Random Friday

1. Today I felt incredibly rushed only to now feel idol. I am constantly complaining about the demands of my kids and screaming for serenity. I often hear "MOM!" I need, this or that.... and the fighting......but now my house is empty. Dark. It's really a catch 22. The peace IS nice, but I miss the noise and the scuffling of little feet. Doug headed up to the family cabin with his brother and the boys this afternoon. Taylor is at a slumber party. I can't even remember the last time I spent the night alone in our house without any of the kids OR the dog for that matter. I am normally used to staying alone and truly am never afraid. Tonight is an exception-- I feel scared in our large home. Every light is seriously turned on AND you bet the alarm is armed.

2. I took my sister and her husband dinner tonight. It was also the first time in months I sat and watched television AND got to snuggle with a newborn baby. It flashed me back to holding sweet Weston. It occurred to me that 3 years makes a HUGE difference. Just look at the comparison of Taylor in this photo compared to the post below. I can already feel the grey hair coming.....

Taylor & Weston

March 17, 2005

3. I think one of my biggest pet peeves is when a company (i.e. Verizon, SRP....) sends you a statement via mail to inform you in red PAST DUE, PAY NOW! You are not only flabbergasted by the amount because it is now double, (ouch) but swear you paid it last month. The buggiest part is when you look through your files there was never a statement sent!

4. Today marks the 3 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. It's both unsettling and ironic that they are starting another evacuation process tomorrow due to storm Gustav.

Destroyed by the storm
Our old church building on Academy Drive in New Orleans

5. Last Friday Doug turned to me and asked, "What should we do tonight?" Go out to eat? Sadly, I was really at a loss and had no idea. His reply, "Man, we need Greg and Angie, or some friends to go hang out with. I couldn't have agreed more. I miss my Angie and our frequent get- together's. Chuy's anyone?

Goofy Golfing Outing 2007

6. Doug discovered 4 black widows by our front door this week. Ick and scary! The closest "killer" we had was wasp spray. I am thankful that we found those eight legged things dead the next day. Note to self get some stuff to spray the house!

7. I was tickled pink when I found out that Doug said I needed to pack a sweatshirt for the cabin tomorrow. I can't even remember the last time I wore a jacket in August (unless you include eating lunch in Chick Fila--ha). Taylor, my nieces and Kathy are headed up to tall pine trees and a cooler climate. The best part is, it's only 1.5 hours away. (*note, I was up until 3am last night) I am so hosed today! Happy Labor Day :)

Hallelujah!!

Yay for grass!

Please ignore the strange blue feature that pokes out of our yard. We have yet to determine why it remains, perhaps that will be resolved very soon. But, for now I am ecstatic that my house finally looks like a home! I think our landscaper did a great job. Now if only I didn't find out today that my couch is STILL on back order. *sigh*. If anything, this new home has taught me much patience.......

Pocket Full Of Sunshine

"Pocket Full of Sunshine Dance"

Little did my sister know that doing this dance at the shower yesterday would cause her water to break. Perhaps it could have been the chocolate cake from Flemings? One will never know except that Ashton had intentions of his very own today. Janet called me around 7:30am this morning describing what seemed to me an amnoitic fluid leak. Not more than 20 minutes after talking with me her bag of waters broke and she was off to the hospital. Ashton has been breech for the past month and she was really hoping he would turn, but he decided to remain stubborn in a sitting position in utero. Luckily, all of her co-worker friends were on today and she was treated like royalty in the hospital. (She is a labor/delivery nurse herself) They wheeled her back for the c-section around 11:10am. Not more than 45 minutes later Ashton Alexander Muth was brought into the world.

I have never been around family for any of my births so it was quite comical to show up at the hospital seeing over 10 people awaiting the arrival of the newest member of our family.

Janet and Aaron moments before becoming new parents.

Ashton Alexander Muth
August 24, 2008
6lbs 10 oz
19.5 inches long

We could only see him briefly through the glass for the first few hours. So after giving our talks in church we headed back up to visit the little man. I must say he is one cute baby. He has a head full of wavy black hair and the tiniest, sweetest little features. As you can see Taylor already can not get enough of him!

