Super not-so-secret identities

Paul reminded me today of the super identities he gave the boys a few months ago. We still haven't determined whether these identities make them super heroes or super villians. Usually it depends on the state of our sense of humor. Christian is Captain Obvious and Jordan is his sidekick as Literal Boy!

Santa's cookies Ho Ho Ho

Tonight, we tested the snickerdoodles we made for Santa. Then we set out Santa's cookies on the special Santa platter and milk in his special Christmas glass on the coffee table, lovingly placed the Christmas Quilt on the couch for him to snuggle in and set off to brush teeth and jump quickly into bed. I was in the boys' room reading Polar Express and Paul was brushing Emma's teeth. Suddenly Paul came in and informed me that Jenna had been dunking Santa's cookies in Santa's milk and frantically eating them. When he asked, "What are you doing?" she answered with a grin, "I eating Santa's cookies, ho ho ho!"

Our Anniversary

Just wanted to post a few pictures of how Paul and I celebrated our anniversary. We have been married 13 years and been good friends for 22! Wow how time flies when you are happy!


Paul arranged for us to go up Logan Canyon to stay overnight in a lodge and snowmobile. It is so wonderful to rediscover the adventurous, fun loving people we still are under parenthood! We had a blast! Even digging out was fun. Thanks to Trenton and Whitney for watching the kids. It is so good to miss them every once in a while.

The way we say things

Emma was watching an episode of one of our favorite cartoons, Backyardigans. The cute characters were singing a song that has the lyrics, "into the thick of it". Last night she was singing the song and insisted that, it was in fact, "into the fickle bit". When we asked her what it meant she said it means to go around in circles just like the song says. She still argues days later that the song says "into the fickle bit".

After Jordan watched Wall-E for the first time, he walked around saying Larrr-y. When we tried to correct him, he argued to the bitter end. When he began to read, he finally laughed and admitted that he had been saying it wrong all along.

The kids love to hear about themselves and the things they used to say when they were younger. I am glad I have worked to keep a journal for them while they are young. It has not always been easy or consistent but I have tried to record important and favorite things through the years. Inspiring them to write in it themselves as they get older is another challenge all together.

Babysitter's tutorial

Since I haven't been asked to run a babysitter's workshop since I had children and I have much to say on the subject, I thought I would provide my expertise and insight here for all the world' s benefit (at least the 3 or 4 people who read my blog). I guess what it really comes down to is, I have an opinion and since no one asks me for it, I am writing it here because I can, so pthhbbpt (that's me blowing a raspberry).


If a babysitter wants to be assured of never getting another babysitting job anywhere in the neighborhood (parents talk), follow these simple suggestions:


Top 14 dos to prevent future jobs

1. Do let children talk you into doing chemistry experiments in the kitchen. Just trust me on this, the children will make it sound so educational and fun !


2. Be sure to bounce the family pet gerbil on the trampoline. They love to have their brains rattled!


3. When allowing the children to eat in their rooms (even though they know it is against the rules), and someone spills popcorn on the floor, be sure to tell them the best solution is to brush it all under the bed.


4. Be sure to take the kids to the park without mentioning the idea to the parents so that when they call and call and call to check on things they are absolutely frantic when no one answers.


5. If a child falls and is injured, especially if blood and swelling are involved, be sure to leave the house as quickly as possible without telling the parents.


6. Please, leave the leftover pizza sitting on the counter and food on the plates, for the parents to clean up when they get home 5 hours later.


7. Be sure to lock yourself and the kids out of the house half way through the movie the parents have gone to.


8. When the parents come home, be sure to have all the lights in the house turned off so everything looks deserted and they will find you sitting, texting in the dark.


9. Do not change the baby's diaper so that the parents can have the joy of being awakened to a shivering cold screaming child and spend the next hour changing pajamas and sheets and quieting a hysterical child.


10. Be sure to take the children to your house so your mother can watch them for you, making the parents question if you are actually capable of babysitting.


11. Let the kids play video games for 5 hours straight so you don't have to interact with them.


12. Always have something better to do so that you are never available when someone calls you to babysit.


13. Let them stay up until the parents get home even if their bedtime was 2 hours earlier, that way they will be cheerful and happy for school the next morning! Parents love to end their evening by putting tired, wound up kids to bed.

14. Please disregard the dinner choices the parents provided and just feed the kids hot dogs, graham crackers, and candy. This will make it easier for them to fall asleep.

All of these have happened at our house with the exception of #2 which happened to a neighbor. A couple of these occurred with the same babysitter. We wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt and another chance. It just didn't seem to work out. Most of these babysitters were not called again. If they were it was an emergency and we could find no one else.

