Mush

Such a good day. I wish I had a stop button. I really really do. Church was extra good, diner was fabulous if I do say so myself, we all seemed to be extra happy all day. Even bed time was a breeze. I read stories with Brody tonight, and also read to him from my journal from the entries after he was born, I did a pretty good job telling the story of his arrival and he was cracking me up, I was trying to explain to him what contractions felt like, the only thing I could relate it too was having to really really have to go to the bathroom but worse. He was good with that. Well then when I told him that I 'pushed' him out of my belly he said, " so like, you kind of pooped me out??!"  I assured him no no, totally different. And left it at that. He thought it was extra funny that he was born naked and slimy and had a bent ear and was super hairy. We talked about his year of being four and his highlights were:
California, and especially the ocean.
Playing soccer and learning to swim.
Becoming a frog owner, and then fish owner and even having a cat for a few chaotic moments. We had a good laugh over that.
Catching his first fish.
Going camping.
Spelling and writing and doing real math.
Ice skating.
Riding in Daddy's work truck.
Becoming a 'fantastic Wii player"
Being the best and loudest voice in Primary- but he pointed out that this is very hard work.
Reading the book of Mormon and knowing lots of the stories by memory.
Being a great joke teller.

He had an awesome year. He fell asleep and I layed beside him on his bed and had a nice long cry. I dont want him to get any older. He is so innocent and nice and smart and great. He is my buddy. I definatly dont want him to go to school, I want to freeze time and just stay right where we are. Things are just perfect. Then I cried some more and stressed over this world and all the bad things and rotten people and evil. Then I thought about today, we sang I Believe in Christ, and one of my favorite phrases is
 " I believe in Christ; so come what may"
So I stopped crying and got up and did the dishes. Five will be great too.

PaRTy LiKE A rOcKStAR!! A five year old rock star anyways

Remember being this happy about birthday candles and wishes. I love it.

Today we had Brodys' friend Party. It was lots of fun. And I was really happy that I decided to do it at the rec center and not my house. We rented out the gym complete with the inflatable course, rock climbing and lots of gym space to run like crazy. It was extra nice that the entire rec center was closed except for us and a few workers.Our theme was Tom and Jerry, because Brody is their number one fan. Present highlights were a pillowpet ( side note, I kick myself in the rear for not thinking up those things, Im pretty sure every kid either has or really wants one, they love the things!) a cap gun complete with a lifetime supply of caps to drive us all crazy, a light thing from star wars, yes its true, I cant at the moment think of the actual name of it, light something, make fun of me all you want. Some awesome creation kits, spiderman and transformers and tools, what more could a boy want!

Preschool Friends

Lily. Cool enough to be 'one of the boys'

Not great pics, but to add to the fun we had inflatable bats and lots of balloons, this made for some great battles, hockey games, baseball and golf.

Boy accessories do exist. Sort of.

Ask anyone,  I would love to have a girl one day. I love my boys but I am a fairly girly girl and really need someone to appreciate the pinker things in life with me. But I have found that boys do have fun accessories and clothes, you just have to look really hard, and im pretty sure you have to take advantage of their younger years to actually get them to wear the cute stuff. So I am.

Doesnt This Look Good?

Felt like doing a little baking with some experiments, Like using half applesauce and butter, flax flour ect, well it was going really well until instead of a dash of cinnamon and I put in a dash of CUMIN! I attempted to spoon it out, thinking I got most of it out, I finished it up and baked it. The house was filled a fantastic aroma of banana bread, I was excited. It was awful. It was like banana bread and turkey stuffing did the tango. Puke. Maybe next time.

Menu

I share this only because im a huge fan when other people post their menus and I cant come up with anything.

Monday: Taco salad- lettuce, hamburger meat seasoned with onion and costco taco seasoning, fresh salsa, cheese, olives, crushed multigrain chips, black beans, tomatoes, green chillis, and corn. My kids love corn, so if its in there they will usually eat it.


Tuesday: Stuffed shells with parmesan chicken and pesto sauce. Salad and bread.


Wednesday: Pork chops, butter baked rice (So good! Not so good for you) and a great cheesy veggie dish with broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms and carrots.


Thursday: Chinese food, but homemade. If you want to come for diner, thursday is the night to do it. Ginger beef, chicken pad thai, broccoli and cashews, and ham fried rice. I really am a fan of the wok and making chinese food, its a ton of work, a ton of prep and puts into perspective how unhealthy it is, but I think doing it at home you are able to make a few changes to help with the calories.

Friday: Hopefully Date night, If not it will be leftover night :)

Saturday: Birthday party= Subway or something else that feeds 13 5 year olds. Right now Brody is all for subway.

Sunday: Cheesy corn chowder, in the crock pot so its ready for us after church. Recipe from this blog. simplyyumfood.blogspot.com (Thanks Heather!)

Monday Monday

The good the bad and the ugly

GOOD:
New phone came nice and early- nothing special, just a warranty replacement but now hopefully it wont just turn off when it decides and I will actually be able to change my ringtone.

Finished reading ROOM, a good read, but didnt luv it.

Dad is coming! We have been doing the Papa countdown for a week, We are super excited to have him here and to put him to work. I always keep a nice running list for him. Devin is wonderful but just not really a do it yourself'er.

Menu for the week and matching grocery list is done. Am I the only one who finds this extremly hard?? Ill post the menu in a different lil box.

BAD
Not being able to stop reading ROOM and letting the kids watch too much tv and have snacks all over.  Oops. My punishment will be not starting another book anytime soon.

The weather. Im sick of snow. I spent a chunk of time looking for cheap beach vacations, they dont exist.

UGLY
Cheeba with spilled milk all over him, my problem is I just cleaned the bathrooms on Saturday- If I bathe him he will make the tub so gross. So im couting on the milk just eventually wearing off. Thats awful I know.

Heres the other ugly thing. I have been an all star exerciser, especially since my cool pal Allie intorduced me to this fat burning furnace thing, anyways, this morning I recieved ZERO luv from the scale. It probably needs new batteries right?

Pictures and a Blog Question

Brody and a sculpture worthy of museum display (according to him) These things are called connectagons and should come with a "highly addictive" warning. If they are out I waste a ton of time building.

Zane and his headlamp. One day he refused to take it off- at all. So off we trugged to smiths, headlamp still in place. Understanding Mothers smiled, non parents looked at me like I was an idiot.



Question:
How do I add a playlist to my blog? Or even just one song? I searched it but the answers just confused me.

Birthday Sneak Peak

Ok so aside from the actual kid, on my list of why having kids is great is TOYS. Oh boy, I love toys. Here is what Brody is getting from us for his big FIVE. I can hardley wait. It holds 200lbs, come on over, you can have a ride too.

Making our Blog world Debut

Hmm.. where to even begin? So my biggest motivation to doing a blog is because I am not a scrapbooker, or much of  picture taker for that matter, but im thinking that one day I might regret my current habits (or lack of) of keeping record of our everyday life, because most of the time its pretty stinking great. So for the sake of record keeping: Brody will be 5 in about a week, Zane is 2, Dev is great and works hard, and I count my lucky stars all the time of how great things are. Because they really are.

Ok so our Saturday has been pretty low key, we did go check out a place in Etown called Don Maria's for a mexican lunch- note to self; Restraunts in basements are very cold. Then we went to our super cool Western store and i scored these for the kids for a great deal! Usually 39.95, got them for 15$. That was fun.