Adams Family

Just a quick note

2010-01-18T19:42:00.001-08:00

I know some people probably still have this blog on their lists, but just so yall know, I got a new blog. http://www.singlemomsareeasy.blogspot.com/ :) You should all go there, cause this blog has DIED.

Halloween 2009

2009-11-11T22:05:00.000-08:00

For those of you who are not on my facebook page, I am sure you are DYING to see the Halloween pictures of the babies. Well, lest I disappoint, I am going to post them. I know that I did my blogs a little out of order, as it has been almost two weeks since Halloween, but, the pictures are cute.

Most of the blog will just be pictures, but I will give you a little set up. Ender went as a cowboy, Severian went as Optimous prime, Katalina went as a Pumpkin Fairy, and I went as a witch, as per Severian's instructions. Ender has already decided what we are going as next year as well. He is going as a Lion ("rawr, Mom, me scare you? Me eat you! rawr!). Severian is going as a ghost, Katalina is going as a princess, and I am apparently going as the wind. And, seeing that sentence, maybe I will go as a character from Gone With The Wind. That would be fun.

Anywho, without further ado, here are the pictures!

SYTYCD Gimmie a WHAT WHAT!

2009-11-08T20:14:00.000-08:00

Hello friends! Most of you who are on my Facebook know that I went to go see So You Think You Can Dance. Most of you also know that I was super excited about seeing the show for one reason. Evan Kasprzak. While watching the show I totally fell for him, for a myriad of reasons. A singing, dancing Broadway boy who wears suspenders and glasses? What? Can you BE anymore my type? Pretty sure not. Anyway, it was a really amazing show. I had found out through the grapevine that the dancers do "Meet and Greets" after the show, if you know where to go. (Look at me I'm rhyming). Despite numerous security guards and ushers that swore up and down that they did not do meet and greets for normal people, Ryley and I found out where to go, along with about another 50 people. Because it was so cold outside, and because there were so few people, we were lucky enough to get to go backstage. Yes that is right. BACKSTAGE. At first I thought we were just going to have to stand against the wall inside and hope for the best, but then, wonder of wonders, miracles of miracles, we actually got the whole "backstage" experience. Ry and I managed to meet just about everyone, including, yes that's right. Evan Kasprzak. Well, here is the video:

I didn't video a lot of the Evan experience, because I didn't want to be messing around with the camera. However, I will tell you what happened. I took a picture with him, and then Ry and I went around to everyone else and got pictures and autographs. THEN, before we left, I thought to myself "Why the hellz not?" and I went up to Evan (who looked a little lonely by the way, everyone wanted to see Randi) and I was like "Um. Can I have a hug?" and he said "Sure!" And he totally gave me a hug. So, then we chatted for a minute, and I may have given him a business card for the Bar with my number on the back... and then I shook his hand and, yes that's right folks, I GOT ANOTHER HUG. That is TWO, count'em TWO hugs that I got. From who? Oh yeah, Evan Kasprzak. Here is picture proof:

Cute are we not? I think so. We also met Brandon, Ade, Janette, Jason, Kupono, Melissa, etc, etc. It was really, really neat, and something that I am glad I splurged on. Although, I did feel a little like a 16 year old fan girl. But, you know, we all have our moments. Here are some more pictures of the night:

So yes, all in all, very fun night. Oh wait, what is that? Oh, oh you want to see the picture of me and Evan again? Oh, alright, but only for you guys!

Might I add that I was wearing gray argyle tights (not pictured). Notice how Evan was wearing a gray argyle sweater. Just sayin...just sayin...

Also, I apologize that I did not do a Halloween blog. My camcorder was out of batteries and I was unfortunate enough to discover this fact on Halloween night. I have plenty of pictures, but, seeing how I did not post them, I don't know if it will happen, and next week is Ender's birthday. I will try to get the Halloween pictures up later this week for everyone though! Promise.

OK BAI!

The Fairground Left Town but the Circus Stayed In

2009-10-18T20:59:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't actually posted a blog in a few weeks, but don't you worry, I have been diligently recording the things that the babies and I go do! Two things that we have done relatively recently is go to the Utah State Fair (yeah, so what that it was a month ago, shut it!), and the Circus. Since I haven't posted in awhile, I am just going to include both the videos in here, as I feel that will make it much easier.

The first video is the video of the fair. It was very hot that day, and I had not dressed the babies appropriately, as it had been cold weather up to that point. Also, going to the fair was rather spur of the moment, and I had to work that evening, so we left as soon as they had gotten home from Ian's that Saturday. Since everything was happening very quickly, I had barely remembered to bring the video camera, and I didn't remember to have the babies say goodbye in the video like I like to do. So really it is just a montage of what we did. It includes the big slide, the farm thing where the kids can do all the "farm jobs", and the pony ride :)

The second video is the Circus. The Circus was also rather spur of the moment as Sev was at his dance lesson when the teacher asked who was going to the circus. Everyone raised their hands except Severian. While he could deal with that kind of humiliation, I could not, so, I bought tickets that night, and we went to the circus the next day. I did a pretty good job of the video, so it is rather self explanatory.

As a side note, there is maybe only one person who will read this blog that will understand the title, but let me assure you, it is amazing. Although it would have been a lot neater if I had blogged about the Fair in a separate post, then did the circus.

PEACE PEEPS.

I am a Rock Star

2009-09-13T19:44:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

So, most of you probably know that I had the opportunity to be on Good Things Utah last week. I was super excited about it, and so, I made a blog about it. You know, as you do. So, anyway, here is my vlog:

You can also see my TV debut here

Vlogging and Such

2009-09-07T23:39:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone!

Alright, alright, I know I haven't blogged since April. Sorry about that. It has been super hard to find time to blog because Summer has been so busy. Plus, sitting and actually typing things out, and uploading pictures seems to take a lot of time. Anyway, I have decided to try something new. I am going to try to VLOG! Yes, that is right, it is a Video Blog. Last year for Christmas my Mom got me a little Flip Camera, and I love it. It is super easy to upload videos to Youtube and it is super easy to edit and everything. So, what I think I am going to do is go ahead and post my vlogs on the blog, so that anyone who wants to can watch them. I hope that they are at least mildly entertaining. We shall see. You will at least be able to see all the silly things my kids do.

You can also see them all at http://www.youtube.com/crazysinglemommy .

So, the first part is kinda boring. Sorry about that, I'll get better. Promise. :)

That is all. Muchluf.

Butterflies and Flower

2009-04-26T20:19:00.000-07:00

Well folks, I finally did it. Some of you who are close to me know that, for a while, I have been wanting to get a tattoo. I mostly haven't for a number of different reasons, the top one being that I was TERRIFIED of the pain involved. It didn't bother me that this would be something that was on my body for the rest of my life, oh no, it was definitely the pain.

All last week I was pondering going and getting one. I recently got my tax return, and since Disneyland is paid for already, I had a little bit of extra money to spend. The tattoo was something that I had wanted, and I felt in a rather dangerous mood. So, all week I was talking to Ryley and telling her that I wanted to go get one, since I knew she would go with me. I was also trying to prep Duane, because he was adamantly against me getting one.

Friday rolled around, and I decided that I did definitely want to try to go get one. Try being the key word there. Anyways, Ryley and I hung out most of the day, and around 7pm we made it down to Lost Art, which is a really great Tattoo parlor in downtown Salt Lake City. I was very nervous about the whole thing, and was totally shaking the whole time I was signing the permission form and everything. However, they got me the only girl artist in the shop, and she was very nice to me. She even did just a little line at first to make sure I could handle the pain.

Obviously, it did hurt. I am not going to sit here and tell you that tattoo's feel like someone is tickling your back with a feather. However, it did not hurt as much as I expected, nor did the pain feel as I expected it too. It felt kind of like stinging or burning. At one point though, I was able to calm myself by singing Into the Woods in my head, and I could barely feel it. All in all, the whole experience took about 20 minutes.

And without further ado, here is the best picture I was able to get. The tattoo is on the small of my back, and would, informally, be called a Tramp Stamp. :)

The pink butterfly is for Katalina, the blue one is for Severian and the green one is for Ender. The flower represents me. There is also room to add a fourth butterfly if I were to ever have another baby. It was very special for me to get it, and Duane really likes it, despite his initial hesitation.

On a completely different note, Duane and I just spent 45 minutes watching scenes from musicals and discussing our top five Broadway shows. Let me express how much I love him.

Yeah, it's been awhile

2009-04-22T20:53:00.001-07:00

Sorry it has been so long since the last post. I have been way busy for the last little bit, and for a while I did not have teh internetz. Here is a quick summary of events over the past month and a half:

1. I moved out of my apartment and in with my parents. While a little cramped this works better for everyone involved as it allows me to stay home with the babies. They have been much happier with me home, and they love having Grandma and Grandpa with them all the time. Also, they love the five dogs that come with the house!

2. I went to New Jersey over my Birthday. This trip was very fun, and I got to meet his parents. I also got to see my cousins new baby girl! She is beautiful, I would post a picture but I do not have any pictures from that trip on this computer. Plus I had this wierd eye thing going on cause I fell asleep in my contacts. no one wants to see that. Also, Duane got me a very pretty necklace for my birthday. He is such a good boyfriend.

3. Duane came here and met my family and babies! It was a great trip. My family loved him, and so did my babies, and he loved them. It was way cute too because he bought some workbooks for Severian and woke up with him every morning and did the workbooks with him so that Sev could get ready for Kindergarten. I am working with Sev now, but Severian loved that time that he got to spend with Duane. Katalina also claimed him as one of her many minions and Ender regarded him as Ender regards everyone, by pretending he didn't exist. That is, of course, until Duane left at the airport. Ender got very stressed when he left, and insisted on standing at the end of the security line until we could not see Duane anymore. Here are a few pictures of us from that trip:

4. Severian started baseball! This is a very cute activity for him, even though he does not have one baseball bone in his body. He has done some very funny things in the two games he has had. However, I think the best thing he has done is after not hitting the ball he spins a pirouette before he is ready to try again. It is machine pitch, so they get five tries before they hit off of a tee. He will only spin once UNTIL his fifth try, then, when he misses the fifth one (which, he generally does) he spins multiple times away from the home base. It is actually hilarious. He also told me the other day that he wants to be a ballerina. I am not really surprised. Here are some pictures from Sevs baseball:

His team is the Cubs, and I have more pictures of him in his jersey, but they are on my brand new digital camera (yay for tax returns!) I just took the pictures yesterday and haven't uploaded them to this computer, so, as soon as I do, I will post them.

5. WE ARE GOING TO DISNEYLAND! May 6th through the 12th. Rock on. Again, yay for tax returns! WEWT!

Again, sorry to have taken such a long break. I promise that I will be better about posting from now on, I just had to get settled in to the new swing of things in the new house.

LUFS!

I am to Crochet what Yoda is to the Force...or something....

2009-02-27T17:12:00.001-08:00

So about two weeks ago my Aunt was in town to see my Grandparents. This was a lot of fun because I love to see my Aunt. I went over to my Grandparents house at one point, and she was making a baby blanket, because my cousin Tracy is having a baby in like, oh, like right now. So anyways, she was making this blanket and I said to myself " I want to learn to crochet!" My Auntie Ann, being awesome, bought me a crochet book that came with hooks, and some yarn so that I could learn how to do it myself. However, I am the type of person that needs to be able to see it visually too so that I know I am doing it correctly.

When I got to a stitch that I needed some clarification on, I thought to myself "hmm..I wonder if there is somewhere I could see this stitch so that I can see how to do it properly..." ENTER YOUTUBE. First, let me just say that I love youtube. There are so many things on there that are not only awesome, they teach you something too. I found a whole youtube channel devoted to crochet! AMAZING HUH?!

So my friends, if YOU would like to be just as awesome as ME, then point your little clickers on this link here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/tjw1963

That is the youtube channel. You can learn all the beginning stitches there, and also learn how to do squares for blankets and hats and such. You can also go to the gals blog here:

http://crochet-mania.blogspot.com/

And there is a lot more stuff that you can sort through. It really is very awesome. And now, I know how to crochet! WEWT!

