It's Always Fun When Visitors Come!

Andy's sister Stefanie and her husband Travis and their youngest child Braxton came to visit a couple weeks ago. It was a lot of fun (as it always is whenever anyone comes to visit! Hint, hint.... I really do mean ANYONE!) and we did some fun things. The kids loved having them here and getting spoiled by their aunt and uncle.

Cute Braxton.... all the kids just loved having him here and I think he felt right at home with the attention (he has 2 older, doting sisters, who unfortunately had to stay home this time :)

I had to include this picture of the back of Stefanie because somehow I was a horrible picture taker and this is the ONLY photo I have of her! Naughty me.

Travis is a huge history buff, so they had a lot of their trip planned out with memorials and historical things they wanted to see. They took off most mornings and were home in time for dinner each night. We would get to hang out after the kids went to bed and talk and laugh and watch movies and eat into the wee hours of the morning. One of the days we planned to all go to DC together. It was a pretty busy day in the city because of spring breaks going on, so we ended up splitting up after one museum because we (with 5 kids in tow) are S L O W.

We did go to the Air and Space Museum together and it was pretty cool. The kids loved it.

This was one of my favorite exhibits. Outer space is amazing to me.

This was when we were walking over to the Museum of Natural History. Washington Monument in the backround there...

Museum of Natural HistoryThis entire coral reef exhibit was made out of colorful scarves and gloves.... pretty cool.

Okay, I just have to say.... this is Daphne with an okapi. She learned about them on a tv show or movie or something about 2 years ago and ever since, they are her favorite animal! She was absolutely thrilled to spot this one and HAD to have her picture with it. There will be many days were I will hear her playing pretend, and she is an okapi named "Flyer" and she has wings and a horn and all sorts of other imaginative things....

We had planned to see a couple other things that day, but this will give you an idea of how long it takes to do anything with four little kids + a baby who needs to eat every 3 hours. We rode the metro into the city, saw 1 museum, ate lunch, walked to another museum to look around, and then left to ride the metro back to the station. It took all day to do that. No wonder we hardly ever take our kids into the city. I think when they are older it will be much more enjoyable for all parties involved :)

Anyway, those are all the pictures I took while Stef and Travis were here. We had so much fun with them though. It's just nice to have visitors and be able to relax a bit and have a little break in the normal day to day stuff. Thanks for coming guys! Come again soon :)

Potty Boy

Now, anyone who knows me knows I absolutely despise, cannot stand, and can actually say that it's the one thing I HATE about motherhood is..... potty-training.

MAKING your child use the toilet is impossible. You just cannot make them do it. Fact of life. I learned this very early on with my first child. And I basically ruined her. She had accidents for years. Literally years, people. After meetings with my pediatrician, medications, and special training, I decided to learn from that giant mistake early on. I decided that from then on, I would never force my child to be potty-trained again. I would just wait for them to do it on their own when they decided they were ready for it. As long as they were out of diapers in time for 4 year old preschool, I would be perfectly fine wiping their big, giant bums and buying big, giant diapers up until that point. You see, from my point of view, it is much better to have the mess contained, easily wipe it off, and replace the diaper and throw the mess away. Much better than say... having the mess all over the floor.... couch.... 20 billion pairs of underwear.... and doing 10 loads of laundry daily. Not to mention being out and about running errands and having your child say,"Mom?.... I just pee'd my pants." Why make more work for yourself when you don't have to?! Soooo not worth it.

Baron had been asking for a few weeks to have underwear and use the potty. I wasn't ready (mostly because I really just hate it that much!) so I kept putting it off. Finally, we were at Target one day and he begged for Cars underwear. So, I got him some. We went home and we put them on. He had his first accident a little later and I explained to him that when he felt that pee coming out, he needed to run to the potty. I guess it clicked after that and he has had very few accidents since then. (I also may or may not have threatened that I would be putting him back in diapers if he had too many accidents.... ;) His accidents usually happen when he is busy playing and just forgets to go potty. In fact, he has even woken up dry a few times! I am thrilled (if you remember my night-training post HERE, you'll know why.... hopefully that means he didn't get the Collette wet-the-bed-until-you're-8 genes :)

He is so funny too. Every time he goes potty, and comes out of the bathroom he yells "Oh Yeah!" just like this guy does in Despicable Me:Hilarious. And then he says "Gimme 5 mom!" to which I slap his big, giant, outstretched hand (seriously, the kid's hand is almost as big as mine) and then its, "Down low!... Up high!... Poke your eye!" and then he pretends to poke me in the eye and laughs hysterically and runs away.

