Priorities

Brody is asleep.
Cole is at a buddies house.
Jack is at school.

I am leaving tomorrow to spend a SAweet weekend in Utah with my mom and sister...the 2 greatest ladies in the universe. We have never done this before and I am totally excited. I have tons to do and a quiet house, yet what am I doing ...reading my blogs and daily news. Ugh, the self control I lack.

However, I have:
-laundered all clothing and then some
-stalked fridge and pantry with the usual needed items and then some (eat treats and be happy fellas)
-rented movies for all viewers
-planned dinners out till the dreaded Sunday afternoon , Kyle can come up with something
-arranged the shipment of all Thomas children to dear caretaker's homes while dad is at work and mom is actually on a mini-vacation ALONE.
-Appreciated the fact that my FANTASTIC husband hasn't complained ONCE that I am going and is happy for me. I love him!

So I shall return Monday, refreshed and rejuvenated and hopefully wearing a new pair of shoes or 3!

Breakfast banter with boys

Jack- "Hey Mom, what if a person put food in a cannon and bombed it out to make it hot..really hot, wouldn't that be so cool?"

Mom-"Uh,.... totally!"

Jack and Cole looking at the ingredient side of the Frosted Flakes (yea, we eat em, and we love em!)

Cole completely excited..."Mom, it says it has toilet fat!" -hysterical laughter.

Mom-"Cole, Total fat, that's Total fat."

Even though it was a potty themed conversation...impressed on the reading skills.

For the love of Green!

This being "Earth day," one of my most favorite celebrated days, I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on things that I love that are green! O.k., some are actual things while others take a more round about way of "thinking" green...ahhhh!

#1. Electricity- stay with me, the other night...lost power, had to bust out a puzzle and flash light. Sure wished we had some electricity.

YEA, got it back in 17 minutes...way to go power company that couldn't return my electricity so efficiently unless they were thinking green and unless I had paid my bill using money that is ....green! Note: Jack's shirt, unintentional use of green, big fan of the color as well.

# 2 -We are big fans of Ninja turtles. Now I know that these action figyos from Cole's b-day aren't green, but just another example of our devotion.

#3 Brody in his striped green shirt- The mouth in waiting was for ice-cream. Even at almost 17 months he realizes the importance of "earth day" appropriate attire.

Other loved honorable mentions:

Avacadoes

Limes

Andes mints

the color of my house

grass

jewelry

my sister's green cupboards

mouthwash

new sweater

the list is endless!! So thankyou 'earth day" 2008 for reminding me of all the beautiful GREEN things in my life !!



Totally off the subject: Small town graffiti I can appreciate, right down the street !

I took it...the cardio challenge that is!

I thoroughly enjoy working out. I also thoroughly enjoy eating, so my working out to eating ratio has to favor a lot of cardio. I've been doing my own routine at home with my treadmill and other stuff for a while now but I was getting bored. I finally took the plunge and joined our humble little fitness center in town to spice things up a bit. Yesterday I did the "muscle flex" class complete with weights, squats, push-ups...the whole shabang..LOVED IT, just what I wanted. Today, I thought I'd try, "cardio challenge" O.k., I'm one of those people who like to be on key when singing- on beat when dancing-I've got rhythm...at least I thought I did.
Lots of nice ladies in very tight pants did the mambo slide, shimmy shimmy shake, rocking horse, and my personal favorite...spank the pony...to perfection as I spun around aimlessly (ON BEAT ) , just not at the right time! GRRRR, so frustrating. I hate not knowing what is going on. I remember on 2 occasions in my life I tried snow skiing. Same thing each time. I'm not retarted, I have balance and control, but when it came time to plop on a pair of skiis...it was a no go. Especially since I was wearing jeans (fantastic mental picture) and once I fell in those puppies, the day was shot. It was however a lovely view from the lodge and the hot cocoa was tasty.
Anyhoo, I'm just saying that I felt like a shmoe, doing the mambo slide with a leg kick to the left while the enitre class mambo/shimmy shaked to the right. The poor lady with the hat on to my left had to have been rolling her eyes ..however, her hat was so low, I don't think she could have even seen my moves..no worries.
Plus, word to the wise: Do not eat "maple and brown suagr" oatmeal before class. I HATE when I smell maple syrup on kids (especially mine) long after the actual eating of pancakes and brushing! So why I thought I could rocking horse, shimmy shake, and spank the pony, for an hour without smelling "maple" on myself is beyond me.

last week's low down

The sweetest kid in town finally turned 4! It had been a l-o-n-g waiting process, he was so done with 3. Had a fantastic bash with 4 of his buddies. Played an action packed game of "drop the marshmallow into the jar" ( big hit) received cool stuff ie: Ninja turtle bad guys, a spiderman flippy car thingy, Nerf turbo gun, rocket launcher thingy, and a new Batman action figyo! SWEET!

