Odds and Ends

So lately we've been up to projects. Cordelle has become quite the electrician around here. We finally hooked up a brighter light (ceiling fan) in our mega dark living room (which took an entire Friday evening). Then Cordelle wired and cemented a lamp post for our front yard which I love. And finally after 2 years of nagging he finally caulked our bathroom (a project they so lovingly forgot to do when we moved into our home). Anyways its nice to have a handy man around the house...its so...Handy! :)
Also I have to tell you about Seth's funny story mostly so I dont forget it. We were outside playing baseball the other day when a helicopter flew above us, and Seth said "MOM! (with all of the dramatic emphasis of a 2 year old), "its an airplane!" "Actually," I said, "its a helicopter. Can you say helicopter?" To which he then looked up, WAVED, and said "H-e-l-l-o copter." It was pretty funny and clever all at once. The other thing that I just love lately is whenever we suggest something that he wants to do, like if I say "lets go outside and ride bikes," he says, "OKAY, Thats a good idea mom." I feel like such a genius by the end of the day because according to him, I've had tonze of good ideas. And then he is such a lovey dovey boy and I love it. He is constantly putting his arm around me and saying "I love you TOO much!" I almost corrected him one day that it should be "SO much", but I kind of like it the other way. Cute. Anyways thats us recently. Jaq still doesnt really roll over and I know I should talk to my pediatrician cause she's like 7 months old. But all she wants to do is sit, sit, sit. And she's mad if she's laying down at all. But other than that she's doing well also. Today I had my first go at sharing time in Primary. That was interesting....however junior primary is the best though, those kids are hillarious. And pretty forgiving if you look like a dork up there. But thats what kids like best....dorky teachers.

EASTER CAMPING

As is tradition, this easter we went back near Green River and went Easter camping with my entire extended family on my moms side. Theres over 200 people who come and go throughout the weekend and its really a lot of fun! Heres some pics from the weekend. This holiday is almost bigger than Christmas in our family so theres a lot of pictures. Sorry...OR enjoy.

We found the Easter Bunny Trail

Leave no trace of it (eating ground jelly beans in the dirt is not encouraged)

Finally the basket (well in this case the truck)

But J only loved her new ducky!

Our Family

This year we were missing my little sis and her hubby and new baby (who came up later) and of course my little bro who is still on his mission in Italy

No sense in just walking on all of this sand.

This is C...he's supposed to be watching all the little kids play in the sand....notice no kids and yes he really did fall asleep like that for like 15 minutes.

This is my little cousin J whom I decided should come home and live with me forever! She took S hiking, played in the dirt with him and loved it! Bless her! Between her and Uncle S camping with kids never was easier.

Even though Saturday was mostly rainy it did have some wicked sweet kite flying wind for us too!

Okay, J LIVED in this chair all weekend and it was fantastic. Outside or in the trailer she was happy as can be and I could put her anywhere...I totally recommend these for kids her age when you want to camp.

Nothing like a little desert soccer with the kids.

And of course the Easter Egg Hunt is epic with rocks and crevaces to hide eggs in.

Well that was it! It was a bast and I cant wait till next year.

CONFERENCE

Although some in my home were not as enthused with all of conference...I thought it was really good! What a good way to start off the week! (But this was pretty funny)

"Its POOP again!!"

Okay first thing, we used to say that Title in college and I cant remember why or where it came from. Britney or Laura---do you remember?
Anyways so poop has been filling my life and I am wat SICKED out. Two quick stories. So S has recently been fascinated with pooping in the potty, which is awesome. So like all his friends we went out and bought those little chairs that they can sit and poop in themselves. Only problem is their NASTY to clean out. Cause you have to clean all of it out after every use....TOTALLY worse then changing him cause I'd have to stick my hand in there and "stuff" would get on my wrist and... okay you get the picture. So we switched to the seat you just put on the toilet. Much better, but one day I was out feeding J on the couch and S was in there doing his business (it usually takes awhile sometimes so he was singing and waiting on the pot...). Anyways then I hear this loud sound and I am thinking why is he flushing, he knows he cant get a cookie (the reward which we have inevitably begun to think was a bad idea because too many cookies were actually making him have to poop more...but thats besides the point)...where was I? Oh yea, he knows he cant get a cookie unless I see the poop before he flushes (toddlers think they cant trick their parents with a poopless flush of the toilet). But then before I could investigate, S started SCREAMING!! I ran in the bathroom to find the toilet spurting pretty forcefully like a fountain, enough that it was definitely spraying on him totally exposed. So he freaks (naturally), wont let me console him and takes off running to the kitchen bare bummed. I look outside and see the city workers flushing out the sewers! First who does that? And why do they need to do that? And why did my toddler who FINALLY decided pooping was fun have to be sitting on the toilet when they did it? It was gross. Not to mention S had by this time done his business already and so the fountain of fun created an even bigger mess. I spent the rest of the day cloroxing both bathrooms and praying that S would believe me that the whole experience was cool and it was kind of like the fountain in front of the St. George Temple where people throw pennies in....we'll see if he EVER come close to a toilet again OR if I start finding all my lose change in the bowl.
The next story was ALL C's FAULT. (No offense babe). S was in the bathtub and started calling out for his daddy for like a good 2-3 minutes. C just thought he was talking and was ignoring him or he didnt hear him or was too zoned into who knows what on the TV...anyways when he finally did go in, he found that Seth could not hold it any longer and the bath tub and all his toys were covered in more POO. Sick. Yea, after the episode the day before this one was all C's clean up.
This potty training stuff is not for rookie moms. I need a nanny to do all this business cause its grossing me out. Ah, the joys....Maybe this will be one of those things I'll look back at and laugh.....maybe.

