Oh, Me...Oh, My!

Dance Class!

2011-08-17T03:04:00.000-07:00

After much fretting about whether to start MaraJade in dance now, and where and when and how, we decided to try some classes for the summer. A local studio had unlimited classes for July and August for a super good price, so I signed MaraJade up for ballet and jazz, thinking to get a feel for how/if she enjoyed dancing.

Well, she loves it. I, unfortunately, am less than impressed. I truly don't know if it's just because I danced for so long and am now a bit of a dance snob, or if my childhood dance studio had much higher standards, or if I'm just getting old and crochety, but I'm really not feeling this place. First, it's run completely sloppily, with no real order or instruction anywhere - from behind the desk to in the studio. The teacher doesn't introduce herself, can't remember the girls' names, doesn't have anyone line up, etc. It's kind of a slightly organized free-for-all. Jazz and ballet classes are only distinguishable from one another by the music they play. Foot positions are "open book" (first) and "penguin" (second). Freeze Dance is employed for much of the 30 minutes. Hmmmph. Gripe.

(Oh! Oh! And the pictures of their dancers on the wall! Holy cow! The pre-teen and teenage girls are wide-legged straddling chairs and giving the camera a full-on "come hither" look. Ewww!)

Then I talked to a friend who had a similar experience at another little studio I'd been looking at. Paying for running around and less-than-impressive dancing, even from the "veterans" in their studio. Hmmph. Gripe. Worry.

Then I had a little light bulb moment. I danced for a few years (like 13). I helped coach dance team for 1 year. It's possible I could teach my 5-year-old the basics of dance. Duh!

So I'm going to start our own little studio in the living room, setting aside 30 minute class times at set times each week. I think it might be fun. It'll certainly be cheaper than $40-65/month for 45 minutes of class time, plus costumes and such. It'll be less stress for me since I'm already going 3-4 different directions with the whole family's various activities. And I think she might get a better foundation this way. I can teach her all the basics in more detail and cover more ground - I hope. And in a couple of years when we maybe have a little more money and it becomes more important to be in the studio, we'll shop around for a higher-caliber studio. But we will dance nonetheless!

Miss MaraJade is 5!

2011-08-11T21:35:00.000-07:00

So I'm totally behind on this one, but I kept forgetting to get the pictures off the camera, etc., etc., etc., and suddenly it's August! Eek! So here's to you, my favorite 5-year-old!

5 years. Such a long time when you're a child. Such a short time in the ever-increasing, speeding-by timeline of your own child. I truly can't believe that a little over 5 years ago, I didn't know what it was to have a little girl. Was quite certain, in fact (in my Debbie Downer, self-pitying moments), that I would never have a daughter. But against all the odds, and after a bit of trouble (and a bit of hurrying there at the end - we had a deadline to meet, after all!), she was here. She brought a whole new spirit and - well, vibe - to our family. After 2 crazy little boys, whom I loved dearly and came to understand, it was amazing to finally "get" one of my kids. When she developed a passion for shoes at under 1 year, I got it. When she mommied her baby dolls and animals all around the clock, I got it. When she preened in her little toy vanity, I got it. When she had to wear a dress or skirt every single day, I got it. This didn't necessarily make her easier to raise, just not so foreign - more familiar. The boys - I still don't understand why they have to throw everything instead of just handing it to me.

I love that she loves Barbie movies and princesses and everything girly. I certainly wouldn't love her any less if she were a tomboy, but I sure do identify with her this way. And we get to share such special moments because of our very girlness.

She's sweet and loving and bossy and sassy. She's fiery and aggressive like her namesake (and, well, maybe her mom). She's almost a teenager (in her own mind), and already scaring her daddy with thoughts of boys chasing after her and her big blue eyes. She still won't talk to strangers (or, heck, sometimes even people she knows), but she's learned to speak with those eyes, if only you know her language. She brings us joy and flowers, sunshine and music every moment of her life.

Happy Birthday, my MaraJade!

Quorra

2011-07-24T21:06:00.000-07:00

As most everyone probably knows, we used to have cats. Lots of cats. 7, to be exact, over a 5 year period. By the time Tristen was born, we had 5, and (for various reasons) by the time MaraJade came alongs, we were down to 3. However, when she was around 1, we discovered she and Mace were likely allergic to them, and they were being constantly harassed by Wild Man Mace, and otherwise ignored by the rest of us since we were so busy just running our little family. So we sadly said good-bye to the last 3. It was very sad, but also kind of liberating.

Then we got the Ronan when Monster was 1 1/2, and we said that was it! But Tristen was constantly pining for a cat again, so we promised him we would get one when he turned 10 - but were kind of hoping he'd forget and we'd be off the hook.

So, as I've commented, MissE was totally obsessed with the kittens at the farm in Idaho - along with all the other kids. This sort of softened PJ toward the idea of getting a cat again next year. Well, coincidentally, some free kittens were chanced upon in Idaho. They were quite cute, and PJ consented.

So little Quorra (pronounced just like Cora) came to us. She rode home with Grandma and Aunt Jaime and the kids were just beside themselves waiting for her to arrive. It was about 9 at night when I got her home, and a funny thing happened. Eowyn lost. her. mind. over the cat. Literally. She was absolutely hysterical over the cat, and would scream and cry and shriek if anyone else held or petted her, then would instantly calm down once she could hold her. Then it would start all over again. We were seriously wondering if this would work if MissE was going to act like this. Luckily, after a day or so, she calmed down (for the most part) and let little Quorra settle in.

I'd forgotten what it was like to have a kitten around. The middle-of-the-night insanity especially. We eventually moved her to the girls' room to sleep at night, but she really loves to squeeze in through the bars of Eowyn's crib and play (attack) her head in the middle of the night, waking up the child I've so painstakingly gotten to sleep in her own bed. Grrrrrr.

Ronan was very ingtrigued with the lovely little snack we brought him, then puzzled when we wouldn't let him eat it. But he quickly caught on and wanted to play, much to Quorra's furious indignation. But 6 weeks or so later - they're coming around. It'll be fun when they really start to play together.

So that's it. 1 dog, 1 cat. The kids are happy and I'm not totally insane. I can do this.

Classic Maceism

2011-07-09T21:32:00.001-07:00

I frequently find myself unable to capture the true Mace-ness of his questions sometimes, so since one just happened, I'm writing it down.

Mace: Who was the President in 1985?
Me: Ronald Reagan.
Mace: Huh?
Me: Ronald Reagan.
Mace: Who's Ronald Reagan?
Me: Arrrggghh!

Idaho! ~Edited~

2011-06-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

We set out the day after school ended for Boise to stay at PJ's aunt and uncle's bird farm. And despite some pretty rotten traffic luck (and my many fears), the kids were great!

Everyone had a fabulous time, jumping on the trampoline, riding the 4-wheeler, playing with cousins, visiting the many many birds, swimming in the ditch, playing with the dollhouses, and just laying about. Definitely our favorite place to hang out for vacation.

The boys especially loved visiting with their teenage boy cousins and just running around like maniacs, MaraJade spent 80% of her time in the living room with the giant dollhouses, and Eowyn was pretty much in heaven all around. She was obsessed with the little kittens and birds in the house and easily doubled her vocabulary in the time we were there. By the end of the trip, she was constantly saying, "outSIDE!", "Kee" (kitty), "bieete!" (bite), "wheeng" (swing) and much more.

End of the School Year for All

2011-06-11T09:46:00.000-07:00

Monster had such a great year in preschool. We love the ELC preschool and are lucky to have had all 3 kids go there. The last day of school Family Day had a flying theme, with crafts, face painting, and yummy treats. Such a good year!

Butterfly wings at Family Party Day

Launching her parachute

Butterfly Girl!

This year has been tremendously stressful and emotional, since learning that Campbell may shut down, then definitely will, then wondering where the kids will end up, then worrying about that transition, then worrying about the future of the campus and that impact on our neighborhood. It's been a crazy, sad, worrisome time. Campbell and its staff were exceptional. I know that for a fact. And we were lucky to be a part of it. But it's time to move on.

The old and new shirts. Campbell most certainly rocked!

Mr. T and Mr. Burr

Mace and Ms. Nusom

Every one of these beautiful, enthusiastic, creative, caring ladies received a pink slip for next year. :(
They will be sorely missed.

Yearbook signing

Teacher Thank-You Books

2011-06-08T11:35:00.000-07:00

I'm still somewhat new to the whole teacher gift thing. I actually didn't know this was a "thing" until about a week before the end of T's kindergarten year. Since then, I've learned a little (teachers really don't like kitschy, teacher-y crap), experimented some, and researched a lot (yes - it's what I do!).

This year in particular, with the school closing, and at least one of the kids' teachers being laid off, I wanted to do something really special and memorable. I happened upon this idea (scroll down to see the money book), but decided that there was no way in the world I was going to be able to round up contributions from most of the parents, so decided to do an adapation of the book, but have it bound into a real book. Great idea! Now to implement it - oh, and of course it's May 18 by this time, with June 9th the last day of school.

So, hurry hurry, research where to get a book made online (Lulu.com - best prices), make up a questionnaire form (print - edit - edit again - print - edit - edit - done!) - 1 for each class, print a million of them, try to figure out how to get forms filled out by kids and turned back to me in time, decide to just go in to class and have them fill them out there (duh! Thanks Cindy!), email teachers to ask when I can come in for a few minutes for a "special project", get camera ready to take pics of kids, buy candy to bribe children to fill out forms, rush to school with girls in tow, get T's class done (dang, those kids are rowdy!), wait around a bit, get Mace's class done (wow, that class loves the baby!), go home, scan each page in, re-scan with proper settings, re-scan and do NOT save as a PDF (arrrggghhh!!), paste scanned images into Word doc, go online and discover page size for book is not the same as letter-size page, re-format all Word docs (arrrrggghhh!!), figure out which kid pictured goes with which form (I know many, but not all), insert pictures into form, re-size pictures repeatedly, re-format pages to add page with kids' names to meet minimum page length for books - then repeat with Mace's class (slightly faster the second time), discover Word docs need to be saved as PDF prior to upload with Lulu, find a free PDF maker, make errors with PDF maker, find out about embedded fonts (arrrrggghh!!), decide to skip that step, upload first file, have website crash a couple of times, get it uploaded, design book covers - BTW, time is now 10:30 pm on May 24, the last day to submit to have enough cushion for printing and shipping back to me - (What? I have to have a blurb on the back cover? Crap! Think of something quick!), find teacher pics on kids' class pictures, scan and add those, chat with Lulu support regarding page layout - 1 book done! - repeat with Book #2 and done! at 11:45 pm.

Then to wait and hope that I didn't miss something! June 3 they arrive (yay! no more waiting!) and they look awesome! I'm so excited to have the kids give them to their teachers!

Adventures in Breadmaking

2011-06-07T11:13:00.000-07:00

So I love to bake. That's really not news. But for a long time, I was afraid of yeast breads and all that they entailed. Then I got my breadmaker a couple of Christmases ago, and was no longer afraid to dive headfirst into yeast bread awesomeness. I made white bread, wheat bread, french bread, cinnamon rolls, you name it. However, I'd heard and read many comments from people essentially dissing breadmaker bread, and so wanted to try to make the ultimate wheat bread to replace our store-bought loaves.

Much random research later, I came upon this website and the amazing Darcy's Wheat Bread recipe. And look, there's a tutorial! Sweet! Can't possibly fail - right? I buy the special pans (which I do love), read and re-read the instructions, learn and adapt (crap - yeast is not lively enough!, crap - top oven is totally not calibrated!, knead longer, more flour, less flour, knead shorter, knead by hand, etc., etc., etc.) after more research. Well, 1 week and roughly 14 loaves later, and these are the fruits of my labor (the last 4 batches, in order from left to right):

Some tasty, some less so, all varying degrees of little wheat bricks. All edible, but nowhere near usable for PB&J around here. And certainly nowhere near the gorgeous, floaty soft, high, golden loaves shown on Mel's tutorial pics.

