My Dream Come True!

On Friday, my long awaited dream came true!

I played My Little Ponies with my daughter!!!

Gracie is old enough now to play with me.  I'm so excited, because before now, she has been interested mostly in what the boys were doing.  She would rather have been yielding a sword and fighting the enemy than playing dolls with me. 

And, of course, Haley was not interested in the least.  I tried, but she pulled the heads off all the barbies.  The most girly thing she would do is let me put makeup on her and paint her nails.  But she would barely put up with that.

So to entice Grace, I showed her a My Little Pony video and went through the toys to dig up our three lucky ponies.  We baked a cake with them, brushed and braided their hair, took them for a drive, and had a playdate at Toola Roola's house.  Pinky Pie didn't want her hair braided, but it looked fabulous after we brushed it.  Scootaloo got to have a piggy back ride on Pinky's back.

The ponies are a part of our daily life now.  They hang out on the counter, eat with us, go in the car.

I'm a happy mommy :-)

I think Grace likes it, too!

I'm Afraid to Turn Around

Why, you ask?  Because mothers should have all had eyes installed on the back of their heads.  At least the mothers who have children like this:

Today, I have turned around to find my lovely son:

-trying to stick his finger in the pencil sharpener

-rummaging through the silverware drawer fingering the knives

-standing on a bench smearing lotion all over himself and the dresser

-shoving his finger through a banana and eating the mush

-standing at the sink on a chair playing with the faucet

-standing on top of the bag of toilet paper trying to reach the lightswitch

-pushing a chair over to the toilet to do who knows what
-licking my wood chair
-pulling the heads off my favorite Kokeshi dolls

AND IT'S ONLY 11:30!!

Just Trying to Stay Out of Trouble...

I absolutely love the giant flatscreen TV my mom got us for Christmas.  I just hate seeing my kids drooling in front of it.  So I've made a rule that there will be no TV watching all day, until after dinner is eaten and cleaned up (what am I, crazy?).  So we fill our days with other useful pursuits, including:

Piano lessons.  Both the older boys are taking piano (from me).  Andrew has been going for quite awhile, and would be farther along if I'd remember to give him a lesson once a week.

Joey just started and is playing beautifully.  We're working on how long to hold the notes, and keeping good position.  He loves it, and practices several times a day (but only for about three minutes each).

Here are some pictures of Andrew at the piano, Joey bugging Andrew at the piano, Grace and Matt just trying to stay out of trouble, and the clay creations of Andrew and Joey.  Joey's is called "Happy Feet", and I'm sure you can guess what Andrew's is called!  Grace decided to do some stamping instead.  I should have included a picture of her inked hands and arms.  Maybe next time!

Still Trying with My Son, Mr. Simon Cowell

Nap times in Big Boy Bed are going okay... although he about through a seizure the other day because he wanted his crib.  Then another day, as I was snuggling with Grace, I kept hearing this banging.  I knew it was coming from his room, so I went to investigate.  You just can't leave something like that unattended with this kid.  So, of course, I found him in his bed, happy as a lark, banging his feet against the wall.  Hey, whatever makes you happy!  At least he wasn't doing some unapproved construction project.  I was fine with it, so I left him to it.  A few minutes later there was silence, so I peeked in again to find him fast asleep:)

Just a second ago he was standing right here by the wall, making pushing sounds.  Since I've already changed the first poopy of the day, I just asked him if he was pooping again.  He turned around, backed up, and lifted up his shirt so I could check.  Am I that predictable?

He was acting a little judgemental this morning, which is the reason for the Simon reference.  I was running a little bit late this morning (because I had to convince Joey that it was okay to wear his pajamas to school on Pajama Day.  It finally dawned on me what all the fuss was about.  He didn't realize that everybody was going to be wearing their pajamas.  He couldn't figure out why I wanted to send him to school in his pajamas, but he's got it figured out now.).  So as I was getting Matt's shoes on, with my soaking wet hair pulled back, and sans makeup, he gave me this look.  It was a look I hadn't really seen before.  He looked embarrassed!  He looked me up and down, pointed to my hair and face, and started talking his jibberish while looking very ashamed of my appearance.  He kind of looked away, as if he couldn't even BELIEVE I was going to go out that way, and then did it again!  He must think that I was not only about to make a big mistake, but that I was so stupid that he had to repeat himself!

