I Heart Motherhood Moment

I was upstairs cleaning, walking by with a basketful of laundry, and saw this precious sight as I glanced into the girl's room:


Hyrum on the ground reading a book, and Lily sitting on his back reading a book. Warmed my heart, I love it.

What To Do With This Room?

Okay Nicole - Here's the room - this is looking at it from the kitchen:


These pictures are from within the room, looking NORTH in the pic below, with the doorway that leads to the garage, basement, and a bathroom


looking EAST with the fireplace and door to Corey's office on the left


Looking SOUTH to the backyard

Looking WEST into the kitchen

Blogland - Hear Me Roar

Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time in blogland mostly thanks to this site that I came across - I am Momma Hear Me Roar. As we traveled the last year I'd look at blogs about home decor or fun ideas for decorating kids rooms or sewing and just sigh - someday. Well now is someday! I've got a house just waiting to showcase something. I've been thinking a lot about decorating and what to do for these open walls, and have some projects already finished (I painted a red metal bunkbed white!) others begun (going to have a bug/garden theme in the kids bathroom upstairs) and others waiting to do and should do them before I buy more and make more stuff to do. But there are so many cute ideas here, I love the printables and joined Picnik yesterday, excited to put photos with quotes on the wall. I also loved her Be sign.


I need that in my house to remind me to be grateful. (I've been a little overly mopey this week with Corey gone... he'll be back tomorrow! Yay!)

So if you're looking to get lost in time online, have fun getting lost on her blog or on her list of blogs that she loves. President Hinckley's six 6 Be's wall decor sign

Miss Connecticut

Near the end of school, Joseph had a "State Parade" for his class, where each student made a float about the state they've been studying. Joseph had been doing his report on Connecticut. We didn't have a wagon at our disposal for his float, but we did have a tricycle. Corey gave him the idea of having Abi ride the trike around - we could dress up as a pageant queen for his float, cause that's what they have in parades, right? So we got her all dressed up, Joe made her a banner, I made a crown, gave her some flowers and taught her how to wave at the crowd.


The plan was for Joseph to push her so she could wave, but she got shy in front of all the students and wouldn't look up. As they did two laps around the school for all the grades who had lined up to see the parade, lots of the students would laugh and say "Oh! How cute!!!" and she told me after "I don't like when dey laugh at me!" But she did like it when some students said "I want that princess!"

I gave her two Hershey's kisses afterward which officially made the event "really fun."

Lily's Cast

I took Lily in for her cast yesterday. She seemed to be quite traumatized by it. Didn't want to lay down for another x-ray, even though it was on a padded table. I had to leave the room cause I'm pregnant. I stood at the door hearing her poor little cry. So sad! Then into room 4 to await her procedure. We tried to keep her distracted with a bag of cereal, but the hand sanitizer pump worked better.


She got some dripping down her finger and instictively licked it off - then spit it out and asked for us to wipe her tongue. Kept her busy for a few moments, then the doctor was in, time for the cast!


Gotta lay back again Lily, I know you hate it. She did NOT want her leg wrapped. I tried to put her ace bandage on several times the past week and she would have nothing to do with it. But with a cast, well, once this puppy's on there's no unwrapping it, sweetheart. Sorry!


After they were done, she was red faced and hyperventilating slightly. Gave her lots of hugs and tried to calm her down. She kept looking at me, the nurse, other patients, the receptionist, and any other adult for help pointing to her cast and saying so cutely "Off? Off?" Broke my heart but also made me laugh. Poor thing.

So, what's the one sure remedy for a sad child? That's right! Distraction! Yes, we will distract this child and make her pay attention to something besides her leg. So, off to Target I went to get her an early birthday present (her birthday is next week). Worked like a charm! Jessie would yodel and then Lily would imitate it "Hee-hoo!" One of those cute little things that just tickles your heart with joy. Love these little kids.


We went over to Grandma's house to pick up the other kids and show off her pink leg, but Lily didn't really care about that anymore - Cast, what cast? Check out my new toy! Yes, all is right in the world again!


And Lily's clothing attire for the next 3 weeks will most likely include the color hot pink.

