School

I just told Chip last night that I think this was my most favorite summer I have ever had in my life! I am so sad to have it come to an end but I guess there is something to enjoy about every season. My boy's started school and when I say my boy's I mean all of them. I just hang out with London in the day and I'm so grateful I have her!!! I am eagerly awaiting all of the stories from Wyatt's kindergarten teacher. We started out the first day with a bribe..... I mean gift of a caramel covered apple so Wyatt could get on her good side. My favorite part about Wyatt starting school was his comment about his teacher when he got a her letter in the mail with her picture and her name. I showed it to Wyatt and said, "This is your teacher for kindergarten, her name is Mrs. Barton. Can you remember Mrs. Barton?" He said, "No but I can remember Mrs. Monson, so I'll just call her Mrs. Monson." And we are going on week two and she is still Mrs. Monson to him.

CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL

I LOVE Chips birthday!!! I LOVE the time of year that it is, I LOVE to plan out a fun day with just the two of us, I LOVE to look for an opportunity to have a party and hang out with friends, and I LOVE the chance to celebrate my husband. For our celebration I tried to think of something that describes Chip and chocolate was the first thing that came to mind. I remembered a Chocolate Festival we went to in Boston years ago. It was a buffet with every kind of food you could think of and everything had chocolate in it. We nearly ate ourselves to death. I still remember our kids faces when we told them they had to have one of everything.
I decided to try and recreate this Festival. We invited several friends and assigned each person with either an appetizers, side dishes, drinks, or dessert. Everyone had to come up with their own recipe. We provide the main dish which was white chocolate salmon, chocolate covered pizza (which I loved), chocolate fountain, white and dark chocolate pudding cups, chocolate covered popcorn and Chips favorite chocolate peppermint cookies. I listed everything so that if anyone wants to steal this idea to do with your friends because it was sooooo much fun! Someone made potatoes with balsamic chocolate gravy, chocolate dressing on a salad, white chocolate bread, and tons of yummy desserts. We ate ourselves into a frenzy, took a small break and then went for round two! My mouth beginning to water as I think about it again. Chocolate truly is the sweet nectar of life and thanks to all of our good friends helping us celebrate Chips birthday we were able to indulge!!!

A dark rain cloud

It feels like a dark rain cloud is hoovering over our house that is causing accidents to happen to my kids. First it was Wyatt's hands got slammed in the door. He was in the parking lot and and trying to get into our car and swung the door right into the loaded Range Rover parked next to us. Tyson was already in our car and saw what was happening he tried to save the more money then life it's self Range Rover. Wyatt tried to stop the door from closing and sure enough the door caught 4 fingers on his right hand. I ran to the car to open the door to release his fingers and tried to stop the tears for the next 15 mins.

We were on our way to Braydens baseball game so a quick trip to the gas station and purchase of an ice cream stopped all tears. When we got there we had brought sandwiches and scooters to pass the 2 hour games we sit at 3 times a week. Wyatt took a ride on the scooter down the side walk and hit a bump and I turned right in time to see his forehead hit head first. I ran over to him and when I picked him up I saw a bump that looked like someone had cut a snickers in half and stuck it to his forehead. I couldn't even look at it. Chip held him as I ran to grab ice. We held it on for an hour and he seemed to be alright then suddenly he said he felt like he was going to throw up, a classic symptom for a concussion or fractured skull. We drove straight to the insta-care where the receptionist was so disturbed at the sight of his forehead that we didn't even check in, she sent a doctor out the the waiting room to check him out. She said that because of the size and the softness of the injury that we needed to go to the emergency room. Tears started to stream. They called over and got us straight in. The doctor there wanted him to have a cat scan. We prayed and prayed he would be alright.


This picture was taken after 4 hours after holding ice in the goose egg. It was double this size when it first happen.


The results came back and said he would be fine. We truly felt blessed but the doctor told us to be very careful the next few days because it it was so large it could still break threw the skin and in a few days the blood would probably fall down to his orbital area and he would have a black eye for a while. I carried my sweet precious little boy to the car with a new policy that no one rides anything at our house without a helmet. I put him in our bed and watched him all night. In the morning I rolled over and checked him and it was the biggest miracle, the goose egg was gone.



These pictures were taken the next day

There was a very light blue color if you look really closely. Eight hours ago his bump was so large every hospital staff could see it a mile away and now it was gone. It was such a blessing!

The next day was Chip's day off so I went with Brayden on his field trip. Half way through I get a phone call from Chip saying the school just called and Tyson hit his head on a metal poll and it's bleeding really bad and he probably needs stitches. I was all the way in Park City and stuck because I rode the bus with the kids. And to add to that Chip didn't have a car because we dropped it off at the dealership to get fixed that morning. Chip put London in the stroller and walked to the dealership, picked up the car, picked up Tyson, and stitched up his head at home and made homemade bread (Im just kidding about the bread part) but talk about Mr. Mom!!! My stomach did a double flip when I heard the news. I guess I should expect this with three boys but still it rocked me to the core. I need to remember this when London has her mood swings I will welcome them with open arms!!!

