Reading

For reading week Hayes's school had different dress up days. Today was formal wear so Hayes wore his church clothes. As he put on his backpack I couldn't help but notice he looks so much like Bracken, especially since Bracken has been dressing up for his externship this semester and usually has his backpack on as he leaves.

Also for reading week the teachers are calling the kids at specific time we signed up for to see if they can catch them reading. He signed up for Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 6:30-7pm. I totally forgot last night and we were visiting teaching when they called so I didn't answer the call. So tonight I made sure Hayes was reading from 6:30-7 but they didn't call. He was soo disappointed so I confessed my mom fail; that we had missed the call the day before. I'm hoping they'll call tomorrow even though they called Tuesday otherwise I might be a little sneaky and have a friend call him but I think he'd catch on to that. Hayes is catching on to reading and it's so fun to see him gain confidence and start reading a little quicker.

I went on another bike ride this morning, I really enjoyed it. Sometime down the road I'll have to get my own road bike instead of stealing Brackens.
I'm not worried about the bike portion of the triathlon now. Need to start running but I really don't know if I'll make it to running three straight miles but I hope to be at least able to run one. My body does not like running!

My favorite lines today were Kamri telling Lyla in a high little "mom voice" "it's ok Lyla, the koala isn't real, it's ok, don't worry" Lyla was afraid of the noises Kamri's stuffed koala was making. (and then Kamri would proceed to stuff the koala in Lyla's face) Lyla was funny about it though, she'd reach out like she wanted to pet it and Kamri would push a button to make it make a noise, then Lyla would kick it away with a startled look on her face.
Hayes while he was playing a star wars Lego game, "I HATE when general grievous does that!!"

Kids

I have good kids.

Sometimes I focus too much on their tantrums or what I need to change to help them be better but today I was reminded of how I need to just enjoy their goodness.

And thank them for it.

Started off my Monday on a bike ride with my friend and her friend.  It's my second ride on Bracken's road bike with clips.  I was careful this ride to make sure I was clipped out of both feet whenever we stopped because the first ride I fell over once when I stopped, I was unclipped with one foot and shifted my weight to my other side that was clipped in and fell over.  This ride I didn't fall until I got home, I unclipped and then rode my bike up our driveway but going up the driveway clipped me back in. I was up to the garage door so I couldn't keep going to try and unclip so I just fell over.  If any of my neighbors were watching they got a good show.  On the bright side, I'm not afraid to fall over being clipped in anymore... 

Lyla got her six month shots today.  I've rescheduled her appointment three times because she has been sick and she has finally been better for two weeks.  I'm hoping she has finally built up an immune system enough to stay well for awhile. Keep your fingers crossed for me! My friend watched Hayes & Kamri while I took Lyla to the doctor. It was fun being able to focus just on her. The nurses were giving her lots of attention too and she was eating it all up, until the shots of course!

 She is at a fun age, smiling and giggling.  She gives huge open mouth kisses and communicates with me in grunts and little giggles. When she sees her bottle when I'm getting it ready she starts this cut off giggle that is so cute.  She's also always crawling into trouble and ALWAYS moving. Luckily she hasn't started pulling up to stuff yet so she can't climb up things.  

The rest of Monday was digging our house out of the weekend, laundry, picking up toys, etc.  It was Hayes's night to decide what to make for dinner and he had picked Pizza.  I made the dough with whole wheat and it didn't work out, it wouldn't spread out. I gave up and started making dough with just normal flour and Lyla started getting cranky because of her shots and she was tired.  Bracken came home to me about to have a meltdown because the dough wasn't turning out, the kitchen was a mess and Lyla was bawling.  I felt like a five year old having a fit over Pizza dough not working out but seriously...making dinner once is enough for me, twice and it not work out both times is just LAME!  He took the dough and re stretched it out and just made it work. I'm grateful he'd come save the day, even if it was something as simple as pizza dough. 

