The poor cupboard...

We bought our house after it had been foreclosed on the previous owners.  They hadn't lived there long, but they had five kids and they knew they were going to lose their house, so they trashed it.  I had never seen a more filthy house when we walked through it the first time.  (Although, it was before I had kids and now there are times that I feel like I might be the pot calling the kettle black :)
Anyway, one of the things that was most noticeable when we moved in was that there were several faces of the kitchen cupboards ripped off.  Mike took some to a cabinet shop and had them repaired.  The others, he fixed himself.

Then we had kids of our own...

This particular cupboard became one of Jake's favorite playing areas.  He loved to take out all the pots and pans and bang on them.

Needless to say, the cupboard door didn't stand up to all the attention.  One of the sides fell off the hinges and became a bigger problem than Mike could fix easily, so we just left it for a little while. 
I remember when I was pregnant with Allie, that was one of the things that drove me nuts, so I made Mike fix it.

Then we had Allie and she became mobile.  That cupboard became Allie's favorite too...

I couldn't find a good picture of Allie playing in the cupboard, but you can see from the background that it was broken again.

Since that time, Mike has fixed one side, only to have the other side break.  Then one time the wood split down the side and that was a big repair.  I think that was when I was pregnant with Nate and tired of looking at a broken cupboard.

Point of the post...
I don't know what it is about that spot, but kids are drawn to it.  Not just our kids...it is nearly every toddler who plays at our house.  This poor cupboard has been fixed more times than it is years old.  I hope it can withstand Nate.

An Indian, Pilgrim, and Turkey

Hope it was a great Thanksgiving!

Hey Mom...

Remember when we were at Grandma's house and I kept waking up in the night?  You said that it was the worst night you've ever had with me.  You thought it was just because I wasn't in my own bed, but I was trying to tell  you something. 
Since you didn't listen that night, I decided that I needed to cry when you put me down or left the room.  I kept hearing you tell people that I was getting too attached to you and that I was getting separation anxiety.  I don't know what all that means.  I was just trying to tell you that my ears hurt.  You didn't listen.
Things were still pretty sore for a while.  Then I felt a pop and all this gunk came out of my ear.  That got you worried.  How can you understand oozy gunk...but you can't understand me?  I was tugging on my ears for days!  Doesn't that mean anything to you?
I guess I shouldn't be too hard on you.  I heard the doctor tell you that some kids get ear infections without a fever.  I am also at the age where discovering an ear can provide me with lots of entertainment.
I guess we can make a deal.  Next time, I'll try to cry more and have a fever...and you try not to let it go so long my eardrums rupture.  Sounds like a plan to me!
Love,
Nate  

Hey Allie...

If you don't want everyone to know that it was you who drew on your brother's face...

you should learn to write someone else's name.

8 months!

Wow...another month!  Nate is so fun.  We have had a great month.  He is such a happy guy.  We are in the midst of another snotty cold and more eating woes, but he is still so fun.  I love being his mom.
As for new tricks, he is starting to recognize his name and come when he is called.  I know it sounds dog like, but it is new.  He can wave at you, and claps when he gets happy.
He loves food and can sign "more" and "eat".  I think he is working on "milk".  He knows what it means, but doesn't do it back consistently.
He is still really good at sitting with one toy and playing for a long time.  If he is interested enough, I can get dishes done while he plays in his drawer.  If he isn't interested enough, he is in the dishwasher, or pulling up on cupboards only to fall and cry, or finding the stairs and trying his hardest to get past the chair so he can tumble down (he's done it twice).  I know that a chair isn't the best of baby gates, but the stubborn side of me says that it worked with the other kids, so it should work for him too.  I guess he is just a different brand.
Remember when he used to poop in the tummy tub almost daily?  Well, it is becoming routine to do it in the big tub too.  I can't really let him relax and hang out in there or it is inevitable.  Gross!  He'll be embarrassed about that when he's older, but it's just a story that has to be told :)

Anyway, on to the pictures...

Jake...

Allie...

Nate...

 

Pretty cute kids!

Conversation at the dinner table...

Water vs. Milk

Allie: "Mom. I really like water.  Do you know why?  It's because it's really white, I mean clear and pure.  Do you know what pure means?  It means that it isn't dirty.  That's why I really like water."
Jake:  "You can't see through milk, but I like milk because it makes your bones way stronger."
Allie:  "But water makes you...makes you feel good."
Jake:  "When you're thirsty water makes you not thirsty.  Milk just tastes good."
Allie:  "Water is my favorite because I don't like milk."
Jake: "You like chocolate milk.  You like milk in your cereal!  And you like milk in your mac and cheese...and you like milk!"
Allie:  "Yeah, I like chocolate milk.  Mom is water more healthy than milk?"
Me:  "Milk is good for your bones, but we need water too.  It's all healthy."
Allie: "But what is more healthy?"
Jake: "Spiders don't even need to drink milk.  They just drink their prey...like bugs."
Allie:  "That's gross."
Jake:  "Allie...you are milk trapped.  Both me and Nate like milk."
Allie:  "Yeah"

Red Ribbon Week

I know it's almost a month overdue, but I wanted to post a few pictures of red ribbon week...

