The Smelling Game

Case and Tess are playing with their little buddy right now. Case just brought me his swim trunks and asked me to help him put them back on. I asked if he'd just gone pee in the backyard (come on, admit it -- all your boys do it too, especially when they're running through the sprinklers!). Nope.

"We were playing the Smelling Game!"

Internal groan from me. "Oh, really? What's that?"

"(Nameless Friend To Protect The Innocent) taught me how!"

"Cool. What did NFTPTI smell?"

"My buttocks."

Sandwiches, Sandwiches!

We've been on a Pocahantas kick lately, probably because it's the only movie in the car right now. There's a song in the movie where the British guys are on the hunt for the Native Americans and they're singing "Savages, savages!"

I was making lunch the other day and I hear Case singing in the background...

"Sandwiches, Sandwiches!" to the tune of the song from Pocahantas.

I wonder if he thinks the British are looking for the Indians so they can eat sandwiches?

At least someone thinks they're big...

Did anyone else hear this? Seriously, I think even my parents in Utah probably heard him say this, it was so loud...

In the middle of Sacrament meeting on Sunday Case is sitting on my lap facing me. All of a sudden he says, starting out rather quietly, "let me see your big boobs," and grabs the top of my shirt so he can look down. I, of course, start doing the Shelby Shake (for those of you who don't know my dad, he doesn't laugh out loud often, he just gets those shoulders a-shakin' - it's the most appropriate laugh for those oh-so-quiet times, such as church). I'm taking his hands away and telling him no, but he just keeps saying it, getting louder and louder each time: LET ME SEE YOUR BIG BOOBS! I am paralyzed with laughter and I have no idea how to get him to stop pulling on my shirt and yelling this. So I finally hand him over to Jarad and start fishing the snacks out of my bag. Maybe if I distract him... It worked. Boobs forgotten.

Jarad is now accusing me of planting the idea in Case's head, using the power of suggestion so that other people will also think I have big boobs. He only thinks this because this is precisely the ploy HE used in the "I know my dad is as strong as Superman" testimony-bearing incident a few years back.

Oh, and lest you think this is something we talk about within the private walls of our home, um, it's not!

En Garde!

I'm sitting at my desk working and have busied the twins on the floor behind me with paper, crayons and kid scissors. A battle erupts, involving crying, screaming and tears. I turn around to survey the situation just in time to see Case literally stab Tess in the gut with the scissors. Thankfully they were the nubby-nosed kindergarten scissors, and he was holding them correctly (an accomplishment for him) but SERIOUSLY! His instinct was to STAB HIS SISTER!!

I better watch out for that little guy...

Mother's Day Weekend O Fun

Ahhhh. Silence. It's nearly 9 pm and finally all the kids are tucked nicely into their beds after a long and fun-filled weekend. I realize there is only one more Sunday night to go before the end of the school year and, well, I'm thrilled!

This has been such a great Mother's Day Weekend. Our ward has the tradition of sending our fathers and sons on a campout the Friday prior to Mother's Day. I used to think this was awful because, really, what mom wants to spend all afternoon the day before Mother's Day doing ADDITIONAL laundry? This year felt different, though. Our household number was cut in half as Jarad and my boys drove away around 4 pm on Friday. And I'm not at all hesitant to claim that the mess was reduced by more than that... hmmmm. The girls and I had a fun night out with some friends, hitting a movie and Applebees (which apparently is the best food ever in the minds of those younger than 9). Emma and I stayed up late (until 10!!) making brownies, playing a game, reading and talking before crashing. Emma loves Fathers and Sons weekend since she gets to sleep in my bed with me. Tess had fallen asleep in the car on the way home from the restaurant, so the hurdle of getting her to sleep was conveniently taken care of.

Judging from the amount of dirt on my boys' faces when they came home around 2 on Saturday afternoon, they had an excellent campout. We (meaning Emma and I) unloaded the car while the boys cleaned up, then re-packed the car for our next adventure: The Sheraton Phoenix Downtown hotel... sound exciting?

Here's that story. I caught wind of an "essay" contest wherein children could enter their mothers to win an overnight stay at the Sheraton, followed by Mother's Day Brunch at The District (their hotel restaurant). They would choose a handful of winners of the overnight stay, and one of these winners would win one of their super comfy beds, complete with all the linens. I was most excited about the prospect of the free food, so I "helped" Emma write an entry. About me. And why I needed the bed. Here's the winning entry:

My mom didn’t sleep very good last night. Actually, she hasn’t slept very good for eight years. Since I was born. You see, I’m the oldest of four kids. She did OK for about a year after my little brother turned one, but then the twins were born and none of us has slept good since. They’re three now. I think if my Mom had a really comfy bed (and some earplugs) she would be able to sleep better. Even if it was just for one night! I love my mom tons and want her to have the best Mothers Day ever!

So we headed up to the hotel last night, checked in and walked down the street to take the kids to watch the DBacks vs. the Washington Nationals. Didn't see much of the game for a variety of reasons, one being the vertigo one gets at the height of our seats. And another being that we have two three-year-olds. We did eat some hot dogs though. I think we lasted about an hour at the ballpark. We headed back to the hotel and let the kids swim in the rooftop pool for a while to wear them out for a long night's sleep.

