why do mommies have breasts?

The other night when we were getting ready for scriptures and prayer, Kolby and I had an interesting conversation.

Kolby: "mommy, what are these?" (as he pats my chest)
Mom: "Nothing to worry about Kolby, lets get ready to sing."
Kolby: "what are they?"
Mom: "They are breasts, honey, now lets sing the song."
Kolby: "I know what mommy's have breasts."
Mom: "why?"
Kolby: "so when you fall down you have a cushion to keep you from getting hurt."
Mom: "ahhhh, I see, you are a very smart boy. Can we sing now?"
Kolby: "I love you mom." (he gives me a hug and starts singing.

The funniest thing about that conversation was that THEY ARE PADDING!!!!!

Eeyore - Tigger? Eayore - Tigger?

Are you an "Eeyore" or are you a "Tigger"?

In trying to explain the the kids the importants of a good attitude, Donald has resorted to using classic Disney characters. My mind goes num just thinking about how much complaining and whining the kids do, despite my constant and attentive effort to help them be happy and grow, and have great experiences. Oh how I would absolutely love if there were days where someone cooked me breakfast of eggs, toast, and fresh fruit. Did my laundry, washed my dishes, did all the shopping for me, got me cool toys and gagets to play with. Oh I would love if someone ELSE paid their hard earned money so that I can do things that I want to do. I would love to be able to take a nap for a couple hours every afternoon, to be taken to fun play structures and given candy almost daily. Gosh, I know I can only IMAGINE that kind of a life; but my kids - - - instead of being filled with gratatude, they complain!!!! "Mom, I didn't get enough strawberries!" "mom, I am hungry." "mom, why can't we have another movie night?" "mom, I don't want to take a nap." "mom, I want more candy, 2 was not enough." "mom, why was his cookie bigger than mine?" The complaining goes on and on and on.

A couple weeks ago, Donald sat the kids down when he was getting to the end of his rope. He asked them if they wanted to be like EEYORE, or like TIGGER! Donald talked about each character and personality. Eeyore is grumpy, complains all the time. He walks around sad and lonely. The other characters like him well enough, and take much pity on him, but he definately is not one that bring the mood UP. Then there is Tigger. Tigger is very lively to say the least. He is possitive and a creative thinker. He is almost always happy and wants to be friends with everyone. He is a helper and a doer and always seems to be around when you need him. So, now when Don hears the kids complain and whine, he asked them "are you a tigger or an eeyore?"

ETA: well, in discussing this entry with Donald, I discovered that he had actually gotten the "Tigger Eeyore" annalogy from "The Last Lecture".

can anyone find my voice?

I have had a funky little sore throat for several days. I felt my voice being strained when I was chatting on the phone with my girlfriend this afternoon. Then we went to Trent's last soccer game. The boys played so well together and really worked as a team. It was so fun to see how well they have excelled thru the season and even more exciting that they won to nights game. Trent scored 2 goals and did a FANTASTIC job at ball control, dribbling, and passing the ball. I was truly proud of my young man. Well, with a game like to nights, there was no way I could sit still let alone not cheer the team on! Like normal, I of course had to be one of the loudest moms cheering on the sidelines, but everyone was cheering and really enjoying the game because the boys just had a GREAT night.

After the game, we rushed home to shower the kids and get them to bed. Around this time I discovered that it has been increasingly difficult for my voice to be heard. I tried singing with the kids before prayer and I could not even get the words out unless I whispered. Now 2 hours later, I bonifiedly have NO VOICE! So, the big question now,,, is what in the world is my family going to do with mommies voice going a-wall? (my sisters can of course keep in their normal fashion of NOT commenting, lol.) Donald says even my cough sounds pittiful. I wonder if he thinks I can handle my mommy duties tomorrow?

"WHO LET THE GAS OUT?"

For some reason, when I typed "who let the gas out" I then wanted to say "who? who?" in the same fashion as "who let the dogs out? who -who?" Nonetheless, that really has nothing at all to do with my topic this evening. My topic on this fabulous Conference Sunday evening after being edifies and filled with the promptings of the Spirit, is BLUE DARTS!!! Yes, that's right, the human gas torche that we can make if we dare to put a flame near the gas leak.

