The Saunders Family

Four Months Later and Finally a Post!

2011-12-18T12:31:00.000-08:00

While we were in the apartment it was kind of hard to blog. Granted, I was just being lazy part of the time, but the kids would inevitably get into something they shouldn't or break something else while I was otherwise occupied. Not to mention the fact that I had morning sickness a good chunk of the time that we were there.

So this post is 4 months late since it's from Taylor's birthday. I can't believe I have a 6-year-old! It makes me feel so old. He really is a great kid. He does really well in school and the boy loves to learn. He will spend hours reading and trying to memorize different things, like countries, capitals, or the presidents, and he has quite a good memory. I love this boy!

He had wanted a fish for a while. Good thing, because that's about the only pet I'm willing to do right now. We got him the aquarium stuff and he had to save up for the fish. The first fish he bought were some school fish that apparently needed more maintenance than we could give them. Not surprisingly they died. He was so upset since he had saved up all his money, so we bought him a beta fish. It's still alive so I'm pretty sure it will live forever since we almost forget to move it to the new house with us...

And here's a picture of Melanie since she's just so darn cute. Taylor wouldn't wear the birthday hat that he got from his teacher, but Melanie loved it.

Brownies

2011-08-12T08:15:00.000-07:00

So now that we live in Columbus, GA, I had to get a membership at Sam's Club. Now if you know me well enough, you know that I love me some brownies and ice cream. And I'll only buy one kind of brownie mix- the Ghirardelli mix from Costco. Since I knew there would be no Costco in Georgia, I decided to stock up on brownie mix- so I bought 24 mixes. However, I've been having a hard time using them. The closest Costco is in Atlanta, but I won't have a membership anymore anyway, and I feel like I'm just hoarding them so I can have the comfort of knowing that I still have plenty of brownie mix. But I finally decided to make some more with some help from Erik.

And some help from Mr. Alligator. While we were still in Washington and the packers were packing up our house our neighbor watched Erik for us. When I went to pick him up that afternoon, he was holding this alligator, and he's loved it ever since. Thankfully Claire had two and graciously gave Erik this one (which is good, considering he practically refused to let it go)

One of the girls that Kent worked with in Washington made Melanie a bright pink blanket before she was born. And Erik quickly took a liking to that, as well. I got tired of the pink blanket, so I took him to the fabric store to pick out the fabric so hopefully he would carry that around instead of that bright pink blanket. After I cut the scraps, Erik would get the long strips and play with them as snakes. He would even get other scraps to use as blankets and pillows. It was actually really cute.

Hello again, Mr. Alligator.

The apartment seems to be getting smaller and smaller while we're waiting for our house to be built (which seems to be going painfully slow, especially since we'll drive by, and what do you know? The house [which is a slab of concrete] looks the same as it did 3 days ago...). It's as hot as sin here, and so going for a walk is out of the question. So I try desperately to convince them how fun our deck out back is. It's tiny. But it will have to do for now.

Melanie seems to like it enough.

First Day of School

2011-08-08T05:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Taylor's first day of school. He goes all day now! I'll miss him, especially since he's getting to the point where he's helpful and fun to talk to, but it will be nice to have structure again. And to be able to go grocery shopping without people giving me looks of sympathy as I drag my 2 carts through the supermarket (I refuse to let my kids walk).

And then today was Erik's first day of preschool. Honestly, I have pretty low expectations for a preschool. Mainly I would like them to teach my child that he can't flush random things down the toilet or dump flour everywhere. Except I don't think they'll do that. Maybe I can just hope that he learns that it's rude to take things from other children. And to not eat his boogers.

And here's a picture of Melanie, who's not going to school. She's actually just drooling on herself right here. But she's still cute.

So when I'm getting ready to pick up Erik from school on this same day, Taylor's school calls me to let me know that Taylor really isn't feeling well. Normally I'd tell them that he's probably fine (he can be dramatic at times), but since he never even went to the nurse's office in kindergarten, I went to pick him up. Upon entering the car, he promptly threw up everywhere. Which then made me 10 minutes late picking Erik up on the first day. Now I'm sure they think I'm that mom who's always late. Awesome.

Catch-Up

2011-07-24T14:04:00.000-07:00

So clearly I'm awesome at keeping the blog up-to-date. And by "awesome" I mean I'm really horrible at it. A quick re-cap is in order, seeing as we now live on the other side of the United States.

First, Kent graduated residency. He's now a real-life pediatrician (though technically not board-certified, since he doesn't take those until October, so I guess it's not quite over yet...).

If you can't quite tell which one Kent is, he's the one under that thing called a mustache.

I'm gonna miss these girls SOO much!

So the whole reason Kent had a 'stache was because Kent's brother, Scott, was getting married. The brothers thought it would be hilarious to grow out their 'staches and wear them to the wedding. Ummm.....

Clearly it wasn't one of their better ideas.

Since we only had Melanie with us, we took a duck tour through D.C. It was great!

So after we got back from D.C., there was a whirlwind of cleaning and packing to get the house sold (yahoo!!) and to get ready for the move to Georgia. Since Kent's sister, Kelli, lives in Utah, we stopped there for the fourth of July and hung out there for a few days.

Here are the cousins altogether! Please ignore Melanie's sweet belly hanging out.

I was going to catch the blog completely up-to-date, but I'm tired of typing- our computer is on the floor (long story), and my wrists hurt...

The Tulip Festival

2011-05-17T14:47:00.000-07:00

Seeing as how I don't scrapbook, I figure I should probably keep the blog updated. I know it's been four months, but hey, I've been kind of busy (okay, maybe you can say, "lazy," but we'll just say "busy" for now).

Every year there's a Tulip Festival about an hour and a half away from us. This is the first year we actually went. I'm sure anyone from Holland would probably laugh at it, but I thought it was beautiful. And of course the place was covered in mud. Which means my kids ended up absolutely filthy.

We also met up with some friends there. Here are Taylor and Erik and sweet little Brooklyn.

Melanie was always on the floor. She would run and just fall down and roll over in the mud. And then small groups of Asian people would come over and laugh at her.

See- I told you there was lots of mud.

It was like pulling teeth trying to get the boys still enough for this picture.

There was a grass field next to the tulip fields. The kids wasted a lot of energy running around in it.

Pretty, ain't it?

Because We Are THAT Awesome!

2011-01-20T11:16:00.000-08:00

My friend, Tara, told me about how she thought it would be a fun idea if we had an Ugly Christmas Sweater party. I admit- I'd never been to nor heard of one before. But I thought it would be a GREAT idea. When I told Kent about it, he looked like I told him Christmas was coming early and that we wouldn't have to pay for gifts.

Because when we say an Ugly Christmas Sweater party, we mean an UGLY Christmas Sweater party.

The best party about Kent's was ALL of the bells. Oh yeah. And it sang "Jingle Bells."

If you can't tell from the picture, my sweater has REAL tree branches on it. None of this faux stuff, faux sure (yes, you must laugh at that).

I wish we would have gotten a picture of everyone before people started taking off. It was awesome!

Not surprisingly, Kent won the Ugliest Sweater award. But for your viewing pleasure, meet Scott, Tara's husband. I almost died laughing when I saw him.

And because I'm still playing catch-up, here are our Polar Express pictures. We went with two of the same couples from the party. And it wasn't easy to get a picture of the kids-

And before you even ask, YES, I made our jammies. Why? So my kids can be embarrassed for the rest of their lives. And we look more organized. And I'm cheesy like that.

Lumberjackin'

2011-01-06T16:00:00.000-08:00

I'm a die-hard real Christmas tree kinda gal. So off we went to the local tree farm to chop down our Christmas tree! Luckily they had warm apple cider ready for us. And by "warm" I mean numb-your-mouth hot.

I love when Kent doesn't shave. I think he loves when he doesn't have to shave, too.

"Taylor, don't go in the mud!"

"This mud, Mom?"

"Yes, Taylor. That's the mud I'm talking about."

Now which one is THE tree?

Melanie and her usual cute pacifier-in-the-mouth self.

Yes, that's Kent chopping down the tree while holding Melanie on his back. Isn't that how real lumberjacks do it?

And she started with two socks. I swear.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

2011-01-02T20:37:00.000-08:00

These are the pics we used for our Christmas cards this year. It had been a cold weekend, and that Monday it started to snow. I was talking with my friend, Tara, and she said, "Wouldn't the snow make for such beautiful Christmas card pictures?"

So naturally I had to drag my family out into the freezing weather. Without coats (because what's the point of matching outfits if they're covered up?). And then yell at the boys to stop getting dirty, and won't you PLEASE, for the 20th time, stop putting your hands in the snow or your hands will get wet and then you'll whine because they're too cold? And no, I don't have any snacks! And don't look at dad while he's running to get into the picture- look at the camera!

Anyway, Tara was right. They made for some awesome pictures, even if we were all shivering and had snot running down our noses because it was so cold. Lucky for you we didn't include those pics in the Christmas card.

And because I'm so proud of the fact that it wasn't a complete catastrophe, yes, I made Melanie and I matching skirts. Well, my first skirt was a catastrophe, but that's beside the point.

Has it Already Been One Year?

2011-01-02T20:20:00.000-08:00

I could have sworn I had Melanie just a short while ago. The first year seems to go by faster with each child you have.

She turned one on November 9th. Still not walking or talking. She had only 2 teeth but if you saw her eat, you'd swear her mouth was full of 'em. And did I mention she's positively adorable?

It was hilarious watching her eat the cake. Whenever she gets something that she's really excited for, she doesn't tear at it right away. She sits there and laughs for a bit first. It's great fun.Such a sweet little thing. We couldn't imagine life without her!

Pumpkin Pickin'

2010-12-28T12:18:00.000-08:00

I'd really like to post what we did for Halloween before the Christmas post. I was supposed to do that before Christmas actually got here. But (not surprisingly) I didn't get it done. Now I'm trying to frantically update our bloggity-blog.

So here's the annual pumpkin pickin' at the pumpkin patch. And yes, we made our kids wear their costumes to the farm so we could take cute pictures. Thankfully they're not yet old enough to care.

There were so many cute pictures of Melanie. It was hard to narrow it down so the post wasn't a mile long. Because I think she's awfully cute.

Surprisingly Erik didn't love the guts out of this sweet little kitten. I was scared for it for a while.

It's really hard to get a picture of all the kids looking at the camera and smiling. We'll settle for one where they all look fairly normal.

There was a corn maze there as well. It was pretty well-planned, seeing as how Kent and I actually got lost.

At least we got a decent picture of all of us out of the trip.

Sweet little cow tale.

The end.

*chuckle*

The Great Outdoors

2010-11-23T20:31:00.000-08:00

So pretend it's still September. And this post isn't over 3 months late...

Last year we went to Kalaloch by the coast and camped there. We LOVED it. Close enough to the beach to walk there but not so close that you're cleaning out sand from every orifice for 2 weeks. So Taylor wanted to go camping for his birthday. Lucky for him that we had planned on doing that anyway.

First on the list was some beach action.
This is me sleeping:
And this is what happens when I fall asleep and fail to keep Melanie from crawling away:
Erik doing what he does best.

Warning: lots of pictures ahead.
I love this pose.
There's a short and easy hike close to the campsite. Off the trail a little is a small stream. We love to go there, eat lunch, and throw all the rocks into the water.

How can you NOT laugh at this picture?
We decided to go check out the tide pools that were a little further away than our beach. It was totally worth it, although it was freezing and incredibly windy.

This was our pitiful attempt to get a picture of all of us. I'm sure it will be much easier when they aren't all trying to go 50 different directions.
And for my two FAVORITE pictures. I have to laugh at this picture. It makes it look like we try to lock her in the tent the whole time we camp-
"Ooh, they're not looking. If I could actually walk, I would be able to make a run for it."

And the winner is:
Yes, we're totally white trash. By the end of the trip, between the two boys, we had about 5 or 6 pairs hanging off of our rack. Good times.

