A kinda lame update

I haven't updated in a while. Nothing that exciting is happening. Here's the latest:

1. Hudson is sleeping through the night. 9pm-7am. It did not take 3 nights of crying it out... it took 10. What finally made me do it was I was talking to this lady at school and she said her 4 year old was just like Hudson... woke every 2 hours and she nursed him back to sleep every time. (This is what I was doing 10 days ago.) She said, "You know, he still doesn't sleep through the night." Uh... DANGER! DANGER! What?!!! Suddenly I knew I couldn't take 4 years of this. That night I put a fan on in his room and closed his door, and closed my door... and I haven't been in once. He is now sleeping all night with no crying. His daytime naps have gone from 30 minute cat naps to 2-3 hour naps with no crying. Yippie!

2. Jack is enjoying kindergarten and has the exciting Kindy 500 coming up. We have to design a cardboard car for him to walk around in. They are going to "visit" famous landmarks in the U.S. (The Statue of Liberty, etc.) Jack recently was moved up a level in tumbling and was VERY excited. I didn't think it was time to remind him that we are going to take a tumbling break for the summer (and hopefully not start again in the fall). Jack has also started playing soccer. He is a million times better this season and almost scored 3 goals in the first game. Last season he was a parallel player. This season he's in there... all the time.

3. Tristan is ready for 2nd grade to be over. He is in Cub Scouts and we recently had the Pinewood Derby. Tristan took home 3rd place. He was really excited. He already has plans for next year's car. He's also still doing tumbling. Again we are going to take a break and I'm hoping we don't start again in the fall. He also just started baseball. It's machine pitch and he's surprisingly good this year. I say surprisingly because we did T-ball before and it wasn't his thing. Maybe he's just grown into his own body. He is the best hitter on the team and has gotten good at catching the ball too.

4. I've been practicing for a 60 mile bike ride that I signed up for. There's a lack of time to ride outside (bad weather and Brian has to be home to babysit) so I'm not sure how I'll do. I'm really glad it's Spring. It's beautiful outside. The hills across from our house are all green. The mountains are snow-capped in the background. It really looks like we're in Switzerland or something. Only a few of my bulb flowers have bloomed already and the others are almost ready. The kids planted seeds with mom when she came and they're ready to be planted outside, but I don't want to yet. It's supposed to snow 3 days this week. Local advice says don't plant your garden until Mother's Day... so maybe we were early with the seeds.

5. Brian has is National Practical Paramedic test today. I'm sure he'll do well. He spends all of his time studying. He still has 2 more months of clinicals left to do. He has a written test at the end of June and testing for a job coming up soon. He and I have been busy cleaning up the yard after a long winter... raking... seeding... tons of dog poop.

The kids are out of school on the 27th of May. We'll be doing swimming lessons for Jack and looking forward to our June vacation to California. We'd also like to take the kids to Yellowstone to see Old Faithful and the stinky sulfur pots this summer.

Easter

I made these. They turned out cute.
Pre-race....

Tristan's actually in the picture. He's all bundled up... 5 points to whomever can locate him.



We went yesterday to the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. Since there was very little "hunting" we're going to call it the Easter Egg Race next year. It was cold... obviously. Four days ago the last of the snow melted off of my front lawn. I saw my tulips peaking up.... now... there is a foot of new snow out there. blast.

Sweet Sweatband

We went to Target and I let the boys pick something out of the $1 bins. Jack picked a sweatband and some socks with baseballs and basketballs on them. He feels like the sweatband and the socks make him look more athletic. He even asked Brian if Brian wanted to wear the sweatband to workout at the fire department. I tried to push this, but he declined.

Note several things about the video: First,it was completely spur-of-the-moment. Second, the dog is also racing. Third, the baby is just happy to be along for the ride.

The Roaming Gnome

We didn't pull him on a sled, we just posed him there for several reasons: Our arms were tired of holding him and we wanted to take pictures of him. Notice his sweet gloves and shoes. He did have a heavy, one-piece footie pajamas under the socks.
Looks warm, huh? Jack and Tristan are in the front and I'm holding Hudson. Brian is the tallest... duh.

Jack preferred to ride, than be towed. He's turned around so he can be the lookout.
The kids spent hours playing cards. (We're missing the boy that's Tristan's age from this pic)
Tristan's catch at the fishing pond.

