baking soda magic trick {chase got stung}

i was watching him play in the water table from the kitchen table.

he was scooping up mud and sand.

not a single piece of clothing on the boy.

he was so happy.

i couldn't keep my eyes off of him.

i could tell he was just so happy to be completely naked,

covered in sand and dirt,

with his hands in all of soaking wet.

then all of a sudden he picked up something black.

a bug.

oh no,

a bug.

a bee bug.

i went to open the back door to yell at him to let it go,

and that's what i saw his entire body jump and his little face burst into tears.

i ran out, pulled the stinger out that looked like a thorn from a rose bush,

and scooped him up,

covered in mud and sand and water 

and carried his little shaking body inside to the kitchen sink.

i put that little finger under the coldest water my sink would provide and left him sitting naked on the edge of the sink while i reached for the baking soda.

i'm always hoping it's a yellow jacket sting so the baking soda actually hurts,

but either way, i'm convinced that even if it's not, just the act of baking soda makes it feel better.

brennan and max agree.

then i carried him through the house to the lazy boy chair in the big room.

he sobbed out the entire story,

while shaking uncontrollably.

he cuddled up to me so hard,

squeezing big tears out through his shut bright blue eyes.

and i just held his little naked muddy sandy body right up next to mine in that chair,

promising him that the stinger was out, and his body would soak up that ouchie bee juice any minute and make it stop hurting.

pretty soon we were all up and at em again,

inspecting the water table to any more straggler bees,

and chase spent the rest of the day telling his tale of bee sting woes to all of his siblings, neighborhood kids that came by, and workers there were in the house.

he grew up a little bit from that bee sting.

i won't ever forget how good it felt to be hugged that tight.

but now there's one underneath the dishwasher too {there's a FRANK for that}

dehumidifiers.

fans.

heaters.

and more fans.

that's what our house has been like since monday.

because at 5:30am sean came downstairs to start paperwork to a small pond in our kitchen.

every time chase comes inside he turns off the fans in the kitchen and yells at me that they're too loud and to turn them off.

i'm so glad it's warm outside because aint nobody wants to be inside a house full of super charged fans.

i turn them off at meal times.

it's heaven:)

thank you dishwasher.

thank you for waiting until the basement was finished to do this:)

wait, thank you for NOT waiting another 6 1/2 weeks.

actually, what if the ceiling wasn't there to catch all of that water?

everything that was down there...books...pictures...treadmill...would have all been soaked.

so really we feel like we dodged the bullet on this one.

the insulation soaked up most of the water.

the damage to the ceiling in brennan's room looks like it's going to suck back up and never be noticed again.

and the kitchen floor.

which is now bowing up and needing to be replaced.

well, we aren't so sad to say goodbye to it anyway.

so if i don't think about the money at all,

it's actually not so bad.

because guess what,

as of tomorrow,

i won't have carpet under my kitchen table anymore.

just don't think about the money though...

after two days not one single appliance guy ever being able figure out why the dishwasher actually flooded our house, sean and i laid on the floor for half an hour with flashlights on wadded up towels with it running. waiting on pins and needles, praying for it to pee its pants so ta speak.

and well,

that darn dishwasher wouldn't perform.

it was dry as a bone. 

the 

entire 

time.

sean laid there for another hour and a half.

and still nothing.

not one drop ever.

never have we ever been so happy we spent $99 on RC willey's extended warranty.

bc now a brand spanking new dishwasher is coming to the gibson home next week.

after the floors go in.

and maybe life will return to normal for a few weeks before it won't again.

not gonna lie though.

trusting the metal box in my kitchen with the sprinkler inside of it 

won't ever be so easy for me ever again.

water alarms.

we have them all over our house.

but now there's one underneath the dishwasher too:)

lesson learned.

also, don't lay on the floor at 32 weeks pregnant for half an hour on wadded up towels.

not smart.

...

{a HUGE thank you to our good friend FRANK for always coming to our flooding emergencies before i have time to cry for too long. if you need FRANK, you can call him at Anchor Water Damage & Restoration 801.269.0343. no one will treat ya kinder. NOBODY! 

for once, the wet bandit wasn't max. who knew!? 

whatever or whomever your wet bandit is, i assure you, there's a FRANK for that.}

always such a good sport too.

toes AND fingernails.

per his request.

and then he demanded a napkin to wipe each and everyone off of his fingernails.

upon which he declared, "DARE-dat beTTer."

i guess his girly side doesn't extend beyond his toes.

sean was so proud.

or maybe it's just his constant need for NOTHING to be on his hands;)

either way, we girls always have a great time dressing up our chaser man.

always such a good sport too.

i can't reach my toes anymore.

it's a problem.

