Deja vu

2005

2008

2011


I haven't encouraged this. I haven't shown any of them that this is what you do with a sock. They've each done this on their own and do it repeatedly.

Such strange children I have.

Our New "Girl Time"

I am HORRIBLE at doing little girls' hair. Really. It's shameful to admit, but I just stink at it. That combined with Jossy's deep desire to do NOTHING with her hair, not even BRUSH it, means I haven't had much chance to practice either. Until last week that is.

I found a website through Pinterest that I absolutely LOVE full of wonderful tutorials from a mom with 3 little girls. It's call Babes in Hairland. I got excited thinking maybe Jossy would let me try these cute styles someday so I pinned a couple to my board. She saw them that first day and was excited to look "like a princess" so she picked one out for us to try right then.

Being my first attempt at anything like this, it's no where near perfect but we both loved it!! She looks soooo cute with her hair done!

And since I was already in the hair mode, we decided to see if Lacey's hair was long enough for her first ponytail. Success!!

She slept with her braids in so the next morning she looked a bit like a lion.

But with a little water we tamed it and were able to do another cute style she picked out.

I just pin things I think I can do or tutorials I want to try onto my Pinterest board from that website and she chooses out of those. It helps that we call some of the styles different princess names. ;)

Thanksgiving Day was day 3 of our newfound hair time, and she chose something much fancier. It was harder for me but turned out adorable. She ran around Grandma's house all day in a bright pink tutu that somehow made her hair look even cuter.

We haven't taken pictures every day of her styles, but here's a couple more.

This past Sunday I was all excited to do something cute for her hair for church, but what did she want? Nothing but strait and down. *sigh* Guess she needed a day off.

I absolutely love that website and am so thankful that Jossy is actually letting me do her hair! I look forward to trying something new every day but remind myself that our time together doing this is far more important than how it turns out.

Matching PJ's

These aren't the same pair, but they're close enough that Jossy thinks they match. She loves to match her baby sister.

Gratitude Turkey

Guess I better post a picture of this year's Tom the Turkey before it's no longer November! We love Tom's visits every year. Each night we put one feather on him with something we're thankful for written on it each night in November until Thanksgiving, and everyone takes turns. This is Tom's FIFTH year with us. I think he'll be around a long time in this house. :)


This year we were thankful for temples, Emi's cow pajamas, snow, wheels, Daddy, Earth, sisters, teachers, Jossy, Tom the Turkey, library, our family, cookies, Matty, eating with my family, Jesus, teeth, Lacey, photography, sleep, our house, bracelets, mommy, and dancing with Matty.

Thanks, Tom, for reminding us to be grateful! We'll see you next year!

Dear Barcelona . . .

To my reader from Spain,

First off, Hola!

So I'm just curious about a few things. I know that you read my blog several times a day and even check it every couple hours at times, but I just can't seem to figure out why. No one finds me that interesting except maybe my family and a few select (and well-paid) friends. So what brings you here time after time? Trying to learn English? Perhaps you're not from Barcelona at all but have learned how to change your location, and you're really my neighbor down the street who just doesn't want me to know you actually know my name even though you won't say hi to me at church. Either way, I still don't get the fascination with my blog several times a day . . . or why you haven't figured out how to use a reader program yet to check for updates.

I'd LOVE to hear from you, so please leave a comment during one of your many visits in the next 24 hours. Thanks!!! If I don't hear from you, I may just finally be inspired to switch over to private. Lame.

-Yours Truly

My "Canvas" Prints

I saw this tutorial online for turning your photos into canvas-like prints for cheap. I really loved the thought of doing that for my walls. I have so many pictures I love of my kids that I never do anything with other than put in photo albums, like those recent railroad ones I took a few weeks ago. So before I could get distracted by another project, I went for it.

I bought 2 pieces of 12x48" wood (which did you know is neither 12" nor 48"??? Why do they do that???) The guy at Lowe's cut from them 6 12" blocks. I would have loved to do more, but I wanted to keep my cost low right now. The wood was just under $15, and he did the cuts for free.

