A Whole Bag Full of Tricks

Princess is 9 months and can do all sorts of tricks except sleep through the night. That little stinker. We celebrate the days she sleeps more than 2 hours. It's a good thing she's so cute. She has taken to sleeping on her belly with her hands tucked up under her face. Makes for some interesting marks on her face when she wakes.

Princess is a champion crawler and spends most of her day chasing mom around in hopes she will hold her. Mom now spends most of her day trying to keep the floors clean.

Princess is very aware of when Dad comes home and will start fussing if he doesn't come say hi. She loves to wave to him, while mom is holding her of course.

 

She is finding  all sorts of new places to play.

Often makes a back of throat growl sound when playing

and can pull herself to a standing position.

The only problem is she thinks she can stand so she lets go and of course falls down. 

 

Thus sporting a few bruises (the first of many, I'm sure).

She isn't cruising yet, but as you can see standing isn't too far away. 

Thank goodness she hasn't attempted the stairs yet.

And finally, she will eat solid foods! Well, only if she can feed it to herself and if she likes it. So far cheerios and Gerber yogurt snacks are okay. Still not a big fan of the spoon. We will take any success for it gives us hope that some day she will stop nursing. Not really trying to do this now but need hope that someday it will happen. Especially since mom just got to asked to go to girls camp this summer. We have seven months to get this kiddo prepared to survive with dad.  

On the First Day of Christmas

12 more days til Christmas!

I was reminded of this the other day. One of my favorite versions ever!

I'm Glad You Came

I dropped my six seven (just had a birthday) off at school, yesterday, at a different spot than our normal one in front of the school.  I dropped her off on the side of the school. There is a chain link fence that she has to run around and then it goes straight onto the playground. As I drove up to the fence, I was assaulted with a memory of when I used to drop my oldest off for school. We used to drop her off at this spot all the time and just inside the fence would be a small group of girls waiting for Karebears grand arrival. What a joy it was to see interactions as they headed in to start a fresh new day of socializing and fun (oh and probably some learning).

There was no group of friends waiting to greet Tator but I still enjoyed the few minutes I sat and watched her before heading home. After running through the opening in the fence, she spotted the swings and ran straight to them. After sizing up the open swings she picked one a little too high for her. She tossed her backpack onto the ground and maneuvered first one leg and then the other up and into the swing. She then convinced a friend to hand her her backpack which she placed in her lap. She then sat there, swaying back and forth, taking in the world.

It was then that I noticed the song playing on the radio. The words of the chorus pierced my heart (and were stuck in my mind all day)

The sun goes down, the stars come out,

And all that counts, is here and now,

My universe, will never be the same, 

I'm glad you came, came came

While not really what the song is about, it was the reminder I needed of how what counts is the here and now.  I am so glad each one of my children have come into my life.

Capturing a Moment in Time

We recently got family pictures taken. Well, actually, it was awhile ago. So glad that is over with! I hate the work in getting ready for pictures-coordinating a time, deciding outfits, where to go, what poses, getting all dolled up. And then hoping we got any decent pictures after all the effort.

In reality our photo session wasn't that bad and kind of fun. The last few weeks we have been deciding on and getting pictures printed. So fun to have these adorn our walls. We have also been working on our  Christmas card. Well leave the picture we picked a surprise for now.

Here's some of the other cute gems we have spent way to much time adoring....

Love the kids' faces

Twenty Years

The other day I saw a post on facebook 

asking for help to plan my 20 year high school reunion.

20?

Has it really been twenty years? 

It seems like just yesterday I was a teenager 
with dreams of what my life would be like after high school
. 

I just lived a lot of it!

Was it anything like what I thought it would be?

 On Sunday, my husband showed me this comic.

Could basically sum up my life.

 I remember, as the all knowing sixteen year old I was, looking at my mother and thinking I was never going to be like her. (Sorry mom-love ya) I was never going to have stretch marks, varicose veins, wrinkles or grey hair. I have become my mother!

