Santa

Well, its been a while.  I don't know what happened to my blogtivation, but it tanked sometime last year.  I've loved blogging, but somehow its been nearly a year and a half since I've last written.  So many times I've come back but not known where to re-start.  I have stacks of photos and stories to be shared, but what brings me here today is an awesome conversation I had with J.D. earlier this morning that I HAVE to get written down!
A few weeks ago, Elle came home with some disturbing news.  Apparently word around first grade is that Santa doesn't really exist.  Its just your parents who buy the presents and then eat the cookies and milk left out for Santa.  Problem is, she didn't come talk to me in confidence to voice her concerns.  Nope, she matter of factly stated it, kind of like she was informing me, public service announcement style - right in front of JD!  I tried to diffuse the situation and give her the speech I had all prepared for this day, but the look of horror on his face was too heartbreaking for me to even try!!  I just stood there like a dummy with big eyes and jaw dropped.  Elle skipped off happy enough with the news, and JD stood there in shock for a few minutes, little 4 year old brain a churning away, but then seemed to shrug it off, kind of like he determined there was no way she could be right anyway.  I didn't even have to say anything!  He seemed to have it all worked out in his own mind and seemed ok with things, so the whole subject was dropped. Well this morning, out of nowhere, he sits down next to me and in a very serious voice says, "Mom?  Elle told me Santa doesn't exist, and that your mom and dad buy you all the presents, and that Dad comes upstairs and eats all the cookies and milk that is for Santa."  I knew I was in trouble.  Ahem.  "Well, JD.  What do you think?"  "I don't know if Santa really exists but I don't want Dad to eat all the cookies and milk!  Can we look on your computer to see if he really exists?"  Oh ok.  I googled Santa.  We had lots of picture evidence.  He started talking about the reindeer and how the sleigh can fly and I seemed to have made it through without really saying anything again!  Yes, point for me!!  But then I hear this.  "So can you tell Dad not to eat Santa's cookies and milk?  Cause I want Santa to exist but if Dad eats his cookies and milk ... he can't live!  I just want Dad to stay in his bed and wait for his presents and not eat all the cookies and milk except for the little bits and crumbs I know he leaves, and just let Santa live!"  I tried soooooo hard not to laugh.  He could tell, and got a little mad and even more serious about making sure Dad wasn't eating all the cookies.  He kept saying, "I just want Santa to live and if Dad eats all the cookies he can't live."  I really like how he works through things!  First we consult google to find out the truth, then he determines that if he can see pictures of him, he must exist, but is afraid that he can't exist if he doesn't live, and who can live without cookies and milk?!  How dare anyone not wait in their beds and beat Santa to the treats left out for him?  Oh man, I really love this little guy, even though he challenges everything I say and makes me want to tear my hair out most days.  I can't wait for Jake to come home because JD has a "serious talking to" scheduled for him.  : )              

Tomato woes

If you know anything about me at all, you know how much I LOVE garden tomatoes.  Mmm, mmm, mmm.

If you know a little more than just 'anything' about me, you know how much I absolutely CANNOT keep any sort of plant alive - at all.

 I'm cursed.  Ever notice for being the nature-lover that I am that we have zero plants in our house??  Even a simple practically un-kill-able house plant?  No chance.  Elle brought home a cute little pea plant from preschool - that poor little guy was doomed the second it entered my house.  It was gone in a matter of days, and when she came downstairs one morning to water it, she burst into tears because her plant had "turned into a green string!"  So my failure obviously also applies to any beloved tomato plant I try and grow each Spring - I have never had success.  We've tried all sorts tomato varieties and different pots and soil and locations and watering amounts and sun amounts . . .  Year after year I get excited for the new fail-proof plan that is totally going to work and I will finally have my own delicious garden tomatoes!!  And year after year, I get let down.  No tomatoes for me.  Want to get me to do just about anything for you?  Bring me over some tomatoes from your successful garden.  I will be jealous, but oh so grateful.  :)  So why am I going on and on about tomatoes?  There is a story in here somewhere . . .
Earlier in the week, I let Jake convince me to try our hand at tomato growing again.  We were at Costco and found an already huge and flowering plant that would produce the Big Beef variety tomato - it looked hearty and beautiful and green and once again I wondered, how could I possibly fail this time?  We splurged and spent the $15 for the plant, which seemed worth it since we usually spend just less than that by time we get a few tiny plants, wait for them to grow, wait for them to flower, then wait some more until something either 1. goes terribly wrong or 2. I finally realize that I can stop waiting - I won't be getting any tomatoes.  I tried my hardest to not get excited and hopeful about this one, but my new plant just looked so amazing, it reached well above the second ring of its cage, and even had a few little green tomatoes starting already.  I couldn't help it - this was it, this was the year I would finally have my own tomatoes!  We got our new plant all set up in the pot with some great new soil, placed it the yard where it would get plenty of sun - but not too much and get scorched like last year's mistake - and even trained Reco to leave it alone.  He was curious about it, which was fine - it gave me the opportunity to teach him he is NOT to touch it or sniff it or eat it or play with it or anything that might sabotage my plant in any way. 

