How Dirty is YOUR carpet?

Today the friendly Kirby people were going about the neighborhood doing their in-home demonstrations. They offered to deep clean the carpet in one room in my house for free. Being bored and always open to having other people clean instead of me, I agreed. First they used my vaccuum in the living room and hallway and then they pulled out their spaceship-esque machine and vacuumed it again. WOW! We had a LOT of dirt in that carpet. I wasn't exactly surprised because we haven't shampooed the carpet in the two years that we've lived here. They used these little filters to show me how much dirt was in the carpet that my regular(aka cheap)vacuum didn't pick up. Check it out....

Yeah, and that's just one room in my house. Yikes! Then they changed the attachments on their vacuum and turned it into a shampooer and did the living room and hallway. I was really impressed with how easy it was and the great job that the machine did, but I knew it would have a big price tag, $2500 to be exact. I must say, though, that if I had $2500 to spare, I'd definitely be tempted.

We Love Mud!

A couple weeks ago, we brought one of those plastic kiddie pools home from my mom's. It's been sitting outside. The other day, while playing outside, the kids discovered that the pool had caught quite a bit of the rain that we'd been having. It didn't take them long to start digging a lake and pouring in the water with buckets. They had a ball playing in their mud, making waterfalls and rivers. By the time I went out to take pictures, most of it had dried up. In this picture, Jonah is showing me what he likes to do with his bike and the dirt. He places his bike so the back wheel is just above the mud, then he puts grass underneath it and spins the wheels as fast as he can. He thought it was so cool to see the mud and grass fly up behind him.
Lilly loves the dirt too. She likes to dig in it and fill buckets with dirt.

Jayne just wanted to go back inside.


This is a different day. We finally got out the scooters that the Marler's gave the kids for Christmas. We wrote a 'J' and an 'L' on the front of them so they know which one is theirs. The kids had great fun scooting around the driveway.

Tooth Trouble

Story #1......It all started last weekend. Jonah got a sore on his gums above his front tooth. It started to swell up his face and was oozing disgusting yucky brown stuff. So, after trying everything we could think of, we took him to the doctor. The doc said it was gingivitis (yikes!) and gave us a perscription for antibiotics to get rid of the infection. Well, gingivitis is a pretty serious thing and since our little Jonah hasn't been to the dentist since he was a year and half old(I know, there goes my Mother of the Year award), I figured we should see one a.s.a.p. So, Monday afternoon Jonah went to the dentist. We got a wonderful referral from our friends, the Gerritsen's, for a pediatric dentist. Jonah did fabulous! I've totally put off taking him to the dentist because he freaks out when he sees a doctor or whenever we even talk about the dentist. But Dr. Sorensen was great! Jonah especially liked that he got to wear sunglasses in the dentist chair because of the bright light. Anyway.....back to the tooth. It was NOT gingivitis. Jonah had an accident when he was about 18mos old when his top row of teeth was abruptly and violently introduced to the living room end table. His right front tooth was shoved back up into his gums(where it still remains), but the other seemed unaffected. Well....apparently that kind of trauma can lie dormant for a very long time(count 'em, 4 years) and then suddenly get infected. That is what happened to Jonah. So, he's finishing out his antibiotics for the infection and then we go back to the dentist in a couple weeks to get both of those front teeth removed. Oh, and Lilly will be seeing the dentist that day as well. No more procrastinating for me!~

Story #2----- Jayne has entered the wonderful world of teething. That magical place full of drool, runny noses, swollen gums, fevers, and sleepless nights. Last night was one such fun filled experience. The fever hit right before bed time. I suspected the teeth, so I felt her gums. As soon as I touched them she let out a piercing scream. So, we proceeded to administer the tylenol, anbesol, chomp on the ice....everything we could think of. Little Lady wouldn't sleep in her bed for more than 20 minutes. Nate had work today, so I volunteered to take the first shift(which turned into the only shift-not his fault, poor guy was exhausted and was feeling crummy too) Jayne was tossing and turning, and kicking and crying all night long. Which caused me to start questioning the need for teeth. I mean, how important are they really? I think she could do without them. Milkshakes and smoothies for life doesn't sound so bad, right? Is it really worth all the pain and frustration of gettin' those things to pop out in the first place?

Anyway......we had fevers off and on all day today as well. She napped better and seems to be much happier tonight. Here's hoping for some sleep. Diet Coke will only take you so far....

Jayne is 6 months old!

As of Sunday, Jayne is 6 months old. I can't believe we're halfway through her first year already! We took her for her doctor appointment yesterday and she's healthy as can be. I thought I'd post some pictures of how much she's grown in these short 6 months.

Jayne- 10/19/08 7lbs 1.9oz 19.5 in

2 months old~this is one of my favorite pictures of Jayne
4 months old~ rolling over and lifting herself up like a pro!

6 months~ 15lbs. 12oz. 25inchesHappy Half Birthday Jayne! We're so glad you came to our family!

Happy April 17th!

Today, April 17th, is a very special day for me. Seven years ago today, I was living at home with my mom and sisters and attending Weber State University. It was a snowy spring day, like we've had lately, and I'd been at classes all day. As soon as I walked in the door, the phone rang. It was Nate, a guy who I'd met several years before as a 15 year old at the Manti Pageant, lost touch with, and then started writing to while he was on his mission. (It's a long story. If anyone wants more details, they'll have to ask.) He had been home from his mission for exactly one week, was in town with a friend and wanted to stop by and needed directions. I about dropped that phone! I gave the directions and asked how long until he would be there and he said probably 20 minutes. So I dashed to the bathroom to try to rescue my wet hair and dripping makeup only to hear a knock at the door five minutes later. I opened it up, and there was my future looking back at me. Two weeks later, we were engaged. Eight weeks after that we were married. The rest is Barnum history! So every year I celebrate April 17th as a day that changed my life in unimaginable ways and started this amazing journey that we're on.

