Silly Boys...

I love the things that my kids say. Here are just a few examples of the things have said recently:

• Andrew tells me as I am getting him a snack from the pantry, "Mommy, I don't want the fruit snacks in the red bag. I want the same kind of fruit snacks I had yestertime."



• Joseph was watching Ni Hao Kai-Lan (aka Chinese Dora), and she asked the audience (my kids) if the had ever gotten to stay up late for anything. In my mind I was thinking, "No, but now they're going to want to, since you put the idea in their heads Kai-Lan." Two seconds later, Joseph looks at me and says, "Mommy, can I stay up late tonight?"



• Daddy and Andrew went for a ride in Daddy's truck. As Daddy was buckling him in, Andrew said, "Make sure you buckle yourself safe daddy." He then asked, "Are we in the big truck, daddy?" Daddy said "Yes, and someday you'll be big enough to drive the truck too." Andrew's reply, "Will I have big hands, too?" He then told daddy, "One day I'll drive the big truck with my big hands, and I'll have a big red and black jacket, too."



• Joseph was sitting at the computer playing, and all of sudden he runs into the room Brad and I are in and exclaims, "WALMART!" and runs away. What?!

And some more silliness...

When we went to Pittsburgh this weekend, we went to the most awesome thrift shop. Over Christmas, Great Grandma bought some toy cars for the boys and left them at my mom's (aka Grandma) house for them to play with when they came to visit. Andrew became enthralled with these cars, so when I saw big bags of Matchbox cars for $2.00 in the thrift store I had to buy him some to take home. He also picked out a talking Dora backpack that cost $1.50. For the past six days, Andrew has done nothing but play with these cars and the backpack. He loads all of the cars in the backpack and takes them wherever he goes. I thought that I would share a few pictures. It's pretty darned cute!

It's his backpack. Load it up, with things and kick-knacks too. Anything that you might need, he's got inside for you. Backpack, BACKPACK!

Spring Break

Look at these beautiful little faces and tell me that you could leave all of the most important moments of their childhood in the hands of someone else:

I miss these little guys so much. This week was spring break for Shepherd University, and we took a trip to Pittsburgh to visit family and friends. We visited with my friend Jenny from high school. She has three little girls, and it was load of fun. They have a bouncy house and a kiddie Escalade, and Joseph and Andrew were pretty excited!

Friday night, we spent the night at Grandma's house. We ordered pizza, met Grandma's friend Louise, and watched Noggin. Saturday was a super fun-filled day: We went to the children's museum, and it was great to see the boys having so much fun. On the way home from the museum, we stopped at a really neat thrift store and got a bunch of new books and toys.

Saturday night we spent the evening at Aunt Ginny's. She made us some delicious dinner and Joseph and Andrew loved playing with Uncle Scott and the big toy box. Aunt Ginny also had some decorations that the boys thought were "coconuts," and when I took my eyes off of them for two seconds, they had unraveled the "coconuts" (a.k.a. balls of yarn) from one end of the house to the other. I regret that I didn't get any photos of this...

Sunday morning, we went to church with Ginny and Scott. Afterwards, we went back to Grandma and Grandpa's to have some lunch before we traveled home. Grandpa happens to be an electrical genius, and he fixed one of Joseph's "new" toys that was broken. Then we headed back to wild and (sometimes) wonderful West Virginia.

Tomorrow I have to go back to school, which means that the boys go back to daycare. I cannot even begin to describe the way that my heart aches. Of course I always knew that I loved my children, but I honestly don't think that I realized how much until this week.

For several weeks prior to spring break, I had been throwing around the idea of quitting school after this semester. Being home and spending time with my children has just reinforced my feelings on the matter. I can't do it...I can't go back. My children need their mother. They need someone who can devote all of her time to them; to nourish them spiritually and intellectually; to give them guidance and direction; they need the mother that their Father in heaven intended for them.

I can't be a nurturer and a student and do both well. Right now, my children are getting half a mother and my professors are getting half a student. I hate that I have to choose, but I will always choose my family above all else. Heavenly Father has entrusted me to care for these sweet little boys, and this is the most important test I will be given in this life. David O. McKay said, "No other success can compensate for failure in the home." Now is not the time for me to succeed academically. A piece of paper that says that I made straight A's is not going to matter if I am doing a terrible job as a mother while I work to achieve those grades.

So, after this semester, I have officially decided that I am going to take a hiatus from academic life. Yes, call me a failure as a student. I've only had about a hundred different majors and still no diploma. But I refuse to be a failure as a mother - and that's what really matters.

Creative Genius?

My creative project of the week: renovating my kids' room. Why did I need to do this you may ask? Well, if you haven't looked at the pictures above yet, please do. My children literally colored every single spot on their walls that they could reach. It was beyond the point of cleaning. I checked them for crayons every single time they went into their room, and yet I still would find more drawings on the wall every day. Not that I don't encourage artistic activities. Really, I do - just not on the walls of the house that I am renting. So, I painted the walls of their room before my landlord could find out what mess they had made. And, I decided to get a little creative, and finally decorate their room. I feel like this is the first time since my children have been born that they actually have a room that looks nice. I'm sure that it will stay that way for a whole five minutes. But seriously, how hard is it to not color on EVERYTHING?

My Children Never Fail to Surprise Me

There are so many amazing things that my children do. I am constantly being surprised by the new things that they can do. For instance, Joseph is always reading things. I can't believe how many words he knows how to read. Both of my children are fantastic artists, and I am always so proud of the drawings that they bring home from school. Andrew just has the sweetest, bubbliest little personality and I love to hear the funny things he says. My children bring so much happiness to my life.

