Oops

Oops that I haven't been a good blogger. 

Boys won awards for 1st quarter in school. Zane's was for math and Brody for Reading. 

Smarty pants. 

One day Max and Brody were twinners at school, completely unplanned. That was fun. 

We made it thru halloween.. Way more successful then last year! Still not my favorite, and Pres should have been a gnome and refused and was some sort if mermaid princess. I just went with it. We did pumpkins with our fave people and  scary haunted houses and rang doorbells for treats and skipped LAME trunk or treats. 

Then little miss Press turned THREE

And was spoiled

We went to Pocatello and celebrated with cousins- and typical me, no pics. I can't seem to take pics when there is a lot of people of a lot of things going it. Picture taking in those moments is so overwhelming.. So.. Sorry. Any one else get pics of that weekend?? 

Three year old pictures. In her Well Dressed Wolf boho Maddie. I note this only because it's like winning the lotto to actually get one of these dresses. I have a friend with a magic computer. Lucky me :) 

One day me and Preslie spent the bulk of the day organizing lego for the boys. Like a lot of good ideas in my life, I learned it from Allie. I highly recommend it. Our lego hours are way up and so are projects. 

We took selfies because we like each other 

Treat Friday cupcake party. Our most favorite people are moving. It's pretty awful and sad for us. Thank goodness they are going somewhere cool and we have big plans of visits. A lot. Maybe every weekend. For treat Friday. 

We bid farewell to Charles. :( 

But this guy was so happy! 

Went to Pocatello for Thanksgiving and rollerblading. Fun times! 

Pres had her first ever dance show on the big stage. It was epic. (Zane's favorite word)

Thank goodness for dance professionals to show us how to get dance hair. 

After this pic, we made a potty run :)

Ok- so what I'm about to post is going to come with a lot of judgement.

I am not really a pageant mom, I'm not going to become one, I probably feel the exact same way as you do about beauty pageants and what they portray and all of that. I have seen little miss sunshine, and honey booboo. 

None the less- this happened. And it was really fun, and I'm grateful that Preslie had no idea what was going on other then the fact that she got to get dressed up like Cinderella and hang with some big kids who love her to bits. 

That being said- she cleaned house! 

Princess Dress fashion walk and interview. 

Judges: where do you live? 

Preslie: in a house :)

Judges: do you have a favorite food? 

Preslie: sprinkles. And apples. 

Judges: what do you want to be when you grow up? 

Preslie: a miss and a princess. 

Little miss pre-teen and little miss christmas fairy tale and little miss christmas beauty. She also got crowned for overall beauty and best smile, talent, presentation, best hair (really?!) and most photogenic. It was fun. And now if anyone needs a giant Christmas tree crown, you know where you can find one. We could proceed to the next level- she won a scholarship for the state level- but I think our pageant days are over. 

I think that's it. Countdown to Zane's Birthday and Christmas!!! 

Charlie

You are either a dog person or you have a dark soul.

Ok, that might be a bit of an over exaggeration..

However, I am a definite dog person.

I had Cheeba long before Dev and I got married, and it was definitely a blended family and Dev was required to marry and love us both. And Cheeba had to go thru all necessary steps of becoming ok with the new man in my life. I won't even get into Cheebas state of mind when Brody was born, but I will admit that I asked the vet about anti-depressants and a dog therapist to help with the transition. Cheeba was my first baby. Judge me all you want.

So anyways, a few days ago I was trying to figure out what to get everyone for Christmas- I came across an adorable ad for French bulldog puppies. A DOR ABLE. So I took a picture of the ad, and posted it on my Moms facebook account, telling her that I was getting Dad a puppy for Christmas. To my ultimate surprise, she replied something along the lines of "I don't want a puppy, I'm a dark souled puppy hater, but if your father wants a puppy, fine" what?!! That was a total green light for operation puppy for christmas! I called my Dad and said "do you want a puppy for christmas??" And he said "YES" so then I said "AWESOME! This particular puppy is really exspensive, want to pitch in on your own Christmas presents??" :) and he did. So much for the element of suprise. 

