Grilled Cheese Chronicles

The Prodigal Blogger

2011-08-17T14:17:00.001-07:00

I realize I haven't posted in, like, a year. But now that I'm not working and I'm over the Facebook addiction of old. The kids are back to school on Monday (can I get a hurrah!?) I figure I might have a little more time. Plus reading old posts really makes me want to start posting again. If for no other reason than I love getting the blog made into a book and looking back on the chaos of life. So, we'll just pretend the last year of blogging draught never happened, and start fresh.

I should mention that I have no intention of keeping up with any of YOUR blogs, so if you expect me to read yours because you're reading mine, well......I still love you as a person.

We just got back home from Lake Powell. I must say, it is much more enjoyable when your oldest is almost 10 and your youngest is 4 1/2. Almost RELAXING, even.

Daddy and Spencer driving the boat:

Me and the boy. No tubby tummy jokes, please.

Kenna lost one of her top front teeth biting into an ice cream sandwhich when we first got to the lake. We all spent the rest of the trip teasing her that we were going to make her eat another one so her other loose tooth would come out!

Spencer had a freak-out every time the boat hit waves from other boats.

Emma and Grandpa:

Kenna and Grandma:

Kissin' Cousins (well, if Emma had her way, they would be). It was interesting to see them flirt with each other all during the trip, and then get embarassed when they realized we were all watching.

Emma wake surfing with Uncle Matt:

Nine happy meals complete with different smurf figurines and one really crappy experience at Denny's later, and we're happy to be home!

Funny Things My Kids Said in 2007-2008

2011-08-17T14:10:00.000-07:00

Rather than have this as a sidebar, I'm just going to post it.

Kenna as I was putting Spencer's nighttime diaper on: "He needs Cruisers - they're comfort flex."
Spencer when I tried to put some slightly soiled underwear back on him: "No, mom......dere skiddies in dem!"
4/28 (Kenna after preschool): "Mom.....I had a hard day today, because we had to draw our Z's."
Spencer every day "I wanna watch PU-PU PANDA."
Spencer every time I touch him: "Ow...you hut me. I need band-aid."
The other day when I was heating up some bacon (Kenna): "Mom, I smell something....hamish."
1/30 (Kenna): Emma, I love your pretty hair....it's strawberry flavored."
1/26 (Emma when we found her white baptism dress at Costco): "Mom,.....I am SO excited to get bath-tized."
(Emma to Kenna the other day when she said 'poop' during dinner): "Kenna, that's UNAPROPRIATE."
1/17 (Emma when I drank out of her cup): "Hey, that's my cup.....well, it's okay - it's Saturday."
1/13 Emma on the way home from school ): "I'm tired of this busy day."
1/13 (Kenna on the stairs): "Mom, me and Emma are going to clean our room ABOUT being AKSED."
1/13 (Spencer about baby Kallen): "I wanna hode it!"
12/14 (Spencer in Sacrament Meeting): "I'ont wanu lissen!"
12/13 (Spencer in the car): "I'anu pay ina snow."
11/24 (Kenna after Spencer spit his food onto her plate): "That is DEFINITELY GROSS."
11/22 (Kenna): "Mom, I feel like I don't belong here.....I feel like I belong in California......"
11/13 (Kenna while I was watching the CMA's): "Is this COWBOY music, or what?......I don't like cowboy music."
11/7 (Emma while eating the blueberry crumb muffins I made this morning): "Mom, you make the bestest muffins in the land."
10/27 (Kenna): "Mom, can I have some gum?" (Spencer): "I'ant gum!"
10/29 (Kenna when daddy wouldn't take her into the store with him): "That just breaks my heart."
10/11 (Kenna at IHOP with Sarah & Emma on her birthday): "This ice cream is just scrumdelicious".
10/11 (Emma on her birthday with Sarah in the bookstore): But it's my birthday, I don't have to be good."
10/8 (After Kenna selflessly gave her stuffed Elmo to Spencer): "He can slobber all over it - it's his now."
9/29 (Emma arguing about taking a nap): "Mom, we'll just go downstairs and play to give you a piece of quiet."
(The other day after school) Emma: "Mom, I miss being in the family."
9/3 (Kenna while stamping her foot & refusing to go with me) "I like daddy BETTER!"
8/27 (Spencer out the window as Emma is leaving for school): "Emma.....I-uh-you!"
8/26 (Kenna to Spencer): "Don't slober on my pony!!"

Say Yes to the Dress

2010-06-26T09:08:00.000-07:00

Okay, the girls and I have a new summer obsession. Sitting in front of the tv for hours watching reruns of 'Say Yes to the Dress'. Now we are all caught up so we only watch the new ones, but for a few days there it was nonstop. The girls have pretty much designed their own dresses in their heads now. Jeannie came to pick Emma up for Activity Days on one of our TLC telethon days, and apparently she got an earful...."Can you BELIEVE this girl spent $25,000 on a dress she is only going to wear one time? I mean, that is just ridiculous! You only wear it for a few hours. My mom says my 'budget' is about $500......"

Inevitably, this is what it led to:

Yes, this was my wedding dress, and incidentally, I am proud to say I still fit into it. Let's ignore the fact that I swam in it on my wedding day, and when I put it on now I look like I have several kids' floatie tubes on underneath it. Oh well.

Crazy Cabbage Patch Kids

2010-06-26T09:02:00.000-07:00

As an interesting bit of trivia, the cabbage patch Spencer has used to be Sean's when he was a kid, and the outfit 'Buddy' is wearing is what Spencer wore home from the hospital.

Kenna's Kindergarten Graduation

2010-06-26T08:49:00.000-07:00

May 2010

2010-06-26T08:32:00.000-07:00

Emma was so excited about the Daddy-Daughter ball for activity days in May. Here she is with her date!

Waiting for her date to pull out of the garage.

And since there was so much hollabaloo, Kenna had to have her hair done too.

Can you believe this million-dollar smile?

Emma's 2nd grade program was also in May. Here she is with Mrs. Braby.

And here is her contribution to her class project.

Will I miss the days when Kenna and Spencer were home together for hours at a time, mostly fighting? Probably some day. But not in the near future. Here was one of the rare moments they weren't tearing each other's eyes out.

War Paint and Wonder Capes

2010-04-23T06:58:00.000-07:00

I have to document this moment in history. I'm sure at some point I will look back and miss this. But for now, yesterday was one of the most Spencer-trying days of his life to date.

Let's set the mood a little. Mommy is cleaning the kitchen for the first time in a week, preparing for friends to come to dinner. Spencer is conspicuously absent. Then come's Mackenna's voice...."Mom.....Spencer painted hisself with black stuff." This is what I found.

Pink sparkly lip gloss: slathered in hair, rubbed all over eyes, and obviously, on his lips. Eyeliner: well, you can see for yourself. He looks sad because this was taken directly after his rebuking.

It takes mommy ten minutes to get him all wiped down. Luckily he was still in his pajamas. Fast forward to after he is dressed in a clean white t-shirt and Mommy has sent him upstairs to get some socks.

Mackenna: "Mom.....Spencer got into some pink stuff." He has ONCE AGAIN painted his hair, face, and oh, as a bonus this time, his clean white shirt with pink Princess and the Frog chapstick. He undergoes another rubdown, a little more vehement than before.

After school. The girls are helping me clean (still) and we are trying to get a start on homework before our guests arrive.

Emma: "Mom....Spencer is into your white lotion..." but it is not lotion. It is my Mary Kay lip mask that Sarah gave me out of the goodness of her heart. And he has not only rubbed it all over his hands, but has decided to handle the tv remote as well. At this point mommy has no idea what to do about any of this. At some point he also got ahold of a dry-erase marker and drew all over my wall - "making a picture for our customers" - he defends, referring to our dinner guests. This just in, folks.....dry erase markers are only dry erase on a dry erase board. It takes 20 minutes for Sean to scrub it out of the wall.

Am I being punished for something......?

I'll close with a positive. Thanks to Stephanie Smith's suggestion, hair cuts have finally become a little less traumatic for all involved. He used to kick and scream and cry the moment his shorn-off hair would touch his skin, then start thrashing around when the hair went unavoidably into his open mouth. Thank you, wonder cape!

March 2010

2010-04-02T19:50:00.000-07:00

The highlight for this month is that all of us girls got our ears pierced. Emma has been saying for weeks now that she was the only girl in 2nd grade without her ears pierced (which is probably true, since her class is divided into 1st and 2nd grade, and there are only four 2nd grade girls total). And Mackenna said she wanted hers done for her birthday. So we took Kenna while Emma was at school. She didn't wince, say 'ow', or look nervous at all.

When Emma got home we took her and her hands were cold and clammy while she waited in the chair with a terrified look on her face.

The same day Emma got hers pierced she also lost a tooth, which she pulled out on her own.

The only other exciting thing was my New Moon party. We played Twictionary (yes, I came up with that one) and New Moon the Movie Board Game. We talked through the entire movie.

Here is the Team Edward cake (for more pictures see my cake blog):

And here is Team Taylor. I mean Team Jacob:

Oh. One more thing....Kenna turned six! Here she is next to her family presents and cards:

She actually had about a week-long birthday. We went to dinner at Training Table on Tuesday to celebrate, since Sean was working on her actual birthday. On Wednesday, her birthday, she got to open all her gifts from our family. After school we had chicken nuggets and curly fries per the birthday girl's request, and the kids watched Princess and the Frog while I made Easter egg crispy treats. Kenna's actual party is on Easter Sunday when we will have Sean's family and also some of Amy's inlaws over for dinner. But I just finished the cake tonight. It is pistachio cake with lemon-cream filling, and definitely the most fun I've had doing a cake for a while:

February 2010

2010-03-08T11:55:00.000-08:00

I'll just dispense with the excuses about how long it's been between posts. I'll just admit to myself that I've lost the blogging bug and that I'm only keeping it up now because it is my family scrapbook, which I eventually want to put into an actual book. I think I'll aim to post once a month, and then I won't feel so guilty. With that out of the way, here are a few little highlights from last month.

Here is the picture the girls made me for my Valentine's present:

And, of course, Spencer had to follow suit:

Here I am with my (count them) four children:

Emma dressed as Abish from the Book of Mormon for activity days. She was supposed to go dressed as her favorite Book of Mormon hero. When she asked if there were any women in the Book of Mormon, this is what we came up with:

Kenna took this one of Dodger and I napping the other day. Okay, so I was awake and told her to get the camera, and then pretended to be asleep for the picture.

And here is Spencer trying to dodge a yucky mommy kiss:

I will digress here for a moment and elaborate on Spencer's latest quirks. After a near perfect potty training experience almost a year ago, he has started having accidents. We kind of got into the habit of pulling his pants down for him, pulling them back up, washing his hand (i say hand, not hands - because of his cast) since he broke his arm. So it's almost like we started over when he got it off. 90% of the time when he yells "I GOTTA GO POTTY!" it is followed by a pee-pee dance and accompanied with an "I CAN'T!" when I tell him to pull his pants down and go. Then out of nowhere I will go into the kids bathroom when I hear them making their routine 6 a.m. racket and find him sitting on the toilet with his pants down, no problem. What is the deal?

He has also started asking to have friends over. He is getting to that age when his sisters are at school and he doesn't just want to kick it at home with me and the dog. We were planning on putting him in preschool in the fall, but the teacher Mackenna had for preschool, who was fabulous, isn't having a 3-year-old class. What to do? (Aside from Joy School).

Here is Spencer cleaning Aunt Amy's toe polish off. I think he might have a future in the business. ("You want nail design?")

Ice-Pickles

2010-02-10T14:09:00.000-08:00

Just a few little things.

The other morning the girls made me breakfast in bed, which consisted of a poptart, a nutrigrain cereal bar, and a banana - all drizzled with honey. Quite creative, if I do say so myself.

Today Spencer fell asleep sitting up while watching Cars. Since giving up his binki he hasn't really napped much, unless I nap with him.

I suppose he is pretty tuckered out. He went to a Valentine's party at a friend's house today. And on that note, here is what we decided to do for the kids' valentines this year. I hate giving out more candy, and I hate to stress myself out with something that will go in the garbage in a few days. This was super cheap and pretty simple.

The only other thing I wanted to mention is Spencer's little funny thing he said the other day. I don't know what got him thinking about it, but suddenly he said "Mom, when it's Summer can we have ice-pickles?" I busted up, because I knew he meant popsicles. Funny little guy.

Spencer is 3!

2010-01-29T08:13:00.000-08:00

And I have a feeling his threes are going to be worse than his twos. What is that all about? He has been waking up at 5:30 in the morning, crying that he's hungry, or thirsty, or whatever. MAKES ME CRAZY. Anyway, today is his birthday, but since I work tonight we celebrated it yesterday. Here are some pictures of his special day.

This year we did a Toy Story cake. If you want to see more cake pictures, they are on my cake blog, Custom Cake Creations.

