You know you are sick when . . .

. . . you spend all night tossing and turning trying to find a position you can breathe in

. . . you wake up and one eye is crusted closed

. . . you don't wear eye make up for 3 days (including going to church) and you really don't care

. . . you put the OJ away and you put it in the cup cupboard

. . . you yell upstairs for the kids to come down and you sound like a hurt bird

. . . you sit down on the couch to watch TV with your sick 3 year old and 2 hours fly by

. . . microwaving left over spaghetti for lunch sounds like too much work

. . . it takes you 3 times to log into your blogger account because you can't remember your password

Ya, I say it is about time for me to go lay down again! I really don't like being sick! Maybe more ice cream pie would make me feel better!

One of the great mysteries of life

Why is it that when all the kids spend the night at Auntie April & Uncle Rick's and I can sleep into what ever time I want, I am wide awake at 6 am?????

Not fair, my friend, not fair!

Meet the other members of our family

Since the sad passing of Max (our black lab) last year, we have been left with 2 pets: a fish and a hamster.

Meet our fish:

His name is, well, Fish. Or otherwise known as (by Kurt and I) “The Fish that just won’t die”. Now don’t get me wrong - we do enjoy Fish but we never realized just how much work a fish tank would be. When we originally got the fish tank, there were 5 fish. Over the first 6 months, all the other fish passed away except Fish. He is now going on 5 years with our family. Are fish supposed to live that long?

He is actually quite a funny pet. His tank sits on the half wall between our family room and kitchen so while we eat dinner he watches us. You can almost see him drooling! We feed him at night right before we go to bed. If he feels it is getting late and is worried that we might forget to feed him, he starts “dancing” along the side of the tank that we are sitting on. If we are on the couch, we can see his shadow “dance” across us. He is pretty funny and interacts with us a lot more that I thought a fish could.

Meet our hamster:

His name is Hammie-Cookie. We used to have 2 hamsters, Hammie and Cookie, but unfortunately one passed away (it may or may not have been because someone (who shall remain nameless) forgot to feed him - but I do have to say in my defense that there was a stash of food in the cage when I cleaned it out so it isn’t my fault if he forgot where he hid it! P.S. Yes, I do feel really bad about this!) We didn’t know which one passed away so the surviving hamster became Hammie-Cookie (so one of the girls didn't get upset - they each got to name 1 hamster).

This hamster must have at least 9 lives. He has been dropped numerous times from a proportionate height that a human probably wouldn’t survive - and just shook it off, he spent time in Max’s mouth (yes, I said IN Max’s mouth - Max found the cage on the laundry room floor (the hamster was moved there so he wouldn’t get too hot on the dryer) and Max decided to play with Hammie-Cookie. Max played very gently - only goo-ed him all up. We washed him up, dried him off and put him back in his cage; up on the counter) and there is a 50 percent chance that this is the hamster that spent a day or 2 under the refrigerator. This hamster definitely has a guardian angel; and we keep it really busy!

He is pretty funny too. He comes over to the edge of the cage to peek out and see what is going on. He also has a ball that we put him in and he runs around the house. He has actually gotten really good and can run full steam ahead, fly around a corner and stop mid-stride all without running into anything. Pretty impressive for a little hamster!

P.S. do you know how hard it is to get a picture of a fish and a hamster? They are not very cooperative! And yes, Kurt thinks I have officially lost it!

And the birthday girl is . .

Me!!!!!

It’s my birthday! I LOVE my birthday. Birthdays are so magical - you get to use magical phrases on your birthday that don’t work any other day of the year. Phrases like:

"No fighting, it’s my birthday"

"No whining, it’s my birthday"

"No fussing, it’s my birthday"

And my personal favorite: "Ya, know, it IS my birthday". This one gets me out of dishes, laundry, getting up when “I’m done” is heard from the bathroom, cooking, cleaning refereeing fights and many other things. Plus it allows me to blog whenever I want and how ever much I want because “ya, know, it is my birthday”.

I have had a great day so far:

I got up and finally ran on my treadmill. I have wanted a treadmill from my parents that they just don’t use anymore but Kurt didn’t want because he didn’t think that I would really use it. So I have been bugging him and bugging him for months now and finally on Saturday he picked it up for me because, ya know, it is my birthday =) So today I finally had time to run on it. I had to cut my time short on it because I didn’t want to die on my birthday, not this year at least, and I wanted to give my heart a chance to climb back into my chest. It became quite apparent to me how out of shape I truly am. But in my defense, the treadmill is set to the highest elevation level so basically I was plowing up hill the whole time (I have got to figure out how to change that before tomorrow!)