Baby and mom seem to be doing great. It was a little worrisome with Janet's water breaking this morning. Ashton wasn't expected to come until September 12th, which put him at 4 weeks early. They will continue to monitor him over the next 24 hours. He scored 9 and 10's on his apgar and seems to have a good set of screaming lungs on him. I am BEYOND excited that we were back for his birth. Congrats Aaron and Janet. We love you all and so happy he made it here safe and sound. Is he not the cutest thing ever?? Aunts are allowed to be biased right?

Janet's Baby Shower

Melanie, Janet and Tiara

My sister's best friends Tiara and Melanie threw the most amazing shower yesterday. They kicked Janet out of her house around 9:30am and turned her house into a baby paradise.

The kitchen had a chocolate fountain next to the cake.
Yummo!

They decorated everything in blue and white and strung Ashton's baby clothes around the house with close pins.

How cute is that wash cloth birthday cake?

The pool table was turned into a feast of sandwiches, chips, veggies, and other finger foods. I offered to be in charge of the cake, but I can't even take credit for the cuteness of it. A few months ago I knew the exact person to contact for a cake. I was excited that Amy took up my offer and created this masterpiece for 65 women.

My favorite part is how darling the pregnant lady turned out. When it comes to cake creativity Amy is definitely your gal. We were all impressed with her pastry skills. Thanks Amy! Moving on to the gift department....I really wish I would have captured all of the great things Janet scored. I think she has a mini babies r us in her own home. I have never seen so many cool gadgets in one home. Her crib is now complete with bedding and all. She has an infant car seat, a toddler Britax carseat, bouncy chair, bumbo seat, high chair, activity center and clothes beyond imaginable. This kid is set!

This photo was taken before all the guests arrived, before long her entire bar was covered in baby goodness. I couldn't resist and an SP was in order of Janet and I.

There ended up being about 40 people arriving. Tiara and Melanie had three different games. My favorite was the diaper game. This consisted of melting a candy bar in a diaper, passing it around and trying to guess the type of candy. My grandma Sjodin and all of my mom's sisters flew in from San Diego in honor of the special occasion.

"The Ladies"
Cousin Kerri, Jenny
Aunt Brenda, Janet, Grandma, Mom and Aunt Nancy

Along with my grandma and aunts, my one and only cousin came as well. Later that evening my aunt and her husband Dave offered to take us all out to a steak dinner at Flemings.

Dave, Brenda and Kerri

I decided to get a little crazy and order a mixed platter that included shrimp, salmon and steak. I am normally a steak girl, but have always wanted to try other things. I have to admit the fish was just okay and next time I think I will stick with my usual, the steak. It was a really fun evening. Thanks Dave and Brenda for the fabulous dinner!

(left to right)

John, my mom, Kerri, Brenda, Dave
Doug, Jenny, Aaron, Janet, Nancy, and Grandma S.

Five For Friday

After several tries of trying to get
4 three year olds to look at the camera this is as good as it gets.
Jackson, Mason, Luke and Weston eating lunch.

1. Despite preschool being pretty inconvenient, Weston has loved every minute over the past couple of weeks. I decided to jump the bandwagon with a few girls from my ward to do a playgroup before school. Thursday they dropped their boys off around 9:30am, which meant they played for a little bit, I fed them lunch and toted them off to school. The person in charge of that day also is responsible for taking them home. In return my Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of next week is kid free for over 5 hours. Woo-hoo!

I had to take advantage of snapping a shot of this the other day while pulling out of the preschool. Have you ever seen a walk sign AND a horse crossing sign along a major busy road? We live in a pretty new developed area, however there are still several properties that are 2-3 acres in size. Most people on these larger pieces of land obviously have animals. Hence the horse crossing sign. Love it!

