Jokey McJokerson

Wade: (bringing me the movie) Mommy, I want to watch "How to Train My Dragon!"

Me: "How to Train My Dragon?"

Wade: No, Mommy, "How to Train MY Dragon!"

Dressing him up as Hiccup for Halloween was the BEST idea.

So over the last few weeks, aside from telling me what every animal under the sun eats, that sleeping is for nighttime and waking is for daytime, that the snow outside means Christmas, every single letter and number he notices and what letter every word in the english language starts with, Wade has become my little joker. I decided that these silly antics were much too funny to keep to myself, so I thought I'd brighten your day with a little Wader-style humor.

Every single time I go into the bathroom, Wade decides it's time for a knock-knock joke. This morning as I was getting out of the shower, it began.

Wade: (knocks on door)

Me: What's up buddy?

Wade: (in flawless Achmed the Dead Terrorist fashion) It's me. I kill you.

and then:

Wade: Knock Knock!

Me: Who's there?

Wade: Interrupting cheese.

Me: Interrupt....

Wade: (interrupts) CHEESE!!

he follows this joke with "I even told you I was going to interrupt you!" and then "Good morning sir, beautiful day, isn't it?" hmmmm... maybe he's watching too much TV. I think the boys rewind commercials over and over so they can teach him the funny ones. I fully expect that, before long, he will be saying stuff like "apparently riding the dog around like a small horse is frowned upon in this establishment!"

A couple days ago Wade was sound asleep on the couch while the kids were getting ready for school. He started to wake up, and this is how his first conversation of the morning started with Conner.

Conner: Hey Wader! How ya doing? Are you sleepy?

Wade: No.

Conner: Are you tired?

Wade: No.

Conner: Wanna wake up?

Wade: No.

Wade rolls over...

Wade: I'm funny.

Toy Story 2 has quickly become Wade's favorite movie. Next time you see Wade, just say "Look under your boot." This will result:

Wade: Don't be silly. My hat is not under my boot.
Me: Would you just look?
Wade: (looking) See? No hat. Just the word Andy.
(And I must reply with): That's right. And the boy that wrote that would take you to cowboy camp with or without your hat.
Wade: I'm sorry Bo.
Other common phrases around here are, "Here comes Mister Angry Eyes!" and "My little sweet potato!!"

For some inexplicable reason, he's learned the "Itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka-dot bikini" song recently. It started something like this:

1-2-3-4 tell the people ushee ore!

It was a...

itchy witchy yellow-tini

yellow-tini dot a kini

that she ore for the first time taday...

Unfortunately, now he knows the real words, but it's still almost as cute. He also loves to sing the opening song from Team Umizoomi and "I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" which is probably the most adorable thing EVER.

I know, I know.

It's been a terribly long time since I blogged. I'm embarrassed. The thing is I've been working lately, writing freelance articles for eHow. This job often takes a lot of my brain power during the day... by the time I get thinking about my poor lonely blog I've already struggled to come up with so many thoughts to get paid for that I feel like a wrung sponge. Can't... think... of... anything... to.... write....

So anyway, I finally got the pictures off my camera from Halloween. I know, I'm behind the curve as usual. But hey - I do have almost all my laundry washed and folded. Jealous?

Conner - Maurice Moss

Why do I keep my phone in my pants pocket, it's too far...

but look at this! Shirt pocket!

Payton: Iron Man

He couldn't wear the mask to school, but we did draw a Tony Stark goatee on his face.

Bella: Cutest witch I've ever seeen. I'm glad she indulged me.

This is my little witch tasting her own brew. We also sprayed her hair green on the big day!

Wade: Hiccup (How to Train Your Dragon)

"Excuse me, barmaid! I'm afraid you brought me the wrong offspring! I ordered an extra-large boy with beefy arms, extra guts and glory on the side. This here, this is a talking fish-bone!"

