Don't have a cow!

Can somebody explain to me why the child who did THIS to himself...





...bawled and bawled and BAWLED AND BAWLED when I did THIS to his face?


I told him he was going to be a cute cow, and I would show him in the mirror. As soon as he saw his face, he flipped out. "Get it off! Get it off!" He cried for 10 minutes. Silly boy. But, cute cow.


This is stupid, but I couldn't help but be reminded of something when I saw this picture.




Ha ha!

Family Photos Part DOS!!

Oh, Sonia, Sonia... you are totally awesome. She asked for guinea pigs in order to practice her photography, and all I'm sayin' is... does this look like she needs practice to YOU??? LOVE 'EM!!!!!!!

Family Photos Part UNO

My mom wanted family pictures, so one weekend everyone got together and with about 3 or 4 different cameras plus one tripod, we came up with these!










My mom and dad


Neil and Felicia



Not bad for some do-it-yourself photos eh?!

Thoughts about stuff. (I have the BEST titles!)

I baby-sat some friends' kids last night, they were very well behaved and very cute... but I still had this thought: Why is changing someone else’s kid SO SO SO much worse than changing your own?? How is it so much different? My kids don’t smell like roses or anything, in fact they're certainly capable of horrific things, but when I change my kids' diapers I don’t repeat to myself, “Come on, you can do it, just don't breathe, you are STRONGER than this!"

Jenna is turning into the little Tattle-tale. It’s kind of annoying, especially when she tattles on other kids to their moms like she’s the know-it-all princess of the group. Then again it’s kinda nice cause I always know when Carter is into trouble. And I always know when Logan is eating something off the floor he shouldn’t be or when he’s heading to the stairs. I just think it’s funny when I put them down for bed and she comes running out of her room to tell me, “MOM! Carter is getting out of BED.” As she stands there out of bed.

I just read the most awesome book ever, called “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins. I must have been on the waiting list for months cause when it came in for me I had no idea what it was. I still don’t remember putting myself on the list. Oh well, cause I LOVED IT! Think “Uglies”/“Among the Hidden”/“Anthem”/“The Giver”/“The Host” and any other sort of futuristic, down with the government, dystopia novel. Anyway, I get to the last few pages and am thinking, “Wow they are going to wrap all this up quickly!” and then on the last page it says, “END OF BOOK ONE.” THANKS A LOT!!!! Apparently it is a TRILOGY and the second book just came out. Now I am on the forever long waiting list for that one, woulda been NICE TO KNOW!

Oh yeah, the toilet. Sorry, no news. I just say: Jenna did it and if she doesn’t want to admit it then whatever, cause there is just no other answer. Except for Logan (thanks Jill.) Also I go and try to flush it once in awhile cause it does flush veerrrryyyy slowly and I tell you what that is better than nothing. I know a new toilet is in order I am just in denial.

So I blog-stalk sometimes, you know you do, too. Most entertaining blog I have come across, ever: Seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com

And since dear “TAMN” has gotten multiple news coverage and 1200+ loyal followers, apparently I’m the last to hear about it. Ahhh, to be a young Mormon mommy blogger… and I can totally make fun of myself, too! Take a peek! I have spent way too much time there! And read the comments, too, the best ones are when people think it’s for real! (sorry I shouldn’t have spoiled it for you!) Who knew I could be so invested in a fake person. The thing is, she hits the nail on the head... you’ll see what I mean.

The kids have been napping off and on and I feel like a super mean mom for making them nap. It's just, right when I think "okay then maybe they are DONE with the nap phase in their lives!" then they take naps for like a week. It's just funny to get so mad at them when they don't, cause I can’t force them to sleep and if they aren’t tired then they aren’t tired, yaknow? It would be nice, though. "SLEEP, NOW." *Snap*!

Life sometimes is so easy. And just when you think, “Wow I’m so happy and life is so easy,” it gets hard. This last month I’ve been stressed and burdened and worrying about stuff. One evening I was completely worn-out. My mind was on over-load or something. I thought to myself, “Why is life so dang hard sometimes?” Yet my life is cake compared to others’.

Still I felt like having a pity party for myself.

Then I scooped Logan up off the floor to take him downstairs with me. And my little baby, true to his little 7-month old nature, wrapped his chubby arms around me and buried his face in my neck, then peeked his eyes over my shoulder and clung to me perfectly still for 2 minutes straight. I can’t even describe what that did for me. Squeezing my baby tight and kissing the folds in his neck was like therapy. I felt stress leaking out and gratitude and peace rushing in. It was a precious moment. SAPPY HUH. But I didn’t want to move and break the spell. It was a warm pocket of calm love and assurance that everything is okay. It made me think: anything in the world could happen to me and I could handle it with my family at my side. It makes me understand: YES this IS what life is all about.

And those are the random thoughts of the day.

WHO WENT IN THE BROKEN TOILET??!!

So, I’ll try to keep this clean. But it’s kinda hard when it’s SO NASTY!!!!!!!

I WARNED YOU!!!

Really, you can stop reading now.

Okay, if you’re still reading then I guess I will tell you why I am going to be up all night tossing and turning WONDERING WHAT THE HECK REALLY HAPPENED.

So. A mere 2 days ago I blogged about our toilet situation.

