Rub-a-dub-dub...

...two boys in the tub!

It's so great now that I can put both boys in the tub at the same time. They had sooo much fun together this morning splashing and sharing toys. It doesn't really save me any time by combining baths since I have to basically wipe down the entire bathroom from all the splashing, but at least my bathroom is now close to spotless! (And will probably stay that way as long as Josh keeps trying to eat the shower curtain.)

On a different note I am now starting potty training with Spencer. For some reason he has been really resistant to anything potty related, so we have been taking it really slowly. But this past weekend he and I had several conversations about going potty, and he said he was grown up enough to go potty... soon. Good enough for me!

Spencer is totally bribable, so that's the route I have decided to take. I discovered his "bribe sweet spot" - Spiderman toys. So I created a chart that showed what kind of treat he would get each time he went potty. This includes candy, cookies, and toys. (One treat or toy for each time he goes potty.) The ultimate treat once he finishes the chart is a trip to Chuck-E-Cheese, the coup d'etat for three year old boys. He gets to put a sticker on the chart each time he goes potty. I also created a picture chart that shows exactly what to do when he needs to go potty. (Like run to the bathroom, pull down your pants, wash hands, etc.) He really likes the charts and helped me tape them on the wall above the potty.

We went to Wal-Mart this morning and he got to pick out the toys, treats, and stickers. He was really quite excited. On the drive home we talked about going potty. We got home and... no dice. He will not go potty. We practiced standing on the stepstool, pulling down pants, everything. He completely understands the concept, but he's standing his stubborn ground.

So I have decided to tempt him by displaying all of his potty treats on my craft table in the office. He knows he can't touch anything on there until he goes potty, but I have seen him in there eying it. I can hold out indefinitely; I won't bother him or nag or even suggest. I'll just let the glamor of toys and treats do that for me. How long do you think before Spencer gives in?

Let the battle of wills begin!

Simple Luxuries

Today was Josh's first time in the shower with me. I love taking baths with babies! They're so cute and shiny and slippery! Plus, they're almost always happy in the shower with you. Josh bellowed and yelled like a deranged moose the entire time - a sure sign of Joshie joy. I had to laugh because his belly is so big it hangs down low enough that we wouldn't have to censor any pictures taken in the shower, if you know what I mean!

While I was in the shower I decided to shave. (Not a simple feat with a 22 pound slippery Hulk underfoot!) This got me thinking about the simple luxuries we enjoy in life. When we were starving students I always bought the cheapest Bic razors possible. It's not that we really couldn't afford nicer razors, it's just that I felt our money could be spent in better ways. So about a month ago I was at the store and realized "Hey, I can afford nicer razors now!" and I promptly bought a Gillette Venus razor.

Ooh la la! Yes, I'm livin' the high life now.

Most of the time I will buy the generic/cheaper version of whatever product I need. In most cases it's just fine; why spend more for the same thing? Jiff versus Wal-Mart peanut butter? Can't tell the difference. The big Malt-o-Meal bags of cereal taste just as good to me as the small $4 boxes of the brand name stuff. Expensive $10 t-shirts for my kids get just as stained and torn as $3 t-shirts.

But then there are things that I'm willing to pay a bit more for. I will never buy generic low fat low calorie yogurt again (it tastes funny to me) - it's Yoplait all the way, baby! High thread count sheets - totally worth the extra cost. But then again, Spencer sleeps on the cheapest ones possible, and he's fine with that. The cheapest hair spray and mousse work for me, but I do splurge a bit on my haircuts. (I give Lance and Spencer their haircuts because they just don't care!) I know people who are willing to pay for "fancy" toilet paper, but I just get the cheapest stuff at Sam's Club. And once I started using REAL vanilla extract in my baking, I knew I could never go back to imitation, despite the cost difference.

So, what are your simple luxuries? What are you willing to pay a bit more for? I think it will be interesting to see the results!

And the winner is...

Okay, so maybe this was easier than I thought. But it was still fun, right? I mean, you have to admit that they look quite a bit alike. By the way, Ginger, of course I can tell them apart. Whether or not I call them by the right name is another issue... but on to the winner!

And the winner is... Christy! Congratulations! This should come as no surprise, seeing as you all had the exact same answers. Christy, I thought a good prize for you would be to make a donation to Autism Speaks Inc. (Seeing as you live in Nebraska and the postage on a prize would probably put me over my "prize" budget for the month!) Christy has been doing a great job spreading the word about autism this month. I have learned a lot from her, and I think it's great that she's so passionate about it.

