poor child born on christmas eve

we are celebrating my nephews birthday this saturday. his real birthday is on christmas eve. this poor child gets stuck with a tough birthday. so i just want to say...


HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG BOY BRADY!!!!!!!!!!


don't worry your bestest friend in the whole wide world will be there too. i know he is the only one you really care about coming. can anyone guess who that could be????

why i hate cooking!!!

one of my resolves this year was to cook more often. this also has alot to do with not having much money to work with=no eating out (as often as i would like to). thus, if we had money i would still be eating out rather than cooking. but, here we are no money and i need to start cooking. i have taken to watching the foodnetwork which i thoroughly enjoy (for some reason it is calming watching someone cook so effortlessly). and watching these people cook so easily makes me think, hey i can totally do that!!!! so here i am in my kitchen whipping up some homemade lovin from the oven when i realize that there is total silence (aside from kylee watching donnie and marie dvds in the basement and singing along with them). where and what is tess doing i ask myself!???


you see now...this is why i hate cooking. i have no control over what my 1 yr old is doing. she got into my diaper bag...pulled out my fav chocolate covered altoids...and shoved ten of them in her mouth.

and while i was dealing with her my sauteed onions burnt!!! i hate cooking!!!

wordless wednesday

when the fridge door opens...

tessa comes a runnin. i am telling you she can hear the fridge open even though she is in a completely different area of the house. and this is what she does...

oh sweet sweet sweet water bottle, how i love you.

yep, I CAUGHT YOU!!!!!!!

bragging on kylee the cheerleader

allow me a post to brag about kylee and how well she did in her cheerleading class at The Little Gym. these are pictures of her last class and showing us all the neat stuff she learned.

notice how the instructor behind her is not needing to hold her...(I WAS TOLD THAT IS VERY ADVANCED FOR HER).

working the beam

flipping around on the bars

and dropping down...look at her toes...pointed...i am so proud.

preparing for a toe touch...
check out the height!!!

teaching mom and grandma a cheer.

doing her favorite trick before getting her medal...a perfect cartwheel!!!!

winter and january blues

i am trying. i am trying oh so hard. i am trying oh so hard to tell myself that i can make it through another miserable winter in Utah. i am trying to see the positive. i am trying to see the posistive on being stuck in utah. the only positive that i can see is my family but soon they will be leaving too. i want to go too. kyle says he is going to Arizona (SUNLIGHT AND WARMTH), molly says that she is going to Texas (SUNLIGHT AND WARMTH), i keep stating over and over again that we are going to Southern California(SUNLIGHT AND WARMTH). do you see a trend here as to where my bro and sis and i want to be??? the only one that wants to stay is Nicole. Nicole is a homebody. A homebody that is happy to be where she is.

i wish i could be superman and fly up past the clouds toward the sun and regain my strength there. i wish i could make peace with winter and utah...every year it is getting harder and harder. sadder and sadder. more crying and crying.

i guess i continue to try and find my sunless and cold happiness until i can find my way down south...

this is what happens...

when i make my sick child stay home one extra day just to be sure that she is no longer sick. even though she has been acting fine and could have gone to school...
oh the boredom of being home and having loads of energy to do stuff...isn't she creative???

wordless wednesday

this is how...

we brush our teeth!!!

tessa can now climb onto the toilet...step on the toilet paper holder...climb onto the counter...grab her toothbrush...plop in the sink...and BRUSH HER 8 TEETH!!!

Friday at 5:00 PM

Here is what was happening at our house on Friday at 5:00 this last week...



Ky is inside a plastic container...sleeping...

Brenton is looking at his drawings in his room...

Tessa managed to get her pants and socks off and then...fall asleep...with mom...watching tv.

Aren't we such a happenin bunch of people?

PS on saturday my mom and i took ky and b man to see hotel for dogs, cute doggy movie!!

california dreamin...on such a winters day

WISHING WE WERE...

HERE

LOOKING AT...

THIS

LEARNING HOW TO DO...

