Jack's cake

(and other picture that happen to have been on the camera and hadn't been downloaded yet)

Another picture of Jack and Simon from the other day :)


Kylie and Megan - Megan is dressed as an old woman and Kylie is dressed as a "shopper girl" (according to Megan - when I originally asked Kylie what they were dressed as, she said Megan was a man and she was a girl - Rob, what have you been wearing when I'm not home???) ~


A gecko we found in the kitchen the other night. I love geckos! This one was one of the biggest I've seen in our house - he was about 4 inches long ~


Licking the cake batter this morning after I put the cakes in the oven ~


Megan helping Jack ride Kylie's bike around the kitchen. Holy freak, he looks old! When did my baby get so big???


I made Jack a train cake for his birthday. I looked up a bunch online, then made my own :) The engine is covered with chocolate frosting and decorated with reeses pieces, the middle car has strawberry frosting and is filled with yogurt covered blueberries, and the caboose has butter cream frosting and is decorated with skittles :)


From the front ~

What I do when everyone else goes to bed by 8pm . . .

(copied from facebook)
RULES - Copy, paste, and fill out
******************************************************
Can you fill this out without lying? Probably

What was the last thing you put in your mouth? Crushed ice.

Have you ever kissed anyone named Matthew? Possibly as a child??? Only guy I've ever kissed is Rob though.

Where was your profile picture (on facebook) taken? Under my desk (it's the picture of Jack hugging Simon)

Can you play guitar hero? Never tried, although bought Rob the tiny one, so may end up trying at some point. Rob loves it, but we don't have a wii.

Name someone that made you laugh today? Jack

How late did you stay up last night and why? 2 am - sorting clothes to donate and watching tv

If you could move somewhere else, would you? Hard question. Maybe. It would depend on the situation.

Ever been kissed under fireworks? Don't think so???

Which of your friends lives closest to you? Crysta - five houses away is hard to beat.

Do you believe ex's can be friends? Don't really have ex's.

Calling or texting? Calling.

When was the last time you cried really hard? Not a clue.

Where are you right now? At my desk in the dining room.

What bed did you sleep in last night? Mine.

What was the last thing someone bought for you? Rob bought me chocolate yesterday :)

Who was the last person you took a picture of? Megan and Kylie

Was yesterday better than today? I got more done yesterday, so probably.

Are you mad about anything? No.

Do you think relationships are ever really worth it? Absolutely.

Are you a bad influence? Not usually :)

Night out or night in? Night out, but not too late - dinner and a movie is about as wild as I get :)

What items could you not go without during the day? Rob, kids, computer, internet, cell phone.

What did the last text message you got say? I think it was from Brittney asking what we were doing to see if she could come hang out with me and the kids???

How do you feel about your life right now? Tired, but content.

Do you hate anyone? the Yankees :)

Say you were given a drug test right now, would you pass? Yes

Has anyone ever called you perfect before? Yes - lol :)

What song is stuck in your head? Nothing at the moment. Listening to the theme from Gettysburg.

Someone knocks on your window at 2am, who do you want it to be? As my bedroom is on the second floor, I would think it would only be a fireman or someone like that. I'd prefer for it not to happen :)

Wanna have grandkids before you’re 50? If it happens. I had Meg at 24, so if I'm not a g'ma by 50, then she waited longer than I did, but either way is ok :) I do NOT want to be a g'ma before 45 though!

Name something you have to do tomorrow? Make Jack's b-day cake. I'm making a train :)

Do you think too much or too little? Way too much.

Do you smile a lot? Yes.

Who was your last missed call on your Mobile phone? Have no idea and my cell isn't next to me.

What was the last book you read? Haven't read much lately. Just finished a book of short stories by Maeve Binchy and Mists of Avalon, which I decided was a very depressing book. Currently trying to read Atlas Shrugged, but don't have much time. Do text books count?

Is there something you always wear? Almost always wear a scrunchie in my hair.

What were you doing 30 minutes ago? Walking the dog.

Did you have an exciting last weekend? Not particularly - just really busy.

Have you ever crawled through a window? Yes

Have you ever dyed your hair? Once I let Molly practice putting highlights in my hair. I think they were red.

Are you wearing a necklace/chain? No

Are you an emotional person? Yes

What's something that can always make you feel better? Rob or the kids - and chocolate and a good book :)

Will this weekend be a good one? I hope so :) It's our 12th anniversary :)

What do you want right now? For my paper to be done, although I guess if I were working on it now instead of doing this, it would get done faster.

