March 12th - 14th, 2021: Good eats and online shopping

I am racking my brain right now to even remember anything about Friday except for what I made for dinner and what Adam and I both made for dessert. 😂🤦 That is literally all that is coming to me. It must mean that whatever I did during the day with the boys and then after school with Maeve was not very meaningful. 

Oh oh... wait... it's coming to me a little bit. I remember now that for preschool Rowan got to play with a sensory bin of flour and had a party driving his monster trucks all around in the flour. He made less of a mess than I honestly anticipated he would, so that was a win. We also made homemade ice cream by shaking it in a bag for 8 minutes. My arms were pretty tired after that, let me tell you, especially because Rowan didn't want to help shake it much. I don't blame him, it was kinda heavy with all the ice. Unlike Maeve, Rowan actually enjoyed the ice cream though and ate about half of it. Maeve took one bit and decided it was not up to par for her tastes. 🤦 I'll give it to her that it isn't exactly high quality ice cream when you're making it that way, but that's what you get when you're making it the toddler friendly way with 2 ingredients. 🤷 The other thing I remember about Friday is after Maeve got home all 3 kids were chowing down on Kix and a looooot of Kix ended up all over the floor. Thanks to Nolan (understandable) and sadly also Rowan, who decided it would be funny to shoot them out of his mouth, as if he was shooting some hoops if there had been a basket to collect them ... 🤦😅 - I told him I liked his creativity, but still wanted him to stop. Too bad that kid rarely listens to me. Which means - you guessed it - way more Kix ended up on the floor than there should have been. So many that even with Nolan and Zoey eating them from off the floor hardly put a dent in it. YAY. 

The real party started when we had sweet potato black bean vegan chorizo tacos. I had to laugh and also cheer on the inside when Maeve chose to put everything on her tacos but the lettuce, while Rowan on the other hand only wanted lettuce on his. I'm sorry, but what was that?! You want only lettuce folded up inside a tortilla bro? He meant what he said and he took a bite, made a strange face, but still gave us a thumbs up. 😂😂 You do you, boy. I'm just glad he ate some lettuce! He eventually asked for honey mustard on it, after realizing it had no taste at all. 😏 We took the party to the next level by making chocolate cake mix cookies with homemade chocolate frosting - a recipe I got from my sis and they are so simple but SO good. I decided to try out putting peanut butter M&Ms in half of them too, and though they were also good that way, I do think I appreciated the pure softness of the plain ones and maybe liked them better that way. A little surprising since I love peanut butter M&Ms so much, but I guess sometimes simpler is just best. Meanwhile, Adam made some homemade vanilla ice cream because he wasn't so much in a chocolate mood, but more in an ice cream kinda mood. But let's be honest - in the end, we all had some of both. 😂 It was all divine, but very much a sugar overload!! You know that's especially the case when the kids don't even want to finish their ice cream. 🤯

I was so excited to see that a new episode of A Million Little Things was finally available to watch, so that's what we watched after the kids went to bed and it was a good one! Although it is kinda annoying that almost every show has decided to pull Covid into their storylines - I get why, but at the same time, when I watch shows I kinda appreciate that I get a break from reality - not anymore! 😒 

Saturday morning I got some good cuddles and mostly quiet time with Maeve and Rowan in our bed before we got up and moving. Maeve loves to play guessing games by describing stuff to us within a category and seeing if we can name what she's describing, so we did that for a little while and also played some I Spy. For one turn, she spied something green, which ended up being her water bottle, and Rowan was confused because it was also purple and pink. I tried to explain though that she still just said green because it's mostly green because that's the background color. Then he picked up the bottle and pointed to the front and back respectively and said, "This is the frontround and this is the background" 😂🤔 Kinda don't blame him for coming up with that logic. 

When we went downstairs, Adam had already been making waffles for all of us, which was a nice surprise! We devoured them and then I took Maeve to her dance class. I'm glad I get to at least watch her on a screen since I don't get to be in the same room as her watching - she is pretty cute copying all the dance moves. She does pretty well following for the most part! 

It was a rainy day, so no roofing for Adam after we got back. Nolan was fighting the nap, but I wanted to give him one more chance for one, so him and I stayed home while Adam took Maeve and Rowan to the Discovery Center in the afternoon. They also stopped at Home Depot on the way home, so they were gone for a while. And yet, I still managed to basically only shop for workout clothes on the Fabletics website. Figured I'd give that site a try since the prices are actually pretty good if you have a membership and the membership fee actually goes toward your purchase too, so it's kinda a win when all is said and done and you can cancel anytime. 🙌 It was fun picking them out! They should come by Wednesday and I'm excited to see if I like everything. Fingers crossed. Oh and also - Nolan ended up staying awake the whole time, the little stinker! So in hindsight, we all could have gone out, but hey, now I've got some more workout clothes coming in the mail, which is an early birthday present for me. 🎉

