Updates

The other day I was thinking it had been a while since I lasted posted anything. I thought life had been pretty uneventful these past couple months, but as I sit here watching the boys swim and look through my phone, I realize we've been pretty busy.
1st the boys finished preschool for the year way back in May. The last week of school is filled with fun activities. On the last day when I picked them up I found 2 little Spidermen instead of boys. Drew could not be happier to have his face painted and look like a superhero.

Cory had a birthday and we kept low key. It didn't help the fact his birthday was on mother's day this year. If you have a May birthday and are bummed because you don't really get to celebrate your birthday AND mother's day, try having your husband's b-day on mother's day. Haha. The pictures show Clarissa eating a cupcake on his birthday. That little girl can eat junk!!

The kids and I have stopped by the office a couple times this summer to eat/take lunch to Cory. This picture of Bel was taken on one of the occasions. She looks so cute in yellow. Yellow was my favorite color when I was young, but as I grew older I started to dislike it. Now I remember why I liked it. It's such a fun happy color, I love dressing Clarissa in it.

The Phoenix Temple had the angel Moroni placed on its steeple sometime in May. We took the kids for a quick visit. I can't wait to have the temple completed and so close to our house.

The kids like going on walks at the end of the day, and when it isn't deadly hot outside, Cory and I agree to go. This day Drew got tired and talked Cory into carrying him. I was glad I had my phone on me. I LOVE this picture of Drew. His smiles says it all. He loves his daddy, and loves to be held/cuddled.

Lastly, we took the boys on a field trip to the Deer Valley airport. We have a friend who owns a plane and was very generous in showing us around. The boys had a blast and learned quite a bit. I hope to be able to take them in a couple different field trips before the summer ends.

Noodles

Clarissa is my noodle monster, or according to her "noonos." I made pasta on Sunday and the minute she saw me get the pasta box she started to scream and clap "noonos, noonos!!" She LOVES it. It's by far her favorite food. She had 3 bowls of noodles this day and still asked for more.
Clarissa is starting to self feed, and she does pretty good with a spoon, with the exception of pasta, she can't get it in her mouth fast enough using a spoon, so she just goes for it with her fingers!!

I couldn't believe she actually stopped for a second to look at the camera for a picture.

This is what happened today. Two pantry shelves came crashing down on top of my feet. I ended up with a cut on a left tow and a bruise on my big right toe. Not bad considering the size of the disaster!!!

Bee Sting

Drew got stung by a bee (for the second time) yesterday. Non of our other kids have ever been stung. This time around his injury has landed us at the hospital on isolation. His hand is really badly infected and even though it was caused by a bee we were put in isolation. This means he's confined to his room for the whole stay. Poor kid.
As soon as we got to the ER triage they gave him ibuprofen. Then he looked at me and said "can I go home now?" He's been asking to leave ever since and last night when Cory left with the kids, Drew had a meltdown because he wanted to go home with daddy. I can't blame him, I am ready to run out of here. Hopefully by the end of today we will be discharged.
Here are a couple of pictures of him and his BIG red hand. :(

**Edited: we left of the hospital the day after I wrote this post. So we were there from Sunday afternoon until Tuesday late morning.**

Attention Walmart Customers

"Attention Walmart customers. Will customer "mamae" please come to the customer service desk. Your party is waiting for you."
Yes, that's what I herd over the intercom this week while at Walmart. Christopher jumped out of the cart and disappeared in a matter of seconds. Luckily a "nice stranger" found him and took him to the front. When they asked him his mom's name he said "mamae." I think that hearing that over the intercom is what made me not want to "kill" him once I found him. I couldn't stop laughing. He knows my full name, our address, his grandparents names, and yet all he could remember is that he calls me mamae. Ahh, kids!
If you ask him his side of the story, it's quite different. He claims he was never lost. He just wanted to go play in the toy section. Then a lady came up to him and asked him his name and if he was lost. "No, I'm ok" he answered. Will he ever learn?!
I thought getting lost once would help him be afraid of wondering off, but no. I guess he never thought he was lost, hence he was never afraid.

Chocolate dipped pretzels

This is what we do while the boys are gone on a playdate! :) Clarissa learned the joy of dipping pretzels in chocolate and then eating. Look at the smile on her face. This morning she was asking for a chocolate chip granola bar and I said no because she needed to eat something healthier. Haha and this is what we ate instead. Should have given her the granola bar.

