Before It's Too Late!...!

So... It is almost the end of March, and I have not blogged for almost two months.  I love to come up with excuses... I mean REASONS... why I have not blogged for the past two months.

#1 - 3 kids is way more than I can handle.  I know this sounds bad, but it is true... between cleaning up after Bean, getting Arlo to and from school every day, getting Cohen to and from school on Tues & Thurs, taking them to hockey practice, piano, karate and gymnastics, taking care of the house inside and outside (and by this I mean barely staying afloat), doing laundry, getting homework done, cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner, and spending a little bit of time with my children just to play and doing most of it by myself... I am done and I am tired and I do not want to blog.

#2 - lately, I feel the stuff I could blog about, I have blogged about before.  I mean how many posts do you want to see about the zoo, or the science center, or the crazy weird stuff we make and do???

#3 - Did I mention how crazy my life is with 3 kids???  Oh... well it IS! :)

With that being said, April is almost here and April is a busy month.  We have Easter and Niki's, Lulu's and Arlo's Birthdays this next month, and the rest of March is filled with early Easter parties and Grampy's Birthday!  So Thought I should catch us up before we cannot make it up.  These pictures are all from January and February... we have been busy!!!

Here is a cute picture of Lulu to get us started.  This is one of the last pictures you will see with her having a bow on.  She loves to take them off as soon as you put one on.  I have tried so hard to put one on everyday so she would not do that, but it did not work!

Zoo with Elora!

 Here they are being flamingos:)

Here they are being Elephants!

Mostly, I just like posting pictures of Arlo and Elora together, because one day they will get married and I will have to look back on my blog and get all the pictures of them together when they were young!

Selfie with Bean!

Cohen loving on his sister.

I have tons of these!  She LOOOVVVEEESSS her food!

Cohen had a snow day at school.  It was so much fun!

Here is Benny the Bear from kindergarten, Arlo loves to have adventures with him... This time they made a fort.

And Arlo took Benny for a ride on his motorcycle.

Speaking of motorcycle... look at this dare devil!

And Cohen is getting more and more adventurous as well, he has learned how to ride a two wheeler (with pedals:)

And since he learned to ride a bike, he can now ride the motorcycle as well!

And, although it is not quite as adventurous... Bean has learned how to clap.  And now that she can do it... she does it ALL THE TIME!!!!

She also loves to dance! She is pretty much amazing!

Surprise, surprise!  Here is a few more of Lulu Bean... Post eating:)

And during mealtimes like that, this is usually the result, a quick rinse off in the kitchen sink:)  Unless we are at Grammy's house, she is banned from bathing in the kitchen sink because she was accused of pooping in the sink.  Which is preposterous of course!

Lulu's first time in the swings:)  She loved it!

Making Ninja Bread Cookies with Auntie Niki

Grampy joined in the fun as well!

I believe they took one bite and threw the rest away because after all that... they were disgusting:)  But they made wonderful memories!

Playing in the mud!

Bean is a water baby through and through!  She LOVES her tubby time.  And I love her tubby time because it is the one time of the day where she is happy staying in 1 spot!!!!

More adventures at the zoo... this time with Grady and Brynlee:)

Grammy bought Bean a new walker toy... She LOVES it!  She just loves walking!!!

Cohen decided to use the Ninja Bread Cookie Cutters and make Ninjas out of play dough!  Super fun times:)

Did I mention Bean never stays in one place... well here she learned to crawl on the fire place.

In February, Tim had to work in Utah, so he brought us along as well!  We went to the aquarium with my Aunt Shauna and had a blast!

We stayed with Aunt Stacy and she read to the boys.

Here is my sleeping princess!  I sure do love her when she is perfect like this.

Happy Valentines Day!  I waited too long to get Lulu a Valentines dress, so I got this one... it was just as cute as a Valentines dress, and can be worn more often:)

More Crafts from my artist!

Grammy was the lucky recipient of this beautiful piece of art!

What do you know?  Another One!

This dress was given to Bean from Grandma and Grandpa GG.  She looks so pretty in it, I had to share.

The past few months we have been dealing with nightmares and waking up at night and being too terrified to go back to sleep.  It was a nightly occurrence for Arlo. (Yes Arlo, not Cohen)  We tried everything, sleeping in a bed on the floor in mommy's room, Mommy snuggling in his bed, repeating over and over, "I will be brave, I will be brave", locking all the doors and windows before bed, talking about our wonderful dreams before we go to sleep, etc...  None of it worked.  Finally, he started crawling into bed with Cohen and that helped.  So, we let them do it!

