This is why. . .

when we can't see or hear Sammy it's best to go find him immediately.

Opinions Needed

One project at a time we are giving Sammy's room a big boy make-over. Quilt is done, bookcase refinished, curtains made, and accent wall painted. I painted it yesterday actually and now that I have I'm thinking about painting more of the walls blue. So I need opinions. Keep in mind that I am having an artist friend paint dark blue airplanes on the walls, and that the bed and dresser will not be the dark stuff that is in there, but whitewashed like the bookcase, and the rocker will be gone. So should I paint the wall on the right blue as well, or all the walls? Or will the blue planes look okay flying on tan walls? (Don't judge the drapes, I'm still messing with them to lay just right.)

Fall Sprucing ??

So the weather has begun to change around here finally and the cooler weather has me in the mood for projects. This week I worked on a bookcase and dresser that were new to me like 15 years ago, and which my parents donated to my kids bedrooms a while back. Originally the whole set was whitewashed. . . 15 years ago, so all the pieces need new finishes. The bed, which Andi sleeps on is going to be moved to the Dudes room soon, and Thad will be making Andi a new bed. . . see, project mood. I re-whitewashed the bookcase for Sam's room and found these cute little blue baskets to organize with. And since I had leftover fabric from his quilt, I made some liners to match! I want to do something cool with the backing of the bookcase, but haven't figures out what. So for now, here it is.Oh, and that green wall will soon be history.

Then I painted the old dresser white, because the new bed is going to be white. I found a sort of before, at least before of half the dresser.

And here is the after. Much better!

Chocolate Covered Oreo Cake

As requested by several of you, here is the recipe for the Oreo cake. Just don't think about the calories, it's totally worth it.

Cake
1 pkg. devils food cake(baked in two rounds as directed on box) cool completely before adding filling.

Filling
1 pkg. cream cheese(8oz)
1/2 C. sugar
2 C. thawed cool whip
12 crushed oreo cookies
Beat cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl until well blended.Stir in whipped topping and oreos. Spread on top of cake layer, and cover with remaining layer.

Glaze
4 squares Bakers semi-sweet chocolate
1/4 C. butter
Melt chocolate in a bowl in microwave 1-2 minutes, blend in butter. Let thicken slightly(5 minutes). Spoon over top layer of cake.

It does not say to refrigerate before serving, but we do, and it's much better straight out of the fridge.

Birthday's Blessings and more

What a great week! Sunday we were able to go to church with Thad's family and see Baby Easton blessed. Sammy behaved just long enough so that I was able to hear the blessing, but then we spent the next hour roaming the halls as usual and by the time everyone gathered for pictures he was out cold.

After naps we headed to Thad's parent and had dinner with Thad's & Matt's families to celebrate the baby blessing, and Thad's birthday.  Yes, I made two Oreo cakes because Thad wanted to make sure he had plenty left over to eat this week.

Andi has been talking about what to get Daddy for his birthday for a month now, and this is what she kept talking about, so I let her get it. Needless to say, they've both been enjoying it this week.

The kids were in the pool off an on this week at G&G Bulkeley's and poor Sammy could not join in the fun, but we found a place he likes even better than the pool.

Yes, the inside of the old Toyota. It might be his favorite thing ever.  Okay maybe the Toyota ties with Oreo's.  This is what happens when Daddy is snacking in the front room.

While we are still talking about Sammy he got his cast off on Friday. The finger still looks pretty gross because it's still healing, but we just have to keep band aids on it now. Although the first couple of times Sammy bumped it or grabbed something too quickly with that hand, he was definitely missing the protection of the cast.

Andi has had a lot of new things going on this week. We started homeschooling Monday and she has loved it. She sped through everything this week and kept asking for more school work. She also went back to dance this week and loved that as well. She does NOT love putting her tights on. Her eczema is pretty bad right now from all the swimming so the tights were driving her crazy, but she did great. She is in Cathy's class this year and there are a ton of girls, but it's going to be a good class. We also brought home Andi's first pet. A desert tortoise that she has named Slow Poke, Pokey for short. If that poor thing survives all the love, it will be a miracle. You wouldn't think a tortoise would be a very exciting pet, but Andi watched that little guy all day long. We made a little "Tortoise run" area in the flower bed for him to roam during the day. Thad bricked in a section and dug a little burrow, and it's cute.

