Thing 1 and Thing 2

"These Things are good Things. They are tame. Oh, so tame! They have come here to play. They will give you some fun on this wet, wet, wet day." -Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat

Yesterday we got to meet Papa and Grandma Judi in American Fork for some lunch and a visit. They needed to go to Costco so we went along and when Grandma saw these shirts she couldn't resist spoiling them (just a little). Too cute. She also got them some cute little jammies. And even spoiled me and bought me another season of Scrubs. She tried to spoil Caleb with some jammies too but he told her they were all silly so he didn't end up with anything.

Thanks for the fun visit and we are already excited to spend next weekend with you in Price. Caleb is counting down the days.

Caleb Connections

Isn't it amazing the connections kids make to things? On Tuesday I was driving home from Caleb's preschool when he noticed a beer truck at a gas station so here's how our conversation went:
"Mom, is that a bus?"
"No honey, it's a truck. You know like a deisel"
"Well what does it say?"
"It says Bud Light"
"Oh that's Light, but not too tasty" (mental note: we watch too much tv) "But I would like to taste it"
"You can't taste it until you are older, like 21"
"Why"
"Because it's beer and beer is bad for kids"
"But you let me drink beer at home"
"No honey, that's Root Beer and it's different"
"Well yeah, because it's made by a brown dog who pees the beer!"

At that I totally lost it and laughed all the way home, making him laugh along. Then he told me that he knew that's not really where it came from and he was just teasing. It was so funny I had to call Mike to tell him about it. Later Mike and I pieced together that there is a root beer with a dog on it for the logo so that must be where he got it. But we couldn't remember which one. I asked Aunt Tracey the next morning and she said it was Mug Root Beer. Of course! It all makes sense now. She had given us some for Christmas and apparently somewhere in his 5 year old mind, he somehow got the notion that it came from that very dog relieving itself. Like I said, the amazing connections kids make.

Word Box

Caleb has been really starting to try to read on his own. We have been helping him out as much as we can and are really having fun with it. So I made him a homemade set of miniature flashcards. I started off with 72 words to work on. After I made them, I decided they needed their own "place" to keep them nice and not scattered around the house. So I wipped up a little box. It's just a little cardboard box from Michael's for 99 cents and I covered it with a piece of scrapbook paper and found these little wooden additions ar Michael's too for 25 cents each. So an easy and cheap idea.

I like the way it turned out and am excited to start these words with him tonight.

Tooth Fairy - Too Soon

Today Caleb had his regularly scheduled dental cleaning and check up. Well turns out that the tumble he took back in November (see Never A Dull Moment) is coming back to bite us. I had taken him in after the ordeal and they did xrays but thought that it looked fine at the time but warned that it could get worse easily. So when we went in today they took another xray of it and sure enough the same tooth he hurt when he was 2 and then re-hurt during this incident is now infected.

Well since he is 5 already there is really no reason to fix it again given it will just fall out in a year or so. They gave us antibiotics to help clear up the infection but said that the chances of it staying away were probably at most 3 months. So we are opting for what I feared....a tooth extraction. It's scheduled for next Thursday afternoon. I am pretty sad about my son having to be toothless for longer than the average kid, but am relieved that (at least for now) it's only one of the four he hurt in the latest collision.

He was talking on the phone to Uncle Ryan tonight and was telling him that they were going to pull his tooth and Ryan had to mention that he should put it under his pillow and the Tooth Fairy would bring him a dollar. I hadn't even thought of that yet. Oh man, I am so not ready. I don't know what I want to do. I'm always looking at cute tooth pillows or little boxes to put them in but have never purchased one and now my mind is blank at where to even get one. If anyone knows, please let me know. I am kinda freaking out a little. I hate being unprepared and thought I would have more time to figure this out. I am sure I can find one online somewhere but would rather buy local and avoid shipping costs. I am not sure if I should thank Ryan for reminding me or choke him for telling Caleb that. Guess we'll see how I feel about that next Thursday. ;)

On a more positive note, Mike and I both thought that Caleb was going to freak when we told him (in 5 year old terms) what the dentist said so we teamed up on him while he was eating dinner tonight. He almost did at first until we explained that all his teeth would fall out anyway and told him to remember his friend in his preschool class who also has no front teeth. At that he started laughing and telling us how silly he would look without a tooth and now seems totally ok with it. We are hoping since he is older we will get through this fix with no sedation, since that was a huge and expensive ordeal last time. Wish us luck!

