Today

Today has started out better. The kids didn't come out of their rooms until 7am, which is the designated time I give them. Jonas ran downstairs all nicely and handsomely dressed. Miles was found upstairs, all nicely and handsomely dressed as well, in Emmy's room. He had gotten her out of her crib and was in the middle of changing her diaper and even applying diaper cream.

What good kids!

But alas, I know the day is young. Very young. But at least it's starting out on the right foot.

Today *Updated with link

Wow. Today I took my kids for their booster H1N1 vaccines. Their first vaccine was the nasal-mist and that's what I assumed we'd get today. But they are all out of those and are only doing the shots. And, wow. All I am going to say about this incident is that if I were a nurse or one of the desk-ladies or anybody else within 1/2 mile radius who could hear/see the events of 2 certain boys unfold, I would have had SO MUCH PITY FOR THEIR MOTHER. But I wasn't any of those people - I was THEIR MOTHER. Oh My Gosh.

Then the kids were eating lunch and I heard sirens going off and saw 5 police cars go by. 5. So I thought something bad had happened of course. Then as we were walking Miles to school I saw all the commotion was a block or 2 from our home. I asked some "alternative school kids" what happened and they told me an airplane had crashed. Sure enough we saw a tiny airplane on the sidewalk and lots of hubbub. Supposedly the pilot (the only one in the plane) is OK and is a doctor and is at the hospital. Good news.

What a day. . . so far.

p.s. here's the link to the airplane story: http://montrosepress.com/articles/2009/11/18/breaking_news/doc4b044bcd77901476766215.txt

Sacrament Drawings. . .

by Miles:
(l) I asked him to draw his costume; (R) sand castle

gorilla; turtle

volcano

"bird, duck"; rainstorm

fish in a pond; a bird

WARNING:

so i was writing an email to ben and thought i should post it as well. but, honestly, don't read it. it's gross. it's literally about my kids' poop and barf. i just thought since my blog serves as my journal, that the email i sent to ben was a pretty good journaling of my day with sickos. it's just for my sake to remember the good and not-as-good times with my kids.

so, really, you don't need to read it.

"here is an update of our day:

the house is still messy - well messier since you cleaned up the downstairs last nite. i haven't even put away the stuff upstairs. maybe i will? maybe i won't?

i feel a little cruddy. not like the kids - sore throat is still bugging me, headache is finally leaving after some excedrin. i'm tired.

miles - doing a little better. yucky poop earlier this morning. no poop nor barf since. he's always saying, "i think i'm going to barf," but hasn't all day. i think every time his tummy gurgles ("mommy, why is my tummy doing that?) he thinks he is going to barf. he perked up a little bit, enough to get on his army garb. then he promptly took it off, saying "i think i'm going to barf" (of course). he didn't (of course). he did have 1/2 of a saltine (when offered him one, he said, "half") and a little bit of a pumpkin ice cream smoothie for lunch. little bit as in 2-3 T. worth.

jonas - was doing the best in the morning. the only one of the kids who ate breakfast. played hard and normal. then crashed around 11. just sat curled up on the chair. his tummy is now really hurting him. he didn't have anything for lunch - just some water. he's tried to poop 2 times, but with not much success. he doesn't look happy at all. poor kiddo.

emmy - tiny diarrhea in her diaper this morning. didn't really eat snack, but did finish off her pumpkin ice-cream smoothie (surprised?) for lunch. lots of whining, but i can't really tell if it's more than usual or not?

i told you this AM my plans were just to watch TV all day with them. :) but we didn't so much. they got to watch "dora" for the first time this morning - it felt weird letting them watch TV at 7:30 in the morning - have we ever done that? anyways, after that we just attempted breakfast, then read lots of books. well, really, just miles' new "science question" book - and really only miles stuck around for all of it. jonas and emmy were destroying the house as usual (i especially loved it when i heard jonas exclaim: "my gum fell down the vent!" to which i said, "well get it out," to which he said, "my arm isn't long enough," to which i said, "well then figure out how you are doing to get it," to which he got a wooden stick and pried up his gum). after the reading of books we attempted snack - nobody really ate. miles took 2 bites of a banana (i've explained the BRAT diet to him) and the rest had a few sips of the apple cider, with exception of emmy who drank it all of course.

then i made a bunch of the paper dinosaurs for miles and jonas. and got real frustrated with emmy as she markered and crayoned all over everything she is NOT suppose to - table and chairs. grrrrr emmy. jonas colored himself up pretty good - "i want to look like a tiger." he kind of does. then he drew a stegosaurus on his tummy. wow.

then we just hung out, played with dinos, tried lunch, etc. the kids did watch about 45 min. of "bugs bunny" type shows - remember that dvd we bought a while ago?

now they are all upstairs sleeping. poor kiddos. i think miles and hopefully emmy are on the mend. i think jonas still will get worse before he gets better.

wow, is that a TON to read. sorry. but i am dying to take a shower, so i best go!

love you.

love, me."

