So Sad

I woke up last night to Nathaniel puking in the toilet and a while later him puking all over my bedroom carpet. Yuk! Not looking good for tomorrow. Then I woke up to my achilles tendon killing. Seriously hurting enough to wake me up multiple times. That's never happened before, so I knew I would be walking like I had a peg leg along with cleaning up throw up. Even better day. When I finally got out of bed I realized I had thrown away a birthday party invitation for Sammy today. I had no idea the name, number or address of the family, so I tried the phone book, friends in Sammy's class, my phone log because I did RSVP. Nothing worked. Then I smelled breakfast burning! Got the oatmeal out of one pan into another, added sugar, milk and crash and scream!!!! And it was a scary scream! Grace was crawling through one of our bar stools and it fell over. Blood was dripping everywhere and I go to look at her, fearing the worst...another tooth injury (not that that is the worst, just what happens most here). Nope all her teeth look good, her nose looks good and then I see her chin. She had busted it open really good, where it looks really gross and I have to keep telling myself not freak out! Called Jason, he was home a couple minutes later, dropped the kids off at Mom's and headed to the ER. Two critical cases came in after we were there and we ended up waiting for about 3 hours in a room. We had TV and good cartoons, so Grace was okay after they got it cleaned and put numbing cream on her. Then they finally came in. They had to shoot her with lidocaine and I just about lost it. I was just thinking, "This is Jason's job!," but then trying to be strong at the same time. They put a cloth with a circle cut out to go over her chin around her face, so I could just see her eyes and she screamed something horrible when they were numbing it. After that she still cried really hard but it wasn't as intense. It was so hard to see her cry and know how much it hurts and not be able to do anything to make it go away! Then it was over. She just clung to me, wrapped her arms and legs around me and held on so tight. It was so sad! We finally got home at 2:30 and got some breakfast in us and she is watching Cinderella and starting to move around, so all is well. Now on to cleaning up some puke. Atleast I can walk a little better now that the tendon is all warmed up and I have some ibuprofen in me. And I am super grateful, it wasn't any worse than is was, it really could have been much worse. And Jason was successful at finding an address so Sammy got to go to a fun birthday party.

Just Life

This week has been amazing. No doctors appointments, no events to plan, no library story hour, no playgroups! I have been home ALL week getting stuff done, it's been great and much needed...although my house it still dirty.But it has been nice checking things off my mental to do list.

On Tuesday I made spelt tortillas and they were so yummy. I used coconut oil instead of Crisco and spelt instead of white flour. I was a bit nervous to taste them, but they were so good and the kids liked them. I even had a one plain today and it was still good. I am very excited because the kids love burritos, but I try to keep them off of whole wheat, so this will be a good option!

Grace had a fever yesterday and the day before. She has her dance recital tomorrow so I was a little nervous she wouldn't be up for it. She was back to her trouble-making, wanting-candy self today, although she was really tired by bedtime. She cracks me up how she loves to bug Anna. She just likes to hear her scream. Anna is getting better at dealing with her lately though.

We had to go to the dance recital practice tonight and we got home after 7:00, so I prepped the girls that the boys would be in bed and we needed to be quiet and not talk. Anna is my talker, she talks all the time. Sometimes it really amazes me how much she can talk. So she asks, "Can we whisper?" "No Anna, we can't whisper." Anna still talking,"Can we whisper I love you?" "Yes, I guess so." So she leans over and whispers "I love you" and gives me a kiss on the cheek. She is pretty cute!

Worst Meal Ever!

Tonight I made Butternut Apple Bisque with Foccacia. Sounds yummy, right? It actually was, I think it needed a bit more salt or actually if I could have used cider like the recipe called for instead of juice I'm sure it would have been perfect. All the kids were complaining, I kinda figured they would. Anna could not even put a bite in her mouth. She shivered when she tried. She is a big faker most of the time, but I could tell she was for real. She welcomed going to bed instead of eating it:) I told the boys whoever finished first would get 12 nickels - the reward system we are doing right now. A normal job is usually one nickel, a huge job might be 4, so 12 is unheard of. Nathaniel started scarfing it down, although with his nose plugged. Sammy tried but after about 10 bites, he said he was going to throw up. Nathaniel kept trying so he could get those nickels but couldn't finish it either. Grace did the best at being fed four bites. She actually said, "mmm, yummy" after the first:) I think I needed to blend it longer too. The texture was the killer for the kids. But they tried and unless it's for an adult event I don't think I'll be trying that recipe again, although it really was yummy, just not for kids! As a side note, they all loved the foccacia:)

