BRENT and LOU

A Story

2012-01-17T16:52:00.001-08:00

So, today, my kids were upstairs, entertaining themselves with the usual shenanigans. You know the drill. Loud noises. Slamming doors. Running feet. The occasional cry. The basics. When, not so surprisingly, Jane let out a shriek. Oh how I hate when the shrieking starts, but given long enough, the shrieking will always start.

Upon investigation, I found that Charlie had taken a toy power drill and pummelled Jane over the head with it. Typical. Charlie's been on a hitting streak lately, or a beating streak, if that's what you call it when one hits another person with a weapon. That drill has been his favorite weapon for too many days now and quite frankly, I was sick of it. So I did what every rational person would do.

I opened up my second story window and sent the toy drill hurtling towards the unforgiving pavement below with all the strength that my surprisingly weak and underutilized right arm could manage.

I know. It's not all that impressive a picture. I thought about running over the thing with my car before I took a picture to create a more dramatic scene, but that would be a little crazy. And since I think I've proven with the last couple posts that I am certainly NOT a crazy person, I couldn't do something like that.

Basically, I threw the thing out the window. And it broke. And Charlie knew it. Point made. I put him in his room and turned to see Jane looking up at me with wide, surprised eyes. By the look of her, I believe she was actually touched by the lengths I went to to protect her.

"Um, THANKS, Mom." She said.

"That was really nice of you."

"It's fine, Jane. I'm sorry he hit you again." I replied.

"You DO know, though, that that was Ben's drill, right?"

No. I did NOT know that.

Oops.

Christmas Wish List

2011-12-15T17:38:00.001-08:00

Fact: Most days, I consider myself to be a pretty good mom.

I know that there's a lot that I could for my kids that I don't, and I know that there are a lot of moms out there that could be considered "better" that I am, but there are also a ton of them that are a lot worse. Point is, I think that I'm the right mom for my kids and, for the most part, the days flow by with relative peace, love and understanding.

But amid the great days, and good days, and ok days, and bad days, there are also "those days." You know the kind? The kind where the chemistry in the house is just off and no one is getting along and by the time bedtime rolls around, you had needed the day to end hours ago? Those are the days when I have the potential to full on lose it. Those are the days when I genuinely believe that wolves could do a better job caring for my children than I can.

Yesterday was one of those days.

It might have been because my kids were all feeding off each other's bad attitudes, or it might have been because Brent's been needing to work late each night this week and I was getting sick of doing bedtime by myself. It might have been the half bottle of lotion Jane pumped onto the bathroom counter or the childrens' refusal to unload the dishwasher. It might have been because of the severe sleep deprivation we're all suffering from or the stress of the holidays or the fact that I'm pregnant and moody. It might have been the lunar cycle, for all I know, but whatever the cause, war broke out upstairs last night as I was trying to get the kids in bed. War, I tell you.

After I'd had more yelling and screaming and crying and verbal abuse (on all parts) than I could handle, I told my kids that I was done. They could tuck each other into bed and I'd see them in the morning. I went to my room to spend some quality time feeling horrible about myself. I was sitting there, riddled with guilt, but still too angry to summon up the strength of character to go apologize to my children, when Jane showed up at the door. She had a note for me. I was informed that it was a revised Christmas list and that I "really should read it."

In case you can't make out her handwriting, allow me to translate.

Dear Mom,

I know that I said I want other things, but not anymore. All I want is for you to treat me better. And for Christmas, I want all love.

To: Mom

From: Jane

Uhg.

Who's the worst? Ya, that would be me.

Where are a nice pack of wolves that would like to adopt your children when you need them?

So at that point, I started to cry. Again. I cried for, what seemed like, a good long while. And then I sat. Just sat on my bed, half seething and half wanting to find a rock to crawl under, when Jane came to my door again... with another note. I braced myself, and read.

Dear Mom,

I want other presents than love. A CD player and other things. I love you. I hope you have a good Christmas.

To: Mom and Dad

From: Jane and Lizzy

Someone teach her how to spell backpedal.

And all of a sudden, I started to feel better. Better and HIGHLY amused. In fact, I still I laugh every time I think about it.

I don't quite know how the retraction alleviated so much guilt. I mean, for all intents and purposes, the damage had been done. My kids aren't going to remember that I was pregnant and tired and pushed past my limit that night, they were just going to remember the way I had made them feel. Not to mention that my daughter is clearly more motivated by her selfish desires than altruistic ones, but I still felt better. Maybe it's that she obviously hadn't been damaged beyond her ability to connect with her inner materialist. Maybe it's that I obviously hadn't pushed her far enough up into her pyramid of human needs for her to forget the frivolities she's come to expect.

At least I did know one thing for sure. I knew I had something on those wolves. I mean, how could they possibly provide her with a CD player for Christmas?

Halloween

2011-11-10T07:17:00.000-08:00

So, I might be a week and a half late getting around to posting a Halloween photo, but that seems to be the time zone that I'm working in lately.

Thanks to Leslie and Cam for hosting us. And to Cameron for actually taking pictures. And to the men (including my dad) for taking the kids out. And to Daybreak for providing the most efficient place to trick-or-treat that I've ever seen. They filled their little pumpkin buckets to the rim in no time. Not that any of that candy still exists now.

I think we're still coming down from the sugar rush.

Visual Confirmation

2011-11-05T07:45:00.000-07:00

So... ya. It's been a while.

It's been so long that I've actually felt like I couldn't post anything. I mean, how lame would it be to NOT post for like, a month, and then come back and just post something my kids said, or a recipe that I liked, or something equally unimpressive. No, I got to the point that I felt like I had to have some big news in order to justify breaking the silence. Like, I needed to be able to announce that I was pregnant or something. But today, here I am, posting.

As it turns out, I'm pregnant.

And, I've finally got visual confirmation. Wanna see?

Can you see it's little face? and little hand? and little legs? Aw, babies are cute.

This is actually a really good thing for me, because if I weren't pregnant, I would have a really hard time explaining away the fatigue, moodiness, and expanding waist line that I've been suffering from for the past several weeks.

When I went to see the OB this week, he declared my due date to be May 20th, which puts me at about 12 weeks. Ah, 12 weeks. The beautiful time when all your first trimester ailments are magically supposed to come to an end. (Let's just say that it's possible that my husband deserves a really cool award for putting up with me lately.)

Four kids. Is four kids as many in real life as it seems in my head? Cuz it's starting to seem like a lot of kids. I promise this all sounded like a really good idea in theory.

But wait, there's more!

2011-08-31T20:10:00.001-07:00

I bet you thought I was finished with my documentation of our trip to Alaska, but I couldn't leave you hanging, wondering what exciting thing we did next. I would never do that to you. I haven't even shown you the whale!

We saw a whale.

Actually, we saw several whales, none of them particularly close up, but I'D never seen a whale before, so I thought it was pretty cool. See?

Cool, huh?

Anyway, the morning after Ketchikan, I woke up cold. Like, winter, I need another blanket, can someone please light a fire in here cold. I got up and looked out the window, which explained everything.

We were floating through icebergs. We were doing some "scenic sailing" up the Tracy Arm Fjord, which, I must admit, was probably my favorite part of the whole trip.

It was stunning. The water really was that blue green color.

And there really were icebergs. Not huge -sink the Titanic- icebergs, just lots of little ones.

Either way, it was cold.

Painfully cold.

Or maybe I'm just a wuss. In this photo, I'm wearing a shirt, sweatshirt, down coat... and a blanket.

We were on our way to see this. The glacier. Apparently the ship broke a record that morning and got closer to it than they ever had before.

Closer......

Closer...

Closest!

The crew seemed to get a little giddy about it and opened up the helicopter pad so that we could go out and have a little look-see.

It was pretty deluxe. A couple of Brent's sisters and their respective husbands came out with us (one of the is behind the camera)

After that, we docked in Juneau, which was also quite amazing.

It rained ALL day, which gave me an opportunity to walk around with my cute, dainty umbrella. The locals didn't seem to mind the rain. They were ALL wearing big rubber boots. Our tour guide said they call them Juneau tennis shoes.

Just like Ketchikan, we got to see a lot of things...

We got to see another glacier. It's back there, I promise. I didn't have any other pictures of it on my computer, Brent must have taken them with his phone.

We saw more salmon. Lots and lots and lots and lots of salmon.

Brent's sister saw a bear, but no one else did. :(

I wouldn't have been particularly interested in seeing a bear, except that everyone who lived there seemed to think that it was perfectly normal to run into bears, like it was no big deal or something. They actually recommended that we fight them, if we felt threatened. I'm kinda giggling just thinking about it. Like, they seriously said that you should punch a bear in it's face and charge at it and stuff.

Ya, I'm not going to do that. It's probably best that I didn't see one.

But we did see a Bald Eagle, sitting there all majestic in the tree tops.

It was the icing on the cake before we hopped back in the tour bus and headed back to the ship. For the record, I loved Juneau.

I just want one room

2011-08-26T14:11:00.000-07:00

Today, I was on the phone and in an effort to escape the mayhem that my children are constantly creating, I ducked out of the room they were in and sneaked into my front room to finish my conversation. I haven't finished decorating the room yet, but it has a couch now, and some chairs, and it is clean an peaceful in comparison to the rest of the house. It's my little sanctuary.

See? No toys. No crayon on the walls. No scraped up furniture. Just a couch, but a nice, clean couch that is void of finger smudges and cat hair.

Anyway, it only took a minute before the kids were on to me. Of course they followed me in there and immediately started doing acrobatics from the couch. Argh! I kid you not, within in moments of their arrival there were little feet hitting the wall and the pictures on the wall and chairs crashing into windows. They were opening the doors of my antique cabinet and slamming them closed and every other destructive thing a kid can do.

I'll admit it. I started yelling....

"Why! Why can't I just have one room? Can't I just have one room in the house that is pretty and clean? I just want a place that you don't destroy, that looks like a picture that you can see but can't touch! You have the ENTIRE house to tear apart and all I'm asking for is JUST ONE ROOM that belongs to ME!!!!!"

At that moment, Lizzy looked at me. She was the only one of them who was brave enough to speak.

"Not two?"

Apparently I aim low these days.

Let's Cruise!

2011-08-25T08:39:00.000-07:00

Last week, Brent and I had the really cool opportunity to go on a cruise to Alaska with his family. I'm not gunna lie to ya. It was pretty freaking rad. If you were on the fence, wondering if maybe you should go on a cruise to Alaska, allow me to persuade you to do so.

The cruise we took was of the inside passage, which is that little stretch of Alaska right down at to the south and next to Canada. Apparently Canada is only about a stone's throw away. One of our tour guides said "you could just walk over there really quick, except that it's on the other side of the ice fields, which are impassable, so you can't get there."

Here, let me show you...

Our first stop was just barely in the state at Ketchikan, which kept making me think of Catch me if you Can, which reminded of the movie wherein Leonardo DiCaprio pretended to an airplane pilot. Back in the days when flying was glamorous. Not like today. Not. Like. Today.

But I digress.

Here are some photos of our first day back on land.

This is a photo of me and my husband, the talented and handsome Brent, in front of their cool sign. Yes, I am wearing a coat. It was like 50 degrees. It only rained a little while we were there, which apparently is all it takes to make a lovely day in Ketchikan. I think they get something like 13 feet of rain a year, so only raining a little looks pretty good in comparison.

This is another view of the town. It reminded me a lot of Park City, only, you know, next to an ocean.

This is a view of Creek Street, which was built over this here creek.

I think there might be a significant gap between their idea of a creek and mine.

The buildings are so high up because when high tide comes in, the water rises like 2500 feet. Or something like that.

All those bushes are berry bushes. They had wild raspberries and blackberries and blueberries and elderberries and probably a lot of other kinds that I don't know about. The bushes were pretty bare by the time we got there, but I did find one wild raspberry. And then I ate it.

This is a photo of a park. Brent loved the moss everywhere.

This is a photo of a freakishly large slug. We saw these more often than I was comfortable with. Snails are bad enough.

This is a photo of all the boys, save one, in front of Married Man's Trail.

As the story goes, the married men would sneak out this back trail to a brothel at the end of Creek Street so that their wives wouldn't know where they were going. Methinks it probably worked about once before their wives figured out what was going on.

This is a photo of a cool lighthouse on a cool island in the ocean. Anyone else sing Candle on the Water in their head every time they see a lighthouse? No? Just me?

And last , but certainly not least, THIS is a photo of a dog that looked like he was driving a van.

... and another.

2011-08-24T20:22:00.000-07:00

Today was Lizzy's first day of her second year of preschool.

She got up, got dressed, ate her Cocoa Puffs, strapped on her shoes, grabbed her tote and off she went.

I'm not exactly sure what it is about preschoolers, but it always makes me a little teary-eyed to see them hop out of the car that first day. Maybe they are just a little too little or maybe it's just hard to let my babies grow up, but you will generally find a stray tear on my cheek as I drive away.

It doesn't seem to bother her at all. Let's just say that the day... went well.

Grade Dos

2011-08-23T07:35:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, it happened.

School started.

I'm only slightly panicked about it. I'm that mom who's always ready for her kids to get back into a routine as quickly as possible, which eases the pain of sending them off to school for the bulk of their day to be taught and influenced by a group of relative strangers.

Towards the end of last year, Jane decided to transfer to a different school where she started a Spanish immersion program. As a result, she was a little more nervous about her first day than I thought she'd be, hence the nervous looking photo.

I should have broken out the camera this morning, she was much more cool and collected.

Lizzy doesn't start her first day of Pre-K until tomorrow, but I think we're all looking forward to it. Let the structure begin!

There are two kinds of people in this world....

2011-07-30T15:32:00.000-07:00

There are pickle people and then there's... everyone else.

As for me and my house, we're pickle people.

And I just made my first jar out of cucumbers from my garden. I sure hope that in a few days, they taste as good as they smell.

My mouth is currently watering.

Lucky Number 7

2011-07-26T19:53:00.000-07:00

Meet Jane.

Jane used to be 6, but not anymore. Now, Jane is 7.

Jane had a party for her birthday and it was filled with rainbows.

There were rainbow balloons and rainbow Twister in the grass.

There were rainbow drinks and rainbow jello.

And a cake.

A rainbow cake.

This made Jane very happy.

And it made her mom very tired.

Unfortunately, Jane had her party a few days before her birthday, and when her real birthday arrived, her mom was too tired to do much, so Jane got to invite one friend over for lunch.

Meet Henry.

Henry is a very good friend to have come to spend Jane's birthday with her.

This also made Jane happy.

