Colorado Dinosaur Museum

The boys and I spent the last weekend in Rifle, CO to visit my sister, Tuesdey (Don't be confused. That's her name--Tuesdey.) She has two boys that are also 14 months apart, although they are now 7 and 8, but she relates so much to my crazy life. My boys love hanging out with their older cousins and finally getting to do rough, crazy boy stuff. I loved having two older boys to entertain mine so that I could have an adult conversation and watch some movies without interuption.

While we were there, we went to Grand Junction and went to a dinosaur museum. They had so much fun! They still talk about it and ask when they can go again. When that was done, we went to Chuck E. Cheese's and then to the movie "UP." It was a really full day, but so worth it because the kids were really well behaved and Keenan actually thanked me for "letting us do this stuff." What a great weekend!

Here are some pics of the Dino Museum.

Holy Hair!

We've had quite a "hair-raising" week this week. (Pun completely intended.)

First, Tyrel has decided to sport a chicken-style mohawk. Every time he shaves his head he talks about it, but always shaves it off before the night is over. Well, this time it stayed. To my dismay, some tard at his job told him it is "awesome" and so now it is here to stay.

If that isn't bad enough, he convinced the boys that they wanted their hair like his. This backfired though. Keenan, so sure that he wanted hair like his dad's, got his cut into a mohawk. Unfortunately, his excitement only lasted until he actually saw himself in the mirror. At that point, he immediately burst into tears and sobbed, "I don't want it! Take it off!" So, we shaved his whole head. He was slightly more tolerant of this new look, but still a bit sensitive about being bald. Although we tell him how cool it looks (and so should any of you who see him) he really looks like a leukemia patient . . . or a little like the albino from "The Davinci Code."

Draiman also got a hair cut, but I am the only one sad about it. He is not bald, nor does he have a mohawk. But . . . I love, love, love his long surfer hair and I had just gotten it exactly how I like it. Unfortunately, with the warmer weather he was always complaining about being hot and his hair was constantly matted with sweat so I cut it short. I don't even get sad when I get my own hair cut off, but it was really hard watching his locks fall to the ground.

I'll post pictures of the new looks for all to view later.

Happy Birthday to Draiman!

I'm a little late posting this, but Draiman's 2nd birthday was on the 2nd of May. It's official. I no longer have any babies in my house. Now it is filled with the joys and constant noise and trouble of two little boys.

Draiman was a little sick so we didn't do anything big, but he had a good time anyway. As with all birthdays in our house, we started the day by making his cake. For months he has been asking for a Thomas the Train cake. I had even bought little cake toppers that would make it super easy. But . . . the day before his birthday he decided he really wanted a Spiderman cake. Good thing that's a super hero that I can actually draw! Despite the last minute change, it turned out okay and Draiman loved it (which is all that matters anyway).



That night we had a simple celebration with just our family at home. We had cake and ice cream and Draiman got to open his present from us.



The next evening the grandparents came over and, to his joy and wonderment, Draiman got to open more presents!



Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Spotten and Papa and Kelly for coming! Draiman loves his presents and it's always nice to have family so close to share times like this with us.

The Easter Bunny, The Dentist, and Mr. Fix-it

It's been awhile since we've posted so I thought I'd throw it all into one great big blog.

Easter

We had a great Easter. The kids had an Easter egg hunt at Grandma's house with all of their cousins on the Nebeker side. It was really cute watching them tromp around in the snow looking for eggs. As always, I was so impressed at how well the older kids take care of and help the little ones. What good kids are in this family. I always feel lucky to be a part of it.

The following Saturday, we took the boys to the anual Easter Egg "Chase" at the ball parks. The police department provides the event every year, filling 8,000 plastic eggs with candy and spreading them out on each of the four fields. The kids gather at their designated field, according to age range, and when the police siren sounds they all take off in a big, chaotic frenzie and gather eggs. It kind of resembles a hoard of locusts flying over a crop devastating everything in their path. It takes an hour to get everyone organized and ready and then it is over in about 2 minutes after the siren goes off, but the kids all love it.

Keenan didn't get very many eggs because he was too concerned about getting the pink and purple ones. That's my boy! Draiman only got some because Tyrel grabbed a couple for him. He was so excited by the kids running around like chickens with their heads cut off that he just ran and kept passing the eggs. Also, out of the hundreds of kids at the field that day, the newspaper asked if they could take his picture and it ended up on the front page! You can see his picture Here.

On Saturday night we dyed eggs. This was the first Easter since we've had the boys that Tyrel has been able to be home with us to dye eggs, so it was kind of special for our family. Draiman was too cute. Everytime we gave him a color, he piled every one of his eggs into it so they were stacked on top of each other. Some of the eggs didn't even touch the dye, and it overflowed onto the table!

