New song

The other day as she was setting the table, Ariana made up a variation on "Silver Bells." As she counted out forks, knives, and spoons, she sang:

"Silverware... Silverware..."

Exciting discovery for a one year old

Xander has discovered that he can, by reaching to the tips of his fingers and toes, reach the top drawers in our kitchen. So, in addition to the tupperware, pots, and other paraphernalia that regularly litter my kitchen floor, we can now add silverware. Watch your step!

Health food nut

Apparently we have a health food nut in our family--Katarina. Just now, she was eating a jelly-filled doughnut for dessert. She got through maybe a quarter of it, then pushed it aside and started digging into a big bowl of peas with her bare hands. She shoved as many as she could in her mouth and grabbed another big handful. I suggested that maybe she would like to use the spoon and so now, as I type, she is finishing off the bowl. The doughnut, I suppose, will just remain on the counter. I don't get it.

Just proof that each child is born with their own personality.

One good thing about a dog..

We don't get TV at our house at all, so to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional tonight, we all gathered around our computer in the kitchen. I bribed (oops! I mean motivated) our kids with hot chocolate and popcorn to be quiet during the broadcast. During one of the talks, Xander started grabbing popcorn by the handful and throwing it on the ground. The girls quickly learned how fun it is to smash popcorn on a tile floor, and the mess began. I was trying (in vain) to ignore them and listen to the speaker, but finally silenced them all in a very un-Christmas-like manner. I then mentally mourned the time I would have to spend sweeping up the kitchen floor, but continued watching the broadcast.

Now I just walked through that area and it was completely clean. How in the devil...? Oh yeah, I have a dog! Well, chalk that up on my list of things to be grateful for.

This post in no way endorses the ownership of dogs or of encouraging them to eat off the floor. Such habits may be dangerous for the your mental health (in the case of owning a dog) or for the health of your pet. You should always check with your physchologist and veterinarian before engaging in these activities.

Casting my vote

I'm casting my vote that women over 30 should not have to deal with their face breaking out. Are you listening, Mother Nature?!!

Xander's First Birthday

Xander had his first birthday a month ago. (Yeah, I know, I'm still behind. I wish I had a good excuse. Maybe life with four small children is enough excuse...?) Here's some of my favorite pictures. You'll notice below a picture of the cake itself. I was adamantly against taking a picture of it, but Kelly was insistent. You see, I've gotten ever lazier in my approach to birthdays. In fact, I almost did no cake at all for Xander's birthday. After all, he'll never remember it, right? But then I thought of the days when he will look back at his baby pictures and feel neglected because he never had a first birthday. So I made one, but I wasn't about to go to the trouble of making frosting as well, so I used what I had in my fridge. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough of one color to do the whole cake... Voila! an ugly two tone cake. Enjoy.

Mixing up my words

Getting out of the house with four small children is so gruelling. Just getting shoes on, jackets (now that it's cooler), various toys to keep kids happy, snacks, and then buckling everyone in takes me almost half an hour. As I pull out of the garage, I often think to myself, "We're off like a herd of turtles." Except, the other day I said it out loud to Kelly and mixed up the words. I said, "We're off like a turd of hurdles!"

I couldn't help it, I giggled.

And giggled.

And then giggled some more.

Chicken head

Katarina: Mom, my chicken head is gone!

Me: puzzled silence

Ariana: You mean your goose egg?

Katarina: Yeah!

Silence is deadly

Xander has officially reached the age where silence is deadly. I know that if he has been quiet for very long, I had better go check on things.

A few minutes ago, for instance, I was sitting in the bathroom when I realized it had been quiet for far too long. I rushed out to find Xander at the bowl of dog food, stuffing it in as fast as he possibly could. When I pushed him to spit it out, he literally spit out more than I thought possible for him to fit in his small mouth. Gross. My days of a truly mobile toddler have begun. Wish me luck.