Which is good, because on Jane's actual birthday, Jane's mom kinda just sat around like a bum and reminded Jane of the aforementioned rainbow party that had taken place on the previous Friday.

Happy Birthday, Jane. We sure do love you.

Creating Life... and then eating it. Part Three

2011-07-07T12:53:00.001-07:00

Sooo, I just got back from a nice 5 days in Summit, where we celebrated the 4th of July and I DO have photos and appropriate documentation of our vacation, but I have to gather it all together, which takes energy. Since I'm suffering from the lack thereof this afternoon, I thought I'd share photos of what happened to my garden while I was gone.

I was totally, completely certain that I'd come home to find the whole thing shriveled up into oblivion, I even called a friend late one night and begged her to go give them some extra water (and a great job she did) so you can imagine my astonishment when I actually came back to a jungle.

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I will now proceed to toot my own horn.

I've got all different kinds of peppers and tomatoes, squashes, tomatillos, herbs, carrots, peas, beans, cucumbers and corn and other stuff too, all shoved into my last minute decision garden beds. I'm feeling pretty good about my garden considering that I've never managed to produce a one that provided me with more than a weird looking tomato and a handful of green beans

I also ended up being able to start quite a few of my plants from seeds. You have my permission to be impressed.

This garden has been my sanity this summer. I'm not kidding. I might be a lunatic at this point if I didn't have my garden to keep me grounded. I spend/waste a lot of time just sitting out there and playing in the dirt, but I figure that God intended it to be that way, so I'm excused, right?

p.s. somehow, i thought it wise to buy three banana pepper plants which are actually producing banana peppers. problem is that i have no idea what one actually does with a banana pepper. anyone? anyone?

Summertime, and the livin's easy

2011-06-24T12:02:00.000-07:00

Having never had a little boy, it wasn't until just recently that it came to my attention that little boys choose to spend as much time as possible... in the nude. I did not know this. I should have picked up on it along the way, maybe I just didn't want to believe it was true. But it is and I have now accepted it as fact.

Little boys, given even the slightest opportunity, will strip naked and run around that way until a responsible adult intervenes.

It's causing a problem here and there for us. I think the people that live in my circle have seen more of Charlie already this summer than they ever wanted to. And when the cousins come to play, there's just a big, little boy nudest convention in our yard.

I'll admit that it can make for some good photo opportunities, as long as you can keep them covered up a bit, which is, of course, the tricky part.

Potty Talk

2011-06-20T19:04:00.000-07:00

Today, after right close to 7 years of changing diapers, we took our youngest child to buy his first pack of underpants. It's been a good, but long afternoon around here. Potty training is not for the faint of heart, but Charlie has done fairly well, all things considered. He's filled his tummy with soda and treats, he's filled his potty several times over and he's filled his sticker chart with gold stars.

I love watching my children grow up. I love the excitement they feel as they realize that they are actually competent, capable human beings. Look at his new found confidence!

I believe I can literally say that I've never seen this boy so excited in all his glorious 2 years and 9 months of life.

And the back, of course.

Let us all hope that his enthusiasm spills over into tomorrow because after 7 straight years, methinks we deserve a little break around here.

And wish me luck. I get the feeling that as my time spent changing diapers decreases, my time spent doing laundry will only increase. Deep breath.

Arrrrrrrr Yarrrrrrrd!

2011-06-14T15:45:00.000-07:00

I must admit that after spending several weeks with my yard looking like this....

I was sceptical that it would ever be any different. We had plenty of small children fall into those ditches. Lots of scraped knees. Lots of tears.

But oh me of little faith. Our families came through like champs only hours after this photo was taken and by the end of the day, we had grass. And shortly thereafter, we had a garden.

It's still in the new growth stages, so I hope that it will all fill in and be beautiful and lush.

Our grass is also still recovering a little from the shock of not being watered for several days. We were a little short in the sprinkler department. I tried to do it myself, but it was hard.

I've got all my veggies mixed in with my flowers, so we'll see how this goes. My mom gave me that nice tomato plant when it was just a wee lit'le thing and look how it is flourishing.

I counted today that I somehow ended up with 9 tomato plants, which is probably about 5 more than I need, but hey, I likes tomatoes.

Grow, green beans, grow! I have every intention of sauteing you in butter and garlic, but first, you must grow.

We have been finally appreciating the cooler weather and spending most of our waking hours outside. The yard is still a work in progress, of course. It's simple and largely lacking in vegetation, but we are very grateful for it.

Soccer and Rainbows and Tears

2011-06-13T19:11:00.000-07:00

Jane finished up her last soccer game of her first soccer season tonight. She really had fun this spring, but to be honest, I think we're all plenty ready to see the season come to an end. The girls have played in the rain and the wind and had games cancelled because of the snow. I didn't make it tonight because I'm at home nursing my poor, sick son, but Brent was so kind as to pass along this photo...

It seemed like such a bright, wonderful way to end the season.

Then Jane came home and dropped her newly acquired trophy which busted into 3 separate pieces. I'm sitting here laughing quietly to myself as I listen to her cries from upstairs. Even in the face of disaster, I can always appreciate a little well placed irony.

Princesses

2011-05-23T07:13:00.001-07:00

A few weeks back, Ben, Lizzy and Lizzy's friend Maddie were playing dress up at our house. They all came downstairs to show us their costumes.

The girls had apparently found Lizzy's play makeup and gotten all dolled up.

The girls went back upstairs, but Ben stayed behind and my sister took the opportunity to say to me,"I can't believe that you let your kids play with make up."

To which I replied something along the lines of "Ya, I know, but it keeps them entertained for SOOOOOOO long. It's like a five dollar investment and I get hours and hours of peace and quiet out of it."

"Ya," she conceded "but now it looks like you've got a couple of toddler hookers walking around your house."

At which point Ben spoke up...

"Princesses, mom. You mean they look like princesses."

Of course that's what she meant.

Orange Tie Guy

2011-05-20T20:35:00.000-07:00

It's been at least the better part of a year since Brent and I were able to convince our small son to wear a tie to church. I've tried every week to get him to wear one. Ok, I've tried a lot of weeks. After a while, ones gets tired of getting hit and spat upon as various ties are flung at one's head.

I don't know why it's a battle that I picked.

Maybe I just like ties.

Anyway, for some reason unbeknownest to me, last Sunday, Charlie made up his mind that he was going to wear his orange tie to church. We hadn't really planned on it, so he wasn't really wearing a shirt that facilitated tie wearing, but that wasn't really going to stop him.

I broke out my phone to snap a picture of him, but catching a picture of Charlie during what should be his nap time, isn't always easy.

Observe...

I'm a little tired and frustrated just looking at these pictures.

I gotta be honest with ya, it's been a while since I sat through a full block of meetings on a Sunday.

"what? huh? me? you talking about me, mom?"

Yes, Chas.

Come back. Please.

We've been spending a LOT of time in the car, with Charlie strapped into his car seat for time out when we should be in the process of being spiritually uplifted. But if we can get him to wear ties, he might at least look dapper whilst strapped into that car seat. Sigh.

Creating Life... and then eating it. Part Two

2011-05-11T18:57:00.000-07:00

Subtitled: my own personal backyard oasis.

So, the last time I posted about my amateur gardening efforts, I showed you a nice picture of my 70 something sprouts that I was planning to transplant into my garden. I'm not so proud to announce that despite what I thought were my best efforts, the vast majority of those seedlings have since withered away into oblivion. Shoot.

As a result, I'm moving onto what I am referring to as "Plan B."

Plan B consists of mooching off of the starters that my mother has been able to produce using her super awesome greenhouse and buying the rest from a nursery.

I bought a voucher for plants from a nursery at less than half price (thank you City Deals) and went to collect the other day. I gave half of it to my sister because I might have been responsible for killing her starters. And she made Jane a jean skirt. And I kinda like her.

I have successfully sprouted some Sugar Snap Peas. Hooray for me! These are in one of the kid's pots where we're planting things that they'll like to watch grow and pick themselves later. I have visions of my well behaved children frolicking in our lush garden and joyfully harvesting the fruits of their labors in coordinating outfits. Methinks I might end up being disappointed.

I'm totally ready to get planting, but it keeps snowing! And my backyard is sort of a work in progress at the moment. Mostly, it looks like a junk yard.

Lots of junk back there right now. And very little grass. And no sprinklers. And a large pad with rebar sticking out of it every couple of feet. But we DO have a nice, new, expanded patio....

a very large driveway,

a rockin' playground,

and several cubic yards of manure that literally steams when the sun hits it right. (not pictured)

So perhaps, by the end of the season, it will be something worth looking at. Wish us luck, though, we're gunna need it.

I'm A Phoenix

2011-05-10T15:37:00.000-07:00

Brent has graduated from MBA school. Yup. It's official.

I mean, he's got one more night of class that he's got to go to on Thursday, and a huge paper, and a test, but if you don't count those things, he's totally, completely finished with MBA school.

Since the students at the good ol' U of P all graduate at different times, they seem to just pick a day to hold their commencement and anyone with their own, personal end in sight is permitted to walk. Brent debated whether or not he should walk - for about 5 seconds - and then told me that he'd like to. I told him that I would be disappointed if he didn't since I'd had my title for this post picked out for about a year. I knew he'd walk. He's fancy and formal like that.

I know, I wore this dress in the last picture I posted, but in all fairness, I'm kinda short on summer-y dresses at the moment.

Jane and Lizzy came to the ceremony and they held in there until after Brent walked. Then they got restless, so we ran around outside until the graduates emerged.

They were so happy to be with him.

It would be better if you couldn't see up my nose in this photo, but I'll take what I can get.

You'd better believe it. Class of 2022, here she comes!

Brent's been amazing the last couple years. I can't believe how well he manages work, school, church and us.

Congrats Grad.

Dese my keys.

2011-05-02T08:02:00.000-07:00

"dese my keys, mommy. dese my keys."

"Ya? Those are your keys?"

"yaaaaa. day doan work."

Several photos that weird me out.

2011-05-01T06:53:00.000-07:00

I took this photo yesterday before dance photos. This is a photo of my 6 year old. She's six. Not to be confused with 10 or 12 or any age other than 6. Is this a glimpse of things to come?

Yes, I realize that I have created this. It isn't as though she's capable of accurately applying liquid eyeliner to herself. In my weak, shameful defense, I was trying to bribe her younger sister into cleaning her room and getting her pictures taken by offering to do a full makeup on her when Jane jumped on the offer and cleaned her room up lickety split. Lizzy never did. She didn't even get her pictures done. I guess that is just one of the many differences between my two girls. When makeup is calling, Jane answers.

Actually, Lizzy answers too, but she's more interested in applying it herself...

Nice lipstick, Biz.

We took a lot of pictures. In part because Jane is never opposed to having her likeness taken, but mostly because every time I looked at her, I had to make sure that I got a picture of her all dolled up.

She's growing up WAY too fast.

And I'm totally weirded out.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T18:00:00.000-07:00

I figured that it was about time I posted some family photos, even if they leave something to be desired...

Hope that everyone had a delightful Easter Sunday!

Lizzy's Birthweekend

2011-04-17T20:12:00.000-07:00

Let it be known, that I actually sat down to post this on Sunday night, but then I got sick. Literally. It was really weird. I spent the weekend making all of Lizzy's birthday dreams come true and on Sunday night, I tucked the kids in bed, Brent and I cleaned the kitchen, I sighed and big sigh and then... I sat. Within about 30 minutes, I got all shaky and feverish, my head started to ache, I got congested and achy. I believe I was in tears by the time I snuggled in under my 50 blankets. It was a lot to process all at once. My family has been really good taking care of me, and I'm finally feeling like I can re-enter the living world, but that is my excuse for not posting.

Anyway... It was Lizzy's 4th birthday over the weekend. See?

FOUR!

And in all of the 4 years that my darling has been alive, I don't feel like she's ever had a legitimate birthday celebration. She's my forgotten child. When she was blessed, we had no celebration because we were remodeling our kitchen. On her first birthday, we were moving. For her second and third birthdays, I don't remember what we did, so it wasn't much. In the grand scheme of things, I know it doesn't really matter, but the perceived neglect has been weighing heavily on my mind and my heart and I was determined to rectify the situation this year. So celebrate, we did!

We had a princess party on Friday, because, when your 4, is there any other kind of party? We did have a couple princes come too, which was really cute.

Miss Biz chose this outfit, which looks kinda more like a flapper to me than a princess, but it was her party.

We decorated with my favorite paper chains...

We made crowns, which turned out to be a little more complicated than I was expecting. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was obviously unreasonable.

And there were lots of hugs. We made it through the the party with relatively few tears, lots of smiling little kids and one extra happy Lizzy.

But we were just getting going because her birthday wasn't actually until Sunday. We had Brent's parents and Leslie and her family for dinner, where Lizzy got round two of cake and presents.

See? She's 4 again. And she got a new bike because she left her old one under the rear wheel of Jaime's van last fall and, well, it's no longer with us. Even Jaime couldn't fix it.

But her favorite thing was actually her new swim suit. And the "paper money" her Grammy gave her.

So those two celebrations, plus her special day at preschool and her special day at church left her feeling very much the star of the weekend. And apparently I gave myself the flu over it. I hope she doesn't expect me to do this again for her next year.

Creating Life... and then eating it. Part One

2011-04-05T21:11:00.000-07:00

Let's face it. I've been married for 9 years in May. I've owned a home with a sizable back yard for 8. I have 3 children, a cat, a dog and a minivan. I make crafts and sell them at local markets for some extra pocket cash. I cook all our meals gluten free and from scratch.

It's about time I figured out how to grow a successful garden.

Funny how overwhelming it can be. But I'm trying. I've got all the goods ready to go, waiting for the snow to stop snowing and in the meantime, I've got all my seeds a-growing in my sunny, warm laundry room. Sow far, sow good. HA! (it's getting late. sorry)

I spent all morning transferring my 72 seedlings and half of Leslie's seedlings into larger pots. Leslie foolishly left her precious sprouts with me for the week while she went gallivanting around Disneyland. She told me to treat her plants like my plants, so when I started replanting mine, I started on hers too. Unfortunately, I realized about half way through that she labeled her tray differently than I did and therefore, her pots are marked wrong. Oops. Instead of a victory garden this year, she'll have a mystery garden. HA! (again, did i mention how tired i am?)

Come on, sweet basil, you can do it! Eat well and get lots of sun so that you can grow big and plump... so that I can eat you.

My favorite children in the ENTIRE world playing on what is LITERALLY the biggest pile of dirt that has ever sat in my driveway...

