Weekend: Update

We've had an exciting week! Here are a few highlights:

1. Tuesday we welcomed my sister in-law, Jen and her two children. I'm going to Utah this week and Jen consented to fly out and drive back with me. Really it was just and excuse to get us both on vacation, but we've had a wonderful time. We have three bedrooms, and all of them are normally occupied by my family. We gave Joshy's room to Jen and the kids and made Joshy's closet (it's a big walk-in style) into a special room for my nephew, Kameron.
   Wednesday my sweet parents-in-law opened their mission call. We joined the festivities via speakerphone while Dad Webb opened the call and announced they had been called to serve in Hiroshima Japan for 23 months. Both Jen and I thought it was a joke, but it was signed and sealed by the Prophet. We are all SO excited for them and their adventure.

Us listening to them open their call.



2. Thursday it snowed. Not a little skiff, but a good 3-4 inches of wet wet snow. The boys and Kraig had a fantastic time playing in the back yard. Kraig helped each of them perfect their snowball throw. They're such boys, chasing after Daddy/Uncle Kraig.


3. Friday the sun came out and we bundled the kids and headed to the park. That was an adventure! Good thing I have two double strollers. I actually have three double strollers and three single strollers, but don't mention them to Kraig. It's a very sensitive subject :)


4. Saturday I took Jen garage saling. It was her first real experience, and I'm proud to say that she came home with a great find: Liars Dice, a game she raves about. I'm excited to play. I also had a great find: a 59" wind chime. I had anticipated hanging it from my gazebo, but as you can see, it's too long. But not to worry, I'm sure to find a suitable location for it.


5. Saturday Kraig also did a "Chef's table" for us. It was fantastic; I can't stop singing his accolades.

A Lesson from Conference

Andy, Joshua and I got to listen to General Conference last weekend over the Internet. It was wonderful to hear our new Prophet teach and testify. While the talks were inspiring and the spirit so strong, I have to admit that my favorite thing about conference was listening to Andrew. I never would have thought that he would pick up a whole lot from conference, but every time the speaker said a word he recognized, he'd shout it out. Here were a few of my favorites:

• Resurrection!
• Jesus Christ!
• Church!
• Prophet!
• Sacrament!
• Flashlight!
• Prayer!
• Amen!
• Doors!
• Dinner!

I'm glad my little boy listens. He's so smart! He can play with toys and glean knowledge from talks all at the same time.

Also, during the afternoon session on Saturday, I made 10 batches of cookie dough for a fund raiser for Girl's camp. Josh helped me. I measured, mixed, and poured. He got the cooling racks ready (I didn't tell him I wasn't baking the cookies).

Garage Sale Etiquette

In our family, Saturday morning means one thing: GARAGE SALES. We've even changed the noun into a verb: "I'm going garage saling."

I don't know how many of my lurkers are Garage Salers, or maybe a few of you will one day have a garage sale of your own, but I feel it's important to review a few points of garage sale etiquette.

1. Post lots of signs. Don't put up one sign with an address on it. Useless! I need large signs that I can see from across the busy road, large arrows pointing the way through the neighborhood, and written in English. Adding a few details of what to expect at your sale is also helpful: Toys, exercise equipment, furniture, dishes, appliances, etc.



2. Price tags. Put price tags on things. I don't want to ask you the price only to have you try and sell the item to me. If I want it, I'll tell you.



3. Price to sell. Ask for more than you want to get out of an item so that everyone's happy with haggeling down the price. But don't be unreasonable. It's a garage sale for crying out loud. If you want more money, post on craigslist.



4. Don't try and sell me garbage. I don't want to look at your broken toys, dirty furniture or burned out appliances.


5. Put things on tables. Don't spread piles of old, dirty clothes all over the grass. Gross. If you must put things in boxes, label the boxes with the content and the uniform price for everything in a box.

I think if everyone were to observe these few guidelines, there would be a lot of happier buyers and sellers. But that's just my humble opinion.

Out to conquer the world

When did my children get so big and independent? I swear it was just last week that I had to do everything for them.

Josh started to crawl this week.

He's just pretending here that he can climb up the stairs. For now.

This is a wonderful milestone for my baby, but it presents a whole new set of challenges that I'd forgotten about.

1. If it's on the floor, it's food. Kix, paper, dirt, rocks, dryer lint. I guess I'm going to have to vacuum a lot more often now.
2. If there's a chance it might tip over, he'll tip it over.
3. What did I do with all the cords around the house? They're baby magnets, I swear!
4. Did I have to put all trash cans out of Andrew's reach when he was this age? I don't remember Andy having a fascination with trash cans, but Joshy makes a b-line for one when we enter a room. Yuck.
5. Stairs. When Andy learned to crawl our apartment was just one level. I've got two flights of stairs at this house and two baby gates that don't work on my stairs. I've got some recalculating to do. Until then, Josh is spending a lot of time on the bottom floor (see photo).
6. I can no longer set Josh down with a pile of toys and walk away to get things done. It's too dangerous now with all these stairs he could fall down. BUT, if he's on the bottom floor he can just crawl himself into Andy's room and be entertained with all the toys, rocks, cheerios, and trash cans in his reach.

