And oh ya...

...it's a girl!



That's her head to the right and her bum to the left. She's folded in half with her legs pointed back up her body kicking herself in the head...a very clear view this time.

Messy Beds and "Naps"

I'll admit it. I am horrible at making my bed...although not as bad as I use to be. I've been forced into making it about three days a week now. See, back in the days when it was "my bed" the sheets and blankets stayed where I put them. They would be nicely laid out, I'd climb in and sleep, and when I got up in the morning they were basically in the same place they started. Then I got married and that whole scenario changed completely. Nathan has a talent for messing up the covers. I'll wake up in the middle of the night with either no covers on me at all or completely buried and sweating because in his unconscious state he decided he was hot or cold. And he does this crazy weird thing in his sleep where he manages to pull the flat sheet out from under all the other blankets and throw it on the floor. How does he do that while under the covers and leave the rest of the blankets behind??? So you see, after a few days our bed is just a twisted mess and I have to pull everything straight and tuck and wedge all I can under the mattress so I still have covers on me after an hour of being in bed. Which brings me to the point...

...my kids seem to be attracted to my neatly made bed. As soon as it is fluffed and smoothed, they climb right in and "take a nap". A nap that messes up the covers almost as badly as Nathan. I have to guard my bedroom just to keep it made. So today they "napped" for a bit with party blowers.





And M was strangely in the mood to pose for me today. I just wish I had her in a cute outfit and ponytails. Or at least pants.

Poster Paint

Give my kids a little paint, and look what they do to themselves.

Back to Blogging

Our poor computer has once again tried to up and kick the bucket, but we refuse to let it go. I guess we're just not ready to say goodbye....or we just don't want to dish out the cash to upgrade. Nathan was able to do a little patching up - put in a new hard drive and some other fiddling around of sorts that I really don't understand. All I do know is he did something right. It's running a little smoother and I can once again get back to blogging. So lets see, what have we missed?

I believe I left off with my little brother Thomas having a birthday we were about to leave for. And what could be a better birthday dinner than a big bucket of fried chicken? I guess I don't actually like fried chicken all that much, but I am a huge fan of KFC's biscuits, so I was a happy girl. Plus it's a family tradition that goes back to my mom's parents - big family meal and no time to cook, just make a KFC run. And ice cream cake. I love the ice cream cake. We didn't have any candles that weren't scented and in a jar, but you've got to have something to wish on.


We did some lounging around on the couch...




...while Thomas sang some Beatles tunes for us.


Me.


One of our favorite things to do is to hang out around the fire pit in my parents back yard. Fall was in the air and it got really chilly that night, so the fire was extra nice. Here is the Birthday Boy.


I think M thought she could blow the fire out.


I made Nathan take actual pictures of me together with our kids.

J wasn't too thrilled to participate.

Look at M's funny face!


Nathan is never too excited to get his picture taken, but he puts up with me.


And he has figured out that if he is holding the camera I can't take pictures of him.

I stole Thomas' birthday present (the hoodie).

And a few more of my never still children.

All in all a very fun night. Happy Birthday Thomas! Lets do it again next year.

Happy Birthday

The baby of the family is working his way well into his 20's.

Happy Birthday Thomas!

Here he is about a year ago.


I'm off to get ready to head over for a birthday dinner and ice cream cake...

Sprinklers

We were going to take the kids to a friends house to go swimming in their pool, but time snuck by a little too fast and before we new it, it was close to bed time. So instead we turned on the sprinklers and let them run out the last of their boundless energy. We had been swimming the day before and one pair of J's swim trunks were in the wash, and the other seem to be growing to big for him and fell right off. I guess it's possible that J could have grown taller and thinner, but he was already so skinny I think the shorts grew. So I dug through his shorts drawer and pulled out the lightest feeling pair in there, but they must have grown too and were falling down. Poor guy. That put him in a funk and he ran in the water once, decided it was "cold and itchy" and pouted the rest of the time.


