When your child is quiet....

He is probably up to no good. Just ask Landon. He found and ink pad today. I must say, in his defense, I was pretty engrossed in looking bedding up on ebay, that by the time I realized he was quiet, the damage was done. He got in the desk drawer and found this



This is actually after we washed hands. Even I waited to take a picture until after his hands were washed. I would have been cleaning up much more if I had waited any longer.

Show me your hands, Landon....

playing in the sink

Needless to say, the ink pad is being thrown away, and mommy will do her shopping when Landon is asleep!!

Good driving

I have whined an moaned so much about having to drive and pick Jordan up every day that today I just wanted to report that there can be good days!! I left the house this afternoon to pick Jordan up and actually hit all the lights!! It is so nice when it is smooth sailing all the way:) This morning was actually really nice as well, and there is this one minivan who is arriving at the school the same time as me lots of days, coming from the other direction. They always let me turn in front of them since I have to cross traffic and they don't. Who ever you are, thanks so much for being nice:)

A trip to the doctor: the good, the bad and the ugly.

We had to have Landon's breathing checked today, after a weekend of doing the nebulizer. It was't the greatest experience, here is in a nutshell.


The Waiting:
The good:
Living in a country with great medical care. Having a nice pediatrician only 2 miles from the house. Squeezing in a nice trip to Wal-Mart for much needed supplies ( sad when you run out of applesauce and your 2 year old begs for it for dinner) just before the doctor. Arriving around 10 minute early hoping to get in on time.

The bad:
Two very rambunctious little boys in a small waiting room. Time for the appointment passes, I see 2 nurses go get take out breakfast. Being told by a nurse there isn't a room open. Two busy, energetic little boys. Waiting almost a half and hour to get in a room.

The ugly:
Waiting in the worst room at the office-the one with no decor. At least the decor in the other rooms keeps the boys busy for a while. The door on the room has no latch-very easy for a 2 year old to open and slam. Waiting almost another half and hour for the doctor to come. Landon keeps escaping. Landon wants to sit on the table and rip up the tissue paper. On top of that, the child in the room next to us was screaming bloody murder and I mean screaming!!. Apparently he was vehemently opposed to the impending shots. "I hate shots" is what I heard over and over. Either they finally gave up, or put a muzzle on the kid because it finally became quiet.

The doctor finally arrives:

The good:
The boys finally settle down and Landon sits for the doctor to listen to his chest. The doctor is really nice. Landon sits nice and lets the doctor listen. He has improved, but the dr. is still concerned. Spencer sat really nice while Landon was being examined.

The bad:
Landon's breathing is still course. Needs to do the nebulizer more and now the doctor wants to give him an oral steroid. We recieve a prescription to get our own nebulizer because "you will need it." Have to go back on Friday-at least Spencer will be in school.

The ugly:
Waiting at the triage desk to return old machine and get our own took forever!! Spencer dangerously close to pushing buttons on the copy machine, Landon screaming and wants to get down and run away. Finally get the machine and make a quick get away.

Getting the prescription filled:

The good:
Shoppers Food is in the same strip mall as the Dr.'s office and has a great little pharmacy. The tech is soo nice. Drop off prescription and told 10-15 minutes. Decide to check out "dollar store" next door to find little Elmo favors for Lanny's party. Have Landon strapped in stroller this time!!

The bad:
The dollar store is not a "dollar" store. Horrible selection, everthing is over one dollar-what kind of store claims to be a "dollar store" when everything is over a dollar? Go back to Shoppers. Look at Red Box for a video, machine not working. Go back to pharmacy to get medicine. I was told they do not have the med the doctor wanted, but have anohter one which is essentially the same. The called the doctor, so we now have to wait for them to call back.

The ugly:
I have decided not to wander around the store-might be too tempted to eat junk and get a donut for the boys, so we sit in the tiny waiting area. The boys are starving and the stash of snacks in my bag dwindles as I thought we would have been home by now. Spencer wanders all over, Landon squirms in the stroller. We wait, wait and wait some more. Finally get the medicine and go home.

The best part: Landon fell asleep in the car on the way home and is sleeping soundly in his crib.
Now, to keeping Spencer occupied......

Here we go again!!