 
The boys have spring break this week, so we went to my sister's house for a playdate. I love having her live here for days like this. I was bored and we just went over to hangout. Clarissa thinks she's a big kid sitting at the table with the other children.

Last but not least, Tom and Lori (Cory's brother) were in tow last week. The boys had tons of fun playing with their cousins. I never got a good picture of anything we did. This is the best one I found of all the cousins having lunch at the children's museum.

 This is what I was talking about on my last post The door on the left is the boys' room, the one on the right was for Cory.

                                                                                       

 

Phone Post

I am trying to figure out how to post from my phone. I wish I posted the things the kids do and say more often, but I feel like I can never get to the computer. Maybe this will help me a little.

I have been in a cooking craze lately. Not sure what's up, but I've been "baking" a lot. During Halloween I cooked and pureed all the pumpkins we bought (4 in total), so since then I have made several pumpkin recipes (cookies, muffins, pancakes, soups and and AMAZING pumpkin Alfredo). The kids don't seem to mind, and I feel good about sneaking in the vegetables (I try to forget that it's mostly coated with sugar and butter, but hey, I'll take anything). Recently I have been on a chex mix addiction. I make chex mix treats a few times a month. I have lost track of the number of times I have made muddy buddies. My favorite one was a super rich chocolate drizzled buttery chex mix with mini Reese's peanut butter cups. I am yet to make a savory mix, but I think that is in the plans for next week's chex mix recipe.

For valentine's day I got some help from Pinterest and decided to "heart attack" my bedroom door for Cory. I wrote reasons for why I love him in each heart and it turned out really cute. The boys saw me do it and said they wanted it too, so I made them a mini version and wrote in their hearts things I like to do with them (read books, build forts, play tickle monster...). They loved it!!

Sometime back in February I sold Cory's old Honda Civic and bought a Nissan Sentra. That poor little Honda was going to die any day. I woke up one day and just decided to post it on craigslist to see what would happen. I used a photo of the car I had on my phone, and didn't thing anything would come of it. The car was sold in less than 1 hour. I received so many phone call and texts that I couldn't keep up with it. It was seriously crazy. Poor Cory was at work (with the car) when I called him and said " there are about 5 different people coming to your office to look at your car, I am on my way to meet them." By the time I got to the office Cory had taken the 1st customer on a test drive and sold the car. CRAZY, but we feel very blessed to have a more reliable car now.

Christopher
Christopher continues to be Christopher. Active, creative, always getting into something he shouldn't. I still love that little guy to pieces. I have been getting glimpses of how this won't last forever, so I try to breathe deeply during the hard times and enjoy it, because it will end all too soon. He goes to kindergarten this year and I'm excited and sad all at once. I remember the first time I held him right after giving birth and feeling the spirit so strong. The veil was really thin and I could feel a huge connection with heaven. That day seems like it was yesterday, and yet it has been almost 5 years.

Andrew
Andrew is our sweet heart. He loves to have us tickle his feet and tell him to focus so he won't loose control. He will ask us "mommy do focus" as he shoves his foot on my face. My dad did this with him during Christmas and Drew has loved it ever since.
For journaling purposes I am going to write a really old story. When Drew was learning to talk he refused to call Christopher, Christopher. He was Drew. So I had 2 Drews for a couple months. My mom and I were talking about Clarissa and she brought this Drew story up. I had totally forgotten it, and now I have it written forever.

Clarissa
Clarissa is talking. I can't keep up with all her words. Anytime we say "who's turn is it to pray" she always yells "me". So now we have 3 kids rotating turns for prayers. She's still my accessory baby. When she sees me changing in my closet she ALWAYS asks for a "poose" (purse). Then she carries it around and won't leave the house without it. She loves to wear shoes and boots -"booooots" according to her. She goes to nursery without any problems. She cries a little, but by the time I leave the room she's already done.
Wow, got way winded. Did not expect to post this much from my phone.

 

We had fondue for dinner this week. Christopher called it "fonduedue" 

 

The impossible  happened. Christopher fell asleep watching TV

 

She did her accessories by herself - boots, hat and purse. Love it!!