My life in Pictures

Here are a BUNCH of pictures I've been meaning to post of life in our neck of the woods. Hope you enjoy catching up on what we've been going on around our place....
I think this is so cute. Max is licking Elise's face. She loves him & he does the same. Her nickname for him is "Maxadoodle".
I'm so excited that Merry Grace can actually keep a bow in her hair now. I love it. And she pretty much always has a smile on her face. How lucky are we?
ian and merry grace playing. i think my kids play so well and happily together. its so nice to see them love each other so much.
We fingerpainted this afternoon. Elise got a book from her book order about fingerpainting and it included paints and paper. So we tried them out. Elise painted a peacock.
Here is Ian's fingerpainting. He's an artist in the making. I think he liked painting his body afterward almost as good. ;)
Elise is playing basketball this winter. Its so cute to watch them play. Elise is number 2.

Elise received the 'kindness' award at school last week. We were very proud, but not a bit surprised because Elise is so kind around our house and with her brother & sister. Her teacher said she had "definitely earned it!"
Last night we discovered that Elise has not one but two loose teeth. She was ecstatic and her excitement is just contagious. I can't imagine how wonderful it will be when the tooth fairy comes!
Here is a picture of Ian's new boots. This picture doesn't do justice to how truly horrendous they actually are. There are these gigantic spidermen on each side and are quite bulky. Its even better when he wears them with pants. Most pants won't fit over the boots so they're just bunched up around his knees. Lovely. But that smile makes it worth it! =)
With kids around, the bathtubs are always a surprise. Even still, every morning I get a little start when I see this plastic fly lying there. There are some things I could just do without....

Several weeks ago, we had a little bit of snow. It only lasted half a day, but it was fun for the kids to actually get to see some of the white stuff. And of course, Elise got to miss a day of school and have a two hour delay the next day. I didn't realize how much I'd missed seeing some, until we woke up to a white yard.

Here is Max's puppy cage. As you can see, he's not the only one who enjoys it. Fortunately for us, she learning how to share! ;)

my date with ian

ian & i had our special date tonight. we went to eat at cici's pizza, known by the barnett kids as "the pizza place". ian was so excited by the aspect of being in a restaurant that it took him a while to settle down and eat anything. basically his meal consisted of once slice of pizza, hi-c, and a packet of sweet-n-low. he also likes to lick the powdered sugar off the brownies. he took a swipe at the first one, and as the sugar came off he goes, "oh! its brown under here. i not like brown." then he turned to me and said, "you can have the brown." surprisingly, i wasn't interested in his generous offer. =) after he ate, we played a few games in their arcade and then walked next door to shoe show. ian's foot has grown in the last little bit and only has one pair of shoes that fits. so we were hoping to get a bargain on a new pair. what we ended up with was a bargain alright. but not on the nice pair of tennis shoes i was thinking of. after ian spotted what had to be the ugliest pair of black spiderman boots i have ever laid eyes on, it was all over. so $9 later, we walked out with them. and he is in love. he put them on in the car and wouldn't even walk in the house in them because he was afraid he might get them dirty. i'll post pictures soon. anyway, we had a great time together. he told me he was glad he'd come so i didn't have to go on a date "all alone". then he told me that he and lisy would never leave me all alone. what more could you ask for?

quick recovery

elise was out of school yesterday for a snow day. (aren't they the best?) anyway, this morning she had a two hour delay, but even as the morning progressed, it became apparent that she was not interested in going to school today. she kept trying to talk her way out of it, and ended up expressing her concerns over her health. she had a "runny nose, a cough, and my voice is going away." she was not even close to being too sick to go to school--and i told her as much. when she insisted, i told her that she must immediately go to her room, hop in the bed, and be done for the day. anyone that sick had no business being up and about. she followed my instructions, but after about 15 minutes came back out and began playing. when i told her she must go back to her room, she replied, "oh, i'm feeling better. resting in my bed must have really worked!"

will wonders never cease?

kidstuff

i love listening to the kids have conversations. on monday we went to the dollar tree and the kids each got to pick out a prize. elise decided on a new barbie outfit, which she immediately began putting on her barbie once she got out to the car. as we were driving off i heard the kids have this conversation:

ian: that barbie not lut (look) bery (very) dood (good).
elise: ian! why would you say that?!
ian: well, she's nay-ted. (naked)
elise: oh. yeah. no one looks good when they're naked.

there are just so many places i could go with that, i don't know where to start. suffice it to say that kids are funny folks!

merry grace amazes me

merry grace loves to pretend to get dressed. if i'm doing laundry, she takes the shirts and pants and puts them around her neck--which is her attempt at pulling it over her head. i didn't realize how observant she was until doing laundry just now. i had a pile of clothes, with a pair of ian's underwear amongst them. i watched her pick up the pair of ian's underwear and instead of putting them around her neck, tried to put them over her foot. during the whole time, she never once tried to put them over her head or around her neck. i was amazed that she knew the difference. who knew?

irony

this morning we were in various stages of eating breakfast and i was packing elise's lunch and snack for school. i got a chocolate pudding cup out of the fridge to put in her lunch box when ian spotted it and wanted one too--only for breakfast. my first reaction was, "no, you need to eat something healthy first." and even as the words were leaving my mouth, i looked over at elise and saw her eating a chocolate chip cookie dough poptart. somehow it had not even phased me to hand her that for breakfast, but the pudding caused me to pause. needless to say, ian ate chocolate pudding for breakfast this morning--after all, its high in calcium. ;)

my elise

elise just said a couple of things that cracked me up, so i wanted to post them before i forgot.

first, she and ian were playing with this big exercise ball i have. elise had done some kind of trick on it and then ian said, "let me show you lisy. let me show you something even cooler." elise responded, "no, ian. its not even cooler. they're just the same amount of cool!"

then a few minute later ian came running up to her and goes, "lisy, lisy, lisy.." she cut him off and said, "no. call me superwoman."

that's my girl!

