What to do when mom is gone?

Michelle went to New York with a friend of hers a couple days ago so I get to be Mr Mom again. I really don't mind either. In fact, since I go hunting/fishing throughout the year I guess it's only fair. And for the most part, the kids are great and things go fine. The only thing that bothers me is staying home all day with the Sav and Cade. I would rather just go places all day and use our house as a resting spot while they take naps.

Today I took the kids to the Idaho Expo center for Kids Day which ended up being a huge waste of time. I thought it would be this great opportunity for them but turned out to be walking infomercials. It was full of business just trying to sell their services such as: daycares, chiropractors, child doctors, RedBull, daycamps, PrimeAmerica, Kirby vacuums, etc. I can't believe I had to pay to get in!

I realized it was time to go after waiting in line 10 minutes for a package of smarties but just before I noticed most adults were wearing one of the following: sweat pants, camo anything, flannel jackets, and crocs.

I guess it was cool that a dairyman was giving out milk. Cade couldn't get enough "red milk" (strawberry) and wouldn't leave them alone.

Happy 29th Kyle!

Because Kyle LOVES fanfare (so doesn't. haha!), I thought I'd dedicate this blog post to him.


29 things you may not know about Kyle

1. Kyle loves his job. I don't know many people who do, but he is one of them. He really enjoys what he does.
2. Kyle deals with stress in a unique manner. He relaxes. Seriously.

3. For the first 23 years of Kyle's life, he HATED running. Then he saw the light and took a jogging class when we were engaged. How do I know he is a true convert? When I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday, he answered, "I want to go running."

4. Kyle played soccer for Ricks College. They didn't have a team name so as a joke he started calling the team Pete's Dragons whenever the team huddled. (the coach's name was Peter) 8 years later, the BYU-I team calls themselves the Dragons. Read about it here.

5. Kyle has never broken a bone in his life. He's sprained his ankles so many times they are permanently enlarged, but he has never broken a bone.

6. Kyle hates chocolate cake. His favorite kind is funfetti cake with cherry frosting.

7. Despite his aversion to chocolate cake, he loves Oreos. Wonder where he got that from?

8. When he is driving the Subie, he sometimes forgets he has passengers in the car and drives it like a race car (it's a manual transmission).

9. His first summer selling pest control he thought he was going to be selling cans of bug spray door to door.

10. Kyle and I met in Virginia his first summer selling pest control. Our first one-on-one conversation went something like this:

Kyle: Hey, I'm Kyle.
Michelle: Hi! I'm Michelle
Kyle: So, how old are you?
Michelle: 18.
Kyle: Wow, you're younger than my little brother.

Smooth, wasn't he?!

11. Kyle is a wonderful father. He loves playing with the kids but he is also helpful at disciplining them, too. He potty-trained Cade when I went out of town for a week and I'm hoping he'll do the same for Savannah this weekend. Maybe he'll get her off her a pacifier, too!

12. Kyle is a penny pincher. He also loves to shop. It's a funny combination to observe.

13. Kyle owns more pairs of jeans AND shoes than I do.

14. If Kyle was called to be a scoutmaster for the remainder of his life he'd think he died and gone to heaven.

15. Kyle loves reading non-fiction books about WWII. He despises novels and anything fiction.

16.Kyle is a very tough movie critic and rarely enjoys a simply "entertaining" film. It has to be believable for him to like it.

17. Kyle can't sing "Because I Have Been Given Much" without shedding a few tears. It reminds him of the people from his mission in the Phillippines.

18. Kyle is the most forgiving person I know. How do I know this? He's married to me. Still.

19. One of his favorite things to do is wrestle with the kids. I think he could do it all day, every day for the rest of his life (or until Cade could beat him of course. Then he might fake a bad back or something)
20. Kyle is really good at keeping in touch with people. If someone is on his mind, he picks up his phone and calls them to say hello. If he doesn't have their number, he'll find it.

21. Though he hates it, Kyle is a very good public speaker.
22. While Kyle loves sports, college football especially, he's not such a fan of the NFL.

23. Kyle has a very competitive nature about him. From sports to sales, he has this inner drive in him that makes him want to be the best.

24. He doesn't like to chew gum.

25. He has veneirs (sp?!) on his two front teeth because he broke his real ones while playing basketball.

26. Kyle still keeps in touch with his former mission companions on a regular basis.

27. Kyle is impossible to have a verbal debate with (and win, anyway). He is far too witty and logical to reason with emotionally, which is the only type of reasoning I am capable of.