giant desert turtle

{the turkey button officially POPPED today. where i officially become an outie for the next 7 weeks, and i have the cleanest belly button on the face of the planet. softer than a baby's bottom i tell ya.}

...

every night brennan and i read together on our bed.
i take my compression tights off,
get into my jammies,
then it's makeup down the drain,
and lotion on my face while he flips through the books he's gathered for us on any given night.
once i'm all comfy and my face is all ready for nighty night,
i read one book to him.
he reads one book to me.
repeat.
we lock the other kids out.
sean wrangles the other two monkeys in their respective rooms,
and one by one he gets them down.
but brennan and me?
this is our time.
and i cherish it.
each and every day.
it's my favorite part of the day.
where he snuggles up next to me,
and doesn't move a muscle.
just listens and reads.
heaven.
out of all of my children he has taken the most interest in feeling the baby move.
or maybe he's just had the most quiet chances of the evening to enjoy it.
either way,
every night when we read together he loves to put his hand on my belly.
and spends the entire time feeling his brother move inside of me while i read.
i know he will remember these nights always.
something he will never forget.
something i will never forget.
i love the look on his face.
how he lights up every time his brother kicks him from inside.
it's like christmas morning excitement every time.
i think he will tell his brother about this when they're older.
at least that's what i dream about him doing.
and then every night he tells me how much he LOVES my big fat belly.
because he LOVES to rub it.
that's what he says.
he takes both of his hands and rubs my belly like a magician and alaKAZAM like.
giggling with a HUGE smile all over his face.
after we finish reading he says his prayers on my bed,
rubs my belly a few more times as a bonus before i send him on his way,
and then he usually hugs my belly a few more times after that,
like it's his own personal giant desert turtle.
and tells me he thinks the baby is for sure hugging him back too.
tonight he saide he's glad i won't go back to being skinny right away
because he doesn't want my big fat belly to be gone.
i told him it's not as fun to rub when there's no baby inside of,
but he says he knows for sure it will.
and then he thanked god in his prayers that my belly wouldn't go away right after the baby comes out because he wants a little longer to rub it.
gosh, i love that kid.
and i love this belly that is getting really heavy and hard to carry around.

{tonight's dinner highlight: baby getting the hiccups, and everyone putting their hand on my belly for a good 5 minutes to feel him BEAT like a little drum every time. chase of course was running around with his cars, trying to not eat his dinner, and asking when he could have a treat. also he tried to get sean a napkin and tortilla chips. and more juice. a few times. 

all while the big kids were mesmerized by the hiccups. and sean and i just looked at each other like, welp, this is what our dinners look like. god bless them and this little home we get to have them in. crazy as they are sometimes.}

ELEVEN.

we are one in a million.

i love you.

it was a sunny day.

stacie had to put sunscreen on me when we were taking pictures.

you know how i sunburn so easily.

there were only a few clouds in the sky.

the tulips were everywhere on temple square.

the japanese tour bus stopped and took pictures of us.

it was pretty awkward.

i waved at them.

you threw me up on your shoulder.

they took more pictures.

i was so embarrassed.

but i also felt like a movie star too.

i stopped putting on lipstick because we kept kissing it off.

so in most of our pictures i don't have any on.

i love knowing why.

there was a little breeze.

it kept blowing my veil.

after three hours of taking pictures in the beautiful perfect spring utah sun we walked to carl's junior in our wedding attire down state street. 

you bought me an icy cold diet coke.

our friends were driving in their car and hung out the window 

waving and yelling and smiling at us.

i was bursting i was so happy.

we had just finished finals at byu-idaho.

i had taken 21 credits that semester, worked 17 hours a week, and still got straight A's.

you worked full time because it was your off track.

it felt so amazing to just be there together with no responsibilities but each other.

i don't remember a single thing going wrong the entire day.

i'm sure things did, but i was oblivious.

just being with you, taking in the entire day, celebrating us.

i couldn't have asked for anything more.

when the kids all wake up all night long,

and we're BONE tired at the end of the day,

and there's poop everywhere,

laundry that's not done,

and it seems like the toys have taken over,

sometimes i'll think back to that day and the week of our honeymoon right after,

and i'll just go to that place,

and it makes me so happy to just be married to you,

being with you through all of it.

and remembering every detail of that day when it all started eleven years ago today.