3. I was informed when I met Doug up at the office the other day (by one of the front office girls) that Doug was officially part of the practice. You can now find Dr. Clouse on the front door as you walk in. It's both odd and surreal that he is actually practicing what he grew up to be. Pretty fancy eh?

I had to laugh that the W & L look like they stand for "winners and losers" rather than
the initial of their names. I guess it goes that much better with a sports themed room.

Jared's room

4. As I mentioned in an earlier post my dad has hung literally everything in our house. Thanks Dad! The boys room is slowly getting to where it is looking more finished. I would like to eventually get Jared a black bed and black desk for his room (which would go right under these shelves). At least the walls don't look so bare now.

5. I have come to grips that my children are addicted to the internet, whether it is by listening to music, checking email or watching this. (and for the record we do monitor them closely) Did you know that "Fred" currently has more hits than the Jonas Brothers?? He was interviewed on CNN the other day and is only 14 years old. Out of pure curiosity, Doug and I spent about 15 minutes watching a few of his videos the other day. I have to admit the kid was pretty cleaver for using an anonymous name, disguised his voice and has some pretty catchy sayings i.e. "Peace around the world for generations..........."

Newbies Luck

I have been side tracked this whole week. 1.  I try and watch the olympic highlights (on my computer) since I can't seem to stay up.  2.  This book stares at me each night and I try and get through a few pages before drifting off.  It doesn't help that I choose to read when I am pretty much dead tired.  Yes, I know I am one of those secret Edward junkies.  3. Doug and Weston came down with a nasty cold, which I pray won't get to me.  You know the stuffy head, sore throat, cough congestion? It's going around.  I do have things I need to be working on,  um like preparing a talk in sacrament.  We are going on week three of our new ward.  Oddly,  2pm is growing on me if I could just stay awake in the afternoon!  4. Doug and I were the lucky recipients of a phone call Monday evening, (which I was half asleep and not really coherant) offering us an "invitation" to speak. Why Doug didn't give his famous line of "Thanks for the opportunity, but I am going to have to pass" comment did seem to cross his mind that eveningI will never know.  Not my most favorite thing to prepare for, but at least I am the one introducing our family.  That should be a good portion of my talk, but still speaking in church?  I am not sure what is worse my dreams and gut feeling that we are getting called to be activities chairmen again.  Perhaps we look like party people?  Or giving a talk?  Ugh... my stomach already hurts.  Maybe I am feeling ill after all............

Rainbow Connection

Last Saturday the youth in our stake put on a "Play in A Day" and literally they spent the entire day learning parts to perform later on that evening. They had about 7 musicals they took several familiar musicals (Little Mermaid, etc) and mormonfied them (is that a word??). Some of them were quite cleaver which wre mostly all written by the leaders. Unfortunately, there were also some we couldn't hear a word due to the youth not speaking loud and clear. There was about 200 that participated. Too me, that is an impressive number coming from Doug's Sunday school class of 6 active youth. I was most amazed with not only little time, but the costumes and props they had. This particular skit that discussed food storage cracked me up. Check out the cans of green beans--those boys were wearing green swim caps. Too funny!

Je--l-ll--0 Song

Monday I invited a few friends over for lunch. Kelly just recently moved here from Oregon (such a small world eh?) It's always fun to meet up with imaginary friends after communicating via blogging for nearly 3 years. We all seem to have a connection of some sort, the most common one all being graduates from Mountain View. Go Toros!

Apparently Gavin was the villian whom they were running from.

Miss PQ, Davyn, and Gavin

My Weston wasn't so sure at first about these "new" little people coming over to play, but after a while he seemed to warm up some. I officially met Davyn and Miss PQ (whom are both darling). I think the highlight of the day for them was running back and forth chasing one another. Hey when you have the room why not?

Our self timer shot (courtesy of the ledge in kitchen)
Sam, Courtney, Bella, Jennifer, Amy, Kelly and Jenny
(left to right)

Since moving into our new house I am constantly looking for cheap decorating ideas. (using the old and turning it into new). You can see by my bare walls I have a lot to do. My dad came over today to hang a few more shelves that were formerly in our living room in San Antonio. The beauty of cheap is taking what you have to create a new look. I took a simple can of spray paint to Taylor's purple pig and turned him green. I did the same with these plain white letters (which I bought for super cheap at Hobby Lobby--months ago).

