I choose sanity

Today I kept choosing not to lose my mind. I decided it was a choice and I decide to stay sane. I chose to stay sane when my 2 month old would not take a nap. I chose to stay sane when my 2 year old wiped his giant sucker all over the love seat and chair. I chose to stay sane when my baby cried and cried without reason. I chose to stay sane even after I ate a granola bar and hated myself for it. I chose to stay sane when I thought about how much my chub was glooping over the sides of my shorts. I chose to stay sane while Taylor watched episode after episode of Merlin on Hulu and Cagey played video games for 2 hours or more- I think I blacked out at some point. I chose to stay sane when Ezra repeatedly said "I want, I want, I want, I want," the whole time I was trying to get a our nutritious meal of hotdogs on the table. I chose to stay sane when Taylor showed up with red drink mix powder all over her shirt and the kitchen floor. And, I chose to stay sane when my baby didn't finally fall asleep for good until 11:20 or so. So, I choose sanity- today...yay me.

Yesterday I felt like Shrek when that little boy keeps telling him, "Do the ROAR!" and I think I eventually roared.

My name is Vanessa, my dog's name is Percy

This is the view out of my bedroom window. See those pretty zinnias? (that's a flower, Page) My next door neighbor plants them for me. Yesterday I was out pulling weeds and she stopped for a minute to ask about my Meny and yada yada. After she pulled away I asked the kids to come out and help me and of course my dang jerk of a dog thought he'd take that opportunity to head for the hills. I was so hot and tired I figured I'd let him just go. When I had enough sweat in my shirt I could wring it out I went inside to cool off and feed the baby. I sat inside enjoying the a/c and then finished whatever things I had left to do inside. Cagey asked for Schlotzsky's and I figured if he had enough money for it I would go get it for him. The kids all brought me their money and I loaded Ezra and Meny up in the car. We went through the drive thru, picked up the 3 kid's meals and headed back home. I pulled in the driveway and I see my neighbor has just pulled back into hers. As I get out she yells to me "Hey Val, did you lose Wally?" I had to process that for a second and just said, "Oh yeah," and looked behind me to see another neighbor bringing little "Wally" up the driveway. He had been out that whole time and my neighbor thinks my name is Valerie. I've never had the heart to correct her because she's asked Jeebs at least twice what my name is. Oh well, she writes novels so maybe she'll base a character on me in one of her books and her name will be "Vanessa". Incidentally, another lady at church calls me "Natalie" and another sister I visit teach thinks my name is "Lacy". Unforgettable, is what I'm not.

Mook matches my bedroom

We had to show our house today- the people were in and out in 6 minutes...not a good sign. Anyway, our bedroom was nice and clean and Meny made a perfect addition to my throw pillows.Then I thought I'd try to recreate the cutest baby picture I saw in a little shop downtown. It was a baby hanging in a netted fishing bag. This was the best I could do with my little piece of net.

Fake laughs

(Meny in another cute outfit on her blanket made by my momma)
Do you have one? I have a pretty good one, but poor Jeebs, his is hilarious. I can always tell when Jeebs is talking to a woman from work that thinks they are so hilarious because he'll give his "I'm trying to be nice and laugh at your non-funny comment that apparently you think is so funny" laugh. I always have to laugh at his courtesy laughs. He thinks so few people are genuinely funny- he says he thinks I'm funny, but I know better. I know his laughs.

Hey Catnip

(Mooky looking cute in her basket and sporting her cute onesie her Grandma Nicolaysen sent)

I finally got with it and bought the Hunger Games. I bought it Monday and finished it on Tuesday, then got the second book on Wednesday and finished it today. I immediately went and got the 3rd book. I haven't started it, but I am hooked. Good story- love it.

Cagey's day

My little Ragin' Cajun is 6 today. We started his day with a trip out for breakfast at Sea Glass Cafe. He wanted to go for their huge waffles...and he filled every hole with maple syrup. He only ate half of it, Ezra devoured the other half. Ezra also ate the other half of my wrap (note to self: do not order Ezra his own food)

Yesterday the kids and I made all the birds and piggies for Cagey's angry birds cake. It turned out pretty dang cute. It's all in the eyebrows. After lunch Cagey got a surprise balloon bouquet from Grandy-ma, complete with a bag of starbursts Cagey said were just to weigh them down.

