I want it!

Any of you ever hear stuff like this when you take your kids to the toy store?!?!

Mom!!! I want it, I want it, I want it! Can we get it??? PLEASE, PLEASE PLEASE MOM??? It only costs 31199!!! Can we get it mom??? Please mommmmmmyyyyyyy! Please can we just geeeeettttttt it?!?!?

Mom: Not today.

Whhhhhhhhyyyyyyyy not?

Mom: It's too expensive.

Well, how much money do you have?

Mom: We need to first use our money for our needs before our wants.

(crying now)

Nooooooo! Why do always have to buy our needs first?!?!?! That's NOT fair!

ugh! It's now time to leave.

Don't let these smiling, happy faces fool you. :)

Day 7 - 8

Day 7
pancakes, homemade blueberry syrup - so easy
chicken nuggets
tator tot casserole

*Homemade berry syrup
1 1/2 c berries
3 T sugar
1/2 c OJ (or water) -mix with 1 T cornstarch
Heat and serve!

Day 8 - Sunday- Mother's Day
Pancakes, bacon, tator tots, toast and eggs
chicken nuggets
Sweet and sour meatballs over rice, salad

So far the first week has been easy, I have plenty of meat, cheese, dairy, fruits and veggies. Of course, I could anticipate the month without groceries so I was able to stock up (a mother -load or groceries) before May. I don't anticipate really feeling the hardship of the experiement until week 2 1/2 or 3. Week 4 will probably be a killer. :)

Food storage: Day 4 and 5

Thursday, May 4th
Day 4
Breakfast: cereal
Lunch: chicken nuggets (I think I had leftovers)
Dinner: Bow tie pasta w/ cheese, bacon and broccoli

Friday, May 5th
Day 5 - Happy Cinco de Mayo - and Happy Birthday to my big brother!
Breakfast: cereal (what will we do when the cereal runs out?!?)
Lunch: Nachos
Dinner: Taco salad (I bought 2 very large bags of tortilla chips from Costco on April 31st!)
*Also, I stretched my taco meat by only using half the amount and then I added in 1 cup of wheat berries. It tasted great and the best part is that Dallin and Thatcher didn't even notice anything was added or missing.

Today I started feeling pretty smug about myself, thinking that I can do a whole month....no problem. I should probably stop thinking like that because that's when things will get really hard. :)

Anyway, the wheat bread I made earlier this week didn't turn out well. It's amazing to me that I have been making bread for about 4 years now and every once in awhile I still get loaves that don't turn out. I remember that I made bread every week or every other week for a YEAR before I got a loaf that didn't fall in the oven! That is probably why I am not using the bread for sandwiches this week, but just as toast and bread/butter at dinner time. As we do our little experiment I have realized what a blessing to be able to make bread. You can add so much to a meal by having a loaf of wheat bread, french bread, rolls or even sour dough.

1 month food storage challenge!

Call me crazy, but a friend of mine and I have decided to try to live off our food storage for a month and see how we do. We figured we will probably learn alot of things and it will help us to see what we really really missed and what we would want to have in our food storage in the future. Here are the rules: ]
No buying food in the month of May.

Simple huh? :) We did make 1 exception and that is for milk. You can go to the store and buy milk. My friend, Kathie and I both have a substantial amount of dry milk which we use when our regular milk is about half gone. (Just make up a half gallon of dry milk and pour it into the jug of 2% you buy at the store, but SHHHH! don't tell anyone in my family or they would probably turn their noses up) But, we are both not quite ready to live entirely off dry milk, so we made an exception.

I wanted to document each day so I could look back and remember recipes, how soon I ran out of stuff and what I really missed.

So here we go:
Day 1
Fast Sunday :) That makes it easy
Boys only
Breakfast: cereal
Lunch: leftovers from Red Robin and PB and J on homemade bread
Dinner (everyone): Roast, rice, bagged Asian salad, jello

Day 2 - Monday
Breakfast - cereal
Lunch - PB and J sandwiches on homemade bread
Dinner - leftover roast, leftover potaoe, cheese soup, broccoli salad

*Made 2 loaves of wheat bread and made baby food.