For family home evening we took the questions out of the Friend magazine and Skyped my parents. Hayes & Kamri took turns asking them questions about their lives when they were little.  Hopefully next week we can do it with Bracken's parents.  Hayes loves hearing funny stories from people when they were his age.

You're right and I love you both (post from yesterday)

Hayes & Kamri were arguing on our drive home tonight on which one of them was right (I don't even remember what they were arguing about before that) and Bracken was trying to teach Hayes that more than one person could be right. Telling him For example what plus what equals five? Then telling him some might say 0 + 5, others might say 3+2 and so on.. Then Hayes just took the oppurtunity of doing math to ask, what's 1000 + 10000? then when Bracken gave him the answer he would say "uhuh" in a tone that was saying, yep I'm right I knew that. I don't think the whole concept that Hayes doesn't always have to be right sunk in....(maybe because Bracken hasn't figured that one out yet either, wink wink) but it did get him and Kamri to stop arguing.

Kamri loves to tease Bracken. He'll ask her if she knows that he loves her. She'll just dead pan say No. Then smile or giggle and walk away. The other night Bracken told her he loved her and asked if she loved him. She would say No, I don't love you. Bracken looked hurt so I guess she decided she'd throw him a bone and now she says "I love you both" To clarify Bracken asked, Soo you love me and mom?

  No, I both love you and I don't. 

That little stinker!  She just can't get away with not teasing him.

_________

Quote for Sunday:

"I have been quoted as saying, 'Do the best you can.' But I want to emphasize that it be the very best. We are too prone to be satisfied with mediocre performance. We are capable of doing so much better." -Gordon B Hinckley

Still counts as my post for the day

My Internet on my computer stopped working after I finished writing my post so I couldn't post it. I'll post it in the morning because I'm too tired to mess with getting the Internet working now (I'm using my phone).

Primary activity
Laundry
Bike ride
Hanging out in the backyard
Grocery shopping
Late Dinner with Bracken & Hayes, the girls fell asleep.
Hayes was loving being the only kid at dinner and we had fun asking him his "favorites" and he loved us telling him funny stories from when he was younger and from when we were little.
My favorite was Bracken asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. "A police officer so then I can't get thrown in jail" so he's going to be a corrupt police officer...we asked him why he would get thrown in jail if he wasn't a cop. He said for breaking the law but wouldn't admit to what law he would break. Hmmm already planning a life of crime ; )

Opposite of Yesterday

Yesterday we enjoyed the sun and being outdoors.
Today we stayed inside all day long.
No fun.

Last night after I was done blogging, Bracken had made popcorn and we were settling in bed to read and eat our popcorn.  I decided I wanted a drink of water to go with it. I got the drink of water and as I was walking back to our room I checked on our kids. I always have to check on my kids before I go to sleep...no matter how much I convince myself they are okay, I still have to go look.  There was a REALLY bad smell when I went into Hayes & Kamri's room.  They were both zonked but as I looked closer Hayes had vomit all over himself but was so tired he had fallen back asleep.  GROSS!

I had to wake him up and bathe him. Bracken took all the sheets and blankets off and washed them and remade the bed. We gave him a bowl to use just in case, We climbed back in our bed and he started throwing up again. He made it in the bowl that time but we brought his mattress in our room so we wouldn't have to go running across the house at every sound.  Got him situated, got back in bed, almost asleep and we hear Kamri....Ugh!  Used our teamwork again and got Kamri bathed, the sheets cleaned. Pulled her mattress in our room.  Hayes was assigned to me, Bracken was assigned to Kamri.  We joked as we climbed into bed that now Lyla needed to barf to round out the story.  Luckily she didn't.

Kamri slept through the rest of the night. Hayes ended up throwing up 8 times. He kept track. He likes numbers.  I felt so bad for him, he kept saying Mom, I don't want to throw up!  and told me "I'm only going to eat healthy food from now on!" (if only that were the truth!)

I started feeling sick about 3 a.m. Hayes started feeling better around 8 a.m.  It was a LOONG Night!

