Mud Slinging

Kids don't need a lot to have fun, and Benjamin (4) had so much fun playing with the mud today. Beautiful day, in the 60's, and little kids getting dirty. Perfect.

My little ones found the new package of hair elastics and decided to help them to freedom. All over the floor. The plus side: We were in a hotel room. The downside: I swear it was the 1000 pack. Sorry Ramada, for the mess.

How to Clear a Pool

Just coincidentally, after our family of seven arrived at the pool and started splashing, jumping, making noise, and being us, everyone else at the pool left. I wonder if there was some hotel scheduled party. Cause I am sure they all didn't leave on such a beautiful day just because of us-----------if you ever want to clear a pool area within minutes, we can help you out with that.

I have been wondering what exactly caused the simultaneous clearing of all pool patrons. Could it have been......

Jumping from chair to chair like Tigger? I think Maddie thought the chairs were mini trampolines to bounce on.


Or could it have been jumping into Daddy's arms in the hot tub and splashing everyone?



Or maybe Dylan's jumps?



Or just all the splashing in general?



Was it the kids hiding in the bushes?



The older boys jumping into the water?




Or perhaps all the "bubbles" in the water?




Hmmmm. I will have to be thinking on that. Let me know if you have any thoughts---

Don't turn on the water....

It happens to be really warm out today, so the kids went outside to play. What always happens when you start with the warning, "Don't turn on the water?" At least, around here, they clearly believe it is my invitation for them to turn on the water!!! Lately, this happens on a daily basis it seems, and all their clothes and shoes get muddy. So much fun, as you can imagine.

"Mommy, look. Stickers."

"Mommy, look. Stickers." Whenever you hear that, it is the signal that your stamp collection has been discovered and demolished. Her smile says everything. Just think. For several dollars, your child can experience great joy also. Who needs toys?

My baby girl likes her some chocolate cake......

The girl loves chocolate!

Displaying her new chocolate/whip cream gloves

What a cutie!


I guess old habits die hard! THIS is Maddie about a year and a half ago. Same girl, different chocolate cake, same outcome.

If she didn't look so darn cute, I might be better able to scold her. I had to laugh. Her hands looked like they had little chocolate/whip cream gloves on them. The good thing about this year, as opposed to about a year and a half ago.....she didn't step in the chocolate cake. Much less of a mess. It's getting better all the time. (Do you hear the Beatles song in your head?) And actually, I will be so bored when I don't have any more of these messes to clean up. What will I do? And what will I have to blog about?

When I see these pictures, I cannot help but think of the "Fifty Cent" song with the famous line (which I can relate to): "I love you like a fat kid loves cake." Love that song!!!


And SPINNER had the audacity to name it one of the 20 worst lyric lines ever (although if you want a good laugh, you should read their list. Funny, funny, funny. Especially the line by Elton John, "If I was a sculptor, but then again no." I love Elton, but that is a pretty poor lyrical line.

"I love you like
A fat kid loves cake"

--50 Cent's '21 Questions'

"Gangsta, schmangsta -- brotha should write Hallmark cards." -Spinner

Don't be hating!!! (Don't we all have a gangsta within?)

It is never a good thing for me to have cake around, so I guess it is better to have it gone. Once again, Maddie saved me some calories. You can always count on kids for that! And hey, we had to get rid of all the holiday treats still hanging around.

What I love about her, she doesn't do anything HALFWAY. She just dives RIGHT in and makes sure she gets her fill!!! To be three again!

If you were able to follow this blog entry, you are probably living with a person suffering from ADD. Congratulations on your incredible ability to unravel all the threads!

Why you should never take kids out to restaurants

Reason #1:
They stick straws in their ear, and try to wiggle their loose tooth out

Reason #2:
They climb all over the place
Reason #3:
They climb all over the place and even begin to spit.

(And I am not mentioning our sound effect system that comes with our family everywhere we go)

Why do we continue to go out with five kids in tow?
Reason #1:
We're stupid.
Reason #2:
At least we don't have to clean up the mess.
Reason #3:
We foolishly keep thinking it will get better.
Reason #4
Mama and Papa don't have to cook.

