This and that for week 2 of January

This week has been insanely busy. I am a Let's Play Music teacher, but I also do what is known as Teacher Advisory for LPM and this week all of my existing teachers started their own semesters, plus we have a teleconference coming up this Friday for any new trainees. I honestly have been on my computer constantly e-mailing EVERYONE, as well as meeting for Advisory 'meetings'--a.k.a BRUNCH! I actually feel like I am earning my paycheck on this one! I also am the Ward Historian for our ward---I know you are jealous of my calling. And this week the annual Historical Narrative for 2008 was due. Of course I put most of it off until the week after Christmas---when I have the whole year to work on it---but it has been forwarded on to my ward clerk and I now do not have any church responsibilites for another year. Yeehaw! Needless to say, that this week I have not even had a chance to look at anyone's blog, let alone post on my own...GRRRR!

On top of everything else, Court is out of town Monday thru Saturday this week to Hawaii---AGAIN! Every phone call I get from him is, "Well, I am about to jump on another plane to hop on over to another island." and "Because of the time change I am up at 4:00 over here so I get in 3 miles on the treadmill every morning, wow I get so much done everyday."---BRAT! Because he is out of town I have not been able to run with Shelby, which means I have to get on my treadmill at the house which consists of me trying to run while calling for Delainee every few minutes to pick up Waverly who REALLY wants to get on with me. Poor little thing, I really don't think she could crawl THAT fast. I would just run after the kids just go to bed, but I promised Delainee and Laetner that they could sleep in my bed this week while Daddy is away. Note to self: Do Not Make Such A Promise Ever Again!

I must admit something horrible. When Court is out of town on Wednesdays--which happens more weeks than not--- then it is Wacky Wednesday at Sonic for dinner. Their kid meals are only 1.49, can't beat that. I definitely wasn't the only one cashing in on that deal last night cuz the drive thru line was quite extensive. So, whilst we waited in line forEV-ER for our grease-soaked kids meals, the kids began asking all sorts of questions about who my brothers or sisters were and just questions about families in general. They find it fascinating that grandma and grandpa are actually daddy's mom and dad and that grandma and papa are my parents. Then Delainee began really thinking and started asking what their actual names were.

Now here I will have to back track a little bit. For Christmas one of the things that Laetner asked for was a nutcracker. And at first we were a little confused, but Laetner played on a cousins Nintendo ds one day and Mario must have reminded him of the nutcracker from Barbie. So he continues to call it a nutcracker. Well Court is wrapped around every child's finger so I lost the battle of Laetner not needing a nintendo ds. But now everyone at our house calls it a nutcracker and mario is the red nutcracker, luigi is the green nutcracker. etc, etc. Laetner even begs me to dress Waverly in overalls and a green shirt so she looks like Luigi---we might need to find her a mustache!

So back in the car....I explained that Papa's name was Byde and Grandma's name was Pam and Grandpa's name was Dave and other Grandma's name was Maurio. You should have seen Laetner's eyes light up! "You mean like the red nutcracker?" he exclaims. How many kids can claim that one?

This week Waverly has gained the unfortunate knowledge and ability to turn not only my t.v. off, but my reciever as well. And she knows she is being naughty. She crawls to the wall and then walks her way down it until she gets to the t.v. She then turns her head, flashes a huge smile, and turns it off. By the time you have rectified the damage, she has moved the rest of the wall down to where the reciever box resides and does the exact same thing. She is a stinker. I cannot tell you have difficult it was to watch Biggest Loser with her in the room. Speaking of which, was anyone else crying as the orange team member finally made it up that hill? I need to check my meds, cuz I am usually not a crier EVER, but I was sobbing like a baby. I hope that kid ends up in the finale and is smokin' hot! He deserves it.

Alright, I at least put down somethin' for the week--not too shabby!
(have I ever mentioned that I love exclamation marks!!)

Journaling ala Allyson Van Patten

I am horrible at journaling. Which is why I am doing this blog. But I am finding that if it is not an event or if I don't have pictures to accompany the post, then it isn't worth posting about. How sad for me. Because the most important things really are the little everyday idiosyncrasies that happen during our mundane little existence. Soooo... my new years resolution is to really do what I set out to do and capture the extraordinary in the ordinary everyday.
At this point I need to give a shout out to Allyson because she is my inspiration for this. She has one of my MOST favorite blogs, and it isn't because she has a cute background---someone needs to help her to find a new background! It isn't that she lists me as one of the coolest people on the web, or that she conceded that my child might indeed be cuter than her child, but because she just writes about all the little everyday things and finds humor in the things that would normally cause me to curse or raise my voice to my children. I quote, "Sometimes I think this blogging thing is a seriously good thing for the health of the child. 'Cause in moments like this, instead of killing the kid, you just have to take a picture." So true. So Allyson thank you for being a great mommy and blogger and the person who comments the most on my own blog. I have a lot to live up to!

