ditching stake conference

We were getting ready for church today and Tess came to me and said "I tired Mommy, I take a nap. Ni-night." And she went in her room, closed the door and laid down on the floor. This is 8 a.m. and she'd only been up for about 20 minutes. About 10 minutes later she came back into the kitchen and puked on my feet. So I'm staying home today with the twins while Jarad took the older kids to church. Secretly, I'm OK with this. :)

Speaking of church-y kinds of things...
I heard yesterday afternoon that President Monson has announced a new temple in GILBERT ARIZONA! How fun! The speculation is that it will be located at Greenfield and Pecos, a mere stone's throw from where I live. We are so excited! I told Emma this last night and she said "WOW! Now we can ride our bikes to the temple!!"

AND, I can't believe I forgot to mention this when I was posting yesterday... Grandma and Grandpa Curtis (Jarad's dad and step-mom) have gotten their mission call! To Atlanta, GA as welfare and employment missionaries. We went over there Thursday night to watch them open their call, and we couldn't be more excited for them. They report to the MTC on May 26. Yikes, talk about a quick turnaround!

So it's a revolving door when it comes to our kids' grandparents on missions... Grandma and Grandpa Stastny (my parents) are being released on May 12 from their mission in San Diego. We get to see them as they drive from SD to SLC (OK they are going a tad bit out of their way to come see us, and we can't WAIT!!).

Week in Pictures

So ya know how Life Magazine used to do the Year in Pictures? Heaven help me if I had a whole year full of the pictures I was able to get last week. If you ever decide to have twins, don't let ANYONE tell you the first year is the hardest. The third is (so far).

Tess got into my mascara at some point in the week.


The twins found the mud at the base of the trees Jarad had just deep soaked. We were just sitting down for dinner when this came to the back door. You should have seen the bathtub after this one.



We had the great idea that the twins need to get out of their cribs. We took their mattresses out and set them on the floor to see how they would do for naptime. They came out once, we put them back to bed (a-la Supernanny) and they didn't come out again! They didn't sleep in the 90 minutes they were in there, but at least they didn't come out again. It was a success! At least, that's what we thought until we opened the door and found this.


So if you ever wonder why I haven't posted in a while... I'm probably cleaning up after one catastrophe or another. (or else I'm reading)

Ten Years Later...

So Jarad and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary yesterday. Can you believe it? It's gone by so fast. I feel like we're still newlyweds. That's good, right?

Jarad had the day off of work, but the kids didn't (love it when that happens), so we sent the older kids off to school and arranged to have Grandpa and Grandma Curtis babysit the twins and we just hung out together. It was such a great day. We went out to lunch and to all the shops we love but that are too much of a pain to drag four kids to. Basically we just enjoyed each other's company. Oh, and Jarad surprised me with a 10th Anniversary diamond band. It is bee-yoo-tee-ful. (see photo below)

So in keeping with the 10th theme, here are the Top Ten Things I Love About Jarad:

1. He's just good. As in, decisions come easy to him. There is never a deliberation over what should or should not be done in any given situation. This is one of the first things I came to love about Jarad. I think I envy him that.

2. He's perceptive. He picks up on little things the kids do/say that indicate a need they might have, and then he acts on them. Most of the time I'm so busy trying to keep the household running that I miss these things. I'm so glad he's here to catch them.

3. He's dedicated. Decides running is his thing? Almost never misses a workout. Decides to attend the temple weekly? Done. Whatever he puts his mind to, he just does it, or does his best at it.

4. He's patient. When I've had it with the noise and bickering and the neediness of the kids, he's the go-to guy.

5. He's a hard worker. At home and at work.

6. He's witty. Sometimes his wit even goes right over my head. :)

7. He's the best gift giver. He puts so much thought into the gifts he gets people -- not just me. If you get a gift from Jarad, it's usually spot on. Except maybe the time he brought a Johnny Cash CD to the family white elephant Christmas exchange (and this was well before Joaquin Phoenix brought him back). Not everyone appreciates Johnny the way Jarad does.

8. He says it like it is. Anyone who knows Jarad knows what you see is what you get, and that's never more true than with the words that come out of his mouth. As a wife, sometimes the truth hurts, but I've learned to stop asking him if things make my butt look big.

9. He encourages me to be my best. I love sharing goals with Jarad because he keeps me on task (most of the time without my even knowing it).

