"not me" Monday (blessing #3)

I absolutely did not share my laundry drama with y'all two weeks ago and promise to show you my fun laundry room "later this week". Nor did I forget that I hadn't promised to do that.

This is our laundry room. I am grateful, grateful, grateful to have a laundry room. Without this little room we would never have moved into this place and met so many incredible people and be enjoying this fantastic neighborhood and wonderful ward.

This space is . . . snug, cozy and every other cute word for TINY!

I have exactly 7.5 inches of clearance for me and my butt to get to the washing machine.

This room is packed with two furnaces, a large hot water heater, a water softener system, our washer and dryer and miscellaneous stuff like the iron, ironing board, our card table and chairs, brooms, on and on and on. You get the idea.

The kids have begun helping with me with the laundry. They are excellent at emptying the dryer and Ella is finally tall enough to empty the washer into the dryer. Grace or Joe is usually on hand to then push the clothes into the dryer. They have a great little system worked out.

So, to get back to my "not me" Monday. I do not have a tiny little laundry room, that is not cramped and will not not let me gain a single pound for fear I won't be able to reach the washer.
I have not put my sweet offspring to work in said laundry room and I do not smile to myself in joy that they are finally big enough to help.

p.s. I have not eaten cheesecake twice in two days (with cherries AND blueberries on top).

(another p.s. my kids being old enough and happy to help is definitely blessing #3)

trA nmutuA

More backwards blogging for me and, of course, for you.

Grace loves doing "art prachecks".

Occasionally these projects survive the day (the drying time) and make it to . . . the closet door!

Yes, we have side by side coat closets which have doors perfect for hanging art. And we do!

What else do you craft in the fall besides turkeys?

(Ella will do a non-school art project only if she thinks its cool enough.)
Oh ya, scarecrows and Indians! Is it "PC" to make Indians anymore?
Ella made this one at school. Its actually reversible (turkey on the other side). Nifty eh?

(Joe will craft . . . if he's in the mood.)
Joseph wanted to glue every last feather on his bird. So he did.
Grace didn't approve and Joe didn't care.

Happy Crafting
(for all seasons and holidays)

NEEWOLLAH

I'm not much of a backwards blogger but it occurs to me that my lovely and loving family have missed a lot of the kids. So I decided to do just a little backwards blogging.

We thoroughly loved Halloween in our new neighborhood.

We, of course, went to grandma and grandpa's ward party then our own ward party plus the Halloween Parade & Party at school THEN trick-or-treating.

We got some serious use out of this year's costumes.

Ella decided to be a vampire weeks before Halloween and stuck with it. She INSISTED on having black hair and blood dripping from her fangs. She looked really good. Heidi (3 years old) was so scared she wouldn't come near Ella. Thankfully Sean was able to convince Heidi that it was really just Ella and the fun continued. It was hilarious!

Grace was a ga-zorgous "Queen". She discovered she loves ringlets in her hair and blush. We did two solid weeks of ringlets and blush after Halloween. She also discovered that Queen dresses are very itchy. Oh, the price of beauty!

Joseph wanted to be a spider, a ghost, a race car and 14 others things but finally decided on a horse when I pulled it out of dress-up and got him to try it on. He would only wear the "head" for pictures, wouldn't gallop and refused to say "neigh" more than once. But it all turned out pretty cute!

When Halloween night finally arrived Grace had worn the Queen dress three or four times already and was tired of it itching her (despite tights, a full slip and a shirt underneath). Grace decided to be a fairy (shocking!), but not a matching fairy. This is exactly what she wanted to wear and she love, love, loved it!

We had an awesome Halloween trick-or-treating with cousins with aunts, uncles and grandparents in tow.
Happy Halloween
(in January)

Only Children

When I took this picture is was literally 20 degrees outside.

Only Children!

Seriously! He was having a blast on his "Superman" scooter. Its actually Spiderman but Joe will NOT call it his Spiderman scooter. Its ONLY Superman.

"Just Supaman, mom."

Only children would think to themselves, " This would be awesome . . . on snow."