Cagey got a new PS3 game and a new track he's been wanting. He's playing the game as we speak and the track is sitting by itself in the middle of the living room floor. Oh and a bottle of chocolate syrup for chocolate milk- he's already had 3 glasses. We finished the night with 5$ Little Caesar's pizza and bowling. Cagey loves bowling- by the end of the game everybody had either pitched a fit or was in the process of pitching a fit except for poor Cagey. Of course there was his angry birds cake. Cagey and his games!I hope he enjoyed his day of not having to get clothes out of the dryer because it's all over tomorrow hehehe.I bowled with Meny in the Moby and I got 2 spares! woohoo!

Poor daddy

I'm just curious as to how my kids see the world. Not even "the" world, but their world more specifically. At dinner time Meny has an internal clock that says, "time to scream my head off because I smell something that doesn't smell like what I'm getting." (or something to that effect) So, almost every dinner I sit at the table, the baby propped precariously on one knee, foot propped on something else so I can raise the baby enough to the exposed feed bag so she can eat while we're eating. I've already made the meal, usually put it all out on the table, set the table and everybody just has to come in, serve themselves and eat the slop. A couple of nights ago I made my most excellent homemade flour tortillas and greek style hamburger meat- complete with all the toppings to make gyros. (it sounds weird, but homemade pita bread required a 500 degree oven and that ain't happening) I get everything and everybody settled and the mooks starts her little song. Since I was already eating and he had not yet sat down Jeebs scooped her up and tried to soothe her. She wasn't having it so he slipped outside into the heat because that's where she likes it. As soon as he closed the door Taylor pipes up with, "poor daddy."

Today we sit down to eat. Jeebs had put some chicken and bbq sauce in the crockpot- one of Taylor's favorite things. He made rice and heated up frozen corn and rolls to go with it. He seems to always make Sunday lunch because he has more time in the morning to throw something in the crockpot or I usually have to sit down and nurse a baby directly after church and nobody wants to wait for that. Soooooo, after everyone had filled their plates and the prayer had been said, he got a "thank you daddy" from Taylor and Cagey. I didn't pay much attention (because I wasn't sure what they had thanked him for) until Taylor says, " isn't anybody going to thank daddy for this delicious meal?" Somebody knife me...please. Oh and Jeebs, thank you for that wonderful meal.

ps I really am grateful to Jeebs for his Sunday dinners

I tried and I tired hehehe

Meny mook looks so cute in her new gymbo outfit complete with red bow stuck on her head with karo syrup. She was not happy about it though. I tried and Tates was a good sport to pose with her screaming little sister. I forgot how fun dressing and accessorizing little girls is. Tates does not let me accessorize her.

Dollarsssssssss

Cagey lost his first tooth the other night and in true Cagey form he just popped it out and calmly said, "my tooth came out." Also in true Cagey form after examining the hole in his gum I could see his permanent tooth already peeking through behind the tooth next to the newly lost tooth. I guess he'll be losing another one very soon. He kept talking about the tooth fairy bringing him "dollarssss" and slurring his s through his newly made hole. Then he asked "Wouldn't it be cool if I had a thousand teeth and they all fell out at once and the tooth fairy had to bring me a thousand dollarsssss?" Yes, Cagey it would be nice.

Baby's super closeup

courtesy of Ezra. Every once in a while there are some gems on the memory card waiting for me.

pink petal dress

Over six years ago when I was pregnant with Cagey I found this dress on sale at Gymboree in Provo. I didn't know if I was having a boy or girl, but it was so cute I couldn't pass it up. They had the little hat that matched as well, but it is still way too big. I bought the socks, but there were no shoes in a new born size so my mom got online and ordered both a 00 and 01 size shoe. Obviously, my baby, Cagey, turned out to be a boy so I packed it away with other baby clothes. We moved to North Carolina and 3 years later I was pregnant again with a baby due in the spring. I dug this little dress out complete with hat, socks and both pairs of shoes and ended up having to put it back away. Now, six years later I finally got to put it on my baby!! I was so excited and she got so many compliments on her little dress and shoes. The shoes, you must look at the shoes. They look like shoes Thumbelina would wear. This outfit just makes me so happy. I can't wait for the hat to fit as well, she'll probably be 5 years old.
The outtakes, Mooks was tired and I was making fun of her. She actually looks a lot like me before church on Sundays.

