Sweet moments when they think no one is watching...

Last night when I was feeding the baby Nolan came and asked me to scratch his back. I didn't have a free hand at the time so I told him to wait until I was done. He then went into the living room where Madison was sitting on the couch reading a book. He asked her so sweetly "sissy, will you scratch my back?" She said sure and I decided that I would put the baby down and spy on them. It was so cute. She sat there scratching his back and he had his "serious back scratch face" on. She did it for a while and then he asked her for a back massage. It was pretty funny. She was a good sport, until she started tickling him and it broke out into a wrestling match. Ah, they really do love each other.

After many weeks of Madison having a loose tooth, it finally came out! Judd has been bugging her forever to let him pull it out. She would scream and cover her mouth and hide. On Saturday Judd and I went out on a date and Makenna and Gene were babysitting. She let Gene tie floss around her tooth but then she lost her nerve and decided she wanted to take the floss off. When she went to take it off her tooth basically fell out of her mouth. She says it was pretty funny. Then comes the best part: Playing tooth fairy. Except we couldn't find the tooth anywhere under the pillow! We searched forever but couldn't find it. So we left a dollar and hoped that she would forget about the tooth. Well, the first thing she says when she wakes up in the morning "Guess what?!?! The tooth fairy left me a dollar and she didn't even take my tooth! Maybe I can put it under my pillow and she'll give my another dollar tonight!" She's a thinker, that one. She's been playing with that tooth and even wants to take it to school. She put it back under her pillow (or so she thought) and hoped the tooth fairy would come again. Later that day she went in looking for it and it was gone. We told her the tooth fairy is out of money and snuck in to get it while she wasn't looking. (Judd actually found it on the desk) so at least we're not out another dollar. Now she looks like a little blond hillbilly. Judd calls her picket fence. It almost looks like she has one tooth in the middle of her mouth.

By the way, this is how she looks when she wakes up. Serious case of bed head!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

To the best papa and dad in the whole world!!!

WE LOVE YOU!

OH BABY!

I got the sweetest pictures of my littlest man yesterday. He's so handsome!

Quality Time

We had a really fun weekend! I probably haven't mentioned that I am a very cool wife yet (but I am) For Christmas I got Judd this really awesome Handheld GPS that is also a walkie talkie and can hook up to the computer and download maps and tells the weather forecast, its one of the greatest inventions of all time (besides microwaves and baby swings) It has given us many chances to have some fun family outings. We have been going geochaching a lot, and for those of you who aren't geeks and don't know what that is, I'll break it down for you.

There are these groups of geeky people (sorry if I'm offending someone, but admit it...) who place objects in inconspicuous places and then get the coordinates for that object. They then go and put the coordinates on their website so other people can go and look for them. So we've been searching for these things all over the place. On Saturday we went down to the Riparian Preserve looking around and found a few. One was a treasure box hidden under a bush down by the water (some of these things are really hard to find) It had a bunch of little items in it because when you find it you are supposed to leave something behind and write your name and date on a paper. People thought that we were crazy digging through trees at the park, but what can I say, we are pretty weird. The kids had a blast and I highly recommend it as a family activity, unless you are too cool.

Sunday we were all sick with colds and coughs and decided that we weren't going to go to church. It was such a nice day out, and such a shame that we were stuck inside all day that we lived on the edge a little bit and took everyone up to four peaks for the day. We shot Judd's gun and had a picnic and a hike. It was so nice out.

Coulson was such a good sport. He just chilled out in the stroller while we were shooting. Luckily it was only a 22, so it wasn't loud.

Don't worry, we've not fallen away. Monday night we had FHE on keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. We apologized to the kids and hopefully they are not going to beg us to miss every week now! You should have saw them when we said we weren't going, you would think I told them they won a million dollars. Madison is already giving me trouble about going. Last week I didn't get to go because Nolan was sick then too, so Madison started coughing on purpose hoping I would think she was sick. That girl's has some ideas, let me tell you!

In other news, Lets talk Cardinals. I am not an NFL fan. I am not a pro sports fan of any kind. They get paid too much money and are all a bunch of punks and whine about not making enough money. I can't find it in me to jump on the band wagon. Judd especially can't stand them and all he hears at work is CARDINALS CARDINALS CARDINALS. He is pretty annoyed. I was going through the baby's clothes this week and found a Cardinals onsie. I'm going to dress him in it and see what Judd says when he gets home. HAHA. No offense to my Cardinal loving Friends out there. Larry Fitzgerald does have a nice tush. I will watch just for that reason ;)

