For Maren

Well, I had successfully dodged everyone's requests for pictures of me. I hate pictures of me when I am pregnant. I just look awful. I look chubby all over. My face swells up. I just don't like pictures of me. So usually when people ask I respond with something like "Oh, I should do that shouldn't I" or "I will try to get around to it". Something really noncommittal.

But Maren wins. She is holding some recipes hostage that I desperately want and she won't give them to me unless I give her a picture. I thought I would get dressed up cute and do my hair and makeup and find the perfect angle so that I didn't look so...well, so big. But instead I just got off the couch and had Scott take two pictures of me and that was it. So you are really getting the real deal here Maren. If you came over to my house right now, this is what you would see.

So, here it is for the whole world to see.

This is me at 34 weeks pregnant.

Can I really be getting this old?

I just realized that I am going to be THIRTY soon. I can't believe it. I feel like I just barely hit my 20's. Can this really be happening?

I made this realization this morning and almost had a heart attack when I told Scott. He asked "Is there anything you want to do while you are still in your 20's?" I have been thinking about this all morning and now I am feeling kind of trapped. Because no matter what things I think of, none of them are things that I can do while being 34-36 weeks pregnant. I am getting old and there is nothing I can do about it.

Am I crazy that this is bothering me??

Surprise for Scotty

For the past several days, the boys have been begging me to surprise Daddy at work by wearing their costumes in and bringing him Halloween cookies. So today was the day.

We got to work first thing in the morning...well, first thing after I slept in and had the boys watch cartoons and then we lounged around in our pajamas because Thursdays are our only day where we don't have anything going on...and started making our famous homemade oreo cookies. But these weren't any oreo cookies. The boys spent FOR.EV.ER placing little licorice legs coming out of each cookie and two skittles for eyes on the top. We all thought they were the creepiest spider cookies ever made :) Then the boys put on their costumes and off we went to Scott's work. The boys were giddy in the backseat and Ty kept saying that he was sure that dad would think the REAL Spiderman was at his work and would have no idea it was him.

And it turns out we showed up at a pretty inopportune time...Scott had a few guys in his office working out some important details of some important thing.

Then Spiderman and a SWAT team guy rounded the corner and all conversation stopped. I think that everyone was wondering what was happening. I think Ty said "Hi Man!" to Scott and Cam shouted "We brought cookies for everyone!"

Scott took the boys around the office and they handed out cookies to everyone and Cam made sure to tell everyone that the spider cookies don't bite. We had a grand old time.

I wondered if Scott would be a little bit embarrassed or anything. But as we walked out to the car to go to lunch together he looked at me and said "I just love my wife and kids!"

Mission accomplished!

Funny quotes lately...

Ty said the other day after I told him that he couldn't go ride his bike outside without me watching him..."But Mom, I will try my very best to not get killed!"

Cam decided that the best insult for Ty lately is to call him a procrastinator. It really irks Ty. They learned what it means to procrastinate from a CD we have about Dependability and now it is the insult of choice.

After I asked Ty to do something this afternoon he replied "Copy that mom!" and ran off to do it.

Cam has been going by the name of "Frozone" for the past few days and won't answer to Cam anymore. Funny thing is that he forgets the name "Frozone" about every 30 minutes and comes running up to me asking "Who am I again??"

Cam discovered hair on his legs a few days ago and threw his fist up in the air and shouted "I get to be a daddy soon!! Does this mean I get to get married Mom??"

After a few recent incidents with hitting lately, I told Tyler and Cameron that I was really getting frustrated that they weren't working things out properly and so next time it happened there would be a bigger consequence. After Tyler hit Cameron the next time, he had to sit in time out for twice as long. As he sat there he said to me "This isn't even a very big consequence Mom. I can still hear the movie from here." Wrong thing to say buddy. I said "You are right. I think you need to go in your room and close the door. You can come out when you hear the beeper beep." He was so mad. So. Mad. And in his anger he was yelling from his room "This STILL isn't a good consequence!!" Oh how I love being a mom.

Another big piece of news around here is that Cam started riding a bike with NO training wheels. I know...crazy! He just barely turned three. Ty started riding his bike with no training wheels just a few months ago or something and so I hadn't even thought of trying to teach Cam yet. He just took right to it all by himself. I mean, he always loved to ride the Strider bikes of our friends and we they were done using it we asked if we could borrow it for a bit. We have had it for about three weeks and Cam popped on a two wheeler and took off. He is crazy adventurous and had no idea what he was doing. I was terrified that he was going to get hurt (or that a car in the parking lot would get hurt:)) but he just figured it out as he went and loved it. He lives life on the wild side, that kid!

