Sick but now better!

I clearly have not posted in some time, but that is mainly because for the last couple weeks I have been sick! I know, ugh. Anyway, I am finally feeling well enough to clean my house, and get up and get ready for the day. A doctor visit and some antibiotics helped. Unfortunately for the first week and a half I just thought it was a head cold, getting worse from lack of sleep. Reality, I had a virus similar to strep! Lovely.

Life is good. Brett's surgery is coming up fast, and we are very happy about that, as it has been 6 months since he got hurt. I am not sure how I am going to handle his constant care along with my three little ones, working, and keeping the house going, but I am sure it will all work out well.

We spoke in church in our new ward a couple weeks back. I was asked to teach enrichment, and did so with my mom, and we have made some great friends in the ward. The kids especially love being here.

Summer is coming up fast. Preschool graduation is this month, and then Dillan starts kindergarten. I have him signed up for basketball and summer camp at the local rec center, and Lexi will be starting back up in dance after summer. Derrick is talking more, and no longer walks anywhere, but runs. Just a boring update about our life!

A funny tidbit if you did not see it on Facebook: Dillan tells me that he learned the Jesus and God can do anything, so he prayed that I would be nice! lol

Canary Yellow Hair

Why does my 14 month old have canary yellow hair? His hair is something many comment on, usually however it is, "I can't believe how blonde he is!" or "Wow, his hair is so white." Today however, those comments would be YELLOW. Why? Because while I was in the basement working, he went outside to play, and somehow, with no help from an older sibling, I have been assured, opened a whole can of Canary Yellow Paint. Needless to say, my decorative landscaping rock, and pathway, his outfit, his hands, feet, and hair are all a bright shade of yellow. I scrubbed, I used soap, I used ajax, and all to no avail. Bright yellow!

The clothes are now in the trash can. The towel his sister tried to clean him up with before I saw him, is there as well. I lost 45 minutes of productivity. He got his fourth bath of the day, and cried a lot while I scrubbed paint from his skin. But his hair...

So, what should I do? He just got a hair cut, I could buzz him, it is almost warm outside, that is, if the weather will make up its mind and either snow or be warm. I could make him wear hats. I could leave it.

But what do I do with the decorative concrete? Ugh, one more project to add to my never ending to-do list.

An outlet for my frustration

Ok, so I try to only post good, uplifting things on here, generally funny things my kids did, or the good updates on our life, but today I am using it as an outlet for my frustration.

What am I frustrated about might you ask? Simple. I am frustrated with closed minded people making judgments about things they do not understand, and choose to prejudge.

I am sick of seeing people say what my church, or leaders believe, without taking the time to really understand their meaning. I am sick of people saying, "don't judge me, but it is okay for me to judge you." Frankly, I wish people would take a look in the mirror. You want people to accept you for being who and what you are (sexuality, race, religion, opinion), etc. but you are going to spout off narrow minded views about who and what I am. Then, when confronted with your prejudice and hateful comments, you make excuses for yourself. "I was only joking." or "lighten up" or, "Well, my experience shows..." If you do not understand something, do not purport to be an expert on it. If you are unwilling to open your mind and heart to learn about something, do not try to persuade others to your opinion on it.

The hypocritical nature of so many, (probably myself included), wears on me. It frustrates me, it makes me wonder what the world is coming to. You want your rights, but wish to deny others theirs. You want to be able to condemn people for their beliefs, but are affronted when someone does the same to you.

What happened to good-natured debating and sharing of opinions and information? Why the malicious, and often ignorant ramblings of the masses? I must say, there are days when the disappointment of it all weighs me down, and today is one of them.

Rachael

Too funny not to blog it

My kids are in the kitchen eating lunch, and I am just around the corner working. They are having such a funny conversation, and don't know I can hear them. It is so funny I decided to take a minute of time to share it.

It starts with them singing the dutch girl song about how the boys on the baseball team are crazy over them, and they like to kiss their boyfriend behind the kitchen door. Then they start changing the words to be funny. This conversation follows:

Dillan: "Lexi, when mommy and daddy where not married, they were boyfriend and girlfriend."
Lexi: "Eww gross!"
Dillan: "Yeah, I know, they had to do stuff like hug and kiss."
Lexi: "Sick."
Dillan: "Noooo, crazy!"

Haha, too bad this sentiment will not last.

The New House

Lexi's room!

The boy's room! (sorta, we moved Derrick back into his crib in the spare room in the basement because he wasn't handling it too well)

My favorite room in the house, my living room!

The dining room with my lovely pictures!
The master bedroom!

Ok, so it has been insane around here, like always, but I figured it was a good time to post about the new place. Here is the basic story about how it came about:

We planned to rent a place at Ivory Ridge. So, we rented out our condo in PG, and called the people we were going to rent from. They decided to sell, and we did not know, so we had a week to move, and no where to go. Of course, I turned to KSL, my favorite classifieds, and started looking. I saw the ad, but wasn't too sure, as we really didn't want to live in Orem, but Lehi. However, when I called the guy said we could come see it, so we did. We fell in love, and wrote a check for the deposit and rent. Then we started moving all of our crap in. We have SO MUCH stuff. We fill the whole house and it is almost 3 times as big as our last place.

