I Swear

Yup I do.  I wouldn't say that I have the language of a drunken dock worker, but neither do I have a mouth I would kiss my mother with.  I am not sure why exactly but it seems to be getting worse.  So Jeff and I have instituted a new policy; every time I swear, I lose all input into the evening's programming and will have to watch some weird Anime with Jeff.  Not a good anime like a Hiazaki film, but a weird Ghost in the Shell thing.  We are watching one right now.  If this doesn't stop my potty mouth I am not sure what will.

I have added a recent picture of my sister, Krista, cause it is her birthday, (HAPPY BIRTHDAY,) and cause she is the one who taught me to swear in the first place.

You Can't Always Get What You Want

I live in a wonderful community where I have many stay at home mom friends.  The benefit being that I can often rely on others to help me out with the kids at short notice.  It has been surprisingly easy to find people to watch the older two kids while I am away at the Compound in a few weeks.  The easiest was finding care for Max.  As always, everyone loves Max.  He is an agreeable guy who plays well with others and listens to the adult in charge.  He is also fairly good for me.  He is old enough to not get into EVERYTHING and old enough  to stay away from my dumbbells when I am working out.  When I need some alone time and the other two are asleep, I can set him in front of the PlayStation and go do something.  Mae is the problem  She gets into everything and is always interested in what I am doing and how she can disrupt it.  Here's the rub, people are always offering to watch Max for me.  It is super nice, but not really needed.  What I need is time away from her.  No one really wants an extra two year old no matter how much of a cutie pie bubble she is.  Oh well.  I suppose that if nothing else, atleast Max is getting some good playdate time.

Rise and Shout!

I'll be honest, I am not a sports fan.  I do enjoy college sports, but not enough to really care.  For some unknown reason I cannot stand professional sports.  Something about the amateur sports makes me care a little more, like I could know these people and therefore root for them.  I may not be a big sports fan but I do love my Alma mater.  I love BYU.  Those were some of the best years of my little life.  The campus is like my home.  I remember going to the campus when I was younger then Max and my dad was finishing up his degree, (with the old school cougar eat that had all the flags.)  My mom would often take us to the bookstore.  Then when we moved back to Provo when I was in high school, I would have to cut across campus walking home from school, (around the giant hole that was Library under construction.)  Krista and I would meet up after her classes sometimes.  (I love any memory of when Krista would hang with me.)  Going to BYU was an amazing experience.  I learned so much and met Jeff of course.  I even got to work at the Bookstore for so many years.  I had my favorite buildings; The WILK, the JSB, and buildings I hated; I actually had a class in the SFLC before it was torn down.  I had a class all the way up at the Harmon building, and surprisingly had many classes in the Clyde engineering building. I never lived on campus, but I lived so close that I was closer to campus then most on campus housing.  So I may not be a big Cougar fan, but I have school spirit.

(And like I tell those annoying students who call me up once a month asking for money I will donate when I don't have two mortgages!  I have learned to avoid any call from 801-422.)  If I ever win the big powerball, you know the 300+ million dollar one, I want to donate enough to build a building and I would have them call it the Jeanne Cox Tobler building after my mom who got her Bachelor of Fine Arts there.  Cause my mom is awesome, instilled in me the importance of getting an education, and cause there aren't enough buildings named after women on the campus.

Thanks to my wonderful sister in law Sarah for sending us the spirit wear.  Mae has a shirt also, but we can't seem to get all three in a shot together.

Soccer Mom Barbie

I hate soccer.  Max is playing soccer again this year because I thought it would be more organized then last year.  This year Max was old enough to be on a team and actually play "games."  Kinda- they play three on three and don't have goalies.  I am fine with that, but I object to the fact that they only had two practices before they started playing games and only play games now.  Max had NO time to learn any fundamentals.  I think he would be more inclined to join in if he knew what to do.  The team is therefore dominated by the kids who have older siblings to teach and play with them.  So yeah, I could teach him myself, even though I don't know how to play soccer, I suppose I could you-tube it.  The problem lies in when.  When am I going to fit this in.  I am already stressed trying take care of the other two, clean house, cook dinner, pay bills, teach Max to read, reclaim my yard from the weeds.  I just can't fit in soccer practice.  You would think that would be what his SOCCER team is for.

Oh man I had a whole paragraph here about how all the mom's on the team are soccer mom barbies.  The ladies with designer sunglasses, perfectly coifed pony tails and 2 percent body fat, but it would seem that Mae has managed to delete the whole thing and I am waaaay to tired to go into it again.  Let me just say that I have a feeling that I am the standard that they all hold themselves above.  Thinking things such as, "Man, if i ever come to my kids soccer game without my mascara on or in flip flops I will have failed as a mother. "  I would be fine if there was just one other mom on the team who wasn't styled to within an inch of her life.

Above are the treats I made for them team tonight.  I got the idea from pinterest.  (The most evil and addicting site on the internet.)

Le Chic

Loving putting Spike in old Max outfits.  I imagine that the payoff is even greater considering what a pain it was to store the clothes for five years.  Today with all the rainy weather I decided to break out a cooler outfit of Max's.  I have no idea where it was purchased, I think it might have been a hand me down from Lu, (although I have a hard time imagining Liesl wearing it.)  I love this outfit cause it looks so snooty.  Something about the mock turtleneck and the french, (I think it is french,) makes it look like the baby wearing it is looking down on everyone else in a pseudo-intellectual way.  All morning long I have been narrating Spike actions and responses in a really bad french accent.  Such as, "I am enjoying this bottle but am going to spit it up on you inferior fat American."   (Do you see what I mean when I post that I have been too lonely lately.  Someone needs to call or stop by so that I stop narrating my kids.)  The outfit also looks a little bit like the outfit that Marlon Brando wore in the Superman movies.  The funny thing is that despite the fairly negative connections, the outfit is still a winner cause it is a super snuggly and soft material.  So when my little Frenchman starts getting all worked up I just squeeze him a little more til he surrenders, (very French of him.)

Cause I didn't want to go to the store...

I went to my friend Meg's house.  Meg has chickens.  All I was missing from this evenings dinner was eggs.  I much prefer dragging my three whiny kids to go play on Meg's swing set, then dragging them into Walmart.  If only she had cows too.  Above is the result.  Who doesn't love Chocolate Chip Pancakes.  Yup, we eat healthy here.

Reflux Redux

Poor Spike.  The guy is following in the steps of his big brother with a bad case of acid reflux.  I am not exactly sure when Max's reflux began, but I vaguely remember it starting soon after he was born.  Coming this far with few problem from Spike we thought we were in the clear, but it has become obvious that he has it too.  He has spent the past few weeks with a constantly wet collar.  He does seem to be better tempered about it then Max, so I imagine that his is not as bad a case as Max's.  I must change his outfit at least six times a day, I should probably just give up and have him wear a bib 24/7 like Max did.  I just hate bibs, they are like my glasses, you get all dressed up and satisfied with the way you look then you have to add the bib/glasses and ruin everything. Luckily with Max it lessened with age.  It got better at 4 months when he started solids, 6 months when he was sitting up, and was all but gone by 12 months.  We are down by three months already with Spike.  I guess I can do a month of bibs.