Jessicas birthday Carnival

Yesterday Jessica turned 5!!!    

To say she has been waiting anxiously for this day would be an understatement.   As soon as Valentine's Day was over, she began referring to herself in third person as "The Birthday Girl."    It was so cute yesterday morning, as John and I laid in bed, Abby and Sam spontaneously decided to "make" breakfast in bed for Jessica.   I could hear their planning and deliberation about what to cook, and I could tell it was going to be messy, but there was something about the way they wanted to spoil her that was just so sweet.    And I was super tired, so I just let them cook away.    Luckily they abandoned their lofty plans of pancakes for simple cereal and toast served on a platter.     

At one point I heard Jessica excitedly remark to herself, "I can't believe this day has finally come!" 

Because I am a mean mom, I don't let my kids have birthday parties every year.  Instead we alternate.    One year they get a friend party, the next year it is just a big special family party...etc.   This is "family party" year, and Jessica had a choice between going out to a restaurant or going to the family day carnival.   (Granted, we would have gone to the family day no matter what, but I wanted her to feel like she was in charge of the day, and seeing as she chose that over a fancy restaurant meal we secretly saved money!)   See how smart I am?     

So we loaded up the family and headed down to the local museum for some family day fun, which Jessica happened to mistakenly believe was set up just for her;)!     

The kids filled up on hot dogs and hamburgers.   They golfed, won prizes, stamped leather, and made ropes.     The ropes were definitely a highlight as the kids got to keep the rope they made.    As soon as we came home they immediately invented a climbing wall, using our banister and white couch.    I generally don't like it when the kids play in this main room, but seeing as they were all harnessed up and ready to go, I decided to let it slide.  Just this once.   

After they'd all climbed their hearts out, we sat down to enjoy Jessica's special birthday dinner.    Her menu of choice?     Chicken and Broccoli Casserole with a Chocolate rose cake.    

 A Chocolate rose cake????   Luckily, John's Valentines Day gift was still sitting by the window and that beautiful bouquet was put to good use.    

Jess loved looking at the pictures of her on our "Birthday Wall of fame" and she LOVED the gifts she got.  Thanks to all her cousins who sent her cards and gifts!!   John and I surprised her with a barbie house which had the kids all playing happily for the rest of the evening.  

It was nice to take a day just to celebrate her.    Jessica is our peacemaker.    She's the one who will jump up and get something anybody needs, and her number one goal in life is to please her mom and dad.   Why just the other day, as she was headed downstairs, she called out to me,    "Mom, I'll just be downstairs watching Sam and Abby, to see if there is ...you know...anything that I can tell on you about them!"    

Alright, so she's a bit of a suck up- but so was I once, and look how I turned out!

Jessica's got the sweetest smile and a genuine desire to do what's right.   She also is the only one in our family who will sit at the table and eat ALL of her vegetables!    

She's a Keeper this one!!!

Genuinely starting to worry about some of them;)

The day before valentines day, Jewel inspired us (and gave us supplies) to make cute little valentine shirts for the girls with fabric paint and a heart shaped doily.   Sam, not wanting to miss out on the fun, insisted on getting a shirt too.    John, not wanting his little boy to wear a shirt made from a heart shaped doily, insisted that we paint a different design on his.  

So...we present to you....Sam's lightning bolt T-shirt!  

Don't worry.   I know it looks hideous, but I didn' t expect much considering I spent all of 20 seconds on it.    Sam however LOVES it, and up until now, this was never a T-shirt he would have worn.   

Funny what a little logo does;)

I asked Sam to just make a normal face and pose nicely for me.   

That is what he did.

Then I said, "no really Sam, pose nicely!"

And this is what he did.

 Last night after our busy day of Valentines Day fun, the kids were quickly rushed through the night time routine, and then lovingly forced to bed.    Later that night as I was checking on them all, I was surprised to find Jessica- fast asleep- with her Church tights placed snuggly on her head.

I admit, I was slightly confused, but it was late and I've learned not to analyze what my kids do too much;)

However, I had to put my food down the next morning when I entered the kitchen and found her already up and eating breakfast...with her stockings still snug on her head.   Can you believe she wanted to actually go to school today using these as her hat?!!!

