Quiet kids = Mess

Tonight as we're sitting down (finally), after baths, dinner, clean-up etc...we realize it's very quiet. As most of you know, with a 3 yr old and a 1 1/2 yr old this is SO not normal. And it had been awhile. So Adam went to investigate. When he came back he just walked back in and told me to go into Noah's room. He followed me in there and this is what we found.....

That and a couple of innocent faces.

If you look closely they've ripped the blankets off of his crib and emptied his dresser into it. As we walk in Noah says, "a mess." Yeah, thanks buddy. If you know it's a mess, WHY DO YOU DO IT? I know! because you don't have to clean it up. I couldn't figure out how they got the blankets of the crib to begin with. Anyhow... as we're re-folding everything I look back and....


I was wrong. They can BOTH climb in the crib. naughty kids...And when Noah was done he just climbed his tiny butt out. Sometimes that kids surprises me the way he solves things...he's just fearless.

I shouldn't have been surprised. The other day I set a basket of clean clothes on Mady's bed, went into the kitchen to grab something, came back and they'd emptied the entire basket into her dirty clothes and all over her closet floor. These too are a pair.
Something funny...Mady has always resisted independence. She would rather everyone do everything for her. She still doesn't dress her self (we know she can) but she gets frustrated and just says "I can't do it!", she's always been kind of lazy. :) She wants you to lay her blanket over her, put her shoes on, buckle her car seat etc... So Noah comes along, exact opposite. He doesn't want help from anyone and he'll tell you. "Get off of me!" "Don't touch!" his problem is that he CAN'T do everything. Almost every day he wants his "coat" and "sippers" (slippers) and he'll basically put them on. So they compliment each other. When Mady wants help taking her coat and boots off, we say "No, you can do it honey", she goes to Noah and he'll do it for her. sneaky. So the other day I walk in the bathroom and Mady just got done going potty. I see Noah throw toilet paper in the toilet. ("no way he just wiped her!! ??...) then he starts to pull her panties and pants up.( "You've got to be kidding me!") I kind of had to draw the line there, but they sure are funny. If she can't get our help, she sure can con Noah!

Very Late Christmas Post

Like everyone else, we have been super busy. Adam had a lot of time off over Christmas so we played a lot and I spent very little time on the computer. I also have to admit that I usually blog at night when the kids go to bed, but since we got the new Mario Brothers game for the wii, that is all we have done EVERY night I don't work. 4 people can play at the same time, so me, Adam, and Jamie have been glued to it. That game is super fun! Anyhow... I will try to sum up Christmas so this isn't so long, but just a warning, we have tons of pictures....

So like every year in our house, we spent a couple days baking yummy treats and then took them around to everyone. That is always fun, just to get to see everyone (and to eat a few treats ourselves.)


While we were at Craig and Brigitte's, Santa and Mrs. Clause came by to see the kids...and this was Mady as then walked through the door...pretty much her entire attitude about Santa this year...

Mrs. Clause finally warmed her up a little to a candy bar, but as soon as she got it she was done!


Noah wouldn't even get out of Adams arms. When Santa tried talking to him, he would scream NO! and he would be like shaking from fear! They tried to hand him a candy bar and he just pushed it back at them and screamed, "I don't want it!!!", so that was the end of that.

Christmas Eve day we made cookies for Santa and let all the kids open 1 gift! Yea! New jammies!!!


We alway spend Christmas Eve at Dad and Terri's. This year Jeff made yummy chilli, and of course shrimp!!! Mmmmm...! then we exchanged gifts and played games.


Then we took some tired kids home and Mady left cookies for Santa, (Noah didn't make it, he fell asleep in the car.)

Christmas Morning was tons of fun this year. Both kids were super excited and Mady got the concept of Santa. That morning she told me that she liked santa because he brings her lots of presents. so maybe next year she will do better.

Noah LOVES is 4-wheeler, or "my truck" as he calls it.



After opening presents, Adams Mom and Rick, and his sisters and everyone came over for breakfast and opened gifts. The food was good, especially the 72 servings of hash browns we made. :) (that was an accident.)

We all took a nap and then went to my mom and Johns. Ate...AGAIN! and opened more presents! It was a fun and LONG day. When we got home that night, Mady, Noah, and Kru were all asleep in the car! they were pooped out, but we had an awesome Christmas!

The Busy Days of Christmas....

With all the family get togethers, baking, christmas shopping and just the business of every day life, we get so busy through the month of December. But it's a good kind of busy. Everyone is doing really well. Mady had her last day of pre-school until January which makes her very sad. But it just reminds me of my duty to do more with her every day. I think I slack when she's in school, because they do so much with her. Her and Noah are finally learning not to touch the tree, although they've un-wrapped like 5 presents already. naughty kids. Adams mom gave us a bag of little gifts and a book with a story for every day (12 days of Christmas), so I think that has satisfied her need to open presents. The stories that go along with this are neat, it's all about the true meaning of Christmas, which is something I think we could focus on more. Our church challenged us all to focus our home around the true meaning of Christmas, and this year Mady is at a teachable age to understand basic concepts. So it's been good for her and us. She's actually funny about the present thing though. When we potty trained her, we had to do "potty presents" to get her to poop in the potty. So, when we first put a bunch of presents under the tree, she would get on the potty and push every time. Like FORCE herself to poop and then she'd yell "I did it!" and ask for a present. It took me awhile to figure out her thought process, but it was funny.