 

update

We went to the Dr on thursday to get Sammy's bandages changed and the Dr said his finger looks good. We go in again this coming Friday when the stitches should be dissolved and he should be able to get the cast off. In the meantime this whole incident has not slowed him down a bit. He figured out very quickly how best to utilize the cast hand and runs around like nothing is different. It has been ridiculously hot this week and since we could not take Sammy in the pool we hid inside for several days, which gave me some time to finish Sams quilt for his big boy bed. He loves it, though we won't be letting him out of the crib for a few more months. This is what he does now when you tell him to smile for a picture.

Tenille has been in town this week and we have been able to spend some time with her and Easton, who is a super mellow baby. Andi has loved all the cousin time. More festivities are planned for today, so there will be pictures of that to come.

Like Father Like Son

Oh, what a day. I woke up this morning thinking I need to get the house cleaned top to bottom so that when the mockingjay comes out tomorrow I wouldn't feel so guilty for just sitting down and reading for hours. I did get some of the cleaning done and errands run, but I'm pretty sure there will be no mockingjay for me for a few more days.
The kids and I headed to my moms about 10 this morning to pick up some dishes I had left over there. Mom and I were talking in the living room, and the kids were out back playing when we heard Sammy crying. We both went out back and saw them sitting by the tandem bike and heard Andi screaming "He's stuck, he's stuck."
Sure enough 3 of Sammy's fingers were stuck in between the gear and chain. I'll spare you all the details because just thinking about it is making me nauseous, but in the end we were only able to get 2 of the fingers out unscathed. His left ring finger was actually severed from the nail bed up.
Andi was screaming, Sammy was screaming, mom and I were crying, we ran in the house, I wrapped up Sammy's hand while mom called Renee, who for the one millionth time(no exaggeration) saved the day. She happens to have a sister who works for an ambulatory surgeon who would see Sammy right then. We had already called 911 and the firemen were there wrapping his hand a little better, but before the ambulance got there we were already on our way to the surgery center, and Renee's girls took care of Andi all afternoon. My dad was able to give Sam a blessing in the car on the way, and Thad met us there.
The Dr was able to re-attach his finger and says he doesn't think there will be any permanent damage. He did wrap the hand and arm pretty high up, not out of medical necessity, but to keep Sam from getting the bandages off. It was a terrible, traumatic day, but this evening Sammy was running around playing like nothing happened. The whole thing from finger severing to taking him in to surgery took less than an hour, and while it felt like it was taking forever at the time, I can't help but feel like it was a miracle that things went so quickly and smoothly.The Lord was definitely taking care of Sammy today.
Thad would like to point out that today's incident beats his record of limb breaking at 2. Yay.
Here are pictures of Sammy tonight. Like I said, he's doing great and you would never know he had such a hard day. And yes, he will be shirtless for a few days, the wrapping is a little big to get through the shirt sleeves.

Seriously?! She's 4!

Sometimes my conversations with Andi are funny, sometimes embarrassing, and this one went from sweet to PG-13 in a matter of seconds. It all started because she put on her pink BYU t-shirt for the day and I was doing her hair.

A:"Mommy, am I a cougar?"
M:"Sort of, you are a little cougar because Daddy and I went to BYU. When you grow up and go to college you will be a real cougar."
A:"What do you mean college?"
M:"You know how uncle Bobby goes to school far away. He's in college."

Cue water works. Seriously, real tears and sobs.

A:"I don't want to go away, I will miss you."
M:"You don't have to go to college for a long long time, and you don't have to go away if you don't want to."

Once I got her calmed down. . . .

A:"It takes a long time to grow up."
M:" Yes it does."
A:"Did it take you a long time to grow up?"
M:" It sure did."

Starts tearing up again. . .

A:"Mommy, I don't want to have a baby."
M:"You are much to little to have a baby, so don't worry about it."
A:"Are there babies in my tummy right now."
M:"No, like I said you are much too little."
A:"How do babies get in your tummy?"

REALLY!?!?! And then she proceeded to ask how the baby comes out, and if it hurts when the baby comes out. When I explained the how(and where) in a way a 4 year old would understand she just started laughing.

A:"Mommy, that's gross, and silly."

Andi, this whole conversation was gross and silly.

Cayucos 2010

We just got back from our week at the beach, and I am having a hard time readjusting to the heat. It was so nice and cool all week! We had a lot of fun as always, ate way too much, enjoyed the cool weather, took a million pictures,  but things were a little different this year for our little family as Thad had to be at work for a few days. So we drove over on Saturday and he had to come back Sunday night to be at work, but got to join us again Wednesday night.
Saturday the boys hit the water first thing, and we got the traditional pose striking before they hit the waves.