Grammy and Papa took the boys to the renaissance fair and the boys were spoiled rotten!  They brought back wooden swords and shields and asked to paint them.  I told them sure, why not... and this is the finished products:)

Lollypops? In the tub?  Believe me, it is the only place they should be!  

 Bean got a new toothbrush to clean those beautiful teeth of hers, and she loves it... but she loves the boy's sonicare toothbrushes more!

 I wish I new what day this was on.  This is the first picture I got of Bean standing up on her own without any support from anything else.  I was so proud.

 And here is a picture of the walker Grampy got her to keep at our house!

 Arlo's school fair... was so much fun!  Grammy came with us and spoiled us all!

 We won the raffle for this zombie basket.  I was so excited we won, but really disappointed it was the zombie basket instead of one of the cool baskets we wanted!

 Cohen begged to go to the Science center, so we went.  Lulu had a great time!

 We also went to the book fair and got lots of new, fun books to read!

 More adventures with Benny!!!

 The boys also started Piano!  Here they are with their teacher Mrs. Tina

 This is Jeanie.  This is the lady I take care of when my mom needs a break.  And this is us celebrating her 92nd birthday!

 Here we are at the dentist.  Making sure our teach are nice and clean!  They both were cavity free!

 Cohen could not take his x-rays because he kept gagging on the film.  He has his dad's gag reflex!

 One super awesome thing we did over spring break was go to the butterfly wonderland!  It was really fun!

 The rest of spring break I do not have pictures of because they went with Grammy and Papa to Sea World!  Lucky Boys!!!

Here is a video of Arlo who learned to tie his shoes (back in December:)

And this is a picture of the treats we gave the boys for St. Patricks Day... Yay for Pintrest!!!!!

 I had to take a selfie here, because the times that Bean falls asleep in my arms are too few and far between!  I had to record this moment permanently because pretty soon she will be too big for me to hold and then, I do not know what I will do!

 Yes, another one of her eating... but this one is special, it is the first time a gave her a spoon and bowl.

 And the first time I let her hold her own bag of food.  

Here is some great footage of Cohen in his gymnastics class.

While Cohen was doing gymnastics, Arlo has ben learning how to skate so he can play hockey!

And now I will end my post with two videos... both I will use for blackmail later...

Arlo, remember what you thought was funny?!?!?!  I can't wait till your kids do it to you!

Cohen, remember how much you loved me... you made a pinky promise!!! Muwhahaha

So, as you can see... we have been busy!  But it has been fun... and crazy!

The Best Tooth Fairy

Arlo lost his 3rd Tooth!!!!

It has been loose for a while now.  In fact here is a video of Arlo riding on his motorcycle with his tooth tied to the bus stop from a week ago.

When that did not work, he decided to wait for a while.  Well it was ready, because all he did was give a quick yank and it came out.

Here he is ready for bed, ready for the tooth fairy!!!!

The next morning he was so bummed when the tooth fairy did not come!!!  But when he got home, he got an awesome surprise...

(It's a long video... but I tell you, the tooth fairy is one creative, awesome tooth fairy!!!!!)

Here he is with his treasure found at the end of a fun treasure hunt!!!!

A Day In The Life of Bean

In one word...

BUSY

1st she wakes up! 

Always Happy in the morning!!!!

She takes time to freshen up in the mirror

Stretch...

Then she starts to explore... by finding anything she can and put it in her mouth!

Play the drums

Try to get in the bath...

And the toilet...

Then, she pulls out all of the puzzles on the the floor...

And then... put's them in her mouth.

Sneak behind the couch to eat the rocks....

And the tree!

Looks like so much fun, Cohen joins in:)

Wires are one of her favorite go to's.

Take a break to ride her pony...

Then onto more important things like eating a remote.

And the other remote...

When that does not satisfy, move onto Brother's army men...

They are delicious! And crunchy.

Paper is good too.

SOOOOO good!

Yep, got to get in every bite!

Selfies with mama.

She is so silly!

End the day with Bath time fun!!!!

So much she did not get in!  Oh well, there is always tomorrow!!!!!

Not my Usual Post...

For those of you who actually take the time to read my blog, this is not my usual blog post.  I blog about my family, my kids and our lives.

This is not about my family.
This is not about our lives.

