Grass! (stage 2)

Stage 2 of the Backyard Improvement Project (after pulling out the paving stones and tilling) is raking the ground level and digging the trenches for the sprinkler lines. We were lucky enough to have our home teacher come by the day before Robert wanted to start work on this part. He asked us, "Is there anything I can do to help you with anything?" Unfortunately for him, we said yes! He came over two nights last week and they got most of it done and ready for the sod on Friday. There's still one section of sprinkler line they didn't get in so Robert is going to have to peel back the sod and bury that sometime this week. I will have to wait until that goes in to post the final stage of our grass installation so it's all complete.

By the way, anyone want a HUGE pile of broken paving stones?

A tangent

This morning has not been the best. I've felt a culmination of several small disappointments become wrapped up into one minor event. A less dramatic person than me would be able to push this aside, too. But on top of everything else, I was letting it overwhelm me. I had a few precious moments to myself this morning as Robert had negotiated with me to make a McDonald's breakfast run while he watched the kids. In the car, I was stewing over my plight when I decided to turn the CD up that was playing. It was the Beetles' "Let It Be." I thought it was appropriate. I listened to what was left and then waited for the CD to change and the first track of the new one to begin. I guess I was still kind of feeling sorry for myself because it was The Eagles and they were singing "Get Over It." Point taken.

Who says classic rock bands weren't inspired?

Grass! (almost)

I've mentioned our dirty, awful, no good, very bad backyard before. This is how it's been the last few months with Craig, Ethan, and Jade (the dog) playing outside:


To give you some perspective, that far corner was where I was standing in the last picture when I took it.

This is the strip along the side of the house that was all dirt, no dead grass, no paving stones (on the surface--after we got into it we found several feet of stones about three inches under the dirt along with a row of bricks making a flower border all the way down the length of the wall), no weeds...nothing.

This was last Friday. Robert got the day off of work to dig up all the stones, then we rented a rototiller (sp?) and he tilled it all up. Craig was a big help with the digging and moving of paving stones. Did I mention that the weekend before I found that wheelbarrow and shovel they're using at a garage sale for $4? That was my contribution since I couldn't do much more than sit in a camping chair and cheer them on.


While Robert was dumping a load of paving stones, I watched in amazement as my big boy picked up the shovel, stuck it under the edge of a buried stone, and pried it up. When Robert got back, Craig picked up the stone all by himself and put it in the wheelbarrow. He did that several times. At one point, he came over to rest and sit in his little camp chair. I said, kidding, "What are doing sitting down? You need to pull your own weight around here!" But then I thought about it and realized he probably already had, literally.

Ethan was like me and no help at all, really. He just entertained us by looking cute and making faces.

At one point he wanted to go inside so I let him watch T.V. for a while. (It was getting pretty warm outside.) I realized I hadn't seen him or heard him come to the door in a while, so I went to check on him. This is what happens when the big brother is occupied and the little brother is left to his himself for a long enough period of time:

It was almost nap time anyway and it had been a busy morning. :) It's just so funny to me because neither of them EVER just fall asleep like this.

Next, I'll post pictures of our progress. Today the sod is going in, so pretty soon we'll have complete before and after pictures! I'm so excited!

And so it begins

This is Craig on Sunday night, wearing his first pair of real underwear! No, he's not potty trained yet, but this is the beginning of the adventure.

He's resisted potty training for a long time and I've let it go. I figured I'd wait until he was at least three and my classes were over for the summer. That way I'd have all summer before the baby is born to get this boy potty trained. Previously, we've tried getting him interested with fun potty seats, fun underwear, M&Ms, DVDs with potty songs, and several other techniques we've been told to try. He lost interest in M&Ms (who's child is he, anyway?), he flat out refused to wear his Toy Story underwear (which he had picked out), didn't like the potty seats, and was just full of excuses. After talking to my sister who's going through something similar, I decided to just pick a day to take away the diapers and tell him he can poop and pee in his pants, go in his underwear, or use the potty. Of course, I am keeping a timer and putting him on the potty regularly.

I had planned to start this last Monday, but randomly on Sunday night he said, "Mommy, I want to wear my underwear." So, he put it on him and several times that night he would tell me he had to go and then he would go in the potty. I was encouraged, until the next morning when we started all over again. By 11:30 we had used all nine pairs of underwear. :( We washed them and started over. Since then, I've realized that Sunday night was a fluke. Not only does he still not tell me before he has to pee, but he trickles a little bit out every ten minutes or so. I've talked to him about stopping the pee before it comes out and then finishing in the potty, but when he doesn't hold it long enough to have any significant amount of pee in his body, how can he know that "I gotta go" feeling? Any suggestions would be helpful. For now, I'm just forging ahead with my plan, hoping he'll catch on.

