Two peas in a pod

This is where you will find Mason and Cooper when they are watching TV.

They usually have a snack too. I think they think they can't watch TV without having a snack too.

And their feet are always on the TV stand.

Lunch with Dad

Today I surprised Mason and Cooper with a trip to Jeff's work (an hour away) to have lunch with him. Jeff knew we were going to come and had told Cheryl, the gal he shares an office with that we were going to come. She said she wanted to take us to lunch, which was really nice of her.

I have to tell you a story first before I tell you what happened when we got to Jeff's work.

A few weeks ago, Mason told Jeff that if donuts were healthy, he would eat them every day. Jeff said to Mason, "me too buddy, me too". Jeff told Cheryl about this conversation.

Okay, so we get to Jeff's work and of course are introduced to everyone. And as you can probably guess, every girl there oohed and awed over Shiloh. And why wouldn't they? She is so dang cute and chubby. Everyone thought Mason and Cooper were cute too, but there is nothing like a baby, right? Oh and they all thought Mason and Cooper look just like Jeff, which they do, we get comments like that all the time, every where we go.

After we met everyone, which really didn't take long as it's a small 25 bed hospital so there are not THAT many staff, we made it to Jeff's office where Cheryl was. After the introduction, she asked Mason and Cooper to come over closer to her desk. Cheryl asked Mason if he remembered telling his Dad that he wished he could eat donuts everyday. Mason said he did. Then Cheryl pulled out a 6 pack of chocolate donuts for Mason and tells him that he can share them with his Dad, but that he doesn't have to if he doesn't want to. With that she pulled out another 6 pack of chocolate donuts for Cooper. THEN she pulled out a chocolate Easter bunny and Easter eggs filled with play-doh for each of the boys.

Now that's one way to win over two boys. Wouldn't you say?

We went to lunch at Subway with Cheryl. The boys loved being with her. Mason and Cooper now have a Grandma at Jeff's work. Cheryl needs a few grandchildren. Her children do not have any children, yet. If you couldn't figure it out on your own, Cheryl really wants some Grandchildren NOW!

When we got in the car to leave, Mason said that Cheryl is the nicest person at the hospital.

I guess we all know how we can become the nicest person in Mason's eyes.

Here they are with their treats. They both ate some of their bunny on the way home and Mason ate 1 of his donuts.

Don't take it personal

So even though I have not personally received any flack for my last post, there have been some comments made on facebook that make me think some were offended. Maybe they were not, I certainly hope not, that was not my intention. All I have to say is don't take my comments personal, I did not write what I wrote to make anyone think I don't like their choice in having animals. I know that because I am not a lover of animals, I am in the minority.

I am not a lover of any animals. I could probably make a list of reasons why I don't like all animals. Fish, rabbits, snakes, rats, cows, pigs, horses, you name it, I most likely don't like them. Although I did ride horse last summer for the first time and did enjoy it, but you'll never find me living on a farm raising or breeding horses. The first thing I wanted to do when I got off was wash my hands REALLY well and change my clothes.

I know animals were placed on this earth for a purpose. For some as a companion, for others to assist with their medical problems, for the police force to find drugs, people, bombs, etc. So yes animals have a purpose, they just don't fill any purpose for me.

You can love your animals, but please don't choose your animals over your actual children like my biological mother did. True story. I don't know if I know all of the details to the story as I was only 5 or 6 when it happened. But basically, when my parents divorced they had a custody battle over all 6 children. The judge would not split up the children. My sister was/is very allergic to animals. My bio-mom had a couple of cats. The judge told her that if she wanted custody of her children that she would have to get rid of her cats for my sisters health. She told the judge that she couldn't because the cats were also her kids. Long story short, she chose her cats over her own children and she never did get custody of any of us.

I can remember several times after coming home after a weekend at my bio-moms house and my sister would have to go to the ER because she couldn't breath. She would have to have breathing treatments for days. Day and night. It always seemed that just as she was able to breath well, it was time to go for our every-other weekend visit again.

I just don't understand how someone can chose to keep an animal when the health of their child/children will be compromised.

This issue hits really close to home for Jeff and me. Jeff, Mason, and Cooper are all allergic to animals. They don't just get the watery eyes and stuffy nose symptoms. Their lungs start to close up too. Most everyone we know, family and friends, have animals. It is hard for us to be able to visit any home with animals for any length of time. The whole time we are visiting, Jeff and I are on edge wondering if we have stayed too long, if we will be giving nebulizer treatments to the boys for the next several days. Now I know how my parents must have felt every other weekend my sister had to visit our bio-mom.

