OKC!

A few weekends back we took a quick day trip up to Oklahoma City. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir was putting a show on in Norman that Chris wanted to go see and so we thought we might as well make a day out of it.
We left bright and early so we could pack in as much as possible. We had breakfast at Pops, visited the Oklahoma City Memorial Museum which was amazing, and sweat like crazy on the Bricktown Canal rides. The heat we endured could probably classify as child abuse, it was miserable. It happened to also be a huge Harley convention there that same weekend. We've never seen so many motorcycles in our lives. These were the same people on our memorial tour with us and boat ride too, sweet. I entertained the kids that night at the mall since you had to be 8 years old to get in. We were going to stay in a hotel that night but decided to just head on back. Here are some of our favorite shots.

Suburban Mamma

I just passed off my last requirement to join the elite, the lemonade stand. I really was dreading it but couldn't deny my kids who'd been asking for quite some time. We invited some friends over to help us so I wouldn't have to endure the pain alone. It seemed like everyone who drove past bought some and would even leave a tip. After I put a stop to Rozlyn's door to door solicitation the advertising became running up and down the street, chasing the cars, yelling and jumping like the house was on fire. We even had a few neighborhood geckos join in the fun that were being passed around. That fun ended when the owner told us to make sure and wash our hands because they carry salmonella on their skin. Gross, as if I'm not paranoid enough about sickness. I was so scared all night that there was going to be a neighborhood outbreak because of our lemonade stand. In the end the kids had a great time, and earned $10.75. Not to shabby, now the money is sitting while they decide what to spend it on.
The preparations for the big day
One of these signs said buy 10 cups get 1 free, ha ha.The source of all my stress - this salmonella dude

My favorite dads!

I'm feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have these two guys in my life.

This picture just makes me laugh so hard, my dad had never heard of the "self-take" picture. He was insistent on using the timer but on top of a mountain there aren't alot of places to set the camera.

These are from this past weekend when we went to visit them in California (post coming soon). My dad is an adventerous guy and Chris is always up for an adventure so it's a great combo. I don't think either one of them are afraid of anything.

I'll admit that I'm spoiled by these two. I can't imagine living life without them. Happy Father's Day to the two best Dads!!!

Veggin Out

I now know where the name came from.
The other night I told Chris that I just wanted to sit on the couch and veg out, sitting there doing nothing.
-and then these beauties came to mind

My first attempt at vegetable gardening. These Earth Boxes promised me great success. I was so eager and devoted to their cause from the begining, they grew so fast, making me feel so proud. It's been a few months now and no vegetables. I think they forgot to grow food. Their sitting there doing nothing, like me on my couch on a Saturday night. My gardening spirits have hit a low, this was my rookie year, this was a small attempt to boost my confidence so I could expand in summers to come. My friend already has vegetables, real life size ones that they can pick and eat. My "learn by experience" has not been a good experience. I've grown rather attached to these plants and they're letting me down. Hopefully I'll have good news, (good vegetables) to report on in the weeks to come.

Help Wanted!!

This is my personal classified ad. Seeking three eager and willing helpers to assist there mom around the house. Jobs are flexbile and change daily. Must not whine, drag their feet or complain about the fairness of the assignments. Even better would be if they recognized work that needed to be done without asking and just did it. Payment will come in the form of food, lodging, clothes, toys, entertainment, story time, pool time, etc.

If only, right?? My kids are getting to be stinkers about helping around the house. Lately the beef has been about fairness and the unequal distribution of workload. Until now, they've been given a daily list of jobs. Their attitude's is what really concerns me. After their token jobs have been done, they give me attitude if I ask anything else of them, like this:
me = "Hey, could you bring me one of Mallory's diapers?"
them = "I already finished with my work today."

me= "Hey sweetie, you left your dishes just sitting here on the table, you need to clear them off."
them = "Is that one of my jobs today?"

So I want this to be a fun summer, I don't want to be a nag, so I think we need to change things up. I'm just wondering the best way to do it. Should I not assign jobs and just have a work time frame where they have to work for a certain time, or assign jobs on a need done basis?
We finished some jobs the other day before heading to the pool. Charlotte asked if we're going to have to do work everyday before we can swim this summer, to which I answered probably. Her response was "I guess I won't be swimming everyday this summer."

I've got a few days left to get my summer game plan together, I'd love any suggestions and input.

