Some things I learned this week. . . or at least was reminded of. . .

• If you leave a tack on the floor, your toddler is bound to poke you in the butt with it!
• If you leave scissors out, your toddler is bound to cut the bead spread with them (this happened at grandma's house).
• Cade's little potty is not the best toy for Ambree to suck on!
• Neither are his rubber "crocks" shoes that she absolutely loves!
• You can never have too many fans (you know the ones that keep you cool when it is hot), according to Craig. . . we now have five!
• When one person in the family gets sick, everyone is bound to get sick.
• It is not fun when everyone in the family is sick!
• When you try to force your toddler to take cough syrup after they repeatedly say, "no, no, I don't like it!" They will most likely spit it all over you, themself, and the carpet!
• The best way to get them to take cough syrup is by putting it in their juice!
• It is very difficult to expect a toddler to look down while giving them a hair cut, when you just put their favorite movie on!
• If you leave wet clothes sitting in the washing machine for 4 days, you will need to wash them again!
• Sometimes it's not such a bad thing to have a baby that you need to take out of Relief Society, especially when it is below zero degrees in the room and your wearing a summer dress! Too bad Craig had Ambree with him!
• It's not the best idea to water a plant that has holes in the bottom of the pot, especially when that plant is next to some important paperwork!
• It's virtually impossible to do a babies hair when they are crawling around!
• When your car has been blinking a "maintenance required" light for 2 weeks, don't be surprised when your automatic locking system and your radio stop working in the same day!
• When you buy something on e-bay that says "free shipping," don't always count on "free shipping!"
• When you rent old videos from the library a few of them are most likely not going to work!
• This is a bad thing when your toddler really wants to watch them!
• Ambree seems to think the word, "no" is a term of endearment, and that her high pitched screeching and yelling are beautiful sounds . . .
• They are not!!
• When a door to door sales man offers to give you a bunch of tickets for the movies that are "buy one get one free" if you buy his product, they are most likely going to be to the dollar theatre at the Main Place Mall, not the main theatre!
• I should have known there was a catch, there always is!
• When a person keeps rambling about their negative experiences, they should take some time to focus on the positive things in their life . . . so here it goes . . .
• No matter how annoyed you are at your baby for crying most of the night and keeping you up, you can't stay mad for long when they smile and act so innocent the next morning.
• My husband is great because he took care of Ambree during Sunday School and R.S.
• If I leave folded laundry out long enough, my husband is bound to put it away.
• Same with the dishes!
• It is great to have Craig home more, now that he is not president anymore, and has an awesome rotation right now with Wed. and Fri. off!
• Cade doesn't talk quite so much when he is coloring or watching a video.
• Mom (meaning me) doesn't usually get as sick as the rest of the family (I'm not sure if it is a built up immunity to germs or a blessing from Heavenly Father . . . probably both)!
• My mom is very helpful when I need a sitter . . . thanks Mom!!
• When you sub a high school math class, and they are testing every period, it is a nice time to relax and read a book, while getting paid!
• Even though it is stressful being a mom, I wouldn't trade it for anything!

What are some things you learned this week? I would love to hear about it, either on your blog or in a comment!

I was tagged!!

Well Sara tagged me . . . I guess I deserved this one, since I tagged her a while back. I don't know if my answers will be as entertaining as hers were, but here it goes. Oh, Craig said he will participate also, so I am going to do it the same way Sara did!

What was I doing ten years ago?
I was about to graduate from high school! Yes, it has been 10 years . . . crazy!! I was still in high school, finishing up my Junior year, yes I am younger than Trenda (1 year and 4 months younger).

What was I doing one year ago?
I was very uncomfortable and tired because I was 8 months pregnant and chasing around a toddler!
I was finishing up a very stressful year of school and starting to prepare for a the board exams!

