Oh Evan...

Evan is hilarious. Most of the time I forget to write down the things he says but I would never forgive myself for forgetting these winners. It's been a week and I'm still laughing!

Third place:

"My apple has a drink in it!" (took us awhile to figure out he was talking about the 'juiciness' of the apple)

Second place:

"Why does Mom have to be in Hoky poky?"

(meaning Milwaukee)

And first place - drum roll please...

...

...

...

Said while screaming at top of lungs with intense glare - "If you arg me, I'm going to arg you!!" He has been mouthing off lately so we've told him not to argue. The concept is apparently not really sinking in.

Oh I love this boy!

Let the pictures do the talking

I have nothing to say. Not a thing. So I'll take this opportunity to showcase my sweet little boy. I do have 3 of them, but I haven't posted NEARLY enough pictures of the newest addition (or so I've been told). Mom, this is for you!

I just love him! And you wouldn't know it but he is such a smiley happy baby - he just won't smile for the camera. Some general stats:

He rolls over like a champ since 3 months
He is doing the 'I think I'm going to crawl move'. Sigh...
He's getting his 2 bottom teeth
He is a long skinny thing - 70% for height, 7% for weight
He thinks his voice is the best sound he's ever heard and he uses it often
He is the most mellow, happiest baby EVER and he completes our lives

Ok, I'll stop. Love him so much though!

Halloween Fun!

Halloween is kind of a big deal around our house. Rich and his friends LOVE to set up a scary house to scare the kids during trick or treating. Last year was the first year we'd really done it and it was so much fun that this year I gave the ok to go all out. It was a blast! The weather did not cooperate. It was rainy and very windy. Attempt #1 didn't go so well - it all blew down.

The second attempt was much better.

We had help from our good friends the Fuqua's and our teenage neighbors got in on the action as well. We had blazing tiki torches, scary ghouls, a chainsaw man, mad clown, scary music, the whole sha-bang. Here are some of the "monsters".

We had people coming from all over to trick or treat at our place and even though it was pouring rain, we had TONS of people.

Here are the kiddos in their costumes. They are so cute! The whole Fuqua/Sharp clan. Yes, there are 8 kids in this picture!

Issac posing by the coffin.

My adorable little spider!Note there is no picture of our resident fireman (Ev). He wouldn't cooperate; he was way too excited to go get some candy!

Can't wait until next year!

"Mom, who ARE those people??"

My newest Evan quote, said while looking at peopleofwalmart.com. He then continued - "Hers wearing underwear. That's silly. Her legs are naked. So silly!" :) If you need a good laugh for the evening, I highly recommend taking a peek. There are some good ones!

Mama Bear Vent

I've got a bit of a protective streak in me. A small streak that makes me go slightly beserk when my children are wronged. Combine that with the fact that I've got a child with autism that appears 'normal' and bad things can happen. I went to go pick up the babysitter tonight and two other children were playing in her yard. We know them from church and school. Issac always gets SUPER excited when he sees people he knows (and he's loud to begin with). He's literally hanging out the car window screaming, "Hi guys!". While I'm waiting for the babysitter to come out, one of the kids, who is older, tells that other one, "He's so weird." More whisperings that I can't make out because by now I'm giving her an ice glare. The babysitter comes out the front door and this girl tells the babysitter, "I'm so sorry you have to babysit him". I know he's loud. I know some things that he does are socially 'off'. But I just want to cry because he is the sweetest kid I know and he just wanted to say hi. He was so excited to see them and say hello. It's a good thing Issac was oblivious because if I had to spend tonight consoling his broken spirit, I would be even more infuriated.

What do I do? Do I talk to the girl? Do I talk to her parents? Do I realize that kids are immature and just let it go? Issac is totally unaware so do I just be happy that he thinks all is well? I really don't know what to do but the whole thing just eats at me. It's my worst fears realized - that he'll be rejected by those around him. Why is parenting so hard??

School, birthday, and ...muskrats?

I still can't believe I have a 2nd grader. Where does the time go?? Issac is very, very happy to be back in school. He has a very sweet teacher and loves everything so far. We've already had our annual first-week-of-school mishap but at least it didn't involve the police this year. :) School pictures were last Wednesday and the day was crazy from the minute we woke up. We'd had softball the night before so we didn't get home until 11 so I didn't pick out his clothes or make lunch. In the morning, I was super busy with work and Issac had no clean clothes. We finally found something and then he spilled breakfast all down the front of his shirt. So I frantically searched for ANOTHER clean shirt. Long, crazy story short, he finally got off to school clean with his hair combed, teeth brushed and money for pictures and lunch. After school, I'm going through his backpack and find the picture order envelope STILL IN THERE. I gave him two checks. He turned in the lunch money but not the picture money. So our craziness was all for nothing... Oh well, retakes, right?