Doug has recently taken our old dining room table and sanded it completely down to the natural wood color. He then took and stained it to be a dark espresso. I am LOVING the way it has turned out. Even better it only cost $8 for a new look! He is going to paint our old chairs black and I am considering putting a cushion on them to "dress" it up for a more formal appearance.

When I went to check on the boys one last time I found them all gathered in the same room. It cracks me up that Luke was using his pillow for his feet and a blanket for his head. I love that my boys all look out for one another (it seems mostly at night). Don't get me wrong there are definite days they fight, but for the most part they really do love each other. It dawned on me last night that we have been in our new home for almost two months. So much has gone on and changed. My kids now each have their own room (can you tell they still like close quarters). We have been lucky to have so many connections moving back. Meeting up with old friends and discovering new ones. I do miss my Texas friends, but most of them will be moving on at some point and no longer call that place home. It made me realize how much we truly live a colorful life. The best part is no matter where we are, that connection remains the same.

SPT Olympics

THE OLYMPIC MOTTO:

citius, altuis, and fortius

{faster, higher, stronger}

these three words encourage the athlete to give his or her best during competition, and to view this effort as a victory in itself. so, this month, each week we will do the same challenge! each week, think about the Olympic motto, and how it can apply to our every day lives. citius. altius. fortius. are we giving our best? can we find victories in the efforts we make every day?

I found it appropriate to jump in on the SPT this week since we are now in to the track and field portion of the Olympics. I was open jawed the other day watching those men run the mile in nearly 3 minutes! I never did track, but those athletes are seriously amazing. Not to mention their bodies being so fit and tone. It has been nothing but a struggle to get myself on an exercise regiment since we moved here. The early morning (85 degree weather at 5am) wake up calls are not really my cup of tea. And since Doug prefers to exercise in the afternoon I decided to join him the other day. (I am not a big fan of running alone--so you do what you have to do) What in the world was I thinking???
Anyone who knows AZ heat pretty much can label us as crazy people running at 6pm in the afternoon. (approximately 104 degrees) It DOES NOT cool off here, so really if you want any type of "cool" weather you must get up before 7am. To sum up I would have to say all of these words applied to our run the other day. I would like to think I ran a little faster than my strength and definitely pushed myself beyond what I am used to. Sorry for the nasty visual, but I am one who really doesn't sweat like this and we were both drenched! Here is to pushing myself better to get up and run next time!

Aren't we so attractive with our glistening faces?? Ha.

Friday Four

This is Weston's new cheesy smile. I have no idea what is up with the psycho eyes
(I guess that is better that Luke's popeye mouth)

1. I enrolled Weston in a three week preschool program called Apples to Zebras. The downfall to it is, it is only two hours which barely gives me time to do anything after dropping him off. (not to mention it's during his regular scheduled nap time). BUT, he really loves it and the other perk is 6 other of his nursery friends from church are doing it as well.

2. After a few weeks of dealing with our nasty HOA and several bids (5 to be exact) from various landscapers. We were FINALLY approved to go forth with our landscaping plans. We found out that they were pretty strict with what you could choose from (i.e. we only could pick from three types of rock---which totally stinks). You would think living in AZ they would want some diversity, but apparently the more brown the better. Ha!

This was just the view from inside of our front door. I am already giddy that my sidewalk is starting to look more homey. We decided to rip out the sidewalk to put in a curvy pathway from the driveway. As of today we currently have our sprinkler system in, and a few boulders. They are scheduled to put in the curbing, grass, rock and plants by the first of next week. I am thrilled that our front yard will no longer look like Iraq. More updates later......

This not only plays music and vibrates, but you can hook up your
car seat to it and and ipod. Fancy Smancy!

