Just Wait Until I Start Crawling

Jack really loves to be in his walker/rolling chair. He is actually kind of a little terror in it. He runs around sticking his fingers in the electrical outlets, pulling books off the shelf and chewing on the dust jackets, and runs into the back of your ankles when you're not looking. The other day I was washing some dishes in the sink and I turned around to get the towel on the oven door but it was gone. I couldn't find it anywhere and then Jack rolls by waving the towel and laughing. The other kids left some pretzels on the table and Jack got a hold of them and threw them all over the floor.....except for the handful that he was eating. He also enjoys spilling crayons and play dough on the floor whenever he gets the chance. All of this makes me a little worried for when he is really crawling. I'm not going to be able to keep him out of everything. I couldn't catch him on video doing anything naughty...........he wants you to think I'm making all of this up, that he really just rolls around looking cute and being all innocent. He's not really naughty, just very curious and very cute.

Picnic at the Park

There are a lot of really nice parks here. We went to our favorite one a few weeks ago. We brought some lunch and the kids got to play. Maddy really likes the merry-go-round. I got on for a minute but then decided that I was too old for spinning rides. I'm not sure how kids can stay on there for so long without making themselves sick. Jack spent most of the time chewing on the frog's hand and Mason mostly likes to dig in the dirt. It's not a successful day at the park for Mason unless he leaves dirtier than when he came.

Kindergarten

Maddy started school this month and she really loves it. When I picked her up from school the first few days she was mad and was being kind of mean to everyone. I asked her why she was being so grumpy and she said it was because she wanted to stay at school. I thought I would be one of those moms who cries when their baby goes to school...........but I guess I'm not. This is kind of surprising since I'm usually pretty good at crying. I think it's mostly because kindergarten here is only 2 1/2 hours everyday so she still spends most of the time at home. There will probably be some crying involved next year when she starts going all day. Here is Maddy on her first day and a picture of her waiting for the bus. I didn't take a picture of her actually getting on the bus because I didn't want to seem too dorky......... not that there's anything wrong with that. Taking pictures I mean.......nothing wrong with being dorky either, I should know. Maddy waved at us after she got on the bus and I wondered how long it will be before she doesn't want me anywhere near the bus stop. I hope that day is still far away.

The Water Park

Last month we drove up to Pendleton so we could go to the swimming pool there. It was a really nice pool and the kids loved it. Mason is still asking when we can go to the water park again. I think Jack even had a good time in the water.

Happy Birthday Mason!

Mason turned 3 about 2 weeks ago. When I asked him what kind of cake he wanted he would say, "A pirate cake..... a spiderman cake....... spongebob cake......... can I have a snack?" I decided to go with the pirate cake and found some good ideas on the internet. But as you can see, it was kind of huge disaster. It was more pirate island than pirate ship. Luckily Mason still liked it and it still tasted like cake. I think Mason liked his presents.........or he at least liked them for the 10 minutes he got to play with them before Maddy took over. Here are three things we like about Mason:
1. He says at least one really funny thing everyday.
2. He loves to play and have fun with Maddy and Jack.
3. He loves swords, bugs, mud, digging in said mud, wrestling, and eating.
Happy Birthday Mason! We love you!

County Fair

This week we went to the county fair. I took the kids in the morning and then we went back later that evening. I think they really liked all of the animals. Here's a picture of Mason and a llama that apparently did rather well at the fair. He must be so proud. Maddy and Mason got to have one of those snow cone things and they finally both decided on root beer flavored. This is what Jack did at the fair. Must not have been exciting enough for him......or maybe he's just really tired from not sleeping at night? Here is the view from where we watched part of the rodeo. These ladies were riding their horses around shooting at balloons. It didn't really seem safe to be standing right there watching but no one else seemed worried.

Denied

We have to get our own health insurance now.... one of the joys of being your own boss I suppose. Anyways, the company finally got back to us after a month and said that everyone was accepted for the insurance except me. They can't accept me because of my height to weight ratio......which is basically just a nice way of saying you are too fat. I guess they have some chart of heights and weights and if you are over at all you are automatically rejected. So yup, I'm feeling pretty darn good about myself. I was only 4 lbs. over their limit and they don't care about that or that I just had a baby or that I'm really trying hard to lose weight or that I really like cookies. I cried after I opened the letter..... and then I ate some ice cream. Just kidding, I said I was never going to eat again. I was already feeling bad about myself and that just didn't help. Sam kept telling me that it wasn't that big of a deal but nobody just told him that he was too fat to have health insurance. So I'm going to lose weight and I'm putting it on the blog so that maybe it will help me to stay motivated to know that the 5 people who actually look at the blog know about my plans.....and I'm pretty sure that was a horrible run on sentence. I've lost 5 lbs so far. Just 20 more to go. I'll just tell ODS that I'm going to give my fat money to some other insurance company. Don't worry mom, I really won't stop eating. I like food and I hate throwing up so that pretty much eliminates an eating disorder. Normally I don't put things like this on the blog but it's kind of making me feel better to complain about it.