Calgon cannot begin to take me away!!

Now for the record, I know that our kids live up to what we say about them, that being said, these two identical boys ARE MY TERRIBLE TWOSOME!!!! They have so much energy and together they will give you a run for your money. Cassie and Bryan try harder to make sure they are not in trouble. But with these two as ring leaders you never know what to expect. Yesterday being a perfect example. We do not have preschool on Wednesday's so I do my best to entertain and keep them busy and out of trouble. Not so much. Jay is on night shift this week . So when I went to exercise he said he would watch them. Great!!!! I came home, he was showered and ready to go. I thought that was awesome! Clearly I would be able to turn the tv on and sneak into the shower too. NOT!!!

They were playing ever so nicely outside, so I decided to get a head start on dinner. In they come running as fast as those legs will carry them. "We are going to play upstairs," they holler as they fly past. Hmmmmmmm..... that does not sound good. So I quickly head up the stairs after them. And what to my wondering eyes do I behold..... they have their screen out and one is half way out the window to the roof. (something they were playing with landed and, of course, they are going to get it). I nearly died. So I close and lock the windows and as I am trying to calm my heart, let them understand that I am not kidding that is a absolute unacceptable behavior. Back downstairs we all go. Next, I decide we need some clean clothes so I am in the laundry room and again notice it is a bit too quiet. I head to the kitchen to see what they are up to this time, they are trying to light paper towels on fire with the gas stove?!?!!?!? Are you kidding me? Again, I am scolding. Within minutes I hear them laughing their little butts off... they are now outside trying to light the gas grill and "build a campfire." Oh I wish I could tell you it stopped there, no.... they had rock throwing contests at my neighbors windows to see who could get the rocks the farthest, let's see who can throw more rocks faster into the pond, let's see how big of a toy we can flush down the toilet, can we get on top of the fridge and jump off, and what happens if I pick the bunny up by her back legs. So, I ran around all day long just trying to keep up with the little devils. I was so thankful for bedtime and trust me it did not come fast enough.

But the story does not end there. The house is quiet, almost eerie after my day, I decide I am going to relist some stuff on craigslist so I need some pictures from my camera. Well....... as I am looking at the pictures I realize that Daddy did not get off scott free while I was away for an hour. He just did not know what was going on. 100 new pictures on my camera. Yes, I kid you not. I had pictures of walls, dolls, each other and one that had me laughing so hard I nearly died. A lovely naked butt shot. I do not know who's darling little butt it is (no one will fess up this morning) it will make nice blackmail in a couple of years. But seriously, I thought I had until they were about 16 before they would start mooning the camera. HAHAHAHA. I would post the damaging evidence, however I may end up in jail. :>


And before I end, I have one more cute story. One of our biggest pet peeves with our yard is the pond. It is lovely to listen to but horrible to keep clean. We had just cleaned it out AGAIN...... and I see Nathan over there putting something in. I head over to see what is going on and redirect him. He was putting red goldfish crackers in there as fast as he could. I told him to stop immediatley, "but mom fish die if they are not in the water". Now how do you argue with that logic. I had to smile and just walk away.

Have a great day my friends, and don't be surprised if one day you visit and I have my velcro room installed. :>

Migraine or Mommy Brain?

Interesting question!!! I had a moment yesterday that if you did not know me better you would have me placed somewhere for observation. I am sure that we all have those moments where you do "stupid" things and truly believe you are losing your mind. For instance, putting milk in the cupboard instead of the fridge, putting something somewhere for "safe keeping" but then you cannot for the life of you remember where that "safe keeping" spot is. Well yesterday took the cake for me. In my defense (see I am already trying to explain away my "stupid moment"), I had a horrible migraine. I think it was a combination, stress, allergies, lack of sleep, and possible cold coming on. But regardless, I could not get rid of it. I had tried tylenol, caffeine, and motrin and would have loved to have just gone back to bed but again it was not in the cards for me. I took Tanner to is ortho appointment in town and then after dropping him off at school I decided I would drop by get Jay some fancy vinti, lite , java chip frap with whipping creme thing...... Can you tell I am not the starbucks drinker in the family. :> I had just taken pity on him because he was getting ready to head out of town, he was sick, and he had been with the quads all morning. I also decided to run by Subway to pick up a couple of subs. Two days earlier I had decided it was time to give up my sugar again so I really wanted a Dr. Pepper but had succumb to the fact that I was going to have to have the Diet Coke. Well if you shop at the subway inside of Walmart they have these great packets of lemon juice and that is the only way I can get it down , so without paying much attention I open a "lemon juice" packet and squirt it in my Diet Coke. I am noticing that I am getting really odd looks from other patrons and the workers. I look down into my Diet Coke and I am horrified to discover that it was not in fact lemon juice but mustard. Dang it, now what do I do. My head is pounding I can barely make out where the door is, I have people staring at me like I have lost my mind, so naturally, I stirred it in and proceeded to drink it and happily walk out of the store. Once I get to the car I try to dig out the mustard but at that point it was a lost cause. LOL. If my head had not hurt I would have just laughed it off and dumped the drink and started over, but instead I stirred and drank. WHAT WAS I THINKING? Who Does that?......... For the record Diet Coke with mustard.........DISGUSTING!!!!! It did add humor throughout the day for me though I would find myself just cracking up later in the day as I was thinking about the looks on the faces as I left so totally in control and happy. Little did they realize I was about ready to gag. But I can also promise you will never look at Diet Coke the same way. You will also smile when you think of me and that "stupid moment" . See even being far away I can help to bring humor into your lives. Now that should be worth something!! So you tell me.... Migraine, or Mommy Brain?

