2 Saturdays, 2 Birthday Parties WHAT??

Every January, I mention the extended birthday situation we have here. I mention it because it's traumatic for me. We just get done with Christmas, and 11 days later it's time to start shopping and planning again. I'm not one who loves to plan parties or events. I see these pictures online of people who pretty much plan a wedding reception for their 1-year old's birthday party, and I need a Valium. 

My purpose for documenting this is that I would like to congratulate us on giving Anders and Addie birthday parties on back to back Saturdays. Good job, us. 

Anders' birthday was just a couple of days after the kids went back to school from Christmas break, so he wouldn't have had enough time to pass out invitations at school. We were able to do evites to all his friends, which actually worked out great. 

We had the boys come over for lunch- pizza, what else?

We played Minute-to-Win-it games. It was fun for about 15 minutes, which was problematic, because that's pretty much all we had planned for activities. Heh-heh.

We made a Minecraft cake, due to Anders' obsession with the game. No one was all that impressed with the cake. We tried, okay?

After cake and presents, we still had about 20 minutes until parents started coming, so all the boys gathered together to play Minecraft on our phones, Kindles and iPad. They were all linked together and totally into it, and Nils and I just sat on the couch and shrugged our shoulders.

Anders had a great time and was very happy. Mission accomplished.

The next week it was Addie's turn. Nils made the invitations cuz he's got the skillz. I told him what to say, and he did the rest. Cute, eh?

We had dinner- Hawaiian haystacks, which is Addie's all-time favorite food. 

Then we tried to watch a movie, which we rented from Amazon online. It didn't work. I don't know if it was our internet connection, our TV, or if Amazon's streaming service just isn't that great, but it would play for 30 seconds and freeze up. So annoying.  BUT! Shrinky Dinks to the rescue! We pulled out those suckers, and that kept the girls occupied for over an hour. Tons of fun.

When the girls were done with shrinky dinks, they ran around the house screaming and having pillow fights. Again, we just looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders.

When I asked Addie what kind of cake she wanted, she said, "Um, could I maybe have a rectangle cake with those candy letters on it?" I was like, "Yes. And you are my favorite child right now." 

I resurrected Heavy Heavy Hangover Thy Poor Head. No one knew what this was. Please tell me you know what this is. The birthday kid has to wish something for each guest after they bonk her on the head with their present. 

We got Addie a new bike, which she can look forward to riding in three months. Ah, the joys of a January birthday. 

By the time the end of Addie's party came, I felt great relief, and we collapsed in bed about 30 minutes later. 

I'm thankful for Anders and Addie. They're great kids. They get along really well and are good friends; I hope that continues forever. Both of their rooms are downstairs, and when I go to wake them up in the morning, more often than not they're both sleeping in the same room. They like to write stories together (Addie is the author and Anders is the illustrator). They like doing crafty junk together and make incredible messes. They both like the same silly books, like Captain Underpants and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and will read those and laugh and laugh. 

They're also crazy and drive me nuts sometimes, but mostly I love them.

Yes it was manipulation, but it was totally worth it.

Two things:

1. Addie hasn't told us she loves us in about three years.

2. We (Nils and I) decided about a month ago that we are ready to get a dog.

Long story short on #1, when I had Ava, Addie had a really hard time and was mad at me. She stopped telling me she loved me. This was, of course, horrifying to me and I took it personally and tried to pyscho-analyze her and define love for her, etc. etc. Over the last few years it has spread from me to everyone else. It probably sounds awful, but it's been long enough that now it's practically a family joke. Addie is a fantastic kid. She's sweet, funny, smart, largely cooperative, cuddly and extremely stubborn. This is a child that can't be forced or bribed. If I want to know how her day was, I can't ask her because she won't tell me. But, if she's sitting at the table or helping me while I'm cooking dinner, she'll talk my head off and I'll find out lots and lots of details.

So, Addie doesn't say "I love you", but she will say, "I really, really like you". Whatevs. We take what we can get. We look forward to the day that she realizes breaking her stubborn streak won't kill her.

#2 We bought a puppy. The litter is now about 4 weeks old, so it won't be ready to come live with us until mid-January. We decided to wrap up some dog paraphernalia and have the kids unwrap it as a Christmas surprise. Nils and I have been very excited, and it was hard to keep it a secret, but we managed, sorta. We have made it abundantly clear over the years that we will not be getting a dog anytime soon, so this was a big deal.

