September in a nutshell

So here is the rest of September in pictures. Remember how I said I was in a funk with pictures and didn't take very many. Well obviously that's not quite accurate, cause there is an awful lot here that I have yet to post on here. So settle in for a minute or ten minutes friends, settle on in, go get a coke.......it's gonna be a long one!

This picture is representing homework.

Darn homework.....it's really the parents homework after all.

Or in my case the mommies homework.

If all of my work is not done for the day by the time the boys get home it doesn't get done.

Between the after school snack, chatting about our days, and the many homework assignments we have no time left before it's time to get going on dinner.

And my kids are 6 and 4.

Oh well.....when they are 16 and 14 it can be daddies turn to help.

Cause mommy doesn't remember anything beyond fractions, and I am barely good at those!

Eric has been busy at work this month, even on the weekends which is rare for him. He has had lots of overnight conferences this month and lots of late nights. We have been squeezing in day dates when we can. Of course we bring along the little K, she loves our attention all focused on her. This date was particularly exciting we picked up the dry cleaning.

Just kidding, well we did but that's not the exciting part.

Eric discovered a Honduran restaurant right here in town. If you don't recall that's where he served his mission in Honduras. Now this little place is a major hole in the wall with terrible lighting hence the puko picture but man it was good. I have no idea what I am eating here but I did love it, oh did I love it. It's gonna be a lunch date staple from now on.

Why didn't anyone tell me little girls start gaining a fashion opinion at 17 months.

I had no idea.

I spent a good 30 minutes in Old Navy one day trying to talk K out of this Hello Kitty shirt she just had to have.

Seeing as how she had like 2 more at home just like it, there was no way I was buying another.

I had my eye on boots for myself.

I have my priorities straight.

I left the store with a screaming Katelynn, my boots, and a dum dum sucker.

Thankfully when she spotted the dum dum all was well once again.

And I love my boots.

Something about the approaching cold weather makes me want to stay indoors and cook all the time.

More so than usual, cause I won't lie I kinda love to cook.

I don't know what this little dude is but he has been the source of many fights around here.

In fact I think he is a McDonald's toy.

Which makes it even more weird that he is a heavy favorite of the boys.

Don't they know we have like ten in every color?

One of Eric's conferences was held in Park City.

Park City has outlets.

Outlets means good shopping.

I like to shop.

So guess who went along?

Me of course.

And I only took four pictures of our whole over night trip because I was too busy shopping, and eating, and sleeping in, and watching chick flicks, and reading my book.

Cause the poor boy had meetings all day, but thankfully I am easily entertained.

It was a great weekend thanks to my mom for watching the kids!

(And do you like how the only four pictures are all of our hotel, silly me!)

Just the girls having a little bath time at Grandma's house.

We have already downed about five bags of these and it's not even October yet.

Yup.....were in trouble.

On the first official day of Fall I swapped out purses to a more Fall appropriate red one.

It's cute, yes?

I never see this boy anymore he spends all his evenings outdoors with his friends.

And I must say I love his friends, he has three really great buddies that live on our street.

It's fantastic.

And what makes me laugh the most is when Lance and his little friend come to the door and ask if they can play inside cause the 2 girls are being too silly for them the boys.

And so it begins.....

Luke had snack bucket at school last week.

We decided to make Candy Crayons.

I went to school with him during snack time to help him teach his friends how to make them.

Love that boy.

He sure loves having me there.

And for the last week he will randomly give me a squeeze and say "thank you so much mommy for making candy crayons, it was the best day ever".

Which sounds like a big deal but he also declares the best day ever when I buy yogurts, or when I color with him, or when we stop at McDonald's, or when we go see Granny, or when he finds a penny outside, or when Lance shares a Starburst, or when he gets an extra half hour of television.

Do you catch what I am saying here.

We hear the phrase "best day ever" a lot around here.

But hey they were pretty cute.

More than worthy of a "best day ever".

This is my lunch pretty much every day.

Fresh mozzarella, tomato, and basil....in other words Caprese.

Eric thinks it's disgusting but then again he also thinks my tomato sandwiches are disgusting.

That boy obviously doesn't have a clue.

The church house is looking fantastic behind us.

It's apple season and they make for really cute decor.

I might get mad when my family eats them too quickly.

