Dad turns 29.

And like a good wife, I finally listened to the man when he says "when are you going to make meeee a quilt?" And decided to sit down and make an awesome quilt for his birthday.

And went to the fabric store, took advantage of the 33% off sale, and bought yards upon yards and it was (is?) going to be awesome.

And naturally, I only have one (ONE!) block done and now it's for Christmas. And because I cannot keep secrets very well, he found out about it pretty early on, and as his midnight birthday gift, saw it, well, or saw the fabric, hahaha.  So now I don't have the excuse "I can't work on it when you're here!" So.  Christmas it is.  Maybe I'll be awesome and finish it for Father's Day. But probably not.  The first quilt I ever made, back when I was merely 7, is still in the hoop, in the closet.  We're going on 15 years! "It's like the gift that keeps on giving!" Mike says that's a calendar, not a quilt that never gets finished.

Anyway, so Mitchell is SO excited for *his* birthday, in July.  He even knows it's in July, but since he doesn't really know when July is, he just keeps a running list of the birthdays ahead of his.  "Dads, then grandpa, then Aunt Amy's, then Aunt Madee, then papa,  then MINNNNNNEEEE, then GRAAAANNNDMASSSS, then yous mom."

Picture by Mitchell, himself.

And I'm not kidding. He lists them all in order everytime.

So when Dad's birthday was tomorrow, he could hardly stand it.  That's all he could talk about the entire week.

Since Mike's car has issues of some sort every other day (or so it seems.) he took my car to work the day before his birthday.  And since up until the week before I was, truly, trying (er...hoping) to get his quilt done in then, I didn't really get him anything. So when Mike came home from work, Mitchell and I took off to the store.

Mitchell, and I should have taken a picture, flaunted some jeans, a polo, a zipped jacked on upside down, some sunglasses on, also, upside down, shoes on the wrong feet, without socks (I cannot get him to wear socks. gross, but I choose to fight other battles.  Like the 'go to bed stop playing with your tinker toys' battle).  And every.single.person he would walk past, he would say, in his most serious voice, "it's my dad's birthday tomorrow"  over and over, I could not stop laughing.

And we picked out some new pants, and Mitchell insisted he hold them, and when they got too heavy, he politely demanded a cart.

He was planning dad's birthday for the whole week.  I asked him, "what do you want to get dad for his birthday?" mitchell said, "hot wheels"

sweet.  So at target, "do you still want to get dad some hot wheels?" "yes." and he picked out a nice green car for dad.  It must have been a pretty intense decision because he carefully examined about 10 hot wheels cars.

And when we walked past the footballs, he exclaimed, "MOM! THAT"S DAD'S FAVORITE!"

indeed it is.  should we get him this one?

but Mitchell insisted we get dad the 3+ up size, in red, as oppose to the full size.  Which I figured would be great, since we were looking for that exact size around for Mitchell, last Christmas.

Fun.

And birthday's are never really birthdays unless we get some balloons from the party store.  Red and grey for ohio state.  I did have to convince mitchell that direction, since he was insisting on the bright pink and orange.

And while they were filling the balloons, Mitchell found some party hats, nad some car stickers, nad he was just being so adorable I said yes.  And we all wore hats the entire birthday day! Even though dad was at work.

We took Dad to lunch, and then came home and baked a cake.  A nice, triple layer, chocolate cake.  And it was sinking and was a different texture than normal, when it came out of the oven.  Which was strange, because, I kid you not, I have perfected this cake.

And so I figured it was going to be fine, and made the frosting, and *tasted* the frosting and almost gagged at the sweetness.  This is not dark chocolate, I thought.  So I added some more cocoa, and then some more, and finally,  I just added the entire container of cocoa.  Which I was annoyed because I bought the giradelli brand, trying to make the tastiest cake ever.

And after adding 3x the amount of cocoa to the frosting, and it still tasting way too sweet, the corner of my eye caught the "cocoa" container, which actually read, "powdered chocolate" and after further examination, it also reads "to use as unsweetened cocoa, decrease sugar by 1/2 cup, every 1/2 cup" or soemthing.  Essentially, there is twice as much sugar in both the cake, and the frosting, and I tried the cake, and no.

Harmons it is!

"it's my dad's birthday" says mitchell to everyone and anyone.  while wearing a pointed party hat.  I had cocoa powder  powdered chocolate all over my shirt that I didn't notice till I got home. Such a sight to see!

