The Blog is MOVING

I've reworked some stuff on my blog, added some privacy to my little penguins and others, and moved my blog.

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Cover Your Eyes!

It was a dark and stormy night…well, not really.  It was more like a dark and restless movie theater filled with antsy kids and tired parents waiting to watch Cars2.  I love that the movies have entertainment before the movie and I love that my closest theater has reserved seats so we don’t have to arrive an hour before.  10 minutes was bad enough. 

The pre-movie entertainment was fun.  I learned that Daniel Ratcliff learned that he won the role of Harry Potter while in the bathtub.  I’m filing that in the section of my brain for useless trivia (I really have one.  I’ve fooled many people into think I’m smart just by the vast amount of useless knowledge I have stored in my brain). 

This commercial was shown during the “entertainment too.” 

When it ended, Little Man told Hubby, “Dad, that’s scary.”  The Girl asked me why she looked and talked like that.  I told her it was because she smoked and that everyone who smokes ends up like that (nice one, mom, huh?).  She told me she would never smoke so I felt like my itty bitty tiny exaggeration was acceptable. 

The commercial was repeated again a few minutes later.  Big Brother was freaked out that they kept replaying it.  Little Man jumped off his chair and screamed, “EVERYBODY COVER YOUR EYES!  IT'S SCARY!,” to which Hubby and I laughed hysterically.  I do believe that commercial did its job! 

 

The girl was goalie a lot.  Her team was really good, which meant she stood around a lot and tried to find ways to entertain herself, like picking at the net!

     

Little Man liked to entertain himself with my Nook playing “Ang-y Boods” or pleading for anyone to play basketball with him. 
               

The boys playing hoops with Papa during The Girl’s game. 

 

End of the Season trophy!  Way to go Peanut!

Little Man Showing off his Muscles

 

Photos from the Lake

“With the weather so beautiful now, we’ve been taking advantage of it and going to the lake.  Boating is a fun activity for the kids and mom too.  We love when grandma and cousins can join us.”

We are so lucky to live in the community of Daybreak.  Oquirrh Lake serves as great free entertainment for us.  We love that we can check out kayaks or canoes when they’re open and just row around the lake.  Little Man’s old enough to enjoy it this year so it makes it even easier for us to go now!  So much fun!

Here’s some photos from a recent excursion: 
    My favorite photo from the day.  Love it! (Maybe it’s because they’re all sitting still?)

   
Try not to notice the porta potty in that one above.  I haven’t photo-shopped it out yet! 

           

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father’s Day to all the wonderful Dads out there.

Happy Father’s Day to the man who raised me. He taught me the value of hard work and support. My father raised five girls and never asked us to be anyone than who we are. Through dance performances, choir performances, drum circles, college, marriages, babies, law school, etc., he has been there for us all, giving whatever he could whenever he could. Thank you now for being a great grandpa. Thanks Dad! I love you much!

Happy Father’s Day to my husband, the man who has shown me more love than I thought myself worthy of. Thanks for being the father to my children and for loving us and doing whatever it takes, all the time. You are not only a great dad and husband, but you are a good, good man. Thanks for being a great example to our children. I love you so, so much!

Happy Father’s Day to my father-in-law, the man who raised my husband. You raised him to be the man he is today and I imagine you could not be more proud. Thanks for being a great example to him and helping him understand the importance of school and working hard. Thank you also for being a great Papa to our kids. I know you’ll think that you aren’t, but I can’t tell you how much it means to them (and thus to me) when you do something even as simple as playing basketball with them. Thanks for cheering them on, whatever it is that they decide to do! I love you too!

Happy Father’s Day!

Can You Tell Me How To Get……

Naptime for Little Man.  I turned on the TV, which was on PBS.  I was getting ready to change to something I’d Tivo’d, when Little Man saw claymation Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street.  “Wanna watch dis, mom.”  Oh boy (insert rolling eyes here). 

But then……. after Bert and Ernie, Sesame Street decided to take pity on poor moms who are watching this with their kids and ran a segment with yummy Sesame Street eye candy, LL Cool J.

Yep.  I said it.

Just when I was thinking that I could maybe finish out this remaining 10 minutes of the show, LL’s counting song was over and on came that blasted Elmo.  Not cool, Sesame Street.  Not. Cool!  And as if Elmo wasn’t bad enough… enter this guy: 

Mr. Noodle.  Oh. My. Badness.  Mr. Noodle, you just burned my retinas I think.  Just looking at that picture makes me want to hide under my desk and start chewing on some pencils.  It was that bad (or maybe I’m just a little dramatic). 

I get it, sort of, that kids like that over the top insanity, but that was pushing it.  Shouldn’t we be watching what our kids are watching?  You can’t really expect me to watch that every day?  Come on Sesame Street…more LL, less Elmo (get it?).  And while you’re at it, can you PLEASE get rid of Elmo’s syrupy sick voice and replace it with…I don’t know…maybe George Clooney?  That’s a show I could watch! 

