Poor Nels...

Poor Pepper
Poor, poor Michael

Poor Dash

Dashiell woke up last night at midnight throwing up. Three hours later with 11 messes cleaned up, we got a couple hours of sleep before the other end kicked into gear. I have lost track of the number of diapers changed, but there is still one sore bum and a grumpy little boy who hasn't kept any food down. So, will he wake up tonight starving or throwing up again? Michael said he isn't feeling all that great either... It may be a long week. (I have refrained from using my new camera to capture any of these precious moments, and even if I did, I wouldn't share them with you no matter how great the picture lighting and clarity turned out.)

Baby Names

Nels just told me that he thinks his baby sisters name should be Tidi. Two years ago when I was expecting Dashiell, he thought that baby's name should be Tido, but now he says Tido is a boys name and Tidi is a girls. He also explained that she would have to change her name because Tidi is a baby name so when she grows up she will have to choose a new one. I actually considered Tido as a viable option a couple years back, so... Help! Names are so hard for me. Come up with some suggestions or Tidi may be it!

So...

Michael and I got an early birthday/Christmas/everything for the rest of the year present the other day. Both of us are very excited about it. I am hopeful this will get me motivated to take lots of pictures which will result in more things for me to tell you about because I have pretty pictures to go with the stories. So here are some of our first shots. (I have a lot to learn, but it is nice to be learning with a nice camera.)

Just my two cute boys!

So, are they allowed to eat the gingerbread house?
Nels has asked at least five times since last night when we made it.

I love that Christmas is well on its way. The house is mostly decorated (I will have to take some pictures. :)), we'll get to see Santa at the ward Christmas party on Saturday, we're singing Christmas songs in Primary, and the kids get to wear their Christmas PJ's. I love it all!

How was your week?

Michael was in trying to calm Dashiell down to go to sleep the other night when Dash ran from one side of the crib to the other and used the edge of the crib to catapult himself out. Michael caught him with his head half a foot from the ground. Need I even say that Michael took the crib down the next day and put it in storage. Dash is now on the crib mattress on the floor. Nels is so extremely jealous of Dashiell's bed; he wants to trade with him. What a funny couple of kids.

We had a great Thanksgiving. We were home with my parents and my mom and I cooked a great meal if I do say so myself. Probably about 10 years ago while I was in college I decided it wasn't worth the trip home for the couple of days I had off, so I had dinner with some friends. The food was wonderful, I am sure, but the dishes were prepared slightly different than those I grew up with. Thanksgiving to me is so much in the food that the slight differences in the preparation made it difficult for me to enjoy the delicious meal as "Thanksgiving". I know that is so lame. The other thing that is lame to me is if I so much enjoy the Thanksgiving meal what keeps me from duplicating the meal at other times throughout the year, but it won't happen. I will try to remember this when I have guests to my house for Thanksgiving in the future. Well, anyway, it was a wonderfully calm and peaceful Thanksgiving. Hope yours was as grand.

Friday

Friday was an anxiety filled day. In the morning we had an ultrasound and found out we are having a GIRL! Then we watched the clock all day until 6pm to check on Michael's bar results and were so happy to see that he PASSED. What a happy day!

We're not celebrating birthdays in 2008

Michael's birthday is April 16th. Nels' birthday is April 18th. Dashiell's Birthday is April 30th. I am due April 12th. Nobody gets birthday presents this year!

I have been feeling great, other than I am tired all the time. I think I'll go take another nap.

A month is too long

We have been busy.

My mom and dad have been in and out of town for the last month and a half and are finally back for the week at least. They are leaving again next week and taking Nels on a train through the Grand Canyon. He is so excited.