We have had some wonderful babysitters too! Girls that have not only rinsed the dishes but either emptied the dishwasher and reloaded it or washed the dishes by hand. They have brought games, toys and treats for the kids. The kids ask the next morning when we will be having them come again. They are girls that know how to say no to potential problems and redirect kids' attention to another appropriate, fun activity. We have come close to perfection with a couple of babysitters. The problem is, they are in such demand, we can rarely get them. It is so nice to come home to peacefully sleeping kids, a straightened house, and a calm babysitter.


I am not expecting perfection. My basic hopes and dreams in hiring a babysitter are as follows:

1. The safety and well being of the children must come first. This, however, does not mean let them do whatever makes them happy. Family rules and common sense must be observed.

2. I would like to return to a house that is in at least as good of shape as I left it. For example, no food left out, toys basically picked up, etc. I expect that the kids would be asked to help with this too.

3. Do what needs to be done. If a diaper needs changing, change it. If someone spills, clean it up. If someone gets hurt, take care of the injury (depending on the severity).

4. Pay attention to the children. You are there for them not to text or call your friend, read a book, watch t.v. etc. I don't mind if you do these things after the children are in bed.

5. Under no circumstances should you have someone else at my house with you without my approval.

6. Listen and follow my instructions for meals, bedtime, etc. If you have questions or need clarification, ask. If something comes up, don't be afraid to call.

7. Above all, show common sense!!

We had a babysitter who babysat for us for many years. She knew our kids, was interested in what they were doing, and we considered her an extended part of our family. She would even babysit for us when she came home from college. She is married now and we miss her very much.

I would love to hear your stories or additions to my list!

This post was featured on Mormon Mommy Blogs. Check out all of the comments and suggestions here!

Somedays I'm Mommy tired

Ever have one of those days when you'd like to stop being a parent, just for a little while? (If you've never felt that way, don't tell me, I have enough guilt thank you!) Don't get me wrong, I'd never in a million years give up my kids or the joy of being a mommy, but sometimes I'd like to step outside of myself, just for a little while. I'd like to take that nap I promised myself last night as I stayed up late again tying a quilt, unloading and loading the dishwasher, and putting breakfast in the crockpot to prepare for another crazy thursday. (Some people hate Mondays, I hate Thursdays. Everything hits at once.) As I looked forward to that nap, I realized I only have 3½ hours to finish what will amount to 5 loads of laundry which I haven't sorted yet, the breakfast AND lunch dishes have yet to even be rinsed let alone loaded into the dishwasher, I have costumes to sort for the children's nativity I have planned for the extended family Christmas party of which I am in charge, and there is an inexplicable noise growing in volume coming from the basement where Emma and a friend are playing. Boy does that bed look soft....(sigh).

And the whole self control thing, wow, is it tiring. When I want to yell at the visiting neighbor kid, "stop rolling your yogurt covered fruit snacks off the table for me to retrieve" I have to stop and say "oh no, your snacks are escaping, don't let them get away!" When a visiting friend whose mother is gone for a couple hours continually whines "I just want to go hooooommme", I can't tell them "well you can't, so get over it". And when I want to scream into the night "You rotten kids, stop doorbell ditching! I just got my kids to bed only 30 seconds before I completely lost my sanity and so help me if even one of them gets out of bed, curious to see who's at the door, I...WILL...HUNT...YOU...DOWN!!!". Instead I just have to let it go. I can't ruin my kids' chances of having any semblance of a normal social life by being known as the crazy witch mother of the neighborhood!

As I mentioned before, I have guilt. I think this is imbedded in the female DNA but becomes magnified a google (Jordan's favorite number) times as soon as a woman becomes pregnant. Logically, I know every mother has strengths and weaknesses and there is no such thing as a perfect one but there are so many who are just so close. Why can't I have yummy, healthy snacks ready and waiting for my kids and all their friends who love to be at my house because it is such a welcoming place? And why can't I want the whole neighborhood camped at my house all the time? I should. Why is it hard for me to let it go when a neighbor kid walks into my house at 5:30 pm opens my pantry and helps himself and my kids to half a package of oreos effectively spoiling their dinner? And why do I ever so slightly (okay, not so slightly) resent the neighbor who looks like she has a professionally decorated house that is always uncluttered and clean? I bet my socks wouldn't even stick to her kitchen floor! Then of course there's the mother who makes all meals from scratch and they're so good her kids don't even know they're organically healthy! And don't even get me started on the family of five children who all look like they've been dressed by the most fashionable designers and have their hair professionally done EVERY day! Their children would never TRY to be the record holder of the least pairs of underwear in the weekly laundry. Oh yes, true story. We're lucky to even locate a comb most days, and navy socks are close enough to black aren't they? They'll be black by the end of the day anyway. Then there's the kids who never forget to say please, thank you, no thank you and call me Mrs. Bruderer. They would never say "ewwww, that looks so gross, it looks like...." at a large family dinner. And the guilt goes on and on and on and on.......

