Long time no write

Since it's been almost 3 weeks since I've written I think I'll just post some pics & tell you all about them.

It's obvious that Callie & Jack are saying goodbye to Jeremiah here, but what's cute (mostly) is that Callie has in the last few weeks become insistent that Jeremiah gives her a hug & a kiss as well as one for everyone else before he leaves for work or school or any other thing. In fact he's doing his last-day-of-the-month home teaching right now and walked out the door without the hugs & kisses & Callie was just heartbroken! She didn't realize he'd left without doing it until after he'd closed the door. She whimpered & cried a little for about the next 10 minutes. He owes her a really big kiss & hug when he gets home (although hopefully she'll be asleep!)!

I still don't have any cute pictures of the kids in their Easter Best! Jack was sick on Easter so I didn't get him dressed up. I did however insist that he wear the dollar spot (woohoo Target!) bunny ears like his sister & suck on their giant bunny-teeth suckers. Unfortunately Jack couldn't fit his in his mouth! The sucker was like the size of a doorknob!

Callie has had to stand on the naughty spot quite a bit but it's just not working super well so I thought I'd have her put her nose on the wall. Jack thought it was a game so he stood in time out with her. It's time to rethink our punishments! Any suggestions?

Chelsea has nothing better to do at work I think than browse etsy & watch stupid youtube videos so thanks to Chels, Callie has this adorable new hat! Chelsea linked me to it one day & 5 days later it was delivered to my mailbox! I love it so much & every time Callie wears it out she gets lots of compliments!

Kenny visited over the weekend and totally spoiled Callie & Jack! He adores them & it shows! Since he'd got in late the night before, my mom came & got the kids mid-morning & took them back to her house to see "Wunka Kenny." When Kenny brought the kids home a couple hours later they were each sporting their very own milkshake from Sonic! Jack especially was in heaven & was just so funny with his chocolate shake. He didn't want to set it down and miss a moment of frosty, chocolatey goodness! He couldn't even put it down to play so instead he had to play one-handed! The boy can multi-task! (He doesn't get it from me!) Besides overloading my children with sugar, Uncle Kenny also taught Callie to give love-taps! What are brothers for?! She hasn't given us any taps yet, but I'm sure they're coming. I'm gonna love-tap him when we go to Washington this Saturday for a week-long visit! :)

In other non-photographic news, Kayleigh came & visited us, Tara got a new job in Salt Lake & moved yesterday (SAD!), & I went to the dentist & have like a thousand cavities! I'm pretty bummed! I also was supposed to have jury duty but it was cancelled so now my name was re-drawn & I have grand jury duty next month. Lucky me!

Hey! Where's my big chocolate?!

Well our weekend sucked! On Friday we went to Burger King for lunch since they have a play place. I hadn't eaten at BK for years really because I didn't remember liking it that much, but since it's one of the only 2 places in town with a play area (the other being Del Taco - not a huge fan), I thought I'd give it a try. Aside from their prices being a bit more than McDonald's, I enjoyed my Whopper & decided that I could occassionally bring the kids to BK for lunch. That is till I puked it all up Friday night! I don't know that it was food poisoning because Tara got sick the next afternoon & puked too, but considering that I was better 8 hours later, that seems a little too fast for a bug. Who knows. Either way, I doubt I'll be eating a Whopper again anytime this year!

And then there was Jack. I think a lot of my entries mention what an all-star teether he is. So this weekend was his best yet. Jeremiah got him up from a nap on Saturday & had to change his shirt since it was soaked all down the front with drool! Jack's gums are so swollen & he's constantly got slobber strings hanging from his mouth. He didn't sleep hardly at all on Saturday night! Jeremiah stayed up with him and saw every hour of the clock. He was extremely grumpy all weekend & then I got to stay up with him last night & I was awake a lot more than I was asleep! How miserable! About the only things that make Jack happy are Dora, candy, & playing outside, but none of those are guaranteed. He's on Tylenol & Motrin around the clock, & we're doing Orajel. My mom's at WalMart right now getting some Teething Tablets. I had a bottle of them but several weeks ago Callie got to them & divvied up the bottle with Jack. I couldn't find a single tablet - they'd eaten every single one - even the crumbly ones at the very bottom. Poison control said it was fine though since the tablets are homeopathic! They seem to help, so I'm hoping that they'll make a difference tonight!

Easter was good for Callie at least. The Easter Bunny brought her a Hello Kitty plate, bowl, & cup along w/a princess spoon & fork. She's eaten with them every meal so far! I think they got a fair amount of candy, but I don't think the bunny went overboard. They still may end up being diabetics though! Callie grabbed her basket this morning & sat on the couch with it & helped herself to a pre-breakfast treat since I was slow to get out of bed. When I told her she'd had enough & that I wanted the basket she said that she wanted to keep it safe & that she would "keep it for safe-keeping." She's such a silly girl! Oh, the EB gave Jack a decent sized hollow chocolate chick, but didn't give Callie the other one from the package since she already had a few more things in her basket. I really didn't think she'd notice, but Jack had his chocolate chick on his tray Sunday afternoon & she saw it & said, "Hey! Where's my big chocolate?!" She started looking through a bunch of the candy for one & repeated, "Where's my big chocolate?!" several times so I distracted her & slipped the other one in there! She ate more than half of it right then! My mom's not big on Easter baskets because she thinks they really diminish the meaning of Easter. Yesterday she said if they would at least call them Spring baskets instead of Easter baskets, but why do they have to use the word Easter? I told her it's not like they're called Resurrection baskets! I think as long as you teach your kids the meaning of Easter why can't you have the fun tradition of the Easter basket too? It's like 2 separate holidays on the same day! My aunt has the Easter Bunny go to their house on Saturday instead of Sunday. I don't think that's a bad idea.

