Clowns, Cotton Candy, and Silly Hats

Jeremy was in Chicago this weekend, so I took the kids to the circus with some friends. The kids had so much fun. I was so happy (and little surprised) that Livi was really good for the entire three hours.


Although we had taken Landon and Emma once before, it had been long enough for them to forget most of it. I myself was barely entertained, but loved watching the kids' eyes light up with everything they saw. They laughed so hard, it made me laugh too. It was a fun weekend!

Suck it Up

I'm watching Oprah right now. There is a woman that contracted a flesh-eating disease immediately after having her baby. Eventually, they had to remove several internal organs and then her arms AND legs. Did anyone see today's show?

Jeremy and I just went out to dinner and I was complaining about how difficult Livi is and how hard my days have been over the last few weeks. She's getting her molars, she's not sleeping, she's not eating, she throws tantrums, she defies authority, she screams all day...you know...a typical toddler.

Yesterday, when I told Jeremy I wanted to put Livi in daycare and get a job, he replied with "You wanted her, now suck it up". I was a little ticked about his lack of empathy, but after seeing this show, he was absolutely right. (I can only admit to him being right because he rarely reads this blog, and he definitely quit reading the moment I mentioned Oprah's name).

This woman didn't complain once, she just told the surgeons to get on with it so she can begin to recover. She didn't say "why me" or go into a depression. She was strong, patient, confident and a true warrior.

I'm such a baby sometimes. So I have a toddler from hell...she's healthy...all my kids are. I have legs to rock her with and arms to smack her with. I have it so easy! I love that inspiration always comes at the right time.

Thanks Oprah for reminding me to suck it up!

Nick Names

When I was pregnant with my last baby, we kind of assumed it was a boy. I don't know why... wishful thinking maybe. We already had a name picked out and started calling him by his name and telling the kids about their little brother. When we found out we were having a girl, we knew the battle of names would soon begin.

When deciding Emma's name, he wanted her to be named Ava. I didn't really like the name and I just put my foot down with the name Emma, however, I did let him choose her middle name...as long as I liked it. So in trying to decide what to name our newest addition, I had two names on my list. I shared my first choice with Jeremy and he hated it. He then very sincerely told me that he really wanted to name this one, since he basically had no say in Emma's name. I clinched my teeth and tried to smile, and asked him what he wanted to name her. He replied with "Olivia". I told him that I could tell it meant a lot to him, and that I would be willing to concede because I love him so much, yadda yadda yadda. In all reality, I was so excited because this was the second name on my list.

[Side Note: Whenever you get your way, always try to make it seem like it was their idea. They will feel like you really value their opinion, and as an added bonus, you can blame them if it turns out to be a bad idea.]

I digress. Back to the reason I even started this post. I've always had a pet-peeve when naming children. Specifically, when people name their kids something, knowing very well they are going to call him by a nick-name. For example, a parent will say, "We are going to name him Augustus, but we'll call him Gus". I think this should only apply when you are naming them after parent and need to create a nickname to avoid household confusion. Otherwise, just name the kid Gus.

When I chose the name Olivia, I intended to call her Olivia. Then after a few weeks, we would just shorten it to "Liv" or "Livi" in casual conversation. Then we got accustom to calling her that and then she started to respond to it.

Now here is my dilemma. I like the name Olivia much better, but at this point, she only responds to Livi. So do I just go with it or try to change it back? How much confusion will this cause?

For those of you that are intentionally using a nick-name (I forgive you), do they respond to their full names during school roll call or is there a place on forms to write a nick-name so everyone calls them the same thing? Also, how did you determine how to spell the nickname? I didn't even realize it until tonight (which is what prompted this whole thought process) that I spell it Livi and Jeremy spells it Livy. I don't think I've ever seen him write it down before until I found a letter he wrote. If we decide to keep calling her Livi, we need to teach her how to spell it and therefore need to agree on a spelling ourselves. Again, another reason to just stick with Olivia. See why it's my pet-peeve? It causes so much confusion. Please help.

Fun With Fam

Today was crazy busy, but I'd rather have too much going on than nothing at all. We had Landon's soccer game at 8:00 and then Emma's game at 9:00. Right before Emma's game I had to bail, and Jeremy handled both games as well Livi. He's such a rock star!

Later than night we had a get together with Jeremy's family. We get together every couple of months and this month it was the twins' birthday. We really enjoy hanging out with all of his family and our kids always have a great time.

