I forgot the camera again!

I remember to brush my teeth every morning, get dressed, and I never forget to put on my watch. When I leave the house I always remember my purse and mostly all the sometimes I remember my cell phone (If it's already in my purse). So why oh why do I ALWAYS forget the camera???!!!!! Since it's the end of spring (yeah right) break, Pete took part of the day off and we took the kids to the Working Wonders Children's Museum here in Bend. It was our compromise to not being able to go to the coast since winter reared its ugly head again in the end of March! I'm not surprised, it pretty much always snows in March and April here but I'm just bugged. I was soooooooo looking forward to going to the beach, but it turned out to be such a fun morning spent at Working Wonders! The kids loved every second spent there and stayed busy trying every activity offered. Now's when I beat myself up for forgetting the camera. I missed photos of each of the kids working the cash register and shopping in the grocery store, making pizza's at the pizza parlor, being a veterinarian at the animal hospital, building things, discovering things, and just thoroughly enjoying themselves. I wished I had photos of Brooklyn making her dad Mexican food in the little Latin village, or wearing doctor scrubs as she bandaged up a big stuffed dog. I want a photo of the boys sitting together at a table playing with play dough, and with the two of them jumping in a pool of balls.
So Mom, family and friends, you're just going to have to imagine how cute it all was since I can't seem to ever remember to bring a camera along to anything we do!

I'm feeling grateful

I just finished reading an article from the Meridian Magazine daily emails I get. It was about the Wilkinson family (no relation) who had quintuplets. I am in awe of mothers of multiples. I thought having two at the same time would do me in, actually I still think that some days. But these mothers such as the one in this article just amaze and inspire me. I love reading their stories because somehow it makes me put my life in better perspective. I can surely handle two if they are managing 5! Watching the t.v program John & Kate plus 8 does the same thing for me. They have twin girls and then just wanted one more, and got sextuplets! I can relate to the stress of it all, but it makes me feel calmer (and grateful) since I was blessed with only twins. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed going grocery shopping or running errands with the kids, but then I look at these families and I think, well at least we all fit in one cart! And I'm grateful for the fact that I can take them out by myself and somehow we manage.

I know God has a purpose for each of us and many times I feel he has given me more than I can handle, but I was wrong. I am grateful for his loving guidance and patience with me to get to where he wants me to be. I hope to get there sometime in this lifetime! I am grateful for my own personal miracles he has so kindly blessed me with.

Happy Easter!

This was kind of a weird Easter for me this year. I enjoyed putting the kids baskets together and loved seeing them get excited over seeing them this morning. I even stayed up late making a breakfast casserole that my Mom always made for us thinking it would be a cool Easter morning tradition and it's really yummy too.......only my kids wouldn't touch it. Then we rushed off to church. I love going to church , especially on special holidays like today but for some reason I had a great desire to attend some kind of special Easter mass or something in a big cathedral, with all the tradition and ceremony. It was a bit of a let down to sit in our very plain chapel. No statues of Christ or any Saints, no paintings or ornate decorations or stain glass or anything. I was wishing I was back in Spain in one of the very old cathedrals I've toured watching the priests in their robes waving the incense or whatever those smoking bowl thingies are that they wave around and just being in the grandness of it all. I wanted to be immersed in the spirit of Christ and really feel overwhelmed by his amazing Atonement and Resurrection. I wanted something bigger today for some reason. It wasn't until I was sitting in primary and the children sang "tell me the stories of Jesus" that it hit me. I felt an overwhelming love for my Savior and felt so touched by the sweet voices singing this simple song. As the tears welled up in my eyes I felt so grateful for the simpleness that can bring forth the greatness of the Spirit. Then my friend sitting next to me said something that made me laugh and it was over. But I felt it! And it was great!

I do wish we had some of the beautiful paintings of Christ that hang in the hallways and foyer in our Chapel. Why is that? Can anyone enlighten me as to why the chapel is so bare?


When we got home from Church and after we put the boys down for their nap, Brooklyn got to have her own personal little Easter egg hunt. Pete hid the eggs all around the living room area and Brooklyn got to go find them. Only once wasn't enough for her. When she found them all she informed her Dad that that was too easy and she wanted to do it again. So Pete put all the plastic eggs back together (she had opened them all to dump out the candy) and hid them all again. They repeated this game about 4 times until she decided she wanted to hide the eggs and have Dad find them. It was at this point I think I snuck upstairs to go take a nap! After the boys woke up, we got ready and headed off to Eagle Crest Resort to join my cousin Susan and her family for Easter dinner. It was fantastic! They had made an amazing prime rib dinner and we had so much fun hanging out with them. I loved watching Jessica (9yrs old) beat the guys at Monopoly! I don't know if Pete's ego will get over that or not! Thanks for making our Easter so great! We love you guys!

from bad to worse.....then better again.

DISCLAIMER......This post is entirely too lengthy and full of mundane details of my day being sick with sick kids. Only my Mom will want to know about each and every detail or maybe she won't. Any way I'm giving you fair warning that you probably don't want to continue reading this post....really.....turn away now....it's not too late!