of toothbrushes, cookies, baths, nicknames, naps and typos....

one of my favorite christmas presents this year was a stocking stuffer. its a crest spinbrush, a battery operated toothbrush. this is my first one ever, as far as i can remember, and i am in love. i don't know if it actually cleans my teeth any better than my ordinary toothbrush did, but this much i do know: its a lot more fun! its just a different toothbrushing experience, and i think because its so much fun, i'm a better, longer, more thorough toothbrusher than before. so while the product itself might not be any better, the operator sure is!

i love cookies. but they have to be done just right. hard cookies just don't do it for me. i like them soft, chewy and almost not even cooked. last night i started cooking some chocolate chunk cookies and then left to go see to merry grace. i left cory and elise in charge and they got the cookies too done. they weren't burnt, just solidly done. that's when i realized how much distaste i have for hard, crunchy cookies. i may have even said as much to my trusty assistants. (yes, it was juvenile, and yes, i apologized.) the discovery was this: even with my sweet tooth--and it is a very big sweet tooth--i won't eat "done" cookies. so while it may encourage me to eat healthier, it isn't very much fun. so for lunch today, i got around that little problem--i just ate the cookie dough right out of the container. perfect!

merry grace took her first real tub bath tonight. it was so cute. and the other kids thought it was really neat. they all had fun entertaining her and helping wash her. elise even washed merry grace's hair all by herself. and she did a great job. of course it helps that merry grace loves baths, showers, and just being washed in general. even with getting a couple of cupfuls of water dumped on her head, she didn't make a fuss. what a good baby!

cory has decided to give us all nicknames. so far the only one that i thought was perfect, was the one he picked out for elise: "boss". unfortunately, she hates it, so its not going to stick....which once again brings into focus why the name is perfect.

is there anything better than a nap when you're completely exhausted? snuggled up under a warm blanket and letting the world fade out while you drift into a nice peaceful slumber...i took a rare nap today, and it was wonderful. ian and merry grace snuggled up with me and it was heavenly. i realized as i rested with them that i don't do that nearly often enough. i used to rest with elise when she was little, and while i rarely napped, the quite peacefulness has been missed.

i love typos. not in something important, but when i'm just typing along and hit a wrong key, it just give me the giggles. in the last paragraph i was typing "snuggled", but hit the 'i' key instead, and ended up with "sniggled" instead. that's infinitely funnier than "snuggled." =)

review of the holidays

this is always a hard post, because i can never sum up all the fun we had into one neat little paragraph. but here's my attempt.

the friday before christmas was our kids christmas morning. this was the most fun christmas yet, as the kids were really into the presents and santa claus and just the magic of the moment. it was wonderful.

on saturday, we headed down to cory's folks. six of the seven siblings spent the night that night, so there was a house FULL. i think we added it up that there were 13 adults and 11 children (under the age of 6), so you can imagine how that was. but it was so fun. all the grown-ups had fun talking and catching up and the kids had a ball. his parents arranged for a surpise visit from santa claus, who came in and held each child on his knee and put on a really great show. the next day we ate, opened presents, and just enjoyed one another's company.

late that night we headed up the highway to my folks. we did some last minute wrapping and stocking stuffing, but mostly enjoyed more catching up with my brothers. christmas morning dawned bright and early. and yes, there was MORE present opening. every gift was very thoughtful and personal. great job by everyone. that night we made and decorated gingerbread houses. elise caught the vision, decorating one she & cory made and two that papa made for her. each one had various success and drama, but in the end they looked wonderful. the week continued with lots of games nights, family time, and visits.

yesterday we packed up and came home, along with my family, to start the new years celebrations. so here we are. we packed everything we could into each activity. i don't think we could have gotten anything more done than what we did. a fun time was had by all....

whirlwind

i guess it started tuesday with getting ready for ethan to come in. he and i had collaborated and switched his plane ticket to come in earlier than planned and surprise mama and daddy. i picked him up late that night and finally crashed into bed sometime after 12:30. the next morning continued the craziness with adam flying in around 10am. i picked him up--late--but picked him up nonetheless. we spent a few hours doing some last minute shopping and ended up back at my house around 1pm to wait for mama, daddy and logan to show up. they pulled in roughly an hour later and after hugs and tears from mama, we were standing around visiting when ethan just casually walked into the room. ethan said mama's face registered surprise, confusion, and then shock. and then she screamed--loud! we had a fun day talking, reminiscing, laughing, catching up, relaxing, and telling a good poop story or two for good measure. this morning started off early again, as we are hosting a caroling party with the barnetts tonight. so the kids and i spent the morning baking cookies for tonight, the afternoon cleaning and straightening up. we're also doing "our" christmas tomorrow morning, which the kids don't know yet. so i've been trying to make sure all the presents were wrapped and organized. i'm so excited i can hardly wait. i think the kids will love the things we got for them, i just can't wait to see their faces. its so hard not to say anything to them. but i am sooooooo excited.

in other odds and ends, elise has been a super duper helper today. she has cheerfully and tirelessly helped me with whatever job i was doing. she helped cook, clean, organize--the whole bit. she's really good at it too. she amazes me. when she gets a little bigger she'll be unstoppable. its a good thing she got her cleaning genes from her daddy! she's so sweet and good.

ian says this funny thing that i've been meaning to write down. i'm pretty sure it got started by cory and i asking him "if his tummy was hungry" or "is your tummy telling you its full..." and so on. but its progressed to where his tummy tells him all kinds of things. like his tummy tells him he wants to watch "go, diego, go" on tv or his tummy tells him he wants to go pick up lisy, or his tummy tells him he wants to sleep in my bed. its so funny. this morning he said, "my tummy says it wants to open a present. and my tummy's telling me to do that. so i need to do that."

well, i've taken a long enough break writing the post. so i'd better jump back in the whirlwind!