2011-03-31T19:52:00.001-07:00

... on what is SINCERELY the most beautiful day that we have seen all year only to be followed by another AMAZING day tomorrow.

Anyone enjoy Thursday night TV as much as I do? Anyone think that Rob Lowe and Alec Baldwin are currently contributing more to society now than they ever have before? Yaaaaa.

Issue one! (speaking of TV... did anyone else's parents make them watch the McLaughlin Group every Saturday evening for their entire childhood? No? Yaaaaaa.) So, we have a big pile of dirt in our driveway. Fourteen cubic yards of dirt, if you want to be specific AND believe the man that dropped said dirt in my driveway this morning. We have a gaping pit in the back corner of our yard that needs to be filled with something other than children who have slipped and fallen and stray soccer balls that the children were chasing. That's where all the dirt comes in.

Issue two! It was nice out today. In the 60s. It was sort of snowing on Monday during Jane's first soccer game and now, 3 days later, my children are playing in a ginormous pile of dirt in sun dresses and without shoes. Gotta love Utah.

Issue three! It's the first day since last year that has been reasonably warm and Charlie has already decided that shirts and shoes are optional. I find this to be equal parts amusing and adorable, although I'm not sure why. When I was growing up, there was a family that lived behind and kiddie corner to us. They had almost all boys and their boys never seemed to wear shirts in this summer. Even as a youth, it bothered me. Enough to remember how much I disliked it all these years later. But for some reason, it's forgivable on Charlie.

Issue four! Can you say bath time?

Best Mail Ever

2011-03-28T07:12:00.000-07:00

Late Friday night, Brent and I finished watching our Netflix movie and since I'm notorious for leaving them around the house for days, or worse, driving around with them in my car with the intention of dropping them off at the post office for days, Brent took matters into his own hands and took the dvd out to the mailbox. He came back in with the most amusing surprise.

Before he gave it to me, he told me that he had found the best mail ever for me in our mailbox. I love getting mail and the idea of receiving the best mail ever was intriguing to me. I was curious to know what it was. He said that he wasn't sure he wanted to give it to me because he was a afraid that I would actually open it. Then I was dying to know what it was. I think I ended up having to beg him to show me. And then he did.

I know that this can be a little hard to read, so allow me to clarify.

This is a letter from an inmate at the Salt Lake County Jail.

It is addressed to someone named Mizz Stringham.

It was sent to my old address and then forwarded to us around the corner.

Said inmate had taken painstaking efforts to decorate the envelope so as to make it as appealing as possible.

It worked. It was an appealing envelope.

I sat and held for a while contemplating whether or not I should open it. Brent told me not to because it would be pornographic, but I held it up to the light and it was just a letter that I couldn't read - even while holding it up to the light.

I started to romanticize some sort of story about the inmate and Mizz Stringham. How the idea of her was the only thing that kept him going from day to day in the joint. That she had given him reason to become a changed man. He had found his purpose in life through her and he would love her forever for giving him a chance when the world wouldn't. When he was finally released, the two of them would have each other and start a white trash life together somewhere. In my head, it was so very romantic, and somewhat lacking in teeth.

I had called my mom and my sister to tell them about it and along the way, someone mentioned that it was more likely some sort of con artist trying to sucker money out of a lonely woman. That wasn't romantic at all.

In the end, I couldn't do it. I couldn't open it. I have no idea if it will ever get back to our inmate, but I couldn't let him live his life in the Salt Lake County Jail thinking that Mizz Stringham had received his letter and was pining over him somewhere in Sandy. So I sent it back. But I'll have the memory forever. The memory of the best mail ever.

Slow and Steady

2011-03-09T16:22:00.000-08:00

I haven't lifted a finger to work on hair clips since last fall.

Literally.

I haven't even cleaned up my desk.

It's be trashed for several months now.

But when the Bijou Market had open applications for their show this spring, I couldn't pass it up. It's a show down in Provo and although I've hadn't ever felt up to trucking all my shtuff down there for a show I'm making an exception. Bijou Market has a fantastic reputation and I'm very excited to have been selected as a vendor. So the dry spell is over. I've been trying to work with my felt for just a couple hours each night after my kidlets are sleeping so as to prevent my regular nervous breakdown the week of the show.

Here are a couple pictures of what I've been working on so far....

These are cute little hydrangea-y flowers. Aren't they cute? They're cute, right? If not, tell me now because they aren't particularly easy to put together. They look better when they are all packaged up and out from under the painful glare of my desk lighting.

See? Mo betta.

I'm also a big fan of these poppy-type-deals. I love grouping them together for headbands and clips.

Like so.

I'll probably feel compelled to keep you all posted on my hair clip making progress, so you've got that to look forward to for the next month. And I've got many, many evenings of felt stitching in front of trashy TV to look forward to.

A project.

2011-03-01T12:53:00.001-08:00

We've been living in our house for almost 3 years now. Weird. As such, I've decided that it's probably about time I get around to decorating my front room. I originally threw some stuff in there and slapped some paint on the walls, but it never really worked well. Lately, my formal living room has been functioning as a temporary storage room as I hock my old wares on KSL.

All these years, I've been biding my time, waiting and planning for the day that I finally had the time, energy and money to make my living room into something worth looking at. I've been spending an awful lot of time thinking about my new project and, all the while, doing very little. But I've got inspiration and an empty room, which can be the makings for a jolly good time, if you ask me.

Here are some of the photos that I'm drooling over.

I love the botanicals. I'm kinda obsessed with them right now. I've got my own set, waiting for a sofa to hover over.

I love the colors. All my inspiration is this blue-green color and gold. Don't try to convince me otherwise, it will be an excercise in futility.

And another blue green room that I'd like to move into.

This is the color that I painted. It's called Palladian Blue from Benjamin Moore and it's made all my wildest dreams come true. It also matches Jane's eyes.

That flower thing is a good story. We went to buy some dressers for my mom from someone in Provo. Her grandfather died and she was selling his old furnishings. I saw the flower thing and told her that I thought it was cool. She was appalled.

"That thing! I've always hated that thing. If you want it, take it with you."

So I did. It used to be silver and gold, but a nice, thick coat of white paint can work wonders on the world and now, I loves it. It'll look better when it isn't trying to decorate the entire room single handedly.

This is the couch I want, only I think I'll upholster it in a pewter color. Thus far, it's just a figment of my imagination. Maybe the power of positive thinking will cause it to materialize in my living room.

I bought these chairs off of KSL the other day. $25 for the pair. Can't beat that. Well, you could. I mean, free would beat that, but I won't dwell on that point.

Leslie helped me sew the pillow shams that will look better when they are filled with pillows and the the chairs have been reupholstered and painted like so...

Leslie's already found me the fabric...

So there you have it. This is what I spend my time thinking about. This is what often takes priority over filling my childrens' basic needs. I hope it's all worth it in the end.

a new coat and a conversation

2011-02-24T18:16:00.000-08:00

First things first...

Lizzy got a new coat.

We like said new coat.

Although I can't imagine Lizzy ever finding a way to articulate it, I can tell that she feels cute in her new coat.

She also feels cute when her hair is crimped.

That said, I wanted to share these photos of Lizzy in her new coat and with crimped hair and then relate to you a conversation that she and Ben had in the car yesterday.

We were getting in the car to head out yesterday...

Ben: "laura, do i have to have my buckle on?"

Me: "Yes, Ben. You do."

Lizzy: "ya ben. if you don't wear your buckle and the policeman catches you, he will take you away and lock you in the dungeon."

Ben: "oh ya. they will. they will take us away and lock us in the dungeon."

Me: "No they won't. If you get caught without a seat belt, then I would get in trouble, not you."

Ben: "ya. they would give you a ticket."

Lizzy: "ya. a ticket to the dungeon!"

And then they continued to talk about the policemen and their dungeon for several minutes when Ben interjected...

"but wizzy. what is a dungeon?"

To which Lizzy replied "oh. ben, a dungeon is the place... that the policemen... they... um... it's where the policemen live."

"oh!" responded Ben. "yes, that's right. they live there. in the dungeon"

And the dungeon talk trailed off. And then we drove by Chuck E. Cheese's, which inspired a whole new conversation about who Chuck E. Cheese was, what Chuck E. Cheese was and why he was so very scary.

I got out of the car thoroughly entertained. I love those kids.

A New GF Venture

2011-02-23T13:16:00.000-08:00

Since my life is very uncomplicated and I don't have nearly enough to think about, I decided to start a new blog. It's a Gluten Free eating blog. (as opposed to a GF clothing blog or a GF cleaning blog) It's a blog about my current obsession, which is trying to keep my family nourished while trying to avoid gluten in it's entirety. It can get tricky, and to do it, you kind of have to become obsessed with it.

I will be posting recipes that work for me, tricks that I'm learning along the way and lots of other good recipes that just happen to be GF as well as our experiences trying to eat out and feed little kids without gluten. I'm hoping that this will be a successful blog, so I'm inviting any and all of you who have any interest to head on over and to send your friends and family in that general direction as well.

Here you are...

Living the Gluten Free Good Life: Why should you eat mediocre food when you could eat really, really good food?

It has a subtitle. Everything in life should have a subtitle. Everything.

High on the Mountain Top

2011-02-23T09:31:00.000-08:00

Over the long weekend, my family and I went down to southern Utah to visit our parents. Oh how I love having southern Utah to escape to on long weekends. I'm not a homebody at all. I need to get out. I need to breath. I need to leave my home and my obligations and go to southern Utah or my sanity will start to wane.

We spent most of the weekend in Summit sipping hot chocolate by the fire, but we did take a couple of excursions, including one down to Springdale to visit Brent's parents.

Once you are in Springdale and looking around at all the hills, it's very hard to restrain yourself from climbing them, and so we went a-climbing.

Seriously, how can you NOT want to get out and climb? It's impossible, I tell you. Impossible!

Charlie was ecstatic to be out, communing with nature.

And he sort of stole the show. It tends to happen a lot around here. Charlie's a total glory hog.

But we were all there in our Sunday best, see? Even Buster got to get out and feel like a wild animal, until we put his leash back on him and shoved him in his little box in the car. Not too much nature for him. If I'm going to have a dog, he needs to be good and domesticated.

And there you have it. So to sum things up...

We weren't home this weekend.

Southern Utah is great.

I love hot chocolate.

Especially the Stephen's mint kind.

I also love fires.

Springdale is lovely this time of year.

Charlie is a glory hog.

Buster, the domesticated Shorkie, managed really well going on vacation with us for the first time.

Except for the incident in Brent's parent's bedroom.

It was an unfortunate incident.

I still feel bad.

The End.

JOOTD - Valentine's Party Special

2011-02-13T12:20:00.001-08:00

Last week, I made an innocent trip to TJMaxx with Leslie and our respective youngest children. We were gearing up to dodge out the door before anyone noticed that Charlie and Davie had taken several toys out of their packages when I saw it.

The dress.

I couldn't believe my eyes.

It was love at first sight.

I knew that my life would not be complete without it.

Does anyone else have these feelings about children's clothing?

When Jane found it, she became determined that it would be the perfect item to wear to her Valentine's Day party at school. And although I felt slightly irresponsible for letting her go to school with bare legs and wearing flats when most of the ground was still covered with snow, I let it slide. Wouldn't you?

McDonald's, McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut

2011-02-06T08:32:00.000-08:00

My mom has been in Provo this week staying with my Aunt Barbara and as a result, I've probably made more trips down to Provo in the past 7 days than I made in the previous six months combined. Moms have that impact on us all, I think.

So Leslie and I took our children - sans Jane - down for lunch this week and when you have that many small children to feed and entertain for any period of time, I believe that the rule of thumb is that you take them to McDonald's. Which is exactly what we did.

For the record, I would like everyone to know that the McDonald's in Provo next to the hospital has the best playland for small children that I've ever seen. Beware, though... they charged 16 cents for ranch and another 16 cents for some sweet and sour sauce. Not cool. As a frequenter of McDonald's, I found this practice to be unusual and annoying. The kids had a great time though, and I caught a few photos of them on my phone that I now intend to share with you.

It took me a while to finally catch a good ('good' being a relative term) photo of Charlie on the lap of his future employer. He was quite taken with Ronald, as was Ben. They had long, meaningful conversations with him wherein they shared their hopes and dreams. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to compete with that, which is why I rely so heavily on McDonald's to raise my children for me.

Lizzy was also happy to spend some quality time with Ronald. That little boy in the photo is a random little boy who, when he saw that I was taking photos, hopped into the picture and started hamming it up. Someone should get him into show business.

And I had to post this one of Leslie retrieving her small child from the hamster cage because what kind of little sister would I be if I didn't take advantage the opportunity? I would be a lousy one. A lousy little sister. And no one wants that, do they?

Today, I have baked redemption

2011-01-27T13:44:00.000-08:00

If at first you don't succeed, stomp your feet and feel like a failure, then pick yourself up and bake more cookies.

I would like the world to know that I am not a failure and I've got the GF cookies to prove it.

Public Service Announcement

2011-01-24T14:14:00.000-08:00

Attention all those within a quasi-reasonable distance of a WinCo foods. It is imperative that you get in your car, go to WinCo and get yourself a Jaunita's Fiesta Bag! of tortilla chips, like so...

Then you need to head on over here and make this salsa.

Then, if you're anything like me, you'll eat chips and salsa for dinner.

And lunch the next day.

:(

2011-01-23T17:29:00.000-08:00

I miss cooking with flour.

Would you believe me if I told you that these were supposed to be chocolate chip cookies?

Vital Wheat Gluten

2011-01-19T12:48:00.000-08:00

I remember shopping at the Macey's fantastic case lot sale a few years ago and running across a carton of Vital Wheat Gluten. Over the years, I had met a person here and another one there and another one there that was, in one way or another, affected by Celiac Disease and therefore, I was aware that there was a certain portion of the population that couldn't process wheat gluten and that it actually made them very sick and prevented them from becoming properly nourished.

At that moment in Macey's, I found the term "Vital Wheat Gluten" to be somewhat ironic.

Now I find it extremely ironic.

Before Christmas, Brent found out that he's gluten intolerant. What this means for you is that you will no longer have to listen to him share way too much information about his digestion process, nor will he likely feel the need to tell you about his awesome, uber toilet that will wash you, dry you, do your laundry and vacuum your floors. It also means that if you plan to dine with us any time, ever, for the rest of our lives, you will have to listen to us ask about every ingredient in every dish and then tell everyone that he can't eat it and possibly bring our own food along.

What this means for me... is a lot more.