Belly Flop

I don't have any pictures for this story but you will be glad that I don't!
I woke up this morning at 4:02 a.m. with my sweet little London whimpering at the side of my bed. My eyes focused just in time to watch her throw up all over the carpet. After cleaning it up I put her in bed with me and passed out again. I awoke to the same whimpering sound around 6:00 a.m. and tried to carry her to the bathroom but she wanted nothing to do with me and flung herself to Dad. Right as Chip woke up she threw up on him and all over our down comforter. Chip picked her up and was caring her to the bathroom when I noticed Wyatt was in bed also. The sound must have woken him up in a state of shock because he jumped right up on his feet then suddenly, for no reason at all he belly flopped into London's throw up. Really, I wish I wasn't lying but it's true. You should have seen the look on his face when I explained what he just landed in. CLASSIC!!!!

Get ready for cuteness overload!!!

For London's birthday I didn't give her any presents, instead I put all her birthday money towards some professional pictures and oh all I can say is I am so happy I did. This photographer captures all of my little girls personality in each shot. My little London is pure joy!!!



















My photographer was Skye Johanson and you can look her up at www.skyejohansonphotography.com
She is AMAZING!!! I aspire to be as good as she is one day!

Oh the lessons we teach our children

Life has been pretty normal lately, well whatever normal is anyway. So I am going to write about a story that happened when we were living in Boston. I've been a bit nostalgic while reminiscing about Boston and it reminded me of a story about Brayden when he was in pre-school.



In Boston things are done a bit different. Kids don't just run over to each others homes like they do in Utah. You schedule play-dates which consist of moms checking their calendars and making time to visit at each other's home while the kids play together. I actually really miss that because I truly enjoyed the friendships that developed while I spent time with the moms of my children's friends. Well back to my story. Brayden had a little boy named Nicholas in his preschool. He was such a sweet and polite little boy and always wanted to play with Brayden. His mom was not like other mom's. She was very busy and didn't want any of this mom-come-over and visit-play-date stuff. She had asked several times if Brayden could come over and play, without mom. It made me a bit nervous to tell you the truth. Brayden was my oldest and I worried about him. After several invitations I came to the conclusion that I would have to stop being the hovering helicopter mom and let him go to his friends home so I agreed to the play-date minus the mom. As I got Brayden ready that morning I decided to go over all my mothering lessons that I felt so strong about, including the one about everything in your swimsuit area was considered your private parts and no one should ever look at your private parts. Keep in mind, I was feeding into that first child syndrome!! So I took Brayden over to Nicholas' home and walked in to make sure Uncle Chester wasn't hanging out in the closet. It was only Nicholas and his mom at home so I said my goodbyes and promptly returned to pick him up just over an hour later. As I stood in the doorway and thanked the mom for having Brayden over to play I looked at Brayden and asked him if he had a fun time at Nicholas' home? He replied, "Mom, I had a great time.... and no one even asked to see my private parts!" I couldn't bare to make eye contact with Nicholas' mom as she stood speechless. I simply turned around and walked to my car. Brayden was never asked to play with Nicholas again and I always wonder what kind of Mormon impact we had on Nicholas and his family.

HAPPY APRIL FOOLS

I might be the only one today to wish you all a HAPPY April Fools day but to me it is a happy April Fools, or at least it used to be. This day used to be one of my very favorite holidays. For me it was next to Christmas because I used to get this incredible high doing April Fools jokes. I think I enjoyed it so much because I was the only one who remembered this holiday so it made it all the more fun for my victims. I have a long list of successful jokes, many of them started with Chip until he informed me they weren't very funny anymore. I personally think they are funny like the time I bought 20 disco lights and waited until Chip fell asleep and set them all up in our room connecting to one power cord and the song, "Flight of the Bumblebee" by Tchaikovsky and at 2:00 am he was awakened to pure chaos.




or the time I was pregnant and pretended that the morning sickness was so bad that I couldn't stop throwing up. It was in the middle of the night again and I had a bucket of water by the toilet with a large cup along with sound effects it was convincing enough that I had actually vomited enough to fill a swimming pool. That one didn't go over so well ;)


There were many more but my favorite one was when we were living in Boston and Chip thought he would get me back so he used the old amateur rubber band to the kitchen sink spray. Oh he thought he was so funny until I turned it on him. It had been raining in Boston for 5 days straight and that particular day it flooded our basement, like two feet of water that ruined everything. When Chip came home I told him that HIS April Fool's joke wasn't so funny either. I told him that I was feeling sick that morning and the boys came downstairs to get a drink and turned on the faucet. I told them they got scared of the water that squirted them and went running out of the kitchen. I told him I didn't come down for another 3 hours and look what happen in our basement as a result. I told him he was right and April Fools jokes are not fun! On his face was pure horror as he looked at our basement. Oh he felt so bad and I only could hold out for so long until I began to laugh hysterically.




After that Chip made me focus my jokes on other people so I got my friends by putting their houses up for sale at ridiculously low prices as well as invitations for open house.


I posted pictures of my brother-in-law who is a respectable pediatrician as the latest and greatest model coming to the Expo Center for autographs and casting auditions and I put one on everyone of his neighbors doors.



