Kid stories

I have a few funny kid nuggets to write about...

Lately Ruby will say, "Mom, can I tell a joke? Um, Santa walked in the room and bumped his leg. Funny huh?" She makes them up, and they are never funny. But she loves to tell them to me.

Zane likes to take his toy cars and toy farm equipment and play in the dirt of my plants. The only problem is that A. It kills my plants, and B. it makes a mess on the floor. After telling the kid 600 times to stop playing in the dirt, we came up with a dumb idea. We went to Lowes and bought a shallow Tupperware tote. We then bought 50 pounds of play sand. We poured the sand in and let the kids play for hours in the sand. It was in our house so they would be warm. Fun for kids, not for mom and dad. It is so, so messy. But they liked it. We may let them play in it again when I forget what a mess it makes. Or I may get a cat and let it poop in it.

Today Zane had a thing with making a high pitched squeal. I wanted to deck him in the nose. But then he does something so cute it erases all the violent thoughts. In the mornings I let the kids watch a few cartoons. There are only two that they really like to watch and then they play with toys on the other cartoons. It's a nice time for me to get a few things done. (It sounds like this is forever, but I really don't let them watch very much TV). In between the shows a guy named Steve Songs comes on and sings a little ditty. Today Zane came and got me by both hands, and drug me into the front room. He proceeded to dance around the room with me while holding hands. He is such a sweet boy.

Have I mentioned that Ruby sings or talks about 80% of the day? And all of the songs are sung with so much gusto! She has an innocent voice and tries to sing like Sleeping Beauty. The little song she was singing today went like this...
I'm just a good girl, a good girl.
I'm just a good girl for Santa Clause.
He can make all my dreams come true.
There's my belly button.
I'll show my belly button to myself.
I'm a cute girl.
I'm just a cute girl.

I had to hide in the closet so she would not see me laughing so hard. She's a creative one. I sure do love her.

Lewis is reading New Moon!

I'm drawin' a blank. All the time I think.. Ooooh, oooh. I could put that on my blog. But right now, there's nothing. We had a great little Christmas. There were a few things that I really enjoyed. I will list them now...


I love how kids get so excited for Christmas. It makes the whole event more magical. They love Santa and they mystery of everything to do with him. Ruby has been so worried about how Santa is going to get in our house.


I love how at least once a year people are a little more kind and giving. We think about Jesus more. In Primary they had costumes for the kids to dress up as someone in the manger. It was very touching. The music director took a second to tell us to remember this little scene during Christmas day. All of the adults in the room had tears streaming down our faces. It focused our attention as to why we celebrate Christmas at all.

I love that my Sweet Lew has time off from school. He is able to play with the kids more. Ruby and Zane love him so much. Sometimes during the semester we get so busy that we forget how much fun it is to have him here every night. He loves us so much and misses us too. I get so amazed at how wonderful Lewis is. He has the best common sense. He makes my life so much better and easier. Boy did I luck out on that one!

Zane is able to pronounce more words lately. The other night he said, "Goodnight Dad, wove you. Goodnight KoKo, wove you, Goodnight Dewie, wove you." And then tonight he wanted to wake Ruby up to give her a kiss. I love it when the two get along so well. Ruby has been such a big sister to Zane. If he drops something she will pick it up. If he is crying she will go get him his favorite toy and say, "Here you go little buddy".

I'm very thankful for my mom. She always spoils us at Christmastime. She always gives us fun gifts. Every year she give us a gift card to a good restaurant. I love that and look forward to it! Our kids also get really spoiled by Grandma Deb. It's not just the gifts I love though. She is wonderful, and I'm very grateful to have her as my mom.

I'm thankful for the fun family activities that we do around Christmas. There are the usual parties on Christmas day that is always fun to see the fam. This year my cousin McKade was the entertainment. He played with Ruby and Baylee's microphone. He gave us a mini concert singing Hanna Montana. Kade was so funny. He would say-Oh, you wanna see it from the backside? Then he would turn around and shake his booty. Ruby was in awe.
We also had a fun time with Lew's family. The day after Christmas we went to his sister, Margot's house. There was lots of good food! We then took the kids to a Lehi swimming pool. That thing was awesome. There was a little area just for kids 5 and under. There were two slides. Then there was this huge bucket. It slowly fills up with water and then tips over into the pool. They have one at the Kearns outdoor pool as well. This one really scared Zane. He would book it out of the pool every time the thing tipped over. He would just squat on the side. Ahh, that kid is funny.
I sure can type a lot when I don't have anything to say. Sorry. This was boring. But it's nice to have documented sometimes.
This is a shot of Ruby lovin' her new dog from Grandma Deb. The little kitty is from Santa. It's not real, but it acts real. That is the closest thing to a cat that we will have in our house.




This is a quick shot of Zaner's faux-hawk. The kids hair is just too curly. I used mouse, gel, hairspray, blow dryer and a flat iron. His hair just continued to curl up!

My Favorite Pants!

I strongly dislike the snow. No. That's not harsh enough. I hate the snow. H-A-T-E. There is nothing that I really like about the snow. Except for now... My kids love it. The snow makes them happy, so I'll endure. But as soon as Christmas is over, I expect 90 degrees outside and flowers to start blooming. Last week when it snowed, we played outside with the kids. We have a small hill in our back yard. Perfect for a little tubbin'. I have a funny video, but I couldn't get it on here.

Zane wanted to just mow it all up. If that worked, I would have done it a while ago. He still looks like a boy in those boots, right?

Then two days ago, I was in the kitchen cooking dinner. I heard footsteps and then a loud thump, followed by crying. I'm not sure what happened, but this is what Zane looked like after the thump. Can you see that big lump in all the curly locks?

