Heard this morning

"Josi, I broteck you".
They were playing Lego Batman on the Wii, but I hope it goes beyond that.

Gross Factor

The other night we were sitting down to dinner for some yummy spaghetti. Hyrum was wiggling in his seat a lot, so he was sent to the bathroom to remedy that. After doing his business he came back to his seat and was chomping on something whitish colored. I watched him for a second and figured out it was a piece of gum. I asked him where he got it from and he casually said "fwom da bafwoom" (that's how cute he says it :). Oo! Gross! I can't help but laugh, which peaks Ben's interest and he wants in on the joke. I tell him Hyrum got gum out of the bathroom and he is grossed out to.
Want in on the joke?
Well, the only place for Hyrum to get gum from the bathroom is the garbage can, which happens to sit right next to the toilet.
On the brightside, it was fresh because Ben had just spit it out when he used the facilities a few minutes before dinner.
More gross... there were splashes of liquid (use your imagination -remember, right next to the toilet) on the other stuff in the garbage can.

Sardines

    Well, we have all of our stuff now. We have put as much as we can in our little 2-bedroom apartment and crammed the rest into the garage. I am gradually unpacking boxes and repacking anything that isn't something that will be needed everyday. I plan on needing to hunt things down from time to time as the need for something packed away arises. I am still missing some things so I will have to go through the boxes in the garage I thought could just be stored. We were able to fit both our black couches and white furniture in here. The white couch and the black couch and loveseat are tightly fit into the front room. The white chairs are in our room. They all took a beating in the move. Luckily we wrapped the white ones or they would have been much worse. The black ones definately wouldn't sell for what they could have before we moved. Fortunately most of the damage is in the back so you can't see it went it's set against a wall. 
   I have found that with only one car that is with Ben all day and only the bank within walking distance, for a 5 and 3 year old, that I am spending much less money. We do our shopping on Saturday only so there are much fewer impulse buys.
   I have been running still a few days a week and find it a nice way to de-stress in the evenings when Ben gets home and can watch the little hooligans that are our children. (You can keep up with my running on my running blog, but you will need to be invited, so just leave your email in a comment here if you would like to read it.)   My mom used to always say that she just didn't understand women that couldn't wait to be away from their children; she always wanted us around and there were seven of us. I think now that she has had my kids under the same roof with her for nearly a month, she understands the need to have at least an hour without them.  Don't get me wrong, I love my little boogers and do miss them immensly when I am apart from them. But they have so much energy and just can't seem to release it all no matter what they do. Thankfully, they still require naps everyday to keep them from getting grumpy during the second half of the day and they sleep for ten hours every night. They are almost always very happy and loud and very inquisitive. They have to know everything that is going on with everybody. And now they are stuck in our tiny apartment with few chances to go outside because of all of the rain we get here in the Seattle area. When they do get to go out, we have only a small common area for a yard and you can never be sure how long you will have because even when it is sunny out, it could rain at anytime. This only intensifies the effect of their energy.
I told Josi this morning that it was the first day of summer today. She was very excited and asked, "does that mean it's not going to rain all the day?"  I didn't want to crush her spirit, so I told her that it probably wouldn't rain as much. Well, I best get back to unpacking somemore.

Seen and Heard today

My 3 year old walking to his room with his underwear around his ankles to change them. Then Grandpa asking, did you pee or poop in your underwear. The 3 year old searching through his underwear then saying, "I think I drop it ".

Squished Fingers

My little 3 year old is bound and determined to out-do his sister's broken collar bone. So far he has not achieved, thankfully. A little over a year ago he injured his foot jumping off of an ottoman (see here). Today he tried with his finger. Josi was riding her bike in the back yard and her training wheels got high-centered, so she was going nowhere, just riding in place. Hyrum decided it was a good idea to stick his finger in and smashed it between the gear and the chain. Mind you, I didn't see any of this first hand. I went running down the stairs when I heard Hyrum crying his real "I'm hurt" cry.

This is Josi's version of what happened: "I was doing my exercises and I just didn't see him and his finger was in the spiky thing." I figured out the rest when I saw the gouge in his finger that was as wide as the gear that only smashed half of it. It looked like it smashed it all the way to the bone, but there was almost no blood. This is the best picture I could get of it. He held really still for the first picture, but the flash was too bright so it was all washed out. When Josi saw it the first time, she just said "eww" with a sickly look on her face. She felt really bad and just kept saying "I'm so sorry, Hyrum".

