wrapping things up in a tired sort of way

This was our last Christmas in St. George. It was fun while it lasted but hopefully we will be able to stay home next year. Today was a pj day where we did nothing - sorely needed! So here are a few tidbits from the holidays:
All of the Cub Scout leaders (and Lily), making cookie jars for the parents. I admire and appreciate these women so much.
The boys at the Christmas Village. A few weeks later we went to Jaden's Eagle ceremony, where the Ogden Nature Center brought a live bald eagle - pretty nifty! Any parent who doesn't take advantage of the Scouting program is crazy.
Bob the Builder Snowman, although Lily didn't like his name. Jackson was totally obsessed and was always running around back or looking out his window at it. He was especially concerned when it started melting the next day and fell over.
Jack will no longer wear his boots or gloves and Lily won't try out her snowsuit so time outside has been limited as it has been between 10 and 20 degrees for so long. Adam took Lily out sledding (Jack and I stayed in the car b/c he was sleeping and I was reading) and it was so cute.
Lily had her Joyschool Christmas Party, where she was a shepherd who wouldn't wear her costume and went around sucking on her fingers. She is so funny when she knows people are watching her perform.
Joseph, Lily, Jensyn and Brayden (then Dallin) in their adorable aprons that Delena, Amy and Jenni made for them. I signed up to be a rotating teacher, and am pretty nervous but Lily is super excited so hopefully she won't turn on me when it actually happens.

What a wonderful Christmas season, when we got to see so much family and so many friends in St. George. Santa did a wonderful job and the kids were so happy. We have been so blessed this year and are so excited to see what 2011 will bring.

a little lift

We just found out that Adam passed the Business Environment and Concepts (BEC) section of the CPA! On the first try! That means he is 25% done and only has 3 more to pass; also that the clock has started to tick on the 18 month time frame to pass them all. I'm sure most of you have heard from me what a strain it has been to have him studying so much so this was such good news. :D

what i'm thankful for

my beautiful children

that Lily turned 4, enjoyed her party, has good friends, and is delightful 95% of the time.
that Jackson is doing well with his speech therapy and although the 'terrible twos' show up occasionally, i'm pretty much still wrapped around his little finger.
siblings that feel comfortable taking pictures of me eating while commenting I will want to have documentation of how much I ate for junior's first trimester (nope! not pregnant), chubby nephews, two brand new nieces.
Adam's idea for family night to go downtown to the Christmas Village. The kids were so excited to see all of the little houses decorated and the lights.
this big helper.
naps that are few and far between. also tools, except when used to make dents in the wall.new chairs for the kitchen.
also re: thanksgiving. i am thankful for
being invited to the delicious homemade dinner by jesse and mindy
mindy being pregnant. more children should definitely go to moms like her
my kids (and nephew cole) were so wonderful on the 9 hr car ride from st. george to springville/ogden
not sliding off the road, not getting in an accident
dare i admit? - plastic cheese whiz that kept people happy (and me and cole busy making cheese sandwhiches) for about 45 minutes

witches say boo!

Every time Jackson sees a witch now he says "boo!" This Halloween was tons of fun with two kids that knew what was going on. And boy did they have the opportunities! Last week was so crazy, this was our schedule:
Monday: Lily's Preschool Halloween Carnival
Tuesday: Only 'free' day. Lily was a bit sad she couldn't be a dog that day.
Wednesday: Ward Halloween Trunk Or Treat. From here on out my kids had candy with/for each meal and in between.
Thursday: My work Halloween party - I brought the kids and they ran around everywhere showing off their costumes. That afternoon was Lily's Joy School party, where the kids did a Halloween Parade, then sang songs (last night for FHE Lily chose the closing song for her to sing "I'm a mean old witch with a hat." She sings in a crackly voice and it is so cute.), and handed out cookies. So cute!Also Thursday night was our Haunted House for pack meeting. Wow! It was awesome. All of the other leaders except for me put in so much work - seriously. I had my boys make cookies a few weeks ago that we froze, and that's it. I called Adam to stop studying and come go through it with me - he is always wanting to do scary things with me for some reason, and this totally counted for me but apparently not for him. Which kind of makes sense as there were 4 year old kids going through.Friday: Adam's work party. Another Parade of all of the kids there. I was impressed as Jackson left to follow everyone once Lily held his hand. Once they circled around, I couldn't stop laughing. They both looked stunned and stopped in their tracks once they saw us. Friday night wasn't a Halloween activity but still worth mention: Dad was awarded a Gold Lifetime Membership award to the NAACP and we and the Nay's went to the dinner down in Salt Lake. So neat - it's always a good reminder to me of what an amazing life my parents have led and continue to lead.
Saturday: After some shopping with Mom, off to Orem for Peter's blessing, then to Alpine to visit the Slemboski's before heading home for trick or treating! I couldn't get a picture with both kids smiling. But here is Jackson with his cap and Lily with her ears (that broke later).

