Happy Halloween!

Who's Who?

You all did a great job! (Although it's not fair copying their old babysitter, Gin.)

1.Sam 2. Gabe

3. Max

4. Gabers

5. Sammers
6. Maxer

P.S. I'll make cookies for anyone who comes to visit!

Help!

I'm a victim of abuse. Child abuse. My child is abusing me! Samuel's naturally angelic nature seems to have been suppressed lately. Like for the last year.

Today Sam bit me approximately 3 times. Hard. Really hard. Hard enough that I'm sitting here looking at bruises, complete with teeth marks, on both arms. I have a really big one on my thigh too, but since it isn't "daisy-duke" weather, it's safely hidden.

This isn't the first time this has happened either. If we were going on the "three strikes you're out" system, he would have been thumbing his way across America to get to Grandma's house long ago.

One major cause of strife lately revolves around dressing. Sam doesn't want to get dressed. Or undressed. Or redressed. He tells me his clothes are dirty. And too hot. And too cold. And too yucky. Or that they're Maxwell's. Or Gabriel's. Or Daddy's. Too small and too big.

When I tell him we have to get dressed so we can go somewhere, he tells me he doesn't want to go to school. Or the store. Or the Doctor.

But, since we usually have to do these things, we have to get his clothes on. So I put them on. Against his will. And he struggles, and screams, and kicks, and bites me. Hard. (And usually he strips again the first chance he gets.)

I've tried all the bad parenting techniques. I've yelled at him, spanked him, bribed him and bitten him back. (Don't freak out, I only did that once, and not hard enough to leave a mark.)

I've mostly tried LOT'S of good parenting techniques including "1-2-3 Magic" and "Love and Logic". I've tried distraction. I've tried giving him options.

A week or two ago, I tried taking him to school naked from the waist down. (I got him dressed, he got himself undressed. I offered to get him dressed, he preferred to stay undressed.)

I've put him in time-out, and his toys in time-out, and myself in time-out.

Nothing has worked.
And I need help. Serious help!
Because when I say "Bite me!" I don't really mean it!
HELP ME!!!

(Don 't be fooled by my cute face. I'm a biter!)

Weekend in Vermont

I've been meaning to post some of the pictures from our Vermont trip a few weekends back. But when you have 200 pictures to work with, it can be a bit daunting.

Doug's parents invited us to come and stay with them in a beautiful cabin by a lake in the midst of some of the most beautiful fall foliage I've ever seen. We did a lot of sight-seeing including visiting an awesome old farm and the birthplace of Joseph Smith. It was one of our favorite New England Adventures to date!

Thanks Mom and Dad Dub!

Our First Contest

Doug just posted the FUNNIEST photo ever on his sight. And it inspired me to hold our first ever Photo Caption Contest! There will be a prize and everything, so get on over to his site and enter!

The Bishops Ball

Friday night we went to a BLACK TIE (please "ooh and ahh" here) Dinner and Dance put on to benefit Doug's hospital. It was a very fancy affair attended by the Governor and some local dignitaries. (Doug's boss got tickets for the residents, otherwise we wouldn't have been there.)

It was quite stressful getting ready for such an event with three hygiene challenged children swarming me and making constant demands on my time and attention. Especially with no other woman (Ginger) nearby to assist me with my hair and make-up. I'm a little personal-grooming challenged myself.

When Doug got home shortly before we were supposed to leave, I was in quite a panic. (If you look close you can see a slightly manic gleam in my eyes.)

Once we got there, though, I was able to relax.

Possibly too much.

After dinner and a presentation about the hospital, the live band started playing and people started dancing. Now, I do love to dance, but I haven't done it in awhile (like 7 years) because:

a) I'm not even slightly coordinated

b) Doug doesn't dance, and

c) Every other person on the dance floor had the advantage of being either slightly or completely drunk.

BUT, Cosmina dragged me out with her and I was surprised how much fun I had once I started pretending I was drunk and therefore wouldn't remember anything in the morning.

(Doug was embarrassing me by taking pictures.)

