2011 "Rain" Break

We all got the opportunity to go down to my parents house in La Quinta, CA for Spring Break this year. La Quinta is about thirty minutes east of Palm Springs and the weather there this time of year is fantastic, 70's and sunny the whole time. On the news one day it said that it was unusually cool for this time of year, but we were not complaining one bit considering the amount of rain we have had to deal with here in Portland. It is about this time of year every year that I start to feel claustrophobic from all the crummy weather, so a week in the sun was just what the doctor ordered! We did some fun things as well as just kicked back and enjoyed my parents pool. The only thing that was not so fun was that we all had our little bouts of being sick. Jaxson and Grant both threw up a couple times, while I seemed to catch a cold that involved the worst sore throat ever. In fact I am still recovering from it, and sadly Jaxson now has it :-( Anyway I hope we all feel better soon!! Here are a few pictures from our little rain break...

Playing in the hot tub, one of their fav activities of the week!

The boys playing Wii...surprisingly enough there was very little video game playing, which made me very happy!

Jaxson and Nick playing catch at the park down the street!

We went to Soak City a water park in Palm Springs....really a fun day!!

I think he is happy, not sure though?

The water was ice cold, but the boys did not seem to mind one bit.

Nick and Jaxson

We went to the Living Desert Zoo on Friday....what a great Zoo, and I highly recommend it. This was the point where the boys were boycotting showers and clean clothes, as you can see! Oh and Jaxson LOVES snakes!

Doing their best snake impression.

Wild beast meets my wild beasts!

Ouch!!

Tried to get a picture of all three of us...this was the best one. Either Jaxson looked like he was being tortured and Grant was trying to be spider man. Oh well whatcha gonna do!!

The most neglected room in the house....

Ahhhh....I can't believe I am going to actually show these pictures on my blog! Okay first a preface, I am admittedly a pretty clean person, probably to a fault sometimes! I do recognize that there is a difference between clean and cluttered though, and a little clutter happens...it's just the dirt I can't stand!!

Well here goes...we have a tiny room on our main floor that doubles as an office/play room. When I was not working I would straighten this room up on a daily basis. Now that I am back to work, not so much! This is the culmination of about 2 weeks of playing, but also includes two visits by my nephew who we have nick named "the one man wrecking crew"!! It has gone past the point of ridiculous, and every time I look in here I cringe. So drum roll please and without further ado, the most neglected room in my house...

 

Rocks....huh?

Do not fear, all is not lost...I am sending the boys with Nick to the gym tonight so that I can tackle this room with no interruptions!! The moral of this story is: tonight when you are laying on the couch feeling guilty about that last load of laundry that did not get folded, or the dishes in the sink that have not been washed take a look at this again and feel better. We can't do everything!!!

Did that just happen?

So in my quest to the best mom I can be, sometimes there are those moments when you think, WOW I am really doing it, I am making a difference in my child's life, and I am not totally screwing them up. Case in point...Jaxson's report card!! When it came last week we were over joyed to see how well he was doing, and it was so gratifying for him to see that all his hard work had really paid off. Another example is our morning routine....usually I have to be on top of the boys every step of the way or I will find them naked in Jaxson's room playing with Lego's or something. Over the past month there has been quite the transformation in our house though, and both boys have been so great about getting themselves ready without having to be reminded a hundred times. Jaxson is even making his lunch and getting everything ready for school that needs to go that day! Yeah for me and a star on the imaginary parenting board of achievement!!

There are days, however, when you feel like you have totally failed....like yesterday morning! While in the drop-off line for morning drop-off I mentioned to the kiddos (I do carpool) to get their seat belts off and back packs gathered up...when it's your turn you kinda gotta be quick about it, as the line tends to back up rather quickly! So it was our turn and the first two kids got out and then Jaxson climbs over from the back row and sits down. I assumed he was just gathering his stuff up, but he did not move. I said...come on Jaxson you gotta go...so he opens the door hops out and screams, I...AM...GOING....GEEZ!!! Oh did I mention the Principal, other staffers, other moms and kids were standing no less than ten feet away. It really took all my power not to get out of the car, grab him by his ear and drag him back into the car. I was mortified!! I kept my cool and just drove away thinking to myself...did that just really happen?

Needless to say that did not go unpunished...if there is one thing I just can't stand it's blatant disrespect, especially by my eight year old who knows better!! Being the strictest parent ever, ya right, he was grounded from DS and Wii for the rest of the day after school, and no play date (well we never planned one, but he didn't know that.)

