Update

A few weeks ago I decided to go back and read about when Tanzi was in the NICU. It brought back a LOT of feelings that I thought would last forever, yet many have dwindled since bringing her home. It also made me realize how much I LOVED having a daily record of our lives. I'm not good at keeping a journal...so our blog is it! Then, recently, one of our friends made their blog private so it could be more of a journal of their family's daily happenings. She inspired me to get back to that point with our blog. (Thanks, Jenn!!) So, hopefully I will be MUCH better at updating the blog....as boring as that may be for many of you.

Gary is out of town for work. He's in North Carolina. He left on the 28th and this will be a good way for him to keep up on the craziness around here. Tonight it's going to be a lot of recent pictures, but from here on out it will probably be less pictures and more words (yes, it's possible for me to be even MORE wordy :) ) But before I get into the pictures here's the excitement from our day:

Gray often cries for his daddy when he gets sad, but today it was especially sad. When he cried for his daddy I told him daddy was in North Carolina. I asked him if we should try to call daddy. Gray said, "No!! Me want my daddy!! Me want my daddy to come home now!" Oh...it broke my heart...it's gonna be a long week.

For Family Home Evening I decided to talk to the kids about a slight change in how we discipline. I recently read "1-2-3 Magic" by Thomas W Phelan and felt like we could definitely try his technique to help have a happier home. Gary took the book to read on his trip, so I decided I would get going on this before he got home so he could just jump in when he gets home. We already use some of these strategies, but there are some changes. So, I was talking to Kyri and Gray about what would change and how I would actually set a timer for their time outs (then I won't accidentally leave them in there for far too long) and we even bought some timers at the store today. They both seemed excited about it, but let's hope it doesn't cause them to TRY to be naughty so they can have a timed time out ;)

Graysen found the exhaust pipe.

I didn't have the heart to clean it off....it stayed on from about 10 am til he took a bath that night.

I'm such a good mom!

Drawing a picture for daddy...and drawing on themselves

A mess

Chalky hands? Check. Pink bike? Check. Exhaust pipe mouth? Double Check.

Okay, you're ready, dude!!

Peek?

Tanzi loves sleeping with her blanket over her face....just like her big sister!!

Sitting with Grampy on a visit to see Great Grandma Dora

On the 28th I had a FUN dinner with some of the best of friends!! These are my fabulous girlfriends from my "college" days. We used to get together quite often for dinners, but it had been over a year and half, so I set one up. Even though Gary later found out he would be out off town I decided to go ahead with the dinner. It was much needed time with my girls. I feel like I ran around a lot with my kids, but I'm used to that, since that's what I'm always doing with 3 kids. But we had a great time!!

Kyri, Gray, and Logan eating the fabulous cupcakes with neon frosting Denet brought.

And, not to be gross, but changing Gray's bum the next couple days sure was....interesting....to say the least. He had bright blue poop which actually stained his bum blue!!

Hahaha!!!

Ann Marie, Joe, Amber, and Johnny

Ann Marie and Joe are getting married next Saturday (Congrats!!) What a cute couple!

And Amber is dating Johnny, who just so happens to be the lead bass guitar player for the band Air Supply.

Yes, he was in my home.

And he is very nice and down to earth.

He is welcome to come back any time :)

Craig and Denet

Also engaged...and perfect for each other!

I LOVE seeing my friends so happy!

Jenn, drawing for my kids, who will probably now ask me to draw them elephants and snakes with chalk.

We really did have a great time!!

I love the look on Amber and Ann Marie's faces in this picture :)

Always entertained

Last week I took the kids to the pool in Pocatello, while visiting Grammy and Grampy.

We had fun with Tawn and Alyssa. The kids could have spent all day in the lazy river....maybe next summer!

Sleeping beauties!

They spent 5 nights in this big bed and the first night home Graysen fell out of his small toddler bed with rails on the side....go figure.

Tanzi wakes up SO happy in the morning.

And it's a good thing because she has not been sleeping well at night. Last night she woke up every 1 1/2 - 2 hours!! She kept acting like her tummy was hurting and just wanted to eat...all night long....but today she had 3 stinky diapers....let's hope she got enough out to sleep well tonight!

Hahahaha!!

Gray came to me today and this is what I saw (well, I saw the front side and even took a picture of the front side, but thought this was more appropriate for posting)

Oh I LOVE these kids!!

They are both wearing their "running shoes" and were running as fast as they could around the house. Then Graysen told me he was wet (I think he merely trickled in his diaper...what a waste...doesn't he know how expensive diapers are?!) Maybe it's time to start potty training!

I couldn't help myself. I had to post this. Please click to enlarge.

Hahahaha!!

Here's a really funny story:

So, my kids like to pretend to drink Coke. I'm not sure where they got it from because Gary and I don't drink Coke. Ever. In fact we rarely drink any soda at all. So, they must have heard it from someone else. And I'm sure they don't even know what Coke is. Sometimes they even pretend to drink "Spicy Coke" Well, on the way to Idaho last week Kyri and Gray were both pretending to drink Coke. They were playing together so well. Then, suddenly, Graysen started crying with real tears. When I asked him why he was crying he said, "Sister take my Coke!!" So, Kyri "pretended" to take his "pretend" Coke, yet he had very real tears. I just laughed and told him to take it back. He did. And then he was happy!

The End

Sure LOVE this family!!

This picture was taken less than a week after our other family pictures. Yes, I cut my hair. Why didn't any of you tell me my hair looked so bad long? And, yes, Kyri's hair has been cut since this picture. I also LOVE her haircut. What can I say? Short hair is totally my thing!!