We had a rough night last night. Landon woke up a couple time screaming. The first time he fell back to sleep after a few minutes, but the second time, which was somewhere around 2:30 or so he just screamed and screamed, then started calling out for "mommy, mommy." I got him and tried to rock him in Jordan's room. He was really wheezing and was having a really hard time breathing. I was too uncomfortable, so took him to our bed. He just tossed and turned, and sounded really bad so I took him to the recliner in the basement. He would not go to sleep, so after an hour and a half, or so of fighting to try to get him back to sleep, I put him back in his bed and he fussed a few minutes and went back to sleep.

So, he was really bad in the morning, so back to the doctor we went. I was excited because we got our favorite nurse:) Landon weighed in at 29 lbs. She heard his wheezing right away and got the nebulizer set up before the doctor even came in. He sat so nice and still while I did the treatment. The doctor examined him before and after, and it helped, so home came the neb with us again. She thinks it is pneumonia, and sent us for chest x-rays. I was surprised because we didnt' have to do that last October when he had it.

So, I made a call to get Spencer taken care of, (thank you tons Carla) filled Landon's 2 prescriptions since the grocery store is right next to the pediatrician, then we went home for his blankie-his comfort item-and headed out for the Radiology clinic.

This is where I realized that when your child is sick and you are really worried, all common sense leaves your brain. See, we have to go to this Radiology group called Fairfax Radiology, which has multiple offices. I immediately thought, "oh, yeah, the place I get my sonograms when I am pregnant. I gotta drive all the way out there, how annoying. " So I go, and am stuck in horrible traffic. Since the cars were creeping along, I decide to look at the paper to make sure I know exactly where I am going. It then hits me, there is one in Springfield, about 12 minutes from home....duh I go to the other further away place because this one near home doesn't do sonograms....duh....we took Lanny to the Springfield one when he was an infant to check on the tear in his lung....duh...why don't you look at the paper before you leave the doctor's office.....where is your brain?

Luckily I was right near an exit and made a quick turn around. So I wasted about 35 minutes, things could be worse. It was awesome because they got us in and out really quick. Landon was PERFECT!!! He was so good. He sat still, only needing help to tip his head up. He was soo good, and event he tech commented on how well he did!! There was a lady in the waiting room who told me her son has asthma and had pneumonia a lot. That wasn't really fun to hear, although I had my suspicions last time. I think a couple people in my family have it, so I wouldn't be surprised.

Here is the little trooper. Poor thing had to be woken up to ge the xrays.

Landon has been so good with the treatments. He sits still and lets us do it. It really helps that he gets to watch some Elmo while we do it!!

On a more positive note, I picked up Jordan's bed tonight!! I am so excited because the guy left it all together and it fit right in the pickup I borrowed-thanks Sherri-so now there isn't too much for me to do!! The guy was super, super nice. He went and bought rope and it down for me. HE kept saying he would feel so bad if it fell out. I just have to say Yeah!!

Paint and Peanut Butter!

I just thought that if I do another post like this one, people will probably wonder about my skills as a mother. I really do not leave my children unattended-they are just really fast!! I sometimes can't even go to the bathroom without them figuring something out. Makes me happy their little brains work-I just have to channel that into something more constructive:)

So Jordan had been begging to paint for a few days-and I mean really paint-cover the table get the real stuff out and have fun. So we did. Landon woke up in the middle of it and was quite happy to get right in. I was monitoring Spencer and came back to this. You will notice that there aren't any pictures of Spencer. That is because for some reason that day he felt it was only necessary to wear underwear, socks and flip flops over the socks. I think I can preserve what little dignity the child has and not post them. Oh, yes, I did take pictures, but they won't go public:)

Here is Landon getting into the paint. I was also doing laundry at the time so in my momentary absences, he managed to get paint all over his face. Here he is after, quite proud of himself.

So cute!!

Oh, the glue stick-I can really have fun with this!!!

So, this is what came next. The actual culprit for this one was Spencer, but once again, he was not in the appropriate attire to be in a picture. All three of our kids have taken a real love to peanut butter lately. The love to eat it plain. I give them sandwiches and they take them apart and lick the peanut butter. And it doesn't help that I get the big jars from Costco and they can get their whole little hand it. Spencer decided he was hungry and got the lid off. I heard one of the famous "mooooommmm" yells from Jordan and here we go again!!


Who doesn't love peanut butter covered fingers?

Landon is quite proud. the other two had taken off running by this point. And yes, once again the perfect picture is much more important than a fast clean up:):)

I love this little hand!!

