Blue Bell Creamery

Betcha didn't know that I worked at the BYU Creamery for 2 years in college. It was my BEST college job. So fun watching ice cream, cheese, whey, cottage cheese, etc. being made. And all the employees were the funnest group to work with.
I think that's why I wanted to take my chillwrens to the Blue Bell one. It was pretty lame though. Our tour guide blew through our tour. Fortunately, I knew what most of the machines did so I gave the chillwrens my own tour.

It felt a little willie-wonkaish. No indoor photography and some top secret signs posted here and there. Really? It's just ice cream. We aren't launching nuclear warheads.

Our tokens to begin our tour. I wanted to keep them as souvenirs. No deal though.

The tower of ice cream power. We got to sample several flavors. Cristian loved Snickerdoodle. I loved Pumpkin Spiced Praline (or something like that).

The chillwrens posing with the milk maid. It was a fun little field trip for the kiddies and mommie.

SAY WHAT?!?

This one left me laughing.

The kids are in various stages of preparing for bed. Perry was using the potty and Cora had on her jammies and was brushing her hair with her Little Mermaid brush.

Cora waltzes into my room, dramatically brushing her hair and announces, "She scares me."

"She scares you?! Who scares you?"

"Perry. She goes to the bathroom and then leaves without washing her hands. Disgusting. So I tell her to go wash. So now she went back in there and is washing her hands!" (It was actually a long run-on sentence from her.)

"Um, I see," I respond vaguely.

"Mom, she is just disgusting - in an unlady-like way!"

THAT would be what I'm deal'n with here folks!

I love this little chocolate face. Look at those chubby fingers and heavy cheeks. So glad I have beautiful babies. Some people get ugly ones. Just say'n.

Movie Nite

I was kinda ridiculously excited for "How to Train Your Dragon" to be available for purchase. We sent out invites for a movie nite. Each child got to invite a friend or two. Here's Mace & Ian. They both are stink'n handsome boys. Just say'n.

Cora had Lena & Maddie over. Maddie didn't want her picture taken though. Cute girls right?

We had everyone come in their jammies and bring pillows. Carlos was on some serious popcorn patrol. They all ate bags and bags of the stuff. I was in charge of the candy tray. Go figure. Here's Perry with darling Brynnlee. I love these two together. They are girls all the way!

The stinky back section of the theater. Bug, Logan, and Shane. I do adore these boys immensely. This is the picture that will be hilarious to them in about 10 years. I'm planning on their freindship to last a lot longer than that.

It was a fun evening. I love having my babies and their friends over to create lasting memories.

california lov'n

my visit to seaside, ca to visit shay & the new babe paisley wanted two different shoes at the park. she loved the swing
i took kavers out to mexican food because that's what you do everyday in california. i had such a good meal. it's what i miss about cali the most. we ate at "la tortuga". fabulous.

this little girl is such a sweetheart. she's work'n a wedgie here.

for reals.she.is.so.beautiful.

love her freckled cheekbone

kavers - the pistol. he is a riot. currently loves orange.

baby cater. lovely bundle of chubs.

getting paisley girl up from her nap.

comatose daddy. making babies is hard work. take 5 davie.

love & miss you pruetts

mummy pizza

one of our nods to halloween came in the form of homemade pizza the evening of cora's 8th birthday. mason was totally against the olives since he finds them "hideous" (his new favorite word which he uses correctly so i don't mind it as much). but i showed him an eyeless mummy and it just wasn't cool. i think he actually ate 2 eyes worth.

just being objective here, but isn't my boy just too handsome for words? i have really lucked out - both my boys are hunky in their own ways. they will both be very handsome men. i hope their wives appreciate our DNA contributions and my stellar grooming skills.

the older two, in deep concentration.

oh you daring girls

"the daring book for girls" is cora's current bible. it has all sorts of fun activities and tid-bits of info. she stumbled upon daisy chain crowns. she and perry plucked all the tiny flowers in our backyard only for me to dash their hopes to pieces-they were way too small. we placed an emergency call to daddy. please bring home a bundle of store bought daisies! done.

i think this is my favorite picture of our girls. they are both so beautiful and happy. their crowns are divine on them both. cora quickly had the technique down so she happily constructed perry's for her.

i wonder what the next project will be?

yogi

something that i adore about cora...well, sometimes it's really cute her desire to be 21 and all. she glided downstairs one day after school and announced she wanted to do yoga. um, how darling is that? she got on her leotard, asked for a mat and went to town. she did the entire video with ease of course.

streamlined christmas

a friend shared this little poem(?) with me about gift giving at the holidays. she and i evidently are cut from the same cloth when it comes to presents at christmas. the gifts need to be spilling into the next room by the 24th for it to count as "christmas". i've done this every year since carlos and i were dating. it was how we grew up and i love the lavishness of it all. but 2 years ago, our gifts for the kiddies were insane and overwhelming. i decided enough was enough. last year we went simple but spent the holiday with grandparents and relatives. it got out of control again.

so when diane shared her poem it was just the structure i needed to mold our new christmas gift giving.

it goes like this:

"something you want,
something you need,
something to wear,
something to read."

wow. it covers all the bases - greed, necessity, fashion, and learning. it streamlines the gifts down to 4 per child. that's only 16 gifts under our tree. plus their gift from santa - and we are good to go. i thought i had better get the kids trained for this now while they are still young. before long they are going to have ridiculous lists of expensive gadgets. it'll be nice to have a "no" plan set in place when they come a pleadin'.

