Monday, September 26, 2011

Started out crazy. Ended happy...and still a little crazy


It is never a good sign to start your week off with getting stung by a scorpion! There it was the quiet of the night. Kids sleeping soundly, Casey on the computer being a good boy watching a talk by Elder Bednar. I was laying on the living room floor watching The Office. Definitely not as good as Bednar  teachings.  Watching tv while laying on the floor is my nightly ritual. My eyes and ears are going caput. If I sit on the couch, I can't see. I have to crank up the volume almost all the way up which will not only wake up the boys, it will wake up the whole neighborhood. Solution, lay point blank under the tv with 2 pillows and a blanket for added comfort.

I got a little hot so I lifted the blanket off of my feet when at the same time I felt a little prick and instant stinging. It was a feeling of you know exactly what is on you so you rip off the blanket, stand up faster than you ever have before and do a wild crazy thrashing of the body dance to make sure the little devil is off you!

Casey hopped up off the computer chair just as fast as I went from laying on the floor to standing position in point zero seconds flat. He knew without even asking what had just happened. He told me to go wash my foot while he hunted the little sucker down. Casey found it underneath the entertainment center almost 10 minutes later.

 I got violated on my middle toe and luckily the venom never went up into my foot. My toe just felt like it was 3 times it size and tingled like your mouth feels after you get your teeth worked on at the dentist. After I washed it, I poured super silver on it then rubbed magnesium oil on the sting and I really think that helped keep the "poison" from traveling. I seem to be the tastiest in the house because I am the only one that has gotten stung by a scorpion. This makes it the second time for me. Of course I would feel horrible if the boys got stung so I hope it never happens. But Casey I think your turn is next;)


The next morning I can't find my deodorant, just the lid. You see Rusty likes to throw my shoes off of the shelves and climb up and play with all of my lotions, jewelry and that morning I guess my deodorant. It drives me beyond crazy when he does this! For the past month my shoes have not stayed in their designated spot for more than a few hours. If I can't find him or its really quiet I know straight where to go!

So no deodorant anywhere. Whats a girl to do? Steal her husbands. Yes, I sure did. I had recently bought Casey a new scent from Old Spice for when the stick he is using now runs out. Holy canoli I smelled hot that day! And when I say hot I mean the best smelling cologne on my man that I could smell and snuggle with you all day long, hot. It's called Komodo. Go buy it for your husband, boyfriend or the boy you sit next to at school or at work TODAY.

A few hours later after sporting men's anti-perspirant I go to fold the laundry. Low and behold my Lady Speed stick. Nicely nestled in the pile of clean clothes. How thoughtful Rusty.



Rusty is a good boy, he is just getting more mischivous. He is very quick to catch onto things. He is talking really good these days. He is still my cuddler and loves to read books. He picks out his favorite one and knows the characters names and helps me read it.

He still loves his paci more than ever. I have slowly started to try to detach him from it each day. And I mean literally detach him since he has it clipped onto his shirt 24/7. I take it off  and tell him to go put his paci in his bed. He is really obedient about it but after 20 minutes I cant handle the whining of "paci, paci. where it go". I cave. However, yesterday before church I had him throw his paci in his bed before getting in the car. I secretly went and got it and put in my purse just in case of a melt down. On the way to church he was crying about not having it but I kept telling him that it was in his bed, remember? He totally knew it was a lost cause be he knew where it was at home. He came to grips with it and went the whole 3 hours with NO PACI!!!

Lane is still my shy boy but is slowly breaking out of his shell. I pray hard for this every night. Next year he will be in kindergarten so I am really hoping that this year he can figure out that new people and situations are not scary! He is just something else. I love him to death. He really is so sweet and tender hearted. He is ridiculously smart and so assertive.

Last week we were driving in the car and all of a sudden he was crying about something (which is not unusual) . I kept asking him what was wrong and finally he broke and told me that he didn't want hair on his legs. What?! I told him that everybody has hair on their legs and he said, well my hair on my legs are super long. I was trying so hard to keep from laughing because unfortunately he kind of does have hairy legs. He inherited that from his uncle David I think. With lots more coxing, I think I convinced him that hair on legs is not a big deal!

I was cutting potatoes thinly to bake and to look like french fries for dinner the other night.  Lane walked in the kitchen and asked what was for dinner. I told him french fries all excitedly. He took one look at them then said those are potatoes, not french fries. I told him that french fries are potatoes. He said nuh huh, french fries are french fries.

I did sneak in some fun. I look forward to going to the relief society broadcast every year with my mom. Afterwards we meet up with the Udall girls for dinner. I love my family! We ate at Tia Rosas, caught up with each other and had some good laughs.