Day 3 - Tuesday
Breakfast - cereal
Lunch - chicken nuggets, leftover potatoe, cheese soup
Dinner - Used the last of the roast to make a beef stew (stretch the meat with wheat berries)

I know it's only been 3 days and we have a long way to go, but I find myself worrying about the food we have. For example, when the boys are hungry and want a snack, I have this internal debate, "We shouldn't eat the crackers because once they are gone what will the baby snack on?" "We shouldn't eat the string cheese, because that is what Jason takes for breakfast." "We should only eat our fresh fruits and veggies very sparingly, because 4 weeks is a long time for fresh!" I was freaked out on day 1 because I thought I didn't have any more cheese, but I found a few blocks in the freezer outside and was very relieved. I can't imagine the stress that would be on me if this were truly and emergency. It will be good to have a practice and see what I can learn so in the event of a real emergency I can put my mind to rest.

It's been almost a year!!!

Welcome back! I can't believe it's been almost a year since I have posted any pictures. My mom keeps hounding me to post some pictures so she can keep up on her little grandkids. So here goes, this one is for you mom!

As you can see we had another baby! He is truly a miracle and he is so sweet. He was born on June 14th, 2010 the same day as his older cousin Jenessa - only she is 18-19 years older. We named him Kimball Reid Olson.

Most people would automatically assume that we named him after the late prophet Spencer W. Kimball, but that's not how it worked out.

Kimball has always been a name that we "liked". In fact, it was in the top 5 names when we were trying to think of names for Dallin and Thatcher as well. About 3 months before he was born I went to a Stake RS conference. The theme of the conference was "The One" and they were showing a mormon message. President James E. Faust (I think it was him) was telling the story of the 3 young men (ages 18-19) that carried each one of the pioneers across the Sweetwater River in the dead of winter. I have heard this story numerous times before and while it was always touching to me, this particular time I was crying so hard because of how greatly I felt the spirit. Later on, in the message, President Faust told us the names of the 3 young men that sacrificed so much. The last name that he mentioned was David Kimball.... After hearing his name, the spirit burned within my whole body and I knew that was going to be my baby's name.

Kimball is such a good baby! He goes anywhere and everywhere with us and never complains. We had him out on the boat at 3 weeks, where mommy was skiing, took him camping at Lake Chelan for 4 days when he was 9 weeks old and he has been so content. He is a complete joy to his mom and dad as well as to his 2 older brothers! I just keep thinking how blessed I have been.

I gave myself Lovenox shots through the whole pregnancy and everything was fine. My doctor had me stop the shots a week before I was induced. The night before I was going to be induced I felt like I should ask my Dad and Jason to give me a blessing, but I ignored the prompting because I had had a blessing a week before that and I felt like if we had family prayer in the morning then everything would be fine. The next morning when I was induced at 5am everything proceeded pretty slowly. Through the afternoon the doctor broke my water and by 6pm I was dilated to a 10. The doctor told me that my baby was still really high up and that he was going to let my body naturally labor the baby down before I started pushing. Periodically the doctor checked me until 10pm saying there was no progress and the baby was still too high to start pushing. He said that because I had been at 10 centimeters for 4 hours that the tissues were all starting to swell and so it was like I was going back to an 8 and 9 centimeters. He said he would give my body 1 more hour to see if it would move the baby into position and then we would need to do an emergency C-section. I started crying as I whispered to Jason that I had been prompted last night to ask for a Priesthood blessing and had brushed it off.

I immediately called my mom and dad who were staying at my house with my older 2 boys, after explaining to my mom what was happening, my Dad rushed to change out of his pajamas. After getting off the phone with my parents I realized it had taken 20 minutes to explain everything and to give my Dad directions to the hospital. It takes 20-30 minutes to get to the hospital and that's if you know where you are going and how to find which room I was in.... I thought he would never make it. He and my mom dropped to their knees before he left and said a prayer asking for our safety. My dad arrived at the hospital 5 minutes before my hour was up and that was a miracle in itself! He and Jason gave me a priesthood blessing; blessing me that I wouldn't have to have a C -section and that we would both be fine. It was a very powerful blessing that the spirit was very strong.

A new nurse came in a few minutes later and told me that having a C section on your 3rd child would stink and she wanted to try something before the doctor came in. She had me get into a different birthing position and the baby started dropping right away. The doctor came in and she told him she wanted to try something first before he checked me and made a decision. Well the new birthing position did it because Kimball was born 20 minutes later. It was seriously a miracle!

