What happens when you let a 4 yr old decide?

You stay at home while your husband and one son take off for the weekend to visit grandparents. Why did I stay? Well, I foolishly (apparently) let Kember decide what we did. See, she was invited to a birthday party, and I said, "Do you want to go to grandma and grandpa's? Or do you want to stay for the party?" I thought she would for sure say, "GRANDMA AND GRANDPA'S!" After all, that's what Caden did. Oops. I thought wrong. I even tried (for multiple days) to get her to change her mind. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad she was invited to the party, and at first it wasn't a big deal. It only became a big deal as I was packing for those leaving and I decided that I wanted a weekend away too. Oh well. We did have fun tonight without the big boys :) After I put Cole to bed I let Kember put make-up on me, and i put it on her. She painted my nails, and I did hers while we watched "Jonah and the Whale" Then she cuddled on my lap and we talked about the movie. You know, questions like, "What's he supposed to be?" (a carrot I think) "Why did Jonah do that?" "Why is he sad?" "How come there are so many angels?" "Why are they wearing sunglasses?" And friends, I have no idea. I wonder if she gets tired of hearing that? "I don't know Kember, what do you think?" She normally has a better answer than I would have come up with if I made something up.
After Dan left I took the little ones to the store to finish up my grocery shopping. I had carefully calculated everything so I would know how much I was supposed to be checking out as (except tax...I don't figure that in...I figure if I'm around a couple dollars I'm close enough). Well, when my total rang up at $98.00 I about died. There goes the budget, I thought. What did I buy? Ack! Ooo, the coupons brought it down a bit. Oh, and I forgot to give her my values card (which, by the way, is really stupid, if you are going to give me a sale, give me a sale...you have a card up at the check stand to use for people who don't have a card, forgot it, whatever...why do it in the first place?) That brought it down to $60ish...well, that still wasn't what I had planned and figured. I couldn't be that bad at math could I? (don't answer that). "Did the five dollars for every 10 items come off?" I bravely asked (I say bravely because I hate things like this...I really do). Well, what do you know...right as I said that my total came way down to what it was supposed to be. Whew....life is good, I'm not out a hundred dollars. Nice.

Really?

"If you want to go to North Dakota you have to stay in the car for a really long time."
"What? Hey, Kember, where did you learn about North Dakota?"
"I don't know....it's on my map." (Where did she learn about maps?)
"Oh, okay, have fun in North Dakota."
"You can come if you want. I'm a princess."

Okay then. North Dakota anyone?

A storm is coming!

"Guys, a big storm is coming, we should go home!" "Mom, I think a storm is coming." "A red storm is coming!" This is what Caden was saying after the Dixie basketball game tonight, and it caused us all to laugh. It was really funny because he just didn't understand that the storm wasn't in the sky (and when it was a Red Storm he got even more confused). And to embarrass myself, I thought the college was still the Rebels. Huh, wonder when that changed.
We were invited to a mens basketball game with our friends, and we had an awesome time. I'll admit I was worried about bringing the kids. The game was at 7:30 and that's past bed time so I was expecting crankiness and not being able to stay the whole game (so much for being an optimist, eh?). Well, my kids surprised me. They played with our friends kids the entire game, and HAD A BLAST! You should have seen them dancing to the music. Even Cole was really good (mostly). It was a fun activity for our family to go to, and it was great to go with friends.
After the game Kember told Dan that she wanted to take gymnastics (because of the flips and things the cheerleaders were doing). She told me during the game that she liked the dance team. I told her that if she was going to like someone she needed to like the girls in the blue dance costumes instead of the girls in the red. Now, don't get me wrong here. I have nothing against the drill team or dance team or whatever it is, except their outfits were really really ugly. Not flattering on any shape or size (and they had lots of different shapes and sizes, and no one looked good). I'll never understand fashion. I'll never understand dance uniforms. I just don't get it. If you are going to impress people with your dancing skills, you don't want them making fun of what you are wearing. I know it was bad because even Dan commented on it. Anyway, there wasn't a point to me standing on my soapbox, but there you have it.
On a random note, I posted the (brain stopped working here) yes or no to cutting my hair, and I was getting really excited about it because so (oh, here it is, working again...Poll) many people were voting. I didn't think I knew that many people :) Well, it turns out, I don't. I'm guessing most, if not all, of the No votes are from Dan. He sheepishly admitted that he voted on every computer at work, for multiple days. Silly boy. So, it's skewed, but I'm still going to leave it up because I like checking it and seeing what people (aka. Dan) are voting.

Finally, he's 3!

I say finally because it seems like he has been three forever (maybe that's why I'm so sad he's going to be in Nursery for another year...remind me not to have another kid in January). I have the problem where I round-up numbers and then when times comes to finally get to that number it seems like they should be the next number. I do this with birthdays, anniversaries, things like that. Anyway..Happy Birthday Caden! This poor guy always gets kind of overlooked on his birthday. Remember when I forgot his birthday one year, and only remembered because a neighbor brought a present over for him? Yeah, that was embarrassing. So I tried to make it special this year, but it probably seemed like just another day. He got a cupcake for breakfast (breakfast of champions....wish you could have had one, don't you!) and sugar cereal (because I didn't put the box away from using it for the cupcakes...oops)

So, these are the cupcakes that he got for breakfast. I thought it would be fun to have some kids come over and eat cupcakes with him, so since it was playgroup, I had a few people just head over to my place. Nothing special, but hey, what can you do? Before everyone got there to eat cupcakes we had a picnic.

My kids LOVE, LOVE, LOVE picnics. And so that's what we did that day. Just on our front lawn, and nothing really special for lunch (PB&J...it's what Caden requests every day...and I do mean every) just chocolate milk.

He opened presents, and that was about the extent of his birthday. He was pretty easy to shop for though. All he asked for was a "Thomas the Train", so thank you Ross for having a cheap Thomas. Oh, we got him a soccer ball too because he's really getting into sports.

This picture wasn't taken on his birthday (but his grandparents did get him a football) I just thought it was really cute!

Since there was no school on Monday, Scott and Carol Lee were able to come down and celebrate his birthday. They took us to the Dinosaur Museum and played football with Caden and we had more cake!
Scott, this picture is for you, since you insisted that I take it :)
Happy 3rd Birthday little man! We love you tons, and can't wait to see what the next year will bring for you.

Alone

I had a post all ready and planned for today. It's Caden's 3rd birthday, you know. However, I can't find my camera to show you some of the pictures, and that is a definite picture post. I was going to write about Christmas, oh, and New Year's too. Then I thought, boy, it's late and I was going to go to bed at 8:30 because I was so tired. I decided the laundry needed to be finished first though. And while folding laundry I watched some movies on Hulu. Anyway, because I'm addicted and have a hard time turning off the computer I checked blogs again before I went to bed, and my sister-in-laws blog inspired me. So, you don't get Christmas or New Years, you get instead happy feelings about my husband.
Tonight my dear husband is probably freezing cold and not getting much sleep. Well, I take that back, he can fall asleep so fast and so easy it really is one of my pet peeves (just because I'm jealous, I sure wish that happened to me). He's on a Klondike with the scouts. I'm excited for him because he loves stuff like this. It would probably be better if he wasn't sick, but hey, what can you do.
One of my brothers loves scouts. He lives and breaths it. It probably drives his wife crazy with how much he gets into it. When I lived with them for a summer I remember her saying that he was always buys certain things "in the name of scouts". I can now understand her frustration. Hehehe. And I admit that I've not been the happiest of souls in the last week or so. Not sure why, but I've not been a happy camper (choices, it's all about choices). Anyway, as I sit here alone and I think about Dan I just have to smile. When I was doing the dishes earlier I just had to smile (amazing during dishes, I know) because Dan had brought me home flowers to say sorry (for what, he isn't sure, and neither am I, but like I said, I wasn't happy). I haven't been nice to him, but he's still trying, even with all he has one his plate with work, his calling, family demands, and being sick on top of everything else. He's just a happy guy. And I love him. So here's to hoping that when he gets back I've made better choices to be happier (can I blame it on being a girl?) and that I'll start treating him better. Did I mention he even ran to the store for me last night at ten o'clock so I could make Caden's birthday cake. Eggs...needed 'em, didn't have 'em. He's a good guy. So, even though Elder Bednar has sort of discouraged this kind of stuff (I realize it's not a sacrament meeting, and I do tell Dan I love him, but you really can never hear it enough...even if it is on a public blog), I just wanted every one to know that I love my husband, and that he is a great guy. Thanks Nanc for "shouting it to the world" and inspiring me to do the same.

