Lookin' good

First, does anyone else have a problem using Blogger with Firefox as their web browser? I use Chrome, but when I post it and then view in Firefox, half the pictures are missing. So if you care about seeing my pictures, I guess use Chrome or Internet Explorer as your web browser. I'm too lazy to fix it otherwise.

How cute are these two?  They were so matchy after church one day I couldn't resist some pictures. And then couldn't pick just one favorite.

Every time our kids are born, people say, "Oh, he looks just like Ryan!"  This time they say, "Oh, now this one really looks like Ryan." 

  

  

  

And the frequent view we get as the baby comes in for attack:

The little guy is finally crawling. Such exciting freedom.  I'm pretty sure he's eaten something by now that he shouldn't have, but I really only have so much control in this house....

And while not quite as cute, I guess we're not too bad either, on occasion.

Mishap

In November, Ryan took a lot of call. A LOT.  This means in the hospital, sleeping there (all by himself in his nice cozy little hospital room... all to himself...getting a full night of uninterrupted sleep most of the time...all by himself...), ahem, I digress. Anyhow, one night I was getting a little beyond crazy with the kids and the mess and the teething and the fighting and the bedtime madness, and I flopped down on the couch once they were all asleep to survey the damage and muster the energy to face it when I thought, I just want to be in a room, by myself, all ALONE.

The next day I woke up to an email saying the Groupon for the day was a package for spray tanning.  Perfect, I thought to myself. Slightly selfish, and very alone.

So Ryan came home, I made my appointment and I was out the door. Now, I had done a spray tan at one place before. It was a nice machine in a nice room with a bathrobe and bottled water, a cap to put over your hair, and a nice gay Swedish man to tell you exactly how to do it and show you how to put the lotion on your fingernails and your toenails and the soles of your feet to block the spray so you didn't go out looking freakish. And then you were left alone with the soothing voice prompts embedded within the machine for the 46-second miracle to work it's magic.

Well, this groupon was for a place where it was done by hand.  Alright, the awkwardness factor goes up by a bazillion right there, but hey, it was a really good deal, and I'm sure they do this all the time so it's no big deal for them, right?. Plus, I know that's how the celebs and stuff do it - their own personalized spray tan artist. I guess you can get those hard to reach places better? Plus I thought they were better at matching it to your skin tone and making it look natural, so I thought it was probably going to be a higher-end service and I was probably lucking out to get to try it.

And then I got there and she stuck me in the corner of a very small, and very dimly lit bathroom.

Suddenly it was awkward, and ghetto.

As I was relating this to Ryan later he was saying maybe that should be some kind of red-flag when this kind of place is looking to do a groupon. Point noted.

So once I was down to my skivvies (the minimum I felt like letting her stare at for the 15 minutes we were in there) the lady, who spoke very little English and had used mostly gestures and an isolated word here and there, picks up her nozzle, nods, and says ok like she's ready to go. I'm thinking, um, wait, shouldn't we discuss anything?  Like my desired outcome here, for starters? So instead I say, "Do you have a cap or anything I could put over my hair?" "Mmm, good idea," she nods.  She walks out for a minute while I try to grapple with what to say next to prolong the start of this episode into the unknown.

She comes back in and I'm still worried that she's given me nothing to put on my nails or the soles of my feet and she hadn't seemed to remember the idea of covering your hair either...but I don't want to annoy her too much when she's obviously ready to go, and maybe the way they do it makes that unnecessary?  So instead as she's ready to hose me down once again, I blurt out, "So is there like more than one color to choose from or anything?" "No. Just one color," and she proceeds to blast.

Ah the internal panic.  I have had no sort of conversation about what I'm hoping to look like when this is done, and there is only one color...and she is Hispanic as were most of the people I saw on my way through the salon.  And that same color they all use is currently coating my body in copious quantities. Gulp.

The spray goes on and on. Really on. Like I'm used to 46 seconds and am rather concerned what the result of this prolonged dousing will be. Finally it's over and she tells me she's going to go get a fan to dry me off. So now I'm in a tiny dark bathroom facing a fan that is sitting on the toilet, freezing my wet, colored bootie off. So ghetto. Yeah, I guess this isn't what I envisioned when I bought this package.

After 10 minutes or so she comes in and pulls back the curtain and I look in the mirror.

Gasp. All I see are teeth and eyes.

Everything else is a mass of dark that blends into the shadows of the poorly lit bathroom.  Instant panic sets in. I try to act composed in front of her, but as soon as the door is shut I'm silently screaming and darting in random, agitated movements around the room.  Do I really have to walk back out in front of all those people that just saw me walk in here a pasty white lady just a few minutes ago???  Do I really have to take Cash to school tomorrow?  Why can't it be one of those rare days Ryan goes in late?!?  And if I try wearing a hat it will just shadow my face and make me look even darker!!  There is seriously no escaping this....