On Christmas Eve, we were making gingerbread cookies and enjoying a general festive day. My recollection is fuzzy, but time stood still when Nils said, "Hey Addie, if you tell us you love us, we'll get a dog." I backed him up right away and said, "We will. We will totally get a dog."

Oh, it was chaos and mayhem. I thought Addie's head was going to explode with internal conflict. Anders was begging her, "Addie, PLEASE! PLEASE say it!" Aani was saying over and over, "I love you guys! I love you!!" Addie was like, "I don't know. I don't know if I can", with a huge smile on her face. The power.

She and Anders went downstairs to practice, where she reportedly said it to the wall. She came upstairs with a note that said something along the lines of, "I guess I'll say I love you I guess." We told her it didn't count.

Back downstairs to practice. She came up a few minutes later and acted like someone who was having a stroke. "Ah luh-luh-luh-luh-luh. Ah-luh-luh-luh-luh-luh-luh." That went on for quite sometime. About 45 minutes into this we got a little squeaky, "I luh-luh-luh-luh-luhv you?" while she was hiding behind the couch. We were like, seriously child, if you want a DOG, you need to say, "I love you mom and dad" clearly and with volume, and it must not be a question.

At one point I muttered to Nils, "What are we going to do if she doesn't say it?" At any rate, she eventually said it to our satisfaction (after approximately an hour of painstaking stammering). She let us know that there better be a dog under the Christmas tree the next morning, but we one-upped her. We got all the dog stuff out and showed them a picture of our puppy.

This is our puppy. Her name is Pip.

They were confused. Then Anders said, "Wait, so you were going to give us a dog for Christmas anyway? ADDIE, YOU GOT TRICKED!" I covered his mouth and gave him a look of death, but it was too late. Addie was like, "We were getting a dog for Christmas? Oh. Okay, whatever." So that was that. They were excited and couldn't believe it. Ava looked really worried. We asked her if she was excited to get a dog, and she said, "The doggie's going to eat me?" After we assured her that the dog won't eat her, she was happy.

We got to take the kids to meet Pip the day after Christmas. Addie really was happy and just loved holding those puppies. 

In closing, I'd just like to say that manipulating your children is WRONG! But in this case, it was glorious to hear the words "I love you" out of Addie's mouth. And no, we never expect to hear them again. We're pretty much okay with being really, really liked.

Proof that we do stuff sometimes and take pictures

Nils built a bathroom in our basement over the last several months. We decided to bite the bullet and finish it.  The most glorious thing about having this bathroom is that we no longer have nightly scream fests from 4 kids  fighting over the same sink in our comically small kids' bathroom upstairs. Anyway, good job, Nils. 

The kids have taken to all sleeping in the same room lately. They've always sort of done this on and off, but we're a little surprised that all of them still do it, even the older 2. This night, Addie slept in Ava's bed and was happy as a clam being all scrunched up. Aani and Ava slept all night together in the recliner. Anders found a spot on the floor and was quite cozy.

 This was on election day, when I took these two to the school to vote and stood in line for over 2 hours. By the time it was my turn to vote, they were so frazzled and I was ready to go nuts. I can't even remember who  or what I voted for in a lot of the cases, I was in such a hurry to get out of there. 

 Halloween: Aani was a witch-bat, Addie a witch, Ava was Elmo, Anders a zombie soccer player. Because what else does a 9-year old boy want to be besides a zombie?

 Nils was a nerd for Halloween. I couldn't stop laughing. He's really, really good at it.

 I requested tickets for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert in, oh I don't know, September or October. I completely forgot about it, and then when I got an official looking envelope in the mail from the Church, I was a little bit scared that I was in trouble. I was thrilled to see that I got tickets! We got them for the Sunday morning concert. It was spectacular. Honest to goodness, those Mormons know how to put on a production. I cried more than once, and I've decided I have a disorder that makes me cry during live performances. It doesn't matter what it is, apparently; it can be a play at a high school, a program at the elementary school, or an amazing concert. I will cry, and I will try really hard to hide the fact that I'm crying. 

