The worst day ever.....

I may have been known to overreact once or twice, but as days go, this one was pretty bad.

Strike 1: Fleas

Tim has a really stressful day because he's proposing his thesis tomorrow, but I convince him to come look at a rental property with me first, and then I'll take him to school. We're looking for a 3-bedroom house in our neighborhood. The last one we looked at was covered in beer bottles and was pretty dirty, but at least, I thought, it could only go up from there, I was wrong. Me and Oli followed the realtor into probably the filthiest place I've ever seen, the stench was overwhelming and it was soooo gross. To be polite I followed her to the next room, I should have just walked out the door as soon as I stepped inside. Suddenly she yells "get out and take your baby" but it's too late, we're covered in fleas. I am so unbelievably mad I don't know what to do. I try and get them off my feet, poor Oli is wearing flip flops and those little buggers pinch. Tim gets out and tries to help but we don't want to get any on him. We do our best, say goodbye and race home, trying to get as little as possible on our car. We strip down in the back yard and hang our clothes on the fence, I am SO itchy, it's horrid. Shower, change clothes. There's still a few fleas on the car seats, I'm so furious. Drop Tim off at school very late and go to the car vac. Great start to the day.

Strike 2: Power is on the fritz.

Over the weekend some power blowout or something caused all of the power in Lubbock to go down for several hours. For the next few days none of the water in Lubbock was safe to drink and we had to boil it before using it. This also meant a lot of restaurants were without power and not able to serve food/cold drinks. No biggie. Everything seemed to be up and working until yesterday afternoon when everything electrical in our house started tripping out. The dishwasher was going psycho and the fridge kept making weird noises. The lights kept dimming and brightening and the AC kept turning on and off. I unplugged all our electronics and went out to walk around the mall. Of course every single traffic light was out on the way there! A good time at the mall with friends (after a few tantrums from JJ and a dropped ice cream) and we go to pick up Tim.

Strike 3: No AC or Jimmy Johns

When we get home it is HOT. The AC never turned back on and appears to not be working anymore. Of course the guy can't possibly come out to look at it until tomorrow, of course. This would not be that big a deal except that we live in Lubbock, and it's 100 degrees and its July, so it is! I've had it. I'm heading to Jimmy Johns with some friends and the kids whilst Tim tries to figure out the AC. We get to Jimmy Johns "I'm sorry ma'am we're not serving food right now" oh their power is out too, nooooooo! So we head somewhere else. I'm not very good company, today has been awful and I'm feeling sorry for myself.

It's Tuesday morning and I'm at home with the 3 boys waiting for the AC guy. Tim is about to propose his thesis to his committee on campus. If they give him the go ahead he can get it over with and hopefully defend it in 4 weeks and then he'll be done with his masters. He deserves it, he's worked his tail off. I'm hoping today is a better day.

The O Bros

My little baby is 4 months old!! How did this happen? Every time I look at him he's bigger and I just want him to stay tiny.

4 month stats:

Height: 25 inches- 60th
Weight: 14 pounds 5 ounces-40th

Any body that knows Eli knows he is the happiest, calmest, loveliest baby  that there ever was. This cute boy smiles at me and snuggles me all day, I don't think I could be happier. Eli, here's what we know about you so far:

• You love to smile and laugh
• You are starting to coo and baby babble (cutest sounds ever)
• You are really patient with your brothers, who bug you constantly, but I can tell you love them because your eyes light up with they talk to you
• You like to sleep or sit with your hands clasped together
• You are probably the most chilled out person I've ever met
• You have a birth mark on the back of your head that we thought was a heat rash!
• You are the only person I know that has two totally different ears

 Ear 1 (cute and small)

 Ear 2 (big and sticks out!)

I feel like I'm always talking about Eli, so here's a quick update on the big boys.

JJ

Poor JJ is definitely having some middle child syndrome going on, mixed with being a 2-year old, mixed with his fiesty personality, he can't seem to catch a break at the moment. However, when he's not being Mr. 2-year old and throwing a tantrum, he is a very lovely person. JJ is definitely the playboy of the family. I can tell he's going to be sporty, fun, confident and cause lots of trouble with the ladies. JJ is always game for pretty much anything, when Oli hangs back, JJ goes for it, we love that about him. And another thing, JJ is gorgeous....when he's not doing the crying face (which he likes to do a lot).  Some days I am just in despair because I don't know what to do about his behaviour, but it doesn't mean I love him any less, I just hope he grows out of it soon! JJ has a lot of love for his brothers. He smothers Eli with hugs and kisses and loves to wrestle and hang out by Oli. JJ also loves to sing, and knows a lot of action songs which he prefers to sing in the car and at bedtime. He is now in his big boy bed and we hope to be potty training soon!

The lovely boy

And the rest of the time!

Oli

Oliver talks ALL THE TIME. He is constantly asking me questions about every possible subject, I don't know how his mind has time and space to come up with all this stuff, but he does! Oli is smart, he loves to learn. He is going to be a marine biologist or a bug-guy. He loves all animals and is fascinated by them, especially sharks, bugs and dinosaurs. He can be shy. He does not like to try new foods or go to unfamiliar places. Oliver can be very winy, and it drives me insane! He still loves his crab (yes, the big stuffed ugly yellow creature we bought when he was 6 months old). Oli is a bit of a geek, and is way into all the marvel comic superheros right now, that's his favourite, the old school superhero cartoons on netflix. Oli loves his younger brothers and really nurtures and takes care of them. He helps JJ out by telling me when JJ needs something and when he holds Eli he bounces him and says "its OK, Oli's here" it seriously brings tears to my eyes.