Today Bracken stayed out in the front room with Lyla while the other kids and I were quarantined to the bedroom. We watched two episodes of Star Wars and High School Musical. Betcha can't guess which child chose which movie. .  I felt nauseous every time I sat up so Bracken had to take care of all of us.  He was also working on his Bar application in between stopping Lyla from crawling into things and putting things into her mouth that she shouldn't. Hopefully they don't get sick It was a LOOOONG day for him.

I'm feeling better now and the kids were feeling good this afternoon.  So here's hoping Bracken & Lyla don't catch it and we can enjoy our Saturday!

Family Friendly Las Vegas?

A few months ago Bracken got free tickets to a show for donating blood.  The tickets said Family Friendly so we went to it on a date.  Maybe in Las Vegas' definition it was family friendly but there were certain acts I'd definitely be uncomfortable having my son or daughter watch. (and I was uncomfortable for that matter!)

My friend is visiting with her family soon so I just wrote her an e-mail on actual "Family-Friendly" things to do in Las Vegas. Here is a list of things we've enjoyed as a family around Las Vegas.

I would love your comments on what you've loved to do in Vegas, whether you live here or not.

Silverton Casino Aquarium & Pro Bass Shop

I think your boys would love this. They have a HUGE aquarium full of sting rays and a bunch of other sea fish. They have divers in feeding the string rays. They have daily fish feedings and mermaid shows. The times are listed at this website http://www.vegas.com/attractions/on_the_strip/azure.html  The Bass Pro Shop is a huge outdoor/sport store with a whole bunch real (dead) stuffed wildlife and an indoor pond.  The kids love walking around and finding all the animals. All of that is free.

Natural History Museum is like the Bass Pro Shop in that it is full of the stuffed animals minus all the merchandise plus educational exhibits. It costs to get in though, I'd go with Bass Pro Shop so you can spend your money elsewhere...My kids loved going when we went about two years ago though.

Leid Discovery Kids Museum Kids are $8.50/ Adults $9.50 They have some cool exhibits, my kids have been about four times and beg to go again. The website is http://www.ldcm.org/

Red Rock Canyon has a bunch of hikes if you want to do something outdoors. There is a kids hike that takes about 2 hours with a seasonal waterfall. We went last year in Feb and the waterfall was running. Also a favorite of my kids. I think it's like $7 bucks a car.

Pinball Hall of Fame is a warehouse full of old pinball machines and video arcade games.  My kids LOVE it and it's free to get in. All the games are 25-75 cents..most of them are 25 cents. So ten bucks can entertain for a long time.  The address is 1610 E. Tropicana, Las Vegas NV 89119

Springs Preserve has some nice exhibits and it is fun to go when they have a bird or reptile show. It is more pricey though.

The Ethel M Chocolate factory. You can see how chocolates are made and they have a cactus garden.  It is a short tour and they give you free chocolate at the end. They also have a huge cactus garden. It is best to visit at Christmas because they put hundreds of lights on the cactus but free chocolate is never a bad thing.

Bonnie Springs $7 a person. Has a petting zoo and a replica ghost town with a shooting and hanging show.  I blogged about it a few days ago.

Bellagio has cool gardens to look at and the water fountain show.

A few other things we haven't checked out:

Mirage has a dolphin show it is around $16 a person.

Las Vegas has a zoo but we haven't made it to it yet. It's $8 for adults, $5 kids

In searching for museum hours I found a new museum I have never heard of. The Atomic Testing Museum. It is $14 for adults but kids 6 and under are free. 

 Started off my morning teaching these cute girls preschool.  When Hayes got home from school he and Kamri helped me pick up all the toys. I turned on some music and told them if they got it all cleaned up in two songs I'd give them some candy. Cheap bribery worked great, I'll have to try it again. Then we spent the afternoon enjoying the sun in our backyard...

with this handsome boy

 and these adorable girls.

 Lyla loved crawling in the grass and attacking her brother

 I love this picture of Lyla, and that in the reflection you can see Hayes & Kamri tackling me as I take her picture.