By this time, I'm just about done with the whole thing. I'm frustrated, irritable (oh, it must be because I'm using my KitchenAid, since I don't have $450 to fork out for an all-mighty Bosch, like all good Mormon housewives in Utah/Idaho/Arizona/everywhere, nor a grinder to grind my own wheat - which means I have yet again failed to meet an unspoken standard - would be nice if someone would let me in on the friggin' rules!!), thoroughly disgusted and ready to throw in the towel.

Then, looking through my recipe book for something unrelated, I come across my favorite wheat bread recipe for the breadmaker. I see that I've printed the adaptation someone made to just use the dough cycle to mix and knead the dough, then shape into pans and bake in the oven. I decide to try it. Hallelujah!

Granted, the recipe was a little large for my pan, but otherwise, it's gorgeous! And tasty! And soft! And sliceable! Woohoo!! And I know exactly what's in it, and that it's healthy for my family. Yippee! I'm off to make more bread!

Thank you, Grandma Joleen!

2011-05-29T19:47:00.000-07:00

OK, since I don't really want to post this stuff directly on YouTube, and emailing a video seems like a bad idea, I need to post this here for my Momma to see it. I believe it's self-explanatory. :)

BTW, they've been a'snapping away all week long - I do wonder what they've got pictures of....

Oh, and Mace was sick, which is why his reaction is so very understated and un-Macelike.

Tulip Festival

2011-05-24T10:57:00.000-07:00

Yeah, this happened back in April. But since my camera battery chose to die in the parking lot, most of the pics were on PJ's phone, and we kept forgetting to get them off. So here we are, on arguably the most beautiful day of 2011 (thus far) at the beautiful Woodland Tulip Festival!

Happy Easter!

2011-05-20T10:57:00.000-07:00

The kids were all scrubbed and dressed up for Easter (at my insistence - the boys were even wearing sweater vests!), but you'll have to take my word for it, since (as usual) we were running super late for church and didn't even have a minute to grab a picture before or after. But they looked cute!

Right after church, it was quick cooking/baking/prepping to head on over to Grandma and Grandpa's for the day's activities. The kids had a ball, and the weather cooperated long enough for the Egg Hunt, and all 6 kidlets got to partake. Sadly, right out of the gate, MissE took a tumble, got very muddy, and was done! But they all had a blast and got enough candy to last them until the next candy-filled holiday.

ALL the grandkids!

Falling down stinks!

But these yummy blue eggs make it a little better.

It's the Easter Kazi!

My Posing Princess

Pinewood Derby 2011

2011-05-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

We almost missed the whole thing due to some communication issues, but luckily made it just in time. In his second year, Mr. T placed first in his age group, and second overall - again! I think it was the awesome paint job that clinched it. ;-)

The Great Green Blur!

Glomming on Grandma

I May Or May Not Be Somewhat Indecisive

2011-05-12T10:24:00.000-07:00

Just ran across this on someone's blog. Just too perfect for me, don't you think? Or maybe not? :-D

More of the Same

2011-05-10T11:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, around 4:30, I told PJ I wanted to leave. It wasn't so much that it had been one of "those days". It had just been a day. A regular old day in the life of me.

Monster had spent the entire day in her room, claiming inability to clean it up. All day. Mace had been doing the same since his return home at 3:00. I knew that neither would actually clean up, merely shove clothes, toys and crap into whatever area they thought I wouldn't check. That's just how they roll.

MissE had had one of her clingy days, complete with an awesome 45-minute nap.

I'd been taking the few free moments of the day - when MissE would condescend to let me loose of her leach-like hold - to attempt to clean up the truly horrific chaos around me, so that I could be free to take a few moments to work on a sewing project - to no avail, of course.

Mr. T wanted to know if he'd read for his allotted time. Of course, he hadn't notifiied me of when he started, so I had no idea. Yet it was my fault - as it is when someone can't locate a missing item, when there isn't the desired foodstuff in the fridge/pantry, when video game time is revoked because of bad behavior - all my fault, of course.

Weighing on me, in the back of my mind was this Groupon out that day for a great deal on TaeKwonDo. Mace would love to do TaeKwonDo. But there's simply no way we can come up with an additional $90 every month for lessons. Nor can we fairly let him do it and not Tristen. Which lead to this little mental tangent: (Nor do I know how we will afford dance lessons for Monster, which I desperately want for her. And let's not even talk about the piano lessons I so want for all the kids - there's neither money nor time for the things I want to be able to give my kids. Let's not even talk about the other things we can't do for our family - everyone I know takes grand vacations, both for family and couples, has awesome gadgets and things that make life a little prettier and more fun. We're always just scraping by, hoping to have enough money to go camping in the summer. You know, a little light thinking to occupy my day.)

I was making dinner, which I knew the kids wouldn't like and would likely protest loudly about. However, it was something that sounded good to me, and so I was making it. Because my children don't like anything. They're the living embodiment of my parents' wish that "someday you'll get a picky kid just like yourself." Well, I got 4. Somehow that seems disproportionate punishment.

It was basketball night, which meant that immediately following dinner, PJ would be gone until 7:30, and I would be alone with all of them, all of this - again.

I may have been a bit short with the kids, at which point PJ asked what was wrong. Normally, I might prevaricate, because I know how it sounds. But today, I just told him. And he tried to help - offered to let me go out for a while when he got home. To which I responded, "Go where? Where would I go? What would I do? Spend more money we don't have? Look at things I can't afford to even want? What is there for me to do?" Even as I said it, I knew how it appeared. But still I said it.

I am lucky. I am fortunate. I am blessed beyond measure. I know this. I repeat: I know this. I thank my Heavenly Father every night for my life. I have a loving, hard-working, helpful husband who tries really hard to keep me happy. I have 4 beautiful, healthy, happy children who love life. They bring me more joy than I could ever have thought humanly possible (and the potential for more heartache - dang!), and I marvel over this constantly. I have a home that fits us all, a yard (a small one!) for my children to play safely in, with a quiet street in front. I don't have to work outside the home, or be up and dressed early in the morning. I get to stay home with my children, be there for them after school, know their teachers and school friends, occasionally have time to craft. My husband has a good, steady job that pays all our bills, plus provides excellent health insurance. I have family nearby to help and play with. I have a support system waiting to kick in should I but make a call. I have known blessedly little tragedy in my life. I have never had to worry whether I will be able to feed, clothe, or shelter my family. I have never had to ask the church for help. My family never looks as though we're in need (I hope). We live in a place where we can voice our opinions, worship as we choose, and generally not fear for our lives on a daily basis. I have gotten exactly what I want for my life.
I am blessed.

Which makes it all the worse when I have the days where it just gets to be too much. How bratty, how selfish, how ungrateful am I to even silently feel as though I just need to get away from this bounty. I know there are countless people in this world who would read this little pity-party rant and legitimately say, "Boy, I sure wish that's all I had to worry about." I know. But still I feel like this. Sometimes.

Sometimes it's just too darn much for me. Too much doing the same thing over and over and over and over, and rarely - if ever - accomplishing anything. To never have a change in the outcome, and rarely even a completion or a moment where I can sigh, look around, dust off my hands and think, "well, that's done." Because while I'm spending time on one thing, another thing is rapidly unraveling right behind my back, with a third and fourth just waiting in the wings. (In taking the time to compose this blog post, the girls have emptied a box of cereal, ripped up a floor vent, emptied out the living room toy box, strewn the library books around the room, spilled syrup on my cookbook, scattered Kool Aid packets all over the kitchen floor, and knocked over all the brooms - just as an example.) Perhaps it's just a result of my personality. Perhaps someone so controlling, so averse to chaos shouldn't be a stay-at-home-mom. Because that's all I have around me. I seem to have missed out on that gene that enables me to maintain a clean home, cook wholesome homemade meals, spend quality time with my children, maintain the finances and other miscellania of the household, take care of the kids' school stuff, find ways to live within our means, and be a good wife and mother - simultaneously. Oh, yeah, and me. Drummed into women these days is the fact that we're supposed to "take care of me" somewhere in this. Sure, I'll get right on that. I'd love to take a dance class, or a cooking class, or a photography class, or work out in the basement - oh, wait, every spare moment and dollar is already earmarked for everyone else's activities. (I've had Spa Finder gift cards for the past 4 years that I haven't used - I need to research the available spas to find which will give me the best services for the lowest price, so I'm not wasting my $. Then I have to find an available time to reserve. Then I have to hope desperately that something doesn't come up, necessitating that I (horrors!) have to reschedule.)

Perhaps I've a bit of ADD in me after all. Because I just can't seem to effectively manage more than one of the many things I need to in my life. And it's getting harder to hide. It seems to me that it must be shining like a glorious neon sign above me, alternating in technicolor, "Wreck!" "Disaster!" "Failure!"

But even thinking these thoughts in my mind scares me. I feel like I'm inviting someone to take it all away from me, to show me what it's like to really suffer. To say, "You don't want this? Fine, I'll give you something to truly cry about."

So I rarely say it - I hardly allow myself to think it. Because I know that the hard times will pass, sooner than I can even imagine the kids will be grown and gone, and (so I'm told) I'll look back and miss these days.

And while tomorrow will likely be more of the same, hopefully I won't feel so pissy about it. That's all I can hope for.

1 Year Picture Test

2011-04-10T19:53:00.000-07:00

It's time for another of my favorite things - Pick the Bocek Baby Test! Here are the kids at 13-14 months old. You may see a resemblance among them. :-)

So.....who's who?

Answers:
M, MJ, T, MJ
T, M, E, T
M, E, MJ, E

Recorder Karate

2011-04-10T19:50:00.000-07:00

At Campbell, during the recorder unit, they do Recorder Karate, where they earn different "belts" for learning songs - they start out simply and progress with increasing difficulty. I had been encouraging Tristen to practice at home, and he did for awhile, but we of course forgot for a time. Thus, I was shocked to find out that he earned his Black Belt! Out of the maybe 125 3/4th graders who took part, only around 25 made it to that level by mastering "Ode to Joy". Great job Mr. T!

They had a special assembly where the kids got to perform for everyone. It happened to be St. Patrick's Day, which I only discovered as the kids filed in and I thought (did they ask them all to wear green? Oh -Duh!) I tried to upload the video, but I guess at almost 17 minutes, it's just a bit much for the website to handle. You'll have to trust me - he did great!

Where's My Prince?

2011-04-08T14:38:00.000-07:00

Some kind friends dropped off a bag of clothes for the girls, as well as a cute ride-on toy for MissE. She immediately fell in love with the pretty pink car with princesses on it. She really loves the buttons on the steering wheel that play either a princess phrase or a little ditty. Mace isn't loving it quite as much. The constant playing of the song seems to disturb his delicate auditory balance - because of course he never does anything loud or annoying. He's even been seen tossing the toy into the bathroom and slamming the door, telling MissE "No more!" I'd feel bad for him if I didn't remember the many things he does each and every day that are annoying in the extreme.

Anyway, I think this video pretty much sums it up;

Four Bright Coins

2011-03-31T13:34:00.000-07:00

Mace's class worked for several weeks to memorize this little chant about money and performed it at Friday Morning Meeting in front of the school. Mace got to tell a joke, and he was surprisingly tentative.

My Dancing Princesses

2011-03-30T14:41:00.000-07:00

MaraJade and Eowyn love to dance to anything, but particularly the Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses movie. I recently found my only remaining dance costume and let Monster wear it. She loved dancing to her favorite songs in dance costume - usually she's in princess costume with her Superman doll as prince! If you watch closely, you can see she's imitating the video pretty well. I know she'd love to start dance lessons, but I just have to figure out how to squeeze that into the budget!

