Happy Easter, Birthday, Birthday

So, I completely abandoned my blog for a minute there, or maybe it was a week or two. (This really IS like a journal!) Not to sound like a broken record or anything, but the pressure etc. of building a house in such a short time frame is seriously kicking my butt. And that is all I have to say about that. I'm a belly-acher. Shame on me.

The day before Easter my friend, Jody, called to see if we wanted a baby goat for Easter. As it seems we are on some insane quest to become our own little petting zoo and Tyler has actually mentioned that he thinks we should get a goat (an idea that I literally scoffed at. . . just like the chickens), I said "why not?". Plus, baby goat, cute. So Jody brought said baby goat over a little later. Turns out she thought baby goat would want a baby goat friend, I agreed. We picked two. The boys were ecstatic and even helped with the bottle feeding at first. Truthfully, the goats were adorable. IF I could figure out how to get the pictures I took of all of them OFF of my phone, I'd show you HOW cute. Alas, I cannot. I think there is a cord somewhere that would help my cause, but I know not where. Perhaps I'll take some tomorrow. . . Anyway, the long and short of it is that the goats which the boys named "Easter" and "Bunny", are sadly now only a goat. I won't go into the awful details. Bunny, however, is still with us. She hasn't figured out whether she is a dog or a horse yet. Someday I will break the news to her that she was adopted and is neither.

We did take a break from playing farmers and have an Easter Egg Hunt though. I love the picture of Tyler looking irritated, I'm not sure why but it makes me laugh. The other things I love about these pictures: Max's nearly toothless smile, Grey's outfit (notice the flip-flop/sweatshirt combo. . . at least he took off his Batman boots), and Nick's aloof rockstar expression in one pic.

Tyler and Grey have the same birthday (how cute is that?), so we had a little party for them a couple of days after Easter. Busy week. Grey has decided that he is going to be an artist and a wizard. Since we couldn't do anything to further his wizarding career, we gave him an art set and a big paper & easel/white board/ chalk board contraption that he's barely left alone since. AND, if birthdays are good for nothing else, they are a good excuse to let everyone eat cake (and more importantly, ice cream).

The Birthday Boys

Now I feel a little more caught up. Until next time, goodnight!

P.S. Anyone want to share the secret of how to make the pictures bigger on posts?

Little Angels

It's eleven o'clock. The sweet little boys that I first put in bed at eight are still awake. I'm frustrated because I know how tired and rotten they will be in the morning. But they're giggling those amazingly contagious little giggles that only come from children's lips - not just their lips though. I swear the sound bubbles all the way up from their toes, gurgling with joy and 'innocence'. It's almost musical. They are giddy for no reason in particular. I'm slightly envious. I can't go in there. I will lose it and either break out laughing or yelling - I'm not even sure which, or which would be worse. And I hear: #1: "he eats boogers" (#1 and #2 giggle) #2 says "I eat boogers!" (all giggle riotously -although I'm sure #3 has no idea why) #3: "K! Gey, no go seep wid mah CAH!" (Yeah, he's having a whole different conversation. . .) (all 3 giggle) #2: "remember when I ate a candle?" (#1 giggles so hard he can barely respond) #1: "a candle, or what a candle was in?" #2: (sounding a bit like Eezma from The Emperor's New Groove) "a candle!" (#2 sniggers & #1 giggles harder) #3: "Yay, Gey go eat!" #1: "what kind of candle? A real candle?" #2: "A BOOOOOGER candle!" (all giggle like they're being tickled mercilessly) Then the jumping and shrieking begins. #3: "Go me, go me. Me go BIG whide!" (translation is something like this - Look at me! I'm flying!) #2: "Booger! (Boing!) Booger! (Boing!) #1: "Yee, hee, hee, hee!" Now I can go in. I can even keep my mean mommy face on.

As much I love getting inside little 5-cent's head as he adds new words to his vocabulary I'm already missing some of his toddler-babble. Thought I'd get some of my favorites down before they completely disappear and I forget them forever.

Then Now Translation

• "Bee-Bee-Cah" "Cain" Train


• "Nahny" "hoshey" horse

Sunny Spot on a Dreary Day

I love finding myself in a warm splash of sun when everything around that sunny spot looks dreary. Max, Grey and I walked out to the new house while Nick was napping and found ourselves in just that situation! The light was so cool that I had to snap a couple of pictures of the boys playing before we moved on to the house itself!