Have you ever worn the opposite sex's clothing? I wore a tie once for a church musical program, but I had to have a male friend tie it on me. Those things are hard to tie! I wear Rob's shirts sometimes.

Have you ever worked in a food place? Yes - worked in the drive-thru at McD's in high school.

Whats on your schedule for tomorrow? Make Jack's cake, finish and post my paper, possibly make it to the gym if the kids are feeling better.

Does anyone know your facebook password? I bet Rob could guess it, but I doubt he knows it offhand.

A few pictures . . .

The roses Rob got for me "just because he loved me" ~


Megan and Kylie's webkins (Kylie's is the pink one, I know, you're all shocked) ~


Jack chillin' ~


All four kids before church yesterday. Brittney, the kids and I went shopping this week to get Jack new church clothes. He calls this outfit his "daddy" outfit and loves it! ~


Jack and his dog. Megan may take care of it, but honestly I think it should have been Jack's birthday present. The dog was sleeping under my desk and Jack crept under to give him hugs and cuddle up with him ~

Every boy needs a dog and goodbye Elder Chezik!

We have had Simon now for two weeks. He is fitting into the family very well :) He's lived his whole life in a cage, so it doesn't bother him to be crated when we have to leave to run errands or at night. He's only had a few accidents and is doing really well in the housetraining area. I am loving the vacuum cleaning aspect of having a dog! I can actually go more than one meal without having to vacuum the floor!!! Kylie has enjoyed that aspect as well and was caught the other night sneaking pieces of zucchini and squash from dinner to Simon rather than eating it. Rob's favorite part is going on walks. Every night he picks one of the kids and takes that child and Simon on a walk. Sometimes the whole family goes. There really aren't many rainy nights down here or snowy/sleety nights (even in the winter), so I think it's easier than it would have been had we gotten a dog when we were still living in New England.

Simon is definately a people dog, which is a a good thing as he doesn't get much alone time in this house. He occasionally retreats under my desk to take a break from the kids. It isn't long before one of them comes looking for him. Megan loves curling up with him when he takes naps ~


Although Megan had done a wonderful job taking care of Simon and spending time with him, Jack spends nearly every waking moment with Simon. He plays in Simon's crate and pretends to be a dog ~




He follows Simon around the house and plays with him when Simon lies down ~


When Simon goes in his crate, Jack happily joins him (no, the door is not locked, Jack just pulled it shut) ~


Jack loves to drag Simon around the house with him. He grabs Simon's collar and Simon, always a good sport, tags along at Jack's side. (Jack dressed himself that morning - he is wearing two shirts, both of which are much too big for him, two pairs of shorts - one of his, one of Beth's - shoes on the wrong feet, as usual, and a baseball hat that he insisted on wearing - he is very into baseball hats and shoes at the moment) ~




Jack loves to share everything with Simon and happily drags him outside by the collar (saying "side, side, Si-nigh" - which translates to "outside, outside, Simon") when I ask Simon if he needs to go outside. He loves to help feed Simon and laughs when Simon knocks into the cup he carries the dog food in, knocking some to the floor. Every snack Jack eats he shares with Simon. We are teaching Simon to sit, and Jack enthusiastically encourages him by saying "SIT", then rewarding Simon when he does.

The cats are adjusting to Simon. Harlequin just stays upstairs and since Simon stays downstairs, he doesn't have much to do with the dog. Max mostly ignores Simon, occasionally retreating to the stairs when Simon is being playful. Cricket on the other hand is enjoying Simon immensely. Cricket takes after his predecessor (we had another cat named Cricket, who Cricket looks much like and is the same breed as - American Bombay) and loves to tease. He had been teasing Max, who would get very annoyed by it, but has decided it is more fun to tease Simon. One of his favorite things to do is to sit on the climber in the playroom. Simon has trouble getting up the slide and Cricket just sits up there smirking at him as Simon goes crazy trying to make it up. When Simon does finally make it up, Cricket swats at him and chases him back down. Cricket is definately the alpha in that relationship.