28. Kyle can't stand the sight of human blood. He gets lightheaded at the thought of it. However, he can shoot, skin, cut, prepare, and wrap up an elk without so much as blinking.

29. Kyle is a very involved father and husband. Example: He was pairing up the socks last night (his favorite house chore) and found a pair of white socks that were slightly smaller than the ones belonging to Savannah. He remarked, "What are we doing washing Sadee Belle's socks?" He knew immediately that they belonged to Savannah's Cabbage Patch doll. I thought that was pretty adorable.

Happy Birthday, hon! Go for a run and buy yourself a shirt.

The Crayola Effect

Once upon a time my sister told me about a great sale on temple art that was taking place at the Costco in Orem. Kyle and I happened to be in town and mosied on over to find some beautiful depictions of the LDS temples.

After gawking for several minutes at all the pictures, I finally narrowed down my choice between the Nauvoo temple and the Washington, D.C. temple. This particular artist didn't seem to capture the beauty of the DC temple, though. I think the DC temple is a gorgeous temple, but just not one meant for one of these vintage expressions because it has a very 70s-ish architecture. But it was the temple we were married in, and the temple I grew up going to. I wanted a really pretty picture of "our" temple, but I wasn't sure this was the kind of depiction I wanted. I hummed and haaahed for several minutes waiting for Kyle to give his opinion. Kyle was not much help and just said, "Whatever you want, hon." He was on the phone deciding what he was going to do with the rest of his life and had our future in his hands (sell the business, start a new one, keep the business and find a new partner) so a picture of the temple was not really top priority of decisions to make for him.

I finally decided upon the Nauvoo temple. It has a special place in my heart. Kyle and I both love reading and researching about the saints in Nauvoo and the pioneers who traveled westward. My parents took a trip with me and the kids to Nauvoo last summer and while looking up at the temple my dad remarked, "Savannah has to get married in this temple." I agreed.

I took it home to my parents house as it was too big to carry on the plane. I knew we were moving west eventually so I would get to hang it above my fireplace within the year. In the mean time, I left it in the guest bedroom of my parents and told them they were welcome to hang it wherever they wanted in the mean time.

This past Thanksgiving we stayed at my folks place and I again admired the painting that was still sitting on the floor against the wall in the guest room. I was anxious to get it in my own home to hang it, I loved it so much. One morning I went into the guest room to track down the kids and saw the painting again--- only to find it with a few extra artistic expressions added:

here's a close up if you can't tell...

I didn't know whether I should laugh or cry. There were swirls of blue and red crayon at the top of the canvas. I had a pretty good idea it was Savannah, but I wasn't sure of it. Cade has quite a track record of coloring on things he shouldn't as well. Then I thought there were two colors of crayons, so perhaps it was a joint effort. I wanted to scream at myself for leaving it so accessible to the little culprits, but I also wanted to ring a little neck, too.

To my children's good fortune, I was getting ready to drive them down to my sister's so I didn't have time to get angry. After very curtly buckling the kids in their car seats I dialed my sister and unloaded my exaspiration on her. As it always does, telling her about it took the edge off, so I felt human enough to communicate with my kids. When I got off the phone I interrogated Cade, and he denied the accusations. I actually believed the little guy because he was so devasted to hear that his beloved "Au-Voo" temple picture was defaced. So Savannah was given the scarlet letter. She got the silent treatment for the rest of the drive. Childish? Yes. Better silence than screaming though, don't you think?

In order for me to restore the painting to it's original beauty, I figured I'd have to contact some sort of fine art doctor and spend lots of money on removing the crayon wax without defacing the art--- that idea did not thrill me. The more I thought about it, I decided the crayon wasn't that bad. I could still hang it. In fact, I could relish in the fact that I lived through this moment and didn't kill little Savannah over it. One day I could look back on the day and laugh, and in the mean time, the crayon art would be a reminder of what is really important in life. When Savannah did marry in the Nauvoo temple, I could give it to her as a wedding present and smile on the day when those little hands took a red crayon to the sky.

Now that we moved to Idaho for a few months, I have been so anxious to have the painting in my house. This last weekend I went to Utah and brought it home. After the kids were in bed I hoisted the painting on my fireplace and looked at it. I decided to try out a little idea I had....

This was the result:

See?!

Thank you, Magic Eraser!

Morals of the story

1. Don't buy expensive art until your kids are grown. Stay with the inexpensive reproductions like this one.
2. Don't leave your art lying around unless you want your kids to add to it.

3. Never underestimate the power of the Magic Eraser!

Love, love, love!

Rounding the bend on Valentine's Day, I've given some thought to my own personal love interest.

