These Boots Are Made For Walkin'

This is what happens when I let McKay pick his own shoes before we go outside.

I couldn't talk him out of it. He was wearing these boots no matter what.

But he rocked the playground in these babies. Climbed ladders, sailed down slides, pranced around. He could do it all.

May 2008

Jumping off the diving board.  Prepared with floaties and goggles and courage!

Brian with his babies...um, I  mean running shoes.  Do you think he has enough?

Mother's Day 2008.  I sure am lucky to be the momma to these two amazing children.

Cutest little cowboy.

Reading with dad.

Jammie Walk

We love going on Sunday evening walks in the spring/summer...when the weather is not too hot and not too cold and the sun doesn't set until well after the kid's bedtime. We had to do it tonight because the weather was so nice. We didn't decide to go until after dinner and we figured that we'd be cutting it pretty close to bedtime. Brian suggested we go on a "Jammie Walk" and McKay was thrilled at the idea.

About halfway through our walk I asked McKay a question and heard no reply. We looked down and saw this. We figured that since they were both asleep we didn't have to rush home to get them in bed so we made our little walk a little longer.

When we got home they were still happily snoozing together. So glad it was a jammie walk- we each just took a kid and plopped them right in bed.

i like them

I'm pretty lucky. I am the youngest in a family of four girls. We are all extremely close and after hanging up from a conference call (aren't we official?) tonight with two of my sisters where I both cried and laughed hysterically, I decided to write down some of the things I love about my sisters and some of the funny things that I think of when I think of them.

• holding hands- it all started when I noticed how delicate and soft Jana's hands are. They are delightful to hold. We then discovered that we all like holding each other's and it's just one of our things. Holding hands. We love it.



• how can four people have so much to say to each other everyday? We laugh because we can talk on the phone late at night and then first thing the next morning and still have things to talk about. This practice drives all our husbands crazy and they just don't get it, but have learned to let it happen anyway. I always tell Brian that I would be talking non-stop to him if I didn't talk so much to my sisters. Brian doesn't like talking non-stop so he knows that this is necessary.



• we have an old swim suit that is kind of like a swim dress. It looked really cute on the model in the catalog that I bought it from. But once I actually got it I decided it would be a good maternity swimsuit. We named it "Big brown" and we've all worn it at one time or another, either while pregnant or just during a fuller phase. We have a love/hate relationship with Big Brown. She's there for us when we need her, but we sure don't love when we have to rely on her. Since then, we kind of love to use the phrase "big brown" to describe anything that fits. The requirements: it has to be brown, and you have to feel kind of ugly in it. I love all the quirky, funny (to us) little jokes we have together.



• singing. I'm pretty sure my dad would want us all to sing at his funeral, just so he can laugh at us from above. He loves when we sing, but only because we're so bad. But, even still, sing we do. We love making up our own songs to already existing tunes. I'll never forget making up words to a John Denver song (can't remember what it's called) and having one of my nephews friends in the house observing the impromptu concert and looking at us like we were totally crazy. "Doesn't everyone sing like this, little neighbor?" Guess not. We kind of forgot that to some it might be weird. You should hear us during a game of domino's...



• supporting each other throughout the woes, successes, pitfalls and joys of motherhood. I am so grateful I have these three ladies to share this wonderful journey with. They are such an amazing support to me and such a great resource when I feel like I don't know what I'm doing.



• we have a lot of celebrity friends. We all kind of have certain celebrities that we feel like we know and that are our best friends. Jennifer Aniston is an old pal. After seeing Black Hawk Down way back when, Josh Hartnett became Lisa's first boyfriend. We just have special connections. We have conversations about celebrities like we're talking about our own friends.



• shopping. Now, this practice is kind of divided. I have learned to appreciate the thriftiness of my two older sisters and have learned a lot from them, but I love shopping with Jana. We're not very good at it, but we still love it.



• writing Poems. What a funny thing we do with and for each other. It's always fun when someone writes a poem- usually accompanying a birthday or Christmas present, or more recently a wedding!

• cousins! I only have one cousin who I don't get to see hardly ever; so I am thrilled that my kids get to have an abundance of cousins to play with. McKay's cousins are his very best friends. I love that. Without my sisters, my kids would be missing out on some great friends.

How sad for anyone who doesn't get to have sisters. How lucky for me that I get to have three! I love them all!

if only i had voted...

i'm shocked! lisa and i wonder if maybe america was scared away by the mayor of murray and his moustache.

Don't Worry

By the way- for those of you who are worried, Brian does know about all my boyfriends...and he's okay with them. I will have to do a whole post about them sometime and reveal Brian's girlfriend...he's only had one.

