Not your ordinary visit to the dentist

This morning while I was in the shower the phone rang. I sat there listening to the phone ring and had a sudden thought, "What if that is Taylor's school?" I ignored the phone. A couple minutes later it rang again which prompted me to end my shower and see who was calling. I ran downstairs and both my cell phone and my home phone had messages. The caller id indicated that yes, it was in fact Taylor's school. What are the odds that the only time they call I'm not immediately available?

In my mind a couple different scenarios were being tossed around. The first- some part of his body was going to need stitches and second- he was sick and had tossed his cookies all over the place. But no, that would be too predictable. Instead, they were calling to let me know that Taylor had a rock stuck in his ear and could I please come check him out? A rock. In his ear.

Fan-freakin'-tastic.

Lucky for you, my camera happens to be an appendage of my body, so I got a picture or two (really more like 15- I'm a little overzealous that way). The rock is black.



This little rock-in-the-ear trick really created quite a buzz in Taylor's kindergarten class. I walked into the classroom and was immediately hit with a chorus of excited kindergartners- "Taylor has a rock in his ear!!! Taylor has a rock stuck in his ear!!!" Taylor, on the other hand, seemed to be lacking the excitement that the rest of the class was feeling. He stood up from his desk and came walking toward me looking very somber and nervous. His ear didn't hurt and he wasn't crying- he was just a little out of sorts. His biggest concern was, "I don't want to go see Dr. Ramsey." Trust me buddy, I'm not particularly interested in a $15.00 visit to Dr. Ramsey either. And so I did what I do best, I gave Dave a call.

I relayed the story to Dave. I had to repeat myself because he didn't think he had heard me right. After a good laugh, Dave wanted in on the action so we headed over to visit Dr. Jackson, dental extraordinaire, to see if he could remedy the situation. And remedy it, he did! He got the rock out, ear wax and all. It was quick, easy, and painless. Taylor was so relieved!



Thank goodness for Dave and all his fancy little tools!



Father and Son. A proud moment.

The birthday run-down

A few days before my birthday I asked Dave what we should do for my birthday. He answered so fast I burst out laughing, especially when I heard what he had to say, "Go shopping and do crafts." So that's what he thinks makes my world go round. I was thinking taking a vacation to Hawaii would have been a better answer.

On the day of my birth, I got half of Dave's wish for me- I went shopping! Yay! New clothes for me- I love it! The craft thing- not so much. I'm pretty picky about my crafts though- not any craft will do.

Dave came home from work carrying a flower birthday cake for me. I graciously accepted it and Dave said, "It looked better in the pictures." Haha! It's the thought that counts babe! My kids were asking if they could lick the candles...



Sam (Alan's girlfriend) offered to babysit for us so we could go out to dinner. AWESOME! A night without my kids! I love my kids to bits but I am always game for a break. So, Alan and Sam came over and wined & dined the kids (not so much wine, but you know what I mean). They made me birthday cards while I was gone. I even found pictures of them making the cards on my camera. Good job Al- or maybe I should say, good job Sam (Alan is in the picture, obviously he didn't take it).



Dave and I went out to dinner at Wasatch Broiler- it's in Murray. They serve greek food and I love it. Lalalalove it! After a stop at Costco, we decided to go bowling but I didn't have any socks. We made a quick stop at Target to buy socks. After picking out the socks, we wandered the store, lounged in the patio furniture area, and then decided we were too tired to go bowling. Talk about old people. That's right. I'm old. Okay, maybe not old but most definetly older than I was yesterday.

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!

That's all.

Say what?

The english language is so complicated! I don't usually think about it much because well, I get it. Or I guess I should say, I get what I am saying. I don't know if you get what I am saying, but I get it. Get it?

I forget that my children don't know all the rules yet. They don't know all the words either. And then there are those words that sound the same but mean different things. Those are the words that cause most of the problems around here.

Yesterday I had all four kids with me at Sam's Club. We were pretty much at the end of our shopping trip and I was at my wit's end.

Sara was driving me batty so I turned to her and said through clenched teeth,

"Sara, you are driving me nuts!"

Innocent enough...

NOT.

She gasped. Looked me in the eye and said,

"Mom, you said a bad word."

Fantastic.

It took me half a second to realize what she was even talking about but then I knew. And because I'm a glutton, I decided to pursue it further. So I asked her,

"What are you talking about? What did I say?"

"You said a boy's private part!"

Why yes, yes I did.

