Kater-the-Schmater Bug!

The title this week is our fond nickname for the infamous Kate O'Gwin, who never ceases to amaze me with what she is willing to put into her mouth. This picture shows Kate's awesome hair that she has due to inheriting her father's two competing cowlicks on the top of her head! Anyway, back to her diet. . . I cannot leave anything in the shopping cart within her reach - she's gotten into the grapes, a thing of yogurt, and a package of marshmallows when I wasn't watching. She loves eating the acorns in the yard, has tried a dead bug or two she's found in the house, and I can't tell you the amount of Polly Pocket perafanelia (sp?) that I've found in her diapers (which I am NOT willing to salvage, by the way!) This week she ate the neighbors sidewalk chalk and she was trying to feed some grass to a puppy, but the puppy didn't want it so she ate it herself. Along those same lines . . . Chris went to give Kate a kiss and she burped into his face - gross! Kate has learned how to open the doors at our house this week and will therefore have access to the bathrooms - a very scary thought.
On a nicer note for Kate, she has her little buddy, Spencer, who comes to play every Wednesday when Natalie and I do our babysit swap to volunteer at the school. Kate comes on a little strong and Spencer's a little wary, but overall they have a lot of fun. It is hilarious to watch the two of them . They like to "keep an eye" on each other and there's a whole lot of food swapping during snack time.

Aly made a "bug collector" this week. She painted it to be "camouflaged" and then filled it with leaves and some water. So the bugs are supposed to want to come inside . . . so far no bugs.





This week Lise was helping me clean the bathrooms when she asked, "Mom, can I stir the toilet?" Apparently brushing the toilet bowl is as exciting as stirring some cookie dough for Lise. And hey! Why not? Especially when you get to wear the cool, yellow, rubber gloves!



As far as everything else going on this week . . . Chris had to work nights for a JRTC rotation and so I totally fell off the "Good Mom" bandwagon and let the kids stay up until 9 or 10 every night with movies, a trip to Wal-Mart, etc. It is not worth it!! Lise and Kate now have gunky noses, we've had separation meltdowns at pre-school, Aly had to sneak toast onto the bus (no food allowed!), and Kate was in rare form at church today. Maybe I'll play "Good Mom" this week. I did take the kids to the park for playgroup and to a neighbor's birthday party. Doesn't that count for something? :)

Do I always need a title?

Okay, so first of all I am laughing at myself for adding a picture to last week's post. I didn't have a picture of the tree climbing last week, so what could I do? I'll try to keep my pic's up to date in the future . . .

Well, Chris is out of the boot . . . for now. The doctor said his ankle is healing up great and sent him to physical therapy. The physical therapist said that he still had way too much swelling and that he has two weeks to get the swelling down. So, he's able to put his foot down and walk . . . with crutches. But we are making progress. The crazy thing about it is that he went to the dentist the next day and found out he had two hairline fractures in his jaw!! Apparently he had also broken his jaw in the accident, but he was in so much pain/on so many pain killers for his ankle that he didn't even notice. Luckily his jaw healed up nicely so they don't need to rebreak it. Sheesh! That was a bigger accident than we thought!

I just want to tell my hubby how grateful I am for him. A couple of reasons I'm grateful for him today are because even though he started working nights and was awake for more than 30 hours, he still magnified his priesthood calling by making it to his bishopbric meetings and to sacrament meeting. AND he took Kate home with him so that they could both nap and I could teach my primary lesson kid free. I'm grateful that he took me on a date this week and that he took the time to make a decked out paper airplane with Aly, read stories to Kate, and listened to Lise talk about the latest Barbie movie even though he's had a ton of schoolwork to do and no time to do it in. I'm also grateful that he trusts my opinion enough to let me edit all of his school papers before he submits them. And I'm grateful that he laughs with me when I do silly things.