(By the way, this is the part where I must brag. I made this costume and it was DARN cute!)

Carter: Hiccup's Dragon.

Yeah, I know it's not Toothless, but it willl do. It's one of my favorite costumes I've ever bought. 

Chance: Roy Trenneman

"Have you tried turning it off and on again??"

And I've bragged to several family members about the darn cute skeleton cupcakes we made a couple days before Halloween, so here's the picture. They were SUPER easy and very yummy.

So anyway, that's our Halloween story for you. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. I'm sure this lonely blog and I will see each other again someday... :)

My Favorite Place

OK, so I guess it's not my single favorite place since we also have an awesome cabin to visit on a regular basis, but Lake Powell feels like home to me. We spent last weekend swimming in the water, basking in the sun and partaking in the general awesomeness that is Lake Powell. Each and every time we go I am reminded how much I love it. I love driving the boat at high speed across Bullfrog Bay, feeling the wind in my hair, the sun and spray on my face. I love sitting in the shade at the end of Lost Eden canyon, bobbing like a cork on the water and looking up at the overhanging rocks. I love walking on top of the hot sand and shoving my feet into it, feeling the coldness just below the surface. I love my kids sunkissed faces, watching them catch lizards and play in the sand and water all day, and putting them to bed in sandy pajamas and sandy sleeping bags. I love their glee when they wake up in the morning and realize we're still there in play-all-day land.

 Chance and Conner, rocking it in the tube.

 Carter loved sitting in the boat, he could sneak treats when nobody was looking.

 The Captain!

 Me in my awesome new sunglasses. Like the camera reflection? I knew you would.

Home Sweet Home

 Payton refuelling before the next swim

 Always a model

 This must be one of my favorite pictures EVER.

And one more of the model.

I do not love the laundry, house cleaning and general return to work that comes after such a super fun, relaxing weekend!

P.S. I didn't get many more pictures than that because I hung a wet blanket over the top of the boat on the third day and it dripped on my camera. *SIGH* The good news is that my camera did in fact dry out and survived the tragedy :)

The Best Birthday Ever

Last week marked my 33rd birthday. 33? How on earth can I be that old? My brothers alternately complimented me at my big family birthday dinner the Sunday before - one asking how it felt to be 38 and the other telling me that I was the grumpiest person he'd ever known. Nice, right? Luckily my Mom made me feel better with delicious raspberry cheesecake dessert.

My own family more than made up for it on the big day. Conner made me an awesome solar oven, Bella drew me a super-cute card, and everyone pretty much doted on me all day long. Shane gave me two super cute graphic tees, a huge bag of Dove milk chocolate, and an upcoming sushi lunch date. He also took the day off and changed all the diapers. I got my hair colored and cut in the morning, ate pizza with Shane and the boys for lunch, came home and took an awesome nap, followed by an amazing steak, corn on the cob, a baked sweet potato with cinnamon butter (a-la Ruby River) and chocolate volcano cake that Chance made. MMMM! The next day we got up, finished preparations, and headed out to Lake Powell - which deserves its own picture post. However, I have to share the cutest thing ever first:

First Day of School!

Alright, I know I'm an over-poster today. Three posts in one day? It must be a record.

So here I am in my semi-quiet, half-empty house. I ought to be folding the twelve tons of laundry in front of my washer or cleaning up my living room, but blogging is the best procrastination tool ever. I can dork around while I feel like I'm keeping up on personal history. As Conner would say... EPIC!

Chance's first day of 8th grade. Where did the time go? For some reason, in the spring when we signed up for his classes, we didn't sign up for Orchestra. WHAT? So when we went to register we moved his schedule around, dropped Spanish, and put Orchestra in its place. This makes me feel happy. He's also taking Computers in Business and Foods Exploration for his other electives this semester. Pretty exciting!

Conner is starting 6th grade this year, so he'll be the oldest in the school. It flips me out just a tad that he and Chance will  both be in Junior High next year. Strange, right? He has Miss Perkins, who we already know is an awesome teacher because Chance had her two years ago.