As for #2, he painfully held it all day Monday and refused the potty until he finally went in his underwear Monday evening. He didn't go at all yesterday, so we'll see how today goes. I know this will take longer than pee, so I'm not worried, but I just thought I'd throw it out there.

Like I said, please offer any suggestions, if you have them. I am open to new ideas. I would just wait until he was a little older, but I am really trying to not have three kids in diapers.

Trains, planes, and automobiles

Craig LOVES to point out all the different types of vehicles we see on a daily/weekly basis. Police cars, fire trucks, taxis, buses (especially school buses), trains, airplanes, helicopters, UPS trucks, moving vans, and Mack (any semi that looks like Mack from the movie Cars, which is pretty much any semi). He's been able to go inside a fire truck recently and the little boy's face was struck with wonder and amazement. He stood there like a statue, looking around, afraid to touch anything. We put Ethan in, too, and Craig kept telling him, "Efan, don't touch that!" Since we live in a city full of buses and light rail trains, we decided to take Craig on a couple little rides.

I only got one picture because it was too crazy keeping the boys on the train platform or at the bus station and it was weird with so many people around and in the background of the one picture I did take. Everyone ended up looking shifty-eyed and a little angry, for some reason, even though Craig and Ethan had a blast. You'll see the picture at the end. It's pretty awkward looking.

First, I took Craig and Ethan on a bus ride while Robert drove the car behind us. Craig was totally thrilled and loved every minute. The next day, we went to the train station near a water park and rode OVER A BRIDGE (which was SO exciting for a three year old), rode a little ways, got off, took the train back, and then took a picnic lunch to the water park. It was a lot of fun and a dream come true for two little vehicle lovers.


Next we need to figure out how to get him on an airplane...

Boys do strange things sometimes...

Robert has a tendency to do strange things to Craig and Ethan with food. For example, he's been known to put corn nuts behind their ears just to see if they'll notice and how long they'll stay. I guess Craig has picked up on this because the other morning while eating Cookie Crisp, I looked over and saw this expression on his face:

To see what he was smiling at, I looked down at his feet:

The best part was telling Robert about it. He thought it was hilarious. :) And just for good measure, here's a picture of Ethan that same morning. He didn't know what I was laughing at, but thought it was funny, too.

Perks

Robert started working for a snack food company back in November that's located here in Mesa. His job is to develop new products and improve on the current ones. They make a lot of their own flavored popcorn, peanuts, and trail mix. He gets a lot of samples of things from companies from all around the country to try in his product development. Sometimes he gets things he can't really use and sometimes there's a surplus. In those cases, he can either toss the stuff (if it's something weird like xanthan gum) or brings it home. This week, we struck gold. He brought home this to begin with:

That is 8 Madagascar vanilla beans, folks! If you have ever bought these at the store, you get something three in a bottle and they cost about $15. And, according to the Food Network's Alton Brown, the Madagascar variety is the best. Then on Wednesday, he came home and gave these to me:

I didn't even know that these things existed! They are SO good. These people have figured out a way to slightly dehydrate pomegranate arils (those juicy seed things inside pomegranates) so that they maintain their nutrients but can be coated in dark chocolate. Genius!

I once had a history teacher in high school (Mr. Smith) who talked about one perk of being married to his wife was that her parents ran a travel agency so they could go pretty much anywhere for practically free. That is a pretty cool one and hard to beat, but one major perk of being married to a chef/food person is the connections to cool things in the food world. And that he values good quality kitchen appliances more than most men so I never had to negotiate when I wanted a stand mixer or food processor. Just a random thing, I guess, but this was an important part of my week! :)

A quiet moment

We have this backyard that I love/hate. I love it because the boys can spend quite a bit of time out there, all by themselves, playing with their toys, the dog, digging holes, etc. Sometimes I have to jump in and stop them from screaming because our neighbors are REALLY close (we have three outside walls and four neighbors' yards attached to them) but other than that, they love it and so do I. Here are pictures of an evening when I was tired of their whining and fighting and was trying to make dinner in a small kitchen with both of them underfoot. So, I found some bottles of bubbles that Craig got for his birthday, opened up two of them, and sent them outside.


Ah, the peace and quiet that reigned. We went through something like five bottles up bubbles. Most of them ended up spilled in the dirt, but so be it.

