Brooklyn's little metamorphisis.

Well, even in the midst of kids being quite sick with croup (especially poor Athen), things have been exciting here.

1. Last week, Brooklyn lost her first tooth and was VERY excited for a visit from the tooth fairy. It's a little early because her front teeth got knocked loose by Diego's cranium about 9 months ago, and the bottom two never tightened back up. But finally, one gave out, to Brooklyn's delight! They've been talking about it in preschool, and she was so happy to be the first, although, she'll most likely be the only one for a WHILE.

2. Today the kids happened on little keepsake boxes for a baby's first curl, and first tooth. They have been so excited about the baby, so I knew they would remember and be anxious to get lock of his hair in there. They had other idas, and wanted their own hair in it, which I figured out when I saw Brooklyn on a kitchen chair taking the scissors to one of her braids, I stopped her double quick and sent her to her room... about 4 minutes too late. It would appear the kitchen chair was the second scene of the crime. Time to blog. Well, first, time for naps, then to the blog.

No no, 1- Take a picture

2-NAP TIME!

3- Email my hairdresser friend for advice.

4. Inform the blog world.

Yes, she cut almost half of her braids, luckily none too short. Rather than leave her with this braid mullet, we will even off the rest and attempt for the Shirley Temple short ringlets.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ UPDATE * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Is that all? NO, because while I was posting this, I heard a cry from the bedroom. Can you even guess? Another run in with Diego, and the other loose tooth GONE. So, here's the latest picture of Brooklyn in all her hairless, toothless glory.

* sigh* Aye caramba.

Thanksgiving in Florida!

This Thanksgiving, we went on our long awaited trip to Florida with Jason's mom, grandma, uncle, brother and sister, and it was a blast! There are plenty of stories and pictures, but I am just posting some pictures here. Sorry they are not in order, and as far as the details on everything, well, they are either relaxing at the resort, or playing at one of the theme parks.

Look how cute our little green neighbors were!

Waking up!

So, it's no coincidence that I've had 4 months of morning sickness/extreme fatigue and 4 months of blog neglect. The past couple weeks, I've begun to wake up from survival mode and remember that it wasn't always like that, and I would eventually feel like myself again. That's common sense right? No. With each pregnancy, even common sense is lost for a while. But the dawn is breaking! Hooray!

Saturday was: A major freak out realizing what exactly happens to a house where only the RAW essentials of housekeeping are done so my limited energy can go to the peoples inside the messy house.

Sundaywas spent: Resting. Enjoying tender mercies from heaven. Hope, even opptimism!

Monday was spent: Gathering organizing supplies, and a day out at the movies with the kids. Taking 3 little kids to the movies during nap time by myself is further proof that I have regained my ambition! And it was even fun! Finally, getting a bed off my porch and delivering it to a friend- without even Jason around to help!

Today I: Went to town with just 3 of my 10 new storage buckets and put away halloween costumes, christmas decor, outgrown baby clothes, too big summer clothes, and random stacks of bedding. I also washed the dried mustard painting off my favorite bed spread from a praticularly artsy 3 year-old about 3 1/2 weeks ago. Yee-haw!

Welcome back world, I'm glad to see you. (But please don't drop in until further notice, as 4 months of housework neglect is one thing, but an audience is mortifying! Seriously, it's too grevious even for a nasty before picture, because I want you all to still be my friends.)

Meanwhile, you can look forward to posts about our Thangsgiving in Orlando, my sister's wedding, Christmas and New Years in Idaho, and in about a week you'll get to hear the OFFICIAL gender of baby #4, the adorable little culprit of all this fatigue, since apparently the last ultrasound was too soon, even though it looked obvious to Jason and I.

Love ya all!

PS: I saw a tutorial for THIS luciously beautiful do-it-yourself headboard, and I would SO be making it if the wall behind my bed wasn't plaster over brick. But what do you think Sochi, wouln't this look lovely behind your bed? Maybe we should tackle it next time I'm in Idaho!

A much needed recap...

