It's a SAD SAD time....

If anyone knows me even a little bit, knows that every time I talk about El Paso, Chicos Tacos is usually mentioned. I am in deep sadness knowing that a national historical monument is be bulldozed. It will be greatly and dearly missed. I don't know if I will ever survive a visit to El Paso knowing that this great monument will be gone. I know there are other locations but it is not the same. Chicos on McRae Blvd. was the best place ever, I have memories of Grandpa Mac taking us there and challenging all the grandsons to drink the green salsa, eating there for lunch from Eastwood, going there first thing when anyone came in from out of town, after football game rendezvous, late night snacks and having it brought across country by a loved one. My favorite is a single order with extra cheese and a side of fries with a root beer.... YUMMMM!!!!! Just for those of you who aren't familiar with Chico's its a great little dive in El Paso that serves you rolled tacos in watered down tomato-chili sauce topped with shredded cheese. Their fries were crinkly ones, my favorite. There's just no place like it. The atmosphere was less to be desired, greasy tables, sticky floors, bathrooms you would NEVER use, and most of all you never looked over the counter into the kitchen, and nothing better than when they would serve you your drink by holding it by the rim of the cup, with their bare hands. But really it is the best place EVER! I will miss it and visits to El Paso will never be the same.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WESLEY!!!

March 12th was Wesley's birthday. I would of even posted this yesterday on his actual birthday, but he told me I wasn't allowed to touch my computer yesterday. Anyhow, he took the day off of work so we could go out shopping for his birthday and hang out together. We started our day off with taking the girls to school, then we took his car to get the brakes done (not part of the fun day, just a good oppurtunity to get it done) Then Wesley, Camden and I were off to shop. We went to a couple of different golf stores. At the second one we found him a set of irons, a new bag and a new putter. (can you say SPOILED??!!).


Just a FYI side note... the entire time we were at the stores, Camden went crazy for the clubs and threw about 200 tantrums. He just couldn't understand why we wouldn't let him play with and swing around $800 golf clubs (that's for each, not a set. And No those are not the ones Wesley bought)! I sure didn't want to buy what we broke at this store, it could cost a small fortune. After spending a couple of hours shopping for golf stuff we went to Best Buy and spent his gift certificate from Christmas and then it was time to get the girls from school (time flew by rather fast). After picking up the girls we went to dinner at AJUAA!!, a mexican food place, it's actually one of the best places we have found in the 13 years we've been here.. the best fish tacos ever. Then we went to Coldstone and bought him the most Yummiest cake ever. It's called a Cheesecake named Desire. It is yellow cake layered with cheesecake ice cream with graham cracker crust mix in, with raspberry whipped icing...mmmmmmmmmmmm, good!

Then we headed home to open his other presents (I know you would think golf clubs would be enough) and to enjoy that yummy cake.
I took the girls out the day before to pick out presents for dad, they both had in mind what they wanted to get him. Lynae got him 3 packs of his favorite pens (I think to repay him for the ones she has taken from him) and Reagan picked out a new XBOX 360 Basketball game. Camden gave him 2 pks of his favorite golfballs and I gave him a couple of new t-shirts for the upcoming summer months.

It really was a great day. I hope it was great for him (which I think it was, he couldn't stop saying thanks)
Wesley, I hope you know how much we love and appreciate all the hard work you do for us. I am so truly grateful that I am to be able to be at home with our children. You are a wonderful man, husband and father, which truly deserved to be spoiled. Happy Birthday honey. I love you!

Lightning Mcqueen Rules..according to Camden

So I went to Payless the other day and bought Camden some new shoes. They are Lightning Mcqueen (generic) Crocs. I typically do not buy anything with characters on them but this time I had to. I realized he needed a pair when we were at my friend Becca's house and her daughter, Sabrina has some and Camden insisted on stealing them from her all day long. Well he really does love them. The minute I showed them to him at the store he did a little dance and wanted them on. He also refused to take them off so we could ring them up, luckily the sales lady was accommodating. Since we have bought them they have had little time away from his feet. He makes sure he has them when he takes a nap, ofcourse when we go out and at bedtime. Here are a few pictures of the proud new owner and the shoes.