(*I would just like to note here that the children of Providence's "Upper Crust", have no idea what their parents do on Friday nights. If they could see their middle-aged mothers drunkenly gyrating on the dance floor, they'd probably slit their wrists.*)

(*I should also note that nothing embarrassing like that was going on in my group. We all looked super cool and hip. Okay, so maybe everyone other than me did.)

(*And I should also also note that Doug did uncharacteristically join me for a few songs.)

(*And let me tell you, he has some MOVES!)

Later, after shakin' it on the dance floor, Cosmina and I made a new friend. I believe his name is David?

And here we are with a few more from our group. David and I are the only two who aren't Dentists here. (At least, I don't think he's a dentist?)(Don't judge me for being tan-less. I'm also skin-pigment challenged.)

In conclusion, a good time was had by all.

The End.

Do-over

You've all heard the expression "I painted myself into a corner."

But what you haven't heard is the lesser known, and yet much more serious phrase;

"I've tiled myself into a bathtub."

Next step: Remove Emily's least favorite color from the wall.

Chunky Monkey

Dear Sweet Cheeks,

I'm sorry I ate all Chunky Monkey Ice Cream you brought home yesterday. It's just that the little bit we tried last night was so yummy that I've been craving it all day. And then when you had to work late and went to play basketball shortly after getting home, well...

I felt like I deserved, no, NEEDED a little treat.

And I was gonna put some in a bowl (for portion control) but then I figured since I was only going to have a little...why dirty more dishes?!? And well, things were going according to plan until I had to go deal with with Sam. There was some issue with a toy falling behind the bed, and then some screaming...which necessitated a few more bites when I got back to the couch. And then, uh, it really wasn't worth getting up again to put it away with just a little left in the carton so I just finished it off.

All except the walnuts. I spit all those out.

Sorry,

Me

Yummmmmmmmmy!

Recipe blogs seem to be all the rage these days, and although I'm no gourmet chef, (Doug is a MUCH better cook than I am.) even I have one. Granted, it only has about 5 recipes on it, but I'm planning to add many more. Not because I think people will start flocking to it, mostly just because I like having my recipes on the computer and in one spot.

ANYWAY, to my point: After I had Gabe, we were the lucky recipients of MANY super yummy dinners. (Being a Mormon has serious perks.) One meal we really loved came from my friend Jenni and she has the recipe posted on her blog, HogieWogie. After months of cravings, I finally made it and not only was it pretty darn easy, it was as DELICIOUS as anticipated!

***Here is the large meal we received in many large disposable containers:***

Mediterranean Gyro Chicken
Wheat and White pita pockets
Tzatziki Sauce (Greek yogurt with cucumbers and seasoning for the chicken)
Rice pilaf with Orzo. (She said it was from a box but it must have been a great brand because we thought it was homemade.)
Greek Salad with olives and a very yummy dressing
The best, most dense, rich, yummy Chocolate Cupcakes I've ever had.

I think that's everything. Boy oh boy was that a yummy meal. The hardest part of making this was remembering to buy fresh dill and then finding the Tzatziki sauce. (Though I hear it's very easy to make with plain yogurt.)

It was worth it. It was to die for. Next time I'll double the recipe because we didn't have nearly enough left-overs.

Here is the link to the Chicken Gyro recipe on her blog. It will soon be posted on my recipe blog.
ENJOY! (That is an order.)

***If you have a baby and I'm assigned to bring you dinner, you will recieve Chicken, Broccoli, and Rice casserole. Possibly a can of apple sauce if I have one. I'm a one dish kinda girl and sides go beyond the scope of my abilities. Sorry in advance.

Fall Decor

My sister-in-law, Mrs. Dub, of Musings and Misadventures fame, wanted to see how people are decorating for Fall. And since I was in need of some posting inspiration, I've decided to oblige!


As I was gazing around the house a few weeks ago, I determined that the spring flowers in my wall sconces needed to go. So I found some Fall-ish flowers and swapped 'em out. Then, in an attempt to cover up the ugly wire stems, I had a stroke of brilliance and added the Candy Corns! (Genius, eh?) The only problem is, I'm always craving Candy Corns now. And only convincing myself that they're stale is keeping me for robbing the decorations!

