Playing Dress-Up

My friend Sarah notified me that I hadn't put a picture of the dress/shoes I bought for my sister's wedding on here. What can I say, I am a few brain cells short this week! Here you go, Sarah!




In other news, I have successfully baked all my sister's wedding cakes, the biggest of which I sent home with my mom since my freezer wasn't big enough. 14 cake mixes, 4 1/2 dozen egg whites, and 2 packages of vanilla almond bark later - it is finally done. Now I can't stress about it any more until I get down there to put it together!

Also, I am ecstatic - Kenna has consented to be the Tin Girl for Halloween! I am going to make her a shiny silver skirt and then put grey sweats under it, and top her off with an oil funnel painted silver. Thank you Amy Wikstrom for the idea!!

Build-a-Bear

Grandma & Grandpa Pulsipher gave Emma a Build-a-Bear gift card for her birthday, and today was the blessed day she got to redeem it. Here are pictures of her there:





And here is Emma in the dress Grandma & Grandpa bought her with the newest addition to her bear collection, Snow Bells.




Oddly enough, we passed Aaron Eckhart coming out of Build-a-Bear. It took Sean & I a couple minutes to remember his name - we only remembered he was in No Reservations with Katherine Zeta-Jones, and that he was Two-Face in The Dark Knight.

Anyway, I was wishing I had remembered that I had the camera with me. But what would I say? 'Excuse me, can I have a picture of you for my blog? People will never believe I met you wandering around by yourself at the Gateway. And how did they make you so hideous in Batman?? Did it hurt?'

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

I can't believe my baby is seven. It is weirding me out. Suddenly she seems so much older to me. I am so blessed to have her in my life. She is such a good girl. She is always anxious to please me and every other authority figure in her life; she hates disappointing people. She loves making her brother and sister (and everyone in general) laugh; she is very smart, and everyday I enjoy listening to her reasoning on various topics. She has a smile that lights up your heart and makes you feel like things aren't so bad after all. I love you Emma. Thank you for choosing me - for whatever reason you did!

We tried to go to Chuckee Cheese for Emma's birthday but it was freakin' cold, and when we got there the line was out the door and they told us it was a 45 minute wait just to get inside. NO WAY. We went to Hungry Bear instead with the Hills, which was almost as empty as a tomb, and they had an awesome balloon guy there doing amazing creations. Not your average bulbous-looking puppies and that sort of thing. He did a pink monkey climbing up a brown and green palm tree for Emma, a flower for Mackenna, a stunning likeness of Ariel for Tayley, and a cute brown teddy bear for Gannon. He also did a spider man for some other kid there complete with a silvery web shooting out of his hand. It was awesome!

After pizza we came back home and had a mini golden Belle party. We had Daron, Carissa, Tayley, Gannon, and Chris & Brooke (Sean's brother & wife) & their kids over. The cake was yummy - I used a regular yellow cake mix but added buttermilk instead of water, 1/2 T. butter flavor, and 1/2 bag of butterscotch chips. I am calling it Butterscotch cake. I actually felt a bit morbid pulling Belle's fondant-coated torso out of the cake, but my aversion wasn't so powerful as my appetite.

If you're interested, I have posted slideshows below of Kenna's field trip to the pumpkin patch earlier this week, and below that is Emma's birthday slideshow from today.



Also, here is the blanket I made for my friend Carissa - I gave it to her yesterday, so I think I'm safe now. Here is Spencer trying to claim it. She the pudgy little hands at the bottom? Don't worry, buddy. Yours is coming for your second birthday!


For any Twilight finatics like me, if you go to stephenie meyer's website there is a killer twilight preview on there. Only a little more than a month left!!!

Canning Catastrophe

Look at this cool Twilight poster! For some reason Robert Pattinson looks more like the Edward in my mind with the gold eyes, although for some reason I have always pictured Edward with dark hair, not bronze.

So, my friend Carissa has been canning for the last couple weeks. She gave me a ton of tomatoes out of her garden, so I thought 'why not? I will give it a try.' After boiling my jars about 4-5 times, only 3 of them ever sealed (usually one per boiling would seal at the end).

I got so frustrated yesterday I opened the other three jars and dumped the salsa into a big tupperware to put in the fridge. Now I have to use it fast. What did I do wrong? I wiped the lids just like Carissa told me, and I made sure there wasn't much space between the salsa and the top of the jar. Anyway, I guess that is one homemaker-y skill I won't be mastering. But Stephanie, if you ever feel like passing on a jar of your FABULOUS strawberry jam, I won't put up a ruckus!

