Conversation at the breakfast table

Allie: "Mom, what does 'saidso' mean?"
Me: (distractidly looking at the ads in the paper) "Huh?"
Jake: "Yeah, she means 'because I saidso'. You say that a lot. What does it mean?"
Me: (stopping to laugh): "It means just because I'm the boss, what I say goes. There doesn't have to be a reason, the reason is because I said so."
Allie: "Huh?"

I remember being so annoyed as a kid when there wasn't a "real" reason for the things I had to do. It was just because mom "said so". I guess now that I am a mom, it all makes more sense to me. I don't know why they don't get it:)

33

Today I turn 33. It's my magical year (remember...I like the number 3). I can already tell that it's going to be an awesome year. I think one of the greatest things that will happen while I am 33 is that I will have our 3rd boy. Yep, we are getting another cute baby boy. I say cute before I have even seen him because the last 2 boys were pretty darn cute and I can't imagine anything changing:)
Anyway, this little babe will be here at the end of March. I kept things quiet because I was a little crazy for the first part of this pregnancy. (Saying "a little" crazy might be an understatement, but that's okay.) I couldn't even think about a little baby without having a panic attack and crying on cue. I wanted this baby more than anything, but I couldn't help worrying about everything. Things are much better now and I am grateful for the peace I feel. Whenever I start to think of all the bad things that can go wrong while a baby is developing, I choose to accept the peace and comfort instead of the fear and panic. It seems to be working.

Obviously, we didn't tell the kids a thing about the baby. When I went in for the big ultrasound, our babysitter fell through and Allie had to come. She walked into the room and her face lit up. She knew right away what we were there for and she couldn't contain her joy. That joy was temporarily crushed when we opened the envelope a few days later that read "it's a boy!!" I haven't ever seen her so sad. She wasn't faking the tears or the quivering lip. Her appetite was gone for hours (even for candy). She was curled up on the floor in the "time out" corner with her soft blankie wracking with sobs. It broke my heart.
Eventually she snapped out of it and is busy looking for the silver lining of a new baby brother. To tell you the truth, what she's banking on is this "Momma, I have an idea. How bout we get this boy baby out of your belly and then get another one in there that's a girl!" Cause in her mind, that's how it works...
Jake is excited and looks forward to having a brother that gets to stay here. He says that he will be cute and fun to play with.
Anyway, as soon as I started telling people, it's like a switch was flipped in my head. I am really excited for this baby and I can hardly wait to break out all the cute clothes and get working on his own squares blankie.
So can you see why it will be a great year? We are blessed.

On another note, the kids asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I said "I want kids who don't fight for a whole day."
Allie looked a little confused and said "but mom, you can't buy that at the store."
No kidding kid. You can't buy that anywhere, but peace in the home is priceless. Maybe one day they can live up to it. I'm not holding my breath for this birthday though...

Halloween and stuff

We had a great month of October. I love October and all that goes with it. I have been a slacker and haven't posted about all the fun things we have done this month, so this post will have lots of pictures.

We went to the pumpkin walk...always super cute and fun.

Beautiful Allierella

Jake is still pretty obsessed with Super Mario Bros. on the Wii.

I am still pretty obsessed with Harry Potter:)

Then it was time to carve pumpkins.

Allie was really grossed out by the pumpkin guts. Since Mike is a natural teaser, we ended up with this...


But she cheered up after getting a warmer jacket and some loves from mom. She gave it a whirl and made every effort not to touch the pumpkin with anything but the spoon.




Jake wasn't too squeamish about the guts.

Here are the finished products. Jake was really excited to put a light in his pumpkin and wanted to check on it every few minutes. That got old for me.

We had a ward party that was really fun. There was a pretty scary spook alley that we dragged both kids through (I hope we didn't scar them for life). Allie's friend Lily heard about the spook alley and wondered if there would be a "spook Lily" too. I laughed about that one over and over. No fair that Allie gets all the fame! It reminds me that earlier in the month Allie wanted to be an "Allie cat" and thought it fitting that there should be an "Aubrey cat" and a "Lily cat" too. Unfortunately for me (I already had her cat costume all worked out), she changed her mind as soon as she saw this "beautiful butterfly" costume. She certainly did make a cute butterfly.

Face painting at the ward party.

I saw lots of cute food ideas on Family Fun's website and some other places. I had the ingredients for some of the things on hand, so we had lots of fun with food the days preceding Halloween. Jake's favorite were the Tombstone Toasties and spider web soup (toasted cheese sandwiches in the shape of a tombstone with ketchup RIP written on it. The soup was tomato with a string cheese spider web on top.)
Allie liked the Green Goblin Punch and the boogers on a stick (mini caramel apples) "are you sure they aren't really boogers mom?" Why would you care girl? You have eaten your fair share of boogers:)




Pear witch

In the midst of all the fun, it was red ribbon week for Jake at school. We have kept his hair longer than usual because he wanted spiked hair for this day. I was surprised it stayed up all through school. We did use enough hairspray to put us both in a coughing fit for a few minutes, so I shouldn't be surprised.