Did I mention I don't like the snow? Well, today after shoveling the driveway, I was shoveling a path for Dewie in the backyard. Her legs are only about 5 inches long. Unless I want poop on the porch, this is a necessity. We played in the backyard some more and Lew came up with a great idea! We have a little play house. And we built it into an igloo! This has been a goal for me a Lew our whole lives! Both of us have gotten close, but never completed an igloo. I remember one time at my Grandma Draper's house, my cousins and I got really close. My Grandpa Draper was helping us. And then I had to go home. But we finally did it today!

I know that it looks like Ruby is flipping the camera off. She doesn't know about that yet. I'm waiting to teach her that in kindergarten.

Run, Run, Rudolph!!!!

I'm reading this book called, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. It's insightful and funny. I like a quote in the book and wanted to throw it out there for all to enjoy...
The Bhagavad Gita (Hindu Scripture) says, "It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection."

Elevator sickness

This is my Reggae Rudolph dancin' girl! She is so cute! I'm so proud of this girl!
Okay, I will start from the beginning. Ruby takes dance from Shellie's School of Dance. The Christmas Dance concert was on Friday night. Shellie has owned and taught at this studio for 25 years. She even taught me! Now there are nine dance teachers with a gazillion students. Three of the teachers are my talented cousins. I have to tell you this concert is so magical! It has such a wonderful feeling of Christmas. The costumes are dazzling! The girls are fantastic dancers! On every single dance, the dancers knew each step. They were not watching for the teachers to show them what to do! Even the little three year-olds, they knew the dance!
So I take Ruby to the school. The plan is to take the girls back to the gym at 6:30. Doors open for the famlies to get buns in seats at 6:30. Show begins at 7. I explained this to Ruby. I am not with her 24 hours a day, all day, every day. She goes to school. She goes to dance. But she would not stay in the gym without me.!!!???? She has friends there. She had Baylee there. She had Shayla, Sara, and Dayna there. Nope. Just momma would do. So after about 40 minutes of tears, all of her stage make-up on my shirt, and I resorted to bribery, I was able to leave her there. I did good. I didn't cry in front of her. I knew she would be just fine. It was her classes turn to dance and she was right on stage, all smiles. She looked beautiful. She even got into the dance and shook her little booty. I was so elated! My mom worded the experience correctly, "I aged about 7 years that night". I've never seen her be so scared! And I could not understand it because she was with friends and family? After it was over she wanted to know when the spring concert was going to be, so she could go play in the fun play land again (the gym).



Then on Saturday we had Lew's family party. All of his brothers and sisters were there, minus one sister. His single brother even brought a hot Asian girl as a date! We went out to eat at Buca di Beppo. It was madness with that many people, but a lot of fun.

We then rode trax to Temple Square to look at the lights. That is the kids favorite part. Zane repeatedly yelled, "Bye Train"! This is a picture of our little fam. I think it is really funny for a few reasons. A. Shaniqua (aka Ruby) looks like she just got back from da hood with my NYC running cap. She is wearing mismatched gloves. Lew is wearing my scarf, while holding my sweet diaper bag. It's not visible, but Zaner is wearing pink tights under his jeans and I had to fight him to take off the Strawberry Shortcake boots. The camera tried to fix red-eye and gave me black dots at the end of my eyebrows. Then Zane and I have the same mouth. And I won't tell you what Lew is wearing under his jeans. wink, wink. (kidding)

We then went up to the Garden cafe in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and drank hot chocolate. It was dang good stuff! This is a shot of a few of the cousins looking out over the temple.

And to make things even better... Wednesday is Lew's last final!!!! Yahooo! And he figured out that he has 8 more classes to take. The tentative graduation date is Spring of 2010!!!! yahoooo!!!

Brotherly Love

It snowed today. Zaner loves the snow. He ran to each window in the house to make sure the snow was covering all areas. I told him we were going to Costco and to get his coat. He got his coat and gloves. On the way to the car he scooped up a handful of snow. Zane told me he had to show Woobee (Ruby). She was in school and had over an hour until she got out. Zane held his hand in a little cup form and held the snow. I gave him a little plastic cup to put it in, but he would have none of that. He just continued to say, "Show Woobee". While driving to Costco he would call out, "Woobee, Where are you?" We then got into Costco, picked up a few things and he still had the handful of snow. He would glance at it every once in a while to make sure it was still there. At the end of the shopping trip it had melted to a one inch ball. He saw it. He ate it. I think he was very sweet to think about Ruby and wanting to share his happiness. I hope they will always have these little caring moments for each other.

Gingerbread houses

I love making Gingerbread Houses. We have been making them for a long time. As you can tell from the picture above, we are close to being professionals.

In college we made them with our roommates. Lew and I have tried baking the actual gingerbread. That was a failure. We have made a few with graham crackers. Those are usually the best. We end up eating most of the decorations. By the time we are finished making the houses, we have eaten so much sugar that I can't stand looking at them any longer.

For the past few years we have bought the kits (easier and faster with kids). We did that last night. Cassi bought a princess castle. While we were building the walls, a piece broke off and Zane feed it to Milo. The princess castle did not turn out. But we had a lot of fun. The kids loved it. I was holding Zane and it was so cute to see him working on the house. He would hold the tiny pieces with his little chubby hands. Zane would hold out the piece to me to add the frosting. The side you can see the best is the one that Zane did. Maybe next year we should enter our house into the Festival of Trees.

Rewind to Thanksgiving

Let's rewind a few days, and pretend that I'm on top of things and that it's the day after Thanksgiving...
Hey! We went to Jerome, Idaho for Thanksgiving. That is where my Sweet Lew is from. It's really nice to go up there. You can get away from all the smog, traffic and some of the daily hustle. The only downfall is the occasional smell of cow manure. There are a lot of dairy's in Jerome. As soon as the first scent of cow poo filters into the car, Lew will unroll the windows, stick his head out and take a good whiff. It smells like home to him.
We left on Wednesday night. Lewis had to take a quiz for school so we were not able to leave until 7pm. We got there and went to bed. The drive is usually 3 1/2 hours. I'm very grateful for portable DVD players.
This is a picture of Ruby and Grandpa Larry's dog Annie. Ruby loves dogs. She was eating a cookie and was able to keep Annie from not eating it. Behind her is the pheasant pens. In the distance you can see the Snake River Canyon. There is a great view from the house.

