Owen for President 2040

Make sure you cast your vote.

Turning 6

Turning 6 is a beautiful thing.

Your biggest concern is "Butterfly or Barbie birthday"?

Yesterday Olivia turned 6.

She opted for butterfly.

She wore her butterfly wings ALL day and I made her a butterfly cake.

Olivia is one of the sweetest people I know.

Her two greatest concerns in life are being good and being pretty.

She puts a lot of effort into both.

When she was 2 & 3 years old she absolutely refused to wear anything but skirts and dresses.

I hardly knew how to handle this since jeans, in any size, are my favorite thing in the world.

Olivia is probably the girliest girl I have ever known...I have NO idea where she came from.

She has always been embarrassed by "bodily functions" and doing anything in public that doesn't make her look lady-like.

Here she is on Christmas day, jumping on the trampoline. When she saw this picture she told me she didn't like it because of the way her hair looked.

Here's the pose she struck as soon as I said, "Livy, let me take a picture of your new clothes."

She never wants anyone to feel bad or left out.

I can't take any credit for how good Olivia is. She came this way. I knew when they put her in my arms at the hospital and those beautiful eyes looked back up at me that she was a very special girl.

I feel so lucky to have Livy as my daughter. She's full of hugs and kisses for me and she always tells me in a pained voice, "Aghhhh, I love you TOO much!"

Rainbows, unicorns, silver with sparkles, bows, dresses, barbies, sugar, spice and everything nice...that's what Olivia is made of.

Aghhhh, I love you too much too Livy Loo.

Puzzled

Okay, Shane and I have a confession.

We're addicted to puzzles. Mostly the putting together of them.

That's the first step, right? Admitting there's a problem.

We first learned that we shared this addiction this summer.

The kids were gone for the weekend. We went to DI one night, bought a puzzle and immediately went home to put it together.

Not just a puzzle, a 1000 piece puzzle.

We worked on it until about 1am, went to sleep, dreamt about puzzle pieces, got up at 8am and started working on it again.

We finished about 1pm.

When we finished we looked at each other, snapped out of "puzzle land" and said, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe we just spent 10 hours straight on a puzzle. That was so much fun."

Yeah, we're lame and boring.

That's why we're so perfect for each other. :)

We got another 1000 piece puzzle for Christmas and started it at my sisters house on Christmas.

Not the best idea.

We didn't finish.

We both woke up the next day thinking about the unfinished puzzle...it needed to get finished.

I called Dana to see if we could crash her house and put the puzzle together.

She was kind enough to oblige.

We got there at noon and we finished at 10pm. 10pm!!! (so sorry about that Dana, thanks again for letting us do that.)

Time in puzzle land goes WAY faster than time in normal land.

Here's what we did.

We found those 2 missing pieces moments after we tore the puzzle apart. Oh well.

Here we are with the finished product. There's Dana wishing we were gone, I'm sure.

We felt satisfaction wash over us.

Then we tore the puzzle apart and put it in Dana's recycling garbage can.

Then we made a pact...

No more puzzles unless we are alone.

I think AA would be proud of how we've handled this.

We Had a Very Merry One.

The kids came home from Buffalo on Christmas Eve afternoon. We made cookies for Santa, wrapped presents and opened.....
Christmas pajama's with matching slippers! Then....

Santa Came!!! Owen let us know at 6 am that we really needed to come see.

It was awesome!

Here we are, morning face and all. (I got my hair cut, but you don't really get the full effect here.) Owen lovingly took this picture of us with my new Canon Elph 10 megapixel camera! (Thank you Susan!)

It was raining and still dark out, but scooters needed to be tested anyway.

Sooooo happy to have a scooter.

Shane claims this picture of Pig Pen is a lie. Not 5 minutes after this was taken she absolutely refused to ride by herself and insisted that we just push her around on it. As we were pushing her around Owen, who had been riding intensely said, "I'm tired of scootering." to which Morgan responded, "I'm not tired. I'm just happy!" She's got it all figured out.

