made me laugh … and smile … and chuckle a bit

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I saw this image on my friend April’s blog. Doesn’t it make you laugh? I read it… and decided I ought to make my family a nice dinner tonight. So – I did. Satan won’t beat me, now will he?! We had very spicy taco soup (next time maybe i ought to measure the taco seasoning)… and tortilla chips. It was very heart-burning-warming on a chilly winterish day.

The rest of the day. I sat down to work on laundry… sort the clean piles, etc. Then Lizzy needed me. Then Truman needed me (in fact I think he needed me to hold him all day long). Hannah took this snapshot of our “Every day life” as she called it.

Have you ever read about the Stinky Cheese Man. Well – you are missing out!? I went to Hannah’s donut date at school and she read me lots of silly tales from this book. My favorite title was Cinderumpstiltskin (though it was a very unfortunate tale). I loved that Hannah giggled so much about the Stinky Cheese Man (based on the gingerbread man). I’m so grateful I could go to the school to be with her. I never make it to the school. It’s sad. I hardly even know where her classroom is. My 1st counselor came over and watched the 3 littles so I could go. Isn’t that nice. Zu-Zu missed me. Really. She cried. But I love seeing the sparkle in my school kids eyes when I show up at the school. I peeked my head into Abe’s classroom and he came over and gave me so many kisses on my cheek. Sweet kids with glowing hearts and sparkling eyes.

Lookie who’s joined us at the table. No matter what I do, this little baby keeps growing up. It’s so very sad. Ok – not sad… but what will I do when she grows up for real? I need my sweet baby ZuZu.

Lastly…. love this photo. There is sunshine in my soul. Wintertime pictures inside = dark with washed out flash… sad. Photos with a wee bit of sunlight = much better. Isn’t Hannah a dear girl to watch over these wascally boys.

Final Touch… I called one of my dear friends who lives in Alaska and what did I hear on the answering machine. A sweet little voice singing this…
It really was about the cutest thing that brightened my entire afternoon. Yes – we all need Sun!

like maxwell… like ‘liza

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it’s not really like max and eliza have anything in common?
or do they? i think eliza got her ‘oy!’ expression from max.
and maybe that sa-weet double chin (oh wait… they both got that one from me!)

we were pondering on the deep thought of triangle mouths… did any of our other kids have a triangle mouth like eliza? we think she looks the most like max so we thought we’d check his photos. yep… there were several triangle mouth keepers. these images seemed the most similar to me.
Poor little bugs to get startled so easily. And those cute smiles. Max’s head is more square with tons more hair. His eyes open wider and have less gray in them. But – in the end, I do have to say I think these 2 look similar. What do you think?

maybe someday we’ll have a little girlie who looks somewhat like this. hiyah!

p.s. Max no longer calls Eliza, “D’Wiza.” it’s very unfortunate. He says, “No, it’s not d’wiza. It’s e-liza.” (he enunciates the e and pauses for effect.) This week he’s into this: “I call her zuzu.” Oh max. What are we going to do with you? Just love you to pieces I suppose!

she shines like an angel

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Little Eliza is almost 5 months.
Yesterday she sparkled.
Today she shines.
I think she is so sweet.
What would our family do without Eliza?
What a blessing.

This is one of my favorites of the photos from today.
this IS eliza.

And when she smiles, her eyes disappear. It’s part of her sparkle.
She almost always has her hands in her mouth these days.

She even grabbed her toes for us. Cute bug!

a boy & a dog

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I can see how dogs are so good for kids. Abe, Max, and Truman love when Julie and Brock bring Koda over to play. Koda is almost as tall as Tru, but he is such a nice dog. I can’t believe Tru isn’t scared. Tru sparkles when Koda is around. He throws the ball for Koda to fetch.

Tru commands Koda to sit.  He pets him and tries to grab his tail. Truman has so much fun with Koda. I think a dog is good for his little soul.