Wow, has it really been a month since I posted? Luckily, my last post mentioned morning sickness, so i'm sure you understand where I have been all month! Well, here's the run down of what I remember of what you missed:

Last weekend some gals and I all went to Time Out for Women in Salt Lake, and it was a BLAST!

We had so much fun at the conference, and just as much fun hanging out all the time to, from, and in between!

The weekend before that, we were in charge of a Luau at church, which turned out great and from which I still have decorations stacked 2' high on my kitchen table, and a bunch of tablecloths to iron.

This next picture is from the day brooklyn INSISTED on having her hair straightened, though it a little hard to see, it was cute, and she was excited about having "long hair"

And before that, Halloween! Jason needed a wizard hat and beard for work, and we could NOT find one anywhere, so we made one. Although, on my dad, it looks more like the Travelocity gnome! As you can see, my parents came for halloween, which was such a nice treat! It gave me time to whip up a peter pan costume for Diego, since Brooklyn was Tinkerbell. Athen was the little brother that's always in PJs and carrying a bear, but it was not quite enough of a costume so we opted for an adorable borrowed pumpkin suit instead.

(this was the best picutre I could get out of them, funny huh? Pretend Brooklyn's hands are not across her face, and imagine Diego's peter pan hat on his head instead of behind his back. Oh, and you can't even see the awesome little green boot covers on diegos little feet!)

I still haven't put away costumes yet either, but hopefully it will all get done soon because we go on vacation next week, then it's the christmas RUSH! Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Oh yeah, and we have an ultrasound on Thursday to figure out an exact due date, and by the guesses, we might even get a peek at the gender! Cross your fingers for the latter!

"Time marches on...

... and at some point you realize it's marching across your face" (hey, name that quote)

Well, actually my face feels fine, it seems to be marching across my gag reflex. But still, life continues and here's our top 5 of what we've been up to:

5. Babysitting the preschool tarantuala, Webby. Brooklyn REALLY wanted me to take it out so she could pet him... no thanks, not even with the protective oven mits they sent home for that purpose. I'll gladly let the preschool teachers trump me in bravery.

4. Brooklyn and Diego telling EVERYONE that there's a baby in my tummy.

3. Babysitting Snowy, the class rabbit. So cute. I think I enjoyed him almost as much as the kids.

2. Brooklyn's BIRTHDAY! A new bike and gum ball machine at the crack of dawn. Gusher fruit snacks for her preschool friends. A tinker bell costume with her birthday money. Pizza, wings, root beer floats for dinner. Chuck e Cheese to play, and a tradgic heartbreak averted when chucky made an announcement over the loudspeaker that he would be out to celebrate the "Birthday stars" but bypassed her for someone elses very expensive and official birthday celebration, even though he "knows it's my birthday, he sent me a birhtday email for free tokens" The heartbreak pouring from her eyes nearly brought me to tears, not Jason though. $20 from daddy's wallet later, bingo, out comes Chucky with a birthday star crown, medal, and some TLC.

1. Athen started nursery, and loved being able to follow Diego around and charm a whole new audience. Although, now that we don't have a toddler to distract us, Jason and I need to re-learn how to pay attention in Sunday School.

You know what this means, don't you?

My camera needs to be charged, so this will have to do, but it's exactly what it looks like!

You know what that means right?

Yep.

JACKPOT!

I know, it's ridiculously exciting!

When I look at the stars...

At the end of a lazy day, I was feeling physically and mentally exhausted looking on the mess that had only become worse than earlier that morning when I initially decided I didn't want to clean it, after what seemed like only a few short hours since the last time it was clean.

Sleepy @ 9:30 pm: Not a good time to evaluate my self worth, and muse on the idea of possible failure in the grand scheme of things. "By their fruits ye shall know them" and yesterdays fruit was rotten. I was rotten at this life of mine.

Out of sheer frustration and desperation to escape from this YUCKY train of thought, and REALLY not wanting to wake up to it in the morning, I began picking up the floor.

Toys to the toy room.

Clothes to the laundry mountain.

"What's wrong, Lucia?" Jason asks. "Nothing, I just... nothing."

Trash to the bin- nope, too full, that would have to wait.