Enough about the dog :)

A picture of Kylie, Jack and Megan being a train - they wrapped their stuffed snake around the three of them and ran around and around the dining room table and the kitchen island ~


Jack fell asleep on my lap the other night. He almost never does that anymore, so I had to get a picture. I cannot believe my baby will be two next week! I went to a baby shower for a friend last night and got to hold her baby, who is the same size Jack was when he was born. I had not realized quite how big Jack had gotten :(


On a completely different topic, one of the missionaries that had been serving in our area for the last several months got transferred this week to a new area. We loved having Elder Chezik here and will miss him! Right before he left he got to cash in on a bargain he made with Rob. Rob told Elder Chezik that he would give Elder Chezik a hug if Elder Chezik got a baptism. Elder Chezik did, so he got his hug :)


Rob with Elder Chezik and his companion, Elder Potter ~

Rob and Meg's birthday dinner, butterfly hatching and misc.

Last Wednesday we had our family dinner to celebrate Rob and Megan's birthdays. We grilled hot dogs, seasoned chicken sausages, and California burgers. Christy came over and Megan got to open all her family presents (although she had already opened her card from Grandma and Grandpa so she could use the money in it to help buy the dog crate - she was so excited that she got to help buy it!).

From Christy and Ron she got a High School Musical backpack - perfect!


Nona and Papa sent her five china teacups that had been found in my great aunt's house after her death - we think they belonged to my grandfather's mother! Megan was thrilled! She is always asking questions about her ancestors and it was really neat to get a present like that.


Molly and Brian sent a carefully selected Webkinz. Webkinz (for those without small children) are stuffed animals that come with a code. You log into the Webkinz website, enter the code, and you can create a virtual world with a virtual copy of your stuffed animal. There are games you can play that help you to earn kinzcash, which can then be used to purchase virtual food, clothes or furnishings. Molly and Brian picked a dog webkinz that Megan named Oreo.


Molly and Brian also sent presents for the other kids and a game for all of them to share. Very dog themed :) Perfect!


Rob picked out the cake and chose a Snickers ice cream cake. It was delicious, but did not lend itself to the insertion of candles. I managed to put in a three and and four for Rob and seven plus one for good luck for Megan. Granted the whole top of the cake was sort of broken, but it still tasted good! Beth fell asleep during dinner on Christy's lap.






Jack comes up with the funniest outfits! I tried to just put the overalls on, but he INSISTED on a shirt as well. He then put his sandals on himself (on the wrong feet), found an old hat of the girls and Megan's pink glasses. He marched downstairs and found one of Megan's black High School Musical gloves, which he immediately donned. Then he marched off to the play kitchen to cook :) He graciously came out of the toy house so I could take his picture.


This morning Jack and I discovered a butterfly hatching from a chrysalis in our backyard. I strongly suggested to Jack that he NOT attack the butterfly and ran inside for my camera :)




Random funny story from this week ~
The other night we had Megan take Simon out into the backyard before we put him to bed. Kylie waited by the door, giving us updates. Megan announced "he's gone number one and number two!" and Kylie relayed the message. Rob told them to keep him outside for a little while longer to make sure he was done. Kylie yelled out the door to Megan "wait till he's gone number three and four!" The elders were over, talking to Rob. They laughed so hard they couldn't talk for several minutes :)

The Greatest Show On Earth!!!

This year we gave Megan the choice between a birthday party or bringing a friend to the circus. She chose the circus. We got tickets to Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey's circus for the day after her birthday, which happened to be last Saturday. Fortunately Kylie got out of the hospital in time to make it, so we loaded everyone in the car and went and picked up Megan's BFF (best friend forever), Paula. We actually managed to find the back way into the venue (which we had been to in June for the Andrea Bocelli concert) and found cheap parking. Six tickets can get expensive, so I had gotten really cheap ones, but we could see really well even though we were up on the second level of seats. Rob and I each took an end and sat the five kids in between us. We forgot to bring the camera, but I tried to snap a picture with my cell phone at the beginning. Kylie's making a weird face because she's making her seat go up and down ~


The kids loved the show. My favorite part was watching Jack dance to the music :) It was a fairly long show though and sometimes the kids had problems seeing over the heads of the people in front of us. At one point I had Kylie, Jack and Beth sitting on my lap. By the end of the show, both Beth and Jack had surrendered to dreamland. Kylie had sweetly agreed to sit on Daddy's lap rather than mine, so at least I only had Jack and Beth to hold :) It's a good thing I'm so tall as having longer legs really helps when you have multiple kids on your lap!


