Seriously So Blessed

I am now addicted to this blog. Its probably the funniest thing I've read in a long time. Thanks Heather for introducing me. For the mormon mommy bloggers who haven't read it, you should. For those that aren't LDS, you probably won't understand why its so funny, I'm not sure. Anyway, check it out, you will be seriously so blessed.

The Monster Truck Rally

So, thanks to my brother in law who started it, and my husband who made it an obsession, Target Boy loves monster trucks. He knows lots of their names and I think we have about 11 of the hot wheels toys now, simply because Target Man likes to play with them too. Well, Target Man was looking at what was coming to our little expo center and saw a monster truck rally. So Saturday night we loaded the boys up and headed into redneck land.

It was actually a lot of fun. We came totally unprepared and should have brought a cooler, blanket, and camping chairs (now we know for next year), but luckily we had a tarp in our car emergency kit and used it instead. Both boys loved it! Target Boy was a little afraid when they started to race and watched from behind Target Man. Target Baby was just amazed by the whole thing.

Kay, I tried to post some video, but as a warning, I'm not a great videographer. This is Target Boy after he first saw the trucks moving.

Aiming for a Kid Free Room

Last night, I decided it was time to move Target Baby into a bed other than ours. Those of you in shock, please understand that we are a somewhat co sleeping family and Target Baby had some serious life threatening issues as an infant that required him to be in our room. Target Boy slept with us for awhile, but was definitely out before he was Target Baby's current 16 months. Target Man is fine with the boys in our room. He loves when they are snugly and now that they aren't infants he misses his snuggle time. So when Target Boy wakes up in the middle of the night, Target Man just brings him to our room. Well, for me, its time for a break. I would like to sleep without little feet on my back or a head slamming into mine for at least a few months.

A Sunday morning, after I got out of bed to take a shower.

So last night, I put Target Baby to sleep on the other side of Target Boy's twin bed. They are both so tiny, they love to cuddle, and Target Baby has never slept by himself so I figured it might be better to just put him in the same bed as Target Boy. After probably an hour of screaming with me beside him he finally went to sleep (This really didn't interfere with Target Boy's sleep, because he has now started a new "I'm terrified of the dark and my bedroom in general" thing). Well, it lasted until about 3:30 in the morning, after about 4 times of waking up (totally normal for him), Target Man finally just brought him into our room. At some point, Target Boy ended up with us too, but I don't remember that. He was just there when I woke up.
I actually felt that it went better than expected. Today, though for nap time, I am having second thoughts about the sharing a bed thing, and concerns about sharing a bedroom (though I'm determined to make it work).

So for all of you mothers of more than one child out there, how do you handle sharing a room at bed and nap times? Also, anyone else have a 16 month old that has never slept through the night? Target Baby wakes up an average of 4-6 times a night screaming? Any thoughts?

We got Crushed...literally

So last night was another soccer game...and we got slammed. Target Man and I disagree on the score, those that were there feel free to correct us, but it was something like 11 to 3. Regardless of the actually score it was pathetic. I mean good job trying guys, but get it together. Anyway, right at the end of the game, Brett got the ball and was running to the goal and fell to the ground. He kind of laid there for a second and then crawled to the edge of the field. I waited to see if he would get up, and he didn't. He tried to stand and then fell down and started crawling again, so I ran over. He declined a trip to the ER, and we went home and iced it.

Later, however, when he still couldn't walk, and was crawling up the stairs on his hands and knees, I told him we were going. Only then, we realized neither of our cell phones had service. I drove around to see if maybe it was our tower or something, but couldn't get anything. We didn't want to take the boys with us, and so we needed to call someone. I finally gave up on our phones and actually found a pay phone. Let me tell you, that was GROSS! I felt like I needed to bathe in bleach. Anyway, our wonderful relief society pres came over and stayed with sleeping Target Boy and sometimes sleeping Target Baby, while we were in the ER for 3 hours.

