1 project down, 354 to go....

Before Brooklyn was born, I started refinishing a dresser for Lou-lou's room: painting the dresser (which turned out to be a nightmare since it had some fake-wood-coat-of-armor that even a half hour assault with an electric sander couldn't touch...), and painting knobs. I did this with the idea that it could be done *before* Brooklyn arrived.....and 8 months after she got here......it's finally done.

I love the feeling of completion.

In other news:
Natty participated in Battle of the Books at school- There is a list of books that students are able to read within a 2 month period of time. At the end, all who participated take a test, and those with the top scores form a team to "battle" against other schools. This girl of mine *loves* to read (like her mother), and is quite competitive (like her father ;) . Today she found out that she didn't make it. This is one of the few things that has truly disappointed her in her 9 years, and I wasn't prepared to have my heart hurting for her like it has- not because she didn't make it, but just because she was so disappointed. It's always eye-opening to experience all the firsts that come along with parenting, as your children grow up. I know this is such a small thing in the grand scheme of things....I need to toughen up for her sake.

Dallin had a buddy from school over the other day. They decided they'd like to play chess together- Dallin has tinkered around with Natty, so he knows the general idea, but hasn't mastered strategy or anything. So they play and within minutes his friend has decimated the board and has him in check-mate. Come to find out, this cute little guy's mom is the Chess teacher at the school and his older brother has won 2 state championships in Chess.
Me: "Oh. Maybe you should go build a castle." So they did.


At Walmart the other day, Lou-lou all of us sudden looks at me with a panicked expression and says, "Mommy- I gonna puke"...awesome. So I start to take her coat off so she can puke in something other than the cart... and as soon as I got it off of her, she says, "Oh, I okay now. The money's in my belly." She swalled a penny. or dime. or nickel. we'll never know. And I mean NEVER. Because a)I'm not paying for another x-ray unless she starts complaining that she hurts and b)I refuse to "monitor" what...comes out (if you catch my drift).
Then later that day she finds me and starts pointing up her nose saying "ouch". So I close the other nostril and tell her "Blow". TaDa:

A pink string. Why????

This one:

is doing this:

(taking a bottle from Beboo...)- she's weaned. yipee!!/sniff. sniff.
and this:

(sitting up...)

Tim and I are just soaking these good times in....

5 Lucky people!

Another fun blog game!

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make! (Though I hope you will!)
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It'll be done this year. {might be a little while}
4. You have no clue what it's going to be. I don't even have a clue what it's going to be.
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a homemade gift! It may not be great, but it will be fun!!
* * *Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!* * *

I'm seriously wondering if I will get 5 comments, most of you call or email after you read my blog. So make sure you leave a comment too!! :o)

Me, me, me, me, me..........

not that it's a bad thing, but it has occurred to me that 90% of the things i write about on this blog are child-related. it's no wonder, considering I have 4 kids who gratefully occupy what feels like 90% of my time. HOWEVER.... tonight I've decided to start a game of picture tag....all about things we love. (And we all know that family, the gospel, and friends are on the list...those are givens...so you can't use those things!)

3 things I love right now:



3 places I'd love to go:


London


Hawaii


Switzerland

3 items I'd love to have if money was no issue:

(photoshop)

3 books I love to read again and again:


3 things I'd love to learn more about:


If you're reading this (all 5 of you....), consider yourself TAGGED. (and I know who you are, because I have a stalk-meter installed.... so there. ;o)

Vomit, Tooth and Ice...in that order.

The Past 2 Weeks In review:

#1-We all got the stomach bug. Lou started it all. Passed it to me. And Brooklyn. Then Tim. Somehow Natty and Dallin evaded it, which still baffles me. Dallin's usually the "sick one". Maybe Kindergarten has given him additional immunity? I'm not complaining!

#2:

Need I say more?! The Tooth Fairy even had cash this time.

#3- "The Storm"

I'm sure everyone's aware of this and I know to all of our local friends, this is old news, but eventually I'll have this blog printed out, so I wanted documentation. So bear with me, or skip it :)
Monday morning we woke up to snow dust- maybe 1/2 an inch at best. School was canceled. Tuesday morning, however, we were hit with 4-5 inches of wonderful fluffy snow- the good kind to build snow men with. But then the freezing rain came all through the night and at 6:30 on Wednesday morning we heard the electricity shut off entirely.

