Monday, March 30, 2009
Hooray the Gardens are OPEN!!!!
See, the boys love it! They have added a "Nature Class room" section filling in the garden path where the children's garden adjoins the main gardens. Saturday was the grand opening so we got to play and make wooden nature necklaces. Here is Carter jumping across the logs:
And coming out the tunnel:
And both bubbas playing with "tree" blocks. Who knew? They loved these blocks, it was all we could do to pull them away from them. My dad and bro will be chopping down some trees next week and saving me some branches so we can have a little nature classroom in our backyard. :)
They also enjoyed the bear cave and lighthouse as always though we didn't have time for the mazes. And sad to report that the water based Noah's Ark will no longer have water :(. Too many parents ignoring the "swim diaper only" rule. Bummer, but there is so much fun to still do.
Any UVMOM moms looking for an excuse to come check this out--April's play group will be at the gardens! We'll be having an Easter egg hunt there as well, stay tuned for details. :)
A new Del taco (with a play place) opened next to Thanksgiving Point so we hit the grand opening for lunch. It was funny, they had clowns and the boys were so freaked out. I had to escort them to the other side of the clowns so they could go play. Carter never got over it (they had a bad experience on the Pinocchio ride) but Davis warmed up eventually. He walked out with a balloon hat and a Batman painted on his hand on top of his nature necklace--definitely a good day for Davey boy.
After nap time, which was ever so luxurious in my clean house, we caught up with my sister Hillary who works at the gardens and she got us the hook up on a golf cart. It was getting dark so it was a great way for a quick spin around my beloved gardens.
So you'd think that 2 ever so naughty boys would be enough for one household, but we are lucky enough to also have this little fellow:
Oscar-nut-nut. Isn't he adorable? Yes, that's what has kept him alive. He is our 3rd mini schnauzer, the one we were never going to get. We got Maxwell and he was going to be our only dog. A year later the owners of Max's parents (Maximus and Maizie) emailed me to let me know they just had puppies again. We realized how lonely Max was and decided to get him a dog, our silly little Maddy. That was definitely it for us until a friend of my sister's was giving away Oscar, already neutered and "trained" and Lowell fell in love. He is so Lowell's dog. Anywho . . .he is such a naughty little dog, and Lowell thinks that makes him all the more endearing. He not only gets into the trash, but he taught the other dogs to as well. So yesterday I was barely awake when I got a call from our sweet neighbor to tell me our white dog was out in the pasture behind both of our houses . . .with a cow chasing him. I ran outside in a robe and my bare feet trying to plead with him and then bribe him to come back under the fence. A board at the bottom of the fence had blown over and exposed a little area where the fence curls away from our house where he had slipped under. Being curled that way it was easier for him to get under than to come back and all the pleading and treats and trying to drag him were getting me nowhere. In the meantime a winter storm was threatening, wind was blowing my hair like crazy knotting it into the fence, and my feet were freezing! I called Lowell back from sacrament meeting (we don't bring the boys, there will be no more discussion about that) and he walked over to the fence and the stinky little dog just ran right under to him. I was so miffed, I just stormed inside. I'm glad he'd come for Lowell, but come on! I really was just glad he was safe, at one point he was barking at a horse and running around trying to bite his feet. The gentle horse was being kind and trying to avoid the crazy dog but I knew one misstep would be the end of my puppy and I would be watching it as it happened. Scary! Anywho, there's a story for you lest you think my boys are the only naughty ones. :0)
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Thankful Thursday
1. It seems like this is on every list, but I am thankful yet again for UVMOM. Our twin club is so awesome. This week we had a planting play group--playing at a park and then planting some seeds. Here are some shots:
My new fav pic of Davis. He was actually "running away" here but was still willing to smile. He put on his back pack and told me he was going to school. I told him boys that poop in their pants don't get to go to school, but that's another story.
And here's Carter. Note the nice summer time wear--it's snowing outside now. sigh. At least Lowell got to break in his new snow plow at work.
2. This week I was thankful for Reva going shopping with me. So fun to go out with a girl friend especially when you bring along company like this:
Don't these look like such a fun (and full of trouble) group of boys! For the record only mine are trouble, Reva's boys Andrew and Anthony are really just sweethearts. They are a month older than my yahoos.
3. I am thankful my naughty naughty boys (today they thoughts it would be great fun to dump an entire bag of Cheetos down the heater vent. How to even start cleaning that up???) can make me laugh. We just got home from running errands and were eating dinner while watching Pinocchio (pronounced 'eeyokiko' of course). Davis decided he really needed to go potty but did not want to stop eating or watching the show. So he went and got his potty and found this solution:
Lowell says he's a "man". Who knows, but it worked. :)
4. I'm thankful for Uncle Robbie. My bro comes over each Sunday and the kids just adore him. Here they are modeling their superhero PJs.