Valentines Decor- Latest Editions

I have been getting out the Valentine's decor. Not that I have a lot of it so, it didn't take long. But thought I would share my latest editions of crafting for this holiday.


If you haven't guessed from my other posts, I have a goal of making a tile with my cricut for most of the holidays in the year. I started with Halloween so I am moving along as they come up. Here is my Valentine tile.

And I got this from a friend (thanks Reva). Well at least the chipboard cutout. I dug through my old paper and covered it and then cut around it with a razor then added the tag and ribbon. to embellish a little.

And that's all from my latest crafty corner.

Caleb has been getting excited for Valentines day and had me buy him 2 boxes of Valentines to give to his friends. So we have a box of Kung FU Panda and a box of 3D dinosaurs. We'll be filling those out soon for him to hand out. Can't wait!

Mismatched

Why do we do this? Come on you know we all do. Here's our basket of mismatched socks. Every week we do the laundry and cross our fingers that some sort of match comes back to us from the depths of one of these scenarios:

1. It's just been burried under someones bed somewhere

2. The sock angels have been careful knitting the perfect match

3. The dryer trolls get sick of them and cough them back up

4. We move the couches to vaccum (once in a while) and viola like magic it appears

Well I am happy to report that I gave in and threw some of these away this morning. I think some of them have been in this very basket for the almost 7 years we have lived here and none of the 4 scenarios have ever came true. So take that socks, you have met your day!

Of course part of me is saying that now that I have done that, one of them is going to show up and almost making me regret it. But I am going to try to shut that part up....perhaps with some chocolate.

Baby Band

I'd give you the stars, I'd give you the moon. But there's no need when you are happy with a pan and a spoon!

My Latest Addiction

I have been avoiding this for a couple of years now. But after several friend requests and a conversation last week with an old friend from hs in my gmail account, I finally gave in and signed up for Facebook.
My page is certainly still a work in progress but it's getting there. It took most of the day in between the kids' needs to get it looking decent. I found a bunch of friends and sent out my requests and as of last night I already had 17 people "accept" my invite. I feel so loved.
So far I am liking it. I found myself a little addicted yesterday, checking it a few times and I got to chat with a couple of friends for a few minutes here and there for a few minutes at a time. Well last night I was just about to sign off and call it a day when my friend Sam was back on. Sam is the friend from high school that I spoke to last week on gmail so he credits himself (of course) for getting me to sign up. We had such a good and in-depth conversation that we ended up talking for over 2 hours and he kept me past my bed time. Then promised to talk again today some time.
Mike says I am going to become just as addicted to it as I am to blogging now. I say "What's wrong with that?" As long as I don't neglect my children because of it then I see no harm in catching up with old pals and keeping up with current ones.

Caleb Cam Part 1

So last night I took on the task of going through Caleb's Kids Tough camera from Fisher Price (a Christmas '07 gift from Papa). It had 797 pictures on this thing and that's after I had gone through it about a month ago too and deleted a bunch. I never took some of them totally off there but was suprised to find some of these on there. But I thought I would share. Stay tuned for another edition as I am sure they won't all fit. Maybe I will go through it once in a while and share so we can see the world as he does through the lense of a 5 year old's camera. Starting off here with some self portraits.

I was pretty suprised to find this pic of Zaden from the week we brought him home still on there.

And more recently

Too cute. Sharing the spotlight on the piano. And then another self portrait.

Here's his gigantic firetruck.

And Grandma Braska's dog Bigelow from when they came out in May for Mike's graduation.

And last, but certainly not least, the toy 4-wheeler.

I think I have a little photographer in the making. More to share another day. For now enjoy.

Walking With the Dinosaurs

If you haven't guessed yet, Caleb is a huge dinosaur nut. He wants to not just know their names but also know everything about them like what they ate and how big they were and what they weighed. We are always reading him info about them and he soaks it up. Well today Caleb got to use one of the presents that Santa had left in his stocking. Tickets to Walking With The Dinosaurs at the Energy Solutions Arena. We all loaded up in the car and off we went. Here is Caleb getting ready for the performance. We had to take Lightning the dinosaur with us and of course needed some popcorn, sprite and cotton candy.

