Breaking Up The Band

This is why I get migraines: (I love how part way through they have "creative differences")

Deer in the Headlights

Eric turned 32 on Thursday. I can't believe we are "in" our 30's. I can't believe we were ever 17 and dating. Where has the time gone? What happened to my hips? Okay, so this shouldn't be about me and my aging phobia, so let's move on to what we did on Eric's big day.
Eric, of course, had work, but luckily (yeah right) our kids get up early and we had time to open presents before he had to go to work. The kids were "good helpers" by which I mean they brought gifts over to Eric and opened them in front of him.
Livi has gotten to that fun stage where she understands that bright colored packages mean she gets to rip them open and there are fun surprises inside. Unfortunately she hasn't grasped the idea that not all presents are for her.

He still had to go to work, which is a bummer but even the State of Nebraska doesn't give work off for employee birthdays (but Arbor Day? Really?) Eric got Megamind from Ethan so we popped that in and watched while we had a fun pizza dinner.
I had made cake balls a few weeks ago and Eric had enjoyed them so I got the Cake Pops book and tried to make them for his birthday.

This is what they were suppose to look like, courtesy of bakerella.com and this is how mine turned out.

Not too bad for a first try but they do look a little high...or scared...or manic. I should have practiced before doing them for a birthday. One problem with cake pops.....where to put a candle?

Yes, that is your sheep I stole.

While I was gone the kids had a primary activity at Church. They were suppose to dress up as their favorite character from the scriptures. I got a call from Eric the night before because Ella was concerned that they didn't have costumes put together. I told Eric to just wrap them in fabric and call it good. This was the result:

I think he did a pretty good job.
Since there is, as my mom would point out, a lack of strong female characters in the BOM, Ella and Ethan both wanted to be Ammon since it is their favorite story. Ella eventually won and Ethan... well Ethan took Uncle James' recommendation and went as a one-armed Lamanite.
Livi was Livi. She was a pirate.

Meeting Autumn

I was lucky enough to spend the weekend driving back and forth from Nebraska to Utah. In between the long drives I did get to spend a few hours with family and be there for my only nieces blessing.

Andrew, Joy, Ebby and Autumn. Such a cute family

Autumn and her cousin, Jack, were blessed at the same time. Such cute babies!

It was a lot of fun. I got to spend some time with my family, go shopping, walk 1000 miles in IKEA, eat some great food, and also sneak in a little 'Angry Birds.'

James with Bailey, the dog I am going to steal as soon as they let down their guard.

It was hard to be away from my kids for so long, but I'm glad I went. The kids were glad I went too. The kids loved all the clothes I brought home for them and Livi was even cuddling her pile.
She immediately had to change clothes to a new outfit and started rummaging through my luggage hoping to find more.

Over Thinking Things

Saint Patrick's Day came without as much fanfare as Ella would like. The day before she asked me "Mom, what does The Leprechaun bring?"
Me: "What Leprechaun?"
Ella: "The one that comes at night on Saint Patrick's Day."
Me: ??????
Ella: "You know. Like the Easter Bunny and Santa. What does the Leprechaun bring me."
Me: "Um.....nothing."
Ella looking incredulous: ??????
Me: "Sorry, it's not that kind of holiday. Really, people just use this day as an excuse to celebrate being Irish and getting drunk."
Ella: ???? "What's 'drunk'?"
Me: "ARGH, how about we eat a salad or something and call it good?"
Ella: "Fine." Stomps away.

She was so excited about wearing green we she laid out all her clothes ahead the night before. She made sure her shoes, socks, shirt, and hair dooley had green on them. Livi got in on the action and put together her own green 'ensemble' (as we have to call it with my two girls).

Ethan was a little more analytical about the whole thing. He came up stairs that morning wearing absolutely NO green. I told him to go get some green on and he refused. He explained that the traditional color of St Patrick's day is actually blue so he was going to wear blue. I took one look at him and ordered him to get some green on. He then stomped downstairs. I could only imagine him trying to explain to all the kids pinching him as he walked the halls at school that "blue is really the traditional color," and that they should stop. Yeah, that would go over well.

