finally asleep

The kids have swiched roles at night. Now Lily is the one who falls asleep painlessly and without a fight, and Alex who wants to stay up all night...constantly peeking out his door wanting one more thing. Usually that one more thing is just to stay up.
So when they finally went to sleep last night it was a moment to be celebrated. I love the positions they get into while they sleep. And I so hope this doesn't someday make them need therapy (or worse yet, take pictures of me while I'm sleeping) but I just thought they looked so cute.
How can this possibly be comfortable??

and 4 year old makes...8

So today while I was scolding Alex for being naughty he informed me that I was not his mom anymore. I said:

"Oh, well, that makes me sad. Who will be your mom now?"

"um, Jeny will be my mom."

So Jeny, you can pick him up any time. We'll be home most of the day today if you want to come by. I guess you can just tell people that he and Avery are twins...just make sure they don't know Jake because he looks so much like his daddy that you might get some sideways glances.

Pine Valley...finally

Alex got a sled for Christmas and has been so excited to go to Pine Valley to go sledding, but we never got the chance to go before he got his tonsils out, and so FINALLY we went up this morning. I got lots of video of him sledding, but these pictures are just of him playing in the snow at Jake's parent's lot. He honestly had so much fun just running around and jumping in the snow...he loved it all.

Here is a picture of him laying in the snow in pure bliss...he did this a lot. Pay no mind to the glare caused by my filthy dirty filter. For our purposes we shall just call it "art."

Portrait of an excellent Dad.
mmmmmm, snow. Anyone got any tigers blood? This stuff would make a great snow cone:)
Here is one of not very many pictures I took after setting my white balance. My battery died shortly after and after I put the new one in I forgot to set my white balance again.

The result is this...gray snow. And just by way of full disclosure and in case you were wondering, Photoshop does a poor job doing what properly set white balance achieves for you in the first place. Alex's snowman. Can you tell he got a little burned out by the time it was time to make the head? I kept trying to convince him to make it bigger, but no, he was just going to knock it down anyway.

In other news: I'm sending out a big thank you from Lily to Grandma Bracken who really came through on the super hero costumes. Lily was getting really upset that whenever Alex's friends came over there just weren't enough Batman or Superman capes to go around. She loves to wear them. In fact, yesterday she wore the Batman cape to the library for story-time.

So Grandma made Super girl...so, so cute. She loves it!

And now they are truly a crime-fighting team to be reckoned with...

We're not so different, you and I

So, last night I got to go out with my "peeps" and see a chick flick.

The first thing I have to say is, I love my girls. I love to go hang out after the kids go to bed and the husband is thoroughly occupied in front of the television, pot of spaghetti in hand, and unwind. It is such a good thing every couple of weeks, or so.

Now that that's out of the way; 27 dresses.

Was I entertained?

Yes.

Did I laugh?

Oh, yes.

Did I swoon when boy kissed girl?

Absolutely, yes.

So why did I leave feeling, well, unsatisfied...irritated...maybe even, dare we say, cranky? (OK, I'm exaggerating slightly, but you get the point.)

I thought about this on the way home because it's been a while sine I've seen a bonified "chick flick" and I wondered if I have simply lived with Jake so long that his taste in movies has infused into me; much like our taste in other forms of media has slowly merged into one over the last 10 years of inflicting our preferences on one another.

But then it hit me.

It's not so much that it's just so darn predictable that you could write the entire movie before the opening scene has come to a close; no, not really. I think it's this...

One day, a very long time ago, a person--most likely male--sat down to write a movie, story, play, what-have-you, that would cause women everywhere to go completely nuts. They came up with a formula, a template, if you will, that would incite passion and romance, and, let's just say it right here, the opening of the pocket book. (You thought I was going to say something else, didn't you...) And that "story stencil", let's call it, has endured throughout the ages. We LOVE to see girl fall for boy; boy fall for girl; girl hate boy; girls sister become engaged to first boy; girl realize she has no attraction for first boy; girl finally realize she loves second boy; and all with hilarious consequences.

I mean we absolutely eat it up.

So, I now see why I was so bothered last night, for you see, it's not that the movie's predictable, it's that I'm just so darn predictable.

And everyone in Hollywood knows it.

Challenge for the day

Who's up for a challenge?