After we were done eating the Thanksgiving feast, we headed out to the shop. The family had bought two pinatas for the kids to smash up. Zane was a little confused when the kids started whacking it with a stick.

This is a shot of Larry and Jo's (Lew's parents) new kitchen. It's beautiful. The amazing part is that Larry remodeled it himself. Back in 1978 Lew's parents had two little girls and a sweet boy (Lewis). They bought a big chunk of land in Jerome and a little trailer and got to work. Larry built the house himself. It's not a house the big, bad, wolf could blow over either. It's big! It held all 7 kids in comfortably. And, the amazing part is-Larry is a pharmacist! He does not even build houses for a living. Dude's got talent. Anyway, Lewis was telling his boss about how his dad had built the new kitchen cabinets himself. His boss was like, "Yea. I bet that turned out great." Well, here is the evidence that it turned out, more than great...

This is my sweet Lew jumping over the water pump. Impressed? I am!

There are a lot of girl cousins. They play really well together. They found Grandma Jo's stash of yarn. This is the gigantic spider web that they created.

This is Ruby giving me a preview of the teenage years. Wearing black, laying on the floor, and giving me the evil eye...

While in Jerome we went bowling with the adults. It was fun, even though I HATE bowling. Lewis has a competitive side. That side came out that night. He won by 1 point the first game. The next game our lane shut down on the last set. He's been calling for a rematch.

Okay, I'm done. I'll try to keep up with my blog a little better now.

Thanks

I've been thinking about Thanksgiving and I thought I would list all that I am grateful for this past year... (in no particular order).

• The price of gas has gone down. My checking account is happier.
• I got to go to the best concert ever. Linkin Park. And I was with Lew
• Mountains. Anytime I go in the mountains, it recharges my batteries.
• Lewis's hand gun. See my first post.
• Flip Flops. I feel like I'm on Hawaii time.
• Ruby's teachers. She has wonderful teachers at school and dance. They truly love her.
• Stephanie Meyer
• Spin class
• Good running weather
• Cassi quitting her job. I have a buddy.
• Lewis is getting closer to finishing his degree!
• The Library. Ruby and I love it.
• My grandparents. They had a few health problems a few years ago. I'm glad they are here and healthy.
• Diet Mountain Dew
• My mom and my sister. They truly love me.
• Medical science. I'm grateful everyday that because of medicine, my Sweet Lew fought cancer and won.
• My little family did not have any large medical bills this year! We still have a few weeks left though.
• My camera and the awesome photography class I took.
• The strong relationship I have with Sweet Lew. We are a team. No matter what happens, he is on my team. We have our disagreements, but I know I can always count on him. He does not let me down. He is my best friend.
• Koko nut. She's a wild puppy, but I love her. I love my Dewie too.
• The plan of salvation. I get to see my loved ones again. I miss them.
• My little loves, Ruby and Zane. I get to spend every day with them. They are my sunshine. At times, I may not do everything perfect. But when they go to bed they know in the morning, I'm there. I get to give them as many hugs and kisses I want, all day. I get to kiss their owies all better. I get to teach them what is right and wrong. I get to hear Zane learn new words. I get to hear Ruby's crazy songs.
• My kids have healthy bodies.
• My healthy body.
• The Internet and blogging! I've been able to connect with people that I normally would not have.

Lew says he is grateful that his A1C level is under 7% so he doesn't have to want to go back in time.

I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

French Toast

I like to mow the lawn.
I like the clean look.
I want all of the leaves to fall off the trees, so I can have this clean look.
I like the smell of fresh cut grass.
I like to be outside.

Most of all, I like to mow the lawn because no one can talk to me, and I can't hear whining.

I'm the crazy lady that mow's the lawn a few times a day.

Giggles

We went to the Horrock's house tonight and watched the Utes whoop some butt.

At one point we looked around and evaluated what was going on.

Zane and Deegan were racing baby doll strollers around the kitchen table.

The dogs were trying not to get ran over.

Ruby and Bay came upstairs. They were watching Hanna Montana. When they came up, they were all wet. Including their faces. We asked what had happened? The reply was, "We were just spitting on each other".

More wackiness ensued, but I'm not going to share it.

That's when Lew and I started to giggle. Every few minutes I could feel his stomach tighten, trying to hold back the laughter.

Some days we can get entertained so easily.

Anyway, Go Utes! Wahoo!!!

Just a suggestion...

Just a quick suggestion...
GET A FLU SHOT!!!
Lew got one. Zane got one.
Ruby and I have not gotten one. It would be pointless now. We have both had the flu!
She was so sick last week. She is finally getting some color in her little face. I hate to see my girl feeling so yucky. She is so brave. When she was done throwing up, she would say in a sweet little voice, "I think I'm done." It just breaks my heart to see my baby so sick.
And then I got sick. It wasn't fun. I'm not gonna lie. Luckily my mom is on vacation this week. She was able to take Ruby to school on Monday. Lewis took off the rest of the day to take care of me and the kids. Both of them helped so much. The only glitch was that I was getting my hair cut on Monday night.
I love getting my hair cut.
I would do it every day if I could. My cousin, Missy, was driving to Magna to cut me and Cassi's hair. So I had to go.
When I got there Missy was ready. The chair was in place, smock on and scissors in hand. I sat down and two minutes later I had to puke. When I was done, I felt better, so I thought we would try it again. A few minutes later I was feeling queasy. I called for Lew to help me. I stood up. And bam. I passed out...
And barfed a few times....

