Livi's Masterpiece

Olivia has a thing about walls. I don't know why, but she can't let a perfectly clean wall stay bare. I have found pencil marks, pen marks, sticky finger prints, smeared makeup, and even smashed fruit snacks (luckily that was the worst thing) on my walls. My other two never really did this, so i am not quite sure what to do other than say "No, no," and explain why, but Livi is not to be dissuaded.

And now, now she has upped the ante: If you are wondering what it is, it is the very first drawing of a person Livi has ever done. This is normally something I would save in the books I keep for the kids, but Livi is one to do things her own way. I was a little reluctant to wash it off, but baring pulling off the drywall to save for her these pictures will have to do!

One Of My Favorite Days...okay not really

Friday was not a good day. It wasn't horrible, but definitely not going in my top 10. We started at 2:30am with Livi's fever, 5:30am was Ella's fever and 6:00am was Ethan dry heaving in the bathroom. The dryer died a painful, expensive death, and Eric was out of town for 3 days.

There were 2 bright spots:
1. I got to order DELIVERY pizza for the first time in my married life, and I didn't even feel guilty about it!

2. The girls were very happy with the pallet I made for them to lie on since they were too sick to even move around. A big thank you to James and Jes for the giant pillows that made it possible.

8, 8 Year Olds; or Losing My Mind

Ethan playing with a birthday present (I'm not sure if the game was the best present or me giving up on trying to keep our house relatively video game free)


Ethan is 8. I can't believe it. Some how my baby boy is old enough to be baptized. This seemed to be the birthday that wouldn't stop, kind of like our Christmas celebrations. Next year needs to be more low key, or my brain is going to burst.
Ethan's birthday was on Sunday, so the day before we went and got his big present: 2 fish and 2 crabs. Our kids "helping" to get the aquatic life situated

The next day church was at 9, so you can imagine what time we had to get up to open presents and get everyone ready on time.
Later that night we had the Bagleys over for cake, and a little bit of playing.
Saturday (yesterday) we had his birthday party. We only have friends over for parties on even years, so this was the dreaded..er...wonderful year Ethan could have a party. I let him invite 8 friends (plus Maddi for Ella) so we had total 8, 8 year old boys. It lasted for 1 1/2 hours, which was about 1/2 hour too long (for me). We played Jedi training with light sabers, pinned the light saber on Yoda and ate pizza and cupcakes.
It was actually really fun, and Ethan had a great time, and that's what matters...but... I get a little sad when one kid comes up and asks "Why is your house so junky?" and another tells me "Your kids rooms are too messy." Ah the problems of moving into a higher socioeconomic area and school. I want to laugh it off, but I tried hard to have the upstairs totally presentable and clean, but I didn't pick up the play room. Shame on me.
I have a migraine and a sore throat this morning and I'm not sure if I'm sick or just tired, but either way I'm going to curl up in a dark room, listen to a book on tape, and put off cleaning until Ella's party in May. I'm going to need my energy if I'm going to have the house acceptably clean.

Family Portrait

Well, they are finally here, our family portraits. I had one of my "crazy-daughter-in-law" moments when I saw the group shot, because I looked 400 pounds (literally). The more we looked at the picture the more we realized something was off (besides me). Ryan's head was smaller than Ethan's. Eric looked gigantic compared to Kyle (in the sibling shots they are about the same). We soon realized that something about the camera angle, or splicing of photos was VERY off. Joan was so nice and talked to the photographer about it, and luckily she was able to work some magic. It's still not the best photo ever taken of me, but, deep breath: not everything is about me. I know, I'm still trying to internalize that, but recognition of the fact, if not quite total belief, should count for something. Our little family picture is cute. I look normal (which makes me wonder more about the family picture), but poor Ella was about to burst into tears. She has her special "princess pose" that she loves to strike when taking a photo, and the photographer was not as nice as she could have been about it. Basically no princess poses allowed. This photo is the best of Ella, in some she looked like she was contemplating creative ways to torture the photographer. Ethan was bored out of his mind, and ready to help Ella in her dastardly plans, but Eric and Livi look great. I LOVE the shot of Joan and Alan, and can't wait to print one up to put on our shelf. Thank you Joan and Alan for putting up with me, and for getting these pictures for us!

Blankie 2.0

Weddings are a crazy time. We lost one oatmeal colored glove, our health, my will to NOT live in Utah, but most importantly we lost Livi's blankie. It somehow got lost somewhere in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building during the reception. Not only did we check lost and found there, but my dad went back and checked the temple too, to no avail. It wasn't in the car, or the hotel, so we were left with one option: Drive to Provo on Sunday right before we left and buy a new one. We thought it would be fine, and we were wrong. The University Mall in Provo is one of the few places on Earth that is not open on Sunday. Normally I would be their biggest supporter in that, but having a baby that misses her blankie, and doesn't understand why it isn't there, all I wanted was for the mall to be open. The trip home was very hard, to say the least. We did have a burp cloth that was made of the same material, on the front, as her blankie, but she was too smart to be fooled for long. At first she would cuddle the burp cloth and look relieved. Then she would feel the back, like she does with her blankie, but instead of the soft pink material there would be a terry cloth side. She would pull it away to look at it, and then: Total Meltdown!

Luckily I have the nicest parents in the world, who were not only willing to go to the mall on Monday and buy her a new one, but were also willing to overnight it to us so Livi would finally take a nap, or go to bed, without looking at us woefully and whimpering softly until she finally gave up and went to sleep. We waited all morning for the knock, and finally it came. The wonderful UPS man came, and brought our salvation. Livi came over, looked in the package, was little shocked, but then set off on some catch-up cuddling. They haven't been apart all day!