5 foot 5 and {not} a half

dave didn't believe i was 5'5".

so i stood up against the wall and properly proved him wrong.

actually i thought i was 5'5" and a HALF.

he said i  was 5'4".

of course he has things like measuring tapes and levels on his personsables at all hours of the day for emergencies such as these.

sean and andrea were the moderators.

i will miss these late construction nights where we are all up so late together we laugh until we cry over stupid things like whether or not i'm 5 foot 5

and a half.

the "surprise" in the car magazine {awesome mom}

this is the story of the "surprise" in the car and truck magazine.

one day about a year ago.

or six months.

or some time a long while ago, that's all i know.

long enough that it was basically a staple around our home.

a car and truck magazine that came in the mail.

that's what i'm talking about.

this is basically chase's favorite thing to come in the mail EVER since he doesn't know about money and grandparent checks and boxes that say amazon on the sides yet.

so this car magazine came,

and he would sit in different places all over the house looking at it.

awe-ing at the different cars and trucks and tanks and boats.

it was such an entertainer that i KNEW it needed to be in the church bag.

and believe me,

it held his attention there too.

it was the magic car and truck magazine.

that's what i thought of it.

so when we went to our nephew's baptism in arizona last month,

knowing how LONG baptisms are in arizona i packed church bags with the regular garb for all three kids to have.

have you ever been to one? an lds baptism in arizona?

it's like 20 kids all on the same day. sometimes more.

it's organized. 

SUPER organized. 

like i sit there and think about how these people are pro's 

at massive primarys with millions of 8 year olds.

they have it down to a SCIENCE i tell ya,

a well oiled machine,

but depending on where you fall in the line up, there's usually a video involved, some talks, a musical number, and sometimes a congregational hymn.

you know, not quite as long as a sacrament meeting that goes over, but about as long as catholic mass on christmas and easter,

which means it's just a little bit longer than the norm b/c well, it's a special occasion.

so i made sure to slip chase's special awesome car and truck and boat and tanker magazine into his monkey backpack for the pre-baptism stuff in the chapel on baptism day,

and let me tell you, we were prepared.

fruit snacks,

granola bars,

and car magazine.

we were one happy of row of out of town gibson's.

and i was feeling pretty awesome.

prepared and awesome:)

oh yeah.

and then chase took his awesome car magazine over to sean and they went through it page by page together with a super spiritual movie about jesus playing on the projector at the front of the chapel,

and i was sitting there looking at my reverent family just feeling, like i said before, awesome:)

and that's when sean looked over at me and was all,

"honey!!! WHERE did you get THIS magazine???"

and i was all, "it came in the mail. isn't it awesome:)"

and i had a huge smile on my face because i just KNEW my husband was thinking how awesome of a mom i was because my kids were being so reverent and out of town church going awesome.

and then he was like,

"um honey, come here..."

and so i scooted over for him to whisper sweet praises into my awesome mom ears and that's when i heard it.

"there's PORN in here!"

and i was like

"excuse me?"

and he was all,

"on page 41 and 42, between the tractor page and tank page!"

"whaaaaat??? what do you mean??"

that's what i said.

and he was like, "naked girls and girls wearing skanky stuff!"

and that's when my eyes got all big,

and i covered my mouth,

mostly because i was laughing and feeling all IRREVERENT because who laughs about porn in your kid's magazine IN A CHAPEL at a BAPTISM anyway???

well, we did.

mostly because it was just so ironic that such a discovery would be made in such a holy place.

and also there's the question we were wondering which was how many times has chase looked at those pictures, and how crazy it is that you can just miss something 

like this IN your home for so long.

so we swiftly closed up that car and truck and tank and boat magazine,

irreverently laughed over the matter for about 5 minutes more because there just couldn't have been a worse place to find such a thing.

and also a funnier place to find such a thing.

and REALIZE such a thing.

and then we walked into parker's baptism with our 

by that point, 3 irreverent kids,

'cause ya know we are SO awesome and prepared and stuff:)

who puts porn in the middle of a mailer car and truck 

and boat and tank magazine anyway???

sickos.

safe and sound like little sardines.

i wear earplugs every night.

ever since the dorms at chico state. i'm hooked for life. it's fantastic.

it's the only way i can tune out all the noises and stay asleep,

not worrying about all of the little sounds that go creak.

and the other night i was telling sean that my earplugs have literally vanished.

and now i'm down to one single pair.

and when one falls out and gets lost in the sheets at night i panic.

because then i know i'm down to one single plug,

which is still manageable because i just use it on the side that's not laying on the pillow:)

i'm such a genius i know.

so anyway, i was telling him about this on friday night.

how i can't figure out where they've all gone.

he told me how cute i was, and then we went to bed.

then next day we started moving beds down to the basement, vacuming rooms, and pulling toys out from underneath all of the spaces that have been hidden under the guest bed and brennan and max's beds for 4 and 1/2 years, and all of a sudden sean comes RUNNING out into the hall laughing so hard he can barely contain himself.

why you ask?

because it appeared the mystery of the missing earplugs had been solved.

sean had found all of my earplugs neatly shoved into a little toy car under the guest bed in chase's room.

