Thum

On Saturday, I took Brooklyn to Instacare for antibiotics #3 for her earaches. While at Target Pharmacy I see behind their shelf, on the counter, a little bottle called, "Thum." Well, it's stuff you put on fingers to help stop sucking your thumb and biting your nails. As all of you know, Brooklyn has a pretty bad habit of thumb sucking and hair twirling, and for $2.99 I thought I'd give it a try. (Now remember Brooklyn hasn't slept real well because of her earache.)

So by the time we get home from the pharmacy, it's time to eat lunch and take a nap. While Brooklyn is playing on the floor, I paint this stuff on her finger and her thumb because, well, heck, I want her to stop sucking her thumb right.

Well, I go downstairs and Chad attempts to put Brooklyn down for her nap. As she puts her finger in her mouth, she starts crying that it's spicy and runs and puts the thumb into a glass of water on the counter. At which point Chad goes and gets the bottle and reads the ingredients and directions and asks me if I have done the same. Let me share:

Directions: Apply to dry FINGERNAILS twice a day to help break the habit of nail biting and thumb sucking.

Ingredients: Cayenne pepper extract, citric acid, isopropyl alcohol, acetone, lacquer.

Caution: Thum rubbed on eyes will cause stinging, relieve by washing with cold water. Do not use on babies too young to realize repeated rubbing causes stinging. If evidence of skin irritation appears, discontinue use and apply cream or lotion. Thum is flammable: keep away from heat and open flame. Thum will stain clothing and furniture finishes.

So smart me, puts this not only on her nails, but entire thumb, while she is sick, without explaining to her what I am doing.

Needless to say, Brooklyn didn't get a nap that day, her thumb was red, swollen, and sore, and I have had to repeatedly promise not to use that stuff again. She was able to taste it for over 12 hours. Most of all Chad and I got a good laugh and I have probably blown a good chance to stop sucking her thumb.

Note to all thumb sucking moms: Thum is dangerous. Before using, explain what you're doing, don't use when your kid's sick, and most of all don't put it anywhere but on the nail! Enjoy a good laugh on me!

One More Thing

So last night I went into Brooklyn's room to get her jammies and this is what I found:

I don't know if you can tell from the picture or not, but all of her little people are perfectly lined up at the castle. (Brooklyn has quite the thing for lining things up). If you look, at the top of the castle, is the car mechanic. I started laughing so much because it was like all these people were worshipping the mechanic. So much for teaching Brooklyn the commandment "thou shalt not worship graven images," or do you think Heavenly Father got the same kick out if I did? Maybe he'll make an exception for plastic ones!

Playing in the Snow

Chad and I both had Monday off, so we promised Brooklyn we would make a snowman. We went out and tried, but found the snow too powdery, so we instead, just played (which I am sad to say is the first time I have ever played in the snow with Brooklyn.) This is as big as our snowman got!


Sometimes playing with Dad is just way more fun than mom!

More hockey!

Normally, one hockey game in a day is plenty for me, but after Chad's game everyone went out to dinner for Diane's (Chad's mom) birthday. Then, my mom took my girls home and Chad and I went to the Grizzlies game. Before we got married, this was Chad's idea of a perfect date. We went to more than I care to admit. Luckily, I taught him some other things we can do for a date now... But we had fun! Chad's mom and dad came to the game along with our nephew Josh and his girlfriend Ashby and daughter Kambrie, my cousin Cache and some other people we knew, but I don't have pictures of!

Dinner at Cracker Barrel.
Jim and Diane (our favorite babysitters!)

Cache and his friends...(girls, he's available!)
Josh, Ashby and Kambrie
And here is Chad and I on our first date in forever.. (sometimes where you go on a date doesn't matter near as much as going!)

Guns and Hoses

Firefighters 11- Cops 5

This is my cute firefighter! On Saturday Chad played in the Guns and Hoses hockey game to benefit cancer research. It was a lot of fun. Both of our families came and cheered Chad on. Hockey is Chad's number one passion. He didn't start playing until after we got married. (Which I find absolutely shocking). He is extremely athletic, but I would never have the nerve to go join a team when everyone else played high school or college hockey. But he goes out, competes and does such an incredible job and loves every minute of it! My version of an action shot!
My girls with my sister
This is Chad's family... his mom, dad, sister, niece and nephew.
We had lots of fun. You should have heard Brooklyn cheering... Go Burnside! It cracked me up!