And I just realized that I said it would be creepy to have a 17 year old boyfriend...so what do I call him? I don't know the right word...

He's My Singing Boyfriend- but he HAS to be singing...

Ahhh. I am so confused. I just watched American Idol and as usual, am not voting for anyone. I don't like to participate much in the voting thing...I just like to sit back and see what happens, because although I love the show, I don't really care who wins. I just like the entertainment of it all. So...David or David? I don't know. I can't imagine that David Cook will win but maybe I have no idea. I think either way they'll both be successful. Anyway, why am I confused? Well, I love David Archuleta when he's singing. I could just eat him. I could cry sometimes too, he's that good. "Imagine" tonight- mmmm...so amazing! But then when he's being judged, or talking, or just standing there I just don't feel him. He's kind of awkward and uncomfortable to watch. Like I really get uncomfortable watching him talk. And I don't really want him to. Just sing David...sing.

And what the heck has Rueben been doing?

And also, who's a big American Idol nerd? Me. I feel like one right now with all this AI talk.

Just Another Marathon

Brian- Ran his SEVENTH marathon today in Ogden! He was not happy with his time- he started feeling sick around mile 11, and didn't feel well the rest of the race. I am always still impressed with him running a whole marathon, regardless of the time he gets. He says that he's now run enough marathons that "just finishing" is not good enough anymore. He wants good times. He needs speed. He was frustrated about this race. He looked so very cute though when he walked in the door from his run today that I told him to "freeze!" and I snapped about twelve pictures of him. He had to tell me to stop. He looked very cute, but he smelled very bad. It's funny because I always want to give him a big "I'm proud of you" hug after a race, but ewww! I just can't do it. I give him a very loose, pat-hug. Then I tell him to go shower. Then, after he's all clean and smelling good I give him a nice big hug. Anyway- although he was not happy with his time I am still proud of my runner. Way to go Bri!

Don't mind the pile of garbage behind him. It's not mine.



This is right about when he told me to stop snapping pictures. But who can blame me for wanting to?

Weiser

I can always tell when Mckay has had a dream because he when he wakes up some pretty random things come shooting out of his mouth first thing in the morning, when normally he would just want to snuggle and be a little grumpy for awhile. Well, this morning he had a dream. When I opened his door after he first called me he said in a hurried voice, "Mom! I want to wear my baseball shirt and baseball hat! Can I put it on right now?" I asked him if he had a dream about baseball and he said yes, even though that doesn't' mean much coming from a two and a half year old. I put his baseball shirt (which is the green Boston shirt) right over his jammies and slapped on his hat. He then grabbed his bat and a ball and was ready for an eight am game in the family room. He then said to me, "Mom, my name is Weiser. Call me Weiser." I'm thinking that last night he was a baseball player named Weiser . Weiser as in the same sound as Budweiser. No clue where he got that. Funny.

Another funny thing McKay did last night happened while I was snuggling him back to sleep at four in the morning. He had woken up in the middle of the night crying, which is pretty rare for him, and wanted to snuggle in his bed. I was so tired that instead of try to get him back to sleep on his own, I obliged and hopped in bed with him. He was tossing and turning a little and I was just about back to sleep when I hear this; "Mom, you're kinda cute." I smiled in my head and said, "Thanks babe, now go to sleep." and he said it again before drifting back off to his baseball dream. Cute kid.

By the way- the cute salesclerk at Nordstrom said that gauchos are out. {tear} I might wear mine anyway.

I'm Back

I'm back in my tiny house. I'm back to my comfy bed. I'm back to just me and my own kids. Ah, it's good to be back.

I spent last week babysitting my sister's four kids. Me, McKay and Elle packed up and moved to Lehi for a few days. Brian was working most of the time, so he was conveniently (for him) absent. So it was me and six kids hanging out for four days. The kids were great. They were helpful, polite, energetic and overall very easy to take care of. McKay wanted to move in permanently due to the trampoline in the backyard and the constant cousin companionship. There were times where I didn't even know where in the house he was. He was playing without me! It was fantastic! I told Brian that a bigger house is on the top of my list right now. (Not going to happen any day soon, but I can dream, right?)

The whole week was pretty uneventful until Thursday afternoon. After a nice lunch over at Lisa's house, and right before the kids were going to dance to the Newsies soundtrack outside, Matthew, my sister's youngest, got white as a ghost and laid down on the ground. Not even King of New York could get him up. He was sick. You could just tell by looking at him that he was sick. I was about 100% positive that he was going to throw up any second. We set towels all around him and he just laid there looking green. After a few minutes he fell asleep. It was at this point where I started to cry. You see, I watched Krista's kids last summer too. Matthew was almost three then. And guess what? He got sick. I cried then too.