But the show must go on!
Missy continued to cut my hair. She does a great job, by the way. When she was done, I barfed again! I do love the cut though. Missy can add this story to her list of worst clients ever.

And this past weekend we painted our kitchen. And we had Lew's parents staying at our house. And Lew had a ton of homework.

On a non-gross subject, Ruby had Indian day in school today. All the girls got a little Indian doll. They had their faces painted. I have included her picture. Next week they have the Thanksgiving harvest.

First time for everything...

I did something for the first time last night at 2:30 a.m.
Ruby barfed and missed the toilet. During the sanitizing process, I had to use tweezers to pluck barf out of the bathroom crevices.

Do you regret reading my blog today?

I may have the same adventure tonight!

Tag

Alright. I've never done a tag before. My hilarious cousin, Amanda, tagged me. Since I love her and would do whatever she asks, I'll do this one... and 'cause she's a Ute fan.

How I met Sweet Lew

1. Where did you meet?
Lew's companion talked him into writing me a letter. He wrote me. I wrote him back, even though I was not an active mormon and he was a missionary. We wrote each other for 9 months and met at the airport.

2. What was the first thought that went through your head when you met?
He's hot. I can't breathe, and my armpits are sweating too much.

3. Do you remember what he was wearing?
Yup. A suit and tie and a missionary name tag!

4. Where was the first time you kissed this person?
Logan. We had just finished moving my stuff into my apartment. It was his birthday. We were listening to Wallflowers and made out for the whole song on my bed. Ahh yea!

5. Where did you go for your first date?
He came home from his mission on Wednesday. On Friday he drove to Utah (he's from Idaho) and met me at my job. I got off at noon. We went to the 7-11 and bought Mtn. Dew's. We then drove up Millcreek canyon. We sat on a picnic table and talked for a long, long time. (Lewis wanted me to mention that I showed him my boobs. Not true! We were telling stories of scars. I had a mole removed. It was not in the boob region. He will still argue that did, but I didn't!) We watched two guys argue because of road rage. When we were leaving the canyon one of the guys was being air lifted out because he was attacked with a machete. We then dropped off his sisters car at her work. I met my two sister-in-laws. We went to my house and he met my mom and sister. We then went to a wedding reception at Thanksgiving Point. We then hooked up with my friends at Denny's. Lew went into the bathroom a bunch of times because he had gas and he was embarrassed. Then I drove him to his sister's house in Clearfield and he kissed me on my forehead. I have no idea how I got home because it was about 3 in the morning and I was so tired.

6. How long did you know this person before you became a couple?
After he got home from his mission it was about a week. True love, baby.

7. How did he ask you out?
He never really did? He probably said something like, I'm coming down to Utah on Friday. Wanna hang out?

8. Has this person ever proposed to you?
Yep.

9. Do you and this person have kids together.
Yep.

10. Have you even broken the law with this person.
Yep. We haven gotten caught yet.

11. When was the first time you realized you liked this person?
In his first letter he ended it with- "I like ducks, cause they're fun to shoot." I'm an animal lover, but that is comedy right there.

12. Do you get along with his family?
Yep, and I think they like me too!

13. Do you trust this person?
With my life!

14. Do you see him as your partner in the future?
Yep.

15. What is the best gift he gave you?
He bought me an awesome camera for our last anniversary. I love it!

16. What is the one thing he does that gets on your nerves?
He mumbles. If I ask for clarification, he says that I'm deaf. Okay, I am a little hard of hearing.

17. Where do you see each other 15 years from now?
We better not be living in this same house. That's all I have to say.

18. What causes the most arguments?
cereal choices.

19. How long have you been together?
We've been married for over 9 years. In January it will be 11 years since that magical, first letter.

20. Are you married?
yep

21. Who do you tag?

You!

(sorry for the cheesiness. But I do love my Lew)

Hunger

I busted out my Twilight book.
There is no dust on it.
I read it too much.

When Lew saw this he said, "That is the last time you are reading that book! It's going in the garbage. Either it goes, or I go!"

And then he looked into my eyes.

He saw the fury and anger in them.
He knew he had crossed an invisible line with me that should not be crossed...
He retracted his threats immediately.

I'm not scared of him.

(For those of you that don't know my Sweet Lew, he was totally joking)

Happy Birthday Mom!

I should be doing homework, but here is this quick post...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!
It was my mom's birthday yesterday. I love my mom. We took her to The Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. Oh man. I love that food! I haven't been there for a while. It's so good. The sourdough bread with garlic butter. The salad is superb with creamy pesto dressing. And for the entree I always get managers special with marina sauce and mizthra cheese. Oh. D. Liscious. And I tasted Deegan's spinach and cheese ravioli. I almost wanted to go toe to toe with the boy. That was good stuff.
After we came to my house for dessert. This here picture is not from the dinner, it's dessert! I made cupcakes that look like spaghetti and meatballs. Funny hugh?
I hope my mom had a really nice birthday. I'm so very lucky to have such a wonderful mom. She raised Cassi and I, alone. She had gotten a divorce from my dad when I was two. My mom worked the graveyard shift. She would do this so that she could be with us during the day when we were awake. At night we would sleep at my gram and gramps house while mom worked. Later on, my mom got a job in the school system so she could be on the same schedule with us. My mom is brave and strong. I know without a doubt that no matter what I need, she is always there for me. She always had my best interest in mind. She is always thinking of her family. I love how Grandma Deb is so fun with my kids. They get so excited to see Grandma come to our house! Even the dogs go crazy to see her. My mom is the best grandma. She will get down and dirty and romp around with the kids. I love you Mom! Happy 68th Birthday!
(did your heart just stop mom?)
(she's really only 56.)
(show this to all your friends, ma)

Act 834, Scene 76 of Ruby is growing up too fast.

