Back to the Library again

So apparently our internet works, but only at 3:30 am. How do I know this you ask? Well, last night Domenic came into our bedroom saying he had a tummy ache. He started tossing and turning and than, you guessed it, threw up all over me and our bed. I was so angry! I know, I am supposed to be the loving mother that sits and comforts their little one when they are sick, but I was tired, and it was all over our bed! But, I kept my cool, cleaned Domenic up, ripped the sheets off the bed so that nothing got onto the mattress, cleaned the floor and carpet, cleaned myself, got Domenic relaxed and in his own bed with a bucket, and than realized that I was too wired to go back to sleep. Onto the Internet I went, just to see if it would work, and it did. Big bummer that it only works in the middle of the night.

We are starting to potty train Skyler! Yeah, soon we will be a diaper free family forever! He went poopy on the potty today! I was so proud of him. Of course, we are taking it slow, he is only 20 months after all, but he is very interested and has had many successes, so I figure why not! Might as well take advantage of the fact that he is ready. He loves to wear big boy underwear and checks regularly to see if they are dry. He also thinks it is very funny to watch Domenic and Alexis demonstrate the process to him, though Alexis isn't so willing to show as Domenic is, I don't blame her either. They are great big brother and and sister though. They help so much. They get just as excited as I do when he has a success, and they are the first to remind me that he needs a potty treat! My little cuties! The next few weeks will be stressful as we start to wean him away from diapers and into undies. I think that it is all worth it in the end though! So wish us luck!!

Domenic Gets an Award!

Domenic got a Principle Pride award last week! The Principal Pride award is given out to students, by their teachers, for outstanding or exemplary work. Domenic got nominated for knowing all the classroom rules, doing his work well and being nice to the other children! My little MAN!! I am so proud of him! He was the first in his class to get the award. They hold a little ceremony and give out all the awards for the week. It was so cute! He smiled great for me when I took his picture alone by the award, and with all the prizes that he got, but when he had to smile in the group, well, you can see... he just doesn't like big crowds. We have always struggled to get him to smile for pictures. He just gets all nervous.
I am so proud of him though! I worried and worried over whether he would do okay in Kindergarten and than he goes and surprises me like this. What a little cutie. He loves school! He is learning the names of his friends, he loves to sit down and do homework each night with Alexis, and he is even getting better at writing his letters. I am amazed at the leaps and bounds that he has taken over the last few weeks. Our children can always surprise us! So congrats to Domenic on his big day! Now we get to wait for Alexis to earn hers....;0)

Coupon Cutting

I cut coupons. I don't care what anyone says, but shopping with coupons is not easy! It takes so much time each week. First it begins with obtaining the coupons, usually from the Sunday paper. Than you have to go through and decide which of those would be useful to you. Next you have to sort by group, because if you don't sort them you won't know what you have after awhile. Once you have sorted them, you must go through the older coupons to see what has expired and throw them out. Now that you have only good coupons you can add the new coupons to each category, for instance food, baby stuff, cleaning supplies, personal hygiene, etc.. Now you might think that you are done, but NOOOOO. You are only done until you go to the grocery or other store. Than you have to go through the coupons (and if you are savy the weekly ads to determine what is on sale), and prepare for your trip to the store. Figure out if you need to by one, two or more of whatever it is that you have the coupon for. Than go to the store and make sure that you actually put the right number and label of whatever it is that you are buying. Oh, and don't forget to give the cashier your coupons too. After all that, you are done! But only until next week..........is it really worth all that??? Granted, I can save around 30% every time I go shopping, but wow! What a process it turns out to be!

Mowing the Lawn

So I mowed the front lawn the other day! Skyler and Domenic sit on the front porch and watch. They got Popsicles to enjoy and entertain them. They loved it. They were so good about it. Many of you may be thinking "why is she mowing the lawn?" Well, here is my thoughts on mowing the lawn.

I used to use "I've never mowed the lawn" in 10 fingers. For those of you who have never played 10 fingers you come up with something that you have never done that you hope others have done in an attempt to get them to put their fingers down and you end up with the most fingers up. So, to continue, I had never mowed the lawn. 2 summers ago I was pregnant with Skyler and had to take some time off work. Brandon was still working 2 jobs and his hours kept him at work from 7 am till 7:30 pm. He was so tired when he'd get home that the outside began to suffer. After the lawn had gone about 3 weeks without being mowed I decided it was time to intervene. I was home during the day, he was not. There was a need and I had the ability to help. So at 5 months pregnant, and 29 years old I mowed my first lawn. Now I tend to take my turn when the need occurs. There is one thing that I have come to appreciate. Being a stay-at-home mom is great, and working is great too. But I don't think that you can truly appreciate the one without having done the other. Brandon works hard, all day long. I work hard, all day long. We just do different things, and we are a team working together to make our home a lovely place. It doesn't bother me to have to do some out of the ordinary things, like mowing the lawn. I love to help.