Quick explanation

The following posts are from the past few months. I'm catching up on everything because I plan on printing my blog in book format for a type of journal at the end of the year. Feel free to skip over them if you don't want a travel log of our family. :-)

Our Anniversary Celebration

We went down to Zion's National Park for our ten year anniversary celebration and went canyoneering. It was a blast. Those narrow canyons are so incredibly beautiful and it was exciting to try something new. Of course, I was dead tired after we finished, but that's o.k. I'll make sure I'm in better shape before I go next time. The picture above is from when we were just starting out. We're wearing wetsuits because the temperature was only in the 60's that day and we were heading into water that was around 50 degrees.
Here is Kelly rappelling down one of the pitches. At the bottom of this pitch there was a pool of water. We had to tread water while unhooking from the rope and then swim the short distance to the shore. I went down first and as I was unhooking Kelly reminded me to be careful with my belay device because if I dropped it, it would be long gone in that deep, dark pool of water. I carefully unhooked from the rope and swam over to the shore. Just after I got out of the water I heard clink, clink, splash! "What was that?" I asked. Silence. "Was that your belay device?" ".......yeah...." Now that is ironic. Luckily, Kelly knew how to twist the rope through the carabiner so he could still rappel down safely.

This is me at the top of the final pitch. It was 100 feet down with no footholds--you just had to hold on to the rope. Not as scary as it sounds and it was absolutely gorgeous.

Another pic of me on the final pitch.
Such a beautiful place. We plan on returning as soon as we can. If anyone else is interested in canyoneering, we'd love an excuse to go again!!

Desitin 'do

I knew it was too quiet in Xander's room. The girls ran into the kitchen and told me that Katarina was putting diaper stuff into Xander's hair. What is diaper stuff? you may ask. AKA desitin. I had to wash his hair with dish soap twice and it still didn't all come out.

Vacation at Grandpa Matthews

Playing tag. Katarina hitched a ride on Daddy.
Daddy with Kiara, Katarina, and Ariana.
Kiara in the pool.
Xander and Grandpa
Katarina flies into Daddy's arms. (She's the only one who would go off the diving board.)

Ariana wanted an astronaut party, so I tried to do some cool stuff. We called it astronaut training and did agility skills (obstacle course) and knowledge testing in science and math. They got a card (pictured above) with a question on it and multiple choice answers. Each answer had a location next to it. If the answer was correct, the next question was found in the location. If not, the card just said "sorry, wrong answer." At the very last correct location, there were a bunch of NASA "badges" for them to wear because now they had passed the test to be an astronaut. I thought it was pretty stinking cool. The kids couldn't have cared less. Next time we're just playing duck, duck, goose. So there.
Cupcakes were the dessert of choice for the birthday girl.
Yay for the gift exchange!
Full-fledged astronauts. For my own future reference, the kids here are (top row L-R) Kyle Bohrer, Gwyn Christensen, Ariana, Marley Christensen, (bottom row L-R) Katarina, Brandon Brooks, and Kiara.

I can't resist him

Really, who could?

Katarina's Birthday

Blowing out the candles
What a sweet smile
She loves her new barbie doll.

My little man

It doesn't get much cuter than that!

Trip to Washington

There's a park in Spokane with a fun water feature for kids to play in. This is Ariana enjoying the spray (sort-of).
Kiara gets doused.
Katarina ran under the spout several times.
Hooray for water on a hot summer day!

Ward Campout

This pic is from our ward campout. We went on a little hike. I could say that we went on a little whine-fest that happened to take place along a wooded trail, but I don't suppose that would be the kindest way to state it. :-)

Fairy phones

The girls have been talking about going to visit the fairies on their cloud kingdom today.

Kiara: I think the queen and king will have us stay for dinner.

Ariana: But we'll call you. I hope they have a cell phone!

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

Kelly went to change Xander's stinky diaper just now. I heard and hoot of laughter and he called for me to come in. There, in the offending diaper, was a Polly Pocket shoe. And no, it hadn't just fallen in through his clothing. It may be the first of its kind, but it isn't likely to be the last. If you need to ask me why, then you've never had three young girls playing in your house.

Cranford

Thanks to my fabulous sister-in-law, Bethany, I've been introduced to the wonderful world of Cranford. It is this great movie, based on books written by Elizabeth Gaskell. I saw it in Costco the other day--it was part of a set. The other movies in the set were North and South (not the one about the Civil War--this one was produced by BBC), and Wives and Daughters. We just watched North and South last weekend and it was WONDERFUL and I can't wait to watch Wives and Daughters. If you like the A&E version of Pride and Prejudice, you will love these movies. Go out and rent them today!!!

BTW, I hope you don't mind me sharing with you some of my favorite things. I feel pretty corny, since I end up sounding like a commercial. I guess you can always just ignore me, right? :-)

Coolest mom of the day award

That's right, I'm nominating myself for the coolest mom of the day award. We're studying about ancient Egypt in our homeschool right now, and today we learned about the first writing. (It was in Egypt and Sumer, in case you were wondering. Of course, I guess you have to ignore the Bible to really believe that, but ANYWAY!) So as an activity I sent my girls on a treasure hunt and the clues were written in hieroglyphics. They had to translate them to find out where to find the next clue. Then, at the end, they had to write their own name in hieroglyphics to get their treat. They were very excited about it all. At the end, Ariana exclaimed, "This was the best treasure hunt EVER!"

Excuse me while I go pat myself on the back. :-)

Ariana's joke

Here's Ariana's latest joke:

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

I see.

I see who?

I see London, I see France, I see.... moose's headband on her head.

Junie B. Jones

I've been wanting to get Ariana into reading chapter books, but was unsure where to begin. Well, my great friend Andrea gave me a few ideas, and as soon as I told Ariana that Kelsie (Andrea's daughter) had read the books, she couldn't wait to get at them. I checked out a couple of Magic Tree House books and one Junie B. Jones book. She was giggling like mad as she read the Junie B. book and I wondered if she was just in a silly mood. Well, I just read it for myself and it is hilarious. It had me laughing out loud. I think it's probably funnier for adults to read than kids. So, I may become a Junie B. fan. Laugh all you want. Those are some pretty funny books.

Forgetting things

I forgot to run my dishwasher last night and this morning my kitchen smelled like fish. Ewww.

But the good news is, I found a great fish marinade recipe on the internet yesterday and it's super simple.

1 garlic clove, minced

6 T olive oil

1 t basil

1 t salt

1/2 t pepper

1 t parsley

1 T lemon juice

I only had time to marinate it for 10 min, then I cooked it on the grill (about 5 minutes each side) and it was delicious! Even my two year old asked for some more!

Sharing my concerns

I am worried about our country and I'm not just talking politics here. Regardless of your own personal political convictions, you must admit that the moral fabric of this country seems to be disintegrating. Where are our values? How can we maintain our freedom? What kind of country will our children inherit?

We must have leaders to help us now and in the future. More to the point, we must have leaders who are moored in morally safe harbors. We need leaders who are like Washington, Jefferson, Locke and Gandhi. Where do we get those leaders? We rear them in our families and teach them in our schools. But how do we do that? How did those great men become great? There is an incredible book I've read that deals with these exact questions. It is entitled A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the 21st Century, by Oliver Van DeMille.

Whether you choose to send your children to public, private, charter, or homeschool, this book gives guidelines on how to prepare your children to be the leaders of tomorrow. It is a fabulous discussion of why our schools fail us and how we as parents can step in to complete our children's education. It is uplifting, inspiring, and instructional. I highly recommend it. For those of you who live close to me, there is a copy in the Lehi library and I have a copy I will loan out. For those of you further away, I hope your library has a copy and if not, you might consider buying it. I truly think it is worth the money.

Here's hoping, praying, and doing all that I can to create a better United States for my children to inherit,

Melody

Funny words

Today in the car:

Katarina: Mom

Me: Yeah?

Katarina: Not you.

Me: Oh.

Katarina: I'm talking to myself.

10 seconds later:

Katarina: Mom

Me: (silence)

Katarina: Mom!! I'm talking to you!!

I can't keep up, Katarina.

Kiara's Birthday

Ariana gave Kiara a pine cone for her birthday. You may think this odd, but it was one of Ariana's treasured possessions and quickly became one of Kiara's. Apparently, they are good for crafts. It hasn't been used for a craft in the 6 months it has been in our home, but the girls keep telling me that is why they hold on to it. Probably I could look up a craft for it, but there's only one pine cone and that would just create contention in our home. We already have enough of that, thank you very much.
Kiara chose cupcakes with pink frosting for her birthday. I thought that was a pretty cute smile! She's my big five year old now. (Well, she has been for a few weeks now--her birthday was on June 28th. I'm just a little behind in my blogging.)

Cute big sister moment

The other day I found Ariana playing with Xander on the bench in the front room. I thought it was pretty cute. 'Course, a little later, she walked out of the room for a moment and he fell off the bench. Don't worry, the front room is carpeted so no major damage was done.