Kurt got me my favorite breakfast - fresh strawberries, delicious raspberries, plump, juicy blackberries and, of course, chocolate donut holes (my all time weakness). I packed on all the calories that I had just burned off while running. But wait, calories don’t count on your birthday, right?

I went to work for a little bit and April had a wonderful surprise for me on my desk - a beautiful ivy plant with very pretty ribbons on it. So cute!

A friend stopped by the office to give me some tulips.

Went to lunch with Kurt, April and Evan.

Hailey sang me a wonderful birthday song - she is our song maker-upper - absolutely adorable!

And now, April is going to watch the kids for us so Kurt can take me out tonight! (Have I mentioned how much we LOVE having April and Rick so close?)

It has been a GREAT DAY! I just love my birthday. It is just a truly magical day. I wish it could last forever! Maybe I can get as good as Kurt and work up to "ya know, it is my birth month".

buzz, buzz, CHOP, CHOP

Big changes have been occurring in our house this week.

First, Evan's hair has been in a serious need of a good buzzing since the beginning of March (I only know how to buzz, not cut, so he gets buzzed every couple of weeks).  I was very excited when I heard that our ward was going to have an Enrichment night in April on cutting boy hair - YES! Finally, something other than a buzz cut. So we waited and waited and didn't buzz him so I could attempt to give him an actual hair cut after the lesson. Unfortunately the lesson was cancelled - now what do I do? Buzz him and call it good or try to wait it out until they rescheduled the class? I tried to wait but the buzzers were a callin'! So buzz, buzz . . .

Before:

After:

Not too bad if I do say so myself. 

(It is just a good thing that you can't see the back or sides of his head in the photo!)

Then Kayla has been asking to get her hair cut all week. Ok, cut is an understatement - She wanted to get it CHOPPED (so she could donate it)! So this morning I took her somewhere to have it professional CHOPPED. I can trim but I didn't trust myself to chop and get it even. So here we go: CHOP, CHOP

(Can you tell how excited she was?!)

We donated the hair to a foundation that makes wigs.  As it would happen, my mom was in for treatment as Kayla donated such a wonderful gift so the first person we went to see was Grammy!

Isn't she just adorable?! What a special girl - we are so proud of her!

* * * * * * * * * * 

While Kayla and I were getting her hair CHOPPED, the weirdest thing happened - Kurt cleaned out our garage and found our boat. Who knew that was hiding under all that stuff? And to top if off, it started! Wohoo! 

We are going to spend the evening on the lake with our friends. Kayla was so happy and said the cutest thing: "I hope nothing goes wrong because this is the best day of my life"

Words to a mothers ears!

Hailey's self diagnosis

This isn't on my list but is today's adventure:

Hailey has been complaining of tummy aches for a bit now. It started at bedtime so Daddy would lay with her and rub her tummy. We started thinking that it was an excuse to get more attention or to not go to bed so then we tried to not make a big deal about it.

Then she started complaining at school so I took her to the doctor. So there we were at the dr.s office (yes, I made Kurt go with me) and we were trying to explain to the dr. what had been going on and Hailey was bouncing off the walls. The dr. looked at us like we were crazy (which is exactly why I wanted Kurt to go with me - I wanted back up that I wasn't an overreactive mom). So 2 dr. appts and labs later he thinks she is just going through a phase of wanting more attention. This is, after all, our dramatic child - the child who needs all wounds wrapped up and elevated on a pillow, loves getting shots, loves taking medicine and sang and giggled the whole time she got stitches in her forehead so we have just been trying to give her extra attention and wait her out. (We are totally open to suggestions or ideas - is it middle child syndrome? Or ???)

Well, today the school called me again. Hailey was in the office with a tummy ache. This usually happens when there is a substitute, which there was today, because her teacher knows that if she redirects her, Hailey will happily and eagerly go onto the next activity. So off to the school I went. I talked with Hailey in the office and told her that if she came home she would have to stay on the couch the rest of the day and couldn't play. She said her tummy hurt enough to come home so I took her home.

She laid on the couch for a total of 5 minutes (literally!) and then declared she was all better. Urgh this child! When I asked her what or why she thought her tummy hurt and why it was better all of the sudden, this is what she said:

"Well, I guess I am allergic to substitute teachers"

Ahhh, now why couldn't the dr. figure that out?! Don't they have a test for that?

The Hazards of Kite Flying

So Evan was just dying for his very own kite today after flying sissy's kites last night. This afternoon Kurt and Evan went and bought him is very own SpiderMan kite and off to the park we went again. What a proud and excited little boy! 