He also picked up my clothes for me this morning.  I thought that was weird.  What wasn't weird was that he put them in the hallway, draped over a stool.  That was normal behavior.

So Many Boys

Four boys in the bed -- That's too many!  Poor Dad, woken up by this madness.

We watched Jill and Anthony's kids on Friday night while they went to the Temple.  Matthew and Micah enjoyed each others' company.  Everybody had so much fun!  The time flew by much too fast.

Micah is so funny.  He came waddling out with his shopping cart full of his favorite stuff.  My favorite thing that he did, though, was when he was a "wobot".  I'm going to have to get a video of that!

Sunday Morning Pictures

Since we don't go to church until 1 PM now, and since we don't allow TV before it, we have time to mess around a little bit on Sunday mornings.  We were looking at the snow hanging over the garage (see post below), and the kids decided to play on my bed.  The lighting was just too good to pass up!

Do you ever feel like you capture your kids' personalities in pictures?  Sometimes -- especially with Joey, I must say -- we capture that inner-self.  In real life, that look is sometimes too fleeting to capture.  But it seems like we get it pretty often in pictures.

So as you scan these, just know that the little look in Joey's eye is a peek into his true self.  He is so sweet, with just a little bit of a hint of mischief.  I think Matthew is going to have that same little glint in his eye.

Now, Andrew and Grace have that oh-so-sweet-personality, too.  Not quite as much mischief (although there's plenty of that), but a lot of energy and imagination.

I had to include Grace's outfit of the day.  Keep in mind that it has snowed about a foot in the last couple of days, and it's 20* outside.

Backyard Avalanche

I pitty the fool who walks out our back door...

Snippet

Right now, Matt is trying to put Grace's Hello Kitty slippers on the dog. 

Just thought that was funny enough to share!

Our Morning Project

This morning I followed through on a very good idea by Ben.  It has been time to move Matthew to a big boy bed for a few weeks, seeing as how he has been climbing precariously out of his crib for some time now.  So Ben thought we could turn the daybed around, and that I could make a fabric cover for the railing so that he can't slip between it and get stuck.  And guess what?

I DID IT!!  AND I ONLY HAD TO CALL MY MOMMY ONCE!!!

I finished it last night, so this morning Donger and I turned the bed around and took out the screws all by ourselves.  I had to use a hammer to get the railing back where it was supposed to be, so afterward, he tried to help me with his handy little tools which have previously only been used to scatter all over the room and make a mess.

Busy getting a hammer:

Hammer, hammer, hammer.  He was so happy to help!

As we moved the bed, we found some interesting spots on the floor.  They were obviously left there by little people hiding under the bed with chocolate milk, or some other offensive drink.

This is my favorite carpet cleaner.  The best thing about it is that you can spray the spot and immediately wipe it up.  No more waiting-5-minutes-and-then-forgetting-where-the-spot-was-so-you-have-to-feel-for-the-wet-spots trouble!  And you can get it from Bed, Bath, and Beyond for just $7.99!

I also uncovered a goobered wall.  How it got goobered is a mystery that I wish to remain that way.

My favorite de-goobering product is Magic Erasers.  I've got two boxes in my cleaning closet right now.  It really is Magic, too!

Sorry, I get distracted easily.  So we got the bed turned around, and Matt tried it out.  He was not impressed.  I may have to just take down the crib, because he looks at it longingly from his new bed.

Oops, he can touch the light switch!  That could be a problem...

He tried to lay down all by himself.

Wrong way...

Turning... turning....

Got it!  Wow, that was hard work.  Oh geez, just a minute...he just pushed a suitcase down the stairs...

Okay.  I'm back.  Nothing is broken.

I tried to give Mr. Busy Pants a nap, but as I peeked in on him, this is where I found him:

And this is the wad of Aquaphor (another favorite of mine!) smeared across his forhead:

Oh, good grief... I just heard a crash...

Fabulous.  Want to know what it was?  Only my Great-Aunt's prized collection of miniature porcelain bonsai trees from Japan.  Awesome.  Just another typical day. 

Treadmills Are Not Toys

I have to offer this disclaimer before you read:

At the bottom of this post is a picture that may offend some.  Grace just wanted to show her owie, like she has to the former Stake President, everyone at the bank, church, grocery store, and Target.  It happens to be on "the special finger", and she has it in "the special position" when showing it.  So, read on if you dare.