So potty training is going well. Maybe I shouldn't say that so loudly. It might jinx us. I have to constantly remind myself that it's got to be him. He does so much better when I don't interfere.

Andy took himself outside to catch snowflakes this afternoon.

They're both out to conquer the world--or the stairs, or the potty. But I guess in my little house, those things are the world.

It's about time...

...to announce a new addition coming October, 2008.

April Fools! Nope, we're not expecting. This is Joshua's ultrasound when he was 5 months marinated. I cropped out the date and hospital--a dead give away. You can see where Andy got ahold of it at some point and scribbled on it. But thanks for the sincere good wishes :) We will have more children at some point, but I don't think I'm ready for number 3 yet. I'm still adjusting to two children.

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"I can see God's works in the mountains, the streams, the valleys, in the blooming wild flowers and all these things bring me joy and more." --John U. Rencher


We'll miss you, Irv.

It's a Zoo out there!

I'm not really an animal person. I never have been. I don't like 'domesticated' animals, as a general rule, and 'wild' animals stress me out. Too many bugs and germs and smells for my OCD tastes. But it was a beautiful day today and Kraig didn't have school because of Spring Break, so we thought we'd spend a nice quiet day at the zoo. Well so did 50,000 other people. The Zoo was a ZOO!

Andrew says that his favorite things were the elephants and the monkeys because they pooped :) (Obviously bodily functions are fascinating to my potty training toddler)

Joshy rode the whole day in the stroller, had a little nap, and snacked a little. He was such a good boy!

Oh, and I got my hair cut. BIG change. I love it, but I've totally got to upgrade my hair products. Kraig's gel and my Suave hairspray just won't cut it anymore:)

A Happy Easter at the Webbs

We ate:

And we played:

What more do I need to say?

PS--I would like to give credit where credit is due. I got the idea for the bacon cups and for the cute bird nest cupcakes from Trish. Thanks, Trish! They were a BIG hit!

You know it's time to stop lurking and start typing when...

...You start a sentence, "If I had a blog, I'd write a post about how I'm a 'basket case.'"--RARF

I think I'll also take this opportunity to review a few key blogging perks (inspired by Ashley's "What's it going to take for me to get you into a blog today?" post:

1. It's a great way to keep a record of your life. Since I'm not a journal writer anymore, nor am I dedicated at writing in my children's baby books, I can reflect back on blog posts that marked milestones in my life and the lives of my family.


2. I'm more inclined to share photos of my cute kids on the blog than email them. That way my fellow bloggers can enjoy them without the hastle of downloading them from an email and then having to feel guilty erasing them later (or am I the only one who feels guilty erasing pictures?).


3. Blogging is give and take. It's always fun to see the comment count grow at the bottom of the post. The number of comments you receive on your post is directly proportional to how cool you are. If you want to feel validated as a human being and get comments, you've got to leave comments on others' blogs.


4. I get to read about and see glimpses of the daily lives of my blogging friends--some of them I know well, some I've met once, and some I only know by blogging fame.


5. I spend a lot of time blogging everyday. "How is that a perk?" You say? If I didn't blog daily I would whittle away my time doing trivial things like cleaning, sleeping, reading, or eating. Oh wait...
6. Plus, if I didn't have a blog, how could I pass on funny things like this PEEP SHOW?

So have I convinced you lurkers to stop lurking and start typing yet?

Provident Living

A few weeks ago Kraig and I checked out War of the Worlds from the library.

Not a movie I'm recommending to anyone. It was slow and awful and we turned it off after 45 minutes. There was one part where things are starting to go wrong and Tom Cruise tells his son to gather all the food from the kitchen and his daughter to get her wheely suitcase full of clothes because they are leaving the house (they're under attack). The son comes back with a cardboard box full of condiments--the only thing in their bachelor father's fridge. Definitely not prepared for the emergency.

So it got me thinking. Worrying, actually, that I'd be caught in some emergency without being prepared. Kraig and I have 72 Hour kits, but it's been years since we rotated the food. Long enough, in fact, that I didn't have anything prepared for Andrew or Joshua should the need arise.

Last week I started scouring the stores for deals and ideas. Kraig and I found matching wheely backpacks at the Thrift Store for $5 each. These are good upgrades from our other bags because with the wheels, Andy can pull one of our bags behind him while we carry a child (or something else). I got this idea from my sister Cory. She was the dear that gave me my complete 72-hour kit in the first place. She also gave Mom and Dad and Brenda and Darren theirs for Christmas one year.

So last Saturday my mom and dad came over and we all rotated the food, looked at the other needs for our kits and changed things to fit our specific needs. I prepared a kit for Andy and Joshy too.

I feel better now. I can sleep with more peace of mind knowing I have things together in case of an emergency.

