Sleepless in Seattle

We have been away in Seattle for the last few days with my parents, and my brothers and their families. Seattle is wildly expensive (parking was up to $25 per day!) so we wanted to limit our hotel stay to 2 nights, but we bought a city pass which gave us tickets to 5 attractions, so we were CONSTANTLY going. We got their Monday morning and went straight to Woodland Park Zoo. I thought it was a pretty good zoo. (we have SO many zoo pictures that we didn't take any at this zoo...that and we left the camera in the car)

The next day our first stop was the Seattle Aquarium. It was lots of fun. They had a glass tunnel that you walked through that was full of jelly fish, we also got to touch the starfish and see sea otters.

















Our next stop was the cruise, that's right we even fit in a cruise. It was an hour long harbour cruise that was quite informative about the history of the Puget Sound.
After that it was off to the Science Fiction Museum, and the Experience Music Project. In the music section, Barlow, Andrea, Gordon, Jessica, Bryan, Trevor and I all put on a real concert. We went into a small room that was set up like a stage and played real instruments that were set up to play La Bamba (you could buy the DVD of your performance for $20, but we passed......because it was to expensive, not because we looked like idiots) Our band name was Debit or Credit. We stooped on our way back to the cars to get a picture in front of the Space Needle
Then it was back to the hotel. After a long day of walking we decided to give our feet a nice soak in the jacuzzi tub. I know you are thinking....."wow they stayed at a nice hotel to have a jacuzzi tub in their room." Well not really, the hotel was OK, but my brothers room had dirty sheets and a toilet that didn't flush!! After some long talks with the manager my brother Barlow talked them into upgrading their room to the suite. It was pretty nice.
Our last day in Seattle was spent at the Pacific Science Center. I had a friend tell us to plan an entire day at the science center (thanks Sara!) She was so right. We got there as soon as it opened and stayed all day and still missed a bunch of stuff. We got to see a thrilling movie about beavers on an IMAX screen....OK it wasn't thrilling, but it was kind of cool. There was a human maze, a bike ride way up in the air and they had an AMAZING butterfly room, filled with butterflies that landed right on us!
Overall we didn't get much sleep, but we made a TON of memories. I am so glad we were able to make the trip safely and have so much family to share it with! Here are a few more pictures (in case this post has not taken long enough to read already

There is Beauty All Around

When there's love at home......right? Well while I am waiting for my kids to stop fighting and for me to stop yelling at them I decided to take some steps to better beautify my home. I have been working in my kitchen again because this is where I spend a lot of my time. Here are some before and after shots of my recent "work" hope you like it.I have also tried my hand at gardening. I am not great, but we do have one flower that is SO pretty. We planted it last year but it only blooms for about a week and we were in Texas when it bloomed last year so this is the first time we have seen this flower. The flowers opened up one at a time and the kids loved checking every morning to see if a new one was open. We still have one more to open up, but I was worried the bottom ones would start to die before it opened, so I took the picture now.

Running on Empty

So you know that Seinfeld episode where Kramer tries to test drive the car past empty to see how far it will go? That is my life right now, but instead of fuel for the car we are trying it out with fuel for our bodies. Tuesday was shopping day, but I didn't feel like shopping on Tuesday so I thought, eh we have enough food to last until tomorrow. Then Wednesday came and we had a picnic lunch scheduled at the park with friends, so by the time we got home from that I thought, I will go after Bryan gets home. Then Bryan got home and had to go on splits with the missionaries, so I thought, eh we have enough food to make it til tomorrow. Then Thursday. Thursday we went to a free movie (Nancy Drew...cuter than I thought it would be) then picked up some free flowers that one of our neighbors was getting rid of, then weeded and planted them in our flowerbed, then it was time for enrichment meeting. Now it is Friday. We went swimming this morning and now the kids are resting or watching a movie. I need to do some major housework and we have plans to eat dinner at the baseball game we are going to tonight. So I am thinking to myself....eh, we have enough to last til tomorrow, then Bryan will be here and I wont have to take the kids by myself. But our cupboards/fridge are getting pretty low. Here are a few things I have learned about running on empty:

-Babies can eat instant oatmeal. When you are out of cereal and milk the kids can eat oatmeal (all it needs is water!) and it turns out Ashton LOVES the stuff, go figure.

