Picture Day!!!!

Ahhhhh.... what can I say about picture day? It is totally a necessity because of the young little children we have around here. I guess that I better document what they looked like while they are young, but I dread picture day with every fiber of my being from the second that picture day is done right up until it happens again almost exactly a year later. Now some people tell me that I should have more pictures taken more often... to this I say you must be the people with no children to dress, bribe and threaten to behave while you are getting these taken. This year my very very amazing neighbor was nice enough to take our pictures for us so I thought it would be a little less stressful. (( which it kind of was I guess)) but Haley was hungry and not happy that I made her wear the sweater she was wearing so she was being incredibly difficult. Needless to say it was a long tedious 30 min. Luckily my neighbor is so talented that she got some really cute shots! However we are saving those for presents. I can show you the other shots that make me laugh and want to strangle the kids at the same time.

This is Dylan sticking a stem of a leaf into Avery's mouth. There are about 3 frames prior of him slowly sticking into her mouth ( and this is the end result)

Did someone say I should smile like a pirate? I am positive someone said be a pirate!

(at least 5-6 shots like this) can't you hear him saying Arrrrrg!

Even through the tears and grumpy faces! We got some really CUTE pictures! Thanks a million Kati!!!!! What would we ever do without you!

You want me to do what???

Okay so yesterday, I was outside and a police officer walked up to me and says " is this your house?" I say yes. He then proceeds to tell me that I need to evacuate! "Excuse me..... what did you say? I guess 2 houses down there was a house that had a gas leak and had "explosive levels of gas inside" He then said, if it blows you house might sustain some damage from the blast, but the main concern was that we were on the same gas line as that house, and if for some reason we had gas that had seeped in and settled in our house it could blow ours too. I told the police officer I just put 2 kids down for naps should I run and wake them up and get them out? He said well it's not mandatory but we are advising it. He said that we were the last person on the street that they were evacuating, and uphill as well so we should be fine, but if it were his family he would leave. So I ran inside to call Michael and tell him what had happened when he pulled into the driveway, he had decided to come home and work that day. So after discussing it and wondering what to do ( for a while we thought we were just going to wait it out) I started to feel a little "weird" headache, chest heavy, my throat hurt. You know it could have just been my imagination playing tricks on me but that was the last straw. The kids were up and out of their beds, and packed in the car in under 5 minutes! The only problem with this whole scenario was my husband decided he had WAY too much work to do. He was sure that he would be fine, but thought it was a really good idea that we left. Needless to say I was a little.... ummm let's just say annoyed! So if we ever really do have a hazardous emergency let's hope that he doesn't have a lot of work to do or I may end up being a single mother! 3-4 hours later we were told that it was safe to come home. So I guess Michael was right everything was fine. It's just so hard to take that chance when you have such precious cargo that has been entrusted to you.

It was a really interesting thing to experience deciding to get out right then, I looked around and wondered if I really could not ever come back to the house or if it BLEW UP what would I take with me? The funny thing was... as sad as I would be to lose our house and all the possessions inside none of it really mattered to me. Honestly, I stood in my room and thought about this for a couple of seconds and decided that my wedding ring ( which I had forgotten to put on that morning) The kids,(preferably my husband too) warm clothes, and few diapers, and their blankets were all I needed! It really did make me realize how blessed I am! I thought later about the pioneers, Katrina victims, and now the people in Cal. losing their houses and wondered if everyone could say those few things would be all they need to be happy in this world. I truly am thankful for all the things I have, but it takes a day like yesterday to make you realize what is really important!