Fit For A Princess

I thought I should finally post a few pictures of our work around the house. Both kid's rooms are mostly done. Ethan needs a few pieces of furniture (and a good picking-up) but Ella's was basically ready to be photographed. If you remember we started with this:

It was truly the scariest room in all of the house we looked at. The carpet was blue, dirty (cat urine and feces), and worn away in some parts. The window didn't seal at all, and there was scary blue paneling on only one wall. Well, we bought the house despite that room, and tried our best to make it work for Ella:

We put in a new large window so we now legally have a 5 bedroom home. Right before we put in the window I decided I couldn't live with the paneling on one wall, so I started pulling it down. Luckily (maybe) I did, because it turned out our sprinklers were leaking right down that wall and the wall, insulation, and paneling was covered in mold and water. So we fixed the sprinklers, gutted half the room to the studs, sealed the cinder blocks, put in new insulation, put up new drywall (which Eric had help with from our handyman)
and I mudded,

sanded, mudded, sanded, and mudded the wall again all by myself.
I sealed the new walls,

painted, and we put in new carpet. Ella picked out wall colors, bedding and helped arrange everything. I asked Ella her favorite part of the room and she said the canopy and chandelier over her bed.
I like the "Tribute to Aurora."

I had silver frames from my sister's wedding that I filled with various styles of Ella's favorite princess Aurora.

It's lower than I would have liked (like most the room), but I wanted her to be able to enjoy it, and she does!

And The Nerdy Part Of Me Rejoices

For a long time now we have known that Ethan take more after my family than Eric's. He is not as athletically inclined as Eric's family, and he loves to read, draw, and make imaginary worlds, like my family. I had tried in the past to introduce Ethan to the world of Star Wars but about halfway through the movies he would loose interest. His interest has peaked lately since finding some kids books based on the cartoon, and having friends at school that LOVE it. He started playing a LEGO version video game and getting toys with his allowance.
yes, that is Boba and Jenga Fett holding an armless C3PO at gun point and getting him to jump off the kitchen counter.

During "the sickness" (as it shall now be known) we watched a lot of movies and I remembered I finally got Star Wars on Dvd a few years ago. I plopped it in the player and Ethan sat transfixed THE ENTIRE TIME.

I am so proud.

As a post script we made it through the first (second?) three, finishing with Return of the Jedi today after church. Ella even sat through that one (although she did start reading books until the Ewoks showed up).

My favorite Ella comment of the day: While Leah is in her slave bikini "Mom, she looks soooooooo pretty." Yes Ella, I think Daddy (and all men) would agree.

Dresses Dresses Everywhere

Hi world, I'm almost back to normal. After a *fabulous* kidney infection that laid me up for almost a week I am no longer crying on the couch and can update the blog. It's been a fun month, to say the least (or most, if you really think about it).
That last couple of weeks have been interesting (in a non-health way). Olivia, in an effort to out "girly" Ella decided she would no longer wear anything other than dresses. This wouldn't be a big deal but we do live in Nebraska and it is winter, so we've had to be a little creative. We've put jeans, leggings, and long sleeve shirts under the dresses, and after having to wash her good Sunday dresses a couple of times I decided to give in and buy a few more play dresses that are easier to take care of. I thought I wouldn't have to buy a ton of clothes for Livi because Ella had such cute clothes, but Ella's only stipulation was that all clothes must be PINK. Livi has decided that all colors are fine as long as there is fluff and skirts involved. Great... Here are a couple of pictures from the last few weeks:

There are a couple of new play dresses I somehow managed not to photograph, but I'm sure they'll show up here eventually since she shows no sign of giving this up.

Dancing Queen...s (to be said like Keanu Reeve...s)

I'm a little loopy from medicine but I wanted to post these videos for grandmas real quick. Thursday Ella had "parent watch day." Eric was in Lincoln arguing before the State Supreme Court so I "got" to take Livi and Ethan with me. Ethan grumped the whole time about not wanting to be there, but Livi had the exact opposite reaction, it was all I could do to keep her off of the dance floor.
Here is Ella tap dancing:



And here is Livi tap dancing:


Here is Livi (In the mirror) copying what she had seen the big girls do:


Here is part of Ella's big ballet dance they are doing for the recital in June, and Livi doing her own interpretive dance on the sidelines (when she's not directly in front of the camera you can see her in the mirror):


I don't know who I feel sorrier for, for the future. Ella, who will always have a charming, blond, angelic sister (not that I have any experience with that:) ) right on her heels wanting to do everything she does; or Livi having the beautiful, elegant, older sister who is competent at everything she does. Or me, who is going to have to be beating off boys with a stick.

