Random Blaise Dialog #1

Blaise: Comtatoes!
Me: Potatoes?
Blaise: No. COMTATOES!
Me: What about tomatoes?
Blaise: Yes, co-matoes too.

I'm still here!

Man, I can't believe I went so long without blogging! Roy's mom arrived on Tuesday, so prior to that I was cleaning and now we've been busy seeing everything that this area has to offer. On Thursday we went to Nauvoo. We saw the temple, went on a covered wagon ride and learned all sorts of stuff about the pioneers. Then we headed over to Carthage to see the jail where Joseph Smith was martyred (we went there last summer but Baerbel had never been there). Here are some pictures to document it all:

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(I don't have any pictures in the jail because Roy had the camera and he was with poopy Blaise.)

Happy Father's Day!

When I think of my dad, the first thing that comes to my mind is his cooking style. Some may describe it as...well, ghetto, maybe? :) He can throw anything together and make it a meal. (Like spaghetti eggs) But the second thing that comes to mind is how hard he works. On Saturdays he is always in and out of the house working on projects. He always has a little folded index card in his front pocket with a list of things to do. I guess because he works so hard, the moment he sits on the couch to relax he'll be snoring within 5 minutes. If you try to take the remote from him he'll wake up and say "hey, I'm watching that".

I've never heard my dad complain about all of his responsibilities. He's had to take on a lot of extra jobs to provide for his big family and he's always super involved with church responsibilities. He just retired though, so maybe he'll get a chance to relax now! (you know, after he moves across the country,unpacks and makes improvements on his new house) Anyway, I'm so thankful for the things my daddy has taught me, the example he's always been to me, and what a terrific grandfather he is now! I love you dad!

And the other father in my life - my dear hubby! Roy has come a long way since he first became a father. He's so much more comfortable taking care of Isaac than he was with Rae. He lets me leave the house as much as I want to and changes diapers like a pro! And his relationship with the kids is so great. I love you Roy, Happy Father's Day!

BTW, Roy got his main present a few weeks ago because he saw it when it got delivered. He got this clock for his office. Today we are giving him a bigger tool box, because our tools are all over the place. But that is such a cliche present and it is really for both of us, so it doesn't really count. I also bought him some spicy surimi sushi rolls and I guess that counts as making a meal for him.

Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers out there!

The Next Food Network Star

He's already such a great helper!
(Obviously this is not a real picture.)

Things this week

Haven't felt like blogging lately. Can't seem to organized all the jumbled thoughts in my head. Ashley + not-enough-sleep = MUSH FOR BRAINS! Seriously, I can't remember anything these days and I can hardly complete a thought or sentence without getting jumbled. I forgot about Enrichment the other night, which made me very sad when I realized it a few days later. I forget things at the grocery store. We've made about 40 trips to Walmart in the past few weeks. It's ridiculous.

There are about 4 tents set up around town to start selling fireworks in a couple of days. I'm excited to see what sort of stuff we can get in the midwest! I'm particularly interested because Kirksville is a pretty small town and most of the students from both universities are gone for the summer, so why in the world are there 4+ places to buy fireworks?! And, we actually have some extra money this summer, so I think we are going to go a little crazy. :)

I've given up dairy because it makes Isaac sick. I think about ice cream at least 3 times a day. I want a Snickers bar every time I'm in the checkout line at Walmart (which is quite often lately) :) But Isaac is getting nice and plump, so it's worth it. And I think we are just about over our thrush problem. I've wanted so badly to give up nursing. I've spent so many nights crying in pain and exhaustion, just wanting to give it all up. But it has been a good test of my patience, commitment and my trust in Heavenly Father. There's definitely nothing wrong with bottle-feeding, but I think there were lessons I needed to learn and I had to learn them with breastfeeding. Hopefully things will get a bit easier as time goes.

Okay, my mind has officially shut down and I need to go to bed now! I'll write more and post some pictures the next time my mind is working :)

Sorry my hubby is better than yours ;)

I got my anniversary present today. It was a little late because Roy was waiting on prints from Walmart. Isn't it awesome?! I love it! Thanks Roy!




(BTW, I am totally lame and didn't even get him anything. I guess my present to him was getting a babysitter. I'll do better next year.)

Had enough of Isaac yet?

I sure do love purple

You know how my favorite color is purple? Well, I thought Isaac would look pretty with some purple paint all over his face.




Okay, not really. I'm using gentian violet to treat us for thrush. Trust me, my purple body part looks a lot sillier. I decided to go with gentian violet because it's available without a prescription and it seems to be one of the most effective treatments. Plus, it's cheap. A prescription for Isaac would be 20 bucks! Anyway, we started treatment last night, so I'll let you know how it goes.

In other news, yesterday was our anniversary! Seven years of marriage. Woot! We celebrated by leaving Rae and Blaise with a babysitter and took Isaac out with us. We went to the drug store for gentian violet, Walmart, Ruby Tuesday for lunch and then Aldi on the way home. Very exciting. Roy's mom sent us some beautiful flowers - I think they are my favorite non-tulip bouquet that I've ever received. They smell great too.


Now I'm going to go and get a nap in before church. The only good thing about 1pm church is that I have time for a nap. :)

My cute boys

We start them young!


