Life time stories of a stay at home mom

The Tent Bag

2012-01-21T22:42:00.004-07:00

Guest post from the hubs here. A couple of years back I ruined a tent bag while backpacking with the then 5-year-old Cinderella (don't ask... actually do, just not now, that's a subject for a different blog post). The material had already started to rip right by the drawstring, and it seemed that everytime I went camping it tore a little more. This time it had torn enough that when we were still about a mile away from the car, the tent started spilling out of the bag, which makes for quite an uncomfortable hike.

Fast forward to the present.

This time of year the cold weather always seems to inspire me to make plans for spring and summer - anybody that knows me knows that this means I start thinking, planning, and talking incessantly about at least one of the following three things: gardening, hiking, and camping. Right now it's a combination of the latter two since I'm planning a backpacking trip with my brothers, so I've been taking inventory on my gear.

Oh yeah... the tent bag.

(Picture me crestfallen)

It's a problem.

I asked Julie if she could fix it. She took one look at it and I knew by the look on her face that the outlook was grim. She told me that she didn't think it was fixable. Then she launched into all kinds of sewing jargon talking about what it would take to make a new one.

That was this morning.

This afternoon we bought the materials for about $15.

Tonight she made the bag.

Behold the new bag compared to the old one:

...and the new bag, stuffed with the tent:

That's right, who married an awesome seamstress? In our years together this is one of the most meaningful things she has done for me. If anybody wants to know the way to a man's heart, just find something that he's passionate about, and find some way to use your skills to support him in his passion. At least that worked for this man.

Oh, and we have enough material left over to make not one, but two smaller stuff sacks. Nice!

Guy's Glasses

2012-01-20T11:04:00.001-07:00

Sorry I forgot to write about this.

Last spring, we found out that Guy needed glasses. This wasn't a big surprise to us, because he would talk about not being able to see things. We selected the style that curves around the ear, hoping that they would stay on that way, seeing as he is a very active little boy. He got the glasses around July, and looks like a cute little Harry Potter.

Well, they might stay on more than they would, but they don't stay on, and I am terrible at remembering to have him put them on. So he has them, and sometimes wears them. But most of the time, he doesn't.

Year in Review

2012-01-15T17:39:00.000-07:00

I had good intentions, but unfortunately they didn't happen. Seeing as how I didn't blog a whole lot from last year, I thought I'd do a post with my favorite pictures, so that y'all could have an idea of what we have been up to. If there are any pictures you would like to know the story behind, feel free to ask, and if I get a chance, I can do a post about it.

Well here goes.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Table Runners

2012-01-15T16:45:00.001-07:00

Last year I decided that I wanted to learn the craft of making table runners. My goal was a bit ambitious. I had the goal to make one for each month of the year. What I succeeded in doing was making one for each season. I gave them to my sister-in-law for Christmas. I have an autumn and winter one for myself as well. But I still need to make the spring and summer ones for me. This year, I am hoping to see how many more I can get made. I almost have the valentines one done. I'll post a picture after it is finished. But I thought I'd show y'all the ones that I have gotten done so far.

Autumn

Winter

Spring

Summer

Gingerbread House

2011-12-07T12:17:00.001-07:00

So we thought it would be fun to make a gingerbread house as a family. We bought a kit, but didn't look at it until we went to decorate it. Oops. I guess you are supposed to make the house 24 hours in advance before decorating it. After the walls all fell down, we just decided to give every one a piece and let them decorate it. That seemed to work a lot better anyway. I think next year I will just give everyone a gingerbread man cookie to decorate.

The meanest Mom in the world

2011-12-07T12:11:00.001-07:00

Cinderella informed me yesterday that I am the meanest mom in the world. So I decided that she can see how much I do for her. For the next week she has to help me do things like make meals, fold laundry ect. that are things I do for her that she can help with, and things that she can do for herself, she is going to have to do them all, such as picking up her toys, and dirty clothes, cleaning up her place from the table, making sure she gets her home work done.

She discovered this morning when she was woken at 5:30 to help make breakfast, that it isn't the easiest thing in the world. I'm sure she will make many more discoveries before the week is over.

Decorating our tree with service

2011-12-07T11:55:00.001-07:00

So as I mentioned in an earlier post, I wanted to put more focus on the Savior this Christmas season. So after pondering it, I came up with a plan.

I made a bunch of paper ornaments, and let the kids decorate some. Now every time someone does an act of service for someone else, they get to take one of their ornaments and put it on the tree.

The first day they were pretty excited, put lately they forget. I need to remind them more that they can do this.

Symmetry

2011-12-07T11:24:00.001-07:00

So Cinderella has been learning about the line of symmetry in math, and the other day she said to me, "Did you know that Spike's teeth are like symmetry"

I said, "Oh ya, thy kind of are." amazed at how my child was grasping this new concept.

Then she said to me, "you know what I mean?" So wanting to hear her explain, I asked, "what?"

She then said, "You know like tombstones?"

Clothing Sizes

2011-11-10T09:47:00.001-07:00

I think all clothing should be marketed by it's measurements the way men's pants are. Can I tell you how frustrating it is to not know what size to buy for my kids. My kids are not the "average" build, and if I get pants that fit around they are too short. Or I find myself "pretending" that clothes fit my kids, when they don't really, because I don't know what size is really the right one. And a lot of clothes for babies and young toddlers come in sets. Yes they are really cute, but that doesn't help when with most clothes your baby wears 12M size shirts, but some 3-6 month pants, some 6-9M, and some 12M. But most 12M ones drown the poor kid and always fall off.

what if.....

2011-11-09T08:14:00.000-07:00

I had a thought yesterday. What would it be like this holiday season if instead of focusing on getting ready for Santa to come, we instead focused on getting ready for Christ to come?

One Painful Camping Trip

2011-08-13T19:31:00.001-06:00

So my husband really likes backpacking, and minimalist camping. Last year he took Cinderella, on an overnight backpacking trip, with his sister. This year he wanted to take Cinderella and Guy on one, but needed another adult to go to. He was having a hard time finding one who was available, so I suggested that I could go with him, and we could take the babies too.

We decided to do that, and make a slight adjustment to the plan. We would drive up on Friday afternoon after he was done with work for the day, find a spot to camp, and then clean up camp in the morning, and go on a day hike.

We got all ready, and left about 4 in the afternoon. What we didn't know was that the area we were planning on going had established campgrounds, and by the time we got there all of the camp grounds were full, and all the areas off the paved road near them, had signs saying "No Camping except in designated areas." After a bit of driving around we found a dirt road, and found a place where we could make camp (where it wasn't prohibited). We got out of the car, and found that the mosquitoes were thick, you would have 10-20 land on you anytime you stopped moving, and they didn't respond to our repellent. There was a little stream where we could get water with our filter. (And I mean little. It was maybe a foot across, and more standing than moving. I guess the mosquitoes make sense.) We built a small camp fire, to help ward off the mosquitoes, then my husband pitched the tent. After the tent was pitched we made dinner. We had bought some freeze dried meals, where you just add boiling water to the bag, close the bag, wait a few minutes, and then you have food to eat. Our pan was only big enough to do enough water for one bag at a time, and we had 2 bags. We got the first bag going and the water heating for the second bag. Our water was boiling surprisingly fast for our elevation, and we didn't have to wait too long. My husband started dishing up the kids food while ours was still hydrating. But the kids were having a hard time eating because of the mosquitoes. So I suggested that we could go and eat in the tent, where the bugs wouldn't be so thick. So we picked up and moved to the tent. I grabbed the bag of food that was still hydrating, and Spike, and we walked to the tent.

I set Spike down on one side of me, and the bag over by the door. Everyone came inside, and I started to close the door. Aurora sat down to eat her food, and the bag that was still hydrating tipped over and spilled the boiling hot water all over Aurora's legs. I froze, my brain said what was going on, but couldn't push to what to do, even though I know what to do. It was really scary. I just kept yelling, "She's burning, she's burning." Thankfully my husband is more responsive than I am, and grabbed her and ran out of the tent to take her to the stream. When he brought her back she was still screaming, we gave her a pacifier, and I started to take her shoe and sock off. I could see the burn, it looked like something was all over it, so I tried to clean it, and realized that what I saw was not remnants of the food. It was her peeling skin. It was a 2nd degree burn. I got her shoes and socks off, put some burn ointment on it, gave her some Tylenol and tried to bandage it loosely. Then she, Spike and I got back in the van. She screamed until I took the bandage off. I entertained her and Spike, while the older 2 roasted marshmallows, and my husband broke camp. Then we headed home. We later discovered she had a burn on the other leg too, but not as bad.

Here is what the burns looked like this morning.

Any suggestions

2011-08-05T16:19:00.001-06:00

OK so my first child is about to start 1st grade, which for us means it is her first year that she will have lunch at school. I have been trying to brainstorm ideas of what to pack in her lunch. The school is a peanut free school, which means no PB&J. I was wondering if any of you have suggestions of what you pack for your kids, or what you think might work well in a six-year-olds lunch. Preferably on the healthy side, but not really big on visible veggies.

Licorice

2011-08-04T18:06:00.000-06:00

One day, while driving on our trip, I passed some black licorice to my older 3 in the back. We drove along for quite a while, and the next time we stopped, this is what we found.

Making Sandcastles and Runny Noses Don' t Mix

2011-08-04T18:00:00.001-06:00

One of the differences between boys and girls

2011-08-04T17:59:00.000-06:00

On our recent trip we experienced one of the differences between boys and girls. As Guy was just recently potty trained (YES he is!), there were many times along the road when we heard, "I need to go potty!" And most of those times we were surrounded by fields, bushes, dessert, etc. So he watered the bushes. Well, Aurora has been potty training herself as I have been working with Guy, and one day we were down at the beach, and Guy needed to go, so he walked back up to the bushes, and went. Well Aurora followed. Let's just say, it didn't work so nicely for her.

Guy's first time in a motel

2011-08-04T17:55:00.002-06:00

So we drove to California last week. We live far enough away that it took more than one day to get there. On our first day on the road we drove until 11:00 PM, all the kids were asleep, and we needed some sleep too. So we found a motel, and pulled in. All of the kids except Guy woke up in the transition, from car to bed. But before long we had them all back asleep.

The next morning, Guy got up and started walking around. He was amazed that there was only the bedroom and the bathroom. He asked me why they didn't have a playroom.

I am disgusted!

2011-08-04T17:51:00.003-06:00

This morning I walked the kids to the elementary school to sign up Cinderella up for her pre-first grade reading test, and then I let the kids play on the playground.

Around the playground beer bottles and cigarette butts were scattered. I cleaned them up, but it frustrates me that, not only are people drinking and smoking on school grounds, but they are also leaving their mess there, where children play.