Best...Hiding...Spot...Ever

While I gave Ella a bath the other night Eric, Ethan and Livi played a little Hide-and-Go-Seek. When I came out I realized Eric was helping Livi hide, leaving her in the spot all by herself, and then Ethan would look for her. I noticed it took Ethan quite a while to find her so I decided to sit in on the next round.

When Ethan and I were allowed to come in we looked all over my room. She wasn't in the closet, she wasn't by the dresser, she wasn't in her usual spots. 5 MINUTES LATER I finally saw her little toes peaking out behind the pillows on my bed. She had laid under there completely quiet, totally still for 5 whole minutes. I could not believe it. I know adults that can't do that, and she is only 2! She is going to grow up to be the queen of Hide-and-Go-Seek!!!

Here is a video. I asked her to hide there again just so I could show how cute it was. She didn't last as long, but you get the idea.

Auctions Are Dangerous

Thank you to everyone who wrote and provided so much support for me with the last post. I felt truly loved and supported. You are all funny, amazing, caring women and I am lucky to have you in my life.

That being said, maybe I do have a shopping problem. :) We had the ward auction on Saturday (maybe that is why we had the lesson on Sunday) to raise money for our Young Men and Young Women to go to camps this summer. Not only did we make 2 different desserts to auction, Eric was the only YM leader that could go (he's not even technically in the YM though) so he had to set up, clean up, and help run things. Plus I took it upon myself to help inflate the bids a little and get some items started.
We ended up with 2 jars of salsa, Spiderman pillow cases, 2 young men to help in the yard, one of the leaders to help put in new toilets, a dozen cinnamon rolls, some of my own cupcakes (Ella really wanted them) and a balloon swan, a balloon frog, and a balloon umbrella (not very useful in the rain we decided).

Toward the end of the auction Eric turned to me and asked "should I auction off a will?" I said sure and so he went up. He ended up with the single highest item sold! The youth raised a ton of money, we ate way too many yummies, and we were able to enjoy the 3 balloon for about a hour before they popped. Money well spent.

I Need to Vent or My Shoes Rock So Shut It.

I need to vent. My best friend is out of town, my Mom is always busy on Sunday, and Eric doesn't fully appreciate the emotional pain I am in, so I am going to throw this out there to my sister and sisters-in-law who I know will understand.

For some reason my ward (whom I really do love) just doesn't seem to understand me. I knew I was in for a different type of town when I walked in the Target for the first time and not only was I the skinniest person there but I was also the only one not in pajama bottoms. I knew from looking around our ward the first time that most of the women were the wonderful homemaker types that favor one piece dresses and practical brown shoes. It was all fine. It was a welcome breath of fresh air.

The only problem is they don't see me the same way. It started a few months ago when I wore a new pair of shoes and the ward choir had a ten minute discussion about how many pairs of shoes I own, and why it was ridiculous....while I was sitting there at the piano. I felt like the penguins from Madagascar "Smile and wave boys, smile and wave."

Then a woman took me aside to tell me that I was "brave" to own a pair of zebra stripe heels because "I couldn't own a pair of shoes I could only wear with one outfit." I held my tongue and didn't say "Well that shows you lack imagination. I can think of 10 outfits, at least, I can wear with these."

I held my tongue when that same woman told me she wouldn't wear my shoes because she had been raised with different values (they were open toed).

I smiled and laughed when someone told me my beautiful knee high boots "seemed a bit much."

I also held my tongue when a different woman in the ward told me "your shoes are too busy," while I was wearing my metallic snake skin shoes. Well, I am done holding my tongue (and by that I mean the only person in this city that reads my blog is my best friend Melissa and she will commiserate with me because she actually has a sense of style).