Don't leave your laptop open ......

on your bed, when you have a 2 year old and 2 three year olds. Although, Dylan (2) and Maddie (3) were solely responsible for this escapade. If you do happen to leave that laptop open, the 2 and 3 year old may pull many of the keys off. Getting the little white thingamujiggies back on and trying to place the keys back on......hateful. So, like me, you can just ignore it, and see how good a typist you are with some of the keys missing.

My children always are stretching my limits. Don't be too jealous. Coveting is a sin you know.



Anyone wanna' play some Scrabble? I have a few letters.

Need a sensory experience?

Try a lasagna foot soak.

Here's a little hint I learned the hard way: If you are a Mom, you cannot excuse yourself to use the bathroom. Learn to hold it all day long. If you do take a 2 minute potty break, you may return to your little 2 year old son Dylan, up on the counter, placing his feet in the lasagna. Don't look inside my unorganized messy cabinets----that's why they have doors that are usually closed. Anyway, I love his look of triumph. Luckily, I had placed a portion in the microwave already, that we could eat for lunch. The rest, trash. Work on holding that bladder, then you can avoid some of these "fun" incidents.

After eating the lasagna, all 3 babies were quite messy. Maybe there is a reason chicken nuggets are a staple in the diet of children.

Mom, what do ya' expect, ya' gave me lasagna!

Guess who cut her bangs?

I'll give you two guesses, and the first one doesn't count. Yes, my sweet 2 year old Maddie is on one lately. Luckily, I had her hair in pigtails, or she probably would've gotten to the rest of her hair.

On another note, I just loved this pink ballerina type dress while it was on the hanger. In person, it sorta' looks like someone had a little too much cotton-candy, if you know what I mean!

The redemption: It is a great "spin" dress.

How to Rotate your Food Storage

(More pictures and details have been requested of the blessed event of this last weekend.)

How to Rotate your Food Storage:

Get two toddlers (preferably almost ages 3 and 4 as they need strength for the task at hand). These two will do! You can borrow them if necessary!


Send them to your food storage. Or, if you are the average Mom, just send them to the basement, and they will just happen to find their way to your food storage.

They will open many packages of your food storage. In our case it was four 25 pound bags of sugar. Yes, 100 pounds, not to mention the beans.


This way, you will be able/forced to replace items in your food storage that may have been there too long. Or, as was our case, you will be able to rotate your food storage even if it has NOT been there too long. A great way to make sure you always have the freshest ingredients in your food storage. I mean, in a famine, would you not want the most fresh food storage possible?


Sad to say, this was not all of the sugar. Thank goodness for our shop vac---and a man to carry 100 pounds of mess upstairs. Juan, oh I mean Brandon, thank you sooooo much. You's the man! It really helps to have a pool boy around---

The end of the mess---lots of beans, a little sugar.


Since we had 100 pounds of sugar for devouring, maybe we should have just bought 2 sugargliders. Then maybe all that sugar wouldn't have gone to waste.

I also have toy/gift storage in that closet which is probably what my toddlers were after in the first place. (Cause you know in an emergency, you will need toys.) I had bought this Princess throne on sale at amazon many months ago so we could use this "throne" for Madison for her 3rd birthday, where OBVIOUSLY the theme would be Princess. Well, as you can see, Madison was quite determined to open this. I know Madison was behind this because she has a superhuman gift to destroy cardboard. I am sure Benjamin helped her out a ton.

For once, (and I mean ONCE) I was grateful for the dreadful, hateful packaging, that is so hard for even adults to open. This time, that annoying quality was actually on my side and prevented Maddie from opening part of her birthday gift.

Yeah, I guess we are not too good at surprises around here.

Luckily for the children, we had been watching General Conference and therefore they did not get beaten. (JUST KIDDING!)

If you want to read the prior post on this :and I guess they wanted to celebrate

And I guess they wanted to celebrate Christmas.....or go to the beach?

