Disgusting

Ok, so I have actually been trying to not put so many of the disgusting things my kids do on my blog anymore.  This is not due to a lack of these so called things, but merely so that when I print out my blog (which I just started doing), my children won't think that is all I can ever talk about.  Also, this is all my kids ever seem to talk about (poop and pee is absolutely hilarious in case you didn't know), so I was hoping that by my lack of posting about it might catch on to my kids.  This hasn't worked, so I will go ahead and tell the story.

So my house smelled like poop.  Nasty.  Oh wait, I have to back up......So we had a little issue a few weeks ago.  Someone stuffed our downstairs toilet with toys.  I found them.  Removed them all (or so I thought) and then one of the kids used the toilet to do their business.  Apparently, all the toys had not been removed.  Mitch, being the super dad he is --- and because I called, "I'm not doing it" first ---- got some rubber gloves and fished a headless spiderman out of the toilet.  Well, time has gone by and the toilet has not been the same since.  I'm thinking the head might still be in there.

When my house smelled like poop, I cursed that I didn't have a maintenance man anymore and of course I cursed spiderman.  I went downstairs (where the smell was coming from) and checked that the toilet had been flushed.  Of couse, it had not.  I flushed the weak flush and went back upstairs got my scentsy and when back down and plugged it in.

Came back home a couple hours later, and my house still stunk.  This time like vanilla poop.  Super gross.

I went downstairs, shocked that it still stunk so bad and that's when I found it.  A couple of flies buzzed around two mounds.  Two mounds that obviously had been there since the night before.  How in the world I passed by them so many times and didn't notice them is beyond me.

I think I ask myself this question all the time:  why?  Why would he squat down and do his business right in front of the toilet?  How hard would it have been to move a foot and put it in the toilet?  Really, how hard?

I am happy to report my house doesn't smell like poop....until next week I'm sure.  Got to love kids.

Tonight, Tonight

Have you heard the song, "Tonight, Tonight?"  I have.  At least 5 billion times. 

Creighton is obsessed.  He will dance 20 minutes straight and be sweating like a pig, and still have the best dance moves you've ever seen.  Love it.

I hope to get faster internet some day and upload a lovely video of this dancing, but I wanted to at least document this until that point.

Today, while sitting at church, Creighton leans over to me with his pad and paper in hand and asks, "Mom, how do you spell 'I've had a really really messed up week'."  Hilarious.  He then proceeded to write down almost the entire song word for word. 

Yes, he likes this song.

Bowling

We went bowling!  The kids had a blast.  Josie and Micah have been trying to get us to go for a few weeks and everything finally fell into place and we went.  So glad we did.

I'd also like to mention that Jackson beat Mitch and I got 2 strikes and bowled over 100 (that doesn't EVER happen).  Here's a few pics.....oh and don't mind the crazy eyes.  The lighting did it to them and the red eye remover didn't work.



I love my family.

Our Little Trip to the Middle of America

E and I headed out to Omaha last week.  Since we didn't end up using our tickets home for Christmas last year (we moved here instead), we had to use them before they expired at the end of the month.  It was a short little 2 day trip, but it was fun to just see a few friends and just able to spend some quality mom & E time. 

It was crazy pulling into Village Green.  It felt like I had never left....except that there were random people living in all the houses.  :)

E visiting the cockpit.

E & Joe enjoying a snack.
They got along so well.  They were so young when we lived there,
that it was fun to see them really play not that they are older.

Of course we had to go to the zoo.  The kids loved watching the apes.

They also loved petting all the goats.

 Before we left, I had to go and get my Omaha love:

Meet the Creme Brule Waffle:

Way better than the picture even can show.
Yes, I ate the entire thing.
Yes, I am currently on a diet.
Ha!  Like that will last.

With Tiffeny and Little Harrison.
It was so fun to spend time with this little guy.  He was always smiling!

Katie, Will, and Joe were so nice to allow us to stay with them.
We miss our old neighbors.

 I didn't do many of the things I had hoped to do and I missed seeing some friends I had hoped to, but I didn't budget my time very well.  I tend to do that.  The time crept up on us fast and we were quickly headed to the airport.

It was weird traveling with just one child and after all my flying adventures, this was one of the easier.  However, it still was not so fun.  Easton was quite onry on our flights home.  The poor people sitting around us.  The poor lady who kept gettig kid.  The poor man 5 rows up that was suddenly struck with a flying Batman.  Thankfully, he fell asleep that flight.

We had a 3 hour layover.  We rode the moving sidewalk, A LOT.  The Batmans rode too.  They did everything we did.

