What to get a hard working Dad . . .

So I mentioned that my Father's Day gift was an epic failure. But I really did have good intentions.

Lamon has been working in the yard a lot lately, and one night while I was helping him get some of the hedge out I noticed that his work gloves had holes in the fingers. I thought to myself, "I am going to surprise Lamon with some new work gloves for Father's Day!"

I was so excited about this idea because I am usually pretty terrible at the surprise gift giving thing.

So I got on Amazon and found some gloves with great reviews and put them in my cart along with another cheaper pair just in case. I bought them and boom, my father's day gift was on it's way and he didn't have the slightest clue!

Well the day they were to arrive Lamon and I were in the front yard and suddenly Lamon looked down at his gloves (with the finger holes newly repaired with duck tape) and he said, "These are the best gloves in the whole world!"

"Really?"

"Ya. I just love these gloves." He then began to tell me where he got them and just how great they were, and I knew then and there that my great idea wasn't so great after all.

But it would get worse.

The package finally arrived, and I intercepted it before Lamon could open it. When he left for work I decided to open it up and check it out. I mean, maybe the gloves would be so amazing that he would just be blown away that he ever thought his current gloves were so fantastic. So what did I find?

The first pair (the more expensive ones with great reviews) were totally flimsy and were a size medium and barely fit ME. Great. On to the second pair. And the second pair? They were a Women's extra small, and I couldn't even get them on my hands. Awesome! Lamon just happened to come home early from work and saw my awesome gifts before I could return the evidence. As he was looking at the size medium pathetic gloves I told him that he had better return them, and that he should love me for the thought anyways. And he said, "No . . . I think I want to keep these." Ha ha. I love you Lamon.

So what do you get a hard working father?

Women's size extra small gardening gloves. You can't go wrong.

Never too tired to be a Dad!!

It's been a while since I have posted on our blog. It's about time I forget about the daunting task of updating the last year of our lives and just jump in and start writing about the here and now. And there isn't a better subject to blog about than Lamon! In fact, there isn't a better day than Father's Day to write a huge long post about how awesome my husband is.

The truth is I really need to do an excellent job bragging about Lamon right now. . . because my Father's Day gift was a real bust . . . but I will get to that later.

First I want to point out the obvious. Lamon is AMAZING. But everyone already knows that don't they . . . so let's get specific shall we?

There are so many things that make Lamon such an amazing Dad, but one of the things I appreciate most about Lamon is the way he teaches our children to work.

Lamon teaches them to work by example and by working along side them.

The other day I was sitting inside nursing the baby while watching Lamon work hard through the front window. He was using the pick ax to cut up a humongous gargantuan root in our front yard, and he was looking mighty fine while doing so. I'm not kidding either. I even called him on his cell phone from inside and said, "Uh . . . your hot." He looked up towards the window with that "Oh boy Mary. You are ridiculous" look, and just shook his head and put the phone back in his pocket.

But seriously,  I think I have mentioned before how men are most attractive while doing certain activities, working being among them. Spending time with kids is of course on that list too, and at that particular moment Lamon was doing both. So pretty much he was extremely attractive and I had to get the camera out to take some pictures. While I was admiring Lamons muscles Hayden suddenly jumped in front of me and said, "You think Daddy is strong, check out these . . . " And then he flexed his muscles for me. Ha ha! Funny kid.

So here are the pics I took.

Warning: looking at these photos of Lamon may cause heart palpitations.

I love that he likes to have the kids around him while he works. He really does take the time to show them how to do things. I have no doubt that when they leave our home they will know how to work hard and do things for themselves thanks to Lamon. He was showing Drew how to make pancakes the other day while I was . . .  feeding the baby . . .  (that's what I do lately), and I yelled from the living room, "Wow Drew, Now you know more than Mommy did when she got married! . . . I remember when Daddy taught ME how to make pancakes!" That got him laughing pretty hard.