But that was this year's mistake. 

Reco left my precious plant alone just long enough to trick me into feeling safe.        

I didn't have the heart to take a picture of the utter destruction I found when I went to bring him inside the house - but this is what my plant looks like now.  

I almost wish I had a 'before' picture for comparison, but really, it would be too sad.  My plant was stripped down to the stem and the beautiful leaves were shredded and scattered all over the deck, down the steps, and across the yard.  This is what I collected: a whole grocery bag full of pieces.

Now I know a few things about training dogs, but I definitely knew better than to think my 1 year old puppy could really be trusted with such a treasure.  I know it would have been better to be safe than sorry, but I was so excited about my plant and Reco's seemingly responsiveness to my "Leave it" command for the first few days, I was fooled into thinking we were going to be ok.  My friend, Steve, made a spoof dog training video which covers a few basic rules about life with a dog from a dog's perspective.  I find it pretty funny because it is so true.  He breeds, raises, and trains Dobermans, so it was made specifically about them, but I have pretty much experienced all of the things mentioned, Doberman or not.  Take a few minutes to watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVM4zc1rJlI&feature=autofb.  

(If you liked that one, check this other one out on tracking it's pretty funny too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG2rZicSQWk&feature=autofb)  

I watched the Life with Dobermans video with Elle and JD - and JD sure thought it was the funniest thing ever.  I guess it spoke to his inner K9 - he zeroed right in when he heard the word "treat" and laughed and laughed about the 'everything is mine part' like he totally got it.  He walked around the rest of the day asking me if certain things were mine and when I answered 'yes', he'd say, "Nope it's mine." and run off laughing hysterically.  I should have remembered that about dogs before trusting Reco outside unsupervised with my poor plant.  And of course now that its "broken" he's not really that interested and I can have it back.   

Do I dare go buy another tomato plant and try once more??       

15 min. of fame

Lookie here, folks - Jake is practically famous!  This picture was taken of him at Deer Valley back in 2009 while racing his Turner Sultan full suspension 29er.  It is so cool to see it featured here on page 1 of their 2011 bike catalog! 

Check it out: http://issuu.com/turnersuspensionbicycles/docs/2011_turnerbikes_catalog
(Just in case you can't find him, his picture is under the second column of text on the left page.  It does say Jake Weber, Eagle Mountain, UT but its tiny and hard to read.)

Yeah, I know him.  :)

One year old and playing in the mud.

Back in November I wrote a post titled '6 months old and playing in the snow', but now my puppy is one, and all that snow we had has turned my yard into mud!!  Reco is having the best time getting filthy playing in it, but frankly, I think I've had quite enough of all the rain, and it was much cuter (and cleaner) watching him play in the snow. 

One particularly wet day early last week, the kids were supposed to be doing homework in the kitchen, but judging by the amount of stifled giggling I could hear, something far more interesting was going on.  When I went in to check it out and restore order, even I had to laugh, and of course run and get the camera.  Our puppy looked like a little bear cub!!  He was such a happy mess I couldn't risk going outside to take a picture and settled for what I could capture through the ultra muddy sliding glass door. 

That was a fun one to try to clean up before he was allowed back inside, especially since it was pouring rain pretty much non-stop the rest of that week.