Hard Worker or not so much

Nathaniel has been off for a couple weeks now. "Experts" say kids' stages last about 6 months so whenever he starts acting off I start to worry thinking it's going to last 6 months, mainly because he is my easy, happy child. I really don't need another hard one. So it was not a great day. He had a basketball game and the 3rd quarter the ball hit his finger really hard and he was really upset, so that was not good. Saturdays are our basement clean-up day and it was Anna's birthday party last night so it was more of a mess than usual and because the boys can't keep their hands off each other lately they clean up in shifts. During Nathaniel's first shift he was just sitting on the floor, then he would start crying, then put away a couple of toys...it was not going well. I was on the computer and called him in and had a good talk with him... like what is going on, you're a good kid, you don't normally act like this kind of talk. He determined it was just his finger still bothering him. A couple hours later he was upstairs and says with a smile but so sincerely, "Mommy, my body just doesn't feel like cleaning up today!" He said it like he had just had this huge epiphany. It was super cute and I laughed thinking, okay, there is my Nathaniel, while also thinking, my body feels like that every day and look what I get to do! You gotta love your kids even on their off days!


And I think I'm gonna have Jason switch the door handles on the girls' closet so I can lock it, either that or get a lock to put at the top. Grace is seriously going crazy with her clothes. I don't know how to keep her from changing them twenty times a day. I could get creative, but I think I'd rather just put a lock on it!

Today's Favorite Things

It's been a long time and I miss blogging, so here's another go at it!

We woke up to school being cancelled. These are my favorite days. I can get a few extra jobs done by the boys and then they can have tons of time to play. Last night Jason got all the lights on the tree so the kids could finally put ornaments on it. They were super excited. Anna is my late sleeper, so the others got their ornaments up and were eating breakfast by the time she woke up. She got to put ornaments up by herself. When I walked in to take pictures of her, she was humming jingle bells to herself and studying each ornament before she put it up. It was so cute and a scene I definately want to remember.

We had a snow storm last night,and the first one of the year, so the kids were really excited about playing in the snow. Before Nathaniel went out I told him he could run over to the neighbors to see if they wanted to play. He came back a while later saying, "Mommy, they aren't home, but I shoveled their sidewalk." Such a good kid! They played for 3 1/2 straight hours outside and didn't come in for lunch until 2:30. They had such a great time!

Grace makes me laugh each day, even when she is being a pill. Yesterday and today she has been changing her clothes way too often. Today in 10 minutes she had on atleast 5 different outfits, so her room was a mess. I was in her closet trying to get things put away and telling her she was not allowed to wear summer clothes any longer....it's winter now. So telling her not to climb up to the top of her closet to get whatever she is wanting, she comes in with a dress and says "Mommy, who got this down?" Of course I did. But it made me realize she knows exactly what I am talking about.  I can expect more out of her! We made paper chains tonight. After we had about 10 links together, she says, "How many are we doing?" like she is put out, but she if being totally compliant, so I know she is just being silly. I had her count them and when she' was done I asked her how many there were (there were more than 10), she says, there's 2 Mommy, too (2)  many. I love her sense of humor.

I'll have to cheat for Sammy and go to yesterday. I love how Sammy says "I love you" each day before school. Nathaniel walks out yelling "I love you" without looking back, but Sammy most days and yesterday as he was walking out got my attention as I was sitting to watch them wait for the bus, looks straight at me and says confidently, " I love you, Mommy." I just absolutely love that. Although I kinda feel like our roles have switched as parent and child. But that's just how good it makes me feel. I hope we can continue that until he leaves for college.

Families are Forever...like it or not!

Just walked into the family room with two screaming girls.

Me: What's going on?

Grace is suddenly quiet.

Anna: She says she is Anna. I am Anna.

Grace walks away since the fun is over.

Anna: I don't want her to be my sister any more.

I definately feel for her! I had way too many brothers!

Tonight Anna came out of her room with the hiccups and says "Mommy I have the hiccups. I think I'm allergic to Grace." Poor girl. I guess it wasn't a good Grace day!



