About Time For Some Pictures?

The internet (and that means phone, too) are being turned off tomorrow and are not being turned on until Monday so I thought that today I would get caught up on my reader which I have neglected pretty much since we bought the house. I logged on and found 167 items - gasp - among which even Adam had posted three times - double gasp - so I figured that a more achievable goal would be to write a quick update on us and to apologizes for not staying up to date on you. So SORRY, I'll catch up soon.

Our move is still going well I even had a chance to go swimming in our pool yesterday. What was that? You didn't know that we had a pool in our new house? Well, we didn't until yesterday ...and we had to rethink it because as fun as it would have been, the kitchen with a waterfall in to the dinning room just isn't the place for a pool. Suffice it to say that our sink repairing skills are still being perfected! lol. And no pictures of that but we have some:

Chio getting stuck on her yoga ball box.

playing on the computer with mom.

alex sharing his toys.

The kids waking up in the morning.

note: My celebrity sole mate is Brad Pitt.

I'm T...I..Double "er"...D

See? I'm so tired I can't even spell. So, the moving is going well - and by well I mean that we have moved over most of alex's toys and that is pretty much it. The good news is, because of this, alex loves the "new house" and begs to go over there all the time. The bad news is I have no idea how we are going to get this all done. I was hoping I could pack some boxes today and this is how far I got: I leave the kids in the living room while I go in to my bedroom to get the packing tape, alex pushes the baby over so I have to go and put him in timeout (timeout ended up being about 15 minuets because that's how long it took him to sit still for 1 minuet straight), Chio poops in her diaper so I change her, alex needs to go to the bathroom and wants me to sit in there with him so I do, while we were in the bathroom Chio knocked over alexs snack (by tugging on the table cloth) so he has a fit while I get him another one and has to go to timeout again, he sits down to eat his snack while I take Chio in with me to pack a box, I have to go to the bathroom so I set her down on the floor in my room and use my toilet, as I walk out I grab the packing tape and look over to see what alex is doing and this is what I see
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Then I gave up. I decided that I would just clean the apartment which is easier to interrupt with the periodic "hold me" *tear* moments and I can still supervise my house getting trashed so I don't have to worry about the inconvenience of just happening upon it.

The story of the oreos.

When alex is sick I let him pick out one snack at the store that he can have after he takes his medicine if he drinks all the medicine, doesn't complain, doesn't cry, and doesn't spit it out. After taking both sick kids to two different pharmacies and still having no medication (one of the prescriptions we needed was rare) I sent Alex to get the medicine while I stayed at the "new house" with the sleeping kids and cleaned. Alex heard me talking to alex about the snack he was going to pick out and decided that he would get alex the snack for him. Coincidently, Alex picked out Oreos, his favorite (Alex's) and brought home two bags. My son is purely a social Oreo eater; meaning that he will eat them when dad is if there is milk dipping involved (how can you beat being allowed to play with food?) but that is pretty much it. Chio and I can not eat them (even though I want to and would love to and Chio has basically said she would too), we have to refrain. Which leads me to wonder if the kids were even considered in this purchase that was supposedly for them, and if Alex knew what would happen to an unattended bag and that is why he had the foresight to keep one bag safely in his car? .....So alex did end up throughly enjoying his bag to the point of its being empty and because of this I ended up taking one car load of stuff over to the house because I had to get the vacuum after this - I just couldn't stand it - and I didn't want to waste a trip.

Great News.....the kids have now been on antibiotics long enough that they aren't contagious and we're not sick, Yea! AND we can get people to watch our kids without getting their kids sick.

We Closed Today!

I was driving Alex crazy with how stressed out I was so Alex called and asked if we could closed today and they said yes. It's official, we're home owners (well, home loan owners). The really great news is that it turned out to be significantly less than we thought that it was going to be. We actually will end up paying less for our house payment than if we had renewed our lease here - can't beat that. I don't know how much I will be able to post in the next little while but wish us luck with the move!

Rocket Demonstration

If you liked this, you should look at the previous post for instructions.