Saturday night I decided to check out redbox because it had been forever since we rented a movie. Turns out there was a movie available that sounded really good and got rave reviews so we went for it. Words on Bathroom Walls is what it was called - about a high school boy with Schizophrenia who still manages to meet a love interest and kinda tries to hide that side of him for awhile, but eventually she finds out and he comes to term with the fact that his mental illness does not define him. It was pretty wild and raw - definitely good acting and very eye opening about Schizophrenia. Very sad to watch him struggle so much, but I really enjoyed it! That night my cycle also finally started, which I was kinda sweating for a few days when it hadn't started yet, thinking oh man, the jokes on me and I'm already pregnant given my recent hesitations - but then Adam reminded me that February is a shorter month so really I was on track and just hadn't taken that into account! Oops. Turns out I had no reason to sweat at all. 🤦 

Yesterday morning (Sunday) Adam and I had to drive separately to church because he had to stay after to do a lesson with the missionaries. I followed him most of the way there, but eventually decided to break off and go my favorite way, while he went a different way. I now regret that, because then I got pulled over for speeding. 🤦🤦🤦 While we were still following each other, I heard Maeve and Rowan saying this to each other in the backseat: 

Rowan: Do you know Mommy and Daddy are in the same line? (ie. on the same road) 

Maeve: Yeah, it's because there's only one trail to church 

😂😂 

Too funny! Maeve soon learned she was wrong about that when I veered off and got my ticket. After the officer came to get my license and registration, he went back to his car and the kids were immediately like, "Okay Mom! Go! Let's go!" 😂 Little did they know, I could not just drive away. I wish! This is actually the first ticket I've gotten since having kids! I had such a long stretch of luck, but alas, that had to come to end. Maeve was very concerned about what the outcome would be, and when she found out I could take traffic school, she definitely thought that was the best way to go since it's cheapest. She asked if traffic school is fun and I told her it's pretty boring, but then she said, "boring for adults... but probably fun for kids" - of course she would say that since she loves school so much!! 😂😏 While waiting on the cop, Rowan finally realized Adam was no longer driving with us, so he asked where he went. I told him he had kept driving, so he was probably already at the church waiting, and then he said, "No, I think he got in a car crash too..." 😂🤔 Not sure why he thought we crashed, but anyway.... 🤷 after an eventful extra 5-10 minutes, we made it to church. 

Church was good and then I hopped on my zoom YW lesson as soon as Adam got home. Literally 4 minutes after the lesson was supposed to start, the young woman that was supposed to teach texted one of the other leaders and said she woke up not feeling well and couldn't teach. This was at 11:34am. 🤦🤦 Way to drop the bomb as late as she possibly could. Poor Angela, one of the counselors, had to just wing it and teach the lesson last minute. Never a dull moment with these YW! Luckily she's awesome (she actually goes by Sister Awesome 😂- she's a hoot) and did a fabulous job winging it. 

Much of the rest our sabbath day I spent in the kitchen making a second batch of cookies for Adam to take to one of his ministering families and then we gave most of the rest to our neighbors. I also made some homemade crescent rolls - a new recipe - and they were SOOO good!! I feel like I officially know what the perfect dough really feels like and will be able to have perfect results now every single time, no matter the recipe I am making, which is so exciting for me. Definitely a skill I never thought I'd have, but I love it. They were a hit for every single member of our family and all 24 rolls are already gone! 🙈 A sad reality. While I was in my own little world doing that, the kids were in their own little world in their fort in the living room (always building forts these days), and they also watched the Friend to Friend broadcast for a 3rd time. 😂 I love that they love it so much, but I just hope they do more of these on a semi regular basis! Such a fun idea for them and they loooooved following along for the drawing part. 

After the kids went to bed, I had my biweekly family zoom call, which had no shortage of hiccups. I ended up sitting on the bathroom floor, trying to get as far away from Adam as I could, considering he was on a church call with someone else - but of course my family could still hear him in the background. 🙄 The kids took forever to settle so I kept having to go upstairs to knock some sense into them and probably because of that my connection was terrible and I kept having to leave the call and rejoin so that everyone wouldn't sound choppy. SO when all was said and done, I got about 20% of what was shared, but oh well. I still get an A for effort. 😅

That's all I got, so here are some pics from the weekend:

She cracks me up changing up the bows in her hair and putting on alllll the jewelry after school. 😂😍

This boy is too much!! This sequence of photos was killing me. Soooo cute and silly. He's a hoot! 😍👆👇

😂

😂😂

I share this blurry one just to show Rowan's initial pose when I told him I wanted to take a pic. Like, he doesn't even know how to NOT go all out when he poses. 😂😂 He is soooo crazy. 

