It's Birthday Month!

This is a busy month for birthdays in my family. I love it!

My brother Darren celebrated his 40th birthday this past Saturday. He came here from Idaho so we could throw him a party. Wasn't that nice of him?


I stole an idea that Fern had several years ago when they celebrated a 40th with some friends. I went to the grocery store and wandered the aisles looking for any product that had "old" in the title and bought them. Then I gave him a fake UB40 CD beacuse I couldn't find a real one! Get it? You Be Forty! ha ha!

He wanted socks for his birthday (seriously!) so I gave him "Gold Toe" socks since 'old' was in the title. Then I wrote a little story to go with a bunch of other 'old' stuff: Goldfish crackers, Golden peach soda, Rold Gold pretzels, Golden raisins, Gold Medal Flour, Old English Cheese....and rounded it out with a gift card to Coldstone. It was fun to try and think of all the "old" products! His response when I was all done: "That was pretty nice, I probably won't go through such an effort when you turn 40." It was funny! At least I've been warned! ha ha!

Cameron's birthday is today! Big ol' Number 2! Wait, that sounds gross...crap.

All day I've been teaching him to say "I'M TWO" while holding up 2 fingers. He's been dang cute. I have high hopes for the age of two. Many of you will remember my struggles with Parker from birth to age 2. To say he was a pill is such an understatement. It's like saying McDonalds is kinda bad for your health.

However, when Parker turned 2 he became such a fun little man! So, here's hoping Cameron gives me the same result. Not that Cameron has been as bad as Parker, but he definitely challenges my sanity about 4 days out of 7.

Last year for Cameron's birthday I posted a picture per month of his birth until age 1. I'd like to do the same thing for Cameron, from the age of 1 until 2:

April 2009 - Cameron and Bruce, awesome neighbor dog


May 2009 - Still couldn't walk but standing and holding on to something was getting easier!


June 2009 - Personality really starting to shine. He just looks like he has something funny to say!


July 2009 - First bloody nose while camping at Zions....ever since this day he gets a bloody nose so easily! It's pretty crazy actually.


August 2009 -Wearing Uncle Darren's hat in Island Park


September 2009 - Gangsta


October 2009 - going on a hike with dad!


November 2009 - helping dad set up the Christmas tree


December 2009 - Funny, and then ultra gross


January 2010 - I pay my kids a quarter for goose eggs


February 2010 - When all else fails, put them in a laundry basket with a blanket...happiness for hours!


March 2010 - When did he get so old??


We are celebrating Sam and Cameron's birthday on Friday so more to come on those birthdays....

Saturday was a fairly nice day so we cleaned up our yard from the long Winter! Parker jumped in leaves and Cameron ate what tiny amounts of snow he could find.




The other night I let the kids sit on my bed and watch a movie. I walked in and found Cameron draped across Carson's back. He is so stinking funny!

Don't Cry Wolf

First of all, we grilled turkey the other night. It was good, it was very good. My favorite part? Walking into the kitchen to find Sam taking pictures of the meat on the grill! I took a picture with my cell phone. He rocks!


Guess what else rocked? The other morning I was getting ready for the day and Sam said "I just locked the keys in your mom's car....and the car is running!". We had borrowed my mom's car and Sam was driving it to work. Oh my goodness, I was laughing so hard! He had to drive the van over to my parent's house, get a spare key, and then come back. Just before he left for work I said "I'm so sorry about all this, I bet you were so frustrated!" Sam's reply: Nah, it just shakes up the day.

You know what else shakes up the day?

You know the story, right? Don't cry wolf because when you are telling the truth I may not believe you....

Let me set the scene for you.

Carson has a habit of day dreaming in school. Heck, he day dreams 24/7! The child is smart, just not smart enough to know when to quit dreaming and get to work. We've struggled throughout his elementary school career on the same thing: Get your work done in class! Please don't bring blank work home that you could have finished in school! With each year this gets harder because not only is he bringing home unfinished work, he is also bringing home actual homework. It's not uncommon for us to spend 3 hours a day on homework. I think that is typical for High School, but Carson is in 3rd grade for pete's sake!

So, Monday afternoon he comes home with several blank math worksheets PLUS (big bonus) a sealed envelope from his teacher, to me. As I'm eye-balling the unfinished work, I'm pretty sure this is not a good thing.