Me... I have read three books, all great reads. Lisa See probably best known for her book Snowflower and the Secret Fan was in town last week and my book club went to hear her speak. It was very interesting to hear where she got her ideas from and a little history of her life and the life of several of her books. We read Peony in Love and all really enjoyed it. It was an interesting look at Chinese afterlife. I also wanted to read Snowflower as well, a book about relationships and misunderstandings. Snowflower was the better of the two books, but both were well written and interesting reads. Lisa made a comment that I thought was interesting relating to how she hoped she inspired or touched people with her books. It was something to do with women wanting to be heard...I don't remember the comment exactly, I just remember thinking is she really trying to be altruistic with her writing or is she just trying write a good story and sell lots of books? Are authors just trying to make a buck? I also busted out a third book this weekend. Apparently the new rage in some circles, particularly LDS teenage girls. Twilight was another good read, but I don't think it was worth all the rage. I will read the second and third books in the series and probably the fourth when it comes out next year. I usually hope to make it through one book a month, but this month I read and read and read and wondered why I didn't like reading when I was younger and had more free time.

About two weeks ago we went to Arizona to visit family and see my nephew Zac baptized. It is always a fun trip to visit Michael's brother in AZ and get to see my good friends Shauna and Emily We also got to see Emily's sister Sarah. I think it has been about 10 years since I have seen Sarah and she is still as beautiful as I remember. (Just a side note, sometimes if I ever feel down on myself, I think about the awesome friends I have and realize that I can't be that bad if they want to hang out with me! Is that some weird thinking or what.) Michael and I will often get in the car and drive away from a visit with good friends and just comment to each other about how lucky we truly are.

I also gave a talk at church on Sunday. My topic: Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer. Our Stake has been asking all the members for the last several months to invite friends and family to come worship with us and they had asked me to speak that particular week. The bishopric wanted there to be no doubt that any visitors to our ward would leave knowing that we believe in Jesus Christ and charged me with this task. What a tough topic to prepare for and speak on. Michael gave me several good quality hours away from the boys and I feel like I did a pretty good job. There were actually about 25 visitors at Church on Sunday so hopefully they left knowing how I feel about Jesus Christ.

This week Joy School was at my house. Although I am much more relaxed and comfortable than I was last year, it still takes some prep time and paper cutting to get things ready for the five - three and four year olds I had at my house. We had a good time, but I am always glad when I am done with my week.

I stopped running. The girl I go with hasn't been feeling well and I used that as the lame excuse to not get up at 5:45.

I started running again. I decided I could do it on my own, so Wednesday I actually woke up and went running by myself. I only missed 2 days of running. Even more than being proud of myself for waking up early to go, I am proud of myself for waking up early to go by myself. I do have some will power. Not much but some.

Does that make up for a month of no posts on my blog? Probably not, but it will have to do for now. Nels wants to play Chutes and Ladders. Yipee!

I woke up at 5:45 this morning on purpose...

...to go running. I am so excited about this new morning person I am becoming. We will see how long it lasts.

And his nickname is...

We were at the library waiting for a music class to start and Dash was over flirting with a couple kids who were also patiently waiting. Nels walked up and proudly announced that "This is my baby." The little girl asked Nels what his baby's name was and Nels told her it was Dashiell, but that his nickname was "the San Francisco treat".

You know, like "Dash-a-roni, the San Francisco treat".

Under the chapter titled 'What NOT to do' in the Parenting book

I told Nels, unequivocally, that we would not be going to the park with his friends because he had not been listening or helpful at all. A half hour later I am at the park chit-chatting with my friends and Nels is frolicking in the sand with his.

The very next day I told Nels that if he didn't want to finish his breakfast that was fine, but he would have to eat it for lunch. I forgot about the cold oatmeal in the fridge and he had his favorite, PB and J, for lunch.

Even if there was a book, I would still fail.

Rhinoceros are nocturnal

About a month ago we were up in the middle of the night with Nels for about an hour trying to get him to go back to sleep. He had been awakened by a noise outside his bedroom. We explained that it was probably some sort of animal. Don't ever tell your child that an animal made a noise outside his bedroom window. For the last month we have had to go into his bedroom every night before he goes to bed and listen for noises and often times we are awakened in the night to listen for noises. We need to figure out how to get him out of this awful phase.
Tonight I decided to try a new method and ask him what he was afraid of. I started with lizards. "Are you afraid of lizards?"I asked. "No, lizards don't make noise." "Are you afraid of raccoons?" He said he was and we then discussed that he was larger than a raccoon and didn't need to be afraid of raccoons. I asked him about skunks, and we figured he could run faster than a skunk, so he didn't need to worry about them. Then I asked him if he was afraid of rhinoceros. When he said he was I quickly said there was no way there were any rhinoceros in our back yard. He just as quickly said that the hill in our neighbor's backyard had lots of animals in it. Which is when I came up with a solution. I told him tomorrow we were going to go over to the neighbor's house and check out that hill in the backyard for animals that we might need to be worried about. He than said "Well, mama, rhinoceros are nocturnal."