Not only did we get to stay at the hotel in a suite and eat some SCRUMPTIOUS brunch this morning, we also won the BED!! There is a little guilt involved here, and I'm not sure what kind of lesson we taught our sweet daughter with all this... They wanted to take our picture with the bed we won, so we went down to the lobby this morning at the appointed time. The hotel's General Manager and Director of Sales were both there to greet us and just raved at Emma's comedic tone and how great her entry was. I had told her what I'd done -- entered it in her name, told her she could tell them I helped her write it, etc. But she was having the hardest time lying to these people about having written this thing. Thankfully it came off as bashful when they said "we loved what you wrote," and all she could do was shake her head and grin. What a horrible parent. But brunch was GOOOOOOOD!

We left the hotel mid-day, came home, chilled for the afternoon. Well, I did. I'm not sure what the rest of the family did. I kept trying to lie down since the kids got us up so early this morning. I even made SURE their black-out blinds were shut tight this morning so they would sleep in! No luck. Every time I found a quiet, cool spot somewhere in the house, a kid would find me and ask me to do something, or climb on me and get in a kicking fight with someone across my mid-section. So I quietly snuck into the kids' bedroom, locked the door behind me, turned on the fan and sprawled on Emma's bed for about 90 minutes. Happy Mother's Day to me!!

We rounded out the day with Jarad's family over for Mother's Day dessert this evening, and the kids got to play with their cousins while we chowed on some chocolate-caramel concoction I made this afternoon (pre-nap).

In all, an awesome Mother's Day weekend I doubt will be matched for many years to come!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms in my life! Love you all!

Springtime fun in AZ

I've been on kind of a blogging strike. It's called laziness I think. I guess I just don't feel like we have much to report. BUT we have had some fun the last month or so, and I have pictures to prove it.

On Good Friday the kids and Jarad were all home, so we tried to make a fun family day out of it. Note I said TRIED. Emma had been sick all week but said she was feeling better. So we were going to hit REI to check out some gear for Jarad's Whitney climb (more about that in another post, perhaps) and hike A Mountain. We made it to REI and back to the car before Emma started to say she wasn't feeling well again. And all the kids were hungry. Quick Schlotzky's run (not my fave, but it's in the REI parking lot) and we were off. But Emma really deteriorated fast, and she was NOT up for a hike. So we went to Tempe Beach Park, ate our sandwiches, looked at the water for a few minutes and went back to the car. Consolation was that we got to drive around Tempe to look at all the new construction, etc. on campus. We got one decent picture of the day.


Jarad took the kids to Tempe again for Pat's Run. They did the .42 mile run, and had a blast. I'm pretty sure he agreed to take them so he could go to REI again.

Last week the kids had a half day, and the weather wasn't too sweltering, so I told Emma and Fish they could each invite a friend to come to the zoo with us for a couple of hours. I think they had fun! We were all pretty whooped when we got home though!


Finally, last weekend some friends of ours invited us to go camping. They do it right, I tell you what!! They were totally set up from Thursday to Sunday. We came up overnight, hitting Taco Bell on the way up so we didn't have to bring dinner food, we ate breakfast with them, and hit Pizza Factory on the way home so we didn't have to bring lunch food. It truly was a quickie campout. But super fun. The kids had a blast playing together, and we had some good firelight chats after all the chitlins were asleep. Thanks Rochelle and Scott! Let's do it again :).

Case was so excited all day to go to "the hunt." As soon as we got home he started asking when we get to go to the hunt again. He's thrilled (as are we girls) that it's Fathers and Sons this weekend! He gets to go to the hunt again on Friday!



Case tried to convince me that his shorts were wet b/c he fell in the water. Riiiiiight.

The Iron-y of it all...

Like many of you, a few months ago we recognized the need to go lean on our budget. One of the things we decided we could cut out of the budget was having Jarad's work shirts laundered and pressed. After all, I wasn't working very much (some months not at all!) and I couldn't justify spending money on a task that I could do myself when I clearly had the time. What I didn't anticipate was how much time ironing takes! I found myself always ironing in early afternoon when the twins are in "quiet time" (honestly, there's really no reason to call it that, but we can talk about that in another post), and watching Dr. Phil or The Doctors. What a waste of time! Mind-numbing waste of time.

Then, a few weeks ago I discovered that I can watch the previous Sunday's edition of Masterpiece Theatre online (remember we don't have a DVR or cable, so daytime viewing is limited to Dr. Phil, the soaps and any number of bad judges). Beautiful! I've also taken to borrowing movies from friends and from Blockbuster specifically with my ironing time in mind. It's a whole new world of entertainment -- without guilt! The sad thing is that it truly does take me almost the length of a feature film to iron a week's (or more if I've been lazy) worth of shirts. Let's not calculate the per-shirt time here. But the important thing is that I don't dread ironing day anymore. I never ever thought I'd say this, but I rather look forward to it! I even bought myself a new iron this week. Movin' on up the domestic ladder, I am.