Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Boy Decor and Slide Sledding


I remember when I was a girl, I'd arrange my Barbies decoratively around my room. I guess this is the boy version.

I took my kids sledding today. Ross and Mark insisted on trying to go down the hill standing up in their sleds. They took many a tumble, but no one was hurt. Then Ross got tired of the hill, and started a trend. He went over to the playground started going down the curly slide on his sled. It worked really well. He got going so fast that he just shot off the end of the slide. Soon all of the other kids were over there slide sledding too.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Tag Teamed Again

I see a pattern developing. Clayton starts creating normal one-year-old mayhem. Justice, who should be old enough to stop doing this type of thing, instead of telling Mommy, decides that it looks like fun and joins forces with his little brother. Today it was powder. (I've had MUCH worse.) I found the them together, one with a bottle of baby powder and one with a bottle of medicated foot powder, giving the house a generous dusting. While I was vacuuming it up I came upon them together again: Justice spilling ham & potato soup on the floor (at least that one appeared to be an accident), and Clayton coloring all over with a marker. For the record, I did make Justice clean up the powder with a wet rag.

On another subject, what kind of commentary on my house / my ability to tune things out does this make: The other day, Lydia took a bath upstairs, and there were apparently no towels in that bathroom. She hollered and yelled and jumped up and down on the floor for at least five minutes before I paid her any notice. I heard the ruckus but was under the assumption that it was Ross and Mark playing.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Ssshhhh!

I just finished this year end slide show (actually it's pictures from the last two years, but who's keeping track). I don't want my parents to see or know about this until Christmas, but they don't have the internet so I am safe to post this now.

Off The Cutting Room Floor

I was going through our files, getting pictures for an end of the year slide show, and I found a couple of funny pictures that I just never got around to posting. (At least I don't think I did.)

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Try

"My dear brothers and sisters, don’t get discouraged if you stumble at times. Don’t feel downcast or despair if you don’t feel worthy to be a disciple of Christ at all times. The first step to walking in righteousness is simply to try. We must try to believe. Try to learn of God: read the scriptures; study the words of His latter-day prophets; choose to listen to the Father, and do the things He asks of us. Try and keep on trying until that which seems difficult becomes possible—and that which seems only possible becomes habit and a real part of you." ~Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

A Peek Into My Fridge

What does this tell you about my family right now?
(Strep throat: The casualty count is up to 4 or 5 currently. Justice and I are still holding strong, knock on wood! Ross was sick first, but I didn't take him to the doctor. His superior immune system beat if off without meds. I don't know whether he had Strep or not. I guess probably so. Good, one less person to get through it.)

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Twisty Guys

Ross has been making guys out of twisty ties.

Monday, December 14, 2009

How Does One Family Get Two Such Great Pets?

Here's how I found Clayton just a few minutes ago. How great is this little kitten?!

It reminded me of this picture of Justice and Chloe from a couple of years ago. Neither picture was posed at all.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Sigh of Relief

I am soooooo unbelievably glad that the Stake Choir Christmas Program is over!!!!! Now let Christmas begin! Relax, Relax, Relax!!! I may not do a thing tomorrow but unwind my over-sprung brain. I don't know how you other accompanists do it. The nerves were about to kill me!

Friday, December 11, 2009

Playing Toilet Mystery Grab

As is normal for kiddo's around Clayton's age, he is fascinated by the toilet. I've got to start making sure that bathroom door is shut! He keeps going in there to play in the toilet. He especially loves to put stuff in the toilet. He's bound to ruin my plumbing! The other day I caught him stuffing an entire bag's worth of cotton balls in there. Today it was a washcloth, a sock, and maybe something else. When I caught him at it, the water was disturbingly cloudy and colored a purplish brown. Was this from the socks and washcloth, or from something else more sinister? There was nothing for it. I had to reach in there with my bare hands and retrieve said items. As I did, I felt something else more solid underneath them. I recoiled in disgust! What to do? It might be poo. My family is known to forget to flush from time to time. The water was too murky, and the mystery object was too far down in the neck of the toilet to be able to see it. Did I really want to reach in and pick up someone's poo with my bare hands? (Would that really be so much worse than the many other disgusting things I've had to do in my line of duty?) Clayton was insistently saying "Ball! Ball!" If it's a ball, I definitely couldn't flush it. "Oh well, here goes!" I thought as I silently chanted my #1 lesson of motherhood: "Hands are washable. Hands are washable." I plunged my hand into the cold, murky, brown water and pulled out a large super ball. "Phew!" I felt around to make sure nothing else was there. Thankfully, that was it. As I washed my hands and steered my 17 month old out of the bathroom, I thought to myself, "We should add this to our list of 'Games for Bulimics: Toilet Mystery Grab.'"