This IS my opinion, and it was brought on by the "Disneyland Measles Outbreak".
But BEFORE I give you my opinion, here are some disclaimers.

-This is my opinion.
-This is not based on any fact.  What comes out of my mouth could have been read somewhere, learned from my sister's, boyfriend's aunt's neighbor, remembered from a class or a conversation, whatever... but it is my perspective and that is all that matters... to me:)
-You do not have to agree with me or disagree with me, I do not want your comments either way.  I HATE discussing, arguing, persuading.  I am writing this blog for me and me alone, because the truth is I hardly ever voice my opinions, and today... I just really wanted to.  Plain and simple... don't read into it.
-My writing is horrible... I know this.  I rely on my computer's spelling knowledge and my punctuation is how I think, not how it should be. :)

With that being said, here it goes...

The problems with the world today are because of people who are one (or more) of the following:
1.  Selfish
2.  Lazy
3.  A blamer
4.  An exceptionist  (this is my own made up word)
5.  Extremists

So, as I was saying earlier, this was all brought on by the disneyland measles outbreak.   I, like many other people are reading all the posts on Facebook about the outbreak.  When I read the first article, I was annoyed, thinking "you stupid people who do not vaccinate are stupid! (very profound, I know:)  But then, after reading a few other articles I realized I wanted to know the facts, because the facts were different in almost every article I read.  My thought process was simple, If I could see how many people caught the disease with the ratio of how many were vaccinated vs. not vaccinated then I would understand the situation better and I could make my opinion based off of that knowledge.  So, I read some more... some "pro vaccination" and some "anti vaccination" and then I realized something; the pros just stated fact after fact of crap that supported their cause and the anti's just stated fact after fact that supported their cause.  Half of the facts completely contradicted with each other.  It was almost comical how they used the same studies to support opposing views.  The only way I would be able to get to the bottom of it would be to read the actual studies myself, and although I have a college degree, I have tried reading scientific studies before, and their jargon and numbers just do not make sense to me. So, my fact finding was over.

The bottom line...  I have my opinion.  It is based off of my belief and my gut feeling.  But now that I KNOW I will never know all the science behind my decision (whether it is right or wrong) it is my decision and I am not going to try and persuade the world to my side.  I am not going to tell everybody that does not believe my decision is the right one that they are wrong and horrible people. I am not going to argue that my way is the right way and the only way.  I am just going to carry on with my life and continue to do what is best for my family and for me.

BUT... as I came to this conclusion, I started to think about all my opinions and beliefs.  I started thinking about blacks vs. cops, gays vs. straights, religion vs. science, republicans vs. democrats, women's rights vs. unborn baby rights and everything else.  And with each and every one of these examples it all boils down to the same thing for me.

I have opinions about each and every single one of the examples above.  I came to my opinions all by myself.  I take part of my opinion from my faith and my life experience with these things.  I also take bits and pieces of my opinions from reading and from other people's opinions.

 And in my opinion, I blame the problems of the world with the 5 kinds of people listed above.  My list does not discriminate against a person's religion or the color of their skin.  It does not matter if they are gay or a republican... and it does not matter if they are smart or dumb, educated or not... what does matter is how they live their lives.

So now let me explain my list of people types that are putting this world in the crapper.
#1 Selfish people:  these are some of the worst.  They do not think about their neighbors, or the shop workers, they do not think about their classmates or other drivers on the road.  They don't even think about their friends or family.  They only think about what is good for them, what they want and what will help them to exceed, no matter the consequences of what happens around them.  Just think for a moment how wonderful this world would be if everyone in this world more often than not thought about those around them and how their decisions would affect them and then base their decisions on that.  It is even hard to imagine because selfishness is the number 1 problem in this world today.

#2  Lazy People:  I am not talking about people who have lazy moments.  We are all entitled to a day of laziness every once in a while.  When Lazy becomes a title, is when lazy is your life.  When you only eat out because it is too hard to make dinner, when you have a messy house because you do not want to take the time to clean it, when you only ever do the bare minimums at your job, when you would rather sit on the couch and watch your shows rather than go outside and play with your kids.  Actually, lets generalize this even more... when you parent from the couch.  You know the people,  there are no exceptions to lazy, either you are lazy or you aren't.  I just wish lazy people were so lazy that they wouldn't want to breed and make more lazy people.  Harsh... yes, but necessary!

