Owen Dynamite

Somehow Owen managed to slip out the door the other morning with flip-flops on. He is not allowed to wear flip-flops to school. I took him to school. This means he was in the car with me and I never noticed.

Anyway- so he gets off the bus that afternoon with a little plastic bag containing his flip-flops and these hideous contraptions on his feet:

Are you freaking kidding me?! They're practically moon boots! I can't believe they didn't call me. I would have come running from ANYWHERE to save him from the humiliation. This is straight up inhumane. I think I am going to sue.

Hooray for Hazel

Today was Hazel's first day of Preschool. She thought she wanted to be a big girl and go to school...until I actually enrolled her. Then she had second (and third and fourth) thoughts. I guess even though she yells at me all day, she actually enjoys being around me and didn't want to suffer through the seperation. :)

She cried all morning (for a little over an hour) as we got ready for school and kept saying "I'm not going to school!" For the first 30 minutes, I was gentle and encouraging and sympathetic. Then I just got fed up. I wanted to scream "SUCK IT UP!" I knew she was going to love it, and I hate that she has to throw such a huge fit before even trying something. Sigh.

Anyway- she was precious when I dropped her off. She held my hand sooo tight and kept wanting to whisper things in my ear as we got acquainted with the classroom and the teachers. Things like "Tell her (ask her) when we are going to play with the blocks" or "Tell her when we are going to cut with scissors."

When I left, she burst into tears, but I quickly kissed all over her face, gave her a couple of big squeezes and cheerfully said bye. She cried "WAIT! One more kiss and hug!" I complied and she took her teacher's hand and entered the classroom. Once I got all my errands done for the day (it's amazing how fast it goes without kids!), it took all my self-control to not drive back up there and pick her up early...or at least just sneak a peek into her classroom.

I wish I had been as smart as my friend Nicole and captured the look on her face when I picked her up. She has never been so excited to see me! They were sitting in a circle singing songs and she yelled out "MOMMY!!!" but didn't move from her spot until her teacher told her she could. She was just so precious. Her teacher even wrote me a note giving me a play by play of how Hazel did on her first day. I think it's in the car and I'm too lazy to go get it, but she said that Hazel was a fantastic, precious little girl and got really involved in all their activites and made friends easily. She also told me that Hazel ate all her lunch and took a good nap. I wish I could have watched every moment!

Here she is looking at all the other kids on the playground...not quite ready to join in.

Her cubby. Even when she is feeling a little apprehensive, she doesn't hesitate to smile for the camera.

She looks way too big.

Tonight during Family Home Evening, we all told what our favorite part of our day was, and Hazel said "My favorite part was school." Awesome! Cause you're going back in two days. :)

Precioso

I think I'm due a positive post about the chillins. Besides...I am having a sentimental moment after watching Owen practice piano. He is starting to get that sway in his body when he really gets into a song. So precious.

Here he is on the first day of second grade. Isn't he pimpin'? He was SO excited to wear his new shoes. He got to pick his shoes this year, and I was shocked by how much he cared! He knew brand names and everything. I was picking out some typical adidas for his tennis shoes when he spotted SKETCHERS! He literally yelled with excitement "I've always wanted sketchers!" I was like "Uhhhh...really?" Weird. He had his heart set on these black and red ones that were pretty...um...hood. You know- hood. Ghetto. SO- luckily I was able to convince him to get a pretty basic brown pair by telling him they would go with more outfits and he would, therefore, be allowed to wear them more. Then he also picked a pair on Converse because he wanted to be like his daddy. Anyway- my point is that I can't believe he is old enough to start caring about these things. He is also very particular about how his hair looks.

When we pulled up to the school and became a part of the sheer and utter chaos that is the first day, he started to get a little nervous. He was checking out the playground to see if he recognized anyone right off the bat. I don't think he had any luck, but Hazel definitely recognized someone familiar right away and yelled "HEY! There's Owen! In the brown shirt!" Owen and I just looked at each other like "WHAT?!" and then laughed hysterically.

He stopped for an extremely long drink from the fountain right outside his classroom. I don't know if he was actually hot and thirsty or if he was just trying to prolong the inevitable.

Of course, his teacher was the one and only teacher on campus who had complete control of the situation and already had every kid sitting at their desks working on an assignment! That didn't help our nerves at all to walk into a silent, full classroom and feel like an incredible disturbance. By the time I left, he looked like he was about to burst into tears. It was SO hard to leave. I took one last shot of him sitting at his desk in mid-gesture. He was sighing and putting his hand up to his head in exasperation because he had no idea what he was supposed to be doing. It makes me sad all over again to think about it.

