Train Ride!

When the new commuter train opened up this week, we were so excited! Now Bill can save so much time and money on his commute! WAHOO! And even better - I don't have to worry about him getting in an accident on the freeway.

So Bill started taking the train to and from work this week and since it is free through today we wanted to let the kids take a ride as well. Last night we met him at the train station after work, and I handed over the three older kids while I ran some errands with Kate and let them go nuts on the train. They loved it...

Check out the pictures. My kids have looks like they are scared stiff on their faces, but they know they should be excited so they are trying to hide it. I love it! But by the time I picked them up at the station after their ride, they were really excited about it and said they had so much fun.

Hayden keeps talking about riding on "Pomas" (the way he says Thomas). Yes, we have him convinced that he took a magical ride on Thomas the train. And Lana saw a red car in a parking lot at one of the stops and told Hayden it was Lightning McQueen. He thought the whole ride was fantastic. He doesn't stop looking out the window for "Pomas and McQueen." Cute boy.

Funny side note: Bill told me that a man sitting across from them took the picture of all of them. When he told me that Rylee said, "Yeah, and mom I feel really bad for that nice man." I said, "Why do you feel bad," thinking that my husband let a homeless man take their picture or something. Nope, Rylee said, "He did something SOOO nice for us because he took our picture and we didn't do anything nice for him." What a sweetheart. I hope that kind of attitude continues through her life.

Anyways, fun train ride for all. Pretty sad that it gets my kids so excited. I must be a pretty boring mom. We really don't do a lot of fun things, but I can always go for a free train ride!

The "Flower Girl"

Last week Rylee and her BFF were in the school play. They performed "Alice in Wonderland" and they were sweet little flowers. Rylee told me before she performed the play that they were supposed to be mean and nasty flowers, but she "couldn't help but smile really big in front of adults!" How sweet is that!


So here is the ordeal that Blackeyedsue and I had. (If you didn't know already, the girl pictured with Rylee is Blackeyedsue's daughter.) The girls worked SOOOOO hard on this play - they practiced after school three days a week for the past four months and during the last two weeks it was almost every night. So when it came time to get costumes ready for the play the girls were told that their Alice In Wonderland t-shirts were "it" for their costumes. HOW LAME! After all that hard work, they only get to wear a dumb t-shirt in the play! No siree Bob! That didn't fly with Blackeyedsue and I.


So, we decided to try to make them look a little more like flowers. Blackeyedsue got gung-ho last Saturday and got it all figured out for me (thank goodness, because I was having a rotten day). She found green pants at Children's Place, little stretchy headbands and flowers, which we were able to cut apart and hot glue to clips for their hair, and she got flip-flops that we hot glued flowers to.



So these pictures were taken the last night of the play right before we left. Look how cute they look all "gussied" up, make-up and all!

Feelin' the love! Our girls better stay best buddies forever or it will be so sad!

Can we say, "DRAMATIC!" This girl likes to pose for pictures. I just thought I would point out the very blatantly obvious!

I snapped this shot of a bunch of the girls backstage just before the curtain went up. They were ready to "do their thing!"

After the play, a few of the people who were in the play ended up at Pace's for ice cream. What a fun ending to the long play run for these kids! They loved it! And so did Hayden! He and Bill were little ice cream buddies!

Apparently Hayden can't keep ice cream in his mouth. Every time the kid eats ice cream, we get a picture of him with ice cream on his chin. Silly boy!

Lana and Rylee with a couple of other sweet girls in our ward sitting on the tall bar stools to eat their ice cream. What cute girls!

Lana and her BFF (also Blackeyedsue's daughter - just in case you didn't already know!) They kept running back and forth talking to each other and they were so cute. They can't get enough of each other!

Kate even had a good time. I fed her Cheerios for her snack, and she loved them! Cutie pie!

And this was why we decided to leave Pace's. I am a white trash mom who lets her son crawl in the cupboards under the napkins and straws at Pace's. They had to love me! Hey, at least he wasn't throwing a fit! And it's not like they have food in there. So there is your tip for the week: If you take a two year old to a restaurant and they have a cupboard they can play and hide in, it keeps them quiet and happy!

Rylee's Tooth Saga

Rylee had a tooth that was bleeding the other day because it was pretty loose and just needed to come out. She was all sorts of upset about it because she just wanted it to fall out so she could stop sucking on a washcloth all day (something I thought most kids loved to do, but apparently it gets old after a few hours.)