I lightly sanded the rough edges down then painted the edges with some leftover black acrylic paint. I also did a border around the front and back just to make sure no raw wood would show.


I printed 6 black and white 12x12 prints at Costco for $2.99 a piece. The hardest part of this project may have been deciding what to print and which pictures to leave out. :( I had to trim about 1/4" off each picture because the wood blocks aren't really 12". (Again, why label it that if they're not???)

I then put a layer of matte finish mod podge I already owned onto one side of the wood. I placed the picture on it, did the same to the other pictures while it dried, then came back and put another layer on top of the first picture completely covering it. You can barely see the brush strokes once it dries.

I wish I had better foam brushes for this because all I had was 2 old, used ones that were falling apart and leaving debris behind on my photo. That was frustrating. I also added some mod podge to the edges just to make sure everything was sealed well.

They took less than an hour to dry. Then I hung saw tooth hangers on the back. A 6 pack was $1 at Walmart.

Then after much measuring and leveling, up on an empty wall they went for display.

Total cost for 6: About $36 (because I already had paint and mod podge)
The cheapest canvas print at Costco: $35 for ONE

I have had several people ask me where I got my canvas or tell me how nice my canvas prints look. They're shocked when I show them it's just a print put on wood. I absolutely love them. I'm thinking about doing more of all different sizes up my staircase with other pictures I love but never display. I'm hoping to get to it early next year, but I've got a thousand other projects screaming my name, too. I guess we'll see who's the loudest.

15 Minutes

The other night Jossy was willing to let me put soft curlers in her hair. She knew that she was supposed to sleep in them and the next morning her hair would be curly. She seemed excited to do it.

Um, that lasted all of 15 minutes before she was asking to have them taken out.

She got a little bit of curl, but sadly she has her mother's hair which has a great desire to do anything but what you want it to. The curls didn't even last the 30 minutes before bed. Oh well.

How Do I Title This Post???

"When the Dress Up Box Explodes" perhaps?

"2 Tales, Some Wings, and An Elmo Slipper" could be catchy.

"When Children Are Left to Entertain Themselves" is another option.

Or maybe something simple like "Bat on a Board."

Whatever was going on, I guess the dresser was feeling left out of the fun.
(????)

Sweet 7

Lacey turned 7 months a couple days ago. She had a rough week the week before with what we think must have been a little tummy bug. She's fine now, but she had diarrhea, no appetite for her baby food, and was VERY whiney unless held. It was a hard week for Mommy, that's for sure. She's doing better but still doesn't want to be alone much anymore. I love how illnesses ruin things like that.

Lacey is still my little ball of sweetness and joy. She makes me smile every day. She's great at sitting on her own, and she's gotten even faster at army crawling. Nothing is safe (I won't mention the gross things she's put in her mouth,) and she's gotten her head stuck under the couch more than once. Here she is getting herself out from under the bunk beds. (And yep, those are her big brother's hand-me-down pj's.)


We had a fun day last week when she got her thumb stuck inside a hard plastic toy attached to a keychain. After trying a few remedies and trying not to panic, we finally took her across the street where our neighbor who's a retired pediatrician helped get it off with wire cutters. It took some precision and holding her very still. Lacey cried a lot, and her poor thumb had a red ring around it for several days. I wish I had a picture of it stuck on her, but I was kind of concerned with other things at the time.

She's still as petite as ever at the same weight she was at 4 months, which is just under 12 lbs. On the plus side, she gets to wear her clothes longer, right? :) She's growing in height, just not weight. But she still seems healthy and is developing fine, so I guess I just have another featherweight on my hands. (Why can't I have that problem??)

My favorite new things Lacey does is babble with consonant sounds which she's only been doing about a week now. It's sooooo cute to listen to her go on and on.

Of course big sister had to jump in one picture here.

Kind of reminds me when big brother had to do the same thing. How quickly time goes by.

Growing Up, Falling Out

Matty's had a loose tooth for more than a month now and Wednesday night this week he FINALLY got it out! The other tooth was already growing in behind it.


