The No good Day

So, I have some friends that refuse to blog or look at blogs because they think everyone sugar coats their lives, or at least only post those wonderful things that happen in the day. I do think it is true to a point. However, I am now breaking the trend and documenting a day that went from bad, to worse, to okay in the end.
On Wednesday I taught a long teaching day, fought my children with chores, and greatly looked forward to the date I was to have with my husband that night. My mother in law and sister in law joined us in the afternoon which was very enjoyable. I always enjoy their visits, as do the kids. Well, nana took the grandkids to get ice cream. Makayla came back not feeling so well. I was wondering if it was because she hadn't eaten much during the day and then had ice cream. We hopped in the car to go see my sister in law Bre's new paint job on her new house. Kayla was in tears by the time we arrived. We got her some bread and a glass of water hoping that would help settle things. As I was upstairs looking at possible paint for a bathroom, Makayla came up saying she felt better. I was relieved until she said, "all I needed to do was throw up!!" What?!!!! I quickly usurred her out to our car so we didn't contaminate anyone else (hopefully damage wasn't already done). Because of this turn of events our date was over. Not only did Kayla need her mom home (although at that moment I didn't know how bad it was going to get) but my sister in law Lori was set to babysit, but because she has been helping on an off with the new baby at my other sister in laws house, we couldn't risk her getting sick. So, now the much needed break for Brad and I was off and even worse, I had to decide what to do for dinner.
I am driving home and complaining to my sister Allison on the phone about how I am sick of my kids being sick and such when I heard the worst sound....Makayla puking in the car. Yep, when it rains it pours. At that point I was practically in tears. Sometimes the sacrifices of motherhood are extremely overwhelming. Cleaning up throw up is one of those moments I can really do without. I talked with Brad and we decided to just grab something at Costco as he was there picking up diapers.
The oven is on, preheating for orange chicken, and all I smell is gas. I go over to see if one of my burners was partially turned on, but nope they are fine. So, I made the could be fatal mistake of opening the oven door to see what the problem was. Well, a huge gaseous ball of fire shot out at me and then recinded to it's home. It happened so quickly. My first thought, once I knew I wasn't hurt at all, was "Do I still have eyebrows?" I had tons of flaky things falling from my head. I thought it was just debri from the oven. Nope, not that lucky. It was half of my eye lashes and some hair from my head (just the very top front). Brad assures me I am still beautiful, as he is trying not to laugh too hard. He comes to give me a hug, but can't stand to be near me as I smell like burned hair. Probably because I had burned hair. The only thing that smells worse than burned hair is wet burned hair. I discovered that as I took a shower to try to make myself not dispicable to all those around me.
I was ready to go to bed and wake up the next morning with a fresh new day. Of course I knew the night could be bad with a throwing up child (she was puking until 10pm). Brad bought me brownie bites to help cheer me up. It worked, although I have been fighting my weight so as I enjoyed them I knew I would hate myself in the morning for eating them...but I still enjoyed EVERY BITE!!!!

Newest Nephew

Here is my newest nephew, Easton Robert Bell. He was born to Brandon and Lindsey on July 21st (Brandon's birthday). He was 6 lbs 7 oz. Tiny little thing. He had some problems with his lungs at the beginning, but is now doing better. He will go home from the hospital tomorrow morning. He has been in the NICU since he was born. The bummer is that my kids can't be in the same room as him for a couple of weeks because he is so fragile. They are sad but understand. We were able to go to the hospital and look at him through the NICU window. I actually got to go in since I am over 16 (much older...but that isn't the point). He is the sweetest little baby. He looks a lot like my little ones look. Beautiful with tons of dark hair. We are super excited to have another Bell boy in the family!!! Being an aunt is a wonderful thing.

Wednesday, July 8th ZOO ZOO ZOO!!!!

