Day: Who Knows

Hey, remember me? I'm that lady that use to write on here a lot. Where did I go? I don't know, but it was a far a way busy town where everyone is always running a hundred miles an hour and often forget the purpose of life.

So, I've fallen so far behind that my goal of writing once a day is long gone. Oh well. There will come a time in my life  when I am not so busy that I can actually write every single day, but that is just not a possibility in my life right now. I'll give a brief recap on why I'm so crazy busy and that will have to do. I'll also write a couple funny things that have been going on and quickly, briefly catch myself up here. Then I promise I'll be better, but I can also promise I won't write every day.
What's Keeping Me Crazy:

1. I'm training for the Epic Relay
2. I'm doing my darnedest to potty train my 2 year old
3. I'm working from home writing SEO articles (and that's the big one)
4. I have a 6 month old baby (the other big one)
5. I'm babysitting 2 kids for the summer, no, wait, 3
6. It's summer.

So in between all these happenings I am also doing churchy things, feeding my family, planning meals, couponing, doing yard work, folding laundry, cleaning toilets, and desperately, desperately trying to find five minutes for myself, but I honestly (and I really am not just saying this) can't remember the last time that happened, hence my not writing on here, I simply have not had 5 minutes to do it. These are some crazy times right now, but we'll get through them and be better people on the other side.

Now, on to the latest happenings around here.

1. We bought ourselves a minivan!
2. We've started over potty training about 100 times
3. Alivia now says "mama"! (First word, first said Thursday July 14, 2011)
4. Lucy has been taking swimming lessons
5. Alivia started sleeping through the night
6. Alivia stopped sleeping through the night
7. Alivia now eats her weight in baby food every day.
8. Jack has turned into a little demon child, hoping this phase passes quickly.

I'm sure there is much much more that I am forgetting, and many more things that I am blocking from my memory intentionally.  Now for the longer more detailed version of the brief summaries listed above:

1. We bought a minivan! So, about 5 weeks I found the PERFECT minivan through out local Honda dealership, and it was an awesome price. I was a silver 2005 Honda Odyssey that seated 8. I was totally pumped about it. It had 90,000 miles on it, but it's a Honda so it still had a lot left to give. I was so excited about it but we couldn't get into the dealership until Saturday because of Shawn's work. So, on Saturday morning we called in to make sure they still had it there while we were driving home from Denver. It was still there. So I took Lucy to swimming lessons and then came home and cleaned out our CRV until it glistened. Then we headed over to the dealership. I saw this van parked right out front and I knew it had sold. It sold about an hour before we got there. I was devastated. A week later I paid our CRV payment and then checked the dealerships website. They had just put up a new listing for a 2004 Honda Odyssey with only 70,000 miles on it that cost $3000 less than the other one, and it included a DVD player! Down side, it only seated 7. At this point it didn't matter. We rushed over to the dealership that night, looked at it, and then we were back there the next morning to buy it. Now our monthly car payment is lower than what it was with the CRV! The day we bought it was crazy because I had a hair appointment that I scheduled a month ago right in the middle of things, Lucy had swimming lessons on the other side of town, and Shawn had Youth Conference he had to get to, but somehow we pulled it off, and we LOVE our new van.
2. Potty training Jack, I really just don't even want to talk about it, it's just terrible.
3. Alivia said her first word! And it's "mama"! She doesn't just say mamamamamama either. In fact, she only says it when she wants something, or when she feels like I'm neglecting her, she calls for me. It's so cute. She scrunches up here little face and squints her little eyes and says "mama!" She actually pulls a lot of funny faces lately. There is the closed mouth, gums together cheeks puffed out look, her cabbage patch doll look, so stinking cute. Her eye brows up look, and then scrunched up squealing "I have something to say" look. She says mama. I love it. It melts me. I've earned it.
4. Lucy's swimming lessons. So, I signed Lucy up for some swimming lessons at the pool in our neighborhood. Problem was I didn't want to pay $80 for one child for swimming lessons, especially since I used to teach them, it frustrates me to pay anything at all. So, I signed her up for the Saturday only lessons. There were only four of them so they were half price (still a total rip off). So she went and they basically just played in the water with her. It was frustrating for me because I knew she was ready to learn more than how to play motor boat. Anyway those lessons simply accomplished a little bit of water awareness and taught Lucy how fun it is to play in the pool, something she didn't need me to pay $40 for her to learn. Then Shawn found a groupon deal for $25 swimming lessons for two weeks. Now that's more like it. So we signed her up, I drove her across town for two weeks, with 5 kids each trip (babysitting Haylee and Caleb), and now she is a swimming junkie. Well, sort of, but at least she knows the basics which is what I expected her to be able to learn at the first lessons. Jack has his turn coming up in December sometime.
5. Alivia decided that she was good and ready to start sleeping through the night. She's been doing this for basically 3 weeks. It's the solid foods that are the secret here. The only problem with her sleeping through the night is that she feels like 5:30 is an appropriate time to say good morning to the world and wakes up her brother and sister in the process. Has anyone ever noticed that I'm not a morning person? Because I'm pretty sure my kids and my husband are noticing.
6. Alivia decided she's done with the whole sleeping through the night thing too. After about 2 weeks of sleeping through the night, Shawn and I went to the 7th Harry Potter movie and left the kids with a sitter. I told the sitter that Alivia (who I'd already put to bed) would sleep the entire time, and I think she did, she just woke up right away when I got home. Then she spent the next 4 nights wake up to make sure I was still there. But for the past two nights she has reverted back to her old habit of sleeping through the night until 5:30. I don't know which I prefer, either way I'm totally sleep deprived.
7. Alivia LOVES baby food. She pounds the rice cereal, the oatmeal cereal, any kind of vegetables, fruits, and her personal favorite is the new fancy stuff I've been buying her, things like granola blends and meals in a bottle. Basically, I have yet to see her refuse anything! I'm loving this! It's making me feel much better about leaving her tomorrow to go run for 2 days. I know she for sure won't starve even through the one thing she refuses to take is a bottle. Little stinker.
8. Jack has been giving us a run for our money. He use to be my sweet little boy that melted my heart no matter what he did. Honestly, he could do no wrong. Now, I have NO IDEA where my sweet little boy went. Today Jack throws the biggest tantrums known to man, he is deliberately defiant in a way that I never knew was possible, and he is constantly dreaming up new ways to make my day even worse. A couple of days ago he had 6 accidents on my floors, 6! So it's back to the pull ups. He scatters board game pieces around the entire house, gets into my bag of sugar (the bag is a thing of the past, it's now in a good Jack proof (hopefully) container), smears my walls with mud, wipes his face on his chair, some how pees around his pull up at night (not entirely his fault, but still), throws rocks into the street, hits the car with baseball bats, sticks his arm up tail pipes, spits (oh how I hate that one), hits small unsuspecting children (boils my blood), kicks his nursery teacher (right in front of me, so I kicked him back), and at the end of a long hard day of a combination of all these things, he throws a brand new roll of toilet paper into the bath tub. Who knew something so little could be the straw that breaks the camels back? Oh my sweet little Jack, where ever you are, will you please, please come back to me? I don't like this little demon that is taking your place.

If you have made it this far you are a trooper. I needed to write these things down for my own good. There are so many nights when I lay down and think to myself, "Someday I'll look back and actually miss these days, or so I've been told." And as terrible as some days are, I know I'll want to look back when I wonder how I ever got threw them. That, and my kids do some funny things everyday and if I write more I'll remember more.

One last thing, I have to write about my day yesterday because it was a doosey. We woke up and came downstairs only to be reminded that neither Shawn nor I did the dishes last night. My kitchen was in shambles! My love seat had a mountain of laundry on it that I could not get to because I was SWAMPED with work, my desk resembled New Orleans post Katrina, and I don't even want to document what the kids bathroom looked like. As I walked down the stairs I could feel my stress level and blood pressure rising. Shawn must have had the same feeling because he knew I was so busy with work that day. I was on the verge of tears. I HATE when my house is out of control which is funny because it is more often than it's not these days.

Anyway, I had a noon deadline for 5 articles to write, Jack was being TERRIBLE, and Alivia was being high maintenance. I knew right then there was no way I was going to be able to meet my dead line. Shawn did what he could to help and got a load of dishes in the dishwasher. Too bad we had about 3 loads accumulated. Seriously, I've been SO SO busy this week with work. Anyway, I did my best, missed my deadline, and my house still looks terrible. That said, once I did get my articles in (3 hours late), I implemented my friend Haley's filing system, so now my desk looks AMAZING! That's probably why I'm sitting here typing. My desk is so clean and organized that it's become my own personal stress free zone. LOVE IT. So now I need to stop typing and start cleaning. It will feel good. But I wanted to take a minute to just write, because it needed to be done.

Days 104-113: On Pause

I've been so terrible lately. Once I get behind, the task of catching up is daunting and it turns into a big mess really quick. So, a brief summary of days 104-113:

Day 104: Monday: Kids are on the mend from being sick, I clipped a lot of coupons, have a lot more to go. Boring day, no highlights., and Monday night TV is terrible.

Day 105: Tuesday: Something really funny happened today that I was excited to write about. Wish I had, now it is forgotten for the ages. That said, I did clip more coupons.

Day 106: Wednesday: Another day of little happenings. Lucy is coming along really really well on the piano, she is obsessed. I think I will start punching holes in the wall if I have to listen to Mary Had a Little Lamb one more time, but I'm happy she loves it, and I know this is something I need to get use to and encourage. Thank goodness she is starting to play Jolly Old Saint Nicolas and Old McDonald just as much, at least I have variety.

Day 107: Put Jack down for a nap in my room since it worked wonders yesterday. Ran back up to his screams of pain 10 minutes later to find that Jack had gotten into my deodorant and picked it to pieces with his fingernail, then he rubbed it in his eyes. I could see chunks of white antiperspirant in his eyes, and Jack was screaming. I had to fish chunks out with a q-tip. Jack: lesson learned.