No, this is not another ode to Oreos or Chocolate Cake. Good guess.

My love interest would be my husband:

I often unfairly exploit him on this blog and he takes it pretty well. While my honest frustrations regarding his quirks and "isms" are always laced in undeniable unconditional love, I realize it may be totally invisible to my readers (and more importantly-- him) so, it's about time I just come right out and say why I love this guy so much, despite the fact that he detests this kind of attention.

His hard work. Remember those leaves at our Chicago house I always complained about? Despite the fact that I threatened to hire a landscaper 23 times, I failed to mention the 82 times that you drove the leaf vacuum through the yard.... Thank you dear. For that, I love you.


His silly quirks. Kyle spends much of his time working via phone. Kyle is also a busybody. He paces a lot while on the phone and roams from room to room shuffling stuff around. He has also taken an interest in running in the last few years. In an effort to help me keep my sanity (shuffling important stuff around and forgetting where he put it, for instance) he decided to start running with his phone. I'm not kidding. This picture is my proof. There he has his i-Pod and his phone and he is ready to go for a run. He'd take and make calls while jogging and if he ever had a quiet stint, he'd turn on his i-Pod. Hilarious.



His handy-man nature. Christmas could not have happened without you, Kyle. Thank you for accepting the contract work from Santa. Santa was a little short on time this year and was unable to have Savannah's kitchen assembled before delivery, so Kyle kindly agreed to put it together for him. It was no small task!




And speaking of Christmas, Kyle gifted me with these blinging Snow goggles for Christmas! I get to try them out this Friday because he is watching Cade and Savvy PLUS my sister's two boys so she and I can go to Sundance and hit the slopes together. That is LOVE! More importantly, not only is Kyle going to watch the kids, but he'll undoubtedly have fun with them and I won't feel rushed to get back and won't feel the need to call and check in on him. He really enjoys the kids and playing with them never seems like a chore for him. He is a kid himself, and that is an irresistable quality I have always loved about him.


His cooking skills. Kyle is always doing small acts of kindness for me. This is what I came home to after a run one morning last week:

I love his omelets. Not only is he mindful of my physical health by feeding me, he is an expert on my mental health. In fact yesterday he told me I had a massage appointment at 3 o'clock. Just like that. He's very thoughtful and is often pushing me out the door to have some quiet time to rejeuvenate.

And speaking of rejeuvenation....

Hawaii. Need I say more? Thank you, sweetie, for taking me to Hawaii in December. It was the perfect pre-move vacation.




His little presents. Kyle was gone for a few days last week and he came home with this:

Isn't that the cutest little mug? Aside from Oreos and Chocolate cake, I also have an affinity for hot chocolate. So sweet.


His ability to teach our kids the value of money. Cade, pictured here sporting his favorite shirt, has a jar full of money. Kyle sat down with him and helped him count it. It was so cute.





His lap top. This is me in my full just-out-of-bed glory, and I am not proud of it. I snatched Kyle's computer and crawled into Cade's bed so I could catch up on everyone's blog. Kyle had been gone for 4 days and took the laptop, so I was disconnected from the world for quite some time. Cade's room gets the best wireless connection, and it is away from all the noise in the house, so I thought it was the perfect hide-away. Eventually Kyle found me and took this picture, no doubt with the intent to post it with some story. In any case, I do love him for his lap top. Thanks to it, I am able to keep in touch with all of you...

His photography skills. When he is not acting like the paparazzi around the house and snapping embarassing shots of me, he has been known to take some amazing shots of our kids and capture their silly expressions. This one, for instance:

Thanks to him, I don't feel too terribly bad for not taking my kids to a "real" photographer. We've got cute candids a-plenty.

There's an inumerable amount of reasons why Kyle is the flame in my fire, but there's a start.

Love you, hon!

Savannah turned two! (a month ago)

Heaven help us all, our little princess has entered the ever-feared age of two. She is already well-versed in bossing her big brother around and has experience-a-plenty in tormenting him with her various methods of torture. How someone so young can be so full of personality, spunk, attitude, and energy has been beyond me. Watching her grow has been fun and full of surprises. She is hilarious. Proudly wearing her cute dress from Gramma Berry

We like to have fun on birthdays. Even if Savannah didn't get all into the festivities, Cade's excitement over her new presents more than made up for any lack of interest on Savannah's part. I fulfilled my place as the giver of practical things: Elmo underwear and undershirts. Here she is proudly sporting her new big girl look:


Onesies are now a thing of the past due to potty training. Her grandparents spoiled her rotten and we loved it. Below is a picture I took when I caught Savannah all dressed up in her new winter clothing from Gramma and Grampa Sheppard. She had climbed up on my hamper and was singing, "head, shoulders, knees and toes" in front of the mirror. It was precious. Don't you love the matching purse? It came complete with her own little bottle of lotion, a comb and some chapstick. Boy did she think she was the stuff.