Long time...no talk

I didn't realize it had been so long since I had written on my blog. I have had a ton of things going but nothing really that interesting. But I thought I would write something today just to show that I had not really given up on my blog.... just a little busy. This is my week for teaching preschool so that in and of itself keeps me really busy. That and the fact that all of my kids keep getting sick is, I guess, is what's keeping me so busy. I took Haley in to check her ears and the Dr says.... you didn't send her to school today did you? My response.... ummm yes should I not have ( She has absolutly no symptoms. At ALL!!!) I asked Haley " do you feel sick?" she starts to cry and says no. But the Dr. proceeds to tell me she has strep.... so we have to hold Haley down and culture her. Then the test came back negative. So now we have to culture her nose because the Dr. is now convinced that she has staph infection. So since that test takes a few days we put her on the medicine and now we find out it really is strep just a different kind of strep. Luckily now since we had her on the medicine for staph infection she isn't contagious anymore! Then Dylan falls down last night while he was climbing on the counter (supposedly washing his hands) and banged his face on the countertop. It is totally swollen and bruised. It looks like I beat him ( I didn't !!!I promise!!!) Then this morning Avery who is walking more and more fell down and put her top teeth through her bottom lip. So her lip is swollen and bloody. I swear if child protective services came to my house today I don't think I could talk my way out of going to jail!
Anyway.... so that is us in a nutshell for the past week. All of us have either been sick or injured in some way. If I can keep all my preschool kids happy healthy and uninjured I can call this week a sucess! Anyway... baring any other crazy health things I will be updating my blog a lot more. ((So for my sister that doesn't know how to post a comment you better learn or I won't believe you actually read my blog and I might really stop.))

Sooooo... What did you do this weekend?

Well we had an action packed weekend like usual. Keeping busy tends to keep the kids from killing each other so... um yep let's go with that. Friday night we make a "spooky" house as Dylan calls it. Which translates into a Halloween gingerbread house. He loves Halloween so much we asked him if he like Christmas or Halloween better and he said Halloween because he likes all of the "spooky" stuff. The house turned out great, and the kids had fun doing it. Avery however did not. She cried the whole time. Thank goodness for tubes on Thursday!

Still in the process of making the house. Notice on the next picture Haley's black teeth.... ummm I guess that's why it took so long. She was sneaking treats off the house and eating them.

Here is the finished product. Dylan insisted that we put all sorts of extra things on. So Anything that even remotely looked like Halloween went on the house.

So then Saturday morning came along and WHOA did they wake up cranky. They were yelling at each other all through breakfast. So we had to do something to entertain them until the neighborhood party later. So... we gave Haley my camera and Dylan had his own and they took about a million pictures. But at least they weren't fighting! These are the kinds of pictures you get when you give two small children digital cameras!

Warning... to everyone else these may be really stupid pictures but they totally make me laugh so here they are!!!

Just to let you know... we had about 60 more photos just like these. Most of them were of Haley. All of her...

"Can anyone say mirror mirror on the wall whose the fairest of them all" Yep that's my little princess all right! Any helpful parenting tips would be greatly appreciated! :)

Later we took them all to the huge block party our neighbors threw. With face painting, inflatable slides, cotton candy, a jumping castle, petting zoo, and tons of food! Man... they know how to throw a party! It was raining though so not too many pictures of that. Only one of Dylan petting some small donkey/ horse thing. Good Times!

P.S. All the kids want me to say! We love you daddy!

Cornbellys!!

We have started a new tradition. Every year ( for the past 2 years) we have gone to this little Fall festival called Cornbelly's. The kids love it! The older they get the more they love it...this year we had so much fun. It was a beautiful night, really mild especially for October. All of the kids loved it and did as many activities as they possibly could. Some of these were...

The cow train- Always a HUGE hit. This year there was no line, they could ride as many times as they wanted.

They also had this huge jumping pillow that everyone could jump on. Pedal go kart, slides, and mazes. The kids shot corn out of "corn blaster" as Dylan called them, and tried to hit these metal cows that were set up a ways away.

Avery wanted to be a big kid and do what the other kids were doing. We had to find some more age appropriate things for her to do. But next year... look out she we own that place!

The night ended with some pig races. Both of the kids got picked to go and cheer the pigs on. Haley's pink pig won and Dylan's did not. This caused a bit of drama, especially when Haley won a pig nose to put on. We salvaged the night be picking our own pumpkins from a huge pumpkin patch. I am so glad we went. I love when traditions like this just fall into place. Nothing is better than family time that actually ends up being fun!