Dinosaur Museum

2009-02-23T19:42:00.000-08:00

So on Saturday I took the kids to the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. I went with my ex-inlaws, Nancy, Colby and Dawn. This excursion was a whole lot of fun. We met up with a friend of Dawn's and her son. The little boy that came with us was also 5 so Sev had a little friend to play with. I had also done Katalina's hair all sorts of cute that day, so I was very excited about life.

When we first got there Severian and Ender were very scared of the big dinosaurs. For the first half of the day Ender refused to be put down. Of course, he looked around and chose the biggest and strongest of all of us, Colby. He stayed with Colby all through the museum until we got to the parts that were interactive.

The Dinosaur Museum is a really good place to take kids to. There was a water "erosion" table, which is basically this big thing of chlorinated water and sand that the kids can build things in and watch how the water "erodes" the sand. There are all sorts of toys in the table to play with, like little dinosaurs and trees. Severian actually made a Dinosaur swimming pool, complete with tropical trees!

There was also a place where the kids could color, and "Build a dinosaur", which is basically where you stick big stuffed legs and heads to a velcro body. This would have been cool, except the velcro was all worn out on the body, so nothing stuck. The kids still had fun coloring and playing with the puzzles though:

They also had little excavation pits for the kids to "uncover" dinosaur bones in:

And a cave that Severian and I climbed into:

It was a lot of fun, and surprisingly, not very expensive. The kids had a blast, and it was highly interactive for them. Even Katalina had a good time!

On a side note, I think Severian and I may have contracted Ebola from the erosion table, cause the next day, we were both very sick with the stomach flu. So, if you are able to steer away from that area without having the little ones play, I would suggest walking past it. Although it smelled strongly of Chlorine, and although we washed our hands thoroughly, I am still pretty sure we contracted baby Ebola from the water. It was NOT good times. I'm just sayin....

Another Sev-Ism

2009-02-02T21:43:00.000-08:00

Today I went shopping after work. Mind you, this means that we go a little later, and we didn't even get to WalMart until about 7 in the PM. Shopping only took about 45 minutes cause I had my Mom with me to help, but at the end of the night, this is what Severian looked like:

He was so tired that he had fallen asleep in the shopping cart! So freaking cute!

Which way the wind will blow....

2009-01-27T20:06:00.000-08:00

Here it is! The blog I am sure so many of you have been waiting for! This may seem like quite the conceited statement, however, I have already been asked about this blog like three times, sooooooooooo I know it is true :)

So I went to New Jersey to see Duane, and it was amazing. I got in on Friday night right on time, and he was standing, looking very handsome I might add, at the bottom of the escalator. I ran over to him and gave him big hugs and kisses, and then we got my baggage and went back to his house to drop everything off. We then went to dinner with his friends Janet and Josh. They were very nice, and it was a good evening. This is us that first night:

The next day was the day that he had been planning for a while. That was our New York day. He took me to New York, where I have never been, and took me to see Mamma Mia. He also took me out to a very nice dinner in the city. We took the train from New Jersey to New York. Here are some pictures at the train station:

We took the train from New Jersey into New York, which was actually very fun. I really like trains, and it was fun to see different parts of New Jersey. It was also very neat to ride into Pennsylvania Station. You ride through the tunnel for about 5 minutes, and then it opens up, and you look up out of your window and see the huge buildings of the city. It is almost like a movie set. They only give you that brief second of a preview though because then you are underneath the ground while the train parks. We got out, and went up into New York.

Being in the city was quite surreal to me. Most of the time it felt like I was on the back lot of some film studio. It was freezing in the city, but it was really neat how we could walk anywhere. Pennsylvania Station is on 7th Avenue, and you just keep walking up the street, and you find Broadway. Mind you, most of you know me to be quite the little Broadway girl, so to actually see the sign that said "Broadway", my heart stopped just a little bit. I was in Lindsay Heaven. In New York, on Broadway, with a wonderful man. Yep. Lindsay Heaven.

Anyways, Duane took me to see Mamma Mia at the Winter Garden Theater. Which is also the theater where Cats played for so long:

The play was really fun and really cute. It was wonderful to see an actual Broadway production as the quality of everything was really fabulous. And it was such a cute, fun and light show. It was perfect, and my baby had gotten us fabulous seats.

After the show, he took me out to a real New York dinner! It was at a little French restaurant just North of the theater called Maison. We got three courses, and all of them were very good. I got a little Pizette, which is like a little pizza, roasted chicken, and then a Chocolate Souffle. The dessert looked so scrumptious that I took a picture of it:

After dinner we had to walk back to Penn Station to catch our train back to New Jersey. It was beautiful to walk through the city at night, although it was utterly and bitterly freezing. We thought about taking the subway, but I hadn't gotten a picture of Times Square when we passed through it in the morning, and I wanted to see it all lit up at night, so we braved the freezing temperatures. Here are the pictures:

What I haven't yet told you is that I have a little bit of city anxiety. And, by a little, I actually mean quite a bit. It was so cute cause Duane took care of me to calm my fears in this respect, but as we were walking back to the train station, after Times Square, there were two corners where we had to walk through two huge groups of black Islamists. The first corner we walked through the group and the preacher dude that was speaking said "These white people, they don't know what we're talking about, they don't understand" I was like OMG! THEN on the NEXT corner there was some chick who looked to be like a masters student or something ARGUING WITH THEM! I was pretty sure someone was going to get shot. No one did though, so that is good. We got to Penn Station and had a little while before our train. We started to wander around but at that point my anxiety got the better of me, and we had to go back to the part of the station where I was familiar with. Poor Duane with poor anxiety attack Lindsay. But, he was so sweet about it and hugged me and held me until the nerves had passed.

The train ride is about an hour each way, so because we were looking so cute, I decided to take a bunch of pictures of us. I am going to post them cause they are so cute:

The next day was a pretty lazy day. We hung out for a while, and went to brunch, which was really good. We went over to his sister Tammy's house, and I got to meet her and her boyfriend. They were very nice, although both a little under the weather I think, so that was too bad. Tammy has just gotten a cute little puggle puppy. Which is a mix between a beagle and a pug. As I am blogging this I am kicking myself for not getting a picture of the puppy cause he was so cute. But, alas, another time. After that we went back home and I got to see a lot of old videos of Duane's. He was in drum and bugle corp in high school, which is like an amazing marching band which tours the country over the summer, so he showed me a video of that. And, I got to see some of his college piano recitals that he had been in. They were all very awesome.

The next day was sad because it was Monday, and I was leaving. :( I didn't leave until late afternoon, so we did get a lot of the day together. Duane was able to show me the music from the children's musical he had written, which was very good. He also played the accordion for me! I added the clip below:

Duane has quite the extensive instrument collection. All of which he can play very well. I took a picture of his string instruments which hang on his wall:

They are all named, from the left it is Mandy, Bassy, Banji, Lecty, and Cousty. And his accordion is Courdy:

I also took more pictures of us. And yes. I am that girl that takes pictures of me and my baby kissing, and then I POST THEM. Deal with it.

Duane is amazing. He is kind, sweet, handsome, funny, smart, and more talented than I knew. I had such a wonderful time with him and I miss him very much already. He is more wonderful than I think he knows, and one of the most amazing people I have ever met. I am very lucky to have him in my life, and I appreciate him every single day. No matter what he can make my day brighter. The trip was great, and he is great. And I love him.

The end of this blog. There will be more I am sure. We are way cute though amirite? :D

Accio!

2009-01-15T20:15:00.000-08:00

So tonight I was perusing youtube, NOT doing laundry like I should have been. BUT, my boredom payed off, this is what I found:

What what? An entire song about the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? Pretty freaking awesome.

That is all.

What I learnt today

2009-01-11T19:57:00.000-08:00

About a week ago my sink disposal just stopped working. I flipped the switch one day and it just didn't turn on. I hadn't done anything traumatic to it, just the normal small food items. It just stopped working. This was very stressful to me because with three kids, I really felt that I NEEDED a disposal. Also, to get it fixed would have required me writing up a request, taking it to the apartment office, and waiting for them to fill my request. And probably also involved the toothless fixer dude. So, needless to say, I was not looking forward to it, so I had been putting off my request.

Well, today my Dad came over, and I just happened to mention that the disposal was broken. He looks at me and says "Have you tried pressing the restart button?" and I said "...there is a restart button?!" My Dad then proceeds to reach underneath the sink, press this magic button and my disposal works again.

This was epic enough knowledge that I thought I would pass it along to anyone who does not know about the magic restart button. Or, maybe it is just me that doesn't know. Either way...I am very happy to have learnt it.

You better not shout, you better not cry!

2009-01-08T21:30:00.000-08:00

So, this is a bit late, but I just got the pictures from when Santa came to our house to visit us. See, we are very special, and Santa came just for us about a week before Christmas. He even brought one of his elfs! Severian thought this was just about the coolest thing that he had ever experienced in his life. Ender was somewhat skeptical of the big guy in the red suit, and Kat...well...she was absolutely terrified. It is funny, cause Kat is a pretty social baby, but there was something about a fully grown man in a red suit with a full beard that freaked her out. She literally started shaking when I tried to take her over to Santa. She clung to me and buried her face in my shoulder, and shook until I handed her to my mom, who was across the room from Santa. Anyways, here are the pictures:

As for us, there is not a whole lot that is new. Mostly just working and stuff. The kids are going to a new babysitter, which they seem to like. They miss Britany a lot, but they like the new girl, staci. And yesterday Auntie Ry came over for dinner so that was lots of fun! Our lives have settled down quite a bit though from the 8 week marathon that started in November for us. It is a nice change of pace.

And, because I read the beautiful Sarah's blog right after I posted mine, I thought I would add my little quiz character to my page:

Take the Quiz here!

Think of me fondly, whenever you fancy...

2008-12-30T20:25:00.000-08:00

Sooooo.....Hmmm....how do I want to start this blog? I am unsure. This blog has the specific intent to set everyone up for the slew of blogs that will be coming in about 3 weeks that will be mushy and sappy and full of pictures, and to introduce someone who is very important to me. I guess let me refer back to a little blog entitled something like "I have been thinking a lot lately..." Or something to that effect. I believe that in that blog, I set out some rules and guidelines that I was looking for in a significant other. Lets review:

#1. Must have accent.
#2. Must love musicals and old movies.
#3. Must be able to dance..or willing to try to learn
#4. Must be Quirky.
#5. Must be willing to write me notes/give flowers/do cute thing
#6. Must Not be Gay

I think that I have found a man who fits into every catagory, and more.

#1. The accent, I know, was one of my most crucial points. But, his Jersey accent is incredibly adorable, and sweet, and not thick at all, which is good. It is just enough for this little Lindsay to swoon over :)

#2. He not only loves musicals, he is musical! He can finish almost any song that I start to sing randomly, or can at least tell me what musical it is from. He even knew what "Once on this Island" was when I had never heard of it. He has also been in musicals, and in the orchestra for musicals. Which, I of course, think is amazing.

#3. He can dance, and not only dance, knows how to ballroom dance. Hello!

#4. He is quirky enough to meet my quirkiness.

#5. In the time that I have known him, he has been very sweet, and has made sure that he made me feel wanted every single day by just doing the little things like texts. He plans AMAZING surprises, and has made me feel so special. There have been times when I have not known how to respond with words because I am so blown away by how sweet he is.

#6. I know what you are all thinking. There is no way that there is a guy like this who is straight. Well. He is. True story.

These were the few guidelines that I set up just a while ago. However, my boy most certainly surpasses these by leaps and bounds. He is an elementary school music teacher, so, I mean really, how freaking adorable is that? He is extremely talented, and can sing, play piano, guitar, bass, banjo and probably more, and is good at all of them. Oh, and did I mention that most of them are self taught. He writes songs that are good. Can juggle. Runs regularly (the other day he ran 12 miles, and I was tired just thinking about it, but it is amazing to me). Oh, and is freaking hot. And did I mention amazing? Cause he is. He is very smart, and our personalities mesh very well. Like, our first conversation, we had a full on theoretical discussion about Harry Potter, and whether or not Snape would have befriended Harry had he lived. He didn't even KNOW that Harry Potter was the way to my heart. It was just....him....