Well, unfortunately this time the kites were flying directly into the sun. I'm convinced that piercing rays penetrated my eye balls and made direct contact with my brain - I have a killer headache! I have somehow managed to pull a dinner together despite the fact that Kurt is not home, we have jumped back into the whole homework routine and the girls decided to do an art project and my kitchen was completely buried under paint, paint brushes, markers, paper, sparkly pom-pom balls, sparkly butterfly stickers (and all their backings), glue and whatever else they managed to find in the cupboard. Let's just say the kids had a great time! (which is actually translation for the kitchen was destroyed) =) All in all, it has been a very fun day.

I would take a pain reliever but I have this whole problem with pills that is a whole other topic; which leads me to my next point - I am in a total blogging, talking, blabbering mood. Usually I try to blog at night after the kids are in bed but before I collapse and pass out (doesn't happen too often as you can see from the lack of blogs). If, by some miracle, I do make it to the computer to blog, I have usually forgotten what I wanted to blog about so I have come up with a solution - I started a list and I will be picking a topic from that list, possibly daily, to blog about until I run out of things to say. So be prepared for an onslot (?) of blogs probably followed by total silence! This should be interesting!

Catching up

So I don't know where the last few weeks have gone. They are just flying by. Here is what we have been up to:

First I just have to say that it has been heaven having April in the office with me. She is doing a great job and is so much fun to work with. She is on vacation this week and I don't know how I am going to make it without her! I was so lonely in the office today I had to turn on talk radio - ha ha!

Kurt finally convinced me to buy him an iphone. Shhh - don't tell Kurt but I love his new phone - he he. It is amazing and has helped out so much already. He has so much fun with it and used it to take all the pictures on this entry.

Picture #1 - evidence that we watched Conference! 

(Please ignore the messy room)

One of our employees, Guillermo, got married on April 4th. It was the first hispanic wedding ceremony that we had ever attended and it was beautiful! We had a great time and since we were the only non-spanish speaking people there, we had our own personal translator for the ceremony - thanks Alex! 4 out of our 6 guys are related so it was a lot of fun to see them all dressed up and looking good. It was also really neat to meet a lot of their extended family that we have not met in the past. Here is a picture of Salvador (Guillermo's dad), Gabriella (the bride), Guillermo (the groom) and Guillermo's mom. Both Salvador and Guillermo work for us; along with Juan (Guillermo's brother/Salvador's son) and Alex (Salvador's brother and our forman who has been with us for almost 8 years now!) All of our guys have been with us for 5 years + and it has been so fun to see their families grow and we really enjoyed being included in this special event.

It was really special to get to know our guys even better and see how religious they are. Every day they pray at lunch time and they are always telling Kurt that they pray for the business and more work. We were really impressed to see that there was no alcohol at the wedding. We are truly blessed with an amazing group of guys! 

Check out the crying 3 year old who didn't want his picture taken! What a way to make an impression! That is okay - kids speak a universal language - everyone understood.

Playing in the backyard, enjoying the beautiful weather:

I was so tired of everyone getting up from the table and leaving me to clean the kitchen after dinner so I recruited everyone to a job. Hailey washed the dishes, Kayla cleared the table and then put the dishes in the dishwasher and Evan cleaned up under the table. It was wonderful and the job was completed in no time! And surprisingly, everyone enjoyed themselves. Now that I know they can do it, I think I will have them help more often! What a helper:

Easter Day - we had a great Easter Sunday - we started the day off with an egg hunt (plastic ones), then we went to church, ate lunch, colored eggs, and then we finished it off with a wonderful dinner at Grammy and Papa's. Here are our beautiful eggs:

Presents from Grammy and Papa:

The sweetest moment - we were all inside and Papa was BBQing outside while Evan played. We looked up and saw the cutest thing:

Papa and Evan just sitting on a bench talking. What a wonderful bonding moment! Melts my heart!

Grammy and Hailey talking:

Evan passed out on the way home - such a wonderfully fun day!

Saturday Hailey and Daddy went on a date and Hailey bought (with her own money) a kite. It is the cutest ladybug kite. Then today Kayla went on a date with Daddy and bought herself and bird kite. Tonight was a perfect kite flying weather so to the park we went. See the spot in the sky? That is Hailey's ladybug kite! Good job Hailey!

And to top off the night, Kurt was playing with his phone again and took pics of Evan. Isn't he just the cutest little guy? Just like his dad!

Well, that just about raps it up for the last few weeks. The kids are back to school tomorrow - ugh. Back to reality, back to homework (double ugh) -  but the good news is there is only 7 or 8 weeks of school left. They have had so much fun on spring break just playing with the neighbors out front and being kids. I can't wait until this summer. The way time is going it will be here before we know it!

Scarf Party Pics

Here are some of the pictures from my mom's scarf party. It was a great party and I really appreciate everyone's help. It was a very special day for my mom.

I love you Mom! 

Hang in there and keep being tough. You are doing amazing and we all love you!

P.S. A great big thank you to Chrissy for taking all the pictures!