Since it is our year off for birthday parties, we just went to Arctic Circle for dinner with a couple friends and family, and then came back to our house for cake, ice cream, and presents.

Oddly enough, this was his favorite gift:

Happy Birthday, baby boy. You have passed both the milestones I wanted to have behind us before your birthday. Potty training, which you did about 6 months ago or so, and getting rid of your i'i (binki). Good job. Now let's work on that attitude!

So much for resolutions.....

2010-01-19T15:06:00.000-08:00

Well, that is pathetic. I said on December 1st that I was going to blog more, and I haven't done it since then. I HAVE layed off Facebook quite a bit though, which is good. About a week ago I made a blog book by going to blog2print.com, and it just came today! It is relatively thin since my first year blogging started in August, but so fun to see all the pictures and of course, to read how life was at that time.

So, we've been a little busy. Two weeks ago I started working at the Remote Encoding Center for the Postal Service, which is out by the airport. Training was two weeks of hell - on me, Sean, the kids, the dog, the house; pretty much everyone involved. But now I am on a regular schedule, so hopefully it will be good. I work four nights a week, Friday through Monday.

Also Sean's sister Amy and her husband Justin moved into our basement just after New Year's. Amy just started a new job and they are staying with us until they buy a house in a few months.

I don't have much interesting to say. Here are the family pics my SIL took of us over Christmas in California. Pay close attention to our matching outfits - they are the product of many tears, sweats, and heartfelt sighs.

Back to Blogging

2009-12-01T09:53:00.001-08:00

So, I decided to lay off Facebook for a while. I think that is why I haven't been blogging - I don't think you can do both at the same intensity - but my blog is more important. So here's a little update on life.

My mom came for thanksgiving, and while she was here she taught the girls how to crochet. Emma is the one that really picked it up - I think Kenna's still a little young to do it by herself. Since then Emma has been crocheting chains to drape over the tree, her bed, her dresser, her brother. You get the idea. She really loves it - and it's the perfect thing to do for quiet time.

Just look at this smile.

Also, I finished phase one of operation: Death by Christmas Sewing. The girls' dresses are finally done! And, on top of it all, I found long-sleeve shirts at Target for $5 that were almost the exact same color as the dresses. SWEET!

Now I am working on my own dress - I'm pretty scared since I've never made anything for myself besides a Halloween costume. This is the pattern - the black and white dress on the left - out of the same fabric/ribbon as the girls. It will go awesome with my gold shoes from the Military Ball.
Of course, I will be wearing a shirt under it. The last sewing project is night gowns for the girls. Hopefully I can get it all done before the 17th!

Lastly, here are a couple cute pics I snapped of my kids when it snowed the other day.

Spencer's Mishap

2009-11-22T15:42:00.001-08:00

This is what happens when your kids ignore the net on the trampoline, which is meant to keep them from falling off and breaking their arm. Were it not for Gannon Hill and all his three-year-old logic we may still be unaware of the specifics. Apparently Spencer was walking around the edge of the tramp outside the net and fell off. When he came in whining and crying about his 'elbow' i gave him a hug and tried to hush him as best as I could. 99.9% of the time his outside adventures end in his crying at the back door, so I wasn't too concerned. I put him to bed and a few minutes later he started crying about his elbow again. In my defense, he was wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt. When I lifted his sleeve up there was an indent in a strange place and when I compared it to the other arm, I knew something was wrong. So I called Sean and he said to take him in.

Luckily I had a brand new bag of sour gummy worms in my purse and that's what kept him happy while they x-rayed his arm. By the time we got to the orthopedic wing he was talking a million miles an hour and flirting with all the receptionists. He told them his favorite color, his dog's name, his favorite movie, etc. Everyone was looking at me as if to question whether he was really hurt at all. When the doctor asked if he was always so talkative and happy, I told him he was on a sugar rush due to his consumption of almost the entire bag of sour worms.

For the first 72 hours we were supposed to keep his arm elevated to prevent swelling, and let me tell you - this was no small task for a busy almost three-year-old. So this is what Sean and the doc came up with:

His arm is tied to a chair that is set up right behind the couch.

Luckily we are past that now, and he can just run around and club things with it. Sean and I can't help but chuckle when we hear him yell from his room after bedtime, "Mom, I got a scratchy!" In other words, his arm itches under his cast and there's not a dang thing anyone can do about it!

Emma's Baptism November 14, 2009

2009-11-22T14:51:00.000-08:00

I am so behind! So I am just going to post a few pictures for the sake of my blog book I want to have done someday.

Here is Emma bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 8:00 a.m. during her hair appointment with Melissa. She did a fantastic job!

The finished product:

Grandma Johnson and Spencer:

Uncle Chris:

Tyson & BryAnne Hare & baby (not pictured!), Grandpa Johnson:

Auntie Amy and Kenna:

Our family (no, I'm not pregnant, and you better not ask):

Kenna Jane:

Emma's cake:

Projected Halloween

2009-11-03T10:53:00.000-08:00

Yes, I already have next year planned. Who can blame me, when I didn't get to indulge in my annual obsessive behavior this year? It does help that I got mine and the girls' costumes 50% off, doesn't it?

Next year is..........(drumroll)........SUPER HEROES!

Here is the plan:

Sean and I will be Batman and Robin. I plan on having him wear dark clothes, making him a black cape, and buying him a batman mask like this one:

Here is my Robin costume. No gasps please. I plan on wearing leggings and a shade top under it. Even if I didn't, I don't have the perkiness required topside to have it look that way on me - so RELAX!

Emma will be Super Girl:

Kenna will be Wonder Woman:

And Spencer will be either Spiderman, Iron Man, the Hulk, etc. You get the picture.

I'm so excited!!!!!!

Happy Swalloween!

2009-11-01T09:50:00.000-08:00

It has been an emotional and frustrating weekend. Emma's baptism was scheduled for Saturday, and we had family flying in on Thursday from California - and more family coming from down South on Saturday. Spencer had a nasty cough starting last Tuesday and by Thursday morning he had a fever. So we took him to the doctor, thinking we could get him on antibiotics so he'd be good for the baptism on Saturday. Lo and behold - the swine flu. He tested positive for H1N1a. So our family from California ended up staying elsewhere, and we figured we'd see them maybe Sunday or Monday instead. I thought I was going to die. Trying to figure out how to get Spencer to the baptism and take him home right after, while the rest of our family and friends chowed down at the church. Turns out my worries were unnecessary as Emma's fever came on Friday, and then we knew the baptism would have to be rescheduled. She was broken-hearted and after many tears and lots of palliation (including a happy meal, halloween sugar cookies, chocolate covered strawberries, and watching the Corpse Bride as a family), she finally decided it would be okay to have it in a couple weeks.

I decided every cloud has a silver lining. Because the baptism was postponed, we were able to actually celebrate Halloween. We made sugar cookies, we all dressed up (except for Sean), and we had an in-house trick or treat. Sean went to the basement with his bowl of candy, and I went upstairs to the bedrooms with mine. The kids would knock on one door and trick or treat and then go to the other floor and do the same. It was actually pretty fun. Then Sean and I watched a movie and played Liverpool.

I feel so blessed to have so much support from friends and family. My in-laws have been bringing dinner every night, and helped convince Emma to be baptized in a couple weeks by promising to fly back. Jeannie brought over a ton of food, including all my favorite naughties, like Coke Zero w/grenadine & Funyuns, and a bunch of other stuff. Her kids got money out of their piggy banks to buy my kids a little something from the dollar store.

Sarah came over in her Halloween garb and brought us a bouquet of get well soon balloons, a 12-pack of Diet Dr. Pepper, more grenadine, a warm apple pie and ice cream, and a treat bag for each of the kids. My neighbor Stephanie brought over treat bags for the kids and a card and some cookies for Emma since she missed her baptism. Danielle offered to bring me dinner or stop by Maverick and get drinks. And the Hills, the Squires, and the Mineers all stopped by our fence on their way to trunk-or-treat to show us their costumes.

I just feel so loved and so blessed to have such great people in our life.

So here are some pics of our Swalloween!

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-22T11:54:00.000-07:00

Special Night!

2009-10-07T19:46:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. I haven't blogged since August. Bad me. MOVING ON.

Emma had her baptismal interview with the bishop tonight. She was so excited to go. She kept saying "Mom, it's 7:10.....it's 7:13.....7:20...." (her appointment was at 7:30.) Then in the car on the way there she said, "What if I don't give the right answers?" When the interview was over she was bouncing around, so excited.

Afterward I took her to Arctic Cirlce for ice cream. I wish I could do that with my kids individually more. It definitely makes me feel the motherhood joy to spend 1:1 time with them like that!

Life is crazy right now. I just did a wedding cake tonight (check out custom cake creations!), tomorrow is our Office Wedding party w/baked potato bar, Friday is the Carnival, Saturday is soccer, Emma's Pixie Party, and then girls' night out with Sarah, me, Emma & Kenna. We are taking them to Denny's (kids eat free!) and then to the play Beauty and the Beast. Then Sunday is Emma's birthday, and we are having family for dinner. Crazy!

First Day of School 09

2009-08-27T10:10:00.000-07:00

Thank heavens they both get to go this year!

Emma (2nd grade):

Mackenna (kindergarten):

And of course, Spencer had to get in on the fun.

Lake Powell

2009-08-27T09:37:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures of our Lake Powell trip.

Here is the water trampoline the kids get to jump on and the surrounding scenery:

Here is the houseboat!

And some of my crazy kids!

Emma trying to ski:

Kenna on the knee board before she fell off and refused to get back on:

Emma knee boarding:

FUN TIMES!

Random Pics

2009-08-01T10:50:00.000-07:00

Just a few pictures I've taken the last week or so:

Spencer blowing bubbles at the table:

The kids sitting with Grandma Pulsipher last week during her quickie visit:

The monkeys piling up on daddy:

Emma and Dodger taking a nap one day:

Nickelodeon......

2009-07-31T19:26:00.001-07:00

Mackenna has been making weird comments all day - like telling me I needed some of that Kaboom cleaner or whatever it is that the oxy clean guy does commercials for ('it makes clean-up easy, mom'). Just now when I was putting Spencer in a diaper for night time she comes up to me and says, "Mom, he needs Cruisers......they're comfort flex." When I started laughing at her she said, 'What?! They're Pampers!" I think it's safe to say that me sleeping in while they watch Nickelodeon could be potentially damaging. Who knows what ELSE they're seeing?

Hobby Lobby

2009-07-23T13:24:00.000-07:00

Just a couple pictures I snapped today - the girls were playing in their room and when I went in to check on them they showed me their latest creation:

Seriously, where do they come up with this stuff?

Sean is home today and it is nice to have him home after his being gone to scout camp for a couple days. We took the kids to swim lessons (he most obligingly took Spencer to his parent and child class today, so I could have a break). Then we came home and I got this one of Kenna & Daddy:

Lastly, I have been feeling like I wanted to try a new hobby lately. My favorite one is going to Walmart, but it is also one I am trying to kick - and it seems like all my other hobbies cost money too. So, when I used up all my scrap fabric making skirts I decided to try something I did in college again. (Okay, that sounds really bad.) I did a sketch from one of my baby pictures for an experimental psyche class. So the other day I drove to a park by myself and started my new project. Here is the picture I drew it from:

And here is my drawing:

I'm not completely happy with it, (especially the me part), but it's something I can do while the tv's on, and paper and pencils are pretty cheap! I know, I should be cleaning or organizing cupboards, or maybe even tackling the heaps of laundry lying around the house. But I firmly believe that we all deserve one outlet that makes us happy every day.

POSITIVES

2009-07-17T17:43:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling a bit negative today, so I thought I should list some positives:

1. Spencer is doing awesome potty training - woke up dry this morning AND after nap, and hasn't had an accident all day. He is really getting it.

2. NO MORE BUYING DIAPERS!

3. I got to take a nap with the kids today.

4. I read Harry Potter to the kids today.

5. I made breakfast today.

6. My children were fed and watered and taken care of all day.

7. Sean has a job.

8. I get to stay home with the kids. (this could possibly be construed as a negative, but I'll call it positive today).

9. Mackenna hasn't had any accidents in quite a while.

10. I'm halfway through laundry.

11. I'm married to an understanding and considerate guy (don't comment that it didn't make in until #11 or I'll kill you, Sean.)

12. We have a house to live in and food to eat.

13. It's 6:55, and bedtime is in an hour.

But WHY?

2009-07-14T13:34:00.000-07:00

Today I made all my kids nap with me. The girls woke up before any of us, and I asked them to go do something quietly while the rest of us were still sleeping. I love hearing their conversations when they don't think I'm listening. They were talking about things like why the bees quit making honey in The Bee Movie, why they liked one Care Bear more than the other, etc. Then the following dialogue ensued:

(Kenna): "Emma, why does it snow?"
(Emma): "Because we NEED snow, Kenna. It's important."
(Kenna): "But WHY is snow important?"
(Emma): "Snow is important because.....without it we couldn't have.....Christmas."