15 dollars later plus some ice cream.  And mine would have tasted better DANG IT.

I'm like the master of screwing up birthdays. At least I didn't screw up the pasta and sauce out of a can.

But Mike's clothes fit, and he loves his hot wheels car, and the football, and mitchell knows how to throw it properly now, and catch it, and Mike couldn't be more pleased.

We also made dad a biiiig birthday sign and hung it up on the wall.  Mitchell traced his hands, and feet, then placed his head face down and said "trace my head, mom" oh. awesome.  I will do just that.

And I've decided it's time to get fit again, so I dusted off the p90x and am so so so sore I feel like crying.  I've also decided to diet, so when I feel like eating a doughnut, I break out the cottage cheese and strawberries and silently cry.  It's the worst thing ever! The only thing that makes this whole "healthy" thing tolerable is my children work out with me. When I get my tennis shoes on, mitchell puts on his boots.  We stretch and do jumping jacks together, and Mitchell takes it so seriously.  Ali thinks it's hilarious and tries to jump on us, or just tries to do what we're doing and laughs hysterically like it's the funniest thing ever.  I guess it might be.  I'm so lucky my children are entertained by work out cds.  And now every morning, Mitchell comes in, rubs my back, and whispers in my ear "mom, mom, wake up, it's time to exercise" that would get anybody out of bed and in tennis shoes and in the front room looking like an idiot.  At least we have blinds!

You know who doesn't care about me trying to be healthy? Ali.  She's started grabbing fruit snacks two at a time (just like Mitchell does) toddles one over to Mitchell  (I have absolutely no idea why my children are so nice to each other), and then toddles over to me to open it for her.  And then shoves one in my mouth (pretty sure Mike trained her to do that.)

And then one of my darling children, I've decided it was probably Ali, threw or dropped my laptop, my airmac *sob*, on the ground.  And while the best buy said you could throw it off a 3 story building, and only the screen would break, he obviously meant to add, if you throw it 2 feet and onto a hard metal chair leg, the screen will absolutely break.  And thus, my husband was so wise in buying the accidental coverage and now mitchell thinks it's at the hospital, since I couldn't describe best buy another way.  "yous computer broken? It's at the hospital?" uh, did I tell you that? I was so mad I was seeing red.  Mike says, "you didn't yell at them?"  I couldn't find my voice! I just threw them in the car and went right over to best buy! and then to my mothers while it all processed. lovely, right? All this while I was in the shower! Why does showering have to be so dangerous? they had balloons and beauty and the beast to keep them entertained for 10 mins.  my goodness.

So, thankfully, I'll have my computer may 17th.  Or so they say.  Shop hop is the beginning of June, and I'm so tired of having computer problems EVERY YEAR! It's like the universe is against us.  Luckily, Mike's been so kind to let me borrow his computer, and does not get mad when I download the free illustrator trial, or a bunch of free fonts, just so  I can work.  And he let me use it all weekend, and I'm really thankful for that.  And extra thankful he bought the accidental coverage I would have probably talked him out of if I had been there.

So there's the bad news and the birthday news, and the good news is we should be hopefully moving this weekend! We're trying to close on a house, but I'm being careful about being too excited because we've had a lot of weird things happen in the past 6 months, in regard to buying a house anyway.

Happy 29th (or is it 30? haha) to my sweet husband!

Happy Easter!

We've had SO much fun with all the Easter Celebrations this last week.

Papa Tom and Nana threw a Easter Egg Hunt Monday night.  Mitchell was so excited to see Nana.  I tried to get a picture of Mitchell on the egg hunt, but he and his father found all 8 eggs at lightening speed.  Goo-goo went at a more "find egg.  open. eat all the contents. find another egg."  speed.  And then she totally crashed on the way home and Mitchell kept taking her binky (curse.) and waking her up, and laughing, and Ali would do a dreamy sort of laugh.  And I'd tell Mitchell to stop it.  Vicious cycle.

Mitch had so much fun jumping on the trampoline and playing with toys with my cousins (weird, right?) and Ali was just starting not to cling to me by the time it was time to go. Actually,  I found her in line with 3-4 other 6 year olds, and Mitchell, ready to jump off a little table to a love sac a few feet away.  She wouldn't have made it.  Little Daredevil.

