Bradley knows better!

This morning as I was buzzing around the house trying to get everything in order for church, I fortunately remembered that Brad had the talk in primary today. Luckily I had a little talk on hand from when I taught Sunbeams. I had a few minutes so I sat down with him to run through it a few times for practice…. This is how it went.

Me: Come on Brad lets practice your talk. I will say the words and you repeat them in the microphone….. If any of you

Brad: If any of you

Me: Lack wisdom

Brad: Lack wisdom

Me: Let them ask of god

Brad: Let them axe of god

Me: ASK

Brad: AXE

Me: No Brad, look at my mouth when I say it. ASSSK

Brad: AXXXE

Me: ASSSSSSSK

Brad: But mom, that is a really bad word.

That has gotta hurt!

My mom called me at work last night to notify me of my little brother’s mishap. Apparently he was impaled with a 10 inch nail while at work. At first you would think ouch, that must have hurt. Or, gosh I hope he is current on his Tetanus shot. But my imagination came to a screeching halt when the next comment from my mom was… They are bringing him to the University Hospital in an ambulance. WHAT???… Evidently the nail skewered him between the ribs and collapsed his lung. To make a long story short, they admitted him with a chest tube to keep his lung inflated and are keeping a close eye on him. He is okay. It was just a real trip that a tiny little nail could do so much damage.
I am watching his little boy Corbin today so Lisa (his wife) could stay with him at the hospital. He is the cutest kid ever. He has been so good. I would take him anytime. However, it is always good when mommy comes and picks him up. I am not quite ready for a third kid. (YET) I’m exhausted.
(I can already assume that comments are going to be left like try having 5 kids, or try having triplets, or try doing daycare. Baby steps people!!! Baby steps!!!)

Visual Aid

In case anyone was wondering about the pants comment… I thought I would post a picture for a visual aid. Although I bet you can’t tell which one is my dad. He kind of blends in with the scenery. It is like he is in full camouflage.

Sorry dad. I just need to tease you a little bit.

Happy Birthday Daddy

I just wanted to familiarize you with my dad. He is the greatest. I have so many tender memories of him. I just wanted to share some of those with you
-My dad gave me a love for music… all kinds of music. My mom had to work nights. My dad would let us sing and dance all night. We never watched TV. He would take us to parks, play with us on the ground, or just loaf around with us.
-My dad used to make Eric and I change Steven and Aaron’s diapers and put them in their PJ’s at night. I hated it back then, but now I have amazing diapering skills.
-My dad can give a killer underdog on the swings.
-My dad gave me a love for butter and cream cheese. If it wasn’t utterly repulsing to everyone around I would take a big bite out of a cream cheese brick or a stick of butter. I really don’t want to know what my cholesterol level is. He tried to make me love liver and onions. Sorry dad but I just can’t do it.
-One time in elementary, my teacher told my dad during a teacher conference that I had horrible had writing. My dad came home to me and said. “Oh Jenny, my little ballerina doesn’t write like that” I was devastated. The next day my hand writing improved 100%. Ever since then I have aimed to please my dad. It breaks my heart when I disappoint him. When I would get in trouble I would rather he ground me, beat me…. Anything but say he was disappointed.
-My dad has huge ears. My little Bradley inherited those ears and I love them unconditionally.
-My dad wears really loud and excruciatingly bright pants when he is on vacation or when he is lounging around. If anyone has seen him in these pants you will know what I am talking about.
-My dad loves guns. He taught me how to shoot a gun at a very young age. I used to love to sit with him and pull the lever to release the gun powder into the shells when he was reloading bullets. I have very fond memories of sitting on a hill the dawn of the deer hunt. I would be his deer seeker. I would tell him when I spotted a deer and he would pretend like he didn’t see it first and make me feel really important. I still have a love for hunting. He gave me one of his beautiful and unique rifles. It is irreplaceable to me.
-My dad is the most gentle, laid back human being I have ever known. He has such a love for the gospel and for people. He cries over everything. He gets emotional just talking about his kids or grandkids. In fact I bet he is crying while he reads this. It is so good to have such a warm and compassionate father.
Happy Birthday Daddy, I love you.

Happy Easter!!!

Don’t get too excited. We did the conventional Easter traditions… the hunt, the dying of the eggs. We even got all hyped up on sugar this morning. What is Easter without a good sugar rush?
I decided to do an Easter breakfast instead of a dinner this year. We have late church and I didn’t want to arrange an Easter feast that late in the day. Kari and Steven came over to stuff copious amounts of my cookin' this morning. We had omelets, hash, and cinnamon rolls. We went to church so stuffed.

