Creations

Emma made frozen apples-on-knives-drenched-in-honey. (aka caramel apples). Tyler made apple yogurt slurpees in plastic cups. (That will stay in this freezer drawer uneaten for 2 decades if I don't throw them away secretly in a week.) Tyler also is into masking tape. The red and orange contraptions? Shoes. That Tyler wears. Gah.

Soft

My Emma is a sweet soft girl. Tonight at dinner I asked her to get 6 forks and put them on the table. She could only find 5 clean ones. (Who's behind on their dishes?? ) So I tell her I will use a spoon instead.

We eat the entire dinner. (Chicken, angel hair pasta, and brocolli/cauliflower.)
I don't realize I am eating with a fork and NOT a spoon until Emma says, "Can I use your fork now mom?"

She chose to wait for me to finish. Didn't even point out that she was waiting. Just quietly did a kind thoughtful service.

:)

Mild

Hmmm. School has been in session for 2 weeks now I thought I would have SO many interesting things to write about. Not so. We kind of slithered into the school routine and it was uneventful for the most part.
Tyler: 6th grade is "the bomb".  He has P.E. first period, (a nightmare for girls, but a dream come true for boys) with his best buddy Spencer (who also has a locker right underneath him-because I was a pushy mother and requested it at the open house). His math teacher told him he has fantastic scores in math already and he needs to not be afraid to speak up in class and go to the chalkboard. Lunch requires a lunch card, and his language arts teacher is "the coolest".
Hailey has a repeat teacher she had in 3rd grade, (we liked her, she's crazy and slightly unorganized, like me :) Hailey says, "5th grade is actually pretty hard". Like 1-2 hours of homework a night hard. sigh....
Emma (1st grade) has quiet nice people in her class-like her- and I still don't know to much about the teacher. But I do like her name! Miss Dooley. But Emma DOES still wear carazy clothes. Yesterday? Her black and red silk china clothes and brown knee-high suede boots. Again, sigh.....
Mr Mason Monkey is still at home with me. We are waiting until his preschool starts on Tuesday, but we DID go check out the room today. Two turtles live there! :) And another easy name to remember: Miss Misty. Coolness.
My two college courses this semester are Physical Science and Intermediate Algebra. 2 nights a week-which is a little too much for me, I prefer one. But I plug along. :/

The Night Before School Starts

"To my THREE dear children starting school tomorrow (and one in a week):

We wanted to TAKE 5 minutes and give you some advice.

Your Dad and I CARE about you more than anything else in this world.

You bring such JOY to us both.

So we want to give you some MINI pieces of advice to help you on your way.

Tyler: Get to your different classes quickly. Do not be a TURTLE. Try not to be a BUTTERFINGER when the football is thrown at you, and be MR. GOOD in class.

Hailey: SKOR all 4’s on your assignments. You are so smart and if anyone calls you an AIRHEAD kick them in the shin. No SNICKERING in class with your friends.

Emma: Walk FAST to your class after recess. Listen to your teacher, and if you don’t know the answer, say, “I think it is a WHATCHAMACALLIT”. Do not bring a KAT home.

Mason gets to start preschool in a week. Even though he is a MINI kid, he is going to have lots of fun, too. We will play with trains and other THINAMAJIGS and will have ZERO chance of being bored."

Yep, this was FHE last night. You know where you use candy bars to say stuff. They loved it. Than we did Father's blessings. These kids have a fantastic Dad who wants the best for them. Lots of good promises and blessings.
So I am now back to blogging my life. Aparently summer makes me take a vacation from it, along with the gym and cleaning more than the kitchen. haha
Back to work!

Nunu :(

What a hard day today. After school Emma had a dentist appointment to get another cavity filled so she started bawling and being psycho-child. TERRIFIED. (Which doesn't make sense because there was no pain last time). So now I get to find a Pediatric Dentist and sedate the child in order to get work done.

Great.

 After getting out of the car she then ran smack into the side mirror and while she was crying from THAT her skirt fell down because she's a skinny-winny. Needless to say, we came home and had some quiet playtime and a nap.

Carnival and Easter Spring Break

So the original plans of "zoo" don't mesh well with Vegas family and Utah weather, so we headed to an indoor carnival which worked out even better.

Notice Mason's white sock and sandals. :)

The Ewoks:

Face painting:

Mason actually getting on the bumper cars ALONE. (I totally tried to sneak him in and have him sit on my lap, and he just jumped down and walked over to one by himself.)

Making messes but having fun doing it: (I hope Seve doesn't really have to go clean all the soap off the patio. I'd feel so bad!)

New Easter tradition! Roasting marshmallows. Maybe we can try roasting marshmallow chicks and bunnies.

Wierdo.

Pretty!

I am realizing I never get any decent pictures on Easter. Maybe it's too early in the morning and my brain is still sleeping.

Day 4 and 5 (in Highland)

We made it to Grandpa Tookie's house! (Mason can't say his S's yet. :)

Today we went to the Children's Museum in SLC and the movies:

Mason wanted to play this floor puzzle, and poor Aunt Rachel got suckered into it. haha. (The entire alphabet!)

This horse would be awesome to have in my toy room.