And here is what you get when you mix a Sunday evening with Uncle Robbie and superhero PJs:
Note the clock shows it is past 9! They were having so much fun though.
5. Finally I am thankful for dress up. This is the bub's new favorite thing. Every time I pick them up from the gym they are both dressed as cowboys. At the Children's museum it is firemen:
If you haven't guessed yet, I used the thankful Thursday format just to set up the pics, but it was better than my normal narrative wasn't it? I need to throw in a Happy Birthday to my sis Hillary as well. The boys enjoyed picking out treats for her and were so bummed when they didn't get to yell surprise when she got her flowers. That night did not go at all as planned. We were going to go to the zoo, but we were 5 minutes too late. So we went to the children's museum which it turned out closed in 30 minutes. Then everyone who was meeting us for dinner were going to be an hour and the kiddos who did not nap weren't going to wait. Alas they did not get to give their surprise. But I did enjoy dinner with my family and am as always grateful to my honey who took the onery children home, fed and bathed them, and put them to bed all while I schmoozed with my fam.
Oh and just because I know you love my book reviews, I have just finished reading all 4 Twilight books again and it is official, I can't pick a favorite. Each one is my fav while I am reading it, I like them all for different reasons. I have also watched every second of special features on the DVD and call tell you the audio commentary is not worth it (I like Robert Pattinson less after that too--not that there is anything bad about him, he just got annoying and I don't like his British accent) but the documentary "Script to Screen" I did enjoy. I just might be done with Twilight for a while, I have made the big leap to . . .The Host. :) Seriously though after that I am moving on from Stephenie Meyers I promise. Loves!
Monday, March 23, 2009
Argh!
My boys are growing up
Lowell double fisting turkey legs--he's so funny.
All the kids and grandkids on the beach (except BJ)
Fun shot of Carter waiting for us on the rapids ride--I love his little face
Baby D waiting as well--he's so good to smile for the camera.
My trouble makers having fun with a freezer that doesn't have a lock on it.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Leprechaun Treasure Hunt and Farewell to Meadow
So after another particularly nasty night at work (silly moms trying to bleed to death at 2 am and even sillier mid-wifes getting emergency release blood--what a crazy night) I got home and set out the leprechaun foot prints. In retrospect they certainly aren't realistic, like a leprechaun would step on a piece of paper for each step and then only use his right foot? But you better believe 3 year olds ate it up anyway.
Here's a section of the path, it wound from the living room, through the kitchen, down the stairs, and into the guest bedroom where the leprechaun hid the "treasure" under the bed. Lowell had to remind me that they are sneaky so it had to be hidden.
Treasure=whatever we found at the party store while I convinced myself I didn't need the Edward cardboard cut out (really I don't--I like the vision I have of him in my head while I read better than the movie version.) It ended up having nothing to do with St. Patrick's day, the closest thing being the gold gum coins, that were stamped "Congrats Grad".
So when the munchkins got up the hunt was on and they were thrilled--here's Davis trying to decide where he went next, maybe up the window--nope he was naughty and walked across the table.
Success! We found it!
Yeah, candy for breakfast!
Carter is a bit obsessed with his balloon boat--I got sick of blowing it up so he worked on it all day and can blow it up pretty big on his own now. Not bad for boys with under-developed lungs.
The toys actually kept them busy for almost that whole day. We enjoyed the sunshine sitting outside blowing bubbles and playing boats in their water table. Tuesday night we went to the Dino museum, I know you're all surprised, and had a junk food dinner :). Weds was grovery shopping day-ugh! There just isn't enough room in the cart for 2 3 year olds and a week's worth of groceries. Everything comes home smashed and of course we return with an abundance of treats we don't need but that kept my sanity as we shopped. Oh well, 1 more week down. Albertson's had frosted mini-wheats and Cheez-Its on sale. Oh another random sale--for the trip we splurged and got the kiddos little video mp3 players for pretty cheap. I have found them even cheaper now if anyone is interested, $25 with free shipping. They'll hold a bunch of music and a few movies perfect for said shopping trips (no they don't actually work that long for my kids, but you know, children with a normal attention span). Here's the link: http://www.buy.com/prod/sandisk-sansa-e250-2gb-mp3-player-fm-tuner-fm-on-the-fly-recording/q/loc/111/205562657.html?adid=17654&dcaid=17654 .
Wednesday also marked a sad day in the Penrod house hold, Lowell's last day at Meadow Elementary school. It's a good thing, he's moving on to the better paying, more prestigious, many many more toys, actual office position at Willow Creek Jr. High but he will so miss the folks at Meadow. Seriously, what an awesome staff, lots of good people. The lunch ladies have fed him so well the past 2 years. Whenever he'd be out pushing snow he'd come in to a hot cocoa and a freshly made cinnamon roll. Though he had finished what he had to do there, it was still so sad to leave such good people. Here's the card the lunch ladies made for him:
He also scored a number of gift cards--we have eaten out on the generosity of the school since Christmas and now we have more. I don't think anyone at the school reads my blog, but just in case, thanks for taking such good care of my hubby. And thanks for telling the new lunch ladies about him, he is already eating good at his new home.