And I haven't even begun to talk about Nate yet!  (or as many now refer to him as "Sir Pukes-a-lot" ;)

Lately Nate has become determined ....no OBSESSED with being the one to answer the door.   When Grandpa comes for dinner each night, it is completely understood that nobody is allowed to let Grandpa in except for Nate.    When the door bell rings, no matter who it is, or how close any of us are to the door, we must stand there waiting for Nate to come and open it.    Failure to do so always results in an embarrassing display of dramatics from our expert two year old.    (in short, he has become a master tantrum thrower)    I reached my limit the other day though when I arrived home after a substantial grocery trip.   Arms loaded down with bags, I barged into the front door anxious to release the heavy load, only to remember too late that I had forgotten to "ring the doorbell" like I should have.    

Nate was livid.

I was forced to leave the house, (groceries and all), and pretend to return home all over again.  Only this time, I had to ring the doorbell, wait for him to finish his tantrum, and then when he finally did open the door I had to greet him as though I had just arrived for the first time.      With big tears dripping down his cheeks he said the usual..."Mom...home? " and then wondered off.

I'm getting tired of this little phase;)

He's also recently gotten a bit attached to this little stuffed monkey that has previously gone unnoticed all these years.    Nate comes to me many times during the day, hands me the monkey and says, "Mom...back...peaz...?"   I stuff the monkey down the back of his shirt and Nate happily returns to whatever it is he was doing before he realized he needed a  Monkey on his back.  

Oh and the other day I caught Nate playing on our kitchen floor near our vents.   (He's obviously discovered that the vent covers were removable.)   Perhaps I should have stopped then to investigate what it was he was up to, but he was quiet...and happy...so why interfere?

Hours later though, I saw him back there again, only this time I noticed the door to the nearby fridge was slightly ajar.     It didn't take long to figure out that Nate has secretly been going into the crisper, taking our ORANGES  and dropping them down our vents!!!!!   Ahhhh!!!!!

What is with these kids????

Oh and check out our family food blog to get recipes for the best seasonings  (that are not in a packet) EVER!  I'm loving them.

(now excuse me while I go find someone who can clean out our ducts;)

How Valentines Day went around here:

 * The kids woke up to a kitchen decorated with heart shaped balloons.

* They drank pink milk with heart shaped straws

* They loaded up their valentines for classmates and teachers and left for a day of fun

* Jess and I made Lemon Meringue Pies

* The kids came home and spent an hour going through all the valentines they received

* Abby gave me the best gift ever:  a sketch of a rose

* John gave me beautiful real roses
* Jewel brought my kids the cutest valentines ever, which they loved.    (She's uber creative!)

* We attended the junior theatre academy's productions- "Welcome to the Jungle" and "Pirates."   Both plays consisted of many kids from our ward, and lots of school buddies, so my little family was thrilled to get to go watch.    Next year Abby and Sam both want to be a part of it.   (look out;)!   

It was a fun Valentines Day for sure!  

Dear John....

Alright, so I didn't write this poem, but I did take the picture, so it is totally from the heart;)

Truth be told...IF I ever go to church again...

John had a couple of meetings today before church, which isn't really anything new, as he has meetings most weeks.   However, he had a special stake meeting today and he wasn't going to be home in time to take us to church so it was pretty much up to me to get my little chicks there by myself.   

 I know I make that sound like a big deal, but that's only because IT IS a BIG deal!

"Getting my kids to church on time" is a task comparable to solving world hunger, or ....I don't know....eradicating the ebola virus.    It's not easy.  Virtually impossible even.

Truth be told though...I handled it pretty darn well today.  

 I got the kids looking cute.   Abby practiced her piano.    Lunch was eaten.   I prepped tonight's dinner, AND made the desert.  Then we even had time to decorate heart shaped sugar cookies.    

 Yup.   It was pretty much my own little Sunday miracle.   

We got to church just as John was arriving, and sadly there was only one bench left that would accommodate our family.   Too bad for us, it was the worst possible bench in the entire chapel!   You know that first bench as you walk into a chapel thru the side door where the person handing out bulletins often sits?     That bench that has no bench in front of it,  so your kids are free to throw things as far as they want to, fight, make messes and cause all sorts of chaos and everybody sees it?   That was the one empty bench today.  

