and so the countdown begins

Tonight I finished a few Christmas countdowns with the help of Reed (and not a moment too soon since tomorrow is December 1st).
The first one I made was an idea of Heidi's. I was pretty pleased with the way it turned out until Blue told me that it kinda looked like a monster face. Gee thanks, Blue but I guess he does have a point. It does kinda look like a monster face but nonetheless I am still happy with how the project turned out.



The second countdown is a mini muffin pan and behind each number is a little ornament that the boys will put on the tree. When I showed them the tree that they would be putting the ornaments on, Reed informed me that it didn't look like a Christmas tree but that maybe if we put a star on the top of it, it might look a little more like a Christmas tree.


But their favorite countdown is...

the paper chain! What kid doesn't love a paper chain?! While I painstakingly spent more time than I should have on my countdowns, my boys were just as happy with their paper chain that took them just a few minutes to make.
Moral of the story is... little boys would rather rip and tear off a link of their chain (it does sound pretty manly, I know) than just flip a number or hang a tiny ornament on a piece of metal that their mom is trying to pass off as a tree.

let me explain, no, let me sum up

Talk about an overwhelming week! Where do I begin...
On Monday Reed received an award during an assembly at school. Apparently he demonstrates a lot of respect towards his peers and teacher. Who knew?! I was there to take part of this proud moment and even remembered my camera on the way out the door. But much to my dismay, as I am taking a few pics before the assembly started, I realize my memory card is not in my camera. Whoops!

Tuesday I thought I would torture myself a little and take a "quick" jaunt down to Phoenix with Blue and Beau. Actually I had to purchase all the lighting fixtures for our new house and since I wasn't happy with the selection at Home Depot I decided to go to Lowe's (there isn't one here in Flag, surprise, surprise). Well, as I am pulling two shopping carts around I let Blue and Beau run up and down the aisles. Every once in a while I would catch Blue dragging Beau around by the hood of his jacket along the floor with Beau screaming, such brotherly love.

Wednesday I tried to be in three different places at once. Both Reed and Blue got out of school at noon and because of car trouble, Colby needed me to pick him up also right in the midst of my magic act. While I didn't actually pull off my magic trick, after giving Colby a lift back to work, I was only ten minutes late to pick up Blue which left me only twenty minutes late to pick up Reed.

And now we come to today... the house that we are currently living in is going to be looked at by potential buyers tomorrow so I went ahead and purchased a few, okay more than a few, storage bins and shoved everything that I possibly could into them and set them in my garage. This is a highly effective way of clearing out your clutter. The true test of a clutter bug... I wonder how long it will be before I decide to unload the bins again.

oscar the grouch

Recently Beau has been a little grouchy, whiny, and just plain difficult. I was starting to get a complex thinking it was me... I mean most of you know that Reed was quite a handful as a baby and Blue, probably more of a handful now than when he was a baby and now Beau. Maybe my parenting skills need a boost. Well, I was relieved to discover it wasn't ALL me. A few days ago, I was playing with Beau and I tipped him upside down and I discovered his molars are coming in. All I could see was a tip of white and what looked like a red marble where the rest of his tooth will soon be. Poor kid, he was in so much pain and I probably wasn't being as compassionate as I should have been. The same day I made this discovery, I pulled the biggest sliver out of the bottom of Beau's foot. I'm telling you it was bigger than any sliver Colby ever got framing or hunting. Again poor kid, he was probably in a lot of pain and I was just not reading the signs. The next morning solidified my belief that I had Oscar the Grouch as a son. I caught him eating handfuls of garbage out of the trash can. Here is my proof:



Don't be alarmed that he is eating something harmful. It is actually a piece of cake that I had thrown away because I only wanted the frosting. Come on, I know you all do the same thing.
I do have to say that Beau was very pleasant this past holiday weekend, in fact he was rather funny and charming at times.