I love Fall time

After conference on Sunday the kids were starting to fight and bicker with each other. A whole day in the house with mom and dad in front of the tv makes for cranky kids. We decided to take a drive up the canyon and collect some leaves. The kids were so funny, we obviously need to take them camping more. Once again my sister is right ( I can admit when I am wrong) Haley was freaked out by the " Woods" and by this I mean the pave .2 mile trail we walked along that happened to be surrounded by trees. She would stop and say what was that? The incredibly suspicious sound, birds, rivers, in general sounds of nature! How sad is that! We are definitely going camping this summer, even if I have to drag them all there myself. All in all they had a good time. Avery especially like it. She loved the river the most, but since it was only about 45 deg outside we had to keep her out of it.


Awww... cute little family picture. Check out Haley's face, did I mention that she was freaked out... I am remembering a movie where the character says. " Nature, it's all over me get it off!"

Here is Avery happily being "daddy girl" she is the biggest daddy's girl I have ever seen.

I love it!!!!

Avery loved every second of the trip She pointed to everything and said "what's that?" Haley finally loosened up and starting looking for rocks. Like always, she somehow managed to find a heart shaped one. So she was proudly displaying it! Dylan, ... like always found a very large stick and was proudly displaying it too.

We even managed to keep him from hitting anyone or anything with his stick. That is a really big accomplishment for us!

Picture of the Day

Here is the picture of the day.

The story behind this one is.... We made a trip to Costco, and as usual, the kids talked me into buying them something. Today this happened to be hooded towels. Dylan has been wearing his monkey towel around ever since. It came came with a little monkey wash mitt, which of course now is a puppet and must be called such! I still need to get him back onto the broom and in the witch hat. With Dylan all of the attention is focused intensely on whatever he is into that day so luckily it is all very short lived. So it may take some doing to get him back into the witch stuff because today we are being a monkey! (I will manage somehow and click a picture!)

By the way Haley got a kitty one but she doesn't care nearly as much. She was much more intent on the pink polka dot ribbon tie around it!

Ear Trouble Again!

Well we took Avery in to the Doctor today and sure enough she has another ear infection. So we decided to put ear tubes in. I am so ready... they helped Haley so much and I am hoping that they will help Avery too. At least we have a plan of attack. I think that with Haley we waited too long and it affected her hearing. I told the Dr. that today and he agreed that we should put them in instead of waiting. It's to bad that mommy can't just kiss it better.

My so cute neighbor told me I should take a picture of Dylan everyday for the next two weeks so that I can document all of his crazy costumes. She seems to be the only one who gets to see them everyday at the bus stop. Yesterday he wore a black witch hat and ran back inside to get "something" he forgot, he came back out riding his broom (backwards I my add) I will have to get a picture of that one because it was hilarious! Thanks for the suggestion Kati

A Day In The Life

As most of you know a day in the life of staying at home with 3 kids can be millions of things....

Hilarious - Frustrating - Miserable - Exciting- Boring - Just to name a few. Not to mention all of these things can happen in the same day and sometimes seemingly in the same moment. I just wanted to post a few of the pictures and things that go on around here that really do make us the Crazy Cozart Clan! We are loving every moment of it (Well almost every minute)

Why Avery wanted her pants put on her head is unknown to us, but after changing her diaper this is what she wanted. From the huge grin on her face she was thrilled that we understood.

We took a little trip to the dino playground after a quick trip into the mall. It was so early in morning that there was no one there. This was soooo cool to Dylan, Avery loved it too. Every time she saw a dinosaur she growled.

I had to take Haley in to get her hearing checked at the audiologist today (( All is fine by the way... whew what a relief)) When I came home daddy who was home with Dylan had been talked into pitching the tent in the living room! To my sister Lori... see I do own a tent.... no I don't use it for anything else than camping in the living room, but I do own one so there : ) The kids had a great time playing in it all afternoon! It was a great rainy day activity.

Finally I was so excited to put on a video of Avery taking her first steps she started wobbling around yesterday or the day before. So today I was ready to catch it and put it for all to see, this however is what I got instead.

What a Day!