We're going to the ZOO ZOO ZOO You can go too, we're going to the ZOO. That is how we spent the day on Wednesday, once I got back from taking Brad to the airport. The kids had a wonderful time. They love "Nana's" zoo. Although everytime we go to California we go to the zoo, the kids don't get sick of it. In fact, the second they find out we are going to California they ask if we are going to the zoo. It is a beautiful zoo full of tons of green trees. However, it is full of hills (now that I think about it, what zoo doesn't have big hills?) The kids had fun with all the animals, although most were hiding from us. The biggest attraction of the day ended up being us. We had rented a wagon to pull the little girls around in at the zoo. However, going down the hills was very tricky with the wagon as it gained momentum and was hard to control. After lunch all the kids wanted to ride in the wagon. I had no problem pulling the wagon until we hit the giraffe hill. It is a short but very steep hill. Ryan wondered how I would handle it, but I said I would fine. I should have listened to my eight year old. I started going down the hill slowly, the wagon started picking up speed. I did my best to stop it with my body, but the hill got the best of all of us. The wagon went faster and faster, I really tried to slow it down but it went so fast that it eventually took me out with the kids. The wagon hit my knees and I fell in with the little ones. My mother in law was chasing after us trying to stop it, but couldn't. We finally ran into a retaining wall and the wagon tipped over. The littlest girls started crying, but no one was hurt. Mom and I started laughing and couldn't stop for several minutes. I nice man came and tried to help us, but he was too late. I am sure he and his wife are still laughing at the spectacle.

Build a Bear....a tradition

My mom started a tradition several years ago of taking her grandkids to build a bear for their birthdays. My kids just started doing this past year. They have now all had a turn. Today Becca went with her cousin Chloe whose birthday is a week after Becca's. After having gone several times I knew which one I would choose for my baby....because does she really care? We chose this soft little lamb. She is adorable and Becca loves her. She is named Cuddles.

Pinewood Derby

Well, last night we had our first ever Pinewood Derby experience. The best way to describe it is organized chaos. There were very excited boy scouts and their families everywhere. Each boy got to race his car 6 times, randomly, and they averaged all the times to get the "winners". Ryan's car won 2 first places, 2 second, 1 third, and 1 fourth. He won 2nd fastest in his wolf den and 7th fastest of all the boys (there were probably 30 of them!!). He was so excited by all of this. Brad was extremely relieved that he didn't build a losing car. Everyone went home happy.

Kayla had so much fun watching all the cars with her friends.

On your mark, get set, and GO!!!!!

Ryan anticipating his race

Becca found her friend Claire and they entertained themselves!!!

Thursday, July 9th

Thursday was a wonderful day. We had the wonderful opportunity of seeing our friends the Jasinski's that are living in LA. I haven't seen them for almost 2 years, our babies were, well, babies. Now they are grown up toddlers. Eva, was Ryan's best friend when they were 4 years old. It always takes our kids only a few minutes to warm up to each other and then they begging to stay forever. We had a wonderful lunch, kids played in the slippin slide and the little kiddie pool, and we had tons of visiting....just not enough. It is amazing how when you have good friendship it doesn't matter how much time you are apart, it always seems like we were never apart. Jean is one of those friends. I hope to see her again soon!!!
Becca found this "drinking fountain". Not the most sanitary thing, but it made her happy....until I stopped her!!!!

Ashlyn didn't want to try the slippin slide with everyone watching. But, once the attention as elsewhere she went the first time herself and then had a ball the rest of the day.


Makayla, Leah, Eva, Ryan

Tuesday, July 7th

On Tuesday Brad and I had a date to celebrate his birthday. We went to lunch, returned some clothes, then headed to LA. We went to Santa Monica Pier, walked the 3rd street promenade, and ate at California Pizza Kitchen. Brad then had an early morning flight back to Utah the next morning so we stayed at a hotel room next to the airport. It wonderful to spend time with Brad alone, not so fun to send Brad home.

Monday night....Family Night

For Family night, the boys worked on Ryan's pinewood derby car (after a wonderful lesson by mom). He has the pinewood derby this Thursday, and we just returned in town on Monday. Brad knew we wouldn't have time to do it all this week so they worked hard in California. The boys all had fun working together to make the stylish car. (Picture to come later...it is currently at work with Brad to get weighed!!) At this age Pinewood Derby is really for the dads...not the kids. Ryan should be extremely grateful for Daddy and Papa and all the work they have done.

Saturday, 4th of July, Brad's birthday

Saturday was full of fun. Well, it didn't quite start that way for Brad, Doug, or Dad. Mom and Dad decided to fill in the trampoline hole since it was way too expensive to fix the broken tramp. (Yes, my kids were severely disappointed) Their neighbor across the street had a bunch of dirt he dug up for a project in his back yard and said dad could have it if he wheeled it out. So, the boys worked extremely hard on this huge pile of dirt. On Monday Brad and I finished the pile and let me tell you, it is very hard work....and I didn't even run the wheel barrow. I just shoveled the dirt!!! You boys are amazing...and Brad, you are even more amazing for doing it on your birthday.