(okay, children and the cast of Jackass)

Oh and it was fun . . . for about 30 seconds.
Grace shovelled and Joseph rode his scooter, on a very chilly afternoon.
VERY CHILLY!

My Dad's Fault

Friday night is Movie Night at our house. At the end of a long week of school, its nice to have the girls excited about something we do at home.

And do they ever get excited about Movie Night!

Usually I choose a movie (they would fuss for hours if I let them pick), let them pick dinner (within reason) and a treat (we make a special trip to the store).

This particular night was Halloween Eve and I was feeling especially lenient so they got two treats and Spooookiwi soda in little Frankenstein cans (btw, nasty stuff). I was declared the best mom ever (which is normal for movie night) and we watched Hocus Pocus (the best Halloween flick ever) on our bed (wins, hands down, over the couch every week).

I love our little tradition.

Its my dad's fault because a thousand million years ago my dad would have "junk food night" with us. We got to choose soda (which my mom never allowed), a TV dinner (this was the 80's folks) and Little Debbies. We'd get to eat in front of the TV (usually taboo) and watch a movie. My dad continues the tradition with the grand kids but we live too far.

So the tradition lives on at my house and I hope my kids will remember "Movie Night" as fondly as I remember "Junk Food Night".

And who doesn't like to be the "best mom ever" once a week?

The Most

I have a friend, Denae, who asked the question on her blog, "What's the most tender thing you've ever seen?" I gave the question I quick thought, couldn't decide, then went to find my chiming cell phone. When I returned to the computer our random pictures screen saver was on. This picture was on and I instantly thought of Denae's question.
This happens to be when Joseph was born. For one reason or another I don't have this picture with the girls but I'm so glad I have at least one.
This is how I see my children for the first time. I only have one free hand and about a minute before the baby is whisked away. The nurses hand the baby to Adam and he brings them to me. And for the first time, still feeling the warmth and tugging of the surgeon and the OB doing their thing, I get just a moment with my newest heart throb. Just a moment to meet and savor this brand new person I love so deeply and completely.

These are the best moments. These are the moments that make me, yes me, cry. And the tears collect in the ears, just like the country song. And then Adam and the baby are gone. I stay behind for a while longer, then post-op, warm blankets and chills, the "good stuff" in my IV, then nurses and doctors and visitors and more nurses. The moment is gone and parenting and growing up begins.

These are my most tender moments.

And yours?

CREEPY

Is it just me or is it not totally creepy when you're at an indoor fast food playground with your kids and some guy comes into the playplace to eat but doesn't have children with him? And the restaurant outside the playplace is practically empty. Is it just me or is it not then time to go? It was creepy and we left.

CREEPY . . . I hate that!

Sure Sign of Summer

SNOW SHACKS!

Snow shacks (my generic term for all sno-cones little hut/booth places) are one of my sure signs of summer.

A snow shack near us opened today and we were all over it. As soon as Ella got off the bus we headed straight there. Good thing too. When we got there, there was five people in front of us and when we left there were 15 people behind us.

Grace got rainbow.

Joseph wanted "red" so I got him Tiger's Blood (one of my favs).

Ella wanted rainbow.

Within five minutes of getting our cones, true to form, someone had to pee. We carefully headed home to finish them in the front yard.

Adam will surely be disappointed that we didn't wait for him to make our first of the summer sno-cone run. Don't worry, Adam, we do love you and promise to force ourselves to eat another sno-cone this weekend when you're with us.

Oh the sacrifices we make for the ones we love.



p.s. Weird spacing is annoying in the post but I'm not OCD enough to redo it. You'll live, right? I'm already over it.

Why Do Kids Do These Things?

The weather was so beautiful today I finally took the kids to the "sand park". Now as a general rule, I truly abhor playgrounds that are covered in sand but this one is the closest by far and we were short on time.
This year Joseph is big enough to play by himself on the toys. He loves to dig and dig and dig. Why do boys love to dig? And why do kids, at about two and a half, enter the "cheese" phase? You know, mama says, "Joe, look at mama." and Joseph squenches his face and says "cheese" usually without looking at the camera. I got lucky with this pic.