Here she is playing dress-up and multitasking watching her new movie from Gramma and Grampa Henriksen and "working on her new 'puter".


Since before Thanksgiving, Savannah had expressed great interest in going to the bathroom on the potty. Initially I wanted to wait until after the move to do it. Continuation of the potty training process while on the road for 1500+ miles would surely hinder our ETA with constant potty breaks, and I doubted I even had the patience to let her go to the bathroom at her every request. When the move and sale of the home didn't happen, I decided her 2nd birthday would be the best day to jump in all the way and commit myself to it.

Then, figuring if she was going to be done with diapers, I decided she may as well be done with her pacifier, too. Included in the days festivities was to rid her of her strong addiction to the pa-see-fie-ah as she affectionately refers to it. We even took a picture of her with it on her birthday to commemorate the last day she used it.



My plan was simple. Take Savannah with me around the house to gather all her pacifiers and put them in a little gift bag. Later that night we were going to our friend's home for dinner and birthday cake. Savannah would bring with her the little bag of binkies and give them to their baby girl. Savannah loves babies, so I figured this would be easy.

Sure enough she was all over it. She was excited to hand over the gift bag to adorable Addison. She got the concept: the baby has all my pacifiers, so my pacifiers are all gone. Once it was bed time we discussed it again.

Where are all your pacifiers, I asked. "Baby Addison" she responded a little sadly. She cried herself to sleep, but she certainly didn't give it all she had. It was just 20 or 30 minutes of half-hearted crying, which is far less drama than I expected. She went the rest of the week without it. Bed time and nap time was more sad and not as easy as it used to be, but she always smiled and spoke fondly of her gift to Baby Addison, even if it meant a few tears were to follow. We were on the road to success. Hooray!

Potty training was proving to be just as successful. I went a good 10 days of not changing a poopy pull-up. Accidents were few and far between. Could it really be? Having a diaper-free life in just a matter of days by the time my little girl was 2 years old? It seemed too good to be true!

And it was. Because I caved. Once closing on the house became a reality, and any ounce of determination and willpower I had that was not surrounding the move, completely melted away. I take full responsibility for sabatoging my own efforts to have my 2 year-old free of diapers and tooth-deforming binkies. I started depending more on pull-ups and packed away the Elmo panties for a day in the future that a puddle of pee on the floor wouldn't bother me. I couldn't ask her every 10 minutes if she had to go potty anymore. And sleep was essential. In order for me to get anything done, I had to wait until she was asleep---and I didn't want to wait long, so I used a spare pacifier we had discovered in the packing stages to put her to sleep. I promised it was just a temporary thing...but as life goes.... she got sick while we were driving to Boise and I couldn't bear the thought of her without her beloved pacifier to help her sleep in the car as she looked so pitiful....

So here we are a month after her birthday. She goes to bed with her pacifier and she is nowhere near as excited about the potty training as she used to be. Cade went to the store with me last week and helped me pick out a potty for her, so maybe it'll happen it this week? He was very convinced that if she had a pink one, she could do it. I sure hope he is right.

In the mean time, shame on me.

As far as the present beyond potty training and pacifiers, the kids are doing great. Cade really misses the snow, though. I do, too. But I am enjoying the nice, balmy weather. It is far easier to talk myself into going for a run when it is 39 degrees as opposed to a mere 1 or 2 degrees. We seem to be the only folks to frequent the neighborhood park, though. Cade and Savvy go at least once a day. So far it's been too cold for the locals. 40 degree weather feels like summer after the brutal Chicago winter we just had and it is hard to convince Cade to wear a jacket. He's used to his nose hairs freezing on the way to the car. Oh, the memories of this brutal winter!


Here is a shot I took of the kids that reminds me of one my dad took of my brother Austin and sister Melody back when they were little tykes....




Bye-bye Chicago!

My Sunday Interview with Katie Couric

Thanks so much for voting for Emily. She won! That really made up for my selfish self-nomination. I feel completely redeemed. Even better, all those nominees who didn't win the grand prize still get prizes so everyone is happy (though I still would love a make-over)

So what's new?