Lastly we conquered 2011 family pictures! I do professional pictures every other year so this year Marcie was kind enough to be our photographer. I think she snapped 400 of us but of course only 10 were decent and the others turned out like this ↓

or this ↓

 or this ↓


I love them all, crazy or smiling! It is interesting to compare these pictures to last years. Both boys have grown up so much. Every September when it's time to do pictures, it seems like we just did them. I better enjoy these ones because before I know it it will be time to do them again!

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Thursday, September 8, 2011

Where to Begin


I guess it's only been a few weeks but it seems like ages! Whenever I have sat down with the intentions of blogging, I sadly end up on hulu catching up on my shows. Why is reality tv my weakness in life? 

To make up for my guilty pleasures, we have been up to some good around here:) We were able to watch my 2 nephews for 4 days. My boys were in pure heaven the whole time. On the last day they were here, their dad came to pick them up but Lane was gone to school so he wasn't able to say goodbye. When he came home to their bags gone he about lost it. I have never seen tears of pure sadness from him before! He was devastated his buddy was gone. It took some major bribing to get him to stop crying.

While they were here we went to Langley Market to get some eggs from their chickens and to get a treat. We went out back to hang out and for them to run around. All of a sudden I could hear Rusty screaming so I  turned and saw a chicken grabbing hold of his paci, yank it off the ribbon clip thing and take off running. I had no idea chickens were so aggressive! It was actually kind of funny. There was no way I was putting it back in Rusty's mouth no matter how much I cleaned it so the chicken has a new toy. Now whenever I tell Rusty to go find his paci at home he tells me chicken has the paci.

I picked up this paint kit at Micheal's  80% off. The boys painted those animals for seriously 2 hrs. The only down side was that they smelled like cheap plastic. BAD. The second day I couldn't take it anymore so I let them choose one then tossed the rest.  Mean, yes I know but their brain cells will thank me later.

It was fun but it definitely solidified to us the fact that our house is maxed and only good for 1 more child. When we have our 4th it will for sure be time to move...and get a burb.




On Saturday we made a day trip up to Showlow for Labor Day weekend. We went with Grammy and Papa which of course made it more fun. We had 2 reasons for going, the first to see Grandpa Goodman and his Uncle rope in the rodeo.



The second, to go to the most fabulous garage sale a girl could ever ask for! One of my friends told me about this man named Lamell who lives in Showlow. Lamell travels around and gets wood, tin, moulding you name it from old buildings that are being torn down. He then takes it home and re-sales it. This is all right up my alley so I got his phone number and gave him a call. Come to find out he had just gotten home from Kansas with a trailer full of stuff and was going to have a huge garage sale on Saturday. How totally perfect seeing how we were going up for the rodeo!

When we got there his yard was completely overwhelmed with stuff. The picture doesn't even show half of what he had. There were 2 huge long trailers connected together in an L shape full of antiques, odds and ends, furniture, old doors, you name it. I could have stayed all day. We filled the back of the suburban with our finds and Lamell even offered to drop off a headboard I bought  when he comes down to Mesa in a few weeks. We even went back with Aunt Shirley a second time!


 The boys loved the rodeo. They got to ride on Willy. Both a little hesitant about the whole horse thing but eventually lightened up once they learned horses were not scary. Such city boys!




We swam on Monday and ate at my parents. This Labor Day called for enchiladas!


I have been re decorating a bit. My little side table next to the couch wasn't cutting it anymore. I am excited about it's new look. Here is the best before I could find.


Here is the after. I found the lamp base at Goodwill for $4. I spray painted it  and added the burlap and polka dot fabric to the lamp shade as well as the flowers. The big frame was my birthday present. I L-O-V-E-D the frame but not the paint job that was on it. It was off white with big brown spots all over it. Just think cow print! So I painted it to the color it is now. I couldn't find a mirror to cut to size to make it fit the frame. Well, that wasn't over $50. Solution: Casey went to Lowes and had them cut a piece of glass for $13. At Hobby Lobby they have spray paint called looking glass. It pretty much is a sprayed on mirror color. It did the trick. The square picture frame was one of my finds from our Showlow garage sale.


Add some more unfinished projects, talks in church, swimming and more swimming, and the usual daily grind and there you have it!
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Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Holding On

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Here we are, the last weeks of Summer. Sigh, sigh, sniff, sniff.
I figure we have until the end of Sept until the water is too cold and no longer enjoyable. Until the stores  have full on Fall AND Christmas decorations. Until it gets dark way too early. In fact, tonight it was almost all the way dark at 7:30. Breaks my heart. I mean, it seems like I just got Lane used to the fact of wearing shorts (I finally had to hide all of his jeans so he didn't have a choice). That didn't stop him from continuing to wear long white socks with shoes with his shorts. Should have hid those also.