We have these mushrooms growing in our lawn. I don't know where they are coming from, but after mowing I went through and pulled them all out. Gross! These two pics were taken by my dear little man, Domenic! Such a cutie! He also took this picture of the bird house and sunflowers! He did such a great job! Both he and Alexis have been wanting to experiment with taking pictures. I have tried to teach them what I know, and I think that they are doing pretty well! Lovely! Maybe I'll enter his photo into the fair next year?!?

Computer's Suck, sometimes

So our computer at home is on the fritz. We can't connect to the internet. Our C drive is so full that we can't even run our programs (there isn't enough free disk space to run them). So here I sit at the library, taking care of important business that necessates a computer with internet access and wondering why? This is silly! But, for me there is no way around it. I am in charge of our schools annual Walk to School Day and need to prepare early. I don't want to procrastinate inviting the community members and giving them time to plan on attending. Skyler is poopy, I have 13 minutes more on my personally alloted time and yes, I am blogging. I have several great blogs with pictures all ready to go, but no way to download them at home. Instead I am throwing my own little pitty party while everyone around is me is wondering "what is that gosh awful smell??" Any way, it is time to vamonos! Until next time, which hopefully will be at home on my own computer, I leave you with that!

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET BRANDON! Today's your Day!! I LOVE YOU!

Family Rules!

We went to the Taylor Family Reunion this last weekend! It was so much fun to see all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins. Our family is getting so big. I am amazed at how many of us that there are. We had fun camping out. Brandon and I got to have our own cabin, by happenstance. It was great, if a little lonely. It sounds like we slept better than others though, snoring seems to run rampant in our family! Our air mattress kept losing air so we had to get up every 2 hours or so to blow it back up. Domenic and Alexis camped out in one of the top bunks and had an absolute blast! We played a rousing game of "Bear Bear, Moose Moose." If you haven't played it, let me tell you it is a side splitter. Especially when you have Paul in the game :). We tried taking pictures again this year and got some cute ones. I wish that we had had more time to just kinda play around but scheduling conflicts did not allow it. Oh well, there is always next year! All in all, it was good fun. Alexis and Domenic love camping out and being in the mountains. Alexis also loves playing with cousins. She is awesome at just making friends and playing games.

New Phone

So I got another new phone today. The last one that they gave me had the speaker blow in after only a month. Any time I talked on the phone there was this terrible mechanical ring. It was awful! Today they called and said that my phone was finally in. Yippee! Now the only thing is that it will take me hours to make it my own again. I have to change all the themes, program speed dial, set personal ring tones so that I know who is calling me, download all my games and on and on. Why does it have to be so hard to get a new phone? I was watching some of the other customers drop off their phones while I waited for my contact list to be transferred. You would have thought that they were cutting off their own left arms the way they acted. One lady was like "that is my whole world. I am going to need to take it back in 15 minutes if you don't get to it and than I will bring it back in later." Um, alrighty then. Can you say hopeless freak! Why are we so attached to phones. Soon after this same lady starts a conversation with another one about why she should go out and buy her 2nd grader a phone, in case of emergencies. Your 2nd grader??!? Are you kidding me? Teach them to memorize their phone number for heavens sake. They don't need to be taught push 2 for your dad and 3 for me. Oh, and 911 is 4. Teach them 911 (is it really that hard?) Sorry, I get so frustrated when it comes to weird things like that. Any way, my phone is in desperate need of me and my rearranging so away I go!

The State Fair

We went to the State Fair on Sept. 4th. My mom and the kids came up to spend the day for her birthday. We had so much fun. The kids favorite part is going to the Little Hands on the Farm. It is the section that is sponsored by FHA. They get to go through all the processes of the farm. Skyler thought that milking the cow was really fun. He laughed when the water hit the pail. He also enjoyed gathering eggs from the cope (though it wasn't quite as exciting as moving the real chickens out of the way to gather eggs on Uncle Isaac's farm!) Alexis and Domenic think that it is great and look forward to picking out their treat at the very end. Domenic called out to Dad "Dad, I'll meet you at the mall!", which was the very end of the exhibit where you can use the play money that they give you to buy your treat.

It was exciting to see my pictures on display. I didn't win anything, but there is always next year!