Books to the buckets.

A refreshing encouragment from a prophet in my memory: "Don't dwell on negative thoughts"

Camping chairs to the closet.

About a dozen mismatched shoes to another closet

Dishes to the overflowing sink.

More stray toys, books and laundry.

A whiny prayer in my heart:"I'm failing, I know I shouldn't dwell on negative thoughts about myself. I don't want to be cleaning this house. I don't want to feel this way. Please help. I just..." trilailing off into nothing because my whining just feels like an excuse. "Will You help me please, I need to get this done, and I need to feel better. Okay, i'll just take this trash out first"

Apple Jacks swept into a pile next to the the trash can.

Lift the trash bag out of the bin and shake it down to make room for the new additions.

Tie up the bag and take it outside.

Wow, those stars are beautiful. The sky is so peaceful- and always so fresh and clean. Maybe Jason and I should just go lay out on the grass under these pretty stars for a minute. No, that's not really his way. "Ask him." Maybe i'll just ask him, maybe something inside him will tell him I could use a break from my thoughts.

"Let's go out on the grass and watch the stars, just for 10 minutes?"

"Sure, you get the blanket, i'll get dressed" -yup, he IS amazing, how did I not know that?

As we lounged on a cotton sheet, in breeze of fresh cool air, making pictures in the stars, and creatures in the clouds, I felt the burden lifted, my thoughts refreshed. Reminded of the love of my sweetheart, and the Love of God that sheddeth itself abroad unto the hearts of the children of men... and a silly, self-concious, tired woman. And I savored the peace that flavored this fruit, growing in abundance from the Tree of Life, this love of God. Peace in your body and your spirit at the same time, enough to wash through and remove anything else. Yes, Nephi was right. Most desirable.

Preschool has finally arrived!

Brooklyn LOVES her new Preschool! Her world revolves around what happens during those 2.5 hours and it is so fun to hear her talk about it!

Diego is enjoying the one on one mommy time, but is always ready to wake Athen up from his nap so we can go pick up "Brookly"

I do NOT love walmart.

So, over the past few years we have tried to trim Walmart off our list of necessary errands, and just get stuff elsewhere. It's the same old anti-Walmart stuff: destroying small town business, the cheap overseas workforce and the faces of those young adult workers basicaly slaving away their lives so I can buy socks for $1.50 less, or their irresponisible employment practices, you know, same old complaints. Don't get me wrong, I'm no expert, but I just can't get over the feeling that I'm hand-feeding a blood-thirsty beast when I shop there. Okay, that's overly dramatic, it's not that graphic, but I simply do prefer to shop elsewhere, especially considering how mind numbing walking into that gigantic place is, and the high likleyhood that I will spend a portion of the trip wandering aimlessly, having forgotten what I was supposed to be looking for, and too distracted by clearance tags to notice!

So anyways, today I found myself there again, after a few months absence, and what's even more torturous than the fact that I was there, was that the stuff I bought was SO much cheaper. ARG!

The $37 protien shake powder was out, and I couldn't stomach getting it again (especially since you pay all that money and when you open it, it is only about 40% full! What is that about?).

But at Wallyworld, the stuff is $11- ish, and you get MORE. Are you kidding me?

And then there was the wickless candle wax, just like my EXPENSIVE scentsy stuff, for $2.88

agony.

We don't even need to go into my personal favorite, Vlasic Kosher Dill Pickles.

It's like an unhealthy relationship. Dependant on something you are catagorically opposed to.

Okay, well, enough of that, but I just had to get that off my chest.

Sorry workers in Malaysia, I caved.

The Contest!

Well, I told you guys about the ccontest I was in right? Well it was last friday, and it was fun! We arrived a little early just in case it was a mad house, but it was totally relaxed!First item of business was getting my name into the Golden Drum, then onto the activities. There was a bounce house for the kids, and lots of food, and sugary drinks, and local mini-celebrities like Miss Utah, the Grocery Guru,the radio station DJ, and the guy that owns Colosimo Sausages. Not to mention 40+ people hoping to win the $5000 in groceries for the year!