And then in the candy aisle at Sam's Club, I had to explain to a 6-year-old, 4-year-old, and 2-year-old, the different meanings of the word nuts.

A closer look

I know you are waiting on the edge of your seat for an update regarding our furry friend invasion...

Well, after the mama cat jumped out of the window well, we never saw her get back in. In fact, she would take off and be gone forever and then come and sit on top of the window well and watch the kitten. Then she would leave again for hours. The weather is a bit wet and cold right now so we were worried about the baby sleeping without the warmth of the mom cat.

Dave opened the window and pulled the baby kitten out and brought her to live under our deck. All the kids were a little too happy that the kitty was reachable. They stayed out there all day. I was trying to get them to stay away from her in hopes that the mom cat would return. I was explaining to Taylor that without milk from the mommy cat, the baby cat could die. In all seriousness he looked at me and said, "Well, why can't you feed the cat?" Riiiiight... We had to have a little chat about cross-species nursing. Not. Gonna. Happen.

The kitten stayed under the deck all afternoon until our neighbors picked her up and moved her to their garage. Yes, it looks as though our neighbors have adopted this furry little bundle of joy and named her Sunny. So there you have it. Sunny is now our neighbor. I feel like I have achieved the best of both worlds here- 1. I no longer feel responsibility for the cat & 2. My kids can have their pet (Livvy calls it "my kitty") via the neighbors. They can visit, love, & cuddle that kitty and then when it grows older and they have lost interest- not my problem.

Since this little kitten is quite small to be separated from its mother, my neighbors have done their research on how to maintain him in a mother-less environment. It all starts with a little kitten formula and a mini bottle (smaller than a dolly bottle). I'm serious. Kitten formula? Yeah... it's at Walmart, just in case you are interested in purchasing some. They also have to stimulate his business with a cotton ball... I think it's hilarious, mostly because it's not my problem. Today at church Zack (the kitty's new daddy) made a point of coming up and thanking me for their new pet. Haha! Sorry Zack, not my fault your wife is a sucker for an orphan kitten.

Livvy G

Livvy is such a funny little thing. She has so much spunk. She is full of energy, attitude, creativity, and love- lots and lots of LOVE.

I've been writing down some Livvy-isms this month. There is no way to convey just how funny it is when she says these things- just know, it's funny.

- She used to say "hoppity boo" for Bippity Boppity Boo but after running around the house today wacking me over the head with her butterfly wand a million times, it seems she has finally learned to say it the right way.

- "You makin' me nerbus"- Translation: You are making me nervous. I have actually heard her use this in context once. All the other times, it's just been her way of saying she doesn't like what someone is doing around her or to her.

- "Me hate you". Yes, I really love this one. I don't like for her to say it AT ALL. She says it when she is upset at someone. I have been working hard to correct her and talk to her about how she is feeling. I explain, "No, you don't hate mommy. You are feeling sad." She is actually doing a good job at not saying it as much anymore. If she does use it, she directs it towards situations and things now, rather than people. It's progress...

- "Too boring". This is what she says after she has been tucked into her bed and comes back into our room. The tone she uses is so matter of fact, so bored, and just so final. It's like, "Sorry mom, not tired, and by saying 'too boring', I officially don't have to go to bed."

- "You're breakin' my heart". My neighbor was the first one to tell me about this phrase but I have since had her use it on me. Gosh, talk about tugging at your heart strings. This little girl really knows how to work people over.

- "Yes." Seems weird but really, she never says words like, "yeah, uh-huh, yep" It' s always "yes". Very distinct. Very Livvy.

- She always seems to be saying "Me not Sara, me Livvy". This is more my fault than anything because I always call her by every name but her own, but still, she picks up on it every time. Never once has she let it slide. Not once.

- She quite often tells me that I am "naughty" or asks me if she is being "naughty" or tells me when she has been "naughty". You've read the blog. You've seen what she does. You can only imagine how she learned that word.

- The other night we were over at my parent's house. She was playing in the basement with Taylor and Ethan. She came running upstairs with no shirt on and out of breath. She said, "No shirt. I fight" and then ran back downstairs. Upon further investigation, this is what I found:



My baby is boxing. Boxing. With her shirt off.

The other night I was blogging away. She came into the room and laid down on the floor with her artwork. She was coloring and poking at her paper with a pen. Moments later I turned around and this is what I found:




All tuckered out. I tell you what, if I played as hard as this kid does, I would be all tuckered out too. She is so much fun. We love her to pieces!

