Thanks for the reminder...

Spencer was saying family prayer tonight and amid asking for help for us to remember Jesus as a baby and to remember all of the people that saw Jesus as a baby, he asked that "Mom and Dad could get all of the grumpies off of them". Alright, things must be pretty bad and pretty stressful. Time to slow it down, folks. Sorry, Spence. Thanks for the reminder. Goodbye, grumpies. Off with you!

Man...this time of year is busy!

I haven't even been able to think straight over the last couple of weeks, let alone get things ready for Christmas! It all started on Dec. 8 and it hasn't stopped until right now!

December 8th: I had the first of two Piano Recital Rehearsals.
December 10th: My second rehearsal and the Relief Society Christmas Party. I'm now in the Relief Society Presidency and I'm in charge of the activities. Luckily I have an amazing coordinator and committee who did a fabulous job, but it still was quite the ordeal.
December 11th: Celebrate Linda's birthday at Outback and make sugar cookies.
December 12th: Girls' Christmas Dance Recital and sugar cookie decorating tradition with the Rogers.
December 13th: Meetings, meetings, meetings and lots of kid juggling between my meetings and Austin's meetings
December 14th: Addressed and mailed out 100 Christmas cards
December 15th: Piano Recital
December 16th: Started on Neighbor gifts
December 17th: Still working on Neighbor gifts
December 19th: Shopped with 4 children for 2 other children off of the angel tree (way bad idea...), prepared for Relief Society booth at Ward Christmas party, grocery/Christmas shopping, made soup and dessert for said party, attended party and manned booth that had enough glitter to last anyone a lifetime!
December 20th: Met with ladies to rehearse musical numbers at 9:00. Met with separate lady to rehearse a different musical number at 10:00. Accompanied for the ladies at 10:30. Presidency meeting at 11:00. Church at 12. Accompanied the "instant choir" in sacrament meeting. Visiting teaching from 3:15 -5:30. Headed straight to my parent's for Sunday dinner. Now I'm home...
Still not done with neighbor gifts, nothing's been wrapped and I've barely started shopping for my cute sweet husband. Will there be time? It may take a Christmas miracle. Next year, I'm starting a new tradition of not accepting any responsibilities after the 13th of December, so that when the 12 days of Christmas starts, I can actually enjoy them! :)

Just came across this and it made me smile.
Partly because it's very cute and
partly because it excuses the fact that my house isn't immaculate...ever.

--Emily


Some homes try to hide the fact
That children shelter there.
Ours boasts of it quite openly,
The signs are everywhere.
For smears are on the windows,
Little smudges on the door;
I should apologize I guess,
For the toys strewn on the floor.
But I sat down with the children:
We played and laughed and read.
And if the doorbell doesn’t shine,
their eyes will shine instead.
For when at times I’m forced to choose
The one job or the other,
I want to be a homemaker
But first I’ll be a mother.
--author unknown

You better believe we're going to use this one!

I was reading on Stephanie Nielson's blog (nienie dialogues) and I chuckled outloud!

She said that her husband was attending to their two screaming daughters and said,

"Oh girls, guess what? The devil called and said you guys were doing awesome."

That's hilarious!

I told Austin about it and he said that he will try to work that line in before the week is over.

Quite the Contrast

(Warning: This is way outdated and overdue. It was inspired by the fact that it feels like everyone I know is taking off somewhere or doing something fun this weekend and we're not. It got me daydreaming.)

On April 16th, 2009 we woke up to this:

And we went and did this:

And three days later, we were in Cancun doing this:

And staying here:

And wearing these: (well, only some of us!)

And playing these:

Talking the boys into going with us to get these:

And visiting these:

Being scared out of our pants by signs outside of our hotel room door that looked like this:

Being pestered by these:

Trying to get the boys to stop pestering these:

Loving these:

Constantly eating a never ending supply of yummy food like that looked like this:

With our best friends/crazy people like these:

Thanks for the wonderful time! I want to go back RIGHT NOW!! Let's go! Thanks Mom and Dad for making it possible and for watching the four munckins while we went! We couldn't have done it without you!