Do you think we might find any rhinoceros droppings back there? Maybe a cave where the rhino goes during the day?

Butterflies in my stomach

Do you remember when you were a kid and your parents told you you were going to Disneyland, or on a big trip somewhere wonderful. I remember having a hard time sleeping the night before and I distinctly remember butterflies in my stomach. What a wonderful feeling!
I don't have that very often any more. Disneyland just doesn't do it for me like it used to. There are two distinct times I DO, however, remember having that feeling in the last several years. Once when I was talking about my husband either right before or right after we were married. The other times have been when I go into check on my two sleeping boys before I go to bed. Despite everything I might complain about on a regular basis, I love my family. They give me butterflies in my stomach.

Harry and the Potters

Last week we went down to San Juan Capistrano for "Capistrano Nights" which is a concert series/community event. There was great music, delicious food, a fun atmosphere with face painting and even a drawing for a bike. All Free! We had a blast.

As a result I was looking forward to the "Harry and the Potters" concert tonight at the Mission Viejo Library, a kick-off to the 10 year celebration of the library opening. It was like I was attending my first quidditch tournament, I was so excited. Even though Nels was a stinker today and did nothing I asked at any point during the day, I couldn't follow through with my vain threat to not go to the concert if he didn't shape up. We went. It was horribly disappointing. I now sit here bewildered at the idea that this band is on a world tour.

What do you want to do when you grow up?

Nels saw this the other day and declared "I want to do that when I grow up."

Just a pinch

I started this blog before I knew exactly what I wanted it to be and have been thinking lately that it hasn't turned into what I had hoped. Michael suggested that I start a blog over a year ago when I was in the third trimester of my second pregnancy. I even wrote up several posts and had them in a file waiting until after the baby was born so that I could really delve into this blog thing. It would be ramblings of what happened in my (or is it my mom's) kitchen sharing experiences and ideas. We love to entertain and Michael thought it would be fun for me to keep up/improve writing skills while sharing with the rest of the world some of the ways we entertain simply.

A rather difficult year and a half later, 'Pepper's kitchen' and several posts still sit in a file folder somewhere on my computer. I started a blog, but my ideas of what it should be have changed. I figure since my friend Emily posted a blurb about my blog, maybe I should figure out what I am doing . I want to sound witty, clever, sophisticated and smart. I want everyone to think from my blog that I am talented, but mostly that I have something to offer.

In the end, what I have to offer is my life. Right now it is filled with my boys.

(Photo taken by Nels)

Congratulations Michael!

We had a great day at Michael's commencement yesterday.
I am so proud of you!

(Lovely pictures coming soon.)

I'm bad with pictures

April has been a very busy but fun month for us. I thought I would post some pictures of all the fun things we have been doing. Can you really only post five pictures per post? This might take a couple posts...

We took a trip with my family to Zion National Park. Going to Zion has been a family tradition since I was a kid, for the last 19 years. It is fun to see the dynamics of the group change as we add grandchildren to the mix. Although all of my siblings were not able to attend, all six of the grandkids were there, including the 3 babies born this last year.
Annie and Nels climbing on rocks.
Jolyn and Koll looking cute for the camera.

Several people had climbed up this rock and were showing off their muscles. Nels was not afraid to climb up anything. He will make quite the little climber someday.
Dash sat there and decorated himself with leaves for probably 30 min. I just tried to ignore that there were probably all sorts of 'things' under and in those leaves and let him enjoy his time being a boy.

Zion Continued...