So after dinner I felt her tooth and it was pretty wiggly, but felt like it could still use some work. But she was freaking out saying she really wanted us to try to get it out. Well, okay. Sounds fun to me!... BILL! Rylee wants her tooth pulled! That is a daddy job, right?

So we get out the Zilactin to numb her up a little because I really didn't think it was ready, but I thought we could at least show her we tried.

Bill numbed her up and Rylee thought it tasted fantastic! Okay, not really, but she at least giggled about the nasty taste.

Then Bill started to yank at her tooth. It wasn't doing much and my husband was too afraid of hurting her. When he asked if I thought he was a wimp, I said, "Yep, pretty much!" He replied, "But she's my little girl. I don't want to hurt my little girl."

"Let me take a yank at it then," I said. I have some rage I could take out on someone. Hehehe.

Apparently I didn't have enough rage because I couldn't get it out either. Are we loser parents?

But the next night, Rylee was washing her face in the bath and she had to scrub her lips pretty hard because she had some of that awesome Color Stay lipstick on (she has been in the school play) and her tooth just fell out into the washcloth. Apparently it doesn't take a wimpy dad or mom with rage, just a sweet girl to wash her face. Who knew?!

So now we have a happy girl with a missing front tooth. How adorable! And apparently smiling with a missing front tooth makes a girl flare her nostrils at the same time. The human body is crazy, I tell you!

Big Boy "Panties"

We tried to potty train Hayden on Saturday, with no success. I guess the kid isn't ready yet. He does, however, think the underwear is fabulous! Bill keeps telling me to stop calling it big boy "panties" but I am just used to girls. So what do you call big boy underwear? He just may grow up with a complex because his mom calls them big boy panties. Whatever. It isn't the first thing he will end up having a complex over, nor will it be the last, I'm sure.

But I really do need to fix the way he wears his "big boy panties" with some fashion lessons.

Lesson #1: Dude, it is improper to wear them over a diaper. You only need them when you are actually potty trained. And if you do wear them improperly, please wear them with a smile!

Lesson#2: Buddy, you do need pants OVER the top of your underwear. No one likes a boy with underwear showing!

Lesson #3: Stinker boy, we are heading into Summer soon. Now is not the time to be "layering."

Lesson #4: If you do layer, please make sure the layers match. I really do have my work cut out for me, don't I?!

Kate's Workout!

I know it is the sabbath and all, so we shouldn't encourage exercise right!? Well, I guess you can sue me now because we did. You know how Kate really has some thighs? Well we found a winner workout for her. We were watching this when she did this:

Her legs were going crazy! If you have kids, I highly suggest checking out the video that was making her so excited. It is darling! Apparently it is great for getting those thighs in shape for summer weather! Maybe I should try it. Anyone got a sling I could hang from the ceiling? I don't think poor Bill could hang on to me while I kicked like that. :)

Oh, and I am sorry about the slobbiness of my family. Come on, it is Sunday afternoon! I am in a sweat shirt and Rylee thought it would be fun to draw a mustache on her face with a pen. And we won't even talk about the soda that Hayden spilled on the floor. Can you say sticky? Good thing cleaning day is tomorrow.

Happy Thoughts

Since this is a journal of sorts for me I thought I would make a short list of a few things that make me happy today. Come to think of it, I think I need to learn to look on the bright side a bit more, so I think I will add a daily little Happy Thought to the side of my blog. Coming soon...

Anyway, back to my little list. I was just thinking this morning about some things that make me happy today. Here are some of my Happy Thoughts:

1. Pink text on a blog. That makes me happy. Okay, that wasn't going to be one of them, but it didn't change the way it was supposed to when I changed it back to black, so I ran with it. I really do like pink!

2. Bill brought these home the other night, and I love them! They are so bright and pretty, and they just help make it more "Spring-like" in the house. It has been such a long winter. I needed this! Sorry, girls, he's taken! :)

3. Lana says the funniest things. Here's a few: She and Rylee have humidifier in their room and she always tells people to come see "da minute fiuh." (Did you catch that?) Remember the kid talks like a New Yorker, so she just pronounces humidifier funny.
Another funny: I was playing the game Guess Who with her the other day when she was asking me a question to narrow down her search for who I was. Her question was: "Do you have any balds?" Only she didn't pronounce the "d" in balds very well. I thought she was asking if I was a male or female for a minute until I remembered she is four and doesn't know that kind of lingo yet.
Another cute thing: She loves the movie "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" (girl after my own heart) and she just can't seem to get the name of the movie right. She will ask if she can watch "Seven Brothers for Seven Sisters" and then when I correct her, she says, "Oh, it's Seven Brides for Seven Sisters." The poor girl is confused!