Quote of the Week

So I got some super-steals at Walmart last nite. Costumes for $1.40 - that were regularly and ridiculously priced at $17. I got a little army get-up for Miles (he's all of a sudden taken an interest in the army), a motor-cross racer for Jonas, and a cowgirl for Emmy.

They all love it - especially the boys. Jonas had to wear his "helmet" part of the costume on the way to taking Miles to school (and is now napping in the outfit). On the way home he was running really fast and said this about his helmet:

"I have to wear this when I run so I don't get sawdust in my eyes."

(Ben has been working on some bookshelves and so we have a lot of sawdust in our garage. . .)

It just made me smile. I love that bald-headed Jonas.

Strangers Amongst Us

The Strangers:

Yes, we did this on purpose. And if you know me, you know this is HUGE. I unrighteously take great pride in my boys' hair. I LOVE[d] their long beautiful hair.

So why on earth did we do this (both were done today - Jonas before church, Miles after)? Well Jonas got a bad haircut months and months ago where the beautician did some heavy layering. I haven't liked his hair since. Then a couple weeks ago Jonas cut his own hair (again) right on top of his head and sheared it about 1/2 inch from his scalp. So today I gave Jonas a trim and Ben thought I made it look too much like a mullet. So I cut a lot from his neck area and he ended up looking like a girl - due to all the layering his haired curled under. It was a good cut. . . for a girl. Jonas had asked us several times to cut all his hair off and so we thought, why not now? We'll purge the hair and then let it grow back in all nice and even and beautiful again.

It's hard to get used to, but Ben and I love it on our children. They look adorable! Of course I still want them to grow out their hair, but it's fun for now. Jonas cried and cried for a bit after the haircut, but I think it was due more to being tired of having to sit for so long and have his cut. He now loves it.

Emmy honestly did not recognize Jonas when she got up from her nap (a nap where you don't nap, I guess, is still called a nap) before church. It was fun. Then she laughed. :)

Miles was jealous of Jonas being able to rub his hands all over his head, I think, and so decided he wanted to buzz his hair off, too. His beautiful curls!? Well his hair is so beautiful and so lovely, but only for the first 20 minutes of his 3 xs a week baths. Then he just gets a big bird's nest in it. (One day I told him birds were going to nest in his hair and he was thrilled! Wrong thing to say to a boy who loves, loves, loves birds.)

Miles loves his hair, as does Jonas. They are silly and giddy. Miles thinks he looks like a monkey. I agree. A very cute monkey.

Memories

So we have gotten a few hand-me-downs from friends lately and, as always, it's a great blessing. We get great clothes.

We got quite a few PJs for Emmy and so that has been fun since PJs are by far the cutest of clothes, I think. There is nothing better than a sweet little child in his or her PJs - getting ready for bed, of course.

So we got this one for Emmy:

We've never had her in a "dress PJ" before and I love it (nightgown?). (The shoes were some hand-me-downs, too. Emmy LOVES shoes - her daddy's girl for sure.)

It reminded me of the greatest PJs that I ever owned - and, well, since my sister and I were pretty much dressed up as twins for the first 8 or so years of my life, my sister had a similar PJ. They were of the nightgown style and had an ice cream cone on it. But not just any ice cream cone - our cones had like 20 scoops or something. All of different ice cream flavors - mint, strawberry, etc. I think, correct me Erin, the PJs had the names of all the ice cream flavors to the side of each scoop.

Tangent: Speaking of PJs, you should see the PJs my husband bought at a second-hand store. Better yet, don't see them. (Ben thought at $5 they were a steal. My only thought: "no wonder somebody didn't want them. . .")

Anways, I love memories.