We woke up to sunny skies and the news telling us that more than 200 people died last night from the massive tornadoes in the South. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those people who have been affected. Tornadoes really scare me, they can just pop up out of nowhere. When I went to bed at 11 we were under tornado watch and Jason saw they had spotted a small one somewhere close but not too close. Luckily he stayed up working until 3:30 on something he had to get done so I slept knowing he was keeping an eye on the weather. He said the winds were harder than he had ever heard (he wasn't here for our big winter storm) and I guess the rain was really loud. I sure didn't hear anything though.

Spring Day

Yeah! It's Spring Break! I love Spring Break...no rushing in the morning or afternoons, lots of fun family time and I have house cleaning helpers! I love not going any where far and hanging out at or around home. Last year we did a ton of fun things because I was feeling like a huge slacker of a mom at that point of selling the house and it turned out great for me and them so I decided (and they expected) to do the same thing this year and have theme days. So today was Spring Day!

We started out by reading a book about seeds which led to googling honeybees and seeing some pretty cool hives. It's fun having older kids when they start asking questions and you can see their minds working.

Earlier in the morning we headed out to the Huntington Nursery and each kid picked out the flower seeds that they wanted to plant. Sammy knew right away he wanted sunflowers so he got the biggest sunflowers they had. Nathaniel wanted something that looked like a rose, but settled on purple morning glory and Anna's just needed to be pink. After reading we got out the soil and planted them. They all did a great job scooping up the soil, planting and watering. Nathaniel informed me earlier that he had read a book at school about growing seeds and that we needed four things: soil, water, seeds and sun. We got the ones we could and maybe we'll get some sun tomorrow to help them along. I hope they all grow!

A little later we planted grass in the shape of our names. It's a cute idea I saw in Family Fun, although I didn't quite do it like they said to, so I'll be surprised if the grass looks like the kids' names after/if it grows!

Then we decided to brave the dreariness and plant some peas outside. Anna was a great little helper and helped me plant them, although she wasn't too keen on bending over so they aren't very uniformly spaced. It's just an experiment so it doesn't really matter what they look like. And the boys did a good job keeping the dogs away from us...most of the time.

Right when we were done and running inside, Grace slipped down the hill right where the dogs had made it muddy. She was more shocked than hurt so it was more cute than tragic! I was taking a picture of Grace when Nathaniel told me to let him be in with her so we could compare them. So above we have cute clean and cute dirty! And below is just cute dirty!

Then no theme day is complete without some fun food, so we made bird's nest with little eggs. Super easy and fun for the kids.

It was a great day. Spring break helps me remember why I like to be a mom. I'll be sad when they are all out of this fun stage of doing simple activities. The day ended with my basement getting cleaned after me ignoring it for about 6 weeks and then the boys playing Wii Sports with Daddy, a favorite of Jason's. I will say Jason had a hard time working today, he hates missing out on the fun.

Day 1: Successful, I think, but really who knows!

Potty Training Child #4

I have procrastinated this for a year now. Grace was my first to show signs of wanting to be potty trained, but a year ago I just couldn't. Since we've moved I tried a couple times last year and this is my second attempt this year. Those attempts I thought because she was ready a year ago it would be easy but I was definately wrong. I think she reverted and got so comfortable that it is harder than ever. I hate potty training and the thing I hate most is that it is so different for each of my kids so I know I'm not going to know how to plan it until we are in the middle of it. So after telling myself for weeks that this was the week. I woke up today and before it was too late remembered today is the day. Why I've procrastinated is because Grace has amazing bladder control. It will be great later on, but it is not great while training. After two hours on and off with me watching her every move she finally went pee and got a new doll that she was very excited about. Hopefully tomorrow we'll get the other. But it was a successful day. She only had one tiny mess when I was tickling her, and she was able to hold it and the rest got in the bowl. Yeah! Absolutely nothing else got done today. I've never had to totally devote all my time to it, but it's either she is too stubborn or I just missed the right time for her. Hopefully doing it this way she'll figure things out quickly so I don't go crazy, because I am so done with buying diapers!

Signs of Spring

This has been an early spring and I am still not quite believing it may be spring. I do think after such a horrid and long winter we all deserve an early spring. These geese were camping out in our backyard this morning. Grace loved going outside to check them out especially when they were honking. I thought the puppies would love chasing them, but they just sat and watched them and then went back inside. All pretty uneventful, but it feels like spring and that is awesome! I can't wait to be hot again!

Since I've started blogging again, Grace has constucted her own computer. She usually sits by me, but Diego was on and that wins over being close to Mommy.