You may have heard me say how much Spencer likes Sesame Street. After he stole Mackenna's angel bear and gave it a very wet kiss, she most obligingly decided to give him her stuffed Elmo.
I think she got it when she was about his age. He keeps carrying it around the house. Then he'll drop it and when he realizes its gone he calls out 'Mo-Mo......Mo-Mo......Mo-Mo.....' (you get the picture.)

I think for his birthday I may do some sort of Sesame Street cake. I actually have an Elmo pan that I did for Kenna's 2nd birthday - but where's the fun in that? I saw this really cute cookie monster cake on coolestbirthdaycakes.com -

they used the stand-up teddy bear pan from Wilton and cut the ears off to make his bulging eyes. Then they did blue icing with the grass tip. We'll see how ambitious I am once that rolls around.

I feel so anti-productive. Maybe it's because yesterday I balanced the checking account, got caught up on some stuff for my callings, and cleaned three bathrooms. I should have felt great after all that, right? Well, my lower back hurt from all the bending, and my family room/kitchen was still a disaster - and I had no energy to remedy that. So I felt like I spent all day working with nothing to show for it. Maybe I should just go hang out in the bathroom.

I finished Emma's Belle dress, and now I am just waiting for my mom to sew the roses she made onto it. She is so talented. She made them out of this sparkling crimson ribbon. Once the dress is all together I will put some close-ups on here.

I also made my friend's baby gift, which I can't really go into since she looks at my blog a lot. I also started Emma's Dorothy costume. I found the fabric at Walmart before I bought the pattern, and for some weird reason I thought 2 1/2 yards would be enough fabric. So I am laying it all out to cut when I realize I am about a yard short. No big deal, right? I got it at Walmart. So I go to Walmart and my breathing starts to quicken as I search for it high and low, to no avail. I had to drive to the Clinton Walmart in a frenzy, and luckily, they had about five bolts of it.

Saturday is Emma's birthday, but my sister is getting her endowments that day, so we will be leaving the kids with Grandma and going down to Manti. FAT JACK'S HERE I COME!!! For those of you who don't know, Fat Jack's is a pizza place in Ephraim, where I went to college. Their fat sticks (cheese sticks) and antipasta salad are to die for! I can't wait. Then we will be coming back home and taking Emma to Chucky Cheeses for her birthday dinner. I tried desperately to get her to pick a different place ("Emma, how about Chili's? You LOVE Chili's. No? Red Robin? Remember how much you like their fries? You can even have a shake!"). Oh well. As long as she's happy.

Families are Forever.....(really? are you sure?)

Okay, so yesterday it was pouring rain and both the girls' soccer games got canceled. I was glad at first, because I didn't feel very good yesterday and I had some things I wanted to do, none of which included sitting in a camp chair in the rain watching my kids pole dance with the goal or run from the ball. Somewhere in the middle of the "mom, he's got my polly car.....mom, spencer just hit me......mom, dodger is eating a crayon....mom, spencer's playing with a girl barbie....mom....mom.....mom" tempest, I realized the problem was that since Emma started first grade, we haven't really had a day home as a family. We spend at least an hour and a half at soccer every Saturday, if not 2 1/2, and then we are gone Sundays for 3+ hours. Wow. Really? This is how it feels to be together as a family all the time. Hm. We may have to work on it. Some good did come out of it, though. When Spencer finally seized the barbie car Emma was whining about (after the polly car), he put it to his own uses:



Earlier the girls had their barbies out and they kept throwing Spencer the prince barbies to play with (which were mysteriously stripped of their royal raiment). He rejected the naked man barbies and went for the girly ones instead. At least he's all boy, right?

One of the things I was doing yesterday was making salsa. My friend Carissa gave me a ton of tomatoes from her garden and some green peppers - so I was going to attempt canning. Well, if you think any store in a ten-mile radius had canning jars/lids, you are up in the night. We went to two Walmarts, Shopko, and Reams. Okay, looking back I guess we could have tried a couple more, but truthfully we ran around too much as it was. Anyone know who still has any? The last Walmart we went to has the best staff, I have to say. A very helpfull associate looked me right in the eyes when I asked where their canning stuff was, and said, suppressing laughter, "We're out. Been out for two weeks. Not getting any more in this season." Then she went back to chatting with her blue-shirted colleague as if I wasn't there, and never had been.

To end on a positive note, here is a picture that Kenna drew for Emma. She even wrote her name on it all by herself. Then she took it upstairs and put it under her pillow.

D.C. North 10-year Reunion

NOTE: Mandee & Cloe, you were sorely missed. Both of you an indispensable part of my mission experience, and I wish with all my heart you could have been there. Since you weren't, I hope you will both enjoy a little synopsis!

