This Is The Year

Time to link up with PMM and talk about my kiddos.  Yeah, like I need an excuse. First off - no Baby Girl yet.  I was really thinking yesterday that I might be headed to the hospital by the end of the night.  But then - nothin'.  Which is totally okay, because guess what I haven't done?  I haven't made this baby girl a single hairbow!  That's what I'll be doing today. But today I'm telling you about my OTHER baby girl.  My Monkey.  Seriously, this girl cracks me up.  The stuff she comes up with is just too much sometimes. A few weeks back she climbed into the car after school and was just beside herself.  "I lost my tooth today," she said.  And then bursting into tears she added, "and then I REALLY lost it!".  When I asked her what she meant she told me that she had taken it out to recess to show her friends, and she lost it. Later that night, Hubby came in to show me what he had found in place of her tooth: Side on...

Because I seem to have issues lately with being bitter - I'm glad to have Emmy to help me remember that I  still have lots to make me smile.  Here are my 10 things to smile about in January: 1 - Back to blogging!  I'm blogging more regularly than I have in a LONG time, and it feels good to be back. 2 - Pixie's 4th grade Pioneer Musical.  The students write the script themselves and work really hard in preparing to perform it for parents and other students.  Pixie did a wonderful job, and played the mother in one of the main families.  She tends to talk really fast, and really quiet, so we were a bit nervous about how she would perform.  She was awesome.  She projected her voice, and spoke at a speed that everyone could understand!  We were really proud. 3 -  I can FINALLY see sunshine, blue sky and my beautiful mountains!  The inversion has been so horrible, and we finally have a series of storms moving through that are c...

It's been forever since I've linked up with Kenlie for FMM - but I do love to be friendly!  I have done a questionnaire similar to this in the past, but it's been a long time and some of you may be new around here, so I thought it would be fun.  Also, some of my answers may have changed since then! Also, does anybody know why Blogger won't let me copy and paste without a stupid white background around the words?  It is super annoying, but I'm too lazy to retype all the questions, so I just copied Kenlie's post and then changed the answers.  So sorry - you'll have to deal with the dumb white border. Getting To Know Each Other 1.  What is your favorite color?  I love all happy, bright colors.  But I especially am loving turquoise right now! 2.  Share one or more of your talents.   I enjoy playing the piano - although I'm getting pretty rusty. 3.  If you were spending the day getting to know someone new, where would you wa...

I thought it would be fun to snag some random pictures that I have stored on the computer, and flashback to the time they were taken.  Makes me feel all reminscey.  And that is totally a word. But first I wanted to give an update on my post from yesterday.  Remember I told you that the one journal that didn't sell for Cowgirl's first experience with Mini Society business day was her one attempt at making a "boy" journal?  Well apparently this week they've all changed their minds, because there are so many people that want it, that it had to go up for auction.  She had them priced to sell for $15.00 each (school money).  The bidding on her one boy journal is now at $70!  So she's excited to see what it finally sells for. Now on the the flashbacks! This first picture was taken when Monkey was 3.  I had to run to our insurance office to sign some paperwork.  Monkey had asked for an apple to eat on the way.  When we pulled into ...

Today I'm linking up to PMM, so I can brag on Cowgirl. She's in 6th grade.  One of the things they do is called Mini Society.  I'm sure you've seen or heard of similar things at your kids' schools.  But basically their classroom is a mini society.  They have to earn "money", pay for their privileges, etc.  They regularly have a day where they run a business in order to make more money, and also have the opportunity to spend their money. Before the first time, Cowgirl was brainstorming, trying to figure out what she could sell.  I remembered a couple of weeks earlier I had seen that she had taken one of the composition notebooks I had gotten her for school, and scrapped it all cute and girlie.  She did it on her own, just for fun.  I suggested she could sell cute, scrapped "journals".  She loved the idea and got to work. I have been pretty useless in the evenings as far as helping my kids out with stuff.  I'm just so exhausted by th...