Karting in Santiago

Corey is back in Chile this week - before we came home, he had been talking about a possible business partnership with E-Class. He's met with them a few times this week and was invited to their little company team building activity of go cart racing. And... he came in 1st!


He took it as a good omen that things will work out, that E-Class will want to do work with a winner like him. :)

All that time schooling the kids on Mario Kart finally paid off!

Brian Regan Moment

I was making dinner, had the chicken drumsticks ready to bake - oven beeped that it was ready at 350, I open it up and lo and behold, there was a tray of brownies in there!

"There's already one in here!" - Epitome of Hyperbole, Routine 5- TV: cooking shows (no clip of it on YouTube, so go get the DVD, he is too funny)


Totally made me laugh - those brownies had been waiting in there to be discovered for a week - now they were nicely warmed up for a second chance at making the dessert menu. Last Monday night I had baked up 4 batches of brownies to give to neighbors as an excuse to go introduce ourselves. Apparently in the chaos of loading up lots of plates with brownies that were falling apart cause I hadn't followed directions and let them cool in the pan and getting shoes or sandals on 7 kids I had forgotten the last tray in the oven. They were very crunchy, like eating a tray of brownie crust (the edges are my favorite part!). After their dinner was done I let the kids eat up the whole thing.

Since I couldn't find the clip, here's another one of Brian for your entertainment. We had a moment like this at a McDonald's in Las Vegas in April 2010, I seriously didn't know what the lady was saying, then Corey and I started quoting this "Franchise? In Pensicola?"

I also love this one. He is hilarious. I'm sure he'll come to Utah this year again and we'll go see the show, last year show was so funny, loved the opening jokes on getting older - we were laughing so hard we were crying, they were doing a live recording, (...they probably recorded a few of the shows), but we were there for the Salt Lake City recording. Good Stuff!

Broken Leg

Summer is off to an official start, I know because:

1) school is out
2) we had a neighborhood ice cream party &
3) we've got a toddler with a broken leg


Hyrum was our first 2 year old toddler with a broken leg in 2005. 2 year old Abi followed suit with her broken leg in 2010. Now, almost 2 year old Lily is paying her toddler dues. (I broke my arm when I was 2 too!)

Melodie was nicely playing with her and watching her outside on the trampoline. Lily was laughing hard when Mel would bounce the trampoline to make her fall. Melodie was having too much fun doing it, got carried away with her bouncing force, and bounced her on purpose, breaking her leg on accident. I heard Lily crying and it wasn't a normal fussy or "You're bugging me" cry, I went out, asked Mel what happened, to which she was mute. Finally got it out of her that she bounced Lily, Lily wouldn't walk or put weight on her left leg, I go to Corey to discuss options.

We looked up the Urgent care - it was 8:00 and they were open until 9, so Corey took her in. After a waiting room wait and several x-rays, Lily and Corey came home 2+ hours later with a little ankle splint to which she was totally freaking out. Looked like a bad diagnosis, but Corey said she looks okay and was totally fine and happy at the clinic until they put her on the cold metal table for the x-rays. They couldn't see a break, but thought the ankle looked a little swollen so wrapped that. She fussed and fussed at night time, pointing at her knee and saying "hur" (hurt) so I finally took off the splint cause she wasn't going to be putting weight on it at night time, hoping that would help her relax and she and I could get some sleep. Worked a little bit. We were down in the recliner at 3 a.m. watching Rapunzel, I snoozed with her on my lap and she watched, finally tired enough around 4:15 that she was ready for some shut eye, so we turned it off and slept in the chair until the sun woke us up. I put her upstairs in bed with Corey and got the other kids out the door for their last day of school. Lily and I had lots of bonding time the rest of the day with me just holding her and us taking naps. We joined the ice cream party at 3:00. Lily in her wheelchair (stroller). Thursday morning the clinic called - the radiologist looked at the x-rays and did see a small fracture in the bone below the knee. So I scheduled an appointment at the Fracture Clinic at Primary Childrens for next Wednesday (they only put on casts on Wednesdays here in Utah. I think it's a little strange, but I guess it's the system that works for them. But if they're not in a hurry, what's the big deal of even getting one?)


