A couple quickies

Sorry I've been off the grid. You know the drill: busy, 3 kids, holiday weekend. Blah, blah, blah. So here we go!

1.The sleeping arrangements are going well! Cooper and Thatch are still bunking, no one has been kicked out of their beds (Well, except Cooper in the original bed moving). I've cleared the room out and it's almost time for Operation: Fancy Nancy. We're converting a little boy room into a little girl room, and by we I mean me. Jonathan can not grasp my vision for Harpie's room so I'm on my own. No bigs. I obviously will post the big reveal on here at a later date :)

I took this of the boys asleep the other night. They always sleep together now, even if I start them off in the same bed. They love each other :)

 Jonathan was off this weekend for the first time in 17 days. The boys missed their Daddy terribly, at night time especially. Here's a few pics of them and two videos of Jonathan and them.

I can not wait for one of those teeth to fall out! Especially the chipped one from when he was 9 months old.

http://youtu.be/8uU32WCv4IM

http://youtu.be/A1JDLdwRBK0

 2. We had a garage sale here on Saturday, in with new out with the old. Our house is so small and adding another little body with so many accessories has pushed our cabinets and closets to the brink. I find it's easier to just have a garage sale once a year and keep the clutter down. 

Thatcher was NOT happy about selling his stuff. He has the potential to be a serious horder. Most of the time I can slowly clean out his room when he is at school and he wont notice stuff is gone but on this particular day it was VERY clear what was missing!

He was allowed to pick 1 item and take it inside. This is him and Jonathan negotiating. I'm fairly sure he actually saved 3 things. The kid should be a lawyer when he grows up.

Cooper, the cannon ball, took a good fall on our driveway during the garage sale, which is made of rocks. This was the ensuing injury. My poor little, clumsy guy. He gets it from his Mommy.

3. We've had a mix of beautiful weather to down right rainy doldrums (which you know I love actually) but today it was beautiful so I went out with Harps and soaked in the Vitamin D. We planted my flower boxes and some perennials in the front. When it's all done I will snap a picture and show you all the resulting opulence. Well, it will be opulent in August, right now it's just kind of sad.

My little pale baby needs to soak up some sun before we head down to vacation! I also need to get her a cute little sun bonnet, and maybe some cat eyed sunglasses. Maybe that's pushing it.

4. Remember this 4 months ago?

January 29th, 2012- Yes, that's correct. It's COLDER than -60*.

May 28th, 2012- Yes, that's right it said 92*F on my deck...That's above zero! I actually do not enjoy hot weather but today felt wonderful. After snapping this we moseyed inside for an otter pop, it's officially SUMMER!!

Quickies

Here's a couple of quick things:

1. Cooper and Thatcher are officially roommates. Sunday night I disassembled the bunks because, as a mother, I feel it is my job to consider all worst case possibilities. I envisioned Cooper climbing the ladder to the top bunk to sleep with Thatch, Thatch not having any of that business and him kicking Cooper off the ladder. Seriously, it could happen. So, that being said, both beds are down. We made it a big deal and went to pick out new quilts to make it exciting, Thatch picked Spiderman and Coop, to my surprise, picked Toy Story over Cars. Coopie calls Woody WooWoo. So cute. Anyhoo, the first night was tough, lots of coddling and snuggles but after an hour I said "cry it out". I'm a softie most of the time but my patience runs thin at 8pm and is basically over at 9pm. He did and when I peeked in they were asleep together in Thatcher's bed, cuddling. Melted my cold, tired heart.

They're going to hate this one day :)

2. We met Grandma at Barnes and Noble to have a little play date and to get my Mother's Day/Birthday present (Yay!) where I captured these:

Where there are trains, there are Yarsleys. Imagine that.

She had threatened to do it and finally did. Grandma bought Harper her first pony. This one I approve of though. That's Harper's excited face.