How we got on this topic is easily explained, I am married to a MAN! We had re fried beans with our tacos tonight, and it has definitely taken effect on my very refined husband. So I mentioned to him, after once another loud and vibrating release of gas, that I should put a flame behind him. He quickly replied with a resounding "NO"! He then asked me if I have ever seen a blue dart, to which my reply was "ummm NO, I grew up in a house full of girls." He looked at me like I was from another planet and proceeded to tell me that some girls do the blue dart thing as well. I reminded him that "not in MY house growing up. For Pete's sake, I did not even know how to burp until I went to college!"

So as I pondered my lack of exposure to the blue darting experience, I wondered, has any female ever really seen a blue dart in action??? (Mother, I would be very interested in YOUR reply!)

YUP,,,, just your average, ordinary night at a soccer game!

Last night Trent had a soccer game and Donald is the coach. The game was at 6 pm, not a problem, I gave everyone snacks and drink before we left and the weather was nice out. We get to the fields and set up our chairs, one for me, and two small ones for Tanner and Kolby. Brooklyne was in the stroller and I had packed water and some crackers, not to mention our big sports bag full of soccer balls and etc. (What does Don keep in that thing.) I also had grabs a couple jackets, a blanket, and my camera because I still have not gotten any pics from this half of the soccer season. The boys were warming up on the field, Brooklyne drinking her bottle, Tanner in a chair, Kolby in a chair and it was even relaxing. It was about 5 minutes before the game was to start, and that is when it all went down from there. I thought I would just share some of the love and joy that I experience at an ordinary childs soccer game --- me as a mom, sitting on the sidelines with 3 younger children.

It all began with Tanner pulling everything out of the stroller because he wanted water. So I find him water and put the stuff back in the stroller. Now Brook wants the snack bag that Tanner got the water out of, and because of this, she continues to throw her bottle to the ground, over and over and over. Kolby sees a girl from his preschool class, and she comes up to say hi to him, he sinks down into his chair acting all shy as his face turns bright red when she approached him. AWWWWW, finally, the game begins. I then had about 3 minutes of being able to watch the game; GO TRENT!!!! Harvy form his team scores a goal with Trent as an assist, and it is just the start of the game! Now this is when Tanner is insistant that KOLBY should have his own water NOW! I keep telling Tanner no, over and over and over and over again, he is very persist ant. Tanner gives up and goes and gets one of our soccer balls. Kolby goes and gets a soccer ball and decides to try and sit on it, meanwhile, Brooklyne is trying everything she can to get out of being strapped in her stroller. Now Tanner is trying to sit on a soccer ball, and he keeps getting frustrated because he keeps falling. OH WAIT, we have now scored another goal, and so has the other team - - did I see any of it? NOPE! I get Tanner squared away on the soccer ball, Kolby keeps looking over at the girl from school and getting shy (really, it was hilarious). Another mom from the team comes over and is chatting with me. The next thing I notice is that Tanner is taking crackers away from Brooklyne and eating them. I tell Tanner they are for his sister and he tells me OK. One minute later, he is eating the crackers again, so I take them away from both children. Now back to the game, YEAH,,, Tyler scores a goal with Trent as the assist again, GO COLTS!!!! I then stand up and am chatting with my friend while watching the game. Tanner has now climbed into my chair and the chair falls over. Tears are shed. I brush him off, set the chair up, and he is happy as a clam. Hey, wait a second, when did the 3rd quarter start??? (according to how much of the game I was actually able to watch, we should only be about 8 minutes into the 1st quarter.) I remember that I had brought my camera and wanted to take pictures. So I gab the camera. Meanwhile, Brooklyne is now freaking out because she wants out of the stroller so badly, so I take her out and try to hold her. If you have ever tried taking pictures while holding an active 1 year old - you will know that is nearly an impossible task, so I set her down. She is now happy as can be. So now I zoom in to try and get a picture of Trent playing, then I hear screaming. Tanner is trying to take another babies binky and climbing up into that stroller. He was only about 5 steps away from me so I quickly have him say sorry, I tell the mom sorry, and we step back over to our chairs. I grab the camera to try again at getting some pictures, then I step on something, it is Brooklyns shoe, so I put it on the stroller that Tanner has now climbed into and Brook is now in Tanners chair. Meanwhile, Kolby is now fully playing with the girl from his school along with two other boys from the other team. I gab my camera again and set it up for a picture, finally, I get a picture taken. I go to take another one, and the whistle gets blown, 3rd quarter is over. At this time, Tanner and I go and give all the boys on the team "foot hi-fives" (this is something I do with my boys all the time at games, and since our team was playing really well, I went around to all the boys.) Alright, 4th quarter begins. OH WAIT, where is Brooklyne? Ah, she had climbed into her stroller (I did not know she could do that, hummm, very interesting). I then am able to watch a couple minutes of the game, then I was interrupted by my 2 year old dumping out a big soccer bag, owned by the coach of the other team, so I jump up and have him put everything back and move the bag away from the children playing. I then stand behind the stroller and watch the game for about 3 seconds, then I do a head count, 1, 2, ummmmmmm, where is Brook? Well, she was speedily crawling over to someones snacks, who were a good 5-6 chairs away. I go and grab her and put her back in the stroller, which she promptly climbed out of. Ok, back to the game, drats, the other team gets a goal! I then grab my camera again, thinking that I should probably try and take a couple more pictures. I turn the camera on and put it up to see and the to zoom in, and what do I see, Tanner running across the field to Donald. Then I see Kolby running after him, to which I have now pulled the camera down from my eye and I see another dad run after my boys. Then I ran to get them, but now Tanner was much closer to Donald than to me. Kolby runs back over to our sideline and Don scoops up Tanner and runs him over to me. I set him down, ok, head count; 1,2, 3 - alright, all accounted for. Time to try and get another picture in. I set up to take a picture and the ball goes out of bounds. Now I hear Brooklyne fussing, so I look over to what is going on. There Tanner is sitting and trying to FORCE Brooks shoe back on her foot, I go and help Tanner put in on her foot. Ok, now there's only 2 minutes left of the game and I still had only gotten 1 picture, so I try again. Finally, I get two more pictures taken. I go to put my camera back in the stroller, only to find Brooklyne dumping out all of Trents chips in the basket part of the stroller. I take away the chips and try and put some back in the bag. She grabs Trents water and spills water all over her face. I wipe her up from that, and then I see Tanner kicking a ball onto the field. As I am about to tell Tanner he needs to not kick the ball past the white line the whistle is blown! Within just a few minutes all the other parents have packed up and are walking away, not me, I have a huge mess of stuff to clean up; toys, drinks, chips, bottle, shoes, balls, socks, wrappers,my camera, blanket, and 2 jackets (not to mention the 3 chairs). Ok, so 5 minutes later, we are all packed up (the parents for the next game are all set up and ready for that game to begin.) but wait, where is Tanner? Alas I see him about 15 feet away, doing what you might ask, I have no clue, nor did I ask him. We finally get to the car, load up in the van, and head home, arriving just a few minutes before 7:30 pm. We shower the kids, feed them dinner, read our scriptures, and finally get them all to bed!