4.
I found the coolest lipstick! I have already converted two other people to it. It is Cover Girl's Outlast all day lipstick! It really works! I can kiss on my kids all day and my lips still look pretty and I don't get lipstick all over them. I may not get my hair done during the day, but by dang, my lips look good! And even better yet: I can kiss Bill when he comes home and still look decent (besides my hair that never gets done any more, of course!:)

5. I keep my cell phone on vibrate because I hate the loud ringing. It never fails to wake up a baby when she is almost asleep. But Lana and Hayden both describe the vibrating ring as something different. When Lana sees it moving across the counter she says, "Mom, your phone is yawning." Where in the heck she got that, I don't know. And this morning when Hayden heard it vibrating he said, "Moo." Apparently it sounds like a cow to him.

6. This makes me not so happy. I got a new calling, along with the one I already have, at church to be the primary pianist. Our pianist has two little ones already and she just had twins. Apparently she is a bit occupied right now. Can't imagine why. But they asked me to fill in. Great. I took piano lessons for nine years, but that was a LOOOONG time ago. But I accepted the call and have been practicing and trying to get through it. I think it will turn out better than I expected and I am kind of enjoying it. But back to my HAPPY thought: Yesterday I was practicing and the kids were singing along with the songs. I stumbled across the song "Little Purple Pansies." I always just make fun of that song, and last night was no different. Instead of the correct lyrics, I was singing "Little poopooed panties touched with yellow pee." Tacky, I know, but I couldn't help it. So this morning, guess what Rylee woke up singing and will probably teach all her friends at school?! You guessed it. Oops. But it really is funny to hear her laugh that uncontrollable laugh when something really strikes her funny bone.

7. I got to snuggle with Bill and Kate for a few minutes this morning before Bill left for work. We just laughed at Kate and talked and it started my day so much better than the normal hopping up and dealing with whiny kids first. I think that may have to be a new habit!

8. I talked on the phone for a while this morning with Blackeyedsue and we laughed and laughed. Adult conversation is always welcome!

So, there are a few things that are among my "Happy thoughts" today. What are some of yours?

Tales of a White Trash Mom

Yesterday was my cleaning day, which usually means that my kids look like orphans all day and so do I. It also means I do whatever is necessary to keep them entertained. All rules of health and propriety go out the window. So what is a mom to do when the baby is frustrated because she can't keep up with the other two kids and I still have housework to do, so I can't entertain her very well?

Answer: You turn on a "Wiggles" video, since your baby has decided recently that she really likes them. You go downstairs and pull out the "Big girl" chair. (No, I don't have a high chair. Funny little thing about me - I hate high chairs. I like the cheepie little boosters that I can strap onto a resin chair and then when they get messy, the whole thing goes in the shower.) Anyway, back to our solution: I get the big chair out, strap Kate in it, turn on the "Wiggles" and pop a sucker in her mouth.


Do you think she likes it? After the sucker was gone, we went to Cheerios. What great snacks. And the "Wiggles" make great babysitters! Highly recommend them.


So, yes, I am a white trash mom with sticky icky kids who did not have healthy snacks yesterday. But I am a white trash mom with a clean house, and happy kids. This makes a happy mommy!

Bag Tagged!

I was bag tagged by Jenn! The rules are to take a picture of your purse before you dump it out, and then take a picture of everything that was in your purse and then tag five other people. So here goes:

First of all I had to decide what "Bag" to use. I have two purses and the dreaded diaper bag, which I frequently use as a purse. I decided to use the bag that had my wallet in it. Thankfully that one wasn't the diaper bag. I really am not in the mood to reorganize that thing after I dump it out. And I really don't know what treasures I would find in there.

I love this purse though. Love the shade of blue, love how it feels, love that it has lots of room in it, and just love the general style of it. That is a rare thing, since I HATE purses!


This is the "Before" shot of my purse.

And "After" shot! Okay, for the rundown on what was in my purse:

Very important: Extra gum. Can't go anywhere without it! I hate nasty, dry mouth!

My wallet: Good thing I didn't have to dump out that thing! I have too much crap stuffed in there!

A calculator: You never know when you will need to add something. Yes, I am that pathetic. If you ask me to "Add something up really quick" I will freeze up. Just don't put me on the spot - especially when it comes to math - even basic math!

