Gem of the Day

As I was making Joey's birthday cake, I got a call from Grandma Bertha.  She asked if we had been trying to get a hold of her because her phone had been ringing and she could hear kids voices and the piano, but nobody talking.  She thought it must be us, because she heard Joey say, "It's my birthday!"  I told her it must be the baby.  Sometimes he gets the phone and calls people.  He must have done it four times!  So I had the kids gather up all the phones to make sure it didn't happen again.  She called back to say it happened again!  We figured it must be somebody else, since all of our phones were under control.  Then Andrew noticed that Daddy's cell phone kept lighting up and sayind "Grandma Bertha".  We couldn't figure it out, because nobody was touching it.  Then Ben came up the stairs, and I asked him if the cell phone had been in his pocket.  He said it hadn't, but his Blue Tooth was!  He had been bending down to paint, and the button had called Grandma eight times!  I called Grandma Bertha to explain, and she said she thought she had heard Ben's voice!  Glad we got that one figured out.

Playing with Makeup

As I was getting ready this morning, Grace asked me if she could put on some makeup.  I told her to go for it, and here are the results:

Nicely done, Gracie!

Look Who's 5!

My little buddy turned five yesterday!  It was an exciting day, although we practically had to pull him out of bed.  Even two siblings rousing him with "Wake up, it's your birthday!!" wasn't enough to pull him from his slumber.  That kids loves his sleep.

One of the funnest parts of the day was bringing treats to preschool for his celebration.  He got to wear the birthday crown and pass out "special" cookies (that I had remembered to make at 10 PM the night before).  The kids and teachers all loved them!

We usually go out to lunch at the birthday child's choice of restaurants (Chucky Cheese), but we had to wait until dinner because of other scheduling conflicts.  I would love to show you all the wonderful pictures I took with the camera I brought, but alas, I left the memory card at home.  Yep, that sounds like me.

So I guess I'll just write about it.  We went at 4:30, and it was already crowded.  Why, I have no idea.  I thought we were really clever for showing up so early, but I guess I'm not as smart as I think I am. 

(Pause - I just have to tell you that I just looked over at the chair, and Joey is meditating with his Samuri sword.  It's pretty cute.  He's trying to be really still.)

So I got the family deal, and started handing out the tokens.  How each individual child handles their tokens is really indicative of how they will be spending money in the future, I think.  Andrew blows through the darned things faster than I can blink, and Joey carries around the same two tokens for 20 minutes, carefully scouting out all the possiblilties of fun.  Which is exactly how they spend money.  Andrew has his spent before he has even earned it, and Joey hasn't spent a dime in months.

Grace was happy to bounce around the place with a smile.  Daddy won the jackpot on Skee Ball (again).  We tried to keep up with Matthew.  It took me, Haley, and Kalin (Haley's best friend and my adopted daughter) to keep him under wraps.  We only lost him once.

Joey was the recipient of all our tickets.  There were 455.  He got the pop gun below.

Happy birthday, buddy.  We love you!

Fun Valentine's Activity

We made home-made Valentine's Cards for a Relief Society Activity tonight.  It was a great activity, and as always, the best part was getting together with the Sisters in our Ward and just being together!

Some Sisters couldn't make it to the activity, but wanted to see some of the cards we made.  So scroll down for the slide show!

But first, a picture of Gracie in her favorite position.  I'm not sure if it's Shoji's favorite, but I'd venture to say not so much.  Good thing she's such a sweet dog and puts up with all of this!

Here's the Sisters getting busy.  It was amazing to see how some people just have that ability to let the creative juices flow.  Mine were kind of oozing out the side of my head in an unorganized fashion, but with some prompting, I actually finished a card!

Thank you to Angie for teaching us and putting this all together!  It was great fun!

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.