3. Harper is 4 months old now!! I can't believe it's been 1/3 of a year already!

4 months into taking these and they still do not amuse her. Sorry about my feet, at least I've had a pedicure in the recent past.

A little frame of reference...Harpie at 2 weeks old :)

So that's it. We have a big day tomorrow, two Dr. appointments, OT and probably some Alaskaland action too. Busy bees are we.

Enjoy!

Love,
S

Another Saturday ending with aching feet

Guess what? I found out that Aviation Day (the proper name of what I referred to as Airplane Day) was not last weekend but luckily this weekend! Yay. (It is here where I wish the most that there was a sarcastic font.) I know that I could pretend that it wasn't actually happening and we could have a relaxing Saturday all peaceful and what have you but I take my job as Cruise Director seriously. Activities and entertainment are my specialty (especially since my cooking leaves much to be desired). And so here we find ourselves on another adventure.

Photographic evidence is submitted for your viewing pleasure:

We started off the day with a coffee for the kids an myself with our favorite barista, Ms. Emily Gray. We loves us some Emmy! After that we were supposed to have pancakes but my little coffee stop ended up making us late but I more than made up for that later, you'll see.

Here are my guys. Cooper was beside himself with excitement.

Yet another one of my comedian. His face is so expressive, I love it!

And here is where I make up for the pancakes. The boys NEVER get soda unless they're with one of their Grandmas (you know who you are), so this was my penance. We had a nice little hot dog lunch here.

After this we were going to go to the Farmer's Market for a little peekaroo around to see what was new and what was the same. This was really for me, the boys could give a crap about the market except for the kettle corn. So I sneaked in a treat, sue me :) I packed a picnic for us because were supposed to be eating lunch there after our delicious pancakes. We ended up snacking on half of a sandwich and drinking juice boxes. It was fun but we probably could have cut it out, Gretchen's Confections (the most delicious fudge on the planet) wasn't there so it really was kind of a waste of time. I did get these cute pics though.

Have you ever noticed that when he gives a genuine smile his eyes turn into half moons? I have, it's my job to find these perfect nuances in my little men.

Juice boxes. They're no joke.

Did I mention that it was 70 ABOVE zero out today? It was magnificent. Anyhoo, so we're driving home and I see a big sign at Creamer's Field that says "Fish and Game Day" and to that I said, "Oh what the hell, why not?" So we go to do some more man stuff.

This is Harper and Zariah. Her Mommy, Karrah, and I went to school together and were also pregnant a week apart. Harper cut in line and beat her out by 9 days because Ms. H was two weeks early, Little Stinker. I'm still upset about that epidural. Sorry, tangent. Anyhoo, I love Z's hair, I wish H's was that thick and hair bow ready already!

Cooper sticking his entire hand in a Musk Ox eye socket. I'm sure the ox does not appreciate it.

I spy, with my little eye...

H, doing what she does. Good God, I love those little eye lashes.

Thatcher wanted to shoot the bow and arrow just like in the Hunger Games. He literally said that. It's crazy what that kid picks up! I need to watch my words very carefully from now on, especially the naughty ones.

I wish you could zoom in and see his face better. I think he's a little shocked.

They even had a pond stocked with little fish for the kids to try to catch. I didn't see one person catch a fish. Cooper was only allowed to fish for about 5 minutes before I realized the immensity of the mistake I had made. Giving him a pole with a sharp hook on the end was extremely stupid. Rookie mistake. Or I was tired. Or he was tired. Or all of the above.

Thatcher had a great time fishing while I tussled with his brother. I might actually get him a little fishing pole and take him to our slough and fish. Well, actually I might make Jonathan do that. Putting bait on a hook is gross.

So we came home and Coop napped from 4-6pm while Harps stayed awake and was so stinking adorable that it was hard to be upset that she wasn't napping. When Jonathan came home we had a quick dinner and went over to our neighbors to meet their new baby, Taryn, who was born 10 days ago. Her mother and I have decided that Harper and Taryn will be best friends, so we can sit on our decks drinking frosty fruity drinks and just walk home afterwards. It's going to be epic. But for now, here are our loves and their first BFF picture.