Dan put the kids to bed the night it happened and had Matty put it under his pillow. Then Dan forgot to tell me. Problem with that? He forgot it was there, too. WHOOPS! I was awoken the next morning (when Lacey was ACTUALLY sleeping in a bit for once!!!) and told all about it and how disappointed Matty was that the tooth fairy had taken his tooth but hadn't left any money. The tooth had actually gotten lost in the bed, but thankfully the tooth fairy came before he left for school. We're just guessing she had so many teeth that night that she took his but had to come back to give him the money. We think she can be kind of flighty like that on little sleep. ;)

He looks so different with it gone, and it's taken some getting used to for him. He got home from school yesterday and said, "Mom, I think I'm starting a whole new phase of my life." I asked "What are you talking about?" He said, "Because my tooth is gone. I think this is a whole new phase for the rest of my life." I love that kid.

The Trendy Thing to Do

Last week I went to the new Crate & Barrell and H&M stores in Salt Lake. There was such a fuss over them in the news that I decided to go see what it was about. I still don't understand the fuss really except that they provide more options for shoppers here. Dan told me I had a $200 limit. He only said that because he knew I would never, ever spend that much. Little did he know I would spend

500

pennies. Yep, just over 500 pennies. BIG SPENDER, I KNOW!! After standing in a long line just to get into H&M (ridiculous) I only found one item worth my money.

Hee hee

She looks so cute in it!!

FYI: This is what happens when your big sister won't leave the door stopper alone because she thinks it's funny to keep scaring you with its loud sound.

The Things I'll Miss

The older my kids get, the more I realize how fast they're growing up. While there are many, MANY daily struggles I could complain about (and often do) when it comes to having young children, there are also many, MANY things I'm going to greatly miss from this stage in our lives. I've been making a little list in my head the last few weeks of things I'll be sad over when they're gone. It's one way I try to "enjoy the journey" and take in those happy moments amid the frustrating, exhausting ones. Here are 10 of them:

1. I love baby smiles, but not just any smiles. I'm talking about those smiles she gives me when I'm yelling talking sternly to her older siblings, then I turn to Lacey and does she care that I'm furious?? Not at all. Because any time Mom looks at her is smile worthy.

2. I love Matty standing in line for the bus and yelling across the street, "Bye! I love you, Mom!" There's no hesitation to give me one last hug and kiss and yell I love you in front of his friends. I wish that would never, ever change!

3. I love checking on my kids every single night before I go to bed. Seeing their sweet sleeping faces makes me so happy and gives me the strength to go through all the crazy chaos again the next day.


Last night Jossy and Matty decided they wanted to share his top bunk bed. Under threat of being separated if they talked, they quickly fell asleep, much faster than in their own beds. When I saw them both asleep next to one another I may have teared up. I hope they always have a close friendship.


4. I love kissing heavenly soft baby cheeks that have the strong aroma of pureed fruit. Mushed peaches never smelled so good.

5. I love watching Matty and Jossy dance together. They come up with these little routines to show us, and there's always some kind of story behind it. ("This one's about a boy and girl who don't like each other but then they do.") They started doing this after seeing an episode of So You Think You Can Dance. Even funnier than that? The music they often request is the weather channel.

6. I love the way Jossy loves pretending to be a princess. I fear the day she talks about boys more than princesses.

7. I love bedtime stories. In our home, stories are a reward for not arguing with Mom and Dad during our bedtime routine of baths, putting on pj's, brushing teeth, family prayer and scriptures, personal prayer and scriptures, and journal writing. If they're good for all of that, they each get to pick out a story. Sometimes I desperately just want to shoo them off to bed so that I can have my free time sooner, but I also love that they'll have memories of Mom and Dad reading stories to them every night. I'll love those memories, too.

8. I love Matty's drawings and stories he writes. He's constantly making books or drawing pictures of something in a book or on TV that he liked. He's a very patient child when it comes to the time he spends on his pictures. Too bad that patience doesn't always translate to other areas of his life.