I love it. Here I was thinking she would say something like our crops would die or the land would be dried out. Nope, she knows the real deal.

BIG CHANGES.....

2009-07-12T18:23:00.000-07:00

Today we started potty training.....officially. I think Spencer has been ready for a while, but I haven't :). I don't know why today is different than any other day, but he has done a good job. He sits on the potty and pushes with all his might, produces a drop or two of urine and a little rabbit pellet of the other - we go dump it and wash hands, and he wants to do it again. Back and forth to the potty all morning. But it is good. Tomorrow we will go buy him some 'big boy' underwear.

Also, since that is one big milestone, we decided to take down his crib too. He kind of has to be able to get out by himself to go potty, so we put up his toddler bed. Hopefully we don't have a horribly long night since he loves his bed and he hasn't had a nap at all today!

Last thing - look at this shiner. He fell off a an empty cooler and clipped his chin on the corner of a shoe shelf. OUCH.

I swear, the kid has no sense of balance - or maybe his equalibrium is just off. He's constantly knocking his head into something. Then again, if my body was in the 5th percentile and my head was in the 90th, I would feel top heavy too.

4th of July Weekend

2009-07-08T12:19:00.001-07:00

This weekend we headed down south for the 4th of July. First we went to my parents' house for a bbq and then over to my sister's house to put our stuff away. Sean earnestly tried to light their grass on fire by doing sparklers with the kids:

Then we headed over to the college to save a spot of grass for the fireworks. I was surprised how whiny my kids were. Emma complained about being cold the whole time and Spencer was (of course) afraid of all the noise that comes with fireworks. Mackenna seemed to enjoy herself, though. At least it was fun to hang out with grandma and grandpa.

The next morning we hung around my sister's house until it was time for church, and then we went to my old ward (Elsinore) with my parents. It was so fun to see everyone. You really start to feel your age when you see the kids who were in nursery having kids of their own.

On Monday we went up to Fish Lake to go camping with my grandparents. It is so beautiful there; I worked there the summer I turned 20. We ate lunch and then took the kids down to the lake to play for a while.

Then we walked around the Lodge, which is the building I lived in when I worked there.

We actually got an okay family picture that we might use on our Christmas card this year!

After that we drove down to Bowery Haven and got some ice cream for the kids (okay, we had some too). Then we took the kids back to camp and they played on the tire swing.

Later that night we made a dutch-oven dinner and dessert - and both turned out pretty good! I think I'll post those recipes on Goddesses of Gourmet.

The next morning grandpa gave the kids turns riding on his tractor.

It is so fun to see my grandpa with the kids. He is my father's father, and I'm sorry to say that I don't remember spending any time with him until I turned about 15. He loves the kids, and I am so grateful for him in my life.

My grandma too. She is his 2nd wife, and she keeps him in line. She is also a phonomenal cook, and always making sure every one is taken care of. Thanks for making this weekend so fun!

Here are just some random pictures I took of the scenery (yes, Sarah, I still have a waterfall fetish):

The girls' feet in the ice cold fish lake water:

The fish-face boys:

Piggy Rides

2009-07-04T07:33:00.001-07:00

Yesterday the girls started giving Spencer piggy back rides. It was funny because I didn't even suggest it.

It is fun to see Spencer so eager to be like his sisters. He wants to do everything they do, and 90% of the arguments they have are because he gets aggressive when they won't include him. Poor little guy.....maybe he needs a little brother? Yeah, maybe NOT.

Summertime

2009-07-01T08:04:00.000-07:00

Emma finally lost her two front teeth. She looks so cute, and I love to hear her say her S's. Here are my munchkins!

Summer Read-a-thon

2009-06-30T13:50:00.000-07:00

Well, the kids and I finished our first book of the summer, James and the Giant Peach. It was definitely a good kid read. It had silly parts that they couldn't stop giggling about, and just a lot of wonder and imagination. Now we are on to Alice in Wonderland!

I guess I should talk about Inkheart too, which I finished last week.

It was so hard for me to stick with this book. I didn't get to the phase where I couldn't put it down until about 2/3 the way through. Even then it wasn't as riveting as, say, Harry Potter or Twilight. But it did get suspenseful toward the end, and so far the second book, Inkspell, is much better. I think the movie Inkheart was better than the book, just like Eragon.
Three of my favorite actors were in it - Brendan Fraser (currently in my #1 spot), Paul Betany, and Helen Miren.

I think I am starting to sound like Andy Rooney again!

Happy Firthday!

2009-06-22T17:22:00.000-07:00

Yes, it says 'Firthdays', and no, for all you avid Austen fans out there, it has nothing to do with Colin Firth. This year my birthday fell on Father's Day. So, we decided to celebrate my birthday on Saturday instead. Sean got up with the kids so I could sleep in. We went to Costco to pick up my cake,

and Sean got me some white roses, even though I gave him the 'please-don't-buy-them-we-can't-afford-it' look.
We took the kids to see the Disney/Pixar movie "UP!" which was really cute.

Then we went to Red Robin for dinner.

After dinner we came back and a few friends came over to help demolish the Costco cake.

So, Sunday was Sean's turn - even though I still felt like it was my day, since everyone was calling me to say happy birthday. We had breakfast burritos and enjoyed being lazy all day since there was no church again. For dinner we had pot roast w/carrots & potatoes, onion gravy, & rolls. And then, for dessert....of course - cake. My friend Sarah came over and we watched two movies that we knew by heart as teenagers - Hot Shots,

and Robin Hood: Men in Tights.

It was awesome. We had both forgotten all the classic one-liners. ("Operation Sleepy Weasel is underway.....Milly Vanilly Chilly Willy", "BECAUSE.....Unlike other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent!")

Last week the girls were begging for curlers to be put in their hair, and here was the result. It's a lot harder now that their hair is so short!

Also last week we got the chance to go to a horse ranch-type place and the kids got to ride horses!

It was fun to see Spencer up there by himself, not scared or anything. When the owner asked him if he was a cowboy, he said "No, I am not."

The Summer Holidays

2009-06-12T11:09:00.000-07:00

I guess I am still in my blogging funk. I'm doing this post more for the sake of my record-keeping than for anyone to read, so you might be bored!

The kids are officially out of school, and it's starting to wear on all of us. Scarry. We have started reading James and the Giant Peach for 20 minutes every day when Spencer goes down for his nap, and then I tell the girls to do quiet time. So far this has ended up as a nap every day, since they both whine about quiet time so much that I get irritated and make them nap. Emma more than Kenna. She is used to having structure every day, and I don't think she's handling life in the box so well. Yesterday Sean snapped this one of us all napping.

We went to the Kelly Clarkson concert yesterday - it was phenomenal! I should say SHE was phenomenal - everything else kind of sucked. We got there right at 6:30 when the show was starting (we left home 2 hours before, and it was in Orem), and she didn't actually come on until after 8:00. She played for an hour and then jumped in her van and got whisked away to wherever superstars go. But her voice is amazing, and she is even better live than on CD. I was amazed by the number of young girls there, though I don't suppose I should've been. It made me feel old - but there WERE a couple more middle-aged women jamming out too.

Spencer's latest catch phrase is "I had it first!" even when he didn't. They learn so fast. I think I will take the kids to the aquatic center to get some of their energy out later on - otherwise I'm going to die!

Newport Coast

2009-06-02T08:08:00.000-07:00

I know, GASP, a new post. What can I say - I have been going through a blogging funk lately. I guess it's just laziness. Anyway, last week we went to the beach for a week with Sean's parents and his sister and her husband.

We made the whole drive on Friday the 22nd. On Saturday we went to IN-n-OUT and then headed to Newport Coast. We took the kids swimming as soon as we got there to get their wiggles out. Sunday we went to Sacrament meeting across from the Newport Temple and then walked around the temple grounds after and took some pictures.

After naps and lunch we took the kids down to the tide pools and took more pictures. The girls collected shells and Spencer was terrified of the water!

Monday was Memorial Day, so we drove to Laguna Beach and stayed for about three hours. it was very crowded, but the kids had a blast. The girls made sand castles, which Spencer vindictively demolished. They also played in the water. I forgot to put sunscreen on their little legs, and the girls both got burned. It's funny - Kenna's has already turned to a nice brown tan, and Emma's still looks burned. Sorry honey, you got my skin!

On Tuesday we did Disneyland. Spencer got excited the moment we came into the Pinnochio parking lot and started kicking and flailing his arms. It was a long day, full of lines and waiting, but it was fun. I had bought the kids Disney notebooks at the dollar store before we left, and Disney t-shirts at Walmart. I fancy I saved us a good chunk of money that way. So, we bought the kids each a toy from Disneyland. Spencer picked a stuffed Buzz Lightyear, Emma wanted a stuffed fairy from Pixie Hollow, and Kenna got a small snow globe that supposedly plays the music to It's a Small World, but I didn't realize the batteries were dead when I bought it, and I haven't been able to find the odd batteries anywhere else either. Mackenna was crying or whining most the day about something or other, and of course Spencer was nap-deprived so he wasn't a basket of raspberries either. Emma was really good except when she wailed and cried all through Space Mountain. It scared her really bad. I found myself wondering about halfway through the day why on earth we go to the trouble and expense of taking our kids places like this. Here is the answer:

For the fleeting moments when their little faces are lit with joy. And, for the memories. Kids have an amazing knack for remembering the high points and forgetting the negative. I need to be more like that! I am going to do a separate slideshow of Disneyland - there are just too many pictures to put into this post.

Wednesday morning everyone was so tired that the kids actually slept in until 7:30 California time, which is like sleeping in until 8:30 here. One morning Kenna even slept until we woke her up around 9:00. It was a blooming miracle. I wish I knew how to duplicate it at home - maybe a pitch-black room? Maybe I'll invest in some of those hotel drapes - the really thick ones. Wednesday we kind of took it easy. Sean and I ditched the kids with Sean's parents and went to see Terminator Salvation. It was good, but I have to say I was more impressed with the guy who played the Terminator than Christian Bale, who played John Connor. Maybe it's knowing about his true violent nature - kind of puts a dampener on his hero roles.

Thursday was Sea World. Spencer had somewhat of a hard time sitting through all the shows, but he loved all the ocean life. It was a much more relaxing day than Disneyland, and we got a ton of cool pictures. I think I'll do a separate slideshow for that too.

Friday the boys went golfing and we took the kids window shopping to Balboa Island. I was shocked when the sales lady at the first shop we went to rebuked Emma for touching a dress. I could not believe it. I felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman when she is told to leave a store on Rodeo Drive. Anyway, after lunch the guys came back for brat patrol and the girls went shopping. That night we packed up our stuff and then Saturday morning we checked out. We were going to break up the drive back home, but we decided to stay another night and make the whole trip on Sunday. The kids watched Horton Hears a Who three times in a row, had lunch and took a short nap, watched Kung Fu Panda twice, Finding Nemo once, and then were told to look out the windows for the rest of the time.

We're finally home, and it seemed like the minute we pulled into our driveway my allergies started flaring up again. Either I am a lousy housekeeper and really need to dust madly, or there is something in this state I'm allergic to. Hopefully I will get up the energy to post some more soon.

LIfe is a highway.....

2009-05-08T10:57:00.001-07:00

I keep checking my comments a few times a day thinking, "Man, everyone has lost interest!" Then I realize I haven't updated my blog since last weekend. So, here is the update. It's a whole lotta nothing special, but I hope someday I'll look back on it all and laugh to myself.

What's new with my family? Let's see. I'll start with Sean. He has been working two jobs for a while now, and one of the two jobs is 'letting him go' due to the company laying off all their RNs. Luckily this is the part-time job that he only works twice a week - however, it also pays the better wage of the two. So his boss is taking us to dinner Monday night to try and keep him 'happy', whatever the heck that means. She has told him there are other possible positions, but I guess we'll see.

Me - I finally finished the laundry today. (Well, except for the two loads still in the washer/dryer, but what is that compared to the other 20 I have finished?). I have been making a weekly menu every Sunday, and though I don't always stick to it, I find I make many less trips to Walmart to get one or two things for the dinner that suddenly strikes me as irresistable. Lately I have been feeling so sick (AND TIRED) of being the only person who really cleans around here. Sean helps when he's home, but it's pretty much all me. My kids leave their clothes wherever they take them off and don't bother cleaning up toys, shoes, etc. unless I get on their case. So I decided to start putting some of the responsibility back on them. I made them each a chore chart.

The girls have four small jobs they do during the week, and then a big job added on Saturdays (bathrooms! hey, they love to clean them and I hate it, so why not?) Spencer just has two jobs, help mom with the dishes, which he LOVES doing and is actually pretty good at - and picking up his toys. They get a check mark for each job completed and then a sticker on that day. We signed up for a membership to the aquatic center, and I told them if they did their jobs all week they could earn a swimming trip. So far it's going great, and I can't believe I have been keeping the housework all to myself. Also, I find that I feel like I should be cleaning if they are, so my jobs get done too.