His name is Duane, and he is my boy. And I am swept away.

I know you are all like, oooo what does he look like? Well, I will have more pics and more stories coming in the next few weeks, but here is a sneak peek for now...

I know right. Freaking cute. Freaking, freaking adorable.

Holiday Season!

2008-12-27T19:26:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! It has been a while since I have blogged, and I apologize for that. We have been crazy busy over the holidays. Also, all the babies have been sick at some point over the past two weeks, so it has been very crazy. However, Christmas is over, and I finally have a moment to sit down and do a little blog. There has been a lot that has happened. The first thing is Severian turned 5! And, being a very spoiled boy, he got not one but three birthdays! The first one was supposed to be on the Saturday before his birthday, however it snowed very bad, so we didn't get a chance to do much. But, he still got to open his presents that day, got a cake, and we went to go see Bolt. The neat thing was that we went to go see it, and it just happened to be one that was in 3-D! Severian thought this was one of the neatest things ever, and surprisingly, kept his 3-D glasses on the whole time:

So he had that party, AND then we also had a little party for him on his actual birthday, which was the next wednesday. Kat and Ender were sick, so we did not do a whole lot, just a little cake at my Mom's house. He got lots of things, he got a playdough set, High School Musical 3 soundtrack, and lots more, here are some pictures:

He also got a doctor's outift, which was just about the cutest thing ever. He loves to dress up and play doctor with his brother and sister and me:

Severian's birthday is the last birthday in our birthday marathon. His is December 17th, so it is a week before Christmas. The week of Severian's birthday, we also put up our tree. This was very fun as the kids loved to help me decorate the tree. Ender was old enough this year to participate. Although I much prefer real trees to fake ones, real trees are expensive, and also very hard for me to get, and dispose of. You know, cause I am a small single mother of three that does NOT have the strength to get it up three flights of stairs by myself. While my parents and brothers would help me, it is still just a huge hassle for everyone. So, last year, we bought a fake tree. And, our fake tree is pretty much the coolest ever. I don't have to string lights in it because it already has lights. But none of those crap pre-lit bulbs. It has, get this, FIBER OPTIC lights. That are RAINBOW colored. For shizzle yo. Sev picked it out. Anyway, here are the kids decorating the tree:

And, finally, we get to Christmas. Christmas this year was amazing. The kids, as per usual, got a ton of stuff. I did not take a lot of pictures because my Mommy got me a little digital camera that allows me to take videos, and upload them directly to my computer. Which is A M A Z I N G. The kids got a lot of playdough, moon sand, building stuff, and tool kits. They also got this way cool dinosaur thing that makes sound and walks, a remote control car, and lots of clothes. And lots more that I am sure I am forgetting. It was great too because I got to spend time with my family, and with my in-laws, and it was not trauma at all. It was all very good, and it was very good for the babies as well.

Oh, and, as our big family gift, my Mom and Dad got me a Wii. And a Wii Fit. I am officially the coolest person y'all know. I mean, I am just sayin.... but, Severian is certainly the coolest five year old you know cause he is going to rock the wii out.

Here is just a little clip of Christmas, if you have made it through this lengthy blog, then I applaud you. I hope your holidays were as fabulous as mine. Here is our brief clip of Christmas, filmed with my excellent new camera. My favorite part of the video is the quote by Sev "Look, I got light up socks, so if I don't see my feet I can just see them!" Pure awesome:

More to come!!!!! <3 you all!

Jasper Hale? NO Jasper Adams!

2008-12-13T19:17:00.000-08:00

I am very sorry, I have been very busy, and not blogging. I have a lot to blog still, which I am sure I will get to eventually. However, I have a very important announcement to make! There has been an addition to our little family! His name is

JASPER!

He is our new pet ferret! He is a pretty cool ferret, and is very nice. He doesn't nip at the kids or anything. He really is the most chill pet that we could have gotten. He just hangs out with us and gives lots of cuddles. He also goes on walks..

Although his favorite thing to do is slip his leash and hide under the boys bed at seven in the morning. THAT was AWESOME.

Severian was very excited about him, and has been such a big boy in helping to take care of him. Sev is still a little nervous about Jasper, but loves to pet him and cuddle him if I am the one actually holding him. He is also a very big boy when it comes to making sure Jasper has new food and clean water. I am very proud of him.

Anyway, lots more to come, but I freaking did something to my back, and it is KILLING me. I can barely sit. On top of that, Ender is having a fit over something. Sometimes, it is just not easy. >.<

My Sweet Baby Boy...

2008-12-03T21:20:00.000-08:00

I was going to leave Kat's birthday blog up for a few more days before posting another blog. However, I have a story for all of you about my night tonight.

Once upon a time a little girl named Lindsay was sitting in her house playing on her computer. She was a happy little girl, and had just put her babies down for bed. While she was in the middle of youtubing Josh Weller songs (because lets face it, she was terribly bored and did not talk to Jersey this night) she heard her little girl Kat crying. Lindsay decided to wait for a moment, because all of her babies should have been asleep, and she figured that maybe Kat was just having a moment. Kat continued to cry, and then started to scream. This frightened Lindsay so she got up and went to go check on Kat.

Lindsay opened the door and was greeted with an interesting sight. Her 2 year old, Ender, was sitting on the floor coloring with some markers of Severian's. He had colored all over himself. Lindsay said "Ender! Go lay back down in bed!". Kat was still crying so Lindsay turned to Kat. This is what she saw:

Not only had Ender been coloring on himself, he had been using Kat as his canvas as well. Katalina was covered in marker on her head, and it was all over her shirt, arms, knees, and crib. Lindsay turned and stifled a laugh. It really was pretty funny after all, but she had to be strong and teach Ender that coloring on his sister was NOT a valid way to express your artistic nature. Lindsay turned and said "Ender, you are not allowed to color on your sister, that is a No No!". However, this is what Ender was doing:

Lindsay again had to fight back laughter, as Ender was not REALLY sleeping. He was actually faking sleep because he knew that he was in trouble. Lindsay attempted to speak to him, but he lay very still and kept his eyes shut the entire time. After Lindsay cleaned Kat up and put her back to bed Ender opened his eyes for a second, then quickly hid them under his hands. Lindsay walked out of the room and laughed pretty hard. Even though Kat was very upset about being colored on, it was about the funniest thing that had happened all day.

The End.

That is my story. My children are pretty crazy. But, I love the heck out of them.

Happy Birthday Kat!

2008-12-01T21:56:00.000-08:00

One year ago on December 1st my Mom picked me up from my house and took me to the hospital. We must have left at about 7 in the morning and the weather was terrible. It was a huge snowstorm, and we had to drive about 10 miles an hour the entire way there. What should have taken us 10 minutes took about 30. We finally got there and got checked into my hospital room. I was tired, the last 4 months had been a living Hell, and, to top it off Severian had been throwing up the entire night before. So. I was sick, tired, very sad and very frightened.

About 2 hours later I had a beautiful baby girl. She was perfect in every way. And she was mine. She gave me a little bit of a scare because she had a little bit of a hard time breathing, and ended up spending about a day in the NICU with her head in this oxygen box thing. It cleared out the fluid around her lungs, and helped her to breathe.

December 1, 2008 we woke up and it was a beautiful and clear sunny day. Katalina has grown into a beautiful little baby girl and can already say things like "mom", "light", and "ba" (for bottle). She has everyone wrapped around her little teeny pinky baby finger. Including her brothers. She has a big temper for such a small little girl, but she doesn't show her temper that often. Usually only when Ender takes away a toy from her. She loves to give cuddles and big kisses and is such a blessing in my life. For her birthday this year we had a little party at my Mom's house. My family was there, including my Grandma Hoagland, and Ryley came too. Ryley and I often say that Katalina is our child because Ryley has been in her life since birth. For 2 weeks after my c-section Ryley camped out on my couch and helped me while I recovered from the surgery. Between her and my Mom I was able to get through the whole surgery thing, and even got to sleep on occasion because Ryley would take Katalina at least one of the 4 times she would wake up during the night.

Anyway, back to the point, we had a big first birthday party for Katalina:

She was the star of the party and everyone wanted to hold her and hang out with her. After all, it was her party!

Because she is now 1 years old, she is able to ride in a front facing car seat. This was the first present that she opened, and she was very excited about it:

She promptly climbed into the car seat and sat in it. She even wanted all the buckles done up for her.

Among other things she also got her first doll..

Her own car, because she loves all the boys cars, so I got her one of her very own (Jaime, you may recognize this one....)

And a squishy book for her to play with:

She also got the little outfit she is wearing!

After presents we had pizza:

And cake:

Obviously, Kat ate her cake rather daintily, while Ender made sure that he got every bit of cake he could into his mouth. Severian thought this was pretty funny.

After the party I put all the new car seats into my car. This is now what it looks like:

This is what the back of my car looks like with children all strapped in:

It was a great day, and it was so fun to see how much my little girl has grown. I am excited for the next year and all the changes it will bring in all my children!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAT!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T22:39:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We had a great Thanksgiving this year. Severian, Ender and I got up and watched the Macey's Thanksgiving Day parade, and then I also made pancakes for everyone while the kids watched the parade. The kids got a great nap, and Severian was very excited to go eat some turkey. I am very lucky that I still have both my Grandmas, and one of my Grandpas. This means that the kids have TWO Great-Grandmas and a Great-Grandpa. Everyone was at my parents house this year, so that was way fun. My Mom also made special "turkeys" for the boys. They were small little cornish game hens and the kids thought that this was a pretty cool thing. Ender ate a whole bunch of his, and 3 rolls. Actually, he ate a few bites of each roll, and then put it back on the plate. Kat even had some turkey and rolls, and Severian ate a lot of green beans. And now, without further ado, pictures:

It was great to spend time with family, and although there was half a family that I missed this year, all in all it was very nice. It was very relaxing, and I am looking forward to Black Friday with Ryley. 5AM BABY! 5AM!!!!!

Once On This Island

2008-11-26T20:34:00.000-08:00

Well. Nothing could surpass Twilight. However, the other day Kim and I had the opportunity to go to West Jordan High and see....ONCE ON THIS ISLAND! Yayaya! Yeah. I had never heard of it before we went and saw it. When I googled it, this is one of the first things that came up:

Now. I ask of you. What part of this looks like a musical that a UTAH High School could do? I mean, I am not trying to be like all wierd here, but seriously. We just don't have the proper soul to pull it off! It brought back memories of when Jordan High School decided to do Aida, and I was like "Aida!? WTF, do they know that they are a High School in the middle of Sandy Utah?!" But, you know, whatever, we went to be supportive so that is cool.

Of course, the entire cast was white. As expected. This is not really a problem when you own it and embrace it. However, they all spoke with Jamaican accents...so you know. That was cool. Anyways, I think that I was HIGHLY spoiled at Cottonwood. We generally had a really good cast, a great set, a big stage, and talented people. I feel bad blogging about this, but the lead in this play, could not dance OR sing. It was...terrible. The worst was there were girls in the chorus that we could hear had a better voice! I don't know, it was all very confusing.

Beneath the terrible High Schoolness of it, however, was a good musical that I had never encountered. I did actually enjoy it, and it was a fun story. The music is something that I would like to find so that I have it. It was also very much fun to hang out with Kim. Between both of our lives, we do not have a lot of time to hang out together, so it was quite the treat:

So that was much fun.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! yay! It has been nice because I had today off, and I have the rest of the week through Saturday off. Well. I work Friday for 2 hours, but that is not bad at all. Overall, it is a much needed break. We are having a partay for Katalinas 1st Birthday on Saturday. All are welcome!!!!!! As for now, I'm out!

Your going to a house full of vampires and you're worried they won't like you?

2008-11-21T23:52:00.000-08:00

TWILIGHT CAME OUT TODAY! Traditionally, this SHOULD have been the Harry Potter premier day. However, HP does not come out until Summer, so they bumped the Twilight movie up. I am not complaining.