The big slide is also a favorite. Even Skyler got into it. He thought that it was great when he and David went flying down the slide. Alexis decided that she wanted to go down by herself this year! What a crazy little dare devil. Domenic went down with Jennifer and giggled the entire time.

We were all tired and ready to go home when we came across the Tigers of India show just before it was about to start. It was so Awesome! They had 7 full grown Bengal Tigers in 4 different color patterns. It was so beautiful and fascinating to watch them. Domenic was in jungle animal paradise. He was captivated. We watched until I couldn't hold him on my shoulders for any longer.

On our way out we ran into the Monster Truck, Martial Law. Brandon and the kids were so excited! They got to climb up into the cock pit and Brandon got his picture with the driver, yes that girl is the driver. I think it was the highlight of their evening. All in all the fair was great times, great times!

Boys vs. Girls~ Clothing Sucks!

I have to take a moment to rant and rave about clothing. Why is it that boy clothes are so darn ugly? And the ones that aren't ugly are completely out of my price range. Why does every other article of boys clothing have to have soccer, or football, or baseball, or basketball? What if you aren't into putting your child into some weird sport logo or advertising that someday they might be mediocre at this sport, or that I might be forcing them to love it? What is the deal? Do designers not realize that mothers, the people who care what their boy looks like, are the ones buying these things? I tried to get Domenic some clothes for school because he has outgrown everything he owns. I came home with 2 shirts and 2 pairs of pants to last him the whole fall and winter. Think it'll work?

Than there is the girls clothing. It is 100% easier to find fabulously cute girls clothing in any price range. But than you find way too much. We went to get Alexis 1 outfit, because she can still wear her clothes from last year, and came home with 6 that were too cute to pass up. The main issue that I have with girls clothing is since when was it fashionable to put your little daughter in the most revealing clothing around. I have had the hardest time trying to describe immodesty to Alexis and while yes, her friends and Hannah Montana might wear it but that doesn't mean that she should. I went to try and find her a swimsuit that was a one piece. I had to shop in the toddler section to even find one. Yep, she had to get a baby suit. Of course I gave in and let her get a 2 piece as well but come on people! She's 7! We don't need to be seein so much skin on her!

There. I hate shopping for kids clothes, but boys especially!

Our Backyard Adventure

This year, our big project has been a backyard playhouse. Brandon has spent months planning and sketching designs for a pirate ship in our backyard. We started Memorial weekend, and hoped to be done by Domenic's birthday. The picture below is the beginning of the adventure

Next came leveling and squaring the foundation. This turned out to be quite a task to undertake. The foundation is afterall the most important part of the structure. It has a 1 1/2 foot thick and 2 feet wide concrete base around it's entirity.

There are many, many progress pictures that could take pages to post. These show Brandon putting up the swinging doors, and Domenic proudly standing on his deck. He is so excited for the ship to be done! This is before all the windows have been put in, and the inside had been painted. I think the the slide is only up with a few bolts as well. That sucker took 5 of us just to get it up! It was a bugger!

This is the nearly finished project. It has a cargo net, a crows nest, a 7 foot turbo slide, monkey bars, triangles, a deck overlooking the pond so they can watch the goldfish, and a furnished inside, complete with stained glass windows, gold filigree inlets, and a 4 foot treasure chest because what pirate ship is complete without a treasure chest. There is also a captains wheel and a working telescope. The kids have loved camping out inside it! They spend all their free time out there. What a huge project, the the rewards have far outweighed the many grueling hours that we have put in!

The First Day of School

The first day of school has come and gone. Alexis started 2nd grade on August 25th. She was so excited to go back and see her friends. Her teacher is brand new to the school. She was hired 4 days before school started. I was worried, because we had requested a teacher who ended up quitting the week before school. Tragic, she was a great teacher. Alexis's new teacher, Ms. Evans is awesome! She has taught preschool, which is an age group that I love and can relate to, and she is a friendly grandma type. She isn't too old-fashioned, it's awesome.

We took the picture of her sitting in her chair because her feet still do not touch the floor when she is sitting there. I remember not being tall enough to touch the floor with my feet. Ah, the life of being short. I think that my Kindergarten and 1st grade pictures had me sitting on the chair with my feet barely hanging over the edge.

Domenic started school yesterday! He is now an official Kindergartener. Wow, were did the time go. We were talking about what to expect on the

way to school and he turned to me and said "Bye Mom, I am ready to go." And I was worried that he would be the one who sat and cried. Nope, he practically pushed me out the door. He loved it so much that today he keeps asking, "Is it time to go to school yet?" What a big boy! I am so proud of him! He is very into doing homework with Alexis. We are really working on getting him to learn his letters. For some reason he just hasn't gotten them down yet. Not to worry, he can hold his own with math problems, patterns, organization, classification, etc. He is going to do so well in geometry! The reading will come, with lots of practice!