Our first boat trip

WARNING: The following is a long and detailed story. I'm working on my story writing skills, so if you choose to read this, you'll have to bear with me. If you skip over it, I will not be offended. :-)



Last Thursday we went out on our boat for the first time. (For those of you who haven't heard, Kelly's brother gave us the old family boat--35 years old. But who cares how old it is? It runs!) There was a forecast of the possibility of thunder storms, but I didn't think too much about it. I figured the worst that could happen was we would get a few rain drops and be no worse for wear.



How wrong I was.



The first thing that went wrong was not related to the weather. Kelly and I were there with all the kids, so we let them sit on the dock while we launched the boat. I drove the car and trailer up to the lot while Kelly parked the boat at the dock. However, as soon as he stopped the boat, he looked over to see Katarina floating in the water, face down. She was trying to get her face up and turn over, but couldn't do it over the bulk of the lifejacket. His first instinct was to try to send Ariana after her, but Ariana is not a good swimmer. He frantically asked her to hold the boat, and without a second look back, he ran down the dock, jumped in the water and grabbed Katarina. She was fine and surprisingly calm. Luckily, Ariana succeeded in keeping the boat at the dock. So when I came down from the car I found Kelly and Katarina soaking wet and he informed me, "we've already had our first adventure." That's an understatement.



Next we got out on the lake. The clouds were fairly dark, but it wasn't cold so we decided to try out the tube we borrowed from friends. Kelly, Ariana and Kiara all got on and I drove while keeping an eye on Xander and Katarina. (Having to actually write this down makes it seem even worse. I swear we're not the worst parents in the world....) They had a pretty good time and I actually did o.k. driving the boat. I had the feeling that I should turn the boat around and not keep going further into the middle of the lake, but I was worried about how the turn would affect them on the tube and so I just kept going. Finally they signalled me that they were done, so I cut the engine and pulled them in.

The tube looked pretty fun and we had plenty of time, so I decided to try it out. I put on my jacket as we floated in the middle of the resevoir. Then the gust front from the thunderstorm hit. It was crazy--totally windy and the waves just kept getting bigger and bigger. We decided to head back towards the dock and Kelly had me drive so he could check something in the back. It was pretty bumpy, and then for some reason that I don't remember now, he told me to cut the motor. I pulled the engine back immediately. The wind quickly turned us parallel with the waves and we were rocking side to side.

"Turn us back," Kelly frantically told me. "This is how you capsize a boat!"

I pushed the stick forward and turned the wheel, but the boat didn't respond. My heart sank as I realized how quiet the boat was. It was dead. Quickly I turned the key in the ignition, but got no response. For all intents and purposes, we were stuck in the middle of the lake, with a boat that didn't work, in a perfect position to capsize with the next big gust of wind. This was when the panic hit me.

"Nothing's happening," I screamed back to Kelly. "The boat is dead."

He took another look at the engine. "It's flooded. We'll just have to wait."

Meanwhile, the kids had picked up on my panicked feelings. "We're lost!" Ariana wailed. The baby started crying and the girls screamed as the boat dipped past a large wave and water rushed in. The screams woke Kelly up to the panicked stated of his family and he began to reassure us all.

"It's going to be fine. The engine is flooded. We just have to wait and then we'll be able to drive back."

I chipped in to explain what a flooded engine was. My explanation wasn't correct, but it distracted the girls from their fear and allowed for a few minutes of peace. However, the whole time I was explaining to them, I was calculating what I would do if the boat capsized. How would I care for both Katarina and Xander? Perhaps Kelly would get Xander and I should get Katarina. But what if we both went for Katarina? Would we lose Xander in the lake before we could save him? No, I couldn't even contemplate such a thing. We were going to be fine. We were going to be fine. Surely, we would be o.k.

The boat started up after an eternity of worried thoughts and spilling waves. Kelly gunned it to get us to the docks. But as we had sat in the middle of the lake, the waves increased in size. Instead of the normal jolts of a fast travelling boat, we were hit by jarring impacts as we passed each wave. Occasionally the boat would catch air, only to land prematurely as the next wave swelled to meet it and push it upward again. Those times the impact was even more severe. The girls screamed louder with each impact and I struggled to hold on to Katarina. After one nasty landing, Kiara bounced off the seat and panicked as she couldn't get back on. I tried to reach for her with one hand, but she was too far away. If I bent to reach her, Katarina and I would go bouncing off the seat as well. Kelly slowed the boat and helped her back onto her seat and I showed her where to grab on so that she wouldn't fall. Then Kelly took off again.