Today our Relief Society had a great lesson on addiction. It was based on one of my favorite conference talks and I was loving it, learning and feeling the spirit. I laughed with everyone else about our addictions to chocolate, or tv, or shopping, but I stopped laughing when the teacher, closing up the section on shopping addiction said "I don't really get it. I'm not like Sister Stott and her shopping or shoes..." okay, wait, what? I admit I love shopping and I LOVE shoes, but what in the world. I had to raise my hand and laughingly say (just for the record) that I have never shopped to the detriment of my mortgage payment or kids clothing, or food needs. I know I don't quite fit in, and I know I can be overly sensitive, but am I making a mountain out of a mole hill? How do I deal with all these women who take it on themselves to point out how wrong I am? Arrrggghhh.

I Hate February

For some reason, every February I take less pictures than any other month. I have noticed this trend since Ethan was born. I don't know why this has happened for 8 years, but I do know why it happened this year: We were sick for 3 weeks, our computer cord died, and we lost our computer battery recharger. Add those together and all we have are a few cell phone pictures of a few random events. Our Valentines Day consisted of me and Eric coughing, sitting on the couch, Eric playing Mario Brothers and me watching Monk. Romantic (at least we weren't in the hospital), but not very worthy of taking pictures to commemorate.

Right at the beginning of "the illness" we were able to babysit the Bagley's dog, Bentley while they took an overnight trip to Denver. Bentley is a doll. He loves to cuddle, he's the right size to hold and he's so fluffy... He really saved my sanity that weekend and I felt truly awful. I could just sit and pet him and he would cuddle up in my lap. When he wasn't in my lap he struck the weirdest pose I have ever seen. Over and over I would glance over and see this:
We were also blessed with an amazing ward while sick. We had almost a week of food brought to us, which was awesome since I felt worse than I did when recovering from my C-sections. Melissa use to work at a Jamba Juice and made the most amazing smoothie (I really miss things like Jamba Juice...and Barnes and Noble....and a grocery store that sells cheeses other than cheddar). After eating the best meal ever of the smoothie, her homemade chicken noodle soup, left over mashed garlic mashed potatoes and a cheesy biscuit I felt almost good for about 2 minutes!

I Think An Alien is Growing in My Head

It seems like we are always sick. I asked the doctor on Thursday why and he answered "because you live here. It's humid during the day, dry at night, we have to run our heaters all the time, and we have the sugar beet factory." Wow, one more reason to not want to live here.

This time we really are all sick. Eric and I have sinus infections and bronchitis. The kids have the flu and strep throat. We are a big, gross mess of coughing and runny noses. We have so many medications you can barely see the kitchen counter (although, to be honest, that's mostly because I haven't cleaned all week).

Two of my friends heard of my predicament and forced me to let them bring dinner last night. I say "forced" because there is nothing I would need so badly as to want to let anyone see how disgusting my house has gotten in the last week. Luckily they ignored me and brought the most delicious dinner ever.

I have no shame left so I am sharing what the disaster looks like. We've mostly sat on the couch playing video games and watching Monk, this generations Murder She Wrote. Sure we are sick, but honestly... a hanger?

One of the highlights, the mashed potatoes, were homemade with just a hint of garlic. They were amazing. I was relishing them when I looked over and realized Livi was playing with them ala Close Encounters.

I asked "what are you doing?" (asked because my voice is too far gone to yell).
Livi answered "Making snowman!"
I croaked "That's not snow, it's mashed potatoes."

She thought for a moment and answered "It's mash potato snowman!"

I did manage to get a picture of the aftermath.

What could I say. She was technically right so I shrugged and went back to eating. I'm sure in a few days after the antibiotics have cleared things up I will be horrified, but right now I'm too tired to care.