Can you believe we were the ONLY people with signs??? Come on people, this is a YEAR of groceries for goodness sake!!

So... in goes Miss Utah's hand, and out comesthe name of....

this very excited guy from Clearfield :

He was GENUINELY overjoyed, and although we didn't win the grand prize, it was sweet to see!

Congrats, whoever you are!

And no worries guys, I still made out like a bandit with all this free stuff:

1 t-shirt

2 boxes of Fat Boy ice cream desserts

1 package of golf balls

1 pack of spicy sausages

1 gallon of milk

1 tub of cottage cheese

1 SWEET trapper keeper thing (I am not kidding when I say this thing is sweet, it has built in speakers! and comes prestocked with coupons, and various couponing supplies like scissors, hole punch, etc)

AND

$50 Maceys gift card

not to mention, two weeks of excitement!

THANK YOU MACEYS!!! (and Fat Boy, and Colosimos, and Meadow Gold ) :o)

Hey did I tell you that Jason entered in hoped of me getting TONS of junk email, as part of our on going email war... haha... he's nice even when he's TRYING to be mean. I love that guy.

Everything is an Apple.

Athen says:

"Dee-go" for Diego
"wa-wa" for drinks
"dada"
"mama"
"bella" for the babies that live by us
"NO!"

and for anything that looks delicious to him, he refers to as "Apple!"




BTW, the voice you are hearing is my older sister, not me. How's that for similar genetics?

What's new with us? Oh, just the same 'ol ...wait, it's totally NOT the same 'ol stuff!

Why is it that I can never think of what's actually new with me when someone asks?And then 2 minutes later actually think about the question and realize A LOT is new! So in case you've asked "What's new?" and I have ansered "Oh, nothing." It is a lie, here's what's new:

- We found out Jason is Diabetic so we have spend more time than I care to remember wandering confused around the grocery store, but equally as much time, I am HAPPY to note, incorporating very healthy food, and plenty of exercise into our daily routine. I am so proud of Jason, he has been SUPER vigilent about his health and is doing great. Ths time next year, he will probably be the poster boy for healthy diabetics! (I only say next year because it will probably take the ADA that long to find him and have him on an actual poster)

- We had a mini car drama when we found out on saturday afternoon that our tags expired 4 months ago. Can you belive we didn't notice that? What's more amazing than going four months without anyone noticing is getting pulled over twice the same day for it. So we took it to get it registered ( yes, we got pulled over on the way to Jiffy Lube) and it failed the safety inspection. Luckily, I managed to get it to the next mechanic for the fix-its without any police presence. So, a few hundred dollars later our favorite transportation will be up and around again. This all seems pretty insignificant looking back, but I was quite beside myself saturday evening. I should really learn not to be such a spazz.

- The time for our grad school search is coming to a close and we still have NO idea where we will be in fall '10. Colorado? Michigan? North Dakota (Fargo... even the name sounds frigid, and we'll probably end up there just because I said that out loud. LOL) Vermont? Minnesota? Ohio?

Jason did the top rank- top price degree for his Masters, and this time around I think we are leaning more toward the little letters behind his name without the big $$$ added to our student loan debt. But who knows, maybe a few bigger schools will still be in the running.

- I guess anything else I put at this point would be just fishing for interesting news, but all is well with the kids, preschool starts in a few weeks, and we will be entering foreign territory of afternoons without Brooklyn. Before you know it, she'll be in college. Diego still doesn't understand he's not going, and Athen wont care, except that rough housing with Diego will be a far cry from playing Babies with Brooklyn.

- OH WAIT! I almost forgot! I won some coupons, and get to be a finalist (1 of at least 50) in a $5,000 grocery shopping spree drawing this friday!! I can't begin to wrap my mind around the prospect of wnning, but am surely enjoying the excitement of it- and hey, FREE COUPONS! Wish us luck, and don't be suprised if your christmas presents next year are groceries :o)

So now I ask... What's REALLY new with you??

ABCs of me

I love reading your posts for stuff like this TAG, but if you have overdosed on tags lately, this is yet another one, so feel free to click "mark as read" on your reader.