Emma - let's see. She came home from school with a new packet of school pictures that I never ordered, and she was so excited to show me. I quickly told her that they were adorable, but that I wasn't buying them because we bought a package earlier in the year. She burst into tears and a whole lot of whining, begging, and reasoning ensued. I had to physically take her upstairs to show her that I still had the other packet, and that it was a cuter picture of her. "Mom....(sniff, sniff)..can I have one of those?" Sure, kiddo. After talking to her I found out that she wasn't upset about the pictures at all - they had a lock-down drill at school that really freaked her out. Just now I went up to her room to take a picture of the picture, and this is what I found in her bed when I looked.

Those are two pennies taped next to her picture, I have no idea why.

Mackenna - well, the biggest update about her is that she is starting to like boys. Let me rephrase - she is starting to be obsessed with boys! She has a huge crush on a boy in her class, and all she talks about is him.

She endearingly refers to him as 'my love', and she spends all day drawing pictures of the two of them holding hands under rainbows.

Today she actually made him a whole book. She says they're getting married. Oh, why does it have to start so early??

Spencer - he is also catching onto the flirting thing. Luckily, his only object thus far has been me. The other day I came down the stairs just after doing my hair and makeup and he stared up at me and then said, "You booful, mom." Melt my heart. Then the other night we were sitting on the couch watching t.v. and he kept reaching up to touch my hair and saying "I like your HAIR!" over and over. Of course, that could be due to the fact that I basically scalped him the other day (I used the wrong top on the clippers and after starting in the middle, there was nothing for it but to finish). Now we keep rubbing his fuzzy head and telling him we like his hair.

That's about all that's new. I just can't believe school is already out again almost. It is blowing my mind how fast this school year went by. Lastly, if anyone is interested, they can check out the new recipe blog I started about a month ago! If you are interested in joining, let me know. goddessesofgourmet.blogspot.com.

Wrapped up in Twilight

2009-05-03T08:33:00.001-07:00

I had to put this on here. As an early birthday present my sister made me a Twilight silky! Our grandma used to make us all blankets out of tricot, which you can hardly find anymore except online. Anyway, look what a great job she did! It's awesome. Thanks sis!

'In our humble way......'

2009-05-03T08:04:00.000-07:00

Well, my baby brother went through the temple on Friday. He is leaving for the MTC at the end of the month, and then onto Detroit after that. It makes me feel super old. I used to change his diapers. I started babysitting for the family when he was two, and I was fourteen. Long story short, I moved in with the family when I was seventeen, and they have been my family ever since.

So, Bradley-Boo-Shane-Johnson, this is a tribute to you. It seems like just yesterday you were in the back of the van, singing 'I saw the sign....and it opened up MINE eyes.....I saw the sign', and inviting the cashier at the store to come play Nintendo at your house....as long as she played in her underwear like you. I'm gonna miss you, big guy.

So have a blast working righteous Harry Carry! Sometimes it seems long, but it is just a fleeting moment in your life that you will always look back on with tender feelings. Enjoy it! And work hard so there are no regrets when you get home. Relish the time you are given to study the scriptures uninterrupted, and use that time to draw close to the savior. You'll never have another opportunity to do that in your whole life. That was the time I was closest to the Lord, and I miss that closeness like you wouldn't believe. I think the most valuable thing I learned on my mission is that we don't automatically have a resevoir of charity that makes us want to serve people. First you serve, then the charity comes and you want to serve more. Remember Ammon - he went to serve, not to convert. I love you, Brad!

Frustrated? Take it out on the crayons!

2009-04-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

So, Spencer has been sick with hand-foot-mouth (apparently). He has been crying and whining and wanting nothing but being held for days. This morning I was feeling so depressed because I can't even take him to a park for fear he'll contaminate the equipment and we'll have an epidemic of hoof/mouth disease. So I decided to just color with the kids. We colored a picture, and then I remembered seeing this cute thing you can do with old broken crayons in family fun magazine. So after Kenna went to school Spencer and I tore the wrappers off and broke up crayons.

I have to say, I had no idea destroying something could entertain him for so long. He was really into it for about 45 minutes. So, here is the result.

You melt the crayons in your oven at 250 for about 10 minutes, and then wait for them to cool and pop them out. The result is a crazy swirled crayon. It would have been way cuter if they were heart-shaped like in the magazine, but I don't have a mini heart tin. Here is the link, if anyone is interested.

http://jas.familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=11585

Girls' Hair Cuts

2009-04-27T09:21:00.000-07:00

This was my futile attempt to keep Kenna from chewing on her hair.

Obituary of a Crockpot

2009-04-24T21:57:00.000-07:00

I am so sad. Today my crockpot fell off the shelf and shattered. It was such a good little crockpot, too. We got it for our wedding, almost ten years ago. I have used it almost every day since then. I feel like I have lost a personal friend - a piece of my soul. The upside: I get a new one for Mother's Day!

The Naughty Sister

2009-04-21T06:20:00.000-07:00

Sorry, guys - but this one wouldn't fit on the kid quotes I have on the side. There is too much background and aftershock.

It all started last night at bedtime.

As I was grudgingly cleaning the girls' room, I discovered that Mackenna had switched dresses on her build-a-bears. Turlee was wearing Lila's dress, and Lila was nowhere in sight. "If Turlee is wearing Lila's dress, what's Lila wearing?" Mackenna responded with a tone that suggested the answer was beyond obvious, "Oh, well - Lila's naked because she was a bad sister."

If I was disturbed last night, it got worse this morning when she elaborated. "Sometimes I hit her on the head like this" (she demonstrates) "when she is naughty.....like when she asks for something every five minutes."

I think my kids are going to need therapy.

The Day of Unrest

2009-04-19T20:16:00.000-07:00

So, this morning the kids were up before seven as usual. Sean and I were both so tired that we just sent Spencer downstairs to watch t.v. with the girls, and went back to bed. To my surprise, when we got up the clock said 8:45. I thought to myself 'that's weird, Spencer hasn't been crying/screaming/pounding on our door.' So I went downstairs, and this is what I found.

I guess everything has a price. Easter candy. I have no idea how many chocolates he ate, but all I can say is there was a trail of foil wrappers through the kitchen.

Here are the skirts I made for the girls. I totally copied Kelly Robins' idea - I just made them longer. They were super easy and a lot of fun to do.

Sewing Lessons

2009-04-15T18:11:00.001-07:00

So, I took a page out of Kelly Robins' book and decided to make cute skirts for my girls too. Emma was hovering around me when I was sewing and asking questions about the zigzag stitch and why I back-stitched and all that. Then she kept saying 'I can't wait until I am old enough to sew too'. So I just decided to let her try. She actually sat at the machine and worked the foot pedal. Then she pushed the fabric through at the same time. She was so proud of herself!

She came home from school so excited to sew more, but since I have a crappy cold I told her not today.

2009-04-12T10:21:00.001-07:00

Here, try this new nail polish......

2009-04-09T07:55:00.000-07:00

So, this morning Emma started screaming, "Mo-om....Spencer got into the wart medicine!" Let me explain. We are treating some warts on Emma's toes with the Walmart version of Compound W. It is this clear acid stuff that you brush on and it eats away the yuck. Well, Sean got out of the shower to find Spencer painting his toenails with the stuff. This is disturbing on a couple different levels.

1. How the crap did he get the lid off in the first place?
2. Usually if I paint the girls toes I will pick a nice, masculine shade of blue to do his so he doesn't feel left out - but should I be worried?

I guess I should just be grateful he didn't eat the stuff or put it in his hair. See - every cloud has a silver lining.

The glass is half full......

2009-04-08T06:38:00.000-07:00

In an attempt to stay positive during this glorious spring break when my children flock around me and I love every minute of it - I have decided to list a few things I love about each of them, and about motherhood in general.

Emma:

1. She is always seeking my approval.
2. She loves to make everyone laugh.
3. She is a huge help with Mackenna, Spencer, and Dodger.
4. She loves to read and is great at it!
5. She is empathetic and sensitive to the emotions of those around her.
6. I love her chocolate eyes and the tiny golden freckles across her nose & cheeks.

Mackenna:

1. She shows true compassion.
2. She is finally taking Spencer under her wing.
3. She is excited to grow up, go to school, and do everything Emma does.
4. I love her roundish cheeks and her button nose.
5. Her smile melts my insides.
6. She always brings her dishes to the sink without being asked.

Spencer:

1. He gives the best hugs ever when he puts his heart into it.
2. He is a mama's boy and a daddy's boy at the same time.
3. He knows most of his letters AND the sound they make (gotta love Leap Frog DVDs).
4. He says "I yuh you" at least three times a day.
5. He is finally taking Dodger under HIS wing.
6. I love his sqenchy-eyed smile and his button nose.
7. At all times there is an animated character he can be compared to. Candidates in the past have been: Shrek baby, Stitch, Curious George, Jack-Jack, and Koda (brother bear).

Motherhood:

1. I love to quietly watch my kids and see things about them that I love.
2. I love when my girls tell me I'm 'the best baker in all the land' or rave about my cooking.
3. I cherish the gospel teaching moments that come - usually when we are in the car.
4. Motherhood gives me a purpose and keeps me busy.
5. Motherhood has brought out my domestic side - now I cook, decorate cakes, sew, scrapbook, blog, and read. Everyone needs an outlet, right?
6. I love connecting with other mothers who are going as crazy as I am. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.

Last but not least - you might think I was a single mother if I didn't say a little something about the one who got me into all this!

Sean:

1. He works hard so that I can stay home with the kids and lose my mind.
2. He is empathetic when I have a bad day with the kids.
3. He always puts me first.
4. He never criticizes if the house is a mess.
5. He is always ready and willing to take us out to eat.
6. If he is home and we are cleaning, he will vacuum without being asked, and sometimes he'll even mop the floor.
7. He encourages my hobbies and talents.
8. He goes to extremes sometimes to make me laugh.
9. He is trying to better himself, without any hinting or nagging on my part.
10. For some odd reason, he never lost his rose-colored glasses.
I LOVE YOU, SEAN!

The new hair goo

2009-04-02T08:07:00.000-07:00

So, ever since I cut my hair and started putting 'goo' in it, Spencer has been getting into any kind of pasty stuff he can find and smearing it in his hair. Once it was lotion, and all the other times it has been diaper cream. Seriously. I guess I need to go through the house and hide it all. I guess he could quite literally be called a butthead now.

Here is another one of him - sitting in the fridge. It's only significant because my family used to snap polaroids of me sitting in the fridge all the time when I was a baby; and I have pictures of the girls doing the same thing.

2009-03-29T07:02:00.001-07:00

The pictures of the cake didn't really turn out in the slideshow, so here is a better one, and there are a couple more on cow cake creations.

Mad Hadder Tea Party

2009-03-29T07:00:00.001-07:00

Is this awesome, or what.......

2009-03-29T06:56:00.000-07:00

I had to show this awesome t-shirt the Stowers got Mackenna for her birthday. Need I say more?

Riddle me this.....

2009-03-24T11:56:00.000-07:00

How do you get your husband to have a perma-grin following a sleepless night? Cave on one of the two things you swore you would never permit in your house: A huge, flat-screen t.v. Yup, it's official. When we got married I said we would never (1) own a video game system, (2) own a t.v. that cost more than $1,000, and (3)sean would never own a motorcycle. So I have caved on 2/3, and the deal is that Sean is not allowed to make any allusions whatsoever to the motorcycle thing.

Here is a lite brite picture the girls did together the other day - can you see the rain drops?

Photoshoot

2009-03-22T12:10:00.001-07:00

Some of you know that Mackenna has a tendency to swipe my camera when I am otherwise engaged and start snapping pictures of everything. Today she took some really good ones!

And Emma's not so bad herself, either.

Here are some of the girls crushing the dog (oh, calm down, he loves the attention), and some of my boys! I am trying to use my photoshop to change that middle one of Spencer to black & white or vintage, but the program is so complicated I have no clue how to do it. HELP?

That one is Spencer's monster face. He is talking so much more now. His latest catch phrase is "Ow! You hut me. I need band-aid." Anytime I touch him. Or, when I am doing the girls' hair in the morning, he lines up to get his done after them. I spray his hair with detangler and the minute the comb touches his head he screams "Ow...ow...ow!" Little parrot. He has also decided it's time to potty train. Oh....I am SO not ready for this. He has gone on there once or twice though. Maybe his potty days will be a hybrid of Emma & Kenna. He'll start early and be done in 3 days, dry through the night from day 1, and hardly any accidents. Yeah, right.