Why do I hate the yard, too? Because it's DIRT. It comes into the kitchen, it breeds more flies in the dog poop than grass would even when I pick it every. single. day. Sometimes twice a days, actually. The dog gets filthy so she spends all her time out there (except when she sleeps in her kennel in the living room at night). And the boys are covered in dust and mud (from the dog's water dish) on a daily basis. However, I am enjoying having cool enough whether for them to go play in and don't mind the daily baths since I know that in a few weeks or so they'll be stuck inside with me after 7:00 in the morning due to the heat.

By the way, here's how I spend time with Jade, our ever-growing Rottweiler--through the glass in the door. I love her, but not enough to let her play inside with all the dust and dirt covering her. We're working on putting in grass, needless to say.

Kissy-face

When I was pregnant with Craig, I crocheted an Eeyore stuffed animal for him using a pattern book I bought at a fabric store. Then when I was expecting Ethan, I did Piglet. This time, I decided it was time to get Pooh himself out of the book and into reality. Here are some pictures I took of Pooh with Ethan, since when Pooh's around, Ethan only puts him down long enough to eat, and sometimes not even then. I've been keeping him up on top of the bookshelf lately, just so he doesn't end up outside in the dirt or covered in spaghetti sauce. Ethan loves to kiss anything and everything with a face and to make us kiss them, too. Stuffed animals, toys, his penguin pillow pet, people, smiley face stickers. He will literally walk around, carrying Pooh, kissing him over and over again, running into walls. So, I decided to take pictures of him because this is something I want to remember about my sweet little boy.


Here he's going in for the kiss. I kept missing the moment because my camera has kind of a long delay.

Pooh's about as tall as Ethan, if he were standing up. :)


So sad. This was right after Craig had taken Pooh away from him.


Our moods change very quickly.

I love his expressions. He does this one when he's waiting to surprise you with a "boo" or anticipating a tickle or surprise from you.

Sometimes we're not affectionate, but more playful with Pooh. Like when we put him on the floor, face down, sit on his head, and spank him. (BTW, notice my sandal tan line on my foot? That's from wearing sandals 360 days out of the year....don't you wish you lived in AZ? :))

Mommy gets lots of kisses, too.


This is a horrible, but funny, picture of Craig. It doesn't really look like him at all. It's funny because he kept wanting me to take pictures of him, too, so he'd stand there smiling, waiting for the click so he would know he could relax his face. This time, though, the camera wasn't working right so by the time I got the picture taken, his smile became more of snarl.

Scenes from a birthday party

Thanks to my life-saver friend, Kristian, I got the pictures from Craig's birthday party! And without further ado, here they are!

Here's Party Central. It was a really nice day...a little too windy (we never did get the candles lit), but a very nice temperature.

Craig with his green balloons...I included this picture mostly for those of you who wanted to see a belly-shot of me. 25 weeks and counting!

Pizza and juice--did you know that Capri Sun is now making a 100% juice? That's what we had for the party and all the parents were surprised to see it. Thought I'd pass the word along.

Craig wanted the pinata, so here we are. This was chaos, but the kids loved it.

Opening presents. I think this one was from my mom and dad. Craig was so excited each time he opened one that he would want to play with it right then. We kept telling him to open the rest of the presents and we'll play with them later. I kind of felt bad, though, because I don't want him to just rip through everything without learning to appreciate it first and say thank you. But we don't want to be there all day, either. It's a double-edged sword.

All of Craig's little friends were helping him get through the unwrapping. The older kids knew the routine and were quick to help move along the process. :)

What could it be?

An orange bike! With a size 3+ helmet that we had to return to Walmart for a 5+ for my little blockheaded Swede.

Here's Craig with Cody, Kristian's son. They were our neighbors when we first moved to Mesa. Craig wasn't quite 18 months yet and Cody was 5, but they have always loved playing together. Even when we moved to Fountain Hills a year later, Craig would always ask me where Cody was. We've been able to keep in touch and now that we're back in the same stake as them, we were able to make it to Cody's baptism! They still love playing together...even more now that Craig is getting to be such a big boy himself.

Ethan always seems to blend into the crowd during things like this. Here's where I found him at one point...sitting on the table, eating candy from the pinata, wrappers and all. His face is blue from a sucker, I think. He did really well, considering we went straight through his nap time. On the way home, both Craig and Ethan passed out in the car and stayed asleep when I put them in their beds. They both took three hour naps that day.