They allowed us to take pictures but with no flash so we didn't get any really good ones but here's the Utah Raptor.

And Caleb's favorite dinosaur, Stegosaurus. When he came out Caleb yelled "that's my favorite dinosaur" I think he was loud enough for the 3 sections next to us to hear it.

And finally a short (very short) video. I don't think we were technically allowed to do this but who could resist when it was so awesome?

It was really fun and educational to boot. I really enjoyed the baby t-rex they had. I want one for a pet. But not when they got big, that wouldn't be good :).

For more professional info on the production, go here. Maybe you can catch a show in your area.

That 5 Year Old of Ours

Yesterday Caleb was a hoot (when he wasn't bugging his brothers and getting in trouble that is). I just wanted to share a few stories.

1. For those of you out of town, there's an area of Salt Lake called Sugarhouse. Well yesterday we decided to let Mike go use his gift certificate he got to the comic book store over there and told Caleb we were going to Sugarhouse to go to some stores. He kept talking all the way there about how he'd never seen a "Sugar House" before and he wondered what it looked like. Well right about the time we were turning into the parking lot of the shopping area he blurted out, "Do you think they have a sugar potty?" Clearly, he had to go :).

2. So Caleb's been into making up stories about things lately. He tells them to us as if they really happened. So also while driving around in the car he tells us this story that went something like this:
"Last night I heard this big crash downstairs and I woke up and went down there to see what it was and there was a stranger in our house! And I asked him if he was a stranger and he said yes, so I knew he was. And he was trying to steal our food!!!!!! "

So I replied something like "oh no! he better not steal our food"

So he says, "I know! That's why I kicked him in the face!"

I know, soooo not nice and I don't know where that came from but I was too busy laughing to tell him that. I think maybe he's watched a little too much Kung Fu Panda. Oh well, he's a little boy, what are you gonna do?

3. I have a cousin who is very young and pregnant and just got married. Well her and her husband aren't currently working so they don't have a thing for the baby being born in April. So since these boys are growing out of some things and I have 2 of some things I decided I would go ahead and give her some of my stuff. I am not getting rid of it all in case we decide to try one more time (no that's not an official "plan"), but decided the chance of having twins again, would be small so it wouldn't hurt to get rid of a few things I have multiples of. So I put together a bag of clothes and gave her a swing, a baby tub, and one of the bouncers for now. We were gathering it up yesterday because another family member was in town from Price and was going to swing by and pick it up. I tried to explain to Caleb that there was going to be another baby from Mom's cousin that could really use the stuff and so we were giving it to her and they were coming to pick it up. The swing we gave her was also the one Caleb had as a baby. So he said "but I am really going to miss it" . Aww that's sweet. Then he tried to turn it on. Well the batteries had gone dead in it a couple weeks ago and since we hadn't used that one much lately, I just didn't replace them. So I told him that it needed new batteries and I had taken them out because they were dead and he said, "well that new baby won't like that one bit! "

RSO Consulting- At Your Service

No S is not officially my middle initial, but any of you that previously worked with me would know that's what I was referred to by my former boss (Craig). Even though I told him my middle name did actually start with a D several times, he would just shake his head and say "So, RSO....etc etc". It just was RSO and that stuck. I miss hearing it all the time and look forward to lunch dates and chatting with him. Even though we both are no longer at Westminster, we keep in touch and it's so nice to still be R.S.O. sometimes.

So anyway (sorry about the side-note there), today I had my first official "gig" as a Financial Aid Consultant. I had been contacted by the Myotherapy College about a full time position they were hiring for a couple months ago but I wasn't really interested in going back to full time. I passed the info along to my former boss and he went to talk with them as well, but the job wasn't for him either for various reasons. One of them being that they really need some help after a not-so-savy Financial Aid person left in December. Well anyway, I passed along my thanks for thinking of me and thought I had heard the last from them until this week when I received another email from the college director asking me to come in on a consulting basis to train the new person they did hire on some FA software and whatnot. Turns out, they have had my name thrown at them from several bank reps that I had worked with formerly and said they had heard nothing but praises thrown my way (huh, who knew?). I decided that 1. it would be a nice change 2. it would be a little extra money and we could really use some and 3. if I didn't like it, I could always say no and know better for any future contacts. So I said sure and went for it.