We did family pictures yesterday, which I think turned out good. Although Mady had a massive bump and bruise on her head. She nailed the door jam skipping down the hall. I really thought it would break open and that she would have to have stitches. My kids are just accidents waiting to happen. Thank goodness for Jeff's amazing photo shopping skills.

She also had a little dance recital, which was more of an open practice. These little 3 year olds were shy, so this got them used to a little audience. They were so cute though.


I just had to add this little picture of Mady. She slept like that for 2 hours in the car! I would have had the biggest kink in my neck. This was on the way home from Twin Falls, and it was a good thing because the roads were TERRIBLE! It was definitely easier with sleeping children.



Noah is doing great. Cute as ever, and talking up a storm. He's just a little man, and he's so fun. He's been cutting his eye teeth lately and that hasn't been so much fun. Every day I would think one of the bottom ones would pop through, but nope! Then all of a sudden in the last 4 days, 3 of them have come in. Poor kid. Which might explain our nursery adventure. So, Noah finally gets to go to nursery at church, and mom and dad are kidless!! I actually GET something out of church now. Anyways, on his first day he was fine when we dropped him off. I checked on him after Sunday school and he was screaming bloody murder, but the nursery leader shook her head and said don't come in, he'll be fine, he has to do this. I sat outside the door. It broke my heart. But everyone said that she's great with them and it will work. So I went to Relief Society, and when I picked him up, he was asleep on the floor in the corner. On his belly with his but in the air, all cuddled up to the carpet. LOL. I felt so bad. He had worn himself out so bad that he slept through singing time and snack time, with all these little kids running around him. Poor little guy. Last week was much better though. Everyone can enjoy church. Yea! I just feel like I should be pregnant or something. ha ha. I got pregnant with Mady in Sept 2006 and I've had a baby with me, been nursing one at church, or pregnant ever since. lol. It's weird, but good for now.

I just had to add this picture because he peed through his pants when we were in town so he road home in his diaper and coat. But when he walked around he looked like a huge marshmellow with little stick legs poking out.

Well other then that we are doing good. Adam only works Mon & Tues next week. So we have like 6 days off together through Christmas. It will be nice to just relax and enjoy the holidays. We're just about done shopping, just a few things left to get. And I need to get my Christmas Cards out and get our baking done. We are such procrastinators! Hope everyone is having a Merry Christmas and remembering what Christmas is about!

So much to catch up on....

I feel like I haven't blogged forever! My computer had a virus on it and we had to wipe it clean. Thank goodness for people who are smarter then me, I had no clue what to do. Anyhow... I have tons of catching up. 1st things 1st!........
TWILIGHT premiere!!

No, that is not my arm. but people were spray painting their bodies with stencils everywhere.
We had so much fun! We went to Carinos and had dinner and then went to the theater at like 9:00. They let us in at 9:45 and we were like the 5th ones in line! So we got awesome seats. It was a long wait, but sooooo worth it. I liked it TONS better then the first one. The acting was better, they looked better, and you actually felt like there was a romance between them. It will never be as good as the books because it's just not possible to get the same view, but I liked it a lot!!! It was a crazy night. All 14 theaters sold out for the midnight showing; radio and news stations were there, people were selling t-shirts. crazy. madness.

Adam couldn't pass up a night of free babysitting and dinner, or the opportunity to make fun of us.

Other then that, we've been busy EATING! We had Thanksgiving with Adams Mom and Rick the weekend before Thanksgiving, and spent Thanksgiving Day with his Dad and Terri, who also invited my mom and brother! So it worked out great.
Thanksgiving at our house with his mom and Rick! (It was so fun to have you guys stay with us! Hope to do it again soon!)




It felt like Christmas to us already, so we put our Christmas stuff up the Sunday BEFORE Thanksgiving. Yep. We're Christmas nuts.

We even have a bunch of Christmas shopping done. Yea for Black Friday!



Helpin' Dad outside!


Thanksgiving again! It was a great day with awesome food. We even got naps.


I also had to add some cute pictures of that babies in the tub!! so sweet. We all have pictures of us naked, bathing with siblings and cousins. cute, cute, cute!


Since this is a long post, I'll leave the details short! But everyone is doing good. It's our favorite time of year.

Swine Flu, Twilight & funny kids!

So here we go again...or still! Another co-pay and $80 in prescriptions. We had to take Mady back to the Dr. We took Noah too just so he could listen to him and see what he thinks. They both seemed to get better, and then worse! They have horrible coughs. So we left there with an antibiotic for Noah, Mady and Adam. A cough medicine for Mady and one for Noah, and 2 different nebulizer treatments. Ahhhh! One of the nebulizer treatments we got was Pulmicort, $208 for 30 of them. Thank goodness for insurance, I only paid $25 and that Jamie has a nebulizer (the penguin) so we didn't have to rent one. When we went to the dr. though, they kept referring to the kids as having the swine flu. I guess they didn't test for that specifically because it's a $300 test, but they said this is exactly how it works. After all the meds, the fever goes and it just settles in your chest. So he's sure it's what we've all had. He said it's going around, everyone just deals with it different. It's everywhere I guess.