Oh boy, I sure do love that kid. And I sure do love the fact that he potty-trained himself. It was definitely worth the wait.

Only 2 More Days...

I have just spent the last 2 hourse reading up on everything I can about being prepared for my first sprint triathlon (which will take place this Saturday morning.) Little tricks, the transitions, products I NEED to have, etc. etc. I have all of the sudden become very nervous. Part of me thinks, "What was I thinking? I am going to look so silly and come in last place." And the other part of me thinks, "You will do awesome! Go out and give it your best!" I had a training schedule I followed loosly. I feel ready (for the most part), but there's just that part of me that knows I'm going to make a fool out of myself. Why do I think this? Because there was that one day I didn't make it to the gym because my son was sick and home from school. And that other day I just couldn't get out of the house because my baby seemed hungry every hour and fussy every minute in between. And that other day I didn't even make it out of my pajamas because I was so exhausted from being up all night with a daughter who had tummy trouble. And that one day where the laundry just seemed to literally explode out of the hampers and begged to be washed. I have to remind myself that I am a wife and mother first. Everything else in life has to come after that. I have to believe I will be blessed for my efforts, right? At this point, I am just looking forward to it being over so I can say I did it and I worried for nothing and it all turned out great and I loved every minute. Wish me luck!

Getting My Jollies From a Few Silly Boys

As a mother I get several good, hearty laughs each and every day. Especially from those crazy boys of mine. Now, don't get me wrong. My girls are absolutely hilarious, and oh-so-witty. But there is just something about those funny, silly boys and the blatent things they do. Even Magnus gives me a few laughs here and there. And he doesn't even know it :)


One day Andy called me in to come see Bear.... he had set this up to make it look like Bear was really holding Magnus on his shoulders (even though Andy is really behind the wall holding M up ;) It cracked me up!

Look at this kid! I laid him on his stomach for tummy time, came back a few minutes later and saw him like this. Face-planted in the couch. Asleep. Made me laugh. Doesn't that look so uncomfortable?!

Here's this kid thinking he's all that after he found my shoes and click-clacked around in them for at least 1/2 hour. Pretty cute. And pretty funny.

What is it with kids and laundry baskets? This kid will sit and play with an empty laundry basket for over an hour.

This is what happens numerous times a day after I nurse Mr. M. The first time it happened I laughed so loud I startled him and made him cry. His ear will just stick like that until I peel it off his face!

I don't know why I thought this was so funny. Andy put Magnus in the swing at the park and he just looked like he was peeking out of an egg or something. He looked so funny. And he loved the swing. Funny kid.And here we have another uncomfortable sleeping spot. In the bumbo. One minute watching me do the dishes, the next minute, out! So cute.

This was too hilarious. I was doing laundry and when I picked up a pair of Jonah's pants, they were extra heavy and extra jingly. I started emptying pockets and the stuff just kept coming! The kid is obsessed with STUFF. Literally. He finds it on the ground, he sticks it in his pocket. Silly kid.A nice little collection of bottlecaps.... I'll give you one guess what most people drink around here.... ;) Don't worry-these went straight to the trashcan afterwards.

The erasur collection

The random stuff collection

And about 100 sillybandz.

All that stuff in 2 little pockets.

I have no idea where these funny boys get their silliness....

Certainly not this guy:

Hmmmm.... what do you think? Could they be related?

Get Outta My Kitchen!

Um, that pot is supposed to be ROUND.... not flat on one side. I asked Laylah how it happened because Andy just kept laughing and couldn't get it out. She said he was joking around and tossing the pot from one hand to the other and the he missed it and it fell on the ground. It made that big dent in it! I couldn't believe he had ruined my pot! We got this set of pots and pans for our wedding and they are awesome. I love them and they are still in great shape. Well, they were....



Andy's not allowed to cook anymore, in case you were wondering :)

No Leprechaun's Allowed

Ohhhhh, St. Patrick's Day. Kind of fun, but mostly silly. It's not my favorite holiday, but the kids love it. I can't believe how "into" it some people get. Leprechaun's coming into houses, turning toilet water green, making mischief and messes and the like.

Not in my house. I'm no fun.... and I'm kind of lazy :) At school, the teachers do a lot of fun and exciting things for the kids, so I have always told my kids that the Leprechaun's make mischief at school and then they decide to be nice and bring us a treat afterwards at home.