Another highlight of today was the kids and I were in a tornado storm. No, we did not see the actual tornado, but it definitely was crossing my mind before I even heard there was one. I took Lucy to dance, which was only a half hour today. When we got there the weather was calm, cloudy, but calm. When we walked out it was unbelievably windy. The gusts were so strong (even by Colorado Springs standards) that the thought of a tornado crossed my mind. As soon as I shut my door after loading the kids the hail started. As we drove home out of the major part of the storm, sure enough a tornado warning came across the radio warning people to bunker down and get the heck out of mobile homes. Lucy has been very paranoid about this ever since.

Day 108: Just in case I didn't learn my lesson about Jack sleeping in my room for naps yesterday, we got the message today. I put him down, Shawn came home from work early to leave for Utah, I went back into our room to find this:

No, he was in our bathroom dumping 3 different kinds of cleaners into our toilet bowl and stirring them up with my toilet wand. He poured a bunch of Commet into the bowl, sprayed some Windex in it, and tried his hardest to pour the Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner in there, but that was closed with a child proof lid. Oh he's so lucky he is cute.

Day 109: My full day with Shawn gone. Kinda had a knot in my stomach most of the day. We had a rough morning. At one point I finally just made Lucy call her dad because she was having attitude issues. She burst into tears before I even handed her the phone. Shawn asked her what was going on and she said through giant crocodial tears and sobs "I'm just having a hard time being obedient." My poor little girl hates to disappoint. I couldn't help but hold her in my arms while she talked to her daddy. As naughty as she was being (throwing little tantrums) so that we got to the point that she had to call daddy, she still wants so bad to be our helper and make us happy. I've got news for you, she has me wrapped around her finger.

Tonight at about 6:00 I was ready for the kids to go to bed, more than ready. They weren't being bad, I was just EXHAUSTED! So, since I couldn't put them to bed yet, I laid on the living room floor by Alivia and let Lucy and Jack play with my hair. This is something Jack did for a full hour! Good thing I have a hard head and actually like pulls and tugs. It was so relaxing, I LOVE when people play with my hair, LOVE IT! And it got me through the hardest part of my day.

Day 110: Sunday. You know my feelings about Sundays. It's a love hate relationship. This Sunday wasn't going to be too much different. Shawn is always gone all morning anyway so it wasn't going to be any different for me until we got to church. My friend Megan Vest called before church to see if she could help me with anything, she's so sweet. Her husband and Shawn went out to Utah together for the BYU Rugby game, so she knew I was on my own. I just asked if she would sit by me at church. She gladly helped me man the kids, but they were actually really really good. Then she even brought dinner over to our house and we all ate when the boys got home. It's so great to have such awesome friends in our ward, I don't think I ever want to leave this place.

Day 111: Shawn is home, but I got no weekend. I was given a really big project of articles to tackle for work, and that has consumed every extra minute I have. I worked on it through the weekend (one reason why I SO didn't want Shawn to leave me this weekend), and all through today. My house was spotless yesterday, but took a major hit today, and I still have 3 more articles to get done tomorrow.

Day 112: Worked on articles again all day today. Jack decided to take advantage of my distraction and throw our Blu-ray remote into the toilet bowl. I love my little boy, I do, I love him. That remote is now sitting in a bowl of rice on our counter and we are offering silent prayers that it will work again. I'm a little concerned about it since I had to hold it upside down for 10 minutes to let the water drain out of it.

Day 113: Good news in the Blu-ray department, the remote has been saved. I took a day off from work today partly because I couldn't force myself to sit at the computer for one more minute, and partly because my kids needed there mom today. That big project took more time than my normal ones do and my kids were starting to notice by yesterday afternoon. We didn't do anything exciting, weather was pretty crummy. We just played. My kids have become big fans of tickle parties as we call them. That's when I sit on the floor of the living room for 20-30 minutes and they run around me. When I catch them, I pin them down and tickle them. Easiest thing in the world, and the LOVE it!

Later tonight we went to Johnathan Farr's graduation party. He is one of the young men in our ward and our kids LOVE him. It was so fun. We ate hamburgers and hot dogs, and the kids got to take a minute to enjoy a real back yard since ours (for lack of a better word) sucks. It was a good, laid back night out of the house, something this mom desperately needed.

Day 103: A Sick Day

This Sunday I stayed home from church on account that Jack and Alivia were both sick. Jack was way behind on sleep, so when we got home from Denver I got Lucy ready for church as quickly as possible. Since Jack was beyond exhausted and actually sick with a cold, I gave him some cold medicine, prayed that it wouldn't excite him like it did Lucy at his age, and put him down for a nap. I love when I'm allowed to drug my kids and they actually get drowsy. The moment Shawn pulled into the driveway from his meetings I laid the baby down, sent Lucy off to church, and climbed into bed myself.

At 4:30 or so I woke up. I have never needed or enjoyed a nap so much in my entire life. I'd forgotten what those feel like, and just writing about it now makes me want one terribly bad again. I didn't cook dinner this night. We had left overs from feeding the missionaries on Friday. I guess my lazy attitude from yesterday carried over to today. I'll have to write more details about feeding the missionaries another time. All this talk about naps has made me more than excited it is bed time.

Day 102: Running to Catch Up

So, blogger being down about a week ago now has really messed me up. I went to post on Friday when it was down, and that put me behind a day, so Saturday I posted for Friday, and now today, Thursday I post for Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and today. Needless to say these posts will be brief and to the point, at least to the best of my abilities.

Saturday was probably one of the laziest days of my life. Jack woke up at about 5 am with a cough. We were all sharing a room, so I made Shawn take Jack downstairs so he didn't wake up the baby. I spoke too late, the baby was up, and Jack never went back to sleep so neither did Shawn.

Fast forward several exhausted hours, I put Alivia down for her morning nap and Shawn and I went for a 6 mile run together. It was so fun to do that together. We've been running for several weeks now but we've always had to do it on our own. It was so nice to have someone to talk to, and even better to have some uninterrupted time to talk with Shawn, even if most of our conversation was about how horrible running is. Big thanks to my in-laws for watching my kids, sorry about Jack wetting his pants.

The rest of my day was 100% lazy. I have to admit it was pretty nice to have a lazy day, it's been a while. That said, my definition of lazy is a lot different to day that it was a few years ago. I was popping up and down every 15 seconds or so for one kid or another. I watched Les Miserables with my in-laws, oh how I love Les Miserables. Shawn went to the BYU rugby game, so I spent my evening on my own. I'm pretty sure my kids exhausted their aunt Rebecca who may or may not ever want to see us again, and somehow I ended my lazy day slightly frustrated, it must be the stress of manning 3 kids.

Day 101: Blogger Down?

I tried to blog yesterday, on the real day 101, but blogger was down. Did anyone else have that problem? Well now it's a whole day late and I'm a whole lot less creative. All and all I think I am a pretty funny person in my mind. Unfortunately my mind and my communication skills have a disconnect, so when it comes time to get that really funny joke out, I always mess it up. I think I panic a little when I'm put on the spot. What can you do?

That was my random thought for the day. Jack and Lucy had a really funny interaction today, but now that it's tomorrow I can't remember it. I blame blogger on this one hundred and ten percent. I need to write all about tomorrows crazy day, but I can't right now because it's 1am, and I'm too mad at Shawn for not coming to look at my running route that we had hoped to do together tomorrow, no wait, in two days from today (that's getting confusing). He told me to wait, but this just in, I don't wait at 1 am. Goodnight!

Day 100: A 100th Day Miracle

Wow, 100 days (give or take). I really thought I'd make this a monumental day, but nothing all that monumental happened. There were no joyful 100th day celebrations or thoughts even. Just another day, except for one little thing...

Today is marked as a milestone in the potty training of Jack. Something clicked in his little mind today and he's learned that when he goes potty, he gets candy (which is a very big deal to this little guy who has mastered climbing and scooting chairs since Easter to get the aforementioned treat). Not only did it finally click to him that candy is the joyful consequence of making potty substances, but even bigger news is that he has learned to tell me when he needs to go. It was funny to watch him connecting the dots this afternoon as he told me that he needed to go pee pee, went, and then told me again 15 minutes later that he was ready for round 2. Usually when he makes this announcement it is after the fact and it just means I have a puddle to clean up, so instead of excitedly racing to the potty, I moan in annoyance that I waited too long as I fetch the carpet cleaner or mop.

Imagine my shock, excitement, and amazement when I went to my boy to find that he was still dry and actually needed to go. There was some seriously ridiculous celebratory dancing going on around here after the successful completion of that potty trip. He received 2 potty prizes, one for going, and one for telling me. What's even better is that it happened at least 5 more times before bed. Each time my heart felt lighter. Here I've sat for so many months stumped that their is a potty trained male in all the world, how did their mothers do it? And now I'm slowly preparing myself to join their proud ranks. It truly is something to be proud of.

What is funny about Jack learning to tell me when he needs to go potty is that I don't think holding it is involved in any way. I think Jack's entire motivation in going potty right now is his precious candy prize. I think that Jack has learned that if he wants candy, he has to go potty. So whenever the thought of a chocolate treat enters his little cranium, he decides to sucker his mom into assisting him empty his bladder so that he can indulge in a little piece of chocolate bliss. Hey, at least he knows he has to work for it right? I wish I had something I had to do before I allow myself to satisfy a chocolate craving, maybe then I wouldn't find myself perplexed by the pile of 15 Wonka wrappers that mysteriously accumulated around me in less that 5 minutes.

But seriously, I'm just stoaked that my little boy is catching on to this whole potty idea. Can you tell? He's worn underwear for weeks now except for during naps and at night, but I've been the one doing all the work, so there have been a lot of accidents and cleaning up as I've misjudged his bladder capacity and the length of time between bathroom visits. But today I will take back the mind that is rightfully mine as I begin the transfer of my son's bladder responsibility to him. Truly a marvelous 100th day.

Now if I could only bribe Alivia to sleep through the night... I kicked her out of my room last night at 1am. To do this I also had to kick Jack out of his room and he and Lucy are sharing for a few months. I'm only thinking of this now as I'm listening to Alivia squawk upstairs, not cry, literally squawk, and how is she making that thumping noise? I sounds like she is jumping on her bed, but I just know she isn't.