I think yesterday was one of the worst days I can remember. I woke up feeling so sick and ac hey and the boys didn't feel good either. I got them out of bed and brought them back to my bed to try to sleep just a little bit longer. Ryan cried and cried but Zachy just cuddled up to me and went right back to sleep. After much pleading on my part, Ryan gave in and climbed in my bed too and settled down and let me stroke his head. I was so grateful for the extra time in bed and of course Pete just slept through the whole thing. Why is it when the guy gets sick he turns into a child and gets taken care of and pampered, but when the Mom gets sick she still has to tend to all her motherly duties??? Okay, granted he had a hurt back so really couldn't get out of bed to get the boys, so I'll give him that one.

A little later Zachy all of a sudden sat up and I could just tell it was going to happen so luckily I had "the bowl" on hand and let nature take its course so to say. Poor little guy. I hate seeing my babies suffer. That's pretty much how my day went from there. Pete had to drag himself into work and I was home alone sick and miserable with another sick and miserable baby. We planted ourselves on the couch in front of cartoons to entertain the other two since they had to be attached to me too. They get so jealous when I'm holding Zachy and not them so picture me sitting on the couch with plenty of room for all of us, but all three kids wanting to sit ON me. Not fun when I'm sick myself. Zachy needed "the bowl" several more times that morning and I was just grateful he was using it. I wasn't so smart with Ryan and had to scrub a lot of carpet. Blech!!!!

After I put the boys down for their nap I went straight to bed. Poor Brooklyn was left to fend for herself. I don't even think I made her lunch. That must be why the cereal box and a bag of pretzels were on the couch where she pretty much hung out all afternoon. And I found another plate with pretzels on it in the fort she made while I was sleeping. Luckily, Pete came home for a few hours that afternoon so Brooklyn did have parental supervision! And I got to sleep guilt free.

That night after the kids were all sleeping I went in to check on Brooklyn and she woke up saying she felt like throwing up, so I ran and got "the bowl" and Pete and I sat with her for awhile. She was crying because she didn't want to be sick and miss her play date with her friend the next day. We said a prayer with her asking Heavenly Father to bless her to heal quickly and feel better soon. We both took some nausea medicine and I went back to bed and somehow she convinced Pete to sleep with her in the murphy bed. Any excuse she can come up with to sleep in the murphy bed she'll try it. (for those who decided to read this saga against my warning, the murphy bed is our pull down bed in our rec room upstairs. It's actually the most comfy bed in the house since we put a temperpedic mattress on it....heavenly!)

Amazingly, the next morning we all woke up feeling so much better. Brooklyn was so happy she felt good and was excited for her play date. The boys were back to their bubbly selves and their same Ole' mischievous shenanigans. After I bathed and dressed them, I got Brooklyn in the tub. Meanwhile, they escaped out to the garage (why was that door unlocked????) and had half of the 20 lb bag of dog food thrown all over the garage floor! So I drag them back into the house with them telling each other no no no the whole way, like they were putting the blame on the other. So I go back to Brooklyn, and again it's too quiet so I run out of the bathroom to find them in the rec room where they have managed to find more marker pens and have colored all over the desk, computer screen and themselves. This time I put them in their cribs until I was done with Brooklyn. That luckily was the last of the drama! Brooklyn got picked up around 11:30 for her play date and I fed the boys lunch and put them down for a nap. Ahhhhhhh....sweet peace and quiet!

never take good times for granted

This morning Pete was playing with Zachy, throwing him up in the air and catching him. Something happened to his back while doing this and he was in a lot of pain. I was really worried about him because of the amount of pain he was in and he couldn't get into any position to give him any relief. I gave him some pain medication I had left over from my surgery back when I was pregnant with the boys hoping it would bring him some relief. I left him lying on the floor in agony to tend to kids who needed to get dressed and fed breakfast. I finally got out the door to take Brooklyn to school (only 40 minutes late!) and expected to find him still lying on the floor when I got back, but he was gone. He'd gone to work anyway and was just getting by.

Meanwhile, on my way home from dropping off Brooklyn, Ryan threw-up all over himself and his car seat. I was hoping he was feeling better today but I was wrong. He's been throwing up since Monday night and can't keep anything down. He doesn't have a fever, but is acting very tired and listless. He just wants me to hold him so he can sleep in my arms....to bad he weighs 34 lbs! I have very tired biceps.

So I get the boys in the house, strip Ryan out of his disgusting clothes and get him in the tub. We sat the rest of the morning in his room rocking in the rocking chair while he tried to sleep, with Zachy crying for me to hold him too and read him a book. He eventually wandered off into the toy room and entertained himself with his talking piggy bank and some books and let Ryan have his mommy all to himself.

Later, I realized my delima of picking Brooklyn up from school since I couldn't put Ryan back into his car seat which was still full of puke. So I called Pete to see how he was doing and if he could pick her up which he did. He dropped her off at home then went back to work, but that didn't last very long since a few minutes later he called me asking me to meet him out in the driveway with a wet rag. He had thrown up too! I don't know if he's sick from the pain meds or if he's got what Ryan has, but he came home to sleep for awhile. Poor guy just got up and went back to work to meet clients there. I hope he makes it!

