Fool Me Once...

Have you ever heard the saying "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame one me" ? Well, let's just say I'm having one of those tough mommy days.

This morning I quickly ran upstairs to take a shower so I could get ready to go Visiting Teaching. Ryan was strapped in his chair eating breakfast and Matthew was sitting at the table finishing up his (although not strapped into his chair. Big mistake.) When I came downstairs everything seemed normal, but then I walked into the kitchen to find the PAM spray can on the floor with PAM sprayed all over the tile! I asked Matthew if he had gotten into it and he told me it was Ryan's fault. (Yep, Ryan who can't even reach the counter.) So Matthew got sent to timeout and lost his TV show for the morning, which he was not happy about.

I helped Ryan get out of his chair, got the boys changed, and then headed to the bathroom to dry my hair. While doing so Ryan came and closed the door. I opened it and peaked out but saw the boys in the front room and they were just playing together. So I turned the blowdrier back on to finish up and Ryan came to close the door again. He does that sometimes just for the sake of doing it, so I hurried and finished my hair before opening the door again. When I opened the door I found the boys in the front room again, this time dancing around in a circle and clapping their hands. Seems pretty innocent, right? Nope. I walked over to find that Matthew had climbed onto the counter to get the syrup down from breakfast and had taken it into the front room for them to play with. There was syrup on the carpet and the boys were clapping their sticky hands together in glee. Wait a second... hadn't Matthew just been in time out a few minutes ago for almost the exact same thing?

So by 9:45 this morning I already faced two major messes and Matthew had lost his TV show and all of his Matchbox cars. Hopefully I can keep my little angels from conspiring together in another diabolical plot. Boys are great!

Cost per Diaper...ouch

Okay, so I normally don't mention things like this but I have to say something. Why in the world are diapers getting so expensive? We have been patronizing the disposable diaper industry since 2004. Back in those days we would pay around 12 cents per diaper (10 cents per diaper was a possible). Around 5 or 6 months ago we were paying 14 cents per diaper. But recently we started to notice that the cost per diaper is going out of control. We normally by diapers at Sams Club because they were so cheap. As of this week we noticed that size five Sams club diapers are now 21.8 cents per diaper and Huggies are 22.3 cents. If you do the math that is about a 35% increase in the cost over the past few months. So what is the deal?

We have stopped buying diapers at Sams Club and now we buy parents choice diapers from Wal-mart. A size five is 17.2 cents and a size four is 14.8 cents. I'm just curious where you are buying diapers and what is your cost per diaper? P.S. any ideas on how we can get our three year old to potty train, that hypothetically would reduce our cost per diaper per child.

Matthew-isms

These are some of the conversations we've had with Matthew lately. They speak for themselves.

One night while Mom was helping him say prayer.
Mom: Please help me to listen and obey the first time.
Matthew: Please help me to listen and obey the SECOND time.

Another prayer.
Please bless all of my race cars that they will get out of timeout.

Dad was getting him ready for bed one night and Matthew decided he wanted to read two stories. After the two stories he told Dad, "Silly Dad. You don't remember. I said I wanted to read THREE stories."

While driving to the store one day, Mom and the boys passed a parking lot with some construction equipment.
Matthew: Mom, what are those?
Mom: Those are called cherry pickers.
Matthew: What do they do?
Mom: You use them to get higher in the air, usually to fix things like broken lights.
Matthew: Or disco balls.

After opening a piece of junk mail one day, this was what the "letter" said.
"Dear Mail, I just wanted you to have some mail. Love, Mail."

And finally, this one sums up the life of our toddler. On being sent to timeout:
"But Mom, I don't like timeout. I only like playing."

A good laugh

Ryan is always doing something to make us laugh. Tonight he was running into the kitchen, waiting a few seconds and then running at us and just laughing. He did it for a few minutes. It is always nice to see the pure joy of a child. Here is our family car if were a Car? We are working on a name. Any suggestions?

Brothers Gotta Hug

Once again we are behind on the blog so here is a quick recap of our week. More family activities, more wedding stuff, and a lot of hugging!

Brothers don't shake hands	Brothers LOVE each other	Brothers Gotta Hug
Can you see Kevin in Ryan?	Candyland with Matthew	Ryan and cousin Gabby
Hiram, Calvin, and Matthew	Eve and Brad	Matthew's castle bank

CARS for Dad

I just had to show the two awesome cars I was given this Christmas. Number 17 is Darryl Cartrip and 8 is Dale Jr. Both cars are really hard to find. You can sell Dale Jr. for about $25 on eBay.

Holiday Roundup

In a seven day period we traveled over 800 miles (from one end of Utah to the other), the entire family slept for five days in the same room, two days in a hotel, attended three family parties, and one temple wedding. Here are a few pictures that document our journey. Ryan is exhausted after Christmas caroling with the extended Tams family in Perry.
Matthew opens his first Christmas present. What a joyous event.
Ryan discovers that the box Matthew's Geotrax came in also doubles as a slide. He really loved that box until it was squished.
Eve, Brad, Amy, and Kevin outside the Saint George Temple. We spent three days in Saint George for the endowment, wedding, and reception. We had just a little spare time and we were able to visit Beckie. She almost has us convinced we should join her in warm and sunny Saint George.
This is the last night of our seven day adventure. You can see that Matthew is distracted as ever and Ryan can't stand anymore traveling. Too bad, we have a few more family and wedding related events to attend later this week. Hopefully we will all be recovered before it starts again. Happy New Year!