sadly, this blog title describes my weekend. travis' brother troy and his wife carrie, and their kids, janel (6), aly and payton (turned 5 while they were here) and mr. alek (2) made the long, long drive down from kimberly, idaho, on wednesday. travis and troy left early thursday morning and flew to cali to watch some ncaa games at the honda center in anaheim. so that left 2 moms and 6 kids to have fun together!! :)
first of all, i have a word to say about cameras. recently quite a few people i know have shelled out some cash and bought NICE cameras and lenses. good for them. i read their blogs, know they've taken classes, are experimenting, learning all their new toys' features, etc. this is what i have to say, i want no part of it!! travis took my canon elf (it really does fit in my pocket) to california with him and left me with my large canon power shot g6 7.1 mega pixel camera and it was the biggest pain in my arse. apparently, though i would love to deny any wrongdoing, it was on the wrong setting and the majority of photos were either grossly over or under exposed. whatever the large M means, thats the crappy setting it was stuck on until i came out of the haze and noticed it wasn't on auto. anyway, i lamented the loss of my elf THE ENTIRE TIME! i take it everywhere, it has no setting options really so nothing to mess with there and it serves me dang well! when i want professional quality photos, i will call the professional (insert plug for stacishaw.com) but my everyday point and click makes me very, very happy. i will stop ranting now and commence with my easter weekend re-cap.
here is the "entertain yourselves while i am making dinner waiting for them to drive here" project. guess who ended up doing the most coloring. me. but it was fun and the kids loved seeing it when they drove up. welcome!
thursday, the girls played princesses while mason was at school. marissa ditched school partly because cousins were here, mostly because she was still asleep at 8:30 and school starts at 9. hence the girl time when it should have been preschool time.
thursday we went to the ivins park, came home, had naps, went out to chilis (applause, applause that we and chilis both survived without incident) and hit the outlets for some power shopping. everyone played so nicely together. carrie's girls have to take turns sitting by marissa for breakfast, lunch and dinner because they all want to so badly. isn't that sweet? and marissa, of course, eats up the attention and being one of the big girls. i do have to brag a bit and say i was very proud of her for playing so well, there wasn't one who was neglected or made to feel unwanted.
which brings to my other child. mason. i love him but my patience wears painfully thin sometimes. he bullied alek like no other. he screamed at everyone several times a day and hit, scratched, pushed and tackled like he was vying for the ultimate fighting championship. now i know he was 1) overstimulated, that was a lot people adding to his world, 2) missing his daddy. he is a daddy's boy 3) not feeling well and 4) testing boundaries with new people/mom.
but it makes you feel about a centimeter high as parent when no less than 3 moms at the swimming pool tell you your child pushed their child down the slide.
but look at this face, he was SO HAPPY!!!! i think he went down the frog slide no less than a 100 times in the almost 2 hours we were there. and in his defense, i don't think he was being mean. i think he was thinking, this slide is so great, why are you standing there, here i'll help you make up your mind and then i can go too! what a kid.
friday it was aly and payton's 5th birthday and they wanted to go swimming. so we went swimming and came home to find the birthday fairy had been here and left her mark with balloons, streamers, princess tierra's for the birthday girls to wear, lei necklaces, birthday presents! we had little caesars pizza, breadsticks and rootbeer before we all crashed for the night.
miss janel was such a great helper. is this what all 6 year olds are like? because i am looking forward to it immensely.
aly was a trooper too. she is carrie's strong willed child. funny, both of us have difficult children and they are both one of our twins. we discussed this at length and think it is an attention/control issue. these individuals require 200% of our attention and get a fraction of that and desperately want to control their world. we do love them and are glad they are in our family.
here is a favorite new face of hers. some sort of sassy pucker? i love her swimsuit cover-up. no towel needed and it preserves modesty to and from the pool. i bought it in a size 6 so hopefully it last next year too.
our easter bunny came saturday morning. everyone got a new basket with a coloring book, crayons and bubbles. we were all about simplifying this year.
mr. mason is in his jammies because he got sick friday night. ahhh, yes, fun friday night. i had been up since 2am, fighting a headache and trying to breathe through all the mucus in my head. anyway, i heard him start to cry and like a flash i was downstairs. i picked him, he vomited on my shirt, we hauled to the bathroom, he finished the job in there and then up to my room where he slept on the mattress on the floor we have reserved for occasions such as this. he was scalding hot and poor baby slept like a log. can i sing praises to motrin? because i want to. he was at least able to semi-function with that wonder drug in his system. no need to watch the clock because he got insta-grumpy/burning up the minute it was time to have the next dose. good thing the throwing up only lasted on saturday. the fever has been on again/off again since then. and marissa already had this last week.
super fun times, my husband is gone, i feel like a steaming pile of manure, i can't take any decent meds because they are contraband and i have people staying in my house. but, i love my sister-in-law more than life itself because she was the most empathetic, understanding, supportive and helpful company EVER!!! i love carrie!
bunny cake, a morris tradition that we have carried over to the jackman house. my kids love it. its a boxed cake mix and tinted coconut, how fancy is that? :) at least the frosting is homemade.
miss payton. i think she and marissa look quite a bit alike at times.
who can stop shoveling cake in her mouth long enough to smile? not this one!
alek with his cheesy camera smile. what a sweet little boy!
aly like my hootenannie pancakes, she can come and stay anytime!
i love this picture of janel, she looks so grown up!