So I've had a few days of writer's block.  I feel like the only thing I'm really focused on right now is trying to get ready for Baby Girl - since we are down to crunch time!  I know that not everybody is into reading endlessly about motherhood and baby prep.  But without that - I got nothin'.   So sorry! Is there anybody else who still has their Christmas decor up?  Because I just always seem to have way more urgent things to do than un-decorate.  And once I get a more urgent task completed, I'm so freaking tired that I just don't have it in me to dive into the project of decor-switching!  I'm seriously sick of looking at it though! I ordered my car seat today.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute!  I sure hope it get's here before Baby Girl does!  Here's what we picked: It's the Graco Snugride 35 I'm sorry if this is not incredibly fascinating to everyone else, but I haven't done this for almost 7 years!  It's ...

I am SO glad there's no school for my kids today!  It's 4 degrees outside my house right now!  I really am sooooo over winter.  I'm very happy that we had a white Christmas, but as far as I'm concerned, once the holidays are over, winter is just a big, cold, annoying driving hazard!  And the inversion in the Salt Lake valley is awful! But enough complaining.  Who has fun plans for the weekend?  We'll mostly be at home trying to get stuff ready for baby (yes, I've waited until the last minute - don't you know me by now?), but Bookworm does have a church basketball game tomorrow afternoon.  That should be fun. As always the kids are wondering when the baby will get here.  We are now in the "safe zone" as far as health and development if she were to decide to come early.  How about a fun little contest for my readers?  I'll send prizes to the reader(s) that are able to guess the closest date of delivery, weight, and length of Baby Girl ...

Already a brat: So as you could tell from parts 1 and 2 - my kids are pretty excited about this new baby sister that is joining our family. Monkey kisses my belly every time she walks past.  But Bookworm has been the one that has warmed our hearts with his joy about the baby, and his tenderness.  He is ALWAYS asking me how I am and how baby is doing.  If I seem uncomfortable in any way he always asks if I am feeling okay. He is always concerned that I am doing things that are the best for the baby.  I've gotten a few lectures from him about not drinking Dr. Pepper.  One Sunday afternoon I took a much needed nap.  After I woke up, Bookworm told me he had looked in on me a few times while I was sleeping, and that every time he walked past the door, I was sleeping on my stomach.  He asked me, "is that safe for the baby?" He has been so sweet and adorable.  Which makes it so ironic that of all the kids he was the last one who ever got to fee...

Today I'm linking up with my girls Shawn and IA , which I haven't done in forever!  If you want to read part 1, go here . The Gender Reveal: The kids were so excited about the fact that we were adding another member to our family! After I had my first appointment, we told them that they could come to the next appointment and hear the heartbeat.  Well the next appointment happened to be the week of the big scare .  We decided that we shouldn't bring the kids, in case there were any problems.  Once we knew what was going on, if everything was okay, we would take them to the next appointment. My doctor ended up having to push that next appointment back a week, and by that time the kids were back in school.  They begged us to check them out of school, and we made the deal with them that we would check them out of school to come to the ultrasound, OR to come hear the heartbeat.  But not both.  Of course they all chose the ultrasound. When it fin...

So I haven't really blogged much throughout my pregnancy, and I thought I'd take a few days to recap some of the memorable moments regarding Baby Girl. Breaking the News: If you remember, this pregnancy was completely unplanned, and unexpected!  Although our children kept pestering us to have another baby, we had decided that we were done.  I'm not gonna lie - when those 2 lines showed up instantly , I was in a little bit of shock.  As was Hubby.  I think we've spent the majority of the pregnancy feeling overwhelmed and trying to process the fact that we need to get back into baby mode, after being out of it for many years.  But it's impossible not to take delight in the way the kids are being about this new little life that is about to join our family. When it came time to tell the kids, we gathered them all around for a family meeting.  We had recently asked Bookworm if he wanted to move his bedroom downstairs, as Cowgirl was doing (our ulterior mot...