Spring Break 2011

2011-03-27T12:49:00.000-07:00

We had quite a bit of fun this Spring Break. PJ had the week off, and we just stayed in town but did a bunch of fun stuff (thanks to Groupons, Entertainment Book and the like!). As I recall, we went to: Enchanted Playhouse (think McDonald's playland plus Gymboree - fine, and close to home, but not worth the $7.25/kid), Precision Elite Gymnastics open gym, JJ Jump, Pietro's, bowling, swimming, plus dinner at Olive Garden. Oh, and Tristen had his first cavities filled. :-(

Maceism of the Day - 3/25/11

2011-03-25T12:24:00.000-07:00

In the car (again), the boys somehow got to asking me about Grandma Beth. They asked if she was my mom (we've actually had this conversation many times, but I know it's confusing for them), and I replied no, she's my stepmom. Conversation followed thusly:

Mace: "Do I have a stepmom?"
Me: "No. If Daddy and I got divorced, and he married a different woman, that would be your stepmom."
Mace: Pause. "Oh." Pause. "So is Alex your stepdad?"
Me: Pause. Think...think....think...ummm.....
Mace: "No. He's just Grandma's friend." Pause. "When will they have kids?"
Me: "They're not going to. Auntie Auntie and I are Grandma's only kids."
Mace: Pause.
Me: Waiting....cringing...
Mace: "Do I have a stepdad?"
Me: Whew! He moved on! "No, but if Dad and I divorced, and I married a different man, he would be your stepdad."
Mace: Pause.
Me: "Would you like that? Having another dad?"
Mace: "No way!" Thinking Pause. "Unless you married James Bond. That would be pretty cool!"

Visiting our friends!

2011-03-24T14:20:00.000-07:00

It's been over a year since mine and MaraJade's best buddies abandoned us to move to the 'Couv. We've been able to visit a few times since, but it's hard because our schedules with preschool and such are completely opposite. But during Spring Break week, we managed to find a free day for both our families, so the Bocek girls got to spend the whole day with Savannah, Ruby, Mae and Makelle. We had such fun! But now we miss them even more. :-(

Unfortunately, I only managed to take pictures of MissE and Miss Mae. Hmmm...too busy visiting by chance?

Could have been best buddies.... (sorry Makelle, I can't resist)

Pretty Miss Mae

Oh! I did get one of Sabanna!

Beehive Cake

2011-03-13T12:08:00.000-07:00

My first non-birthday fondant creation! My mother-in-law requested a beehive cake for her RS Birthday event. After lots of thought and online research (me? nah!), plus several different game plans, here's what I ended up with:

I had initially wanted something more realistic and - well, I guess - sophisticated. But I ended up going with cutesy, and I do love it. This was my first time molding little figures from fondant and gumpaste, my first time covering my cake board, plus many other firsts. It was really fun! Oh, and I used my favorite moist chocolate cake recipe, with chocolate ganache filling and caramel buttercream. I hear it was tasty as well!

Bees and flowers drying

1 9" round, 1 8", 1 6" and half of a pyrex bowl

First couple of tiers filled, stacked, doweled and crumb-coated

Almost done crumb-coating

Covered! And I didn't tear it once!

Well, not until I stuck a finger through it. Doh!

The kids kept calling the largest bee the queen, so I decided to make her a wee crown. :)

Responsibility!

2011-03-13T11:26:00.000-07:00

In the interest of preserving Mom and Dad's sanity, instilling our children wtih a good work ethic and sense of place in our "community", and just because I think it's time, we've been focusing on the kids helping out more around the house. We had a pretty good FHE about it, we've instituted Chore Charts for all the kids (the boys had an after-school chore duty sheet before) and we've promised to be more on top of allowance doling. I know, current parenting philosophy is that children shouldn't be paid to do what they are already supposed to around the house - they should do it just because they live there. And part of me definitely agrees. However, I also believe that it's important to teach the kids how the world really works: you have a job with parameters, and when you perform your job as expected, you receive compensation. Don't do your job, no money. I guess I favor realism over idealism too much. And we did explain that there will be things we ask them to do that aren't on the Chore Chart, and they won't receive money every time we ask them to help out. The Chore Chart items are what they receive money for. Anyway, even prior to this, I had started having the kids fold their own laundry. We dump it in a big pile, they sort into their baskets, fold and put away. It's so nice! Here, on Laundry Day:

Of course, Mace needs many, many reminders to stay on task, Monster (if she's in a mood) just wallers around saying "I can't!" to everything I tell her to do, and Tristen is very responsible, but also quite bossy. It's a work in progress. :)

PreSchool

2011-03-11T11:43:00.000-08:00

We love our pre-school. We really, really do. MaraJade loves it, the boys loved it (still think it's the best school ever!), we love the curriculum, staff, kids - everything! Our kids all learned so much their pre-school year, and thrived in the loosely structured, child-and-play-led program. This spring, Teacher Kristen and the High School Helpers have focused a lot on plants. MaraJade has brought home and sprouted wildflowers, sunflowers, and even has a grass head! I wouldn't change pre-schools for anything!

1 year pics

2011-03-10T09:53:00.000-08:00

It only took 4 tries, but we finally got MissE's 1-year pictures taken. First 2 times, she was sick and I had to cancel at the last second, third time, got her dressed and ready, to the photo studio in a good mood and all, then she wouldn't let me leave her side and I actually had to leave. I couldn't believe it. So I rescheduled (AGAIN), but had Grandma take her this time. I waited in the lobby with the boys, and she was still pretty whiny and resistant, but we actually got some cute pictures. And since I don't do individual professional pics past 1 year (the thought gives me hives and makes my wallet empty!), it'll only be home photos from here on out! Well, except for our rare attempts at family pictures *shudder*.

Maceism of the Day - 3/7/11

2011-03-09T11:02:00.000-08:00

Last month, in church, the kids were learning about the Plan of Salvation and the levels of Heaven (Celestial, Terrestrial and Telestial - highest to lowest (go to http://www.lds.org/ and search the site for a much better description than I can give right now)). As ususal, figured they weren't paying too much attention.

Fast forward to today in the car. MaraJade and Mace are fighting over some toy (go figure!), which Monster has possession of and is gleefully denying Mace access to. Very calmly, Mace says, "If you won't share that with me, you're going to go to the Telestial Kingdom. And then you'll be sad." Unfazed, Monster still won't give, so Mace launches into a mini-POS lesson, enlightening her on what she'd be missing out on if she makes such a poor decision.

At least someone is learning.

Snow Day!

2011-02-24T11:30:00.000-08:00

Well, we nearly didn't have one this year, but very late in the season, it finally snowed! Of course, it had mostly melted by the time the kids woke up, but then it started up again in the afternoon. The kids were in the middle of an enforced room-clean, but I released them from servitude to go and live it up while it was white. (Sorry about the many many pics of T, but it's been so very long since he's given me any decent shots of him!)

MissE wants to play!

Hmmm...this is odd...

Taking a test...

%*@! - that stuff's cold!

Oh, and just in case there was any doubt about what makes snow melt:

Tristen is 9!

2011-02-15T11:07:00.000-08:00

I truly can't believe my little curly-headed baby is 9 years old. Really, truly can't. I knew so little about anything when he was first born, and have learned so much through being his mother. He's frustrated me, perplexed me, delighted me, astounded me, and brought me endless joy. He's a wonderful big brother (when he's so inclined), very responsible and helpful (again - when he wants to be), a natural athlete and video gamer, quiet and observant, and rowdy and goofy. He's a carbon copy clone of his father - but I'm there in his eyes and dimples. I remember when he was a baby, thinking, "This baby/parenting stuff is easy! I could do this 10 times, no problem!" So thank you, Tristen. Thank you for being first. Because if your brother had been, there would have been no more. You're a tough act to follow.

The Hyrulian Sword (Zelda). The "rock" for holding candles also disguised my super messy spots. No more carved cakes for awhile, kids - please?

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T16:49:00.000-08:00

Just an average Valentine's Day around here - parties for preschool and school, candy and little gifts all around.

The night before, we'd done a Family Home Evening talking about Christlike Love (loving everyone, regardless of who they are or what they do to you), and made Valentines to give to someone the kids thought might need one. Of course, like many of our FHE's, I felt like nobody was listening or getting anything I was saying, and was thus in a nasty mood. Then that night, PJ and I went to bed and found these under our pillows:

What Happens When You Leave 4 Bocek Kids in a Waiting Room for 3/4 Hour?

2011-02-10T16:07:00.000-08:00

Eowyn is 1!

2011-02-01T14:00:00.000-08:00

My baby (my last, final, ever baby) is 1. I can't believe it. As always, it simultaneously feels as though she's been a part of our family forever and like she just got here. It's horrible how fast time goes by, and how the pace of life has picked up since my oldest baby was born. Miss E's early days are already hazy, and many of my most vivid memories of her revolve around her passionate love for me and need to be attached to me at all times.

But she's a sweet, loving, funny baby girl. Her first words were "dog", "Wow!" and "Hi!" and new favorites are "Yay!" and "Whoa!" along with the perennial child's favorite "Dada." She adores her big sister and brothers and just lights up when she sees them. She's generally still awake when they go to bed, and is constantly barging into their rooms to play. Since starting to walk in December, she's now a walkinig machine, and I just can't believe she's trucking around like a pro at only 1!

She's trying, she's exhausting, she demands pretty much every waking (and sleeping) moment I have, but I wouldn't trade any moment or dollar that it took to have her here with us. She completes our family, and I can't wait to see who she becomes.

The only way Mommy gets any work done - with Miss E attached to her side or back.

Not so sure she likes what's going on right now...

Baby, Baby, Baby - Oh!!

2011-01-31T18:03:00.000-08:00

Oh, Justin Bieber, to think that just a few short months ago, I was only vaguely aware of you. Now, I rarely go more than a day without your songs running through my head.

Mace loves Justin Bieber. We don't know why - we think maybe Justin is his first realization that the music on the radio or his mp3 player is being sung by people, and one who's just a kid - wow! Anyway, we made sure Santa brought Mace Justin's CD to load onto his new mp3 player, and right away all the kiddos were in full Bieber-mania. Most times I send the boys to their room to clean, they plug their player into their speakers, crank up Justin and end up dancing instead of cleaning. Exercise, I guess?

Anyway, I couldn't resist getting some footage of Mr. Mace singing along. I kept trying to be stealthy, thinking he might be embarrassed, but just couldn't manage it. So I came right out and asked him to sing it for the camera, and wouldn't you know - the others wanted to perform, too. Mace knew the most lyrics correctly, Tiana put the most "funk" into it, and Tristen totally cheated by listening as he sang. :-)

So here they are (watching these is one of Miss E's favorite pasttimes):

Just Dance! Kidz

2011-01-26T07:55:00.000-08:00

Many thanks to Auntie Rae Rae for going to great lengths to make sure Monster received this for Christmas. The kids really love Just Dance Kids, and I love watching them. I think they'd like Just Dance 2, but for now, I'm happy with this, the more innocent version. Soon enough, they'll be too cool for it. As you can see, it is well loved by every kid in the family (especially Mr. T - yay! I love watching him not being self-conscious).

Yep, I'm THAT mom

2011-01-25T10:37:00.000-08:00

All my life, I've struggled with an unending quest for perfection. As a child and teen, I wanted everything to look perfect, I needed to be perfect, and suffered mightily each time I didn't achieve said perfection. This lasted into my mid-twenties, at which point, I decided I would happily settle for having the "perception of perfection". As long as it appeared to the world that I had it together, that the world would never see my naked face or grubby clothes, my kids would never be a mess, visitors would always find a clean house (or living area, at least!), I would get everything done on time with apparent ease - I could live with that. I had seen and knew people who certainly seemed to have this perceived perfection, so darn it, I could too!

Well, since having children, I have finally come to accept that it just ain't going to happen. Much as it kills me, my children are actual people - can you imagine! Once past babyhood, the boys only want to wear clothes with their favorite cartoon characters on them, and they're in "play" condition almost the moment the tags come off. I finally have a little girl, and - wouldn't you know it - her hair absolutely refuses to stay brushed! And now she loves to wear these crazy combinations of clothes. But I simply cannot expend the time and effort to keep them looking and acting in a way that meets my personal expectations - nor is that fair to them. My house (and life, to be completely honest) are what I call "controlled chaos". I try my best to keep us functional and limit the uncontrolled chaos until I can take care of it.