fall festivities in not much of a fall

We did not make it to Logan this year. Adam is pretty much non-existent while studying for the CPA, so I am trying to still get the kids out of the house for activities. These happy moments in the leaves lasted about 5 minutes and the kids were crying to be carried back to the car which was a 3 minute walk away. Not my idea of a autumn hike but oh well.
So we felt so super lucky to have him take a day off of work for Lily's field trip to the Pumpkin Patch! That day was much much too short - it was the perfect day for me to have help though. I don't know what I would have done be cause Scouting can sometimes take up your entire life.
The farmers offered fresh onions and carrots to the kids. Lily didn't want anything to do with either of them. I snatched up a carrot when offered, which unfortunately got eaten by a lucky donkey whom Adam wanted to feed despite my protests.
Jackson and Lily loved feeding the llamas.
Here is a good representation of my neglected mothering these past few weeks (or maybe months?).Yep - cheese through the garlic press. I think I was contemplating either weathering our side door, mowing the back lawn, caulking all of the windows and door in the basement, planting bulbs in the front yard, figuring out what to do with the 30 green tomatoes still in my garden....and so I sat down and read a book instead, wondering why the warm weather would not cooperate and put a nix to my procrastination by snowing.

colorado trip continued

And so we were off! I left Amanda's house at about 2pm and got to Moab around 8 pm. The kids did wonderful as always and it was so fun to talk to them about my Moab memories. Jackson set himself up to watch TV with his milk bottle a little too easily, I thought. We went to bed way too late. It was fun having a 'sleepover' with the kids, with all of us in a king bed.
Jackson turned out to be as uncomfortable to sleep by as Lily was when she was his age. I woke up many times with his feet or hands or head on top of me. After our continental breakfast, which has never been as awesome as it was when you're traveling alone with two picky eaters trying to save money, we headed out to Arches National Park. I told Lily we were going on a hike, then tried to explain it as a long walk, then as exercising because she has been on an exercising kick lately (except when her legs hurt...). She immediately exclaimed, "But Mom, I don't have my bike!"
But regardless, she kept (mostly) entertained by telling me and Jack that if we did good, she would give us some candy when we got back to the car. Jackson just hopped on the trail and started walking with that swinging arm of his. Super cute. He did awesome although every few minutes would drop to the ground to start playing with the sand and dirt. I would love to go back to Arches with Adam, as the park is basically a bunch of super tiny hikes to the arches, and so gorgeous!
We chose the Double Arches hike. It was about 3/4 of a mile and took us 45 minutes. I only carried Jackson twice for a few seconds each time because of slippery rock and sand. So they did it all by themselves!
We then jumped in the car and got on our way to St. George. Adam had taken the shuttle down that morning and we talked to him for a bit. He told Lily he was going to St. George too and she said "We're going to beat you! We have been in the car for a LONG TIME." Hilarious. She was probably wondering why we weren't there yet after so much driving.For this trip the Whitman's were driving through so we took them to the sand dunes in Snow Canyon. The kids had such a blast and I think we should probably make it a more prominent activity as it is so close to Kayenta.
Adam wanted me to make sure I included his photography. We also went downtown to the water park. The kids have been here a lot but I've never taken pictures. I kept on wishing the kids would get down from the rock steps and hopefully SOME DAY I will actually pay attention to those promptings as (of course and as always) Jackson fell a few minutes later and got a HUGE goose egg.He slept the entire way to Salt Lake.
As always when I travel, which is a big reason why I'm always going out of my way to do it, I get so much motivation to be a better mom to my kids. It's so nice let go of what sometimes becomes the 'daily grind' and just have fun. So thank you to Amanda and her family, to my wonderful husband who lets me do whatever I want, and to my amazing children for being so much fun to be with.