The mom is blowing her big shnozz (nose) in the bathroom as Ruby walks in to use the bathroom.

Mom: Hi Roob.
Ruby: HI. Whatcha doin'?
Mom: Blowing my nose.
Ruby: Hugh. So, it's a work in progess?

Halloween!

We had a Happy Halloween this year. Miss Ruby had her Halloween Parade at school. It's so sweet to watch. I started to cry before we even left our house. She is growing up so very fast. Anyway, the parade. At her school they have a big yard surrounded by big, beautiful trees. All of the parents, grandparents and friends sit in a semi-circle to watch. Each kid walks out one at a time and says something that their character would say. Ruby dressed up as Ariel so she did the little, Ahhahahah. When all the kids come out they sing a few songs together and then walk around in front of the parents. Ruby is so shy when we watch her at performances. In this picture you can see that she is trying not to smile. She looks so beautiful. I learned a lesson on Wednesday. I was getting Ruby dressed for the parade. She had tights on under her costume. Well she has a white leotard top with white tights. I had trimmed off some ugly lace and washed it. When it was time to put it on, she wanted black instead. I told her the white goes with her costume better. She wanted the black. I had her try on the white, and then the black. She liked the black better. I let her wear the black. Then she did not like the princess crown that goes with the costume. Forget the tiara. On to the shoes. Sparkly flip flops were suggested by me. Nope, she wanted blue clogs. I had given up at this point. She looked beautiful, but she could match so much better! But I had decided that I would rather have her feel good about her costume, than make me happy. She was confident and had a great time. I ended up telling her how proud I was of her for sticking up for what she wanted. Her happiness is more important than the outfit right? Ruby is stubborn, but I'm hoping this will be advantageous during the teen years when she is sticking to her guns against something wrong.

This was Zane on Halloween. His hair is so curly! My plan was to have him dress up as a Q-tip for halloween. He would be dressed in all white and then I was going to spray his hair white. Maybe next year. But really his hair looks like Granny hair. Ya know the kind that grandma's get their hair done once a week. It is permed, ratted and set with Aqua Net. Zane's hair can look cute, it just gets a little puffy.

Here are my trick or treaters (thanks Kelly)! We went to the grandparents, the Warner's and then to our ward's Trunk or Treat. We then came home for spudnuts. Every Halloween, Sweet Lew will make spudnuts. I think this year was the best yet!

P.S. Less than 3 weeks until Twilight (movie) is released!

I love a sparkly, clean bath tub.

Sweet Lew and I are going on a date on Saturday night. Any suggestions?

Photography Class

I did it! I completed my photography class. It was wonderful and so much fun. I learned so much. It is really, really hard to take good pictures. There is a lot of information to know. There is so much to think of! But I loved it. Now I need about two hours a day to take pictures. And then I need two hours to practice editing them in photoshop. My little subjects, Ruby and Zane, are not willing participants. As soon as I bust out the camera Ruby will say, "You can take my picture, but I'm not going to smile." Arggggh. I was trying to practice the lighting lesson and the only one that would hold still was Dewie. I took a bunch of her, so that was fun. I started to cry because I was so frustrated. I wanted to practice on people! Sweet Lew felt bad for me and let me practice on him. We have a little toy house in our back yard. It had great light. So this is my shot of Lew in the kids play house! Seriously, my stomach does flip flops looking into those eyes. He is so hot. Shave the beard, get topaz contacts and we have Edward Cullen! If you are interested in taking a photography class, I recommend taking it from Kelly Sansom. You can click on her link over there under Sansom's. Kelly updates her blog with the classes. There is one going on in Meridian, Idaho. It's worth it people!

Cupcake- and we're not talking about Lew here...

I made some delicious cupcakes last Sunday. The recipe came from that book called Hello Cupcake. I made the pumpkin patch- pumpkin spice cupcakes. The actual cake was really good, the decorating, not so good. They are suppose to have these cute vines attached. I searched high and low and could not find the dang vines. I still look every time I go to a stupid grocery store. Anyway, they were a hit and I wanted to include the recipe. You can skip the fancy decorations and just frost 'em.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
1 box (18.25 ounce) French vanilla or yellow cake mix (don't use pudding in the mix kind)
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs

Oven 350. Cook 15 to 20 minutes. It should make 24 standard cupcakes. Ta da!

The Hulk

This week has been a little bit busy. Most of it has been just the usual every day stuff. There is work, school, kids, blah blah. I do think that I should start a weekly injury post. There would always be something to tell. Here are the updates for the past week.
Lewis- Last week he was working in the garage cutting up metal with a grinder. The grinder got stuck on something and flipped back at Lewis. It grazed his pants in the crotch region and landed in his leg. It's starting to heal, but we were worried about a staph infection. That had happened the last time his leg was hurt.
The past few days Lew has had a shooting pain in his shoulder. He was thinking it could be a pulled muscle. But he has also been hurting after he eats. Lew went to the doctor today and they did blood tests. It may be a problem with his gall bladder? Pain in your shoulder has been linked to your gall bladder. His sister had hers removed a few years ago. We will watch him close the next few days and see what happens. The blood work will be back on Monday.
Zane- Ruby, Baylee and Zane were upstairs at Gram and Gramps house. We heard a bang and crying. Zane had a huge goose egg on his forehead. I'm not sure what the real story is. I think Ruby pushed him after he made her mad?
Ruby and I- We're great.
Scott- Cassi's husband Scott was hurt on Monday. He was riding his dirt bike and crashed. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Tooele. They misdiagnosed him and sent him home. Luckily, Cassi took Scott to St. Marks Hospital. He had a concussion, a cracked shoulder blade, and a broken back (T6?). This happened on Monday and Scott was released on Thursday night. Hopefully it will heal quickly.
That is the last of the injury report.

