Play with Me

I have a confession. I don't know how to play. I mean, seriously, what happened between the ages of 5 and 32 that causes the play chromosome to disappear? Spencer still has it, but I don't. Nothing makes me cringe like a whiny: "I have no one to play with." b/c I know what is coming. Usually: "Mom, will you play Barbies with me?" Ugh. I try. Really. I sit down, I stare at the nasty haired, scribbled on, grungy dolls and I throw a few "will you dance with me?'s" out there, but really, I am bored and somewhat tortured in about 30 seconds. I keep thinking about the million other things I need to do, or I'd rather be doing, and I can't concentrate. I feel super guilty about it. What kind of mom can't bring herself to play Barbies or Polly Pockets with her daughter for more than 2 minutes?

This afternoon, however, I made a serious breakthrough! I stared at that hair and thought, if only Emma's hair was this long and thick...imagine what I could do! And well, a little research later, discovered that even barbie can have a hair mom. We gave the Barbies a full on hair salon day, full of shampoo (dish soap), conditioner (the real stuff and a little fabric softener) and serum (baby oil) and a little trim (don't worry, Emma doesn't know about the trim...you know our history with scissors...but I couldn't look at those split ends for one more second). Half hour of combing through rats, and a few elastics later and we knocked the socks off all of those Prince Charmings at the ball. Yeah! Anyway, anyone who needs some tips on how to bring Barbie's mojo back, I think I figured it out. AND we had fun doing it!

Caution: Images Are Disturbing

Every mom has their good and bad days, but this might have been up there for me in the bad department. Emma walked downstairs this morning her usual chipper self, and in the midst of lunch packing, paper signing, piano practice nagging, and breakfast pouring I glanced up and thought "hmmm...she had a rough night last night, look at that hair!" but went back to my morning regimen. A few minutes go by before I finally get a good look at her...and THIS is what I see:

I am pretty sure I lost mommy of the year award for what I said/did after that. No need to expand upon those ugly details in this pretty little blog. Tears (from both her and I) and a LOONG time out (for both her and I) later, I made her take a bath and wash her hair so I could see how bad it really was...and it was THIS BAD (remember, long, one length, curly locks):

Who is feeling the love right now???????? Oh and I better add, that her lips are black and blue b/c she found the black halloween frosting in the fridge...

I'm feeling just a small TWINGE of guilt looking at this sad face. But really, the mountain of hair...on the floor...in her bedroom...don't judge me!

I then made an emergency 911 call to my SIL's hair person (who is now officially also my hair person) who made me feel a little better and made her hair "layered" so it is still long and I can still "play" with it (though no long braids, side twists, buns, or much of any of my other hair mom's favorite do's). Though I can still play, she looks much like a 45 year old woman now instead of my 4 year old American Girl.

Words can not describe the sadness I have felt all morning long over the loss of the days/months of hair fun I am going to miss out on due to my scissor wielding child, but thank goodness I can still pull her bangs back and put flowers in. The throw up finally went back down when i sent her off to school today, with a smile and a hug...forgiveness had come (from her anyway, I am not sure when I will forgive her for this...).

Oh and thanks to Kristin who reminded me (in the midst of my tears of anger and sadness) to grab the camera and take some pictures. B/c this *might* be funny someday. It might be funnier knowing I just got done spending over $100 last night on matching clothes for my whole family b/c we are taking Christmas pictures TOMORROW. Ahh the life. This hair mom has been officially humbled.

Bulemia: Candy & Pics

I am a bit sick of eating Twix and Snickers (give me an hour, I will start raiding the candy bags again), so I thought I would take a minute and catch up on our pictures. I have been a major blogging slacker lately, too lazy to upload (or is it download?) my pictures onto the computer. Is Halloween a 2 week holiday these days? I swear we nearly wore out our costumes before the 31st even arrived! We've had open season to candy at our house for over a week and I am so irritated that I don't have the will power to resist eating it!

