A picture is worth a thousand words...

Asher and Madeleine love to dig in the dirt and I don't mind when the dirt is outside. Asher thought it would be really cool to dump a load of dirt onto the bathroom floor. At least it wasn't the carpet, right? I couldn't tell if he was sorry that he made a horrific mess or was just sorry that I was cleaning up his fun.

You know it's been a fun day when your kids require a bath before afternoon. On the bright side, after their bath they were literally begging to take naps, and now my house is quiet.

Princess Madeleine and the Ghost Busters

I served my mission in Sweden, where they still have a reigning monarch, King Karl XVI Gustaf. He is married to Queen Silvia and they have three kids: Crown Princess Victoria, Prince Carl Philip, and Princess Madeleine. She is where we got the idea for the name, and now I have my own little Princess Madeleine. The original Princess Madeleine is a beauty, but I think my Princess Madeleine will give her more than a run for her money. The funny thing about the picture of Maddie, is that Vanessa got her dressed for church and thought she was so cute so she took a picture. But before we could get her to church she got ahold of a bar of deoderant, took a bite, and threw up all over her shirt. Maybe next week.

Yesterday I was cleaning the office and found some promotional pens from Peter Grossnickle's drug sales repping. I discovered that they had a pen on one end, and a little light on the other and I knew that the kids would love them. So tonight I busted them out and let the kids go Ghost Busters in Asher's bedroom. Here is some of the video.

This was a fun pic of the kids. The extended exposure makes the lights look like Ghost Busters beams, and makes the kids look like they are getting hit by those same beams.

A bit early....

I couldn't resist posting this picture. I bought Maddie's Halloween costume today and she loves it! I was surprised that she even cared, she's growing up too fast.

For those of you who think I am worrying about Halloween costumes too early (mom). There is a sort of weird thing here in the Tri-Cities. Everywhere else that I have lived (Phoenix, Provo) the stores have always been well stocked well into whatever season we happened to be in, and once the season was over, the leftovers went on clearance. Not here though, and I get burned over and over. When we went to buy a kids pool one July the store clerks at Walmart laughed at us when we asked where they kept them. I went to buy Asher a life jacket one August and even the expensive specialty stores were sold out. The same thing happened in the middle of December last year when our Christmas lights went out and we tried to buy replacements. Christmas lights in December? Try October next time. The store shelves in the Tri-Cities were also bare of canning supplies this year, I ended up buying most of what I needed when we went to Seattle. I didn't get Fruit Fresh (for canning) though and I went to several stores all over town to find it and 6 different stores were sold out. Even this Halloween costume shopping trip I had to go to 2 different Targets to find Maddie's size and both stores were already picked over. Paul and I joke about this all of the time and we've learned to shop early in the season if we anticipate a need, but seriously what is the deal?

Domestic Bliss

I have been learning so many new homemaking skills lately! Trust me, this is so not like me. I have never been interested in these things before, and I can't explain why I am suddenly interested.

I've been practicing my bread making skills and now it looks like real bread! The secret to my new found success is letting my stand mixer kneed the dough. Apparently I am a failure at kneading. Is it still homemade if you let a machine kneed?

I was also inspired by a Relief Society enrichment activity to learn to can my own fruit. I've never done it before so it was a bit intimidating. Sorry my pictures are so blurry. This is applesauce and peaches. No one would accuse me of being a martyr, I made Paul help me with the peaches after the kids were in bed, and during nap time with the applesauce. It was really fun to work together on this project. We listened to BYU crush UCLA on the radio during the applesauce canning. (Paul actually enjoyed himself!)

Maybe now I'll learn to sew. HaHaHa

Rise and Shout

This last weekend Vanessa "gave" me my anniversary present by letting me take her to the BYU-Washington game in Seattle. I took Friday off and we drove to Portland (4 hours) to drop our kids off at my parents' house, and then drove up to Renton (3 hours) where we were going to spend the night. We went out to lunch in Vancouver and went to see a movie after we checked into the hotel. We saw The Dark Knight, the latest installment in the Batman series and it was pretty good. A bit gruesome at times, but it was the first time just she and I went to a movie since Asher was born, and he turns three next month.

Watching the movie made us feel old, though. We had a late lunch so we planned on having a late dinner after the movie, but as we staggered out of the theater, half asleep, we were too tired to be hungry. The thing that made me feel like I deserved an AARP discount was the fact that when I wanted to head for bed, the theater looked busier than ever, with people coming to start their 2+ hour movies. Man, I am old. My sister Emily says that getting married adds 5 years, and having kids adds another 10 years. I now think that may be a bit conservative.