Maeve's dead serious face and pose, with her sparkly heels and wand tucked in her pants. 😂😂😂 They were being "magic stars" with their magic devices. Gotta love that Rowan couldn't think of any other way to secure his bubble wand other than stuffing it in his shirt. 😂😂🤦

Fort time all the time. I straightened Maeve's hair for church and I feel like it makes her look so much older!! 😍

Peace and blessings. ✌️

March 10th-11th, 2021: Busy busy + Half day and parent teacher conferences

I didn't write yesterday because it was such a busy day and I chose to just relax and watch New Amsterdam instead. I needed a good veg session. 😂

I feel like my update for yesterday can basically be a list of all the stuff I had to do, which was: 

1. Sorting out with eBay the fact that someone took over my account trying to sell some items. 😨 Of course I saw all these weird emails when I was in the middle of finishing my workout, so I had to pause and take care of it, because I knew if I just waited until I was finished the boys would start distracting me with wants and needs and I would forget. Annoying. I got it taken care of, but it left me wondering how they got into my account. Of course I have since changed my eBay and email passwords. 

2. All the cleaning and dishes that never end 

3. Preschool with Rowan - we talked about the dairy food group and counted cheese towers and "painted" toast with colored milk. Rowan was convinced that he could not drink the milk because he thought that it somehow turned into paint since we put food coloring in it and were "painting" with it. He kept calling it paint. 😂 He was stunned when I decided to show him the way and try some and he saw that nothing bad happened to me. Then he was even more stunned that the green, pink, and purple milk all tasted the same. 😂 And now he knows... food coloring doesn't change the flavor OR turn milk into paint just because you're using a paintbrush with it. We're learning big things around here. We also read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, If You Give a Pig a Pancake, If You Give a Moose a Muffin, and If You Take a Mouse to School - he looooved them and made me read them all a second time. It was so cute how attentive he was. 🥰 

4. Planned out meals for the rest of the week and went grocery shopping

5. Figured out what to do about the ringworm that we found on Zoey. 🤦 Considering the fact she JUST went to the vet, we were not excited about taking her right back. I googled it and apparently you can treat it with an anti-fungal dog shampoo. They didn't have one at Kroger, so I was going to get it today from the pet store, but then I went to look at the spot on her and it is gone now. 😳 So bizarre! I have no idea how it's already gone, but I guess she's fine now. 🤷

6. Made stir fry for dinner 

7. Hopped on zoom for a Relief Society talent show/favorite things party. Most of the sisters shared crafty talents, but there were a couple noteworthy ones that were more unique and cool to me - one sister has a typewriter that she uses to write old fashioned letters to pen pals regularly. A lot of the people she writes to are strangers that are part of this pen pal correspondence she found. She's only gotten to know them through letters. She also has a best friend that she literally only communicates with through letters. 😲 I applaud her for keeping it old fashioned in the kind of world we live in today. She's not much older than me either, so pretty cool for someone in my generation. Another sister keeps extensive spreadsheets about EVERYTHING in her life. Her husband calls it a talent, but she also called it a problem because it's a little excessive. I was laughing when she said that she has one that records the outfits she wears to substitute teach so she doesn't show up in repeat outfits to the same classroom. 😂😂 Too funny! 

And that brings us to today! I guess the kids heard me working out this morning, because they ended up waking up on their own before it was time to get ready. Maeve kept coming downstairs saying "Is it time yet?" or "How about now?" 🙄 I think she was excited for her half day, due to parent teacher conferences. I had mine this afternoon with her teacher and heard only good things! Maeve is a superstar needing more of a challenge everyday. She will be more than ready for first grade and it's hard to believe that she only has a few months of Kindergarten left. 😭

Other noteworthy affairs of the day include: trying out a baked oats recipe for breakfast (pretty tasty!), mopping the entire downstairs - it needed it BAD, and I had been wanting to for a few days now, but it's harder to get done with crazy Nolan these days, painting the kids nails (yep, Rowan too 🤦- and don't worry, he chose pink!), and almost pulling my hair out before Adam got home. Nolan was losing it being sooo whiny and Rowan kept charging at Maeve for no reason at all. Poor Maeve just wanted to do a reading lesson with me and we just couldn't do it because of the crazy boys. Which reminds me of this morning when Rowan wanted to read the Mouse book collection again, but him and Nolan were being CRAZY while I was reading all the books. Rowan kept insisting he was listening and it's pretty impossible to tell Nolan to be quiet, but my goodness it was NOISY! Eventually I started practically yelling the words in the book, which got their attention and mad them quiet down for a little bit, until they were back it climbing all over each other again and being loud before long. Moral of the story: boys are CRAZY! I literally was in tears tonight because sometimes 3 kids is wild and crazy and overwhelming, especially with Nolan wreaking more havoc these days.... and I just don't know if I can handle a 4th child! But then I get really emotional thinking that because I LOVE babies and feel like I need to be mentally prepared soaking every last moment in with my last baby-- and I didn't do that with Nolan because I just assumed I would have a 4th. Ugh. It's a lot and I'm sure I started crying about it tonight just because of PMS since I'm about to start my cycle. 😅🙈 Anyway, there's some real talk for ya. I leave it in God's hands. Only time will tell what's in store for our crazy family. 

