Cannot think of a clever title

My computer has been getting dusty lately. Remember the days when I actually used it daily? When I had two hands to type? (Truth be told, it was dusty when I used it daily too but that's not something I'd like to share. oops, just did)
Here's our update:
THE BAD:
**Noelle has/had a horrendous cold that leaves her unable to make any noises other than "uhhhh" and "wanna watch Elmo". That doesn't seem very bad but say those two things with an incredibly pathetic whine that crescendos if you don't immediately respond and your nerves will start grating. Trust me.
**Syd seems to have been gifted with Noelle's cold and manifests it in gagging mucous and interrupted sleep habits. Lovin' it, I tell you.
** Went to register Ethan for Kindergarten and cannot find any of the kids' birth certificates. If you came to my house and stole them to sell on the black market please let me know so I can stop looking for them. Seriously. Where the heck could they be??
THE GOOD:
**Noelle is actually potty trained. After those first few days of He$$ she finally mastered that bladder and made her parents happy. (Sadly whatever money we would have saved on diapers has been negated by the incredible amount that Sydney goes through)
**We have new neighbors that seem nice. As evidenced by the fact they gave Hub a can of Sprite for helping them move in. There is a language barrier but I always wanted to learn Spanish so here's my chance!
**Sher gave me a ticket to the local scholarship pageant (it's not PC to call it a beauty pageant) and I actually went and tried not to think about leaving Hub home with 5 ornery kids. I only called home twice in an hour and a half!
**Dang. I really want to think of one more good thing....does it count that I'm excited we are just having a video night for FHE?
ciao.

What's one less hour of sleep?

Baby Sydney is 11 days old. But I don't really think of it that way. I think of it as it's been 11 days since I had any good amount of sleep. Add the time change and a toddler sneaking into my bed before she should be awake and you've got me borderline mentally insane. Good thing I have some great coping mechanisms involving lots of TV for kids and sugar products for me.

In other family news.......Ike participated in his first Pinewood Derby. Our designer extraordinaire let us down and he wanted no part of this rite of passage. He reluctantly designed a simple BYU car. Fortunately his two younger brothers had enough excitement for the whole pack and Ethan could hardly sleep the night before (he kept on calling it the Pioneer Derby, but we knew what he meant).
Here is Ike holding his awesome car like it might be contagious with the Bubonic Plague. His enthusiasm is palpable!



Then there is the potty training. It is amazing how changing a newborn's bottom can make your two-year-old's bottom seem huge. Hub took it upon himself to start potty training this weekend. Wahoo. This means that once he goes back to work on Monday Noelle's successes and failures rest entirely on me. Did I mention how this was a unilateral decision? Anyway, Noelle was as excited about this decision as much as I was as you can tell from the first photo.

Doesn't that break your heart? Maybe it was a good thing that Hub started this and not me. His heart is a lot tougher than mine I guess.
But by Day 2 Noelle was looking like this:

I guess all the candy she was getting for doing basically nothing started to seem like not such a bad idea after all....

Out of Commission

The latest addition to our fam was added Feb. 25. I'd love to go into all the gory deets, but it seems like people prefer sharing the delivery details rather than hearing them....so if you really want to know I'll tell you in person. The end result was Sydney. She's our tiniest at 6 lbs 15 oz, but also our earliest at 38 and a half weeks.

The above picture is of my two frequent visitors to the hospital, Ethan and Noelle. They were getting a little too comfortable with all the hospital equipment and I sense a future in medicine for both of them. If you peek into the background you will see my in my very stylish and modest hospital gown. Unfortunately none of the pictures where I look like Heidi Klum turned out so you will just have to take my word for it.


Upon returning home from the hospital, Baby Sydney (seems Baby will be her first name as far as the kids can tell) was immediately bestowed with the most honored stuffed animals. She also was given some hard toys like cement mixers and cars, but I removed them for the picture. And for her safety.
We are quickly adjusting to the newest member of the fam. So far she has been an excellent day sleeper, so-and-so night sleeper, and a very quick mover of her bowels. Was that too personal? Anyway, this may be the last update for awhile depending on my sanity level. Don't worry though, I'll be sure to post her first steps.

