Stowaway

Almost two weeks ago I took the kids hiking with some of their friends. They had a great time running and playing and exploring.

Isaac and Jacob on a cliff (don't worry Angie, it was all perfectly safe..)

Fast forward a week. We were walking through Nauvoo, enjoying our day when Ryan patted Isaac on the back of the head and exclaimed, "WHAT IS THAT?!"

Our hotel room became a little surgical facility that night as we extracted Edward, Isaac's tick. EW!!!

More on our trip to come...

Roll with it

We had a blast going roller skating on Thursday! I wasn't sure how it was going to go, but everyone definitely enjoyed themselves. Isaac was an absolute maniac and I am surprised he didn't break any bones as he ungracefully flailed full-speed around the rink.

Audrey found the prettiest teenager working there and attached herself to her the entire time (she bases most of her decisions on beauty.)

Chloe did really well on her own. She was particularly adept at the limbo.

Lincoln was hesitant at first, but once he got the hang of it he clomped around the rink with the rest of them. He really loved the chicken dance and the disco lights.

Lincoln and Katie--young love at the roller rink.
It was so much fun just to watch them. It was one of those times I wish Ryan could have been there to see it.

This is what I have been missing??

We have been skipping commercials for the past 2 years because of our DVR. This morning we discovered this little gem while trying to explain roller skating to Lincoln (we are taking him for his first time in a few hours.) We have been laughing hysterically ever since.

Home Alone

Ryan has been gone this entire week. I think the last time he traveled for work was when he came out here to interview for his current job. So, well over two years ago. Before Lincoln. Before we had four.

Admittedly, I have been worried about how this week would go. I warned my mom I might be calling her (a lot) to vent. I tried to plan things in the afternoons so that the days would go smoothly once the kids were home from school. Surprisingly enough, it really hasn't been bad at all! Hard, yes. But I survived and I don't think I did any permanent damage...that is until today.

I'm tired. I don't sleep as well when Ryan is gone. It is also emotionally exhausting to be a single parent. These are my excuses for what happened. My patience was wearing thin as I was making lunch--trying to get something everyone likes (never happens), trying to make sure the girls are all ready for school, trying to eat something myself since I volunteer at the school on Fridays and thinking about a million other things. Lincoln was being cranky and needy and I was losing my temper with him. Suddenly he walked over to me, hugged my leg and said, "I love you Mommy." Then--just to twist the knife deeper into my heart--he said, "Mommy, you mean at me?" (I think he meant are you mad at me, but I was being a little mean to that sweet little boy.) Oh my gosh, I just about lost it. I told him he broke my heart and then he apologized for that!

Hopefully he won't remember it. I know I won't ever forget.

Look out, it's a wolf!

Isaac got his wolf badge at the Blue and Gold Banquet on Tuesday. Very Exciting!

NOT California Dreamin'

Sooooo....

Around Thanksgiving Ryan told me that he had an opportunity through work to go work in Seal Beach, CA for a year. The company would move us, pay for our housing, pay us a bunch on top of that and make it financially very worth it. We would spend a year living on the beach about 15 minutes from Disneyland. No brainer, right? Well, it took me a LONG time to come around to the idea. I love my life here. I have an awesome life and I have NO DESIRE to ever live in California (I know, absolute blasphemy to some of you, but that is how I feel.) Finally, however, when Ryan got actual figures back about just how much money we were talking about, I agreed to give it a go. The plan was to go for the year (starting this summer) and rent out our house here.

So for the past three months we have been in total limbo over this. He had to go through an interview process but they had originally told us that we would know by the end of January. Then it got pushed back to the week of February 15th. Then on the 15th they put us off again. We haven't been able to make plans or decisions or anything. It's been frustrating. For part of that time I really wanted to go. I had all that money spent (and saved) in my head. But the closer it got to the time we were actually going to find out, the more I regretted agreeing to it. Just last Sunday I was sitting behind my friend Rochelle at church just chatting before it started and I was thinking about how much I didn't want to leave this place and these people.