A scout, a baby, a war and a dog whisperer

This is one of Tristan's Lego Mindstorm creations. In the end it was a "shooterbot" that shot different color balls out. He builds and programs it. Sometimes it reacts to a certain color or movement.

This is the Blue and Gold dinner. Tristan is getting his Bobcat. I'm a blur.

He's mobile! He is SO CUTE right now. I wish I could bottle it up.





Seriously? Look at him!
He crawls under the table and gets stuck... several times a day.

He also loves the dogs and crawls over and pulls their hair. They just tolerate it.

Dog Whisperer and future Vet... but only if they get lunch breaks.

"Mom take my picture again with Cedar... and again..." I didn't post all of them.

The prize the war is being fought over.

In one corner... Cedar the Dog.... and in another corner....
Babyzilla!!!

If Hudson has the babydoll, Cedar sneaks over and quietly takes it out of his hands and takes it back to her bed. If Cedar has it, Hudson crawls over and takes it off the bed and crawls away as fast as he can... over and over.


Mmm... smoothies.

Yummy Buttermilk Syrup

We had french toast at the cabin this past weekend and our friends served it with buttermilk syrup, fresh strawberries and whipped cream. Even Tristan gave it two thumbs up. It was delicious!

Here's how to make it:

1 1/2 c. white sugar
3/4 c. buttermilk (I didn't have any on hand so I put 1T of lemon juice (or white vinegar) in 1c. of milk. Let it sit for 5 min.)
1/2 c. butter
2T corn syrup
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla

bring all ingredients to boil (except vanilla) and boil for 7 min. This stuff expands A LOT so make it in a ridiculously large pot. After 7 min, take off heat and add vanilla. Let it cool a bit and enjoy!

We had it on crepes tonight for dinner.

Weekend away

View Weekend trip in a larger map


We had friends ask us to go away with them to their cabin for the weekend. This is a map of where we were. The marker at the top left is where their cabin is. On Saturday morning we drove up, past the lake, to where they don't plow the roads anymore. We then drove snowmobiles up to the second marker. The second marker is where the pioneers first glimpsed the Salt Lake Valley. Even I drove a snowmobile. I was nervous, but it was easy. We pulled the kids on sleds and Brian held Hudson. I forgot my camera, but the other mom took pictures. I'll post them when I get them. I don't even know where we got Hudson's snowsuit, but it wasn't purchased in the last 20 years, that's for sure. It's bright blue with a pointy hat. He looks like the roaming gnome.

On Friday night everyone went night skiing. We went to this tiny resort that was super cheap. Everyone skied except for me and Hudson. I spent the 2 hours sitting in a barn-shaped building with gross floors, sitting on a plastic chair, with no arm rests, holding Hudson, and watching the basketball game on mute. Yeah... I had no cell service. My arms were super sore.

We had a great time. The kids spent the weekend playing all the games I used to play as a kid before non-stop TV and video games. They played sardines, hide-and-seek, Uno, war, BS, etc. They fished at the fish pond and each caught HUGE fish. They were both over 2 feet long. It's a pond on their property and it's catch and release. The fish just keep on growing. We took the dogs and both the dogs got in the pond several times. They boys shot bb guns and did other man stuff. We pulled the kids on sleds around in the field with a snowmobile.
All in all, it was a good time. We wish we had a cabin too!

PS. I forgot to mention that the map was obviously done in the summertime. Picture everything white with snow.

This video is cool

This pretty much sums up Tristan's idea of heaven.

PS. Why is this video so giant?

Heart-shaped cinnamon rolls

Jack is a serious baker. He always wants to help.

Tristan just wanted to do the cinnamon sugar part.


I should have taken pictures of the rolls after they rose and baked. They were yummy, but I next time I'll give more away. We couldn't eat them all.

Jack

Jack posing outside the library this past fall.

Jack angry that Tristan is ruining his carefully crafted photo-shoot.


One thing's for sure... Jack has personality.

Jack goes to afternoon kindergarten and his carpool picks him up at noon. At 11:50am, I said to Jack, "Run upstairs and brush your teeth. It's almost time to go." He goes upstairs with his friend and after 5 minutes he comes downstairs. I hear his friend say, "Your face stinks." Hmm...

Me: "Jack, why does Kalob say your face stinks?"

Jack: "Well, I put on a lot of cologne so that when people think my breath stinks, I can say, 'I didn't have time to brush, so I smell like cologne instead.'"

Me: "What have you been doing upstairs?!!! Go back upstairs this instant and do what I asked you to do in the first place!"

