It's My First Day!

Good Guys and Bad Guys

2012-01-30T17:34:00.000-08:00

Today, Sam wanted to go out on the trampoline, so it was only a matter of time before she wanted her brother out there with her. He loves to bounce up and down when she jumps on the other side ("only little jumps with little bro!" as she yells to me), but mostly, he crawls after her while she runs away from him and they both crack up and get static-y stinky hair. Sam's curly mullet looks

Nutrition and You

2012-01-24T12:41:00.000-08:00

I recently saw a commercial for Lucky Charms that touted that now, whole grains are the first ingredient (in these as well as other pretty much otherwise unhealthy kids cereals), meaning they have more whole grain than anything other ingredient in them! That's super, but it doesn't really give me the information I need to make an informed decision as a mom. What I want to know is, how much whole

Sour Patch Kids

2012-01-07T15:48:00.000-08:00

Not unlike the candied kind, first my kids are sour, and then they're sweet. The other night was going to be a busy one, and Daniel agreed to bathe Peyton before he left for meetings and basketball, if I would put him to bed when he was all jammied up. I agreed, so I went downstairs, made Peyton a bottle to give him before bed, left it in his room where Daniel was dressing him, and then was in my

Future Lyricist?

2011-12-29T19:19:00.000-08:00

As I've mentioned before, Sam is a total music sponge. She hears a song once or twice, and then it's chorus is permanently embedded in her brain and she can sing all of it within about 10 listens. Even the words she doesn't know the meaning of, she manages to at least mostly pronounce correctly by ear. This is why I have to be so very vigilant about avoiding her overhearing songs with any sort of

That's dessert talk, honey

2011-12-27T20:13:00.000-08:00

Tonight at dinner (hot dogs at Sam's Club--yes, I'm a nutritional giant among moms!), Sam blurted out a question. We're used to that. What we're never used to is the kind of things rattling around in her head at all hours of the day. "Hey guys. Wouldn't it be super weird, if it was raining eyeballs!?" Daniel and I agreed that would in fact be super weird. The weirdest. Then Daniel decided to ask

Overusing It

2011-12-27T20:05:00.000-08:00

Okay, so maybe I overused the whole "Are you going to stay on the nice list if you behave like that?" thing this Christmas. Maybe. On Christmas morning, when Sam saw her gifts, she just kept saying, "Mom, I'm on the nice list! I'm on the nice list!" Every so often she'd say "I'm so glad!" I guess I inadvertently had her a little too spooked, which is funny because she got a video from Santa

Angels We Have Heard on High

2011-12-22T10:21:00.000-08:00

One of my more recent favorite Christmas songs is "I Need A Silent Night" by Amy Grant. I love the message of it, about taking a step back from the Christmas rush to remember the real reason for the holiday. I especially love the chorus, which goes: "I need a silent night, a holy night, to hear an angel voice through the chaos and the noise. I need a midnight clear, a little peace right here, To

All Is Calm, All Is Bright

2011-12-19T20:26:00.000-08:00

Even as someone who unequivocally believes in a God capable of miracles, I am still often stunned by the miracles that actually occur in everyday life. To update you, James underwent open heart surgery last Thursday. The surgery itself went well, although when the surgeon got inside his heart and looked at the third defect (which they weren't planning on fixing for several months), he realized it

Goodwill Toward Men

2011-12-13T14:48:00.000-08:00

A little over a week ago, we were Christmas shopping for the cousins we had drawn in our first annual cousin Christmas swap. One of the cousins we're buying for is baby James, who had not yet made his entrance into the world, but would before the holiday. Sam was helping (since Peyton didn't really care) as we thought about what James would like, what the family didn't already have a ton of (

The True Meaning of Christmas?

2011-12-10T09:28:00.000-08:00

We went over to my mother-in-law's house to put up her Christmas lights. Sam loves putting up Christmas lights, but sometimes she gets a little overexcited and starts to act spazzy. It's only a matter of time before she breaks something, so you've got to get all over it fast. So, after about 30 minutes of putting up lights harmlessly, she started flicking the trees, picking the branches, skipping

It's a SIGN!

2011-12-07T15:22:00.000-08:00

I've been having some very uncharitable thoughts towards someone I don't even know. It started several weeks ago. Every time we go somewhere, Sam started asking me what every single sign says/means/symbolizes. EVERY SINGLE SIGN. I'm not just talking street signs, I'm talking handwritten signs about how to make "money for nothing." I'm talking about community garage sales, neighborhood watches,

Sam and the Big Guy

2011-12-01T12:54:00.000-08:00

While we were in Utah over Thanksgiving, our family had a chance to do some birthday shopping for my little sister with my little brother (as a sidenote: Happy 16th Birthday, Maddie! We love you!). Of course, we went before Thanksgiving, because I am neither now, nor have any desire to become, suicidal or homicidal, and I refuse to shop Black Friday, but Santa was already in his village for the

