A visit to Santa....

As many of you are aware, our visits to Santa are always an event all their own. Take for example the year Tyler asked, every day for a month for a train set. When the time came to see Santa (and I might add this was about 1 week before Christmas because we were idiots and didn't know any better) he jumped right up and we, as stupid first time parents of a talking child at Christmas, waited for the magic words that would in fact re-enforce the notion that we were, in fact, the perfect parents for already having gotten what he was about to say...."I want a train for Christmas".

In stead of that blessed phrase the words we heard tumbling from out child's mouth were....."I really want a rocket!" Uh....excuse us??! A ROCKET?! When have you ever seen or heard of a rocket? so the moment finished off like this...
Mom: "um, Ty honey, don't you mean a train track? Remember??!! With the train that goes by itself?"
Santa: "Oh, did you want a train?"
Tyler: "yeah, but I really want a rocket that goes (and makes a motion with his hand in the looks of a rocket taking off)"
Santa: "ok, well, I'll see what I can do!"
Mom to Dad: "What the, where the, uh, rocket? Where do you get a rocket?"

This was followed by a trip to the toy store to figure out what the heck he was talking about. It turns out that rocket started a good two years of rescue hero toys being shuffled around our house. We should have known. This was a sign of the future. It was our future.

Flash forward to Black Friday, 2008 precisely 4:47am. Alarm rings, Kelly rolls out of bed to get to Target to stand in line for the Lego Mars Mission rock climber thing Jake is dying for. Oh yeah, and the Lego coast guard tower that Tyler is dreaming of. I leave, get to Target at 5am, right on schedule, get in line, wait for 1 hour in 33 degrees because Target is the only store to carry that stupid coast guard tower and they are sold out online. I run, pushing other well meaning parents out of my way, I grab, I go, triumphant to the line, I pay and I sing.....all the way home! I have done it! I have conquered! I have gotten my children exactly what they.....AREN'T GOING TO ASK SANTA FOR!
Suspect number 1. Tyler. Sitting innocently on Santa's lap looking like a doll, telling Santa all the nice things he's done this year. And what does he say, yes you guessed it! The Lego Fire station! Of course! Because they only have it at Toys r us and they are sold out online and everywhere in the valley and out (yes I called Provo too). Except for 1 store. Toys r us in sugarhouse, 30 minutes away on a nice night with no traffic. However, it is 1 hour and 23 minutes away on a snowy night at 6pm. I would know, or rather Brian would know. :)

Suspect number 2. Now that one has innocent to a science. Look at that face. That I've been really good face. That Santa please the only thing I really want this year is....."an R2D2 watch that has the thing that does this (motions with hands) and looks like this and does that thing and you can only get it online, is that okay?"

Santa: "oh, it has the thing that does this (motions with hands)? We'll see what we can do.

Fortunately this is not sold out online. And I will say, at least we've learned. The Santa visit happened 1 1/2 weeks ago, so we had plenty of time for this sort of thing. But I do regret the hours of sleep I will never get back that fateful Friday after Thanksgiving!

Airing my dirty laundry....

Actually the laundry featured in this post is clean, but whatever. This morning a lot of strange things have occurred to me, which prompt me to show you all pictures of my dirty house. This morning as I was reading through blogs I noticed some thoughts running around in my head. I started thinking, "Wow! their house is a lot cleaner than mine!" and "Oh look, they co-ordinate their kid's clothes" Until I realized, wait a minute, these are BLOG PICTURES... Of course they look good!
Then I read a blog of an old college friend, Bridgette, who recently had her youngest son pass away. She mentioned how grateful she was for how she treated him. She talks about the night before his death, how she and her husband were able to spend extra time with their son, without worrying about sending him to bed. I was so grateful for these tender insights into their life. It reminded me that it really doesn't matter what my house looks like. The reason it looks like this is because I have a sick child right now, and to me holding him while he feels terrible is more important than seeing my living room floor. Life really is so short and in the end of it all, when my children are gone, I will have a clean house, folded clothes, updated blogs, and a weeded garden. Right now, I'm going to enjoy the moments I have with these precious little boys. They are growing so fast!
This doesn't give me permission to live in a pig stye, but I think it gives me ample permission to let it go. I would rather have happy, loved children then a show house. So to the moms everywhere, let's let it go a little more. Just choose to put down the cleaner and build a lego house, watch scooby doo, play barbies (okay that was excessive, I wouldn't play barbies if my life depended on it), we can clean tomorrow, the mess is kind enough to wait for us.