Okay, even though this is a short post it has taken me an hour to get this far. Despite their cuteness, the boys have been especially demanding this morning. Josh is fussy because of his latest cold, and Spencer keeps running around yelling "I'm a mad monkey!" and making unreasonable demands. (More breakfast, a bath, juice, etc. :) So before I get interrupted again, I'm outee.

Seeing Double?

The first thing I said (in my state of delirium) after Josh was born was "He looks just like Spencer". He still looks a lot like Spencer. It's a good thing that all of our digital photos have time stamps on them!

I thought it would be fun to play "Spencer or Josh? Which Baby is it?" (It's a working title.) Let me know who is who for each pair of pictures. The first person to get them all correct gets a mystery prize! (It's a mystery because I haven't yet decided what it is. Perhaps I'll get a prize to fit the personality of the winner. Perhaps I'll just get something out of the clearance aisle at Target. Either way, it's gonna be great!) The first picture in each pair will be "A" and the second will be "B".

So let me know - Spencer or Josh?

p.s. I just tested Spencer on this and he got 6 out of 7 right. The pickle pics threw him off!

Picture Pair #1


Picture Pair #2


Picture Pair #3


Picture Pair #4


Picture Pair #5


Picture Pair #6


Picture Pair #7

House WORK

Hooray! Our fence is finally finished. It was completed yesterday by Jared Harrington of Harrington Builders (he's in our ward). Good job - I highly recommend him. Now that the fence is in the real work begins. Lance and I spent the day digging up the big rocks in the back yard and patching the holes in the grass in our front lawn. (The builder did a terrible job of laying the sod, thus the holes.)

Here are a few pictures to show how things look now - hopefully in a few months the "after" pictures will look a lot better! (Assuming we have enough time, money, and talent!) The details are mainly for my family, so I won't feel bad if you think it's a bit boring - just scroll down and see the cute pictures of Josh and a pickle. :)

But if you are a gardener and have any suggestions, please feel free to let me know!

Front of the house - facing East

See the polka-dots patches on our lawn? Cute. Hopefully in the next few weeks that will be lush grass. We are planning on expanding the flowerbed out to the right to the sidewalk. We'll put a small ornamental tree in the middle of that new section (in front of the porch), and some ground cover of some sort underneath it. We're taking out the junky bushes in the front bed and putting in some conical junipers that will eventually grow up to shade some of the window. I think I'll also put in some marigolds or other flowers.

Front of the house - North side

We're not quite sure what to do with this side of the house. It's kind of a worthless piece of land, usually shady and full of huge rocks. It's so narrow that we decided not to even fence it in. I'm thinking of just planting two lilac bushes on the edge of the sod in order to hide the cheaper grass behind it. (We don't want to waste money sodding it!)

Front of the house - South side

This is the side the gate is on. We're going to sod in front of it, but don't really have any other plans for this side of the house yet. I'd like to put a Colorado spruce somewhere there, but Lance doesn't like them. We'll see who wins.

Back of house - South side

I plan on putting my garden on this side of the house. It will get sun most of the day (this picture was taken late in the day). I may have part of the garden against the house and part of the garden against the fence, with a grass walkway in between. (Maybe we'll even spring for some stepping stones!) Yay! A real garden!

Back of house - facing Northeast

We're going to put sod on all of this part of the lawn. We'd like to have a swing set or a sandbox at some point back here.

Back of house - facing Southeast

We're sodding all of this area, too. But I would like to put in some raised flowerbeds along half of the fence on each side (meeting in the corner). Nothing too tall - maybe 6-12". Maybe a small ornamental tree at the end of each side, just to "cap" it for the eye. I really like Dogwoods, especially in the spring. I think this will all make for a good view out of our kitchen/dining area and living room windows.

Pickle Me Josh-O

There's nothing Josh likes more than a good dill pickle. Unless it's a french fry. Or squash. Or Cheerios. Or applesauce. Or... well, you get the idea!

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Park Pics

We took advantage of the warm weather today and enjoyed an hour at the park. Spencer had a blast running out some of his pent up cabin fever energy, and Josh had fun eating bark and trying to figure out what grass is. They're both my hunks of burnin' love!
On a random note,
I can't get enough of Josh's fat rolls. They are the cutest! Don't his wrists look like they have rubber bands around them? Love it!

