Attack of the MOTHS!

So, last night I was driving home from my parents' house and felt something brush up against my cheek. It's dark, I can't see anything around me in the car. I have all 3 kids in the car with me, I need to concentrate. I feel this little flutter again. I'm trying to concentrate on the road, but I fear there may be a little flying monster in my car: a moth. Yes, I know it's dumb, but I really dislike these little creatures. As a child, my family went camping near Mt. St. Helens and Ryan and I stayed up late playing card games. We were huddled around a lantern and the moths were flocking to it. Ever since then, they just give me the willies. I was seriously freaked out last night trying to keep the moth off of me. I don't know if I thought it was going to bite me or suck my blood or just flutter on my neck with it's tiny little (harmless) wings. Stupid flying insects.

You should all be jealous of me

I just spent a romantic weekend ALONE with my husband. Yes, that's right. I said alone. Ben's mom kept the kids (thanks!) and we were able to spend the whole weekend with each other and didn't have any other distractions. It was bliss. We took naps, watched movies, took a 5 mile walk on the beach, ate out, went shopping, and... ahem... other things. Here's some of the pictures we took from our weekend.

Happy Valentine's Day (Yeah, yeah, I know it's tomorrow)

So let me just get this out there, I have the coolest wife in the whole world. She is the most sweet, kind, beautiful, loving, caring, honest, pretty, tender, genuine, hot, attractive (inside joke) person I know. I am still astounded that she agreed to marry me, and I am not just saying that. I know everyone says they married 'up', well, I truly did and she has made me such a better person since I have met her.

Now this will come as a major shock to those of you who know me, but I can be somewhat immature. I still love to play video games, go play basketball with my friends any chance I get, goof around with, well anyone who wants to, and try to just enjoy life as much as I can. Kristi has not only embraced this about me but she has never said one discouraging thing (to me at least) about me or what I am doing. Literally not one word. I honestly can't recall a single time. It's not to say that I haven't deserved it, because let's be honest, I have done plenty of disappointing things in my life, but she really loves me for who I am.

Kristi is an incredible mom. She constantly amazes me with what she accomplishes with our children. First of all, she makes them 7 course meals that include (among many other things) hot dog octopi and egg pizza, but you should see the way she is around them during the random moments of life. She loves our kids more that I thought was possible. Even when Nicole is doing her best to drive us absolutely bonkers, which of course she does accomplish at least daily, Kristi is the first one to forgive, forget and move on with life.

Kristi is an incredible friend. She is my confidant. I have never been good at sharing my deepest darkest secrets with anyone. But she has changed that for me. I know that I can tell her anything, and she will not judge me, or love me any less for it. I can cry like a little girl (not that there's anything wrong with that!) in front of her, and she will wait until at least the next day to mock me for it. (Of course that is a lie, she wouldn't wait a day to mock me.) I remember the time several years ago that my mom called and told me there was some mild concern that my dad had prostate cancer. I went in to the bedroom, told Kristi, and I just broke down and started sobbing. I'm really not sure why, it was just a biopsy they were doing, and I really don't cry over much, but for this I did. At any rate, she just held me and cried with me. I don't know if she even remembers this or not, but I know she never thought less of me, or even told anyone about it. And for that I love her. I couldn't ask for anything else in a best friend.

Kristi is an incredible wife. Normally I would say something like 'not to brag but' at this point, but actually I want to brag here. I get a hot meal every day when I get home from work. It's incredible! Not only that, but she is willing to try new foods with me after we watch Good Eats or Big Daddy's house. She keeps our house clean, tidy and smelling good! I don't think I have had to do more than 3 loads of my own laundry since we got married. I know how to, and am perfectly capable (she might disagree on that) but she does it for me anyway. Obviously these are not requirements of being a wife, and I wouldn't think less of her if she chose to not do any of these things, but she does it because she loves me and our family. And she doesn't complain about it. She loves to do home improvement projects with me, and she does them amazingly well. Especially the tedious crap that I do not like doing.

Not that any of you care, but I get to take my bride to the Oregon Coast tonight, and stay until at least Sunday night (maybe even Monday morning) and there will be no kids on this trip. (Thanks Mom!) I am so bloody excited to have an entire weekend away with my loving wife/best friend. It has been a long time since we have been able to do something like this and we are both quite excited.

The reason I wrote this post this morning in large part is because when I got to my office, I found the door closed, and a large heart taped to it. Turns out Kristi had posted a bajillion hearts in my office with the reasons why she loves me. She managed to sneak away and do it last night and I was never the wiser. She is so tricky. That's just another reason why I love her! But mostly I just wanted everyone to know what an amazing wife I have, how much I love her, and how lucky I feel everyday to know that she loves me too.

Lunch time at our house

Okay, I already put this on facebook, but I was recently reminded that not everyone does that kind of thing, so here's what I've been experimenting with for lunch:


(Okay, for some reason this picture won't rotate, so sorry)
I thought I'd make the octopus hot dog for Tyler and the apple/peanut butter flower for Nicole. Turns out, they both liked both things and the wheel pasta with parsley was the icing on the cake. I have to try new things with food to keep my kids interested. For breakfast lately I've been making "egg pizza". It's just scrambled eggs, but I make it flat like a crepe and then cut it into wedges like pizza. Sometimes I put food coloring in it too. Today they had pink egg pizza. I guess I just get bored making the same thing every single day.
It's been 3 days and the kids are still requesting the hot dog octopus. Today I made Ramen noodles instead of wheel pasta and I dyed them blue so it would look like water. Unfortunately, I put it on a blue plate so the noodles looked green! Oh well, Tyler said it was seaweed. Whatever works I guess. If anyone has any other brilliant ideas to make lunch food more appealing, please let me know!

Could it be true?

Could this actually be happening? Is my wish finally coming true? Is my baby REALLY going to take a pacifier now? I doubt it, but she played with it for a little while yesterday and I managed to catch it on film. I LOVE pacifiers. They plug up the drool (which Tori has a lot of these days) and they keep them quite during church. Nicole was a pacifier addict and it was really stressful for me to take it away from her. Now that I've seen the alternative though, I really want Tori to take a pacifier. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

p.s. her eyes are still gray. Has any one else had a baby whose eyes just stayed gray or will they eventually change color?