"Mom why are you fad?"

Yesterday afternoon we had a gorgeous thunderstorm. Alianna and I just sat and looked out at it. After it was over, the back patio was flooded. This of course, required that the kiddos go out and play in it.

he's trying to swim..in an inch of water

"mom it's like a beach"

"best day ever"

We stayed outside for a while, it was gorgeous. I was sitting on the porch swing with Bryson on my lap and Aliann and Kendall on either side of me thinking life is grand.

 Alianna turns to me and asks "Why are you fad?"

Me" Fad?"

Alianna; " oh I mean fat."

ME: "What? Why would you say that?

Alianna ( with a look like duh): " Isn't that when you're all puffed out?"

I am very proud to say I did not burst into tears or hysterics and go run 5 miles, but calmly explained that you shouldn't call someone fat. Yes Alianna even when you are puffed out, it is still mean and will hurt there feelings. She contritely replied that she would never say a mean thing like that again. Sweet, lesson taught.

We sat quietly for 5 minutes enjoying nature. 

Then Alianna says;" Mom why are you soooo big across?"

Me; " what?"

Alianna ( exasperated at my stupidity): " You know, how you're so big across, other moms aren't that big across"

Me ( saying nothing and wondering how I got to the point in life when my daughter has to inform me to lose a few)

Alianna ( thinking she's in trouble backpedals) : " But I'm not saying you're fat Mom!! Just that you are bigger across then other moms!"

Excuse me while I go run 5 miles......

It's not me...it's my thyroid

Geez, that was a rough day yesterday. You know what I mean, from sunup it's weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth? And the kids had a rough time too :) Seriously though, they were just fighting, whining, and throwing tantrums." Mom he has my toy!" "She took my Apple slice" He's talking to me!" "She's looking at me" " He wiped his boogers on me" The highlight, for me, was during the boys naptime.

I got out all my beads and stuff to make "jewelries" with Alianna so we would have some redeeming feature to the day. So I am also doing laundry and tell her to just wait a minute while I put away the last load. Of course, she was hyped up on whatever crazy train they were all on and started shaking a container filled with beads. Feel free to start laughing now.... Next thing I hear is the sound of a hundred tiny clear beads scattering across the entire front living space. Awesome. I lost it and yelled " ALIANNA MAE That's WHY you need to listen to me?!! I'm not just talking for kicks and giggles, there's a reason I didn't want you playing with those!!"  My dear sweet girl looks up at me with teary eyes and says" Sorry mommy I won't ever play with jeweleries again and I won't watch any shows today and I'll just go into my room". Crap. I just made my sweet daughter cry. The words you're looking for right now? Mother of the year.

So I calmly sat down and snuggled her and I apologized profusely and we discussed why she couldn't do jewelry that day because she had not listened( I literally had just had a talk with both of them 2 hours before about consequences for not listening, I'm not an orge parent who just throws down consequences with no warning promise!). I told her I would always love her and she didn't need to hole up, but she did need to help clean up.

See, that is the real tragedy of the situation, I had to sweep and clean my floor when I just did that last month :)Of course, this is the day that Kendall one napped about 3.5 minutes and he has been screaming in his room so I let the little hooligan out. He proceeded to wreck all kinds of havoc while we tried to sweep and pick up the tiny clear beads. Don't worry, I got at least half of them in the hour I spent laying flat on the floor and squinting my eyes in search. I'm sure when Bryson starts crawling in another 6 months he'll find any renegade beads I missed. Hm..maybe I should do another sweep before then eh?

it USED to be full. Yes those are bits of goldfish cracker in there too, don't judge me

Of course another highlight was an hour after the bead incident of 2013 as they were playing with the empty laundry tub. Alianna climbed on top and it literally broke right underneath her. After quickly assessing that she was not hurt and holding her because it obviously freaked her out, I broke into hysterical giggles. They became worse as Kendall became bound and determined to fit the broken pieces of the tub back together.
I told them we should name the tub Humpty Dumpty.  The kids looked at me like I was a few screws loose, which by that point in the day, I was! At least it's never boring in our house and more full of laughter than tears ( on most days!)

I'll make it fit!

