Christmas Lists

In my family we all make out a wish list, then spread them around the family. A couple days ago I had the boys dictate their wish lists for me.

Gabriel (totally self generated list)
~Cuddley giraffe or "Daddy" blue elephant (His "baby" is a little blue elephant he hauls everywhere)
~Puzzle Book (like the one at Nannie's house)
~Little People Train
~Little People Rug like Katelyn's
~A sticky wall that with things that you put on your hands and feet and climb up. (Yeah, he wants a velcro climbing wall like you see at the fair, or on a reality TV show)
If we ever build a house I think that we may have to build a whole room, with velcro walls and a rubber floor, for these little critters to climb all over.

Garrett (mostly self generated list)
~Purple band aids
~Anything with a trailer on it
~Little People farm stuff
~Noisy book (the kind with the buttons that have music, or make sound effects)

I count my blessings that they are still so easy to please.

Our Little Costco "Habit"

The Maskey family LOVES Costco! Stephen stops by at least twice a week, sometimes more.

Yesterday we picked Stephen's car up at the mechanic and tried to stop by Costco on the way home, it was still closed. As we pulled into the parking lot Garrett got so excited and yelled from the back seat, "Go see a Chis-a-mas stuff?" I had to laugh out loud. If we could all be so pleased about JUST looking at the Chis-a-mas stuff. He was very sad that we didn't go inside.

Last night they needed to get out of the house, so off to Costco we went. I told the boys to get ready for Costco. Garrett was on fire, he had himself dressed, and shoes on in ten minutes. On the drive I heard this conversation from the back seat.

Garrett: (Super excited voice) Want to see Chis-a-mas stuff with me Gabral? (He always leaves the i out)

Gabriel: (silence)

Garrett: Want to see Chis-a-mas stuff with me Gabral?

Gabriel: Yeah.

Obviously one is much more excited about the Chis-a-mas stuff than the other, I'm sure time will take care of that. Only a couple of weeks ago Gabriel explained, in great length, to Garrett that you can't be scared of sitting on Santa's lap or you won't get any toys. We haven't even talked about Santa this year, and don't require them to sit on his lap for presents. I guess if it gets them to both sit on his lap without a problem, I'll take it. Interpretation of the world according to a 4-year-old.

I love that they are both old enough to actually have conversations with eachother. I like it even more now that I can understand most of their conversations with each other. It wasn't too long ago that I could tell they understood each other, but I was in the dark. They would be playing, talking, and all of a sudden fighting. Now I can hear and understand the wind up for the fight. Their imaginations never end; they make their cars, animals, etc. interact and "talk" with each other.

The funny things they say, and simple pleasures in their lives, make all the power struggles, and naughty times worth it.

Cousins

When we all got home Gabriel was the first one in the door. I was in the very back and heard, "EW, what's that smell, it smells like poop." I'd made a crockpot dinner; a Mom just can't win. I used a combo of spices for the first time, and was a little bit worried. I'm happy to annouce that it DID NOT taste like poop.

My sister-in-law and I have tried several times to get cousin pictures. It has been exhausting, and a major work out every time we've attempted it. When we all got home I thought we'd try to get a picture with all of them. WOO-HOO! It worked and got some cute shots. They had a blast running around and playing with eachother.

Gabriel's First Primary Program

This weekend was Gabriel's first Primary Program. We worked on his part for several weeks, and he had it memorized well. His line was:

Bible stories teach me how to live the Gospel.

He had it memorized so well that he started adding to it, his own version was, Bible stories teach me how to live the Gospel with flowers and dogs. After a little coaxing we were able to convince him to just stick to the regular line. His little class also had the first verse of one song to sing. He did well singing here at home, but I wasn't sure how it'd go at church.

The night before our Ward had a practice, so the kids would know what to expect. I had Gabriel all prepped for the practice. So, 6:30 rolled around and we headed to the church. We got there and couldn't find anyone. I called one of the leaders, and discovered it ended at 6:30. The start time was 4:30. Yeah, I felt pretty dumb. What's worse is that I called the one girl I have in my class and gave her the wrong time too.

