Major Flaw

I was asked to go on the 4th year over-night hike this year. It was being planned by the stake, I was simply representing adult supervision for our ward. Little did I remember that I lose it when forced to follow someone else's schedule instead of my own. I can thank my mother-in-law for helping me figure this out. Over the course of 24 hours I got wound tighter and tighter, because it wasn't going how I would have planned it. If I would have just broken camp rules and brought a book, I probably could have let all the things I disapproved of go. But instead I festered in frustration. When I went to pick up my kids from their cousins' house and couldn't find their shoes, my frustration came to a head. I yelled at my sister-in-law and nieces. Felt terrible, apologized on the way home, then cried the rest of the way after that. Still feel terrible. I love them, they were doing me a favor and I snapped at them instead of expressing my graditude. I only pray that they can forgive me and not have this incident effect a fantastic 10+ year relationship. Lesson learned.

another big picture update

Maisy is devilishly cute. That's why we keep her and don't sell her to the gypsies. Though we consider it daily.

DVS wanted to run a race, so I found a 1K. That's .61 miles. It was a huge learning experience as a parent. He wanted to walk. Sit down in the middle and rest. And by golly that's not how you do a race. You try your hardest and don't quit no matter how bad it hurts. I learned that my expectations for his experiences are not the same as his. I need to be proud of him if he truly feels like he did his best. It took me most of the day to get over being disappointed that I didn't think he did his best.

I love that after a hard day of skiing, he couldn't even eat. Just fell asleep at the table. This is a first for us.

We went to St. George over Presidents' Day and hiked to 3 Ponds. It's a longer hike than Dylan can handle, and it was really windy. So, since it had rained the night before, we told Dylan that every puddle we passed was one of the Three Ponds so he wasn't disappointed to not see them.

Maisy can throw amazing tantrums. This one just wore her right out. It seemed like sledding was fun, but this picture may not be the best evidence of it. Flying kites was fun for about 20 minutes, until the wind froze them into kid-cicles. Maisy turned 2 Wes turned 35 I love that I can dress them matchy-matchy for holidays. It makes for cute pictures. Supercross wasn't everything we dreamed this year since all our favorite riders were injured. But Dylan still loved going. We inherited this play-set from Wes' aunt and uncle. And with some elbow grease it's looking fantastic. The kids love it and Dylan really does know how to use the ratchet wrench he has through his belt loop. I talked a bunch of friends, including Wes' aforementioned aunt, into doing the Women of Steel triathlon. It was a nice practice for the big one I'm doing on Saturday. I just hope everyone had fun and will want to do more with me later. Dylan's end of year preschool program turned into the Dylan Show. He's the only kid you can hear singing. And when his teacher says, "Louder." He's happy to oblige. He's the best. Last, happy birthday to me. I turned 31 last Tuesday. It wasn't the best birthday I've ever had. And since this is my blog, I'm about to over-share. I woke up at 5 to do my first outdoor swim in a wetsuit that I borrowed. Well, the pool opened 40 minutes late. Apparently at the beginning of the season it takes practice to get those covers off in a reasonable amount of time. About 3 laps into my swim I feel like I'm drowning. My massive shoulders are too much for my wetsuit and I can't get my arms overhead for my normal stroke, so my breathing is off. It also feels tight around my neck. I definitely feel like I'm drowning at this point, so I strip off the wetsuit and finish my swim in my trisuit regardless of the fact that it's 50F outside. I don't get to go on my bike ride after because I have to get home so Wes can go to work. I get the kids a quick breakfast so I can take them with me in the trailer for my bike ride. Two weeks before my triathlon I don't feel like I can fudge any of my workouts. I follow this up with mowing the lawn and cleaning the house to get ready for my party. I rush through the shower to meet Wes for a very nice birthday lunch at Market Street, no makeup, wet curly hair that DVS hates. I think, "maybe I can get a free dessert for my birthday. I even have my license with me." I glance at and realize it expires that day. I quickly call my mother-in-law to see if she can take the kids while I run to the DMV. I rush home to grab the appropriate documents and my makeup bag. The DMV has made amazing improvements. I was in and out in less than 20 minutes. I could have taken the kids, but my only experience has been hours of torture long. I'm still doing the dishes when my first guest arrives for my party. It was an insane day. I really hope 32 starts out better.

Nerd Royalty

As of February 5th, Wes and I have been married 10 years. I realize that was a couple weeks ago. I do what I can. He's a great husband and here's why. The other night we were going to bed and I still needed to settle down from the day. I asked Wes to tell me something nerdy. He said he couldn't think of anything nerdy. To which I replied, "Of course you can. You're the king of nerds." In pleading for him to tell me something nerdy that would make me laugh, I accidentally said dirty, which I quickly corrected back to nerdy. Finally he came up with, "I'd like to get my hands on her 'ample nacelles'." Which made me crack up because it's a little dirty and a lot nerdy, and I'm probably the queen of the nerds. Since I'm waiting for a computer game to update so I can play with my nerdy husband.