Day 99: Personalities

My kids have very opposite personalities. Shawn decided to evaluate our kids tonight over a dinner personality test. It went something like this:

Shawn: Jack, what color is your shirt?
Lucy: Green!
Jack: Green!
Shawn: Jack, What color is Lucy's plate?
Lucy: Purple!
Jack: Purple!
Shawn: Jack, what do you see at the zoo?
Lucy: Giraffes!
Jack: Giraffes!
Shawn: Jack, where do we go on Sunday?
Lucy: Church!
Jack: Church!

Test Results: Lucy is the brainy know-it-all that sits in the middle front row right under the teachers nose whose hand pops up before the question has completely left the teacher's lips. She cannot not answer a question. When we confronted Lucy on this issue,it went like this:

Shawn: Lucy, why do you keep answering the questions that we are asking Jack?
Lucy: "Because I wanted to win this game."

Lucy's Personality: A sad combination of Shawn and myself. She is the sweetest little girl who is more than happy to help out, she gets this from Shawn. She hates to disappoint, this is so me. She is a bit of a know-it-all, which both Shawn and old family videos have recently taught me is 100% little Shawn. And most of all, she is extremely competitive, but that is both of us (but me just a little bit more than Shawn) and I don't think any of our kids will escape this.

Jack's Personality: Jack is a bit of a copy cat, but I don't think that is really part of his personality, I just don't think he has a choice. One thing is for sure, he's patient little bug to never get annoyed at his sister's constant insistence of stealing his thunder. Jack is a stubborn little boy, this is becoming more and more evident as we get deeper and deeper into the terrible twos. Jack is also a very tough little guy, which might not be obvious, and I don't think he even knows it yet. Because Jack is such a copy cat, he thinks he needs to cry at the bat of a butterfly's wings, like his extremely dramatic big sister. But when Jack get's in trouble and we have to swat his hands or his little bum, it DOES NOT phase him. It get's fairly frustrating as a parent trying to discipline an extremely stubborn little boy.

Alivia's Personality: A bundle of few words and all smiles that is more than happy to sit on the table in her bumbo to be a part of the family dinner. When she has something important to add to the conversation she'll let out a high pressured sigh of excitement usually accompanied by a small projection of spit up. When she is acknowledged (which happens a lot with her mom and big sister melting over every little sound she makes), she snaps her hands together in excitement and shoves them in her mouth, smiling all the while.

In the end, I wouldn't change a single thing about my kids. We love them to pieces and it is so fun to sit and analyze who they are and how they got that way. I want to give them each a big squeeze right now, sweet little buggers. I'm one lucky lady.

Day 98: Snakes and Mice

It's time to start pooring more creativity into my blog. I want to document a couple crafts that I have done around my house that are both cute and functional. I think I'll start tomorrow. I know, I'm a total slacker on my blog lately, but hey, it's for me, so what does it matter anyway?

So, about that title? Yeah, I woke up early this morning to go for a good old run. Just under 4 miles to be exact, I've got a training schedule to stick to. I got back home by 7:30, and the only person in the house awake, other than Shawn, was my little Alivia. Serious, this girl has got to start sleeping past 6, I think I'm going to kick Jack out of his room for a few months until she get's her life in order because I just can't live like this.

As the chaotic hurry of Shawn rushed out the door with him this morning, I sat with my little girl in her Bumbo chair on my table and just enjoyed her company for a minute. That is when I heard a dreaded sound. Since we purchased our house, we've had the same problem each fall. The temperature drops, and the rodents somehow get in. This was a problem we fixed this fall (which for the record was only our second fall in the house, the first fall we bought the house, so we moved pretty quickly), I plugged a hole and we bought several traps and a electric rodent repellent thingy and we didn't see another mouse all winter. And then I heard it this morning. I heard so much noise behind our stove that I was certain if I just looked under the oven I would see a small clan of rodents enjoying a banquet. Not the case, I didn't see anything. I pulled the drawer out from under the stove and still, nothing. I was surprised to see that it wasn't even messy under there except for a little dust and a couple pieces of dried spaghetti from the spill of February. But I sat and waited, and sure enough, a mouse flew up the back of the stove a minute later. But I think my rodent repellent thingy still works because this guy was acting weird. It didn't even bother him that I was hitting the stove or pulling out the drawer, I could still hear him working on what ever he was working on, like I wasn't there.

On to later that morning. The kids and I headed out to water the lawn. Jack played in the dirt as is natural for a little boy. I walked around the side the house looking for any possible hole or gap that a mouse could have gotten through. I've done this several times since we bought the house. The only hole I found I filled with steel wool and felt good about it. I noticed today that over the winter a lot of soil has been carried away from this area and I'm sure more of that hole is exposed now. As I rounded the corner I was startled by a garden snake. I brought the kids over to show them the snake and educated them on what to do if they ever come across a snake. Then Lucy sprayed the thing with a squirt bottle and it took off for the hole under the patio that the erosion of the winter created, right where I suspect the mice are getting in at. I thought to myself, "Wow, I need to find a way to keep him there. He'll be happy with a good source of food, and I won't ever have to get a cat." Then I decided this snake sucks because he didn't catch the mouse in the first place. Stupid wild life, they're all lazy around here. I ran right by a rabbit and 4 deer this morning and none of them cared I was there.

Now I'm lazy, I'll get crafty tomorrow. My baby doesn't sleep, so I use this as an excuse for all the areas of my life that are lacking.

Day 97: Mothers Day

Mothers Day! The one day aside from my birthday in the entire year that there is no question that I get to sleep in. Unfortunately early church disrupts that every other year, but not this year. There were no early meetings for Shawn in honor of my sleep schedule. My kids tried extra hard to be obedient in honor of me today. Jack even kept the ear drum shattering screams to a minimum today, sweet boy. Alivia took extra care to wake up really really early this morning (which I'm blaming on Lucy's ballet yesterday and the damage it did to her sleep schedule), but like a good man, Shawn woke up with her at 6:30 and came down stairs.

I was served breakfast in bed. Oh wait, no I wasn't, but I was given that option. Shawn asked if I wanted breakfast in bed or if I wanted to eat down stairs with the kids. I opted for the later for 3 reasons. 1- Our bed is new and I don't want to hurt it. 2- It's more comfortable to eat at a table, even if you have a breakfast tray. and 3- Alivia was napping in our room at breakfast time, and her naps are a sacred thing not to be toiled with.

Church was great, there were some really good talks given. One fairly ironic thing that happened at church today is that I took Alivia out to feed her during Sacrament Meeting to find that the Mother's Room was locked. Seriously? The mothers room locked on mother's day? That felt like an injustice. The problem was fixed before the end of church, but I want to know why no mothers in the other ward before us fixed the problem. I mean I had to nurse Alivia in the empty Relief Society Room hoping no one would barge in on me before it was fixed. It was a little awkward.

We enjoyed a good dinner tonight as a family, the kids and I made and decorated a chocolate cake. Yum. The kids colored me pictures and Shawn got me a massage for Mother's Day. Can't think of anything I'll enjoy more as I'm spending long hours day in and day out just trying my best to keep up on all the crap I have to do. I don't get to sit and watch TV anymore, except for when I'm folding laundry, and I'll be honest, that doesn't happen near enough, just ask Shawn. Reading books? What's that? When I have a minute to read a book I fall asleep out of sheer exhaustion. Someday I'll enjoy a book again, but I don't see it happening any time soon. A massage will be INCREDIBLE! if I can stay awake long enough to enjoy it. Man, I've got to get Alivia to sleep through the night to make things a little easier on me.

All and all it was a great day! I have wonderful kids regardless of how much they sleep. My husband is the best, sorry if you think yours is but you're wrong, you really just are. Now I need to go call my mom and wish her the bestest day ever.Life is good.

Day 96: Swan Lake

Today was the day of Lucy's ballet, Swan Lake. The production was huge and it went really well. Lucy was ADORABLE if I do say so myself. My only complaint is that Lucy wasn't in it near enough for all the time we put into it. We do 3 days of rehearsals and spend hours driving across town and Lucy's part is literally no longer than 2 minutes. It's something that has annoyed me a little every performance we have had. Lucy loves it though, and we are actually going to try out another dance option for the summer I think and we'll see which we like best.

Aside from Swan Lake which consumed our entire day, we actually had a crazy busy morning. We woke up bright and early and headed to the Neilsen Challenge. The Neilsen Challenge is a 2 mile run that they do here in Colorado Springs the first Saturday of every month. Two months ago I ran it, last month Shawn ran it, and this month we had high hopes to both run it. Unfortunately our ward members that usually show up to support a spouse didn't come today, so Shawn had to sit this one out to watch the kids. As we were driving Shawn asked me what my goal was. Last time I ran it in 18:56 or there abouts. Keep in mind that it was my first run since Alivia was born, so the time met my goal of under 20. Today I wanted to run it in 16 something since I haven't been as on top of my training as I had hoped I'd be. I ran it in 15:55, and I actually come in 3rd for the girls. That isn't saying much since the competition isn't all that competitive, but there were two girls that were pretty good, and they beat me. Next month I hope to do it in 14 something, and I hope Shawn can run it with me.

After the race we had to hurry home because Shawn had to do baptisms for the dead with the youth today. He was really sad because he was probably going to miss Lucy's dance, but it ended up that he made it in time. By the time we came home the kids were are MESS! There was screaming and crying from Jack for more than an hour straight. I got to the point that I totally tuned him out as he sat wailing on the couch of a good 30 minutes, then I took him up to his room until he was done. Poor little guy didn't get a nap today and it was not a pretty picture. Alivia also had her sleep schedule messed up by this ballet so she spent a fair share of that hour sobbing too. Both kids were inconsolable, so I just did the best I could thinking of Wendy Mack often. I love my kids, and today they truly put that love to the test between the hours of 4 and 6.