BFF's!

Finally! We have peace and Best Friendship! I think the boys have finally realized it doesn't need to be a love/hate relationship! We have found ourselves dealing with co-conspiratos lately. Including this morning when we woke to two cute kids, dressed like twins and attatched at the hip. They have been the funniest pair! Ty's been teaching Jake all his soccer moves and showing him how to throw a football. Jake has been helping Tyler learn how to be a party animal and stay up until midnight!
It's been so cute to watch these two. The other day Jake fell out of a chair ( I still haven't figured out why yet) and he only wanted Tyler to hold him. So Tyler picked up Jake, carried him to the couch and held him while telling him, "It's okay baby, I'm here". So cute!

Jake's camera

For Jake's birthday we gave him a camera with a photo card. He loves it! He loves to take pictures of anything and everything, including himself. The other night when I was putting the kids to bed, we were getting a little silly with the camera.
Here's Tyler and mom.
And my silly little boys. Notice that little gleam in Jake's eyes? Yeah, that worries us a little...
So this was after I left them to fall alseep. This would be Jake shooting webs like spiderman.
I'm thinking this one happened after Tyler fell asleep, it's definatly a self portrait, and it was the least weird and silly of the last ones on the photo card.

Frito worthy

This morning, I had the opportunity to reflect on some of the funny little things kids do. For example, this morning, I feasted on a yogurt that had 45 grams of sugar (needless to say, this was not my normal yogurt, it was the kids'), chocolate chips, fritos, and Almonds. No, I'm not pregnant! This is what Jake made for me for a suprise breakfast. I've come to almost dread with love the words "Mommy, I made you breakfast!"

However, that being said, there are so many little things about my day that make fritos for breakfast worth it. Here are a few of those things....

When I wake in the morning, the first thing I usually see is Jake's sleepy little face standing at the side of my bed. He comes in every morning and holds out his arms to climb into bed and snuggle with me. This would be unremarkable if it weren't for the fact that he is 4. I don't know many 4 year old boys that are willing to get a hug from their mom, much less crawl into their mommy's arms like a baby and fall back to sleep for an hour or so.

Tyler has his own little set of sweet things he does to show us love. Since learning to read and write we find ourselves the recipients of many, MANY pieces of paper with the words "I love you mommy from Tyler" written on them. Or "Happy Mother's day", "You're the best mom in the world". This last year, we have gone thru a 200 page package of construction paper for these projects. When we are sick, the first thing we get is a paper from Tyler. These come in nice large sheets or small scraps of paper, whatever is handy, he'll use.

However small these things are, they are worth it. Worth ruining my eating habits for a meal. Worth waking up early and worth spending a fortune on paper. Worth having fritos for breakfast.

Tyler's first race!

Tyler has become my running buddy! He decided he wanted to run a 5k this summer, I told him if he could run 3-1mile races without stopping, I would let him do a 5k. Well, motivation is powerful! We did our first race on June 14, it was a 1 mile run. I chose this race because the proceeds went to an organization I really love, Heifer international. When you're done with the blog, take a look at their site: www.heifer.org I love what they do and how they do it. This year for father's day I gave Brian a flock of chics! Kind of untraditional, but we really love this program and I think you will too!
Getting in some stretching....
Pre-race smiles. (Just in case there were no smiles at the end.....)
.....but there were!!!! This is Tyler, after finishing ahead of most of the 8-10 year olds. We finished in 11 minutes and 11 seconds. And I have to fault myself for the slow time. I don't judge distance very well, so I kept telling him to slow down and take it easy, he just kept wanting to run faster, even the last half of a mile, which was a hill, he just kept running his heart out. I think we would have finished quicker if I'd kept my big fat mouth shut and just ran at his pace! I was so proud of him for all his hard work! Two more to go, then on to a 5k!!!

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day! The Naughty little leprechaun has been leaving surprises all over the house this week! One of the most surprising, was green hair spray for the boys! This morning we also awoke to green, shamrock confetti all over the house, with lucky charms waiting on the table. It was a messy morning! Then we painted hair green. We went to the library with the new "dos" and the boys got a few stares, a few compliments, and lots of kids asking their mom's when they could have green hair.

Well, Tyler, not being one to like attention from strangers, decided that he was done with green hair, so he hid under my arm until we were in the car. We came home, took this picture, and now they are in the bath, washing it out! So much for the coolest idea ever!