What do YOU do all day GiVeAWay

I am the oldest of 5. I have 1 sister and 3 brothers. We are all mostly grown up now. I used to think of how much fun it would be when we were all growed up and married, playing games while the little grandkids were running around. Well so far mine are the only ones "running" around.... and I am just about done, while the others are still "in progress." :)

About 5 years ago, my brother was just getting ready to go on his mission. He was at my house visiting. When I have a sibling over, I try to NOT fuss or frass, but I sit on the couch and visit, depending on the nature of the visit. After one such visit with my oldest younger brother, he was leaving and he asked, "So what do you do all day?" Huh? I am sorry? At this point, I Savannah was 4, Mikenna was 2, and I was in school full time. Hmmmmm.

Fast forward to 5 years later. My middle youngest brother was over for dinner. He asked, "So now that you aren't working, what do you do all day?" Again. HUH? I am sorry? Did I hear you correctly?

Now while I don't imagine that either of my brothers were trying to imply that I do nothing.... One must wonder the genuineness of such a question. My initial response to the question is,

"Well I have a maid to clean my bathrooms once a week, vacuum twice a week, sweep and mop daily, wash dry put away 8-10 loads of laundry a week, empty put away and load dishes at least twice daily.

I have a cook to prepare all of my meals daily (breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack, milk before bed) and lets not forget the grocery shopping to prepare those meals.

I have a nanny to entertain kids, run kids to tumbling, ballet, music, and therapy twice a week, dress kids, bath kids, do kids hair, follow them around and pick up all their 'piles,' and come up with endless activities to occupy said kids with crafts, swimming, story time, library, museums, movies.

And a personal tutor for each of them to help with homework, reading, math, fine and gross motor skills, etc."

So as you see, I have a lot of free time on my hands. I have to wake up early every day to fit in all that I need to. 10am. Then I make myself a shake and head to the gym for two hours. I come home, shower, go get a mani, pedi, and my hair done. After all that stress, I head off to the spa for a massage. Oh and don't forget lunch with my besties and all the shopping I have to do for all the parties I am in charge of.

Ok we all know that's a lie. I don't live in New York and I am definitely NOT a New York housewife.

So take away the Nanny, the cook, the maid, and the tutor..... And that my brothers is what I do all day, every day. And the "now that you don't work......" line :) Well I am a Nanny, a cook, a maid, and a tutor. I think they call that a MOTHER. LOVE Ya!

To all you Woman out there (or men :)), leave a comment (AND EMAIL ADDRESS) about one thing you do with your kids and receive a $15 gift card to Target for something "FUN." And if you don't follow me already, add yourself. Don't be shy :)

I will draw names on August 9 because we could all use a little extra to get ready for school. I will email the winner and you will have 24 hours to reply. If I don't hear from you after 24 hours, I will redraw and repeat :). Good LUCK

DROID

I have a DROID. There I said it out loud....

Whenever I receive a text message, it says "DROID." At first I thought this was annoying, which by the way it is. So I changed it to something more sophisticated.... Lady Gaga. I know. Again. I said it out loud. I only like SOME of her songs.... she is weird. SO then after I figured out that she was weird, I put on Chris Daughtry. I digress.

But then I got a new phone because Isabella tore it apart and the default ring is "DROID."

I was going to fix it except that we were all sitting at the table and my phone beeped "DROID" and Isabella growled. IT WAS HILARIOUS. So whenever my phone says "DROID" Isabella says, "RRRAAAARRRRR!"

So until she stops, my phone will ring the annoying "DROID" because I never get sick of hearing her growl.

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BY the WAY. Yesterday was her first day in nursery. I have a few things to do right after our first block so I was unable to take her in. Doug took her in and she was fine. Then he left. Then she screamed. Hysterically. It's a good thing she is ADORABLE, so one of the ladies just picked her up and loved on her.

She STILL screamed. HYSTERICALLY.

