Ella's 1!

It was Ella's birthday! We can't believe she is one year old already. We had a small window of time to have a little party last night. Micah was busy trying to night fly, so we made a cake and had a little party. Ella was tired and cranky but she knew what to do with the cake. Of course!

A few hours old.

One year old and enjoying her cake!

I put this picture in because she always has her tongue hanging out. It is pretty funny.

The Back Yard!

Here it is. A picture of the finished product. The man put down tons of dirt, grass seed and some crazy furry stuff. In the really bare nasty places he put down the dirt and seed. In all the rest he put down the fur. I should have took a picture of the dirt before he put on the seed. The seeded areas just kind of blend in now. But you get the picture.

This is a picture from upstairs. All the grayish brown areas are seeded.

Dog Debris Update!

I have an update on the state of our yard. Micah's first call to housing was a vague, "we'll note that in your file." Neither Micah nor I thought that was good enough. Micah called back again and spoke to one of the inspectors. They agreed to have someone come and "assess" our yard. This was AFTER I picked up over 100 piles of poop, puked a half dozen times, and it still wasn't done!!

I know what you are thinking...why would I pick up the poop, right? According to the paperwork we had 48 hours to fix the problem. Well, it had been warm and dry but it was threatening to rain and there was no way I was gonna pick up soft poop. I decided I better put on my big girl pants and go outside to pick up some poop. I put Ella down for a nap and then took Porter outside to be my bag boy. I started picking up the poop with a shovel. It was so disgusting. It makes me want to gag again. Porter wasn't going for it. This is how our conversation went:

P: It's took yucky mommy, I don't want to do it.
Me: You can do it. You are such a good helper.

P: No mommy, it's gross. It smells. I want to go inside.
Me: You are doing fine...you can do it.

Pause.....then I started puking. I should mention that I am not a puker. I hate to puke! For me to puke....that was some seriously disgusting stuff! Porter took a moment from his incessant whining to watch me lose half my breakfast. Then he started again.

P: I want to go inside. repeat 6x
Collecting myself....giving myself a mental pep talk....
Me: Porter, we can do this. We are tough.

P: No mommy I am not tough.
Me: Sure you are
P: I'm not! I'm not tough enough!

Me....puking again. "okay, go in the house."

I continued to pick it up telling myself I could do it! Gosh darn it! After I got to 100 piles of poop and it still was not done...I was pissed and puked out. Then I went inside to call Micah. He called the housing office and that facilitated them sending someone out. Today a very nice man came to the door to work in the yard. He spent all afternoon picking up crap, and filling the bare burned out places with dirt. Tomorrow he is going to put out grass seed. Maybe I'll take a picture of the yard with all the dirt. Just to prove how gross it was!

I am so grateful it is getting taken care of.

Dog Debris

This post is a departure from my usual topic of interest. Usually it's my kids or some crazy story, but today I am talking about dogs and their debris. So, if you happen to love dogs you might want to stop reading now because for the most part I HATE them. They stink, they lick themselves, they bite, they bark, they poop everywhere, they shed, pretty much they are just disgusting.

You are probably wondering why I want to write about dogs if I dislike them so much, right? Yesterday we gotten "written up" with the housing office for having dog debris in our yard. I was so stinking hot when I read the notice. The snow just melted off last week and we found a back yard full of COLOSSAL dog poop, chewed up toys and a water bowl. Gag me with a spoon, will ya? Gross. I don't have a dog for many reasons, one of those being that I don't want to pick up the poop, why in the world would I want to pick up somebody else's dog poop. Gross. I was beyond annoyed that we were in trouble for someone else's stupid dog. Micah called the housing office and complained.

I grew up with dogs, and the one that was alive most of my youth was a spry dog named Buck. He didn't EVER poop in our yard. He always went in the field or somewhere else, but he was definitely smart enough to leave the yard clean. I don't like the idea of walking barefoot across the grass and encountering poop, or even grass stained poop. Gag, oh, I am making myself sick.

When I was little I remember going to visit Grandpa Schulthies. His dog Sam was licking me and I was letting him. Grandpa said to me, "Don't let that dog lick you, don't you know that dogs lick their bums?" BARF!! That cured me. I have much too vivid of an imagination. Do any of the cousins remember getting that line from Grandpa? And is it my imagination or did he name all of his dogs Sam? Or something similar.