Then on Friday, Reco had his first birthday.  We sang to him and gave him a HUGE bone, a tradition in our family, only Cabelas stopped selling their Goliath bone and we had to try a new kind.  I much prefer the stinky Goliath to this one that was peeled into large flat strips of rawhide in a matter of minutes.  Oh well, they were a grand few minutes for the birthday boy since he turned them into to "toys" he could toss around the yard. 

So, some pictures of the birthday boy!!  :)

I love this one, his tongue cracks me up.  This was while he so patiently eyed his bone while we sang to him.    

He finally gets his present.  Happy dog.

  My handsome boy.



Reco, we just love you to pieces.  You are such an awesome dog . . .

. . . even if you are still a bit of a muddy mess in your birthday pics!

 

Well, I am a mom . . .

. . . and since it is Mother's Day (or at least it was when I started writing this post), I think I can get away with using being a busy mom as my excuse for not being all perfectly caught up on my blog.  I mean, I am just too busy lovin' on this little cutie pie  

to spend time on my blog.  :)  Gavin is almost 5 months old already.  I'm really having a hard time with that one.  And Elle had a birthday on April 30th - can't believe she's 5 now.  It's killing me that she'll be going to Kindergarten in the Fall.  She can't wait.  JD has been all about birthdays lately, and was talking non-stop about what he wanted to do for his next party.  He just had a birthday in January.  Jake tried to explain to him that it wasn't going to be his birthday for a long time, but he didn't get it.  He just looked at Jake and in all seriousness said, "Well, just push the faster button!"  It cracks me up that my kids live in such a digital age where they can see each picture right as it's taken and apparently fast forward through life to the next birthday just like fast forwarding through commercials on the DVR.  I don't plan on pushing any 'faster button' - things are going way too fast as is.  I can't keep up.  

So, a feeble attempt to catch up on what's been going on here.

 Of course, the race season has begun - Jake has already traveled to Hurricane Ut, Moab Ut, and Fruita Co. (and that's not including participation in any of the local races).  In fact, he's in Fruita right now.  Really, dear race organizers?!  You would think they'd check with their wives or something before scheduling the annual 18 hours of Fruita - as this is the second year in a row this race has gone over Mother's Day.  Ugh.  And so far, the only race I even have pictures of is the Moab Xsteam, but even they are limited because I wasn't there and had to rely on Jake to take a break from the 40 miles of biking, 6 miles of running, 12.5 mile kayak, and a 300 foot rappel to play photojournalist for me.  He and his friend Steve placed well, despite a major mechanical issue right at the beginning of the race.  I can't imagine how well they'll do next year without a bike breakdown. 

Nathan is finishing up Spring soccer with his team making it into tournament play.  They've had a great season, and will move right into practice for Fall as soon as the championship is over.  He hasn't gotten to race his bike yet this year, being too busy with soccer, but Livy has!  She's been doing really well, which makes me laugh because she always acts like she doesn't want to race, but then gets there and decides to race anyway, and then kicks some serious bike booty! 

Way back in February, over President's Day weekend, we got a visit from my sister, Bronwyn, and her daughter, Gwen.  I know, I know, that was so long ago, but we had such a great time and I never even blogged about it.  Honestly, she went back home and beat me to it, and then her account of our crazy weekend was much funnier than mine would have ever been, and after reading hers, I just didn't think I could compete.  So, if you have a minute, you should check out our great weekend from her eyes here: 

http://wynandlyn.blogspot.com/2011/02/utah-trip.html.  

She covers everything including our Polygamist-style shopping trips, the Monster Truck Show, the dead (?) iguana, and more!  It is definitely a 'must read', but you should be reading her blog anyway - its usually great for a laugh or two.  And while you're there and speaking of a great laugh - she recently thought it would be hilarious to dedicate a whole post to me, her favoritest sister ever.  :)  It was meant to embarrass the heck out of me, which she absolutely LOVES to do, but it ended up being kind of endearing in her own crazy way.  It's scary how well she knows me, but wow, how much would I give to be able to dispute the truthfulness of any of it?!  haha.  Anyway, being the comeback genius that I am (uh not), I got my revenge and oh was it sweet!  I hacked into her blog and dedicated a whole post back to her - on her own blog.  Yeah, I thought it was pretty cool, if I do say so myself.  She never saw it coming.  Such greatness.  Both posts are a bit on the longer side, but still fun, and considering the reality that I never ever come up with anything to get back at anyone, I will be riding that awesomeness for awhile now. http://wynandlyn.blogspot.com/2011/04/megan.html 

and 

 http://wynandlyn.blogspot.com/2011/04/bronwyn.html

Thanks Gavin for keeping me up so much at night, I think I just might get my best ideas at 3 am!