I explained to Gabriel that I messed up and we missed the practice. He took it well, but was very disappointed. He asked why I messed up, so I told him that my brain was broken. He suggested that I get a new brain with a hole in it. (I think the hole in it is the problem. ;-D)

Not to be outdone by his brother Garrett piped in with his own solution to Mommy's broken brain. I hear his little voice from the back seat say, "You need new batteries Mommy?"
I had to laugh out loud...from the mouth of babes. Garrett has a bumble ball that bounces around the floor. He LOVES that thing! He'd turn it on and leave it bouncing around all day if we'd let him. His little bumble ball eats batteries like crazy. He now get one set of batteries a week, causing him to constantly ask for new batteries. Batteries solve all of this kid's problems. He likes to put them in his mouth too. It's gross, but even more than that, it's a major choking hazard, and acid leak hazard....(sigh) BOYS!

Fast forward to Sunday morning. Gabriel did well all morning, picked his suit and tie that he wanted to wear, and I was confident that all was well. We walked into the building and it was all over. He wouldn't sit up front with his class, OR wisper his fight with us. Finally, we settled on he could sit on my lap if he would do it with his class. Yeah, just what I wanted to sit in front of the entire ward and get beaten to death by the 4 year old on my lap. He was calming down and settling into sitting in front, when he decided to throw his "baby". I told him it was gone, that throwing his baby was not ok. He proceeded to start a slow motion, fairly quiet, punching fit with me. When I didn't let him actually hit me, the noise started. I had to take him out for a time out, just the fantasitic behavior I wanted to deal with in front of everyone. My parents have soooo already gotten their revenge for all the rotten things I did growing up, and I'm only 4 years into it.

We got back in just as the program was starting. He was in the first group of kids that went up to say their lines. He stood up and waited, I thought we were gonna pull it off. Then he decided he wanted me to go up with him. When came to get me they thought we was coming to sit down, so the intro for the music started. He was upset that he didn't get to say his line. Sister Lindsey was really sweet and let him go up with another group, totally out of order, and say his line. He stood up, holding his "baby" and delivered his whole line. Good job Gabriel!!

He turned around, smiled at me, ran back to my lap, and wispered, "I said my part really really fast Mommy." Funny kid. He didn't sing a sigle song during the entire program. The end was approaching so I got him ready to stand up with his class to sing I am Child of God. Once again, he wanted me to hold his hand while he went up. I was able to get him up there alone, and sit back on the bench. He didn't sing a single word of it, but was cute in his little suit and tie anyway. What an experiene it was. You did a great job Gabriel! Thanks for working so hard on your parts at home with Mommy and Daddy.

I think the highlight of his Sunday was going to class with his cousin, and the spiderman bag he was given in primary for doing a good job in the program. The spiderman bag is now his "baby" carrier.

Stephen said Garrett was really into watching the kids stand up and talk. He kept saying, "I want try, my turn talk." I hope we can keep that going until he's old enough to get to participate.

It was a good day. My baby is growing up fast, and his brother is following right behind.

Tagged again

So, I got tagged again by Crystal and Heather. I'm supposed to link to their blogs, then post 7 random things about myself. I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO LINK TO OTHER PEOPLE'S BLOGS. Maybe someday I'll figure that part out. So 7 random things will just have to suffice...

1) I absolutly detest cleaning bathrooms. Everything about them disgusts me. EWWW Yuck!

2) I landed myself in handcuffs and in the back of a police car during college. It's a long story that maybe I'll tell someday. I didn't do anything wrong, but the people I was with did...one of them actally got take in by the officers.

3) I participate in an anuual plant assassination every spring. Stephen just sits back and waits for all my plants to die. He's good humored about it though. One of these days I'll get them to all survive.

4) I'm addicted to ice cream. I HAVE to eat it everyday.

5) When I can't get waited on in stores it drives me crazy. They're getting paid to ease my shopping experience, and expidite my trip. When I have the kids with me, and KNOW that I've got limited time before they go wild I get really irritated.

6) I have a crazy, super nose that can smell stuff from miles away; not the sense I appreciate when I'm nausiated.

7) I'm a math IDIOT! I married my engineer minded husband so I'd never have to do another math problem again. My last math class was my sophomore year of high school.

I'm a pretty random person, Stephen says he knew I was weird, but had no idea how weird until after we got married. AWWW, isn't he the sweetest romantic? I just have to remind him that it's endearing, not weird.

My First Tag

So, this was the first time I've been tagged. Ya'll know that my pictures are a disaster and not in any kind of order. This is from my folder in the 4th position of all my randomly organized folders, and the 4th picture in that folder. There were some cute, very old, pictures of Gabriel, but this was our 4th one.