The best part of this morning was that Nils had a valid excuse to not go to meetings. 

You should go.

Two Lessons

#1

Sunday night we were in Orem having dinner at la casa de mi madre, and had a Redbox movie that needed to be returned. I'm not familiar with the Redbox locations in Orem, so I drove all the way from her house, on the Orem/Provo border, to 800 North searching for a dang Redbox. I finally found one at the 800 N. Walgreens. I jumped out of the van and returned the movie. Went to get back in the van and found myself locked out of it. It was running, lights on, my purse on the passenger seat, etc. I was mad and muttering Utah Mormon swear words under my breath. Oh my friggin' heck.

There was this lady standing at one of the machines looking for movies and I thought nothing of it. I went inside Walgreens so I could call someone to help me. I called Nils and asked him to call the police and ask them to send someone to come unlock the van. That took a few minutes, and when I went outside, the lady was still standing at the Redbox looking for movies. I was thinking, geez, how long does it take? I went back inside Walgreens to kill a few minutes, and when I came back out, she was STILL standing there looking for movies. Good grief, woman, I was thinking. I stood by my van, waiting for someone to come rescue me. A few more minutes passed, and the lady finally had her handful of DVDs and went to get in her Jeep, when I noticed her purse sitting on top of the Redbox machine. I said, "Is that your purse?" She ran back to get it, saying, "Oh my (expletive), thank you SO MUCH!" over and over, and, "God bless you!"

Then she said, "Hey, are you locked out?" I said, "Yeah, do you know how to break into cars?" Well, out jumps her husband and gets a car-breaking-into kit out of the back of his Jeep! The lady said, "We don't use this for illegal purposes, he's a maintenance man." Ha ha! The guy had the slim jim in the window, and up rolled a cop. I thought he was there for me, and the guy stopped and said, "I'm gonna let him do it, 'cause then he'll be liable for breaking anything." The lady ran over to the cop and asked if he was there to unlock my van. He said he was there for something else, but he unlocked the van in like 4 seconds anyway.

It was so weird. But I learned not to judge people who stand at the Redbox forever, because it could very well be that they would be willing to break into your car for you. Or go talk to cops for you. I was thankful for them. You just never know, ya know?

Oh, and Nils didn't call the cops, but he did show up just as I was backing out. He missed the whole thing.

#2

We've been in the process of refinancing our mortgage for about 3 months. We have done everything on our end that needs to be done, the loan officer has done everything on his end, and we have just been waiting and waiting while nothing has happened.

We seem to need somewhat regular lessons on having faith to pay tithing. We've had multiple instances of direct blessings coming from paying tithing. We always pay our tithing and have testimonies of it, but sometimes we forget a month and get behind and have to play catch-up. We had a  bit to catch up on, and I had a feeling that if I just had faith and paid the whole amount that the loan would go through. I wrote a check on Sunday, and today got an e-mail from the loan officer saying we can close this week. Coincidence? I think not.

Tithing=Blessings.

iPhone 5 Review (by someone who doesn't care)

A couple weeks ago I got an e-mail from Nils telling me that he bought my iPhone, as if that's all I had been talking about for weeks. Now, I could get into a long commentary about Nils and his tendency to be a bit of a phone slut, but I won't. Suffice it to say that he is.

We have had Android phones for the last year or so- the Samsung Galaxy SII. I liked that phone for a long time. It worked well, the battery lasted a long time, the screen was ginormous, it had Swype, a back button, etc. Then there was this horrible day in July when this mandatory system update happened on the phone, and it all went to crap. The phone was butt-slow and the battery power all but disappeared. If I had the 3G or 4G turned on, the battery would drain within 30-60 minutes; same with WiFi. It drove me nuts charging the phone 2 or 3 times a day, so I just stopped using the internet on the phone all together. Speaking of charging,  it took 2 or 3 hours for the phone to charge all the way- you know, so I could use it for a half hour.

Now, I don't know or care about all the specs on these devices, and when people start talking about gigs and whatnot, my eyes involuntarily glaze over and I start thinking about brownies or Sherlock. But what I do care about is things working. When things don't work, I start getting angry, sweaty and resentful. That's how I felt about my Galaxy SII for the last 4 months. I just think that when you pay hundreds of dollars for something, it should WORK and not be a piece of poo within a year.