This school year, I've struggled even more. It must be the addition of a 4th child (who loves me so much she can't stand to be separated for even a moment), plus having a baby with others in school (new to me, and wow! it's difficult!), but I am just so barely able to keep up these days, therefore apparently unable to hide that fact from the general public. In my quiet moments, I have this dream of people's perception of me. The one where I serenely walk down the school sidewalk with my 4 kids and the other moms say, "Wow! She has 4 kids! With all she does? I never would have thought!" The reality is this: I am frequently excused for my a) lateness, b) unpreparedness/forgetfulness, c) untidyness (home and/or personal), d) everything else, with some variation of: "Hey, you've got 4 kids. It's OK."

I don't want it to be OK. I don't want people to lower the standards for me and my constant insanity. I want to rise to the occasion, not continually just "make do". What makes it worse is that I know it's possible. I personally know women with multiple children whose hair and clothes are always tidy, fashionable and clean; their homes are always organized and tidy, even when I drop by unannounced; and they never appear frazzled and crazy or lose their cool in public. But here I am. I do have 4 kids. I am so busy and time-crunched and frazzled that I'm amazed I manage to function at all some days. So now I will stand tall, mismatched, messy-haired kids yelling, laughing and fighting around me, dirty-kneed baby clinging to my hip, with who-knows-what spilling from my (*sob*) filthy minivan, and say, "Yes. I am that mom."

Fun with Fondant

2011-01-19T11:46:00.000-08:00

This past year I rediscovered an old lost love: the Food Network. And there are all these awesome new shows on - many of which are now safely recording away on my DVR for the rare moments I get to watch one of my shows (generally late at night when Miss E refuses to go quietly into the night).

One of the biggest developments in food? Fondant! This stuff is so cool! The cakes that can be made with fondant are truly spectacular. I was always intrigued by cake designing, but although I tried many times, I'm just not too talented with piping. But the more I watched shows like Ace of Cakes and Challenge, the more I wondered: Hmmm, maybe I could do this? Which led to a bit of research (yes, my name is Melanie and I'm an online research addict. Deal with it.), which led to discovering Marshmallow Fondant (or MMF), and the idea that I could make this glorious stuff with items I already had on hand was simply too enticing to ignore. So, with the idea that this would be fun for the kids and me to play with on a day off school in December, I whipped up a batch, made a couple of 6" rounds, and started playing! Fun, fun, fun stuff, let me tell you - they don't call it PlayDoh for grown-ups for nothing! And actually quite yummy - the kids' favorite part was definitely Quality Control.

et voila! one perfectly fondanted cake! :)

I started with dots - seemed safest.

The kids' masterpiece!

This early trial set fire to my kindling interest, so with my Christmas money from my Momma, I bought the basic tools necessary to make some "real" cakes.

In our family, December, January and February have 8 birthdays, so I have plenty of cake-making opportunities coming up. My niece Tiana's was the next birthday, and she was super excited to help me make her cake. She requested red and blue flowers, with purple polka dots. It took a bit of coercion, but I finally convinced her to leave the polka dots off. It turned out pretty well, and I learned even more about what to do differently and better.

And since I'm such a glutton for punishment, instead of just making Mace whatever cake I could reasonably make, I ask him. He first wants the Hylian shield, but I had to refuse. He settled on the Ultimatrix from Ben 10, so it looked like I was making my first sculpted cake! Whoopee! And after several hours, one botched batch of MMF, a lot of angst (and maybe a little swearing), it was done! I'm no Cake Boss, and - contrary to my wonderful children's enthusiastic suggestion - I will not be the next Ace of Cakes, but it resembles what it was supposed to, is pretty cleanly done, and I am satisfied.

Miss E's birthday is next, and I'm full of ideas!!

Mace is 7!

2011-01-17T12:22:00.000-08:00

So my little Mace Mace is 7 now. I can't believe he's getting so old, so big, and ever smarter - he's already out-thinking me at times. Mace is a great friend to his buddies, a wild and wacky basketball and soccer player, a willing participant to MaraJade's plans (rather - orders) and pretend games, a devoted big brother/entertainer for Miss E, a lover of anything funny or goofy (or gross - his favorite), an absolutely useless room-cleaner (sorry, Mace, the truth hurts), and an all-around information sponge.

We love you, Mace, and how you constantly show us how to live each day to its fullest, imagine anything and everything, and play our hearts out.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas...

2010-12-24T21:58:00.000-08:00

We had our traditional Christmas Eve celebration, complete with extra family, a truly over-the-top amount of presents for our lucky little monsters, a super yummy Prime Rib and Crab (*gag*) feast, and lots of chaos, which is what we do best!

The present orgy

Auntie Auntie and Mace

Then, at the close of the evening, we read The Night Before Christmas and the Christmas Story. Mace wanted to read the Christmas Story this year, and here it is (I think he should read it every year! His sweet voice says it so well):

Letters, Drawings and Candy for Santa (and Mrs. Claus)

Anniversaries

2010-11-30T18:11:00.000-08:00

PJ and I seem to have many anniveraries (maybe most people do? I don't know...). There's the Wedding Day: August 15, 1997 and the Sealing Day: August 15, 2001. The Day We Became Engaged (unofficially): February 14, 1994, and (officially): May 20, 1995.

Then there are the two that started it all: November 27, 1993 (edit: thanks to a sharp-eyed reader) - the Night We Met. We often debated whether it was the 26th (the night we left our respective houses to hang out at the Quest with our respective band of hooligans), or the 27th (since it was definitely after midnight when we met) - now we're sticking with the 27th. Yes, it was roughly 1 or 2 a.m. when that handsome, swaggering boy with the towering blond hair (whom I'd been eyeing for the past few weeks) finally gave me the "come hither" finger crook, and I boogied right on over to dance with him. (Yes, that was the first and last time he ever had anything so easy with me.) After whiling away the rest of the night and exchanging numbers, I fully expected to never hear from him again. But I did, which leads us to:

November 30, 2003: Our First Date. I'd never really been on an actual date before, so I was really excited. And he seemed in a hurry to see me again, so I was really, really excited. However, by the end of school, it was clear that I had a fever and some kind of cold coming on. But I was going on that date, by-golly! So I drove home as fast as I could and took (children of mine, never do something like this!) *ahem* 6 Tylenol with Codeine. Because as any teenager knows, if one of something helps, multiples will help even more - and faster! Half an hour later, I'm feeling fine, and PJ arrives to take me on our date. We drive to Round Table to eat (yeah, and for him to get the a-ok from his friend Steve on me), but on the way, I get this horrible pain in my chest (apparently, consuming that much medication can cause some problems!), and I panic a bit, thinking we might have to cancel, but it passes, and the rest of the evening passes beautifully. I guess it really was Meant To Be. And the rest - as they say - is history.

March 1994

First Date Movie

My Winter Formal - December 1993

Why always the Pregnancy Pose?

PJ's Senior Prom - May 1994

Man, we were young!

My Senior Prom - May 20, 1995

Engagement Night :-)

Off to school - Mace-style

2010-11-04T08:24:00.000-07:00

Although I am generally barely coherent in the wee hours of the morning when I drop the boys off at school, I recently noticed a consistent pattern in the way Mace heads off to class, and thought it was just priceless, perfect Mace. With his Buzz wings waving ("Coolest backpack in the school!" the principal tells me every day), he bops off down the sidewalk until he gets to the hopscotch squares, where he (of course) doesn't just run over them, but completes the sequence - twice. So here is Mace, boogying off to school:

I do love this kid.

Halloween! Take 1, 2, 3

2010-11-01T10:35:00.000-07:00

MaraJade as the Red Princess.

Mace as Ben 10 - he insisted this was "the face Ben makes". Ick.

Tristen as Dastan from Prince of Persia. Complete with polo shirt underneath. :-)

Trunk-or-Treating!

Eowyn - my little lamb.

We had quite the busy 3 days: Friday night was Boo Boogie at the kids' school (carnival/dance/harvest festival?), Saturday (after 2 soccer games) there was a Halloween party for the boys, then Trunk-or-Treating at church, where the kids scored a small mountain of candy, then Sunday trick-or-treating in a friend's neighborhood to increase the sugar haul. Tristen has a backpack bulging with Halloween candy, and Mace isn't far behind. But they had a ton of fun!

Eowinners!!

2010-10-06T10:56:00.000-07:00

That's one of her few nicknames, and here are a few "winners" of this sweet, trying, hilarious, exhausting little baby:

That's my leg in the lower-left. As long as I'm within reach, she's a happy little girl.

If you've got great cleavage, you've got to flaunt it!

Under the table is so fun! And a great place to constantly bonk your head.

She's always crawling around with something in her mouth!

First Day of Preschool!!!

2010-10-05T13:05:00.000-07:00

The day is finally here! After a brief stop at the pediatrician (yes, I managed to completely forget her 4-year well-child visit and the accompanying shots that are necessary for school) and a first-day-of-school lunch at Wendy's, it was finally time for MaraJade to go to school!

She was surprisingly (well, I guess not so very surprisingly, given her recent transition to super-shy girl) hesitant for me to leave, but after about 5 minutes, I was given the OK to leave. My baby girl is so grown up!

The Trials of Eowyn

2010-09-29T10:55:00.000-07:00

She's a sweet little baby, but unfortunately for me, is a horrible combination of severely attached to Mommy and a terrible sleeper. Up until about a month ago, she was sleeping fine - just nursing a couple of times a night, but had to be with Mommy, of course. Which is fine - we have co-slept with all our babies; it's what works best and we like to do. However, once she started sitting up and crawling, plus teething, it's gotten really bad. She nurses incessantly through the night, nursing and pulling away so much that my attempts to sleep through it are constanly interrupted.

During the day, she needs to be with me pretty much all the time. If I manage to put her down and get her distracted with a toy, then sneak away, she's perfectly fine - until she catches sight of me. Then it's a mad crawl back to me, yelling all the way.

Her yelling: she doesn't "cry" so much as "yell". I've tried many times to capture the sound of her displeasure at not being the center of my hands-on attention, but strangely enough, as soon as I turn the Flip on, she shuts off the yelling and starts cooing and performing for the camera. Little twerp.

Recent Random Kid Quotes

2010-09-23T10:44:00.000-07:00

In the car after school the first week back, I asked Tristen if Dolcee was in his class (Dolcee was his "girlfriend" in Kindy and first grade). He said, "No. But that's OK." Me: "Why? Don't you like her anymore?" T (getting embarrassed): "No. But sometimes, when I see her, I get embarrassed." Hmmm... The conversation continues randomly, then he turns around to Mace and explains, "Sometimes, when you see that special girl, you might feel funny. That means you like her." That special girl? Oh, crap. And for the next few days, he and Mace would have mini-talks about that sort of thing, always talking about that special girl.

Related (probably during one of these talks), Tristen tells Mace that, "It's OK to get scratched up or hurt a little. Because girls think scars are hot." My heart literally stopped for a second. I had been sure he'd say "cool" or "gross" or anything else. Hot?? My baby boy is saying this word in this context and I simply cannot believe my ears. Just last year, if we even teased him about Dolcee, he'd get embarrassed, but also a little icked out. Now people are "hot." Oh, fercryin'outloud.

The other day (again, in the car - we spend a lot of time there), Mace and MaraJade are playing in the backseat and Mace says or does something random. MaraJade giggles and replies, "Oh, Mace, how romantic!" in this high-pitched affected girlie voice. Weird.

**Update: Have heard her say this a few more times in play - apparently it's her new "go-to" phrase. Never used in proper context, thank goodness.**

Maceism of the Day - 9/21/10

2010-09-21T16:27:00.001-07:00

So the boys are cleaning their room, which - as always - consists of lots and lots of time spent poking and picking at each other, fighting over who isn't helping, etc., etc., etc. At one point, apparently Tristen wasn't helping for a moment, then went back to policing Mace, to which Mace vehemently responded, "You're a minion of Satan!"

I honestly don't know where he comes up with this stuff sometimes.

Well, it had to happen sometime...

2010-08-29T16:24:00.000-07:00

And, in fact, I'm amazed it took this long.

Saturday morning, I was getting my hair cut, T was at soccer practice, and PJ was home with Monster, Mace and Miss E. I pick up T and come home after about 2 hours. I'm catching up with the baby and finally look at MaraJade, thinking, "Man, her hair is really matted on that one side." Pull her closer and see - no....it's gone!