Doing the tag thing...

Thanks Amy for clueing me in....

4 jobs I've had...
1. Head Customer Service at Ross department stores
2. Party Person (I don't remember my job title) at The Little Gym
3. Oakcrest Counselor
4. 2nd grade teacher and now Reading Specialist

4 movies I could watch over and over again....
*** I'm barely able to make it through a movie once without falling asleep. So instead, I'll do my favorite books...
1. The Time Traveler's Wife
2. Any Harry Potter Book
3. Gone with the Wind
4. Any Mary Higgins Clark book

4 places that I've lived...
1. West Jordan, Utah
2. South Salt Lake, Utah (that's as adventurous as I get!)
3. Logan, Utah
4. Murray, Utah

4 T.V. Shows I love...
1. The Biggest Loser
2. Survivor
3. Oprah
4. The news (I know pretty pathetic) I also really like a lot of the shows on TLC

4 places I have vacationed....
1. Oahu, Hawaii
2. San Francisco, California
3. Orlando, Florida,
4. New York, New York

4 foods I love...
1. Fry Sauce
2. Bread (sweet rolls, donuts, rolls, you get the idea)
3. Peanut Butter
4. Honey Mustard
(I know they really aren't meals, but my chances of liking it are much greater if these ingredients are included!)

4 sites I visit often (I don't get on the internet daily)...
1. zionsbank.com
2. google.com
3. blogger.com
4. winderfarms.com

4 places I'd rather be right now...
1. Getting a massage
2. Getting a full night's sleep
3. On a trip with Chad ANYWHERE
4. Reading a good book with no interruptions!

4 people I am tagging!
1. Leslie... it's time to update!
2. Amber Nelson
3. Anyone else out there who hasn't been tagged?

Tagging

What in the world is tagging? Yes, I know, I told all of you I am new to this... and I really don't have a clue what it means! Can someone tell me what to do? (Sorry Amy!)

Fish

For the last 7 1/2 years Chad has always begged me to set up his fish aquarium. Let me preface this by saying, I am NOT an animal person. I'm scared of dogs and don't like the smell nor mess of other animals. So you would think fish would be the perfect pet for me, but my experiences with fish haven't been so great either. In college my roommates and I decided to have goldfish. When I was changing the water, I forgot to plug the drain and one went down the disposal. Needless to say, I felt awful having to turn on the disposal soon after. And in high school, again changing the water, I burned one to death. I am not one you want to take care of your animals.

Well, back to my story, Chad has been pleading with me to set up his old tank. It looks old and cheap, but after 7 years of begging, I gave in... But when he was cleaning it out, it broke... (oh, darn). I thought that was the end of fish.

But then my mom came to me, asking what in the world she could get Chad for his birthday and Christmas. I came up with the idea of a new aquarium, knowing how excited he would be. So my mom bought this nice aquarium and stand, and then we just had to put it together. We spent an entire night putting the aquarium together. The girls were so cute, and Brooklyn was Daddy's helper. Here are pictures of them working together. I had to throw a picture of Jacee in just because she is SUCH a good baby and was being perfect the entire time.

This is Brooklyn sorting the pieces. Her job was to hand Dad the pieces that he needed. She now knows the names of all the parts better than I do!
Here are Dad and Brooklyn reading the directions together... TOO CUTE!
Well, no one told me how long it took to actually get an aquarium ready. I didn't realize you had to get rocks before you could put water in. Then you have to let the water do it's thing for 48 hours before you add fish. Finally last Monday we added fish. Brooklyn is so exicted. She named the fish, Chad, Jill, Brooklyn, and Jacee. Of course, Jill is the fish that always eats... what does that mean?
So as I was taking a picture of the aquarium to post this, I just realized Jacee died. Brooklyn is going to be devastated and of course Chad is working tonight. I'll have to update you on the calamity of the fish's death. (I told you I wasn't great at keeping fish alive.) I guess it's good that Petco has a 15 day guarantee!

