3 hours

In three hours I am loading these boys into the van

and driving them to Utah where we are going to visit these people.

(sorry if you aren't in the pic - it is the one that has the most people in it)

and I am going to eat here as much as possible!

I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!

Six Months Old Logan Boy!

I cannot believe it; Logan is six months old today. Logan is a sweet little social thing. He loves to be on the ground exploring everything around him. He rolls from front to back and back to front, and he just started sitting up and crawling a little bit. He has funny old man hair with some pretty bad cowlicks. I still can't decide what color his hair is going to be. He loves oatmeal cereal, and sweet potatoes. He loves to talk and squeal, and he is very ticklish. He is pretty intense and can go from totally happy to a magnificent temper tantrum in 2.2 seconds. He is a fantastic sleeper and eater. I can not imagine my life with out this sweet little boy. When I left the room this morning, he started to whine ma ma ma ma. That is the first time I have heard him make an M sound. Life is good.

A little note about this shirt. When Logan was born, Sam made up this song. - Jingle Bells, Batman Smells, Yogan is Super Duper. We have called Logan Super Duper ever since. Both Sam and Logan have this shirt, and when Logan wears it, Sam has to wear it also.

Love Mom

Dear Sam, No, I will not leave that baby at the zoo. Some day I hope you will understand. And P.S. That baby's name is Logan!

Dear Jack, I know that it is NOT FAIR that when you are at school I took Sam to McDonalds/bought him a treat/bought him a toy.

Dear Sam, Stop telling Jack and Dad that we went to McDonalds to get a coke and a cookie.

Dear Weight Watchers, I don't care how many points is in a McD's cookie and a coke. Some things are necessary.

Dear Tyler, yes I am serious please stop by Little Caesars to pick up some cheese pizzas. No I don't want to know how many times we have had Little Caesars this week/month/year, and hey guess what is not hot and ready at our house - dinner!

Dear Logan, I am sorry that I fed you peas. I don't like them either. Hope you are happier with squash next week.

Dear Jack, No I will not give you a prize to go potty, you have been potty trained for 4 years now, and yes I know it is not fair.

Dear Sam, I will buy you a CAR if you will stop pooping in your pull ups!

Love,
Mom
XOXOXOXO

I hate shopping carts!

It's true, I hate shopping carts. There is not a design of shopping cart that works for me now that I have three kids. Let me explain... A standard configuration goes like this. The baby's car seat is in the front, Sam is in the back, and Jack is walking beside. This starts out OK with just a few "Jack, don't touch that, Jack keep up, Jack stop hanging on the cart" warnings, but I can live with that. Then the groceries start to pile up on top of Sam until I hear Sam's famous phrase, "Mom, I stuck!" Good thing I was already planning to buy the bread he was sitting on and the box of cereal he opened. The only thing I can do at this point is remove him and let him walk. - Disaster. He is far too easily distracted by shiny things.

Speaking of being distracted by shiny things, we had Stake Conference last week. We had two ladies in the front translating the meeting into sign language. I found this very distracting and started day dreaming. I convinced myself that I could understand everything they were signing. Then I realized that it was because I could hear the speaker. On that note, Jack told me that he has a new talent. He can translate Chinese. He learned this when he walked past a sign at a Chinese restaurant that said Open. Underneath it there was Chinese writing. He determined that the Chinese writing said Open. He also said that the Chinese writing underneath the fortune cookie wrapper said fortune cooking. I told him that it might say, "Sugar for dumb American." He said, "Mom you do not know how to translate Chinese."

OK back to shopping carts. I decided that it would be easier if I carried the baby in my Moby wrap and put Sam in the front seat with the seat belt. This causes another problem - he can reach the baby with both his feet and hands, and would not stop touching, patting, and otherwise annoying both of us. Sam loves the car version of a grocery cart, but gets bored half way through and sticks hands and other body parts out the windows and dashboard. Knocks over groceries and always ends up with something that he has swiped from the shelf that I do not discover until checking out. When I saw the giant cart with the two seats in front, I thought my problems had been solved. This way the baby's seat fits in the front and the two boys can sit on their own little seats facing each other. Our trip started off OK until the boys starting arguing about something. Then Sam hauled off and punched Jack in the face. This is what follows. (By the way, I had promised treats for good behavior.)

Jack - Mom, Sam hit me in the face.
Sam - unusually quiet will not look at me.
Me - Sam, you cannot hit Jack in the face. You guys have not been good on this grocery trip and we will not be getting a treat this time. (trust me, the hitting in the face was just the last straw.)
Jack - starts bawling and saying I want a treat over and over again.
Sam - starts bawling and saying I want a treat over and over again.
Logan - has been crying for several minutes anyways.

I take the walk of shame up to the checkout stand, pay for my groceries, try not to make eye contact with other parents, and swear that I will never take three kids grocery shopping by myself again.

I hate shopping carts!

First Day of School 2009

It is a big year for the Wiricks! Jack is in second grade at Prospect Elementary. His teacher's name is Mrs. Palmerton. He had a great first day yesterday. He knows 3 kids in his class, and he is very excited to sit next a girl who speaks Spanish and English. He gets to earn pretend money that he can use to buy prizes from his teacher and he thinks that will be very cool. He said that 2nd grade is going to be awesome. He also left his folder at school, so our very first day of returned assignments - big fat F. He doesn't think he will get in trouble. I tried to brace him for it, so if it happens he doesn't cry.