we just KNEW it was chase right away because it had his name written all over it, but just to make sure i quizzed the other kids.

sure enough, chase was found guilty as charged.

he even fessed up about it when we asked him.

and it just made me SO happy inside.

because i love seeing little glimpses into the world of my kids.

the one that they have in their own little quiet spaces,

where they put their most prized possessions,

and they operate in their land of play without me,

even though i'm there and they're there.

where they're figuring out life for themselves,

all while i'm doing laundry,

making meals,

brushing teeth,

wiping faces,

driving carpool,

reading stories,

giving baths,

etc.

being completely oblivious to the private parts of their lives that are just rightfully their very own.

and i just love when i get to see a little part of that.

also, i REALLY loved that i found ALL of my missing earplugs.

shoved inside chase's toy car,

so that i don't have to be down to one plug anymore.

all safe and sound like little sardines:) 

so handy they were all in the same place.

on not hobbling faster than my legs can carry me {31 weeks}

i feel like i'm 95.

like when i've been sitting for awhile,

and i go to get up,

i can't.

grandma gigi and i were commiserating about this on easter together.

she gets it.

even though she's not quite 95.

and i don't mean like i can't stand up.

cause sometimes she can't stand stand up.

sometimes that part is hard for me too,

like when i've been sitting on a chair without a cushion or the ground,

or laying on my right side propped up halfway,

then i can't stand up on my own.

but mostly it's the move one foot in front of the other part that's the trouble.

especially as the day goes on.

like after ski school today i drove down little cottonwood canyon,

dropped max off at home with sean,

and then drove over to target.

and when i went to get out of the car at target i opened my car door,

stood up,

and i knew i wasn't going anywhere.

between the varicose veins flooding themselves and my left hip that just wouldn't budge, 

i made it about one and a half steps toward the rear of the van looking like Quasimodo 

before i waved the white flag and realized i was just gonna have to give it 5 minutes 

before i could go.

so that's what i did.

i stood there patiently waiting,

posting up next to my van,

sweating my socks off because i'd been in the snow with the kids all day,

and now here i was in the valley in a long sleeve shirt, ugg boots, compression tights, and black pants.

in 75*.

so i stood there texting sean that i couldn't move and how i wished i would have changed into flip flops, and wasn't that actually pretty funny how i literally could not move?

finally the motor of my left hip warmed up and the compression tights did their job,

and off i went to buy endless amounts of organization propaganda for my house.

and for once in my life i'm not trying to hobble faster than my legs can carry me.

closing down alta in april. 

above: brennan far right heading to the lift. 

ski school 2k15: brennan is a pro at the chair lift and max is finally "lift ready."

BIG TIME:) her instructor said she's already parallel turning and brennan's said he's gonna make a great downhill racer with his need for speed. so proud:)

the day they installed the carpet and chase was in the way

today they installed the carpet, 

and everyone was at school except for chase.

it was a big day for him.

he pooped in the potty.

for the third day in a row.

so when one of the installers came through the garage door carrying his 400 pound roll of carpet on his back i of course was going potty in the bathroom off the garage.

locked in there in my own beautiful peace and quiet.

which is why i could quietly hear the carpet guy nicely saying to chase "excuse my please."

except he was grunting out the words very softly

because of the 400 pound roll of carpet on his back.

and then i heard chase's voice chipper as the birds in the morning,

"I POOOOOPED! on THE POTTY!"

and the carpet guy just repeats, "excuse me please."

really out of breath now.

and i'm pulling up my compression tights as FAST as humanly possible,

but let's be honest,

there's just no fast way about it,

so i just start yelling through the door to chase,

"CHASE MOOOOVE! get out of the WAY!"

and chase is all,

"i open my buzz lightyear! mommy give me a TICKER {sticker}! I POOOOOOPED! on the potty!"

and i'm just dying inside because i can't get my tights on and get my maternity skinny jeans up fast enough for this poor man trapped by 3 year old chase with what definitely feels like a 400 pound carpet roll on his back, desperately and very politely just asking him to move out of the way.

so i keep yelling "CHASE MOVE HONEY!!! GET BAAAAACK!!!"

and i can tell by the carpet man's grunting that chase is most certainly NOT moving.

and i'm just dying inside,

breaking a sweat trying to get these DARN tights up,

cursing them and all of my layers along the way.

finally after what feels like an eternity i have wrestled enough decency onto myself to FLING the bathroom door open and pull chase into the bathroom with me,

and put the poor carpet installer out of his misery.

my face was red by now.

it was awesome:)

upon which point i apologized and felt embarrassed that i was peeing on the potty while chase was blocking the carpet guy carrying the 400 pound roll of carpet, talking to him about going poo in the potty.

good grief. that was funny.

carpet:)