ABCs info about me

A - Age: 25

B - Bed size: King
C - Chore you hate: washing dishes AFTER they've been through the dishwasher
D - Dog: someday... already trained.
E - Essential start your day item: glass of water
F - Favorite color(s): always changes
G - Gold or Silver: each in their place
H - Height: 5'11 ish
I - Instruments you play: piano, guitar both poorly
K - Kids: 3 - and more someday
L - Living arrangements: 3 bed. apartment in old brick house
M - Mom's name: Jennie Sue
N - Nicknames: Guadalupe
O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: no
P - Pet Peeve: Useless junk that renders an otherwise good movie unwatchable.
Q - Quote from a movie: "Sink Me!" -Scarlet Pimpernel
R - Right or left handed: right
S - Siblings: 3 sisters, 3 sis-in-laws, 2 brothers, 2 brother-in-laws
T - Time you wake up: 8, sometimes later
U - Underwear: The best kind.
V - Vegetable you dislike: canned peas
W - Workout style: random at best
X - X-rays you've had: fingers, teeth, leg, I don't remember any more.
Y - Yesterday's best moment: Late night guitar practice with Laureen in my kitchen also, shopping with the gals from my ward and the Grocery Guru and spending $29 for a weeks worth of groceries.
Z - Zoo favorite: San Diego!

I Tag EVERYONE!! I want to read yours!

All I want for christmas...and next christmas... and the next

Are her two front teeth!

Brooklyn took a fall into Diego's hard cranium and now her two front teeth have a case of the wiggles. No bleeding and not much pain, but they are definitely loose. The dentist's office said since they are baby teeth, there's not really anything to do but hope they tighten up, or pull them if they get discolored.

YIKETH! Poor Brooklyn might THpend the next couple yearTH wiTHing for her teeth to come in THo her liTHp can go away.

Time will tell...

My shopping spree!

I have always liked my mommy-in-law. First off, she brought about my really great husband and gets eternal props for that. However, less than 48 hours after we met, she took us to Disneyland (without even knowing how much I LOVE Disney, for that matter) , making our marriage feel more like the publishers clearing house sweepstakes.

So here we are, almost 6 years later, and the spoling continutes. Last week, she sent me a JCPennys birthday certificate which has been burning a hole in my pocket pretty much since it left my mailbox. Yesterday, I even did a dress reheasal, so to speak, on jcpenny.com just to scope out the territory. The thought occured to me this morning to let that lovely little card remain on my fridge as a weight loss incentive- GREAT IDEA!! But too bad, so sad, I'm just not that patient and my $10 off coupon expires tommorow, so off I went while Jason spent his day off chasing the kiddies.

Anyways listen to all the stuff I got for LESS than $50 (about $3 less, any ideas what to do with the last little bit?) :

- A great pair of jeans that are actually long enough!

- A nice little black blouse (made out of t-shirt material, so cute AND comfy)

- A patterned silky blouse

- Some chocolate trousers

- A purple wrap-around shirt, reminiscant of my long lost favorite shirt of all time that met it's end back in '03.

I'm pretty sure the $29 jeans, and the $17 purple shirt were the most I have ever spent for jeans and a shirt, so my inner clearance addict doesn't want to take them from the hanger on the off chance that I might find something just as good for much less in future days, but even still, I loved* my day!

* Love (luv): v. strong like, not in any way resembling the feverish obsession of a shopoholic, for example.

Oh, who am I kidding, I LOVE a good bargain. My tombstone will probably read:

Lucia Ratliff

Found this

tombstone

for 75% off.

Priorities

So, I always try to turn on some music to do chores (it seems to drown out my inner spoiled brat of a little princess that is aghast at the idea of ' moi' being required to do manual labor, and overall helps me feel less blimin' cantankerous!) Anyways... so today, however, I'm following my 1 year-old's good example and enjoying a little dance break, because I mean, really :

Dance first?

Clean first?

I am not devoid of priorities here people. Obviously, we dance!