This is Stephen and one of his former Priests at his mission farewell. He is a strong young man, who has a testimony of steel. He'll be a great leader, and successful "grown-up".

We both worked with the youth at church for a couple of years after we got married. Stephen worked with the young men for longer than I worked with the young women, but we both have many fun memories. This young man was one of boys in the group of Priests that Stephen worked with for a little over a year. The group went on many fun camping, boating, and high adventure trips. Stephen always said if they ever got into trouble he was going to take off his wedding ring and pretend to be one of the boys, so the other leader would have to take care of it all. He does have a youthful zeal about him, and I think could've pulled it off. This young man has come home from his mission now, and is married. Time really flies by.

I tag Taryn, Ashley, and Nancy.

The results are in...

Well...the day after the election Stephen got his first call from a customer that decided not to buy, due to the election results. We don't even come close to shadowing the $250,000 or $120,000, depending on which one of our future elecorates is talking, but many of Stephen's customers do make that much, or more. They were told VERY clearly what is going to happen to their take home income, so now they're choosing to not spend. GRRR, we were pretty sure that this was going to happen; I never dreamed that it would start the day after the election. Just for the record; I voted, and have voted in every election since my 18th birthday. That means I voted even when it wasn't the "cool", trendy thing to do. Now that that's off my chest maybe I can improve my attitude. :-)

We were blessed with that gut feeling that an indirect dent would be made in our pocketbook via the big dent that would be made in Stephen's customer's pocketbooks. I had kinda hoped it would hold off till I was done with maternity leave and could contribute a little bit again. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to make it work. We've been preparing, and obviously are practiced at living on a commission based income....it goes up and it goes down....and is always an adventure.

I appreciated President Packer's talk on Sunday for Stake Conference. He was clear, concise, and transparent about the times that we are in. I value the advice he gave us, and hope that I take it to heart, then put it into practice. The time to prepare is now transitioning into the time to rely on that preparation.

Most elections my guys NEVER win. This election I'm happy to annouce my state legislator that I wanted won, and most of the propositions went the way I wanted. So, I'm glad about that.

On a totally different note, I have to talk about the cute song Garrett sings often in the mornings when he wakes up. It goes something like this:

Itsy bitsy spider up water spout.
It rain down melted, melted, melted.
Ashes ashes we all fall down.

He used to wake up and immediately scream his little head off. Now, he gets up, sings, and plays for quite a while. I wish I had a camcorder that was motion sensitive so it could follow him as he plays in his room. He's developed a great imagination under his brother's training. I can hear Garrett talking for his animals and cars. It's too cute when he's warning one to watch out for the other, then it'll get quiet and I'll hear, "ohhh noooo CRASH!!" Boys will be boys, the bigger the crash the better.

He PEED in the Potty!!

I've decided that if we're going to have a 3 year break between our second and third kid, I should have a break on the diaper changing too. Our little Gabriel wouldn't even try till he was 3 1/2. I was not excited about the prospect of Garrett following suit, so I went ahead and put him in pull ups just to see what would happen. We're "lucky" in these parts that we have no winter, or anything that even resembles cool weather, so I can just put him in a shirt and pull up and see right when he's peed in it. That way he, at least, gets used to stopping what he's doing and changing.

This morning Stephen noticed that he'd been dry for a while and put him on his new spider man potty seat.

(AHHHHHH, cue the light and angelic singing) It happened....a real, full pee in the potty!

Until now we've had some squirts, but nothing substantial. I'm so excited we might actually pull this off before #3 gets here. I'd take even a month or two of fewer diapers. It might make me a bad mom, but we bribe with candy for using the potty. Since, we've just finished trick-or-treating, there is plenty of candy around to bribe with....and I don't have to buy any of it. Timing potty training with Halloween might be right up there at genius level. ;-D

When my sister was potty training, my Dad made up a cheer for her. Yes, we use it too. After a while the candy phases out and the cheer takes over. Here is Garrett's cheer from this morning.

Rah, Rah, Rah
Sis-Boom-Bah,
He did it in the pot,
Garrett thanks a lot,
Yeeaahh Garrett!

So far, both boy's names have fit right into the rhythm. We'll have to make sure we name #3 something that will fit into the cheer, too.

Sunday Marathon

This is a little thing that I want to make sure I remember.