The last time we turned on the sprinklers for the kids M was scared of them. I don't know what changed between then and now, but she has changed her tune and LOVES them now.


She took a break to share her giddiness with us.








How she was able to drink like this and not get water up her nose, I know not.


In the mean time, J sat on the curb and wallowed in his sadness.


But M was still loving it.






By this time J started to realize that sprinklers could be just as much fun in regular shorts and was warming up to idea of having a little fun.




I love the light here.


And he's off!

Then Nathan went out for a dessert run and brought us home milk shakes which is, of course, the perfect end to the evening.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Every year in December I start to feel all Christmas-Crafty. But I'll let you in on a little secret...if you're only half crafty like me and can't seem to come up with any original ideas and need to buy the pre packaged crafts to scratch your itch, December is way too late to get started. Craft stores are down to bare bones by the time the actual holiday season has come around. So this year I am prepared. I shopped in August for my Christmas crafts. Yes, I said August. And yes, that's four months before Christmas. After all I do have kids old enough to be interested in this kind of thing and I have motherly obligations to fulfill this year and if I had waited any longer all the more organized and better planned moms would have beat me to the punch.

This year we started the Christmas-Craft season by making the decoration that must be seen on every Christmas Tree - Candy Canes. The beaded kind. I knew J would get a kick out of it, but I didn't realize how coordinated M would be. She'd load up her wire with beads in no time, and dump them back off even faster. Because it's not the destination, after all, it is the journey. Who needs a completed candy cane when you can watch the beads crash and roll all over your tray?

Here she is taking a break to comb her hair.




Still working on the hair...


He even crooked it himself. I am constantly astonished that my kids are getting older so fast and can do, and insist on doing so much more by themselves.


Our grand total for the day.


They stood in as make-shift Christmas trees just to test the decorations out.


M is convinced she is touching her nose with her tongue. And did you notice her shirt is inside out and backwards. Not only has she been doing her own hair, she's been dressing herself too.


He's always willing to give me a pose.




And I really like this star and am showing it to you for no good reason at all. Besides, stars go along with the Christmas theme, right?

Anyone know how to bottle yummy smells?

What to do on a Sunday afternoon when you children are restless and have already helped you pick up toys, do the dishes, finish a craft and are still bored? Dry apples of course.

J LOVES the apple cutter and is suddenly old enough to use it by himself, well, besides sticking the apples onto the big ol' prongs, which I'm sure he could figure out, but I didn't feel like a trip to the ER today. Look at that concentration.


Then we dipped them in lemon water so they wouldn't turn brown.


Then we dried them on a dishcloth. M liked to help with this part.


Then she'd hand them to J and he'd lay them out on the tray.


Time to cut some more.


And sprinkle with cinnamon.


Six hours later...mmmmmm good! And, my house smells edible.

Haircuts

My poor, poor two year and two month old little girl still does not have enough hair to pull up into a real ponytail. We can do a little fakey pony on the top of her head that makes her look like little Cindy Who, but that's about it. What I'm trying to say is, it's short. I haven't wanted to cut it because taking off any length just seems like a mean thing to do. But as has been pointed out to me several times in the last few weeks, she just looks scroungy, ratty, and messy. So I finally gave in and we had Kristyn over today to give M her very first real haircut. She did a good job too. It really doesn't look any shorter, but it's definitely cleaned up.

She started out WAY excited to get her hair cut.


J was pretty excited too.


Look at that mop on his head.


M was really good and sat very still, for a while, but by the end was getting restless. We bribed her with candy and she held out until the end.


Ta-Daaaaaaaa!

She is actually sitting there all cute with her hands twisted together, but is obviously topless and is in her new princess undies, so you get the web-edited version.

Then it was J's turn for a chop.


And on another note...my sister-in-law Kayla got married this morning! We weren't able to get to Utah for it and am way bummed to have missed it, but I can't wait to see pictures and hear all about it. Nathan tried to call out that way earlier today, but I'm sure they are super-duper busy and didn't make it to the phone. We'll have to hear all about it later.