Just Breathe

Since school started, I haven't really had a chance to breathe. Last night as I was attending Parent's Night at school, I noticed the white board with tomorrow's date...September 11, 2008.
Wow, that year went fast...I still remember writing my 9/11 post last year. While I was supposed to be listening to the teacher, I started to drift off into my thoughts (takes me back to High School). They are the same thoughts I expressed in last year's post, but I began remembering the emotions I felt all over again.

Every year on 9/11, I go to the Sandy Healing Field. I really wanted to take the kids there today, but didn't know how we'd find the time. After getting the kids off to school, I had to take Livi to the Doctor, pick the kids up from school, get homework done, feed everyone, get Landon to soccer, get Emma to cheer leading and then make it to my pilates class. I just didn't see how we'd find the time to do it.

I picked the kids up and they were so excited to tell me all about the assembly they had remembering today. They had a lot to say on the subject and it made me realize that I just needed to make the time to go. Fortunately, it's only a mile away from school and it's in Jeremy's parking lot, so we could see him as well. The kids took their time looking at the flags and getting a better understanding of how many people died that day. They asked a lot of questions and also sat quietly just looking around.



I just followed everyone around with the camera and also had Jeremy take some pictures of me. It was really nice and hopefully an experience the kids will remember. It was also the first time in three weeks that I could just....breathe.

The Tooth Fairy Broke In!

Today at school, Emma bit into a carrot and lost her first tooth!



Ironically, on Saturday, she asked me how much longer it would be until we could pull it out. I gave her my usual canned response for her incessant line of questioning..."In a few days".

She counted and said, "Okay, in three days it will be Tuesday".

Now she thinks I'm a genius and believes everything I say. Finally, someone to appreciate my glorious wisdom.



Usually, the kids are in bed around 8:30. However, since Disneyland Jeremy was in charge tonight, they went to bed much later. When I got home, I was exhausted, and wanted the Tooth Fairy to make the 'ol switcheroo so I could crash. I checked on them to see if they were asleep, but they were still awake. I decided to get ready for bed, surf the net, and watch my stories.

Around 11:00, I was beat and felt like it was safe to go in....

...and then the security system went off!

...and then I peed a little...

After speaking with the alarm company, doing a survey of the house, and changing my pants, I had to start all over again on the sleep watch. So now here I am trying to pass the time away.

Here are some things I learned today:
1) My little girl is growing up and is as cute as ever.
2) Don't set the alarm when you are expecting the Tooth Fairy.
3) Always pee before bed.

Three Years in the Making

Landon has been in a soccer for three years now. We also tried baseball, and he learned to pick grass. We tried basketball and he avoided the ball. He's just not a competitive person. In fact, last week he told me he didn't want to win because he didn't want the other team to feel bad, and knew they would have such a great feeling inside when they won. Now, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that; I love that he is so sensitive to other people's feelings. But, I must admit that sometimes I do wish he would just go out and kick some ass.

Emma has been in dance and gymnastics over the last two years, but wanted to try out a competitive sport. We've known for a while that she's very competitive, which came to light during our first "Wii Sports Family Fun Night" that turned out to be "Not So Fun Unless Emma Wins Night". So, we signed her up for soccer this year and I was excited to see how she handled her first soccer game.

Landon's first game was last Saturday and was the same as the previous year...Landon doing his best while making jokes, running back and forth and having a blast. They lost the game and he couldn't have been any more pleased with the day. He had so much fun and couldn't stop talking about the great snacks. Then he and I drove quickly to try and make some of Emma's game which overlaps Landon's each week (and at a different park, SO awesome).

To my surprise, Emma was doing the same thing as Landon...running around the ball, but never actually connecting. When she came to the sidelines, I asked her why she wasn't kicking the ball and she said she just couldn't get close to it because everyone was in the way. I told her to just be aggressive and get in there. Her coach called her name and she went out there and took control of the ball and scored. When she came back in, she said, "like that?" I said, "yes, that was great" and she replied, "yea, it wasn't really that hard after all".

This morning, Landon's game was bright and early at 8:00. (I'm getting to the point of the story, I promise, I just had to set the scene so you'll understand my excitement.) He went out there and did the same old stuff. When he came to the sidelines, I asked him if he remembered how Emma scored last week by getting just a little more aggressive. That sparked quite a fire in him. I'd like to think it was my excellent motivational skills, but in reality, it was the thought of his little sister showing him up. After three years of trying to find his competitive side, I found that he only wants to win when it's Emma he is competing against. He gained control of the ball several times and he....wait for it.....SCORED!!!