Kharma

My unlove for the four-legged furry creatures of the world has come back to bite me in the you-know-what.

Today I was chatting away with my dad on the phone. I went downstairs to grab some fettucine noodles from my food storage and got distracted walking around my basement and talking on the phone. I walked up to one of our window wells and peered out.

A couple years ago we bought window well covers that are a clear plastic to keep out the water and the riff-raff. Last summer I noticed huge weeds growing down there but let them do their thing since I didn't want to remove the window well cover and climb down in there to pull them out. I get the heebie jeebies just thinking about that.

Anywho, as I peered out the window I noticed the lovely array of dead weeds piled up in the window well and then, seriously, I about had a heart attack- two eyes were staring back at me. Upon closer (but not too close, mind you) inspection, I realized it was two cat eyes. Cripes. A cat? If I know anything about cats, I know they are freaky and jumpy. You look at them the wrong way and they start ping ponging around. But this cat, it just looked at me and didn't move. I sat there and studied it for half a second before I realized... oh yeah, I wouldn't move either if I was nursing babies!!! Are you freaking kidding me? Of all the...

And so as you can only imagine, I had to end my phone call before I fell over dead. I picked my jaw up off the floor and booked it upstairs. Creepy cat in my window well... So at this point I had no idea how many babies were there. It was hard to tell exactly what was going on between all those lovely weeds. I for sure noticed one but it was hard to tell where mama cat and baby cat(s) ended or began. I mean really, if I had realized those weeds were going to become a haven for a preggers cat, you better believe I would have put Dave (yes, Dave) to work removing those weeds. I will have to keep that in mind when this little situation is relocated.

After calling Dave and a friend of mine to vent some of my cat-finding adrenaline, I grabbed Taylor and headed back downstairs with my camera. Yes, I brought Taylor for moral support because I was not going down there alone. This cat and her mystery kitties had me totally freaked out. I know, I'm a pansy. But really, it's a completely different thing to hear about kitties in the window well then to actually find them.

Here is the first picture I got. The mom is the dark thing and the white thing is the baby.



When Dave got home we dragged him down there to check out our new find. I asked him how many he thought were there and he thought there was only one baby. Hmm. I handed him the camera, left him to take some pictures, and I went upstairs. A few seconds later Taylor comes bolting upstairs and I hear Dave saying to the kids, "Get back. Get back." Grrrreeeeaaatt.... So I guess Mister Pillar of Bravery decided to open the window to get a closer picture. He said the mama cat didn't move until he brought the camera up to his face then she jumped straight up, hitting her head on the window well cover, then straight up again, and again until she finally got out. Ouch. That was enough to sufficiently freak out the mama cat and she just stood outside the window well for the rest of the evening guarding, as it turns out, her one baby kitty. I'm wondering if there were more at one point. Yikes. I don't know what she is doing right now but I imagine she climbed back in once she thought it was safe. I'm not about to go down there and check.

Dave captured this picture of the mama cat after he scared the bajeebies out of her...

The white fluff in there is the kitten without the mommy cat in there.

The next door neighbor girl, who is seven and knows everything, came over to see our little zoo in the basement. She was letting the kids know that "the mama cat is not our cat Max because he is only five and that's not old enough to have babies." Right honey. Maybe that thought process is why we have the pet population we have today- you just keep on thinking that right along with the rest of the world. Her mom came over a few minutes later to check out our new pet and fell in love with the little kitten-through-the-window. Her last words before leaving my house, "I'm going to work on my husband".

It looks like operaton kitten adoption may already be in progress. Fantastic. I am more than happy to transplant this little cat family to one of their window wells, thank you very much.

The little red hen

A few years ago after Dave's mom had died and his parent's house had been sold, a bunch of us (his brothers and sister & spouses) all converged on the house and cleaned it out. We had gone through practically everything and were all standing in the basement staring at the remaining crap that nobody wanted to take but we couldn't bring ourselves to toss. Jeff was volunteering stuff at everyone- We walked away with a box filled with old camera supplies, a green and red rubbermaid bin full of Christmas tree ornaments, boxes of Dave's scouting badges and misc junk, & last but not least, a wheat grinder, or so they told me. I had never seen a wheat grinder in my life and this thing was huge. And ugly. And heavy. And covered in spider webs. And did I mention, ugly? Because it was (and still is).

