Who's afraid of the BIG BAD WOLF?

With three little boys, my sister in law and I began brainstorming what we could dress them as for Halloween. Well many ideas came and went ( Darth, Obewan, Yoda/ Mario, Luigi, a Mushroom/ Minions/ Monkeys) but it all came down to money. How much could we not spend making costumes? Then someone mentioned doing a classic three, 3 little pigs, 3 blind mice, 3 little bears.... you get the idea. We decided pigs would be easy, warm, and too funny not to. So we went to the store and got white items we needed and died them all pink. We were going for more of a light baby pink, but the hot pink we got was even funnier. Yes, those are three little boys in head to toe pink. Yes, everyone loved their costumes. Yes, everyone said "Isn't she soooo cute!"

 t

We did BOO at THE ZOO withhem. They Loved it!

4th of July

To start, my son RJ has weird anxiety of noises. Not necessarily loud ones either, but those get him too. Last 4th we went to Idaho Falls and staked out on the river for hours to watch, just to spend the whole time cuddling RJ (while I was 9 months pregnant) telling him it was all OK, they were just sounds and lights. The freakout he was having was compounded by the fact that it was HOURS past bed time (he goes to sleep at 7 usually)

From last 4th of July

So this year, I figured that there is no way I am going to go through that with two cranky little mama's boys. (When they are cranky only mom will do)

So we went to the breakfast with the Ward in the morning and played at the park. It was fun and I figured we would stay until we were the last ones. But some child pooped then slid down the slide. One of those really long twirly covered tubes. You can guess the result. And since that was the thing RJ was enjoying doing the most and now couldn't, we promptly dragged him out of the park kicking and screaming. No point in staying while he begged to go down the poop slide. It was sad cause the slide was packed with kids so parents were picking their kids up and sliding their bums in the grass to get *ehem* stuff off. It was slid down enough to probably be cleaned of noticeable residue, but i was still grossed out and refused to willingly let my kid slide down through remnants of poop. Call me crazy.

We even considered going to the parade! But it was through nap time and RJ would be excited for the first 5 or 10 minutes, which is so not worth the effort. So we went home. All day we sat around thinking of things we could do to celebrate. Didn't know any one to bbq with, didn't know any where to go. So we just hung out at home. Helio finally found the time to put together his Dunk Video (available on facebook for your viewing pleasure. The story behind that is that he said "I bet I can dunk on that short rim! McKay, video tape me!" So I did. Over and over and over as he failed too many times to count.) 

Finally, I looked down at our matching shirt and decided something had to be done! Even if it was just pictures! So I forced my husband to put the movie him and RJ  were watching on hold while we all went outside and mossied around the yard and took pictures.Yes I even went and dolled up just for the photos. Luckily we live in an area where not many people set off fireworks, so we even got to sleep early. So all of you who had to recuperate from your 4th weekend! I am not one of you!

Multitasking mishap

The other day I was busy cleaning my house, which is sadly a much too rare occasion. I kept stumbling over things I was ashamed to find as well as really grossed out that I hadn't found it sooner. 
(ex. a towel used to mop up a potty training accident that got wadded up into a corner and left there as other clothing got pile on top of it, a half used loaf of bread almost unrecognizable as bread due to the fabulous shades of green fuzz sitting on the top of the fridge waaaay in the back, a puddle of who knows what kinda of liquid under RJ's bed between the mattress and the bottom of the tent that sits on his bed, a freakishly thick ring around the kitchen sink under all the stacked up dishes, yeah my hose got gross)
I decided that it was about time I moped. I have a hard time convincing my self to do this worthless chore since hours after I do it you can't tell it's been moped in the last month. Plus I have to use my precious nap time to do it to prevent wet floor accidents. I placed the bucket in the sink with bleach and dish soap to fill up as I ran to switch out the laundry. 
I then began the hunt for laundry, sorting toys and tidbits from clothing plus destickering the clothing that had been lovingly decorated by RJ. This is a rough chore because Sam has discovered how fun it is to get into clean clothing (which is stored in totes because were nomads and have no dressers for our clothing, perfect level for him to dig through). So I have to sort out what i dirty, clean, and what was once clean but now deemed dirty from being in too close proximity of an especially dirty item. 
While pilfering the bathroom for laundry I noticed the toilet needed some attention (since when? not sure) So I put cleaner on it to scrub later. I think even a phone call might have interrupted this little jaunt.
I walked into the kitchen to switch out my kitchen towels and OH NO!!! I forgot the mop bucket filling up! It would have been no big deal but I had put dish soap in the water. So as the water streamed down the drain, the bubbles billowed up and over the sink and down to the floor. Oh phoo. Least I was planning on cleaning the floor anyway. After I gathered up all the bubbles and cleaned up the mess, I realized how cool it would have been to take a picture of the bubble statue. Sorry you dont get to see it! 
I even considered recreating it just for documenting sake.      

Like this but BIGGER (found a substitute picture online)

Interesting moments

Today we went to the park and usually RJ follows other kids around or plays by himself. Today I saw something that kinda had me on edge for a few minutes. RJ was surrounded by 3 obviously much older boys. I could see that they were talking and RJ was making excited hand gestures. I sat contemplating intervening, afraid they were doing something cruel. What other reason would older boys gather around a smaller one right?? 

Then! To my surprise! One knelt down on RJ's level and another followed until they were all sitting around him. As I was staring intently at them, one of the boys would often look up at me. Pretty sure he figured out he was being watched by momma bear. Eventually RJ got up and walked toward me happy as can be. I asked him what he was doing with the boys, and he said talking about trains. 

Just a bit later one boy placed his hand on RJ's back to guide him back to the group. HMMMMMM... So concerned, I asked the mothers around me what they thought of the situation. Most thought it was sweet. Maybe I'm the only paranoid one or maybe they'd have thought differently if it was their boy. Who knows. But time to go (plus curiosity)  compelled me to go interrupt. One boy said the moment I got close, "He really really likes trains!" As I talked to the boys it was really just them being fascinated by RJ's chattering abilities and truly enjoying talking to him about trains, living near trains, putting money on the track, waving at the engineer . (I am quite surprised RJ could hold a mature conversation for so long and interest children so much older than him) One named Sam wanted to know what RJ's name was because he couldn't quite understand him when he said his full name. He also was very excited to learn that the baby's name was also Sam. 

They were sad that it was time to go and were very sweet in saying good bye to RJ. 

At this park, you can watch trains go by in the background every few minutes, and when RJ sees one he will let whoever is standing near him know "LOOK A TRAIN!" Most just laugh and nod as he rambles about all his train knowledge. Today was a nice change.

Very interesting. 

Blog Launch, Lift Off!

Today I went for a short walk before the kiddies woke up. I saw a small frog and thought it'd be fun to take and show the boys. Well for some reason my kids are scared of anything that moves that is not obviously not human. So it didn't go as I had pictured on my blissful morning stroll. Freaked screaming and "No mommy!"s It was promptly set free.

My husband also showed concern for my well being by informing me that frogs can give you warts. Who started that myth?