4 scoops of raisins

Recently the Kellogs Raisin Bran, 2 scoop, box was on sale, and I bought a few boxes. It's pretty box is such a marketing trick because looking at it you'd think it would taste so much better then the ugly boxes. It doesn't. There's no raisins, it becomes a mission just to find a few. I poured two bowls with NO raisins, not one. On my second bowl, I closed the box and shook it upside down for awhile just trying to get some toward the top. I was complaining to Chris about my dissapointing morning of eating yucky plain bran cereal. The box sat of the shelf for awhile.
A little while later we were having a cold cereal breakfast and our options were skim. The kids don't like raisin bran because they don't like raisins. I assured them it would just be the flakes and if a few raisins fell out I'd get them out for them. You guessed it, tons and tons of raisins came flying out. It looked like it was a 6 scoop box. I really thought I had the worst luck. So as promised I went picking out each raisin from each of the kids bowl. I collectively gathered a whole bowl full of raisins.
Soon Chris walked out and saw that the Raisin Bran made it to the breakfast line-up. He asked if there were any raisins in it this time. In my "you'll never believe this kind of way" I went on to explain how many raisins there were, and how I was so confused that when I want a bowl there's none and when the kids want a bowl there are a million. He smiled at me and told me that after my last experience he'd opened a large can of raisins and poured them in. He showed me the almost empty can from the back of the pantry. I guess he'd been patiently waiting for me to try them again. You know your husband loves you when he pours extra raisins in to suprise you. He's the most thoughtful, funny guy. It made my whole day. Thanks, babe.

Pinkalicious

Today was the conclusion to our family's first experience with soccer. Rozlyn was our first kid to give an organized sport a chance. Through her example, Charlotte has now decided that it looks pretty fun and will start playing in the fall. We joked that team Pinkalicious were the mis-fits, like the Bad News Bears or some other movie worthy underdog story. The team was formed with all the girls who had no other team, who had never played before, and oh yeah, no coach. Luckily a great dad stepped up and gave it a go, with no previos experience himself. The first practice, all of the girls showed up wearing pink (this is before they became "Pinkalicious") so I should of known then that our team style would probably be better then our talent. We had to wait 4 games until our team scored their first goal, we actually got 2 that game. Then we had to wait 4 more games until the last day, today, to score again. This probably is because the girls on the team seem to only care about two things during a game, who's hand is on top during the cheer, and who gets to kick it in when it goes out of bounds. If Rozlyn can see the ball heading out of bounds, before it even gets out, her hand is straight up hoping to get picked to kick it in. Our coach is so great with the kids, and the other families are wonderful too. Team Pinkalicious definately gets the most improved award, and the other teams better beware, because team Pinkalicios will be back next year!!!

Smiling, Swimming and Scooching

These are just a few things Mallory has been up to late to. She's growing up way to fast.

Words just for me

Today my Visiting Teachers came over. After having our normal conversation that involved all the girly, mom, wife stuff she shared a message. It was crazy how the thoughts she'd organized were direct answers to questions we'd been talking about earlier. I've been thinking about them all day and wanted to jot them down because they made such an impact on me. There from Elder Ballard's talk last April, "Daugthers of God". He asks the question "What can you do as a young mother to reduce the pressure, and enjoy your family more?" He gives four answers:
1. Recognize the joy comes in moments
2. Don't overschedule yourself or your children
3. Find time for yourself to cultivate your gifts and intrests
4. Pray, study and teach your children
There was also a part directed to the husbands and kids.
I just love when I hear things that I really feel like I need to hear, that are just for me, just when I need them.
To read the whole article in detail you can follow this link

Summer is Here

Or it might as well be. There's no more homework, the weather is beautiful & we've already spent a few days in the pool. I cannot wait to have the routine end. Soon we'll be sleeping in, lounging in our p.j.'s and eating yummy breakfast. Bring on the best time of the year.

Charlotte's Money

Lately Charlotte has been cracking me up with her spending skills. You'd think by the time one hit the age of 8 they'd be making wiser choices with their money. She never has very much because she just spends it so quick. Two funny stories to that leave me very concerned about her spending skills.
1. She decided that we never have anything good to eat (read crap) around the house. So Chris was headed to Kroger and took Charlotte with him. She starts throwing in a bunch of junkfood and told Chris she was going to pay for it herself. He couldn't argue to that. She even generously offered to buy Mason some popsicles. At least she has a kind heart, I guess.
When I saw the junkfood and heard what she did it just made me laugh. All my money I ever saved went to clothes, toys, music or something else like that. I still get depressed buying groceries because it's not fun or rewarding to me. I don't think Charlotte will have that problem.
2. Last night I was picking up the upstairs and Charlotte was just hanging out, her room was a mess and I could tell she had no intention to clean in. I wasn't in the mood to deal with it. I was however very frustrated. Why is it so hard to teach kids to work with a smile? I usually can get mine to do it, but it's such a miserable process getting there. Anyway, with no energy to argue left in me, I had this great idea. I told Charlotte that she could clean her room or I could do it and charge her $5.00. She looked suprised, got all excited, declared this was the best deal ever and went and pulled 5 bucks out of her bank and handed it to me. Grrrrr!!!! It wasn't supposed to happen that way. I guess the positive side to this is that she'll either have a clean room or I'll get rich myself.
My next obstacle to tackle is what to do when she runs out of money, do I give her a loan, I might never see that money again.
So between junk food and paying someone to clean her room I have my work cut out for me in finding a better way to teach her the value of a dollar.