I love looking at this girl. I think she is so stinkin' cute. It may be one of the best things about being a mom...looking at your children when they are being creative, funny, and most times just behaving! Kids are great!

Toothless Wonder

I rarely brush the boys teeth any more, but I hadn't for awhile so I brushed Nathaniels tonight. He has been working on getting a couple teeth out, but as I was brushing I found another loose tooth that he hadn't mentioned but was barely holding on. I get grossed out with anything in the mouth, but I was scared it would fall out while he was sleeping so I had to pull it out. It made his other two a little more loose so hopefully those will come out tonight. After I pulled it he started laughing as he was looking in the mirror and said, "I have the coolest smile now!" That wasn't quite what Jason and I were thinking but we love his sense of humor and his confidence!

My Toothless Wonder

This is what he called himself afterwards. I'm guessing it's something they say at school.

A Long Awaited Surgery

I remember during my student teaching reading a story to the kids. I was sitting in a chair and they were sitting on a rug huddled around me. One sweet little girl says, "Why do you have bruises all over your legs?" 10 years and 4 kids later they look like a lot more than bruises. They were just gross. I was reading something in some Mormon magazine, nothing church official, but they said some crazy high number like 75% of women think their body is disgusting. I thought that was crazy, I certainly am not too happy with my body, but disgusting? That's a harsh word. But then I think of my veins and they certainly fit the bill of disgusting, so I guess I would be in that 75%. Above is what my legs looked like, and after 3 1/2 hours of surgery yesterday I hope they look normal now. I won't be able to see them until Monday, but I have high hopes. The doctor was really thorough and super nice. He even took my hand and reassured me that everything was going to be alright just before I was totally gone. So for now I'll hobble around wondering how anyone gets any kind of plastic surgery that isn't medically necessary. It hurts more than I thought it would. So I'm grateful it's the weekend and that I have a good husband to take care of everything! Yeah for new legs!

Book of the Week

This is Grace's favorite book this week and last. She carries it around with her every day and sleeps with it at night. The funny thing is that she covers her eyes over half of the book when I read it to her. It's a bit "carey" for her, but she loves it:)

Sammy

A couple things happened today.

Samuel in the car after piano lessons. "Animal crackers make me happy when I put them in my mouth."

And after bedtime we were doing homework that we lost last week. He wasn't too happy about it and I got a lot of dirty looks as I was helping him and telling him to erase letters because they didn't look like letters. How ungrateful, right? :) I totally understand the dirty looks, but his teacher marked two spelling words wrong last week because his u's looked kinda like a's. So I guess I needed to get on him about it.
Anyway we were trying to come up with a descriptive sentence for "riciculous." All he could think of was, "Anna is ridiculous when she yells...or cries...or pretty much anything when Sammy is involved." I explained how that wasn't very nice and gives me his dirty look and says, "What, Mom? It doesn't have to be true. It doesn't matter what it says, just that I know what it means." Although he was right I need him to learn to be nicer. So all of a sudden I had this brilliant idea (very rare, that's why I writing it down), remember he is giving me his death look by now and is on the verge of breakdown, I started singing, "The ridiculous man built his house upon the sand, the ridiculous man built his house upon the sand, the ridiculous man built his house upon the sand and the rain came tumbling down. By the third line he was fighting back a smile and by the end he thought it was funny. So rarely do these moments happen between me and him, so I had to document it. I remember very random things from childhood, some good and some bad. I hope this is one of the random things that he remembers!

Loooong Week!

Jason was gone last week and it was the wrong week to be gone, although it could have been much, much worse. I was just super tired by Friday night.

Sunday we started hearing about this awful storm that was going to be coming through on Tuesday and Wednesday. Having no food and needing to go to the grocery store on Monday anyway, I made sure to plan for the storm and get plenty. Gracie wanted to talk to Daddy today. She said Daddy, daddy, daddy atleast 50 times before I could get her to be quiet and listen to Daddy. She was so excited to hear his voice!

Tuesday the storm had started and the kids were cancelled which is always fun that first day. Grace had a fever and was pretty out of it that day so we watched Dora all day. Later that night Grace felt good for a little while. She was next to me at the computer and counted in her best Dora voice, "1,2,3,4,5 Count with me!" Way too much Dora today! The kids played downstairs great by themselves with only a couple reminders that they needed to be extra good since Grace needed me. Tuesday night the storm was pretty scary, although the kids slept right through it. I was thankful to have good strong windows, because that wind was whipping. Things were creaking on the house where I didn't even know things were. The screen in our screened in porch door went flying but that's all the damage we had. That night I just prayed and prayed the lights stayed on until I went to sleep and then I prayed we'd have them in the morning and we did!

