Okay, Okay.

My SIL just sent me this thing and said I should put it on my blog. I have gotten a couple of other emails to do it and ignored them. Keep in mind that the only child who can form intelligent sentences who was at home was Kenna, and she answered while watching Backyardigans. You may be able to tell that we have been doing a little cleaning around here:

1. What is something that mom always says to you?
no

2. What makes mom happy?
cleaning up my room

3. What makes mom sad?
not cleaning my room

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
tickle

5. What was your mom like as a child?
baby

6. How old is your mom?
old as daddy

7. How tall is your mom?
this big (arms stretched tall)

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
cleaning (NOT)

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
i don't know

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
cake making

11. What is your mom really good at?
making cakes

12. What is your mom not so good at?
riding horses

13. What does your mom do for her job?
taking care of kids

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
salad

15. What makes your mom proud?
when i clean my room

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
the cat from tom & jerry

17. What do you and your mom do together?
reading books

18. How are you and your mom the same?
basil eyes

19. How are you and your mom different?
red lipstick/brown lipstick (whatever that means)

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
she gives me nice food

1st Grade, Here We Come!

Well, let me say that I only teared up slightly (causing my voice to crack) when I kissed Emma goodbye after taking her to her classroom yesterday. I think my mourning with her was last year with Kindergarten, or possibly even the year before that when she went to official preschool. Anyway, as far as I can tell, and aside from the fact that her school lunch debut was yogurt, strawberry shortcake, green beans, & chocolate milk, her first day went alright. I am a little worried about having her do school lunch, but I figure we will just see how it goes for a couple months.

Anyway, here is Mackenna throwing her 'I-thought-I-was-going-to-school-with-Emma' tantrum. It was short-lived and quickly subsided when I told her she could skip her nap if she made it all the way home from dropping Emma at school without crying, kicking, screaming, or whining.

Here is Kenna with the puzzle she did all by herself while Emma was at school.


As it is, Kenna just met her teacher today, who is my neighbor's sister, and she is phenomenal! She seems to have a true love for kids (I don't know who in their right mind would want to be a preschool teacher, but we DO need them, afterall). I sometimes get the feeling with preschool teachers that they can't wait for the rug rats to leave at the end of the day - which I am sure is true. But she seemed genuinely looking forward to the year. At any rate, she seems great, and I am totally excited.


Tomorrow I am having my neighbor's beehives over for a cake demonstration for Young Women's. I know she feels like she is inconveniencing me, but I am actually excited to share some of what I learned in my Wilton classes. Here is a picture of the kids helping me make the cake for tomorrow - Butter Pecan with Butter Rum frosting.

I really want to start selling cakes! I figure if I offer sheet cakes for birthdays or whatever just cheaper than Costco or Sam's Club(I think theirs are like $15), then I might be able to sell them. For character cakes or stuff that is a little more involved I think I would charge $20. Anyway, Sean has been talking about getting me a web page for my cakes, and I have been thinking of making up some fliers and taking them around. But, alas, the Halloween-costume craze is almost upon me again, and I have been promising Emma a Belle dress for two years now. This year her cake is a Belle cake, so I figure I should just get it over with all together!

Good Day

Yesterday was a good day. I'll admit it didn't start out too great. I started cleaning upstairs and got annoyed and angry when I saw that during all the girls' recent cleaning sessions in their room they had been shoving stuff in their closet, under their beds, etc. You get the picture. A while ago I bought a bunch of those plastic containers with the snapping lids to put their polly pockets, ponies, barbies, barie clothes, princesses, etc. in. They were all mixed up, and that bugged me too. On top of it Spencer kept getting under my feet while I was trying to help them clean. Suffice it to say there was a lot of yelling yesterday.

But, by the time Sean went to work at 2:00 p.m., I had the entire upstairs and the entire basement (including bathrooms) cleaned, dusted, and vacuumed. That is three bathrooms and huge for me. It usually takes me a whole week to really clean my house. So, I was ecstatic. Today all I have left is putting away a ton of laundry, and then the main floor, which includes another bathroom and the kitchen, which really needs a deep-cleaning. I can't remember the last time my whole house was clean all at the same time - probably the last time we had our maid service come in. Pathetic. That was a really long time ago. Gross.


Anyway, I took the girls school clothes shopping yesterday. Emma got three new outfits, some socks, and some new shoes, and Kenna got one new outfit and a new pair of shoes. She will only be going to school Tuesdays & Thursdays, and she has at least two pairs of jeans that will probably fit her for the whole year. Hers was more of a charity thing so she wouldn't feel bad.


After Sean went to work and the cleaning was done I took the kids to the park to pass some of the time, and then we came home for dinner and a bath. The girls and I have been reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, so I snuggled up in Kenna's bed with the girls on either side of me and we read a chapter.
After that it was time for bed, and when I told Spencer to go give hugs & kisses to his sisters, he decided to body slam them instead. They were laying on the floor, and he totally plopped down on them with his little bum and gave them the elbow. It was funny. Then when it was time for prayers he kept giggling and that set the girls giggling too. It was the kind of moment when motherhood is a joy, which doesn't come very often at all.