   Sitting on that bench is pretty much a kiss of death on a good day, and John and I both know to avoid it no matter what.     But we were late and there was nowhere else to sit so what were we supposed to do?    So we sat there, on the  "kiss of death bench",  and I prepared myself for the worst.  

Truth be told though our kids were actually doing remarkably well.  For the first time in like..forever, Nate was actually sitting still, (despite the wide open running space in front of him.)  Sam was actually sitting up beside me (instead of sprawling out on the floor beneath us), and nobody was crying for snacks.    I don't mean to brag or anything but it was pretty much amazing.    In fact, by the time we'd made it through the sacrament part of the meeting I was feeling pretty much thrilled and was having delusions of grandeur about how awesome we were.   

Truthfully, I had just barely looked towards John hoping to catch his gaze so that I could give him a "look at how much we ROCK today" wink,   when all of the sudden "it" happened.   

With no warning at all Nate began to throw up.    RIGHT THERE on that WIDE OPEN bench with nothing hiding us from anybody else.      Actually....  truth be told... he threw up all over Jessica's lap, because that is where I pushed his head.    (For some reason I thought her new beautiful puffy dress would make the perfect barf bucket?)

Everything else after that is sorta a blur to me.    I left with Jess to strip her down in the ladies bathroom, John left with Nate to strip him down, and the dearest sweetest lady in our ward who was sitting nearby cleaned up the little bit of puke that did not by chance make it onto Jessica's dress.    I'm pretty sure I'll have to make that up to her somehow this week.     Perhaps I'll take her some muffins.   (Because nothing says "thanks for cleaning up my child's puke in front of the whole ward" like a plate of blueberry bran muffins right?)

So, here I am now.    Skipping church.   

Nate, the little punk, is back to eating, drinking and pulling my hair - so he's basically back to his old self.  I'm perfectly happy to just lay beside him and try to love him while I nurse my wounded ego.   

Pretty sure I'm never going back to church ever again;)  

Just kidding, I like to be dramatic;)   I'll go back. 

But from now on...we are so sitting on the very farthest most BACK BENCH possible!   

I'll be there early EVERY WEEK just to save it!;)

************

And thats not all that happened this week that is worth mentioning.  (I know, the mind reels that there could be more;)    For starters,  I made bread for the thirtieth time this week and NAILED it!!   This time I tried a yummy whole wheat recipe and did everything right.   My father in law loved it so I feel confident saying it was yummy.    Just a little fact- in the past two weeks I've used over 30lbs of flour just practicing;)

 Oh, and last night John and I went on a real live date to watch the high school band perform.    We even danced!!!    Looking back, I think my skirt was a bit too tight (I could barely breathe),  and I can't dance at all (which is really embarrassing) - but it was definitely a nice night.  

Also this week, I went through all my families closets and sorted their play clothes from their school clothes.   I then ironed all of their school clothes and hung them up nicely in their closets.    It looks great, and I'm happy that my kids will no longer look like homeless children at school.    For the first time in like FOREVER I am ironing John's shirts for him!    I mean really!   Home made bread and freshly ironed shirts?   It's like John has a whole new wife!  

Yup.  I came close to feeling like a rockstar this week.    

I guess it's a good thing we have kids to keep us humble;)   

Saturday Sun

I woke up early Saturday morning (something I rarely ever do;) to take a few pictures.    The weather lately has been so spring like, and I wanted to snap a few pictures in Waterton.    I got back to town just before 9:00 am,  in time to do Saturday chores with the kids.  After that, the whole famdamily enjoyed a walk down to Dairy Queen for an ice cream treat, John cleaned the garage, and we celebrated Grandma Hardy's birth date by taking flowers to her grave.    

The sun was shining all day long!!!

This is what Waterton looks like as you approach it at 6:45 in the BLESSED AM!!!  ;)

This is a shot of Waterton Lake just after 7:00 am: 

 The sun rises a bit later in the mountains- but once it does, it casts the most gorgeous glow over everything!    