SO after I was finished with my said tasks, I went in. She was quite clingy and I honestly don't think she will EVER go back, but on the first day to just drop her off and leave???? What kind of mother am I? RUDE!!!! Just ask HER.

Any suggestions on how to "wean" her into her "new" class? HELP!!!!!

Finally

Finally....

We made it HOME!

My house is a mess.

My laundry basket is over flowing.

My cupboards are empty.

But I am home.

And home is good.

Z kunZiZmZ

PG-13 Movies….

We have been in Idaho these last few weeks enjoying the GORGEOUS views, riding tractors, four wheeler rides, horseback riding, and traveling back and forth to Rexburg, MANY late nights of Wacky Six (a super fun card game that you all wish you had), and Just Dance on the Wii (I may need to invest).

On one of the trips to Rexburg, Savannah wanted to watch a movie. A little background. All of the cousins are really into the “ratings” of the movies: PG, PG-13, and what is appropriate for them to watch. Well Savannah wanted to watch Spiderman… because she loves all things BOY. She doesn’t understand ratings or what she should and shouldn’t watch. Heck she barely sits still for ten minutes…. Let alone watching an entire movie. So here is the conversation…..ish.

Savannah, “Papa Ryan, I want to watch Spiderman.”

All kids in the car, “It is PG-13, we can’t watch it.” (all said in individual tiny voices at least ten times)

Savannah, “Papa Ryan, I want to watch Spiderman.” (a little more adamantly than before… ok A LOT)

Papa Ryan, “I am sorry Savannah, it is PG-13 and you aren’t allowed to watch PG-13 movies.”

Savannah, “Papa, I really want to watch Spiderman.” (whining….perhaps screaming as well….with tears)

Papa Ryan, “I am sorry Savannah. We aren’t going to watch it.”

Savannah, (yelling I am sure… and VERY impatiently) “BUT MY OTHER GRANDPA LETS ME!”

Way to rat us all out Savannah…..

Naked Boy

We have also been lucky enough to travel to SLC to see my friend from AZ Amy. She has 4 boys. We had just spent the afternoon at a splash pad and so all the kids were in swimsuit attire. We entered Walmart to stock up on some needed supplies: movies, popcorn, cookie dough

While traveling into the store Amy said, “Savannah, whose hand do you want to hold.”

Savannah, (pointing to her 2^nd oldest) “Not dis one, he a naked boy (he was only wearing swim trunks)” and she grabbed onto her oldest’s hand and walked in.

After we got into the store one of Amy’s boys asked if Savannah was going to get into the cart, Savannah piped in, waved her hand, and said, “HECK NO.” They all busted up laughing.

That night after getting ready for bed, one of the boys said, “Mom, I can’t wait until tomorrow, so we can have some good laughs with Savannah.”

Animal Sounds

Isabella learned a lot at the farm. She learned about HUGE animals. Some that could potentially eat her… or so she thought. She does NOT like dogs, as evidenced by the freezing motion and high pitched screams for them to leave her alone, which only encourages said obnoxious animals….

She learned that a cow says MOOOOO. In fact, I think she believes that a cow IS a MOO. She puckers up her lips in a cute kissing face and says, MOOOOO. And then in her sweetest voice she says “OW” which is MEOW without the ME. LOL.

She is getting so big. While we were at Granny’s, she LOVED riding the tractors with Papa Ryan, the four wheeler with Colt, and dancing to the Wii. It was hilarious. She followed all of her older cousins around and they just mothered her. Its proving to be more difficult than I thought to break her of her 24/7 attention from all of the little mothers.

Girls at Play

Wow, did Mikenna even go to Idaho? I don’t remember seeing her. Not even at meal time. Thanks to all the aunts who made her a plate when I was feeding Isabella or chasing Savannah. Mikenna just played and played and played and played some more. There are about 6 little girls all within 3 years of each other and they get along so great. I only heard one, “Should we be friends with her? She isn’t being very nice.” Which I PROMPTLY said, I don’t care if she is nice or NOT, SHE IS YOUR FRIEND!!!!