Livy practicing her cosmetology skills on Morgan. Morgan has of course tossed her shirt by this point in time. Who needs shirts?

Why did I let Livy use fingernail polish in her brand new sweater? Because I'm stupid. The sweater is ruined.

We spend Christmas day at my sister Dana's house. It's the best. This year Shane and I started a puzzle...more on that later. This is just a glimpse of our hang out. (Sorry Jenny, not your best shot. She looks lovely here).

Cousin fun on the trampoline.

The 3 Queens: Tatum (Porter & Lana's), Olivia, Maya (Eric & Jody's). These three are too cute.

Shane and I @ Dana's. There's my new hair. I love it! Thanks Lana.

It was a wonderful vacation.

I don't want to go back to reality. :(

Um, Excuse me....I'd like to voice a complaint.

The other day I'd had it and I needed to get out.

Shane is very aware when I am feeling like this and when he came home this day he said I should just go out and do whatever I wanted, he would watch the kids. (he does have some faults too, I promise...someday I'll let you in on them).

I told him I wanted a pedicure. (I don't do pedicures on a whim. Maybe once a year and with a lot of build up.)

He said, "Then go get a pedicure."

Whoa. Really? Just go get one?

So I did. And here it is.


This is not my complaint.

The result was fabulous, the experience was....uncomfortable.

I ended up going to this place in the mall because it was the only place open at 7:30pm.

It's run by some family that I believe is Vietnamese, but I'm not certain.

I say, "Hi, I'd like a pedicure please."

The lady says to me, "You want me do manicure too?"

"Ummm, no thank you."

"I do same time."

"No thanks."

"You want me do eyebrow wax?"

"Oh, no thanks. Just a pedicure."

She smiles awkwardly and disappointedly (is that a word) and turns her back.

Then they point me back to the chairs, I sit down and it begins.

There are 2 other ladies in there, besides the one doing my pedicure and some man. They are all speaking in Vietnamese to eachother. I'm nearly certain they are talking about my hairy, white legs or possibly something else they find disturbing about me.

I try really hard to focus on the tiny TV across the room bolted to the ceiling. Suddenly I am very interested in "How I Met Your Mother"...is that even the name of it. I'm straining as hard as I can to read the closed captions so I can be engrossed in the show, but out of the corner of my eye I can feel the lady doing my pedicure staring at me. Really, staring.

So I look back at her and she is smiling a big smile.

I smile back. Then turn back to my show.

Still feeling the staring.

I wait awhile and turn back again...maybe she wants to say something to me. I smile.

She smiles back.

Hmmmm, awkward.

I want to ask her questions and have some small talk, but I'm not certain she'll understand me or me her and then I'd feel really awkward.

She starts rubbing my feet. I still feel the staring but I don't want to turn back...just let me enjoy the foot rub.

I'm torn from my enjoyment...

"Feel good?"

"Um, yeah...it feels good."

"You like?"

"Yes, it's nice."

Big smile at me again.

"You want sea salts?"

"Um, sure."

"5 dollah."

"Oh, no thanks."

Pretty soon we were all done and she ushered me over to the drying lights.

I just kept thinking, "I paid $22 to feel uncomfortable."

But she did do a fabulous job on my toes.

So I gave her a $3 tip.

There was this one weird morning....

This is Morgan still sleeping even with the lights on @ about 8am.

I live in an apartment the size of a shoebox.





If one of us gets up, everyone gets up because you can hear everything.





A couple weeks ago I wasn't feeling well so I stayed in bed while Shane got up early to exercise.





Morgan climbed into bed with me at about 5:30 am and we slept.





Now it should be known that my children are early risers.





6 am is normal.





6:30 am is a good day.





6:45 am is a great day.





Anything after 7 am is unheard of.





Okay, now I can proceed with my story.





So there I was all cozy in bed, Morgan snuggled up next to me, Livy and Owen sleeping soundly in their room when suddenly Shane gets home from working out. It's about 6:30 at this point in time, but nobody is up yet.