3:00 p.m.

The best part of my day is gathering my little chicks back home with me. What does your 3:00 look like?

He's Brillant

So we bought this table off of Craig & I am about 80% in love with it. Even Carlos has a small crush on it. However...it came with 8 rusty stars on each leg of it. The stars are actually cute. I actually like stars. Here's the problem...you know when you take something good or even neutral and then attach it to something that you don't like? Well, then the neutral or good object becomes tainted and then you don't like it after a while.

That's the story of the stars because we live in Texas. Love stars, love Texas. Don't like what Texans have done to stars. They are EVERYWHERE here. Stars in the other 49 states are fine to me. It's kinda how you feel about Michael Jackson and skin bleaching. Took a good thing and ruined it for all.

Sigh.

Above: Cora's leg - 02

Onto the numbers...I fussed to Carlos that the stars HAD to be removed ASAP. He removed one only to find a huge metal post underneath. So something had to go over the post to cover it up. He sawed off the post flush with the wood. Then brilliance struck. He suggested we put the kids birth year on each leg of the table.

I loved the idea. Every 10 months or so Carlos taps into his gay gene, takes a mental note, and then walks away from it. He has some really good ideas though every 10 months!

I wanted really expensive, chunky numbers like from Restoration Hardware. I was willing to spend big bucks but then we were out at this charity sale. They had these numbers for.....wait for it....wait for it....

10 cents a piece!!!

I couldn't pass them up. They were originally black so we painted them. I don't love their style at all or even their size so much, but for $.80 um, they looked pretty good.

Above is Perry's leg - 04

Cristian's leg - 00

Mason's leg - 05

The stars of Texas bagged and given to a friend who is a major crafter and will do something amazing with these I am sure!

The kids loved waking up the next morning and seeing what we had done. I think they all felt pretty special to have a piece of their history out in the open and on display like that.

flower power

I love this little diddy that Cora put together. She got this set from Santa a couple of years ago. I think Santa thought she'd adore this kind of project. It's just now taking its effect. Cora is our artist through and through. It's something she does everyday in one form or another.

M-E-M-O

Carlos, Mr. Rudd & Mr. Wisdom called at 2:47 today. They said they would like their red pens back.

--Jennifer

CARLOS....YOU WIN!!

Carlos took a little man vacation. I've been asking him to blog about it because can I really comment on a vacation I wasn't a part of?! Well, resistance is what I've been met with. Guess what? I found out I CAN add commentary. Please note that all comments are untrue. If you want the real story, ask Carlos.
From left to right: Felipe, Buck, Carlos, & Guido. They met Felipe while hiking. Evidently he is homeless and spends much of his "time" out on the trails pillaging off nature. Buck was the hunter of the group. He killed 3 squirrels and a small badger all with a slingshot. It was very David and Goliath-ish I am told. Guido speaks Italian and very little English. The group was sure he spent most of the trip cursing the outdoors in his native tongue.

This is Mexican cuisine. Carlos said they fried up fresh cactus in rendered fat from the badger that was killed. Gross. He said it was actually pretty good. Carlos, just so you know, does not have discriminatory taste buds.

Hot Mexican man scaling the French Alps. In Arizona.

Interesting story. They found this small boy child at the top of this rock edifice. Evidently, the boy's parents fell off this rock and plummeted to their deaths. The group took him in and hiked him out of the mountains. He was a cute kid and can be seen below. Carlos said he seemed to be pretty unfazed by the tragic event. Probably in shock.

The orphaned boy - he name is Jermaine. Who still names their kid Jermaine these days?!

Weird, but I thought the French Alps would look so much different. No snow and these are more like plateaus rather than steep, plunging edifices. But what do I know, it wasn't my vacation.

Carlos and Buck - these two became fast friends. Carlos said he is just like a father to him. Sweet.