We started our Sunday at 11:00 a.m. attending our own ward. We all stayed for Sacrament, then Gabriel and I left at 12:00 to head accross town to see Arianna's Primary Program. When Gabriel went to tell Arianna good luck, I noticed a lady I knew from the Deaf Branch. I chatted with her for a minute and saw the interpreter chair was empty. I asked if there was someone on the way, and she said someone was supposed to be there. As the meeting started the chair was still empty, so I ran up to check if she wanted a fill-in till the interpreter arrived. I had to remember all of my church signs quickly, it's amazing how fast you forget the signs you don't use regularly. I was lucky to get a copy of the program so I could follow along. Kids either talk really really fast, or really slow, or don't ennunciate clearly; all are difficult to interpret. It's funny I've been singing all the same songs in our own ward for the entire year, but today kept forgetting what the next line was. Gabriel was a really good boy for Nannie and Uncle Rob in the back, I was glad to not hear him the whole hour. He really wanted to go to Sunbeams with Arianna, so I stayed the whole block, and let him go. I hope he was good for the teacher. It was a guy teacher that was alone because his team-teacher (wife) just had a baby. Poor guy had a huge class, luckily only two of the kids were boys. Gabriel did well, and always has fun visiting other wards.

As we left I noticed a text message on my phone. Aunt Sassy needed a kid "fix"; she hadn't seen any of the kids for a couple of weeks. I was STARVING and today was Break the Fast at the Institute, soooo of course I stopped by. Gabriel was very excited to see Aunt Sassy, Nannie, and Papa. I was glad to see all, but one item, on the menu was soy free. That meant he got to eat too. I made a deal with him that he could talk with his voice as long as he didn't run at Sassy's Church. It was pretty successful, especially when he was given a kitchen assignment to "help" Sassy clean up. He was the dish dryer. I walked in to his fuzzy little head sticking up above the counter while he worked away. All went well till he got a BIG bowl and couldn't hold it, so he set it on the dirty floor to dry it. Nannie ended up having to wash that one again. After Break the Fast, Sassy was in the Chorale Concert Fireside. Gabriel really wanted to stay for that, and they needed an interpreter to cover a last minute cancellation, but I needed to get home and rescue Stephen from hometeaching with a 2 year old "companion". During our drive home Gabriel asked how Jesus talked to us. I tried my best to explain prompting by the spirit on a four year old level. I don't think I did it well because he asked if the Holy Ghost was inside Jesus. I wanted him to at least be clear that they are separate. So, lamely, I said, "no Jesus and the Holy Ghost are friends, not inside eachother". I told him that the Holy Ghost will bring feelings to our mind and heart FOR Jesus. Then as abruptly as he started down this path he changed it back to a normal four year old topic.

I got home with my two boys (7:15 p.m.), and the wrestling match was on. I wish I could have a tenth of their energy. I finally had to hog-tie Garrett so Gabriel could focus long enough to get his Sunday shirt unbuttoned and get changed. I asked if they wanted to watch a Sunday movie. They were pretty excited about that. Each boy got to pick one; Garrett picked The Brother of Jared and Gabriel picked The Kingdom of Heaven. They settled in and were calm for the whole Brother of Jared movie. As the movie depicted them traveling through the wilderness Gabriel looked at me and said, "I feel weird in my heart." I told him that's the Holy Ghost telling him that this is a true story. He corrected me and said, "No, It's Jesus in my heart." I just agreed with him and said that feeling means that it is true, and when you feel that you can believe it. He nodded his little head and settled back into watching the movie.

What a lesson for me, it doesn't matter how young, or wild, or seemingly oblivious they are, kids are close to the spirit, and DO recognize it, they just don't have the words to explain it all. I've seen other times I was pretty sure Gabriel could feel something, but this was the first time he expressed it. Oh, how I hope he can keep that weird feeling throughout his, and follow its guidance.

Do you want to be my "Friend"?

The other day Gabriel got bored during quiet time. He and Garrett got together and "found" something to do. They shredded every Friend Magazine in his room. Being the superbly calm, and laid back kinda Mom that I am (yeah right), I didn't yell. He was lucky about that. I decided, instead, to take away all of his toys, books, and fun stuff from his room. A short time later Gabriel looked down at one of the shreds and said, "Oh noooo, it's Jesus." I seized the opportunity, and reminded him that all the pages had Jesus on them; he tore up Jesus. He's getting the idea that if you don't take care of your things they're going to disappear. We'll see how it worked next week when he gets some of his toys back.

"Undecided"

So Stephen and I have lots of political conversations, but most of them are when the kids are in bed so that we can talk without interruption. It's been interesting watching what the boys pick up from those around them.