Nolan's Birthday

We had Nolan's birthday party this past Saturday. I always try to convince myself that I will take it easy and just do a casual party that doesn't take a lot of work. At least that's how it started out. Then I found all of these cute ideas on web sites and I couldn't resist. I wanted to do sack races, but I couldn't find sacks so sweet Wendy gave me some material and I was able to sew all of the sacs. They turned out really great. Thanks Wendy! The kids had so much fun, except Madison, who couldn't quite figure out how to hop inside of the sack, and just sat on the ground and pouted. We played kickball. That was probably my favorite part. The kids all lined up to kick and the adults were in the infield. Every time a kid would kick we would catch the ball and throw it at them before they could reach first base. They would all crash to the ground and oh my gosh, it was so funny!! I don't know what's so funny about hitting someone with a kickball, but it was hilarious. Sorry again to all of the moms who's kids I injured while playing. Then for the rest of the time the kids just ran around and played on the playground. I made these fun cupcakes that took up most of my party preparation time. They are supposed to look like frogs, but they kind of look like, well I don't even know what they look like, but they were cute. All in all it was a fun morning, and all of the kids took a nap afterward, even me :) This is Nolan and his really cool Batman bike. He was so excited! Don't mind all the crap in the background. That's Judd's weight room/tool shed/storage unit/garage/what ever else we need it to be. Hey, at least my car fits in there!

WARNING: don't look down if you are easily grossed out by a severely messy face.

Coulson had his first experience with one of those teething cookies. (his first little tooth came in last week) He loved it for about 10 minutes and then he would just drop it on the floor and stare at it. That was one of the messiest things I've ever had to clean up. It was a big sticky slobberfest. I think I'll take Marianne's idea and give him a carrot next time.

My Husband: the hard worker

This is a shout out to my man. I've mentioned before how he is so wonderful and does my laundry for me and also lets me get away with buying senseless things now and then (as long as he is properly distracted) and he also bakes. But this is not about all of the wonderful things he does at home, no, this is about the wonderful things he does at his job.

Arrives at work 15 minutes early every day (I think its just to get away from home before the storm hits...)

Gets chased and sometimes bitten by dogs, mostly small ones but the occasional one will be big and he gives it a good "kick to the dome" is how he phrases it.

Gets to see countless numbers of people breaking the law

Nasty toothless ladies hit on him

One time while he was working an order some guy started going to the bathroom on the ground right next to him.

He has been almost jumped several times, threatened with weapons. He has had his stuff stolen. He definitely deals with an interesting lot.

One time on the way to work his car broke down. He was so worried that he would be late that he ran to work. He is very dedicated, like I said.

I am grateful for a wonderful man that gets up and works a hard, honest days work to support his family. I've never once heard him complain in the morning that he doesn't want to go. I'm so glad its him and not me that supports our family.

I'm going to be honest here. I could never keep a job. I don't ever want to go and I would always call in sick. One time I even told my boss that I had been bitten by a scorpion, another time my house caught on fire. Seriously, I was that person at work. I'm so glad I can stay home now!! Thank you to my wonderful husband!! I love you!

Resolutions

Happy New Year!!! I can't believe its 2009! I remember watching some futuristic movies when I was little and the year was supposed to be 2010. They had flying cars and everyone lived in these weird little bubbles. I can't imagine that happening within the next year. Oh wait, with our new president who knows. Maybe we will all go and live on the moon or something.

Judd and I went over our resolutions together last night. There are so many so I've decided to write them down.

My biggest being... to give up sugar and white flour. This is a hard one for me. I have done it in the past though so I think I can totally do it again. The past week I've been doing this grapefruit diet. Where I eat a grapefruit before every meal. Its been awesome. I've lost like 9 lbs in a week!! Its great because all the grapefruit helps you to feel full longer and helps you not have cravings.

Another one was to say "I'm sorry" more. I've said it probably twice since we've been married. Well, really I'm never wrong, so technically I don't have to say sorry, but I'm going to do it just to be nice.

Then my favorite one is to laugh everyday.

Also, I want to enjoy my kids more. I was at the Dr. with the baby a few weeks ago and there was this little girl there in the waiting room with her mom and grandma. She was probably around 4 and very curious. She was trying to talk to her mom and grandma and they just had the meanest looks on their face. She would say "Ooooh Grandma look at this!" and the grandma with her hateful look would say, "Don't touch that, or what do you think you're doing?"

I felt so bad for that little girl. She didn't seem to notice, probably because she sees them looking at her like that all the time. But I couldn't help but thinking how it must feel for a little child to try to express themselves to the people they love most in the world and get a scowl in return. How would I feel if I was scowled at and talked down to all day? Poor little thing. So I guess I'm going to try and be more accepting of my kids, even when they are naughty. That's going to be a hard one.

IN OTHER NEWS!!

Texas is coming to Glendale to play in the Fiesta Bowl!!! Here are the kids representing!!

Kids say the darndest things

Lately the kids have been hilarious.

Nolan~ "I need to do my homework so I can go to college"

Madison~ "Nolan William Rich!! Get over here right now mister or mother will put you in time out, won't you mother?!!"