Jake pledged to turn his back on drugs.

He also grew out his hair so we could shave a mohawk into it for the crazy hair day.  He loved his mohawk and asked if we could do that every day. 

Jake is still loving school.  He has a great teacher and the school is awesome.  We are so lucky to live in an area of great schools and wonderful teachers.

"Mom...can we paint?"

Allie:  "Mom.  Can we paint?"
Me:  "No.  Don't you remember what happened last time you painted?  We are still out of paint."

...the last time...

 Allie:  "Then can we use markers?"
Me: "Sure"

...an hour later...

I guess it's a good thing they are washable!

Another Night Owl

Allie has a hard time falling asleep.  Every once in a while, she comes out and says "I wish I were grown up so I could stay up late like you."  I tell her that I wish I were a kid and I could go to sleep like her.
One night I told her that she could stay up late if she cleaned. 
You should have seen the look of joy!
She got right to work...

She put away all the shoes.

Then she organized Nate's toys.

Then she got to work on her room. 


By this time, I was on to her "style" of cleaning, so I went to check on the quality of her sweeping job.  One look under the coffee table was enough to explain why she didn't need a dust pan...


Apparently she has been using the place for months to stash candy wrappers, broken crayons, and miscellaneous polly pocket shoes.
Oh well...
It was great to let her stay up and be productive.  Although she still has a hard time falling asleep, she hasn't asked to stay up again either.

Primary Program

Today was the kid's primary program.  They did so well!  We are into the years where they are old enough to sit still up on the stand (at least for the first half) and they can sing really well.  I was so proud to watch my two little kids sing every single word of every single song.  I loved every minute of it. 
Well, I guess that isn't entirely true.  There were a few minutes where the guy next to me was activating his pre-paid cell phone complete with help from customer service.  Really?  Do people really do that in Sacrament meeting?  Anyway,  I had to keep reminding myself not to judge.  Maybe there was only a window of time where he could fill the minutes and if he didn't do it then, he couldn't make the phone call to his dying mother later on in the day.  Whatever his story was, he hung up the phone and I was able to ignore him again.

So back to the kids...

I took this cute picture of them before church. 

They did awesome on their parts.
Allie: Jesus Christ was resurrected and I will be too.
Jake: I will do my part and honor my parents to strengthen my family.

It's always a bummer when you know that they have their parts memorized and they still stand there and wait for the prompts from the person helping them (Allie) or read it (Jake).  Oh well.  I was just so proud of them it made my eyes water.  I love those little stinkers.

I had a pretty massive headache after the program, so I went home and tried to nap.  Nate wouldn't sleep...what's a momma to do?

I put him in his crib watching old home movies of Allie and Jake.  I got an hour snooze!
I'm sad that Mike was out of town for the primary program.  Those kids really know how to bring the spirit into a room and touch my heart.  I sure do love them!

The hut

I heard Jake come in tonight.  I stayed in Nate's room and expected him to come and find me.  Instead, I heard "Mom!  I need a bag.  We decided to take down our hut and I didn't want to just leave all my digging tools out there.  I need a bag so I can keep them till next year."

Wanna see his "digging tools"?

It's a good thing he's saving them.  What if someone were to take them over the winter?

This hut of theirs has been pretty cute.  I meant to go up and get pictures of it, but never did.  Carson and Jake built a rock path leading up to a dirt slope.  They dug seats out of the hill.  They made a clothes line for their coats when they would get too "sweaty".  And they even had a "wiz spot" so they could pee when ever they wanted to.  I guess all that can be said about that is that they are creative.  They are also boys...what else can I expect? 
I've said it before, my kids have a pretty great life.

Puppy/Boy

This boy is seriously part puppy...

 When he gets concentrating, the tongue comes out.  So cute.

 "Hey...what's that you got there?  Can I lick it?"

Goodbye Number 20

When I was young, my dad drove me through a trailer park in Orem.  He told me that if I wasn't careful, I would wind up married to a guy who would bring me to live in a trailer park.  He suggested that he'd help me find a good husband and I was relieved.
I guess I grew up thinking that trailer park husbands were pretty scary, and trailer houses in general were scary too.  I mean look at the statistics of trailers that get destroyed in tornados!
Anyway, my dad didn't have much to do with picking out Mike for me, but he did approve.  Mike also owned a trailer house.  He had pulled it into a park in Smithfield just after his mission and rented it out to help pay for college.  He sold that trailer just before we got married.
My parents owned storage units that had exterior storage space.  Someone had parked a trailer house on it and were delinquent on their payments for years.  We were engaged and Mike saw opportunity with that trashy trailer.  It went to auction and we picked it up for 500 bucks.  Before I knew it, I was marrying a man that was taking me to a trailer park!