Eating out

Can I just say that everything becomes more difficult with kids? Saturday I had a list of about 20 things to do. We needed to take back things, go shopping for food and our night ended by going to dinner with our friends to exchange Christmas/birthday gifts. All I was worried about was getting the kids down for a nap because I didn't want to do dinner with no naps. We all know what that leads to...

Well by the time Chad got his haircut, showered, and we finished Brooklyn's Meet Your Teacher Breakfast, it was 11:30 and we still needed to go to my mom's house to get receipts... now we are talking about noon and the kids haven't eaten, and now it's almost nap time. Luckily, my mother in law saved up again by letting us (chad and I) go shopping alone. It was like going out on a date... we are getting desperate when Mervyn's and Costco becomes our date. It was fun to be alone and Chad even put gel in his hair, shaved (that's usually only for days he works at the fire station) and had cologne on. We enjoyed our time immensely, but after going to Mervyn's to exchange some clothes for Chad and Costco, our date was short lived.

We picked up the kids, dropped off the food, and were off to Target and Famous Footwear. We then ran to Red Robin. We met our friends, the Sabins, who have kids the same age as ours. Did I say it's not the same with kids? During dinner we had tears about 3 times, 2 drinks spilled, and we saw our waitress only once. Not quite the experience I remembered before kids...

But really we had fun and you may not guess it from the picture, but Chad even had fun too. (Doesn't he look good , even if he is rolling his eyes)

These are our friends Shamae and Addy. Addy and Brooklyn are 9 days apart and act like sisters. They are constanly fighting, but love each other to death! After dinner we went back to the Sabin's house for dessert and exchanged presents. We had been trying to get together since the 20th of December, but we have each had sick kids. Thankfully, we are all healthy and we had lots of fun playing. Here is a picture of the girls playing dress-up! Thanks Sabin's for the good food, fun, and presents!

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is at the funniest stage. Her 2 favorite things in the world... make-up and dress-up. Daily we play nurse, which is what she insists that she is going to be. Just like her aunt Wawa. Chad keeps trying to talk her into being a doctor (after working in the ER he insists that nurses only deal with throw-up and poop.) It's the doctors who have the easy job.

My mom gave her all these dress-ups and that's what we play all the time. I am battling her about make-up too, but don't have any pictures... I'll have to get the make-up... she wears more than me most of the time.

Here are some cute pictures of her.

Here she is playing Nurse. I know the pictures aren't too flattering, but anyone who has played nurse with Brooklyn will appreciate it! (And my new brother in law is an incredibly good sport!)

Just like Daddy...

Brooklyn the chef.

Proof that I am REALLY getting old

Yesterday Brooklyn started Primary. Primary is a children's class in our church where children learn about the scriptures and Heavenly Father. A child has to be 3 to start going to Primary. I always thought people who had children that old, were, well... old. And now I am in the "old" league.
For the last 2 years Brooklyn has been going to Nursery. She sure was excited... and ready to begin Primary. Her biggest disappointment of the day came when I explained that she couldn't go to the front of the chapel and sing and sit in the "big chairs." But she had a great time and loves her new teachers.

Another disturbing thought about getting old. I was sitting at work when my co-workers started talking about your brain shrinking. Did you know that once you turn 30 your brain actually starts to shrink? That is why it gets harder to remember things. They said it takes about 20 years for most people to start noticing the difference... what happens if I am already starting to have trouble remembering? Can you even imagine 20 years from now?

Figuring this thing out

Trying my best to see how it's all done!
A picture of Chad and I this fall.

Getting Started

Okay, everyone has their New Year's Resolutions... mine is to keep some type of journal for my girls, so I can document what has happened in their life. Chad can vouch for me that my memory is awful and I forget everything but random, meaningless stuff... So I decided to give this blog stuff a shot. Who knows how often I will do it, but I feel much less stressed these days now that I am working less and relased from Primary. (Thanks Carrie for giving me a less time consuming calling...) I also wanted to do this because I enjoy reading about everyone else's daily happenings as well. And those who know me, know I don't call or e-mail real well...