frogs, snails, and puppy dog tails

The other night as I climbed into bed, I was surprised with a snake under my pillow! It was meant to scare but it made me laugh. It also made me think of all the little things like this that make me love having boys.

As frustrated as I get constantly tripping over bikes, skateboards, pirate ships, nerf guns, superheroes, etc, etc, these are the things I love and will certainly miss one day.

I love reaching in my purse and pulling out bouncy balls, silly bandz, hotwheels and random happy meal toys.

I love pulling clothes out of the washer and finding rocks, pennies and whatever else my boys think they need to put in their pockets.

These are the little things make me smile.

As much as I would love to do cute pigtails and bows, it's nice not having to do hair in the morning. Every once in a while when bed-head attacks, a quick spray and comb-through is all it takes.

As much as I would love to buy pink and lace and princess things, I love buying camo pants, tony hawk belts, skater shoes, and supercool boy shirts.

As much as I would love to get down on the floor and play barbies and my little pony, I love to get down and play pirates, batman, and legos. (And they do come down and craft with me once in a while!)

As much as I would love having my little princess to dress up, spoil and paint her toenails, I LOVE having my two rambunctious, sometimes out-of-control boys and couldn't imagine it any other way.

(my green boys on st. patty's day)

Kindergarten checkup

I can't believe my baby is getting ready to start Kindergarten!

On Friday, I took him in for his Kindergarten checkup. Here are his stats:

*46.5 inches tall! (95th percentile)

*48 pounds (80th percentile) he's a bean pole.

*20/20 vision in both eyes (I'm crossing my fingers that neither of our kids get my vision, 'cause it sucks!)

Here are a few development recommendations from the pediatrician for 5 year olds:

-skips, can walk on tiptoes and jumps forward

Zach definitely does this and more! He's a wild child.

-throws a ball overhand

Holy crap can he do this. I've said before he's amazing at almost every sport!

-washes and dries hands and brushes teeth unassisted

He usually dries his hands on his shirt but I guess I'm glad he's washing them.

-can state his age

If you ask him, he will tell you he's 5 and a quarter. :)

-has a vocabulary of six to eight word sentences

I LOVE the way he talks. He's definitely developed his vocabulary and he's still got that young kid sound that I just love.

-can copy a triangle from a picture

He does okay here. He's a lefty so I think it'll take a little longer to get this one perfected.

-draws a person with a head, body, arms and legs

He drew the cutest little skateboarder with a body, arms, legs and even a hat. I'll have to dig that one up, it's super cute.

-understands right and wrong, fair and unfair

Understands? Yes. Practices? Not all the time. :) This is the kid that is constantly saying "that's way no fair!" to which I keep reminding him that life isn't always fair.

-understands that games have rules

Understands them but isn't always happy about them. What kid is when he's not winning? :)

It also says that their appetite should be much better. His appetite for sweets is ginormous! But he's a super picky eater right now like his mom. :) And he's always been a sugar addict. Also, like his mom. :)

And he's been limping around for the last three days (when it's convenient for him) because he got 4 shots to update his immunizations. He was so brave and didn't even cry (the 4 suckers afterward helped). I carried him around for a bit on Friday and that really set myself up for him milking it for 3 days. I think we're good now though.

He is so excited to finally get to go to school! And luckily, he gets to go with his brother. (We were worried about not being able to get him in too because apparently, we aren't the only ones around here that aren't comfortable with the local elementary.) And I think he's gonna be one cool kindergartener..

love notes

Oh, my boy is growing up!! In the past Karter has always been embarrassed if a girl liked him or we teased him about liking girls. But TODAY he told me he has a girlfriend! She's a cutie named Cassidy and she wrote him some love notes:

-I love you boyfriend you are so good to me

-I stil Love you Karter vere much Karter

-Dont tall Kalbe (Kaleb)

-or I can tell Kalbe that i stile Love you. Katerte shoud I?

I was so proud to see that he is good to her. I asked him about it and he said "well, she's my girlfriend." Well, duh. He also told me they kissed on the lips today. I'm not sure what to say to that. Is 7 too young for that?! I'm sure the answer is yes but I just think it's so cute!

it's Karter's turn

Last week, Rich’s parents took the boys to the Union Station in Ogden for little train expo thing. I didn’t go but I can tell from the pictures that they had the most fun!

When they got home I asked Karter if he had fun and he replied in a very matter-of-fact tone “of course I did, mom.” When I laughed at him he said “well, you know I like trains.”


And boy does he! At 7 ½ this kid still LOVES Thomas the Tank and any other type of train. He has a documentary on trains that he will watch over and over. He can tell you little nit-noid facts about trains that even surprise the guys giving the tours at these expos.


At times, he IS a train. He props his little arms and a 90 degree angle by his sides and off he goes, making chugging noises along the way. This will attract some weird looks sometimes but it is hilarious.


He is the most imaginative kid around. And that’s what I love most about him.


He’s also into elephants (still! since before age 2 he’s been obsessed!), pirates, dinosaurs, Scooby Doo and Phineas & Ferb.


THESE are the things he pretends to be most of the time. He alternates, but he is usually acting like one (sometimes two) of these things. And he’s good at it! I’m convinced he’ll be an actor one day.


He’s also an amazing little artist. He LOVES to draw and craft.


He really is very good at drawing- his teacher tells us all the time. She gets to see this on his school work- he draws everywhere!


He will cut out bunches of tiny pieces of paper (much to my dismay since most of them end up on the floor..) and five minutes later he has glued, stapled or taped them together to create the coolest things.

(Shaggy is pieced together from paper and look at the rabbit's leg- that kid pays attention to detail!)

I really cannot believe this super creative kid is mine. He is absolutely amazing!


