What did you do today?

This is for my husband who ask asks me this question every single day without fail in a tone that says he believes I sat around and watched HGTV and painted my toe nails all day...

I got up at 7:30, reminded Ally to "please be quiet so you don't wake up your brother," at least 5 times and then plugged the curling iron in. While she gets dressed and brushed through her hair, I make the bed and throw all of Alex's dirty laundry in the laundry basket, because it never seems to make it there without my help. She is finally ready and I spend the next 5 minutes in a speed curling session, because she needs to leave in 10 minutes and needs another bowl of cereal because she is "starving!!!"
I remind her to "be quiet" one more time as she runs upstairs to put her socks and shoes on for school... but yet again, she shuts her door too loudly and I hear "Mommy!" through the monitor.
I give Ally and Alex a hug and a kiss and send them out the door.
Devin is only talking to himself, so I quickly throw on a pair of shorts and a shirt and wash my face... he starting to whine now, but I quickly brush my hair and get some mascara on before his whining is turning into a cry.
I pull a happy Devin out of bed, change his diaper, turn Disney channel on and give him a sippy full of milk. Then I make him some toast, put some yogurt in a bowl and put him in the high chair. I let him watch Handy Manny while eating so I can wash the pans from last night's dinner and pick up some more of my husband's and children's clothing from the family room.
Devin is finished, so I take him out and hope he will be enthralled by Mickey Mouse Clubhouse that has just come on. I sneak upstairs to get 3 more packages ready to ship... no such luck, he starts crying for me and as much as I am tempted to ignore him, I tell him I am upstairs and he comes up and proceeds to pull all of the clothing I have organized in sizes to put away onto the floor and somehow finds a screwdriver that I have to pry it from him screaming and hitting.
What should have taken 15 minutes to do turns into almost an hour because of my "help".
I dress Devin... and realized afterwards that he has a messy diaper, so I undress him, change him and redress him.
I have 11 packages to take to the post office and throw them out into the car and go back for Devin. In those 30 seconds that it took me, he has taken off one of his shoes. So, I put it back on, grab my purse and we are almost out the door... when I notice Ally's lunch sitting on the kitchen island (yes, my kitchen is THAT messy that I didn't notice it before). So I grab the lunch as well.
We stop at the school and the office tells me to just take it back to her classroom. Did I mention her classroom is at the very back of the school? So I drag Devin past 4 drinking fountains... I know there are 4 because he has to get a drink at each one. I try to quietly give Ally her lunch, but Devin starts to cry for her... so much for not interupting the class. Devin gets a drink at each drinking fountain on the way back and we finally make it back to the car. He has to, of course, buckle his own seatbelt that takes an additional 5 minutes.
Lucky for me, the post office line is short and I don't have to wait long juggling 11 packages, my purse and keep Devin from pulling all the Hallmark cards out of the display.
On the drive home, Devin see's the park and starts asking... well whining, to go. "Sure, why not?" I think. I feel guilty for being so busy lately and not taking him. We spend an hour there and I have fun playing with him... but then it is time to leave and I have to drag him kicking and screaming away.
By now it is time for lunch, and since I skipped breakfast I am starving. First, I make a PB&J sandwich for Devin and give him a couple of carrot sticks. While I am making myself a sandwich Devin throws half of his sandwich on the floor for the dogs and proceeds to laugh when they attack it. I yell, "Devin, no!" but am too late and he gleefully drops the other half to watch them scramble for it. I put the dogs in their "closet," and give him my sandwich I was making for me. He asks for some milk and I give him some... which he decides is the only thing he wants to eat.
Meanwhile I get sidetracked with the carrot stick that rolled under the couch and forget about feeding myself. When I get down to look under the couch I see several objects under there. Embarassed of the mess, I move the huge sectional and clean and vaccumn underneath. Devin thinks the new arrangement is great and spreads all of his toys over the new arrangement of couches.... The I put all the furniture back, dust and vacumn. The family room is once again spotless.
Moving on, it is finally time for Devin to take a nap. I plan on getting the kitchen clean, the floors mopped and then work on the store. He falls asleep quickly, he must be tired from running up and down the slides.
I get the dishes in the dishwasher, fold a load of laundry and am getting ready for scrubbing the high chair down when the doorbell rings... which makes my dogs start barking... which makes Devin start crying... "NO! I DON'T WANT TO BUY YOUR SEAFOOD AND CHICKEN DELIVERY!!!"
So, after a 30 minute nap, and getting nothing accomplished, Devin is up again. I am a bad mommy and turn Disney channel on once again. He is too grumpy from a short nap and I end up having to sit and hold him while he watches Mickey Mouse. He finally gets up to dance to the "Hotdog Dance" and I sneak to finish cleaning the kitchen. He actually lets me.
Then Ally comes home, wanting to go to a friends house. I tell her she needs to finish her chores first and work on her animal habitat project that is due on Thursday.
Her project is on leopards... not tigers. I definitely have a toy tiger to use, but that can DEFINITELY not be substituted for a leopard, according to my leopard expert daughter. What to do? Then I come up with a brilliant plan. We make salt dough and I tell her to make a leopard. After much tears over her salt dough not looking like a leopard, I try and make it for her... not that I can make a leopard, but it satisfies her. Not such a brilliant plan.
I let Devin and Ally play with the leftover salt dough and start on dinner. As I am making dinner I have to throw out, "Don't put it in your mouth!" and "Don't feed it to the dogs!" and then clean up dog vomit when Zippers gets a huge chunk and it comes back up.
Devin is now very grumpy from no sleep and is not happy with the salt dough any more, so I hold him on my hip as I hop around the kitchen trying to get ready for Alex who should be home by 5:30. When it turn's 5:45 dinner is finally ready, but Alex isn't home. I set the kids down and let them start eating. I call Alex, no answer... 6:00 comes and I eat my cold and soggy dinner while holding Devin on my lap.
Alex gets home at 6:15, eats and we head to the Provo river to get some rocks and vegetation for Ally's project. I didn't realize it was dark enough for mosquitos so I get 9 mosquito bites... nobody else got any, just me.
We hurry home and start glueing everything into the shoe box. Devin is screaming and crying for me so Alex takes him up for a bath. We finish. The only thing left is to paint the salt dough leopards after they dry tomorrow. Then we work on times tables, spelling words and homework.
Devin is done bathing so I take hime up to brush his teeth, read stories and put him to bed. Poor little guy, he was a sleep within minutes.
Ally comes down and we read scriptures together and say a family prayer, then she is off to read and get ready for bed.
I pull out the computer and spend the next 2 hours listing things on ebay for our business. Finally finished at 10:30 I reclean the kitchen, pick up everyone's dirty laundry that is once again scattered in the family room and come upstairs. I needed a shower, I needed to get a couple things ready to ship, I needed to just go to bed, but I decided to "explain myself".
And that dear husband, is what I did ALL day, no toe nail painting, no television, not even lunch or relaxing...
I wonder how many other stay-at-home-mom's HATE that question as much as I do?