Clear nail polish: I paint my nails if I am just waiting in a doctor's office and am bored. Then if the wait is super long, I can pick it off too! Weird, I know, but oh well. It is also great if you get an unsightly run in your nylons. It temporarily stops the run until you can get home and toss the dang things in the trash. Who needs nylons anyway? I wish I had pretty legs and could get away with not wearing them. Too bad for me.

A travel first aid kit: You never know when you will be out and about and hear, "Mom, I'm bleeding!" A band-aid will shut them up real quick because they are magic little things!

Wet Ones: Because I too am a neurotic mom and have to wipe down shopping carts before my kids can come within ten feet of them.

Bath and Body Works Cherry Blossom Lotion: I hate dry hands, and the smell of that stuff just makes me really happy! I love it!

Bath and Body Works Japanese Cherry Blossom Hand Sanitizer: Again, I love the smell of that stuff, and it doesn't make your hands dry or sticky like some hand sanitizers. Who goes anywhere without hand sanitizer these days? Why didn't I invest in that stock?

A notepad: Just because I have no brain and I have to write things down in order to remember anything.

A pen: A notepad isn't very useful without a pen to write on it with - unless you just need it to make paper airplanes. But I stink at that too. So I better just stick to writing on notepads.

My Scentsy Candle catalog and list of scents I like: I go to so many Scentsy parties and am always ordering more bars, so I always have to have my list of scents I like with me just in case I need to order! Maybe I should just be a consultant. Nah, I hate selling stuff.

A receipt for Maverick where I spent way too much on gas.

And finally, an expired coupon for chocolate! What was I thinking!? That precious gift sat in my purse unused. I shock myself. I have repented and I will never do that again!

If you made it through my list of crap, congratulations! I won't tag anyone. I know, I am breaking the rules. But if you would like to play along consider yourself tagged! I would love to snoop in your purse! (It's only fair - you looked in mine!) :)

Nark!

The other day, I was getting ready to turn on the movie "Cars" for Hayden. He is a bit obsessed with that movie lately. You know how they go through those phases where it is all about one certain movie twelve times a day for about four months solid until they find a new movie to obsess about? Well, for Hayden it is "Cars" right now.

So as I was getting ready to turn it on, Lana started freaking out and saying, "No, Mom, don't turn it on." I told her to chill out and let Hayden watch his silly movie so I don't have to hear him whine at me, and her response surprised me.

She said, "No, Mom. Me and Rylee had a plan. When you turned on the movie we were going to wait until you walked out of the room and then we were going to hide it in the piano."

"What," I said!

"Lana said, "Yeah, me and Wylee (the way she pronounces Rylee's name) had a plan because we are tiud (how she says tired) of cars (I can't type how she pronounces that one - just picture a Brooklyn accent when Lana talks)."

We proceeded to turn on the movie anyway, and I joked with Lana that maybe we should hide all of Rylee's favorite things while she was at school and see how she liked it. We giggled, and the afternoon went fine.

Then Lana met Rylee at the door after school. Rylee couldn't even set foot in the house when Lana said, "Wylee, Mom said that's not a good plan."

Rylee's jaw hit the floor. She knew exactly what Lana was talking about, and she said, "Lana, you weren't supposed to tell Mom about it!"

Thank you, Lana, for being a nark. What other schemes do my children have that the lid hasn't been blown off of yet? Are my kids really old enough to be "making plans" and "scheming?" I thought they were sweet and innocent. Think again, Dope! I guess it is mommy who needs a lesson this time!

Our Reverent Sabbath

If you want a calm, quiet, reverent Conference Sunday experience, don't come to my house!


The afternoon session started out okay. We had just finished a BBQ and were so full that we should have been very relaxed. I found out yesterday that with my ever-crazy family, conference isn't for reverence any more. Here is what a typical conference session is for at my house:


Conference is for sleeping. My little brother, Andrew, is on a mission. But we are fortunate enough to still see the sweet girl he left behind. We hope she is still available in 21 months! My kids all love her, and if I had room, I would hire her as our nanny. First, Hayden crawled on her lap and asked her to "skuggle" and before long, he was out like a light. He loves Sara. Sorry, Buddy, she is taken (not to mention too old for you.)