I mentioned there’s a toy stuck down there. I mentioned we FLUSHED WATER THROUGH AND THROUGH the toilet while in the tub. I tell you what, when we were finished it was sparkling clean. Clean, but not without a mystery object buried in its depths.

SOOO. Yes that is quite the mystery.

And now, the Great Potty Mystery of 2009 continues.

For, this very evening, as I was getting ready for a church meeting, I hear Carter lift the lid of the Toilet That Must Not Be Named, and say, “That’s yucky.”

And that, my friends, is when chaos ensued. Nate screams in horror, I run in, Nate says, “DID YOU SEE THAT.” I say, “See what?” And look in the toilet, fearing for my life.

And there you have the title of this ghastly post, a post that Nate will never forgive me for posting.

But I can tell you why I can post this without shame... CAUSE I DIDN’T DO IT!!!!! AND NATE DID NOT EITHER!!! WE’VE BEEN MARRIED LONG ENOUGH WE CAN ADMIT THESE SORTS OF THINGS WITHOUT LOSING ANY DIGNITY AT ALL!!!

SO WHO DID?!!!

I’m telling you, (shut your ears now) when I looked in that toilet I was SHOCKED and sorta traumatized. It is DISGUSTING. May you never have to look upon what lies in our toilet.

SO. If Nate didn’t do it, and I didn’t do it...

We ask Jenna, “Did you go poo-poo in this potty?”

“No!” she says.

That toilet had been broken for TWO MONTHS. No one has used it for TWO MONTHS. Jenna runs into our bathroom every time she has to go, even in the middle of the night she treks it into our bathroom. SHE KNOWS not to use the other toilet and I have never ever caught her on the broken toilet.

So did she do it????

Well let’s look at our other suspect.

Carter heard us asking Jenna about it and volunteers, “I did it.”

Carter??? Don’t you still wear diapers? Yes, I see it all now, for the first time ever in your life you know you need to go poo-poo in the potty and you run to the broken toilet, pull off your diaper, do the biggest ickiest business you’ve ever done in your life, strap your diaper back on, and trot on your merry way... way to go Carter!

And yet, seriously, what are our other options.

Someone snuck in our house and had to go to the bathroom REAL BAD.

Someone is secretly living with us and didn’t know the toilet was broken. Whoops!

The sewer like, flowed upward back into the toilet.

Yeah I just don’t know. I’m just creeped out. It’s giving me and Nate the heebie-jeebies.

The last time I remember looking in the toilet was on Saturday when I plunged it again for good measure.

From Saturday until today we’ve had no visitors.

WHAT IS GOING ON.

It has to be Jenna, RIGHT?

I don’t know. But it’s driving me CRAZY... it must be since I’m turning this into the weirdest blog post of all time.

So now instead of a clean toilet that is clogged with a toy, we have a toilet I can’t even look at let alone think of trying to fix.

Needless to say I had a little trouble focusing at my meeting.

WHO DID IT?

WAS IT YOU???

Fun in the fall

Autumn... in pictures. This is like 3 posts in one. Starting off with A TALE OF INTRIGUE, WHA HA HA HA HA !

This is my dad. And that is our toilet. It's in the tub. Why? Well, maybe you recall a long time ago I mentioned Carter flushed some toys down the toilet. Yes, they have been rotting in there all this time. Nate and I knew nothing of toilets (now we know plenty) so we finally recruited my dad, MISTER FIX-IT, to FIX IT.


He snaked it.


My dad and Nate plunged it. They flushed water through it while it was in the tub, where this came out!


HUZZAH! OUR PROBLEMS ARE SOLVED!

They put the toilet back. Flushed it. Nope, problem NOT SOLVED.

They removed the toilet AGAIN and flushed it while it was in the tub in order to determine if the problem was indeed, in that darn S-curve of the toilet, or if it was in the sewer.

The problem IS IN THE TOILET! What might it be? A plastic waffle?? A truck? A block? Some sort of action figure? We may never know cause we CANNOT GET IT OUT. And what's super weird is a hanger can go all the way through... yet something is still blocking the water. I mean, seriously. And if my awesome dad can't fix it, no one can. Sigh. Does anyone have an X-ray we could borrow? If I ignore it, maybe it will go away! Carter, please PLEASE PLEASE I'm BEGGING YOU... NO MORE TOYS IN THE TOILET.


All right, on to happier things. Like... big big pumpkins at Grandma's.




And... Sunday naps with Carter!


(not a lot of napping going on.)

And... Temple Square!





Carter was kind enough to take our photograph.



Along this sidewalk is where Nate lined up 36 white roses (6 years ago) and the last one had a ring on it... AWWWW!


"Will you marry me?"


"Yes!"


I hurried to take these pictures before Logan could fall on his face... I think it was worth it, don't you?




Then today for Joy School we took the kids to Black Island Farms, I let Carter come and I'm glad I did cause it was SOOOOO MUCH FUN! I'd never been. It was the coolest.

We went on a hayride and they got to pick a pumpkin.


Some of the joy school kids.


We saw pigs race, and other animals, like this here llama. "Llama face!"






Climbing up to the BEST PART OF ALL!!!!





I went down a couple times it was the bomb. My kids could have done it all day. I literally dragged Carter away to go home. That part was not so fun.

I LOVE FALL!!!!!!