Proactiv Destroys Towels and Summer Is Going Too Fast...!

I wish the Proactiv commercials would say WARNING: chemicals may cause discoloration in towels.  Any towel that isn't white has been tainted with bleach, or so one would think when looking at 'em.  In reality, it's whatever is in Proactiv.  So if it doesn't kill your acne, it will kill your linens.  I have to figure out when to buy new towels and how to prevent Andy's face from touching 'em.  A few times, drops of Proactiv have even dropped on our bath mats, causing speckles of bleach that all look orange.  Maybe we need orange towels instead.  For now, our family is just really into tie-dying our towels with the same shade of orange.  Thanks Proactiv!

In other news, where did summer go?!  It's almost all gone!!  I can't get enough of my boys.  I love 'em to pieces!  I love being a mom of two.  I guess you could say it took me a while for motherhood love to kick in.  I loved my son, but I didn't always love being with him.  (I love you, I'm just not in love with you.. ha!)  I'm sort of a homebody, so I think it took me a while to jump on the bandwagon of going out a lot.  Blame it on my upbringing, kids aren't supposed to go out often according to my traditional Chinese parents.  I was having a conversation with Andy about summertime and I revealed to him that I didn't always love summers.  Summers growing up for me meant a big super workbook, a lot of Disney movies, and a few camps and family trips that never took up enough of my time.  Some of the fun that Jordan has in a day is equivalent to the load of fun I'd have all summer growing up.  It's not that my parents didn't love me and take us out to different places, it's just that my mom wasn't a stay at home mom, so we really only had the weekends, and well part of that time is for them to run errands and relax and so I can remember vividly trips with the family or friends that were raging fun!  Sadly, those only took up about 25% of the entire summer and I couldn't wait to get back to school.

As a new mom, I took for granted the freedom and luxury of being a stay at home mom and only seemed to see the chores I had to do.  I am flabbergasted at how much we can load into a day's worth of fun sometimes.  You know, they shouldn't call it SAHM (stay at home mom), they should call it, GOATTM (go out all the time Mom), because I honestly don't feel like I'm home often!  Maybe it's cuz of the summer, maybe it's because cousins and family are filling up our social calendars, but stay at home, we definitely do not, at least not often.

Anyway, I took a short night shift tonight so I'm off to bed.  Sweet dreams.  Enjoy July photos...

perfecting his swing... 

 3 months old!

 flirting with Abby

 bubbles in the jacuzzi!

 the shirt says it all: Big Guy!

 channeling Shrek for the Pioneer Day firework extravaganza (seriously a 45 minute firework show!)

Science Camp for a day with kids in the neighborhood... we live in an awesome place!

 Souplantation with Bubba and the girls while the boys went camping

 naked glory!

 Jordan loves his brother.. and watching TV with him...

Impeccable Timing

This morning, my husband blessed our second son, Adam Watson.  In our Church, kids aren't eligible for baptism until the age of 8, believing that to be the age when kids can discern and choose for themselves.  So when a baby is born, a father is able to bless him and that is when the child is added to the Church records.  Well, three months later Adam is finally on the record as a part of our family!

We were lucky to have so much family nearby for the blessing (for Jordan's, a lot of people had to drive or fly in), and since I'm the only member in my family... I'm glad we're in Utah for Bubba's blessing because in place of my side of the family, we had lots more of Andy's side and friends who also came (like the Rasmussens who were there for Jordan's baby blessing too!) because they all live near by us now!  It was a bit sad that we missed our brother-in-law, Jeff, by three days, but Bubba was getting too big for his blessing outfit which May had to extend the back so we could button it for... at least we'll all be together for my new niece (coming soon) Labor Day weekend.