Mikenna was hilarious on the Wii dancing. I would totally post video here…. But I am in it as well. And lets just say, You are GRATEFUL!

The Pink Shirt

A while ago, Daniel bought a pink shirt. We gave him so much crap over it, but he kept wearing it, saying, "I am a sexy beast, and I can pull off a pink shirt." And he could. And he did.

Well his closet was raided (as they usually are) when he left on his mission, and Doug inherited the pink shirt.

He wore this said pink shirt swimming... around his family... and of course they gave him crap. While changing in the dressing room at the swimming pool he had the towel around his waist. Somehow the towel ended up on the floor. My nephew (6 years old) exclaimed, "SEE THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR WEARING A PINK SHIRT!!!!!"

Case of the Poopy diaper...

Doug walked into our room last night and came upstairs. He inquired if I had left a poopy diaper in the bedroom. I told him I hadn't changed a poopy diaper and maybe Savannah had pooped her pants...stranger things have happened. So he went trucking downstairs to see about a the poopy pants. Didn't turn up anything. Not even a stinky garbage.

I walked into the room. Took one wiff. And instantly knew what was amuck. I had taken Isabella's shoes off earlier....you know the aforementioned cute pair of shoes I bought at payless for 6.99 when we took the girls shopping to the mall a few weeks ago? Ya. Those. I knew the smell of the dirty feet. Being the dutiful mother I am, I promptly wiped her feet with baby wipes.

Alas, she could have used something a little bit stronger... like bleach? Although I am sure there is something on the label that says, "warning.... do not use to clean the feet of toddlers" not much different than the Benadryl label that reads "warning.... do not use to put toddler to sleep" no of course I would never think of using it for a 17 hour car ride to Idaho. Are you nuts? Maybe I am the one who is nuts.

Well turns out Isabella's stinky feet were the equivalent to poopy diaper smell..... LOL. I win mother of the year. Yet. Again. Are you jealous?

X out

Savannah was born in November 2001, making me a mother at the ripe ol age of 21. I was young. I was ill prepared. I was naive. Which in this case proved to me in my benefit.

I had her via C section as she was breech with the chord around her neck twice. There was no hope turning her and no way to do a vaginal birth. So C section it was....

We didn't know that there was anything amuck with her before she was born except that she was going to be small. When she was born there were a number of anomalies that were extremely noticeable. She had some limb length discrepancy in her arms and in her legs, and some craniofacial anomalies that only the doctor could talk himself into seeing. This all led to a diagnosis of Russell Silver Syndrome on day of life 2.

Upon further investigation it was noted that she had Failure to Thrive (didn't eat nor did she want to nor could she), which led us to a variable number of feeding tubes until she was 3 years old. Her limb length discrepancy is accounted for in a shoe lift about 9 cm on her left side. Her discrepancy in her arms doesn't bother her unless I am washing a hand one at a time and one reaches the sink and the other doesn't.

While there are a number of others, we will focus on the developmental delay. Savannah has been delayed about 2 years on her fine and gross motor skills as well as cognitive. She is in the moderately delayed class at school.

Needless to say my expectations have been low, which could be good or bad.... depending on how you look at it. But in the last few years, she has improved LEAPS and bounds. I NEVER imagined she would learn all her letters.... check! or her numbers to 20....check! or to trace her name....check! or to learn how to use a mouse....check! or to learn how to use her leap frog nintendo thing....check! or to sit attention to task until said task is over....check!!!!!!!

WOW! The progress is amazing. Unfathomable even. Well anyway. Back to the title. Savannah uses the computer and navigates better than I could at her age (ok we didn't have computers when I was her age....) and her favorite thing to do is "X" out of programs. You know. The little red x at the top right of the screen? Yep. That's the one. She has a habit of "X" ing out of the most important of documents, deleting or leaving important windows. Owell. I am just happy to know she even knows how to "X" out.... let alone what it is called to exit a program.

I NEVER could have thought she would make such progress. It is absolutely AMAZING!!!!!!!!