Really this is all we see of the Little Brown Bears. Today they decided to swap clothes and call Maddie Emma and Emma Maddie. We played along like they were so very tricky. Finally Emma came up to me and whispered in my ear:

"Mom, I'm really Emma."

Got it. Thanks. :)

Day 3: Realization that...

...my life is rather boring. At least when I write about it on a daily basis.

 (I personally enjoy it. :)

Today nothing new showed up other than Hailey getting to babysit for 3 hours. She's a fantastic babysitter. She created a scavenger hunt for the kids with Easter eggs. She always makes a list for me to buy things to make up these games. (They are usually more than the pay for the job. haha)

Other project: I prepared for a little trip to be taken tomorrow to Grandpa Dale's house in Highland. One of the tricks up my sleeve is having a "goody bag" for every hour of the trip. In them are small dollar toys for the kids to play with. This is especially good because I am driving Nathan's car and it is SMALL. (Compared to a Suburban of course.) That means the kids and their arguments/teasing/whines/tattletales are at least 5-7 feet closer to my ears and I can't block them out quite as nicely.

My 2 tips for this game are:

 1) Give everyone the same toy each time. (Reduces fights)

2) Give everyone the same color. (Reduces fights)

So that is the picture of the day. :)

Day 2: A test for my 2 most-needed virtues in Motherhood: Patience and Perseverence

First half: 

Kids to school after eggs-on-toast-with-sausage breakfast. Yum! Watch a friend's son who is best buds with Mason. What this means is little boy noises/mess/loudness/energy/stinkiness, which I don't want to frighten anyone away with, (cough cough Rachel), but it creates all sorts of "fun".  And since Mason needs a buddy to play with and his buddy is adorable, I'm all for it. I still am able to do: 2 loads of  laundry, load of dishes, clean out two closets and fill 8 bags of D.I. clothes, take out 4 garbage sacks, pull the big garbage's to the street, semi-pick up girls room, chase down the boys outside, feed chickens and gather eggs, vacuum top floor of home, pack up 4 boxes of toys and go pick up Miss Emma from school where I got yelled at by a crabby janitor because I came in the wrong door. Grump...

Second half:

Drop off Emma at swimming lessons and because I am a "single mom" for two weeks, create a plan where 3 other mothers pick up Emma from swimming, bring Tyler home from a friends house and pick up Hailey for her first softball game. Well, this plan collapses as one mother loses track of the time (it happens) and I am thus allowed only 20 minutes of my much needed math lesson at school. I head home way too early, grab the kids, pick up diapers because somehow we ran out without my knowledge,  and go to the windiest softball game EVER. And I will mention that we did enjoy a "homemade" dinner this evening: oatmeal. (I think it's wonderful, but apparently it's not very fulfilling to Tyler.) Wendy's drive-thru tonight for 2nd dinner.

Gah! Despise....

The picture for today is actually of Mason and his (aforementioned) buddy Porter. It was taken last Friday at a ward party where we watched a short clip of the life of Christ and the Atonement. This is when they were "fighting" each other. (See spiritual movie in the background). I was not able to take a picture of them when they obnoxiously plugged their ears because they did "not want to hear the movie".

One of their more angelic moments. Few and far between, but I will take them when I can. :D

P.S. Nathan ate fried bull frog today in China. I'd rather eat oatmeal.

Day 1 of No Nathan

Nathan left for China with his MBA class today. I am thinking he may be landing as I type this...just in time to finish off his 15 hour flight with breakfast. That's right, he will arrive on a beautiful Chinese morning exhausted  pumped and ready to go! Anyway, I told him I would experiment with blogging every single day while he is gone because of the fact that we are only emailing each other rather than calling. So here is our Monday in the household of Stacey Eaton:

7:30: Wake up a little later than usual and begin a mad rush. : /

8:00: Kids to school

8:15: Mason and I go to Wal-Mart and buy the last of the Easter items. (Mason won't remember the candy by next Sunday will he?!?!)

11:30 Pick up Emma from Kindergarten LATE. Geez, I'm on a roll...

12:30: Emma to dentist. Three cavities. THREE. She got one filled today which means getting her lip/gum all numbed up. (Didn't even feel the shot. Yea!!)

1:15 All done. But now Emma freaks out because she can't feel her lip.Sobbing uncontrollably while I laugh uncontrollably. These are the times when I feel the worst as a mother but it is so dang funny to hear "it feels squishy" over and over while bawling her eyes out...

1:30-3:30 A MUCH needed nap time for Emma, Mason and Momma. Niiiiiiiiiiice....

3:40 Kids home

4:00 Hailey Achievement Days

5:00 McDonald's dinner. Like I said, it's Monday. :/

6:00 Hailey batting practise in the horrid rain and wind. Dang April...

6:45-8:30 Family Home Evening Easter Egg Hunt with my wonderful friend Kristie, her three children and a few nighbor kids. Finish off with a movie on the Atonement with 8 children on sugar highs.

Also, I am going to put up one random picture from the day. This one is Emma and Mason during lunch playing "Bum Bug". All they do is stand like this and laugh til they have tears running down their faces. So "funny".