The first thing Tim said was, "We should have bought a generator." After the wind storms that Ike brought through, we had debated doing it and decided we'd wait "just a little bit longer". Bad, stupid, poor choice. So immediately Tim and I got up and showered before the hot water went out. We started calling around (luckily our cell phones were never affected, which was a blessing) at about 9 o'clock to see if we could find a generator. Naturally, they were all sold out.

Tim decided to brave the roads and drive 20 minutes to Lowes to see if he could get a heat source for us. When he got there, he found 1 of 3 propane heaters left. As soon as he picked it up, another couple came and grabbed the last two. (another blessing)

He came home to see us all bundled in our winter gear because the house had already gotten around 55 and it was freezing. He set up the heater in our dining room and lou-lou was ready for summer- this was one of her more modest outfits of the day:
I was really wishing for a wood burning fireplace at that point because propane-flavored smores just don't do it for me.

We had some good friends stay with us that night because they didn't have any heat or electricity either. It was genuinely fun (for me, at least)! Eating dinner by candle light (which we were able to heat on our gas stove- another blessing), watching the kids play games in the basement with flashlights, Natty reading a story to them by candlelight- and it was heavenly not having the TV or computer to contend with. Although the dead-silence with no appliances running was a little unnerving. After we'd gone to bed, at 10:30 that night, we were all awakened by bright lights and bathroom fans. (another blessing) We were some of the first in our city to get our heat and electricity back.

Here are some of the pictures I took. I wasn't able to get any shots of the real damage around here- it genuinely looked like a war zone- huge trees toppled with the amount of ice build-up, full trees and massive branches falling on power lines, onto houses, across driveways, trees and branches bent so they were almost touching the ground, etc. We didn't deal with anything that extreme, but a couple of our big trees took a hit-

Before: (notice the ice pond on our driveway and around the tree seeing as you can't see much of the tree)


After: you get a good comparison with the trees on the right especially, but the tree on the left lost more branches.


It was so hard to believe something could be so tragically beautiful.






as I said, we were the lucky ones. There are still so many without power, without heat, without housing. Please keep them in your prayers.

46 more days until Spring.

But who's counting? :)

good one.

Today I got this email from my sister "in-law", Katy- and loved it, so had to post it. I emmensly dislike the SAHM/working mom battle, so that's not why I loved it. I happen to know plenty of *wonderful* mothers who stay home *and* plenty who work. But this woman was just able to articulate why it is sometimes difficult to be a stay-at-home mom. So this is not an "In Yo' Face", but more of an "Amen."

New Year's Resolution.....

To sleep from 10 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. with NO interruptions. I am grateful for my children. I love my children. I know how lucky I am. But I also want sleep. I figure after a solid year (literally) of not sleeping through the night, I'm due. Unfortunately, as mentioned in countless other posts, The Little One (and no, her bow is NOT big enough): is not on the same page. I've been *trying* to sleep train. I've tried:
and this:
and this:and this:


and this:

and this:
But I'm afraid what it's going to come down to is this:




wish me luck. And I am done whinning about lack of sleep, starting right......NOW.

And for your entertainment, the other day, Dallin came running frantically into the house, into the kitchen, grabbed scissors, and started to run back out. I yelled after him- "don't run with scissors!! And what are you doing with scissors?!" He looked back at me, saying, "Lou's head is stuck and Natalie needs scissors!", and slammed the door behind him. So, prepared blogger that I am, I grab my camera and go outside to see this:
I was able to keep Natty from cutting our goal threads, and after I stopped laughing, was able to get lou-lou's head out of one of the little holes. After "eventful" days with this fun-loving, curious little girl, this shouldn't surprise me, but I had to wonder, "WHAT was she doing??!" Good times :)

T'was the night before Christmas....

and all through our house, 4 creatures were stirring, and hopefully no mouse....

(is this pose getting old?? I seem to be a one-trick pony this Christmas...)

...the children were nestled all snug in their beds (or sprawled all over lou-lou's floor for the Christmas Eve slumber party)
...with Ma in her kerchief and Brooklyn in her cap...
and I'm all out of cute little substitutions for one of my favorite Christmas stories ever, but we'll just say we've had a wonderful Christmas- Brooklyn loves her sock monkey (thanks Taunya!)







They've played basketball...(thanks Beboo and Papa!)









and they now have adorable new Sunday clothes, which will be featured in an upcoming post (thanks Grandma and Grandpa!) along with details from our fun visit with Uncle Audi (or Uncle Abby as Madison calls him/her). And were spoiled with other fun things from doting aunts and uncles who really shouldn't have, but the kids are so glad you did!

So all that's left to be said is.....

to all, and to all a good night!