Domenic's teacher, Mrs. Carter did the most wonderful thing to help him out when we went to his assessment. She gave him first, a book about zoo animals. Domenic is obssessed with zoo animals. Next, and this was the clincher on their friendship, she gave him a Pez guy! Yes, when she found out that he collects them she went straight to her closet and pulled one out. She told him that she didn't know what to do with them, but thought that he would be the perfect recipient. There you have it, give Domenic a Pez and you have made a friend for life! He loves her!

Highlight of our Summer

For those of you who don't know, and don't worry, many of you didn't know, our summer was highlighted by illness. It started off with a trip out of state that ended with Domenic getting pneumonia. He only had it in one lung, so luckily the hospital sent us home to monitor him for the next week or so. Just as he started to feel better I got hit with bronchitis. It is nasty stuff, and completely laid me out for over a week. I was still coughing violently 3 weeks later when Skyler got hit with the cough. He had gotten pneumonia too, but on Friday the x-rays didn't look too bad and they sent us home. By Sunday he was getting worse, so after Uncle Nick's farewell we booked it straight the Primary Children's. Brandon simply said "I've seen too many cases were the parents thought it was nothing and their kids ended up in my office." We wanted to error on the side of safe, so we spent the next 4 hours in the ER. We got there at 7 o'clock Sunday evening. They sent us home Wednesday at 7 pm, 4 days later. We had no idea that we would be staying, we were just hoping for a nebulizer treatment and than being sent home with a take home nebulizer. Boy were we wrong. Skyler got diagnosed with Asthma on top of his pneumonia. The two cases together were preventing him from getting the oxygen that his little body needed. I am so grateful for the power of the priesthood in our life and the whisperings of the spirit that told us things were worse than we had hoped. We were lucky, we caught it in time. Others aren't so lucky and it brings tears to my eyes and makes me shutter. We are so blessed! I think of all you strong families out there who have done your own time in the hospital, Michelle, Mandy, Julia, and Melanie to name a few. Watching your children suffer is torture. I admire each and every one of you for the strength and courage that you have exposed and showed in the face of terror.

A happy side note, the residual runoff of albutirol from Skyler's every-4-hour treatments cured my bronchitis as well. So just as the summer drew to a close we all felt well enough to enjoy it. Be it only for a good 3 weeks. Ah well, there is always next year right?!?

This is Skyler's little jail cell of a crib. Anytime that he slept, he went in here. If I had to go to the bathroom, or leave to eat, or sleep, he went in here. Luckily he is our only child who loves to sleep in a crib so it didn't bother him too much. Of course the IV, tubes in his nose, tubes on his chest and toes, those all bothered him. He was such a little trooper though. It made me realize how sweet a personality he really is. He truly is a rare blessing in our lives.

Domenic or Brandon?

So Domenic came to me the other day and said "Look mommy! Who do I look like?" At first I wasn't sure who he was going to say, maybe Clark Kent, since he is so into Superman? Maybe Peter Parker, because Spiderman is another favorite, than there is the vast number of Pez guys who wear glasses? Instead, he says "Daddy!" What a cutie! He really does look like his Daddy doesn't he :) I am amazed at how much he takes after his Dad. They are two of a kind. Everyone who knows us always makes sure to say, wow he looks just like his dad doesn't he. Yes, it is true they are two of a kind! Both are very into their routines, both would rather be alone with family than out in a crowd, both like to collect things. What cuties!

She's Already 7!

Alexis turned 7 this year (back in April), and I can hardly believe it. For her birthday she wanted to have a playdate with all her friends. She got to invite 8. She also wanted drinks with umbrellas in them, so we got out our fancy glass cups and let the girls enjoy Kool-aide margaritas in them. We suffered only one casuality of cups, guess who broke it?? Yep, my little birthday girl. Oh well, it was fine. We also made personal pizzas for everyone to snack on. It was hard for Alexis to decide on only 8 friends to invite, she is the biggest social butterfly ever. After last years numbers (she invited 40 friends and 35 of them showed up) we wanted to keep it small.

She picked all girls, except for Eric. He was the lone and lucky guy to have won her over. His cute present was a necklace that he made for her in her favorite colors. Very Sweet!

I can hardly believe that my little princess is so old. She started second grade this year. She is reading so well and just loves school. Time sure flies!