Somedays, I am mommy tired and would love to be all by myself somewhere that doesn't have to be cleaned, with people who don't have various body parts needing to be wiped, whining voices, or complaints about trivial things. A place where clothes and dishes don't need to be washed and dried, food to be planned and prepared (isn't figuring out what to fix the worst part), floors that need to be vaccumed or mopped, toys and clutter to move from one surface to another......It never ends. I guess what I need is a nice quiet, white room with lots and lots of chocolate. Anyone know where I can check in?

I argue with myself all the time, pointing out to myself that I have so many things to be grateful for, healthly kids, a beautiful, warm home, a dishwasher to wash those dishes and a washer and dryer to wash those clothes.... but then I have to tell that part of my brain, "Shut up, you're interferring with my pity party!" (Shhh, don't tell my kids I said that, we don't say shut up in our house. Just my attempt at that well mannered ideal.) Well, I'm off to climb Mt. Laundry, wade through the dirty dishes swamp, be nice to the neighbor kids, change a poopy diaper, turn off every light in the house AGAIN, serve leftovers nobody wants to eat, and sort though costumes my supermom sister sewed from scratch.

If you'd like to come to my pity party join right in. If you have positive, uplifting comments save them until tomorrow when I take the duct tape off the mouth of that other side of me, you know, the party pooper.

Gold, Frankincense, and Mold

We were telling our traditional puppet Christmas story (I had to copy my sister Laurie's puppets. Aren't they adorable?) when Paul asked if any of the children knew what gifts the wisemen brought. Christian piped right up, and as fast as his tongue could blurt said, "gold, frankincense, and mold". He knew the real answer but his tongue was running faster than his brain at the moment. As I thought of this a few days later, I smiled with chagrin to think of the times my tongue has run away leaving my brain behind.

A few Christmas projects

Loved this idea at Thrifty Decor Chick and so decided to make our own. Check out the tutorial if you want to make one too! Here is a picture of how ours turned out: I imediately thought "stringing things on a long wire" sounds like a preschool project! So while I glued the tops on (a necessary step), Emma began stringing our Dollar Tree ornaments on a coat hanger. A not so easy twist of the pliers, a pretty bow, and we've got a beautiful decoration that I will be keeping around for quite some time!

When I saw this reindeer I wondered where she got it and then happened to see them at Dollar tree and had to have them 2 for $1. I used them with some leftover ornaments like this:

This floral arrangement took me forever to do! Just kidding, I don't have that kind of time. This is a garland I just bought for 60% off at JoAnn's. I was surprised it really looked this good! Gotta love the really simple!

Dollar Tree at Christmas time definately Works for Me! I even found the same brand Christmas village they were selling a JoAnn's 60% of 4.99. My favorite Christmas supply store DOLLAR TREE (mentally put it in twinkly lights) still beat that sale price! I'm participating at WFMW and over at A Soft Place to Land for DIY day and Today's Creative Blog fo Get Your Craft On. Check out all the great ideas.

Our favorite Christmas tradition

We have a favorite Christmas tradition. We call it our Christmas quilt. My wonderful and creative sister-in-law, Sallie gave us everything to start this tradition a few years ago. She gave us a small lap quilt, a storybook, and a beautiful poem with all the kids' names in it telling us how to use our "Christmas quilt" each night of December. Over the last few years it has evolved into quite the production. On December 1st, after pjs are on, we bring out the quilt and lay it down in front of the Christmas tree. Then we read our poem about the "Christmas Quilt Magic" Each night family members take turns choosing a Christmas carol to sing, and a story to read.

We have family prayer on the quilt and then rush to watch the chosen person open the advent for the day and hang the mini ornament on our felt tree.

Then, in procession, we all help to carry the Christmas quilt to lay on the foot of their bed ensuring sweet Christmas dreams that night. Each person really looks forward to their turn and we are true believers in the magic!

This tradition has led to another. As one of our family Christmas gifts, we must get at least one new Christmas book each year. As you can imagine, we have quite a collection by now!

We made two of these quilts to give to some friends this year complete with a poem describing the tradition. It was a bit of a race to get them finished, but I think they were appreciated. It is sure a fun DIY gift. Though not a usual crafty gift, it is the gift of a tradition.

The weirdest thing!

On Saturday, I thought we were being invaded! Thousands of black birds kept circling and landing, circling and landing in the trees, weeds, and on the barbwire fence of the lot next door. As they flew over our house I was reminded of the picture of the locusts that the pioneers fought until the seagulls came to the rescue!




















It seemed choreographed as they took off in groups, some leading, some following. It was amazing! I wondered if it had something to do with the weather change? I don't know what brought them, but I enjoyed watching them. That is until I thought about our plans for a big garden, fruit trees, and berries!

Thanksgiving traditions

One of the blogs I follow asked for ideas for Thanksgiving traditions. As I responded I realized I haven't recorded here the things have become part of our month of November. We have two traditions that my kids absolutely love! A few years ago we made tukey hats. We put on some music with a good beat and danced. That particular song will forever be the "Turkey Dance Song" at our house and we do the turkey dance every Monday night during November. I had no idea it would become a cherished family tradition, as silly as it is!