People, if you want to put those kinds of things in your body, that is your choice, but please don't leave your mess around for other people to clean up, and please don't leave your mess where our kids play.

Read aloud books to kids

2011-06-20T18:44:00.000-06:00

A few years ago my husband and I started reading more advanced chapter books to our kids. Cinderella in particular. Some of the series we have read are "The Mandie Books", by Lois Gladys Leppard, "The Chronicles of Narnia" by C. S. Lewis, the "Alcatraz" series, by Brandon Sanderson, and I think for the most part these books have been enjoyed.

We are going to be taking a trip this summer as a family, and we are going to be in the car for a long time. I'm thinking of getting a book on CD to listen to in the car. Based on the books we have allready read to our children, do any of you have suggestions of what might be a good one?

Potty Training Blitz

2011-06-02T17:31:00.000-06:00

So I think I may be crazy, and if I'm not now, I will be in two weeks.
Starting next Monday, I am going to do a potty-training blitz for 2 weeks with Guy and Aurora. Hopefully by the end of the 2 weeks, one if not both will be potty trained.
I don't know if I will have opportunities to give updates, but if I do, I'll post them.

I wanted to see if it was glass

2011-04-27T14:42:00.000-06:00

So I was in Spike's room feeding him, Aurora was down for a nap, and Cinderella and Guy were in the kitchen working on craft projects. I heard a crash, so I called out, "What was that?"

Cinderella responded, "Part of the light. I just wanted to see if it was glass, so I unscrewed it, and dropped it. And it was glass, and it broke."

Oh the way a child's mind works. I recall when I was little, breaking a lamp that had a Chinese lady in it, because she was holding a piece of paper, and I wanted to know what it said.
Like mother like daughter I guess.

Things that make me smile

2011-04-19T07:55:00.000-06:00

This morning Aurora was lying on the floor next to Spike, holding his hand, singing her own rendition of The Beatles, "I want to hold your hand."

The bowl

2011-03-21T21:27:00.000-06:00

So a few weeks ago we went through a terrible case of the stomach flu. Cinderella got hit first and the worst. She started throwing up Monday evening, continued all night, and the next day. She was then lethargic for the next 2 and a half days. By the end of the day on Thursday she didn't have a whole lot of energy, but was acting well enough to complain about all the things that Guy was doing, so I sent her to school on Friday. She didn't want to go, but I just figured that she had gotten used to staying home, and didn't really want to go back to school. I told her she could choose. She could stay home and be in bed all day, or she could go to school. She chose to go to school. She should have stayed home. When I went to get her from school, her teacher escorted her out, and told me that she had just lay down on some beanbags in the classroom all day, and wasn't acting like her normal energetic self. After the teacher left, she told me she needed to throw up, and got in the car, I handed her a cup, and she proceeded to be sick to her stomach. Poor girl.

Any way, this post isn't really about her. It is about Aurora. So Cinderella got sick on Monday night, as I mentioned before, and on Wednesday night, Aurora started crying in her room. When Daddy went to check on her, he had found that she had thrown up. "Oh dear," I thought, "here we go again." I was expecting it to effect her the way it had Cinderella. We took her to the bathroom to get her cleaned up, and I went and got a bowl. In our family, when someone is sick to their stomach, we have found it is helpful to have a bowl on hand, just in case they can't make it to the toilet on time. Well, shortly after I got the bowl for Aurora, she had the throw up again, but thankfully it landed in the bowl. However, she wasn't hit as hard as Cinderella, and that was the only time the bowl was used. We didn't know how it would be however, so for the next 24 hours we carried the bowl with us, where ever we went around the house. Which was a lot of places, because Aurora was feeling like her normal self. In fact, I kept referring to it to Aurora as her bowl. Well she kind of developed an attachment to that bowl. It was a metal bowl, and she wanted it by her bed, or in her bed, for a few days afterwards, anytime she went to sleep. It finally got removed, and washed. However, anytime now that she sees any metal bowls around our house, she insists that it is "Aurora's bowl" and has to lay claim on it.

Aurora and "her" bowl.

My little mover

2011-03-21T21:09:00.000-06:00

So Spike has always been a bit of a mover. Even before he was born, when he was active he was really active.
When he was only a week or two old, I went into his room to get him from his crib one morning, and found that his swaddle was still laying where I had put him in the bed, the last time I had laid him down, but he had scooted out of the blankets and turned directions so his legs were sticking through the bars on the crib. At this point I stopped swaddling him, and started putting him in a sleep sack, that zips around him. However it is a common thing now to go to retrieve him from his crib, and find him laying in a completely different part of the crib, facing a completely different way.

It will be interesting to see how he moves once he realizes he can do it.

Guy's Birthday Lunch

2011-03-20T19:52:00.000-06:00

So we were celebrating Guy's 4th birthday the other day. And we decided it would be fun to go out to lunch. So we told Guy that he could choose between a local kids themed pizza place, or The Old Spaghetti factory. Any guesses where he chose?

The Popcorn Factory. What is The Popcorn Factory you might ask? That is what we asked him. His response was, "That place where they fix cars, and give you popcorn." Then I realized he was talking about Les Schwab Tires. That is where I always go to take care of my tire business, and Guy always goes with me. They have a complimentary popcorn machine so you can munch on popcorn while you are waiting. Of all the places he could go for his birthday lunch, he wanted to go to a tire store. That's my guy.

In the end, we ended up going to the pizza place. Just in case you wondered.

To be known by name

2011-03-18T10:11:00.000-06:00

This might not be that uncommon, but to me it touched me so I thought I'd write about it.

Every morning when I drop Cinderella off at school, she has a cross walk where she needs to cross, in the lane where the buses go. There is usually one of the office aids there to guide kids across. Every morning this aid says good morning to Cinderella. A few times it looked to me as if she even said Cinderella's name, but I wasn't sure. Well this morning when I dropped Cinderella off, there was a garbage truck coming down that lane, so the aid was standing on the side, and when Cinderella got out of the car I heard the aid say, "Cinderella, stand here by me until the truck passes."

It really touched me to hear an office aid say my daughters name. She doesn't have to know my daughter. She isn't her teacher. There are a lot of kids who go to that school. My child isn't a trouble student who spends all of her time in the office. So chances are, that aid knows most of those students names. I think it is awesome that she would take the effort to get to know my child, and know her by name.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-17T11:26:00.003-06:00

Which baby is it?

2011-03-13T20:57:00.000-06:00

Baby A

Baby B

Baby C

Time for another round of which baby is it. I just happen to have pictures of 3 of my kids as babies wrapped in the same towel. Take a look and tell me which one you think is which.

February Archives

2011-03-08T18:49:00.013-07:00

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

Haircut

2011-03-07T18:39:00.001-07:00

Before

After

What do you think?

Which baby is it?

2011-03-06T18:47:00.000-07:00

So someone told me today that my two boys looked a lot alike as babies. So tell me what you think. Which baby is which?

Baby A

Baby B

Saag Paneer

2011-02-23T10:01:00.000-07:00

My husband is very interested in learning how to make lots of different kinds of foods. One of his current favorites is Indian food. One dish that he has made, and that we have had at some Indian restuants that we have tried is saag paneer

It is a spinach curry, with paneer, an Indian cheese. He has tried making this a few times but hasn't been satisfied with the results.

Last week for dinner I made a lentil spinach soup. It called for 6 1/2 cups fresh spinach. However fresh spinach isn't in season right now, and what I could find at the grocery store was expensive and very sad looking. I couldn't bring myself to buy it. So I bought frozen spinach. Well when spinach is frozen it becomes more compact, so I knew I needed to put in less frozen spinach than I would fresh. So I put in about 3 cups. Well that was still too much. The soup has you remove half of it and put it in a blender, after doing this what I ended up with looked a lot like saag paneer, without the paneer (so I guess that would just be saag).

Well that was Guy's opinion too. As soon as I set it on the table he looked at it, and said, "That's like Saag Paneer."

To serve it, the recipe recommend garnishing with plain Greek yogurt, which did make it taste a lot like Saag Paneer. In fact my husband said it was very close to the flavor he has been trying to achieve.

The Immodest Donkey

2011-02-23T09:46:00.000-07:00

My husband took our three oldest children out to a local Indian restaurant for lunch one day. While they were sitting there eating, Cinderella pointed to a picture of a belly dancer on the wall, and said, "there is an immodest girl in that picture."
Guy then pointed to a different picture on the wall and said, "There is an immodest donkey in that picture."
My husband looked at the picture, and replied, "that's not a donkey, Guy, it's a camel."
"Well, I'm calling it an immodest donkey."

More funny things Guy has said

2011-02-22T11:10:00.000-07:00

So Guy often says things that make us laugh. And when he does so, we will often write it down on our white board, so that I can blog about it. However I haven't been as on top of blogging, as I would like to be, and so we have quite the list. I thought I'd share it with you.

Hot cereal hurts my feelings.
This doesn't burn me, so it's not hot cereal.
Vegetables are bad for your body.
When I'm big, I'm going to make Macaroni and Cheese for lunch, every day!
I wish I had chains, so when my parents tell me to go to bed, I would wrap them in chains.

Spike's Milk

2011-02-22T11:08:00.000-07:00

One day while we were eating muffins for breakfast, Aurora asked for some milk. But she didn't want her milk (her milk is whole milk, because the Dr recommends it for children who are one-year-old). So then someone asked if she wanted Mama's milk. She said no, then Guy asked if she wanted Spike's milk. So then my husband asked him where Spike's milk is. His response was, "In Mom's tummy. Spike's milk is the muffins."

The car in my dreams

2011-02-22T11:02:00.001-07:00

This morning, Guy came upstairs and told me, "One day I want to get a car like the one in my dream." So I asked him what the car in his dream was like. "Like a train, but without an engine."

"If it doesn't have an engine, how does it go?"

"It goes on the street, really really fast! And then I fell off it, and there was fire on the street."

So where am I supposed to get a car like that?

Some Pants and a Shirt

2011-02-22T10:56:00.000-07:00

This morning when I was nursing Spike, Aurora came into the room, and tried to take off her nightgown. I asked her if she wanted to get dressed, to which she replied, "Yeah!"

So I told her to go and get some pants and a shirt. Well that is just what she did.

The red and white striped item is a shirt. The other 3 are pants.

Little Miss Muffet

2011-02-22T10:53:00.000-07:00

Last month, Cinderella was learning a lot about Nursery Rhymes in school. So we heard a lot of them here at home.
One of these was "Little Miss Muffet". For those of you not familiar with this rhyme, here is how it goes.

Little Miss Muffet, sat on a tuffet, eating her curds and whey. When along came a spider, who sat down beside her, and frightened Miss Muffet away.