9. I love our "1,2, 3 FAMILY!" cheer we do every night with our hands stacked on top of one anothers' after we've finished our scripture study. I honestly don't know how it started it's been so long. It was probably my attempt one night to make them laugh only it stuck. Someday they'll think it's lame, so for now I cherish it.

10. I love holidays with kids so much more than before we had them. The amount of excitement they feel over Easter, Christmas, Fourth of July, etc. is so fun to watch. They make our home more magical.


I'm so glad I've finally written some of these things down. Maybe I'll add a second list someday because I can already think of others. Now when I feel frustrated with my kids (which it seems is an unavoidable daily occurrence) at least I'll have a list of 10 things to help me remember what I love about this crazy time in our lives. :)

Why We Keep Our Kids Around

We keep them for two reasons:

1. We want grandchildren one day. Grandchildren are God's reward for not killing your children.
2. For the laughs.

Here are a few recent conversations that show off reason number 2.

Shopping at Target with Jossy:
Jossy: Mom, did you see me lick the cart?
Me: What?! No! Did you lick the cart?!
Jossy: Well did you see me?
Me: No. Did you really lick the cart?
Jossy: No.
Me: Jossy! You just said . . .
Jossy: I didn't Mom! You said you didn't saw me.
Me: Well what if I said I saw you?!
Jossy (hanging head in shame): I'm sorry, Mom.

While listening to the song "Fur Elise":
Matty: Dad, I know who wrote this. Do you know?
Dan: Um, Beethoven?
Matty: Nope.
Dan: Mozart?
Matty: No.
Dan: Bach?
Matty: No.
Dan: Who then?
Matty: Baby Einstein did!

While planting flowers outside with Jossy:
Jossy: What are these, Mom?
Me: Bulbs.
Jossy: Like light bulbs?

During dinner last night:
Matty: Dad, I can tell you're tired because of the lines under your eyes.
Dan: Thanks Matty.

Jossy was walking around with a pretend phone:
Me: Who are you calling Jossy?
Jossy: My visiting teachers. They're in my nursery class with me.

Smothering Instinct

I caught a rare moment the other day. Jossy and Lacey were playing quietly together. But once someone heard the click from my camera go off . . .

. . . it was back to business as usual.

People ask if Jossy loves her sister and I have to answer that she loves her TOO much. I tell them that the majority of my day is spent just trying to keep Lacey alive because Jossy is ALL OVER her ALL THE TIME! And it's honestly not an exaggeration. When I leave Lacey happily playing by herself on the floor so that I can go do something, Jossy inevitably comes over and starts hugging her too much or trying to stand her up or lay her down or whatever. So then I have to stop doing whatever I was in that rare moment that I might've been able to accomplish something because my baby is being attacked by love and no longer happy. Jossy also tends to wake Lacey up from her naps when we're out shopping because she just "wanted to play with her." It is VERY frustrating to deal with every day, all day long. I'm so worn out from it all at the end of the day.

I think Jossy's "mothering" instinct has an extra gene that put an "s" at the beginning.

Rub a Dub Dub . . .

. . . 3 kids in a tub.

I've learned that bathing them 1 at a time tends to be easier (less fighting over toys and whatnot) but this is faster. It was Lacey's first time joining the big kids with her bath chair. It was a little crowded, but the kids loved it.

Knock Knock

This year we went trick-or-treating with my sister's family. I have never seen such perfect weather on Halloween as we had this year.

Matty and Jossy traded off whose turn it was to knock on the door.

The beautiful butterfly flew down the street with great speed!

Everyone got way too much candy thanks to trick-or-treating at Dad's office, so they traded a lot of their candy in to Mom and Dad for different prizes.

Fall Perfection

Last year we discovered the joy of raking up leaves at a local park just for the sake of playing in them. That way we don't have to rake ours 20 times before they go in the bags. Plus there are WAY more leaves to play in at the park.

Did I take too many pictures? For sure.

Worth it? Absolutely.