You know you've had too much candy when...

......your kids start asking for carrot sticks instead of pixie sticks and you get the gitters and headaches in the morning until you get your chocolate-fix. Thank goodness Halloween and the aftermath is over...anyone want to help me out by getting the rest of the candy out of my house?
And my kids won't stop wearing their halloween costumes...and Peter found a costume of his own when he tried sniffing a permanent marker yesterday...(is that Charlie Chaplain or Hitler?)

One out of two ain't bad!

Since my newly-turned 2-year-old has decided to become a parrot, I thought it was a good idea to give up some of my favorite cuss words, i.e. crap, damn it, etc...

But this weekend provided us with some comical relief. Clay was reading the newspaper and Nate jumped on his back to announce who was on the front page...we had to make sure we were hearing what he was saying...

Later, I was trying to chill him out by showing him a random book from my neighbor's house. I thought the Star Trek book would at least show some pictures that might make him stop crying
He was totally stoked with the picture of "Jesus the Klingon".

We're doing our best trying to teach him stuff, even if it turns out it isn't QUITE right sometimes.

IBEX revisited

Clay decided he needed to get out of town. So, to the west desert we went...

We went to one of his favorite places to climb, Ibex. (Its about a half-hour outside of Delta.) The kids were stoked to be let free to roam and climb all the rocks and play with their trucks and just be...while Clay bouldered around and I read Harry Potter #2 (I know, I am such a looser to finally be reading them NOW!) Clay made sure to pack the kid's climbing shoes and summit the "Cow" boulder...maybe Nate will join them next year.Lucy went up the hard way! After a couple hours of that, we went over to a huge sand dune to spend some quality time getting sand in every orifice possible...Pete was the crazy boy who did lap after lap... I'm just glad the kids didn't follow Clay up this boulder.
What we like to call "sand surfing"!

Then it was on to Crystal Peak, which was this huge white mountain in the middle of all the brown ones. Clay says that the mountain sometimes shimmers if the light is just right. We then went to collect "fossils" at a secret quarry. Pretty cool. Thanks, Dad, for another great adventure! You're the best ever!

The snowball effect

When you go to buy a boat, someone needs to explain to you EXACTLY what you're in for. I mean, I expected to buy some cool gear for the boat, (i.e. awesome tubes, killer slalom ski, etc.). I expected the insurance, title, a little work on the trailer, and the gas (oh, the gas!!!!). No one told me I would have to spend way too much time and money on installing a concrete pad on the side of my house so we could store the dang thing.

But, Clay recruited his climbing friend (a TRUE friend to work that hard for that little, I might add) to help us prep and lay the concrete. He even let Clay take a turn behind the wheel...what a big kid!Poor Adam was there until way after dark doing his thing and making the concrete look so pretty...He even installed a fancy FRENCH drain...(I think it would be along the lines of french fries or french dressing, or french toast...anyone for the movie "Better Off Dead"?) And who doesn't like a cold beer (of the root variety) after a hard day's work. By the way, the beer-de-root was meant to be, seeing as how we probably pulled out a truck-load of roots that day!

I cannot pay tribute to this project without a big shout-out to the coolest neighborhood kids who spent the better portion of their day off on Monday devoted to the removal of a mountain of dirt. I mean, its a lot of dirt when you have to pay eight large teenagers for four HARD hours of digging. Ya'll rock! (No pun intended)

I can't wait to bring the boat back home to sleep for the long, cold winter. Anyone up for a trip to Lake Mead?

Happy Birthday, BOYS!

Some of you may be grateful that Clay and I found something ELSE to do this past February besides procreate. All three of my boys' birthdays are a week apart and it was Peter's turn for a party this year. Four BIG years old! We went down to the rec. center and had some good times in the "Splash Zone"...complete with lots of friends and a big Costco cake.
This Sunday we went to grandma's house and enjoyed another birthday bash for all the boys, complete with cousins, more presents, and more cake...
I have to explain the "big"cupcake for Nate. I forgot to give him the traditional birthday cake mess for his first birthday, so improvised for his second birthday. He would have nothing to do with the mess, but slowly dug into the cake and was irate every time dad (or mom or grandma) would steal a piece of it.

I was so proud of my creapy skull cupcakes! I'm trying my best to follow in Peggy's footsteps. She would always make elaborate cakes for Clay when he was growing up, including a large-breasted woman cake during the teen-years. (I've really got to find a picture of that one!)

So, happy birthday to the boys in my life...I would have WAY too much time on my hands and not enough love without you!

Who needs a dog...

...when you have a baby brother. (Note the Millie-stick, Jess)Nate will play fetch, lick food off the floor, growl at you, snuggle on your lap, pee on the floor, track mud in the house, and even bite if you give him the chance. He doesn't have fleas, but will bring home the occasional parasite.Sometimes I wouldn't mind sticking him in a cage...(oh, wait...there's always the crib). Who wouldn't love this mutt, anyway?

Army-ready

If you didn't know, we have a little devil living with us (with flames out of his head and everything). Some of you may be wondering why I would shave off all the beautiful red and brown hair of my boys...Well, Peter and Will wanted to cut up a box (just like Jason)...so I gave them some of those kid scissors...you know, the kind without the sharp edges that can hardly cut paper they are so blunt...
Peter figured out they cut HAIR just fine.

Will: "But Peter DID it."

Mom: "Why did you LET him?"

Will: "I dunno."

I wanted to scream, cry, and pull out my own hair.
But, I didn't. Instead I took out the camera and then my new Costco clippers. I'm trying to learn from my friends that I need to laugh more and anger less. It was a good day, in spite of it all. I am just so grateful Lucy was at school during the hair cutting massacre. And of course, school pictures are NEXT week.