Happy Thoughts

It has been a cruel morning. I have a bad head ache and Mae has reigned destruction down upon this house. I have decided the only thing to do is an exercise in positive thinking. So the following are 5 reasons I love/ am grateful for Mae.

1. 
    She loves to brush her teeth and reminds us before nap and bed time.
2.  Although she rarely pays attention to Spike, when she does she is pretty sweet to him getting him blankets and wanting to feed him.
3.  She hasn't learned how to climb out of her crib...yet.
4.  She is good for everyone else. Babysitters, friends, and nursery leaders say she is a doll for them.
5.  She is still amazed by my whistling and tries to kiss me to steal the power for herself.

To: Me From: Mae

It was just what I wanted too, an excuse to mop the kitchen floor.   Thanks Mae! 

She did try to clean it up, and that resulted in a bath and opening up new jammies from Grandpa Larkin early this evening.  Happy Christmas Eve.

Santa Cow 2011

Good Intentions for Christmas

I have always thought that I should have a good intentions list on the side of my blog.  I am a firm believer that it is the thought that counts.  There are a bunch of people I would like to invite over for dinner, but never do.  Many people are on my pie list, and I want to volunteer at so many different locations.  Time will catch most of them I hope.  Christmas Cards are a funny thing.  I have a love/hate relationship with them.  Sometimes they are a great way to catch up with people you haven't seen in a long time, but if people aren't careful, they can come across as a brag sheet.  It is a fine line.  (So far so good this year.)  I don't usually send them cause I have my blog, but this year I broke the mold and sent 4.  Yup, I managed to write out 4 before I got distracted.  So if you aren't one of Jeff's siblings or my grandma I'm afraid you're out of luck.  But don't be too sad, I didn't get a picture included like I had the good intention of doing.  I wanted to take a picture of the whole family, but I'm fat.  I would have settled for the three kids, but Mae wouldn't cooperate, so you'll have to settle for Spike.  Hmmm that didn't come out right, Spike is awesome and totally able to carry a photo all by himself.  So here is our Christmas Card for my casual readers.

2011- the year of the Rabbit

Bunny years can only be good and ours was pretty great. 

January-  Blizzards and record snow for Arkansas this winter.
February-  Mae started nursery and for two hours a week someone else has to deal with her!
March-  lots of flu, ear infections and I made a lot of progress on my yard.
April-  Jeff and I got away to Branson without the kids for a day & just about everything in our car broke.  (Never buy a Mazda!)
May-  I actually went to Time Out for Women & got my girl power on.
June-  My parents visited to help with the arrival of Spike on the 30th
July-  Blessed Spike, painted the dining room purple & suffered record heat for Arkansas.
August-  Max missed the cut off for kindergarten, (yup still bitter,) but started a great preschool.
September-  Jeff visited his parents when his dad was diagnosed with Cancer.
October- Max played soccer & the kids all dressed up as Spiderman for Halloween
November-  I visited my parents with Spike & gathered signatures to fight the local school board.
December- Discovered the joy of using a leaf blower & have almost cleared the yard and lot.

General Notes
Jeff's team was reorganized and now he is in charge of all the internal email for Walmart.  His pager is so busy they only carry it one day a week.  It has been a difficult adjustment, but he likes his new boss and is getting a lot of recognition at work. 

I have worked really hard to regain control of our massive yard.  It has been a lot of hard work and it looks great.  I get discouraged but then remember that I have years to get it how I want it.

Max is happy to play video games and play outside.  He has switched from Star Wars to Spiderman, which was reflected in his Birthday Party this year.

Mae is adorable one minute and a total stinker the next.  She will draw on every surface with any item, and has it out for my deodorant stick.  She loves shoes and lipstick.

Spike gives the best grins of any baby I have ever seen.  He is so happy to see anyone who will pick him up. 

