Chopped Off Update

So my neighbor, Whintey helped me with my hair and gave me a great cut and bang trim. So, problem solved. I have the straight bangs and they look cute! Pat isn't sure what to think yet...he says I look younger. Which can't be a bad thing, since I am older than he is. So THANK YOU to my new hair stylist!!! Oh, and I colored it red. Or as the box says...Intense Auburn!

Exhausted

My Top 10 reasons why I'm exhausted:

1. Max keeps waking up every night at 3:30 and won't go back to sleep unless he is laying with me. Last night I was awake with him from 3:00 'til 5:30. And we slept on the couch. It was a tight squeeze and so uncomfortable.
2. Every time I turn around the boys have gotten into some sort of trouble. Like Max climbed on the bathroom counter last night and dumped all the sand out of this vase I have. I felt like the beach was in our bathroom. Eeew! Sand sticks to everything!
3. Food crumbs on the floor. I am constantly picking up, sweeping and vacuuming up yesterdays lunch, dinner and todays breakfast. Does it ever end? Will they ever get the aim from their plate to their mouths?
4. Never-ending dishes, laundry and toys throughout the house.
5. The redesigning of my website. I get hooked on the computer for hours and hours trying to make things look just right.
6. Orders, orders and more orders! Bring on the orders!! I love this one.
7. Did I already say the endless mess of toys all over the house?
8. Trying to balance things like visiting teaching, cooking, cleaning, playing with the kids, reading my scriptures (non-exsistant right now) and taking care of myself. How do you do it? I struggle with this daily! Advice please.
9. Cooking three meals a day. (Cereal counts, right?) There is a lot of work that goes into preparing a meal. Plus, cleaning up and dishes. Sigh. No one appreciates me.
10. And how about the grocery store and trying to get groceries with two active boys pulling me every which way and making it impossible to stick to my list and do it in a timely fashion? All the while I'm trying to distract both of them and keep Max not climbing out and falling on his head!!!!!!!!!!!! (Which has happened twice now).

I live with 3 boys. Enough said.

Chopped Off

Just when I was starting to like my hair again, I decide to get a bang trim. UGH! Why do I do it? I was trying to go for the straight across bang look, instead of the sweeped over bangs to change things up and now I HATE IT! I have given it a good week, and I still hate hate hate it! Why mess with a good thing? Grrrrr. (Believe me, it doesn't look like the picture.) And it's so short now, that i can't do anything with it. I need extensions just on my bangs. OR a really good stylist who can help me out and make me look presentable again. It's amazing how hair can affect my mood. Can ya tell? Anyone have a wig I can borrow? Or some peanut butter solution to make my hair grow? (Did anyone see that movie as a kid..."The PeanutButter Solution"?)

Play Time

Lukas does lot of playing these days. He always wants to go to Tommy's or have Tommy come and play. They can and do play for hours. Max loves Tommy, too and gets a little too close to him sometimes. Lukas always wants to go see what Whitney and Holden are doing or run over to show them his toy. He is so friendly and outgoing (I wonder where he got that from?) and loves to say people's names. He went to lock up the church with Pat and he still talks about "Brian" that was locking up the church, too. Funny guy! You'll have to read the funny story about Lukas and his owie. He wants to be just like his dad. He told Pat he wanted to be a nurse when he grew up. Two Greg Fockers in the family. Haha. We love our male nurses!! And we love Tommy. You know what Lukas also loves? "Night at the Museum". He wants to watch it every day, several times a day, and thanks to DVR, we have it recorded and can pause it or rewind it or watch it whenever we feel like it. Lukas is quite the movie quoter (I wonder where he got that?). You've got to hear him quote this movie. Yea, it's cool. It's freakin' awesome!

Life's Mysteries

Does anyone really have answers to these questions?

• Why make the bed in the morning? What's the point? We're just going to sleep in it again anyway. (This is Pat's argument).
• Why do I try so hard to keep the house clean during the day...when I should just leave it for the end of the day. That way I clean it up ONCE, not four times.
• Why try so hard to make a good lunch for my kids, when they pick at it and don't eat?
• Why do I always have to have a treat after dinner? I'm addicted to sweets.
• Why is it that when "mom" leaves the kids with dad, she has to leave instructions on food/clothing/nap schedules for "dad", but when dad leaves, he doesn't think twice about what will happen with the kids?
• Why is blogging so fun and addicting?
• Why to we let gas prices get so high? I mean, c'mon. Get some U.S. oil already!
• Why do I let my kids get away with murder while I'm on the phone?
• Why is it so hard to keep the sink dish free? I mean, the dishwasher is right there!
• Why do I cry at commercials?
• Why do I have to change my hair color/style monthly (it seems)?
• Why does it make me crazy to let the kids toy room get messy and I start cleaning it up even before the kids are done playing?
• Why do we bring our kids with us when we want to eat out?
• Why is it that no matter what time church starts, we're always 5 minutes late?
• Why do I LOVE watching reruns of The Office? I swear, Dwight is the most hilarious character ever and I swear I'm living a separate romance vicariously through Pam.

Here are some things that I are easy to answer:

• What is it about Max that makes me melt? Hmmm, the curly hair, the cute dark eyes, the little lisp when he says his "s"s, his chubby hands and they way he tackles me to give me a hug. Yep, that's no mystery.
• What is it about Lukas that makes me laugh? Could it be the way he dresses himself, or the way he acts like such a big boy when he helps me around the house or how he can get to his "blog" all by himself and play games on it. Yea, no mystery here either.
• What is it about Pat that I love? Could it be his loveable personality, his charm, his unequivocal determination to find his place in the world, the way he seems to always want a hug and the busiest time of day? I know him better than he knows himself.