I immediately know what happened, since she and Mace do everything together these days and Mace's current obsession is drawing items (Ben 10 Omnitrixes, Green Lantern rings, his favorite superheroes, etc.), coloring them, then cutting them out (and wearing them, in the case of the Omitrixes and rings). So obviously they took scissors to the next level. And who knows, maybe they knew I was getting my hair cut, so....?

Anyway, PJ was - how shall I say it - not pleased. I'm not sure Mace has ever seen his dad so angry with him. And I couldn't get a straight story out of either of them. All Mace could say (um, sob) was, "MaraJade gave me the scissors!" Oh, and, "I'm sorry!"

MaraJade was appropriately despondent when we informed her that we would have to cut the rest of her hair off to match the chopped section.

So, once the yelling and tears had abated, we made an appointment with my hair stylists (completely awesome, BTW!) to have them fix it. I probably could have done it, since I've always cut the boys' hair, but I wanted to see how they do it first. Plus, I thought it might have more impact for her? Who knows. Off to Teal Salon! Super Janelle's awesome work! (You can't see it, but there's glitter spray on the top.)

Side note: Later that day, I found this stuffed in one of Eowyn's toys:
Of course, we still can't get a clear picture of what happened from those two, but close as I can figure, they somehow matted the heck out of several chunks of her hair, tried to wash and comb it out, then decided just to cut it. To keep from getting in trouble, of course.

MaraJade, the Union Rep

2010-08-26T15:05:00.000-07:00

Last night, we let Monster stay in the boys' room for a while after "bed time" (yeah, right - during summer that comes 1-2 hours after we send them to bed) to play and such. PJ was making popcorn, when suddenly she appears in the kitchen and says, "Um, we were wanting, um 3 (holds up 3 fingers, just in case) po'corns for us." We say yes, and she runs back into the boys' room, yelling, "Yay! We gonna get po'corn!" Look out, Norma Rae!

**Note: this was also Eowyn's first popcorn. Holy cow, I couldn't bite off kernels fast enough for her! She was yelling at me every few seconds until I gave her more. Looks like we've got yet another popcorn fiend in the house!

7 Months Old!

2010-08-21T10:49:00.000-07:00

7 months ago today, after much drama and chaos, this sweet baby girl finally made her appearance. To be honest, towards the end I wasn't sure if she would really be worth it. (Hey, it was a long, rough, arduous pregnancy.) But she's made almost every moment since a true joy.

She's so very happy almost all the time - well, as long as Mommy is around. As tiresome as it is sometimes, I have to admit kind of liking this. None of the other babies so completely favored me and my presence over anyone else. It's kinda nice to feel so loved. She just lights up when she sees me, leaning and straining to get to me. Which doesn't mean it doesn't get old sometimes - but overall, I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.

But she really just goes with the flow, playing with her big bros and sis, yanking on whichever appendage the foolish dog happens to leave within her reach, and just being in the middle of whatever is going on.

She's trying hard to crawl, currently wanting to be on the floor rolling around and scooting all over the place all the time. She'll push up on her hands & knees and somehow maneuver her little body far from her starting point. Soon she'll be everywhere!

The first of many (many, many) waffles!

Man, I love this baby girl!!

6 Month Pics & Kids

2010-08-18T13:39:00.000-07:00

Much as I'd love to get the super cute, creative family and kid pics that are so popular these days, I don't quite have the budget for them (or the connections - darn!), so off to JCPenney we go! But when the subject(s) is so cute, you can't go wrong!

13 Years and Still Going Strong...

2010-08-15T09:59:00.000-07:00

You know, it really shouldn't have worked. 2 teenagers, meeting in a dark, smoky, disreputable dance club 16 1/2 years ago, where one-night hook-ups were the expectation. Nothing long-term should have come of such a night. It should likely have ended as just a brief high school romance. From 2 different backgrounds, living in 2 different cities. Nothing obvious to so closely bond us. Yet time passed, and together we stayed. Through the remaining years of high school. Through my senior prom, the night we became "officially" engaged - much to some family members' extreme concern. In fact, moments before I walked down that aisle, I was advised by a family member that, "It's not too late. If you're not totally sure, you can back out now." But I didn't, and here we are, living our own happily ever after.

Eowyn's Rough Week

2010-08-01T16:37:00.000-07:00

Teething has reared its ugly head, characterized by an unusually cranky little girl, random crying and fussing, lots of chewing on fingers, middle-of-the-night party fests (my favorite), burning hot head with no recordable "fever", runny nose, etc., etc., etc.

Then, last night, the poor thing was the first of our children to be dropped on her head, compliments of her oldest brother. Luckily, he was sitting on the low couch when she flipped out of his hands, but as PJ and I didn't see it happen, and thus couldn't discern what part of her head hit the floor first, or just how hard she fell, we called the advice line for our insurance. They wanted us to take her to the ER, but I then remembered I could call the pediatrician's office and talk to the on-call ped (DUH!), who preferred to have us watch her for concussion, but deduced that she was probably all right.

Fast forward to 1:00 am, when we have to wake her for her 4-hour concussion check. She wakes up a little and is responsive - yay! 4:30 am, I wake to nurse her and find her scorching hot. After she nurses, I get the thermometer to find out for sure, and she's running around 101. So I lay her back down with dad and run to the computer - I can't remember what kind of temp is dangerous in a baby her age. I just find out that she's mostly past the danger-age for that kind of temp, when she starts screaming. I run back to the bedroom where she's crying hysterically. I try to calm her with little success, then she throws up on me, and I literally felt her fever break. She went from boiling hot to just kind of warm in about 5 seconds. She calmed down and fell asleep 1 minute later, with me still propping her up, staring, and waiting for her head to spin around or something. I, of course, didn't get to sleep for another hour or so, just laying next to her, waiting for something else horrific to happen. But today she's mostly fine, running a temp from high 98s to low 100s, so she must just be fighting a bug.

Man, this baby stuff is exhausting.

Happy Birthday PJ!!

2010-07-19T11:35:00.000-07:00

If you have super-vision, you can see that says 34.

He gets little mention on this blog, but he's the best husband and daddy I could have asked for. He works hard and plays hard and loves his family more than anything. (Yes, even more than basketball OR super heroes OR Star Wars) The kids and I surprised him at work with a kid-made sign and Costco sized Jelly Bellys, then had a family party where he was the Smokin' & Grillin' Master. He said that this year was his second favorite birthday ever - second only to the year that I surprised him with Foo Fighters and Chris Isaak concerts. So that's saying something! So glad you had a great day Babe!

Now, for a little PJ retrospective:

Maceism of the Day - 7/18/10

2010-07-18T13:09:00.000-07:00

I've been working with the kids to try and encourage them to speak more kindly to one another and other people. We have a system where they earn tokens (poker chips) each time they ask nicely for something or speak kindly to someone. If they're particularly rude or mean, they lose a token. At the end of the day, each token is worth a penny. So, in theory, they could earn a couple of dollars just by being nice.

Anyway, today, Mace looks at his cup, which has about 6 pennies, and comments that he has a lot of money. I respond that he could have a lot more - implying that he needs to speak kindly more often. To which he replies (very matter-of-factly), "Well, give me more then." Oh yeah, it's definitely sinking in.

My New Favorite Breakfast

2010-07-17T11:07:00.000-07:00

Baked Oatmeal! I just love it. It fills me up very nicely until lunch, and is actually pretty good for you. Top with your favorite flavors: I've used sliced strawberries, and today sauteed up some chopped apple in a little butter and brown sugar. Pecans or other nuts would probably be nice, as well. PJ puts more sugar on his, but I think it's sweet enough as is.

I make a batch, put the leftovers in the fridge and warm up portions throughout the week. The original recipe had more sugar, no applesauce or flax, and made enough for a 9" square pan. I made it a little healthier and cut it by half for just PJ and me. Super yummy!

My adapted recipe:

1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 t baking powder

1/2 t cinnamon (I think I do more)

1/2 t salt

1 scoop (approx. 2 T) flaxseed meal (you can omit if you don't have, but it's really nice nutritionally)

1/2 cup milk

3 T butter, melted

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

Additional milk

Fruit, nuts, other as desired

In a large bowl, combine the oats, sugar, spices and flaxseed. In a small bowl, combine the milk, butter, eggs and applesauce. Stir into oat mixture until blended.

Spoon into a greased 9" loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 25-35 minutes or until set. Serve warm with milk and your choice of assorted toppings.

This makes 2-4 servings (depending on your definition of a portion.)

Math Problem of the Day

2010-07-03T12:03:00.000-07:00

1 bedroom + 1 dog + normal amount of toys x 5 very generous grandparents - 75% of toys already packed away because boys won't clean their room + 1 room sweep by mom, squared (for 2 boys) =

I tell you, I don't know how to get them to maintain their stuff. Tristen is pretty helpful, but Mace is completely useless when it comes to focusing enough to clean (or really do anything, for that matter). Putting that pile away will likely take them the rest of the day, with lots of playing and fighting along the way. But I'm sure not doing it!!

Random Pics

2010-07-02T17:30:00.000-07:00

"I'll help you, MaraJade!"

All bias aside, that's one darn cute chubby baby!Reading the Sunday comics for the first timeShy, stubborn birthday girl

I just love this picture

That's my sweet baby!

The Perpetually Bedraggled Princess is 4!

2010-07-01T10:59:00.000-07:00

I really can't believe my baby girl is 4. Somehow, her pregnancy and infancy still seem so vivid as to have just happened. But she is a big girl. She's bossy and sassy, sweet and lovable, and constantly bedraggled and messy. She loves to sit quietly and play with any sort of doll, she lives in her princess dress-up dresses with clackety shoes, she sings along with her favorite shows, and will color for hours.

We had her party on Sunday, since my mom and other family happened to be in town. Then, Wednesday was her day - she got to choose her food all day (Eggos, then Bagel Bites, then chicken nuggets with applesauce and carrots), I took her to Target to buy another Princess Polly Pocket with her birthday money, then we came home and made cupcakes. Quite the spoiled girl - appropriate for a princess. :-)

Camping!! At home....

2010-06-24T17:04:00.000-07:00

The stake had a father-son campout the weekend of Father's Day. We had been planning to have PJ take the boys, then Tristen injured himself. We eventually decided to have them go anyway, then, 2 days before the trip, Mace came down with a terrible bout of croup. With one sick, and the other likely to catch it soon, we had to scrap the campout this year. But we tried to make up for it with a home campout, complete with s'mores roasted in the fire pit, sleeping on the air mattress in the basement, and a late movie (well, you can't do that camping, I guess).

Side note: Also good we didn't go: turns out Tristen somehow broke the front of his cast off, and we didn't notice (or it didn't happen) until around 10:00 pm Friday. Duct tape worked for the next couple of days, then we went in and got a new one. Good thing, too, since I got to wash his leg and foot. One week, and already it was quite funky. Eeeww.

Mace - the lone holdout to the end of the movie. Independence Day was quite riveting to him - lots of questions about it in the days following.

Brothers

2010-06-22T20:21:00.001-07:00

Mace is the consummate little brother, reveling in annoying Tristen with relatively little effort. He loves to say things that just bug T for some reason - with current favorites being "Moustachio!" and "Dino-mite!" And just now, as they're getting ready for bed, I hear Tristen yell, "Stop saying urine!" Ah, the power the second child holds!

Maceism of the Day - 6/22/10

2010-06-22T15:20:00.001-07:00

Me - yelling from the kitchen: "Are you cleaning up or playing?"

Mace: (pause) "Uhhhh...that's classified."

5 months old!

2010-06-20T14:38:00.001-07:00

Quick update on the cutest baby girl I've seen in almost 4 years.

She's such a happy little baby - but especially when she's with her Mommy. Maybe it's just because it's been so long since I've had a baby, or just faulty memory, but I think she enjoys being with me more than any of the others did. She just lights up when she sees me and leans toward me, squirming to get to me. And when I get close enough, she'll grab my hair and yank me in close and try to eat my face, smiling and laughing the whole time.

She loves kisses - kissing her on her little face will usually calm her down. Can't get any good pictures of her because every time she sees the camera, she freezes up and just stares at it.

