Rapunzel

Sometimes being a stay at home mom makes me feel like Rapunzel. If you know the new Disney movie she sings a song at the opening about all the things she does to fill her everyday as she lives a solitary life and doesn't leave her tower.

7 AM, the usual morning lineup:
Start on the chores and sweep 'til the floor's all clean
Polish and wax, do laundry, and mop and shine up
Sweep again, and by then it's like 7:15.

On those days when I'm feeling energetic and motivated with my kids the days can move so slowly. I think about all the things we have done so far and it's seriously like 10 am and I think to myself now what? But those days are always better than the lazy days that just fly by. I go to bed at night with a better conscious. Part of the reason why days more filled with activities seem to go by slower, as it seems it would be the opposite, is due to the kiddos ages right now. Projects never last long with an almost five year old and fifteen month old. I've been trying to gauge what jacky is ready for by introducing him to fingerprinting and play doh recently. We tried fingerprinting in a bag and he was mildly interested. Ben loved it on the other hand, even though I hadn't planned on him doing it also and had paper prepared. Funny kid always wants to be like baby jacky. Jackson did enjoy the play doh today although it entered his mouth twice. I thought by the look of disgust on his face the first time that there wouldn't be a second time. Well, he never ceases to amaze me that one. ; )

I also put some baking pins to use this week prompted by some very ripe bananas (the bag finger painting was another Pinterest find). Regular banana bread and a banana oatmeal muffin. It was very healthy with no butter, flour, or sugar although I may have ruined that when I topped them with mini chocolate chips. Oops.

Another fun activity we've recently added to our almost daily schedule is walking grandma's dog, Chloe. The boys love it. Ben holds the leash, running and laughing all the way. Jackson reaches for the leash from his stroller and usually gets a hold of it for a while and laughs at big brother. A couple days ago I wrote out a simple nature scavenger hunt list also found on Pinterest ( I've given up reinventing the wheel and just look to Pinterest to do my thinking for me!) Ben was so great at identifying objects to fulfill everything but it cracked me up that his second to last one remaining was "something green." I reminded him that green stuff was pretty much everywhere and then he excitedly grabbed a big handful of grass. The last remaining item was "something you think is a treasure." Before we left on our hunt he identified this item to be a coin. So all along our walk we looked for something shiny to catch our eyes. With the house just a hundred yards ahead or so I resorted to pulling a quarter out of my wallet and throwing it down on the ground where I then had to feign excitement and pointed it out to Ben. He was so excited I didn't even feel bad. Kinda like the whole Santa Claus situation. Lying for the greater good right?

Although there are days when I feel like we do several of the items listed above, and then it's 7:15 (not really that's when we wake up), I know that while the days may go by slow the weeks and months fly by. I have to remind myself often: enjoy every minute.

Insta Life

We moved again last Saturday and our computer is still not set up. So I'm blogging from my phone. And the easiest way to do so is to post my latest instagrams, since they are stored so nicely in their own folder in my iPhotos. Hopefully I'll post captions sometime when I get my computer back.

Enjoying his treat from the Jelly Belly Factory.

Another great check up for Ben.  Love that Ben loves going to the doctors and dentist. 

Daddy and Ben date to see The Croods. 

Ben was making cookies with his GG when I started to take pictures.  This is him pointing and 

me and telling me not to post this on the internet.  I never told him I wouldn't.  Haha.  

Jackson loves the splash park. 

Ben came home with these fake mustaches from Chuck E Cheese. 

Ben and I at our first movie on the lawn of the season- The Sandlot. So fun! 

What did you do at school today?

This is a question that both myself and James ask Ben every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. His usual responses: "nothing," "I don't know," or "I don't remember." James teasingly always gives him a hard time about these answers and says things like "what are they teaching you at that school?" One day a couple months ago Ben thought up a clever little solution to this problem. He asked one of his teachers to write down a list of things he did that day as dictated by himself, which he now periodically does and brings home for his daddy!

House Poor

We made it through our starving student days.  And survived our starving student with a baby days.  We definitely aren't there anymore.  But it probably feels that way to Ben sometimes.  We are hoping to purchase our first home around next spring.  We have been saving for a 20% down payment (we want to avoid PMI like the plaque) for a few years now.  So Ben often hears the phrases "that costs too much money," or "we have to save our money for the house."  He has had several funny responses to this pursuit.  He has suggested that he could help us to save money if. . .

• we purchase him a wagon.  That way he can sell things door to door. : ) 
• we purchase him a larger piggy bank.  His current gum ball machine/piggy bank only holds maybe ten dollars in change.  

On our way home from Tahoe, and after dropping off one of his buddies he told me all about their plan to make a movie.  He explained that instead of paying to go see a movie, that people could pay us to watch ours!  He was very excited about this and then went on to tell me his little pitch: "Ladies and gentlemen, come and see our movie.  Please pay us to see it.  Our family is very poor!"  

