Remembering

Abby was teary-eyed this morning as she explained to me,

 

"My birthday is too long.  I should have been born first and then I could be taller.  It just takes too long to be a big girl." 

 

I wrapped her in my arms and didn't say a word.  I just thought.  Life goes so so fast.  I want to remember the feelings and the smells of the day.  The smiles, the tears, the pain....all of it.  I have a wonderful life.  We are so very blessed.  I went around and snapped some pictures of the house all decorated for Christmas because I just wanted to remember it.  In just a little bit it will all be taken down and we will move on with something else.  But for some reason, I wanted to remember today.  The way my life is right now.  It is far from perfect, but I think that is what I want to remember; the struggles, the growth, the great love I feel from my Savior each and every day.  I want to remember that trials make us stronger and bring us closer together.  It helps to put meaning into this season and meaning into each day.  I want to remember it.

 

 

Fa la la la la

It's been Christmas-y around here.  One thing after the next.  As I type this, I am sure my girls are enjoying their Christmas parties at school.  Olivia and Sammie both went in pajamas today.  Abby stayed in her pajamas too today, but it's because she is sick.
Last night we had our Christmas piano recital and decorated graham cracker houses.  Messy and fun.  We do it every year with our good friends.  I only teach their kids and mine and so recitals are just a fun family get together.  I didn't take a single picture though.
Sammie had her 1st grade Christmas program.  She wasn't too excited about it because she was a present and all they did was sit and sing.  We couldn't see her at all from where we were sitting.  The cafeteria was packed and it was only the first graders!  During the performance, we managed to sneek in on the floor so she could see us.  Her face lit up so bright so I didn't care that we were being annoying.

 I did a little Christmas baking with Abby.  I could tell I was pushing myself and so I still have dough sitting in my fridge from a week ago.

We went to the ward Christmas party and the primary sang.  Abby snuck up there with them to sing the song. She'll be in primary soon! She was so cute and knew all the words and signs to "Away in a Manger."  The girls weren't excited to see Santa, but they mustered up a smile for me.

And here is Abby sick this morning; eating her breakfast and picking at her graham cracker house.

I'm so excited for Christmas this year.  It is so much fun with kids.  It's magical.

Stowaways

Sammie's backpack when she came home from school one day.  These little critters must have accompanied her that morning.

Your face looks different.

This morning I looked at Sammie and held her chin in my hands.  "Your face looks different.  You look like you're getting older," I said to her.  She gave me her typical Sammie scowl (the one where she really is happy) and ran into the bathroom to check.  "I don't look different," she said back.
She's wrong.  She looks older to me.
Sammie is the queen of faces.  She even looks cute when she is mad.  Our friend took pictures of us and these were taken after Sammie had tripped and fallen.  She got so upset and didn't want any more pictures.  I love this little girl.  She has so much spirit.

45 "Much-es"

Abby loves to whisper in mine and Joey's ear and say, "I love you a hundred forty-five much-es,"  or "Forty-five much-es," or a thousand forty-five much-es."  There's always a forty-five.  She gets so excited to say it.  She scrunches up her little face afterwards with a big smile.

Kids make you feel so special sometimes.

O.L.F.

 

Olivia and her buddy, Mary, memorized and rehearsed over and over for the Oral Language Festival.  We were so proud of Olivia for doing it.  It took a lot of guts.  She just really wanted a t-shirt with her name on the back.  She and Mary memorized a children's story (they chose Knuffle Bunny Too) and they put hand motions to it and performed it in front of several classes.  We've all heard it so many times that Abby is reciting the whole thing now too.  Then they had to compete to move onto the district level.   They didn't move on, but their story was so cute and it was so good for both of them to do something out of their comfort zone.  They did an excellent job and Olivia was very happy to sport her new t-shirt and to be a part of the Oral Language Club.

Being a good big sis and helping Abby paint her nails.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Room for a 9 Year Old

My mom came for a visit.  Whenever my my mom comes for a visit there are never any pictures of her.  Just the projects that we do together.  We worked on Olivia's room.  I had it all planned out.  We had furniture.  The bed was mine when I was little.  She already had bedding from Gramma Jackie that she got for her birthday.  It just needed some paint to pull it all together.  I'm not quite done.  I still have a blank wall behind her dresser to decorate but I have an idea in the works that I will hopefully get to soon. 
My mom got right to work the morning after she arrived.  She painted and I assisted.  I even rolled a bit and painted the baseboards.  So awesome.  Projects in my home make me feel so good.

I don't have much of a "Before" because it was just plain white walls.  So here is the best "before" pic.

I realized that I needed to use a very coordinated look for Olivia because she is so messy.  So this way, her room still looks nice even when her clothes and books and papers or all over the place.  Her two favorite colors are blue and green.
So here is the "After" look.  We painted the walls a nice "true gray" color.  It took me 3 color samples to get the color right.

 Nightstand and lamp are from Gramma Jackie.

A place for her dolls and books.

These little birds were black.  They got a coat of green and some teal ribbon.

Her sock bunny and a little pillow I stitched for her.

This curtain rod was in Abby's room and I just painted it green.

The blank wall.  Still a work in progress...like everything else in life.

 Speaking of work in progress, here's my hallway full of stuff that needs to be done.

Chores

Sometimes these kids amaze me.  They are getting really good at cleaning the bathroom.  It's taken years.  And someone still needs to learn to clean the tub/shower, but still....progress.

Getting Bigger

My 3 year old is getting big.  So big that she tells all of her friends over and over and sometimes it makes them cry or get mad.  We're trying to teach her that, yes, you are getting big, but keep it to yourself.  It's difficult for a little girl who is trying so hard to be big like her sisters to not share the news with those who are a little shorter than her.  On the other end of the size scale, she wanted me to take a picture of her tiny pumpkin.

It came and went

Halloween didn't seem like Halloween this year.  Maybe beacuse it was so warm?  Maybe because our ward held its Trunk-or-Treat on Halloween night this year?  Maybe because we didn't do our normal traditions because of the trunk-or-treat?  I don't really know.  It was Halloween yesterday and today it is not. 

The girls seemed to enjoy themselves and I was in a mad dash to get everyone ready before there was no more light outside. 

A Bee

A Ballerina/Dancer/Princess  I think she settled on Ballerina

and Greek Goddess. (so Olivia)

We also had parent-teacher conferences yesterday.  Sammie and Olivia are both doing so well.  It was fun to talk to their teachers about them and their little quirks.  They are each excelling academically so we mostly talked about their personalities and how to help them achieve some of the goals they have made.  Sometimes I look at my kids and see so much personality and so many strengths, weaknesses, and quirks, that I could write a book about each one of them.  They are each so different from the other.  Being a mom is the best job in world and also the hardest.  Sometimes I don't know how I've made it through these past 3 years not feeling 100%.  But there is so much strength in knowing that we have a loving Heavenly Father who knows each of His children.

Hoot

 

Sammie made these cute little owl cupcakes for the Fall Festival at school.  She didn't win the cake contest, but we sure had a sugary time making them.  The girls' hands were all streaked with chocolate frosting.  It was on their faces, arms, and chairs.  I am still finding chocolate frosting on a few doors and walls.  I'm sure it was Abby.

It took all afternoon to bake, cool and then decorate before bed just to get 12 cupcakes done.

And here is more Fall baking that I let the girls do.  Also a mess, but they were actually really good at rolling out the dough. 

Yum!