Spencer, on the other hand, is a lean, mean, playin' machine. He's so skinny we can hardly keep his pants up even when he wears a belt. Talk about opposites...

I still think Moroni's the coolest.

Yesterday, while we were driving home, Spencer randomly started talking about the Gingerbread Man. He decided that he really needed to make a Gingerbread Man. We couldn't figure out where in the world he had come up with this - it was very random. I didn't even know he knew the Gingerbread Man story, but he knew "Run! Run! As fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread man!

I remembered some sugar cookie dough we had in the freezer and thought I had a Gingerbread Man cookie cutter, so I told him we could make one that night. Hey, if he actually suggests an activity that doesn't involve computer games, shooting bad guys, or cars, I'm all for it!

We got everything out that evening only to realize that I didn't have a Gingerbread Man cookie cutter. Oh no! The closest thing I had was an Angel Moroni. (Part of a set my mom gave me. It has the Salt Lake temple, a covered wagon, the CTR shield, a beehive, and the Angel Moroni.) Spence thought that was pretty good, until I explained to him that Moroni wasn't holding a sword - it was a horn.

Suddenly, Moroni wasn't quite as cool as previously thought.

So I whipped out my mad cookie-making skills and cut out a Gingerbread Man by freehand. Not perfect, but good enough for Spence! He was very pleased. He was even happier when he got to frost him and put chocolate chip eyes and buttons on him. As you can see, he enjoyed eating him as much as making him. (Which was a relief - I thought he might grow attached to him and we'd have to keep the cookie around for a while.





On a totally different note...
How do you like my new blog design? Many kudos and thanks to my fabulous husband for helping me with the HTML coding to get it up. Marrying a computer geek was one of the best decisions I ever made!

A Hair-Raising Experience

So what's weird with this picture of me? (Besides the odd look on my face.)



Hopefully you realize it's the hair. (If it was something else, keep the thought to yourself!) Specifically, how it's sticking up around my hairline. Here's a closer look:



In the past week or so my hair has finally started to grow back. (It looked even weirder when it very first started to grow!) It fell out by the handful about three months after Josh was born. Did it happen to any of you? It's always totally gross. When I washed it my hands would just be covered in hair; you don't even want to know what my brush looked like! The vacuum would be full of hair. In the morning my pillow would look furry. You get the picture. By the end (it lasts for well over a month) I am always surprised I have any hair left at all. I also wonder why the hair on my legs doesn't fall out so that I don't have to shave as often, but that's a topic probably best left to another blog.

I figure the hair loss is caused by two things. 1) When you're pregnant your body hoards all the protein it can, thus clinging to your hair for dear life. Once you've had the baby it doesn't need all the protein anymore. 2) Post Traumatic Stress.

What's more stressful than giving birth? I figure few things in life are. For the love of Pete, I labored for a literal day, pushed long enough to give me some spider veins, and then had the kid sliced out of me! The fact that it takes your body so long to finally recognize this traumatic stress only stresses the fact that it's so stressful after a baby is born. (Did I mention stress?)

But you know what? It's all worth it. I would shave my head for this little guy.


Let's just hope I never have to - I don't want to know what the stress would do to me.

Our Eggcellent Easter!

It seems like Easter sneaks up on me every year - perhaps that's because the Christmas holidays are so overblown and that anything less pales in comparison.

The Easter Bunny comes to our house on Saturdays, which is great for two reasons: 1) we don't have to deal with candy-crazy kids at church, and 2) it helps separate the secular from the spiritual. (Although in primary on Sunday the kids made paper eggs that "cracked" and opened to a picture of Christ. I think that confused Spencer more than not, but oh well. It was really cute and I got the lesson out of it!) I highly recommend asking Mr. Bunny to come early to your house next year; he's really quite accommodating. :)



Josh woke up before Spencer did on Saturday morning, around 7:45am. But Spencer was soon up and ran into the living room yelling "The Easter Bunny hid eggs!" It took us a while to get daddy out of bed, and even then he just slept on the chair! (Hey, every party needs a pooper...) (Plus, it's not like HE was up all night with the kids! What's up with that?! But that's another blog...)

Spencer loved the Easter baskets. He got a soccer ball and bubbles; Josh got sidewalk chalk and a rubber snake. (Don't laugh - rubber snakes are GREAT chew toys for babies. He loves it!) They each got those weird little balls with the sucker-thingies on the ends. Here's a picture of Josh chewing on one:



Josh got a token egg to chew on while Spencer hunted for eggs around the house. He was really excited and kept missing very obvious eggs. But at least he didn't just stop to eat the candy after each egg like last year!