Finally

This is what I bought today at Kmart. I was really happy with the purchase because I got 8 boxes of cereal and two boxes of Ritz for under $10.00. Actually, the whole thing should have been under $8.00, but I was having issues at the cash register. The cashier was really really nice though (which was good since I'm new to this, bad experiences put me off things very very quickly). So, all but one of the boxes of cereal were .50 cents (or should have been had I checked the receipt). Not bad. I realize there are people out there who can get free cereal, and cheaper Ritz than $1.50, but I was really proud of myself. Especially since this wasn't the first time I tried this today. After spending a couple hours (yes, a couple, I'm not exaggerating) trying to get my coupons in order and everything figured out there, I ran to Kmart to get their 4 for $6 boxes of cereal. I got there and all I could find was 4 for $10. That's not so good...at all. I was so disappointed and rather mad that I had wasted all that time. Well, after I ran to grandma's to get her coupons I was came across the Kmart add. Turns out they really were 4 for $6, you just had to buy them (if you didn't get 4 then it was $10...which is what my receipt says, but I bought four, so I'm really confused....do I take the receipt back in and get it fixed cause there is only 3 boxes on my list, but I brought home four, but I would get money back and the store would lose money...what would you do? What's the honest thing to do? Normally I would say, you were undercharged and I need to go back, but I was over-charged, but will that mess up inventories? Confusion, confusion, confusion...) Anyway, since I had a free red box rental we went to get a movie and went back. I'm so glad the cashier was nice...it really makes all the difference in the world.
Oh, and last week I got four pounds of cheese for two dollars! Score! And yogurt for .18 cents (which I could have got a couple cents cheaper at smiths, but I was already at Albertsons) I shredded the cheese and stuck it in our freezer. A friend of mine once blogged about how getting a great deal using coupons made her feel empowered. I'm definitely not to that stage yet (and seriously doubting I ever will be), but it sure was fun tonight, even with all my confusing "what should I do" questions. Go me!

Monsters!

Hehehe. My kids like to play "Monsters" (or bad guys). This means they like to pretend there are monsters in our house and the kids chase them, put them in jail (we don't kill...although they sometimes forget), ask them to be nice, etc. I'm laughing right now in the difference between Kember and Caden. Caden is wacking the "monster" (doorway) with his foam sword very vigorously. Kember on the other had has a wand and she turned the monster into a lollipop. She waves the wand and says, "Lollipop, lollipoop, LOLLIPOP!" Hehehehe. Boys and girls are soooo different. Cole is also starting to really play/mimic them too. Another favorite of my kids is to play kitty (or doggy, but mostly kitty). They crawl around on the floor and meow. Occasionally licking me (gross!). Okay, Kember is the "master" and Caden is normally her pet kitty, but he learned it from her. Anyway, the other day I noticed Cole crawling around and making funny sounds. This was odd because he hasn't crawled since he learned to walk, and what was with the funny sounds? It took a while to realize to figure out he was playing kitty too! I should get a video, it's hilarious (well, probably not to anyone else, but it sure was to me). Funny kids.

And off we go

Monday night Dan and I sat down together after we put the kids to bed to set some goals for our family (well, since the kids weren't involved I'm not sure I can say family, but for the two of us anyway) I won't bore you with the details, or tell you our goals since they are personal, but I will say some (a good majority) were financial. We worked really hard to change our budget to make it work for us and our situation and spent quite a bit of time on it, only to realize that setting the goal on the 4th of January, we were already over budget for the month. Crazy eh? Now, before you get too judgmental here's the situation. We are trying to pay extra on our student loans to pay them off faster (cause really, let's get rid of those things as quickly as possible). The amount due every month is just taken from our account, but if you pay extra you have to do it manually. Dan accidentally paid it three times....so...that kind of kills the budget, unless he does really well at work this month. But hey, that's why we have savings eh? And I'm sure the three payments will be beneficial in the long run.
It was really neat to sit down together and talk about where we saw things going, and how we wanted to get there. It's neat because we don't agree on everything. Our priorities are vastly different on a multitude of topics, but because we talked about it we understand each other and can make compromises to make it all work out.
I've been thinking about my personal goals ever since I wrote that goal post back in December. I know how beneficial it will be for me, but I just can't make myself sit down and write my goals down. I don't know why. Something needs to act as a catalyst to get me moving on it though. Stagnation in any area of life is just not good. Dan's at a YM's meeting and the kids are in bed. Now would be the perfect time to do it....and here I sit. Is it sad that that's how I function? I think about doing something for a long time (I'm talking months here sometimes) and I give myself guilt trips every time I think about it. I'm good at giving myself the "Why aren't you doing this? It would be beneficial" talks (Okay, I'm really just good at talking to myself). I'm just not good at starting things. Once I start I'm set, but boy...that first step is a doozy. Oh, and just so I can be accountable for the goals I did set in December, I'm not doing so hot on the "going to bed early" bit. But I'm aware of it at least. Does that count for anything?

I love it

As I sit here typing this my kids are taking a bath (aka playing in the water). They are also screaming/singing at the top of their lungs "JOY TO THE WORLD..ALL THE BOYS AND GIRLS...FISHES IN THE DEEP BLUE SEA...JOY TO YOU AND ME...COLEY WOOLEY WAS A BULL FROG....JOY TO YOU AND ME" Which isn't how the song goes exactly, but it sure is cute, and it put a smile on my face.