Then Guy asked us "Why would a spider come down and freak out someone who is eating?"

What is a tissue?

2011-02-22T10:50:00.001-07:00

When my husband was a little boy, he hurt his mouth enough times that he damaged one of his front teeth, and ever since then he wears a fake one, on a flipper. (A retainer type thing that he can remove when he is eating.) However the flipper breaks every few years, and then he is without a tooth until we can get it fixed, or a new one made. He finally got tired of this and decided to get an implant.

The first step to getting this implant was to get a bone graft. Which meant he needed to have an oral surgery. After this surgery, one of the words that he would use often, when talking about it was gum tissue.

Well one day, Guy asked me, "What is a tissue?" Not thinking about my husband's recent surgery I responded with "Something you use to blow your nose."

He then replied, "why do you have tissue in your mouth?"
"You don't have tissue in your mouth."
"yes you do. Gum tissue."

Do they freak you out?

2011-02-22T10:45:00.000-07:00

So, Cinderella picked up on the saying, "freak out" lately, due to some of the kids at school. We hear that phrase a lot. One day Guy told my husband, "Skeletons don't freak me out, cause they are just bones."

Aprons

2011-02-22T10:42:00.000-07:00

Mornings are kind of hard for me lately. Because I have to nurse Spike, and he eats at various different times, I sometimes am needing to feed him at the same time, I am trying to get my other kids ready so we can take Cinderella to school. I have tried to talk the kids into getting dressed before breakfast, but other than Aurora, I get a lot of slack from them. Cinderella's biggest complaint was that she might spill some of her breakfast onto her clothes. So I decided to make them aprons. I got them done for them by Valentine's Day, and gave them to the kids for Valentines. Well, Aurora's was a day late, but close.

Counting

2011-02-22T10:25:00.000-07:00

One night, my husband and I were going to go out on a date, so we were having a baby-sitter. Cinderella was very excited, and couldn't wait until the baby-sitter got there. She asked me when the baby-sitter was coming. I told her in an hour. She asked how many seconds that was. My husband replied that it is 3,600 seconds.

Cinderella then started counting. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, three-thousand-six-hundred, OK, she's here!

Ready for Spring

2011-02-16T11:49:00.000-07:00

So the last few days have been quite warm for this time of year in our climate. It has been in the 50's. Ever since Spike was born in December, we haven't gone much of anywhere, and it is driving Aurora crazy. With the warmer weather, she has wanted to go out side and play, and I have let her. Yesterday morning when we were getting ready to take Cinderella to school, I was getting the kids coats and shoes on. Aurora insisted that she wear her jacket, not her coat, and then she went to the sliding glass door, and started pulling on it, saying "side, side" She wanted to go play. She is definitely ready for the warmer weather to be here all the time. Unfortunately, I don't think it will stay around for long, but it will come back, in a while.

Guy's first talk

2011-02-16T11:45:00.000-07:00

In our church we have a children's class called Primary. In this children's class the children all meet together for an hour, where there is a lesson taught, gospel songs are taught, and children are given turns to give talks.

Guy was asked to give his first talk this last Sunday. We were given a few choices of what he could talk about, and when I asked him which one he wanted to talk about he choice, "Why am I here?" Or why are we here on Earth.

So I asked him, "Why are you here on earth?"
"Because Jesus made the Earth."
"Did we come here to get a body."
"yeah"
"Did we come here to learn how to make good choices?"
"Some people make bad choices. They didn't get a body."
"Your right the people who made the bad choice to follow Satan didn't get a body, but we made a good choice huh? So we have a body."
"yeah"
"Are you glad you have a body?"
"yeah"
"Are you glad you are here on Earth?"
"yeah"

So I combined the information from that conversation into a talk for him. When I wrote it he wanted to make sure I put "Why am I here?" on it. So I wrote it at the top.
Then on Sunday, he couldn't wait to give his talk. Before the meeting was even started he was out of his seat, and climbing the steps behind the podium.

When it came time to give his talk, I went up to help him. He climbed the steps, and stood behind the microphone. He is so short his head was barely visible above the top. And he was a good 5 inches away from the microphone.

He started his talk by yelling, "Why am I here?" Which gave my husband the impression that he was wondering why he was up there giving the talk. The rest of the talk, he had a hard time being loud enough for, but he said it, and did a good job.

Agency

2011-02-16T10:29:00.000-07:00

One of the things I have heard people have the biggest problem with, when trying to accept that there is a God, is the question "If there is a God, why does he let people do bad things?"

The church I belong to, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, teaches that we are all given agency. The ability to choose. If we want to choose to drive 90 miles an hour down the freeway, that is our choice, we can do that. If we want to take someones life, that is our choice, we can do that. However that doesn't make these things right choices, nor does it take away the consequences of our actions. If you speed, you are more likely to get in an accident, and some one is more likely to get hurt. You are also more likely to get pulled over and get a ticket. If you take someones life, you make it so they don't have the choice to live any more. And you are also increasing the likelihood of you spending the rest of your life in prison, or on death row, and if you "get away with it" you still have to live knowing you did that.

If you run out in front of a car, you are going to get hit. Do you get the idea?

Anyway, this agency, is something that I struggle with, as being a parent. Because, I can't take away my children's agency, although I can try.
No matter how hard I try, I can not force Guy to use the potty. I can't force him to not soil his clothes. He is going to do it if he wants to. I can encourage, I can scream, I can yell, I can take away his toys, I can hurt him (that one I try really hard to not do), but through it all, I can't MAKE him use the potty. And that is so frustrating to me, because his choice doesn't just affect him, it affects me too. I'm the one who has to clean him up, or help him clean him up, or live with a house that stinks if he doesn't do it, or at least do a good job.

Now in reality I don't want to take away his agency, but I would like it if he would do what I ask him to, and if he would care if he was clean or not. But he doesn't. So I just keep encouraging, and if nothing else, maybe Aurora will get potty trained.

January Highlights

2011-02-05T21:19:00.000-07:00

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

Cooking with Aurora

2011-02-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

So I just heard a crash from upstairs. I knew it had to be Aurora so I went to make sure she was OK. Here is what I found. Her trying to put the pitcher from the blender on the counter next to a can of soup that she got from the pantry. I asked her if she wanted to go downstairs with me and she said, "poop"(meaning soup). I asked her if she was trying to make soup, and she said, "yeah!"

Teenager?

2011-01-28T19:30:00.000-07:00

So this evening we were sitting around the dinner table, and it was mentioned that my sister-in-law is having a baby shower. Cinderella asked what a baby shower is, so we tried to explain that it is when someone has a new baby, sometimes there is a party for them, where people come and "shower" you them with presents for the baby.
At this Aurora piped up, "ba?" (her word for bath) "Baby... shower? Daddy shower, mama shower. Baby shower?" I could tell she was trying to make sense out of this conversation, and that she thought we were talking about giving Spike a shower, so then she asked for a bath.

Cinderella then replied, "but your not a baby anymore, your a little girl." And then a light seemed to come on in her head, and she said, "I'm the teenager in this family now! 'Cause I'm six now, and that's older."

Spike

2011-01-27T20:07:00.000-07:00

So this evening, before his bath, I gave Guy a haircut. After the bath, when his daddy was helping him get in his pajamas, his dad called him spike. Guy commented that his name isn't spike, and then a little later, the kids noticed that Buddy's hair also stood up, and someone suggested that we could call him spike.
After this Aurora, turned to the baby and said, "Hi pike! Hi pike" So we decided that from here on out Buddy shall now be called Spike, at least on the blog.

Any suggestions for getting mud off a microfiber couch?

2011-01-26T14:36:00.000-07:00

So today, Cinderella, decided to go outside and play, and then came in, and without removing her muddy boots, she climbed all over my couch. So now I've got mud all over the couch, and I'm not sure how to go about cleaning it off. I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions.

Healthy, Easy, Quick meals to make. Is there such a thing?

2011-01-21T10:23:00.000-07:00

So I'll admit it, I like to cook, but especially when I have a baby, I don't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Because I don't have a lot of time to spend there.
Lately one of my biggest frustrations with food has been lunch time. Because Cinderella is in half day kindergarten, we go pick her up, and then have lunch. But because Buddy is only a month old he still eats every 2-3 hours during the day, which means he often wants his lunch at the same time the other kids get their lunch. So I try to get lunch ready before we pick up Cinderella, but that isn't always possible. Then we pick up Cinderella, come home, I get the older kids eating, feed Buddy, and then clean up their lunch, and then I feel like I can eat. But unfortunately lately that hasn't been until 1:30 or 2 which is later than I want to be eating.

My normal tendency for lunches is to make Peanut Butter and Jelly, because it is quick and easy. But 1. Cinderella doesn't like peanut butter. 2. Really that isn't the healthiest alternative and 3. It gets old rather quickly.

So I've been working with things that I can make ahead of time, but they are time consuming, and I feel like I never get out of the kitchen. Or I don't have a chance to make them before and then I have Buddy have to wait while I make their lunch.

So I'm asking for suggestions of things that aren't too hard or time consuming to make, that kids like, and that are healthy. Let me know if you have any.

Aurora's Room

2011-01-21T07:14:00.000-07:00

So do you remember almost 2 years ago when we had just moved into this house, I posted some before pictures, fully intending to do some fixing up and post some after pictures too? Well, I finally have some after pictures to post. At least of Aurora's room, and hopefully some other rooms coming soon. So to refresh your memory, this is what her room looked like before.

I had thought about leaving the clouds on the ceiling, and changing the color of the walls. However, over time the yellow kind of grew on me. But the walls definitely needed to be touched up, and so we picked a lighter yellow, that was a semi-gloss finish, instead of the egg shell finish that was on the walls before.
With the help of some of my family we painted on Labor Day.

Then I made some curtains for the room, and a quilt and some throw pillows for Aurora's bed. Then my husband and I went to a second hand store and found a dresser for the room. We bought a night light from Ikea when we had moved in, and it had been in Cinderella and Aurora's room before. We used the color of the night light, and the colors in the fabrics for the quilt, curtains and pillows to select some vinyl wall decor, which Aurora got for Christmas.

Here are the end results.

The Shirt

2011-01-21T07:01:00.000-07:00

So I bought my husband a long sleeve white button up shirt for Christmas. However, I was unsure of what sleeve length he needed, so I just guessed. After I got home, I checked his other shirts and realized I had bought one with sleeves too long. However I didn't take the time to exchange it for one that was the right size, and just gave it to him as is, figuring we could return it after Christmas, and he could pick out one on his own, and then we would know it was the right size.
So after he opened his presents, the shirt sat on a box in our bedroom waiting to be returned to the store. Well one day Cinderella came along, and not knowing that we needed to return the shirt proceeded to remove the tags, and stickers from the shirt. When I realized what she was doing I explained to her that the shirt was too big for Daddy and that is why the shirt had been sitting there, and told her, "Now we can't return it to the store."
"That's OK, she replied. "We can just put it into a box for him, until he grows into it."