Now on to the kids . . .
Kate is becoming very athletic. This week when I was exercising she saw me with the weights and was begging to play with them and so I gave her the little two pounders. She also LOVES hanging from Chris' exercise bar. Kate's other big thing is having books read to her. Anytime Chris or I sit down anywhere, she gets a book off her bookshelf and brings it to us to read. Her favorite book is called "What Do Babies Need?" Is she trying to give us a hint or something?
Aly was really into earning money this weekend and wanted to wash the cars. They look . . . okay (well, like a six year old did it.) The funny thing about it was that on the way home from church Aly was talking about how she hoped it didn't rain because she'd just washed the car! Another thing about Aly is her pants. When we moved to Louisiana I was hoping that her school uniform pants could last the two years we were here. But no. She wore them out to the bus stop this week and they looked really crazy. The people at the bus stop said that they looked "crocked" and, apparently, that's a style? Maybe my daughter's in style and I don't even realize it. But we still need to get new pants. And Aly's major accomplishment this week was that she learned to tie her shoes - after only two tries!! She is so proud of herself and I am too!!
Okay, so I just need to explain this picture of Lise. First of all, she's obsessed with horses and wants to be a horseback rider when she grows up (after she's done being a superhero). I took the picture before she had her winter gloves on because she thought that horseback riders wear gloves when they ride. Now, notice the shoe. She's obsessed with the "cinderella shoe" and has been wearing it for days even though she can't find the other one. (Maybe it's at the palace with prince charming?) The other thing is the ankle bracelet. She's been wearing that every day too - even on top of her socks on the days she wears socks. Lately she's also been very big into combing her hair with a wet comb. She'll be in the bathroom for like 20 minutes. And every time I tell her we're going somewhere she goes and puts on her "make-up" (i.e. chapstick). Man, this girl can accessorize!!

Y(IKE)S! What a Week!

Well, this week at the O’Gwin’s we had a brush with Ike। It did not hit us as badly as we were expecting (once again), but we did end up with a ½ hour power outage and a few downed tree limbs! :) I shouldn’t joke though; I know that there are a lot of people who were hit badly by Ike and I am very grateful that our family was kept safe। We did have a lot of tornadoes pass through the area so we had the girls sleep in the hallway Friday night। All is well now, and I suppose tomorrow I’ll dump out all the water again and get back out the grill and patio furniture. Two more months of hurricane season . . .

This week I was able to volunteer at Aly’s school and I LOVED IT!! I am seriously like the geeky type of person who loved school and loves to organize anything! One time when Chris and I were dating (and actually in the same state), we split up in a store to look for a few different items and Chris came back to find me organizing the merchandise in the store. I know; I’m weird. But the extra bonus of volunteering at the school was that my good friend, Natalie, was watching Kate, and Lise was at preschool and so I could just work and organize totally uninterrupted. Ah, heaven.

This week was totally crazy for Chris. He had a huge paper to write, an online test to take, and work hours were crazy. Because of this, he started driving himself to work with his left foot. Desperate times call for desperate measures. He got almost no sleep and was stressed to the max, but did very well on everything, of course. Despite all the stress, he still made time for he and I to go out to lunch, which makes me really happy.

Aly is really jumping into reading and it is awesome! She started reading “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” this week and she keeps telling me what page she’s on. Her other big thing is tree climbing. She and her friend, Haley, will climb trees almost every day for hours after school. Supposedly they’re having a “war” with the boys in the neighborhood, with the boys shooting nerf darts and stuff up into the tree, while the girls throw leaves and nuts down on the boys. Aren’t the boys supposed to be the ones climbing the trees?

Analise informed me this week that “when you grow up and get married and want to have kids what you do is touch your husband on the leg right here” and then she pointed to her knee. She got this from when we watched “Father of the Bride” as a family and the fiancé touches Annie’s knee and it makes Steve Martin go crazy. Whew! Luckily it was the knee. I was getting a little worried there.

Speaking of body parts, Kate is learning her own body parts as well. Her favorite is still her belly button, but she’ll blink for “eyes”, sniff for “nose”, and stick out her tongue for “mouth”. Kate is also starting to learn how to use silverware – no reduction in the amount of mess yet, though.

Well, that’s all for this week. Until next time . . .

THE QUOTE OF THE WEEK

In our house we have something called “The Quote of the Week.” (Of course, Kate can’t talk yet, so they aren’t always quotes, they’re more like funny things my kids do or say.) Sometimes Chris and I get quotes of the week also. I’d like to share just a few recent favorites:
Chris – Okay, explanation. Chris has an obsession with food and a mega sweet tooth. When we were first married I was like, “why do you care if we’re having leftover spaghetti night, you go out into the woods and live off bugs?!?” To which Chris quickly explained that it is BECAUSE he has to go out into the woods and live off bugs that when he has a choice as to what he eats, he wants it to be good. Chris has also been known to eat an entire pan of brownies/rice-krispie treats in one evening. As our children came along a competition has emerged as to who gets to eat the last cookie, brownie, etc. So, the other night at the dinner table, Chris laid down the law and informed us that “I weigh as much as the rest of the family put together. I am therefore entitled to half of the food in the house.” Chris weighs 205 lb. We’ll let you do the math on the rest of us . . .
This is a picture of Aly and Lise getting tied up in the boat when they were bored on Sunday at Lake Powell because they couldn’t swim। They absolutely loved trying to get untied.

