Mike's Birthday!

We had a fun day celebrating Mike's 32nd birthday yesterday!

In the morning, he and Adam went to help someone in our ward move. They were gone for a couple of hours. When they got back he opened his present from us: a grilling cookbook. He really likes to barbecue, and is always looking for grilling cookbooks at the library. We thought we'd make it official and let him have his own. ;)


That night we had the missionaries over for dinner. We love having the missionaries to dinner, and we all had a great time! After FHE, we sang/blew out candles. I made strawberry sheet cake (per Mike's request). It was yu-mmy!


It was a great day!

Scroll Down!

I'm actually pretty good about starting to write blog posts on the day (or day after) they happen.

I will usually start to type them with one hand in the middle of night while I nurse Josh. Then work on them a bit more the next day, until I am called away to wipe a bum or stop or fight.

Or to tell Grace that a plate of pickles and a cup of hot chocolate with extra whipped cream do not a lunch make.

And then I forget about them, never add the pictures, and never post them.

But, I've had some time today (and the past few days) to finish! However, since they were posted around the date that they happened, you may need to scroll down to read them.

Enjoy!

Issues

Between me making him wear dresses to tea parties, and Grace making him play dolls with her, he might just have some issues when he's older.

Seriously Ugly

Mike brought this home from work on Saturday, proud that he had found such a "cool" chair at D.I. for only $5.

Wow. It's even uglier in person, if you can imagine.

He seriously doesn't get why I don't like it.

And why I asked him to leave any future furniture shopping up to me.

It'll give me a good opportunity to learn the art of reupholstering, however, so it's not a total loss. ;)

An Emotional Yesterday

Yesterday Grace and I made strawberry cupcakes, pink frosting, and sandwich filling for our Pinkalicious tea party that we were going to have last night, while the boys went camping.

I heard a lot of sirens outside and helicopters flying around as we worked, but we live in the ghetto and (sadly) it doesn't phase me anymore.

I also heard a lot of "humming" noises, which again, didn't really make me think anything was out of the ordinary. Just thought it was from construction or someone was getting their carpets done.

We left to go pick up Adam a few hours later, and I was shocked when I opened my door. There were 7 cameras in front of our house. The parking spaces in front of our house were filled with news vans (who were the source of the humming), and the roads were taped off with police tape.

The buildings in our apartment complex have been burglarized for over a year, by the same group of men. Night or day, home or not. It's terrible. Yesterday, they got another apartment. It was called into the police. While the police were en route, another apartment was burglarized by the same group of guys. The sweet maintenance workers told them to stop. Both were shot, one killed. At noon. Just a few apartments down from us.

These two men had just been in our apartment two days ago fixing our bathtub. The man that died was so kind. Always joking with Adam and Grace, and telling me how cute Josh was. He always waved as we passed each other and said, "hello."

It's tragic what happened. Simply tragic.

After we came home from school, we stayed on our porch to watch the reporters. Adam had a lot of fun watching the reporters do their live 4:00 news story: he would stand on our porch and watch them talk (they were just broadcasting a few yards from our porch), then he would run inside and watch it on the news.

Later, most of the reporters had gone. We went back outside so the kids could play. One reporter straggled. Adam (and his friends) have garage sales everyday, pretty much just selling each other their junk. The reporter who had stayed walked to their sale, and gave them $5 for a marble (instead of the 10 cents they had asked... so sweet!). While they were splitting the money up, she came over and asked me my reaction to the crime as a young mother.

It had been a really busy, crazy day, in which Josh hadn't napped yet. So, I hadn't showered. My hair was in a messy bun. Grace had just wiped yogurt on me. I said something dumb about the crime in the hood and how it worried me, while Josh grabbed at her microphone.

Unfortunately, they like to put pictures of gross moms who only get 4 hours of sleep a night and mutter un-intelligible responses on the news, for the human-interest factor. So, Josh and I made the 11:00 news.

There will not be a link given here.

Because I look that bad.

But, Josh was on tv! Fun for him!

Mike and Adam were supposed to go on the Father and Son's campout. I asked them not to, because I was feeling a bit scared. ;) So, we all watched a Tinkerbell movie and had a Pinkalicious tea party together.