The day started out so good and went so bad so so quickly.

Oh no....I think I feel a little nausea coming on!

"this is the best day of my life"

Sunday afternoon... the boys are napping and we just finished lunch. Brooklyn say's "mommy, will you make something with me?" I said sure, do you want to draw a picture? She thought that sounded good so I got out the paper and crayons. A few minutes later I got a huge craving for chocolate chip cookies so I asked her if she wanted to help me make some. That of course sounded even better, so we set off gathering all the ingredients. We put on our aprons and got to work. Since the boys were asleep, we had the time to really enjoy the moment. We weren't rushed and Brooklyn got to really be involved in the whole process. She helped measure and pour and mix and stir. She helped scoop the dough and of course lick the beater. She carried the cookie sheet to the oven and helped set the timer. While one batch was cooking we decided to put m&m's on the next batch, so that was her next job to stick 3 m&m's into each ball of dough. As she was finishing her task she said "Mom, this is the best day of my life!"

And my heart just soared.

It really is just the little things.

I love this girl!

sweet saturday

I had such a wonderful experience going to the temple early Saturday morning with 4 sisters in my ward. It was so fun getting to know them in a way you just don't get to at church. I love and admire these women and am in awe at their own life stories and spiritual strength. I look forward to more trips with them in the future.

It was a fun trip for me not only because these ladies are so funny, but also for the fact that it was the first time back to the temple for one of them after 8 years, for another it had been 3 yrs, but only can count really on one hand how many times she'd gone since her first time, and then another sister had just taken out her endowments a few months ago. We were all excited to be going, but they weren't shy admitting how nervous they felt after such a long absence. I felt honored to be with them, remembering how easy it is to take things for granted and how special this trip really is.

Seeing their obvious nervousness at a particular part where they are required to remember some things make me giggle. As one sister got up, she had the biggest smile on her face and that just made me beam! I couldn't contain my giggles (not too irreverent though). I loved her enthusiasm for what she was doing and her desire to understand and "get it right".
The other sister I thought was going to pass out! I hope they never call on her to speak in Sac. meeting! I loved teasing her about this.

This trip was one of the happiest moments I've felt in the temple. I couldn't hide my big smile!

I tried to keep this as anonymous as possible, even though these sisters probably don't read my blog I just want to tell them they all touched my heart in a different way and I love them for that. Thank you for an amazing day!

The Little Girl that cried Woof

We all went to Red Robin tonight for din din. All of us ordered tons of food and ate it all. Towards the end Brooklyn starts crying her head off saying her leg hurt. Come to find out, the whole thing was a sham. She faked the entire ordeal....unbelievable. Well, although deep inside I admire that type of good acting, needless to say, Kelli and I weren't happy campers when we ultimately found out. She is indeed quite the drama queen. I'm such a softy when it comes to disciplining her, thank you kelli! My gosh, I never in a cazillion years realized how powerful a daddy/daughter relationship could be.....I think she's onto me too, I will work on it, I promise.
peace out, ya'll. This is Pete btw. Booyah!

Hanna Montana - whoohoo!

I took the girls (Brooklyn, Kaitlin and her cousin Kennedy) to the Hanna Montana 3-D movie Saturday afternoon. I hoped it would serve as a good distraction for Kaitlin since her Mom couldn't drive over the pass to visit her because of the snow. She LOVED it and so did her cousin. Brooklyn got bored and I have to admit so did I a little. I did crack up when Brooklyn kept asking me where all the people in the front rows went, so I tried to explain how 3-D worked but she just kept taking her glasses on and off to figure it out. All three girls would reach out to grab something that appeared to be right in front of them. That was cute! We ate lunch at Subway then headed back home after a quick stop at a snowboard shop that was having a fundraiser with a mini mountain set-up with snow and ramps. I can't believe how young some of the kids were going down the ramps! Brave.

When everybody left our house Brooklyn sobbed that she couldn't go with them. I have never seen her so upset...and that's saying something! She wanted so badly to be able to keep playing with the girls and threw the mother of all tantrums. She is quite the emotional girl....I wonder where she got it? So I tried to calm her and sympathize with how she was feeling and try to come up with a solution, so we called a friend in the neighborhood to see if she wanted to play, but being that it was now 4:00pm she couldn't so we decided to get on her scooter and go down to a neighbors house at the end of our cul-de-sac whom we hadn't met yet but I was pretty sure her son went to Brooklyn's preschool and introduce ourselves and see if he wanted to come outside and play. It turned out to be wonderful. This little boy and Brooklyn had a blast playing together and his Mom and I got to hang out and get to know each other. I never would have walked down to their house if Brooklyn hadn't been so desperate for a friend, so I guess good things come out of desperation sometimes.

In the meantime while all this was going on, Pete had taken the boys to get haircuts. When they got back Pete must have gotten distracted because the boys ended up flooded their bathroom with water. They had both sinks running full blast with cups in their hands filling them up and throwing the water everywhere! The office area upstairs was turned inside out and the doors were covered in permanent marker! He swears he only turned his back for like 2 seconds....and know what? that could be true because I know how fast they can wreak havoc!