And the majority says..... YUMMM!

My family has found a new favorite dessert. Wesley has always loved Nutella, but I have never encouraged it due to the fact I don't care for hazelnuts. He has been insisting that the only way and best way to eat it is on croissants. I finally bought him some mini croissants from Sam's. Well needless to say my kids agree. There are maybe 6 croissants left out of the whole box (it was a big box). They had a Nutella and croissant party. Camden's favorite part was licking the Nutella off the croissant. The girls kept saying how yummy it was and that it was like eating a donut. Well so after all the great comments I finally tried it after 15 years of knowing Wesley and his love for his love for this stuff and.... it's good... really sweet but good.

Mullet Free Zone

We finally did it, Camden is now officially mullet free. Wesley finally made me give him a long over due haircut. I wanted to cry when I first put the clippers to his head and the first piece of hair fell. I don't know what it is about first haircuts but I do not do well with them.. hence the reason Lynae was 4 before her first. He was squirmy yet very good. Wesley helped keep him wrangled while I carefully clipped and cut. Here is a series of pictures of the whole ordeal.

Here is Camden before the cut...Happy Boy!

This is just a reminder of the awesome mullet.

This was mid haircut... not Happy Boy!

What a good boy sitting still for mommy to cut his hair!

Here is the final result, not bad for my first little boy haircut. He is so handsome with this haircut.. this is why I hate first haircuts, it makes them look older.

OH BOY, OH BOY!!

I just had to share my day with everyone. It started out early and ended late... 1. I put Camden at the table with a banana at about 7:15, then went to get dressed to take the girls to school. Well there was a lot of giggling (I should of known something was up then) by the time I went back into the dining room, Camden had smashed his banana all over his body, face, hands, table, chair.. everywhere! Joy! Lets go change clothes. 2. I am sitting with Camden and I am on the computer doin stuff and he has my purse... well I thought, he can't hurt anything, until I turn to look at him and there is a whole tube of Lipstick all over his hands... Joy #2... let's clean up again. 3. He was in his room playing (atleast I thought) then he came in upset and saying "ba, ba" (which means bad..usually that he has done something bad) and he was holding his hands out in front of him, palms up. So I ask him "what bad?" and to take me to it... Well he takes me to the cat box, and yup he had been in it, not very long, but none the less he had been in it! GROSS!!! After sanitizing him, yet another mess to clean up. 4. Finally, lunch time which means naptime is near. I make mac and cheese. Well 5 minutes in, Camden gets down from table and comes into me... with Mac and Cheese all smeared on his shirt, pants, face, then I check the table... yup it's all over it and the chair. Joy.. another outfit change and mess to clean up. 5. He got a thin mint cookie after lunch. He then came into me when he was done. His hands were covered in brown stuff. My first thought was "POOP?!" but luckily not, just melted thin mint. That was a close one and only had to clean hands and face this time. Maybe the day will get better... Nope... 6. Naptime... YEAH!! I put him down, he goes down well and doesn't make much noise. I went to check on him and make sure he was covered. Well... I find him without a diaper and asleep, not only asleep but asleep on a wet spot of potty. Joy... one more mess to clean up and one more outfit!! Let me just mention the time about now is only 12:00 noon!

All I have to say is that moms with more than one boy.... There is a special place for you in heaven! I don't know how anyone does it! I love my boy but one is definitely more than enough! I am thinking of investing in one of these:

A few of my favorite things... result of being tagged

So Becca tagged me.... so here is how it got started...