Adam didn't (apparently) get that "dress up" didn't mean Star Wars gear:

Josh, however, knows that sometimes getting a lick of frosting is worth wearing a dress for a few minutes:


Sigh... he would've been a cute girl. ;)



Yesterday was filled with so many emotions: sadness, fear, anger, happiness, embarrassment, joy, contentment.

Quite the rollercoaster.

Life is so fragile.

But, life is also so good.

Brave Girl!

Yesterday, the apartment complex refinished our bathtub. Because of the fumes, they told us we couldn't be in our apartment for 6-8 hours.

And then I cried.

Seriously... nursing baby + a 3-year-old who loves public restrooms + not being able to be home all day and do everything I needed to?

They also told us that we couldn't use it for 2 days prior to the refinishing and for one day after.

But, our stinkiness issues are a different story.

I decided we would go to the mall. There's TONS to looks at there. It's air conditioned. They have a play area. I could bring snacks and we could eat them anywhere. I could bring my Moby and nurse him in it while we walked.

So we did.

Grace has been asking for a few months to get her ears pierced, and I had put it off. Yesterday when she saw a girl getting her ear's pierced, she asked again. I warned her (again) that it was going to hurt a little, and she said it was fine. So, we went for it.

My earliest memory is me at 4 years old getting my ears pierced. I remember sitting in the chair, the pinch, the smell, and walking out of Metrocenter in Phoenix cupping my hands under my ears, sure the earrings were going to fall out.

I remember trying so hard not to cry or yell. And I didn't.

Yesterday I watched Grace do the exact same thing. As they brought the guns to her ears, she pushed her lips together and looked straight forward. As it happened, a little tear started to make its way down her cheek, but she never cried or screamed or made a sound.

Brave girl!

The earrings look darling on her! She looks so grown up to me now!

And, no one will ever call her a boy again.

Well, hopefully. ;)

9 Years!

We celebrated our 9th anniversary of being a family on Tuesday!

I have issues with baby-sitters (and leaving the kids in general), so last year, we celebrated our anniversary as a family. This year, we did the same. It's a perfect tradition because the day we got married, was the day our family began. Love celebrating it together!

Plus, like I said, I don't have to leave the kids.

I will work on my issues soon. Probably after the kids are grown and out of the house. ;)

We looked at doing a lot of things, but we didn't have a big frame of time from when Adam got out of school and had to be in bed. The kids really wanted to "eat out" (not sure what that says about my cooking...), but we had made a goal to not eat out anymore. At all. We need a bigger place, and eating out just kills the budget.

Mike suggested (as a compromise) that we deposit our "coin jar" and use that money to eat out. That way, it wasn't coming out of the bank (and messing up the budget), but we could still get out. Away from my cooking. Apparently. ;)

There was almost $30 in the jar! Crazy!

We picked up Adam from school and went to the Bellagio. They have a beautiful conservatory that they change every season. We had only seen "summer," and everyone had told us that "spring" was great.

It was beautiful! The kids LOVED the butterflies and ants!

After going through the garden a few times, we went outside to see the fountains. We LOVE the fountains! Grace thought they sounded like fireworks.

Even though we live in Las Vegas, we hardly ever go down to the strip. Really, just when family are in town. I always hear about Las Vegas on tv, in magazines, books, etc. It's kind of surreal when you live here, especially when you are LDS. I don't associate "my" Las Vegas withe one I see/hear about in the media. We really just don't pay attention to the casinos, gambling, etc. However, when we do go down to the strip, to a nice place like the Bellagio, I'm always reminded that we do live in the same city, and there is a lot of fun, family stuff to do.

Afterward, we went to Chili's for dinner.

I'm totally in love with our family. I'm so blessed to have these sweet, fun, and funny children to raise and love. They are so precious. And 9 years ago it all began!

Happy Anniversary to us!

Like Charlie

On Sunday, I curled Grace's hair, like I normally do, sprayed it, then turned her to the mirror and asked her what she thought.

She tapped her chin for about a minute. Frowned, and said, "I look like Charlie."

I was confused, "Charlie?"

"Yeah, Charlie from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

Yeah, not exactly the look I had in mind...

;)

First Foods

Doritos provided courtesy of Grace.


Not exactly what I (or his pediatrician) had in mind, though.

Ballet II

Grace had her last ballet class on Wednesday. Her teacher is taking the summer off to spend with her daughters.