This is a really fun one.

As part of a little photography class I've been taking at the college we were asked to stand in one place and take 5 different pictures. We could turn around and bend down, but we had to stay in that same place. The idea is to look at pieces of the whole.

This was by far my favorite assignment because I always thought I was pretty good at noticing the small things...but I had no idea what I'd been missing. I found that I truly couldn't stop at 5. There was always a pice of bark or a rock or something that from just the right angle made an interesting picture.

So here are some of my favorites. I chose to make most of them B&W just because it was so much more about the values than the color...at least to me.

OK, pardon my little side commentary, but does this rock not look like it's trying to get home to the bark after a long journey on the cement? Is it just me?

I defy you to find a park without at least one Ritz cracker left on a bench. This is one of my absolute favorites. I love the contrast of the glass against the bark. Again, I don't think I ever would have thought to take a picture of garbage, but when pressed to find that 5th picture, sometimes you get a gem. At least to me.

Another cement journey.And I think this is my very favorite of all. Love how the sky adds movement to the picture even thought my shutter speed was pretty fast.So you can tell I had fun, right?

Anyway, I know not everyone would consider these pictures "art", but the purpose of the exercise is to see the world in a new way and to notice things you might have missed before. It is really very fun...and you might surprise yourself and come up with some shots you really love.

So, I send out my magic challenge dust to all who read...or however that works.

I'd love to see what you come up with.

Seth-inspired

Alex was reading about Seth's brilliant reading abilities with me, and decided he wanted to have a go. I did have to help him with which letters came next, but he wrote them all by himself:

And here's a picture of our family just for good measure. FYI I am no longer the biggest one in the family...just the roundest:). And I'm really not sure why Alex and Lily are doing flips. He really had no explanation other than that sort of, "isn't it obvious?" look he gave me when I asked.

And I suppose I should update that Miss Lily is fine. She had no citations for "drunk and disorderly" other than the usual staggering walk and bumping into walls.

And the offending hand-sanitation substance is now safely out of reach.

So, until next time, Poison Control...

Poison control...take 2

I guess the ant bait incident didn't teach her any lessons...

Just called poison control because I caught Lily gagging on Purell hand sanitizor, which I've heard can be really dangerous. So I'm supposed to watch her for an hour to see if she starts looking drunk.

Good times.

Party at my crib...

Do you ever have those paralyzingly shocking moments when you say something to your kids, and you sound so much like your mother that she might as well be standing right behind you saying those exact words while reaching around your face to open and close your jaws? I did tonight; and after I said it I almost whirled my head around, sure that I would find her standing there.
It was a simple enough phrase which, I'm sure, is repeated in millions of households at about this same time every night. So it wasn't so much the words as it was the tone and inflections of my voice...so my mother.

The phrase?

GO TO BED!

Not a yell or a screem, but a firm, no nonsense, you don't want to see what will happen if you come out again kind of voice.
You know the one.

See, up until now Alex has been great with Lily as his roommate. He has been so patient while she does her little five minute cry and whine routine before she finally gives up and lays down. He has even been known to go to sleep during it. But ever since he's been himself again since the tonsils came out, it's been like a party in there after we leave. Oh, they chit-chat and laugh and read each other stories, it's a great old time. In fact, I think it's the only time of day they can spend 5 minutes together and actually get along.

So last night at about 2am I could hear Lily whimpering in her crib, so I peeked in her room to check on her and she WASN'T WEARING A SHIRT! Which I'm sure was related to the raging party they were having hours before.

So I guess I'll have to add "check to make sure that Lily is clothed" to my list of things to do before bed.

This is why we live in Southern Utah

We went to Sand Hollow today to open up "Old Bluey", which is what we affectionately like to call the new Ranger, which up until now we have only used to tour the Sand Hollow site. The experience was, well, I think Merril described it best:

"It's like a golf cart on steroids."

Indeed, it's a little gutless.

However, for a person like me who is, shall we say, conservative on the sand dunes (see: chicken) it was probably the perfect pace. Jake and I took it up to the top to look out over Warner Valley, which was amazing...I'd never seen it. After that we went on a little joy ride (no, not that kind of joy ride, you sick pervert!!) and we actually did some fun stuff. The truth is, once I got used to what it feels like to drive on the dunes, and, most importantly, what Old Bluey could handle, I started to feel more comfortable taking some of the big, scarier hills.

