AWESOME!

I love the hair on this one! This is it in it's natural state. And she just looks weird to me with it plastered down.

Naked

I don't have a ton of holiday decorations but after Christmas, my house always looks naked. So I wait a week or two and then throw up the Valentine's decorations I have. Then I start thinking about what kind of Valentine's the kids will hand out. ET gets Valentine cards from his Karate school so I don't have to worry about that. Last year, we had already bought some Batman sticker Valentines for him so he stuck those on the backs of the Karate ones. Thumbelina wanted some too so she picked out some Fairy ones (also stickers) that are adorning her dresser drawers.

This year, ET is getting his Karate ones--easy peasy. Thumbelina is in Kindergarten so she gets to give out cards this year...to more than just cousins. So I searched the internet and found a couple of easy-to-let-a-5-year-old-help ideas and let her pick one. So we are combining this one from Chef Messy:

With this one from The Long Thread:

She likes the round shape but doesn't get the "for 'crayon' out loud" part. We have already completed the melting of the crayons. I didn't want to buy a heart pan just to use for crayons so I found some silicon-ish ice cube trays at Target in the Dollar section and they totally don't melt in the oven! The shape isn't as sharp as a metal pan but there is no mistaking the heart shape. Can I just say I love putting the metallic crayons in! All of the crayons have metallic swirls in them.

Now to find my mat and cut out the circles so she can stick them all together. Then I will have to hide them until Valentines Day.

Mt. Washmore

This is my laundry pile. Can you see my couch peeking out from underneath it? Do you see all of those blankets? My kids kept finding blankets and taking them to the playroom and getting them dirty. So I would wash them and not fold them and the kids would pull them out of the pile and get them dirty again!
A few hours, lots of crafts at the table for the kids and a couple of death threats if they knocked over any piles and:

All folded! Now I just have to figure out how to fit it in all the dressers. I sorted through Squirt's drawers and pulled out about half the clothes---and replaced them with clothes from the 'too big' box in the closet.

As of Saturday night, we were done with the laundry! And all of it was put away.

Today, well, Mt Washmore has returned...in a smaller size, for now.

Developments

Squirt is a mover and a shaker now. She rolls around and scoots backward on her belly. She does have one small problem though:

She rolls onto her tummy, and when she gets bored of squirming around on her tummy, she rolls to her back. Except sometimes there is a toy or her bottle in the way. So it looks like she is using her toy as a pillow but really she is freaking out because something is under her head and she can't move!

It is a great ab workout though!

Rearrange

I love to rearrange my house.

I hate that there are only certain ways that the furniture will work.

Yesterday, I laid down for a nap (squirt is sick and was up most of the night before) and I started wondering if my bed would fit better in my room the other direction. About 5 minutes later, I got out of bed and went to find my tape measure.

Not only would it fit but it would fit sooooo much better!

This is before. Our bed was in front of the big window, with a nightstand on each side. Hubby's side of the bed also had the dresser and the TV stand. It was crowded even without all the stuff that accumulates in our room.

So yesterday, I decided to switch it up. I moved the bed (a king sized bed all by myself!) to the other wall under the high window. And put the dresser and TV stand at the foot of the bed. There is so much more room this way!

I still need to declutter a bit more, and figure out what to do for the walls and curtains. Yes, that is a sheet tacked up over my window. And I am not sure how much it actually hides now that the bed isn't blocking most everything.

And notice the extra blanket on my side of the bed. Now that I am not pregnant, I am back to being cold all the time!

Next up I am going to repaint the cupboard and nightstand on Hubby's side to help it match a bit better.

Goals for 2010

Life with 4 kids is fun. There is always something to do. And usually one of them is always doing something funny...or trying to kill each other, which is sometimes funny. We try to do fun things with the kids. But the oldest and youngest have different ideas of fun. Still, we have set some goals for this year.

My goal is to keep the house clean. I would like to cook more, lose weight and play more with the kids.

ET is turning 7 next month. His goals are to practice hard in Karate, earn money, and play lots of games. He also set the goal of reading the whole Book of Mormon before his eighth birthday. Right now we are getting through the introduction and the testimonies of the witnesses. Since he set this goal, we are all going to be reading this year. We read before ET goes to school and before bed.