So I bought an 11 week old French bull dog- my Dad already had a name picked out. 

Saint Charles Barkely the Third.

We call him Charlie. 

Or Charles. 

Or Charles in Charge.

Or Puppy fart

Or pup pup

Or snuggle pup

Or lazy loo

Or a variety of other ridiculous things.

 He is so cute. And lazy. And rolly. And a definite puppy. We are puppy sitting until around Thanksgiving when we can make the great puppy exchange. 

The first night home we got Charlie all fed, took him out numberous times in our effort to potty train, set him up with a nice soft bed, and per puppy expertise books, kenneled him off to a confined area. And we went to bed. 

Sort of.

A few minutes after lights out Charlie was very sad. Very very sad.

Dev and I laid in bed and had this conversation.

Me: maybe he's hungry?

Dev: he's fine, you just fed him, let him cry it out"

Me: he's so sad. Maybe he needs to go to the bathroom?

Dev: take him out then

Me: I took him out last time

Dev: I don't think he will settle down for me, he needs you. 

I stagger out of bed, let Charlie out, comfornt him, calm him down, sing him a song and put him back in bed.

He cries. 

And cries. And howls and cries. 

Dev: maybe he's cold? 

Me: I might just go get him and put him in bed with us

Dev: no! He needs to learn. Let him cry it out. He's fine.

I wake up again and make sure it's warm enough. I decide it's not, so I move his whole ensemble of stuff into the bathroom, heat up a rice bag, and turn the drier on for some white noise soothing. Calm him down, and sit beside him until he is mostly asleep. 

I wake up 3 times in the night to tend to his cries.

The next day I am exhausted. 

Welcome to parenthood. 

Again. 

It's funny right? So insane and ridiculous that it is funny.

So anyways, if I'm looking a little rough, it's because I'm a brand new mama with a new born. We are trying to establish a schedule and routine and it's hard! 

Oh puppy parenting. 

A few good men

Actually I mean blog readers-

If you are a regular blog checker, you are a dying breed I think. And you should just jump on the world of Instagram :) I think I've blogged but in actuality I just posted it on Instagram and then I just get confused about what I have and haven't posted. And instead of quality worthwhile blogging I just dump all my pics. Like I'm about to do now. 

They are hilarious. All of them. 

Watched some cars smash into eachother

Gave a total green light on how late they wanted to stay up. 1:30 am for the big kids. 

Our new thing is tea parties 

Really out of order- but potty training is COMPLETE! I will never change a stinky diaper until I am a grandma. No more diaper bags. No more diaper buying. We had a party and an undie shopping spree.

Caught some fish bare handed- went to some rodeos...

Went to Jackson and stayed in a fancy hotel, ate a lot of food, did all the touristy stuff, soaked up the sun, used a real atlas with Brody as the navigator, took the really really really long way home :) 

Great weekend! 

A hiking we will go... 

Sometimes no more babies is sad- but then I have moments of HOLY AWESOME! This was another one. P hiked mirror lake. No stroller, baby backpack, sling, child toting device. That was happy. 

So pretty! 

Homecoming, lunch dates... 

Candy catching, and Brody was on the football float in the parade. He thought he was a cool dude. 

Cute pics of Pres

September was a lot of this. Brody had an awesome first football season, a really super, ideal, coach who just taught them so much about teamwork and hard work and doing your best and to recognize what it feels like to be successful in direct relation to the effort you put out. The guy should write books. It was an awesome exciting season. 

Some games were a bit cold...

He likes orange. And some mornings we ride bikes to school. Our school that is very very far away.. 

"First Magician" says Preslie. She's in dance a few days a week and LOVES it. 

Last day of the farmers market. It was so nice outside! And they had a bunch of fun stuff to do- so I yanked the boys early from school and we soaked it up. 

Things I don't want to forget- neither of my boys will wear jeans. When will this change? Preslie loves shoes that use to be Zane's. Or anythig of his. These converse are her "Zaneys too smalls" and her first choice. 

Farewell September. You were a really great month.