But I also learned something yesterday that I am going to use as an automatic out for any of my shortcomings. I got back some lab results that I have Hypothroidism. This means my thryoid doesn't work enough. I have actually had it multiple times in my life and it manifests differently each time. I had it in high school and into college, but it randomly went away. Then I had it in both of my boys' pregnancies. A lot of the early symptoms are like early pregnancy ( nausea, weight gain, fatigue, dizziness) so I never thought I I had it, but my awesome OBGYN checked me both times. Winner winner chicken dinner. I'm very lucky that you can just take a pill everyday and it becomes almost a non issue. A lot of women get it in pregnancy and it usually goes away after giving birth.  Well, I went in for my 6 week post Bryson check up and my OBGYN who knows me well was like, " let's just check". Sure enough, it's still around and actually got worse so my dosage will be upped. The thing with hypothyroidism is it regulates EVERYTHING so everything goes just a little screwy when it's sluggish like mine. Here are just a few symptoms from my pamphlet:

-Fatigue( so it's not just the newborn baby making me look like an extra for the walking dead)
-Weakness ( oh that's the ONLY reason I can't run, not that I'm out of shape)
-hair loss ( so there's a reason I've had a sudden resemblance to Gollum from Lord of the Rings..)
-Memory Loss( HA! Not just new baby brain damage making me forget dates and if I'm wearing a bra )
-Irritability ( it's not my fault I sound more and more like John McEnroe)
-Weight Gain ( really if nothing else, that will put anyone over the edge)

And that's just the top 6, there are about 15 more. After reading this I informed Ar Jay that I am not accountable for any failings or wrongdoings I have done or anything wrong that goes on within 20 feet of me. I can blame pretty much anything on my thyroid. I'm thinking of making a shirt that says " It's not me..It's my thyroid", so if I do anything screwy or offend anyone I have an out. ArJay informed me that I was already using the " I just had a baby' excuse for any problems. I say that just means I have a backup, or maybe I can be twice as bad now...

Darling husband that he is, he just smiles and nods. Good thing I have him and my darling kiddos to keep me from a one way ticket to crazy town. Really how can you feel anything but joy looking at this face..

LOVE that face!

Look at those rolls! Thinking he needs to be a sumo wrestler for Halloween

Maybe he'll be Zoolander since he's perfected " blue steel"

Magdelyn Vs. The pinterest water blob

Oh Pinterest, why do you taunt me so? Why do you make it look perfectly manageable to make a 4 course meal and set up a kids birthday party with horse drawn carriage and re purpose paint chips into chandeliers and making a ball gown in an afternoon? If you too fall into the pinterest trap and think you can do all these things, don't be fooled! Every once  in a blue moon, like as often as my resolve to give up soda actually lasts, my attempts at recreating pinterest finds works;  95 % of the time it doesn't. The following is one such attempt. This is a true account of the events, reader discretion advised.

This has been a blistering summer. Probably because I was 9 months preggo for half of it and had a baby attached to my chest nursing for the rest, but it has felt unmerciful this year. And the monsoon, that usually is my favorite time of year, has kind of stunk. So I have tried to find lots of water activities. Enter the Pinterest water blob. The original idea I saw seemed simple. You buy a big sheet of plastic sheeting( BIG! like 10 feet by 25 feet) fold it in half, seal up the edges and fill with water. You end up with this giant water bed/ water blob thing that the kids can jump and play on. I thought, " self that looks like cake, you can make that in an hour and it will entertain the hooligans for hours. Win win". So I ran myself down to the hardware store and bought some plastic sheeting and duct tape already giving myself mental high fives for being the coolest mom ever.

The first pinterest I saw duct taped the edges together. I am not exactly the most coordinated person and knew that I would just end up with a hot mess ball of folded over tape if I attempted that. Then I saw this link that said to make a leak proof blob you could use an iron. AHA! I can iron, I'm not a complete idiot. Plus then we can reuse it. Sold. So I sit down during nap time with my folded in half sheeting and my iron and ironing board laid flat on the floor. I looked at the PLASTIC sheeting and realized plastic and irons don't mix. I looked up the pin again and it said you sandwich the plastic between parchment paper. Parchment paper?? I should have read the instructions better, I don't have that hanging around my house. The only people who do are serious bakers and Martha Stewart. So what do I have? Wax paper. Luckily I only tried to iron a small corner with the wax paper before I quickly remembered wax melts.....seriously I have new baby brain damage.