After breakfast I broke out the camera to snap some pictures of the kids in their new Easter attire. Steve and Kari came to church with us. It took all of my energy to keep Steve and Brad quiet. I don’t know how many times I had to smack my brother to keep him and my 4 year old quiet. I don’t know how some mothers retain the messages in sacrament meeting when trying to keep their bench in order. I don’t think I heard anything the first speaker said.



I love Easter. It gives us a chance to stop and think about our Savior and his Atonement. I am so grateful for his sacrifice. I make so many mistakes and I have so many imperfections. I am grateful that I can be forgiven for all the foolish things that I do. It is also very comforting to know that I can be with my husband and children forever. I know that he lives and loves us. I feel so indebted to my Savior for his hand in my life. I see and feel it every day. I am so blessed.

Dessert Anyone??

She is so cute and sweet, I just want to eat her sometimes.

Or just squish her to death.

Sleep Deprived

Have you ever gone to bed wired? I hate it when I go to bed wired. Here is a brief summary of the bustle in my brain Monday night…..

“Oh, what a day. Work was so busy tonight. I hate getting home so late. It is already midnight.

These sheets feel so good.

Did I lock the door when I came up the stairs? I am pretty sure I did. Yah I think I remember doing it.

Rachel Ray had such a good recipe today. I need to try it. She always used too much red pepper flakes. I will have to cut down on that.

What am I going to do with the head of cabbage that I bought the other day? I never buy cabbage. I only bought it because it was on sale for St. Patrick’s Day. Do you boil it? I know people eat it. Maybe I could put it in some kind of Chinese dinner or something. It will probably just go bad.

I hope I locked the door.

I can’t believe I just spent $160 at Sam’s Club. I need to stop going there. Well at least limit the number of times I go each month.

Gosh it is hot in here. Is the ceiling fan on high?

Randy is not having a problem sleeping. He is snoring already.

The batteries in Claire’s swing are going dead. I need to stop buying batteries at Honk’s 1.05 store. What a stupid store. I can’t believe they charge an extra $0.05. Well it must not be that bad because I keep going back.

Did Brad play with the thermostat. It is deathly hot in here.

Oh, it is 1:00 in the morning. Where did that last hour go? I NEED to fall asleep. Claire will be up soon.

“Head under water and you tell me to breathe easy for a while…. “That is a good song. I should download it tomorrow. It is so catchy.

What am I going to do for Easter dinner? Maybe I will make a big breakfast instead. We don’t have church until 1:00, and Randy does not have any meetings. Yah….what a good idea. I need to call mom and get her cinnamon roll recipe.

I can’t believe that Steven won a motorized cooler.

Randy is snoring louder. I am jealous that he is still sleeping.

Stop thinking!!!!!!

“Head under water and you tell me to breathe easy for a while”…. I really really like that song. Maybe I should think of the whole song and I can mentally sing myself to sleep.

That didn’t work.

Oh my gosh…. It is 2:00. I need a sedative.

(This is the part where I get out of bed and rummage through the medicine cabinet for some kind of sleep remedy)

Where is the Tylenol PM??? It can’t be gone. Shoot. We are out of Benadryl too!!! I am going back to bed. Maybe I will wake Randy and have him hit me over the head with a frying pan.

I need to make sure I bathe both the kids tomorrow. They have a Dr. Apt with Shakula. I can’t remember what time my appointment is. Oh well, I am sure I made it in the afternoon.

I forgot to buy rice cereal for Claire while I was at the store. Now I have to make a special trip to the store just for a little box.

What if my appointment is at 8:00? I might miss it. No, it can’t be.

I must be thinking too loud. Brad is awake. Please don’t wake up Claire. Oh good he just needs to go to the bathroom.

(This is the part where I get up again to help Brad get back into bed. He sometimes forgets to stay quiet)

OK. Kids are back in bed. I might as well walk downstairs to make sure I locked the door and to check what time my appointment is. Whew it is at 1:30 plenty of time. I did lock the door, what was I so stressed about.

Okay breathe in and out. I will be asleep in no time.

Ahhrrrggg.... Look at that pile of laundry in the corner. We just did laundry. Unbelievable. It never ends.

We need to sign Bradley up for T-Ball. It is spring and we have not even registered him yet. I hope there is still space available.

Stop thinking!!!! Sleep!!!! I need sleep!!!!

Was that Claire? I think I just heard Claire. Yup that was her. Please go back to sleep. Oh good. She fell asleep. Whew.

What time is it?? 3:00!!! I have two hours until Miss Sunshine wakes up. I am going to need a nap tomorrow. Wait there is no time for a nap. I have too much to do.

