pint-sized helper

Isaac loves to "help" me unload the dishwasher. In fact, sometimes he will go into the kitchen, open the dishwasher and start unloading it without me! His favorite thing is unloading the silverware. Since he can't see into the drawer he just throws everything in there (whether it belongs in there or not!) Sometimes he skips the drawer altogether and puts the silverware into random cupboards. It's always fun to pull out a mixing bowl and see it full of forks and spoons!



I know that it takes me more time to fix Isaac's "little helps" than it would have taken to do it myself the first time, but how can I complain when someone so small just wants to help mommy? I love it! :o)

fancy footwork and haircuts

I gave the boys haircuts a couple of days ago. I can't believe how long I let Eli's hair get. It was looking so untidy. Isaac's hair wasn't quite as long as Eli's but his haircut turned out very cute, also. I put a couple of picture of the boys before their haircuts and a couple of pictures after their haircuts. It was really hard to get Isaac to stay still (again!). I also put in a couple of videos of the kids dancing. The first video they are dancing to one of Shailey's favorite songs (Sweet Escape by Gwen Stefani-she is so silly!). The second video is right after watching Ratatouille. They really liked the menu music. (I know! So silly!)
*OK, so I uploaded the videos to blogger and they both worked in the preview of my post but didn't work in the actual post. I'm going to try uploading to google videos again. :o)

Isaac before his haircut and ready for church.

Eli and Shailey reading books before church with Eli's hair looking pretty long. (Keep in mind that this was before church so his hair looked somewhat decent. And his head was down so you can't see how much it would stick up in the back.)

Eli's short haircut!

Issac's short haircut and looking very mischievous!

Here's the video of the kids dancing to the Ratatouille menu music:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2517669429846753778

And FINALLY...here's the video of them dancing to Gwen Stefani:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=80535456474998069

tagged! a blogger first!

Talented and Gifted...or just Tag
So Emily tagged me and it's the first time I've been tagged since starting a blog. So here goes:

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago:

1. Trying to graduate high school (it's a long story...it involves a year and a half of trying home school and then spending the remaining 2 1/2 years of public high school correcting that decision)

2. Learning to drive (I didn't get my license until I was 19...I know, I know)

3. Involving myself in two different choirs that I LOVED! (Concert Choir and Kaleidoscope...I miss choir!)

4. Dating (Although I look back and wish I had done more group dating)

5. Playing a lot of video games and watching a TON of movies!


5 Things on my to-do list today:

1. Clean my room!

2. Work on curtains for Shailey's and the boys' rooms

3. Figure out what I'll make for dinner tonight before dinner time (I'm so bad with this!!)

4. Read some of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (I started it yesterday and could NOT put it down!!)

5. Get milk at the grocery store (Yes, my life is so exciting and glamorous! Don't you all envy me?)


5 Foods I enjoy:

1. Chocolate!!

2. Pretty much anything with chicken

3. Pretty much any kind of potatoes

4. Breads...I LOVE breads!

5. Junk food...I am a total junk food junkie...it's so bad!

5 Bad habits:

1. Video games (Yes, I still play video games. I love them!)

2. I hate cleaning and I let the house get out of control (I will super clean for a whole day and then get so burned out from that that I won't clean anything for a couple of days...so bad!)

3. I procrastinate WAY too much..

4. I'm always picking and biting at my nails and the dry skin around them (Yuck! It's such a gross habit!! I hate it!)

5. Neglecting myself (I can't be the only mom out there who takes care of her family's needs before her own...and then sometimes doesn't have TIME for her own! Oh the days when I could shower at my leisure...)


5 of my favorite toys:

1. Do my kids count? They are SO much fun!

2. My camera (I LOVE to take pictures of my family!)

3. My computer (I love the internet and my Finale Notebook program)

4. My keyboard (Yeah! I'll be getting my REAL piano back in a couple of weeks!!)

5. My TV (I'm sorry, but I just don't think I could live without TV)

5 People I tag:

1. Amanda

2. Amy

3. Diane

4. Rachel

5. Brenley

potty training woes

Well, I don't know about all the rest of you parents out there, but potty training has been the hardest and most frustrating part about being a parent for me. When we started potty training Shailey at about age 2-2 1/2 it was a lot of ups and downs and we finally gave up. And you know what happened? She finally did it once she ready just after her third birthday. So I came to realization that you can't force a child to learn if they don't want to.

So, what do you do if you have a child that wants to learn...but isn't ready? For the longest time Eli has been so excited about using the potty like his big sister. He wants to wear big boy underwear...but the poor kid just does not GET it. He has gone potty on the toilet about three times in the last few months and I think we got lucky those three times. I just don't think he understands that feeling of "Oh! I have to go now!" I have been trying the fifteen minute timer thing of taking him in every fifteen minutes and not only has it NOT been working (he goes in his pull-ups inbetween each fifteen minute increment) but it is extremely tiring for me to take him in every fifteen minutes. I feel like I get nothing accomplished during the day. I feel so bad for him because he has the desire to learn I just don't think he's totally ready. He hasn't had that "Aha! So this is how it all works!" moment yet.