Crash Landing

2010-11-12T08:05:00.000-08:00

So our laptop crashed. Which is what I use to do all our blogging (so I can watch TV while my pictures are uploading). I swear I haven't forgotten about our blog, even though most people probably assume I have and don't check it much anymore...

Did I mention...

2010-10-12T22:52:00.000-07:00

...that Taylor turned 5 on August 22nd? Well, he did.And he loves himself some good ol' lemon-jello cake. Just like his daddy.And what little boy doesn't absolutely love Legos? Star Wars Legos, for that matter.He was looking pretty sad riding his old bike with his legs going 100 miles an hour since it was so small. It was about time he got a new one. Good thing his birthday came.

It was weird when he started kindergarten. Like life was going to be totally different since he'd be gone for almost 4 hours every day Monday through Friday. It just seemed more official than pre-school. I wasn't one of those moms that left the first day of school on the edge of hysteria because their "baby is all grown up." In fact, I'm pretty sure that he was gone about 5 seconds before I started thinking of all the things I could do with only 2 kids in tow. But it's still just different. And there are even days when I actually miss him being home...

Cruisin'

2010-10-06T22:28:00.000-07:00

Two months ago (yes, two months... I'm that behind) we went to the DuPont Corvette car show. Taylor and Erik both loved it. Of course, they'd probably also love a show with a bunch of rusty old cars on cinder blocks. But we'll settle for a Corvette show.

One of the owners asked Taylor if he wanted to "drive" it. He took one look at Erik with his sticky fingers and bag of popcorn while screaming for the box of juice he had just thrown on the ground. Erik didn't get an invite.I love how in these pictures my kids look like I woke them up at five in the morning and forced them to come. I'm still trying to figure out why there were 2 Camaros there. I'm pretty sure it was a Corvette car show.Melanie hates sippy cups and hardly drinks anything from them. But she loves the camelbak bottles.You can really see his "rash" on his cheek in this one:Taylor spent about 15 minutes like this. I think he was tired...

And Then

2010-09-08T22:08:00.000-07:00

I came home to this:

Um, yeah. That was my reaction to the facial growth as well.

Tahoe and Cali

2010-09-06T00:32:00.000-07:00

Kent's family went to Tahoe again in July (yes, that was two months ago. That's how far behind I am...). And I got a whopping 4 pictures.

Here we are at the beach! Sweet little girl.

The boys LOVED the beach.

This is the first pair of sunglasses Erik was given. And what does he do with 'em? Puts them on the top of his head instead of over his eyes. Sunglasses are an accessory for me. And I practically die when I don't know where they are.

This is back at my in-laws' home in Clovis. While we were there Erik insisted on wearing that life jacket all day. He didn't want to take it off. Maybe he thought someone was planning on throwing him in a pool when he least expected it.

A Little of This, A Little of That

2010-08-14T20:41:00.000-07:00

After we came back from our trip to California in May Taylor was quite disappointed that we didn't end up going camping as a result of the rain. So we figured we could just camp at home! Here's our lovely campsite: And here we are roasting marshmallows in the backyard (courtesy of our neighbors' firepit).

And just in case you were wondering, the "camping" didn't go so well. We thought we'd just let the boys stay up and lock, I mean, put them in the tent when it was "bedtime." So we zipped it up, made sure the zippers were at the top, and went upstairs, all while listening to them bouncing off the sides of the tent. A while later we heard footsteps downstairs. Unfortunately they could reach the zipper. Genius that I am, I decided to tie the zipper down so it wouldn't unzip from the inside and told them it was bedtime. Apparently Taylor didn't think that was such a hot idea and he was slightly hysterical. So we put Taylor in his own bed and shut Erik inside the tent. We have no idea how long it took him to fall asleep, but we figured he couldn't break anything, right?

And here's the preschool graduation picture. Yes, they now graduate from preschool. And yes, I win chump-mom-of-the-year award for the following accomplishments:

Almost being late for Taylor walking down the aisle by himself (how was I supposed to know they were doing a cap and gown ceremony?? It's preschool!) Good thing our last name starts with an "S,"
Not purchasing him a balloon or flowers when every other parent did, and
Not dressing him in his Sunday best. Yes, that's my child wearing a T-shirt and jeans on graduation day.

Just a cute picture of Taylor and I. Yes, he is wearing a necktie. And no, this was not for graduation.

About a month and a half ago we realized that Erik was in desperate need of a haircut. It was getting pretty long. I almost considered letting it get just a little longer and donating it to Locks of Love. But he hated how long it took to wash the shampoo out of his hair.

Yes, he's on the toilet, but no, he's not constipated. That's just the face he makes when you tell him to smile.

Mid-haircut:

Again, not constipated.

And here's a picture of me on the Fourth of July.

That's that? Why am I wearing a mask? Well, the Friday before the weekend of the 4th I started feeling achy everywhere. But no big deal. Then on Saturday it totally hit me- I could barely get out of bed. I had a splitting headache, I had the chills, and my neck was so stiff I couldn't move it without wanting to scream. After I called Kent that afternoon and told him that he had to come home because I could no longer safely watch the kids, he came home, asked me what was wrong, and took me to the E.R. After a fun lumbar puncture it turns out I had meningitis. And I guess there are a ton of different meningitises (is that right for the plural form?) to get. Mine was viral. So it wasn't the scary kind. I spent a night at the hospital and I was discharged the next day. No, it didn't last long, and yes, I'm quite fine now, thank you!

And the other of only 2 pictures we got on the Fourth. And I made Kent take this picture. It's officially the first skirt I made for Melanie!! Technically we were supposed to have matching skirts, but seeing as how I couldn't take care of the kids that Saturday, let alone sew, only she got to wear hers. I'm quite proud of it :)

Almost Two Months

2010-08-11T15:15:00.000-07:00

Apparently it's been that long since I last posted something. Not that we haven't done anything worth posting. It's quite the contrary- I haven't had much time (okay, I haven't really made the time) to just sit and work on a post. My apologies. Hopefully people will still check our blog... eventually.

Back in May we had plans to go camping- we even had our campsite reserved. Unfortunately the weather didn't really want to cooperate, and it was supposed to rain the ENTIRE time. Not my idea of a lovely camping trip. So through much coaxing and some tears I finally convinced Kent to drive down to Clovis to visit his family. We spent a day at the zoo checking out the wildlife. No, this isn't real. And if you look very closely you can see a string of drool hanging out of Erik's mouth.

I love this picture.

This was probably taken by Kent before our riff-raff children ran up and started whoopin' and hollerin' at the poor dear.

They had this cute little area where kids could dig for fossils. Cute, really.

Doesn't the goat look totally excited to befriend our children?

And then the goat saw this:

And now it doesn't look quite as happy about Erik wanting to be friends.

And how convenient!! Disneyland is only a THREE hour drive from Kent's parents' house!! And wouldn't it just be so lovely if Kent and I went? But the kids would probably rather stay with Grandma and Grandad, right? I mean, they just went in March. Don't want them to get tired of Disneyland or anything.

Our new line of action figures.

Except I'm supposed to be running- not punching myself in the face.

We actually took a picture almost exactly like this one (same ride and everything!) when we were first dating. If I wasn't so lazy I'd go find it...

Kent was very proud of himself for maxing out his score.

No, really! Here's proof:

I'm not quite sure what I'm doing here.

And thanks to the lovely Leifson family for helping me badger Kent into making the drive. We met up with them and we had a great time!

And a BIG thanks to Kent's parents for taking our kids for those few days that we were in the Happiest Place on Earth. With no kids. And I swear, Melanie doesn't always wake up in the middle of the night and cry and cry...

Once again I realized, after going through all of the pictures, that there are absolutely none of Melanie. We really do love her. I promise. So here's one of her just so we don't feel too bad:

Yes, she loves Oreos. Until Kent told me that she probably doesn't need them that early.

Father and Son Campout

2010-06-19T21:19:00.000-07:00

Last month was the father and son campout for our ward. And Erik is now officially old enough to go with Kent without making it too much work. So off they went to go camping! I'm sure there was nothing healthy within a 5-mile-radius of the site, and I wasn't surprised when the next day the kids had a slight case of diarrhea considering the fact that I sent them off with a full bag of marshmallows and a new package of Hershey's chocolate squares.The boys had so much fun and were completely sleep-deprived the next day. But it was lovely since I was able to have a girl's-night-in, and Melanie conveniently goes to sleep at 7:30. Good stuff. If only they had father and son campouts more often...

Beach Trip

2010-06-15T22:26:00.000-07:00

It's been a while. I have quite a number of posts to catch up on, but first things first.

Almost a month ago we were planning on checking out a beach that one of Kent's co-workers had mentioned was awesome. Unfortunately, the day before we had planned on going Erik started throwing up. So Kent took Taylor to the beach to check it out. Taylor loved it and keeps asking when we're gonna go back. Maybe it's the fact that I didn't grow up around ocean water, but I had no idea starfish got that large...

...or could be found in any other color beside yellow.

I can just hear this crab saying, "Yo. What up?"

I love this picture of Taylor!

6 Months

2010-05-10T23:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, so she's gynormous. We really don't feed her pure butter, though she does eat her cereal like I'm rationing her food and she doesn't trust me to feed her regularly. I have to put her in 12-month clothes because her arms are too big for smaller sizes. She shares diapers with Erik. In fact, she's only about 7 pounds lighter than Erik. For her 6-month appointment, she weighed just over 20 pounds. As big as Taylor was, he wasn't even that heavy at 6 months. I ended up having to hold her almost the entire time at church yesterday (instead of finding some unsuspecting victim to pawn her off on), and my arms are totally sore today.

But really, is she not the cutest thing you've ever seen?

Super!

2010-05-08T21:48:00.000-07:00

So our sweet little city of DuPont held a Mother/Son dance and the theme was superheroes. When I first saw the flyer I got ridiculously excited and asked Taylor, "Hey, dude, do you want to dress up like superheroes and go to a ball?!?" His response? "Um, no. I don't want to go." But I was already excited. I was already brainstorming. And by all that I held dear, he was going to dress up, look cute, and have fun, or my name wasn't Mom.

I finally got him to at least get excited about dressing up as Batman (thank you, Batman). He already had a cape and a Batman shirt, so I just had to add on from there. And I HAD to have him wear external briefs. All superheroes do it. Actually, I almost wore some, too. But I figured that a skirt would be much more appropriate for a mom.

Here we are! Feel intimidated? You should.

Well, only if you're a bad guy.

Batman on his bat-mobile.Taylor and his friend, Jackson.Taylor and his Jedi-friend, Ryan.They raffled off the table centerpieces and we won this one. Coincidence? I think NOT!They served rootbeer floats at the dance. Taylor only wanted the ice cream. And this was after he had a strawberry shake and some ice cream cake during dinner.

Me, Stacey, Taylor, and Ryan. Aren't their costumes cute? And she made them herself!

Sarah and I.Diane, Jackson's mom, and I. She has the cutest little baby bump.

In the end Taylor really did have fun. He didn't do much dancing- just hung out by the refreshment table when he wasn't running and jumping around. But I'm so glad we went!

Two-Wheeler

2010-04-28T16:15:00.000-07:00

That's what Taylor now calls his bike. We knew he could ride the bike without his training wheels. He would ride his friend's bike that had none every so often. But when we first took off his training wheels he panicked. So the other day, while Kent was outside with the kids, Taylor took his own training wheels off and went for it.He even built a ramp. Such a dare-devil. The happy audience.

In need of a tune-up.

Down by the Lake

2010-04-25T22:01:00.000-07:00

Last week Kent on Kent's day off we thought we'd head on up to a campsite that we like just for the day. It's church-owned, and we've camped there before and loved it. They have a small lake and you can borrow paddle boats. The playground is a little sketchy, but who doesn't love a good ol' fashioned see-saw?

There is nothing boys love more than throwing rocks in water.