That's about all I got. I wish I could go bake something right now, but all I want to bake is unhealthy desserts so it's probably not a good idea. 😂 I might not be crafty, but I love to create in my kitchen. Sadly it's not quite as fun to bake the healthy stuff. 😏 Oh well. Maybe this weekend! 

And now for my laughs of the day:

~Rowan put a toy up on the ledge in the kitchen and said to me "I'm putting this up here because I'm playing with it and I don't want Nolan to get it." 🤔 Little does he know then he can't really play with it either... 🤣

~Nolan threw a cutie on the floor, so Rowan asked Alexa if dogs can eat oranges. She responded that oranges are not considered poisonous to dogs, but might contain individual ingredients that might be toxic so it's best to check with your veterinarian 😂 so Rowan said, "So she can eat oranges, however, she can't eat oranges" 😂 - pretty solid interpretation for a 3 year old based on her answer if you ask me! 

I also remembered that I forgot to share in one of my previous posts that last Friday I not only forgot to pack a lunch for Maeve for school, but then we also forgot her backpack on the way out the door. Poor girl had to walk into school backpack-less and it felt so weird to see - luckily that kinda thing doesn't make a 5 year old self conscious! Total mom fail for me though. 🤦🤦 

Here's some pics from today and a video of Nolan saying the words apple (app) and dog (dah)! 

My baked oats! Yum

I caught him in the middle of a funny face! 😂

Trouble! 

He loves to stand on his car behind this table and one of these days he is going to totally biff it. 🤦🙈

https://youtu.be/CzfLMBzBDUo

Peace and blessings. ✌️

March 9th, 2021: Homemade bread in a bag

Well, it was a successful round 2 of waking up early to workout. So this morning Rowan and I played Uno, while Nolan was buckled into his high chair and entertained with putting popsicle sticks down our tissue paper holder. Sometimes you just gotta think outside the box to keep them happy and contained, otherwise he would have been whining to get in my lap so he could steal cards left and right. 🤦 So that's what I came up with and it totally did the trick keeping him occupied for a while. 🙌 We also did round 2 of flying our airplanes outside, and also added in some batting practice. So, we had ourselves a fun little morning before doing preschool!

Preschool was a total hoot. Rowan kept making me laugh. We talked about fruit and grains today and when I asked him what his favorite fruit was, his first response was "vegetables!" 😂🤔 We also revisited the letter M and then printed out his M for his alphabet book and used marshmallows for stamp art to decorate the M. I told him to pick out some paint colors and first he said he wanted orange and green, but then ended up pulling out pink and purple. I asked him why he got those instead of what he said first and he said, "I have to use Maeve's favorite colors!" 😂🤔 Nevermind what his favorite colors are... I guess that's besides the point. 🤷 Then we read The Little Red Hen and made our own homemade bread in a ziplock bag. In the book, the hen goes through the whole entire process starting with planting the wheat before she can turn it into flour and make her bread. I told Rowan we were going to make our own homemade bread too and he didn't seem too thrilled about it, and then asked, "Are we going to do it just like her? Plant the wheat and everything?" 😂😂🤦 No wonder he wasn't so thrilled about doing it if he thought we had to do ALL that hard work too! I laughed and told him that it would take a reeeal long time to grow some wheat ourselves and that we would just use our flour from the pantry. 😉 He was more onboard after hearing that and was a great little helper. Our loaf turned out great!! I actually figured out how to shape it too so that it would look nice and pretty. 🙌 Gotta love homemade bread - there is just nothing like it! 

Bella came over and played at our house this afternoon after Maeve got home from school. It was kinda nice because it got all the kids playing upstairs happily and I just had Nolan playing downstairs happily on his own with me while I worked in the kitchen doing dishes and prep for dinner. I made a new recipe tonight for dinner, which involved making a homemade vegan cheese dip that I then used for quesadillas and then threw some other veggies in there with black beans and pickled jalapenos. They turned out great!! I was actually very impressed by the cheese dip - it mimicked the cheese flavor pretty darn well and reminded me of queso. The consistency was awesome. As usual, Rowan would not go for it, but I did at least get him to try it. Such a bummer he didn't like it. I pray one of these days that boy will expand his horizons! Maeve scarfed hers down though, so hallelujah for that! Thank goodness I have one child I can depend on eating well.

The major lowlight of the day was Rowan peeing ALL over the floor because he didn't push his penis down in time and there was no stopping it. It went all over like a rainbow. 🙄😂 Then to make matters worse, just before I needed to leave for YW tonight, he waited a little too long to get on the pot again and sprayed me with pee yet again. 😭 How many times will I get sprayed with pee before he turns 18 and leaves my house?? 😩 It sure feels like this kid is always going to have potty issues sometimes. Heaven help me if Nolan is a Rowan 2.0 with potty training because if so, I'm throwing in the towel and I will hire someone else to be his Mom until he's 4 or 5 and doesn't struggle anymore. 😅 Those boy parts really have a way of making the potty experience rough. Girl parts are a lot more tame, I have to say. 😂🤷

Anyway, ditching the fam for YW activities and then coming home to hop on Zoom where Adam got extended a new calling brings us to now. I would say what that calling is, but I realize I shouldn't until it's a done deal on Sunday. But he didn't drop dead, so that's a plus. 😜

Enjoy these pics of the day and I'll catch ya next time. 