I knew he was trying to get us home as quickly and safely as possible, but this was getting truly painful. Ariana cried, "My back hurts!" and I realized that mine hurt, too. In fact, my tailbone was killing me.

"Is there anything else we can do? This is truly painful, honey," I called back to him.

A little angered, he pulled the stick up quickly and the nose of the boat promptly dove into the next wave, soaking us all. "That's what will happen if I do."

We stared at each other in silence for a few moments as the boat continued to rock.

"I guess you could come sit in the back," he finally said. "It's not as bad back there and boat will eventually plane out."

We all found a seat in the back so he could take off once again. Each time the boat met another wave I cringed. My tailbone objected to each crash. I could have been sitting on a bare wooden board for all the comfort that ancient upholstery offered me. The girls were not comforted by their new positions, either. Their screams continued to raise in pitch and fervency. Suddenly the borrowed tube flew out of the boat. My wordless scream to Kelly alerted him and he once again pulled back on the stick. As he reeled the tube in by its rope, Kelly tried to explain things to the girls. It was no good. They were worked into a frenzy by this time. Obviously we needed a different approach.

"We'll try idling back in. I don't care how long it takes," he muttered.

So once more we continued our trek across the lake, this time at a slower pace. No more harsh impacts plagued our trip, but the nose of the boat did occasionally dip into an oncoming wave and water would wash down the boat. Kelly put the snap-on cover over the bow to minimize this problem and the taut canvas shielded the boat nicely. Then Kelly noticed the cozy cove created by the cover and asked the girls to crawl up under. They huddled together on the floor of the boat as we covered them with a partially soaked blanket.

They were doing so much better physically, but their spirits still suffered. Fear broadcast from their wide eyes as they looked back at us. Perhaps a hymn would help settle them.

The only one I could think of is "Master, the Tempest is Raging." Oh, well. It was still worth a shot. But I realized that I don't know that hymn as well as I'd hoped.

"Master the tempest is raging, the billows are tossing high,

The... sky is o'er shadowed with darknes, da dum da dum dum dum dum.

Carest thou not that we perish? How canst thou lie asleep?

When each moment so madly is threat'ning a... grave in the... angry deep..."

The chorus went a little smoother and the kids seemed to be calming down. Oddly enough, I felt more settled, too. But I only knew the first verse, so after singing that a couple of times, I settled for humming, and then finally thought of another song to sing.

The wind slowly died down as we completed the trip to the docks. Finally, the water was only disturbed by small ripples as I held the boat and Kelly went to get the car and trailer.

Our final mishap was trying to drive the boat onto the trailer. Kelly made the mistake of backing the trailer in quite close to the docks--leaving me less room for errors and corrections as I attempted to pull in. I tried a couple of times to line the boat up, but finally Kelly just pulled the hook way out and grabbed the boat. Finally, we were all back to safety.



Did I learn a lot of lessons from this trip? You bet. Do our kids like boating after their first adventure? No way. We'll have to work on that... when the weather is really, really nice.

Utah Scottish Festival

We went to the Utah Scottish festival on Saturday. I don't know if any of us has any Scottish heritage, but it seemed like a good learning opportunity, regardless. So we packed up the kids and headed out for adventure.

One of the first stops was at a booth called "Kill the Giant." The girls got all suited up in armor and valiantly defeated the terrifying "Giant" and then raised their weaponry in a victory salute!
Another booth had streamers and the girls all enjoyed dancing and waving them around (the booth didn't have music, but let me assure you that there was no shortage of bagpipe music on those grounds!).

Here is Ariana with a nearly fatal strike to the "Giant." Pretty impressive form, don't you think? (Sorry the pics are out of order, I am just not savvy enough to switch them around... or maybe I just don't care enough... take your pick.)

Katarina with the streamer.

Xander's Latest Favorite

Xander's latest favorite thing is oranges. I cut an orange up into eighths and give him one and he will just suck and suck and suck. If I take it away, even if only the peel is left, he cries. I have to be right ready with another peice for him. Of course, after he's finished he is positively dripping with orange juice and needs a bath, but it's so cute I can't resist. So what's your child's latest favorite?

late riser

I didn't get my shower taken or my bed made until almost 3 in the afternoon today. All the sisters out there who are with me, let me hear you say Oooh-uh, Oooh-uh.