The whole time, Alianna was sitting on the couch above me peppering me with questions and trying my already frayed patience. So I told her we might have to do it another day and she became distraught.  Hmm... time to McGyver something here. Aha! Paper Towels. So I fold the paper towel in half and put the plastic inside the paper towel sandwich and it works! Eureka! The original directions said to mark a line on the paper and only iron up to that. C'mon, like I am going to be that precise or perfect about something. So our ironed section looks like a drunk sorority sister did it, but at least its working and sealing together. The only problem I had was the paper towels started getting worn after a couple times so I went through A lot of paper towels

exhibit A, only half way done with the thing

Again, Alianna is pelting me with questions " Is the darn iron working now mom? Why are you doing that mom? How much longer mom?" Right as I was doing the last corner she distracted me and the iron went up on the plastic and melted it a little. SERIOUSLY?? I have spent nearly 2 hours ironing the dang thing and the last corner gets messed up? So I move the paper and iron up and try ironing above it. It works but my paper towel is worn thru and when I move it the iron gets it again. 5 minutes later and a few mutterings so Alianna didn't here my choice words ( " what did you say mommy I can't hear you?")  and I finally have a seal across with no holes.

a hot mess, please note the paper towel ironed to the bottom

So we take it outside and start filling it. Of course Kendall has woken up by now and they get super excited and roll all over it while it's still filling. Yes! Success! I McGyvered it and it is awesome. Who needs fancy parchment paper?

"you're the best mom ever"

Shortly after this, I realize that there are puddles collecting on the sides. Hmm.. Isn't the beauty of this project that the water stays in the blob and nobody actually gets wet? I go to inspect and realize there are tiny little pinprick holes by my seals. The only thing I can figure is I moved the paper towel too soon and the plastic got warped and my kids crazy jumping tore it. So I spend the next 20 minutes scrambling around like a fat kid chasing a donut truck duct taping all the little holes. I finally got most of the holes and stopped worrying and watched the kiddos enjoying it instead.

"can we sleep here tonight mom?"

The funniest part was when my parents came over that night and Alianna was so excited to show them the "awesomest thing ever mom made". My dad saw the duct tape and asked what happened. Alianna informed him that "the darn iron didn't darn iron it well enough and it got some darn holes".

I obviously didn't patch all the holes because, much to Alianna and Kendall's dismay, when they went out the next morning to play some more this is what greeted them.

completely flat with duct tape patches

All that heartache and it only lasted one day. I'm glad they loved it so much, but next time I'll fight the allure of the "easiness" of pinterest and just buy a darn slip n slide...

Superheroes, quilts, and running till I die

SO I am trying to keep this updated with our happenings every week or 2. Let's be honest, it will probably every month or two, but for now I'm trying to keep our weekly updates since this is the only journaling I do.

Kendall has recently become obsessed with superheroes. A couple days ago Alianna was spending the night with grandma and grandpa and ArJay was at work, so it was just me and the boys. Kendall wanted me to play superheroes with him. He has a little people version of Batman, Superman, and Buzz Lightyear. I tried to act out a story but apparently "playing superheroes" means we just fly around making whooshing noises and announce our name" I BatMan!" " I Superman!". And sometimes we rescue the princesses, but mostly we just fly. yesterday, while Alianna was at school, Kendall kept asking to watch Batman and Superman. ArJay says it was the proudest moment of his life. Netflix has this Justice league show with a bunch of superheroes but Kendall yelled at it anytime Batman or Superman wasn't in the scene.

watching the show and acting it out with his mini figures

The funniest superhero incident was last night We were kneeling down for night time prayer and asked who wanted to say it. Kendall yelled " Batman say it!" He was holding his little people Batman at the time. HE held Batman up and proceeded to say his first prayer completely unassisted( if you don't count batman's help). He didn't want to go to bed after that, so ArJay said that Batman needed to sleep. Kendall promptly ran into his room and when ArJay put him in his bed, he tucked batman in the covers with him. Saying full prayers and no tears at bedtime, apparently Batman really does have superpowers....