Her big brothers and sister just light her up - particularly Mace. He also pays her the most attention, but nobody can get her to laugh like Mace can. He always wants to hold her, and is constantly messing with her face. He'll squish her cheeks together, saying "Supa Chubba Bayba" or hold her ears out and call her Monkey Baby. They're already buddies.

Unfortunately, with anyone other than Mom, Dad or the siblings, she generally cries. Sometimes immediately, sometimes in a couple of minutes, but almost without fail.

She's sick right now - likely a variation of Mace & MaraJade's current croup bout. She's had a fever for around a day now, and a snotty nose. She slept in 1/2-hour and 1-hour chunks last night, and often woke up just crying uncontrollably because she felt so yucky. But once she was up, she's been happy and fun - even though she's still a sicky.

End of the Year - Take 2

2010-06-18T12:10:00.000-07:00

On the last Wednesday before school was out, Tristen was playing Tag at Cub Scouts, took a leap off the stage and landed a little funny. He came home limping and hurt, saying it felt like something was poking his foot when he walked on it. Hmmmm.... So the next day, I take him to the doctor, and sure enough, a small part of his first metatarsal (the bone behind his big toe) is fractured. Doctor says just keep him off it for a few weeks. Hmmmmm.... However, by Friday, their office calls, confirming the break and saying we can either continue with RICE or we can put a cast on it. Duh! Monday (after the Oaks Park trip) we get it casted, and Dr. gives us a prescription for a walking cast/boot to go over it so he can actually walk on it. After two days of searching and researching for someone local who can get us one in a child's size, we end up using the same company who got us PJ's post-op knee brace and CPM machine. The guy very kindly goes to Tristen's school to fit it, as it's now the last day of school and I don't want him to miss out. So now here we are - 4 weeks to go!

Oaks Park all-school field trip. Auntie Rae graciously came along to chaperone/assist with Mace's class since I was a bit hampered with baby duty. PJ took Tristen and his group, with Tristen very happy in his "wheelie-chair".

We love Mrs. O!!

Kindergarten Graduation - Mace is officially a first grader!! Oh, that poor, unsuspecting first grade teacher!

Maceism of the Day - June 2010

2010-06-04T09:44:00.000-07:00

Mace's current trend is - in addition to asking non-stop questions day and night - to then ask me, "How do you know?" So now, not only do I have to come up with answers that I don't always have ("What does worship mean?" "How does a plane fly?"), but those answers are questioned. And sadly, Mace doesn't buy my patent answer of, "because I know everything" like Tristen did.

Dang.

New Trick

2010-05-20T11:44:00.000-07:00

She can pull her toy! She's brilliant! :-)

Of course, she's been doing this for a few weeks now, but the novelty hasn't worn off for me. I get a little thrill every time she pulls on it - my brilliant baby! I know, I'm a dorky mom. But she's growing up so fast!

Deals to Meals

2010-05-20T11:10:00.000-07:00

Here's a great blog I follow: Deals to Meals. They have awesome food storage, grocery deals and recipe info. Even if you don't live in Utah. Really.

I don't normally blog about others' blogs, but hey, there's the chance I can win a Bosch mixer! But it really is a cool site, and you should check it out if you've got a few minutes (um, hours?) to browse.

Laughing Baby!

2010-05-19T11:21:00.000-07:00

Of course, once I ran to get the camera, she had clammed up a bit, but here she is, really laughing for the first time on film! I think she knows the blowing sound we make when we blow raspberries on her tummy or neck and that she likes what happens, so that's why she was laughing? Maybe?

(I hate how grainy and choppy this looks, but I never have enough time to fool around in Elements to find a better way to compress the video for upload. Ahh, someday.......)

Best Buddies

2010-05-14T08:17:00.001-07:00

Savannah and her sister Ruby are MaraJade's best friends. And they're mommy is one of my best buddies. And - oh yeah - they're moving.

Of the 7 babies born within a couple of months of MaraJade, only 2 will remain in a month or so - everyone else has/will have moved away. And this last one will be hardest for Monster. I don't know what she'll do without her Banna.

Anyway, there's not point in being maudlin - it's a good move for the family and all that - plus, I just don't really want to talk about it. And I'm trying very hard not to project my personal feelings about it onto the Monster, so....

We'll take a look back at some of their recent fun times:

Playing at the Mall
At the Fairy Party

Hanging in the Park after Story Time at the library

Our Super Fun MAX Adventure Day!

We're really going to miss the Marsees.

Maceism of the Day - 5/12/10

2010-05-13T09:02:00.000-07:00

Upon picking him up from school:

Mace: "The sun is made of salt." (Declarative - as always)
Me: "What? Um, why?"
Mace: "The sun is made of salt! That's why I sneeze so much when I'm out in it."

Really, who could not love this boy?

Mother's Day

2010-05-11T08:47:00.000-07:00

Early morning church (of course), chocolates from the Bishopric, lots of fun at the Burrell Ranch in Boring, with tons of good food and crazy kids, then dinner at the Bocek Homestead. Good day to be a Mom.

"Hello, my name is Mace and I'll be your server today."
Monster and her 'cuz Olivia - some serious Tea-Partying

Yes, I think the headbands are adorable

Loves her Daddy

A rare shot of the Dude not being a Dork

Jog-a-thon 2010

2010-05-07T08:54:00.000-07:00

And they're off!

Yes, we can still see you waaaay out there...

Go Mace Racer, Go!

It's that time of year again! Thankfully, it was nice weather and the kids had a blast. Of course the boys ran at opposite ends of the day, but hey - I don't do anything all day anyway, right? :-) I thought Mace might hate it - what with all the running - but he actually did 10 laps! I think Tristen did 7 his Kindy year. And the T-Man did 12, but his buddy once again bested him by 2 laps. Although nobody did more than Mr. Long, the principal, who ran multiple laps with each shift of classes.....all day long. Dude is dedicated. We love our school!

Grammar Lesson - Mace Style

2010-04-30T09:23:00.000-07:00

So I'm a bit of a grammar snob - can't help it, I just really hate it when words are used incorrectly. And lately the boys have started saying "gots" in place of "has". It makes me crazy and I correct them each time they say it. The other day, the boys were playing video games when Tristen said something to the effect of, "He gots one just like that," to which I responded, "Has! He HAS one!"

Suddenly, Mace hops up from the couch, runs to his room, rummages around for a minute, then comes out with his DoodleDraw. Not entirely interested, I go do something else. A couple minutes later, this sign is in front of the TV:

"So we can remember" is Mace's comment. Love that kid.

Pinewood Derby!!

2010-04-23T09:57:00.000-07:00

Well, we may have only found out about it last Friday, but PJ made the most of those few days, and at Tristen's first Pinewood Derby, he took 2nd place in the Wolf Pack (8-year-olds) and 2nd place in the Stake (all the entries in the Derby)! Tristen wasn't too sure going into this whole thing, but was super excited by the time they were racing! Even when his car didn't take first, he was still laughing and cheering and having a glorious time. Needless, to say Mace Racer was in heaven!

Mace & the Monster

2010-04-19T09:48:00.000-07:00

I will spin this two ways:

First, the literal. Mace has to come and put his glasses on the kitchen counter every night before bed so he won't fall asleep with them on and torque them even more than they already are. On Friday nights, he can stay up a little later and play in his room, but he's still really good about coming out and depositing the glasses before he goes to sleep. This Friday, he comes out and gets distracted by some piece of something he sees - picks it up and says, "What's this?" PJ tries to be funny and says, "Mace, it's a monster!" Now Mace, in true Mace fashion, takes a second to actually hear what dad said, then it sinks in. He drops the thing like it's on fire, jumps backward, shrieks and looks around him - trying to spot the monster in the room. PJ thinks it's hilarious - Mace, not so much. Poor dude is still terrified of so much: monsters, bugs, bees, snakes, spiders, aliens, and on and on. But he's developing a small sense of humor about it.

Second, Mace and our Monster. He and MaraJade really are best buds. I think their favorite time of the day is the mornings, when Tristen is off to school and before Mace goes. They just play and play and play. Right now, they're playing Monopoly Jr. on top of Twister. My favorite: how they play Hide and Seek. Example: Mace is the finder, Monster the hider. Mace: "1.....2......3.....4.....5.....6..78910 (how they both count), ready or not!" (Looking....Looking) then, "Where are you?" (Muffled voice) "In here!" (Run run run to "secret" location) "Found you!" (laughs and giggles of hilarity) MaraJade: "My turn now!" And over and over. It's even better when they're playing with Tristen, because once Mace finds MaraJade, Mace says, "I wonder where Tristen is?" and Monster says, "I know. I show you. Come on." Drives Tristen crazy.

They have similar interests and senses of humor, both love imaginative play, both go with the flow well, and they're wonderfully innocent still - it's just awesome to watch them. They also fight particularly spectacularly. And Mace is constantly coming in to ask, "Is MaraJade the boss?" or "Is MaraJade a grown up?" because she's such a bossy little cow - but he's the goofball who does what she says! And neither one of them can pick up worth a darn. Send them to a room to pick up 3 toys and in 5 minutes it'll be torn apart. Gotta love them.

Eo-winny-woo

2010-04-15T09:52:00.001-07:00

Eowyn has a personality now! (And a nickname, at least for now.) From last Sunday to Monday, the switch must have flipped in her, because she started being awake longer, is happier and more alert when she is awake, and smiling and cooing and talking a ton! It's so fun - makes the icky times more worth it. Of course, it's still a trick to try and capture the cuteness in pictures or video, but here are my attempts.

I still think Eowyn looks a lot like Mace (the eyes!), but she does share some more similarities with MaraJade (mouth, for sure). It's interesting to follow this progresion (well, for me, at least). Here they all are at roughly 12 weeks - though now that I look, these aren't the best comparison shots:

Braids!

2010-04-13T10:11:00.000-07:00

As a child, I used to love having French Braid(s). The best part? The lovely, flowing ripples you got when you released them, of course. I remember we'd leave them in as long as humanly possible (a week was awesome!) just to get the best waves.

But I actually wasn't thinking of that when I french braided MaraJade's hair - I just wanted to get it out of her face and hoped it'd last a couple of days. Well, of course it was messy in just a couple of hours, but by the next day, she had gorgeous waves! She was really mesmerized by her reflection.

Happy Easter!

2010-04-10T10:09:00.000-07:00

A little late...

It was sort of strange, what with it being General Conference and all, but an overall nice day to remember what's most important.

Baby Update

2010-04-01T09:08:00.000-07:00

Yes, Eowyn's still here, and though she doesn't get blogged about much, is (obviously) the biggest part of my days and nights right now.

At 10 weeks, she's no longer a little lump and is developing a cute little personality. She smiles a lot for me - not so much for other people. I tell PJ - take off her diaper! She is just like her big sister and is super happy to be bare-bottomed. I even made her laugh yesterday! Then she cried. She coos and talks to me lots.

She still sleeps a lot, although never when I need her to (of course!). My day consists of feeding and changing her, then trying to accomplish anything in the 30 minutes she'll sleep without me. Of course, when I sit and hold her, she'll sleep for 4 hours straight. But that doesn't help the state of my house, which has a certain funk to it right now that I just can't locate and don't have the time to fully investigate, let alone remedy. Fun.

Anyway. Overall, she's a very happy, pleasant little girl - when she's with her mommy. She sleeps really well at night, will sit in the swing or bouncer for a little while for me, and is such fun. And she looks so much like Mace, which is cool, since he was the most beautiful baby - really. And it'll be neat if she ends up with his eyes and eyelashes, which are totally wasted on a boy. :-)
She's going to love me for this someday.
What most of her pictures look like. The flash freaks her out.
Caught a smile! Of course, it's blurry!!

Super Secret Surprise Day

2010-03-24T12:57:00.000-07:00

As our "big" (read=only) Spring Break excursion, I got a smokin' deal to take us to the Family Fun Center (Bullwinkle's) in Wilsonville. We built it up for the kids, telling them we were going somewhere fun on Tuesday, but not where. They asked over and over, but we just said it was going to be a Super Secret Surprise.