Going back to any time in your life

So last night Chris broke out with the deep question of "If you could have one time in your life to do over again which time would it be?" I sat there and thought about it. Finally I came up with two "bad" phases in my life, times filled with regret that I coudln't pick between. Chris looked at me startled, the thought hadn't occured to him to pick a bad time. He came up with the best time of our life. It's funny how we were thinking on opposite ends of the spectrum and didn't give any thought the other way around. I really admire Chris for always looking at the bright side of things, he really doesn't live with regret. If something bothers him he doesn't dwell on it, he lets it go, moves forward and forgets about it. Then I wondered what it says about me to wish I could "re-do" some years. I'm curious to know which way does your mind work. I know some of you will have some great insight for me. I can't wait to hear your opinions.

Name that ingredient

So my sister should love this post. When she was here visiting back in Dec. we saw a show on the Food Network that had a challenge where they had to "Name that Ingredient". On the show they had to taste the recipe and then guess how many ingredients they could name, the opponet could then pass or up the number - just like Name That Tune. That night we entertained ourselves by cooking dinner,some delicious Idaho Potato Soup, and made Chris guess what was in it.
Well you guessed it, the game has stuck. Instead of making the real food we pull out cookbooks, Charlotte is usually the reader and she picks the recipe, then we play. Our kids love to laugh at the names of recipes because there are some recipes with really funny names out there. Chris and I laugh trying to guess what could possibly be in "Aunt Julie's Favorite Dessert". I mean, who is Aunt Julie?? Did she love fruit or chocolate, crunchy or chewy, who knows?? I take great pride in knowing the basic in and outs of what meals are made of. It's the game that I have the best chance at winning.
If your family is very easily entertained you should try it. It really works for us.

E.R. visit #2

I consider our family very lucky at the few amount of times we've had trips to the E.R. In total we've made the trip there 4 times but only 2 times have we been admitted. The other 2 times were with Charlotte's allergies but we just sat in the parking lot watching her and waiting to see if she improved or if things got more serious. So both admitted trips were for Rozlyn. First for the croup and then came tonight.
We'd just finished reading scriptures and saying family prayers. The kids were all snuggled up on the couch ready to watch a little "Wipeout" before they had to hit the sack. I was feeding Mallory and I heard this super loud "crack, whip" sound followed by agonizing screams of pain. The sound was so terrifying to me, like a sound I've never heard before. Rozlyn had wrapped Stanley, a family favorite rubber snake, around her feet and stretched him out when he snapped. Rozlyn was screaming about her eyes, because of the crack sound I heard and then her screams I was very afraid of what I might see. I was sure her eyeballs had been shoved into the back of her head or something equally as terrible. She couldn't calm down and was in so much pain, very uncharacteristic for her. We couldn't get her to open her eyes for anything, she was squeezing them shut, still screaming. After awhile Chris took her into the dark closet wondering if the darkness would persuade her to try and open them. After Mallory was in bed I decided we had to get her to the Dr. Unfortunately Accute Kids and Care Now were both closed so to the E.R. we went.
I was happy that I had numerous occasions to explain that she was hit in the face with a rubber snake named Stanley. In hindsight I should have taken Stanley with us. Many of you know Stanley and how he's almost like a family pet to us, he eats dinner with us, goes swimming with us, takes baths with us and participate in many more activities. So I knew Rozlyn was really mad when she said she wished our family never would have got Stanley, because then this never would have happened. Poor Stanley.
In the end she was diagnosed with scratched corneas. She had neon orange eyes for awhile that made her look like she belonged in a sci-fi movie. That was the only cool part of the experience. Apparantley they are very painful and Rozlyn handled it like one tough cookie. She's numbed, druged up and hopefully will be able to get some sleep tonight.
When we walked in the door Chris was holding Stanley moving his head up and down and apologizing for him. I think he might be forgiven.

California Dreamin

Ooooh I can't wait to make another trip out west to visit my parents. I just purchased the tickets so it's a done deal. This time my date is with Chris. The two of us need a getaway and I'm looking forward to the kidless time with the folks, games, food and laughing. The countdown is on!