Perfect. Just Perfect



There are moments that it seems like every single star aligns and things are PERFECT!

Brody had an entire day of perfection.

One on one time with each of the kids has been a big deal to me, and it seems that its easier for me to find that time with each of our children and not as easy for Devin. He really has to plan to make it happen. So that's what he did. He took a day off from work, Brody had the day off from school. They loaded up and headed off to Soldier Hollow in Heber for tubing. Look how fun this is! They limit how many riders go in a time slot so you don't have to wait endlessly in line, AND the best part, you don't have to hike up the hill, they tow you! Yahooo!

They both LOVED it.

PS- I don't know these people, I needed to find a pic of the tow rope :)

Next stop was the Dairy Keen in Heber. Also super cool with model trains that are running around the entire restaurant.

Then they headed to Park City, stopped at Whole Foods, Brody seriously loves Whole Foods. Not even kidding.

Next on the list.

Star Wars in 3-D!!! In the Fancy Park City theater.

So glad this was checked off the list by Devin, I am not fan.

And just when the day couldn't get any more perfect....

Brody lost his FIRST tooth on the way home!!

He came home SO thrilled with how awesome his day was. Then he carefully took that tiny tooth and sealed it an envelope. The tooth fairy had a hard time finding it.. but when she did she left him a "Score Card"

Age- 5 = 5$
Tooth whiteness 10= 50 cents
Tooth Cleanliness 9= 50 cents (this was to encourage even better bushing, hes really good about it already
First Lost Tooth Bonus= 1$
Total Tooth Value 7$

Happy Day of Extra Love!

Oh the love.

love to the kids. fancy cupcakes, cards with cash and balloon time!

love to friends.  (ps- check out the peaceable kingdom valentines and things- a new fave!!)

love to teachers. so much love that one even cried then brody cried and we had to explain happy tears.

love 'to lily. my best friend that is a girl. frum brody' and we sent them to her at her school.

all his idea. so sweet.

love for red and pink and balloons

love for cookie decorating. its says zane but actually it was me

love for card cash. he also had on a special red shirt but it didnt last long

dev got me a new IHome and i LOVE it. i got him 2 watches. well not really, he might have actually already had them but i got them up and running with new bands and batteries and links taken out so they fit right. :)

We had a fancy supper with fancy friends. it was a great day!

Happy love day y'all!

Start your engines!

Sewing machines have some kind of engine right?
Well thats im getting at with the title anyways.

Last night was girly craft night- which we did craft but also watched some waiting for guffman, laughed and laughed and didnt leave until after midnight. But look at these little gems.

Oh man the cuteness. The ruffles and fabric are splendid.

This pushed my sewing skills just a bit, and these are far from perfect, but they stay on P's feet very well and they are soft and cozy and so cute!

This shows the actual color a bit better. 

I feel a bootie binge coming on.

And heres the extra cool thing, total materials cost under 8$. For all of it.

Here's the blog the pattern and instructions came off.

http://emilys-little-world.blogspot.com/2011/11/lessons-learned-cute-handmade-baby.html

iPhone blogging!

Who knew?! Oh I'm thrilled. In trying to figure it out I think I deleted my diet post- don't take it the wrong way- the healthy eating is still happening - and I even added water aerobics twice a week (and no it's not just for the elderly) and lap swim. I also added an app called lose it! And thats been eye opening- its essentially a calorie counter- it makes me a tad grumpy- like when I think I'm putting a healthy snack of strawberries and frozen yogurt and it tells me it's 289 calories- rude! I was shooting for like 120. I suppose its helpful.

Some highlights- Grandma and Grandpa Mecham came for a visit and we got to celebrate Grandpa's birthday! This is probably their last Evanston trip for a bit as they have submitted their papers to go on a mission! Fingers crossed they get called somewhere cool so we can have a visit-vacation :) Super excited for them and so grateful for the example they set for our kids.  It sparked some mish talk around the house and Zane informed us he was going to serve a mission in Pocatello- at Outer Limits!! So  excited about it. Brody says he would like to go to the jungle.. or Caldwell ID or to Henderson park in Canada.