So on Saturday Delainee begged and begged for us to go to the park. Somehow it ended up me with Lainee and Laetner while Court got to stay home with Waverly. I was hideous--no makeup and I hadn't washed my hair in three days at least, so I told the kids that we needed to go to a park where no one else was. We ended up hitting three different little neighborhood parks before the afternoon was up. But when we were finally heading home we passed one more park and Delainee really wanted to stop.

Delainee: Mom, plz can we play at this one?

Me: No

Delainee: Why?

Me: Because there are people at that park and they might see me.

Delainee: Well can't you just stay in the car and roll up the window?

Tonight for dinner Courtney made his moms famous homemade pizza. Delainee and I walked in from gymastics to have dinner ready and waiting for us---thank you Court! Court had made a green salad and a little fruit salad to go with. I was commenting how yummy the fruit tasted when Laetner exclaimed, "I love green strawberries!" I was a little confused because there were no strawberries let alone green ones amongst the fruit. But sure enough there it was...

a green strawberry?!

Big Steps for Waverly

Very exciting times at our house. Still need to post about all the fun times that happened at Christmas. Especially how jolly old st 'sick'o'las must have brought something nasty with him down the chimney as my entire household began throwing up Christmas morning. Poor little Waverly is still having a hard time keeping anything down. But that is another post another time. What I really want to share is some exciting developments with our little Wavee. She took her first steps yesterday and luckily we got her to repeat her performance for the camera. She is only 10 months old---SCARY!

Pause the music so you can hear.

Christmas

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year. Delainee really wanted a pink remote control car like Laetner got last year, but they just don't make pink remote control cars! I told her that the elves sent out a memo that they didn't have any more pink paint and was there something else that the elves could make for her instead? She thought that a chalkboard would be fun, and luckily they had one at Joann's. It was a chalkboard on one side and a dry erase marker board on the other--PERFECT! Delainee actually wrote a little note to the elves so they would know what her new desires were---too cute!

I love that the last statement says, "Please bring these toys Santa!" Kinda bossy if you ask me.

The actual week of Christmas stayed very busy. I had borrowed my sister in laws vinyl cutter and I made jars with the word 'sweets' on them to give as teacher gifts as well as gifts for my family. I think I made a total of 17 jars! Sunday we made candy trains at the Fischbeck's and the kids each got to choose a friend to give their train to. Monday night we had our Fuller Family F.H.E. Scott and Shelby were in charge this year. As usual I was on the piano while we did the nativity. Grandma gave new jammies to all the grandkids and she couldn't have had a happier recipient than Laetner with his new superman 'ba-jammies'.

Christmas eve was spent at the Fischbeck's for dinner, talent show and gift exchange. Delainee played Silent Night on the piano for her talent. She even did a grandiose hand cross over finale. She did so good! We had put curls in her hair and she wore her little Christmas dress. She was so pretty! I loved the grandkid gift exchange when the kids give each other hugs for their new $10 treasures. Our adult game seemed lacking in energy this year, and the pickings were pretty slim, but we ended up with a croquet set that the kids have LOVED playing with us in the backyard. Although it has brought out a whole 'nother side of Delainee that does NOT like it when the ball doesn't make it through the goal!

When we got home Christmas Eve night, we let the kids each open a gift-new pajamas. That way they would look snazzy for Christmas morning! I think the kids were in bed by 10:00 which was amazing, but Court and I had things to do before we could get nestled all snug in our beds.

I love Laetner's face in this---shoulda known he wasn't feelin' good!

Christmas morning started out great! The kids took turns picking gifts and sounding out who they were to and from. Lainee and Laetner both got magna-doodles from Waverly and they thought that was the coolest thing! I think Lainee's favorite gift was the make-up she got and Laetner's favorite was his bumblebee transformer until he realized exactly what his nintendo ds from Santa actually was.

After opening the gifts I went in to start making the kids breakfast when Laetner started to complain that his stomach hurt. I figured he had been snacking on too much chocolate from his stocking, but that was the beginning of the week from hell. Jolly old St. Sick-o-laus brought something nasty down the chimney with him, because Laetner threw up the rest of that day and the next, Delainee followed suit the following day, And poor Waverly couldn't shake it for 5 days. She would just look up at me and then ralph down her front. I took to tying a towel around her neck just to try and catch it before it hit the carpet!