At dinner tonight, Joey pulled up his pant leg to show us what he does in his down time.  We were surprised (but why was I surprised?) to find an almost-complete game of tic tac toe right there on his knee.  That was a new one.

Now, for the story of the dangerous treadmill.  The other day I was working to clear off the shelf that has been dirty since we put in our built-in cabinets downstairs (with the help of the ever-so-handy Uncle Sam.  Thanks, Uncle Sam!)  Grace had been bugging me about wanting to play on the treadmill, which I let her do as long as I am standing behind her, ready to catch in case she should biff it.  So I told her to wait just a minute while I ran some books upstairs.  While putting away said books, I hear Joey screaming at me that "Grace is dead!"  At least that's what I thought he said.  He actually said, "Grace hit 10!"  I ran down as fast as my slightly overweight legs could carry me, to find her slouching at the bottom of the stairs with her pouty face on.  The treadmill had been turned off, and she was okay. 

That's what I thought, anyway, until I saw the blood.  So here's a rundown of her owies: she skinned her chin, above her lip, her upper arm, and her ankle.  She crushed her "special finger" and skinned it as well.  She had a paper cut looking thing on the underside of the same finger.  Bandaging her up was quite a treat.  We kept checking the finger to make sure it wasn't broken.

All is well now, except she still can't wear closed shoes or socks, because the owie on her ankle sticks to them and peels off when we remove them.  She also still can't take a bath (it's been a week) because the owies sting.  But she'll be fine.  She has been busy, as I said above, showing the world her owies.  Luckly, people see how cute she is and immediately forgive her crude behavior.

Oh, by the way, the true story about how the 10 got pushed came out later that day.  Grace told me that it was Joey who hit the 10.  When I asked him about it, he said he was trying to get it to "go up" (the incline), but by mistake hit the speed.  Poor kid felt awful.  But not awful enough to tell the truth:)  We had a quick discussion about lying, but I could tell he learned his lesson.

That's the story of our week, but I also wanted to include a link to a blog (you've probably already heard of it -- it's pretty popular, and the story has been on Oprah, the Today Show, newspapers, and many other places -- but I wouldn't know because I don't watch any of those!).  My friend just told me about it on Saturday.  So I looked it up and now I want to share it with you.  It's truly an inspiring story about a completely amazing mom who got into a small plane crash (a very sore subject with me anyway), and ended up burned terribly, but alive.  You should give it a read.  Here's the link to the blog, and also a link to the whole story in an Arizona newspaper.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/stephanie-nielson-chapter5-121309.html

http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/

We Love our Troops Day

We had a great ward activity today.  Actually, our ward put it on, but we invited all three wards in our building.  We wanted to start the year off with a service project, so we decided to make care packages for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I contacted an organization called Operation Care Packages.  It was started by three ladies who had sons and brothers in the military.  They are located in Illinois, so everything we collected today will be shipped there on Tuesday. 

We collected over 5300 items to send overseas.  I'm so excited!  We also made 75 Valentine's Cards and 81 Cool Ties (they are ties with a polymer in them - the soldiers soak them in water and tie them around their necks to keep cool in that horrible heat). 

It was a really fun day, and I was surprised when about half way through, I thought, "I could do this all day!"  It really was pretty easy to put together.  The hardest part was getting the other wards to announce it! 

If any of you want to read the article they put in the paper, here's the link:

http://billingsgazette.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/religion/article_ef2a233c-024e-11df-9b80-001cc4c03286.html

Here's some pictures of our busy bees working:

Some kids in the ward making Valentines:

Our busy sewing bees (yes, that's me there in the front.  I can sew a straight line, so I was sort of useful)-

Our collecting bees:

Our sorting bees (we collected crayons and beanie babies for the soldiers to give to children in exchange for information on where IED's are located).

During our cleanup, Matt got bored and made a home in this box.  He was quite pleased with it:

Here's our 28 boxes to send.  They are absolutely filled to the brim with great stuff for our soldiers:

This was an awesome thing to be a part of.  It's amazing how much people can do in just 3 hours!

If anyone wants to learn more about Operation Care Package, here's the link:

http://www.operationcarepackages.org/index.html