Day 95: A Reminder

Since Alivia was born I've kind of felt a little like I'm in survival mode. I have so many days that I have to take one minute, one melt down at a time. It's hard when ever I leave the house to not covet the days before I had kids, or the days when Shawn was working at home. Life was so much easier back then. It's unbelievably hard to load 3 kids in and out of the car (especially battling our seat belt situation with Lucy) any time I have to leave the house. It's getting easier, but I know it's still hard because whenever I pull into the garage and park the car, I just sit there for a minute to get up the courage to unload. So I have to be honest, I do ask myself from time to time why we didn't wait a few years to have kids. I mean don't get me wrong, I LOVE my kids, but they are a lot of hard work, and financially I know we've done it the hard way.

Well today when I checked my email I had an HRBB email that informed me of the Mack family in Utah. Honestly, probably the most heartbreaking story I've ever heard. Wendy Mack was the mother of 3 ages 6, 4, and 2. She was 34 weeks pregnant with their 4th when she suddenly passed away. He husband Denny posted a detailed story of the events of the day that she passed on the family blog. I took the time this morning to read it entirely and as a result I spent the remainder of my day breaking down in sobbing tears. Poor Jack could not figure out what my problem was, I'm not a cryer. I just am so heartbroken for this family.

Their story hits close to home as they have a 4 year old daughter, 2 year old son, and the baby Wendy was about to deliver was a baby girl they named Maylee. When Wendy was passing they did an emergency c-section to save the baby, but by the time they were able to deliver her she had been deprived of oxygen for 45 minutes. She only lived a day. Such a terrible tragedy.

After reading this story about this family that I don't even personally know, I found myself trying to understand it all. Why would God ever take a young mother from her family? Wendy sounds like she was the most loving mother God every created. I just don't understand why this would ever have to happen. But then I thought about it a little more. After reading this story, I spent my entire day holding my kids closer, hugging them more, kissing them more, telling them how much I love them. Wendy's story helped me remember why I didn't wait to have kids. Her story makes every minute, every melt down, every puddle of puke or pee on the floor completely worth it. Wendy reminds me how blessed I am to be a mom, even if loading and unloading the car is the worst part of my day. Wendy taught this to me and hundreds of other mothers through her death, but also through her life as her life is the legacy that taught us so much. And their precious baby Maylee? What was her purpose, why should she have to die too? Well, Wendy loved her children so much that it would have been more than she could bare to be separated from all her children, so Maylee was her tender mercy, her baby that she get's to have with her on the other side while she waits for the glorious day of their reunion.

I hope I never need another reminder. I hope I can treasure my kids without needing to be reminded how blessed I am to have them. I love them so much. Today I was reminded just how much, and not only through Wendy's story. We had to take Lucy to a dress rehearsal tonight, and I got her there and then sat down to watch. Jack decided he wanted to run up and down the isle, and I was fine with that because Alivia was ready to eat. So I sat and nursed her, and when I finished, Jack was gone. I couldn't find him anywhere. After looking for a good 5 minutes worry started to set in. After 10 minutes I was saying a silent prayer over and over again. We were in a really scary part of town and I was praying my little boy hadn't got out of the building some how.

Shawn showed up about 10 minutes after Jack disappeared and stared searching the halls with me. I thought Jack must have gotten out of the auditorium and gotten lost in this extremely confusing building. I was listening for terrified screams, but I wasn't hearing anything. We had several mom's from our old ward helping us look, and finally my old visiting teaching companion came running up to me to tell me they found him. He'd never left the auditorium, but it was so dark and there were so many rows of seats that I could not see him even though I checked a hundred times. I picked that little boy up and held him so close and told him I was so scared I'd lost him. He was so sweet and kissed me in his little kissing pattern. I love that boy. On a happier note, this same trip to the high school was Jack's first trip away from home in underwear and we were 100% successful, no accidents. I'm one happy mom.

So, if you want to read Wendy's story on your own, be ready with a big old box of tissues and read it at night because it will mess you up all day if you try to read it in the morning. But you can read it by clicking here. It's just a good reminder. Now I'm going to go cuddle with my husband until I fall asleep because I'm so lucky to have him and my kids in my life, and I hope I never forget that for even a second.

Day 94: Watch My Corn Pop Up in Rows

Today Lucy had a tech rehearsal for her Swan Lake Ballet this weekend. I'm pretty impressed with this ballet, it's probably just more fun because I actually know the story. But holy crap, this was a TERRIBLE rehearsal. Lucy wasn't suppose to get there until 6:00 tonight because she isn't in it until Act 3. I totally got lost in the ghetto neighborhood that this high school was in, so we showed up at 6:20. I was a little worried that we'd have missed her dance, but when I got there a friend told me she was really behind. When I walked in I found out she was still in Act 1! We didn't leave the high school tonight until 8:45, and they weren't done when we left.

Lucy loves ballet so much. I'm a little torn about what to do. I'm not putting her in it over the summer, it's just going to be too crazy this summer. In the fall I'm trying to decide if I want to put her in this same program or if I want to put her in a different program over on this side of town. I can't decide. I was all set to switch her over here, but then I go to this thing and see so many mom's I've gotten to know so well, and Lucy just LOVES it so much. I guess we can try the other program and see how it goes, if we don't like it we can always switch back.

Aside for the dress rehearsal, we planed our garden today. Well, we planted half of our garden today. Do you know how hard it is to plant a garden with the help of a moose of a two year old? I planted my corn weeks ago, and they are about an inch or so tall now, so I had to get them in the ground. Well, I planted those first, before Jack was all that interested in what I was doing. Then he decided he needed to help. Do you know how many times he walked on my corn? We'll see how many survive the boy. We also planted pumpkins, zucchini, and butternut squash. I still need to plant peas, carrots, broccoli, lettuce, and of course tomatoes. Hopefully my garden will do better this year then I've ever had it do in the past, I'm not much of a green thumb.

Day 93: Another Day, Another Vacuum

Today I didn't have any work to do, my boss is getting articles ready for me to type, so I had a day off to catch up on some much needed house work. Just so it's out there for everyone, my house looks incredible (you have to say incredible an octave higher than the rest of that sentence)! I also spent the first 2/3 of my day looking for my cell phone which I eventually found in my stroller out in the garage.

When I started cleaning today, I focused on the top floor and worked my way down, which is opposite of my daily routine. I usually get the main level presentable and the bedrooms are an after thought. Today, I owned those bedrooms, all three of them too. They were looking so incredible, the last thing they needed was a good vacuum. Well, I pulled out my vacuum and got Lucy's room all done when I realized I needed to empty the canister. That's where all my trouble started.

In December my Grandma Turner sent our family a $100 check for Christmas. Score! She wanted us to get something nice that we needed, so when I pulled out our vacuum that I bought Shawn for our first Christmas for $30, I decided it was more than time for an upgrade. So Grandma bought us a new Bissell vacuum. When I first used it, it worked like a charm. It worked great for the next 3 or 4 uses too. But once I had to empty the canister, things changed. Suddenly my vacuum had ZERO suction, and I was not happy. It actually took me a good month to figure out that there was no way to fix this.

One day I was complaining to my mother in law about it and she told me to take it back. Even though it had been close to 2 months since I bought it, I took it back and Costco exchanged it for me no questions asked. I decided to risk it and go with the same one because it was the only one at Costco in my price range. I figured there was no way all these vacuums could be bad. I brought it home and it worked like a charm. Seeing a pattern here?

Well, about 2 weeks ago I watched an infomercial for the new Shark Navigator vacuum. It's suppose to be like a Dyson and never lose suction. I was so made that I had just bought a new vacuum because I totally would have gotten this one instead. So you better believe I was excited when I emptied that canister today and found the same problem. This stupid Bissell had NO suction to it at all. It couldn't even power the brush for the hose because there wasn't enough suction. So, I loaded my kids up and took them all to Costco with my vacuum and receipt in hand. I'm so glad I kept that receipt because they were clearance out those stupid bissells and I would have lost $30. But I got refunded the full price in cash.

I got everything I needed at Costco and was just about to check out when I decided I would go see if they had any new vacuums since my last visit to the vacuum section. You can imagine how excited I was to see the Shark Navigator there waiting for me for only $30 more than I got back. My plan was to go buy a Shark where ever I could find it, I thought I'd have to go to Target. But with the one at Costco I saved a trip and I was able to get the upgraded version with all the bells and whistles.

When I got home I gave it a test drive and I'm pretty dang happy with it. The infomercial did make it sound way cooler than it is, but it has great suction, and I love the hardwood floor attachment. My only complaint so far is that it cannot hold all the attachments it came with, so I have to keep them in a separate bag hanging in my closet, so not convenient. It also has a little bit of a hard time on my shag rug, it can do them, but it stops the brush if it's not held at just the right angel. But it is quite, and light, and it doesn't lose suction. Overall, I'm a fan.

In other news, Lucy is really picking up the piano well. It's only been a couple of days, so she is still excited about it, but she has learned Mary Has A Little Lamb and she couldn't be happier about it. She may not last with me that long because I'm just not that good, but I'll do what I can. I feel so accomplished when I'm working with her and seeing improvement. She is one smart little cookie.

Jack is coming along in potty training swimmingly. Swimmingly is the best word for this because we take a lot of baths, and if I get lazy and he has a pee pee accident (something that only happens when I get lazy now), he usually slips and swims in it. That and he likes to try to stand in the bowl of water, which is what he tried to do pretty much the entire time we were reading scriptures tonight (something we've never done with the kids, but Lucy really wanted me to read the scriptures to them tonight, we should be better at this). Good day, I'm tired, I will sleep now.

Day 92: A Random Thought or Two

Today was fairly uneventful. I worked, picked up a large amount of newspapers with coupons, pretty excited about that, took care of my kids, and went to the park. So today I will focus on a few random thoughts I've had throughout the day.

I'm getting older. People don't tell me this, and the mirror doesn't show it too much yet, unless you are really looking closely, but none the less, I am getting older. In an attempt to slow down the aging process before it hits me full force, I've started using anti-aging skin care products. I've used these for a few years now, but since I've started couponing I've been able to buy a lot more of these items from the fountain of youth. So where am I going with all this? Today I thought to myself "My anti-aging stuff is really working! I'm getting my teenage acne again." Ok, my skin isn't near as bad as it was when I was a teenager, but I am having a minor breakout here and there. What's funny is that I had to take a health screen last week through Shawn's work's "Healthy Me" program. This screen told me that my projected age based on my life style and blood screen is 16 years old. Too funny.