So if you are unfamiliar with who this is...... let me introduce you to Baby Grandpa Bruce. Bryan has always had a special bond with my father and this is the perfect example of that. Two years ago Cassie got a doll. Bryan took it over and has named it Baby Grandpa Bruce. If you call him Baby Bruce you will be corrected as that is not his name.......it is "Baby Grandpa Bruce." But after visiting Utah and his cousins (they had a baby bed) Bryan decided that his baby needed one too. So he and Daddy made this one. Well I thought that would be good enough..... no such luck. He had to have a pillow and then I had to make a baby size blanket. He tucks him in during nap time and bedtime. If you sneak in at night you will witness his little hand on the cradle rocking it. So precious!!! Sleep well my friends!!! If only we all had a Bryan to tuck us in, take care of us , keep us warm, but most importantly just love us. The love of a child is truly "something else".

Happy Easter!!!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

What a crazy weekend it was!!! I am not sure if it was the full moon, the excitement of Easter, the excess sugar, the fact that everyone is getting a cold, or a combination of it all...... but these kids were crazy. Which, of course, equals a crazy mother. LOL. But despite that we had a good time and I think we were also very productive. Jay managed to get the garage cleaned out so that we should in the very near future be able to park two of the vehicles in there. That will be very nice.

I also found myself feeling a bit emotional this weekend. It will be two years ago this week that we lost my grandmother. It is not the anniversary of her death that I find hard, it is missing her on special days that I find hard. I would have called her, visited her, or sent her a card, and that is what I miss. She lived a great,full life though!!

I also found myself feeling a huge sadness that my brother in law, Dan, is not with us anymore either. It is when you have those quiet moments or those holidays that you finally acknowledge that there is a huge loss, a piece of your heart missing that cannot be replaced. I have never before been impacted by a suicide. So this really "rocked" our world especially to have it happen so close to home. Losing both of these loved ones has been a blessing in disguise. It is a reminder that life is so very precious and you have no idea how quickly life can chang. So you must treasure each moment that you have. But also, that you need to make sure that people know that you love them. Grandma always used to tell me, "No regrets, make sure that you have no regrets." And she always made sure that we knew that she loved us. As a matter of fact, those are the last words I heard from her, "Jackie, I love you!!" We miss you Grandma and Dan and look forward to one day when we will meet again!!!

Randomness

So the truth is I am very behind on posts. I claim "mommy brain" which means too much to do and not enough time to get it done it. Here are Bryan and Nathan as Dr. Seuss. They love those books, but loved the hats that look like Dr. Seuss even more. And cute they are!!!

Now I have to introduce the newest member of our family. We had a very tragic event occur while we were in Utah. Hunter's beloved guinea pig, "Blackie" , died. No one has any good ideas about what might have happened. We think he just got so sad and thought Hunter was never coming home. One thing you have to know about Hunter and his guinea pigs is that they go everywhere with him. He comes home from school and the 1st place he goes is up to get his beloved pet. They watch tv together, play together, and he has even tried to have him at the dinner table with us. When Hunter is mad the one thing that seems to calm him is his pet. He shows such love and compassion for these little things it is amazing. But poor little Blackie was just about a year old and perhaps just a little too young to be left without his Hunter for two weeks. Our neighbors watched him but he did not get the huge amount of attention that only Hunter and give. Hunter did not take it well. At first, he was okay and then his behavior changed and he and I had some intense head butting sessions.( We have a very similar temperment and neither one of us likes to be wrong) Once I finally got through his tough little exterior, he cried and told me his heart was broken. He wanted to get another piggie but he wanted him to be as old as him so he "would live as long as me." Makes a mom's heart break a bit. I cannot promise that, but darn I wish I could. (This was one of those moments you wish you were a fairy god mother!!! ) But we discussed it all and he wanted a new one. So after I realized I had broken a promise to take him with me grocery shopping over the weekend (all the other kids had gotten out over the weekend) I checked him out of school.(However, in self defense, I did not even make it to the grocery store. :>) We went to lunch and then to the pet store. Here is BOLT. And once again Hunter loves him. I see so much kindness, love and compassion when he has a guinea pig. So we are praying that this little guy will last a lot longer than the previous ones. I am not sure how he could handle another loss.

I am still working on our Easter slide show. Don't give up on me yet. LOL. Sleep well my friends. thank you so much to those of you that have donated money to help sponsor our walk. Yeah, only two more weeks!! It will be a fun event.

March of Dimes

Hard to believe that this will be six years ago in Sept. We had four preemies. It was one of the scariest times in our lives. We were blessed with amazing care at LDS hospital and their amazing staff.
Here in AZ, one of our best friends is a NICU(neonatal intensive care unit) nurse. She has invited us to walk with the University Medical Center NICU team. We are very excited to join them and help to bring awareness to the amazing things that are being done to help preemies survive. If you would like to help sponsor us you can click on our March of Dimes sponsor tool on the right and donate whatever you can.
If I can get my act together I am going to make some t-shirts for us to wear. I want to put their footprints and birth weights on the front and then on the back their current footprints and weights. Wow, that will be an amazing picture. I will post pictures of the finished project. We are all going to walk and we are very excited!!! Go Team Kearl Six-Pack.
Have a great Sunday night my friends!!!

Happy Birthday Dad/Grandpa!!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Happy Birthday!!! We were so happy that we could be there to celebrate with you!! We love you very much and we are so happy that you can be a part of our lives. Enjoy!!!