 Queen of the slide

 Kamri wanted to take a picture.

 and then a "cannonball" into the sprinklers. It did hit 70 today, but it's February!! Crazy kids...I couldn't talk them out of it.

all the crawling wore Lyla right out.

It makes my heart happy to have kids that enjoy taking advantage of such beautiful weather

and a husband that makes popcorn after they are asleep for us to enjoy.

7 years

Seven years ago today Bracken & I met.  This post turned into me reminiscing about the whole campaign and our dating...you are warned. We met at a meeting for anyone running for college senator positions.  There were three Business College senators and six people running. Bracken and his friend Sam decided they would choose one other person to campaign with and hopefully all three would win.  If I remember right they asked one guy to campaign with them and he said no. Then they figured it might be good to have a girl run with them to get the "girl vote." I was the only girl.  I'm sure I impressed them with my extreme intelligence as well when they introduced Sam to me as Cody and then told me his name was Sam but they were laughing so I had no clue what to call him.  I think I called him Cody for awhile before they finally corrected me.   We decided to all run together and we met two days later to decide our platform and how we would campaign.All three of us spent the next week together making signs and plotting what to do next.  Except for one night that Bracken said he was "busy" so Sam & I worked all evening making signs and we ended up catching Bracken playing poker with his buddies and girls but I've forgiven him....it has been seven years after all.. Plus I wasn't the ideal campaign partner either, the morning of elections they woke up at 5 a.m. and were waiting for me and I was sleeping and hung up on them twice thinking it was the alarm on my phone before I realized I was suppose to be somewhere. (Bracken had full disclosure going into marriage that I am not a morning person!)
Our campaign signs were pretty awesome (and nerdy). We changed them everyday and involved everything from life-size stick figures of ourselves, forks, a couch, a Nordic track, and a live chicken. We covered the lawn in front of the business school with plastic forks and had a sign that said "Fork-it about voting for anyone else"  The Nordic Track was on the lawn another day with "Let us Work out for you" and the Chicken coop was on the lawn the day of voting with "Don't be a chicken, Vote for Bracken, Sam & Skye. I can't remember the sayings of the other ones. The chicken escaped from it's makeshift chicken-wire pen and I ended up chasing it around campus! Bracken and Sam were in class so Ben Bess that was campaigning against us ended up helping me catch the darn thing!  I also got a parking ticket for parking in a handicap spot at 11 p.m. while we were unloading a sign from my truck, but luckily campus parking tickets you could flirt talk some of the officers out of making you pay.
We went on our first date on March 5. I realized I was interested in Bracken when my roommate asked me if I could get him to ask her on a date and I was thinking...wait I want to go on a date with him!  March 9 was election day.  When the results were announced that night and we all didn't win I was so nervous that it would be awkward between Bracken and me. I was so relieved when Bracken called me the next day to hang out and we pretty much spent time together every day after that. I ended up going up to his parents house the next week over spring break. I was going as a friend but as we were making the five hour drive up there I got really nervous realizing I needed to impress these people because I liked their son a lot!  We were officially engaged May 20 and married August 26th.  It ended up I didn't even keep my Senator position since we got married and spent the next semester in Washington, DC doing internships. It worked out the best for both of us in the end!

I wish we had a picture from when we were dating but we don't have a single one. Sad, huh?!  This is at a Washington Nationals game, about a month after we got married.

Mornings

Ever since we moved Kamri into a toddler bed (just before she turned two) she has come to my side of the bed when she wakes up and demands breakfast.  A snarly "I WANT BREAKFAST"  repeated over and over until I reluctantly pull my self out of bed to go get her something.  I tried feeding her extra before bedtime but nope her little tummy needs breakfast as soon as she wakes up. Hayes at a young age would just sit and watch TV while we slept in, but never Kamri. Nothing could deter her from the mission of filling her tummy. Now that she is a little older she asks a little more politely at times and sometimes  I can get a little more sleep time if I invite her to come cuddle with me. Other mornings, like this morning, asking her to come cuddle me gets this response....

 Noooooooo, I want breakfast!!