Saturday, my mom and step-dad threw another egg hunt with all my siblings, which I love.  And Mitchell loves Sam's kids so much, and I'm so happy they play together nicely.  Again, Mitchell ran out with lightening speed and found his 13 eggs (13?! mom's trying to kill me!) I only got one picture of him, and it's not very good.

Ali took her time and she and I found all the eggs Amy had hid up in the tops of the trees.  Nice.  But we had so much fun.

And then Mike and I decided we didn't really want to go home, so we went to Sam's Club to check out their laminate flooring (since, you know, after finding 5 houses, and being under contract for each and every one of them, we've started having better luck, and we're even passed the inspection and the meth test came back clear.  hooray.)   And the laundry/office flooring needs to be replaced.  And Sam's Club has flooring.  And an Easter Bunny, actually.  And Ali wasn't scared of it/him/her/that creepy thing, and gave it a high five.  Sweet.

And after looking at the flooring, and the lawn mowers, and the barbecuers we decided that we were getting a little ahead of ourselves and took the kids to a dollar show.  Which is not a dollar anymore, it's two.  And only one and under is free, lame.    We saw "We Bought a Zoo" which Mike thought was "pointless and had no plot" haha. It was cute.  Our kids got sick of it about an hour and a half through it, so we'll have to keep that in mind since this one was almost 2 1/2.  I love seeing movies with my kids though, it was soooo fun.

And then Easter morning was wonderful.  We hid Mitchell's basket on top of the dryer this year.  And he woke up, saw Ali's on the table and said, "oh.  I left my basket in the car." not sad, or even disappointed, just....factual.  When I did, finally, lure him to the laundry room and he finally caught on he was pretty excited.  The baskets this year, well, were ginormous.  I came back into my bedroom to find Ali and her basket sitting on my bed, and she had carefully unwrapped a (big) cadbury (caramel) egg and was eating it.  That's my girl.  Mitchell was more interested in the Mickey Mouse markers and a new activity book.  Sweet.  Then he didn't want to go to church.  Not an option.

And Ali's in nursery! Hooray! Which means, instead of taking her to our class, we go to *her* class.  After leaving her for 15 minutes, the nursery leader came into sunday school with a very uncontrollable sobbing Ali.  I held her for awhile and started walking back to nursery and she got so upset again. So Mike took her on a car ride (He said it was to calm her down, I believe it was because the lesson was on Jacob's Allegory of the Olive Trees) and then took her back to nursery where she was mad, but not crying so hard she was barely breathing.   For the first time in a really, really long time, I listened to the entire relief society lesson.  So nice.  Ali did alright for her first day.  I think dad needs to drop her off though.  Both kids know that Dad means business and sometimes I think my parenting and/or discipline is confusing since I tell them not to jump on the trampoline and that laughing is not allowed.  I'm joking, but then when I say "stop drawing pictures on the couch with a sharpie" I think they think I am, also, joking.  (Rubbing alcohol, white sponges, and naps for everyone!)

And for the first time, ever, I cooked a holiday meal on a holiday! We had ham, and mashed potatoes, and green beans, and homemade rolls and a cheesecake (from Sam's Club.  I'm not that ambitious.)  And I got everything done at the same time! Success!  Being with my little family is. the. best.

And when we tried to have a little lesson about the resurrection and the meaning of Easter and Christ, Mitchell insisted we talk about Nephi and the boat.  I feel like this might actually be the only story that sinks in.  At least it's a good one.

We've got a climber...

I remember Mitchell climbing on things.  He'd climb up, and then instantly start crying because he couldn't get down.  And the climbing heights reached.... perhaps the kitchen table, or the top of the couch.

Not. Ali.

Ali climbs on everything and then starts laughing.  And by laughing, I mean full-stomach-hardly-breathing-snorting-belly laughs.  And she crinkles her eyes and nose up so her face is all distorted, perched up on whatever table/appliance is the tallest, on top of the most expensive item on the table, and laughs.  laughs.


She laughs because I say "GOO GOO! GET DOWN!" and, apparently, that's hilarious. 

Also, sometimes she just jumps off things because she thinks I'm standing right there waiting for her to do so.  Sometimes I am, sometimes I'm not. 


I've found her on my computer desk, perched (PERCHED?! Like an owl.  With her legs held close to her body and her little rear bouncing up and down.  And don't forget her head thrown back in uncontrollable laughter.) on. top. of. my. macbook.  get. down. from. there.