(No, I'm not bulimic. But here are some of the other Games for Bulimics: Whole Milk Twirlers, the M&M game ...there were more. I can't think of them. We used to joke about Games for Bulimics. Oh well, I'll remember them later.)

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

My Children

A conversation with Justice:

Me: "Look it's snowing!"

Justice: "No it's not. It's just bees ."

I think I'll just stay inside.All my kids eating ice cream and zoning out in front of that accursed TV, but I think they are cute together.
Lydia actually wore this dress to school today. No it's not crazy day either. She wore it to Mark's Christmas Program just to be silly. Some of her friends saw her there and begged her to wear it to school. I told her she should offer to let them borrow it.

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Forts and Good "Good-nights"

Justice rearranged my living room and made "forts" today. Here's Justice & Clayton having fun playing in them. Chloe even got in on the action.


In case anyone is observant enough to notice that my large, cat picture is missing: No, they did not knock it down. I removed it temporarily as a precaution. I figured it would be easier than telling them not to climb on the forts.
A friend commented the other day how she liked how my kids play together. You know, when you are at home with them 24/7, it's easy to think that all they do is fight, because those things are loudest, and they drive me up the wall with it sometimes. However, when I stop to think about it, yes my kids do fight like normal siblings, but they do also play together a lot and love each other. As an example, my children are chronic nomad sleepers. There is almost never a night when everyone is in their own bedrooms. Justice slept down in Ross and Mark's bedroom nearly every night for about a year, sometimes in Mark's bed, sometimes in Ross' bed, and sometimes on the floor. Then we had the period when the weather was so nice and Ross, Lydia & Mark spent several weeks sleeping out in the tent just under my bedroom window. Since Justice is too little for me to feel comfortable about him sleeping out there without Bruce or myself, Justice had to get used to sleeping in his own bed again. Once the weather turned nasty, we had a span when Ross and Mark camped out on the floor in Justice and Clayton's room. The current thing is "sleep overs" in Lydia's room. As long as everybody goes to sleep, I don't really mind all of this non-sense. It's less rooms for me to visit to tuck everybody in.

Bedtime is either my worst time of day, or my best time of day. I'm often tired and crabby by the end of the day, and I can't take it anymore. Sometimes, it's all I can do to read a story (sometimes they don't even get that), and drag myself upstairs and downstairs to kiss everyone goodnight without screaming. Other times however, I really enjoy those quiet, precious moments with my kids. Last night was one of the good "good-nights." Bruce joined me in Justice and Clayton's room, where all four of us snuggled up on Justice's twin sized bed. Clayton was so sweet hugging everybody, but especially Justice. It melted my heart. Next I went to Lydia's room where Ross and Mark were camped out on the floor. I sat there and we told funny stories of when they were little, and we laughed and laughed. It was great! I'll tell you all the stories we told some other time. I'm waxing long and soppish, so you'll have to excuse me. I just love it when my kids are acting like they really love each other (which, despite their insistence to the contrary, they do.)

Monday, December 07, 2009

Quote of the Day

Ross: "Uncle John was born to be eaten by she-bears!"

Friday, December 04, 2009

I'm a Dork!

I was just cleaning the toys, old apple cores, dirty socks and debris in general out from under our entertainment center. I reached my arm way under there, past my elbow, and I couldn't get it back. I got stuck laying stomach down on my floor with my arm all the way under my entertainment center! What a dork! I was starting to feel slightly panicked thinking about Bruce coming home eventually to find that I had spent all day with my arm stuck under the thing. I did eventually wiggle my arm just right and got my elbow back out. Bruce stopped by and asked me why my black shirt was all dirty. :p

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Quick, Get Me Some Soap!

One draw back of having a kitten and a toddler in the same house: Finding that the baby's been playing in the litter box. I think I need to install a cat flap.

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Win Some, Lose Some

Justice and Clayton were very sweet this morning by getting themselves washcloths and helping me clean the kitchen floor.


Then Clayton found a marker and did this:

In other news, for Family Night we walked through Rock Springs Park and saw the Christmas lights. We go every year, but we usually drive. This year we did the opening night walk, which was really neat. A bit chilly perhaps, but fun none the less. (I couldn't get a good picture of the lights. I haven't figured out my camera well enough yet to do good darkness pictures.)Heres just a nice picture of Clayton snuggling with Bruce. Good times.

My husband is being disgusting right now. He's "celebrating" Flatulent Day. It's is a holiday that he and my brother Todd made up many a year ago: Dec 1 ~ Flatulent Day. He even had White Castle for lunch just so he could "celebrate." What a doof! I can't believe I'm even posting this. Oh well, you win some, and you lose some!

Lydia Talking In Her Sleep

"Mom, he stole my sandwich!"

"What?"

"You know, my purse that looks like a sandwich."

"What?"

"My sandwich purse, he stole it!"