random thoughts

i was out really early this morning and caught a little segment on the radio about christmas music and it got me thinking: what are the best and worst christmas songs out there? i have a short list--a couple of my favorites are "o holy night" and "rocking around the christmas tree". two that i absolutely hate are "simply having a wonderful christmas time" and "the christmas shoes". do you guys have any others?

cory and i subbed in nursery yesterday. there are aproximately 15 kids, 12 of them being boys. it was fast, loud, rough, and crazy. the testosterone in the room was almost overwhelming. but we enjoyed it. ian has only a couple of weeks left before moving up to sunbeams. YIKES!

i've been doing laundry today. a lot of laundry. while laundry is not one of my all-time favorite things to do, i love, no, make that adore, getting stains out of clothes. i'm not always great at it, but i love working on it. ian has this white shirt with a daschsand on it. i've gotten ketchup, macaroni and cheese, dirt, spaghetti, and other various and assorted grout and grime from it and as i look at it on him now, it looks as good as new.

there you have it. random.

merry christmas

You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch
Author: Dr. Seuss

You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch.
You really are a heel.
You're as cuddly as a cactus,
You're as charming as an eel,Mr. Grinch.

You're a bad banana
With a greasy black peel.

You're a monster, Mr. Grinch.
Your heart's an empty hole.
Your brain is full of spiders,
You've got garlic in your soul, Mr. Grinch.

I wouldn't touch you,
with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole.

You're a vile one, Mr. Grinch.
You have termites in your smile.
You have all the tender sweetness
Of a seasick crocodile, Mr. Grinch.

Given the choice between the two of you
I'd take the seasick crockodile.

You're a foul one, Mr. Grinch.
You're a nasty, wasty skunk.
Your heart is full of unwashed socks
Your soul is full of gunk, Mr. Grinch.

The three words that best describe you,
are as follows, and I quote: "Stink. Stank. Stunk."

You're a rotter, Mr. Grinch.
You're the king of sinful sots.
Your heart's a dead tomato splot
With moldy purple spots, Mr. Grinch.

Your soul is an apalling dump heap
overflowingwith the most disgraceful assortment
of deplorablerubbish imaginable,
Mangled up in tangled up knots.

You nauseate me, Mr. Grinch,
With a nauseaus super-naus.
You're a crooked jerky jockey
And you drive a crooked horse, Mr. Grinch.

You're a three decker saurkraut and toadstool sandwich
With arsenic sauce.


are there any better poems that this one? my favorite stanza is, "you nauseate me, Mr. Grinch, With a nauseaus, super-naus. You're a crooked jerky jockey and you drive a crooked horse, Mr. Grinch." Anytime you can include these lines in a poem, its a good one! Dr. Seuss rocks.

christmas party

last night we had cory's office christmas party. it had been sort of a lot of work getting the time, place, and baby-sitting worked out, but by last night at 6:30 cory's mom and dad were baby-sitting seven of their grandchildren and we were sitting in the Outback.

there are only three people at his office: cory, neal (his brother), and jacob (his brother-in-law), and then us wives who also do side work for them as well. so it was almost more a family dinner, than an office dinner, but either way, we had a lot of fun. cory, surprisingly, kept us entertained throughout the night with his "awards" and "bonuses". for example, amanda and i won the "big spender" awards. it was hilarious. however, they did actually surprise us with gift certificates to our favorite spa and nail salon. there was such a feeling of kinship and friendship throughout the night as we talked, laughed, shared memories, and hopes for the future. it was such a fun, relaxing, companionable night, it was hard to see it end. it made me happy to be a part of such a great family and such a great company.

boys are made of...

a few days ago the kids and i were in the car. out of the blue ian said, "when i ate that chicken, i thought i was going to throw up. but i not throw up." a little confused about what chicken or when he ate it, i asked him a couple of questions, first: "when did you eat some chicken?", to which he replied, "right now." this is where i start to become alarmed, because i know we have not gotten chicken nuggets today, and honestly can't remember the last time we might have had chicken nuggets in the car. so my next question was, "where did you find it?" apparently, he found an old chicken nugget hiding in some crevice in the car or his booster seat and ate it. the very thought of it makes my stomach turn. so then i wonder if i need to take some kind of action--i mean, what happens to you if you eat an ancient chicken nugget? that can't be good for you. the upshot is, he ate the nugget on monday, and all is still well. i noticed no ill effects at all, much to my relief. so we can add a new catchphrase to the old saying, "boys are made of snakes and snails and puppy dog tails." they're also made of old chicken nuggets. ;)

self-esteem....

elise was so funny this morning. she picked out one of her sunday dresses to wear to school, her shoes, a wide pink headband, and a white blazer for her jacket. i was helping ian with something in the bathroom when elise walked in, climbed up on the stool and looked at herself in the mirror and says, "Wow!!! I look adorable! This is the cutest outfit ever!". She continued to grin and admire herself for a couple more minutes. She knew she looked good!

it reminds me of a story i heard growing up about a couple in our ward. when they were teenagers, he had come to her house to pick her up for one of their first dates. as he was walking to the bathroom, he realized she was in there, getting ready. he waited outside the door for just a moment when he heard her look at herself in the mirror and say, "Jenny Bowman*, you beautiful thing, don't you ever die!!!" He said that was the moment he fell in love.

I love it that elise can think she looks beautiful when she looks in the mirror. I certainly think she is. However, there is such a culture of looks, beauty, and physical appearance in our society, that I don't want her to get sucked into the trap of never feeling 'enough'--whether its her face, her size, her shape, her feet, her bellybutton, or whatever else there might be. I hope that she can feel good about who she is and realize that that is enough. There is a wonderful story told by President Monson that sums up my feelings very well. He says, "Many years ago, at a Church magazine awards banquet, we sat with President and Sister Harold B. Lee. President Lee said to our teenage daughter, Ann: “The Lord has blessed you with a beautiful face and body. Keep the inside just as beautiful as the outside, and you will be blessed with true happiness.” This master teacher left with Ann an inspired guide to the celestial kingdom of our Heavenly Father."

That is the message of beauty I want to instill in Elise.