So, that is a typical, ordinary, average every day childs sporting event for our family. My advise to anyone who might be looking at avoiding my type of evening - - - 1. don't have 4 kids within 6 years. 2. don't let your husbands coach the soccer team 3. stay in your van, with the children all safely strapped, and hope that you can see the game with some binoculars!

OHHHH, I almost forgot, here are the stats from the game: Colts lost - again, all children lived, nothing was broken or lost,I was able to take 4 pictures, and I saw about 15 minutes of the 40 minute game.

What Celeb. do I look like?

What is up with THAT??? I look like much older women??????? and then PARIS HILTON! YIKES! I must say, I blame it on my mom and dad, since it is their dna that makes me look the way I do! thanks mom! thanks dad! (dripping, dripping, . . .)




OK,,, at least I do not look like a black man,,, or a WOMAN!!!!!!

What's Up!

I thought a little update on everyone would be a good thing to do today.

Donald: Don only has a few more soccer games left to coach before the season is over. He has had a lot of fun coaching Trent's team and he loves to be involved in athletics with the kids. Don is still having a few medical issues and the doctor wants to run some tests on his heart. My poor husband just wants to feel healthy and strong again; at least he has gotten back to his normal underweight weight.

Camille: I am still plugging away at being the mom of the house and trying not to loose my mind. I keep trying to tell myself that Tanner is just going thru some terrible two's and that it will get better in a few months. (terrible two's start at 13 months right????) I am also preparing to get ready to run another 5k in a few weeks. I am rather nervous about it because I have not ran outside in several months so I am not sure how it will go. (I sure miss my running buddy.) I am also excited to start learning my new camera and photoshop.