On the 11th we went to the Buckelew Farm Pumpkin Patch. (I have pictures somewhere in my digital mess) After they picked their pumpkins we went to play the games in all the little booths. One booth had a pumpkin painted to look McCain and one painted to look like Obama. The kids got to look at the painted faces and "vote" for who they wanted. Both chose Obama, we were good and didn't do ANY coaching on who to pick. I asked why they picked that one, pointing to the Obama pumpkin, and Garrett said, "Daddy!" When I looked again that pumpkin did have black hair and brown eyes just like Daddy. These boys LOVE their Dad.

We went on with life; and this morning Stephen was reading the headlines outloud during breakfast. One of the headlines said something about Obama, I don't remember what exactly. Garrett looked up from his cereal and said, "Obama scary me." Just two weeks ago he was voting for the pumpkin rendition of him. So, I guess he's one of those undecided voters out there.

Nap time

Stephen thinks he's funny, when he can catch me "sleeping on the job". Notice the kids are still wearing their bibs from dinner. At least I got them fed right?? This was a pretty exhausting day.



Gabriel rarely sleeps in the afternoons anymore, but he does do "quiet time". I can usually hear him in his room playing who knows what, but I can tell he's got quite the imagination. He recently went through a phase and refused to close the door. I told him he had to stay IN his room, I caught him doing this one day. When he looked up and noticed me there he said, "I'm still in my room." I wouldn't care if he would stay right there, but he doesn't, he sneaks farther and farther out. Garrett's door is close to Gabriel's and often Garrett wakes up. When that happens we have CRANKY evenings. I think we've come to an understanding..."quiet time" is in a room with a closed door now, but if you want to stay awake you can.

Can you change a tire??

Stephen has a fancy dancy phone that he takes pictures with often, then emails them to me. So, that's why I have a bunch of pictures to post today. I still haven't been able to figure out the ones from my camera...someday.

Stephen noticed something in the tire of his truck and took it in to get fixed. The tire guy took the tire back, then started calling other people over to look, then Stephen say him wrestling with the tire. Stephen couldn't figure out what the heck they were doing. When it was all finished they brought this rod out. It was pushed all the way into his tire, only the little silver end showed, it just looked like a nail. This is why he drives his truck on construction sites, and not the little car. I was impressed at his talent for finding such a winner to puncture his tire with.

Buckle up...

I don't remember where we were going for this, but I'll tell ya about it anyway. We got Gabriel buckled up first, then while I was wrestling with Garrett's seat (I detest Garrett's seat, I can't wait for it to expire in 2010 so I can get a new one) Gabriel buckled up his "baby". If you look closely at the chest clip you'll see his "baby" elephant.
He proudly annouced that his, "baby" was buckled too, and wouldn't fly out the window now.

For better or worse he got the message that we wear seatbelts so that you won't fly out the window and die if we crash.

He's since lost that baby and now has a "sister" lion that also gets buckled up every time we leave. They really do soak up everything that is said around them, even if it doesn't seem like they're listening.

My cheese stick broke!

You all have to promise to not look at the mess in the background of this picture. We took this right after a ceiling fan, toilet and furniture change, someday we'll figure out what to do with all the junk.

As for the picture look at Garrett's cheese stick. As he took it out of the wrapper it broke in two, and the world stopped spinning right then and there. He got mad and didn't want to eat it because it was ruined. He ended by putting his little head down on the table so pitifully, and looking soooo sad. Finally he decided to go ahead and eat it after Gabriel "broke" his too. This kid has perfected 2-year old drama! When he can get to the floor, he'll very carefully lay down, then proceed to kick his feet and finish his tantrum, all the while sticking his little pouty lip out.
DRAMA, DRAMA, DRAMA!

Summer time critters

We get geckos that come out every summer and eat all the nasty bugs that hang around outside. This summer there were lots of babies. That is Stephen's hand, this little guy was tiny. We caught him before he got into the house. I'm happy to report that there are still more bugs outside than inside. ;-)



These are all the big geckos that came out one night. They really come out when the Monsoon comes. We forgot to turn off the light on the fan, so all the bugs kept flying into the window and the geckos were waiting for them. Gabriel LOVED to watch the geckos stalk a bug and then catch it. It was one of the few times that he was quiet and still; he didn't want to scare the bugs.

