Little boys...

I'm not sure if he's just special or if all boys are like this, but Cowboy exhausts me.  I have never known so much energy!  Seriously there are times that I just want to grab him and hold him down to MAKE him relax and be quiet for a whole minute.  Don't get me wrong, I love him to death.  But man alive - the kid is going to run me ragged at 27!  :)

Motivation

The kids have been sick on and off since November, but I completely used their sickness as an excuse NOT to go to the gym.  If I had only known the best motivation would be to go and try on dresses, I would have done it months ago.  :)  Zane has to go to his military ball and I need a nice dress to wear so I went in to try some on.  OH MY.  Needless to say, I have been in the gym every day since.  :) haha.  My rib is still hurting quite a bit, so I have to kind of work around it so I just do a lot of aerobic stuff.  Regardless, just wanted to put it out there no matter your size, if you want some major motivation to get in tip top shape go try on some formal dresses.  LOL.

I'm always glad when I get back into exercising, it makes me a better mama and much happier person.  It makes my life easier to schedule and prioritize.  Amazing how that works, eh?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our valentine's day has been pretty great. Princess spent the night at her cousins' and so it was just me and the boys this morning. Cowboy was so cute and yelling "Happy Valentine's Day!" all morning long. He was so excited to get a special Valentine's surprise and had to call Grampa right away to tell him.

Princess had fun at her sleepover and I have decided that they are now banned until I forget how awful and crabby she is when she comes home from them. So she got her Valentine's surprise and and was pleasant about it for a whole 2 minutes until she started to complain and whine about her gift. *sigh* Seriously, NEVER again! I'll be happy when I have my nice rested Princess back to finish celebrating.

Cowboy and I made cookie dough this morning and so after naps the kids and I are making sugar cookies - as if they need ANY more sugar, but hopefully we can just deliver them or give them to Zane when he gets home.

Zane had his competition in Reno and none of the school's teams placed in the top two of their categories, so I think they are all kind of bummed. But he had some terrific interviews with a bunch of companies so he feels really great and confident in making those connections for future employment. He'll be getting home sometime tonight or tomorrow early morning. Yay for spending Valentine's Day without your spouse huh? :) Just teasing.

WHAT DID I DO??????

That is me screaming. I should have listened to myself halfway through Cowboy's haircut and just taken him to the barber, but NO. Ugh. It's the middle of winter and my son has NO hair. NONE. :( Guess he'll have to get used to a hat, poor thing. And he LOVED getting spikes in his hair. *whimper* My poor boy.

Ouch!

Yesterday was quite interesting.

Zane was leaving for drill early in the morning while I was still in bed. Suddenly I heard this crash and I FLEW out of bed because I was sure he had fallen and cracked his head or broken something. There was this nasty patch of ice at the bottom of our stairs and gratefully he had just twisted/sprained his ankle. He was VERY lucky to have been wearing his army boots that go up so high - otherwise he would have surely broken or completely torn something. So off he went to drill hobbling.

Fast forward to later that day. I am carrying Brother Bear and coming down with Cowboy to meet Princess outside to play. Step down at the bottom of the stairs and SLAM I hit the stupid patch of ice. I was carrying BB on my left side so I threw myself sideways and caught myself on the railing with my ribcage and shoulder blade full force. Ugh. It took me a few minutes to recover and stop myself from passing out because of lack of ability to breathe and I was in sooo much pain. But we had just gotten outside and I didn't want to tell Cowboy that he had to go in right then so I hobbled down to the playground with tears streaming down my face. I lasted for about 15 minutes before waves of nausea were overtaking me and then we all headed inside. By the time I got the kids snow clothes off and sat down I was sobbing uncontrollably and called Zane to have him come home. Lucky for me he thought to call his brother who came over and helped me until Zane came home.