Yesterday was the big day. All day long I was on pins and needles waiting for Ryan to call. I called him a few times to see if he had forgotten to call me (yeah, right.) Finally around 4:00 he called to say...
The contract negotiations between his company and the one Ryan would have been working for had fallen apart so they aren't taking anyone to California. Basically, if this wouldn't have happened, we would have been chosen to go.

YAY!!!

I guess more than anything I have learned that money really can't buy happiness. The money would have been great, don't get me wrong, but nothing really compares to living somewhere that you love, in a great school district, in an incredible ward, with a great job (Ryan's and mine) and surrounded by family and friends who you love dearly.

WE ARE STAYING PUT!!!! :)

Really, who could leave this...


for this???
or worse...this???


(I still think CA is a great place to visit, don't get me wrong...)

My cuties

We did fuzzy curlers last night for church today.
Before...

After...

And, not to be outdone in cuteness, Lincoln came walking around the corner last night wearing my Ugg's saying, "I Mommy. I Mommy." I love these kiddos.

Game night!!!

It can be hard to come up with cheap things to do as a family when it is cold outside. For the past few Saturday nights we have been doing movie night, but last night I decided to try something different so I stopped at Wal-mart on my way home from work and picked up Twister. I always wanted Twister when I was little and I figured the kids would all be able to play it. We had a blast!!! It was really a hysterical hour of laughing and having fun together. Exactly what I wanted.

I have seen the future...

...and it isn't pretty.

At least in my case.

We visited the Museum of Nature and Science on Tuesday--the kids were out of school for a staff development day so we headed up to Denver with some friends and had a great day. We hit "Expedition Health" again which is an absolutely fabulous exhibit. Last time we were there we waited in line for almost an hour to do the age progression thing but finally ran out of patience. This time there was no line, so we all got to see what we would look like up to age 70. It was interesting--a little unnerving even to see the kids as teenagers and young adults. Audrey said she didn't like herself at 70, but I reassured her that no one looks good that old (sorry to those of my readers that actually are that old...) So here we are in all our glory...

(FYI: The picture on the left is what we will look like if we use sunscreen and take care of our skin, on the right is without. SPF 100 for us baby!!)

Presenting...
Lindsay, age 70
Notice the uncanny resemblance???
Now here come the really scary ones...

Isaac, age 21
(The instructions tell you not to smile, and he happened to be wearing an orange sweatshirt, hence the convict look. Hopefully when he looks like this he will just be getting home from his mission, not hanging out in prison...)

Audrey, age 21
Is it just me or is she gorgeous?! This is so weird to see. (That's my hand holding her hair off of her face.)

Chloe, age 21
Again, this is just weird for me to look at.

Lincoln, age 30
(a disclaimer--it is difficult to get a 2 year old to hold still and look into the camera. He had a strange look on his face in the original picture so the aged pictures got pretty disturbing. He is such a cute baby--I hope this thing isn't too accurate!!)


Here was another favorite part of the museum--the Indian exhibit. Audrey wants to be an Indian when she grows up, so she was particularly excited to see this Indian wigwam and envision her future with Brian here.

XOXOXOXOX

Boys and girls really are soooo different. Audrey has been boy crazy since day one--she decided she was going to marry Jacob when we first moved here, then in preschool she changed her mind and decided to marry Lukie. This year it's been all about Brian, a sweet little disabled boy in her class. She is so cute with him--she just truly loves him and is very (sometimes TOO) affectionate. But she is also always watching out for him--bringing him his walker and making sure he has what he needs. On the other end of the spectrum we have Isaac. He had a girl in his class bringing him candy at school and calling him at home. He talked her ear off about pokemon--completely oblivious to what was somewhat obvious to me.

