Wowzer. It's been a while!

Yep, that's a peanut butter, refried bean and olive sandwich.  But don't worry, Layne had water with it, so all is well.  

Hadley wanted a "7" birthday party.  Soooo....we went to the 7 continents.  She's from Argentina.  We had the big map on the wall and added each continent as we went there.  We had Kangaroo hopping dress-up relay races in Australia, Churros in South America and on and on.   

Happy Easter

Layne loves to give directions while I'm driving.  "Left Mommy; right at the next stop sign," etc.  So I told her I wanted to stop at the gas station on the way home from preschool to get a Coke--yes, it's a rather frequent occurrence--what of it!  Anyway, she directs me to the chosen destination and announces, "Here we are the the Coke Station, Mommy".  Not gas station--coke station.

Russ always finds funny places to hide Easter baskets.  He makes these kids WORK for their candy!

Seriously, I love this kid.  This is his eraser army.  He's been collecting them all year.  Each division has it's strengths and specialties.  Man I love this kid!

Happy Birthday Layne!  (It's a whole month after Hadley's, but I've been a flake about blogging).  She got a watering can and decided to water our new apple trees...in the rain, of course.  AHHHH Washington.

Layne was Pinkalicious for her party.  Honestly, if you don't have the book you need to get it!  So we had Pinkalicious games and fun.  All these little tiny pink people crack me up!

Hippity Hop Races...of course!

Yippy for new sand in the sandbox!  All four of my kids were playing at the same thing, at the same time.  Yippy for kids!

That's MY man!

I MARRIED THE FUNNIEST, BEST MAN ALIVE!!!

For Valentine's Day, Russ got me a scale--in his utter and complete defense I really wanted it and asked for it. Plus, he didn't get me any ol' scale; he got me the top of the line that tells everything from Body Fat to BMI to ounces of Diet Coke consumed that day.

So, to supplement the scale he gave me this:

AAAAAAHH Motherhood

We FINALLY got the x-ray with the illusive pendent (see Jan. 24 post)in it. As you can see, there's no question that it's in there--Ahhh, the colon.
Yep. Molly Homemaker in the flesh! Teaching Layne how to grind wheat (I've learned that this is a garage job rather then a kitchen job..yes, I learned the hard way).

About 6 weeks ago I decided that I'm not going to cook meals anymore that no one eats. So I quit with the pasta salads, jumbo shells, stirfry's and decided on the four meals that I know they will eat--tacos, spaghetti, homemade pizza and chicken. So that's what I've been cooking for 6 weeks. There are variations (roast on Sunday, 7 layer dip with homemade tortillas, etc.) But pretty much I'm sticking to the diet. It's totally working. Dinner is boring, but everyone eats. So with that, I, of course, make the pizza dough with whole wheat every time (and use low-fat turkey pepperoni among other things). We're going through a lot more whole wheat these days--I'll tell you what!

So I took the kids to the high school production of the Sound of Music (since I'm NOT taking them to Wicked with Russ and I in a week--YIPPY FOR WICKED!!!--thank you Dad!). So I'm feeling like a good Mom--giving a little culture to there baseball, soccer, Avatar lives. So as we're leaving I ask them how they liked it:

Kord: "UUGG"
Hadley: "Ask me again tomorrow"
Layne: "It gowd. It just tooooo long"

AHHH Motherhood

Then we get home at 10PM so they're exhausted and we get them straight into bed--so Hadley ends up crying in her bed because we didn't read scriptures, "you don't understand how important reading scriptures is to me."

It's like "Walk your child to school day". Are they going to remember all the awesome amazing things I did with them--the helping in their classroom every week, reading to them daily, coaching their teams and listening to every problem. Or are they just going to remember that one time I didn't let them walk to school on "walk your child to school day". Never mind that Case was two weeks old, we live a mile from the school uphill, and it was pouring. I really pray that they remember the good.So Hadley passes out (as evident from the "Father of the Year" story). So I mentioned it to the pediatrician. She was a little...concerned. "She passes out? How many times?" "Oh, 6". "WHAT!? She's passed out 6 times and you're just telling me now!"

In my defense, they've all been linked to seeing her own blood or not eating for a long time. Plus, it took 3 1/2 years to get to the number 6. So anyway, we had to get an EKG to make sure she's all good. Honestly, how cute is that! I'm totally glass is half full--"Come on Hads this is totally a photo op"

Nurture not nature

Yep, that there's Case's 1st birthday. February 16th--PRESIDENT'S DAY THIS YEAR!!! We got him started with the RIGHT party. He's no jack ass.

Honestly, does every mother on the planet have this picture. I sure have one in all four kids scrapbooks. It's the..."I think it's so fun to pull all the toilet paper off" stage. That's the scientific term.

So I always write a note to Hadley (and all my kids) on her banana in her school lunch. I didn't do it one day last week. When she got home she told me she had something for me in her lunchbox. When I opened it, there was her banana peel. She had taken a red pen and wrote, "I love you Mom" on it.

She's THE cutest kid ever!!

