Super Dad

Judd has done this with the kids since they were tiny. As the months go by and they get bigger his push ups get fewer and fewer. He'd better start hitting the weights a lot heavier so he's ready for Coulson!

Nutritious and Delicious Breakfast

A couple of nights ago the kids told me that they were going to make me breakfast the next morning. That had me a little worried because I know how big of a schemer Madison can be. Those kids wake up every day at 5:30 in the morning!!! 5:30 people!!! So I knew that there would be no way to stop them if they had their minds made up, and they don't forget anything they commit to doing. I would be snoozing and they would be destroying my kitchen quietly and there's nothing I could do about it. Anyway, all of my fears were for no reason because they actually didn't make a mess and I was able to wake up to this beautiful nutritious breakfast. There's nothing better than a twix, a crusty day old bread stick some crackers and a pear. Its the thought that counts!

The Puzzle Master

This is my little Nolan man. I don't know where this kid gets his patience from. We have a lack of that in our family. A few times I've noticed it being really quiet in my house and I get concerned that Nolan's up to some mischief. I go looking for him ready for some type of altercation but there he is sitting at the table doing a puzzle. He has started doing 100 piece puzzles all by himself. He'll sit there for an hour just putting it together without whining or complaining. Madison as you know is more like me. She can't even do a 24 piece with out throwing a few pieces or stomping off.

Here's a picture of my big boy.

YAY, I have routine again!

This is my mini marathon post for the last week

First.

This past week has been fabulous! I feel like I have my life back again. I don't know how all you moms with older kids survive over the summer. Madison is in all day kindergarten so my days have been so mellow. I get the boys to take naps at the same time, I get my quite time and I get to run my errands. Whew!!! I love school! She is so glad to be back in school...(I wonder if its because most of her summer time was spent shacked up due to a new baby and her loss of interest in the long drawn out wars with Nolan) and she likes her teacher. She came home on Friday with an interesting story

"My teacher told me to be careful with my scissors and only use them on paper. One time a little girl was using her scissors and cut her tongue off and had to get it stitched back on"

I don't think this is a true story, but I don't think I'll have to worry about Madison accidentally cutting her tongue off while working on a project. Maybe one day I will if she grows up to be an emo. Sorry, that was random

Second.

After a few days of neglecting my home and family I finished reading Breaking Dawn and I am so sad. What do I have to look forward to? My mini vampire fantasy had ended. Don't worry, this post contains no spoilers. I thought it ended perfectly. A little strange in some places though but still, what more could you ask for from a book about a hot, rich vampire and his wacko girlfriend? Bella did start to get annoying and I can't imagine taking much more of her, so I'm happy its finally over. Now I need a new book, anyone have any suggestions????

Third.

I did another adventure race yesterday. It went really well. I only thought about passing out and dying about 10 times. I did it with Clint and Marianne and they are both in super good shape so I was totally slowing them down on the running leg, Sorry guys! But seriously in my head I was just like please just leave me on the side of the road to die, because I was so stinking hot and my feet friggin hurt. When I got home later in the day I found out why. My toenail is coming off and I have blisters all over my feet. I need some new shoes really bad I guess. The biking was awesome though. There were some pretty crazy trails we were riding and I thought for sure I was going to pop one of my tires because it was so rocky. I was worried about getting on my bike after having another baby. It seems like with every baby I get a little more nervous and stuff hurts more. But not yesterday, I had no fear and was flying down that mountain, it was an awesome feeling.

Fourth.

Coulson had his blessing last Sunday and that went really good. Judd was excited because his best friend Trent and his wife Sarah were able to come up and Trent stood in on the blessing, so that was special. We didn't do anything too elaborate. In fact, I skipped buying a blessing outfit all together and just had him wear normal clothes. I'm sure it still counts. It was a great blessing though and he is such a sweet baby. He didn't make a noise through the whole thing and was just starting at everyone. He is going to be 3 months old this week.

Fifth.