At the time we lived in Wyoming. The house that we just emptied was in Utah. We had a moving truck to take all of Jerry's (Dave's dad) things to Jeff's house in Denver. Since our house was on the way, we threw our junk in the truck and off they went. The wheat grinder was delivered in all its glory to our basement in Wyoming. And there it sat. When we were packing up our house in Wyoming to move to Utah I was bitter about the wheat grinder.

"Can't we just take it to the Salvation Army or something? Is it really a wheat grinder anyway? Does it even work? It's totally dirty and gross. Have you looked in it?"

Dave just kept telling me that we were going to keep it. He was sure it was a wheat grinder and he was even more sure it worked. Whatever. I think he just didn't want to make an extra trip to drop it off at the thrift store.

We moved it into a storage unit in Utah where all our household goods sat for 8 months while we built our house.

And once again, moving time came around, I took one look at that thing and the complaints started rolling...

"Can't we just take it to the Salvation Army or something? Is it really a wheat grinder anyway? Does it even work? It's totally dirty and gross. Have you looked in it?"

Actually, this time, since we were in Utah, I recommended that we take it to the D.I.

But no, we kept it and moved it in to our basement.

And there it sat.

Until this past January.

A wheat grinding expert arrived on my front porch in the form of an angel, aka: my sister-in-law Natalie's mom, named Sue. We got to talking about wheat grinders and I mentioned this gem (sarcasm to the fullest) I had in the basement. She asked if she could see it. I went downstairs, dusted it off, and brought it up. One look at it and she confirmed two things for me, 1. This eye-sore was infact, a wheat grinder and 2. It was super old and super high-quality and I was super lucky. Well then. Look at fancy me with my super nice high-quality wheat grinder.

Upon confirmation that this was in fact a wheat grinder, Dave and I pulled out some grain (rice maybe?) and threw it down the little hole. It shot back in our faces and didn't grind much of anything. I hauled it into the Bosch store for further inspection. And of course, I had people walking up to me telling me how amazing my wheat grinder is and to never give it away. Well then, don't I feel stupid now? Seriously. Nothing starts up a great conversation like a big old ugly wheat grinder- look at me making friends right and left. Forget wearing deodorant, just hauling around my ancient wheat grinder is working wonders for my social life. So I chatted with a guy, he plugged it in, fed me pizza and cinnamon rolls, and we got it working... or so I thought.

Fast forward to March- Sue had me & Nat over to her house to teach us some of her tips and tricks to whole wheat bread making. It was informative and fun. We used her wheat grinder which is old too (not quite as ancient as mine though). I then brought mine up to the house so we could take a look-see and make sure it was grinding the right consistency of flour. Before we put any type of real food into this thing, one thing was very clear- it needed a good cleaning. After a thorough inspection of the wheat grinder, I realized it had fossilized weevils under it. I kid you not. So I went to work on this thing and whipped it into shape. Sue brought out her shop vac- we scraped, scrubbed, and vaccumed. We got it looking good as new! Well wouldn't you know it, after dumping some wheat in, we realized it wasn't working properly. Sue is the biggest life saver in the world! She offered to take it to some place in Provo where they fix all kinds of gadgets and things. I can't remember it's name- The Shack or The Shed or something. Natalie... little help here... (not me Natalie, my sister-in-law- I'm not crazy)

Are you still with me here? I'm not anywhere near close to being done. And no, I don't know how it's possible for me to type this much about a wheat grinder. It just happens.

Fast forward a few more weeks. Sue got my wheat grinder back from the shop and in working condition. She reminded me (because they reminded her at the shop) about what a great machine it really is. Well good for me. Can you believe how many times I tried to give it away to the D.I.? You can't even find these things on ebay! I guess the reason it is so great is because it actually has stones in it that do the grinding hence the reason it weighs a ton and the motor doesn't help either- it's huge as well.

Anyway, so I got to thinking about this grinder and I wish I knew where Dave's mom got it and what the deal is with it? Did she buy it? Did her mom give it to her? Everything has a history and I am frusturated that I don't know its history. And so now all of you know its history from the day I came into contact with it. Don't you feel priveleged? You should.

The other day Livvy and I pulled it out and used it for the first time to make some whole wheat bread. We had a great time. Livvy loved helping me make flour. It was fun to show her the evolution of our bread. She loved it and was quite the helper filling the funnel (the funnel was an addition that came from The Shed place) with the wheat.

Are you dying to see a picture of this gigantor thing I have been ranting about? Here she is...



