Really? Did That Just Happen?

Be grateful there are no photos!

Jeremy is starting his second Mission Prep class tonight and this is how it went down while he was out.  Jackson fell asleep crying because I was making him pick up 1 mess.  Even though his siblings clean up after him EVERY SINGLE DAY!  (SIDE NOTE:  Is it too much to ask a 2.75 year old to pick up little blocks and put them in the bucket that they are all surrounding?)  When he was awakened he wouldn't stop crying, so I held him to calm him down.  I told the rest of the kids to brush teeth and go potty then we would read scriptures.  All easy-peasy right? Not tonight!  Logan apparently was afraid to use our bathroom because of some creepy noise, thank you Halloween!  So when he went to use the kids bathroom, Miranda quickly got on the potty, isn't she clever?  Logan being 110% inventive boy decides to sit on Jackson's training potty, har-har!  Well apparently it is hilarious, which we do encourage laughter.  I wish it ended there.  Miranda was laughing so hard that she started coughing.  If you know Miranda at all you know the girl could pretty much throw up on command.  One thing that makes it easy is when she is coughing.  Low and behold, she threw up.  Again she is a regular so not a big deal, she knows how to clean herself up (but doesn't need to because she always...usually makes it to the potty).  This time it was in the sink of our long galley style bathroom.  Unfortunately Logan has a weak sauce stomach, but was trapped between a wall and a stinky throw-up.  I think his thought process went subtly like this "I HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE PRONTO!"and proceeded to drop his shoulder like he was pushing through the offensive line in a football game.  Unfortunately the gagging got the best of him.  He on the other hand never throws up and when he does it rocks his world.  He made it almost to the door.  Because they were goofing off I said they had to clean it up.  Then Logan proceeds to dry heave.  If you have ever been near a male when they are tossing their cookies, you know that just their stomach contents is not enough, they go for all of their internal organs with the most forceful upchuck noise possible.  The third gag, ended in results, luckily he was at the toilet.  Unluckily he hadn't lifted the lid!  Miranda, bless her sweet little heart, was talking so nice to him to calm him down and even cleaned up the seat.  I sent them all to bed (after re brushing their teeth of course). Lauren was stuck between the dirty toilet seat and the pile on the floor, crying expressing her fear in being stuck between...well you get the idea.  She was able to escape and head to bed.  I cleaned up the floor and made sure the toilet seat was clean, then a thought crossed my mind which truly shocked me.  Not one time was I completely mad at Jeremy for not being here, that is unusual for me when I am cleaning throw up, and he is not.  Maybe I am more mature now that I am 34!  Nope! I just wrote a blog post about throw up!

Oh and I hope you don't mind all the words and no pictures, I was only thinking of you sweet reader, when I did not put them in!

Blessings abound!

It was not more than a couple hours ago that I posted about having out pictures erased that I got an instant message from my mom saying she emailed me some pictures of her visit.  This was the first one I opened.

 

Please don 't think I am a baby when I tell you I cried when I saw these pictures!  In this picture Jeremy is explaining how they will hold hands so Logan can cover his nose when he is baptized by immersion.

 This was like the only photos I took.  I am beyond grateful that my mom was snapping photos.  Not only did she get these but she took others that included the loved ones that were there to support Logan.


As for the baptism, Logan asked Miranda to give the talk on baptism.  She did an excellent job.  Then she and her good friend did a duet of the song Baptism.  At this point I have an image I want burned into my memory forever.  While Miranda was singing, Logan turned and looked at Jeremy with the biggest grin on his face, Jeremy looked down and smiled.  So precious.  It was definitely a day that he felt very special.  Then I followed with a talk on the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  He was then baptized by Jeremy and later confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  It was a great occasion and we were so pleased with the many family members and friends that were there.

Oh and for the record we are two for two with the water being freezing.  Jeremy showed up early to fill the font, then locked it all up with the water running and came home to change.  When he got back less than 20 minutes later some one had emptied the font and with it went all the hot water.  It takes about an hour to fill up the font and we had to settle for about 40 minutes.  It was enough.