I walk out with my face turned away from as many people as possible, mysteriously fascinated by something in my purse, and I walk up to the lady at the front desk - the one white person in there.  "Is this the real color this is going to stay?" I ask in a hushed but intense voice.  "Or is this going to wash off when I shower and fade into something lighter?"  The one I'd done before had an instant color that while strong (yet nothing like I was now experiencing), would wash off the next morning and leave a nicer color developing underneath.

"No," she says, "This is what it will be." Aaahhhh!  "But it looks nice on you." Are you kidding me? "Um, I look like a different nationality," I blurt out.  She keeps trying to reassure me, "But this color is good - it won't be orange on you like other kinds."

Oh the horror. I get in the car and send Ryan a text:

"I look like Pocahontas."


As I pull into our garage I'm a little mortified to see how busy the parking lot is with so many people coming in and out. They all know me here. We're notorious.  So I'm darting through the parking lot hiding behind cars as people pass and hoping the coast is clear when I make the final dash. Thank heavens I'm the first apartment inside the building.

I walk in the house and Ryan turns around.  "Oh, wow," he says. "Um, that looks really bad."  Awesome.

Well, one thing for sure, she was right about it not looking orange.  I had remembered a friend before telling me that St. Tropez (the kind this salon had) was the best kind of self-tanner because it was green-based rather than orange based. I looked down at the bottoms of my feet - they were a solid mass of greenish-black. Perhaps the effect was magnified by the black towel she had me standing on?  Whatever they case, they were putrid. Ryan made a gagging face seeing me look at them and said, "I am not getting in bed with you." I could only imagine myself at playgroup kicking my feet up on someone's ottoman with those. Note to self: wear boots and ignore the take-your-shoes-off-in-my-house rule.

You're not supposed to shower for 12 hours after getting your spray tan. I paced in an agitated panic at home for 40 minutes and after turning myself away from it multiple times, I finally freaked out and stuck my face under the sink and scrubbed and scrubbed.  I hated to wash money down the drain...but I couldn't take it anymore.  (I left the rest though figuring at least I had to be able to look at my face.) When I've done the other spray tan before, I still look a little unnatural being so tan (this happens when I'm even tan just from the sun)....like I sort of border on looking homeless.  You know, that worn leathery look.  This wasn't even that this time though. I was like this green/dark creature from another country. Or planet.  It looked so off.  And of course, my nails and feet were heinous.

So what do you know, the next day when I showered I did look much improved (I'm sure washing it off my face helped immensely), and as it faded, it turned out to be my favorite spray tan. (Ok, even though it took 3 days and about 17 layers of exfoliated skin for my feet to be able to greet the world again.) Anyhow, it really wasn't orange at all, and did look like I do when I've had time in the sun. Who knows, maybe I will even get my moneys worth and finish my sessions, when originally I had been certain I would never be walking back in that salon again.  Just have to figure out how to go into hiding for that first day or two....

Seriously. I'm such a dork. Sometimes I sit and imagine people that lived like thousands of years ago that had to battle like mastadons and starvation for survival, and picture them looking down on me and the ridiculous things we do nowadays and just shaking their heads in disgust.

I seriously love this video!

Why have I been wearing a scarf such boring ways all these years?  Besides this girl is just so darn cute you just want to watch this video. I want to be in bed but I can't stop watching it (even with the strangling hazards I keep running into trying to keep up with her while trying some of these styles).  If you wear scarves or contemplate it, you should watch. Heaven knows I love me some scarves...especially with the chilly temps now...you know how weak we Floridians get when it's in the 70s.

Picture catch up

My mom has been begging me to post a picture of Cash dressed as a Mormon pioneer. It was the multicultural day at school and you were supposed to come dressed representing your heritage. At first I thought, oh great, everyone is going have all this great stuff from their Latin countries and Cash is going to be the kid in blue jeans representing the "Average White American Kid."  Then I thought I'd make it a little more interesting and go with our Mormon pioneer heritage. He was pretty stinking cute.

Boys trying to get some shade at the pool:

The twins with their preschool friends:

Just playing:

  

Loved that these three happened to be snuggled up reading a book and all wearing red:

I love watching these two sleep. I often go in to find one of them sleeping with their foot across the other one's face.  Can't you just imagine them in the womb like this?

