Discoveries after a shower

Logan's life-long dream was realized when he discovered his mother's oversight of putting her make-up bag in the bottom drawer.

The Life of Christ

Easter weekend I participated in an event that our stake puts on called Life of Christ. It is a free event that chronicles His life from birth to resurrection and it includes elaborate and beautiful displays, choirs, and, this year, live actors.

By some stroke of, um, something they asked me to be one of the actors and I decided to go for it.

We had several performances that took quite a bit of time, which was fine, until Saturday.

Saturday was the most glorious day we had seen here all year. It was sunny and warm and I could think of a hundred things I would have loved to do outside with my family instead of being inside the dark church all day.

But I had made a commitment and so I walked toward the church telling myself that I would receive blessings for doing this. All I had to do was wait and see and I was sure I would be bless--

PLOP.

A large raindrop landed on my nose, startling me out of my thoughts. But there wasn't a cloud in the sky. I glanced up at the tree above me while I wiped my nose.

Yellow.

Smelly.

I do believe that a BIRD POOPED ON MY NOSE as I was thinking about blessings.

I guess the blessings I was looking for weren't coming until after my last performance. Which went really well by the way. Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.

It was a great way for me to testify of Christ and bring clarity to this Easter season. Any of your vancouverites who missed it should come next year!

 Happy belated Easter!

Love,
The Lowders

The rest of Arizona

Alternate post title: The one with all the pictures and the commentary that I didn't bother to proofread.

Logan and I left Tyson in Tucson for a few days and went up to Mesa to see my cousins.

 We stayed with Jess and since her little boy is just a couple weeks older than Logan we let them entertain us half the time.

 Most hilarious moment: When Jess and I were talking about how little boys pee everywhere, and not two seconds later Logan went wee wee on Jess' foot. Ha ha! Luckily the bath was running so all she had to do was stick her foot in the tub. 

Life wasn't as easy for Logan's secondary target, the rug.

We also went shopping; Amy and I got in trouble for taking pictures immediately after this shot was taken, hee hee! We're such troublemakers.

 We also spent some time at the park where we met up with another one of my cousins (all these girls are sisters by the way - so sad that I don't live closer!) and her little boy who shares Logan's birthday.

Logan was confused here. And hot. 

 When Logan and I got back to Tucson the three of us hit up an old timey town for dinner.

 Most hilarious moment here: When the waiter dumped Tyson's salad as he was trying to set it on the table. Good times.

 Our last day there we had quite a bit of time before our flight so we explored a HUGE park and got one last dose of the beautiful sunshine.

If I had known that every one of those goldfish was going to end up back on me, I would have never let him eat them.

 Goodbye Arizona! We miss you and all the people who live there!

Interruption!

We went to the tulip festival today.

That's really all I have to say about that.

The puke free part of our trip

Okay, so I'm done whining now. Logan's not throwing up anymore and now that Tyson and I are pretty sure we're past the danger zone of getting sick ourselves, we're allowing ourselves to eat more than one egg and a piece of toast. I'll never forget the time my family got the flu while my grandpa was visiting. He and I felt fine so we went out for pizza while everyone else was sick. I have never regretted eating pizza more in my life as I did at 2 am that morning.

Anyway, our tummies seem to be fine, therefore, I've eaten enough cadbury mini eggs to soothe my memories of our plane flight.

On to the rest of the trip.

When we got to Tucson it was raining and the temp was in the mid 40's.

Um... what? We felt like we were in some sort of twilight zone where we traveled for seven hours and ended up back where we started.

But the weather changed and we had beautiful sun the rest of the time.

On Sunday we drove around Tucson and explored the area, then met my Aunt Lizzie at church and later for dinner.

There is nothing like spending time with family. Even though we hadn't seen each other in almost 6 years and had never really spent one on one time together we had a great time.

It was fun seeing her kids and getting to hold her sweet squishy baby!

 Clearly there was something in the kool aid for the kids but at least us adults were photo ready! Ha ha.

On Monday Lizzie, the kids, and I went to the zoo where Logan found every puddle in the vicinity to stomp in while I tried to get him at least half as interested in the animals as I was. They were cool! And actually active. And close to us!

See how he cares?

Not.

I'm pretty sure he was just biding his time until we got back to the hotel so he could wear my shoes again.

That night I giggled to myself because I had dressed Logan to match Tyson after he left for his class and I made them go around like twinners the rest of the day.

You'd do it too if you could. Don't lie.

We topped that night off at IHOP where our waitress forgot us and it took 45 minutes to get Logan's food and another 10 on top of that to get ours. Much creativity was used that night to entertain the child.

Alright, this post has gone on long enough. Stay tuned for our trip to Mesa.

Our trip from Hades

So I started writing this up and it was crazy long, so I deleted and I'm trying again with a shorter version. You're welcome.

Tyson, Logan, and I went to Arizona last week. And while we had a wonderful time visiting family and new places the flight home was bad enough to convince me to never fly again.

Long story short...