After it was done, Jeremy and Logan were changing back into their church clothes and Jeremy asked Logan how he felt.  Logan responded "I feel very proud of myself."  Logan we are proud of you too!

A surprise from Kabul Afghanistan

My step dad, whom we lovingly refer to as Papa, is working as a civilian electrician for the military.  He gets to go around and do inspection and make sure all is well.  This year Logan's class read Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown.  As part of his school project he gets to send flat Logan to someone he knows and that some one gets to take him on an adventure.  So here is Flat Logan all dressed up in his Camo gear.  Logan chose to send his flat counterpart to his Papa in Kabul, Afghanistan that is 11916 kilometers or 7405 miles or 6434 nautical miles.  Kabul is 12 hours ahead of us.  So right now it is really early tomorrow morning...kind of weird to think about it.  We sent flat Logan to school and then he was mailed off.  The project was supposed to be done in three weeks, but it took this guy 3 weeks to get to Papa.

It would be awesome if it was the real thing but Papa was excited to have a visitor from back home in the states.  He took Flat Logan to work, to meet heroes, of course a little shopping and site seeing and we can't forget the mess hall.

They got to work right away inspecting electrical panels and that kind of fun stuff.

Flat Logan got to sit in on a briefing with 3 Star Admiral Harward and General Martins.  I tried to look at what exactly that means, and all I can come up with is that these guys are pretty important and have given many years of service to our country.  To top it all off they took the time to take a picture for my boy's school project.  These men are missing their families back home and the things their children are doing.  These are the type of heroes I want my boy to look up to!  (His Papa is one of them.  He served in the Navy for four years, correct me if I am wrong about the length).

Then Papa took him on a special assignment where he got to learn about some of the vehicles.  Flat Logan was really impressed with the weapons they get to use, they are big and powerful.  In this picture he is holding a grenade launcher.  I know these men and women hope they don't have to use them but do so in defense of our freedom and safety.

After all the touring and hard work they finally sit down for dinner.  Steak and Lobster.  It must have been a special night since Flat Logan was in town, ha-ha!  Flat Logan enjoyed his trip.  Papa sent him back carrying gifts from Afghanistan.  There is a picture in the slideshow that is of Papa and Flat Logan picking ut 3-D Logan's Scarf!

Papa put together a PowerPoint presentation for Logan's Classroom.  It has lots of pictures of Flat Logan's adventure.  He can't wait to show his friends that his Papa is super cool!

Here is the PowerPoint presentation if you are interested:

Flat Logan’s Great Adventure

NOTE: If you click on View Full screen then arrow through the slides.  It worked that way for me! I hope you enjoy!

Garlic = stinky feet!

Tonight as I was cooking, I tried to sprinkle garlic salt on the boiling chicken.  For some reason the shaker part won't stay on so I dumped it instead, then tried to scoop out as much as possible.  After it had been cooking a while Logan came to the sink and said "what's that smell" so I reminded him of the garlic spill.  He then said "Wow, Daddy's feet are really going to stink!" At first I didn't get it until I replayed it in my mind.  Jeremy often says "Garlic makes my feet stink"  I think it is from a movie or SNL but needless to say when I called him at work so he could enjoy a laugh, he chuckled and the said "How could he remember that, I don't say it that much!"  Appearantly he says it often enough for it to be memorable.  It does make me wonder how many things that I have said "not that often" that my kiddos can quote?

Busted

I asked my mother-in-law if I could read her People magazine when she was done. I was interested in reading an article about the Duggar family whose 19th child was born at 25 weeks and is in the hospital.  So yesterday I got to read the article and with temptation so strong I read the rest of the magazine too.  Is there any gossip that is better than the celebrity kind?  I mean if I liked gossip of course!?  Logan was reading over my shoulder as I came across two funny pictures.  The first one was a print ad for kitty litter.