Don't pay any attention to the laundry in the background. We put everything on hold to Turkey Dance!

The other tradition is to make a thankful tree. I just got some brown and white craft paper at the craft store, drew and cut our a brown tree and glued it onto the white. Our is about 3'x4'. Then I went and had it laminated. This way I don't have to make a new tree every year. I have also seen a branch stuck in plaster paris used as well. I like to paper one for storage purposes. Then we take leaves (I save time by buying big packs at Oriental Trading because we go through about 150 every year) and throughout the month write things we are grateful for and hang them on the tree. On thanksgiving afternoon or evening, after we are finished with extended family activities, we read all the things we wrote outloud as we take the tree down to get ready for decorating for Christmas.

When all I have are weeds

Unfortunately our house was finished too late in the season to plant any flowers or trees that would expode into fall glory. What we have is a whole lot of dirt and 2 lots worth of weeds next door. So when I wanted something for my front porch, something large, something seasonal, I decided to work with what I've got. I figured if people can put dried cornstalks on their front porches I can put weeds!

I used duct tape (everyone's friend) to tape two #10 cans together, covered them in construction paper to blend better, weighted it with rocks, and added our weeds. The kids had a blast helping me gather them, bringing me new and different weeds to see if they would look good in the arrangement. We talked about texture, color contrast, and fillers. As you can well guess, we needed some pretty heavy gloves for some of them. When we had it "just right" (couldn't fit another weed in the cans) I arranged some of my pumpkins and an artificial mum that were already on the porch to cover the can and add more color. It was a fun project. I like how it turned out, and the best part, when I get tired of it, I can just toss it all back in the field!

On Tuesday, I am sending this to the DIY day over at A Soft Place to Land and Get Your Craft On over at Today's Creative blog. Then on Wednesday, to the Works for Me Wednesday carnival over at We are THAT Family. I have also added to 31 days of Autumn Bliss over at the Inspired Room.  Go check out what other people are doing!

Stop for a good blower

Today, we went on a bike ride around the track behind our house. Even Emma was game with her little training wheeled bike. I pulled Jenna in the wagon.

At one point, as I approached Emma on the track, I saw that she was off her bike hunched down on the ground. My first thought was that she must have crashed and gotten hurt. I called to her, asking if she was hurt. She looked up with a grin and it was then I saw that she was hunched over a perfect specimen of a dandelion gone to seed. It was begging to be blown. With a smile of pure pleasure she took a deep breath and blew. She watched the fluff float away with delight, then mounted her bike and took off shouting a challenge for a race.

I looked around and realized that I hadn't even notice the great blowing opportunities around us. I picked one and handed it to Jenna. I was equally fascinated to watch her tentatively reach out one chubby finger to slowly touch the soft fluff. The look on her face was one of wonder and delight. Her persistence in trying to blow hard enough to make the seeds fly was a lesson in itself.

As we continued around the track I found myself wondering how many "good blowers" I was missing in my daily life. How many times do I stop amidst my daily race around in circles to notice the good things? The things that lighten my heart and make me smile. Taking time to enjoy tickling one of my kids, playing hide and go seek, really listening to made-up songs or looking at "special" rocks. I forget to notice how blue the sky is, or how the breeze carries the smells of fallen leaves and the approach of winter. God has given us so much beauty, laughter, love, and daily miracles. Unfortunately, I spend much of the time staring down at the track as I daily circle around again and again, cleaning, laundry, meal preparations, etc. Only to find myself coming around to the starting point again, ready for a new day to begin, lost in the monotony. Not realizing the beauty, laughter, excitement, and connections I could have enjoyed but have missed.

WWEEE ARRE HHERRE!

One million Brooke points if you can name the juvenile novel my title came from? It's my favorite novel!

Anyway, If you can't tell, we have moved in and have officially been here 2 weeks today! Hooray! We are loving our new home and we are settling in nicely. Now, my first wish would be for someone to magically find a place for all this stuff! After having everything in storage for almost 6 months, I forgot how much crap... junk... stuff... meaningful memorabilia we have collected in almost 13 years of marriage! My second wish would be for a builder fairy (is that an oxymoron or what?!) to come and build me some shelves for my storage room cause stacking open boxes on their sides to display food storage is just not working like I planned. Then I would wish for some lawn to decrease the amounts of mud entering onto my beautiful new tile!

All whining aside, I have to say, this is really a dream come true. It was ALMOST worth giving birth in Puerto Rico! Boy, when I think back on all the things we have done to get us to this point... sacrifice is so worth it! But, I'm rambling again. Suffice it to say that we are loving it here. Our neighbors are great and Jordan has his "very best friend" right next door. (He had a hard time finding friends to play with in the old neighborhood.)