Just Grant

The sun actually came out yesterday, and it was above freezing so after school Grant's friend Ava came over to play while Jaxson went over to her house to play with her brother, Nate. Anyway we wanted to take advantage of the rare break in the rain and headed over to the park. This was just a hilarious experience. Ava is six and LOVES her make-up, so while I was changing to go to the park she and Grant "got ready". When I walked into his room to get them, they both had bright pink faces and lip gloss...hysterical. I tried to take a picture, but they ran out the door too quickly!

I know I have talked about how Grant changes his clothes immediately upon arriving home. I am baffled by this, but everyday right on cue he marches upstairs and changes into his jammies. Yesterday was no different even though I tried to explain we were going to the park and needed to keep our regular clothes on. In a compromise he did decide to put swim trunks on over the jammies, and where a coat.

I took these pics with my phone, but you can see the jammies, swim trunks, and shoes on the wrong feet..seriously? They ran hand and hand the entire way to the park...very sweet!

At the park they played and played...and after 20 min or so Grant announced he had to go pee, so he went over to the edge of the park and dropped his pants. We were the only ones there and it is a pretty isolated park, so I did not mind. I tell ya, the ability to pee anywhere is one nice blessing of having boys! Ava and I were pretty much on the ground laughing, and I snapped this picture:

Is there anything cuter than little baby buns?

Another little quirk about Grant is that he has to wear his underwear backwards, as demonstrated in the above picture. He likes to be able to see the picture on it, and it's always on the back...I am not sure how this is comfortable, but he insists every time, so I figure who is it hurting? People tell me all the time, boy you have your hands full with that one, and yes I do, but would I really want to change him, no, because it's just Grant!

3rd Grade CYO Champs

Well they did it!! Jaxson's basketball team won the 3rd Grade CYO Basketball Tournament!! They had to win four games in a row, with two of those games going into overtime including the last one, and one game that went into double overtime....OH MY! To say my nerves were shot is an understatement! It was so exciting and I could have not been more excited if I had won the dang thing myself! I am sure I sound like one of those crazy sports moms, but it's hard to explain all the excitement and anticipation! All I can say is wait til your kiddos get older and you will know exactly what I am talking about.

Here are the boys lining up to receive their medals.

The expression on Jaxson's face is pure happiness!!

YEAH!!!

We all went to Burgerville after the game and Grant was so happy to be sitting with the big boys!!

After the game some of the other moms and I were talking and we decided we all will need to get a prescription for an anti-anxiety medicine if we are going to make it through another basketball season like this one, joking of course, but it's only 3rd grade. It's going to be so fun watching this group play together for the next five or so years. Go Cyclones!!

Quick Catch Up!

I am really behind with my posts so I am going to give you the quick and fast version of the last couple of weeks:

I took the boys and two of Jaxson's friends to the Blazer game two weeks ago...it was really fun!!

They had spirit week at school and one day was "crazy hair day"...blue hair spray was their choice!

Nick and I took the boys to the monster truck show!! I am officially totally outnumbered when it comes to choosing events. Disney on ice is never happening for me!!

Nick received his 40 under 40 award on Feb. 18th at the Hilton Hotel.

The University of Portland had a table and they were very happy to see another alumni win this award!

Well it finally snowed last night, after all the hype,and I must say it was a little disappointing! The kids got to stay home so they were thrilled, and even went outside for awhile to play!

They wanted to ride their bikes....pretty funny!

Grant actually wore "appropriate" clothes for the weather too...YEAH!!

Wish this picture turned out better, I think my camera was focusing on the snow. Still cute though!

So now you are pretty much caught up! Short and sweet!!

Gotta take care of those hooters!!

Alrighty ladies another serious topic about to be discussed. When I started this blog I wanted to share all my adventures with my kiddos and husband, keeping it light and fun. Unfortunately though, life is not always light and fun, and sometimes there are things worth sharing with each other....I truly believe knowledge is power.

A friend of mine, another mom that has a child in Jaxson's class was recently diagnosed with stage 3 Breast Cancer. She keeps us all up to date on her progress through CaringBrige, it's a great site. Anyway, she recently shared this video about breast density, and I definitely think it's worth sharing with all the women I care about. It's a little long, but the two things that you need to take away are 1) Know your breast density rating 2) Insist on further testing based on that rating. If my friend had known even what breast density was and that mammograms cannot detect tumors in dense breasts, she could have possibly caught her cancer at stage 1 or stage 2.

I had never even heard of breast density before this, and believe me it has nothing to do with size, I would know. When I talked to my doctor at my last appointment, he told me not to worry and that all women my age have dense breasts...so what does that mean? I will be sure to push the issue at my next exam. I don't know about you all, but I know more and more women getting breast cancer younger and younger these days, and at this point I don't think family history or age has anything to do with it. Please take some time in the evening and watch this and share it with other women...."it may save their life!"- Denise LeBrun (my friend with Cancer.)

http://www.ted.com/talks/deborah_rhodes.html