I gave my mom flowers all wrapped up from an anonymous friend that had been sprayed in farting powder,

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can't leave out the phone call to my dad that I have just crashed the car because I have been doing that one every year since I was 16 and he has fallen for it every time,



and my worst one had to be waking my children up early in the morning and telling them to grab their shoes because we are going to Disneyland. (DON"T JUDGE, I only let them believe it for like 10 seconds!)


Ok there have been a few paybacks from Kara, Tiffany and Zak, and my mom. I deserved everyone of them but I think I am here to say I am retiring from this holiday. I have come to realize that this holiday is a lonely holiday for me. I don't get any phone calls from friends, no one wants to do anything with me for fear I will get them, and even my kids don't trust a thing I do or say. So I am retiring my holiday for a season. Now who's to say I won't pull a Brett Favre and come back but for today I want to wish you all a very happy April Fools day and do something for me, get someone good so I can live vicariously through you!

My Idea of Heaven

I don't know exactly what Heaven is like but I think I got a little taste of it on a family vacation to Hawaii. We had the wonderful opportunity of getting out of the dreary winter and experienced some of the pure bliss that exists while you are in Hawaii. It was the perfect family vacation because no one tells you to keep your kids quiet in a pool and no one ever gets board at the beach with endless sand castle possibilities and waves. I feel so grateful we were able to go and I just wanted to post some of our memories.

It's Play dates- not pee dates

Yesterday Wyatt had two different play dates with two different friends. The first little boy came over in the morning. Everything was going well until I heard him tell Wyatt that he didn't want to go outside because his socks were wet. WARNING SIRENS went off in my head. I quickly got up off the couch and checked on things. Sure enough his socks were drenched and so were his sweats. I asked the little boy what happen and he told me he had peed his pants. I asked where and Wyatt said, "Come here I will show you". As we walked down the hall I almost gagged because I was walking barefoot and I could feel little areas of damp carpet every other step. When I got to the bathroom I saw a puddle of pee on the floor right next to the toilet. Couldn't quite figure that one out. So I called this sweet little boys mom and he went home to clean up. Later that afternoon another little boy came over to our house to play. I had to run Brayden to baseball so this sweet little boy came with us. By the time we got back into the neighborhood he was asleep in my car so we went straight to his house to drop him off. I unbuckled his safety belt and reached to carry him inside when suddenly the wet sensation soaked through my shirt. He had peed his pants in my car! Seriously? It's bad enough cleaning up your own kids urine but friends urine totally grosses me out! I don't know why these things happen to me, but they do and so I share.

P.S. if you are one of the mom's of these adorable little peeing children I mean no harm and your kids are always welcome at my home anytime, after they have gone to the bathroom.

Kids tell the truth

Yes, it's another Wyatt story......





The other night we had just finished dinner and everyone except for mom sat down to enjoy a episode of American Idol which left me in the kitchen to clean up dinner alone. I was trying to be a good sport about it until my whole family started laughing at the T.V. Suddenly I didn't feel so kind and loving. I wanted to see what they were laughing about so I walked over to the T.V. and asked them to rewind it so I could see what was going on. My boys just sat there laughing at the show and so I asked again in a not so nice voice, after all I was diligently cleaning the kitchen by myself and it was really starting to bug me. Finally I asked again in my not so nice mom voice and Chip turned and asked me why I was so grumpy. Oh that was the straw that broke and I decide to leave the messy kitchen, American Idol and go read my book in my room. I didn't care that our home teachers would be there any minute. I needed time to cool off. Suddenly the door bell rang and Wyatt ran to get the door. It was our home teachers and all I could hear was Wyatt saying, "Come on in, my Mom is really mad at my Dad!" I didn't know what to do, be horrified or laugh. I quickly ran out and gave a courtsy laugh that is was really no big deal, I just wanted to see something on American Idol and while I was explaining I felt like a two year old. One of my home teachers tried to make me feel better by saying that his wife wasn't to happy with him and it must be something in the water. His partner that night was a young teenage boy that was looking at me as if I had a third eye. We sat through the sweet but uncomfortable lesson and at the end Chip asked the teenage boy to close with a prayer. The sweet teenage boy asked in his prayer to bless the Packer family, that what ever was in the water would go away and we would have peace in our home. I actually busted out laughing when I heard this and had to try my hardest to regain my composure. It was too funny! Moral of the story.... if your going to be bugged with your husband make sure your 5 year old isn't around to give everyone the scoop!!!

And that cost $100.00

The other day Wyatt was really interested in money. He found $10.00 in my wallet (a rare site to find cash) and he was so excited about money that he just kept bugging me and bugging me about all the different amounts of money and what you can buy with it. Well it was Saturday and I was in the middle of something and he wouldn't leave me alone so I dug into my stash of cash hidden in my room, (if you don't have one I highly suggest you get one) and I gave Wyatt $100.00 to hold to buy a few minutes of peace. A few moments later I check on Wyatt and this is what I found......



Wyatt just turned 5 on February 1, I really thought that the terrible two's would have ended by now.