For Aunt Nicole

2010-04-20T09:40:00.000-07:00

My sister-in-law, Nicole, has been on the hospital for the past few weeks or so with her triplets (32 weeks pregnant! Woohoo!). I can only imagine how boring that must get. So this is for her entertainment.

Post-Easter Outfits

2010-04-19T15:22:00.000-07:00

By the time I realized that Easter fell on General Conference weekend I had already bought our Easter outfits. Yes, I'm that mom who buys her entire family coordinating outfits. So we wore them the Sunday after Easter. And we managed to get a few pictures before all three kids melted down after church.Yes, that is a cookie in Erik's hand. It was the only reason he was sitting down and not running away.Kent says that this one looks stupid crooked like this. I kinda like it that way.

Oops

2010-04-18T21:47:00.001-07:00

I really did mean to include a picture of Melanie on her first Easter in the previous post. I totally forgot. This is the only picture we got of her. How sad is that?

Easter! (...finally)

2010-04-18T15:13:00.000-07:00

This Easter was pretty low-key. It was General Conference weekend (woohoo! Church on T.V.!), so we did a lot of lounging around. Saturday night we dyed Easter eggs. I tried the rubber cement egg dying trick, and they actually turned out pretty cute (aside from the fact that a lot of them were a pale vomit color since Erik would dunk each egg in every color we had).Taylor looks so old in this picture! I guess he's not a baby or toddler anymore. I always picture Pinnochio because I think, "He's a real boy!"Erik did away with the egg dipper and just used his hand.

The past two years our neighbors have gone around to the houses on our street and painted bunny footprints on the porch. So our porch would look like this on Easter morning. This is the picture from last year-

I didn't really give it much thought. That is, until Taylor ran to the front door, looked outside, and said in the saddest little voice, "Mommy, the Easter Bunny didn't come!" Apparently our neighbors were in Oregon for the weekend. Oops. So I told Taylor the Easter Bunny was running late, ran him upstairs, and quickly painted some footprints on our porch.

Anyway, I kind of slacked off this Easter. I usually get the boys a book about Jesus for their baskets, but I hadn't made it to any bookstore. So they had a couple pieces of candy and a little stuffed animal. Oh, and some paper grass. But they didn't care and were totally excited to look for Easter eggs.

Inspecting their loot.

This Easter I made "Jesus Biscuits" with the boys. Ever heard of 'em? You get those Pillsbury biscuits, wrap a marshmallow inside (representing Jesus) and then bake them. The marshmallow melts, so it's empty inside, just like the tomb on Easter morning. Anyway, we made them, and afterwards Taylor says, "Mom, I don't want a Jesus biscuit. Thanks, though." Maybe next year...

Great Support

2010-04-17T20:36:00.000-07:00

The other day I found Erik coming down the stairs like this:

And then I heard Taylor:

"Mommy, look at my boobie-holders!!"

Classy, I know.

Ooh-Ah

2010-04-12T16:05:00.000-07:00

For Taylor's second Christmas he got this really cute little monkey from Nana D. It was then added to the collection of stuffed animals without much of a second glance from Taylor.

Fast forward 2 years. Erik was around one when he first started taking a liking to the stuffed monkey. And now he absolutely adores it. He wouldn't (and couldn't) say "monkey." But we would make monkey noises with it. And since monkeys say, "ooh-ah" that's what Erik started calling him. He's really kinda nasty-looking (the monkey, that is). Erik falls asleep sucking on the monkey's tail, so it always stinks.

But he adores it, and it's cute watching him lay ooh-ah down next to him when he gets ready for bed. And it never fails to cheer him up when he's sad.

The Happiest Place on Earth

2010-04-02T22:07:00.000-07:00

Warning: Lots of pictures to follow.

Well, we went to Disneyland right after Erik turned 2. Kent and I were supposed to go to Hawaii... alone... but Melanie was just too young still (a wet nurse is not only creepy, but probably too expensive...). So I convinced Kent to go to Disneyland instead. And every time I go it's just as exciting, though I have to say that if it weren't for Kent's parents going with us, it wouldn't have been as nice. Since Grandma and Grandad Saunders were there, we were able to go on the bigger rides with Taylor while they stayed with Melanie and Erik. Thanks for everything Steve and Linda!

Taylor was actually tall enough to ride Space Mountain last time we went to Disneyland. This time, however, we actually took him on it. Notice the look of horror on his face. And no, he didn't like it.

One of Taylor's favorite rides is Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I can't count how many times he ended up riding it.

Taylor's other favorite ride was a smaller roller coaster called Mulholland Madness over in California Adventures that gave you whiplash the entire time. It was awful. But it had a super short line and Taylor took full advantage of that.I love this picture of Linda. Doesn't she look like she's having the time of her life??Erik and Daddy on King Arthur's Carousel.

Taylor really is having fun, I promise. He just doesn't look it.

Erik loved Autopia. I actually don't really care for it. I suppose it would be great... if you didn't have to wait an hour in line.I'm not choking Taylor.

No, really, I'm not. It just looks like it.Erik just chillin' in our room.

Cute, isn't she? Though I did give Kent a hard time for photographing her without a bow.

Funny how you can spend a ton of money on vacation and the thing they enjoy most is the little water park.

I love the age that Erik is. It's such a cute stage, and he makes the funniest faces.

I laugh every time I look at this picture.

Melanie in all her splended chubbiness.

And can I just say that it's a total rip-off that embroidery is no longer included in the price of the hat? That's right folks. It's an additional $3.

I'm not sure what Erik was trying to do with the french fries, but he thought himself absolutely hilarious. He kinda reminds me of a walrus.

The hotel pool. One of the only pictures taken at the pool where one of them isn't jumping into the water that's only about a foot deep.

I love this picture of Taylor.

Attempt #349.

The only picture that was a decent shot of all 5 of us. And yes, our shirts are all matching.

The room that we stayed in had a jacuzzi tub. Man, with those water jets, it's amazing how many bubbles you can get. We lost the boys a couple times underneath all of them.

I'm constantly amazed at how many people have been to Disneyland but have never seen Billy Hill and the Hill-Billies. It's hilarious. So much so that Kent and I went to see it two days in a row. If you eat there it's great because the kids usually sit still since there's entertainment.

And what better way to end it than a trip to some of our favorite food places?

Good ol' Tito's. Awesome burritos and great salsa.

I love In-N-Out. Great burgers and I love their vanilla shakes.

But...

*dreamy sigh*

I love Foster's. They have incredible milkshakes. Their strawberry milkshake is the best. And their large is a real large.

We actually didn't see the Foster's until we had already stopped at Tito's and In-N-Out. So Kent was full and I had already had a milkshake. But it had been too long since we had one from there. So we both devoured one.

I love Disneyland. I'm already missing it. Some of our friends are going in May during a week that Kent has off, so I'm trying to convince him to drive down there, drop the kids off at Steve and Linda's on the way, and go to Disneyland with no children in tow. But Kent and Taylor want to go camping. I wonder if I can convince Steve and Linda to take the kids camping while we go to Disneyland...

Terrible Twos

2010-03-30T16:26:00.000-07:00

I wouldn't really call him terrible. Maybe daring. Or fearless. A little on the crazy and risky side. Either way the kid turned 2 on March 20. And he's the typical middle child- sometimes put on hold, but totally okay with it since he's used to entertaining himself anyway. I'm thoroughly convinced that Erik was the easiest baby ever. I would lay him down to go help Taylor with something and I'd come back and he'd be asleep. Without even making a peep. Even now he's pretty easy-going. He'll entertain himself for hours. Unfortunately it might consist of drawing on my walls. Or running with scissors. Or belly-flopping off the couch onto the hardwood floor. But he's a sweet boy, and we love him. I admit- I have a soft spot for him. Probably because he's the middle child and I know he'll get the shaft 90% of the time.

We had some friends over for his birthday. Nothing big. I don't like lots of planning and big birthday parties. I'm a little-or-no-effort kind of gal. The one thing we did do was rent a helium tank. Erik LOVES balloons.

Look at that. Could he be any happier? Okay, maybe if he had a sucker in his hand jumping off of something while holding the balloons. But you get the drift.

Have I mentioned that I hate any and all cake decoration? Every time I think, "Okay, I'm gonna try this and it's gonna come out great!!" And it never does. I've come to terms with that, and I've resorted to cupcakes. And even those don't come out as I envision them. But whatever. Cupcakes it is. I can't stand paying a bakery to make a cake that's 90% frosting, since I hate frosting.

Sorry, kids.

"Really, Mom? That's the best you can do?"

He didn't even eat the thing.

Opening the presents. Thanks to all our friends who gifted him with toys that make loud noises and drive into my unsuspecting ankles- he loves them. I've been wanting to get Erik one of those balance bikes for a while. You know, the ones that are short and don't have any pedals. I just knew he'd love it. And he did. Until he tried to get on it, realized his legs were too short, and saw Taylor take off with it as soon as he got the chance. The poor middle child. Can't even get a present he can play with from his parents on his birthday.

Since it was Erik's birthday and Kent was on call I figured I'd let the boys stay up and watch a movie.

This is Erik sniffing the cupcakes during intermission (yes, he did finally eat one).

Happy Birthday, Boo!

(There was a period of about a month when he was around 9 months or so that he was constantly crying. He was sick and always had the sniffles, he was trying to walk so he was falling down a lot, and he just couldn't keep up with Taylor. So whenever he would cry I would say, "Boo-hoo-hoo!" to him. Ever since then we frequently call him, "Boo.")

HSP

2010-03-29T21:56:00.000-07:00

About two weeks ago Erik was having a fever on and off. And then he got a nasty rash on his arms and legs. It didn't seem to bother him at all, but it looked pretty nasty. Two nights after the rash showed up Erik started having a hard time walking. The next morning the poor boy couldn't walk at all. It hurt him too much to put any weight on his feet. So I took him in. He got x-rays, blood tests, and a urine test. There was swelling in his joints in his ankles and slight traces of blood in his urine. The doctor told us that he probably had HSP: Henoch-Schonlein Purpura. Don't ask me to pronounce it- ask Kent. I hesitate to even describe it seeing as how Kent and all of our other medically-knowledgeable friends will read this and think, "She got that totally wrong..." but I'll do my best (honey, feel free to edit this post after reading). HSP is a sort of autoimmune disease that occurs after an infection (which he had about two weeks prior to this). Luckily Erik didn't get some of the more serious symptoms like severe belly pain, and although he did have slight traces of blood in his urine, it was a very small amount and the last urine test that we did was negative. HSP clears up on its own and although it can reoccur it isn't likely.

Two days after he stopped walking his wrists and knees started swelling. The poor little boy. He couldn't move anywhere. He just sat there and watched TV or read books. For almost a week he couldn't walk, which really stunk having two little kids that couldn't walk. Thankfully HSP isn't destructive, so it didn't leave any lasting damage. After it cleared he's back to normal and jumping off of things as usual...

By the way, if I did a horrible job at explaining what HSP is and I made absolutely no sense, click here to read more about it.

Peacock

2010-03-29T21:22:00.000-07:00

That's what my mom called Melanie. You see, she had this crown of long hair that stuck straight up, kinda like a peacock's feathers. It was really cute. Until it started getting too long and all her other hair fell out. Then it looked kinda silly.

So I had to give Melanie her first buzz.

Before:

And here she is after. All of her girly jammies were dirty, and so the only ones she had clean were some green ones that were Taylor's and Erik's that I use solely for emergencies since they don't scream "girl". There was no way on earth I was going to post a picture of her in which she could be taken for a boy. Especially since she looks so much like Erik did when he was a baby.

Hence the bow.

Baby Blessing

2010-03-18T16:03:00.001-07:00

Okay, so we actually blessed Melanie over a month ago on February 7th. The same day that Erik woke up with a fever, actually. Which is why I am just now posting it, seeing as how it's been quite a busy month with Erik sick, then Melanie in the hospital, then Erik sick again (more on that later).