Later in the day as the sun was going down:

It's funny what a difference the light can make.     

Looking back, I'm really grateful for that lovely sunny day.

Love this thought today

Baby #5

Don't look now, but I think making bread just got a whole lot easier.  

At least...possible;)

Thanks to this delightful little machine that now sits happily on my counter:

   Sometimes, I wake up in the middle of the night thinking happy thoughts about it.    I'm not obsessed or anything.   Though I did warn my family that if there is ever a fire, they are to "grab the bosch" before leaving the house!     (kidding.   I just told that to John;)

 I wish I could say that I have mastered the whole bread making thing, but I must confess,  I still don't have it down pat.    Quite yet.    

But it sure is a lot more fun practicing now!!!

A whole lotta Star Wars around here

It seems as though the past several weeks have been all about Star Wars around here.    It all started when the kids came across the old trilogy I had hidden away in the storage room.    I blame this new found obsession entirely on John, and he seems perfectly content to enjoy it right along with them.   It has literally been all anyone around here talks about!!

Since then, every family movie night has had to be of course...Star Wars.    The kids all cuddle up next to John (the cool star wars liking parent) and poke fun at me for how little I know about the plot.    Seriously though?   Every planet looks the same.   It's so lame.

When I need Sam to do something, I have to either a) pretend to use "the force" on him making him obey in a zombie like way or b) tell him to use "the force" himself and get it done.   Either way you look at it, getting Sam to accomplish any sort of task these days involves a great deal of acting and dramatics.    

We now have four light sabers in this house, and if you ask me- that is four too many! ;)

  

They've even corrupted my little Nate man!   This is how he showed up for breakfast the other morning:

 I reached my limit though last Sunday as we were sitting together in Sacrament Meeting.    For some reason, as the bread was being past, Sam really urgently needed to talk to me.     Not wanting to engage in a conversation during the sacrament, I kept shushing him and trying my best to make it look as though we were actually a reverent little family.    Still, as the water was being passed - Sam continued to try asking me his crucial and important question.    Of course, I continued to shush him.   Finally, during the first speakers talk I completely gave up on actually hearing anything or feigning reverence and I turned to Sam exasperated and whispered, "Ok Sam.   What is it that you need?"  

Sam let out a huge relieved sigh and whispered seriously to me:

"Okay.   So... just exactly how do I spell....obi wan kanobi?"

Truly, by the time I'd finished helping him spell that word - the meeting was pretty much over. 

Really looking forward to tomorrow,  I can tell ya that. 

Luckily, we have a very established "no light sabers at church" rule - so it should be all good;)

When I'm bored...

I must be super bored, because I'm going through old photos trying to find new ways to edit them.  

This is the kind of thing I do for fun.  

Though I think it's time to go out and get some new photos;)

There is something very soothing and calming to me about going for a drive to take pictures.    There is nothing rushed, or stressful about Nature, and it's always a beautiful reminder to me to worry less about the things that don't matter.   Just breathe.   And trust.   Everything works out the way it is supposed to.

There is a grand design.  And it is beautiful. 

Sometimes our "intellectualness" astonishes me;)

Last week after our super amazing family home evening lesson (sarcasm intended;) we all filed down to Abby's room which she had recently converted into an Art Gallery.    It was perhaps the most sophisticated and intellectual activity this little group has participated in to date.     (unless you count that time we took them with us to go vote.   But that only resulted in Sam throwing a tantrum and me removing him from the building in some sort of half nelson / headlock way.  WHICH happened to be photographed and ended up on the front page of the local paper later that week!) 

   Yup,  We are a classy bunch.    

And this post is all about our super classy evening at "Abby's Gallery of Fine Art."        

I should add that before we were even aloud to enter her room, Abby first set the mood by turning on some Taylor Swift music.    Because nothing sets the mood at an art gallery like a little bit of "Fireflies" and "You belong with me"  right?

While we walked through her room we stopped at every piece to admire it and we made all sorts of fancy and smart comments.    John commented on this picture and complimented Abby on the style of it and the dancer's pose, which made abby blush.  