(This is point where I forget what I was thinking and somewhere between 3:00-4:00 I must have drifted into sleep)

Why do women do this? Someone needs to invent a brain switch. Sometimes I just need to turn off my brain. I already have 2 kids and a snoring husband that keep me good and sleep deprived. I don’t need to bring it on myself.

Just a couple of things I am grateful for today….

-Baby Einstein—they created a wonderful activity disk for Claire’s pure enjoyment. Anything that entertains Claire is brilliant.
- Spray and wash—for the breakfast lunch and dinner that Claire managed to get all over her shirt today.
- Modern Medicine-- Claire got her 4 month shots today. So glad that we will not be getting Diphtheria, Pertussis, Polio, Rotavirus, Haemopholis…just to name a few. We will pass on the diseases. (PS Claire is off the chart in height and in the 95% in weight. She might have a career in the WMBA)
-Spring—My tulips are thrusting their little bodies out of the cold dirt. I think I am starting to defrost.
- My Husband—His attention to detail is remarkable. Gotta get those rims sparkling clean. (Is there anyone else who does not understand the rim thing??? Who wants to draw attention to the wheels? Oh well, Randy is at least grateful for his rims)He is like this in the house too. He cleans everything with a fine tooth comb. As Dan in Real life would say “I love him. I love him. I love him.”
- Spring Cleaning- De-junking feels sooooo gooooood.
-Brad’s appetite- We went Rock Creek Pizza for lunch. Brad had at least 3 pieces of pizza. As we were pulling out of the parking lot, Brad announced that he was still hungry. Where does he put it???

Working hard, or, hardly working?

Saturday morning when we were eating breakfast Randy noticed there were a couple of ducks in the back yard. I know for some of you this might be a normal occurrence, but we never get any livestock out here in West Valley. We had to hold Brad back so we could enjoy them for just one moment. Any time Brad sees a bird he gets the male urge to chase things that fly. So we let him loose on the ducks.

We then went to my parent’s house to help them cut down the gargantuan Russian Olive trees from the back yard. I have a lot of fun memories about that tree. I was sad to see it go. My mom bought a playground from Costco to put on the gravel in place of the old swings. The trees were in the way so they had to go. Randy needed a lot of Motrin on Sunday to recover.

Steven brought his motorized cooler over. Yes, that is what I said motorized cooler. He won it from work. What are you supposed to do with a motorized cooler?? The only place I can think of is NASCAR. I guess he could take it to a 4th of July parade and sell $.50 soda. I don’t know about that thing. I teased him a lot about it. We looked it up on eBay and it goes for $300. Unbelievable!!! Brad thought it was the greatest thing ever.

Right at the end of the day it started snowing. Not advantageous to keeping the boys hard at work. I can’t wait until the playground is done. It will be so fun for the grandkids.

I believe in second chances.

Last night at work I was given the assignment to do an emergency open heart. I always love doing these cases because the patients are so grateful to be given a second chance at living. This particular woman was a heavy smoker. She was only 39 and almost all of the vessels in her heart were clogged from years of smoking 2-3 packs a day. Most people are motivated to quit smoking when their life flashes before their eyes because of a major heart attack. Right before we induced anesthesia, she asked if she could have a cigarette?!?! Can you believe it. What a monster cigarettes are. What control they have on this poor woman's life. It makes me so grateful for the council of the church. I am glad that no substance has control of my body. Except for chocolate, I am pretty weak when it comes to chocolate. However, I don't think it will kill me will it?

Is this day over yet?

Either I am the best mom in the whole world or the dumbest. I am pretty sure I am the dumbest. Radio Disney was hosting an Easter party at the mall today. I told Brad that I would take him yesterday. I woke up this morning and had a million and one excuses not to take him. All of my excuses were lame, not to mention selfish and in my own interest. So I sucked it up and took him to the mall. When the community advertises the F word you know FREE…. It is never nice things, like movie tickets, nice lotions, or cars. No, No… It is junk like Dalmatians masks and posters and little plastic eggs. Bradley gathers up all the free stuff, and wants to bring it home. Now, just how do you explain to your 4 year old how his favorite poster made it into the garbage?? Ahhhh. I just have to keep in mind this day is for Bradley and not for me. Did I mention the whole city was there too?
Anyway, Hot dog on a stick gave him 2 corndogs and lemonade. That was pretty nice. I forgot to eat before we left the house so I was starving. I stole a bite of Brad’s corndog. I hope nobody saw me. How embarrassing. Eating my kids food. You have to zoom in on this picture. I love his little eyes peering through the mask. How did they expect them to eat with these masks? I finally had to take it away so he would eat faster.