I love the book series, so I was excited, and nervous, to go see the movie today. I went with Ryley and Melissa, and I must say, I was highly impressed. I won't give away very much because some of you may not have seen it yet. However, I will say that for the most part, it followed the book very well. I also am a big fan of the actor that plays Edward. He ALSO played Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. So there is no way that I can NOT be in love with him. Here are some pics of the night:

Here is the actual Twilight Marquee:

There was a vendor that was selling posters and other fun things relating to Twilight. I did not buy anything, but I took pictures of them :)

Ryley decided that she was in love with the kid who played Jacob in the movie. As a whole, I am not a big fan of the actual Character, so I have a hard time with her new boyfriend choice. Although, I will admit that the actor is kinda cute.

Me and Ry in front of the big poster! Melissa would not join us in any pictures because she seemed to think she was having a bad hair day. Psh. Lame.

As a side note, after the movie we went to use the bathroom. Cause you know. That is what girls do! Well, they had the most AMAZING hand dryers in the bathroom. The sign promised that my hands would be dry in 12 seconds...

And sure enough they were! Here is a picture of it. It really was THAT cool.

Anyway, back on track, Twilight was amazing and I had a lot of fun. I am hoping to be able to see it a second time while it is still in theaters. The thing which topped the entire movie off, was the fact that the NEW Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince preview was shown. For those of you who have not seen this preview, I have included it for your viewing pleasure below:

All in all, it was a great night. I am just wondering if it is wrong that I am totally in love with a fictional character that is also a vampire. That is normal right? I am pretty sure it is normal.... ;)

Happy Birthday Ender!

2008-11-16T18:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Ender's 2nd Birthday! YAY! I am very glad that it happened to fall on a Saturday, and also that it happened to fall on my Saturday with the children. This meant that I got to spend the entire day with the birthday boy. After I picked the babies up from Ian's house, my Mom and I took them to McDonalds for breakfast. Apparently, they now have breakfast kids meals where you get these little hotcake things (I believe they are called McGriddles or something of the sort). Ender loved them, but not quite as much as Katalina. I was HIGHLY surprised at the amount that little girl ate. She had two of them!

Ender had a lot of fun at mcd's, but, I believe he had a party at his Dad's house the night before...so...he wasn't in the mood to take pictures at ten in the morning...he was probably pictured right out.

After we ate, my Mom and I took all the kids to Toys R Us so that Ender could pick out his birthday present. This is a fun little tradition in the making. I must say that seeing Ender and Severian in Toys R Us was pretty funny. Severian knew that he was going to get a present too, because, that is what you do when you have a 4 and a 2 year old. Unless you want to just spend the day breaking up the fights. Cause you know. That is fun too. ANYWHO Severian walked into that store and I seriously thought his eyes would pop out. He was suddenly a manic child. He could not focus completely on anything and was running from place to place. The first toy he say he said "I want that toy!" then he saw another one and said "I want that one!" Finally, both the boys found a toy. Ender got this cute little Backyardigans circus thing...so I now have "YOUR BACKYARD FRIENDS THE BACKYARDIGANS" burned into my mind forever more. Severian got this really neat crayola painting thing. He paints this clear gel stuff on the "magic paper" and each gel turns a different color. They have it for markers too. It is very nice, and also non messy. What a wonderful invention.

After Toys R Us the kids came home and crashed for about an hour and half. I was pretty excited about this, because I got to clean and wrap all the presents I had gotten them. For about two seconds I was way excited because I thought that I would ALSO get a quick nap. I am pretty sure, however, that Severian has the best hearing ever because the second I lay down I hear the kids bedroom door open and the pitter patter of little feet. Ah well. Who needs naps?

We then got ready and went to Chuck E Cheese for a little party. My parents and brothers came, and also my friend Erin and her daughter Marilyn. Currently Marilyn and Severian are intended for each other. But..Marilyn runs circles around the little boy, and Ender keeps up with her better than Severian does. So...Erin and I may have to do some re-arranging with who is going to marry who. The kids had a very fun time at Chuck E Cheeses, and I got this little "family deal" where we got some pizza drinks AND tokens. It was great that my brothers were there because they like to play the games just as much as the kids do, so they took all the kids around to play.

After the kids were totally gamed out, we had cake. It was really cute because prior to lighting the candles Ender picked up one of the cars off the cake, looked at it for a minute, checked to make sure no one was watching him, then put the car back on the cake where it had been originally. All three kids were way excited about cake.

Then presents:

It was a really fun time

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ENDER!!!!

I am a teacher on sabbatical. And I have just won the lottery.

2008-11-14T23:51:00.000-08:00

Well, Ender's Birthday is tomorrow, so there will be a blog post about that, I am sure. Unfortunately my camera DIED on me yesterday. That was sad. Thank goodness I still have my phone which takes decent pictures. So, joy for all of you, there will be good picture times coming up. For now, here are some fun videos to watch on a Saturday morning with your coffee/bloody mary/bowl of cereal. Depending on who you are.

Well my blogstalkers...I have something to tell you....

LAWLZ JUST KIDDING! Geesh! Here...let me express my real feelings:

Also...I am pretty sure that I have ebola. I hear it is deadly.

MUCHLUF!

ps the new James Bond movie was pretty good. I missed the last one, so I didn't follow the entire story. BUT I did stare at Daniel Craig alot. So that was fun.

Muchluf to old friends!

2008-11-10T20:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had the pleasure of getting to know an old friend again. Thanks to the wonderful invention of Facebook, I found my friend Jon Harmon, and his beautiful new wife Brittany.

For those of you who don't know the Harmon's...you should get to know them. They were much fun to be around. I met Jon years ago during a stake play of Muppet Treasure Island. Regrettably, I do not have any old pictures, or else I would SOOOO include them. I was Jim, and Jon was Long John Silver:

It was excellent times.

Anyways, they invited the kids and me over for dinner, and we had a grand old time. Brittany made the most amazing mac and cheese that ever was. Now, for those of you who are thinking of the blue box mac and cheese...STOP. This dinner that she made was amazingly delicious and gooey and full of real cheese and noodles. Not fake cheese and noodles!. Because they are newly married they live in a cute little apartment in Provo, so we had a fun picnic,which the babies highly enjoyed.

Jon and Brittany also made this really delicious pie tart which I do not have a picture of because I gobbled it up so fast that I didn't have time to take a picture of it. Hey. I have children that steal food from my mouth. I had to hurry with something so good!

After dinner we all caught up while the boys played the keyboard. I was very pleased because the kids warmed up to Brittany and Jon very quickly.

Brittany held Katalina

And they had this floam stuff that the boys played with:

And Ender got to fly, which he always enjoys:

At the end of the night Severian decided he wanted to take pictures all by himself. These are some of the pictures he got:

Also, because they live on Moon River Dr.

It really was a lot of fun, and I highly enjoyed myself. It has been quite a while since I last saw Jon, and it was great to get to know him and Brittany again. I look forward to more fun times with the Harmons!

MUCHLUF!

There is no charge for awesomeness. Or attractiveness.

2008-11-09T13:07:00.000-08:00

It was my weekend without my children, and I never know quite what to do with myself. Since I only get an entire day off without any responsibility two times a month, I tend to want to pack it full of housework, fun, going out, hanging out, and sleep. Generally, although my intentions to get my house entirely clean are pure, it never happens. My dishes have been sitting in my sink all weekend now. And guess what? They will probably sit there until tonight when I watch Desperate Housewives and clean them. Snap.

This weekend was pretty good though. Friday night I went out with Ryley and my new fabulous friend Angela from work. We went to Lumpy's for some dancing, and then Ryley and I went to a little dive to do some Karaoke. She knows the Karaoke DJ there, so I was able to get in real quick to sing my songs. I sang a song for Ry, it is our song that I dedicated to her:

And here is our Mandatory pictures of the night:

It was pretty fun. I do love me some Karaoke! And now I am going to go get my children! Yay for weekends!

Cookie Night!

2008-11-05T21:46:00.000-08:00

Well friends, it is Wednesday, therefore, it was cookie night! Cookie night is one of my favorite nights. I have not been able to have it too much lately. I used to do it once a week, but then the weather got too hot. Since my apartment was regularly hovering in temperatures near 90 degrees, I canceled cookies for the summer. However, I have started them up again, and all is well.

Last cookie night I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Well. They did not turn out the way that I wanted them to, so, I tried again. I think they turned out slightly better this time. I made them a little bigger, and they were excellent. Early in the evening my friend Erin and her little girl, Marilyn, came over for dinner. The kids all sat at the table and ate grilled cheese and soup. Life could not have gotten much better in that moment

Shortly after dinner my friend Kaari came over with her two kids. Severian, at this point, was in Severian Heaven. He had THREE friends to play with! This brought the grand total of children in my house to six. Severian, Ender and Kat. Marilyn. Ethan and Joshua. They all six of them went in Sev's room and played while we three girls sat around and talked. We, all three of us, me, Erin, and Kaari, are beautiful single mothers of beautiful children. We have a lot in common, and even though it was Erin and Kaari's first time meeting each other, it was nice to sit down for a little bit for a chat.

After about ten minutes Ryley and Phil showed up. They brought me hot chocolate. Cheers to Ryley and Phil! YAY! At this point I think I had made one batch of cookies, so I put the dozen cookies on a plate and sat them on the coffee table for the kids to raid. Well raid they did. Within three minutes every cookie on the plate was gone. Katalina even got a cookie!

She ate the entire thing too! It was so funny. She played with the big kids all night, and she kept up with them! That little girl is so freaking tough. It is awesome. I tried to get a picture of all the kids that were at my house. It was a bit hard because kids on cookies do not want to sit still. Anyway, here is the best one I got:

The kids had a lot of fun, and later we were joined by Erica, Ben, and Zank. The kids started being chased around by all the boys that came over. So, being on a sugar high, they went into Severian's room (all but Kat anyways) and BARRICADED the door. I mean every single toy and piece of furniture kids under 5 could move was up against the door. They only left just enough of a gap so that they could slide through when they wanted to get out. I was a bit miffed, but, I could not really get angry at them, cause it was really cute. Luckily, I am teeny, so I was able to get inHere are some more pics of the night:

Ben, Erica, and Zank

Ryley and Phil

My friend Ben is very tall. He is 6'5, so the kids had a lot of fun making him help them walk on the ceiling

I also have some videos! The first one is what happens when you put six kids in a small apartment, give them a dozen cookies, and fake swords

This one is just cookie night, I was trying to get a shot of the huge barricade that was built in Sev's room, but alas, I didn't get a good shot of it. So, Ben and I started talking about High School Musical. Apparently you can see us pretty well in it! Yep. I am famous.

The best part of this night was when Severian came into my room. Ender and Katalina had just fallen asleep, and he wanted to come say goodnight to me. This is our conversation:

Sev: "Thank you thank you Mom for the cookies"
Me: "Your welcome Severian!"
Sev: "Mom, do you know who I love"
Me: "Who?"
Sev: "I love YOU Mom!"

So. Freaking. Cute.

Sev-isms and Ender-isms

2008-11-04T18:27:00.000-08:00

Sometimes Severian will say things that make me laugh pretty hard. He is a funny kid. Yesterday he found a picture of the dog we used to have, Daisy. Daisy died the Summer of 2007. He looked at her picture for a while, then came over to me to show me. This is our conversation

Sev: "Mom, I really miss Daisy"
Me: "I know sweet heart"
Sev: "But I miss her"
Me: "I know but we will get a new dog one day"
Sev: "But I loved Daisy, she was so cute and curious! I am sad she died"

At this point I was sort of giggling because it was so funny that he said that she was so cute and curious. I just wrapped him up in a hug and then he went to go play.

I also asked him to help clean his room tonight. He looked at me and replied "Um. Hmm. No thank you, I don't really feel like it right now, I want to watch cartoons". I didn't quite know how to respond because he was so polite about it!

Ender has also started to become very verbal. He will talk to me for a good two minutes. I am not sure what he is saying...but he seems to know what he is talking about so that is what matters. Recently he has started to say "please" but it comes out "kwease", just like Severian says.

Even Katalina is talking! That little girl ate TWO chicken nuggets today at McDonald's and ten fries. At one point I asked her if she wanted some more. She looked at me and, clear as day, said "Yeah, yeah!" and nodded her head. I about died.