I thought this one was cute, and I really liked the way she chose to use more then one medium.  

 See?  That sounds smart and artsy eh?

This one makes me wish I was in Waterton right now.   Abby was sure to point out that this whole  picture was done with only pen.    A pen, I say!!!;)

Unsurprisingly,  this morbid little scene was Sam's favorite, and I instantly made a mental note to not let the kids watch Percy Jackson anymore;)    Actually, Abby is almost finished reading this series which she has clearly enjoyed.   Perhaps a little too much?

Luckily, I have one more picture to post, which will hopefully erase any memory of the previous image.   Here is one of my happy (undisturbed) little eight year old holding her most recent (and dagger free) depiction of a female orca whale.   

Abby wants to be a Marine Biologist one day.    

Or Taylor Swift.   

Naturally, her fall back is to become a world famous artist.     

 It's funny, I totally remember when those were all things that I wanted to be when I grew up.

   (Only instead of Taylor Swift it was Reba McIntyre, but whatever.)    

Of course, I really have no clue what this girl will actually end up doing when she's older.   For now though-  give her a book, a pen, paper, and a few adoring fans....and she's pretty much fulfilled! 

Why I don't homeschool

I've sometimes wondered if I could ever "home school" my kids the way other parents do.   I certainly love the teachers that my kids have, and I've got nothing against the public system- it's just that I really admire these mom's I know who do home school.  So much so, that I kinda wish I was like them.  

They are so creative, and calm and...motherly.    

The other day, I decided to tap into the "home school" mom in me, and do a little project with the kids.    

We got the idea from a book that Jessica had brought home from school titled, "Let's grow things."   

We carefully followed the directions, and tried to grow a carrot plant, potato vine, bean sprouts, and an onion green.    Jessica was super excited and she was determined to be the first to note any change or growth.   She would check these vegetables pretty much a kazillion times a day.

This is what things looked like the day we began this little experiment:

And this is what things looked like, two weeks later, when we finally gave up on things:

Not much changed, except for the fact that the carrot shrivelled up and fell into the bowl, and the onion turn the water a rancid shade of orange that left the grossest permanent stain, but that's pretty much it.  

So much for the flourishing green plants we were expecting.  

Basically, it was a complete and utter FLOP,  and that's when I realized that it's probably best if I leave the "experiments" up to the professionals.    Still though,  this failed project did give me the chance to teach my disappointed kids the whole concept of "finding joy in the process regardless of the outcome."

   And that's an important life lesson, isn't it?

A week of carbs

There is nothing yummier then a fresh hot out of the oven loaf of bread, no?

Add a little butter, or honey- and it is pretty much the coziest taste in the world.  

My family loves fresh bread too- only problem is that I can not for the life of me make it.   My sister Jewel makes the best bread/rolls EVER and don't get me started on her homemade cream puffs!

I think I've just grown content to let her be the expert.  (so long as she shares with me;)

This year though- I have resolved to learn for myself how to make it bread, and I'm beginning to wonder how many practice loaves it will take;)

Last Sunday the cold weather sunk in (we're talking -40 degrees) and I decided to make a yummy chicken and rice soup with fresh homemade bread.   Considering John's Dad would be joining us, I think this was a quite ambitious endeavor on my part.    When I pulled this loaf out of the oven and placed it on the table it looked PERFECT!    Even the first slice looked good.   I started freaking out and taking pictures of my successful loaf of bread.  (John and Max both thought I was overreacting a bit, but that's only because I wouldn't let anybody eat until I'd finished rejoicing.)

Sadly though, after the first slice, it all went down hill.    The core of the bread was only half cooked and was still completely doughy.    Even worse though, was the huge hollowed out pockets of air.   A couple of cuts into this loaf, and it looked more like a doughy hunk of swiss cheese.   

On Monday, I decided to give it another try.    After our previous fiasco the night before, Max had given me a few tips, which I was sure would help.    So, for family home evening we tried making CTR pretzel bread.    The kids shaped it themselves, were proud as punch when it came out of the oven, and gobbled up every last piece, so I really should call this one a success.   The truth is though, my kids would eat anything if it was smothered in honey butter, and well...just look at it!