I braced myself, took a cleansing breath, and then opened the letter. The opening line said something like "I just don't know what to do with Carson...." and then she detailed the day of him sitting at his desk, doing nothing but stare into his desk.

I read it to Carson and then he sat down and did one of the worksheets. After he finshed one worksheet (and we still had 4 to go, PLUS actual homework) I decided to switch gears and do spelling. For spelling, he has to write each word 3 times in cursive.

By now Carson is moaning about a stomach ache. Whatebs, as I give him the next word.

Then Carson belches and I am not kidding, it smelled like a fart! He kept moaning and putting his head on the counter top. I said "you finish your spelling and you can lay down for a few minutes" and then I'd give him the next word. I gotta give the poor guy credit, he kept writing the words I gave him as the belching got worse and worse. I finally had to look up his condition on the computer, while loudly giving him the next word on his list! A quick Google search brought me to the condition "Sulfer Burps". I think it's like a food poisoning stomach issue. Gross.

By now Sam comes home and he about drops dead from the smell, he conveniently took Parker and Cameron out to the backyard.

We were on our last word, Carson kept moaning, and then suddenly....he ran to the bathroom where he promptly puked all over the place! I'm not kidding, it was straight out of my nightmares.

Huh, I guess he was telling the truth about not feeling good. Next time I'll try to believe him a little sooner. After he finished up he went to bed and stayed there until this morning. One more puking episode later last night and then he was cured.

I then had the privilege of writing his teacher back today and explaining that we did not get the work done she sent home because Carson was sick all night. I wasn't making excuses for him, but it was the honest to goodness truth. Had he not puked I would have still made him finish all the work even though he was moaning. He's got to learn at some point...at least that's what I keep telling myself.

Needless to say, tonight's homework lasted from about 3:45pm to almost 8pm. Thank goodness for Sam and his never ending patience. I left the two of them here working on it while I went grocery shopping! Here's to a great tomorrow!

I Guess Things Were Getting Too Boring

My "no sick or injured children" streak has crashed. Bummer. We've had a good run but all things must come to an end I suppose!

Last night we went to Costco. Right when we entered the store, Parker tripped. Not the kind of trip where you flail about for a second, recover, and then wildly look around to see if anybody noticed. Those are the trips I laugh about for days. This trip, was epic. In fact, he almost took out the guy walking past him! Unfortunately, the guy thought Carson tripped Parker so he lectured Carson for a few seconds. Normally I would have been irritated at the guy because that's not at all what happened. But my attention was on Parker, who lay on the cement floor in agony.

Sam picked Parker up off the floor and held him. That's when I noticed the large bluish goose egg starting to grow. Shudder.

I took these pictures after some time had passed with my cell phone so they don't really capture the creepy egg:



Because I'm a mother who has learned the art of distraction, I came up with something really quick: Hey Parker, did you know I pay for goose eggs? That's a pretty nice one you've got there...how about a quarter??
I handed Parker the quarter and he was pleased as punch. I told him it was our secret (because I didn't have any more quarters for the other 2). He nodded his understanding and clutched the quarter.

Don't ask me what I'm going to do when my kids outgrow quarters but for now, life is good!

We picked up our goods at Costco and headed home. On the way home, Parker started whimpering about his ear hurting. The whimper turned into a cry, which turned into a I-can't-catch-my-breath sob. Great, ear infection. Or something worse, it was his left ear which is where he fell. Maybe he jarred something loose? Crap.

By the time we got home from Costco, Parker wasn't crying too bad but he said it still hurt. We kept asking him to describe the pain--sharp? stinging? He kept saying "it just feels weird, like, you know, back and forth...out and in?" Finally I figured it out: it was pounding, like when you hit a hammer on your finger. ha ha! I love kids and their descriptions!

Sam took Parker to instacare at about 6:15pm and got home around 9:45pm. Oy. The doctor's were worred about a skull fracture and some drainage into his ear, but that fluid would have been clear, his fluid was pussy (sorry, gross, I hope you aren't eating lunch) so it was indeed, an ear infection. Sam said two different doctors checked it out to be sure. It's just such bizarre timing! Slam your head into the cement floor and 20 minutes later bawling because your ear hurt....and they AREN'T related?

Random. I shouldn't be surprised, that's my life, we only know how to do random over here. Parker's ear still hurt this morning so he's kicking it with me today at home. He likes the bubble gum antiobiotic medicine so that's a plus.