For the past two days, I have been playing outside with the kids. We have a failed garden, so I let the kids dig it up. Here are a few pictures...

Ruby is so girly, but she loves to play in the dirt. She is not afraid of any bugs. Yesterday she was holding a dragon fly. Zane gets scared of any bugs. When the dragon fly did not move for a long time, I told her it died. She said it was just sleeping. When it was time to go inside she finally agreed with me that it was dead. She said she will really miss it.

Zane had a great time burying Luigi. He can squat for-ev-er. I didn't realize that he had not moved out of the same squat for awhile. He tried to get up and his legs cramped. I had to carry him around and help him get his little legs moving again.

This is a shot of Zane's hair. If you can see in his part, there is no scalp showing, only dirt. I'm so going to miss warm weather...

Why are your hands greasy?

Anyone reading this blog is going to get sick of the kid stories, but here's another one.

After breakfast Zane was running around and he showed me his hands. He usually does not like to have dirty hands. He will say they are a mesh (mess). I checked out his hands and, yep, they were greasy. I noticed that his feet were greasy as well. There were some kind of gooey chunks there too. I was thinking it was syrup from his pancakes, but his hands were not sticky. I asked him to show me where he got dirty from, but he was to busy playing with KoKo. I searched the house and could not come up with the answer.

Fast forward to afternoon.

I stared to make cookies for my Sweet Lew. This is on my Friday to-do list. Every week.

I looked in the fridge and I found my answer. Zane had taken out a stick of butter and rubbed it all over his hands and feet. He wrapped it back up and stuck it in the fridge. Such a tidy boy. As I inspected the butter, I noticed dog hair. Yep, KoKo got a rub down too.

There's a lot of love in this room, man.

Two days ago, my sweet Lew was working on his truck. The grinder caught on something and flipped out of his hand. It cut open his jeans and sliced his leg open. It wasn't deep enough to get stitches. We were cleaning it up in the bathroom. Ruby and Zane came in the room to see Dad's owiee. When Zane saw it he said, "Ouch". He then bent down to kiss Dad's leg better. It was all bloody and gooey, and my little boy wanted to kiss it better! What a little love!

Today my sweet Lew was working on his truck. Things were going kinda crappy. We were eating dinner and I told the kids to talk a little quieter because Dad was a little frustrated. Ruby talks non-stop. So when she started to whisper something to me, I thought it was going to be something about princesses or KoKo. She said in a soft, quiet voice, "Mommy, I broke up Zane's pears into pieces for his little mouth to chew." She then smiled and gave me the thumbs up sign. Sometimes she just amazes me with her kindness. Oooh, I just love these two!

Happy Birthday Dewie!

It's my little Dewie's Birthday today. She is 9 years old. Dew is such a good dog. She is so sweet. Dewie is really slow. When we take her on a walk, I can set the leash on the ground and she will not move a muscle until I pick it back up. Dewie has done really well with KoKo joining our family. They will play together a few times a day. KoKo is so much bigger than Dewie that she will stand there and Dewie will stand under her legs. They will wrestle and have so much fun. Dewie is smaller, but she is the boss. KoKo knows not to mess with her. We bought Dewie from Bird World in Bountiful. We got her on a Saturday night. She whined the entire time, the entire night. We were planning on getting a yorkie, but they did not have any that day. We bought Hewie on the following Monday. They were best buddies.

When we lived in Bountiful we would take the dogs on a walk almost every night. We were walking through this nice neighborhood behind Dick's Market admiring the houses. A cute little girl with a lisp saw Dewie. She squealed in delight and said, "Look! It'ths a little shnow ball! Shse'sh jusht a little shnow ball!" Oh, they were so tiny then!

Have I ever mentioned that I love dogs? And have I ever mentioned that I go a little overboard sometimes? Well in the pre-kids days, I really spoiled my pups. This was Dewie's first birthday. I made her a festive party hat. Hewie had one to match.

For Christmas one year I got a sewing machine. Instead of making quilts, I made dog jammies. They were made from a nice waffle like material. I added a hoodie for extra fashion flare. Am I scaring anyone?

This is a cute Halloween picture. Dewie was a bee and Hewie was superman. When I was in the work force, my job would have employees kids come and trick or treat on Halloween. My dogs made the rounds for a few years.

As you can tell from this picture Hewie the witch and Dewie the clown had little patience for my dress-up games.

Yup, we have a few Christmas outfits as well. Dewie is the perfect dog for this kind of stuff.

I had to include this picture, because I wanted to show it off. It's one of my favorite pictures ever. Hewie could smile. This is not photoshop or any tricks. She would smile anytime I came home from some where. I love this picture! Isn't that the cutest thing?

Happy 9th Birthday Dewie!!!

Have you ever...

Have you ever had to fish a toy train out of a toilet full of pee?

I have.

I don't get along well with cold weather.

I can tell that I read on the computer too much. While I was reading a magazine the other day, I wanted to see what time it was. I checked the bottom right hand corner. All it gave me was the page number...

We ran the 5K. Wahoo. It was freezing. We only got rained on a bit. It was actually really fun. I would like to do more. I think I will wait until next summer. My little paper said that I came in 4th place. Cassi and Missy finished 7th and 8th place. My time was 27 minutes.

There was not a lot of people there. I was told there was 70 people. I'm really glad we supported them. The fundraiser was for a little 3 year old named Ali. The accident happened when she saw her neighbors horse out of its stall. She went to go pet it. The horse got spooked and started to run. Ali ran and fell down. The horse just trampled her, crushing her skull. She was then life flighted to Primarys. The other unfortunate part of the story is that they do not have insurance. The dad was changing jobs. He had one week of no insurance coverage and that is when the accident happened. Right now Ali is out of the hospital. They have to wait for the swelling to go down before she can any more surgeries. Cassi and Missy saw her for a second. Her mom took her out of the car for a minute to see the runners. Missy said she had a pink helmet on and was crying. It was so very sad. If you would like to track her progress she has a web site Helpali.net. I feel so fortunate to have my little loves healthy and tucked in their own beds tonight. I'm grateful we were able to help her family a little bit.