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It was WAY cold that morning, which is why the Easter Bunny hid the eggs inside. That also meant that we couldn't go out and play soccer. But that doesn't seem to stop Spencer from practicing his kicks in the house. (Which is probably a bad habit that I shouldn't encourage!)

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On Sunday we had our friends Josh & Elizabeth Munz and Graham & Ashley Bodie over for our traditional Easter dinner. This was our third year in a row with them, and something I always really enjoy! We had ham, funeral potatoes, spinach salad with poppy seed vinagrette, rolls, Ashley's famous green beans with garlic sauce, and, of course, the famous Munz Lamb cake. I am beginning to forget what Easter was like without a lamb cake. :) I got the "honor" of eating the... rump... this year!



I used my antique Fuschia china for our dinner. It had been sitting in the garage since last summer when my dad brought it out for me. I figured it was time to pull it out; I had been putting off using it because I was afraid of chipping or breaking some of it. I was sure that my mom and her mom would come haunt me if anything happened to it! But then I decided what's the point of having nice china if you never use it, right? Besides, having my mom and grandma haunt me would make for some very interesting blogs.

I used "place eggs" to show people where to sit. I made super-fancy eggs this year, courtesy of my friend Martha Stewart. If you wrap the eggs in patterned silk and boil them, then the pattern goes onto the eggshell. (There's more to it than that - if you want instructions let me know.) It was really easy and I think they turned out really well. I got silk ties at Goodwill, so it was cheap, too. I felt like such the domestic goddess. :)



After dinner we enjoyed visiting and playing with the kids. Josh was in a good mood and was in that particular show-off form only babies can get away with. He cooed and talked and spit and was quite cute. He was even happier when we took off his clothes - he loves to be naked! Graham gave Josh a voice for the evening - here are a few excerpts:

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All in all, a wonderful weekend!

Fight The Power!

Okay, this is how random my thoughts can get during the day.

So I was looking at Ginger’s blog about her National Certification (way to go, Ginger!), and I was thinking that maybe they (whoever “they” are) should have tests and stuff like that to be a mom. Not that this would stop all the crazies out there from having kids. But if you passed you would have a certificate to prove to your kids who's really in charge - especially once they stop believing the “Because I said so” reason everyone gives at some exasperated point after the child asks “Why?” for the 38^th time. Here’s how I envision the exchange.

Mom: "Why do you have to stop (choose one) jumping on the baby/spitting red Kool-Aid on the wall/throwing bananas in the toilet? Because I said so!"

Child: “Why?” The child continues to do whatever it is they’re not supposed to be doing.

At which point you can whip out this bad boy:

(Thank you Microsoft PowerPoint Templates!)

Mom:“See? You have to listen to what I say. They gave me a certificate in Motherhood on the day you were born. Sorry, that’s just the way it is. Just another way The Man is keepin’ you down. I’m all about fightin’ the power (raise a fist in the air), but he’s got us cornered on this one. (Feign empathy for their plight with small shrug.) Now put the hammer and nails down, place your hands on your head, and slowly step away from the piano bench.”

Sweet.

Cutest Baby Ever.

Okay, I might be a bit biased. But I love these pictures of Josh! Yes, I went a bit crazy and got 7 different shots of him; but it's hard not to when they're all so cute and you have a really great coupon. Besides, not buying them kinda seems like leaving part of your baby behind. (Am I a sucker or what? At least I resist all of the extra options they offer.) Plus, this is the only time in his life when all of those fat rolls are going to be irresistible rather than repellent.

The one of him scowling I am definitely bringing out once he starts dating! Hey, every mom needs a picture like that for blackmail in the future, right? Now I just have to figure out where I'm going to put them all...

Family Home Evening

We went on a picnic for Family Home Evening last night since the weather has been so nice. We invited our friends the Webers to join us - Liz, Chris, and their daughter Emily. During dinner we were bombarded by a million gnats. They covered everything, and I'm sure we all got a bit more protein in our dinner because of them. (Yuck!) After dinner we had fun feeding the fish in the lake, playing on the playground, and visiting. By the end of the evening Spencer's face was covered in dirt, Cheeto residue, and the result of him never using a tissue even though he has a runny nose. (Yuck again!)