River & IP

We love Island Park and Ashton in the summer. We spent a week at the cabin in IP with my Mom, and she entertained and fed us 'til our heart's content.

If there are gloves or a screw driver anywhere in the vicinity of this guy, he'll find them and keep them in his fist until bed.

Yeah, he's cute.
Grandma's shadow.


Then we had a small hiatus at home.
Then on to the river.
The 4th at the river is something from my childhood that has carried on into adulthood with my husband and children. I love it there and it's especially beautiful and green this year from all the Spring rain. This year we had the pleasure of being a part of the Ashton parade, and had a float for our two businesses. We ran out of candy about 2/3 of the way through, so next year we'll plan better and bring out the big guns.
Nicky and Eric getting Eva's swim togs on. This little girl makes my kids look like big time fatties.

Brenner the fisherman.

The three amigos.

The Haps.

It's been almost a month since my last post, and I know Grandparents, Aunts, and Uncles are having Brenner and Clark withdrawals, so here we go.
A lot has happened to our little family in the last month. We started with moving. I never imagined myself as an Idaho girl but Travis thinks Idaho is IT. So we packed up our goods and moved to Idaho Falls to be closer to Trav's work. We found a great house to rent with more space than our house in Logan. I dig the new house, but I'm still getting used to the area. I really loved our neighborhood in Logan, so it's hard to move somewhere new. When we got married, we had prospects of moving to California or even Japan, and I told Travis as long as he is making a good living for us, I would move wherever he needed to go. Idaho Falls wasn't exactly my idea of greatness, but I'm sure we'll all grow to love it here.
Shortly after moving, we managed to total both of our vehicles. We were "t-boned" in our truck, then the next day we were rear-ended in the truck again. About a week and a half later, I was driving north around 9:00 with the boys sleeping in the back and I hit a deer in our car going roughly 78 mph. It's been a bad few weeks for our poor cars. Thank goodness for insurance.
Intermingled in these crazy events, we have been having some summer fun. We went to the annual Nucor Lagoon day, went to the river for the 4th of July, spent time at the cabin in IP, did some boating, and then Clark cut his first tooth. After going through the pictures, I decided there were way too many good ones to try and squeeze them into one post, so I'm going to split it up.
So that's the haps with us, I'll leave you with this guy. It could be Brenner, but it might be mistaken for Burt Reynolds.

Shenanigans!

We have been up to some serious shenanigans lately! It's been quite a while so I'll be brief:

Brenner's third birthday shenanigans:

This was one of three parties for the birthday boy. Here he is seen blowing out the candles on the traditional confetti cake.


Puss in boots shenanigans:

Trav's Mom and Dad have this little cat that B loves. I assume he couldn't find his shoes so he grabbed the next best thing: Grandpa's pipe boots.

Pre-bath-time shenanigans:

These cutie-pies now have a nightly bath together. It's quite the deal.

Dad and boys shenanigans:

Thanks Brenner for the super smile.

I have also fallen into some writing shenanigans! I have recently been hired as a freelance writer for a fitness website called 3fatchicks.com. The pay isn't amazing, but I am now a published writer and I get to choose my topics and write from home, which I think is great. So we are happy about that.

Mild Obsession

This is what Brenner had for lunch:
Organic peanut butter and home-made jelly sandwich on home-made whole wheat bread.
Apples.
Yogurt.
Water.

This is what I had:
Yes that is the Carl's Junior Kentucky Bourbon Six Dollar Burger, A.K.A. my current obsession. It's coming in dangerously close to my current favorite: a fresh seaweed salad from a sushi joint.

I was running errands with the boys this morning, minding my own business when BAM! The craving came from no where and I found myself pulling up to the CJ's drive-through. I'm not even really a burger person but these guys are pretty darn tasty. I am tempted to look up the nutritional information for the Bourbon, but I think it's best left alone. I am aware that it's probably double what my caloric intake should be, but to my credit, I don't get the combo and I enjoy water on ice in the privacy of my own home. I know it's cruel for me to not at least get Brenner some of those disgusting processed chicken nuggets shaped like stars, but believe me, he has his share of kid's meals. So for now, I'll eat up the deliciously unhealthy stuff and make sure my kid is eating healthy.
Thanks for the calories CJ's, see you soon.
P.S. I'm not an organic health nut with my kids, the organic peanut butter was on sale. However, I do think that if you want to eat only organic- go for it, someone has to.

Before and After

This week has produced some "before and after" moments that I think are worth mentioning.

Saturday I decided to make a cake and let this guy help me.
Before:

After:

He grabbed this little bowl from the counter and it came crashing down onto the tile. Normally a broken dish wouldn't have me up in arms, but I was a little put out as this bowl is part of a set of nesting bowls, and now they just won't nest the same ever again.

Don't worry though, he was "Sorry Mommy!"

Brenner has finally learned to ride his bike. Monday we spent a considerable amount of time in our driveway with him practicing his pedaling and turning skills.

Before:

After:

What you can't see under the enormous bandage is road rash in it's finest form.

Finding a band-aid to cover the wound was a trick and I only have two this big, so I guess I'll put "giant band-aids for current and future road rash" on my grocery list.