Out of the mouth of a six year old

2011-01-13T21:36:00.000-07:00

So the other day, I was having a bit of a day. I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, and then had spent my morning working, while Buddy was sleeping. I had worn myself out. I got Aurora down for a nap, fed Buddy, then planned to take a nap. However, as sometimes happens with babies, because he had slept all morning, he was no longer tired, and didn't want to sleep. By the time he was ready to sleep again, Aurora was awake, and she and Guy were wanting my attention. I had gotten Buddy to sleep in the swing, and didn't want to leave the living room to go lay down, so I decided to see if I could take a nap on the couch. However Aurora and Buddy, kept coming and trying to either get my attention, or interact with Buddy. And being tired, I wasn't in the mood to handle it.

This happened on a day when Daddy was still home from work on his paternity leave, and so I went to the garage, where he was working. He asked if I needed something, and I told him I did. He then came inside, and I broke down, and started complaining about my sleep deprivation and being tired. At this point Cinderella piped up with, "Maybe we shouldn't have 5 babies. Maybe 4 is all you can handle." I guess she had told Daddy earlier that week that we should have 5 babies. I guess she changed her mind.

"How am I supposed to sleep with a crying child?"

2011-01-13T21:25:00.000-07:00

So Cinderella and Guy share a bedroom. They have bunk beds. Cinderella is on the top, Guy is on the bottom. Cinderella knows that because she has school in the morning, that she needs sleep, and most nights wants to sleep. Guy, however has an aversion to sleep. Every night, it is a battle to get him to go to bed. He will play with toys, he will read books, he will follow you around the house, he will keep getting out of bed and turning on the light, etc. As you may imagine, this makes it difficult for Cinderella to sleep, and as an end result causes conflict.

The other night, after my husband put them to bed, I heard Guy crying. I asked my husband if he knew what the matter was, and he told me it was that Guy didn't want to go to bed. No surprise there. Shortly there after, Cinderella came and found us, and asked Daddy if he could keep Guy up for a while so she could get to sleep. Daddy then responded that he had tried. Guy had asked for his horse, Daddy had given it to him, and then Guy went back down stairs crying. I told Cinderella to just ignore him and try to go to sleep. She then turned to us and simply asked, "How am I supposed to sleep with a crying child?"

Happy Holidays (a little late)

2010-12-26T12:57:00.000-07:00

Welcome Little Buddy

2010-12-20T11:59:00.000-07:00

We would like to announce that our Little Buddy joined our family this last week on Wednesday December 15th. He weighed 7 lbs 3 oz, and was 18 in long.

A bumpy tummy

2010-12-04T20:14:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, while shopping at Costco, Aurora and Guy were riding in the seats on the shopping cart. Guy reached out and touched my tummy, and said, "I touched the baby." Then he asked me, "Does Aurora have a baby in her tummy?" I replied with a no, and then he said, "But she has a bumpy tummy."
"Yes she does," I said, "But that is because she is still a baby, and babies lots of times have bumpy tummies."

A few weeks ago, while Aurora and Guy were playing on the floor, I overheard Guy asking Aurora, "Are you putting a baby in your tummy?"

I asked him what he was talking about, and he said, "But she has a bumpy tummy." I thought, didn't we go through this already? Well a while later, I noticed that Aurora's shirt had a bunch of lumps in it. She had been shoving blocks down the front of her shirt. She did have a bumpy tummy.

Cinderella's first heartbreak

2010-12-02T19:10:00.000-07:00

So today when I went to get Cinderella from Kindergarten, she was walking slowly, with her head down. I knew something was wrong. I then asked how she was. She replied, "I'm not feeling very good."

"Why not?" I asked.
"One of my friends sent me an elf note today, (An elf note is a way that the teacher is having the kids practice writing, they take turns sending kind notes to other kids in the class.) and he also gave one to the girl who sits next to me. Mine said, 'I like you.' But hers said 'I love you', then he told everyone that she is his girlfriend.

I then asked her if she "loved" him. She said "no" So I asked her why it bothered her that someone else was his girlfriend. Her reply was, "because it's not me. There are 15 girls who have boyfriends, but I don't have one."

There you have it, from the mouth of a five year old. I thought we had a few more years before this started.

My Rings

2010-11-16T19:36:00.000-07:00

So I'm not a big jewelry person. It has kind of been that way ever since I became a mom. I sometimes wear earrings, but rarely. I sometimes wear necklaces, but that doesn't happen much either. However there are 3 pieces of jewelry that I try to wear everyday. My watch, and my 2 rings. One of those rings is my wedding ring, the other is a sapphire ring that my mom got me for my birthday one year.

Well right now I am pregnant, but unlike in all of the other pregnancies I have had, in this one, I am actually slimming down. I have only gained about 8 lbs in this pregnancy. However the baby seems to be growing correctly, and my doctor isn't worried, so I'm not either. I have been eating healthier foods, and eating minimal amounts of sugar, and that is what I contribute my lack of weight gain to.

Anyway, back to my jewelry. Well a week or so ago, I was getting ready to put Aurora in the tub, and I noticed that my sapphire ring was missing. This was really odd to me, because the only time I take my rings off, I also take my watch off. I have a habit of then sliding my rings onto my watch band, so that they are easier to find when I go to put them back on. So it was odd to me to just be missing one ring. I hadn't noticed it fitting loosely, and I have no clue as to what happened to it. I checked all of the places that I had been that day that I could think of where it could be. Coat pocket, on my bed under the pillow (possibly lost when I was taking a nap), pants pockets, counters in kitchen and bathroom. No luck. My husband and I rearranged our bedroom this last weekend, and did some deep cleaning in other parts of the house, but never saw it. It has just plain disappeared.

Well today, the same thing happened with my wedding ring. I know I put it on this morning, and this evening when I was getting ready to put Aurora in the tub, it was gone. I have been watching ever since I lost my other ring, and it didn't seem to be fitting loosely, but it must have been. The only thing I can come up with is that I must have slimmed down enough that slipped off my finger. I know the rings are just material things, and my husband still loves me without my wedding ring. But it just bothers me that I have lost both of them, and I have no clue how, or were to look.

"I'll be a big boy when I'm in Kindergarten"

2010-10-26T10:01:00.000-06:00

So I have been working on potty training Guy for almost a year now, off and on. I started putting more effort into it once I found out I was expecting but have really not gotten the kind of results I have been hoping for.

At first, he just didn't get it. He didn't understand what his body's cues were. We would sit him on the potty, and if he went he went if he didn't he didn't. I know that is a normal starting place, but for him it seemed to last a really long time. He finally got to the point where I think he knows the cues, and he can hold it, but he just doesn't care. If I put him on the potty, he can and does usually go. But if I don't make the effort to put him on the potty, he doesn't care to use the potty. He will just go where ever he is, what ever he is doing, what ever he is wearing. It is so frustrating at times.

I don't know how to make him care. I know it needs to be his choice, but I don't know how to incorporate it. I have tried giving him a treat if he puts something in the potty. He likes the treat, he likes to get it, but not enough for him to go to get the treat. I've tried reading books to him on the potty. All that seems to do however if make it so that when we are in the bathroom we are in there for a really long time, even if he goes right up front. He won't ask to use the potty so that he can read the book. I have tried giving him stickers for every time he sits on the potty. Just like the treat, he likes the stickers, but not enough to go to the potty on his own initiative.

I have tried giving him rewards for staying clean and dry for a predetermined amount of time. It worked for a little while, but then lost it's intrinsic value. I have tried having him wear a pull-up, I have tried having him wear underwear, I have tried having him wear nothing. He just doesn't care. He doesn't care if he is a mess, he doesn't care if he makes a mess. I'm kind of at a loss as what to try.

A few weeks ago when we were dropping Cinderella off at her school for Kindergarten, he told me he wanted to go to preschool. I told him he can go when he can stay clean and dry, because they don't let kids who still make messes in their pants go. Later that same day we needed to go to Cinderella's school and visit her class. As we were walking up to the school, Guy told me that they didn't like him at this school, because he still makes messes in his pants. I told him that they would let him come in the school, but he can't go to school, like a big boy, until he doesn't make messes in his pants.

Then a few days ago, he told me he will be a big boy when he is in Kindergarten. I asked what he meant. He told me, that he won't make messes in his pants anymore when he is in Kindergarten. I asked him if he could be a big boy before he goes to Kindergarten, to which he said "no". I told him he had to learn how to be a big boy so they would let him go to Kindergarten. He said, that he would. I asked him if he could be a big boy that day and keep his pants clean and dry. He said, "No, I already put stinks in my pants."

On the other hand, Aurora loves to use the potty. She will grab onto her diaper and if I ask her if she wants to sit on the potty, she will nod her head. She is still in the stage, where she doesn't actually put anything in the potty, but she loves to sit on it. I keep telling myself that I should just forget about trying to get Guy to use the potty and work on Aurora, but I have been trying to get Guy to use the bathroom for so long, it has become a habit, and one that is dying hard, while trying to get Aurora to use the potty, and I find that I still put most of the effort into Guy.

Oh well, I guess we will see what happens in 2 months when the baby comes. I might have 3 in diapers, 2 in diapers, or just 1 in diapers. But as to who, other than the baby, that will be still waits to be seen.

Cancer Update

2010-09-03T11:47:00.000-06:00

The woman with cancer, Vicky, just passed away yesterday evening. The good news for her is she is no longer suffering. The bad news for her family is now they feel the loss of their mother and wife, and are left with enormous hospital bills, and funeral expenses.

To help relieve some of these expenses there will be a charity yard sale/ bake sale from 7:00-10:00 AM on the morning of September 18th, at the local elementary school. Then we will be having a charity kickball tournament later that morning starting at 11:00 and going to around 2:00, also at the elementary.

If you would like more info please leave a comment with your e-mail address and I will try to get back to you. Please feel free to donate any items for the yard sale or bake sale. The only stipulation is for all food items need to be individually wrapped. Also if you would be interested in donating funds, you can go to help4vicky.blogspot.com and click on the donate button at the top, the funds will go to a paypal account that will be donated to the family.

Cancer

2010-09-02T14:55:00.000-06:00

Isn't cancer a terrible thing? Thankfully I don't have it, but there is a mom in my neighborhood that does. She is 10-15 years older than I am and has 5 children. The youngest is only 2. She was diagnosed in April, and has now been given days to live. Her husband has medical disabilities and is unable to work. Up until April, she was the sole bread winner in her family. As soon as she was diagnosed her husband started selling bottles of water to try to raise funds to cover medical bills. 1 bottle for $1.

