Silence.

Ah, what a beautiful thing!
Never mind the still-lingering bits of wrapping paper in my living room, hidden among the discarded but not-forgotten pieces of candy and less interesting Christmas toys.
Don't even think about the fridge overflowing with leftovers and counter overflowing with couple-days-old Christmas goodies (yuck for gluttony).
Push out of your mind the messy bedroom, laundryroom spilling out dirty clothes, and that small but ever-present pile of bills waiting to be paid.
And definately do not think about the gifts that didn't get made or bought or mailed.
It's quiet. Kids are taking naps. I'll just worry about all that other crazy stuff later. Right now I'm going to go downstairs and play with Beau, make him laugh, snuggle him and just have a lazy moment.
Even if I have a million reasons not to.

A Conversation

So yesterday my kids were tyrants. I know, it's a strong word, not normally associated with children under the age of four, but I think it's appropriate. And applicable to Bekah and Jacob right after naptime, a time that always has to be handled delicately because they are highly sensitive people when they wake up. Ugg. So yesterday the three of us were sitting on the couch and here is the conversation that went on:
Bekah: Mommy, Jacob's touching me! (Remember, I am right there. Only inches away. I can see what is going on, but Bekah still feels the need to wail at every injustice.)
Jacob: Poke, Poke, poking Bekah in the back.
Mommy: Well, tell him that you don't like it.
B: I can't! You have to do it!
J: Poke, laugh, poke
B: He's still touching me!
Mommy: Tell him!!
B: Jacob! Stop!
Jacob laughs, rolls onto his back, and proceeds to kick Bekah with his feet.
B: AAAaaahhHH!
Mommy: OKAY. Jacob! Stop bugging Bekah!
Silence for 17 seconds.
J: Bekah? Do you like green or purple?
B: Hmph
J: You like green?
B: NO!!
J: Yeah, you green.
B: No I'm NOT! Mommy, Jacob is telling me I'm green but I'm not!
Mommy: Bekah, Stop getting mad! Sometimes he doesn't make sense! You know that!
Bekah then climbs on my lap and hugs me, still sniffling here and there so I don't forget that she has been pestered beyond repair. Then Jacob climbs on top of her, she bucks him off, he does it again, she cries...remember I am under them through all of this...finally I yell ENOUGH and stand up and they both topple to the couch. Then...
Bekah: Mommy I need a snack. I really need a snack right now. If I don't have a snack right now the alligators in my tummy will eat me all up! Please!
So then we had snacks, the alligators were tamed, Bekah and Jacob started playing happily together, Beau woke up, and life chugged along just as well as it could.
And now some pictures just for fun:

Try this...take a tortilla, fold it in quarters, cut it like you would a paper snowflake, and then fry it and dust with powdered sugar. Yummy, easy, fun and festive! Here is Bekah with her snowflake.

Beau can sit up on his own now!!! Hooray! He's so happy to finally greet the world vertically!

Here I am showing off Beau's cute Christmas outfit. The word on the bum is naughty and the outfit is made like a pair of longjohns.

Till next time! Merry Christmassing!

Ashley's Make it and Love it Craft Blog!

Go check out Ashley's Make it and Love it Blog! She has such cute ideas for fun things to make for yourself and your kids. And for ways to occupy your time when your husband somehow finds more important places to be, like school or work or church. And for when your house is a mess, every toilet needs to be cleaned and your kids are cranky. That's all a signal to put in a movie, ignore the mess, and do something productive that won't unravel by the end of the day. (Hopefully. How are you at sewing?) So click on my cute new button to visit her craft blog, and if you really can't find the time to make stuff, go to her Etsy store and make her do all the work for you! (You'll find that link on her craft blog.)
Okay, run along now. Scoot. Skeedaddle. :)

The Grinch's Christmas Light Tragedy

The grinch hates Christmas lights. It may be his raising in a remotely located home that did not need lights, or it may be his heart is two sizes too small. We don't know. But as you can see in this picture, because he loves his wife, he put forth the effort to put up the Christmas lights. (His wife didn't take any chances...She bought the lights last year after Christmas, along with clips and extension cords.)
And then the next day, the New Mexico wind blew with fury and all the lights got blown off the house. Literally. Seriously. Off. Light clips scattered in the wintering grass. The grinch spent that day in denial, not even remarking on the odd fury of the wind or the fact that the lights scattered haphazardly on the roof would have to be re-hung. And now, a week later, the lights are still scattered and our Christmas spirit is looking as tarnished and redneck as ever. The grinches wife decides to approach this situation optimistically, surmising that since the grinch has denied her lights for years, now he has to hang them twice.