Lane had is first day of his 2nd year of preschool! That was a nice little treat. Sending him to the SAME school, with the SAME teacher and almost all of the SAME kids in his class, with the SAME routine. It was so nice to not have to deal with a melt down child who doesn't except change very well. I think he felt the same way. He even wanted to ride the bus on the first day. He came home like there was never a 3 month break. Go Laners!


Since we don't have to wake up early to go to school, we can still have our late Summer nights. Grandpa had to have surgery on his hand. We went over to visit and also brought them dinner as a thank you for our CA trip. The boys got to swim with Grandma while I finished making dinner. Casey grilled us some yummy carne asada. The highlight of the night was while playing the game Psychiatrist. Our "problem' was that we were all supposed to answer like Marcie would. So ironically Marcie gets asked the first question which was: What is your favorite animal? Her answer back: um well I don't like animals but my favorite animal print is zebra. She was serious and we seriously had a good laugh. Love you Marcie and I'm so glad you are sharing the brunt end of the jokes with me now.


This little guy, oh how I love him. He has definitely taken on some character lately. Most days I squeeze his cute little guts out but some points in some days the only word that I can describe him as is destructo.  Let's just say he has learned to get his voice heard by screaming. Like high pitch aunt Stephanie screaming.  My sincere apologies to all who camped next to us during family camping. Don't get me wrong, he is still sweet as can be. I pretend most kids go through this phase to make me feel better.  I thought I would nip it in the butt by putting soap in his mouth each time he did it. By the end of the day I was seriously thinking I just needed to quit or go to Trader Joes and buy some all natural soap so he wouldn't some how get soap poisoning. Heaven forbid he ended up like Ralphy, blind with a cane. "It, it was...soap poisoning". To make you all feel better, I hardly put any in his mouth and I actually think he liked the way it tasted. Darn you Bath and Body Works. I switched to Tabasco, no worky either. Go figure, he eats homemade salsa straight up. Any ideas?



If any of you are wanting to catch up on your Flipper episodes, come on over anytime and watch with the boys. My mom bought the last season on dvd for our beach trip. It had them both by the opening theme song. Every day on the trip they begged to watch it.  We watched for 3 straight hours in the car on the drive home. I keep forgetting to return it so everyday you can find my kids parked on the floor, eyes glued to the faster than lightening, king of the sea, no one is smarter than he Flipper the dolphin.

Exhibit A: Lane is at school. Rusty handing me the dvd case saying fwappar. Sure, why not son.


Exhibit B:  Home from school for about 2 minutes


Maybe they just appreciate a good tv series. My mom pretty much has Blockbuster in her basement so I'm thinking I am going to swap Flipper for a season of Gilligan's Island or the Brady Bunch or Little People Big World or the Dog Whisperer. Her Disney VHS's have saved me this summer!! It sure paid off (in my benefit) for her to have kept them all these years. Thanks mom!

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Monday, August 8, 2011

California, Carlsbad Edition


























We ate at our traditional favorites: Mary's, Harbor Fish &Chips, Phil's.
Found new favs: Carlsbad Danish Bakery, Cessy's mexican.
Wore zero makeup 7 days out of 8.
Made a Shelley record and read 2 books in a week: Harry Potter and The Help.
Played at Sea World.
Shopped at T-shirt Mart and the Closet
Enjoyed early morning runs with Rusty while everybody else enjoyed sleeping in.
Beach days x's 4
Watched every episode of Flipper on dvd.

It was great. It was wonderful.
 It was memorable. It went too fast. 
It was a much needed break of fresh CA ocean air.
It is too far away until we can do it again.

Thanks once again mom and dad for the super fabulous vacation!

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Monday, July 25, 2011

"Eesh, You're Old"

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Is what I was told by my nephew when he found out it was my birthday and that I was turning 28. Haha, I really laughed hard.
For some reason it gave me the giggles.

My sneaky boys surprised me with this super cute birthday cake! Yes, made by them! Seeing how the beach is pretty much my favorite thing ever, they hit the mark just right. 



I think it is way creative and the attention to details impressive. Especially my well endowed torso...measured perfectly to scale:)

My actual birthday was a little different than the norm. I woke up to my birthday present, a huge scrolly picture frame from Poppy's that I have been eyeing for months. Then the boys and I took off to family camping. Casey came the next day since he was busy with work. I must have felt older and braver because embarrassing to say, this was my first ever roadie. By myself. And WITH kids. And Jefferson:)

The trip up went great, thanks to the dvd player. I don't know how the pioneers trekked with no virtual entertainment to be honest. It's a forever must have!







Camping of course was enjoyable.
Cooler weather.
Pine Trees. Games. Cousins.
 Deluxe breakfast/lunch and dinners.
Dirt and dirty smelly boys.
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