Allie and I were able to go to Jake's school party and help the kids dress up like mummies. They were really cute kids and it was nice to see that Jake isn't the wildest kid in class (by far!)

Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Don joined us for our Halloween feast...ghosts, mummies, goblin punch, boogers, etc. Thank goodness they weren't scared off by the crazy food.

We also had the 6th annual Halloween parade in the neighborhood.

The trick or treating came immediately after the parade and they were able to get most of the houses done before the rain came. Jake was a trooper and held Allie's bucket so she could stay in the stroller under an umbrella. Big brothers come in handy sometimes.

Mike was at the door to give out candy and thought it would be funny to give out the leftover baked potatoes. We got lots of laughs out of the expressions on kids faces when they got a big hot potato in their sack. He cracks me up.

So, it was a really long post, but we just had so much fun this month! I hope it was a great one for all of you too.

Politically correct?

We went down to IKEA last weekend to kill some time while Mike was at the eye doctor. The kids were excited about the elevator and "excellerator". I was excited about the thread that I got for a whole lot less than I am used to buying it for.
Anyway, before getting in the store, we encountered the yellow beetle bop Volkswagen bug that is out in front of the store. Jake thought it was pretty cool and was asking all about it. As we walked into the store, he said "wouldn't it be cool if we put a whole pile of Mexicans in it?!?"
A whole pile of what? I wasn't sure how to take this comment from the boy. I hurriedly looked around to see if there would be any people who might be offended by the statement. Then I frantically searched my mind trying to decide if this is a teaching moment or just what to think of it in general. I chose to ignore it, after saying "let's not say things like that Jake."
We walked around the store and I forgot about the whole scene. Then, on the way out, we saw the yellow bug again and Jake said, "why can't we talk about putting a whole pile of Mexicans in that car. I think it would be funny!" I didn't know what to say, so I just asked him why it would be funny to put a pile of Mexicans in there. He started to explain that it would be funny to see them pretending to drive. He said "we could even put that dog Mexican in the back." (I am still wracking my brain, the Taco Bell Chihuahua? What is he talking about?) I finally asked him when he has seen a whole pile of Mexicans with a dog too. "Old Navy mom"...
Oh...he meant mannequins. Now it makes more sense. Yes Jake, it would be funny to see a whole pile of mannequins in the car in front of IKEA.

Two Left Feet

We were driving past the DI yesterday and I decided to stop in and see if there were things I had to have. (I am on the hunt to add to our Lincoln Log collection. I know I am never going to find those at DI, but what if I do?)

Anyway, Allie found some shoes that she had to have. Ugh. They were a dollar and I didn't even want to spend the dollar on them. I tried in vain to talk her out of them. So I fished a dollar out of my pocket and we came home with the beloved shoes. The whole ride home, she talked of inside play dates where she would ask friends to bring over their princess shoes. She talked of what dresses would look nice with her new shoes...who can begrudge the shoes now?

When we pulled into the driveway, she showed off her new shoes proudly and that is when I noticed that we had bought a pair of shoes that were the same. We had two left shoes.

She was only slightly deterred. It was funny to watch her take her first stumbling steps in heels.

They were the first things she put on this morning and she is getting better at walking in them. We definitely have a girly girl on our hands...

Stuff They Said

I was cleaning out my files on the computer and came across a file I labled "cute things they say" I had to share a few with you, sorry if I have posted these before...

...Conversation at lunch...

Me: Allie, do you want one of these plums?

Allie: A plum that came off the tree?

Me: We bought it at the store, but it came off a plum tree.

Allie: And it’s ripe?

Me: Yep.

Allie: Sure. Plums have a bum just like nectarines.

Me: A bum?

Allie: Yeah, they look like a bum. A nectarine can go ‘shake my bootie’ cause it has a bum shape on it.


Then this one...

Allie: “Did Jake lost his balloon?”

Me: “Yeah.” (remembering an incident that happened months ago.)


Allie: “Did it fly up into outer space?”


Me: “Yeah.”


Allie: “So the aliens could pop it?”


Uh…


Allie: “Yeah, then it will come down later, all popped. And Jake can use the string as a kite.”





...Or when we were in the car...


Jake, after a police officer zoomed past us with siren and lights blazing,


“That officer friendly is going to have to give himself a ticket.”