Tuesday, Tuesday

My day:

5:40 - woke up and did exercising at home

6:30 - said bye to Ben as he left for work

6:45 - said good morning to all 3 kids, as Miles had so kindly gotten Emmy out of her crib

7 - fed and ate breakfast

8 - read "Ramona the Brave" to Miles (and Jonas)

8:30 - showered

9-10:30 - "hosted" our little adorable preschool group today

10:30 - 11:20 - don't know

11:20-11:45 - served Muffin-Tin Tuesday (no longer Monday, and no longer as regular, but requested specifically by Miles) lunch

11:45-12:15 - walked Miles to school, walked home

12:30-1 - read books and put Emmy to nap; read books and put a cranky Jonas to nap (too much sugar, too little sleep)

1-2:15 - ate lunch, got online, made cookies for cub scouts

2:15 - 2:45 - woke up Jonas (like promised) and let him watch the Letter Factory (we were suppose to do our little mommy 'n me school today, but he was too cranky for me to even look at him. so i told him if he napped good i'd let him watch the show.)

2:45-3:15 - picked up Miles from school

3:30 - 4:55 - walked to park, played at park, walked home from park

5:00-5:10 - got dinner ready, pumpkin pancakes

5:18 - Ben came home, I said, "I didn't think you were going to be this late," Ben replied, "I didn't either. . ."

5:30-6:45 - Cub Scouts for me (frosted cookies and made a "thank you" card and delivered items to the Police Station)

6:50 - I came home, Ben left for Elder Quorum visits

6:50 - read books to kiddos, helped brush teeth . . .

7:15 - tried to leave the boys room but Miles wanted a story, "not from a book," I told him the story of a mom who was hungry and needed dinner and wanted to go downstairs and eat. He didn't want that one. He wanted one that "isn't true and includes the words blue, dog, sardines, and dragonfly." Made up a [not-so] wonderful story with said things. Told the boys goodnight.

7:15-7:30 - Ate dinner. Yum!

8 - Checked on the boys: Miles sound asleep, sleeping sideways on his bed with his reading-lamp turned off (Good boy!); turned off Jonas' reading light, turned on the Wall-E night-light, tickled his face and leg, and told him good night.

Now I'm wasting time as there is a kitchen full of dirty dishes and I don't want to do them for the 10th time today. :)

I had a good day.

(p.s. The picture has nothing to do with my post, but it is of me, talking to my sister, taking a picture of me with my new hat I bought in Ouray for a super price.)

The. Best. Halloween. Ever.

That's what Miles said in the car on the way home from trunk-or-treating: "Mom, this is the best halloween ever." Funny boy.

The whole family. Ben and I went as "Ghosts of Ben's football past." We were wearing his jerseys from his days off pee-wee football. I didn't realize how fat, ugly, and old I looked until I saw this picture. Too bad I didn't see this until after. Oh well!

Here are the kiddos: dragonfly, scary ghost, and witch.

Man does she look horrid! And she was - she wasn't too happy when we got her up from her nap. But she really did look adorable - when she was happy - in her cute witch costume. It was the first dress I have ever made by myself. It's only worthy of a costume, however. It was so fun getting her costume together.

Jonas looked great. Jonas likes to look a little "edgy" I think, so Ben did a great job in making him a spooky ghost.

And Miles. Our dragonfly. All his idea. I was actually really, really pleased how his costume turned out. He had a little "tail" in back, too. He made a great "bzzzz" noise to go with his costume. And he even won a prize at trunk-or-treat for Most Creative costume, or something like that. He was a very, very happy boy.

We met up with Batman and Ariel, neighborhood friends, and went to a few houses on our block. Not many people were home, though. But it was fun nonetheless.

Coming home after a full day.

The Best Day, according to Miles.

Tricked

Well not really tricked but surprised. I planned about a month ago to surprise Ben and take him to Ouray to stay for a night. My parents agreed to help out and come over to watch our kids (Ben knew my parents were coming, but not the real reason why). So on Thursday night I told Ben that I had arranged some time off of work for him on Friday. I didn't tell him what we were doing - I guess he thought we were going to go grocery shopping or something together. But when he came home early from work he saw our bags packed and me ready to go and giving instructions to my mom for our kids. So we went to Ouray, shopped around a little bit, ate out at dinner, went in the hot-tub with amazing mountain-views, played scrabble, ate breakfast at our B&B, etc. Oh it was nice. Divine.

This was our hotel/B&B. It was great. I think it was built in the 1890s. Very victorian-styled on the inside. Very beautiful.


Handsome Ben at dinner. Oh he is good-looking.


Here we are in our "sitting area" of our room. Playing scrabble. Love it.

One of the best things for me is to get up in the morning and head out running with Ben. It's so much fun. We such a bunch of deer wanting to run away from us.


Soooo cute. And the mountains are pretty nice, too.

It was a fabulous little get-away. My parents did great, too, with our kids. So it was pretty much perfect.