Back to Blogging

If there's some kind of disorder
that's defined by a weird one-track mindedness
where you get totally obsessed with doing one thing for a little while,
therefore throwing the rest of your life badly out of balance,
and then, shortly after, moving onto the next big thing and repeating,
then I think I have that.
{Sorry for the major run on sentence}.
But luckily for my seriously neglected little blog, my latest obsession is blogging so I have a sudden burst of badly needed entries. And some of you out there might have noticed you suddenly have all kinds of comments coming in from me. Well, maybe it's the new year or something but I am back into blogging baby!
{at least for the moment}

Christmas Photo Shoot

My sister Jamie and I decided to try to take our own pictures of the kids this year to give to the grandparents so as not to cut any more money out of the Christmas budget. So we borrowed a nice camera from the Barretts {thanks guys!} and attempted to get a shot of the 3 grandkids. How hard can it be right? I mean there are only three of them. Well, let's just say I'm never doing that again! What a disaster. I think we literally took like 200+ pictures and ended up with maybe 6 that were useable. We didn't even get one decent group shot and ended up just doing individuals. Between Caleb making faces, Janie throwing herself on the ground crying and Ellie crawling out of the picture, it was pretty much impossible. It really makes me appreciate any picture out there with more than one child looking good. How do you do it? Here are the highlights and the lowlights of our little photo session gone bad.

Thank Goodness for Peanut Butter!

So Janie got a sucker the other day for enduring a long shopping trip with Mom. And not just a scrawny little dum dum mind you, but a big, green, full-size sucker. She was eating it in the car so we had a really nice, quiet ride home. But when I went to unbuckle her, I discovered that somehow the sucker had ended up in Janie's hair! And if you know how long it's taken her to get any hair at all, you'll understand how upsetting this was to both of us. But I think Janie was only mad because she didn't get to finish the sucker, and because it didn't feel very good when I was removing it. Luckily, with some peanut butter and soap, we got that sucker out!

December Playgroup

I LOVE Christmas so even though December is insanely busy, I was still glad that it was my month to host playgroup because we got to have a little Christmas party. Ok, so it was pretty much a repeat of Janie's Birthday, but the more Christmas the better! And this time there were more kids who could actually make the gingerbread cookies. The boys were really cute. We wrote letters to Santa which was really hilarious. I wish I could remember what everyone asked for because there were some good ones, but since this post is a little late {shocker} I forgot. I do remember that Kyson asked for "raspberries" so I hope Santa delivered!

a New Kitchen! {Angie-this one's for you!}

For those of you marveling at my blaring inability to update my blog more than twice a year {that is if there's anyone out there who still bothers to check my blog}, here is my only explanation... I recently renovated my kitchen cupboards {keyword being I} and it totally took over my life. Well, actually it wasn't all me. I couldn't have done it without my amazing father-in-law helping me build and install some new shelves {which was my favorite part}. It was so fun learning how to build a few things with some power tools. Thanks Dee! And of course, thanks to Grandma for watching the kids so it didn't take me even longer! I tend to be a little "project-obsessed" and am usually trying to cram way more projects into my life than can actually fit with me still sleeping at night.{I'm pretty sure this is a genetic problem because it seems to run in my family.} I've been wanting to refinish our cabinets since we moved in 4 years ago, but for some reason I woke up one day in September and decided "today is the day!". And once I got that idea in my head there was no stopping me. So my poor husband and children had to endure a long while of dust, searching the basement for a cup or plate , pizza every night, a house of chaos, and a moody and very sleep-deprived wife and mom. Was it worth it? I haven't decided yet. But now that all that's behind us, I think we all love our new yellow kitchen. And anyone who doesn't will pretend to love it anyway to avoid my wrath.

Janie Turns {2} Oh NO!

..{December 6, 2008}..