I am seriously the luckiest person in the world.

THRILLER!

2008-11-01T22:09:00.000-07:00

HALLOWEEN 2008 WEWT WEWT WEWT! I love me some Halloween! This year was really fun, but really sad for me at the same time. Since Halloween fell on a Friday this year, the kids are usually with Ian. He offered to let me have them Halloween, but, unfortunately, I worked until 7pm so I was not really able to take the kids out trick-or-treating. So, they went with Ian. There has maybe been one year, when I was prego with Severian, that I have NOT been trick-or-treating, so it was really hard for me not to have my kids this year.

However, I was able to have them come to my work to trick-or-treat! This was great because I got to dress up for work, AND I got to see my kids dressed up for Halloween! The kids went as Ninja Jedi's (only the best costume ever) and Katalina went as a Strawberry Fairy. This is very fitting because my dad calls her a little strawberry! Here are some pictures:

Severian is rocking it with his MAD NINJA SKILLZ!

More mad skillz

Ender is just waiting for some candy.

The above pic is all of us, but Ender was deciding to be shy about pictures. Below is Mommy and Kat.

Since Ian had the kids for Halloween, I had the opportunity to do something that I have never really done before. I went to a Halloween party. This was very fun. I got to be all dressed up and sang Karaoke, played some rock band, and decorated some cookies. Since my new schedule is such that I have Saturdays off rather than Sunday, I didn't even have to worry about what time I had to leave, cause I could sleep in! All in all, it was very amazing. Here are some pictures:

This is my hair how it was SUPPOSED to look the whole night. It didn't stay like that though :(

We are doing some 80's work outs baby!

Jodi and I. We are cute. I know.

It never fails that a party at Jacob's house ends in Karaoke and Rock Band. I DO love me some karaoke. This is me and Becca rockin it out.

This is my full costume that I wore to work. I changed the shirt obviously. It is cold at work...

And then there is the back of my costume below

I was pretty much in love with my costume. That tutu is amazing you say? Yeah, well cause I made it all by myself. It was really hard for me to concentrate at my jobs yesterday because I just kept fussing with it. I loved it so much that I have decided to make festive tutus for every holiday. They will be similar to the festive sweaters that people wear around the holidays, except they will be cooler because they will be tutus! My next one will be a Thanksgiving Tutu. I am thinking it will be orange and brown with fake food tied to it. I am not even joking.

All in all it was a great night. I got the kids this morning and they showed their haul off to me. Then, we had a really fun day today! We were able to go "Trick-or-Treat" at my Grandparents house with my Mom and then she took us to Chick-Fil-A. After that, we came home for a quick nap, and then we went with Kim to the park and to Hires. This was great times.

Although we went out to eat today, the kids mostly ate candy. That is what you DO the day after Halloween! At one point today Ender had a sucker in his mouth, his candy bag in one hand, and he was running around and around in the circle between the kitchen and the living room. He was also singing as he was doing this. Yay for sugar highs! But, that is part of the fun, so who am I to deny a diet of candy the day after Halloween?

That is it for now, more to come!

Cornbellys...

2008-10-28T21:20:00.000-07:00

Today my friend Tiff and I had the bright idea to take all our children to Cornbellys' the Corn Maze. Cause, you know, who DOESNT want to go to a corn maze shaped like David Archuletta.

I kid you not. David. Archuletta.

So, we packed her four kids into her car, and my three kids into my car and set off on our adventure. The plan was that I would follow her, and we would have a grand old time. Unfortunately we hit traffic on the freeway...and I lost her car. This was not that huge of a deal because I just figured that we would find each other pretty easily once I got there. This should have been my first clue.

I get to Thanksgiving Point, and I get the kids out of the car. Mind you, going anywhere with all three children is a feat, because there is only one of me, and three of them. AND we were going in the evening, so it was darker out. I put Ender in his stroller, and strap Katalina to my chest in her snugli, and take Severian by the hand. I then go to lock my door.

No Keys.

They were not in my purse, they were not on the ground. I knew they were SOMEWHERE cause I had just driven there! The car wasn't even LOCKED yet and I managed to lose my keys. I know right. Only I would lose my keys before my car was locked. After an extensive search, I finally found them in Katalina's car seat. I don't even know, so don't ask. This should have been my second clue.

After the small trauma of the lost keys, we were ready to go. And ready to have fun! I get up to the ticket counter, and I reach in my bag to pull out my wallet. I look down and my hand is COVERED in blood. Not like, oh just a little bit. No no, COVERED in blood. It was literally dripping off my hand. I know this may be gross, but I am just trying to give you an acurate description of my night. I didn't feel anything, so I thought maybe Kat's nose was bleeding or something. I checked her out, and she was fine, so then I looked at my hand closer. Yeah, it is me. I had about 10 seperate cuts on my fingers. Most were paper cuts, but two were like, huge scrapes. I am pretty sure this happened when I was digging through my purse looking for my keys. So, the lady at the counter tries to help me by giving me one small bandaid, and a clorox disinfecting wipe. ..... ..... It was sweet, because they were just in a little booth so they would have been short on supplies. But still..I just was kind of like...fabulous. This should have been my third clue.

So I walk in all jazzed to try and find Tiff so that I could hand Kat to her, and clean up my hand. But, alas, Tiff and her four beautiful children were no where to be found! This was my fourth and final clue that it would be a slightly stressful event for me. I do not have a problem taking my kids out, but it was nighttime, and dark, so I was stressed about making sure I could always see them. Despite my slight anxiety, the kids had a good time. There were lots of things to do there, and lots of slides and play grounds. There was a bounce house that Severian and Ender jumped around in for about 20 minutes! I have pictures, as per usual...so..here you go...

Severian and Ender going down the big slide. It is blurry, but you get the idea.

I tried to take a family photo of all four of us, but the babies weren't cooperating. And Ender flat out refused, so I got single shots of me and Kat and me and Sev.

That was our night. The kids had a lot of fun and came home happy and tired. Ultimately, that is what matters.

And, Tiff and I decided that next time, we are going to just bake sugar cookies.

2008-10-27T21:42:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking a lot lately about my life. The past year my life has been really incredibly rough. However, I have owned up to the challenge I feel, and I am a better person because of the things that I have been through. Although, in theory, life should have jaded me against love and relationships, I am not one to be daunted so easy. What happened to me was not my fault. In fact, I am better for it. Also, I have really come to the conclusion in the last couple of days that I would like to get married again...eventually. I have been thinking, and thinking about it. And, I like this idea. I mean, come on, what girl DOESN'T want to have 2 weddings in their life. What? You want to throw a party where I get to wear a beautiful dress and be the center of attention for a night? ok! DONE!

No, but really, I do want to be married again. I am a big believer that children should have a two parent household. The one thing that I NEVER wanted for them was a broken home. Eventually, I want them to be able to see what a normal relationship is. I also have an overwhelming desire to love, and to be loved, so companionship is something that I want for myself.

On that note, I also realized that, second time around, I can basically HAND PICK the person I would like to be with. While I was daydreaming today I came up with a few things that I would like in a man. So, although this blog got rather sappy to begin with, I am really blogging because I need everyone's help in finding my perfect man. A gal with two jobs and three kids cant do it alone. So, obviously the main quality in a guy would be that he loves kids and treats me and my children well. However, I have come up with a few other things I would like dream dude to have:

#1. Must have accent.

This point is very crucial. Preferably, I would like English to be his second language. (really preferably second to Italian, but I understand I can't have EVERYTHING). There is nothing like "I love you" said with an accent. Nothing.

Seriously girls...I know you are all now in love...how could you NOT be. For realz.

#2. Must love musicals and old movies.

Let's face it. I am a little odd. I like nothing better than to sit at home and watch my movie musicals. I love love LOVE Gene Kelly, and anything with Audrey Hepburn in it. I like other movies, but movies that are artsy fartsy like Amelie. I do not like blood and guts and I do not like horror movies. They stress me out. I also like to to the theater to see my Broadway musicals. So, the man of my dreams must be willing to go to musicals, AND love them.

#3. Must be able to dance..or willing to try to learn

You may remember my memorable posts of "The Rumble" and "Stay Cool Boys". While these posts got sidetracked from the point, the point WAS hot boys dancing. Here is another memorable boy dancing movie:

And another:

You just can't tell me that is not hot! Gene Kelly was amazing, AND hot. Christian Bale is ONLY hot because he can sing and dance. NOT because he is Batman. Sorry.

#4. Must be Quirky.

I am a little odd. I am a big fan of odd. I am a big fan of nerds. I am a big fan of cute nerdy boys who are cute and sweet.

#5. Must be willing to write me notes/give flowers/do cute things

I like to write happy notes and leave them places so that people can find them later. To date, this has never really been done for me. I want a boy who does this for me too. I don't think this is too much to ask! Just a little give and take!

#6. Must Not be Gay

Ok. so most of the things I have listed are attributes of gay men. I KNOW that there is at least one straight man out there that likes these things. I WILL FIND HIM!!! ;)

Anyway, those are some of the things I have been pondering today. Now, your job is to find me a boy like this! Now...GO!

hehe

I want fabulous!

2008-10-26T21:08:00.000-07:00

Severian LOVES High School musical. And, secretly, I love it too. So today I decided to take him to go see:

Now, I understand that this may not SOUND like fun, but it was actually a very good time. Mostly because I secretly love High School Musical. My Mom watched the two babies so it was just a Mommy and Severian date to the movies. I bought him popcorn and a drink, and he was very excited to just be able to hang out with me by himself.

He was also highly excited about the popcorn

It is so cute to take Severian to the movies because first of all, he is to little to keep the movie seats down. So, he ends up sitting with the chair half folded on top of him. He is also very much my child, and loves musicals. When the show started, of course there was an opening musical number. One thing that I will say about this show is that it was very well choreographed, and the songs were generic, but jazzy nonetheless. When the songs would come on, Severian would start dancing and jamming out to the music. A couple of times he even started humming with the tune. It was pretty darn cute.

As a whole, the movie was highly cheesy. There was one part where Zac Effron asks whats her face to the prom. Because you know, it is High School, and there are proms. He says to her "I won't have to waltz will I, because I wouldn't know where to begin" or something to that effect. She replies with "I only know what my Dad taught me, he used to dance around the living room while I stood on his feet" (PLEASE don't ask me WHY I remember this cheesy dialogue. I don't want to talk about it). They laugh, and then start singing a song. Because you know, that's what you do. Not only do they start singing, but they start an intricate waltz number! I thought that was a little much considering they were talking about how they CAN'T waltz.

Severian became very invested in Zac Effron and whats her faces relationship. He was NOT happy when whats her face moved or whatever. He kept asking me why she didn't want to live with Zac Effron anymore. I tried very hard to explain to him that they were in high school, and therefore, were not living together. He didn't really get it. But, he is four, so, you know.

Like I said before, the dance numbers were actually very good, and very enjoyable to watch. I do love a good musical, and as such, it is SUPPOSED to be cheesy. There were a few one liners that made me giggle, and one part that I actually laughed pretty hard. All in all, it was very fun. It was so worth it to watch Severian jam out to the songs and cheer when everyone else cheered.

Now, some of you may know, but I was actually IN High School Musical 3. That is right my friends, I sat filming a crowd scene for 12 HOURS! It was neat though, because I did get to see all the stars. I was rewarded tonight because I could see me in the show. I was the little dot in the opening crowd scene. Yep. I am basically a movie star. Just sayin.

Big Kid Pumpkin Carving 2008

2008-10-25T19:33:00.000-07:00

To start out, originally I was going to call this post "Adult Pumpkin Carving 2008". But, then I thought about it, and I thought that it sounded like a XXX rated video. So, I just decided to blog about it. Because, it was pretty funny.