As a wife and mother, I'd say that I spend a cool 50% of my life thinking about what to make for dinner, shopping for food for dinner, making food for dinner, baking goodies for after dinner (or before) and cleaning up the dishes from dinner. And now, none of this involves flour. Excuse me, none of this involves WHEAT flour. I can use lots of other kinds of flour. Observe...

In my pantry, I've also got potato starch, xanthum gum, sorghum flour and brown rice flour. And maybe a couple others. I'd have to check.

I'm learning that no matter what kind of flour/starch cocktail you manage to come up with, you really can't recreate the texture and flavor of good old all purpose wheat flour... but sometimes we can get close, and we can get creative. And its completely worth it, because it's not just Brent that can't eat wheat. Of course, Lizzy's test came back positive as well.

She's been a total trooper with it. She loves rules and structure and seems to be thriving on her new dietary restrictions. We took her to a bakery last weekend to get a special cupcake, she was so excited.

And now, I'm that mom following her to school and church and birthday parties explaining that my child has "special dietary needs" and bringing along her own snacks and treats. I don't like it very much. I'm hoping that eventually, people will just know that she can't have wheat and I won't have to hover so much. Or that she'll be self regulating when it comes to her diet. She's pretty uptight and tends to enjoy self deprivation, so I can see that happening before too long.

Isn't life funny? So here's to curve balls and gluten free cooking and a healthy family!

Getting back to reality

2011-01-05T12:29:00.001-08:00

So... Christmas came and went. So did New Years. School has started again as well as dance and work and everything that comes with real life. I'm half relieved and half disappointed. I didn't take a single photograph of our Christmas festivities, partly because I'm embarrassed to show how over indulged we all were. Brent got some cute videos, but they're on Brent's phone, not my computer. I went out of town for a week and didn't even bring my camera. Life has passed me by and I've got nothing to show for it.

Apparently I've been on autopilot for a while now and it's time to kick myself and start functioning again... hence the blogging even though I've got nothing to blog about.

Since I haven't got anything to blog about, I thought I'd show you a little Christmas present that I got myself. I'm so thoughtful and I knew exactly what I wanted. I buy myself the best presents.

I'm referring to the red poster on the wall.

The one that says "creative minds are rarely tidy" (as opposed to all the other red posters on the wall)

Basically, I bought this because it made me smile.

It made me smile because my house is ALWAYS messy.

I have said many a time that my house is always messy because my mind is just too free and creative to be restricted by silly conventions... like cleanliness.

I've always said this in jest, but apparently I'm not the only person to have had the thought, which is why I smiled when I saw the poster.

From now on, when you come to my house, I will no longer be constantly apologizing for its current state and will, instead, be hiding behind the guise that I am "a creative mind."

I find the whole thing to be very pleasing.

As you can see from the photo, I've got some room left for another poster and I intend to fill it with one of the following.

They are, of course, both parodies of the ever popular...

...that the whole world seems to have a copy of.

Anyone wanna weigh in on which one I should get. I like the one referring despondency, but, I don't know, it kinda makes me just want to sit around. I wonder why.

It will be my own little wall of cynicism. Actually, it's technically a backsplash, so you can call it my backsplash of cynicism. If you're in to that kind of stuff. You know. Technicalities. I'm too creative for them, myself.

*Edited to say... I often talk about a time when I was a teenager and I cleaned my room and kept it clean for like, an entire month, which was an accomplishment for me. After a while, I got so sick of it that I messed it up on purpose. A while ago, I related the story to a friend of mine in my ward. She's probably about my mom's age and I we were talking about how hard it's always been to keep things in order. I thought that she was a kindred spirit and would understand my plight. When I told her my theory about enjoying the mess on a certain level, she said

"no, I don't think that's it. I think you're lazy."

I like her even more now.

Adventures in parenthood

2010-12-19T20:18:00.000-08:00

Charlie... might be the death of me.

Seriously, if he doesn't kill me, I'm not entirely sure what will. The upside of that is that if he doesn't kill me, I will believe myself to be invincible, which could come in handy from time to time.

Not a single one of you who has boys every accurately communicated the amount of energy and patience that's required to manage a two year old boy and I hold you all personally responsible for my current state of emotional instability.

To anyone who might, at some point in their life, find themselves responsible for managing a two year old boy, I would like to take this opportunity to inform you that he might be the death of you. There, I warned you. Don't blame me.

Case in point... The other day, Charlie was quietly upstairs playing with his sister while I visited with a friend downstairs. I should have know. I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN! Never, I repeat, never let your two year old boy play quietly upstairs. Two year old boys don't play quietly. They play very loudly and get into mischief quietly. This is a fact of life.

He finally came downstairs covered in his sister's special order, not cheap eczema cream.

It was deluxe.

First, I gasped, then I may have cried a teeny bit, then I just started laughing and grabbed my camera. I figured it was the healthiest way to deal with the whole situation.

And considering the amount of shame he displayed, I imagine he probably didn't need me to get mad at him. Look at him, he knows what he's done.

Let us pray that he's learned his lesson because he generally uses up all the patience I've got for him and the girls before we get to the end of Monday. This week, I've cleaned up wet dog food out of the heating vent, taken him to the ER when he fell out of shopping cart at Costco, prevented him from running out of Wal-mart into traffic (again) as well as all the little things like cleaning up mud off my wool rug, waking up at 5:30 every morning and dealing with endless temper tantrums.

Lucky for him, he's got his looks to fall back on.

Think Pink!

2010-12-15T11:24:00.000-08:00

Lizzy was invited to a Pinkalicious birthday party today, so we got her all dressed up in as much pink as we could find...

It suits her well, if I do say so myself.

It's dancy dance time!

2010-12-07T19:53:00.000-08:00

So, I believe that during the summer, you all were tortured with my rants over dance - my dance rants, if you will - and how my unnecessarily strong opinions would ultimately effect my daughters and their happiness.

Well, I finally got over myself and signed my girls up for dance. Funny how that worked out.

Actually, it's worked out really well for us. I mean, we had to get over Jane being determined that she wasn't ever going again and that she hated ballet and Lizzy screaming and crying and spitting and hitting and crying and not getting out of the car and not letting go of my leg for several weeks, but ever since we pushed through that, it's been great.

Last week, we finally made it to their winter recital and I had to post our pictures.

I haven't been the biggest fan of our costumes in the past, but this year, we totally scored.

Jane got in the car and said "mom, my costume is the most beautiful costume I've ever seen!"

There were a lot of princess costumes at the recital, so we're thinking that the spring recital theme is something princess related.

Buster had to get in on the action.

Lizzy has a Cinderella costume this time and although I had to fork out a small fortune for the Cinderella costume, at least it will make an awesome dress up or Halloween costume later on.

I think that she liked it too.

Aw. Sisterly love. We don't see much of that around here, so let's take another picture to remind us that it exists.

There we are. I'll pull this up and look at it next time they are upstairs pulling each other's hair and screaming for my intervention.

This is Jane with her buddy, Abby. They did so great in their dance together. They are getting old enough that they can actually dance and do it well instead of just adorably stumbling around on the stage.

Lizzy also did great on the stage. I was fairly certain that she wouldn't even put that costume on. And if she DID, I was very certain that she wouldn't let me do her hair. If she'd let me do that, I was positive that there was no way she'd keep those ribbons around her neck and head and if she would, I knew I'd never get her to go backstage peacefully. If somehow I managed to get her backstage, I was prepared to be called back to get her because I knew she'd throw a Lizzy fit. If by some miracle she got on the stage, I was expecting to watch her curl up in the fetal position or stand there staring blankly and sucking on her fingers.

Shockingly, none of the above happened. She trotted up and did her dance like a pro. I knew that she knew the whole thing because she would tell me all the choreography. She wouldn't show me, she'd just tell me.

"you put this arm up in the air and then you turn around and then you put your hands by your tummy and shake"

I never saw her do a single step until the recital.

Leslie and Ben came. Ben is a big fan of dance recitals and likes to come if he possibly can. I forgot to get a picture of him, but he was also very proud of the girls. I let him pick out a rose for each of them and Leslie brought them candy. The dance studio gave them a little gift bag too, so I guess no one noticed that I didn't really actually do anything for them, you know, other than all the stuff I did.

That's kind of a weird photo, girls. Let's try again. Look at mom! Say cheese!

No, Lizzy. Look over here! One, two, three....

Oh never mind. I give up.

I'm an American Girl

2010-11-27T17:01:00.001-08:00

I haven't been around much lately. It happens. To catch you up, I've been planning Thanksgiving dinner, cooking Thanksgiving dinner, eating Thanksgiving dinner, shopping after Thanksgiving dinner and getting up the next morning to shop some more.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, I'm really excited for Christmas and most of my shopping is done at this point. I feel like a fantastic parent because I got my kids all the latest and greatest toys and I got them all on sale, which makes them better than other people's. Come December 25th, they'll be the proud owners of Pillow Pets

(it's a pillow AND a pet!)

Lalaloopsies

(the Today show proclaimed them the Cabbage Patch Doll of 2010)

and Zhu Zhu Pets,

which I guess were last years toy of the season, but whatever.

I've put a lot of thought and energy into my children's Christmas presents and after some careful deliberation, I've decided that the one thing that I am absolutely NOT buying is an American Girl Doll. If I were to buy those things, that's ALL I could afford to get my kids for Christmas and I like shopping way too much to do that to myself. In fact, I've worked very hard to ensure that my girls don't even become aware of American Girl Dolls and I was successful, until a few short weeks ago when this arrived in our mailbox.

And in that moment that Lizzy saw it, everything was ruined.

"Look, mama!" Lizzy exclaimed, "they have these dolls that you can buy me."

Oh no.

"Oh, Lizzy!" I had to think fast... "how nice of the people to send you a book about little girls and their dolls that look just like them."

"No. mama, you can buy those dolls and get one for me."

"I'm sorry Lizzy, but those dolls aren't for sale. They are special dolls just for that book they sent you about dolls."

She's too smart. She wasn't buying it, but neither am I.

We've spent a lot of time perusing that catalog over the last several weeks and I have to commend the American Girl people for working so hard to make sure that every little girl, no matter what color her hair or her skin is, can find a doll that makes her feel included. Yes, it doesn't matter what shape her eyes are or whether she likes pink or purple or blue, she'll find a doll that she can identify with. Girls with freckles, girls with glasses, you name it. And now, the American Girl people have been so kind as to add buck toothed, beaver girls that have to wear head gear all the time to the catalog.

I'm serious. Check it.

After further deliberation, I am now officially prepared to say that this... is dumb.

Ya, I said it.

Yes, I know. I sound mean. There's a logical reason for this... I am mean. But for those of you who don't know, I am a buck toothed, beaver girl and my dad still has the mold of my teeth to prove it. I wore headgear for several years as a young child. To bed. Around the house. To school. To get a drink from the drinking fountain. I'm not kidding here. I had two rounds of braces, the first started in 3rd grade and included the dreaded headgear. Fixing my disaster of a mouth was a multi-staged process, so I had the braces put back on when I was a little older and lived my life with rubber bands pulling my buck teeth back into their proper place until I was 17. It sucked.

Take it from me, DON'T let your kids suck their thumbs.

When the orthodontics started, it was the 80's, which just weren't a flattering period in general for me and I spent most of the decade with my hair permed and running around in jumpsuits and units. I also had a large cyst on my face that eventually grew into a force to be reckoned with. My mom finally took me to have it lanced and drained and now I have a hole in my face where it once existed. I do. I'll show it to you next time I see you. I went to the dermatologist a couple of months ago and she was eager to cut my cheek open and stitch it back up to get rid of the hole. I'm still considering it, you know, to erase the painful memories.

Fortunately for me, my parents kept all the old photos so that I never rid myself of said memories and I ran across one a few weeks ago. Wanna see?

It's so perfect. The perm! The jumpsuit! The braces! The growth! The cold soar!

This, my friends, is how I lived my life for many, many years. Oh, the other photo is Jane. Leave her out of this. She's just unfortunate enough to have to share the corner of the cabinet door with me.

It makes me laugh so hard I can hardly breath.

Remind anyone of a Liz Lemon flashback? Me too.

It was an.... awkward time for me.

Where were you then buck toothed American Girl doll?

Where were you when I needed you?

I never felt the comfort and joy in knowing that somewhere there was a doll that looked just like me and suffered just like me and knew all my pains, and neither will my girls. It just ain't happening.

p.s. - if some of the text is bigger on your screen, like it is on mine, this is not because I'm making a point. It's because I don't know how to fix it. That is all.

L + BOOTD

2010-11-16T20:21:00.000-08:00

Because everyone is sick of looking at the photos of Ben in the yellow pants, I've decided to replace them with ones of Ben in a Captain America costume. At least I think that it's Captain America... Leslie?

And Lizzy is Alice in Wonderland.

I'd also like to take the opportunity to bear my testimony of the 75% off Halloween clearance sales at Target.

As a result of said clearance sale, Lizzy has been enjoying dressing up as Alice, Little Red Riding Hood, a fairy, a fairy princess, a princess and a ladybug fairy. Ben has been rejecting my knight costume (to go with the princesses) as well as the garden gnome and zoo keeper in favor of the Captain America and Iron Man costumes his mother provided for him. I'm feeling really lame.

That's me.

'Lame Aunt Lou'

Ben doesn't call me Lou. He calls me Laura and he pronounces it perfectly and it's really adorable except that I kinda wish he'd call me Lou.

That is all.

things that bring me joy

2010-11-09T20:20:00.000-08:00

I found these pictures on my phone the other day and they made me so very happy.

I knew that Ben's daddy would like them too, so I decided to post them for us both to enjoy.

That is all.

capturing the memories

2010-11-05T20:05:00.000-07:00

Leslie and Cameron brought dinner over to my house this evening. I like it when she does that. We kinda switch off a lot on dinners. Last night, I made dinner, tonight was her turn. It's a good system, we should all be so lucky.

Anyway, as I mentioned before, it was Leslie's turn to make dinner tonight and I took her responsibility very seriously, so I stayed outside with the kids and took pictures of them in our back yard while she cooked alone in my kitchen. She kept harassing me to come in and pull my weight and I was working hard on ignoring her.

Sometimes, you just have to ignore people because otherwise, you loose opportunities like the one I had tonight.

Our kids (and their friend from across the street) were experiencing the glee of jumping in an enormous pile of leaves on a warm, delightful fall day.

And Buster was happy to join them, although I'm not entirely certain how he saw them.

And Lizzy was charming and adorable, as always.

And Jane loved every moment of it.

And I would guess that she's probably got leaves in her underwear.

And her hair. And her ears.