Twilight Mania

2009-03-22T11:54:00.000-07:00

I'll start with the midnight release party on Friday night. It was rumored that there would be free give aways, doughnuts, etc. Becky and I stood in line for an hour with nothing passed out but a chocolate heart. We spent most our time staring at the 14-year-old transvestite in front of us. His hair was dyed like Edward's, his face was painted blue and green (why?), and he was wearing a black spaghetti strap tank, tight jeans, and black platform heels. I ask you, how can someone so young be so sure about who they are, especially when it is so completely opposite of the way nature intended? Anyway, it made me sad to think that because of an identity crisis that most of us have in our teens, someone would grab onto that. No offense intended to anyone.

So by the time it was our turn to buy the DVD, they had sold all the 2-disk editions. Why on earth would they only order 150? There was probably a line of 500 people wrapping through the store by midnight. Grudgingly we bought our single-disk DVDs for $17, and went away disgruntled. First thing Saturday morning I hit Target and was delighted to see a 3-disk DVD for $17.99. Ka-Chow. And Danielle bought my other one and saved me the trouble of returning it. Thanks, Danielle!

Just a few pictures from our Twilight night. It was a lot of fun. I hope my frequent outbursts didn't scare any Twilight fence-sitters away. We had about 15 of us altogether, and everyone brought treats. I think we were all in agreement about the eeew-factor of the deleted finger-licking scene. Thanks for coming, girls!

There were a few others who came after the picture-taking: Stephanie & Amber, Kristin, & 2 of Sarah's friends.

Got guts?

2009-03-19T19:34:00.000-07:00

Here's a look at what peer pressure can do to a person. Not really, I've been saying I was going to do it, I just hadn't gotten the courage up yet! Just pretend I have a glamorous make up job and I'm a beautiful model, instead of a tired mom sans-makeup.

TWILIGHT Girls' Night!

2009-03-17T13:47:00.000-07:00

This is just to let you all know that this Saturday (Mar 21st) @ 8:00 p.m. I will be having a Twilight girls' movie night at my house. You are all welcome to come and bring some kind of junk food to share! We will be watching it on my wall via projector. You can come in your PJs if you want, and bring a pillow or anything else that will make you cozy. I hope to see you all there!

Military Ball

2009-03-15T17:27:00.000-07:00

Well, last night was the big event. I must say that at the end of the day I felt it was much like Christmas. Weeks and weeks of preparation and running around in a state of chaos for a very short-lived event. But I would do it all again! I'll start with Friday morning.

My awesome baby sister BryAnne and her husband Tyson came up from Richfield to babysit for us! Isn't that the best? It made everything so much nicer not having to pack the kids up or worry about them being with somebody too young. Thanks again, sis. Here are some pics of the kids with them before we left!

First thing Saturday morning the four ladies met at 99 Nails for various pamperings. I got my nails done in sparkly pink and the others all got pedicures. Then it was off to hair appointments. My friend Sarah came here to do my hair and she did such a great job! The others went to an up-do place and they all looked fabulous!! After hair we all caravaned down to the hotel together (Sheraton) - we never would have stayed there on our own because it is a super nice place, but thanks Mike & Sarah for the vouchers!!! It really made the night. The girls all went into one room to get ready, and here are a couple I took of that process.

Once we were all dressed and ready we were whisked (wisked?) away to Bambara by the Sheraton shuttle. It was a fabulous restaraunt with fabulously expensive food. But the food tasted delicious. Here are some pictures we took during the dinner.

Daron & Carissa:

Annie & Cam:

Mike & Sara:

Sean & Misty:

We went straight to the ball from dinner, which was at the Capital Building. We stood in line for about 1 1/2 hours for pictures, then danced a couple dances and sat down with some cake and punch. By the time we actually got to the ball none of the girls were wearing our shoes - our feet were already aching by then. Mine were these awesome polished gold thingys, but they were cutting into my toes.

So we all went barefoot, and I must say that the floors of the capital building must be meticulously clean, because my feet were only slightly dirty at the end of the night. As we were trying to get out the door to meet the shuttle Carissa and Annie seemed to explode with crazy dance energy and all we could do was watch from the sidelines, kind of like watching a tornado and not being able to move.

Here are some random pictures from the night.

It was a blast and I can't wait for next year! I would do a few things differently though:

1. Walk around shoe store at least once in glass slipper candidates to make sure I won't be hurting 10 minutes into the night.
2. What am I talking about? I have already sworn to use the same shoes next year.
3. Next time book a room for two nights instead of one.
4. Keep pampering on the day of to a minimum, as this only makes the day more stressful instead of relaxing.
5. Don't bother renting a tux - about a third of the guys there were in suits.
6. Skip professional pictures and spend most the night dancing - take awesome snapshots instead!
7. Don't waste money/mental energy on matching accessories - they were more of a bother than anything. Spend more on a dress instead!
8. Don't bother with corsages/bootineers next year - or make my own out of silk flowers - by the time we got to the restaraunt both mine & Carissa's had fallen apart and we were holding the flowers in with ABC gum (eeeewwww.)

I have a strong feeling that this may become as much of an obsession as kid's bday parties and halloween for me.

Teeth: Out with the old, in with the new

2009-03-09T10:42:00.000-07:00

Sorry if any of you have been bored by my lack of exciting posts of late. Basically we just got our computer last week and I have been in root canal hell since then. I seriously hate going to the dentist! Even though our dentist is an old family friend (he's not old - he's our age, but his wife's parents are friends with Sean's parents and they grew up together), and even though I get to suck on laughing gas when I'm there and don't feel a thing, I still hate it! I went to get my temporary crown put on after the root canal on Friday and I have been in throbbing pain since Saturday night. Is this normal??? I don't think so. So I am waiting on a call back from him to say come back in, or hey, here's some more Lortab.

Anyway, here are some pictures I've been saving up:

Here is Kenna reading to Spencer (I had to take a picture since they hardly ever get along):

And here are my cute Valentine's girls. Can't you just feel the love?

And here is my cute boy in his Valentine's pj's from Children's Place (4.99):

Emma has lost two teeth in the last week, and the last one she pulled out all by herself.

2009-03-03T12:11:00.001-08:00

Here are just a couple fun mommy pictures I've been wanting to put up!

Blogging Famine

2009-03-03T11:43:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the draught (sp?)! We finally have a new computer, thanks to our awesome ward friend Jed Stowers. He built us a brand new computer with a huge monitor and a bunch of extras - he is the bomb! So hopefully life can return to normal now. The header of my blog will be changing soon too, thanks to my very talented friend, Becky. Hopefully I can get our checking account caught up and have some time to blog soon. Sorry again!

In honor of Jeanie....

2009-02-17T07:52:00.000-08:00

You're right. I actually thought that picture might ruin a few diets. So, I have opted for a more realistic depiction of our life as a grilled cheese sandwich. Let's face it, it's not always gourmet. More like the above image. Sometimes the bread gets burned, and then subsequently waxes soggy when the precious children throw fits because they didn't want to eat grilled cheese in the first place.

Silver White Winters That Melt Into Springs....

2009-02-16T12:34:00.000-08:00

In an effort to stay positive through my headache-children-filled day, here are a few of my favorite things!

Seeing daylight before I hear my kids awake.
Big, soft Maverick Cookies.
The logic of my 7-year-old.
The squishiness of my 2-year-old.
The hugs and kisses of my 4-year-old.
Going to dinner with my hubby without the kids.
Maverick drinks.
The absence of noise when the kids are in bed.
Jane Austen movies & books.
Maverick in general.
Laughing with my husband about anything and everything...and everyone, for that matter.
Apple Beer.
Spencer's squenchy-eyed smile and his monster face.
Mackenna's plumpy cheeks.
Emma's chocolate eyes.
My body pillow.
Pedicures and girls nights.
Blogging.
TWILIGHT!
The Closer.
American Idol.
Survivor.
THE OFFICE!
The Discovery Channel show 'The Universe'.
A clean house.
Taking the kids out to eat.
Talking with friends.
Fall and Spring.
Open-toed shoes & dressing up.
Pina Coladas & walks in the rain....

Kleptomaniac or Compulsive Liar?

2009-02-13T08:18:00.000-08:00

Mackenna always comes up with the funniest fibs. She went on a fieldtrip to the dentist office yesterday at preschool. This morning she came downstairs with the five dollar bill that was sitting on my dresser and said, "Mom, yesterday the dentist gave me this dollar in his office." Yeah, right honey. You and the other thirteen kids in the class. Should I be worried??

Curious George

2009-02-09T08:56:00.001-08:00

A few people now have told me that Spencer reminds them of curious george. I really didn't see it, but now I think we just might have some sort of reincarnation of the famous cartoon.

NEED I SAY MORE?

Caught purple-handed.....

2009-02-03T16:13:00.000-08:00

This morning Mackenna informed me that last night she had a scratch on her fingernail that was bleeding, and then turned purple. I thought this was an interesting thing to say, so I looked at the finger. Yup, a smudge of purple nail polish was right there, condemning her. Next to her was a loosely-twisted bottle of purple nail polish.....highly suspect. She went for round two when she informed me in the Target parking lot that she 'threw [her] gum in the garbage at home'. I thought to myself, 'okay....whatever.' Then I remembered that she had gum at the doctor's office earlier. 'Honey, where did your gum go?' Kenna (in a small voice): "I swallowed it."

So long....farewell....

2009-02-02T11:46:00.000-08:00

So, I probably won't be posting for a couple weeks. We are sending our computer away to get the paneling fixed, and it will be gone for a while. How am I going to survive???? Anyway, my friend Sarah came over the other night and we were doing hair. She is doing my hair for the military ball (only fitting since she did it for prom and my wedding), and this is what we came up with.

I know it's silly and girlie of me, but so fun.

I think Mackenna may just be ready for kindergarten. The last couple weeks she has been asking me to play with her, all day. Today I finally relented. We played playdough and then colored a picture together, while she whined about the fact that I still hadn't spent much time with her. Sometimes I feel like no one is happy no matter what I do.

Mickey Mouse Party

2009-02-02T09:59:00.001-08:00

Spencer's 2nd Birthday!

2009-01-29T20:09:00.001-08:00

Balls and Bath-tisms

2009-01-27T10:59:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm sure everyone's tired of seeing that stupid Halloween post, but I really feel like I don't have much to say. Here are just a couple snipits.

Yesterday we were at Costco and as we passed the Easter dresses, something white and fluffy caught my eye. They had a beautiful modest white fancy dress for 15.99. So I totally got it for Emma's baptism.

Of course Kenna threw a fit, and of course Emma peppered me with questions about baptism all the way home. The one that made me laugh was when she said "Mom....I'm SO excited to get bath-tized." The other day Sean went to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. I tried to explain to the girls what it was, but I don't quite think they grasped the concept. Yesterday Emma said, "After I'm bath-tized I can go to dead baptisms, like dad?" Oh....honey. Where do I begin?

Earlier in the day I made the mistake of taking Mackenna dress shopping with me. This year Sean and I get to go to the military ball (thanks Carissa! YOU ROCK.) It's in March, and I had my heart set on a beautiful dress I found online, but it turned out to be impossible to get it by the date I needed it.

So we went to Modest By Design and tried on dresses. Aside from Mackenna's tantrums over a jewelry box and a tiara I said no to buying for her, it was actually quite fun. I didn't go to my own high school prom, so I never got that experience of prom dress shopping before. I felt so girlie! I ended up getting this one in red.

And I am strongly considering getting some black satin opera gloves to go with it. (Come on....back in the day when they actually had real balls, anyone who was anyone wore gloves). They also make them in pale gold but they are like twice the price. So, for those of you who aren't fashion retards like me, would black go? My shoes are black, but the dress is too long to see that.

I have decided that despite the drama of all the estrogen around our house, I am much happier to have two girls rather than two boys. Gannon is here today, and he and Spencer have done nothing but fight. It's like watching Gladiators or Konan or something. And I have decided that boys have only one volume as well: LOUD.

Here is Mackenna with her 'purple people eater' cookie she made at preschool today. Too cute!

"I can be your hero, baby......"

2009-01-21T09:37:00.000-08:00

Okay, so this is a bit obsessive. But those of you who know me well already know about my Halloween hysteria. So, I think I've decided on this year's costumes. That is, if I can get Sean to cooperate.

So, this year's theme is superheroes. And as far as I can tell, I won't be sewing any of these! Here is what I am thinking.

Sean - Nacho Libre.

Come on. He LOVES Jack Black and thinks the movie is hilarious even though I can't stand it. He may just end up in a Superman t-shirt cuz there ain't no way he's putting spandex on (at least that's what he says).

Me - Elektra.

Of course, a much more modest version. I am thinking probably just some red leggings and a red faux leather jacket or something. Anyone know where I can get a sai?

Emma - Supergirl.

Kenna - Batgirl. (or vice versa)

Spencer - Spiderman. Who else?

A visit from the urinal fairy.....

2009-01-17T09:42:00.000-08:00

What is the difference, I ask you, between these two items? I think they cost about the same ($10.47 for a 14-pack). They are used for the same thing, and as my almost-5-year-old told me this morning, they feel the same. The difference is, one of them allows me to sleep through the night without having to change her clothes or bedding, and the other does not.