Five snacks I enjoy:
1) Odwalla Bars (kind of like protein bars/granola bars)
2) string cheese
3) fruit
4) smoothies
5) hummus and pita chips
1) peanut butter and banana toast
2) hummus and chips/crackers
3) chocolate chip cookies and milk
4) string cheese and apples
5) granola bars

Five songs I know all the words to:
1) She's Everything (Brad Paisley)
2) Any Man of Mine (Shania Twain)
3) Ice Ice Baby (Vanilla Ice . . . in case you didn't know)!
4) I swear (All For One)
5) Free Fallin (Tom Petty)
1) twinkle twinkle little star
2) ABC song
3) Where is Thumbkin
3) The Wheels on the Bus
4) Old Mc Donald had a Farm
5) The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Five things I would do if I were a millionaire?
1) Go back to my mission (Cape Verde Africa) and help make things a little more civilized!
2) Buy a new home/SUV/Boat/Snow board/wave runners
3) Send my parents on a long vacation to Hawaii!
4) Travel
5) Start college funds for the kids, invest, pay off school loans!
1) Buy a Harley Davidson
2) Pay off student loans
3) Invest wisely
4) Buy a home
5) Send my parents on a cruise and go on one myself, with my wife of course!

Five things I like doing:
1) working out
2) shopping at thrift stores!
3) reading a GOOD book!
4) going on dates with my hubby!
5) going on vacation without children!
1) Spending time with my children when they are happy!
2) Spending time with my wife.
3) Making money
4) Watching/Playing Sports
5) Reading News on the computer

Five things I will NEVER wear again:
1) my wedding dress
2) short shorts/skirts/dresses
3) florescent color shoe laces in white high top LA Gears!
4) white high top LA Gears!
5) my high school cheer leading uniform
1) two pairs of socks at the same time
2) a bull cut hair style
3) braces
4) BYU-Idaho cheer uniform
5) Sky Line High School Eagle Costume (I was the mascot for a while)

Five of my bad habits:
1) staying up way too late, which is really not a good thing because Ambree wakes up between 5:30-6:30am!
2) dinking around on the computer way too much!
3) wasting a lot of time when I am shopping, just looking around!
4) eating way too much cereal and bread!
5) leaving bottles of water around the house . . . after all, I never know when I might be thirsty!
1) biting my nails
2) eating too much junk food
3) becoming impatient
4) not working out as often as I would like
5) It's hard for me to tell people no, even when I really don't want to or don't have time to do something they ask of me.

Five of my Favorite toys:
1) the computer
2) my cell phone
3) the TV
4) my sewing machine/ crafts
5) my kids!
1) the computer
2) my palm pilot
3) my power tools
4) my optometry instruments
5) my kids

I'm tagging:
Mortensen Family
Lienemann Family
Mitchell Family
Shaver Family
Underwood Family

INSTRUCTIONS: Answer the questions to this survey and then select five people to tag.

Beach Fun!!

Aw . . . isn't this cute of Craig and Cade! I couldn't even get Cade to hold still for a picture. He was so excited to be at the beach!

Ambree seems to have lost her balance and tipped over!

Ambree's first time playing in the sand at the beach! She seemed to really enjoy it!

Ambree is trying really hard to figure out what happened to the other half of Cades body!

Today, we went to go the the beach for the first time this year! It was pretty cold and windy, but it was still fun. . . again, not quite as relaxing gas I remember it being in by pre-children years, but still fun. It was fun to watch the kids having so much fun in the sand! I guess that's how it is once you have kids, you get your enjoyment through watching them have enjoyment! Ambree realized quickly that it's not very good to suck your thumb when it is covered with sand, although, she did put sand in her mouth a few times. Craig and Cade had some father/son bonding out on the rocks and down by the water. It's nice to have Craig with us when we are out playing! He definitely needs the break too!

Did I leave my patience at Chuck-E-Cheese!?

