We had quite a scare last night. Apparently, Tayson pushed Luke off the slide in the basement and Luke landed on his right arm. We were pretty sure it was broken from his 15 minutes of straight screaming and the fact that he would move his fingers or anything. We decided to take him to instacare around 8:00 pm - just as the pumpkin carving was coming to an end. Luke missed the lighting of the pumpkins because he was screaming so hard. So Todd and David gave him a blessing and he finally calmed down and we took him in - he fell asleep on the 15 minute drive and was perfect the whole time we were there. They took 2 x-rays and luckily he didn't have a break or fracture, just a bad sprain.

He still won't use his right arm and we are icing it and doing Motrin for the pain. This morning he came in to the room with his right hand over his head and said "look mommy I can do it" then Tayson said "I think he should get a special prize" and tried talking me into giving them one of Luke's special prizes set aside for when he decides to finally potty train. I didn't fall for it though.

Last night we had our annual pumpkin carving FHE. It started 4 years ago with Jeannie, Trent, Todd, Tayson and I and has grown every year. This year was by far the biggest.



Grandpa was in charge of Lexie's pumpkin - and she wanted one with 2 bats. As you can see one of the bats came off from a few wrong cuts with the knife. Good thing grandpa is so good with toothpicks. Don't worry we can barely see them when it's dark.



The kids had a blast carving, eating and playing. I think Tayson ate 8 pumpkin bars last night!!! Claire didn't do anything but walk around and pretend to shoot us with her gun.



Some sweet shots of everyone working hard on their pumpkins. I took lots of pictures because Luke and I won for the fastest pumpkin - his was very simple and easy. :)



And the final product. Thank goodness most of these will not be on my porch for the rest of the week. What would I do with all those pumpkins!!!

Yes she is our princess. Baby #3 and a girl. What can I say I spoil her rotten and I love buying her clothes, shoes and jewerly. She is a big fan of jewerly too - she would only crawl for the "bling" - when Timmy would take off his big shiny watch she would crawl across the room. Otherwise she didn't bother to move much at first.


Of course growing up with 2 big brothers hasn't always been easy for her, especially with Luke only 20 months older than her. She had sippy cups and books thrown at her from the day she got home from the hospital. Now she is tough and can hold her own. I have seen her push Tayson down when he bothers her and she walks around the house making gun sounds and shooting spider webs out of her hands saying "pssss" just like the boys. It's time for me to buy her a doll I think.



Claire turns 18 months old in a few weeks and still only has her 2 bottom teeth. I can feel one of the top ones starting to poke through, but she is a little behind the times. As you can see at one she didn't have any teeth yet.

Luke is the opposite of Tayson - he looks like a Schultz and acts just like Todd. He says the funniest things and still can't say his "L", "R" and "CH" sounds. Which means he calls Claire "Cway" and church "titch" and all words that end in the "r" sound come out like an "e". The other day he slammed the door of our closet and said to Todd "see you later suckeee". He's a crazy kid with too much energy and he beats up Tayson and Claire all the time.



What can I say....Luke is 3 and most of his sweetness left with his 3rd birthday. David and Kami were telling him not to smile in this picture - and he is doing his best to stay grouchy.



Luke was a total binky baby - it was a huge task task to get rid of it. Which didn't happen until he was 2 1/2.


And just like his older brother Luke LOVES the computer. The best story of Luke and the computer was when he was 2 1/2 and we were up at my parent's house and he was playing computer. David thought he would be funny and was shooting these nerf balls across the room at him. They were wizzing past his head and a couple even hit the monitor. Luke didn't move, he just kept playing his game until one hit him in the head - the he turned and gave David a very dirty look and went right back to playing his game.

I thought I would write a few of my favorite things about each one of the kids and include some of my very favorite pictures that tell it all. Tayson looks just like his daddy and acts just like his mom. Needless to say, he makes me crazy because he's too similar to me.


Tayson had the hugest pot belly when he was little and to top that off he has a totally swayed back like me so it stuck out even further. (This is his 2nd birthday party at Seven Peaks with his cousin Lexie).


Tayson loves to play computer - a skill he got from hanging out with his Dad and uncles too much. This is Tayson with his cousins - Ryan, Adam and Lexie.