The End.

And now, a few pictures from our sponsors:

The distended tummy snake wrestler The Christmas Tree Decorators

The I don't Want to Nap At All Ever Again...umm...whoops...zzzzz

and The Thanksgiving Day Tara's Cinnamon Rolls Eater

Have a great day and don't be a grinch. :)

A Laugh a Day

Check out my handsome Beau laughing...He is surely a heartstopper!

(By the way, I know you're checking out my yummy chicken resting there on the counter...Those became a tasty part of my Chicken Divan, a recipe from my Gourmet cookbook. Nothing like my mom's chicken divan, thank goodness! sorry, mom...Tyler, check it out!!)

Baptizing and Bowling

Amy, Jacob, my mom, my dad, Mike and baby Michael, Keri and Beau, Rus, Tyler

Luke, Bekah, Sarah, Joshua (gotta love bekah and sarah sticking out their tongues!)

Rus and I had the wonderful privilege of being at Joshua's baptism on Saturday. Joshua is my sister Amy's oldest boy. He is so fun and helpful and, as everyone pointed out, super shiny! My dad performed the baptism because Mike is not a member of the Church. But as you see he was there and was really supportive. Joshua really wanted to go bowling for his birthday, so that's where we went after the baptism and lunch. It was a lot of fun! If I remember right, Mike scored the highest, and then Tyler, me, Bekah, Jacob, Joshua, Luke, Amy, Dad, Rus, and Sarah. Bekah was very excited to beat everyone, but to be fair, she did have the bumper rails, and those pins fell down out of sheer intimidation, because the ball wasn't going that fast at ALL! I took a million pictures of us bowling and then I only included the following ones because the rest were of everyone's backsides. :) I'll put the captions above each picture...

My Dad and Beau...doesn't he look so big and grown up?! (Beau, I mean.) Tyler and Bekah and Jacob

I LOVE my brother Tyler. He is so much fun and so great with my kids, despite having a pretty strong aversion to messes, disorder, craziness, and kids that drool and sometimes smell.

Bekah and Sarah are very best friends.

Here they are with cute matching hair and Sarah's very unique display of fashion sense.
(What am I saying? It's not like Bekah's clothes even matched!)

Sarah and her ball that probably weighs a quarter of her weight. She was so adorable bowling.
After a while Rus just started yelling at the kids to

"Run really fast and throw the ball as hard as you can!"

Despite that wonderful advice, here he was giving Jacob's ball an extra push to help it get to the pins in under 10 minutes. In case you didn't know, you actually can gutter a ball on a lane with bumpers. It takes skill and the ultimate test of patience, as the ball has to be going very, very slow, but it can happen.

Here is my dad's super excited expression after getting a strike...Okay, so maybe it's the instant replay version, as I was not quick enough to get the original, but it is accurate.

And here is Amy and Tyler when my dad got the strike. Why all the excitement? Well, he had already endured the humiliation of several gutter balls and was being severely out-bowled by all of the kids, so to get a strike really boosted his morale. (But didn't really help his score. Nope, not much. Bekah still beat him.)
Michael giving Beau a hug.

Amy delivers big babies, but within a year of their lives they ultimately become midgets, whereas my kids become..umm..fat. That's why Grandpa (or was it Tyler?) held on to Beau. So he didn't turn Michael into a midget pancake.

And here is everyone relaxing after bowling. Ahhh...So we had a blast. I am blessed with such a fun family, and I'm grateful for the extras we've convinced to hang out with us for the rest of forever. (Thank you Mike and Rus!) Mike was funny... I guess after the baptism he was not super thrilled to go bowling, and Amy said,

"I guess today is full of things you don't really like to do! What could we do next that you wouldn't enjoy?"

To which Mike responded goodnaturedly,

"Scrabble?"

(Yep, that's another family tradition that none of the inlaws really like.)

Okay, I guess that is more than enough! Have a wonderful day!