Ms. Taryn Mackenzie Lewis and Ms. Harper Evelyn Yarsley. It's hard to believe that H was this size just 14 short weeks ago! Babies grow so fast, so quickly.

 And so we wrapped up another whirlwind day of exploring, discovering and widening our pitifully narrow horizons. Good times.

Love,
S

P.S. On a sad note I have to report that my camera is dying a slow and painful death. It lets me take two pictures and then decides to shut down and will only video for about 38 seconds before reporting an Error 32, which I have no idea of what that means. I'm going to squeeze every last drop of picture out of that camera and maybe my lovely, giving husband will agree to let me purchase a new one before our trip! Or maybe if I say "My birthday is coming soon" to a certain person he might get me a new one...ehem, ehem. (You know who you are.)

1st official week of summer for us.

Thatcheroo, student extraordinaire, is done with his school year. I'm not sure if everyone knows how our schedule went but here it is:

 Monday          Tuesday          Wednesday          Thursday          Friday    
                       OT-10AM                                 OT-10AM                    
                                                                                                                  
SCHOOL        SCHOOL                                  SCHOOL      SCHOOL
  2P-3P            2-2:30P                                      1:30-3P          2-2:30P
                                                    FAMILY
                       SWIMMING         NIGHT      SWIMMING
                          5-5:30P                 6P                    5-5:30P

It's pretty much the Thatcher show around here, poor Coopie. The toughest part was trying to squeeze Cooper's nap in between school, therapies and activities. In general Jonathan's regular work schedule was pretty compatible with this, one of us was able to work around and be home, unless he was on days or working days overtime which meant Cooper either stayed up late or had to be woken up early. I hate waking a sleeping baby up early, it's so sad and they're so grumpy. Needless to say that school being out and swimming be over is an IMMENSE relief to me. That last day I felt like a ton of bricks had been lifted off my shoulders.

So this week, we have played. Not hard, I'm trying to ease us into it. A little fun here, toss in some OT for Thatch, maybe a little movie/cartoon action. Nothing major. See photo evidence:

To celebrate our first day of freedom we had chocolate pudding for dessert. Cooper gave himself a unibrow-goatee combo with pudding. (When ever I think of pudding I think of Bill Cosby. Marketing at it's best.)

There really aren't words. I showered him in my bathroom, huge mistake. I have/had a white shower curtain. Looks like monkeys were throwing poo in there now.

My friend Melissa and I were at swim lesson sign-ups (aka Endurance Parenting, those who can get there earliest and wait it out get the swim spots). Here's Thatch, Barrett, Merrick and Coop in the background, who was too busy making mischief to be bothered with a photo opp.  Thatch and Barret are 1 month apart and have been play buddies for a few years. I had the older kids and Melissa was inside with the new babies, Harper and Kierran.

So that was Monday and Wednesday. Pretty chill...but Thursday we played hard :)

Thatch as been dying to help put gas in the car for some time but it was winter and I'll be darned if I'm going to spend more time than necessary outside of my toasty car in frigid weather. Today I relented and he was excited :)

He did a pretty good job actually, all the gas was in the car and the gas station didn't explode. Those are really the two worst case scenarios I envisioned.

After that we went to the hospital to take care of some insurance issues. I bribed them with Jello if they were good and they were. I LOVE hospital jello. I think I ate 2 lbs of it when I was there with Harps!

While we were in the cafeteria we saw my Midwife, Alex Montgomery, and she had to hold our little Harpie. She likes her I think :)

Then came the big show, I surprised them with a quick trip to Alaskaland. The train was running even but I didn't bring any cash because it was impromptu so we didn't ride. This boy loves his trains, especially this one.

Here's my Coopster on a swing. Love that big smile of his!

