2010

My New Years resolution is to start blogging again.  I am going to set a goal to blog everyday.  I know it might not come true, but when I think of all the memories, funny things the kids said or did, milestones that went undocumented, it makes me a lot a bit sad.  Every post won't be all pictures and flowers, but oh freakin well.  It will be the life that we're livin, and that is good enough.  So, I thought to kick off my re-entry into the blogosphere, I would try and make a list of things that happened in 2010.  Lists are one of my favorite things...

*Addy had her 1st birthday

*Kent had knee surgery

*Colton and Aubrey had amazing, over the top birthday parties, if I do say so myself.  Mario Bros. for Colt, and Princess for Aubs...

*We were sealed in the Columbia River Temple, one of my favorite days ever...

*My Grandma Goude past away, I love that lady...

*Colton had his first swim lessons, he did really well when he wasn't talking to Spencer...the only picture I have is one Aubrey took on my phone.  I'm a total loser...

*We survived another Halloween season working at the Halloween Store

*I turned 30

*Colton gave me a bloody nose.  Last time I play tetherball with that kid...

*Colton started first grade.  He is gone all day now.  Sad.

*I had my first root canal.  Horrible.

*We had another amazing vacation at the beach

*We went to Seattle for a wedding reception and the kids and I had our first ferry ride.  Kent of course had already been on one.  Driving on to a giant boat was so weird.( we have a really cute picture of all of us on the ferry, but I think I must have loaded them on the computer with no monitor. I am so disappointed)

*Colton had his first basketball camp

*Aubrey sounds louder....if that is even possible....

*I ate my first grown-up sandwich, with  onions and tomatoes on it....

*Colton lost his first tooth, and then another one...

*Addy had her first haircut

*For Halloween Colton was Voldemort, Aubs was Cruella de Vil, and Addy was a witch...interesting evil theme going on...

*Christmas was awesome

*Aubrey learned to spell her last name

*Aubrey and Colton both had their first trips to the dentist

*Kent started shaving all his hair off.  It's weird to see pictures even from vacation, when he still had his curly hair...

*We went to the Childrens Museum in Portland

*Addison started watching tv.  Max and Ruby is by far her favorite.  She even brings you the remote, and yells at you when you forget to fast forward the commercials.

*Colton grew his own pepper plant with Kent

*We enjoyed going to the Farmers Market as a family


*I got to go take pictures of Colton snowboarding!

*Colton had his first stitches.  He was standing a little to close to his cousin while she was swinging her golf club.  His ear paid the price.  5 stitches.

I'm sure we did more, but for now, this will suffice.  I think I did a pretty good job considering I was trying to reflect on a whole year past.....

Happy New Year!

30

I've been crying.  Crying because I am 30.

I am an overweight, frumpy, 30 year old with bad teeth.

In my 30's....

Colton will get taller than me

I will probably loose both my grandmas

I will be done having my babies

I will go so gray

My kids will probably start thinking they hate me

My parents will get older

I have always worried I would have some marital crisis in my 30's

One day I'll notice, the kids stopped giving me a kiss and a hug before I leave

I will most likely gain more weight.

I will start to look older, like older-older, wrinkles and stuff



I have never looked forward to my 30's.  When I was a kid, I first started to remember and know how old my parents were when they were in their 30's.  I can't imagine being the age my parents were.  It's so weird.  A lot will change, and a lot of it will be hard.  I think there will be things that will happen that will change how I view time.  Like, "that happened after such and such happened"  "that seems like forever ago, that was before fill-in-the-blank" You know how you measure time sometimes by major events in your life? 

I'm starting to hear Winnie the Pooh sing "I'm just a little black rain cloud...."

I need to go to sleep.  I'm tired all the time now.  I hate being 30.  I'm sure when I am 40, I'll wish to high heaven I was 30 again.  But for now, I am in mourning for my 20's.

On the way home from taking Colton to school.....

Aubrey: Mom, my rolie polie is almost coming open


Me: That's gross

Aubrey: Why?

Me: I don't know, just next time don't bring bugs in the car

Aubrey: next time I should just leave him upstairs in my room in a bed

Me: No!  Bugs live outside, don't ever bring bugs in the house!

Aubrey:  But I don't want the rolie polie to get lost in the front!  I have to take him in the back.

Me: Ok, but then put him outside when we get home

Aubrey:  I just want the rolie polie to find his family and Colton always smashes them!  The bad guys always try to trap them, and the dad rolie polie should punch them in the face

Me:  Just put him the grass when we get home

Aubrey: Why don't bugs come in our house?

Me: Because bugs just like to live outside in the grass and the dirt

And then she said some more funny stuff.  The best part was when I was trying to get her to take it outside, she kept changing the subject like she always does to avoid what I am asking her to do.  So finally I told her I think he is dead because he just keeps staying curled up.  She of course responded with "No he's not!  He's shy, he's really shy"

A few minutes later....