This kid! 😂👆👇 He's a nut for sure. 

She was too impatient to wait for me to get her a pancake ready as an afternoon snack (her request 🤷), she spread the peanut butter on it herself. 🙌👏I guess I need to have her do it herself more often! 

Quite the bread!! 😍

Peace and blessings. ✌️

March 8th, 2021: It tastes like Jesus

Last night I decided it was time to get back to waking up early to get most of my work out done before waking up Maeve to get ready for school. It's not as dark or cold in the mornings, so I feel up to it again, and it is nice to feel like I have more time during the day to just do fun stuff with the boys. And today, that was playing outside with Rowan flying his foam airplanes around, while Nolan watched from his stroller and played with random little toys on his own. It was nice and sunny and so good for my soul to be out there. Rowan loved every minute of it, so I'm glad that I woke up at 5:40am so that we could do it! 🙌💯 Honestly, I had fun too because those planes go pretty far when you use the slingshot launcher. 😂 It was also really nice to have no interruptions during my workout!! That's honestly a big reason why it ends up feeling like we don't have much time to do stuff together because my 1 hour workout gets turned into a 2 hour workout because of all the times I have to stop to help feed the boys, take Rowan potty, read him a book really quick because he's dying for it, play with his wind up cars for 5 minutes, etc. And then I feel kind of guilty leaving them to play on their own for even more time after that to do my scripture study - so it's much better this way and a win for everyone to get back to waking up before the sun comes up all the way. 

Rowan helped me make pancakes for breakfast, and while eating them, he looked in my water bottle and said, "There's a booger in your water". After seeing my disgust, he laughed and said, "Just kidding!" 😂🤦 He then went on to tell me about a time when he saw a crumb in his water, but drank it anyway, and said that it tasted good. 🙈 Gross! 

This afternoon I witnessed a modern day miracle. Maeve told me she finished her ENTIRE lunch, and I was able to confirm with my own eyes that her lunch box was in fact empty after school. She was so giddy about it, especially because I made such a big deal out of it, and it was too cute. 🥰 

Once settled in at home, while Maeve was on FaceTime with Gram, Rowan and I were playing with Nolan at the top of the stairs near the baby gate for a little bit, throwing a ball back and forth and watching him open and close the gate over and over. We kept saying "Hi!" and "Bye!" as he would open and shut it and Rowan thought it was just hilarious that he kept wanting to do it. 😂 It's the little things with these babies! I also went to see if Nolan would give me a high 5 and he totally did! It was cracking me up because every time he would give me one he couldn't help but yell out with excitement afterwards. 😂😍 Sweet, silly boy!

My two other favorite moments of the day were this evening watching Maeve clean up the toys and basically do a dance routine as she was doing it. 😂 I told her she was my favorite human as I was watching her and I just hope she can always turn work into fun! Also, a few minutes later Rowan took a sip from his water bottle and said, "It tastes like Jesus" 😂🤔 - to be fair, he had just looked at a picture of Jesus. I guess that means it was some goooood water. 

The kids are really into the chapter book we're reading, which is Polly and Buster - The Wayward Witch & Feelings Monster and I must say that I am loving it too! It's kinda fun to read something with more meat to that isn't just over in 2 seconds. It's also been fun to see if Maeve can remember what we read the day before, before we start reading again and her reading comprehension has been spot on. 👌

OH and before I wrap up, last night Adam told me that he got a message from a high councilor asking if we could both meet with him on Tuesday night. So of course that most likely means one of us is getting a new calling and Adam is convinced it's him. The whole rest of the night, he was just thinking of all the possible callings it could be and had his panties in a total wad over it. 😂😂 Watch it will be a calling for me and not him! We'll see tomorrow and I'll be here to report if it's ugly or either of us has dropped dead over it. 😜 

Last, but not least, somehow while I was sharing the laughs of the weekend in my post from last night, I skipped over one. And ironically, this is one that got written on the list, but that actually didn't happen over the weekend, but I forgot to write about during the week last week. I don't remember what night it was, but after dinner Adam got himself into a MAJOR sneezing fit. He sneezed SO many times that his eyes started to water so bad. I kinda couldn't believe my eyes and eventually Maeve said, "I don't think Dad can go to work anymore... he can't stop sneezing!" 😂😂

I'll leave you with some pictures of me and my tiniest little lover, who started snuggling with me hard core because he had hurt himself so I had to snap a pic. And then decided to snap a few more cause why not! 😂😍