Shane wasn't able to come with us this year, but Whitney and Koll came. They actually came back with us for a visit to California. It was fun spending so much time with my sister and Koll.We made it up to Scout Lookout near Angels Landing. (We didn't really want to go out to Angels with the babies. ) We figured we were both carrying around 35 lbs with our packs, water, lunches, and babies.
Whitney and I started late because of nap schedules (the things moms think about and deal with?!?) but were able to meet up with more of our group at the lookout.
Nels saw these water guns Grandma had bought for the kids before we even left California and asked about them constantly until we finally let him fill them up. He fully understood the rule that you could only shoot people who were holding a gun, even if he didn't fully understand all aspects of a 'water fight'. He ran around shooting water at the trees and dirt and then when Jolyn shot him, he started getting mad and frustrated and just threw his gun down so he wouldn't get shot anymore. He probably used it for a total of three minutes that day. He just wanted to play with the water, not get wet, but I do wish we had a picture of his face when he threw the gun down.
There is a renewed pleasure in decorating Easter Eggs that hasn't been there since I was a young child. One of the perks of being a mom.

Birthday pictures

One more picture from Zion. Nels and Grandpa were on an attack mission to get Uncle Cody. Please take note of their use of Camouflage. Cody had no idea he was under attack!Here are the cousins being cute.
And swinging at the park.
April is and always will be a busy month. Michael's, Nels', and Dashiell's birthdays are all in April. I also have two brothers birthdays in April, one is even the same day as Dashiell's. I am pretty sure we took pictures of the Strawberry Pie Michael had for his birthday cake, but I am afraid if I take the time to look any further for it I will never get these pictures posted...
This year, we chose a pirate theme for Nels' birthday. (By we I mean I. After the plans were well under way I asked Nels about his pirate themed party and if he liked pirates and he said "No, not really, they are kinda mean." It ended well, however, because the day after I had asked him about what he thought about pirates, he was all excited about his pirate festivities) My sister and mom helped me take cupcakes and 'pirate wear' to Nels school class. They did tell my sister that they tasted better because they were pirate cupcakes!

I think this is the last of them.

One more pirate party. We also took cupcakes to our park group. It was a party every day for a week. We were actually supposed to go to the beach for a cookout and treasure hunt with my parents and Whitney, but it rained that day. We just went ahead with the third and final party at home. But later that week when I tried to tell Nels that we were going to celebrate Dash's birthday next, he said that we still had to finish his party and go to the beach. We stopped by the other day for a quick walk in the sand and after two and a half weeks finally finished Nels birthday festivities. Nels using one of his new toys. He loves to imitate his daddy.
Dash's birthday was on the 30th. We are still waiting to celebrate that until Sunday because of schedules and such. In the mean time, I just thought I would add these last two pictures because usually I am so not in the mood to take pictures of these kinds of things, but this month has been a fun month. Dash getting Dirty!
Nels making a mess! It took Michael and me an hour at least to clean up this mess. I don't know if you can see, but every game box was opened and contents were dumped out, every card game, marble game, rumikube, etc, all dumped and piled high.

Good old fashioned customer service

I went to Albertsons last night to pick up a couple things for book club. Dashiell and I were in line behind who appeared to be an Albertsons executive. He had an Albertsons name tag on his suit, and the cashier was a little overly nice. He paid for his groceries and asked the bagger if she would go over and blow up a balloon for Dashiell. It had to be blue to match his eyes! This gentleman had noticed that Dash was checking out all the balloons while we walked up. Thats what babies do!

This coupled with the fact that I just received about $100 worth of free sodas and water donated from Albertsons for our production lunch, and the fact that it is the closest grocery store to my house, makes me an Albertsons shopper. I like good old fashioned customer service.

Plan number...

Every mother starts her day out with a plan. We will call that plan number 1. By the end of an average day she will have had to change plans several times and may get up to say plan number 12 or 15. A change of plans could be anything from a phone call from the sitter letting you know they can't make it, to a blow out diaper in public without a change of clothes. Today we got to plan number 97.

"GOOD TIMES"

The last couple of months have been a little crazy for me and my family. I have been involved in a Broadway Musical Review called "GOOD TIMES" that our Stake has been working on. My official title on the program is 'Production Assistant' which sounds more official than it should, but makes me feel very cool! My mom and Michael have been working just as hard as I have but 'official babysitter and 1st and 2nd Production Assistant' didn't give them the credit they deserve and unfortunately did not have a good spot on the program.