Little Man

I came across this picture of my boys while looking for something else.   
It made me smile.  They are so cute.  We had gone to see Emma participate in the school talent show last June.  Look at that little round face..those pink, full cheeks.  After it made me smile, it then made me sad because I then looked at this:

Same cute kid, but almost exactly one year older.  He doesn’t look that much older to me.  He’s still stinking cute.  But the pink full cheeks are gone and so is the round face and NOT because he’s just aged a year.  But because he just looks so little and unhealthy to me.  I think he might actually weigh close to the same because he’s lost so much weight. He looks so pale in the picture, but even more pale in real life.  He got sunburned and I said to my husband, “I actually like him sunburned, because he looks a little healthier now.”  Too bad it was just temporary. 

This breaks me.  This tugs at me.  This saddens me.  And this truly exhausts me.  I don’t like to talk about it too much because no one really understands.  You have a child who won’t eat?  People judge.  I must be doing something wrong.  I’m too lenient.  They could certainly do better.  I don’t need to hear it.  We’ve tried everything.  Therapy is great, but it is slow. 

In the meantime, I am exhausted.  A child who does not eat is a child who does not sleep well.  Waking up due to hunger is almost a nightly occurrence, one that just makes me so sad.  I can’t send my child back to bed with his stomach growling.  I can’t.  I can’t make him understand that if he eats when he is hungry, it would make him feel better.  I can’t do that either.  What I can do is give him drinks heavily supplemented and just hold his skinny little body until he falls back asleep.  That is something I can do. 

I’m exhausted.  When my baby goes back to sleep, that’s not always possible for mommy.  Mommy has to get up to get the other kids ready for school and then work.  Little guy can nap, mom doesn’t have that luxury.  Therapy, supplements, vitamins, and, don’t forget, Cheetos, oh the Cheetos, all cost money.  Mommy’s got to work. 

I’m exhausted.  Maybe more than the physical exhaustion is the mental exhaustion.  It’s so much.  I was talking to my sister and had mailed her birthday card late.  I told her that I just gave up apologizing for things I was late with, little things I had forgotten, all the things I’ve had to say no to.  It’s the sad state of my life right now, but hopefully just a temporary one. 

I don’t want or need sympathy.  Just maybe less judgment, more understanding, more support, more love.

Emergency Preparedness–Food Storage Analyzer

I am, quite admittedly, very much a novice at food storage/emergency preparedness.  I completely understand the necessity of it, but I just haven’t got there yet.  I’m working on it.  When we lived in Las Vegas, we barely had enough storage for our household items, let alone extras that we were supposed to keep in a cool (yeah, that’s funny) place in our house.  However, here in Utah, I have this really cool (pun intended) cold storage room in our basement that is made for food storage.  I have the room.  I even have some shelving.  Time to get working. 

Today, my post is about the Food Storage Analyzer, by Emergency Essentials.  I was going to say something like, “While this was easy to use, it literally scared the food storage out of me.”  I changed my mind and decided to be a little more positive and say, this was so informative, it showed me what I had and what I was lacking for each person in my family. 

 

It’s very easy to create your own account (or even just try it as a guest).  Creating your own account is so easy and it allows you to continually make changes and even create future shopping lists. 

By entering in the ages and gender of your family, you can see the daily calorie recommendations to base your food storage off of. 

It’s pretty simple and self-explanatory.  You enter in what you have (or in my case, don’t have).  It’s not only Emergency Essential-specific, you can also enter in items on hand in your own pantry to be included in your totals. 

I’d like to be able to say that I am well on my way to a well-rounded food storage, but alas, I am not.  I am, however, very motivated and always looking for ways to make this journey easier for me. 

Go check out Emergency Essentials Food Storage Analyzer.  You’ll be glad you did.  Okay, maybe you’ll be a little depressed, but maybe you’re more prepared than me!

Pinewood Derby

Text:  “Tyson’s derby car this year was the “Sea Dog.”  While he didn’t win any speed medals, he did win an aware for coolest design.  We had fun!”

Fly on the Wall

Austin built a spaceship out of Legos.  He had carried it around with him all day. 

A:  “Mom.  Is Wocket from Wittle Eintines” (Translation:  “It’s Rocket from Little Einsteins”
Me: “Rocket?  Oh, cool.”
A:  “You sing it song?”
Me:  “We’re going on a trip in our favorite rocketship, sailing through the skies, Little Einsteins…”
A: “I sing you now.” “Mmm…mmmmm…mmmmmm.mm…rocketship…..mmmmmm…Eintines.”
Me:  “Good job.  Look at Rocket fly!  He can go to the moon.  He can go to the clouds.  He can go to Saturn.  Where else can he go?”
A: “He’s going to Target.” 
Me:  “Target?  That’s where he wants to fly to?”
A: “Yeah.  Rocket want to go Target!” 

Living the Dream!

May Monthly Photo

Em’s Spring Recital

Spring Dance Recital

Emma’s spring dance recital was last night.  Her dance was to “Single Ladies” performed by the Chipettes.  It’s going to be tough to top this dance.  It’s my favorite so far.  At the beginning, Em’s in the front row, second from the left.