For Grandma Cutesy Cutesy

Dear Cutesy Cutesy,

We just wanted to tell you we LOVE you!

Have a beautiful day!

And from Beau...

Bekah is Tricky

"Momma, do you know that I'm tricky?

"Oh, you are? How are you tricky?"

"Well, sometimes I want a fork and sometimes i want a spoon! Aren't I tricky?!"

Yep. That's my girl. Silly is more like it. And dramatic. Whew. Let me tell you, there is drama at our house all the time.
"I can't do it! I'm TIRED!"
"I BROKE my LEG! AAHHHH!" (I don't even know what really happened, but it definately was not a broken leg.)
"I. Just. Can't. Wait. Any. Longer."
"If I see a treat I WANT a TREAT!
"Jacob keeps TALKING to me!"
"No! Don't do my hair! NOO! The knots! So many KNOTS! AAAHHH! It HURTS! No, no, no, don't SPRAY me! It's cold! No, it got in my EYE! I can't SEE! I can't see, I can't see, I can't see! NOOOOO!"
There are more, I'm sure, but it's making me tired just thinking of it.
Life just would not be the same without my Bekah. :)

Welcome Cockroaches!

Our home is not our own, it is shared with a rather rapidly growing cockroach family. (More specifically our kitchen.)

Already we have lost a radio to our cockroach friends. I guess they thought of the radio as a second home and all the while we couldn't understand how it was getting such fuzzy reception.

Another favorite vacation spot of our roachy friends is the dishwasher. I guess they like the tropical climate, and who wouldn't? After feeding on crumbs in the cabinets and stains on the floor any poor old roach just needs a few minutes in the refreshing dishwasher steam. They must have felt that our presence was a godsend, manna from the fluorescent sky.

Then the most recent cleaning of all cabinets and dishes, the spraying with roach killer around all baseboards and behind the dishwasher and fridge, and the placement of little poisonous roach killers in inconspicuous places must have dampened their spirits a little bit. The roaches are probably shivering in their little exoskeletons (is that right?) at the cold, unwelcoming hand we have extended to them.

And now let me share with you the silver lining.

Rus hates cockroaches just slightly more than I do. And somehow he finds them more than I do and thus is more responsible for their fate than I am. He has determined that our kitchen must be spotless every night with the dishwasher running before we go to bed. Every night. And so he cleans it. Every night.

I might just blow those little cockroaches a kiss before I smoosh them next time.

What a guy, my kitchen spraying, roach killing, spotless making guy.

Beau at Four Months!

(yes, I did cut holes in the bottom of his footie pjs so that he could still wear his brace with them.)

Yep, my Beau is four months old. Time's fun when you're havin' flies! (...as my dad always says). I am in love with my little monster. He smiles at me everytime I smile at him, he is chubby and cuddly, he thinks I'm funny, and he hasn't peed on me once. Beau has reached a couple of big milestones with this four month mark...

1. He is getting two bottom teeth which makes him super drooly and a cannibal (I swear he wants to bite off my fingers.)

2. He has a closet-roll-over move. I have found him on his tummy four times in the last week, and each time even my frazzled mommy brain remembers that he started out on his back. I don't know how he does it with his big 'ol brace, but one way or another he ends up on his tummy crying into the carpet. Actually I think the brace helps him roll over. I just can't prove it. Because I never see him do it. Because he's Houdini. Or Beaudini. Or whatever.

3. His doctor has declared his feet "beautiful" and says that he only has two more weeks of wearing his brace full time. In two weeks he'll only have to wear it during naps and nighttime. HOORAY! I was stunned when she told me that, I had no idea we were this close. I guess Santa's going to bring Beau shoes for Christmas! Real shoes!

Other little known facts about Beau are:

He loves his bumbo (his little blue seat that helps him sit up)

He loves Jacob. He will smile so big whenever his brother pays him any attention. And Jacob does pay him attention. He loves Beau and is always so sweet and gentle with him. Except when he's being a lion and roaring and that brings us to the next fact...

Beau scares easily. He does not like loud noises. When Jacob roars, Beau cries. I spend a good part of my energy trying to convince Jacob to take it down an octave and not be so scary!

I guess that's about it. I love my little man and I feel blessed to have him in my home. Now, a gift for you...here's his super happy sweet cheeks smile...Enjoy!