And Davie was about the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Holy cow, that child kills me. He spent most of the evening trying very hard to fall into a ginormous pit that will soon house our trampoline, but he looked darling the entire time.

How did I only get one photo of my Benny Boo? At least it was a good one.

So you see, it was a good thing that I ignored Leslie, and instead made Cameron go down into my cold storage to look for a box of Jiffy Mix Corn Bread, because if I had been inside making Jiffy Mix Corn Bread muffins, who would have been there to capture the memories?

I have created cuteness!

2010-10-31T15:54:00.000-07:00

It's boutique season again and I've been spending a lot of quality time up at my desk working on hair clips. I'm actually kinda excited about what I've been working on this time around and so I made Jane go outside and hold still long enough for me to take a couple of photos.

She kinda fell in love with this one. It might find itself a permanent home with us.

What do you think? Too much?

By the way... Jane got a haircut this morning before church.

Brent didn't notice. He's not what we would refer as "observant."

This one is for Christmas. Would you put this on your child or yourself this holiday season and then walk around like that?

I totally ripped this one off of someone I saw on etsy. Don't tell them. I'm not planning to sell it on etsy and they aren't going to be selling at Oh Sweet Sadie, so it's ok... right?

Right.

Thank you for agreeing with me.

I've got more. Lots more. Many, many, many more. Chances are good that they will find they way onto my blog, so I will advise you all prepare yourselves for that.

Pumpkin Patchin' it up

2010-10-18T19:11:00.000-07:00

It is the custom in our family to make several trips to pumpkin patches in the month of October. I can't ever help myself. I just love me a pumpkin patch. And I love bringing my camera with me. Fortunately for you, I only got one photo that's worth sharing from our first visit...

I love it.

Please take into consideration that this is the same girl that didn't go to school ALL WEEK LONG because she was too far too sick to function. It's amazing what kind of energy she can muster up when pumpkins are involved.

Fortunately for you, I didn't go to the second pumpkin patch because I was legitimately sick as a dog and therefore, we have no pictures... yet. My sister in law informed me that she got some of the girls and intends to send them my way.

Fortunately for ME, I got to go to another one today and I got tons and tons of photos.

I know, Charlie. I get the same way every time I find myself surrounded by hundreds of pumpkins.

My mom is always getting on my case because I post unattractive pictures of Lizzy all the time. It isn't as easy as she thinks to catch that girl looking adorable. It might be the hair. Or the clothes. Or the absent minded looks she walks around with, but she just isn't the type of kid that's ready for her glamor shot at any given moment. It was a good day for my camera, though...

Take THAT, mom!

On the other hand, Jane is always ready for her close up.

And another.

She looks slightly annoyed here. That might be because I was forcing her to pose for a picture before she went through this:

That is what one would refer to as an awesome maze.

Charlie was the only one who would hold still long enough to take a picture with me, and he wasn't happy about it. He didn't seem to mind having his picture taken with Brooklyn, though.

Sometimes I think my kids like her more than me.

And sometimes I know it.

But even Brooklyn couldn't compete with the tractor.

Nice try, Jane. I'm not buying it.

And I'll leave you all with another adorable Lizzy photo just to let it sink in.

Happy Pumpkin Patching!

Adding one more to the family

2010-10-12T13:49:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I put Charlie's crib away. It was time. He's two now, practically a man. Cribs were SO last month. So up went the tiny little bed and down came the crib.

Sigh. Other than a month or so when we were switching Jane over to a bed, this is the first time in over six years that I haven't had a crib in my house. And when we took it down before, I was already pregnant with Lizzy, so I was still in baby mode. Anyway, it was a little bitter sweet. I've been a emotional about it, you know? Feeling kinda empty now that I haven't got a baby in the house anymore. I'm not entirely sure I'm ready to be out of baby mode.

The feeling was short lived, though, because we ARE having another baby in the house. We know he's a boy, we know that right now, he's very, very small and we know that he's a ball of fur that needs to work on relieving himself in the great outdoors instead of my front room.

I'd like you all to meet Buster.

You can call him Buster Brown.

Or just Buster.

"Heeeey, brother."

The little squirt used to belong to Brent's sister, but as it turns out, she's NOT in baby mode and happened to call me in my moment of weakness, offering her young one to us. Who can say no to that face? He's 4 months old and actually almost full grown already. His dad is a toy sized Yorkie, his mom is a Shih Tzu and he's a Shorkie. Or a mutt, if you're my dad.

That should keep those baby hunger pangs at bay for a good while.

LOOTD

2010-10-08T19:38:00.001-07:00

I was going to try to write a post about our afternoon, which included Jane getting stung by multiple hornets (one got caught in her pigtail and stung her several times under her hair), the upstairs toilet overflowing and flooding the bathroom* and Jane loosing her first tooth all within the same 60 minute period...

but I'm just not feeling it. Maybe I'm tired from screaming hysterically for my husband's help so many times.

Instead, here are a few photos that I took of Lizzy last week.

She had been wearing her ballet clothes when I told her that I'd invited a couple of her friends to come over. She suddenly became acutely aware of her inappropriate attire and ran upstairs to change into something more suitable.

She was so proud of herself for getting dressed without any assistance. She doesn't like to have to ask for help for anything, especially when she needs to get dressed or go potty. (see the above reference to the overflowing toilet)

Those are tights that, I believe, are made to fit your average 18 month old. And, for effect, she layered them with socks. It was deluxe.

Let the record state that I love Lizzy.

*A couple of months ago, we were preparing to go out with Leslie and Cameron when we received a phone call from them telling us that Ben had happened upon and nest of hornets and been stung several times over. As they were frantically trying to treat him, they failed to notice that their washing machine had disconnected from the wall and was flooding their laundry room. I'm not sure what it is about the hornet sting/flood in the house combo and members of my family, but it's a very effective way to shake up your afternoon. Give it a try sometime.

Con-fernce weekend

2010-10-05T19:50:00.001-07:00

Just posting a couple of photos (and their accompanying bizarre captions) from our weekend...

Remember how I mentioned that my mom's yard was more like a park? She's got the playground equipment and smiling, happy faces to prove it.

This is what Lizzy and I did while everyone else put together the playground equipment. I don't really like to get my hands dirty if I don't have to. Besides, Lizzy was dirty enough for all of us combined.

Did you know that my parents still have VCR? They do! They do! And it works! And my children don't know what it means to rewind! And they were wondering where the menu was! And I found myself saying "when I was a little girl we didn't have fancy dvd and bluray players and all we had were these tapes and blah blah blah" and I'm pretty sure that they stopped listening at "when I." So instead, Brent and I entertained each other by reminding ourselves of the Be Kind, Rewind signs at Blockbuster.

And now I'm feeling kinda, sorta, really old.

Moving on, my mom's backyard in Summit was getting jealous of the front and so she decided to give it a makeover. I'd have taken a picture of it, but I didn't have a camera (Brent had to take all our photos with his fancy shmancy phone) and also because it was a big pile of dirt and cement footings. It wasn't much to look at and there wasn't much going on over the weekend.

The workers had foolishly left their heavy machinery lying about over the weekend and Charlie was fairly certain that the world would come to an end if he didn't get to try it out for himself. As it turns out, I've been right about that child all along.

He's all bark, no bite.

His eyes are bigger than his stomach.

He bites off more than he can chew.

Ah, Chas. You are a total wuss. You are cute and lovable and fun and very, very wussy.

If you think this is bad, you should see him when the garbage truck comes by. His window is on the street and it wakes him up during nap time. He climbs up on his changing table, curls into the fetal position and cries. I actually kinda feel sorry for him.

Jane and I also made an excursion down to LaVerkin to visit two of our very favorite people.

Brooklyn.

And Brooklyn's mom, Sheri. (not pictured) (obviously)

Brooklyn made us her favorite meal and Sheri microwaved us some very fine rolls :)

We really loved being there with them in their new home. I think Jane and I both teared up a little on the drive home. It's not every day that you make friends as great as mine are.

All in all, our weekend was right, near perfect. Thank you again to my mom and dad for always having a room for us to stay in when we need a little break from real life.

Mum's Mums

2010-10-03T19:13:00.000-07:00

My beloved family and myself took the familiar trek down to Summit to spend conference weekend with my parents. I love watching conference in Summit and did lots of sitting around and eating and sleeping and shirking my responsibilities as a parent. It was fantastic. I'll tell you more about it later, but right now, I've got more important things to focus on.

Flowers.

Last year (it WAS last year, wasn't it?) my parents landscaped their front yard in Summit and this year my mom has spent a great deal of her summer beautifying said yard. At this point, it looks more like a park than some one's front yard.

She's got all kinds of veggies and flowers growing...

but the best part is the mums.

She spent all week planting these mums.

I love fall mums, don't you?

I mean, I seriously LOVE mums.

Time well spent, Mother.

Time. Well. Spent.

A Sunday walk + LOOTD

2010-09-27T14:08:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, Brent was lamenting that, as a family, we never do anything "Sunday-ish" after church.

Then I started lamenting because this, my friends, is a true fact.

But, instead of dwelling on our shortcomings as parents and people who should probably be doing more with our Sunday afternoons, we decided to take a stroll. Brent recommended that we head over to the Temple Quarry trail at the mouth of Cottonwood Canyon. Have you ever been there? Apparently, there's a mt. biking trail (hence Brent's intimate knowledge of the area) but there's also a little, short paved trail with markers all over so that you can stroll around and take in tidbits of information about the area and the granite that was used to build the Salt Lake Temple at your leisure. By the way, are you aware that the granite used to build the Salt Lake Temple isn't actually granite? It's quartz. Who knew? You learn new things every day. Especially when you spend that day reading markers on the Temple Quarry Trail.

So anyway, we told the kids to get their shoes and get in the car, and before we knew it, Lizzy showed up looking like this...

(I tried to get a good picture of her, mom. Honest, I did.)

And then she told me that she was wearing her "BYU sweatshirt," which, as a Ute, I found to be offensive on several levels.

Good grief. Where did I go wrong? I'm going to have to pay closer attention to who she's spending her time with.

And then she asked to go to the bathroom about 5 times. And all they had was a latrine. And it smelled bad. And there were flies in there. And I made Brent take her. Because it was gross.

Aside from the whole latrine thing, we had a really nice time galloping around and communing with nature.

And the kids walked away remembering that sometimes, they actually like each other.

I think that we're going to have to do "Sunday-ish" things more often.

JOOTD

2010-09-20T19:17:00.000-07:00

Fact: the 80s are back.

Some of us love it. Some of us hate it. Most of us don't quite understand it, but it's true. Coral, brass, wallpaper, lace, big hair, mint green, skinny jeans, 3D glasses. It's all here.

(deep breath)

I've been telling myself that every decade comes back, but with a new, modern twist. Which makes it ok... right? Even still, I've been hesitant to let the 80s back into my life, which has turned out to be harder than I thought it would be mostly because my daughter, who has obviously never lived through the 80s, thinks its all totally awesome.

All in all, I felt like we were doing a good job with ourselves and mostly with Jane, walking that line between being trendy and being stylish.

And then it happened.

Leslie found her old crimping iron.

Leslie found her old crimping iron and brought it to our house.

Leslie found her old crimping iron and brought it to our house and Jane immediately fell in love with it.

Leslie found her old crimping iron and brought it to our house and Jane immediately fell in love with it and demanded that I crimp her hair today and then got herself dressed and went to school looking like this:

And as I watched my little munchkin trot off to catch her ride, I realized that the battle was over. I've lost. I'm fairly certain that I had that exact same outfit when I was in first grade, only I think that my jeans had alternating blue and purple threads to give'm that extra somethin' somethin'.

It's ok. I can do this. After all, I was born in 1980 and I didn't really hit my heyday until they were over and I was in high school. That's right, I technically lived through the 80s, but I'm a child of the 90s... and that's what scares me. Because as soon as we're all done with the 80s, we'll move on to the next decade and I know full well what's ahead.

It's called grunge.

And I DID live through that.

And I wore those jeans, only bigger. And I held them up with a rope tied around my waist.

And I'm nervous.

Very nervous.

Well hello, Fall

2010-09-19T19:35:00.000-07:00

After spending a completely unreasonable 4 hours at home watching a Cake Boss marathon with my two daughters this afternoon, I needed to get out.

I think that you might understand.

I was kinda feeling like I was going insane.

Four hours of Cake Boss can do that to you.

No offense, Buddy, but those Jersey accents really start to grate on your nerves after a while.

Or a minute.

Or a second.

Seriously, Buddy, do you ever look at the females in your family and think that if they don't stop talking right that very second in time, you might just hit them? You shouldn't, that would be bad, but I can understand if you want to.

Anyway... I needed to get out. So I loaded up 2 of my small children and drove up into the mountains. It's one of the luxuries of living in the greater Salt Lake metropolitan area. We've got those mountains right there, just begging us to drive up into them.

I wasn't the only one with the idea. Little Cottonwood Canyon was packed. And we were all looking for this:

Greetings, Fall. It's good to see you, old friend.

JOOTD

2010-09-13T20:38:00.001-07:00

Sooooooo... wanna see what Jane wore to school one random day last week?

Ya, I thought so.

Jane really wanted to have her hair crimped, so we put it into braids the night before I took this photo. Instead of a soft, natural wave that she was anticipating, it looked more like a lion's mane. She was almost in tears and wanted to wash it out, but we were in a hurry, so I tried to do some damage control with the curling iron. Anyway, her hair got really big that day. I found it cute.

I would like to point out that I paid $3 for her shoes. They came from the clearance rack at Wal-Mart.

I would also like to point out that I paid about the same for Charlie's tractor shirt.

Lastly, I would like to point out that my children are adorable.

That is all.

Taking 'Labor Day' a little too seriously

2010-09-07T18:51:00.000-07:00

When Labor Day weekend started, our back yard looked about like this:

Only the grass was more dead and the kids were a year older. This photo was taken last August, but that's neither here nor there. Look at the trees. The trees, I tell you!

And this tree too. Look at this tree. Look at this beast of a tree.

Come the end of Saturday, the tree looked a little more like this:

It looks so wussy without its branches. You aren't so tough anymore, tree!

And your buddies on the other side of the yard aren't as big as they thought they were either! Brent wanted to make sure they knew good and clear who was boss by climbing them with a rope and swinging from them as they stood there, stripped of their pride and dignity.

It was cruel.

But the trees had to go. There are plans for this backyard of ours. Big plans. Plans that might be bigger than our stomachs. Plans that include a retaining wall to fill in the pit in the back yard that the kids fall in. Plans that include a sprinkler system that actually works, as opposed to the current one... that doesn't. Plans that include a level place for our playset to sit, so that it doesn't fall over and kill young children. Plans that DON'T include ginormous pine trees.