pleasantly surprised

Pleasant surprise #1: Tonight Colby and I went out on a date. I know, a Tuesday night, how lucky are we?! We unexpectedly had a babysitter for the evening and took advantage of it since there is no school tomorrow. We decided to go out to eat. After checking out a couple of restaurants we decided on Sakura, a Japanese restaurant that I had not been to before. The date started out a little rough. While we were waiting to be seated, we were looking over the menu and quickly became aware of how pricey our dinner was going to be. For a Tuesday night and not celebrating anything special it wasn't exactly the price range I wanted to be in. Nonetheless, Colby convinced me to stay and give it a try. We were seated and then had to wait an hour, yes six zero minutes, before our dinner was prepared. Colby wasn't too upset because he had ordered sushi (I am not a fan). Chea, you would like this sushi because there was not so much rice on the outside.
Pleasant surprise#2: Our meal was prepared right before our eyes. Yes, it was one of those restaurants where the chef cooks on a big griddle right in front of you. Our chef was amazing! Lots of fire, tricks, and jokes. And our food was awesome! Chinese or Japanese food is not my favorite but this was delish. We had Steak Yakisaba?- I think that is what it was called. The best steak I have had in a long time, and fresh vegetables with noodles, not just any noodles but the kind they serve at Aloha Kitchen which are my absolute favorite. It almost made up for our hour wait, almost.

Christmas shopping

My goal is to be done with Christmas shopping by the first week in December. So I can focus on much more important things like my Christmas cards:). Well, and I hope to get in a little bit of baking and crafting. I figure the only way I am going to accomplish this is by a lot of perusing on the Internet. But today I discovered another option: shop while Blue is sleeping. No, I do not leave him in the car and run into the store (as tempting as this has been many a time) but rather just let him sleep in the shopping cart. I have mentioned a few times in the past what a heavy sleeper he is and now I can finally use this to my advantage. Today we went to three separate stores and I had to pull him out of his booster seat then lay him in the back of the shopping cart then put him back in his booster seat when we were done with that particular store. Three times without him waking up! Amazing, I know. I am so pleased with my new discovery.

spilt milk

On Thursday as I was dropping Blue off at preschool Beau threw up all over himself while he was strapped in his carseat. Now all of my boys are big milk drinkers and even when they aren't feeling good they always beg for a drink of milk over anything else. So in order to paint a vivid picture for you think of two bottles full of curdled milk. That is what covered Beau and his carseat. It was rank! I tried to pull his clothes off with the least amount of contact, placed him in Blue's booster seat then we quickly drove home. I had to clean his carseat not once but twice because of the awful smell. Since that was on Thursday and today is Sunday, I thought I had dodged a bullet because Reed nor Blue had thrown up. Well, no such luck. After dinner Blue started vomitting. The first time he made it to the garbage but the second time was all over the stairs. Again, more curdled milk. Yes, it was just as disgusting as Beau's. While there is nothing funny about cleaning up "curdled spilt milk", Blue did put a smile on my face when he said, "My arms feel squiggly and I need you to help me throw up." How can I "help" you throw up? "Just hold onto my shirt and pat my back."

new owners

We are the new owners of a Polaris Ranger unbeknownst to me. No wonder Colby has been so helpful lately.

who are you and what have you done with my husband?

I started getting suspicious earlier in the week when Colby took Reed to karate not only Monday but Wednesday also. Then I had to go to Prescott on Tuesday and he said that he could pick up not just Blue from school but Reed also and that I could stay and visit with my friend Tess for as long as I like (meaning that the boys would be running wild around his office). I thought maybe he was making an extra effort because I was feeling a little under the weather those days. Well, my suspicions were even higher yesterday, Sunday. While I was getting ready for church, Colby put the roast in the crock pot (he's never done that before), gave Blue a bath AND got him dressed for church (never done that before without me asking him), AND put a load of bedding in the washer (certainly never done that before). All of that before I even left for church. Colby was staying home with Beau and Reed, who had pink eye and I was taking Blue. On my way home from church I still wasn't convinced that my husband was entirely a new person and this is why: We were going to have green chile burritos for lunch and in my mind I was hoping that Colby hadn't already shredded the meat because when he shreds the meat he always leaves majority of the fat in it. When he was younger he loved to eat gristle. In fact, he loved it so much he had to eat everything on his plate before he could eat it-like it was some special treat- ewww! Anyway, when I got home the table was already set and the meat already shredded- but he made sure not to put all the fat in with it. Dinner was amazing! I didn't have to do anything for it, and he also helped me clean up. Okay, now I was pretty convinced this was not the same guy I had married. It gets better, not only did he finish the load of laundry he started before I left for church (which I thought he would just forget about) he also did two more loads and folded them. Wow! Later on, I find him watching tv and eating brownies and ice cream...in bed. Okay, no doubt in my mind that this is Colby, the man I love. Obviously, there are a few quirks in my training system. He has learned to cook and clean and help out with the kids which I am grateful for. I guess I will just have to work on the eating in bed a little longer.

