My Favorite Toy

My hilarious little brother (Ryan) got Tyler a toy gun for Christmas. I must say, I was not thrilled about the whole "gun as toy" thing, but it's really quite funny.

Yes, it actually CHUCKS NUNS! You load them in the gun and pull the trigger. Wham! They fly across the room. I'm sad we lost the nuns. The look on their faces is priceless.

Nicole is 3

Nicole turned 3 on Sunday and wanted a Cinderella birthday party. I did the family birthday party thing one more time because I know I won't be able to get away with it next year. We had a good time and Nicole loved her princess cake. I know, the frosting is horrible, but I had to do it one handed while holding a very wiggly baby.

I can't believe she's so big! It seems like such a huge gap between Nicole and Tori (probably because it's so much longer than the gap between Tyler and Nicole -- 17 months vs. 2 1/2 years). Here's a couple of my favorite pictures of Nicole from the last few years: (actually, there are too many favorites, so I just randomly picked a few pictures from the last 3 years)

I Have To Vent

WARNING - The following may contain some bitter remarks!!!

ANOTHER WARNING - Don't worry, this will likely be the one and only time I will ever discuss anything remotely political on our blog. I'm just feeling especially frisky today.

For those of you who didn't know (i.e. care), when it comes to politics I am what some people would call an "Independent" (No, I don't know what "" means) (That's a Friends joke that probably only Kristi will laugh at) So don't worry, I plan to rant against both candidates a little bit.

CNN is reporting that John McCain has decided it would be best if he and Barack Obama should stop campaining, forgo their Friday debate, and, get this, GO BACK TO WORK to help figure out how to fix the mess the financial district is in. For what it's worth, Obama says that is a (mostly) dumb idea and they should still hold their debate instead (obviously i may have paraphrased that a little). He then said he would go back to D.C. if he could help.

So here's my problem with all of this. These people are elected officials, yeah? They are getting paid a Senator's salary, right? So why the bloody (heck) aren't they doing their jobs? Just because they want to be President means that they don't have to perform the duties they were elected to do?! For the last year they get to collect their hard-earned (can you actually see the sarcasm dripping off those words?) paycheck for doing nothing related to Senatorial work? The country is having problems, everyone seems to hate/blame the current president for the economic problems we are experiencing, investment firms are dropping like flies after Kristi the crazy mad fly hunter destroys them with a rolled up copy of the Ensign, the stock market can't decide what it should do, people are panicking and making cash runs on their banks which can ONLY exacerbate the problem(s), and then and only then does the thought creep into someone's mind "Hey, maybe we should actually go to Washington, and you know, do something." If they want to not perform their duties, then fine. Step down as Senator, stop collecting the checks, and stump away for the presidency. Otherwise, get your sorry arses back to work instead of merely talking about it! Both of them preach change, but apparently change can only happen possibly, maybe, potentially, later on in the future. Change certainly couldn't happen now or anything....

On a lighter note, this Demotivator.com picture makes me laugh every time I see it.

Frump-a-licious

Being a parent changes you. I won't go skydiving right now because that's just not responsible. I probably won't stay out all night and sleep all day either. It's not part of my lifestyle anymore. Just because I have 3 kids doesn't mean I have to turn into a frumpy mom... yet. Maybe someday, but hopefully not. I told y'all last week that I was DYING to change my hair and Ben was afraid that if I cut it, I'd hate it. He's probably right, but drastic times call for drastic measures. So, what did I do? I put some red in it! At first I was afraid (I was petrified) that I wasn't cool enough to pull off red in my hair. Then I thought, wait a minute, maybe it's the other way around! Maybe having red in your hair MAKES you cool! Who knows. First they had to bleach my hair to get it bright enough for the red. The beauty school student talked me into leaving some of the blond, so it's got some of that in there too. So, here's my new and improved hair.



For the record, I like it and it's nice to do something new and fun with my hair!

To cut or not to cut, that is the question

I hate my hair. Yeah. I said it. I hate it. It officially makes me mad every time I look in the mirror. I've started avoiding mirrors because of it. I hate doing it. I hate that it's in my face all day. I hate the curls. I hate the color. Basically I'm saying that I need to change it or I'm going to go ape and shave it all off one of these days. So, I've been looking at pictures online for something to do with my crappy hair. I'm thinking about getting some cool highlights like these:

Ben thinks I'm going to hate my hair if I cut it, you know what, he's probably right. I usually regret it when I cut my hair. I get all sad that my hair's gone and I immediately start growing it out again. Then, when it gets long, I hate it and want to cut it. What the heck does that say about me? I have no clue what to do. Mostly I just wish that my hair was straight. I spend hours straightening it and I like it so much better! When my hair is long I have to wear it back all the time. I spend my whole day bending over picking up toys, kissing booboos, blah blah blah. Plus, my baby pulls my hair when it's down. I have so much hair that it makes me hot and claustrophobic. It's so curly that if it's humid at all then it turns into this giant frizz-ball. What is my quick fix for all of these? I put it in a pony-tail. My hair is always up. Always. If I try to wear it down I end up in a bad mood (and I usually end up taking it out on my poor husband). But when I cut it, I'm sad that I can't just throw it in a pony-tail and walk out the door. Maybe I should just shave it off and buy a bunch of wigs. That's actually starting to sound like a pretty good idea right about now. Here's one example of what I'm thinking about doing (try to picture it with the red highlights from the above picture).

I love back to school

Yay for preschool! My kids go to preschool at Mill Plain United Methodist Church - which is conveniently located right by our house - and they love it! Nicole just started her first year and she wants to go every day. She goes Tuesday and Thursday from 9:00 - 12:00. Tyler goes Monday through Thursday at the same time. What does that mean? I get TWO whole mornings a week with just the baby. It's so great! I forgot how easy it is when there's only one kid to worry about. Last week I ventured out to IKEA (never would have been that brave with all three kids) and loved every minute of my alone time with Tori. Even better, Nicole has the same teacher that Tyler had last year, so she knows Mrs. Baker and isn't scared about going to preschool and knows that I'm leaving her there but I'll be back. Here's some pictures from their first day of school.



It's nice having preschool at a church. They pray before they eat snack (each child can pray however they want), they actually have a curriculum that they teach, art projects, bible time, theme time, recess, and science projects! People drive from 20 miles away and the school fills up in one day. We are so lucky to have gotten in when one child moved and we snatched up the space for Tyler. The greatest part is that the kids love it and they are so excited for every class. I need to be a little more outgoing and introduce myself to some of the other moms so I can make some friends outside of church. Wish me luck with that one!

Episcleritis

Okay, so this sucks. I hate having this crappy condition and people keep asking me if I have pink eye. I do NOT have pink eye, it's just inflammation. Here's an awesome picture of the sweet redness in my left eye. So, if you're feeling sorry for yourself today, just think "hey, at least I don't have episcleritis to worry about!"

Nursing Update

For anyone that's been wondering, here's an update for you. I talked to my mother-in-law (a labor and delivery nurse in Utah) and told her all about the problems with Tori. When she got home, she talked to the lactation specialist at her hospital. She suggested I try going without nuts for a while to see if that helps. I practically lived on peanut butter and honey sandwiches when I was pregnant. Sometimes I would eat 3 or 4 a day! I eat peanut butter every single day. My favorite treats are peanut butter cups or brownies with peanut butter on them. I even make s'mores at home with a chocolate graham cracker, peanut butter and marshmallow! You get the point, I love peanut butter. So, this was a pretty big sacrifice, but I gave it a try. After a couple of days, I tried nursing again, no change. Kim told me that it could take up to two weeks! Ugh. I'm really starting to have pb withdrawals by now. Okay, two weeks later, I try nursing again. Ta da!! She's better! I don't think she has a peanut allergy, just an intolerance to it (in my own non-professional opinion). So, we are back to breastfeeding. She and I are both happy about it. I seriously miss peanut butter, but it's helping me lose weight! Since I'm not eating pb sandwiches, I'm not really eating much bread. Carbs are evil (blah blah blah) so without sandwiches being a huge part of my diet, I've already lost 3 lbs in 2weeks! Thank you all for your sympathy and advice on this struggle. I'm so glad that we were able to find a solution that works for both of us. I have 45 6-ounce bags of breast milk in my freezer that I'm donating to sick babies, so at least something good came from this whole mess!

Poor Jason

**WARNING!! If you get queasy with surgery type stuff, don't look at the pictures in this post!**
My youngest brother broke his collar bone a couple of weeks ago. He was mountain biking and took a jump a little too far and basically ripped his whole body apart. He landed so hard his shoes flew off and it split the seam of his pants from knee to knee! His whole body is bruised. I guess he's lucky he escaped with one broken bone. I felt so bad for him! I have to admit though, surgery was a good excuse to come down here for a little visit. Hopefully he's feeling better now. Here's a few pictures of his injury -- I seriously wish I had a picture of his x-ray. It was truly one of the grossest things I've ever seen. Oh, David just sent me one! Thanks, Dave! Cell phone quality isn't great, but you get the idea. The bone separated by 3 cm! Eww/ouch. Jason just gave me a copy of his x-ray after the surgery. I can't believe how many screws there are!





We hope you feel better Uncle Jason (mostly so you can play the "boing" game again)