I just told her AGAIN to take her bug outside and she said..."I AM MOM!  Jeez-da-weez!"

April 17th.

This girl....

....turned 4.

She had an amazing princess party shared by her cousin Sophie, and when Amy finally stops hogging picnik I will be happy to blog a play by play.  It might have been over the top.  Maybe.  Depends on who you ask.

Pictures or no pictures, Aubrey has enough personality for at least a little post on....

Who You Are at Four......

*You are my little companion.  You almost always know where I am in the house.  If I leave the room without telling you where I am going, I can always count on you to find me within about 2 minutes.

*At your yearly check-up I was so so so happy to find out that your 30lbs put you in the 25% for your age.  I was afraid your skinny legs wouldn't even be on the chart.  I was so proud of you at your appointment, you were so brave.

*You like to call people "Dumby"....or at least I assume so, since you do it so often.

*Every day after Colton goes to school you want to watch a movie and have popcorn.  You don't eat to much of the popcorn, and if the movie you are watching is on the laptop, I think your favorite part is pressing the spacebar to pause it.  I think it makes you feel like you know how to use the computer.

*You drive Addison crazy.  Completely and totally crazy.  I'm sure it has nothing to with your relationship to be, right?

*You play.  I love that you play.  You love little people, and puppies, and princesses, and doll furniture.

*Aurora still seems to be your favorite Disney Princess

*You love to answer the phone

*You talk at a volume that exceeds your size.  That means you're really loud.  Maybe you got that from your dad....hmmm...

*You L.O.V.E love "lips", you would smear lip gloss on your lips all day long if I let you.  When I let you wear my lipstick it drives your dad crazy.

*You love to go.  Go to the store, go to grandma's, Sophie's, McDonalds, just about anywhere.  You don't like being left behind.  Unless it's with me.  Sometimes.

*You say "Serious" pretty much always

*When you say "I love you mom", and I don't answer right away, you say "Mom, I said I love you" we do this almost every day, one of my favorite parts...

*When Addison wakes up, you crawl in her crib

*You still play with my hair to fall asleep

*When you write notes, you right a bunch of A's and circles on your paper

*You like to tattle on Colton

*When you are really trying to make a plan, you talk with your hands, and then you ask at the end.."Is that a good idea?"

*You would eat chips all day-everyday if you could.  Most times you will settle for a heart sandwich, fancy for peanut butter and a cookie-cutter

*You still love your tap shoes, and now jelly shoes.

*You want everything Disney Princess, and lucky for you they make everything Disney Princess.

I should probably wrap this up, this list is longer than I anticipated and I could still just keep going.  I love you so much my cup overflows.  I love that I tell you I don't want you to get big, and you always tell me you will just get a little big like me and dad. 

You are growing up so fast.  Please stop.

You Know You're A Loser....

When your 6 year old gives you a bloody nose playing tether ball. 

Hours later.......my nose still hurts. 

Sisters...

If it isn't one of them....it's the other...

Colton's Birthday Party

This year Colton asked for a Super Mario Party.  It was a pretty fun theme to plan.  A ton of stuff was made out of poster board, and after scouring the internet Amy and I adapted a bunch of things we found to pull this party together.  I would like to thank Amy, Katie, Kimmie, Lisa, and Kent for all their help and patience with me and my obsessive tendencies.   Seriously, I could not have pulled this off without their help.  Kimmie and Lisa helped with the cake and Amy and Katie helped with a bunch of the decorations and hats.  And Kimmie, set-up would not have been the same without you...

As the kids started arriving, this is what they did first....

After a few minutes of jumping with the ghosts, we called them in for the first party game.....

A good ole fashion matching game...Colton and I made the matching game together.  He helped me pick out some of the characters and cut some of them out for me too....

Next, we moved on to the Obstacle course.  Here they are all lined up...

The first leg of the race...climb through the tunnel and weave in n' out of the piranha plants...there were 5 plants total and I am so lucky they stood up.  It was windy and my skills were lacking, thank goodness for packing tape...

When they made it through the plants, they had to climb under the trampoline, then get up and jump 10 times.  The trampoline was surrounded by ghosts from the game.  Amy drew on the faces and I taped on the arms...

When they got off the trampoline they jumped through 3 hula hoops...

And then they were on their way to knock over the goombas.  It end up being a little harder than I thought.... until Payson's turn. He blasted them.  In a couple of the pictures you can see that the wind finally blew down the front of the game and we had to put rocks in the cans the goombas were taped to so they wouldn't just blow off....

Now the course was coming to an end.  They had to grab the flag and head down the slide...

At the end of the obstacle course they all got to pick out a ? bag.  Inside was a toy, a mustache, and punching balloon....The mustache's....well you'll see...          