Everything was going really fast and they sent us directly to X-ray. Then we had to wait for a doctor. The ER was slammed with truly sick people. They had people in the hallway on gurneys, they transferred 5 people to a bigger hospital, two by helicopter. Anyway, the end result is, he didn't break it. He severely sprained both his foot and his ankle. He is supposed to be on crutches for at least 3 days and he is to wear an air cast. If its not significantly better in 5, we were told to head to an ortho, cause they see things ER doctors don't. Anyway, I took pictures, so if you have an aversion to feet, don't look.

Guess which one he hurt?

Isn't it pretty?

Catch Up

So we have had a lot going on it seems and now I need to catch up on everything. In May, we took a quick weekend trip and went to my sister's house in KY. Our really good friend, Martha, went through the temple for the first time and we were privileged to join her. It was nice to see everybody and have a night out with just the grown ups. Before we went to the temple, my sister made me a hair appointment. It seems the only time I get my haircut is when I go visit her. Anyway, I got 7 inches cut off, and I love it. Though its now going to be July and maybe I should go get it cut again! Okay, onward, the day after the temple, we drove to Tennessee to attend my cousin's wedding. We haven't seen those guys in forever, meaning about 5 years, so it was nice to renew connections. Then after the whirlwind weekend, we headed back home.

We had a nice fairly quiet week, with only swimming lessons (by the way, Target boy took two sessions at the YMCA and is now a water maniac, more later!). The next week, though, was more chaos. We were home for Memorial day and the Tuesday after, when we had Erika take our family pictures (if you go check them out, you will need a password, if you can't guess it, I will laugh at you). Then early, meaning like 5:30, on Wednesday Target Man headed south for a work trip and I headed to DC with the boys to see my parents, since they were in town house hunting. We got to go to the National Zoo and see elephants and hippos, which were by far Target Boy's favorites. I also got to go through a few houses, which is one of my favorite things to do. I came home early Saturday morning and we spent an uneventful weekend as a family.

The next week, brought a new addition to our house, a new HEAT PUMP! We had been without air conditioning in the 90 degree weather and not enjoying it. We now have an energy efficient Carrier Heat Pump and a really cool programmable thermostat. The next week, however, it stopped working, they came a fixed it only to have it stop again. They had to replace the entire outdoor compressor and it worked for about a week. Now after, four times of it working and stopping, we have made it through another week and hope that we don't have anymore issues and the real problem was identified. We're keeping our fingers crossed!

During the whole heat pump issues, Target Man started his soccer league and so on Tuesday and Wednesday nights we pack up and go watch him. I don't really know their record, but they have won at least 3 games, which is better than I thought they would, since they are playing in the Premier league. Anyway, he loves it and usually comes home with some new injury. The latest is a 3 x 5 oozing grass burn or something on his thigh. Its really gross.

During all of this madness, we have headed to our local national forest a few times and played in the lake. The boys love to play in the sand and both of them have no fear of the water. Target Boy will walk out until his mouth and nose are almost covered with water and just thinks he is so cool. He also doesn't mind putting his head under the water. The strange thing is, if he falls under, he doesn't struggle to come up, he stays under long enough for me to get panicky and want to pull him up. Target baby doesn't mind going under either and doesn't sputter or cough. I can't wait for them to really know how to swim so I can stop freaking out every time them go under.

So now we have made it to the second week of June, and my parents came to visit. Dad had to head up to DC for job stuff, and they stayed in town for a little while and did projects around my house, well Dad did. My over the stove microwave is finally finished being installed! Its been a job in progress for about 2 months with Target Man buying lots more power tools. I found the microwave for fairly cheap on craigslist, but with all the new tools we had to buy, I think I could have bought a new one and had Lowe's install it for less. But its all about the learning experience I guess. Also, the hole in the trim by the roof is fixed, so no more noisy birds living there. A side note, apparently one lived and died there and luckily it was high enough that we didn't smell the decaying bird in our house, how gross, glad I didn't find it. We also finally have a door handle on the back door, its actually kind of weird to use it and not just push on the glass, but it makes me feel safer. The coolest project that was done, is that dad and I made a picnic table. It was originally for the boys, but its actually big enough for all of us. I was in the DR office with Target Baby (gross toenail fungus, he gets the weirdest things), and found a cool picnic table with instructions in Family Fun magazine. Its made completely out of one sheet of plywood, and comes apart so you can store it flat or take it places. Here are the instructions. We still need to paint ours, but other than that its done. I learned how to use a jigsaw and now I want to do more, it was so much fun!








