Maybe my little bookworm?

I've loved reading ever since I can remember. Austin always claims that I read 20 books a week - which is definitely an exaggeration. But it is definitely my favorite pastime. So I've been hoping that one of my kids would enjoy reading just as much as me. So far, Cooper likes it, but doesn't get quite as excited as I did. Will could care less, I think, only reading when under force with sudden bursts of screaming and "I hate reading!"

But I think Paris might be my little reading buddy. She loves to get any books she can find and will climb up in bed or a chair and open the books and read them to herself out loud. Also, and this is one of my favorites, when I am sleeping and she comes down to wake me up in the morning, she'll get a stack of 20 books and climb up next to me. Then she'll look at me and say, "Mommy, read!" meaning, that I need to get my book out and read to myself also. If I sneak a look over to see what she is looking at, again she will command, "Mommy, read!" What a dream come true for me! She wants me to keep reading! The boys usually will just climb all over and pull at my eyelids until I open them and then drag me out of bed.

Yesterday at library reading time was my favorite. I told Paris she could go up to the front to see the pictures in the book being read. After every line the librarian read, Paris would look back at me and paraphrase. It was adorable.

Librarian - "Wemberly was worried about the first day of school."

Paris (not so quietly) "Worried about school, mommy!"

Librarian - "So she took her doll petal and would rub her ears when she got nervous."

Paris - "Petal, rub ears nerbus, mommy!"

Loved it.

My New Favorite Website

I just found the greatest blog about repurposing clothes to make adorable kid's clothes. And it's easy too! Here it is for my fellow sewing buddies . . . uh, I don't think I have any actually, but maybe this might win me some! I'm talking to you Tricia with your boxed up brand new sewing machine!

http://makeitandloveit.blogspot.com

Second Morning of School 2009

Started with wailing and knashing of teeth from Will who did NOT wear his school clothes to bed this time.

But ended with two sweet boys on the porch who wrapped hugs around me and kissed me both at the same time, starting my day with happy, loving feelings.

First Day of School 2009

Still posting without pictures due to our lack of a camera right now but here are some special moments from the first day of school this year.

*Will decided that it would help if he wore his school clothes to bed the night before, this included socks and shoes.

*Will was happy when he woke up because "he had already been to school and knows it is fun."

*The sweet, happy chatter shared with Mom, Cooper and Will as we sat on the porch at 6:30 am waiting for the bus to come.

*Our excitement when we found out that Ms. Helms (the saint of a bus driver from last year who waited multiple minutes multiple times for Will to get his buns out the door) is the bus driver for this year too.

Good Example from little Paris

Today in sacrament meeting I was whispering to Austin about something while they were passing the sacrament. I knew that I shouldn't be doing that, but did anyway.

Paris looked up at me and said, "Quiet Mommy, Quiet Mommy" and then put her finger to her lips just like I probably always do to her.

It was a good reminder from the girl who a few minutes later was laying on her back and kicking the front of the podium where the bishopric was sitting.

Cool Sequence of Action Shots at Cooper's game

There is a play at the plate!

The Throw is a little late...

Coop tries to block the plate, but the tag is not in time, but what is this...

The runner on second is trying to go to get third!

This throw is in time and a nice tag by third!

"He's out!" says the Umpire!

Coop gets a high five from his coach for a nice throw!

Publish Post

A Fleeting Moment of Glory

So I never really was that good of a basketball player. Church ball was the height of my basketball prowess, but at the age of 34, it keeps me exercising and I enjoy it. So anyway, my buddies & I recently joined a city league thinking it would make the church league seem like a walk in the park. We are currently 0-8 in the city league, our team name is Fat & Slow, and last week we got alley-oop dunked on three times in our game.

However, tonight was a magical night (Yes, I am about to brag about myself here). I had my best game in about 3 years going a perfect 7 -7 from the field (2 - 2 from 3 point land) and 1 - 1 from the free throw line. I think my season average is about 4 points a game. I played way over my head. I was feeling good. I brought my kids to the game.