The same day was even more crazy because it was Evan's birthday. Several Geo Trax toys and trucks later, Evan is completely content. He told me, "I like being 4 - 4 year olds have more toys."

Finally, we are having issues with muskrats. Yes muskrats. We have now caught 2 in the last 3 days in our window wells. It's quite the ordeal to get a muskrat out of your window well. If you ever need to remove said animal, give us a call. We now have a 'method' - dog carrier and rope. :) They are kind of cute and the kids think it's awesome but I'm getting tired of playing fur trapper. And my hose got eaten! This is not even the first time we have had this happen - we had one at our Idaho house too! Anyone else had this happen or just us? Maybe we just attract them for some reason!

Hope everyone has a good Labor Day weekend!

Inflation

Teeth are apparently worth more now than when I was a kid...

Yes, Issac requested the tooth fairy leave him $50.00 for a baby tooth. Luckily, the tooth fairy is a smart lady and wisely only paid out $1.00. His response - "The tooth fairy only gave me a dollar. You can't buy anything with that!"

In the wild -

I FINALLY unloaded the pictures of our Yellowstone trip. I will spare you the 10,000 pictures of the smiling goofy boys (they are SO cute though!) and go with a wildlife theme for today. If I were only cooler and knew how to do big pictures on here, you'd really enjoy them - pretty decent wildlife photos if I say so myself! We had the rare opportunity to get several great shots of a couple of grizzly bears and other assorted critters. Enjoy nature at it's finest.

Young grizzly

Wolf or coyote? We can't decide. The coloring was very much like a coyote but he was so big and moved like a wolf.

We were VERY glad this big grizzly boy was far away up on the hill!

Ok, and one of the kids in Idaho Falls on the way there. I can't resist! They are too cute!

Ok, I'm a nerd but I get such joy out of nature I can't help but share it!

Good News!

Good news, it looks like Evan might actually survive to see his 4th birthday! It wasn't looking like he was going to make it there for a couple of days.

We're having some jealousy issues around our house with my Turkey. He has two modes - big stinker or incessant cryer, ever since Caleb was born. He's feeling a little displaced. I can understand that. It's hard to give up that 'youngest child' status. So between his two moods, we get some pretty interesting happenings. He cried the other day for **6** hours because I wouldn't drop everything and go buy him a Zhu Zhu Pet. Really? You want a dumb little rat-looking thing that turns in circles until the batteries run out? I did not give in. But I think I was punished more than he was. We are also dealing with monsters in his bed. They are in his bed so he says he has to sleep with me. Too bad sleep to Evan means hours of constant feet kicking. I just can't do it - he'll have to learn to snuggle with the monsters.

Then the other 'big happening'. In his big stinker mode, Evan decided to smear yogurt all over my car. My beautiful, black car. Now for those of you that weren't aware, yogurt will eat through the paint finish on your car. Now you know. Now I know. I tried EVERYTHING to get it off with no luck but thanks to the cool guys at Wolford's Auto Body, Evan will live to be at least 4. They were able to sand it out in all but a few places where the yogurt actually ate through the clear coat. In other related food/car incidents, Evan decided to help "clean" the tires on the trailer. When he couldn't find the tire foam, he settled for the non-stick cooking spray. One can of Pam later, we have shiny trailer tires and the dogs think Evan is tasty tire treat god.

All in all, Evan keeps us all laughing and while I could do without the mood extremes, I wouldn't trade him for the world. He's my buddy, the best snuggler/Spongebob buddy watcher in the world, and I just melt when he tells me he loves me. He is so sweet (when he wants to be) and I love him. I can't imagine life without him.

I think I say this once every year...

I'm going to attempt it AGAIN - this whole blogging thing. Kellie, I am hereby ordering you to make sure I post once a week with mundane facts from the Sharp family life. No, really. I am. Because someone out there might care. If you are this person, I will try to deliver. I guess I've been recommitted because I actually found someone I lost by stumbling onto their blog. Ok in reality, I stalked them and finally was rewarded. No matter, the result is the same. I was so happy to feel some connection to them again after so many years. Which brought me back to my blog and my original intent with this - to stay connected to those around me. So here goes. I even changed my blog background to pink. It will annoy me enough that I will have to come back and change it soon so that guarantees at least one more post for my faithful reader(s).