I am starting to get back to stuff I love to do after this baby (IE running and sewing) and am excited about it. Makes me feel like me again, instead of just a milk cow:). My very good friend Shanae is having her first baby. We are super excited since we have known them for about 5 years and would probably consider them our closest "Couple friends". Her baby shower is this weekend, and since she's such a good friend, I put a lot of pressure on myself to totally rock the gift. They are having a boy and doing a "superhero" themed nursery. ( if you knew Chad at all this will not shock you in the least). So I found this awesome rag quilt Idea on pinterest ( what did we do before pinterest and facebook??)

this is the original image I found

So with just that image and my basic BASIC knowledge of how a rag quilt goes together, I sat down and did some math to figure out how much of each material I needed. I ran to the fabric store and crossed me fingers that my high school math hadn't failed me!

my finished product

Not bad. It looks better than my camera phone image, but I still wish I'd done a little better. The light blue has stars on it, I'm not a dummy and put two white squares next to each other. I almost don't want to give it,  I feel bad that it isn't exactly right. But i keep reminding myself that it's a gift and Shanae know how not quite right I am anyways :)

Final update note. I started running again last night. OIY! I had delusions of grandeur last week when reading this book called " Run Less, Run Faster". IT's a cool book that says you should only run 3 days a week even when training for a marathon and lays out the plans for a marathon, a half, a 10k,and a 5 k. When you are reading it and not actually doing it, it sounds like cake. I thought "self, you can totally run this marathon program and run that marathon on March 1st in Phoenix. That's like 6 1/2 months away, plenty of time". Then I actually went out running yesterday for the first time post baby....maybe I'll aim for the half marathon instead.:) I only made it 2 miles and that was with 2 walking breaks. I thought I was bouncing back pretty well post baby, apparently my body does not agree when in running form. I need a moment of silence for my poor body, apparently my stamina and any running shape I had died with Bryson's birth. I'm sure I'll get there again, it might just take longer than I planned in my head. But doesn't everything go more smoothly in your head or is that just me?

Kendall, the protector

So for those of you who don't know, Shark week started this week on Discovery Channel. ArJay LOVES shark week. Don't ask me, I think it's creepy. So Alianna was playing outside during Knedall and Bryson's nap the other day and ArJay had it on and it was showing a snake attack ( ArJay informed me it wasn't actual Shark week but the lead up show about animal attacks.Again beyond me why you'd want to watch something so creepy.) You know where this is going don't you?? Sure enough, Alianna walked in and saw the massive snake. Luckily it wasn't actually attacking anything ( I guess thats a few years less therapy she will have to go thru because her parents screwed up) but it still freaked her out. We had a snake in the garage a couple months ago and Kendall walked right next to it. It was especially scary because Kendall started screaming and when ArJay handed him to me while he went to do battle with the snake, I came to the unfortunate realization that Kendall had just eaten red jello. Yeah go ahead and try to see if your kid is covered in blood or jello residue and don't freak out a little.( he was fine, we were extremely lucky)

So anyways, Alianna is really leery of snakes and the whole rest of the day she kept asking if those snakes live here. we assured her it was Brazil which is "farther away than even Disneyland" . Once she determined the 20 foot python would not make it's way into our garage, she became concerned for others. " do lots of people live by it?" "does it attack them or only when they bother it?"

Needless to say, she was a little scared when bedtime rolled around. She wanted ArJay to lay with her. Of course when he laid down, Kendall stood up in his crib and wanted in on that action so ArJay brought him in the bed too. Arjay informed Alianna that she was safe with Kendall because he was the scariest monster we know.:) A little while later we peeked in on them and this is how we found them:

Alianna came into my room at about 2 because Kendall had fallen out of bed and she "couldn't lift his big bum". I set him back in and climbed in with them for a minute. Bryson woke up crying to be feed so I got up to go. Alianna was almost asleep but flipped that I was leaving. I said sorry I have to feed Bryson and went to kiss Kendall.  Sweet boy that he is, he saw Alianna in distress and said " no momma, no kiss Kendall, kiss Sizzer". So I kissed Sister first, then he reached out and held her hand and they went back to sleep. The next morning Kendall came in and proudly proclaimed with both fists pumping " I a big boy!!"