What we're doing

We're pretty boring around here these days. We still haven't gotten into a routine and I let the kids play with the camera way too much. I did, however, get up and workout for the first time in 8 weeks and I am feeling it today. After working out I took the kids to Jacksonville (45 min away) to Sam's club. It wasn't near the disaster I thought it would be. We packed a lunch and sat at a park we had never gone to before to eat our lunch. As we ate (in the car, it was 92 degrees) the kids were looking at the playground saying they wanted to do this and that and "can we go play yet?" We finally got done, baby nursed, changed and wrapped up snug in her Moby. After 10 minutes of playing they were ready to go. I tried.

There was a trail at the park and after threatening to take away video games Cagey finally got out of the car. Taylor was all about it until she saw the "Beware of snakes" sign. She kept grabbing Ezra and yelling at him to "get away from the woods!" After 5 minutes of walking in the heat I decided to turn around and then we heard thunder. Awesome. We made it back to the car and back home...where I feel like staying forever.

Fireworks in your face

I spent the whole night before the fourth smelling brisket tenderizing in the oven. I even half woke up to switch the baby from one side to the other and said to Jeebs, "that brisket smells so good." Yes, I love brisket, I need another one all to myself. We put Meny down for her nap around 10:30 and everybody headed outside. Jeebs set up an awesome baby monitor by skyping his cell phone through to his computer. So we could hear every sound she made and and see her little head in her crib. We don't do baby monitors, it's just another one of those things that I ask Jeebs if he can rig something up and he does. We spent a couple of hours outside in the pool and Taylor said it was the best 4th of July ever. (Five minutes later she was crying because she couldn't go under the water with her earache.)

After our ultimate nap time FAIL we headed over to the McCollom's house. After we stuffed our faces with some dang good food we had our own firework show in their backyard. I'm just gonna say, I've never seen an artillery shell explode at eye level. Scary. But, we had a blast and no one caught fire. (Ezra did not like the fireworks.)
Jeebs was taking pictures with his phone in one hand and Ezra in the other. We were too lazy (again) to get the big camera out.

Even babies take bad pictures

Meny is not yet a daddy's girl, but she will be. They all eventually turn to the dark side. (jk Jeebs,)
Ezra was so sweet today-he kept throwing his arms around my head and saying "love you, bye bye". I guess bye bye comes after love you.

I have been missing my sister so much lately. I was sitting on my front porch with Ezra the other night thinking about how we used to watch Summer Magic every summer. I wanted to start singing "Summer magic, that..." and then I couldn't remember the words because we always fast forwarded over that song. It was so slow and boring. I know my sister was with me during Ezra's birth and Kilmeny's (Cagey's too for that matter). I just wish they could grow up knowing their Aunt Yang, hearing her laugh, and enjoying all the creativity and fun she brought with her everywhere she went. I miss talking and laughing with my sister. We used to have such good times sharing a room. We would laugh and laugh about those fatty and skinny jokes. Do you remember those? "Fatty and skinny were in the bed, fatty rolled over and skinny was dead." We would make up our own, "Fatty and skinny were in the car, skinny fell out because fatty left the door ajar."

Growing

My baby is definitely growing...maybe not as fast as the boys that came out riding tricycles and turned into moose 2 weeks after they were born, but she's growing. She is a night owl- these were taken at about 11 last night. She likes to sleep in, but none of her siblings do. She was up until about 12:30 and then the kids were up at 7 or at least that's the first time I heard them. Ezra goes to screaming "DADDY", at the top of his lungs and he has started refusing to let anybody but daddy get him out of his crib. Ezra is definitely a mess. Taylor is a sleepwalker. She got up around 11:30 and came into the living room with nothing to say. She wasn't feeling very well and went to bed early, 3 hours later she comes in with her lips pooched out and looking crazy. Jeebs ushered her back to bed and in the morning she had no recollection of the event. Cagey went from sick to his stomach yesterday with face in a bowl- to running back to his
bedroom to grab a car to race around in the bowl. These kids are crazy.

Sleeping in

(This picture makes me sleepy)

Meny loves to sleep in. It's a good thing because I will eventually be up early getting my walk/run/workout on. Eventually. I have been waiting and waiting to be able to workout again and now the time has come and now I'm just tired. blagh. I want Olive Garden.