So...Zane and I both went to urgent care last night. I am feeling very grateful that both of us just have minor injuries - no matter how painful. He is going to Reno this Wednesday and if i had a cracked or broken rib, that would have been torture! So...we are bruised and hurting, but not anything more serious which is very lucky. I should mention that Princess slipped on the same patch but slid to the side while wearing her snow suit, so she was padded enough to not get hurt, just a scrape. So now we get to file a complaint and get the apartments to pay the medical bill because our insurance won't cover 3rd party liability. Wish us luck with that one. I could post a whole other rant post about the stupidity of university housing and their utter disregard and ignorance of how to manage family housing. :) They would be buried 6 ft under in litigation any other state/city for all their issues. I should mention that I am referring to the person in charge in the housing office of the school, not the actual managers! :) (love ya Michelle!)

Happy February!

I love this month. I used to hate Valentine's Day because I just felt like it was way overrated (still is), however I am really starting to enjoy it. Something about having kids and helping them enjoy the holidays just makes every one better. I even got Valentine decorations and am helping the kids make some cards for people. I guess now I just think of it as more of an excuse to teach the kids different ways to show people how much they love and care for them. Plus it helps me to think of it too. :) But besides Valentine's day what makes February so great? Well, it's the shortest month of the year, my birthday is this month, and I love the color pink and can legitimately douse my house in it for decoration purposes. :o) So...happy February everyone!

New In Town

So I am telling everyone I know how much I loved this movie. I laughed sooo hard at one point I thought I was going to pee my pants. It's probably much better if you've ever been to Minnesota, but soo many correlations can be made to our current town. :) Loved it, great movie night. Zane and I were able to go to a movie and dinner courtesy of our awesome baby-sitter. We love her and so do the kids! Brother Bear is very mommified with anyone else, but just goes right to her and is happy as a clam AND takes a bottle.

So, all in all it was a great night. Good movie and dinner at Red Robin without kids. Can't beat that!

Fun fun

Princess crashed into the tree

New use for tools

Want to guess who's idea this was?

Ah, mi familia

Love their daddy

I love Cowboy's face in this one

Yay for Brother Bear!

I am so excited - Brother Bear learned to crawl...FINALLY!! I realize that now this means he is mobile and I have to actually be concerned about whether the bathroom is open or not and Barbie shoes are off the ground, but it's been a long time coming. He has been doing everything BUT crawling since before Christmas - rolling, pushing up onto his toes, flopping, going backwards, etc. So his cute little face was so happy and proud when he figured out how to go forward and came to where I was. SO fun! :o) You can just see it in his face as he sees something he wants and thinks, "Can I get it?" Then he crawls over to it and just jabbers and does this cute forced laugh thing "heh heh heh."

Joys of being a mom - you get to notice simple things and be thankful. Love it!

Updated pictures

I posted some of these on facebook, but figured it was about time to update some pics on here too.

This is the "oh, causa why?" face of Cowboys

Stylin'

This is such a quintessential princess pose

Walking the "dog"

Family Home Evening fun

My tender Princess

We watched Black Stallion today and part of it really affected Princess. In the movie the boy gets shipwrecked and his father dies and he is all alone with the horse on an island. Princess, with big tears in her eyes was asking where his grandma and grandpa were and why they weren't taking care of him. Then she really started to tear up and asked if Daddy, and Mommy, Brother Bear, and Cowboy all died would she be all alone too? While it was heart wrenching to see her make this connection and get so emotional about the possibility, it did afford me a great opportunity to talk with her about Jesus.

Me: Ah honey, you will NEVER ever be alone because Jesus and Heavenly Father will always be there for you.
Princess: but don't I have to die to see Jesus? or go on a rocket ship off Earth?
Me: No. But you know, if you ever want Jesus you can pray and you may not see Him, but you can always feel Him - just like you can feel a blanket wrapped around you.
Princess: Hmmm...ok. But I definitely do not ever want to go on a ship. Or you neither! No ships.

She melts my heart.

Tomorrow

School starts for my hubby tomorrow.  Why I thought I would have more time to blog while he was home I will never know!  :)  It's exciting, only 2 more academic semesters - plus an internship in between, but still great nonetheless.  This upcoming semester will be quite busy, but what else is new?  We are becoming a musical family this year - that is one of our goals.  The kids have a guitar and recorders, I have my piano and while I got a guitar, it is more Zane's now because it's a chance for him to join us in the musicality.  Those who know him can understand that any type of music just isn't his forte, but I appreciate that he is going to try!