I don't know what he's doing but he's making all sorts of noise and I'm all sorts of bugged.





Still, no movement from the children.





More noise.





No movement.





Finally at about 7:30am I get up. Kind of wondering if my children are still alive and also wondering what in the heck Shane is doing.





I walked out to find this....

Now how cute is that?

But he was feeling kind of bad because none of the kids were up. It was uncanny.

Finally at 7:40 am Owen got up.

He was excited about the smiley face french toast.

He ate it.

He told me he felt like he needed to throw up.

5 minutes later Livy sauntered in.

She was excited about the smiley face french toast.

She ate it.

She told me she felt like she needed to throw up.

10 minutes later Morgan FINALLY woke up.

She was excited about the smiley face french toast.

She ate it.

She told me she felt like she needed to throw up.

Apparently 7 chocolate chips is a little much for my kids to handle in the morning.

They have since requested french toast sans the chocolate chips.

Really, it was such a weird morning.

Blog World Question...

There are many things I don't quite know about blog-ettiquette just yet. The biggest one I wonder about is this.

If someone comments on my blog and I want to respond back to their comment do I:

a. respond back in my own comments section?

b. email them if I have their email on hand?

c. find their blog and just comment on some post of theirs?

d. some other option that I don't know of?

I'm a blog-tard. Help me out here folks.

Ponytail Paradise

See this? It's a problem.

Not the mess on my dresser...that's a seperate problem.

I'm talking about my ponytail.

As soon as my hair is long enough to put into a ponytail, I will.

I can't seem to resist the easiness of it.

Shane wants me to go long and blonde (I know, typical male), but I know he's picturing long flowing super-model locks and he doesn't realize my hair just gets scraggily and gross. When it's long it will always end up in a ponytail.

I've had this problem nearly my whole life.

When I was in 4th grade I wore my hair in a ponytail EVERY day to school, except for picture day and one day when my mom did 2 ponytails and I cried and pouted because I thought I looked like a baby. I know, I catch the irony now.

I remember my sister Allyson telling me that "ponytail" was not a hair style and that I needed a real hair style. But if I had a scanner and a picture of Allyson in 1987 you would uderstand why I wasn't taking any hair tips from her too seriously.

Anyway, I'm caught.

I love being able to do ponytails, but I think I need to cut it so I'm forced to do my hair.

Allyson, are you sure "ponytail" isn't a hair style?

Mr. Peeps--Genius!

This is Mr. Peeps. (of no relation to Peeping Tom).

He came to stay at our house this week. We consider ourselves pretty lucky.

One night after family prayer I looked up and there he was on the shelf in our family room.

I gasped, "Oh my gosh, I've heard of him before, but we've never had him at our house. Is it really him?"

"Who?! What?!" the kids exclaimed.

Then I pointed out Mr. Peeps on the shelf.

Shane and I explained that Mr. Peeps was a tiny elf that Santa sent to watch and make sure little boys and girls are good.

The sheer joy in Livy's eyes was golden. She was beyond excited.

We've come up with all sorts of folk lore to surround him. Livy wants a "Mr. Peeps" story every night and she wakes up every morning to make sure he's still here.

"Hi Mr. Peeps." She greets him cheerfully.

The best part about having Mr. Peeps around? Conversations like this:

"Livy brush your teeth and get into bed."

"Okay mommy, I will."

My brain just exploded because I didn't meet any resistance. No whining. No complaining. No back-talk.

Oh my, Mr. Peeps.

I love you!

P.S. Mr. Peeps can be yours for $8.99 at a Target near you.

Editors Note: Thank you to my friend Cherry for introducing me to this idea. It's brilliant. So fun for the kids and so great for the parents!

Shane-Bob Square-Head

Last night Livy had her head sitting on my lap and I was tickling her face (her favorite thing). I told her I love the shape of her face...it's so cute and feminine. She told me it was oval like mine.

Then she looked up at me and said quite seriously, "Do you think all the other babies will have square heads?"