The morning was quite hectic... I'm surprised we made it through .. we scrambled to get everyone out the door and I came home after the first hour (our church is three hours) to get some of the food ready and change Bubba into his outfit.  Looking at the photos, I am unhappy with my flat hair.  So far, I have had flat hair for two blessings of my children.. we'll have to see if I succeed with the next child.  We changed Bubba into his blessing outfit right before the Sacrament started (which is when he's blessed), and Jordan into his nice new white pants to match Bubba at the same time.  Well, to my surprise, Jordan's pants are still white (even after eating earlier today) but .... Bubba had a blowout a mere seconds before he was to be blessed.  It was not pretty.  He has impeccable timing.  But he sure looked absolutely adorable in the outfit my mother-in-law made for him.  I was thinking he'd just wear Jordan's outfit since Jordan only got to wear it once and it was also made by her and soooo cute.  But she would not let that be, and made him the cutest outfit as well!  Now I'll have to keep good care of both outfits so they can give it to their sons to wear for their blessings.  Hehe.

One thing is definite - is a blessing I will never forget.

I'm so grateful we have a home to host family and friends in without it being super duper crowded.  The kids were able to run around and go to the den but also hang out in the living room.  We have a large enough kitchen for the food and a dining room and living room for guests to eat in.  So nice!  I love having a home!!!

As for the spread, I was quite unsettled for a while about what I wanted to do.  We finally settled on pulled pork sandwiches and I even had the energy and time to make a "Welcome Bubba" sign and put his announcement (not yet mailed) in a frame along with some $1 chalk labeled tin cans for the utensils.  That felt like a lot to em.  Next time, I will try to cut some fresh flowers from our yard to put on the table too!

Tammy, my sister-in-law, helped me with some delicious pina colada punch and my father-in-law and her made cole slaw to go with the pulled pork sandwiches I made in the crock pot.  I also made some almond jelly with fruit cocktail (it's like the Chinese version of being Mormon).  For the cake, we went with Costco, and some friends brought additional desserts.  I was nervous about not having enough food, but we had plenty and too much cake!  Cake for days....

We tried to get a photo of the spread but from the looks of it, were unsuccessful (they just disappeared from the memory card).  Oh well.

We did, however, bust out our trusty tripod and got some great photos!  A few people had left the party already, but here the rest of us are!

what a beautiful garage you have! 

why thank you... thank you so much...

all pointing to Bubba.. I always think I'm taller than I am.. I am bending here, thinking I would cover someone.. who I am not sure.  

us with Tammy and the girls (Jeff to be photoshopped in) and May and Dennis

us with the Barkers

us with Jan (Ike to be photoshopped in)

us with the Los (Ronny to be photoshopped in)

cousin love

Jordan would rather jump off the couch than take photos

ready... set...

grandparent love

Nostalgic for the 90's

I couldn't help but notice a ton of people in my Instagram and Facebook feed who went to the Grove in LA to watch the Backstreet Boys last night.  I got nostalgic and started watching this ten minute video of 1999... what a trip.  It's basically junior and senior year... high school...

Night shift is over.. good night!

http://ilovethe90s.tumblr.com/

Sucked Up By the Bachelorette

I know Trista was the first bachelorette and that some guy named Bentley ticked everyone off a few seasons ago.. but besides that.. I haven't really been on the Bachelorette or Bachelor bandwagon.  Well, that is.. until now.

Brooks Forrester, the man who dumped the bachelorette recently, was one of the marketing sales representatives who presented a marketing proposal to the company I work for (we didn't end up going with them, but halfway through Brooks had to sign off anyway because of the show hahaha).  So I've talked to him on the phone, have e-mails from him in my inbox, and somehow, though he has no idea what I look like and probably doesn't even remember me... I feel like I owe it to him to watch.  And so I have been sucked in.  I have watched at least 5 episodes this season (that's a lot for moi!).

It's also a great thing to run in the background while I work at night, but now I really want to know what happens!  Will Brooks be coming back??  Who knows?!  I will in a week or so!

Can I Be French and Let My Armpit Hair Grow Amuck Now?!

There's been a lot of buzz about how the French parent and how their kids are better behaved.  One of they key differences noted is that they don't let their children snack and therefore, they eat better in restaurants and at specific mealtimes.  When Andy and I first read all the buzz about a year ago, we agreed but thought - well sometimes you just have to let your kids snack if you're out and about and your kid doesn't eat normal kid food (sandwiches really).  But lately, I've taken another more specific go at French parenting and the results have been fantastic.  So much that I am just waiting for the American trend to follow the French with their uninhibited armpit hair.