Cause then my kitchen doesn't look nearly as cute!

Just because it's bath time doesn't mean we as moms stop multi tasking.

It's a great time to take a picture of yourself in really bad lighting.

It's a great time for K to make repeated attempts to escape getting her hair washed.

And what does she have to complain about it she has like 2 hairs.

Just kidding.....kinda.

It's also a really great time to teach proper teeth brushing habits 101 to a certain little boy who finally finished up getting the last of his three cavities filled the other day.

Yeah we are missing something Lance, cause next appointment if we go in and hear three more cavities I might just cry.

We obviously need to find a new time out spot.

Our current on the stairs is causing more joy than sorrow at being naughty.

They spend all their time wrestling instead of contemplating how they can be nicer brothers to each other.

Tell me do they look that sad that they are in time out?

I don't think so.

The answer is no they do not.

Computer games they drive me crazy.

And little K loves to be up in her brothers business.

Thankfully they don't mind it too much.

The other day I caught Lance trying to teach her how to browse.

Lukey is a little confused......

Whew.......that's it!

Are you as happy as K that we came to the end!

Now I am off to an art appreciation meeting at Lance's school.

Cause here is a kicker for you, me the most unartisitic, uncrafty, stick drawing fool is the art apprecciation volunteer for Lance's class.

Yes once a month I will be teaching them an art project.

They will all have perfected the stick figure when I am through with them!

Have a happy October weekend my friends!

What's for lunch?

Remember a few weeks back I mentioned getting these to pack school lunches in? Remember I said I was changing up the way I did lunches around here? I had a major mood swing one day while I was making the 9, 999 peanut butter sandwich of my life. You can only make so many before you start to despise the sight of peanut butter. We needed a change, we needed to branch out of the boring lame rut we were in when it came to lunch time. Here's what I came up with and it has been working oh so well for me, I thought maybe it would help one of you if you find yourself in the same boring rut when it comes to school lunches.

It just looks a little something like this......

Here is what I have been up to.

HA! Just kidding......

Were you impressed for just a minute though?

Or did you want to drop kick me outta her for having way too much time on my hands?

Or did the watermark on the pictures give it away?

Well regardless, I did not make those.

As darling as they are, and despite wishing my boys would think I am super mom or something awesome like that. I have not been making Phineas and Ferb lunches for the kids. Though it does look kinda fun for a special surprise one day. I thought they were too cute I just had to share with the rest of you.

But really here is what I have been up to.

First off I bought some good old containers from where else but Target.

Cute right, they make me smile just looking at them.

We have one for the fridge and one for the pantry. Every Monday when I return home from the weeks grocery shopping trip I stock up our lunch buckets. The fridge container holds things like sliced up fruit in a Ziploc, yogurt, juice, fruit cups, cheese. And the one in the pantry holds things like chips, crackers in a Ziploc, fruit snacks, fruit leathers, and a few bags of marshmallows. I don't usually send marshmallows for school lunch but I keep those on hand for Katelynn. I pre bag them into a Ziploc so when we are in a rush to get out the door I can just grab on a snack on the go. It helps tremendously.

An example of a lunch for school.

And now that I am looking at this picture I realize it's kind of a weird lunch. Not sure why I chose to take a picture this day of all days. Must have been a Monday before I made the grocery trip. As Eric likes to claim if a natural disaster happens on a Sunday we are really screwed up. The food storage is not looking so great just yet.....that can be my next project.

Anyway this certain day we have a slice of zucchini bread (which means we were out of bread for a sandwich), apple slices, potato chips, a mini Kit Kat. Oh and I am pretty sure I threw in some carrots sticks in there as well (unless I was out of those too). I am also pretty sure those carrot sticks got thrown in the garbage.....but I should just keep that info to myself. Cause I bet your kids gobble their carrots right up!

On the inside of the pantry door I keep two papers.

One is the elementary school lunch menu.

We look at it every night and if the following day looks appealing to Lance he eats from the cafeteria.

If it reads powerful lasagna like it did yesterday he opts for a lunch from home.

(Powerful lasagna, I don't know what that is, but it sounds a little scary to me too:)

We keep his lunch account stocked at school so he has the option to eat from there.

Typically he goes for Friday's when it's cookie day.