As you can see he started playing computer at a very young age. Todd is stitting on the bouncy ball instead of a chair because that was the only way to keep him happy.


And like his uncle Danny he finds clothing to be optional most of the time.

Happy Birthday to sweet little Talon. Jeannie and Trent had his party at Chuck E. Cheese which made my kids very happy! I let the kids pick out their own presents for him....which was quite a fiasco. I don't know why I thought I could take all 3 kids to Toys R Us and still be in a good mood by the time I got to Chuck E. Cheese. It was a first for me though to leave without any toys for the kids - I let them each get a book but that was it. I'm one of those bad mom's who just buys them useless things to keep them happy. I am getting better though - and this trip was proof.

I think this picture of Talon is precious and shows how cute and sweet he is. We are excited to see if baby #2 coming up this spring looks the same.

I couldn't pass this picture up. I was at the post office yesterday and I saw this man and realized he really shouldn't have left the house looking like he did - especially in 60 degree weather. His bright blue underwear are peaking out of his way too short cut off jean shorts and his thread bare shirt was even worse from the front. His left nipple was completely visible thought a huge hole. Now I'm not sure if he simply doesn't have the money to get some new clothes or if he thinks this looks sexy but it almost made me laugh out loud in the middle of the not-so-funny post office. I hope you can all appreciate the insanity of this man's outfit - I know you aren't getting the whole picture ... because trust me on this one the front was so much worse.

Todd was on a city league co-ed volleyball team this year. They played hard and were a blast to cheer on. They ended up 4th in the tournament - which is great because there were some really good teams (the team that took second had 5 of 6 players who played in college). They did beat the team they were really going for though and gave the 3rd place team a serious run for the money.

We had a really fun team - Todd, Candice (also from RedX), Lauren (David's friend), Lisa (Lauren's friend), David (my brother), and Collin (David's friend - who looks like a serial killer of some sort with that crazy long beard).

This year Todd has played softball now volleyball and next is basketball. The kids and I love going to the games and being the really annoying cheering squad with Kami. Actually, the boys usually go play out in the hall - but Claire claps and cheers the whole time.

This is my bike - the Terry Isis. I finally got my dream bike this summer after riding a mountain bike for 2 years and Todd's way too big hybrid for 2 years. Not only is this bike so dang pretty, but she's light and very responsive to climbing. I swear she pulled me up the canyons a few times. We rode more this year than other years and it has been the best. I'm very sad to see the riding season end with the snow, ice and dang cold weather.

I have the best group of people that I ride with and they push me hard to ride further and faster than I ever would on my own. The goal was to do a century - which I did in August ... woo hoo! Now the goal is to go on a "real bike ride" and do a tour of some sort in Europe. What a blast that would be. Living in Utah you have to be a biker because the canyons are amazing and there is nothing like getting to the top with your legs pushing you the whole way. I'm sad to hang my bike up for the winter ... but hopefully spin will keep me in shape for next year.

This is Elder Mark Schultz (notice the Z at the end of our last name). Mark is a very smart kid - pretty much got straight A's his first year at the University of Utah. However, he like many his age relies heavily on spell check and types faster than he should. When he was in the MTC and sending hand written letters it took several attempts to figure out his words (between handwriting and spelling) so we were very excited for him to start emailing his letters so they would be legible. But....this didn't help because he types fast and doesn't proof-read and can't spell worth beans. Here are some of his best spelling errors.

eLDER sCHULTS - yes that's right he did caps locks wrong and spelled his last name wrong. I had no idea someone could misspell their own last name.

Weelky Letter - about half of his emails say this instead of "weekly"

"other side of the tracts" - funny since he's on a mission but I don't think this was done on purpose

take them for granite - yes that should be granted

her boyfriend/pheonca - this is the best of all misspelled words! I actually couldn't figure it out until Kami told me it was fiance.