*name has been changed.

updating

first, an update: the not eating sweets is not going so well. i think going cold turkey might be a little much for me. but i have cut back. i don't like feeling like i want to eat sweets every minute of every day. but i love desserts. so i'm doing sweets in moderation. that's working pretty well. for example, i would normally eat dessert after at least lunch and supper. on my new plan, i only eat it after supper. so we'll see how it goes.

elise is so cute. she makes up songs all the time--just words describing what she is currently doing or thinking about set to music. the other night she was eating some pepperonis (one of her favorite snacks), all the while singing along. i was sort of in and out of paying attention to what she was singing about, when all of a sudden i caught this snippet, "pepperonis--i'm sorry that i ate your friends..." i still giggle when i hear the tune to that line in my head.

our cat, maria, has created some drama around here this week. she (well, he) is a really nice cat, and we like having him around. but he's strictly an outdoor cat and roams around quite a bit. we only see him from time to time as he comes to eat his food. our neighbors across the road are quite taken with him, having fed him sometimes when we're out of town. they've even started feeding him when we're here and made a bed for him on their front porch on these cold nights. needless to say, maria spends a good deal of time with them. on monday, our neighbor came over and said that maria had gotten hurt--probably from a fight with another tomcat--and wasn't walking on his back leg. she also thought he was running a fever. she thought he should probably be seen by the vet. cory & i had a slightly different take on it, and weren't a big hurry to rush off to the vet. we thought we'd give it a couple of days and see how she did. well, on wednesday, our neighbor came back over and now really thought maria needed a doctor's attention. i had been dreading her coming back over, knowing that we had differing views on when a pet should be taken to the vet. i just didn't really want to deal with her about it. i was kind of hoping she would just mind her own business. but when she came over, instead of an awkward situation or a confrontation, she offered to take maria to the vet and pay for her dr. bill. i was overwhelmed with her kindness. here i had been hoping to avoid this woman, who ended up doing an extremely generous thing for us and little maria. it was a true christmas gift. there was only one minor catch to the whole scenario: maria did indeed need anitbiotics and would have to be kept inside for a week. did you catch the part earlier about how maria was strictly an outdoor cat? but cory & i did not want this kind lady's generousness go to waste or in any way seem ungrateful by us letting maria roam free. so maria has been in our laundry room for 24 hours. as i type this, however, cory is in the process of organizing the garage so maria can have a home in there for the next 6 days. we are definitely not cut out to have a cat in the house.

in other news, merry grace is crawling very well and has started what we have dubbed the "crab crawl". she moves along, but instead of crawling on her knees, she gets up on her feet. its very cute. but pretty much everything she does is cute. =)

ian is getting more "boy" by the day. sometimes the testoterone just overwhelms me. he's so cute, though. his new favorite activity is playing in the "sandbox" in the driveway. technically its just a spot that is more dirt than gravel. but he takes this green rake out there and digs and digs. he makes slides for his cars and trucks to drive on and adventures for spiderman and stingray. even though its pretty cold out, he still loves playing out there.

all in all, life is pretty good around the barnett house...

here and there

okay. my sweets addiction is out of control. i love sweets and like to have a "sweet bite" after every meal. life is just wonderful with sweets around. but today i decided to take a break. i'm going to go one week without sweets. i'm scared. i love sugar. but i know i will be healthier. i don't want to go without them forever, but i would like to have some moderation with them i'll let you know how it goes. a week is a long time. i even threw out two halves of pie. a half of a chocolate chip pie and half of a cherry pie. that is committment. a couple of times i've thought of going to the trashcan and digging them out, but have decided against it. just too many germs....;)

i burned my arm this week. i cooked spaghetti on monday night and at some point i reached over the front burner with the pot of sauce to the back burner. a drop of sauce splashed up on my arm and burned a spot on me. it was instant pain and and i jerked my arm back. i saw the sauce drop, so i quickly wiped it off with my other hand. when i did i wiped off the top layer of skin on that one spot. YIKES! it hurt pretty bad and it looks gross. all i can think about is people who are severly burned and wonder how they make it.

ian and i made a potpourri christmas tree. it is very cute and we had fun making it. ian got burned on the hot glue. not badly at all, but just enough to hurt. after he did he wanted to get off a piece of our aloe vera plant to put on it. only he called it the "planet". he pushed his chair over to the cabinet and said, "i need to get some of that planet where i got burned." it was so cute.

lisa, you will appreciate this. you know that weird burping thing we do? do you still do that? i do sometimes, although i don't think its as much as i used to, or maybe i'm just not as self-concious about it. anyway, tonight elise was sitting beside me and i heard her make that noise. she just looked at me and goes, "i always burp like a frog." i thought i would die laughing. i guess its hereditary. ;) i told her sometimes i burp like a frog too. i wonder which ancestor we have to thank for that?

Christmas time

One night this week we finally broke out the Christmas tree and decorations. It was lot of fun for all of us. I think the older the kids get, the more fun it becomes for us grown-ups, too. Merry Grace and Ian played in the Christmas tree box for a long time. Ian would hide and surprise Merry Grace and she would laugh and laugh. It was so cute!
Elise found the Santa hat and tried in on. She loves unpacking all the Christmas decorations.
Cory got a good start on the tree. He loves those Santa oranaments that Mama & Daddy shared with us our first Christmas when we didn't have any ornaments. He's also hanging up on of the stars that Grandma Delia made. Those are special ones.
Elise decorating the tree. She's very meticulous. 

The finished products

Here was our Christmas tree with everything on it. It looks so pretty. It may be the best one yet.
Here is our mantle with FIVE christmas stockings. We're starting to fill it up. It looks so nice. The stockings are made by Grandma Jarrell and are the prettiest ones I've ever seen. 