And then why do little girls love, love, love to dump sand on the slide?

Then why do big sisters love, love, love to order little sisters not to dump sand on the slide then stomp over to sweep it off when little sisters don't listen?
I haven't a clue why my kids love, love, love these things but I do know that they are stinkin' funny to watch.

(P.S. When Grace was dumping the sand on the slide she was pretending to "feed the poor". She fed the poor on the swings, on the slide and up on the platform. Grace is such a funny girl.)

More Firsts for Our Kids

We were all excited about getting to go to the Draper Temple open house. The girls thought they were so big to get to go INSIDE the temple. Adam and I were excited for them to have this experience at such a young age. Joe was . . . less than thrilled.

The tour "begins" at one of the nearby meetinghouses. We watched a short video on temples featuring . . . the Draper Temple. Did you know that it will be the 129th operational temple and the 12th temple in Utah? Betcha didn't know. Aren't you glad you read this blog?

Then we waited just a few minutes in the gym for the bus to take us up the hill to the temple grounds.
My girls said the bus rides were the second best thing about getting to visit the temple.

Joseph, once again, less than thrilled.

And here, according to my girls, the best part of getting to visit the temple: getting a cookie at the reception afterwards.

Our girls seemed particularly impressed with the baptismal font on the back of the twelve oxen (they thought it was a hot tub) and all the stairs we got to climb. So in order of impressiveness

cookies

bus rides

oxen carrying hot tub

stairs

I love going to the temple. It was especially cool to be able to have my children with me and to watch their expressions and hear their honest comments.

I particularly loved the artwork in the temple. Lately, I've found myself paying particular attention to what hangs in the temples. The Draper Temple has several Minerva Teichert paintings that I love, love, LOVE! It was like a scavenger hunt for me, looking for the next Minerva Teichert around the corner.

I also loved that the shape of the pansy (you know, the little flower) was used quite a bit, especially on the ceiling of the celestial room.

If you are or will be anywhere near Salt Lake between now and March 14, take the time to go visit the temple. Until March 14th, ANYONE can go, member of the church or not. It is requested that you get a reservation but they certainly won't turn you away without one. They didn't even ask us for our tickets just welcomed us in.

If you have questions, go. The church representatives, missionaries and not, do not approach people in the temple or the reception afterwards. They wait to be spoken to.

Visit http://www.mormon.org/ to learn more.

Sa-tur-day is a spe-cial day . . .

Quick! Name that song. If you got it you were obviously a regular in Primary circa 1985.

I seems like we don't sing that song anymore in Primary. Why not, I wonder?

Anyway, not the point of this post. The real point is that Saturday really was a special day for me. I spent most of Saturday with Angie at the "Successful Mothering Convention." I had so much fun with Angie and I learned/was reminded of a lot. We spent a good seven hours soaking up insights, advice and information about how to enjoy this journey called motherhood. As I get around to re-reading my notes I'll post interesting things I learned and cool facts I gleaned from the day.

Adam had worked a late shift the night before. As I left the house at about 9:45 am, I put a movie in for the kids, snuggled them in with blankets and told them that when the movie was over daddy would be ready to wake up so go jump on him.

Well, when the movie ended Ella decided to "let daddy sleep." Ella proceeded to be the mommy for the day. She "made" lunch for everyone, including me and Adam.

The kids played games and went peacefully about their day. Mind you that Adam was here the whole time, just asleep, much to his surprise. Adam was shocked to wake up to happily playing children and already made lunch, a bit later that day.

How sweet is our Ella is be so thoughtful of Adam and so responsible for her siblings. She continutes to amaze me with new grown up things she says and does.

Thank you, Angie, for inviting me to the convention.

After the convention Adam and I got to go out on a real live date. Vickie watched the kids so we could go to dinner (for Adam's birthday). Thank you.