The doctor spent the next hour and a half trying to stop the bleeding after the birth and I almost had to have a blood transfusion. Without going into too much detail, he put in a bunch of stitches which kept tearing even further because the tissue was so swollen and then said that he felt like he slowed the bleeding enough that they could wait until the morning to decide what to do. I was sooo tired. They left my epidural in through the night which I was so grateful for because the after birth pains are the worst and by the morning the doctor said I was going to be just fine. It took me an extra day or 2 in the hospital to be able to stand at all and they sent me home with a walker so I could get around. I couldn't even walk! I didn't mind staying though because the hospital food was amazing!!! Salmon, steak, chicken sanwiches with avacado and bacon....it was one of the best "restaraunts" I have eaten at in a long time!!!

I must say though, that while the actual birth was a scary and miraculous event, this was the easiest birth to heal from. Everyone tells you that the more kids you have the longer it takes your body to get back into shape and the after birth pains are incredibly painful, but that stuff was all easy for me. I credit everything to the power of the priesthood!! My testimony was really strengthened through this event and now I have a beautiful baby to show for it! He is simply an angel!!!

I love my family!

I haven't read through blogs or even looked at my blog in months, because there is one pressing occurrence in my life that I knew I needed to write about and document and I haven't wanted to let my heart open the wound again.

I was looking at my calender this morning and I realized that tomorrow would have been my baby's due date....so maybe now is a good time.

Back in the end of April, I was 3 months pregnant and I took Dallin and Thatcher with me to the Doctor's appointment so they could hear the baby's heart beat for the first time, but there was no heart beat. The doctor told me that the baby had died a week earlier. I was completely shocked and could hardly get control of myself to drive home. Poor Dallin and Thatcher didn't know what was going on. I simply told them that the baby's heart had stopped and the baby went back to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus. I was thankful that it really didn't affect them at all; later I remember hearing Dallin talking to my friend and just saying matter of factly that our baby died and went back to live with Heavenly Father.

The first few weeks were extremely traumatic for me and I remember thinking how it affected every part of me: spiritually, emotionally and physically. I never really asked "why me?" and got angry, I was more just hurt about it. My ward was amazing! One of our good friends came over before my D &C and assisted Jason in giving me a blessing, before he was leaving he said to remember that I needed to "let" people help me. That really hit me, because I really did want to be strong and I didn't feel like I needed help other than what Jason was already doing and providing for me. But, my amazing friends from church brought dinners in, sent cards and emails, gave flowers and chocolates and I felt so emotionally supported it was amazing.

I remember I was watching reruns of conference a night or two after we found out, while Jason took the boys outside to ride bikes and I was listening to a talk about one of the apostles that lost a newborn baby girl and a 2 year old boy in a matter of weeks of each other. He was talking about how he felt and also about how the Lord blessed and supported him during that time. While he was talking I was completely filled with the spirit. I felt every empty hole inside of me filled to the top and even overflowed! It was amazing. I was so grateful to my Heavenly Father. I felt so loved by Him and that he would comfort me and fill me like that when I was empty.

It was still a rough couple of months healing emotionally and physically, but time has really helped and also I find that the more I talk about it, the more I find others who have been in my same situation and it really has drawn me closer to women in general...

One thing I do remember is the Sunday after I found out the baby died, I went to church and at least half the people there knew what had happened, but at least half DIDN'T know and I remember thinking. They don't know....I have been through a traumatic, life changing experience this week and they don't know... I was talking to a good friend of mine, Holly Hansen, and she was saying that you just never know what people have been through each week. We see our friends and wave and say Hi in the hall, but do we really know what people are struggling with at home? She said, that's why we need to always treat people with the utmost kindness and give them the benefit of the doubt in every way we can, because we just don't know. ... Such a source of wisdom.

Through all the tests after the miscarriage I found that I have a blood clot disorder (MTHFR). My blood clots too easily. That's what happened to the baby, there was a blood clot in the umbilical cord and the baby didn't get nourished. Now every time I am pregnant, from day 1 to the end I have to give myself a shot in the stomach of Lovenox (blood thinner) every morning, it may turn my stomach black and blue and it may be very painful, but do you know what? If it works, it's worth it.