Tanya Purcell came up with a great idea. Here is her idea:

Whenever Oprah does her ‘Favorite Things’ show, I am always curious about the things she chooses and why. The best part of her ‘Favorite Things’ show is that she shares them with others! Well, the other day I thought to myself, “I don’t have to be Oprah to have ‘Favorite Things’. I started to think about the day to day things that I have or use that bring me some form of enjoyment. I thought it would be interesting to find out the ‘Favorite Things’ of my friends and family too. So here it goes…If money were not an issue and you wanted to load up a basket of your most ‘Favorite Things’ and give it to your friends, what would you choose and why? During your day to day life, are there things that you use each day that make you smile or feel good? Is there something that you look forward to everyday? It can be something simple, like the type of pen you use or something big like the type of car you drive. I will list my ‘Things’ and then I will tag a few of you to do the same thing. Here they are in no particular order...



1. Aveda Calming Body Cleanser
After a long day this is a well deserving treat. With this, who needs calgon?! Just an FYI, I really LOVE everything from Aveda, but right now this is one of my favorites.


2. My new Wolfgang Puck Stainless Mixing Bowls with Lids...
What a great deal from Sam's. I had been admiring these for about 2 years now and one day I walked in and they were on clearance... clearly this was a sign I was meant to have them.


3. My Honda Odyssey... Yes I said it I love my van. I love how the children are easy to load and unload and we can fit a lot of stuff in that thing... like EVERYTHING to remodel our bathroom, including the tub! See for yourself..




4. My cellphone, the Moto Q by Motorola. I always thought they were useless... until I owned one. Now I have one that has a windows operating system and I could never live without it. I can check my email, save all of my appointments (even months in advance), take pitures, and use the internet if needed. I love it... and feel lost when I don't have it.


5. My Bedroom Furniture.. especially the King size bed! Now all 5 of us fit :)
I gave up on thinking I would ever sleep completely through the night without a child in our bed, so we upgraded to a king to accomodate all of the occupants.


6. Vans Shoes... I have tried wearing other brands, well they just don't compare. I always seem to go back to my vans. In high school I owned many pairs, in many styles and colors...for those of you who haven't known me forever, I even got married in a white pair of Cal Vans. I think that no matter how old I get I will always be a "skatergirl" at heart.


7. My Camera, a Canon PowerShot SD 600 Digital ELPH. Wesley bought this for me Christmas before last and I still love it now as much as when I first got it. It does pictures and video. I like that it is small on can easy be carried in my pocket, it easily goes with me everywhere.


So that's it for now... could probably go on for days with my favorite things. I am definitely an animal of habit, so I could list the million things I ALWAYS buy and won't take substitutes for. Now I am going to tag: Julie and Kristin
Adios for now.

We love Hannah Montana!!

It's official, my girls are spoiled. On Friday, February 1 it was the premier of the Hannah Montana Concert movie. It is only going to be in our theatres for 1 week... So being the cool momma I am got the girls tickets. All over the news stations they were announcing the sell outs of the movie. So I felt very lucky we got tickets. We went with Becca and her 3 girls to the Highlands Ranch movie theatre.
The girls didn't know about it until the morning of. When Lynae woke up she came in my room and we were snuggling for a few and I was telling her all the things she was going to need to do this weekend for school and then I told her she needed to practice her spelling words. Well this confused her (she takes tests on Friday and then gets a new list Monday), so she asked "the list I have now?" and I said yes. Then she was real confused and asked why she would have to study them if she took a test on them that day. I said "okay?! if you would rather go take a test than go see Hannah Montana?" Her reply was "HANNAH MONTANA!!?" So then to make it official before I called her in "sick" I asked her "are you sick of school today?" she hestitated but then answered, "yes!". I explained to her that if she was sick of school, she definitely couldn't go and needed to be called in. She was so excited. We then went into Reagan and shared to news... she too was SO excited, although I don't know if she was more excited about seeing her friend Sabrina or Hannah.
Becca and I had decided we should get there early so we didn't get the very front row seats. Well it really wasn't necessary, who ever announced the shows were sold out, obviously didn't check Denver's sales. We went to the 10:30 am showing and we were one of about 12 mom and kids groups in the theatre. It was super empty. Which was great for us.
The show was really fun. It was in 3-D. 3-D today is not anything like our red and blue lens 3-D.
It was awesome! They showed the concert and also some backstage secrets, like how she transforms from Hannah into Mylie in 38 seconds! We also got to see the choreography of the show and up close and personal videos of Mylie and her dad. It was really cute. The girls sang and giggled and wiggled and even got up and danced a little.
Lynae's expression at the end summed it all up, "That was the greatest thing ever!"
I would definitely do a concert with my kids like this anytime. It was cheaper, less people, safer, less hassle and lots of fun.