Payton is in 4th grade this year. His teacher is Miss Morgan. She is young, energetic and seems like a lot of fun. Payton, of course, is lookin' his studly self this morning. Why does he always look too cool for school?

And my sweet little Bella. She's a bit sad that she's not in the same class as Kara this year, but she's excited to make some new friends. Her teacher is Mrs. Luther who used to teach the music. She seems like the classically perfect 1st grade teacher, sweet and wonderful and loves the kids already.

Chance was already gone when this picture was snapped, but it was still too cool not to include in the first day of school montage...

I guess they're ready to face the world, although I'm not even ready to face the laundry. I hope you guys have a fantastic day!

Happy Happy Birthday, from all of us to you...

... we wish it was our birthday so we could party too! HEY!

A week ago today Wade turned 4. He's growing up so fast, particularly in the last couple of months since the boys have been out of school. He's taken to reciting youtube videos and Shrek 3 scenes constantly. We hear no end to "Chance, you be the Shrek. Conner, you be the Artie. Payton, you be the Donkey, and I'll be the Merlin." He has a great brain and is amazing at memorizing things. It blows my mind that he could potentially start kindergarten next year! I don't know why, but for some reason I group Bella in with the older kids but Wade is one of the babies. Wade's my buddy, he often tells me, "Mom, you're my girl." and we get into plenty of fights that go like this:

Wade: "Mom, I so much love you."
Me: "No no no, Wade, I so much love YOU!"
Wade" "No no no, Mommy, I so much LOVE YOU!"

and we just continue this on and on until we're yelling ourselves hoarse. Wade loves being the boss, long bubble baths, pizza and popcorn, broccoli (which he calls trees), computer games, play-dough, and books. He hates getting his haircut, having to get dressed when he's not ready to, and gets mad when he tries to talk but everyone else is talking too loudly. He's been known to yell "BE QUIET!" and when the room is properly hushed, usually within seconds, "Mom, can I have a drink?"

Wade, you're truly my sunshine.

And now for the pictures!

Grandma and Grandpa got Wade a remote-control Wubbzy. There aren't pictures of him driving it because I didn't have any AAA batteries, but Grandpa and Grandma remedied that quite quickly.

See the glee on his face? That's because he's just learned he can squirt this water gun at his brothers all he wants.

It was another "How To Train Your Dragon" birthday. Wade wanted to see it again, so we made an entire event out of it.

You may have thought this was a picture of Hiccup, but it's actually Wade.

This was approximately 2.720 seconds before Wade started whacking Chance with the axe.

Wade voluntarily sharing his armor with Bella. Awww!

And then he proceeded to beat her down with his sword. Notice how she is wearing the armor, but she's the one running.

Wade, you're my boy. Happy Birthday!

Summertime Catch-up

Hello all! I know I promised pics from Fish Lake but guess what? I didn't take a single one. I was too lazy. That proved fortuitous though - Wade's birthday and the first day of school were also coming up and I couldn't find my camera battery charger, even though I've completely turned my house upside-down. My camera's battery died in my arms this morning as I was taking the last of the 'first day of school' shots. So, dear reader, if you are in possession of a Panasonic Lumix camera and don't mind loaning your charger to me for a few hours, let me know.

ANYWAY. I guess it's time for me to wax nostalgic, seeing's how the kids are all off to school and summer is officially over.

Nothing to do with summer. Wade was so tired he didn't even eat, just climbed in the chair and fell asleep.

And now... swimming at the pool!

A torrential downpour that I quite appreciated. I always love it when my grass gets watered and I don't have to drag the sprinkler around the yard.

Bella's goreous new dress

Swimming at Spanish Fork Reservoir

I think the looks on their faces means the water's COLD!

   Chance didn't want to get in the water because of the cold.

