Meter and Missing my Dad

I found this fun meter on my friend Jillian's website and had to try it out (you can too, just click on it). I was so surprised to see both boys equal between Lowell and I. I still think they look just like their daddy and that is a good think because I think he is hot! Seriously, best looking guy I ever dated and the pic on the meter is my very favorite, it is him on a swing holding both the boys but it actually looks like him which hardly ever happens in his pictures. I don't know what it is but all his pictures make him look chubby in the face which he isn't. Anyway, the rest of the pics are from our Christmas card 2006, not sure why I chose those, just a pic that had all our faces on it. I actually really like the boys' faces in that shot, but yes I do have a *few* more recent pics. Well, what else have we been up to you might ask? Same old same old, winter keeps sneaking back in, it snowed today, ugh!!! The tulips are really struggling and the poor Tulip Festival at the gardens is nearly over with only half of the tulips in bloom. I guess it is hard to plan these things a year ahead of time. Of course I go every week so I will see them all eventually but I think it put a damper on the event and probably didn't do well for revenues. We are going again on Saturday to Thanksgiving Point, first to the baby animal birthday party at Farm Country (cake is included, hooray but yes we also went there on Monday this week and the new baby goats are THE CUTEST ever!) and then to the last day of the Tulip Festival to hopefully catch some of the vendors, musicians (including a wandering bagpiper), and of course, the fish! (or tulips, depends on who you ask!) I'll add a couple of *new* pics of the boys since the others are old, these are my tool loving munchkins--tools from grandpa who we can not wait to be home, I can't even tell you how excited I am about that (sidebar:Kind of a r e a l l y long story which most of you know, but someone may not and be wondering where my dad is, well, he is in prison and has been since the boys were only 3 months old. He is a lawyer and worked for an investment firm which apparently did some less than legal things that my dad had no part of and did not even know about for the most part. The worst of which for the government is finding ways for people not to pay taxes--something the prosecutor never proved they did unlawfully but that is another discussion. He was charged with "Conspiracy to Defraud the Government" which is such a bogus charge as it does not mean you had to defraud the governement, just work somewhere where they might have thought about doing it. My dad was added to the trial simply to delay the speedy trial clause (he was added like 1.5 years after everyone else) and because they were tried altogether and not individually he was found guilty with everyone else. Something about "he was a lawyer, he should have known better". That all happened before my kids were born and then shortly after the boys' blessing he surrendered himself to a minimum security camp (the lowest security you can have, no cells or fences even, it looks like a Jr. College and he spends most of his time reading, jogging, and referreeing soccer) in Taft, CA--yep that's a 14 hour drive from here. So the boys have only seen him 3 times since then and he will be released to a half-way house (in Utah!!) in September or maybe even June depending how they interpret a new law that just passed. Now you know! P.S. Don't always assume people are guilty in prison it's not always the case. My dad is serving with mostly accountants, judges, doctors, and other lawyers and many of them should not be there, especially for as long as their sentences are. Seriously, kill somebody and you are in state custody and out before you know it, screw with the government and you can forget about it. I am not biased in any way about this. As much as I have missed my dad I do have to say he is so amazing about this all. They gave him the opportunity to get out of it but he had to testify against other people (lies about other people) an option many people took but he could not. He has taught the Sunday school class there and passed out many Book of Mormons. Many guys have left with the missionaries numbers and many less active members have been strengthened by my dad. I am very proud of him and the example he is to my kids. But I am very ready to have him home again).

Well that ended up being a much bigger soap box than expected, especially in this blog about my boys! Sorry, pent up frustration I guess. Anyway, the boys are excited for grandpa to come home, we get in the car and sometimes they'll still ask, "go in car, go see bapa?" Sure maybe they remember that the last time we saw him we also went to DisneyLand, but they miss him. Soon enough I guess. Okay, enough mindless rambling for one day, back to "work".

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A Day Away from my Pirates!

For the record, yes these are of 2 different children and yes, from the side or back especially when they are dressed the same I mix my children up. I have no problem telling them apart from the front or even from their voices most of the time (Lowell is better at that though, he could tell their cries apart from the beginning when I could not), but even when I know which one I am talking to I still call them the same name some times. I feel pretty stupid in public when I say, Davis, or Carter whoever you are just come here! I do think this happens to all mothers at some point though, not just twin moms because my mom always did it. Anyway . . .my kids have been crazy about pirates since they rode the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at DisneyLand (I thought it would be too scary and yes I am personally afraid of the drops even though they are small and that does make me a woos, but Lowell talked me into it, so yes Hon you were right!) so I was thrilled when McDonald's was doing pirate stuff in their kid's meals (nope I never do drive thru with the kids, they have healthy meals all the time--check our toy room and you'll know that's a LIE! They have every kids meal toy ever made I swear! We did try to eat well though, I usually add fruit and veg to their plate with the chicken nuggets). They wore the eye patches around all day and insisted on sleeping with them on and say "Arrhh" as often as possible.