She's pretty bummed about it. However, she SO excited that when ballet starts back up again, she will be in the 4-year-old ballet class with Miss Sam!

She got an extra-special sticker at the end that she loved. We've had so much fun in ballet!

Movin' to the Crib

Since he was born, Josh has been sleeping in the port-a-crib in my room.

It was ideal for all of the night feedings, and the kids' room already seemed crammed enough with two. It worked for almost 6 months. However, it got to the point that he needed to be in a regular crib.

So, we crammed a third child into the kids' room.

He went from this:

To this:

Adam and Grace LOVE having him in there! It's been so fun for them! Josh has a hard adjustment for the first few days (it was just so big, I think). But now he LOVES it! Doesn't he look comfy? :)

I still put him in my room (in his carseat) if they really want to play in their room when he needs a nap. For the most part, it's been great.

Except when I get out of the shower and find that the baby I had (finally) got down for a nap has had his space invaded.

Punk.

;)

Pay It Forward

So, about a year ago, I won a blog makeover from my sister-in-law, on a Pay It Forward giveaway. I thought I had a year to pay it forward again. Which I (obviously) put off. Today I re-read it and realized I had a year to send the gift, not a year to hold the giveaway on my own blog to re-pay it forward.

Yikes. My apologies.

So:

PAY IT FORWARD: I will send a handmade gift to the first three (3) people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. You may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog. (so, you must have a blog to participate.)

(By the way, I won't take a year to send it to you. Promise.)

Baking is my specialty, so if you live in Las Vegas and win, I will make you a really yummy gift. If not, that's okay, I have something else already started that I will pay it forward with.

So, whether I know you or not, comment and the first three will win!

Just promise to not take a year to offer to pay-it-forward. ;)

PS- I know it doesn't make much sense to follow a "I'm so busy I'm going crazy" post with a "I'll make three people homemade gifts" post. But, it's how I roll.

Youth Auction

On Saturday we had our annual youth auction for our ward, so the YM/YW can raise money for their summer camps and activities.

Mike informed me (last minute) that he had to work late. We had already bought the tickets, though, so I decided to brave the dinner solo.

And we survived! In a public setting! Where they had to act like decent human children!

Well, only because one of my sweet friends claimed she didn't like lasagna and held Josh while I took Grace to the bathroom.

But, really, who doesn't like lasagna?

And another friend who claimed she was baby hungry, and walked him when he started fussing while I was helping Grace cut her dinner and quickly eating mine.

But, really, who is baby hungry?

Especially after reading my blog?

;)

It ended up being a lot of fun. The youth all get together and make all of the food: homemade lasagna, breadsticks, salad, and homemade rootbeer... aaannnddd... it's actually good!


We had already paid for Mike's ticket, and he wasn't going to get to eat. So, the kid's made up for our loss by eating their weight in breadsticks:


The ward members donates handmade (or bought) items, and there is a silent auction that goes on in a separate room to raise additional money.

My cute friend, Andrea, makes aprons and baby blankets. I've had my eye on a kid's one for Grace's birthday present (she loves to help me cook!). I won it for $10!


Isn't it darling?

I think I will get her a few more cooking utensils, a kids cookbook and call it good for her birthday present. She will love it!

We survived the night sans Mike, and, more importantly, had a great time together!!!

Service Primary Activity

The morning before our auction, we had our quarterly Primary activity. We did it based on the theme of service. The children helped make a quilt (that we donated to the youth auction that night). It was so cute! It had all of their handprints on it, and I really wish I had won it.

They made cards for their moms, thanking them for the service that they do. We also played a "service relay race," where the children fed the dog, swept up a mess, folded a towel, and hung up a jacket. This was Adam and Grace's favorite part!

I know I've mentioned it, but I LOVE being in Primary! This has been my most favorite calling. We have the sweetest children, and being with them on Sunday is one of the best parts of my week. When I get to be with them on a Saturday, too, for one of our activities, it's even better!

Last Project of the Year!

Adam's project for May was on the rainforest. Each child drew an animal out of a bucket, and had to do their project on it. He got "Blue Bird of Paradise." We could find nothing specific on it at the library, zoo, bird store, etc. It was a difficult project.