Isaac at 4 weeks old. Look at that neck strength! (And ignore the greasy hair. Poor third child only gets a bath once a week!)


What a weird sleeper!


Blaise got his tools out so he could help daddy "fix and build things".

Misc.

I bought a weather radio yesterday. Monday morning the weather sirens went off. They aren't meant to be heard indoors, but I was up nursing Isaac and happened to hear them. I got up and checked on the computer to see what was going on. The sirens were just to warn about flooding, but it made me realize that if there was a tornado warning in the middle of the night I probably wouldn't know. So, $30 later I now have peace of mind.

Speaking of tornadoes....when I was in the hospital during the tornado there was a woman there in labor. She was in the very early stages, so it wasn't too big of a deal. When they heard what part of town the tornado went through, they were really worried about their house because it was right next door to the car dealership that got hit. Well, I saw her husband at Walmart yesterday and asked how things went. He said they ended up going home that night because her labor stopped and she didn't have the baby till a couple of days later. I asked if their house was okay and he said that it got destroyed. Oh my heck - how hard would that be to have a newborn and no house?! I was talking to him in the baby aisle, where he was looking at baby swings because the one they had got ruined. A lot of their baby stuff was actually fine but it was covered with fiberglass, so they had to get rid of most of it. I've been whining about my recovery and how hard it is to have a newborn, but I'm so glad I'm not in their situation!! It is really sad because a lot of the houses/duplexes that got ruined were young student families - already struggling!

We've been having thunderstorms every other day or so and when it's not raining it's been really nice weather. I know that July will be super hot, so I'm enjoying this beautiful June!

Saved by the Bell

Just the other day I saw a preview for "Raising the Bar" and told Roy that I was surprised how hot Mark-Paul Gosselaar ("Zack Morris") still is. Then yesterday I caught a Saved by the Bell rerun when I was up nursing Isaac at 3 in the morning. I've seen every single episode at least once and most of them 2 or 3 times, so I understood every reference and joke in this clip. If you weren't as into the show as I was then you may not understand everything, but it's still pretty funny. It's pretty long, but I think it's worth it :)

Random

Roy has been going to his office a few hours every day to start preparing for his fall classes. So I'm left with the three kiddos and I can hardly even handle the few short hours! When Isaac sleeps I'm usually trying to clean up the house, make lunch, catch up on laundry, etc. Not much time for actual blogging. And did I mention I'm exhausted? Isaac is a pretty decent sleeper, but it's still not the same as the 8-10 hours I was getting before he was born! :) Sigh. Someday I will sleep again. And someday my house will be consistently clean. Roy has been amazing these past few weeks. I know that he NEEDS to be in his office a few hours a day for his sanity. He has to do math or he'll go crazy. But when he's home he takes such good care of all of us! He cleans, he cooks, he wrestles with the kids, he runs errands, and he is so patient and happy even with all of his responsibilities! Seriously, he has been SUPERHUBBY lately! I think I'll be having all of my babies during summer break! Anyway, here are a couple of random pictures of the kids being silly.


This is how Rae forces Blaise to play with her :)
"Pinky" the monkey is all ready to go swimming!
They have a book called "Silly Day" and in the book the kids take a nap in the bathtub. So we had a silly day the other day.

Random Rae Dialog #1

Rae: What is a bomb?
Me: It's a thing that explodes when you drop it on a city.
Rae: If I had one of those, I would just carry it around and not drop it.

My sweeties

I like how Isaac's hand is resting on Roy's face. He likes his daddy.

Signs of summer

Our cell phone contract ended in May, so we decided to get a land line and skip the cell phones for a while. We already have AT&T internet, so we decided to see what sort of bundles we could get for a phone line and cable. We lasted a whole 2 months without cable but we just couldn't resist. And to kick off the summer we bought a grill.



We've already had some tasty chicken, and Blaise had a hard time resisting the fire.



I loved Rae's long hair, but it was getting to be a pain to wash/brush/deal with, so it was time for a summer cut! It doesn't look all that great in this picture, but it is pretty cute. I probably need to go back and touch it up a bit, but it's fine for a 4 year old! :) We are so glad summer is here!

Isaac at 2.5 weeks

Behind on pictures

I think we only got two pictures of Isaac and my mom. :(






First bath at home. His umbilical cord took FOREVER to fall off - and I don't like doing a bath until it falls off.






All done - whew!

You can't make this stuff up

Our van needs some work done on it, so Roy called the repair shop to set up an appointment. He told them that there's a grinding noise when you turn the steering wheel and it sounds like it is coming from the rear of the vehicle. The repair guy said "okay, so you have a grinding in the rear".
Man oh man - good stuff.

By the way, does anyone know what is causing our van to have a grinding noise when we turn the steering wheel? It's getting worse and worse. I'd like to be a little prepared before we take it in on Wednesday.

Happy Birthday Liam!

I am so sad that I've seen this little guy once in his year of life, but we'll see him again this summer!
Happy Birthday little guy!

Granny's visit

We sure enjoyed having granny here to play with us! On Monday the weather was finally nice enough to take a little outing to the lake. I think the pictures are self explanatory... Blaise loved having granny push him on the swings, both kids got muddy, and Isaac slept the whole time.