Spencer dyed his beard black for this year's costume. I still do a double take when I look at him, he looks so strange (even without the red makeup and the horns!). Kids are still coming up to him and looking at him funny; they were so disturbed by him at our ward's Trunk Or Treat. Now that Halloween is (FINALLY) over, he can shave and I can have my normal looking husband back!!
Kiara was a duchess, b/c she isn't "into" princesses anymore, but still wanted to wear a fancy dress. she did make a stunning regal something.

Emma was a "very beautiful, but very wicked witch". She had planned this one for months, and she practically glowed in her beauty and wickedness.
Joker from Black Night.

Batman from Dark Knight. This is his "mean" face. He figured out how to charm his way into more candy pretty quick.

Runningbacks and cameras

Our Westview football season is approaching an end and for the first time, I am a little sad! Levi loves football, but I haven't shared his passion due to the long practices (requiring loads of driving, nagging to get homework done before and/or after, loads of laundry, no family dinner, etc.), BUT this last Saturday I shared a bit of his enthusiasm. He's played Linebacker all season long and has been BEGGING for a chance to "run" the ball. He always comes home disappointed b/c he wants to run, but at the very end of this very sad game (they were losing by 2 touchdowns) he got his big moment of glory and he was awesome! Here are a couple of clips of his first run, and his second that our savvy cameraman (Spence) captured with our brand spankin new video camera. I can't find the other one (he ran 45 yards and the final play got them a touchdown, but of course I can't find that one! grrrr), but you get the idea...proud mama. He is now the starting runningback for his team! Go Cats! :)

PS: He is number 78.

Hair Tutorial

I decided to list some of my favorite hairblogs on my sidebar for those of you who have asked me or might be interested. SO much fun. My favorite is probably the Adopt a Do or Cute 2 Try hair blogs. Check out the adopt a do link b/c she just did a video tutorial on this french braid that is SOO pretty and easy to do. SO if you have girls with longish hair (I can do it on Kiara's hair and hers is pretty short) give it a try! If you do try it, send me a picture or post it on your blog. Good luck! Click here for video tutorial.

Midlife crisis or no more baby blues?

At this point in my life of motherhood (Caden will be two in just less than 4 months) I usually start contemplating pregnancy. It is the time in my life where I either look anxiously or dreadfully towards trying to get pregnant again. Here I am now, quite confident that I won't be having any more children and I feel kind of lost. My lostness has translated into some over the top weirdnesses. I decided to sew Halloween costumes this year for the girls (would have done the boys too if they cared at all, which they don't) and went over budget just to get all the material (those of you who know me, know this is weirdness in and of itself), I spend hours researching and creating HAIR accessories and styles, I even try and make sure my kids CLOTHES match. (Keeping up with four kids wardrobes, all with VERY definite tastes of their own, is quite a feat before the bus comes at 8am). Kiara has hair bows that match her soccer uniform.

I used to be so chill and relaxed about stuff like that. Maybe b/c I was overwhelmed by pregnancy and kids? Or, am I just getting more controlling now that I can? Perhaps I am holding on to the few small things I can still control b/c I am feeling like they are growing up too fast? I think I have spent so many years now (going on 12) either anticipating pregnancy, pregnant, nursing, and chasing 2yo's that I don't know what to do with myself now that I am rapidly closing that door. Am I going crazy?

Don't get me wrong...when I am not mourning over another pair of outgrown baby shoes, I am giddy with the idea of not having to swap kids to volunteer in the classroom, or eventually going out on a date without paying a babysitter (only 2 more years!), or eating lunch with a girl friend, during a (gasp) WEEKDAY, but I still feel like I am losing a bit of my identity now that I am "done"!

So is it midlife crisis? Is it no more baby blues? Or am I just going crazy?

A (long) week of firsts...