So I was scheduled to work from 9-1 there today. Turned out that because they are kinda at a quiet time in their quarter right now and because they are still getting some of the software set up and things, there was really only about 2 hours worth of stuff to do. I was pretty apprehensive going in since I really hadn't done or even kept up with any FA stuff since I left in August. Turned out to be just fine though. As soon as I saw those screens, I was right back at ease and found I really hadn't forgotten that much. It fit like a glove and I almost expected to hear an RSO being yelled from the hallway by Craig (see there was a reason for the story). We did what needed to be done and she asked that I come back at least one day next week. So I will be going in on Tuesday afternoon to see what we can do that day.

So, maybe this will become a more common thing for some schools around here and maybe it won't. I don't know where it will take me, but RSO Consulting- I kinda like the sound of that. Now I just gotta come up with a contract to make myself all professional-like.

Sooo Close!

Here's the promised video's of Zaric's moves. He is so close to crawling he can taste it, and we are fearing it. He gets up on all 4's now and scoots backward. In one video he's doing it very slow because he keeps stopping to watch Zaden play with the jungle and in the other Zaden toppled over and got upset so you can hear him screaming while I am trying to film Zaric and I had to cut it short to go save him. Just another chaotic morning here, what's new?

The Cowboy Life

"Life is tough when you are a lone cowboy such as myself. It's long days and sleepless nights. It's campfires and herding the cattle. It's riding the range and roping the wind. Good thing I have my trusty steed, Freedom, I just point him in the right direction and catch a little shut-eye along the trail" -Zaric the Cowboy Jan. 14, 2009.

The Audience Awaits

Last night was the season premiere of American Idol Season 8. I let Caleb know and apparently he was a little excited. After his bath a bunch of stuffed animals came flying down the stairs. I asked him what he was doing and he told me that they wanted to watch American Idol too. Too cute to resist, so of course I let him. He lined them all up on the couch leaving a space for himself. Zaden had fallen asleep on the other end of the couch so being the nice Mom I am, I even sat on the floor for a little of it so they could see over my head.

9 Months and Counting

Today was the twins 9 month checkup. Zaric has gotten ahead of Zaden in length and was 26 1/2 inches, beating Zaden by 1/4 inch (26 1/4). However Zaden is barely still holding onto his "Tank" status and out-weighing Zaric by 3 oz. (18.5 lbs to 18.2 lbs). Zaric has the starting of another ear infection (story of our lives) and we got a new perscrip for antibiotics for that. But otherwise, no major concerns right now.

Caleb went along again and when we were leaving we walked out of the room and Caleb took a turn left instead of right and made a B-line for the nurses desk where he found Dr. Joe again and told him " I just love you today. " Of course Dr. Joe told him thanks and that he loved him too and gave him a hug and kiss. So cute! We love that Dr. Joe.

Making Googly Eyes

Caleb got this fun book from our friends, Garrett, Laurel and Maddie for his birthday. We had just been waiting for the perfect time/day to break it open. Well yesterday when my neice rode up from Price with Papa, she wanted to know what it was about so we opened it up and showed her on a Pepsi can. After that, Caleb was all about googly eye-ing stuff in the house. So here's just a few pics of our fun.

He had so much fun and took probably 30 pictures of this stuff with his camera. We made sure not to use them all up so we would have some to do it another day too.

Thanks again G,L& M for such a fun gift idea.

Tie A Pink Bow On It!

My Nephew, Taylor, is a big SD Chargers fan and has been getting the family to back him up with them in the playoff's. This morning started off with the usual smack talk, me taking the side of the Steelers. My sister has been backing up Tay with his team and rooting them on, so her and I made a little wager this morning of a 12 pack of pepsi. Well later I was chatting with my brother and he also wanted the Chargers to win. Wrong-o I told him and ended up putting up another 12 pack of pepsi as a wager. Then this afternoon Papa Ringo came up from Price to bring the last of the babies Christmas gifts up that we couldn't fit in the car and again was rooting for the Chargers and said he'd take that bet as well.

All the while Mike was in the background reminding me that I am no longer working and what I am really betting was "his" money and he was geting nervous that the price kept going up and up with everyone.