Art, LEGOs, and them pesky har-mones

I hope my title just sucked you right in. Anyhoo, I've just been too busy living life to the fullest lately and have had to put my lovely blog on the back burner. But I'm back to give you a quick recap of what's been going down...
I got to help out with the Valentine's party at school and made this beautiful cupid for 'Pin the Heart on the Cupid.' I know that is dang creative ( CC so lovingly pointed out that we turn any party game into a 'pin the..' activity since it involves minimal prep). Ethan was disturbed that the cupid wasn't wearing any clothes. I pointed out that little clothing is required when true love is involved. (soo just kidding on that one! We won't be having that talk for a few more decades...)

Then there is the daily challenge of making Ethan clean up LEGOs. (Does it bother you I feel obligated to capitalize that word? LEGO people get really mad when you don't because it is part of their brand identity. I don't really remember where I learned that nugget of trivia, but I think it's true.) Ethan takes about 4 hours to clean these babies up because he gets distracted mid-clean by another ingenious building idea. Some days this obsession is welcome, but when we have a time crunch for cleaning it is not.
And then there are my preggers harmones. Not to be confused with hormones, because it is clearly more fun and countrified to say harmones. But I definitely can tell I have got some extra dosages runnin' through my body. I am usually not a crier. But I have found myself crying after reading a book! I also cried when Isaac accused me of cheating at Horse (I actually beat him so I guess he thought that was proof). And I cried lots when I looked out my window and saw two moving trucks.
Our good neighbors are moving to another state and I was in denial until the trucks showed up. I don't think I should blame that one on the harmones though. I think I would have cried even without them. Good neighbors shouldn't be allowed to move. Where's the president and his campaign promises when you need him?
I better go before I start crying again.

celebration

It is Hub's Birthday tomorrow. I have to stop and think too hard to remember how old he is. After we hit that 30 mark something happened and the only way how I can remember how old anyone in the family is is to ask Isaac. Stuff like age matters a lot to an 8-year-old.
I would love to write a novel on the great qualities of Hub but I hopefully will have several more of his Birthdays to blog about so I'm going to be skimpy and share three little tidbits. Just know that it's not out of lack of material!
***Hub is the best father ever. He is an active participant in all things child-rearing and actually enjoys playing the torturous games of Monopoly and Life with them. He'll get up with kids in the night (if I nudge him 'gently' with my foot) and will share in the yucky stuff of diapers and cleaning sick kids and bedding. He also has been a very willing soccer and basketball coach.
****Hub likes to go camping. He likes it enough that it's worth it to him to do all the work so we go. That means I feel guilty while he packs the car full of gear that seems unreasonable for only a night or two away from home. He pitches the tent, does the fire, cooks real food on a camping stove (I'd rather just eat candy and save the cleanup), carries kids on hikes, and pretty much does all the hard stuff. He has a lot of strange camping gear and I'm impressed he knows how to use it all.

*** He is a perfectionist. I really tried hard to help him finish painting our basement, but then got offended when he said everything I painted needed a second coat. The above room is our playroom which required four different colors of paint and lots of taping. Let's just say by that point he was glad I had given up 'helping'.
He also has to refold his dress pants that I so lovingly wash and hang for him. Something about me not folding them correctly with the pleats....

That is all for now. Maybe you learned something new. Maybe you didn't. I'm just grateful I'm married to one of the goodest guys around (goodest being Ethan's choice word right now).
Happy Birthday Hubbers!

Wanted: A Momanny

Sometimes I want to hire a nanny. But not a nanny for the kids because what's the point of having kids if they give the nanny all the love? But a nanny for me. A Momanny if you will. So I can have adult conversations when it's convenient. So when I hear things on the radio I can immediately converse about it with someone when the topic is fresh. Like the CA woman who just had octuplets. You know the story---it's first reported as a marvelous thing that she was able to carry all 8 babies and everyone is healthy. Then the next day the story is that she had done it before and has 6 little kids at home already. By donated sperm! And she lives with her parents in a three bedroom apartment. Now the debate is over family planning and what roles infertility doctors should have. What do you think?
Then I saw an ad for fried twinkies and really wanted to point it out to my imaginary momanny and wonder who in the world would eat a fried twinkie and live to tell about it? You? Gross, gross, gross. Unfried twinkies give me the willies when I think too much about them. Kindof like hotdogs. Sadly though, you'll catch me eating both on occasion. Then my momanny and I will giggle at my hypocrisy and tell the kids to be quiet while we watch The View together and get mad at that mean Joy Behar. Yes. I definitely need a Momanny.

