Who me?

I don't know why but there comes a day when children start to lie. The experts say they don't do it on purpose... maybe they forget what really happened or maybe they're imaginations are just so creative that they blend reality with fantasy and can't tell the difference. Blah, blah, blah. As I observe my "sweet and innocent" little 3 year old Eve and her fictitious stories, I am pretty sure she lies for the same reasons adults do: either to not get caught and in trouble for doing something wrong (such as hitting, biting, kicking, or strangling Jack and then taking his toys away) or so she can get something she doesn't deserve (such as in today's lie). I tell her that she must eat her breakfast before she can have orange juice. So I go upstairs to do something and she comes up a minute later to tell me that she finished her breakfast and now she can have orange juice. Being a little suspicious I go down to the table to check it out. Sure enough, I see no breakfast. But where is the evidence that there even was breakfast? Hmm, there do seem to be a lot of newspapers suddenly spread all over the table. Turns out she hid her uneaten breakfast under the newspaper. Like I wouldn't notice. Little fibber! So I give her another chance and a few minutes later she tells me she can have her orange juice now. I go to make an inspection. Once again no breakfast but there's no plate either. "Where's your breakfast?" I ask. "It's gone. It got eaten." she replies. Yeah right, I think. So I search and find that her plate is under the table and the cat is finishing her breakfast. Sneaky. Not just outright lying but bending the truth. They grow up way too fast. But in response, I have now become the orange juice Nazi- "No orange juice for you!"

10 Hours of TV

Well, this last weekend was General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Being a rainy weekend (as it usually is Conference weekend) it was easy to stay home and be warm while we watched conference in our pj's and relaxed. We actually caught all the sessions and Kole even went to the priesthood session- taking the total conference watching to 10 hours this weekend. WOW! The kids were really well behaved too. We didn't make them sit and watch with us. They played quietly and let us watch as much as possible. But Eve loved to see the prophet whenever he spoke.

Anyways, everything was really edifying, uplifting and inspiring. I hate to even pick out the talks I liked best since they were all so great but I have to admit that Elder Holland's talk on the Book of Mormon was truly magnificent and powerful. I was almost in tears. And I always enjoy Elder Oaks and Elder Bednar and President Uchtdorf. Elder Hales was also amazing as he spoke about the reality of God and bore his testimony as an apostle and special witness of Jesus Christ. I am so thankful to have a living prophet and apostles on the earth today. I mean, we have current and living prophets and apostles who know God and have seen Him! How can anyone compete with that!?!

Well, for those who missed it and need some inspiration, here is a link to the talks. http://lds.org/conference/sessions/display/0,5239,23-1-1117,00.html

So You Think You Can Dance?

Here are Eve & Jack just dancing away in the kitchen. Well, I think they call this "dancing." Eve has some unique moves. Notice her new slutty princess dress that her grandma gave her. I didn't know Cinderella liked to show off her mid-drift. Anyways, enjoy the show.

Get down from there!

Jack climbs on top of everything- cabinets, tables, dressers... and then he tries to jump off. Ahhh!

I think I'm going to have a heart attack. What do I do? I can tell him no over and over, put him in time out, try to block him from areas with baby gates (which he just climbs over) but nothing works. I don't know how to get him to stop.

If anyone has any ideas on how to keep him from hurting himself (and stopping my heart), please let me know.

Potty Practice

Don't get too excited... I'm not saying Jack is potty trained or even anything close. I feel Jack is still too young for potty training- I mean why push it and make the whole process take longer? But he likes to practice, which is fine with me. I think it helps him to have a big sister that he adores because he always wants to copy what she does. His practicing is pretty messy but I'm not surprised- after all he is a boy and we all know that for some reason boys just aren't as accurate as they would like to think they are. I'm just thankful he's not the type of kid that takes his diaper off and makes really nasty messes. I'm sure you know and have probably experienced what I'm talking about if you have kids. But being a boy, Jack enjoys peeing in random places when he is lucky enough to get a moment to run around without his diaper on. Fun for me! Anyways, I couldn't resist taking a potty picture. I'm sure my kids will hate me for these kind of pictures when they're grown up (even as cute as they are). Ahhh, what greater joy is there for a parent than embarrassing your children? Hey, don't judge...it's good to have a little ammo in your pocket to ensure they stay in line when they are teenagers.

The big blue abyss

Here is Jack staring into the big blue abyss... or the tube slide as it is better known. Yesterday we had family home evening at the park. (If we have a fifth Monday in the month, we try to get out of the house for FHE and go do something fun. This time the park was all I had energy for. We enjoyed our typical Little Caesars pizza and bread sticks which we have for dinner every Monday- so I don't have to cook.) At first Eve didn't want to go because we told her she would have to wear something different than her princess dress which she has been wearing day after day- even in public sometimes. But after a big fit with lots of tears she finally gave in.

Lately she is really into picking out her own clothes and dressing herself. When I hide her princess dress she ends up going through her closet and changing outfits all day long. She has no sense of style yet (which I am sure she got from me) and so she never matches. But she thinks she looks great. It's cute though... seeing how independent she is. On Tuesdays and Thursdays she goes to preschool and so I try to dress her in practical clothes. Today I picked out her clothes for her and she wouldn't talk to me for an hour. She is such a drama queen. I can't wait until she's a teenager!

7 Years Ago

This last Saturday was our 7 year anniversary. It makes me feel old to count years. Here is a picture from our wedding day. What a blissful day it was. We were so young and in love.

Babe, after all these years, I still love you more than anything in the whole wide world! In fact, I love you so much, I hope you die first! (OK, anyone besides him reading this may think I am a terrible wife but it's just a little inside joke. I used to always say, "I love you so much that I don't want to live without you, so I hope I die first." But then I realized, that's pretty selfish. If you really loved someone should you really hope to die first and leave them in this world so sad without you? We figured it is much less selfish to say "I hope you die first." But when you say it that way it just sounds wrong, doesn't it?)

Anyways, our families were great to watch the kids for us so we could go have a date all day. We didn't do much but it was nice just to get out together... we went and did sealings in the morning (and ran into Adam and Emilee at the temple) and then went to dinner and a movie in the evening. We hope that by our 10th anniversary we will be able to afford something a little more exciting. Here's hoping.

Of course we had to call it an early evening since we still had to go home and prepare our Sunday school lesson for the next day. We are such procrastinators! But in all sadness it won't be that way much longer. Kole got a new calling in the Elder's Quorum presidency on Sunday. It was totally unexpected and of course they called us Thursday to meet with the stake presidency on Sunday so we could stress all weekend about what was coming! But it's all good. He's been the elder's quorum secretary and first counselor when we were in our student ward so at least he's used to all the meetings. But now, since we co-taught the 14-18 years olds, we are both getting released from that calling. I am sad because I really liked it. Oh well. The Lord knows what He's doing. Change is good even if it doesn't seem like it at first.

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.