Pumpkin Carving YAY! Generally, this is done with small children running around throwing pumpkin guts at each other. Last night, however, I went over to my friends Jacob Ben and Paul's house, as they were having a pumpkin carving party. Everyone loves to carve a pumpkin right? This was actually really fun. Jacob has a really fabulous kitchen, so we were able to cover the counter with newspaper and take out all our aggression on the poor defenseless gourds. Here are some action carving shots:

LeAnn and I decided that we were going to carve a pumpkin together. Mostly because we only brought one pumpkin. This is the finished product:

Have you guessed what our pumpkin is yet? I mean, after all, it was a work of art! Here is a close up:

Do you see it? Can you tell what it is? It is Cinderella's Pumpkin Carriage! DUH!!!!! There are the whimsical wheels and everything! It was actually really hard to cut. There were lots of little bits that required a lot of skillz, which neither of us had. So, I just kind of started cutting and making up my own pattern, and this is what we got. I think if a candle is put in it, then it will be alright. I left it at Jacob's because I don't have a porch, and therefore, cant display pumpkins. This really sux, but at least I know that my pumpkin found a good home.

I was a little sad cause I wanted my babies with me. But, we are going to carve pumpkins next week. And by carve, I mean paint. Last year when we carved pumpkins Severian wouldn't go NEAR the guts. If he wants to carve then we will, but, I thought this year we would have more fun painting.

That is it for now! I will post Kiddie Pumpkin Carving 2008 as soon as it happens!

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread!

2008-10-23T22:15:00.000-07:00

Occasionally I will have really good days where I am feeling highly ambitious. Yesterday was one of those days. I went and picked the kids up from daycare, and then came home and made dinner. After dinner I decided it would be a good idea to make chocolate chip banana bread! Mostly because I had three bananas that were V-E-R-Y ripe, so it was either make some banana bread, or throw them out. I decided to make banana bread.

Now, the recipe I have for banana bread is very easy. I am too lazy to get the recipe right now, cause it is 11:30 at night, but I assure you, it is easy. "What" you say? "why post a blog without the recipe?" Well. Because I feel like blogging, and I DONT feel like getting the recipe right this second! I will post it later in the comments if you all want it. You basically mash bananas put in some flour, sugar, eggs, butter and stuff, and voila! Chocolate Chip Banana Bread!

Severian and Ender were really excited because they love to help dump the chocolate chips and the flour and sugar in. Severian said to me "I have an idea Mom. I will go color, and you call me when it is my turn to do my job!" He was so excited about this idea. He thought it was the greatest idea ever. Once I called him though, Ender ran over and jumped on the chair, so Severian graciously let Ender dump the flour and the sugar into the bowl. Then, they both dumped the chocolate chips in:

I dumped half the chocolate chips into the measuring cup so that they didn't fight over who would dump them into the mix. Then, an hour later.. VOILA banana bread!

It turned out really good! The best is when it is right out of the oven and you can eat it hot. The kids had gone to lay down by the time the bread was done, but I took them each a slice, and it was so cute so see them sit and watch Blues Clues while they ate the bread. I am literally the luckiest person in the world.

He has a new haircut, oh it's so cool...

2008-10-22T20:57:00.000-07:00

So, my sweet middle child Ender has lusciously curly hair. He also has big blue eyes, long eyelashes, and pink cheeks. This is generally a good combination. However, recently his hair has reached epic lengths. It was almost down to his shoulders, and when he woke up it was a swirl of curls and tangles. The other day we were out, and Ender was dressed all in blue. We were going down some steps when I heard the lady behind us tell her six year old daughter "Careful of the little girl honey, she is smaller than you." Let me remind you, he was wearing ALL BLUE. This was when I decided to take some action.

My previous haircut experiences with the boys have not been pleasant. It usually includes a lot of tears and screaming, and the hairstylist ends up slicing her hand open a few times. Also, Ender's hair is so freaking cute, that I refuse to buzz it, or crop it short. This left me with no option but to cut it myself. I mean, it can't be that hard right? I have seen the stylists cut hair for like what? 26 years now? I am basically a pro.

So, I got it in my head that I was going to cut Ender's hair. Polygamist mothers do it, I can do it to. Severian and Katalina were both asleep, so I figured that I could just focus on Ender and cut his hair. I gave him an old compact of mine with some blush in it so that he was pre-occupied, and I started looking around for my scissors. Now, I used to have shears, but of course I couldn't find them. I also could not find just normal scissors. All I had were Severian's saftey scissors...

Yes. I cut my child's hair with safety scissors....with green handles. SNAP!

Ender was actually very good through the whole process. He just played with the blush that I gave him and let me get his hair wet and fuss with it and cut it. I cut maybe an inch and a half to two inches off of his hair. This is a before pic from about two weeks ago:

And these are the after pics:

All in all, I don't think that I did a TERRIBLE job. I think the curls saved me from a major disaster because they hide any of the uneven parts. AND, he still has some curls, and doesn't look like a total girl! good times!!!

And, you know, if y'all want some awesome haircutting SKILLZ just let me know...ill share some tips. Cause I am awesome like that...

I want to play in the snow!

2008-10-21T21:18:00.000-07:00

So, like I said before, we had a lot of fun this past weekend! On Sunday we went with my entire family up to Snowbird to ride the tram. They had a special where if you brought a can of food, you could get a free tram ride! This was really great because one of my favorite things is to see the leaves change during Fall. The drive up to Snowbird was beautiful and the mountainside was aglow with red, orange and yellow leaves!

Severian was very excited to be riding the tram, even though everyone was really packed in. We were lucky enough to be able to be right by the window. Mostly because when I got on I stood right by the door so that Severian would have a window to look out of. The tram is really fun, but it also makes me really nervous. I am unsure why, but I always just have this horrible image of the tram hanging there and everyone screaming. It does not help my anxiety that every time the tram goes over the little pulley system it dips and sways. Everyone would go "whoa!" and then laugh! The view was beautiful though, so that made it worth it! Here is the video of the tram ride:

Severian was very excited about the prospect of playing in the snow at the top of the mountain. The idea sounds good, but when we got up there we found that there was snow...but there was mostly mud. However, there was a small patch of snow that the kids and I played in. Mostly, they threw snowballs at me. Ender also found a huge puddle of mud, and he was very upset when I didn't let him play with it. I stepped away to go to the bathroom at one point, and when I came back, Ender was coated in mud from his waist down. My mom looked at me and was like "What?! He had fun! Little boys are supposed to play in mud!" Yeah. Thanks. (hehe just kidding Mom it was cute!).

I had bundled the kids up all nice and warm for our trip up to the top of the mountain. I was a little overenthusiastic with Katalina's attire. She had on a long sleeve shirt, a hooded jacket with the hood up over her head, socks, a blanket, and, finally, a big fluffy winter hat to keep her little head warm. Have you ever seen pictures of cats after they have gotten wet? Or when they are really irritated? Well, that is what Katalina looked like after She was all bundled up and put in the stroller. She was none too happy with me. Here is a picture:

Eventually she managed to pull the winter hat off her head. After she accomplished this most extraordinary feat, she had a huge smile on her face. Through the rest of the day she also managed to kick off her blanket, and take her socks off. Once she was totally free she was kicking and cooing and giggling her little head off. Apparently she doesn't mind the cold....this is the mud puddle, and Kat pulling off her socks:

Here is all of us on top of the mountain:

On the tram ride down, my Mom held Severian while he stuck his head out of this open window on the tram. He was facing the front, so he was like a little puppy getting windblown. It was so freaking cute.

After the tram ride Mike, Severian and I rode the Alpine Slide. For those of you who don't know, Mike is my brother. Mike also is absolutely fearless. Now, you may not think that the Alpine slide is that scary, but my brother took this slide at such breakneck speed that, even though we started the slide together, by the time I got to the end he was already off his sled and almost to the top of the hill to meet my parents. In the video it doesn't look like he is going very fast, but I assure you, he did. You can even hear my Dad laugh because we were so far behind Mike.

All in all it was a very fun day! We had a great weekend and came home and crashed. Tomorrow I will detail the amazing haircut that I gave Ender. Yes. That I gave to my child. Thrilling I know..but I promise there is a story behind it! WEWT!

It's the great pumpkin Charlie Brown!

2008-10-19T22:07:00.000-07:00

This weekend has been crazy busy! I feel like I have been going non stop since 7 AM Saturday morning! We have had a really fun weekend though. I only get the kids every other weekend, and now I am working till 3:30 on Saturday, so sometimes I feel like we have to pack everything into that timeframe. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it does not. However, this time it worked! Yay!

Yesterday I got off work and my Mom and I took the kids to Maceys cause they were having a free Octoberfest party there. We mainly went because they had promised face painting. Alas, the face painting booth was closed, but they did have a bunch of those blow up bounce house things that the boys played in. That was much fun. The boys got Carmel Apples, and my Mom and I got scones. This was all FREE, and I happen to love FREE, so it was awesome. This is me and Ender dancing:

After we went to Maceys, I took the kids to get pumpkins at a pumpkin patch! If you have not gotten pumpkins yet, I highly recommend this place. It is on 9000th south and about 2000th west. I always used to drive by it when we lived in the apartments near there, and I always wanted to go. This year, I made it a point to go there. It was quite the experience!

There is a big field filled with pumpkins. You do have to do some searching cause many of them have been eaten by bugs, or are going rotten. However, the ones that you do find are great. I have a video, but for some reason the quality was not as good as it usually is. But you can still get the idea:

Once we found our pumpkins, we went to buy them. They were actually a bit cheaper than those in the grocery store! Plus, it was a local farm so they had apples that they had grown, and local honey, which I thought was kind of neat. The kids each wanted an apple, and we walked out of the farm with two pumpkins, and Sev and Ender were eating an apple. It was one of the cutest things I have ever seen. It really felt like Fall. And, it almost felt like we had just gone to an old school country fair. The boys munched the apples until there was nothing left! And, as we were driving home, Severian sang "If your happy and you know it" in the back seat of the car. After we got pumpkins we went to get ice cream to end out the night. It was very fun! And that was only half of the weekend!

And, because it is the title of the post:

OUUUT Tonight!

2008-10-18T21:34:00.000-07:00

So last night my good friend Ryley managed to convince me that I wanted to go out with her. Friday night is Karaoke night at Sandy Station (also called Club Allure but I think that name is stupid)so, although I had just worked a ten hour day, and had to be to work by seven in the AM the next morning, I went out with Ry. I just CANT turn down singing Out Tonight at Karaoke!

Generally, I don't really like Sandy Station. Ryley has been going there for a long time, and she knows everyone. However, it is a little loud for me, and it is a dance club. I like to dance, but my dancing tends to be more of the "modern" dancing (or infamous Pantomime dance) and not of the clubbing variety. So, I tend to feel really out of place when I go. However, I have gone with Ryley a few times recently, so I am getting much more comfortable being there.

Last night I was relaxed enough to start noticing some things about the place. For one thing, there was the mandatory Cougar. By Cougar I mean older lady (this one was about 50 or 60) who goes to a bar and hits on the younger guys. This particular one was wearing a full body black spandex body suit with a leopard print jacket over top, and high heel shoes. No. I am so NOT making this up. Full. Body. Spandex. Body. Suit. I kid you not. She was also totally getting jiggy with it on the dance floor with some dude. I must admire her for it. Although we young people think that it is weird, I was thinking about it, and I thought that you really must have to have a good self esteem to go out in that outfit. So props to her.

On the other side of the coin we had the token MILF in the club yesterday. She was pretty, she had huge boobs, and was there with, what I suspect was her daughter and daughters friends. Mom. I love you, but if you came to the club with me and got on the stage and started dancing. I WOULD have to kill you. Just saying. I suppose this works for some Mother Daughter teams though however, and I am sure they had fun.

Another person that I just thought was really neat was the blind guy. He has been there most of the times I have gone, and I have a lot of respect for him. He carries his walking stick and maneuvers out to the middle of the dance floor. He will then start jamming out. The dude seriously gets more girls than most the guys in there. He is cute, and every girl loves the blind guy!

I also noticed there was the token nerd, who cant dance, and ends up looking like a fool...oh wait...that was me...CRAP...scratch that....no really though. I can't loosen up on the dance floor, and when I finally do, I have this odd and uncontrollable urge to start modern dancing to the rap song playing. It is not a good thing. That, or my pantomime dance. Cause it is awesome. AND, I do hold the 1999 state championship title in Pantomime. I kid you not. Cause, I am THAT cool. I give you all permission to worship...