Don't get over it, but do move on

So I'm going to share something will all of you that may be more than you ever wanted to know, but oh, well. Here goes.

When I was pregnant with Katarina (my third), I had some serious depression issues. I went on medication and started a cognitive behavioral program to help me through things. I learned a lot and ended up being happier than I could remember being since I was like 12. I guess I never realized how down I had been until I had a good "up" to compare it to.

Well, things are going pretty good for me now. I feel like I'm on a good, even keel and generally in control of my emotions (well, I'm still a girl, so I guess that means I'm not ALL that in control, but you get the drift). Every so often, however, I have a down day and it is very hard for me. On those days I tend to question everything--what is wrong with me? Am I on the right dosage of medication? Why am I such a witch?! Why can't I just be normal and happy? Have I gotten enough sleep lately? Do I need to eat more? Do I need to eat less? Is it because I'm still over my normal weight? Why am I such an ingrate?

You get the idea.

But I read a talk from General Conference by Elder Christofferson. (for those of you not of my faith, general conference is a big meeting/broadcast that we have twice a year and Elder Christofferson is an apostle.) He spoke of having the strength to overcome trials. One thing that stuck out to me was this: "In times of distress... let your obedience be exact. Then you can ask in faith, nothing wavering, according to your need, and God will answer. He will sustain you as you work and watch. In His own time and way He will stretch forth his hand to you, saying, 'Here am I'."

I decided to try to apply this to my situation.

Instead of thinking of the depression as something I brought on myself, I thought of it as a trial. I didn't seem able to make myself happy, but I could certainly choose how I would act regardless of how I felt inside. I focused on being kind in all my conversation. I stopped the negative thinking that often tempted me and tried to replace it with true and uplifting thoughts. I acted as happy as I could under the circumstances. Then I just had faith that I was doing all I could and the Lord would make up for the rest. You know what? That was the most liberating thing. I stopped focusing on how "evil" I was for being depressed, and instead focused on the things that it was in my power to change. It reminds me of that saying "God grant me the strength to the change the things I can, the serenity to accept the things I can't, and the wisdom to know the difference." (I'm sure I didn't quote that exactly, but you get the idea.)

I'm not listing this as the end-all, be-all solution for depression. I just wanted to share with you my experiences in the hopes that it will help and uplift someone else who struggles like me.

Goin' to farm country

The girls and I went to farm country the other day at Thanksgiving Point. I forgot my camera, so these are pretty bad pictures--just what I could get from my phone. Hopefully they'll give you an idea, though. All the girls were especially excited for the pony rides... Katarina

Kiara

Ariana.

They also had places where you could feed the animals. You had to buy their feed, of course, from little candy-like dispensers that cost 25 cents each. Well, I didn't have any quarters (we'll ignore the fact that I'm probably too cheap to do it anyway), so my kids went scrounging around on the ground to get all the leftover corn kernels and fed them to the penned horses. It actually kept them occupied and happy for quite a long time! I have some pics, but my computer is being difficult and I am out of patience. Hopefully I'll remember to post them later.

Katarina at the surgical center

This is sort-of an old pic--from when Katarina got her tubes a couple of months ago, but I thought it was cute enough that it was worth posting, anyway.

Lessons learned

Ariana and Kiara have recently taken to stomping on every single rolly-polly bug they can find (sorry, I don't know the official name for them--maybe potato bugs?). Well, I was getting a little annoyed yesterday as we were walking to a friend's house, because it was taking so long and I admit, I don't like having them enjoy killing anything... even rolly-polly bugs. So I said something about how they didn't need to kill every single one they encounter, that it was probably not a good thing.
This morning, I was gardening when I overheard them as they were playing in the front yard. From what I can gather, they gathered up every single rolly-polly bug they could find (including some from the nieghbors' yards) and gave them a safe haven in a bucket filled with dirt and grass. So they have gone from mass murderers to rolly-polly rescue shelter overseers.
Go figure.

Laziness or Efficiency?

Lately, my kids have taken to sleeping on top of their covers so they don't have to make their beds in the morning. I haven't decided how I feel about this...