We are so grateful to all the people who came to help us move. Some even came twice! I hope your backs have sufficiently recovered. We are touched by the welcome we have received into the ward and neighborhood. And we so appreciate all the help and support we were blessed with during the building process. We are especially grateful to my parents for putting up with us crashing around in their basement for 5 months (minus 1 week). We miss you already.

If I could just finish ONE thing

I am finding that lately, I tend to move from one project to another without completing any of them. This morning, I was walking through the house, looking at piles and boxes, and mumbling "Brooke" ('cause I talk to myself a lot lately), I said, "Brooke, you've just got to pick SOMETHING you can FINISH today!" Then I spotted my Jenna sitting diaper clad on top of the coffee table and with a smile (she's so dang cute) sheepishly admitted that to finish getting her dressed would be a good place to start!

Too Many stories, too little time...

There is a contest with lots of great prizes over at We are THAT Family. The contest is perfect for us. Entrants must attempt to prove that they are THAT family, you know the ones... So in a monumental effort to put off packing until the verrry last minute, I decided that I just must enter this contest. Although I have many new and inspiring stories yet to blog about, the ones that make you think, "I hope I never have to deal with THAT!!" I have yet to write the babysitter story, which is going to prove to be a masterpiece tribute to being THAT family, it will have to wait until post moving chaos. As for my submission and the wry amusement of many members of my family, I humbly offer the following past entries:

Our Royal Family (according to Emma)
Our Little Schemer
How we got a Cherry 7-up stained ceiling
NO idle curiosity here
A Jordan story
A Jenna Day
The Christmas Story
Paralyzing Glare
What are they Thinking?!!

The sad... proud... embarassing... (don't know how to feel about it) part is, that these are just a small sampling. Keep browsing under kid's stories, parenting and each child, you will find oh so many more!

Don't forget to check out the side bar featuring some of the things our children have said!

If we do not qualify to be THAT family, I don't know who does!

WE HAVE A HOUSE!!!

We signed the closing papers yesterday and got KEYS! There are still a few paint touch ups and cleaning to be done by the builder along with some deliveries we are getting tomorrow: fridge, washer, dryer, water softener and kitchen table, but it's all ours! Obviously I am excited and rambling! If only I were so excited about packing! My computer is serving as a procrastination vehicle right now. Hmm.... what sort of chocolate reward can I use to motivate myself....

BTW, any of you out there who are looking for extra blessings, muffins, juice and a sandwich. All these things can be found at our moving party on Saturday at 9am!

My baby turned two yesterday!

I can't believe Jenna is two already. In the past I have not been a particularly sentimental person when it come to my children, but there really is something about your last. Jenna is our sunshine. As you can see by her pictures, she is almost always happy and smiling. She is also our little monkey and climbs on everything. She has already had stitches once and has had many other close calls. She is very sensitive to others' feelings and is quick to try to comfort them. Jenna is so much a part of our family dynamics and her personality has blessed us all. We love her very much! Happy Birthday baby!

We had a fun little party. Of course, Jenna chose "chocolack" cake! She such an addict already. She was so excited to open her presents. She loved the fun toys, rocking chair, quilt form Grandma and Grandpa B, and "If you Take a Mouse to the Movies" complete with large stuffed mouse from Grandma and Grandpa Huntington. What a fun evening focused on our little one.

DIY project - Jenna's chair

Over at A Soft Place to Land, Kimba is having a great giveaway so I decided to enter with the project I am trying to finish up for Jenna's b-day. I bought an unfinished chair at Michaels with my 50% off coupon (gotta love those). Sorry, didn't take a before picture. I sanded, and sanded, and sanded! They say they are pre-sanded but don't believe them. They have not been sanded nearly enough. I painted 2 coats of white and then began painting the back slats and seat slats with pink. This is what it looks like so far:

The blue tape is still on because I had plans to paint the arm rests and the rest of the seat slats yellow (the girls' room is yellow) and then mod podge some butterflies and or flowers on the back and maybe the seat. Now that I look at it, I wonder if I should forgo the yellow and just put on the pictures. What do you think? Would the yellow be too much?

Update: Here is the final look. I printed the butterflies on vellum to give them a little depth. I think it turned out cute even if the yellow is a little brighter than I wanted.

I am looking forward to seeing all the great things everyone else is doing over at the DIY party. I love to see the new things Kimba is doing and my "wanna do" craft link list is full of her ideas! Check it out!

Update 2: She loves the chair!

Black Island Farms

We took Cami's advice and went to Black Island Farms. What a fun place!! It is a little pricey but we found coupons online. The kids had a blast!





They all had a lot of fun on the animal train and rode it as many times as we would let them!












The slides were really fun! This is just one of them. The boys did some pretty amazing stunts going down this one! I can't believe I didn't get a picture of the biggest tube slide. It was Jenna's favorite! It took her forever to climb the stairs!













The girls especially loved the jack o' lantern bounce toy!













Despite her face in this picture, Jenna loved feeding the llamas! The only way to get her away from them was to tell her we were going back to the slide.

It was a great family activity and we have decided we would like to make it a yearly family tradition.

Updated pictures of our house

I am just so excited to see each stage finished!

I decided that we would not be afraid to put color into this new house and so we painted the family room a beautiful brick red. It seemed a little strong until the rock went on the fireplace but now we really like how warm and bold it is. Although it is hard to see in this picture, the color is perfect for the rock! You can see they are laying the pad for the carpet.

Here is the kitchen minus appliances and a pantry door. I love the granite countertops and the varied height of the cabinets!

The only thing missing on the exterior is the shutters on the front window and they will paint the window box dark brown.

We are loving how the house is shaping up! We have painted the girls' room a sunshine yellow and we want to paint the master bathroom a warm chocolate brown. I am so excited to get moved in and stretch out. Almost every day I find there is something I wish I had from the storage unit! We are 3 weeks away now and counting the days!

If you ever get the chance...

If you ever get the chance to go to a model home furniture sale never, and I mean never pass it up. Our builder had a sale a couple of weeks ago and we hit pay dirt! We got some beautiful furniture and decor items for a steal! We bought a couch table for the entryway. It is definitely a scratch and dent but with a little TLC it will be beautiful. We also bought an incredible family room set with armoire for the TV, 2 side curios, 2 end tables, and a coffee table. We got it for probably 25% of the original price! Even if we hadn't bought furniture for the new house, the decor items alone would have been worth it. We bought plants, trees, wall art, vases, lanterns, baskets, woven balls, and as my dear hubby calls it, other knick knacky crap!

Check out what has worked for other people at WFMW!

No idle curiosity here!

Through a couple of Jordan's recent comments I have realized that I am becoming a true veteran of motherhood. Notice I said "becoming", I don't believe I, or anyone for that matter can know or catch everything their children think or do. For further reference read here, here, or here for just a sample. If that doesn't do it for you, scroll down to "labels" in the side bar and click on "Kid stories".

The other day, while driving on the freeway, we noticed a motorcyclist passing us. Jordan piped up from the back seat and asked us, "Is it against the law for dwarves to ride motorcycles?" Paul and I looked at each other, puzzled, and laughing. Then it hit me. We have been having "discussions" lately why he cannot have a minibike. I guess he figured if he was too little to have one then maybe a dwarf would be too little to ride a motorcycle.

A few minutes later, he asked "Could a thorn from a rose bush pop one of the tires on this car?" Paul said no. About 30 seconds later I realized we need some elaboration and clarification. I said "But, a nail or any other sharp object will pop a tire, so don't start poking things into the tires or you will really be in trouble!" Paul gave me an appreciative glance and said, "Good catch! I thought he was just asking from idle curiosity."

Around here, there is no such thing as idle curiosity!

One of the stories you've been waiting for...

I know, your blog reading faces are turning blue from holding your breath for this one. While my hubby is off having some male bonding time with his brothers and nephews (I am so NOT even jealous of the copious amounts of practical joking that goes on at this annual aromatic fart-fest. I'd rather wrangle 4 kids by myself any day.) I decided to tackle one of the psychologically damaging experiences of the summer. It was the defrosted freezer incident alluded to here.
In July, we traveled to Colter Bay for a wonderful family reunion and took time to drive up through Yellowstone. It was great except for the last 12 hours or so and then the week following, but that is another story for another day. Today's story took place the day after we returned to find the circuit that was connected to our large freezer that my parents have generously consented to have in their garage, had been tripped while we were gone! Now, to fully appreciate this catastrophe I must tell you that we bought a ¼ beef last November and still had about 30 lbs. left.
Well, at least 90% of that cow had completely defrosted and was dripping meat juice everywhere! Paul was working, not to mention sick, and so it fell to me to clean it up! Most of the meat was still cold and didn't smell spoiled so we decided to refreeze it rather than just throw it out! That cow was a pricey one! Well, I tried to take all of the meat out, clean the freezer and put it back in, but as I am sure you guessed, it just made new puddles of that glorious meat juice. I thought about just turning the freezer on, refreezing the meat and then trying to clean it up but realized the packages would just freeze to each other and the shelf. So, I had Paul buy gallon freezer bags and repackaged all of it! It took me hours in the mid afternoon July heat! I was so relieved to finally finish and take a shower!
Now, you may think this is the end of the story, but oh how wrong you would be! The sheer grossness, grossosity, (I know it's not a word, but real words are failing to express the level of ultragrossness) has just begun! The next day the garage started to stink but it was a really busy day (too much vomit clean up to do) and I just couldn't get up there. The next day it was worse! By the third day Mom was practically gagging as she mentioned that it seemed to be getting worse and I practically passed out upon entering the garage. So I ventured back to the freezer to try to discover the problem. I thought maybe some of that lovely juice/water had spilled out of my bucket under the freezer as I was cleaning. No such luck! Unbeknownst to me, there was a drip pan!!! Our freezer is equipped with a handy-dandy drainage hole in the bottom that drains into a drip pan hidden cleverly behind a plastic grill. It was brimming full of an indescribably disgusting sludge that had been brewing for many days in the July heat! Imagine your worst and then take it down a couple of notches. I am cringing as I type this 2 months later!
What to do? What to do with it! I couldn't just dump it somewhere so I opted for the toilet but that meant bringing it into the house! Oh the horror!! As I tromped through the house with my bucket of sludge from Hades, Jordan had the gall to say, "Mom you REALLY stink!"
After scouring the bucket and drip pan, putting baking soda all over the garage, and taking one of the longest, hottest showers of my life. The ordeal was finally over.
Now that it is finally recorded for posterity and my therapy, I can move on! :)