Goofball

I look at pictures of my three boys and I have a lot of different emotions. I still can't believe they're all mine. I'm so grateful for them, I feel really lucky. I'm excited for them to grow up to see the kind of men they will be, but terrified for the process. I can picture how I want them to be but I want them to choose their own way. I will love them no matter what. I can't believe how different they all are. I didn't know I had the capacity to love anyone this much, let alone three times over.

I guess I need to remember all of this on the days where I'm going crazy!

A birthday and impromptu trip to Utah!

Happy Birthday to me

I was sad about my birthday this year because 26 seems a LOT older than 25, but it was actually a really good one! Tim planned a surprise facial and massage for me at a spa and then we went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse.

Sadly I ate no steak because I'm still dieting, 

but my salad ended up being ginormous and was 

probably more calories than a steak anyway!

 They brought a saddle out and made me sit on it 

whilst singing happy birthday--only in Texas!

6 years :)

 Impromptu visit to Utah

We recently decided that we were in need of a bigger car having gotten sick of the boys fighting and having zero space. So we put our car online and found a buyer that day.....in Utah! Soooo I had this crazy idea. That we would drive our car to Utah, sell it, and then find a van to drive home, all within a few days. The buyers gave us the go-ahead and within a few hours we packed up and went for it!

We decided to do the 15 hour drive all in one go through the night. Tim was a champ, I was a lightweight. Tim drove all through the night and finally at 7 in the morning I took over for the last 200 miles, and I could not stay awake, it was awful! I never want to do that again. We decided it would also be really fun to surprise Tim's dad by just showing up, so we planned with Cicily to meet at Brick Oven in Provo. We arrived on July 4th around 10am and had some time to kill so we had a crazy fun day. We had breakfast, went to the mall, had lunch, went to a movie, and played at the park.

I miss Utah! It's so beautiful and we have family there. Here's some pictures of our trip:

 

Happy Daddy Day!

What a great day.

I gave Tim his father's day gifts last night. This canvas photo:

I love this picture because we took it at the Armed forces bowl last December and this is the winning moment of the game. Tim also got a new BYU jumper (sweater not jumpsuit LOL) and a preseason college football magazine.

Today was really great, we played all day then had bbq for dinner with good friends and played on the trampoline outside for a while. I really wanted Father's day to be special for Tim this year, he's such a great dad. Anyone that knows him or see's him with the boys can instantly tell how amazing he is. I couldn't have asked for a more involved, helpful, and caring husband. As I am typing this I can hear him putting the kids to bed and ready them a story, lovely.

Tim and his boys

Oh also, today while we were outside Oli ran up to me and said: "I found a creature with spikes." So I ran over to see and this little guy was there! Tim informed us all he's a horned frog but is technically a lizard. I think he was munching on the ants (thanks buddy!) Tim also informed us not to touch him because he squirts blood from his eyes when he's mad, nice....

Besties

I've been holding off doing this blog post because it's too sad and it means our friends are really gone. We said goodbye to our lovely friends the Iversons last week, they're done with Lubbock and are moving on. We've known them since we got here 2 years ago and it's been awesome. They're the kind of friends you call at one in the morning because you need to go to the emergency room, the kind of friends who will drop what they're doing anytime to help you out, the kind of friends you share a hotel room with (LOL), the kind of friends you can joke around with, be honest with, and really be yourself with. Not only will Tim and I miss Wade and Lindsay TONS but our boys have lost some really great friends too. Here's some pics (I had so many I just chose the best ones):

Oli, Brooklyn & Weston, Halloween 2011

Riding the train, Easter 2011

 In Rosa's

 Chillin in Spoonful

 Bahama Bucks, a few days before leaving :(

 LOL

 

Lovely ladies who threw me a baby shower

 

 Riverwalk in San Antonio last summer

 Weston & JJ, playing in the tent

 Lindsay's birthday dinner

 All the kiddo's

 Best Buddies

 More best buddies

Brooklyn, our favourite babysitter

Adorable-ness!

When can we come to Arizona???!!!

Recent fun

I always say to Tim "there's nothing to do in Lubbock." Here's some recent pics that prove me wrong!

 Sometimes we take JJ to lunch when Oli is at school

Yummy firehouse subs

Dressing Eli up like a superhero

 Cute JJ shopping at the Science Spectrum 

(our local kids museum)

More shopping

Being afraid of the big T-rex

 Again at the museum

Oli being my little biologist

 I forgot to post these before.

JJ did this jumper on his birthday!

So brave

Swimming with the cousins! 

Makayla, JJ & Porter

 JJ is a serious water baby

 Cute Myra

 Mr Lawson

Porty Pie, or as he likes to call himself "Ports"

 Us!

 Love this pool, we've had so much fun there already this summer

Bros (and Oli's tush)