He, of course, did fine and is enjoying his class and said he likes his teacher "a ton!"

Hazel got a VERY exciting package from G-Mommy and Avery. Sweet cousin Avery decided to pick a couple of her dress-ups to give to Hazel, and G-Mommy also bought her a new one. Poor Hazel with her one princess dress. It was always hard for her to play with a friend and have to share that dress. Well..no longer, my friends! She now has FOUR princess dresses from which to choose. She was especially thrilled with the authentic Cinderella dress and has worn it every day since it's arrival.

She asked me to take a picture of her in this pose. She is trying to hold one leg up...hence the hand on the refrigerator to steady herself and the tongue sticking out.

And then, when our friend Gracie came to play, we were finally able to have two princesses in the house! It was a time to celebrate.


And here are a few cute things she has done this past week. When I was cleaning house, she stacked the couch pillows up to stand on so she could help me wash windows.

When our grocery ads came, she went through them and circled the things she thought we needed and then tried to copy the words onto the grocery list. If it was an especially daunting word...like cantoloupe...she would draw what it looked like (a circle). There are now some odd symbols and shapes on my grocery list.

I put her in time out the other day. This is always a major struggle. She HATES being told to stay in one chair. Sometimes time out ends up being 30 minutes of us just trying to get her to "STAY IN THAT CHAIR!" When I came back to check on her, she had gotten a pillow and blanket from her bed and was sound asleep. But at least she was in the chair! Victory!

Napping Naked Nightmares

There I am in the shower, minding my own business, when into the tub falls one of these:

and one of these:

They are apparently fighting each other....I think the snake was chasing the gecko. So there they are, slithering and flailing and flopping around while I am screaming frantically and pressing myself up against the shower wall. Fighting against the fact that I am soaking wet and, therefore, quite slippery, I try my best to claw the slick tiles and climb up the side of the wall. After practically breaking each finger and toe on my body, I finally see my chance for escape and leap out of the tub, taking the shower curtain with me. I run immediately into the kitchen where Nathan is sitting calmly enjoying a sandwich. I scream at him through my uncontrollable sobbing, "NATHAN! Didn't you hear me screaming for help? Why didn't you save me??!?!" to which he replied with a roll of his eyes, "I'm sure it wasn't that big of a deal."

I woke up feeling very betrayed....and with an inexplicable pain in my back. Must have been all that jumping around in the shower. Maybe I shouldn't take any more 3 hour Sunday naps.

You are my witnesses!!!

I am setting a goal today. I WILL accomplish this goal. I am sick and tired of talking about how unhappy I am with my body, so I've decided to change it.

Today is August 11th. By November 11th I will have lost at least 12 pounds.

I am cutting out sweets for the next month to kick start this plan.

Wish me luck and send any motivation my way that you can!

I love to see the temple...

I had a few errands to run in Mesa today, so I decided to take the kids to the temple. I can't believe we have been here three years and I have never taken them! I'm not really sure what they thought of it, but they fought me when it was time to leave, so I'm guessing that's a pretty good sign that they enjoyed themselves. Owen asked a lot of questions and especially liked seeing the Book of Mormon in so many different languages.

Hazel saw this statue of Jesus and stopped dead in her tracks to stare at it. She was probably thinking..."Whoa! I had no idea Jesus was the same height as me!"

Then she turned to me and said "Can I hold his hand?"

When we rounded the corner and saw THIS statue...

I think she probably thought "That's more like it." She turned to me and said "Mommy....why does he have holes in his hands and feet?" I told her that was where the nails were when he was hung on the cross. She asked "Why did the people hate him and put him on the cross?" and I explained that they didn't like what he was teaching. She said "But that's mean" in an appalled voice. She is so precious. I'm glad to know she is listening in church.

Owen spent his time watching every single LDS commercial ever made (man! those things ALWAYS make me cry), and looking at the diorama of Jerusalem. It had buttons you could push to locate certain places on the diorama and hear about them. He was captivated.

And here are some pics I forced them to take in an alley behind the music store. ha.

Just a fun day with our cousin...

First off....how stinking precious is my nephew?

And how beautiful is my sister?!?

Gettin crazy on the splashpad

Got a little too crazy and Owen got a hard head smashed into his cheekbone. Eek.