So, in the end, his teeth got clean and he smelled very manly.

2 New posts

Andrew... Are there enough photos in the new posts???

Hudson eating

Admittedly, this video is kinda lame. It's a few months old when Hudson was first eating without gagging and throwing up. yay. Halfway through Jack comes in and wants me to feed him too. I sound like a dork, but at least you can see how cute Hudson is. :)

New crafts

I've been working on a quiet book. I got the idea and some templates from Homemade by Jill. She also has some links to other quiet books. Some of the pages I've done are for the baby when he's a bit older and some are for the big boys.

Weaving

They can write a letter and put it in the mailbox. The flap of the mailbox works.

Apparently I only bought 4 snaps and I have 5 apples. I'll have to go back and get more. The original ideas had velcro. I think velcro can be noisy in church. I did snaps, BUT... they're kind of hard to operate. I think the baby will have to have super strong finger, SO... I think I'll go back to velcro.

I also made some singed flower clips for my hair. I made some a while ago, but due to popular demand I spent 4 hours yesterday showing 5 ladies in my neighborhood how to do it too. It's not hard. I'm sure there's a tutorial somewhere on the internet. Basically I use my measuring cups to make the circles. The bottom of my cups is smaller than the top, so I trace the bottom of each size and the top of each size out of taffeta and some out of chiffon. Cut out and singe the edges over a candle. It works best if you are a few inches from the flame. I use a tea light in a glass votive. This part takes practice as you will catch a few on fire. Sew a button through all the layers to hold it together then glue a clip on the back or glue it to a headband.

L O V E

I was trying to think of something cute and creative to do for Brian for Valentine's Day. I saw this idea on a craft website where they had taken a deck of playing cards and put cute paper on the front and the back and then on EVERY card they'd printed out something they like about that person and glued it to the card. They then punched 2 holes in each card and had rings that held it together. So, 50 things they like about them. I thought, "Wow... what a cute idea. I just need to think of 50 things."
I got to 20 and then drew a blank. As a matter of fact, I think it made me think of more things I didn't like than I liked. For example, I thought... "Ooh I can say that I like how he does the dishes. Ouch... except he doesn't do the dishes." Another problem is some things cover more than one thing. Like, "I like that your handy." Could I then separately list that I like that he can fix the dishwasher, frame a room, hang drywall, fix the car, etc.? When it finally came to things like, "I like how your socks match." I abandoned this idea. Don't get me wrong, I love Brian and I'm sure I love at least 50 things about him. It's just hard to enumerate them.
In my defense, for my thirtieth birthday Anne gave me a card where she listed 30 things she liked about me. She admitted that it was really hard at the end to think of things... and look how great I am.

Valentines

So they kids wanted to make their own valentines this year. OK. We found a cute rocket one on FamilyFun.com and just needed to buy LifeSavers in the rolls. I have been busy helping Brian get the room (a separate post) ready for Coleman to visit and I waited until Wedneday to go to Costco to find LifeSavers. No luck. Jack chose instead: Fruit by the Foot. I was thinking that we could still rescue the rocket idea.
As I was at home yesterday trying to wrap the Fruit by the Foot to look rocket-like, Tristan is looking at me like, "Mom... it's not working. Give up." Oh wait... I think he said that.
So last night we went at 6:30pm to the grocery store to find boxed Valentine cards to tape the Fruit by the Foot to. Yeah... they had 2 kinds left: Rainbow Dora and Eco Friends Recycling Valentines.
My boys both addressed 27 valentines with talking water bottles and recycling trash cans on the front. : )

RSV

Hudson tested positive for RSV when I took him to the doctor on Friday. He's doing OK. They don't treat the virus, they only treat the symptoms. On Friday his lungs were still clear. She told me to watch him closely and if it gets worse, take him to the hospital. He vomited several nights in a row, but not last night. He has a hard time at night. He coughs a lot and doesn't sleep very well. Last night was actually the best night in 4 nights. So, we'll see.
Tristan is now sick with a sore throat I suspect is strep. Jack has also acquired a nasty cough, although he doesn't act sick. The doctor said we could all get RSV, but it would only affect us like a cold.