When we got there, they still really didn't understand what was going to happen, but over the next 7 hours, we:

drove/rode in Go Karts
rode in Bumper Boats
did the Sky Trail (well, Tristen did)
played miniature golf
played Lazer Tag (boys & dad)
rode the Frog Hopper
played in Kidopolis (MaraJade)
played video/arcade games
ate lunch in Bullwinkle's restaurant

The weather was beautiful, the kids had a blast, Eowyn amazingly slept most of the time in the stroller or on Mom, and it was all-around a pretty great day. It was really nice to be able to do something like this with them, and I hope they remember it fondly - cause it ain't happening again anytime soon. :-)

No, Mace didn't like the Bumper Boats at all - all 3 times. Suuurre.

Tristen on Sky Trail.Tristen with the very nice lady who let him hitch a ride at the end of our long day.

MaraJade & Dad.

A very happy racing Mace! And Dad.

Just a minute before she dropped the sucker on the ground and broke it.

Frog Hopper!

Nice form PJ!

See Tristen's face? PJ had just made a hole in one and Tristen couldn't believe it!

A very cool hole - MaraJade wanted to go in the house.

Eowyn Awake.

And Eowyn Asleep.

Never thought I'd see the day....

2010-03-22T11:50:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's my little man, hiding out in the computer chair...........reading.

I think back to when he was a baby and toddler and absolutely refused to still there and let me read to him. And to him as a kindergartener, having battles to get him to say the letter sounds.

I thought for sure he'd never read, but by the end of kindergarten (Mrs. O and Ms. D rock!), he was reading. By the end of first grade, he was doing better than I'd expected. And by this year, he can sound out just about anything.

But I still never thought he'd see reading as anything more than a chore for school. So when I got the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books from the library on a whim, I never expected this. He read the first one in 2 days, the next 2 in about a day each, and just finished the last. I actually had to say, "Put the book down while you eat, please." Seriously! Yippee! And I had visions of myself when I'd go into his room at night to find him snuggled in bed, reading by the dim light of the night light (yeah, bad for the eyes....).

Off to search for more books for him to become immersed in!

Dinner Out

2010-03-20T09:06:00.000-07:00

Last night, we were in town waiting for PJ to finish working, and decided to use one of our gift cards (Yay! for gift cards - we could/would never eat at a real restaurant without them!) and go to Harborside for dinner - with all of us.

The kids have been so very sad since Chili's unexpectedly closed down, because that's where we would go for our occasional dinners out and they just loved it. They've gotten pretty good in restaurants in the past year, but I'm still apprehensive when starting out.

Anyway, they were quite good at Harborside - certainly not angels, but I was pleased. Our server seemed sort of standoff-ish about the kids, but I didn't think they'd done anything deserving scorn.

At the end, the kids are huddled together on the heater that runs along the window by our table, warming up while we finish our dessert. They're playing and being goofy together, and our server comes by, stops and looks at them. Oh, no, I think - here it comes. Then she says, "I have never seen such well-behaved kids before. I expect a certain amount of craziness, but they were amazing. Wow." She might just be stroking us for a bigger tip, but that's fine by me - then the ladies at a nearby table chime in that they are totally impressed, as well.

- And now we will take a break for a moment of juvenile smugness and gloating. -

I've had to take some considerable crap over the years from people hinting, strongly implying, or outright saying how "bad" my kids (the boys especially) are, how crazy, wild and out-of-control (none of whom are actually reading this blog, I would imagine).

And so to them, I proudly say, "Ha!" and "Suck it!"

- Back to our regularly scheduled maturity level. -

Time flies.....

2010-03-15T12:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know everyone says it, and I've always known it's true, but sometimes that truth just slaps you in the face a little harder.

I so clearly remember the days when it was just Tristen, then Tristen and Mace, then Tristen, Mace and MaraJade. The days that seemed to drag on endlessly, with me desperately trying to figure out what I was doing, what to do with kids, how to best take care of them, how to take care of a home at the same time, how to take care of myself, how to have fun with them.....all in the hours while PJ was at work and I was trying to fill the void. It seemed often that the day would never end, I would never have a moment to myself, that the kids must surely be bored to tears, that I would never regain my sanity or figure out this mothering thing.

Don't get me wrong, I know I am so blessed to have been able to stay at home with my kids - I've loved it and wouldn't trade that time for anything in the world. But it was a learning experience, and took me a long while to get the hang of it (well, I'm still figuring some things out...).

And now I can only look back and see all the time I've missed. Tristen is getting baptized, Mace is in kindergarten, Monster will go to preschool in the fall - but it seems that they were all just babies moments ago. How much time did I waste obsessing over behaviors, attitudes, cleaning, training, researching, and whatever else it is I do? How many times did I put them off on doing art projects because I either couldn't just go with the flow or was afraid of the mess? How many games did we not play because we first needed to clean up?

And now, with Eowyn, I'm entering a whole new parenting realm: a baby with school-age kids. It seems I'm constantly on the go. I'm at the school at least 3 times each day, dropping off and picking up. In between those times, I have to figure out how to maintain the house, my other "jobs", plan, shop for and prepare meals, clean and maintain myself and the kids, and somewhere in there - taking up large portions of those dwindling blocks time - I take care of and love on my sweet little baby. That vast expanse of day I used to bemoan has been hacked up and subdivided into tiny parcels of minutes and half hours.

I remember wondering what I was going to do with my day - now I wonder, what can I hope to actually get done? There is so much to do, but no time left. Every day is full of interesting choices: If I eat breakfast, grab a quick shower and dress, I can't work out. If I check my email and maybe update my blog, I can't do the laundry. If I run the errands I need to, I can't do the cleaning I need to. If I get pictures of the baby on to the computer, I can't hold her a little longer. My house is in chaos, I'm behind on everything, and really don't see when I'll ever get caught up again.

And all the while, my babies are growing up and up, at an ever-increasing rate of speed. Why can't it all just slow down a little?

WHAT? How do YOU play Battleship?

2010-03-05T09:43:00.000-08:00

Mace and MaraJade play so well together.

Except when they're fighting.

Anyway, lately MaraJade loves playing Battleship - her way - the organized way. And Mace has no problem joining in, once I tell him it's OK to play a different way and to leave her alone!

Eowyn Update

2010-03-05T09:26:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I know, I haven't blogged much about this sweet baby at all. It's been a tad busy around here the past few weeks. Oh, and my camera crapped out right after Mace's party, and my backup camera will only hold a charge long enough to snap a couple of shots of anything. Anyway.

She's such a sweet baby, (I'll never understand when people ask, "Is she a good baby?" Really? Am I going to say, "Oh, she's just rotten!" But I guess they're just asking....) aside from the spitting up thing (Really, really hate that). She sleeps well at night, takes up all my time during the day, and is your average happy baby.

She's finally waking up more, which is a good/bad thing. Now that she's not sleeping all the time, she doesn't quite know what to do with herself, aside from eat. But we got a vibrating seat yesterday that she just loves - she actually fell asleep peacefully in it a few minutes ago! Without me! Woo hoo!

I've always said that she has a pleased look about her, and she's smiled at me for weeks now (PJ doesn't believe me), but she's really smiling now (in sporadic bursts), which is so fun. She loves to be with me and follows my voice and presence whenever I'm not holding her (love this, but makes it difficult to ever get anything done).

She's getting huge! Already fits well into her 0-3 month clothes, and probably will be out of those in another 2-3 weeks. Eek! Of course, I just bought a case of 150 size 1 diapers, and she's already starting to ooze out of those. Good planning.

The kids all love her. MaraJade always wants to share her blankie with the baby, Tristen loves on her and wants to hold and carry her, and Mace loves to talk to her in this super high-pitched voice.

So, aside from the having zero time to do anything (what with the constant carpooling, going to various doctor/physical therapy appointments, plus my regular chores/duties - I've got thank you notes to write people!!), it's very nice right now. I'm not losing my mind at all. :)

Asleep! On her own!

One of the only ways she'll sleep without me, propped up on the Boppy - just long enough for a shower for Mom.

Oh, Mace. What ever are we going to do with you?

2010-03-04T21:10:00.000-08:00

So today when I picked up the boys from school, I got Tristen, then went to Mace's class. (I do it in this order in case Mace's teacher needs to talk to me - yes, it happens often.) While waiting for Mace to come out, Tristen tells me about how he saw Mace at lunch, "and Mrs. O was holding him real tight, and he was waving and screaming!!" Crap. Then one of Mace's classmates pipes up, "yeah, he was real bad today." Double crap. So when it's my turn, I ask Mrs. O how it went today. Turns out, he's been having "a rough week". According to the other teachers (PE, music, library, etc.) it's been ever since the baby came, but to his wonderful teachers (Mrs. O & Ms. D) who love him and know him best, they say it's only been this week.

Sample Behaviors:

Running up and down the lunch table benches
Repeatedly smacking a classmate with his lunch bag (Quote Mrs. O: Good thing you didn't have one of those ice packs in there!)
Making fart noises with his mouth incessantly (got him kicked out of PE on Tuesday!)

So the teacher asks if anything has changed in the past week or so (sleeping, eating, anything?), and I really can't think of anything. I know he has a hard time in PE because, a) the teacher is young and doesn't have an appreciation for Mace, b) Dude, there are 22 5-6 year olds running around in this giant open space, c) it's a giant open space - really, d) it gets noisy - and when it's noisy, Mace simply can't control himself and just spazzes out.

So we thought maybe something to make it less loud? Earmuffs are out of season, kids' lawnmowing earcovers don't exist, and his giant headphones won't do anything without accompanying music. So I thought, earplugs? We'll see how that works.

PTA meeting was later this evening and we talked some more, and simply can't think what might be going on right now to explain this behavior. What it really boils down to is Mace not taking responsibility for what he does. He knows right from wrong, appropriate behavior from inappropriate, but he just doesn't care to do the right thing. He is willing to take the punishment as it comes to have the fun of doing what he wants. Oh, and because "it's funny!" If he thinks something is funny (fart noises!), you simply cannot get him to stop short of removing him from the room.

When we ask him why he does this, here are his kind of answers:

"Something else was controlling my body!"
"I just have the Sillies."
"It's fun!"

How do you get a super smart 6-year-old to do what he's supposed to? One who doesn't care about the punishment? Who just wants to have fun every waking minute?

We've joked that he'll do fine as long as Mrs. O follows him throughout his elementary years at Campbell. But really, if he doesn't start getting it together, he's just going to be perpetually in trouble at school. I wrack my brain, but simply can't figure out what to do with him.

Sometimes I hate being a responsible grown-up

2010-03-03T09:52:00.000-08:00

So my favorite band ever is a-ha (www.a-ha.com). You may remember their hit "Take On Me" from 1985. They had modest success in the US after that, but only for a couple of years. However, internationally, they've been a huge hit ever since. They've made 14 albums, set a world attendance record at a stadium in Brazil, and have had successful solo careers as well. I've loved them ever since the beginning and have done whatever was necessary to get my hands on their import CDs (back before the days of Amazon!).

I've always told myself that if they ever tour anywhere in the US, I'm going to go see them in concert. Well, they are calling it quits after 25 years together, and are playing 2 cities in the US!!!! 4 shows in NYC and LA. And there is just no way I can go. It'll be in May, so I'll have a 4-month-old whom I just can't leave. And even to fly to LA the day of the concert and fly back that night would be about $250, plus the concert ticket and other costs. Not the best use of $350-400 when we have medical bills and regular life to pay for. Crap. PJ told me to make it work, but I just can't rationalize spending that kind of money on a one-time event when it could pay for, say, groceries for a month.

I hate growing up. It kinda sucks.

All My Children...

2010-02-18T15:21:00.000-08:00

It's time once again for one of my geeky comparisons. What can I say, I love hard data. And everyone wonders who the new baby looks most like, so here ya go. So who can get these right? It's Guess the Bocek Baby. And leave a comment saying how many you got right!

I was surprised by just how similar they looked at birth. Guess they really do share the same gene pool. Many people were surprised by how dark Eowyn's hair and skin are, but she isn't the only one. See below for answers!