Wednesday the kids were, of course, home again. With Grace still being cranky it wasn't the most fun for me. They had fun and didn't ask to play the Wii once, which makes me happy. I really like when they just play. Dad showed up to plow us out. His Ranger had to work hard this time to move it all! The boys went outside to play, but only lasted about 20 minutes. It was just too cold!

By Thursday, I was really wanting to get back on a schedule but school was cancelled again and Grace was fevering again, so not a great day. One huge plus to having three days off school though is my house got clean. By Thursday the boys had done all their normal jobs so they learned to mop. Sammy was excited right when I told him because he thought I meant with the mop. They didn't quite understand how mopping on your knees with a washcloth was mopping but they did it and they actually did a pretty good job. Good enough for me, especially if it means I don't have to do it!

Friday they had a delay, but they did get to school! Friday night I got a babysitter so after I picked up Jason we went out to dinner. I was really wanting seafood, probably because Jason had been in Connecticut all week and could have gotten yummy seafood at lots of places. We haven't been out a lot here, but we decided on Biaggis and it was amazing! It's Italian but had fresh Tasmanian trout that is flown in every day, so I had that with whipped cauliflower and it was divine. It was even amazing the next day after warming it in the microwave. Definately a favorite now!

So many cute things happened but I'm still trying to train myself to write them down right away or I forget.

For a snack one day Grace wanted popcorn. She looked at me and said, "popcorn...popcorn tee (tree), Mommy." Those little sayings just bring a smile to my face! She has great nursery leaders!

One night at bedtime we were talking about reading the Book of Mormon. Jason told Samuel he would buy him a 4 wheeler after he read it, so he's been working on it for about 5 months now. (Not really sure how I feel about that deal, but I wasn't consulted). Samuel says, "Mommy can you tell Daddy I want something else, I don't want a 4 wheeler." Nathaniel pipes up, "Well you could still get it and give it to me." We all had a good laugh. I think Sammy figured that out. I've told him lots of times, "Go read your Book of Mormon, I want to get a 4 wheeler." So I think nows he's thinking, why am I doing this for everyone else? He wants something special to him, which I think is just fine and won't be nearly as expensive as a 4 wheeler. Although we'll be needing one of the those this summer anyway, so it won't save us that cost!

Good News!

Basketball went well today! Nathaniel made two baskets and had a ton of fun. He does a great job guarding, now he just needs to rebound. And Sammy did great. He is so excited there is only one game left.

Mom volunteered to take the girls during the games and make cookies with them. That was so nice. It has been such a pain taking them and trying to wrestle them (mainly Grace) on the bleachers. So it was good to relax and just watch. They had a great time making chocolate chip cookies, smelling lots of different spices and reading The Gingerbread Man. I guess Anna determined the river of water was really milk and once the fox got in it he couldn't control himself and had to eat the gingerbread man. They had the most fun when pretending they were the fox and got to take a big bite out of a cookie. I could tell Grace had reenacted that part plenty of times by the time we got there! It was really fun for them and I'm glad she thought of it.

Shopping

The sun was shining today. It was so nice to see!



I went shopping and it was so fun, which was strange because I am not a shopper. Ladonna went with me and that was the only reason it was fun. It amazed me how I could walk past something that I didn't think would work and Ladonna would pick it up and I would change my mind. Now it is here and in place and looks perfect. I just don't see things which is, I figure, why I'm not a shopper. It is kinda fun going to a store other than Wal-Mart to get a lamp or picture frame. I got two $90 lamps for $30 each and another 2 $80 lamps for $30, $20 off a magazine holder, half off a gorgeous mirror and awesome clock, which combined is less than the mirror I was eyeing. Saving money was tons of fun. I can see why some people can get in trouble because of it. I am really excited about getting my living room and kitchen functioning and decorated!

Highlights of the Day

#1 DeBrand chocolate...seriously so melt in your mouth delicious. I'm eating it as I type and it is as amazing as ever!

#2 Nathaniel running out to the bus this morning. He was a little late and started running from the house as the bus was stopping at the end of the drive. He ran as fast as he could with all his gusto, which he does every day. I'm sure it scares the bus driver because sometimes she stops before getting to the lane. This morning he ran and every once in a while he raises and waves his arm just to make sure she sees him. It sounds like every other day but I just loved how he raised his arm with confidence and it was really cute for some reason:) He is just a cute kid all around.