Well the next morning we had a hearty breakfast at IHOP, decked out from head to toe in our BYU gear. I felt a bit out of place, like we were behind enemy lines, until the cashier remarked that she had seen a bunch of people come through earlier in similar get-ups. We were not alone.

We had a great time at the game. There were a bunch of BYU fans, and a Bishop from our area bought 162 tickets that he sold to local fans. Vanessa and I sat next to Brian and Natasha Woodward and Stephanie and Sam Swanberg way up in the nose bleeds of Husky stadium. Matt Dawes and his son Evan were sitting near us too, but they were rooting for the Huskies. Some parents just don't raise'em right.

It was a back and forth game with BYU holding a 7 point lead with Washington driving down the field. Jake Locker scrambled into the end-zone for the potentially tying score with 0:02 to go, but the Huskies still had to kick the extra point to tie the game and force overtime. This brought back flashbacks of the BYU-UCLA Las Vegas Bowl in 2007, when UCLA was attempting the go-ahead field goal on the final play, but Eathyn Manumaleuna got a hand on the kick and it fell short.
But Manumaleuna has left on a mission and BYU needed someone else to step up and make the play. Enter Jan Jorgensen.
BYU held on to win 28-27, much to our delight, although my heart went out to little Evan Dawes who was crushed by the failed comeback bid.Vanessa and I had a blast. It was fun to spend some time alone, and sitting with some other couples made it feel more like a date, or at least it did to me. We tried to go out to dinner after the game, but when we got out of the game traffic we couldn't find the restaurant we wanted so we just got dinner at Jack in the Box. Still Vanessa and I had lots of time with just the two of us, to talk and remember how much fun we had together before we had kids.

But as nice as it was to leave our kids with Grandma and Grandpa, we were anxious to get back to them. We went back to my parents house and spent the night and the next day with them. We were so excited to see Asher when he woke up on Sunday, but he seemed indifferent. He had lots of fun without us and was sad to be going home.

Madeleine had lots of fun too, but had a rough day Sunday. At church she hurt her wrist and was teething so she was more than a handful. Then after she got a nap and was feeling better we were out in the back yard. I was making a zucchini scare-crow and Madeleine was playing near the wading pool when she started screaming. I could tell right away that something was wrong. I had seen some bees stuck in the pool water, and she seemed to be holding her hand funny. I checked it out and sure enough there was a bee stinger sticking out of her middle finger. We got the stinger out and tried to get her settled down. I tried cradling her, and Grandma tried some baking soda slurry, but it was Grandpa and his topical local anesthetic who saved the day.

She was really tender the rest of the day, but eventually became her usual sweet little girl. It was hard because it was the first time one of my kids really got hurt. I know it is trivial, and a bit vindictive, but after Madeleine was on the mend, I went back to the pool, tracked down the bee and exacted revenge.

It was a great weekend. Our kids got some time with their Grandparents, aunts and cousins, we got to spend some time with my family, and Vanessa and I had some real couple time.

Asher and the Giant Onion

I took Asher and Madeleine to the Grocery store yesterday. Talk about multitasking. I have to simultaneously try to get out of the grocery store with ingredients for actual meals and avoid toddler melt downs. For those of you who have ever had two kids under age three I am sure you know what I mean. To keep Maddie from melting down I have to constantly present exciting toys and snacks and keep Asher from invading her personal space, but she has a seat belt so at least I don't have to worry about her personal safety.
Asher on the other hand, has full reign over the basket of the cart. If left un-entertained, he likes to pile the groceries onto one end of the basket (particularly bread, chips and other soft items) and leap onto them repeatedly with all of his force. He has also been known to secretly snack on food that hasn't been purchased yet. Keeping him entertained means keeping him involved with all aspects of decision making. We keep a running dialogue about everything from the variety of produce to the color of the trucks that most likely delivered the food. If Asher thinks he is in charge, he is happy. We have wonderful sweet onions that are grown locally all summer long and I always pick a few up. I parked the shopping cart so that the onions were within Asher's reach and he got a look of glee on his face. He had spotted "the one". The biggest onion I have ever seen. No manner of reasoning could convince him that it would take us a whole week to finish this onion; it was nearly as big as his head and he had to have it. I ended up giving in and we are now the proud owners of one huge onion.

Chill in the air

I absolutely love Autumn! It is my third favorite season. I absolutely hate matching and finding socks for little feet or else it would surely move up in the rankings. Autumn is Paul's favorite season of all because BYU football is in full swing and his months of angst and speculation over the future of the program finally come to an end and he can put all of his theories to test. I insured Paul's undying devotion to me this week by making BYU's fight song my ringtone. We are going to Seattle this weekend to watch BYU play University of Washington and Paul is beyond excited.

The kids thought it was so fun to put on warm jammies and read books under the covers with their Dad. You just can't do this in July.