My siblings actually don't know this, but a couple of months ago I miscarried again. I was only 6-7 weeks along and so even though it was sad to have 2 in a row, it wasn't nearly as traumatic as the first miscarriage. After 2 in a row though....you really start to wonder if you are going to be able to carry any more children....but I try to quickly push those thoughts out of my mind, because I am not ready to think about things like that. I have to tell you though that I had 2 AMAZING experiences the week before the 2nd miscarriage. On Thursday night, Jason and I went to stake temple night, during one of the prayers, the man prayed for all the people whose names were on a list and that needed it....I almost started crying because I knew I was just barely pregnant and I was afraid. I knew that after the session my name would be on that list. He prayed that they would have the desires of their hearts, and the minute he said that my heart did a little jump, but then he said "according to Thy will" and I was filled with a peace and acceptance. That Yes! Whatever happened was going to be the Lord's will. I felt joy even though I knew I could possibly loose the child again. I accepted it, because I knew it would be whatever the Lord wanted.

Three days later I was sitting in Sunday School and we were talking about the Martin and Willie handcart companies and our amazing teacher was talking about ALL they had to go through and suffer to refine them and because it was the Lord's will. He asked the class if we would still hold strong amidst our trials and sufferings. I thought about what I had suffered and possibly what I may have to suffer in the future that could even be a lot worse than what I had already been through. I thought about the possibility that I might not have any more children and I asked myself...."If this is really what the Lord has in store for me, will I be okay with that? Will I still be strong and valiant in my faith and trust in our Heavenly Father's plan for me?" YES! I knew that I would accept anything the Lord has in store for me, it doesn't mean that I would not be sad about it, but I knew that I would still be as valiant probably even more so that I am today. I was completely filled again and I wasn't afraid anymore about what would happen because I knew I would be okay with whatever did happen. Two days later the nurse called me and told me my blood tests showed the pregnancy wasn't going to make it and that I would probably miscarry within the next week. As I was on the phone with her, I immediately was reminded about these 2 experiences that I had had merely days before and realized that Heavenly Father had helped "prepare" me for what was to come.

I have to say that even though this has been a really trying time for me, that it has been an intensely spiritual time for me as well and I feel like I am a better person for the experiences I have gone through. I have really just wanted to get this post down on paper for posterity reasons. I want my kids and anyone else in my family to know that I know that our Heavenly Father loves each of us and he KNOWS us and what we are going through. And that if we will let him he will support us and lift us and comfort us in whatever we maybe asked to go through in this life.

I can say that there has been a bit of a different dynamic in my family over the past few months. Going through this experience has really awakened me to a sense of how precious Dallin and Thatcher are. I love them so much and I thank Heavenly Father everyday for allowing 2 very precious spirits to bless our home! I love my family!

I'm so sweet!

This morning Thatcher came into my room and climbed up on my bed; as we were laying there playing, I noticed that he had a pretty stuffed up nose. I was teasing him a bit as I held up a piece of paper that had a teddy bear on it and said, "Here Thatcher, smell this." He did and then I asked him what it smelled like, he got a big smile on his face and said, "Chocolate!!!" I laughed so hard. So then I really wanted to test him, I said "Thatcher smell my armpit!" He leaned over and smelled my elbow and said "MMmmmmm, CHOCOLATE!!!"

Wow, really? ;)

Close your eyes Thatcher!

You know how it takes kids awhile to learn how to wink? Well, Thatcher is having trouble just learning how to close his eyes, and the face he makes while doing it is to die for!!



He is adorable and he KNOWS it!

I vehemently dislike spiders

I don't know if any of you will remember my post from last November, but we went to AZ for an Olson Family reunion. For one of the day activities we went rappelling at Coon's Bluff and while we were all sitting around on camp chairs watching other rappel. This little nasty came waltzing out of the bushes and walked right in the midst of all our chairs.

Isn't that just disgusting? Amber just sent us a CD with pictures from that whole week and these were a couple of them on the CD. I just had to share them with you, because how often do you see a spider like this in real life?!?

I am going to end the post now, because I am getting the willies just looking at the pictures. Sweet dreams tonight, eh?

Family date night!

Lately we have been doing a family date night, which entails eating pizza in the TV room (huge treat) while sitting on the family picnic blanket and watching a movie. Sometimes we shake it up a bit and go out to dinner. :) Either way, the night ends up like this, with our 2 little indians snuggled together in their teepee....fast asleep. After trying it the first night, Dallin came into our room in the morning and woke us up with this...."Mom, did you know Thatcher breaths like this?" To which he then flared his nostrils, opened his eyes really wide and inhaled like he was trying to suck and elephant through a straw, with his nose.

Yes, our tiny wee babe snores like bear. :) What a cutie.

Christmas the whole year through!