the company left on monday morning, we had a good time despite it all. the sickness is now mostly over in our family. my head cold has shrunk from a category 5 hurricane to a small tropical storm, much easier to deal with. and easter was fun despite not dying eggs this year. we had all the stuff, it just didn't materialize. and we didn't go to church sunday. i feel badly about that, but i couldn't take sick kids in good conscience.
first of all, i have a word to say about cameras. recently quite a few people i know have shelled out some cash and bought NICE cameras and lenses. good for them. i read their blogs, know they've taken classes, are experimenting, learning all their new toys' features, etc. this is what i have to say, i want no part of it!! travis took my canon elf (it really does fit in my pocket) to california with him and left me with my large canon power shot g6 7.1 mega pixel camera and it was the biggest pain in my arse. apparently, though i would love to deny any wrongdoing, it was on the wrong setting and the majority of photos were either grossly over or under exposed. whatever the large M means, thats the crappy setting it was stuck on until i came out of the haze and noticed it wasn't on auto. anyway, i lamented the loss of my elf THE ENTIRE TIME! i take it everywhere, it has no setting options really so nothing to mess with there and it serves me dang well! when i want professional quality photos, i will call the professional (insert plug for stacishaw.com) but my everyday point and click makes me very, very happy. i will stop ranting now and commence with my easter weekend re-cap.
here is the "entertain yourselves while i am making dinner waiting for them to drive here" project. guess who ended up doing the most coloring. me. but it was fun and the kids loved seeing it when they drove up. welcome!
thursday, the girls played princesses while mason was at school. marissa ditched school partly because cousins were here, mostly because she was still asleep at 8:30 and school starts at 9. hence the girl time when it should have been preschool time.
thursday we went to the ivins park, came home, had naps, went out to chilis (applause, applause that we and chilis both survived without incident) and hit the outlets for some power shopping. everyone played so nicely together. carrie's girls have to take turns sitting by marissa for breakfast, lunch and dinner because they all want to so badly. isn't that sweet? and marissa, of course, eats up the attention and being one of the big girls. i do have to brag a bit and say i was very proud of her for playing so well, there wasn't one who was neglected or made to feel unwanted.which brings to my other child. mason. i love him but my patience wears painfully thin sometimes. he bullied alek like no other. he screamed at everyone several times a day and hit, scratched, pushed and tackled like he was vying for the ultimate fighting championship. now i know he was 1) overstimulated, that was a lot people adding to his world, 2) missing his daddy. he is a daddy's boy 3) not feeling well and 4) testing boundaries with new people/mom.
but it makes you feel about a centimeter high as parent when no less than 3 moms at the swimming pool tell you your child pushed their child down the slide.
but look at this face, he was SO HAPPY!!!! i think he went down the frog slide no less than a 100 times in the almost 2 hours we were there. and in his defense, i don't think he was being mean. i think he was thinking, this slide is so great, why are you standing there, here i'll help you make up your mind and then i can go too! what a kid.friday it was aly and payton's 5th birthday and they wanted to go swimming. so we went swimming and came home to find the birthday fairy had been here and left her mark with balloons, streamers, princess tierra's for the birthday girls to wear, lei necklaces, birthday presents! we had little caesars pizza, breadsticks and rootbeer before we all crashed for the night.
miss janel was such a great helper. is this what all 6 year olds are like? because i am looking forward to it immensely.
aly was a trooper too. she is carrie's strong willed child. funny, both of us have difficult children and they are both one of our twins. we discussed this at length and think it is an attention/control issue. these individuals require 200% of our attention and get a fraction of that and desperately want to control their world. we do love them and are glad they are in our family.
here is a favorite new face of hers. some sort of sassy pucker? i love her swimsuit cover-up. no towel needed and it preserves modesty to and from the pool. i bought it in a size 6 so hopefully it last next year too.
our easter bunny came saturday morning. everyone got a new basket with a coloring book, crayons and bubbles. we were all about simplifying this year.mr. mason is in his jammies because he got sick friday night. ahhh, yes, fun friday night. i had been up since 2am, fighting a headache and trying to breathe through all the mucus in my head. anyway, i heard him start to cry and like a flash i was downstairs. i picked him, he vomited on my shirt, we hauled to the bathroom, he finished the job in there and then up to my room where he slept on the mattress on the floor we have reserved for occasions such as this. he was scalding hot and poor baby slept like a log. can i sing praises to motrin? because i want to. he was at least able to semi-function with that wonder drug in his system. no need to watch the clock because he got insta-grumpy/burning up the minute it was time to have the next dose. good thing the throwing up only lasted on saturday. the fever has been on again/off again since then. and marissa already had this last week.
super fun times, my husband is gone, i feel like a steaming pile of manure, i can't take any decent meds because they are contraband and i have people staying in my house. but, i love my sister-in-law more than life itself because she was the most empathetic, understanding, supportive and helpful company EVER!!! i love carrie!
bunny cake, a morris tradition that we have carried over to the jackman house. my kids love it. its a boxed cake mix and tinted coconut, how fancy is that? :) at least the frosting is homemade.
miss payton. i think she and marissa look quite a bit alike at times.
who can stop shoveling cake in her mouth long enough to smile? not this one!
alek with his cheesy camera smile. what a sweet little boy!
aly like my hootenannie pancakes, she can come and stay anytime!
i love this picture of janel, she looks so grown up!the company left on monday morning, we had a good time despite it all. the sickness is now mostly over in our family. my head cold has shrunk from a category 5 hurricane to a small tropical storm, much easier to deal with. and easter was fun despite not dying eggs this year. we had all the stuff, it just didn't materialize. and we didn't go to church sunday. i feel badly about that, but i couldn't take sick kids in good conscience.