I'm sorry, pine trees. It's just the way it had to be.

So the pine trees went, old school, lumberjack style.

It was deluxe.

We had a VERY kind neighbor come over as back up and there are the boys, watching, waiting...

Jaime knew what he was doing. Thank goodness for Jaime.

TIMBER!

One down, two to go.

By the time we got to the the third tree, the kids decided to get involved. This photo makes me smile. I love how hard the boys are pulling in the back.

And once they were down, they needed to be cut into pieces and hauled off.

Everyone pitched in, even Chas. Everyone except for me, that is. I was too lazy to help, so I carried around a camera to make documentation look imperative.

If, like me, you feel kinda, sorta, really bad about ripping out perfectly good, mature trees just because we're moving in a different direction, try to take some comfort knowing that they made a noble sacrifice. They were chopped up and split into firewood that, when dry, will provide my young children with much needed warmth in the cold, dreary winter.

Waste not, want not... right?

Backpack!

2010-08-28T13:14:00.001-07:00

Charlie has pushed me beyond my limits as a mother this week. He's lucky to still have a job at this point. But he's sleeping right now and I'm left with my memories of him and I ran across this picture I took of him when I was downloading photos...

And then, I saw this one...

Then this one popped up...

And suddenly, all was right in the world again.

Ok Charlie, you can stay.

JOOTD

2010-08-26T14:05:00.001-07:00

Fact: I enjoy the blog stalking. I think that this is an established point by now.

Fact: My favorite blogs are the ones where the girls take photos of their outfits every day and then post them and tell you where all their clothes came from.

I'm SO not joking.

The fascination I have with the OOTD posts is definitely a sick and cynical one. I love them as much as I hate them. I am jealous of them and annoyed with them and confused by them. They pose so many questions in my mind.

Where do you get your money for your clothes?

When do you find time to shower on a regular basis?

Do you do your hair every single day?

Do you wash your face every single day?

Do you NOT feel uncomfortable taking pictures of yourself?

When you you find time to go shopping and do your kids put up with it?

Why do I wear t-shirts and pants with mustard stains on them most days?

When did I let myself go?

Should I be taking photos of my clothes?

No, I shouldn't be taking pictures of my clothes. I pulled them out of the dirty laundry basket and they have mustard stains on them, remember? But for some reason, even though I have no intentions of posting any OOTD photos for myself any time in the near or distant future, I feel compelled to post JOOTD photos.

That's right.

Jane outfit of the day photos.

She's turning into quite the ridiculous fashionista and while I find her seriousness about clothes to be somewhat troubling, I also find it to be amusing. Amusing enough to be a series of posts? Let's all find out together, shall we?

And that said, let's get on with the show!

This is what Jane wore to school today.

I want to make it perfectly clear to people that I don't spend actual money on my children's clothes. Are we all clear? Good.

Just to be on the safe side, I'll let you know that her shirt came from DownEast and was under $10, which is pushing it for me on a kid's shirt, but she wears it like 3 times a week, so I guess it's ok.

Her skirt was on clea-rance at Forever 21 and I think I paid about $6 for it. It required a little modification (a safety pin in the back), but now it works and it'll fit her for the next couple years as well.

Her boots are from K-mart. I bought them on a BOGO sale wherein that little Tasmanian devil in the background also got a new pair of shoes.

And speaking of which, I'd like to throw out there that Charlie is now available to be rented out to people who would like to remind themselves why they DON'T want a two year old boy hanging around the house. He'd be happy to climb onto your counters looking for candy and dump bowls on popcorn on your floor so that he can stomp them into your rug.

If I do draw satisfaction from the JOOTD posts, I might try to throw in some LOOTD photos too, although Lizzy's outfits will probably look more like this...

Ok, ya. It has now been decided that I will also be posting LOOTD photos. It's going to be fantastic. I can feel it.

There's a first time for everything

2010-08-24T19:51:00.001-07:00

Today was a big day in our house.

A ginormous day.

A monumental day.

A day for the record books.

Today was the first day of school.

It was the first day of first grade for my first born and the first day of preschool for her younger sister.

It was marvelous. MARVELOUS, I tell you!

I'm still riding the high from it, but this morning, I had my doubts about whether we'd even make it. Lizzy spent most of her morning about like this:

Only in various rooms and wearing various items of clothing. Sometimes none at all. I was trying my hardest to make her as adorable as she should be on her first day of preschool, but she seemed determined to scream her voice into oblivion, cry until her eyes swelled shut and rub as much snot in her hair as possible.

I actually started laughing out loud when I went to wake her up and she looked at me, said

"no. i sick. i not going to preschool." and rolled over.

But with a little help from her supportive sister, she slowly started to come around.

Very slowly.

And in her own unique Lizzy sort of way.

She DID loosen up though.

And she made out the car door and into preschool with her little uniform and her little socks and her little bag and she was so nervous and she waited for the teacher to show her where to walk and she was absolutely adorable and I'm crying a little right now just thinking about it.

Jane, on the other hand, had NO problems getting dressed and going to school. After being home all summer, she was more than ready to blow this joint and move on to bigger and better ways to spend her days.

She also didn't mind putting on her favorite new outfit (complete with a scarf that caused a major tantrum in the Cedar City WalMart) and posing for photos.

Charlie wanted in on it too.

My happy family.

The girls have to be at school at the same time in different locations, which will pose a potential challenge this year, so Brent took Jane and headed one direction and Lizzy and I went another. The girls kissed goodbye and off they went.

I'm always more emotional than I plan on being in these kinds of situations, so the morning was actually a bit hard on me, but when my beloved sister and I had a chance to go run errands with only 2 small, controllable little boys instead of 5 unruly children, I got over it. I have a feeling that I'm going to like this year. How about you?

Do the shuffle!

2010-08-23T19:13:00.000-07:00

Soooooo, have you seen Charlie run? It's pretty amusing. We have people comment to us about how funny it is all the time, probably because it's really actually funny. His run has demanded so much attention that it has its own name... The Charlie Shuffle.

For a while now, we've tried to capture The Charlie Shuffle on film (so to speak)...

But you really don't get of the magnitude of the arm swing in a still shot.

Brent finally took the time to capture a little video of the The Shuffle, which I will now share with you.

Now I just need to get a video of him walking because, as you may have guessed, Chas doesn't just 'walk' anywhere. He struts. And it's awesome.

So many questions...

2010-08-15T20:51:00.000-07:00

Friday, my mom and I made a trip into town to hit up my favorite home decor store, the one, the only... Home Goods. Seriously, I wish someone would just build one out here by my house. It would make it a lot easier to spend money that I probably don't have on awesomeness. But the reason Home Goods is so fabulous is that amongst the awesomeness, there's also a lot of not so awesomeness and a bunch of freaking weird random crap that you can't believe anyone ever thought would be a good idea. It makes for an entertaining shopping trip.

While we were there, I happened upon, a thing. It was noteworthy. I picked it up and took it to show my mom even though I was a little scared to hold it in my hands. Literally, I was scared of it, like a little kid would be to touch a dog or something. It might have had something to do with the fingers. I wanted to be able to share it with the world, but I didn't know how. I certainly wasn't willing to pay the $40 clearance price just to bring it home and terrify my small children.

Then I remembered that my husband is high maintenance and demanded a new iphone, which meant that I got his old iphone, which meant that I had a camera, which worked out well for me. And now, world, I would like to share the thing with you...

What the crap is that?

Why is it wearing shoes?

And a robe?

And a waistcoat?

Why are its fingers so long?

Why does it look like it's going to dive at me and start gnawing at my face?

Why is it haunting my dreams?

Too cool for school

2010-08-11T15:41:00.000-07:00

Both of my girls are starting school in about a week and a half, and I'm actually finding myself a little concerned about having the alone time. I acknowledge that I need the alone time. My sanity is needing the alone time, but when I'm used to having three wild children to keep me busy, I'm not entirely sure I'll know what to do with myself when they aren't around.

I'm not always comfortable with my own thoughts. They can get a little weird.

At least I'll have Charlie to keep me company for the next couple of years.

He's funny and cute and likes to play with toys.

Come to think of it, his toys are usually everywhere. And when one isn't readily available, he'll go ahead and use a box of cereal or remote control or a hammer. You know, whatever's lying around. Sometimes hammers are lying around. We're slow learners.

The more I dwell on this, I'm realizing that I spend most of my days chasing him around, trying to prevent him from emptying laundry baskets so that he can climb in them, sweeping up Lucky Charms that he dumped out and mopping up juice or popsicles from our newly refinished hardwoods.

And when I'm not doing that, I'm generally listening to him scream for one reason or another and trying to placate him with fruit snacks or popsicles that I will then have to mop up off those hardwoods I was telling you about.

As it turns out, even though two thirds of my posterity will be occupied with their educational pursuits this year, I don't think I'll have any extra free time at all.

Problem solved.

That was easier than I thought it would be.

I've got good news and bad news

2010-08-04T20:15:00.000-07:00

I'll give you the good news first... it's raining.

This is good news for several reasons.

It's good news because our sprinklers are completely useless and our lawn is desperately trying to give up the ghost. It's hard to beautify our little piece of earth without the necessary life sustaining water.

It's also good news because it's been far too hot and the cool air feels fabulous on my parched skin.

But mostly, it's good news because there's hardly a thing in the world that's more fun to a small herd of children than playing in a summer thunderstorm.

And it's even better news because I had the foresight to buy my kids adorable umbrellas last time Target had the good sense to sell them in their dollar spot.

Ok, now for the bad news... it's raining.

This is bad news for several reasons.

It's bad news because my electricity keeps flickering and I'm worried that it will go out completely and prevent Brent from finishing his homework and ME from finishing this episode of Masterpiece Mystery.

It's also bad news because my kids are terrified of the thunder and it's just a matter of time before they are all crying. Or in my bed. Or both.

But mostly, this is bad new because my house is very damp and very sticky.

And I chose tonight to make BLTs.

Damp, sticky house + bacon stink = not a good combo.

I have now decided that if we ever move to a damp climate, my family is completely giving up bacon.

And that's final.

Go-getters

2010-07-29T21:22:00.000-07:00

We've been going, going, going over here lately. I can't really pinpoint what it is that we've been doing, exactly, but we definitely FEELl busy around here.

I haven't had time to sit around and doze on the couch in the afternoons.

I haven't had time to idly threaten to ground my kids if they don't clean their rooms.

I haven't had time to cook tasty food for me and mi familia every night for dinner (i'm not even being sarcastic about that one, i really actually do like to cook).

I haven't had time to fold the 13-and counting loads of clean laundry that continue to pile up in the laundry room.

I haven't even had time to watch the 4 episodes of Poirot that are waiting for me on my DVR.

Whatever it is that I actually HAVE been doing, my poor children have been dragged along with me (is it 'dragged' or 'drug'? i'm going with dragged because drug sounds like drugged, which sounds bad, which isn't good for my reputation as a mother), and it's beginning to take it's toll on poor Chas.

He's so sleep deprived, he's getting pretty desperate over here.

July 25th is a good day to turn 6

2010-07-25T20:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, this whole "children growing up" thing is starting to get a little weird. My first born is officially a full fledged not so little girl and it really doesn't seem like she's been around long enough to be riding scooters around the neighborhood and listening to Taylor Swift. Of course, that didn't stop me from buying her a new scooter and Taylor Swift CD for her birthday.

Happy sixth birthday, Baby Jane! Six is a great age to be and I'm fairly certain that the year will be full of experiences that I had when I was about 12.

Is it just me or do these girls seem to age exponentially?

It's about time I push through this Subtitled: I really shouldn't watch TV while I'm trying to write.

2010-07-20T19:33:00.000-07:00

Is it possible to have Blogger's Block?

Is that a "thing?"

Can I MAKE it a "thing?"

Do I have that kind of power?

For the sake of argument, let's just say that I do.

Moving on, I feel like I've had Blogger's Block lately.

It's a tad bit frustrating. As I'm writing this, instead of concentrating on writing, I'm watching America's Got Talent and lamenting the fact that as much as I'd like to be able to hate Howie Mandel, I just can't bring myself to do it. Maybe it's because I still hold him dear to me for all the hours of Bobby's World he provided me with in the 80's, or maybe it's because he's got OCD and I love me a freak that's ok with talking about their freakishness, or maybe it's because he seems like the kind of guy that can insulted in every possible way and still like you when it's over.

How did I just find that many reasons to NOT hate Howie Mandel?

I'm so confused right now. What's happened to me? Who am I?

See? Blogger's Block. I'm totally distracted, but as with most things in life, we must persevere.

Tonight, I've just got some more photos from our San Diego trip to post. Lame. Sorry. Let's just take a deep breath and get through these posts together so we can move on with our lives, ok?

While in San Diego, we went to the Pier. (Which is kinda like Piers from America's Got Talent, who just told the "Strong Man" that he's boring... and he was.) My kids liked the pier. They really wanted to go on the boats, and so did I.

Charlie waves at just about everyone. It's adorable. He'll go out of his way to stop what he's doing and wave at anyone who drives by and I'll go out of my way to stop everyone to watch him wave. He also really likes his hat, as well as most accessories. He must have gotten the tendency from his idol, Ben.

Ben really likes to be fancy.

Daddy's girls. Sigh.

Remind me that I need to go on that air craft carrier next time I'm in the area.

(Ok, now I'm watching this guy, Hannibal, on America's Got Talent who is truly terrifying.

He crocheted animal hats for all the dancers to wear during his performance and they ARE wearing them. Yup. He's singing the 'Circle of Life' on a pedestal with several dancers in full body leotards and animal hats. If you didn't catch it tonight, do yourselves a favor and check that out on YouTube tomorrow.)

We all went on a nice long walk that evening and I tried out my new jogging stroller, which worked out very well for me, but the highlight of the evening was a man that approached me and started harassing me and my husband about having too many kids.

I'll agree that it FEELS like a lot of kids, but in a photo or walking down a street, we don't really LOOK like a lot. At least I didn't think so until this guy started asking me what religious group I was with. I almost told him I was Mormon just to bug him. I'm not sure what all he said because I was trying to ignore him, but I'm fairly certain sure that he accused me of genocide and then took photos of my children. Please let me know if you see them somewhere. I'm a little uncomfortable that some psychopath has photographs of my kids.

Ok, peeps, that was a painful post. And instead of dragging it out even further, I'm going to go now so that I can give the "fire illusionist" that's on after this commercial break my full and undivided attention. Have I mentioned that I really like America's Got Talent?