So, it was a short trip but it was fun.  It was great to see some friends and I loved spending time with my Baby E.  I sure missed the other 3 boys in my life.  I know they were kept busy though.  My dad took Jack and Creigh to Lagoon over UEA and they were there until 9:30 and my dad forced them to leave.  It makes me so excited for DisneyWorld.  Can't wait!!!

Cousin Party

My cute grandparents have a Halloween Party every year and we were able to make it this year.  Here's a pic of all the kiddos.  I can't believe we actually got them to sit for a minute.  The rest of the time they were running around like crazy. 

From L to R:  Graham, Beckham, Wolfie, Cam, Oliver, Addie, Jackson,
Braylie, Easton, Creighton, Claire, and Sam

Stretching Easton

T minus 4 weeks until the blast-off to Mickey's House!!

Now, all that we need to do is........

Stretch Easton

He is 39 inches.  40 inches is a critical point.  40 inches would allow him to ride Splash Mountain, Thunder Mounain, and most importantly.....STAR TOURS. 

I am sure that with shoes and maybe a few napkins he will be fine, but for fun we have been stretching him.  Mitch said that tonight he thinks it actually worked.  He swears he was taller after we "stretched" him than he was before.  Sure honey.

Friends

After pre-school, Creighton plays with his 2 little neighborhood friends, Riley & Callie.  This week I took them to Papa's Place. 

Creighton loves his little friends.....one of them in a different way then the other.  Should I be concerned if a child sings, "Creighton and Callie sitting in a tree?"  Yes, I think so. 

Baseball Pictures

I thought I was done with my marathon of posts to get caught up and I just remembered I never posted the kids baseball pictures.  Of course I scanned them in wrong so their heads are cut off, but I will try and fix this one day....keep checking back if you want to see the picture with their head fully intact.

Ok, now boys.  Remember that mommy loves you no matter what and I think you are the cutest kids in the entire world.  However, also know that mommy grew up in a household where when I would come home from school crying because someone made fun of me, my dad would make me sing, "Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, why don't I eat some worms."  He taught me to laugh at myself and not to take me or anyone else too seriously.

That being said.  Check out the team picture.  Can you find Creighton and Jackson??

Did you find them?  When Mitch and I first got the pictures, no joke, we sat there and thought that our kids must not have been in the picture.  We couldn't figure out where they went.  Finally, we concluded that the little boy next to Mitch on his left, is indeed Creighton.  And the little boy on the far right is indeed Jackson.  Not the best picture of the two of them.  However......check out those individual photos (yes, the ones with half their heads cut off), aren't those the cutest boys in the world.  Why yes, yes, they are.

Remembering.....

I miss Que.

It's sad but my memories are getting fuzzy.  I knew they would. 

I have a hard time hearing his voice.  My mom just imitated him tonight and it made me so sad to think I had forgotten.  I knew it would happen, but it's still sad.

I love the memories that Jackson has of him.  They almost always have to do with how he always tickled him.  Que was Jackson's biggest fan.  They were buddies. 

Everytime I hear a Red Hot Chili Pepper song, I think of Que.  Everytime I see someone golfing, I think of Que.  Everytime I see a young man with curly brown hair, I think of Que.  Everytime, I run past the cemetery and I run past Brighton High School, I think of Que.

This time of year always brings me to a moment of reflection.  Each year, I think I realize more and more that he is happy now.  Each time I go to the temple, it is confirmed to me.  He is happy.  He would have been 20 years old and I know that he may not be here on this mortal Earth as a missionary, but I know that he is a missionary.  He is a great one. 

Tonight we met at the cemetery.

It was the usual....kids running around...

 My dad lounging on the grass.

A few of us shared some memories and my dad reminded us of Que's dedication to going to church.  He had to work every other month or so on a Sunday.  My dad admitted that if he had to work and he was going to miss some of church, he would have just missed the whole thing.  Not Que.  He hurried home, got his shirt and tie on, and headed over.  I hope my kids will remember that story.  I hope I will too. 

It all ended with us singing Que's favorite hymn, "Be Still, My Soul."  I would definitely say we won't be invited into a recording studio anytime soon (singing is definitely not a strong point for any of us), but the words mean a lot to us.  And it reminds me, "The Lord is on thy side.  Bear patiently the cross of grief and pain.  Through thorney ways leads to a joyful end." 

Love you Qbert.

I did it for the boys!

For those that know my mother, may be shocked by this, but I am not a fan of decorating for holidays. (Obviously not of gardening either as you saw by my previous post.) I'm kind of a grinch.  It seems like so much work to get it all out just to put it all back a way a short time later. (I have this same philosophy about making my bed.)

For Halloween, my mom asked Jackson if he would like to help her put up her Halloween decorations.  In payment, she said she would give him any decorations she didn't use.  So basically my mom forced me to put up decorations.  I have to admit though that I ended up having fun doing so and they kids love them.