Does this mean he's getting old?

Carter happily played in the dirt for hours and only ate a little bit.

Wait, a lot. You should've seen his diaper that night.

Wade mostly played in the dirt too, but he got in the water toward the end.

Bella and her cousin Addison sunning their backs on the beach. They were entirely inseparable.

We've had a great summer. Although I'm excited for the kids and will be happy to have less mess, more food, and less noise around here I can't say I'm totally happy that summer is over. What will I do without my boys to babysit or start computer games for Wade? What will I do without my silly kids to make me laugh or fully describe their video games in step-by-step detail while I yawn? Wait, I think I can survive without that last part. The good news? Lake Powell is in 3 weeks, so summer doesn't feel completely over yet!

My deepest, sincerest apologies...

...to my poor little blog.  I've been so neglectful! 

Anyway, since I can't think of anything clever to write, I'll write about a couple fun things we've done in the past couple of weeks.  Mostly my time has been spent editing video with Shane.  Corporate testimonial video.  I've decided that, on the whole, editing interviews is just the business of making people look smarter.  In some cases, it's surprisingly difficult.  Luckily we have had some time to do a few fun things, so here goes...

We went to Salem Pond a couple weeks ago and had a picnic with my very best childhood friend and her baby boy, who is the same age as Carter.  Before we left, I debated whether I should bring the life jackets or not.  "If I do, it will just encourage them to swim.  If I don't, they'll probably swim anyway."  Needless to say we threw caution to the wind and decked the kids out in swimsuits, life jackets, and sunscreen.

    

They swam their little heads off and nobody even got pulled under by the man-eating moss.  There were also TONS of baby ducks and I thought Bella might die of sheer delight.

In the past, Shane's company has had super extravagant Christmas parties.  The kind where you have to dress up and kids are not invited.  The kind where you have to drive up to Salt Lake City in the traffic and the snow to have dinner with people you don't know (alright, so Shane obviously knows them but I don't!) on a night that should otherwise be spent Christmas shopping or wrapping gifts or just sitting by the fire with a big mug of hot cocoa and extra marshmallows.  While I never begrudge a night out sans kids, this particular evening can sometimes be a big headache.  But no more!  For now, instead of doing a big extravagant dinner, they will do a catered lunch closer to home for just employees during the holidays and instead they had a summer barbecue. All of the family was invited.  At first I thought this would be painful, trying to keep my kids from a)being too crazy and b) getting too bored.  Luckily for me, StoresOnline employs the most genius event planner the world has ever seen.  There were all sorts of bouncy rooms and slides, bean bag toss, basketball, ring toss, face painting and a lady making balloon animals.  The food was fantastic, and I didn't have to feel awkward around a bunch of people I don't know.  It's a WIN-WIN!!

Conner and his Jester's hat.  Be sure to make the king laugh, or you might lose your head!

Seriously, the sno-cones were the bane of my existence.  The kids would go get one, eat two bites,

then give it to me to hold while they went to play and the whole thing melted.  Then they'd come back,

get a new one, and start the process all over.  This one is Payton's.  I didn't tell him Carter stuck his

hand in it.

MEOW!

And no, I didn't tell her to do this for the picture, as you well know.  She's the queen of posing.

Wade totally owned Chance during their balloon-swordfight.

This one moves up the list for cutest Mommy/Wade photo moment ever.

Dad the Mellow and Carter the Maniac

Seriously, this hat was the life of the party.  Aurora (our best friends' daughter) just pulled it over Chance's eyes.

A hat, a poodle, and a sno-cone.

And sorry for the blue pictures,

my camera sometimes acts like a jerk.

(I will not blame it on I-D-10-T error.)

So now that some of the pressure is off when it comes to the video editing I'm going to try and blog more often, even if it's just a tiny post.  I'm not going to lie though, I may not post until I have something interesting to say or some fun pictures to post of us at Fish Lake.  We shall see....