Let me start out by saying that, once again, my mother-in-law Linda is amazing. I was very picky about the kind of blessing dress I wanted for Melanie and asked her if she would make it, but I knew she would try and get out of making it by buying one. Lucky for me I have expensive taste, and the one that I absolutely fell in love with was $250, which she was not willing to pay. Here's the original:

Kent gave her a beautiful blessing. Such a lucky little girl to have such a great daddy!

These are from the day we blessed her.

I wanted to try and get some cute pictures of her with her dress. These next ones weren't done until about two weeks later, after she was out of the hospital and feeling better. But isn't the dress absolutely beautiful? Linda did such an amazing job making the dress and don't you think it looks exactly like the original? Thank you Linda! And I have to mention that my grandmother, Donna, made this blanket for her, and my friend, Tara, made her that sweet bracelet. Thanks, ladies!

Once Melanie fell asleep in the wagon, I took the boys for a walk to try and get some pictures of them.

This one is my favorite.

Hospital Stay

2010-02-20T21:38:00.000-08:00

It's been quite a week. Well, I suppose it actually started two weeks ago. Superbowl Sunday to be exact. Erik woke up with a fever and was really cranky. After two dayswith a fever and lots of crying, for the first time as a mother I had to deal with an ear infection (I was happy to have avoided it for so long). So after a week of staying indoors and listening to Erik cry a whole lot, he started to get a little better.

And then Melanie got a fever.

It wasn't as high as Erik's, but I knew that it was her turn with the crummies. So she was cranky and didn't really want to eat too much all Monday and Tuesday. I wasn't really too concerned since Erik had just had it. On Wednesday morning at about 2 a.m Melanie woke up crying hysterically. She wouldn't nurse, didn't want her pacifier, and after an hour of her screaming in pain Kent woke up thinking that she might have an ear infection like Erik. But his ear-light-scope-thingy wasn't charged, so he couldn't check. She was also breathing hard since she was all stuffy, so he decided to go ahead and take her to the E.R. And she was admitted that morning. Her oxygen levels were low, she was absolutely miserable, and she wasn't keeping anything down.

And this is where we stayed for 2 1/2 days.

The poor little thing. It took them about 45 minutes to get her IV in. With all that fat it was hard for them to find a good vein, and the one that they did find was in the bend of her arm (or, as Kent would say, the "antecubital fossa") so they had to board her arm to keep it straight. She had bruises and pokes all over her arm from them looking for a good one.

On Thursday they found out that one of the cultures they took was positive for RSV. So she ended up with RSV and viral pneumonia. So we just waited it out until she didn't need oxygen, stopped wheezing, and kept her food down.

The boys colored pictures for her and put them up around her bed. These two are Erik's.

And this one is Taylor's. It's a picture of the hospital. See all 5 of us? For some reason it won't rotate.

Meanwhile, Kent was able to have his schedule cleared so that he could stay home with the boys (thank goodness). So he was busy holding down the fort. Apparently this is what happens when you let two boys watch Peter Pan and then let them jump off the couch next to the blind cords-

Nice rope burn, eh?

We're home now, and aside from a nasty cough and the slight sniffles, she's doing much better.

Although I was not happy in the slightest that she was in the hospital, I have to admit it was lovely to have an excuse to hold my baby all day long. It was so wonderfully quiet, I got so much reading done, and I didn't have to worry about dinner. Oh. And I got a break from my two rambunctious boys. Does that make me a bad mom? I figure I'm still a half-way decent mom since I did start to miss them.

Ski Bums

2010-02-18T18:17:00.000-08:00

I'll be taking over this post as Stephanie and Melanie are out for a girls night out, sort of. I'll put a post of this in the next couple of days, but both are doing well.

Anyway, it was about time that Taylor and I hit the slopes. We had the Winter Olympic fever and it was time for him to learn to ski. He and I went to Crystal Mountain for a fun day in the sun as I had President's Day off.

The day started out slow as Taylor was hungry and tired after the first run, but after an early lunch he was ready to go out for some more. He slowly got the hang of making a pie wedge, but learning to turn will have to wait until the next trip. He would make it down about 10feet and crash, but was ready to get back up and didn't complain.

In the afternoon after another trip to the bathroom for Taylor, I was ready to call it a day, but Taylor insisted on skiing more. We had a blast skiing and crashing all day as Taylor appeared to have as much fun licking the snow and making snow balls each time he fell. His favorite part at the end of the day was skiing between my legs with myself holding him and skiing fast down the hill hitting all the jumps. Taylor keeps asking when we'll be able to go again..... just him and daddy.

I had to stop the video shortand race down to catch him before he took somebody out.

Warm Fuzzies

2010-02-08T11:56:00.000-08:00

Saturday the weather wasn't too bad, so the boys went out in the back to play. After a while we found that Taylor had pulled out the little swimming pool and turned on the hose. And they were naked. The water was freezing! So I used a pot to fill up the pool with some warm water from inside. They loved it. Until, of course, Taylor sprayed Erik with the cold water from the hose.

Crazy kids.

The Sunshine State

2010-02-06T21:48:00.000-08:00

Okay, so we didn't actually go to Florida. We went to Arizona, which one could easily call The Sunshine State as well. Or the Hot As Sin state. Which is why we decided to visit in February.

First on the itinerary were the Casa Grande Ruins. I think that anyone who has ever attended an elementary school in Casa Grande or any outlying cities must have been to see these. It's actually a National Monument. Somehow I must have missed that field trip. I must say that I had never seen them before. Hadn't ever really had a desire to, either. I just thought they were a bunch of old mud buildings- which they are. But I felt a slight shame at growing up in Casa Grande and never actually seeing THE Casa Grande. They were actually a lot bigger than I thought. And impressive. Who knew that there's something worth seeing in good ol' CG?

You know that my child hasn't ever seen much of Arizona when he asks me, "Mommy, what's a cactus?"

I sometimes feel that Melanie gets the shaft when it comes to pictures. After all, she's the third. We don't sit around a look at all the faces she makes and take 15 pictures a minute. Plus she looks so much like Erik we could probably just use half of the pictures we took of him and, when she grows up, just use those as her baby pictures. But I'm trying to be somewhat fair.

And yes, those are earrings.

We took some pictures while we were at my dad's. I had to get a picture of the two baby cousins! Paul is such a cute dad, and I'm sure he'd gag if he heard me call him, "cute" anything. Little Adrian is huge! Here he is sizing Melanie up and considering how long it would take to devour her.

I really don't think my brothers and I look all that much alike.

And I think we look even less like my dad. But I also don't see the total resemblance between my mom and I that everyone else sees, so who am I to decide?

Here's dad karate-chopping the umbrella in self-defense.

Next to Kent is my grandma- I LOVE that woman! As I was uploading these pictures, I was bummed to realize I didn't get a picture of her with Melanie, or any of my other kids for that matter. Next to her is my aunt Debbie, then my dad's girlfriend, Gina. And then my dad. Then it's me, my little brother, Michael, and my big brother, Paul. Jacob, the boy in the front, is my cousin.

I NEEDED to see my best friend, Kim, while we were there. So we decided to meet at the Children's Museum. I loved it, and so did the boys. Much better than our museum here.

No, Erik. You probably don't want to jump.

Speed demon.

It's times like these that make me think my kids might actually turn out okay and be friends. Maybe.

Ahh, my friend Kim. I miss her!

Did I mention that Taylor has a drinking problem? Yes, those are all beverages in his cart.

Back at my Nana's house, Kimberly, my little sister, was pulling the boys around the backyard in the wagon. She kept giving them whiplash, so they decided that it was safer to just lay down.

The month before we went out there I would call my Nana and (jokingly, of course) tell her that she couldn't keel over until we got there and took a picture of our 4 generations of ladies. So here we are!

I almost wish that we lived by them. It was so nice to see family. I admit that I sometimes resent the fact that my kids won't have what I had growing up- weekends with cousins and aunts and uncles. But I guess these trips will just have to do for now. Especially since I don't think we'd be capable of surviving a summer there.

Hot Roddin'

2010-01-19T22:42:00.000-08:00

Kent had Martin Luther King Jr. Day off, so we decided to hit up Home Depot. Thank goodness for their carts. They're the only thing that made the trip a success. Naturally, before we return it, we have to try and make the kids sick by spinning them around and around.Yes, Melanie was in the cart, too. The poor dear.

We decided to stop at the park on the way home. The weather wasn't too bad!

When we took family pictures in November, Melanie was only 2 weeks old. All she did was sleep, so we couldn't get any cute pictures of her awake. So we thought we'd try and get some. Personally, I think she's a keeper.

Merry Christmas!

2010-01-09T10:57:00.001-08:00

Yes, Christmas was about two weeks ago. And yes, I'm finally posting about it.

This was the first Christmas that we spent totally by ourselves- we didn't travel anywhere and no one came to visit us. And it was actually quite nice. Don't get me wrong. We love being with family and the big Christmas dinner and all that stuff. But at the same time it's nice to start our own family traditions for Christmas. We pretty much spent the day just hanging out in our jammies while the kids played with their loot.

Here's what our tree looked like before the kids got a hold of the presents underneath:

We actually didn't get all that many pics of the kids. We were just so laid-back about everything that we kinda forgot.

This is one of the probably two pictures we got of Melanie on her first Christmas. And just for the record, Taylor picked out her Christmas jammies. I don't usually go for lime green.

Notice the quilts they're sitting on? Erik has his "blankie" that he LOVES. Well, it's looking a little homely. So I thought I'd make him a new one naively hoping that the old one could be replaced. Then I thought I'd make Taylor one, too. Then I couldn't make the boys one and not make Melanie one. So they all got one.

And no, the blankie wasn't replaced. Now he wants both of the blankets in his bed when he goes to sleep. Great. But at least Taylor actually claims the one I made him as his blanket. And sleeps with it every night.

And Melanie spits up and poops on hers.

After they got done unwrapping everything we realized that we hadn't gotten a picture of all three of them in front of the tree. Hence the trash.

I feel like we should have gotten more pictures of Melanie since it was her first Christmas. But here's the second picture of the whopping two we took.

The boys got a gazillion (yes, that's an exact number) hot wheels for Christmas. Not surprisingly, they still fight over them.

This year I decided to try and do something to get us more focused on the Savior. So a week before Christmas we all sat down and decided what we were going to give to Jesus for Christmas, seeing as it's His birthday and all. So we all drew a picture of what our gift would be, put it in a box, and wrapped it up to put under the tree. Taylor gave Him "good choices" and Erik gave Him a bunch of crayon scribbles. We kept reminding each other throughout the week of what we were trying to give to the Savior. On Christmas morning we opened it up and talked about the gift that we gave to Christ and how we can always improve. I loved it, and I think it's a worthy tradition to keep.

Snow Bunnies

2010-01-01T07:25:00.000-08:00

Last week, since Kent had the week off, we decided to finally go up to Mt. Rainier and go sledding. Aside from not trying on my snow bibs before leaving and realizing, upon arrival, that the last time I had worn them I hadn't just had a baby, we had a lot of fun! Of course, fun is always a relative term when you have 3 kids ages 4 and under that are forced to endure a 2.5 hour drive- and that's only one way. But they were actually pretty good on the drive. Here they are at the start- all content and excited and making daddy drag them up the hill. That's Melanie in the back in her car seat- we figured she'd be warmest in there and neither of us would have to hold her the whole time, seeing as she slept 90% of the time.

Weeee!!

Erik wanted nothing to do with walking in the snow. He pretty much sat in the sled the whole time. After we pushed him down, he'd lay back in the sled and wait for someone to come and pull him back up the hill. I wish I could be that lazy...

I can't believe how big Taylor is getting! In this picture I had just unzipped my jacket. I bent over behind Taylor so that you can't see the unzipped snow pants that I'm wearing. They fit like spandex, and I'm pretty sure snow pants aren't supposed to be that snug.