Let me explain.

About a week ago Mackenna announced that she wanted to stop wearing Pull-ups. I was right on board with that, since I am tired of buying them. So I told her she would have to let me wake her up at night to go potty, and then she could sleep in panties. At first she did okay. She was groggy but she willingly went to the potty. She still ended up wetting the bed at least once even though I woke her up 3-4 times a night to go. Then a couple days ago she started resisting. She would yell if I tried to put her on the potty (she's still 90% asleep at this point), and if I told her she needed to put a Pull-Up on she would yell louder. In the morning she didn't remember any of it, and since she was dry she thought she had made it all the way through the night. "Mom, I'm dry! Do I get my reward now?!" Sigh. "No, honey - you wet your bed last night." "No, I didn't. I'm dry." "Look at your pants. Those aren't the ones you wore to bed last night." Wail. "I'll never be dry, mom...never."

I feel so bad. She is so discouraged and I don't know what to do other than keep encouraging her and be understanding. So, while Carissa was over exercising yesterday morning she suggested to Kenna that she could wear the 'special underwear that you wear to bed....that it's okay to have accidents in - they're NOT pull-ups.' She readily agreed. Though this morning she came into my room and informed me that "MOM - these feel JUST like pull-ups. And they LOOK like pull-ups."
"But they're not Pull-ups, remember? They're nighttime underwear." Pause. "Yeah....I'll never get my reward, mom."

Help me! If anyone has suggestions. I haven't had to go through this before - Emma was potty trained in 3 days at age 3 and never put a pull-up on. She was dry through the night in underwear from the get-go.

Happy Birthday, Carissa!

2009-01-16T21:15:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is Carissa's birthday, but tonight we all got together and went to Rooster's. Afterward we went to the mall and the girls went shoe shopping while the guys went to Sports Authority.

I made her a Twilight cake, of course. What else? Here are some fun pictures from our night:

The cake:

Daron & Carissa:

Me and my awesome hubby:

I'll put all the other cake pictures on cowcakecreations. Just one thing: Becky is a rockstar! She totally did the writing on the cake for me, and she is awesome. She wrote it like she was writing on paper with a pen instead of on a cake with a bag and icing. Becky, you are my jedi master now. Please teach me!!!

Thanks for saving my tushy, Becky!

My Day at Di's

2009-01-14T18:25:00.000-08:00

Today I went to see my best friend Dionne and her new baby, Tessa. It is so fun to hold a new baby, especially knowing I am done having them myself! Thanks to Carissa I get my baby fix twice a week now.

Here are Livvy and Kenna:

And here is Spencer in his 'mun-ee' PJs.

Hindsight........

2009-01-11T19:18:00.001-08:00

So I had a dream about being back in my mission last night. Not back ON my mission, just going back to visit the D.C. area. I went to the temple and the visitor's center in my dream, and I woke up feeling totally nostalgic. I served in the visitor's center for a couple months around Christmas time, and it was a totally separate experience from anything else on my mission. I remember standing in the visitor's center, gazing at the positively breathtaking Washington, D.C. temple, and thinking 'this is one of the things I'm really going to miss'.
And I was right. I can't think of it without feeling an inner aching today. I never thought I would long to be back on my mission - and don't get me wrong - I would not want to go tracting or golden questioning again, ever. But I do miss the area, the people, the experience - being in the service of something greater than myself, but at the same time not being directly responsible for the people around me the way I am now with my family. There was a greater margin for error then.

My point is, if I can honestly miss my mission to the point of a pang all these years later (10 next month), then how much more will I miss this precious time with my little ones. The ones I AM responsible for? I know in my heart that this time is passing quickly, and I can see and touch the moments every day that will bring these same pangs later, though I'm sure with much more force. After all, my mission was a measley 18 months of my life. I am trying to see the joy in my life and particularly with my kids. Here are a couple of ways I am doing this:

1. Reading to my girls every day (almost). Right now we are on The Mouse and the Motorcycle.

2. Making sure I play with Spencer every day (usually tickling).

3. Trying to pay Mackenna my undivided attention as she will be going to kindergarten next year.

4. Trying to suppress the sad feelings that well up inside when I realize my kids are growing up - by seeing the things I love about their development.

If there is one lesson I have learned in life, it is that we waste today by pining for yesterday or tomorrow. I'm just glad I found this pearl before it was too late. (I may just have to embroider that on a pillow....what am I talking about, I don't embroider - "Life is the synchronicity of chance......"). Name that movie, anyone?

Here is a little something I think I'll miss about each of my kids:

1. Emma - the way she looks to me in everything and lives to make me happy (hopefully she will always want to please her parents, but who knows?)

2. Kenna - her hugs and kisses at random times throughout the day, and her round little cheeks. I already miss those - they have slimmed down a lot from her baby days.

3. Spencer - being little enough for me to squish and swing around and tickle and make him giggle. Something tells me I may also miss him screaming 'mama....mama...mama' at 6:30 every morning, but I don't know.

One more thing, and I'll be done. This is the view of the D.C. temple from the Beltway (an atrocious and potentially hazardous freeway where people drive like maniacs). You come up over the hill and the temple just pops up there. It is gorgeous.
Cloe, Mandee, Laura - if you want to comment and tell me something you miss about the mission (besides me, of course, ha ha) I would love it. I sure miss all of you.

Boy Birthdays

2009-01-10T15:10:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was 'Dads & Doughnuts' at Sand Springs & Kenna was feeling pretty left out. She went upstairs to get dressed and came down looking like this:

I have no idea why, but the goggles made her feel better. And of course, Spencer had to give them a go too:

Thursday was Sean's birthday. We went out to Red Robin with the kids and some friends, and then came back to our house for cake and ice cream. Sean has to have the same cake every year - the german chocolate cake on the bakers german chocolate box.

Today I should have been doing laundry, which I did sort, by the way. But it hasn't made it downstairs yet. The fact that there are 6 buckets full - and another load of reds that is homeless until the first basket is vacant - is just a little bit of a deterrent. Instead I worked on Spencer's birthday presents and watched Harry Potter 1 & 2 with the girls. I am guessing I'll pay for letting them watch the Chamber of Secrets around bedtime tonight, when they complain of huge snakes in their room.

Anyway, Spencer is getting his very own church bag:

It is made out of a place mat ($1 at Big Lot's), ribbon, trim, and iron-on patches.

And his very own tie-fleece. It's not tied yet, but here are the two sides:

A little of everything

2009-01-07T16:33:00.001-08:00

Haven't blogged in a while. Here are a few pictures I have saved on my camera for when the bug bit me again.

When Sean's parents were here right after Christmas we went sledding. Here is the cutest snow baby in the world, showing off his mittens:

I am only slightly bothered by the realization that he isn't, in all actuality, a baby anymore. He turns 2 on the 29th, and he just learned to push himself on his scooter.

And here is Sean's mom with the kids:

And me with the kids:

For Christmas Grandma & Grandpa gave the kids a WII Music game, and they LOVE it. It is so cute. Here they are playing.

Tomorrow is Sean's birthday, and this is what he requested. Isn't it hideous? But those are his teams, so what do you do?

This is kind of a boring post, isn't it? The only other thing I wanted to put on here are a couple things I wanted to work on this year.

1. Scripture study with the kids. We usually try to do this when Sean is home before we put them to bed, but truthfully neither one of us has the patience for it that late in the day. So I decided to spend 20 minutes before Emma leaves for school in the morning either reading them a friend article or one of the scripture readers. Better than nothing, right?

2. I have also been trying to lay down with the girls after we put them to bed and either have Emma read to us, or me read to them - it hasn't been consistent, though. I started reading them The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary, which was one of my all-time favorite books as a kid. We've only gotten to like Chapter 5 though.

3. Also to hug my kids every day and let them know how much I love them. I would also like to say at least one positive thing to them each day, like "you are such a good reader" or "you always help your brother, that is so nice" or "wow, i didn't know any almost 2-year-old could drool like that, buddy". Okay, maybe not the last one.

Book Review

2008-12-31T19:39:00.000-08:00

Okay, sorry Stephenie - but I think I found my new favorite author. I just read another one of Sarah Strohmeyer's books - The Sleeping Beauty Proposal - and I loved it!! Even more than The Cinderella Pact. The Cinderella Pact was probably funnier, and it has more of the fat humor. But I so loved the romance better in this book. There was a stronger story there. All I can say is I totally love this author's work. She is the greatest. Read it if you get the chance!! Here is my favorite quote: (DISCLAIMER - if you are offended by the word 'nipple', do not read).

"Most men, I've learned, can be easily distracted by a flash of leg, a bit of cleavage. They're like apes, really, a half a notch up the evolutionary scale when it comes to all things sexual. Show them the merest hint of a nipple and their brains instantaneously go to mush."

It is 8:41 p.m. and I am just admitting that my goal to finish my own book by the end of the year is sort of unrealized. I actually finished writing the story; but now I have a mean rewrite ahead of me. Oh well, at least I finished it. I am sitting down right now to start reading it again and decide what it is still lacking.

New Year's Eve, and Sean and the kids are asleep. Sean's parents are watching t.v., and I am blogging. It was actually a fun night - at least to me - we had fondue for dinner (cheese fondue with meatballs, french bread, and broccoli) and dessert (dark chocolate fondue with bananas, pineapple, and oranges). We were going to play games, but Sean got up at five this morning, and my MIL and I were much more interested in finishing the books we were reading.

Happy New Year to all!!

Christmas Morning

2008-12-25T15:25:00.000-08:00

Here is the wreath I made my sister for Christmas - I used the same ribbon that was on her wedding cake (well, not the exact same ribbon - just what was left on the spools).

And here is her gift to us. I totally bawled when i saw it. She has drawn each of my kids now. She is so talented.

Here are a few pictures of our Christmas morning!

Here are the girls with their doll house. It is seriously an awesome dollhouse with sturdy wood furniture and everything. I'm sure Santa had a blast setting it up - like some childhood dream come true!

Sean & I got the girls little MP3 players (kid ones). The girls have been listening to them ALL DAY LONG. So far the favorite CD seems to be David Archuleta.

Here is the Raggedy Ann doll that I (oops....I mean the elves) slaved over. My mom actually painted the face and took care of the hair - I sewed and stuffed the body and sewed the clothes. I am proud to say that Emma hasn't put her down all day!

Spencer's favorite gift was the bag of pretzel goldfish in his stocking. He ate half the bag before breakfast and carried them around all day. Santa brought him a scooter and Sean & I got him a car garage thing.

Here is Sean with his Guitar Hero t-shirt. He also got The Dark Knight and a book he has wanted for a long time.

And last but not least.....a BOSCH!!! Can you believe it? I am psyched. But also intimidated by it like I always am with new kitchen gadgets. Thanks, mom and dad P! Sean got me a giant curling iron I've wanted forever, and the kids got me the Mummy Trilogy.

Now the ham is in the oven and I am somewhat ashamed to say that I haven't showered and I am still in my PJs from last night. Oh well!

Then and Now

2008-12-17T13:51:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is our ninth anniversary! I can't believe it's been that long. Anyway, I took a few pictures of some pictures - since we got married before the digital camera days. Here are some things I loved about when we were dating/married/newlyweds - and some things I love about now.

Then:

Flirting at work under everyone's noses
Being twitterpated all the time!
Listening to 'Truly, Madly, Deeply' over and over in Sean's Sentra (our song)
Picnics up Provo Canyon w/Quiznos subs and playing spades
Feeling completely safe with Sean
Realizing I had found someone who loved me more than I ever thought possible
That adorable spiky bleached hair!
Cooking our meals together and cleaning up together

Now:

Staying up talking late at night
Being able to make each other laugh all the time
Watching Sean be a father
Having a home of our own
Having a husband who encourages my talents and interests
Being able to stay home with the kids since Sean works so hard
Listening to him rave about my cooking rather than his mom's!
Hearing him tell me I'm beautiful every day
Knowing we have been through good, bad, and ugly - and he still loves and supports me
Still bringing me roses all the time - sometimes for no reason
Quality over Quantity (not going to specify - sure you can figure it out)

Thank you for working so hard every day to make me happy. I am so glad I said yes - even if I did pause.

2 for 5 Christmas

2008-12-17T13:21:00.000-08:00

I had a funny epiphany this morning when I woke up. The last few days our wireless printer hasn't been working due to the fact that we changed our wireless modem for internet. I have been going crazy since I had a bunch of things I needed to print for my calling. I started to go into panic mode, saving my files to a USB disk to take to the library and print off. When I woke up I thought 'why don't I just bring the laptop upstairs and plug it into the printer?'. The thought seriously never occurred to me. How sad is it that because we live in a virtually wireless society, plugging a cord from one thing to another is a huge inconvenience - even if the result is the same? Anyway, it just made me laugh at myself. And also, don't laugh, but it was an answer to a prayer, too.