I also think it just might be in my genes. Who knows the story about Grandma Evelyn shooting Grandpa Ray's dog? The dog had bitten one of the kids so she shot it. HA HA HA HA!!! That cracks me up. She must have been tough.

And my last reason for thinking dogs are barfy? This is a good one...I was watching some kids once. It was a favor for someone after I was married. They had two dogs and a cat. Their house was COVERED in hair and it did not smell good. The dogs indicated that they wanted to go out. I let them both out. The biggest dog just kind of walked around the yard, but the little one took a big poop. I thought to myself, "Gross, now that dog is going to come inside and Dogs don't exactly wipe their bottoms." Bad thing to think. Not five minutes later the dogs came back inside and that nasty little dog dropped it's butt on the carpet and drug his hind end all over the place.

That is of the many reason's I don't like dogs. Excuse me while I go barf now.

Insomnia

I HATE HATE HATE to be woken up in the middle of the night. I know what you are thinking...then why have kids, right? Ha ha ha!! Well I am up at 1:45 in the morning with the baby. She's long since gone back to sleep, but here I am fixing a post on my blog that wasn't showing pictures. I hate to be woken up in the middle of the night because then it takes me forever to go back to sleep. I'm not a sleeperiner either. That's probably not even a word, but you get the picture.
As soon as my eyes start cracking then that is it. Got to get up. Tomorrow I am gonna be pooped from my middle of the night adventure. What are you? A morning or night person? And are you the same as your spouse? Me? Not so much...the man can SLEEP IN. I am learning to accept that gradually, it's not making me so crazy anymore. He's great at getting things done at night. Me? I am absolutely worthless after about 8 pm. Put me to bed or you might see something cranky. My good husband puts up with me though! Let's hear it! What are you? am or pm?

Porter's Lucky Day

My cousin Jennilyn posted a cute story about her little boy. He had emptied out a box of cereal and was driving his cars thru it. She said it was his lucky day because she just let him keep on playing. What a good mom! That reminded me of Porter's lucky day this week. Jenni was smart enough to take pictures. I didn't, but I did let his lucky day linger into two before he had a bath.

Porter has a habit of disappearing for lengths of time. Usually he is upstairs in his room playing with toys, making a grand mess. Well, one day this week he came out of hiding with dozens, if not hundreds of green dots all over his legs, arms, face, and neck. Even Ella had some green dots on her face and hands. I just looked at him and wondered what on earth had he done and what was going through his mind to do such a ridiculous thing. So I asked him. His response?


Wait for it......


Freckles. He wanted some freckles. What can I say to that?

Micah and Ella...what a handsome/cute pair!

Notice Porter's odd footwear selection. One snow boot, one mud boot.

The boys at the water or ice as it were. It is starting to melt.



This is what we call her "stranger look." She gives it to just about everybody.



Ella...pleased as punch to be out exploring.



So cute!

Ella was pretty pleased with being up on the log with the "big" boys.

Ella walking with Daddy.

Wrestling...like little spring chickens.

Spring has sprung...sort of.

It has been really nice weather the last few days. The sun has been shining and the snow is melting. I even got a sunburn while walking to Harmon's school and home again. It is about 2.5 miles round trip, which shouldn't take that long unless you have an almost 4 year old who gets pooped out and has to stop every 50 feet for a drink. Porter does pretty well, but it was really hot on Tuesday and his little legs were getting wore out. He rides his bike and I push Ella in the stroller with Harmon's bike balanced on top of the stroller. But I digress.

Yesterday was nice again, but very windy. We decided to grab some food and go have a picnic anyway. Just north of the base is a wildlife refuge that we like to go to. It's pretty and it's something to do. We had dinner and then went for a little .5 mile walk around the place. Here are a couple of pictures of our adventure.

Okay, I couldn't figure out how to get everything on this computer with Picasa. I still haven't figured it out yet. So I did it it multiple batches.

Love Is Spoken Here

Or....should I say Love is SUNG Here. We are in a hotel room in Bismarck for Stake Conference. A one room hotel room. We like it because it has a king size bed for Micah and I and a pull out couch for the boys. Ella sleeps in her pack and play. Tonight the boys are pinging off the walls. Micah tried laying down with them, we tried separating them, coaxing, threatening, singing, etc. They didn't want to settle in. I started singing to them because I realized that we should have brought their music cd with them. I made a cd of the primary songs being used in primary this year. We tried to sing a few but it was mostly off tune and there were too many wrong words. At one point I was singing about Ella's stinky poopy bum and was Daddy ever going to check her and change her. That was a mistake, the boys started laughing harder, although he did change her. He is quite the trooper.

