Dentist

I took the kids to the dentist for the first time ever this morning. For some reason, this made me feel like a real mom- and an old one to boot! Something about taking in children who are both old enough to need a dentist- so sad. Anyway, Sterling (the courageous big brother) made Evie go first. She was so brave and did excellently- Sterling screamed bloody murder and writhed all over the dentist's chair and they asked me to help restrain him. Typical.

And apparently, it was such an ordeal, that Evie came home and directly put her baby to bed...

Busy Weekend

On Saturday we went to the annual airport open house. The kids loved it! Right inside the gate they had an inflatable bounce plane that they spent quite a bit of time in and then they got to sit in an airplane and a fire truck and get their faces painted. We met some of our friends there, so Sterling & Evie played with Clark & Jack in the airplane. I love Evie's face from inside the plane- she looks petrified.

Then we went home and carved our pumpkins. Sterling had his carved and I went out to the garage to grab the tealights. Just as I got to the middle of the garage, I thought I heard the rustling of a windbreaker- I was sure someone was stealthily leaving the garage (the door was open). I started walking toward the door and then I heard running, I walked out to the sidewalk and looked down the street in the direction of the sound, but they must have run in between the houses because I saw no one. Doug, being the kind of guy he is, immediately ran out to see if he could find them and then came back in to get a flashlight, but they were gone. It's a little creepy to know someone was in our garage snooping around. Luckily they didn't take anything, but I can't imagine how people must feel who have their homes burglarized!



Then on Sunday (and we are total sinners), it was such a gorgeous day that we skipped Stake Conference and drove out to the Tillamook Interpretive Center to see the new facility and take an autumn walk. It was so warm and sunny- the perfect day. Both kids did fall in the stream and we had an Evie melt-down at the end, but it was still good.
Look at these pictures! I love Oregon! I told Doug that I was sure Heavenly Father would understand us skipping Stake Conference to commune with nature, appreciating all the things he has made- and on such a fine day too!- and spend quality time with our family. Does that sound like rationalization...?

Preschool Field Trips

Here are some pictures from our last couple of Field Trips. We went to the farm to feed the animals and then we went to the pumpkin patch. Evie is an honorary member and seems to like tagging along.

Talk About It

This is a cool Tag- thanks Kayelynn! Find the 4th picture in the 4th file folder and talk about it.

This is from March 2006. My sister and I drove our two little boys to spend a night down at Seaside in the new Trendwest hotel (which is super nice, BTW). My Mom and Larry, Aunt and Uncle, and maternal Grandparents were all staying there for the weekend. I remember plying Jared and Sterling with snacks the whole way so they'd be good- mostly with goldfish that ended up all of the truck. We all went to Mo's and then we took them to the outdoor wading pool. I remember Jared went right in and Sterling was afraid- very typical responses from both of them. We then tried to get two one-year-olds to go to sleep in the same room with us. I put Sterling in the Pack-N-Play in a corner and pinned a blanket to wall so he wouldn't be able to see me. He kept saying "Hi. Hi. Hi." while we ignored him until he went to sleep. I then tried to get some sleep on a super springy twin mattress- pretty hard to do when you're used to your king size Tempur-Pedic. *sigh*

The next morning we took them down to the beach to play. They had a great time stomping in puddles and digging in the sand with their fingers. Coincidentally, I was sorting through Sterling's old clothes today for Hylton and found these tennis shoes in the tote with sand still clinging to the bottom... It made me smile to think where they must have been and how long ago- back when he didn't backtalk so much or make quite so many messes or have a sister to beat on.

I remember this weekend particularly well because Doug had a scheduled day surgery that was supposed to be no big deal and so I left him home. His mom took him in and picked him up. When I got home he was loaded on two different painkillers, both of which made him completely loopy and was home like that for two weeks straight- just lying on the couch completely out of touch with reality. He did several things (normal and otherwise) that he has no memory of!
Good times.

I'm not tagging anyone in particular, but it is fun to see what picture comes up, so try it!

Batman & The Sidekicks

Sterling is a little obsessed with Batman lately. We are having a hard time accounting for this since he has never seen the movies (hello! four years old!) nor the cartoons. Waddaya gonna do. He's been wanting his Batman tattoos pasted all over his body and evidently he did not want pictures taken of them... This is a face we see several times a day- basically anytime things don't go just the way he wanted them to. I think the Red Ross syndrome is inherited.
Really. This is classic Sterling.



Sterling took this picture of Evany and it happened to capture what my Mom calls her "starry eyes," her rosy cheeks, and her nose freckle. She's my little elf girl.