We always do our traditional green pancakes and milk.Everyone wears their green too, of course :) (oh, Bear hadn't gotten dressed for the day yet.) He was begging me to help him after we all kept giving him little pinches and giggling. He should have worn green jammies to bed like everyone else did! He can't say I didn't warn him...!

The yummy treat the Leprechaun's brought us after they were done causing mischief at school!!

Happy St. Paddy's everyone!

And Then He Left Us to Go Have Some Fun...

A few weeks ago Andy went to Utah for a visit. I surprised him with help from my wonderful friend Joanie (thanks again Joanie!) who gave me a buddy pass for him. He was ecstatic. I knew he was needing a break from life. He had been wanting to go see his awesome little brother, David, play basketball in the state playoffs. David is a senior in highschool and is an amazing basketball player. He has a scholarship to Utah State University and the week he was playing would be his last for 3 years. He will be red-shirting at Utah State his first year, and then going on his mission, and then he'll come back to play for 4 years.

Anyway, Andy had a great time. I told him to take lots of pictures for me and the following 6 are what I got. And they're blurry, so..... yeah.This is Evan, my adorable nephew. He was a tiny baby when we moved. And now he walks and talks and is cute as ever. He and Magnus are twins born a year apart. That's right, they share the same birthday. Kind of fun :)

Here's cute Bella. She and Baron are about the same age. I can't believe how big she is. They grow up too fast. Cliche. I sound like a grannie.

Not quite sure what's going on here. But aren't they cute? Mmm hmmm. They sure are :)

Here's Ryan, Andy's other brother. I'm assuming that Andy told him to take a picture and Ryan went ahead and took one. Of himself..... so now it gets posted for all to see :)

Andy was super lucky because a few days before he went for his visit was when our cute twin nephews I posted about were born. He got to visit them, and like I said before, I was super jealous. Still am. By the way, doesn't Sarah look A-mazing?! She had just given birth to TWO babies less than 2 weeks before. By C-section. Really?! Those jealousy feelings are coming back...

And here's the whole reason for the visit.... Mr. Basketball, David Collette himself. He's the one holding the ball and by holding it, I mean he's not dribbling or shooting. Just holding. I realized after I wrote that sentance that there were about 5 guys with basketballs. Hahaha.

Here's the tip-off. David's in the white on the right (#34)..... and that is the last of the pictures. I guess the game got too good after that!

They did play really well. The won their first game (Monday) and their second (Wednesday). The semi-finals were Friday and the state game was Saturday. David played awesome in the semi-finals, but I guess the rest of the team kind of gave up. David had over half of their total points, and they lost :(

Andy had a great time nonetheless. He said it was relaxing and fun and besides all of his family, he got to see my family and also some friends. Good times. I was glad he had fun.

And don't you worry. While he was away, the kids and I had lots of fun too. I had planned a bunch of stuff and it made the week fly by.


My kids sure are fun. I love 'em.

Everyone loves to hold and have some snuggle time with baby M. He's fun to snug with :)



One morning I heard all of the kids giggling and found them like this playing "sleepover" on the staircase landing. It's times like these when I love my kids more than ever and realize how grateful I am that I had them so close together. They play so well together and are such great friends.

One day we whipped out the Easy-Bake Oven and made pink cake. Even though it took forever, we made them each their own and they frosted and decorated them. It ended up taking so long that the cake was part of our dinner. Fun times when Dad is out of town :)
Yum (except, not really) I took a bite and it was pretty gross. It had the consistancy of play-dough.

The last night before Andy came home, we had a movie night with shakes and popcorn and a sleepover in the family room all together. I was so exhausted from the week of "single parenting" and I fell asleep quickly during the first movie. Apparently, they were all still awake after it was over and Laylah turned on another movie after the first one ended. I kind of woke up halfway through that one and couldn't believe it was midnight and they were all still awake watching movies. I fell back asleep and then woke up a little later again, and they were finally all asleep. So of course, I started taking pictures at 2 AM :)
I moved Bear up to my spot (rather than the hard floor) and then went to my own bed. The next day I found out that Daphne had woken up around 3:30 AM and tried to wake everyone up to start playing. Only Bear would participate and Laylah finally got mad and they went back to sleep. Little stinkers.

It was a fun week overall. Like I said, exhausting, but fun :)