Livvy was overseeing the wheat grinder and making sure the funnel stayed full.



And in case you are wondering what that frightening red stuff is on her face- Taylor brought home a red stamp from school so she decided to stamp her whole body. She is doing better at not being so destructive and I just have to remind myself... baby steps... baby steps...



She was very excited about our rising bread. I had to stop her from patting it too hard, bless her little baby heart.



The final product:



I really like this bread. It's pretty light which makes it easier for the kids to eat sandwiches. If the bread is too dense, they have a hard time chewing it. They love that I make homemade bread now- we don't buy bread anymore. Yay! Hopefully I can keep this up.

Spencer- 10 months

Time really seems to be flying around here and my baby is growing up so fast!

His biggest ordeal of the month was getting tubes. It is still an on-going drama and I'm wondering if it will ever end. He wasn't acting any better days after getting the tubes in so I knew something was up and of course, at his follow-up visit, they found that one of his tubes was plugged. I had to take him back a few days later to have his ear sucked out. I was dreading it because they told me they would have to strap him down to one of those papoose boards to get the job done. I don't know what I was worried about- Spencer is the best little baby- so good and so chill. He didn't cry one bit when they strapped him in. And even when they sucked all the infection out he still didn't cry. Toward the end he started to fuss because he was sick of them holding his head. He amazes me everyday!

Because of his ears he has had a really hard time sleeping. One night I was bouncing him to sleep and he just wouldn't calm down and get comfortable. I handed him this little ball and within seconds he was sound asleep.



I feel like his look has really changed this month. He cut his 7th and 8th teeth. What a big boy! He is a total biter. He bites everything, including his mama! His hair is really coming in, especially right above his ears. It sticks up everywhere and he just looks so cute! His hair is a little wonky here because he is covered in sunblock but still, it's crazy and cute. In his hand you will see that he is holding his most favorite toy- my cell phone. Why oh why oh why do they love cell phones so much? And not just any cell phone- my current cell phone. My old cell phone just will not do. He would know. How do they know?!!!! Can't you just see Seinfeld screaming that? Yep. Pretty funny!



Spencer is the center of all the love around here. He gets played with, dragged, carried, and fed everywhere he goes. But really, I don't think he would have it any other way. He loves these kids!



Sara has a love for apples. I guess I should re-phrase that- Sara has a love for pulling apples out of the fridge, taking a bite or two, and then leaving them in hidden locations. And my little Spence, well, he has a knack for finding them. Rotten... fresh... he doesn't discriminate.



He does really good with a sippy cup and he likes spending time in his high chair chowing down. Now that he knows the joys of real food, he finds major offense if I offer him baby food. Just yesterday I emptied out my pantry of baby food and packed it in a bag to send to Aunt Nat. (Sigh) Another era of his life over.





A few days ago I was doing my thing in the kitchen and Spencer was crawling about doing his baby thing. I wasn't worried for his safety because of my super classy baby gate set up to keep him from falling down the stairs...



But when I turned around, I was quite surprised to find him making his way up the stairs. I was just working on this with him a couple days before and he did not get it at all. This kid is a fast learner. He is so determined- it kind of drives me crazy. His favorite thing to do is to empty out the basket that holds all the Wii games and accessories. As soon as I pick it up, he comes crawling right back over to set things straight with me. He also likes to crawl behind the T.V. He has also started walking with us when we hold his hands. He wasn't doing this last month so it's fun to see him learning.



Oh how we love this baby!

How to win friends and influence your children

We put the girl's bunk bed together. We bought the beds quite a while back but have kept them separate because as you may have noticed, our little Livvy is a bit of a kamikaze kid. She's getting bigger and more responsible so we thought it was time to stack em' up. They were all SO excited, running around and getting in the way. Good times.



And yes, I am ashamed to say, there is still blue tape on the ceiling from when I painted their room FOREVER ago. It's only that one corner and wall so I guess now that the bunk bed is there, I can actually reach it to take it down.

Widening the gap

(Please ignore the food all over his face- he is, after all, a little boy)

What is better than the tooth fairy coming and bringing a chunk of change and the Easter Bunny hopping in and leaving a basketful of goodies? Both of them happening on the same night!!! This very scenario happened to Taylor this weekend!!! After a couple weeks of wiggling away at his front tooth, it finally made its way out on Easter Eve- that makes five teeth that Taylor has lost. Five!