You want to know the coolest part? When Parker came home from the doctor's office, still crying uncontrollably, he still had the quarter clutched in his hand! Man, a goose egg and ear infection...I think I owe him another quarter!

Weekend Recap

On Friday night Carson had a sleep over with a friend so we decided to take the other kids and do something fun since Parker gets pretty jealous when Carson gets to do things that he doesn't.

We headed over to Hollywood Connection, along with the West Side Tween population. It was a blast! :)

Cameron LOVED the Merry Go Round, it was pretty crazy trying to get him off that ride! He kept slapping his horse's behind and saying "Giddyup!"


However, Parker was the surprise of the night. He had no fear whatsoever! He jumped on the bumper cars and slammed into as many teenagers as he could find! When he was waiting in line some giggly girls ahead of him were flexing their biceps and they were all exclaiming how strong they were. Parker reached up and gave one girl's arm a squeeze to feel her muscles! The girls were super sweet and said "Let's feel your muscle!" so Parker flexed. So funny!

The ride operator started the ride and then immediately stopped it because Parker wasn't strapped in. He walked over, got Parker situated, and as he was walking away Parker yelled at the top of his lungs "Yah Baby!!". What a ham!



Sam and I rode the little roller coaster. Nice shots Sam!



A big thanks to my parents for coming with us because they helped a ton with Cameron! It was great!

How do you know when your kids had fun and wore themselves out?


Oh yeah, quick story about Carson:
As he came home from school on Friday afternoon he told me that the crossing guard had yelled at his friend, which made his friend cry and run home. Carson said "So I walked with Anna and we had a long conversation about why old people can be so mean sometimes. Guess what we finally figured out? We figure that old people are jealous of us kids because we have more energy!".

Nice.

On Saturday night our ward had a Talent/No Talent Show. It was very well attended and was so much fun!
Carson participated in a Rock Band lip syncing number.


They did so good! Their lead singer really got into it! Probably my favorite picture from the night! His shirt says "Awesome ends with me" ha ha!


They even had their own fan who came and danced in front of them for a good part of the song, seriously hysterical!


During this number, we also had a side-show. If any of you have been around Cameron much over the last month, you'll know he's developed a really bizarre quirk. When he doesn't want people to notice him, or if he's playing the "pity card", he'll just completely freeze. I don't know how else to describe it. He stands perfectly still and won't move a muscle. Sometimes he does it for one minute, sometimes a lot longer. He had spilled his water and while Sam was cleaning it up, Cameron went into freeze-mode. I didn't notice for a long time because I was taking pictures of Carson's group on stage. Finally my friend directed my attention to Cameron. This is how he was standing:


My friend's husband even put his daughter on her back, and slid her under Cameron so she was staring up at Cameron from the floor. Cameron didn't even crack a smile or blink his eyes. I think a few people got a little chuckle out of it. Pretty soon he started swaying like he was going to fall asleep in the freeze position. My mom couldn't take it any longer, she gave him the pity he was looking for and picked him up and he did fall asleep a few minutes later. Crazy kid!

Sam ended the night with a juggling routine. It was quite impressive, I don't think he's juggled that much since he was in the juggling club in his High School.


Tonight we had our monthly "cousins dinner" and my cousin's wife announced she was pregnant. I'm pretty dang excited because that makes 6 (if my calculations are right) of my family members having babies in 2010! This is going to be a wild year!!! Baby Boom year for sure, I can hardly wait to meet all the newest family members!

What The...??

The other day I was feeding the three stooges breakfast. Carson did something that irritated and confused me at the same time. I said "WHAT THE..." and trailed off as I started cleaning up a mess. Without missing a beat, Cameron said "HECK!"

Oh man. I laughed. In fact, I laughed so hard I woke Sam up. Of course, when you laugh at something a child says, they like to repeat it over and over again. So, if you'd like to test this theory, walk up to Cameron and say "WHAT THE!" and see what happens.

However, my post is not about kids. It's about hair.

I'm having some hair trauma recently. "Recently" being a relative term of course....my hair started turning gray in my early teens. Speaking of relatives...I have them to thank for this phenomenon. I honestly never minded the gray. I don't know any different.

Well, for the past few months, my gray hair is winning our little battle of wills. It's just a huge fuzzy frizzy gray mess. I'm getting pretty tired of it. You should see how much crap I put in my hair to control it and it still looks like a rats nest.

