Crystal Light... Anyone?

This evening Elias came down and said that Silas had brought a glass of Crystal Light up to his bathroom but that it wasn't spilled and looked fine. Caleb's OOT (out of town) so by the end of the day I'm worn out and I didn't think I needed to check on the situation. However, when I tucked the boys in I found a little different story than what Elias had reported. Silas had made himself a BASIN of Crystal Light (fruit punch, bright red flavor I might add)! The empty packet was tossed on the floor as proof the sink was red stained nearly to the top and there were fine, red, powdery crystals all over the place. Don't worry though, he "cleaned" it up! He opened up his soap dispenser and dumped out all the remaining soap to clean up the whole sight! He can be soooo naughty and then so sweet at the same time. Ten minutes before I discovered his mess he said a bedtime prayer that went like this..."Dear Heavenly Father, Thanks for this lovely day. Please bless the Jeffers, bless them to be healthy, bless them to have fun, bless them to never get a cold again.. etc." Also, Isaac had a MAJOR toilet overflow about 10 minutes before I discovered the bathroom incident. BOYS!!! On a good note our basement should be done in about 2 weeks! YEEHAW! That will, however, make yet another bathroom for these hooligans to destroy.

When It Rains It Pours!

Yes, we did get a lot of rain last week while the rest of Colorado got pummeled with snow but that's not what the title of this post is referring to. It's actually about 2 things.
1. No blog posts for 5 and a half weeks and then 2 in one day! and...
2. The Sex talk. Elias will be having a "maturation presentation" in his 5th grade class next week so we decided it was time to give him ALL the details before he heard it somewhere else. We borrowed a book that came highly recommended and used it as a guideline (not everything was accurate to the LDS beliefs but it is Christian based) and then branched off from there where necessary. Elias did pretty good and only tried to change the subject a couple of times. Our goal in doing this is to give him the knowledge so he'll know the truth about sex and not believe all the dumb stuff kids will say and to open the lines of communication with him so he can feel comfortable coming to us with anything. I'm sad and excited at the same time to see him growing up. It seems like the parenting decisions we make with him are getting more and more important. I'm a worrier though and Caleb isn't so we balance each other out pretty well. We're about to begin a whole new ballgame...Middle School! Wish us luck.

Blog Slackers

I was giving Tami a bad time about not blogging and she reminded me that she was the last one to post. This isn't going to be long but it will be a post and then the weight will be on Tami's shoulders.

I would like to say that we have been busy but I'm sure everyone else has been too. Tami needs a nutrition class to get on the waiting list for nursing school. It is a one credit class and she is one of those people that thinks she needs to strive for the best grade. Curve wrecker!!! I was the student who at the end of the semester said, " D means done!!!"

The silence has been broken so now it is up to Tami.

A+ for Isaac!

Our family has a fire escape plan in place. We try to discuss it about twice a year to keep it fresh in the kids' minds. Isaac's recently been doing fire safety things for Scouts as well. I'm not sure why but for some reason at 2am this morning our smoke alarms started blaring through the whole house. Caleb's out of town so it was all on me to do the checking (btw, somehow in all our fire escape plans I have visions of Caleb getting all the boys safely out their windows, it never occurred to me that it's likely he'd be OUT OF TOWN!). So I run through the house looking for signs of a fire and find none so I go to check on the boys. Elias and Silas...sound asleep, unaffected. When I went to check on the other two boys I found Isaac's butt up in the air leaning over Jude's crib rail to get him out of bed and save him. I was so impressed that at 2 in the morning he had the presence of mind to follow our plan. I told him it was ok it was just a false alarm so he hopped back in bed. Curious, I asked what he was going to do next (wondering if he was going to open his fire escape ladder and climb out while hanging onto the baby). He said he was going to check the door to see if it was hot! YAY! I am so grateful to have Isaac. He's such a good helper and ALWAYS looks out for Jude. Caleb and I are going to take him out to dinner tonight to reward him. Our Hero! On a side note, the alarms went off again at 5am. Any idea what would set all the alarms in the house off for about a minute or two?

Newborn!

HA! Fooled you! Bet you thought the title of this post was an announcement! For the record IT'S NOT! Sat. night we went to NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) for an evening of Science and learning through Elias' school. As you learned in my last post Jude's been having bum issues so we've been very observant of any odors coming from his body. During one of the presentations Caleb gave Jude the ol' smell test and informed me he was in need of a diaper change. I took him into the restroom and pulled out enough paper towels to build a make shift changing table. I layed him down and opened the diaper only to find it clean...false alarm! I decided it would be a good opportunity to freshen up his bum anyway and apply more cream. As I'm searching through the diaper bag to locate the cream he decided to turn his false alarm into a full alarm. He began to bare bum poop on the paper towel covered floor. OK, I think, I'll just scoop away the poo with the towels and flush it... AAAAAARRRRGGGHHHHHH he starts to pee and it's going EVERYWHERE all over me, the floor, the walls his clothes and yes, his FACE! I quickly scoop away the poop and grab a wipe but not in enough time to catch him lapping some liquid off his face. I wipe his face quickly and stand him up to assess the situation and he pees again! His shirt was unsnapped and long enough to protect me from the spray this time. Holy crap! I strip the boy down, mini-bathe him in the sink, re-diaper him and LUCKILY I had a blanket in his diaper bag to drape around him in order to sneak him out. Seriously! This kid is 18 mos. old. We're not dealing with a newborn here. I haven't carried spare clothes since the boy was 12 mos. old. Caleb left the presentation to see what was up so I was able to get the keys from him and tell him to get the boys and meet me in the car when it was over! I can firmly say I don't miss the newborn days!

Bless the Bummie

Jude has been cutting his last four teeth for quite some time now. This week they are wreaking havoc on his body. He's had diarrhea which has caused a HORRIBLE diaper rash. I took him to the Dr. on Wed. and he prescribed a cream that can't even be applied until the sores stop oozing but told me some other things I can mix together to apply in the meantime. The boy knows when it's time to change his diaper (as the poo is painful) and screams when he sees me coming after him with my petri dish to mix the concoction of meds. He is seriously strong and usually before his bum is clean he's flipped over in a push-up position with me hanging on to one foot trying to get a wipe in between his clinched cheeks. It's a sad sight. With two days on the special mixed cream and no improvement we decided to give him a blessing. I'm happy to say that his poor, raw, oozy, bloody bum is much better today. This morning for family prayer Isaac remembered to ask that Jude's bottom could get better. It was very sweet. As soon as he was done praying he totally giggled about praying for a healthy hiney. What can I say? Even bummies need blessed!

Big and Fat Like Me

This was our dinner conversation tonight. Me, "Isaac, you better eat your food so you aren't so scrauny. Jude is eating all of his food and he is going to be the biggest one in the family." Isaac, "I don't want to be big because I want to be in the Airforce." Me, "You still have to be strong to go to the Airforce Academy." Silas, "I want to grow up and be big and fat like dad. I'm going to eat all of my dinner and all of my ice cream." Talk about putting it into perspective. I guess I still have quite a bit of weight to lose.