I had a little dilemma last Saturday. We were having people coming in for the blessing and I thought that I would do my hair that night. Judd always helps me with my hair (don't tell anyone, he gets embarrassed) so he put the color on and I went about doing things around the house. Well I forgot the time and went to rinse my hair out and when I looked in the mirror I was a little concerned. I dried it just to make sure, and my hair was black!! I was in panic mode because it was 9 at night on Saturday and there was no way I was pulling off that color. I tried taking it out and called Kelli because she does hair too, and this needed to come off and quickly! So we were up until almost 1 a.m. trying to fix my hair. It was pretty crappy, I was tired. I'm sure glad Kelli drank a bunch of diet coke earlier that night and was on a caffeine buzz, otherwise I would have never been able to go in public. Anyway, I survived and look normal again. Thanks Kelli, your a life saver.

Sixth:

I keep meaning to post this. Judd took the kids to the museum a couple of weeks ago. If you observe the pictures you'll notice they all look exactly the same. For some reason Judd has them stand like this. It creeps me out. I think it reminds me of the movie The Shining. Nolan doesn't look very happy.

Just like Mom

I just had to post this so I will never forget it. Madison is like her mama in every way. We both leave our shoes all over the house. We both throw our clothes on the floor. We argue with each other and say the same things. We are both equally strong minded and stubborn. I can't wait until she is a teenager! Its either going to be really fun or a total disaster. I have to learn to enjoy her more, that's for sure. One thing that we are totally alike on is our casualness. I have old ripped up shirts and pants that I just will never give away. They are so comfy and I just feel like they are irreplaceable. Like me, she also has her dingy collection. She wears the same outfit every single day. She knows she's not allowed to wear it in public, but as soon as we get home, cute outfit gets thrown on the floor, and raggedy old blue and yellow "I love Dad" shirt and pink and brown camo gauchos come on. I had to take pictures of it just so I will always remember the grossness of it. The shirt is so dingy that it looks like she rolled in dirt and there is a hole in the front that she always wants me to patch. The elastic on the pants is totally stretched out and the seams are coming apart. What a fashion sense!!

Who would you believe??

Last night Coulson was laying on the floor in the happiest mood. We were all going about our business when Nolan decided that he wanted to love on him. Well we're not sure exactly what happened after that. All of a sudden the baby started screaming and we assumed that Nolan hurt him accidentally. Well when I asked Nolan what happened he said "Coulson is mean. He hit me, kicked me scratched me and poked me in the eye, so I grabbed his arm" He said this so seriously that I had to laugh. I said "The baby can't do that honey, he is so little and he doesn't know how to hurt anyone." Nolan says "He did mom, hit hurt me, see." Then he showed me a tiny little scratch on his neck. So I guess he did hurt him but I'm still not sure what happened to Coulson. I just told him to stay out of Coulson's face or he'll get him again! So I guess Coulson's going to be the new Sheriff in town.


The Perpetrator

The Instigator

The outcome

Humor for the day

Madison and I took a trip to Costco today. She was in one of her silly moods when she talks and talks and wants to be just like me. Those moods don't happen very often lately so I was enjoying it. She says "wow mom, I just love you" or "wow mom, good job putting that stuff in our cart." Just random things like that. Well she topped it off with this one:
A man walked by us and he had to be wearing a ton of aftershave or cologne or something. Well there was this cloud of smell around him and Madison caught a whiff of it. I knew due to her talking mood that she was in, that there was some embarrassing comment just ready to shoot out of her mouth. I tried to race my cart away before the damage, but to no avail, she shouts... "Gross mom, that man smells like my dad's armpit!"
What do you say to that?!!? Ummm.... sorry??? I couldn't help myself, I busted up laughing. Poor guy.