I am happy to report that the game ended with the Steelers winning 35-24. So I am making room in my fridge for my 36 new cans of Pepsi. Tracey, Ryan and Dad.....I'll take those with a pink bow tied on them :)

This is a video of Mike doing a "happy dance" that not only did I not spend any of his money, but will actually be saving him money on the Pepsi bill. (He thinks his dance is good. I think it's spazzy and he should never do it again.)

From Point A to Point B

Who needs to crawl? This is Zaden's thing. He just scoots on his back wherever he wants to go. It's so funny and he gets really excited about it. He's like an upside-down catapillar! I'm going to try to get a video of Zaric's moves in the next couple of days too. These boys crack me up.

Family Game Night

After dinner last night, we took care of boy-baths got in some pj's and held a little family game night.



We started out with a few rounds of Hungry-Hungry hippos where Mom was the champ. Then it was onto a few times of Elefun. Caleb won Elefun but he kinda cheats and walks around picking up all the butterflies that we missed in our nets off the floor and puts them in his.

After Elefun, we played a round of classic Memory. I won that one, not that it was too hard. Then we did 2 games of Diego 1,2,3 where Dad and Caleb both won a round. My "Walkers" just didn't show up to the party I guess.

And lastly, we played a round of Pass the Pigs which Aunt Tracey gave us for Christmas. Caleb loved and ended up kicking our butts! We had fun and I tried to declare that we would have family game night at least once a month here, we'll see if that sticks.

Happy Birthday Scott!

Dear Scott,

Seems like just yesterday I got "stuck" with you, Kyle and Cody in a group for Mr. Moss's Jr. High science class. Who would have guessed that we would still be such good friends today? Where does the time and the mullet go?
Although we never hung out as much in HS as we should have, I always knew that you were a great friend and person. (By the way, thanks again for letting me cheat off of you in geometry and trig). And here we are today still clowning around together!

Look at us now. One of us is a Mommy, one of us is a Daddy. One of us is an engineer, one of us is unemployed! I'm so glad that we are still friends and that we get to see each other so often and share our families with each other.

So Happy Birthday! You're the best!!!!!!! And no, paybacks aren't accepted :)

Love ya,

Becca

End to End-Bargain Day

Yesterday was a whole lot of driving. I started out by heading to one end of the valley. Caleb had left his beloved Leapster at our friends house in Lehi over the weekend, so we had to go get that. Since we were heading that way, she and I decided to take a small trip down to the Provo Craft outlet in Lindon. I had never been there before. It was much smaller than I thought and not sure I'll make that drive often, but I did find some good deals on some scrapbook stuff and only spent a whopping $7. There was a Kid 2 Kid right next door too so I decided to go in and have a look. I found the cutest pair of jammies for the babies. They look practically new and I couldn't ignore the $3 price tag. Score!!!!! Then it was back to home for a while.

I had decided that I was going to get the babies a new toy box for their first birthday coming up in April and had started looking around. I was going to get them one just like Caleb's that was big and plastic. We love his. Problem is, seems like the prices of those have soared. The cheapest I could find was $65. Well I was just going to bite the bullet and pay it, then it dawned on me yesterday morning to check our local KSL classified ads online. And low and behold, I found this gem.

This thing is huge. It's 5x3x2! And it's solid wood. I sent the link to Mike who actually liked it. Problem was, it resided in Ogden! So that meant another hour drive north of us to pick it up. But Mike thought it would be worth it if it were in good shape. So I contacted the owner and made arrangements to go pick it up. We walked into her house and said "whoa, that is huge" I guess it's hard to picture just by hearing the dimensions. It has a few dings and scuffs and the normal wear and tear from her 5 year old, so we will eventually be giving it a new coat of paint. Sadly they are moving away to graduate school and have to move into a tiny appt which this won't fit in. So they were reluctantly selling off a bunch of stuff including this. Sad for them, bonus for me!
The next issue was that it was too big to fit in the back of the Durango correctly. So we had to make it to the local grocery store to buy some bungee cords to tie down the hatch. We took care of that but then because the hatch was ajar, the dome lights were on and I was a nervous wreck about it falling out the whole hour long ride home. But it made it perfectly fine.