Breaking the News

We broke the news to Gabriel that he has a brother on the way. He has the most expressive eyes I've seen in a kid. There are times that I can only tell what he's feeling by the look in his big brown eyes. His eyes had a deeply concerned, sad look come into them. He said, "No it's a sister." I went and got the sonogram pictures, thought I could maybe use them as a visual aid. He was impressed with the little profile pictures of his body and head. Then I showed the last one; the one with the profile of the "boy parts". I asked, "What is that?" He looked very deflated and said, "A weenie." (I don't know if that word is allowed on the internet, but that was his answer.)

He sat for just a second then asked, "Where is my sister?" How's a mom supposed to answer such a sincere question? I doubt that an explaination about Mommy is doing her X chromosome part, but Dad likes Y chromosomes is going to cut it. I answered, "Well right now I'm making a brother and maybe later Jesus will send a sister." He asked, "Can you start making my sister right now?" Stephen chuckled and took that one; he said, "Only one baby at time, we have to finish making your brother then let him grow up for awhile (15 months of grow is a minimum for me :) then maybe we can make a sister."

He thought for a couple of minutes and accepted another boy and announced his name will be Jo-phes. I think he got that name because his own name is "Ga-bi-el Maskey Joe-phes".

Since I'm on names Garrett has been working on learning his whole name. For several weeks now Garrett has thought his name was Garrett Maskey Joe-phes. I corrected him one day and said, "No, it's Garrett Charles Maskey." Garrett giggled and said, "Garrett Cha-es Maskey Joe-phes." As long as he realizes he only has three names before Kindergarten all will be well.

IT'S A.....

'nother boy. He really wasn't the most cooperative little thing (he gets it from his Daddy). He was curled up with his back facing the screen and stayed that way. I think he was probably hungry, I hadn't eaten since breakfast and it was 3 p.m. I can always feel a little bit of movement about 20 minutes after I eat something. I should have eaten on the way over to wake him up a bit. When it came time to see his "boy parts" this was the most clearly we've seen so far... it was a side profile and there was no mistaking that we have a little boy on the way. We both saw it even before the tech said anything.
I'm not sure how to break the news to Gabriel; he's getting another brother, not that sister he keeps talking about. It's gotten to the point that when I refer to the baby he corrects me and says no it's my sister. Poor little guy, I feel bad for him. We really were fine with either gender, but Gabriel has been so insistant, I almost hoped it was a girl so he'd be happy. I guess that's just how life goes. I'm excited to use all the cute little outfits that have been packed up for 2 years.

According to the myth...

So I had an appointment yesterday to check on the heartbeat of our little addition. The doctor asked if I had any idea about the gender. I told him that this time around I honestly have no idea. (With the first two I knew they were boys, because I had a weird, random dreams that didn't make sense; but I was pregnant with a boy in each of the dreams.) This time I've only had one weird dream and I was pregnant with boy/girl fraternal twins. We know there is only one in there, so that wacky dream didn't help me at all. The doctor said that the heartbeat is on the fast side, and according to the myth that means it's a girl. I know it's just an old wive's tale, but it's fun anyway.

Tomorrow is the sonogram to find out for real. It's kinda exciting not having any idea before we go, but not exciting enough to not find out till the birth. :-D

Follow up on the update

So, I did leave a lot of details out about the toilet incident. Now I'll share a little one. When we pulled the toilet up we discovered a mushroom thing growing under it. Yeah I know it made me want to puke. Since there was dirt, instead of foundation, and moisture due to the leak it was able to grow. This morning during breakfast Stephen said, "Last night I dreamed that there was a mushroom growing out from under the tub. So, before I left for basketball (he plays 6 days a week early morning) I had to go in and check to make sure there was nothing there." It made me laugh. That must have been a really traumatic experience for him to clean up and fix if he's dreaming about it now. Poor guy.

As for the stories behind my mom's comment. I'll share, because it should be on record for when I'm a Grandma and get my own revenge.

The make-up: I don't even use make-up except for weddings and family pictures. So it just sits in my little make-up bag. One afternoon Garrett got out of his room during nap time and then busted Gabriel out of his room. They were VERY quiet, so I didn't hear them from the family room. Later I got to thinking that they should be awake and went looking for them...empty dark rooms was all I found. I honestly thought they'd gotten out the windows somehow. Then I heard it....GIGGLES! I followed the sounds of joy to my bathroom. I opened the door to find Garrett standing in the sink and Gabriel on the floor in the middle of a puddle of foundation. Immediately Gabriel tattled that Garrett was getting into the medicine cabinet. HMMM There were layers of hair gel, hand sanitizer, and make-up everywhere. Then I noticed they were covered in a while film and saw the two empty deodorant containers. I'm weird about deodorant so they were two empty EXPENSIVE deodorant containers. Grrrr, off to the second bath of the day for them. I wanted to make sure anything else I couldn't identify was washed off of them too. As I washed Gabriel down there was a ton of brown coming off his arms and hands. Apparently foundation and lotion can be applied to the arms and hands the same way.