Isn't it sad that I hadn't even got the paint washed off before he was covered in peanut butter. I did clean up the pb mess, but should I risk telling you that I didn't even bother cleaning the paint off his face until his bath that night?

I think I have an idea to make money. I could contract my house out to some local psychologists. They could just give their clients with a phobia of being dirty and making messes the assignment to just spend some time at our house. The could learn that a being a little (well maybe a lot) messy is sooo fun!!

Operation Bedrooom Switch has begun!!

I have been obsessed with finding new beds for the kids so we can switch the bedrooms around-put Jordan in the little one and the boys in the big one. Lanny has shown signs of getting out of the crib soon, and I just wanted a project to work on. Well, tonight we got the first item for the switch-the cutest loft bed for Jordan!! It is one of the kid that has the curtain pieces to make it look like a castle, and it has a slide on one side. Needless to say, she is ecstatic. She made fast friends with the little girl who has apparently only slept in the bed a total of 3 times in the 3 years they have owned it. (found it on craigslist) She played with her while I talked to the parents and on the way home she asked if she could go back for a playdate...too bad she is 40 minutes away:) After going to this house to look at the bed, I don't feel so bad about the toys, etc my kids have-this little girl had everything you could think of...man oh man I was amazed.

So, now we just have to find bunks for the boys, paint the rooms, find decor, bedding, etc......what fun!!!!

Can I have a "do over?"

This is how I have been feeling lately. I was laying in my bed yesterday, trying to escape from Jordan and Spencer-yes I was trying to escape from them. Darin was nice and let me take a nap. When I woke up, I was just laying there thinking and I looked over at a picture of Jordan and I that we had taken for Valentines when she was just 6 months old. I remembered how life was so easy and uncomplicated back then. I was momentarily envious of all the mothers I know who have their first baby. I thought to myself "they don't know how easy they have it." Then I thought about moms I know with teenagers and thought that they may think the same thing about me.

I have struggled lately to keep wearing all my "hats" in life. I feel like they are all falling off and I can't put them back on. (I hope you can understand the metaphor) Most especially being a mother. My patience is all but gone and I am worn out quite frequently. I get overwhelmed easily and feel like I let my family/friends down a lot. So, I thought to myself "what if I can just have a "do over?" I would love to go back to just Jordan with the knowledge I have now. But then I think that isn't what life is all about-we are here to learn and if we have all the answers to begin with, we won't grow.

So I have a wonderfully patient husband who just let me spill my guts to him last night and listened to let me talk (well, it helped more if I was rubbing his head or back at the same time....love you Darin:) Anyhow I wondered if I could have a "do over" and he said I could definitely change some of my mistakes and make life better. I was very energized after our conversation and feel like I can get better and I will be able to improve where I need to. I have been praying for inspiration to help me be a better teacher and example to my children and have some new ideas in my head...I am so excited to start some of them. I'll keep you posted once we get started!!

So, I can't go back, but I can go FORWARD!!! That is a wonderful feeling. I can make things better and can make my home a happy place to be. I also realized that the beauty of the gospel is that we can have a "do over" on a regular basis. That is what the Savior has done for us. Thank goodness because I need one every day!!

As President Hinckley loved to say "Onward, ever onward!!" My "do over" starts today so I will "Press Forward."

Devotional with Elder Russell M. Nelson

On Friday, Darin had the opportunity to attend a military devotional with Elder Russell M. Nelson at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Elder Nelson gave a presentation on his military service in the Korean War and his service at Walter Reed Hospital in the 1950s. He gave a 30-minute talk and did it all without notes. They had a reception afterwards and Darin got this picture. Elder Nelson said that Darin made him feel "like a dwarf."

Afterwards, they had an LDS devotional. He talked about striving to improve and looking forward rather than looking back. He likened us to an airplane with the body being us in the Gospel, one wing being our family duties and the other being our work duties. He said we need to try to keep our wings balanced to have a smooth flight. He also stressed the importance of our work in the home and indicated "The great roles in the Church of God are the Mommies and the Daddies in their homes." It was a wonderful devotional.

Easter Festivities...a whole weekends worth!!

We had a whole weekend of Easter Festivies. Here is what we did:

Egg Hunt at South Run
My friends have been to this egg hunt for the last couple years, so we decided to try it. It was ok in the end, but very unorganized. The children had lots of fun running around the fieldhouse before they started, doing crafts and picking up eggs. It wasn't really a "hunt," but more like an egg "free for all."