We got in the car. I was waiting for the praise to come.

Instead Will had just one question.

"Dad, how do you get your hair like that?" Will asked.

"Like what?" I answered.

"You know, with that spot in the back, where you don't have any hair."

I had officially been knocked off my cloud. Defensively I answered,

"I decided to have kids and started stressing out over how I was going to provide for them."

Cooper then decided to join the conversation.

"I doubt that, I mean seriously. Stress can not cause your hair to fall out Dad."

"Go Google it, kid," I responded, but the damage had been done and the magical night forgotten and instead I was reminded of my balding head instead of my game.

You know your life is awesome (or seriously lame) when . . .

1. Your husband tells you to go ahead and buy the carpet steam cleaner on sale at Costco and you are super excited like it is Christmas morning.

2. Your daughter yells out during sacrament meeting - "No Daddy, No boobies!" several times, after recently learning who has boobies and who doesn't.

3. Your 8-year-old tells his friend that there won't be any more kids born in his family because "my dad got some stitches in his balls."

Ode to Coop and the Yankees -- This is Why I love Little League Baseball

One of Cooper's teammates was a photographer by trade and took a lot of pictures of the team throughout the season. So here are some fun pics of Coop through out the season.

A few cute baseball shots

Rob "MacGyver" Murray -- A tribute based on real life stories

Rob "MacGyver" Murray is one of those guys that can solve any problem if he wants to. He built radios at age 8, takes car engines apart and back together again for fun, and likes to do anything once, just for the love of the challenge. And, he also designed and patented most all the pentium chips that make all your computers go. So basically, Rob MacGyver Murray also invented the Internet.

OK, so the naysayers may agree he is a genius in the technical world but demand practical application of his brain power to mention him in the same company as the beloved MacGyver. At to that critique, I give the following examples:

1) My front door had been hanging on a tilt for over a year, but recently, it got considerably worse. I tried to tighten the screws, but they were stripped completely. I then was ready to throw in the towel and get longer screws another day.  

Enter -- Rob MacGyver Murray. 

He was at our house celebrating my birthday, and, as per usual we had no tools to work with to solve the problem. Or so it seemed to the untrained eye. 

"Got any matchsticks," he said. 

"Yep" I said not knowing where this was going. 

"Glue?"

"uh Yeah..." Again, not knowing where this was going. 

Within 3 minutes he had snapped off the tops of the matchsticks (for our protection, no bomb in this episode), took out the screws, shoved the matchsticks in the screwholes with some glue, and put the screws back in. 

The result -- The door hung like a champ, better then when we got the house new. It was amazing.  Less than three minutes later and over a years worth of pain and frustration lifted from my shoulders. 

Exhibit 2: On the same night (it was my birthday, so I was pushing my luck after such a quick victory with the front door and asked for help with a second, less desirable project). 

Our back yard drain had recently flooded over in the rain storm and all the neighborhood decided to use it as a swimming hole. This was hilarious at the time. Shanda took pictures of the kids doing cannonballs in our back yard etc., except that afterwards the drain never drained any more. 

I was not made aware of this until all the sudden, the entire neighborhood stunk due to our still water, Mosquito breeding, Oil refining, grass killing, pond of absolute nastiness in the back yard.  I had no idea what to do. My kids has already got a horrible rash from playing in it and it was on a hill so to get the water would be a chore get rid of, and it stunk horribly.  I touched the water and washed my hand ten times afterwards, but could not enjoy my birthday cake because all I could smell was nasty smells when I tried to take a bite as my hand drew close to my nose.

My thoughts: I could try to scoop it out bucket by bucket, but probably get the horrible rash my kids got, smell for a year and have to spend my entire birthday doing arguably the worst job on the planet. 

Enter Rob MacGyver Murray

 

"Well we could siphon it out with a tube or hose," he said.

I kind of thought about this option, but two problems. 