Yes I got up and got her breakfast.  The poor girl who lives with a mother that just loves to sleep in. She's lucky she wasn't the first child since I had the chance to sleep in a lot more often when there was only one little munchkin in the house.  I'll miss our cuddle times when she is old enough to get her own breakfast, but I don't think she'll miss having to force her mom out of bed!

Bonnie Springs

On Saturday we went out to Bonnie Springs by Red Rock Canyon.  It's  a replica of an old ghost town with a petting zoo and a train ride.
When we pulled off towards Bonnie Springs there was a bunch of wild burrows that came right up to your window.  I'm guessing quite a few tourists ignored the signs saying a $500 fine if you feed the wild burrows but it worked out for us since the kids got to pet them and we didn't even have to break the law and feed them....Kamri was a bit nervous but Hayes loved it.

We made it just in time to catch the train ride from the parking lot to the station and get in for the Melodrama and the shooting and hanging dramatization.  Walking through the replica mine and the petting zoo was the biggest hit for our family.

Hayes went around touching the horn on any animal, he felt so brave.

The deer were so friendly, you could pet them but they also liked to nibble at your clothes!

Lyla enjoying being carried everywhere.

Hayes & Kamri LOVED that the deer were nibbling at Hayes' shirt.  Hayes realized on the way home that it had nibbled a hole in his shirt!  Luckiliy, Bracken made him change into an older shirt when he got dressed in the morning!

Maybe I need to get one of these for our house....

 They must have been talking about President's day in Kindergarten because Hayes threw out all these facts we had no idea he knew. On Saturday morning Bracken and I were trying to sleep in while our early riser Hayes was sitting on the bed talking to us.  He grabbed a $1 bill that was sitting on my nightstand and said, this is George Washington he was the first president of the United States and he is also on the quarter.  Then he told us Abraham Lincoln is on the five dollar bill and the penny.  I asked him if he knew who President Lincoln was.  His response: Duh! He was the 16th president of the United States.  So we asked him who the president is now and exasperated at the easiness of the question, he said Obama!  Then Bracken gave him a toughie. What number of President is Obama? Hayes asked when Lincoln was born so Bracken told him he was the President in the 1860's. Then Hayes guessed 45th. A lucky guess but Bracken and I were blown away that he was that close. 44th!  And here I thought they were just tracing letters in kindergarten...

 Jill this post is for you. Since you called me out on my lazy blogging  I put pictures up. Now I'm going to start getting after you to get posting again!

It was a good day.

Sneaky

Everyone is asleep except me and I am enjoying some Oreos and milk. Shhh don't tell my kids.


My favorite line today was Kamri telling Bracken, "You're not a worker, you're an adult!"

If I could bottle up the energy my kids have during the 30 minutes before bedtime and then harness it with Bracken's ability to think and focus on so many different deep issues; I think I could solve the problems of the world.

But being that that is impossible; I'm just exhausted physically and mentally.

I hope the kids sleep well because I know I will!

---
My favorite line today came from the mom of a family Bracken home teaches. We had them over for dinner and I hadn't picked up all the toys before they got there. I was apologizing that the house wasn't clean(which I hate when I apologize for that!) and she said "I'm glad because it just looks like it is a home, it's lived in" Even if it still was a mess, she made me feel better about it.

Just a day, Just an Ordinary Day....

 Starting the morning off with preschool. Only three girls today. We talked about colors and created new colors by mixing two together.

 Then they mixed all of them together and turned silly.

 My bike riding gear came yesterday along with a helmet for Lyla.  Her first bike ride went well!  I thought she'd hate it, it looked uncomfortable. She didn't scream and started babbling on the way to the park, then fell asleep on the way home from the park.

 When we got home from our bike ride, we cleaned up the house and then some pirates took over.

 The couch was their ship. At one point Kamri came up to me with a mean face and a trying-to-be-deep voice.  "Give me your baby!" No, I don't give my baby to pirates.  "I promise I won't slice her!" Well in that case....so Lyla went on the boat.