3. My grandma headed out the other day and she ended up bringing my sister's new baby swing to put together. Luckily, it wasn't too awful to assemble. I swear they come up with the neatest gadgets each year for babies. We also ran around to some home decor stores. Unfortunately we ran short on time (I had to pick up the kids) But, we were able to enjoy a nice lunch together at Dilly's Deli (I am becoming addicted to that place).

4. Since Doug is the new guy in town he is having to go around and visit various family practice offices to try and get his name "recognized" As you can imagine it's not really a fun process (especially since he feels like a bit of a sales person). I thought that handing out jars of candy may break that first impression tension a little easier. After a few Wal-mart visits and several large candy bags later I was able to assemble 20 jars to start with. I thought they turned out pretty well. Candy anyone??

Massive Monday

It makes me extremely upset with myself how lackadaisical I have gotten with my blogging. Here it is nearly a week and so much has gone on. I hate to leave things out, hence this will have to be a massive catch up post. Last Wednesday Doug and I headed over to the temple for a session. It was a great way to celebrate his home coming. We have gone separately to the temple over the past few months due to scheduling, so it was nice to go as a couple. And even better to the temple we were married in.

Luke the bakers man

I am loving having just Weston in tow when the kids go off to school. He is such an easy going child, it's fun just to be one on one with him. This also allows more time for me to volunteer at the school (which I have never been able to in the past). Last Friday the entire kindergarten had a nursery rhyme parade. The kids were supposed to bring in a prop for a nursery rhyme to dress up. Some of the kids were obvious, Luke wanted to be the bakers man even though he looks more like he belongs flipping burgers!

Weston, Doug, Dad and Mom C.

Doug had last week off so we also had the opportunity to meet up with his parents for lunch. We decided to test the BBQ here (since San Antonio has some of the best). We have been wanting to try Famous Dave's and it didn't disappoint. However, the brisket wasn't as good. No one can really beat Jason Richardson's homemade brisket, with Rudy's coming in at 2nd place. I would have to say the ribs, pork, corn bread and french fries were my favorite. Hello? Can you say OINK?

On our way back home I couldn't resist taking this photo. Have you ever seen a banana stay on the bumper of a car going nearly 60mph? We were both waiting to see how long it would last, but we had to turn off onto another exit. I would hate to have been the car behind it. Ha!

Glenn, Doug, Jared and Aaron
(photo courtesy of blackberry phone)

It isn't any secret that Arizona is known for golfing. We are surrounded by several just in our area. Another added bonus is it is really reasonable to play 18 holes with a cart. Jared has been begging Doug for months to go out and play. He called up his brother Glenn (who lives not even a mile a way) and made it a double date with Aaron. The boys had a blast.

I also feel so lucky to be associated with such a great group of women in the blogging community. It's comforting to know that friends near and far still think of you, especially when you move into a new area. I received this thoughtful note from Claudia. If only I could write like her.

Doug, Jenny, Julie and Eric

We have also met a great family who also happens to be in our new ward. This is the Gustafson crew. They have 4 kids like us and also happen to be all around the same age. Ironically, Doug went to homecoming with Julie back in high school. It's been such a small world living in Arizona. I swear we could do the Kevin Bacon game each time we meet someone new.

Luke, Weston, Magnus, Hayden, Zoie, Taylor, and Ryker (speeding by)

My boys really enjoy going over to their house since they live on 2 acres. They not only have 4 dogs, but goats, hens, a horse, and a mini motorcycle. Needless to say it puts current yard to shame aka Iraq dirt (what I like to call our current yard). They invited us over for Swedish pancakes before church on Sunday. Since we are now supporting 2pm church. (don't even get me started on the time......Yuck!

Doug driving the kids to school

Last, but not least today was Doug's BIG first day as an official physician. How appropriate that his first patient ended up being one of his biggest mentor's (JC Jackson) who talked him into this long journey. All and all we are starting to settle more and more in as time has gone on. We really do love it here!

Wordless Wednesday

P.S. Ang, does the table on top look familiar?? :)