Thanksgiving

Aunt Kristie with (l-r) Marleigh (4), Ericka (5), Elise (5), Ian (3), and Kyleigh (6)
We went to Cory’s folks for Thanksgiving. On Wednesday afternoon, we met his parents and sister’s family at the movies and watched “Happy Feet”. Actually, Ian did less watching and more running up and down the stadium seating aisles. Afterwards, we went back to the Barnett’s and enjoyed hanging out with two of his brothers and two of his sisters and their families. It was quite the crowd, but it was fun.
Ian and Marleigh are best friends. They are so sweet together and love playing together. Marleigh calls Ian her boyfriend or her husband because they got married and kissed in the “cabbage”. She actually means the cabins at camp singletary where we went on vacation. Some of the older cousins pretended to marry them and then they kissed. They are so cute!
Ericka, Elise, & Kyleigh
The girls found plenty of time for silliness. They played with these mardi gras beads that Grandma had brought back from a trip to see Aunt Lynetta in Louisiana. Ericka is wearing hers, but they also served them on a plate, let people pick ones to wear, and got all fancy in them, too.

After a not so restful night’s sleep on Wednesday night, we all got up bright and early on Thursday. After some cooking and cleaning we went to Cory’s grandma’s (his dad’s mom) for lunch. Then that night we ate again with Cory’s mom’s side of the family. I think the final total of guest for that get-together was 51. It was crazy and crowded, but a fun night of visiting!
We left that evening and headed up to my parents house where we got even less sleep and then got up very early to do our Christmas shopping. Mama & Daddy were great to baby-sit the kids so we could get so much shopping done. Cory and I had so much fun. We think of it as a date and look forward to it every year. As soon as we got home, we at dinner with both my grandmas and had more yummy food. Saturday we spent most of the day decorating for Christmas, before we left to come back home. It was hectic and hurried, but it was also really nice to see almost everyone we wanted for Thanksgiving. We really felt like we had much to be thankful for.

an interesting thought on "work"

our lesson in relief society was on work and i heard the most interesting comment from one of the sisters. we had been talking about how the temple can be a pattern for how our homes and lives should be. often we think that doing laundry and dishes and changing diapers are sort of menial tasks. but imagine how it would be to go to the temple and realize that no one had cleaned the toilets. if no one ever did, how would that influence your experience while there? the cleanliness & orderliness of the temples create an atmosphere that allow us to be receptive to the spirit and do the Lord's work. so if our homes are like that, we will be more able to have the spirit in our homes. that really made me think about the emphasis i place on those menial tasks. how would it change my attitude toward those tasks if i thought of them as a way to help keep the spirit in my home? and then a sister explained that it was the work we do in our homes, even the daily chores, that makes our homes like the temple. in the temple, we are all equal & the social or financial status we have (or don't have) is gone. she said that it is our work within the home that makes us equals. you have a mother and a daughter doing dishes together or a father and son mowing the yard. through work, some of the barriers of age & family position are broken down as we work side by side. and we are equals.

i guess i had never thought of work in exactly those terms and in that context. i felt like i had an "ah ha" moment as i saw the principle of "work" in a whole new light. i was really grateful for the ideas that the sisters expressed today.

My Family Rocks!

This week has been pretty chaotic. It started with Elise getting sick Friday night, at the start of what was supposed to be a really busy weekend. Things continued Monday morning with Cory leaving on a business trip and a hundred and one errands I needed to run. Elise seemed to be feeling better, and we even went to her dance class that afternoon. Afterwards we went with some friends to Bojangles for dinner. I noticed Ian wasn’t eating very much and was doing a LOT of this gross spitting thing he does when he smells something yucky. I just got a feeling something wasn’t right. Sure enough, as soon as he was buckled in, he began saying he needed to throw up. He made it home, but was up sick several times that night. Tuesday morning dawned with elise sicker than the day before, Ian still recovering and me trying to do a mountain of laundry. It quickly became apparent that this was not my lucky day. The washer (yes, the less than three month old washer) broke. It filled up, agitated, but wouldn’t drain out or spin. After a call to GE to see what could be done, they informed me it sounded like a pump problem and that they would be happy to repair it. They would be out first thing Monday morning. “MONDAY MORNING!!!!!”, I exclaimed in disbelief. I was sure they must have missed the part where I explained that I had a washer full of clothes and water. Unfortunately, they sympathized, but that was all they could do. That is where the “my family rocks” comes in. My Daddy came down yesterday afternoon with a new washer pump and became the Maytag man extraordinaire. He siphoned the water out of the washer, took it apart and solved my washer woes. He spent the night and even kept the laundry moving so that by mid-afternoon today all the laundry was done. He even got up this morning and cooked breakfast for all of us—bacon and omelets. Of course mama and Logan were great, too. Because I know how much Mama hates it when Daddy leaves and she had a menagerie of animals to care for and there was a bad storm last night. But she was so sweet to share. And I heard Logan was a big help at home. So a big “Thank you very much!”, to everyone who helped make my week a little bit easier and smoother. I sure love you guys!

our house...

The kids have had a virus of some sorts. Elise began running a fever on friday night. after a rough day saturday, she seemed some better sunday and yesterday. today, she seems worse again. poor girl.
here were the sick kids this morning. they've been resting and watching cartoons. being sick isn't all bad sometimes.
ian hasn't had much of an apetite, but he hasn't slowed down on his juice drinking.
elise didn't sleep well last night, so on top of being sick, she was exhausted.
merry grace is (knock on wood) fine so far. she felt well enough to dump out all the baby wipes and look quite proud of herself. ;)

ian's issues

ian has started becoming very offended by smells. this is a fairly recent occurance. i first noticed it about a week or so ago when he smelled a candle i have. i think it was a vanilla scent, so it smelled good, but was pretty strong. anyway, he put the candle right up to his nose & when he smelled it, he began gagging. i figured he was coming down with a bug or something, but he kept saying the candle had made him do it. a few days later, we were in the store and there was something that smelled like potpourri--a cinnamon, spicey, clove sort of smell. he started to gag in the shopping cart. today, he was in the garage with cory and when cory opened the big garbage can, he started to gag again. it happened a couple more times while he was out there with cory. its so disgusting. cory thinks he's just trying to figure out what to do with smells and stuff. i'm not sure. i can't imagine what would bring it on. whatever the case may be, its gross. most of you probably know of my revulsion to the stomach bug and things like that, so this is sooooooo not my cup of tea. i've tried to have him cover his nose so he can't smell things, and it seems to help if he has something to drink. i hate that things smell that badly to him. i'm just not sure if there is anything i can do to help him. any ideas?