He rocked. He totally rocked. I'm so proud of him for going out there and trying something that was completely out of his element. After the game was over, he confided in me that he didn't really mind if the other team was sad, because it felt so good to make a goal.

My Brain Hurts

I hate laundry. I really think I have more laundry than a typical household of ten people.

Seriously.

For those of you that have toddlers, you know that they wear around 2-3 outfits a day, due to various food and drink spitting, getting into markers and whatever else. I would be okay with this, if that were the only person in my home that wears 2-3 outfits a day.

Enter Emma. When she gets home from school, she wants to instantly wear her "comfy clothes". So she takes off her school uniform (who could blame her) and puts on a t-shirt and sweats. However, she won't wear the same t-shirt and sweats to bed, therefore changing into jammies. So first thing in the morning, I instantly have 3 outfits that need washing...just from one child. When you add that to Livi's, it makes 6.

I'm also a huge contributor to this fiasco, because I, like Emma, love my comfy clothes. However, I refuse to wear them out of the house. So, in the morning, I wear the t-shirt and sweat combo and then when I go out, I wear my regular clothes. Then I come home and put on my same outfit from the morning. When I work out, I wear completely different attire that doesn't qualify as "comfy clothes" so that makes 3 total outfits for the day. If you are keeping track, that makes 9.

Both Jeremy and Landon are pretty low-maintenance when it comes to clothing, however, they are both very clumsy accident prone and usually have various food and drink stains on their outfits at the end of the day. Jeremy will then change into a t-shirt and shorts, but will also wear these to workout in. Landon hates to change, and if forced to removed his stained clothing, he will opt to spend the rest of the evening, including bedtime, in his underwear.

So, this makes 2 outfits from Jeremy and 1 from Landon. In total, I have 12 outfits to wash at the end of each day. That makes for about 2 loads. If I keep up on it, it's not so bad. If I don't...at the end of the week, I have about 14 loads of laundry to do.

Jeremy wonders why I get so frustrated with laundry. I think it's because it's a task that never results in closure. When you organize or deep clean a room, you can look at it and know that it's going to look that way for at least a few days, and you can feel a small sense of accomplishment. When I finally finish that last load of laundry, the very next day, I have 2 more loads...it's never ending and I never feel like I accomplished anything.

I didn't keep up on the laundry at all last week, so if you are curious to know what 14 loads of laundry looks like, here it is....


Emma walked passed me as I was sorting through this pile and I said, "Emma, how on earth am I going to get through all this laundry?"

Emma replied, "use your brain honey" and kept walking.

Thanks for the support. So, now the kids are at school and Livi is in bed. What am I doing right now? Blogging.

Not laundry.

Jeremy's Birthday Weekend

For Jeremy's birthday, he and I spent the weekend in Park City. With the generous help from my parents, we were able to spend it without the kids. We were thinking of going to Swiss Days in Midway that weekend as well, but decided not to fight the crowds and make it a relaxing weekend instead.

Saturday morning we slept in (we haven't done that forever!) and had breakfast in our room. Then we went to a Spa to be pampered for a while and then had a nice lunch at Red Rock. We also hit the outlet stores, which was crazy busy for Labor Day sales...I didn't know outlet prices could get any lower! Later that night we walked around on Main Street and took a ride on the ski lift.

Then we had a romantic dinner at Zoom. The food was only average, but the ambiance and the company were both awesome. After that, we tried to find a place to chill for the rest of the night. All the places were either completely empty or jam packed...nothing in between. We had the bright idea to go to Harry-O's before the crowd came in so we could get a place to sit. Um...yea...they don't have chairs. There were a few seating areas that were empty, but they were reserved...they should call it Lame-O's. So we left and decided just to go back to the hotel and watch a movie. I actually preferred that...I'm getting so old!

We returned on Sunday to celebrate his birthday with the family. My parents joined us for a nice dinner nearby, so we didn't have to drive too far in the pouring rain.

I hope Jeremy enjoyed the weekend as much as I did!

The BIG 3-0!

Happy Birthday Jeremy!!

The big one is here...the big 3-0! Now you can no longer say you are in your 20's and married to a woman in her 30's.

Ha-Ha...welcome to the club.

You've accomplished a lot in your first 30 years...

...And your greatest accomplishment(s)...


You are such an amazing Father, Husband, Friend, and Person.
I can't wait to see what you accomplish in your next 30 years!!

Have a great birthday,
I love you!!