I've been pondering that question and thinking to myself: Lily hasn't been wearing the ankle splint anyway, won't let me wrap her knee, is doing fine sitting on the couch watching movies all day or sitting in her high chair. She was even crawling around today and bends her knees and kneels down as you can see above. She just came in here and pulled herself up to the chair and stood next to me, putting most of the weight on her right leg, but she's just like a pre-walking toddler right now. I think the break is really small since there wasn't any swelling and the doctor didn't notice it at first... it doesn't seem to be bothering her at all. Should I still take her in on Wednesday for the cast, or should I just keep doing what we're doing while we wait for her appointment, and just keep her off of it and not bother with the $700 cast?

Probably not very responsible parenting on my part that I'm considering not bothering with the cast, huh. Well, that's how I my brain malfunctions with 7 of these kids working on me all day I guess. :) I'm going on week 27 of my pregnancy and have only seen my doctor once since I've been here - I keep pushing back my appointment and am going to ask him when I go if we can just call it good until I deliver - I know the routine, so does he, (this is his 6th time delivering a baby for me) I'll call him when it's time. We'll see if he goes for it! Hopefully he will - don't know how I can get away with all the kids, and I'm not taking them with me. I don't do doctor appointments with kids, unless they're the one's being seen (took 5 of them in for the Bronchitis visit May 16th) but then the medicine was SOOO expensive - I turned in 6 prescriptions but only bought 2, Hyrum's Augmentin was going to be $60! I bought Lily's and Abi's which were only $40 each, and since they seemed to be the worst, the other 3 kids just had to toughen it out and they did great. Like I said, that's me and my lax parenting (but just when it come to medical stuff).

Wrestling Game

Corey and I call it "Wrestling". The kids call it "WAR". "Let's play war!"


First it was just the boys. Joe was beating the Ethan-Hyrum team, and both of them were in tears and full of rage. Then Ethan took a cheap shot at Joe when the truce was called. He was instructed that if he can't play fair he doesn't get to play. Cheap shots are not allowed. Corey supervised the war for a while, then he got in the game. They came down for a drink of water, all red faced and sweaty.


I thought I'd go document. 3 kids vs. 1 Dad. They didn't have a chance. Ethan and Hyrum were glad to see Joe meet his match. Joe was really riled up and upset when Corey would mock him by hurrying and giving him a kiss on the lips during his attempts to punch him.

When I came up my shadow Lily followed. That took the game up to a new level - new name of the game: Get Dad, but if you hurt Lily you lose.

Afternoon Naps

I haven't gotten the toddlers on a napping schedule since we moved back to the US. In Chile, Lily and Abi would take naps during the drives to and from school. Here we don't have those daily drives, so here's a pic of how the afternoon nap happens (if it happens at all.)


If they need a nap, I turn on a movie. Hope they fall asleep. That usually doesn't work, so I just let them collapse when they can't go on, with hopes that that occurs before 5, cause when it happens at 5:00 or later, my attempts and transferring them into their beds or keeping the other kids quiet until bedtime usually fail and the late napping child is awake and not tired at bedtime.


Since tomorrow is the last day of school, I didn't bother trying to get the school nap schedule going since school was soon to leave the equation. Trying to think of the best summer schedule and plan of attack for us. Anyone have chore systems that work well? I'm reading "Three Steps to a Strong Family" right now, which I've thumbed through before, it has a good idea of a peg board thing as part of step 2: Paying your Dues, A Family Economy" that I think I'll try to modify (again) for our crew and give a try (again). I'm always trying to figure out a system and set policy. Isn't there a Parent handbook out there or a "How to run a family for dummies"? I find bits and pieces here and there, but if it could all be put in one book for me that would be stupendous. Alas, since each family is so different and has such different needs, a one size fits all approach probably isn't out there. (sigh) Back to my thinking chair.

Wave At The Bus

Just saw this on the online Deseret News, check out this blog:

http://www.waveatthebus.blogspot.com/

I think that is hilarious! How much did it cost him to get all those costumes? Or did he borrow some? An idea to save in my mental file - could be useful someday! I think that is really funny. I looked back through day 86, will save the rest for tomorrow. I think my favorite so far is Day 111. I like the funny lines and movie quotes on the sides. :)

When Corey was at school at BYU, I bought a way official Darth Vadar "Supreme Edition" Costume, paid too much for it, not an impulse buy, but still didn't run it by Corey, still have it (hard to sell things or give things away when you didn't get a bargain on them...). Anyway, Joe was in kindergarten, and one day Corey picked him up at the bus stop as Darth Vadar, waiting with his lightsaber, for Jedi Joe. I brought Joe's lightsaber for him, traded it for his little back pack, and the duel began with all the other kids in awe and mothers watching too. It was pretty funny.

