sleep and underwear--both important.

Brooklyn has decided that sleep at night is over-rated, and feels the need to wake up every single hour. She's been doing this for a few nights, so I'm feeling it- big time.
And yet...when I see this:
or this:


I don't mind as much.

Lou-lou, on the other hand, has decided that clothing (and more specifically, panties), are over-rated. The other day we went to Walmart- she was dressed in a cute little dress. But as I was lifting her into the cart, I realized she had decided to go "commando" as I felt bare bum on my hand. So we went to the kids department first.

Fast forward to today:
I had to run some errands, so I asked her to get dressed and reminded her, "don't forget to put your undies on." "Otay, Mommy."
Maybe I should have been more specific:I love my days with these 2 girls! And for the record: that's mascara on her eye/nose- not cuts- and sometimes she really does leave her hair done.

got tagged by my angel-girl....

What is your favorite:

color: red
holiday: Thanksgiving
sport to play: racquetball/volleyball
pet: none- but if I had to choose...dog
friend: the loyal one
season: fall
number:3
food: homemade egg rolls
drink: tang
wild animal: parrot (is that wild?)
mythical creature: Pegasus
toy: plasma car
movie: white christmas
book: pride and prejudice
song: Time to say goodbye
scripture story: jaredites journey to the promised land
teacher: bro. christensen from Ricks College
board/card game: settlers of catan/risk

Copy and paste the survey and fill in your own answers. Then tag 5 people.

I tag...mel, tiffany, alexis, NAT-THURSTON...(yes, you!), and liz

did you know...

*"There are many different kinds of skunks. They vary in size (most are housecat-sized) and appear in a variety of striped, spotted, and swirled patterns—"

*Skunks usually nest in burrows constructed by other animals, but they also live in hollow logs or even abandoned buildings.

*Each female gives birth to between two and ten young each year.

*They are nocturnal foragers who eat fruit and plants, insects, larvae, worms, eggs, reptiles, small mammals, and even fish.

*In colder climates, some skunks may sleep in these nests for several weeks of the chilliest season.

*And *apparently*, when nests are not available, they'll make do in MY GARAGE:

The day before Thanksgiving I headed out to the car in our garage to get something, just in time to see a s-k-u-n-k run in front of our porch and behind our freezer. Long story short: it stayed there for almost 2 whole days. The whole time I was just praying it would not spray. I called Animal Control- they only take "control" of cats and dogs... so I called Critter Control (yes, that's what they are called) and learned they'd come get the skunk out of our garage. For a bargain price of $285. Needless to say- my dad and Tim were the Critter Control:this was right before the skunk came out and just slowly slunk away into the night. outside. where he *belongs*.

The next day we had a delicious feast with all the traditional trimmings- and gratefully didn't have eau de Skunk ruining our meal. Then after dinner, we did the traditional Thanksgiving sparklers. We have our decorations and tree up: (tammy- this pic of the wreath is for you- not impressive, but I honestly tried.... it looked better in my head. I need practice)

Friday night we had our Ward Christmas Party and the kids were in good moods before we left since they were going to see Santa. So I was able, for the first time in my child-infused life, to get a cute shot of all 4 kids in front of the tree...I sure do like these 4. poor lou-lou is cutting molars and has a nasty rash on the bottom of her lip- I thought it had been binky-related, but the bink is long-gone and the rash is still here. Teeth/frigid cold weather are the only things I can come up with. Any ideas for how to get rid of it?

Elf yourself....

so just in case you've been living under a rock and have never seen this, it just wouldn't be Christmastime without a trip to the elf-yourself site:

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

a couple new blogging tricks I just learned...

keep in mind, I'm still very new at blogging/coding/etc. so I'm easily impressed....but

the first is just a little detail that I'm stealing from a friend. So here's a thanks and a shout-out to MAREN!!! Hollllaaaa.
Did I just say that??? I *must* be tired.
Anyway- the detail: you can sign your name at the end of each post- I love that.

The second is, when tweaking the HTML in your layout, here's a cool website where you can find the code for any color under the rainbow. I love that too.

And now for my signature...good night!

Move over Monet....

After Tim did such an awesome job finishing our basement, the walls look pretty bare down there, so the kids each did a painting to get things a little more variegated and interesting. Aren't they cute? The one on the far right has all of the kids' hand prints in a row. I. love. them.

