Just kidding

So for those of you who were so proud that I was getting organized and cleaning stuff out, getting my laundry counter cleaned off etc. ..... Yeah- the counter is full of stuff again! What the heck?!?

2 1/2 hr wait for Cheescake Factory? SERIOUSLY!

Well today is Evan day again and he is just crawling around, entertaining himself right now. Lincoln is sleeping so I am trying to get some work done. But something has been bugging me for a few days and so I thought i would share it with everyone. Jeff's brother Randy had his birthday on Saturday and he wanted to go out to dinner with the fam that night. He decided he wanted to go to the Cheesecake Factory. So we make plans to be there around 5 so that hopefully we can get seated by 6. Doesn't seem like to lofty of a goal, does it? Wait 1 hour for dinner? Before we had kids, Jeff and I would have probably waited 1 hour for someplace that was REALLY good, maybe one of our favorites. Now that I have a 6 and 2 year, I would say that time frame has dropped to 20-30 minutes. But, being that it was Randy's birthday and he really wanted to go there, we of course said ok. So as we are driving there, Jeff's mom calls and says we just got here to put our names on and it is a 2 1/2 ( yes, I said 2 and a half) hour wait. This was at like 5 oclock in the afternoon. Who in world waits 2 1/2 hours to eat at any restaurant? Well not me! I have been to the Cheesecake Factory in other cities several times and never once waited more than 30 minutes. Don't get me wrong- I mean, their dessert is to die for and their meals are good too, but 2 1/2 hours? I guess I just didn't think their food was "that good" that I would wait that long to eat there. We ended up eating at Olive Garden, which I think has better food than Cheesecake Factory, and waited about 30 minutes to be seated. What does everyone else think? I would like to hear how long everyone else is willing to wait to eat dinner and if you think their food is worth waiting 2 1/2 hours for. Maybe I am the one who is crazy. :)

Where there's smoke, there's a fire

As you probably noticed, the mountain has been on fire since yesterday around noon. Just ask grandpa Jim Bob who doubles as the Fire Captain at the Draper, South Mountain fire station. He got the call around noon yesterday and as his crew raced up there, they realized it was spreading really fast. They ended up staying up there, making sure the houses were not in danger, until 6 am this morning. They had to camp out on someone's lawn. I guess the younger fireman were all very impressed by his "mad firefighting skills". Most of them are closer to my age than his. He is as tough as they come, but not exactly a spring chick. :) We are so proud to have a grandpa and dad that is a true hero, not only to us, but to a lot of other people too. He has gone above and beyond the call of duty many times and has saved and helped many people. It looks like the mountain is still burning a bit- the helicopter has flown right over our house a few times as it was going back to get more "red stuff" to drop on the fire. Lucky for Gpa Jim Bob that he was on the last day of his shift yesterday and now gets to enjoy his 4 days off!

Lincoln & Rylee sittin in a tree... K -I -S -S -I -N -G

Yesterday Lincoln and I went over to my friend Jaime's dad's house to play outside in their little pool and enjoy the sunshine. Rylee is about 4 months older than Lincoln, but is way smaller. They do all the same cute things and say the same funny things. They LOVE each other! This fits in just swell with mine and Jaime's plan for them to get married someday. They can play together for hours and usually only fight over a toy a couple of times. :) Jaime's nephew Tank (real name is Braxton, although never used as Tank is more appropriate) was over there too. He was born after Rylee but before Lincoln, so he fits right in too! I Love to watch them play together- I think this age is one of my favorites! As I was watching them, a thought came into my head. It was "what in the world would I do with 2 year old triplets?" The answer is probably: Never be able to leave the house, be doing laundry constantly, get little to no sleep, hire a full time nanny(or 2). As I watched them all play, it made me very tired at the endless amounts of energy they have; and then very much in awe of those moms who have triplets (or more) and live to tell about it!

Falling Leaves

The best thing I did yesterday was when I decided to change the scent in my Scentsy burner. The old one had kind of lost it's smell. When I looked in the cupboard, I saw one called "Falling Leaves" that I hadn't used before. I thought to myself, "it's a little early to burn that one" not wanting summer to be gone yet. But I decided I needed to face the fact that summer is coming to a close and "embrace" the new season. So, I gave it a try. Once I started smelling the delicious, spicy flavor throughout the house I was so pleased at my decision! It is sooooo yummy. It is definitely my new favorite scent. It has made my whole day today again( I know, I get excited over very simple things sometimes) and keeps luring me back to the kitchen. Which sounds like a bad thing, but we completely cleaned out the fridge and pantry a couple of weeks ago and we don't have anything really tempting at all. So I have just been cleaning things in the kitchen and living room to stay in the area. YUM! Lincoln is in the picture because he is obsessed with cameras and taking pictures. He will pick up my camera and say "cheese.....mile". (smile) My camera is kind of old, so I have been letting him play with it and take pictures of whatever. Most of them that I have deleted are either the floor, the wall, his finger, or a flash of Sturgis fur. The bad part is that he thinks he needs to play with other people's cameras too. Sorry Dad! Notice the dirty shirt Linc is wearing- Mr Mischief. He has lived up to that name the last couple of days. He has been into EVERYTHING! I am glad he is so curious, but honestly! I feel like I spend all day telling him no or cleaning up something he has gotten into. Then I wonder why he tells me "no" so much! ha!

Em-an Day/Organize!!!!