Before we even attempted the French ways, we first realized we had to control our son's sugar intake.  Just like his dear mother, he has a lot of energy and any bit of sugar (and probably caffeine in the future) wires him beyond normal 2 year old hyper.  His stamina and reaction to chastisement doesn't help the situation.  He thinks it's hilarious when our voices are raised and we get mad, so we've tried our best to stop (because he also mimics us and yells "don't do that Mommy!" when he's upset or yells "no!" at us).  Afte reading another article about how the French try to adjust the foods their kids eat, I thought about what Jordan had been eating lately.  We kept attributing his bad behavior to the transition during the move and messed up sleep schedule, but then I thought about what he had been eating lately.

Junk food while we were moving.  Carbonated drinks cuz .. well just cuz we are having it.  Cookies cuz everyone welcomed us into the neighborhood with some!  Snacks because we were constantly out and about trying to get stuff for the home.  Oh my.

I first began adjusting his breakfast meal.  I stopped giving him Trix or Apple Jacks (which he LOVESSSS and still asks for) and instead his week's breakfast so far has consisted of Raisin Bran, Chex Mix, boiled eggs with garlic toast and multigrain toast with Nutella and bananas (sugary but still less than the sugary cereals).  There might not be a great control in my experiment, but I'm calling it a success.  He actually listens when you say 1-2-3 or big boy timeout (timeout sitting at the bottom of our pantry closet with the door closed which is quite dark) and hasn't been incredible difficult like he was the past few weeks.  He can sit down to read or color albeit it anywhere from two to ten minutes top.  He gets thirsty or hungry before lunch around 12:30 (when he's absolutely famished) and has some water, grapes, or a tiny bit of snacks (we use the stackable Mr. Brown's snack variety pack which only allows us to pack a tiny bit of each snack).  So far he's sat down to eat lunch now strapped into his booster seat so he can be tall like Mommy and Daddy (a persuasive technique that has really benefited us) and eaten multiple entire meals with fruit and water.  As  reward, he sometimes gets a few Nila wafers after or some goldfish, but since he's already eaten his main meal, he's pleased with a few and the sugar intake is controlled.  And, if I wait until he's truly hungry at lunch, he really wants to eat.  He asks over and over, "eat Mommy?" and willingly leaves any "fun" he may be having so he can eat or drink when hungry or thirsty.

To further support my hypothesis that Jordan is sensitive to sugar... yesterday, Jordan didn't nap, but he quietly played in his room and ate a big lunch and dinner, both of which were not too artificially sugar infested.  He was excited to eat watermelon, cantaloupe, beans and ground pork with cheese in a hamburger bun.  Man... the French are pure genius.  Oui oui.

Now if only I could grow my armpit hair without everyone looking at me funny.

The Starbucks of Utah

is....7-Elevens!  Awesome blossom, fantastic elastic, slurpees whopees!!  Everywhere I turn, there's a 7-Eleven, sometimes within two or three blocks of each other.  For a non-coffee drinker like myself (seriously that stuff makes your teeth nasty and breath reek after a long time too!), this is wonderful news!  To be honest, I've never seen the appeal of Starbucks, was always a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf type of gal, so this is fabulous news to me.  Thank you Utah!  

Perks of Living By Family

Free babysitters!

Delicious spontaneous dinners!

Cousins for Jordan and Bubba! (this summer at least...)

Sunday dinners with everyone!

Free fireworks! (Andy's uncle is a fireworks dealer)

Help with rides while hubs is at work (for errands like my car getting fixed)!

And most recently... an arcade and pool table!  Because Andy's aunt, Jan, who moved into a new home around the same time we did that is less than 2 minutes away, just got an arcade put in her house along with the pool table already there!  She didn't get it herself, hahaha ... some uncles decided it was necessary and got it from DI and put it there.  We're not complaining!

I LOVEEEE Bust-a-Move!  It's my one favorite video game (I'm not a video game person at all...) and it brings back sweet memories of playing with my BFF at her house with their joysticks!  Fun fun fun!!!!!

So far I've beat EVERYONE.

Jordan is way excited!!!

I am up this late because I just finished working and now I have to go feed Bubba.. 

Cheers!