Anyway, that is what I noticed on my trip to the club! People are funny, and at first glance, you may be like, ew, they are wierd! But, on the whole, they are just another person trying to get through life. You have to give them props for daring to be who they want to be, and not asking for acceptance. I aspire to be that way.

anywho, here are some pics of the night! WEWT!

This is Ry and I...duh...

This is Megan rocking the heck out of Karaoke. I went next. I HAD video of it, but, I cant figure out how to get it from my phone to the computer. Soooo that pretty much sux. Maybe you will all get a video of my singing later. Cause I know you are on the edge of your seats. Right? RIGHT?!

And, last, but not least, me Ry, and Megan

It was fun, and I was tired, but I made it to work on time! That is what matters right?

I hope you Dance!

2008-10-16T22:26:00.000-07:00

So, as per usual I have grand plans of falling asleep early. And, as per usual, I end up staying up late perusing the internet and taking a bath. yeah well. such is life. I am not going to blog very much today, but I did want to post a video of the babies dancing. It is pretty darn cute:

There will be more to come! Saturday afternoon I am taking the kids out to a pumpkin patch so they can get their pumpkins. I am also going to take them to get costumes! yay!! Severian is excited. I will have more later, but for now, watch how my children perfectly coordinate their steps. They could be in Swan Lake!

Stay Cool Boys!

2008-10-15T21:09:00.001-07:00

Alright everyone, I know that my blog has been quite the epic blog for the past few days, however, I just wanted to take a moment to say this:

Alright...now that we are all cool...I would like to take a moment to respond to everything. Sarah, I understand that you will probably never post on my blog again. This is a shame, because my blog rating went from 5 hits a day to 123 a day..really..you are helping me in my goal to be internet famous. Even though I don't think you will ever post again, I know that you will continue to read it, and I want you to know that you are always welcome to voice your comments. I will never censor any of your posts, nor will I delete them. Just keep in mind that, as you have been shown by many of my good friends, this is MY turf, so be ready for any comment you may get back.

Now, I understand the reason you posted on my blog was to let me know that you were going to take work off to watch my children. I also understand that some part of you probably wants props for that. So, this is the section where you will get it. I really believe that you care for my children, despite the whole breaking up my family and making their lives hard thing. I also appreciate that you were willing to take work off to watch the babies if they ended up not being able to go back to daycare. So, for that I thank you.

Upon further conversing with my parents, I found that they did know exactly why you were there. However, that was not the main issue. It was not that they did not BOTHER to ask, it was that, frankly, no one cares. Here wait...I will illustrate it for you...

As my good friend Dan has pointed out, there is a car you came in, stay in it. You need to think before you act when it comes to hot button issues. This is not about you. Let me say it again, this is not about you. This is about what is best, overall, for my children. You made a mistake on Monday by coming in as though you were part of the decision making process. That is not your role.

Now, I am considering this issue closed. Everyone is welcome to still comment on this post, or "The Rumble". This is an open forum, and everyone, including you Sarah, and even you Ian, is welcome to comment. If you feel wronged, or need to clarify, please do so. Just remember that you will probably get pwned many times over. Just sayin....

The Rumble

2008-10-13T19:14:00.000-07:00

So...most of you know that my Mom is a pretty cool lady. Well, the cliff notes version of the day is that Kat had to go to the Doctor. Ian "couldnt take her" so my Mom did. Well, Ian AND Sarah ended up showing up at the doctors office TOGETHER. I wasn't there, so I dont know all the details. I know that Doctor Jones about fell off his chair. Also, this was the first time my Mom had ever met Sarah...so...it through her and my Dad for quite a loop. In my mind, this is what the rumble would have looked like:

Because rumbles should always be perfectly coordinated by hot boys in tight jeans.

That is it for now...more to come!

Girls Night

2008-10-12T20:53:00.001-07:00

So, my friend from work, LeAnn, turned 21 today. (WEWT!) Yesterday I was lucky enough to get dressed up and go out to dinner with her, and her friend Amber. This was highly fun times. As a general rule, I like to dress up and go out just because I can. I will never pass over an opportunity to wear a formal, even if I have to just go out to the grocery store to buy some toothpaste. They dont know. I MAY have a hot date and my breath may need to smell good!

Anyway..back to the point...GIRLS NIGHT YAY! So, first I went over to LeAnn's house to get ready:

Once we were ready for the town we went to Biagi's, which is this really good restaurant in the Gateway Mall:

We had this really cute, FLAMING GAY waiter who I fell in love with. He was middle aged, and very nice. Mind you, I was the only one who was of age to drink. Amber ordered a drink, and he did not check her ID. He even said, "I am pretty sure none of you are of age, but you can order whatever you like" which, is very flattering, kind of. There were a lot of kids dressed up because it was Homecoming or something, so maybe he just thought we were losers and couldnt get dates so we went out by ourselves. If that were the case, he was offering us an option to forget our troubles!

After dinner we decided it would be a FABULOUS idea to go take pictures. The only thing that none of us realized was that it was COLD outside! AND it started snowing! So, we were walking around, looking highly cute, but also highly cold! At one point we ducked into Tilt, which has a bunch of video games. We were taking random pictures, and did a photo booth picture thing, cause that is fun, and we were playing on the Dance Dance Revolution game. Then, this very homeless, very toothless, very drunk/high/crazy guy came up to us and said "well hello pretty ladies!" and kind of stumbled "how are you tonight" and was all trying to be close to me. I threw up my arms and was like "IM OUT" and walked away. It was SLIGHTLY freaky. Luckily, he left shortly after that so we were able to leave the store. This is LeAnn and I racing

After that we left Tilt, and it was snowing!

We decided that we were Hollister models, so we took a pic outside Hollister, and had security following us for a while. That was fun:

All in all, it was a fun night. We met some funny Idaho boys who thought it was funny to talk in british accents, and I was like you are not British silly boys! And they were like, no we are from Idaho. It was funny. I have kind of been obsessed with videos and pictures lately, so I also took a girls night video, you are welcome to watch it:

I swear I dont have a lisp, I was just really freaking cold!

Not thrilled about the snow, but it was fun none the less!

Randomness

2008-10-09T20:24:00.000-07:00

So, the kids are in bed because it has been a long day for them. They apparently went to a bounce house and had a grand old time! All three of them crashed almost as soon as we walked in the door tonight. Anyway, long story short, I was going through some old pictures, and thought I would post some! Yay!!

A couple of years ago, well it must have been about three, "the ex" had a family wedding in California. We were able to go, but it was formal, so I bought Severian the CUTEST blue seersucker suit. It is my very favorite outfit that he has ever owned. See below:

This is another picture of him in the suit, and it is really funny because he looks A LOT like Kat. I was surprised when I pulled it up because I have always thought that Kat looks like Ender

I think this is great because I had forgotten how thin Severian's hair was. He was just like Katalina on that end, and this made me happy because there is hope for my baby girl! She will get hair!

This is Ender when he was about Kats age:

And then here is a pic of Katlina just after she was born...here is the part where you go "awwwww" and sigh because she is so freaking cute:

So, those are my "Nostalgic" pictures. Fun eh?

Well, that is it.....Except for this....because it is amazing...

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

2008-10-07T22:47:00.000-07:00

Ok, it is FAR to late for me to be blogging, especially considering that I have to work in the morning. However. I can not fall asleep, and so I am blogging. So much for being responsible...

COOKIE NIGHT was tonight. No one showed up really. Which ONLY means MORE for those who did, YAY! It was actually really fun. Ryley and Phil came over. And Phils Sister. Who, for the purposes of this blog, will be named Phils Sister. Severian and Ender both helped me to make the cookies, however, Severian dumped all the chocolate chips into the mix before Ender could help. Ender is not my most...patient...child, so this made him very mad. I have included a visual below:

It was QUITE traumatic. However, I rescued the situation by letting Ender "help" me spoon the cookies onto the baking sheet. He actually was really cute and held the second spoon while I scraped the batter onto the cookie sheet.

After about three cookies, which took 10 minutes to spoon onto the cookie sheet, I asked Ender if he could go play nicely. He nodded yes and padded off to go annoy his brother. Here is a picture of the batter, before the chocolate chips were stirred in:

And here is the finished product, hot out of the oven:

and VOILA! Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. WEWT! Now, I know you all want the recipe, so I have included it:

Preheat Oven to 375 Degrees

In one bowl mix:

1/2 C Shortening
3 C Sugar
2 Eggs
2 C Pumpkin (NOT pie mix, the can will say Pumpkin on it only)
2 tsp Vanilla

In a second bowl mix:

5 C Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp nutmeg

Slowly add the second bowl to the first bowl as you mix. Then add a bag of chocolate chips. Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes (I did 13 minutes for mine)

They are really good cookies, and they are highly festive, and who doesn't like to be festive!? ENJOY!!!! More soon...but now...I really must sleep...MUCHLUF to everyone :)

Candy and Sleeping Babies

2008-10-05T17:10:00.000-07:00

So, I got myself a peanut butter cup and sat down to blog. Two of my three children are asleep, and I thought to myself "Hey, this is as good a time as ever to blog, Ender can jump on my bed, and I may get to eat a piece of candy" So, I sit down and bring up the internet, and reach for my peanut butter cup. It was gone! I kind of looked around my chair thinking that maybe I just dropped it. Nope, gone, totally gone. Then...I noticed that Ender was ALSO gone. I went out to find my missing child, and lo and behold, he was behind my table eating my chocolate. This is a picture of the massacre:

It was probably one of the cutest things I have ever seen. And I see a lot of cute things every day.

In other news it has been a very busy week or so for us! As I mentioned in previous blogs, the kids started daycare. Well...I started my new job last Monday. Mind you, it has only been five days, BUT, I am enjoying it thus far. There is a whole lot to learn though, and their main system is DOS...wtf...DOS. AND if you try to key in a non-keyable field in this system, you get an angry man. It is a little stick figure man that I kid you not waves his arms and flashes at you. In this day of convenience I feel as though I should be able to key in ANY field and NOT get a computer dude yelling at me. Alas, this is not generally the case. I get angry man so much that I have named him Fred. I am pretty sure that he is in love with me, and we will be planning our engagement any day now. I feel it. Other than angry stick figure Fred, the system is a little confusing, but I think that I am getting it. I dont have to take calls for another week...so...that is good.

Another thing about my job is that I am a total dork. In situations where I am nervous, as most of you know, I tend to get more boisterous than I already am. I know your thinking "What?! MORE boisterous? noway!" yaway, I seriously become wierd. So, I am all sorts of self concious because I am nervous. So, everyone thinks I am completely crazy. Especially when I respond to questions with "Actually, I am lieing for attention". They look at me like wtf? for reals? Then I nervously giggle and say "so, ebola huh? heard its a GREAT diet!" ....I am so way lame....

So...last night I put my babies to bed, and for about thirty minutes or so I heard playing coming from the bedroom. This is not unusual for my babies, and they start to settle down pretty quickly in the evenings because we get up so early now. Well, at about nine thirty everything settled down to the point where I figured I could go in and check on them without waking them up. This is what I found...

The kids had totally gotten out all their toys, played with them, and then completely crashed on the floor. I managed to move Severian up to his bed, but Ender was adamant about sleeping on the floor! He cried every time I tried to move him up to the bed, and then climbed back down to the floor...finally I just made him a little bed on the floor and let him sleep there. When I woke him up the next morning he had climbed on the bed, but it sure was funny!

It has been a crazy crazy and busy busy week. Severian is no closer to being completely potty trained and that is really frustrating me. I know that he WANTS to be, but he is afraid of the toilet. Frankly I am too. I mean, come on, gross! I am hoping that the peer pressure will win over and he will be suddenly trained!

That is about it for our week! more to come soon I am sure!!! <3

Little Artist

2008-09-24T21:38:00.000-07:00

So yesterday after daycare, Severian informed me that he needed some "Sev time". Even though he is very outgoing, he needs some space to himself to regroup. Everyone knows how that feels, so while I was making dinner, I let him go into his room and close the door, and just do whatever he wanted. I kept Ender and Kat out by me so that they didn't bug him. After a while, he came out because he wanted to show me what he had been drawing. Needless to say, I was quite amazed at some of his pictures. The top one, and the one below are of the car that he drew. I thought this was so good considering he is only four! Maybe I am biased, but frankly, he drew a car about as good as I could draw one. Maybe better...