gratitude

i am so grateful for cory.

earlier this year he bought season tickets to the UNC football games. today was the homecoming game. it was also a day where we have two birthday parties, a baby shower and a food storage canning day at the church. i know how important the tarheels are to cory and how much he wanted to go to the game.

instead, he decided to stay home with us and miss not only the football game, but a basketball game that started after the football game that he would've LOVED to attend. elise got sick with a fever/headache last night and continued into today. she's still not feeling well. cory tended to her during the night when she felt sick to her stomach, because he knows how much i hate the stomach bug. this morning he left early to go can the food storage we had ordered. he's such a great man.

i know he could have made a good case for going to the game and that would have been fine too. but that he chose to be with us and help us out today, makes me more grateful than i have words to express. i'm so glad he's going to be here with us just because i enjoy being around him, but today would have been diffucult on my on.

what a great guy! that's just the kind of man i married.

and the emmy goes to...

we had a couple of guys from the ward come and put some pinestraw around our house today. they were out working in the yard and the kids were completely fascinated by it. they opened the window and sat on the edge of my bed, looking out. one man had on a white shirt and the other an orange one. as i was doing some housework, i heard ian and elise yelling, "orange man! hey! orange man!" as i came from where i had been working i heard them say, "you're strong, orange man!" the other guy was dubbed, "white man" by the kids and they would yell, "white man, where'd you go? i can't see you white man..." i didn't want elise and ian to aggravate them while they were working, but it was so funny to hear them yelling out the window. and they sat there, completely enthralled for nearly an hour and a half. i'm sure brother deaver & lynn didn't realize they would have an adoring fan base when they came to work. the kids were entertained by the yard work and i was pretty entertained by their reaction to it, so it made for a pretty fun morning all the way around!

Celebrity Look Alikes

i thought this was pretty funny.

I love a bargain!!!

I went to Old Navy this morning and got tons of great deals for the kids. i just have to tell you how great it was. I spent $136.00 (rounded up to the nearest dollar). i know it sounds like a lot. but i figured up how much it would have cost me if i had paid regular price for everything. $726.50--before tax!!!!!!! wow. i only paid more than $5.00 for one item, and it was still less than $10.00. i just LOVE a bargain!

funnies

i was just thinking about something funny elise said in the car the other day. we were having a normal conversation when it took a humorous turn.

me: elise, when we get home you're going to have to clean up all your barbies.
elise: you're not the boss of me.
me: (trying to hide my giggles) um...actually i am the boss of you and you will have to pick up your barbies.
elise: not you're not. (pause) you and daddy are the bosses of me.
me: silence

what made this funny is that she didn't understand the rudeness of the "you're not the boss of me" phrase. i suspect one of her friends has said this to her or someone else, so she knew how to use it, but not didn't "get" that saying it to your mom was not a good idea. and after having a good chuckle over it, we did have a discussion about appropriate ways to talk to your mom.

i told my friend susan about this on her blog. one day last week i had to make cupcakes for elise's class, but only needed to send 12, so i had 12 leftover. as i was getting hers ready to take to school, ian kept coming over and asking for a cupcake. i kept reiterating that cupcakes were not for breakfast. at some point i left the room for a few minutes only to come back in and find ian sitting at the table eating a cupcake. in a little sing-song voice he goes, "daddy gave me a cupcake."

sometimes you just get no respect ;)

Sunday situations

Elise is taking tap and ballet this year at a really nice dance studio. She absolutely loves it. And her teacher is really nice and thinks Elise is pretty great. The only problem is that their recital is on a Sunday. Obviously, its not until springtime, but costume payments are already due. Elise is in a class with her cousins Emmy and Kyleigh, and we all had decided not to participate in the recital since it was on Sunday. We were bummed, but knew it was the right decision. Then last week after class I saw her teacher and she came up to me and mentioned how sad she was that Elise was not in the recital. She said she, along with her cousins, were the best ones in the class and that she had planned the whole routine and costumes around the girls. Now she would have to change everything because the other girls wouldn’t be able to do the things she had planned for our girls. My first reaction was sadness or disappointment that Elise wouldn’t be able to have this experience. But quickly I thought about how well Elise had responded to the situation. I reflected back on when I had told her about the timing of the recital. She was bitterly disappointed, as she had been wanting to get flowers at her recital like her friend Halle. But she was not upset that she couldn’t participate. She was upset that the teacher would schedule it on Sunday. She said, "Why did my teachers do that? Why would they put my recital on Sunday. Jesus needs to teach them about that." I was so proud of her. So even though I was sad that my little girl wouldn’t be a part of her first recital, I was even happier that she was learning an important lesson about the Sabbath. And she was doing it because she knew it was right and not just because her parents made her. And that is infinitely more important than the flowers she was hoping to receive.