The little sign at the bottom says,
"A Witch and her little monsters live here."
Love it!

Josie gave me the adorable WICKED letters.  I love them. 

 So, here is what our house looks like.  The goal will be to make sure it's down by December 25th.  I will make no guarantees.

Weeds

You know the expression, "kids grow like weeds."

They do!

Seriously, they are growing up way to fast.

However, our weeds really do grow.  We finally went out to take care of the bazillions of them after the neglect of the summer and it was quite overwhelming.

Thankfully, the kids had fun helping.

Yes, that whole thing is weeds.  I guess we have good dirt.  That's good, right?

The Bathroom Report

So I haven't been as diligent with my blog and giving you the play by play with all of the potty training adventures.  For many of you, I am sure you are glad.  I am sure that Easton will be happy when I publish this.  The other boys aren't quite so lucky. 

Easton definitely would have had a lot more chapters in his book if I would have taken the time to write them down.  He has been his own kind of person.  So different from Creighton and from Jackson.  His big thing was that he would not go to the bathroom by himself.  He would yell and scream that he had to go, but if I wasn't around and didn't get to him in time, he would go right where he was.  Oh, and the other cool thing that he would do was:   if he was outside, he would go right in his pants.  Something I guess about him being outside made him think he was able to just go wherever.  It was great fun.

So, after about 4 months of this, I am happy to report that in the last few days he has finally started going on his own.  Hallelujah.  Yes, there are more messes to clean up in the bathroom when he doesn't quite hit the target (come on boys, is it really that hard??) but I'd rather clean them up there.  The outside issue has gotten a little  better, but a little worse in some regards too.  If he is outside, (whether he is right outside our door or out in the wilderness) he will just pull his pants down and go.  He has done this 4 or 5 times the last few days and it's a little embarrassing.  The other day, we went out to help my sister get in the car, and wow, we look over and there's the stream.  About 1 minute later, the puddle had formed, he pulled up his pants and couldn't understand why we looked so horrified.  The next day, I told the kids to get in the car.  A minute later Jackson starts screaming "Easton's peeing in the car!"  Mitch and I ran, thinking the worse, and get there just in time to see him standing from the edge of the van peeing into the garage.  It's so hard to get mad when you are just so relieved that he didn't pee IN the car...like he was doing just a few days before.  So, I guess we will take baby steps.  Now that we have the "not peeing the pants" down, we will start focusing on the "no public urination," and then onto, "Don't pee on the seat."  We got to take the baby steps.

The Newest Miracle

Graham James Peterson was born September 17, 2011.

8 lbs. 9 oz. and 21 inches long.
Born with the most beautiful hair.

Josie had a very hard labor.  It started on Thursday night and labored all that night and all day Friday.  I want her to be able to tell her story so I won't go into details, but early Saturday morning after pushing for quite a while, he ended up coming by c-section. 

He is such an amazing little boy and he is so loved.  The boys LOVED going to the hospital to meet him. 

 You know who he is most loved by?? His cousin, Easton. Easton is obsessed with him. He wants to hold him ALL the time and talks about him ALL the time. It's really sweet.


A few days after he was born Easton got a cold.  He was so sad that he couldn't hold him.  So we fashioned this paper towel mask and he wore it the whole time.  He would have done anything to hold him.

 The other day, as soon as Josie came over.  Easton came running over, looked at him, and then ran and washed his hands all by himself.

 The boys always fight over who gets to feed him.

He is one loved little boy.

Temporary Spelling

Jackson's teacher is big on getting the kids writing and encourages them to use temporary spelling.  He has been doing this a lot and I love trying to decifer what he wrote.  Here is what he wrote while watching General Conference this morning, a.k.a Jenrol Kofris.  He wrote down the story about the little kid that got so excited when they saw the missionarites.  See if you can make it out.   

 Sometimes I think I should step in on his temporary spelling.....

I am pretty sure he meant "Boo."



Wheeler Farm

I love this picture of the two crazies.
They loved this tractor.  They sat on it forever.
I got bored and pulled them off.  So sad they don't have a cooler mom/auntie.

They fed the ducks.

Easton's poor owie.

 The owie actually happened the first 5 minutes after getting there.  The few pictures I posted were near the end of the trip to Wheeler Farm.  He was pretty hysterical and until he sat on that tractor he couldn't get over the pain. 

It was a sad owie though.  There was so much gravel and dirt under the skin that my mom actually had to hold him down and I had to take a Scotch pad and scrub it out.  OUCH!!  Poor kid.  I felt awful inflicting all that pain on him.

Grandma quickly calmed him down with some large band-aids and bites of his favorite oatmeal.