Yeah, ya, ya, I do happen to know that it's March and I am just now posting about Christmas. But I just took some time and read through all your wonderful blogs and it inspired me to get caught up and so hopefully I will get on top of things.

This is what Christmas morning 2008 looked like at the Olson house. Santa sure was good to the boys this year ;)

This was just after the boys had come downstairs. We had to wake Thatcher up and so it took him a couple minutes to wake up. They sure were excited and it really does make Christmas so much more "magical" when you have little kids that are SO excited about it.

Sleds were the "wished for" items on the kids list this year. And the boys were thrilled because it looks like these sleds will go "super fast!" It was so beautiful when we woke up that morning because it had snowed quite a bit. Everything was shut down and Jason ended up working from home for about 2 weeks. It was the best Christmas ever!!!

This was something that I was really excited about. I got the boys a slide that they could play with indoors. The winters can be a little hard here because the boys can't go out and play. So I was hoping this would be a source of GREAT entertainment and exercise. The boys love it and so do all their friends!

The funny thing is that randomly Thatcher will ask if we can put up our Christmas tree again. As I was decorating for Valentine's Day, he was very distraught because I wouldn't put the tree up. He really wanted to wake up and find more presents. :)

The highlight of my week.

Dallin only had preschool the first semester of the school year (2008) and so when it was over at the end of January, I wanted to find some activity for him to do that he could look forward to in place of preschool. So I started him in swimming lessons. This was his very first day, and he and his good buddy Preston were the only ones in the class!

The great thing about both of them being in the class together was the competition. They were learning so fast, just because they kept trying to 1-up each other.
Dallin finished his last P1 class last Tuesday and just because he is having so much fun (and so am I) I signed him up for the P2 class on Saturdays. Already he can float on his back unassisted for 15 seconds!!! Way to go Dallin!

Kids say the darn-dest things...and husbands do too!

Just in the last week I have heard all 3 of my boys say really cute or funny things. I kept thinking to myself that I needed to write it down so I didn't forget this fun time in our lives.
A couple of nights ago, I was intently working on a sewing project (making the boys bedspreads) and Jason, Dallin and Thatcher were running through the rooms playing some sort of wrestle, tag, shoot each other with Nerf guns game as they jumped off the stairs and the couch. They were having a blast! Suddenly Jason turned to me and said "Do you realize if we had 2 girls instead of 2 boys I would be playing BARBIES instead of this?!?!" We both just burst out laughing. I had to remind him though that quite possibly some time in his life he would need to be able to play barbies too.


During that same game, Jason tried to tone it down a little and started a shooting game at the front door to see who could be more accurate. "Ok Dallin, see that little hole? We are going to shoot the peep hole," Jason said. To which, Dallin became all distressed and cried "Nooooooo! Mommy said I can't shoot people!"


And last but not least, a couple days ago, we had some friends over. The kids where having a grand time playing while me and my friend worked on sewing projects at the kitchen table. Thatcher was starting to become very tired and so I took him upstairs to lay him down for a nap. We sat in the rocking chair for awhile and tried to read some books together, but Thatcher did NOT want to lay down. He was squirming all over and crying to go downstairs. He tried every tactic from physically trying to maneuver and get off my lap, to begging, to asking kindly with all sorts of "please and thank you's" and finally he just looked up at me and in his little, almost 2 year old voice, demanded "BE FAIR, MOMMY! BE FAIR! I didn't even know he knew those words, it was really funny. And just because it was so cute and so smart of him.....I let him go back down stairs. :)

This and that and a Thanksgiving update

Today is a monumental day for me. It was the first day that I woke up (in about a month) when I didn't have a sore throat. I went to the doctor yesterday thinking, "Surely I had strep" I mean, come on....how does the average cold/sore throat last over a month? But, actually the doctor told me that I have a sinus infection and it was dripping down my throat (yummy) and making my throat raw. Anyway, after 1 day on meds....waking up was a whole different experience for me. :) Kind of nice, actually.

One more thing before I move on to something actually worth reading....you know how the doctors are always telling you to finish the prescription even though you start feeling better? Well, the last winter, when I was taking meds to get over bronchitis I decided that this time I was going to finish off the prescription. About a week later my tongue started hurting so bad. It was really weird. Not just when I was eating, but talking and just moving my tongue in general hurt really bad. After a couple days, my tongue started getting white stuff on it. I kept putting off calling the doctor because ...how do you call the doctor and make an appointment because you have pain....in your tongue. Just sounds a little strange you know, but finally I did and it turns out that taking all the medication killed off all the good bacteria too....and so I developed thrush. Hmmm, interesting huh? I don't think I will finish a prescription again...ever.