Anyway, this is my favorite decoration at the moment: Next we have my Cornucopia. We had one of these growing up and it came out for every Thanksgiving. When my mom wanted to get me out of the kitchen on Thanksgiving Day, she'd send me into the Family Room to arrange the gourds. I finally acquired my own "Horn of Plenty" last year and I love it. It's a little sparsely populated at the moment, but I'll get some apples in there for filler.
Now we come to where the decorative harmony just falls apart. Below is a picture of my refrigerator. Recently, Doug's sister Lisa and her husband Rich came to visit. They had gifts for all of us and mine was an adorable ceramic pumpkin filled with Peanut Butter Cups. (How awesome are they???) After Max got caught with his hand in it a few too many times, I cleared the top of the fridge and put it up there with another cute little ceramic pumpkin candle.
That's #1.

For #2, I put our sound activated witch up there...also to keep out of reach of children.

And then #3 started to accumulate. That's the stack of things that are in "time out". It includes Sam's Blanket, a couple of pirate swords, and a bunch of Cars that the boys left out.
You'll notice the pile is spilling over.


Of course, the front of the fridge didn't stay clear for long and it acquired a poseable skeleton, a fall landscape, and two more scary school projects including the one-eyed spider (#4).

It may not be beautiful or "Martha" worthy, but I've made my peace with child induced chaos. (sort of) And I can always eat some of the decorative Candy Corn if I need to.

Pop! Goes the Gabey

I have this little trick I use to successfully take a shower (when I bother to take a shower)without any children getting into mischief or maiming one another. This is based on a precedence of mischief and maiming...not just being overly cautious.

I wait until Max is at school. One less boy equals half as much trouble. Then I turn on the magic hypnotizer (PBS) for Sammers. Next, I stick Gabe in his bouncy seat in front of the T.V. But NOT watching the T.V. I put him facing Sam. That way, Sammy-Boy is entertained watching a show, and Gabe is entertained watching Sam. (Sam can be quite animated talking back to the television.)

Usually this works like a charm. Until today. When I got out of the shower, it was quiet...which is a good sign. But when I walked into the family room, I saw Gabe had twisted himself around so he could watch Curious George. His neck was so twisted it looked like his head was ready to pop off. His eyes were glazed over and a little drool was collecting in the corner of his mouth.
Hmm...seems that my brilliant plan wasn't so brilliant.

So at the risk of turning a third boy into a complete television addict at such a young age, I guess I'll just wait until Saturday to shower. 5-6 times a week is overkill anyway.

Random Kindness

FIRST: I would just like to state that we had an extremely fun visit this last week and it's all thanks to blogs. Yes, that's right, BLOGS!

If it weren't for the fact that I'm a loyal reader of the "D" family blog, (and therefore in the know about practically everything happening in their lives,) I never would have invited them to come. BUT since I am a faithful reader, I had no problem asking Lindsay, whom I've previously only met two times, to drag her family from Utah to Rhode Island to help celebrate Doug's birthday. And I'm pretty sure, if it weren't for the fact that she reads my blog, she wouldn't have come.

So YAY for blogs and YAY for visitors!!! (So is that the way to spell "yay", because I used to spell it yeah, but in the Bible it's yea, so I'm just not sure...)

ANYWAY!!! Back to why I started this post. Driving to Boston with the D Family the other day, I remembered something that happened on my previous trip to Boston. And it made me want to write a post in honor of all the people in the world whom I don't actually know but who rock.

So here goes;

Two Boston trips ago, I went to pick-up my mom at the Logan airport. She was in town to meet Baby Gabe who was only a few weeks old. By the time I got to the airport, he had been screaming for about 10 minutes and was ready to eat. I made the first loop around the pick-up area, didn't see her, and kept driving because the traffic cop wasn't letting anyone stop. Second time around, I couldn't handle it any more. It was killing me to hear Gabe crying and the other two boys loudly telling him to stop wasn't helping. I pulled over, hopped out, and got Gabe quickly out of his car seat. I figured the cop would soon be over to get me to move but figured it was better than nothing.