#3 Tickling Anna and Grace. These two little girls are my perfect little girls, not saying they are perfect because they are girls, but they are all girl. Today while watching who knows what, probably Dora, Grace wanted to sit in Anna's chair. Anna had gotten up, so there wasn't a problem until Anna went to sit back down and Grace started yelling and kicking her. So I go over and tell them how much they love each other while tickling them. Of course Grace forgets anything was wrong and Anna loves the attention. It just reminded me how precious my girls are and how I need to have fun with them more often.

#4 DeBrand chocolate...oh did I already say that. No really, tonight Jason got a blessing from our Stake President and he is just an amazingly powerful, spiritual man. Jason will learn so much from him. It is very neat to be around him. And he gave us the DeBrand chocolate:)

Boys, Boys, Boys

Today after school I greeted Sammy with snow covered socks and Nathaniel in tears. Great way to start the afternoon!

Why was Nathaniel crying? Because he was playing in the snow without any gloves and they were soooo cold. Hopefully he'll learn something from that.

Where were Sammy's shoes in the middle of winter? Somewhere in the snow between the house and the road. Why did they come off? I still have no idea, but he did find them hours later so the dogs didn't get to them right away. When he came in the house he had this look of surprise on his face that I was even questioning him about it like it was perfectly normal to have lost his shoes in the snow and to have his socks completely covered. Fun times!

So true!

Old Friends

Yesterday was Macy's birthday so on Sunday night Alana planned a little get together at my house to celebrate. This moving thing has been really hard. I know everyone thinks it should have been easy since my family is here but it sure hasn't been for a lot of reasons, although I know it would have been even worse if my family wasn't here. But today was great! There is just nothing like spending time with old friends who you've known your entire life! Talking, laughing and listening and just having a good, comfortable time! Thanks for having a birthday, Macy!

Basketball

We signed the boys up to play basketball this year. They both started on the same team, but when we moved Nathaniel to Kindergarten he moved to a different team. The video is their first game they have ever played. They are both in there. Jason is the coach, which is my fault. I never would have done it on purpose, but when I went to sign the boys up they asked if Jason could help coach and I said yes. I guess I was focussing on the word help and they were focusing on coach.

Now that the season is almost over Nathaniel is loving it. He is doing really well on his new team since he is one of the bigger kids and has a little bit of understanding of what is supposed to happen. He made the first basket at his last game, so that made it a lot of fun for him.

Sammy is definately not liking it. We've told him he can't quit, but every practice and every game he complains about going. He does fine, but I'm guessing he won't choose to do it this year.

If you only want to read positive things don't read any further because I am about to go on a rant!!

Basketball is crazy out here and I can see how I sure wouldn't want to be playing with the silly parents that sit in the bleachers. Every game I go away smiling but inside I am just mad. Mad about a comment made by some stupid parent or grandparent who thinks basketball is so important. It is ridiculous. Seriously if your kid wants to do it and be the best let them. If they don't let them go play. Don't make them cry at the end of a game because they weren't aggressive enough, they are only in 1st and 2nd grade.

The very first game Sammy threw the ball in and it totally went to the other team. A man behind me gave a big disappointed groan and I knew that was not a good sign for things to come. I figured when we signed up it would be fun. I hope the boys are having a bit of fun, but sitting in the bleachers and listening those dads who weren't good enough to play high school is not fun for me.

Nathaniel who is now on the Preschool and Kindergarten team (seriously little kids) was playing in the first quarter, first 5 minutes of the game he kept getting the ball so he would run with it or shoot it. He tried to pass it a couple times and then he would get it back. A grandpa standing beside me actually said, "Man that kid is a ball hog." Seriously, he doesn't even know how to play. And it's been 5 minutes.