So, here are the deets: 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom, 3400 sq feet, fenced yard, on a cul-de-sac.

I have had a lot of fun getting it put together and decorated, and while my life has been hectic and busy, the house has been great. We have already had 2 big parties here, not to mention game night, BYU game watching, and other get togethers. It has been crazy. It has also been great. It feels so right for us, and the kids are loving all the families and other kids in the neighborhood. I personally love having a real office, and so much space. Anyway, now you all know!

I will post the pictures of the downstairs later, once I have a minute to take them! haha. It is the cutest, I totally went with bright colors, and made it perfect for kids. Plus I got some great furniture for the downstairs family room, and cute yellow chairs to go with my red table!

Disneyland

We decided to take a family vacation. With Brett's knee, and the busy season of Valentine's Day, etc. and then the normal rigors of being a stay-at-home working mom, we needed a break. We loaded the kids up into the car early Thursday morning, still in their PJ's. We started driving, and about Beaver we said to the kids, "Do you know where we are going?' Dillan says, "Boondocks?" Alexis says, "Danny's?" Brett tells them to guess again, and eventually Dillan says, "California, maybe?" When we say "Yes!" He gets all excited. Then we told him about Disneyland, and he was pretty excited. He was not so thrilled he had to wait to drive there and get tickets.

The first few days we were in Anaheim we just played at the resort, and the beach. We went to Balboa Park beach, played on the pier. We also built a big sand castle as a family, but Derrick decided to climb on it.


While we were there, Lexi decided to feed some of her lunch to the seagulls. Pretty soon there were hundreds of seagulls around her. I kept trying to get a picture of it, but everytime I walked up most of them would fly away. My lens can't capture from very far away, so you are stuck with a retelling of it rather than seeing it.

We walked down the pier, and on the walk back, Lexi wanted to push the stroller with Derrick. When we were almost to the end, she let go, and since it is an incline, he went flying, Brett had to get back to his sprinter routes to catch it.

We played on a beach playground, and watched some kids smash the head of a bird, right on the water's edge so there was blood everywhere. Cool huh?

We had an awful dining experience at iHop. Big surprise there. I guess when you eat somewhere like that you can't expect great service. However, the manager was really great, and did rectify it. So, I guess it is rude of me to even mention it.

We spent the weekend in Ramona and enjoyed the Wild Animal Park, and catching up with old friends. We spent time with the Ashton family and enjoyed some of the delicious tacos that they make. Lexi ate a tub of blueberries, and had a blast playing makeup and dressups with the Ashton girls. All in all, she probably had the best time.

We had a great time at Disneyland. We had to start out with the Toy Story ride, because it is one of the kid's favorites. We did not spend much time looking for characters, as the kids enjoy the rides more. Lexi was less than an inch too short for most of the rides, so she had to sit out for most of the rides, which was too bad. She did however, love to see the princesses and female Disney characters, and they all loved her. Mrs. Incredible sat and talked with her forever, and then held her hand and walked all over the park with her. Jasmine just kept hugging her and talking to her, and telling her how great she is. It was really cute.

By the end of the day our feet really hurt. The next day we went to California Adventure and enjoyed those rides, but decided to cut the day short because, let's face it, two days all day with three small kids can be a bit much.

We drove home on Wednesday, and decided to stop over in St. George for the night. We got a condo, and grilled burgers and spent time laying around and watching the Olympics, then finished the drive home Thursday morning. Now we are home, and cleaning up after our trip and playing catch up. Bummer!

Getting skinny and wearing makeup

This morning Dillan had a few gems of funniness. He started out by telling me that, "If you want to get skinny mommy, you should swing." "Oh yeah, why is that?" "Because it is a great butt, hips, and thigh workout. And your tummy if you work real hard." I just laugh a little, then he says, "But you don't have to get skinny if you don't want to, I love you just how you are!" What a brat! He is too funny.

Then he says, "I know you hate winter mommy, but you are just going to have to get over it."
I say, "Oh yeah, how come?"
He says, "Cuz the hornhog saw its shadow."
I say, "The what?"
He says, "The HORNHOG." (All slow like that will help me understand.)
I say, "Do you mean the ground hog?"
He says, "Oh yeah, the groundhog saw its shadow, so now we have to stay bundled up longer, and your flowers might die."

Lastly, he is telling me a story about something Ryker (his cousin) used to do. He says, "He did that at his old house. Ya know, the one where Aunt Betsy had makeup?"
I say, "She doesn't have makeup anymore?"
He says, "She must not, or clothes either, cuz she is always in her pajamas."
Haha, I laughed for a while after that one.

Life is busy and good, still no word on when Brett will get his knee surgery, but he has an appointment on the 17th. We have family pictures later today, so we will see if I update this again later with a rant about how bad my kids are when I need them to behave. Oh well, gotta love it.