Here's a couple videos too from last week that I forgot to share of Maeve and Nolan dancing together. 😍😍

https://youtu.be/HbmCj13S8yI

https://youtu.be/0DNXfCQp0Nc

Peace and blessings. ✌️

March 5th-7th, 2021: Playdates, casual dinners out, & boring adulting

Another Sunday night has rolled around and I'll be honest and say that it hasn't been the most exciting weekend - but maybe I mostly feel that way because today was full of doing all the things that just needed to get done around the house. 🤷

Friday morning we took Zoey back to the vet to follow up so the vet could make sure she was doing okay again. It took all of 5 minutes, and they told us it would be free of charge, but when we checked out we were told we did have an office visit fee to pay. Apparently if you're not signed up for a "packaged plan" with them, then you are always supposed to pay an office visit fee no matter what. Luckily though, since we were told it would be free, and I said that we would not have gone in had it not been free, they took care of it and did not charge me. 🙏 And of course, they said she was just fine after looking at her. And speaking of Zoey, something else I did on Friday was give her a very much needed haircut and bath. Had to get rid of her winter coat! That morning she apparently rolled all around in the woodchips and got tons of chips stuck in her hair that I had to pull off 🤦, so I am glad that she is all short again! She always looks like a rat at first, so I kinda have a love hate relationship with her hair being short - I like that she's clean cut and her hair is soooo soft when it is really short, but she does look a little less cute when she's so skinny and tiny looking. It won't take too long though for her to look less like a rat though, so it works out. 😂

We shook things up and had a playdate at our house with Amanda and her kids after Maeve was back home from school. We usually always go to their house, but playdates during the week are kinda hard with Nolan's nap and then picking Maeve up from school. With them living 25 minutes away, there's not a super big window of time between those 2 things to make it worth it enough to go, and since she home schools her kids are just always with her so she has a little more flexibility. It was probably a good thing to have some company though because it gave me the push to do some cleaning tasks that I had neglected for a little while. As always, it was good to hang out with them! I feel for her though because she is just having a tough year - since finding out that her other son also has Tuberous Sclerosis, he had to go get some scans and procedures done to check for abnormalities and he does have a lesion in his brain. They don't know all the details yet, but she's definitely in knots about it waiting to find out. Can't blame her one bit! So stressful and unfortunate. 🥺 

Adam actually got home early from work on Friday and stopped at Costco on his way home. He decided to get some of the sorbet we love from there that come inside of fruit and coconut peels - they're too cute and so good! That was a fun surprise. 🙌

After the kids went to bed, I made a new homemade salsa recipe I found and it is 👌👌 - and then I caved and got some crumbl cookies because the birthday cake oreo flavor was calling my name. It was so worth it! Yum. I also talked to Dan for his birthday, since he requested that I not call him the day of since he'd already been on the phone enough with some of our other family members. Always good to catch up! 

Saturday morning I took Maeve to her dance class and she still enjoyed it the second time around, so that's good! We got to order her tutu dress, tights, and ballet slippers that she will wear to class each week, so that was fun!! I am excited for her to get those. She will look too cute in it! 

For the first time in a while, Adam actually went roofing! The weather has been so wacko lately on Saturdays so he has not been able to get out. He actually went in the afternoon this time and was gone from 3-6. I was kinda bummed because Nolan would not go to sleep at 11am when he was supposed to, and instead had lunch and then fell asleep after the second attempt at 1pm. We had planned on going to the Discovery Center, but with it only open until 3:30pm and him going down so late it did not work out. Instead, I read some to the kids (we started a new chapter book and they're finally engaged to keep up with it! 🙌🙌) and then took them to the playground. There are two different sections near each other at that playground and they were making me laugh by pretending that one section was Rowan's castle and the other was Maeve's castle and they'd invite each other over to play. 😂 After Adam got home, we went to dinner at McAlister's deli - it is right by Culver's and I noticed it recently and decided to check out the menu. It looked pretty good and I found out my sister has actually eaten there before and likes it, so we took the plunge. I really liked my sandwich, but wish that I got the half salad Adam got instead of the loaded potato I got. His salad was a lot better. 🤦 Usually we both order different things so that we can try each other's, but honestly we should have both gotten that salad. But no way to know that ahead of time, so what can you do. Maeve actually did a great job eating her dinner (which had both fruits and veggies in it so score), while Rowan on the other hand basically didn't touch his. Luckily Nolan helped out and was happy to take scraps. 

Which brings us to today and other than church, it was very unexciting. I think I just made that word up. 😂 I took everything out and cleaned the shelves in the fridge, which had been on my list for longer than I'd like to admit, so that felt good to cross that one off. I also treated some stains in some clothing and got caught up on some more laundry. So yeah, a total party for others to be jealous that they didn't attend. 😂😜 Meanwhile the kids did some reading with Adam, did some pretend play, did facetime with Gram, and played outside some. 