So today at school I was helping Brian with a math assignment involving conversation hearts. I saw one that said "Marry Me" and jokingly asked him if he was going to give it to Audrey. He just laughed and said, "We are already married." Good to know! I told him that made me his mother-in-law. When we got home Audrey and I had the following conversation:

Me: Audrey, Brian told me you two are already married.
Audrey: That's because he thinks when you kiss it means you are married.
LONG PAUSE
Me: Soooo....you've kissed Brian????
Audrey: Yes
Me: (gulp) On the cheek?
Audrey: Yes

Okay, then. I wasn't expecting to have this conversation with my kindergartner!

Bet you can't guess what this is...

My main New Year's Resolution this year is to get our financial house in order. Not that it is out of order, but I figure there is always room for improvement. We have a lot of ambitious long-term financial goals, not to mention four college educations, at least two missions and numerous other big ticket expenses looming in our future that we save for monthly. We have also had a few unexpected monthly expenses enter into our lives this year. In looking over our budget, we decided some cuts would have to be made and some sacrifice would be involved. So here is one of our solutions:


Any ideas as to what it is??

It is an antenna! Ryan built it and installed it in the attic. That's right. We are done with our satellite t.v. MAJOR SACRIFICE! Both of us work out at least 1 1/2 hours a day and we watch our shows while we do it. Ryan has a plan to make it all work--he is installing a DVR thingy on our computer so that we can still record our antenna shows. Yes, we will miss some of the fancy channels, but I love taking control of our money situation and making it work even better.

Happy New Year!

We did this last year and had fun answering all the questions. It was even more fun to look back at our answers from last year the other day. I don't normally make New Year's Resolutions, so I loved being able to see that we had accomplished most of the goals we set for last year! I changed a few of the questions to keep it interesting. So here we go again...

Ryan--age 33
Favorite food: Big Borderito
Favorite fruit: Navel Orange
Favorite drink: Diet Mountain Dew
Favorite toy: Rubik's Cube
Favorite t.v. show: Fringe
Favorite game: Flux
Favorite Restaurant: On The Border
Favorite Animal: Jackalope
If you could go on vacation anywhere, where would you go? Either NYC or DC
Favorite thing to do with my family: Go Hiking
Favorite memory from 2009: The month of September! That was while we were playing so much after my graduation but before the onslaught of illness that hit us.
What are your wishes/goals for 2010? Learn Java & get rid of those love handles

Lindsay--age 33 (too old apparently--someone asked my age the other day and I honestly couldn't remember if I was 32 or 33!)
Favorite food: right now...Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Shake
Favorite fruit: peaches
Favorite drink: Diet Coke, preferably 64 oz. from the fountain with ice. :)
Favorite toy: my weight room
Favorite t.v. show: The Mentalist
Favorite game: I don't like playing games. Except mind games.
Favorite Restaurant: On the Border
Favorite Animal: Golden Retriever
If you could go on vacation anywhere, where would you go? Hawaii
Favorite thing to do with my family: go hiking
Favorite memory from 2009: Playing in the river while hiking in Castlewood Canyon and dressing up in disguise to do secret acts of service this Christmas.
What are your wishes/goals for 2010? Get my financial house in order--master Quicken, be diligent and consistent with our budget, save more, spend less and be in control.


Isaac--age 8, third grade
Favorite food: burritos
Favorite fruit: papaya
Favorite drink: Root Beer
Favorite toy: Mr. Dum Dum Face (huh?)
Favorite t.v. show: Mr. Men Show
Favorite game: Flux
Favorite Restaurant: Casa Bonita
Favorite Animal: Anything with sharp teeth
If you could go on vacation anywhere, where would you go? China or Planet X (huh??)
Favorite thing to do with my family: play games
Favorite memory from 2009: getting baptized
What are your wishes/goals for 2010? Play 100 games of Flux with Dad.