Madi tooth update

So today was the day. We took Madison in for her appointment and she was scared from the get-go. She started crying as soon as she climbed up in the chair. Then they gave her nitrous and she was a laughing machine. She was laughing so much it was kinda scary. It reminded me of when Jack Nicholson was the joker in batman. Well after she was all nitroused up she had to get a shot. It was a huge needle and they had to inject that crap for about 30 seconds. All the while I had to pin her down so she didn't smack the Dr. then she was super mad. They had to give another shot as soon as the first one became numb. She wasn't having it. It took about 20 minutes to convince her to let the Dr. stick another needle in her mouth. I finally just had to hold her down so that they could do it. Then they had to put this plastic thing in her mouth that kind of looked like a rain coat. It covered her whole mouth except for the one tooth that they were working on. Then they drilled...and drilled...and drilled again. I was watching this because I was standing there holding her hand and I swear the whole inside of her tooth is gone. It makes me sad to think it will be that way for the rest of her life. If it lives that is. She was freaking out. Spasming and screaming like someone was murdering her. It was awful. Well, I'm glad that's over for now. We go back in 3 months to see if the tooth survived and if not they will do some other procedure to even further traumatize her. We go in next week for cleanings. That should be interesting. On the bright side of things...she has been in a great mood all day and it hasn't seemed to affect her. So we've made it through stage one.

1001 Ways to be Romantic

Last night Judd was gong through our little library looking for something to read. He came across a book I bought him a while ago called "1001 ways to be Romantic" He told me that he's read parts of it before and its... wait for it... GAY. (his favorite word for describing something that he doesn't like) I told him that he just wasn't romantic enough or he would like it, so he decided to read me a few of the ideas. I have to admit they had me rolling on the floor laughing. I guess I'm not a fan for romantic. The following are the ideas he read and then what my reaction would be if he actually tried them.

#313 Leave a trail of your clothes, leading from the front door to the bedroom
-This he thought was a cool idea. My response however "why is your crap all over the floor!?!?! Come pick this up before I throw it in the back yard"

This one is supposed to be for me
#315 Fill a basin with hot water. Take off his shoes and socks for him. sit him down in his favorite chair. Wash his feet. Let them soak for ten minutes. Dry off his feet. Resume life as before.
-He also thought this was a great idea. First of all I laughed so hard when he read this. Gross. I would be afraid one of his toenails would cut off a finger and there would be no resuming life as before. I would be disinfecting stuff.

#266 Send loving thoughts to your lover via mental telepathy
-me "stop looking at me like that!"

#112 Write "I love you" on the bathroom mirror with soap
-That's nice and thoughtful, but how the heck do I clean it off?

#7 Unplug the TV. Put a note on the screen saying "turn me on instead"
-me-"Yeah right, my favorite show is on-move out of the way"

#66 Guys: Spread out on the bed in the lingerie outfit you'd like her to wear.
He had this look on his face like "what the heck"
What he really meant to say was:
Spread out on the bed the lingerie you'd like her to wear.
Oh my gosh I laughed at this for at least a half an hour. My abs are sore today. Sorry for the mental image.

I realized that maybe I'm not wanting things as romantic as I thought. Some of it was pretty... gay. Either that or I am a very hard wife to please!!! But if your looking for a good laugh, go buy that book and read it together. It was one of the funniest nights of my life.

Just another interesting day for mom

Well lately Madison has been complaining of a toothache when she's been eating. I made an appointment and took her in today thinking that we would have a basic cavity and filling, the normal stuff. So, we had an interesting turn of events to say the least. They did x-rays and the Dr. came in to talk to me about what was going on. Well it turns out that what she has is much worse than a cavity. The Dr. said he's never seen it before in his office but has read about it. Basically her 6 year molars came in early and she is having trouble with one of them. The inside of the tooth is deteriorating and beginning to expose the nerve. So when she is eating the food is actually hitting her nerve. Crazy. Well to make it more simple to understand he had to send me to a specialist (endodontist) that minute because every second that goes by, I guess the tooth is dying. This wouldn't be such a problem except for the fact that it is an adult tooth and one of the most important in lining up the other adult teeth as they come in. They can't do a root canal because it is such a young tooth and the root hasn't even fully formed yet. So, we don't even know if its still alive right now. The whole time the doctor is explaining this I am just in a daze, not at all what I expected. Now I'm all frazzled and I have to explain this to my husband. Its totally not fair that mom's have to hear all of the horrifying details and then be expected to remember all of the medical jargon and explain it fully in detail to dad. So. anyway we have to take her in Thursday morning for her first of many procedures. This is just basically where they will go into the tooth and check to see how extensive the nerve damage actually is. Once we figure that out, they will tell us what the next step is. If its alive they will have to do some sort of bridge and fill it with medicine and try to keep the nerve alive until the roots are old enough to do a root canal, which at least takes until she is 8 years old. Or if its dead they have to pull it and put in an implant, or try to let her 12 year molar take over the 6 year's job, which would be a gamble. Man... this year we were inspired to save our tax returns, now I know why.
What is it with my kids and having these freaky medical issues. Holy smokes. I'll post on Thursday to keep you all updated.