I'm getting my haircut tomorrow night so I thought I'd do a little Google search to see what kind of gray hairstyles I might find for young (again, relative) woman.

Let's just say I was a little offended!

Here's one of the first results:


This was right next to the first picture:


How about this beauty? Are people with gray hair considered to be a dog??


Maybe I should just keep coloring one side of my head and go with a Cruella Deville look?


Of course, if my hair wasn't so curly, I could be glamorous like Emmy Lou Harris, but alas, "sheek" is most definitely NOT in my hair vocabulary!


I've come up with nothing. Any suggestions are completely welcome. Just remember, I have naturally curly/frizzy hair. I have a lot of it. It's gray and grows so fast I can hardly keep up with getting it colored. I'm a mother of three without my own bathroom, blaspheme. Shaving it is NOT an option...I can barely keep up with shaving my legs! ha ha!

Valentine's Day 2010

I had a most excellent Valentine's Day! Friday night Sam and I went to dinner and then saw the movie 'Valentines Day'. It was so nice to have a chance to be together without hearing the word "mom" once! The movie was pretty good with a feel good ending. Nothing AMAZING, but a fun movie to see while celebrating Valentines Day.

On Saturday, we took advantage of the holiday weekend sales to purchase some fun stools for our kitchen. No more high chair attached to the counter! Yay!


Sunday morning I woke up to the best surprises EVER!

We had Stake Conference at 10am and so I was a bit groggy because I was trying to get up really early to get ready before chaos ensued. I'm blind as a bat in the morning, so the first thing I did was put in the ol' contacts. Once the miracle of sight occurred, I noticed a bright orange bag in the hallway. Since orange is my favorite color, I knew the bag was meant for me. I opened it, and inside I found...three, ahem, B-R-A-S! Oh man, I was laughing so hard! The thought of Sam shopping for bras, with my children, cracked me up!!! Later that morning I asked Carson if that was embarrassing. He said "YES". I asked Parker and he looked at me like I was an idiot and said "Nope" and shrugged his shoulders. Sorry no pictures, I do have SOME pride.

Let me back up: I hate bra shopping. I'm always complaining about it and so as a JOKE, I said to Sam "you should buy me bras for Valentines Day!". I never thought he'd actually do it. I should know better than to give him a challenge. Hysterical! My laughter woke him up and he said "did you look in the kitchen?".

I walked in the kitchen to a fun scene:
There was a boquet of flowers on the counter, with crepe paper attached to a padlock. I didn't get a good picture, but the crepe paper was strung all over the kitchen, it was a trail!


The beginning of the trail:
You are the key to my lock


Then the trail went to the cupboard: You are the marshmallows to my hot chocolate


To the stove: You are the salt to my pepper


To another cupboard: You are the peanut butter to my jelly


Into the fridge: You are the cheese to my macaroni


Still in the fridge: You are the butter...


To the top of the fridge: To my bread


And lastly, back to the fridge: You are the milk to my cookies


Isn't that fabulous! What a creative soul! Seriously, best Valentines Day ever. We celebrated the whole weekend, we had Stake Conference on Sunday which means my hubby got to sit with the family, and I even had a Sunday nap! It's a beautiful thing. I love you Sam-I-Am!

Did You Ever....

Did you ever put crepe paper on your tongue as a child?

I did. Every chance I got. Why? Well, first of all it turned my tongue whatever color the paper was. Totally cool! Secondly, it tasted gross. Not gross, as in "ewww, sick". We are talking "SSSSIIIICCCKKKKK! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?" gross. Not totally sure why, but that was reason enough to keep trying it every time I was working with crepe paper. It was as if I thought "If I try it this time, maybe it won't be gross anymore". However, time and time again, it was still gross.

Last night I was helping Carson make a Valentines Day Box for a party at school tomorrow. We had some pink crepe paper that he used. I was getting bored and thought "Hey, I wonder if Crepe paper is still gross?" So, I had to try it. Really, there was no way around it!

I put a little piece on my tongue and lots and lots of childhood memories came flooding back. Yep, still gross.

Next logical step? You guessed it. "Hey Parker! C'mere".


He hated is just as much as I did. He said it tasted "hot and spicy". Whatebs.

Part of me wants to know why over all these years, they can't make crepe paper taste better.

Then the logical side steps in. Oh wait, you aren't SUPPOSED to taste it? Huh. Wish somebody told me that when I was 5.