Jack needs to work on his target practice. This is true in both potty training and playing with his Buzz Lightyear disk gun which he has accidentally shot himself in the head with several times as he's tried to watch the bullet come out.

Lucy is a sweet angel, I love my little girl. She didn't do anything special today to make me remember this, I just did.

I live a blessed life, I am a happy girl.

Day 91: Ceiling Fans, Nap Battles, and Funny Phrases

Alivia is like the dogs of Up, only instead of being excited beyond all reason about squirrels, it's ceiling fans. She can be so fussy and if you lay her on the floor under a ceiling fan she will start gooing and cooing at it. That's even when the fan is off. You can imagine how excited she gets when you flip the switch just long enough to get the blades spinning slowly. I swear I have a built in baby sitter.

Today I realized just how obsessed she is with the thing. I was nursing her in the rocking chair looking out the window. I didn't have her covered because the kids were very into their game in the basement, but don't worry, the blanket was on standby. Anyway, she'd been eating for a good five minutes and all the sudden she caught a glimpse of the ceiling fan out of the corner of her eye and instantly whipped her head around to just stare at it. I was totally a "Squirrel!" moment. It made me laugh out loud, but even my unexpected outburst of laughter didn't phase her focused attention on the blades of glory that hang from our ceiling.

Pretty much my entire morning was devoted to the battle of a nap for Jack. This little boy woke up so cranky this morning, crying and whining from the get go. I was so done with him by 8:15. This boy just does not sleep enough, no matter how hard I try, he won't go to sleep. But today I was going to make it happen. By 8:45 Jack was down for a nap, down, not asleep. He probably spent a total of 2 1/2 hours crying or playing in his room, but every time I felt mean and let him come out he quickly reminded me why he needed a nap. After an hour battle in his room I moved him to the crib in Lucy's room. He cried another 45 minutes or so and then he was out. It was a glorious moment in my life as a mother. The remainder of the 2 1/2 hour battle consisted of me trying to rock him to sleep, and letting him come back downstairs to watch a movie.

While I was rocking Jack and trying to get him to fall asleep (something that worked last night and I loved it), I asked Jack why he was crying so much and why he wouldn't just go to sleep. He said "Because my goo boy bed is yucky." I asked him why his big boy bed was yucky to which he responded "Jack licked it." It was such an unexpected response that I just busted up laughing and told him not to lick his bed anymore. Then he showered me with kisses. He has this routine of kisses he gives me. He says "Kiss chin." then kisses it, then he says "Kiss cheek", kisses it, then "kiss nother cheek", "kiss nose", "kiss eye", "kiss nother eye", "kiss borhead" and finally "kiss mouth". It's the same pattern every time and he is so sweet when he does this. Funny boy.

Lucy was just a little angel today. Sometimes I feel like I don't write enough about her, but that is because her good behavior is overshadowed by Jack and Alivia's chaotic moments. But Lucy is such a helper. Today she did my dishes and steam moped my kitchen floor (the best a 4 year old can). I also started teaching her piano today. She is picking it up really well, but now the eternal battle of practicing begins. We'll see how it goes. Love that little girl.

OH! And a couponing side note. Today I found the best motivation to run! We have a Walgreens just down the street from us. This week they have a deal where I can get Fusion razors for basically $.89. Shawn told me yesterday that we are out of razors and he's needed a new one for a couple of days. Then a friend filled me in on this deal and I decided that when I went for my run today I'd swing by Walgreens and pick it up. It was a success! I'll have to get more tomorrow. What a motivation to go for a run!

Day 90: A Poopie Morning

We started out morning with a bang. More of an explosion really. Alivia woke up at 5 this morning. I hate those kinds of mornings and they are happening a lot lately. I just put her in bed with me and nursed her in hopes of getting her back to sleep. It must have worked a little because I fell back to sleep. At 7 Alivia woke me back up with loud squills of excitement and delight, she was one happy little girl. I quickly learned why when I smelled a whiff of buttery popcorn, which is little baby poop. I laid there ignoring it for a good 20 minutes or so. Then I decided I was going to ask Shawn to change her since I can't remember the last time I got to sleep past 6 really. I mean by 6 at latest every morning Alivia is in my bed and it's just not comfortable with here in there. And sleeping in? What's that again? Seriously, no idea when that happened last.

As I was about to open my mouth to ask Shawn to do me this honor, I reached under Alivia to try to scoot her over. My hand was instantly covered in gooey slimy warmth and I knew we had a major problem. All I said was "Oh, crap!" Quite literally. Alivia had one massive blow out all over our brand new sheets on our brand new bed. Shawn and I both popped up so fast. Shawn got the bath ready while I stripped Alivia down. Then he bathed her while I threw our mattress pad and sheets in the washer, and then our sheets. I love Oxi Clean Spray and Wash, it works magic.

After that bang of a morning, we got ready for church, made it there, Shawn bore an amazing testimony because Lucy asked him if he had a testimony. When he said yes, she told him to go up and say it. After Sacrament Meeting Shawn had to run home because he forgot his lesson. By the beginning of Relief Society I had to go home too because Jack was poopy, and we had already used our only extra pull up for him at church. I look forward to a day when I can sit through 3 meetings at church and just sit.

After church we went to out friends Ben and Sheryl's house for dinner. Love those guys, I love spending time with them and just what we talk about. That and Sheryl is an amazing cook. I hated that we had to leave when we did, I would have loved to stay longer. Anyway, gotta run, breaking news: Osama Bin Laden is dead, gotta watch this.

Day 89: Sleepy Saturday

Today was just a nice day to kick back and relax. Steff was so exhausted from yesterday's intense drive and finals week, and we were all pretty tired ourselves. So, we spent the entire day kicking back and doing nothing and I loved every second of it. I don't think Lucy and Jack loved it as much, they got a little stir crazy because it was too cold to send them out to jump or play in the back yard. Jack went out and jumped anyway, but what can you do?

I hit up some coupon specials today and was pleased as punch about it. I was sent to the store for some Orange Juice for breakfast this morning, and I was happy about it. I've been itching to get to Safeway for a couple of days now because with my glorious coupons I was able to purchase Dunkin Hinz Brownie mixes for $.25 a box. I only wish I had more than 9 coupons, but that's all I had. I also got several bottles of Kraft salad dressing (18 to be exact) for $.50 a bottle. When I told my mother in law that I stocked up on those, everyone was annoyed with me and said "How in the heck are you going to use 18 bottles of salad dressing before it goes bad?" Well see, I'm smart that way. I mainly stocked up on Italian and French dressings because I use these in marinades and recipes I have. I did get some Ranch which Jack has just discovered and fallen in love with, and I got a couple vinaigrette verities. Couponing, it's the way to live I tell you what.

By the end of the day we'd played a rousing hand of Speed Uno, which I came in 2nd place and I'm proud of it. Jack and Lucy were helping us play this at one point and it was very entertaining. Jack was sitting on my lap and we gave him 3 cards of his own to hold so he'd leave mine alone. Well, he's no dummie, and as he sat and watched us all throwing our cards into the middle he decided that's what he needed to do. It really complicated things. We ended up sending Jack and Lucy into the living room to play their own game of Uno.We all enjoyed Papa Murphy's Pizza for dinner and then we loaded our kids up and headed home. It's nice to make a good weekend visit out of our Temple trips up there, especial with gas prices the way that they are.

Day 88: Temple Day

Today Shawn and I got to go to the temple. That means I spent a good chunk of my morning working, and the rest of my afternoon getting ready to go. I showered of course, got dressed and ready, and then packed bags for the kids and I. See, with Shawn's parents just up the street from the temple we like to just spend the night when we go. That way they can just put the kids to bed and there's no worries about them being over tired the next day.

As we were driving up, Lucy wanted to call Steff who was driving over from Utah. It turns out that Steff was trapped in Vail because the roads were closed due to a horrendous accident. It was 5:00 when we were talking with her, and she had been stuck for an hour. Traffic wasn't treating us all that well either, so we hung up the phone and focused on getting where we needed to be. We had a 6:30 Chapel Session we were trying to make.

When we arrived at the temple we learned that our entire ward had been misinformed of the chapel session time and it was in fact at 7:30. This was for the Stake Leadership, so we were all expected to be there. Well, all the other leaders from our ward came up together on a bus, so when we got there we all just decided to do our own 6:30 Session and call it good. It was one of the more special temple sessions I've sat through. It was so fun to be there with these leaders from our ward we have grown to love so much over the last few months. Our bishop pulled a fast one on me and made me tear up at the end of the night. I never do that!

When we got back to Bob and Pam's, Pam wasn't the happiest person I've ever seen. Alivia was a stinker and wouldn't take the bottle, and both Bob and Pam were stressed beyond capacity about the whole Steffani situation. She was still stuck on the mountain. So, without hesitation Shawn and Bob jumped in the car and rushed to her rescue. This calmed Pam down quite a bit and we passed the time playing phase 10 and watching William an Kate's wedding. The boys and Steff arrived safe and sound about 2 1/2 hours later.

Day 87: All Better, and All Caught Up

Ok, moving right along! I woke up this morning more rested that I think I have ever been. I'm really starting to get jealous of Alivia's life. I seriously wish more than ever that I could sleep as much as her now that I have experienced it for one day.

I had a lot of work to catch up on today that didn't happen. I mean I got a lot of work done, but I am no where near caught up. Oh, and as it turns out, when both mom and dad are sick for a couple of days, the house goes to POT! Shawn had to sleep the end of his sickness off this morning, and went to work a little late, but I think we are both better now. I don't know how long it will be before the house can kick this sickness.