Easter and Stuff

I know I'm a little late posting this, but we hope everyone had a Happy Easter! Ours was lovely. The bunny came to our house Saturday night and we had an egg hunt and dinner on Sunday. Here are a few of our Easter/Spring pictures...enjoy!

The Barnums sent these homemade shirts to the kids for Easter. They all love them and had to wear them right away!

Here's Jayne with her Easter Basket at Grandma Culbertson's

Also in the Easter package from the Barnums were these cute bunny straws.

A couple weeks ago, while we got a break from the rainy weather, Nate made a road on the driveway with sidewalk chalk for the kids to ride on. They loved going around and around on it. It had a gas station, stop sign, and a Les Schwab of course. Here's Nate overseeing the fun. He's decided to let out his inner cowboy a little bit...

Here's Lilly stopping for gas

We have lots more cute pics, but I don't have time to post them all. You can check them out at our shutterfly website by clicking on the picture of me and Nate in the right hand column. Happy Spring Everyone!

Thank Heaven for Melanie!!!

Those of you who read yesterday's post know that I was on the brink of a breakdown. The day did not get any better and Jayne had a long night. Nate is working today and the kids are also still getting over our long week. So... I'm happy to report that I have a fabulous babysitter, Miss Melanie, coming over in an hour and I'm hitting the gym and getting the stress out! Yay! Thanks for the comments of support! It's SO nice to know that I'm not just some psycho-mom and that others feel the same way sometimes.
So, Hooray for Babysitters!!!

I THINK I'M GOING TO SCREAM!!!

Just a warning.....a vent is headed your way. So if you don't want to read about it, leave now!



Today has just been one of those days. Oh, wait! It's been one of those WEEKS! I agreed to babysit a 3 year old girl all day every day this week (who knows why) and I think I'm going to lose it! First off, Lilly and this girl do NOT get along. Lilly considers her mere presence as an invasion of her space, which I understand. I can't leave these kids alone for five minutes without someone taking away a toy or having a breakdown for no apparent reason. Both Lilly and this girl are potty training. It's one thing to have to clean up after your own child's "accidents" but it's totally different when it's someone else's kid.

Jonah is off preschool this entire week. The poor kid is probably ready to scream himself. We're pretty much stuck at home, with the exception of a picnic at the park on wednesday when my sis. came and helped me walk them all over there. I feel like I haven't gotten a single thing done this entire week and now we have Easter weekend upon us. I still need to do easter eggs, baskets, a side dish for dinner at mom's, and sharing time for primary on Sunday.

About ten minutes after I finally got all four kids to sleep at the same time, Jayne woke up ready to eat. About fifteen minutes after that, Lilly got up. Then the other girl, and then Jonah. So, Jonah slept the longest, which was about 30 minutes, maybe 45.

All I want is a hot shower, some food, my hair and makeup done, and five minutes without the kids!

Oh, and my dishwasher broke on Monday and Jayne has started teething. Yeah, it's been a great week.





Disclaimer: I do love my children very much despite what you may think after reading the above post. I love being a mom and wouldn't have things any other way. I just need a break once in a while.....I don't see one coming any time soon

Barnum Movie Review: KNOWING

It has been a LONG week! So last night, Nate and I got a babysitter and went to the movies. We'd heard from some friends that 'Knowing' with Nicolas Cage was good, but they wouldn't really tell us much more than that. We gave it a shot.

It was good, but a lot spookier than I thought it would be. Nicolas Cage plays a dad whose wife died tragically and he is now caring for their young son. He finds a paper with a series of numbers on it and figures out that they are predictions of disasters and they've all come true. Nate described it as "a little bit of sci-fi, a little action, a little religion...very nice." Anyway, I won't tell you the rest because that would totally ruin it for anyone who wants to see it. But, I will tell you that it made me smile, made me scared, and even made me cry. Overall, a good movie, but one of those that I don't need to watch again. At least not for a long time...

Adventures in Potty Training!

Lilly has FINALLY decided that she wants to potty train! We introduced her to the idea soon after Jayne was born, but she just didn't care yet.

Last week she started asking to wear her big girl panties instead of diapers. I was a bit reluctant at first, not wanting to be cleaning up the accidents, but I let her try it for a while. She had some accidents and ran out of clean panties, so we went back to diapers. She actually does better in the diapers. I told her that when she can keep her diapers dry, we can wear the panties again. We brought out the gumball machine that Grandma Culbertson gave us and it's working great now! Lilly always reminds me, "Mom, when I go on the potty...gumball." So she's been keeping her diaper pretty much dry for the past two days. She's hasn't quite ventured into doing #2 on the toilet yet, but we'll get there. She likes her privacy too. She makes me close the door before she'll go pee. At first I thought she was doing that so she could cheat and just get more gum, but I can hear the tinkling from outside. Hooray!

I've always had a laidback approach to potty training and it seems to be working so far. We didn't push it on Jonah(it did take some Grandma magic to get him trained though) and we haven't pushed it on Lilly. I just figured that forcing it on them made them and me miserable, so why not wait until they are ready. Well, I think Lilly is finally ready!