Lastly… here’s a cute giggle from Truman who was trying to get Koda’s tail:

p.s. Tru… as good as a dog is for your soul, I’m afraid you’ll just have to enjoy Koda when he comes to visit… We’re not up for having a pet… too much poop, feeding, exercising to do for them. Plus, I have too many scary memories from big dogs chasing me to ever like dogs. Sorry bud.

Be filled with JOY

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My sister Janers gave me this print… oh, like 2 years ago as payment for a project or something of the sort. I love it! But it was an odd size and I had trouble figuring out a frame size. Well this week Michaels had frames 50% off so I found a size that would work. What cheer! I love seeing the print.

Speaking of being filled with JOY. Here are 2 tots who like each other… who are cheerful little tykes. Max says things like, “Oh, sweetie, sweetie, sweetie. It will be okay.” Then he squints his eyes & grins like an inch away from her face.

Cute little bugsy having some tummy time. She better not start crawling soon. I want her to stay little. Sigh…

Jimmy clipping nails. She was sucking on his arm. She’s at the stage when she’ll suck on anything. Oh Eliza!

I could sit and hold Eliza all day. She fun to snuggle & play with. Her cheeks are so squishy & kissable. She’s starting to learn to gab & it’s sweet. Cute little bug. Thank you photographer Max for cutting off most of my double chin.

I love that tots are so good at being filled with JOY.

Oy! I’m 4 Months

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On December 15, little ‘Liza turned 4 months. As you can see, she was once again a bit startled at the news.
Sweet little bug!

We took her to the doctor for her well-check. She did NOT like the shots. But she tried to be as brave as a 4-month-old can be.

Here are her stats:

Length: 25.5 in (90%)
Weight: 15 lbs 1 oz (75%)
Head Circ: 40.8 cm (50%)

See what happened to her nose just before Christmas. Major scratch… caused by her own fingernails. Sad!

~ She is becoming such a chub and I love it.
~ ‘Liza learned to blow raspberries.
~ She can almost grab her feet.
~ She can roll over from her stomach to back.
~ She laughs so cute.
~ She loves Jimmy and the kids… well, and me.
~ She tries to hold her bottle.
~ She loves that bottle (hence, the chubs!).
~ She really is the sweetest thing.
~ Always has fingers in her mouth.
~ Bugsy gets startled easily. She is so sad when Tru screams.
~ Her mouth naturally goes in a triangle.
~ Truman says she is pretty.
~ Eliza likes to stand up.
~ She used to sleep through the night but now she wakes at 3:30. What to do?
~ She is sharing a room with Max right now. They seem to have similar temperaments & sleeping styles (as in sleeping deeply)
~ ZuZu likes the new bumbo we borrowed from my friend. (p.s. Tru loves it too)

something is not quite right…

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can you tell me what’s wrong with this picture? (ok – other than the quality of photography here.)

No snow. It’s January 2. No snow… Like really no snow this entire winter. Weird.

The kids are playing outside in short sleeves, sunglasses… in 60 degree weather… in Utah… in January.

I know I ought not complain because generally winter time is so hard with everyone cooped up, but I do worry about the water level come summer if we don’t get snow now. But I supposed I’ll appreciate having the kids be able to play outside a little bit. Hurray! See – it even put a smile on little Tru’s face.

Choose the Right

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Love the Primary Theme for 2012. The kids came home with new CTR rings.
Max learned about Choosing the Right. Abe learned about Agency. Good stuff.

Mom: “Hey kids, let’s take a picture of all of you with your new CTR rings.”
This was the result:

~ Max wins for Choosing the Right.
~ Tru – time for nap… and he was still recovering from falling out of the van (hence the black eye bump).
~ Hannah and Abe – no excuse for them… they were just plain elbowing.
~ Next lesson: how to apply what we learn in Primary.

Tonight Hannah drew this to send in to the Children’s Friend:

Pretty clever drawing. We talked about other ways to Choose the Right. Tomorrow for FHE she is in charge of the Spiritual Thought: I can choose the right by having a good attitude.