So, Saturday was my ten-year mission reunion. I was not sure what to expect, since the last one of these I went to was really disappointing - I only knew one person there. I had two mission presidents, and I only served under the second one for about eight months or so - so most of the missionaries at that reunion were young-uns. Anyway, one of my companions, Laura Vanderbeek (aka Sister Patterson)
came to my house and we jumped in the car and went down.

Sean got off work early, so he was able to go too, for which I was overwhelmingly thankful. We walked in and the first person I saw was the last person I expected to - my companion from Quebec who taught me French, Sister Ng:


She is the one on the right - Liz Murdock (formerly Sister Pike) is the one on the left. I can't even begin to capture the night. I got to hug President and Sister Graff, and was shocked when they recognized me right away and called me by name. I have to believe that going home to Heavenly Father must be something like that.

Here are Laura and I with Sister Graff, and here I am with President Graff:


We were all shocked when President Graff cracked several jokes during his talk, and apologized if he was too hard on any of us. He said something to the tune of, 'looking back I think I was pretty strict....' We all started laughing.

We got to hear their testimonies and sing our mission song - which totally made me bawl. I also got to see my hilarious companion Christine Williams.


It was fun to see everyone and find out where they were and how many kids they had, etc. I felt so grateful that I had that experience. It was so hard being a missionary every day. It was hard to stay motivated and work dilligently. But I feel so blessed to have had my mission experience. I am sure it has largely shaped my spirituality.

This was us last Halloween. For those of you who have not yet been privy to (or maybe I should say victim of) my Halloween hysteria, our family is doing Wizard of Oz this year. All except for Kenna, who adamantly insists on being Tinkerbell. (I have told her she has to be a fairy from the Emerald City, but she doesn't get it). I am actually only making two costumes this year - Sean's can be pieced together from things he already has,

and I caved and bought a cowardly lion costume at Costco the other day for Spencer.

Emma and Dodger will be Dorothy and Toto. Is it completely perverse to spray paint my dog silver??

Who of consequence is left? I know you are thinking the wicked witch. Wrong!


DISCLAIMER: My costume will probably not resemble this in the slightest, since I am making it.

Mama?.....Mama?......Mama?

Maybe he keeps calling me when I am right in front of him due to the vacant expression on my face.

What can I say, it has been a very tiring couple days. I'll start with today and work backwards. Actually, with last night. Mackenna threw up as is her quarterly tradition. She only did it once, though, so I'm not sure why. I didn't dare send her to school today, so we basically hung out and watched t.v. all day. I did finish Emma's Belle dress though - all I have left is the wrap-thing for around her shoulders. I have been sore all day because my neighbor and I went walking without taking the boys in their strollers last night, and for some reason I now have muscles I didn't have before. Ouch! My neck, my abs, even my legs (which I am pretty sure I was working before) are so sore - like i just went water skiing or something. Yesterday was also Emma's soccer practice, which I am starting to loathe.

It is every Wednesday @ 4:30, which falls right between Emma getting out of school, and Sean coming home for a quick dinner before Young Men's. Basically I go sit on the grass and try to keep Spencer away from the road while Emma ignores her coach and team to pick dandelions and crawl around on her hands and knees in her own little world.

On the up side, Spencer now eats all his chicken nuggets and hot dogs without throwing a single piece on the floor for Dodger. Thanks to a little thing called condiments. Yup, it's official. He is now onto the ranch/ketchup thing. I am actually glad. He hasn't been too messy with it, though you'll have to judge that for yourself:


And here he is showing off his blue popsicle tongue, copying his sisters. Can you say Pulsipher tongue? Sean and select members of his family can touch their nose with their tongues - Kenna and now Spencer included.


Back to today: I picked up Emma from school & she burst into tears because she was supposed to take a reading test at school today and I didn't put her reading folder in her backpack. After trying to reason with her for a few minutes the waterworks kept increasing, so I figured something else was wrong. When I asked her what else was bothering her she said one of her friends told her she didn't want to be friends anymore. I asked why; she said she wanted to tell Emma 'a secret' and Emma didn't want to hear - so she ran away - and said friend didn't want to be friends anymore. What's my next thought? Hm. I wonder what she means by 'secret'. If you think I could get it out of her you are up in the night. I kept asking her about it and she just kept saying 'I don't want to talk about it anymore, mom.' So, what's the big mystery? I have no idea. We went to get a rootbeer and a cookie (we were enroute to Walmart when I decided I DIDN'T want to go into the store with a crying 1st grader). Then we went home and I made popcorn and let the kids ride their bikes for a while. I brought the subject up again with Emma and she said 'it's okay, mom - we got back together after.' Alrighty then. Glad I am still stressing about the secret life of my firstborn.

Tomorrow I have my ten-year mission reunion and (thank goodness) I get a night without the kids. Thanks, mom!