He will be missed...

When I recieved the call from Mindi with the news that President Hinckley had passed away, I felt like it was hard to be sad. What a great joy to know that he is now reunited with his sweet wife and love of his life. He was a wonderful man truly deserving of pure eternal happiness. He built so many temples, opened many mission areas and always spoke of us just being kind to one another. I always looked forward to listen to him give a conference talk; he was always so sweet and funny. What a great loss this is to our world as we know it today. We just need to strive to remember his words and live by them. I am thankful for all that he did for our church and the example he was to me.


The following is a video of Glenn Beck paying tribute to President Hinckley. He is so humble and eloquent in doing so I just thought I would share it.

MY SON STINKS!!!

I know all of my last posts are about Camden, but he is the only one that gives me really good stuff to write. So today I have to take him to the doctor... no he's NOT sick, he simply stinks. Not just stinky diaper stink but dirty rotten, coroding, garbage stink.Do you remember in elementary school when they would have you put a pinto bean and a wet paper towel in a plastic baggie.... then a week later you would open the bag and it was super stinky.... well that is what my son smells like. I thought maybe it was his breath.. I admit I am not always diligent on brushing his teeth everyday like I should be. So I brushed his teeth... nope still stinky. I have figured out it is coming from his nose. I have come to the conclusion he has stuck something up his nose and it is now rotting. YEAH!!! I am so excited. I will update later after we make it to the doctor and see what they pull out... that should be REALLY fun!


UPDATE!!!!
We just got back from the doctor and... there is nothing there. My son just stinks! They looked and looked and saw nothing. They also flushed his nose 3 times, twice in one nostril and once in the other. He did a really good job. He didn't like having his nose flushed but did let the doctor look and poke and prod. The doctor just suggested using Afrin or Neo-Synephrine for 2 days and that should open him up to dislodge anything that may be in there! Yeah, so atleast two more days of stink! One of us are going to have to have a clothes pin on our noses, either to save me from smelling him or to keep him from smelling up the house. UGH! I am so grossed out by this whole thing! When I said I wanted a little boy like Jeremy it didn't mean I wanted everything to be like him! (ask Jeremy about the time he had a pea in his nose)

Mullets 'R' Us

Definitely business in the front.. also just a really cute picture, had to add it.

PARTY!!! in the back. Not as curly today as usual...
oh well, you still get the point.

A side view.. just so you can get the full effect of Business in the front and Party in the back.
Mullets are AWESOME!

I have finally come to the realization that my son officially has a mullet! It's taken me quite some time to realize this, I have been in denial. I am using this posting as my first step to mullet recovery, I am actively seeking a MA group for added support. It's really hard though. I can't bring myself to cutting off the curls. Any support you could lend me would be appreciated. I am just hoping I have not scarred my child by allowing this for so long. Although some of the best people have had mullets, Mel Gibson, MacGyver, David Bowie, Billy Ray Cyrus, Kenny, Mindi. They all seem to be doing okay in life. A true sign of my recovery will be when I post an adorable picture of my son's first haircut... Until then keep me and my struggle to be cured in your thoughts.

A day in the life of Camden! My sweet, sweet boy.

There's nothing better than waking up and jumping right into a good ol' Tonka truck for a ride! "Can someone push me?"

Time to get ready to go out for the day. This particular day he felt it necessary to wear a hat. Lucky for us, it was a "clean" hat. (Yes, that is a diaper on his head... his idea, not mine)

We are blessed with the occassional tears throughout the day. He has been taught well... when to use them, how to make them start, and how long you should carry on.
He has learned from the masters... his sisters.