  

I mentioned we've been to Disneyworld a few times now since we got annual passes. It's been fun...and exhausting. I'm not really sure Ryan and I can keep it up cause man it wears you out. Hauling all those kids and all that stuff on and off of trams all day, standing in line, etc. Plus we usually drive home after and so get back to Miami at like 1am and are totally wiped out. Even with that said, I still am wanting to go again since it's been a few weeks!

Watching the parade (we've even dragged Grammy along):

And we've managed to see it decorated for different seasons now:

  

  

Although this poor kid is just like, why am I here and where is my bed? And why on earth am I still up at this hour?  He doesn't love it, although he had some pretty good squeals watching Mickey in the parade.

 

  

Shoot, that safari ride in the Animal Kingdom is pretty good. Took us a week on safari in Africa to see the Big Five, and you can get it in 20 minutes at Disneyworld.

 

  

And this would be the biggest reason Ryan and I may not last through many more of these trips:

Yeah, we were so sore the next day from carrying babies and kids all day long!  Next time I'll insist we get one of those big Disney strollers for the older kids. We thought they could hack it but man were they whiney. But then we looked down and realized that they had to take three steps for every one of Ryan's - that really is a lot of walking. 

Ryan and I got to go in one morning and stay for breakfast at Cash's school during spirit week.  It was "mix and match tacky" day.  He couldn't get the idea of trying to not match (I swear it would have happened naturally had I not tried to tell him about it), but we at least got him to try to look goofy and it was pretty funny. (Um, not to mention all the parents didn't recognize me out of my pajamas.)

And we got to go one night for his exhibit night at school.

  

And man, we thought the tub was getting snug before with three men in a tub....

Halloween is so last month

But whatever. We've been to Disneyworld and had strep throat since then so late will have to do.

Ryan and the baby and I were a trio:

Did you guess?  A lion, a witch, and a wardrobe. (The green face was a last-minute idea I thought the kids would like or we might have gone theWizard of Oz route.)  When I came out dressed to go Ryan looked me over and asked jokingly, "What happened to a sexy witch?" (since that's the take on every costume in Miami).  "Yeah," I said, "Cause this is definitely not it."  And while I did make for a really ugly witch, Ryan was sure the cutest little wardrobe out there.  (I sort of gave him an ultimatum that he dress up this year or else....)  I did get multiple compliments on my wig, however. (Which sadly, was just my own hair and took all of about 2 minutes to get that way.)

If you can differentiate from the messy table we have - Pirate/Captain Jack Sparrow (Ashton); Bumblebee Transformer (Phoenix); and Spiderman (Cash):

Frankly the baby didn't seem all too smitten with Halloween for the most part.

I think we managed to capture probably the one smile on camera.

Ashton at the bean bag toss at the ward party: 

We stopped in at Ryan's work:

 

And I even managed to throw in another Halloween party.

Cute pin-the-nose-on-the-pumpkin that Betsey brought:

 

Raising their hands for who wants to eat ghost poop  :)

And alright, while this looks like we're doing a seance or something, I actually included a new little activity this time on my homemade light table that was pretty fun.  We used witches wands (glow sticks) to make magic bubbling witches potions (vinegar + food coloring + baking soda).  They actually really liked it.

I even had a pretty good collection of Halloween lanterns I'd made by the end of the month:

And I made a plethora of spiders to hand out for the whole two trick-or-treaters that came to our door.

But let's be honest here. The reality of the season was I was a little Halloweened out by the time the 31st rolled around, the weather on Halloween was yucky, trick-or-treating here was lame (the boys went for like an hour and only found 4 houses giving out candy), the baby hated his lion grass:

Captain Jack hated his hair -

 

it took bribery and possibly a few threats to get him to wear it,  it was so much effort getting everyone ready I remembered why I've never dressed up myself before, it rained during the ward trunk-or-treat and the kids had to fight a madhouse of teenagers to get some candy inside the over-crowded building, I had to walk around our building planting candy on people so our kids could flippin trick-or-treat on Halloween, and we didn't get any cute Halloween-setting pictures in costumes (the baby's costume is still sitting out waiting to be put back on for a cute photo shoot. Should probably just scratch that idea at this point).  

Oh well, I still have good memories.  And now can move on to some real holidays.  Like my birthday.

I am the best

Yesterday Ryan said to me, "Turning on closed captioning was the best thing you've ever done for our kids."

Shoot.  I'm such a good mom.

Seriously, give it a try if you want to feel better about yourself for letting your kids watch tv.  Ryan really thinks that's why our kids can read so well. (Um, ok, there were a few survival years in there where our kids may have watched a lot of tv.) I guess I could take that statement the wrong way considering all the other monumental things I've done for our children, but I'm just choosing to pat myself on the back for being the best mom in the world right now.  :)  You never knew it was so easy to be so phenomenal, did you?