Gourmet omlette: Stephen makes fantastic breakfast burritos. When Stephen is making them he puts a bowl in the sink and breaks all the eggs right into that bowl. Early one morning Gabriel came and woke me up with, "Mommy it's terrible Garrett broke the eggs on the couch." Yep, this is often how I wake up in the mornings, to some kind of disaster. As I stumbled into the family room, very grateful that we have free, not nice, hand-me-down couches, I saw the egg carton sitting next to Garrett. I had bought that carton of eggs the previous evening. Next to Garrett was just one broken egg, and a whole egg in each hand. Lucky only one broke....I thought. The carton was empty. I asked Gabriel where the rest of the eggs were. He explained that they had been cooking like Daddy. I looked in the sink and there were the other 9 eggs smashed to pieces, NOT in a bowl. They were lucky that they were the normal store eggs and not the farmer's market expensive ones.

To all the psychologists out there that say we genderize boys to act like boys and girls to act like girls. I CAN ASSURE YOU I DIDN'T TRAIN THESE BOYS TO DESTROY EVERYTHING THEY CAN GET THEIR HANDS ON. Boys simply are boys from the moment they enter this world.

Watching these mobile wrecking balls brings a whole new meaning to the proclamation on the Family when it says that gender is an essential characteristic of premortal, mortal, and eternal existance. (not exact quote) I know not all boys are quite this destructive, and I have hope that we can harness the energy and flow of "ideas" coming from them into something productive someday. Until then, I'm sure I'll continue to live in my little anthill of chaos. These are the golden years right?? I heard during conference that someday I'll miss all the fingerprints. At this point I'd let them leave fingerprints on everything if it meant a reduction in the messes. Another note, a fingerprint is not good enough for boys they want the destruction to make NOISE (rip, crash, shatter, thud followed by a howling crying) you get the idea. I'm grateful the weather has cooled down enough that I can usually talk them into going outside for awhile.

Until the next note worthy disaster.....

Update...sort of

This is our old duct work....yeah it's supposed to be a tube coming out of there. That would be the reason it was all changed out

So I got the basics of a blog figured out, then this semester got CRAZY! I'm teaching a class on 2 days a week. Each class period is just under 3 hours, that's a lot of prep work. I'm interpreting 2 other days a week, and taking a 3 hour long class for myself Wednesday nights. The Wednesday night class has a ton of reading and 12 essay assignments invloved in it. I don't like writing for a grade, I'd rather give an oral presentation any day. It has to happen this semester though, so I'll be missing in action till December. The kids are still wild and crazy; Stephen is and has been awsome with them so far this semester. I am SOOO blessed to have him leading me when I'll follow, by my side when I need support, and behind me pushing me forward when I'm in a stubborn, exhausted, ready to throw in the towel kind of mood. Putting a pregnancy on top of it all is really not condusive to a functional, nice Mommy, good thing it's a temporary thing.

About that I have to write this down so I don't forget.
Gabriel loves to head-butt with that little boulder of a head he has. One night I finally told him that he can't head-butt Mommy anymore because there was a baby in my tummy. The head-butting has lessened. A couple nights later I asked if he was excited to have another brother. ( We haven't found out what it is yet, but history says it'll be a boy) The following conversation happened.

Gabriel (very serious tone and face): Mommy it's a sister.
Me: What if it's another brother?
Gabriel: I already have a brother, I don't need another one, I need a sister.
Me: Sometimes Jesus sends lots of brothers.
Gabriel: No, one brother and 5 sisters. (That many sisters scares Stephen)
Me: We don't have any girl stuff.
Gabriel: Go buy girl stuff.
Me: It'll all be pink.
Gabriel: Oh, I like pink mucho grande. (He has always loved pink, as soon as he could reach the racks at the store I had pink stuff getting thrown in the cart)

Funny boy. He's been talking about his sister since late last spring. We hadn't even started trying at that point. I got lots of funny looks, and confused congratulations because I wasn't even pregnant yet.