I Love Date Night

And I love spending time with this wonderful man - so happy he's mine!

Adios Craigslist

I posted five different things for sale on Craiglist yesterday, and got five emails in reply, each from a different person but suspiciously un-different as well. I think Craigslist has been overrun with Nigerian scammers and I'm thinking I'm just not going to bother with it anymore, better to just be charitable and give them to the DI. But these responses did made me laugh. I was suspicious because of #1) how unusual the names are for such a usual place as Utah, and #2) the way they talked with their "Hiya"s "Heya"s and "Howdy"s :

Miriam Sabir, I am interested in this bed. please call me 801-953-8015. Thanks

Dorin Klingshirn, Hello be sure to call me 440-756-6118. Actually Say thanks.

Gica Urbanek - Heya be certain to call me 965-867-8800. Correct Thanks a lot.

Kamler Urbanek - Howdy you can call me 338-743-8705. Sincere Thanks.

Willmschen Rougeot - Hiya you should call me 959-042-4506. Sensible With thanks.

That first one might be legit, I did email her a reply but haven't heard back. For some reason I don't want to call any of these numbers, even just for curiosity's sake. I should Google and see what's the latest scam strategy is. Any of you have similar experiences, or do you not use Craigslist. I was introduced to the "Free" section of KSL today, I heard items go really fast, so maybe if I don't feel like taking a trip to the DI tomorrow, maybe I'll post them there and see what happens. The KSL seems to be better here in Utah than Craigslist. I'll use Craigslist again if we ever go back to DC. But for now, farewell Craigslist! I won't be posting anymore, but will still probably browse around your for sale section now and then.

10 Randoms

1) Starting to work on Lily's ABC Book. Took the picture above on Sunday, I'm pretty sure it will make the final cut: W is for Witch I'm a cute little witch! (Love that mischievous grin - looks like she's cackling!)

2) My fingers and forearms are sore - on Monday my finger muscles were burnin' from holding down the spray button on 16 cans of spray paint as I primed a red bunk bed and then painted it white. That's for the girls room. It looks pretty good!

3) This morning I went on a walk and saw a hawk catch and then fly off with a quail bird. I felt bad for the quail. What are ya gonna do? A birds gotta eat I guess, but it made me think he was a cannibal, and also quoted Bug's Life to myself "It's a bug eat bug world out there, princess."

4) I need to get a trim, looking a little ragged and feeling a little too thick and hot. Going to schedule it soon. I go to Micky at Lunatic Fringe on Parley's Way. Highly recommend her, she is awesome.

5) My house smells like Indian curry right now. I made it for dinner last night, it was yummy and the kids ate it up very well, I enjoyed the leftovers for lunch. Mmmm! My first time cooking from a recipe since we've been back! Oh yeah, I'm stepping up to the dinner plate! Getting food on the table for dinner regularly was step 1. Step 2: using a recipe, going to try and make it a habit.

6) Besides the 5 squirrels in the backyard, we also have a red fox for a neighbor. I love it! We are living in the city but not of the city.

7) Corey's flying back to Chile for a week next week. He's gonna be gone for his birthday. So sad.

8) I have a recurring dream of my teeth falling out. Anyone else out there have that? Corey read in a book what it could mean. I think it might be right on. There are other interpretations on google. I'll have to find the book at write down what it said, then talk about that later as it's given me food for thought about myself.

9) Selling some stuff on Craigslist. I miss how big Craigslist is in DC - I could find anything and everything on there, and great stuff too. It's a little slower here. I have better luck at Deseret Industries, which is fine cause I love to go there too - get's the creative juices flowing.

10) Taking a poll: for our bookshelves in our side room with fireplace, which kind of bookshelves should we get? 1: Billy or 2: Expedit? We're going for black this time, yeah, really shaking things up!