The really bad kind of floaties

Here is my cute kiddo, Jack, all dressed up in Kole's hat and shoes (he likes to wear my high heel shoes too). He looks sweet and innocent... but looks can be deceiving.

I had to give him 4 baths yesterday. Really, I'm not some OCD mom. It's just that he knows the best ways to get extra dirty.

Bath #1. It all started out as a normal morning bath with Eve & Jack together. All is going well and then... dun, dun, dun... there is screaming and pointing from Eve as she makes a mad dash to get out of the water. I look in and at first I don't see anything amidst the menagerie of toys covering the surface but then it appears. Something unusual is floating in the bath posing as an innocent toy. What could it be? Oh yes, it is poo. Jack looks confused about the commotion but overall doesn't seem too phased. After all, he is the culprit who caused our unwelcome bath time guest. They say not to throw the baby out with the bath water, but I say everything else goes! Or at least soaks in bleach for a day. Now, I don't know what it is about that kid but he loves to poo in the bath. I stoped counting how many times it has happened. No time of day is safe. He is always ready to ruin a perfectly good hot bath.

Bath #2. The bath to get clean from the first bath.

Bath #3. Jack found the garden unattended and decided to pick my cherry tomatoes (Naughty kid. But in his defense, they do look a lot like grapes at this stage) and he then proceeded to cover himself, and the deck, in dirt and mud. He likes to rub it in his hair for some reason. Once again, this is a common occurrence. I can't turn my back for a minute! And as much as I love the dirt in the diaper routine, I think it is easiest just to plop him in the tub. I am a firm believer in the magic of baby wipes but they just aren't meant to tackle every mess.

Bath #4. Pasta night. Need I say more. I strip the kids down to their skivvies before we eat things with red sauce. Bad ettiquett I know but hey, we rarely have dinner guests... hope we don't sound too white trash. Well, in the aftermath it is clear that it is time for one last bath.

It is a good thing he is a so darn cute.

Reunion and Rain

Well, my blog account is being strange and it will only let me download one of my photos right now. When I try to do more I get error messages. And when I click to look at my blog, it won't show my latest posts. Hopefully, it is still updating as normal for everyone else. I don't know what is wrong.

Anyways, last week we had a water day primary activity. The kids had so much fun. They played water versions of kick-ball where the bases were tubs and pools (that is my one picture: Eve was die-hard to stay in the cold water as long as she needed to), there was a water balloon toss with sheets, a race to fill buckets with water from sponges and the water version of duck-duck-goose (called dribble-dribble-drench). Amidst the chaos of trying to explain even simple games to the little kids and then trying to get them to actually play using some sort of rule system, we envied how little kids don't need rules to games to enjoy themselves. As long as they were getting wet, or getting the grown-ups wet, they were having fun. Good times for everyone. Just as we were leaving, the storm clouds came in and heralded in a cold weekend.

Just our luck, this last weekend was the Nielsen Family Reunion. Kole and I have been slackers and haven't gone for the last 6 years. Last time I went we were just about to get married. Every year it is held in Idaho at Lava Hot springs. Lava is a po-dunk little town with not much to do unless you like water. They have hot springs, of course, and a little river to tube down and they also have a big pool with lots of slides and really high platform diving boards. So, what is the weather like the time we finally go? That's right, cold and rainy. Kole's dad said he can't remember it raining in all the years they've been having the family reunion there. Just our luck that the time we actually go it was too cold and rainy to do pretty much anything. Hence why I have absolutely no pictures... we didn't do anything worth taking pictures of! We ended up staying in the motel room almost the whole time. But the kids still had fun. You can tell we don't go on many family vacations since the kids had a blast just hanging out in the motel room- the highlights included jumping on the beds and having all of us sleep in the same room together... I guess something different is always exciting to little kids. Eve even asked me "is this our new home?"

Come and Gone

Here's to the Sky View Class of 1999. See you again in 10 more years.

This last weekend was my 10 year high school reunion. I can't believe it is over already. I am getting old. I had been expecting it for well, 10 years of course, and looking forward to it for about a year, but now it is over. The last 10 years went by so fast and I'm sure the next 10 will go by even faster. I guess as every year and month and day becomes a smaller and smaller percentage of your overall life, it just seems like they come and go all the quicker.

But anyways, it was great to see old friends. We hardly see anyone from high school anymore and especially not all together and at once. I had a lot of fun. I know Kole had fun too since he also went to Sky View and is only a grade older so he knew a lot of people there. I admit I had forgotten a lot of names (and faces to be honest). That probably has to do a lot with the fact that I was soooooo shy in high school so I hardly knew anyone but my closest friends... and I always joke that I was so shy that I hardly even talked to them. I am way different now- Kole knows I hardly ever shut-up. But admittedly, the reunion made me feel a little like my old, less-social self. Strange how some situations will do that to ya.

First there was a family party at the park in the afternoon and so we got to see everyone along with their kids. I'm sure at least half the women were prego... including my friends Jen and Emilee (with twin boys). Everyone has really multiplied! The kids had fun playing together and I had a good time just running into people I practically had forgotten about. Good thing for those lame name tags everyone complained about. I sure needed them. I wish I had taken more pictures of everyone but here are a few of what I did get.




Just the girls- Brooklyn, Eve, Baylee & Elisha







(Top to bottom/ Left to Right) Jen, Emilee, Me, Michele, Landon, Hilary, Elisa, Charee.

That evening we had an adult only dinner up at USU. It was nice to socialize without the kids around and we had a fun time with the good friends at our table. Once again, not too many pictures. But anyone who was there may unknowingly have some pictures with Kole in them. He had fun trying to go behind groups getting their pictures taken and seeing if he could end up in them. He's a little strange but I love him anyhow.

Kole, Me, J.D. & Brittney

Hope to see everyone again before more years go by.