Interesting Highlinghts

Here are some of the interesting highlights of my day. Hopefully some of you will get a chuckle out of them, as that seems to be the only thing they could be good for (I don't consider losing my sanity as a "good" cause).

It took my two daughters OVER AN HOUR just to unload the dishwasher this morning. That doesn't count loading in the breakfast dishes when they were done.

As I was leaving the grocery store this afternoon, I realized that Katarina (2 1/2 years old) had managed to shoplift some life savers and was enjoying them as she got into the car. Wintergreen mint flavor.

Kiara obediently went outside to play when I asked her to this afternoon, but I heard her in the bathroom a few minutes later. When I asked what she was doing, she informed me that she was washing off her shoes. You guessed it, she had walked through the kitchen and down the carpeted hallway in shoes that were completely caked with mud. But at least she was trying to wash those shoes off, right?

After the wrestling match that I call family prayer, I went to settle Xander into his exersaucer so I could dish up dinner for the other kids. I didn't realize that one of the girls had left an open straw cup on the exersaucer and of course it was full of juice. Literally flung across half of my kitchen floor. Does anyone want to come mop my kitchen for me yet?

I put a paper towel on the floor to soak up some grease from hamburger that I had browned tonight. I came back several minutes later to find the paper towel gone and my dog licking up all remains of grease. She may have an interesting time over the next day or so.


That's all I can remember for now. Would you like to chant with me?
Only 3 1/2 more days till Kelly gets home...
Only 3 1/2 more days till Kelly gets home...
Only 3 1/2 more days till Kelly gets home...

Here is the before picture of my kitchen.

After over 2 months, I finally got around to finishing my kitchen cupboards. I finished the bottom ones before I moved in--didn't want the younger kids getting into everything (as often), but I put off finishing the doors for the upper cupboards until this last week. Well, they are finished, and I am so excited I have to share with everyone!!! First there is a close up of how I did the inserts of the doors. It is a decorative sheet metal that I painted black and managed to shimmy into that space. Next we have a close up of the cupboard doors that are separate from the rest of the cupboards (you'll see what I mean in the bigger pics below). These I decided to make more useful by putting in chalkboards as the insert. To illustrate, I wrote a pretend shopping list. :-) But we could use them for phone messages or whatever strikes our fancy!

Here are the big pictures. I threw in two different angles so you could get a better idea of what the kitchen is like. I took a "before" picture with my phone, and I'm going to see if I can figure out how to post that, so you get the full effect. The chalkboard inserts are the cupboards to the left in this picture.

I know, I know, you're probably all drooling over my extremely cool new kitchen by now! :-)

Hallelujah for the internet

I decided to search the internet this morning for suggestions on how to clean my sister's wall off and found quite a few different options. I went with rubbing alcohol (mostly because it's what I found first among Bonnie's cleaning supplies) and it worked wonderfully. There is a slight orange cast left over, but you can only see it if you are really looking for it. I guess I'll still have to 'fess up about what Katarina did, but at least it looks 99% better now. (If you're confused by this post, read the one below and it will all make sense...)

More Murphy's Law

I've been watching my sister's kids this weekend while she is on a trip with her husband. Yesterday, as I was watching the afternoon session of Conference, the girls were supposed to be in quiet time. I had to spank Katarina to get her to stay in bed, and apparently even that didn't work very well because a little later David came in and said, "umm.... I think one of your girls drew on the wall." I rushed upstairs and sure enough, Katarina had done a little original artwork on the wall in the extra bedroom. I looked around to see what she had used, and OF COURSE it was a sharpie permanent marker. Nice bright orange color. Gotta love it. So I'm going to scrub the heck out of it tomorrow and then offer to help Bonnie paint the walls or hire a painter. It would be sort of nice to watch her kids and not ruin something... just once. Ah well. So goes life.

Murphy's Law

So Kelly left on a deployment yesterday right after lunch. (He's only gone for a month, so don't pity me too much... my friend around the corner has a husband gone for over a year.) Anyone who knows our past experiences knows that something MUST go wrong as soon as he leaves. Yesterday didn't disappoint.

After lunch we had nap time, and then I needed to take the kids to the grocery store. So I loaded up the baby and the two biggest girls. (Katarina was still sleeping, so I left her for last.) I went to start the car and it was dead. I mean, completely dead. No lights on the dashboard, no nothing.