I just spoke to our mortgage guy and I am excited that rates are dropping below 5 again. We are going to be able to say $150/month with our new rate, hooray! Oh and if anyone is considering new construction is Utah--now is a great time. Utah is giving a bonus of $6000 cash at closing for new construction on top of the $8000 tax credit the government is giving. And FHA loans are at 4.75%. Great deal for first time home buyers.
Enough informercials from me. Tomorrow is UVMOM play group, hooray--so I better get some rest. Loves!
Monday, March 16, 2009
Irish for a day
Me, the honorary Irish member. The bracelet is actually quite pretty to me, almost tempted to get a real tattoo (almost).
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Catching up
And this one of Davey just cracks me up. Isn't he menacing?
Tuesday night (this post is obviously in no particular order!) I had the chance to go to the twin club Mom's Night Out and as always had a great time. We exchanged dinners (I made 12 stuffed french breads and came home with 11 other dinners) and now my freezer is full of ready to bake meals. Such a luxury, I love the idea of popping one in and knowing dinner is done. Yeah--thanks everyone for your hard work. I can't wait to taste it. :) Then we stayed up late (as always, actually I left by 10 that has to be a record) playing Dance Dance Revolution and Rock Band. It is so fun and funny--I think we are hillarious. Good to smile and compare whose kid did the most outrageous thing stories. Carter being able to shimmy out of his pants to get out of his carseat while the car is in motion scored pretty high. Crazy kid. He's been my love bug and helper the last couple of days--love him!
By Wednesday this week it had become apparent that the kids were getting more and more off schedule rather than the reverse since the time change. We took drastic steps and skipped nap to get them to bed earlier (Tuesday they were up til midnight and then slept til 10 am). To get them to stay awake during nap you have to keep them very active so we were very excited when my sis Hillary told us she could get us into the gardens. The gardens don't open for another 3 weeks so it was a double bonus, I got to go to one of my fav places on earth early, and we were the only ones there. Of course it paled in comparison to its full bloom glory but the kids still loved some free space to run and play hide and seek. Lowell and I savored the quiet being able to hold a full conversation and of course, I had the camera at the ready. That reminds me to mourn the official ending of Nikon. Samsung has finally returned from service and taken its place. Goodbye Nikon, thanks for the year of great service and saving the Disney trip by living through a bath. Anywho . . .
Carter in a flower pot--they pretended to take a bath in them.
I love this shot and 10MP, it's so clear. :) This is at the fish pond trying to lure a few of them to the surface (they're hiding in the warmer waters at the bottom).
Davis. He managed to cause our one real problem in nearly 2 hours there. With no one else there we let them run pretty free and just kept walking to lure them to the next location. Davis didn't follow for a few minutes so we doubled back to see what he was up to (you better guess it was no good). He found this turnstyle that connected to the golf course but that was chained and locked since the gardens are closed. That didn't stop him, he climbed up and back down the dividers and was sitting on the golf course taunting us since there was no way we were going to fit. The heavens were smiling this day because with very little prompting he climbed back to us. Whew! Of course in the tussle to get him to come back Carter threw a fit (he wanted to climb too) and cracked his head a good one. My poor abused brain-damaged children. Lucky our pediatrician understands and hasn't reported us (yet!).
Every year I get shots of each of the kids and the 2 together at the gardens which we have hanging in our room. It's quite early and the background isn't great yet, but these may qualify to be those shots for this year. I could kiss those silly boys for smiling for me!
I know, I am so spoiled right?
We found a lonely tiny bug on the way out and the kids were SO enthralled, it took 20 more minutes to get them to leave. Such stereotypical boys. Could they laugh any more at bodily functions, I doubt it. Butts are so hillarious at my house. Here's a good one for you. Davis told Lowell he needed to go potty so he went to get his little toilet. By the time he got back Davis was outside, pants pulled down, peeing on the lawn. He came in like it was nothing and told Lowell, "I pee like the doggies". Oh my, if he starts lifting his leg . . .I don't want to think about it.
The gardens trip worked, the boys were out by 9:30--an unbelievable feat! Of course Davis woke up an hour later from a nightmare (something about a big car and Carter and blood, poor kid was so scared). And I stayed up until midnight reading New Moon. Yes this is pathetic on so many levels, I could have taken the chance to just once get to sleep early but no I stayed up reading a book, I have already read, and just a couple of weeks ago. Sure I knew what was going to happen, but I couldn't put it down. Oh well. That's nothing compared to the anguish I felt when I realized the movie did not come out on the 10th as I read somewhere, but actually on the 21st, still more than a week away. Sigh.