And now for the laughs of the weekend, which ironically almost all of these happened at the kids bedtime on Saturday and it almost made me slap happy as a result 😂:

~The kids and I were putting a puzzle together to clean it up and we finished everything but the last 2 pieces, and couldn't find them. Maeve had a silly look on her face, so I knew she hid them, but what I didn't know is that she hid them in her pants. 🙈 She literally pulled them out from the front of her pants.... 🤦😂 Crazy girl!

~Rowan uses "this year" to refer to what happens in the span of a day and it totally cracks me up! While getting ready for bed, he insisted, "I've been quiet this year!" 😂 Bet you can guess if that was actually true or not. 😉

~Rowan about took my breath away when he did NOT push his penis down correctly in time and sprayed me all down my shirt and pants. And actually, I realize now that that is not funny at all, but instead very annoying and gross. 😑

~Maeve came up with a great knock knock joke:

"Knock knock" 

"Who's there?"

"Jar"
"Jar who?"

"Jar of pickles pooping" 

Her explanation was "it's funny cause pickles down have butts or a toilet so it's really weird and crazy" 😂😂

~Adam said "come give me a hug honey" and I almost fell for it until I realized that he just wanted to crack my back 🤦 

~On Friday night at bedtime, Rowan was talking about how he doesn't like the slide at the Discovery Center, and he said, "Yeah, that slide is gray and I don't like gray anymore. I just like black and brown." 😂🤔

Aaaand now for a few pics:

He was cracking me up putting my shirt around his neck like that 😂

Of course Rowan is obsessed with Maeve's new headbands... But that doesn't surprise me 😂

He told me he put his whole hand in the peanut butter jar because I left it open 🙄🤦

Peace and blessings. ✌️

March 4th, 2021: Crazy sock day

I have a confession. After I blogged last night Adam went and got me a papadia from Papa Johns. I saw this ad and it just looked so good that it got my mouth watering. It's like quesadilla meets pizza. It was pretty dang good! Definitely fits in the junk category, but sometimes you just have to give in. * I mean look at this pic... 👇 They know how to get you with ads - the only shame is you get it and it never looks quite so perfect as the pic. 😂

Anyway, onto today. It was crazy sock day for Maeve at school in honor of Dr. Seuss's book Fox in Socks. She decided to make it extra crazy by wearing 2 different crazy socks instead of a matching pair. She told me she was the only one that did that. 😂🤷

Adam worked from home today, which was nice because I wanted to be in on the New Member call in the coaching program I'm a part of now and it happened to be at 11am, which is when he takes a lunch break. So convenient! I feel like I'm better acquainted with the program now and how it all works, so that's nice. The good news is I feel like there's so much more I can get out of this program than figuring out how to manage my throw up fears, so it should be pretty life changing. 

It was such nice weather today, so after my call and lunch time, Rowan and I spent some time outside and he rode his bike and scooter around and did some running races against himself where I timed him. He was being so funny about his helmet though and eventually insisted that he wear his helmet every other time riding down the path that he was riding on. So, he kept switching between his hat and his helmet. Not sure what was going on in his little brain to make him want to do that. Maybe it was just him compromising considering he didn't want to wear it at all at first, but I wanted him to wear it the whole time. 😂🤷 Funny kid.

He had me laughing this morning when he found a pair of scissors in the drawer of the entry way table and said, "Mom! Who put the scissors in here?? They're not supposed to be in there cause I can get them. They're supposed to be up high!" 😂 So honest of him to turn them in to me instead of just sneaking away and cutting papers up into a million pieces like he normally does with them. 

After Maeve got home from school, she was a pretty cranky mess at first. I felt like I kept having to put out fires for the first 45 minutes and she was just a crying mess over this and that. Luckily things mellowed out and her and Rowan started playing school and invited me in as the student. Maeve and I even had pretend names, Bella and Stella respectively. 😂 Her and Rowan were both teachers and Maeve was writing down math problems for me to answer. After Rowan hadn't done any teaching yet, he said "I'm not teaching, only Maeve is, but there are two teachers here!" 😂🤔 Had to point himself out as a teacher without even doing any teaching. Too funny. 

After Adam finished work, we went out to take the kids to a playground. On our way, we decided to get a car wash and we had Zoey with us, so she got to experience her first car wash. Eventually she started barking and was pretty confused about what was going on. 😂 The kids had a blast at the playground - their favorite one - which is at the other elementary school. If I had known Nolan would totally hate the baby swings, we would have just gone there on Sunday too, so now we know. When we got home they raced to the front door (their new thing) and Rowan got there first and said, "You losed! But you still win if you lose the game, Maeve." 😂🤔 Might not make any sense, but too cute that he was trying to make her feel better about it. 🥰

Oh man, Maeve totally cracked me up when I put her to bed tonight. We were getting ready to do her homework sheet before she settled into bed and she said, "I think I need to grab another pen because I can't find the other one I got." She slowly moseyed over to get another one and come back to me, but when she was next to me again, she got a strange confused look on her face as she referenced her sleeve and said, "Hmmm, I think I feel something up there...." and what do you know, out popped a pen from her sleeve! 😂😂 I was so thrown off and asked her if she planned to do that to trick me and she said yes. 🤣 What a little jokester! 