THE END.

kitchen epiphany

while doing the dishes today, or rather not doing the dishes...the dishwasher froze and then burnt on me...i had an epiphany. of course, i started calculating the cost of a new dishwasher since carlos casually diagnosed its death over the phone. i started festering, sometimes i really do miss my anti-anxiety pill. sigh.

so i'm grumbling in my head because this is a double pooper. first, i adore my dishwasher. i average 2 loads a day. i don't hand wash, that's why i have a dishwasher, see? but secondly, why did it have to break now? we have our house on the market to sell. i don't want to buy the dishwasher that i want only to have it for 3 months and leave it with the house.

i'm thinking about this and other things as well because i am female, we are multi-every-thingers ya know. i think about a conversation i had with noel last night. she is in the middle of dating. i got off the phone with her and told carlos that i was so happy to be married and to not have to ever date again. in dating, you eventually get to the point where you are tired of it. you are ready to commit and settle down with just one personality for good. it's like eating velvetta when all you want is a good quality, expensive cheese.

it then strikes me that noel and i are kinda going through the same thing right now. we are both for sale. and it sucks.

when you are for sale you are always putting your best foot forward. there is always possibility dangling out in front of you. it feels artificial to me in lots of ways. it is filled with hope, excitement, anxiety, disappointment. i mean typically, if done right you buy up every time. you don't break up with a loser and then date the same loser with varying DNA. you don't buy the same square footage or the same upgrades. you get bigger and better with each transition.

i don't know if noel is ready to purchase yet. i know she is getting there though. i know i hate advertising my home, i dislike it being spotlessly clean. that certainly isn't the real me.

but there are definite perks to being on the market. for example, i've gotten some lingering projects finished up and out of the way. i've thrown away a lot of garbage that was just taking up space and of no use. i guess noel's doing the same thing. we all carry experience and opinions from previous relationships. but dating gives us the chance to clean house, wipe out the cobwebs, and buy new things.

i wish the best to my little noel and myself in our selling efforts.

beloved

so i basically totally crush on cristian 24/7. he's ridiculously handsome, but more importantly...he is just like his father. hence, the ongoing crush. for reals, he is the sweetest, gentlest boy. even though he fights it sometimes, he still hugs and kisses me. i lurve it.

so yesterday i was squishing on him and then kissing on him. i asked him if he knew that i loved him. he replied in the affirmative. "and do you love me back?"

"mom, who wouldn't love you?"

I know. kill me right? (insert sugary sigh here)

as a sidenote...i miss this little creature more than i can verbally express. he was such a bright spot in our family

the glory of yellow

mason's 6th birthday - yikes - my baby boy is getting so big. we had a friend in our ward make his cake for the event and she did a stellar job.
we had the usual ya know - friends, cake, pinata, and slip-n-slide. i relish simplicity

mace got two small, inexpensive gifts from mom and dad and was totally thrilled with them. i really enjoy the simple pleasures and glad that he does too.

oh happy day our little mace. we adore you!!

feminine charms

so i am seeing my crazy which doctor. she and i have several goals we are working towards. most of them i agree with except becoming a vegan like her. no thanks. we are weaning me off my antidepressant. we are bringing hormone levels within normal ranges...

well, over the past several months we have worked on raising my serotonin level. mission accomplished. her favorite phrase to tell me with every conversation is this, "90% of the serotonin in your body is found in your digestive tract." i've come to accept this as a fact, even though i haven't done an ounce of research to prove it.

so serotonin is good now. we must now work on dopamine. we switch pills around, eliminate some, add others - poof! a whole new cocktail is born. so i start this and about day 2 diarrhea hits. um, this poop condition rarely hits me. i'm always way on the other side of the poop spectrum. so i think i've caught a bug. by day 3 i realize it's my new cocktail. and then my boobs hurt tremendously.

i call the witch doctor. she tells me this is a side effect of coming off the antidepressant and my new meds. then i get the monthly visit. and this month happens to be gory.

so we go out to dinner tonight. my boobs hurt, i'm crampy, bloated, my intestines are twisting themselves in knots. basically from the belly button to my upper thighs...waging war on my body. it wasn't pretty.

we are wrapping up dinner at the restaurant when my intestines signal their hello. um, know this - i DON'T poop in public bathrooms. i poop in the great outdoors before i use a nasty public toilet "cleaned" by an ex-con with hepatitis. so my drive home is painful. i'm sweating from sheer will and concentration. we get home, the urge has momentarily subsided. i'm bringing stuff in from the car. all the kids have disappeared (not unusual).

and then....it hits. the urge is back. it's that way because your body knows you are home. in your own personal safe haven, my clean throne, toilet paper that i like, perfect ambiance, etc. i go the guest bathroom - taken, by mason. i head to my bathroom where i hear the shower running. taken, by cora. oh well, she'll have to bathe in my stinkiness - she does it to me at least once a week. i enter - she is pooping on my toilet. i briskly walk to the kid bathroom. the door is locked. i pound on it. cristian responds. what are you doing i yell? i need the bathroom NOW! he's pooping. oh my gosh, it's getting really bad. i start to panic. i gingerly descend the stairs. one false step and it could all be over. i pound on the guest bathroom. mason, what are you doing? are you pooping?! of course he is! oh my helena! i am writhing in pain and determination. my intestines are going to burst. my uterus is screaming in twisting agony. WHY DOES EVERYONE HAVE TO POOH AT THE SAME TIME!! Carlos is laughing almost hysterically the whole time. i feel like squatting on his side of the bed and letting go. not. nice. hubby.

needless to say, sweet mason did his business as fast as he could. he even washed his hands in the kitchen to streamline his time.

i. about. died.