Soda Bottle Rockets

I've been trying to get this post up since easter and today we finally got around to it. We didn't get a chance to go outside and try it out but I hope that you will because really a two year old in the living room doesn't do it justice - you can get some serious hight with these.

Credit where credit is due. There is a lady in my ward who is amazing. I can't get a hold of her to ask if it will be alright to use her name here so she will have to remain anonymous for the time being. She is what I would imagine Cathy being like in her ward- always a great attitude no matter what is going on, has a "cute" idea for anything and everything and a way to accomplish it, and everything will always be easy - even if it means no sleep the night before the event she's planing. I started thinking they were similar when I saw Cathy's boot camp preparations it looked like something similar to what this sister would do. She is the one with the knowhow for these and gives the helpful tip that bike shops have a lot of old tires that they are usually happy to part with. She asked a shop where she used to live if there were any that she could get from them for cheap and they complied by giving her around 300 for free - just make sure that there aren't any with big holes you can't plug up with duct tape effectively or any with that hole filler goo inside (not fun to have around your face).

Materials:

1. 8x11 piece of paper
2. 3 3x5 index cards or card stock cut to a similar size
3. masking tape
4. duct tape
5. scissors
   
6. bicycle tire
7. empty 2 liter bottle
8. 10'' pvc pipe

This is now my third attempt at writing this (both of the previous times I went to post and it erased everything) so it's not as detailed as you want-sorry. The pictures should help but if any thing isn't making since just call or email me so you don't give yourself a headache - my instructions are lacking - sorry I don't have more time.

I like to make the rocket before the launching device because it's easier to do when the bottle is not attached to the pipe.

To make the rocket:

1. Loosely roll the 8.5x11 paper around the PVC pipe and tape along the seam for the entire length of the paper with masking tape. You want it loose enough that you can get the rocket on and off the pipe easily but not so loose that the air will escape when you shoot it off.
2. Remove the paper from the pipe and pinch one end of the newly formed paper cylinder so it resembles the tip of a rocket. The first piece of tape should go right over the top so no air escapes and then tape all around the sides to get a good seal.
3. Hold the 3x5 cards together and cut fins. They can be any shape you want the important part is to have them all the same. Leave a .5'' seam to cut so you can attach them more easily. See picture to for how to cut.
4. Fold each flap a different direction and attach to the paper cylinder using tape.

For the launching device:

1. If the bicycle tire isn't already cut, cut it once all the way through.
   
2. Put one end of the tire over the bottle and secure with duct tape. Make sure you have a good seal and no air is escaping.(this is before the tape)
   
3. Connect the other end of the tire to the PVC pipe with duct tape and again make sure you have a good seal.(the end result...alex doesn't want to take the picture he wants to shoot it off)

To Launch:

1. Slide your rocket onto the PVC pipe.
2. Without holding onto the rocket hold the PVC pipe so it is pointing where you want to shoot it.
3. Stomp on the 2 litter bottle to launch. You have to make sure that you are stepping on the middle of the bottle. We left the wrappers on and told them to make sure they stepped on the wrappers other wise the bottles will crack and break.
   
4. Blow into the PVC pipe to get it ready to launch again.

Chio Crawling

As most of you know, trying to catch on camera the newest ability in your child's life isn't always a piece of cake. There are about six videos before this of Chio just sitting across the room smiling at me for three minuets without a hint of crawling. This is about her average crawling ability but there are times ( when we have left her alone in the room) where she will take off like a bullet; why this ability is reserved only for abandonment I have no idea- may by it's an off shoot of the fight or flight reflex.

General Conference Pictures

Our desk top is in our bedroom so all of us piled on our bed for General Conference, I can't remember the last time Alex and I were able to listen to Saturday and Sunday together we had so much fun. I thought it was amazing; I had all of the things I was wondering about addressed and I thought it was the best general conference I've ever heard - but then I guess I feel that way after all of them.

Pictures from that day:

alex took this one, it was pretty cold so we all bundled up - you can't see Rocio very well but she is between us.

These are the pictures daddy took of Chio:


there were a zillion more of the trying to eat you ones but I only put up two, I guess she liked conference because she did this for the whole time -like she wanted to say something, too.

..it's Alex what can I say? lol.