Sick Bay

Everyone is vomiting today. The only thing worse then being sick with the kids, is being less sick then Jeff with the kids. Grrr. But we will survive. Max and I are already on the rebound after last night. It was odd to be the only member of the family awake at noon today. Unfortunatly I had a sleeping baby boy in my arms, so I couldn't really leave the couch.
Some random thoughts....
     I am still not a big fan of the holidays. I thought that having kids would put me more in the spirit of things, but really all it does is put more of a stress on the situation. I am trying really hard to get in the Christmas spirit. I have even done the unthinkable and tried to listen to Christmas Music. All that has done is make me hate Maraih Carey and want to watch Love Actually; (and make me sad that we don't have cable so I can catch the edited version.) (On a side note to all my Utah readers, if you can get your hands on an edited version for me I would love to reinburse you with extra.)
     I do love our decorations though. I got some garlands on black friday at Lowes for 5 bucks and they have brought back the fresh pine smell to my house. I have even decorated the outside, something I swore I would never do.

It always seemed to me that it was a waste of time, effort, and money to decorate the outside since we don't go outside in the cold christmas season. I suppose it is the, "for everyone else," spirit of the season. Well this year I did it because my house was just screaming for decorations. I have a foot bridge up to my front door and if that doesn't demand lighted attention I don't know what does. (I only plug it in right before Jeff gets home from work though.)
     I don't love having a fairly busy street, (Riordan,)in my backyard, but I do adore that when you pull up that big hill and turn a slight corner the first thing you now see at night is the light from our livingroom Christmas Tree. One day I may even string lights up on the back of the house, (Jeff and I are thinking maybe a glowing zombie thing for Halloween.)
    My most favorite Christmas tradition is fairly new to me. Jeff's amazing Aunt Marty knits stockings for each new family member. Spike got his in the mail last week and it is perfect. These stocking could eaisly be my favorite thing about the Larkins even more then Jeff himself. On a side note I would like to give a special thanks to Marty for knitting Spike instead of Jeffrey, she double checked with Jeff last fall, and Jeff said she still seemed a little hesitant.

Now these girls are a bit of a puzzle for me. Jeff found them in the attic two years ago, and since I have no way of contacting the old owners of the house, I am stuck with them. The thing is I am not sure what to do with them. It seems like there should be a whole nativity right? Just two angels seems a bit unfinished. So here they sit waiting for inspiration, but atleast they made it out of the garage this year.

I am on the constant look out for the perfect advent calendar. The perfect one in my mind was my grandmothers. It may be the only Christmas tradtion from my childhood I remember and miss. It was a wooden tree that you added an ornament to each day. I really need to scour more craft fairs to find one, but then I would have to go to craft fairs. A friend suggested making one, but you all know how my DIY projects turn out. (By the way if you were wondering, yes, the mailbox is still messed up.)

I hate it when Christmas is on a Sunday cause then not only is everthing closed, but then even the stuff that would be open you can't go to cause it's Sunday. Then to add insult to injury the shorten church-the one time to get it. Effectivly it the LONGEST DAY EVER! Grrr..

My Point Exactly

Elf on a Shelf Must Go!

My To-Do List

So the same item has been on my to-do list for the last month and a half;

 1. Take pictures of the kids in their Halloween Costumes.  

Yes, I should have done it on Halloween or at one of the many parties we attended, but it never worked out.  There were either battery problems, or Mae was a total crab.  The costumes were pretty adorable if I do say so myself.  Max wanted to be Spiderman and when we were discussing costume options for Mae he suggested she be Spiderman also.  I asked him several times and he was sure he wanted her to be Spiderman.   As luck would have it about a week before the first of the parties they had a girl Spiderman costume at the Associate Store in Mae's size.  You can't say no to half price.  Max's costume I got from a new lady in the ward.  I didn't know it at the time but she actually went to high school with Jeff.  Small Mormon world.  I saw Spike's costume in September and paid full price cause it was just way too cute.  I mean come on, a blue crayon.  We attended preschool parties, the Walmart Candy-a-thon, which was a bit different this year cause they were hoping no one would notice that they cut the company picnic if they threw in a few funnel cakes with the Halloween party.  Nope, I noticed, but the funnel cakes were good.  I skipped the ward party cause my ward is mentally retarded when it comes to scheduling and set the trunk or treat for the same day as the elementary school carnival therefore deciding to make it super late at night.  (I could do a whole blog post about the stupid scheduling decisions my ward makes.)    We did take the kids to a few houses in the neighborhood and I used the time to get my neighbors to sign a petition against the school board.  (post about this to come later.)  All in all it was a busy time.  We ate a lot of candy and had a lot of fun, we just didn't properly document it, until now.