Crafts Made to Love and Buy

Here are my leftover crafts! Browse, ooh and aah, and let me know if anything strikes your fancy! Don't feel pressured to buy anything, please. I just did this to give you the chance to buy something that you might not have fallen in love with if you didn't know it existed.

Magnet Board: $10.00
This magnet board has been a long time in the making. I try every year to come up with a kid friendly nativity for my kids. I drew the people on my computer and printed it out on magnet paper, and then cut each person out individually. Bekah loves to rearrange them all and make up stories. The set includes three wise men, Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, a sheep and a shepherd. It is 6"tall by 13"wide. It has a dowel in the back to help it stand upright. I have two red boards, four boards with yellow paint around the edges, and eleven with green paint. They all have different paper (on this one it's a green paisley) and they all have yellow stars. Book Rack: $10.00
These little book racks are intended to be hung on the wall by your kid's bed so that he can put his books in them at bedtime. It is 9"tall, 12.5"wide, and 2.5"deep. It comes finished with a clear stain and I can paint a name on it if you want.

Purses: $8.00

I loved making these purses. I couldn't care less if I sold one or not. (Well, of course I'd love to sell one, but the point is I had a blast making them!)

Small signs(4"x12.5"): $10.00

Large signs (5"x30" not pictured): $15.00
Here is one of the small signs. Below is a list of the other quotes for both large and small signs. They are made out of pine, rounded over at the edges, painted, sanded, and have vinyl lettering. If you want to know what color a specific sign is, let me know.

Large

I only have a kitchen because it came with the house
He loves me, he loves me not…it doesn’t matter I’m all he’s got!
I love you more today that yesterday…Yesterday you really got on my nerves!
What happens at Grandma’s stays at Grandma’s
When the going gets tough we go to Nana’s
Grant me the patience to deal with my blessings
Some of my greatest blessings call me Grandma
Lawyers are people too…Allegedly

Small

All you need is Faith and Trust and a Little Pixie Dust
Thou Shalt Not Whine
…And she forgot all about the dishes in the kitchen sink
I smile because you’re my sister. I laugh because there’s nothing you can do about it!
Anyone can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a daddy.
If you have no regrets, you need to get out more.
What’s so great about peace and quiet anyway?
Just take it one, gigantic, earth-shattering crisis at a time.
Climb every other mountain
Welcome to my loose interpretation of clean.

There you have it! Let me know if you want details or a different picture on anything!

Crafting is Messy

I've been meaning to show you the wild things that went on at my house over by birthday. Rus scheduled a backpacking trip that weekend with the scouts (thanks hon!), so I decided to trash the house and work on my craft show projects out in the garage with some of my friends. Tara, Taffy, and I are "Garage Moms" and we all enjoy woodworking, crafts, and new ideas. Even though our craft show was a bust (no chiles or kokopellis to sell, dangit!) we still had a good time and now we're inundated with Christmas gift ideas. So I thought I'd show you the mess I made, our craft show setup, and then I'll post all of my goodies so you can see them, love them, and want them for yourself!

Sewing central. Not too bad...

This is where the majority of the blast took place. By the way that cake was german chocolate and it was delicious! (Thanks Dad and Bekah!)

Mean mother that I am, I made everyone suffer in the squalor all the way through Sunday afternoon. "Peanut butter and honey sandwich? Oh yeah, it's right there on top of the glue gun. Next to the measuring tape and paint."

Here's our cute booth...


Good thing this only happens once a year! My house couldn't take much more!

The Cup is Half Full

5 Wonderful Things About This Past Weekend:

1. I had my craft show on Saturday. I finished everything I needed to get done, all 24 magnet boards, 8 shelves, numerous ornaments, drawings, purses, and signs...I sold 2 magnet boards, 1 shelf, and a handful of ornaments. Anyone need Christmas gifts?
2. Beau continues to nurse really well and is chubbier than ever...Apparently I have enough in me to feed two Beau's because I had a plugged duct this weekend (and I don't mean indoor plumbing) which turned into mastitis. Fun!
3. I bought a new fancy rub-across-your-forehead thermometer this weekend....The first temperature it read was my own, a whopping 105.7 degrees. Yep, it was a cold shower and lettuce leaves for me. (You really don't want to know.) They say a temperature that high can damage your hearing. (What?)
4. Did I mention that Beau has the most beautiful smile ever?...It'll be even cuter after he's done teething. In fact I may see it more often when he's not grumpy and hurting because of the two new additions to his bottom gum line.
5. Rus is amazing. He devoted his weekend to me so I could do my craft show, and then went the extra mile when I didn't feel good on Sunday, and then stayed home today so that I could take a nap and rest up. He was patient, kind, and apparently in a nesting mood because now all my bathrooms, kitchen, playroom, and Bekah and Jacob's rooms are all clean. I married a good man.