Thad had his water proof camera and tried to get some action shots.

These ones made me laugh because you know Thad got totally trashed by the wave seconds later.

Saturday evening we celebrated little Walters birthday with cake and a pinata at the park. This was the kids first experience with a pinata, and while they tried hard, it was the dad's who had to take down the transformer.

Sunday after church we attempted family pictures at the park by the church. I say attempted because the jury is still out on whether or not Kelsies photo shopping skills can make any of them usable. She worked on the group shot already, but pictures with little kids are just no fun.

Sammy could not understand why he was being restrained when he could see all these fun toys and slides to play on. So after the attempt we let the kids run around the park for a while.

Even Grandma got in on the fun.

Andi loved the water, and I loved how cute she is in the little wet suits!

Sammy on the other heand was not impressed by the water, or the sand.

We drove down to Pismo one morning for Old West Cinammon Rolls, yes, we made a special trip for junk food. Sammy's favorite part of theday was chasing the birds on the pier.

All the boys, minus Thad who was at work, posing again.

Other notable things from the week not pictured. Kelsie, who is 30+ weeks pregnant managed to get into a wet suit, AND zip it up. I got a chance to get out on the boogie boards one morning with the boys and had a great time till Bobby pulled Walter off his board, which then sent the board into my eyeball. No permanent damage. We watched the boys put sick nasty Que Bueno(cheese in a #10 can) on way too many things.We had a baby shower for Kelsie when we got back in to town and the boys of course played nerf wars. All in all it was a fabulous week.

Not Much

Now that we are done with Thad's hike, and Girls camp for my Mom, we've had this week to get ready for both the beach trip and Keslie's Baby shower. I made some stinkin cute pinwheel table decor for the shower and mom made some great favors as well.

In between projects we re-stocked the art supplies and I had a moment of insanity wherein I bought finger paints. We tried them out today, and while Andi loved it, Sammy wasn't that interested.

That's really about all he did before he got down. Don't worry, Andi filled up his page when she was done with hers.
It's been stupid hot here and I am really looking forward to a week of cool weather at the beach.
This is a picture I took right as Thad walked in the door from his hike. I had to take it immediately because seconds later I made him go shave. Gross, and that's only after a week!

  And this is a shot Andi got of Sammy. That's his "I'm not amused" face. I get it a lot from him. 

The Hike

Thad and the scouts made it home safe and sound on Saturday. After 6 days, and 56 miles of hiking, they made it from Mammoth to Yosemite with only minor trauma. They were swarmed by mosquitos, blistered feat, and Sunday all of their noses were pealing from sunburns, but other than that, all is well. Here are some pictures Thad took on the hike. He took several hundred. Here is a shot at the church building before they left. Apparently they dubbed themselves "the fellowship of the Half Dome" and gave each other names from the movie.

Surprisingly there is only one bear story from the trip, and of course it was Thads. He went fishing just before dinner to get a "treat" for the boys and a man and his little girl came up to the river and asked if they could watch him fish. I guess they'd never seen fly fishing. He'd already caught a few fish and had them in a bag in his vest, so when he caught the next one he backed over out of the river by his audience.
The guy said, "I can't believe you didn't run."
Thad: "Run? why?"
Guy: "From that bear"
Thad: "What bear?"
Guy: "It was right behind you, look I took a picture."
and sure enough there is a big bear just watching Thad and the fish in his vest flop around.
Thad: "Why didn't you run? or say something?"
Guy: "Well, I thought if you were okay being that close, we were okay."
Thad: "I didn't see it!"

So Andi's nightly prayers that Daddy and the boys would be protected from the bears were answered. She also started praying for us to be protected while Daddy was gone in a disturbing fashion. I said prayer the first night and she asked me,
"Mom, is Heavenly Father protecting us from bad guys?"
Me: "Yes, He is."
Andi: "What do the bad guys want to do to us?"
Me: "uh, I don't know Andi."
Andi: "Do they want to kill us?"
Me: "Maybe, don't worry about it. We're fine."
So every night she prayed to make sure the bad guys did not come and kill us. Creepy.

We are working on getting Sammy to talk more. He will now say a few more words, but only if you tell him to, or withhold what he wants till he says it. He has started saying Andi(nani), out, drink, nose, toes, moon, tv, sippy, up, and hello. He signs please, and more, but that's about it. He's just a stubborn little beast, and I'm pretty sure when he feels like it he'll start talking like crazy.