What's up with that tongue?

One way to tell if Shawn is concentrating is to see if he is sticking out his tongue. It is an unconscious habit, but he always does it. As you can tell, Shawn was really concentrating.

I think it must run in the family because Livy has a thing with sticking her tongue out also. All she wanted to do was lick the pumpkins.

This is her going in for the kill. At first it was cute, but than I started to worry about what she might lick of the pumpkin...gross.

Pumpkin Carving Party

So we thought that we should take advantage of my dad being in town and carve pumpkins. He is the ultimate pumpkin carver. Ethan just wanted to poke, cut and destroy everything while we were carving. Mental note: next year buy Ethan two pumpkins-one to destroy and one to carve. I got the wonderful job of cleaning all the guts out, while Shawn and grandpa turned the pumpkins into a skeleton, pirate ship, and a cute bat.

Weekend Visitor

My dad is visiting this weekend. It is so fun to have visitors, and the kids have loved every minute of it. Grandpa has been a very good sport and played with the boys. He has been a punching bag, climbing mountain, lego builder, monster, and fort builder. We went for a walk this weekend and my dad decided he needed a challenge. For the first lap he ran with Ethan on his shoulders (until Ethan got scared) and for the next few laps he rode Ethan's scooter. Ethan and Cole brought their scooters to the park, but of course I ended up carrying them with me the whole time. We had a great time.

Crazy Kids

We had a pretty normal day today. We started off a little crazy as I took the kids to Target for some shopping. I got Livy her first pair of shoes and they are sooo cute. I wish they made them in my size. The boys were out of control in the store (as usual). I heard a comment the other day that reminded me of my boys. This lady referred to her kids as chimpanzee’s on crack. I thought that was hilarious and very appropriate for the way my boys behave on a regular basis. When we got home from Target Cole opened a new box of cereal and dumped it all over the couch. Even the very bit at the bottom of the box that is smashed and just crumbs. As I was cleaning up that mess up, Ethan and Cole decided to be helpful. They tried to feed Livy some of her baby food. She was fond of the peas they were feeding her, but not the way they were shoving it in her face. After the tub tonight Ethan and Shawn had a funny conversation. My boys think it is really funny to call each other naughty names, like poo-poo head or dumb face. Tonight it was dumb face. This is how the conversation went.

Shawn: Ethan, it is not nice to call people dumb face. How would you feel if I called you a dumb face?
Ethan: Sad.
Shawn: Nobody is a dumb face.
Ethan: but, dad you are right now.

Ethan likes to say his prayers all by him self and they are very unscripted, which makes for an entertaining prayer. Tonight Ethan prayed that he would wake up really early with lots of energy. That is exactly what Shawn and I need.

Shawn works too hard

I think Shawn might be working too hard. This is what he looks like when he comes home from working at the hospital for two days straight (and all night). He tries really hard to sit down and play with the kids when he comes home, but he always ends up asleep on the floor. I try to tell him to go up to our bedroom so he can actually get a good nap, but he never makes it upstairs. The kids bug him and poke at him while he sleeps, but he just sleeps right through it. Someday this will be over-hopefully.

Which One?

I need some help. I don't know which one of these hat's for Livy's halloween costume is better. She is going to be a little black cat (in case you haven't figured that out) and I have a little black halloween onsie that I am attaching a tale to. I am being cheap this year with her costume, but I figure she doesn't care and in a couple of years when she does care then I will spend money and get one that she really wants. Anyway, I found this little cat hat at Target for $1.00 so I got it and the other one I made with an old pair of nylons and black felt. Which do you like better?? I asked my husband and he didn't really care, but he was half asleep when I asked him. Besides, this is more of a girl question.

Ethan and Flowers

Ethan is so cute. Everyday when I take him to preschool he gets out of the car and goes over to a patch of dandelions that are growing in his teachers yard and picks one and gives it to me. It is so sweet. Then I try to give him a kiss (I tell him that when a boy gives a girl a flower she just might thank him with a kiss) and he runs away. Isn't he too young to run away from a kiss from his mom? I think it is funny.

I have been totally absent minded these past three days while I read New Moon and Eclipse (kids, housework, husband....what are those?). But I have finally finished them and for those of you who have read them you know what I am talking about. I am totally in love with Edward. Well, I really love my husband more, but for a fictitious boyfriend Edward it perfect. I know I am a big dork. I guess I need something more exciting in my life. Now I need another good book to read. I have never read Jane Eyre and it is next on my list. Doesn't that story have an Edward also. Hmmm, that might work really well with my new fictitious boyfriend thing.

Oh, I almost forgot. Cole got into a tube of vaseoline. He got it all over his hands and couldn't get it off so he decided to wipe it all over my bed and walls and floor, etc. Vaseoline does not come off easily.

