Why you should never ever go into a store bathroom with three kids by yourself...

I know it's a long title and yes this is going to be another long post. Just remember that I warned you.

Several weeks ago, I had to stop at the good ole "Wal-marts" as everyone calls it here. We needed some diapers, and needless to say Madilyn smelled yucky and both of the boys needed to go to the bathroom. I had just walked in, grabbed an empty cart, drove up to the bathroom, parked the cart in front, and hauled all three kids into the bathroom. I pulled down the diaper changing table and then proceeded to get the boys in the stall so that they could go potty. I noticed there was someone in the handicap stall, so I stood outside our stall door so both boys could stand in the stall. There was no way all 4 of us could fit.
So, I'm talking to them for a few seconds..."Tyler you're such a big boy to go in the potty" and on and on. (Tyler was getting potty trained). As I'm standing there, this 6ft 4 bearded man walks in and stops, looks at me, and walks out. I started laughing and I was thinking what an idiot. David walks out of the stall and asks me what I'm laughing at.
Then, he says, "Mom, I don't want to go in here, I want to go over there."
I said, "You have to go in the toilet."
He's like, "No Mom, over there."
Then, I looked over, and I see them in their blazing white glory. There were two urinals on the other wall!! I grabbed David and ran outside really fast to look at the sign on the door. And yes, it was the men's bathroom. No big deal. I started laughing at myself, and Tyler comes running out. And this is where things get interesting. I look down and he has NO PANTS on.
I said, "Tyler, where are your pants?"
"In there." (pointing into the men's bathroom)
Then, I look down, and he has NO UNDERWEAR on either!!
"WHERE ARE YOUR UNDERWEAR?!?!?!"
We're standing right in the middle of the whole store, and one of my kids is completely indecent!! I was a bit embarrassed by this time. I pick him up, run back into the men's bathroom, grab the undies and pants, push up the changing table, grab the diaper bag, and run into the women's. The whole time, Tyler is pretty much bare bottomed. I guess we could have gotten in trouble for indecent exposure. And, the poor guy in the other stall was probably frightened to death and wouldn't come out!!


My poor children--their mother is losing her mind!! The things they go through. I'm just grateful that they're a still a little young.

Happy Sunday, everyone!!

Happy Independence Day!!

We've sure had a fun day today. We got up and hiked up to the top of the hill where daddy David was raking the hay with the tractor. We played in the dirt and watched David on the tractor. The boys were so funny. We then walked home via the creek. We went up and down though the massive drain-pipe several times. (I know it doesn't sound safe, but it's only a couple of inches deep.) I even let Madilyn stand in the water. She had the uncontrollable giggles--so funny. I love little baby giggles. Here are a couple of pictures of the kids after the hike.

I love these hats!! We made them at a fun library day last summer. I think the boys look so cute in them!

Here's a cute picture of Madilyn (at least I thought it was cute.) This was after the hike as well. She's standing on the other side of a very dirty glass door!!

Tonight, we went to a really fun community 4th of July celebration. They had two of those super big bouncy inflatables. One was a jumping inflatable and the other was this huge obstacle course. The boys loved it!! Tyler was so silly. He can scream louder than any girl. It's not just a scream--it's a shrill.

Afterwards, we went over to the town lawn where they had a band singing the best of Motown. The singers were actually quite good and we had fun dancing and just acting crazy. The favorite thing of the night though, was this guy who had all sorts of tricks--unicycling, juggling, fire eating, baton twirling, etc. I thought this part of the night was going to be lame, but the boys loved this guy. He was probably about 5 feet tall and he was quite the trickster. My kids wanted to follow him around all night.

And then, to top the night off, we watched fireworks. The radio announcers all week were saying this was, "One of the best fireworks displays on the East coast." I couldn't help but chuckle. When they said one of the best, I was thinking best in what? Best in 1,000, best in a 100,000?? Come on? This is Tazewell, VA. I guess we can all be one of the best at just about anything. :) Overall, the show was really good, though.

We had a great day and a great night. I'm thankful to live in this country. There are many things going on right now that I really dislike. But, I still think that this is one of the best places on earth to live.

Happy Independence Day!!! Let Freedom Ring! :) (I've had that song in my head all day...by Martina McBride. I even sang a phenomenal rendition to Jen on the phone tonight. You should all be jealous you missed that. COUGH!)