Happy Halloween

Here are the pumpkins we carved. The top one is Elise's and is a cat. The middle one is Ian's and is Scooby Do. (it was really hard.) The bottom one is Merry Grace's. They all thought it was cool to have their own jack o'lantern.
This year we simplified the Trick or Treating a little bit. We put down the seats in the back of Cory's truck and all the kids and a few grown ups piled in. We only went around the neighborhood, so we felt like it was pretty safe. And it was much easier.
Elise and Emmy both dressed up as Ariel this year. Here they are at our ward Halloween party.
Merry Grace was an angel at the church party. Here she & I are.

halloween at its best

Elise went as Ariel this year. And boy, did she think she was fancy.
Ian went as (are you ready for this one?)...Spiderman. Spiderman slippers completed the outfit.
Ian, Marleigh, and Elise were on the porch, waiting for Trick-or-Treaters to show up. Elise is totally striking a pose.
Elise, Merry Grace, Emmy, Ian, Kyleigh, and Charles Allen were all dressed and ready before we went out for Trick or Treating. (Marleigh came too, but was still getting ready when we took this picture.) 

more kidstuff

ok, so my blog is quickly becoming a kid stuff blog. But, then again, that is my life these days. As you know daylight saving time ended this past weekend, so I had explained it to Elise and told her how it would get dark earlier in the day and so on. A day or so after I talked to her about it, she said a prayer and said, “and we’re so thankful for daylights savings. We’re so thankful that Jesus created daylights savings for us to have.” It was so sweet. She made it sound like daylight saving time was our greatest blessing. And she was so sweet and sincere, which made it even cuter.
She’s also started reading. She’s been right on the verge as she’s been sounding out words and realizing how letters sounds next to one another and how it all fits together. You could almost see the puzzle coming together for her. But she’s really getting the hang of it now and its so fun to watch. She always likes to read us stories and then turn the book around and show us the pictures like they do at school. I always tease her because she shows the pictures at warp speed. I can barely get a glimpse of the picture before she’s spun it back around. =)
Our primary sacrament meeting program was yesterday and I was so proud to see Elise up there. She was so great. She had learned her songs so well, even the second verses on most of them and sang out is such a strong voice. She said her part perfectly and I thought I would cry. It was just great. it was funny, too, because her cousin, Emmy, was sitting beside her and they made me smile so much. I wasn’t sure if they would be able to sing the words to the songs because they were so busy waving at all their adoring fans. =) but somehow they managed to do both. One of the funniest things was the closing hymn which was “Dearest Children, God is Near You.” They sang the first verse in English and then again in Spanish. When they started singing the Spanish verse, Elise and Emmy looked at each other like, “what in the world is this?” and Elise just shrugged her shoulders. They just kept looking at each other and at the director, like, “I have no idea what these people are singing.” Its hard to describe, but just imagining it make me laugh out loud. Girls are so sweet.

kids are cool

elise learned to tie her shoes yesterday. i'm so proud of her. i'm ashamed to admit that i had never before even talked to her about tying them, much less actually showed her how. but yesterday we got her her first pair of "real" tennis shoes. so, literally, in five minutes time, she had figured it out. i was really impressed that she caught on so quickly.

ian calls noodles "noo-nulls", which is what he ate for lunch. it was a campbell's chicken noodle soup packet and the noodles were small and quite numerous. as he scarfed them down he turned to me and goes, "the noo-nulls are falling down my mouth. they're going all the way to my legs." he's so cute. when he ate his first helping, i brought the now-cooled down pot over to the table to give him some more. he stuck his tummy out until it touched the pot and said, "see mommy. i can touch it. i brave of this pot!" he makes me smile.

merry grace is in to everything, but is still pretty mild. her favorite form of destruction is max's dogfood and water. when she's in the kitchen with me when i'm cooking, she crawls right over to the dogfood & gets handfuls of it out, until its all scattered around her. then she tried to eat a piece or two. after i've pulled her away a time or two, she likes to move on to the water dish and splash around and get her clothes soaked and the floor a mess. we are using a high chair we've had since elise & it no longer has buckles in it. this hasn't been a problem until now. now she has mastered the art of twisting around and grabbing onto the back of the seat and pulling up to a standing position. handy. this morning she was sitting in it while we were all there eating breakfast. i had a few toys on the tray that i thought would entertain her, one of them being elise's lunchbox. somehow she managed to open it and get out a partially eaten bag of gummies from elise's lunch yesterday and get one in her mouth. she totally got choked on it. when i realized she was choking and on what i began pounding her on her back. i was just before doing the heimlich when she got it down and seemed okay again. whew. i was a nervous wreck. kids can do that to you.

but aren't they cool?

kindergarden drama

elise has a friend in her class named jordan, and in recent weeks we have heard lots of drama about her. the first time elise told us a story about her, her face so sad and her demeanor completely melancholy, as she recounted how her mother and brother had moved to florida when she was two and left her all alone. now she didn't have anyone and was a foster child. and she didn't even have a bed to sleep in. i wasn't sure what to make of it. i was pretty sure it wasn't just some pretend game elise was playing, because i didn't think she knew the word "foster child".

the next time we heard about jordan, she lived with poor people and slept in hay because she didn't have a bed. she used to live in the desert and slept in a tent and now she slept in a barn with animals and hay. when i suggested that jordan might be joking with her about some of this stuff, elise insisted that it was 100% true and was devastated for jordan and the life she was living. she wanted to know if we could have jordan live with us, since she didn't have a family.

the next jordan installment came when elise asked me what a robber was. i explained it to her and she said, "well, that is what happened to jordan. robbers came and stole all her money and all her things and that is why she lives with poor people." the last straw came when elise told us how she had met jordan's mom in the office one time when she had to walk up there with jordan. cory & i said, "elise, i thought jordan didn't have a mom." she thought for a minute and said, "well, it was actually her grandma and then she died the very next day." it was all i could not to burst out laughing. who knew there was this much drama in kindergarden?

miscommunication

we were in the car yesterday driving up the highway to visit my parents for the weekend and the kids were talking in the backseat. the actual topic of conversation escapes me, but whatever it was that ian was talking about, elise was unimpressed. so it went like this:

elise: i don't believe you.
ian: yeah! i am.
elise: no!!! you're lying!!!
ian: yeah. i'm a lion. (holds hands up in attack position) ROARRRRR!
elise: (laughing)

its so funny to listen to kids when they talk to each other. how quickly the conversation can turn & us grown ups are just left shaking our heads and smiling.

newly groomed max

max got groomed earlier in the week and looks so handsome!

how cute is he just sitting here?

and here is a picture taken by elise...