It was crazy, busy, and exhausting, but a lot of fun. Now I know why we rarely did blow-out parties when we were kids. This wasn't a blow-out, but any means, and it was still a lot of work. My mom usually let us invite about four girls over and we would either do a slumber party or do something like go to Roller King in Modesto. Of course we had cake and presents, but it was all very low-key. I think I may follow in those footsteps.

Birthdays

Last Saturday, the 30th, was Craig's and my birthday. He turned 3, I turned 30. We had a nice party for him at a park in the town we just moved from, Fountain Hills. It's only 20 minutes away and all but one family of friends lives up there. Everyone seemed to have fun. We had pizza, cake, a pinata, and opening presents. I tried to keep it simple, but even just those few things made for a pretty hectic party. Just herding 10 kids for each event was difficult. Thank goodness for helpful parents and our adult friends who were there. We forgot the camera, sadly enough, but a friend of mine was there who had brought her's! She took a lot of pictures for me and I took some, too. I'm just in the process of communicating with her to get them. So, those will be posted later.

We've been taking Craig and Ethan periodically to play with the bikes at Walmart and Craig seems to be getting the idea of how to use the peddles. Last year, we got him a little plastic tricycle and he never did like using the peddles. Ethan uses it now and just pushes himself around like a Flintstone. But, when we brought out the REAL bike (with training wheels, of course) Craig was ecstatic! He's getting the hang of it, too.

When I asked Craig what kind of cake he wanted he said, "Orange!" I wanted chocolate, so I made one layer a white cake mix and dyed it orange and the other I made chocolate. It turned out well. Then I asked him what kind of presents he wanted and he said, "Orange!" Luckily, when we went to buy the bike, there was a perfect orange one, just his size. When I asked him what color balloons he wanted he said, "Green!" So, he got green balloons. It was really fun planning his party this year. We did a Thomas theme and I loved being able to get his input. This was his first real birthday party with friends and everything...it's fun seeing him grow up and become more of a little boy and less of a toddler.

As for me turning 30.....that's another post.

Happy Easter (I remembered pictures!)

I had forgotten to hype up the visit from the Easter Bunny throughout the week for Craig so he could get excited about finding his basket on Sunday morning. As a matter of fact, I had forgotten to dye eggs, too. I remembered to boil them on Saturday night so we dyed them Sunday morning. Luckily we have afternoon church. So, Easter morning comes and I tell Craig that the Easter Bunny had come the night before and hidden baskets for them somewhere in Mommy and Daddy's room (perhaps in the cupboards under the sink?) and to go look for them. Here's where they found them and after they dug in:

There was a lot of candy on the carpet yesterday morning. They loved their visit from the Easter Bunny, though. :) Later, we (mostly I) dyed eggs. Here's the end product.

Nothing fancy, but fun. Craig helped put the stickers on and smeared some chocolate on a couple of them. He also gave one or two a nice spider web crack, which made him sad but I told him it would be okay. Then the boys had naps and we all went to church. When we got home, we had our Easter egg hunt. This was the first year we've done one for real. Previously, we've kind of pretended or didn't even try because Craig wasn't old enough to really get it, but this year he was all over it. He's even asked to do another one today with our plastic eggs. I think that will be a good afternoon time-killer. Ethan caught on quick, too, with Craig to follow around and watch.

I love having a backyard to do stuff like this in, even though it's all dirt, dead grass, and paving stones. For dinner we had fajitas (neither of us felt like having the traditional roast or prime rib and we are not "lamb" people). I planned on making creme brulee for dessert, as our something extra special, but it wasn't until I was putting them in the oven that I realized they need to set up and chill for at least two hours, if not overnight. I've made them once before but somehow forgot that crucial step. So, I guess we're having creme brulee for dessert tonight. :)

How was your Easter?

Bacon-Cheese Pull-Aparts

I've been experimenting with different breakfast ideas lately. We're all getting kind of tired of eggs and toast or Eggos. I found this recipe on the Pillsbury website, I also had several Pillsbury coupons and there was a good sale going on them this week, so I tried it. These turned out really well. Very cheesy, bacony, crispy in the right places and soft in others...I highly recommend you try it.

Bacon-Cheese Pull-Aparts

1 egg
2 tbsp. milk
8 Pillsbury refrigerator biscuits
1 2.1 oz. pkg. precooked bacon, crumbled (or about 1/2 cup cooked and crumbled left-over bacon)
3 oz. (3/4 cup) shredded cheese (cheddar or colby jack)
1/4 cup finely chopped green onions (4 medium)
I actually forgot the green onions and they were still good.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter or grease a 9x13 baking dish. In a large bowl, beat egg and milk until smooth. Separate the 8 biscuits and cut into quarters. Gently stir biscuit pieces into the egg mixture until coated evenly. Fold in bacon, cheese, and onions. Spoon mixture evenly into the baking dish and arrange in a single layer. Bake at 350 for 23-25 minutes or until golden brown. Cut into squares.