THIS

JUST THOUGHT YOU WOULD LIKE TO KNOW

deja vu

okay everyone here is how it goes. go to my post from monday, http://stuck-in-utah.blogspot.com/2009/01/whining-on-monday.html. now replace where ever it says kylee with tessa and that is how it has gone for us today. except the puking was twice as much and a couple hours longer. she is just barely starting to let up now, praise the heavens!! oooo how i am praying that we are through with this and no one else will get sick (please god please). i think i pray to him every 15 minutes for this. i think my hubby and i got 2 hours sleep last night total, i am running on fumes right now. i am hoping that tonight will be smooth sailing and quiet and peaceful. it is so odd though because, again no fever at all. well there you have it...the ruf's are STUCK IN A SICK HOUSE AND CAN'T GET OUT!!



in her preferred postition for the majority of the night, on dad's tummy. i was in charge of holding the throw up bowl and cleaning up after it. walter can't walk because he injured his ankle playing BBALL. look she managed to smile too, just like ky?!

this is the sickest she has ever been and it kills me inside.

PS did the picture from wordless wednesday crack-u-up. it is one of my favorites . it is from kylee's 3rd birthday party. yes, it is Bradylicious!!

wordless wednesday

why so sad?

who can tell why tessa is staring so longingly through the glass door?

why is this poor heartbroken (look at that fat tear) 1 yr old crying??

because it looks like so much fun to be outside building a funky snowman with her big brother!!!

whining on a monday

This is going to be me whining on the post for today. kylee is sick. kylee is supa dupa sick. at 3 in the morning she woke up and threw up consistently every 15 min for 3 hours. then it went down to every 30 min for 2 hours. then one last time and hopefully we are in the clear. she has no fever and no other symptoms. this makes me crazy because i have no idea what it wrong with her and how contagious she is. i start crying because i feel so bad for her and what she is going through. i also cry because i don't want to deal with anyone else going through this yuckiness. i am a complete worried, anxious, nervous, mother of a mess. i still can't understand why taking my kids to have a cast put on their leg or get stitches is nothin to me (give that to me any day) but, when they get very ill i am a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown. why is that????? i am done whining. i think kylee will survive. the question is...will i? ugh, sometimes i annoy myself!!

what a super trouper...even after puking who knows how many times, the girl can still pull off a smile for the camera.

p.s. she is laying in bed watching kabhi khushi kabhie gham...for those of you who don't know it is an Indian Bollywood film (lots of dancing and singing). it is all (mostly) spoken in their native language and she loves it. so funny.

reflection Q & A 2008

we are now to the end of my reflection questions 2008 folks. how have you enjoyed it? did you learn a little bit about me? did you learn a little bit more about yourself? i have some vision questions for 2009 that i think i will be posting also to get us thinking about the new year.



13. What was the best way you used your time this past year?
i have opened up an etsy shop with lots of cute handmade stuff for kids. this tank is just a sample of what i do. sadly, i need to get my act together and make some more stuff to put up there.

14. What was the biggest thing you learned this past year?

yes Marci, you CAN handle THREE kids at once.

15. What was your single biggest time waster in your life this past year?

my time waster is also my de stresser, forget about lifer, lose your worrieser, laugh at lifer, think about something elser. yeah it is TV and i LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT. i watch everything. i am so glad that scrubs is back on cause that Zach Braff is so darn cute and that show makes me and my hubby laugh soooo hard. for all of you srubs lovers out there "WTH?" (a quote from the first show of the new season). i now text it to my hubby when i feel like sharing a laugh.

Reflection Q & A 2008

10. In what ways did you grow physically?


I lost all of my pregnancy weight and have also upped my weights for weight lifting/training/toning (oooo i hated doing that, but it had to be done). honestly this is an area i have never struggled with, everyone who knows me well knows that i am OCD about being physically fit and exercising.

11. What was the most challenging area of home management?

look at how well organized i am? i mean it is "perfection" isn't it? holy moly i need to work on getting all my "crap" organized, really really bad. i have been trying but doing it with a 1 yr old is a big fat joke.