Bear in mind, I will not be doing THIS any time soon...

Especially not on Old Bluey, but I will admit it was very fun, and I can't wait to take Alex out once it gets a little warmer.

Here are more pictures:

Here's Jocelyn posing while trying to seem as though she just naturally stands there peeking through her hair and looking adorably at the camera. She must have a mom who takes pictures a lot or something...

Jack...what a little cutie! Squeeze him!OK, there's a little story behind this one. Jocelyn had convinced Maxine that this little area under the tree was her bed. Maxine kept asking, "Is it really your bed?" and Jocelyn would say, "Yes, I TOLD you, THIS is where I sleep when my parents LEAVE me here at night!"

Now, I'm not trying to judge Amy and Jared or anything, that's just not my place.

All I'm saying, is that MAYBE I'm not that bad of a parent...just saying.

Anyway, Here's Maxine snuggling down for the night.Ready for a ride.Tree branches in the skyDesolateTree

'nother tree

moonshine

I took this shot at 4:30 in the afternoon and just by playing with my exposures was able to make it look like a starless night sky.

pretty fun.

so, THAT"S why I keep finding potholders in my closet.

back and forth

We went to the park yesterday for one of Alex's first official outings for the purpose of play. It was nice to get out, but I'm not sure the 3 hours of constant w-h-i-n-i-n-g afterwards was worth it.

It tuckered him out a bit.

Poor kid.

He's on the baby swing because he watched Lily having a simply marvelous time on it and thought he'd give it a try. I guess no one told him that it helps if you look up and actually let someone push you.

Pushing helps, actually, a great deal.

Here are some pictures of Lily's legs.

I like both of them, but I think I like the second one best. It's just so Lily to be struggling out of confinement and sticking it to the man!

And I can't tell you how much I love the fact that she fits into Alex's Chuck Taylor's.

She colored on the toe today with marker...oh, the memories.

starting to feel a little better

This is the first day since he stopped taking his pain medicine that he hasn't been constantly moaning or crying.

Here's to better days ahead!

I think what this is saying is that after I get my braces off I'm going to look EXACTLY like Jessica Biel

My sister-in-law Chrystal just posted this on her blog and it was kind of fun.

I want to see who you all look like!

turning a corner

So yesterday Alex started to refuse all pain medication.

He started to feel better enough to handle the pain, and decided the taste of the medicine was no longer worth the relief, and so actually was worse off for it.

If that makes any kind of sense whatsoever.

Anyway, we went through the entire night medication-free and he tossed and turned and was in absolute misery all night long.

And so was I, if you can imagine.

So finally, after watching his expression turn from painful grimace to a dead acceptance, he agreed to take two chewable children's Motrin, but I wasn't sure if it would touch his pain, since up to now he was taking something much stronger. So we waited for about 20 minutes until he weakly started asking for Cheerios. I tried to talk him out of it, thinking it would hurt his throat, but he persisted; and seeing as how he hadn't eaten for close to 24 hours, I let him eat it.

After he'd been eating for a while I noticed he was just holding the cereal in his mouth, and, thinking that his throat was hurting, I got down really close to his face and asked if the cereal was hurting his throat. He turned, looked at me, and

SPIT THE MILK IN MY FACE!!!

And then he laughed.

I know I should have been more angry, but honestly I was so relieved to see the light come back into his eyes--no matter how horribly NAUGHTY he'd been--that I just couldn't get too mad.

Any other day and he'd be reading the want-ads and finding a new place to live.

.And what is the biggest benefit to having your tonsils out? Everybody shout it...

POPSICLES!

Since Alex has started feeling a little better the biggest change I've noticed is that Lily whines a lot more. She must have really enjoyed these last few days of having free-reign over the toys. I hope she has enjoyed it because those days are about over.

A big THANKS to everyone who brought over Popsicles, toys, and adorable little notes. They seriously made his day!

what to do...

Well, both kids are asleep.

I don't think that has ever happened in the middle of the day.

Ever.

And so, to mark such a momentous occasion, here is what I am doing;

Checking out some YouTube.