NOt only is he sister's protector, he's mine too. Yesterday we all were running around the house chasing each other. ArJay "caught" me and had a blow up toy or something and was gently tapping my leg and bum with it( we were all just having fun and I was laughing mind you). Kendall came tearing in and yells" NO DADDY! NO get MOMMA!"while holding his hand out to stop him. So of course Arjay kept "getting" me. Kendall, becoming stressed, steps in between us and says " no daddy! no get momma get Kendall!" and he turns so that his bum is to ArJay. He wanted ArJay to hit him instead. It was seriously the sweetest thing, my own little knight in shining armor to the rescue.

Kendall has a death wish.....

THis little boy:

is going to be the death of me. Here's a quick recap of ONE weekend with him.

Friday:  we went to Pinnacle Peak with our visiting family. There is a miscommunication and my mom thinks an adult is watching him while she runs to the car. NO one is and in the 5 seconds he is unsupervised he runs up the line for the little ferris wheel, under the gate and is trying to climb on while IT IS STILL MOVING. Luckily I spotted this and did a 100 yard dash to go grab him before he clocks off his head since even teh worker hadn't noticed and was not turning off the ferris wheel.

Saturday: After going out to dinner we are driving over to do the carseat shuffle back into our car. Since it is literally across the parking lot, ArJay just sits Kendall on his lap in the passenger seat to drive over to Papa's truck. You'd think we'd know better by now...Sure enough just as I go around the one corner, Kendall OPENS the door. Luckily, ArJay was holding him on his lap so nothing happened except ArJay trying to juggle Kendall as he closed the open door.

Sunday: I am sitting in Relief Society in church and here a child hollering at the top of their lungs thru the closed door and think, " self that is probably your child or has been hurt by your child". Sure enough, Kendall had been running around in circles in nursery, feel down and konked himself in the head with a toy phone. So now he has a massive goose egg on top of the scar from when he ran into the couch a month ago and almost had stitches.

If the kid lives until kindergarten I'm calling it a success.

Alianna's first time skating

One of the things the hall's did while visiting was go roller skating. They didn't go until 6 or 7 at night so I knew my two little boys were out but Alianna really wanted to try it. I told her she could spend the night with Grandma and Grandpa and go with them. We are soo lucky to have grandparents here so she still gets to do stuff like this. She has never gone before but I'd say it was a success based on the pics and the DAYS of her her recounting it for us :) By the end, my dad was going to take a video and she thought he was coming to hold her and she screamed "Don't Help me!!" Little miss independent is going to be the death of me. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201635142509954&set=vb.1520615954&type=2&theater

getting the skates on

practicing on the wall

Aunt Bev

the cousins showing how it's done!

getting braver

look ma no hands

I did it!!!

giving a report  on what they did

The hall family visit

My Aunt, Uncle, and cousins came to visit us two weeks ago. They stayed at my mom's house( which is really our house) for a little over a week so we just came into town everyday and played with them. It was lots of fun, we went swimming a couple of times, went to this big consignment sale, they went to the Gaslight theatre ( it's a hilarious dinner theatre if you don't know), and probably 10 other things I'm missing. One of our favorite things was going to Pinnacle Peak. It is a western restaurant that is serious about it's theming. They say no ties allowed and make a big production of cutting your tie off if you are wearing one and hanging it on the wall. My aunt Isabelle and cousin Camille had to wear ties to fully experience it! They also have a little old West style town around it with little tourist shops. They also have a stunt show that we had to check out. It was funny and very impressive, they actually had a real explosion and guys jumping off a roof. They recently added a carousel and a little ferris wheel for the kids. My parents were with us so of course my kids got to ride those as well( for SOME reason the 13 and 16 year old cousins didn't want to. haha), apart from Kendall's nearly knocking his head off it was a blast. 

my 13 year old cousin Camille holding Bryson

my 16 year old cousin Mickael holding Bryson. This kid is a stud

seriously, he's a keeper. Said he was giving a thumbs up

on the ferris wheel with grandpa