As we stepped outside after the circus we felt the wind pick up and saw the black cloud cover and ran for the car. We made it as the first raindrops started to fall. We told Megan she could decide where she wanted to go for dinner. She picked Mimi's Cafe. The kids behaved really well through dinner, although we got some apprehensive looks when we entered with five small children. Megan chose chicken gumbo soup and salad with fruit, which kind of surprised us as it seemed sort of an adult choice. I guess she's growing up!

Megan had already opened her family presents on Wednesday when we had Christy over for dinner (hmmm . . . need to post about that - forgot to) and she had gotten her present from us when we brought Simon home the week before and took her to buy his stuff. Paula got her a Barbie - Dog Show Barbie I think? It came with three small dogs and a course for the dogs to perform on. It was perfect considering her present from us and the performing dogs at the circus!

When Having Your Kids Like Veggies is a Bad Thing

Friday was Megan's birthday, but it was fairly low key as most of our plans were for Saturday. We let her pick what she wanted for dinner, which was grilled cheese sandwiches, shrimp and green beans. Kylie was quiet through dinner and didn't eat almost anything. We finally asked her if she felt ok. Meg piped up "Kylie ate mushrooms from the backyard!" All of our kids love mushrooms, but we have told them repeatedly not to eat ones from the ground. We try and make sure to pick any before the kids see them, but we occasionally miss one or two. Kylie found a patch and ate two whole mushrooms. We called the nurse hotline for our pediatrician and they told us to call poison control. Poison control told me to take her to the children's hospital and that they were calling ahead to let them know we were coming.

I called Brittney and drove over to get her so Rob and I could both go. As I'm driving to get Brittney, I called a friend and she sent her husband over to our house to help Rob give Kylie a blessing (in our church priesthood holders have the ability to give blessings of healing or comfort). Two other friends offered to watch the other kids, but we didn't know how long it would take, so we thought it would be better to have the kids at our house with Brittney.

I drove the car while Rob took care of Kylie, who by this time was throwing up about every three minutes. We hit a horrible rain storm, but made it to the hospital. By the time we got there, Kylie was drifting in and out of consciousness. When we entered the ER, they took one look at Kylie and brought us into the back immediately - I didn't even get time to check her in. They got us into one of the ER rooms and Kylie lost consciousness. They got an IV into her and included some medication to hopefully stop the vomiting. At least it was easy to put the IV in as Kylie wasn't reacting to anything at that point! The doctor told us it was good that she started vomiting so soon as that helped to get the toxins out of her system quickly. The toxins from poisonous mushrooms can cause the liver to shut down if they are not expelled. They checked her liver and fortunately there was no damage. We asked how long it we should expect to be at the hospital so we could give Brittney a time frame. The doctor said at least 24 hours. We called Christy.

Christy dropped what she was doing and drove over to our house. At some point Kylie drifted from unconsciousness into sleep, which made us feel better. The medicine worked and she stopped vomiting, which surprised the doctor as considering the intensity of her reaction to the mushrooms. They told us they were admitting us to the hospital. Rob and I had not packed for an overnight stay. We decided that I would stay and he would drive home. His shirt was fairly dirty as he had taken care of Kylie in the car and carried her into the hospital and there are medications he takes for hypoglycemia that we hadn't brought, so it made sense to send him home. I also didn't think I could handle being away from Kylie and even though Rob felt the same way, he graciously let me be the one to stay.

Kylie opened her eyes shortly after Rob left and asked a few questions. They took us up to our room, which Kylie really liked. For a hospital, it was amazingly homey. It was a children's hospital and all the walls were painted cheerful colors and there were murals and interesting pictures. Kylie's favorite was a tv screen mounted into the wall with a virtual fish tank playing on the screen. We called home and let Kylie talk to Megan as Megan was fairly worried about her. Kylie finally got to sleep after being re-hooked up to multiple monitors. I spent much of the night next to her in the recliner, which was not very comfortable, because she kept getting scared.

She woke around 4am and was thrilled to get to drink gatorade (red, one of her favorite colors) and eat a lunchable (she picked ham). We watched a bit of tv and then went back to sleep. Since she was doing so well, the doctor woke her up at 10am, had her eat breakfast and told us we could take her home! Christy came to pick us up (Rob has some issues with directions - we really need a gps) and we made it home in time to shower and get ready for the circus that afternoon! But that is another post . . .