In my late teens, I was living on the brink of technology. We had a word processor type writer! It was soon complimented by an archaic computer (couldn't tell you any details; I'm not techno like that). I know it had no mouse and function keys! I was a whiz at function keys back in the day. Had them all memorized, too!  In fact, one day I went to one of the computer labs, on my college campus, to print out my paper and waited until a computer without a mouse was available for I had no clue how to use one. Oh and did the research for that paper all from printed journals. World Wide Web? Yeah, that was the thing that crashed 5 times in the 20 minute presentation my professor was excitedly showing us. Who would ever use that? 

Any way, I remember trying to help my mother do some work on our computer. Bless her heart. She would write down every step and then come and ask me again what to do before doing it. I'm sure sometimes I thought  it would have been easier for both of us if I just did it for her. 

The other day I watched my oldest crank out a power point presentation for her history class. I have no idea how to do that. What took her an afternoon would have taken me days to just figure out how. Let alone actually put in the information and pictures I wanted. 

Like my mother, some how while I've been busy changing diaper, cleaning, cooking and doing laundry, technology has advanced and I find myself struggling to learn new things. I'm no longer the adored mother who knows it all (although a few of my young ones might still look at me that way-thanks heavens). It's much easier if my kids  just ask Dad or faster if they do it themselves. 

Oh well, each day I'm trying to learn new things. Some days I actually am the kind of mother I want to be. My life may not have been exactly what I thought it would be twenty years ago but I've learned that sometimes we give up ideas of what we wanted for what will really make us happy in reality. Life is fun, unpredictable and getting faster all the time.  I'm looking forward to the next twenty!

Our Saturday Evening

It's 8:00 pm

30 degrees

 over 6 inches of snow on the ground

perfect weather for a home BYU football game.

For some reason the girls have been more into the games this year and wanted to attend a game. Dad was able to score some tickets for them and some friends. I'm sure the weather only helped to make their first game one they won't forget.

Oh and they had to clear off the seats before sitting

 As for me I was more than happy 

to stay at home

 nice and warm

and enjoy the moon lit snow out my front window.

After getting the youngest three to bed,

 I sat down

in my quiet house

with a mug of hot chocolate 

to watch a movie.

Ahhh....................perfect moment!

But like anything in motherhood it was just a moment.

Soon that sleeping soundly baby was awake. 

That's okay for the promising movie end up being so, so.

As for the hot chocolate, once again I realized I really don't like hot chocolate. It just tastes like flavored water.  I tend to get it too hot and burn the tip of my tongue. After wards I'm often left with a strange after taste and still have a lingering desire for chocolate. I guess I just prefer cider or wassail. 

Now, if I want chocolate, I'd much prefer Lindt Lindor Peppermint Dark Chocolate Truffles . So glad they are in stores......tis the season!

Halloween 2012

It's that time a year again. Blogs and facebook are inundated with photos of cute kids in costume. In reality mom's everywhere are saying, Look what I have spent the last few days (or weeks) doing!

Some buy. Some make. Some borrow. Some modify. Some pull together whatever is laying around the house. Blood, sweat, tears and money is all spent in hopes to see smiles on our kids faces and let them enjoy being something else.

At our house it is no different.

Even mom and dad got in on the fun

I think it should be mandatory rule that kids wear the same costume for at least two years. Less work for mom and the costumes would definitely be put to good use.  I can't complain, though, for most of the time ours get reused in later years by siblings. They have also been used for many days of dress-up.

This year we are trying to wear them as much as possible. We attended our ward's trunk or treat. We went on a pumpkin walk where we saw some pretty amazing carved pumpkins and played games.

Flash found playing pumpkin checkers was just up his alley.

Today we have class parties and a school parade. It's then trick-or-treating while our teenagers are having a party with friends.

Hope you all have a

Happy Halloween

It's Fall Time

"because the leaves are changing colors" said Bud Boy.