Nolan ~"How does Coulson turn his head if he doesn't have a neck?"
Judd ~ "he has a neck son, he's just wearing a collar"

Madison~ "I know that man is not Santa. He's just some old guy wearing a suit pretending to be Santa. Besides I don't need a Santa. I know you and dad put the presents under the tree anyway." (don't worry, as of Christmas morning she still believes)

Mom~ "Nolan, pick up your toys or I'm going to throw them away"
Nolan~ "Okay, throw them away then"

Madison~ "Why do we have to have that for dinner?!?! Someday when I'm like 37 and I have to cook for my kids I will only make stuff that tastes good, like cookies and cake and cereal. I'll wear my strawberry shortcake apron. It will be awesome"

Madison~ "Can our next baby have dark skin?"

For Christmas Madison brought home this little cookbook that they made in her class. They asked all the kindergartners to choose their favorite recipe, tell the ingredients and how to prepare it. As I looked through it I saw one little boy had chosen pizza and told to make the dough and put on toppings. Another did spaghetti and gave instructions to boil water and heat the sauce. Then when I reached Madison's page I couldn't help but crack up laughing. This is what hers says word for word

Blueberry Waffles:
Take them out of the freezer. Cook them in the toaster. Put them on a plate and put the syrup on them. Put blueberries on top.

I swear I cook. At least it wasn't as bad as this kid:
Cereal.
Pour cereal and milk in a bowl. Eat it with a spoon.

I love kindergarten!!!

Junk Food and other stuff

Don't you just love Christmas time and how it makes your waist line a little bigger each day? I swore to myself this year that I would be good and not over do it. I've been doing really good at my work out lately and I thought I would be able to keep stuff under control. However, I keep receiving plates of cookies and candy and they just sit there on my counter all day staring at me. They are saying "eat me" in flashing lights and I give in.
So Please...if you care about me at all you will refrain from bringing sugary stuff to me for Christmas. Scratch that... if you care about me at all don't bring me anything EDIBLE! I will love you just the same if you just give me a card.

In other news Nolan is driving me crazy. He is probably one of the reasons why I am eating all this junk food. He is a little stress causer. I don't know what it is with him now a days. Are your kids ever so naughty that you think about dropping them off at a fire station? Pretend I didn't just write that. Today, for instance. I had to take a toy away from him and you would think I'd ripped his arm off or something. He threw the biggest fit. Rolling around, throwing stuff and having the "Ugly Cry" I know all you mom's know what "the ugly cry" is. The cry that makes you want to cover your face and pretend you don't know them. Well, he was doing that and I put him in his room where he continued to throw things against the wall, rip the covers off of his bed and slam his door. Is this what I really signed up for?
He shuts it off as fast as he turns it on though. We went for a fun junk food ;) making party at Natalie's a few minutes later and he was good as gold for 2 hours. I brought him home for his nap and when I laid him down he was smiling at me. I was wondering what the smile was for because it was pretty mischievous. I asked him and he said "I just think you're pretty."
This is where I feel a quote from Bella Swan would be appropriate... "Your mood swings are giving me whiplash"

Anyway, hope everyone is having A very fat, I mean Merry Christmas. Except you, Jessica Slade, who somehow loses 8 lbs in the month of December!!!! How is that humanly possible around the holidays?!?!?!

Musings

Well, what can I say...I've been super busy and have wanted to blog so bad but I have to think of something to write about. Nothing exciting has been going on. We did get our family pictures taken as you can see above. That was interesting. The kids did make it through pretty well. Any hoo.... things on my mind have been the following...

Very glad that I married my husband. Tonight at dinner we were talking about why we married each other, and no, it wasn't as mushy as it sounds. His main reason was that I didn't have any credit card debt like other girls in college did. Geez could he be any smoother.

I decided that he was meant for me. He is quite possibly the only man on the face of the earth that will put up with my crap, and believe you me, there is a lot of it. He does it gracefully. There is a certain comforting reassurance every time we fight and he is annoying the %@#! out of me. I think "Well, this is the best I'll ever have it, so I might as well enjoy it. Even the fighting." Our fights get pretty interesting after that. I say "fights" but what I really mean is me complaining and irritating and pressing his buttons... all the while him putting up with it until he's finally had enough and actually says something back. Like I said, he's perfect for me.