Nap Time

It's been a rough morning. Wait, wait. Let me back up. It was a rough night last night, therefore making it a rough morning. Kraig left at 7:30 and I was ready to plop the kids in front of Blue's Clues by nine. But I held out and was able to push back Blue's Clues until 10:30 after we'd made a emergency trip to Target to browse. So now the kids are tucked tight in their beds and I've got a few minutes of un-interrupted bliss. Here are my typical "Had a bad morning" nap time activities:

1. Nap. I don't always like to nap, but sometimes it just happens. And believe me, I welcome it when it does.
   

(This was the only photo of me napping that I could find. Andy was less than 3 months, so I'm assuming that was a total exhaustion nap if I fell asleep and he was there. I never napped with Andrew.)

2. Read. I get most of my reading done during nap time. Sometimes I fall asleep reading (see #1).

(This is what I'm reading right now. It's the sequel to These Is My Words. Has anyone read it yet?)

3. Eat. I eat lunch by myself while the kids are sleeping. Is that weird? I usually make something they won't eat (like arepas, a staple in Venezuela) and enjoy it while I read my book (see #2)

4. Watch a movie. This is a rare treat because usually the movie will last longer than nap time and so I'll have to cut it short. I always eat lunch while I watch the movie (see #3)

(I just finished up The Office Season One--it's only 6 episodes, so I did get to watch most of them during nap time. So funny. I can't wait for it to be my turn with the Library's Season Two)

5. Talk on the phone. It's nice to have a conversation with someone without being interrupted by my children. So feel free to call between the hours of 11-1pm daily :)

6. Shower. Those are the crazy days when I don't get a shower until after 11am. Sometimes I wait even later until the end of nap time and I can hear both boys awake, just so I don't waste the precious asleep time with something as trivial as a shower.

7. Blog. Duh!

Things I don't do while the kids are sleeping:

1. Clean. I clean just fine while they are awake. Andy is even helpful sometimes.

2. Laundry. Ok, sometimes I do laundry if I'm watching a movie (see #4), but I think the spin cycle of the washer is noisy and could potentially wake Andy, whose room is across the hall from the laundry. I'd rather have dirty clothes than a grumpy kid.

What do you do during nap time? Or, if you don't have kids, what would you do if you had two quiet hours guaranteed every day?

Death and Taxes

My taxes are DONE!

With just a little advice from our favorite Tax Accountant (Scott, I wish you had a website I knew so I could link everyone to you), I've finished our taxes. I think it's a record for me to have them done this early in the season, but I'll be anxiously awaiting that refund to be deposited in our account. There are definite benefits of having two kids. :)

A little bathroom humor

I found the key to Andy's potty training: He's got to do it himself. He was doing really well for a few weeks, then decided that it was just easier to wear diapers. He would get really stressed out every time I mentioned needing to go potty--super counter-productive. So I checked out a Potty video from the library and bought Andy a little step stool so he can climb on the potty himself, wash his hands himself and get dressed himself. Sigh. A mom couldn't be prouder.

So when he says he needs to go I send him up to the bathroom by himself, and I follow a few minutes later. The whole time he's undressing and getting on the potty he talks to himself and says, "Don't pee yet! Don't pee yet!" over and over. It's so cute. Whatever works!

I'm not counting on him being dry from here on out, but we've definitely made big progress.

My Boys

Nothing new to report. I just thought I'd share a few cute photos of my little guys. They sure make me happy! Andy's new favorite game is doing funny things that make Josh laugh. It's sweet music to my mommy ears.

Design on a Dime

I wish I had cable. I love those HGTV and TLC design shows where they spend a limited amount of money to totally redo a room. So I created my own 'design on a dime' for my bedroom, complete with the ugly before and delightful after photos.

Dresser and Night Stand Before:

Dresser and Night Stand After:

Bed Before:

Bed After:

I took the kids to the grocery store after I bought the accent pillows and saw Oprah's newest at the check stand. I can't describe my elation when I saw that she was wearing the same colors as the pillows I had just chosen. Somehow Oprah validated everything I've done.

New additions: I finally hung pictures on the walls. They've been bare since we moved in. These are a few watercolor paintings I did in college and afterwards in a watercolor class I took at UVSC Wasatch campus. I'm really no artist, but they aren't bad and the colors go with the new bedding and furniture.

I finally hung this mirror. It looks lonely there, I know. We've been looking around the last few days for a chair to add to our room in this spot.

I like this chair, but it's a little out of our 'design on a dime' budget. Wouldn't it look fantastic in that corner? I'm still scouring the Thrift stores, though. I WILL find one!

Ok, so here's the breakdown of our new bedroom:

Paint: $15, Ralph Lauren, Home Depot

Duvet cover: $30, Target

Pillows: $20, Ross

Frames: $1, Garage sale, painted to match furniture

Total room makeover: $66!

Not bad for a design novice like myself. The best part is that Kraig was totally skeptical about everything--from the paint choice to the new duvet to the pillows, even the picture frames. And now he loves it. He says that our room feels more calm. I couldn't be more pleased!