HAPPY BIRTHDAY ETHAN!

I can't believe that my nephew Ethan is already 5!!  He had his birthday on Wednesday and we celebrated with cake and ice cream.  (Real good for my diet!!)

HAPPY B-DAY ETHAN!

David's secret obsession...

Have you ever got the impression that your spouse has a secret life that they don't want anyone to know about?  You walk into the room and they hide what they were reading like it the Sport's Illustrated swimsuit edition or something else that they don't want you to know they are reading?  Well, David has had a secret life of deception for the last few weeks.  I would come home from work and I would ask him what he did all day and he would "reading."  Early into the deceipt he told me what he was reading, but I was sworn to secrecy.  But, tonight, he came clean...

My husband is addicted to...

Drinkin' with my Homey

Adventure's in PARENTHOOD: the diaperless wonder

Generally I introduce my stories as "Adventures in Motherhood," but this story goes beyond motherhood.  This is a tag team mommy/daddy, Parent extravaganza.

It is never a good thing when you find your child, that usually wears diapers, without their diaper on but it is increases ten fold when the stench of poo is also in the air.  Let me explain...

I got home from work today, and the kid's were both asleep.  After about 20 to 30 minutes Elena started crying, so I went to check on her.  

The first thing that I noticed was that her diaper was off.  The next thing I noticed was that the room smelled like poo and Elena had an

 impressionistic brown design down the entire right side of her body.  If you look closely this design is also present in small amount all over her face.

Sometime between when she laid down for her nap and when woke up again, she removed her diaper, went poop, and 

proceeded to smear all over herself, the mattress, and the crib.  (No wonder she was crying when she woke up!)  

After one shower/bath, a good scrubbing, a bunch of bleach and a washing machine full of soiled linens we finally go the poo cleaned up.

THE MORAL OF THIS STORY:

If you are going to lay your kid's down for a nap, make sure that they have clothes on to keep them from taking their diaper off, so that you won't have your own story to add to the ever growing list of..."Adventures in Motherhood"

Playing Dress Up

The other day Ella found this dragon costume in the office and decided she wanted to put it on.  Since she had the dragon costume on, I put Elena's Tutu on that Lisa gave her for Christmas.  

After gazing at her dragon self in the mirror, 

Ella decided

 that she wanted to be the princess, and 

that Elena should be the dragon.

Needless to say the girls had a great time playing dress up with each other.  Even if it was only for a few minutes!

The Coolest Den Leader EVER!!

Some background... this last week I took my cub scouts (I am over the Bears and the Wolves) sledding.  The hill we went to was pretty icy because it gets warm and then freezes, and warm then freezes...  Anyway... The boys were all going off a jump that was on the hill.  I made a deal with them that if they promised to pass off a bunch of acheivements for me, then I would go off the jump.  The following video documents my crazy adventure...  

(WARNING: DO NOT TRY IF OVER THE AGE OF 20!  OUR BODIES CANNOT HANDLE SUCH JARING)

When I landed my spine felt like it compacted into about half it's normal length, and because of previous injuries involving ice and my head meeting, I thought I was going to be in trouble.  However, my neck hasn't felt this good in awhile!!  Go FIGURE!!!  My wrist, however, took most of the impact and has hurt me ever since.  Good thing that I gained popularity with the boys, cause I'm not sure it would have been worth it otherwise.