After the hard shoveling we opened presents. Becca's birthday was a week before Brad's so she knew exactly what to do with the presents. She had to sit on Brad's lap and help him, otherwise, she was just going at the presents on her own!!!

After presents, went to the beach again. We were disappointed to find that it was windy again which made it cold for the kids. They still had fun playing, but didn't last as long as the parents. The irony of the whole situation is one big reason we went down this summer was to get warm beach days. You just never know in November or December how warm it will be and the ocean is always way too cold to play in. Oh, well. The kids still had a ball.
That night we had a nice bbq, chocolate cake, and Camarillo fireworks!!! It is nice of the country to celebrate the birth of my sweet husband!!!!

Friday, July 3rd

Once we arrived in California we got settled in and headed to the beach!! It was windy which made it cold, but we still had fun. We played football, jumped waves, and flew a big purple cow kite. What could be better?

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California!!!

We just spent 10 wonderful days in California at Brad's parents home (well, Brad was cheated out of 5 days since he had to go back for work). It was so relaxing and fun. Usually when we are there so are the rest of Brad's 6 siblings and spouses and once little niece. It was really fun to be just us with mom and dad and Doug (for a few moments when he wasn't sleeping, working, or hanging out with others...we just weren't quite cool enough!!!) Lori was at EFY when we got there, home for one day, and then went to Lake Powell with Mari (my sister-in-laws) parents. It was very quiet, well, as quiet as it can be with 4 little kids running around.
We made the most of our time, although there was still plenty of down time for my kids to watch way too much disney channel. I swear they have now seen every episode of Wizards at Waverly Place, Hannah Montana, and The Suite Life on Deck. I have seen way too many episodes, and I wasn't even watching with them!!!
On Thursday night we stayed in Primm, Nevada at Buffalo Bills hotel. I hate walking through a Casino with my kids. Although, they thought it was pretty cool. Makayla kept saying "It is just a great big game room!!!" The kids were wired up the wazoo!!!! They were literally bouncing off the beds. Becca was laying on my bed when she suddenly said "this is awesome!!" We all were stunned as we didn't know she knew the word awesome. We had to capture it on Brad's i-phone, although it took a few tries.

We're in Trouble!!!

Each of my children that has even taken a binki (Kayla never did) has been off of it before the next sibling came. For Ryan he was done by around 12 months and Ashlyn was around 21 months. Well, Becca hasn't had another sibling breathing down her neck. So, we haven't been in a huge rush to get rid of it. Putting her to bed for naps and nighttime has been too easy with it. Traveling, not a big deal. However, as she approached 2 I knew I needed to wean her before it got too hard. But, in May we went to Hawaii and I knew it would be easier for my babysitters if she had it. So, I waited. Then, she was getting 3 i-teeth which was causing her much grief so I waited. Then, we went to California and I had to drive my kids home myself which I was super worried about. I knew it would be MUCH better if she had ber binki. So, once again, I waited. But, I had decided early June that after this California trip we were done. She is much to old to be going around with a pacifier. I knew it would be difficult, but we can do it. I am more attached than she is right?
Well..........not anymore. Last night I put her to bed without it. I was going to let her cry to sleep knowing she would eventually survive. As I was going to bed I thought I should check on her to see if she had fallen asleep by her door (which she did the other day). I know she had been by her door for a while, so I wanted to make sure. When we looked in we saw a darling site.
She had put herself back in her bed and pulled up the covers. It was so adorable. Then I looked closer and .....what did I see?
That little stinker had found her binki. I was so excited that we had one night down...but NO!!!! I always keep them in her top drawer of her dresser. This is what we saw..
She had stood in her bottom drawer to reach the top drawer with the binkis. They will now be thrown out!!!

Why?

Why is it that the batteries in a smoke alarm only decide to run out of batteries and start chirping in the middle of the night? Last night we had yet another experience in this matter. The crazy thing is even when the smoke alarm was disconnected from all the wiring and the battery it was still chirping. It reminded me of those horrible dreams where your alarm clock goes off, you try to shut it off and it doesn't go off, you unplug it and still it screams at you. Alas, you go to extreme means and beat the blasted thing with a hammer...yet it still goes on and on. Finally, you realize that you are dreaming and your alarm clock is really going off. That is truly how I felt last night. However, the dang smoke alarm did not shut off. We had to eventually put it in the garage so we could get some sleep.