Most of the time...

Then, there's an experience like last night, that surprised me in a very different sort of way. We were at Sam's Club, shopping for our lifetime supply of various food items (or so you would think, except that Joseph is a bottomless pit; what seems like a lifetime supply of cereal actually lasts a week). All was happy in our shopping cart, and then out comes a very loud scream from Andrew. We looked over at Joseph and he had a mouthful of hair - that's right! He bit a huge chunk out Andrew's hair! What the heck?!

I am also surprised by the fact that Andrew is over the age of three and refuses to go to the potty. I stole an idea from Megan O'Neill using marbles and a jar as an incentive for using the toilet, and Andrew seems excited about the idea of putting the marbles in the jar, but we still are unsuccessful at getting him to go in the toilet.

When we first started trying, he kept screaming that he was "too wittle" to use the potty, and insisted that he liked his diaper. So, we got a Lightning McQueen potty seat, which has encouraged him to sit on the potty. I take him frequently, but to no avail. He just sits there, and tells me "the pee-pee won't come down." Grrrr....

Isn't it supposed to be easier to potty train the second child? I have tried to take him to the bathroom and let him watch Joseph, but he is just not interested at all, and for some reason he LOVES wearing his diaper. Why, oh why? Joseph was really difficult to potty train as well, but I actually think that we are having a MORE difficult time with Andrew.

So anyway, surprises, surprises. What else can I say?

A New Way to Stimulate the Economy

I have the flu...it's been absolutely miserable. So, we decided to go through the Dairy Queen drive-thru to get some dinner. Yummy food + ice cream = happy family, right? Wrong.

The kids' meals from DQ come with toys. The problem with that is that none of the toys have anything to do with one another. So, Andrew got a really cool pair of sunglasses in his meal, and Joseph got some lame-o plastic fishy finger puppets. How fair is that?

So, Brad figured that this is part of the new economic stimulus package - when you go through the drive-thru with more than one child, make sure that only one of the children gets a cool toy. Hide the toys underneath of all the food so that the unsuspecting consumers don't realize until they get home. Go to Wal-mart to buy the equivalent of the toy that came in the kids' meal. See! Our economy is being stimulated - Not only did we go out to eat, we also went to Wal-mart to buy toys. Now if we can just get everyone to go to DQ and order two kids' meals, then they'll have to go to Wal-mart and spend money on toys! Hooray, the economy is fixed.

At any rate, Andrew looked really cute in the sunglasses from Dairy Queen, and daddy took Joseph to Wal-mart, where he got some stylish Transformers glasses, as seen below:

Andrew enjoying his corndog and his new sunglasses, courtesy of Dairy Queen.

Apparently the lame-o fish puppets aren't so lame-o, as long as you don't have to give up your sunglasses.

And, one trip to Wal-mart later...

...Joseph in his cool Transformers glasses.

A Place for Everything, and Everything in its Place

I have been super motivated this week. Since we've moved to the eastern panhandle, I feel like I have had no motivation to be a homemaker. But suddenly this week, the bug bit me. We had a little extra money, since we got a nice big tax return this year, so we decided to splurge on some new furniture for our living room.

Looks pretty nice, huh?

Our old furniture had become very dingy and disgusting. Pastel colors and toddlers do not mix! Last year I bought material to reupholster my sofa and love seat. In May 2008, I was about 3/4 of the way finished with the love seat and haven't touched it since.

I don't know what I was thinking. It is something that I know how to do, but I don't know what I was thinking taking on a task like that when I am a full-time student, a wife, and a mother to two insane toddlers! It was just completely unrealistic to finish that project, or to even start it in the first place. I think the realization that the project was too difficult was the beginning of my motivation actually.

My house had sat, literally untouched since a week after we moved in. Most of our belongings were still in boxes in our garage, and our walls were bare. It's hard to feel at home when you have no where to sit. So, once we got the furniture in the living room, it became easy to accomplish the rest of what needed to be done. I spent the week scrubbing our house from top to bottom, organizing various areas of our house, hanging curtains, and removing decorative items and photos from their hiding place (the garage) and hanging them.

Now our house is sparkling clean, and for the first time since August I actually feel at home! It's amazing what a little bit of old fashioned housekeeping can do to lift your spirits!

What Would You Bring?

First off...the chicken chow mein? Fabulous. I can't wait to try some more recipes from that blog. If you haven't had time to check it out - make time! It took me about ten minutes to throw in the crockpot and at 5 pm, dinner was ready with about ten minutes of additional work, which involved making rice to serve it over and steaming some broccoli as a side dish. I will definitely make this dish again!

Last night was family night in our home. I love Family Home Evening. I feel so blessed to have the gospel in my life. We have a very simple routine for our family night - a prayer, a few songs, a story from the Book of Mormon Reader, and dessert. It seems to work really well for us. It involves little to no planning, and it really seems to have an impact on our children.

Last night, we read about Nephi being instructed by the Lord to build a boat. After we read the story, we asked the kids what they would bring on the boat with them. Here is how they responded:

Andrew

• Worms
• A caterpillar
• Cookies
• A toy house
• Mud

Joseph

• Toys
• Food

I love Andrew's answers. Too funny! I am so happy that our children have reached the age where they can actually be involved in FHE. It makes for a happy family...

As the children's hymn goes, "We are a happy family!"