Fruity Loops Sunday

Our kids are slowly... oh so slowly...catching on that Sundays are supposed to be a day of rest.

For mom and dad.

Without fail, Jeff and I fall asleep. Sometimes the kids are lucky and we alternate our napping. But other days, they pretty much fend for themselves while we snooze away.

Not that we ever hit that nice, deep REM sleep. Heavens no! Just when I can feel my body start to sink into sleep - real sleep - a little pipsqueak voice says, "I'm huuungry!" or "Me watch a movie, Mom?" or "What can we do?" or "COOOOOLE!!!! Stop it!!!!"

When the kids brought over a bag of Fruit Loops and asked if they could have a snack I told them yep but I'm not getting any milk out, just eat it out of the bag. A few minutes later, having given up on having a restful nap, I overheard Pearl telling Cole she was going to make a rainbow. 

Curious I got up and went to investigate. 

Those two pipsqueaks had sorted out all the colors of the "Fruity Loops" as Cole calls them, into piles of each color. Pearl had lined them all up while singing the rainbow song:

Red, orange, yellow

Then green followed by blue.

Indigo and violet,

That's a rainbow song for you!

{Thank you Cat in the Hat on PBS Kids}

 Pearl is really creative. I was quite impressed so I got out my camera to try and get some pictures of her at work.

When Cole figured out my attention was on his sister, he decided he wanted to help too. As you can see in the picture, Pearl wasn't too keen on his help. I can hear her now, "COOOOOOOLE!!!!!!!!!"

That picture makes me giggle. And feel her pain... I totally remember screaming at Kimmy when she would come in my room and destroy my Legos. Little siblings can be a pain in the you-know-what sometimes. 

 Who says you can't sneak a few Fruit Loops while you work?

Trying to stop Cole from further destroying all of Pearl's hard work, I tossed him some marshmallows to make fluffy, white clouds out of. I think it was the perfect touch to our Fruity Loops rainbow.

Ta-daaaaaaa!

  

Such a simple thing to wake up to but I honestly wanted to frame that Fruity Loops rainbow and keep it forever.

It seems such a fitting image of the magic and innocence of childhood. 

Totally worth the nap. 

Family Football Game

We took the kids to the USU vs. Hawaii football game a few weeks back.

Probably the last nice weather game of the season. Why, oh why USU did you schedule games in an outdoor stadium at the end of November? 

I am always shocked at how much junk my kids can consume in the span of a single sporting event. It doesn't matter if it's a football game, basketball game, or their own soccer games! It's like the whistle blows and their metabolism kicks it into high gear. 

 

The popcorn and candy we snuck in only lasted until halftime. Oh and we fed them lunch right before the game too. Then it was onto the begging and whining until I spent my last dollars on what else? Sno cones! In November. It wasn't that warm! 

 

Crazy kids.

Seriously! Can I get one family picture where we actually look nice? Hope you don't mind a bunch of goofy faced pictures from us come Christmas card time, 'cause that's about all I've got!

I'm practically a genius then

I have finally found the explanation for my night owl tendancies....

At the rate I'm going, I'm practically a genius.

Or crazy. 

There's a fine line between the two.
 

After all, Jeff says you can't spell crazy without "KAY-razy" {get it... my real name is Kay}.

Or it might have something to do with the fact that I haven't slept well in months because of work deadlines and the impending doom I feel every time my phone beeps at me that I have another email or meeting or when I think about all the things I haven't done yet that had to be done yesterday and I ignore my staffs' needs and then I walk into my office and feel like bursting into tears because I can barely find my keyboard buried under all my notes, papers, files, and projects that I can't get to and I'm a horrible mom because all I do is scream at my kids and wish I could disappear for a few days and I haven't done a single thing to get ready for my YW lesson on Sunday or our huge YW in Excellence event that I volunteered myself to be in charge of because I'm always the one who comes up with the ideas and the dog hasn't been walked in months, months! no exaggerating and I haven't balanced my checkbook in who knows how long, and I've eaten all the Reese's peanut butter cups the kids got from trick-or-treating and feel like a blob because of said no walking for months now and the house is in constant messes with dog hair on the couch... why in the bleep is Blu shedding now before winter????? and laundry piled to the ceiling and kids constantly whining about what I make for dinner and harboring ugly feelings towards someone I love that is driving me into an emotional downward spiral, feeling guilty for all the things I'm not doing spiritually that I know I should, and I'm pulling out all my hair because I'm in a constant state of anxiety and emotional upheaval and never enough time, time, time to do anything! ... but that's a different story....

Upon further evaluation, I think I'm crazy.

Rough Life

Kids have quite the rough life, don't they?

I mean, how dreadful is it to make your mom rake a HUGE pile of leaves? Then jump in that pile of leaves before she's finished? And throw them at your sibling? And mom?

Then jump in that pile again. And again. And again.

 Until you scream it's your turn to rake the leaves into a pile.

And when that gets boring, you can just somersault into that pile of leaves. 

There is one downside to this moment of pure childhood joy though....

Crunched leaves in your hair, mouth, and panties.

Sometimes it's good to be a kid again. 

Minus the crunched up leaves in your panties. That still sucks at any age.

Little Rock Stars

I met two rock stars tonight.

Well, four really.

My cousin's now 1-year-old twins, Kadri and Sander. 

They are all around miracle babies. And million $$$ babies at that (they just got the last hospital bills). They had a miraculous start and then a miraculous journey. Born at only 25 weeks, weighing just over 1 lb. each, they spent months in the hospital with all the complications and heartaches that micro preemies bring. There were lots and lots of prayers from all around the world for them. I remember getting calls at work - prayer chain calls I dubbed them - with updates on Leslie's pregnancy and then the twins' birth.

My cousin Tony married his sweet Leslie about a month after Jeff and I got married. They waited 10 long years for these two to come in and rock their world! And even though they struggled silently with fertility issues, they always rejoiced in our happiest times and sent cards and gifts when our kids were born.

I was so excited when Tony called out of the blue and asked if they could stop by and say hi on their way back home to Oregon on the last leg a looong road trip to California then Nevada, and finally Utah. Those are the best surprise calls.

These little pipsqueaks were so adorable! I died over their cheeks!

 

It's a good thing I've refused to let go of the last of the baby toys (ok, the only baby toys... we're toy scrooges). It made me an instant favorite with Sander. Kadri was more interested in socializing and crawling everywhere than playing with the toys.

We had a nice visit. Definitely not long enough. I wish they lived closer... I think Leslie and I would be great friends. Both working moms balancing a crazy career and crazy home life. Plus, babysitting these cuties wouldn't be bad either. I didn't want those squishable cheeks to leave me. 

Things like this make me baby hungry.

 

Next time, I think we should visit them and do a Pacific Northwest road trip!