Some women in the community who have been touched by this families situation are trying to put together some activities to raise funds to help this family. If you would like to participate, or just donate an amount please send an e-mail to help4vicki@gmail.com

I'll give more info on the activities that are being planned as soon as it becomes available.

They're Back

2010-08-05T18:00:00.000-06:00

If they ever even left. We've had another mouse sighting. This time in a different part of the house, and unfortunately it was Cinderella who saw it. I've seen one out in the garden, and I've had a few neighboors tell me they have had mouse problems too. It sounds like it may be a neighboorhood problems. Now to figure out what to do. Personally I don't want a cat, but I prefer cats to mice. But we will see what other options we can come up with. Maybe just more traps for now.

Isn't it a great playground?

2010-06-28T20:58:00.000-06:00

So tonight while they were supposed to be getting ready for bed, Guy found some little people toys in the girls room and decided to play.

The big line looks like a typical Guy set up so I didn't think anything of it, till I heard him explaining it to Cinderella.

So if you look at the picture above you will notice that the line goes to the barn. From there the person at the head of the line climbs onto the horses back, to get to the loft.

From the loft there is a ladder.

The ladder goes to the top of the playground. So the person follows the ladder to the playground and then goes down the slide.

And into the waiting bus. Oh, and the sippy cup is a prize for the winner.

And all the animals and people are lined up for this attraction.

Then Guy turns to me and says, "Isn't it a great playground?"

It amazes me the ideas these kids come up with.

Oh Snap!

2010-06-28T20:46:00.000-06:00

OK so this post is a bit delayed. A little over a week ago we caught our first mouse. 1 down, ? left to go.

My husband apologized for not getting any pictures for the blog. I told him that is perfectly OK.

Roses

2010-06-26T11:42:00.000-06:00

So we bought this house a little over a year ago. One of the things this house came with is some rose bushes in the back yard. Last year with Aurora being born, and moving in in late spring, etc. Our roses didn't really receive any care.

There where what looked like 3 bushes along the back of the house.

One right near the door that was just one little twig and got one or two blossoms last year. Then the middle one had dark pink wild rose blossoms, and grew really tall. Then the one on the other end is actually 2 planted close together. One with light pink blossoms, and the other with white.

Mid summer last year I pruned off the dead heads down to leaf sets of 5, as to the instructions I got from my mother, of how she cares for her roses, however they never bloomed again last year.

Well this spring, I wanted to make sure that I gave them the care they needed, so I consulted my mom as to what she does for her roses. She told me she prunes them back to about 2-3 inches from the ground. So that is what I did. The one closest to the door appreciated the pruning and has grown quite a bit this year, but has yet to put out any blossoms.

The wild rose has grown quite big again, and has finally started putting out blossoms again. However I am slightly confused, I'll tell you why. The first blossoms it has put out were the wild ones like last year, but just this morning on a low branch I found some little pink rose buds, that as they are opening, don't look wild at all.

Light pink blossoms on middle bush.

The wild blossoms on the middle bush

Also my light pink rose bush, put out some blossoms that looked like what I expected them to look like, but then I also found this morning some dark pink, wild blossoms, like the bush next to it.

The wild looking blossoms on my light pink rose bush

If anyone knows more about roses than I do, and has any suggestions as to why my bushes are behaving this way, I would appreciate the insight.

Oh and yes I know there is morning glory all over my roses, I need to pull it out. One step at a time.

We have a mouse

2010-06-17T13:19:00.000-06:00

At least one. There might be more.

A few weeks ago my husband and I were in the kitchen getting dinner ready. I have some 5 gallon buckets that I keep flour, sugar, wheat, powdered milk, and rice in on the floor of my pantry. I had pulled out a bucket or two that day for some reason, and as I pushed it back in I noticed what looked like some grains of wild rice, or rodent dung. I pointed it out to my husband and asked him what he thought it looked like. His response was also rodent dung. We figured that if there was a rodent problem we would see more signs, and we cleaned it up like it was rodent dung. Then I noticed what looked like some other types of rice grains on the floor. We had had wild rice a few days earlier, and I just wrote it off as being rice.

Also lately our refrigerator has started making this really annoying squeaking sound. One day I had what I thought was a joke run through my mind. I wanted to tell my husband that I had found the mouse that had left it's droppings in the pantry. It is hiding behind the refrigerator and that is what is making the sound. Well I never told him, and promptly forgot.

Until last night. My husband and I were sitting in the living room talking while we were waiting for the kids to settle down so we could go to bed. My husband was facing the stairs, and suddenly his eyes got big. I was thinking it was something to do with the kids, but then he turned to me and said, "we have a mouse." I was still confused, and thinking of the kids. I think I asked him something about which kid he was talking about, when he said, "I just saw a little black thing come down the stairs and under the fridge."

Yuck! So he pulled out the fridge and found a ton of mouse droppings. But of course no mouse.

Today I decided to really clean the kitchen floor and get rid of any food remnants I could find. I started pulling stuff out of the pantry, and found a ton of droppings in there too. So now we have to set traps, and keep our kids out of them, and try to keep them from coming back. I hope there is just one. But there might be more.

Childrens and infant Tylenol and Motrin Recall

2010-06-15T11:39:00.000-06:00

So this morning I was at the grocery store and while I was there I went to get some new infant Tylenol drops. Well there weren't any on the shelves, of Tylenol or generic brands, and there was a sign saying that children's and infant's concentrated drops have been recalled.
So I did some research and found out that it isn't only Tylenol, but pretty much all children's pain medication, and antihistamines. I'm glad they catch things like this because I don't want to be putting harmful things into my children, but still it is a little frustrating when you have a baby who is screaming because she is teething, and Orajel only works for a short time. Oh well I guess it is better than nothing.

There's a baby in my belly.

2010-06-14T13:20:00.000-06:00

While this is an announcement of sorts, child number four will be joining our family sometime around the end of the year, this blog post is more about my children's reactions to this news.

One day, before I had told my children we would have a new baby but my waist was already starting to expand, Cinderella declared herself "Captain Diaper Change." Of course something like that was too good to miss, so seeing as how Aurora needed a diaper change at the moment, I let her do the job. She loved it so much she started claiming the right anytime a diaper needed to be changed.

Currently we are working on potty training Guy, but he still wears pull-ups some of the time, and when he does a number in them, it is a big mess. Anyway, Cinderella wanted to change him too. I told her that probably only Mom or Dad should change Guy. She then asked if she could only change Aurora's diapers. I said "yeah, but when we have another baby in our family maybe you can help change it's diapers." Her response to that was, "I hope there is one in there right now, because your tummy is getting big like there is one."

Well I didn't break the news to her at that point, but one day a few days later, we were having a girls sleep over at grandma's house while the boys were at a fathers and sons outing. I've been needing to take a progesterone supplement with this pregnancy, and I have been instructed to take it right before bed. So Cinderella happened to still be up when I was getting ready for bed, and asked why I have to take medicine, and if all mommy's have to take medicine. I then told her that I have a baby in my tummy. She got a confused look on her face, and then said, "but you have a baby out!"
"That's right, I do. But I have one in too."
"You have a baby in and a baby out?! Wow! I hope it's a girl, what are we going to name it?......." Yeah she was excited.

Guy had a little bit different response. He didn't say much immediately. A few days later, we were all sitting at the table eating a meal, when Cinderella said something about the baby in mommy's belly. Guy then responded with, "there is a baby in MY belly." pulling up his shirt and sticking out his tummy. I asked him if it was a big baby. "It's a big baby, and it's a BOY. We are going to have lot's of babies in our family. One of their names is Aurora, but I don't know the other's names."

Aurora of course hasn't really had any response, because she is still to little to know any different. However her response in the end is the one I am the most concerned about. She and her younger sibling will be about 20 months apart. And she is a total mama's girl. I don't think she is going to be too happy about another baby taking mom's attention. Oh well I guess only time will tell.

Staying dry all night long

2010-05-27T06:25:00.000-06:00

So Cinderella has been potty trained in the day time for about a year and a half, but she still has accidents at night. So up until about a week ago she has been wearing a pull-up at night. We ran out of pull-ups and I told her I wasn't going to buy any more. Because as long as she had a pull-up on she made no effort to stay dry.

Since she has stopped wearing the pull-ups we have had an alarm set for 2:00 AM and we go in, wake her up, and help her go to the bathroom. It has worked really well, and she has stayed dry all night. Until last night.

Last night she came into my room at 1:30 wet. We cleaned her up and she asked for a drink. I was a little hesitant, but I also don't want my kids dehydrated, so I gave her a small one. She came in again at 5:30, wet again. I have given her drinks before in the night, after she has gone to the bathroom, and we didn't have any problems. I don't think the drink she got before she went to bed, was any bigger than it usually is. I don't know why it happened, but I would love any suggestions on helping kids stay dry through the night.

I am frustrated with Blogger

2010-05-05T14:04:00.000-06:00

So if you take a look at my blog, you will probably notice that my cute pictures of my kids that were on the side are gone. I removed them thinking I would easily be able to put them back.

When I try to edit the layout of my blog, it only shows me part of the layout. The bottom part is cut off. And there is no scroll bar. Frustrating. Well I got tired of my blog still looking like St. Patrick's Day, so I tried to change my background. However that was on the bottom of my layout, so I couldn't get to it. I removed the pictures to bring everything up, and was able to change my background. But then I realized that the "Add New Elements button" must be at the bottom of the screen, where I can't get to it. So I can't bring the pictures of my kids back. Right now it is pretty frustrating to me.

We Like Books!

2010-05-05T11:21:00.000-06:00

This is what I found my kids doing this morning. I just couldn't resist taking pictures.

Sewing

2010-05-03T11:30:00.000-06:00

Sorry I haven't been blogging much this year, I've been a bit busy.

My brother got married in March, and to help I made some of the outfits for the reception.

I made Aurora's dress and shrug. The other polka dot dress that my niece (one of the other babies) is wearing. Cinderella's shrug. My skirt, and my sister one of my sister's skirts.
Then I also made another shrug for Aurora, while I was trying to figure out the pattern before working on the satin.

I also made one other shrug for Aurora, and one for Cinderella in my practice run. Those ones however didn't match the dresses. Well at least not Aurora's. So I felt compelled to make them Easter dresses that matched those shrugs as well.

That wouldn't be that much sewing for some people. But I haven't really done that much sewing in that short a time before. And for me, it was a big task. I'm pleased with the job I did. And it didn't really stress me, that much. But it did keep me away from the computer.