First -- I envisioned me having to suck the hose with the nastiest smelling liquid known to man coming out of it (I mean this was the equivalent of used portapotty smell from the last day of summer camp) and I did not want to do that! And please, if someone had to do that, I knew who was going to have to do the grunt labor in this operation.

Second -- The fluid would have to go up a fairly significant, long hill and drain into the wooded area.  I understood a little about physics, but it seemed like asking too much for the water to syphon out and climb a steep hill. 

Better call the professionals I thought.

But not so fast my friend, MacGyver Murray was muttering something! 

"If we just start the hose, cinch it, capture the torque and then place one end in the water, we should be able to drain it all out via a modest flow through the hose and into the forest."  

I have learned not to question these ideas. When I realized I would not have to suck the hose to get the nasty water drained, I was all for the idea.  

And it worked like a charm. The next day I woke up to a drained pond. MacGyver Murray had struck again.

It was truly unbelievable. I went from thinking this is going to cost me hundreds to get someone to fix this to "Wow, MacGyver Murray strikes again!" in a matter of minutes. 

But I should clarify one admirable trait about MacGyver Murray -- He really has two motivations, not just one for all his miraculous, physics defying feats. 

1) He does love the challenge (and to be in charge :)) but 2), and probably more importantly, he likes to help people. 

Pretty good motivations if you ask me. 

Until the next episode...

Can I please have a Band-Aid?

So after you become a mom,  your personal space is pretty much gone.  The kids follow me everywhere including the shower and bathroom.  Consequently they've asked what tampons are.  I just told them that they are kind of like a band-aid that sometimes girls have to put on an owey on their privates.  So today Austin was asking Paris if she could bring him a band-aid  - and you guessed it, she sweetly and helpfully brought him a tampon. 

The Walk Off Hit

It was Yankees vs Rays in the AAA MARA Little League battle of the top two teams for the regular season title. I am the official scorekeeper for the Yankees and so, yes, I can tell you the trends of just about every hitter in MARA little league baseball. I would like to think I help the team win due to my mad scorekeeping and statistical analyses; However, something magical happened on Thursday night and it had nothing to do with my scorekeeping.

Since our blog followership is like 6 people and most are all Shanda's girly friends I feel compelled to explain something briefly. A Walk-off hit is a hit that wins the game so that everyone literally walks off the field after you hit it because of the time and circumstances of the game. It is one of the most dramatic and exciting things that can happen in baseball, let alone sports.

Yesterday, with the regular season championship on the line, the score was tied 2-2 in the bottom of the last inning and Cooper was up to bat. There were two runners on base and I was vomiting behind the bleachers with anxiety (Just kidding, but seriously, more nervous than if it was me). The opposing team's coach iced Cooper and used his one and only allowed time out per game after Cooper entered the batter's box.

But like most good hitters, Cooper has a routine. He put the edge of his toe right up to the plate, made his footprint, and then drew a line right behind the heel of the footprint with his bat to make sure he had proper spacing at the plate (just like I taught him). He took a few practice swings and then waited. He choked up a little bit (wanted to make sure he made contact). And then he waited some more. And did it all over again.

Finally, we were ready to play ball. And when the pitch finally came and after all the waiting, Coop was ready to hit. He smacked the ball in between short and third. But the shortstop somehow gets to it in shallow left field. But the Yankee's fastest runner was on second and he was going all the way. The speedy Zach Budzik came wheeling around third. The throw to the catcher is ........not in time. Little league Madness! Kids swarm the field. Cooper walks off first base. The game is over. Yankees Win -- Yankees win. Cooper has just hit a walk-off base hit.

Dad was feeling good he got on the earlier flight home from New York and did not miss this game. For my money, little league baseball is the greatest entertainment on earth.

Cute little words

By the way, Paris has recently been saying lots of names, especially her brothers and her own.  They sound like this:

Dad - Dee - addy

Mom - Momay - with a bit of a british accent picked up from Will

Paris - Pabis

Will - Weely

Cooper - Puta - isn't this a swear word in Spanish or something? 

