Drama Queen

There is no denying that Brynn is a little drama queen. The tantrums she throws when things don't go her way are less of a fit than a theatrical performance. First she contorts her face and begins a pitiful sounding, fake cry. Then she lies on the floor with her face in her hands and her knees up under her bum and moans. She will occasionally stop moaning and peek out of the side of her hands to make sure she still has an audience then put her face back and resume moaning.I have been trying to catch the sequence of her tantrums on film for this post, but she usually gets up when I leave to get the camera, because it's no fun to perform without an audience. So yes, that is how I respond to her tantrums... I ignore them completely. In the picture above we were in the produce section at Walmart and she was mad because she wanted to eat a banana so she assumed her tantrum position and began pathetically moaning. I just kept right on shopping and left her there in the isle. Everyone around was laughing so hard at her. I kept assuring them she was fine, just whining. After seriously 5 minutes of this I went back to snap a picture to send to Scott, but snapped it right as she started getting up.

One day when I picked her up from nursery her teacher said, "Brynn had a hard day today. She was fake crying a lot." That's my drama queen for you.

I'll be completely honest I am grateful for these tantrums. They happen several times a day (we're working on it) but they are quiet, completely tolerable, and even kind of funny. I am just grateful I am not dealing with screaming, obnoxious, violent tantrums (knock on wood). It's cute and entertaining now, but I sure hope her dramatic tendencies settle down by the time she's a teenager. Yeah right!

April Fools

Mother Nature played a cruel April Fools trick on us by giving us a taste of beautiful Spring weather for a few days and then overnight dropping the temperature 30 degrees accompanied by several inches of snow. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm not laughing. We did, however, love every minute (pretty much 2 straight days) we spent out in the sun at the park and in our yard. I am still learning how to take care of a child with fair skin and learned that we have to where sunscreen to the park after poor Brynnie got fried on her arms and cheeks...mother of the year right here. On a completely different note, Mason really got into the April Fool's spirit this year. He got to wear his clothes backwards to preschool and tell a joke for show and tell. Mason and his little preschool buddies love to tell jokes that rarely make any sense to adults but bring down the house with a group of 4-year-old boys. We tried to prep Mason with an actual joke trying many different knock knock and why did the _____ cross the road classics, but he decided his material was much better and ending up sharing his own version that went like this: Why did the Rhino cross the road? Because an egg cracked on his head. They learned all about April Fools jokes and let's just say there were quite a few spiders crawling on our head that day. Have I mentioned how completely in love with Mason's preschool teacher I am? She is wonderful and I'm so happy with how much Mason and learned and developed over the past 7 months. I get comments from his Primary teachers all the time on how wonderful he is to have in class and they can tell what a wonderful preschool he goes to because he does so well with the structure of primary. Thanks Mrs. Young!

A Poopy Day.....Literally

It feels like we've been elbow deep in poop around here. Both kids have had the runs for a good week, maybe more. Brynn has been pooping 8-10 times a day and her poor little bum is so sore no matter what I put on it. Mason has had a few surprises in his underwear when he thought it was just a toot. I don't know if they've got some sort of stomach bug or if it's just their love of yogurt to blame (50% of Brynn's diet consists of gogurts, no lie). Whatever the cause, today I found myself wanting to scream after changing my 6th poopy diaper in as many hours.

Then I remembered this gem of a card my sweet brother Brandon made me several years ago.

I was feeling down and discouraged by some things going on when this personally made card (using the Paint program) showed up. I'll keep the simple but very sweet note that was written on it for myself, but couldn't resist sharing this card that has brought me so much joy. This card was a turning point for me at that time and has reminded me many time since that it's up to me how I react to the trials I am given. Plus, it just makes me laugh everytime I see it. Did you see the "paint" on the artist's pallet?

So for anyone out there who might have had a Poopy Day, hope this put a smile on your face.

And Uncle Beetle we might just take your advice literally and whip up a special painting just for you, so keep checking the mailbox.

Zion Getaway

Last weekend we took our good friends the Dastrups, Carliles, and Lemons down to the Murray Family cabin at Zions Pondarosa Ranch. Although the cold weather managed to follow us down there, the change of scenery and good friends to play with made it a wonderful getaway. Mostly, we just hung out around the house watching all the march madness action and playing games while the kiddos played together in the bunk room (it's amazing how a room full of bunk beds gets the imagination going) and downstairs with all the toys and games. It's Jimmertime!! Scott taught everyone how to play Ticket to Ride, a long time Murray favorite.

The kids must have come to see what all the excitement was about.

The girls.
Brynn, Halle, and KatelynThe boys.
Jackson, Andrew, Mason, Tyce, and Sky

Friday's weather cleared up enough that we were able to drive into Zion National Park and go for a hike. We chose the Riverwalk, a nice kid-friendly hike.