P.S.  Spell check does not accept Spiderman as one word but does accept Superman as one word.  What's up with that?

Things That Must Go XVI

1.  Jeff's drawer o' cords.  I think the above picture speaks for itself.

2.  Elf On a Shelf.  It is not cute it is creepy!  They have a word for that and it is called peeping and is illegal in most states.  And even more creepy then the whole concept of someone watching you is the actual ugly doll that accompanies the book.

3.  Keep Calm and ... Now don't get me wrong I am all about the original WWII message of Keep Calm and Carry On, and the idea of persevering through tough times, but it is now popularized and twisted to fit so many different ideas and most of them stupid.  It is so over used in crafts that I have to be a hater and say that it belittles the sacrifice and struggle of the British people during WWII.

4.  Entitlement.  Not the idea, the word.  I am so sick and tired of people complaining about how entitled my generation feels.  They throw around this new buzz word to diminish younger people who are brave enough to stand up and say something is wrong with the world.  Now are there some people who are spoiled and idiotic? You bet.  But reducing all of us to our lowliest stereotype is lazy and demeaning.  Every generation feels they had it harder then the ones who come after them, "When I was a kid I walked ten miles to school, in the snow, uphill both ways."  Everyone has their own trials, Heavenly Father has made sure of that, but while youth has the disadvantage of solving new problems, i.e. the digital age, they also have the advantage of learning from the past.  I could do a whole series of posts about Occupy Wall Street and how I support the basic ideas behind it, but I won't because I try to keep my blog clear of politics. ( Mostly because I know that I am greatly separated on the political spectrum from most of my readers.) I just want everyone to think about the people you know in their 20's and 30's, those out in the mission field right now, and really ask yourselves if those people seem extraordinarily entitled to you.

Mae is Alive

With the lapse in blog posts, I recently sent my parents this picture of the boys in matching jammies.

My parents mentioned that they were a bit worried by the combination of Mae not being in the shot and my recent comments regarding my frustration with her. I have therefore supplied the following photo.

As you can see from the photo it is today's paper. So there, no worries.

 Bunny is also alive.  Well one of them is.

 At first glance it would appear that Jeff is under attack.

 But upon further inspection you can see he is protecting something.

I have a lot to say

but it just isn't gonna happen.  I am not sure when I am gonna get on here again.  I have enjoyed blogging a lot over the past few years, but in the last few weeks it has felt like a nasty chore.  It doesn't help that I have to switch over to Google Chrome to get it to interface correctly with my laptop.  But a few thoughts to help you through the dry spell.

I went to visit my parents in Colorado last week.  It was good to see them and even better to get away from Mae.  I didn't take any pictures cause my mom was all funny about me putting them up on the blog.  Which is kinda sad cause her house is the most lovely place I have ever been in.  There is not a more warm, comfy and yet totally stylish place.  The whole house could be pinned on pinterest.

Except the fire alarm that beeped every two minuets.  I can't even say anymore about it cause it was so awful.

It was brilliant seeing my parent's store.  I had never been there and so had very little idea what to expect.  Well I was blown away by my parents success.  The place is styled wonderfully and is so inviting for a furniture store.  It has lots of little rooms which is nice, I hate the overwhelming box feeling of most furniture stores.  My mom has truly found her calling in life.  Everything has her touch of class and exceptional taste.

Scottsbluff, Nebraska, where my parents store is, was pretty enough; but the whole time I must confess I was thinking, "Thank you Heavenly Father for moving them here after I left the nest!"  Middle of nowhere does not begin to describe that place.

I got to drive the Tractor and use a pitch fork!  It actually felt so amazing to work on the farm.  Doing that physical labor and knowing how important it was made the experience very rewarding.  I can see why they love it.

And I have more but Spike is fussing.  So I may not be back on here for awhile.  I still haven't taken pictures of the kids in their Halloween costumes.  Yeah.....