Suddenly I was struck with inspiration, or maybe I should say I was blessed with inspiration. I got on the church's website and went to the primary section. I began playing each song for the boys. WOW...what a difference. I am now sitting in the dark in a quiet hotel room. They haven't gone to sleep yet but their little bodies are resting and I think I hear at least one of them snoring. Might even be Ella. Harmon will usually go to sleep really quickly if he is left alone. So actually I think that is him snoring. Now if Porter will just drift off into dreamland. I just heard Porter yawn.

I am so GRATEFUL for the beautiful music that the church provides for us to enjoy. I know that my children are able to enjoy the sweet spirit that the music invites. The boys have been bickering in the car and I can put that music on and they are almost instantly quiet. We are listening to The Family Is of God. The lyrics are so nice and the music is especially beautiful. What a wonderful message to share with my children everyday. They learn that they are loved by both earthly and heavenly parents.

1. Our Father has a family. It’s me!
It’s you, all others too: we are His children.
He sent each one of us to earth, through birth,
To live and learn here in fam’lies.

2. A father’s place is to preside, provide,
To love and teach the gospel to his children.
A father leads in fam’ly prayer to share
Their love for Father in Heaven.

3. A mother’s purpose is to care, prepare,
To nurture and to strengthen all her children.
She teaches children to obey, to pray,
To love and serve in the fam’ly.

4. I’ll love and serve my family and be
A good example to each fam’ly member.
And when I am a mom or dad, so glad,
I’ll help my fam’ly remember:

[Chorus]
God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be—
This is how He shares His love, for the fam’ly is of God.

Words and music: Matthew Neeley

Now my sweet husband is laying next to Porter helping him to relax and go to sleep. I am truly blessed to have a such a loving husband to be a father to our children.

I am going to try and link this song here...we'll see if I can actually do it. You will have to select the song to play it.

Soo...tell me your best story about your children and music.

On the menu...

Last night Micah had to night fly, which meant that the boys, Ella, and I were on our own for dinner. I had cooked some stuffed zucchini and gnocchi earlier in the day so that Micah could take dinner with him to work.

Harmon really likes gnocchi, I must confess, it is one of my favorites too. The best I ever had was when I was a nanny. The kids' grandma made some gnocchi from scratch. It was INCREDIBLE. Anyway, so last night the boys and I were eating dinner. Porter didn't like the gnocchi so much but he was putting away the hamburger filling in the zucchini's. Harmon was sucking all the red sauce off the gnocchi, which left the gnocchi a light tan color. This was how our dinner conversation went:

Harmon: What is this gnocchi made of?

Me: Prairie dog.

Harmon: What??!! Nuh-huh.

Micah has been trying to capture some prairie dogs that are living next to our house and dispatch them to prairie dog heaven.

Me: Why do you think Daddy has been trying to catch all those prairie dogs?

Harmon: What? *pause* Does daddy know what gnocchi is made of? (Harmon was kind of laughing and kind of disgusted looking at his naked little gnocchi, wondering if I was telling the truth)

Me: Yep, Daddy got the prairie dogs from the front yard.

Harmon: GROSS! Well, what part of the prairie dog is the gnocchi made of?

Me: Prairie Dog butt.

Giggles all around....

Harmon: Nuh-huh...gross..uh-huh.... (all the while looking at his gnocchi)

Me: yes sir...prairie dog butt

At this point I about laughed all my water out of my nose. It was hilarious. Porter just laughed because we kept saying "butt."

Harmon: Looking at his gnocchi, "Ohhhh, I can see it's butt crack. It IS prairie dog butt." The gnocchi had a little divot in it and it certainly looked like a little butt.

So, come to North Dakota, Prairie Dog Butt is our specialty. We'll fry some up for you! Any takers???
My boys are sitting here laughing about it all over again!

What's a boy to do?

Porter really really wanted some girl scout cookies. I told him no. Then I went upstairs to do something...this is what I found later. You'd think he'd at least hide the evidence!