MOVIE CLIPS

Okay so I was going through my videos on my camcorder and putting them onto DVD when I found these two clips from a couple months ago that I had to share. Sorry their kind of long, but I didnt want to cut them for my DVD and I didnt know how to cut them just for this post. :)
The first clip is S in dancing action...you also see how picky he is about which song he will and will not dance to.



The next clip is the infamous David Archuletta song "Crush that S has been OBSESSED with for almost a year now. He sings along, dances, watches the music video over and over and over again. Sorry, he has a hard time staying in front of the camera, but the only way he would sing to it on camera was if we hooked it up to the TV so he could see himself.

J IS 6 MONTHS OLD!

Time is FLLLYYYYIN'. J is already 6 months old and a heart breaker. And (knock on wood) she's all healthy.

In other news I just have to tell this one funny story about S. This morning (like all mornings) he climbs in my bed and plays drums on my face begging me for a banana and breakfast. So I kept saying "okay, I'm coming," only to roll over and pray he would get distracted with something (even if it was my nostrils or eyelids) just so I could get a second more of sleep. But then he said clear as day, "Mom, you can DO it....try again!" HA! I laughed myself out of bed and and got him his banana. Looks like my attempts at teaching him dedication and perserverance comes back and bites me in the kisser!

I love this

I know I sent this to some of you through email, but I just thought it was so perfect

"Mom" help needed

Alright so like many of you, my kids are or have been sickly! ugh! Seth had strep and so Disney on Ice got replaced with a hacking cough and "Pajama days" on the couch. Anyways after a few days of anti biotics he was good as gold. But then Jaquelle started getting sick. She didnt get strep but she had quite the cough and a really stuffed up nose. Well the first night she slept a long time 12-13 hours without eating. Then the next day because she was so stuffed up she didnt eat much. I took her to the doctor and they found that she also had an ear infection which is the reason I believe she didnt eat well for the next two days. After another long night and day of not eating well I think my milk is gone! I called the lactation consultant and she told me to pump every couple of hours and so I have been doing that, even in the night when Jaq's asleep. But seriously, I got nothin! Okay so normally that wouldnt be a problem, its been 6 months and I really would be fine if I was done nursing except she WILL NOT TAKE A BOTTLE FOR THE LIFE OF HER! What do I do? Now that she's got her appetite back I think she is starving and Im afraid she's going to get dehydrated. So in other words she's not getting anything from me and a bottle is not happening...please any suggestions? I know I probably should have started with a bottle months ago, but I really saw no need and Seth transferred to a bottle with no problem. Are there any tricks or wives tales out there for me to try?

2 NEW BEDS

Okay so S's bed for the past couple of weeks has been a twin mattress on the floor cause we needed the crib mattress (that was in his toddler bed) for J when we moved her into her own room. Well so I've been wanting a twin bed for S but they all have been too expensive. So C finally told me if I listened to Tradio for one week (its like a craiglist over the radio) and listened for a used one someone was just trying to get rid of for cheap and I still couldnt find one I could go buy one. So I listened and the first day within the first 15 minutes someone had one! Well its not bran new but its way durable and S couldnt care less and I think we paid like 20 bucks for it. So it wasnt my first pick but hey atleast he finally has a bed and his mattress is off the ground.
Now onto our bed...Back when we moved into our second apartment we went up north shopping for some badly needed dressers. Well we found some that we loved that were on clearance because someone had bought the other peices and bed probably that matched it. Anyways so we got a good deal on them but thought it was going to be impossible to ever find a bed that matches it. But then this last week we got some ad for Boulevard Home Furnishing and there it was a queen bed (thats the size matress we have) that matched almost perfectly to our dressers! So C did something very unprecedented and we just called them up and bought it on impulse. Those kind of purchases can be very scary especially since we hadnt ever really seen the bed except for in an AD. But once we got it we loved it and it made it all the more worth it that it was on sale! Anyways I dont know why Im taking so long to post the fact that we got new beds! But its fun.

A FORT night :)

S and I have been having so much fun latetly. C has been so busy lately that we've had lots of time together, but its been cool. The other day we made this awesome fort, unfortunately it was much more fun for him to jump on top of it and crash it down then it was to just sit under it, so the fort didnt last long, or rather mom got sick of "fixing" it.
Then on Friday S and I went out on a date. I really wanted to get out of the house and C was working late so S and I went out to dinner at the Pizza Factory. It was actually really fun and he was great. We just talked and he scarffed down olives. I love that I can actually have conversations with him now. Its hillarious. Although him learning new words sometimes gets confusing. Let me give you an example. Sometimes when he like accidentally does something wrong like tripping and falling on his sister, I say something like "S you need to be more careful, but I know it was an accident." Well somehow he caught on that if its an "accident" he doesnt get in trouble. So lately when ever he's doing something he knows he shouldnt be doing or I tell him no, he says "mom, its an accident." Sometimes it totally doesnt make sense though and it makes me laugh. Like once I told him S dont play on the computer... and he just looked at me and said, "no mom, its a accident."
Unfortunately though right now he's sick. Last night S woke up croupy. I hate the croup. It sounds aweful and they get so scared cause its hard to cough. I am just hoping he feels better by the end of the week cause I won Disney on Ice tickets off of some news show! Whahoo. I am so pumped cause The Lion King and Peter Pan will be there and he LOVES both those shows.
Alright better go S just dumped a cup full of water on my back. Nice.