Bracken took Kamri out on a date tonight. She was excited all day and couldn't take waiting anymore so she put her coat on 15 minutes before he got home. They went to Wendy's and a place you can paint something and they fire it in a kiln, they get it in a week.

 Hayes & I played Monopoly after Lyla fell asleep. Hayes wanted to buy Boardwalk but every time he landed on it he didn't have enough money. He refused to mortgage his properties to buy it though.  Thatta boy. Kamri's date got her home 15 minutes after bedtime curfew...we're going to have to talk to her Dad about that!

Before Lyla fell asleep, Hayes made her laugh.  She has been laughing so hard at the random-ness things. We all love it and happy to repeat whatever she is laughing at to get more laughs from her!

Preschool Party

 The girls coloring their hearts

Blowing out the candles on their Valentine's cake.

We sang Happy Valentine's Day to everyone instead of Happy Birthday and blew out candles because what fun is a cake without candles!  These girls were so fun to party with. They were SOOO excited to pass out Valentine's and show off their Valentine outfits. We colored Hearts different colors to go with our Discovering Colors theme this week, played Valentine bingo and read Fancy Nancy Valentine's. An overload of Pink which is right up their alley.

Hope everyone had a lovely Valentines! I have a cute picture of the preschool party to post tomorrow

Barely

Barely making the deadline for blogging today.  I went to the pet store to get a fish for the kids for Valentines and almost came home with a dwarf rabbit instead.  Then I decided I should think about it overnight and I could take them to pick it out.  I still kinda want to go get one but I know I really don't want to start the whole pet thing already....hmmm...we'll see how I feel in the morning. I didn't get a fish though so now they ended up with nothing and oblivious that they lost out because of their mother's indecisiveness. Cruel world. I have told them we will get an outdoor cat when we buy a house. They seem happy with that should maybe I should stick with it.

My mom and dad were in town today too. It was fun spending some time with them. We got papa john's pizza and hung out at our house. low key fun.

Then I finished up last minute things for co-op Preschool tomorrow.  Five little girls having a Valentine's party at our house. It is going to be fun!

Sound of Music

I'm not sure how long the "Except Sunday" provision has been up there, but I believe it is a pretty recent change.  This intersection used to get backed up when we left church but it wasn't bad today.  I was a little humored that traffic signs changed because of our ward. I only know of one or two people in my ward that read my blog...but if there are any of you, is this a recent change or am I that unobservant?

The kids and I played Zingo after church while Bracken took a nap. Then Kamri wanted to Skype someone that "is a girl that isn't an adult".  My cousin showed up as online and her daughter is two days older than Kamri so we called them.  Kamri now has a friend (second cousin) in Hawaii that she's never met. She kept asking to Skype more people and threw a fit when we ran out of people to Skype.  She's excited to Skype in the morning with people we couldn't reach and I promised we would try again. I've created a monster.  If anyone has kids that like to Skype, I know a three-year-old that would love to oblige.

After dinner we watched the first half of "The Sound of Music" I checked it out for Kamri and she seemed to enjoy it. I enjoyed it too, I didn't realize I knew all the songs as well as I did.  My dad used to sing us Edelweiss and I think my mom listened to the soundtrack because I don't remember watching it that often.  Halfway through Kamri wanted popcorn but we were too lazy to get out the air-popper so we pulled out some year old microwave popcorn. Hayes was amazed you could MICROWAVE popcorn.  Bracken has turned me into a popcorn snob, airpopped is WAY better. (especially when the microwave popcorn is over a year old...) While Bracken & I were discussing that microwave just isn't as good Hayes told us that he liked microwaved popcorn better.  Then my favorite line from today: Bracken looked at me and said "First he likes Obama, now microwave popcorn?! Next he's going to tell me he's buying stock in Wal-Mart"


________
My quote for Sunday is from a book I'm currently reading Christlike Parenting by Dr. Glenn I. Latham.

"A key facet of Christlike parenting is for parents to move toward teaching values and being less concerned about compliance and conformity. Remember, "Socrates, Jesus Christ, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King were not conformists. The Nazi's were...as are all totalitarians.  Forced conformance and compliance creates a coercive environment, which in turn encourages children to escape, avoid, and counter-coerce (meaning get even) It is a natural law of human behavior. You can count on it."