And typically Monday through Thursday he eats from home.

But it really helps to know there is money in his account when I am running behind and don't get a lunch made.

It's also helps on Mondays when his options are ketchup or dry cereal at home:)

(Just kidding, I am not that bad!)

The other paper is a copy of this:

SANDWICHES/WRAPS/MAIN DISH

*Tortilla wraps (lunch meat and cheese held with toothpic)

*Sandwiches (My kids love them cut out with cookie cutters)

*Kabobs (meat, cheese cube, cherry tomato, etc...)

*Ham or turkey rollups (lunch meat rolled up with cream cheese or mustard)

*Mini bagel with peanut butter and jam (Lance's favorite is the cinnamon swirl)

*Sliced sausage or kielbasa with mustard for dipping

FRUIT

*Apple slices (I mix with a little lemon juice to keep fresh and crisp)

*Fruit leathers

*Applesauce

*Strawberries

*Grapes

*Half a banana

*Watermelon/cantaloupe cubes

*Pineapple Chunks

*Orange slices

VEGGIES

*Baby carrots with ranch for dipping

*Sugar snap peas

*Celery sticks (which everybody hates including me, so why do I keep doing it?)

*Cherry tomatoes

*Dill pickles

SIDES

*String cheese

*Crackers/chips

*Yogurt

*Popcorn

DESSERT

*Cookie

*Mini candy bar

*Pudding cup

And yes I give him a little dessert every day. Maybe not the healthiest but I don't care so there!

This little list helps me so much every week while I am making my grocery list. I pick a few items from each category and that will be our lunch options for the week. Now in Eric's dream world I would have all of these options on hand all the time......but I don't. So this works for me. I can change the menu up easily every week and have quick access to my lunch ideas when making the grocery list.

So there you have lunch 101.

But a question for you, any grand ideas you do for your kids lunches that I am missing?

What's for lunch at your house?

And now I am off to work on my food storage.

Or not I think I will watch parenthood instead and the good news is it's Tuesday so there is plenty of frozen yogurt still in the freezer I won't have to snack on ice chips!

A good Sunday.....

This blog will see a little more action this week.

It was kind of neglected this last week.

From now on if my blog seems a little quiet it's usually for one reason.

It's the week of the fourth Sunday.

I teach Relief Society every fourth Sunday.

And in true Jenny fashion I stress and analyze to death my lesson for the week.

Every spare minute goes towards planning it out and blogging gets put on the back burner.

Major on the back burner.

For that matter even taking pictures gets put on the back burner.

I think I took like 2 last week.

Truth be told I have been in a funk the last few weeks with my camera. Does anyone else have days where they look at all of their pictures and think "that's it I am just terrible, I have no new ideas, no new inspiration, I got nothing." I am sorry to say I was feeling that way just a bit. September has been a great month with lots of fun things but I just have been in a funk with my camera. I don't know exactly why. However fourth Sunday is over and I want the inspiration back so I took my trusty camera out to capture a beautiful day. And turns out it was a beautiful day.

Here is what a good Sunday looks like:

--It started out a little stressful, I was nervous for the lesson. We had a crazy busy week last week and I wasn't able to devote as much time as I would have liked preparing. I was worried about how the lesson would go.

--But right as I was finishing up getting ready this morning putting on the final touches. Adding my earrings, a final coat of lip gloss, deciding between flats or boots......you know the essentials. Eric brought me up a cup of hot cider. He said "here drink this, you won't be so nervous, I know you will do great". It was so sweet and I did drink it and I walked out the door feeling so happy and loved. A great mind frame for going into my lesson.

--We left for church at 8:45, which means we were on time! It's a miracle!

--I felt like the lesson went well, I got the messages that were important and in my heart out to the sisters. I love when I can go away without any regrets, and not wishing I had said something different.

--Little K woke up at 6 am this morning which is not terribly unusual she is an early riser. But on Sundays that does not bode so well when she can't take a nap until after noon. She was a mess during sacrament meeting, and I mean a mess. Between her tired eyes, her grumpy attitude and her poor nasty little nose from a nasty little cold her and I opted out for the last half of the meeting and went home.

--Her eyes were shut before we even hit the front door of the church.