Yep! We're old fogies

In our ward Sunday bulletin, they post a family history challenge each month. This month we have had a lot of fun waxing nostalgic and discussing the topic. The assignment is to list things that you remember that your children would not know anything about. We came up with an extensive list!

• vinyl records (I owned Thriller, Grease, and Sleeping Beauty) I used to dance and get in trouble for making the records skip and scratch.
• cassette tapes for that matter
• Easy Bake oven (I always wanted one)
• Snoopy Snow Cone machine
• Weeble Wobbles
• Big Wheels
• The dolls that grow hair and then it sucks back into their heads
• Barbie heads for make-up and hair styling
• Manually changing channels and volume on the TV
• TV shows as: Brady Bunch, Fantasy Island, Romper Room, Love Boat, Buck Rogers, Dukes of Hazard, Welcome Back Kotter, Mash, Hart to Hart, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Murder She Wrote, Muppet Show, Family Ties, Scooby Doo, Charlie's Angels
• Movies: Star Wars, Better Off Dead, War Games, Dark Crystal, Sixteen Candles, TeenWolf, Back to the Future, Footloose, Rocky, Superman, Somewhere in Time, Fame
• drive-in movie theaters
• typewriters and why they ding
• carbon paper
• rotary dial telephones with coiled cord
• Atari
• having to go to an arcade to play video games like Pac Man
• using tickets at Lagoon
• 49th Street Galleria
• Roller skating at the roller rink
• Station wagons with rear facing seats and no seat belts or car seats, no power anything or ac, rolling down windows manually
• clogs
• thongs (the shoes)
• long white socks with stripes on the top worn with shorts
• stirrup pants
• peg legging your jeans
• bleach spotting jeans
• rockers and wavers
• mullets (yes Paul had one)
• feathered bangs
• hair to heaven bangs
• Having free rein of the neighborhood until dark
• Not having a computer, Internet, cellphones, microwaves, etc.
• Carrying dimes for the pay phone
• glass pop bottles

Even though many toys and shows are being recreated as "retro" they're just not the same.

We just realized that most of the people who read this blog wont know half of the things we are talking about. If you do, give us a shout out so we don't feel so alone in our old age.

We wanna be cowboys

We had a fun ward activity on Saturday. It was an oldfashioned hoedown. There were 3 legged races, a tug o' war, a duck pond for prizes, great down home food, a hay ride, and horses to ride. The kids absolutely loved the horses. We couldn't get Jenna off!

What will I do with my new house?

Over at The Inspired Room, a place I visit often for beautiful home ideas and inspiration, Melissa is having a contest to win a $200 gift card to Home Goods. Boy, I could use that in a heartbeat. So in an effort to impress upon her my need I submit this photo:
Can't tell what it is? This is a photo of my soon to be kitchen. I am really excited to get in there and finally make it mine but, have yet to define what "mine" looks like. Generally, I have more expensive taste than my bank account and I have yet to root out my frugal (cheap) side. So in the past I have ended up with a lot of stuff that I don't really love because it was less expensive. I refuse to do that in our new home even if it ends up virtually devoid of personality for years. Which brings me to the point that a gift card would satisfy my frugal side while allowing me to buy some beautiful things that I will love.

I also wanted to throw in the latest picture of our almost finished exterior for anyone who is curious to see how things are progressing.

Summer adventures continued...