I got a kick out of this...

My girls brought this home from school. Look closely...doesn't it make you totally want to go?
It ended up being fun for the kids, but the flyer made me laugh. Why wouldn't you just make up a new flyer?

Happy Birthday Little Man!

Spencer just turned 5 the end of September. To start off his birthday bash weekend, he invited his new friend from pre-school, Austin, to go out to lunch with us. These two boys are so funny together!
Austin (my husband) wasn't feeling well, so he stayed home with Jack while I took the boys out. We went to lunch at Spencer's choice...The Purple Turtle. Then we hit the arcade and links at Trafalga! Austin was really into this motorcycle racing game!
Spencer trying to teach Austin how skee ball works!
I tried to talk them into the outside course, but I think they were too enamored with the black light. It was such a nice day outside, but we had fun nonethelesss!
After watching these boys "play" miniature golf, I think I'm going to adopt their rules! You can drag the ball as long as you want with your club, no one keeps score, if you don't want to finish that particular hole, you just pick it up and plop it in the hole. We moved right along!:)

The next day we went with the family to Olive Garden and then to Barnum and Bailey's Circus at the Energy Solutions Center. Spencer had to have the Mac and Cheese AND the vegetable soup. They made vegetable soup in pre-school and he hasn't stopped talking about it since. It all started so well....

This picture isn't really all that great...until you realize that I was actually taking a picture of that girl's hair. I guess it was homecoming or something, but the closer you look at her do, the worse it gets... Sheesh, I'm not very nice.... Oh well!:)
Anyway, it all started so well, until Paige gave me this look:
"Mom, my stomach hurts. I don't feel well." This is only 2 days after both Spencer and Jack had the nasty flu. I think between the two boys, they threw up like 3 dozen times! Poor things. So, once she started complaining, I knew we were in for it. Olive Garden only had paper bags, so we darted over to Macy's (the department store..not the grocery store) and asked them for some empty bags. My mom ran in and the lady had to walk my mom to the door with the empty bags so she wouldn't get fired by security. Anyway, Paige put a bag to use in the car on the way to the circus. She said she was feeling much better....so off to the circus we went!
Then not too long into it, she graced us with another experience. We weren't as prepared for it, and I couldn't get the bag open fast enough, so she got it all over herself. I took her to the bathroom cleaned her up and Austin, the smart man that he is, grabbed some empty popcorn buckets. Thank goodness because 10 minutes later, Kamae starts complaining that she's not feeling well. And then they both had repeated performances...and again....and again. So, who needs to pay for the circus when we can have our own little 3-ringed circus right there in our seats!?

This is Paige humoring her father and re-inacting her experience at the circus.
Kamae...not so willing to comply.


At intermission, I took the girls up away from everyone else and we watched the rest of the circus from the nosebleeds. Good times, good times...
Luckily, Spencer had already had his round of it, so he was good to go. Unfortunately, I got it AGAIN so Austin was on his own for Spencer's actual birthday the following day. He got up and made all of his birthday breakfast-in-bed. He's such a good dad. He went all out with the blueberry theme that Spencer requested!
Spencer was just a little bit excited about his Lego presents...

We also got him a scooter which is adorned with the infamous family joke bow. Isn't it loverly?
We headed down to Grandma and Grandpa's that night. We were supposed to go for dinner, but I was still so sick and I wasn't sure if the girls were still contagious. So, we just went just for a little bit for cake and ice cream....and of course, Grandma and Grandpa's presents! He loves the remote control car, the cute baseball bank and his sweatshirt! Thanks G&G!
Austin, once again, came to the rescue. He whipped up a Lego piece shaped cake and I thought he did a pretty dang good job! I was in no shape for cake making, so Austin stepped right up! So very blessed to have such a good daddy to my kids.He reluctantly posed for a picture....
All in all, I think Spencer had a great 5th birthday! We love you so very much and wish you a fun upcoming year!