Here are the kids after they were all finished.

Before each age group, the would get everyone off the grass, then dump bags of eggs all over the place. The chilren would rush in. Here is Jordan filling her bucket.

The 1 and 2 year old group wasfirst and they were so funny. The didn't know what to do...finally Landon caught on.

Spencer knew what to do, but there was one really annoying boy that would follow Spencer and each time I would point eggs out, the kid would grab them from Spence. He didn't seem to mind and seemed happy with his haul.

We had lots of fun running around before. I think it was the biggest space Lanny had ever run in and he absolutely loved it.

Coloring Easter Eggs at home.

Saturday night we did our eggs at home. I saw a cool looking kit on a friend's blog and picked it up for the kiddos. The loved it and were excited to see the colors. Jordan of course favored the purple and pink ones and Spencer loved the blue and greens. The had a lot of fun putting the sticker faces on.

OH bummer, I just realized I didn't put the cuttest picture up of all them sitting with the eggs in a row. Oh well, not going back now. The next pics are of Easter Morning the kids had to get the eggs out of the fridge and see how they were.

Easter Morning!

Wow, the Easter Bunny came! I had just came out of the shower and 3 little faces came to find me. Apparently they wanted to see if the Easter Bunny came. I think Spencer had been down to peek because he told Jordan about one of the things in her basket. They got a DVD and abook each as well as candy. Spencer would have eaten his whole basket before church if we would have let him:)

Easter Dinner at the Lines home.

We were invited to our good friends Lea and Brent's for Easter Dinner, along with the Nielsons. We were excited to go to a fun house for dinner. Before dinner we had an egg hunt outside and the kids loved it.

Jordan and Lizzie running for some egs.

After the hunt we wanted to get a group pic, but the sun was in the kids eyes...gee, can you tell?

We had such a yummy dinner, then the children decorated sugar cookies, which seems to be a holiday tradition for may of our holidays together.

We took a few picures after. Usually I take pics of my kids on my neighbors little bench on holidays, but we hadn't done that. The following are my photo attempts .

Spencer and Landon happy with their buckts.

Jordan joins in.

Two beauties: Jordan and Lizzie

Alison joins Jordan and Lizzie-the girls have to stick together!!

I do have to also say that I really enjoyed teaching the Easter story to my little primary class. The were very cute and really seemed to understand it-on their little 4 and 5 year old level. They listened, (with the incentive of an egg with a treat in it) and were pretty good. It is amazing to me that at such a young age, they have such a love of Jesus. I learn so much from them and hope I can have more of their faith! I am grateful for Christ and his love for me.

Weekend Trip Part 2: Virginia Safari Park

For the second part of our little trip we went to a really awesome place called Virginia Safari Park. It was so awesome!! Check it out at http://virginiasafaripark.com/. We absolutely loved it and were thoroughly entertained.

There are 2 parts to the park. One is the drive through part which is 3 miles of forest that you can drive through and see lots of animals. You can buy feed bucket and feed animals out of the windows of your car-or the sliding door of your van if you like-only no feeding the Zebras, Bison (bummer,) or watusi cattle-the ones with the big horns. It is funny that they have to warn you about these animals...common sense would tell you not to feed Bison!!!

Anyhow the animals were so funny-they were ruthless at times-especially the Llamas. They would stand right in front of the car and wait to be fed. It was funny until you couldn't pull away to continue on...then when you were feeding an animal they would push down do hard on the bucket it was hard to get it away from them.

Give me the feed and now one will get hurt!!
In the collage below Darin is feeding an Emu. Makes me think of the wiggles son "Walk like and Emu" or something like that.

Can you imagine a Zebra walking toward your car? They are so cool up close.

This is "one horned Henry" as we so affectionately named him:) The kids were so funny when I started to call him his because we saw him on our second ride through and they were yelling "there's one horned Henry!"

The second part of the park is the petting zoo part. There are lots of smaller animals in cages and then you can go on the Kangaroo walk about and get up closer to a kangaroo. We saw a baby in the mommy's pouch, which was cool. You can also walk up on a platform to feed Giraffes, but we couldn't get any to come over to us. Oh, I realized I didn't put the giraffe's pics in....

Some more of the "horned" variety. I just love all the animals God created-pretty amazing!!