OK now onto the good stuff with pictures. Well, Happy New Year Everyone!!!! I guess I need to start back and blog about Thanksgiving.... :)
For Thanksgiving we flew to AZ to visit Jason's family and had a blast. We stayed at his brother's house and they have 4 kids and so it really was on long party week. We had a week long family reunion but didn't go anywhere. We ate all our meals together with all of Jason's immediate family, which included his parents, 4 other married siblings and their kids and 2 other siblings still at home (29 total), had day and night activities all week long. It was so much fun!!! Here were some of the highlights:

Picnics in the park, rappelling at Coon's bluff, having a nasty, hairy tarantula about as big as my hand crawl out from the bushes and right between 2 of our camp chairs while we were sitting there chatting, tie dying T-shirts, everyone wearing them to Castles and Coasters, group date night, and of course the favorite family talent show. It really was so much fun and the week went by really fast!

Unfortunately the only picture that I have is the one above. :) I will have to email Amber and ask her to send me some of hers.

That's all for now folks!

An eye for an eye....

A few nights ago and I was reading stories to Thatcher before going to bed, I fell asleep with my cheek pressed against the top of his head. I don't know how long we were like that, sitting up in the rocking chair, holding a book open and sleeping, but before I knew it Thatcher was squirming and rubbing his eyes. It took me a minute to wake up and realize that I had drooled on top of his head and it had run down his forehead and was getting in his eye! Poor baby!

After laying him in his crib and walking back to my room I had to smile as I realized now we were even....

A few days before that, I was sitting on my bed working on the laptop and I just happened to glance up as Thatcher came walking out of the bathroom carrying the toilet plunger. It's funny how quickly thoughts pass through your mind and you are helpless to react because you know there is no way you can respond fast enough and prevent the inevitable. This is what I saw in that split second, Thatcher came out of the bathroom and I realized that he was going to drag the plunger across my pillow that was laying on the floor in his path. I sat helpless, knowing that there was no way to get there fast enough to save it. Sure enough, the nasty thing rubbed itself shamefully across my nighttime friend as Thatcher traipsed by.

Could you imagine if I didn't see that? I would be sleeping on who knows what!

The thought send shivers up my spine. :)

A babe of many hats!

Some kids have a favorite blanket that they can't live without, but our son has a fettish for hats. He is always wanting to wear a hat, whether he is playing inside or out...

Taking a bath.....

Or going to sleep.

'Bout the cutest thing ever, that dear boy of mine.

One of those days....

Today was one of those days where you are getting ready for bed and you happen to glance in the mirror on your way to the bathroom, only to be stopped dead in your tracks, as you realize,......

"Wow, I didn't even brush my hair today...."

Ever tried waterskiing in a snowsuit?

This morning it was 37 degrees at 7am.....and guess where we were? We took the boat out on Lake Sammamish to do a little skiing and wake boarding before Jason went to work. The kids literally were in their snow suits, with mittens, hats and sippy cups full of hot chocolate.


We had dry suits to wear, but it was still freezing once you got up. Because now your head, hands and feet were wet and the cold 37 degree weather was now blowing on you. Jason's friend, Scott, came with us so that we could be legal and have a flagger. Actually most times we go out Scott comes with us... (Jason and Scott are like 2 peas in a pod) Or as Anne of Avonlea would say, they are "Bosom Buddies" ..at least they are when it comes to boats and wake boarding. This is actually a picture of Scott wake boarding, but it really showed all the steam coming off the lake that early in the morning. Frigid, I know.



Remember when you were in middle school and you planned a double wedding with your best friend? Well, Jason and Scott, bought matching boats within 2-3 weeks of each other and then bought matching wake board towers as well. It's like middle school all over again, but in a good way. But I digress....


Tonight we had a new family from our neighborhood over for dinner and it was really fun. They are originally from Canada, but recently moved here from Wenatchee. They were really fun and I was surprised to hear that they love to play DDR (Dance Dance Revolution). It was a blast to play with another family that would actually get up and do it with us. Most people are too embarrassed to try and so Jason and I end up making an exhibition of ourselves.

The dad, Cam, was really impressed with how well Dallin could play the XBOX. I don't really know if that is a good thing though. :) Dallin has gotten really really good....Jason has been hoping to find an XBOX competition somewhere and enter him.

