There is something wrong with this picture..

As I was cooking dinner last night I looked down and couldn't help but notice the drastic difference in front of me. On the left was the dinner for my kids and on the right was my dinner. As most of you know I don't eat meat and my kids well, they don't eat vegetables. So as I am cooking I notice that I am not touching the dinner on the left and my kids are not touching the dinner on the right. Where did it all go wrong?

Take me away...

If I ever wanted to run away today would be the day. First Ivy wakes me up at 6:30 (way too early) I get her and go put her in her highchair to eat. After she is finished eating I get her out and notice that she is wet all over even the highchair cover is soaked. Realizing her diaper has leaked everywhere (and that that is probably the reason for the early wake up call) I take the highchair apart get Ivy in the bath. Then Saul wakes up and says he doesn't feel well still (he threw up 10 times yesterday which made for a long rough day although he managed to make it into the bathroom every time) I think he is probably fine and just needs to eat so I give him some milk (first mistake) and crackers. I make lunches get ivy dressed and changed again because she had pooped everywhere. As I am changing Ivy I hear Saul vomiting.. But I hear it downstairs not in the bathroom!!! AHHH! I run downstairs to find Saul standing in the entryway with eyes as big as saucers. I tell him not to move (thinking he is on tile now so that will be easier to clean up) then I change my mind and tell him to run up to the bathroom to finish throwing up. He made it up and finished his business. Then I look at my living room.. Everywhere, I mean a trail from where he was laying on the couch to the entryway.(picture below) I try and stay calm, he didn't mean to and I know what it is like when it just "comes out". I start to spread baking soda on top of it all to first take out the smell so I wont puke while cleaning it up and I hear Kanyon yell "Mom! You are going to be SO mad at what Ivy did to the computer." I run upstairs and find Ivy with a sharpie in hand and well... Pictures below...
























Don't worry I covered all the gore with baking soda but thought I would give you an idea at what I was up against.

















My computer screen and computer desk. A black permanent sharpie. (On the up side I googled how to clean it and take some rubbing alcohol and a cloth and it comes right off.. Phew!

















This is all before 8:30am, and Russ wont be home until Sunday! Calgone take me away! (maybe some of you will get that)

Polite

I guess I have taught my kids really well not to interrupt me when I am on the phone. Yesterday Eli was sick and while I was on the phone Saul ran to me with this drawing to politely let me know without interrupting my phone conversation what was about to happen.
























Gotta love it when they listen. Pretty funny!

Don't have to...

So, as I am sitting here typing Russ is at the Airport waiting to fly to Colorado for a week. He gets to go stay in a cabin with his brothers and ski for a few days and then go to a boring Medical Conference the rest of the week. Instead of getting down on myself about how bad I wish I could go with him. I am looking at the bright side. This week I......

don't have to cook if I don't want too.

don't have to hurry and pick up the house at 5:00pm so Russ thinks I did something that day besides go to lunch with friends.

don't have to clean my hair out of the drain in the shower. (I will anyway because it is gross but I don't have to.)

don't have to clean my stuff off of his side of the sink after I am finished with it.

don't have to pretend like I haven't been on the computer all day.

don't have too smell good. (don't worry people, I will if we get together)

don't have to share the bed or pillows.

don't have to wonder when Russ is coming home. I just know he isn't so I can get on with my day.

don't have to drive the van. I get to drive Russ's nice new car.

don't have to pretend that I don't want to watch to Oscars tonight. I can just watch it.

don't have to wonder if what I am watching before bed is too girly for Russ.


I can think of more "don't have to's" but really, I would rather be with Russ or have Russ home.... We already miss him...It is going to be a long week... So girls, lets do lunch!

Valentines and Messes

It was nice having Valentines on a Saturday this year. Russ had worked all night Friday night and got home Saturday morning. I made heart pancakes and Russ got a babysitter so we could go to dinner that night. I did the twelve days of Valentines for Russ this year and on the last day I took the kids up to his work and made them sing him a song in front of the nurses and other staff. We made up our own Valentines version of "you are my sunshine". I took my video camera but it wouldn't work right when I needed it too. figures.. The kids did great, even some of the nurses were crying. I took a bunch of homemade cookies and banana bread to feed them all. They liked that a lot too. Russ was completely surprised which makes it even better. I thought the boys would for sure spill the beans a few days before. It all worked out and although the boys wanted to say instead of "You'll never know Dad how much we love you" They wanted to say "You'll never know Dad how much this embarrasses us" they sang the right words thankfully and all was well.



On another note just some quick pics of my little lady making a mess as usual. Good thing we love her so much!

105.7 Degrees

This is what happens when Strep Throat hits your house....



And, one question.. How do you force an unwilling 2yr old to take the antibiotic?? I have tried everything...

Funnies from the weekend

Kanyon: "Hey Eli, do you know what happens when it rains?"
Eli: "Yes, it is when Heavenly Father takes hand fulls of water and throws it on the world"
Kanyon: "Actually Eli, it is when Heavenly Father waters his garden.."


Russ: "So, who is going to have kids first?"
Eli: "ME oh ME! I want to have kids first so I can boss them around. I like to boss people around it's fun."


Listening to the radio and the song -Pocket full of sunshine- by Natasha Bedingfield came on. At the part where she sings "take me away..."

Eli: "Mom, This song is from Kids Bop. Some kids at Kids Bop really do get taken away because they are not good enough dancers. And they paid all that money for nothing. If I was in Kids Bop I would not get fired!"

St Louis

My favorite thing to do on the weekend is.. something.. anything.. I really don't like sitting around wasting a Saturday at home when we could be together doing something fun. This last weekend we stayed overnight in St Louis, went to the Temple, I braved the Science center ALONE with all the kids, went swimming and we ate out at some really great places.. It was my kind of weekend. Lots of family fun!







































































Ivy hated the life like Dinosaur.















































Saul getting a hold of the camera while I was on the phone..

Starting today!

I read this on a friends blog and wish I would have written it. From here on out I am becoming the Mother, Wife, Friend I should be.. Watch out, cause here I come.

As a young child, The painter Benjamin West once decided while his mother was gone on an errand that he would paint a portrait of his sister. He got out all the bottles of ink and paper and went to work. By the time he was finished there was quite a mess. When his mother returned home and saw the mess he made, she overlooked it, picked up the portrait he had done, kissed him on the forehead and said, “what a beautiful painting!” He later said that it was with that kiss that he became a painter.

Mark Twain once said, “I can live for two months on a good compliment.” And a Japanese proverb says, “One kind word can warm three winter months.”

There is so much more to be accomplished by building someone up than tearing them down. So much more is gained when we encourage someone’s positive traits rather than focusing on the negative ones. What are the tools that will inspire, strengthen, empower the people we come in contact with? Our words. Not just our words, though, but the way they are spoken and the love that accompanies them.

Once an older women saw a young mother with a child starting to misbehave in the grocery store. The child was pulling a box of cookies off the shelf and starting to yell when the young mother whispered something in the child’s ear. The child stopped her fit and put the cookies back on the shelf. The older women came up to them at this point and said, “I sure would like to know what you just said to your little one!” to which the young mother replied, “I asked her to put it back.”

I hope that I can use kind words and see others built up around me. I know that as I do I will be stronger because of it, too.