As I was rushing to get out the door for dance today (I got delayed by my work and realized I had to shower, get ready, dress 3 kids and load the car all in an hour), Shawn called and told me about a sale going on at the furniture store we bought out bed at. His co-workers were able to get refunded the difference between the prices they bought their stuff at and the current sale price since it was less than 30 days since they made their purchases. I was told to call and see what I could learn. Well, we were not allowed a refund, bummer. But we were given an in-store-credit for the difference which was a whooping $250!!! The only catch was we had to use it today or it would expire since our 30 days were up after today (talk about catching it by the skin of our teeth!).

So, right after work we headed in to see what we could find. I was hoping to get a steel on a cute decorative dresser or something, Shawn had his hopes set high on a desk to help the mess that is our computer area in our family room. We were both dreaming when we though maybe, just maybe we could find a new and very much needed dining set. Well, guess what we found? Yeah, a new dining set! I'm so excited! We didn't have a ton of options when budget IS the deciding factor. But we found a table that had a small ding in the side of it that we were able to get with 4 chairs for $300. The best part is that is it big enough to seat 8 when we are ready, and we can buy more matching chairs whenever we are ready. I'm pumped. Seriously, we are so lucky! And we were able to get all that for basically $50 since we'd already paid the other $250 for our bed. Good day.

Day 86: Still sick

I think it is safe to say that I spent 60% of my day today sleeping. I don't know how I did that, or how everyone is still alive, but that is how my day went. I woke up still feeling crappy. Shawn was feeling sick too. My head felt like a large chain saw was running through the middle of my skull for the entire day and I just had to deal with it. I got up with Alivia, bathed her and loved every little smile she gave me for no reason. I know it wasn't my good looks today triggering smiles, just truly unconditional love because I was on UGLY thing today.

When Alivia slept, I slept. I was mad when she'd wake up and I couldn't sleep. I was mad when Jack fell off the coffee table that he was standing on and woke me up so I couldn't sleep. I didn't even try potty training today, and I did have to pull Jack off the stove while he was crossing it with fists full of Easter candy. I'm telling you, I'm starting to hate Easter candy, but it is triggering a whole new level of creativity in this boy.

Lucy was sick again today. I thought she was better last night, but she spent a good portion of her day with her face in the puke bowl, poor girl. She was so hungry and thirsty, but nothing would stay down. And me, after all that sleep I got today, I'm still tired. Goodnight.

Day 85: Stomach Bug

I'd type more, but I'm sick today. My day started off ok, but over the last few hours, I'm getting sick. Sick means I'm forgetting about accidents that happened, and funny lines that were said. Lucy has been sick all day today too, but over the last couple of hours she has started perking up, and I have started perking down. Thank goodness I haven't started puking down yet, but I'm sure it's coming. I'm going to bed.

Day 84: TWINS

Okay, so I got a little behind again, this is really starting to become a trend. But honestly, once you hear what my week thus far has been compromised of, you will totally understand.

I sat down tonight to type my post for the day which was mainly going to consist of all the ways that Jack has caused mayhem on my life as of late (this all due to the fact that there is Easter candy in the house and no where to hide it where he can't find it) when I got a text message from my sister. Krista asked me if I could come up with a cute growth chart for twins. I instantly froze with curiosity, was this a hint or did she really have some weird need for this like a friend's baby shower gift. Like I said, I was frozen.

After another text to see what the heck she was talking about my sister told me she was expecting twins! At this point I started texting her back when I stopped myself and said "What the heck are you doing? You can't text about something like twins!" So I instantly called her back only to find she was up to her elbow in a messy diaper and couldn't talk right that second but would call me back in one minute. Well, I wasn't waiting a minute to find out more information, so I called my mom. My mom filled me in on the due date and all that stuff, and then Krista called me right back like she promised

So here is the funny thing. My sis and her hubby have been on really hard times for the last oh, 18 months or so. First Jacob (the man of the hour) lost his job back in October of 09. Yeah, economy isn't the friendliest, and to top it all of, Jacob is losing his vision, so he won't be able to work as a mortician after all which is what he has a degree in. Yeah, it's complicated and frustrating, and just flat out not fair. So, because they are out of a job, Krista and Jacob have been living in my grandparents house since they left on their mission back in December of 09. That worked out nicely.

As it turns out, another down side of not being employed is that you don't have health insurance. Health insurance is kind of important when shopping for birth control, at least any birth control that has high success rates. Because lets be honest here, if you were in Krista and Jacob's situation, would you think to yourself "Yeah, let's get pregnant now." No, they are not idiots, but sometimes things don't run on our plan.

So, they find out they are pregnant. Krista is a major stresser, glad I wasn't there for that day. Then, 3 weeks ago they find out it's twins! Really glad I wasn't there for that day. But today Krista was nothing by laughs, smiles and excitement. I honestly think that nothing could have brought this change on her like twins. Seriously, knowing their situation like I do, there has to come a point when you can do nothing but laugh about it, and what isn't funny about going a year and a half with no job, too long to even get unemployment, going blind, coming to an end of your living situation in 3 months, having a 4 year old and a 18 month old, and finding out to top everything off "SURPRISE!!! Its TWINS!!!" I guess when she told my family everyone was laughing with excitement through the words "That's just terrible news!" It really is, but sometimes the worst news is the most comforting. When things are that out of control and unpredictable, it makes you slap yourself in the face and look at the obvious. We're not in control here, so let's just leave it up to the person that is. He does a much better job at handling things that I've ever done on my own anyway.

In the end I can already tell you that I love what Twins is doing to my sister. She finally FINALLY has learned to sit back and not try to run everything. She just sounded so happy. Sure, crap is flying around her like crazy, but things are starting to happen now, and I'm so grateful for twins already because I know this was just the thing that she needed to finally understand all this. All that said, how cute are two little baby twins going to be? Even if the poor girl has 4 kids under the age of 5. :) It's just the happiest, most exciting, terrible news!

Day 83: Easter

So today, was Easter, obviously. Shawn and I were up until 12:20 hiding eggs last night. Alivia was awake by 6 again, and I was not to happy about that. She started drifting off again by 7:45, right about the time that Lucy woke up. We told Lucy that she could go look at her basket, but she couldn't find any eggs until Jack woke up. A few minutes later we heard eggs crashing and candy spilling. Shawn had to go down and stop her, but it was all good.

When Jack woke up, he was starving since he was sick all day yesterday. He had to eat a pop tart really quick, and then the hunt was on. The kids were in heaven! I loved watching them climb things and giggle their hearts out when they found eggs in funny places like Lucy's shoe. Jack was so excited when he found an egg in Lucy's shoe by the wall that he dove for it as fast as he could. He hit the wall with his head so hard he bounced off it and fell down backwards. It was one of those moments I wished we had on video so bad. Jack didn't care, he popped right back up and got his egg.

After the hunt we had some crepes for breakfast and played with all our Easter goodies. Jack got a little Buzz Lightyear disk gun, he loves that thing. We played for a while then put Jack down for a nap. While he napped, Lucy made necklaces, and I went up and got ready for church. Like it always does, church snuck up on us and we were scrabbling to get out the door on time, but we did it.

Sacrament meeting was good, especially the closing song. I had to come home in between Sacrament meeting and Relief Society to get the ham in the oven. Shawn had the Easter Cantata again tonight so we had to eat quick when we got home. It was good that I went home too because Alivia was more than ready to eat when I got here and then had a massive blow out. When I got back to church, Jack needed a change.

Relief Society was great. Alivia got a little fussy so I was standing on the side of the room when I noticed Sister Jeffery sitting on the back row with several empty seats next to her. I went and sat down and asked if Sister Jeffery wanted to hold Alivia. As I handed Alivia over, Alivia smiled as big as she possibly could. For the next 15 minutes Sister Jeffery had Alivia cooing, smiling, and laughing. It was adorable, and I know Sister Jeffery Loved it.

Sister Jeffery has a soft spot in my heart. She is one of the nicest, caring people the world has ever seen. Shawn and Brother Jeffery work together in the Young Men's Presidency. When Shawn found his job, he bore his testimony a few weeks later, and while he spoke about the amazing blessing it was to find a job, Sister Jeffery leaned over to her husband and said "That's one less person I have to pray for." That's just the kind of person she is. She is just the kindest person ever. My kids love her too. I just love this lady.

After church we had Jessica and Steve Stoddard over for dinner because they had spent the entire day driving home from Phoenix to get to the Cantata tonight. I was watching their little girl Penny anyway, so I figured we may as well feed them. We ate fast and Shawn, Steve, and Jessica headed out. I was on my own with the 4 kids, and Penny was a ball of energy after being cooped up in the car all day. But we had a ton of fun.

Question of the day: Why does Alivia always puke on my toes? I swear, 82% of the time that Alivia spits up while I'm holding her she makes a direct hit on the top of my foot. I never have shoes or socks on so I get to enjoy the sweet sensation of baby vomit working its way into the crevices of my toes. And since it is my toes, I still have to clean the floor up, don't you worry. I think she is trying to teach me a new work ethic.

Day 82: Easter Egg Hunts and Puke

This morning Alivia woke up at 6 am. I know she did this because she knew that it was my one day of the week that I didn't have to wake up at 6, and she thinks this is funny. At least she was very happy about the whole thing and had a lot to say in her baby gibberish.

Even though I was up at 6, I didn't actually get out of bed until Jack started crying. We laid in our bed like lazy people for a while, then Shawn wandered in to get Jack. That's when he learned that Jack had thrown up at some point in the night. I got the bath ready, Shawn handled the puke mess like a man, he always does, and I love that feature in him. As Jack sat in the tub, my sister-in-law called. I spoke with her for a few minutes, but then Jack started throwing up in the tub. Poor little bug. I knew he wasn't feeling well when I watched him sit in the tub and make no effort to play with any toys or splash in any way.

After showering Jack since the bath was a failure, I got him out and dressed him. As I dressed him he got panicky and I could tell he was going to puke again. His natural reaction to this feeling was to run with no particular destination in mind. My natural instinct was to catch him and get him to the nearest utility with a drain, toilet, sink, tub, shower, I so didn't care, just not my bed or carpet. Jack ran for my room of course, and I caught him just in time to get him over the tile floor and almost to the toilet before the moment of impact. I spent the next several hours trying my best to teach him how to puke in a bowl or toilet.