I am 31 weeks along now. I was so sad because I thought I was 32 weeks. I have it written in my calendar that I was 32 weeks on Sunday. But sadly enough, I must have written it down wrong and I am only 31 weeks (this coming sunday). Great. Just added another few weeks to my internal pregnancy calendar :) All in all, I am feeling pretty good. Boys are keeping me pretty busy and worn out and I know that by the end of the day I am waddling rather than walking. But after these long and busy days, the boys sleep well at night and so do I (if you don't count the countless times of rolling over to get comfortable and the many times to get up and go to the bathroom) so we don't have much to complain about over here. We are getting so excited about our little one coming. Just the other night as Scott and I were sitting on the couch watching tv after the kids were in bed, Scott said "Can you imagine that in just a few months we will be sitting here and I could have a little baby falling asleep on my chest!" It got us both so excited for this little guy to come.

That's it for the update. Sorry I don't have any pictures, but I promise to take some from Halloween and post!

Merry Christmas to Me!

Our house is covered in spider webs with spiders hanging all over the place, autumn leaves that Ty and Cam have collected are now on display on the top of the piano, a "Fall Leaves" candle burning, Halloween lights around the window, and cute Jack-o-latern creations are ready to be displayed in our windows. I really didn't think I could be happier.

Until Scott told me that my Christmas present would be arriving today in the mail.

And arrive it did. In fact, I am writing this post on my brand new laptop!

I have never owned my very own laptop. I have used Scott's since we have been married and it usually works fine for me. But there are just some things that I want to have my own way.

And the first (and only) desktop I ever owned for myself was bought over a decade ago and we got rid of it years ago.

So this is big people.

And since we are having this baby in a few months and we are staying in our two bedroom apartment, but baby will be occupying the "computer room" or computer closet. It made it hard when Cam was napping in there because the few times that I even had a minute to do something on the computer was when he was napping...and he napped in the computer room, so I never could be on the computer. I had been thinking about this with the new baby coming and realizing that my times of using the desktop freely were about to be taken from me. I whined and complained to Scott about the woes of apartment living and then got over it and moved on.

And then this came in the mail. I am so happy. Just so happy. I really do have the most kind husband ever. He is so cute. He vowed this year that he was going to wait until Christmas Day to give me my gift. But when he finds something he knows I will love, he just can't stand it and he goes crazy waiting to give it to me. It is the cutest thing to see him get all excited and almost every night say something like "You are going to love your gift this year. I already know what it is. Do you want some clues? Oh man, I can't wait, you are seriously going to love it!" And then finally he can't wait any longer and he cracks and gives it to me. The best part about it is that it is almost like having a surprise Christmas Day...you never know what day you might get the most amazing gift at your doorstep! I am proud of him that he made it to October this year :) And now I get two extra months of using this delightful laptop.

As a side note, Scott and I spontaneously slow danced in our living room the other night after the kids went to bed and we were watching tv and a cute song came on and I told Scott that it reminded me of a slow dance song at a youth dance. So he stood up and asked me to dance right there. It might have been my favorite moment in a long time.

I am in love. With Scott. And with this laptop.

Today: A Cure for a Bad Morning

It's Friday. Scott went out to see a movie (don't worry, he okay-ed it with me first and I said I was happy to just have the evening to relax) and so here I am catching up on some blogging. In case you haven't noticed...I was a little behind :) Anyway, there are a couple other posts before this one so don't forget to check them because I finally have some pictures!

So...today. Today started off pretty bad. I was so tired, I could barely get out of bed. I wanted to get up early and exercise before I took the boys to school, but that didn't happen. That is always a little disappointing when you wake up and you have already not done something that you wanted to get done. I was rushing the boys through their chore chart and trying to get them ready for school and they just weren't having it. I was super stressed and they were playing and wrestling and teasing each other. Cameron found the spray bottle and was spraying everything and everywhere, including Tyler. Tyler was frustrated and was un-making Cameron's bed so that he would have to make it again as punishment for spraying him in the face. Both boys were crying at one point. I will spare you all the details...but in the end, I was trying desperately to unscrew the door knob from the bathroom door which Cameron had locked from the inside (he wasn't in there...he had walked out and closed the locked door behind him). I couldn't get it done and so just ushered the boys in to the kitchen for quick bowl of cheerios and decided to have breakfast myself, completely forgetting about the fasting glucose test I was supposed to take this morning. Still couldn't get the bathroom door unlocked and so we skipped brushing our teeth in the morning (gross) and went off to school in a flurry to not be late. AAAAHHHH!!

