I couldn't resist!

Ella has been anti-diaper lately so we've been letting her wet her pants a couple times a day. She makes it to the toilet maybe once a day, so it's a start and we're optimistic. Last night, however, her little crack was peeping out of her cute cabana pants, and I just had to take a picture. Every parent needs blackmail pictures for use at a later date, right?

A surprise visit

The top picture is of Ella in Time Out. She refused to sit on her bum for Time Out, so protested by sitting in Time Out on her head. I didn't help her push up into the headstand, nor did I help her stay there - she did it all by herself. I guess she got my gymnastics genes. I was having a very hard time not laughing at her, even though she was screaming mad the whole time.

The other picture is our kitchen, and it's new grayish-purple paint. I really like how it turned out a lot.

Thursday night, my mother called me up to tell me that her jury duty had been cancelled (I didn't even know she had jury duty), and that they wanted to make the thirteen-hour drive to Salt Lake to see the grandkids, since she had all this time to spare. I told them to come on down. So, Friday they came with my oldest bro Barton and stayed until Monday morning. It was a short and sweet visit, and we were thrilled to have them - especially the kids. We didn't tell them that they were coming, so Lear and Ella got a big surprise when they showed up on our doorstep.

Finally, another Lear story. You all know Lear loves Transformers. He also loves to save the Transformer boxes. He had one in particular that he's been saving since Thanksgiving. He's been keeping his collection in it, but it was getting very ratty and ugly, so Cory and I secretly threw it out when we did our de-cluttering of the house a week or so ago. When Lear noticed, he was MAD! He threw one of his rare fits, and demanded that we dig through the dumpster to retrieve it - we told him that it was too late, and that it was already at the recycling center. We finally pacified him by showing him that he could arrange them to display on a newly-empty bookcase that we had relocated to his room. He kept telling me that he couldn't wait until someone came to visit so he could show them his Transformers on the shelf. Now, if you enter his room, he will stand next to the bookcase, wordlessly gesturing toward the bookcase (one arm extended, palm up and fingers together) and waiting expectantly for your admiration. 

Lear quote: "Mom, why do we have those short spiky things on our eyes?"

         Mom: "Do you mean eyelashes?"

Ella quote: Mom: "Ella, stand at the window and wave bye-bye to Grandma, Grandpa, and Barton."

         Ella: "No, I don't want to!"

        Mom: "Lear is at the window and waving goodbye."

Ella: "I wan' go to da winnow an' wave bye-bye, too!"

Well, shoot!

I can't find my camera! We've been doing so much cleaning and reorganizing lately, and I guess I must have put it someplace very safe, because I can't figure out where it is. I'm sure I'll find it eventually, and then I'll post pics of Christmas, the short-lived gingerbread house, our kitchen, and other fun stuff. 

We did so much with family over the holidays, which we always enjoy. We have a wonderful extended family. Really - I'm not sugar coating things for the sake of a cheerfully saccharin-sweet blog. We had fun watching little Saige (I hope I spelled that right!) with Chris and Brindy while her parents were having a nice dinner. She is so fun, and Chris and Brindy are going to be awesome parents. We had Nerf gun fight at Nana and Papa's house during a family sleepover, where the kids got to play with their cute cousins Danika and Aryanna all day. We had a fun time watching Utah bust the BCS at Bryce and Carolee's house, and had a great Christmas Eve dinner with Gia, Matt, Bronson, Nana, Papa, and Karen. I'm grateful for the Christmas season, for giving us excuses to ditch our busy schedules and spend quality time with family. I just hope that they're not all sick of us!

Finally, a word to the wise: Don't schedule home projects during December! You might think, "Well, I've got the time to replace that toilet or rip down that wallpaper, because I'm taking time off work for the holidays anyway," but don't do it. You'll just be sad you added that much more stress to the holidays. This month we painted floorboards, the kitchen, a bathroom, a vanity, fixed a drop ceiling, we replaced a toilet, the floor of said bathroom, six door handles, all the mismatched light fixtures, and still put up and tore down Christmas decorations. However, Bryce and Carolee have us beat, hands down - a full kitchen remodel and replacing the floors in half the house makes painting a bunch of stuff pale in comparison. (So, stop whining, Tia!)

Lear quote: Mommy: "Lear, are there any presents you wanted that you didn't get?"

Lear: "No, Mommy, I'm happy with everything I have." (He said this before I gave him the Bumblebee Transformer that he spent weeks nagging me and throwing fits in Wal-Mart about.)

Ella quote: "Mommy, I got crying on your arm." Said after sobbing on my shoulder because of some injustice.