You've GOT to be kidding me!

Today started out perfect! Walter's cell phone alarm clock started going off around 5:30. He set it to sound like a rooster. Isn't that sweet of him? It went off like every 30 seconds and while I went to tell Grady to go back to sleep (that the rooster wasn't for him) Walter looked at me and said, "What's that noise?" Oh sweetie, I must have hijacked your cell phone and thought it'd be cool to pretend we live on a farm!

Anyway, when he finally decides to get out of bed it is 7:30. By this point, Winni and Trae have joined us in bed. I'm really quite tired, as I don't sleep well with little toes in my face. He tells me I should "get up too. I've got a lot to do and should have been to the gym already." Ahh....what sweet words. "And would you like me to make you some breakfast before you go? By the way, your lunch is all packed and ready in the fridge. HAVE A NICE DAY!!"

Disclaimer: Walter really is a good husband. He just sometimes thinks unicorns should come to our birthday parties! But I love him, even more now that he bought me a new minivan! woo hoo!!

Moving along, the kids and I get up and get ready and head for the gym. We get there with perfect timing. As they open the gate for my kids to go in, Trae says, "Bye MOM!" YEAH!! I'm going to get to work out AND shower! I decided to go to FIT. What a great class. Great workout. I'm feeling the burn and it's awesome! After a nice sweat I head to the locker room. I get in the shower and realize, I don't have to hurry and shower. I decide to shave my legs because (seriously) the last time I shaved my legs was for my last pedicure, which was a few days after my birthday. You don't need to know when my birthday is, but let's just say it has kept me warm for the winter. So, I get done shaving one leg (which I cut myself while shaving. I'm not new to shaving, just not well practiced, I guess)and I hear over the intercom, "Amber Gunter, please return to the Child Care Center!" Oooohhh! Was that really my name? So, I get out of the shower with one shaved leg and the other still looking like an Amazon woman and start putting my clothes on. I figured they didn't really want me to come naked, as I wouldn't be much help then. I start getting dressed when I realize I forgot to pack a normal bra. My sports bra is soaked with sweat and my chosen shirt for the day is kinda fitting. I also didn't wear a coat and was heading straight to the chiropractor after this. Free falling wasn't really an option, so I opted for the nasty sports bra. So nice!

I went and got the crying child (Grady) and he joined me in the locker room. I decided I wasn't going to get to "primp" like the other moms there and just did the bare minimum. Put my stinky gym shoes on, because no one's going to know the difference, I already stink. We head to the Chiropractor, but first we stop at Wendy's and get some "healthy" lunch. I got a few crusty's and glares as I took my children into the Chiropractor/Gym cafe (Treehouse Gym) and begin feeding our faces with fried chicken nuggets and greased up french fries. I then, again, check my kids into another Child Care Center and headed up to see Dr. Vosti. Nothing too exciting happened until we got home and I found all 3 kids asleep in the back. I guess that was my reward for the day!


OK, I wasn't as ornery as I make myself sound. It really was a nice day. I'd like to say that I altered some of the key components, but I didn't. I didn't even exaggerate them. I just changed/added my thought process to bring the story to life.

I'm a little needy!

I have been meaning to post, wanting to post, even started a post, but picasa (the site where blogger keeps the pics you blog) says I've met my quota! So, I must go and clean out the trash! Nerd, I know! So, in the meantime...

THE RULES:
Type in your name and the word "needs" in quotes ("[Your first name] needs”) into your favorite search engine and see what comes up. List the first 10 that actually answer the question.

1. Amber needs some ideas

2. Amber needs your help

3. Amber needs a boyfriend on Flickr (oooh, don't tell Walter, or do!)

4. Amber needs a showname (This could be interesting, any suggestions?)

5. Amber needs you and your money (Well, not so much YOU, but I could put your money to good use!)

6. Amber needs prayers (Don't we all)

7. Amber needs encouragement today (I think I needed it more yesterday)

8. Amber needs sleep (mmmm....hmmmmm....)

9. Amber needs a home (you're not kidding)

10. Amber needs a miracle (pretty much, cause i need a home and a car and I have no money!)

So, as I read deeper into some of these topics I found that a lot of people name their pets Amber. Now don't I feel special!!

I also just realized...HAPPY 450TH POST TO ME!! My last post about Grady's birthday (how appropriate) was #450! I know I'm a nerd for having that many, but I enjoy all my nerdiness!

It's another PARTY!!

I LOVE love LOVE that face!

Tonight we had Grady's birthday party. To celebrate we had my parents and my brother over for dinner.




I made Bleu Cheese Burgers ... and they were AWESOME!

Then, the Brockbanks joined us for cake and ice cream. I found this cake pan that basically gives you cupcake tops! So awesome! I prepped Grady all day with cake scraps as I frosted them. So, he was primed and ready to dig in...



And, as you can see, his presents were enjoyed by everybody, as usual! When it was time for him to open his drum we turned and found that Trae had already opened it and was playing it!



He'll only get away with that now. A couple more birthdays and that'll get some domestic violence between brothers going on!



And, of course, we had to enjoy the slide a few more times. Grady is getting closer and closer to conquering that slide!