Can I say I love my mom? She got up with my kids this morning, made them pancakes, and had Emma dressed when I came downstairs at 7:30. Then she did her hair for school too. It was so nice to lay in bed curled up with my body pillow and ignore Spencer yelling 'mama.....mama....mama' - knowing that she was going to get him. She said she is going to do that for me like three times a week so I can sleep. Thanks, mom - you are the best!

I finally finished the girls' Christmas pajamas. These actually only cost me 2.50 a piece this year, since I already had the fabric and the patterns. The only thing I ended up paying for were the shirts - Michaels 2 for $5. I am still working on Spencer's - his are green with red Santas and reindeer. I also have Raggedy-Ann's body sewn, and my very talented mother painted her face. Now I just have to make the yarn wig (which I have absolutely NO CLUE how to do) and sew her clothes. Hopefully I can get it all done in time! Never mind the fact that Emma recently informed me it is the Indian Doll from the Raggedy Ann story she wants - not actually Raggedy Ann herself. I tried to convince her that I heard her ask Santa for Raggedy Ann - but she is positive that Santa heard different and will oblige her. Yikes.

Tomorrow is our 9-year anniversary. I will have to post some pictures on here - though I have no idea how seeing as I don't even have a disk with the pictures on them - I only have the actual copies - and no scanner either. Sean booked a room for us in Lehi this Friday night.

Lehi, because we were married in the Mount Timpanogus Temple. We are going to do a session and go to dinner, and then have a munchkin-free night. Thanks, honey!

Sasquatch Sighting

2008-12-14T14:09:00.000-08:00

Well, it's finally looking like Christmas around here now, isn't it? We got a ton of snow yesterday and even more today - which I love in view of the approaching holiday. However, I hate the snow when it comes to our dog. The fringey fur all along his legs and belly trap the snow and he brings it all in with him. I keep stepping in puddles in my carpet left when the ice balls melt out of his fur.

Anyway, I had to tell about my fabulous day yesterday. My husband was so nice to me all day. I was in house-cleaning mode since I was supposed to have a PJ sewing party at my house last night and we have people coming for dinner today. He volunteered to do the dishes and mop without being asked. He also cleaned the stove top (which I completely loathe doing). I had a picture of him on his hands and knees scrubbing the floor, but he threatened me not to put it on the blog - so I deleted it. He also put on my Sarah Mclaughlin Christmas CD even though he hates Christmas music, just because he knew it would make me happy. Later when my sewing party fell through he said we should go and do something instead, and I suggested (jokingly) going to see Twilight again. He totally took me AND let me ride in a car with one of my best friends to the theatre while he followed behind. I may add that he didn't expect anything in return for any of this, either.

Thanks, honey!! You rock.

So I can now boast I have seen Twilight three times. I THINK I can wait until it comes out on DVD now. I hope. My sister (bless her heart) burned the soundtrack for me and I have been thinking about the movie nonstop ever since! (Actually I've been thinking about the movie nonstop since the day I first went to it, and the whole blasted concept since I first read Twilight). WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?

Here is a picture of the girls while Sean and I were cleaning yesterday. They decided to sit down and do their reading - without being asked. What is going on here??

Elves and Thieves

2008-12-03T12:29:00.000-08:00

Here is a cute shot of Spencer-Elf. I was sitting in the living room this morning listening to Emma read her A.R. book, and Spencer walked in with this hat on and matter-of-factly plopped a book open on the table and began drawing on it. It was just funny to me that he put the hat on himself, and of course the binki made the whole thing funnier. It was like he had something important to do as Santa or something.

So, apparently Mackenna has decided it is a rule to kife my camera while I am in the shower. Up until now it has been cute bordering on slightly troublesome, but after this shot, I think I may have to take it to the shower with me:

WOW, HONEY - is that the strap to my $400 digital camera hanging down in the toilet? At least she picked the one clean toilet in the house to photograph.

Here are some of her other shots - I'll let them speak for themselves!

2008-11-30T15:05:00.000-08:00

First I want to say thank you to all of you who left me comments on my drama-post. I appreciate all of your input and your loving thoughts!

Second, for those of you who have asked or are interested, the book I am working on is a modern version of (DON'T LAUGH)Pride & Prejudice. That's all I will say about it right now. I am still not done, I can't figure out a non-cheesey/corny way for them to end up together. And then I have to go back through and add in all the mindless filler details that I usually skip when I read a book - but right now the story is kind of skeletal without them. My original idea was to rewrite all of Austen's classics in a modern version. "The Austen Chronicles". Once I started I realized how difficult it will be - Pride & Prejudice for example, has been done and redone so many times it was really tough to find a new take on it. And it's not even really a new take - there is a mormon version on DVD that is kind of like it. The saving grace of this scheme, though, is that the concept of a relationship starting out as a love/hate thing is definitely not new - and Austen herself didn't invent it, either. We all know it just makes for the best love stories! But lots of people have tried to redo P&P: Bridget Jones, Austenland, etc. not to mention all the sequels and threequels and prequels people have written. I am just hoping I can actually finish it to my satisfaction; getting it published will be a whole new ball game.

Also I have been wanting to talk about the last couple of books I've read. I just finished The Mermaid Chair, which was pretty interesting and I absolutely love the way the writer described things. She was very talented.

Right now I am reading a FREAKING HILARIOUS book my friend Sarah loaned me - The Cinderella Pact. I can't even describe her style, but it's like having my sarcastic friend Sarah right in the room with me at all times. It is a hilarious book about three overweight friends who decide to lose weight, hence, The Cinderella Pact. I can't even count the times I have busted up laughing. Here is my favorite quote of the day: [I put on] "high-tech expensive mascara to make my puny lashes look fuller and longer. I pause and ponder how and why having hairy eyeballs became sexually desirable." That is just a smidgen of the kind of humor in this book - you really have to read it, whether you are overweight or not - hilarious.

Anyway, things got better after that last post, after they got worse, that is. Friday was kind of the same, though I did cuddle with each of the kids on the couch, had Emma read to me for 20 minutes while I sorted laundry (which in and of itself is a miracle as I detest laundry), AND when things started going downhill again after dinner I took the kids over to Layton park for a drive-through to see the 'Lights Before Christmas'. Of course I turned the radio up loud on the way over so they couldn't hear me sobbing in the front seat. Mackenna peed her seat on the way home, and by the time we walked through the door I couldn't look at any of my children. I put Spencer in his crib with an obligatory kiss on his forehead (it's not his fault his mommy's psycho, poor little tike), and told the girls to put themselves to bed - after which I sequestered myself in my room and cried in the dark for an hour. All better now, thanks to a 20-minute platonic massage from Sean and his letting me sleep in the next morning.

Sean was home on Saturday and we actually had a group Twilight/Dinner date planned for that night, so I knew it had to be a better day. Then we have been at church all day today and I get to go back in a couple of hours for a primary thing. Tomorrow Emma goes back to school - so I should be good until Christmas Break. I am thinking of premedicating.......

So, here are a couple of pictures I have been wanting to put on here. Mackenna was sick the day of her 'thanksgiving feast' at school, and so upset. So I pacified her by making our own little fingerfood feast at home:

Yup, those are green olives on White Cheddar Cheese-its, and very yummy if I do say so myself. Not bad considering I used to spread butter on Saltine crackers and dip them in pickle juice, which I also still like, by the way.

This one is for all the mothers of boys with cute spiky hair. I adore spiky hair on boys, but I had no idea how much work it is! This is Spencer after I attacked him with a comb & water, gel, hairspray, my hairdryer, more hairspray, and more hairdryer.

Seriously, it takes longer to do his hair than to do the girls. I think my hair actually took less time today too - it was the pile-your-hair-on-your-head-and-clip-it-day today. And the outfit he is wearing was given to us by the Heatons - bless your hearts! He looks handsome and he knows it, since I taught him how to say "I hansome'.

I had to capture this one: Emma's very creative pretzel-nibbled art.

She's nothing if not creative!

WARNING: Negatively Lengthy

2008-11-28T06:30:00.000-08:00

I am so frustrated I don't even know where to begin. This morning, this is what I woke up to: Spencer screaming 'mama......mama' getting louder each time. The girls were dancing around the kitchen like naked aborigenees (sp?) even though they know they are supposed to be quiet in the morning. And this was at 6:20. Oh my GOSH. This is the third day my kids have been on their out-of-school hyperactive rant. Maybe I shouldn't have given them jello and two kinds of pie yesterday. I am even tempted to feed them more pie this morning, just out of laziness. When I woke up on Wednesday I felt so good - I was looking forward to just spending structure-free time with my kids. The high ended when I came down the stairs, though. I don't know why, but I decided that I wanted to push to finish my book that day. So I sat on the couch all day, only stopping to make food for the kids and bark out 'I SAID sit down and watch t.v.......go upstairs if you can't be quiet.....JUST GO PLAY IN THE BASEMENT!'. Spencer cooperated nicely. He sat on the couch next to me with his nigh-night and his ee-ee (blanket/binki), and took about a 3 1/2 hour nap. The girls, on the other hand, made it their personal quest to get into as much trouble as they could. They tore their room apart several times, they decided to play in the plant they took from my father's funeral by putting their princesses and care bears inside it, then got soil all over their room when they took the toys out, they overwatered the plant AFTER I TOOK IT AWAY AND PUT IT IN THEIR BATHROOM, flooding the counter. During all this they kept wrestling and screaming and just being kids, but I JUST COULDN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE. So we went to Carls Jr. for dinner and Sean had been home about five minutes before he said 'what's wrong with you guys today - you're giving me a headache.' Yeah, honey. Try living with them all day.

Yesterday went much the same, maybe a degree or two better. I had determined after Wednesday that I would not try and work on my book, that I would just spend time with the kids. They were all up at 6:00 a.m., so I grudgingly layed on the couch while they watched t.v. Let me tell you, MY CHILDREN ARE INCAPABLE OF SILENCE. I mean, seriously - how the FREAK do they have all that energy at six in the morning? By the time the t.v. went off I was just irritated. I sequestered myself in my room and took a long hot bath, feeling better about the day, until I realized it was only 9:30. See, my spirits brighten considerably around 10:40 every day, when it's acceptable to start thinking about what to make the little demons for lunch. Then it's onto nap time, and it starts to go downhill from there. I spent a good part of the day cooking, and it felt good. Of course, a good mother would have gathered her children around her and let them help her make pie, savoring the memories for years go come. It reminds me of an article you might see in an old issue of Woman's Day. My holiday spread went something a little more like this: 'What is WRONG with you guys - GET AWAY FROM ME, I'M MAKING PIES HERE.' After dinner I decided we should all just sit down and watch a movie. The girls picked 'the parent trap', which I was grateful for since that meant I didn't have to watch Barbie as the Island Princess for the umpteenth time. Do you think my girls were quiet through the movie? I swear, the only thing they know how to do is make noise. By the time I got them in bed I felt horrible - mostly because I have done nothing but yell at them and say 'just go watch t.v.' over and over the past two days. We went to a friend's house to play games and gorge ourselves on pie, and at least I was able to laugh so hard that my face hurt by the time we left.

Now it is 7:49 a.m., and this day is looking much the same. I am all achey for reaasons unknown, and I want to go take a Tyelnol, though a Percocet would do the job nicely. Good thing I don't have any. I am afraid of going anywhere in the car today, lest I jerk the wheel into a bridge abutment in my frustration. I am seriously considering a handsome slice of apple pie for breakfast, and I am relishing the thought of my chilrens' faces when I tell them they can't have any because they are too hyper and the sugar isn't good for them.

WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE SO HARD? Do me a favor, please. If you have made it to the end of this then you have more patience than I do. Please leave me a little comment and tell me one or two things you do to stay positive about being home with small children - just some little way you try to enjoy them. I am obviously doing something wrong here.

Confessions of an in-the-closet writer

2008-11-23T07:10:00.001-08:00

I saw this on Becky Squire's blog and thought it was so cute, so I copied. Sorry, Becky!

7 Things I Can Do:
1. sing
2. sew
3. decorate cakes
4. scrapbook
5. creative writing (poetry, and currently, a book!)
6. talk on the phone for hours
7. blog for therapy

7 Things I Can’t Do:
1. interior decorating or anything crafty that gets hung up
2. math
3. clean the shower (why IS that?)
4. quilt
5. stay away from walmart
6. make lasagna (sean does)
7. pay attention to my hyper dog

7 Things That Attract Me To My Hubby:
1. his teddy bearness
2. his hypercolor cheeks
3. his sense of humor
4. his efforts to be involved in what's important to me (blogging, my book, cakes)
5. his willingness to surrender the remote
6. when he laughs at my jokes
7. when he bathes the kids or does the dishes without any hints from me and doesn't expect anything in return

7 Things I Always Say:
1. "RIGHT NOW!"
2. "Hey, NO."
3. "Come ON, throw me a bone here."
4. "Your room is a DISASTER."
5. "Emma, let's do your reading."
6. "Kenna, flush & wash!"
7. "Get DOWN, Spencie!"

