Stupid wrapping paper prices....

Today the boys and I ran some errands while Karianna was in preschool. Did you know that wrapping paper is seriously expensive? And what you get might wrap two relatively small presents, if you're lucky. Unless you remember to stock up on wrapping paper during Christmas time and resign yourself to wrapping any present year round in Santa Clause and Frosty the Snowman paper, you're stuck tripling your birthday budget! Goodness gracious! So after we bought two rolls of wrapping paper at Walmart, we went to Costco only to discover that Costco has rolled out its Christmas regalia....did I miss Halloween and Thanksgiving or something? I have to admit, for a moment I was tempted to buy a matching garland and wreath set! Not to mention the adaquately priced wrapping paper! Argh. Believe it or not, this is not the subject of my post for tonite despite what the subject line says; but the real subject deals with wrapping paper, so I figured I would get this price travesty off my chest.


Okay, starting over....Today the boys and I ran some errands while Karianna was in preschool-we were picking up some odds and ends for the birthday festivities next week. Upon picking two rolls of wrapping paper, I playfully bopped JD on the head with one of them. He thought that was hilarious, but not as hilarious as taking his turn to bop me on the head, inciting a playful banter of: bop-"Hey!", bop-"Ow!", bop-"Psh!", bop-"Eek!"...you get the drift! All fun in games, right? So thought the Walmart-ians who stifled their giggles! However, an innocent game between mother and son turned into this when we got home:



Oh goodness, I suppose I still have much to learn about being a mother. Note to self: don't teach your son that overpriced tubes of wrapping paper can be transformed into battle weapons fit for American Gladiators-minus the foam (and the barely-there spandex outfits, for which I am glad. Muscles or not, its just gross).

De-Stresser

Usually I am not one to seriously enjoy slapstick humor. It just doesn't do too much for me (with the exception of I Love Lucy). Becuase of that I highly dislike a lot of actors that a lot of people completely dote on. Well, guess there's an exception of some sort to every rule! it's called....



Wipeout is a gameshow on ABC and it is seriously the funniest thing I have seen on TV in a long time. When Jared and I finally get the kids in bed, finish studying, and shut the house down for the night, this is what we watch in order to destress. We have yet to watch an episode WITHOUT laughing our heads off, and this is why:

This is the Sweeper.

This is the SuckerPunch.

And these, ladies and gentlemen, are the Balls.

Again, remember that I don't usually go for the in-your-face, overly physical humor. But this is sinkin hilarious! Probably moreso because I find the commentators hilarious too. So should you have a few free moments and you need to decrease the amount of stress and anxiety in your life (which is kind of the main goal in our home right now), tune in-I have no idea when the show is actually on, but you can watch online at http://www.abc.com/.



And if you have time right now and are a little curious as to how the show works, go to this site: http://abc.go.com/primetime/wipeout/index?pn=smashup



Hee hee, I'm already laughing in anticipation!

Who's That?

One more post for the day...
Me: Hey Karianna, who is this?
Karianna: It's McDonald Duck.





Me: And who's this?
Karianna: It's Mickey Mouse Cheese (ie, her favorite snack to buy from Walmart-I'm sure all you mom's out there are familiar with it!)

The Clapper

Clap On.

Clap Off.

Clap On, Clap Off-The Clapper.

When Daddy Takes Over...

Precurser: I love Jared more than anything! He is great with the kids and they absolutely adore him-I still can't wrap my mind around how he finds the time to hang out with them! I am so blessed to have such an involved and considerate husband and father of our children! With that being said...

Here's what happens when Mom takes "5 minutes peace", as Karianna would say, from the kids and entrusts them to the care of their Dad. In translation, that usually means, amongst other things, that Jordan becomes Karianna's life-size doll; this particular moment was no exception, and actually might be coined as the essence of what I am talking about! This is exactly how I found Jordan when my "five minutes peace" had ended (which was really over 2 hours later-Mommy Standard Time you know):

You're Killin' Me Smalls!

Anybody know what movie the subject line is from? Its just what I felt like saying last night to Karianna when I was entitled to be frustrated and angry but couldn't resist laughing instead...

Me: Karianna, you are supposed to be in bed-why do you keep opening your door?
Karianna: (Cocking her head to one side and staring at me with huge puppy dog eyes) Mama, I just wanted to hang out with you.