I'm a sissy when it comes to sledding. So while we were in line waiting for our turn on the big hill I kept asking Taylor if he was SURE he wanted to go down. And he kept saying, "Yeah, mommy! It's gonna be fun!" Not really.

And here are Taylor and I going down said big hill. What's that? You can't see us? Oh, well that's because Taylor's mom is so lame that she was horrified they were gonna fly into the side bank going what must have been close to 90 mph and tip over. So she drug her feet in a pathetic attempt at steering and sprayed powder everywhere. Needless to say Taylor didn't want to go down that hill again.

Problem solved.

Wait. I think we have a third child somewhere around here... Ahh, here she is. The cute baby snow bunny.

After a lunch of good ol' PB&J's, the kids were about done. We went down a few more times and then they were definitely done. This is what Erik looked like at the end. But really, we all had TONS of fun, despite his look of hysteria.

Just In Case...

2009-12-25T23:40:00.000-08:00

...you need a good chuckle.

Yes, that is snot running down his face.

Under Construction

2009-12-22T14:01:00.000-08:00

Ever since we've had kids I have wanted to decorate a homemade gingerbread house. Now that Taylor's 4, I finally got around to making it. Here's how it started out. I was quite proud it didn't totally collapse:Taylor was concentrating very hard on where he was placing the candy.Hooray for candy!The finished product. I'm pretty sure they ate more candy than actually went on the house. And that same night our awesome neighbors who we absolutely love brought a gingerbread house kit for the boys to put together. That one didn't hold up as well, making me feel even better about the one I made.Complete with a retractable sunroof. Any takers?And just so we don't forget about Melanie-

O Christmas Tree

2009-12-16T14:36:00.000-08:00

We finally went and got our Christmas tree last week. Unfortunately we were dumb enough to go on what had been the coldest day of the month so far- it was in the twenties. So we found the perfect tree pretty quickly.

Here's Kent doin' all the cuttin'. Very manly.

Since I'm highly anal and want a Christmas tree that doesn't look like my children just threw ornaments at it with their eyes closed, last year we bought a fake tree to put upstairs in the loft. So we gave them ornaments to decorate it with that don't break. Some of the ornaments are from Kent's grandmother, Lois. I have to say, they're amazing. She sewed all of them herself.

And yes, I realize our tree is naked and lacking a tree skirt.

Did I mention that last week Melanie turned 1 month? I can't believe she's getting so big so quickly, but at the same time it's been a long month. I'm frantically trying to put her in as many cute little outfits that were given to me before she grows out of them.

"Please bless Mommy...

2009-12-09T11:57:00.000-08:00

...that she won't make me do all the laundry tomorrow."

The other night right before bedtime I got frustrated with Taylor because he had run through all my neatly folded piles of laundry. So I made the empty proclamation that he'd be doing all the laundry the next day. And so when Kent told him it was his turn to say the prayer, that's what he prayed for.

And since I told him that Melanie couldn't bite anything because she didn't have teeth, last night he prayed that she could "grow some teeth."

I love his prayers.

Thanksgiving

2009-12-06T22:53:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I haven't posted for a while. For almost a month, in fact. And Kent's stirring rendition of labor didn't count, considering he made it sound like I walked in, had a baby, and walked out without even breaking a sweat. Okay, I admit, it was the easiest. But it was still childbirth, nonetheless. And I could still wiggle my toes after getting my epidural- I personally thought the anesthesiologist was being slightly stingy with the meds.

Life has been pretty good- it's a lot more hectic with 3, but not as bad as I thought it would be. I was slightly horrified at the prospect of life without my mother-in-law here to clean and cook (did I mention I have a rockin' mother-in-law who is amazing?). I even tried to convince her to rent a house down the street. She didn't seem all that eager- probably because she knew we'd practically live at their house if they did. But it hasn't turned out as bad as I thought. We at least have clean underwear and something to eat during dinner. And the boys have been better than I thought they'd be. Taylor enjoys helping as much as a boy could be expected to help, and Erik has only tried to bite her once. Other than that he just grunts and tries to give Melanie her pacifier every now and then.

Kent's whole family came up to visit us for Thanksgiving. It was fun to have everyone here, and while everyone was together, we thought we'd get some family pictures done. A photographer in our ward took our pictures, and she did an awesome job. Thanks a ton, Blaire!The typical Saunders family photo:

Eviction confirmed!

2009-11-09T13:40:00.000-08:00

At 0236 this morning Melanie finally decided to join her brothers in the Saunders family. We went to the hospital last night after Stephanie noticed her contractions were increasing and she was ready to get the pregnancy over with. We checked in and soon thereafter they ruputured her membranes. I then fell asleep thinking that it would be atleast a good 4hours or more until she start pushing.....but an hour later Melanie was surprisingly out. Surprising because Melanie weighed a petite (if your parents were sumo wrestlers) 8lbs 11oz, 20inches long. So much for all of those ultrasounds that were concerning for her being underweight, but I guess nightly bowls of ice cream for the past 3months played a role.

Of course if you know Stephanie the most important part was receiving her epidural as soon as she was checked in, and it worked like a gem. Once again, another painless laboring event. I don't know what the lady in the room next door was thinking going all natural as her moans pierced through the walls as if she was given birth to bigfoot himself. 9months of pregnancy is hard enough why make it any more painful.

So having a baby in the middle of the night is not the way to go. We were up all night and exhausted this morning. Taylor and Erik were both daytime/early evening babies and it was nice. Luckily Melanie is nice and quiet and likes her pacifier. Yes that's right, her pacifier, and she is breast feeding great. Take that all you nipple confusion freaks, a firm rubber pacifier versus a soft nipple....hmmm....where's the confusion, but enough talk about nipples.

Bottom line, Stephanie and Melanie are doing great. Thanks to everybody for you support. I'm sure Stephanie will make a post within the next week and give her viewpoint of the whole experience (and say how she was laboring for hours and hours). Taylor and Erik are happy to go see their sister this afternoon (well Taylor anyway).

Past Due Notice

2009-11-05T09:11:00.000-08:00

Alas, I am still pregnant. I was going to be induced today, but not only did we change our minds, my doctor let me know that a lot of women had went into labor last night, so they might not have been able to squeeze me in anyway.

So this is the baby's first past due notice:

Dear Tenent,

This is just a reminder from your landlord that you are overdue. Please be aware that there will be a $30 per day fine for each day you are past due, beginning today. Management is aware that you will have no monetary funds upon arrival. Taking this into consideration, we have agreed to accept an easy and painless delivery as payment. We are in the process of approving hugs and kisses as well, and we will keep you informed of the status. Poopy diapers and spit-up, however, will not be acceptable forms of payment. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Please keep in mind that you have until November 10th to arrive. If you have not arrived and your account is not paid in full by the 10th, we will be forced to evict you. This is your first and final notice.

Sincerely,
Management
(Mom and Dad)

The Pumpkin Patch

2009-11-01T21:19:00.001-08:00

Well, it took us a while, but we finally managed to make it to the pumpkin patch 3 days before Halloween. Even though it stunk like rotting pumpkin, we were able to get some cute pics of the boys in their costumes. Luckily at this age Erik doesn't care what he is for Halloween, so he gets Taylor's hand-me-downs. And yes, for those of you wondering, I am still pregnant.

WHAT?

2009-10-18T23:09:00.000-07:00

I can't already be almost 38 weeks. I swear, just 2 weeks ago I felt like I had forever to wait. Now all of a sudden I'm threatening her to stay in or she won't have anywhere to sleep and no clothes to wear. Not that I think she'll come early. After all, I'm one of those cursed women whose babies cling for dear life to the umbilical cord and decide that it's much easier to stay inside than come out. Taylor was 2 weeks overdue and Erik was 4 days late (and I only have modern medicine to thank for Erik not being any later than that...). People started telling me over a month ago that it looks like I'll go any day now. Thanks, everyone, for those comments that remind me how pregnant I really look, as if my lower back pain and 30 trips to the bathroom didn't do the job.

So for your viewing pleasure (or comic relief, whichever you prefer), here is a pic that Kent took of me today, six-pack abs and all. I considered posting the picture that I took at the same week when I was pregnant with Taylor. And then I remembered that my belly was un-covered. And the thought almost made me cough up vomit, so I thought I'd spare everyone else. You're welcome.

Keep in mind that the camera adds about 40 pounds or so...

Busy Beaver

2009-10-01T07:58:00.000-07:00

I've been frantically trying to get things finished before the baby comes. Last week I cleaned out and organized the entire garage (okay, so maybe I have one wall left to do...) and finally finished the crib bedding. The only problem is that Erik is still using the crib. So after I finished the bedding, I realized that I can't even use it for a while. But at least it's done.

Here's the quilt. I bought so many different fabrics to try out that I ended up just using whatever I had leftover to do it.

I've been toying with the idea of painting the crib white or dark brown. What do you think?

Things That Go Bump In The Day

2009-09-21T20:07:00.000-07:00

Taylor jumping out of bed
The various objects Erik throws downstairs
Erik's head against the floor after he falls off the chair
Erik's head against the floor after Taylor pushes him
The block that Erik then threw at Taylor's head
The drawers of Taylor's dresser being slammed after he gets his 20th pair of underwear out
An unbalanced load of laundry

Correction: A broken washer. Because my washer is obviously quite spiteful and bitter that I've been lusting over other washers, it decided to quit on laundry day. Not that I necessarily have a specific laundry day. Laundry day is whichever day I realize that none of us have any more clean clothes and I start using Taylor's emergency underwear that I have stashed away in the car. The saddest part about the whole situation is that the washer is most likely repairable. Why is that sad? Because if it wasn't repairable then I wouldn't have to decide between just buying a new washer or repairing this one. Is it cheaper to repair this one? Obviously. It's not like an '84 Honda Civic hatchback that you're holding together with duct tape and you're just praying it gets you through the week. In fact, I feel like I'm almost cheating on my washer since I'm trying to think of ways to validate getting a new one.

Maybe Kent will make this easier. Maybe Kent will say, "You know what, honey? You work so hard and you're 8 months pregnant and I just wonder how you do it all. You're practically supermom, and I think we should just get you a new washer AND dryer. You deserve it. Why don't you go and pick a set out? And stop and get a pedicure on your way home. And have I mentioned how thin you look lately? Why don't you eat another helping of brownies and ice cream?"

Hmmm... was the brownies and ice cream comment too much to hope for?

Back in School

2009-09-16T14:52:00.000-07:00

It's been a LONG summer. Don't get me wrong- I love my boy. But I'm so glad that he's going back to school, even if it is for just 3 days a week. Of course I still have Erik, so it's not like I can just prop my feet up and eat brownies and ice cream while he's gone, especially since Erik sometimes causes more trouble than Taylor does. But it's nice for both Taylor and I. He's excited about it and loves school! This was the only picture he was willing to let me take-

Great Wolf!

2009-09-15T13:56:00.000-07:00

Every year all of the pediatric residents go on a retreat. Last year wasn't all that great- it was on the coast at a sub-par hotel with not that much to do, especially since it was chilly at the beach. This year, however, was completely awesome. We went to the Great Wolf Lodge, which was only about 40 minutes away (compared to last year's 3-hour drive where Taylor threw up half way through...). It's a hotel with an awesome indoor water park. The kids had an absolute blast. Taylor was SO excited and had been talking about it the whole week before.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, Erik was totally fearless. He went down the same slide over and over and over... He would climb up the ladder, push his way past those lame 3-4 year-olds that were way too slow for him, and go head-first down the slide. People kept giving me wary looks and asking me if he needed help. Uh, no. He'd scream if we tried to help him. Thanks, though.

For some reason he was enthrawled with the life vest buckles. He probably spent a good 20 minutes buckling and un-buckling them.

On the last day our kids were pretty hammered. But Taylor keeps asking when we're gonna go to the hotel with the water park.