Peaceful Sunday....sort of

Today while Shawn and I were trying to watch the morning session of conference Cole decided to color one of his books. What was really funny about it was on each page he only colored on Pablo's eyes (it was a Backyardigan's book). So now on each page Pablo has big black crayon scribbled all over his eyes. Afterward Cole looked at me and said, "Oh No, Pablo can't see. Mommy, fix it." I always look forward to conference, but trying to get something for the kids to keep them entertained long enough without ruining things is challenging. Ethan played Lego's pretty peacefully for a while, but then Cole wanted to help and that ended up into a Lego war. After that Ethan decided he wanted to write a letter to Santa with the things he wanted for Christmas. I can't believe we already have to start thinking about Christmas, but it will be here soon. Hopefully some day my kids will look forward to conference as much as Shawn and I do. Until then I we will just keep trying and enjoy the parts of conference that I do here through all the yelling and screaming. Someday I will get my peaceful Sunday.......maybe.

Cute Package

We got the cutest package today.

Actually, I finally got the two books I have been waiting for- Eclipse and New Moon by Stephanie Meyer (which means that my children, husband, and house will be neglected for the next few days until I finish reading them). Ethan used the box from the books and decided to put it on Livy. But doesn't she make the cutest package?

This is the mastermind to Livy's box entrapment.

For some reason last night around 3:00 in the morning two of the smoke alarms upstairs started beeping. I guess that means I need to change the batteries so I was trying to figure out what kind of batteries. All of the sudden I see Cole walking down the hallway. He walked over and grabbed my hand and said, "Mom, go to bed." He dragged me down the hallway and stood by my bed until I got in. Then he walked around to the other side of my bed (which was vacant because Shawn was at the hospital) and he climbed in. It was so funny. I guess he was concerned about me getting enough sleep-ya right! It was just really cute. I never did get the batteries changed and this morning when I woke up the beeping was gone. Maybe the smoke alarms are possessed. Speaking of possessed, our garage door is definitely possessed. For the last few weeks it has had a mind of its own. Sometimes it opens, sometimes it doesn't, but usually it just stops in the middle. Shawn and I have to get out and manually pull it up. It doesn't have a problem going down, just up. I wish I was better at fixing things. Thank goodness my dad is coming next week. Maybe he can look at it.

Book about me

In Ethan's preschool class they made a little book about themselves yesterday. The book was so cute. Ethan wrote that he had a dog named benny and that he loved to go swimming with his dog. (This must be a make believe dog because we DO NOT have a dog) Some of his favorite things are:

Favorite Animal: Sting Ray
Favorite Song: Follow the Prophet
Favorite Food: Chocolate Milk and Pizza
Favorite Game: Lego Games
Favorite Book: Angel Pigs (this is really a book)
Favorite thing to do: Play Legos
Favorite Color: Black
Favorite Movie: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Things I like to do with my friends: Play Hide-N-Go-Seek (Ethan and Cole love to play this at home. Cole will go in the corner and count 2-3-2-3-2-3- over and over and then go and find him. It is really funny)
Things I do really well: Build Legos

It was a really cute book and I thought it might be fun to share some of his answers.

New Music

Shawn found this new music by Sean Kingston and I just had to put it on. It reminds me so much of the Island we lived on a while ago (don't you think Jenn Wheeler). I love it. Everytime I hear it I want to get up and dance.

Finally eating real food.

Livy has finally graduated to eat actual food (if you call mashed up fruits and veggies food). So far she seems to like it. Occasionaly she spits it out at me, but I think that is more for her fun of getting the food all over me and the floor rather than not liking it.

Today went a little smoother than yesterday. Not so much blood (just a few scraped up knees from the park this morning, but nothing that a band aid can't take care of). The boys did manage to paint the back of the house with some kids paints. Don't worry-it washed off, but when I walked out back to the stucco painted I panicked. I put Cole down for a nap and Ethan was playing games on the computer when I told Shawn to watch Livy while I ran to the bank. Usually I drag all three kids in the bank and it is a nightmare. The people at the bank recognize me and close all the doors and come running with the sucker basket. Anyway, the bank went fine and when I came home I found Shawn asleep on the floor with Livy lying next to him wide away picking at his face. Her fingers were in his nose and picking at his eyeballs. She was having a great time and Shawn didn't even budge. I guess he stayed up to late at the hospital last night.

Crazy Morning

This morning started off a little crazy. I went upstairs to brush my teeth and of course Ethan and Cole started fighting downstairs. I decided to ignore it and see if they could work it out. A few minutes later Ethan came running up to his room and slammed the door and Cole was crying. Cole walked into the bathroom with blood running down his face. I was really just expecting him to be throwing a fit because he couldn't get the toy he wanted, but he was really hurt. I guess Ethan shoved his face into the stairs and it split his lip open and removed a small portion of his tongue. Supposedly mouths heal quickly, but there was really a lot of blood. So, we got that under control and then we took Ethan to school. After dropping him off we went to get some groceries. I fought the whole time with Cole to get him to sit down and he ended up falling out of the cart. He didn't seem too shaken up about it and stood right back up. On the way home from the store Cole took stickers (the bagger people always give my kids a bunch of stickers) and plastered them all over the windows. I couldn't get them off and had to sit and scrape the windows. It is only 10:30 in the morning and Shawn is on call and won't be home until tomorrow, I wonder what else will happen today.