#3  Blamers:  These are the people who do everything right.  They never make a mistake that normal people would (which they then use to learn and grow from).  Because whenever something is less than good, they start with the blame game.  They blame their dog for being sick to excuse their tardiness.  They blame their boss for having unreasonable expectations, when they did not do their job right.  And if something does go right, they still feel the need to blame people.  "It went right, but I did not get any help from so-and-so"  Everyone knows this person.  These people will never-ever-never-ever take accountability for losing their job, or not being able to find a new job.  It is never their fault they can't drive when their license is taken away for excessive speeding tickets.  Because obviously it is the cop's fault who pull them over.  Because ALL cops are jerks and they let the power go to their head:)  Oh yeah... those people!

#4  Exceptionists:  My wonderful made up word to describe the people who EXPECT to be the exception to all rules, laws, limits, etc.  Now, this is one of the most tricky groups of people.  Because, even I feel there needs to be exceptions to many things.  But the main difference between me and the exceptionist is that I feel there needs to be exceptions made for others, when I hear of things that are not fair.  For example, the single mother who makes it to the dr. appointment for her sick child 5 minutes too late, when you know she took off the day to take her sick child and she has no one else to help her.  She could use and exception and hopefully the Dr. will still work her into his schedule.  But I do not expect the Dr. to bend over backwards for me, a stay at home mother, who has a vehicle to drive and a husband to support her when I just 'forget'.  Yes, I could make an excuse, (maybe multiple)but do I need one?  How hard would it be for me to take responsibility that I was late for an appointment?  It really bothers me when I hear a customer/worker conversation and I hear these customer 'exceptionists' who argue with these poor workers who have been given a set of guidelines to follow and these customers EXPECT to be an exception.  By all means, tell them why you lost your receipt and have already worn the clothes and see what they can do.  But do not expect them to bend over backwards for you to give you a full refund, when you do not deserve one!!!!

#5  Extremists:  The people with a trillion bumper stickers on their car.  These people are not okay with freedom.  They think their way is the only way, and they hate and discriminate against anyone who does not feel the same way.  They will argue and yell and scream until they are blue in the face, and if you still disagree they start name calling.  They feel you are uneducated, small minded, and many other things, that I will not mention, but none of them nice.  The funny thing is that their are usually extremists on both sides of every argument.  But in my opinion all extremists do are cause harm.  They go too far,  they get so stuck on their agenda that they don't even try to see the others point of view.  And the main problem with that is that they become so full of hate for others who do not feel the same way... and we know what hate leads to.  Look at the past and the extremists who have done horrible things because hate was in their hearts even if they believed that their agenda was good and the only right way...  Here is where I am going to go into something that is a hot topic for extremists.  Gay Marriage.  That is right, I am going to give my opinion.  And how it relates to extremists.  By voicing my opinion, I am Not an extremist... this is only the 3rd time I have ever done so.  I have never argued or tried to persuade my point of view.  I am going to explain how I feel and why I feel that way.  So if you do not agree, that is ok.  I still want to be your friend, I still love you.  My opinion is heavily based on my religion.  I truly, 100% of my body, heart and spirit believe that marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman.  But hold your horses... just because that is my belief about marriage itself, does not mean I do not believe in equal rights, it does not mean that I think gay's should be treated unfairly or like they are less in anyway.  Because, plain and simple, they are people just like me.  They are human beings.  And MY God tells me to love my neighbor.  Not, love them only if they are just like me.  My God tells me to judge, only if I am without sin.  Well, let me be clear about that... I am a sinner, who tries to be good.  BACK TO THE POINT...  how does my opinion relate to extremists?  Because the one time I tried to voice my opinion in public, I get stopped at I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman and I get categorized.  I get told that I am small minded.  I get told that people like me are what is wrong with this world.  They do not want to hear that we can find a middle ground.  With my one sentence... I was classified as a gay hater, republican, conservative.  I HATE that this world has become a place of one extreme or another.   Let me have my opinion without being categorized.

So, if you are one of these people, chances are... I do not like you very much.  But get this, I will still be cordial to you.  I will still treat you like a human being.  I will not talk behind your back.  I will however try to keep my distance from you.  Because, I want what is best for my family.  I want my kids to grow up around good role models.  You, will eventually find your way out of my life because I will not try to keep a relationship with you.  But as you leave my life, I DO wish you the best.

Are there holes in my opinions where people can rip me apart...? Yes, do I care...? No.

I am done.

Sorry:(... I'm not sorry:)