--Eric and the boys walked home so I didn't have to wake up K and Luke awarded me with these lovely flowers from his walk -- because he missed me. The sweetheart.

--Sunday afternoon chocolate chip cookies.

--Or as Eric has taken to calling them chocolate chip less cookies. He was not too impressed with the amount of chocolate I put into them. I thought I was being really generous, if it were up to me I wouldn't put any chocolate in them and just have straight up dough.

--For months I have been wondering when the Lego phenomen would finally hit our household with two little boys it was bound to happen soon.

--It happened, oh did it happen.

--Lance has found a new love.

--And I have found a new form of anxiety, keeping away those tiny little pieces away from Katelynn's mouth. It's a daunting task.......

--For dinner I made a new recipe Caribbean rub pork chops with mango salsa.

--It was a keeper for the books, so refreshing and a perfect way to end a summer of grilling.

--It's officially Fall, soups, stews and Chili's are coming our way next week!

--Eric had a conference all weekend long so he has been out of town. I had a rotten nights sleep the last three nights. So I took an hour and a half nap after dinner. I think the last time I napped was when I was five years old. Not really of course.....but you must know I am not a napper. So that should tell you I was tired. It was great my Loubird sat next to me, sharing his Mickey blanket and tickling my arm. He is a dear and it was heaven falling asleep to Tangled playing in the background.

A perfectly ordinary beautiful day, man are they not the greatest!

day-to-day mothering

Do you read 71 toes? If not you should.

I love Shawni's blog it's impossible to read it and not feel inspired by her devotion and joy in motherhood. One of her latest posts was entitled day-to-day mothering. The idea behind it being to show her children one day what she was like as a mother right now. Her joys, her habits, .....the way she mothers.

I think this idea is golden.

I wish I had known how my own mother was with young children in tow.

What made her laugh?

What made her cry?

How did she unwind?

What nicknames did she use most frequently?

Sure I know her now, as a mother to grown daughters. I know her as a grandmother to 8. I know she is my greatest friend and hero. I remember a blessed childhood with my mother the center of my world, teaching me and loving me along the way.

But I would love for just one day to go back in time and befriend my young mother. To steal ideas from her, trade stories, hash out the day to day trial of mothering right along beside her. To hear from her own mouth what it was that she found so enchanting about mothering, particularly to me as her daughter.

Can you imagine a greater gift to give your children? It particularly thrills me to one day think of my baby K as a mother herself. I hope she will be able to read this and realize the hard times and good times are all a part of motherhood. I hope she will realize I was not perfect, I made many mistakes. I hope she will realize that above all my love for her and her brothers has been the greatest blessing of my life. I hope she will realize I tried my very best to enjoy the doing a little more and not focused so much on the getting it done. I hope they will all realize I have never had greater joy in my life that fulfilling my divine role as a mother.

So my sweet babies here is a little glimpse of your mommy right here and now at 28 years old with a 6 year old, a four year old, and one year old running circles around my feet.

Right now feels pretty much perfect. I love your ages, granted baby K keeps us all hopping but you are so fun to do activities with. It's no secret I am a mommy on the go.....staying home is just not my thing. I need to get out of the house at least once a day or I start to get cranky. Thankfully you all love to go places as well, errands, the park, visits to family, doesn't matter we are all happier on the road.

I always have three things beside me in the car while I drive my purse, my book and my coke. Always and usually that coke is a large diet from McDonald's....$1.08.....nobodies cokes beat McDonald's.

Every night daddy takes you boys up to bed for twenty minutes of story time. Those twenty minutes are mommies golden opportunity to finish laundry, clean up the kitchen, chat on the phone or whatever it is I have not managed to get in for the day. He always yells to me when you are ready to be kissed good night. It's tradition every night you hide under your beds, while I make a big production of wondering "where in the world did the boys go". I look in the closet, behind the door, under blankets, until finally I have a breakthrough moment and "find you" under the beds. We laugh and laugh every night it never gets old.

The house gets a thorough cleaning at least once a week. This has been since the beginning of time I imagine it will be a tradition for a long time coming. You have your grandmother the clean freak herself to thank for that. She taught me a clean home is a happy home.

I have a thing with your little heads, I think the most common show of endearment I have for you three is stroking your silky heads. It's my way of showing you I love you, I care for you, I am here to comfort you, you are always in my heart. Not a day goes by I don't stop and kiss your sweet heads.