From the Mouths of Babes

2009-09-10T22:42:00.000-07:00

...or young missionaries.

Elder #1: "Wow, Sister Saunders! You look like you're about ready to pop! Aren't you due soon?"

Me: "Nope, not 'til November."

Elder #2: "Can you get much bigger than that?"

Me: *chuckle* "I still have two more months. I've got plenty of time to get bigger."

Elder #1: "Hey, pretty soon you won't be able to fit sideways through the doorway."

In their defense I really am getting big. I have two friends who are splendidly honest and tell me that I really do look further along than I really am. And Kent told me about a woman he saw in the clinic that was due in October, yet quite smaller than I am. The real proof? The fact that I was looking at a picture thinking, "when did I take a picture of Kent from behind?" A few seconds later I realized that it was MY behind I was looking at. When I get motivated I'll have to post a picture of my belly with Taylor compared to my belly now at the same time. I now weigh as much as I did when I delivered Taylor. Of course the two servings of brownies and ice cream that I've eaten today haven't helped...

Life's a Beach

2009-09-08T21:37:00.000-07:00

Kent had last week off, and let me tell you, it was about time he had a few days off. So we packed up the kids, squished all our camping gear into the car (and even some on top...) and headed over to Kalaloch by the Pacific Coast to go camping. It was the perfect campsite- close enough to the beach to walk there, but not on the beach, so you're not trying to shake sand out of your underwear as you sleep (though it still found its way back in small amounts). The weather was really nice- you only needed a light sweater during the day, and even the nights didn't get too cold (unless you're 7 months pregnant and have to waddle to the bathroom 3 times in the middle of the night- then you wish for your bathroom at home that's only 10 feet away without the fear of being ambushed by a rabbid raccoon on the way). Our campsite was awesome thanks to some recommendations from friends. There were a ton of fallen trees and roots to climb on so they had a lot more room to wander but were still close enough to see. Here's a view from up high of what was right next to our campsite- Here are a few pictures of the hikes. Kent wanted to get a picture of the two boys sitting nicely, but it was like pulling teeth to get Erik to sit still for more than 2 seconds.

The beach was lovely, though would have been nicer if not for the hundreds of jellyfish right next to the water. But they loved being able to just play in the sand. This is Erik insisting he needs to step on it to really check it out and me insisting he doesn't-

This is, by far, my favorite picture that Kent took while we were there-

Kent also turned 31 while we were camping. Although I wasn't able to make him his favorite birthday cake while we were there, he at least got peach cobbler. I love you, honey! Thanks for being such a rockin' husband and daddy!

Pink or Blue?

2009-08-27T16:54:00.000-07:00

This is old news, but I thought it warranted a post. Between sleeping, reading, refereeing the boys, and more sleeping (with maybe more reading thrown in), it was obvious that my schedule was just too hectic to post this when it was more current.

I took the boys to a stake activity a few weeks ago. This was when Erik still hadn't had a haircut (Kent's preference, not mine) for a while. A woman from our ward was asking how old Taylor was. Then she asked, "Is the other one a boy or a girl?" I felt very de-masculanized on Erik's behalf. Once I told Kent this, he finally agreed it was time to cut it.

Pre-cut:

Post-cut:

Okay, so not immediately post-cut. More like next-week-picking-blueberries post-cut. But you get the idea. And I know I'm not the most objective, but did he really look like a girl?

The Big 4

2009-08-24T15:49:00.000-07:00

Wow. Amazing how time flies, isn't it? Taylor turned 4 years old on Saturday. I can't believe he's already 4, but at the same time I can't remember what life was like without him.

Here he is right after he woke up. He was so excited about all the balloons, as was Erik.

So we've been wanting to get a trampoline for a while. So we went ahead and got one for his birthday. Here he is when he first saw it-

They both love it!

Here he is blowing out the candles. I tried not to think about how much spit was ending up on the top of the cake.

During our little barbecue we had a surprise guest. A raccoon decided to climb up on all the blackberry bushes and help himself to some. He was cute and all, until he started getting a little too brave and started coming closer to our side of the fence. So we had to throw a few rocks to scare it away.

We couldn't ask for a better kid. He's such a great little boy. We love you, Taylor!

Caution: Highly Explosive

2009-08-08T13:05:00.000-07:00

I always get nervous whenever Kent gets ideas that involve flames and explosives. Let's be honest- there's just something about combustible materials that drain any common sense and logic out of the male gender. So when we went to Michael's and he met me at the checkout counter with a rocket and the engines, you can imagine why I got a little nervous. Luckily there was no damage done to any small children, animals, or surrounding houses. Taylor LOVED watching the rockets launch, and now Erik is constantly making a "TSSSSSS" sound as a result of hearing them launch.

Here's Erik getting ready for take-off.

Here they are setting up the rocket.
After using all the engines for the smaller rocket, a couple days later Kent went back to Michael's and came home with a much larger rocket accompanied with more powerful engines. Much to his chagrin, they were out of the most powerful ones. Lucky us.

Tahoe For Now

2009-08-06T21:36:00.000-07:00

So the boys and I went to Lake Tahoe with Kent's family... about a month ago. I've been lazy, I'll admit it. And I didn't even get that many pics, considering that I emptied my memory card for the trip- and then left it in the computer. We had a great time lounging by the pool and on the beach and all three of us are about 5 shades darker. Many thanks to Kent's parents for the trip! And to Nicole for flying out here to make the approximately 17-hour drive with us. She made the drive MUCH more enjoyable and bearable.

Here's Taylor getting ready to jump into the pool. The minute he had that life vest on he was fearless. He was doing front- and back-flips in the pool whenever we we were there.

Erik wouldn't get in the little kiddie pool until the last day, so most of the time he climbed all over the chairs while Taylor swam. Here he is, just checking things out.

Here's Taylor on a hike with his cousins, Derek and David.

That's all for now. I'll do more catch-up later. Don't want to overwhelm anyone (including myself).

Green Thumb

2009-07-03T22:11:00.000-07:00

I wanted to plant a garden last year, but we just had too much going on after moving in. So my sweet husband built me a garden bed. Not surprisingly, a lot of the seeds that I planted indoors didn't make it to the garden. But I've still managed to grow some stuff. I bought strawberry, tomato, jalapeno, and bell pepper plants (after I killed the first seeds I planted). Everything else I did from seeds: sugar snap peas, carrots, green onions, zucchini, squash, cantaloupe, watermelon, pumpkin, and green beans. The sugar snap peas are growing the best. They're HUGE! They're just starting to get pods. Don't they look delicious?

Here are the carrots. How am I supposed to know when these are ready, anyway?

Hopefully everything else does okay. We also have blackberries that grow up over our fence from the other side. Last summer they were only in one corner. We let them grow the whole length this year, and there are a lot of blackberries going. It would be even better if they were thornless.

We've been enjoying the sunny weather lately, but man, it's getting hot. Of course, those of you who are sitting in your home in Arizona with the AC blasting are probably laughing at my description of hot. But this 80-degree weather is killing me. It's supposed to be a whopping 88 tomorrow. But alas, no need to worry about us, dear readers- Monday it's supposed to be 68 and rainy. Anyway, here are some pics of the boys enduring the scorching heat.
Taylor's new passion is baseball.

The Great Outdoors

2009-06-23T22:55:00.000-07:00

Kent had this past Saturday off, so we thought we'd hit up the Olympic National Park. It was beautiful there! It was a little colder than we anticipated, though, but the boys did really well. We hiked just over 3 miles total, and Taylor didn't complain until the very end- I was actually quite impressed. Of course the little Starburst bribe didn't hurt.

Here's Erik attempting to contract some good ol' giardia.

It was amazing how long the boys just sat throwing rocks in the stream.

The one good picture that we managed to get of all of us... and even then Erik's still not cooperating.

And for those of you who are still curious, yes, we found out it's a girl. I'm tired of having that nasty pink that doesn't match on my blog.

Slowly But Surely...

2009-06-20T22:26:00.000-07:00

...I will get this blog updated.

While my mom was here, Kent and I were able to go up to Seattle without the kids. It was great. Here's the only picture in which I'm not in the middle of talking and I don't look drunk. Behind us is Seattle- we took a ferry from Seattle to the other side of the Puget Sound.

Taylor, Erik, my mom, Kimberly, and I went to Tolmie state park while they were here. It was finally warm enough to validate going to the beach.

Then there was graduation. Chris graduated from residency, and Kent and Chad graduated from intern year.

That will have to do for now. I only have so much patience to upload so many pictures. But my apologies for taking so long to post what the baby is. I only intended to wait 1 day before revealing whether it was a boy or girl.

Roughin' It

2009-06-16T17:22:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's been about a month since our last post. My apologies. Not only have I been lazy, but our laptop has been acting up. We really have been doing stuff.

My mom and little sister, Kimberly, were here visiting. So we took them camping! It was great. Taylor LOVES camping and would live out in the wilderness if he could. The campsite that we went to had an archery range there and you could borrow a bow and arrows to use. Taylor tried so hard and didn't do too bad.

I think I'll take up archery. Don't I look quite dangerous?

Poor Taylor. He wanted to catch a fish so badly, but they just weren't biting.

They even had paddle boats that you could use. Kimberly insisted her legs weren't tired and that she could do it all by herself. So I graciously complied.

Erik liked camping enough. He just had a hard time with all the uneven surfaces since he's not very good at walking on flat surfaces.

We had a great time. It was a little chilly, and there were raccoons at night, but it's always worth it when you get to eat camping food and smores!

More posts to follow later. I can only do so much at once. But we did find out what the baby is...

Spring Cleaning

2009-05-20T08:52:00.000-07:00

So I've been in the market for a steam vac lately. Now that Taylor's done potty-training (good heavens, I thought it would never end), the carpet in his room is in desperate need for a nice cleaning. When we first moved in, the carpet in the closet smelled weird (even though we got the entire house cleaned professionally), and add that to a potty-training child and it smells not-so-good.

So I'm hunting for opinions. I've been looking at a few different ones. Hoover has a new one that is supposed to clean really well. Check it out here.

Another one I've been looking at is the Rug Doctor that Costco is carrying. It's the most expensive, and while I don't mind paying more money for a product that's going to last and clean better, if it's not going to clean $200 better, than it's not worth it. Check that out here.

Do any of you out there have a steam vac? Any recommendations? That carpet is desperate...

Infestation

2009-05-18T17:55:00.000-07:00

So I've been finding evidence lately of a rodent in our house. It's disgusting what it's doing to the food in my pantry- mainly the boxed items. Here's what it did to a box of rice:

That's what a lot of my Jello, pudding, and macaroni boxes look like. We've seen it a few times. It's an awfully large rodent. Quite hairy on top, and surprisingly it makes a lot of noise. It seems to really like cheese as well. I actually got a picture of it after it managed to get into my flour.

Maybe I need a cat. Or something bigger like a cougar that loves small children.

Accident-Prone

2009-05-07T20:46:00.000-07:00

It's been a rough couple of days for Erik. The kid never seems to catch a break. Here's the rundown of his battle wounds:

Yesterday, while walking around with a plastic pole in his mouth, he tripped and scraped the roof of his mouth. Yes, he drew quite a bit of blood.
Not five minutes after the previous incident, he slammed his hand in the dryer. At least he didn't draw blood.
While playing in the pantry, he dropped a can of sliced pineapple on his bare toes.
According to Taylor (I was trying to vacuum my stairs and wasn't witness to the casualty), Erik "fell down on his belly and mouth" resulting in Erik biting a hole straight through his bottom lip. This one drew even more blood.
At least this one was on Kent's watch. Erik tried to pet our neighbor's dog, but the dog ran away. So Erik face-planted on the pavement.

Here he is after the latest mishap.

(Yes, we had to get a picture, even though he was crying.)

Some of you might wonder what's going on at our house that is resulting in such gore. This, my friends, is it:

I'm pretty sure this is what he was doing before he bit the hole in his lip (at least I was actually doing housework as opposed to watching the latest episode of "What Not To Wear.").