Logan threw up in the airport during our layover in Salt Lake. We were hoping it was a fluke because he was acting fine. It only got on the floor, and while that was kinda embarrassing... It cleaned up quickly and seemed to be a one time occurrence. The fear in the other passengers eyes did nothing to discourage our plans to get home that night.

Then, as we were boarding the plane, in the little tunnel thingy, Logan started to fuss while I was holding him. And disaster struck. Or rather, splattered.

Barf all over me. From my head to my toes. It was in my hair and covering my sweatshirt and on my pants and my shoes. Also, all over Logan. And did I mention it was in my hair? Curse this long hair!

I honestly did not even know what to do in that moment. I couldn't get on the plane like that! But we were the last ones to board and the flight had already been delayed so it wasn't like they would wait for us. I shuffled to the bathroom, shaking and holding my crying child and let Tyson deal with the flying.

We ended up missing the flight and spending the night in Salt Lake. Logan took care to mark our path with puddles at each new location.

I'll spare you the details of the rest of our evening but know that it was not fun. And can I just say that the only thing that kept me going was my mantra of, "think of the blog post, think of the blog!"

I would also like you to note that ALL of my stuff, and Logan's stuff was on the plane. We had nothing but our smelly clothes on our backs.

SO.

You think that's the end of the story? It's so not.

We managed to get on another flight the next day (with no extra charge, thank you delta!) and made it all the way to Portland without any tummy troubles.

But then Logan started crying as everyone was getting their bags off the plane. I stood up with him to soothe him and Bam! 

Throw up down my back and on the floor of the plane.

Then as we were loading up the car Bam!

Throw up all over my front.

And when we got home Bam!

On the driveway.

Is this TMI? It was pretty much just water on this day so it kinda washed out what was already on my clothes. 

That's gross.

And thus concludes the worst 18 or so hours of my life.

Would you like some photographic evidence? I'll show you my shoes. They got it the least of all. Pretend it's dirt.

It's almost to the point where it's a funny story to me, but not quite because Logan is still throwing up this morning. I think once the sickness has been purged, then I'll be able to laugh.

Or at least start looking for plane tickets for my sister's wedding.

Not my finest hour

My friends and I thought it would be fun to go to IKEA today. After all it was raining (again), the kiddo was sick of being in the house (me too), and sometimes you just need a chair named Kritter (or two).

Guys, it was not a good trip.

Today I was the mother smiling with lips pressed together while I wrangled my child out of strangers' way.

I was the mother calling out my child's name six thousand times while he ignored me and ran perilously close to the stairs.

I was the mother that everyone wished would just take her kid home for a nap.

I was the mother who fed her child chocolate for lunch just to get him to sit still for a minute. (I had offered him an apple, pb & honey sandwich, and Swedish meatballs, just for the record)

I was the mother who bought the toy her kid was playing with just to avoid the battle of taking it away.

I was not the mother of the kid with the poopy diaper at least. (Ha ha Kelly, just kidding :))

I was the mother of the child playing on the displays.

I was the mother of the kid who tried to steal an old lady's wheelchair while she was having lunch.

I was the mother who was actually sweating as we walked out of that dang store.

I was the mother calling the doctor to have her tubes tied.

Just kidding on that last one. Probably.

I am still the mother who would not change anything for the world. We've had our good and bad days together but I still love this little man with all my heart.

He's still just a little guy at 22lb 13oz (10%) and 31.5in (15%) (way to get those 18 mo. stats in there, huh?) but I think we'll keep him. Even after today.

And now some pictures for Grandmas.

Something I love and something I don't

Let's start with what I don't love. 

Junk on my stairs

junk on my stairs

lookin' like a fool with the 

junk on my stairs.

It's pretty much always there. 

And who's fault is it?

Mine of course. 

But there is always something that needs to go up and if I made a separate trip for every little thing, well, I'd probably be in a lot better shape.

Hmm...

OK, not the point. The point is, it sits on the stairs until I walk up there without a full load of Logan . Craft supplies, books, shoes, socks...

Oy the socks.

I live with two boys who just love to take their socks off all over the house. They're everywhere! 

Luckily they are super easy to collect and put on the stairs.

Hence my problem.

Alright, let's move on to something I love. Cardboard boxes. They have so much potential I think, don't you? And with a baby in diapers and a Costco nearby we seem to have a never ending supply.

So when I saw this tutorial on Full of Great Ideas I was thrilled.

I could make this and actually use it!

Not that I don't use all of my crafty creations.

Ahem.

I took an old diaper box and used her instructions to make this shape.

It's a little confusing just to read how to do it on her blog, but if you grab a cardboard box and start following along, it works out fine.

Then I put it on my stairs!

Just kidding.

Then I decorated it! Duh.

I wish that I just had the fabric on hand so that this project was free, but I didn't. I bought some at Joann's.

And then I put it on my stairs!

Excellent! No more piles of stuff.  

Until my box gets full.

I kid I kid. I'll take it upstairs when the box gets full. Of course.

Gooooo Cardboard!