Perhaps the events of Friday and Saturday can explain what I'm talking about better. On Friday Lamon worked an 18 hour shift. He left at 10:30 in the morning on Friday and got back on Saturday morning at about 7 o'clock. Most men after an 18 hour shift would reasonably sleep throughout the entire next day, but Lamon didn't do that. Instead he took all of us to the Park for the Orem Rotary Breakfast. Then after breakfast he came home and helped me get the kids going on their chores and then went and helped a friend retrieve a tiller and till in his yard. After that he came home and started working intensly on our yard for the rest of the afternoon until he took us all to the parade. After the parade we all went to have icecream at our cousins house, and then Lamon took Andrew, Hayden, Ada, and Tilson to see the fireworks while I . . . fed the baby . . . and put him to bed. When they all got home Hayden was in hysterics. He was throwing a huge tantrum and calling Daddy the meanest Daddy ever etc. The tantrum was lasting forever . . . and finally I came into his room and asked Hayden why on Earth he thought Dad was the worst Dad ever, because I was pretty sure that he was the best Dad ever. So then Hayden proceeded to tell me that he was the worst Dad ever because he didn't pay for him to have a $4 dollar sword at the carnival.

Explanations of why a $4 dollar sword at a carnival was an absolutely ridiculous purchase wasn't really going to help at this point so I just said,

"Really? Hmmmm. Okay Hayden. So Daddy didn't buy you sword? That stinks. But lets think of all of the things that Daddy DID do today. After each thing I asked, "You didn't like that so much?" . . . "I bet you didn't like it when Daddy did _______?" The evidence was there. I finally said, "Guess what you guys? Did you know that Daddy worked ALL day on Friday and ALL night long until the morning time? He didn't even sleep. Did he come home and go to sleep for the rest of the day? . . . He could have. I was going to let him. But you know what? When I went to wake him up to tell him we were going to the park for breakfast do you know what he said? . . .  He said, 'But what if I want to come too?'  Our tired Daddy got up after sleeping for like half and hour and spent the rest of the day spending time with us. That isn't my idea of a bad Daddy.

Of course that worked and Hayden completely stopped his tantrum. Ha ha. Just kidding. Not really. But when he woke up in the morning he walked right up to Lamon and apologized and thanked him for all of the things he had done on Saturday after not sleeping for two whole days. He also went on to tell him that he wanted to be exactly like him when he grew up exept for one thing.
We asked, "Oh ya? What's that Hayden?"
"I don't want to be bald"
We started laughing at that and then Hayden said, "Well there is one way that I might want to be bald and that is . . . if I had head lice."
Oh boy he makes me laugh.
But honestly we really do have the best Daddy ever. He is never too tired to be a Dad!

Catch up- The Grand Canyon

So the last thing I documented on this blog was that I was pregnant. Wow. That was FOREVER ago! I mean . . . I'm still pregnant . . . but some very fun things have happened since then! So I will just start with one of the GRANDEST.

Before I found out I was pregnant Lamon and I had planned with some friends to hike the Grand Canyon from Rim to Rim in one day. It is a pretty intense 24 mile hike. And I just figured, "Hey . . . I will only be 11 or 12 weeks pregnant in September when we go . . . I should be fine." And I totally planned on doing it. And when I was about 7 weeks pregnant I went on a really hard training run on part of the Timp Trail Marathon course. It was pretty hard but I survived (barely).  I felt proud of myself and was pretty encouraged that I just might be able to pull it off.

Ha ha. Darn Pregnancy Amnesia!! A lot of sickness happens after you are seven weeks pregnant. And oh was I sick! But I kept running and kept hoping that I would be ready to do the Grand Canyon despite. Well about a week before we were supposed to go I went on a very short run and had to stop in the middle of it because I was dry heaving. I came home and told Lamon, "I don't think I can do this."
I mean seriously, if I can't make it through a two mile run without throwing up . . . what is 24 miles in the Grand Canyon going to be like? I had to be honest with myself.

I still wanted to go though. I didn't want to miss out on the Grand Canyon! So we decided that I would drop them off at the North Rim at 6 in the morning and then I would drive the five hours around to the South Rim and hike down and meet them half way up. That way I could still get a good hike in and enjoy the Grand Canyon too! And so that is what I did.