So, I foolishly sent the Maddie and Benj to the basement to play. Food Storage Break-In. They opened the door to our cold storage/food storage room. They found the sugar (several 25 pound bags), they also found the beans. I guess we need to get a lock for that door. (Needless to say, I was quite upset, and Maddie and Benj will be spending some time in their room today.)

If you need a cup of sugar, come on over.

Who needs snow or sand when you have sugar?

A Bad Combination

I thought I had put the wheel high enough out of their reach. I guess I was wrong.

Who Needs a Spa?

Don't worry about going to the spa and spending money on a mud treatment. For a small fee, (OK, I will let my close friends and family members participate for free) I would be more than willing to allow you to come to my back yard and roll around in the mud. I will even include a photo session free of charge (and put the pictures on my blog.) Or perhaps you enjoy making mud pies? I am available for all your possible mud needs!

The children had a blast in the mud today. Benjamin (3) picked up handfuls of mud and threw it at Maddie and a friend. Since they were already so muddy from playing in it, I suggested they REALLY get the job done and make "mud angels". Benjamin did. He had a blast. (BTW, the mud area is the down side of having a waterslide up all summer.) Now that the waterslide is away, they are now playing in the mud. I think they may enjoy playing in the mud more than they enjoyed playing on the waterslide. (as you can see, Maddie was not so sure about the mud, nor was Dylan)

OK, I will admit that there is a secret part of me that wishes I was a little kid and could get away with rolling around in the mud, making mud pies, and throwing mud snowballs at people. (Maybe one night when noone is looking, LATE at night, my husband and I will sneak out and have our own little mud party. Wouldn't that secretly be fun?)




























Mommy, have you forgotten that I am a girly-girl and do not like mud?




Please help me Mommy! Get this mud off me. Where are Benji's shorts?



The best part, is when Maddie (2) was all muddy, she came over to where we were sitting, grabbed Benjamin's shorts, and started to wipe all the mud off of her, onto Benjamin's shorts. Then, with a huge smile, she said to us, just to make sure we knew, "These are Benji's shorts!"

This is what happens when-----

WARNING: Do not read this entry or look at the picture below if you are pregnant, get sicked out by potty issues, etc.

This is what happens when your child (Dylan, 20 months) is in that "taking off their diaper" phase. I had already replaced his diaper twice, and I was getting clothes to put on him (so he couldn't take off his diaper. He hasn't quite figured out how to take his clothes off yet.) Clearly, I did not get his clothes on soon enough as I had this little token of his love on my living room floor. Just be glad you didn't have to smell it. Anyway, when this happens first thing in the morning, you can only imagine what the rest of the day might be like----as this might be a foreshadowing event. Although the foreshadowing event may have been my son Brandon(8)vomiting all over the floor after taking his medicine this morning (which happened prior to the poop incident). Be happy I didn't take a picture of that.

You know how the schools make themes for the days to make them more exciting for kids? In taking their lead, I am going to name today "Bodily Functions Day" at our house as a result of the fun times we have already experienced today. Again, where is that imaginary nanny when I need her---she always chooses the most inopportune moments to take a day off! When things like this happen, I just want to hop into bed, sleep for a couple hours and start the day over.

Don't they always say to look at the bright side? The bright side: I don't have carpet. Vomit and poop are much easier to clean off of laminate flooring! I am SOOOOO glad I upgraded that arena of our house.

I know, I have hit a new low----taking pictures of my child's poop. (Although it is quite an impressive size for such a little guy.) I just don't want ANYONE to miss ANY of the fun going on around here. We definately don't want to sugar coat things around here---Let's just face it, some days as a Mom can be quite crappy. Literally.

(At least I made the photo "SMALL"! I know, I am so kind and thoughtful. You're welcome!)

I find myself sarcastically singing the song----"You can never know the good if you never know the bad, you can never be happy if you've never been sad----------" Thanks to poop moments, I can "know the good". Gotta' love "My Turn on Earth." Anyone remember that? If you don't, and want me to sing all the songs to you, I can.