Baby Kangaroo is hungry!!

I fed these huge Bactraine camels from Mongolia. They were pretty cool. Jordan was a little nervous when I had the sliding door open, especially when the bison was getting closer. They were thrilled when a Zebra walked up to the car.

Our own Safari Guide....well, hmm, this is someone who likes to camp at Marriot. Darin did a Safari in Africa just a couple months before we met-would have loved to see him in a tent!!

"Bucky the bucktooth Llama. " We laughed so hard when we saw this llama. Do they have dentists for wild animals?

A zebra up close and personal. Pretty cool!!

Darin's had his window down and was looking away when a llama snuck up behind him and stuck his head in and then he yelled. Jordan got scarred and stayed in the back the rest of the ride. I did the same thing a few minutes later. If you leave your window down and look away, just be prepared for a friend to stick his head in the window!! This place was soo cool, I would highly recommend it.

A Nightmare

I had a nightmare this morning...don't worry, nothing really "scarry" just scarry for me. See,I am registered to do a 5K race in a few weeks at Jordan's school. It is for the Autism program in the preschool. I say "do" because I am not so sure I will be actually ready to "run" it, maybe jogging, probably walking.

So on to the nightmare. I woke up early this morning, well, I guess I can say Darin woke me up when he was getting ready. I told him I needed to get up and exercise. He tried his best to help me get up, but I fell back asleep. In this time I had a really freaky dream. I showed up the morning of the race, and there were tons of people and I couldn't find Jill and Lea, who I doing the race with. (I have already been worried that I will slow them down tons-Lea runs every morning and Jill is surely in better shape than me) Anyhow, I found them after getting my shirt, then I couldn't figure out my number and the rain poncho they said I needed to wear. And the tshirt they gave me was too tight. The race began and I was confused about the route, then I lost Jill and Lea. I was screaming for them,but never found them. I was among the last runners to go, and kept getting lost. In my dream I had to go over some really rocky terrain, then under some branches and around rocks and I couldn't fit through. I remember thinking "this is crazy for a little elementary school 5K." There was a lady with her daughter and I passed them, then somehow got into a building and it was like doing a maze. There was a point where a guy wouldn't let me go on until I went to the bathroom-wierd I know. Then I had to continue running around shoes, and through a room with suitcases and shoes all over. I remember being the last one to get to the school and felt horrible, then I woke up.

Crazy....what the heck does it mean? Too much Easter Candy, or a nice wake up call that if I don't get exercising I will look pretty silly at the race. So I got up and just finished a 1/2 hour walking video. At least I know I can walk 2 miles in half and hour, so even if I can't manage to jog the whole time, I can walk the rest and still finish reasonably well.

Weekend Trip Part 1-Luray Caverns

We went on a really fun little trip over this past weekend. We usually go the weekend of Easter to Lancaster, PA, but I had planned to camp out for Egg Roll tickets, so we moved up our Spring Break trip. We also decided to go to somewhere new. We decided on the Shenendoah area. We started in Luray and worked our way down south. This post is just about Luray Caverns. We absolutely loved it and Jordan kept asking all weekend "when can we go back to the caves?"



It was simply a wonder to look at. It was so amazing to see all the rock sculptures-stalagmites and stalactites to be exact. It is a little pricey, but well worth it. The only problem was the 70 steps down and up, with the double stroller!! But once you got down, it was flat, well by flat I mean paved. There are some really "hilly" areas, but it was easy to push the stroller, which despite the fiasco getting back up the steps, we were glad we had it.



We got these headphones to listen to, and Jordan loved that part. The only problem was that only Darin and I had them, but Jordan insisted on having one. The had a narration for children to listen to and she loved it.

This is called "mirror lake." It was so cool to see the reflection, but if you didn't look close enough, you wouldn't have know it was a lake. Very cool.
Spencer by a huge stalagmite. Well, I don't know what they are called when they touch the floor and ceiling of the cave...like I said, Jordan had my headphones most of the time!

Landon really excited to be out of the stroller.

Here she is thrilled to have possession of the headphones. She was really cute and would listen and tell is what the narrator told her.

Some of the fabulous views.

Spencer gets a kiss.....

Landon got a kiss just after this shot. Jordan loves her brothers!!

Some more views of our fun visit to the caverns. I really loved it and would recommend it 100%! Just take a really light stroller if you need one!!