More family visits!

Last Thursday my brother and his family drove about 11 hours from Colorado Springs to visit us for a few days. He's in the Air Force so they move around every few years. Coincidentally, we've moved around, too, so for about the last four years, we've been within 10 to 12 hours from them but never managed to visit each other. Yay for them for being the first to get it together and make the trip! We'll have to go there sometime this year, for sure. It was really a lot of fun having them here. They came in early enough on Thursday evening that we were able to have dinner and head out to the Mesa temple pageant. The kids were tired and somewhat cranky, but we made it through. I've been wanting to go for the last couple of years, but never made it since I knew it would be hard with little kids and being so late at night. But it was worth it.

The next day we went to the Children's Museum in Phoenix. Unfortunately, I had forgotten the camera for much of our activities. The kids really seemed to have a great time. To finish off the morning, we had lunch on the front lawn of the museum. The weather was really great, too. We got home in time for naps (almost all of us got to sleep, which was awesome) and then got dinner together to take to the great splash park in our old town of Fountain Hills. We had steaks, chicken, potato salad, and corn. Robert got the grill ready and the meat cooked while the rest of us played in the water. These are the things I love the most: eating outside, playing in water, corn on the cob, being with family, watching my kids have fun. This was the very best day I've had in a long time. There have been other good ones, but this will be classified as one of the very best.

The next day was Saturday so Robert was with us and we all went to the zoo. I did remember the camera then and Robert took the pictures. First, we saw the stingrays.

Craig and I are on the far side of the pool. One stingray kept swimming up to Craig and trying to nibble his fingers. He kept saying, "Mommy, he likes me!" I'd let it stay for a second, but then shew it away. I'm sure they wouldn't let you stick your hands in there if they bite or have nasty teeth, but it made me a little uncomfortable anyway.

After that, we walked around a bit, saw the big animals mostly, and made it to the camel rides. By now, it was getting to be lunch and some of us (mostly us pregnant and sore ones--me--and those under the age of five) were getting tired and hot and hungry.

We saw this golden eagle just "sprawled eagle" in his food trough. We thought that was pretty unusual. Here's a picture of all the cousins together:

From oldest to youngest, there's Eden who's the only girl and she's 8 1/2. Then there's Andrew, in the orange shirt. He's 6. Then Craig in the striped shirt, Jake in yellow is only about 6 weeks younger than Craig, and Ethan (hiding behind Eden). It was so fun to see them all interact and play together. Craig loved Andrew and loved his "big boy" ways. Before he learned his name, he would call him "the big boy." Oddly enough, though, Craig and Andrew are close in weight and wear the same shoe size, but Andrew is taller. Jake, who is closest in age to Craig, was closer to Ethan's size in many ways. Andrew loved Ethan, though, and was always sharing with him. I think one of the best parts of the whole time they were here was just having the boys so well occupied all the time. They just loved playing with their cousins, or "friends" as Craig calls them.

This is my last picture. There's Lani, my sister in law, and in front of her is Craig and Eden holding hands. It was so cute. Craig loved to walk around, holding hands with any of his cousins. Jake is in the yellow to the left, Andrew in on the far right, and Scott (my brother) is pushing the stroller.

The best part of the zoo day was when we sat down and had lunch by the water/splash pad area. While Eden and Andrew were riding the camel, Robert got lunch from the car and met us by the water area. Again the kids played in the water and we all ate. Robert had made California rolls for the adults (the kids had peanut butter and jelly) and they were so good. At some point, Craig got shot in the face with a spray of water and freaked out then a few minutes later was accidentally hit in the face and given a slightly bloody nose. That was when I decided to keep him out of the water and let him dry off. I bribed him with a snow cone. There's something so perfect about the zoo and snow cones.

That night Scott and Lani offered to watch the kids while we went out. We took them up on it so we went to P.F. Changs and it was every bit as good as we've heard. Then we just walked around a few stores before getting home early enough to spend a couple hours talking about the old days and old friends with them and going to bed. They were off by 7:30 Sunday morning.

It was such a fun few days and I am so glad they came down to visit us. Now I am that much more motivated to make the trip up there to do it all over again. :) Thanks guys, for coming, and for all the fun! Craig will be talking about his cousin/friends for months, I'm sure.