I know, I could be doing something MUCH more productive, and I PROMISE I'll go fold some laundry RIGHT AFTER I post this...but let me have a little mindless fun:)

not that laundry isn't mindless fun...I'm just saying.

update

well, I kind of knew it was too good to be true.

Alex had a rough night last night. He's been sleeping with us the last 2 nights so that we could stay on top of his pain, but he doesn't like the taste of the medicine so he waits until the very last minute before he takes it.

Last night I felt him squirm for about an hour or so, and I kept trying to get him to take some medicine, but he kept refusing. Finally he started saying, "my throat hurts" and then he started crying. And this is what we (and HE) try to avoid, because as soon as he gets to the point that he's crying he has a little panic attack and he can't breathe and he starts dry-heaving and all that good stuff. I cannot even relate to you how sad it was once he started crying because he was SO mad at himself for losing control because he's done this enough since the surgery that he knows what will happen once he starts to panic.

He kept saying, "stop crying, doo doo!" Which might seem a little funny in type, but believe me when I say that hearing my boy's self contempt for something that is completely beyond his control is about as heart-wrenching as it gets.

The only thing we could do was try our best to get him calm enough to take the medicine. Because once he's panicking, he'll take the medicine, no problem-he just has to be breathing first.

It's so sad and frustrating because no amount of "Alex, if you take this before you're in that much pain you won't have to cry" will convince him to take the medicine until he's out of control.

I just can't wait until the around-the-clock medicating days are over...because that's what it will be--days. Maybe even a week, I'm told.

I do have to say, however, for Megan's benefit, I still think it was worth it. He WILL get better eventually, and I can already tell that he is breathing so much easier...until it's time to take medicine; but, as you know that is another issue entirely.

I did get a laugh out of him this morning, however, when he saw how Lily was watching TV.

He said in his thick little "I just got my tonsils out" voice, "Aw mom, she looks so cute!"

And he got to have ice cream for breakfast, so I guess there is that little silver lining surrounding every cloud.

my brave, brave boy

This post may seem disjointed, but I just want to get the facts down before I forget, so bear with me...

It is done. The tonsils are out. And Alex exceeded all of my expectations...he was SO INCREDIBLY BRAVE! Just look at this boy taking down the sat monitor like it's nobody's business!
And yes, I must have looked totally bizarre taking pictures of my son in same day surgery, but I'm so glad I did because he was so cute.

We had to be there at 7:15 so we woke the kids up at 6:30, which was hilarious. Lily has never been so confused.

Once we got back to pre-op Jake kept making Alex laugh to relax him (and me), and it worked! He was guffawing to Jake's antics, and it really helped ease the tension.

And this, my friends, is the silly juice. And let me tell you it comes by the name honestly. At first, though, he wouldn't swallow it. He just held it in his mouth and screwed up his face. So I said, "swallow it, Alex" and he gulped it down and said, "it tastes like grass."
It worked pretty much instantly

And then it was time to let him go. I thought this would be the worst part because I thought he'd cry and scream and want me to come with him.

But the silly juice was earning it's wages.

He just wanted to drive the bed.

And then we waited. And waited. And waited. And tried not to think about what they were doing to my precious boy. And then the doctor came out and said his tonsils and adenoids were "quite large", whatever that means, but that he did fine. And then we got to see him and when I saw him I could tell that he was being so very brave, but I could see in his eyes that he was scared out of his mind. And when he saw me he finally started to cry and said

"Mom, I want you to hold me."

And so I grabbed my boy with all of his wires and jiggers and I held him and I said, "I don't care what that nurse says, if you want to go to sleep you just go to sleep." But, of course, being a nurse myself, I happen to know that they actually like to see them WAKE UP in recovery, but I didn't care. My baby could have all the time he needed.
And then he woke up. And then he took a sip of water and threw up 3 times. After that the nurse gave him some medication for the nausea, and about 30 seconds after that he perked right up and said, "I'm feeling much better", in those exact words, and "I'd like a Popsicle now".

Since then he's been great. The nurse thought he should only have Popsicles for the rest of the day because of the nausea, but he's been doing so well that tonight I made him scrambled eggs and Jell-O Jigglers for dinner and he did fine. There were times today when I had to stop him from sliding on his socks on the wood floor. He's by no means back to his old self; in fact I'm sure he'll have some bad days to come, but we had a good first day and I'm optimistic.