I have a temper......I am sorry about that. Believe it or not I try every day to temper my temper. I like to think I am doing better but lots of times a glass of spilled milk sends me into a fit. I am working on it.....it's one of my biggest weaknesses.

Daddy loves to drive in the quiet, no radio. Not mommy we crank up that music so loud and sing along to our favorites. What I love is that now my favorites are your favorites. Whenever a song we love comes on I hear from the backseat "mommy turn it up, it's our song". Currently we are loving "Dirt Road" by Jason Aldean, "Easy" by Rascal Flatts, "These times are hard" by The Script, "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz, and our all time favorite that just never gets old "Don't stop believing" by Journey.

Speaking of Dynamite, did you know it was only until recently I knew that was sung by Taio Cruz. I first started loving that song when they played it over and over and over again on the Disney channel by some little girl I think she is on "Shake it up". Every time it came on, it had the most catchiest tune I would find myself singing along. One day it came on and Lancey you were flipping channels, you flipped by it and then said "oh sorry mom, I know that's your favorite, I will let you listen". Totally made me smile, that you realized I liked it. Imagine my shock when three days later I heard it on the radio by Taio Cruz. Yup I was floored.......only felt slightly justified with my love for it.

You are most commonly known by me as Lancey, Loubird or Lou, and Baby K. I also call you all "honey" a lot. I call your daddy honey a lot too come to think of it.

I volunteer in each of your classrooms once a week. I adore this time with you. Granted sometimes it gets a little tricky with finding a sitter for K. But thanks to a daddy with a flexible work schedule, a dear Granny, and sweet sweet friends, it usually works out alright. I dread the day if one ever comes that I cannot make this a priority. I love this time with you in your element. Your proud little faces showing me off to your friends.

Katelynn I adore having a little daughter of my own. Right now you are a ball full of energy, we are seeing that personality come out in full force and you are a spit fire. I can't wait for the day when you and I grow into a life long mother daughter friendship. It is my prayer that you will feel for me the way I feel about my own mother. She is my rock, my comfort, and one of the greatest friends I will ever have. One day my girl........that will be you and I.

.

I am grateful for two little boys, who I slowly see turning more and more into the people they will one day become. I felt so blessed that you adore that daddy of yours so much. Watch him, learn from him, he is a good man and he loves you something fierce. And never forget you were my little boys first, if I must I will share you one day with your sweethearts. But I am your mother and don't you forget it.

I love your daddy......I love him so much.......

One of the greatest things I am a stickler on is teaching you all is to be kind, to be nice, to think of others. I don't think there is anything more beautiful in this world than a person with a beautiful soul. I pray above anything that you will always remember that golden rule "treat others as you would like to be treated".

I am a control freak.....I know it. Again I apologize. The dishwasher must be unloaded first thing in the morning, beds made as soon as we wake up, laundry done before dinnertime, homework completed right after an after school snack. I thrive on routine and I think I am training you all to thrive on routine as well. Whether that is good or bad I am not really sure.

I love to try new recipes, it's rare that a week goes by and we don't try something new. Thankfully I am teaching you all to be good eaters, none of you are terrible picky, I am going to take some of the credit for that. We try new things and your daddy is a good sport, he is teaching you well that we eat what mommy makes for dinner or we go hungry.

Once a week I try to devote an hour or two to each of you individually for one on one time. I want you to know I cherish this time, my little friends you truly are.

Well I could go on and on but I think I should wrap it up.

Beyond anything else know that I love you to the moon and back my children......I adore you.

Fall Lineup

So one of these days I will actually do a post on what we have been up to and fun pictures of the kids. And not my current book reads, Fall decor and must watch TV for the new season. But hey that's what September is to me, good books, good TV shows and lots of Fall fun. But I promise the next post will actually have a picture or two of the kids, I know the grandmothers are missing them! I think every year I do a post similar to this one, I always have a show or ten every season that I just cannot miss weekly. Here is my favorites this season.

Parenthood -- Pretty sure I have already confessed my love for this show. You know how you are secretly so proud to say you have watched from the beginning of a good show, or is that just me? But it's true I have watched every episode, every week, since season one, such a thing to be proud of! And I think it's just keeps getting better and better with each passing season. I love this show, I love the characters, I love the real life problems, I love the story lines. Love it all!