And can I just say that the drive was intense. I have never seen so many deer in my life! I had to maneuver around 7 different deer that were in the middle of the road. And that was just the ones "in" the road. Who knows how many were out there. But I made it to the South Rim without hitting a deer or totaling our friends van which was absolutely fabulous.

I got to the South Rim around 11:00 and promptly started down. I ran the entire 4 miles down and was feeling pretty good about myself. I was wondering, "Could I have done the whole thing . . .? " I made it to Indian Gardens with time to spare. I ended up waiting about an hour for them to get there. And when they met up with me Lamon said, "Hey, do you want to go out to that lookout." It was about a three mile round trip diversion. He wanted me to be able to see the river. I said, "Sure." So we jogged out to the lookout and back and then started the hike back up. And . . .  remember me saying how I wondered on the way down if I might have possibly been able to do the whole thing? . . . Ya . . . my answer came on the way back up!

 In order to do an intense endurance hike like that you have to eat. And I could not eat! I was feeling so sick. I was so nauseated and I could not choke down anything. It seemed like that four miles up the canyon would NEVER end. Boy was I glad I didn't try to do the entire thing! But I will someday! I made them all promise me that we would all go back when I wasn't with child and out of shape so I could conquer it.

But hey, I'm still going to say that I am tough for the 11 miles of sweat I put in at the Grand Canyon. And oh . . . how amazing and indescribably beautiful it was! It was so spectacular. And we couldn't have gone with more fun or tough people. I am still amazed that they did that! Amazing. It was such a fun trip. It was definitely one of the highlights of the year!

Uh . . . I'm back?

Wow . . . I don't really have any explanation for what has happened to me in the last 5 months. It is obvious that I have completely neglected this blog. Which is extremely sad considering how awful my memory is, and considering how many fun stories I could have told. But I am going to do my best to remember the highlights of the last few months, and just start from where I am.

The best explanation I can give for my Lazy Blogging Syndrome is that I suffered from Pregnancy Amnesia.

I don't think I am the only woman in the world who has had pregnancy amnesia. It's quite a phenomenon.  You see . . . after every baby is born . . . it's like I completely forget the first 3 or 4 months of pregnancy. All I remember is the last 5 months when I feel so great, my belly gets huge and cute, and everything is so fun while I wait for the baby to come. And this is why whenever the conversation of pregnancy comes up among women . . .and all the women are talking about how awful it is, I (with my Pregnancy Amnesia) usually chime in with comments like, "Seriously? I LOVE being pregnant!! It is so fun!"

And if Lamon is around when I brag about how unaffected I am by pregnancy, he will give me a look like, "Um . . . what are you talking about?"

You see Lamon gets Pregnancy Amnesia too. Only he forgets the last 5 months that are so AWESOME, and remembers the first four months that . . .well . . .  aren't so fun.

It is in those first few months that Lamon  has to turn into Mr. Mom . . .doing dishes . . .  laundry . . . cooking because most of the time I spend staring into the void trying not to throw up wondering "How on EARTH could I EVER FORGET this?" And it doesn't help that all of the conversations that Lamon tries to have with me during this time (no matter what the subject is) I respond with, "Ugh . . . I don't feel so good."

So ya, I wasn't really thinking about blogging for awhile there, but pregnancy amnesia is already settling in. I feel fantastic. I am safely into the fun part of pregnancy and am even still running a little bit . . . hopefully I can do that until the very end like I did with Tilson. But most importantly . . .  time to start writing! I will try to do some catching up with my blog. Because MAN there is some fun stuff to blog about!!!

My 51st Pregnancy Test

So . . . less than a year ago I wrote a post in which I came clean about my addiction to taking pregnancy tests  http://lamonandmarymack.blogspot.com/2011/11/i-have-addiction.html . It was hard to make such a disclosure, but I felt like if I told everyone . . . perhaps I would be more motivated to resist pregnancy tests in the future. At the end of the post I gave myself a bit of a pep talk and challenge. I said:

"So there you go. I have 4 pregnancy tests in my house right now . . . Will there be four of them left at the end of next year when we start trying again? That is the question. Will they be there next week . . . ? . . . . Yes! I can do it!"