Playlist & Go Colts....Maybe Next Year?

Sam has completed my playlist from my previous post. It's been lots of fun listening to these songs for the past few days. I probably should clarify something real quick: For me, this playlist is awesome because it represents a very fun time in my life. My experiences in college have so much to do with who I am today. I still keep in contact with a lot of the friends I made at that time and we had a great balance between being serious and having fun (with emphasis on the fun).

So, if you hate these songs, just keep that to yourself! ha ha!

'Sometimes' by Erasure
'If You Leave' by O.M.D.
'Head Over Heels' by Tears for Fears
'Getting Away With It' by Electronic
'Don't You (Forget About Me)' by Simple Minds
'Particle Man' by They Might Be Giants
'Just Like Heaven' by The Cure
'Old Red Eyes is Back' by Beautiful South
'Stand' by REM
'Pandora's Box' by O.M.D.
'Mr. Tambourine Man' by The Byrds
'Letterbox' by They Might Be Giants
'Regret' by New Order
'Girlfriend in a Coma' by The Smiths
'Chorus' by Erasure
'Sunnyside of the Street' by The Pogues
'We Close Our Eyes' by Oingo Boingo
'Jubilation' by Anything Box
'Sunday Morning' by O.M.D.
'Growing Old' by The Origin
'Situation' by Yaz
'Pure' by Lightning Seeds
'Friday I'm in Love' by The Cure
'Dead' by They Might Be Giants
'Minimum Wage' by They Might Be Giants

Trust me, find these songs, listen to them, and I think you'll thank me! :)

Other news...
I'm not a football fan, but I do like the Colts. My brother lives in Indiana so he has converted all of us. We had high hopes tonight....ah well....

I'm Gonna Make You A Mix Tape!

Did you ever make a mix tape for somebody when you were younger? I totally remember having a blank tape in my ghetto blaster, my finger would be poised on the 'record' button while listening to the radio. As soon as I heard a gnarly song I would slam down the 'record' button and add to my forever growing collection of mix tapes. The coolest songs in those days were "We Are the World", "Like A Virgin", "Born in the USA", "Careless Whisper", "Can't Fight This Feeling", "Everybody Wants To Rule The World", "Axel F"....and there are oodles more but you get the idea.

When I went to college, my roommate had a guy friend (who I think had a crush on her) and he made her a mix tape that he called "Cool Meridith's Really Cool Tape Of Cool Music". It was the best mix tape I've ever heard! I made myself a copy. :)

Fast forward 17 years (Yes, I am that old...quit doing that math!) to last Saturday. Sam and I were doing an early spring cleaning in our house and I found that mix tape from college! I tossed it to Sam and said "Hey, for Valentines Day you should convert these songs into an itunes playlist for me.".

Because these kind of projects make Sam giddy, he was up for the challenge! Unfortunately, I had lost the tape cover that lists all the songs and the artist. You should see my husband's detective work in figuring out all the songs! I am seriously so excited! When all is said and done, I'll put the playlist on my blog and you will completely understand why this is the best mix tape ever! Well, hopefully you will.....unless you like country or butt rock...then this is NOT the mix for you! Just back away slowly. Never look back.

Have I mentioned lately that Sam is the gnarliest dude ever!?!

Square Temple?

Tonight for FHE we went to Salt Lake City, to Temple Square. We parked the car and walked through the Temple Square gates and Parker exclaimed with wide eyes, while pointing at the temple: "Is that the Square Temple??".

Uhhhhh....sure, yeah.

Let me tell ya, going to Temple Square on a cold night in February....that's the time to go! We practically had the whole place to ourselves!! We went into the Visitor's Center and took our sweet time. All three boys LOVED it, we watched videos, played on the escalators, checked out a replica of Jerusalem, and saw the Christus. The Sister missionaries gave the boys some cards with the Articles of Faith on them and a picture of Christ on the other side. Cameron kept looking at his and squealing "JESUS!" Good times!

This picture speaks to me. It says: Parker sees the light, Carson is confused. Just kidding buddy!


Cameron loved the statue of Christ. He kept pointing at him and then to his Articles of Faith Card. Then he ran to the Sister Missionaries and gave them "rocks".


I'm telling you, we had the whole place to ourselves.


Except for whoever was inside...


Maybe next time we go Parker will know the proper name of the temple....then again, maybe not.