A Spooooky Halloween!

It was all about the food at our house on Halloween. Green french toast, purple yogurt...and then bat and pumpkin sandwiches for lunch...and then mummy hot dogs, monster pudding with ghost fingers, and skeleton bones for dinner. Doesn't that sound nice and festive? Of course then my kids had to rid the mummys of their wraps, because that didn't sound good, and then the monster (pistachio) pudding didn't look so good so one little witch wouldn't even try it...At least it sounds good on paper! The rest of the day had me in and out of the house getting ready for my craft show that I had today, so needless to say it was a semi-stressful/busy day. But my "nice wootch" was super cute and my lion had a fierce roar and my puppy dog stole the show. They all made out like bandits at the ward trunk or treat and now I'm forced to eat unnecessary amounts of candy so that my kids won't eat it all themselves. I found an awesome huge witch hat that was a lot of fun so I could be a wootch with Bekah (that's how she says it). Here are some pics...

Rus hasn't quite figured out the zoom function on our camera...

My Beau Puppy. His costume was so soft, it made him even more cuddly than normal.

This was a few days before...Bekah had Beau try out her witch hat. And can I tell you, I love my bumbo seat! I think it's worth every penny because Beau loves it!

My witch with her super messy and thus still wrapped broom and her scary witch face, all dressed up for Halloween. My mom made her amazing cape. And I made her dress! Yes, sir! It's from a mens dress shirt. I found out how to do it on this amazing tutorial. Check it out! It was super fast, maybe 30 minutes if there aren't any interruptions.

Sorry for the bad pic. Really you would have been so impressed with our hodgepodge "pumpkin" patch! We had a huge zucchini (on the right), a pumpkin, and a "scrumpkin" (squash-pumpkin cross that we grew in our backyard accidentally). We had each of them eating parts of each other and dubbed it our "Vegetarian or Cannibalistic Pumpkin Patch". Super spooky!

Okay, I gotta run! More catching up to do later, I guess!

I didn't realize I'd been tagged...

by Erin! I've never been tagged before...this is a first! Here it goes...

"The 5"
10 years ago I.....
1. Had just turned 16!
2. Just got my braces off.
3. Was getting ready to run at the regional cross country meet
4. Was a junior at Buena.
5. Had a much better memory than I do now. I hope. Maybe. Hmmm...did I?

5 things on my "to do" list
1. Clean my house.
2. Finish all my projects for my crafts show on Saturday.
3. Make dinner.
4. Make a witch dress for Bekah.
5. Play the kissing song for Rus and kiss him a lot. (you know, the one that goes, "I wanna kiss you on a monday, a monday, a monday, blah blah blah blah blah blah...but never never on a sunday, a sunday, a sunday, cause that's my day of rest") I've had that song in my head all day from one of Bekah's preschool cd's and I've gotta get it out of my system!

5 snacks I enjoy
1. Cookies, sweets, chocolate and all things unhealthy (but not hard candy...not a big fan)
2. Cheese nips or other crackers
3. Apples, pears, grapes, bananas
4. Really I've already listed nine things...I'll call it good.

5 places I have lived...
1. Sierra Vista
2. Riordan Ranch in Flagstaff
3. Married housing in Flagstaff
4. Albuquerque
5. Cherry St. in Flagstaff
6. Los Lunas
hmm...not quite the world traveler, huh! Dangit Rus for making me fall in love and have babies before I could see the world!

5 jobs I have had.....
1. Teller at Stockmen's Bank
2. Teller at AZSSCU in Flagstaff
3. Kitchen Designer at Lumbermens in Flag
4. Really stretching it here...interned as an office systems designer in Albuquerque for a summer 5. A mom! Hardest, best job ever!