Those Silly Boys

Tonight the boys really pulled out some hilarious ones - 

First, Will and Cooper love going on Youtube and looking up classy things like "poop jokes" that feature lego characters doing, you guessed it, pooping. It's a hilarious time for them.  So tonight Will, Austin and I spent some quality time looking at Will's favorite poop joke before bed.  Then we looked up Susan Boyle on Youtube (the 47 year old woman with the amazing voice on Britain's Got Talent).

We all enjoyed Susan Boyle's performance and Will commented incredulously, "Wow, I can't believe this is on poop jokes!"  

That's the new name for Youtube if you didn't know.  As I'm writing this, it just doesn't seem as funny as it was in person, but trust me, it was.

Cooper has become a master manipulator lately.  Cuddling up to you at bedtime saying, "I just don't think we've spent enough time together lately." Or some such other comment designed to make you feel warm and snuggly but most of all, to let him stay up later.

So tonight Austin told the boys to get in their rooms to go to bed and he would be up in a minute to tuck them in.  He opened the door to Cooper's room to see Cooper shoving a cookie in his mouth with crumbs all over his face and three cookies in his other hand.  As soon as the door opened, Cooper said," Hi Dad! Want a cookie? I just got some extra ones just in case you or Will wanted one!"  Always the thoughtful one, refreshments on hand, just in case someone should stop by.

The Truth Shall Set You Free

Will: "Dad, I love you so much because you do not read the newspaper everyday, all day like those other dads." Will gives Dad a big hug.

Dad: "Thanks - Will" Mom and Dad chuckle.

Will: "Annnnndddddd, mostly because you go to work." 

Good to know I am loved because I leave. Classic.

Cooper's Birthday Marathon

Today is Cooper's 8th birthday, but it feels like it has been his birthday all week! I had a birthday party yesterday for him with his friends - the first party for him in years - I get really overwhelmed and nervous planning parties for the kids' birthdays because so many of their friends at school go all out for the parties.  We had a fun outdoor Olympic themed party planned but that got tossed when it was the monsoon rain season this week.  So we improvised with a baseball theme, baseball bingo which was fun, and making leather baseball wristbands which didn't work out so well. It's annoying because I spent so much time shopping for the darn stuff to make the wristbands, oh well.  So they mostly ended up playing wrestling mania upstairs and came down for cake and pizza covered in sweat! 

Then tonight we had family over for cake again to celebrate Cooper's birthday and my sister Shawn's birthday which is tomorrow.  My favorite quote of the evening was when Cooper opened his presents from Austin and said, "Oh cool! I got a cup!" Nice, and it isn't the pee-wee cup either this time by the way.  We get excited about these items at our house I guess.  He also got several lego sets and has spent lots of time putting them together. I am so excited about him using his brain for once instead of just playing the Wii or watching TV.  

I can't believe my baby is finally 8 and will be baptized in a couple of weeks.  

Love you Cooper! 

A Dainty Girl

Here is my dainty baby girl . . . . 

Who just ate half a dozen scrambled eggs for breakfast!

A Reasonable Question

Will:  Dad, if you cut your head off, can you tape it back on?

Dad:  No, you can't.

Will adores tape, he uses it on a daily basis to construct swords with sticks, make art projects or tape those pesky pieces of clothing back on that aren't laying just right.  One of his Christmas presents was a workbox full of tape of all sorts.

I'm Kind of Proud of my Cupcakes

These are the cupcakes that I made tonight for our Relief Society birthday party enrichment.  When my friend asked me to make them she warned me that mine would be sitting next to Krafty Katrina and Expert Jolin's cupcakes (two sisters with lots of talents in our ward).  She was basically saying "make sure yours don't look like crap."  Well here they are, and I am happy about them.  Maybe not to the expert level yet, but getting there.