Garrett's funny new habit:
Garrett will eat everything he wants off his plate, then quickly switches everything he doesn't want to Gabriel's plate and announces that he's done. We'll call him on it and he holds his empty plate up so proudly, and says, "empy". How young they start. Yesterday he put all of his carrots on Gabriel's plate then stacked his empty one on top to "hide" the evidence. He's gonna be a scary teenager.

In addition to our cunning boys we have had the summer of home repairs.
Early summer we finally landscaped our front yard. It has been the UGLIEST unlandscaped piece of dirt for 6 years, I was ready for it to change. Stephen had drawn up a design with his pool software a while ago, and we finally installed it this summer. That was supposed to be the one big project of the summer. Wellll, we all know how plans go...

In July I noticed Gabriel's room smelled funny. I just explained it as sometimes boys smell funny, and I'm pregnant so my nose is on overdrive right now. Come to discover his carpet was wet, the toys on the carpet were wet, the books were wet, and the sheetrock was squishy. Grrr a leak in the wall. The pipe to the hose spigot outside had a weld let go. Stephen cut all the nasty, moldy, stinky sheetrock out, hired a plumber to re-weld the pipe, sanded and treated all the yucky wood studs in the wall, replaced the wet insulation with much better insulation, installed new sheetrock....and then realized there was no way he'd be able to match the texture over the patch. Luck would have it, he ran into a guy at Home Depot that had the machine needed to match the texture. He came and did a great job in Gabriel's room and on the large hole behind the front door. Garrett helped "create" that hole behind the front door. The texture guy said this was one of the few jobs that he didn't have to do over again. Good job Stephen...you did a fantastic job.

A couple days later I noticed moisture around the base of our front toilet. I was not excited about what this repair may lead to, Stephen wasn't excited either. It got worse and worse, so we couldn't ignore it anymore. Stephen pulled the toilet up and EW...I'll spare you the details. This repair would not be easy. After Stephen studied a how to build it book, a contractor, and the depths of his engineer mind, he came up with a plan. Our quality home's foundation didn't go all the way to the pipe that comes up from the sewer. Stephen had to pour additional concrete, install a new flange, while making sure that all the bolts were in place while it set up. However, I did get my new TOTO one piece, 10 out of 10 flush rating toilet. One piece was important with little boys potty training. Now there is no space between the tank and bowl for boys to pee in. :-)

Our last repair of the summer was a big one. All summer I thought I was going crazy because the house felt much hotter than in the past. I would check the vents and didn't feel any air coming out. Stephen climbed into the attic and discovered our duct work was fully detached from our cooler. Yeah, the cooler was blowing cold air into the attic, not my house. Grrrr! I knew I wasn't crazy. So a couple weeks ago, we hired someone to replace all the duct work in the entire house. This is one time I'm glad our house is small. My vents are now little mini wind tunnels. AHHH, cold air.

I hope that we can wait a while to save up and replace the leaking roof and finish our the block wall around the back yard. Both are crazy expensive and we want to have the money in hand first.

This was a super long post, I have pictures to accompany all the "fun". Those probably won't be posted for a long time...but someday I'll get them up. :-D

My first picture

I'm still trying to get this all figured out. Feeling so inept is certainly keeping me humble. I just randomly clicked on a photo from this year as my experimental one. After taking every pillow off the couches, the boys then decided it was time to cuddle and refresh themselves with some juice. It was pretty funny seeing two big boys in a baby seat. Lucky for us this little chair can hold up to 40 lbs.

Great Expectations

So I got this thing up and running, now I have to get pictures figured out. I'm gonna catch Stephen and tie him up while he helps me get all our billions of pictures downloaded and figure out how to get them on a post. Stay tuned for our Labor Day Update...

I'm finally doing it...

I've had a blast keeping up with all my friends through their blogs. Well here I am. My very own blog. I was a little resistant to the idea because I figured it'd be one more thing I didn't keep up on very well. I just recently learned that they can be printed like a journal so I'm sold. Now I don't have to write in a journal. All my important things will be preserved via the blog mode. Of course not everything can be shared on the internet, but I wouldn't want everything preserved anyway. If I don't want you to read it, I don't want my great grandkids to read it either. Stephen would call that "Mariah logic". I would just remind him that it's endearing. My next post will include a collage of our summer highlights. Ashley, there will be pictures of the yard. :)