PLEASE don't miss-read this. I am not saying that you should get rid of your animals just for my children's sake. I would never ask anyone to do that. You have every right to have animals. That is the beauty of the country we live in. We can all choose to live our lives in the way we want and we can have differing opinions too. It just really hard for us to visit homes with animals. We have accepted that because the health of our boys is more important.

I'm sure some think I am cold hearted about animals. That's not it at all. I just don't enjoy animals that's all. I don't care if someone else loves animals and chooses to have several.

Animals

I know that I will probably get some flack from you animal lovers out there but oh well.

I just saw some newborn photos, of well, a newborn. In one of the pictures with the said newborn, the family dog was in the picture.

It makes me laugh every time I see family portraits with the family pet.

I don't get people who love their animals so much that they think of their animal as their child. Reallly? You didn't give birth to it. You can't claim it on your yearly income tax return. You can't have a meaningful conversation with it.

Another thing I don't get is when people say, "well I gotta get home to take care of the cat". No you don't. The cat can survive for a week by its self when you are on vacation. And now the cat can't survive without you for a few hours? What? Is it just your excuse to leave? If it is come up with a new one. That one is lame.

In my not-so-humble opinion the worst animals are dogs and cats. They are so gross! Here is a short list of the gross-ness of dogs and cats.

-They shed all over the place and no matter how clean you try to keep your house it-never-ever-ever is animal hair free.

-They (dogs) drool and the drool gets all over you.

-They most likely have little nasty bugs all over their fur.

-Those said nasty bugs get all over your furniture where you sit.

-Same nasty bugs get all over your BED where you SLEEP.

-Their hair gets everywhere. Have you ever been drinking something and look in your cup to find a nasty animal hair in your cup? Yeah, I have. Makes me wanna puke every time. It is so nasty. I can't bring myself to drink out of the cup again, even if it has been rinsed out. Ever been eating something and find animal hair in your food? I haven't....at least not to my knowledge...that too is really nasty. I can't even bring myself to think about that one too much. Talk about gag reflex.

-I hate. hate. hate. it when dogs bark for no reason. Those little yappy dogs are the worst. They bark as soon as you put them outside, even if there is no one outside to hear them. OH but TRUST me little dog who lives next door, I hear you at all hours of the day and night. Yes, I hear you at 3am when I am trying to sleep. I hear you at 6am when I am still trying to sleep. I hear you at 11pm when I am trying to go to sleep. (No this isn't the case tonight, it still bugs me though.)

-The thing I don't like more than dogs who bark for no reason, is the owners who let them bark for no reason. If you really don't what the darn dog, give it to someone who does. Preferably not my other next door neighbor.

-And the number 1 reason I don't like dogs and cats...they poop, they lick their bum, they lick your face, they rub their bum on your couch and on your BED. Would you ever put up with that kind of behavior out of one of your REAL children? Enough said.

What happened to common sense?

I really didn't know much about these light bulbs before watching this. Now I am going to pick one up the next time I am at the store and read the instructions on the box to see if what he is saying is really on the box.

Insurance Man

Last week we had someone come over to give us a quote on auto, home, and life insurance to see if we could be paying less than what we already do on all these. Mason is always interested in what people do for their jobs. Usually after observing some one doing their job, he wants to be what they are.
While the insurance agent was at our house, Mason made a "house insurance papers folder". Then he bugged me for a day or two to make him some "house insurance papers" just like he had. And according to Mason, the papers had to have a box in the top right corner for a picture of our house to go and a bunch of lines and boxes to write on and put checks in, just like he had. So I made this up real quick for him.

Once he had his paperwork, I had to sit at the table, in the same spot I sat while the insurance agent was here, and Mason asked me a lot of the same questions the agent asked. Mason then wrote down my answers.

The agent is coming over tomorrow and I am sure Mason will be right next to him with his paperwork writing down the things we talk about.

Laughter

This little girl is such a stink! She has one of the best laughs I have heard. She is very ticklish, especially on her naked little self. But every time I try to get her laugh on camera, she stops laughing. 'this is the best that I've been able to get.

The other day Jeff was telling Mason that his pajamas were too short for him not. Cooper then said, "All Mason's jammers are funky"

Yesterday while watching conference the Tabernacle Choir was singing. Mason said to Jeff, "Dad all the faces are white and there is one brown one".

They definitely keep us laughing!

Tent time

This what the boys are doing right now. I am always looking for fun things for them to do during the day while Shiloh sleeps. We set up their two man tent in the living room with the door towards the babysitter (TV). They are enjoying their lunch in there right now and I think I am going to enjoy me quiet time today and get some homework done.

4 month comparison

Here is Mason at 4 months. He weighed 17 lbs and was 27 3/4" long.