Anyway, on to Elle and the Best. Birthday. Ever!  That crazy girl is now 5!  Unbelievable.  She is so fun to be around.  She definitely has her own sense of style - kind of 'punk princess'.  Her favorite thing to wear are those "baby legs" leg warmers in funky colors and patterns - but she wears them on her arms with t-shirts!  I know it sounds weird, but she totally pulls it off.  She also loves anything with skulls on it.  Hardcore?  A little bit, but she soften things up by accessorizing with anything pink and sparkly.  Too cute.  Her dad is her best friend - really her best friend.  There has been more than one occasion where a neighborhood girl has asked Elle to be her best friend and then crushed when without hesitation Elle turns her down because she already has a best friend.  It is ridiculous for her to even consider anyone else - it just won't happen.  If I get mad at Jake, she rushes to his side, telling me things like I can't be mad at her best friend, or to be nice to her best friend.  If Jake gets mad at her, through her tears, she'll tell him, "You can't get mad at me, best friends don't get mad at each other."  It is so sweet.  And of course, just like the rest of my kids, she's a rockstar on her bike.  She is so fast and furious zipping down the street, anyone other than another mini-Weber doesn't stand a chance of keeping up with her.  She loves to play dress up and do "make ups".  She carries around her pink, sparkly treasure box full of make up brushes and empty moisturizer jars all day long and is constantly shoving some sort of brush in my face, swishing it around in one of her jars, and shoving it back in my face to do my make up.  I can't sit down for a second before she rushes in, attacking me.  She also has a play hair salon set, and once she's done jabbing brushes in my eyes and up my nose, she moves on to my hair.  More than once, I've had a comb or plastic curling iron so totally wound up in my hair that I thought I would never be free, but I continue to let her do my hair anyway because she whisper-sings the song from the movie Tangled to herself while she styles me.  She is the perfect balance of sweet and sassy.  She is a great big sister, and both JD and Gavin adore her.  She's always trying to steal Gavin away from me, she loves to hold him, and her favorite chore is to fold and put away his diapers when they come out of the wash.  She actually asks me a couple times a day if there are any clean for her yet.  She also loves to draw, especially butterflies and flowers and has a whole sketch book full of them.  She loves princesses and fairies, but also pirates and bugs (except for the spiders creeping around inside the house - she's terrified of them).  Her birthday happened to be the same weekend we had a bunch of family in town for a couple of college graduations and baby blessings.  She was super excited that she got to share her day with everyone - Jake's parents were here visiting from Connecticut and my family drove in from California.  That morning, while my parents were still on the road, we met Jake's mom and the kids' 2 cousins: Brayden and Madison, at the Kid's Discovery Museum at the Gateway in Salt Lake (Thanks to my awesome friend, Natee, who scored us some free tickets!).  We had a blast - that place is super cool.  There is so much fun stuff to do and for all ages too - all 7 kids from 4 months to 10 years were happy and entertained. 

We could have stayed there all day, except that also on the evening of her birthday was the annual Military Ball and Jake decided he would take Elle as his date!  She got all dressed up in a fancy dress, went to dinner at the Thanksgiving Point Harvest Restaurant, and had the best time dancing the night away at the ball!  I think it was the perfect Princess evening that every 5 year old girl dreams of.  

Then, the next day, was Gavin's baby blessing.  Aren't they so handsome in their suits?!   

We hosted the usual lunch gathering at our place after, and had a combined 'Congratulations on your blessing, Gavin' and 'Happy birthday, Elle' celebration.  Elle just considered it a continuation of her birthday and insisted on blowing out candles on a cake.  I love the ultimate embarrassment/euphoria of being sung to.  Ah, little girls . . .    

Some of our party guests . . . 

And some of my family that came . . .  