Sunny

This morning David #3 woke up and said, "Mom, today we're going to be happy because it's sunny outside." Made me laugh. Made my day!!!

Calf vs. Baby

One would think that apples to apples, it would take the same time for a calf to drink a bottle as a baby...

Tonight, David called from a Scouting campout to ask me to feed our calf, Dolly. My dad gave us this little calf after she lost her mother. They had to do an emergency c-section on the cow and they were able to save little Dolly.

When David called, it was already 9:00pm---DARK!!! I don't do so well by myself in the dark. I always manage to conjure up the worst possible scenario in my mind of how I'll meet my doomsday death in the dark. And tonight was not any different (we've also had a bear lurking around the house, so that doesn't help).

I mixed up Dolly's bottle and put a head-lamp on my head, and walked up to the barn. I kept turning my head 180 degrees every 30 seconds to see if I could see little beady eyes. Or even big bear egg eyes. Thankfully, I didn't see anything on the way up.

I got up to the barn, went down the middle aisle, and looked in the first stall. (David told me the calf was in the first stall.) I looked down and there were pigs. So I walked to the back stall, and something reached down and grabbed my head. I started freaking out. I was screaming like crazy. The dogs started barking and the pigs started making noises. I kept trying to turn the head lamp to see what was going on. My head kept getting smacked. FINALLY, I looked up and there were two birds FLOGGING me!!! It wasn't just a simple flog--I was getting double-teamed. I ran out of the middle of the barn screaming with my hands above my head. I kept thinking they were going to scratch my face with their feet, poo on my head, or I was going to get some sort of strange bird lice. Luckily, no damage done.

I went around to the side of the barn and found Dolly. I gave her the bottle and within about 50 seconds I could hear her gulping air. Amazing. I grabbed the bottle, closed the stall door, and walked as quickly as possible back to the house. (I walked for fear that if something was behind me and I ran, surely it would chase me). I know. I'm secretly a wimp.

And now, I must say...Thankfully, when it comes to calf verses baby, CALF IS THE WINNER. I don't think I could have handled more than 50 seconds.

Our little Over-Achiever

With baby #1, I read all of the week by week pregnancy and baby developmental guidelines on-line. I read tons of books on pregnancy and new baby. With baby #2, I looked at the books/Internet a couple of times--mostly when I was feeling extremely sick or baby was feeling sick. On Sunday, I opened my very first baby book for baby #3. I hope that baby #2 and #3 don't feel neglected. I'm definitely not a pro at mothering, but I guess with each baby I've become a bit more easy-going. It really has more to do with me than the kids. I'm not so up-tight and stressed because I feel a lot more comfortable with myself as a mom.

The reason I opened up the baby book for #3----We've decided that Madilyn is already an over-achiever. She's developing so fast. And, while I'm very excited for her accomplishments, I find myself sad that she's not the teeny tiny baby that she once was. Granted, she's still a baby; but, she's getting so mobile and she's developing her own little personality. I'm missing the "baby slug" stage, but I am enjoying the present moments that pass all too quickly.

Madilyn has been crawling for over 2 weeks now. On Saturday, while I was home with the kids cleaning up, Madilyn sat up all by herself on the rug. And then, on Sunday, I was sitting at the table talking with my mom. Madilyn squirmed over to the bottom of my chair, and WA-LA. She grabbed the chair slats at the bottom of the chair and pulled herself up into a standing position. STANDING? She just barely started crawling and she just sat the day before?? I have a feeling that next week she's going to be doing the triple jump or running sprints. ;)

I don't know if I'm ready yet for the fascination of toilet paper and toilets which has plagued all of my children. I don't know if I'm ready for the excitement of electrical outlets and pouring/dumping anything out of a container. However, I do know that I sure like this wee one! She's a keeper!