 


We pulled the trailer into the park in Smithfield and I have some fond memories of fixing it up.  I was living in Orem, so I drove up with my dad a few Saturdays that month to help fix it up.


Left to right, piece of crap trailer with no siding, my dad, Brian,ladder that squished my dad's hand earlier in the day,  Mike, Scott, and me. 

 We spent a lot fixing it up.  New siding, windows, paint, carpet, furnace, and all sorts of other problems that arose from it sitting so long.  We had a room that we called the dead cat room.  Something had crawled up under that room and died.  On hot summer days, the room would stink so bad it drove us crazy.
We lived in that trailer for a year.  My memories are of frozen pipes in the winter, and icicles in the bathroom shower when our furnace went out.  They are of burning candles to combat the dead cat smell.  Memories of finding wet patches of carpet every time it rained, of Mike climbing up on the roof to tar the holes up to eliminate the wet patches of carpet.  I remember doing laundry in our tiny hall, and playing hours of Dr. Mario on the Nintendo with Mike when he got home from work.  I remember making new recipes...and discovering that Mike isn't a fan of broccoli cheese soup (I was on a quest to find the best recipe for it and he told me when I got to the 3rd or 4th that he doesn't like it...no matter what recipe I tried). 
I remember the sounds the trailer would make as it settled at night.  I swear it was haunted (possibly by the dead cat).  Mike said it was just the way trailers are. 
Mike got me a dishwasher for my birthday because I was a diva and hadn't ever lived without one before and it was cramping my style.

My new birthday dishwasher, flowers, and book (Walden)

I remember setting up the decorations of my very first Christmas as a married girl and thinking that it was pretty fun.   Remember the story of the screwed on top of the tree?

 

I also remember the day that the man came to fix the furnace.  He showed up with long hair, no teeth, tattoos everywhere and exclaimed that he felt like he was home again because he grew up in our trailer park.  When Mike came home from work that day, I told him there was no way we would be raising our kids there :)
 

So, the point of this post is to say goodbye to good old trailer number 20.  When we found the house we live in now, we rented the trailer.  Eventually, we found a buyer.  She couldn't get credit to buy it outright, so we were the bank.  For 8 years, she helped pay our mortgage.  We worried that one day, she'd tire of the dead cat room, and the leaky ceiling and quit making payments.  But she didn't.  And this summer, she paid it off.
When we moved into our house, Mike and I worried about affording the mortgage.  We always said that at least we still had the trailer that we could go back to if we needed to sell the house.  I think we were in our house for about a month when we realized that we could never go back :)
We do have some great memories of that place.  It was a great first home and a great way to start out our marriage.  I love looking back at the pictures and remembering those days.  In a way, my dad was wrong about marrying a guy that would take me to a trailer house.  Starting out in a trailer park helped us get to where we are now.  I'm glad Mike was ambitious enough to see the potential in that piece of junk we hauled up to Smithfield.
Now, it's officially someone else's home, but because of it, my kids are growing up in the best neighborhood ever.  So, goodbye number 20.  Thanks for the memories and for helping us get where we are today!

Eating woes

It is rare to come upon Nate when he doesn't have something in his mouth.  He picks up everything off the floor and immediately tastes it.  He is such an oral kid.
So why won't he take a bottle?  I have been dealing with food issues for weeks now.  He doesn't want to take the time or focused attention that it takes to nurse, but he won't take a bottle either.  It's been quite an ordeal around here.
Why will he suck on spare parts for school desks, but he won't drink from a bottle?

Moab

We went to Moab over UEA.  If you want to hear the gorey details about the awful place we stayed (complete with days old clogged public toilets), let me know.  I'll give you an earful.  I can also tell you about the awesome drive from Moab to home...the word awesome is said in extreme sarcasm. 

So, other than a few things that were a little miserable, we had a really great time.

The boys rode motorcycles.  Mike, Jake, Mitch, and Herb (Mike's uncle and his son).

The girls rode in this.  I had so much fun driving it.  I love driving around the slickrock in Moab.  It's especially fun going in something that drives up almost anything and makes it look easy. 

We stopped a lot to let the kids run around.  We took a few trails that I had never been on before and saw some really neat places.  I think I could go to Moab a hundred times and never see all there is to see.  I love it!



We also went to Arches National Park.  We love the little sand dune arch trail that takes you to a giant sand box.  The kids love playing in it. 

Nate just had to taste it...several times.

Jake climbed to the top of the sand dune arch.  It's hard for a momma to see her boy up on top of something like that and not feel intense fear for him...be careful boy!

Allie loves her cousin Lauren.  They made a little hut to sleep in.  It's no wonder I was finding sand everywhere for a week.

 It was a fun trip!  (I can say that now...weeks later now that I have caught up on sleep and my patience bucket has been re-filled).