I gave him some children's Tylenol, then I got it cleaned as well as he would let me and poured hydrogen peroxide on it a few times. Then bandaged it with gauze and tape. He wouldn't let me put a bandaid on it because we didn't have a Spiderman one. It about broke my heart to hear his cries and not to be able to ease his pain. That is one of the worst parts about being a mom. I am so glad I am able to keep a level head and not get sick when it comes to my family. 'Cause it was disgusting looking. He was trying to be so strong and hold back the sobs, but it was just too much for him.

I sang him about 4 primary songs and rocked him while I held his hand above his head to ease the throbbing and he was out. When he woke up from his nap he was fussy again and he wouldn't move his finger. He said it hurt too much when he tried to bend it. So, I decided to take him to the Urgent Care to make sure it didn't get broken. They did an x-ray and found no breaks. It's a good thing Josi is a timid pedaler.

As we walked out of the x-ray room Hyrum said, "Mommy, my pinger doesn't hurt anymore. Well, it till hurt a little." I think he thought the x-ray was supposed to make it better and he wanted it to have worked. The doctor and nurses were really great with him. The doctor was the same doctor that checked his leg out last time we were there. I don't think he recognized us though.

The dent has mostly filled in with just a little hamburger-ish gash left. He doesn't like to leave bandaids on for long, so he keeps telling me that it is all better so that he can take the bandaid off.

So in the end:

2 children's tylenol, a dab of neosporin +pain relief, a gauze pad and 4" of tape - less than $2

tiny finger x-ray, a spiderman bandaid and a little peace of mind- $35 copay

Being able to sing and rock my generally less than snugly 3 year old baby to sleep again - PRICELESS

Karin, I hope it is out of his system now so you don't have to worry when you watch them next week :)

Who knew it was so hard to eat a chocolate covered pretzel!

'nuff said.

I am so Grateful...

for a the good moments with my children. Just tonight, after dinner. I let the kids have a cookie for dessert. Hyrum, as always, takes forever to eat his food. So he and I were sitting in the kitchen while he slowly ate his cookie. I wasn't totally paying attention to him, because I was watching a tv show (Castle) on my computer. After a little while a started walking around the table, looking on each chair and asks "Where's my cookie?" I said, I think you ate it all. He replied, "I tink I hide it". I said, "Well, then, maybe you shouldn't hide your cookies because you loose them." He then gets a big, knowing grin on his face and shouts, "Maybe you eat it!", thrusting his little index finger at me. I couldn't help but laugh out loud. I just had to give him a big hug. Rest assured, we found his cookie. I remembered that he had set it on the counter to get a drink.
It's a good thing they are so darn cute from time to time or I simply couldn't handle the times they are such stinkers!

Little Transporter

While I have been busy with my little project this last week, Ben has been busy with his own. We made a video of Josi when she was about Hyrum's age. I wanted to put it on here, but I haven't found the disc we saved it on. Ben thought it was time to do one with Hyrum. This one didn't turn out as well as we hoped it would. We need to work on the green screen thing. But, here it is anyway. We hope you enjoy!

Little Surprises

This is one of the many surprises Hyrum leaves for me to find. I don't know what he was doing with the pumice stone. I am guessing he saw me use it to clean out the ring in the bowl; so he was using it for cleaning purposes of some sort.

I guess I should be glad that he doesn't flush it!

Birthday Boy

Today is Hyrum's 3rd Birthday. I can't believe he is 3 now! Because Ben had to be out of town today, we celebrated on Friday. Hyrum got to chose where we had dinner and he chose McDonald's with a PlayPlace.


I made him cupcakes this year instead of a regular cake. There is always too much cake left over and I figured the extra cupcakes Ben could take to work or something. I just put them in a pan and frosted the tops like I would have a cake.

He got a Spiderman game from Nana. It just plugs into the TV and it has five games on it.

He got Winnie the Pooh books from Grandma and Grandpa Baird.

We gave him a couple of movies.

Here Josi and Hyrum are getting a kick out of Hyrum's mad skills on his new game.

He got a spiderman truck the moves and makes noises, with "web-launchers" which shoot little darts from Grandpa Swensen and Aunt Lisa.

Thank you for the gifts! And Thank You for all of the birthday calls Hyrum got today; he had a great birthday!

I Can't Get No...

...Satisfaction.

Thanks to Raving Rabbids 2 for Wii, I get to hear this song in the store and at home, all day long. Love my little rock star.

Photo Shoot

These are a few of my favorites from the Photo shoot Andy did with the kids. They are just raw images, so they need a little editing done.

I need to crop this one a little, but I love his face.

This one is really cute. I just wish his undies weren't showing.


