The Love Tree

I loved Shawni's Valentine's Tradition so I copied it! The other night for Family Night we made our hearts and thought of what we loved about each other. Then we decided we would hang them all on our Ficus tree in the Family Room. The kids loved it! The Pirate said it was the best Family Night ever (thanks Shawni)! It was really fun to see what they wrote. The Pirate is still learning to spell and write well so his were pretty short and sweet. I love you because...."You're nice", or "You play with me", that kind of stuff. It was so fun to watch how hard he worked on those hearts. His favorite was stamping them all over. The Princess's were cute to. For The Pirate she wrote, "Yes I fight with him, but he is kind and loving and fun and most of the time, honest." Too cute! I loved what they wrote about The Pea though. Without conspiring about it they both wrote something along the lines of, "Even though you're whiney, I love you and am glad you are my sister." Can you tell it was a whiney night with the baby? I loved writing things that I loved about them and seeing how happy they were to hear them, although when I read mine for The Pirate he had me add something that "I" love about him. Too funny! Unfortunately The Hubster didn't get home until we were done, but the kids were sure excited to show him when he did! Honestly, it had been a long day with a "whiney" baby and a cold so I really wasn't fully prepared for a full FHE but we made the hearts, threw in some songs and scriptures about love and it turned out pretty good!  I love to see my kids have fun and be creative and I especially love it when they are forced to think of what they love about each other. They really do get along pretty well and are good friends. I just hope they really know how much I love them and how proud of them I am every day. They are so good about telling me that they love me and giving my hugs and things and sometimes I think I forget to do those things back amidst all the chaos that takes place everyday. I love it when they bring home notes or cards from school telling me how much they love me! The Princess's valentine to me said something like, "You are the best mom ever! Even though you don't think you are fun you are and I love you!" How sweet is that? I told them the other day that I didn't think I was a very fun mom because I'm not real good at playing imaginary things and I forget a lot to do crafts and things with them on a regular basis. They love me anyway! What would I do without my incredibly cool kids?

A Cold, Dreams and Kids say the darndest things...

**Edit 2/09: Our cute neighbor girl came over yesterday after school and had her first "lesson"!**

So I already mentioned I have a cold. For some reason it was a real doozy this time! It started way back like a month ago when The Pea went to nursery (Sunday School for toddlers) for the first time. Within 3 days of that she came down with a cold....which lasted two weeks...which turned into a sinus infection! Poor baby. She was so miserable. So then The Pirate got it, but it only lasted a couple of days and it wasn't too bad. Then I got a scratchy throat. I fought it. I fought it hard. I took all kinds of boost-your-immune-system stuff. But it hit me anyway. With a vengeance! Holy Cow!!! I lost my voice, my sinuses backed up like the Hoover Dam, (and yet my nose ran like crazy-go figure) my throat hurt, I couldn't breathe through my nose, I coughed, and coughed, and coughed....you know the drill. Usually I kinda just push through a cold, Moms don't get sick days you know. But this time I caved. My kids were late for school like every day last week. I think we went through the drive-through or ordered in 4 out of 5 nights. The laundry and dishes stacked up until Friday when The Hubster swooped in and saved the day (he works Mon.-Thurs.) There's still a pile of both for today but it's manageable.

So while I was sick I took LOTS of Advil Cold & Sinus. I'm not sure what's in that stuff but oh the dreams I had! I had a dream where The Hubster told me he wanted a divorce. I begged and pleaded. I told him I would lose weight and keep the house clean(can you tell how I feel about myself and my homemaking skills?), but he wouldn't budge. Then I had a dream, hours later, that I owned my own motorcycle. I decided to leave my family and go on a road trip. I found myself in Nevada, which I had deduced from the numerous cacti around me. Technically, in my dream, I had no idea where I was or how long I had been gone. I decided I needed to turn around when I spotted a tattoo parlor. Oh yes. I found myself asking for a tattoo of a 50's pinup girl....!? Somewhere I could hide it if I wanted to. However, in my dream, I found myself wrestling with the fact that The Prophet had told the members of our church not to get tattoos! I was going back and forth trying to figure out how many points against me, heaven wise, I would get if I got the tattoo! WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME!!! Do I have a subconscious desire to rebel or something?  I woke up before making the choice. Then this morning I woke up after having a dream that The Pirate was missing and I had picture clues to figure out in order to find him.  Usually dreams like that really freak me out but this one seemed really low key, like it wasn't that urgent that I find him. Weird. So there you go. If anybody knows anything about analyzing dreams feel free to have a field day with this post!

Now that I am feeling 85% or so I figured I'd take a minute to write down some funny things my boy said this past week. You can tune this part out if its boring...you know, family journal stuff.