Then there is the time of day mom gets a few minutes to rest. I love to go in and watch him sleep. It makes me feel like time is standing still. I still have to remind myself that my baby is now 19 months old... it kills me! He is the sweetest little boy. I always said I would take a boy, but only if he was like my sweet brother Jeremy... well I got one. He sure keeps me busy but he makes us laugh constantly, is a #1 snuggler (which he has learned from his sisters), and is the most loving kid I know. I love when I sit down to relax and my little man comes and sits on my lap, throws his arms around my neck and squeezes as hard as he can. Although this usually turns into him climbing on my head and pulling my hair to get me to wrestle, but I will even take that just to enjoy the hugs which precede it.

I love you little man... don't grow up too fast!

I just thought I would add a picture of my cute children. They all had on their "old man" pajamas this night so I had to take a picture of them.

Okay so it's been forever....

So I updated my blog around Thanksgiving, but it was really still only one post since September....

I warned everyone I would not do so well at this. Now I am thinking I just need to make myself sit down and do it. Even if there are dirty dishes in the sink and laundry piled on the floor.

But I hope between this and the new Family forum I am promoting that my whole house won't fall down around me.

So we have been doing well. The kids are great. Lynae is such a great kid. She is definitely mom #2 of the household. She helps out so much, for instance tonight was fend for yourself dinner, and I asked Reagan what she wanted to eat and she said Lynae was fixing her food for her. Sure enough I went in the kitchen and Bagels were cooking in the toaster and yogurt was out on the counter all ready to serve. Sometimes I don't know if I should feel really proud or worry that she has had to fend for herself a little too much. But she is definitely my little motherhen.

Reagan is doing so well in school. We finished up speech therapy back in November and she has done so well maintaining. Every once in awhile we have to tell her to slow down but other than that she's doing GREAT! In Kindergarten they are doing a lot of math and reading and she's just cruising through it. Some of the homework (I KNOW HOMEWORK IN KINDER!!! CRAZY!?) she gets sent home just floors me, they are usually word problems and I think there is no way she's going to understand it, but usually she has already read it and knows the answer. She's just amazing. All is good with her other than our 5 year old whining stage which we are fully in right now... JOY!

Then there is my boy Camden... Let's just say I am exhausted by the end of the day with this child. He is really a sweet loving little thing, but into trouble, I mean exploring ALL day long. I think the only time this child sits still is when he is sleeping and getting his diaper changed. That's it! He loves to climb to get to whatever he wants and loves to empty everything, the trash, the cabinets, drawers, dog food bowl, cat food bowl, oh and ocassionally a toy basket or two. Notice his favorite things are things he SHOULD NOT be touching. But his sweet smile saves him EVERYtime.

Just reminding you all what my children look like...

Here are some pictures from the first day of school.

Again remember, I really do not know what I am doing, and this will not be as cute as Julie's...maybe one day.





Lynae is our big 2nd grader! Where does the time go. She also is much more excited about school this year. I think last year we had to do a lot of repair from our dreadful kindergarten year. Her teacher is absolutely fabulous and we are really looking forward to this school year.

I can not believe my "baby girl" is in school. Reagan is so excited about school. Her first week was so exciting for her. She came home one day and said they were learning to read and that "it's so much fun I can't quit it!" Kindergarten is definitely a much better experience this time around for us.

And then there is Camden, our 100% boy!!! He drives me to the end of my rope everyday. I feel like all I do is chase the child to pull him off of something that he has climbed or clean up something he has spilled (intentionally) or to throw away the thing he has gotten ahold of and torn to little itty bitty pieces (he loves paper and kleenex). I now know why Heavenly Father made him so cute... it keeps me from beating him! I have to admit though, he is equally as sweet as he is ornery. He had a few confusing days when the girls first went back to school. He would walk around the house all day looking for them. Now he gets super excited for them to come home. He always goes straight to Lynae (mom #2) and expects her to hold and snuggle him before she gets a chance to do anything else. He sure loves his sisters.







Be patient with me.. I will get more pictures up soon.