After our celebration, we said a tearful goodbye to my family - they were here just a mere 27 hours!  :(  So sad.  JD took the separation the worst, since he was convinced he was going to get to go home with them.  He chased their car all the way down the street, heartbroken, waving his chubby little arms over his head, and bawling his eyes out cause they were leaving without him.  It was a tortuous scene, I'm surprised my dad was able to keep driving away.  I took him in the house and cried right along with him for awhile, I hate it when my family leaves too.  But, we got ourselves together and got ready to drive up to Centerville for our newest cousin, Lucas' blessing.  Two sweet little boys blessed on the same day.  I wish I had gotten a picture of them together in their precious whites.  Shame on me!  Anyway, it was a really great weekend, we need to do it more often.  I guess now is a good time to congratulate the 2 graduates - Andrew and Michael - since they were really the reason Jake's parents were here in the first place.  Oh, and of course they came to meet the new baby Lucas too.

Sweet baby Lucas.

My kids couldn't get enough of him.  How many hands are on that poor tiny body?!  If Elle wasn't busy hanging on to Gavin, she'd have her hands on Lucas too!  :)  

Before Jake's mom went back to Connecticut, she hosted a 'Grandma sleepover' for my 4 older kids.  They went to Trafalga for mini golf, bumper boats, laser tag - so fun.  While Nathan and Livy were still at school, Elle and JD decided to start packing for the overnight adventure.  Never mind clothes and her toothbrush, this is what Elle deems necessary for a successful sleepover:

    

And I think that brings me back to the weekend that I started writing this whole mega-post - catching me up on not all, but most of what has been happening around here.  I had a nice Mother's Day and actually kind of wanted a picture of me surrounded by all my little kid-lets, but Jake didn't come back from his race until the next day and my desire to actually be in a picture didn't last very long.  But, Nathan did manage catch me and Gavin together.

     I love being a mommy. 

          

 

     

                        

Sticky situation

 Last night I let the kids stay up a bit longer than usual.   Obviously there was no school in the morning and Nathan's early Saturday soccer game had been cancelled - we had no other plans.  Jake was in Moab for his Adventure Xstream race (more on that later if he completes his assignment of taking pictures and they are blog worthy).  About 9:45 I finally send the kids up to bed and nearly 40 minutes later I hear little foot steps coming down the stairs.  

"Go back to bed." I say before the sneaker even appears around the corner.  

"I can't." The tiny, squeaky voice gives her away.

"Yes you can, Elle. Turn around and go back upstairs.  It's late."  

"But I can't sleep with my hair all sticky on me.  It hurts."  She comes down anyway.  

"Why is your hair all sticky on you?"  

"Because of the gum in it.  See?" 

 Gum?!  Gum.  I was confused.  I stare at the wad in her hair for several minutes processing all the questions I had floating around in my head.  Why did it take her so long to tell me she had a huge wad of gum in her hair?  How had I not noticed it?  Where did she get this gum?  There must be some mistake - we don't have any gum in the house.  Do we?  You see, gum is pretty much considered contraband around here.  I get a bit of anxiety thinking about it just sitting there, plugging up their insides when they swallow it.  But my real beef with the stuff is that is has been stuck to little fingers, faces, homework, the seat of my pants, and worst of all: it was tracked in on a shoe and smeared on the carpet in my brand new car.  

Snap out of it.  We have a situation here.  It is in fact gum and it is in fact stuck in her hair.  ugh.  Really stuck in her hair.  Ok, time to consult the experts - Google.  I quickly scan a few 'how to' forums and get set up.  There were plenty of ideas out there and each one promised success.  Maybe we were going to get through this just fine after all. 

Yeah, not so fast.  I'll try to be nice, but I will say this oh wise Internet posters: have ANY of you actually tried the solutions you swear work like a charm?  Because ice doesn't do anything except freeze your hand and make a cold drippy mess down your arm.  And I don't know who had the genius idea to add another sticky substance to the hair - I'm talking to you peanut butter people - but it also most definitely does NOT work.  Also on my list of don'ts: mayonnaise, Vaseline, and Crisco (although I didn't have any - my substitution of olive oil didn't work either, so I'm guessing Crisco would have been a no-go).  I opted to totally skip the suggestion to put conditioner on the gum and flat iron it out -  mostly because I didn't want to set fire to the poor child's head with all the extra gunk that was now attached to the gum.  All I needed was to add 200 degree heat directly to that messy mix.  