After the Mario photo shoot we played a Yoshi Egg Game.  I don't have any pictures, but basically there were easter eggs with white dots all over them spread out in the yard and the kids had to run around and find the one with the star inside.  The winner got a special prize....speaking of the winner...here he is...

That wrapped it up for the games, so on to cake and presents...

This cake was a group effort. Kimmie and I made most of the decorations, my favorite piece she made was the arrow sign.  Lisa of course came along and made some pretty cute stuff too.  I don't know which of hers I liked best, the goomba(little brown guy) or the yoshi plant.  Her apple even had a little white for the shine.  I know right?  And I think my favorite thing I made was the piranha plant.  I seriously HATED to cut the cake

He loved all of his presents.  My mom tricked him by putting the money she gave him in a box of candy...

After all that we had a little time left to play some Mario on the Wii.  I think the party was a great success.  Thank you to all those involved that helped.  I can't even imagine what next year brings....

 Here are a few of the decorations and party favors...

Just for fun....proof that Aubrey was going to be a part of this party one way or another...

Yesterday.

Yesterday Colton turned 6.  So weird right?  I have a 6 year old.  I don't know how, I just gave birth to him last week.  I swear, I have the stomach fat to prove it. 

I am feeling a little guilty for not getting a post done yesterday, but I am hoping that the killer birthday party we had excuses me.  I was busy ALL day, and then when I wasn't, I was exhausted.

I think I will write a few things about my 6 year old, and show you a few pictures as a teaser to the "Super Mario  Party"  post that will soon follow.  When I have recovered from my party hang-over.

So, here is the thing about my Shmote.  He is great.  And here are a few of the reasons why....

*he gives the best hugs

*he argues like nobodies business

*he is an amazing big brother....to addy.  someone else is too busy pushing his buttons to be mentioned here.  actually him and aubs have the most fun running around the house together when i vacuum.  it is pretty cute to watch.

*he has been an awesome kindergartner.  

*he loves to play video games.

*he loves to collect things.

*if he is sent to his room, or flees to his room because of the injustice inflicted upon him by his parents, he comes back downstairs with his blanket around his shoulders or over his head almost every time.

*his concept of time, "you mean like in 20 hours it will be time to go?"  "Oh, not like 20, maybe like 5, 6 minutes?"  "Oh, like when the thing on the clock goes like straight, and then the other one goes like this?"


*He says 'serious', 'fart', 'weasel', 'your bracket is busted', 'noooo', 'uh-huh, that's what grandma said', 'totally', 'mom, you said!', 'dad said no', 'can i please have someone over?', 'oh, you mean like...', 'i am totally the best at this', 'tedder ball', 'it needs new batteries', 'can i play wii?  what about the playstation? what about my dsi?  the computer?', 'there's nothing to do', 'you never let me do anything', 'watch me mom/dad', 'why do i have to take a bath?  i took one yesterday', 'uhhhh, why do i have too?', 'goodnight mom, love you', 'aubrrrrey', 'i'm gonna get you booskers!', 'can i go somewhere?', 'i already know how', 'can i watch a show?', 'remember at the beach...', and so many other things all the time, alot of these I hear daily.

He is learning tons and growing like a weed, and there is nothing I can do to stop it.  He starts t-ball this week, and I am pretty excited to see how he does.  I wish there was a way Kent and I could get him to understand that he won't be good at everything right away, but if he just keeps trying!  He is so quick to give up when he isn't instantly good.  But how do you explain potential to a 5, 6 year old?  A 6 year old!  Are you kidding me?!  So weird.

Here are just a few pictures from yesterday....

the candle picture and shmario picture were edited by Lisa.

I would like to introduce...

This is Shmaddison. 

She traded places with my baby, Addison.  This new girl, she doesn't like me so much.  She yells at me.  She just yells period.  She whines.  She cries when I put her to sleep. She walks around the house and cries.   And then she yells some more.  The only way to stop the yelling?  Give her whatever she wants and do nothing but entertain her.  But don't blink, or she will start whining again.   So, if any of you see my daughter Addison, she looks like this...

If you see her, let me know.  I want her back.  Shmaddison hates me.

Addison is 1!

This is Addison's very first picture on her very first birthday....

This is my one year old eating her breakfast on her birthday...

This is my one year old taking a bath on her birthday...

These are the decorations at my one year old's birthday party...the banner is courtesy of her Aunt Amy and the tissue paper balls were fluffed by her Aunt Lisa...my mom helped me decorate the cake...my favorite part was her name, I made the letters out of royal icing...

This is my one year old frowning at me right before her party...

This is my one year old "blowing out her candles" on her birthday...thank you Colton for the help...

This is my one year old eating her cake on her birthday...

This is my one year old opening her first present...

This is my one year old ditching the present opening...

This is Sophie crying at my one year old's birthday...again...

This my one year old in her jammies...on her birthday...

Addy, I love you.  I don't want you to grow up.

The End.

It was a great first birthday.