12. What was the most enjoyable area of managing your home?

Come on, shopping for your kids clothes has got to count for something, doesn't it? not everyone enjoys this so i am counting it. my enjoyment is shopping for all things home related!!!

reflection Q & A 2008

7. In what ways did you grow spiritually?

honestly i am not sure if i grew alot spitually this year, if anything having my dad sent away kind of wavered me a little. but i have made a resolve this year to really work at my connection with god and making more of an effort to go to the temple.

8. With whom were your most valuable relationships?

well this is a very easy one for me...my family. they are all my bestest friends in the whole world, i am with them all the time and we do everything together. and believe it or not we have ALWAYS BEEN THIS WAY!!

9. In what ways did you grow emotionally?

i have really learned to distinguish between what i WANT and what i NEED. oh boy i still really want a new pair of cute jeans, so maybe i am still immature in that sense.

reflection Q & A 2008

4. What was an unexpected obstacle?



having no money (very little to work with) for a majority of the year.

5. Pick three words to describe 2008.

1. poor 2. California 3. heartache

6. What were the best books you read this year?


the stephanie meyer books (including the host) and the new sophie kinsella book (LOVE HER).

reflection Q & A 2008

so i found a neat blog called www.simplemom.net that asked some reflection questions for 2008. since the new year started i have felt like i haven't really accomplished anything other than making sure my kids made it another year. i have decided to take some time and answer these questions (just a few at a blog) and maybe whoever else reads this silly little blog can find some insight by asking themselves these same questions too. because honsetly sometimes i feel like i am drifting and just trying to survive day to day life. here we go...



1. What was the single best thing that happened this past year?


Our family got to FLY to California and spend a glorious fun filled week there, total bliss.

2. What was the single most challenging thing that happened?


My wonderful, insightful, spiritual, smart, quiet, worthy, grandkid loving father went to "federal prison camp". He was not guilty of anything, i do not like our judicial system or our government for that matter. I am going to have my sister Molly do a guest post on this and she will be able to explain things more eloquently than i could, after all she is the poli sci major (could you do that for me MO, please?). everyone can look forward to understanding this further as soon as i get her to agree to this. thank you for your patience.


3. What was an unexpected joy this past year?

I was surprised at how happy i was to have Tessa. I honestly had a very very hard time deciding to get pregnant. I wasn't baby hungry and i was happy to just have Brenton and Ky so this pregnancy and going into it was very different for me. I worried that i wouldn't have a bond with her because i felt no attachment to her during the pregnancy (my OB had to hear about this at every appt. and he would always say the same thing "marci i have seen you with your other kids and you will be a wonderful mother to this baby, even if you don't feel the same about this pregnancy, the bond will come"). surprise, surprise he was right. she has turned out to be our little spitfire of joy and laughter for the whole family!!!

this one's for you, dad!

GO UTES!!!!!!

Who am I, sir? A Utah man am I A Utah man, sir, and will be till I die; Ki!Yi!

i love you and think of you every day, marci

yes, my dad is wearing a u of u shirt!!

another year, another post

for new years eve the rufs (us) and the simonsens (my sisters fam) went out to dinner. we went to texas roadhouse at 5 pm (we foolishly thought we would beat most of the party dinner traffic). boy were we wrong... an hour and a half wait. hmmmm 5 kids under 7 waiting that long??? i don't think so. so we walked over to TGIF and waited 15 min for a table there. then we came to our house while i made dessert for everyone, brady discovered how fun the wii is to play with. he is now addicted to tennis. all the kids then took baths (little girlies first) and at 9 we counted down from ten and set off all our poppers outside. the simonsens went home and while i put tessa to bed, ky and brenton set up camp on the couch in the front room. they were bound and determined to stay up until midnight (couch, pillows, warm blanket, movie, lights off...good plan guys). they made it until 10:45 pm...ooooo so close. so all we have to say to you is...



have a wonderful...

joyous, lovely, healthy...

2009!!!! love, THE RUFS

ps we saw bedtime stories over the weekend, cute movie, the kids enjoyed it.