Tyler trying to avoid having his picture taken

Mission Beach

Get ready for a barrage of photos that are probably only interesting to me.

On Wednesday night, we threw a bunch of crap (and the kids) into the car and drove to San Diego for a weekend beach trip. Here are the highlights of our trip via picture story...

Sooo....it just struck me that I have no pictures of our first morning where we spent three hours in the hotel dealing with a Hazelum (far worse than a normal tantrum). Oh well...if only I could record these things so you guys would understand the drama that is Hazel. I love that girl. Suffice it to say that she did not enjoy her first taste of bar soap. :)

Once we made it out of our hotel room (around 11:30), we went straight to the beach. Now let me digress a bit from my story to let everyone out there know that my dear husband is in love with the beach. It turns him into a little boy. Unlike me, it doesn't bother him to have seaweed wrap around his ankles and drag him into the eye-burning, salty water as wave after wave crashes against his face and pushes more stinging water up his nose. He doesn't mind clawing his way to safety only to have sand fill his every nook and cranny and rub him raw while he is attempting to relax and unwind.



Well...apparently the kids have acquired my slight aversion to the beach. Where do I start?


Hazel. Well....Hazel's drama carried over onto the sand. She was only a little apprehensive at first and asked Owen to hold her hand on the way to the water.



If you have read my stories about swim lessons, you can guess what happened when the water didn't even sit still for her, but instead came rushing noisily in her direction. She was not exactly thrilled.


Apparently life is going to supply me with ample opportunity to capture this lovely look.


But we still cruelly forced her to stand on the edge a couple of times just to torture everyone around us (this picture is to make up for the cruel one that I will post of Nathan momentarily).And somehow she still managed to conjure up a smile for the camera.

So I spent the majority of my time hanging out at our little campsite. Nathan was genius enough to figure out how to keep this tent from flying away in the wind.

I watched Hazel as she played in the sand and said over and over again "This is fun, Mom!" I couldn't tell if she was trying to convince herself or just trying to show me that she could have fun without getting in the water.

She convinced Daddy and Owen to help her build a castle


One of my favorite moments was when she found this "nest" (aka wad of seaweed) and decided that the reason the seagull kept coming near us was because he was trying to get this nest back. It definitely didn't have anything to do with the Doritos that were being dropped into the sand around us. So she decided to give this poor birdie his nest back. It was hilarious watching her run after him trying to calm him with her sweet high-pitched voice.

She finally just set the nest down and flapped her arms a couple of times while giving her finest seagull call. I guess she thought this was the best way to make him aware of her intentions. I was laughing too hard to get a picture of the wing flapping.


Let me just have one moment where I talk about my self-loathing. It was not exactly uplifting to flop around on the beach watching young twenty-somethings with perfect bodies prance around me. I just ate a few oreos while comparing my body to theirs. Then I found this guy. Oh how I wish I could have gotten a better picture of him without bringing attention to myself. And I wish he hadn't put his arm in front of his distended belly right as I took this picture. I mean, come on! A speedo is never exactly exciting to see, but especially when it is on a pale body with chicken legs and an engorged gut. Watching him frolic in the waves was definitely entertaining and helped take my mind off the fact that I was literally the only woman on the beach that day without a model's figure.

The next morning, we started out with a filling breakfast at The Mission...yummy.

While waiting for a table, these three young girls walked up to the menu that was posted on the window to decide what they were going to order. I overheard one girl asking another "What's $1.50 and $2.50? " and then she answered herself with "Oh yeah... $3.00." Nobody corrected her. It was awesome.

And then we did this tour of all these ships. They were cool. Don't ask me to repeat a single fact about any of them. But we got some cute pics! :)

This was Hazel attempting to skip.


And some more of my favorite beach pictures from day two. Owen also had to be forced into the water, but decided at the last minute that he liked it and I think he even got his head wet at one point.

Why do people insist on taking these pictures of themselves? Do they EVER turn out flattering?!

Owen's "souvenir" that he wanted to bring home. Not in MY car, buddy!

There were no bathrooms close by. So Hazel announced "I have to pee" and dug herself a little hole in the ground. Yep..I'm serious. That's how we roll...white trash style.

Owen was desperate to be buried in the sand, but I'm pretty sure he immediately regretted it.

Sandy wedgie...

The trip home :(

Our trip was too short and we came home to WAY too much stress, but it was a sorely needed vaca and I'm glad we did it.

And the grand finale (and to make up for the whalish pictures I posted of myself).....

What a man.