Cooper at 4 months. He weighed 21 lbs and was 26" long.
(Mason was 2 yrs 5 months in this pic)

Shiloh at 4 months. She weighs 16 lbs 5 oz and is 26" long.

Who looks like who?

Notice that Mason weighed more than Shiloh does at 4 months, but he was really tall, so he didn't look as chubby. I love my chubby babies!

4 Month check up

Shiloh had her 4 month well baby check up this morning.

Here are her stats:
26" long (96%)
16 lbs 5 oz (95%)
Head Cir. 16" (41%)

I know she is really chubby, but to me she is just right considering Cooper was 21 lbs at 4 months. They both were/are 26 " long at 4 months, so with that extra 4+ lbs on him he was REALLY chubby!

St. Patrick's Lunch

So I was feeling like a really uncool mom yesterday when Mason came home from school. He was telling me all about his friends having a Leprechaun visit their house in the middle of the night. Yeah....I didn't have anything planned. Loser. So what did I do to try to redeem myself? I made the boys green spaghetti.

They thought is was pretty cool looking, but wouldn't eat it because it was green.

4 Months

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Shiloh is 4 months old today. Here she is sporting her lucky shirt.

I love her eyes in this picture.

Look at her muffin top in this one. She is wearing 6--9 month clothes. These pants are a little tight in the thighs and gut. She is built just like Cooper. She probably won't be able to wear jeans until she is older and has walked off the chub. Poor girl, at least she can wear dresses. Cooper couldn't wear jeans until he was about 18 months old unless they were like 3T, but then they were really long.

Shiloh has switched from just sucking her thumb to sucking on her whole hand. She usually has at least two fingers in her mouth.

She is a very calm baby. I remember the boys being very calm too, which I was always grateful for. This time I find I am so much more grateful for her calm nature. If she is hungry as long as she can see me, she doesn't cry, she just follows me with her eyes. It's like she is saying, "OK Mom I know you see me I know you know I am hungry and so I'm just going to follow you with my eyes to make sure that I am on your to-do list". She is even this way when she is 1+ hours past her normal eating time.

She goes down for bed between 8 and9pm and usually wakes up only once to eat, then goes right back to sleep until around 8am. She takes one short nap in the morning (like 1 hour), then she takes a long nap in the afternoon (like 3-4 hour), and sometimes will take another short nap in the early evening.

Busy

I feel like I have not blogged in a long time. I think about it often but something else always takes precedence. I have been staying busy with taking care of the kids, trying to keep the house clean, my calling in young womens at church, and SCHOOL!

My life skills class is pretty easy, but man my Book of Mormon class keeps me busy reading. I am a slow reader, so it probably takes me longer to read through everything than it takes everyone else in the class. The reading assignments are never the same. Sometimes we are assigned 15 pages to read and 1 chapter in the student manual one week. Then the next week we will be assigned 40 pages and 3 chapters in the student manual. I'm not complaining, I am learning a lot! But it takes up most of my free time. Last week, the instructor got a head of himself and assigned us too much to read, so this week I don't have any reading that has to be done, just an assignment, hence the time to blog. I am almost done with my 1st semester!

OH and just in case anyone cares, I am feeling all better now. It took over a month to feel 100%. After I had whatever I had...mono or some other crazy virus, I got a nasty head cold that lasted a few weeks.

Here are a few pictures from the last couple of weeks.

When Shiloh takes a bath, the boys usually want to join her. This time I let them.

I caught you baby!
Shiloh doing her two of her favorite things. Watching TV and sucking on her thumb.

Last week Mason and Cooper took turns each day being grumpy, rude, and mean to me. This particular day, it was Cooper's turn, so I made Cooper take a time out in their room. When I came back to talk to him, this is what I found. The day before this it was Mason's turn, so I made Mason take a time out in their room and I found him asleep on his bed. Maybe I should make them take a time out in their room everyday!

Mason has been working his whistling skills. It gets really annoying. Really fast. He is getting pretty good at whistling a tune.

Dainty

I love girl clothes! They are cuter, they have tons more details, and there are a lot more styles. I never knew what I was missing until I had Shiloh.
Now, I know there is nothing dainty about Shiloh but I love love love this outfit and it sure is dainty! It has a matching blanket as well.

Look at the ruffles on the sleeves and neck.

The ruffles on the bum are so cute!

Attention!

Shiloh slept for 11 hours straight last night! This is a first. One that I hope continues. There have been a few nights when she has slept 7 or 8 hours straight and that is great too. But it is a wonderful thing to put her to bed, get a few things done, go to bed myself and wake up in the morning before her! This was the first night that I slept straight though, and got 8.5 hours of sleep in probably 7 months! Now that is something to

celebrate!