Here's the boys climbing up on the slide. Once up there, Coop wasn't to thrilled. I ended up climbing up and sliding down with him.

And here's the Harpster's first photo at Alaskaland. She's so stinking cute, I just love her to pieces!!!!

So that's what we were up to, yay for summer!!! It was magnificent out today also, sunny but not quite warm enough for shorts. Tomorrow I have no plans, we are going to hang out at home and do laundry and set up this little thing we got the boys. More on that later though ;)

Love,
S

The Best Mother's Day Ever-No Joke.

After an exhausting Saturday, I stayed up late cleaning up the house so it would be nice on Mother's Day. I ended up only cleaning my bedroom since that would be the first thing I saw when I woke up. The living room could wait until tonight (which is not going to happen because I'm blogging-ha).

Harper woke up at 5AM to eat, no big deal because she went to bed at 9:30PM, I however did not go to sleep at that time, I think I probably hit the sack at 11:30PM.  I could not fall back asleep until 6AM. I heard Jonathan come in around 7:30AM from work and I heard Thatch wake up and them chit chatting. I'm not sure when, maybe 8ish, but Thatch came in and pounced on me like a puppy pouncing it's poor sleeping Mommy (that would be me). He gave me a huge hug and a kiss and said "Happy Mother's Day Mommy!!" This day is already awesome, waking up like that was wonderful. Then Jonathan said something magical "Go back to sleep Babe, I've got them." Heaven's clouds opened up and angels sang. That could have been a dream though.

So I wake up again at 9AM and there are my guys watching cartoons and showing me my present. A dozen roses (which J doesn't normally buy, he thinks roses are generic. I think they're lovely though), a card and a bag of Rollos. Does he know me or what? The most amazing part of that card was what he said in it though. It is so astounding enough that I'm actually going to put down what he wrote:

You do everything you do for all of us, every day and still manage to smile and laugh. It's not really what you do though; it's how & why...you love us always & unconditionally. You've done a lot for us this year and we notice and love you for putting up w/ our s#!t everyday! Without you, we are nothing, with out you we would swim in dishes, laundry, bills & toys, with out you, your son wouldn't be able to write his name. Thank you for being the Mother of our children. 

I copied that verbatum. Isn't that the MOST amazing thing he could have said?

And then the best part of it all was when Thatcher signed it and I could read his name.

I am actually getting choked up again just reading it. He really is an amazing husband and I am so thankful to John and Sharilyn for raising such a wonderful man. Sigh.

After that the heathens and I got ready for church and were finally in the car at 11AM, that's when church starts. Whoops, we're late, as usual. It's a Mother's Day Miracle that we were even that on time, honestly. Harp was delightful, Thatch made a flower picture in kids church and Coop actually stayed in the playroom with out needing to be called out. Another Mother's Day Miracle! Afterwards I caught this video of Coopie. Good God, I love those boys!

http://youtu.be/6b3prAjVitU
I would believe only in a God that knows how to dance.  ~Friedrich Nietzsche

After that we stopped by GG's house and visited. Then we went to Grandma's house where PopPop (that's what Coopie calls Sam) was going to make us dinner but he ended up going bear bating. So we went to McDonald's. It was really nice though and the boys played and we felt like poop after eating. By the way, those new cherry berry coolers were yummy!

And Jonathan had another day's rest that was uninterrupted. Have I ever mentioned that as the week goes on the grumpy quotient gets higher in the house? Mondays are really not that bad but by God, watch out on Sundays because Daddy Bear is on the prowl.


We got home, the boys napped, and Jonathan headed off to work. At that point the boys and I did what we do best! Watched a movie and relaxed together. Thatcher picked out Cinderella because it was my favorite when I was little and it was Mother's Day. I think he's definitely getting the idea of it :)

Cooper does not like to share popcorn. That would be Thatcher's arm too.

Coopie loves to hold Harper. Quite clearly he says "I hold Harper." When he says Harper he sounds like he's from Boston. It comes out more like "Harpa".