Josi was being a stinker for a little while so she isn't really in this one, but Hyrum looks so cute. Sorry Josi, I am going to have to crop you out .

This was actually Alysha's turn. She had Andy do her Senior pictures and Hyrum decided he wanted in on the action. They look show cute.

Thanks, Rooster

Summer Fun 2

On Wednesday we drove to Astoria and Seaside, OR. We stopped at The Flavel House. It's an old house built in the 1880's by a ship captain named George Flavel. It was kinda neat. It wasn't as cool for me because I had been to that huge mansion in Canada last fall, but still neat. Hyrum and I did get special treatment though. Hyrum needed to go potty and when I asked the guy that worked there where the bathroom was he told me it was clear out by the carriage house, then said we weren't supposed to, but I could use the staff bathroom so we didn't have to go so far for the little guy. I feel special :) I didn't get any pictures of it.

Then on to the beach. We stopped and had lunch at Fultano's Pizza. Josi had been talking about going to the beach for the past few months, since I had started thinking about coming up here. The day was finally here, she was so excited. She came down in the morning already in her swim suit.

Since she had her swimsuit on already she was the first one to get in the water. While the rest of us changed into our swimsuits, Josi headed down with Grandpa. We played in the water for a while, my sisters looked for shells, with not much luck. They saw a crab in the water that was about 6 inches across, then we saw a couple of jelly fish that were a reddish brown color and we quickly got out of their ways.

This is a video of the kids playing in the water. Sorry, it gets a little hard to watch at the end, because I was zoomed in and the tiniest movement was very drastic. Josi was my usual little water baby. Hyrum tried to be tough and would run toward the water, as soon as he saw a wave coming toward him, he would turn and run away.

After a while freezing our buns off in the frigid water, we decided to go up and play in the sand for a while. Andy, Amy, Janae, Alysha and Tonya buried Josi and turned her into a mermaid, which I got on film. Later they buried Hyrum and made him a lobster. Alysha was also a mermaid and Tonya became a big fat person. I didn't get those pictures, but I am sure Andy or Amy and my Dad will share them later. :)

It was a very fun trip. It was the first time seeing the ocean for Alysha, Janae and Hyrum. And Josi had only ever seen the New Hampshire beach in the middle of December. Tonya and I were the only ones that had been to Seaside once, but T had never played in the ocean before. We all decided to save our pennies for the next couple of years for a trip to Florida and a warm water beach as well as Disneyworld, which none of us have ever been to.

"Date" Night and The Dude

On Saturday we all went to the drive-in theatre. Our 4Runner is the best for this. We lay the back seats down and take our pillows and snacks. The drive in is also awesome because you get two movies for less than the price of one at a regular theatre and they let you bring your own food. The kids end up sleeping through the second one, which is nice too.

This is our chill little Hyrum (rightfully dubbed "The Dude" by Nana & Papa) enjoying the ride to the theatre. He is so funny!

Shopping

This is what I bought yesterday, 5 minutes after I got it home.


Oh, you can't tell what it is, well it WAS a 2 cup measuring cup. The red is the lines on it.
My sweet little Hyrum decided he wanted to see what it was and pulled the bag off of the counter. This is probably the worst part of having tile floors.

Happy Mother's Day to me

After bringing the furniture home, Ben took the kids out and left me home. He said he wanted to have a little personal time with them. Made sense, summer is coming on fast and won't see them much for a few months. I was happy to have a little time to myself and I took the time to blog and work on my dad's website a little and watch one of my favorite movies, Pride and Prejudice. Not the condensed version with Kiera Knightly, but the A&E version that is 6 VHS tapes long (I am watching tape 6 now). I am going to have to get it on DVD now though, because tape 3 wouldn't play at all and 2 of the others were not working properly either. Kids!
Well, Ben just got home and the kids lugged in a package, grinning ear to ear, exclaiming Happy Mother's Day and Happy dirfday Muders (Hyrum).




Ben had taken the kids shopping for me. He gets sweeter every year. Hyrum picked out the card and Josi picked out the Hannah Montana wrapping paper.
I asked if I was supposed to open it now or wait til tomorrow. He said I might want to open it now, but I could wait til tomorrow if I wanted.







So I opened it now. Inside was ....




the fabric for my curtains in the front room! And a new feather pillow for the bed. (Mine was a hand-me-down from my mom when I was in junior high and barely resembles a pillow anymore, but I totally love.)





I didn't want Ben to feel bad, but it was the wrong color. It was red, instead of the burgandy I had picked out. I finally got brave enough to tell him, and he said that the lady at the store said they had two of them, but one of them was out.
Of course, it was my burgandy one. Ben, typical male that he is, couldn't tell the difference and got me the red.