Foolishly, I assumed that the boys would wake me up at the crack of dawn, as always to say that the sun was up, but instead, I woke up to the sound of little feet running around upstairs. (I'd like to note here that I've been trying without success for months to get the boys to go upstairs when they wake up in the mornings without waking me up and Keenan picks Easter to start.) So, I hurried and woke up Draiman and Tyrel and we went up to see their baskets and find the eggs that the Easter Bunny had hid. Then I made my traditional Easter breakfast quiche and took it over to my dad's to have breakfast with them. Tyrel got called in to work so we ended up spending the day there and had a barbeque that night with my brother and my dad and their families. It was a fun day and I'm grateful that we got to spend at least some of Easter with Tyrel this year.

The Dentist

Keenan went to the Mt. Ogden Surgical Center yesterday morning to have an insane amount of dental work done for a three year-old. We woke up bright and early (actually, it wasn't bright at all. It was 5am and snowing) and headed for South Ogden. They let me stay with him to get the "giggle gas" until he fell asleep and then I had to wait outside while they started the IV and did the procedure. He did not like the gas at all. The anesthesiologist said it smelled like giraffe feet and that's why they have such long necks. Keenan thought it was funny later that day, but not so much at the time. It all went really well and he came out with five fillings, one pulpectomy (the equivelant of a root canal, but on baby teeth), and three caps. He hacked and gagged a bit when he was recovering from the anesthesia, but he's been perfect since. No pain, but it's easy to tell he needs some time to get used to the caps. He licks them and moves his lips over them a lot. I think we'll be cutting back on the sugar in his diet, though.

Mr. Fix-it

I've been getting itchy to redecorate the house a bit and have been telling myself that now is not the time to spend money frivolously. So, I was secretly overjoyed when I could not get the walls in my bathroom clean and when I realized that the trim was pulling away from the wall, not to mention the fact that I've never been able to get them clean since we moved in. I decided that this was reason enough to paint and get new trim. I went to Wal-Mart and bought some paint (on sale, Tyrel, calm down) and painted the bathroom. I was going for a light, neutral brown tone, but it ended up being a bit "earthy." What I mean is that it looks like someone took a bucket of mud and very neatly spread it over my walls, but that's what you get when you buy bargain paint that was "mis-tinted." Nonetheless, my walls now look clean. Well . . . muddy, but there are no fingerprints and it did richen up the room a little.

I thought that with all of the brown it needed some white so I went and bought white trim. At this point, I had already painted the walls and bought the trim so Tyrel didn't argue. He just gave in, bought a mider box, and put up the trim for me. Now I don't know how many of you have ever experienced Tyrel's carpentry, but it is a bit . . . verbal. If something doesn't fit right, or look right, or nail right, words fly. I've learned to stay out of the room and just look in if I hear anything that sounded like something got thrown through the wall.

So, as Tyrel was in our tiny little bathroom swearing like a sailor, the boys and I were in the kitchen playing with play-do. It was a great teaching moment. The lesson? We never repeat anything we hear from daddy when he is building things. But, when it was all said and done, my bathroom was finished (except I have to touch up the ceiling where the paint seeped under the tape.) Everytime I go in, I decide that I like the brown a little more and I realized that muddy brown is the perfect color for a bathroom. It will hide anything (and I do mean anything) that two little boys can think of to smear on the wall. ;)

Happy Birthday Keenan!

March 2nd was Keenan's 3rd birthday! I always thought it was silly that moms got so emotional at things like this, but I was a little sad to know that Keenan is officially a real kid. (As opposed to the fake kid that he used to be.)

It started off a week ahead of time when Tyrel took Keenan to a hockey game with Uncle Shane and Kalen. Keenan has decided that he wants to be a hockey player so this was really fun for him. You'll have to ask Tyrel about the details of their excursion. They didn't tell me much except that they had fun, that I will go watch Keenan play when he gets big, and that Uncle Shane gets a little crazy at hockey games.

Because of the crowding problem we had in our tiny house last year, we decided to have separate parties for friends/cousins in the area and for grandparents. The Saturday before Keenan's birthday, we went to McDonald's for the "kid party." Lots of cousins and friends showed up and I think they all had fun.





We had Spongebob and Patrick cupcakes that Keenan, Draiman, and I made and individual ice cream cups. It was super easy and I thought they turned out kinda' cute!





On Keenan's actual birthday he woke up to find his present from Tyrel and me-a brand new Spiderman bicycle! We took him out to an empty parking lot to let him ride it later that day. It was so cute watching him figure out the pedals because he got so excited when he could make it move by himself.




Then, Keenan and I made his Spongebob cake (something he'd been anticipating for at least six months). Spongebob didn't have any arms or legs, but it was exciting for a three-year old anyway.