Trenton: Trent is still loving school. He tells us all the time that he wants to be smart and that he IS one of the smartest kids in his class. Trent only has 3 soccer games left in the season and he is axiously waiting to get another trophy. For the last couple of weeks, he has been doing double duty on sports; he has had soccer as well as baseball practice twice a week. The baseball season starts this coming Saturday and then he will have 2-3 games a week. Trent also has taken on another project at home, he is building a cabin. Trent and Kolby plan on building a cabin in the back yark and then rent it out to visiter to come and stay overnight. (Do not fret, Trent and Kolby can sleep in it for free.)

Kolby: Kolby is still loving school. He is a total ladies man and it cracks me up. He has a little girlfriend in class, Megan. I was talking to him the other day and asking about his girlfriend. His response to me was, "MOMMMM, she is just my GIRLFRIEND! It's not like I am going to MARRY HER!" Kolby has a sweet, easy going, goober like personality. He is always saying such sweet things and is very kind in nature.

Tanner: Tanner has had a bit of a set back in potty training. About once a week he is either peeing or pooping in his underwear! WHAT IS UP WITH THAT? He also use to sleep thru the night without peeing, and now he is peeing a bucket load - forget underwear at night, he is back in his diapers. Tanner is also a very fickle little boy. Very unpredictable, much like the weather. One minute he will be really sweet to his sister, or he will listen and obey right away, or he will actually be happy and cheerful. Then on the turn of a dime, he is smacking his sister up against the head with a gun, shoving her off of the big wheel, talking back to Donald and myself, and throwing huge - kick the wall - pound the groud - scream as loud as you can fits. He will completely be defiant, and we can tell that he is doing it on purpose. Most days I want run away to Australia and come back when he is my sweet boys again. (I am really hoping it is terrible 2's. Those start at 13 months, right???)

Brooklyne: Brook is walking much more. On average, she will take 10-15 steps no problem. She can also go from a sitting position to standing without using something to help her up. Brooklyne is also suffering from some allergies for the last few days. She keeps batter her nose (much like what you would see a kitten do) and screatching because she is so misserable. Brooklyne loves to play with her brothers and wants to be in on all the action. She also loves laptop computers and tries her hardest to get her little mits on one not in use.

a little remodelling

So a friend of mine made a new banner for me with a few pictures from Easter. I love the banner she has made, but I am still trying to figure out how to configure it so that it looks like it fits! Please be patient as I stumble thru trying to figure things out.

Ok, this is a TEST!

I attempted to do a video clip of Brooklyne today while we were all outside. She was using the little BIG wheel as a walker. It totally cracked me up.

Can anyone HELP me?

Now that is sure a broad question. I am sure that there isn't a soul on this planet that can help me get my sanity back, so fortunately, that is not my request.

So now for the matter at hand. I love how so many people have video clips on their blogs, but I have no clue on how to put one on my blog. I am not even sure if it is possible, since we have an 8mm camera, not digital. So, is there anyone who can help me out on this issue?

Easter

We had a beautiful Easter. The kids had hid a few Easter Eggs under our pillows to start the day. Then they found their Easter baskets. After that, we scurried around making breakfast and getting ready for church. Donald made belgin waffles, with strawberries and whip cream. I tell ya, it seems almost sinful to have such a sweet and yummy breakfast. Anyway, we made it to church, almost on time, and had a great day at church and a nice lunch, then glorious nap time. After naps, we had our egg hunt outside. Tanner loved finding the eggs, but every time he would start to run, eggs would fall out - poor fella. Then we had dinner (yummy) then the kids planned an egg hunt for Donald and I down stairs. They had a blast having us find eggs, so much so, that they hid the eggs TWO times. Now it was getting late, so we had some strawberry short cake (ummmm, store bought Katie, lol) and then let the kids spend the night down stairs in the playroom. They were on cloud nine and had a great day - that or they were all just on sugar highes!

RIDE'M COWBOY!

So this past weekend we were able to get together with a friend of Don's from work. He has three horses and told us we could come riding with the kids up at the agriculture center. So on Friday that is just what we did. Trent was supper excited and totally gun-hoe about riding a horse. Tanner was crazy excited and loved the horses. Brooklyne was very interested in them, I am not sure if she was scared, or overwhelmed. And Kolby,, well, Kolby had decided they were scary and he did not want to have anything to do with the horses. Lucky for us, he got over his fear pretty quick and he had a great time. Cody was the star of the day because he was a great horse that sure put up with alot.