Silly, sweet little girl! Couldn't resist climbing in bed with her, listening to her read me a story (Just Go To Bed by Mercer Mayor), and chatting for 10 minutes about various types of arachnids and insects (which are new vocabulary words for her and thus the most interesting thing under the face of the sun). Guess I'll have to save the frustration for another day-I'm sure the opportunity will arise at some point...

Double Edged Sword!

It seems in the course of the last few weeks that our kids are growing up. I know I say that a lot, and just for the record that is still true! But this time, I mean "growing up" in a different way...ie, our kids are getting craftier, sneakier, and though I don't like this word when talking about kids, more manipulative. I like to make myself feel better about it by just believing they are getting smarter! :)

A few days ago Karianna asked Jared for a snack. Nothing too crafty about that. However, before she asked she made sure that she had already ransacked the fridge, removed a bag of mickey mouse cheese, and had it open and ready before asking Jared. Usually this would be a great snack, but not an hour before dinner. So upon Jared telling her not right now, and asking her to put it back in the fridge, she grabbed a piece of cheese, took a huge bite, and handed the rest back to him in an obvious effort to listen and obey. Listen and obey-yeah right. More like lets see if I can pacify Dad by listening halfway and still get what I want! Crafty (though not so much to warrant the absence of disciplinary measures)!

Today during church, I went to feed Jordan in the last 20 minutes of sacrament meeting. Karianna went with me, which is pretty normal procedure-JD stayed with Jared. Jared told me later in the day that as soon as I left, JD started to attempt an escape from the pew. Again, nothing too sneaky about that! But man this kid is getting the finer details of evading a parent! He was dancing a lion up and down Jared's leg and then handed the toy to Jared. In the split moment that Jared was distratcted by the offering, JD apparated onto the stage and 3 feet away from the podium! Okay, not really, but that's where Jared finally caught up to him-the Bishopric were cracking up apparently! If that was not enough, JD tried the toy trick again! He underestimated the learning curve though-Jared was ready for it! Sneaky and yes, a little manipulative!

And what of baby Jordan you ask? Jordan has joined the gang in "growing up"! Just in the last week he has learned to drink from a sippy, clap, and wave, although the latter is sporadic. If you say "clap clap clap!" to him, he'll do it! Okay, so maybe that's more conditioning than manipulation, but hey, that's a good thing right? I'll take that any day! Regardless of what word we use-learning, or manipulating-my kids continue to grow up and I continue to view it as a double edged sword: I love the cuteness, and miss it at the very same time! Why do kids have to grow up???? Blasted cycle of development!

Then and Now

Yesterday in Preschool Karianna learned the intricacies of "big and little". In order to demonstrate the concept, her teacher asked her to bring in a baby picture. Karianna chose a picture of her, probably about 7 months old or so, during a rare sink bath-I think I can count the number of times I have bathed my kids in the sink on one hand, minus the thumb. I figured, lets bring the big and little concept full circle-so we did!

Die Hard Blogger

What do you do when you are bed-ridden with gall bladder/spleen pain? One would think I would work on getting my Master's portfolio finalized and edited, even ready for submission by the original deadline rather than utilizing the extension I took as a safety net. That would be practical. Instead I choose to play around with blog backgrounds. What a wonderful use of my time with the bed bugs-sorry if you pop in to a background that I might later discard! I guess this is when you know you are a die hard blogger.

Who'da Thought?

When I was younger, I was not particularly known for my organizational skills (or responsibility or cleanliness....the list could go on, but lets just stop there for the time being!). If you walked into my adolescent bedroom, you would likely stumble over a pile of dirty and clean clothes, various shoes and flip flops, and miscellaneous school books and binders. I am sure if my mother were being frank, she would say she worried about my ability to responsibly manage my life on my own, especially in the wake of my older sister who is the queen of organization, a trait which has served her well!

Well, good news for my mom and anyone else who has tracked my organizational skills over the years! I think I have blindsided myself over the last few years with my ability to actually be an organized mom! Lets consider some evidence over the course of the last few weeks, and seriously, this would have been so far out of reach for me mere years ago:

1. Today I purchased Karianna's Halloween costume! Sure, she has selected about 20 different personas for her Halloween guise over the last few months, but tough beans, this one has to stick because I bought it on clearance and it is nonrefundable. So not only was I prepared and organized, I was frugal-woohoo! If that's not preparation for you, I'm not sure what is.....oh wait, I do know! Lets move on to #2!
2. I have started Christmas shopping-no joke! In fact, I actually started Christmas shopping about 2 weeks ago. I even started a list for each kid, jotting down the item, price, and a running total. Does this mean I have too much time on my hands, a statement which should be relatively null and void when you have three kids under the age of 34??? Preparation to the tee! But my favorite is #3....