10. He's still a hotty. I know we're still young (OK he is), but he's every bit as good looking and strong, in shape, etc. as when we met. Actually, even more so. I can't say the same for me (I'm working on it... see #9).

For the fun of it, here's a picture of us on our wedding day. April 25, 1998.



And here's the ring. The new one is the one on the bottom -- the top one is my original wedding ring.

Can't make heads or trees of this one...

OK Mom, you're heads, I'm trees.

Huh? This is what I heard as I'm trying to work this morning. I look up to find Fisher holding a dime, ready to toss the coin for whatever reason. He has clearly misheard "heads or tails."

No Mom, there's no tail on this. It's a tree.

Sure enough. The olive branch on the back of a dime looks like a tree. Not a tail.

Drag Princess

Yesterday Emma and her friend Des dressed Case up as Snow White. When Fisher saw him, he said "look! Case is a drag princess!" Jarad and I looked at each other, tried not to laugh, and I asked Fisher what he meant -- never expecting that he'd actually know what he was saying! Of course, I was totally wrong.

Fisher: "When a boy is dressed in girl's clothes, he's called a drag queen."

Me: "Oh REALLY? Who told you that?"

F: I saw it on Bee Movie. A boy dressed up in the Queen Bee's clothes and they called him a drag queen. But since Case is dressed as Snow White, he's a princess. So he's a Drag Princess.

Now that just makes sense, doesn't it?

Lessons in Fire Safety

Evidently, this is something I need. If you recall, I had an oven fire several months ago. Evidently I didn't learn my lesson then, as I had another oven fire last week. Actually, it was on Jarad's birthday (happy birthday a week ago to my hotty husband). I was making him bbq ribs, and had placed the ribs under the broiler after basting them up with the sauce. Problem is that when I placed them back into the oven I, unbeknownst to me, grabbed the silicone trivet the pan had been sitting on as well. When I removed the ribs I was on the phone, so didn't notice the bright red silicone trivet still in the oven. Close the oven. Broil the trivet. Nasty smells and smoke permeated my kitchen as the smoke alarms squeal throughout the house. I tried to get the flaming trivet out of the oven, but it was stuck to the rack. So I took the entire rack to the sink and stuck the flames under the faucet. Ashes flew everywhere when the water hit the trivet.

A picture of the damage (this does not include the interior of my oven, which looked like Santa Claus -- covered with ashes and soot).


So the greatest thing I learned in this incident was NOT that I should never leave a silicone trivet in the oven under the broiler (DUH!!). It was that my kids have learned appropriate fire safety at school!

Emma and Fisher were in the playroom when the alarms started sounding. They came running into the kitchen area, saw the smoke and HIT THE FLOOR. They started belly crawling to the back door. It was so hilarious! Of course the twins copied them, so all four of our kids army crawled their way to safety!

Fisher Had A Birthday, Shout Hooray!

It's been almost two weeks, but hey, he can't complain that it's taken me this long to post about it since he celebrated his birthday for about 10 days.

It began a week before his birthday when Jarad took Fisher during spring break to get him a new bike. Problem is, Fisher was very excited to ride it as a two-wheeler (as in no training wheels), so Jarad took them off. Now the bike sits in the garage unless Jarad is around to help Fisher get more accustomed to riding on two wheels...

Then we had a classroom party and a family celebration on his actual birthday. I made a cake and let Fisher and Emma decorate it however they wanted. It was, um, creative. Emma did the writing. And much of the sparkle-dumping. He got mail, cards, gifts and phone calls all day long from family and friends. Finally, at the end of the day after he hung up the phone with his final caller, he said "whew, I sure am FAMOUS today!"




That Saturday he had about ten little boys over for an afternoon of crazy bounce housing, cupcake decorating and ice cream sundaes. It was the greatest party! I didn't have to decorate a cake. It was all outside. And all I had to do was provide an endless supply of drinks for those sweaty little guys who bounced (almost) the whole time. Most of the kids had been on Fisher's baseball team, which Jarad co-coached, so the boys thought it was the most fun to play catch with coach.


Bluebeard - it was a pirate party...
In all, a successful birthday for my funnyman Fisher. For all the screaming and headbanging he did as a baby, and all the scary health issues we have had with him, he is totally making up for it in his hilarity as he gets older. We love him tons!