one) he stops what he is doing, freezes, and makes his mouth an O. So freaking cute!

Madeline is doing great! She just had a leading part as Henny Penny in the school play. (Will include pictures of all this soon.) Doing great, as always, in school, gymnastics and with friends. She came home yesterday and told me that she "had the worst day ever because she had so many admirers, and it was so tiring." Dramatic, dramatic, dramatic. Heaven help us in a few years.

Stewart is having an affair. With a HUGE remote control airplane. He is getting really good at it( he spends a lot of time with this love) he can do tricks and drops parachute guys from it. He is often approached, and complimented by 3rd graders at the park.(-:

Me-Same old. Kids, work sometimes, running (yeah for spring), and a sewing class!

Holidays

Is this a blog with no pictures? Yes, I guess it is lately. It has a lot to do with the fact that I don't get computers. Yep, just don't get them. Cut me some slack-new camera, and really, really old computer. They don't mesh well together. So sometime when my sister Amy is visiting, or Stew gets around to it will get some up there! Anyways.........

Madeline told me today that the leprechaun ruined her St.Patrick's Day by not bringing her anything. That the neighbor girl got gold coins, toys etc. Thanks a lot people! I worked and didn't do anything (surprising I know since I'm a holiday freak!) for the kids, except pick out green outfits for them. Then as we were walking around Target she asked me if the Easter Bunny was real. When I asked her why she said because "they is no such thing as a giant bunny, especially one that can hop around the world in a night." The bunny doesn't make any sense to her, but a leprechaun and Santa still do. Whatever- as long as she believes as long as possible. I will cry when we have that conversation. I really will. I will take drastic measures to ensure they continue!!!! No more slacking on the holidays! Time to step it up! Crisis averted, at least for now.

5 new family members

Well we had a good week, I hope everyone else did also. Stewart and I got to go over night for our anniversary. (Thanks mom and dad for watching the kids!) It was heaven! We went and stayed downtown, went shopping and to dinner at The Roof. 9 years, I can't believe it! Stewart got a new job, all the details are still being worked out, but we are really excited about it and the long term opportunities that we think are there. We also got news that Madeline got into ALPS , which were are happy about (it's a gifted and talented school in the Jordan School District.) I had a great day at work yesterday training on being in the nursery (we are switching from just taking care of the moms and surgeries to also doing the babies.) It was fun just to hold a bunch of cute, new babies. Only bad news is that Jack has been sick for 2 weeks. Started out with a cold/cough, pink eye in both eyes, and ear infection. He still has a runny nose and has thrown up a few times. Poor little guy.

The kids best news.......we added 5 new members to our house. No I'm not pregnant. We added 5 aquatic frogs to our already way too many pets house! 2 cats, hamster, and now 5 frogs. Thatcher's cousin was getting rid of one and so we took it, and put it in a 10 gallon tank we had. He looked so lonely in there so we added a few more today. We brought the new ones home and all of us were crowded around the tank as Stewart dumped them in. Things were good for probably 10 sec until one jumped on another ones back and looked like he was getting a piggy back ride. Madeline started SCREAMING and jumping all around because we thought it was trying to kill or eat it. Stewart goes into frantic mode, also screaming like a girl, and reaches his hand in and tries to separate them. He can not get the stupid things apart, so to calm Madeline down he yells over the top of her that " they are so happy to have friends now they are hugging!" She sort of calmed down and the kids got bored of the "hugging" frogs, and went outside. I kept watching them and finally the bottom one used his back legs to kick the other one off. With a little computer research Stewart found that they weren't trying to kill each other they were mating! Great. They lay eggs and then hatch within like 3 days. Oh crap! Hopefully they weren't "hugging" long enough. Thatcher asked like 5 times if the frogs were still "communicating". I don't know where he got that. Hopefully no more "communicating" or "hugging" will go on, I really don't want any more of them. I also really don't want to have the birds and bees or frogs and frogs talk with the kids this early. I'll let you know soon if we have some frogs to give away!