3. I have scheduled my mom for three future babysitting dates. See, my mom keeps a very detailed calendar, in which every miniscule activity is recorded for every person who lives in (and sometimes out) of her house. I know she appreicates a heads up on babysitting, so I was oh so organized and nabbed her now: a day in October for Jared's birthday, a day in DECEMBER when we are heading to California, and a day in JANUARY for reasons that have to be kept under wraps until Jared's birthday (Jared, please don't investigate this, just let me be sneaky!)! I daresay I might be the first obligation transcribed in the January page of my mom's calendar! Now seriously, that's pretty good, right?
   

So my days of being incredibly unorganized have ended, at least for the time being. I guess this is a good example of what marriage, kids, and plain old growing up does to you-could be worse! I have to put an end to tooting my own horn though because despite the above-mentioned accomplishments, I can't claim to having corrected my tendancy towards messiness. Truth be told, approximately 2/3's of all the dishes we own are in the sink, and have been there since Saturday...speaking of which, I better go take care of that before the left over milk starts to curdle...gross. That's enough to pop the balloon that was my excitement for being more organized!

Family Pics

This post has been a long time coming-we took family pictures when Jake came home from Japan back in July! Enjoy the show!

Family Pictures July 2008

Hangin' With the Boys

With Karianna in preschool now, it sure is giving me a lot of time to hang out with a bunch of boys-two in particular and if I do say so myself, I have pretty good taste in men (which is undeniable anyway-I married Jared, that is evidence alone!)! Because of this extra time, I have come to realize a few things that I was unaware of until the preschool era hit:

1. Jordan has a tooth! Silly me, I can't believe I didn't notice this a long time ago! Given how big it already is, I would say its been there for a week; and I didn't notice; does that qualify me for nonperceptive mommy of the year? Or does that qualify Jordan for being baby of the year considering he still nurses full time and kept his sharp little fang under wraps? Can you find the tooth in this picture (which is obviously not very enjoyable for Jordan! I promise he is still a very happy baby..)?
2. 
   
3. JD is very obviously going to use his time away from his sister very wisely. See, this would have been unacceptable if Karianna was in the room....toddler rules you know....use your time with her princess tea set wisely bud, because as soon as 1:00 rolls around the jig is up!


4. Jordan is finally giving in to sitting and rolling and waving-all things he only just decided to do within the last few weeks. He has been pretty content to just stay put for a while-sure he showed me weeks ago that he could roll over and such, but it was a one hit wonder, like, "Fine mom, I'll pacify your mommy angst and show you I can do it-there, satisfied? Can I please go back to relaxing? You know you are going to wish for this a few months down the road when I start crawling and walking...." I have been lenient because I am missing things Jordan did when he was younger, so enjoying him as a baby is on the top of my priority list!


5. JD knows a surprising amount of letters! Not that learning letters at two is amazing or anything like that-I just didn't realize how much he knew until he started naming letters on our way out of Costco on Tuesday. So our new favorite game to play is Letter Bingo, he is always so proud of himself when he finds a match-woohoo!

Must Have Item of the Day

Anyone out there have a crummy dirt cheap carpet like we do that seems to attract every miniscule spec of dirt, mud, grime, dust, goghurt, or bug gut? If you do, this is seriously a must have-works GREAT! For the really really tough spots, you still have to give it a little elobw grease, but overall, I was so happy with this thing, I had to clean my entire carpet and in the past I would have done it on my hands and knees, resolve in hand, and scrubbing with a towel until I had calluses on every finger. No more resolve for me-well, except when we need to take care of a less than intelligent black widow....

Holy Ghost Concept-Check!