I usually help him out with his projects, but this time, I wanted him to do it on his own. He chose to do a mobile. Designed it, put it together all on his own. He wrote out the facts, watercolored a bird, drew eggs, and attached it all to a mobile. It was simple, but it was what he wanted, and it was ALL done by him. I thought he did great for a 1st grader. He got a "3" (they do some kind of weird number system at their school) because it didn't have enough detail. A "3" is fine, he was fine with it, too. But, it bothered me a little because sometimes I think that the projects become a competition between parents when it should be the CHILD doing it. And if they were all completely child made, none of them would have huge detail. Oh, well.

We went down for his presentation, and he did GREAT! I love, love, love that he's giving presentations monthly. I personally hate public speaking, and he's learning to do it when he's young, and it's not even going to be a big deal for him.

For May/June, they were supposed to do a project on the Solar System, but his teacher decided to cancel it, and do in-classroom projects instead. He was so bummed, because he had been looking forward to it all year.

Me? I was a little happy, I'm ashamed to say... he had envisioned making the whole solar system, complete with zooming meteors.

Maybe we'll tackle that this summer.

Will Be Back Soon

Much to post. Much to catch up on.

Haven't blogged in what feels like forever.

Because we spent last weekend and this week dealing with a stomach bug.

All is well now.

However, my house is a wreck and I have 10 loads of laundry to fold.

I do tend to exaggerate.

But I'm not this time.

Our a/c is broken and I can't call them to fix it because our apartment is such a mess that I'm afraid that the apartment manager would kick us out if she saw it like this.

It got up to 94 degrees in here yesterday.

Miserable.

It's hard to clean when it's that hot.

Catch-22: Can't get the a/c fixed until the house is clean and can't clean the house when it's this hot.

BTW, I read the book Catch-22 in 10th grade to impress a boy.

Total lame-ness, I know.

It didn't work. And I got someone better anyways.

Besides trying to clean and fold laundry and running after kids to catch throw-up in bowls, I have spent all of my time alternately feeding Josh and pumping. My milk supply is dwindling.

Just like it did with Grace at this time.

I realize with the speaking of breastmilk I have now scared off all 2 of my male readers.

Apologies.

Have the boys left now?

Good.

Breastmilk talk will now ensue.

Why does my body give up making milk at around 5 months?

Why does not being able to feed my baby make me cry and feel like a total failure?

Why do I keep trying to do this?

My life would be infinitely simpler if I just gave up and fed him a bottle.

Well, besides the fact that he won't take a bottle.

At all.

He did on Sundays (for Mike while I was in Primary) during the first 2 months.

Now he has no idea what to do with a bottle and screams to the point of throwing up when we try.

I will keep trying.

Our Primary activity is on Saturday. Our ward party/youth fundraiser is on Saturday night. I'm making a craft for Adam's teacher for tomorrow. Mother's Day is on Sunday.

I have a million things to do.

(That is an exaggeration. But only a slight one).

Grace dropped a coffee pot at Wal-Mart on Wednesday.

It made a horrific noise as it shattered.

Everyone stared.

Grace and I both started to cry.

(BTW, how long can I continue to blame hormones for randomly crying in public?)

The ONLY kind Wal-Mart employee in Las Vegas was on the scene. She comforted us and told us not to worry about it.

It's been a long week.

This long rambling post has, oddly, made me feel better.

Though I'm sorry you all had to read it.

We're fine.

Just busy.

Tomorrow it's only going to be 86, so maybe if I stay up late tonight and the house doesn't get so hot tomorrow, I will get some things done.

And our a/c will get fixed.

And THEN I will be able to catch up on this blog.

5 Months

He is so darling! I just love him more and more every day! I can't believe he's 5 months already! At five months he loves standing (while I hold his hands), being tickled, sleeping on his tummy, rolling EVERYWHERE, army crawling, his toys, paper (he loves crumbling it/chewing on it). He dislikes having a messy diaper (maybe this will make him easier to potty train? Maybe?), sitting, laying on his back, having things taken away (he can already throw a tantrum), and being hot (good luck this summer).

I really need to get him on video, because he is so crazy fast at getting anything he wants. If he spots something, he will roll to it, turn his body around using his hands until he is facing it, and then pull himself with his arms to it. Crazy! Adam and Grace never did this, and it's SO funny to watch it!

And this picture pretty much cracks me up. I was snapping and snapping pictures, trying to get him to smile. Didn't realize I caught this until after. Too funny.