And I can't just post the big guy, I have to have a picture of this little cutie-pie in the middle.

Pay no attention to the fact that he's the only one looking at the camera. Brenner has been... less than cooperative with picture-taking as of late. Also pay no attention to my mommy hair. I know you can't see it that well and I'm partially glad about that. Since it was falling out in mass amounts I got it cut, and having hair this short has taken some getting used to. Some days I like it and some days it's such "mommy hair" But look at Clark... honestly, he is so cute.

These Days...

I am grateful for tired boys at 8:30.
My sons are sick this week, and with Brenner, it always seems like it's "again".
Tuesday he woke up in the night and was hot so I took his temperature and when I turned it to the light it read 105.7. Horrified I took it in the other ear: 104. I gave him Tylenol, held him close, and he was asleep again in seconds. These sicknesses sneak up on us all the time with B, and I find it so discouraging. His pediatrician was out when I called the next morning, so we went to a "substitute" that ordered chest x-rays, pulse ox measurements, nasal swabs, and the whole shabang. We were a little taken back but went along with everything. In the end Brenner had pneumonia, a borderline oxygen level, and the doc was considering admitting him to the hospital. We decided to take him home, thinking recovery would be better there and it has been. He responded well to the antibiotic and his oxygen levels are back up.

Out of the park?
Yeah right.

Today I was basking in the sunshine in our backyard while Brenner talked through the fence to our little neighbor girls (he was the king and they were a queen and princess) Clark was doing his best to slime the entire blanket he was laying on when I got a phone call from our Doctor's office
"Hello this is so-and-so, from Budge Pediatrics. We got the panel results back and Dr. Brown wanted me to let you know Brenner tested positive for RSV"
Yikes! I asked about the baby and she said "Oh yeah he probably has it too"
Wonderful.
Despite all this, they are both doing well and Brenner is back to himself, although he coughs like crazy when he runs. The "subsitute doctor" also made an appointment for us to go to Primary Children's to see an allergy specialist, but it's not until July so we will see what the future holds with that.
Tonight I am tired. My Moms have been helping me as Travis is working out of town, which I appreciate so much. I even went on a run today while Trav's Mom was here- it felt amazing to be outside alone, just running down the road past the cows.
Tonight after the boys were sleeping soundly, I was about to hit the shower when I came upon these guys:
Every night Brenner brings his menagerie of animals into the tub and when it's time to get out, he lines them up on the side so they can dry and be ready for adventure the following morning. Yes they all face the same direction and generally they touch nose to tail unless I'm rushing him.
I love my oldest child. I mean really really love him. I know all his little quirks and what he likes and dislikes and when he gets hurt he runs to me and I have the magic touch and kiss to make it all better.
It makes me happy to be a Mother.
I'll end with a few of my favorite recent pictures of my favorite boys.



On a side note, Clark is sick too but doing great and sleeping and eating like normal. He is a happy baby and his head seems to get fuzzier every day. I love love love him.

Potty

Phew! This is the third post for the day! I am feeling very ambitious today, and apparently B knows it because he is making all sorts of sweet surprise messes for me to clean up.

I often wonder about how things run in other people's homes. For instance: is it only my kid who can't seem to keep the pee in the toilet? Honestly I'm not really complaining because with Brenner, it's a feat in itself for him to actually urinate in his potty in the first place.

Let me set the stage for this morning's incident.

Upon awakening, Brenner goes to his door in a trance-like state and knocks. You see, he can't open the door from the inside because it is is child proof. There are many reasons for this-use your imagination. So I go let him out and try to be upbeat because he is in a very vulnerable state in the morning. I never know if I'm going to open the door to a little beast-child or an angel-boy.

This morning was a little tough to decipher, so I say "goodmorning", and he immediately requests breakfast. After snarfing down his eggs, I tell him "Ok Brenner, it's time to go potty." To which he starts to melt down.

I carry him to the bathroom and pull the pajamas off his listless body and plop him down on the bright green potty chair. He stands up and starts crying and wants me to hold him. At this point I am getting frustrated and worried. He drank a lot of water before bed lastnight and woke up dry this morning, so my deductive reasoning tells me that he has to go and I'm also thinking it's a "right now" thing. So I'm trying to stay calm and stand him up to put him back on the chair and he is sad and wants to collapse and all of a sudden he starts peeing as if it's totally involuntary and he stops crying long enough to watch. He is facing me, of course, and I get a nice huge pee spot on my robe before I can come to grips with what is happening and I turn him towards his potty. I'm not a man and he has never peed standing up like this before so he starts spraying the wall, the potty, and the floor like a fire hose going out of control. So I quickly "direct" things and he finishes in the bowl of the potty.

He jumps up and down and shouts with joy "I did it! Let's put a sticker on the chart! Lightning McQueen!" and he is happy and gleeful whilst I sit on the floor next to all the urine.

I'm not really sure how he held all that liquid in his body but there was what seemed like gallons on the floor and all over the place. Wash, wipe, spray, sigh.

I think potty training is the worst thing I have done as a parent so far.