Story-#1
The Pirate came home from school last week and told me that one of the neighbor girls would be coming over for drum lessons. He proceeded to tell me in a very business like tone that she was impressed with his mad drumming skills and he offered to teach her how to jam like he does. Now, you need to know that he has never touched a real set of drums in his life. His passion for drumming first came about when he started school, learned the age old "We Will Rock You" chant on the bus, and decided to beat it out on the couch cushions with a pair of mini pool sticks we had. As you can imagine, I was not so passionate about his new passion. I asked him to do it elsewhere so he went up to his room. He pounded out that same rhythm and sang that same chant, at the top of his lungs for about 45 minutes straight. When that got tiresome he moved his one man band to the garage. He would sit backwards on the 4-wheeler and pound to his little hearts content and sing, REALLY LOUD, day after day. Christmas came around and Santa brought him a drum pad  with real drumsticks. Now that he had "real" drums he started forming bands whenever friends came. Which brings us back to drum lessons. One of those bands included his new drum student. He informed me that the lessons would take "about six days because that's about all I know". Sadly, his pupil never showed. Her loss...

Story-#2
For the past 3 days or so The Pirate (and occasionally The Princess or random friends) have been digging a hole. This is actually pretty common around here. See, our backyard is surrounded on 3 sides by hills of garden beds (I'll take a picture). Every few months or so the kids around here decide to start digging a hole, solely for the purpose of seeing how deep they can get it. Before long they lose interest and move on. This current hole is the biggest yet. In fact according to The Pirate, "It's the biggest hole I ever dug!" The best thing about this excavation is that he is taking it SO seriously. I asked him how it was coming yesterday and he said,"It's amazing! I'm going to keep digging every day. I mean, I wanna make history with this one!" complete with hand gestures and wide eyes. They find all kinds of great things in these holes to. Saturday they found a brick. Not just any brick but, "One of the old bricks! The kind without 3 holes in the side!" Yesterday he found a millipede at least 4 inches long and as fat as my thumb (he showed us the measurements with his hands-as in,"I caught a fish THIS BIG"). Really though, I'm just so glad that I have a boy with such a delightful imagination! He really is one cool kid. Oh, and guess what his current favorite movie is? Yep. Disney's Holes. Hmmm...if he's out there diggin', I better not be The Warden in his mind....


Well, that's it. Have a lovely day. Oh, and call us if you need any drum lessons or holes dug!

"Hewoooo...?"

I almost forgot! My favorite thing The Pea does right now is this...

Like most toddlers she would cry when I would go use the bathroom and shut the door (too much info?). So she would sit and pound on the door and cry and the only way she would stop was if I called, "Hellooooo...?" starting normal and going up in pitch at the end. She would still knock but would wait and listen and then laugh at my greeting. Then one day I went in, shut the door and heard a little knock followed by a little voice that
said, "Hewooooo...?" Same pitch and everything. A couple knocks, followed by a, "Hewoooo...?" to which I respond, "Helloooo...?" and it repeats over and over until I come out. *Sigh*  

That, I will miss someday.

The Pea

Meet The Pea (short for Sweet Pea)

Random Facts...

She is the baby of the family-18 months old

She was my biggest baby at 10lbs. 5oz. (4 weeks early!)

She had a rough start. Getting stuck during delivery, really low Apgar scores, and stayed in the nursery

 She went back to the (children's) hospital, after being home for a day, and was admitted for 10 days in the NICU to treat Meningitis

She has been behind here and there with her motor skills (most likely due to the Meningitis) but has now caught up...yea!!!!

She has been a WONDERFUL baby, happy almost all the time

She has a great sense of humor already and loves to make us laugh

She is always making funny faces

 

 

She adores Elmo and Dora and tries to sing along with their songs

She LOVES shoes. She always wants to wear her own and if she finds any laying around she has to try them on. This includes my shoes, The Hubster's HUGE shoes and even friends' shoes left by the front door!

She also loves socks, usually on her hands, not her feet

 

95% of the time she will not keep a bow on her head and has very little hair still so she gets called a boy a lot

She'll do just about anything for a chocolate chip or M&M

She already wants to do EVERYTHING her siblings do

She is a binkie baby and usually sucks it with her lower lip over the bottom rim. She also has her woobie (blankie) that she carries around and thinks it's HILARIOUS to drag it (and various other items) behind her as she walks-especially if the dog will chase it

She thinks it's also pretty darn funny to walk around with bent legs

She is obsessed with a bottle of vegetable oil and carries it around daily. We find it all over the house (not the oil, the bottle)  

She loves to "help" unload the dishwasher, read books, and climb/sit on any boxes that might be laying around

She is the baby that almost wasn't. We swore we'd NEVER do it again. But when I look at her, at how much joy she has brought to our family, at what she has taught us about faith and miracles and patience, I thank God every moment of every day that she is part of our family...even when she's driving me NUTS! 

I mean...she is a toddler...

