Sometimes you are just NOT in the mood to take pictures!

I thought I would pull out the camera and take some cute pictures for little Valentine's cards! I think they turned out really well! Happy Valentine's Day from my little brats to yours!!!

Becky's bad "Egg" experience in hopes of making Heather smile Post!!!

I was reading Heather's post and just felt bad that she had such a horrible shopping trip with her kids! I TOTALLY know how that goes! I went last week by myself and had Hunter in the front, Ryker in the back, and Taylor and Carter walking... or running by the side! It was really hard! Taylor kept running away and Ryker kept throwing things out of the cart! You should have seen the looks I was getting from people!

This was my favorite line, "Are those ALL yours?"

To which my reply was, "Heck NO, That's crazy... some are just on loan... I run a daycare!." I notice people are more compassionate when they don't think you are over-populating the world they live in! And then I follow with, "That sweet big boy, that is being fantastic is mine." Taylor has never been claimed because he is always SO naughty in the store! I'm thinking about going blond so I don't look so much like that little guy. I think my little white lie would be more believable!

Actually I ALWAYS claim my kids. I probably should use the line above, but the guilt would just eat me up!

Anyway on to my EGG experience-

I went to Costco and bought some eggs last week and brought them home. I decided while I had them out I would clean the fridge a little! I thought that was a fantastic idea because there was no room for a huge thing of Costco eggs. I started scrubbing while Rhett was watching the kids. I took a quick break and ran upstairs to get some cleaner and came down to this!!! My eggs had been pushed onto the floor, but it gets worse! The twins were sitting right in the middle throwing them at each other! Eggs were everywhere. So I did as any good mother would and screamed for Rhett to come in. I went and got the twins cleaned up whilst crying my little eyes out!

I came down a few minutes later and Rhett just looked at me like I was crazy and then asked, "Do you want some help to clean that up?"

I stated, "That would be nice."

As Rhett cleaned up the entire thing of eggs I dried my eyes and went back to work cleaning the fridge! On the UP side I had a TON more room in it due to NO EGGS! :)

Such is life- Mom's have good days and bad days-

Day's they want to stay at home and days they would give a child to go back to work.

Day's the tears come and days the tears are from Joy!

But I wouldn't trade it for anything! My kids love and adore me! They give me sticky smooches, and messy finger hugs! They snuggle me when they are hurt or feeling sick. AND that is why it's ALL okay!

Bowling

We thought it would be fun on Saturday to get the kids out of the house. We opted for bowling because Carter and Taylor LOVE it! We had a little competition between Julie and Ben! We lost the team competition, but the important thing is that I beat Julie! It was really fun! I am so amazed by Carter and Taylor! They are SO BIG!!! They carry up the ball by themselves, put it on the ramp, and give it a big push! They had the bumpers so they actually did REALLY well!

My little ROCK STAR!

Rhett showing off his muscles or lack thereof. :)

Rhett was waiting with Taylor because the pins wouldn't reset. It was cute to see Taylor waiting so patiently!

Yeah, they fixed it!

Update on Potty Training

This top picture pretty much explains how the potty training is going! That is also the same expression that I have when he goes to bed at night! I think potty training is WAY harder on mom's than it is on the child! He is doing alright on the peeing in the potty.... and by alright I mean he has 2-3 accidents a day! I seriously am having MAJOR doubts about even continuing. The pooping on the potty is non-existent!

Here is pretty much how it has been going!

Taylor runs up totally excited, "Mommy I need a go poopy."

Mom, "Yay okay come on buddy. Let's go sit on the potty!"

That's when I place him up onto the potty and notice a little poo on his ankle! I ask him if he already went poopy and he answered way to excitedly, "Yeah mommy, me go poopy on playground."

I clean him up and ask him to show me where the poop is at!

We run into the room and he runs into the playhouse and says, "Look mom, me poop in house!" The whole time he was way too excited that he had pooped on the floor!

He has continued to poop on the floor EVERYDAY! He doesn't even poop in his underwear... he actually takes them off and hides to poop! What am I going to do with this kid! I am sure he will be the end of me!!!

Oh and he refuses to let me help him put on his underwear! He says, "No, I do myself..." Whatever I give UP!!!

On a lighter note-

Carter has been learning about Australia in history and we spent a whole day learning about the Outback. He learned that a billibong is water! So that night when I asked him what he wanted to drink he replied, "I'll take a billibong." That kid is such a comedian!

Blast from the Past

While we lived in Hawaii we had some really GREAT friends! We did everything together! Most of our very favorite memories have these wonderful people in them! From buying golf carts together to carpooling to Waikiki. Some of my other fun memories are Waimai Falls, Diamond Head, PCC, Hukilau Beach, snorkeling, and midnight trips to walmart in Millilani!