Nolan had me laughing all day today and you'll see why from the pictures below. He is such a ham and changing so much these days. He is starting to feel less and less like my baby, but he also can't walk still so I guess I shouldn't go too far with that statement. He does know how to safely climb back down the stairs now after he climbs up them, so that's nice. 🙌 He did try and climb onto the very top of the couch tonight to balance himself there - pretty sure we're going to end up with some injuries here soon. 😳 He's too mischievous for his own good! 

And before I share those pictures, the only other thing to report is that I just went to Walmart to try and get Maeve a pink sleeveless dress that looks like Sally's from Cat in the Hat so she can dress up as her tomorrow. They didn't have one, but she's got another dress that is sleeveless that is close enough to pink that it's fine. Has a little more red in it, but oh well, it will work fine enough. I picked up a few other things including stuff to make a new salsa recipe I found, so I'm excited to try that out! 🙌

Since that's a wrap, here are the pics of the day: 

Cause why not just get right in the basket to play?! 😂👆👇

He loves to throw his head back and it cracks me up. 😂

NBD, just turned the basket over to use it as a seat 😂

His little feet 😍

That little diapered butt standing on his tip toes gazing up at the TV totally enthralled. It's too much! 😍

Peace and blessings. ✌️

March 3rd, 2021: Wacky Tacky Day

First things first, today is my oldest brother Dan's birthday. Party hard Dan! 🥳

In honor of the Dr. Seuss's book Wacky Wednesday, Maeve got to dress up wacky tacky for school today. Always a fun time! She fit the part for sure. She slept with her hair in a high pony braid so that she could take it down in the morning and have a dent and lots of crimped hair. 😂 By the end of the day though, the dent was gone and her hair actually looked super cute all crimped. Who knew! She went on and on about how wacky everything was in the book Wacky Wednesday and told me that everyone was just "laughing their heads off". 😂😂 

I feel like there isn't a whole lot worth mentioning today - it ended up being pretty busy because in addition to the normal stuff we do I also had to plan the rest of the meals for the week and then go grocery shopping with the boys before picking up Maeve. Two of the most noteworthy things that stand out to me from the day though are: 1. Nolan discovered that he can climb onto the bench by our front door and reach the light switch. I think he was pretty proud of himself to see that light turn on in our entry way. 😂🤦 and 2. Rowan didn't aim quite right while going potty this evening and straight up sprayed me in the face and neck with his pee. I literally felt some pee drip down my shirt and onto my chest. 😖🤢 So gross! 

I have a few things that have popped into my mind from past few days that I realized I forgot to write about. Those things are:

 

1. On Sunday night I told Adam that I finally finished the Book of Mormon. I got through Ether, but then end of November and December were crazy with us getting Covid, having my bro in town, and then spending a couple weeks with family for Christmas so I got behind. 🙈 When I told him I finished, he decided to test my knowledge and started asking me all these questions about the book. I got most of the questions right, so booyah. Then he switched to the Old Testament and I think I got only one of those right... someday I'll understand the Old Testament better. 

2. Why is it that when you are so proud as a parent for coming up with a genius idea that gets your child to cooperate happily, only to have it work for a few days?? The novelty wears off and then they're back to not caring at all what you want them to do. That's Rowan once again with getting dressed. So much for the timer trick, cause it doesn't work anymore. 🙄😭

3. As of late the baby hairs that stick out where my cowlick is have been driving me NUTS. I hate that it makes it look like there's a clump of hair sticking out, making my hairline look anything but smooth and straight. I was complaining to Adam about it and wondered if I could just cut them off. So he did a thing and took his electric razor to my head and buzzed them off. 😯 Kinda crazy, but it did the trick and now it looks soooo much better! I don't even care if I have to rebuzz every few days to keep up on it, it is so worth it. 🙌🙌

4. The other night I had this wacko dream where I had another baby, but instead of delivering like normal I went into labor early and had the baby in like 2 seconds at my house. Then Adam said, "we probably have to go to the hospital because they might say that you need to put the baby back inside since he/she came so early" 😂😂🤔 and I was seriously sooo distraught at the thought of that. I was just hoping and praying I wouldn't have to birth the baby again. Then I got to the hospital and all these people were like "that's YOUR baby??" and I'm all "yeah - it's actually my 4th baby. I have 3 other kids at home even though I look like I'm 16. It's fine." 😂😂😂 They were all so shocked I could even be a mother. Too funny! 

Wellll, that's a wrap. Enjoy these cute pics from the day!

😂😍

Backwards shirt for the win 👊

I could eat that little body! It's a good thing he's so cute!! 

I just can't even with him and this hedgehog. 😍😍 I'm laughing because it was literally the only stuffed animal available to buy for him for Valentines Day and he LOVES it! It was clearly meant to be. ❤️

Peace and blessings. ✌️