Easter

James suggested the night before after I broke down for him our busy Easter Sunday schedule that we go to the other ward's time (since our's doesn't start till 12:30).  We only had first hour, followed by a linger longer but I bolted out right after Sacrament and didn't look back.  You see during the closing song Jackson decided to bee line it for the halls.  So I sent Ben after him.  Usually he comes right back struggling while carrying a gigantic baby.  Well he didn't come right back so I had to go get them.  I thought the song was about to end (turns out it had one more verse), so I hurriedly got up and turned the corner to get out before the closing prayer started.  Because we are always late we sit in the back on the basketball court floors.  Those floors, combined with me being in a rush and heels that I never wear caused me to slip and land on top of an old man sitting in front of us.  At least it wasn't our ward. : ) 

As soon as we pulled up to the house I informed everyone to stay outside for a family photo.  I set the camera on top of our mailbox and using the self timer was able to take a few good pics.  I had the ISO (controls the amount of light the camera takes in) on really high by mistake and we were looking into the sun, so they came out very bright.  We are not a tan family by any means, but we also aren't quite this pale.  Oh well.  I still love the photo.  Especially Jacky.  He cracks me up, lookin all pimp. : )  

After lunch and a good nap (for Jacky) we set off for my grandpa's house to celebrate Easter (of course) and also his 80th birthday.  We were able to stay for about an hour and the boys were showered with more goodies from the Easter bunny (AKA Mimi).  Ben's favorites: his baseball and mitt- he is becoming quite the player.  We then went to the Greene's for dinner, more goodies, and an easter egg hunt with cousin Dylan.  The grass was wet from a few scattered showers but the sun was shining and the plastic eggs were full of candy and money.  Jackson would grab one egg, put it in his basket, and then put his basket on his head.  He was happy.  

Another wonderful celebration of rebirth and the sacred gift of our Savior.  Trying to reteach Ben about the atonement and resurrection has been quite eventful.  It has brought up lots of questions.  This kid always has lots of questions.  So much so that I have been known to blurt out "quiet time!" in the car more than once.  He literally rattles my brains sometimes.  But these kinds of questions are golden!

Jackson Turns One- the movie

Every year I make a video for the boys on their birthdays.  I played around with making a condensed version of Jackson's movie to post on the blog, but decided to just go with the full version.  Whoever cares enough to watch it, will hopefully not mind the fact that it's about fifteen minutes long.

When we lived in Utah I used to post videos on my blog on Monday for my mom mainly, so she could see Ben in action.  Since I've never posted any of Ben's birthday movies, I thought I would bring back movie Monday and post all his old ones in the coming Mondays.
Jackson Turns One from Julie Greene on Vimeo.

Rock a Bye Baby

It used to take me well over an hour to put the boys to bed each night.  Around thirty minutes to nurse Jackson and then about fifteen minutes for bedtime stories with Ben.  And then I would lay in his bed with him until he fell asleep.  It wasn't until right before Jackson was born that Ben finally started to sleep in his bed all night long without waking up once.  So this was an improvement.  After a few months Jackson was taking a bottle and I started him on the nasty little habit of falling asleep with his bottle (once he could hold it).  In my defense he does not like to cuddle, and so once he could hold it himself he would rather just lay down by himself and fall asleep than have me hold and rock him.
Fast forward to four days ago.  It was his nap time and I realized I was all out of whole milk.  So I thought I would just put him down and crossed my fingers he would fall asleep.  He has always really needed his bottle to fall asleep, so I didn't have much hope.  But he fell right asleep.  I decided to take this as my lead and break the bottle in bed habit.  As an easy transition I decided to go back to our old routine of rocking him in the chair with his bottle.  That way he still had his bottle right before bed and then I'd put him down while still awake.  It has worked like a charm and I have been loving the snuggle time.  Reminds me of those first few months with him.  The first night of this new routine, I must have been feeling extra sentimental because I also chose to lay with Ben until he drifted off to sleep.  He hasn't needed me to do this for quite some time now.  It's funny how you always come back to a place of missing things when it comes to your children.  Even those things that weren't very appealing at the time.  Reminded me to always appreciate the moment with my children.  Because things are always going to change.  Nothing stays the same forever.  Even though Jackson has always been an amazing sleeper; those first few months when he did wake me up once to twice a night to eat, I handled it much better than with Ben.  That was my biggest fear before Ben was born- lack of sleep.  And I recall having some pretty miserable days and nights just thinking about somebody, anybody taking him for me for just one night so I could sleep.  This time around, I just kept thinking to myself how this time was going to fly by, and I could handle anything for a season.