It's summer and it has been crazy around here but a good kind of crazy. I've been off of work for maternity leave and I've quite enjoyed myself. We've been to Bear Lake a lot, went hiking, played a LOT of softball, not nearly enough fishing, and even got a vacation in. Caleb is a very good sport and has been great about all our adventures. I couldn't ask for a better baby! He is smiling all the time now and laughing at his brothers. Life is perfect.

But all good things must come to an end... ok, it's not ENDING exactly but I do have to go back to work next week. I hope I remember how to code. I have discovered I like not working. Who knew? I didn't think I would. Unfortunately, until a meteorite takes aim at 7762 Saddleback Drive or the market comes up by A LOT, I will need to work to ensure that we can pay for our lovely 'vacation' home in Eagle Mountain. Anyone want a house in Eagle Mountain???

But in the meantime, I think we'll squeeze in one more trip to the lake. The kids love it and I enjoy a good day on the sand. Rich and I are also going to Jackson sans children. It should be a good time. We'll also do one more summer softball tourney and this time, I hope to escape injury (a story I don't really want to tell - I nearly ended up with fewer teeth and a broken jaw). Then I guess it's back to 'normal' life. Oh well. Here's some pics of the new addition as my blog has failed to mention his existence up to this point. :)

I think he's the cutest baby EVER (but I may be a bit biased...)!

Anxiety from TV and Spring?

Anyone watch the hoarding shows on Discovery? I am sorta hooked on them in some troubling way. I'm not a hoarder but I feel the need to watch. For about 10 minutes. Then I start getting all anxious and restless and before you know it, I'm up and dejunking some random closet or drawer. I never see the end of the episodes. :) I guess it's a good thing; it's keeping my house clean! Just strange that it makes me so anxious to watch it.

In other Sharp news (as I never, ever update this blog), we are excitedly awaiting Spring (even though we got like 6 inches of snow this weekend)! Good weather always bring us happiness as so many of the things we love are outdoors. Issac will be playing baseball and I'm sooooo excited he has shown an interest. He is practicing batting everyday (even when it's been raining) and is looking forward to it. I hope his interest stays for the whole season - you never know with him! Evan is always excited for baseball - he's been working on batting and 'decided' he's left-handed. I think it's just because we tried to get him to do it the other way - he's got a stubborn streak. Three more weeks until softball starts for mom and dad! We are seriously cutting back this year on teams - one coed team and then mens and womens. Only three games a week instead of ... 9 or so like last year! The best time of year is just around the corner!

"What the hell mom?!"

What the hell indeed! Issac has officially mastered...swearing. I'll own it, it's very much my fault. I grew up in Wyoming (strike 1) with my dad (strike 2). It's not swearing, it's 'conversation'. Well, at least until I heard it out of my 6 yr old, used in context. Sigh... we had to have the 'no swearing' talk. His rebuttal? 'You swear mom.' Yes I do. Damn. The kid is too smart for his own good. So instead of being the good mom who would say, yes son, I should stop swearing, I told him I was an adult and could swear and he could swear when he grew up but not until then. My reasons? I know very well that I cannot stop swearing. It's the weak way out, I know. We'll see if it works!

Perspective

I have attitude lately. A lot. I am picked on, life isn't fair to me, and no one has to put up with as much as I do. Yeah, right. I know. Someone always has it worse, but like I said, I have attitude right now.

First it was a troubled pregnancy. Why me? Everyone else gets pregnant and continues on their merry way. Then it was my job - instability and lack of control. Those two things make me CRAZY. Then it was money - stupid health insurance not covering what I believe they should and I'm left with very large medical bills. Like I said, I'm picked on.

I'm not sharing this with you for pity. I'm instead sharing for perspective because I have had a revelation. I am NOT picked on but instead quite blessed and loved by a caring Heavenly Father. Let me explain.

The pregnancy - I prayed for everything to 'be ok'. Guess what, it is! All previous problems resolved. Gone. The job issue, a new job out of the blue that seems too good to be true. I will still get to work at home and play part-time crazy mom to my kids. But I can be flexible and be there for them when they need me (although they might like less crazy). The money? Well, that's gotten worse but I think it's resolving. We OWE taxes. And a ton. But we have also been saving for the baby faithfully every paycheck. Turns out, as my little control-freak spreadsheet proves today that what we have been saving will cover us for the money we need for maternity leave, pay off Uncle Sam, and the hospital. Within $50. I kid you not. Amazing how it works out.

I hope for all 3 of you that read this blog from time to time that you can find perspective in your trials. I know it has been humbling for me to finally realize that time after time, my Heavenly Father is providing answers and blessings and trying to let me see that just because I don't have it all under control, HE does.