Here is Athen getting his mini groove on, eating an otter pop off the floor (YUM), and making a great face at the extreme temp. change in his mouth, and since I don't have the ability to edit the video, you also get an in depth close up of his noggin. Lock up you baby girls folks, this kid is as SMOOTH as his own bottom, and as cool as the other side ofthe pillow!
You know how we roll.



Okay, off to clean up from a fun holiday weekend. Happy Monday everybody.

On the mend

We have been blessed to have this influenza thing easy with only Jason and Diego suffering real symptoms, and all of us on Tamiflu to treat/preempt the flu. Poor Diego had some chest aches that gave all of us a scare, but after a chest x-ray and EKG, all was found to be normal and we are on the mend, looking like doctors courtesy of AF Hospital's mandatory face mask policy . No lingering aches or pains to speak of, except for our stunned pocketbook after the expense of Tamiflu ($87 x 5 people = ouch!) and you can bet we will be getting a bill from the hospital for the x-ray and EKG, but we're not too upset since you can't really put a price on a health.

So all in all: we are fine, but I wish we would at least get Pandemic '09 shirts or something cool to show for it!

We have been incubating...

Influenza is circling our neighborhood, and with the rise in the swine flu, the doctors are treating all the flu cases like H1N1 . We had a fun week, and played with some neighbors all day for 3 days before they found out their baby had influenza. Considering that fact that Athen had been loving on his best baby friend all day, and sharing half eaten strawberries with him, I was pretty sure we were exposed. We stayed home for 6 days, to play it safe with the 4-5 day incubation period, but apparently, it wasn't long enough because today, day 9: Diego woke up with the first symptom, the dreaded high fever *Dum dum dum!*


So, here we go. Forgive me if you don't see me for a while. I'm really hoping we never find out if it is actually the "Swine Flu" since they only run that test if you have to be hospitalized. Meanwhile, what does this up the ward count to Jessie? Are we at like 10th family?

Watermelon in the strawberry patch... and other weekend fun!

Diego has been telling people about the watermelons growing in our garden, which seemed a little tragic to me since those plants were the some of the first casualties of our garden this year (second only to the poor little cucumber plants, and soon to be followed by the carrots I am afraid) So as part of the shower of little birthday festivities for Diego, we bought a watermelon and put it in our garden where the watermelon plant used to be. (Well, it was meant for his birthday, but if you know me, you might have guessed that I could not wait for his birthday so we did it the evening before.) I asked him to go out to the garden and see if there were any strawberries or watermelons we could have for dessert, while the rest of us watched his excitement from the porch, and what show! He was so excited that I gave him this important mission, and even more excited a few minutes later when he finally noticed it! It was my favorite part of the weekend, but with such a fun weekend, there are some other little tidbits that I can't leave out:

-Diego opened a new toy train and Brooklyn said, "Wow Diego, it is Thomas!" to which Diego replied, "Yeah!! Thomas S. Monson!" Brooklyn told him it was Thomas the tank engine, but Diego seems to prefer calling the little blue train Thomas Monson, and has been calling it that all weekend. Too funny!

- A friend of mine pointed out that Diego loves clocks, which is true, although I have never really noticed until she pointed it out. We got him a little plastic Spiderman watch and he has LOVED it!

- We played at a friend's water birthday party, at which they very thoughtfully added Diego's name to the birthday song. A water party with friends was a PERFECT middle for his day!

- We had ice cream!

- He open presents throughout the day, whenever we had a dull moment. It was fun to scatter the festivities throughout that day.

- Our neighbors, the Leckies came over with birthday surprises for Diego.

- Our other neighbors came over to have a last meal with us before they move to Japan. Jason made delicious Zuppa Tuscana, and the kids got to play, for the last time, with this sweet young couple that they LOVE .

- The afore mentioned sweet young couple brought water ballons for Diego so we played water balloon toss after dinner. A BLAST!!!

- We ended the day with a nice walk to share the leftovers and recipe with some Olive Garden loving friends.

In other, non-essential news, my neighbor fixed my straightener, which has been broken for a YEAR. HOORAY!!!