It was so strange being away from the kids pretty much all day. I got an awfully warm reception when we picked them up at grandma's after our date. I got more hugs and kisses for the next 24 hours than I could count. You'd have thought they hadn't seem me in a year instead of just 12 hours. It was cute, funny and heart warming all once.

the Big 1 0 0

Believe it or not, this is my 100th post. I thought I'd use this chance to share my second of 52 blessings. My sweet kids definitely deserve to be right up at the top of my list.

This picture, taken last summer (when it wasn't witch butt cold outside), showcased my kids personalities at the time perfectly.

Ella, our helper, mother, bosser

Joseph, our patient and willing little brother who would eat bugs if Ella told him to

Grace, our fun loving, care free spirit

Now, five months later the kids are much the same only Joseph is developing an independent streak and Grace is trying her best to boss Joe (with little luck).

-

They keep us always happy, sometimes frazzled, usually busy and often laughing.

Penelope Snow

Meet Penelope, Penelope Snow. Miss Snow arrived yesterday morning. We woke up to more new snow and the kids talked me, yes me, into going out to play in it.

The kids got to try out their new snow gear for the first time this year. We played outside for an hour and no one got cold or wet. Yeah!
Joseph ate more snow than he played with. We had about 15 talks about only eating new, fluffy snow.
Pappaw, this ones for you. The girls remembered the story pappaw told them about snow angels and the promise they made to make snow angels and think of pappaw. They even remembered to have their snow angels holding hands.

And . . . the mess.

The mess only took about five minutes to clean up. Thankfully I have lots of room for hanging damp clothes. An hour of fun, five minutes of clean up - not a bad trade, I'd say.

When we came inside the kids had a choice of hot chocolate or rootbeer floats for a treat. They all chose rootbeer floats. I'm glad they stayed warm.

Born on Christmas Day

Our new favorite Christmas song is on this album. If you are looking for one to get this year, get this one.

Our kids love, love, love Born on Christmas Day. Love it like, ask us to put it on repeat at bedtime and listen to it over and over and over until they fall asleep. Yep, its that good! Click on the album cover to give it a listen. Suffer through the talking at the beginning by imaging my girls quoting it word for word every time they listen to the song. Oh, they do!

Minus the Gory Details

I just typed (and then deleted) a posting about how this picture tells the story of our night at the ward Christmas party. I deleted it because I'm trying to be more positive and that night was a less than positive experience over all. I will spare y'all the gory details.

I love that my kids (okay just the girls, like Joe would talk to the scary guy) agonized over what to ask Santa for. Grace ended up asking for a wand and Ella for an Easy Bake Oven or a keyboard. I love it when they make Santa's job easy.

Beauty Operators

Last night the girls said, "Mom, can we pleeease paint you nails and brush your hair?" They didn't have to twist my arm. So, while we watched the Charlie Brown Christmas special Ella painted the left hand and foot then Grace painted the right hand and foot. My hair got brushed and my legs/feet and arms/hands got lotioned about ten times.

After watching Charlie Brown one and a half times I declared that I was as beautiful as I was going to get and thanked them for being to sweet to me. I got big hugs from both girls who then declared that I was the best mom in the whole wide world.

So all I have to do to be the "best mom in the whole wide world" is let them brush my hair, paint my nails and lotion me to within an inch of my life?

I can only hope they will love doing this for YEARS to come and that I remain "the best mom in the whole wide world".

Here's to hoping!

p.s. My grandma Agnes calls women who work in salons "beauty operators". I've always loved to hear her say "beauty operator". I still makes me smile. Beauty Operator.

Deck the Halls

A week or so ago we hauled the Christmas decorations out of storage. That means one very sad thing for our girls.

The girls stand there looking like this and I am saying, "Scarecrow HAS to go back into storage. No, scarecrow can not stand next to the Christmas tree. Give him one last hug so we can put him in the box." They love that scarecrow. I'm not sure Ella should ever be allowed to help pick out a holiday decoration ever again. She gets a little attached.