Aly – "Mom, I can do a crazy trick! I can stare with my eyes, not swallow, and hold still at the same time!” (believe me, for Aly, holding still is a trick।)
– Aly decided to bring her ballet slippers to church one week to “keep her feet warm.”
– We were in a Bass Pro Shop and the girls were wondering why there was a live deer inside the store. We explained to them about hunting and stuffing an animal and that the deer wasn’t real. So then Aly started pointing around the store at all the animals saying, “Look! A stuffed duck. Somebody killed a duck. Look! A stuffed wolf. Somebody killed a wolf. Look! A stuffed girl. Somebody killed a girl!” WHAT?!? Aly had pointed to the mannequin and really thought it was a stuffed girl!!

– When Analise is finished with her meal, her new thing to say is, “I’m full of it.”
– During the hurricane Lise saw me hand washing dishes and asked me, “are you giving your hands a bubble bath?”

Kate – When Kate sees something she wants she starts squawking “aye, aye”, and sounds just like the seagulls on Finding Nemo “mine, mine।”Kate decided to punish me this morning for not coming to get her out of her crib PRONTO by stripping down naked and peeing all over her sheets। This is the second time she has taken off her diaper – the last one was poopy। I’m petrified that I see a trend starting here.

Let me introduce you to the O’Gwin’s . . .

Chris (Gimpy) is currently on crutches due to a mountain scooter accident which occurred up at Snowbird while we were on vacation this summer। He shattered his ankle and got a plate and eight screws put into his leg। (He told me I had to take a picture of the scar so that people wouldn’t think he just had a “wimpy” injury.) He hopefully only has a couple more weeks until he can drive again. Chris is working at JRTC at Fort Polk while getting an online Master’s degree to help him figure out what he wants to be when he grows up (aka when we get out of the army.

Aly is my High School Musical fanatic. She also loves climbing trees, jump roping (jump rope optional), playing with friends, jumping on the trampoline, making art projects, collecting rocks, and jumping all over the furniture . . . did I mention jumping?

Analise is my little snuggler। She loves Horses, My Little Ponies, Polly Pockets, and movies. She loves to help me cook, comes up with the best movie quotes, and has a great imagination.

Kate is my little Imp। She knows her mind and isn’t afraid to let us know it either। She wants to do whatever she sees her big sisters do, fingerpaints herself into great art masterpieces at every meal, and likes to boss around her sisters। (She’s only 14 months old, by the way)।

And then there’s me. I’m the glue that holds everyone together!

A Whole Ladda Nada!

Well, as a follow up on Hurricane Gustav, I’ve just got to say this . . . nothing happened. We didn’t even lose power! Chris and I find this very hilarious because we’ve lost power and water in this neighborhood a handful of times since moving here in January – and none of them were storm related. Oh well, we are very grateful that we didn’t get any damage because Gustav did hit the surrounding areas within our Stake Boundaries pretty hard (which doesn’t say much because our Stake covers part of Mississippi) and they’re still without power.

So, pretty much what happened is that I got away with a few days of eating on paper plates, the girls got to sleep with their flashlights and played flashlight tag, and there were a lot of fun rain puddles to jump in afterwards.

Blog Peer Pressure

So . . . I’m starting a blog. A few of my good friends have blogs and have been telling me that I need to get one. My one friend was getting on me to get started and I told her I couldn’t because Kate was getting tubes put in her ears on Friday and I had to get the house prepped for Hurricane Gustav. She told me (jokingly) that I was just full of excuses and I needed to get on it! Now, I’m not one to usually cave to peer pressure, but I do believe that there is such a thing as good peer pressure. So, since this is something that I want to do anyway and I’m going to use it as a double for my journal/family history, I am sitting here, starting my blog while waiting for the rain to start and for our power and water to go out during a hurricane. But, hey! This blog is Staceroo and her Zoo and I often feel that my life is in chaos, so starting up during a hurricane is very apropos, don’t ya think?

Oh, and a sidenote on the hurricane. My husband, Chris, and I are probably the only morbid ones who are a little excited for the hurricane to hit us so we can test out our emergency preparedness skills. We’re not far enough South to evacuate, just close enough to get a TON of rain and a LOT of wind with probably power and water outages. I’ve heard the worst thing is no A/C and the bugs. I’m more worried about keeping the kids entertained and keeping Kate out of the filled bathtubs and tubs of water we’ve got all over the house!! I’m sure it won’t be nearly as fun as we’re thinking, but we’ll let you know.