About an hour ago I began the process of putting my kids to bed, and thought, after this, I can have some peace and quiet and work on my blog. Well, as I type, they are both in their beds, in two separate rooms, and they are both crying . . . ugh! Can't I have any PEACE!! I try to be positive when it comes to raising children, but sometimes, I seriously don't know how much longer I can do this! On a good note, we have had some fun family outings . . . not very relaxing, but fun. Since Craig took his last final yesterday (last one in his life, unless he decides to go back to school for some reason in the future, I hope not!), we decided to take the kids to Chuck-E-Cheese to celebrate! Neither one of us had been there since we were kids, and Cade has been asking to go (he has a Chuck-E-Cheese Puzzle). It was actually really nice! They have a pretty decent all you can eat salad bar, and lots of fun games and rides that Cade was able to use. Back to the bed time sagga: OK, so I broke down and went into see what the problem was with Cade. Of course, he wanted more songs, even though i already read him stories and sang him songs! After singing more songs and putting him to bed again, Ambree was still crying 15 minutes later. So, now as I type, I am holding her and typing with one hand. . . at least no one is crying! I know part of Cade's problem is that he isn't taking naps much anymore . . . another ugh! I think he is overly tired now. Any suggestions on how to deal with the growing out of naps phase! And any suggestions on the losing patience with your children phase!? How long does that phase last anyway? Hopefully not too long!

I am NOT guilty!!

Most of my posts so far have had positive advertising for various places and things, well, except for the "bounce burn" I guess. Anyway, this one is bad advertisement for a certain store that I am sure most of you are familiar with. . . Joann's Fabric Store (which I have never had a problem with until the other day)! Here's the story: A few weeks ago, my husband wanted 6 yards of black spandex fabric(which isn't cheep) for something he was thinking about doing for his school talent show. As a dutiful wife, I went to get the fabric at Joann's. They had 4 yards on one spool, and 2 yards (so I thought) on another spool. I thought we could just go ahead and sew the two pieces together, so I went ahead and bought the fabric. The lady assured me that I could return it if I didn't cut it, and she felt bad that they didn't have the full six yards together, so she said I could use my 50% off coupon on the 6 yards combined, since you are only able to use the coupon on one item. Well, my husband didn't end up doing the talent show, and therefor didn't need the fabric. We never even took it out of the bag! So, I went to return it the other day, and the lady said she needed to measure it first. When she took it out of the bag and saw it was cut, she said, "Oh, we can't take it back because you cut it." I explained that that was how I bought it, and she said, "The recite shows that it was one item." I explained all the details about the purchase, and she said she would talk to a manager. So, the manager comes over and measures both pieces to see if they added up to 6 yards, and they didn't! It was 6 inches shorter than 6 yards . . . and as I said earlier, I we never even took it out of the bag. The ladies both kept questioning me and saying that their employees know the rules and they wouldn't do this and that, etc., etc. Anyway, after a lot of explaining on my part, the manager finally agreed to refund the 5 yards and 30 inches that I had with me. In the long run, I didn't lose out on much money, just 1-2 dollars, but I was completely innocent, and I know that when I left, they thought I was a liar and a stealer, and that I was in the wrong, when in actuality, their employee charged me for 6 inches of fabric that I never got, and sold me fabric that was already cut without writing a note and signing the recite, like they are supposed to do. It was just annoying to try to plead not guilty for something that I was really not guilty of doing! Thank goodness, it was only 6 inches of fabric, in a fabric store, and not a murder case, in front of a judge and a jury!

The Great Outdoors!!

My kiddos were in desperate need of "getting out" the other day, so we stepped out our front door and onto the grass next to our appartment. That is the closest thing we have to a yard! After a while of playing with a ball and running around, I decided to take a few pics!

Ambree would eat all the grass and leaves if she could!

Cade loves wrestling with Ambree! Like father, like son!!

Mother's Day Weekend!

Also this weekend, we had Craig's brother Adam with us for a couple days. He is going to be going on a mission in June, so he came to visit a friend of his in San Diego and us! It was fun to have him here. He was very helpful with the kids! On Sat. morning we took him to the Redlands Temple (this was his second time going to the temple). It was very nice! Mother's Day was very nice also, thaks to my thoughtful husband. He told me to sleep in as long as I wanted and he took care of the kids! He also made me breakfast, and had some gifts and cards from the kids and himself. We went to my parents ward for church, which was a surprise, and then we went to my parents home for dinner. My brother Steven also came from Baker's Field to be there, which was a lot of fun. I am so grateful for my mom and all she has done for me throughout my life and continues to do for me still! Your the best Mom!!