http://www.hark.com/clips/mxtzpqybmp-she-is-one-well-endowed-lady

Housewife Anthem

I called my sister today, because "everyday I'm vacuuming" was going through my head to the tune of Party Rock Anthem. It was funny in my head, but she gets out less than I do and has no idea who LMFAO is. So not funny to her. I took the liberty of expounding on my altered lyrics, and it's kind of rough, but someone needed to write a song that more directly applies to my life (I only wish it was this upbeat). Again, to the chorus of Party Rock Anthem. Here's a link to the video in case you don't get out either.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ6zr6kCPj8

Crazy housewives taking care of kids
Dirty dishes piling up again
Read the animal book eight more times
And you wonder why we lose our minds

Wipe a snotty face then wipe a bum
I want to burn the Letter Fact’ry
Anyone know what the baby wants?
No one eats what I make for dinner

Everyday I’m vacuuming.

For the record: I think their band name is completely inappropriate.

Dylan

Dylan turned four at the beginning of the month and into an angel. Three was a tough year, but for the last few weeks he has been fantastic. He decides we all need to clean our rooms, he gets dressed without being asked most days, gets ready for bed with very little fuss, puts his plate in the sink. Above all and probably most important he has turned the corner into a fairly amazing little skier. We took him today for his 3rd time this season and put him in ski school. That $25/hour was worth every sweet cent. Wes and I had a great extra 2 hours of skiing with Jenny and Drew (just like before we all had kids) and Dylan went up a level in ski school and loved it. After we picked him up we did 6 more runs on the bunny hill with him. I am so proud of him. (ok, so he's not smiling in this picture, but he was sick on his birthday)
Also he's started writing his letters every chance he gets. He's constantly talking about making good choices to be happy like Heavenly Father wants us to. His prayers have become increasingly thoughtful of others and less redundant. We almost always get the philosophy of the world according to Dylan. Like in a fight between pirates and ninjas, the ninjas would win. Because they listen to Heavenly Father and make good choices, but pirates do bad things and steal from other people so they lose.(his first friend birthday party; superhero theme per his choosing)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-P3nWtH4TU&list=UUis70d8eXHzv3e8KyBtCqNg&index=1&feature=plpp_videoAgain, so proud. He's becoming just the kid I've always dreamed of. He's the best.

AMERICAN Politics

I love all the people in the world regardless of what country they are from. Whoop dee do and great for them. But when I turn on my talk radio to listen to news about debates and congress and laws and policies; I do NOT want to hear someone from a foreign country discussing them. They may have a great political science degree from Oxford or Cambridge, but they can stay in their country and talk about their own nations politics. I can't explain why it makes me want to scream. It just seems un-American. I want to hear about the economy from someone who pays their taxes here and is effected by the downturn as every other citizen of this once great nation.

Also it bothers me when, again, people with foreign accents are playing roles in movies that are high up in the government. I don't think they should have top security clearance. I know it's fictional, but it bothers me as much as a BYU bumper sticker. I want to run them off the road.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Intense Picture Filled Re-cap

I am remiss in my blogging. There's a lot to make up for.
Dylan started pre-school. Two times/week. He loves it, loves his teacher, and playing with new friends. The helmet hair is because we biked.

"Do you want me to walk you to the door?" "No. Bye, Mom."

Maisy likes to play with Dylan's toys while he's at pre-school.

We dog sat my grandma's dog, Cassie. It made Wes and I seriously tempted to get another dog. Lilah was so entertained. Dylan loved that Cassie slept on his bed. He would come down every morning and tell me that he and Cassie had the same dream.
If I haven't mentioned it before; Maisy loves dogs. Every dog is Lilah, it's one of the first words she said. She spends a fair amount of her day hugging, kissing and laying on Lilah. Heaven bless that patient puppy.
Dylan is a hard core Utes fan. Not that I'm complaining about his team of choice, but everywhere we drive/run/bike it's; "Mom, did you see that Ute sign." "They had a Ute flag on their car. Did you see it? We need Ute flags on our car." Just today we were going to the zoo and they had changed the signs on the flag poles, concerning Dylan that it was no longer "Ute season." So I had a chance to bid on some Ute tickets and won them at a good price. Fulfilling my son's dream of going to a Ute game.
True he was kind of done after half time, but we finally won and had a great time. This kid has passion despite his father's apathy. GO UTES!!!
We move on to Halloween. I'm a Michael Jackson fan and since the years that I get to choose everyone's costumes are limited. This was my choice. It was tons of fun. Dylan got super into it and learned some moves and part of "his" song. I don't think the video is working though. Maisy even said "ow" if asked. While the kids are cute, Wes got the strongest reaction. He was flat out creepy.

Every now and then my kids play awesome like best friends. I snapped these on Monday while I was making dinner. First Dylan read Maisy a book.
Then he packed a bag and took Maisy on an "airplane" to San Diego his favorite place in the whole world

Finally they have landed and are going to Sea World. I love it when he's willing to take his sister with him on trips through his imagination.

It only lasts so long. Eventually my baby that I'm considering re-naming Repeat, ends up "helping" me with the dishes.
To sum up: my kids are fantastic and I want to kiss their cute cheeks a thousand times a day and tell them how much I love them.