“There’s a right way to live and be happy… it is choosing the right every day!”

Go Team!

what’s up lately.

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Abe had 2 loose front teeth… that is until Max kicked him in the mouth. The looser of the 2 came out with lots of blood & gore. Now the other one is half out & looking funky in the middle. Every day we try to pull it or at least loosen it a bit.

Tis the season for jell-o juice. Hannah was exclaiming her delight about something to do with it.

Nothing to do with the picture of max but this is funny. I was upstairs resting and the doorbell rang. I heard Max open the door so I came down… only to find him standing there in front of a ward member without pants or underwear. Really child? He had been going potty and was so speedy, he beat me to the door. It happened to be my 1st Counselor, Connie, and we had a nice laugh about it. I began to wonder if having the entire ward bringing the Giving Tree presents to my house was a good idea.

Raspberries. Yum. Our friends let us buy one of their boxes of flash-frozen raspberries from the cannery. $30 for 20 lbs… and they are tasty. We had to repackage them in our own ziplocks. Photo courtesy: Tru.

Speaking of Tru – I like the picture of his feet.

We’ve got specially shaped pancakes. Abe’s favorite – the mad scientist with crazy hair.

Fresh potpourri assembly line with Tru and Max “helping.”

1st Presidency Christmas Devotional

Max’s thumbs up. I like this kid.

Mostly this week I’ve been creating. It’s a nice outlet when we’re cooped up all day in the house (bleh cold!). I’ve done lots of orders from my etsy shop. I made a new quiet book – Old Testament style. Put together 2012 Primary theme posters… mostly because I wanted to have them on our 2012 calendar.

Thanks to my friend Heather H., I got a free code for a Shutterfly Calendar. Love that! I went through photos throughout the years for each month and came up with a few pictures for each one. I’m excited about the cheerful brightness of it all.

Creating is good for my soul. Yes – good.

That’s what’s going on in a nutshell.

That was aMAZing!

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Seriously – a really tasty treat. I’m so grateful for all that delightful vitamin c I receive from these clementines.

The day:

Truman wouldn’t take a nap before church = trouble for all. A huge tantrum that seemed to disrupt everyone for several rows around us (or maybe the entire chapel) during announcements was no bueno. Jimmy gave me Eliza and he exited with the 2-year-old. Sigh… At one point Abe, Eliza, and I were sitting alone on our bench. Sigh… This is life with 5 young children during church. Hopefully someday we’ll master being a bit more reverent. Always trying… that’s for sure.

Interesting to note for the record: I decided to bear my testimony. I haven’t for a long time… mostly because I don’t like bawling my eyes out in front of everyone. I had decided I didn’t feel like crying today. I knew it was good for my children to see my example of bearing testimony in church. Up, I went with a sleeping Eliza in my arms. I cried. Hannah glowed. Truman had to be taken out. Abe wiped his tears. Max gave me thumbs up. Once I sat down Max gave me more thumbs up, a “Good job mom,” and a “That was aMAZing!!!” Then Jimmy and I switched kids because I guess Tru needed his mother. Then Jimmy felt inspired to go and bear his testimony with an awake Eliza in his arms. I guess Eliza inspires us!

Oh – wait… I forgot to note the craziest part of church.  Eliza had a blast-o-poop.  Major mess!  It was on my sleeve & on my lovely light blue flower dress. I had to go home & change and get a new outfit for Lizzy. Ugg… what a mess.

The unfortunate part of the day was that the kids were a bit quarrelsome. Very unfortunate.

6 p.m. Christmas Devotional. I was hopeful the children would sit quietly on the couch with sparkling eyes and folded arms and listen to every word. Not so… but it was fine. The music is always nice. The Spirit was special. The Candle story by President Uchtdorf was funny. The message to focus on Christ was perfect! We’ll keep going.

Yes… go onward we will.