The Cure:
After I dropped the two boys off and talked with the lab at the hospital and realized I couldn't go in and take the glucose test because I had eaten, I did the following:

-Went home and exercised (in the video there is a part where you do punches (ie hooks, jabs, etc) and the lady says "Come on, really punch it and get out all your stress." Don't worry, I really punched it!)
-read my scriptures
-turned on Christmas music really loudly. Loud enough I am sure anyone walking by on the street would have heard **(this part is key to all the happiness)
-And then I cleaned the whole house..I dusted everything, vaccumed, swept the kitchen, mopped, wiped down all the cupboards and chairs, cleaned the entire bathroom..did the floor on my hands and knees, organized the bookshelves, cleaned off all the clutter on top of the piano, took out loads of trash after going through the fridge and pantry and getting rid old, stale food and consolidating other food to make more room, got some of the big spots off the carpet (although it just needs to be professionally cleaned at this point). All this done while singing Tennessee Christmas by Amy Grant, All I Want For Christmas is You by Mariah Carey, Baby, It's Cold Outside by ???, and many, many others at the top of my lungs. I am pretty sure that I one point, just to pretend that I was on some movie, I actually did a spin around the mop. I definitely felt like I was on a movie :)
And you know what??? I was in such a good mood for the rest of the day!

Oh Christmas/Christmas music/Holiday season, why has it taken you so long to get here? Is it okay if I start bringing some holiday cheer to my home in September? Even though Scott says it is breaking all the rules to start now and has completely banned me from you until December 1st, you and I can still have our secret relationship and he doesn't ever have to know.

And just for fun, here are some more pictures of the boys that I finally got off the camera from camping and other fun times:

Ty, just lounging in his chair, roasting a hot dog on the campfire. This kid is a true camper.


Make sure you notice the completely filthy face that comes as part of being a 3yr old and camping.


Scott is a sucker for buying "man things" for the boys. We all went to REI one saturday morning to get water bottles or something like that and Scott and the boys are just in heaven. They oooh and aaah over just about everything and I have to be the one to tell them all no. But Scott told me that all little boys needed a hat to bring camping with them and since these were on sale, the boys got to pick out their hats. Ty and Cam love wearing hats because they get to be like dad. And I think all three of my boys look pretty stinkin' cute!


During quiet time one afternoon I couldn't hear Ty for a few minutes and I got a little bit suspicious. I peeked in to find him asleep on his bed, surrounded by stuffed animals, wearing a headlamp. Sometimes I wish I was a kid again. Just so precious.


Out of order...another camping picture again..brothers roasting hot dogs. It was right after this that we all sat around telling stories about when Scott and I were little and the funny things we did.

A couple of big days

We have had a couple really big days over the past few weeks...

Cam turned THREE! He is such a delightful and wild little munchkin. This little kid can just warm my heart. He is crazy and goofy and still so loving and sweet. We absolutely adore him.
On his birthday he had Joy School, which he couldn't have been more excited about. We brought cupcakes to share with his friends and he got to wear the "birthday crown" at school. We came home and had a yummy lunch and then got a jamba juice and went swimming at Amy's house (which was the one thing that Cam said he wanted to do for his birthday). We came home for pizza and cupcakes with the family and opened up presents. Cam was all smiles all day long.

(Cam wearing the birthday crown. Is it sad that this is the only picture I got of his birthday? I got lots of video with the video camera, but this is the only picture. And can I just say that I love Cam's crooked smile!!)


The boys also both started school! Cam started Joy School and Ty started Preschool. I was lucky enough to get into a Joy School group with four of the most amazing women. I love the women and I love their kids and I am so excited for Cam to become friends with them. He goes on Wednesday and Friday from 9am to noon. Perfect. Sooo perfect. He comes home after each class and can't wait to tell me what he has done or something fun that happened. The only downside is that on the days that he doesn't have Joy School he still wakes up and gets ready and puts his backpack and pleads with me to take him.

Ty started preschool just a few days after Cam started. We had a couple mornings to just spend together and I think that time was priceless. We really bonded and I can honestly say that I miss him when he goes to school. He is such a joy to be around. But he would much rather go to school than hang out with me :) He is loving it. He has a friend from church in his class with him and so he and Lincoln are little buddies. He goes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9:15am to 11:45am and just loves it. He adores his teachers and can't wait to go back to school!
It makes me feel so happy that my boys are both loving school!

This is how Cam feels about taking pictures 90% of the time. This is the reason why I don't take many pictures.