Schools

2010-03-15T13:34:00.001-06:00

Cinderella will be going in to Kindergarten next year. Up until a few months ago, I didn't realize all of my options. I knew I could home school, but personally I don't know if I have the stamina to do that for my kids. I knew I could send them to a private school, but that seems to be too expensive for me. And then there is the standard district public school. Right?

Well a few months ago, I was out to lunch with a few other women who live in my neighborhood, and one of them started telling me about the charter school she sends her kids to. This was the first time I had ever heard of charter school. She had lots of praise to say about it, and because it is a public charter school it is as free as the district public school is. So I started giving it some thought.

I asked people that I knew what they thought of charter schools. I people had both good and bad to say, but most people were a little wary. Here are a few examples of the cautionary reviews I got.

"If they aren't under a district, who knows what they could be teaching your kids."

"Not all charter schools in this state higher certified teachers. You need to check and see if they are certified."

"I don't know that it really matters that much where you send your kids to school, in elementary."

Then the school had an open house. My husband and I went and visited and talked to people at the school. Of course it was a night that was geared to convince people to send their kids there, so everything I heard was good. I asked about some of the negative things I had heard about charter schools in general, and I was happy with the answers that I got.

They have really good curriculum, and have to meet guidelines imposed by the state. They teach the kids on a higher level than what you find in most district schools. For example, in kindergarten the children aren't just taught the alphabet, but are also taught how to read basic words. In math they learn basic addition and subtraction.
They require all of their teachers to be certified in this state.
The school offers really awesome extra curricular programs for the older elementary students (3rd through 6th grade). They have a drama club, ballroom, chess, choirs and orchestra, a homework club, a Korean club, a Spanish club and a science club.

My husband and I left that night, feeling like enrolling our daughter there would be a good choice.

The school has you enter your child's name in a drawing, and they pick who gets to attend. Children who's parents were the founders of the school, or have siblings there are given first priority, then after that it is luck of the draw. So I entered Cinderella's name. Now I knew that it was possible that she wouldn't be drawn, but that she could be. So I continued to research my options.

From my perspective, the only thing that the district school had over the charter school is location. Our local district elementary is only .8 miles from my house, and the charter school is 3.2 miles. OK so 3.2 still isn't that far away, but compared to .8 which is close enough that we can walk there in good weather, plus when you take in account the time that it takes to wait in the pick up/drop off line, and possibly stop lights, it could take an hour out of my day just to take her to school, and pick her up. That is a lot of time in the car.

So I had pretty much decided that we would go with the district school.

Then in February, it came time for Kindergarten registration. Accept I never found out about it, until a few days after. Now I know it isn't that big a deal, and I can take her in at any time during school hours and register her, if I have healthy kids and remember. Which unfortunately hasn't happened to coincide since then yet. So I still haven't registered her. "No problem. I'll still do it." I think.

Then yesterday, I happened to be looking at the blog of my neighbor who's children attend the charter school. They had had a ballroom competition, and the mother had taken some pictures. This reminded me of the extra curricular options. The school district that my parents live in, has had some problems lately due to a split in the district. The split caused a major deficit. To make up for this deficit the district has been cutting a lot of things. Many employees, teachers and others and loosing their jobs. They are doing away with a lot of the extra curricular activities the students could participate in. I also am aware that in our current economy there just aren't as much funds to go around and a lot of state programs are getting a cut in their finances as well, and there is talk of cutting funding for schools state wide. Now I know that this will affect state charter schools as well, but this particular charter school, at least in the past, has tried to balance it's budget in other ways than cutting programs. In our district the schools don't do field trips anymore, because of lack of funding. But the charter school, at least of this school year, is still doing field trips.

Anyway all of this was tumbling around in my brain suggesting that maybe I should give the charter school idea some more thought.

And then I read a different friends blog, about trying to make the choice about sending her son to a charter school. A lot of her friends had some good arguments that I hadn't thought of before.

One is that you can start the year off at the charter school, but if you decide it isn't what you want to do after all, you can change your child's school to the district one. But if you start in the district one, you may never have another opportunity to get into the charter school.

Another is the sibling preference thing. If I put Cinderella in the charter school right now, when Guy gets to be school age, I will have an easier time getting him in the charter school, if that is what I want.

Also because the charter school moves at a faster pace then the district ones, the child won't have as hard a time trying to keep up, if they start in Kindergarten instead of a later grade.

So today I heard from the charter school. Cinderella was accepted. So now I have to figure out which is really the most important to me. And get her registered, for one of the schools. And I only have 2 weeks to decide.

I hope this post made sense and isn't just a bunch of ramblings. But if it confuses you, sorry.

When do you keep a kid home from school?

2010-03-13T13:02:00.000-07:00

So as the winter season has been coming to an end, my kids have been hit hard by all the illnesses that are going around. And there have been times that I have wondered if I should send Cinderella to preschool or not.

For me there are some givens. If they are running a fever, have no energy, have a highly contagious disease like "pink eye" (had that one last week), are so sick they are spending the day in the bathroom. That kind of thing. I keep them home.

But if the kid just has a cough, maybe a little runny nose? You know regular cold symptoms. They are still "sick" they could infect others. They aren't acting sick. Do you send them or keep them home?

Children on average have around 9 cold per year. Each cold can last 4-10 days. If I keep my kid home from school when ever they have a cold they could miss up to 72 days a year just for the cold.

Cinderella has asthma, and so she sometimes has a cough when that is the ONLY thing wrong with her. So do I keep her home when she is coughing?

Our elementary school has the policy that kids need to be in school unless they have a "verifiable illness or family emergency." OK so that makes sense, but what is a "verifiable illness"?

I don't want to get other kids sick, but I don't want my kid to miss the whole school year either.

So, when do you keep your kids home sick?

Silly Guy

2010-02-21T16:54:00.000-07:00

I love watching my kids grow up. Guy is at a fun talking stage right now, and it is fun to see how his mind works right now.

One day he came up to his Daddy and me and said, "I don't have lots of thumbs on my hands." His dad replied "You don't?" "No, I have lots of fingers."

Guy also pronounces magnets as maggots. So he will ask if he can play with the "maggot" car. My husband one time was telling this to someone he was talking to on the phone. He then said, "I wonder if he will ask to play with Grandma's maggots when we go to her house." Guy heard this and replied, "Grandma doesn't have maggots!" I'll bet Grandma is glad she doesn't.

Aurora has started saying Uh Oh! lately. This has prompted Guy to also say it. Only instead of pronouncing it Uh Oh, he pronounces it, Oh Ko!

Guy has picked up an interest in dinosaurs lately. I purchased a little set of about ten dinosaur figurines, and they have become a favorite toy. These dinosaur's range in size from about an inch to maybe 5 inches high. Well this last week we borrowed a toy dinosaur from Grandma's house. This one is quite a bit larger than the others. One day Guy was looking for the largest of the small dinosaurs, and asked me, "Where is the big, huge, little dinosaur?"

My husband has been pruning our fruit trees lately, and one day when he was heading outside to do so, Guy looked at him and asked him if he was going to go break the trees.

This morning I told Guy we needed to do his hair. His response was, "I have a head because I am a boy." I think this means he doesn't have long hair. Well I told him, that yes he had a head, and it had hair on it.

Later we were sitting at the table and Cinderella started getting mad at her head for thinking about something she didn't want to think about. Guy then wrapped his arms around his head and said, "stop head, stop thinking of that!" Which was a repeat of his sisters comment. Cinderella then asked him what he was thinking of. His reply was, "I am thinking about....... my head. I have a head on my hair, because I'm a boy."

This afternoon Guy was asking me where the big dinosaur is. I told him I didn't know, and asked him if he knew where it was. "In the potty room." "The potty room?" I asked, "in the bathtub room." he replied. I then asked what it was doing in there. His reply, "It's not doing anything."

Last but not least, Guy has been getting his star vitamins again lately. However this bottle has a few that are broken in it. One day at breakfast, Guy was given one that had one of the tips broken off the star. When he picked it up, he turned and glared at Daddy and said, "Daddy ate part of my star!"

What do you want to eat?

2010-02-09T09:47:00.000-07:00

So lately my husband has been thinking a lot about planting a garden. He has been asking different members of the family what they want to plant this year. Last year Guy chose carrots, watermelon and squash, and would like to do the same this year. Cinderella chose pumpkins, and corn on the cob. I think she would also like a repeat.

Well today I was making a menu for next week. I asked Guy what he would like to eat next week. His reply was "carrots." I asked him what he wanted with his carrots. His reply was "watermelon and squash."

Wipes and locks

2010-02-05T13:35:00.000-07:00

So I order my wipes from Amazon. I was a little late this time, and ran out of wipes before the others showed up. I knew they had been shipped, but didn't know when they were coming. So I logged onto my account to see when they were scheduled to be delivered, so I would know if I needed to go to the store and buy more wipes or if I could survive with just the ones in my diaper bag.

Well Amazon told me they had been delivered. So I looked on my porch and they weren't there. I decided to get my shoes on and walk around the house and see if I could find the box. I had seen a UPS truck on my street this morning, so I was hoping that was it, and I could find it somewhere. Nope. Not in my front yard. Then I noticed a box on the porch across the street. I went and looked and sure enough it had my name on it.

So I pick it up and carry it home. I get to my front door, try to open it, and it is locked. And no I don't have my keys on me. It is 35 degrees out side, and I am wearing short sleeves, and no coat. My kids are in the house, but they are doing quiet time and Cinderella is the only one who knows how to open the door. So I ring the bell and pray that she hears me. She did, after I rang it lots of times. She looked out the window saw it was me and came to open the door. Then she noticed that the dead bolt wasn't locked, and tried to tell me through the door that it wasn't locked and I was being silly. Finally she opened the door.

Hmm. I need to be more careful about making sure the door isn't locked when I go out it seems.

Attached

2010-01-21T07:16:00.000-07:00

So years ago when I was going to college, I had to take a Child Development class. In this class one of the things we talked about is attachment.

The teacher told us there were 3 different kinds of attachment. 2 of which are unhealthy, and one that is healthy.

The first is under-attached. Mom can leave and the kid doesn't notice or care. Mom can come back and the kid doesn't notice or care.

The second is the healthy attachment, I don't remember the name. When mom leaves, the kid notices, but doesn't get too upset, and recovers easily. Has fun when mom is gone, but is glad to see her again when she comes back.

And the third is over-attached. Mom leaves and the child screams. The child refuses to be comforted while Mom is gone, and won't be happy until she comes back.

Now to a certain degree these are stereotypes, because there is no mold that really fits everyone.