We had a crazy first week of September. We started it off canning pears on Labor Day, which I somewhat regrettably say I will never do again. WAY too messy and not enough cans of pears to show for all that work! (well, we got about 2 dozen, but I don't know if 12 dozen would have been worth the sticky mess and the dishes I had to do after). But, I did feel domestic, my kids got some hands on "this is how it is done" experience and my food storage looks a little less peaky. (The non-intestinal looking ones are pear PIE filling. Yes, I am a domestic diva.)

Then Tuesday was the first day of school at a BRAND new, beautiful school (Springville elementary school). The kids were SO excited (and well, I was a little excited too).

Okay, so the front door was facing the sun, not the cutest expressions, but the only one they'd stand still in front of the school for.

Remember, I am a hair mom. Gotta take note of these monumental hairdo's. :)

Emma at Little Green apple on her first day with two of her favorite friends, Lilly and Max. She woke up at 6:30am and got dressed, put on her back pack and proceeded to ask me if it was time to eat lunch every 5 minutes till noon when it was (finally) time to leave (I had previously told her we'd go to preschool after lunch...my mistake). I guess we were ready for school to start.

This is Sam (yes, THE Sam that Emma gets batty eyed over...click here to read that post) and then some kid I don't know and Caleb on the very end.
The sad part about the first week of school is that it is also a week full of soccer, dance (X2), scouts, piano(x2), back to school meetings (X3), enrichment night, football and (deep belly breath) it was crazy! I forgot why I look forward to summer so much...not nearly as much running around. This is Levi playing center at his first game (or linebacker, I can't tell which is which most of the time, spencer just tells me). He's in the red jersey number 78. He did great, got several great tackles and two sacks!
Kiara's best friend, Taryn, is in her class by some stroke of divine luck. She couldn't have been more excited for school to start. AND they got to sit by each other! Yeah! (we'll see how long before the teacher realizes THAT is a bad idea). :)

First soccer game. Kiara is a machine...

Wow. It sure wasn't as quiet and peaceful as I thought it would be when school started, but hopefully things will slow down a little bit...SOON!

Hood to Coast

This picture is before the fun really began, and when I had major butterflies. My first run was almost 6 miles, but it was hot at 2:30pm. I don't run well in the heat so I hated this run. Luckily for me, it was my only hot run.
This is Spencer after his first run, he did awesome every run and came in super strong. The running pictures are all a little fuzzy as I brought my small camera to H2C.
This is Jim from Spencer's law firm. He enjoyed writing inappropriate comments on our suburban so I thought I'd have proof of who was responsible for the comments when we got grilled by our children when we got home. This one isn't bad...it says: "1 Girl, 4 Boys, 1 Conrad".
This is me during my first run, the only running picture we got (particularly since the second run was in the middle of the night and by the third run none of us cared anymore we were too tired!)
This is just our van (Van 2). We had a great time, and these guys are hilarious. I was laughing pretty much the whole weekend. I was the only girl in Van 2, and though I didn't like the idea initially, it ended up being fun. I did hear more "dude" and "this blows" (along with several other unmentionable explitives) than I have heard in a LONG time, but they were all supportive and great to be with for the weekend.
I only include this picture b/c this is how every stop looked...a line up of honey buckets and worse yet, there was ALWAYS a long line just to get to one of those things. But thanks to Spencer we have me exiting a honey bucket on record. hmmmm....

This is after both of our third runs, just after we sent off our last runner (yeah! no sleep for well over 24 hours), when we are pretty much trash, but so happy to be done!! Can't WAIT to shower!!

This is our whole team at the beach after John finished and we got announced and got to run as a team across the finish line. So much fun. A guy from their firm owned a condo a few hundred yards away from the finish line and so we got to SHOWER!! Yeah!! It was a great weekend and so much fun. I am still a little sore a few days later, but other than that I loved Hood to Coast this year.

After being gone for two days, we came home to a clean house, BATHED children and a poster on the wall made by none other than these darling little kiddos. The Thelins took my kids while we were gone and I must say, I am certain they had more fun than we did! What a great weekend!