Thumbelina's goals include learning to read well and not being afraid to sound words out. She is working on not crying at school and friends' houses. Oh yeah--and growing out her hair. She loves helping in the kitchen and I need to work on my patience when she is helping cook. Yesterday we made sugar cookies and after I would roll out the dough, she would cut a cookie right in the middle, then laugh and say, "Oh, I forgot to start at the side!" 7 times!

Munchkin's goals are to dress-up more: knee-hi socks and Thumbelina's boots or costumes--whatever!


Munchkin also wants to go to school really badly! So I think she will be our first kid in Pre-school.

Squirt's goals are a mystery. But if I had to guess, I would go with crawling, walking, talking and a big girl bed. And growing out her hair, of course.
Maybe those are just my goals for her.

Hubby just wants to make it through this semester. And lose weight too. I was looking through old pictures last night and found our "fat" pictures from when we joined a gym when we lived in Spokane (2001-2002). We would both trade places with our former"fat" selves. You know, back when we only had 15 or 20 pounds to lose. Oh well, live and learn.

8 Months

I am trying to just enjoy my baby. My last baby. I am trying not to think about how far behind the other kids she is. I am trying not to focus on the fact that she just recently mastered sitting, when the other kids were crawling and standing at this stage. I try to ignore her lack of teeth, when her brother and sisters had 4-6 teeth at 8 months, and were done with baby food.

It's hard to forget about all that stuff. But I am trying.


Today she had a banana muffin for breakfast.

With a side of apple juice.

Just like her brother and sisters.

And half of it ended up on the floor...just like her sister.

She sits, she rolls and she scoots in her walker. She babbles, sometimes non-stop. She screams when someone takes away her toy. She loves bathtime and splashes in the water. She would rather feed herself than have anyone shove a spoon at her. She is finally eating her half and half bottles. She giggles and plays with anyone who gets close enough. She loves snuggling ET's stuffed dog in her bed...and maybe chewing on his nose a little. She wakes up happy from naps about 90% of the time. She goes down happy for naps 75% of the time.

Maybe she's just giving me a little more time with my last baby.

I'll take it!

Today

Yesterday was a rough day. I was done with one of my kids about an hour after school let out. I may have said, "Go to your room until Dad gets home!" There may have been yelling and screaming...on both our parts. I did manage to keep my cool with the other kids. But today... Today is a different story. Today will be a good day!

( I saw this in an email from Etsy. Go here to see for yourself all the positiveness in this shop.)

So this is my mantra today. Go. Be happy.

I Have a Three Year Old...Again

Munchkin is 3! She finally "changed numbers." She is so hard to shop for since she is thrilled with anything. She isn't really obsessed about any one thing like the other kids. She does like Wubbzy, though. She got a Wubbzy video for her last birthday and the Wubb Idol video (with Beyonce) for Christmas. So I looked for Wubbzy stuff but he is marketed for a younger crowd. So I figured out a pattern and made her a Wubbzy stuffed animal. I got that finished the week before her birthday and then I had to talk her out of an Elmo cake.

It's not that we don't like Elmo but the thought of all the red frosting made me want to cry. So I talked her into a Wubbzy cake. I made the cake from scratch and the frosting too. Chocolate and chocolate...YUM!

It was bigger than I had planned and we still have half in the fridge.

Then, the morning of her birthday (yesterday), hubby took ET to get her some balloons. Our kids love balloons--all kinds of balloons.

We had already gotten her presents when I saw an ad on Craigslist for the Rose Petal Cottage and Cherry Blossom Market--new in box. Normally these two would run around $150 but we got them for $45. They seem pretty sturdy, too, but only time will tell. The kids all love them and played in them pretty much all day.

After dinner, we had a party! We invited all of my family that lives close. My brother is in town and my other brother and my cousin are at BYU and my Aunt lives here. So everyone brought their significant others and there was plenty of cake to go around...4 times :)

The party animals: *my cousin came later

Look at that giant cake!

And the birthday girl in her party clothes. Sparkly, ruffly skirt? Check!

This morning, we played with static

And Squirt even got a chance to play with the balloons.

So happy birthday Munchkin! I can't believe you're only three!

Hey! Why You're Being Mean?

Same girl. Same attitude. Just bigger with more hair.

Saturday

This cute girl will be 3.