Moving on up

After a brief 3 week summer break, school has begun again! On Sunday night, Kelly and I gave the kids each a bag with a few little goodies to start off the new school year. Lilly got some clothes and a pair of shoes...

And Abe got underwear since he wears the same thing everyday.

Lilly was so excited for school to begin. After meeting her teacher at the meet and great, she had no worries and was really anxious to be back in school.

I took this picture and totally surprised myself when I start to feel the tightness in my throat and the itchy eyes. Thank goodness for sunglasses! She's the sweetest little thing and I can't believe how quickly she's growing up. We're so proud!

Totally my longest relationship

Kelly and I celebrated our ninth anniversary last Saturday. After Abe's party, Lilly's friend's party, a dinner at Cafe Rio with the fam, and a last trip to Purple Penguin, we were on our way to really celebrate. Both Kelly and I really love (probably me more love and Kelly more like) Michael Buble, or Mickey Boobs, as we like to call him. It was a fantastic concert and he is such a great performer. Ever since we heard he was coming to Vegas we planned on going to the concert and it just so happened that it was actually on our anniversary. How's that for destiny? We had a great time, and since my dad and his wife were staying with the kids (thanks again!) we felt no rush to get home and went and got a burger and fries at In & Out after the concert. We had a great time!

We took two pictures at the concert and he looked better in the other one and I looked better in this one. Sorry dear, but it's my blog.

Almost four

Tomorrow is Abe's birthday, but his party was last Saturday. It was a simple little affair with only a few friends and not really planned in the way of activities, crafts etc... I like to remember Abe's birthday party as the white trash version of a Star Wars meets army guy meets super hero extravaganza. Nevertheless, I think Abe had fun. He's never had a party before so we really want to start on a low so anything slightly better than this year will be really cool.

The original plan was to have the sprinklers on and water balloons, but we had a wonderfully cool morning so we got out the "bouncy castle" and the kids really liked that. I had bought some spray bottles that can do more of a fine mist instead of a squirt-you-in-the-eye-and-now-you're-crying kind of a spray. That was also a good thing, as Martha would say, as the kids had a great time spraying Kelly and Abe's Grandpa and Grandma, who were in town for the weekend.

Abe got some really great "boy" toys from his friends. He's finally discovering the world of transformers.

And the grand finale was decorating and eating cupcakes.

We love this boy so much! He's got such a sensitive little heart. Today at Target (where else would I be?) I watched as he looked at Oliver, who was asleep in his carseat, and he gently turned his little cheek so he could give Ollie a kiss. So sweet! I'm glad I get to see those sides of him, too. Happy birthday, my boy!

Apostate Abe

Abe's 3 and he's done with church. The other day we're in the car and, per usual, the constant stream of questions has commenced. The following conversation ensues:

Abe: I don't like going to church. It's not fun.

Lilly: (pipes in from the back of the car) I like going to church!!

Abe: (without missing a beat) It's boring...

Quinne: (thinking: what do I say? what do I say? I kind of get where he's coming from but what are some wise words that will somehow inspire him to love church????) Yeah, sometimes it isn't always fun but...

Abe: (interrupting) I like going swimming and getting ice cream. That's what I like to do.

Lilly: Sacrament meeting is boring, but I like primary!!

(This is going downhill fast)

(Lilly and I begin to discuss the benefits of church, i.e. we get to learn about Jesus and see friends and it's what we're supposed to do, etc...)

Abe: I'm tired of listening to all this talking. I don't want to hear about it anymore.

Quinne: (admits defeat)

Then, cause we're a super righteous family attempted family night on monday, much to the chagrin of Abraham. We made it through (thank goodness!) and were relieved we had a week til the next time. Then, the following morning and because we're super duper righteous, we attempted to have a scripture and prayer in the morning before Kelly left for work. Abe threw a fit. He stomped and threw books and fell on his face on the couch complaining about having to read the scriptures. He asked, "Is it going to be as long as last night?" (Family night was 5 minutes long, fyi) "No," I say, "It'll be really quick. It's just one verse!" Again, we struggled through with Abe protesting all the while.

What to do? He's a maniac!!!!

p.s. Accountability report: I totally sucked last week and didn't do anything I was supposed to. Can I get a do over??