During lunch all of the mall mascots? (I guess that is what you call them) came around to all the kids handing out more FREE stuff. Oh brother, give me a break. More crap. Brad was obsessed with the McGruff dog, and the Easter bunny. At least we caught him in the food court so we would not have to pay money to sit on his lap and stand in line. Sorry about the fuzzy pictures my camera's battery was dying and I was trying to take pics really fast.
Radio Disney then had all of their dancers in center court. They were dancing to High School Musical and Hanna Montana. I was definitely ready to go by then. Brad begged to stay and watch. Brad was dancing so good they gave him a backstage pass to come and dance with them. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be proud or embarrassed that he was dancing to High School Musical. Then they started asking HSM trivia for prizes. Brad gave them the deer in the headlights look. Where were Katie’s girls when I needed them???

Would you consider this shoplifting???

Randy and I have thinking of buying Bradley a bike for a while now but just can’t justify spending $50 or more on one. He has been asking for one all winter. We have been looking at DI’s and Kid to Kids with no luck. We gave it up for a while hoping Brad would forget. Ha, ha, ha…. a 4 year old NEVER forgets. Yesterday Randy and I had a few hours to kill so we decided to bite the bullet and find Brad a bike. We went to K-Mart hoping to find something cheap. The Cheapest one we could find was a $52 Diego bike on clearance. Brad is not a fan of Diego and didn’t like it. We found an open box in the back of a Hotwheels bike. It didn’t have a price on it but we figured it couldn’t be more than $60. We put it in the cart hoping they would give us a discount because the box was open. When we asked the lady in the sporting goods counter if she would give us the price of the bike and also if she was willing to give us a discount, she scoffed and said in a very unappreciated tone…"We don’t give discounts for opened boxes” Well OKAY….Sheesh.
She scanned the tag and looked somewhat stunned. She scanned it again and in the sweetest of voices said. “Wow. It rings up for $17. I should go get me one too.”

Randy and I ran as fast as we could to the checkout before the grumpy sporting goods lady told us she could no longer sell us the bike because she wanted it. As we left the store we felt like criminals for practically stealing a brand-spankin’ new bike.

We got it home and Randy could not put the thing together fast enough for Brad. He was so excited. He was dancing around the front yard. As soon as it was finished, he pedaled right into the brick wall. He was to busy watching his feet go around and around. He was pretty upset when his finger was all scraped up and bleeding. We told him that chicks dig cuts and scrapes. He took a deep breath and acted all cool about the whole thing. He didn’t want to act like a wuss or something. At six o’clock Brad came into our room and asked if it was time to ride his bike. What have we gotten ourselves into???

I officially have a 4 year old.

This weekend we celebrated Brad’s Birthday. On Saturday we had a little party for all Brad’s cute little friends at McDonalds. The ice cream was the best. Good thing it was vanilla. The kids had a lot of fun. Brad’s favorite part was handing out the party favors. He loves giving presents. Don’t get me wrong, he love to be on the receiving end as well.



I think McDonald's management was ready to kick us out because of the blow horns. You are welcome parents for party favors your kids took home!!!!
I think Whitters was really enjoying her ice cream. My sister in law cannot eat ice cream and she has all three of her girls there. I had to lick the sides of all of their ice cream cones. I was in runny ice cream Heaven.


Later that night we had our families over for cake and ice cream. As usual Brad got spoiled rotten. He got some really fun stuff from everyone. Except for us, we always buy practical stuff. Every time he opened one of our gifts he would be like “Ohhh, another shirt, or wow another pair of pants”. Pathetic I know.

One of his favorite gifts was an old western gun that has a laser in it. His uncle Lance gave it to him. It shoots cans and bottles off a piece of wood and the bottles fall apart and go flying. He wants to practically sleep with it.
Simi and Stacey gave Brad a fine-looking suit. Brad wore it to church on Sunday and he looked so handsome. We did have to pin up the back of the pants because Brad is so wicked skinny. Every time he had to go to the bathroom it was a fiasco. I wish I had that problem.


I did give Brad his second birthday wish. I bought him some balloons and made him a balloon cake. Seriously he was so easy this year.
We were pretty tired by the end of the night. Sunday morning I came downstairs to Brad sitting on the counter and devouring the remnants of his cake. He pushed a chair to the counter and helped himself. Why cook??? He was eating all of the green cupcakes for breakfast. After all green is his favorite color. At least the frosting matched his new PJ’s grandma moose gave him. Maybe I should feed the boy more often.

Happy Birthday Brad we love you immeasurably.