7 Things I Love To Eat:
1. Carls Jr. Chocolate Malts
2. Sonic Cherry Coke (I get diet, but it's just NOT as good)
3. my friend Sarah's salads
4. ranch dressing (on something, of course)
5. potato chips
6. anything baked and sugary
7. popcorn with butter and popcorn salt

WELL, THAT WAS FUN. I tag anyone who wants to!

My Working Four-Year-Old and Twilight Spoiler

2008-11-22T13:26:00.000-08:00

I got some bad news yesterday while I was at the movie. My biological father has had cancer for the last year or so, and he passed away yesterday. For anyone who is up on the details of my sordid family history, you'll understand that I wasn't that close to him, and a positive relationship between us wasn't ever accomplished. For those of you who aren't privy to the gory details, just watch 'The Dysfunctional Home Show' on In Living Color, and you get the picture. Anyway, we will be going down to Richfield on Tuesday for the funeral. I am feeling guilty that I don't feel more sad - but mostly I am happy for him. He is finally out of pain and is able to be with his mom again, my grandma who died several years ago, and who I have missed severely. She was a very good friend of mine during those awful teenage years.

Mackenna got ahold of my camera again the other day, and I have to say she is actually getting quite good. I think she may have a future there. She took 124 pictures of everything, including several views of her room from Emma's bunk bed and Emma's bed itself, her feet, Spencer, Spencer's room and many details such as his sport light plate, etc. I don't want to encourage her to touch my very expensive camera, but she is getting really good. Somehow I don't feel like the cheapy $5 pretend camera going in her stocking will cut it. Maybe next year. Anyway, here are a few of her pictures:

WARNING: TWILIGHT MOVIE SPOILER TO THE END OF THE POST (that means you too, honey!)

What can I say? I was in a haze for about two hours after the movie. I went with my best friend Dionne and we went to Applebees after, and I kept seeing a pair of amber eyes looking back at me (SORRY, DI). I don't really think about the fact that the story takes place in high school - I think since it is written by an adult you forget that - but the movie made it abundantly clear that it is a teenage thing. I thought Kristin Stewart did a great job with Bella's character, and what can I say about Robert Pattinson? YOWSA. He totally pulled it off. He even brought an element of comedy (like when Bella sits next to him the first time in biology and he plugs his nose and looks like he's about to gag) to the character that I think may even have been lacking in the book itself - Edward is always so somber. I loved the way his eyes smiled when he smiled, but he also did the brooding well too. I only thought one part was too goofy to handle, the part where he is sucking the venom out of Bella's James-wound, and the faux-tortured look on his face. I actually laughed out loud at that. I loved the first kiss scene, even though that's not quite how it happened in the book - I will probably rewind that one a few times (okay, I will - no probably about it) when I get the DVD, WHICH I WILL. I was a little shocked at her informal attire though - 'holy cow, she's in her underwear'. I just about swooned in my seat when he said 'hold on, spidermonkey' and took her tree climbing on his back. I don't know why, but I thought it was so adorable. I absolutely loved Charlie. He wasn't at all how I pictured him, but I loved his character and all the comical things he said/did with a totally straight face. I so want to go out and buy the sound track, but it will have to wait.

The Leaning Tower of T.P......

2008-11-18T16:37:00.000-08:00

This is what happens when you let your children play unsupervised in the bathroom. When you are sitting on the couch, blissfully contemplating the delightful absence of kid-screeching.

I just asked the kids for a confession and Kenna was the culprit. I wonder if she has a future as an architect?

I have started my Christmas sewing finally. Raggedy Ann is all cut out and ready to be sewn. I was going to nix the PJs this year since I don't really have extra money for fabric; then I remembered that I had about 4 1/2 yards of different Christmas fabrics I bought a couple years ago for a table cloth or something. The other great part is that the patterns I bought last year I never used, since Angela Sedgwick had her patterns already cut out at the church. So, basically the PJs are already paid for.

In closing, here is a quirky and potentially exploitive picture I took the other day. The story that goes along is actually pretty funny; the girls were fighting over who got to lick the spatula after I made a chocolate mint cheesecake (for which, by the way, i crushed Spencer's chocolate animal cookies to make the crust) - ANYWAY, where was I? Oh, yes. So this was my solution to the sibling rivalry. They actually did touch tongues a couple times, but that doesn't leave this post!

Emma has a 'crush'......

2008-11-14T19:17:00.001-08:00

This was Emma's reaction watching David Archuleta on the Ellen Degeneres show today:

If you're going to be smitten at the age of seven, what better object of your affection? At least we know he's a good Mormon boy.

The New Toothpaste

2008-11-10T17:45:00.000-08:00

So last night Spencer came out of the bathroom holding Emma's toothbrush and the thing of toothpaste saying "buh-bee" (brush teeth). I took Emma's toothbrush away from him and put it back in the bathroom. I turned slowly and followed droplets of brown water to a toilet that hadn't been flushed and had a few goodies floating in it. I looked at the toothbrush and nearly yacked when I saw the lovely coat of brown pushed into the bristles. NASTY. He had been playing in the poopy toilet water with Emma's toothbrush. I FEED THIS CHILD OFF MY SPOON. Of course I came unglued at Mackenna for not flushing (she always forgets) and got as mad as I could at an almost two-year-old who doesn't understand why mom is yelling at him for wanting to brush his teeth.

Today we took the kids to see Santa at the mall. This is the only picture I got since I had to hurry and snap it before the grumpy elf came over and told me that the new 'mall policy' is not to allow any pictures except theirs - even if you're not technically standing on their carpet. Anyway, before I could even rehearse with them what they were asking for (brainwash them into asking for what we already got them) Emma asked Santa for a Raggedy Ann doll and 'David Archuletta songs'. She saw me looking at the Kmart add yesterday and when I saw his CD coming out tomorrow I gasped. She said 'is he the one I like to sing?'. She loved him on American Idol, and she belts his songs out in the car. The other day she said she wanted an i-pod for christmas - how does she even know what that is? Then today she said she wanted her 'own REAL phone'. Uh - no, honey. When you have a job, and a car, and are driving by yourself late at night, then you can buy your own cell-phone. What is happening to my baby?

Mackenna told Santa she wanted some pink earphones (she saw some of those 'gumy' ones in the walmart catalogue) and her 'own REAL camera'. Hate to break it to you guys, but remember, Santa doesn't always bring you everything you ask for. Maybe he'll bring you a lovely doll house instead. (Costco, $90 - joint gift).

Just before we went to the mall we went out in the rain looking for pine cones. I am having some cub scouts over to my house tomorrow for a den meeting, and I saw these cute Christmas tree neckerchief slides that you make out of pine cones. No way I was going to buy a thing of pine cones when they are laying all over the ground. I was about to either do a mission impossible over someone's fence or drive my family up into the snowy mountains to find them. Luckily a church on the corner had a few pine trees and the pine cones were plentiful.

I took the girls to get their hair cut on Saturday. Emma was worried everyone at school would laugh at her, and Mackenna suddenly developed social anxiety at the same time.

I think I sound pretty boring today, so I'll quit while I'm behind!

Andy Rooney on Flu Vaccines and Day Light Savings

2008-11-06T07:59:00.000-08:00

I have several questions to pose to anyone who cares. Or maybe you don't care - at any rate I need to vent. WARNING: I am about to sound like Andy Rooney on 60 minutes.

1. What is the point of a flu shot anyway? Seriously. Spencer has had horrible diarrhea ever since he got his on Monday, which equals diaper rash, which equals me getting kicked in the chest or the crotch or wherever his stubby little legs can reach while I change him. I end up practically sitting on him to keep him still while I change him. It's about every hour or so that he yells "bum-bum!" and starts wailing. Then I have to hold his ankles up in the air with my right hand since it's the strongest, while he bucks and tries to flip over as I wipe him. That's to get the back of the bum. Then to get in the folds I have to pin each of his legs down under mine while he keeps kicking and slides across the floor, smearing diarrhea or diaper cream across my lovely shag carpet. If any of you come to my house and see a suspicious stain, DON'T ASK. My RN husband will probably chide me for my flu vaccine-cynicism, but what can I say? It's getting old already. I don't even know if his bowel issues are a result of the shot. Lest any of you think I have no compassion, I do feel bad for the little guy. It can't feel good having your poop burn on the way out and then sit against your skin, and then get scraped off you by something that is cold and wet.

2. Why does maintaining a household have to be so hard? Every aspect of it is a challenge right now. Mouths to feed. Clothes to wash. Toys to pick up. Dishes - endless dishes - to do. It never ends. I understand the need for opposition. I understand that challenges make us grow in ways we probably wouldn't otherwise. This is the eternal question I ask myself over and over. Why does it have to be so hard? I keep feeling like the Lord is trying to teach my family something. Some valuable lesson we will need later, which can only come through the hardships we are facing right now. Don't get me wrong. There is no big tragedy at our house. It's just the same thing everyone goes through when you try to live on one income. And yet, I have to ask myself how many of our needs are truly needs. I think a person can live on surprisingly little - it's just that we're used to a certain standard of living. Plenty - of everything. At least gas prices are dropping, right? The other day I filled my beast for $76 instead of $90. (See, honey, I CAN be positive).

3. Why do my kids wake up while it's still dark EVERY MORNING? Tell me. If I catch them in time I make them get their little fannies back into bed, but this morning I was too late. I heard their little voices drifting up from downstairs just after 6 a.m. I was too lazy to go all the way downstairs, so I whispered "shhhhhhh!" at the top of my lungs over the banister and went back to bed. At least Spencer slept a little later. Trouble is, them getting up right after 6 was actually like them getting up just after 7 before the time change, and they were waking up at 6 before the time change. At any rate, we were all up before 7 today. The last week has been horrible for mornings. I wake up in a bad mood and the kids have been extra rambunctious in the morning, which makes me grumpier. I try to make breakfast, which I hardly ever do any more, and Spencer hangs on me crying the whole time. Or the girls both want to 'help' make the muffins and end up fighting or getting pushed off their chairs by Spencer because he wants to help too. Maybe I should just invest in a cereal dispenser. Or a robot.

4. Why is it that the only real 1:1 time I have with Emma is the time Spencer decides to be needy? I have been trying to sit down with Emma right after school and get her reading done. Inevitably, the MOMENT I plant myself on the couch Spencer runs across the room and slams into me, crying. And he won't just sit nicely and listen to Emma read, either. I have tried turning on a show for him, but it distracts Emma. I have tried sitting him down with a snack - doesn't work either. I am at a loss. Finally we have started putting Spencer to bed and then letting the girls stay up long enough for reading - but seriously, that is a risk. Usually by 7:00 I don't want to look at any of my kids any more.

5. Has anyone seen 'Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood'? You know the part where she totally runs away and stays in a hotel on the beach by herself for a few days? Yeah. I'm there.

Here is some Andy Rooney wisdom, quite relevant to my little rant up there. Good on ya, Andy!
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=3087120n

We're off to see the wizard.......

2008-11-01T08:04:00.000-07:00

I am so glad Halloween is over for this year. And even though Sean and I went to a party after getting the kids tucked snugly in bed, I have to ask myself if all the time at the sewing machine is worth wearing the costume for a few hours. Once again I have vowed not to do a theme next year. I have at least vowed not to think about it until after the new year! Anyway, here is the finished product!

Scarecrow:

Lion (renamed the grumpy lion instead of the cowardly lion - he was crying unless he had candy in his mouth):

Glinda:

Dorothy (definitely cuter than the original!):

Tin Girl (there are no words for how adorable she was!):

Wicked Witch/Toto:

I had to put this on here too. The Bruns always go all out for Halloween. Get this - she didn't have a pattern and she 'threw it together' yesterday. (But according to her, she doesn't sew.) WHAT THE HECK? As far as I'm concerned, with my Padme/Star Wars obssession, that is freakin' awesome.

Here is my awesome friend Sarah as the star from the movie Stardust:

The day before Halloween Carissa and I cashed in our much-needed girls' night out. We started with a pedicure at 99 Nails, where I relished splurging on a flower.
There is something about getting a flower - it makes the whole experience like 110% better! Then we went to the mall and had our Twilight T-shirts made to wear to the movie! It wasn't exactly what I wanted - I wanted just a picture of the cover on the shirt, but they couldn't get it exactly the way it was. So we settled for this:

I am elated. After t-shirts we went to Chili's for dinner. It was awesome!

Here are a couple of Kenna all ready for her school party on Thursday. For those of you who don't know, I had to bribe her to be the Tin Girl by telling her she could wear her Tinkerbell costume to school.

Playing Dress-Up

2008-10-19T19:44:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-16T13:33:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-10-11T22:44:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-08T08:19:00.000-07:00

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?)

2008-10-05T09:43:00.000-07:00

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.