With Caleb just recently emerging from the "terrible 2s on into 3s", I'm not quite ready to have a 2 yr. old around the house again. But still, we had a fun little birthday for Janie and so far she still seems to be pretty sweet {knock on wood!}. My favorite part of the day was when she opened her present from me and didn't notice the tissue paper and present part fall out of it. She looked at the box, then very sincerely looked at me and said "Oh! nee nu {translation: thank you} Mommy!". I guess we could have just wrapped up empty boxes and she would have been a happy girl. With her birthday being in December, we had a Christmas-themed party, of course. She had chocolate & peppermint cupcakes and we decorated gingerbread men. Happy Birthday to our cute Janie!

I Hate Walmart!

I just have to vent for a minute about my local Walmart. I remember the days before the nearest Walmart was built. I spent my days shopping at cleaner, nicer, brighter, even closer grocery stores. Ones with little thunderstorms that sprinkled the vegetables with a dewy mist as a passed by. I'd make it in and out in less than an hour and I didn't have to walk half a mile to get from one end of the store to the other. Sure, I spent more money on most of the items purchased, but I could do it in good conscience knowing there was no alternative. Yes, those were the days. But now, with a Walmart Supercenter so nearby I am racked with guilt anytime I shop at my old stores, my old friends. I know I should be shopping where the prices are lower, the lights are dimmer, and the Christmas music is playing as soon as Halloween is over. I have never come out of the black hole we call Walmart in less than an hour, no matter how short a list I have. I have never waited in a checkout line with less than 3 carts (stuffed to the brim, mind you) ahead of me. And I always come home in a bad mood.

Caleb's 4th Birthday

Caleb turned 4 this October and his favorite present was his 'Superman' costume from Grammy. She sewed the cutest cape; thanks Grammy! He was so excited about this gift that he literally did not take it off for the first 48 hours until I made him wear "normal" clothes to preschool. Although, maybe I shouldn't have done that because my mom used to force me to wear "normal" clothes to preschool and it kind of traumatized me. I guess I used to pick out really crazy, mis-matched outfits when I was little and was very headstrong about wanting to pick my own clothes, but my mom wouldn't let me choose on school days. My teacher finally asked my mom if there was anything wrong at home because I would just lay on the floor at pre-school and stare at the ceiling! My issues started young!
Anyway, Caleb had his first real birthday party this year with friends and everything. The boys decorated pumpkins, hit a pinata and licked the frosting off their cupcakes. We had a great time. We got some cute pictures with the other boys, even another Superman! Caleb hit the gym really hard though after seeing himself next to the Superman with a built in six-pack .

Janie's Salon Day

Janie is 20 months old and finally has a tiny bit of hair to show for it. Luckily, little people can pull off the bald look! Janie had her first haircut today just to get rid of all the little wispy ends. Janie actually really likes it when I do anything to her hair so she liked getting it cut. There's some gel that I put in her hair sometimes so whenever she's in my bathroom she finds the bottle and brings it to me, then points to her head, yelling indecipherable baby language at me, until I spray a little on. Girl instincts kick in at a young age I guess!

Weddings Weddings Weddings!!!

Well, actually, there were only two, but it sure felt like a lot!
My sister Megan got married on July18th. A week later on July 25th, my brother got married. Then, on the 26th we all headed down to St. George for Megan's "Trueblood"reception. So, we've all been very busy, but it was really fun!

Megan and Houston's wedding was amazing!
Their reception was in my parent's backyard and it was so beautiful! It was literally a wrestling match trying to get the kids into their wedding attire, but parents won, so the kids ended up looking awfully cute! Caleb wore his first real suit and looked so handsome. You honestly could have mistaken him for a younger Clark Gable , but he spent most of his time in a tree so I think that gave him away as a 3 yr. old. Janie and Ellie got to be flower girls and they were darling ! Megan and my mom found the cutest fabric to make their dresses ! Apparently, weddings make Janie cry {a lot} so I don't think we have any pictures of her smiling, but luckily we still got some good ones. Barrett and Kate's wedding was at Thanksgiving Point . It was also really beautiful. Their sealing was really cool. Kate's whole family came in from all over so it was fun to finally meet everyone. They got a cherry red, tandem beach cruiser as a gift so they decided to make that their getaway vehicle. I wish I had a picture because it was really cute.