Shower Power

The above is a picture of me in my outside shower. What? You don't have one? And why is there foliage in my picture when we've received about 14 tons of snow this winter? I live in a magical place, my friend. And it's a place where I have very skinny arms apparently.
But back to reality. The other day Mitch begged me not to take a shower because I'm 'in there too long." To which I responded, "WHAT THE?! HAVE YOU MET YOUR FATHER?" (Which is very true. I swear Hub takes a daily 40-minute shower. The difference being Mitch is not yet awake and therefore cannot hold dad accountable) I also told Mitch that in order for me to be the best mom ever, which I am, I need my shower time and to not begrudge me my few minutes alone, dangit!
Don't most of your best ideas come in the shower? Mine do. I can whip out a super family night lesson in the shower. Or a great career idea. And if I had a computer in the shower I would be an awesome blogger. Let's not even get into the imaginary confrontations I have with people who never even knew they wronged me....
But these are very fleeting moments because even the shower cannot drown out the noise of a door slamming and a kid kicking at the bathroom door and reality comes rushing back. But I tell you--for those short minutes (no matter what Mitch would have you believe), I have solved many a problem and come up with many a great lesson. Are you a shower meditator like me?

ps Do you like my new profile picture? It's not too much, is it? I just needed to kick the winter blahs and I think I did in one quick download!

So Easily Amused

I remember when one of my brothers(D-Dawg for those who know him) had his first kid. He made the comment that he couldn't remember what they'd done for entertainment before she came along because it was so fun to watch her talk and play. At the time I thought that was pretty sad and that he'd officially entered Boring Life With Children, but now I'm totally with him!

There is no greater entertainment in our home right now than our two-year-old, Noelle. She even has all of her brothers as captive audience members which ranks her higher than cartoons and potty talk. Just ask her a question and laugh hilariously at the answer that makes no sense.
Me: "Noelle, do you want a sandwich for lunch?"
Noelle: "Baby kiss Elmo."
Brothers: "HAHAHAHAHAH!"
Or just ask her to dance. Or to sing a song. Or to hide. Whatever it is, she ends up making everyone laugh. Sadly, I am afraid it is a stage and cannot last much longer. Her older siblings each had a turn being the toast of the town and are now mere audience members. Soon she will catch on that we are using her for cheap entertainment and she'll want to charge admission. Or like other great comics, she will revert to 'adult' humor and I'll have to ban her from her young audience. Maybe she'll actually comprehend our questions and respond appropriately. That will definitely take away all the fun.
Good thing we've got a comic in the wings to take her place. I'm 33 and 1/2 weeks and counting.....

My secret talents

I'm sure you have noticed that lots of bloggers are good at photography. And if you have, then you also have noticed that I am one of those bloggers who is not. All those buttons on the camera are there to confuse me and take away my freedom. I rebel against them and then end up with pictures like these:




Isaac had his first basketball game last weekend and there were great shots to be had (please do not try to make that into a pun. Puns are not punny no matter what your grandma says). I happened to take all these non-great shots. Hub was too busy coaching or he would have redeemed me for posterity's sake. You may just roll your eyes at me and say, "How hard is it to push the flash button?" And I will tell you that if that is the little lightning bolt thing, I think I did and this still happened!
Since I don't really like looking incompetent then I leave my defense to you. Maybe I just like the mysterious look of this basketball game. Maybe the refs turned the lights out as a test to see how well the boys could 'feel' their teammates presence. Maybe I wanted dark pictures so you couldn't see Ike's sweaty face (he is the biggest heater head!) Or maybe this is one talent I just don't have. Nah, that's not it.
Next game I will try again and I am sure the pix will turn out better and you will actually be able to see Ike's red face. Of course that may mean that I am the one coaching and Hub's taking the pictures, but I won't tell.