Later in the week I decided to try one.more.time to make some bread that I could be proud of.   

I tried another pretzel recipe and actually think these little morsels turned out looking pretty darn good.   Only problem is that I'd sprinkled them with salt (they were pretzels after all) and a little too much of it!  

When enjoyed with a VERY tall glass of water, they weren't that bad:)  

I'm pretty sure I've made every mistake in the book when it comes to making bread, but I'm determined that sometime this year- I'll get it figured it out. 

Fourth time's a charm right?

Because my kid is like, so super spiritual;)

Yup.  That's right, this is just my two year old enjoying his scripture study on a typical Tuesday morning;)

Meh.  Nothing new.  

Oh, and for the record, (despite the same woody pajama's this boy is sporting) this is a photo of his THURSDAY morning scripture study.    I'm starting to think he joined some type of 30 day challenge without me knowing it.  It's getting weird.
Awesome.   But weird.

Oh and I've got to record this story of Jessica, which perfectly illustrates a child's perception of time.    

(Because I've always found a child's perception of time to be particularly entertaining;)

The other day I stopped at my sister Jewel's house to drop off a few things.  Not wanting this to become a 1 hour stay (including tantrums when it's time to leave) - I left my kids in the van and told them that I would be back in just 2 seconds.  What?  It was warm out, the van was not running, and they had an entire bag of cheesy to scatter around the van.  I knew they'd be just fine;)

Anyways,  I chatted with Jewel for only a brief moment and then visited with my niece Ava only long enough to hear that she wants a puppy.  (nothing new there;)     Oh, and I perhaps sampled a bowl of delicious soup that they had just made for lunch.      I admit, I possibly took a wee bit longer then the 2 seconds that I'd originally promised, but I'm still sure that I only made my kids wait for a few minutes.  

  (...maybe 5)  Tops!

Well, when I returned to the van, Jessica pointed her finger at me and said emphatically and impatiently, "Mom!   You said that it would only take one HOUR and instead you took 5 MILLION!!!"

Man, I just hate it when I take 5 million hours doing something;)

A Balmy 1 degree makes all the difference!

It's been a week of -40 degree temperatures, which means- not too much of note happened;)

I for one was quite disappointed to go the week without getting a single "snow day" out of it.   

So, while the kids and John braved the cold and went to school - Nate, Jess and I stayed home and considered every day a "snow day" - just for spite!    We cuddled lots, read a little, made valentine decorations, watched movies, and drank a year supply of hot chocolate in a few short days.    

(I know, this Motherhood stuff is a tough gig-but somebodies got to do it;)   

John, on the other hand was thrilled that a snow day never happened as he apparently needed every last minute of teaching time to prep his students for finals week.    (I hardly call that a reason to wish away a snow day, but who am I to say?;)

Luckily, by Friday night a beautiful Chinook rolled in that caused the temp to rise 20 degrees in just a matter of minutes!    And just like that we  we were back to enjoying unseasonably warm temperatures on the plus side of 0!   Yesterday,  I opened all the windows in our house for the first time in ages and let the fresh air and sunshine come flooding in!   Beautiful!!!

The kids were happy to get outside Saturday , and I even ventured out with them.   We built three snowmen, and went sledding on a hill in the alley by our house.    Nate surprised me the most by LOVING the GT snow racer!   He squealed every time, and flat out refused to let his older siblings take a turn on it.     When I tried to ride with him once he fought back with his favorite phrase of late: 

 "Go away!"  ;)

I unfortunately called it quits to sledding much sooner then the kids would have wanted, but then again they weren't the ones who had to continually haul a 2 year old, a 4 year old and two snow racers up the hill.    Over...and over ...and over again;) 

By the time we got home our little snow family had already begun to melt, and our front lawn is looking more brown then white now;)    

Is it too much to hope that that was it for Winter?

Loving this thought right now

"Do not be deceived by your senses,

 your feelings of fear and uncertainty, 

for even as the tempest may howl,

just beyond,

lies a serenity,

that you may not find otherwise."

There are days when this thought enters my mind and fills me with such sweet calm anticipation.   
I love how just a few words can do that;)