Less of me... Finally

So, I've been working really hard. I work out everyday. I weighed myself today and the scale finally moved! I'm down 2.2 lbs. Woot Woot. I measured myself before I started and measured again yesterday and I've lost 1/2" most places. I didn't want to get too excited about that because I think... "Maybe I just measured wrong before." We'll see. I'm not quitting.
I do a lot of Jillian Michaels workouts. I like the Shred because it's only 25 minutes. I was thinking yesterday that I needed something a little longer so I looked around on the On Demand feature on TV and found Jillian Michael's Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism. It's an hour. OK, by far, including the bootcamp I did and the 30 day Shred... by far, the hardest workout I've ever done. I could not complete the last circuit. My body just said, "no." I'm going to try it again tomorrow. I feel like if I can do that workout... and not pause it (ok, I pause it when I need to catch my breath) and not quit before it's over, THEN I'll be in really good shape.
See for yourself. Go to On Demand- Sports and Fitness- Exercise TV- Jillian Michaels- Boost Metabolism.
I'm also starting to wean Hudson. He was still getting up 4+ times a night to nurse. I hate the cry it out so I decided to give him only bottles at night. The first night he woke up twice and I gave him a bottle both times. Last night he woke up once at 1am and I gave him a bottle. He slept until 6:30. He usually gets up at 6:00, so this was sleeping in. Yay for Hudson!
Also, last Thursday I was working out at a friends house and she has a baby Hudson's age. Hudson played with all said baby's toys and mouthed everything. Yeah... her baby has RSV. He came down with a fever, ear infections, cough and runny nose the next day. So... guess what?? Hudson got a runny nose 2 days ago and he's just getting worse. No fever, but he has a sad little cough. I'm listening for the wheezing, but he seems ok for now.
According to the RSV website, most kids actually get RSV, but it can be really mild and only seem like a cold. Let's hope for that.
On a separate note, Brian and I love the USA show "White Collar". It's one of two shows we tape and watch (Burn Notice is the other). I think you have to see the very first show to really like it, but then you don't need to see every show in a row to have it make sense.

update

At Anne's request I'll give you an update on the GoWear Fit. So... I weighed myself one-week after starting my crazy exercise regime. And...... I gained 1 lb! What the heck? I was disappointed, to say the least, but amazingly it made me want to try harder. I also looked around online a lot about when to expect results from working out. The general consensus is at least 6 weeks. No wonder no one sticks with it. 6 weeks??? sheesh... how do those Biggest Loser contestants lose 10 lbs in a week? No matter, I'm sticking with it. I've met my target calorie burn of 3,000 everyday this week. I have to work out everyday and then stay as active as possible to make it. For example, while my car was getting washed... could I just sit in a chair like a normal person??? NO! I had to pace the waiting room like a crazy person. I do feel better and the armband keeps me really motivated. I have two neighbors that are going to do it with me. We've already started with a personal trainer (a different neighbor) and she worked us out yesterday and gave me a chart to follow.
One of the websites I looked at said not to weigh yourself for 2 months after starting an exercise program. Yeah right. I'll weigh again on Tuesday and let you know.

PS. For those who care, Hudson is eating like a champ! He's eating a jar of baby food at every meal and even eating some solid foods like small pieces of bread or pirate booty.

Antagonizing me

I'm baking Cinnamon Amish Friendship Bread and it smells really good. Jack asked for some and I said it was still in the oven baking he then said, "Mom it's not fair. That bread is antagonizing me!"

School Bus

I like the idea of the school bus; someone else drives my kids the 6 miles to school, I get to add an extra 20 minutes each way to the school day (read: time without kids fighting). However, somewhere along the way the idea goes wrong.
We had problems at the beginning of the year with Tristan being picked on. Brian and I decided to wait and see and try and get him to handle the problem himself. We felt that he needed to learn to defend himself (verbally) against bullies and this was as good as time as any. Those problems have been solved.
The other problems have become noticeable more gradually. Jack has learned several inappropriate songs on the bus. Tristan has asked me about several creative swear words that he's read written on the seats of the bus. These buses are brand new. It irritates me that the kids destroy them so much. My neighbor girl, who's a wise 10 year old, told me that someone has written the "f word" in permanent marker all over the back of the bus. In addition to this, the kids fight, yell, swear and generally act terribly the whole way to and from school. I told Brian I think it's mob mentality. The kids do things they would never do on their own.
I talked it over with Brian (who is my litmus test for rationality) and we decided just to drive the kids to and from school everyday. They don't need the exposure to all of that to and from school. They'll get it soon enough... Jack doesn't need that in kindergarten. Call it over-protective I don't mind. We'll see if it improves their attitudes afterschool.