Once all the Thanksgiving and fall decorations where tucked safely away we could finally get into the Christmas stuff. I have lots of very uncute pics from this evening that I'm choosing not the share. For now, we'll have to live with a pic of all our stockings. My mom made all the stockings(except for mine) for my family. Grandma Agnes made mine for my first Christmas and I love it. Thank you to Grandma Agnes and my mom for our lovely stockings. They are beautiful and just the right size.
Our perfectly sized Christmas tree, lit with white and colored lights, decorated with an interesting assortment of ornaments that I wouldn't trade for the world and topped with a bow I despise. This makes the ninth Christmas now that I've looked for a tree topper that I like and have had no luck. We'll keep using the dumb bow until I give in and buy something that's "good enough" but not great. I'm a little picky sometimes. Doesn't show, does it?
And the best decorations of all: bathed, brushed, pottied, happy and sleepy children. Can you tell that Joseph really likes the tree? Thankfully, he's very careful. Very! Joe is the lights police at our house. When he gets up in the morning, he plugs in the lights. When we leave the house, he makes sure they are unplugged. Its very serious business to him and hilarious for us to watch.

Welcome to my Week

Yep! This pretty says it all about my week, our week. Its been a doozy!

Joseph has been doing LOTS of this. All toddlers do it but that doesn't mean I have to like it. For heaven sake, there is no need to run screaming whenever I say your name. And yes, you still have to take a nap!
Welcome to every meal at our house this week. If only I would feed him marshmallows and chocolate milk six times a day we could avoid all this drama. Sorry bubba, please EAT!
"Joseph, you may not have another sippy of chocolate milk until you eat some dinner." Mean, cruel and wicked mother that I am.

And then Grace joined the fun, just for laughs I suppose! She decided she really did want bangs after all. Nice, Grace, nice!

And yes, Grace is listening to my ipod. Anything to get three minutes of silence. Grace has a fabulously cute little voice and has lots of interesting things to say but holy moly, she doesn't breathe. Breathe, Grace, breathe!

Fun with school supplies continued when Grace LOST HER MIND and decided to write on the couch with a red Sharpie. I was speechless and clueless on what to do with Grace.

Grace is now banned from scissors and markers of all kinds. She's not even allowed to touch that draw in the kitchen. "Don't even touch it, Grace Anne!"

btw, the red ink came out with just a touch of dish soap on a wet rag and some scrubbing.

A Tiny Look Back

Holidays are a gazillion times more fun with excited little ones all around.

Halloween 2005 in Utah

We love sharing holidays with family and friends.

Ella is wearing a dress that Aunt Stephie wore when she was little, very cool!

Grace was a cheetah this year. All my kids wear this cheetah costume the Halloween they are one. Funny note, Maddie wore this cheetah first when she was 7 months old.

Halloween 2006 in St. Louis

No, I was not dressed up for Halloween as a "tired mom". I was, in fact, exhausted. Joseph was one month old and being a mother of three was kicking my trash.
Grace loved the hood of this costume and kept it on ALL THE TIME.
Ella loved her green face and was convinced that no one knew who she was. Our sweet friends played along.

Halloween 2007 - St. Louis
This is us at Boo at the Zoo (just another fun and free thing to do in St. Louis).
Joseph was a new walker at this point and wanted to walk EVERYWHERE.
The girls were very opinionated about their costumes this year. I chose not to fight that battle, gave them free reign and tah-dah!

Sharing

Our girls are quite the little sharers.

Adam wasn't able to go to the Halloween party with us last night. Ella and Grace felt bad that he was missing out on all the fun (aka candy) so they shared.

Grace wrote dad a whole "letter" and drew him "shapes" (that's the rolled up one). For some reason they felt the need to unwrap the candy then add the ice thingies, "So it doesn't melt, mom!" said Ella with a very "duh" tone in her voice. (Yah, in case it melts inside our house. Where the heat isn't on. At night. Right. Duh me!)

Ella, Grace and Joe are all great sharers. They are more than happy to share their candy with each other and with mom and dad. I'm hoping they hold on to this trait for the next 100 years or so.