What are your life mysteries?

Project Board Sign

I love nothing more than sitting down and doing a fun craft or sewing project. It seems like that's all I've done the past couple weeks with orders for my Design By JaNece business. I have been wanting to make a board sign with my business name on it for so long and I finally just did it this weekend. It turned out cuter than I imagined and now I'm excited to have an open house or boutique to display it. For now it will sit in my craft room where I can admire it! (Vinly Lettering courtesy of Kimberly).

Weekly Update

It's been over a week since I posted. We've been busy doing our normal things: going to the library, playing at the playground, taking care of business, riding bikes and working in the craft room while the kids watch Noggin or their new favorite movie, Night at the Museum. (I think Lukas has most of it down and can quote it for you.) Here are some highlights from the week:

• The boys room had an awful smell to it, so Pat and I used our noses to investigate and we found the source...a sippy cup with milk in it that had slipped behind Lukas mattress. And leaked. It was the foulest smell you can imagine and it was HARD to get out. Thanks to vinegar and febreeze, we're back to smelling fresh and clean.
• Lukas took some of his bday money to buy a TNMT action figure (mini), a box of Whoppers and a Kung Fu Panda mylar balloon. It's funny to see what they spend their money on.
• We got to go with Pat to IMC where he does his clinicals (he had paperwork to p.u.) and we ate at the awesome cafeteria there.
• The boys played in the rain.
• We had a picnic in my craft room, thanks to Lukas. Mmmm, nothing tastes better than a plastic sandwich and ice cream.
• We got to go to Gma's house for dinner one night. (The kids love to play with their cousins there).
• We finally cleaned our nasty carpets and they look brand new! (We'll see for how long!)

Birthday Boy

Lukas turned 4 today! I had fun planning his little parties and getting things ready. I look forward to it as much as he does, I think! He had a Diego party (3 parties, I should say). But if you want to hear all the details click here. All in all, it was a great day and it was so fun to celebrate him. He has a lot of people who love him and make him feel special and that makes me so happy!! Whew, what a day! Happy Birthday Lukitas!

Mission Impossible

Here's your mission if you choose to accept it...

Don't they look like they are playing Spy Tech or Mission Impossible? Especially Max! Look at the concentration on his face. He's 007. Haha! And this picture was not posed. They were just playing I had the camera handy. Everything is a gun to Max. I wonder what they are looking at? Shirts courtesy of Aunt Mindy. Good looks by their dad!

A Trip to D.I.

It's that time of year to go back-to-school shopping! I look forward to crisp new clothes and the fall weather to start the school year off right. I'm not talking about for me...although I have very fond memories of picking new outfits and carefully folding them in my drawer until school started. I can just see Lukas putting on his new clothes and his little backpack and getting excited about preschool. He starts soon and every single pair of his jeans have holes in the knees or are too short. So today was the day I thought we'd go back-to-school shopping! (I get so excited for these things even though Lukas still has 2 more years of preschool before he even starts kindergarten.) I wanted to save some money and try my luck at D.I. Well, no luck with jeans, but man did we score with books and toys. I got:

• 14 books
• a Diego with helicopter
• two TMNT toys
• 3 Buzzlightyears (one really BIG one)
• Mike and Sully from Monsters Inc.
• a couple of Mr. Potatohead toys
• Dory from Finding Nemo
• Sally from CARS
• a cute baby dinosaur toy
• a t-shirt for Lukas
• a long-sleeved shirt and a cool Buzz jacket for Max
• and a fun tray (not shown)

I'm pretty picky about buying second-hand and so the stuff you see is in good shape. And the grand total: $21.25! Can you believe that! Everything you see below for $21 bucks! My kids love anything Pixar or Dinsey so they are thrilled. I should hide half the toys for later so they don't play with them all at once. They won't know the difference and they'll think they're getting new toys. YAY for D.I. (Lukas loved helping me set everything up for the picture and then we wiped down all the toys. Max even helped. And I can hear happy playing noises in the other room, thanks to D.I.) We headed to Target to find the jeans and they have some cute ones for only $7.99. It's been a good shopping day!

Funny story about D.I.- I'm always telling Lukas that I'll give his toys away to D.I. if he doesn't pick them up and put them away. One day he was coloring pictures for friends and getting ready to mail them when he said, "Hey mom, I have a great idea. Why don't I send a picture to D.I.? I think she'll love it!" It never occured to me that he might think D.I. is a person! And when I told him we were going to D.I. today, he asked if D.I. had a kid that he could play with!! haha

Trick or Treat Bags

Fall is coming, which brings one of my favorite holidays...Halloween! It's never too early to think about what your kids will dress up as this year. (Lukas already knows and has his costume, which he wears on a weekly basis. He's going to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle!) There's nothing I love more than the changing colors of the season and the ever-approaching night of candy, costumes, pumpkins, ghosts and goblins! So for your little ones and their precious handfuls of candy, I have made colorful, just-the-right-size, reusable trick or treat totes. They come in 3 sizes: small, medium and large. Small (10 in. x 10 in.) has cute reinforced flannel bats, spiders or ghosts, for $5, Meduim (10 in. x 14 in.) also has the cute cut-outs for $6 and the Large is (12 in. x 14in.) and there are no cutsie anything on these...perfect for older kids, in particular boys who don't want cutsie, for $6.50. Please visit here for all fabric options! Just call or email me if you'd like to order! :) janecemendoza@gmail.com

F A L L

September is here! I just LOVE the fall. I get excited thinking about it and waiting for it. I love the golden colors and the smells of pumpkin and spices. The cool weather is perfect. I love it in every way. I want it to last longer and I wish it never ended. So, thank you September for giving me a taste of what is coming!