Well, this post is a bit of an update.  That post was written in November of last year.

If I would have stayed true to my goals . . .  I would still have four pregnancy tests sitting in my closet today. And in about two months from now Lamon and I would be ready to start trying for another baby.

Well . . . it hasn't happened like that exactly. Not only did the 4 pregnancy tests not last very long, but I bought more. I bought a lot more. I justified it by buying them in bulk. I went to Amazon and paid $6 for a pack of 50 of them. That's like 12 cents a test! What a Ganga!

Anyhow . . . the long story short . . .

The week of the Vineman I packed with me the last 4 pregnancy tests from my pack of 50. And on the morning of the Vineman (which was already one of the best days ever) I saw a faint pink line on the 50th one. I hit the jackpot! But seriously . . . who trusts that first faint line completely? So a week later . . . Here is my 51st pregnancy test (that I had to borrow from my sister)

So . . . a boy or girl will be coming to the Mack household in April. Can't wait!

And then really . . . I am done taking pregnancy tests for good! I promise.

Ever wondered how a Rolly Polly has babies?

Having young inquisitive children at home really shows me on a daily basis how much I don't know.

I had never given much thought to the childbearing methods of pill bugs until about a week ago.

The children were playing in the backyard with their favorite next door neighbors when suddenly I heard Drew screaming as he raced towards the door.

"Mom! Mom!! Hurry . . . I need a jar!!"

He then proceeded to tell me that they were holding a Pill Bug when suddenly it had babies. I was like, "What? Pill Bugs don't have babies. They lay eggs!"

"No. Mom. Look!" Then I looked at his hands which were covered with little tiny white bugs.

"Whoa!" I was wondering how they managed to come upon the nest of eggs hatching at just the right moment. But Drew insisted that the Pill Bug had her babies right in his hand.

All four kids had their hands covered with these little bugs. Although Drew wanted to keep the little creatures I explained that if any of them had a chance of living they needed to be out in the moist soil. Then I did two very necessary things.

1. I took pictures. How often do you get to see a Pill Bug have babies? Did you know they were white?

2. I went straight to my friend "Google" to find out just how Pill Bugs DO have babies.

What did I find out?

Like crabs and other crustaceans, pillbugs tote their eggs around with them in a pouch called a marsupium.  Upon hatching, the tiny pillbugs remain in the pouch for several days before leaving to explore the world on their own.

When it's time for a Pill Bug to have her babies her belly literally bursts open and the babies come out. How cool is it that the kids just happened to be holding a little Rolly Polly when that happened? Pretty cool.

If I didn't have kids I would have lived my life forever thinking that pill bugs were insects!

Ada learns a new word . . .

This morning I was getting dressed for the day. I had almost finished dressing and was looking for a shirt when in walked Miss Ada.

"Mom . . . can you please call Holly!" Holly is the mother of one of Ada's friends.

"I can Ada. But can you wait just a minute? I am getting dressed."

Ada then walked right up to me and said, "Ya. You should probably do that! You aren't supposed to show "those."

"Huh?" I said.

I get uncomfortable at the mention of "those" by little people. And then Ada blurts out, "Mom. I like 'those!'"

"You like what Ada?"

Then she pointed to my bra. Oh boy . . .

Then she said . . . "What are those called?"

"Oh . . . you mean my . . . 'chest'?"

Chest is such a safe word. But then suddenly I remembered learning somewhere that you should just be matter of fact with kids and just use the correct names for body parts. So I said, "Actually they are called 'BREASTS."

Lamon hates that word! Personally I like it much better than other slang terms people use.

So then Ada turns to me and says, "Oh! . . .  I like Breasts!"

I then started bursting out laughing and told Ada that someday she would have them too. And she was delighted to hear it! Oh boy . . . what do I have in store with that girl?

Now I am just left to worry about when Ada will blurt out the "B" word in public! Oh boy . . . Lamon is going to love me . . .