And yes, about 1 minute after taking this picture, he fell face-first off the cooler again. But at least he caught himself with his forehead and not his mouth.

Cheers to Kim!

2009-04-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

I pretty much owe my best friend, Kim, my sanity. Not only does she put up with my boo-hoo emails when I get down, but if it wasn't for her and her wonderful family, I wouldn't be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Now she's gone and out-done herself:

1.) Thanks to her and her awesome sister, Ros, I was able to fix the giant hole I would get in the middle of my homemade bread (Thanks, Ros!).

2.) Most importantly, if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have known that tomorrow Baskin Robbins will be selling their small cones for 31 cents. I will probably be getting chocolate chip cookie dough. And maybe a few others, depending on if they have a limit...

Thanks, friend. Everyone should have a Kim.

P.S. One day I really will udpate this blog concerning what we've been doing, mostly after my sinus infection goes away and after Erik stops puking. This little Baskin Robbins diddy was just too good not to share.

Oh, What A Beautiful Morning

2009-04-17T21:47:00.001-07:00

Oh, what a beautiful day!

As warm as it might look, it was actually about 50 degrees outside. But he insisted on playing in the water naked.

The True Meaning of Easter

2009-04-15T00:06:00.000-07:00

We woke up and started out late for church. Yes, I know. Easter is a yearly celebration dedicated to remembering the resurrection of Jesus Christ and all other blessings that this single event in history brings. However, not only was my stomach protesting anything that wasn't warm, but I just felt it was unethical to feed my family cold cereal for breakfast on Easter morning. So we were 45 minutes late (later than we have EVER been) for nice, warm, homemade pancakes. Which made us miss most of Sacrament meeting.

We got home and had lunch. Then we did Easter baskets and Easter eggs. I try to keep the baskets somewhat Christ-centered, so they always get a church book. Erik loved his.

My two boys. Cute, huh?

Taylor dying Easter eggs (the night before).

Taylor LOVES egg hunts. I kept the plastic eggs from last year, and whenever he finds them lying around he hides them and tells me to go find them. Then he tells me to hide them so he can find them.

Have I mentioned that we have perhaps the best neighbors in the world? On Saturday night they went to all the houses on our street that have kids and put bunny pawprints on all the porches. They're awesome.

After that we went on over to Chris and Carlie's for Easter dinner. Yum! The kids had another egg hunt and loved it. No pictures; forgot the camera. But we had fun!

Mac 'N' Cheese

2009-04-07T21:08:00.000-07:00

For bedtime tonight, we read Eric Carle's Panda Bear, Panda Bear, which has a Macaroni Penguin in it. When we got to the picture of the penguin, Taylor said, "No, that's not a Macaroni Penguin. Macaroni has cheese on it." I love that boy.

All They Want For Christmas

2009-03-20T22:43:00.000-07:00

They already have their two front teeth. Next on the list? Boxes.

Not only do I not know which computer has the editing software, but frankly, I'm too tired. So you'll have to suffer through some video (and crack) to get to the awesome part. Apparently the adhesive on boxes isn't that strong.

The Big 1

2009-03-20T14:14:00.000-07:00

One. I can't believe he's already one. It seems like it took Taylor forever to get there. But with Erik, I think I might have blinked a couple of times and he's already turning one on me.

Here he is brand-spankin'-new.

Three months:

Such a ferocious dragon. At least he doesn't breathe fire.

I love his eyes.

And here's my big boy today! Okay, so actually yesterday, but Kent was on call today, so we're saving the cake, ice cream, and party hat pictures until he can be home with us. So basically all I got were lame pictures today. He wasn't even smiling in any of them.

We love you, Erik!

Thanks, Nicole!

2009-03-19T08:07:00.000-07:00

Okay, so maybe these are my all-time favorite pictures. We put Taylor in his snow boots so that he could rice on the bigger rides. He wasn't such a fan. It all started out innocent enough (even though he was already at this point a little skeptical concerning how much fun he'd have):

And this how it ended.

Thanks for the pictures, Nicole!

(Notice Brock, Kent's little cousin, in the background looking like he's going to hurl.)

And concerning the picture of the boys asleep in the backseat in the previous post: it was at In-N-Out. No Taco Bell for us.

The Happiest Place On Earth

2009-03-15T21:05:00.000-07:00

Yes, it truly is the happiest place on earth. We went to Disneyland this past week with Kent's brother Craig and his wife, Nicole, and his parents, Steve and Linda. It was great. I wish we could go there more often.

While we were on space mountain the ride stopped. Very horrifying to sit there in the dark wondering if the car behind you is going to plow straight into you, considering you can't see or hear anything. We sat there for a while and the lights finally came on- it didn't look nearly as cool as you would expect. And with all the technology, all it took to get us started was a good ol' fashioned push.

Erik loved the water park area in California Adventures. Priceless.

After the water park area, they were soaked. I had an extra pair of clothes for Erik, but all I had for Taylor was pajamas. Here he is in his sweet outfit, complete with snow boots to give him that extra little lift.

The best picture we got of everyone (minus Kent).

Don't you think Taylor looks slightly crazed?

Yes, those are matching shirts. Cheesy, but I couldn't resist.

My all-time favorite picture from the trip.

Here's a slideshow of some more pics.

After Disneyland we went to stay with Kent's aunt and uncle, the Bushnells. Taylor LOVED playing with his cousin Brock. We took all three of the boys to the beach and they had a lot of fun- regardless of the fact that it was windy and a little chilly.

And if that wasn't enough, we topped it off with Sea World. First of all, not as magical as Disneyland. It would have been fine if we hadn't just had a rockin' good time at Disneyland. But since it was free with being in the military, it was great, and the boys liked watching the animals. Taylor wouldn't touch the sting rays to save his life, but Erik loved them.

It was a great vacation. Look how much fun they had!

A Test of Intelligence

2009-03-04T14:26:00.000-08:00

What's different?

Sweet Kicks

2009-02-26T12:18:00.000-08:00

When we went to the Monster Jam (see previous post), Kent and I forgot our camera in the car. So our friend, Charlotte, got all the pictures. She had sent me the previous pictures through email, but I just got all of the rest of the pictures from her the other day. So I had to post this picture, because Kent's bottom half was the best part of his outfit.

The best part about it was when we bought the shoes from Goodwill. We saw the shoes, and through sheer destiny, they were Kent's size. When we took them up to the cashier, she looked at them, and said in all seriousness, "Aren't these shoes great? If they were in my size, they would have already been gone." I tried not to offend her by laughing and asking if she was serious.

Jammin'

2009-02-17T21:33:00.000-08:00

Okay, so this post is a little over-due.

About a month ago we went to the Monster Jam with our friends Charlotte and Jason and their boys, and we brought Braden along with us since we knew he'd love it as well. And yes, they loved it. I've never been to one of them, and I didn't realize how loud it was. Before intermission, all 4 boys just sat there quietly and watched. After, however, they were all dancing around yelling. Maybe it was the 10 oreos that all the boys ate (thanks, Carlie!).

But we didn't JUST go. That would be boring. We had to go in style. So Kent and I decided to hit up Goodwill- where all the hip people shop. And we picked out each other's outfit. So we look like awesome white trash. We actually had some people come up to us and ask to take our picture.

Love Story

2009-02-12T21:58:00.000-08:00

So I downloaded Taylor Swift's "Love Story" song off of iTunes, and ever since Taylor has first heard it he's loved it. He calls it the "Juliet" song and always asks for it. Here he is rockin' out to it. Check out those sweet moves.

And I actually got Erik taking a few steps, too!

Wanted: "Thunder Mug" Synonyms

2009-02-10T14:14:00.000-08:00

I need to know some synonyms for "bathroom" and/or "toilet." I had been trying to think of a way to decorate our half bath downstairs (the one that everyone actually sees, but the last to get any hint of decoration), and one day it hit me: I'll use those vinyl words and do "toilet" and "bathroom" synonyms! Hopefully the finished product turns out like I see it in my head. Now I just need the words. Let me know what words you think I should include. And before anyone posts it in a comment, no, I'm not sure I have wit enough to do "crapper," though I haven't decided how uncouth I'll be. What do you think?

Fired Up

2009-02-06T14:33:00.001-08:00

I'm a very attentive mother, I swear. I was at my friend Charlotte's house and she has one of those rockin' front-loading washers. Erik was playing quietly in the front room at the time. So while I'm standing there drooling over her washer and dryer, we hear Erik start screaming. I run over to see what happened, and he's sitting in front of the fireplace flapping his hand. Yes, you guessed it. He stuck his hand flat against the glass on the fireplace. Erik was obviously not too happy. So now he has fun blisters on his poor little hand. Second-degree burns, but nothing to worry about unless it gets infected. This picture is before the blisters looked too nasty.

So while I'm on the topic of washers, last week our washer started leaking. Unfortunately it was repairable. But I've decided that I want a new one. Kent doesn't understand why I want a new one when we have a perfectly good working one. However, I'm sure that if he was responsible for the laundry for a couple weeks he would understand. So even though our washer is working I'm still drooling over those front-loaders. My favorite? The GE Profile washer and dryer. It's ridiculously awesome and rocks my world. You can get the pedestals that give it a lift, but that's not the best part. The best part? You can get containers that go in the pedestals, fill them up with your detergent and fabric softener, and it dispenses it for you. Now I just have to convince Kent that the strain of pouring the detergent into the washer is detrimental to my health.

Solo Point

2009-02-02T15:55:00.000-08:00

There's a secluded little piece of waterfront that is right next to some train tracks not too far from our house. Since the weather was nice today I took the boys over there to play around and try to get some pictures. Here are some of my favorites:

Saunders Look-alike Meter

2009-02-02T06:26:00.001-08:00

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family history - Dynasty

Saunders Look-alike Meter

2009-02-01T22:47:00.001-08:00

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Gee, Mom

2009-01-30T08:18:00.000-08:00

We really like pudding.

Urine Trouble

2009-01-26T23:45:00.000-08:00

It will require divine intervention for Taylor to be potty-trained before he starts high school. I have tried EVERYTHING:

Giving him 1 M&M for going pee, 2 for poop
Sticker chart
Having him sit on the toilet every 20 minutes
Letting him just go naked
Giving him a special "pee plant" to water
Letting him pick out his own big boy underwear
The "potty monster": I dressed up all of my toilets with arms and faces and they all thanked Taylor for "feeding" them after he went to the bathroom
Telling him that he was doing a great job wherever he went to the bathroom, but encouraging him to go on the toilet
Getting a toy if he stays dry all day
Spanking him every time he went anywhere but the toilet

I've been at this for months. So what's my present method? I've come to the point where I'm sick of buying diapers or pullups and I'm sick of stressing about it. I'm not putting him in diapers or pullups anymore. The kid will wear underwear at all times unless he's at school. The problem? Well, he doesn't really care that he's wet. I made him ride home in his underwear after he wet his pants one day, and he came home and went straight to his toys- didn't even bother to take them off.

But today we had a breakthrough... kind of. We met Kent for lunch, and he wet his pants during lunch. So after lunch we went out to the car and I made Taylor wait on the driver side while I put Erik in his car seat on the other side. After I get Erik buckled up, I walk around the car to open the door for Taylor. What is he doing? His pants are around his ankles, his shirt is up past his belly, and he's wizzing on the black BMW that's parked next to us.

And I thought we weren't getting anywhere...

A Lesson on Personal Prayer

2009-01-25T14:01:00.000-08:00

--On the drive home from church--

Me: "So Taylor, did you have fun in Primary?"

Taylor: "YEAH!"

Me: "What did you learn about today in Primary?"

Taylor: "We learned about pwayer!"

Me: "And what did you learn about prayer?"

Taylor: "If Erik comes to eat my choo choos, I can pway to Heavenly Fodder to take Erik far away and shut my door. And then He'll give me another choo choo."