Noah didn't like the mask, he kind of freaked out!

Well other then the sickness in our life...here's an update on everyone!

Adam is doing good. Working. At least they're not sending him hom sick! He's starting to feel better. Since we're inactive at church from being sick, we're cleaning the house and shampooing carpets this weekend. We're having my mother-in-law and everyone over for an early Thanksgiving next Saturday...so I used that as our excuse to get the house clean and organized! For some reason a simple, "I want to get the house clean", doesn't work for him. So I've kept him busy. lol. I've been working and it's been busy at the hospital. There's always sick people I guess. Sad, but good job security too. The Twilight sequel, New Moon is Thursday!! YEA!! Highlight of my week. We have midnight tickets and my mom is spending the night with the kids. So excited... SO SO SO excited!
Mady- Well other then being sick she's doing pretty good. Missing a lot of pre-school which makes her sad. We drive in town and she says, "No! go this way!", pointing towards the school. She does so well that I hate when she misses it. But that's ok. We've spent lots of time together. She is such a sweetheart. I love my little girl; she's got such a soft little heart and a fun personality. I know I've said it before, but DRAMA! the other day in the car was funny. I turned around and said something like, "you guys stop fighting" and she just cried histerically and said,"No! It's not you guys! I'm Mady!" she is so emotional over things. I can't even sit her and Noah by each other for breakfast. They just antagonize each other. He will slap the counter or wave his spoon at her, which results in her crying and boobin and yelling at him. Then he'll yell at her. then it's, "Mom!" and he'll open his arms wide and slap his hands together in her face! she'll cry. naughty boy, he picks on her so bad.- We've had a rough time getting Mady to sleep in her own bed. We did this for 2 1/2 hours one night. We did the patient thing and put her back to bed without saying anything for like an hour. Then we swatted her butt a couple of times, raised our voices when we said, "Don't get up again!" it got the best of us (not my proudest moments). So we took someones advice and locked our bedroom door. She cried, "Mom! Wake up. I cuddle you!" I cried. But she went back to bed. The next night I prayed we wouldn't do that again. But she got up, jiggled the handle, knocked..."Dad! I love you." Adam said, "I love you too Mady. Go to bed." She said ok and ran back to her room. Now at night we'll here the pitter patter of feet, jiggle on the handle... she'll go, "uhh!" and then pitter patter away. Now it's kind of funny. But if we leave it unlocked, she will sneak herself in bed right next to me and sleep until I notice. Sweet little girl. One day Adam said, "My door was locked last night huh Mady?" she said,"Yeah. But Mommy cuddled me!" we laughed. She always crawls in bed with me in the morning after Adam leaves.
Noah-Such a funny, smart little guy! He melts my heart with his beautiful brown eyes, and sweet smile. He's such a lovable boy who always has something funny to say. Other then when he's antagonizing his sister, he is such a good boy. At bed time you can ask him if he's ready for bed. He'll say, "yea!" and grab his blankie and run for his room. This little boy is putting 2-3 words together. He can say yes, no, uh-huh, uh-uh, and yep! and he uses them all appropriately. He knows the difference between hot and cold. He can point to his eyes, nose, mouth, head and belly, and can name them all. He can tell you what he wants to eat, at least things that he gets regularly like juice, soup, cheese, milk, toast, banana...and so on. He'll say "snack" and get you a bowl. When anyone gets dressed he says,"Coat. Go car" and he'll run and get his and mady's coat. The funniest thing is, lately he's been calling me Randi. So he'll run through the house,"Ranni! here go." and he's into, "Mommy! Look. A cat!" or whatever he sees. He'll give you a kiss and say "squeeze!" when he hugs you. We feel like we can have an exchange of converstion with this little boy. He is fun. I can't believe that he is almost 18 months. Oh another funny thing is that he always grabs my earrings and says "bing, bing!" because we told Mady that her earrings are her "bling blings". I just love this little boy. One more thing, sorry but it was funny. Today he wanted one of my magnets off the fridge and Adam gave him one of his alphabet ones instead. He got so mad he started ripping all of the alphabet ones off and throwing them on the floor. Then he chucked one across the room, so Adam said..."Noah. you be nice". he started crying and running down the hall to his room. Then he slammed his door! all we could do was laugh. He's 17 months old! are you serious? Anyhow... this was a really long post, so if anyone is still reading sorry. this is for my own memories too. Sometimes I feel like it's so good for me to step back and look at all the fun I have with my kids. anyhow...hope everyone is well!


We made mint-chocolate cookies. Mmmm...Noah liked the beaters.

Just flipping through a magazine. Our big boy climbs on the tables and counters. He doesn't think he needs a high chair or booster seat anymore. ya right.