Fun Times with Dad

Nolan- "I'm 3 dad, how old are you?"
Madison-"Dad's 30 Nolan, that's old, right dad?"
Dad-"Yeah, 30 is getting old compared to you guys"
Nolan- "When you get old you die"
Dad-blank stare, "ummm... only when you're really old"


The other day Madison and Nolan decided that they were going to do reading time on their beds. I thought that was a great idea and it would get them out of my hair for a few minutes. Well later that day I go into their room to find every book they own (about 200+) on Madison's bed. I was fuming but we were on the way out the door, so I told myself that I would have them clean it up later and didn't mention it to them. Well, I forgot and went to go work out so Judd was left with the mess at bed time. Oops

Dad- "what happened in here?!?!? You guys have to pick this up right now because its bed time"
Madison-"Dad, your ruining my life!"
Dad- blank stare

Kids are so cute sometimes (sarcasm)
ahhh, she's growing up so fast. I can't wait for the teenage years if this is what we're getting already. Woo hoo, sign me up.

Back to racing

Well, I competed in my first adventure race since having the baby. It made me realize how out of shape I am!! It was only about a 10 mile race, but man, the last two days my butt's been killing me. I have about 8 weeks to get in shape for my big race that covers about 30+ miles, I'd better get moving! Judd did this race with me, it was his first time. It was fun racing, but I'm not sure how much fun he had. He got kind of irritated because we were a little mixed up on one of the check points. On the topo map it looked like you could go around this ledge by the river, but it was a sheer drop off, and we had to go back around the mountain, waisting like 40 minutes. That wasn't fun, but I feel like I learn something new every time I race. Other than that we blasted through the rest of the orienteering points. When we finally got to the river portion it was starting to get super hot, so the cold water felt amazing. Judd had a hard time on his inner tube, but I felt great and paddled like a banshee. We even got to see a herd of wild horses drinking from the river. I love racing. Judd was a little too competitive for me, I just like to have fun when I'm going. We finished in about 3 hours and we were both out of commission for the rest of the day, taking naps in shifts. There were only a few minor injuries, I rolled my ankle and Judd had some cactus in his foot, but we were prepared with some tweezers. I'm not sure if he's planning on doing more or not. Our next race is coming up August 9 so he has a little time to think about it.

Keeping it Real

My friend Mary did a post about keeping it real. I'm inspired.

So... what really goes on in my house. Well I'm not perfect that's for sure. My house is definitely not always clean as you will see from the evidence below. I do argue with my husband, I even yell at my kids sometimes. I'm not organized. I don't make my bed every morning, I don't make my husband's lunch, sometimes dinner is eggo waffles or chicken nuggets and french fries, even though we had it for lunch, not everything that comes out of my kids' mouths is cute. I don't mop my floor every week, sometimes my kids wear the same clothes for 3 days, sometimes I wear the same clothes for 3 days. My kids throw fits, fight and sometimes watch TV for 3 hours straight.

Today I am ditching church because I'm tired and I ate a cupcake for breakfast. Maybe I'll do those dirty dishes, or maybe I'll read a book in my few precious hours of quiet...hmmm.