I Finished a Room!!!!! ....kind of

Before

In the rush to get our house looking as presentable as possible before our parents got here for the baptism I ended up getting one room mostly done. Now when the UPS man comes to drop off my books (we have a horrible library here, and only one little book store) I wont be embarrassed to open the door to him.
The Living Room (stupidly named because you don't live in the living room, you live in the family room) is a hard room because it is long and narrow. I have no idea how to arrange the furniture (I'm standing by the front door), the color on the wall is NOT what I thought it would be and I still need to slip cover the chair, stain the bookcase and add drapes, but it will just have to do for a year or two (until I finally feel up to tackling it again....maybe at Ella's baptism). Even though it turned out no where near what I had in my head I still love it when I walk into it because of a few touches that I adore. Here they are, the things that make this room part of my home:
Firstly the art my mother got me for Christmas. It is a painting by Sandra Rast and the mother and toddler in the picture look uncannily like Me and Livi. It is in a beautifully impressionistic style (which I adore) and I love it.

The second thing is the family rules sign I made. I was looking at some on Etsy when I thought "I could do that." That phrase gets me in so much trouble, but occasionally (like the lego necklaces or this sign) it turns out awesome. Toot toot.
It's twice as big as the ones I was looking at, cost half as much to make myself, and I got to hand pick all the sayings on there. If you can find the Beesley family motto on their props to you! I think my little Stott families new motto should be "Oh, I can't understand whining. Try talking in a normal voice," but that gets pretty lengthy to put on a board so I just put "No Whining."

The third thing(s) are all on the bookcase in the back of the room. There is my princess art book, all our family photo albums, and inspired (directly copied) by my beautiful sister, and the Checkout Girl, the felt 'anniversary' home I made.
Forth is my piano and what is on top. I like the pictures, but the felty I won from my sisters blog makes me grin every time I see it. Her description is pretty awesome too:

"Campfire Stories"
The father hedgehog decided he needed to toughen up his kid, and thus took him to go rough it in the wilderness (I imagine it being in the desert). The son (I'll call him "Mikey") was used to having a bedtime story, and thus asked his father to stand in for what was usually his mother's niche. The father, being what I like to call a "Dad", used this opportunity to tell his son about the "Petshop of Doom". Upon returning home, Mikey was unable to sleep in his own bed for the next two weeks without night terrors, and consequently his mother forbid any more camping trips or scary stories. This scene is the pivotal moment where Mikey and his father got so close to bonding. . . and yet, alas, it was not to be.

If you want to see more of her creations she is on a felty marathon, making 52 this year and they are all funny, so check her out at: thejujubee.blogspot.com

That's it for now. Hopefully we go more than 2 days being healthy and I can get more of my house wrapped up. I'm not counting on it though.

How Does Superman's Slogan Turn into a Pooping Stork?

While our parents were here we all decided to take advantage of being together and play a couple games (okay, we had to force our dads, but they were ultimately good sports). Ella had gotten a board game for Christmas that was really fun with the kids, and I thought we be a blast with adults. I was right "toot, toot" (me, tooting my own horn).

The game is Scribblish (which my mom needs to promptly forget so I can get it for her for her birthday). It is as if Telephone and Pictionary had an ugly baby they weren't very proud of and gave it a weird name nobody could pronounce.

You start off with a card with a caption to illustrate. After you draw it out you cover them and pass them to someone else who looks at your "masterpiece" and has to re-caption it. Then you cover it again and someone else gets it and has to illustrate the new caption, and so forth. You don't see the parts people have done before, just the drawing or caption immediately in front.
For example this one was

"The world's biggest toaster"
Which someone drew as:
Which someone captioned as: "There are little people living in my toaster"
Which someone drew as:
Which someone captioned: "I like to see my pet toaster people"
Which someone drew as:
Which someone captioned "How did our canoes end up on the roof?"
Which ended up as:

Some stay pretty close but some get whacked out of proportion (mostly if my mom is drawing or Eric is captioning). It was really fun and I hadn't laughed that hard since Emily Smith wore her surrogate grandmothers orange cape at Thanksgiving dinner!
Here was our favorite of the night:

"It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a tank"

"The bird flew into the tank"
"The hummingbird killed the tank"
"The mutant stork pooped in my wagon."
Ta Da!

I can't wait for the cabin, or even Aspen Grove, getting my siblings and in laws involved and seeing what happens. Hilarity will ensue, I'm sure (hilarity...insanity...it's pretty much the same when we are all together). Get ready, Jes, you may even like this board game!