I suppose in general, Cooper doesn't enjoy sharing right now. He was pretty upset when i twas Thatch's turn. Harper, as is evident, is used to this tussle over her. She's definitely going to do well in high school when the other boys are fighting over her. Sigh.

He finally was able to hold his girl in peace. Cooper was busy eating chocolate pudding by this point.

The boys went to sleep flawlessly, no crying or anything, and were out by 8:11pm. Then I watched my show Once Upon a Time (which I love and it was the season finale!) and H went down at 10pm. Yet I'm up, late posting about them because I just adore them. I'm so lucky to have 3 beautiful children and to be able to celebrate Mother's Day at all. 


Happy Mother's Day to all of you, all the Grandma's and Auntie's and the friends who keep me sane. I think we all help each other be amazing Mommies and I truly appreciate you all.


And with that, I'm outtie.


Love,
S

Whilrwind Weekends, it's how we roll.

Sometimes when people complain about there not being anything to do in Fairbanks for kids I want to smack them. Honestly. There is so much for the kids to do around here that some days I can not fit it all in! On Saturday we had a plethora of activities going on. Here was the list:

1. 10AM- Cooper's last gymnastics class
2. 11AM- Airplane Day (or so I call it, who knows that it really was) at the Airport
3. 12PM- Alaska Rail Road Open House
4. 12:30PM- Oil Change for the family limo
5. Home and naptime

Okay, well that was really it. It doesn't seem like much once I write it down. Here's the problem with schedules, they are pretty much Mission Impossible when you have 3 kids. This is how the day actually went:

Cooper Gymanstics-10AM

Here's a quick video of Coopie doing some somersaults, or something of that nature.

http://youtu.be/KTjzydX8lns

Here's another quickie of Cooper's first experience with a parachute. I'm a tard and held the camera the wrong way, so there goes my Oscar for cinematography.**I actually did hold it wrong, youtube fixed it. They rock!

http://youtu.be/gvQm-o4t6v8 

Just hanging around. He was so proud of himself for doing this that it continued for another 3 minutes, which in 2 year old terms, is a lifetime.

At this point of the day we are on schedule. My Mom was with me to watch Thatch and Harp up in the viewing area while Coop worked on his Olympic qualifying routine. I went to go get my diaper bag so I could give Harpie a quick top off. When I grabbed it in the morning I threw in a liter of water in there for me to drink during the day, somehow I had managed to destroy the cap in the process (unbeknownst to me) and it had hemorrhaged into my bag during class. When I got upstairs it was terrible, everything was soaked. Good news is that I had 7 diapers in there so they kind of absorbed some of the water. Actually, not really. The diapers were all kind of wet at the ends, not enough to throw away (I'm going to let them dry out and use them again because I'm a cheapo) but enough that I couldn't use them on the kids that day. Did you hear that? A SCHEDULE BOMB JUST EXPLODED. Not only do I have to clean up the water mess out of my clearly not water proof bag, I have to go to the store and buy some diapers for Harper because Lord knows she will poop if I don't have any handy.

Airplane Day-11AM

Something had to go. Sorry Coopie, maybe we can drive around the airport one day.

Fred Meyers to Buy Diapers-11:30AM

Once everything was sopped up we went to Fred's to grab a small pack of diapers and some corn dogs (the food snob's preferred on the go meal). My Mom was still with us because we were going to the Train Gig together. Grandma offered to run in and grab the diapers and our gourmet snack so I accepted and hung out at the car. Me, being the multitasker that I am, cleaned out the car of the carnage that is previous meals. One thing is for sure, we eat A LOT of corn dogs and I found 3 very questionable sippy cups. Oh, that was two things, sorry. After quite some time she comes out with more than one bag. Harper had to have a new outfit because it was so nice out, and of course needed matching socks. She was in a rush so that was all she could grab. Had she had five more minutes I bet she would have cleaned out the baby section in all 6 month outfits. Good thing she didn't see the swimsuits because even I can not resist those! Anyhoo, on we go to the train station at 12PM.