I found a new tool that has become one of my new favorite things. It's called Cleverkeys and it is COOL. I always joke that in addition to not being able to form coherent sentences and forgetting my own name, my vocabulary has decreased exponentially with the birth of each child. But the thing is, I really am not joking. So, I've decided that I want to start writing more and am even taking on a challenge with a couple of friends. I'll tell you if when I complete it. But the point is, if, for example, you want to make a word stronger or tweak the meaning just a bit, you can highlight any word you've typed, press Ctrl L, and it links you directly to a Thesaurus with synonyms for your word. (Did you really think I came up with "variegated" on my own?) I didn't. But *now* I know it and can add it to my word bank. So there. Okay, so just reading that back, it doesn't sound as awesome as it truly is, so you're just going to have to trust me and give it a go.

So I'm not *positive* that this is what the Binky Fairy looks like-one can only assume. All I know is, she came, worked her magic, and left- with virtually no trauma to a certain 2 year old in our home. And ironically enough- the bribe that I she thought was so necessary (3 cute tiny little puppies) went unnoticed after the first day. Today I found out that Lou-lou actually has been thinking about this a little bit though, because out of the blue she says: "The binky fairy came and took my binkies away. Maybe the binky fairy will come and bring me some new ones." I almost felt bad telling her that, "No- the binky fairy only takes, never gives." But the rash around the bottom of her lip told us that the binky deadline had arrived.

Dallin has a crush on a girl who is in his class at school and also is in our church Primary. She's an older woman (7), but he's smitten. Her mom was teaching D's primary class this Sunday and out of the blue, my shy boy raises his hand and says, in front of everyone:"Sister Darla, I'm going to marry Aubrey."
Darla: "Well, okay. You can. But you'll have to buy her a honkin' huge diamond first."
Dallin: "Okay. Can you take me to the store?"
All I can say is: Own it, boy. No shame.

And just because: I love how Natty is old enough to truly enjoy Baby B.

Lou-lou on her perch first thing in the morning.

Is she old enough to be doing this already??! Slow down, Father Time.

hodge podge

First and foremost- I forgot to give my top 5 reasons I love Natty. (It was her birthday a week ago, and true-to-form- I'm late with my tribute post) Anyway-
*She is one of the most creative girls I've ever known- she reminds me so much of my mom and Tim, both- (think: bubble wrap butterfly, using skeins of yarn to make spiderwebs through the house, making "workbooks" for Madison and Dallin as they play school, etc.)
*She is so smart- I still remember her being barely 4 years old and I was sitting with Dallin on the side of the pool with our feet hanging in the water. Natty starts swimming towards us very slowly saying, "I'm coming to *ANTAGONIZE* you...." . And her vocabulary has increased significantly the past 5 years :)
*She is the peacemaker in our home and with her friends at school.
*She is not afraid to stand up for what she believes is right
*She is truly our "Angel Girl".
We love you, Natty! For her birthday, we were also lucky enough to have one of our favorite visitors: My grandmother, Sammie came to visit for a couple of days. The kids LOVE getting to see "Simmie" (as lou-lou calls her), and naturally, so do I. A friend was kind enough to watch Madison for a few hours while the older 2 were in school, so Sam and I went shopping for shoes, clothes, and fabric (what else, for those of you who know Sammie :) She can shop circles around me), and then to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. It was so nasty.

Psych.

I wish we could see her more often.

After she left, the Halloween festivities began (Trunk or Treat at church on Thursday, then Trick or Treating the next night). Natty was a mummy (if we ever repeat that costume, we'll have to find a way to secure the bandage wrappings, because they kept falling off and by the time they were 3 houses down, her costume consisted of gray leggings, a white shirt, and a smile on her face. she still got candy. Dallin was a boxer with a black eye. Lou-lou- a princess, and Brooklyn was a bunny. She wouldn't hold still, so her pink nose turned into a smudge all over her nose and cheek... whatevah.
Before:
After:
Do you think the sugar had kicked in? B-O-I-N-G!!!!!

In other non-related news: Tim fixed the sink I broke, with much help from Lou-
And I've decided that the Bumbo is one of the coolest inventions. Brooklyn *loves* being able to sit up and watch all the action. Actually, I think she just got sick of Lou-lou using her bouncy seat as a baby-catapult (cause and effect is huge for 3 year olds, apparently), but regardless- she loves her Bumbo: