The Macdonald Family

Little "Nanyn"

2012-01-18T15:28:00.000-08:00

We've had Landyn a little over 5 months now and I'm already forgetting a lot of her story on how she got here. I was set to be induced on August 1, 2011. I started having crazy contractions about 5 days before then and spent the night walking around the hospital for hours and hours. I was dilating fast and they set up my IV to get me ready for the epidural.

Around 4:00 am my contractions totally stopped and they told me I had to GO HOME. The horror. I was convinced she would be coming that day and was seriously annoyed that I had to go home early. Luckily, August 1st came soon enough. Dane's delivery was so great that I thought I couldn't top it. I was wrong. This one rocked.

Jeremy and I got to the hospital bright and early. I was given my epidural BEFORE they induced me, which was pretty spectacular. After they started the pitocin I went into crazy labor right away. In the last half hour my contractions were coming so fast that the doctor told me the epidural couldn't keep up. I'm not sure what that meant, but it hurt a lot for a good 20 minutes. About an hour and a half after they induced me, baby girl was here and doing great.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but Brynlie was kind of extremely excited.

Landyn had tons of hair, cute little dimples and ate like a champ. I had a couple of issues and they said I should probably stay an extra day. Normally, I'm dying to get home, but seeing as how this was our baby number last, you can bet that we jumped on that and stayed as long as possible.

This girl had some awesome spiky monkey hair for the first couple months.

Kelson posed for a couple pictures, got really overwhelmed with the hospital, new baby and 5 people telling him to smile. He put his head down and cried right after this picture.

Dane actually did really well with Landyn...besides wanting to maul her all day long. He was never jealous or anything luckily.

He loooves his baby Nanyn.

I keep waiting for Landyn's newness to wear off and for my kids to start ignoring her. So far that hasn't happened. Kelson and Dane hug and kiss her alllll day long til she's crying. Sometimes we have to ground the children from kissing her. I guess it could be worse.

Grandma gave Landyn her first glitter toes while still in the hospital. That's how she rolls.

That's some sweet hair.

First pig tail

Rollin' over - right around 5 months

Landyn is an extremely good baby...which really works for me. She's super smiley and kind of just hangs out all day. She'll start to grunt if she's hungry or bored, but other than that she's pretty content.

Baby girl wears 18 month clothes now and weighs 22 lbs which means she will be in her infant carrier for about another week. I'm dreading putting her in a big car seat because she can't sit up by herself yet, so shopping will be exceptionally unfun. And the car conks her out, so I'll have to wake her up and take her inside now. Such is the life of a chubby baby.

When Landyn was a couple days old she would really flip her neck back. I didn't think much of it though because she was so new and floppy. After a few weeks it wasn't getting any better. My sister mentioned it looked like torticollis and we found out a few weeks later that it was.

Her head was likely bent a little weird when I was pregnant and her neck muscles grew longer on one side than the other. It's pretty common apparently, but luckily Lauren pointed it out to us or we probably wouldn't have noticed for awhile. Landyn went to physical therapy for a couple months and now she's almost all better.

This girl is so easy and happy. Jeremy and I usually argue over who gets to hold her when she falls asleep. Not so much over who gets to change her diapers though. She looks so much like Brynlie's baby pictures and so far acts just like Bryn too. I'm dying to see what her hair does and dreading for her to get any older.

How to photoshop your baby

2012-01-18T01:10:00.000-08:00

I've had some people ask me how I got Landyn to pose for this shot. I've been wanting to do it FOREVER but have failed miserably when I've tried in the past. I was determined to get Landyn to pose like this though.

I soon found out that it's pretty much impossible to get a baby to pose like that without falling over. Lauren and I tried for quiet some time and it was not happening. I'm a horrible photographer, but luckily I can altar my childrens true selves and mold them into something I want via photoshop. Mom of the year. Don't judge me.

I think it turned out pretty cute though. Here are a few other ones we took too.

In the Summa Summa Time

2011-12-01T11:00:00.000-08:00

Having 4 kids has officially prevented me from taking regular pictures. I can barely remember to bring enough diapers and brush my childrens hair, much less bring a camera where we go. Being a photographically denied middle child myself, I see how this could affect my children some day. Until I get another kid in school or a nanny, we will now stick with sparse phone pictures as best we can and call it good.

I now present my ode to summer...in several parts. We had a lot going on so I'll briefly tell you about some pictures and call it good.

As soon as school got out Jeremy took a trip to Philly for 2 weeks. I should mention that this trip was through a grant so everything was paid for, he could eat whatever he wanted and have a blast...his only job was seriously to be a tourist. That. Was. It.

I enjoyed receiving all of these pictures while I was home alone with 3 children and 8 months pregnant...with a sinus infection.

These are all some fantastic pictures of Philledelphia. I'm not sure what they are of because I've never been on a wonderful all expense paid trip to Philly, but I picked these ones out because they look like important things.

Jeremy really did have a blast and got to meet up with his brother and Curious George. Win win.

*******

My friends dressed up like thugs, stormed into my house one night and kidnapped me. They took me to an outdoor resort...a la casa de Hempel. I must be pretty vocal about food that I like because there was a spread there of about 10 of my absolute favorite foods. It was a pregnant girls dream.

My Dad took Brynlie and Kelson fishing and Brynlie caught this baby all by herself.

I was the one out of the picture who was desperately clinging onto my childrens pants as they fished from the dock. I really really didn't want to have to jump in that water to grab them out of it at some point.

Plus, I have water issues...and major anxiety.

The boys hit some baseball games with Jer.

I got Brynlie and Landyn matching outfits last spring and Brynlie COULD NOT WAIT to match her baby sister.

Brynlie has lots of love for this cute baby. She is her little mom and wants to hold her and take care of her all day. She does not do well when Landyn gets fussy and sometimes starts crying herself.

Brynlie in a fire truck at the safety fair

Making some s'mores. Nom nom nom.

Danes favorite seat in the house accompanied by his signature cheeseball face

Our boys went in for their yearly checkups and were being insanely crazy. When the doctor walked in Dane pulled a pretend sword out from his back and started having invisible sword fights with the doc. She totally played along. He may have a slight obsession with super heroes as this is a regular public occurrence.

This boy could watch super heroes all day...and sometimes when Mommy is 9 months pregnant, he does. He always has to be Kony Kark (Tony Stark).

Please excuse my Zach Morris television...

Jeremy did a little of this

Kelson had a minor encounter with a cabinet and had some awesome black eyes and swelling goin on.

Looks thrilled, no?

Sittin in a cop car made everything better

We have a big mirror in our dinning room and Kelson is OBSESSED with making faces throughout every meal. It takes him twice as long to eat as everyone else because he can't get enough of himself.

This was the first time we had all 4 kids in the car at once. Jeremy and I thought we would need to document such a thing. We've rearranged the car seats 3 times since then and finally have them set up so that kids can get in and out easily and 2 year olds can't stick their fingers in an infants mouth.

While Mommy was at home with a new baby, there was lots of McDonalds action goin on

This is our idea of camping

I may or may not have had a slight issue with self control this summer...

Sometimes little people fall asleep like this around here

Metro Man vs Edward

The one and only thing that grew this year

Run for your lives folks

When the Phineas and Ferb movie came out it was cause for a party

"I work ouuuut"

We're still here

2011-10-01T00:52:00.000-07:00

With 4 small children running around, we've pretty much resorted to camera phone pictures only around here. We have about a million on Jeremy's phone and hopefully soon we'll have 2 seconds to download them. Then I will have the most insane blog post. In the mean time, know that Brynlie is a reading fool, Kelson acts like we're at Disneyland when we pull up to preschool, Dane is the biggest stinker ever and Landyn could not be an easier baby.

And Jeremy is cute.

And busy.

And I am tired.

And chubby.

Now you're all caught up.

Pictures will come soon. In the mean time...here's my cute baby.

Baby Landyn

2011-08-05T20:38:00.000-07:00

She's here! Monday morning I was induced and just 2 hours later little Landyn Marie Macdonald was born.

She was 8lb 5oz and 21 inches long.

She has a head full of hair and has pretty much been sleeping since she got here.

Brynlie is in heaven! All 3 kids have been fighting over who gets to hold Landyn. Dane is pretty dangerous around her but still wants to "hold it" constantly.

I'll write more later, but for now you can check out these cute pictures of this sweet girl.

Julie

2011-07-18T00:50:00.000-07:00

Alrighty. Julie's turn for an update. So I've been busy busy with Leelou stuff. I'll talk about that one day when I have time, but know it is fun. And keeps me busy and up far too late.

This pregnancy is flying by. Partly because I have 3 kids to chase around and partly because I have some killer meds that make me not feel like dying all day.
I've been feeling great and am steadily gaining far too much weight. I get braxton hicks pretty much all the live long day and her feet are constantly blocking my ribs and airway, but I can't complain because I'm not withering on the bathroom floor. So bring on the heartburn! I'll take it over being sick any day.

I keep waiting for this nesting phase to hurry and kick in, but as of now I am the opposite of nesting. I have no energy to move. I do look around my house all day and imagine the things I would love to get done. Then I usually eat another popsicle, take a nap and pretend that I'll do it later.

The one thing I wasn't expecting was to get all hot and swollen. I've never been pregnant in the summer and figured it would be fine. Well it's not. Seriously. Don't be 9 months pregnant in July. It's not fun. I would post a picture of my feet and ankles at the end of the day as proof of this fact, but you might gasp in horror. And then dry heave.

Just know that I look like Aunt Marge.

Speaking of Harry Potter...I'm one of the 12 people on earth who have never really seen the movies before. Potter failure right here. Last week Jeremy and I watched a movie every night so I could get all caught up and we could go watch the last one in the theater. I actually liked them a lot more then I thought I would. Every time I saw Snape I said in my head "Why a spoon cousin?" and then I laughed and laughed. And wished that my sisters were there. Cause apparently that's not funny to most people.

Anyway, back to baby business....I'll be induced again with this baby because my babies are fat. And bad things happen that are unblogable to speak of. And having tiny little Dane was the most amazing thing ever. Small babies rule. I could be induced on July 31st, but that's a Sunday. So as of now this baby will come rain or shine on Monday August 1st. Which means we've got 2 weeks of rearranging furniture, walking and jumping on trampolines to see if she'll come early. I won't hold my breath though. It's probably a good thing if she doesn't come early as I don't have a single thing ready for her. I did buy binky's, which is kind of sad now that I think about it. All the things I have to do and get ready and I buy the one thing that will make her stay quiet. I'll blame that on the insanity of having 4 kids in 6 years. Don't judge me.

I don't really take pictures of myself pregnant cause again...Aunt Marge...but here is a glimpse of my roundness. And that is all you get for now.

Daner Doo

2011-07-03T05:22:00.000-07:00

Dane is not my child. I'm starting to believe he was switched at birth. He climbs on things and gets into things like none of his siblings ever did. He thinks he's 5 years old. It's no fun going to parks or even stores with him. He thinks it's funny to run away and make his pregnant mother sprint across the parking lot to grab him. If this next baby turns out like him, I will be house ridden for at least 4 years.

This was my toaster.

Dane is a supehero at all times. All. Times. His latest thing is "pulser bast" (repulsor blast) like Iron Man. We have to fall down and then do it back to him so he can dramatically fall down and play dead.

We put Dane in a big boy bed at the beginning of the year. It wasn't as bad as we had anticipated, but every once in awhile he'll go sleep somewhere totally random. And sometimes we can't find him for a long time.

Marco...

Lately he insists on sneaking in bed with Kelson.

He turned 2 in March and starting talking quiet a bit. Since December he has had 5 ear infections and then got 3 more within the last 2 weeks. They said his ear drums are now inverted so he'll have to get tubes again next week. Hopefully that will fix it or we might have an issue later on. They did a hearing test and apparently he has a pretty hard time hearing because his tubes fell out. I had no idea. Just thought he has been ignoring me for 6 months. I'm much more considerate now when I yell at him.

Dane does like to snuggle a bit...so that makes up for his spastic ways. At least sometimes. He does not like swimming, he'll eat just about anything you put in front of him and he has become quiet artistic lately. He has been displaying this new talent on several walls, doors and windows.

Kelson Update

2011-07-01T09:30:00.000-07:00

Kelson is the biggest ham on the planet. He is so over the top animated when he talks. It's hillarious. He thinks he's a comedian and loves to shout out things like "Coo coo" or "Pickle" in the middle of church because he thinks it's the funniest thing ever.

Kelson is a Sunbeam now in primary and having me in the same room as him at church is never a good idea. Kelson and I have lots of long talks after church.

We went to Utah in March and Uncle Straton took the boys to check out the firestation he works at. He definitely thinks Uncle Straton is the coolest now.

Kelson loves to be the center of attention if he knows the kids around him. If there are strangers he's the shyest kid ever. He's super sensative and listens to Brynlie better then he listens to me and Jeremy. He loves to go potty like a pioneer (standing up) and hates when we stay at home all day without going anywhere. Like seriously hates it.

Kelson just turned 4 a couple days ago and this is what he has to say this year...

How old are you? 4

your Mom? 30
your Dad? 80
Brynlie? 6
Dane? 2

What makes you happy? "Like, going to the movies"
What makes you sad? "When I hit my head on the wall"
When do you laugh? "At funny jokes"
What is something mom always says to you? "To have a quieter voice"

and your Dad? "To brush my teeth and go potty"

What is your favorite thing to eat? "hot dogs and quesedillas"
What is your favorite thing to do? "Go to the childrens museum"
What is your favorite TV show? "Phineas and Ferb"
What is your favorite story in the scriptures? "Anything with the Holy Ghost"
What are you really good at? "Riding on my scooter"
What is your favorite movie? "Cars 2"
What does your mom do for her job? "Go to meetings at church"

and your Dad? "Go to work at his work"

Who is your best friend? "Brent, Madelin and Macie"
What's your favorite primary song? "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes"
What do you and your mom do together? "We eat Otter Pops...exactly"

Dad?? "Play cars"

Where is your favorite place to go? "The Childrens Museum"
What do you want to be when you grow up? "Monster truck driver"

Brynlie Boo

2011-06-29T08:48:00.000-07:00

Alright. I'm ready. I keep putting off a blog update because it overwhelms me. Might as well get it all out there. So first up we'll take this cute girl. Brynlie was in Kindergarten this year and stinking loved it. We lovingly refer to her as the robot at school. She is the child that stands like a soldier in line, sits at her desk with her arms folded and completely silent. Whatever the teacher says is golden.

First day of school

So what do her and Jessie Spano have in common you ask?

Remember that one time Jessie has an anxiety attack and freaks out? She's so excited. And she just can't hide it. This is totally Brynlie when she's sick and has to stay home from school. If you know what this means you rule. And it is the perfect way to describe Brynlie. She may be a bit of a perfectionist.

Bryn just turned 6 a few months ago and desperately wanted a Cake Boss birthday party.

She couldn't have picked a more perfect theme for her domestically challenged mother.

Her friends got to decorate their own cakes and Brynlie was in heaven.

Brynlie also lost her first tooth a few days before her 6th birthday. She had been DYING to loose one and was thrilled to finally reach this milestone.

Brynlie is a reading fool now and wakes up every morning to play school with Kelson. She has a slight obsession with Phineas and Ferb and loves to make toast. Roughly 4 times a day.

This was the questionnaire I asked on her birthday:

How old are you? 6

your Mom? 14
your Dad? 40
Kelson? 3
Dane? 2

What makes you happy? "Seeing my friends"
What makes you sad? "When I fall down and get hurt"
When do you laugh? "When Daddy tickles us"
What is something mom always says to you? "She says I love you when I go to bed."

and your Dad? "Thank you"

What is your favorite thing to eat? "Pizza"
What is your favorite thing to do? "Play."
What is your favorite TV show? "Phineas and Ferb"
What is your favorite story in the scriptures? "Daniel and the lions den"
What are you really good at? "Writing my letters and stories"
What is your favorite movie? "Tangled"
What does your mom do for her job? "Do stuff on the computer for people"

and your Dad? "Work at school and teach kids"

Who is your best friend? "Connor and Anne and Carlton and Addie"
What's your favorite primary song? "I will follow God's plan for me"
What do you like to do with your brothers? "Wrestle."
What do you and your mom do together? "Read books."

Dad?? "Wrestle"

Where is your favorite place to go? "Anne's house"
How do you know your Mom and Dad love you? "Cause they do something with me all the time"
What do you want to be when you grow up? "Kindergarten teacher"

Well hello there

2011-06-14T13:33:00.000-07:00

Hi there. Remember me? Well it turns out I'm a little busy. So there will be no spectacular Macdonald update today. Again. Just know that we are well. Jeremy is done with school, I am getting chubbier every day and the kids wont stop talking. But they're cute most of the time. So that's ok. Usually.

Today I did wanted to tell you that I'm throwing another baby shower on Leelou Blogs and I'm having a couple photo contests. If you want to enter your cute kids I would highly encourage it. Mostly because we have some sweet prizes.

We have one basic photo contest for kids under 3 and then another photo contest where you can win a photoshoot with the one and only Peekaboo photos. I've raved about them before and if you live in or go to UT often, you should enter to win this contests because Peekaboo photos is seriously amazing. Plus you could get to be on the cover of The Barrel, which is the mother of all blog magazines.

And I'm a little sad that I can't win. But you can. And I'm so not judging the pictures, so I don't care who enters. Click here to submit your adorable pictures. You only have until Friday though. Good luck to you my friends.

Happy Mothers Day Mama

2011-05-07T12:51:00.001-07:00

Truer words were never spoken.

110/365 Be-ball

2011-04-28T22:02:00.001-07:00

She thinks I'm doing the dishes. He knows what's really going on.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

109/365 King

2011-04-28T21:54:00.001-07:00

I love it. The kids hate me. I'm just that awesome. (And in no way was this photo posed.)

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108/365 Llama Llama Red Pajama

2011-04-28T21:47:00.001-07:00

I love it when she reads to me.

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107/365 Erase-did

2011-04-28T21:40:00.001-07:00

Dad. Look. I erase-did the wall.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

106/365 So cute

2011-04-28T21:35:00.001-07:00

I love this woman. I really really do. Love love love.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

105/365 Comfy

2011-04-28T21:28:00.001-07:00

Half on. Half off. All good.

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104/365 It's here

2011-04-28T21:21:00.001-07:00

I don't buy gimmicky t-shirts; they bother me, but there's something special about this one.

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103/365 This is cool

2011-04-28T21:06:00.001-07:00

VIDEO0063.3gp Watch on Posterous

So yeah, he's my kid and awesomeness is expected, but how many kids draw with both hands?

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102/365 Boom!

2011-04-28T20:46:00.001-07:00

No, really. It totally made that sound when she kicked it.

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101/365 Wrap up

2011-04-28T20:39:00.001-07:00

A little American football during Brynlie's futbol practice. (See what I did there?)

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100/365

2011-04-12T22:45:00.001-07:00

I was hoping for some incredible picture to sum up the first 100 pictures of the year, but ended with this. Me. Working. On my laptop. Dane. Not going to bed. I guess it summed things up pretty good. Here's to 100 more.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

099/365 ...and I'm the Boss!

2011-04-12T22:41:00.001-07:00

Bryn had to have a Cake Boss party, fondant and all. She had a few friends over and they all made their very own cakes, Cake Boss style. Fortunately it had fewer scripted accidents and planned blow-ups than the show.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

098/365 My View

2011-04-12T22:31:00.003-07:00

This has been my view for the last two days. It was a great conference, but I'm glad I had my diversions to keep me focused.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

096/365 The Player

2011-04-12T22:31:00.001-07:00

Bubba Hung out with me for a bit at school. We got a laptop out to play PBS Kids dot or-ga (because that's the way he would say it), and some headphones so he wouldn't distract the group that works in my room in the afternoon. Not likely. He was talking it up with the third graders and eating their snacks. That's my boy.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

097/365 Leadership

2011-04-12T18:48:00.001-07:00

If this is all it takes, I may consider administration.

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95/365 6 years ago

2011-04-05T22:29:00.001-07:00

Six years ago a very special little girl was born. She's made more people happy and affected more lives than she will ever know. She is the reason I want to be better -- as a dad, as a husband, as a teacher, as a person. Thank you Brynlie. Happy Birthday.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

094/365 The mirror

2011-04-04T23:36:00.001-07:00

At dinner we're not usually allowed to "play" in the mirror. Tonight, Mom wasn't home. You know what that means.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

93/365 Smiles

2011-04-03T20:32:00.001-07:00

I have so much to be grateful for. These three smiles included.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

92/365 At least he's wearing goggles...

2011-04-03T20:24:00.001-07:00

I'm not real sure what to say. The picture speaks for itself. Leave me what you think the caption should read, and I'll pick the one I like best. Winner gets a high-five.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

90/365 All growed up

2011-04-02T23:02:00.001-07:00

She beautiful little girl lost her first tooth. She has another one that's wiggly, and she turns 6 next week. This whole parenting thing is going by way too fast. I love you Bryns!

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

91/365 He's my boy

2011-04-02T23:00:00.001-07:00

Instead of kicking the soccer ball or playing on the jungle gym, he wanted to watch the boys practicing. We love baseball. We're happy it's spring.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

089/365 Do you see what I see?

2011-04-02T22:39:00.001-07:00

We heard something in the kids room long after they had gone to bed. It was coming from under Bubba's bed. This is what we found. Sleeping.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

088/365 I could have been worse

2011-04-02T22:03:00.001-07:00

I thought someone dropped something heavy out of the back of a truck. Almost. I at least got the back-of-a-truck part right. Long story short--accidents happen--no one was hurt--we worked it out.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

087/365 The face of a showman

2011-03-28T22:47:00.001-07:00

Along with his innate athletic abilities, this kid can put on a full five-act play at any given moment. A true showman for sure.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

085/365 Two years ago...

2011-03-26T11:25:00.001-07:00

Two years ago this little guy was born. Dane is Dane. There is no one like him. We love you Dane-ers. Keep smiling buddy.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

084/365 Oooh. Bubbles!

2011-03-26T11:19:00.001-07:00

We happened upon some dry ice today. So we happened to happen upon some hot water and bubble solution. And there you go. "Smoke" filled bubbles.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

083/365 The Whole Famn Damily

2011-03-24T22:36:00.001-07:00

So far Spring Break has been pretty good. Tomorrow is our last day, and we're all a bit bummed it went by so fast. We did come out of it with a new family-time activity though. Phineas and Ferb. Time well spent. Thank you Netflix.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

082/365 Nom Nom Nom

2011-03-24T00:41:00.001-07:00

Donuts. Everyone likes donuts. Nom Nom Nom.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

081/365 Wheeee!

2011-03-23T23:27:00.001-07:00

Nothing says "Wheeee!" like Daddy killing his back to pull two little boys that don't ever seem to get tired of being pulled by Daddy.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

080/365 Can you find...

2011-03-22T18:10:00.001-07:00

* 4 pieces of cereal
* 3 spiders
* 2 dice
* 1 mouse trap

Sadly, this isn't a picture from an I Spy book. It's a vent in our dining room. Might as well play along before I clean it out.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

079/365 Do something

2011-03-20T22:32:00.001-07:00

When he got home from church, Bubba told me that he wanted to do something. After lunch I tried to get him to take a nap, but he insisted he do something. After 20 minutes of "something", this how I found him.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

Jeremy's 365 blog

2011-03-19T23:34:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of the year Jeremy started a 365 blog. Jeremy will post a picture of his day every day for a full year. Since I can't get him to post on this blog (and since I'm desperate for content) I've synced his account so his posts will show up here automatically. Muahahahahaha.
Below are a few of his recent ones. If you want to see the full year so far you can check out his blog:
http://mrmacnology.posterous.com/

You can also see the other random pictures and videos of our kidlets on his Flickr account. Cause I know you just can't get enough.

078/365 Cheese!

2011-03-19T23:20:00.001-07:00

You haven't been grocery shopping until you go grocery shopping with Bubba. He's quite helpful with filling the cart...with crap. But helpful nonetheless.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

048/365 Too big

2011-03-19T23:12:00.001-07:00

She's getting too big. She brought home a book with three "stories." Big(er) kids call those "chapters." I sure love this girl.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

051/365 Because I can: Part II

2011-03-19T23:11:00.001-07:00

I'm sure glad the Airport Sheraton upgraded to HDTVs. It makes these moments possible. The WiFi sucks in my room so I turned on my EVO's 4G, pulling about 7 meg download and hotspotting my laptop and iPad. Gonna watch a little Hulu and catch up on some Fringe, because I can.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

066/365 ICE CREAM!

2011-03-19T23:10:00.003-07:00

Enough said.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

067/365 Trains and Ponies

2011-03-19T23:10:00.001-07:00

Tonight asked me to play trains with her. By the time I got to her room she had already built the track (usually reserved for Daddy). The ponies couldn't wait. Choo-choo...neigh?

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

074/365 This says it all

2011-03-19T23:09:00.001-07:00

Today we went out in the rain in search of worms. Their sense of discovery had taken them beyond the "yuck" factor and into the realm of awe and wonder. I couldn't sum up our adventure better than with this picture. It truly says it all.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

One Love

2011-03-19T23:05:00.001-07:00

My students worked very hard on this project. I was amazed at how much heart they put into the birds and the banner. Their compassion, at such a young age, is an example to us all.

Posted via email from @MrMacnology

What's it gonna be??

2011-03-15T13:29:00.000-07:00

So of all my post procrastinating, I guess I should get this one out there first. We finally found out last week what we're having. The suspense is killing you I'm sure.

At least we didn't have to go through this again.

No, really?

2011-03-14T13:28:00.000-07:00

So yesterday Jeremy informed me that the circus was coming to town and he really wanted to take the kids. Did he learn nothing from last years circus experience?

I laughed and laughed. Funny little Jeremy. And he looked around the room like he missed something and said "No, really."

Seriously? For reals? I may or may not have hit him in the back of the head.

I'm the Bossss

2011-03-13T00:01:00.000-08:00

I wrote this post over 6 months ago and forgot to publish it. So you enjoy that while I struggle to find time for new posts. I'm working on it! And I swear, mom if you call me one more time and yell at me for not posting I'm going to block you from my blog. K love you bye.

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For the past few months we have been watching a lot of Cake Boss. A LOT. We can't control ourselves. And when Kelson walks around saying "my name's Buddy...I'm the bowss" in a New Jersey accent, it's the cutest thing ever.

So we decided to make some cakes and fondant and have at it. Cause Buddy makes it look easy. This is Brynlie's masterpiece:

I invited some of the young women in my ward over to get their cake on. We went out to eat and shopping for a little bit first. While we were gone Jeremy made the cakes. We must have had lots of extra batter because he decided to make a few cupcakes too.

Jeremy had to leave when we got home so I thought I'd surprise him and make him a Mac cupcake. I was all excited. Then Jeremy got home and told me that he didn't make cupcakes, but cornbread muffins for his dinner. I'm so sad I didn't get to see someone bite into that.

You need this.

2011-03-02T20:23:00.000-08:00

If you sew or make crafts you need this. More then anything in the world. For reals.

I'm giving one away over here and you can enter til Friday night. It does everything your little stylish heart can dream of. Good luck to you friends.

Anything you can do, I can do better. No really. I can.

2011-02-05T14:37:00.000-08:00

My trendy little sister is doing this 30 for 30 challenge. Have you heard of it? You pick 30 pieces of clothing and can only mix and match them for an entire 30 days. Lauren is totally inspiring me. So before you go any further, click here to check out her 30 for 30 items. No really. Go.

I'll wait.

....

Now, I'm much more practical then Lauren so I think...no...I know I can totally do this better. So here I am doing my own 30 for 30, but I'm doing 13 for 30. Cause I am that good.

And I figure, I dress awesome anyway.

Might as well post it here and share some inspiration, right?

Here you go. You're welcome.

1. Down East 2. Old Navy 3. Old Navy? 4. Motherhood Maternity 5. Wal-mart

1. Jeremy's closet 2. H&M

1. Christmas (this doubles as a coat so it's totally versatile)

1. Jeremy's closet 2. Santa 6 years ago (so vintage)

1. Sketchers 2. ? Who knows

So those are my items. Hopefully I've inspired you like Lauren has inspired me. I'd say look forward to all my 30 posts w/ ROCKIN' outfits, but lets face it. I still haven't even posted Brynlie's pictures from the first day of school. You can pretty much guarantee 30 days of pictures in a row is not going to happen. But if you seriously need me to dress you, come on over and observe.

Here's your veggie platter Rose

2011-01-26T20:07:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time we took a girls road trip to Portland. We told ourselves it was to attend Time Out for Women, but it was really just to see Rosie Rose.
Cause she moved far away.
And I miss her.
So Time Out for Women was alright. I'll tell you more about that later in a post I'll never write.

Christy and I surprised Rose by showing up a day early and making her squee and cry. Then we hit the Cheesecake Factory and cackled until the wee hours of the morning.

The next day Christy and I slept in until 11:30 in a silent house.
It. Was. Heaven.
Then to top it off we woke up to Panera. Best day ever.

We spent the weekend laughing hysterically, getting makeovers from a 6 year old, eating way too much and sleeping. Then we of course had to hit this little restaurant called Carvers (that might have been in some famous movie you may have heard of) because we are grown women who think we are way too funny.

We walked in and we're like "What's Twilight??" and then the waitress laughed and sat with us and told us far too many details about how they shot scenes there. And she made us sign the guest book. And we left funny things that I will never admit to. It was super fun. And a lot embarrassing. But the french toast rocked my world.

What would a trip to Carver's be without a little Mike Newton booty shake? I totally did that. And I bet no one had ever thought to do it before. Team Mike!

Robert Pattinson totally wiped his feet on that probably.

We miss you Rosie Rose. I am in misery.

Hence the title

2011-01-18T14:21:00.001-08:00

I love technology. But not as much as you you see.

Whoa Mama

2011-01-17T14:26:00.000-08:00

It's almost my birthday. And I feel old. Ten years ago I couldn't fathom being "old". 30 year-olds were ancient. Now I'm going to be 28. We have children. We have a house. And I just got life insurance, which practically makes me a senior citizen.
I feel like I'm still in high school. And usually act like it too. So this is all very confusing to me.

Anyway...I've been reflecting on my 20's and I've had a very busy decade.

When I was 20 I got married:

When I was 21 I got pregnant:

When I was 22 I had a baby:

When I was 23 I got pregnant:

When I was 24 I had a baby:

When I was 25 I got pregnant:

When I was 26 I had a baby:

When I was 27 I got pregnant:

And now when I'm 28 I will have yet another baby.

I think when I am 29 we are going to get a puppy. And call it good.

Home grown

2010-12-23T01:49:00.000-08:00

One day this fall all the grandkids went to my parents to dig up some veggies from their garden.

Grandpa would turn over the dirt and the kids would dive for the purple potatoes.

We dug up heaps of stuff.

And then we had halloween donuts. To cancel out the vegetables.

These were the purple potatoes we made. Get some for your children. They rule.

I'm goin' to Kansas City...

2010-12-22T09:50:00.000-08:00

Jeremy's brother just moved this summer so he and Brynlie went back to part-ay for a bit. Jeremy has been saying he'll write about his trip for the last 6 months. Doesn't look too promising at this point, so I'll just show the sweet pictures I was sent through out the week.

If you haven't noticed, we have this love affair with food. Sometimes we like to send food bragging pictures to each other. Get used to it.

Jack Johnson, G Love and Paula Fuga

Brynlie had her own photo shoot on the plane while Jeremy was sleeping.

Poor sick Bryn Bryn.

nom nom nom

Community of Christ Temple

Liberty Jail

Thanks Kenny and Carrie for letting Jeremy and Brynlie come stay, keeping them well fed and entertained and for doing Brynlie's hair so Jeremy wasn't left responsible for that.

In the summa summa time

2010-12-16T01:03:00.000-08:00

Up until August, Dane was the only one who let me take pictures of him. Now he's on the run all day long, so I've got nothin. Anyway, here are a few pictures from summer.

Dane is OBSESSED with baseball and football. He freaks when they're on TV.

This is Brynlie with two of her potential future husbands getting hosed by a sprinkler.

We went to Meema Jan's house (my mom's twin) while Jeremy and Brynlie headed back east. Kelson was a swimming fool by the time we left.

When we go there we are spoiled. Not just spoiled. But SPOI-LED. I wish I would have taken pictures of the ribs and delicious shmorgisboard of food we had every day. But I was hungry. And it was gone too quickly. Just know that it rocked my world. And I gained 15 lbs.

This is Kelson's funny jump ritual he had to do every time.

Let's kick it

2010-12-15T01:09:00.000-08:00

This year Jeremy and I celebrated our 7th anniversary. We woke up one Friday morning and I dropped the kids off with my mom and told Jeremy we were leaving. It took him about 1.3 minutes to realize we were going to Medford for the day, but I still wouldn't tell him anything.

We shopped. We ate. We ate some more. Cause that's what we do.

And then when we had nothing left to do, I set the GPS and told Jeremy to drive.

It took us here to an Inn in Ashland.

And I was able to pull off a surprise for Jeremy for the first time in 7 years without him knowing. Best. Wife. Ever.

We ate some more and watched movies to our hearts content. Then the next day I surpised him more, cause I'm good. And wouldn't tell him anything we were doing.

We ate some great food.
Spent some time here:

And then when it was time to go home I told him we were staying another night.

2 day trips. No kids. No schedule.

Best idea ever.

The end.

Mr. Macnology

2010-12-14T01:29:00.000-08:00

I love technology. But not as much as you you see.

Jeremy has created a new site this summer and he's a education Twittering fool. I am proud of this guy...and you would be too...if you were familiar with DM's, RT's and hashtags. Just trust me. He's the bomb.com.

I heart nerds

MacBerry Updates-summer edition

2010-12-13T03:16:00.000-08:00

Here is our summer in cell phone pictures. Cause that's how we roll.

Sometimes we get caught being naughty

sometimes we go to the fair

sometimes Dane watches sports

sometimes we find our children like this

and this

sometimes Dane watches sports

sometimes we go bowling

sometimes we ride miniature trains

sometimes little boys are allergic to mosquito bites

sometimes the kids want to play Legos. And 5 minutes later I find this.

sometime Ironman comes along with us. All the time.

sometimes my kids wear hats, helmets and masks at any given opportunity.

Sometimes we're lazy

sometimes old ladies dress us up like girls

sometimes Dane watches sports

sometimes moms put snacks directly into the bib pockets because babies make messes with snack cups

Sometimes mommies hide candy

sometimes babies insist on dressing themselves

sometimes babies pump iron

sometimes kids are naughty

sometimes I wake up to this

Sometimes we torture our children. Just cause we can.

The one where I gush about the conference

2010-12-13T01:36:00.000-08:00

I have a ton of unpublished posts on this blog. I write them up as things happen, but I never have time to put in the pictures. Seeing as how I wrote this post last June, I figure it's probably time to throw the pictures in and publish it here. I'm trying to wrap up my posts so I can put this blog into a book finally. So this week is going to be catch up week. Brace yourselves.

Once upon a time I wanted to host a quaint little blogging conference in Utah. Then I heard of a girl and her friend who had the same idea. It was meant to be. Fast forward 7 months, insert thousands of emails, phone calls and sleepless nights and you have the

This post consists of a wealth of information that I felt necessary to document. So for your convenience, I've made it available to skip it all and save precious moments of your life. If you're my mom and would like to read on...and on...

It was a blast. And it rocked my world.

We drove into Utahon Wednesday evening and I rushed straight over to the conventioncenter to put together swag bags. By the end of the night we filled 5 or 6 cars full of swag bags as we tried to transport them to onehotel room. There was no way they'd fit so I ended up checking into myhotel room a day early just to throw all the goods in.

Thursdaywas the greatest, busiest day ever. My partners in Crime and I went toSalt Lake to be interviewed on the Mormon Channel with Cjane and TeresaCollins. Then we ran straight to another church office to meet with Dallaswho is in charge of the Mormon Messages. We got to review and giveinput on future messages and bounce around a few ideas.

Thenwe were whisked off in a limo to go to our speaker dinner. This was thefirst time I had EVER ridden in a limo and I was super excited. Yes Iam 27. Yes I have been deprived. Where I grew up we had like one limoin town. And it looks like this. Except ours had long horns mounted to the front. Dead serious.

So I never had such an opportunitybefore.
We made our driver stop at 7/11 so we could get somesnacks and drinks...and pretend we were rockstars. I had the limo driver convinced to jumpout of the limo and yell

"IT'S OK! I'M A LIMO DRIVER!"

But he totally chickened out. Would have been awesome.

That's the Mombabe, Blue Cricket and then Leelou with bright red eyes cause I slept a total of 8 hours in 3 days.

So then we were off to meet most of the speakers for the conference and eat some yuuummy food!

Then we had to leave a little early to go to the Girls Night Out party with Teresa Collins.
Sheis one of the nicest people I've ever met. She made some adorablescrapbook make-and-takes and showed us all how to make fabric flowers. Everyone got to mingle and snack while we got polished, massaged, waxed and pampered for free!

First time I ever got my eyebrows waxed. I'm totally sheltered I know.

My E-bestie Chari

It wassuper low key and relaxing. We then retreated to our swag bag filledrooms and organized registration packets until 3:30 in the morning. Oye.

Friday was just as much fun with some amazing speakers whotaught us a ton and made us laugh our butts off. Friday night was thebig Social. We had a candy buffet set up so we could snack while wemingled and listened to Mindy Gledhill and then Cameron Rafati.

Jeremycame to the social and may or may not be in love with Cameron. 70% ofthe married blogging mothers there may or may not have also fallen inlove with Cameron. He's super cute. And abnormally tall. And please love this song as much as I do.

Then Saturday were the break out classes. I taught a fun classon blogging basics and then taught another on HTML where I did a liveblog re-design. I was busy running all over the wholetime and was really bummed that I had to miss so many of the otherspeakers and panels.

By the way, there were around 25 vendors set up at theconference and I must tell you that Oh Sweet Sadie has some of thecutest stuff ever! Blogfrog, Persnickety Prints, 300dpi and Basa Bodywere some of my other favorite vendors. They seriously rock.

We had tons of great giveaways. I held the ipad for a long while. Debated running off with it. Almost tried.

We wrapped things up with Cjane singing Whitney Houston balladsand Sophie Uliano speaking to us all in her adorable English accent.

It was one of the greatest things I've ever been lucky enough to bea part of. Elisa and Caroline are some of the most amazing women I'veever met. They have taught me a TON and I love them to death.

I will tell you that I got to meetsome seriously awesome people. Meeting other bloggers is such an strange experience. You meetsomeone for the first time, but you're like old friends. Severalhundred people walked into a room and immediately were unified.Blogginghas played a big roll in my adult life and I've met so many greatfriends, learned, laughed, cried and grown in the last 3 years.

Favorite Things Week

2010-11-22T10:02:00.000-08:00

I'm having my Favorite Things week over at Leelou-Blogs. Today is Baby Swag day.
Check it-check-check-check it-check it out!

Happy Halloween

2010-10-27T21:04:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile. We still look pretty much the same. What are you doing for Halloween? We're having a glow-in-the-dark dinner. And my kids don't know yet. They will freak.

I've made some Halloween cards and banners if anyone wants to put some up before Sunday! You can just print them off and hang them up or hand them out. Get 'em here.

Yeppers.

2010-10-10T21:14:00.000-07:00

That's me. With my MMB-besties. Teresa Collins. Cjane.
We did a little segment for the Mormon Channel that is airing tomorrow. Listen for me. I'm the one that stumbles my words and then goes mute for the rest of the hour.

I am not ok with this

2010-09-18T23:54:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time I had a baby named Brynlie.

She sat there.

And didn't move.

For one year.

I witnessed other mothers strapping their babies into things like bouncers and strollers.

And I mocked them.

Why strap in a baby? They don't need it. They just sit there!

Then Kelson was born. And the same was said of him. I continued to laugh at the mothers who felt it necessary to tie down their little babies. Why would they even make straps on baby gear? Fools.

Then Dane was born. And a light bulb clicked. And I was put in my place.

I suddenly understood why things have straps. And why people drag their children around on a leash. Because apparently some children require them. And I may be loosing my mind as I figure this out.

Dane is Houdini. He can get out of everything and crawl into anything. I bet if I stuck Kelson in a crib he still couldn't figure out how to crawl out. But Dane can.

Brynlie couldn't walk up the stairs by herself til she was 3 (we have some seriously uncoordinated children). But Dane can.

Kelson never attempted to crawl on the dining room table, or up the latter to the bunk beds, or on top of the toilet, or inside the cupboards, or over a fence. But Dane can.

We have had this high chair for 5 years and this is the first time we had to use the straps.

I am not ok with this.

Zoo and waterpark

2010-09-15T20:58:00.000-07:00

While we were in Portland this summer, we went to the most fun water park with Jena and her family. Jena might be my favorite person in the world. Just so you know.

Before we headed home we hit the Portland Zoo.

Here's Brynlie with a Polar bears butt.

B and K watching a Polar bear pee into the water

Aaaaaand we're done.

June Birthdays

2010-09-14T08:52:00.000-07:00

This hunk had a birthday on June 25th. He's a catch ladies.

This is an Asphalt Pie. If you have not had one, GET ONE. With hot fudge. Nom nom nom.

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Kelson turned 3 in June and I planned a pretty sweet Toy Story 3 party. And when I say "I", I really mean that Jeremy planned a pretty sweet party. I just made the invitations. Cause that's all I'm good for.

Seriously. Tell me that's not cute.

Unfortunately a few of Kelson's friends were out of town, so we postponed the party. Then we had to head to Portland and things got crazy. Kelson forgot about the party and we decided to see Toy Story 3, have a family get together and call it good.

I asked him these questions on his birthday, but he was far too busy playing with his new toys to put up with me, so this is all you get.

How old are you? 3
When do you laugh? "When Hayden does funny stuff."
What is your favorite thing to eat? "Yogurt."
What is your favorite thing to do? "Wrestle"
What is your favorite TV show? "Johnny Test"
What are you really good at? "Brushing teeth"
What is your favorite movie? "Toy Story"
Who is your best friend? "Chase"
What's your favorite primary song? "You get the best of both worlds"
Where is your favorite place to go? "At the park"
What do you want to be when you grow up? "I wanna be Buzz Lightyear"

Just love me

2010-09-12T22:57:00.000-07:00

Dear GiGi,

I have been busy. I know there is a demand here for pictures of your adorable great grandchildren. I can't sleep at night knowing you are cursing my name every time you look at my dated blog. I have failed as your favorite granddaughter. But I have an excuse.

My summer started with a little conference, (that I will one day blog about) which in turn kept me a little busy. Then I found out I had to get a server for Leelou Blogs. I know what you're saying. What the heck is a server? Let me tell you that it is not related to anything like this:

As much as I terribly wish it was.

It's more like this:

I have lots of images and graphics I give to people online. When someone online looks at an image I made, it uses something called bandwidth. Bandwidth is like water going through a hose. Lots of people see my images which is like too much water going through the hose. Like lots of water. So it makes everything slow.

I had to buy a bigger "hose" to store everything on.
In turn, I had to change every single image and piece of coding that I've ever made. So far I've finished half.
It took almost a month. And I wanted to cry.

That is my reason for depriving you. I will soon have time to post again. I digitally pinky promise.

XOXO,
Your absolute favorite granddaughter
-Juliewulie

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If you had a free Leelou Blogs layout on your blog, you'll need to head over to my site and reinstall the HTML. You need the new codes as the old ones are gone. Please don't hate me for this inconvenience. It will take you less then 30 seconds.
Unless your Jaime. Then it may take like 30 minutes :)

That sucks

2010-08-26T14:17:00.000-07:00

Remember that one summer when he

got tubes in his ears?

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And he

had a VCUG?

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And he

had a tonsillectomy?

Remember that one time I checked the mail and got the bills for said procedures.

I'm gonna go vomit now.

It was about stinkin' time!

2010-08-06T22:26:00.000-07:00

Every time we take a trip its usually to go see family or friends. The Mac's have never been on a trip just because. I thought it was far time we had a family vacation so we packed up and headed to the coast for a few days. Just the 5 of us.

We were super excited. The Oregon coast is seriously beautiful. As we were driving it kept getting hotter and hotter. When we were 10 miles out it was 91 degrees! It never gets that hot on the OR coast so I was pumped!
There wasn't a cloud in site and as soon as we hit the city border, we drove into a cloud of fog.
Awesome.

Google maps told me that New Port looked like this:

But they lied. Cause apparently it looks like this ALL. THE. TIME.

Do you see this people?! Such a sad day. There was a strategically placed cloud of fog directly over the city. No where else, just over the city and coast line. Kelson got this sand tractor over a year ago and he was so stinking excited to use it. So the very first thing we HAD to do when we got there, was get out all of our jackets and find a dry patch of sand so Kelson could fulfill his lifelong dream of shoveling sand.

We spent the rest of the day doing a little of this:

and a lot of this:

Luckily, the next day it was clear a couple miles away from the beach.
Convenient.
So we hit the little downtown shops and stuff.

Kelson asked why this boat had a mustache. And I laughed. A lot.

We were completely lazy and just walked around checking things out. We did whatever we wanted and it was the best day ever. Plus we purchased and consumed a good 4 pounds of salt water taffy. I win!

The kids not only loved these docks full of sea lions, they decided to talk to the sea lions in their native tongue. Of Sea Lion. People started to question if we would ever make them stop barking at the sea lions. And we laughed. And let them have at it.

That is until Jeremy had a very Julie-like anxiety attack and thought for sure that somehow the kids would slip through the 4 inch gap between the railing and fall into the water. When he started to hyperventilate I knew it was time to move on. (I think he really just had visions of his phone falling in the water, but whatever)

I thought this trip would be fun. Our first little family vacation. But it was way more than that. We needed this.

We put away our phones and computers and just hung out with no schedule at all. It was a hoot.

My family's pretty stinkin' cool.

MacBerry Updates

2010-08-06T21:45:00.000-07:00

A little of what we've been up to...

nom nom nom

This boy has THE bluest eyes and longest eye lashes

eCLIPse!

2010-07-25T00:01:00.000-07:00

I don't know if anyone is familiar with a movie called Eclipse or not. It's a small little film about sparkly awesomeness.

So Christy and I teamed up to throw a rockin premier party again. We got over 500 prizes and donations to hand out this year! I know, right?

It was set to be a sweet night. Two theaters were showing Eclipse. One of the theaters was going to be let in early to partake in our party, the other theater had to sadly wait outside. Me, Christy and our posse got the benefit of no waiting in line + first pick at seats. Win win people! But our lame movie theater had to go and change things up on us at the last minute AGAIN.

The corporate lady called me 5 hours before we were starting and asked if we could do the party outside the theater so that everyone could participate. Long story short, we did it unwillingly outside which most people were ok with. Others were not. As you can see.

We played some trivia, threw candy by the bucket loads and eventually just started grabbing prizes and throwing them to the crowd cause we had so much stuff left over.

Then we all settled in for what I thought would be one heck of a Twi-bomb, but they proved me wrong. I had heard too many horrible rumors and was determined it would be pretty cheesy, but tiny little Davide Slade totally pulled through.

Rosie Rose came all the way from Portland to rejoin Christy and I so we could adequately give commentary and inappropriate comments throughout the show. Then we got Denny's to give everyone a discount after the movie so we moved the party there until the wee hours of the morning.

This is the only picture we got of us partyin, which I think I'm ok with.

We're sick of this small theater run around and are taking our party elsewhere next year. We have several possibilities in mind. We're going big people! Wanna come?

I stashed some of the prizes we got and I'm giving them away over at Leelou Blogs. It's one heck of a lot of Twi-stuff! Go win it.

Kelson's crazy kidney

2010-07-18T21:22:00.000-07:00

Kelson had his yearly appointment at Dorenbekers last week. He's had too many traumatic experiences and hates going to the doctors now, so I tried to prep him the week before we left.

He was not ok with this.

So the morning of his appointments he started crying and yelling that he wanted to go home. We knew it was going to be a super day.

Poor kid cried the entire way to the hospital. They have to do ultra sounds first thing and that was the worst part. We had to eventually pin him down, which is the most horrible thing in the world! Seeing your baby cry and stare at you as you pin them down is something no parent can ever get used to. Jeremy will need therapy I'm sure.
Luckily Kelson realized after awhile that he wasn't getting poked or hurt, so he relaxed.

Then they took him into a room of toys and movies and he was much happier. He got to play for awhile before the gave him the happy juice that we both love so much.

He insisted on wearing his hat the whole time. As always.

They did the same VCUG that they've done before and Kelson sat there happy and drunk as could be. This miracle loopy drug they give out is some seriously fun stuff. We just laugh the whole time cause K is so out of it. He says the funniest things.

When they did the ultrasound they couldn't even find his bad kidney, which is good. What used to be huge and full of cysts, is now super tiny and is basically just one little cyst. The diverticulum on his bladder is the same as always but it isn't doing anything bad, so they're not really worried about it now.

We only have one more appointment and if everything looks good we never have to take him back again! Ya-stinkin-whoo! Unless he has kidney stones or bladder infections, this boy is good to go...as long as we avoid certain things like never owning a trampoline, horse, 4-wheeler or dirt bike. Apparently small bounces or jumping isn't good if you only have one kidney. So one day when hes a teenager and wants a 2 wheeled death trap, I will have a great excuse awaiting him.

MacBerry Updates

2010-07-18T15:59:00.000-07:00

I have about a billion things to update here, but these cell phone pictures will have to hold you over until I get time to post.

Sweet outfit

This is how K gets himself dressed

We gave this bad boy away out our conference. This is Mindi right before she tried to run off with it.

I win!

Burnt Toast

2010-07-06T03:06:00.000-07:00

I don't like to cook.
I know that probably doesn't come as a surprise to anyone. I should probably rephrase that. I can't cook. I really can't. I'm domestically challenged. I blame genetics.

There was a week in April where I burned the bottoms of 2 pans so badly that I had to throw them away. One was from steaming vegetables and the other from making macaroni. This was neither the first nor the second time I have thrown away a pan from burning it. I can't make this stuff up.

I can't cut a tomato, I don't know if something needs more flavoring and I have no idea how to peel an avocado without destroying it.

But I do like to eat. And by "like" I mean "love". Some might think that due to the amount of food I consume I would be an amazing food critic. This would be false. I like food. A lot. But I have the worst taste buds on the planet.
Coke or Root Beer? Can't tell the difference.
Scandalous I know.
Kraft or Western Family? Can't tell the difference.
Cold Stone or Great Value? Can't tell the difference.
The list goes on.

I'll eat just about anything as long as its not spicy. Big Red gum is death to me.

Luckily Jeremy doesn't mind. The very first time I met Jeremy he walked into my kitchen and I asked him if he wanted some homemade lasagna. 3 months later he told me he saw the Stoffers box in the garbage.
He knew very well what he was getting himself into.

So 2 years ago I put my recipes on a blog so that I could have them all in one handy place. These recipes are special Julie-proof recipes. I have 2 requirements. Easy and delicious. And luscious.
"Deluscious. I just made up a word. Did you see that?"

Due to the overwhelming amount of two people asking me for a recipe, I think I'll finally share this blog with you all. There are like 3 recipes to choose from and I doubt I'll update it frequently, but have at it.
I can't claim any of the recipes, but I do. And I will continue to do so.
They're all my absolute favorites. Please try Aunt Kris's Carmel Sauce. It will rock your world. Not even kidding.

Free Swim Suit!

2010-07-05T00:24:00.001-07:00

I'm giving away an ADORABLE swim suit of your choice today!

See Leelou Swag for details!

Blurb coupon

2010-06-23T13:12:00.000-07:00

Just in case anyone was interested, I have a really great coupon for Blurb.com. It expires the end of the summer so if you ever wanted to print your blog into a book, or want to do it again, now is a great time. Blurb books are my favorite. Go on over to Leelou Blogs to find out more.

Happy Fathers Day

2010-06-20T07:58:00.000-07:00

Happy fathers day Jer. You're my lobster.

To Annie B

2010-06-18T22:43:00.000-07:00

Dear Ann,
You did this to my children. And I was eternally grateful. I may or may not have laid my seat back when we pulled into the driveway and took an hour nap.
I heart you.
-Julie

Remember that one time I blogged?

2010-06-16T00:26:00.000-07:00

You are in store for a treat today. The longest Mac-update post is about to take place. Brace yourself.
Alright lets start with Jeremy.
Jeremy got a new phone.

What? You didn't know that? Then you must not have talked to him in the last 6 months, cause he has a little bit of an obsession. Just a little bit. He is a happy camper and it brings great joy to his digital soul.
Nothing is better in life then a happy husband with access to millions of apps. And the ability to skype your wife from the bathroom. Ewwww, I'm kidding. Jeremy would never do such a thing...

Thanks to modern technology we can now tell where to get the cheapest gas, create a scrapbook page, digitally flip a coin, calculate shopping lists, watch episodes of The Office and track menstral cycles all from the comfort of our couch. Amazing isn't it?

On another fun note, Jeremy is switching things up at school next year. He will be teaching 5th grade half the day and doing Tech stuff the other half of the day. He's super excited. We are the Geek Squad.
Due to his awesome nerd skills, Twitter has rocked Jeremy's world lately. He's made a ton of other friends in education all over the world and occasionally Skypes with other classes in different states. When I was in 4th grade I had a pen pal in North Carolina. It took 3 weeks to get a response mailed to me. That sucked. Skype wins.

As for me... I've actually just been obsessed with new actions for photoshop.

Look at these before and afters. I know mom. You're amazed. Just scroll past this part.

Ok I'll stop! Alright, one more. Then I'm good.

As for this girl. I don't know where she came from.

She is all kinds of crazy. Bryn is absolutely dying to go to Kindergarten. She loves to play house, read and have dance parties. Last week Jeremy took the boys out and Bryn and I had a girls night, which included facials, manicures, pedicures, cookies, popcorn and Hannah Montana mixed with a little Alvin and the Chipmunks soundtrack.
I asked Brynlie to smile. This is what I get.

Then without further instruction, she began doing an impromptu photo shoot. This went on for quiet some time. I have no explanation.

Kelson thinks he's hilarious, loves to play with legos and unfortunately gets a tummy ache the second its time to clean. He will not fall asleep unless he has his baseball hat on and his Book of Mormon in bed with him.

Lately he's kind of obsessed with Batman and Ironman. Our Borders had a superhero/Fancy Nancy day, so of course the kids had to dress up. I anticipated taking pictures of the kids and all the super heros that were there. I did not anticipate our entire town being there. It was so crowded I couldn't stand back far enough to take pictures of the kids.

Daner Doo is stinking cute. For real. He loves to be held all day, which normally would be hard, but he insists on smooshing his cheek up to yours when he's being held. I could do that all day. And sometimes I do.
Dane likes to dance, destroy everything he shouldn't, wrestle and give some seriously slobbery kisses. He's finally starting to say a few more words and wants to be outside 90% of the day.

Dane had to get tubes in his ears last month. We waited at the hospital for 2 and 1/2 hours. The surgery seriously took less then 3 minutes. The doctor was pumping kids in and out of the OR like crazy. I used to babysit for the doctor when I was younger. I should have charged more.

Did I mention what my mom got Dane for his birthday? She asked what he would want and I told her that Dane loves balls. She decided to get him 200 balls and put them in a blow up swimming pool. I decided to leave them at her house. She didn't agree.
The dreaded present has turned into the most requested family game ever. We sit around and throw balls at the kids while they run around the house. It's some serious family entertainment. If you kiss my kids too hard they turn red. So you should see them when we're done. Its things like this that bring us closer.

Birthday Girl

2010-06-15T22:42:00.000-07:00

This cute thing had a birthday (cough, on April 5th, cough) and I let her completely plan her own party. She saw an owl party in a magazine and was sold. Now I'm not sure if you've ever had an owl party...ok, yes I am. You haven't had one. But might I suggest not to do one. Ever. Seriously, what do you do for an owl party?

So first we had to find an owl. I tried to make a few, but they weren't cuttin' it. So when Walmart came out with all their Easter stuff they used an cute little owl in their advertising. I loved it. I needed it. I took a picture of it. I copied it exactly. I'll probably end up going to jail for it. But its cute.

So I asked Brynlie what the heck we were going to do, and her first request was to have everyone trace and color their bodies.

Then she wanted everyone to get their face painted.

And did you see this? Yeah. I made it. By myself. And it was huge. And it only fell over once after all the frosting was on. Now, I'm used to cooking delicacies such as SpaghettiO's and hot dogs, so this was a stretch for me.

Check out the balance of that cupcake. Amazing, I know. I have skills. Marimom just close your eyes.

Then we played pin the beak on the Owl to tie in the whole owl theme. As if face painting and tracing 5 year olds wasn't owl-y enough.

And now for Brynlie's 5 year old questionnaire. I really did ask these questions to Brynlie on her birthday. I'm just several months behind on updating things here.

How old are you? 5

your Mom? 16
your Dad? 17
Kelson? 2 1/2
Dane? 1

What makes you happy? "When you play with me."
What makes you sad? "When Kelson hits me."
When do you laugh? "When Hayden and Kelson does funny stuff."
When do you cry? "When you brush my hair."
What is something mom always says to you? "Clean your room"

and your Dad? "I love you Brynlie."

What is your favorite thing to eat? "Spaghetti noodles."
What is your favorite thing to do? "Play with you and play house."
What is your favorite TV show? "Curious George"
What is your favorite story in the scriptures? "About Noah."
What are you really good at? "Playing nice with friends."
What is your favorite movie? "Monsters vs. Aliens"
What does your mom do for her job? "You don't go to work? Maybe type stuff?"

and your Dad? "Teaches spanish to kids"

Who is your best friend? "Connor and Anne"
What's your favorite primary song? "A long time ago in a far away place"
What do you like to do with Kelson? "Eat Popsicles on the deck and play house"
What do you and your mom do together? "Color sometimes."

Dad?? "Wrestle"

Where is your favorite place to go? "Burger King with Grandpa"
How do you know your Mom and Dad love you? "Cause I'm smart."
What do you want to be when you grow up? "Kindergarten teacher"

We love you sweet girl. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

MacBerry Updates

2010-05-09T20:22:00.000-07:00

Here is the latest round of pictures Jeremy and I have sent each other...cause we're nerdy like that.

Trip to the Jelly Belly Factory

Yes, Kelson wanted to wear this to Walmart. Yes, I let him. Don't judge me.

Apparently Brynlie figured out how to take pictures with my phone.

Dane likes to do a few yoga stretches in the car. It's relaxing.

My friend Angie brought me this bit of goodness. She replaced the oil with pudding and added 3 kinds of chocolate chips to the cake. And I did eat it. In one sitting. Judge me.

Brynlie got her face painted at a school carnival. She bawled when we had to take it off for bed.

This is how we spent our drive to and from UT. Yes I take extra barf bags when leaving hospitals. So sue me.

I will have a wall like this one day...just so you know. Another reason why I heart IKEA.

Happy Birthday Brynlie!

I no like you no more!

2010-04-26T22:23:00.000-07:00

So one night I had spent 2 glorious hours at walmart. It waslate and I was alone. I took my time gathering up all the stuff that Idon't have time to usually get. I had a cart full of great things I hadbeen meaning to pick up for the last few months. Right when I washeading to purchase my goods, I saw smoke everywhere.
Some teenagers had set arack of clothes on fire! As Walmart tried to rush me out, I tried toconvince them why it was necessary for me to checkout evenif it meant risking smoke inhalation. I would use self checkout if needed.
They didn't care that I hadspent 20 minutes weighing the pros and cons of several shampoos. Theydidn't care that I rummaged through the discount aisle for 15 minutes orthat I finally remembered to pick up that patch to fix the hole in myfavorite jeans. They didn't care that I had a cart full of odds andends that could never be replaced with 3 children in tow. They didn'tcare that I seriously did not want to leave!!

So I took one last look at the goods I would never own, and slowly walked away. I camped out in my car for a good hour and a half before realizing they weren't going to let me in any time soon...that and the fact that my milk had been sitting in my cart for a good 2 hours and there was no way I wanted it now. So I left in defeat. Stinking teenagers.

"I no like you no more"

{bahahahaha}

Wait for it

2010-04-25T21:52:00.000-07:00

Dear Mom,

Please stop yelling at me for not updating my blog. I'VE BEEN A LITTLE BUSY. This is what I have done in the last 2 weeks...

Threw 1 owl birthday party
Spent 2 hours recreating the Walmart ad owl for said birthday party

Had one barfing 2 year old
Jeremy got strep throat...AGAIN! Yes that would make the 3rd time since January.
3 doctor appointments
Went to California for 5 days for Jessi's wedding *Yea!*

Had one barfing 5 year old
Played Disney Scene it 6 times...2 of which were against my will
Has had Dane throw up 13 out of the last 16 nights
Started a new business venture...which is a different post for a different day
SOLD OUT the CBC conference!!
Jeremy had 28 parent teacher conferences
Changed 84 nasty diapers
Answered 962 emails
Taken 2 showers before 4:00 pm

Blogging will resume to its normal schedule after May 28...maybe.

In the mean time, here are some random pictures left over from our trip to UT so you can sleep at night.
xoxo,
Your favorite daughter

This is Dane's "cheeese" face. I love it.

"Cheeeeeese"

Spring Break '10

2010-04-04T23:40:00.000-07:00

For spring break we headed down to Utah to meet this little dude and go to his blessing:

This is my little sister Lauren. Remember her? She's the one that didn't get sick ONCE while being pregnant. Hate her with me, wont you?

We spent some time in Logan w/ baby Oaklen, watched Modern Family a ton (which is theee best show ever) and hung out with lots of family. Then we took off to SLC for the rest of the week.

Jeremy's Mom and aunt threw one heck of an Easter party for all of their grandkids.

This is how Brynlie and Kelson always end up. I don't know how they are our children. Both just chill doing their own thing while everyone else parties. Brynlie is on one end of the party and Kelson's on the other. Maybe they're just candy hoarders. All that matters is that they had a blast...and shared their candy with me :)

And then there is Dane who is perfectly content with anything as long as he has a ball to throw or kick.
Besides the kids awesome carsickness, it was fun to just hang out for awhile...and beat the heck out of Jeremy at Skipbo...but really, whats new?
We also HAD to go to Tucanos. I would totally move to UT to be closer to that little piece of heaven. I completely out ate Jeremy and I'm not ashamed. It was good and I'd do it again.

I had a couple fun meetings while I was there and I FINALLY got to meet the Motherboard! She runs MMB and is one of the girls who is planning the Casual Blogger Conference with me. We talk and email all the time, but were finally able to meet in a completely un-awkward online dating sort of way. This may sound silly, but I am truly convinced that we were meant to meet each other and do this conference together. It was meant to be. I am so thankful and excited to be a part of it. We only have around ~~30 tickets left~~ SOLD OUT!, so if you want to party it up w/ some of these people, better get your ticket fast! Plus, I'm in charge of the swag bags and they are going to be AWESOME!

Dane=Birthday, Mom=Cry/sob/denial

2010-04-04T22:56:00.000-07:00

Somebody had a birthday last week...

Marimom made her famous #1 cake. At first Dane was all like..."hmmmm..."

and then he was like..."nom nom nom"

Dane is our first kid who wanted anything to do with their birthday cake, so we ended up taking 403 pictures to document such a rare occasion. Don't you wish you could take off your pants, climb up on the table and eat a big cake with your hands? Don't be ashamed. It wouldn't look as cute but ~~I'd~~ Jeremy would totally do it.

Happy Birthday Daner-Doo!

Happy Easter...I mean Valentine's Day

2010-04-04T21:45:00.000-07:00

I had these sitting in a draft for the last two months and forgot to publish them! For Valentine's Day we were in Portland visiting some friends. Jared and Dani always go all out for V-day. I mean alllll out. We were unaware of the level of celebration and attire that was required.

We convinced a naive teenager to watch, feed and put to bed our children while we hit the local roller derby. It was probably the coolest thing ever.

Then we went out to Jack In The Box for a romantic candle lite dinner...where they truly let us light candles. They were ghetto like that.
Thanks guys for a fun weekend! We'll be back next year!

Nothing says I love you like a roller derby

Circus vs. Julie Who's the bigger freak?

2010-03-14T21:16:00.000-07:00

This last week the circus was in town. No not this kind of circus:

Dane's first hair cut

2010-03-11T23:14:00.000-08:00

I always convince myself that my boys will have curly hair like Brynlie did. I wait and wait...no curls. I eventually give in and let Jeremy cut it off. It's a sad day. Dane's time has come.

With the help of a sucker and Brynlie, he stayed perfectly still.

Right now Dane loves when we chase him, has 2 teeth on bottom, eats more then I do at dinner, waves and says bye-bye and throws his head up in the air and gives theee cutest fake laugh ever.

Mac boys

2010-03-04T15:01:00.000-08:00

Dude, these boys are cute. Not gonna lie.

Twi-off '10

2010-03-04T14:57:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time there was a girl named ~~Boo~~ Christy who had a wealth of Twilight info tucked away. She knew her sparkly facts, and she knew them well.

There was also a girl named Cherise who was another sister in Twilight. She too knew her Twilight stuff...so much that her enthusiasm scared me people a little.

One day Julie decided to host a Twi-off testing all the info one would gain from Sister Meyers. Christy and Cherise agreed to compete and it was on.

The teams were assembled and informed. Rules were established. Books were studied. Questions were created. Confidentiality agreements were made. Wavers were signed. Wingers was booked.

It was an intense night with over 100 questions. It was a close call, but in the end, Cherise pulled out ahead to become the Twi-off '10 champion!
I don't know if that made her the winner or the loser? :)
Either way it was a good fight.

Participants of the Twi-Off '10 may or may not have received exceptional prizes...and lived happily ever after.

And this is John Wu...our soon to be Twi-unicorn. We had to reserve him as well, because no other waiter will do. Thank Wu.

MacBerry Updates

2010-02-09T19:16:00.000-08:00

Here are some more document-worthy pictures that Jeremy and I have sent each other lately. This is a normal day of Brynlie dressing herself. She went to the library (or as she likes to say, the "biblayoteka") like this. Such a gem.

These are Kelson's "howdy boots" that he wears w/ pretty much anything. Church clothes, basketball shorts...no clothes at all...whatever. He insisted I send Jeremy a picture of them.

Can you see this?? Really? I can't make this stuff up. This is a bus with a huge boat on the back. Only at Wal-mart.

Daner-doo rockin out.

This is how I found Kelson's pudding cup. Awesome.

This is how poor little Dane falls asleep sometimes. He'll play or cry until he just folds in half.

Daner-Doo

2010-02-09T19:02:00.000-08:00

I'm not gonna lie. This kid is cute. He is now 10 months old! I don't know how that happened. Here are some amazing Dane statistics as of lately:

He started walking last week.
He loves to eat baby wipes.
He HAS to know what B and K are doing at ALL times.
He only wants me cause I'm the food.
He smacks his lips when he sees food and it's hiiiilarious.
Once under Kelson's bed, he can not crawl out and gets stuck. A theory proven over and over again.
If Kelson is on the ground Dane will attack him 100% of the time.
If Brynlie is on the ground, Dane will not attack her 100% of the time.
Brynlie will cry 100% of the time when Dane only wrestles with Kelson.
Dane yells louder then any grown man when he wants something.
He'll grab his cheeks when we say "Uh-oh!"
He is OBSESSED with anything that is or could possibly be confused for a ball.

Here are a few videos Jeremy put together the other night. Kelson is obsessed with pretending to ride a skateboard and play a guitar.

I know how exciting it is to watch someone else's home videos, but you so have to watch this one. Its a keeper...and so so wrong.

Christmas recap

2010-01-08T15:33:00.000-08:00

So this year we started off with a little snow. Unfortunately we didn't get much and it's been gone for a long time now. We had a brown Christmas. Ick.

Brynlie got a Hannah Montana wig from Santa...because a blonde wig will transform you into a rock star...even if you already have blonde hair.

We played a little bowling...which by the way somebody creeeeeamed somebody else. Her name may start with a J and end with an ulie. Just sayin...

Brynlie became the first person to ever knock over the very first bowling pin, and the very first bowling pin only. The ball took about 14 minutes to reach the very first bowling pin...and we like to believe it gave up and fell over.

"Santa" reeeeally wanted to get ~~himself~~ Kelson a shake 'n go race track for Christmas. "Santa" loved playing it so much, that he happened to notice that after Christmas they were on sale for half off. And "Santa" was able to talk "Mrs. Clause" into getting another track so that she could have a car of her own to use too.

"Santa" may or may not have stayed up for 3 hours after the kids went to bed to see how many different tracks he could make. I heart "Santa" and wanted to cry when he had to go back to work.

I'll take a teachers pay check any day if I get my hubby home for holidays, breaks and summer.

Polar Express

2010-01-08T13:36:00.001-08:00

So a few days before Christmas my cute Dad planned out this whole Polar Express night for the grandkids. He started of by making his borax ornaments. They're made out of pipe cleaners so the kids could shape them however they want. Then they make them all bling blingy.

Then we made some ginger bread houses. This was the first Macdonald gingerbread house to not fall down! Jahalla.

Then grandpa told the kids some stories. Brynlie lives for my dads stories. Every time we go over she wants him to tell her about when he or I was little. This is the zone-face she gets every time. She'd sit there for hours.

During the week the kids had to do things to earn fake money. Then Grandpa set up a store where they could buy popcorn and candy.

Then someone plagiarized Polar Express tickets and the kids got to buy them and get them punched.

My Dad's cute. I know. Then the kids actually watched the whole movie downstairs while the parents chilled upstairs. It was wonderful...and quiet. The kids all got big jingle bells at the end and fell asleep in the car before we even left my parents driveway. I'm not sure if my Dad or the grandkids had more fun...or the parents for that matter. Thanks Grandpa!

2010-01-06T00:43:00.001-08:00

As always, things have been crazy around here. But I did get around toposting Christmas pictures before Easter!! Last year I was able to virtually meet some awesome bloggers. Here are some links to a few seriously funny people. Go check them out. And laugh.

I've been learning a lot in becoming a professional geek lately. I've been able to gain a few new designers throughout the year to help out with various Leelou stuff and have so many more things I'd love to do. If only we didn't have to sleep...

But now...My bloggy friends...the time has come.

I've teamed up with Mormon Mommy Blogs and we've been putting together the ultimate blogging conference for all you blogging mamas out there! It's really going to happen and I'm soooo excited! We're having lots of awesome classes taught by the best of the best. Everything from writing to photography, internet safety to blogging basics, and so much more! Plus we have some sweet speakers like:

Registration opened today. It's going to be in SLC May 28 and 29.
So click here to check out the site. Go get a ticket, and then you can watch me make a fool of myself as I attempt to speak infront hundreds of people.
(You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.)

{Also, I'm giving away 3 pre-made layouts on Divine Diva Media! Click here to enter to win and a custom blog design on the Swag blog. You can click here to enter that one.}