Things have been super busy- Brody is in swimming lessons and has also conquered the "test" so that he is now able to go down the slides- the test is that you have to jump into the deep end and swim the width of the pool un-assisted all the way across, and real swimming, not a productive dog paddle. Pretty big monument in the life of a 5 year old. Zane is doing kinderkamp a few times a week and loving it. We are still doing co-op preschool and kindergarten help and I seem to be at the school an awful lot, either having lunch with Brody or we go play at recess with them, last week we brought snow paints for the kids and it was a big hit.

He LOVES his baby sister so much. Its delightful.

At the pool. I hope Preslie shares his demand for modesty, the kid wont even go swimming without a shirt.

Potion making with his friend Jackson. I get out a ton of random ingredients and left overs and odds and ends of things and let them go for it. They LOVE this. It ends up being soo soo smelly, this one consisted of left over tuna salad, old bananas, spaghetti and then the usual vinegar, baking soda (to make it fizz) and plops of other cooking ingredients. Fun times boys. Dare ya to taste it. But not really. Because they might.

Cute Brody is turning into handsome big Brody. I don't appreciate this whole growing up thing. I wish never never land was real.

The other day I was downstairs, Zane was up and down and I had the baby monitor on and hear this:

"Oscar- come here boy, its ok, I just need to put this tie on you so you look nice"

Poor poor dog. He really tolerates the kids so well.



 This cute bum is a common sight, Zane decided that he was going to be potty trained and hasnt had a single accident. Not one. But its been a bit of a battle getting clothes back on after he goes.

Fun with friends.

Most days I feel like living with Zane is best compared to living with a deaf raccoon on speed. He really doesn't listen and hes into everything and doesn't stop moving. And hes got a bit of a temper on him. Love the kid and am most days enjoying this chaotic stage that he is in-reminding myself it wont last forever and because its funny. Some recent antics are making instant oatmeal in the middle of the night all by himself, trying to pop popcorn all by himself, screaming for 20 minutes because I cleaned up his pee off the toilet seat and not him and it was his mess! He has an opinion on everything! ( I take full blame for that) what he wears especially. Right now its only mario pajamas that are way too small, his 'banana' shirt (the infamous orange stripe shirt is gone, thank goodness!- that was tricky to do) and any variety of cozy pants. So if you run into us and think to yourself that Zane looks a little random and maybe even slightly homeless, don't judge me.

Preslie is THREE months!

Wow.

She has decided to poop every three days only, and she has mastered the blow out. Wow. She will be thrilled to read back on this im sure.

So every 3 days I put her in a less then favorite outfit, pack a ton of wipes and extra clothes and wish for the best.

She is a joy and really such an easy baby. Sleeping wonderfully and just smiles all the time.

Mean Mom

That's what I got called today. By my soon to be six year old. And I totally did not deserve it. I'm taddling.


Here's the skinny. Brody has had a 4 day weekend- I was really wanting to the flee the country but decided I better stay put. We have had fun- its been like the good ol days of just being home. Somewhere Brody has developed this fascination with star wars- so I finally embraced it this weekend and we watched the last 3 movies which are actually the first 3 right? And I learned that Annikan Skywalker is a boy, it's a light saber- not saver and I brushed up on my Jedi facts. We made a cool blanket fort and had a geek marathon and drank Yoda soda and even made a "Force" cake. I'm documenting this to prove my lack of bad -mom ness. Anyways- we pretty much did kid stuff all weekend and we were all happy.


The boys have chores. Small chores. Zane feeds and waters the dogs and cleans off the kitchen table and chairs. Brody empties all the garbages in the house and also cleans the mirrors in the bathrooms and vacuums. They both put away their clean clothes and have to clean their room together. I dont have set days they have to have these done by- when it needs doing I ask them and they are pretty good about it. (ps- another plea to my case- these are the "fun" chores in my book!)
So anyways yesterday I told them chores needed to be done- it didn't happen- they were playing great together and honestly I sort of forgot about them too. Well this morn I told them at breakfast that it could be a super fun day but chores HAD to be done first. I got the supplies out for them- they ran off. My niceness and patience was really wearing off. My friend asked if we wanted to swim- heck yes we did! I rounded up the lost boys and told them the deal. Chores then swimming. Excitement! We had about 45 mins until swim time. I showed them the cleaning supplies and set the timer for swim leave time and told them I wasn't going to hound. Chores needed to get done now. Well they didn't do them. I even reminded them IN my swimsuit to make the point. They just didn't do them.