I am perfect for him too though. He's still a kid at heart and most of the time he needs someone to boss him around and reassure him. A week ago he decided to go bird hunting alone. I said "you should take my cell phone" he said "I'll only be gone a little while" i said "just be quiet and take the phone!"
Can you see where this is going?
Well he's up in the mountains doing whatever guys do when they are alone with a gun... shooting at things running through the desert playing army soldier... i don't know. Its about 5:00 and the sun is going down. I get dinner cooking on the oven, am getting ready to lay the baby down for a nap, cleaning, listening to crazy kids, the usual. The phone rings and its him. He's locked his keys in the trunk of his car and he's out on the side of the road in BFE. He doesn't know what to do. I say "break the window" He doesn't want to do that because its expensive, I say "call AAA" he says "its dark and I'm sitting out here in the middle of nowhere. Who knows when they'll show up" I say "well what the heck do you want me to do?" We decided that I would go pick him up. So I take my dinner that is half way done off of the stove, load up a whiny baby and hyper kids and take the 35 minute drive to get him. Its a good thing he brought that cell phone because it would have been a long walk.
Well, I finally get there and he is still contemplating what to do. Now he's decided he doesn't want to leave his car because he's locked his gun in it. I say "just break the ding dang window!!"
I get out of the car to be "supportive" He picks up a rock the size of a football and is standing by his car staring at it. He really didn't want to do it. But I was being that inner "bad" voice "do it, do it, do it" I was excited. Vandalism at its best. He admitted he was feeling a little nauseous (don't you dare tell him I told you that) because he doesn't like breaking things. You're a MALE for goodness sakes. Breaking things is what you're best at! So he starts hitting the window reluctantly. It breaks and I can tell he's upset that I talked him into it, but he was a good sport. I went back home still pretty irritated that I had to drive all the way out there just so he could break the window. Long story short, he needs me.

Anyway just a few ponderings on my mind. Hope you've enjoyed them!

Mad Mud Run

I had my mud run today. It was really fun. Really Cold. Really Muddy, but fun. Here's some fun pictures.

This was the team I raced with from my gym. Me, Amber, Alyssa, Heidi and Lovinda. We were nice and clean.

Me getting ready (still clean). I brought the kids. My dad played photographer and babysitter at the same time. Very talented.
The mud pit. That's me in the middle. My shirt was yellow. I wondered how Amber stayed so clean. Cheater! Amber: judd has brought to my attention that you threw mud in my face. Check seconds #8-9.

This was my forever long line to get rinsed off. Those little white tents are dressing rooms in which it was best to have no shame if you know what I mean.

G.N.O. pics

Thanks to Steph for sharing pictures. I always forget my camera!
This I thought was funny. These bags say "Hyperventilating bags...don't forget to breath" A little extreme.

Here are our awesome shirts. We looked so cool!

Hanging in the lawn chairs. Sandee brought this fun game called Curses. Marianne was doing sign language, Amber had dancing arms, I had to talk in an Irish accent. It was too fun.

Don't worry, we didn't bust out the Quija board;) Just kidding!! Geez!
Fun times with a mean waitress at Chili's!

Worth The Wait

We went to our movie last night and let me just say...It did not disappoint!! Waiting all night and being in a theater with a broken AC unit was totally worth it! We did get a free pass though, and I will be going to see it again next weekend. I only slept about 3 hours last night. About the movie... no spoilers, but I must say that Edward was WAY better than I thought he would be. In fact I was pleasantly surprised with all of the actors. All in all it had to be the best girls night out ever. Marianne says it is the best movie of all time. I can't tell if she means the script was great or she's obsessed with Edward. It was the perfect mix of funny, romance, excitement and hotness. I'll post some fun Pictures as soon as someone sends me some because I forgot my camera like always!!!

nothing good

Okay, I usually try to get on here once a week. Nothing great enough has happened, to write about. Had a great Girl's night out with Marianne!! (Thanks for that, by the way)... I've been going to the gym... butts sore, backs sore, legs sore... got a wonderful massage from Stephanie (THANKS!) BUT....Only one more day until our movie. YAY. I will take tons of pictures to share with you all on Friday! Kids are good, getting over colds, like the rest of you I'm sure. I can play one full Christmas song on the piano! In case you didn't know, I've been taking piano for over a year, and I'm slowly getting to the point where piano is fun. My house is a mess, my car needs to be washed, I need to vacuum and mop, but guess what... I'm going to go lay in my bed and watch TV until I fall asleep because my kids are napping. Why not!?

Funny Memories

Today I took the boys to the mall to do some shopping. As I walked past Victoria's Secret a memory flashed into my mind...
It was over the summer and I had taken all three kids to the mall (don't ask why, I must be crazy) While I was there I decided I needed a new bra, so I took the kids into Victoria's Secret and was trying on bras and had them with me in the dressing room (even crazier) They weren't too naughty actually. While I was at the check out line I heard Madison say.... "OOOh I just love this pretty dress, can I have one??" I turned around and what I saw probably made my face turn bright red. There was Madison, standing next to a mannequin that was wearing the raciest lingerie you've ever seen and she was rubbing its naked behind!!! To make things worse Nolan was rubbing the rear of the one next to it. The store was packed and people were just laughing. My kids are strange.