CRAZY 8'S

Crazy 8's

I've been tagged by Jess. Here are some of OUR favorite things. (David & I are collaborating)

My 8 Favorite Restaurants:

1-Bajio's

2-Jonny Carino's

3-Gambucci's (whatever Dave)

4-Texas Rhodehouse

5-Red Lobster

6-El Ranchero (the taco bus)

7-Chelino's

8-Fazoli's

My 8 Favorite T.V. shows:

1-HOUSE

2-Scrubs

3-Dirty Jobs

4-Top Chef

5-Project Runway

6-Iron Chef America

7-Dancing with the stars

8-The Red Green Show

8 Things I did yesterday:

1-Fought to get children dressed

2-Went to church

3-"Made" rolls (Rhode's baby)

4-Took a nap

5-Planned pack meeting

6-Ate Roast Beef

7-Created a recipe

8-Cleaned up Puke

8 Things I'm Looking Forward to:

1-"Sex with my wife" ~David

2-"Someday having a boy to ofset the Estrogen" ~David

3-Being debt free

4-Not having to work (that's awhile away)

5- Grad school

6-moving (just so he won't have to be Elder's Quorum Pres. anymore)

7- Spring!

8- "Go see Papa!" ~Ella

8 Wishes

1-I wish I could fly

2-I wish Dave would change the babies bum

3- I wish I was a prize winning cake decorator

4-I wish I had a really really nice camera (aka a Canon 50G if someone feels inspired)

5- I wish we made 50 grand a year

6- I wish I could go to/move to Germany

7- I wish Ella would sleep in her own bed all night long

8-I wish my children slept until 10 am every morning

Well.... wasn't that enlightening

I tag Erin, Devony, Tiffany, Amanda, Tianna, Mary, Sherrie, and Joann

Christmas 2008

We got to have a very relaxing and calm Christmas, well, atleast after we spent a day and a half trying to thaw out pipes, and melting snow to flush the toilet...  But, really we did have a great Christmas this year.  

We spent almost a week at our cabin in Victor.  After the frozen pipes issue was over... we decorated the cabin and got in the Christmas spirit.  David and I had come and put up a tree a few weeks before Christmas, but we didn't put any ornaments on it until Christmas Eve.  We put up Christmas lights, and Aunt Jen even put up a fire place for Santa to come down!!!  

This year David's mom made pillow cases for everyone, and David's dad de

ecided that it would be great to get pillows to go in the pillowcases.  So, we all got new pillow cases and pillows to sleep with on Christmas Eve, except for Elena... She has a new snow man dress.

We woke up Christmas morning to find lots of wonderful surprises!!  Santa came (of course) and brought: Ella a castle, sleeping beauty doll, and some dress up clothes, and he brought Elena a farm animal toy and a book.  Of course Grandpa and Grandma Cederstrom spoiled all of us rotten, and we got some fun gifts from each other too.  Catherine got a life-size cut-out of EDWARD from TWiLIGHT!   WHO COULD ASK FOR MORE, RIGHT?!?!?  (The dog's wouldn't agree, from the time we set him up, the dogs wouldn't stop barking at him!)

Here are some more pictures from Christmas.

While we were at the cabin we spent some good quality time with the snow.  Shoveling the snow, playing in the snow, melting snow for potty time, driving in the snow.  David didn't have to go to work because the road was even closed because of the snow.  We love the snow!!! 

Here are some pictures of us becoming aquainted with the snow.

Redneck Intuition: snow mask

Redneck Snow Mask

As the name implies this here idea is perfect for when ya get caught in snow storm with nuthin' but yer 3 year old's diaper bag.  Simply pull one of yar kid's pull-ups out of the diaper bag and 

place it over yar head.  Be sure and get those leg holes facing forward, or ya won't be able to see.

This is a good idea cause ya already have it, ya don't hafta go buy it.

It is not a good idea to use a used pull-up.  Not only will ya get a new breed of hair gel, but you will look just plain silly with a pile of those soggy diaper crystal thingeys piled on your head.

There is another perk to using "The Redneck Snow Mask."  It won't mess up yar pony tail.

H A P P Y   N E W   Y E A R ! ! !

This year we went to my mom's and spent New Year's with my sisters and their kids. We had tons of fun playing games and eating, then the poppers came out...

It is amazing how much fun a group of kid's can have with things that are loud and make a mess.

We had a fun time welcoming 2009, hopefully it is as great as 2008!