I hate school

I never though I would be the one to say that. I loved school all my life and was sad to graduate college and have to leave school. I guess hate is a strong word. I don't hate school. I guess what I feel is love for days off school. Now that Jake is in school, I have to make him go to bed early, wake up early, eat fast, get dressed, and run to the bus. I watch him walk out the door and I am bummed to say goodbye to my little buddy. This week is parent teacher conferences and Jake has a three day break from school. Monday morning was a dream. He was still asleep at 8 and I didn't have to go wake him up. When he did wake up, he and Allie played on the stairs for an hour without fighting.

We took Allie to dance and I held my boy's hand as we went to the library. We talked about Halloween and had fun picking out spooky books. We took our time picking out a science movie that he could watch that night because it wasn't a school night.
So, it's not that I really hate school. I like that he is learning and having fun there. I just miss the life we had a few months ago. I miss having one on one time with Jake. He hasn't been out of the house for anything but school and church for a long time. I had a lot of fun with him Monday and I know it won't be long before he won't hold my hand as we walk to the library. I know it won't be long before he'll be too cool to want to hang out with me at all.

I don't know why I am writing such a whiny post. I guess if I am looking at things with the "glass is half full" view, what I really mean to say with all this is that I have loved these days with Jake home. It's probably because he is in school that I have enjoyed them so much. So really, I can't hate school. If this were our everyday life again, I wouldn't think it was so cherished. Allie would get along with him for a little while, but then the screaming would begin again because they would be around eachother so much every little thing would make the other crazy. I would take him to the library each week and it wouldn't be anything new and exciting so he would run away from me in the parking lot and make me crazy when he wants to stay at the computers longer than we can stay. So, I guess I am grateful that he is in school. It makes days like these last few days even better than ever.

Food art

I have been spending a lot of time with Allie lately. They always say the first child is spoiled because they get so much undivided attention as a baby. Well, poor Jake. He spent that first year sleeping tons. I'm sure we had our share of fun times, but come on...he was a baby! Then Allie came along and my attention was divided. As they have gotten older, Allie has stolen the spotlight. Jake went to preschool for two years. In those few hours a day, it was just me and Allie. Jake goes out to play a lot. Allie's friends still nap, or are in school also. So it's still just me and Allie. Luckily she likes to play by herself a lot. She does get bored though, and that brings me to the point of this post.

I was in the shower and our kind neighbor brought us over a stock of tomatoes from his garden. Yay, salsa for us! Anyway, Allie decided to take them out of the bag and line them up on the table. Why is this post worthy? Because it reminded me of my little brother Steve. He always liked to make what he called "food art". At the grocery store, he lined things on the conveyor belt in a visually pleasing manner. He arranged the food on his plate, or the candy he was about to eat, all in the name of art. So when I came in the room and found Allie's creation, it made me think of little bro. Allie, your uncle Steve is pretty cool. I hope you pick up lots of habits from him.

Home school

I couldn't sign Allie up for preschool in the Spring. I didn't know when Jake would have kindergarten and I wasn't about to have them be gone at opposite times of the day. So we waited till we knew when Jake was in school. By that time, there weren't any more slots in the preschools I knew. I called a few and got discouraged. Allie was really looking forward to going and she was really bummed when I told her it was out. Then I decided that we would just have "home school preschool" I told her that two days a week we would work on letters and numbers. She could cut things out, color, play with paints...all sorts of fun and messy things. So far we have had a lot of fun.

Some of the best things about preschool at home...

You don't have to get dressed and do your hair.

You can have "school" on mom's un-made bed.

You get to have mom's undivided attention.

You get to pick the theme of the day.

Today's theme was M for monster. Monster books, monster drawings, monster faces...

I love you cute little monster girl!

Millions of peaches

Peaches for me... (I kinda hope I get that song stuck in your head because it's been circling my brain for days:)

It's canning season again. I have gone the rounds with Mike about whether or not bottling peaches is more or less expensive than buying canned peaches at the store. I don't really care. The fact is, I like canning season. I really like to see the shelves lined up with pretty jars full of things my kids like to eat. So I do it year after year.


The kids really wanted to "help" out again this year. They didn't believe me when I said that it would help me a ton if they went and played in the sand box. They wanted to be in the thick of it. So I did give them a job that they could do. They added sugar and water to each of the bottles.

They watched as the peach skin came sliding off, and got bored when they realized that nothing new was happening for a long time. Then I was finally given the help I really needed when they decided the sand box did sound good after all.

I listened to a good book and worked away.

Next up...pears. It will be my first time doing pears. I hear it's annoying to peel each pear painstakingly, but my kids love pears so we'll give it a go.