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!

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:

party time!!!!

Luckily, Natty is our only child whose birthday falls anywhere close to a major holiday (Halloween). Because it makes planning her party a little tricky trying to coordinate with all the major goings-on between school/church/community. Sooooo... even though her birthday isn't until Wednesday, we had her party this past Friday. We were on Fall Break, so I decided to have her "friend party" while Tim was at work, and then we will just have our family party on her actual birthday. Needless to say, about 5 hours before the 7 girls arrived, I starting pacing the floor wondering, "What in tarnation was I THINKING doing this by myself" considering I also had Dallin and his little friend from across the street, Brooklyn, and Lou-lou (equivalent to 5 children). But, turns out I was acting the martyr for nothing because it was actually went relatively well (aside from one little drama queen...excuse me, "little friend", who claimed as she was leaving that "this was the worst time [she'd] had in her entire [8 year, ungrateful, little] life.) I digress.
The girls had a ball- they made their own pizzas (rolled the dough and everything): decorated aprons to take home: did the typical cake-and-ice-cream thing, and Natalie is now the proud owner of every Littlest Pet Shop animal available on this good green earth. (She is in LPS Heaven).
So, we all survived, and even had a good time. Tomorrow I'm taking Dallin in to the Dr. because I think he's got strep-throat, but that's another post...

So tonight has been one of the best nights I can remember for a while. And I figured out why: I wasn't keeping one eye on the kids and the other eye on the clock making sure they were in bed by a fixed time. In fact, I didn't look at the clock once. (note to self: stop being such a time-nazi.) But that was only one reason this was such a good night; here was the other:As I was getting Brooklyn bathed, ready for bed and fed, Natty volunteered to make like a babysitter and put Dallin and Lou-lou to bed (they were having a slumber party in Lou's room since it's Fall Break). So she did- complete with reading stories and laying down with each of them. It was so calm and enjoyable, I had to capture the moment.

Here's something I never thought would come out of my mouth: "Now, where are those wire strippers?" Our *@#)(&% garage door is semi-broken and one of the wires on one of the sensors had snapped. Right then, I realized a couple of things: 1) I can't believe I even thought to look for wire strippers; #2) I can't believe I actually knew what to do with them. I believed I had a hidden talent. But alas- it did no good. Tim's job.

The other day, Beboo and Papa met the kids and I at Huber's Farm for some fall pumpkin fun- the kids picked a knucklehead pumpkin (I loved the name, so I would have bought the thing for the name alone), rode mini-tractors:

fed the animals:Lou-lou wasn't fond of the goats. They were crazy. Plus, they stunk. But dallin sure liked the baby goat.
Brooklyn had her 4-month check up today: 13lbs 11oz; 24 1/2". Croup is gone, ear infections are gone; only a little thrush issue, but will be gone within a couple days. We can't get our flu vaccinations soon enough!

I'm it....

Got tagged (I think---Meg knows 2 Ashley's, so I wasn't sure if it was me or the other, so naturally I just assumed she meant me....)

Answer the questions with one word (or a little more) and then tag three people.
1. Where is your cellphone? dresser
2. Your significant other? busy
3. Your hair? gone
4. Your mother? creative
5. Your Father? honest
6. Your favorite thing? sleep
7. Your dream last night? impossible
8. Your favorite drink? tang
9. Your dream goal? well-traveled
10. The room you’re in? bedroom
11. Your hobby? reading
12. Your fear? lost time
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? organized
14. What you’re not? mean
15. Muffins? apple-cinnamon
16. One of your wishlist item? decor
17. Where you grew up? st. louis
18. Last thing you did? general conference
19. What are you wearing? P.J.s
20. Favorite gadget? camera
21. Your pets? none.
22. Your computer? on
23.Your mood? peaceful
24. Missing someone? yes
25. Your Car? efficient
26. Something you’re not wearing? makeup
27. Favorite store? barnes and noble
28. Like someone? family
29. Favorite color? red
30. When was the last time you laughed? today
31.When was the last time you cried? today

I tag: linda, darla, mel.......get busy, gals ;)

week of events....

Natalie had a splinter this weekend that, admittedly, was buried pretty deep. She happens to have an *extremely* low threshold for pain, so there were tears, bloodcurdling screams, and near-fainting spells that would have been blog-worthy. However, I decided that it would be horribly insensitive of me to take advantage of her in pain, so I didn't take pictures of the event; plus, I couldn't find my camera.

The other day while sitting at the computer I heard the sound of silence, which is never a good thing when lou-lou is awake. This is what I found:

"What????"

Brooklyn is finally to the fun age where she is smiling and cooing more often than not, and whenever I go get her from her crib, all I have to say is, "hi, sugar!" and this is the reaction I get (excuse the blurry quality): Life is good.