It is still beautiful and looks great in the room. It matches the few other decorative things I have in there, like the candles on the table. We hung it up on the blinds to see how we liked it. Ben says he likes it better, and it is growing on me.










Here is a close-up of the fabrics.




I guess next week I will be making curtains, festoons and sheers. I can see now that I am going to have to line the fabric. It looks striped where the sun shines through it. I still have to pick out the rods for them though. I am not sure of the style I want yet though.


Hyrum's own personal gift to me, just in time for Mother's Day, is that he is all daytime potty trained. He still has to wear a diaper at night, but he hasn't had an accident during the day for nearly a week. And he goes when he gets up in the morning. I am so happy I don't have to buy diapers any more. At least not for a while. (Nothing implied!) Thanks Mom and Karin for the cold bath trick.

Water Fun

It has been really hot this week. Upper nineties and it is just getting hotter. Yesterday I got an email inviting us to go play at one of the parks near us this morning. I decided we should go so the kids could have a little social interaction with other kids. We don't get out much. So at 9:30 we got all lubed up with sun block and in their new summer outfits we got yesterday.

The park had a splash pad that sprayed water up in the air. The "floor" was made of recycled rubber so they wouldn't slip or get hurt if they fell. At first they were a little wary of the water. It had been a while since we had been to a water park. But the other kids quickly showed them what to do.

They got the hang of it pretty quick. Hyrum would jump in the puddles in the intervals between the water works.

They both ended up going all out. Josi skipped all around singing.

Hyrum eventually would even stand in the streams of water.

My little water babies were the wettest kids there. Next time we will have to wear our swimsuits and I would get out there too.

Happy 4-20!

On April 20th, Hyrum came to me and put his finger and thumb together as if he was holding a joint, put it up to his pursed lips and sucked. Then made a gesture as if he was handing it to me. I was shocked and wanted to find out where he learned it from, but I couldn't stop laughing. I asked Jayme if she had put him up to it or where he had learned it. With me laughing, he kept doing it over and over, which just made me laugh more. Jayme didn't know what I was talking about. Jayme realized what was going on and then told me he wasn't smoking a joint, he was playing tea party with Josi earlier and was just sipping from his tiny teacup and then offering me some.

Easter

I finally took the time to get the easter pictures off of Ben's phone. We took them at the church on our way in. We (of course) were late and didn't have our regular camera, but I wanted to get some pictures while they still looked fresh. I am glad we did, because after church Josi's curls had relaxed some and Hyrum's hair was all fuzzy. I made Josi's dress and Hyrum's tie. It was so fun to make. I even hand mad all of the pink edging, bias tape and piping for the dress and dyed the lace under the skirt to match. It surprised even me at how well it turned out. It is my second favorite that I have made.

They do love each other sometimes!

The best part about this dress is that Josi loves it. All of the others I have made her, she was either too young to care or she hated wearing because she said it was itchy. I think because all of the seams were unfinished. This dress I finally had a serger to finish the edges. Thank you mommy and, ultimately, daddy for giving my mom a new serger for Christmas that made it so my mom had 1 serger too many!

What a handsome little dude! I was going to make him a bow tie at first, but I thought it would be fun to try a necktie. I just took apart a clip-on that he had and use it as a pattern, then put it back together. Instead of this one being a clip on, it has a strip that goes through the tie and clips in the back. It made it look more like a regular tie.

It was so sunny they couldn't open their eyes, but they just look so cute!

Cheating

I finally decided to cheat and go buy some plants for my garden. I got 12 tomato plants, (4 cherry, 8 Roma) 4 bell peppers (2 red, 2 green), a cantaloupe and a zucchini plant. Of course as I was planting them, I found 3 more tomato plants that had sprouted and 2 pepper plants. But that just gives me more plants.


Hyrum helped me place them in the garden. He was so happy to help and each one he would pick up and say "so heaby mommy, so heaby" as he lugged it to his chosen spot. I had to move most of them around because he had them in groups of threes and a few in the wrong spots. But I waited til he was gone.

This is after I planted everything. The corn is growing so fast. Some of the plants are already about 3 feet tall. I don't know if my brussel sprouts will do anything. They have a lot of aphids on them and I have sprayed them a few times, but all of the new leaves are curled and I don't see any sign of the fruit. I will have to make a small box with screen on it to cover them next fall and try again.

And I picked some more carrots and about 8 beets. I am so excited to eat them. I haven't had beets in so long, especially not garden fresh ones.