As far as the house is concerned, I'm happy to say it is still moving along very quickly! We passed the 4-way inspection. The re-inspect happened the first of last week. Windows are in, Insulation is in, and the drywall is being hung on the interior at the same time the rock is being put up on the exterior. We should have hard-surface flooring and cabinets installed in about two weeks! Crazy!

Beautiful on the Inside

Most days at least one of the boys comes up with something that is too precious to NOT record somewhere, and by the end of the day I usually forget to follow through. I keep telling myself I need to be better about that. So, I'm going to try... Max and Grey were sitting at the kitchen counter eating lunch when Grey asked me why "that girl in that one movie married the monster". Somehow I got Beauty & the Beast out of his cryptic clue even though I'm sure he hasn't see the movie since he was maybe two, if even then. (He's much too into the 'big kid shows' Max likes to sink to the level of Disney Princess stories.) I explained the story to him, ending, of course, with the moral of "it's not what you look like on the outside that counts, it's what you're like on the inside". Without missing a beat Grey launched into, "I wonder what I look like on the inside. I bet I look weird. I wonder what my HAIR looks like! I bet it's weirdy weirdy weird. . ." Max and I both lost it, which Grey didn't seem to even notice, he was too wrapped up in imagining his inner beauty.

Thanks to the 'Lurker'

My wonderful friend and sister-in-law, Holly, sent me a link to one of her favorite blogs. It is too amazing to not pass on. I have spent the last forty-five minutes choked, with tears running down my face. The photography is brilliant, the posts are beautiful, and the memorial to 'Ava' is both heart-wrenching and inspiring. It was exactly what I needed to read. I am blessed by the love and lives of my little ones. http://sheyerosemeyer.blogspot.com

Second Thoughts

I'm having second thoughts about my cell phone, about always being available. In a practical sense, it makes me feel safe in case I need to reach someone in an emergency; working on horseback in the mountains miles away from civilization it feels more like a necessity than a luxury. I use it constantly to stay in touch with everyone I need to. Mobile Map Quest is like my new best friend, and I text - therefore I am. There are times, however, when a girl doesn't want to be found. And somehow my husband has developed some sort of radar that detects these instances. Take yesterday for example: I had an appointment with a subcontractor in Bluffdale which took much less time than I had figured it would. There I was, about an hour and a half ahead of my plan for the day. I had answered a text from Tyler not five minutes before the meeting ended, and spoken with him before the meeting began. I figured I had at least an hour before I needed to be heard from again. Ikea beckoned - it was so close - how could I turn my back on it? Plus, I felt extra secure in the knowledge that my reception was shoddy at best once I was safe inside the enormous box-store walls.

I went, needing nothing. All I wanted to do was browse -window shop, if you will. Consider this, measure that. No harm done. Fifteen minutes into my meandering my phone rang - Tyler's ring tone. Do I answer? What if he hears someone on the loud speaker? The echo of my voice on the concrete walls? My loud shoes on the hard floors? 'Don't walk,' I think. 'Minimize the risk of exposure.' So I pick up the phone - more questions about some house detail. I answer quickly and talk a lot trying to block out the store noises. "What?" he said, "you're breaking up". I had moved without realizing it, doing my 'on-the-phone-pace'. "I can't hear you," he continued, "I'll just talk to you when you get back home". Saved by the static. Then, milliseconds away from hanging up, "where are you?". I got out, "Ikea" before the call was dropped. I'm not sure if he heard me or not. I felt nervous and guilty. Why?! I hate feeling like I've been caught doing something naughty because I decided to walk through a store I didn't need anything from.
As luck would have it apparently the texting connections are better than the speaking ones because twenty feet from the spot our call dropped I received, "Why are you in Ikea?" My answer,"A. Because I'm a girl and I have a little time on my hands. B. Because I was right here. C. I REALLY needed to get the dimensions from that craft island we looked at - must have lost them." His response, "Don't spend any money". Yeah, right, like I was going to BUY something. What does he take me for? A girl with time on her hands?

Without the phone would I have been spared the anxiety and guilt, or would I have merely prolonged it? I pondered this question later that night as I watched my husband scan countless cyber-windows of his own: tires, wheels, cars, wakeboards, trees, shrubs. His incessant pursuit of any and everything advertised on the online classifieds mystifies me the same way my self-prescribed 'shopping therapy' mystifies him. Does HE feel anxious or guilt-ridden when I peer over his shoulder? Would he if I called from the other room to ask why he's on KSL?