5 things I would do if I was a multi-millionaire........
1. Buy all matching, coordinated furniture.
2. Save it all and pretend I didn't have it!
3. Buy a cozy little house with a 10 car garage.
4. Fill that garage up with all of Rus's dream cars (He'd like a different one for every day of the week. And I want a Ford/Chevy truck from the late 40's
5. Buy lots of cool power tools and commandeer a nice sized part of that 10 car garage for my shop.

5 People I tag are
1. You!
2. Yep, I mean you.
3. No, not the other person reading this post. You!
4. Come on, have a little self esteem. I really want to hear all about'cha!
5. See above.

Balloon Fiesta

Thursday night: Pack sweaters, put shoes and socks in the van, make muffins, pack elmo lunchbag with snacks, put blankets in the front seat, pack diaper bag, double stroller, and baby carrier, dress my kids in comfy real clothes and not pajamas (so I don't have to change them in the morning), fill up sippers with milk and place in the fridge, pack Beau's medicine (for acid-reflux)....try to go to bed early...(um, Beau didn't get that memo...oh well, late it is...)



Friday, 5am: Alarm clock goes off, thank you Rus for setting it for me...but my bed is too comfy and I try to talk myself out of a crazy pre-dawn outing. Again, Beau had a different idea, he wanted to get up, eat, and get on the road! Oh well, I'd committed myself the night before when I'd explained to Bekah and Jacob how much fun we'd have seeing the balloons fill up...Find jeans, shirt, sweater, load up kids, kiss sleepy hubby and remind him gently of how he's missing all the fun (he doesn't think he's missing anything, his bed is calling him and he has a strong aversion to large crowds and organized gatherings and early mornings). The kids and I take off and enjoy the dark, like we've never seen it before. Closer to the balloon fiesta grounds we suddenly see a balloon in the air, brilliant and golden yellow, the color flickering but bright. And then just as suddenly the balloon disappears, the flame turned off for the moment, the balloon free to drift invisibly. The kids ask question after question, "Where'd it go!?" and I try to explain as best I can in the bumper to bumper morning traffic. Soon we're pulling up into our parking space, bumper to the fence of the fair grounds. Pretty good, I thought! Kids get loaded up, blanket on, Beau strapped in the Snugli, burritoed again inside his blanket with his hat on. We were ready to go. I give the stroller a push and realize it weighs at least sixty pounds. Later I find out that Bekah weighs 33 lbs and Jacob weighs 31 lbs and the stroller weighs at least 10 lbs. And then Beau strapped to my chest weighs 15 1/2 lbs. Yep, I officially feel like super-mom! We huff and puff our way to the grounds and watch the balloons take life while the sun comes up. Bekah and Jacob carry the varying expressions of confusion, awe, and sleepiness as we plow our way through the crowd. Their favorite balloon was the one that looked like Nemo, while my favorite was a jack-o-lantern. We got to see the balloon laid out, basket laid on its side at the bottom, and then the fans kicked on to blow air into the balloon. When it got big enough the flames finished the job of inflation. The basket was eased upright and the balloon continued to get bigger until members of the crowd got pulled in to hold the basket down...another 7 minutes and the balloon was off, joining tweetie bird and a haunted house and enormous castle, making mockery of the plain clouds in the sky. Here are some pictures of what we saw...

Darth Vader Rising!The typical response to me trying to take a picture...More sleep, anyone?
Inflating Tweetie Bird (FIRE!, as Jacob said)
Beau was a model balloon fiesta attendee, never once making a peep. He was awake the whole time. I think he loved all of the commotion.
Please make way for Supermom and the Walking Circus!
Meet Jack...He has the perfect shape for a hot air balloon!What a goofy, intriguing sight! Where do they come up with this stuff?!

We were too close to Nemo, so this is all you get to see of him!

I think the castle was the largest of them all! Just look at how tiny that basket looks under there!We finished off the morning with a sprint up (UP!) the walkway and out of the park, 20 minutes in traffic, and a quick jaunt by the doctor's office to get Bekah's 4 year shots and Beau's 2 month shots (at three months). We know how to pack a morning! We had a blast and I'd probably do it again! (The balloon fiesta part, not the shot part. :)