My other cousin, Megan, ran a marathon today. It was in San Fransisco. Marathons are 26 miles. Meg finished in 3 hours and 23 minutes. Crazy. I cannot imagine running for 3 hours! Her minutes per mile was under 8 minutes. She is crazy. Crazy fast! She even cut 30 minutes off of her last one. Congrats Meg!

Updates, shumpdates...

Wow! I've haven't done a post since Saturday! It has been a crazy week. There is not too much to report on. It's just been very busy.
Lewis has a week off from school next week. He decided to take off the week from work as well. We bought a truck in February. It needs a little work. Lew is going to be working on that all week. When it is finished I will post some before and after photos. Lew has been working really hard lately. He is pressed for time all day, every day. He really enjoys working on his Tacoma, so this will be a well deserved break for him. It's too bad the weather is going to be crappy. Lew is doing great in school. His work just announced today that they are cutting back every ones hours to 35 a week. The whole company has to do this because of the economy. Awesome.

KoKo ate another bee this week. One half of her head was shaped like a cantaloupe. The next day, she tried it again. I stopped her before she was stung. She really is smart, just not when it comes to bees.

Dewie took a bunch of naps. I'm thinking of taking her to Ruby's school for show and tell. Dewie and Ruby would both love it.

Zane was playing outside the other day. Lew was watching him, while working in the garage. Zane decided to decorate my car with a sharp rock. There are pretty swirls all over the doors. His art is too good to display on the fridge door, he likes car doors.

Ruby earned a Tinkerbell Fairy doll. That was her reward. So I got Zane two matchbox cars. As we were leaving the store, Zane took them out of the bag, looked at them lovingly, and kissed them. He was overjoyed for some new cars!

Ruby is doing so good in school. Teacher will list numbers on the back of her paper and check the ones that Ruby knows. Every time, Ruby will have a perfect score. She is so smart. The other day she said that her and Baylee had great leaps in dance class.

Ruby and I were playing in her room. She was selling me some material to make a blanket. She gave me a selection to choose from. I picked a cute pink polka dot one. Ruby said, "Um. You can't have that one. It's only for cute people." The next day we were playing outside. She was talking to one of her dolls and referred to me as the Poop Lady. I was picking up the dog poo, but really, the Poop Lady?

My Sweet Lew bought me a nice camera for our anniversary. I just love it. This week I went to Cassi's and was taking some pictures of the boys on Deeg's 4-wheeler. The control dial on my camera stopped working. I was trying to figure it out when Deegan and Zane wrecked. Cassi has a rock wall. They were both on the 4-wheeler and they got high centered on a toy. The 4-wheeler tipped over and landed on top of the boys. The boys landed on the rock wall. Cassi and I were close and there in half a second. Zane shook it off and stared to play with other toys. Deeg was driving and took the most damage. His little head is scratched, the back of his head, and other wounds. Earlier that day he got clothes lined while riding the 4-wheeler. I think it's in his blood!

Oh, and my camera. It broke. I took it back to Costco. It was missing a cord. I went home. The next day, I took it back to Costco. It was missing the memory card. It was some package deal and they wouldn't let me keep it. I went home. Feed the kids. Go back to Costco. I got a different lady, and she didn't give a crap if I had everything or not. She gave me the cash and I was outta there. Lew ran into Picture line and bought me a new one. It's really nice. It is a Canon G10. I'm pretty excited about this.

If anyone is a Twilight fan, you must check out Stephenie Meyer's website. There is a new trailer for Twilight. Oh, my, good, ness. It's wow. I had goosebumps all over. Check it out! Ahhh!

Tomorrow I'm running a 5K with Cassi and my cousin Missy. My other cousin was dating this guy name Rhett. His niece was trampled by a horse. She is only three and her skull was crushed. They are having a fund raiser for her because she has no insurance. Megan (the one who dated Rhett) is in California running a marathon. So we are going to run the 5k. I've never done a 5k so this will be fun. I'll try to take some pictures. We may be frozen because the high tomorrow is going to be 40. It will be worth it, I know it!

Whew, that's it for now...

Story of Zane

I feel bad about writing a mean post about Zaner. So I wanted to make a sweet post about him today. (warning; super long post)
Before I was pregnant with Zane I had a miscarriage. It was really devastating for us. I felt like I was going to have a baby boy. When we got pregnant again with Zane, to me, it felt like the miscarriage was Heavenly Father saying that the body wasn't right the first time. I was so relieved that all was well, and we were having a healthy baby boy. I think I've always been more protective of Zane because of this.
On the 15th of April I got up at 2:40 am. Had a contraction. Five minutes later, another one. Two minutes later, another one. Two minutes later, another one. On the way to the hospital Lew was running lights and in a panic. When we got to St. Marks I walked up to the desk and said, "Hello, I'd like to have a baby today." I just thought that would be funny. The lady didn't get it that I meant now. At 1:15 pm I delivered my sweet boy. He weighed 9lbs 4 oz.

This is Lew, Zane, Ruby and Cassi. This is when Ruby met Zane. About 20 minutes after he was born, Zane was hungry. Cassi fed him his first bottle. He downed 4 ounces. This is not normal for a new baby.

Ummm. This picture is on it's side. I'm not sure how to fix it. Anyway, this is Zane a few days old. Check out the circles under Lew's eyes. Sleep deprivation. He's a wonderful daddy.