max loves giving sugar and it makes the kids laugh. =) 

heroes

cory and i don't watch a lot of tv shows, mainly house, without a trace or a law and order when we have a little down time. but we saw a preview for a new show on NBC called "Heroes", that looked really interesting. the first episode had already come on, so we recorded the second one. saturday night we decided we'd give it a try and see if we liked it. it was one of the worst shows i've ever seen. the preview was very deceptive. the show was dark and violent and quite graphic. we actually didn't even finish watching it because it was so bad. maybe it was redeeming at the end, but from what i saw, it was horrible and not even worth finding out if there were something better somewhere in it. we were both just disgusted with it. needless to say, we will not be watching that one again.

our evening walk

The weather this week has been phenomonal, especially in the evening. the humidity is down, and the temperatures are perfect. so it makes a stroll around the neighborhood wonderful!!!

here the kids are booking it down the street.

here is spiderman and his magnificent bicycle.

merry grace enjoyed her stroll too.

we're quite the troop, but we have a great time.

 

when she talks, you'd better listen!

this week while the weather has been so glorious, we've all been playing outside after supper. several evenings ago the kids were playing on the swingset, when maria (the jungle cat) climbed up the poplar tree and launched herself onto the canopy over the slide landing. it tore a little bit, but she didn't seem to mind and just settled into to her little nest. cory wasn't happy about her being up there, especially since she'd messed it up a little. so he reached up underneath the canopy and semi-gently prodded her to move. elise, our animal lover through and through, goes, "daddy (in her most authoratative tone)! don't you know that she is a living creature?" she never fails to crack us up.

my year in review--yes, its a survey ;)

What did you do in 2006?
JANUARY
1. Did you go out for New Years? i don't think so...
2. Who kissed you at midnight? cory would have, but i'm not sure if we made it to midnight. you know, january was a long time ago!
3. Does it snow where you live? Not as much as I'd like!!!
4. Do you like hot chocolate? oh yeah.
5. Have you ever been to Times Square to watch the ball drop? No and i don't think that's something i'd like to experience. the crowds and the chaos is just not my thing. (and neither is being up late.)

FEBRUARY
1. Who was your valentine? cory
2. When you were little, did you buy valentines for your whole class? Yes. that was so fun.
3. Do you care if the groundhog sees its shadow or not? yes. and usually i'm ready for spring...unless it will mean six more weeks of SNOW!

MARCH
1. Are you Irish? no
2. Do you wear green on St. Patty's Day? yeah. and i make sure everyone in my family does too. i'm a holiday nut.
3. What did you do for St. Patty's Day in 2006? i fixed green shamrock pancakes for breakfast.
4. Are you happy when winter is pretty much over? i like snow, but usually i'm ready for the warm weather and more sunshine.

APRIL
1. Do you like the rain? I do when I can stay at home and snuggle up with a good book or movie or if its warm enough to go outside and play in it and splash in puddles.
2. Did you play an April fool's joke on anyone this year? no. i always feel bad if i really trick someone.
3. Do you get tons of candy on easter? yes. if you count leftovers from the kids hunts & baskets. cory always gets me my fair share, too. did you read the part about me loving chocolate.
4. Do you celebrate 4-20? I would tell you if I new what happened on 4-20.

MAY
1. What's your favorite kind of flower? I love most flowers--but i'm partial to bulb flowers (tulips, lilies, gladiolas, etc), roses, lilacs, & peonies
2. Do you like the spring? Yes!
3. Finish the phrase "April showers"... "Bring May flowers".
4. What is the first color you think of when you think of Spring? "spring" green

JUNE
1.What day was the best in June? one of my favorite things was our camping vacation. but it was a whole week...
2. Did you go on any vacations last June? i can't remember back to '05, but yes in '06.
3. Did you realize nothing special happens in June? Who said nothing happens in June? What happened to Father's Day??? what about birthdays?

JULY
1. What did you do on the 4th of July? a picnic in the park & a cookout w/ family
2. Did you go on any vacations during this month? yes. to myrtle beach
3. Do you blast the A/C all day? no blasting, but keeping us cool.

AUGUST
1. Did you do anything special at the end of your summer? just a couple of day trips to the beach
2. What was your favorite summer memory of '06? I don't think I have on favorite, to many good things happened.
3. Did you get a sunburn? a little bit one time when i didn't get good sunblock coverage on my back.
4. Did you go to the beach a lot? not as much as some summers, but we made several trips.

SEPTEMBER
1. Did you attend school/college in '06? just the school of life.
2. Who is/was your favorite teacher? i loved my piano teachers, mrs. robertson & dottie. i also loved my sunbeam teacher. i loved my aide in first grade, mrs. clarke. i liked mrs. taylor in the seventh grade, my young women leaders, and mrs. eanes & mr. bretz in high school. (and last, but not least, my mom.)

OCTOBER
1. What is your favorite halloween costume? i liked when i went as a jar of jellybeans.
2. What's your favorite candy? Snickers, reese's, twix...
3. What will/did you dress up like this year? i probably will not dress up. it's usually enough work to get three children dressed up! but i might put on some fake eyelashes and a witches hat or something, just to be festive.

NOVEMBER
1. Whose house did/will you go to for thanksgiving? probably cory's mom or grandma. they usually do a big thanksgiving. but sometimes we go to my folks too.
2. Do you love stuffing? it's okay.
3. What are you thankful for? Everything, the gospel, my testimony, family, friends, life in general

DECEMBER
1. Do you celebrate Christmas? Absolutely. i can't emphasize the importance enough.
2. If not, what would you celebrate? N/A.
3. Have you ever been kissed under mistletoe? Yes. we hang mistletoe in our house every year. i try to get caught there often. ;)
4. Get anything special last year? i get special things every year.
5. What do you want this year? i don't know. it takes me a while to think of something.
6. Do you like cold weather? yes. i even like it when a cold wind is blowing if i'm bundled up. and i love snow. i don't like to FEEL cold, so i just have to bundle up.