Here are some other gems that I grabbed out of 3 different emails....notice that 2 family members names are misspelled:
deffiently (definitely), meating (meeting), deppresing (depressing), compaion (companion), sutes (suits), Jeanie (Jeannie), streach (stretch), werid (weird), campions (companion's), mussles (muscles), chuch (church - spelled twice wrong in 1 sentence), phiscialy (physically), Christene (Christine), policties (politics), quieting (quitting)

This is Todd's best friend "Folak" he is a troll who trained as a holy priest then later as a shadow priest (apparently one heals more and one does more damage) in the world of Azeroth. Todd spent endless nights with his friend and even had a group of friends (some were even real-life - although they didn't use their real names) who created a guild called the Midnight Mauraders.

Recently Todd made the decision to leave World of Warcraft and pursue other adventures - like more work and family. This isn't an easy decision for anyone who has ever been to the world of Azeroth so to truly cut the ties he sold Folak. I can't say I'm extremely upset because all that hard work and love brought in a good $250. Of course this is still much less than was spent over the years on the monthly fees, buying gold, paying for other characters, etc..... But at least it really is goodbye.

We recently got new pictures taken and I just had to put my favorites on here for you everyone to see them. Amazingly enough the kids were really good - first time ever I think with pictures.


Can you believe how great they look in those jeans...I need to get a pair to see if my rear can be that cute!



Claire of course never smiles or shows any emotion - but she is actually smiling in one :)

Last night at bedtime I realized that there wasn't a binky in Claire's crib. I normally keep 2-3 in her crib so that during the night she can always find one. She doesn't use them except to sleep so they are rarely just laying around the house like they always were with Luke (who was never seen without one). So I went out to the Durango to see if there was one in there the car and to my suprise I found: 4 1/2 pairs of shoes, 7 sippy cups, 1 bottle (still full of milk - yuck!), 3 water bottles, 5 cars (the big ones from chevron), a volleyball, a small basketball, a pair of pants, a shirt, 2 coats, a blanket, a big box of goldfish, more old french fries than I could count, enough trash for 3 trips to the trash can and.....2 binkies!!!! The trip was a success and ended up taking me an extra 15 minutes to sort and put away everything I found. The sad part is I cleaned out the car last Saturday. WOW.

Now for all of you who think I'm a slob...I don't drive the Durango on a daily basis our absolutely amazing nanny does. It's just hard to clean up after the kids sometimes :)

Today I took Shadow to get a bath ... he was really stinky. He's a big dog (around 75-80 lbs) and much stronger than me. We got in there and after I checked him into the salon the girl took the leash and he pulled himself out of his collar and made a break for it. I chased him down as best I could (I was wearing dress pants and heels since I went straight from work) but he got out of the store and to the middle of the parking lot before he stopped. I yelled his name (which is a common occurrence and one of Claire's only words since we yell it so much) and he stopped dead in his tracks cowering knowing he was in big trouble. When I got to him he just sat there cowering and wouldn't come with me so I grabbed him by the skin on the back of his neck but he's too big for me to lift, pull, drag, etc. So we just sat there for a minute .... looking ridiculous I'm sure....until the girl came out with a better collar. This is the second time he has done this to me. The last time it happened I was 8 months pregnant with Claire and all I could do was kick him as hard as I could (which didn't even stop him in his tracks) as he pulled me out of the store and to the car. Today when I picked him up I decided that was enough of him making me look stupid at the PetSmart so I bought a choke collar and it worked like a charm. Now I'm in charge!!!

Well we are done.....he's simply not ready. We set his watch and he wore it great, he ran up to the bathroom to sit on the potty every time the alarm went off. Tayson continued to cheer him on and do the robot dance (I'm still not sure how this has anything to do with going potty - but Tayson seems to think it's inspirational). After Luke sat on the potty for 10 minutes he got off saying he didn't need to go then within 5 minutes peed a lake on the kitchen floor. So I'm thinking he's not quite ready yet. I guess we'll try in a few more weeks .... or years.