Jack kind of started perking up, so I decided to at least try to get Lucy to the Easter Egg Hunt in the park today. After driving all the way there I noticed all the people leaving and decided that I missed it. As I drove home (and was practically there mind you), the radio station informed me that Lucy's age group's hunt was starting at noon. So, I turned around and went back to the park, and got Lucy there just in time. There were SO many kids and so not enough eggs. Lucy took off when they said go and ran to an egg just to watch another kid snatch it. Then she ran to the next one that a parent snatched. This happened several times and I watched helplessly from the side since I couldn't leave Alivia by herself. After watching three PARENTS snatch eggs as Lucy reached for them, I lost her in the crowd.

When Lucy wandered her way back to me she was in tears with only one egg in her basket and two halves of eggs that no one else wanted because there was nothing in them. My heart was broken for her. One nice little girl gave Lucy a candy that she got in one of her two eggs. I hated that hunt and will never go back to it again. It was pathetic. There were probably 150 kids and about 200 eggs. The age group for this hunt was 4-7, so Lucy was on the younger end, but what I want to know is why in the heck did parents feel like they needed to help their 4-7 year old kid? The parent that bugged me the most was the one that I watched snatch Lucy's third egg and hand it to his kid that I'm pretty sure was too old for this age group. Not okay. I think I'll organize my own neighborhood egg hunt next year.

When we got home Jack was still sleeping. He and Alivia took amazing naps today. Shawn and I used our down time to do a lot of laundry and get ready for Shawn's Easter Cantata that was tonight. Shawn's parents came down and we went to dinner with them, then headed to the Cantata. It was amazing, I'm so glad Shawn can find one time a year to do something like that, even if it demands a lot of time, it is good for him.

Quote of the day: 
          Lucy: "Oh my gosh! I have to pee!!"

Day 81: Going to the Mall

Today was a pretty good day. Alivia didn't sleep last night all that well. This is something she is doing more and more and I'm thinking, that's gotta stop. But I did go to bed at mid-night, and I did wake up at 6, well 5, thanks to Alivia. I've been waking up most mornings at 6 am to work so that I can focus and get stuff done before the kids wake up. Once they are up I work what I call quarter time between making breakfast, chocolate milk, dressing and bathing kids, showering, scripture study (on days that I'm really on top of things), lunch, nursing, rocking, breaking up fights, and herding kids towards a never ending effort to clean up after themselves.

Today was a good day. I try to write between 4 and 5 articles a day, and I had 4 finished by 2:00 today, and that was with an hour and a half trip to Shawn's office for our health screens. Since Shawn works for a Hospital, they offer employee incentives for good health. Just getting our health screenings today earned us $200 that I think we can use toward medical bills, happy day.

Anyway, 2:00 rolled around and I decided to call it a day instead of trying to knock out another set of three articles. That's when I decided I would take the kids to the Mall to go burn some energy on the play place there. Why do I do that to myself? It started off ok, the kids were even little angels while we had some rock chips in my windshield repaired. Then they played for about 20 minutes when Jack lost it. Jack's really been struggling with his naps lately, and bed time too. As a result, he's one over tired little boy all the time. He's a mean tantrum throwing nightmare. Why oh why did they make me take the pacifier away? I miss it so much, that thing was golden! Seriously, I really regret doing that.

After 20 minutes on the play place, Jack threw an all out tantrum as I tried to put his shoes back on. Nothing like a good public temper tantrum when you know all eyes are you. I was suddenly reminded of my last trip to the mall back in February when Jack shop lifted his hat. I don't think we'll be going back to the mall for a while.

After that colossal melt down Jack was fine. So I decided to take the kids to the puppy store, then we hit a couple other stores just for the heck of it. Lucy was ADORABLE at Clairs. She tried on about 10 pairs of sunglasses, picked out a necklace that she wants to save her money for, picked out a bracelet to match, and her eyes about popped out of her head when we got to the princess section. My little girls and I had a lot of fun getting dressed today. I took my sister-in-law Rebecca's courage not only to my own wardrobe, but also to Lucy's. Lucy looked ADORABLE today! She wore what use to be one of my big old 90's style bows as a belt. It was pink with white polka dots and fit her perfectly. We are having a lot of fun with this creative, trendy dressing.

When we got home I went for a run, we had dinner, and then the kids went to bed. And there you have my day. There was something else that happened that I wanted to write about, but I cannot for the life of me think of what it was. It was pretty funny too. Oh well, it will come to me tonight while I'm sleeping.

Days 73-80: Catching Up is Only Getting Me More Behind

Ok, so I've fallen way behind obviously. The problem with falling behind is that I feel pressure from myself to catch up. Catching up takes too long, so I can never sit down and do it in on night, so I get further behind. So, instead of catching, I'll summarize days 73-80. Shawn just told me this is cheating, but as it turns out, being a mom 365 days a year causes moments like this, that are out of your control.

So, the main reason I have fallen behind is because I've started a new job! It's an AMAZING opportunity, and I've been looking for something like this since I had kids. No, it won't make us rich, that is for darn sure, but it brings in enough money to cover our medical I-just-had-a-baby expenses. After that it will just be good to help us finally tie down our debts. The best part of all is that I can work at home absolutely whenever I have time to do it. If my kids need me, no problem, I can drop everything and spend as much time with them as I wand or they need. I LOVE IT! I'm very excited about this, can you tell? So what do I do? I write SEO and linking articles for a web technologies company based out of Utah. SEO articles are Search Engine Optimization articles. Basically I'm given some of the most random topics you can think of and told that I have to write a 400 word article using certain key words a certain number of times. It's so great.

Other than that, I have a couple of funny things that have happened the last few days that I've wanted to document. These things were said, thought, did, or happened whether I wanted them to or not.

• Jack peed on a dining room chair and the floor while I was nursing Alivia. I caught him trying to clean it up himself with my dish towel.
• Jack colored all over my living room couch with a pen.
• Jack stopped taking naps
• Jack had a break through in potty training
• Jack had a set back in potty training
• I threw in the towel on potty training
• Lucy told me all flowers remind her of me
• Jack and Lucy have developed a love of doing the dishes, if only that would last
• Jack pulled his dresser down on himself (actually, the dress itself did not fall, but all the drawers fell on him and his lamp. Lamp Shade didn't make it)
• I sat in the rocking chair nursing the baby and watched Jack give Lucy a ride on the back of his big wheel
• We dyed Easter Eggs
• I hit Jack, my desperate attempt to help him understand why we don't hit
• I got 19 free travel size packages of Purex Complete laundry detergant
• I got 6 free bottles of ready to use Similac baby formula
• I got 2 free air fresheners
• Couponing is going strong
• Jack has turned from my unbelievably adorable get-away-with-anything little boy to a living, breathing, walking monster that doesn't sleep.
• We planted corn and peppers inside to start our garden outside with in a few weeks
• I've started following my amazing sister-in-law's example and started using creativity with my wardrobe. I hate all my clothes, but I'm finding if I combine two pieces that I wouldn't usually think to combine, I can bring new life to my old second hand clothes.
• Alivia rolled over!!! This happened yesterday on Thursday April 21
• Alivia has also started pulling really funny faces when she is borderline mad and happy
• Jack's new word is the F word, I'm a little concerned about this, but I don't know what he is actually trying to say, all I know is that he isn't saying the F word intentionally. I wish that were easier to explain in nursery because once he says it once, he says it at least 15 times in a row without taking a breath.

I'm sure there is more, and I'll just add to it as I remember that. But now that I am caught up, I can be on top of my daily entries again. Get excited.

Day 72: Sending off Haley

Today was sad. I hated sending Haley away. We spent most of the morning preparing to take her up to the airport. We also worked on one final project for her menu board. By noon both Haley and I were ready for a nap. We put the boys down, I started a movie for Lucy, and I laid down with Alivia.

After our naps we packed everything up, loaded the car and headed up to Denver. I got Haley to the airport in one piece and dreaded the moment when I actually had to say by to her. We had a major problem tracking down her ticket because the airline never sent her a confirmation email. We know because we spent at least 45 minutes searching all of our email accounts for it. When we finally figured out it was a Continental flight, and we knew what time it was at. We also knew she had a ticket because of a bank confirmation and a call to the airline.

When we pulled up to the Continental drop off zone our plan was to check in at the curb. Unfortunately no one was there to check us in. So, I sat in the car when you are not allowed to wait and put on shoes and fiddled with car seats so I looked like I was actively unloading something from my car. At one point Haley called and told me she was actually on an United flight, so I backed the car up a few zones (which I'm sure was illegal). Then I put Bennett's shoes back on since he had taken them off again.

Then Haley returned and it was really time for goodbye. It was so hard to say bye because I don't know when I'll see her again. But honestly, this was such a good trip for me. It made me realize that it is so important to make an effort to see old friends as much as possible. Haley's visit was so rejuvenating for me, it was just what I needed right now. I needed those nights that I stayed up past midnight laughing and talking with girls. It was worth every moment, and now I know I have to make these things happen more often. They are so important.

So, when I got back in the car, my really stress began. The car was 7 miles until empty on gas. I was at the Denver Airport. There are ZERO gas stations around that airport, ZERO!!! Now, this same thing happened two days before, so I knew I had a little give and I could actually make it more than 7 miles. So I headed home. I was about 15 miles from the airport when I finally found an exit that I thought might lead to a gas station eventually. After exiting I drove another 5 miles or so, and I was really starting to panic that I wasn't going to find a gas station. Lucy sensed my worry and asked what was wrong. She was getting pretty scared so I told her to say a prayer that we would find a gas station and not run out of gas. It was raining and I getting dark and I really didn't want to run out of gas because at this point I didn't even know where I was. There was nothing cuter that hearing Lucy's little prayer in the back seat, and I said a silent prayer that her prayer would be answered for her faith.

A few minutes later we found a gas station and filled up. It was such a relief! Then I realized I literally had no idea where I was because I had to wander so much to find a gas station. That's when I opened Bob and Pam's storage console in the car and found their Tom Tom. I've never been so happy to find that thing! I typed in their address and it took me home. The rain did complicate my ability to read signs, but eventually I knew where I was.