You may have noticed from previous exreme close-ups of Taylor that he had quite a gap going on between his two front teeth. For years Dave and I have laughed about and wondered how many quarters would fit between Taylor's two front teeth. With all the tooth wiggling he has been doing as of late, it has been on my mind quite a bit. Friday night it was really on my mind so out came the quarters- just exactly how many quarters can we fit between Taylor's two front teeth? The answer my friends, the answer is THREE. Three quarters. Yep. You heard me- exactly .75 cents.



And now to the Tooth Fairy. It seems that a confession may be in order. Our tooth fairy is, how do I say this? Well... a re-gifter. I know. Shame shame shame on her. Back when Taylor's first tooth came out she (and her partner in crime, Mr. Tooth Fairy) had a brilliant plan to leave a gold dollar under the pillow of each deserving, toothless child. That idea was (and still is) fantastic, except that she forgot where her stash of gold dollars went. In case you were wondering, finding a gold dollar on a dime isn't exactly a walk in the park. Fortunately for this Tooth Fairy, her most recent 6-year-old client gets so excited about his new gold coin, rather than putting it away in his piggy bank, he carries it around with him, eventually misplacing on the mantle, or in the car, or on the couch. Cha-ching! The money is usually found and put up in a place where Spencer won't eat it. And then that Tooth Fairy, in a pinch, remembers where that money was re-located and lovingly re-gifts the gold dollar to that sweet boy who has so much faith this his Tooth Fairy will in fact, deliver another gold coin under his sleepy little head. Some may call it deceitful, I prefer to call it brilliant. Popping the magic bubble of childhood floating around Taylor is most definetly not on this Tooth Fairy's agenda. Re-gifter? Can you blame her?

Okay, so it's only happened twice. And upon discussing this situation with some Tooth Fairy affiliates, who shall remain nameless, it has come to our attention a trip to a nearby Trax station just may make all my gold dollar dreams come true. Now I think about it, Trax may be where it all began anyway.

Easter

Easter weekend was craziness this year! So many things were going on. We made the best of it and enjoyed a fun Easter.

Saturday afternoon the kids dyed their Easter Eggs in preparation for the Easter Bunny.



Livvy thought it would be a good idea to snack on the vinegar dye...



The kids quickly let her know that it was not okay to eat the dye. She wasn't too happy about it.



Any guesses as to who this hand belongs to? Yeah... she kept clean until the very last egg and then bam! she was hand dipping and smearing blue everywhere.



Because my life is crazy, Easter Egg dying time turned into a multi-tasking frenzy- I helped the kids with their eggs (probably not as much as I should have), made rolls (and Spencer accidentally grabbed the hot pan with his fingers), changed diapers, and carried a sad Spenny around (not because of his fingers, just because his ears are kicking our butts). Daddy was off at a Real Soccer game. Love those season tickets...

See how good the rolls turned out? Yep. They were delish...



After that we were off to great grandma's birthday party but not before we made a stop at grandma and grandpa's house- they surprised the kids with Easter stuffed animals.



Easter Sunday the kids woke up early running around the house to find their baskets hidden by the Easter Bunny himself (or in our case, herself). Sara couldn't believe that that silly Easter Bunny hid her basket in the same place as last year... oops. Looks like our Easter Bunny needs to get a little more creative.



Taylor thought his basket was SO HARD to find hidden in the buffet in the front entryway.



Liv's basket was hidden in a corner. Taylor and Sara found it first and just couldn't resist dragging Olivia right to it.



Russ & Nat blessed Amelia on Easter Sunday. We had a fantastic Easter dinner with all the fam and lounged around at Aunt Nat's parent's house all day. It was so relaxing and fun.

Here are my kids and my love all dressed up in their fancy stuff. Taylor got a new tie. The girls are wearing hand-me-down dresses from my sister-in-law Lori. They are the dresses that I had all the little girls wearing at my wedding. I pulled them out a few days ago and thought they would be perfect for Easter! That is, hands down, the best deal I've ever gotten on Easter dresses! Ha!



When I asked the kids to talk to me about why we celebrate Easter, Taylor was quick to say, "Jesus was rex-ted... I mean, re-surr-ect-ted." Big word. Good kids. Happy Easter.

Lately...

-Taylor dragged me to his room bursting with excitement. Upon my arrival, beaming with pride he introduced me to his "pantry". Pantry, you say? Yes, pantry. He turned one of his dresser drawers into a feeding frenzy for himself, stocked full of string cheese, nutri grain bars, a can of pink lemonade, and some Easter candy. Good to see his mind is always working on ways to better his lifestyle...