The Hubster's sleep habits

**Let me preface this by saying that The Hubster is eagerly
awaiting this post as much as you are...**

So I'm gonna go in a different direction today. I mentioned the other day that I have had some entertaining experiences when it comes to The Hubster and sleep over the years. There are plenty of random facts I could give you about him, like how I've never met a more passionate Jazz basketball fan, or how if you insult BYU football in front of him he just might take you out! I could tell you how he works (really hard) with computers for a living, but is NOT a computer geek, or how he is my own personal fix it/build anything guy. There's also the fact that he LOVES his 4-wheeler (almost) like another child, or how he loves to camp and fish, or what an incredible husband and father he is. But wouldn't it be more fun to hear about embarrassing sleep incidents? I thought so. This one's for you Honey...

My first experience with The Hubster and sleep was during our second week of marriage. I had just woken up when all the sudden a rather large fist came flying at me from the side. Luckily it was caught by it's equally large twin a split second before it connected with my chest. The impact was hard enough that the whole bed shook! I looked at him shocked.

"What the heck was THAT?!" I said. "I was having a dream." He replied.

"What in the world were you dreaming about?"

"I had a dream that we were at the circus," He explained. "Some guys came in and let everybody else go, but took us hostage. They must have knocked me out because the next thing I knew I was tied up and regaining consciousness. I turned to look at you and asked if you were ok. You said "...yes". The I asked if they had ruined our wedding video."

----At this point I started laughing! He knew how much our wedding video had meant to me. It was one of the things I had been willing to splurge on when we were planning our wedding. Anyway....----

"So I asked if they had ruined our wedding video and you looked at the guys all nervous like and said, "....no." He continued. "I could tell you were trying to hide something so I asked you again. Did they ruin our wedding video?!..."  "YES!" You said in a disgusted voice.

----At this point I was about in tears from laughing so hard.----

Then he tells me, "Well that was it! I turned to the guy nearest me and started attacking him! I pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the top of the head. That's when I woke up while, at the same time, hitting my hand."

----ARE...YOU...KIDDING...ME?! who knew my sweet new groom was such a violent man? Well, needless to say, I was a bit nervous for a few days after that. Slept with one eye open and all :).He's never thrown a punch in his sleep since then. But boy does he do other things! He kicks, he "chomps" his teeth really hard, he "runs", his whole body jerks, he twitches....never a dull moment!----

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Next-- we move on to the talking in his sleep. There is never a shortage of amusing tidbits to listen to when The Hubster is sleeping. When he is really stressed at work, he tends to argue and say...ummm...bad words...in his sleep (You know it's true Honey... Just keepin' it real). Sometimes he tells jokes. The best is when he laughs though. It's usually this really funny, kind of hissing "hee-hee-hee", kind of laugh. One of my favorites was the time that he let out this weird, warbling, tarzan-like yell, paused for a second, then said, "Well that was weird..." We both laughed SO HARD!


Now-- when you wake him up from a deep sleep you never know what you might get. The first time I had to wake him up in the middle of the night was when The Princess was little. She was really sick with a high fever and I wanted The Hubster to give her a Priesthood blessing. It was around 1am and I had just given her some Tylenol. I went back into our room and stood in front of my hubby and quietly said, "Honey, wake up...I need you to give The Princess a blessing. She's really sick." He opened his eyes and just looked at me. Then in a really menacing voice he asked, "Who....are...you....?" I slowly backed away and moved around to my side of the bed, crawled in and said, "It's just me Honey, your wife. I need you to give her a blessing." He recognized me and from that night on I've always stood far away or climbed back into my side of the bed before I wake him up for something! In retrospect, I guess it would be kinda creepy having a dark shadow stand over you in the night...

The Hubster has always snored REALLY loud too, due to HUGE tonsils that were never removed, and a couple of years ago we learned he had Sleep Apnea.  He was given a CPAP machine, which forces air into his airway to keep it open while he sleeps. This machine has since made for some very dramatic "awakening scenes". For instance, we used to have one of those shampoo/body wash dispensers in our shower. One night, while we were both heavily asleep, it decided to come crashing down. I woke up a split second before The Hubster. Just in time to see him rip off his mask, throw it aside, and assume a wrestlers crouch, fists clenched, ready to fight. IT WAS AWESOME! I am laughing out loud right now at the memory!

Another time, the night The Pea got her foot stuck in the crib, I stood at the door (you can bet I didn't stand over him), and said, "Honey! I need you...NOW!" Same thing, mask flung aside Super-Hero style followed by, "Ok! I'm up! What's wrong!" Ready to save the day!

The Hubsters "on guard all the time" personality traits are well known in our home. His dad was the same way when he was young (The Pirate's future wife better watch out). No, we're not afraid of him. It's actually kinda comforting knowing he's got our backs at a moments notice. We (the kids and I) have learned to announce ourselves long before we approach him in the dark or if he's not aware of us coming up behind him. It's actually funny that such a gentle, loving father and husband would be capable of accosting :-) someone in the head, with a knife, in a dream. Then again, he's a big guy (6' 3"). If I was a hostage taking, wedding video ruining thug...I might think twice. I'm just sayin'....