As much fun as they can be, Lowell and I were truly thrilled to have a day off this week. I was surprised at how much we talked to each other and how little we have done of that in a while. It seems like any time we start a conversation it is interrupted or we are screamed over so I think we just haven't spoken as much because of that. It was also eerily quiet and eating out was just a blast. Except for one major thing, I had a big plan to eat at this fun restaurant that had sent me a gift card and after we hiked all the way from the parking lot, they were still hanging sheet rock! It wasn't open yet! So we hiked back and went to Marie Callendar's instead. Yum! We also picked up Cheesecake Factory cheesecake on the way and had some chocolates to much on as well. You might have guessed that this was also a vacation from my diet--I am a little scared to go to the gym today and get on the scales, but I still think it was worth it to have a little splurge. Today I traded in my giant IHOP breakfast for a Slim-Fast shake and a oatmeal bar ! Oh well, 12 lbs down, I am 1/3 my way to my goal with swimsuit weather upon us, I will plug on. The time share Robbie reserved for us was great, we are really considering getting ourselves one some day if we can manage the financial aspect. It is just different to stay in a "condo" type room with a full kitchen and separate living room than a standad hotel room. It would be even more beneficial with the kids as they just need room to stretch out. Blessings on Robbie's head again they are opening a new timeshare close to Disney and we hope to stay there next year.

Home again, life goes on. Davis had not slept well while we were gone (something about a certain grandma who thought he would be happier sleeping with her not realizing that taking him out of his room would mean 2 more hours before he would be asleep!) and was a cranky bugger when we got home, oh well, the full night's sleep helped us deal with him at least! I don't know if I mentioned that Lowell has been off this whole week for Spring Break. That is SO awesome to me because I have so much help and it is blast getting to go do things with the boys that I just don't brave doing by myself. We went to the gardens, children's gardens, zoo, and plan on going to the dinosaur museum or farm country tonight. For those who live anywhere near Thanksgiving Point, I might have said it before, but I LOVE that place and we are constantly there. Our year's pass is the best money ever spent and I just found out they are adding a children's museum to their property, hip hip hooray!

Well, that's what we have been up to. The weather is s l o w l y perking up, but it did snow twice this week, so the spring clothes are still on hold. Oh and Lowell's early Father's Day present is not yet needed but he is thrilled with it nonetheless, a John Deere riding lawn mower. I'll post pictures some time, he does really need it though, our yard is almost 1/2 acre and it took him an hour and half each week last year. I just have to laugh that it has a cup holder! But Lowell says he'll take the boys for rides on it and maybe get a snow plow attachment someday, so fun stuff! Back to work, loves to all . . .

2 and a half!

Well, the boys are officially 2 and a half now, does that mean we are halfway through with the terrible 2s? I could only pray so. Today was not a good example of fun times with the munchkins. Granted it was mostly my fault, it was nonetheless frustrating. When we got home from the gym I was feeling pretty good because I am finally starting to lose some weight (hooray!) so when Carter asked to play with the keys, I figured why not, it will keep him busy while I get lunch together. We have a remote keyless entry and he likes to push the buttons and watch the doors open and close. So once lunch was ready I went out to get him and lo and behold he is the van with the keys and it is now locked. For the next 2 hours I, and then Lowell proceeded to try to coax the child to unlock the door, pull up the latch, flip the auto door lock button, or hit the unlock button on the remote. And nope, not going to happen. He did however enjoy eating an entire bag of gummy worms right in front of me as I could do nothing about it. He also broke my cell phone jumping on it after making several long distance calls. Lovely child! I guess it was good he wasn't freaking out like I was--I think he truly was enjoying not having to be taking a nap like his brother was. The boys' wonderful Uncle Mike came with his slim Jim which got stuck so $45 later a locksmith had the child out. I was at work by this point but I don't think Lowell was very happy with him upon his exit. I do know he went straight to bed for his nap. Ohh, a story we'll laugh about some day right?