Sam started preschool today. We had an open house yesterday; we went together and found his cubby and met the other kids. They are all from our ward, and his teacher is Miss Shelly who is also in our ward. She has been teaching preschool from her home for a long time. Everyone raves about her. Sam has been begging to go to school like Jack, so I was happy to find something that works with our schedule. He is the youngest in his class; it will be fun to see how much he picks up. Today he was picked up by Jenna's mom - apparently carpooling is almost as exciting as going to school. He gave me a quick hug and ran to the car. He was not worried about leaving me at all. When he got back, he ran up the drive way, grinning his Sammy grin, and gave me a big hug. Then he told me everything he did: play with play dough, color, play, snacks, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I was surprised to know that she feeds them lunch (I should read the paper work more thoroughly). He even had a dry pull-up and went potty as soon as he got home. Before school, I told him that I needed to take his picture outside. He was thrilled to be "yike Jack". You can see that he is not bashful for the camera. He pulled out some great poses. The final pose was his "fire power" pose from Night at the Museum. What a cheeser. He also convinced me that he had to have a new backpack for school and insisted that he wear his "preschool pants" today instead of shorts.

I am looking forward to a drama-free, happy, peaceful, and fun year. I will let you all know how that goes. :)

Not to be out done by his big brothers, Logan figured out how to roll from back to front today on a flat surface. Guess where I found him...Under my bed. Goodbye days of laying him on a blanket and walking away for a few minutes, I will miss you.

A conversation with Jack

Sorry for a double post today, but I want to make sure I share the conversation I had with Jack yesterday. There was a commercial on TV about how many licks it takes to get to the tootsie roll in a tootsie pop. I said, "That is a commercial from when I was a little girl." Jack responded, "Oh, that is why it looks like it is from the olden days." I stood speechless, so he continues..."Wait, so they have really had that commercial for like 198 days." Still not sure what to say, so he keeps on going... "Weren't you born in 1950?" OK, I had a response to that. I told him no, I was born in 1974. He says, "oh yeah right, 1950 was when the dinosaurs were on the earth." I was almost in a puddle laughing so hard. I told him that 1950 was about the time Grandma was born. He said, oh cool and walks away. I am still pretty shocked to know that I lived in the olden days.

One more funny thing from Jack... At back to school night last night he asked his teacher if they were going to have field trips. She said yes, they have one in the fall and one later in the year. He responds, "Oh last year I didn't get to go on a field trip because I didn't get here until Obama became the president." I was about to explain, but she understood completely and said, "Oh did you move in late last year?" Isn't that funny that he remembers the time of our move because of Obama taking office. One of the first school activities he had here was a little booklet about Obama's childhood and background. He was really into the elections last year and asked me a lot of questions. I am just hoping he doesn't end up being my little Alex P. Keaton. (How many of you get that? :))

Mommy Fun Fridays

Last summer we started a fun tradition called Mommy Fun Fridays. We made a darling flower pot with popsicle stick flowers that had ideas for activities that we could do on Fridays. It was so fun that we continued it this year. I was a little too busy for a cute flower pot, so we put our ideas on slips of papers in a Ziploc bag - I was the only one disappointed with the lack of cuteness. Some Fridays didn't work out because of summer camp, swimming lessons, or vacations. Sometimes we had to cancel because of bad behavior, but today was the last Mommy Fun Friday of 2009. Jack was determined to make it work out. He woke right up and made his bed, cleaned up toys, got dressed, helped Sam get bathed and dressed, and was generally sweet to everyone in the house. Instead of drawing out the bag I gave him a choice of what he wanted to do. We had to finish last minute school shopping for lunches and the final odds and ends, so whatever we did had to allow for a trip to Walmart. He decided that he wanted to go shopping and then go to McDonalds and play for a "long time". Going "in" to McDonalds is a big deal, because I usually avoid it at all costs. It was packed today, so we had to eat in the regular dining room. Both boys ate every bite of their lunch and waited very patiently while I put the decals onto their Lego Racers. Luckily, the play area cleared out a bit, so we moved in. I let the kids play for 45 minutes. That is a LONG time for me (I had a Coke to make myself feel better). I made them use Purel and Jack told me that, "Dad never makes me do this, and I don't get sick!" After 45 minutes, my boys came right over and got their shoes on without any fits. It was like a dream... Then Jack suggested we walk across the street to Baskin Robins. Being the funnest mommy around today, I agreed and tried to look the other way while they ate their gross bubble gum ice cream (I had a chocolate/peanut butter ice cream cone to make myself feel better). I say gross, because seriously - it is disgusting to watch them spit out each piece of gum onto a napkin so that they can chew it later. They were pink from forehead to chin. We are home now, so I can do some of my Friday chores. Jack is watching TV, Logan is sleeping, and Sam is trying to nap. Here is a list of some of the other Mommy Fun Fridays this year:

• Discovery Center


• Zoo


• Picnic at the park


• Splash Park


• Craft (they got to pick a kids crafts from Michaels and we came home and did them together)


• Swimming


• McDonalds play land

Tonight, Tyler is going to take the boys camping. It might just be in the back yard, but they are going to figure something out. Jack said, "I would prefer to go to the woods." Tyler is going to do the best he can depending on when he gets home from work tonight. I love the last weekend before school starts. It is so exciting!