The thing is, they didn't tell us what causes the different levels of attachment, or what to do about the unhealthy ones. I think with my kids I have dealt with all three kinds. Ironically in the same order. Cinderella could care less if I left, and HATED to have to leave when I got back. She still does.
Guy notices when I leave, but doesn't have a hard time with it, and is happy to come with me when I get back.
Aurora is way too over-attached. If I leave she screams. And refuses to be comforted. Most of the time. There have been a few times that she is OK, but those are very few. She is better for someone she is familiar with, like Daddy, but she still cries for him too. It is worse if she is hungry, tired or both.

The last 2 times we have left our kids with a baby sitter who wasn't family, we have come home to find the baby screaming, the baby sitter upset, and the sitters mom here. I don't mind that the sitter called her mom. But I feel bad that my baby screams so much that the sitters have a hard time. It makes me feel bad for even calling a sitter. But there are sometimes that I need one.

So what do you do?

Has anyone else dealt with a baby that screams without Mommy? How do you handle it? And how do you do baby sitters?

I think I'm done shopping Sears online

2009-12-31T10:51:00.000-07:00

So remember how I mentioned that I had ordered another dress for Aurora from Sears after I noticed that the one I got her was the wrong size. That one had been canceled, so I requested that the rest of the order be canceled (the dress that matched it for Cinderella), then found a different dress and ordered it for Aurora.

Well I found out today (because I haven't looked at my e-mail since then), that the order for Cinderella wasn't canceled, because they CAN'T. But if I refuse the delivery, it will be sent back to the Sears wear house, and then I will be refunded for the price of the dress, but they CAN'T refund the shipping. So I might as well keep the dress when it comes.

Also the final dress that I ordered for Aurora, was also canceled. Out of stock. If it is out of stock, why does it show up as available to order on the website? I understand that sometimes there is only a few in stock, and so it hasn't cleared the website before more orders are placed than items in stock. But should it really take 5-8 hours for them to send me an e-mail that my order can't go through?

So I think from now on, if I buy from Sears, it will be in store. But seeing as how there isn't one conveniently located near where I live, they just might not receive much business from me anymore. Sorry Sears, but you blew that one.

Making do

2009-12-30T08:57:00.000-07:00

So I decided to have Aurora wear her Christmas dress after all. We had to cuff the sleeves, but it didn't look to bad.

Sleeping Beauty is Aurora

2009-12-30T08:12:00.000-07:00

So Sleeping Beauty is a really big thing to type, so I am going to start calling her Aurora in my blog posts. Same princess, different name. Just didn't want you to be confused.

Your Done

2009-12-30T08:04:00.000-07:00

Warning: This post is about nursing. If that makes you uncomfortable, skip it.

So Sleeping Beauty has never been that great of a nurser. And she often gets distracted, and pulls away before she is done. To cope with this I have started counting. As soon as she pulls away I start counting down from 10. If I get to 1 and she still hasn't re latched, I say "your done" give her her "plug" and set her on the floor.

Well Guy has caught on to this and enjoys telling her she is done. Only problem is he doesn't wait until I reach one. I start counting, and he will interrupt with "your done."

Well this morning I was feeding Sleeping Beauty, and I knew she wasn't all that hungry, because it hadn't really been that long since she had eaten. She had just woken up and thought she needed to eat, so I was feeding her. Anyway, Guy woke up and came into my room. He started talking to me, and it distracted Sleeping Beauty. So she broke her latch, and looked to see him. He started counting.

"One, two, three, your done." She then turned back and started nursing again. He said, "no your done. Mommy, pull your shirt down. " He then came over and tried to pull my shirt down, while she was still nursing. He then picked up her plug and tried to break her latch again to give it to her. As soon as she looked away from me he stuck it in her mouth, and said "your done." Because I knew she wasn't really all that hungry, I let her be done, and put her on the floor so her brother could play with her.

Frustrating !

2009-12-26T18:38:00.000-07:00

So I thought it would be a lot of fun to have Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty have matching dresses for Christmas. However I didn't come up with this idea in enough time to sew them myself. However Sears sells the brand Youngland, which makes fancy little girl dresses, and has similar ones in the little girl sizes and baby sizes. So I hunted around and found some, and bought them on sale.

They are cute dresses and I am happy with my purchase. When the package got here, I opened it, checked to make sure they were what I thought I had ordered, but forgot to check the sizes.

So today I was looking at them, and noticed that Sleeping Beauty's is bigger than the other 12 month size dress it was hanging next to in the closet. It was then that I noticed that it wasn't a 12 month size, but a 24 month size. So I promptly went to the computer to see if the sears near me happened to have that dress in stock in the right size. Nope. But they did have all of their dresses on sale for 60% off as a door buster this morning. (Why do they call it a door buster on line?) Anyway, so I decided that since Cinderella doesn't have a lot of dresses, I could probably afford to buy a new one for her, and get one that matched for Sleeping Beauty. So I did a bunch of hunting. Most of the Christmas type dresses were out of stock. (Go figure, it's the day after Christmas.) But I was able to find one that they had in both sizes. So I placed my order.

Then at 5:45 this afternoon I get an e-mail telling me that the 12 month size dress is out of stock and so that item on the order has been canceled. I was already frustrated because they won't have their matching dresses for tomorrow, but I was hoping to have some by the first Sunday of the New Year. Well because the sale ended at noon, I can't even afford to get them both dresses. I did get a new dress for Sleeping Beauty (if this order doesn't fall through), and Cinderella will be keeping her original one. So they both get dresses, however they won't match. That makes me sad, but their isn't anything I can do about it now.

But I can make sure they have matching dresses for Easter. I'm going to make those ones myself.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T10:49:00.000-07:00

What a day!

2009-12-14T16:02:00.000-07:00

So this morning I was getting the kids ready to take Cinderella to preschool. We were running a little bit behind, when we went to get in the van. Well my FAB wasn't working to open the doors, and so I tried to unlock it. I didn't even get the lights to blink. It then occurred to me that the battery was probably dead. I tried to turn it on. Yep the battery was dead. "GREAT", I thought, "what do I do now?"

I thought of one of my visiting teachers who lives across from my street. I gave her a call, but there was no answer. Cinderella suggested that we walk. Well first let me tell you about the weather we had yesterday. We already had snow on the ground, and it rained. The snow damned the gutters, and so they turned into lakes. Then it snowed some more, and froze over night. So the sidewalks were covered in snow and ice. Not exactly stroller conditions. But I figured I didn't really have much choice. I bundled the kids up some more, and put them in the stroller, and started walking. I knew we would be late, because when we left the house we had 10 min. before preschool started, and in good conditions it takes me 15-20 min to get there walking.

Well pushing the stroller was a struggle, but I made it to the corner. There I saw probably a foot of water frozen over with a thin layer of ice over the entire gutter. I knew there was no way I was getting that stroller off that corner. I didn't know what to do. But I noticed that my Visiting Teacher's van was in her drive way, so I decided that I would try to knock on her door. I told my kids to not leave the stroller. Left it on the corner, waded through the water and crossed the street.
She was home, and when she answered her door, I was sobbing. I told her my van wouldn't start and I needed to get Cinderella to preschool. She told me to take her van, and then helped me get my kids across the street.

She offered to watch my younger two, while I took Cinderella, and then offered to let me continue usage of her van, to get my husband and see what we could do to get our van fixed. I am so grateful for her service.

So I took Cinderella to preschool, came home, called my husband. He told me to come and get him. So I went and fed Sleeping Beauty, then went and got my husband. We went to Home Depot, to get some leather gloves so he could clean off the corrosion on the battery to see if that was the problem.

Then we went home. He cleaned off the battery. It still didn't work. So then we needed to try to jump start it. Well of course it was parked in the garage, front in. So to jump it we would need to push it out of the garage. We went next door to where some people were working in a garage to see if someone had some longer jumper cables. No one did, but someone had a portable battery charger. So we tried that. It wouldn't work. It would make the noise like it was going to start, but not turn over all the way.

So we took the battery out, and took it to Auto Zone, picking up Cinderella on the way. They tested the battery, but it was too low for them to get a reading. They said they would put it in their charger, and we needed to check back in an hour and they could give us more information. So we went and got the kids, made them lunch then checked back again. Well I guess when they tried to hook it to the charger the battery exploded. So we ended up getting a new battery. But at least our van works now. But I'll tell you what. That day wore me out.

A tea set and cars

2009-12-13T14:29:00.001-07:00

So I try to stay on top of my Christmas shopping and get it done before the Christmas Season really starts. This has it's down sides sometimes too.

We went to a Christmas party a last week, and when Cinderella sat on Santa's lap she told him she wanted a tea set. This was the first I had heard of this idea. However it has cropped up several times since then. When I asked Cinderella what she wanted in her stocking she told me a tea set. I asked her if she thought a tea set would fit in her stocking. She said she thought it would. Last night she was sobbing in her bed. I went to see what was wrong, she told me she had a dream where it was Christmas and her stocking was empty. Now I've already gotten all of her presents and she isn't getting a tea set. At least not that I know of. I wonder if she will be really disappointed on Christmas when she doesn't get it.

Guy on the other hand is certain that his presents are all cars. Because he loves cars so much, of course someone would be giving him cars right? Wrong. Not one of his presents that I know about are cars. Trains, yes. A tractor, yes. Cars, no. I hope he's not too disappointed either.

Is it always this hard to get gifts for people?

Santa Claus. They want to believe

2009-12-13T14:12:00.000-07:00

My husband grew up in a family where his parents taught him there isn't a Santa Claus.

I grew up in a family where there was Santa Claus.

My husband told me when we were still dating, before we were married that he didn't want to teach his children about Santa Claus. Now I can respect that, but I wasn't so sure that I wanted to tell my children that Santa isn't real, because I believe he is.

No, I don't believe in a fat man who lives at the North Pole. But I do believe in people giving gifts anonymously and saying they are from "Santa." Whether it be parents or people giving gifts to a needy family, I do believe Santa exists. My husband could see some value in my opinion as well and we decided on a compromise. We decided that we would teach our children that Santa is a game that people play, when they want to give gifts to someone without the recipient knowing who the gift is from.

As time has gone on, we have had some gifts from "Santa" in our home. But we never really told our kids that Santa is real, or that he isn't.

The other day I was having a discussion with Cinderella. She was asking me if she can stay awake all night on Christmas Eve. I asked why she wanted to do that. She said, because she wants to see Santa so she can get a present from him. So how do you reply to such a comment with out giving the message that Santa is real or that he isn't?

I asked her if she thought she needed to see Santa to get a present. She said no. So I asked why she wanted to see him, and she said she just did. I then started to tell her that Santa is a game. She cut me off by whining. I asked what was wrong, and she told me she didn't like what I was saying. So I ended it there and haven't made any comments on the subject since.

I guess she really wants to believe and who am I to not let her.