Nils is very up to date on his Apple products, and he makes sure to inform me of the latest iEvents, but most of the time I'm not listening- but it's not by choice, I swear. I've known that for the last year or so that he was a little bit ashamed of his Android phone, but I'm proud that he actually kept the same phone for a year. But as soon as that one year contract was up, boy, he was at the Sprint store getting the iPhone 5 as fast as his feet could carry him.

So, here's my review of the iPhone 5: It's a lot like my Android phone when it worked. The differences I notice all the time are the lack of a back button, which I miss, and lack of Swype, which I also miss. I also hate the auto correct. Sometimes I spell words wrong on purpose, dang it. Stop correcting me all the time, iPhone!

I like the size, it's small enough that it fits in my pocket without being uncomfortable. The speakers are good, and the headphones it comes with are actually usable, as opposed to all other Apple headphones which were made for mutants. It's also really fast, so I can actually use the internet and not want to beat the phone with a baseball bat. The battery is pretty good, and it charges really fast; within an hour or so. I like it, but don't take my word for it, because I really don't know anything about this stuff.

The thing that drives me crazy about all these iThings is that they're obsolete within a few months, so people like my husband are never satisfied with what they have, thus resulting in constant iUpdates which I don't listen to, and plans to sell the "old" so he can get the new. The last part of this funny video sums up my feelings pretty well.

September's Post

Would you look at that, it's the last day of the month. You know what that means, right? It's time to do your visiting/home teaching! It also means that it's time for my monthly blog-a-rama.

First item of business: This whole kid thing is turning out to be quite time consuming. Those little whipper-snappers are busy people. I've never been a real proactive mom with extra-curricular activities. There are several reasons that are boring, but this year they're in stuff. Addie and Aani are in tumbling (which they love), Anders and Addie are taking piano lessons (which they love- What up Heather!), Anders has been doing soccer (oy), and signed up for the ballroom dance team at school. Seriously, who is this child? Here's what happened: a girl in his class wanted to be on the team, but for obvious reasons not many boys just go and sign up for the ballroom dance team. The girls who want to be on the team have to recruit a boy. This girl asked a few boys who said no, but Anders said yes. I was shocked when he told me. Anders gets embarrassed when I catch him singing along to the radio, so it's hard for me to imagine him dancing with a girl in front of an audience. It also means he can't be in chess club because they meet at the same time. So yeah, shockaroonie. But I'm excited to see his moves in a few months.

Anyway, life is busy, and someone always has to be somewhere. Callings are keeping us busy, kids are keeping us busy, and work keeps Nils busy 24/7. Back when he was in school, we used to dream about the day that he could come home from work and just be home. That is hilarious. I don't think that day will come ever. On a happy note, his job is going great and they're growing like crazy. They're up to 15 employees, yizz'all. Too legit to quit.

Alright, so I thought this was cool- for the last several months our ward has been building a temple out of popsicle sticks. Sticks were earned by temple attendance, indexing, having temple related FHEs, visiting temple grounds, writing in journals, having a picture of the temple in your room, etc. Everyone from primary kids on up participated. Over 2,000 sticks were used to complete it. Today the finished temple was revealed, and it's awesome! The High Priest Group Leader had this idea and did all of the work of collecting numbers and constructing it (with the help of primary kids on Sundays). What a great example of going the extra mile and helping inspire everyone to be excited about temple work. Super, super cool. Thank you, Bro. Galloway.

This is a pic of when we took the kids to the Draper temple so they could have a picture of themselves in front of a temple. They were being goofballs as usual. Anders was folding his hands on purpose in this picture to try and look pious and reverent while his sisters were being maniacs. Funny boy.

So in case you missed this on Facebook, Nils and our friend Dusty decided to take on the Sean's Smokehouse challenge this weekend. It is 8 hot wings covered in Ghost Chili sauce. Apparently, a ghost chili is the hottest chili on earth. The challenge is to eat all 8 wings- no wiping your face and no drinking. Then when you're done eating the wings, you have to sit for 5 minutes without drinking, wiping, barfing or dying. If you complete this challenge, you get your money back ($14) and get your picture on The Wall of Flame. Those who can't finish get their pictures on the Wall of Shame. 