O.k.

So I call Sylvia Kent, a few doors down from me, to give me a jump. I tell her I'll just roll my car out of the garage and down the driveway if she'll just drive over. Sure. So I jump in the car, turn on the key, push the brake and try to shift out of park. Not happening. Our car has one of those safety features where it won't shift out of park unless I do all those things I just listed. Well, apparently, when the car is COMPLETELY DEAD it doesn't register the fact that I am following directions like a good little girl. It refuses to move out of park. There has got to be a way to override this stupid thing, so I pull out the owner's manual.

Meanwhile, my very sweet friend has arrived and is watching me thumb through the stupid manual at a snail's pace, trying to locate a solution to my problem. After an eternity, I finally find the instructions. I have to use a screwdriver to pry off a piece of plastic and push a button underneath that will allow me to shift from park. Of course. Why didn't I think of that before?

O.k., I can finally push my car down the driveway to be beside hers. Ummm... before you push a car out, you should check if your open driver's side door is going to run into anything. Like, say, a tricycle or a Mantis rototiller. (Kelly, if you're reading this, don't worry. Neither of them was permanently damaged.) (Oh yeah... and neither was the car.)

I finally was able to drive out of my driveway about a half hour after initially trying to start my car. I guess the good news is that Katarina got an extra half hour of a nap. Well, actually the really good news is that my kids were all angels in the store. Really. I couldn't have asked for better behaved kids. So I guess that was my blessing after the trial.

My poor cell phone

Picture this:

I leave a store this afternoon, with Katarina in tow, and I call Kelly to see how the baby is doing and if I need to hurry home. I prop the phone between my ear and shoulder as I try to pull out the keys to the car with one hand and drag Katarina along with the other. Katarina pulls on my hand and I turn slightly to look at her, causing the phone to slip from its precarious position.

(Picture this next part in horrifying slow motion)
My phone plummets to the hard pavement and rebounds with the force of impact. The bounce sends the phone straight to a nearby sewer drain where it teeters for less than a second and slips straight between the bars to splash into the fetid water below. I scream "NOOOOO!!!" and drop to my knees next to the drain.

I know every second is of the essence, so I drop all my stuff and bend to lift off the drain cover. Uuuuummmph.... wow they make those things heavy. So I hop to my feet and use all the leverage I can get to pry it off. I set it to the side and look hopelessly down into the drain. It's too far to just reach in and grab my phone with my hand. I consider all my options. Obviously, I would prefer to have as little of my body in contact with that awful water as possible.... but it seems that I will have to both stand in the water and then submerge my hand to pick up the phone. Ewwwww. Just then I remember my blessedly long toes and rather strange talent of picking things up with them. Jackpot. So I pull of my shoe, roll up my pant leg, and quickly extract my phone. I have to dry it off with the burpcloth in my diaper bag (maybe I'll burn that later) and use every drop of hand santizer I have to try to get a clean feeling back on my body.

My phone is able to limp along until we get back to Utah and the verizon salesman we worked with.
So, all I can say is, thank goodness for insurance on cell phones!

Hello again and cute kids

Hello to everyone. I am still alive after having my husband gone for two weeks, then packing up the entire house, refinishing the cupboards in the new house, and moving in to the new house. Things aren't really under control there yet, but we had already planned a vacation to CA, so here we are in San Diego, escaping the madness. BTW, I will post before and after pics of the cupboards when I get a chance.

Here's a funny thing Kiara said the other day:

Kelly was playing robot with the girls and went over to Kiara to ask her what he could do for her. There was a pause then...
"Ummm.... usually I work alone."

Cute hairstyles

While on vacation in Phoenix, I got inspired by my sister-in-law, Beth, who does her girls hair so cute. She told me about some hairdo blogs that she likes. So I took a deep breath, bought more hairstyling paraphenalia, and plunged in. For those of you who see my kids on a regular basis, that is going to be quite a shock, so buckle up. Yes, those are even curls in Kiara's hair. My curling iron still works dispite years of unuse.

I've even pulled out my stash of ribbons, meager as it is. It's amazing how little details like that can make a hairstyle look so much cuter. This is Katarina (the view I see most often).

Ariana likes the Indian braids. I haven't yet told her that she's related to Pocahontas. I think then I might not get her to do any other hairstyle!