Neon Trees - Animal (Live in Boch Studio 92.9)

Kelly and I went and saw this band, Neon Trees, perform last night on Fremont Street. Not a lot of people have heard of them yet, but our family rocks out to them daily. The kids love them and we have to play this song over and over. The kids like the original version best, but this is my fave.

Accountability report

Well, kind of...in a nut shell...I did really great on my goals...on some days. The exercising was no problem. The eating healthy was great. I felt so good all week and didn't even really miss the sweets and snacks. (If you don't count today) The limited TV was so eye-opening for me cause guess what, the kids found other things to do. I use the TV so often as a crutch and the kids didn't really even miss it. I totally gave up on this on Thursday, though, cause that's the morning that I do my long run and I'm pretty much incapacitated for the rest of the day. I'm trying to not feel any guilt about it, though.

And then there's the cleaning and organizing...I started the week out great. I was an organizing machine and cleaning fanatic...and then I became neurotic Quinne who nobody likes and everybody is afraid of (or of whom everyone is afraid if you want to be all proper about it). Abe kept asking me why I was so mad all the time. Lilly would disappear when I'd start to complain about how messy the house is and all I ever do is clean it ALL DAY LONG. I knew I has gone over to the dark side when I almost sent Kelly a very angry text in regards to the spot of jam he let harden on my sparkling countertops! So instead, I just gave up and succumbed to the frustration that so many women feel about trying to balance children and housework and the exercising and the desire to have a little fun, too. Oh well, I'll start over tomorrow.

The prayer thing was good, too. To be honest, and since this is my blog I do feel free to share my own opinions, I really can't stand it when people say that they had a bad day and then they realized it's because they forgot to pray. Uh...in the good ole days (pre children) I was a praying fool and had plenty of crappy days. That's just my two cents. NEVERTHELESS, I whole-heartedly endorse prayer and even though I don't really talk about things of a spiritual nature here, I really do feel that making more of an effort to offer regular sincere prayers this week allowed me to feel more in tune with the Spirit. And FYI, I had a lousy wednesday, thursday and friday. But still, some things that I have been thinking about a lot lately (and I'll probably write more about later), became clearer and even more important to me this week.

And since the TV was off a lot more that usual, I really enjoyed interacting with the kids more. They're such fascinating little creatures and really getting down and playing with them had been such a positive experience for me.

So the goals for this next week are much the same:

1. Exercise 5x

2. Eat healthy. One free meal and dessert

3. Continue to keep TV off (except on thursday) and interact with children more.

4. Make a "TO DO" list for each day for chores and the like and just get stuff done. It sucks, but whatever. Heaven knows Kelly's not going to do it. (har har)

5. Keep trying to incorporate more spiritual stuff in daily life. Like, maybe do your visiting teaching.

6. Blog more!

New month, new week, new day

I have a severe disorder called I-often-find-my-life-out-of-balance-and-feel-overwhelmed-and-so-I-don't-do-anything-and-sit-around-paralyzed-until-I've-eaten-all-the-food-in-the-house-and-I-feel-like-I-want-to-throw-up-but-I-don't-I-just-give-myself-a-pep-talk-and-say-the-line-that-Scarlett-said-when-Rhett-finally-left-her-and-think-that-tomorrow-is-another-day-and-I'm-making-goals-and-since-I-have-to-be-accountable-to-someone-I-choose-to-be-accountable-to-the-whole-wide-world.

It's a heavy burden that I bare. In short, here are my goals for this week.

1. Exercise 5 x

2. Eat healthy (not just low-fat, I'm talking some serious whole foods going on here) everyday except I get one free meal and one free dessert.

3. Pray daily. On my knees. Okay, twice daily.

4. Severely limit kids' TV watching.

5. Work on improving the cleanliness and functionality of my home everyday. Choose at least one part (large or small, depending on time restraints) to completely de-clutter, clean and organize. Yuck!

6. Make sure that the dishes are loaded, sink is clean, table is wiped off and counters are sparkling before bed. No exceptions!

7. Enjoy my children! Play with them , include them in what I need to do around the house.

There you go. My list for this week. I'll report back next Sunday.