Ty on his first day of school. He was so excited and he squeezed my hand so tightly as we walked through the doors, I thought my fingers were going to fall off. I could tell he was nervous, but he just did awesome. He put his backpack in his little cubby, sat down in the circle where they were singing some songs, turned around to give the "thumbs-up" that he was okay and I could leave.


Ahh...there is that cute little smile I was looking for. I might have had to bribe him for this smile. Oh man, this little man is so full of life. His smile is so perfect (and a little crooked)


The two boys off to school. This is Cam's new picture face. I have more pictures of this face than anything. Where did he get this from? Side note...I love picking the boys up from school because I just listen to them chat in the back seat about their day. They ask each other what they did and what they learned and the other will say "No way!" or something like that. It is so cute.


So yes...ME...I get two FULL mornings off each week. I know, I know, I shouldn't be this excited. Two and a half hours of blissful peace and non-stop productivity. It makes me so happy. I decided that I would use one morning to be productive and clean, do laundry, dishes, etc. There is always stuff that needs to get done around the house. And then the other morning is all mine. I can do whatever I want. Read, watch a movie, fun crafty projects that I have wanted to do for years but never had the time. That is MY morning. I am loving it!

A Post about Nothing

I love writing posts about something. But I also love writing posts about nothing at all.

I feel so pregnant. So So pregnant. I can't wait for the weather to get just a bit chillier so that I can stop sweating so much. And does it have to be so uncomfortable to sleep when you have a baby inside of you? I mean, seriously! Ok, that is all the complaining I will do about being pregnant...because really, most of the time it is magical. Really though, it is. The boys LOVE to run up to my belly and say "hi" to the baby and tell him what they are doing. Every time Scott talks to the baby, I think the baby does a somersault in my tummy. It is crazy. Yet another boy to just adore his daddy.

I had my first morning (ever really) with having no kids. Cam was in Joy School and Ty started preschool today. (More details and pictures on that to come). It was wonderful. But I feel like I wasted those few hours. I am going to have to be better at managing my time.

Do your kids fight? Because mine do. Man oh man! We are really in some kind of phase these days, but it is almost unbearable. I just barely printed out some charts tonight and we are starting a new idea tomorrow. This has got to stop. It seriously is every minute that they are together.

Due to all the fighting and arguing I wanted to just get the kids out to get some energy out so we met some friends at the park. We stayed til almost six and so when we got home, I made mac n cheese for the boys. I heated up a leftover pasta dish that I was going to save for Scott and I. The boys didn't have a single bite of mac n cheese and ate the entire pasta dish I had heated up for Scotty and I. Guess what I had for dinner?? (Yup. Mac n cheese!)

Funny thing...when you stop exercising, you gain weight. Isn't that crazy?? I know.

We went to Happy Hollow a few days back on a random thursday morning. (Happy Hollow is a mini-amusement park for kids and it has just a handful of rides and one roller coaster. It also has a zoo and petting zoo area). There was no one there. The place was totally deserted. I thought it was going to be the perfect day ever to be at Happy Hollow....
And then the boys wanted to go on the roller coaster. Ty is tall enough to ride by himself and Cam sometimes is :) Often times, the worker lets him ride with Ty and they say he doesn't need an adult, but sometimes they say I need to ride with him. This time was the latter. So the three of us jumped into the roller coaster and we rode it all by ourselves around the jumpy, jerky, bumpy circle. The boys giggled with delight and I loved knowing that they were enjoying the ride, but not particularly enjoying it myself. They let you go around twice and then they stop the ride when you get in the second time to get off. Well, we pulled in and the operator asked if we wanted to ride again. Thanks a lot. Of course, the boys screamed "YES!!!" and around we went again. And then again. And then again. (Remember, each time we get to go around twice). Then we stopped to let one other boy on. And then we went around again. And again. Again, again, again...I rode that blasted roller coaster FOURTEEN times! I finally told Cam I had to get off cause I was feeling sick and the mother of the other boy that was riding offered to ride with Cam and she rode around four or five times with him. (Isn't that so nice?) The boys keep asking to go back to Happy Hollow, but I think I need a little distance from that place. Just thinking about it makes me feel sick.

I finally "re-did" (yes, official wording) my kitchen chairs. The plastic had been ripping off of the chairs for months now and since we painted the table top black, I had been wanting to change the fabric on the chairs too. After all this time, I actually got it done. And I only stapled my thumb once in the process. Yeah, for me! That is improvement people. Here are a few pics:





And here is a cute picture (one of the TWO) I took while on vacation with my parents. The boys LOVED taking baths in Grandma's big bath and even got to use the bubbles a couple times. Doesn't this just look like heaven?