-Food Storage comes in handy. Once again when you are out of bread and Dino chickens you can pulled out the food storage aka: Romane soup which Ashton gobbled up.

-If you leave a pan of meat out to add to some soup as you run out the door to enrichment meeting, leaving instructions for your hubbie to add the meat to the soup and feed the kids, you are likely to come home and find the meat gone, the soup still on the stove cold and PB&J Sandwich stuff all over the counters.

-You can make macaroni and cheese without the milk. When I run out of bread and Dino chickens for lunch we go to macaroni and cheese (usually before we break into the Romane soup) But I always forget that when I am out of bread and chicken nuggets I am usually out of milk as well, but never fear, it only takes 1/4 cup, and doesn't taste TOO bad with only butter and cheese.

-Don't try adding ricotta cheese and mozzarella cheese to canned ravioli thinking that it will taste like lasagna.....it doesn't.

Kid Updates

As many of you know, kids grow up WAY to fast!! I am amazed at how much my kids have changed when I take a minute to watch them. Most of my family lives pretty far away so I thought I would update you on what my kids are up to lately.

ASHTON:
Ashton changes the most. He is a crawling maniac and I have started to play games with him. You know games like "How fast can Mom sweep so that Ashton doesn't scatter the dirt pile" And "How many times can Ashton knock over the towel pile without getting in trouble" and "Guess who took the safety gate down." He is finally starting to eat. He has never like baby food to this day he will only eat the fruits that contain banana and NO veggies or meals. BUT..he loves real food! I have started to give him spaghetti, pancakes, cereal, rice and other odds and ends off our plates.

NATHAN:

Nathan has been quite funny. We borrowed my brother's Wii while he was on vacation. We had a lot of fun. Nathan like to have the Nintendo on, but did not like to play as much as he like to watch. He started playing Mario Kart on his own. He would get two of his matchbox cars out of his room, then choose his characters. One for him and one for me. He would start the race by saying "Mario time, or Peach time, or Yoshi time, depending on which characters we had chosen. Sometimes I would ask for a character like King Boo, or Bowser to which he responded "I have not unlocked those ones yet." Then he would race the cars around the room. They would fall of the edge, get mushrooms and throw shells at each other, then inevitably, he would always win. Usually he would finish bu telling me what he unlocked by winning. It was a lot of fun to watch him play.

KAYLEE:

Kaylee has become quite athletic lately. She was at a birthday party yesterday and won the balloon toss. She has also become a pro at the monkey bars. She cruised past Trevor in her abilities on them. First she could do them all, then she could skip a bar, then she could do them backwards. I have seen her do this a couple of times on the school playground, but Bryan had not seen it yet, so when we went to see the fireworks on the 4th of July and they had monkey bars, she got to show off her skills.

TREVOR:

Trevor has been filling his summer mostly by reading and writing stories. He quickly filled up his summer reading log for Barnes and Noble and picked out a free book called Frindle. We read Fablehaven together and the kids all really liked it. They can't wait to start on the second book. When Trevor gets together with his friend they work on their book called Unknown bugs. In this book they make up new bugs and give them names and draw pictures of them. Here is one of his stories.

FLOPSY:

Flopsy was a rabbit Like all other rabbits Flopsy loved running, carrots & her mom & dad & brothers & sisters she had a best friend named Yurtle. Yurtle was bunny.

They loved racing. Yurtle went to bunny school & Flopsy went rabbit school but their schools were so close together they shared playgrounds.

There schools names were Rabbit Hop & Bunny Fluff but one day they started to hate each other & that's the story of Flopsy.