I'm comfortable writing this for some reason. Our home may not be perfect, but I love it. Perfect to me is boring. I love going in the bathroom to see that a whole bottle of liquid soap has been dumped in the toilet, or that my eyeliner has been used as a crayon on the bathroom wall or step in the sticky mystery liquid all over the floor. It keeps me on my toes. There definitely aren't any surprises around here that often, but there is love and hugs and kisses, and playfulness. I do have a husband who loves me more than I deserve sometimes, and 3 beautiful healthy kids. I feel that we are a happy, normal family and what else could I ask for.

So I am tagging all of you to keep it real, no pressure :) (to be perfect anyway)

Mary you're starting a movement :)

This is dinner from last night still sitting on the table. Notice there are only 3 plates, that's because for some reason I am the only person who puts my plate in the dishwasher when I'm finished eating. "Don't worry, mom will do it"

For some reason, this is what my kitchen looks like every Sunday morning. What is it with weekends!?

I hate dishes!

Sometimes I don't make my bed until the afternoon. In fact, some days I don't even find time to go into my bedroom until after the kids are asleep.

Behold the explosion before you... This is embarrassing. This is the only storage closet in our house, therefore everything that doesn't have a place goes in there. There's not much space left is there?!?
This is my refrigerator, I don't think its that bad. No, that is root beer, promise.

All Growed Up!

After a year of trying to convince me... she finally did. I chopped Madison's hair right off yesterday. It was not an easy thing for me to do. I have to admit that I was not feeling well when I did it, but now I love it. No more wild woman. She looks so much older.

Madison's messy mane before...

Madison all grown up...

Too Much Excitement For One Night

Well, I love the fourth of July. I love to take the kids to see fireworks and have barbecues and wear those corny shirts that you can only wear once. This year though, turned out to be quite a bummer. First of all, all of our family was out of town, so there was no swimming and barbecuing. So we thought that we would make it a fun night and go somewhere to watch fireworks. We went down to Mesquite High School because they had fun things for the kids to do. Well the sky was looking kind of nasty and I wasn't sure if we should go, but Judd insisted that we would be fine. We arrived at Mesquite at about 7:00 p.m. and all was well, besides the fact that it was stinking hot!!! They had a bunch of stuff for kids to do, water activities and jumping castles. They were charging $1 per ride so I bought each kids 5 tickets. They couldn't decide what to do first. Madison wanted to jump in the princess jumping castle and Nolan wanted to jump in the dinosaur jumping castle. We picked the dinosaur castle and its a good thing too. As soon as we got in line the wind started blowing like crazy. Somehow, the princess castle deflated and blew over!!! Thank goodness there were no kids in there. Then Nolan started freaking out because the huge dinosaur head that was on top of the jumping castle was blowing down towards him. Poor kid, I can't imagine what he was thinking. The look in his eyes was one of pure terror. I thought this was kind of funny, shows how insensitive I am. He kept screaming "don't put me in there!!" I think he may be traumatized and never jump in a jumping castle again. So, on we go... The wind was blowing harder and dust storms were blowing in. I decided that being out there with all of the kids was a bad idea. The baby was sound asleep in the stroller through all of this, thank goodness. I told Judd we needed to go, and I would take the kids back to the car while he helped his friend pack up his stuff. So here I was pushing a stroller loaded with lawn chairs, food, drinks, blankets, and a baby; trying to keep him covered because the wind kept blowing the shade visor thing down, and trying to hold the stroller up because it was trying to blow over. Madi and Nolan are at my heals, and I can't remember where we parked. The kids are crying because of the storm and we are walking up and down every isle of the parking lot. Somehow, I totally kept cool, and didn't scream or flip anyone off. It was amazing. We finally found the car and are still alive today. Whew! We ended up watching fireworks on TV at home which was better than nothing. Here is a picture of the kids right before the drama unfolded. I hope next year brings even more excitement. Oh yeah, I never did get my $10 back. Blast!