So after that exciting week, my parents left on Sunday and then I went to town cleaning and doing laundry for our next adventure. On Tuesday, this is June 17th, we packed up and headed to the airport to fly to Salt Lake. Target Boy was so excited to be on an airplane again and both he and Target Baby did great during the flights. We stayed in Salt Lake with my sister and her family until Thursday, when we headed for Bear Lake for a family reunion. It was the first time that all of my siblings and complete families were together. Target Man was only there until Thursday night when he flew home to go back to work (and for the 3rd year in a row we weren't together on our anniversary, Happy number 5!). We were still able to get pictures of the entire family together, even though we were all together with Brett for only about 2 hours. While Target Man went back to work, the rest of us spent the week jet skiing, boating, and playing on the beach in the really cold water. We had a great time and enjoyed watching all the cousins playing together. Target Boy loves his Utah cousins and keeps talking about them. I miss the fact he had someone who would play with him constantly. But, nevertheless, we had to come home, and by Tuesday my boys were on vacation meltdown. We left Salt Lake at 11:15 pm and amazingly the trip by myself with the boys was completely uneventful. Well, I guess not completely, the TSA women in the Salt Lake airport we sooooo rude. I mean you would think that if you have a job where everyone is already going to dislike you, you might try to at least be friendly right? Wrong. My dad got an escort pass to help me get through security and the woman did not recognize what is was and starting screaming at him to leave the area. He tried explaining and showing her where on the pass it said what he was doing and she just kept screaming. The two other women working were rude in so many other ways too, I was just appalled. If it didn't take so much effort, I would write a really nasty letter and send it to their boss, but instead I'll just complain about them! I mean really did I look like a terrorist completely exhausted and dragging my two really tired little boys through the airport in the middle of the night? I mean really, give me a break. Anyway, Target boy was asleep before we left the ground and was still out when we got to New York. Target baby slept most of the time too, although that was partially because I pretty much nursed him across the country, so much for the weaning process. What I will do for a little peace.

This is a snow ball in June

This is a snowball in June down Aunt Kelsey's back!

By the way, for any future plane trips you might take, Jet Blue is awesome and the extra leg room is worth the little extra money! For the flights when the boys were awake, having Nick Jr and Cartoon network kept Target Boy completely happy, I mean when else does he get to watch endless TV with mom's okay. The extra space let Target Baby roam around the floor and kept him happy. I think I will fly Jet Blue whenever possible! They definatly won me over. Oh, they also still have a good selection of snacks, including yummy real chex mix and really yummy chocolate chip cookies.

So we made it home. Target Man had switched days off so he was able to collect us from the airport and let me take a three hour nap. I was still zombie mom for a few days, but I think I'm over that. So now we are home and ready to head into July which will be equally as busy with another family trip, family coming to visit, and my parents moving to DC. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep up with updating so I don't have another marathon post to compose.

One last thing, this week marks the year anniversary of closing on our house and next week marks a year of living here. I am happy to say, we still love it here. As of now, I have no desire to move. So happy anniversary to home ownership, we still have a lot of work to do on you baby!

Stinky Cows

On the way to the ward camp out, waaaay out in the country, we kept smelling cow farms and freshly fertilized fields. So I made the comment that it smelled icky, like stinky cows. Well today on the way home from the park, we passed another really freshly fertilized field (seriously, I wanted to hurl it smelled so bad), and Target Boy goes, "Mommy, stinky cows!" At least we know he is listening.

Ward Campout

Yesterday into today was the ward camp out. Because Target Man is working today (and because we didn't want to keep everyone up with Target baby's crying), we just went for dinner. It was a lot of fun. Target Boy can't stop talking about playing in a tent with the pillows and blankets or running through the tall grass with his new best buddies. We enjoyed sitting around the fire and just being in the quiet peace of the country. Anyway, here are some pictures, thanks to Megan for actually taking one of our whole family!