Law and Order SVU -- This has been on my Fall lineup for as long as I can remember. I am not even sure how many season they are on, 11 maybe. It's one of those shows I sometimes regret watching because it can scare the pants off me at times, but I watch it nonetheless. I am very sad for this season because frankly I am not sure I will like it without Elliot on anymore. I love Olivia too, but I really loved Elliot and Olivia together. I can't imagine the show will be any good without him, I guess we will see....

The Vampire Diaries -- This one here is my guilty pleasure. Yes I realize it's CW which is supposed to be alluring to teenage girls. But I just can't help it, I adore this show. If I had to pick a favorite this would be it. The only show I make sure and watch the night it airs, the rest of them I DVR and watch them when I can. I can't wait for this season, it premiered last Thursday and I think I had a permanent grin on my face the entire hour I was watching. Granted it had me looking over my shoulder every five minutes, Eric wasn't home while I was watching it so I was a little spooked at times. The hard part is deciding who to root for Stephan or Damon.

Of course Grey's Anatomy -- Another one I have watched for so long I don't remember not watching it. The last few seasons have not captivated me quite as well as the first few but watch it I still do. I so hope nobody bugs me this season and they pick up the story lines just a bit...sometimes I find myself a little bored.

And sadly that is where my list ends.

So many of my shows ended last Fall I think this is the first year in a long time I only have four favorites going.

I have to admit I kinda hate reality TV, the only show I watch is the Bachelor.

Everything else I just can't stand and it seems lately they just keep bringing more and more reality shows on and taking some of my favorites off the air.

Makes me so mad when I start watching a show just to have it cancelled after the first season.

So I have room for maybe one more show in my repertoire. I am thinking this one. Modern Family I keep hearing so much about it. Tell me do you watch this? Worth getting into? Any other great show I am missing? Do I sound like a major TV junkie? I do? Well I guess that's cause I am:)

Fall Decor

Just sharing a few glimpses of my Fall decor this year....

Come on in you are more than welcome.....

Most of this is the same from last year, in fact I could have saved myself the trouble and just not taken any pictures this year. I think it is piece for piece exactly the same. Well I take that back that orange pumpkin on the right of the sink used to be on the left.......but me and my mom are the only ones that would notice that.

See those little candy corn vases over there. I stuck them in the most remote corner I could find to keep away from little hands. But that didn't work for the 6 foot giant living with me. That stinkin Eric won't leave my treats alone, the vases.....yeah ......they no longer look like that.

Oh and I got myself a new Fall scented candle thanks to Bunko, thanks Lisa!

Luke is still home from school this week his rash made a disturbing comeback. So he helped me put the finishing touches on the decor this week. When Lance got in the car from picking him up after school, Luke had oodles and oodles to tell him of what we had been up to that morning. "Lancey mommy has big pumpkins and guess what a skeleton soap, it's the best day everrrrr!"

Skeleton soap, you better get some, it's popular with the little people.

Now I find every season/holiday if I just buy a little here and there slowly I start adding to my collection. Here's what's new this year......

This magnet board hangs right beside our back door. I love it there. I always print out my most favorite recent photos to display there and it bring me oodles of happiness every time I walk in the door. However it needed some Fall sprucing up just a bit......

Don't you think the berries add just the right touch?

Typically I only decorate my kitchen because I don't have enough to start into the living room just yet. But this is the year I am starting off small with the cute pumpkins in the iron stand. Pumpkins and framed pictures of the Bountiful temple just go together right? I think they look very nice there, however my mom may tell me to move it. It's always risky doing these posts I usually get at least one phone call saying "Jenny that pumpkin is throwing everything off balance, move it". I pleasantly say okay and then get lazy and never bother doing it. Then mysteriously the next time my mom is over all of my stuff magically moves itself into new locations.

It's just how this mother daughter relationship rolls for us.

And we are both completely happy with it.

In fact if I could get away with making my mom decorate my whole house I would totally do it.

Last but not least this red vase needed a little something.

Fall foliage to be exact, much happier now.

Now I am off to go light my candles and bask in the coziness of our home this fine evening!