"As long as he is so good we should make a little money off it!" :)

...always the entrepreneur.

These are a few of my favorite things!

Sometimes I feel like my very favorite hours of the day are from 9pm to midnight.

Sittin' on the couch in my jammies....

Snuggled in a blankie....

Watching a show or two....

Quoting "Seinfield" because we have seen every episode at least 3 times....

Eating ice cream....

Or Kettle Corn.....

Sometimes both....

Just hanging out with the guy I'm still crazy about....

And enjoying the stillness of the house.

Like Balm of Gilead to my crazy life.

Shots, shots and then....more shots.

Today was a sad day. Dallin had his 4 yr old check up and he had to get 4 shots for vaccines plus another one for his flu shot. While we were at it the doctor asked us, since we were already there, did I want Thatcher to have his flu shot as well?

Sure, why not? Bring it on!

Dallin was crying as the nurse walked in because I had mentally tried to prepare him that he was going to get a poke at the doctors office (I conveniently omitted that he was going to have to get 5 pokes!!!) but if he was a good boy (and to ease some of his mama's guilt) that afterward we would go to McDonald's!

Thatcher went first and cried for a few minutes and poor Dallin was so scared he was crying for me to hold him which I did and covered his eyes as well. It was truly sad and I really wished that I could have done it for him. He kept saying that he wanted me to go first. :) But, he really was brave and afterward we went to QFC and got him some grape chewable Tylenol (which are actually quite tasty compared to that nasty cherry liquid stuff) and then went on to McDonald's. I don't know which eased his pain: the Tylenol or McDonald's but after our little outing, he was completely cured and suffering from no side effects. I actually felt like it was worse having your 4 yr old get shots compared to having your baby get shots.

I double checked with the nurse before we left and she said no more shots until age 11! Hallelujah.

Dallin turns 4...finally!

Dallin has been counting down for MONTHS until his birthday and I am not kidding. I went back and forth about whether or not I wanted to have a "friend" birthday party for him but after all his excitement and anticipation I really did want to make it a special day for him.

So this is what we did: In the morning we woke up and opened presents.

And after a few short minutes, this....

Was reduced to this!

Then we got cleaned up and played with Dallin's new toys before going on over to Chuck E. Cheese's for Dallin's birthday party. This was our party table.

Dallin invited 4 friends: Preston, Ryker, Little Matthew and Kiana. It was absolutely adorable to see them all soooo excited to be at the birthday party. For a lot of them, it was their very first friend birthday party and they felt grown up. :) We had pizza and pop....

Then we played all manner of nasty germ infested games, (but we earned lots of tickets and so it was worth it!!!)

And then we had cake and ice cream and opened more presents. Thanks everyone! Dallin is still talking about his birthday at Chuck E. Cheetos!

Dallin you are definitely the "biggest boy." I remember just a few short years ago that I used to call you "Tiny" but you probably don't remember that. I can't believe how fast you have grown and it makes me sad. I miss you....is that even possible because you are just in the next room, breathing deeply and occasionally talking in your sleep. What I mean, is that sometimes I miss your little you. Oh! don't get me wrong, your big you, is very fun too. Completely full of life and a little mischief and a lot of independence. Sometimes when I think about you having to be the oldest child, it makes me sad. I am definitely not a perfect mom and every time you get to a knew stage it always takes me awhile to "figure things out." I am sorry that you have to be the guinea pig for our family and for your siblings. You are sooo smart though, I know whatever you choose in life, you'll be fantastic.

And I'm not just saying that because I am your mom. :)

I love you a million trillion dollars!

Liquid GOLD!

Have you ever wondered what liquid gold looks like. Well, my friends, take a gander at the little beauties above and fill your eyes with an absolutely breath taking view.

I canned peaches for my very first time and while I didn't find it to be much cheaper, I took pleasure in 2 things: I learned a new skill that was actually really fun in a self-satisfying way and after Jason had his first taste he declared, "Oh honey, I don't think you made enough....these won't last a week at our house!"

I have to admit that I am keeping a tight reign on how often we are allowed to open a bottle of peaches, I am hoping these things are going to last us until the millennium. It's true that every time a bottle is opened I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Just knowing that I am 1 more bottle down for all my hard work....it's right up there with all those sick things like spilling freshly pumped breast milk.

*Go ahead and shudder, I know you want to*