Here's something to cheer me up though, a few glimpses of spring:
A crocus (I think) on the way to the waterfalls (turned off by the way)
More crocuses in the daffodil garden (they'll be up soon!)
The first tiny little sprout on the seeds we planted. It happened pretty quick, less than a week--the boys were SO excited.
Okay, pics updated! I guess that wasn't very far to catch up, I've just taken that many pics. One other piece of fun news, I am going to be an aunt again in September. My baby brother (yes he seems very young to be a daddy to me) and his wife are expecting, this will be the only other grandchild on my side. They are also in the process of buying a condo so fun stuff for them. Okay, that's all--I love you bye bye!
Monday, March 9, 2009
Memory Lane
So, March 10, 2001 was a Saturday. The night before I had gone out with a guy named Jon from my ward that I had finally gotten the guts up to ask out. Saturday I spent the whole day cleaning apartments at my cousin's apartment complex. I was grimy and smelled like cleaning supplies. Out of the blue the same cousin called me (Whitney) and asked if I would go out with a friend of hers. She wanted to have someone double with her and her hubby and had tracked down Lowell (a friend from Jr. High) to go with me. It's funny how that worked out, Whitney hadn't talked to Lowell in a year but he was free so he decided to go. Whit didn't even give me time to shower but I hurried and changed my clothes and ran out to meet them. We went to a little mexican restaurant close to my apartment in Provo and then got movie tickets for "Meet the Parents". Whit and Josh had other plans for that late so Lowell came back to my place to hang out until the movie would start. We played Risk and he "won", but only because he took way more guys than I did and I was too chicken to say anything about it. A debate over that fact continues to this day, I am certain he would give you a different scenario. We went to the movie, which was funny, and he took me home. I gave him a hug and he gave me his phone number on a card for a free bowling game. He said that way if I didn't want to call him, I could still go bowling. Then he left. Pretty much a typical first date. It's so crazy but there wasn't anything spectacular about that date at all. I was excited to meet Lowell, I thought he was handsome and nice. I hoped we'd do it again but I had no idea at all where that night would lead me. He is handsome, don't you think? That's when things went different than I would have expected. Though the date was nothing out of the ordinary, I could not get Lowell off my mind. Even though I met up with Jon the next day, Lowell is all I could think about. I replayed every moment of that date over and over in my head. It was driving me crazy! Later my cousin called to tell me Lowell had a good time and I told her I did as well. She told me he was going to call and after my obsessed weekend thinking of him I was very anxious to hear from him again. He did call and I talked him into coming to see my lab (I was in the middle of my clinical lab science program at BYU and spent A LOT of time in my lab there). He said he wanted to see Leukemia under the microscope. The next day I told my lab friends that he wanted to come up and joked that I was going to marry that guy (for being interested in my lab stuff). He came over and brought Moose, his sister's pomeranian puppy who was insanely cute. Talk about a way to win a girl over! Then we went to my lab and I thought I was being incredibly funny by showing him sperm under the microscope--I was (am) such a nerd! I was getting more and more interested in this boy who did not stand out that first night, but I was still seeing Jon off and on in between. The next Saturday changed that--Lowell invited me to go see The Testaments at Temple Square but I was watching my little sisters that weekend while my parents were out of town so I invited him to come to my parents' house. He spent the day with us and that is when I definitely fell for him. I felt so drawn to him, it was irresistable. That night we watched "Undercover Blues" and he finally got my hints and held my hand. When he left, he kissed me (swoon!). I have been with him pretty much every day from then until now. He went to Oregon for a couple days and I had a work trip to Texas, but most every other day.
We spent a lot of time together, like I said every day. We'd stay up very late just talking (okay kissing too). We climbed Timp (above) and the Y (below). I met his family and he met mine. Unfortunately my parents weren't fond of Lowell. They were crazy! My dad is just over-protective and thought I could do better, and my mom liked Mark the missionary. It didn't matter to me what they thought I knew my directive from the Lord so I continued to pursue the relationship. Less than 2 months later we started talking about marriage. It freaked us both out. Just because it was so fast and crazy to imagine, not because it felt wrong. Maybe because it felt so right.
8 years later as amazing as it would seem to me back then, I love Lowell even more now. He never ceases to amaze me. He just gets better and better with time. A whole new dimension came out when I was pregnant. The already amazing hubby went to a whole new level and even more so when the kids arrived. I know I brag about him all the time, but what can I say--I'm still crazy about him. I can hardly believe the Lord could have prepared someone so perfect for me and led me to him. I certainly don't deserve him but I am grateful for him every day. Love you honey!