8 years old, going on 25...

So, Marissa came out with 2 balloons in her shirt and announced, "I wish I had breasts and could wear dangly earrings!" OOHHH, my....I started to give her the "someday you will" lecture and "we have to enjoy the time of life we're in" lecture. Then she continued, "I wish I were a mom with babies. Moms have all the fun, (She's telling me this as I'm scrubbing the lasagna pan...ya, fun...) especially when your pregnant. You get to lay around all day and make the kids do all the work." HAHAHAHAHA!!!! I could not stop laughing. I guess the grass always look greener on the other side.

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is such a fun holiday! I have always loved making special things for those dear to me. Lucky for me, now my kids like to join me in that tradition. They are always up for a fun cooking or craft project. We have a lot of fun together. The icing on the cake is sharing what we make with others and seeing their reactions. I love "upcycling" things too, and the sweet hearts and love boat were made from things we already had (who doesn't have a few leftover candycanes after Christmas, eh?). Chandler made the love boat for his kindergarten Valentine mailbox out of an orange juice carton.

Ty and I went out on the Friday before Valentine's Day to celebrate (much easier to find sitters and not fight the crowded restaurants). Marissa took our picture for us--tee, hee. We had a yummy steak and seafood dinner, then went to a high school basketball game. (I surprised Ty and boy, was he surprised!! He thought we were going to a musical--hahaha!!) We had a lot of fun. Ty got me the most thoughtful gift this year--a heater for my office. We can't figure out why, but my office is like 10 degrees colder than the rest of the house. I always dread working in there and practicing the piano with Miss in there. Well...not anymore!! Thanks you honey--I love it!

To start off our day, I made the kids pink heart pancakes for breakfast and gave them coupons for the DVD "Tangled", when it comes out, and for an outing to Kiwi Loco for a frozen yogurt treat.

What a LLOOONNNGGG Weekend!!

It's been such a long weekend, I honestly can hardly remember anything else that happened this whole week. Clarke has been sniffling all week, but started getting a fever on Friday afternoon. He woke up Saturday morning MISERABLE. He has been so fevered all day Saturday and all night that it took both IBProfen and Tylenol to keep the fever at bay, although the fever stayed low-grade till 6:00 a.m. Sunday morning, when it finally broke after Ty gave him a blessing at 5:30 before his early morning meetings! It was one of the longest nights I can remember. I dozed off here and there a few minutes, but basically was up the ENTIRE night. Today my whole body aches--got a kink in about everything. Today he took 2 naps (so did I). Friends took Marissa and Chandler to church while Ty visited another ward with the stake presidency. This morning my shower felt like heaven after such a long night of getting coughed on, barfed on, and used as a human kleenex. AAHHHH!!! Tonight I'm wishing it were either nice weather or not Sunday. Then I could either go take a walk, or go buy a strawberry-banana-golden oreo blizzard and have a few minutes alone. Oh, well, guess I'll vent on my blog instead. I'm praying he's all worn out now and will sleep well tonight...we'll see. Sick kids (babies in particular) are the WORST!! You just don't know quite what is wrong or how to fix it. It's been a long time since we've been sick, though, (like November) so I guess it's our turn! Generally, our family is healthy, and I am SOOOO grateful for that!!!

Random Pix from the New Year

Missy lost her first top tooth and got bangs for the first time!! Chandler got to bring "Bob Bear" home overnight from kindergarten and write about their adventures together.

Clarke--our cute little lion.

One full laundry basket of adorable kids.

I'm done eating and I'm TIRED!!

Mr. Blue eyes. He is learning some fun words--kitty, light, dada, mama, hot, hi, buh-bye, yum-yum and uh-oh. He loves to climb, run, and thread strings between his toes.

Christmas of 2010

We had such a nice, welcomed break for Christmas. I really tried to keep things more simple this year. It's hard not to get carried away and do too much, buy too much, spend too much, eat too much, and make too many sweets. I'm happy to report I did not buy any candy for Christmas, and I only made cookies once for a dinner we went to and were supposed to bring dessert. We just had so many yummy treats that family, friends, and neighbors brought! Among our favorites were spud fudge, homemade caramels, homemade almond cream chocolates, and the best coconut cream pie I've ever had. I tried to do things that would be meaningful to the kids. We made two countdowns--one was about the birth of Christ, and you would look up a scripture per day and discuss it, then put a little ornament on a tree. The other one the kids made after Thanksgiving dinner, and it had pockets that held a small gift or project to open every day of December. I think these made the whole month special and exciting for them. We also delivered gifts to neighbors together, helped do a secret 12 days of Christmas for some needy ward families, read lots of Christmas stories, and decorated gingerbread houses. Christmas day was a little hectic, as we had to get over to my family's house to talk with 2 of my brothers who are both on missions. It was so fun to see Darek on Skype (he's in the Bucharest, Romania mission, but was currently in a neighboring country of Moldova), and Dione was fun to talk to (in Raliegh, NC) and to see how much they have both grown!! What a testimony to me of missionary work, and revelation to know where they send them is the right place for them! It's always nice to see all our families and let the cousins play. I think the kids favorite things they got were their hats and cameras (little kid-proof digital ones). They still use them all the time. They love to be able to capture their own memories and document things that are special to them. The hats are well loved out of necessity--it has been SOOO cold lately!!