Sleeping Beauty's First Snow

2009-12-09T20:45:00.000-07:00

So we've had our first snow storm that has actually stuck around this year. I took the kids out to play in it. I thought Sleeping Beauty would get tired of it quick and want to go back inside. But she surprised me. She actually enjoyed laying in the snow, and rolling around. It seemed to be a fun new experience for her.
Cinderella was really into making snow angels.And after Sleeping Beauty fell down I "helped" her make one. Then Guy said, "This is my snow angel."
I told him he needed to lay down in the snow. He then told me he didn't want to lay down. This was his snow angel.

Later we were attempting to build a snowman. We never got there because Cinderella kept wanting to eat the snowball. Guy however said, "This is my snow man." He had put a little snow ball on top of his ball that was covered with snow. I tried to take a picture but he knocked the ball off before I could.
This is Guy rolling his "snowball."

Yep we had lots of fun in the snow.

She's being an orange

2009-12-09T08:20:00.000-07:00

This morning Cinderella didn't want to get dressed. As a result she ended up spending some time in her room stomping on the floor because it makes a big noise.
I was downstairs with Guy, and he asked me what the noise was. I told him it was Cinderella being a pill.
He then said "We don't eat peels, we eat oranges. She's not eating a peel, she's eating an orange."
I told him, "she's not eating anything. She is BEING a pill."
His reply was, "She's not being a peel, she's being an orange."

Favorite November Pictures

2009-12-02T14:00:00.000-07:00

Which sibling does she look more like?

2009-12-02T06:49:00.000-07:00

I asked some friends and family who they thought Sleeping Beauty looked like. I had a lot of people tell me they think she looks like Guy. I haven't seen it that much myself, but as a parent, when I look at my children I just see that child. Well we were eating at a restaurant the other day, and the waitress referred to Sleeping Beauty as a he. Now this isn't all that uncommon, for someone to get a baby's gender mixed up, and she was wearing a brown shirt, so I can see how someone could be confused. Anyway, when she said that, my husband looked at Sleeping Beauty, and saw a miniature Guy.

Well Sleeping Beauty has always looked feminine to me, and Guy masculine, but I wondered how much of that is in the clothes. So I decided to do an experiment. I dug out one of Guy's old outfits and took some pictures of Sleeping Beauty in it.
To be fair, I decided to also post a picture of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty wearing the same outfits.

So this is comparing them at similar ages. Now I want to know what you think. Which sibling does she look more like? Cinderella? Or Guy? Or neither?

Favorite October Pictures

2009-11-10T14:14:00.000-07:00

Camera old vs. new

2009-11-10T14:00:00.000-07:00

So a few weeks ago we went and took some pictures of our family with our camera, plus a borrowed camera from my dad. Neither camera was really that fancy, and I wanted to see if we really did need a more advanced camera to do what I was wanting to do. We were able to get some pictures that were likable, but I did find I had some frustrations. We took these pictures in a park in a canyon near our house. The pictures have some really nice scenery which I really like, but for the most part the problems I had were:

It took way too long for the picture to take, and as a result we ended up missing the cute moment way too many times.
The resolution was so small that when we did catch a cute moment usually the child was too far away for me to crop it down to how I wanted it, and have it still be good quality.

My favorites from this shoot are:

Cinderella
A-1

B-1
Guy
A-1

B-1

C-1
D-1Sleeping Beauty
OK so this one was actually taken in our back yard. She was too tired when we were up the canyon, and we didn't really get any good shots of her.
A-1
My husband
A-1
My family
A-1

And some group shots
A-1

B-1

C-1
D-1

E-1

So we invested in a Nikon D3000. I love it. It has one mode where I can just hold down the shutter release and it takes continuous pictures. A great way to capture the moment with my kids who don't hold still. It also has a much higher resolution, so it solves that problem too. It also has a lot of other things, many of which I'm sure I have yet to discover.

We took more pictures on Halloween. This time we didn't have the time advantage to go somewhere so the pictures were just taken in our house and back yard. However the results much more to my liking.
My favorites from this shoot:

Cinderella

A-2

B-2

C-2

D-2
E-2
Guy
A-2
B-2
C-2
Sleeping Beauty
A-2
B-2
C-2
D-2

Family
A-2
B-2

A few group
A-2
B-2

Let me know which ones were your favorites.

Pasta Coona Macaroona

2009-11-10T12:54:00.000-07:00

This is the name of a dish I made for dinner the other night. I created the recipe, and Cinderella named it. Being a creation the measurements are approximate. I've only made it once, so I don't have it down to a science yet. But my kids really liked it, so I'm sure I'll be making it again.

To make this dish you need:

Penne (I used about 8 oz)
Cooked Chicken cut into bite sized pieces (I used about 5 tenders, but if you area big meat eater use more.)
Normandy Vegetables ( I used a small bag of frozen)
Cream soup of your preference. (The soup I used is called Shirley J, it is a cream soup base. You add the powder to water and cook it. However if you are using condensed cream soup, you will need to reconstitute it with a can of milk or water. Or you can make a cream soup from scratch if you really want to. I would use enough soup so the casserole isn't too dry.)
Dried Basil to taste
Dried Oregano to taste
Shredded Cheddar about 1/2 cup
Garlic (I used one clove minced.)

Cook your penne. Drain and rinse set aside.
Steam your veggies, and cut into bite sized pieces.
Heat up your cream soup. Add cooked chicken, spices, and garlic. Mix in cooked pasta, veggies, and cheese.
Put in a casserole dish and bake at 350 until bubbly about 20 min.

Sleeping Beauty-6 months

2009-10-27T20:41:00.000-06:00

So Sleeping Beauty can sit up now on her own, and can move from one side of the room to the other by rolling. So she now loves to be on the floor and get around. She loves to play with toys. Give her a toy and she is usually content. She turns 6 months this week. It is so amazing how fast the time flies.
She is totally a Mama's girl. But I don't mind, most of the time. We have made some progress with her sleeping during the day. Pretty much since she was born she only likes to sleep if someone is holding her or in her swing, but the past few days I have actually succeed in getting her to take some naps in her crib. I hope this sticks.

She is a very smiley girl. She loves attention from people and she usually gives a beaming smile in return. She also loves to make happy noises, especially during church meetings. I get afraid she will disturb someone, and I really don't want to have to take a baby out to the hall because she is happy, you know.

Glasses again

2009-10-27T20:25:00.000-06:00

So Cinderella got glasses earlier this year. She hadn't had them for very long before she broke them. However by that time we had moved far enough away that we couldn't rely on the warranty issued by the optical where we got the frames. So after we had new insurance, and life had tamed down a bit after having a baby, I took her to an eye doctor here, and got a new prescription and new frames. This time I tried to be a bit smarter and went with flex frames. (The kind of frames that can bend quite a bit and go back in shape.) Well they worked pretty good for a while, slowly getting more and more bent out of shape. Then one day Cinderella left them on the floor, and accidentally stepped on them. Thankfully they didn't break, but the lens did come out. I fixed the lens and took the frames to the optical and had them bend them back into shape. They told us we were lucky that they hadn't broken, they were almost there. That was about 2 weeks ago.

Well this morning Cinderella said to me, "You're not going to like this.... My glasses are broken again."
"How are they broken?" I asked.
"The glass came out again."
"Did you step on them again?"
"No."
"Then how did they break?"
"I don't know, I just went to rub my eye last night and the glass was gone."
"Do you know where it is?"
"No."
"Do you know when you lost it?"
"No."

How in the world do you lose the lens to your glasses and not notice? So then I went into panic mode. I have no idea where that lens could be. We looked in the living room, where she was when she noticed it was gone. No lens. Yesterday, she went to preschool, and we went to the doctors office. So it could be in either of those places as well as some where here at home. I don't even know where to begin to look. So it looks like we are going to have to order a new lens.
I just wish I could get her to be more responsible with her glasses. These kinds of things wouldn't happen as easily if she would just keep the glasses on her face, except for when she is sleeping or bathing. But how do you get a 4 year old to do that?

It's not a car, it's a van!

2009-10-14T13:57:00.000-06:00

So Guy is pretty particular about his vehicles. You have to call it by the right name or he gets upset.

Yesterday we were going somewhere in the van as a family, and I just happened to be sitting in the back, next to Sleeping Beauty. She was enjoying my company, and I asked her if she enjoyed me sitting by her in the car. At this point Guy yelled, "It's not a car, it's a van!"

Another time, we were at my parents house. They have a toy tractor of some sort. Guy was playing with it. I asked him something about his tractor, to which he replied, "It's not a tractor, it's a bulldozer." OK. Well a little bit later he turned to me and said, "I said it was a bulldozer, but it's a DIGGER! Isn't that silly?"
What I find silly, is his sense of humor.

Camera suggestions anyone?

2009-10-12T15:00:00.000-06:00

This is a post mostly for any of you who know more about digital cameras than me, because I know that at least some of my readers do.

Every time I take my children somewhere to get their picture taken, I seem to come home dissatisfied. True I have never used a private photographer, and maybe I would be happier with their results. But I often feel like, if I had a a nicer camera than I do, a few props, maybe a back ground or two, and a little bit of know how, I could get pictures just as good as the ones I am paying a lot of money for.

Now true I know nothing about photography, so I am willing to admit, my pictures might be worthless too. Anyway, I am contemplating the idea of getting a better camera, and I want some advice from someone who knows about cameras.

My current camera is an Olympus Camedia with D-535 zoom, and 3.2 megapixel. I would like to get a camera that has a better digital zoom, higher resolution, and one that doesn't take forever for the picture to take after you push the button. I don't want to go so fancy as to have lenses that I need to change, or have a flash I have to attach. Built in flash is fine. But I want something that would take nice enough pictures that I could print off an 8 x10, that would be high enough quality to hang on my wall, and not have it be grainy, or blurry.

So if you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them. Thanks.

No more boosters!

2009-10-09T14:53:00.000-06:00

So ever since Cinderella was about 18 months old she has been sitting in a booster seat at the table. Guy joined the ranks when he was about 18 months as well. Well yesterday Cinderella asked if she could have her booster taken off her chair and just sit on a regular chair. I told her that was fine, and that I would take it off and clean the chair. (I'm terrible about cleaning under the boosters and they can get really gross.)

Well yesterday I didn't have a chance to take care of it, and she remembered at breakfast this morning. I told her I would try to take care of it today. Then Daddy suggested that she could just move her chair back into a corner and use a different chair. She seemed to think this was acceptable and so he helped her move it. After he joined me again in the kitchen, I looked over and saw, Guy get down from his chair, push it into a corner. Then he walked around the table, took my chair, and slid it back to his place. I think he wants to be done with a booster too. Don't you think?
This last picture is in here because Sleeping Beauty wanted her picture taken too.