The Trouble with Narwhals

2011-11-29T07:21:00.000-08:00

Sam has recently gotten a little obsessed with narwhals. I know, that's super weird, right? But, there's one in Elf, and Sam is obsessed with Elf. Every so often (and usually for no clear reason) she says "Bye, Buddy! Hope you find your dad!--Thanks, Mr. Narwhal!" until she finally realized she didn't know what a narwhal was and started asking about it. So we had a chat about narwhals. It mainly

Cousins, cousins, everywhere

2011-11-28T15:52:00.000-08:00

Today on the way to school, Sam wanted to talk about cousins. "Mom, I have a lot of cousins. I have, like, SEVEN cousins!" "Actually, Sam, you have almost 16 cousins." "Whoa." Whoa is right. That's with only 4 of the 8 kids in Daniel's family having kids thus far. The oldest of the whole batch turned seven this summer. We are having a population explosion. There are currently no cousins on my

Why are we SHOUTING?

2011-11-14T12:10:00.000-08:00

Saturday night, Daniel offered to take the kids Christmas shopping (for me, yay!) so I could go work out at the gym. I thought this was a great idea after being cooped up with my sick children all week, and now that they were better, I was enjoying a big chunk of Saturday freedom (Daniel also did soccer duty and I got to go solo to a baby shower, seriously, I can not remember the last time I had

Barbie and Me

2011-11-07T20:33:00.000-08:00

It has come to my attention that my revulsion of all things Barbie is "too harsh." Okay, I'll give you that I dismiss Barbies pretty out of hand, under the assumption that not much has changed since the 80's--when I had a handful of Barbies that lived naked under my bed and never got played with. I hated those stupid minuscule snaps, and didn't really see the point of playing with people who

What Not To Wear

2011-11-05T22:08:00.000-07:00

We are careening forward in our attempts to be done Christmas shopping by Thanksgiving, mainly because I hate shopping, I hate waiting in lines, I hate crowds, and I hate shopping. Did I mention, I hate shopping? So anyway, today we decided to make a huge dent in our gift list. In the process, I caught shopping fever. Daniel wanted to know what kind of clothes I would like so I actually had to

A Revelation

2011-11-01T10:42:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows me knows I love Halloween. I love decorating, costuming, and for the past three years, making all these things into a theme for the whole family. (This year was Tangled) I don't love the candy coatedness of it. Actually, that's not true. For many many years I did love the candy best of all, but it's only recently that I realized how much it did not love me back. Stupid lying

Anything You Can Do...

2011-10-28T11:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I took the kids to a Halloween party during the day. As was the case with the preschool party, Sam's Rapunzel wig lasted approximately 1.5 minutes before she yanked it off her head with the angry announcement that "hair gets in your face!!!" This is an entirely new sensation for her, although those of us with hair know the pain of daily living with hair in your face. Somehow we all

Turnabout is Fair Play

2011-10-26T15:03:00.000-07:00

Peyton has now reached the age where he can crawl, pull up and cruise, and he does not appreciate being confined. We try to let him be free range as much as possible. He is using that power to pull up on Samantha's little white table and steal bits of her lunch and/or snack, whenever she sits there. He steals her crayons, and rips her papers when she leaves them out. If she's not at the

Brainwashing

2011-10-13T14:46:00.003-07:00

I just realized that Peyton's "Mommy loves me" bib was protecting his "Mommy loves me" onesie during lunch. Maybe I'm trying way too hard to prove a point here. Just maybe.

Feeling it

2011-10-11T09:55:00.000-07:00

At utterly random intervals, with no apparent provocation whatsoever, Sam will bust out and sing: "Everyday I'm shuff-il-in!" I think that's kind of awesome. Today, while eating her snack I heard her singing quietly to herself "Party rock is in the house tonight! Everybody just have a good time!" This kid can absorb music like a sponge! A sponge I tell you! Everyday she's shufflin'.

Wired and Ready

2011-10-06T11:21:00.000-07:00

Maybe it's the gorgeous weather today, but Sam woke up in a fabulous mood. Someone lit a fire under her and she's a feisty one today. It started when she burst in my room at 6:45am and announced "Good Morning! I had a PRINCESS dream!!!" She has been asking me for a princess dream every night for a month. I don't know how to give her one, but I'm so relieved she finally had one. If she asks,

Peyton's big day

2011-10-06T10:52:00.000-07:00

Monday was a big day for Peyton. It wasn't a great day all around--I woke up with something seriously wrong with my neck, and any movement at all caused intense pain. Very intense. The last time I was in that much pain I was in labor and at a hospital. It totally sucked. Daniel had gone to work at 5am and ridden in a carpool so he couldn't come home to help since he didn't have a car. I

All About P-dog

2011-09-29T21:43:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I realize that most of my blog posts are about Sam, and poor Peyton must be feeling overlooked. Here's the problem with Peyton...there is no problem with Peyton. He is the happiest child alive. All he does is smile, laugh, or sit and watch his sister wreak havoc on me. Occasionally, but only very occasionally, he cries. It's absolutely fabulous parenting this guy, but when you set up