We have been doing some crafts related to leaves.

Roll squares of tissue paper around the eraser end of a pencil. 

Dip into glue and put onto a stick drawn tree.

One day we went on a walk and collected some leaves.

We then pressed our leaves in contact paper to preserve them. 

We also used some to do leaf rubbings

We then used both types of leaves to make this mobile which now hangs in Bud Boy's room

Now off to rake up all those leaves covering our yard. 

Hopefully we'll even get to jump into some piles

The Bears are Back!

For part of the kids Fall Break we went to the zoo. The last time we went we were disappointed that the bears were gone.  We have been looking forward to this trip for that exhibit is finished.

The polar bear loved to put on a show....






 My favorite memory, from my childhood trips to the zoo, was the seals. So glad they are back!

There are a lot of fun new places to take pictures

 Along with the traditional places

We loved seeing the gorilla up close and personal this time

It is always fun to see new baby animals

Speaking of the giraffes. The zoo is now working on another exhibit-African Safari. That means the giraffe is getting a new home and they are bringing back the lions!

With the construction it means the playground is also temporarily gone. Bud Boy was sad about this but lots of turns on the carousel made up for it. 

 impromptu matching shirts

Can't wait until someday we will be able to go to the zoo and see lions, and tigers and bears! Oh my!

Ghost of John

Have you seen the ghost of John?
  Long white bones with the skin all gone
Oooh, Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh
Wouldn't it be chilly with no skin on, no skin on?

When my second daughter was young we had a neighborhood school group. One of the awesome moms helped the kids make a skeleton. 

We put magnets on the back of it and it has decorated our back door every October. It is always fun to see the different poses one kid or the other puts it in.

Vacation ABC's

My sister recently did a blog post where she said they hoped to take a trip to places starting with each letter of the alphabet before their 20 (maybe 15) anniversary. It got me thinking. We've been married 16 years, love to travel, have we done that.....

Arches
Bryce Canyon; Bear Lake
Connecticut; Custer State Park
Disneyland
Escalante Grand Staircase
Franklin square
Goblin Valley
Hogle Zoo
Indian Ridge
Jersey City (New Jersey)
Kayaking on the Pudget Sound
Las Vegas
Mount Rushmore; Martin's Cove; Malad, ID
New York; Nebraska
Oregon
Philadelphia
Q
Rapid City, SD
Sea World (San Diego); Snow Canyon
Tracy Aviary, Thanksgiving point
U(we'll cheat and say Utah)
Valley Forge
Washington (the state and D.C.)
X
Yellowstone
Zions

The family helped with this list. We racked our brains and had some fun trying to come up with something for the missing letters. So far all we could think of was:

Quadruple trips to the X-ray machine at the hospital.

Looks like we have some trips to plan

Any fun ideas?

Now off to pack for our next trip............

An Evening up the Canyon

Dad taught how to skip rocks

I did it

The oldest making sure the youngest doesn't miss a thing

A short hike just before the sun sets

Hope you have a great weekend!

Nosebleeds

Do you get them much? 

We do. 

I thought it was pretty common until one day my third daughter had one at a friend's house. It freaked her friend out pretty bad. Apparently, they couldn't remember if their daughter had ever had a nosebleed. 

At our house, it happens a lot. So much so that my four year old knows how to take care of them pretty much by himself.

It is often debated. When taking care of nose bleed should you learn forward or back ward?  
 Here's the official, current, stance sent to me from by pediatricians office. 

(It's forward if you don't want to go read the article. But it's a pretty good, easy read so I say go read it).

Couple of tips we have learned over the years:

• Don't pick your nose (If I could only convince my four old)
• Keep those membranes moist before blowing. We just put a little Vaseline inside each nostril.
• When you happen to get blood on your clothes just put a little hydrogen peroxide on the fresh spot  and it takes the blood right off.

Wordless Wednesday