-Once again Liv is using my carpet as a toilet. Just when I am noticing some progress in the potty training dept, I get summoned back to reality by a pile (or two) of poop. The other night we were sitting around watching T.V. as a family. Livvy came running up to Dave with her finger covered in the good stuff. I tell you what- nothing insights a riot like a finger loaded with poo. Kids started screaming and running for diapers and wipes, Dave cleaned up her finger and changed her diaper. Back to our T.V. viewing. Within seconds, a sniff from my nose let me know that all was not right with the world. It still smelled like poop. We couldn't find the source and Dave was sure it was just Livvy's pajama pants. We tossed those into the laundry but still, the smell did not leave. Finally, the answer to our problem came crawling across the room and pulled himself up onto my chair- his little bitty hand covered in poop, but not just any poop, Livvy's poop! Once again the riot began. Dave grabbed Spencer and hauled him over to the sink. I went in search of Livvy's pile o' poop. No wonder the smell was so strong- she had wiped her poop on the carpet right behind my chair! What is up with that child? Dave came back with Spencer and I asked him, "Did you wash his mouth out?" The answer- "No, I didn't see any on his mouth." So then I asked, "Did you smell his mouth?" I just got a dirty look in return. Good times at the Jackson house. In my years of parenting it is becoming clearer to me everyday that certain rites of passage exist, and I'm beginning to wonder if eating your siblings poop is one of them.

- Taylor is off track from school right now so I signed the kids up for swim lessons at the rec center. One day we were leaving the building and (surprise surprise) the kids were a little out of control and not listening. They were running and laughing and I kept asking them to stop. Now, before I continue, please note that the entrance to the rec center is all glass doors and windows. Sara took off in a dead run toward the front doors. A few things happened all in the same moment, 1. I realized that Sara didn't notice the glass, 2. I screamed for her to stop, 3. She slammed face first into the glass wall that was right beside the door. I don't think she has even been more stunned by anything in all her life. I ran over to her and asked her if she was okay. She shook her head yes and then burst into tears- tears that lasted for 10 whole minutes. I picked her up off the ground, scraped her 4-year-old pride from off the window, and we made our way out to the car where we were serenaded by her wailing nearly the entire way home.

-Because I deserve a break every now and then, I put a ban on dress-up clothes this week. Ahhhh....sweet bliss. I have actually been able to find the floor all week. I love it!

-The other night we went over to my grandma's house to celebrate her 87th birthday. She is having a bit of a mice problem lately. Forgetting that she has sticky traps all over her house and not paying all that much attention to where Spencer was crawling, he landed himself right into a one. His fingers were covered and the whole trap was stuck to his pants. While it was an unfortunate disaster, I am counting myself lucky that the trap didn't already have a mouse stuck to it. I would probably have to be institutionalized if it did...

-While driving in the car today Taylor was back in his seat explaining some important issues to Sara. I overheard the following words coming from Taylor's mouth, "Sara, dads are not slaves. Only moms. And sometimes dads get a day off." Exactly. For those of you who haven't felt sorry for me in the past, please feel free to start now.

Under the Knife

Well. April 1st has come and gone and my little Spencer has tubes in his ears! I have been waiting for this day for more than a month!

He was such a happy little guy going into his surgery but not such a happy little guy coming out of it. They told me that most babies have a hard time coming out of anesthesia because they don't recognize or understand what they are feeling. I think he also was upset because his ears hurt! The doctor said that his ears were as bad as he ever sees them and they will most likely continue to hurt for a couple days. He had lots of pus coming out of his middle ear. Even when he thought he had it all out, it would keep coming. (I resisted the urge to say, "Maybe if you could have fit him in a few weeks back, we wouldn't be having this problem today!!!")

He has been taking an oral antibiotic and antibiotic ear drops. He had so much drainage. It lasted for 5 days (which is not good, by the way)! It has finally stopped but he still tugs and swats at his ears a bit. I wonder if we will ever get rid of this infection. I am going crazy! The antibiotic has given him a lousy case of diarrhea which in turn, has given him some fierce fire bum. Poor kid.

Spencer looked so cute in his little hospital gown and booties. I had to get a couple pictures. They even gave him a teddy bear. He wasn't too interested in it but hey, it's the thought that counts, right?