I am finally emerging! Many of you have e-mailed me and asked what in the world we are doing. I apologize for the sporadic announcements of our changing lives in my blog. Unless you keep up with me or a member of my family on a daily basis, you are probably quite lost. I thought I'd take a step back and review the status quo of the Nomadic Woodbury Tribe.

I shall pretend I am being interviewed by a famous journalist to answer your questions (and for the record, if the aforementioned journalist was in fact, interviewing me in person, I would not be in my sweats.)

So, where are you now? Is nothing sacred? I am not going to divulge my address! I will tell you we are living in the 'burbs of Boise.

Do you like your new place? We are renting a fabulous condo and loving every second of not having to shovel our own snow or take care of our own yard. There hasn't been a need for either in the last week, but it still is nice knowing. It feels roomy. The fact that it has more square footage than our house and we only brought about half our belongings helps with the feeling of spaciousness. I will be sending each of you a Christmas card (technically a Valentine) with our personal info. I hope you all didn't think I forgot to send you a card. I'm just 2 months behind schedule.

How long will you be there? 3 months or so. Couldn't tell you the exact date, but we will for sure be moving out by May 1st.

Why are you in said location? Kyle is recruiting for his business, Pointe Pest Control.

Why did you sell your house? A lot of reasons. Primarily because we knew eventually we were going to do a more permanent relocation next fall. Also we want to grow our family (nope, I'm not expecting.)and we were kind of running out of space in our little cottage. If we had to stay in it and have more children, we would have, but if we had the option to not, I was up for it.

Where are you going after 3 months is up?: Back to the 'burbs of Chicago. We will rent a place short term for the "pest control summer" (End of April to August)

And after that? Cade starts kindergarten, so we'll be in the market to buy that bigger home with less yard somewhere. Utah is the most likely locale.

Why all the moving around? Kyle's primary responsibility to the business is to recruit salesmen and recruiting is best done in Utah/Idaho. Our business is located in Chicago, so he has to be there during the summer with his sales team. With Cade in school we can't be hopping back and forth in the middle of winter, but we can be in Utah all fall and winter to recruit, and Kyle can go to Chicago in the summer for the sales season. Unless of course I opt for homeschooling, but we can save that discussion for another day.

How is the unpacking going?
My goal was to be completely settled a week after move-in. I have one day left and I think I might actually come close to accomplishing this, despite bronchitis running rampant in my house. The kids are finally on the upswing and sleeping through the night again. I am almost completely unpacked and oddly enough, have been enjoying myself doing it. There is something to be said about taking chaos and turning it into order that gives me a thrill. The kids are getting back to their usual rambunctious selves as well, so bronchitis was blessing in disguise-- they aren't near as mischievious while running a fever and coughing up a lung.

What's been your favorite part of being there so far? Taking my kids to see Dr. Kropf. I'm not kidding. I used to babysit for he and his wife back when he was in med school in Virginia some 12+ years ago and they made a grand impact on me during those formative years. They were such an impressive family. Reflecting back on my time with them, I would label my visits in their home as spiritual experiences. They are a special family that I often thought about, even recently. My parents told me he was practicing here in the Boise area so when Savannah started coughing and wheezing on drive out here, I Googled his name and made an appointment. Such a fun reunion! I look forward to seeing his wife Brenda and meeting all 6 of his kids now that mine are healthy. Arriving here with sick kids, it was nice to know of a good family doctor.

What was the most memorable part of your drive to Boise? The I-80 closing on me. Kyle was driving the moving truck with Cade and was about 30 miles ahead of me. He was settled safe and sound in the hotel when it closed. At the time I didn't know that's what had happened. All the traffic just slowed to a stop and we sat idling for a lonnng time. Fortunately my dad was Jonny on the spot and figured out it was closed. Savannah was having a blast watching Baby Einstein in the back seat (thank you, Melody!). I had over a half tank of gas, plenty of food and water and battery on my phone. Savannah eventually fell asleep on her own so it was nice to just sit in the car in peace and quiet rather than drive through the blizzard at 7 miles per hour with white knuckles. I think Kyle and my mom were the most worried. After a while it opened up again and I was actually a little disappointed. I was looking forward to reading one of the novels my grandma loaned me.

What are you going to do for the next three months? Oh I have lots of lofty goals. I am going to be going through all my office papers and files and perfecting my home management system so when we do move into a new home, I will know exactly what I want from my home office. Since the weather here is so much warmer than Chicago, I plan on running more (Ogden marathon May 15th!). I plan on developing a love, or even just a like, for cooking (stop laughing), and plan on being a much more relaxed and pleasant person to be around now that I no longer have a home on the market.

I know, I'm a dreamer.