Logan was laughing so hard.  The sound of the uncontrollable laughter followed by him taking the magazine out of my hands, saying "Miranda, look at this!  Ha-hah-ha-hahaha!"    After I was done he actually carried the magazine around and kept laughing everytime he looked at it.  He also made sure everyone in the house got to see it as well.

The second picture is not quite as funny:

Logan looked at this picture, with confusion on his face he said "Mom, that's weird.  Why is he wearing girl clothes?  I mean his shirt is all sparkly and tight."  Obviously my son has no appreciation for costuming and figure skating!  Or sparkly men, he probably wouldn't like Twilight...humph!

A couple funnies

There is always a funny or two to report. The first one is by my dear sweet Haylie. We had just watched something about Christmas then sat down for dinner where she was asked to say our dinner prayer. Amongst other things she said in her little sometimes still difficult to understand voice "We are thankful for Jesus" proud mommy moment followed promptly by "that he can come down the chimney and leave presents under the tree." At that I snickered as well as Miranda and Hannah, which resulted in a very upset and tearful Haylie. Poor girl, I apologized and gave her big hugs, then made her laugh through the alligator tears. I guess we are not doing as well in the whole separating Jesus and Santa area.

And going sort of along those lines...As kids we loved going through catalogs and finding the things that we wanted. In order to prepare for Black Friday, I had to get the list ready for Jeremy who planned on leaving at 11:30pm on Thursday, I let the kids look through the Thanksgiving day ads. I encouraged them to circle things they liked or were interested in. There were some good ideas, some that were laughable. Such as Hannah wanted some sort of Pokemon tube thing. The funniest I found was flipping through the Macy's ad. I was looking for good ideas and looked down and saw on the women's page an item that was circled. It was a nice fuzzy pair of green slippers, they did indeed look warm and comfortable. When I looked to see which of my girls circled it, I was entertainingly surprised to see it was Logan! If that wasn't funny enough I continued to flip and came to the jewelry page where to big circles appeared.

Clear as day it had Haylie's name in the circles. I showed Jeremy as I continued to chuckle, to which he responded "Boy, I sure hope she's not disappointed!" These kids!

Funny!

I was desperately searching for for something I misplaced ( I only wish this was a rare occurrence). I was looking in Logan's room and saw the back of a check. I turned it over and saw this:I tried so hard to be stern with him but I couldn't help but be in awe that he thought it all out. And seriously doesn't everything cost $xx.99! He definitely was trying to get lunch money for a year.

A mystery solved.

I was a naughty girl and left the camera on the couch after taking a bunch of pictures of Jackson and the kids. Well some one got it and started recording a video. I am not sure who this mysterious child could possibly be? You will see a boring video of our couch then blue legs walk by...

...oh yep that's who it is...LOGAN! He not only was playing with the camera but he recorded himself doing a flip off the arm of the couch, then grinned at the camera with a mischievious yet adorable twinkle in his eye. Of course he got in trouble for it, and then I told him, if he is going to break the rules he shouldn't record it!

Funny stories for the day

I am sure my funny stories are not funny for any one else but for memories sake they are going into the "blogosphere".

As I was getting out of my shower this morning I get bombarded by Haylie and Hannah. FYI when you have 6 young kids there is no such thing as privacy. As I am inside the shower still Haylie comes around the corner crying. Between sobs she says "I was running down the hall and I tripped and hit my head." And from the tone of her voice Hannah probably had her hand on her hip wagging her finger at her beloved mirror image and said firmly with no sympathy "well you know you are not supposed to be running in the house" then with a sweeter know-it-all voice she says "right Mom?" Yes she did actually use "supposed." Hannah is coming into her own and following in Miranda's foot steps as the next little mom.