Audrey--age 6, Kindergarten
Favorite food: hamburgers
Favorite fruit: peaches
Favorite drink: Cranberry Juice
Favorite toy: Black Sparkles and Jennifer (her webkins)
Favorite t.v. show: Arthur
Favorite game: Tag, you're it
Favorite Restaurant: Wendy's
Favorite Animal: Zebra
If you could go on vacation anywhere, where would you go? Casa Bonita
Favorite thing to do with my family: have Family Home Evening
Favorite memory from 2009: going to Cold Stone with Mrs. Cornell (her kindergarten teacher)
What are your wishes/goals for 2010? Learn to tie my shoes.

Chloe--age 6, Kindergarten
Favorite food: cereal
Favorite fruit: grapes
Favorite drink: Cranberry Juice
Favorite toy: Snowy (her webkin)
Favorite t.v. show: Dora
Favorite game: Slamwich
Favorite Restaurant: Casa Bonita
Favorite Animal: Cheetah
If you could go on vacation anywhere, where would you go? Disneyland
Favorite thing to do with my family: have a family party
Favorite memory from 2009: going to Disneyland
What are your wishes/goals for 2010? Go to a movie.

Lincoln--age 2 (Most of these he was able to answer with little to no help, which explains some of the randomness of the answers...)
Favorite food: cheese
Favorite fruit: strawberries
Favorite drink: juice
Favorite toy: Buzz Lightyear
Favorite t.v. show: Buzz Lightyear
Favorite game: Hide and Seek
Favorite Restaurant: Cheese Pizza
Favorite Animal: Elmo
If you could go on vacation anywhere, where would you go? Disneyland
Favorite thing to do with my family: play
Favorite memory from 2009: Buffaloes
What are your wishes/goals for 2010? juice

100 days

Haven't been doing much blogging lately. We've been sick. I know, what a SHOCK!! Ugh.

The girls are celebrating their 100th day of school this week so we had to collect 100 things and take a picture of them with these things (don't you love kindergarten homework--guess who does most of it??) Anyway--here are their pictures. Obviously not much is going on around here if I am blogging this!!

100 shoes--I didn't think we were big shoe people.
100 books--that was easy. Those were not even close to all the books on the girls' shelf.

New Shoes

My mom sent me money for Christmas to buy some new shoes I had been wanting. I got the Merrells I wanted and had some left over. The cute, young girls I work with suggested I get some Keens. Here is what they look like...
Cute, huh? I'll admit, I feel a little young wearing them, but that isn't a bad thing! So after I got them, I tried them on and asked the girls if they liked my new shoes. They said they did. I said, "They are kind of like my own ruby red slippers." They said, "No, Mom, they are like Arthur."
Huh. Not exactly the look I was going for. But there you have it.

The new obsession

And I mean obsession.

Buzz Lightyear. (This picture was taken while he was sick and had fallen asleep in costume with his new friend by his side.)

Lincoln cannot get enough of him. All we have watched, read or talked about for the last week is Buzz Lightyear. You can't just call him Buzz, either. It's Buzz Lightyear. At least the obsession with Bob the Builder seems to have passed. I can stomach multiple viewings of Toy Story. Bob the Builder, not so much.

Thinking of changing the name of our blog...

to General Hospital.

We certainly have more than enough drama.

Lincoln was in the hospital all day again yesterday after an asthma attack. We are all exhausted. We saw his doctor again today and she was able to answer some questions. Like, "I thought he was on controller medicine so this wouldn't happen again." Her response: the controller medication prevented it from being much, much worse. He wasn't even admitted this time! Me: "Why does this keep happening?" Her: He just caught another virus that triggered the attack. It is that time of the year. Me: "Was I overreacting by calling the on-call doctor and taking him to the ER yesterday?" Her: Absolutely not. The sooner they can get him on steroids the better. (I always like hearing that I did the right thing, because I do tend to overreact.)

Anyway--this is what I am getting: He has asthma all the time. When he gets sick it triggers severe respiratory issues that are somewhat lessened by the twice daily controller medications, but they don't cure the asthma. Anyway, here is my real question: Should I just ban him from going to nursery altogether so that I don't have to keep paying out an arm and a leg to take him to the ER every few weeks???

p.s. I don't know why this is in such large font, but I don't have the energy to deal with it anymore.