  

Tale of Despereaux

SUCH a good movie!  We loved it, the kids loved it and it's been a while since we've seen a movie that actually has a good moral to the story.  Highly recommend!  :o)

Happy New Year!

2008 has been a pretty good year for us.  Of course the highlight was the arrival of sweet little Brother Bear, but all in all, 2008 has treated us well.  I'm looking forward to the next adventures 2009 will bring.  Excited for New Year's resolutions to be made and broken...hehe.  I actually did accomplish one resolution this last year - I was a better mom this year.  Of course for this next year I want to build on that and become even better.  :)  Life is about perfecting, not being perfect right?

I truly hope this next year is great for you all! 

Merry Christmas!

Well we definitely don't have to dream of a White Christmas!  We came to my sister's house for a while to celebrate the holidays with my parents.  It's been great.  Christmas was terrific - I love the excitement of a 2 and 4 yr old.  Princess got a dolly - one of those that isn't a baby, but a big girl that hasn't left her side for one minute.  My parents brought out an old doll crib that I used to have as a little girl and that just made her day!  :)  Cowboy can't really decide what he's more excited about - his Diego gift set (included a Diego doll, view finder thing with the pictures, and a Diego doodle pro), or his animals - we got him some of those plastic realistic looking animals, or his old baby toy farm that we decided to re-gift to Brother Bear.  :D  Zane and I were even able to surprise each other: I got a new dress, and Zane got a massage appointment. 

All in all it was a great Christmas!  And p.s. Caleb and I are still sick and now with something else.*Sigh*  I feel like it will never end.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas season.

Almost over!

My hubby is almost done with his semester!!! Yay!! I feel as though I have had no time to update the blog the last month, so I'm excited to get all caught up the next couple of weeks without feeling guilty for ignoring my children. :)

Just a quick update: brother bear is getting his bottom teeth and still being a gem even though he has a cold on top of it. Cowboy has an ear infection and a constant sinus infection - I'm really hoping it clears up soon - I finally convinced the doc to put him on some allergy medication to help...so we'll see if that helps at all. Princess is also sick and getting an ear infection (we think) so it's back to the doctor tomorrow for me! But all the kids are doing great and we are all excited about the holidays - especially having daddy around!

My husband is obsessed

So someone turned him onto a new group - Flight of the Conchords and he sings their songs all the time!  I have to admit they are pretty funny - look up Business Time on YouTube.  :)  It's his favorite song.  

Travel back in time

If you could travel back in time, when would you choose? I had a hard time narrowing it down. I LOVE history so really I'd like to just stop by and visit a ton of different times and places. I'd like to go to ancient greece during the time of Socrates; see the darkness of the middle ages; watch the American Revolution; and I'd love to go and see the pioneer women and how they went about their day - cooking, raising children, etc.; not to mention the Restoration time period; I would also like to see the 1940's here in America, Germany, France, and England. And you know it'd be pretty awesome to be on one of the boats full of immigrants coming into Ellis Island and seeing their faces and feeling their joy as they saw the Statue of Liberty for the first time. :) I told you I had a hard time narrowing it down! hehe. So...I'm curious - when would you choose?

Thanksgiving

The next holiday is fast approaching and I think it is sad how overlooked it can become in the rush of upcoming events. I've been trying to think of all the things and people I am grateful for and trying to incorporate gratitude in my every day life. What are some things you are grateful for? I should clarify that I'm trying to think out of the box. For example, I am grateful for autumn air - it is crisp, but not too cold, and totally refreshing! I love the Lord's pallette for every season - the entire area is painted with different colors and vibrancies with each change and I LOVE it! Speaking of loving things - I am going to try and find a picture that I have fallen in love with at Deseret Book...it's only $250 on sale... :) hehe.

Halloween

We had a great halloween! We went to a halloween carnival in the morning with some friends where Cowboy dressed up in his favorite outfit - can you guess what? Princess was a pumpkin fairy and of course Brother Bear was rightly dressed after his nickname. That evening there was a trunk or treat at our complex and Cowboy decided that he wanted make up and wanted to be a pirate instead of a cowboy. :) Here are a few pictures.