Nils ate almost 5 wings before he almost passed out and puked in a bowl. He was sweating profusely, dripping snot, tears streaming down his face and shaking uncontrollably. Doesn't that sound like fun? He told me that it felt like an out of body experience. Yes, so does dying.

Good times at Sean's Smokehouse! But really, their food is delicious, so you should totally go there and get the food that doesn't kill you. 

So as I was holding the bowl that Nils was puking in, I said, "You're so stupid." I know that wasn't very nice, but it was so gross. Throw up makes me say mean things. Especially when the throw up costs $14 and is in the middle of a restaurant on a Friday night. And, I was in the middle of eating my smoked turkey salad, and it made me lose my appetite. But I totally wiped the snot off his face after he was done to make up for my rudeness.

Nils, I love you and I'm sorry I said you're stupid. I don't think you're stupid. I think you're really smart.

P.S. Dusty's picture is on the Wall of Flame. That guy can eat anything and survive.

Peace out.

Stuffnstuff

School:

School started last week for Anders and Addie. Aani started kindergarten on Tuesday of this week. Ava  has cried and cried every day that Aani has left for school. "I go school too!" Super sad.

Anders' 4th grade teacher is very nice, but it's not the party-every-day that 3rd grade was. A lot more homework, a lot higher expectations. I'm fine with that, I just hope that they're able to mix some fun in there so school doesn't become a total drag. Quoth he, "School is so boring now." Fractions and decimals. Shudder.

Addie's teacher from first grade now teaches 2nd grade, and by some stroke of luck Addie got her again! Hoorah! Addie loves to read and talks all the time about  how much she loves to do math. "MORE MATH!", she says. Maybe she was switched at birth. Or, perhaps she got the very recessive math gene that neither Nils or I have ever had access to.

Aani's teacher is nice-ish. Not too sure about her yet, but Aani's excited to go to school every day and hasn't come home in tears or anything, so as long as teach is good with the kids, I don't care if she's a teensy bit awkward with adults. Heh-heh.

Summer:

The kids had a great time playing with friends, eating inordinate amounts of otter pops, playing in water, selling lemonade and cookies on the corner, watching Netflix. They also really enjoyed cleaning up the messes they made. "Thanks, mom! We love cleaning! You're the BEST!"

I made that last part up.

We had a family reunion in Heber which was lovely, then in late July/beginning of August our little fam rented a loft type house for the weekend in Smithfield. We went to Bear Lake and hung out in Logan for a few days; we swam, went to the li'l zoo, ate cupcakes, etc. Mmm, cupcakes.

I took the kids to Kennecott Copper Mine one day. That really is something you only need to do once in your life. I've done it twice now. Yup, it's a big hole. The kids liked it well enough, but they liked stopping at the gas station on the way home to get a donut even more.

Voles:

Our yard has been infested with voles. What is a vole, you say? It's like a big, stupid, ugly mouse that acts like a gopher by digging holes and tunnels in your grass and eating everything it possibly can. They also reproduce at an alarming rate and should be shown no mercy. Our back yard has been ravaged by them, in spite of Nils shooting them with a BB gun, wacking them with PVC pipes, trying to drown them out of their tunnels, etc. We were hesitant to use poison, since the poison will kill lots of things besides voles- like dogs, cats, neighbor kids, etc. Anyway, we have had to resort to it, so here's hoping the voles are rotting. Yay!

Memories:

So in trying to dig information out of my kids about how school was, etc., I was thinking about my elementary years, and have had some funny random memories pop up. Like the time I was in 3rd grade, and there was a girl in the school who all of a sudden had a new sister, but she wasn't really her sister... but you know how 3rd graders have a limited ability to explain things that are somewhat complex... I think she must have been a foster kid or something, because she wasn't around for that long. Anyhoo, we were at recess playing on the field, when this new sister grabbed me by the shirt and gathered it up in her fist so she could get in my face and said to me, "You wanna knuckle sandwich?" and I was like, "Um, no?" The thing was that I was like a foot taller than her and could have taken her to lunch and given her her own dang knuckle sandwich. I've often wondered what happened to that girl. I wish I could remember her name so I could Facebook stalk her. Knuckle sandwich, indeed.