The First Day of One Long Year

Monday was the first day of school. It wasn't exactly a brilliant idea on my part to come home from a vacation the day before school started. I had so much to do to prepare and I didn't get everything done that I needed to. So, the morning started out pretty chaotically and a lot more unorganized than I like to be. Last year I could wake up Landon at 7:15 and be out the door by 8:00. This year, having two kids to get ready (especially a girl who needs her hair "perfect") took me a lot longer than I expected. We got up at 7:00 and by the time I got all three kids ready and out the door, it was 8:15. School starts at 8:30, oh, but did I mention it's a 30-minute drive?!

Ya, we were late.

Because we were in such a hurry, I only snapped two pictures and forgot to get one of Landon alone. This is Emma's first day in Kindergarten and since Landon is such an old pro, the attention unfortunately was drawn more towards Emma.




Then Jeremy took Landon to class and I went into Emma's class. We snapped a few of her in the class, but we were holding everyone up, so I tried to hurry.


Then I ran over to Landon's class and I was too late, they were already starting the Pledge. So, I snapped this one through the door...slided once again...sorry buddy!


When the kids got home, I asked them about their teachers (since I didn't get the chance to meet them) and all the stuff that went on that day. They were both really excited about their day and were feeling so smart that they just did homework for the rest of the night.

When Jeremy got home, he reviewed Landon's homework and said, "Wow Landon, I didn't know a sentence had to contain both a verb and a subject." Landon responded casually, "or a predicate". Um, I didn't even know that was a word. I'm so glad they are both so smart and eager to learn.

I wish all my kids were smart...



The next morning, we were up much earlier and things were right on schedule. We even had a little extra time, so while Emma was still getting ready (that whole "perfect thing" again), I took a few pictures of Landon to make up for the day before.

I think it's safe to say he enjoyed the attention!

Then Emma came out and wanted a little lovin' too and Landon was nice enough to let her in on his photo-shoot.

Then Daddy jumped in on the action...attention stealer!

San Diego Day One

We've been holding off on a family vacation this entire year. In Jeremy's words, Livi just isn't "right". She's hard enough to take a trip to the grocery store, so an airplane or extended car ride just seemed out of the question. However, with Jeremy working and traveling so much this summer for business, we've missed a lot of family time. So, we decided to fly to San Diego...as of this minute, I'm sure Jeremy is wishing he didn't go (more on that later).

We went for 8 days and I'm making a different post for each day, so don't feel like you have to read them all. There are only 3 people I can think of that wants to know all of the details and it's because they gave birth to us and are retired with nothing else to do...otherwise, this is just for our records, but read on if you so choose...or just skip to Day 7 to read about why Jeremy regrets this trip ;)

No family vacation would be complete without the pictures of the drive to the airport and subsequent airplane ride:





We were all smiles in the airplane and Livi actually only had a mini-meltdown which didn't last too long. Then the smiles turned to complete frustration when we had to shuttle to our rental car with 3 kids and 4 bags and absolutely no room on the shuttle. We felt like cattle. Moo. Then we got completely lost and ended up on the wrong side of town. At that point I decided that San Diego was the most ghetto place I had ever seen and I was already set on hating this trip. I'm not normally a negative person, but I have a bad history with this place (long story-more than one). It's been on my short-list of places to never visit again, but it was one of the few places Jeremy had never been to. This first day really validated my feeling of this place. Moo.

San Diego Day Two

With a good night's rest, everyone woke up very happy and excited to be in a new place.



We rented a house on the beach so we could go back and forth as often as we liked. I've always loved the beach but I was concerned that Livi would hate the sand (she hates the grass) and that I would just worry the whole time about the two older kids near the waves. Once we got there, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that all of the kids loved it. I forget how fun it is to see things for the first time through the eyes of my kids...it's one of my favorite parts of being a parent.




Livi didn't like the sand, but did fine when she was on the towel with me and she would play with it in her hands, she just didn't like it on her feet...

After the day at the beach, Jeremy and the kids went to see a movie while Livi took a much needed nap.

San Diego Day Three

Today we went to Sea World. The kids have been to Sea World in Florida but Emma was only three, so she doesn't really remember it, so we figured we should go again now that she is a little older. I had no idea they had a whole Sesame street area there. Livi is absolutely obsessed with Elmo and so it started out our Sea World experience on a really high note. The whales and other sea creatures were pretty lame to her after that, and she just wanted to be back in the arms of her boyfriend Elmo.









No Seaworld adventure would be complete without seeing the great Shamu...




Then Jeremy took the kids to the Journey of Atlantis splash ride.






Overall it was a really fun day for everyone!