When Zane was 7 weeks old he had a really high temperature. We took him into Primary's. That was one of the worst nights of my life. They had to draw his blood, do a catheter for urine and a spinal tap. The spinal tap was awful. The doctor curled him into a ball and held Zane there while another doctor got the fluid out. It took about 15 minutes. We couldn't touch him the whole time. Oh, it was awful. I feel so bad for kids and their parents that have serious illnesses. Luckily all of the tests came back okay. Zane was put on a high dose of antibiotics and we stayed in the hospital for 3 days.

Zaner had a thing called torticollis. It is when one side of the neck muscle is not developed enough, or not strong enough. He would always hold his head on one side. We worked with him, but it was not enough to correct it. He had a lopsided head. So when he was 8 months old we had to get him a helmet to correct the crooked head. He looked so cute in it. He only had to wear it for 4 months. We got his from a wonderful place called Fit Well. Most insurance companies do not cover helmets. They say that it is cosmetic. Crazy. They are pretty pricey. We fought with our insurance company. We lost. Zane was such a good boy. He adapted to the helmet well. It didn't bother him at all.

This is the chubby guy. I was playing photographer one day. Boy was I clueless! But he does look really cute!

Zane was cuddling Cassi watching a movie. He gets really into movies. When he is watching Madagascar, or 101 Dalmatians he gets scared. Zane knows what parts he is afraid of and will run and hide. He will stay within viewing distance and continue watching. He jumps on specific parts every time!

Last year for Halloween Zane was a zebra. He really liked Madagascar at the time.

We go horseback riding up to our cousin's house in Kamas. Zaner really liked Baylee's pink cowboy hat.

Zane loves to work on things just like his daddy. He has his own welder, grinder, saws, all those guy toys. When Zane is in the garage with Lew, he will mimic what Lewis does. In parking lots, Zane will stop to check out the axle on some vehicles. He squats down to look underneath them.

Zane is really good at cuddling. When I am holding him he loves to rub my skin on my arms. And check out those kissable lips. He is so sweet. Little kids do not like to give up their toys. If I ask him to, he will hand them to me and not cry. And when I say toys it is generally something like a screwdriver. He is so good to tell me thank you and to share with Ruby. Every time we leave the house he will give Dewie and KoKo a kiss good-bye. He would hand feed Hewie. I'm so grateful for my boy. I love watching him grow up and learn so many new things. He has made his momma proud.

I agree. Zane's a butt.

I'm going to second Ruby on her statement that Zane is a butt. Some moments today made me think of a different term for butt.
I love the boy. He just gets so mischievous sometimes.

We were playing in Ruby's room today. I leave to get cookies out of the oven. They were cookies made with love. Ruby and Zane helped me make them. When I get back to Ruby's room, I find the damage. Zane removed the blankets and sheets off of Ruby's bed. He then took off the mattress and pushed it on it's side so it's leaning against the wall. He was then being carefree, jumping on the box springs. Not such a big deal you say? It is when he does this EVERY DAY! Sometimes he just removes all the pillows and cushions off of the couch. He then proceeds to dive head first off of the couch.

His new hobby is to stack things. When we are grocery shopping he sits in the cart and stacks cans, boxes, or boxes on bread. I leave space on the underside of the cart for soft, squishy items, like bananas and yogurt. Yogurt is packaged, I know. But it can be squirted when it is sat upon. Zane will stack things at home. His favorite thing to stack is eggs. Yep, they don't hold still that well...

It's a good thing I love that boy so much.

Is it bad that I just laughed?

Today Ruby walked into the kitchen with a scowl on her face. She slammed her cup on the counter and said,

"Mom. Zane drank my juice and he's a butt."

Happy Birthday to Cassi!

It's Cassi's Birthday today! Cassi and I are a year lacking 9 days apart. So for the past nine days we have both been 32 years old. I think that is called Irish twins or my poor mom was suffering a whole lot 32 years ago syndrome. Either way, we are really close in age and in everything else.

For my birthday Cassi gave me this cute cookbook Hello Cupcake. It's really cute. It has so many creative and different cupcakes. It's not for the frost/sprinkle and go crowd. About two months ago, I bought Cassi the same one for her birthday. We do these kind of thing a lot. Especially when it comes to our kids. Ruby and Baylee are 5 weeks apart. Zane and Deegan are 3 months apart (and ugh, 20 pounds heavier for Zane). But when we are buying the kids clothes we usually buy the same things. And we are not even shopping together. It just happens. What can I say, the girls got some taste!

To celebrate Cassi's birthday we had a Sunday dinner at Gram and Gramp's house. My mom made a great dinner of 6-layer dip, chicken quesadillas, taco salad. It all tasted so good. Yesterday, we went up Millcreek canyon. We took Cafe Rio and went for a hike. I've included a few pictures.
I think Baylee is just so beautiful. She looks so cute in her cowgirl hat!

Ruby, Bay, and Zane sliding down a hill. Notice how Zane's hair is getting longer, and it is showing the signs of curls. I want to grow it out, but I don't know how to style curly boy hair without it being in the 80's and having him wear stonewashed- tapered legged pants? And does anyone know how you are suppose to have boys wear socks? Do I pull them up all the way? Scrunch them down? Or fold them over?

Here is sweet Deegan. He didn't want to have Zane scoot his bum over top of him. It's like getting hit by a freight train. The boys get a little physical with each other at times. Deeg is gonna whoop Zane soon. I can feel it.

I made these little owl cupcakes for Cassi. They were pretty simple, for someone that has 4 hours of free time with no kids and does not like to take showers. I'm kidding. They are in that cookbook Cas gave me (and I gave her). I'm going to try some more. I'll include pictures and free samples if anyone wants some?

I did want to tell Cassi Happy Birthday! She is a great, loving, honest, tough, hilarious, kind, sister. I'm so glad that she is my sister. I have learned so much from her. I talk to her at least 5 times a day. You are a wonderful friend to me. Thank you for listen to me ramble all the time, and for always being there. I Love You!