Since Luke has been 3 for a few months now it is time to take serious action with the potty training. So last night Luke, Tayson and I took a trip to Wal-Mart to buy all the necessary supplies. Luke got to pick out new underwear (or undeeway as he calls them since his "L" struggles) he tried 3 times to buy the Dora panties but Tayson and I wouldn't let him. Then he got to pick out a special treat to have after he goes - he picked ice cream (what a Schultz) so we got a few varieties of small ice cream treats. Then we got some fun new fingerpaints for him, posterboard to make a potty chart and star stickers. We made his chart last night and hung it in the bathroom and he was really excited. I am taking tomorrow off work so I planned on starting then, but when he woke up this morning he decided he wanted to wear his new undeeway and he got himself all dressed in them. I told Tayson that everytime he goes to the bathroom he should take Luke too. So I walked by the bathroom and they were both completely naked and Tayson was trying to get him to "race" him going pee. Luke didn't quite manage ... but he tried. Then a little bit later Tayson told him to sit on the potty to go poop. So Luke was trying and trying and to be motivational Tayson offered to do the robot dance for him - and he did it. I was cracking up!!! I have no idea how the rest of the day will go, but at least they are excited and Tayson is the best potty coach around so far.

I got my MRI results yesterday for my low back and I now know why I am the tallest sister (Jeannie I know you beg to differ but I think I'm still the tallest...especially since you're prego now). Apparently, I have an extra vertebrae in my low back. One of my sacral (tailbone) vertebrae decided to be a lumbar instead so I have 6 instead of 5. This being said it's no wonder I have had low back problems since high school. My doc said that since your lumbar vertebrae are the base they are similar to the foundation of a house - and my house got built on unsteady ground.

For all of you doctor's out there my diagnosis is that I have lumbardization of the first sacral segment and mild broad-based disc bulge is present causing minimal impression on the thecal sac with mild neuroforaminal narrowing bilaterally on my L5-L6 and L6-S1 vertebrae. I also have a subtle area of increased signal on the L5-L6 disc which may represent a subtle annular tear as well. (I've put some linking in from webMD for any of you like me who don't understand most of the above paragraph).

Basically, the doctor told me I have a few back issues and will have them for the rest of my life and I need to have "constant vigilance" with my back exercises. OK he didn't really use those words...but I thought it was more fun. I'm just glad to know what's going on and after another month of physical therapy I'm sure I'll be feeling good.

So I love fall, it is so beautiful here this time of the year. The canyons are absolutly breathtaking. There are things I don't like about fall though. For instance it is getting so dark in the mornings. This morning I thought it would be good to mix it up and lift weights before running. Luckily, Traci and Kami were willing to be a part of this. However, when my alarm went off at 5:10 this morning I wasn't very happy about the decision and then after lifting weights we headed outside to do a different route starting from the gym and it was so dark and there were no street lights. Then this dog started barking at us and freaked us out completely. Needless to say I think we will be sleeping in the extra hour and sticking with our normal route until next spring when it is light out again.

Many of you know that since birth Tayson has been an early bird. He is usually awake before 7:00 and it drives us crazy. Once he's awake he wakes up Luke so he has someone to play with and then their loud voices usually wake up Claire - so the house is always going strong by the time I get home from the gym in the morning. Poor Todd ... he likes to sleep in.

However, since Tayson started kindergarten this year (we put him in morning since he is an early bird anyways) he has already started acting like a teenager and won't get up when he is supposed to. This morning I had to force him to get up and I even had to ask him more than once. It cracks me up that as soon as there is something to wake up for he sleeps in. Now if we can just get him to sleep past 7:00 on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday. :)

This is a fun site from the "Golden Compass" movie coming out. A Daemon is basically part of your soul.

I had a great summer and did lots of fun races.

Team Telos Triathlon (June 16)- My first race of the year was the family triathlon. It was really fun and since it was so small I got first in my age group - not a lot of competition. The best part of the race was seeing everyone out there on the road. (pictured below in another post)

my 'read' shelf:


I love this site. I'm having so much fun trying to remember all the books I've read and looking at what my friends are reading. It's giving me lots of ideas for my next book. Currently I'm reading the third book in the "Golden Compass" series - The Amber Spyglass.

Well I'm going to give this a shot...I've never blogged before but hey it's 2007 and I work with technology. Isn't it about time? Who knows what I will write about and how often. Most likely it will be a bunch of stories about my crazy kids and my even crazier hubby. The keep me laughing and I'm sure if I share their stories you'll laugh too.