Picture a Pitcher

After our wards Elders Quorum party last Saturday there were some leftover 5 gallon containers of lemonade. We were lucky enough to bring one home to finish of the lemonade before returning the container to our friend. The kids enjoyed the lemonade for nearly a week, but I drew tired of keeping the large container around, so when it was almost gone, I told the kids it was time to return the container and say goodbye to the lemonade container than never ran dry. Most of the kids were kind of upset, but when I explained that the container was not ours and they wanted it back then were OK with it......that is except for Trevor. After much pleading to keep it around until it was gone he finally asked if we could please get a picture of it.

Now to many of you this might seem like a simple request, especially in a day where we have digital pictures that can be taken, then erased at no cost. But for Trevor it is a little different. He becomes quite "attached" to things. He has a hard time throwing anything out, broken toys, old coloring books, broken crayons, even wrappers to things sometimes. In an effort to halt this behavior before he is grown we are cautious about what we will take pictures of or keep for a while so that he learns to just let go. Anyway, my patience was running thin that day as you kindred moms would understand (to find out if you are a kindred mom click here) so I said a firm NO to taking a picture of the lemonade container. After a lot of tears and me trying to figure out why he was so attached to this container, it finally hit me that he had simply been asking for us to pour some of the lemonade that was left into a pitcher to be able to drink. He was asking can we get a pitcher of it!! I had to laugh and when I explained to Trevor what I had been thinking he was talking about and he explained that he couldn't understand why I wouldn't just pour him a pitcher of lemonade!!

Anyway, we learned a valuable lesson about communication and the kids were able to enjoy the lemonade a couple more days due to the nice pitcher full that we took!

Happy Independence Day

To this day I think the only reason I can spell independence correctly without thinking about it, comes from the fact that I was raised in Independence MO. Anyway, we are having a great day. Our ward had a breakfast this morning. Kaylee, Trevor and I went early to help get this set up and cooked. They had egg burritos and muffins with orange juice. It was really good.

I was SO excited this year to find matching shirts for the family in everyone's size. We looked quite festive. Afterwards we went to the park to take some family pictures. I have given up trying to get everyone perfect in a picture and I am pretty happy with the results. (yes Mom, I will send you prints)

Anyway. I LOVE my country. I feel so blessed to have been born, raised and now raising my children in such a greatly blessed land. I am grateful for those who have been willing to risk or give their lives for my freedoms. I try to never take for granted those God given rights that we enjoy here. It is easy to see the hand of God in creating such a great nation. I hope and pray that we can keep receiving inspiration and protection from our God.

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Statistical Anomalies

All of my kids are lucky to have very "normal" belly buttons, "innies" that is. Apparently it is socially unacceptable to have an "outie." In fact may people have surgery to change their outie to an innie. Statistically speaking, 9/10 people have normal innie belly buttons. Ashton however is in that last 10% with an outie. Now I have never really seen an outie close up before, but I noticed some strange things about Ashton's first scar in life. When he was standing up or arching his back he has an outie, however, when he was sitting or laying normal his belly button retreated and it looks normal. Here are the pictures to prove it.

After a little more research I found out that this is a small umbilical hernia. I was a little grossed out by just the name, but let me warn you.....do NOT Google images for umbilical hernias. There are some REALLY gross pictures. Ashton's is a very small one, but some are huge. Anyway, it doesn't cause any harm and usually goes away by the time they are 3-4. So maybe by the time he is 3-4 he will join the rest of the family as an innie.

My other little anomaly is Nathan. He has recently started to write and color a lot and I have noticed that he is definitely left handed. Again, most people (about 90%...again!) are right handed. Nathan however is the exception. He even moves the mouse pad and mouse to the left side of the keyboard when he plays on the computer. When I did a little research on being left handed I found out that to be left handed is more common in men than women, and will cause him to be a schizophrenic, or a genius. Either way.....we knew our Nathan was something special! There are a lot of theories on why some people are left handed and some right, and you can read them here.