Brynn walked most of the 2.2 mile hike herself. Her and I made a lot of stops because she was surprisingly enthralled with all of the nature around us, especially the river which she wanted to swim in. When her hands got cold I gave up my socks to keep her little fingers warm. It was too cold for the lizards and frogs we usually see all over on our hikes, but it didn't stop the squirrels from coming out.

Here Brynn is trying to share her granola bar with a squirrel. She must not have read the sign saying there was a $100 fine for feeding the squirrels.

If we had put a pedometer on these boys they probably hiked and extra mile with all the running around they did.Together they collected as many rocks and sticks as possible.

Put three 4-year-old boys together with sticks and good luck trying to stop the sword fighting. I'm surprised we didn't loose an eye.

My little family.

All of the kiddos.

This is what our crew looked like hiking along.

The boys found this slanted rock for us to climb up that made a great slide coming down.

Brynn couldn't get enough sliding down the rock and wasn't very happy that I wouldn't let her go down by herself.

It was fun to get away, but as always it's nice to come home.

A big thanks to Mike and Linda for letting us use their cabin for the weekend.

Rolo the Dog

Scott has been trying to talk me into getting a dog for the last month. There have been several times he has teased me so much about it I have expected to come home from work to find a dog at our house. In a way, that's exactly what happened. One day this adorable puppy named Rolo (self-named) showed up at our house. We built him a house for him to spend the night in, which he did, and gave him a food and water bowl.

It didn't take long for him to win us over with his many wonderful games and tricks like playing fetch, shaking hands, rolling over, and of course those wet slobbery kisses. We found he was much more obedient than our children and would do pretty much anything for a doggy treat, aka fruit snacks.

Our amazing dog is like Lassie in that he is able to communicate messages using only barks and a pointer finger. (and sometimes a sentence or two in a "barky dog voice" if we aren't getting the message.)
Rolo stayed with us for 3 days straight and now he visits us from time to time.
Scott was right. Having a dog really is great!

*side story*
Scott tried to win the dog battle by getting the kids on his side. Brynn was a given. Have you seen her around dogs? She is crazy about them. Mason was originally on Scott's side of the debate until I told him a dog would eat all his toys. I win.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

We are big fans of Dr. Seuss around our house. So, naturally, we had to have a little celebration for his birthday today. First, we visited the bookstore and each of the kids got to pick out a new book. Then we came home and read our new books along with some of our favorite classics while we enjoyed a dinner of Green Egg and Ham omlettes.

Did you know that Dr. Seuss wrote the book Green Eggs and Ham after his editor bet him that he couldn't write a book using 50 words or less. Green Eggs and Ham uses exactly 50 words, which are:

a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they train, tree, try, will, with, would, you.

That is absolutely incredible to me.

Happy 107th Birthday to the wonderful Dr. Seuss who has fostered Mason's love for reading.

So tell me, what is your favorite children's book? I am looking for some new favorites to introduce to my kids.

Dodging a Bullet

One day, I was driving along singing songs with my kids in the car, when we passed an Animal Control vehicle. I watched in my rear view mirror as it turned on it's lights and flipped around behind me. Now, I was under the impression that Animal Control cars had some volunteer type person in them and had no legal power, so much so that I thought they must have seen some stray animal and so I started looking around for the poor dog who was about to get caught. I was so disillusioned/stupid, whatever you prefer to call it, that I told Mason, "See that car with the lights on, they're going to catch a doggie." I pulled over for it to pass since it's lights were on and was shocked when it pulled over behind me. It was then that I realized that I was the animal who was caught. Who knew there were ticketing police officers in animal control cars? NOT ME! And I hadn't even been going that fast. The officer came to the window and was very kind as he explained I was driving 35 mph in front of the high school with a 25 mph speed limit. He kindly explained different statistics about the distance it would take to stop and how stupid high school kids/drivers are and how I need to be extra careful here. I agreed and apologized for my carelessness. He asked for my license...oops left my wallet at home. He shook his finger at me, but said he could look it up. Asked for my car registration...looked through the glove box but best I could come up with was one that expired in 2009. He laughed now and said I was striking out, but said as long at the policy was the same he could verify it was still current. Two strikes against me. It wasn't until the officer started walking back to his car that I realized the third, and very big, strike was about to come. My drivers license had expired the week before on my birthday and I had forgotten to renew it. Mason, who hadn't asked any question up until this point asked quietly, "Are they going to take you to jail?" I told him "no" and hoped I was telling the truth. It didn't take long for the kind officer to re approach my window. I rolled it down and immediately exclaimed, "It expired last week!" He nodded his head, yes. That kind kind kind man then told me that although I had failed every single thing so far I had gotten one thing right and that was my kids were buckled into proper car seats and since that was the most important thing he wasn't going to give me a ticket. I couldn't believe the bullet I had just dodged. Good things like that don't usually happen to me. I swore up and down I would renew my license immediately and told him Thank You about a million times. Whew, that was a close one. However, I never have been very good at learning from my mistakes and I still have not renewed my license...better get on top of that.