It is here. This Friday is the first show. Get your tickets now. It is exciting; butterflies in the stomach exciting. It keeps me up at night. Not just the excitement, but all the things I still need to do before the next rehearsal...I will also be glad and sad when it is over, just like all things of this nature. I will be glad to get back to my life and sad to not constantly see the new friends I have developed over the last several months.

What a great weekend

Nels learned how to ride his bike without training wheels. (Pictures coming soon.) Someone tell me, is the period before or after?

He memorized his scripture and presented it rather well in Primary today. He also said a very well thought out prayer. (His first time speaking in public in a formal situation.)

We made about 12 dozen cookies and took them to friends. I think several of them really appreciated it. That makes me feel good.

Bedtime Routine

I hate it. What should really take a half hour or so seems to take hours (just a slight exaggeration), and there is always so much complaining and crying. By the time the kids actually are in bed, I am so frustrated that all of the things I was going to do get pushed off for yet another night.

A couple nights ago I was home alone with the kids and I decided that Nels and I would make a picture chart of all of the things we usually do before bed. PJ's, Teeth, Potty, Scriptures, Prayer, Stories, Kisses, Snuggle. Nels and I went through the list pretty smoothly and he was in bed in almost record time.

The last couple of nights haven't gone so smoothly. Things should, since we have four adults in the house, all of them willing to help out. I have expectations (herein lies the problem) that everyone should drop whatever they are doing and focus on the 'chart'. The chart that basically I made. (Maybe no one is really on board with me and my stupid chart.) Now, even if I work extra hard, I still can't get Nels to bed in a acceptable amount of time without screaming and crying when everyone is home. Daddy, Grandma and Grandpa are very distracting and seem to hand out candy by the bunches at bed time. I only say this because Nels seems so much more interested in what they are doing then what I am trying to do.

Well, I am off to do my bedtime routine. Maybe Nels gets it from me. What should take a couple minutes always seems to take so long, especially if I get on the computer!

A new time-waster

I like these kinds of things. Mindless, time-wasters that keep me up until midnight.

What is your best time?

http://labs.jphantom.com/wpm/

Exercise makes me skinny

I haven't run for over a month. I ate a lot, I mean a lot of goodies over the holidays, and the new year didn't see me slowing down. I have felt sick and lazy. I was kinda feeling fat. I finally got up the nerve to weigh myself and was glad to see I had actually lost a couple pounds. How does this happen? Not that I am complaining. Maybe I should continue to be a little lazy bum, all except for this...

So, today I go running for the first time in a while and all of the sudden I feel skinny. Not because I really had lost any weight, but simply because I was exercising again. I twist my body to see my running shirt swish back and forth across my stomach that is now somehow significantly thinner than it was an hour before. Then, I throw my smelly self in the shower and while I am washing my legs, I am proud of muscles I haven't paid attention to in a month.

I think it is silly how my mind works.

Like the Prophet

We were reading scriptures talking about the prophets and how we should strive to be like them. Later while Nels was getting ready for bed he said "Mom, I am like a prophet already because I have crusher pajamas."

Cute pictures

I haven't felt like doing much of anything. We have all been feeling lousy since we got back from visiting Michael's parents over the break. I haven't even unpacked everything, and we have been home for over a week. I think the fly lady would be very disappointed.

It seems that all the things I do get motivated to do end up not working out for some reason anyway, like the pizza last night, sorry Michael. The other day I decided to post some pictures of my kids on the blog. Whitney is right, I should at least have one picture of them up. I went through the process and then when I clicked the publish button, I wasn't signed in anymore and I lost all my work. I thought I would try again. If this works, I will go finish unpacking my bags. If not, I am supposed to leave for Arizona in another week, so I guess I'll just plan on wearing whatever is still in my bag from last week and call that good enough.

Resolutions

I had several. I never wrote anything down, I just have a list in my head of several things I should be doing. So, as of day four, I had missed two of the four days. Have I failed?