Cheese

Secret confession. I love cheese. It's a great weakness of mine. I found cheese in college. BYU gave me my husband, my education, and a love for cheese. Okay. Not really BYU. I guess my love for cheese came from my cute mother-in-law who piles two cups of cheese on a tortilla and microwaves it for a "cheese crisp." Delightful!!
My latest obsession is feta. I can eat it on anything and since it's a strong cheese I can eat just a little bit and feel healthy! HA! Anyway, I had no idea that there was such an assortment of cheese growing up. My mom only bought the Kraft American slices.
Here's the point. The only cheese I've had that I don't like is GOAT cheese. I can't stand it!! I've tried it in various settings and I find it absolutely disgusting. I always try it again thinking that it will taste like feta and I'll like it, but alas I never like goat cheese.

There are a couple of things I can't stand about goat cheese:
1. The taste/smell of goat cheese reminds me of a wet goat.
2. Goats are cute, but they really stink when wet.
3. My dad had goats when we were kids who were frightening. There was one little black billy goat who was seriously the devil. We'd run across the farm yard to get up in the barn loft to our clubhouse and the black billy goat would chase us head on. He had some little spiky horns, some wicked eyes, and needless to say I got rammed in the back side several times. All of us were afraid of him.
4. One time in high school, when I was feeding some animals on the farm, I heard my neighbor's goat bawling. The sound scared me, but I walked down to the fence to see what was going on and saw a little goat with his head stuck on the far fence. I hiked over the dividing fence and valiantly went over to save the bawling goat. (I think it was a trick.) I reached down and grabbed the goats head, twisted his horns, and set him free. Oh, did I mention that the fence was an electric fence? Just as I twisted his horns, I somehow got my head on the electric fence, and ZAP!!! I got completely electrocuted in my attempts to save the goat!! Also I do believe it was raining.
5. I've eaten goat. I know I shouldn't admit that, but it was quite traumatizing to me as a child.
6. I've had goat's milk. Let's just say this was a dare. It was raining outside. My softball team dared me to run over to the field and "milk" a goat. I did. It was disgusting. I haven't had goat's milk since.
Perhaps my issues with goat cheese, don't just stem from taste. Perhaps I've been deeply traumatized by goats throughout my life. Perhaps I shouldn't admit to so much all at once. Alas, I love cheese, but I abhor goat cheese. Sorry, Mr. Goat!

Happy Easter!!!

We've had an absolutely fantastic Easter weekend!! So much family fun time!! Highlights from this week and weekend:

• David #3 praying every time he says the prayer for the last two weeks for: 1. "Please bless Ella and Brycy and LeAnn and Jared to come visit" (he's been counting down every day for 2 weeks. He got up every morning and yelled, "Mom it's 3 days!!", etc until they came) 2. "Please bless we'll go to the swimming pool for being a big listener" 3. "Please bless that we'll do Easter on the ground" 4. "Please bless Jesus that he died for us." (I love his prayers. They're so sincere and cute and everything starts with "please bless".)
• Jen coming home on Friday evening.
• Going to the Easter egg hunt at Church with all of the little kids and getting to see 4 new baptisms that same day. What a great time to be baptized!! Quite tender!
• Taking the boys and Madilyn to the swimming pool. There's a new community center here and they have a really nice swimming pool with a kiddy section/beach. The kiddy section has a really large 2 foot pool with all sorts of fun kiddy water things in it--wave pool, sprayers, etc. and a water slide. Jen came along and the boys were just SO HAPPY!! They love going swimming and we always manage to go when Jen's around and she's such a good sport.
• Jared, LeAnn, Ella and Bryce coming in. Spending time chatting, playing, building puzzles, eating absurd amounts of food, coloring Easter eggs, kidtastrophes, yummy Easter dinner together with everyone, lots of Easter egg hunts with the kids (Grandpa hiding the eggs and all the kids looking for them), going to church together, enjoying the Easter sunshine, snuggling with Bryce, and Easter baskets for everyone. A funny moment: Mom set the mashed potatoes on the table today and Ella picked up the massive potato spoon and shoved the whole thing in her mouth and then put the spoon back in the bowl. Now if I did that, not cute. But Ella--cute.
• And the real highlight of Easter had to be tonight. We did an Easter activity with eggs and pictures all about the Savior. The boys really had a good time and I think David got several of the concepts. It was a nice way to finish up a fantastic weekend. Thanks, Valeri, for the ideas on the eggs. We'll use this for many years to come and it can be tweaked for all ages. :) http://valeriandersen.blogspot.com/2009/04/easter-story-egg-hunt.html

Hope you all had a great Easter!!