Resolutions

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to comment more on people's blogs. I know. You are all very impressed by my high aspirations. I figure if I write it on here, I might be more apt to actually do it. So be looking for my tidbits of wit and wisdom more often!

(That is only one of my resolutions. I do have more ambitious ones as well.)

Potty Trained!!!!!

Can I say that?! Is it possible?! I don't even know myself...but Lincoln appears, for all intents and purposes, to be potty trained! So easy, he almost made up for the girls...


We started last Monday. My potty training methods are simple:
1. Wait until all parties are ready--no matter how long that takes.
2. Go cold turkey--Pull-ups are for wimps!
3. Nudity is key.

Lincoln has had maybe five accidents since we started--two because he couldn't get his pants down fast enough, one because we were at the zoo and couldn't find the bathroom, one while he was sick with the stomach flu and one at a friends house where he was too caught up in playing to tell us in time. He spends all day at home naked, but I frequently hear the toilet flush and he comes out and tells me he just went potty. AMAZING!!! No more diapers!!! (At least while he is awake. He comes from a long time of bed-wetters, so I'm not expecting that to change for years. But still!!)

WHAT just happened??!!??

We had a great day yesterday--everyone was happy, reveling in our new 9:00 church schedule. We relaxed, played games, baked and enjoyed the day together. Everyone was doing fine. Then all of a sudden they started to fall like dominoes. First Isaac. I wondered why he didn't eat much dinner. As I was reading to the kids at night I noticed a horrible grimace on his face. He made it to the bathroom just in time. Within 30 minutes Ryan was also throwing up. Chloe came to me about 8:30 and said her stomach hurt, so I sent her back to bed with a bowl. She woke me up about 10:00. After I got her set up with the boys downstairs, I went to strip her bed. I looked over at Audrey sleeping soundly and thought, "I should probably get her a bowl." But I decided not too. Oops. She woke me up about 11:30, screaming and covered in vomit. I got her in the bath, stripped her bed and ran another load of laundry. I got her set up downstairs and finished cleaning up and went back to bed. Lincoln made it until 5:00 am--although I think he had thrown up a few times in the night without waking me up. That was considerate.

They were all up most of the night. My poor little family. We racked our brains this morning trying to figure out if they had eaten something that I didn't and couldn't figure it out. Finally I called my sister-in-law to see if anyone there was sick since we had been with them all day Saturday. I guess EVERYONE who was at the baptism has it. Except for me and my niece. Hopefully we are immune!!!

And sorry to anyone we have now passed it along to...

Here they are last night around midnight I think. Back to the laundry I go!

What we have been up to...

I haven't had much time to blog, but wanted to remember some of the other fun things we have been up to in the last week or so...
On New Year's Eve day I took the kids over to "Little Monkey Business" which is an ingenious place. It is basically a coffee shop with a giant enclosed playground inside of it. So the kids ran wild and played while I relaxed and read. Ryan was working on a project at home. Here is a shot of the kids in the art room. They never slowed down long enough for me to get a picture of them in the play area.


On New Year's Eve evening we went to some friends' house to celebrate. When Amy called me to invite us, I only accepted after I told her we don't actually stay up until midnight. I don't even remember the last time I did that and honestly don't really have plans to ever do it again. It's just not a big deal to me. Luckily they felt the same way, so we had fun counting down and celebrating at 7:27 pm that night. We gave the kids all noise makers and shot off little bottle confetti things. The kids had a blast. I regained my hearing about four hours later...
"And then, oh the noise, oh the noise, noise, noise, NOISE!!!!" Happy New Year!! (somewhere)

On New Year's Day evening we went to see the zoo lights with some friends. It was COLD, but we had a good time!

Then, on the 2nd, we went down to Colorado Springs to see Eli's baptism. Once again, we all had a great time hanging out with family.