I'm only a 1/4 of the way through the book but I've already found some very helpful reminders and new ideas in parenting and in how I think about myself as a parent. I also liked this thought.

"We must quit beating up on ourselves through a lot of useless introspection and mucking around in the past and get on with life. We must change what needs to be changed."

My growth is stunted by  my thoughts of not being able to do it "well enough." I just need to stop the negative thoughts and make the changes I know will help me in the long run.  Anyone else get caught in that?

Ice Cream

Bracken was gone all day doing law review stuff. The kids and I went to the park, ran errands and the best part of the day for the kids was getting a valentine in the mail from Grandma Niece and Grandpa Paul. Hayes checked the mail and excitedly passed Kamri and Lylas envelopes out to them. And there was ice cream money. Hayes' reaction to the dollar and not "ahh SNAP!!! Ice cream money! Sweet!"
So I took them to u swirl and they blew that money and loved every second of it.
Thanks Grandma Niece & Grandpa Paul

Lyla had a few tastes and loved it! Didn't like the cold but once it warmed in her mouth she was begging for another taste.

Before bed Hayes & Kamri made a tunnel for Lyla with our chalkboard.  She loved it.

Another rambling about my day

I was slow getting ready today. After 6 years of marriage and 3 kids in the house I've realized if I don't shower before Bracken leaves, I'm usually not ready for the day until noon.  Not that the kids are always to blame but it seems like there are so many more interruptions as I'm getting ready.  Getting up and swimming in the morning has made me feel more productive. Besides the fact I get a workout in before the time I usually wake up,  forcing myself to get up and moving at 5 in the morning gets me to keep on moving all morning.  So there is even one more reason I should go swimming more often.

The morning was slow as stated above.  Kamri, Lyla and I kinda just hung out, eating breakfast and stuff. Mornings like that make me love being a stay at home mom because we can just be lazy sometimes if we want (making up for the nights of not even sleep because we are a mom) but then I feel a tad bit too lazy, and the house looks like a garbage truck dumped it's contents in the kitchen. Not that bad but close.

I had carpool pickup today and Hayes had a friend over.  We stopped at the park and played for an hour and when we got home Kamri had a friend come over too.  It was a BEAUTIFUL day outside. Here are the two pictures I took on my phone today.

We had spagehtti for dinner because I didn't defrost any meat and couldn't think of anything else quick. Then went to the ward valentine's party. They did a light screen where you had to guess your husband by their shadows and then karaoke. We have a funny ward so it made for some good entertainment. They had Cafe Rio which was even better. It made up for my lack of dinner and made me happy that I had slacked off on dinner.
Then I sat on pinterest and realized if I spent that time sewing I might get one of the 38295 projects I have pinned done. (We all know I'll never do everything I've pinned...)  I also looked into the Oil Cleansing Method. Make up remover never seems to work that well for me unless I scrub my face to death and I don't have a face wash I love so if this worked it'd be great. Gotta go buy me some castor oil...

Mundane

I haven't posted anything too exciting but I keep reminding myself these are things I want to remember about daily life, even if they aren't necessarily entertaining to everyone else. Here are some random things about my day today.

Hayes & Kamri each had a friend over today.  I played Monopoly with all of them. Kamri & Mabry were the bank and Mckenna, Hayes, & I played.  They totally whooped me. I think the bank was slipping them money or something.  We didn't finish the whole game before they got bored (thankfully) and I sent them outside to play.  Those four played for an hour in the backyard. I have no idea what make believe they were playing but sometimes I wish life was always that simple, just playing make believe in the backyard, no problems at all, except of course the ones you make up and can solve as well.