Isaac is interested in the potty, too, believe it or not. But he's not interested in going in the potty. He's interested in putting in the potty. That kid is fascinated with throwing anything he can get his hands on into the toilet. Let me just give you a sampling of what he has thrown into the toilet: fingernail clippers, toothpaste (thank goodness no toothbrushes have been thrown in there!), shampoo, chapstick, lip gloss, a quarter of a roll of toilet paper (and yes, I did fear that the toilet was going to overflow after that one), several small toys, and probably the most interesting one to date was a small can of green chiles. (Gross, huh? Did you really think I was going to use those chiles after that?? I don't CARE if they're sealed in a can! Yuck!) So I have to keep a watchful eye on him since he always seems to do it when I'm in the bathroom, too. Now you'd think that if I were a halfway decent parent that I would be able to catch my child putting something into the toilet if I were standing right there, right? But I'm telling you that this kid has freakishly fast reflexes and can seriously throw something in there in the blink of an eye. I'm just lucky that he hasn't figured out flushing. So I may have to buckle down and buy one of those child safety locks for the toilet. I can just see it now though: Shailey comes crying to me that she had an accident because she couldn't get the toilet lid up! That'd be a whole new mess of problems to deal with. Oh the (un)joys of potty training!

the boman clan can-can

This is how the Bomans can-can!

disco!

Danny can really move!

those kids can dance!

I think this is my favorite video. Shailey is so cute and Eli looks so dapper! I love it! :o)

is it christmas yet?

So it always seems that once Halloween is over with I'm always super anxious for Thanksgiving to hurry and come because I love to eat. And then once Thanksgiving is over (and I mean literally the day after) I start decorating for Christmas. I love Christmas! It is the best holiday of the entire year in my opinion. And I'm super excited this year since we'll be making the drive up to Oregon to visit our family. It's going to be great! But until then I'm trying to enjoy the fall. I've been working more on actual "fall decorations". I made an autumn candle arrangement that I really love but more importantly, was super easy. I got the idea off of http://www.bhg.com/ which just so happens to be one of my favorite websites. It looks better in person, I promise. :o)I'm not very good at coming up with creative ways to decorate for fall so all I did was put pumpkins on the mantel. Not very creative, I know. But I did glue the leaves and tie the ribbons and raffia on them to dress them up a little more.And to complete my rather sparse decorations: a wreath. I actually made it a couple of years ago. But it's festive nonetheless, right?

Danny and I will be attempting our first Thanksgiving on our own. So if anyone knows how to cook a turkey, you mind filling me in?? I've heard a lot about brines and such so I may go that route...I'm still not sure. Anyway, we're kind of excited to be doing Thanksgiving on our own this year. I hope it will all turn out ok!

Yesterday we met up with Danny in Anaheim. He was visiting with some customers down there so we spent the evening at Disneyland. What a difference a weekday makes! The park was SO dead! We went on so many rides that were too busy the last time we were there. We all had a really great time even though the park closed early. We felt like we did more in those four hours than we did an entire Saturday. The little roller coaster in Toon Town was so dead that we were able to ride on it over and over without getting off. It was great!

On another note, I finished the first Harry Potter book last week and I really enjoyed it. It's interesting how there are so many small differences between the book and the movie that make them both unique even though they are the same story. I'm anxious to check out the second book at the library until I can borrow some of them from my sister during Christmas.

knock knock!

So Isaac loves to mimic everyone, especially his older brother and sister. And since Shailey and Eli are so into making up their own 'knock knock' jokes, it didn't take long for him to figure out how to tell his own. Here's a video of him telling me 'knock knock' jokes.

halloween

We all had a fun Halloween this year. We went to our ward Halloween activity on Tuesday and then Trick-or-Treating last night. I think the costumes turned out just fine. I sewed Eli's pants and coat and I took the old skirt off Shailey's costume and stitched on a new skirt. I also added extra embellishments to make it more sparkly. It was fun! For Isaac's costume all I had to do was make it a little longer in the legs by adding feet extensions. He made a cute dinosaur but I had a hard time getting him to hold still for pictures!
Isaac was totally into exploring the church gym and stage. It was hard to keep track of him!

Once again, another photo of Isaac on the move! The kid was all over the place!

Finally he stopped for a quick picture! :o)

"Pirate Eli" didn't want to hold still for pictures, either.

This is him getting frustrated with all the picture taking. I actually like his face. It goes well with his costume, don't you think? Arrrrr mateys! :o)

There! Finally got him to smile!

Shailey never has a problem taking pictures. She loves the camera! :o)
A cute picture of Shailey and Eli at the ward activity. They had a lot of fun playing the games.

This was one of few pics of them actually trick-or-treating. The batteries died on my camera so I didn't get very many good ones. This picture captures the sheer terror Eli was experiencing that caused him to literally freeze in his tracks. He was NOT COOL with the scary guy in the mask sitting on the bench next to the front door. The guy was very nice not to move or scare the kids and actually waved as we left. Afterwards Eli said, "I think that guy was scared of me!" Really, Eli?? Are you sure about that? Silly kid!