I was right. He saw me pulled over, saw that no one was being picked up, and came right over. Then he saw how frantic Gabe was and how distraught I looked because he said, "I can't let you stop here because I just got rid of all those other people, but if you want to pull around again, you can park right over there in the taxi area and tend to your baby."

He was a big burly black cop but I so wanted to kiss him right then! I quickly strapped Gabers back in, drove the loop again, parked where he had shown me, and proceeded to nurse Gabe until Faezer came out 15 minutes later. (That's how long I would have been driving in circles with a screaming baby if it weren't for that wonderful, wonderful man.)
THANK YOU WONDERFULLY KIND AND BRILLIANT LOGAN AIRPORT TRAFFIC COP!!!

Next: More recently when we were on our trip to Maine we stopped at a beach in Acadia N.P. To access the beach you had to take a long, narrow wooden staircase down to the water. When we were leaving, I got a head start up the stairs with Max, and Gabe in the Baby Bjorn. Half way up, Max, who was (as usual) running, tripped and fell pretty hard on the stairs. Hearing him crying, a boy around the age of 10, stopped, turned around, saw me with a baby strapped to my chest, and walked back down to Max. He asked him a few times if he was okay, then waited to see if Max needed help getting up and watched him with concern until he did. None of the nearby adults bothered to help, including the boys mom who looked at him with confusion. He was obviously nervous and a little embarrassed, (he kept looking at me like I might shoo him away) but he stayed put right by Max until he was sure he was okay and could make it the rest of the way up the steep stairs. I was VERY impressed by him and thanked him profusely for trying to help my little Maxer. THANK YOU YOUNG BOY WHO GAVE ME HOPE FOR THE FUTURE OF MANKIND!!!

Last one: This one is a bit old, but we still praise the unknown name of this unknown lady. It was last summer. After dragging two kids around New York City all day on foot, we found ourselves at the Empire State Building. Since we'd been wanting to see it, and we were there, we bought tickets to go up to the top. Then we got in line. Turns out, you have to wait in line to take the elevator to the top and the line was about 2 hours long. We were despondent. We didn't know what to do. We had already purchased our tickets, but we also had two tired boys with us, and a long way to go to get back to our hotel. We were planning to give up and get out of line when Doug stopped an employee to ask her advice. He told her our boys were exhausted and asked if it was really going to take 2 hours? Should we wait? Could we come back and use our tickets later? She looked us over and said "Come with me." Confused, we got out of line and followed her through a back hallway that led...

...to the front of the line. She left us in front of some elevators and said "Wait here." and then left to get back to her job. It took us a minute to figure out that she had just placed us two hours ahead of where we had just been! Doug barely had time to rush back over to her and thank her before the elevator came and whisked us up a million stories. (Where my fear of heights was further cemented. But that's another story.) THANK YOU ESB EMPLOYEE WHO SAVED US FROM AN EVENING OF MISERY!!!

SO! to you three kind people, we send you positive psychic vibrations whenever we think of you. May you be eternally blessed with the closest parking spot to the mall entrance and freedom from indigestion for all of your days. Because YOU ROCK!!!

Good Eats!

I've put two new recipes on my "recipe blog". So if you're looking for something yummy to make for breakfast tomorrow, check it out!

Mom My Ride

My ride has totally been Mommed.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Douglas a.k.a. Sugar Lips/Honey Buns/Sweet Cheeks/Sugar Booger turned 30 yesterday! (October 2nd) For his birthday surprise, I invited an old friend of his to come visit. Actually, I invited the friends really cool wife and we conspired together to plan the visit. The surprise has been in the works since February and frankly, I'm astounded I kept it a secret that long.

Mike and Doug became friends when they lived in the same dorm their freshman year at BYU. They both served missions in Germany and stayed friends post mish. In fact, Mike went on our first date with us! (Accompanied by my roommate Anna.)

Mike, Lindsay, Auriana, and Andrew arrived Monday evening before Doug got home from work. When he walked in, all he could do was stare speechlessly at the visitors. It was freakin' awesome.

We've been partyin' it up ever since. Happy Birthday Love Nut!!!