At this point I was pretty far down the page of 'testimonials' and getting very frustrated - so was Gavin since we woke him up with all the rooting around in cupboards for these remedies.  I was pretty desperate entering the second hour of Operation Get the Gum Out when the gum was so obviously winning and the baby was screaming, needing to be fed.  I was one attempt away from giving up for the night and calling in the big guns the next day: Aunt Sophie and her magic scissors.  One Internet poster said to try Goo Gone.  It was "Amazing - the gum just slid right out!"  Ooh, I have some of that.  I was skeptical but willing.  I read the caution label on the bottle quickly before starting but then wished I hadn't.  Although it didn't specifically tell you not to put it in hair, it did say don't try to treat a stain while you were still wearing the clothing.  Hmmm.  Spraying it in her hair was a lot more contact than pre-treating a stain before changing out of the shirt and would probably not be recommended.  Well, I would just have to be careful and the Goo Gone would either magically work for us or it would turn her hair all shades of green and purple - at which point we'd be cutting it off in the morning anyway so really, what did we have to lose?  

As it turns out . . . drum roll, please . . . we were successful!!  The gum was out!!  I was about to fist pump and shout "Victory!  ha!  Megan: 1, Gum wad: 0!" when I noticed the minor bald spot left behind and the amount of hair stuck to the gum dangling from the comb and decided maybe we could just call it a tie.  It didn't exactly slide right out of the hair like promised anyway.  In fact I'm not even entirely sure it really was the Goo Gone at all.  I think it was more Elle's hair finally giving up and just releasing itself from her head in a last ditch effort to get me to leave it alone.  After a quick shampoo in the sink Elle skipped happily off to bed, no lasting harm done, and hopefully having learned her lesson.  

Watch out Valentine Blow Pops - you're on my list.

Lucky Me

I spend my days picking up abandoned socks and tiny Lego pieces.  I am never caught up on laundry.  My feet and back ache from the hours spent standing in the kitchen preparing food that will most likely sit untouched on colorful plastic plates.  There are always cheerios, bread crumbs, and crayons scattered under the kitchen table no matter how often I sweep.  If I need to go out, it will take me approximately 20 minutes just to get all 10 shoes on the right feet, 5 sweatshirts zipped up, tiny bladders emptied, and all the little bodies buckled into carseats safely.  

I also spend my days laughing at silly jokes and hilarious "one liners".  I get kisses and hugs - sometimes for no reason at all.  I hear giggles in the playroom and I am amazed the Lego creations and drawings that are presented to me for approval.  The laundry I am never caught up on consists of soccer jerseys, bike shorts, and other indications of a fun and active life.  I love to hang tiny t-shirts on tiny hangers and sort Spiderman and Tinkerbell underwear.  Even though many hours will pass and food will go cold before its finished, I'll be told it was the best dinner ever.  When I go out, it will make me smile to catch a glimpse of the 5 adorable faces in the rear-view mirror, filling all the available seats back there. 
I've been told I'm the world's best mom on the world's worst days.            

We have a house.  A tiny house.  I love this house.  We brought 3 of my babies home from the hospital here and the other 2 were too young to even remember our other home.  We have a yard.  A tiny yard.  My dog loves that yard and the fence that Jake and his dad built to really make that yard our own. 

There are times, especially lately, when I feel like I need more space.  A bigger house, a bigger yard.  And a garage?  Oh please a garage!!  I don't think I can stand another day with the dog kennel in the kitchen and the bikes in my bedroom.  And all that time I spend in the laundry room?  It would be oh so bearable - even blissful - if I could actually move around in the laundry room without tripping over all the tools and boxes of food storage.

And then there are times, especially lately, when I feel blessed.  So very blessed.  I have a great family.  Jake is my best friend and we have the best kids.  We are safe and warm and we're together.  We are all healthy.  We are all happy.  We work hard together.  We have fun together. 
We have so much when others have lost so much.

Today was St. Patrick's Day. All the scrambling around trying to find enough green for everyone to wear got me thinking about those little Leprechauns and their lucky shamrocks.  Maybe I've got more Irish in me than I thought because, wow . . .  

Lucky me.