 

While the kids were playing outside Lyla and I were folding laundry on the bed.  Lyla tipped the laundry basket full of socks over and started throwing them everywhere and giggling. Then I would put them back in and it would start all over again.  It kept her occupied and it was cute, double bonus.

Tonight after dinner Bracken was asking Kamri if she knew that he loved her. She was responding with her usual 'I don't:"with a big smile to illicit Bracken's response of "What??"  Then he would ask for a kiss and she'd say no.  Then she usually ends up giving him a big kiss and a hug but tonight she informed him that she will only give out kisses on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

I've had on my mind a lot lately about how I have changed from when we moved here to now.  I'm still the same ole Skye but circumstances and locations do have a way of changing or influencing a person. I feel like I've grown and changed for the better in the past few years, but sometimes it's hard to tell.  It'll be interesting to see what the next three years bring.

Bracken left at 6:30 this morning and got home at 6.  He wasn't home later than usual but having him leave earlier makes the day feel longer. We're going to the ward valentines party tomorrow.  It's nice to have a free date to look forward to!

.  

Whining vs Crying

(whining)

As I was putting the kids to bed I was thinking about our day. I couldn't recollect them whining the entire day, an accomplishment in this household. I gave some positive reinforcement by thanking Hayes & Kamri for how good they had been today: not whining and that they cleaned up their toys, etc.  Then Kamri corrected me: "Mom, I did whine today when my Popsicle melted."
We had popsicles after lunch.  The coconut whole fruit bars that are DELICIOUS.  Kamri and Hayes were eating them outside, Kamri came inside and set hers on the table. I thought she had finished.  We started doing other things and Hayes discovered the melted Popsicle.  Kamri started sobbing. She was so heartbroken that she didn't have her popsicle anymore. She had even carefully put it on a piece of paper towel to "save" it. I was going to start into lectures about popsicles go in freezers and I wasn't happy about cleaning up the mess either but I wasn't bawling. Then I remembered she's three, those are delicious popsicles, and I'd be sad if mine unknowingly melted too. I held her and let her bawl her eyes out. After she had mourned over the loss of her Popsicle she went back to playing happily with Hayes.
She wasn't whining that her popsicle had melted, she wasn't asking for more, just sad that it HAD melted.  That, to me, is totally different than whining.  I hope as she grows I'll still be the one that she comes to for comfort. Even if sometimes the sadness seems a bit silly. Like, heaven forbid, when she gets dumped for the first time.


Retraction:

I misquoted Hayes from yesterday's post...just by a bit. See above.  I was also informed that you could write Hayes's instead of Hayes'  It is just when it is a plural possesive that you would write the apostrophe after the s. There are also other rules about it ending in "es" but they couldn't come up with an example for me.  I'll stop trying to teach my kindergartener about apostrophes and  just focus on when to capitalize and when not to. Even that is too many rules,  we'll just focus on writing in a straight line, I THINK I have that down.

Enough

I've been on the computer enough today--Way too much. Pinterest is trouble.  I got on to find one recipe and now it's been an hour and a half or looking up recipes and stuff.
I'm blogging now so I can shut this computer down and not turn it back on until tomorrow.  My kids need some mommattention.

Don't have a FLT but this was a little amusing to me. Hayes was writing the sentence: Do not touch Hayes' toys unless you're his friend.  It was a bit confusing telling him that he didn't need to add another s to his name, only an apostrophe to show possession but words without an s at the end you put it before the s. Then use that same apostrophe to turn two words into one for you are.  Crazy English grammar. If there were more than one Hayes would it be Hayeses?

Finished

Finally finished the bag from the girls weekend with the Longhurst girls.  It only took me what like two weeks to do the last three steps.  Kamri was at a friend's house, Hayes was occupied with a friend here and Lyla was taking a nap so perfect time to get it done. Thanks Skye O. for bringing the pattern and helping me put it together, it never would have gotten done without you! I love how it turned out.

inside & pockets

Hayes took this picture for me & wanted to take a picture of all of us girls. Kamri in dress-ups like usual!

                                                                 Then Kamri wanted a turn with the camera, she almost got us.