We did a lot of really fun stuff together, but my ALL time favorite memory of this group is playing games! We played HIT THE DECK all the time together! The winners changed nightly, but we always knew it would be super competitive! I believe if my memory serves me correctly that we did this at least once a week!

We were really sad when we had to move back from Hawaii. We did have the opportunity to go back once to visit our friends there! We of course broke out hit the deck and had a so much fun playing! They also came over to where we were staying and played in the pool and on the beach with us! We also got to visit Michael and Laura once when they came to visit family in Bakersfield. We went to six flags and hurricane harbors to play!

We had a blast from the past last week when Michael and Laura wanted to stay in Vegas on their way through to Logan. We were so excited to see them. I have had three kids since the last time we have got together, and Laura had added two that I haven't got to see yet so the group had definitely grown! Megan and Wyatt came over to the house and all of us had a great time visiting! Later that night we played a little hit the deck and I a am proud to say that "Team Olsen" rocked it up that night! :) Now that everyone is a little closer we will have to visit each other more often. It is so nice to have such great friends! We love all of you so much!! Thanks for coming and playing with us!

Jonah's birthday party before we left!

Megan and Wyatt at game night!

Part of the group during game night! I am so shocked we never broke that little table!

I am digging Megan's facial expression.... she must be winning! Wyatt is reading how to play Uno Attack! It's always great to try out new games, but we always went right back to hit the deck! I think it was the favorite!

This was at Laura's mom's house in California!

This was when we went back to Hawaii! I was so excited that the four of them were still there! I was 7 months pregnant in this if you were wondering why I was so fat!!! Oh and Megan and Wyatt were supporting the troops that day! Actually we went over to visit them on Halloween!

This was last week when they came to Vegas to play!

Team Salo came in 2nd that night!

Team Olsen came in number 1! Woohoo!!

Sorry Team Rassmussen... you came in last that night! That's okay let's do a rematch sometime! We will totally be getting together to this again. Rhett has kept the notebook with all the scres in it so GAME ON!

Field Trip Monday- Las Vegas Zoo

We went to the zoo this week and the very BEST part is that daddy had the day off for MLK day so he got to come on our field trip! The boys were extremely excited to show daddy everything that they have seen and love! Me and Julie have taken the boys to the zoo quite a few times because for Christmas Rhett got me a tanning pass and the place is right by the zoo. So a couple times a week me and Julie pack up the kids and head tanning. We take turns going in as the kids watch a movie in the car... that sounds really bad, but actually they LOVE it! When we are finished we make a quick trip to McDonalds for happy meals then off to the zoo!

It is an incredibly SMALL zoo. We can walk the whole thing in less than an hour, but for some reason the little kids think it's the best place ever. Carter always wakes up in the morning and asks really excitedly if we're going tanning today! :) The twins love it because it's so small we never bring in the stroller and just let them walk through it! They love having that freedom! Although last time they almost lost that freedom. I pulled a piece of GUM out of Hunter's mouth! That is seriously the grossest thing ever!

Taylor's favorite part of the zoo is the chimpanzee that they have! He is super friendly and always comes right up to the glass to look at Taylor and the babies! Last time we were there a trainer was in there putting lotion on his hands. He even loves to tap back on the glass!

Carter's favorite thing at the zoo is M.G. (Maniac Girl) The lion! She and her brother came to the zoo together about 10 years ago and her brother died last year of cancer! To Carter that is the saddest thing ever so he always tries to cheer her up when we are there! Rhett didn't seem that disheartened by the news that the brother died so Carter tried to explain it to him in these terms... Dad if Hunter died Ryker would be sad!! That is so true Carter! We all would be sad if anything happened to any of you! This doesn't surprise me about Carter... he has always had a kinship with weak and sad animals! When I bought him his first beta fish he chose this scraggily almost dead fish. I asked him why he wanted that one and he said, "Mommy this one is sad and it needs me."

The twins favorite thing in the zoo is all the wild birds that roam around. It's really cute to see Hunter and Ryker chasing these huge peacocks! The poor pigeons just take off when they see the little ones running toward them!

Carter as the safari guide.

Carter and Taylor riding the elephant.

A few of the peacocks the babies love to chase!

Daddy and the boys in the reptile building!

Hunter checking out the snake!

Taylor as the safari guide!

The babies checking out the fossa pups! These little critters were hilarious to watch. They jump and play around just like little kittens would! They jump from rope to rope, hang upside down, and run right up to the fence! They are really fun to watch!

The Strip

Jennifer and Justin came to Las Vegas to play for a few days. We thought it would be fun to go and play with them! On Saturday it was a beautiful day so we decided to walk the strip with everyone! There were a couple of rules for Carter and Taylor. (1) No picking anything up!!! and (2) Stay with the group!!! I thought we should definitely blind fold ALL of the kids. We had such a fun time walking through some of the hotels and seeing the shows! The ultimate FAVORITE show of the kids was the water show at the Bellegio! It was seriously so cool!

Most of the group by the pirate ship at Treasure Island!

Mommy by the skull at Treasure Island!

Rhett is feeding Hunter to one of the tigers!

In the gardens at The Mirage!

Ben and Rhett were AWESOME and carried the kids whenever they got tired of walking!

A classic "family picture." The babies were staring at all the people walking by!

Right after the water show!

Some of the water! Taylor loved when it would shoot up high! He kept yelling, "yay, fireworks."
Julie, Jenny, and Me. I love playing with the girls. It's so fun!

Carter and Taylor were freaked out by this guy! I am SO amazed we could even get them to stand so close as I took a picture! I pretty much hate the strip and think you should NEVER take kids onto it, but we went during the day so it wasn't as bad. In fact the guys that hand out porn even smiled and waved at the babies instead of giving my little guys collectables! We had a good time and the little boys loved just getting out of the house! Thanks for all the help with babies and big kids guys! It was fun to see you guys!

It's SO hard to grow up! Bye Bye Binky!!!

Ryker was OFF the binky when we moved here, but turned into the worst baby ever. He was constantly crying so we decided it was too much change and gave him back his binky! Recently, I have noticed that he has become WAY to dependent on it! He ALWAYS has it in his mouth so we decided it was time to take it away again! We have these really great friends that did this to help get their little guy off of it so we thought we'd give it a try!

I guess what you do is that you screw it to the wall and let them suck on it whenever they want to. It's actually pretty funny/cute to see his squished little face up to the wall sucking on the binky!

Michael and Laura stayed over last night so when I said it was time Michael helped me screw it to the wall! We gathered up all the binky's and threw them in the trash while Ryker watched and cried and cried!!! Hopefully it will get easier! The first day has gone a little rough so far! I know it's time to say goodbye, but this has been a really hard day so far! I think this will be as hard on me and poor little Ryker!

The binky screwed to the wall at Ryker's mouth level!

Ryker sucking on it while crying! He knows it just isn't the same! Hunter is happy next to him sucking his thumb. Little does he know I'm screwing that to the wall next. (j/k) but he will be getting mavala stop, no suck, on it!

He is throwing a little tantrum looking up at it!

He decided to try again and still hated it!

Sucking on it from the back! He has come several times during the day to try it out...and it always ends in tears! I really think this is going to work! :)

And this is when he was throwing himself on the floor in tears! He thought he would try to rip it off the wall, but good job Michael... it wouldn't budge!

Wish us luck! I have also had Taylor in tears the entire day.... It's potty training time! He is WAY to old for diapers! He has been wearing his diego undies and carrying around a diaper whilst yelling, "Please mommy.... I need me diaper. I love me diaper."

Bird Bird Bird is the Word!

WARNING- If the middle finger offends you this is NOT the post for you!!!

I feel it is my duty to give you a little background on this post...

While we were in Salt Lake over the holidays Carter gave us his "rock star" pose. He had just changed into his rock star pj's and as I went to take a picture I said, "Give me your tough look." He then gave me a little grimace and held up both middle fingers! We were all sitting around the table playing cards and I heard a little gasp from behind me! I looked up from the camera to see my sweet little 6 year old flipping everyone off! I then quickly brought Carter over and told him that the middle finger is a bad gesture! The rest of the night he held up his pinky with his "tough look."

Carter had NO idea that this was bad! Then when we came back I was looking through pictures and saw that I had quite a few with various people flipping off the camera! If this little gesture offends you in the least bit...I mean you MOM....then you probably don't want to look through the next few pictures, BUT if you want to see who made the album. ENJOY!!! lol.

Good Old Jason

Tiffanie. I'm sure that was to Rhett not myself lol.

Rhett - You will see this face MANY times!

Matt - I even think that was to me! You little terd!

Bevan with the mystery finger!

Another Rhett

Hmmm.... Another Matt. I can't wait to see when Cash gives me his tough look. j/k. ;)

David

And the infamous Carter's "rock star" pose! I know it's horrible!!!

Rhett's imitation of Carter's "rock star" pose!

Again, I apologize for the post, but come on really..... These are definitely pictures for the scrapbook! lol :)