i didn't even have to bend over once:)

and i didn't even have to bend over ONCE to get the laundry out of the dryer.

god bless chase ray. 

{i promise you, there's four completely DIFFERENT pictures here. i tell no lies.}

how we spent our MLK day.

so when you do your radon test on a friday,

and plan to mail it in on a monday.

make sure that the monday is not a holiday.

with the post office closed.

but if you did do your radon test on a friday,

and the post office is closed on a monday,

don't worry,

you still have 24 hours before you have to mail it in anyway.

...

how we spent our MLK day,

NOT going to the post office:) 

we stayed in our pa-jaaaahhhh-mas until 11:30, 

only got dressed b/c cade called.

max waves goodbye to spiderman brennan as he walks to cade's house, 

where he spent the ENTIRE day. god bless susie swensen.

max was in boots, brennan's coat, and her underwear only. it reminded me of swim team in high school--man i loved those deck coats in the fog at swim meets. then she asked to stay outside and play after, and protested on the front porch for 5 min, even after i closed the front door on her. 

my utah kids and their thick blood don't care if it's 12 degrees outside, and they're only in their underwear. 

i LOVE it! but that doesn't mean i want to stand out there in my underwear. 

even though i had on pants. 

and a shirt for that matter. 

this isn't where i was going with this.

chase helped me with laundry.

and then he found the potty.

and the potty water.

and helping me with laundry was over.

 {crimpy hair from her braids yesterday.}

and then max climbed into her crib while i was nursing chase,

and fell asleep for two hours.

and woke up happy and smiling,

and asking if i wanted to "pay wit" her? {play with}

and then she lined up her ponies on the kitchen table and ate peanut butter toast and sliced pears,

and asked to watched ariel.

and i made chili.

the end.

breaking up with vacation is hard to do.

note to self: 

do not wash the Cinderella princess sparkle dress with all of your laundry from vacation.

it will leave every piece of clothing you own covered in sparkles.

and your dryer thing packed with sand AND sparkles.

the girls are more excited about this than the boys.

i tried to convince sean that sparkles bring excitement to monday mornings.

especially if you wear black pants with sparkles on them!

he's not feeling the excitement.

yet;)

.......................

after an 11 hour drive home yesterday 

we rolled up to cafe rio for take out

{we call ahead, it's wonderful,}

came home,

ate,

unloaded the car for necessities only,

fed and bathed all children 4 and under,

and put dirty laundry into hampers.

only b/c we couldn't find the baby monitor.

b/c it was in the last bag, 

in the last pockets we searched.

then, this morning we woke up all three of our kids at 8:30am 

to make it to church for the primary program.

brennan said his line oh so very well,

insisting he needed NO help.

so proud:)

and wedged between two 8 year olds in the front row, 

he did rock and sand actions for the "wise men/foolish man" song. 

it was just so so cute.

we spent the rest of the day at home today napping, eating, and all around recovering.

i had no idea how tired i was until i sat down to watch hocus pocus with brennan, 

and completely fell asleep.

i kept dreaming that my cousin from the Midwest was upstairs cleaning my bathrooms,

but i knew i was dreaming b/c i knew there was no way she would be upstairs cleaning my bathrooms,

so i thought to myself,

"well, i'd better just walk around until i wake up from this dream, b/c i am for sure dreaming."

have you ever known you were dreaming like that before???

i am back to using lotion and chapstick on an hourly basis,

and have had a long sleeve shirt, pants, and socks on the entire day.
so wonderful!

oh how i was wishing the hum of my furnace would have been running in the background noise today.

instead,my oven and a space heater warmed us all up.

the leaves all changed while we were in california,

so all of the trees on our street are beautiful yelllows, reds, and some remaining greens.

breaking up with vacation is hard to do.

that was an AMAZING trip!!!

brennan said he wants to go back to the beach in,

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5 days."

and counted the days on his fingers as he counted them.

all in favor say "EYE."

{EYE know that's not how you spell that.}

EYE.

:):):)

go figure.

yep,

we're home.

and the laundry is too.

go figure.

lately, this is how it's been going...

lately, this is how it's been going...
when someone is completely out of pajamas or underwear
OR if someone poops {pee can dry and be left in the laundry room longer--this is my theory},
i decide it's time to do laundry.
at which point it will take the entire first half of the morning/day to motivate myself to carry the chosen white or dark load down the stairs and place it in the washing machine.
it may or may not take several hours for the load to be started depending on what my two small children decide to do in the time it takes me to walk to the laundry detergent.
sometimes we get lucky.
today we did not.
today brennan pooped in his underwear during that time and laundry was put off to deal with that lovely issue.
two hours later when i remembered to start the laundry machine it finally got going.
the afternoon and evening are spent trying to motivate myself to put the now wet laundry into the dryer.
i usually think about it four or five times from 2pm-10pm before i do anything about it.
the wet laundry in the washing machine.
this process is drawn out longer if it is the dark load because i hang dry most of the darks.
and i am embarrassed to say i even dry most of my kid's clothing.
it lasts longer and looks better.
that is why.
and i've done it for my clothes since i was 14.
then finally around 10pm i consider leaving the wet clothes in the washing machine over night and running it again the next day.
then i imagine the same process and being in the same place at 10pm tomorrow night with no pajamas and no underwear and get to moving the clothes into the dryer.
and sometime after we are all asleep i am sure it finishes drying b/c i wake up the next morning to a dryer full of...
wait for it...
DRY CLOTHES:)
heaven bless the washer and dryer.
said dry clothes will remain left in the dryer for several days until someone is completely out of pajamas or underwear
OR until someone poops.
and the process will begin all over again.
this is starting to remind of the "if you give a mouse a cookie" books...
no?

i also got my flu shot today.
my arm still hurts.
but i'm so proud.
i wanted a sticker.
they did not have stickers.