Schedule Adjustment: Oil Change

At this point we're running pretty behind schedule. Luckily the train station is right next to where I'm getting my oil changed. Poor Thatcher is not happy that we drove away from the train station and not towards it. I dropped it off and all five of use pile in my Mom's VW Bug. Yeah, it was a tight squeeze but off we go to the train! When we piled out it was like a kiddy clown car but I had forgotten my squeaky red rubber nose so it was much less funny. Actually, I never find clowns funny, they're kind of freaky. Moving on...

ARR Open House-12:30PM

And here we are, the big show! Thatcher was beside himself with excitement and Cooper just kept screaming "CHOO CHOO! CHOO CHOO!" 

I'm not sure who this conductor is but he was on our train last year when we rode it and he is delightful. There's another guy who is not and can't be bothered with pictures and I'm glad he wasn't there. Who does he think he is, Thomas the Tank Engine?

Grandma and Thatchtastic on the ride. He was still excited.

Harper is a big fan of trains, clearly. One other observation...I wear this shirt a lot. That's the problem with blogging, there's a record of what I wear and when. I need to buy some new clothes.

Here's us at the end of the train event. When Grandma comes the boys get a toy. I was totally stoked just about the free balloons. Grandmas are one uppers, but in the best way possible!

Time to Go Home and Nap-2PM

Or so I thought.

So we pick up the limo, give kisses and part ways. I swung by Fred Meyers to fill up the limo and my Mom looked like she was heading home. Then I realize I left my cell phone in her purse. Crap. I probably could live with out it as most of you know, I never have it on me and rarely hear it ring so why go get it? Head home and nap, Woman! Well, their house is on the way home so I'll just swing by. Sigh.

That is one tired toddler. The balloon valve is in his mouth, he was making choo choo sounds with it while I was driving and fell asleep right between the choo and the choo. Loves me some sleeping baby.

So we went over the mountain and through the woods (literally) to Grandmother's house but she wasn't there. Thatch had to potty so he hopped out, waking up Cooper in the mean time. Sigh. I take him out and show him the horses to try to cheer him up. In the mean time Grandma showed up and we had a little moment with the horses Blaze and Kate. Blaze is going to have a foal soon. She and Thatch regarded each other and instantly they were in love. Thatcher has asked that Blaze come live with her baby in our backyard but I'm going out on a limb here to say that Jonathan would not take kindly to a horse in the yard since his children aren't even allowed on the grass. That's just a wild guess, I could be wrong.

Even little Harps got in on the horse action. Grandma said she needs a pony. That's not even funny.-Side note: Ewww, what a terrible picture of me Mom!

Thatcher giving Kate some love and Blaze looking on jealously. Kate and Blaze are twins with only one little circle patch on Blaze's nose to differentiate them. Well, one is pregnant too, that's kind of a give away.

This is Coopie Poopie saying "Horse". It really comes out like "Ho". Poor horses, I bet they're really nice ladies. Mean Cooper.

That's a big ass horse.

NAPTIME: SERIOUSLY- 3:30PM

In general, I'm a stickler for nap times. When we went to Disneyland in 2010 I made us come back to the hotel room to take naps, I'm that serious about it (and you guys know of my love affair with Disneyland). By the time we got home at 3:30 the boys were deliriously tired, as was I. Harper, not so much. Cooper and Thatcher (who no longer naps) both zonked out faster than you could say Mr. Ed. Harp was content hanging out in her bassinet while I napped which makes her that much more awesome! 

The great news about being out all day is that Jonathan had a full day's rest. He is on night shift and can be quite grumpy if he's woken up. <-----That right there was the understatement of the century. 

Fun was had by all and the good times kept rolling. This post has been epic poem long so I will lavish you with the tales of Mother's Day at a later time. Until then, I bid ado.

Love,

S