And then this last game the guy I sat in front of was all about winning. Jason told the boys they need to pass it 3 times before they shoot. I think that is pretty good training especially since the kids should be learning how to play, not just how to win. Since that would mean the same kid gets the ball every time and everyone else just runs and jumps around. So he says if I were coach I would just tell them to shoot it. Really, so you go be the coach. Volunteer your time since you know so much. I just think it is so super annoying and if parents can't be positive at little kids sporting events then they should just stay home. It's rude and is such a bad example for every kid sitting around them, but then they probably aren't too worried about that. Okay I'm done, back to being or faking positive:)

A First and Hopefully a Last in Mommyhood

This was not the best of mornings, mostly because my sleep was interrupted by two little girls who can't seem to stay in their own bed overnight. Anna wet the bed so she was upset and slept the rest of the night with me, which was fine, but then who-knows-when Grace comes in and for some reason she had to sleep on my pillow too. So there were three of us on my pillow for the rest of the night, while Jason got to sleep on his side on his own pillow. Sometimes it isn't the best to be the nurturer, this is one of those times. I really cherish my sleep! While to me that was bad enough to make me a grump this morning (it sure doesn't take much) when I went to get up out of bed I realized my leg was completely drenched. Anna had peed on me! Not fun! Now I had two beds and two sets of sheets to clean today! Not exactly what I had planned for this Friday! Atleast I had a reason to take a shower earlier than I usually have a chance to. Jason was then nice enough to make breakfast for the kids so that made things almost all better and the girls helped me clean the mattresses by jumping on towels to sop up the water, so it all turned out fine as everyday usually does with kids. I just hope I won't have to wake up like that again!

One more thing about Anna: As I was finishing up with the beds she asked to help do something and I said no. She asked again which is common so I asked, "What did I already say Anna?" And she says, "You're driving me crazy." I had to laugh. Nope, but that is probably exactly how I said no.

Little Girls

I have been noticing lately how much different boys are than girls. When Grace was born I felt like my life rewound 4 years to when Nathaniel was a baby, but instead of 2 little baby boys I had 2 baby girls. Grace was much more pleasant from the start than Nathaniel so it was noticeably easier, but I was back in that 2 baby phase which is really never easy. The girls are quieter usually and have always played with "girl" toys completely by their own free will, but not until lately have I noticed the huge difference.

On Monday they played cat, mommy, baby, dance, dress-up all morning. They were happy to be with each other and didn't come looking for me to help the entire morning. I didn't have to intervene once to break up a fight! It was seriously amazing. I could have never done that with the boys. I remember them playing for a half hour once by themselves without me having to go in and break up a fight and I thought that day was amazing. I should add they play great now together and can play for hours without fighting. But when they were little it was a different story and it was exhausting!

So today I am grateful for my sweet little girls. And although they can be loud and yell with the best of them I am so blessed that they are my little girls!

Anna loves to paint. She got this easel for Christmas and spends a lot of time at it.

Some of Anna's creations.

Cute Grace painting with watercolors.

Making it Mine

Last year in RS we did a service auction and I won a session with interior designers Jill and Ladonna. I was so excited as I really need it in this house. They came over today and talked with me and moved furniture around for 2 hours. They had tons of ideas on how to bring this house together and make it fit into what I want it to be. It will require a lot of purchasing that will have to come at a better time, but there are also a lot of little things that I can do right now. Today though they changed the furniture around, put some decorations in different places and already it looks amazing compared to what it did. It was so fun, I wish I was better at decorating. I really do see the difference and appreciate when things look good and fit together, I just usually can't see it in my head. And then this is such a different style of house that I've ever lived in, so I have a hard time fitting me into it, although I do love it. After today though I am really excited to make it work and look fabulous. Time will tell. But as for now Jason is sure not happy about the high ceilings and painting!

In other news Grace has regressed back to being a true baby:) I have tried potty training her three times now, not whole heartedly, but just hoping she would pick up on it quickly. So I have talked to her about being a "big girl" and we've also just moved her into a "big girl" bed. Lately anytime she sees a baby or even a baby animal she says, "Baby (like look there's a baby)" and then points to herself and says, "me baby" and then she starts fake crying like babies do. It is pretty funny. Although I would love her to be potty trained so I wouldn't have to waste money on diapers, I would love her to stay my baby forever. She is seriously the cutest kid ever!

Nathaniel said the other day, "Mommy, why does everybody like Grace more than us." I thought that was pretty funny and tried to explain that the things little kids do are always cute just because they are little and because they are so innocent. He really just wanted to know why his girl cousins like to play with Grace more than with him. She is just too cute. Poor Nathaniel!

Winter Fun

We came home from church on Sunday and noticed this big icicle hanging off our little play house. The boys tore it down right away and brought it into the house where it dripped and dripped. They decided to store it in the freezer after holding onto it for awhile.

Yummy!

Sammy giving Anna a taste!