Later that day...I was holding Jackson after feeding him. He was a happy little camper and then he gassed. From experience he makes his gas heard, but when he creates home made poop it is typically silent and your nose hairs are the first to betray his wicked but necessary deed. Then he ripped another one, this I could feel, but was not too worried. Then came the big one. As I was holding him appreciating the beauty of him pooping, this may sound weird so I interrupt this sentence to explain. My cute nephew has had problems keeping "regular" and poop was typically a painful, once every 10 day, experience. So for some it would be a blessing to have loose regular bowels. Moving on...then there was another noise. Then I think I am so lucky to be a mother I should blog about how grateful I am for poop! (I am not making this up I really thought that!) Then I felt an uncomfortable warmth on my leg. "Weird" I thought, it had only been less than 1 minute since the first "noise." The warmth was too real and too close, so I moved my arm and it was wet so I look down on my cute white linen skirt and there was the markings of motherhood. Jackson's outfit which had been on him for 2.367 seconds before his interruption (that I am making up it was more like 5 minutes) was completely soiled. So let me summarize the story. I am sitting admiring that my son can poop and it quickly turned in to moist poop on my arm and skirt. He is so thoughtful. I am sure he was mentally communicating and thought "Mom if you like it so much I will give you some to hold and some to wear" I am absolutely positively sure that is what he was thinking. Then I cleaned him all up and he giggled at me. Aren't they precious?

While planting flowers, that will probably die in four days time, Miranda was my most avid helper. She was helping me pull weeds and get the bigger rocks out of the dirt. She turns to me and says "this is the worst day ever!" Considering that she had a great time today I asked her to clarify and she said "pulling weeds!" So if this is her worst day ever then I think we are doing something good. Let me remind you she is a SHE which typically equates to dramatic exaggeration!

Just so Logan doesn't feel left out he's his funny story. We have given the kids a time limit for Wii time. They get 15 minutes each. While I try to keep on it, it sometimes slides. So today he went to a friends house and played Wii, and knowing Logan it was for a good share of the time. Later that day he came up to me and asked if he could play Wii, I asked "how long did you play for today?" he said I don't know. So I questioned him further by saying was it a long time or short time. After thinking for one minute with his finger on his chin he said with all seriousness "I played for one minute so I have fourteen minutes left!" Well then I had to call him on lying to me. So he put himself on his bed where I found him 20 minutes later. I told him that I didn't send him there. To which he kindly said "well this is where you tell us to go when you are mad at us."

Lastly, today I had a weird experience. The three girls went to a day camp and Logan went to a buddies house. I had three hours of having Jackson and Lauren alone. She was a completely different kiddo. She was quiet and restful and sweet and cute and lovable and cute. Well she is always cute and mostly sweet I am sure the chocoholic in her helps with that part though. As I was packing the two kids in the car I realized Lauren is really no different from the rest of my kids she is just rambunctious because she has 5 other siblings. She is a little almost two year old trying to keep up with her older siblings. It doesn't convert well! Anyways, I came to a new appreciation of her and who she is. She doesn't want to be lost in the mix, she wants to be known and being...I'm not sure what the correct word(s) is/are: creative, energetic, busy, loud, opinionated, is definitely a way for us to remember her and appreciate all those qualities. Which I do. I love that little girl to pieces. She is, simply put, adorable and the best part is she is MINE!

I have chosen a path that includes these 6 precious kids, all of them bring something to my family and I truly appreciate them all, even if i get mad and send them to their beds sometimes!

A funny conversation

Today on the way home from church Logan (and the rest of the kiddos) were confused as to why we didn't have a typical meeting. Usually we go to sacrament meeting where they start by passing the sacrament. Then when that is over we go to different classes. Today was Stake Conference. So it is a two our meeting, today's conference happened to be a broadcast from Salt Lake City. We tried to explain the difference to Logan and he says "Oh I get it, like a 3-Hour Breath Mint"

Jeremy and I look at each other trying to find the connection. Logan quickly adds "only less time." Neither are related but he picked up on the length of time. It was pretty funny. We keep this "treat" in the car so there is a frequent request for these lovely mints. We go through them quickly.

Lots of updates...

February 1st was the day Jackson was blessed. We didn't take too many pictures, actually we only took one.

Jeremy gave our little caboose a beautiful blessing. The people in the circle with Jeremy were great friends. We are extremely fortunate to be surrounded by so many people who will be a part of our lives and a good example to Jackson. In the circle there was, President Score, Bishop Lopez, Uncle Chris, Rossi, Tim, and Matt.

I took Lauren for her 18 month check-up, it's late and I was pre-occupied. She weighs 24lbs, that's the 30th percentile for her age. For her height she was in the 95th percentile at 34.75" tall. She still is our lollipop, tall, skinny with a beautifully round head.

Logan lost his second tooth, it's been loose since September! While rinsing it off in the sink it went down the drain. Brave Aunt Tamra dug through grossness to no avail, the tooth is gone. 1 week later and the silly tooth fairy has still not come even though there has been a note explaining the situation. The fairy needs to be fired.

Haylie and Hannah turned 4 yesterday. We began celebrating by getting traditional birthday donuts and dancing to Happy Birthday from the Splash Dance CD. We ended the day by going to Mimi's for dinner. Just the 8 of us, and it was enjoyable and the kids were awesome. After we came home and watched Igor. The girls opened a few presents but will get their big presents tomorrow when we celebrate with family. If I get some time I will put together a video to the Happy Birthday song. It's really catchy.

And just for kicks since most people only put the good stuff on blogs I will share a good story about me. Today as I was leaving for church with Jackson in arms I slipped on a hanger that was haphazardly lying in the hallway. We were both unharmed, with the exception of my ego. I picked up the hanger and threw it down the hall, it broke. I then lectured the kids on why they need to put stuff away. Seriously folks I am a klutz with out the help of objects. So we get home from church (yes to be spiritually uplifted and all that jazz) and the kids are to finish cleaning up the mess they made before church (it is amazing what two hours with out dad at home can do to a house!) So Logan comes out to show Jeremy a broken hanger, he threw it in his room. Jeremy said, where did you learn that? Logan's mumbled response "from mom!" To defend my self a little the kids were in the car when I threw the hanger so it was not in anyway directed at them. They just happened to be looking at me threw the windshield! Maybe this is where Lauren has learned to throw fits?!

With that I am signing off until next time when I have something worth while to share. And for kicks one last picture of my beautiful girls.

Have lots of kids = lots of stories

We have a broken washing machine in our back yard and I was changing our laundry and notice the lid was up. Being that it is surrounded by rocks I knew that couldn't be a good sign. It is broken already so they can't do more damage to it but still. So I asked the three likely suspects, Logan, Haylie and Hannah. Logan looked a me with his big blue innocent eyes and promised me it wasn't him, Haylie and Hannah also said it wasn't them. So I pulled the one of you are lying since obviously the rocks don't climb in themselves card. Hannah quickly ratted out Logan. He denied it at first then realized that he was busted. He took his punishment with out tattling on his sisters and I went back out in the garage and realized that the twins do everything with Logan and he is smart enough to have an accomplice so he won't get in trouble alone. I call Haylie and Hannah back (this is the funny part I promise!) and asked if they put rocks in the washing machine too. Hannah shook her head with a guilty no, Haylie nodded with a guilty yes. Realizing that the other didn't give the same answer they switch, Haylie with a guilty no and Hannah with a guilty yes. They were right next to each other but didn't look at the other. It was comical that they responded unknowingly the same way. I asked again and the same thing. You would be proud at my ability to keep a straight face. I wasn't mad so it was harder than you might think. I asked a third time they both bow their heads and look up at me with pleading green (or are they hazel?) eyes and both nod in agreement. Needless to say they are in trouble for lying not the rocks. Little punks! At least they are mine, they are cute, and they can still make me laugh!

Happy Birthday, SON!

Yesterday was Logan's 6th Birthday. I can't believe he is growing up so fast. All he could talk about was his spider cake that he was getting for his birthday. For the record I couldn't fit 8 legs per spider just so you know I am not teaching him incorrect spider facts! He said it was his best birthday ever. We celebrated his birthday with extended family on Tuesday where he got spoiled. His cousin's birthday was that day so they got to celebrate together.

Here is the video link. I couldn't ask for a better example for Logan to look up to, but I couldn't be more proud that Logan wants to be like his Dad.

Happy Birthday Logan J!

A Star is Born

It is no secret that Miranda loves to perform. Her strengths are a few of my many weaknesses. Back in September she got to sing with two older girls for our Primary program. She had no fear or at least it appeared that way. She did amazing. It doesn't take much talent to be in a required class play but it is still always a little nerve wracking getting up in front of people. She did it and she was fabulous. I love to see her in front of people and not be shy. Here she is in her class Thanksgiving play.

She also got to play Mary in a Nativity scene for our church (ward) Christmas party. I was "backstage" so I didn't get to see how it went. Thankfully Uncle Chris was there to represent with the camera. Thanks Chris for always being there to take pictures!

This is a post about Miranda but I had to add that Logan was one of the Wisemen, the green one!

His buddy Caden is the purple Wiseman. They are 6 weeks apart in age and happen to be in the same class in Kindergarten. Logan will be the next shining star. He will be in his class "Holiday" Performance on Monday, I will make sure to take pictures and post them soon.

I can't believe I forgot....

On Tuesday the 28th of October something monumental happened...Logan lost his first tooth. There was no video or pomp and circumstance, applause or anything like that. Since about the first week of school Logan has been wiggling this tooth, it was a stubborn one. That word comes up a lot in my family...weird! So I was taking a nap on the couch when Logan came in and said how loose his tooth was, Jeremy who was there said something to him and he left. Within a couple minutes he came back tooth in hand. Miranda's teeth were always fun and involved dental floss. Here is a picture of my newest Jack O'Lantern.

A Logan Funny

Jeremy was doing his daily routine of getting ready for work. The kids, if they wake up early. will go sit on the floor in the bathroom wrapped in their blankets form Grandma Nel and watch him get ready. As Jeremy religiously flosses his teeth Logan says, "Daddy why do you use canker floss?" I don't think we talk about those very much but you never know. Then he seemed very confused when we told him it was Dental Floss, not canker floss. When asked why it is called canker floss, he simply shrugged his shoulders.

Pumpkin Farm

I got to be one of the lucky volunteers to go to the pumpkin patch with Logan's Kindergarten class. It was CHAOTIC but lots of fun. The wind was pretty intense and it was cold. We got to go to the petting zoo, and then see a show in a barn where we learned about new instruments like the washboard, a jaw harp, sticks and then another one that used a wash basin a string and a broom, kind of like a big guitar with one string. It makes a deep sound.
Then we took a little tractor ride to the back of the corn fields and picked out pumpkins. It was tiring but fun all the kids enjoyed it and I think it would be a fun place to go as a family.

Daddy is so proud!

Logan drew this picture today. It represents the family's love for Star Wars!

A Logan Funny

Logan kept singing "Poor Poor Roddey, flushed down the potty". We try to discourage "potty" words so I was a little annoyed at the quote from Flushed Away. More annoyed by it being repeated over and over and over and over...than the actual saying.

I finally told Logan that if he said it one more time, after repeatedly asking him to stop I would put soap in his mouth to clean it up. A couple minutes later Logan came out after spending some time in the bathroom. I asked him what he was doing and he told me he was washing his mouth out with soap. I asked if he said the saying one more time and he confirmed. I love it when I don't have to be consistent with the punishment. He took care of it all by himself. Although now I have to inform him soap is NOT a food source!

Logan sense

So I did the good mom thing and grilled Logan about his first day of school, I can't remember all the questions but the answers were pretty similar to Miranda's answers on her first day of school. Yes, Yes, Yes.... He did let me know he met three new friends...what were their names I asked "I don't renember" good friends eh? He then informed me that they played a game in a circle except it was really a triangle. Lastly as we were crossing the street to go home he said with a little tinge of disappointment and frustration "Ms. Z didn't teach me how to read today" I guess we have made reading seem like an easy process that happens over night. I am glad though that he is excited to learn more new things and be like his big sister.