Feet and Eat

I love these little feeties! Even when Russ and I get a call from the sitter on New Year's saying that Layne swallowed the pendent from a necklace. Honestly, she's 3 1/2 not 1 1/2. So after making sure that she was breathing and after googling it to find out what to worry about and what to look for--we waited...poop stick in hand. Yep, that's right folks, we were checking poop for 13 d@%$ days. Of course, she was on fiber and mineral oil so it was nice and frequent too.

After four days without any results, we got an x-ray. I was thinking that it probably wouldn't be there (either she didn't swallow it like she said, or we missed it coming out the other end). So after the x-ray I was helping Layne get dressed behind the little curtain and I hear the x-ray tech say, "Is that a pendant? It looks like a pendent." Oh HELL!

So, long story short...er. 9 days later still no pendant so we got another x-ray and it was gone. That was a little bitter sweet. Honestly, after 13 days of poop checking, you're really wanting the satisfaction of seeing the thing.

Layne was concerned too. "Mommy, but where did it go". I reminder her of the digestive system (a discussion we have had many times over the last 13 days). Her response, "But Mamma, I want to put it on and wear again". Nice!

Just so we're clear, I will not be using a poop stick ever again...honestly, what was the point, she still ending up having to get the x-rays. Live and learn.

The pendant had the Tree of Life on it...evidently it was "most desirable".

Not your average Christmas card

You know you need a new year to come along when...

...not only do you give up on sending out a Christmas card, but you don't even get a Christmas e-card out in time for Christmas. So here's my New Year's e-info.---pathetic!

I just started blogging a couple months ago and I don't have very many entries. So I'll just refer you to the few previous posts for what's going on with us. Instead, here's a day in the life of the Thomas family--enjoy!



Father of the year…

Russ was busy at the computer one evening, researching taxes, buying guns, planning for the impending attack of mindless zombie hordes or whatever it is he does in there, when outside the door he heard Hadley jump from the piano to chase Kord, a little thing they do every night.

Immediately following that event Russ hears a loud thump at the base of the stairs. Thinking that Case, who he was “in charge of”, had fallen down the stairs he heroically jumps from his chair and dashes to the scene to find Hadley lying at the bottom of the stairs. Relieved that it isn’t Case, he asks Hadley if she is OK. The only reply he gets is a soft whimper. Figuring that she is playing up her “injury” so she won’t have to return to her piano practice; he again asks Hadley if she is OK, followed by a gentle nudge with his foot. She again whimpers but continues to lay face down on the floor. Satisfied that she’s OK and simply trying to avoid piano he returns to his important work at the computer.

Several moments later Nicole reminds Hadley that her piano practice isn’t done and Hadley begins to cry. “Oh, Hadley”, Russ says, your fine, go do what mom asks”. Another few moments pass when Hadley stumbles into the kitchen and Nicole calls out, “Russ!! Did you just leave her there? She’s bleeding!!!!” Russ jumps back to his feet and runs to the kitchen where Hadley is in her mothers arms.

The dazed look in her eye is something Russ vaguely remembers. It’s that same foggy look she had right after she passed out from the sight of blood after cutting her finger awhile back. It turns out that when she jumped up from the piano to chase Kord she only made it as far as the stairs where she passed out from jumping up too quickly. As for the profuse bleeding from the mouth… when she hit the floor, a recently loose tooth had been knocked from her grill and had flown halfway across the room. We finally found it by the front door.

If only the story ended there… dad also forgot to play tooth fairy later that night so she woke up with a sore lip and a big envelope of nothing under her pillow. Nicole gave her a $5.00 the next morning in proxy. Yep, Father of the year, that’s Russ.

As I am pushin' perfection, it's no problem for me to mock Russ. Honestly, he's so lucky to have me...and we him.

Merry Christmas!

Goofy Goobers

Well, we've been having a FANTASTIC fall. It's been ridiculously gorgeous up here. In my 10 years here, I don't think I've ever seen the fall colors this vibrant. We've been too busy, but we're working on that. I've always said that we're not going to be a crazy busy family. So I've said that each child can only have one sport at a time. That's great but when you multiply that times three kids in sports, then you add piano lessons (I'm thinking it's not fair to claim that as their one activity), and cub scouts--suddenly things get a little crazy. Then there are the parties, friends over and on and on. So we're working on finding the most important things and cutting other things out...Any ideas would be MUCH appreciated. Anyway, here's some fun that we've been having...

A women after my own heart...cookie dough and diet coke--check me out being a good mom--it's caffeine free!

Kord was the chairman in fourth grade play...this was BIG. He was front and center with TONS of lines. He did a great job, so Layne and I made GI-NORMOUS cookies for all.

How you know when it's gone from a recession to a depression

Our AWESOME cousins came for Thanksgiving. In an attempt to bribe the older cousins (who aren't even in this picture) to come, we bought Rock Band. "OOOHHHH great Mother of Rock Band, please, allow us the opportunity to engage in the noble pursuit of Mississippi Queen".





They won











Okay seriously, the boy's freakin' adorable!

Yep...adorable







I know it's been a while, but Halloween was the normal hilarious and fun...

...except for Hadley, she was the sick Karate Girl. It was pretty pathetic.