We ended the festivities with a visit from both sets of grandparents and, much to Keenan's wonder and excitement, more presents! It's sad how quickly the years have passed since we brought him home, but we had fun celebrating with him anyway!

Valentine's Day

Although Tyrel was working on Valentine's Day so we couldn't celebrate together (not that we ever celebrate Valentine's Day) the boys and I had a fun day. A couple of days before we made cookies with Annie (Keenan and Draiman's cousin). They were really cute, but I wouldn't reccomend that anyone actually eat them. Let's just say their were a lot of fingers in mouths and noses in between each cookie. Plus, Keenan really liked putting the jar of sprinkles in his mouth and shaking it onto his tongue.



Next, we made paper valentines out of pre-cut hearts, markers, and shapes they could glue on. We also printed out their pictures and glued them on the fronts. We plan to give them to the grandparents, but knowing me I won't actually get them out till next year.


When Valentine's Day came, we started the day with pink, heart-shaped pancakes. But, after a couple of batches, I got tired of making the hearts and we just had regularly-shaped, pink pancakes.


After breakfast, the boys got their Valentine's gifts from me and Tyrel. It was just a heart-shaped container that had M&Ms in it and a box of Sweethearts, but the boys thought it was AMAZING.




Later, we checked the mail on a hunch that there might be a package from Grandma Spotten, and of course, there was! (BTW, Dianne, Keenan absolutely loves Transformers right now and Bumblebee is his favorite so you couldn't have picked a better Valentine's card for him.) They are always so excited to get their very own mail.

So, even if I couldn't spend the day with my Valentine, I couldn't have picked two better replacements. We had a good time!

Mom on Strike

A word of warning: This is not a happy or cute post. It is me venting to the only source around me that won't talk back or argue. If you don't like reading about people whining, stop reading now.

So, I want to first say that I love my family and I would never trade my children for anything. BUT . . . there are times that I just wish they had an off button that I could push and then stuff them in a closet until I was ready to turn them back on again. I have been feeling so tapped out this week- like I can't take the sound of one more whine or hear "mommy" or "did you cook dinner?" one more time. Am I the only one who gets this way? Does that make me a terrible mom?

I think it's because I just got done taking care of and cleaning up after a bunch of puking Nebekers. I don't think there is one room in my house that did not get "marked". Plus, Draiman is HORRIBLE when he's sick. He is up through most of the night and during the day throws one tantrum after another with no discernable cause. At one point, I heard him crying and didn't even go check. I just sat on a chair, staring at the floor thinking, "If it's bad enough, he'll come get me anyway. Geez I hope it's not because he threw up again. Is he too little to make him clean it up himself?" Not only have I been over-needed, but I am incredibly sleep deprived and everytime I think, "Everyone is better now" Draiman wakes up puking again. This is the flu that never ends!

I've decided that if grocery store employees in California can have a union to make sure they are treated fairly and not overworked, moms should have one too. I want a guarentee that I will be compensated for graveyard shifts and overtime. I also want a department to take care of my family's grievances. Most importantly, I want a guarantee that I will get at least two days a week off with compensation for those weeks that I do not and for doing especially disturbing jobs, such as shaking vomited-up spaghetti out of a blanket or scraping it out from between couch cushions.
Finally, I want to be able to go on strike when I feel that those demands have not been adequately met.

Anyway, I've rambled long enough. Maybe I just needed to put it out there so I could see how silly I am being so I can snap out of it. Next week will better (how could it not be?).

The Things Children Say

As we were watching Wall-E the other day during the scene when Eve was shooting at Wall-E. Keenan, the great philosopher that he is, said "Thats naughty. We don't shoot at Wall-E, we just shoot people."
He won't be touching a gun for a couple more years.

We Suck At This Blogging Thing

So we haven't talked to most of you since New Years. I always enjoy getting together with the family.
Anyway everything is going pretty good we are just chillin here in E-town. Not much has really happened I am still working alot and Bobbi is still going to school and taking care of the demon spawn.
I had to work on Super Bowl Sunday and didn't get to see much of the game. I did hear the last Steelers drive on the radio. YAY Steelers!
Keenan has decided that he wants to play hockey now. His only hang up as far as he is concerned is he doesn't know how to ice skate.
Draiman is still as entertaining as you all think he is. We think he is a pain in the a**. He has decided he can do everything "all by self" he gets just as frusterated as we do.
I purchased a new shotgun a few weeks ago but I haven't been able to shoot it yet. If you care it is a Benelli Nova pump action.
We have all been able to poop through a coffee filter with out it tearing for the last few days. If you would like more details on this just give us a call or something. I don't feel this is the proper platform to get into too mamy details.
So thats it for now I will be leaving other random noncoherent messages later so keeping looking for them.

bobbi's playlist