Well Jack's crying & smells like poop so until next time!

Binky Breaking

After months of listening to Jeremiah say that we really should break our kids of the binky I decided on Sunday when he said it again that maybe I was ready. It definitely helped that I'd just read an email from my friend Janelle talking about how they'd gone cold turkey with their daughter & her paci. So feeling a little better about it I agreed. We took my least favorite binkies out to the trash & had the kids put them in. Callie didn't want to but she went ahead with it anyway. We told her that she was too big & that the Dr. didn't want her to have one anymore. Jack didn't understand & did not want to let go of his binky. We had to "help" him!



That night after having to hold Callie's hand till she fell asleep & then listening to Jack cry it out I was feeling like the worst mom ever - we didn't think about the fact that since our kids were sick they enjoyed the comfort of their binkies more than at other times. But we can't go back now. It would be hard any time we tried (Except we shouldn't have done it when they were so sick! My poor babies!)! So hopefully soon Callie will be able to go to bed on her own. I think it's harder since she & Jack are sharing a room. He's confined to his crib so he works it out & only cries for a couple of minutes before settling down & then going to sleep, but Callie's in a bed & she won't stay in it. And every time we have to go in to put her back in bed or talk to her, it disturbs Jack & he starts the crying all over. Auhg!

Our Excellent Adventure

Where to start! 2 weeks ago Callie & I flew to Denver to visit my friend Debra & daughter Clare. I used to work with Debra at Deloitte when we lived in CA & hadn't seen her in 2 years, so it was really fun to visit & to see our girls play, who are just 2 months apart! Clare & Callie were instant friends & held hands leaving the airport! By the time we left on Sunday I think they were wearing each other out, but it was because they'd had more fun than they could handle over the past few days! On Friday we went to the Children's Museum of Denver. One word: AMAZING!!! I'm so jealous that we don't have such a fantastic place where we live or even within a reasonable drive! So if you're ever in Denver with your kids, you simply HAVE to take them to the Children's Museum!







On Saturday we went to The Butterly Pavillion which was a cool center with lots of insects & a big atrium with tons of butterflies everywhere. We also went to Debra's local Rec Center which was incredible! It was huge & had a really cool indoor pool with slides & play stuff, tons of workout equipment & rooms for all kinds of classes, a huge rock climbing - well, rock I guess, and the reason we went - a super cool indoor play area for the kids. It was cooler than any McDonald's you've ever played at! The girls had a blast until some jerk kid named Max started growling at Callie & acting like a mean troll. At first it was kind of funny, but then she was getting honestly scared & he just wouldn't stop. I asked him a couple of times to leave her alone because he was scaring her, but he kept growling & roaring at her. It got bad enough that she didn't want to play anymore - she just clung to me on a bench and then he'd get like 10 feet away & make eye contact with her & growl again. It was an evil growl - I can see why she was scared. Devil Boy. Anyway, we had such a great time visiting Debra & Clare!

From Denver we flew to SLC. We got to visit lots of family & some friends. My sister Kayleigh's bf Dustin was going into the MTC so my mom drove up to be supportive of Kayleigh & she brought Jack with her. Girls weekend was over for Callie & me! Fortunately before Jack got there Wendy & I got to shop for an afternoon in Park City with only 2 of our kids, meaning it was only 2/5's as crazy as it could have been! We stayed with my sister Chelsea, b-i-l Ryan, and their "baby" (Thunder - a toy terrier maybe - I don't know my dogs). Callie was terrified of Thunder, so sadly I was relieved when we moved on to Mike & Wendy's house. Hopefully next time we visit Callie won't be such a weenie! Jack really liked Thunder at least.



The rest of the week was eventful: Jack fell down the stairs while holding a plastic kids chair so he got a nice scratch and bruise on the bridge of his nose from the back of the chair, we went to the SLC Children's Museum (not half as cool as Denver's), and Wendy, Kayleigh, my Mom, Wendy's friend Jessica & I went to a crop night at a scrapbook store. We had the best time! The only downside to the week was the bad cold that I had the whole time, which the kids of course got the night before we came home!

As much fun as we had, we were so glad to be home! Callie had been crying for daddy & then saying she wanted to go to her home for a few days & Jer & I missed each other a lot. We haven't been away from each other for that long before & it was too long! He fished & saw a movie while we were gone, but mostly he worked hard & was lonely! It's good to be home!