On the down side, Spencer has a new battle wound. He tripped over the girls ladder to Emma's bed, which was on the floor to prevent his falling off it, and smacked his nose on the bottom of Kenna's bed frame. See the lovely blue spot right between his eyes? Will it ever end? I guess he is more accident prone due to the fact that his head is probably 80% of his body weight. He went in for his 18 month well baby on Thursday and he still only weighs 22 pounds. I think he weighed that the last time he went in at a year. Should I be worried?

Hot Dogs and Peanut Butter

I know this is my fourth post today, but I haven't really said much about our Powell trip yet. It was much better than I expected. The last year I went (2 years ago) I was pregnant with Spencer, and Mackenna was a total beast the whole time. By about 4 days into the trip I was wishing we were back home. Last year Sean took the girls by himself and Spencer and I stayed home. That was my crypto week. Anyway, Spencer wasn't any grumpier than normal, and that's saying something! He slept like a dream for the most part, and the kids were all up shortly after six every morning - nothing new there either. The girls were both very brave when it came to trying new things - Emma knee-boarded with slight bribery
(one more barbie has joined our family), and Kenna tried swimming without holding on to anyone or a noodle, and did great!
They also both tried new food (well, new to them). I am ecstatic. Until now Kenna would not go near peanut butter, and Emma wouldn't touch a hot dog to save her life. I am proud to say that Kenna will now eat PB & honey sandwiches, and Emma has eaten two hot dogs since we've been home. Emma also tried breakfast sausage which she wouldn't go near in the past, and liked it! Sausage is one of Kenna's favorite things for breakfast, so I am stoked. Emma also tried frog-eye salad, which the girls haven't been too sure about in the past. I can't say it enough - how excited I am. Now if we have hot dogs for dinner, I don't have to make a PB sandwich for Emma. Now if Emma is having PB for lunch, Kenna can have it too! My life just got exponentially easier.


In other news, Spencer is trying to imitate every word he hears (hot, walk, nap, bath, etc.). He has also starting piecing sentences together. While we were at the lake the girls started talking about Dodger and Spencer says "dodgie.....whe-ah-u?". Another time someone was leaving the boat for something and he said "bye-bye.....i-uh-u". It was seriously so cute. He was walking down the hall of the houseboat and I called, "Spencer?" He turned around and called back "Wha?" So funny. He is getting so big so fast.

Emma is totally jazzed for 1st grade to start on Monday. (By the way, who else was bugged by Jasper's new nickname?) Okay, sorry for the sidebar. Kenna doesn't start preschool until September 9th, so I have a feeling we might have a difficult couple of weeks ahead.

I just read on stepheniemeyer.com that Twilight is coming to theaters three weeks early! The release date is now November 21st - due to the fact that Harry Potter six isn't being released until next summer. Bittersweet.


Angela Sedgwick just told me that the third Eragon book, Brisingr (sp?) is coming out in a couple weeks - I am stoked! I thought we had until October. Guess I'd better read Eldest real quick again!


Well, that's all for now, I guess. Glad to be home - but I have tons to do. There is both clean and dirty laundry all over, and I haven't cleaned any part of my house really good in.....well, too long. My goal is to have the house spotless and all the laundry caught up and put away before Emma goes to school on Monday.

Wish me luck!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity-Jig

So we are home from Amy's wedding. I am so much more exhausted than I thought I would be. Having eight children under the age of 7 all under the same roof for 4 days, minus two of the childrens' mother, almost did me in. Not to mention I came home with a wicked cold. All my kids have it too. It is that butt-kicking cold that just knocks you out. Of course, it couldn't help that we got to the airport 2 hours before our flight yesterday and our flight took off an hour and a half late. We also had an extra kid with us - my niece Hailey. Thank goodness all the girls were good on the plane and Spencer finally tuckered out. I'm sure the 7 1/2 hours of airport/airplane time would have been unbearable if not for that.

I think another reason that this cold is kicking my butt is that I mentally and physically exhausted myself trying to finish Breaking Dawn before we left Cal. We went to Costco on Saturday to pick it up, and when I didn't see a huge display near the front (or even near the book-area) I freaked. They only had about 40 or so copies wedged between the kids books and the cookbooks. WHAT THE HECK. Is the obsession a Utah thing? I doubt it. Anyway, my heart rate decreased to normal when I finally had the book in my hands. I started reading in the car on the way home from Costco, and I finished in the car yesterday on the way to the airport. I want to talk about the book, but I know that everyone who ordered in on Amazon probably just got it yesterday, so I don't want to spoil anything for anyone. I will just say that it wasn't totally what I expected, but I am happy just the same. And I could definitely see where a sequel could come in. Happy reading to all of you! In a couple weeks I will totally devote a whole blog post to what I liked/didn't like about it. Mandee, if you want to call me we can totally talk about it!!! (801-678-9504) As long as Sean's not around - though he just started yesterday when I finished and he only has about 1/4 of the book left, big jerk. Just kidding, honey, I love you! You are just a way faster reader than me. Maybe I should've let you read it first. Although I know you would be smirking at me all the time, and I'm not sure I could handle that.

Anyway, I haven't had the energy to download photos from the wedding yet. The girls looked so cute in their dresses, and Amy looked gorgeous, of course. Maybe I will put a slideshow on here of the pics.

We have pack meeting for cub scouts tonight, I have bills to pay, laundry to do, milk to buy, and library books to return. HELP ME.