Baby's First

Laugh and Spanking.  Monday was a day of big firsts for us here.  Spike laughed for the first time and it was a three minute joy fest.  Mae got her first spanking which was less fun for everyone involved.  So Mae is a typical two year old who wants to get into absoutly everything.  She has been a bit preoccupied with the toilet of late, not in a good potty training way, but in a "Hey, free available water," kind of way.  She received a little singing tea pot and cups for her birthday and has loved them and played well with them.  She feels that her imagination is lacking and therefore needs real water.  When not given tap water she was forced to see other alternatives.  Now I have told her on several other occasions to stay out of the toilet and actually had to fish a drinking cup out of the toilet earlier that morning.  She was put in her room.  Later that morning while I was feeding Spike I did notice it was a bit quiet.  A bit too quiet.  Then I heard the dreaded fall of the toilet lid.  No need to rush to the scene for the culprit came running out dripping from head to toe across the house and into her room spilling a toy tea cup of toilet water along the way.  I put Spike down and went to investigate.  Yup she was covered, and in the act of changing her I became covered also.  Then slowely creeping into the crime scence I saw bunny, beloved bunny, drowned in the toilet, May he RIP.  After extracting the body from the toilet I noticed that all that was left in the bowl was about a cup of water.

Now as for my spanking policy, I do not like spanking.  In most cases where I observe it I tend to think it is not the best option at the time.  I imagine that the number of time I was spanked in my life is less then ten.  My parents used it sparingly.  More as a final limit of punishment for extremely bad behavior.  Max in his five years has been spanked a total of once.  (Partly I am sure because he is a really great kid.)  Max was spanked because he blatently ignored me and ran into heavy traffic!  I felt it was a matter of safety.  I felt that in the moment it emphasized the danger of the situation and the importance of not ignoring my warnings.  So while Mae was not in immediate danger, I think we can all agree that this was a situation that could not be allowed to happen again, Max is not exactly stellar at flushing.  I could child proof the toliet or bathroom door but then Max couldn't get in.  Will spanking stop her from drinking more toilet water, well only time will tell.  Hopefully I haven't given her a severe negative association with the toilet, that could be awkward come potty training time.  I would also like to point out that later while pondering the moral implications of my actions, Highway to Hell came on the radio.

And now for happy news.  Spike laughed!  I have mentioned a few times that lately I have questioned my decision to have Spike and Mae so close in age.  I thought it was a mistake to not wait til Mae was more manageable.  Well I take it back.  Spike is a gift from Heavenly Father.  He always knows when to grin and be loveable.  I had just finished changing him when he turned his head and saw Max playing video games.  Now Max playing the Playstation is pretty funny.  He plays running and jumping along with his avatar.  He never sits down while playing.  Spike laughed for a good three min at the spectacle.

Treasure Box

Mae and Spike have been awful this past week.  Mae is two and Spike has a cold.  It has been a really rough time.  Mae is in that lovely little girl stage where she likes to practice screaming for no reason other then to practice for future use.  My trip to the compound cannot come fast enough.  On the bright side Max has been great.  Hooray for Preschool.  (I try not to imagine how awesome life would be if he were in Kindergarten.)  At his Preschool Halloween party on Tuesday he had the opportunity to pick an item out of the treasure box.  Instead of a toy or candy he picked out a little notebook with flowers on it and told his teacher that his mom would like it.  HEART MELT.  His siblings can thank him for this later in their memoirs.  "It was on that early Halloween day that my big brother Max prevented my mother from driving the car into a ditch."

Max Had the Camera in the Car

 I love that this is Max's forward view.  I took the head off Spikes seat so they could bond.

He also had another 10 or so 360 degree shots of Batman and about 20 or so shots so out of focus I have no idea what they were of.

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.

Pumpkin Patch 2011

I love that we have gone to the same pumpkin patch for four years now.  Four Years!  Adulthood has been so consistent and stable; I love having traditions.  That being said, this wasn't our best year.  Despite going after her nap, Mae wasn't all to cheery.  I think next year she will be better and we will have some real fun.