When we got with in a mile of Bob and Pam's exit I noticed a car wandering into my lane way ahead of me. Then I realized that car wasn't moving more than 10 miles an hour. I slammed on the breaks and the horn at the same time because this car was slowly crossing all the lanes of traffic in the rain and had no hazard lights on. I almost smashed into the back of the and I had to pull onto the shoulder to miss them. Talk about a stressful return trip.

We stayed at Bob and Pam's for about a half hour. Jason, Rebecca, and Jeff were there so it was fun to say hi to them. Then we traded cars and headed back home. I miss Haley. I was sad walking into Lucy's room where she stayed and seeing her stuff was gone. But I did love spending a night with my husband tonight too. Seriously, Haley's visit was just good all around. I would do it again tomorrow if I could. Now it's back to life as I know it. I have a good life.

Day 71: Garden of the Gods

So today I decided I had to take Haley to Garden of the God's here in Colorado Springs. If you are visiting the Springs, you have to hit at least one of the tourist attractions right? It was such a good idea in my mind, but in my mind I didn't account for 4 kids. Still, it was so much fun, just not as smoothly fun as it was in my mind.

We packed a lunch and headed to the Garden which is all of 5 minutes from my house. As we were driving there I could tell that the kids were a little more tired that I thought they would be this early. Bennett was especially exhausted and I was kind of feeling bad that I had suggested it because I was all worried that Haley felt pressure to go when we would have been just fine to put him down for a nap. But we went. The first 10 minutes at our favorite spot didn't go to smoothly. Poor Bennett was getting so frustrated because he kept slipping on the loss gravely sand and falling. Finally Haley took off his shoes and he had a lot more fun climbing on rocks. Jack was a little off his game too, but thank goodness the blue birds came and started eating our scrap food because they saved the day! Well, the kids did start throwing their food as much as possible at this point, in hopes to get more blue birds to come, but hey, they were having fun.

The weather was beautiful! As we left the wind was starting to pick up and it was cooling off a little, so we picked the perfect time to go. On our way home we swung by the Home Depot for some paint and framing supplies. The kids fell asleep in the car so when we got home we got right to work on the menu board. At this point Haley was asking me why I didn't tell her that my menu board took me two weeks to make. But I loved making one for her mostly because I know how much it has changed my life. We spent the entire after noon making meal tags and I created a frame for her board that I'm in love with. I plan to make three just like it to go over my bed in my room. I'll post pictures once I get them made.

By the time the boys woke up Haley and I tried our hardest to just let them play so we could keep working on tags. That's about when we learned just how obsessed Bennett is with Alivia. He couldn't leave her alone, and being a 2 year old little boy he was having a hard time understanding what we were talking about when we were saying "Gentle." I never could figure out what he was doing that was making her so mad, but we must have finally made him understand that he couldn't do that, because finally he just started poring water water on her face from his sippy cup. That made her really mad. He just loved that little girl so much, and I think he was fascinated that he could make her react like that. But he had plenty of sweet moments with her too, like holding her hand in the car and constantly wanting to know where "Baby Ali" was.

So guess what we did after dinner? Oh, yeah, we kept working on the menu board tags. And guess how late Haley and I were up again? 2:30!!! We are insane. We were so tired but we had to finish it. And it looks so good. Again it was another night of talking and laughing until we almost wet our pants. It was a little sad to know that Haley is leaving me tomorrow. But seriously, I'm so happy we could do this. I look forward to many more similar trips in the future.

Day 70: Monday with Haley

In case you didn't get enough ranting about Haley's visit yesterday, don't worry, there is plenty more to come! This morning I woke up and headed downstairs to find Haley taking care of my kids since I'm such a good mom and make them fend for themselves for the first 20-30 minutes every morning. This happens for 2 reasons.

1- I'm too tired. I've never been a morning person, and I find it to be my laziest time of the day. I love my bed, I don't like to leave it.

2- My kids remind me of swarming ants in the morning. Have you ever tried to tell swarming ants that they cant have the piece of juicy watermelon laying on the ground? Well, if you have tried telling the ants no, they react the same way my kids react when I tell them to wait 2 minutes so I can get dressed before I get them their sacred chocolate milk.

So, like a good friend, Haley took care of my kids while I finished nursing the baby. Then we got to work planning our day. Haley wanted to make a menu board for herself like mine, so our day revolved mostly around gathering the needed supplies for that project. Except I did have an appointment in there where Haley saved my life by watching my kids. She took them to McDonalds, and then we headed to Hobby Lobby.

At Hobby Lobby we got out fabric, magnets, and stamps that we needed for our craft. Then we headed to the check out line. I have a theory about kids heading to the check out line. They can sense that their time in the store is drawing to a close, so they frantically begin thinking of ways to stall. I swear, the last 5 minutes of every trip I take to the store are the moments when all Hell breaks loose. I can't decide if this happens because I'm almost done shopping, or if I'm almost done shopping because this is beginning to happen. Someday I can go to the store while my kids are in school, and some crazy people try telling me that I will miss these days. I think those people have lost their sanity from too many final moments of shopping trips with children in their own lives.

When we actually got the the check out stand, seriously 3 of our 4 children went full out ballistic on us. Lucy was good, but she kind of fulled Jack's fire by trying to contain him which unleashed the screams. Alivia started crying, and I decided I would take all the kids out the car and start loading them in (a 15 minute process) while Haley checked out in peace. As I wheeled the kids away, Bennett noticed that I was stealing him from his mom, so he started crying, Jack is still throwing a back arching tantrum, Lucy is puckering up because I snapped at her to let go of Jack's arm, and Alivia is crying because she just feels the need to be heard on an hourly basis.

When Haley came out the car I could see on her face that she will truly appreciate every store that I write about my kids in public places because she has witnessed it first hand. She said watching me walk out of that store was like watching a train wreak on repeat. It's spectacularly terrible and attracts a lot of witnesses. The sad truth is that her little boy wasn't even the problem it was all my kids. Bennett wouldn't have even cried at all if he'd sat there with his mom, he was just busy busy busy, so I decided to take him out. Why is it that my kids have mastered humiliating me in public?

When we got home we had dinner and put the kids to bed, a blessed time in everyday for me.Then Haley and I started making her Menu board. She is so excited about it, and it's going to be adorable. I LOVE the fabric she choose, it's so cute! We stayed up until 1am. We're so irresponsible. Seriously, how are we going to get those precious sleeping hours back with kids? But it was so fun to spend that time together talking again. I've missed her so much and I didn't even know just how much so much is.

Day 69: HALEY!!!

I've been looking forward to this day for weeks now. Actually, check that, I've been looking forward to it for YEARS! Today was the day one of my best friends from high school was able to come and visit me! Her circumstances that brought her to me were not the best (she had spent a month at home helping her mom recover from a surgery in which her cancerous tumor was successfully removed), but in the end it brought her to me, so I'm one happy girl!

I woke up this morning at Bob and Pam's so that I could pick Haley up at the hotel she was staying in with her family. By 9 am I had Haley by my side where I intended to keep her for several days. It was so fun to finally get to see her after more than 2 years. I'd never seen her as a mom, but I've read her blog so much that it wasn't weird at all. Her little boy Bennett is to die for, I've always felt this way as I've seen pictures and videos of him, but in person it's even better (and no Haley, I'm not just saying that because I know you are reading this ;) ). So, I picked her up, said hi to all her family, and then whisked her away to all the places of my life.

First stop, my in law's house where Jack and Bennett met and quickly built what I like to call a rocky friendship (as most friendships are amongst two year olds). We had to spend the day in Denver because my little Lucy was finally coming home, and I missed her so much.

We decided to be good little mommies and take our families to church, so we headed to Dave and Adriana's ward. We only stayed for sacrament meeting simply because my track record the last couple of months for meetings actually attended isn't too hot, so I knew it would be pointless to try to make it through 3 full hours. This turned out to be a good decision. Poor Bennett had come down with a cold which kept him up all night, so he was more than ready for his nap. I don't know if I can legitimately blame that on the cold. I think it was more due to the fact that church started at noon. Who ever decided that it made sense to start church at noon is so fired. Especially for this ward. I kept feeling like my kids were so out of control, but then I realized even when we had them all quietly distracted, it was still unbelievably loud in that meeting. Dave and Adriana's ward is about 75% children under the age of 10.

Haley and I were like pop corn in that meeting. Up and down, in and out the entire time. It was one of those moments that you just can't get stressed about because it's like "Is this really happening?" So, after that, we headed back to Bob and Pam's. There Haley and I spent the entire afternoon talking, catching up, reminiscing, and laughing until we cried. It was SO fun, I wish I could come up with a better word to describe how much I loved having her visit. What made it better is that both our boys took incredible naps so we were able to spend this time without the popcorn affect.

When Lucy got home we spent about an hour more up there with the family and had so much fun. Then we loaded up Bob and Pam's car and headed down to the good old Springs. We had to trade them cars so we could all fit. Bennett has a small obsession with Alivia, it's adorable. He'll make an excellent big brother some day.

When we got home, Haley helped herself to a tour of my fairly mess house while we got the kids all situated and in bed. Then Haley and I sat up and talked until after mid night. Talking with her helped me remember what it is that has made us such good friends. We are so alike in the way that we think about life, yet we are still totally different people, you know what I mean? If we were too similar in every way, we'd bug each other, but we aren't. We're totally different, but we agree about everything. We both have the same views on manners, behavior, standards, parenting, and it was just so fun to talk out our social issues and have 100% support from each other. We just loved every second of it and now I want her and Matt to move up here so we can be closer.

All that said, I have to give my husband some major props. He is the best man in the world. When I told him Haley was coming he was so excited for me. He caught up with Haley himself and then let me spend as much time with her as I wanted without ever complaining. I love that boy. He always wants what's best for me whether it be exercising, eating right, or kicking me out of the house when he knows I need a break. I'm telling you, I hit the jack pot with him!