We didn't go swimming.


Oh the tears. The fits of heartache and rage and unjust! It was truly a dramatic event. But gosh darn it JUST DO IT!


Brody was super duper sad and mad. He told me I was mean and not nice and a bad mom. Ouch. Really. I think that was really the first time he said mean things to me about me.


The dynamic duo finished their fits in their rooms and then guess what? They did their stinking chores!!


I think a family that works together plays together. Work hard -play hard ( I learned that from my Dad) and gosh darn it I will not have useless bums for kids!


When I went in to talk to the boys about the worst morning of their life (direct quote) Brody seriously said to me that the only reason I even wanted kids was to make them do chores. Hehehehe. I told him I use to think the only reason my parents wanted me was to make me weed flower beds.


Then I blabbed about how I was happy I had to work growing up because now I know HOW to work! He didn't care. But one day I think they might thank me.

Brody the storm trooper.

Zane pouting

Cute baby smiles

A self portrait taken by Brody.

He really does like me. I know it.

Sweet Moments

 There is something astounding about the love between siblings. It is closer then the best of friends and unique to itself. These two are rascals but I know that Brody would do anything for Zane- and that Zane, in his 3 year old capacity would do the same for his big brother. Oh to be a mother. It is in these sweet moments that I could not be happier with life.

    We took the kids to Disney on Ice last year. Here they are riding the trax. I think that co-ed friendships are brilliant. At least this one is. Its like the best ying and yang I have ever witnessed.(and they are darling)

  Well most of my days can be summed up wth this. There is laughter coming out of this pile of bodies and I'm pretty sure there is another bat somewhere in there.

This dude is potty trained! YAHOOO!

That being said, we have run into a few minor issues.

1- his theory is "big boys who pee in the potty always wear shorts" And that's exactly what he has been doing

2- "Big boys only go potty at home!" This is ok.. so far. But its not always going to be ok. Stay tuned.

So Preslie continues to be a wonderfully easy baby. We put her to bed between 8 and 9 and she sleeps until about 3 most nights, eats and goes back to bed. Well shortly after we came home from Idaho after Christmas I was up feeding her. When I get up, the dogs usually get up too, I let them out and then I just dont shut the door all the way, when they are ready to come in they push it open then I lock it back up. It makes it so I dont have to sit there waiting for them to come in.  So here I was feeding my wonderful baby,reflecting on Christmas and also the upcoming new year. Like most of us I was thinking about things I needed to improve or work on. It was overwhelming! Way too much room for improvment :) So I decided to pick 3. I chew my nails. It is gross. I know! So that was on my list. It needed to stop. I also decided that my life would be easier if I went to bed with my kitchen totally clean everynight. Ew. I hate dishes. I also hate a messy kitchen and the mornings are nuts so that was a good one. And of course the infamous #3, LOSE WEIGHT! ew. I hate that even more then a messy kitchen. But it needs to happen. So I sat there feeding Preslie in the middle of the night giving myself a pep talk about how to go about working on my just decided 3 goals. Well then the dogs came in. I had to get up and shut the door. When I sat back down I had a brain wave! I needed to teach those dogs how to CLOSE the door after they came in! It would be easy enough, they would just need to come in and then push it the other way just like they do when they come in. I was so excited. Small note, Cheeba is 9 and Oscar is 5, so ya ya you cant teach an old dog new tricks, but I was really stoked about this. I was still feeding the baby. Well 4 things on my list is really just too much right. Something has to give. So... well mentally I decided that the whole lose weight was going to be nicely replaced with teach my old dogs how to shut the door. Thats right. I would rather spend my time working with my old dogs, one who is probably mentally delayed as far as dogs are concerned, teaching them how to shut the door then lose weight. Hmm. I might need to work on my attitude :)

Happy New Year!

Princess P is 2 months!

 Two Months! And im still in awe. That probably wont ever go away, Im still in awe of my crazy boys.

Preslie continues to be such a joy in our lives. I cant really explain it but I feel so content and peaceful. Like all is right in my world. It is overwhelming at times the amount of love I have for Devin and our kids. Im especially grateful that we all healthy! I hope it stays that way.

 Still so cute even bawling.

 At her 2 month check up she weighed 10lbs 12 oz and was in the 35% for weight