Once again, in color and birth order:

And, just for kicks, here they are at 4 weeks:

Them's some cute babies, if I do say so myself!

Silly Girl!

2010-02-17T13:52:00.000-08:00

Here's Monster being one of her favorite alter-egos (since we've banned her favorite: Naked Girl), Silly Girl.

Urpalicious

2010-02-11T08:10:00.001-08:00

The bulk of my experience with babies began when my half-sisters were born, when I was 8-10 years old. And so many of my references come from that time: we call pacifiers "pi-pi's" (Rachel) and baby spit-up is "urp".

Eowyn is the urping-est kid I've had so far. The Dr hasn't gone so far as to say she has reflux yet, but man, this kid can spit up! And it's never in a predictable way, like when you're burping her after she eats. No, it's 10 minutes later, while she's lying on her back looking at you. Or 2 hours later, as she starts eating again and returns 1/4 of her last meal, nice and curdled. Or every time I put her in her carseat. I've never had to use bibs on a newborn before, but we go through several a day with her.

And so, I find myself calling her Urpalicious (which almost always results in having Beyonce's "Bootylicious" stuck in my head for the next hour), or Princess Urpy, or Urpalina. Poor girl - MaraJade was LadyBug or Baby Girl - but Eowyn is just the Urping Queen.

They Change! They green now!

2010-02-08T13:43:00.001-08:00

Toward the end of my pregnancy, MaraJade started asking a lot of questions about the baby. "Does the baby have fingers?" "Does the baby walk?" "Does the baby have a nose?" And her most frequently asked: "Does the baby have eyes? What color are baby's eyes?" I explained that they would probably be blue because we all have blue eyes. She responds, "But you eyes are green, Mommy." I say that my eyes were blue when I was little like her, but they changed to green when I was older.

Fast forward a few weeks, and she still loves to talk about everyone's eye color, then go look in the mirror to corroborate that, yes, her eyes are blue. (Typical convo: "Daddy's eyes blue, Tristen's eyes blue, Mace's eyes blue, MaraJade's eyes blue, 'Owyn's eyes blue, you eyes green!") Then last week, after such a talk, she runs to the mirror to check, then runs back, all excited, saying, "Look! My eyes green now! They change! My eyes green now like yours!" And nobody can convince her differently. Yep, they green, Miss Monster.

Eowyn Kathleen Ginny - 1/21/10

2010-01-24T16:54:00.000-08:00

So after a long, arduous pregnancy, weeks of bedrest, 2 weeks of seemingly endless waiting after, Eowyn is here!

I think I'll do the birth story on the pregnancy website, for those who aren't really interested here. Suffice it to say, she got here very quickly, all natural, and totally healthy, at 7 lbs., 3 oz. and 19" long. She loves to nurse and only gets mad when she doesn't get food as fast as she'd like or her diaper is being changed. She looks a lot like MaraJade, but also shares a lot of traits with her brothers, so I guess they all just sort of look alike at first. We love her!

Tender-hearted Tristen

2010-01-18T09:15:00.000-08:00

I had rented The Secret Garden in the hopes that kids would be interested in watching, as it was one of my favorite books as a child. So PJ pops it in yesterday while I'm cooking Mace's birthday dinner.

Early on, there's a moment where (I wasn't really watching, so didn't see the full context) Baby Colin is crying, abandoned in the foliage of the garden. It passed, and about half an hour later, Tristen comes and sits at the counter with me, still watching the movie. A few minutes later, he suddenly says in a quiet voice, "I just keep remembering the dream part where they left the baby all alone." And then he starts to cry.

I go over and try to explain that (as well as I could remember, and to help him feel better) that was just what Mary imagined she was hearing when she heard Colin crying at night, that he was just crying because his body hurt, and they didn't really abandon the baby (although I think that is what happened - it's been awhile since I read it). He just kept crying, saying, "Why would someone do that to a baby? You can't leave a baby alone like that. He was just crying and crying."

I had to sit down with him for a few minutes and talk some more before he could calm down. I often forget that he's really my most sensitive child since he hides it so well behind 8-year-old boy callousness. But he is the first to tune in to my moods (well, the only one really) and the most easily hurt by things. Sweet T.

What I Did On My Winter Break, by Melanie Bocek

2010-01-05T12:53:00.000-08:00

In an effort to distract myself from the reality of bedrest and occupy my mind and body, I started crocheting again. Previously, I had only ever made blankets (OK, started blankets - I'd never actually finished a crocheting project). This time I got the idea to make some hats for the baby, then found all these awesome resources online for patterns and instructions/refreshers for how to make stitches - yippee! I had no idea all you could make crocheting. So I whiled away many hours picking what I wanted to make, starting with hats, then moving to booties, then adult slippers, adult/child beanies/hats and other cute accessories. I compiled quite a few printouts (which my mom got me a binder to organize them in - thank you!), then started going.

In all, I made 4 baby hats, 2 pair booties (working on a third now), 4 kids' hats, hats for the boys' teachers/carpool drivers, fingerless gloves and a headband for my little sister for Christmas, and a headband and necklace for my buddy Makelle (who is also a driver of the Mace - forgot to take a pic of hers, so I used the pattern pic: mine looked pretty much the same). It's been fun, I've learned a lot, and it's really helped keep me from going crazy when Monster insists on watching only what she wants during the day or I otherwise can't watch TV, or in the evenings when Restless Leg tries to act up. Well, that and online shopping. :-)

So here's what I made:

Maceisms of the Day

2009-12-29T12:32:00.000-08:00

A few recent ones:

Dang! I know there were several I kept meaning to post, but of course I can't think of them right now. So here's the one I can:

(All related through PJ, since I'm here on my hiney) At church Sunday before last, in Primary, they're doing Sharing Time, talking about gifts. A little girl gets up, unwraps a present and says (essentially), "The best gift of all is Jesus" and has a picture of Jesus - to which Mace loudly declares, "Laaame!" Because right now that is his favorite word for everything he believes to be - well - lame.

Remembered another! My mom was here and asked Mace for a kiss. He presented her with his cheek, so she kissed it and laughed, teasing him that he wouldn't let her kiss his mouth. He steps back and says, "Ewww! I don't want to marry you! I don't want a marriage kiss!"

Where does he come up with this stuff?

So pleeeeez, make some.....

2009-12-05T18:37:00.000-08:00

Kraft Macaroni & Cheese!!

Since there isn't much going on around here these days aside from me incubating (as PJ likes to call it), I thought I'd toss out the recipe for what I've been living on these days: Melanie's Mac & Cheese (of course, I also have a couple recipes for real mac & cheese that are awesome, but this is the lunchtime standby). Most of my friends & family know how much I love the ol' blue box, and that I have - over the past 25 years - perfected the art of making it. Now, if you make it according to the directions on the box, I feel it comes out soggy, watery and not so very cheesy. So please, try it my way at least once and see if it isn't cheesy, orangey heaven. This only applies to the real stuff - I don't do generic for my m&c.

Boil your water.
Once it reaches a full boil, pour in macaroni, stir well.
Set your timer for 2:15.
Get out your strainer, bowl, butter & milk.
Timer goes off; strain & shake off water.
* Pour in bowl & stir in 1 tablespoon butter (yes, that's all) (margarine is OK, but butter is preferred) until all noodles are coated.
* Shake cheese packet over noodles, pour in 1-2 tablespoons milk (yes, that's all) and stir well to combine.
Eat while hot!

(* = these steps must be taken while the noodles are piping hot - the heat will help melt the cheese, so you don't need that ridiculous amount of milk. So don't get distracted!)

And yes, I do eat this at least once a week for lunch, and about 2-4 times a week these days.

Maceism of the Day - 11/30/09

2009-11-30T12:32:00.000-08:00

So popcorn is a big thing in our family. The kids start eating it at about 6 months old (we bite off the kernel and give them the fluffy part) and everyone really loves it. We use the Stir Crazy popper with oil and lots of butter and salt. What does this have to do with anything? The other night, Mace was finishing up the popcorn bowl while watching a movie and wiping his hand along the inside of the bowl to catch the rest of the buttery, salty goodness. He then says, "Mmmm, popcorn frosting" while slowly licking each finger.

Maceism of the Day? - 11/13/09

2009-11-13T13:33:00.000-08:00

(Not really a Maceism, per se, but kind of.) When Mace brought his school pictures home yesterday, PJ and I (after laughing for 5 minutes) noticed a strong resemblance to someone else.........Mace now says he was purposely trying to look like Lewis from Meet the Robinsons, but we think he's just making that up because he's heard us talking about it. Regardless, his picture is just priceless - we think it perfectly captures the essence of Mace.

This morning, he wanted his hair spiked up again, so I did it for him. When I walked him to his class, we were a little late, so both AM and PM classes were there, sitting relatively quietly. As soon as he came in, the room exploded in a chorus of, "Mace!" "Cool hair, Mace!" "Hi, Mace!" "Over here, Mace!" The teachers had to quiet everyone back down and restore order, with Mace acting like this was completely normal. Apparently he has quite the fan club. It was really cute.

The Most Expensive Nap Ever

2009-11-11T10:09:00.001-08:00

I'll also put this in my pregnancy blog update, but thought I'd post it here, just for kicks.

Yesterday, I decided I really needed to take my medication to help with the contractions all day, not just at night. I'd been putting this off because I hate the way they make me feel (weak, shaky, racing pulse, funky vision, etc.), but I've just been having too many contractions to ignore anymore. So, I take them with breakfast about 9:30, then PJ, Monster and I head to Target around 11:00. I see a friend there and am talking with her, when the shaking gets really bad and I get all hot/cold and clammy and feel like I'm either going to pass out or throw up. So I sit on a display and wait for PJ to come back, then we head slowly for the car.

I only make it to the end of the aisle before I have to sit on the floor because I just feel terrible. PJ convinces me to call my doctor, and they recommend I come on in. My doctor is of course still on vacation, but the on-call guy sees me and sends me to the hospital to be monitored. Great.

So, from 12:30-4:00 I enjoy peace and quiet and have a wonderful nap. All the tests they ran show nothing to indicate anything specific is wrong, and I guess the info they got from monitoring the contractions wasn't enough to scare them, so I went home.

All I can conclude is that I'm not used to being on these meds while up and running, since the last time I had to take them, I was on bedrest. Plus, I'd overexerted myself the night before and did feel terrible from the time I woke up, so that probably didn't help.

Can't wait to get the bill for this. (12/1: Just got it - only $77! Small miracle!)

Halloween!

2009-11-06T13:34:00.000-08:00

I think Halloween may be Mace's favorite holiday - free candy and being allowed to run around in costume? Heck yeah! We had to hide his costume from him until Halloween or he'd have worn it every day.

We had Cinderella, Wolverine and Snake Eyes - and all had a glorious time. Mace was invited to a classmate's party (he was so excited!) on Friday, then that evening we went to the school's Boo Boogie dance/harvest festival thing. Then on Saturday, we stopped by the mall for an hour or so, then to the Stake Center for Trunk-or-Treating.

All in all, a busy but fun couple of days. Oh, and Monster had to wear her costume to church, where she completely destroyed it.

Maceism of the Day - 10/29/09

2009-10-30T12:41:00.001-07:00

Parent-Teacher conferences were today, and of course the fabulous Mrs. O and I had lots to talk about. Apparently Mace has been having more tantrums since moving to the afternoon class, but she thinks it's ok - gives her more to work out with him before he moves on to his next poor teacher.

Anyway, last week, she had asked the kids to quietly recite the rules, then line up for recess. Eventually, only Mace and two other girls (one of whom was sitting next to Mace - poor girl) remained in their seats, having failed to follow directions yet. So, she sends everyone else out for recess. Once Mace realizes what has happened, he starts to get ticked, and when she explains why he doesn't get to go out yet, he says, "Hel-LO?! She has her hands in my underpants!" (Picture this with him standing, arms spread wide, totally indignant.) (ETA: We still haven't been able to figure out if she did have her hands in his pants or not.....)

Mrs. O said she had to work very hard to keep her "Teacher Face" on - I can only imagine - that kid can be unintentionally and inappropriately hilarious.