Everyone remember Karianna and the whole Holy-Ghost-is-a-dove debacle? She was convinced she couldn't feel the Holy Ghost in her heart because it is ridiculous to assume a bird can live inside her heart. We had a good conversation about what that meant and how she can feel the Holy Ghost. I honestly could not tell if she was clear about the concept until a few nights ago when I was drying her off from a bath. We were getting ready to go to a wedding reception and Karianna was kind of staring off into space. Then, with no prompting whatsoever, she said:

"Mama, can you feel that?" I said, "What is it Karianna?" She put her hands over her heart and said, "Mama, Jesus is making my heart feel happy." A little dumbfounded, I asked her, "How do you know?" Karianna told me, "Because I am not making bad choices, and the Holy Ghost is helping my heart feel happy." She smiled really big and took off to the loft, leaving me sitting there on the bathroom floor in a whirl of emotion.

My favorite scripture of all time is Mosiah 3:19, saying "...[become] as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father". If I could have the fath that Karianna demonstrates, to become as a child in this sense, I would be overjoyed and feel so blessed. Things seem so difficult sometimes from the adult perspective, we let life deter us from the things that truly matter-I know I am guilty of it a hundred times over. This is my goal though, to become as a little child and let the Lord direct my life with the hope and promise that I will get to be with my wonderful family forever. Pretty great blessing if you ask me and I am so grateful for children who remind me of that goal in their simple yet profound ways.

I've reached Mommy-Maturity

This must be the coming-of-age era of mommyhood-kind of like leaving childhood and becoming an adult, but this time around I feel like I am leaving the title "New Mom" and accepting the title, "Seasoned Mom". Not that I know how to do this job better than others; probably the opposite! More often than not I feel like I am balancing on the very precarious edge of parenting, mere inches away from falling off the deep end! Thankfully, its a balancing act I know well and am learning each day how to maintain a gold medal performance, and how to use my umbrella, stick, and net should I fall (aka Jared, family, friends, the Lord).

With that being said, today was the day I sent Karianna off to school! It might only be preschool, and it might only be two days a week, but those four hours each day seems so long! And going through the process of packing a lunch, checking the papers in her backpack, and listening to her teacher do a role call sure felt like a punch in the gut: my little girl is starting the school phase of her life! Last time I checked she was still little enough to swaddle in a blanket, fall asleep neslted next to me in bed, and rely on me for her every need. Now in her place is this almost-four-year-old who delights me every day with what she knows and does. Man, I dislike time, as she certainly seems to be robbing me of precious moments with my kids! It certainly makes me appreciate every second I have with each of my kiddos-I sure do love them with all of my heart!

Here's a few pictures of Karianna when I dropped her off to Miss Holly's house. As a quick synopsis, she had such a great time on day one! Her teacher has just done a fantastic job setting up a preschool dedicated classroom in her house and is obviously putting 120% of her effort into making it fun and enjoyable for the kids. It's also a huge perk that Karianna knows all the kids in her class, so it sounds like they hit it off right away. I now have a framed piece of artwork depicting Karianna's preschool hands on my wall-it almost made me cry! And to think this is only day one!!!!!

I asked Karianna to smile, she looked at me like, "Sheez mom, you're embarassing me-leave already!"

Karianna Quirks: What I Understand about the Olympics

Rachel: Hey Karianna, what are you doing with Daddy's tie?

Karianna: I'm making a race for the Olympics in China. That guy is going to win a gold medal for his neck.

If you click on the picture, the guy she was pointing to is in the back pushing a wheelbarrow. Talk about having your work cut out for you!

JD's Biggest Rival!

Hopefully it will be a case of well-mannered rivalry, but I can see the writing in the stone! Jordan has officially become a fan of "the ball", world's greatest invention in my opinion as it is cheap, soft (at least in our house), and enjoyable for kid and parent alike; this is important for the times when JD wants to play ball for hours and hours-I can actually hack that. I suppose that's good prep for when I have two boys who jump on the ball-bandwagon! Watch out JD-Jordan's almost mobile and no ball is safe!

Karianna Quirks

Rachel: Hey Karianna, what are you doing?

Karianna: I'm making Jordan into a bride.

Duh Rachel.

Biter Biscuit Rules

1. Remove all clothing before giving your child a biter biscuit. Bibs do not help.










2. Expect fingers to replace biter biscuit, as they get covered with the same slimy goo as the actual biscuit.








3. Despite rule #2, fingers are actually not necessary to enjoy biter buiscuits.







4. Be prepared for the mess that will ensue.
5. Nothing you can do will override rule #4.
6. Watching your child's face during the biter biscuit makes the previous 5 rules well worth it.