Grandpa Fischbeck had been sick and we think he gave it to us on Sunday at candy trains. It started with Court on Tuesday, and then the poor kiddies got it on Christmas. At least we made it through all the gift opening before it set in. Ahhhh... good times!

The best Christmas present to me was that I never did get it!

Peanut Butter will definitely get that out!

The weeks leading up to Christmas are always so much fun because that is when neighbors and friends are dropping by goodies and gifts. Laetner was soooo excited when some friends brought by this cute 'gummy' ball machine. He steals a piece of gum and about 10 seconds later spits it out and gets a new one. Delainee for some reason does not like bubble gum, so Laetner has had pretty much free reign on the little balls of sugar.

Well, I was on the phone with Shelby--which has been known to happen from time to time, when in crawls Waverly with a 'horn' on her head. It took me a couple of minutes to figure what it was...

Yeah, that growth is GUM! I knew who had done it--the ONLY person eating the stuff, but I walked into the kitchen and wanted someone to fess up to it. Laetner just hung his head. When I asked him why, he said he just wanted to play with her. GRRRRR! I was still on the phone the whole time with Shelby and I said I better get the scissors out to which she exclaimed in horror! Good thing she is worried about little Waverly's appearance. She told me to get out the peanut butter.

And we did!

And it worked!

Now we just need a bath! Thanks aunt Shelby for the un-haircut!

The end of a Season

Yesterday was the end of our very first season of tee ball. It was a really good experience for Laetner to go through. A huge thanks need to go out to the coaches especially Coach Dewy, for all of the time and effort that they put into these boys this season. Laetner really has come a long way!

One of the best parts about this season is that we got to be on the same team with our best bud and cousin Crew Bob!

And of course we learned all of our basic skills like ......

fielding a grounder,

stepping and throwing,

hitting,

running to first,

watching mom and dad on the first base line while running to first,

playing with your shadow by placing glove on head and twisting body in varying positions, instead of watching the ball,

and last but not least,

learning what all baseball players seem to acquire without any practice at all. The innate ability to 'rearrange' yourself when the camera IS watching.

Definitely my husbands child!!

What a great season. We ended it with a family pizza party where they handed out trophies and cupcakes with their jersey numbers on it.

GO SHARKS!!!

Bearer of bad news!

I hate to be the one to have to break this to you, but

my child is way cuter than your child!!!

McCormick Ranch Railroad Park

Have you ever been to McCormick Ranch Railroad Park at Christmas time? It really is alot of fun. I think this was our 3rd year attending. There are train rides, a carousel, wandering characters in costume to take pictures with, sitting on Santa's lap, and just a really fun playground to get all those wiggles out after waiting in line for about an HOUR to tell Santa that we wanted a bumblebee transformer and a pink remote control car like the blue one that Laetner got last year. Hopefully Santa's elves can find some pink paint lying around at the north pole, or we might really be in trouble! But, the most amazing part was when Waverly did not make a peep when we handed her over to the big guy in the red suit. As soon as the camera flashed she even broke into a huge grin, but alas that shot was not captured. We really had a fun night and Court all I have to see is ASHER MAXIMILLIAN!

Who knew that Shrek was into Christmas!

This train behind us was where Santa actually was.
Thank you Santa Claus!

Breakfast with Santa Convict!

We had our ward Christmas Party on Saturday morning. Great idea to do Breakfast with Santa instead of taking up an evening in December. Anyways we are all sitting there eating our pancakes, listening to a gentleman in our ward sing 'Walking in a Winter Wonderland', when the fire alarm goes off. We all kinda looked at each other, but nobody really knew what to do. The Bishop stole the microphone right in the middle of the song and informed us to EVACUATE! We evacuated to a different side of the building than everyone else, but it worked out great 'cause Santa came out with us and we ended up being able to get our shots with him!

Once outside the building the alarm made an ever worse sound, and you can't see it, but the light was flashing and Delainee wanted a picture with it.

After the fireman checked everything out, they informed us it had been an alarm malfunction, but really I think it was all part of an undercover sting to arrest this man....

I know, I know, what kind of mother would let her children take a picture with a possible criminal. But we had come for the picture with Santa, and we were NOT leaving without it!

I guess we should be greatful that the alarm went off on Saturday morning and not on Sunday morning. It was kind of funny when the next day at church our Bishop thanked all of those who came out to support our fire drill!