While she was perched on top of my laptop, she found a marker and colored all over it.  Also, by the looks of it, colored herself and tried to eat it/put lipstick on (I'm really not sure which.  I'll I know is her lips were green)

Washable markers are the only kind of marker I will ever ever ever ever buy (well, and thankfully have ever bought). Because that little adventure happened in 2.5 seconds while I was turning Octonauts on for the 13th time for child #1.

Chairs, tables, couches, desks, beds, etc, etc.  I've found her trying to climb up on the counter via drawers. I'm pretty sure she could climb up the fridge if I left her alone with it for 10 mins or so.  She climbs up the slide at any and all parks/playgrounds/airport play stations.  By "climbs up the slide" I actually mean, climbs all the way to the top, turns around, and slides down.  This is not child's play.  This like raising an actual monkey while being the hippo who cannot climb trees.

Meanwhile, Mitchell is really good at teaming up with her.  So he's dragging chairs over to the counter "Mom! For goo-goo! Goo-goo and Mitchell want a fruit snack!"  Long over are the days Mitchell did the chair-counter-fridge-FRRUUUITSNNNNNACKS thing.  He is trying to pass that lovely habit off to his sister and is actually helping Ali climb on the fridge too. At least that was their evil plot that did not happen, thank goodness. Ali made it to the chair with Mitchell coaxing her on top of the counter, when I found them.  Fruit snacks are not on top of the fridge anymore.  They're in an easily accessible cupboard because I know my children, my children's sense of smell (I'm not kidding when I say they can find anything.  Especially Ali.  She doesn't even have to know it exists before she can find it), and I can't take any chances.  So now I have to watch more carefully when they' re in the kitchen so they don't eat all the fruit snacks in one sitting.  Which they could do.  "No more fruit snacks today! You'll get a tummy ache!" And now Mitchell says, "No dinner today.  I have a tummy ache.  I had too many fruit snacks" And slurps down from the table, lies on the floor for a few minutes, then jumps up and plays till he realizes he's hungry, then asks for more fruit snacks.

I have issues with fruit snacks, obviously.  Why do they love them so much?!  Ali almost hyperventilates in excitement any time the mere word is mentioned.  And she basically passes out from all her emotions when one is opened and handed to her.  It's not like these are a rare treat.  Though, they should be.  Did I mention Mitchell loves carrots now? and ranch.




And somewhere between February and March, Mitchell turned into this little sneaky preschool boy.  Like, peeing on the carpet just so he could wear his new underwear (All you have to do is ask, dude).  Like, begging me to wake Ali up from her nap she had just settled into, and when I wouldn't give in, he convinced me he needed his backpack out of the car. Gone seconds, and ran back in to find him in Ali's room with the light on, singing "goo goo is awake!" and her crying and rubbing her eyes because she did, in fact, need a nap.

It goes on and on and on.

We're driving home from church, Sunday, and the following conversation takes place:

Mitchell: "I want a sprite, dad"

Dad: "No Mitchell, it's sunday"

Mitchell: "I need to go to Mcdonalds."

Me: "We don't go to Mcdonalds on Sunday"

Mitchell: "Yes Mcdonalds on Sunday. Yeeeesss.  We doooooo"

Me: "Not today"

(passing Mcdonalds)

Mitchell: "Mom!! There are kids at Mcdonalds! There are! Mcdonalds is awake!"

Me, finally turning around and acting like a parent: "Mitchell.  We don't go to any store on Sunday, because Heavenly Father wants us to go to church and be together, and not go to Mcdonalds today. Heavenly Father and Jesus don't want us to go to Mcdonalds on Sunday"

Mitchell contemplates this answer for a short 10 seconds and then says, "Mom. Heavenly Father said it's okay to go to Mcdonalds on Sunday.  Yeeeeessss.  It's okkkkaaaaay."

I just bursted into laughter and let Mike finish the conversation which ended with "Mom will help you make cookies when we get home."

When he wants to FaceTime his grandma-ma and I say no, he suggests I take a shower.  When I say it's time to go, he'll demand 4 more minutes.  When I say no to fruit snacks or any other prized food, he takes my head in his hands and says "close your eyes".  When I say no to anything else he gives me a biiig hug, kisses me all over my face, and then says "pllleeeasssee mmoooooommmm"

I can't keep up with these two.  Literally.