I have enough material through this summer for a novel series however, I thought I would condense a little and let some of the experiences speak for themselves.
For example, I think you can imagine the clean up involved in a cracked 42 oz bottle of bubble solution slowly leaking into the carpet. Or a toddler with the stomach flu doing her thing on both the leather couch and upholstered rocker, neither of which actually belong to us!
There is a dent in the wall where the doorknob hits from a particularly enthusiastic entrance, the grass is wearing a little thin as we trample around to the back door and the kids continue to sneak-eat the cherry tomatoes out of the garden.
The fish have somehow survived in spite of their near death experience but we lost our last frog Zippy about a week ago. You will probably not be surprised to know that I miss him more than the kids because I was the one who took care of him. We had a unique bond. I have a habit of going in to see my sleeping children before I go to bed. At the end of each day I need the reminder of their innocence, beauty, and my love for them. Anyway, frogs are nocturnal and Zippy was at his most active about midnight. I would silently greet him and watch as he perched on the edge of his water bowl after a refreshing dip. I miss watching him watch me and pondering what he might be thinking. I know, you are astounded at the depth of my ponderings at that time of night.
This is also another superglue testimonial! Emma was chasing Jordan across the street, tripped and fell, and gouged 2 holes in her forehead. We pulled out the superglue again and things seem to be healing well!
And finally (for now) we had the fun adventure of taking down the entire clothes rod and upper shelf in our bedroom. I guess maybe we didn't thin our wardrobes enough when we moved :) The screws pulled right out of the wall.
There are also a few more stories which demand more detail in the telling. I will leave these for a future date when I am more emotionally prepared to relive them. Let's just say one involves a babysitter who didn't know how to say no to science experiments, and the other involves a defrosted freezer that still makes me cringe in horror. Another will recount the beginning of the vomit story which happened to take place in our trailer... on vacation... from the top bunk.
Needless to say, we will have some spackling, painting, and a whole lot of cleaning to do when we move out of here. We are determined to leave this basement in the best shape we can (I mumble with bowed head and a look of penitent chagrin on my face).

Newest update on the house

They are getting ready to stucco and shingle next week! We have the plumbing, electrical, and heating in and the sheetrock is leaning against completed framing. Woo, Hoo!!

Update on the update: the sheetrock and first layer of stucco is done now too! 8/19/09

Children's Miracle Music - WFMW

As we gear up to go back to school, I thought I would post quickly about something that has helped us get out the door in the morning and into bed at night. It is called Children's Miracle Music. It includes a CD for morning and a CD for evening routines. The CD verbally guides them through each step of their morning or evening, giving them the time it takes for 1-3 songs to paly to complete the task before moving to the next one. It has a tracking chart, stickers, instructions, etc as a reward and motivation system with suggestions for appropriate rewards. I also like that it includes an "act of kindness" or chore that benefits the family that I set up.

We took a break over the summer and did some different things to help it to be fresh and exciting again for when school starts.

Though we still had some grumbling occasionally about "doing jobs" this program really helped us! Go over and check it out! It worked for our family.

Time to go back to school!

Paul said I was talking in my sleep last night which I very rarely do. He told me that I clearly said, "I can't take you to Michael's if you're going to act like this!" I don't remember what I was dreaming about but apparently my subconcious is registering frustration with taking all 4 of my children on errands.

Memories

We were sitting around on Sunday thinking about all the memories we have from the old house. I thought I would get them written down in a semi-permanent place. Since I spend much more time here than in my journal, here it is:


Paul

• throwing kids into the Love Sac
• kids jumping from the basement stairs landing into the Love Sac
• storing all our Christmas decorations in the basement shower
• kids racing from the fridge to the couch with Jordan yelling "Look out guys, I'm gonna go speed!"
• how beautiful our Christmas tree looked in the front window
• games of HyperDash in the back yard
• process of landscaping the backyard including the kids playing in the thatch, tipping over the bobcat, laying railroad ties (Brooke being 5 months pregnant), laying sod, building the playset, digging out the old sandbox, planting the garden and the apple tree that we never got an apple from
• golfing with whiffle balls
• how the kids would get up on the wall and spin around the fence posts before the fence was put up
• kids deciding the pantry was the romantic place when they caught Mom and Dad kissing in there and would shove us in there any chance they got
• playing hide and go seek - we would list the places we looked aloud "not in the closet" Jordan would yell "no" from his hiding place as we said each place we looked

Brooke

• how much the kids loved jumping on the trampoline with the sprinkler underneath
• themed birthday parties: pirates, frog, shark, princess
• kids playing on the fake rock in the front yard no matter how many times we asked them not to
• our Jumanji garden
• Jordan spending the majority of his outside time in the raspberry patch eating. Once I sent out a bowl of raspberries for him to pick more, the bowl came back empty, he accused "You know I love raspberries too much!"
• the sandbox provided many pockets full of sand to dump on my bed as I sorted laundry
• building snowmen in the front yard
• watching the kids blast off to the moon on the rocket rider
• how proud I was about putting up the chain link fence (with my Dad's help)
• Paul hurting his back multiple times shoveling snow because we didn't have room to store a snowblower in the garage

Christian

• my favorite place to hide was under the table between the couches
• unwrapping Christmas presents under the Christmas tree in the living room
• cutting down the quakie in the front yard

Jordan

• having a Christmas tree for a night light
• counting lights on the tree until I fall asleep
• doing flips into the love sac
• Christmas quilt tradition in the living room
• raking leaves and jumping into them

Emma

• sliding down slide into the leaves
• boys pulling Emma around the yard in the little blue sled