"What other babies? What do you mean?"

She said, "You know, if you decide to have more babies with Daddy Shane."

I couldn't help but laugh.

Livy has made no qualms about the fact that she thinks Shane has a square head. Every time she draws a family picture we know exactly who Shane is.

This picture right here is one she drew for Shane and I just before we got married.

Note the oh-so-square head on his shoulders.

This is highly disturbing to Shane.

Every time she draws a picture he'll go to the mirror and feel around his head trying to see the square-ness of it that she sees.

"My head's not that square!" he'll protest.

I suppose I'm not much help to him. I usually say something like, "Well hon, you do have a square-ish head."

Luckily it's quite handsome.

Cute or Crazy? I'm Not Really Sure.

Shane has informed me that it is this picture that "sold him on me". Something about what he saw in my eyes. It was my profile picture on LDS Planet (for the 2 minutes that I had my profile on there).

I was looking at it again and I just thought, "Really? You saw this and didn't think 'Oh my heck that woman has 3 kids and cats! RUN!!!' ?"

How did he even notice my eyes?

What was he thinking?

P.S. We don't have cats, they were someone elses, but he didn't know that!

Glory in the Ghetto

Did you see this fellow Arizonians?

This was the view from my dinner table last night.

I sat down to eat and gasped when I looked outside.

Isn't it gorgeous?

Even in the Ghetto we have glorious sunsets.

Taking On the Triathlon

Here they are. The 5 remarkable women who have decided NOW is the time to make changes in their life. (only 4 are pictured here because Allyson left before the picture).

They are taking on the challenge to complete a full Sprint triathlon on May 9, 2009.

I am so impressed with each one of them and their determination to do this.

Let me introduce:

Dana, age 42 (today. Happy Birthday!)

Mother of 6

Voice & Piano teacher extrodinaire

Amy, age 37

Mother of 1 little puppy :)

Works for Wells Fargo

Has completed a sprint-tri once before

Jenny, age 34

Mother of 3

5th grade school teacher

Wendy, age 30

Mother of 3

Critical Care Nurse

Allyson, age 36

Mother of 2

Voice teacher and 2nd mother to Jenny's youngest

Just watch.

They're gonna do this.

We Were Sick This Weekend--Really Sick

1 toilet divided by 2 Stomach Flu's+2 small kids who "can't hold it"+1 potty trainer=MAYHEM!

There may or may not have been a few accidents related to our stomach flu's. If you want to get an idea of what Shane and I will be like in a few years click here.

That's all I'm saying.

The Simple Life

The other day as I was standing at my kitchen sink I thought about how much I love my simple life. It's perfect.

We don't have TV. We have a TV, but no channels. So it's DVD's only. It means Shane and I spend our nights talking or reading books together. I love this.

My sister lives 20 paces from my front door. This means if I have to run somewhere or if she has to run somewhere without kids or we're just having a crappy day and we want to talk to someone and hang out...we're there for eachother. I love this.

There are no "Joneses" in the ghetto, so there is nobody to "keep up with". I love this.

My kids are all crammed into one room. They laugh and play and fight at night as they go to bed. Shane and I listen to them from our room and I know these are times they (and I) will look back on fondley. I love this.

My parents house doubles as Livy's bus stop. I love this.

My back fence is 5 paces from my kitchen, so I can dump my bacon grease over the fence into the empty lot there. I love this.

We are 100% debt free. I love this.

We only have one bathroom...which means only one bathroom to clean. I love this.

Shane bought a 1995 teal Saturn so we wouldn't have a car payment. I love him for this.

I know someday we'll buy a house and Shane will probalby have a car that doesn't turn heads quite like this one.

I know someday my kids will probably have their own rooms and my sister won't be a hop skip and a jump away from me.

I know someday I'll have to get a jar to put my bacon grease in and have more than one bathroom to clean.

But until then I am going to really enjoy my simple life.

I hope I never forget it.

It's a beautiful thing.