A Whole DECADE!

Tomorrow will mark mine and Alex's 10th anniversary. So, in honor of this occasion here are just a few of our wedding pictures:





Who knew what an amazing journey we would end up on? I am still SO in love with him!!! Happy Anniversary Honey!

My Gorgeous Babies

Learning to Say No

No, not me... I apparently haven't figured it out. I'm a real sucker when someone says, "Can you...". Logically my mind is screaming, "NO! NO! NOOOOOO!!!" when instead what really comes out of my mouth is, "Okay, sure."
Let me show you a couple of examples.
My friend is the PTA President for Ally's school, she is good at it, and I totally said I would help out... because I really do want to help. Well, a month or so ago she asked me what I knew about Reflections. "Nothing... I only did it a couple of times when I was in elementary and my teacher made the whole class enter." She asked if I would mind helping. "Sure," I said, "I can help with some posters or something." She smiled and thanked me...
Well a few days later she said she had a big favor to ask me. I was thinking she wanted me to watch her kids or something... then she nails me with, "Could you possibly be in charge of Reflections? I can't find anyone to do it..." So, I am pasting a fake smile on my face and thinking, "NO FREAKING WAY! I know nothing about it, I have a hard time even volunteering in Ally's class, because of Devin... I just don't have the time, I don't have babysitters for the meetings..." So, what comes out of my mouth? "Um sure... I can try."
It can't be that tough, right? Seriously this is going to be so flippin' hard. I have a committee to please of 5 women, 2 assemblies to plan, judges to get, posters and fliers, color coding of age groups, a presentation to give to every classroom... treats for all the participants... etc., etc. Oh gosh, am I in WAY over my head on this one. I love to help out, but I am SO not into being in charge or heading something up.
So, here is my second example that happened today. I get a phone call, but since I don't recognize the number I ignore it. (Heads up if you ever call me from a number I don't recognize, I won't answer). I listen to the voicemail and it is from Ally's school. Apparently Ally's teacher doesn't have a room mother and they really, really need someone, and since I signed up to volunteer at all the parties would I mind terribly if I just take over the planning of all of them? So here is my thought process this time, "I can just ignore it, pretend I never got the message. I can still volunteer at all the parties and help out in the class room... I REALLY don't have time for this one when I am already in over my head with Reflections..." So what do I do? I call her back and say I'll do it.
So, here I am in charge of two huge things that I had no intention of doing. And why? Because I just can't tell someone "no" when they need help. Can I do it all plus weekly play group and library class for Devin, piles of homework with Ally, plus times table and cursive and Acheivement Days and Enrichment Committee and the treats I'm supposed to bake for Alex's work meeting tomorrow... running www.spartanonlineshopping.com... not to mention just all the "normal" housework and laundry and meals...
Please, for my sanity, don't volunteer me to head up any committee's... because I just don't know how to say no!

Labor Day Weekend Camping

We decided to take the weekend and go camping with my parents in Granite Flats above Timpanogos. The weather was so beautiful and we had a great time... except for Devin deciding he didn't like sleeping and ending up sleeping with us at night... that was the only bad part.
We took some walks and did a little hiking.


Alex was trying to be Bear Grylls and "tried" to start a fire with sticks, Devin thought it was pretty cool and had to try it too.

He also made this to help start the fire... Ally thought it was better to practice her archery with.


We built campfires at night and of course had to have smores!


This picture makes me laugh... it really is marshmallow that is hanging down.

Devin wanted to turn his chocolate milk into hot chocolate...

Luckily, Grandma and Grandpa were there to stop him.

I am SO not ready for the cold weather to come and end all of the fun. I am also VERY greatful Alex isn't working retail any more and we get holiday weekends.

Fun and Friends at the Farm

On Tuesday my friend called and asked if I wanted to go with her and Nathaniel to $2 Tuesday and the Thanksgiving Point Farm... we had a million things to do, but work can wait when there is fun to be had!
We decided to go to ride the horses first before it got too busy.

I love the look on his face here as he was able to pet the donkey.

Devin didn't want to sit still in this next picture... what fun is sitting on a FAKE cow when there are REAL cows near by?

Devin and Nathaniel loved playing in the fake dance hall.



It was well worth how far behind on cleaning and laundry I was to have fun with friends and my favorite litte man. Devin loved it and loved spending time with his buddy, Nathaniel.