Next was Kate's turn. Sooah (her nickname with the kids) worked her magic again and had Kate asleep in about five minutes. See why I would like her around more often?! She is wonderful - not to mention that she is just fun to talk to and laugh with. She would be a great sister-in-law! (No pressure, Sara:)

My other brother, Jordan, just got home from his mission last month and is already talking marriage with Ashley. He wrote to for a year of his mission, met her for the first time the day of his homecoming, and I have a feeling the rest will be history. Remember how that was to be young and you could just snuggle on the couch all afternoon? I don't remember the last time I snuggled with Bill. I am always making meals, cleaning up meals, wiping poop, chasing kids, etc. You know! But these two are at the stage of a relationship where it is all fun. Wow, that was a long time ago! Conference used to be good for snuggling - years ago! :)

Conference is good for Lana to put Grandpa to sleep.

Since Grandpa fell asleep, Lana thought she'd go bug Grandma. Conference is great for bugging Grandmas too! I think Lana's magic is starting to work on Grandma. She is starting to doze. Maybe it is Lana's outfit. She wanted to wear jammies all day. Maybe their purpose wore off on anyone who she sat on!

Conference is great for me chasing people around with a camera. My husband wouldn't pose, so I just snapped a shot. Earlier, we were having a war of butt shots. I know, real reverent (mature too), but we had fun. I won't post the butt pictures though. I should embarrass Bill though and post one. He has a cute butt in jeans. He used to play baseball. Need I say more?

Conference is for doing puzzles on the floor.

Conference is for blowing up whoopie cushions and squeezing them in the ears of those who are snoozing.

Conference is for getting babies stoned! Okay, just kidding. But really, she looks hammered! :)

Now, she is starting to come out of it! Not all the way, but sort of!

Conference is good for getting us all wound up so that we are still silly before bed. We were still having fun with the camera. Rylee and Lana were loving this! We took about a million different funny face pictures, but I will spare you the "nostril flaring" one. It is a little known talent of mine, and I am trying to teach my girls how to do it. Hey, it's great for making babies laugh! :)

And then Hayden jumped in for a shot. Then we were all bushed and needed to get some sleep.


Conference Sunday was lots of fun. We ate lots and we played lots and we enjoyed our family and friends. Thank goodness they are good sports to play along with our kids. We really enjoyed their company. That may not make for the most reverent Sunday, but it was more pleasant than me yelling at our kids because they are stinkers at church. So, I think we should have conference every Sunday!

Angel Baby

Tonight after I gave Kate her bath, I just couldn't resist taking some of the "all-in-white" pictures. I love them! There is just something about when they get out of the bath and they are all snugly that reminds you that they are sweet little angels fresh from heaven.





I love the way babies always try to eat the washcloths in the bath and then they chew on the towels as well.


Okay, is this just sweet or what?!

The classic "baby-doing-what-babies-do" picture. I love the diaper, white towel, and reaching for the toes. So innocent.

Just another cute showing off the toes picture. The only difference is that this time she is one step closer to being dressed. I also love a baby in a white onesie. I'm surprised we made it this far without major alligator tears. She hates to get dressed.

Finally all dressed in jammies. Can you blame Rylee for wanting to snuggle her?

Punch Lines

I have some pictures that I have taken in the last couple of days that are just aching for a fun caption. I will take a whack at it and you let me know if you can think of some better ones (since I am about as witty as a dish rag...see, not witty.) Then after my corny captions, I will tell you a little joke. My dad loves to tell us Elephant Jokes. Have you ever heard any? They are silly jokes that sometimes make sense, sometimes not, but they always make me laugh my head off when he tells them. Here goes...

CAPTION: Captain Underpants has been successful in his Witch Hunt.

Fun Elephant Joke:

Q: How do you shoot a blue elephant?

A: With a blue elephant gun.

Q: How do you shoot a pink elephant? (I know what you are thinking)

A: Nope, not with a pink elephant gun. You hold his nose until he turns
blue and shoot him with a blue elephant gun. HEHEHE.


I want to hear you laughing!

And next...

Caption: Just about perfected the pinkie toe trick. Yep, I'm good. The toes taste good too! (I took this picture as she was waking up from a nap yesterday and when I walked in the door this was what I could see. How adorable!)

Joke:

Q: Why do elephants paint their toenails red?

A: To hide in the strawberry patches.

Q: Ever seen an elephant in a strawberry patch?

A: It works.

Q: Why do elephants lie on their backs with their feet in the air?

A: Trip the birds.

That last joke fits the Kate picture, don't you think. No, I'm not calling my daughter an elephant; it just reminded me of that joke!

Corny, I know. But these jokes are some of my favorites. Kind of nostalgic - reminds me of family nights when my dad would tell those and we would laugh so hard we couldn't manage to get a lesson in. But we learned how to hunt blue elephants. I really should do a whole post on elephant jokes...another day.