It was kind of a hard day for me in another way, I sold their Step2 Clubhouse Climber. A year ago this is all I wanted in the world, enough so that I did one of those online offers schemes, you know do so many offers get the thing you want for free schemes, in order to get it. And you know what, it did actually work. I spent about $150 on the offers including some things that I did actually want and some that I did enjoy and some that were perfectly useless. But at the end of it they did send my $600 climber for free and with free shipping, normally $150. So quite the deal but the kids never really did play with it. We moved to a bigger house with an existing swingset and better yet, trampoline right after I got it. I kept it inside to help us get through the winter, but still it was hardly used. So with much difficulty I decided to sell it so another child could get some play out of it and even more so that I could open up the space it is in for "another" playroom. Now they will have a downstairs playroom with most of their toys and their current playroom is going to be my "preschool" where we will have our little lessons and do all the arts and crafts. I am sure it is a good thing but it was hard for me to give up. The boys now have $400 (less 45 for the locksmith!) in their future fun account. I think some will go toward their Disney tickets next spring, possibly some for gymnastics lessons in the fall, and some for odd toys that come up between then like a toddler basketball hoop is on the list. We also sold the slide that was on the old swingset and one of the baby swings as the new swingset replaces those (and the climber for that matter) and the money from those will fund their zoo pass for this year. I like the idea that they are selling their toys and purchasing their own activities. They have no say or role in the exchange, but I like to think of it that way. Otherwise the money would go into my general fund and inevitably be spent on groceries since the prices are going through the roof!

Not too much more to say about that other than Lowell and I are going away overnight next week and I couldn't be more excited. Like I told all the poor suckers who will be watching the children, I just need to not be a mom of 2 year olds for 18 hours! We are going up above Ogden to stay in Robbie's time share (blessings on his head!) and plan to catch a movie (Leatherheads) and have a lovely ribeye steak dinner and some high calorie breakfast after sleeping in. Something about a hot tub is planned in there too. Most of all there will be no diapers, no screaming, no food throwing, no biting, . . .(but also no little boy kisses or hugs and I am sure we will talk about them the whole time and be excited to get back to them. Thus is the life of a parent!). Peace out, time to catch some sleep here at work before I head home to the monkey heads!

Easter Take 2

So, I guess I don't really have that much more to say about Easter but I have lots of pics to share! I have to say that I am very pleased that the weather turned out so I could put the boys in these outfits, I adore them! Lowell hates them (too girly) whatever. I bought them last year (they are size 18 months) and they didn't get to use them much due to the weather. So I was especially happy when the weather was decent that these still fit, woohoo for me! Kind of makes the money spent on ebay for them more worth it. I must admit I am crazy about my kids' clothes, I could buy more every day. I am just about done getting their summer wardrobe set up so I will have to take a break until fall from my shopping. Such a bummer. Good news, I get to dress them up in all their new clothes soon. Yea! The funny thing is I absolutely hate shopping for myself, it is lucky I wear scrubs most days because I have very few other clothes.

Alas, the age old question, ears or feet first on your chocolate bunny. You will note the boys took opposite positions on this, with Davis going ears first and munching the whole thing down and Carter going feet first and would not eat the head! Such a funny kid, Lowell was happy to finish it for him. Speaking of finish, Lowell is very happy to announce that he has finished the swingset. Hooray! He really did the whole thing by himself and it turned out quite well, so props to Lowell. He can finally relax (yeah right, now he is on to planting pansies, planning the garden, resealing the kitchen floor . . .the guy doesn't stop--I am so lucky!) The kids have been a bit trying this week (Lowell wouldn't say it as nice he is ready for a vasectomy!) They have been especially whiny and defiant and just not sleeping great. I think the sleep is what is causing all the rest and the sleep is from teething and some stomach bug and just being 2.5 and wanting to stay up and play with their best friend. It's like a sleepover every night at our house. They are in their rooms with the door closed and lights off (seriously pitch black in there) and they can still play for an hour or more laughing. That's the only thing keeping them together right now, I love that they have that bond and chance to play so I kind of hate to separate them, but the kids have got to sleep too. Their days our numbered if they don't improve, we are lucky as we have the room, I just have to rearrange their playroom.

In other news, Spring is here and I couldn't be happier. It is like there is this fog for all of winter and once the haze burns off everything looks a little brighter. The gardens at Thanksgiving Point opened this week, a day I have been counting down for weeks. I went all the way until it closed last year and was there opening day this year. I am going again today! It is just such a lovely walk and soon the tulips will be up and I will be in heaven. I picked up a used sand and water table for the boys this week and am looking forward to them being outside playing with water (as opposed to in the sink where I found them drenched this week!). I am always amazed at these kids ability to climb. I can take away the chairs, locked all the drawers, take out the diaper packs, sound makers, everything off the floor and they still find ways to turn out the light in their room (pile of clothes mounded up) and get into the sink (climbing the cabinet handles). I can't wait to get them into gymnastics and put some of their talent to good use but I have told them they have to wait until they are potty trained--another story for another day! Now, back to work . . ..