So today is our Evan day, or Eman as Lincoln calls him. We get to watch my brother Nate's baby every Thursday. He is 10 months old and is sooooo dang cute! He likes to be held a lot, so we don't get much done on these days, just a lot of playing. :) Before he got here, I was on an organizing/cleaning drawers out/throwing stuff away kick. I feel like every little nook and cranny is so cluttered in this house and it is driving me crazy!! I was working on mybathroom. It is amazing how much lotion and hair products one person can actually have. Seriously! Who needs that much smelly lotion? Anyways, I ended up chucking a lot of it and I feel much better about life now that I can find what I am looking for in my drawers and they are not so messy. Last night it was the "junk drawer" in the kitchen. That was an even bigger nightmare! Why do I keep all of the stuff that gets shoved in there? IT's crazy, but everyone has one! The other place that was driving me crazy was the counter in my laundry room. I have this nice, big counter to fold clothes on and it was completely covered in.... everything! That is the central place where stuff gets put that doesn't have a place. It's normally stuff that I need and want to keep, but don't want it sitting on my kitchen counter where I have to look at it all day. If i put it in the washroom, I can just close the door! But I am happy to report that is pretty much empty except for some towels that need to go back in the camper and some things that I need to give back to other people. I was actually able to fold clothes on it last night!!! Yay me!! Next I am going to conquer the linen closet... if i am feeling really ambitious.

First Day of 1st Grade

Big man Dawson started 1st grade on Tuesday. It set in that I was the mom of a gradeschooler when I put a check in an envelope for lunch money and put it in his backpack! I remember taking a check for lunch money every week and it doesn't seem like that long ago!!! His teacher's name is Mrs Strain and she seems really nice. He was sooo excited to meet her and to go back to school. He has quite a few of his classmates from last year in his class this year, but informed me he met some new friends on the first day and that he's good at making friends. His teacher last year wrote on his "report card" that he was a good friend to the other kids. To me, that is as important as(if not a little more than) him getting good grades and being a good student. Luckily he does well in both areas. I thought it would be harder to entertain Lincoln all day long, but is actually kind of nice to spend some more 1 on 1 time with Linc and he has done really well with big brother gone. He has learned to play by himself and keep himself busy, which is wonderful!!! And since Lincoln doesn't eat, I don't even have to make lunch for anyone besides myself now! Ha..ha...ha..

Dog park with the "Rockstar"

It was such a beautiful day today (and a little bit cooler) that we decided to take the whole fam to the dog park. Sturgis loves it there and he gets to play with other dogs. He has been so sad since Samson died and he gets lonely a lot even though he has constant attention from people. At the dog park he always attracts the little dogs that have BIG attitudes. I worry because he is so big and even though he is not aggressive or mean at all, if he does one thing wrong, or even growls he will look like the big, mean dog. So far he has been fine and just kind of stays away from the ones that are not nice. There were not that many dogs there today. Usually there are quite a few on weekends, but maybe it is still too hot. He is our "rockstar" and always draws a crowd wherever we go. Usually I don't mind talking to everyone and answering their questions about him, but sometimes if I don't feel like talking to people, it can be a problem and I get bugged. It's so funny to watch people as we drive down the road with Sturgis in the back of the truck. On the way there today, I kept seeing people look and point and I was confused for a minute. Then I realized we had the "Rockstar" in the back who looks like either a medium sized cow or a small horse. He's quite the spectacle! He is such a sweetie though- everyone LOVES him! He just turned one in June and is a HUGE part of our family! :)He's so big that he drinks our of the people drinking fountain instead of the lower one that is for the dogs.

Kid Free Day

So yesterday Jeff and I got the opportunity to spend pretty much the whole day together with no kids! We went and got a couples massage at the Santuary Day Spa at the gateway and then we went SCUBA diving (my new obsession). It was so much fun! It reminded us of the 5 years we had alone together before DooDaw came along. We couldn't seem to remember what we did with our time back then. Some ideas we were able to come up with were: going to the gym every day for as long as we wanted... going to movies that didn't have cartoon characters in them... eating a meal at a restaurant without someone crying, screaming, spilling a drink, going to the bathroom 10 times, or trying to run away...., being able to go out of town or on vacation at the drop of a hat without spending 2 weeks packing and getting ready.... buying clothes and halloween costumes for our dogs....sleeping in on weekends....

Of course, all of those things do not even come close to the pure joy and happiness we get from these things: snuggling a sleepy Linc when he is ready for Night Night.... listening to Dawson read US a bedtime story... Lincoln's "spongebob" smile... watching Dawson get a great hit in baseball... waking up to Linc's sweet voice saying "ma-ma" or else "Ni-ic" when I don't answer to a few dozen "mamas"... watching Dawson help Linc with something without me asking him to... watching Lincoln watch Dawson do something with a look that says he thinks his big brother is the coolest person on the WHOLE planet- and then trying to copy him.... and most of all, being able to enjoy all of these things with our best friend as a partner.

Revenge of the Mac N Cheese!

Ok, so for the second time this week, I have seen what Mac n Cheese looks like after it's been in someone's stomach for a while. When I went in to get Lincoln out of his bed on Wednesday, he and his bedding were covered in throw up! The scary part is that it was dried and basically glued all over in his hair! He has been okay since then and since he has done that a couple of times before, I wasn't too worried. But in the middle of the night last night, Dawson came into our room and said his throat hurt and he was "gonna throw up". So we made it to the bathroom, and what do you know.... there was the mac n cheese staring out of the potty again! Now, someone might assume that it was a bad batch of mac n cheese, but this is a new, different batch, made with different butter and different milk. So, needless to say I think we will be eating a lot of dino nuggets and mini corndogs for the next week or so.

peer pressure!

Ok, so now that everyone I know has told me how lame I am for not having a blog, here it goes! I actually started to set one up the last time someone told me how cool they were, but never finished completely. I really do like the idea of having someone to store all of the funny things that Dawson says or crazy things that Lincoln does. Then everyone else can feel the pain of having a 2 year old with me! :)