Valentine's Shmalentine's

In all my efforts to establish fun, long lasting traditions, I think the only real success I have ever had is in, of all the holidays, Valentine's! Every year we eat heart shaped pizza (Papa Murphy's, we are your biggest fans), on heart shaped plates, with heart napkins and placemats. We have heart shaped (or at least they are sorta heart shaped) pancakes for breakfast, and we eat a romantic dinner on the floor by candlelight in front of the fire place with champagne flutes filled with pink soda. It really might be one of my favorite holidays! And so little preparation is involved, hardly any money (those pizzas are $6.99!), it is clearly just my kind of holiday all around (plus, who can turn down pink and white peanut M&M's!?).

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And the Sun came out in Oregon

So it is a rainy, nasty, thoroughly typical Oregon day today, but just a few breaths earlier it was a gloriously warm/sunny week and we had to get out every possible SECOND that the sun was out. It was soo fun, though I got some serious spring fever and now the rain is more painful than ever! Anyway, in order to stave off my despair from the loss of Vitamin D, I am browsing through my pics of our special Oregon in February week and thought you might want to enjoy the memory of the sun with me:

Potty Training Woes

So for the sake of peer pressure and really no other reason, I decided to forgo my sanity for a spell and potty train Caden. Things have NOT gone swimmingly as I am just so busy I end up putting a diaper on him and moving on with my life. He is pretty hilarious about it though. He loves to sit on the toilet, get the whole family excited (the kids are as into this as anyone), and ahh to spin the TP roller and flush the toilet is truly a highlight in this little man's life. BUT, despite all he's apparent heroics on the toilet (he pees and poos on demand while sitting on the pot), unless I am there to enforce the pot as the potty alternative, he will matter of factly pee/poo anywhere and everywhere he has to go. "Mom, I went pee pee on the floor." Not even a sad, guilty face. Just a "mom, I wet. Pee Chair." Really? We now go through a whole routine of all the places he's pee'd or poo'd by asking him: "Caden, do we go potty on the coffee table? Noooo.... Do we go potty in the garage? Nooo....do we go potty in our highchair?" Finally, after listing the OH, 26 places he has peed, I ask him "Where do we go potty?" and he is SOOO excited to say "IN THE TOILET!" So cute, if only it actually meant something to him! BUT, just think...if I can get him potty trained it will be the last giant box of Costco diapers I will EVER have to buy!! I am willing to wipe up pee off my bar stools for the 4th time in one day, if it means I may never ever have to do that again!! :) Course, ask me how willing I am to pay for diapers if this oblivious pee strike continues for too much longer and even the strongest of us can break...

My New Hair

So after poling some of my friends and family, I went for a new look today. My mom wanted me to email her pics and since I haven't updated my blog in oh, 2 months I thought I'd kill two birds! Oh, and that is a LIGHT fixture coming out of my nose in the 2nd picture in case you were wondering... Levi took the pictures, so I can't be too picky. :)

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.