I am a new mom. McKay has only had the stomach flu twice in his life. That is two times that I've had to clean up vomit. Two times where I am the one responsible for cleaning the carpet (or car seat, yuck!). Two times where I've laid awake at night wondering when I'd have to get up next. Inexperienced to say the least. And lets face it, cleaning up after your own child is hard enough. So Matthew got sick again. I was pretty much dying. Oh I love him- he's my nephew- but nephew love doesn't go throw up deep, I'm afraid. I think that is a love only a parent has. So it was kind of hard for me. And lets just put a big, dark, unfamiliar house into the equation. I have a thing about people doing weird things at night that might wake me up and surprise/scare me. For example sleepwalking. I am afraid of anyone doing that. Or when Brian does one of his weird things like take the pictures off the wall in his sleep. Scares me. Well, throwing up in the middle of the night is included. And someone throwing up in the middle of the night in a big, dark house is for sure included. So I was totally freaked out that night and hardly slept at all. Luckily, he slept through the night and the only cleaning I had to do was earlier that evening. Poor Matt. I felt bad for both of us. I know he wanted his mom. Aunt Sarah is no substitute for mom when you're sick. We both dealt with it and the next day we both felt much better. I have my suspicions that he gets sick because he misses his mom, but who knows...

Here's little Matty himself. Cute isn't he?

I was really looking forward to Mother's Day because that meant that I would be done babysitting and back home. I got a nice breakfast made by my two boys and gift certificates to do some summer clothes shopping. I was pregnant last summer so I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do with clothes. Like gauchos? Are those still cute? I have a pair from the summer before I was pregnant but I just don't know the status of gauchos anymore... And I'm still not flat enough (like I ever was) for all my tight shirts that I wore before, so I need some new shirts. So thanks to my kids for the shopping funds. We spent the rest of the day visiting our moms and families, which is always fun.

Now I'm just gearing up to clean my house. Don't know when that will happen. I tend to gear up for quite awhile....

Precious

If you're really observant you may have realized that I used the word precious a few times in my last post. It seems like lately I've been saying this word more and more. Why? I guess because I am a mother and there are a lot of things in a mother's life that are just precious. Am I right? And I just can't seem to find another word that fits. Cute is just visual. Sweet just doesn't cut it. Precious. Yes.

My kids are precious. Everything they do...okay not everything, but most things they do are precious to me. McKay's little bottom is precious. It is just too precious when Ellery gives me hugs- and yes, she's only six months old and she totally hugs me...a lot...it's very precious. McKay singing a song, any song, is precious. When McKay comes up to me and out of the blue says, "I love you so much, momma," now who doesn't think that's precious? And I find that I use the word precious the most when I recognize that the things they do won't last forever - these precious stages that they are going through and quickly grow out of. I am grateful for the word precious so I can adequately use the right word for my feelings. And I am definitely cherishing these precious moments.

Did you read the word precious too many times and now it sounds totally weird to you? Me too. I hope I didn't ruin it.

My Worries

Ellery has eczema behind her knees. It's looking like McKay might be left handed. I've already discovered a freckle on Ellery's thigh. McKay has a crazy cowlick swoop on the back of his head that kids might possibly think funny. These are the things I'm worried about....well all the physical things anyway.

Lately I've been thinking how blessed I am to be worrying about eczema and cowlicks. Last week Ellery had her six month checkup and it turns out her heart murmur is still there. For those of you who don't know, Ellery was born with a heart murmur and after a trip up to the cardiologist we found out that it was one that is fairly common in newborns and should be gone by six months. Nothing to worry about. Well, I'm still not worried, and neither was our doctor when he heard it it was still there last week, but it's something we need to get checked out.I'm not writing about this because I'm freaking out about it, but just to say that I feel so lucky to have healthy children. And also that Brian and I are healthy. It is such a precious thing and something that I can easily take for granted. So many things can go wrong in a body and I'm just so glad that all of ours are functioning properly. So when I heard that her heart murmur was still there, it just made me even more grateful for my insignificant worries. The doctor could have told me that there was a real problem with her heart. Instead he told us to take her to the doctor sometime in the next month. I'll take that, easy. I'll feel better once we take her in again and make sure that everything is okay, but I'm pretty confidant that she is fine.

I've been thinking about my friends Buffy and Ian who just went through a major surgery with their eight month old little girl. They have had this worry for over a year and have been so strong and handled it so well. And I'm so glad that they will now be able to let that worry go and move on and that now Peyton will be healthy and strong. Their situation has made me think even more about how blessed we are, all of us, to have these precious, healthy babies. What a great thing to celebrate!

Now I think I'll worry some more about that freckle...