And I love that he can entertain himself for hours!


He is very tender-hearted. He tears up easily and always says the sweetest things.


He still gives me hugs and kisses when I drop him off in the morning and is always happy to see me. I’m so happy that he’s not embarrassed of his mom- yet…


He likes to snuggle on the couch and watch 30 Rock, American Idol and Glee with me. He actually asks to watch these shows and one day he told me he wanted hair “like Jack Donaghy’s.”


He likes to shop (now that he gets from me!). He asks me often if we can go to the mall to “buy some stuff.” Last fall I took him to buy some stuff and he picked out the coolest outfit for school pictures.

Most days he’ll just throw on jeans and a t-shirt but when he puts a little effort into it, he’s got style. :)


He’s such a friendly kid- he makes good friends wherever he goes. But he has told me a few times that I am his best friend. Doesn’t get much sweeter than that!

Zach ramblings..

I know I wanted to blog more this year and I haven't kept that resolution very well. But my life just isn't that exciting and we are SO busy all the time.


I did, however, get to spend Friday with my kids and we had so much fun. They made me laugh all day long.
Zach and I took Karter to school in the morning and then ran some errands in our jammies. When it came time to go pick Karter up, Zach didn't want to get dressed and insisted it was okay since he'd "already been to the store in his jammies."
After some discussion, he did change and we picked Karter up and headed to the Air Force museum (they'd been asking to go for quite some time). We only had a short time so we did a quick run-through and then spent some time in the gift shop.

Next up was the dollar store. I don't know why I keep giving into that. As cool as it is, the toys they get there almost always break the same day. The toy Zach got broke in the car IN the dollar store parking lot! And later, one of his other toys happened to break as well and he exclaimed to me "Why do all my toys get broken?!"


We had to run a couple more errands and then pick up Dad which meant way too much time in the car. The boys got VERY rowdy, as boys tend to do. And although part of me was screaming "QUIET!" most of me was just laughing at them having a good time with each other. I love that they are good friends (for the most part..). At one point Zachary actually ended up crying (after several times faking it) and then through his sobs, he started singing 'Hey Soul Sister' which was playing on the radio. It was a had-to-be-there moment but it cracked me up!!


Zachary is my stubborn, difficult child but man, he has been making me laugh so much lately. Here are a few recent Zach quotes:


"I didn't know clowns could cry."


"Ewwwww, Richard!" -after a gross boy noise Rich made :) Yes, my son calls us by our first names. 


"Hey, it's Tracy Jordan." -when the All State commercial came on. I know it seems terribly racist that I find it humorous that my kid thinks all black people look alike but I'm really not, I swear.


"How about Dad does all the work?" -to me while lying on the couch with a migraine. Sounds good to me!


"It's because I farted." -after anyone says something is stinky. Typical boy...


"Look, I can run faster 'cause I don't have as much hair!" -the day we did his annual mohawk.

He is constantly making me laugh, even sometimes when I shouldn't be. He is the coolest little kid, I love the personality he's developed. He's into skateboards and bikes and super heroes, loves playing with water for some reason and is a bit of a punk at times. He loves money (got that from his mom)- he loves to earn it and then spend it as soon as he can. He is for sure my wild child and always has to be moving, ALWAYS. He cannot sit still, he just can't do it.

We're working on his writing skills and he often writes his name backwards. We think he might be dyslexic, which will be an interesting adventure come school time.


He is and always has been such an adventurous, daring kid. He'll try anything (except food- he's super picky) and he picks things up fast. He learned to ride his bike without training wheels at 3 and now loves to try to do tricks on his bike and skateboard. He is amazing at any sport he tries. He's a lefty but throws a perfect spiral with a small football, he can hit a baseball pretty far and always gets right under the ball with his mitt instead of shying away from it, he can dribble a basketball- he's gonna be our sports kid for sure.

It seems odd to think that we didn't plan to have a second kid (at least not when we did) but I'm so glad we did. I told Rich if we had waited until we were ready for a second, I don't think we would have. And I can't imagine our lives without him.

the good and the bad

The good news is I am done peeling and my face isn't itchy or uncomfortable anymore.

The bad news is now that all the tight skin is peeled away, I can't tell a difference. Not one bit.

(The only thing that's different are my ridiculously short eyelashes.)

Day 4

This picture is actually from day 2. And it doesn't even do it justice- it's much redder (well not now but that night it was) and so tight. I look a bit like a burn victim. I took this right after I washed it and there was no ointment on it. It was so dry and my face looked (and felt) really freaky.

Oh, and notice my eyelashes. They are no longer. Well, most of them- I'm such an idiot. I realized that the ointment was getting on the ends of my lashes so I tried to trim them. Yeah, it went badly.

 Right now, it's peeling like crazy and my kids keep telling me how weird my wrinkly face looks. Karter is very concerned, this morning he asked if we should take me to the doctor. Sweet, funny kid.  

Speaking of, we got our pottery back on Saturday. They look really cool and the kids are so excited.

I think that's blood on the mouth, very realistic.

 Zach's skateboard that he wants to make into a necklace.

 Rich with his mug. That creature on the front is a crazy chinchilla (I think it started out as a monkey). There's also a toucan and an elephant.

 And this morning! So much snow! That sneaky little groundhog tricked us.

 Rich went out and built a snowcave for the kids.

Karter is escaping from a bear that has apparently set up camp in there. Those feet would be Zachary's standing on top of the cave.What else?

 And this is my coffee table today. It looks similar to this most days. Add some tape and scissors, maybe some glue and little pieces of cut up paper all over the floor. As frustrated as I get with the constant mess, I love my little artist. :)



Happy, snowy Sunday!