peter nay

I told Amanda I would come visit after her baby was born. Now that Jack is 2, the thought of paying for 3 plane tickets, getting to the airport, having Amanda pick me up, etc etc, was just not as easy or cheap as driving sounded. So I drove!
Right about when I got onto 1-80 about 5 miles from my house to head for Cheyanne I began repeating in my mind "What on earth was I thinking?" The drive was 8.5 hrs + 1.5 hrs at rest stops, so a total of 10 hrs for the trip to Colorado Springs. 9 am to 7 pm. I was a bit traumatized after arriving, and that night when falling asleep would jerk awake b/c I would be dreaming I was still driving. But man! Newborns are totally worth it, especially cute ones like Peter that I don't have to wake up in the middle of the night for. Jackson and Lily just loved him too. Jack was very concerned every time Peter dropped his binky or didn't have a blanket on or wasn't swinging as high as Jack believed he could. They also loved spending time with Henry - what a cutie, although half naked from potty training most of the day... After the first day or two of lots of crying, they got along wonderfully.
Amanda let me cook anything I wanted, and although I almost cried at the thought of no fresh garlic and only 'lite' olive oil, it was so nice having happy customers.Amanda totally didn't need any help - she was pushing to get *me* out the door every morning. And at night Tyler didn't. complain. when we would take the big kids to the park or to get the most amazing Italian gelato I've ever had (the one time I felt guilty that Adam wasn't there) and left Peter. I was super impressed. I think I helped a few times by holding Peter - what a tough job.I also got a good wake up call as to keeping my house cleaner. Wow they were tidy! Tyler actually skipped out on Sunday School to come home and scrub the sinks. Amanda told my kids about every 30 minutes that it was time to clean up, and the habit has kind of stuck with them! It is great. Amanda really knows how to make things fun (even brushing teeth, which occasionally I have to sit on my kids to do, but not any more!) and I miss living closer to her so much. She is second only to Adam in getting me to laugh.It was a wonderful vacation for me besides the fact that the closer my departure came the more high strung I was because I was so terrified of making the 12 hr trip back to St. George. Finally I faced the fact the I couldn't do it, so I checked mapquest and saw that Moab was about 30 miles off the freeway but at the halfway point, so I decided to go for it.

for some reason i don't feel ready

Actually I know the reason(s): Today Jackson poured out an entire new bottle of baby wash down the bath drain; pushed his dirty diaper halfway down his bum and smeared poop all over the front of his shirt (but being the tidy boy he is took off his shorts before they got dirty); and when finished with his drink after lunch headed for the bathroom to get more drinking water from the toilet (I *barely* caught him with the cup at his lips).(In Colorado. I can't believe how old my 2 yr and 3 yr old look!)

Regardless, my beautiful little baby boy turned 2 on August 24. Which would maybe be a tragedy if he wasn't still so beautiful. Not to mention reasonable, brilliant (without talking! it really is amazing), cuddly, always willing to give kisses, hasn't woken up at night on his own for over a year or something, loves broccoli, and can I mention reasonable again?

I had so many different ideas of what to name this post.
-seriously?
-really crappy timing (i mean, what are the odds?)
-karma (for sneaking out on monday night to go and get my birthday ice cream cone alone? never leave your family on fhe)
-good thing the kids weren't in the car
-mom said it was divine intervention and i would have gotten killed at the next light otherwise
-i REALLY value my alone time (i still got ice cream regardless)
-that scene in 'benjamin button' is still stupid
-seriously? (i think that's my favorite)

But really - how would you label this event: I was driving down Quincy, and bam! the passenger rear window shattered. From a guy trimming his yard.

So here is proof of my procrastination of telling Adam. I called but he didn't answer. Secretly I was glad b/c otherwise I wouldn't have been able to keep on going to Baskin Robbins. It was quite the internal debate.

the last of the lazy days of summer

At least for Lily! She starts preschool on Monday and it is so darn exciting.
She finished swim lessons a few weeks ago - did fantastic! I can't wait for her to be more comfortable in the water.
My work gave free tickets to Lagoon for me and Adam, so we just had to pay for the kids. $60. I'm never going with kids younger than 8 again. Lily had a blast but Jack missed his nap and so he was a bit apprehensive. Adam and I alternated going on Colossus once, and I went on the Rollercoaster right before we left. So fun! I wish we could have done more.
Lily's new hobby is taking blankets, pillows, toys and food up the slide to her 'house'. So cute. Adam and I were inside and went to check on them and saw this.
I love that Dad's birthday lands on July 29th during his Salt Lake trips at the end of the month. Lily is having issues with birthdays - mainly that her's isn't right now. I hope that cake and ice cream for mine next week and Jack's the week after will make up for it.
Delena chopped Jack's hair yesterday. Adam's reaction: "What did you DO???" I swear he is living vicariously through him.
My 3 'pride and joy's. My garden was pretty successful this year. I feel like crying happy tears every time I go out there to see my basil going crazy (I have made pesto TWICE this summer!), parsley always ready to snip, tomatoes ripening faster than I can eat them plain (last year they never made it to the kitchen), zucchini! beans! onions! It is very exciting to me, and I'm very happy Adam and Mckay didn't demolish my boxes along with the deck.
As for me, I have found plenty of house projects to keep me busy and am excited to spend more time in the yard as the weather cools down.

And Adam? He is lucky we are still married with how much he plays Starcraft II. Can someone please tell me that there is an end? I can't discuss the subject with Adam without swearing at him.

On a (slightly) more positive note, he gave me a 'compliment' the other day. A co-worker's wife was in labor for 24 hours and had 3 epidurals; Adam followed that with "I could not handle that. You know? That would be awful. I just don't think I could ever do that." I didn't have a reply (not having been in the tough husband position during childbirth) and he said he was giving me a compliment.

Yeah. I missed it too.