Cheerios

I finally remembered to get Cheerios from the store for Chio; she mostly would get a handful and then sit there and lick her hand energetically. We started out on the snack blanket in the living room, but I thought it would be a great opportunity to come and clean my bedroom with just Chio while alex finished his snack. That would just not do- alex brought all the snacks into my bedroom to finish and that is where we get these:

Kisses, Boys and Meltdowns

We're doing good, but lacking in pictures. In preparation for the move I'm currently getting rid of all the stuff we haven't used in the last year - I'm feeling lighter by the day (in a purely possessional sense) -so I haven't got the camera out of it's safe non-packing place (you never know how alex will help). So here's a quick written update of the munchkins instead of photos:

Rocio: Chio loves to give everyone big, long, slobbery kisses. However, up until recently, Alex was excluded from this perquisite. She used to act like she was going to get daddy, with drool hanging out her little mouth, but then as she got close she would look away dejectedly. Recently that all changed; she found an extremely smooth and soft (not bald) spot near the forehead area perfect for her kisses. When she made the discovery she was literally - giddy, I can't think of how else to put it. She starting giggling uncontrollably and her arms and legs were flaring with excitement. When she calmed down enough to keep a good grip on his ears (she holds onto my hair and alex's ears) his head was covered in her kisses and he had baby slobber all over his entire face - but they were both happy she had finally given daddy a kiss. I'm taking this as Chio casting her vote in with mine that daddy should shave more often than right before he leaves us for 24 hours straight, what do you think?

According to alex: alex knows he is a boy (not a baby), daddy is a boy (not a baby), all men and boys are boys (not babies), and there are some babies who are boys. He also knows that Chio is a baby and a mommy, mommy is a mommy and a baby and all other females are mommies and babies interchangeably; none of us girls are girls or boys. Recap: the poor kid already has misconceptions about women and he's only two. Conclusion: I need to be more specific with my explanations.

End of The Day Thoughts: ...I think there may be something wrong with alex because today he had two meltdowns; I really hope it's not a new phase because the only thing I do is ignore him, let him cry it out and then move on. The first time was when I told him to throw Chio's diaper away (an extremely common chore for him) he just threw himself on the floor and cried. Second, when we were playing with dinosaurs I had mine rhyme "snack" with "hat" in the song mine was singing and he threw himself down again screaming "no, back". I'm pretty sure alex can't rhyme but he was defiantly adamant about this and I frequently underestimate him so maybe. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better because I love conference; for some reason it just screams FAMILY at me and what could be better than that?

Inspired

About an hour before bedtime I returned home from the store and alex was not asleep as I had hoped. We went to the store to get salt, cumin, and Q-tips (all of which I did need) but the main purpose was to put my non-nap taking kids to sleep. I thought it was going to work really well too because on the way there I had to talk to alex in an extremely animated manner to keep him from dozing off. On the way home, however, the prospect of a skittle promised while searching for the Q-tips was enough to keep him up (he remembered I didn't give him a skittle after he went to the bathroom before we left).

I had to look at my options. Before we left we had done a pick up of the entire house so I was very anti getting out more toys and having to pick them up by myself (or have him "help" me again) so that was out. I had bathed both kids before we left and two baths in two hours for no reason is also something I frown on, no good either. I had a headache so I didn't really want to read for a full hour but I thought he might want just a few stories so I was settling on that. With the daylight savings light shining brightly through the windows and the neighborhood kids playing loudly outside I asked alex if he wanted to go to bed, "No," he said, "I want to run."

"Great" I said, and then I told him that he could run as much as he wanted from one side of the living room to the other. Being two, he thought this was the best thing ever. Chio, being 6 months, also thought this was the best thing ever and happily watched him do it. An hour later he was done running and I was done making tomorrow's dinner, prepping the dinner after that and cleaning the kitchen. I only had to go in a few times when Chio had moved into his running path, other than that it was just me and the kitchen. After he was in bed he was asleep before I had read two verses. Kids have the best ideas.

I'm now nursing Chio while I'm typing this and debating if I want to go and fold laundry...I wonder if alex has any ideas for that...