Yesterday I read this article on our local news website.  If you don't want to go to the link, here's a quick summary: An 11 year old girl who has been playing in a community youth football league for 2 seasons has been told that she won't be able to come back next season and play with the league, which is supposed to be an all-boys league. People are up in arms!  And the family has started an online petition calling for the Catholic Youth Organization to allow girls to play in the league. I guess I'm missing something.  I don't see this policy as discriminatory, or old fashioned.  I see it as common sense in protecting participants, as well as the league's own liability. Cowgirl (age 12) is an excellent soccer player.  She loves it.  A couple of seasons ago, she was invited by her then coach to join a competitive (all-girls) soccer league that he was moving his daughter to, out of our local recreational league.  She went and practiced wit...

Does anybody else hold the hair elastic(s) between their teeth while using both hands to comb little girls' hair into a ponytail, so that you can just grab the elastic out of your mouth and wrap the ponytail once it's combed into place?  And did that description even make any sense at all? I'm here to warn you.  I almost died this morning.  Okay that may be a small exaggeration.  But I really did nearly choke - like for reals choke. I was combing Monkey's hair - we were running a little behind schedule, and Hubby and the other girls were already out in the car waiting for Monkey to join them so they could head to school.  I had the elastic between my teeth.  I had opened the cupboard beneath the sink to grab a spray bottle with one hand, while holding Monkey's hair in place with the other.  I was in a hurry and sort of slammed the cupboard back shut. It smacked Monkey's knee, and she gave a little yelp of pain.  I instinctively gasped, and l...

Yesterday I talked about resolutions and goals, and told you of my plan to have our whole family set some goals that would help us improve ourselves in a few different categories.  The plan was to narrow it down to a few goals that would have a big impact, rather than a million different goals that would overwhelm us, and quickly discourage our efforts.  I wanted to present it in a Family Home Evening lesson, along with a plan for tracking our progress, and a way to help us keep focused and accountable.  I won't share all the goals right now (there are 6 of us you know!), but I thought I'd tell you what I came up with and how it went. I first went and purchased 6 composition notebooks.  They all had different fun designs.  This is the one I picked for Monkey: Now I'm not gonna lie.  The only reason we had cutesy decorated notebooks was because they were all out of the cheap plain ones.  But you can usually find the plain ones for under a dollar a...

I often hear people talk about how they don't bother with New Year's resolutions anymore, because they never keep them and then they have guilt, etc. I've never been able to quite feel comfortable with that perspective for myself.  One of the core principles of my faith is the responsibility to live up to our potential - to be continually improving, striving to be like our Savior and overcoming our weaknesses.  Goal setting seems the most logical way to continue to move forward on the path of self improvement. A friend and neighbor of mine gave a talk in church last week, and one of the things she talked about was the opportunity goal setting provides for growth and improvement, even when we don't achieve everything we set out to.  She talked about how making some  progress on a goal or resolution gets us that much further ahead than we were before.  Or than we would be if we simply chose not to set any goals for ourselves.  This really struck me as som...

Pretty much.  That's how I feel. Not EVERYTHING in 2012 was horrible.  I had the great delight of meeting and spending time with several blog friends that really, I consider IRL friends.  It started out with Sami , which led to spending some actual time with Evelyn (we had met very briefly before), then Vivienne , followed by MiMi (already had met!), Myya and Amanda .  THEN I also got to meet and spend time with Emmy, who introduced me to Involuntary Amy (who I hadn't previously "known" through blogging).  Sounds like a lot of fabulous meet-ups, huh?  Well they were!  But then I think somebody decided I had had too much greatness and that the rest of my year should be the suckiest year ever. I meant to do a series of blog posts to catch up on the wonderful trials that were thrown our way during the 2nd half of the year - but I just couldn't bring myself to do that many whiny blog posts in a row.  So I decided to just do a brief (or maybe not...