don't drink "that" gatorade

We drove down to Queen Creek this afternoon. Colby met us just before we left town to say goodbye to the boys, as he was not coming with us. He gave each of the boys their own gatorades to drink on the way down. I knew exactly what was gonna happen so in an effort to avoid five different potty stops I told them not to drink it all at once. By the time we were at Cordes Junction, gatorades were gone and Blue was shaking like crazy because he had to go the bathroom. I made him hold it till Black Canyon City (another half hour). When we got into Phoenix Reed needed to go. Blue's potty break was only about twenty minutes earlier, why didn't he go then? He said he didn't need to. Of course. We were in the thick of rush hour traffic and I was not stopping not to mention it gave me the opportunity to give a few "I told you so". Reed was really going crazy now.
I had heard from one of my sisters that she makes her boys pee in bottles while traveling. So I thought I would offer this option to Reed, thinking that he would never go for it. He is my rule follower and surely there is a rule somewhere about peeing in a bottle in a car. Much to my surprise Reed agreed to this option. It must have been pretty thrilling for him because not more than 20 minutes after filling the first gatorade bottle and he "just" had to go again. As disgusting as it sounds, it is very convenient and I think I will use this option in the future.

star wars battleship

Have you ever wondered if anyone ever buys from those sky mall magazines you find on airplanes? You know what I'm talking about- this magazine is the last resort when you have read every book and magazine you brought with you and you are still 20 minutes away from landing. Well, Colby brought one home the last time he flew to Cali for work. In it he found Star Wars Battleship. He thought it would be fun to just "show" the picture of it to the boys (they just recently got interested in the original battleship game). Anyway, Reed kept asking question about how to order it and how long it would take for it to come. So finally Colby gave in and ordered it. He told Reed it would take seven days for it to come. Every night in Reed's prayers he would have a countdown about how he was thankful Star Wars Battleship was coming in seven days, then six days, then five and so on. Well, it was delivered late one evening when he still had two days left on his countdown. But when the doorbell rang Reed knew for sure that it was the game. Needless to say Colby, Reed and Blue have had hours of fun playing this game. I highly recommend it for any of you Star Wars fans out there.

My boys enjoy getting mail. They especially love looking at the magazines and catalogs that come in the mail. Blue will carry around a toy catalog from fisher price or etoys for days. He brings it with him in the car, he holds it while he is watching tv, and once or twice I have seen him looking at it while going the bathroom. With Christmas around the corner, the number of toy catalogs has increased. Yesterday I checked my mail and what do you know... the Target toy catalog was waiting. Little did I know what ruckus this was going to bring. Both Reed and Blue wanted it and why they couldn't just sit down together and hsare it I don't know but the fighting began. They would cry and then get mad at the other then come tell me. Since Colby had been gone all weekend I was pretty much at my wits end anyway, so when they started fighting about this catalog I just ignored them. I thought it would be good to let them duke it out. After 45 minutes of this, Reed came down and said that Blue had punched him, I decided that literally duking it out wasn't the best solution. They both were stunned when I took the catalog and wouldn't let either one have it. It is only the beginning of November, I wonder how many more of these fights I will have to endure before Christmas is here.