Have I told you how much I enjoy having a slide in the house?? Seriously, it is so much fun! Thanks to our neighbors, the Fredrickson's, for handing it down to us. Especially since it made it's way to our house around 10 PM Wednesday night. I might be enjoying that slide just as much as my kids. We throw everything down that slide, including myself! My butt's a little too big, but if I angle it just right I get some good laughs out of my kids!

The BIG 1!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANDSOME PANTS!!

My baby is 1! I can't believe it!



We made it, we finally made it! I had this goal when we got married...to make it to our 1st anniversary before getting pregnant! Not only did we miss that goal, we missed it by a lot! Winni was almost 2 months old by the time our 1st anniversary rolled around. So then the goal was for her to be 1 before the next one was on the way. Well, you know what happened next. So, the goal has been passed along from child to child and I think Grady might have been just what we were waiting for!

And, what else do you get on your birthday when you are #3 in 3 years than a slide for your older siblings to go on so you can watch! hahaha





Everyone was so excited when they woke up this morning to a new slide! Seriously, all we do at this house is party and pretend it's Christmas! Grady enjoys going down, but he hasn't exactly mastered the ladder. He'll get there!

But, he has started doing a little bit of this...



He thinks he can walk! He took 9 steps today! (OK, honestly he took his first step last week on Winni's birthday, but he is up to 9 now!)

We also got a package from Gramps and Nana for Winni's birthday. She got lots of Chuck E Cheese paraphernalia thanks to Aunt Trish and Uncle Thomas, our sweet CEC hookup! Winni even got some Helen (a CEC character) lip gloss. Aint she sweet!



And, thankfully it came on Grady's birthday! He LOVED the packing peanuts!



Yes, I allowed this in my home...I even encouraged it!



Famous last words..."Hey guys, make it snow in the house!"



And later, I highly enjoyed this...



Because, "Clean up is part of play!"

Yum-O

I made something I've never made before! Chicken Noodle Soup! It was great. Winni ate 3 bowls and requested more the next night for her birthday dinner! woo hoo! So, tonight I needed to make a soup for Activity Day Girls and decided to go with this recipe, but I was going to change it up a little. I got even more adventurous and made my own noodles!



It was so fun!! And not even that much work. My kids love noodles and thought mom was the BOMB DOT COM!! :) Here is the final product...



It kind of looks like the chicken had worms, but oh well, it tastes good! I think the girls and their dads liked it too!

For ADG we had a Daddy/Daughter Dinner. One of the activities was for the dads to braid their daughters hair. And the fastest braider is...



Harold Brockbank! Who knew that after all those boys (they had 5 before Gwen finally came along) he would have picked up on the art of braiding! We also had the girls tie their dads tie. Guess who won???

GWEN! I guess having all those brothers paid off, at least this once!

And then, sniff sniff, I came home and put my baby to bed for the last time...



I can't believe he will be 1 tomorrow! And to think, this was me last year!!

It's my UNDERWEAR HAT!

It's a bird...



It's a plane...



It's UNDERWEAR HAT BOY!!



This wasn't my idea! Although very funny. Trae has been wanting to wear underwear lately, so I told him he has to poop on the potty before I let him wear underwear, so, he opted for the next best thing! Then, I'd ask him what he was wearing and he would shout, "It's my underwear hat!" Oh, did I tell you he talks now? Like crazy! All of a sudden on our trip he just started talking and making sense. It was/is awesome!

The Birthday Party

For Winni's birthday we rented out Bouncing off the Walls and boy was it FUN!! They gave us a limit of 25 kids, so I started inviting almost all of the families we know! Sorry if you didn't get invited, all of a sudden I added up all the kids we had coming and I was well into the 30's, almost to 40's. So, I thought I'd better stop. Check out the fun we had!

I should have had a little "ugly face" competition, but my hotness doesn't like to lose, so, just enjoy the uglies!! :) hahahaha We ended up with 24 kids and, I think, around 20 adults. If you missed it, don't worry, we'll be here next year! Oh wait, NO WE WON'T!

If you haven't been to Bouncing off the Walls, I highly recommend it! Especially for an easy birthday party! We SERIOUSLY had so much fun!

Daddy's Home

We woke up this morning to a blown eardrum for Grady. Poor guy braved it like a champ. I had no idea his ears were hurting, let alone infected and bursting! So, we (I) spent the morning at Cottonwood Peds taking care of my baby!

I had plans of heading to the gym this morning. You know, the one I joined since I join a gym every January and never use the membership. Well, this time is going to be different. At least I hope so! So, I changed my plans and decided we would get the house cleaned up and hit the gym before picking Walter up tonight. That way I could take advantage of the 2 hours of free child care I get with my membership. I was actually going to workout and shower! That would have been a treat. But, I found out when I got there that the child care closes at 6, and it was 5:30. So, I asked the kids what they wanted to do instead, Winni says Chuck E Cheese wants her to come back! Very creative little girl. I said "not by myself" and we headed home. OK, not really. I reminded her that we left the rest of our million tokens at home. So, I had some things to do around home so I headed in that direction. By the time I got home I had 3 sleeping children and no desire to take them all inside just to bring them back out again. So, I sat in the car in my mom's driveway and used her laptop and wireless internet and facebooked my little face off! It was so nice and relaxing. What a great night. And then....

Walter made it home! yeah! We missed him and are so happy he is home so he can fix the Wii! Wait, we are excited he is home so he can be with us!