Taking Care of Business

2010-07-20T07:21:00.001-07:00

This post is inform each and every one of you that I will hauling a plethora of felt hair clips up to So. Weber on Thursday for a boutique. Yes, it's true. For those that live in that general direction and have complained that I don't sell up there, your day has come.

Flyer...

Thoughts...

This looks like a fun show, which is why I'm trucking it up there sell stuff. I like that it's not an all day/all weekend kinda show (it's not even open on Saturday) because I've found that you can do as much business in a few good hours at a good show as you can in a whole weekend. What this means to me is that these girls are smart. And I like them already. And I like their show.

Link...

http://www.thesassycupcake.blogspot.com/

Tell one! Tell all! Shout it from the tops of the mountains!

That is all.

Nothin' wrong with a trip to a zoo.

2010-07-12T20:39:00.000-07:00

At long last, the highly anticipated "trip to the zoo" post has arrived.

Seriously, I love me a zoo, and the San Diego Zoo really is the mother of all zoos. We weren't going to go because the last time any of us kids had been there, we had a bad experience, but as it turns out, there's a reason I love me a zoo. That reason is my dad. My dad LOVES him a zoo and so it was under his advice that we changed our plans last minute and decided to go.

It was a good move.

It was a good day.

What's not to love about one of these little "stick your head in there and let me take your picture!" things?

Nothing. Nothing's not to love.

Are you aware of the fact that there are polar bears at the San Diego Zoo?

Polar Bears, people!

This is not a polar bear.

I kinda wish it was. They're cute when they're small. Or at least this replica of a polar bear is really cute.

Fact: When I was growing up, I loved polar bears.

I'm not sure why I loved them so much, but I thought they were the coolest animals around. I believe I may have even had one of those Zoo Books posters of a polar bear on my wall in my room.

I was really disappointed when it came to my attention that polar bears grow to be gi-freaking-normous and would consume me on the spot if given half a chance.

I also liked seals.

When I was in first grade, we had a special 'money day' when we got to earn fake money and then buy real things with fake money. I lost most of my money somehow and my teacher was really unsympathetic about it. Her name was Mrs. Norris and she was kinda mean to me. She would get mad at me when I needed to go to the bathroom so I would try to hold it and then she'd get mad at me for not going to the bathroom. She would dump my desk out on the floor in front of the whole class when it got messy. In retrospect, she may not have liked me very much.

Anyway, I lost most of my money and so I ended up having to wait until last to be able to pick out what I wanted to buy. Mrs. Norris told me that there wouldn't be anything left when I finally got my turn.

I wanted to buy a stuffed seal.

It was still there.

Mrs. Norris told me that I was "lucky" in a very curt manner.

I bought the stuffed seal with my fake money and then I took it home.

Then I named him Sealy.

That said, look at this picture.

After we took this picture, we went to see the elephants and somewhere along the way, Davie peed through his diaper, so he was mostly naked from the waste down. Then Lizzy peed through her diaper and refused to put on her shoes or wet pants, so she was mostly naked from the waste down. We hopped on the skytram and all clung onto the bar in the middle as though that bar would save us from certain death if our tram suddenly broke free and plummeted hundreds of feet to the ground.

Then we went home.

Then we napped.

Then we went back to the zoo.

The zoo at night is HIGHLY recommended. It was nice out, parking was easy, crowds were way down, it was just good.

Hello koala bear. It's super cool that you can get up close and personal with the koalas, which are NOT bears. Are they? They're marsupials, right? Hello koala marsupial!

We hung out there for a while. Charlie liked them and didn't want to leave. He usually gets what he wants.

We walked right in to see the pandas. The kids LOVED them and took about 17 pictures of them. Can you see it in there? Look closely...

Cool.

After that, we made our way to the reptile house to try to find the komodo dragon for Jane. She was desperate to see it. I don't think we ever found it, but we did find a big huge lizard that in many ways resembled a komodo dragon. We told Jane that it was one. We lied to our child. It isn't the first time and it won't be the last.

And with that weighing heavily on our conscience-s, we went home again.

The zoo = a good time.

The Bride

2010-07-08T21:08:00.000-07:00

I WAS going to post about the zoo tonight and since I'm fairly certain that none of you has ever been to a zoo, let alone the San Diego Zoo, you were looking forward to it with uncontrollable anticipation, but as it turns out, I'm really tired.

Deal with it.

I've spent all evening partying like it's 1999 and trying to convince my girls to go to bed. They are currently both squeezed into Jane's twin. I'm guessing I've got until about 12:37 before one of them falls out and we start the whole process over again.

I remember being a little girl and we would wait until my mom tucked us in, then my brother would sneak into my room and sleep in there with me under my Cabbage Patch Kids canopy. I remember hiding him under my dirty clothes so that Mom wouldn't find him if she came to check on us. She didn't approve of our sharing a bed. I didn't understand why.

It makes a little more sense now.

Anyway, I'm somewhat sympathetic so I'm giving this sleeping arrangement a shot, against my better judgement. I do a lot of things that are against my better judgement. It keeps life interesting.

What I'm getting to is that instead of pictures of Koalas, I'm going to post the single photo that I took of the bride. I can't believe that I didn't manage to get a better one, but I didn't and since my mom pointed out my oversight, I will try to make amends.

Stacey was a beautiful bride and was also very thoughtful and kind to our family of disruptive children. I've only met her the once, but I'm inclined to like anyone who orders a special meal of chicken fingers for my kids, provides crayons and coloring books for them to play with and glow bracelets, for when it got dark.

Until next time...

The Wedding

2010-07-07T20:40:00.000-07:00

My cousin got married. He's kinda the reason that we went to California on vacation in the first place. I have thanked him for planning his wedding on a beach in Southern California because it gave me and my entire family a really good reason to get out of town and loosen up a little bit. It also gave me a reason to get the whole family dressed up and try to pose for "chic mom on the beach" photos.

"Try" is the operative word. "Try" spends most of it's time being the operative word in my life.

Come on kids! You can do it, just point your faces towards the camera for one second!

Oh nevermind. Go play in the ocean.

Or at least stand there and act like you like each other.

Don't my mom and dad look dashing? I love this photo of them.

"Jane and Mommy" - taken by Lizzy

"Lizzy and Mommy" - taken by Jane.

At the after-party, there were kiddy cocktails,

and smiles,

and girl cousins, (doesn't Leslie look particularly cute? I was a wee but envious of her cuteness)

and dancing,

and..... well.... other forms of dancing,

and a random seagull in a fountain,

and lame-os,

but my favorite part (aside from seeing my family that I never see and going to my cousin's wedding, of course) was the twinners...

Davie matched too. Wait, let me find a photo of him.

hold on...

almost got it...

There!

Triplet-ers?

I have to tell this story because I love it so. We were packing the kids in the car to go home for the night, and we had Ben riding with us, so he was getting loaded in too. There was a nice family walking down the street at the same time and one of them shouted to me,

"We love your twins!"

and I smiled back and yelled,

"Thanks!"

My dad and his mom and sister and brother and a couple of stow-aways that no one was mean enough to shoo out of the photo.

Look at my grandma. Isn't she adorable? You love her already, don't you?

The kids do too.

And the whole Sills/Barron side of the family - minus Johnny B, Danielle and my cousin, Kyle's new wife. It really was a lovely wedding and a lovely evening and I enjoyed the whole thing tremendously.

It was totally worth all the sand in the diapers.

And mouths.

And shorts.

And eyes.

And ears.

And noses.

And bellybuttons.

And hair.

Tomorrow, if you're really super lucky, I might tell you about the San Diego Zoo. I know, I know, you can hardly contain yourselves. Try.

btw - I should own up that a bunch of those photos were taken by my favorite brother in law, Cameroon. He's good at sharing.

Look familiar?

2010-07-06T21:07:00.000-07:00

Well hellllll-ooooo! It's been so long since we've talked.

How ARE you?

Good?

Good.

I'm glad that we've taken this time to catch up.

So I just got home from a nice, long, lovely vacation in California. Feel free to be envious. I would be. And I took lots and lots and lots and lots of photos and I intend to post most of them. But I'll do it in small increments so that you don't just give up and stop caring half way through. I would.

Although our vacation ultimately stretched over a larger portion of southern California, we were stationed in San Diego and the first day we were there, we took the kids to the uber playground at Balboa Park. Last time Brent and I were in San Diego, we had but one child, and we took her to the uber playground at Balboa Park. It looked a little something like this...

Hello tiny little Jane. It seems as though you are rather enjoying yourself on that there twisty slide.

Yes, I'd say that she definitely had a nice time.

This time, our visit to the uber playground at Balboa Park looked similar. So similar that it's a little creepy...

Hello Miss Lizzy. It seems as though you also enjoy yourself a good twisty slide.

Go, Lizzy, go!

Ok, this is probably one of my favorite pictures of this little munchkin in the whole world.

And Jane, not to be outdone by her younger sister, insisted the she also be photographed on the same slide that she visited 4 years ago. It's still just as fun.

Ben was there too.

Fact: Ben is cute.

Davie was also in attendance.

Fact: the only thing cuter than Ben is Ben WITH Davie. On a purple dinosaur.

Charlie was also there, but he must have been either

A) of ill favor - or

B) not being cute

because I don't have any photos of him.

So ya, if ever find yourself in San Diego and in the company of small children that need to be entertained until they exhaust themselves to the point that the only thing they are physically capable of is collapsing their beds, take them to the uber playground at Balboa Park.

"I want something sweet to eat."

2010-06-21T13:45:00.001-07:00

I know I've been posting a lot of 'Brent' photos lately, but when I feel so inspired, I feel so inspired.

Deal with it.

And this one is really cute.

Extra super cute.

And Lizzy is really cute. Especially when she's eating something sweet.

This morning, she was complaining that she was hungry. She's found that she really enjoys refusing food and then complaining about her hunger shortly thereafter. I've found it to be completely obnoxious.

"but mooOOOoom! i'm so hungry! i need some candy! look. they have candy here at dee store. you could buy me some!" she squeals in the middle of Wal-Mart.

"No Lizzy. I tried to feed you breakfast and you wouldn't eat it. I'm NOT buying candy."

"but my tummy hurts! i have a headache in my tummy!"

When we finally got home, she raided the pantry for sweet treats and consumed several packages of fruit snacks before I could stop her. Ah Miss Biz. Good thing you're so cute.

btw - the title of this post is a quote from my youth. my parents remind me that it was one of my favorite phrases. i suppose the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

The moment we've all been waiting for

2010-06-20T12:23:00.001-07:00

Let's be honest with ourselves here...

Don't we all want to have boys because some day, we want to be able to take pictures of them following their daddies around the yard with their little lawn mowers?

No?

Hmmm. That was my motivation.

I think we'd all agree that it's at least a perk.

I'm waiting for the day that he's big enough to run the real one. Now THAT'S a perk.

I also enjoy being able to get him dressed up all snazzy for church on Sundays.

He enjoys getting dressed up all snazzy, eating cold pizza and dancing on the table before church on Sundays. I think the shoes make him feel fancy. He loves those green shoes.

He also loves his daddy a lot this weekend. I'd be jealous, but seeing as how it's Father's Day, I'm going to let it go.

Thursday was a couch day

2010-06-17T19:45:00.000-07:00

I really do actually have things to post about because I've been a busy girl.

Monday, I (almost) finished decorating Lizzy's room. It only took like a year and a half to get on that. I need to get some pictures of it so I can post about it.

Tuesday, we went to the children's garden at Thanksgiving Point with some friends and I took lots of pictures so that I could post about it.

Wednesday we went to Wheeler Farm and I took lots of pictures so that I could post about it.

Thursday, we did nothing. I can't be exciting and/or fun and/or productive every day. I'm just not that cool.

Problem is, I don't feel like posting about anything. My kids brought home some sort of funk that they've been so kind as to share with me. I wish they'd keep their funk to themselves. If your kids have been anywhere near my kids and they bring home funk, it's probably our fault. Allow me to apologize in advance.

Anyway...I don't feel good and I don't really have what it takes to write something that requires very much from me. So instead, I'll write about what I did today, which was nothing.

That was easy.

And instead of posting a series of photos of my family out and about and enjoying the summer, I'll post a series of photos of my husband and son, sitting on the couch, watching sports after we had put the cranky girls to bed early.

I am currently planted in the exact location pictured. I've been here for a large part of the afternoon and evening, only taking a short break around 7:00 to allow the men in my life to watch basketball. It was a sacrifice I was willing to make. I really like them.

I also really like my couch.

In conclusion,

2010-06-15T07:03:00.000-07:00

So, I realize that I never ended up posting follow up pictures of Jane's dance recital.

Allow me to do so now.

Jane and her buddy, Abby. Actually, Jane took dance with all her little neighborhood friends, but they all scattered away before we could get a photo of them together. Jane didn't get flowers. She never gets flowers after her recitals because her mom is a bum and I always forget until I'm there. Apparently she doesn't have a problem mooching off of other people's flowers though. Works for me.

I swear her hair looked better when I sent her. Dancing messes up hair.

Jane found a pine cone and apparently felt an immediate connection with it.

Jane + pine cone = love.

Seriously Jane, what's with the pine cone?

Other memorable moments at the recital include-

1.Charlie screaming and squirming so much that Brent had to take him out for most of it.

2.Ben coming and then dancing in his seat every time the boys came out. In fact, when he was watching them in almost a trance, I asked

"Ben, do you want to dance?"

"YES." he replied enthusiastically.

"Ben, do you want to play soccer?"

"Not anymore."

His dad is stoked, I'm sure. These are the reasons Cameron loves me.

3. Lizzy was crushed when she realized that this is what Jane had been doing all year without her. She totally felt shafted. Middle children are always feeling shafted, largely because we are.

But she perked up a bit when I told her that she could take dance next year.

Looks like my life will be a life of dance. That's what I get for going and having girls.

Kids with a camera

2010-06-12T20:08:00.000-07:00

I'm always amused (and irritated) when I go to use my camera and when I turn it on, I find that my children have - at some point- gotten a hold of it and taken random and bizarre photos. Here's what I found today...

Jane and Lizzy and I went to a birthday party for our friend, Brooklyn, today. That girl is amazing. She's turning 15 tomorrow and had a party held in a church with a live band and a gazillion people there who all agree with me that she's amazing.

I bring this up because I sat next to Brooklyn's mom, thinking how I don't know another person in the whole world who could pull off that kind of a rockin' birthday party other than Brooklyn, and then I looked up to see my eldest daughter full on skanking, by herself, having a grand old time in the middle of the dance floor. One would never have guessed that mere minutes before, she was so terrified of the building and everything in it that she would hardly let go of my leg and broke into tears at least a couple of times.