The picture below is of the snail and the shoe that he drew. I was just really impressed that he drew the little curly q in the snail!!!! I thought it was so cool. He wouldnt let me take a picture of it but he also wrote all the letters of the alphabet, and his name.

I was so proud that he is my baby. He is so cute, and now so talented! He was also very happy because I let him take his little board to daycare so that he could draw all day. He even promised to share with his friends lol :)

Uncles and Daycare!

2008-09-22T21:28:00.000-07:00

We have had a very good couple days! Yesterday Severian, Ender, Katalina and I hung out with my ex-Brother-in-Law Colby, and his Girlfriend Brooke. Brooke has a six year old son, and we thought it would be fun to have a play date. We went up to Flat Iron Park and played some football and tag. Severian had a lot of fun and was so excited to meet a new friend! I wish that I had taken pictures! Of course I remembered about two minutes after I got to the park that the camera was sitting on my kitchen table! Ah well, I am sure they will play again, and have a grand old time.

On another note, Severian, Ender and Katalina started daycare today! They have been being watched by my friend Ryley, but since I got a new job, they needed to go into a full time daycare situation. I was lucky enough to find a girl who does daycare out of her house. Her name is Brittany. She has three kids of her own, so it is a really good situation. I am amazed that she manages to wrangle all the kids. She has her kids, my kids, and one other little girl. I can barely wrangle my three! I haven't actually started my new job yet, that will be next week, but I thought it would be a good thing to start getting the kids on the daycare schedule. It is really nice as well, because that means that I basically got today, and tomorrow to myself, so I have been totally cleaning my house so that it stays clean during all my working!

When I woke the kids up today, at 6:30 in the morning mind you, all I said was "ok boys, time to wake up". Severian sat bolt upright and said, very loudly, "YAY! I get to go to daycare today!" and raised his hands over his head in a little cheer. I. kid. you. not. He was sooooo excited to meet new friends. He got up, and got dressed, and was ready to go in about 15 minutes. Ender, on the other hand, was not to thrilled about being woken up. He is much more like me, and would rather sleep. Katalina is just chill, as always. When we got to Brittany's house, Severian went straight to her basement where the toys are. Ender was pretty clingy until the appeal of the toys overwhelmed him and he went to go play. And, as ever, Katalina just went straight to Brittany and was making a new friend. They didn't even cry when I left. I was happy that I was able to see them settled first though, as I didn't have anywhere to be.

About an hour after I had dropped them off, I got a text from Brittany. I was a little nervous, because I thought maybe one of them was having a panic attack. However, she was just texting to let me know that they were doing great, and that they were such good kids! I was so proud of them, and I am so happy I found Brittany. I think she is perfect for our little family because she has gone through almost the exact same thing that I have in my marriage. Her kids are about the same ages as mine, so we all have a good understanding of each other. I was excited for them, but a little sad. It was the first Monday in a long time that I haven't been able to just hang out with the kids before work.

I am nervous to start my job next week. 52 hours a week will be quite a feat, but I think it will be worth it. I am hoping that I will be able to move us to a three bedroom by my birthday! AND, if all goes as planned, maybe we can get a dog....

On another note. I am in love. In love with a man named Josh Weller, http://www.myspace.com/joshweller I love him. One day, I shall meet him. And when I do, he and I will fall in love.

Ear Infections are Icky!

2008-09-16T21:00:00.000-07:00

Soo we have had quite the interesting week thus far, and it is only Tuesday! The kids came home to me and they all looked like they were feeling a little under the weather. Ender and Kat both were running a lower grade fever, and snot was pouring down their noses. However, Sev started acting kind of funny too, and was complaining of an earache. I took him to the doctor, and sure enough, it is an ear infection. This is his third one in about six months so the doctor said that he may have to have tubes! I am hoping that he will grow out of it though.

Severian is such a little trooper. He has been taking his medicine like a good boy, even though he does not like it. I think being ill makes him a little cold though cause he is walking around with his jacket on at all times. It is pretty cute. I must say, I kind of like it when the kids are sick because then all they want to do is cuddle with me. I will take that kind of affection any day!!

On a different note Kat now has FOUR teeth, and can pull herself up to a standing position when using the couch or the coffee table. And Ender has a new word. "go". YAY!

Other than that, there is not much new so far this week. Sometimes, we are just a little boring ;)

***also, as an edit, I would like to give a shout out to my friend Dan for using the Wii Fit. I do not know many who could take a game yelling at them when you play. But, I do know, that I want one!

Ode to Cherry Coke Zero

2008-09-13T09:37:00.000-07:00

Ode to Cherry Coke Zero

Oh Cherry Coke Zero, how could anything be as good as you?
Your sweet cherry flavor and your fizz makes me realize what people speak of when they say "Nectar of the Gods". Your zero calories make me weak in the knees for your taste, and your black and red can lures me in so that there is no escape.

Oh Cherry Coke Zero. I love you.

The Best Cookies Ever. For Serious.

2008-09-10T20:45:00.000-07:00

Today I stayed home from work because Katalina woke up with a slight fever. I think this may be because she is teething. Although I really can't afford to stay home from work for a day, especially on one of my ten hour days, it turned out to be good because Severian started to get a fever at the end of the night. Also, Ryley came over and helped me go do the grocery shopping! So now I have food in my house. YAY FOR ME!

Because Sev was feeling under the weather, I told him that I would make him some cookies. Little did I know that they would turn out to be the best cookies EVAR! Somehow I managed to make the batch just right, and, for once, I baked them to a perfect golden brown. While they may not look amazing in the picture, I assure you that they were luciously soft and chewy. Amazing. It was wierd too, because I decided to use one of the butter sticks that had a tablespoon already taken off of it. So, I suppose the secret is one tablespoon LESS butter, and some extra vanilla...cause that is what I did. OR, I am just amazing at making cookies. I think that is probably the correct reason ;)

Ender decided that he wanted to test each cookie. So he got up on one of the kitchen chairs and took one bite out of every cookie on the plate

I finally got him to stop doing this. Then, he decided that since I wouldn't let him eat a bite from every cookie, he would just go hide under my coffee table and eat them by himself. So he would eat one, run over to the kitchen, grab another one, and then run back to the little fort he had made for himself. Severian helped him by feeding him cookies under the table!

Ender even gave Katalina a small chunk of cookie, which she seemed to enjoy quite a bit.

At the end of the night, since I already had my camera out, they all three consented to letting me take a picture of them. They even smiled for it! I think that I really must have the three cutest kids ever. I am so lucky to be thier mommy!

yay for cookies! And, I have decided, that blogging is my new favorite hobby....for now! :D

Zoo Day!!!

2008-09-09T15:20:00.000-07:00

So today I decided to take the kids to the zoo. We have had a rough few days, and we were all in need of something to do outside that was fun. It ended up to be the perfect day for it! It was slightly overcast and a cool breeze was blowing. This made it perfect because the kids did not get hot, and the sun wasn't burning us to crisps. I was lucky enough to have my friend Joe agree to go with me so that I didn't have to try to wrangle the kids all myself.

When we first got there Sev decided that he wanted to throw pennies in the little fountain outside of the zoo. Then, upon entering, they wanted to play with the huge rock ball that you can spin on water. This effectively got both Sev and Ender wet, but it seemed to make them happy, so that is good.

Our zoo trips tend to be pretty traditional, we follow the same path, and kinda do the same animals in order every time. So, as per usual, we went and saw the monkeys first. I love the monkeys because they always make me think of my children. Especially the little monkeys. They are just so cute and inquisitive, like my babies. They also seem to get in a lot of trouble and fights. Also like my babies. One of the things that we got to see really closely were the baboons. One of the baboons had his butt turned towards us. Severian looked at him, and then said "hey, that monkey is cheeky" I laughed pretty hard.

Ender kept wanting to get out of his stroller, and since there were not a lot of people at the zoo, I kept him unbuckled so that he could get out whenever he wanted to. It was cute cause he kept trying to climb up over the exibits. He also ALWAYS knocked on the glass of the cages and yelled "Hello!" Exept, because he is not quite two, it sounds more like "Heerro?!"

One of the things that was really nice about today was that because it was such a mild day, all the animals were out. We saw the white alligator, and he was right next to the glass. We also saw the bears, and they were just sitting outside having fun. We saw the giraffes and the zebras too. All of which were outside and really active.

The best part of the day, in my opinion, is when we went to the Asian Highlands to see the big cats. We were able to see a lot of the cats up close, but it got really fabulous when we got to the Leopard area. The leopard was looking at something, and so was pacing back and forth right in front of the glass. This went on for about five or six minutes. It was so great because there were not many people there, in fact, there was only one other little girl who was watching. So the kids were playing "hide and go seek" with the Leopard. The leopard would come over to where Severian and this other little girl was, and they would duck down, then look up over the ledge at the big cat. Ender was following the cat by running back and forth while it was pacing. He thought it was one of the neatest things, and he was giggling and clapping. He also kept up a constant stream of "HEERO!" everytime the cat was right in front of him. Then, suddenly, the cat just ran away and went and layed down at the top of his area. It really was so neat that we were able to see that. I thought... :)

After the cats we decided to call it a day. I had been carrying Katalina in her front pack, and my legs and back were killing me. Also, the boys were about ready to pass out. We were only there for two hours, but that is a lot of walking for Sev, and Ender did not nap before we left. On the way out to the car I looked down and noticed that Kat had TOTALLY fallen asleep in her front pack. She was just hanging there like a little doll with rosy cheeks and everything. All in all, it was a great day, and it was so good to get out in the cool air. It is starting to smell like Fall, and this is my favorite time of year. Getting out to the zoo with the kids put me in a much better mood than I have been all week, and I am glad that I was able to do that with them!

Now, thank goodness, they are sleeping, and I might, just MIGHT, get to clean my house a little. Or, I could play on the internetz...we will have to see :)

***also, I apologize for the pictures. My original intention was to have them all in order of the story, but I just cant figure that out, and I have been working on it for an hour. So, you will all have to deal with it!

The State Fair

2008-09-07T23:19:00.000-07:00

So, on Saturday, I took all the kids to the fair. Mind you, going out anywhere requires quite a bit of planning, but the fair was a very strategic endeavor. I went with my Mom and Dad, so, we had to take two cars, since I have three car seats and there were six of us total. It was so cute though because Severian INSISTED he ride with his papa. My Mom and I drove behind my Dad the whole time and I could see a little Severian hand sticking out the window.

Once we got to the fair Severian immediately wanted to see the animals. We saw some big reptiles and sheep, cows and pigs. Severian exclaimed "ew those are STANKY". Yes, stanky, not stinky. Apparently there is a difference. We also saw some parachuter stunter dudes. Ender was sitting in his stroller and pointed at them while trying to get out of his seat. He wanted to go fly with them and was VERY upset that he could not.

The kids also had the chance to ride the ponies. Severian was thrilled that he got to ride them twice. The first time he was so happy that the dude put him on the pony he wanted. Ender was excited to ride the ponies, but also a little nervous. He held on for dear life, and when I asked him if he was having fun, he shook his head yes. I asked him if he wanted to pet the pony, and he shook his head very vigorously "no!".

We also rode the big slide a few times. I personally love the slide, but my Mom took Sev on it once, and I think it almost frightened her to death. Through everything Katalina just chilled and took it all in. That is just how she rolls.

All in all it was a very fun time, the kids had a lot of fun, and I had a lot of fun! We went to Village Inn afterwords and Severian ordered pancakes. About two minutes after he ordered he yelled very loudly "WHERE ARE MY PANCAKES". Once he got them he put ketchup all over them and ate them. Then proclaimed that that is the best way to eat pancakes. It was awesome.

Our Blog!

2008-09-07T23:18:00.001-07:00

So I finally have the internet so now I can finally blog about all our adventures! yay! I am not a very good blogger, and tend to forget, but I will try to post stuff about Severian, Ender, Katalina and myself so that we can keep everyone up to date on our lives :)