Went to the beach with our buddies to: Collect shells and 84 heavy rocks, eat sand, pick barnacles off the piers and place in mouth (o.k. only Brody did that) , touch random wet dogs who were roaming a little too freely (against his mother's better judgement-but felt silly and "anti dog" when owner returned and wanted to let the baby "touch the doggie"...uck!)

And to : learn the ways of the force with our new bubble wands. Which do by the way, each contain a very pleasant fragrance...surprise :) Oh, and they do make cool bubbles as well.

-lawn got mowed

-cars got washed

-family bike/walk to the park

-made Jack's "citizen of the week" posters

-all male members of the family got haircuts

-went to Costco, purchased too much chicken and now I have it coming out of my ears

-had our first official bbq in the backyard

-only left sac.mtg. twice with Brody...improvement

-my own personal dog-n-pony show otherwise known as "singing time" in primary went off w/out a hitch

-FHE at the in-laws, such a nice way to end a Sunday

Overall, a pretty darn good week. Now if I could just think of something else to do with chicken?? Ideas?

Need a ladle?

I just had to laugh the other morning when I came downstairs and saw this:


In my quest to encourage self sufficiency with my boys, I've taught them how to get the proper tools needed for breakfast....ya know, in case I don't feel like joining them at say, 6:45 ish.
*Milk-check
*bowls-check
*cups-check
*cereal-obvious check
*juice-check
*giant MONSTER spoons-check

The CUTEST 4 year old I know

This is my Cole. He is 4 years old today..hard to believe. I can't begin to express how much I love this little guy. He's one of those "sweet souls" that I simply adore. I take him with me wherever I go (not simply cause he's only 4 and that would be neglectful and foolish to leave him unattended,) but because he is such an easy going doll head that's fun to be around. He's the ultimate errand runner wither. He even lets me try on things IN THE DRESSING room...I kid you not. He is just a joy to be around, 98.3% of the time and I dread when he goes to Kindergarten next year...all day :(

He puts up with a lot-Always has(dealing with

# 1 and # 3.....especially #1!

He has excellent listening skills.

He's a SuPeR sleuth and crime fighter.

He adores Jack!

And Brody for that matter!

He's just my super sweet, obedient, hilarious, handsome, little buddyand brother who can't say his R's but that's o.k. for now...cause it sounds so cute with his high pitched voice. Happy Birthday Cole Henry...You are LoVed!!

Note: Another dear soul was born on this day a mere 32 years ago..my sweet friend Emily Louise, Happy Birthday to you!

Week/end review

We start off with 2 seriously skilled brothers earning their 2nd yellow stripe in their quest for a "black belt on a cool white suit" at Tae Kwon Do. Cole has a killer...toe point that he's forming into a killer kick! This month: orange stripe!

Watched a slew of movies. I'd only recommend "Enchanted." I loved the music and it was just cute, even in a house full of boys. The other 2 were let downs: August Rush, just slow and weird-

I am Legend, eeeuuuwwww, I just didn't enjoy it. Will Smith was very easy on the eyes and is such a great actor but I just don't get into plots that aren't plausible. How is that for deep?

It rained a lot this weekend (shocker) so there wasn't much playing outside or doing much of anything. We took the boys to the Rain Forest Cafe to get the most bang for our buck...food and the zoo in one. We even got a front row seat next to the giant aquarium. Food was way to spendy (1st and only visit) and quite mediocre (another shocker) but the atmosphere was fun and the boys loved it. I'm sure the other patrons appreciated me as I "Oh, excuse me, sorry, can we just squeeze by you, oh sorry about that, hi there, neat gorilla huh?" .... my way through the place with Jack and Cole looking at the animals...just gettin my moneys worth!

And finally, with our oodles of down time we thought we'd just show some brotherly love. Brody is very partial to the "open mouth" sign of affection. We're working on that!
Cute boys, fun week!