At that point, I leaned over to Brooklyn's mom and thinking that she could probably relate, I asked "Did you ever have a moment when you looked at your daughter and thought to yourself 'that girl is a piece of work.'? Because I'm having one of those moments."

Actually, I have a lot of those moments with Jane. Good heavens, if we all make through her teenage years, it will be a miracle. But I'd never change her even if I could because I love a girl with spirit and that is why I love Jane. And Brooklyn too.

Moving on, Lizzy also got her sticky little fingers on my camera. And they WERE sticky. Literally. Like, several wipees were employed in an effort to restore the camera to it's original 'not sticky' state.

Although I believe we'd all prefer to see them from a little further distance, one must admit that my middle child has some amazing eyelashes.

They look ever better when she doesn't appear as though she's been drugged.

But in all fairness, she probably had been.

Don't judge me.

You're judging me, aren't you?

Dealing with a toddler with insomnia is really no fun.

I promise.

For Pete's sake, why do I always seem compelled to talk about the occasions wherein I medicate my children on this blog? I really don't understand myself sometimes. I'd better just delete this whole paragraph before you

a) think I'm a bad parent for drugging my child on a regular basis

b) think that I'm a lunatic or

c) I regret publishing it.

Oh, nevermind. I don't care that much.

Reason No. 52 for me to be reluctantly supportive of Jane's dance career

2010-06-05T12:29:00.001-07:00

Fact: I'm not a dancer.

Never have been. And at this point, I doubt I ever will be. My mom tried, she really did, but I just wasn't into it.

I think that it costs ridiculous amounts of money.

I think that it sexualizes young girls.

I think that it puts too much stress on kids that need to spend more time living life and less time dancing.

I think the outfits are almost exclusively without taste.

I think that it points out the physical flaws and differences in girls, breeding insecurities, undue pride and a shallow way of thinking about their own value.

*I think that "dance moms" that get worked up over how their daughter looks in this year's costume and how advanced her class is are completely obnoxious.

I could go on, but in an effort to prevent you all from thinking that I'm a total stick in the mud, I'll stop there.

Suffice it to say that I've never understood the drama, the stress, the whole culture behind dance and I've been pleased that I've been able to avoid it all my life... until now.

Fact: Jane is a dancer. She likes it and I think she's got potential to be really good at it.

This puts me in a tough spot.

For most people? Not so tough.

For me? A woman who has deep seated moral opposition to the art that has probably directly resulted from knowing that so many of my friends that I grew up with in Las Vegas ultimately became strippers to pay the bills instead of doing something more productive with their dance training (not to mention my own inability to succeed at it and all the girls who did that ultimately made me feel inferior to them)? I'm in a tough spot.

I keep worrying and worrying about what to do next year. It's a scary thing when you realize that the judgement calls you make when your child is 5 can have serious long term effects on the person that they ultimately become. Being a mom totally sucks sometimes.

But I can't think about that right now. I'll go crazy if I do. I'll think about that tomorrow.

Today is Jane's dance recital and Reason No. 52 for me to be reluctantly supportive of Jane's career in dance would be her neon pink, zebra print, hot shorts/halter top combo of a costume.

The other ones are neon green. I'm just glad that I got the pink one.

Yes, my daughter is wearing makeup. Don't judge me. She's always trying to put it on, so we have a deal that she'll stay out of my drawers if I promise to put in on her for dance recitals and halloween.

I DO think that next year, she's going to start focusing on ballet more. Wanna see why?

She just poses like that on her own. This photo's just screaming for some ballet slippers and a tutu. And less neon pink zebra print.

Show off.

btw... did I ever mention that I finally picked a color for my new front door? Guess what color it turned out.

These pictures were taken a few minutes ago BEFORE her recital. I'll get some more when we go and post those later. There's a whole 'nother classy outfit to photograph.

Mostly, this post exists because I'm feeling tormented by dance at the moment and I needed someone to talk this over with. Thank you computer. I know that YOU'RE always there for me, unlike my husband who is currently asleep and completely oblivious to how I suffer.

That was a joke.

Ya, this post makes me sound like a total stick in the mud. I'll try to liven up a bit for the next one.

* You should know that I'm totally turning into a "dance mom." How can this be happening?

Is it wrong?

2010-06-04T09:04:00.001-07:00

Is it wrong that Lizzy reminds me of Ash from The Fantastic Mr. Fox?

"What is this with the cape and the pants tucked into your socks?"

If you haven't actually SEEN The Fantastic Mr. Fox yet, I suggest that you repent of your past sins and view it as soon as humanly possible. I'd loan you my copy, but I plan on watching it today.

If you haven't actually HEARD of the Fantastic Mr. Fox yet, I am truly sorry for you and in an effort to rectify the unfortunate situation, here's a link to a preview.

http://www.firstshowing.net/2009/07/30/must-watch-wes-andersons-fantastic-mr-fox-trailer/

Up at the crack

2010-06-02T20:10:00.000-07:00

While we were vacationing over the weekend, we made a trip (or two) down to sunny St. George. We generally go to St. George when we visit my parents. Surprisingly enough, Summit, Utah isn't the busting metropolis that you'd expect and sometimes we just feel the need to get out. Plus, they have the world's most fabulous Home Goods down there. I always find myself tempted to throw away our life's savings in a single shopping trip. For this reason, the husbands and children are not such big fans of our St. George trips. Apparently the draw to the St. George Home Goods isn't universal.

Anyway, we decided to try something different this time and instead of heading straight for the shopping, we did something fun. We went to the local, convenient slot canyon to play around for a while.

Did I mention that Leslie and her kids were there too?

I had a picture of Leslie holding Davie that I thought was pretty cute and I was going to post it, but when she pointed out that she looked pregnant in it (and she did), I decided not to do that to her.

Exploration...

Lizzy liked it there.

Jane too, apparently.

It was fun to see the kids finding their inner mt. goats. I realized that we really don't give them the chance to get out and climb around nearly enough. By the end of the weekend, they were much more comfortable hopping on rocks.

It's a useful skill, that hopping on rocks. One that each child should be given the opportunity to master.

We also went to the Brigham Young Winter Home. Look at us being tourists! Leslie was supposed to get a photo of my family, but instead of waiting until I was able to gather my chicks, she took this, then she gave the camera back and told me that it was time to go.

I've chosen to forgive her.

The children may have been unavailable to photograph as a result of the tantrums/unruly behavior/exhaustion that resulted from said trip to the Brigham Young Winter Home.

But instead of putting them out of their misery and heading home, we decided to reward their tantrums by taking them to get frozen custard.

Look at Davie. You can see the sleep deprivation on his face.

And in Charlie's loopy smile.

I'm willing to put up with a lot to consume frozen custard.

And with that, we finally loaded our young family in the minivan, made sure they were all nice and comfortable and made the hour drive back to Summit...

..right after I went to the Home Goods.

Road Trip

2010-05-31T19:53:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a little weekend excursion and I'm tired. Are you tired too? Sometimes long weekends end up making us more tired instead of better rested.

Ya, so I'm tired. And I think a little sick, although I can't figure out what I might have. My husband made me some tea and I'm watching a movie on HBO that is making me cry every 10 seconds. He's doing something in his office that involves NOT watching me cry at a movie every 10 seconds. I really need to get control over my tears, it's just plain annoying how often I cry.

Anyway, point being that I don't really have the energy to post a whole lot, but we DID just get back from a weekend excursion and I wanted to post something.

These are photos from our car ride down to grandma's house.

I'd like to bear my testimony of buying your kids Happy Meals on the way out of town.

They get all filled up, they get a new toy that keeps them entertained (which only works to your advantage if you can tune out the ones that make noise),

and apparently the boxes make for a good time as well.

Oh, children of mine.... I love you all. And I'm super glad that you are all asleep because tomorrow, life goes back to normal. And normal will not include getting Happy Meals for dinner.

Remember when I said...

2010-05-26T14:35:00.000-07:00

that I was going to start posting crafting stuff on this blog? Well my words have come back to haunt you.

This post is to inform people that I am restocking my Etsy store. Because much to my dismay, money doesn't grow on trees and new fancy shmancy chairs and new doors and 20 Leonardo Divinci sketches and their frames (i'll tell you about it later) don't pay for themselves.

Head on over to have a looksey, if you'd like.

I want you all to know a couple of things

2010-05-26T08:37:00.001-07:00

1 - I am not a photographer. More specifically, I am not a food photographer.

2 - That said... I made this:

Yes I did.

That would be an Italian Cream Cake made from scratch. SCRATCH, I tell you! With cream cheese coconut frosting and crusted in home toasted coconut. I like coconut. You should too. I understand that there are actually people out there who don't like coconut? I pity your tastebuds. Because you couldn't even have enjoyed this.

And it was very much enjoyed. And I think that I'm still trying to jog off the calories that were consumed as a result of it. Mmmmm. Coconut.

I got the recipe from here

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/07/billies-italian-cream-cake-recipe/

so now you can make one too. And you should. It'll be a good way to push through your coconut aversion.

Reduce, reuse, recycle

2010-05-24T20:44:00.001-07:00

So, I don't know that anyone will actually care about what I have to tell you this evening, but I haven't posted in a while and I have something (boring) that I could tell you and so I've decided that I will tell you. I'm assertive like that.

I needed some new throw pillows to adorn some new fancy, shmancy chairs that I've recently acquired. But since I spent all my money purchasing said chairs, it turns out that I don't actually have money for throw pillows. Fortunately for me, I'm very much in tune with my inner crafter, so I just trotted* down to my local Home Fabrics (which is, btw, the very best fabric store ever) and picked up a couple half yards of some uber cheap fabric. $7 on fabric was in the budget. Pillows themselves? notsomuch. In my complaining to my husband about my predicament, he reminded me that I've got tons of pillows hiding in closets and storage rooms in my house that I'm not using anymore and why don't I just go scrounge and dig some up. That husband of mine is a smart man. And that's what I did.

Tonight, I brought up a couple of lumbar pillows that I had covered a couple years ago and tore off the old material and you know what I found? You're going to love this... That wasn't the first time I had recovered those pillows. I showed Brent and he started laughing at me. So I tore off that material and as it turns out, I had covered them before THAT!!!!! I know, right? Freaking hilarious stuff going on over here. It's a party every night, you should all be jealous.

These are the ways I get my thrills, people.

So Brent wanted to document the occasion, and I was perfectly willing to oblige him.

Cheese!

Behold! That's 4 layers of fabric we're talking here.

So, as it turns out, I'm totally green these days. Yup. That's me, the eco-conscious girl next door. Here I am, reusing my pillows over and over and over and over again. People that are wasteful are so not as earth friendly as me. Either that, or I redecorate far too frequently.

Ya, I'm going with the latter.

* (and by "trotted" i mean that i loaded up my three screaming, hungry children and made them come with me to the fabric store AGAIN and they started to cry because they all hate that store and i tried to bribe them to behave with suckers that they just tried to stick to the fabric and then they all ran away from me and started to jump on the rugs and i got dirty looks because the people that work there have specifically asked me to NOT allow my children on the rugs and then they crawled under the sale tables and tried to pull the fabric skirts off of them and i started to yell and maybe cry a little and i finally paid and hurried them all to the door to discover that charlie had a poopy diaper and it really stunk and i didn't have a diaper to change him into and i had to smell the stink all the way home where i ended up being so sick of hearing the kids screaming that i just closed the garage door and let my kids sit in the car for several minutes while i tried to regain some composure.)

Fun with color

2010-05-18T13:13:00.000-07:00

So, we're getting a new front door. Hopefully, it will be here any day and we'll be able to get it installed before Jaime gets super busy again.

Since were ARE getting a new door, I thought it might be a nice opportunity to make a change and vary from my old reliable red.

Doors are fun. They are like the lipstick on your house and it's fun to try out new colors to spice things up. I've been looking at greens and blues (for the house, not my lips), but making very little progress. For like a month, I've had a bunch of paint chips taped to the door and I've thought several times that I should keep a pen out there and let people vote on them since I've made no progress in making my decision and time is starting to run out.

Leslie sent me a photo a while ago of a yellow door with dark hardware (like the kind that I've got sitting around waiting to be installed) and on Saturday, on a whim, I decided to see what yellow would look like. So I grabbed a can of yellow paint that I had left over from a recent project - yes, i have lots of paint left over in lots of different colors and lots of different sheens. want some? brent would like me to start getting rid of it - and slapped it on my existing door just to get a sense of what it would look like.

I only put on one coat, but even then I could feel the effect that the yellow would have on the house. I stepped back and took a good look at what I had done.

As it turns out, painting the door yellow was the best thing that I could have done. Now, I know exactly what I'm going to paint when the new door gets here and one thing is for certain...

It's NOT going to be yellow.

A huge disappointment

2010-05-16T17:52:00.000-07:00

Long before I met Brent, he had been thinking of himself as a mt. biker. He loved to be on his bike, still does. He craves it. I believe that when he met me, he had great hopes that together, we would raise a family of dedicated mt. bikers. When we went for our first bike ride together and I spent the first half of it crying as I struggled to haul my bike up the hill and the other half walking it down the hill out of sheer fright, I think he died a little inside. I'm afraid that my children have been equally disappointing in that department.

Case in point: this evening's "bike ride."

When Lizzy wasn't pushing her Barbie trike around Fred Flinstone style, she was dangling, motionless from Jane's bike.

Meanwhile, even though Jane has a bike that fits her, she stole the Barbie trike and did her best to take it at top speed around the circle without banging her knees into the handles.

And Charlie was much more interested in wearing the appropriate protective gear than actually riding anything.

All the while, I just sat on the front porch and complained about how tired I was.

I don't think that these are the kinds of "family bike rides" Brent had in mind.

My 15 minutes

2010-05-14T08:06:00.000-07:00

My sister has a sister in law who has a sister who has a blog. It's a cool blog. She invites fellow bloggers to answer 5 questions about themselves and then posts a different set of answers every day. It's really fun to read all the different answers and get to know other people. It opens the door to some good blurkes and I'm all about the blog stalking.

So today is my day. Head on over to 5 Questions and get to know me even better... if you dare.

p.s. - i have come to the realization that my last post was really. freaking. long. my sincerest apologies. you don't have to read all those words. i won't be offended, promise. as i was posting, i was admittedly distracted by thursday night TV on NBC (was that the Community season finale? what a sad day.) i'll try to stay more focussed next time. try.