More Batman... Pushing a stroller this time.





Try pushing three kids uphill... At least someone is having fun!

Super Saturday

We had our Relief Society Super Saturday today and look what I made!




Picture tiling. Cool huh? (It's a wall hanging, in case you can't tell.)

I realized on Thursday that we don't have any pictures of our whole family, so I asked my Mom to come take pictures for us and then I took some individual shots of the kids. I think they turned out pretty good for impromptu pictures.

The Venetian

We've been watching them partially demolish and renovate the old theater downtown that has mostly just been sitting useless since Regal and Century theaters took over the local market. My only memory of the inside of the old theater is sticky red carpeted floors and watching The Little Mermaid with my family (including grandparents) in 1989 -good times. Thankfully someone turned it into something new and useful while keeping the old feel. It is now The Venetian. We went to check them out Friday night with Brandy and Wes (and Hylton). They serve yummy bistro food with unusual ingredient combinations for a reasonable price and show just-out-of-the-theater movies for $4/person. It's way cute with good ambiance. Unfortunately for us, they just changed policies and minors are no longer allowed in the theater at all- even babies, so we weren't able to see Get Smart like we'd wanted to. We plan to go back- without baby.

Home-ba Depot & the Eye Ball

I don't know why Sterling feels it necessary to add an extra syllable to Home Depot, but it's kind of cute...
We took the kids to the children's workshop they put on there since they were making Fire Trucks with whistles. Evie didn't really feel like participating, so I made hers, but Sterling had a good time making his with Daddy.







This afternoon I put my sister's hair up for her date tonight. Her boyfriend, Wes, is in optometry school and the school is hosting what they call the Eye Ball with dinner and dancing. I just think that is unreasonably funny...





I really think an up-do is my favorite hair "thing" to do. It's so creative with no absolute rules or boundaries. It makes sense then that color is my least favorite since there are concrete formulas for success, but each case is different and subject to interpretation. This is why I don't do hair anymore- that and the introvert thing... It may have been helpful to know that before going to school for a trade that works with the public all day long making small talk, huh? ;)

Addendum

After things have calmed down a bit, I thought I should add this addendum to the previous post lest you get the wrong idea. Life with three kids is crazy sometimes, mostly manageable, but crazy. Nevertheless, it is not the kids per se that makes it that, just the demands of motherhood in specific, and life in general. My kids are great and I love them collectively and separately.


Even when they draw all over my bedroom wall with markers.



Or push their sister down the slide that's perched precariously at the top of the stairs just to see "what would happen."
It's a good thing they are so dang cute, but I still love being a mom.

Three kids- A Day in the Life

A lot of people ask what three kids is like. Either with a knowing side-grin because they've been there (and they KNOW) or with trepidation because they have yet to get there but know they're marching to their doom. Well, for all of you, I will tell the tale of today because you'll either: A) Think it's funny and chuckle reminiscently or B) Consider throwing yourself under a bus and saving yourself some trouble.

Thus it began at 5:30am with a regular morning feeding. No biggie. 6 hours of straight sleep is good lately. Back to bed at 6am.

6:45am- Vaguely aroused from dreamland by rambunctious laughter and thumping from the room down the hall. Go in. Get Sterling. Tell Evie to go back to sleep. Shut door. Take Sterling downstairs. Get him milk and breakfast snacks. Turn on TV. Batten down the hatches (so to speak). Go back to bed.

8:20am- Huge crash followed immediately by screaming send me flying out of bed before I'm fully awake. The kids' dresser is toppled over and all the drawers out. Evie has been climbing again.

8:25am- Hurry to get ready for swimming lessons with errands right after. Get dressed. Hair in bun. Minimal makeup. No breakfast. Have to pay rent, all my checks are gone, where is my new box?, hunting...hunting...hunting... hope I didn't shred them with the old checks. No time now- running late. "Come on kids, I need to get you dressed!" As I run around frantically gathering all needed items for a couple hours out. Again, "Come on, hurry we're going to be late." More gathering, more trips up and down the stairs. Where are Sterling's swim trunks? -they were right here! More searching. Physically pick up Evie and dress her and do her hair. One down, two to go. Hylton has poopy diaper (luckily not a blowout this time). Change him, buckle him in car seat. Two down, one to go. Remembered that we went to water park earlier this week- dig swim trunks out from bottom of laundry hamper, smell them, still good. Turn off TV again, pull Sterling to floor and put on swim trunks. "Everyone in the car!" Open garage door. Doug's car is parked behind the van. I hope his car starts...If not, I will put it in neutral and let the dang thing glide down the driveway wherever it wants to go. Put kids in car, stroller in car, grab snacks and water. Doug's car starts- lucky for him.