So we got it in the house and put just a couple toys inside. I will be cleaning it up good today then putting the rest in there. I can't believe how much bigger it is than Caleb's and wooden for the lovely price tag of $40. Who could resist? The kitty even likes it and is so glad that we brought her home a new perch to lounge on. So I guess it's dual purpose.

So a great day despite the 4 hours of driving with the boys from one end of the valley to the other (literally). All of that and I spent $50 the entire day, I'll take it!

Hallelujah...... A Small Sermon

Brothers and Sisters, thank you for coming to the sermon today. Do you believe in miracles? Well I do. Yesterday these two baby boys finally did what their parents had been praying for. They started holding their own bottles. Can I get an Amen? They did this very skill, not for one feeding......No, no!Not for two.... No!But for 3 feedings in a day. The clouds parted and I know I could hear the angels singing Hallelujah! Please take the time today to praise God, Jesus, Allah, Buddha, Mickey Mouse or whoever you believe in. And thank them for our many blessings.

P.S. A note from mom- don't mind the messy faces in the pics they had also just finished of their spring vegetables dinner. Yumm-y.

Shake n Bake

I'm a sucker for old commercial slogans and songs. So every time we shake and bake chicken around here, I'm always saying "It's shake n bake and I helped!" Well that's what we did for dinner last night and I let Caleb do the shaking. He thought it was fun. Mike, of course, thinks I have lost my mind for taking a picture of such a thing. I can't help it, it was Shake n bake and He helped!!!!

Back in the Swing of Things

Today Caleb finally goes back to preschool after a 2 1/2 week break. I think I'm a little excited. I was up, showered and had my hair curled all before 7 am. That's probably normal for some of you working-type folks but not for me since I quit my job. Now I am sitting here just waiting for him to get up. Do I wake him?.....no, but I am a little worried that it will be a struggle getting him to get ready after he's had so many days to lounge around in the mornings. And to think in less than a year he'll be doing this 5 times a week for Kindergarten instead of just 3. What will I do then?

First Weekend of the New Year

We had a busy weekend here again. Early in the morning on Friday Caleb tried out his new skates with the help of Dad. He loved them but was very unsteady on them. Those pads and a hemlet will be making their way out of the garage when it's warm enough to take them outside.

Friday night, Allison and Reva came over to get in some scrapbooking. My most wonderful husband watched the boys so I could indulge and get a little more caught up. I intended to take some pics to share but that didn't happen. After the boys all went to bed, Mike got to enjoy some time playing his new Nintendo DS he got for Christmas.

On Saturday Mike got up with a cold. He wasn't feeling well at all. So we just did some housework. Then we ran a couple of errands and then headed home skipping our last errand so he could rest. We spent the night just watching TV and hanging out. Mike did manage to have a twinkie and then share it with Zaden who loved it! So I was sure to get the first twinkie pics. He's his Dad's boy for sure where they are concerned.

To wrap up the weekend, on Sunday we were able to go down to our friend's house in Lehi and I got a hair cut (finally). Then she and I played with our cricut's. I got a couple of tiles made and she got a couple of projects made so it was productive. Thanks again to Mike and Scott who watched all the boys to include their 2. We had dinner with them and headed home for some more R&R.

A good weekend overall and a good way to start the new year with lots of friends over the past few days, roller skates, twinkies and scrapbooking. What more could I ask for?

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year to everyone!!! I know I technically should have said that in the last post but I didn't and today isn't over so I've still got time. We rung in the new year by sleeping in the bed....that's right...not one of us stayed up. But this morning we got up and Mike made his cinnamon rolls that he missed out on Christmas day due to being out of town. So he was happy. Then we spent the morning cleaning. This afternoon some friends came over and we ate some pizza, watched the end of the Nebraska football game (they actually won....BIG shocker!) and then played a little Wii. We played some Mario Kart, some Rayman-Raving Rabbids and then a few rounds of Tetris. It's always so fun to hang out with them and Caleb LOVES their kids. During their visit, our house got volunteered for the Superbowl party, so I'll be gearing up for that over the next few weeks.

I posted my New Year's resolutions that I finally sat down and thought about this morning on a list in the sidebar. I thought that maybe if I looked at them every time I view my blog it might help me stay motivated......... that's a big MAYBE though. Crossing my fingers!