Maybe when that doesn't work he'll try fasting.

My Immaculate Home

2009-01-23T12:41:00.000-08:00

Man, I'm so freakin' awesome. I decided to organize my pantry. It was a ridiculous mess. So I enlisted the help of Taylor and Erik to clean it up; not that I really had much choice in the matter, though. Here is the magnificent finished product. Look how awesomely clean it is!

No, that is not the "before" picture. That is what happens when you try to organize your cans that are on the bottom shelf with a 10-month-old and a 3-year-old. That's not to mention that stupid container of 100 assorted cookie cutters that I just HAD to have 3 years ago but have probably used only 3 of them. Taylor decided that he needed to use that plastic container to put stuff in, so he decided the cookie cutters had to be removed and would look more organized on the floor.

Now if you're not yet impressed with my spotless home, here's what my living room looks like:

I ordered a gate for my fireplace, and we made a house out of the boxes that it came in. Don't you think it just adds to the overall warmth and coziness of the room?

And last of all, here is my spic-and-span kitchen with nary a dirty dish in sight. It's tough to stay on top of all of those dirty dishes and bottles, but I am often amazed at how good I am at it.

Now for all of you who might be living in filth, which can include piles of clean and dirty laundry strewn all over your upstairs, toilets with rings in them, hairballs all over your bathroom floors, and every single bed un-made, don't despair! (Of course, judging from the pictures above, I would never tolerate such atrocities in my home...) You, too, can have such a magnificent home as I. My secret?

Two little boys and absolutely ZERO motivation at the present moment.

What's So Funny?

2009-01-15T23:29:00.000-08:00

A cup, apparently.

Comfort Eating

2009-01-14T10:22:00.000-08:00

Erik has been really cranky lately since he's been teething. His first ones that he got when he was six months didn't really bother him. In fact, I didn't even realize he was teething until we were at the doctor and she said, "Oh, look, he has two teeth coming in!" The past 4 days or so he has been miserable. He'll just start crying out of the blue, he'll crawl after me bawling, he'll loudly protest if I put him down, and he'll pull on my legs and wail. So this morning, when I'm cleaning the kitchen, I realize that I haven't heard from him in a while. On a regular day it's normal, but lately it isn't. So I go to see what he's into...

I had left the closet open where I keep all my bags and purses. He had pulled everything out of my diaper bag and had rummaged through it until he found a bag of cookies that I had stashed away in there. Needless to say he didn't want to give it up.

And here's Erik pushing his little walker along. He loves the thing.

Clarification

2009-01-12T22:57:00.000-08:00

TWO THINGS:

1.: Although it looks like Erik can walk in the last picture I posted, he actually can't. He can stand up by himself indefinitely and has great balance, but he just won't take that first step. It's just a matter of time before he starts walking. He has a walker that he pushes all over the house. I'll have to post of video of that sometime.

2.: While I was listening to that paranormal talk radio show I was considering who I might believe if they told me some outlandish story about a U.F.O. or alien sighting. I told Kent that there was a whopping two, maybe three, people who I would believe if they claimed they had a sighting: my best friend, Kim, and my father-in-law, Steve. The third maybe, you ask? That would have to be my mother-in-law, Linda... until she posted her comment. I guess the list is back to a solid two. Sorry, Linda :)

Mommy's Little Helper

2009-01-09T14:21:00.000-08:00

Erik:

"Look how helpful I am, mommy! I'll even unroll the toilet paper for you so you don't have to. And then I'll slobber all over it. And then wipe it all over the floor so it's rendered totally useless."

"Hey, those are some fat feet. Whose muffin-top feet are those?"

Taylor:

"Hey, mom! Take a picture of my silly face! Oh, wait. Hold on. Let me go get the remote... Okay, there! Take a picture! Let me see!"

Already he knows the unparalleled power of the T.V. remote.

"They're shape-shifters."

2009-01-08T22:32:00.000-08:00

On Thursday nights there is a dance class that I go to that's about 20 minutes away. It's after the boys go to bed, so by the time I'm driving home, it's about 9:00. Since I drive Kent's car the radio is on AM, so it's either sports or boring talk radio. While I might not hate watching sports (especially hockey; you can always count on flying fists and blood), I can't stand listening to them on the radio. So talk radio it is.

Lucky me! On Thursday nights there is a talk show about aliens and paranormal stuff. I was quite enlightened. I believe that if I die now, I will know all that I ever needed to know. Since I'm in a generous mood, let me share my bountiful harvest of knowledge:

"They're shape-shifters." According to our resident expert, Whitley Strieber, auther of Communion, they take many forms, whether it be "amphibious, reptilian, or any other form." Better keep an eye on what you thought was your pet turtle.
There are apparently 26 "races" of aliens. Not quite sure how they differ, but I figure that the next time I'm at a baby shower and someone just happens to be wondering how many different races of aliens there are, I'll know.
All aliens will harm humans. There are no benevolent ones. Kind of makes you wonder why they took pity on those backcountry rednecks who they dumped in a field naked, cold, hungry, and surrounded by empty beer bottles.
Being from somewere other than this planet doesn't excuse their lack of ethics. One of the callers insisted that there had to be some nice aliens because he was abducted at the age of 9 and it wasn't a horrifying experience at all. It was actually enjoyable (no, he did not go into detail about what went on). Strieber insisted that just proved his theory about all aliens being hostile. "You were abducted when you were a child! Everyone on this planet knows that kidnapping is wrong!" Hmm... They must have missed the memo that Earth sent out over the Galacticon Gamma Ray Wire Telegram System concerning the abduction of young earthlings.

I wonder why they never abduct college graduates.

So there you have it. Next time you're at a dinner party and there's that uncomfortable, awkward silence when you're frantically searching for something hilarious or interesting to say that doesn't involve the bodily functions of your children, pass on this little tidbit.

Loser

2009-01-06T21:24:00.000-08:00

Though I am loathe to admit it, I LOVE reality T.V. There's nothing like sitting on the couch, legs propped up, and making fun of those wonderful citizens of America. Tonight marks the premiere of one of our favorite shows: The Biggest Loser. It's a great show. I like it because it's not just about a bunch of people making fools of themselves for money. It addresses a very real problem in our society- obesity. The show gives a lot of people the opportunity, who might not have otherwise done it, to lose weight and change themselves.

So to kick off the new season, I decided to make a healthy dessert. Peach cobbler. I figure it's better than the usual brownies and ice cream. After all, it has fruit, right? So while we watch people who are morbidly obese produce sweat, blood, and tears, we are stuffing our faces with peach cobbler and ice cream. Let's not count calories.

Biggest Loser, here we come!

Crack This

2008-12-29T00:09:00.000-08:00

This last week all of the womenfolk (Carlie, Beth, Nana D, me, and the girl cousins) went to go see the Nutcracker while all of the menfolk watched the boys. It was great! It was the first time I had seen the Nutcracker performed (no, Casa Grande's stirring rendition of the ballet does not count). I will say I was a little disappointed that they decided the Sugarplum Fairy was an optional character. Clara danced to the song, but it was still beautiful. It made me miss being able to devote more time to taking dance.

Getting there was easy... until we realized we had made 3 circles and still hadn't seen the building. "Oh, wait,wrong address. It's on a different street." We'll leave the navigator anonymous. We'll just say she has long, black hair and her name rhymes with, "Harlie." But we still got there :) However, the traffic was horrendous afterwards- it took us 2 hours to get from the parking garage to the freeway. It should have taken us about five. I'm sure I've knocked off at least 5 years of life from everyone that was in the car. I'm not the nicest driver, and it made it even more lively since the roads were covered in ice. Good times!

While we were there, Kent and Grandpa Hills (Chris and Chad joined later after work) watched the boys. Kent took Brody, Zane, Taylor, and Braden sledding down the street. They had a ton of fun, and Brody got some serious speed on the hill. I had tried to go down the same hill, but I was too much of a sissy to not drag my feet to slow me down. Here's a video of all 4 boys giving it a go.

And this picture was just too funny not to post. Doesn't he look a little tipsy?

I'm Dreaming...

2008-12-21T16:54:00.000-08:00

...of a white Christmas. And I might just get one this year.

It's been snowing a ton here lately. It's awesome! I've always figured that if it's going to be cold, it might as well snow. That way you have something to do. But it doesn't bode well for drivers. I can't count how many cars I have seen stuck on the side of the road. Salt is apparently too harsh on the environment, so, thanks to tree-huggin' granolas, they don't salt the roads here. So to spare our lovely environment, we are forced to drive on perilous roads with white knuckles going 10 miles an hour while people are sliding all over the place. Good stuff.

The first day it snowed we made some ice cream (or should it be snow cream?). I had never heard of it, but it was actually quite yummy- milk, sugar, vanilla, and some snow! Taylor wanted chocolate, so then we tried it with chocolate syrup.

So with snow comes sledding. Kent hooked up our little saucer sled to the bike and pulled Taylor all over the neighborhood. He loved it.

On a different note, Erik had his 9 month appointment this past week. He's getting a little scrawny. He dropped in both weight and height percentile, but seeing as he's happy and still growing anyway, I figure he's fine.

He's also standing up by himself quite a bit now. He's taken a step or two, so we'll see how long it takes him to actually start walking.

We Really Are Alive

2008-12-17T13:00:00.001-08:00

Okay, so it's been about a month since I did a post. We went to Utah and California for Thanksgiving since Kent was working at the Children's Hospital in Seattle. Anyway, I'm too lazy to play catch-up with posts, so I'm just starting over. So Happy late Thanksgiving.

Here's a little something to kick off the holidays (okay, so Christmas is in 8 days, but whatever). All four of us worked really hard at perfecting our sweet moves. And this is actually really close to what Kent looks like when he dances.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

And I Thought Craig Was Bad

2008-11-08T14:43:00.000-08:00

When we would be visiting Kent's parents in California, Kent's brother Craig and his wife Nicole would come over. Taylor LOVED his Uncle Craig. That's because Craig would throw him all over the place. I just knew that Taylor would end up with something broken as a result of "pwaying with Uncle Cwaig."

That being said, I surprised myself by coming up with this totally awesome (and completely un-original) idea of sledding down the stairs. So we put all of our couch cushions at the bottom of the stairs and tried it out. Taylor loved it.

This is about the moment when I realized that it might not have been such an awesome idea.

After much coaxing, I finally got Kent to try it.

After a couple of times where the sled caught a stair and Taylor went head-first down the rest of them, it's amazing he didn't break anything- like his neck or any other limbs. I could just see how a trip to the emergency room would go:

Dr. Hills (Chris or Chad): "Uh, what exactly were you doing that caused his femur to break?"

Me: "Well, I thought it would be really fun if we went sledding down our stairs."

Dr. Hills: "Um, okay." Wow, what an idiot.

Me: "It was actually fun, until the sled caught on the stair and Taylor tumbled downstairs head-first." Wow, that would really suck if he called CPS.

Kent: "It was Steph's idea." Wow, she's an idiot.

I think I'll stop freaking out when Craig throws Taylor around on the couch.

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other

2008-11-06T11:11:00.000-08:00

It was love at first sight... okay, maybe at second sight after we had looked at all the other couches first. But it was second sight at least. We found our sectional at Costco Home which, by the way, is totally awesome. It's a Costco specifically for furniture. There are only two in the country- Kirkland, WA and Tempe, AZ. Anyway, we ordered it, and we got it around the end of June or beginning of July- something like that.

So why am I making a post about our awesome sectional that we got delivered 4 months ago? Take a look:

See anything suspicious? If not, look again.

Kent was vacuuming the other night and that's when I saw it- the sections to our sectional are not the same! One has those big brads all along the bottom and the other doesn't. We usually have a big ottoman in front of it, so I guess that's why I never noticed. I called Costco today and asked them what could be done. So Costco is going to call the furniture company that we ordered it from and try to get us a replacement.

I love Costco.