9:36am- Race to swim class, realize that I forgot Sterling's flip-flops- oh well...

9:48am- Bribe him with candy to make him go to swimming class since he says he doesn't want to go again- I want to avoid a repeat of last week's scene in the locker rooms. Sterling splashes all the kids in the class, one kid is crying and his mom behind me in the stands comments on how she wishes she could tell Sterling to stop it since her weenie kid doesn't like it.

10:25am- Back on the road, I'm on "E", pull into gas station and fill up.

11am- Rent is paid, picked up a new copy of the Nursery manual at Beehive, feed Hylton in car in the parking lot, try to hurry because there is a suspicious looking guy loitering in the parking lot- a little weirded out.

11:40am- Arrive at Fry's to pick up new Hard drive for Mom and new memory for us. Get all kids out of car, try to corral two toddlers through the parking lot without getting hit while pushing stroller. Keep adjuring them to stay with me- they don't listen. Hard drive was only on sale Wed- Thu. They only have one memory left. Manoeuvre the mile-long candy aisle saying no to all suggested treats. Guy is having a hard time finding the memory they are holding for me. Kids are running up and down candy aisle, Sterling is caressing and smelling all gum packages he finds. They find the memory, I buy it and get out. Hylton is crying again. Big truck almost runs over Evie- they're going too fast and Evie is going too slow. Glare at them as they drive by. Sterling's shoes and pants are wet from running through puddles- I guess that'll teach him.

12pm- Call Doug as I'm getting on the freeway, ask him to check the online price of the memory I just bought- I think they charged me too much. Yep, they did- and didn't give me the mail-in rebate form. Turn around.

12:15pm- Get all kids out of the car again. Hylton's asleep finally. Lock the car. Where's my purse? Where's my keys? You have got to be kidding me!! Run into the store to ask for phone to call Doug who tells me to call a locksmith. An employee nearby hollers to tell me to keep my kids off railing as they have concrete floors. I tell Sterling to keep one hand on the stroller- he runs off, Evie follows. The nearest locksmith (in same parking lot) says it will be a 2 hour wait. The nice employee helping me offers to call a different company. It will be 30 min. and $45 to help me out. I am to wait in front and watch for them- in the downpour of rain. Luckily they have some benches just inside- next to the candy machines. All I hear for 20 minutes is, "Can I have some monies? Can I have snack? Can I have gum? Can I play Clifford? Can I eat this candy on the floor?" and Hylton crying. Sterling is tormenting Evie and she slaps him in the face, he torments and she slaps. I tell her not to hit and the old guy walking by tells her to hit him again. Thank you sir. They run up and down the aisle way. Hylton is poopy again- he'll have to wait.

12:55pm- Tow truck shows up. Has a hard time opening door- he says they make them harder every year. Finally get it open, I hand him a soggy check. Get my purse and go back inside the store to get the memory price squared away. They call supervisor. Hylton is crying and I can't find his plug, I just had it! I search and search his car seat and stroller- it's in my purse. Sterling is dancing around and has to pee. Evie and Sterling are playing with the Emergency Exit and running all over like mad people. I tell Sterling to keep one hand on the stroller and to not move unless he wants time out when we get home. He runs off after 15 seconds. The supervisor finally agrees to match online price. We go to the restrooms. We get the heck out of there and manoeuvre the parking lot for the 6th time.

1:30pm- All kids are in car, I'm leaving the parking lot. Call Doug to tell him we're okay and first thing he says is take the memory back because the tech guy at work says the faster RAM may not work at all in our computer. I lose it and say, "No way in heck am I going back in that dang store!" He asks if I really want to drive all the way back later to return it and I say, "Dang straight Skippy, I will drive back!" I tell him I need him to look up closest Burger King and he won't because I yelled at him so I hang up. I pull into the McDonald's in front of me.

2:15pm- We get home and Sterling is asleep in the back of the car, Hylton is crying again. I take off Evie's wet clothes and put her to bed. One down. I change Hylton's diaper and feed him. Two down. I leave Sterling asleep in the car for a few minutes while I calm down. Then I go pick him up and put him on the couch and pull off his wet clothes. He curls up. I pick u[ all the toys they brought downstairs this morning and all the Berry Kix smashed or otherwise off my carpet that they had strewn around earlier (and run over with trains).

2:29pm- Begin typing this hellish story in a therapeutic attempt to regroup, reflect, and save for later when I may laugh about this too.