Learning to share

Baby Alive is a good sharer.

She almost never complains.

Dancing Queen

Tonight was Mia's dance recital. She looked so cute up there on stage dancing. I know that she does enjoy it, even her face doesn't seem to. After I picked her up from her dance, she broke out in a dramatic twirly kicking dance. Too funny! She loved watching all the other dancers and would dance along with them. Our boys - Ryan, Jake, and Sam - didn't hold out so good during the 31 performances, but, while Sam was happy in there, he would dance along with the music and clap when the audience clapped. One paticulary peppy number had him bouncing all over the place. It was great! Both winter recitals done. Next recitals to be in May. I looking forward to her improving!

Tributes

Here are some links to some much better written testimonies and tributes to the Prophet Gorden B. Hinckley. He feels like a grandfather-like figure to me. He was so very tender and wise and though I never personally sat down with him, just watching him and listening to him, I felt calm and encouraged by his actions and words. He very much reminds me of my Dad.

http://kmcgrew.blogspot.com/2008/01/my-prophet.html

http://heatherdwhite.typepad.com/unwrapped/2008/01/reunited.html

http://heatherdwhite.typepad.com/unwrapped/2008/01/a-beautiful-tri.html

Been tumbling

Jake had his gymnastics review on Friday night and we were very proud of him. He was so excited and nervous. He was totally and completely all for it. He asked me to take pictures of him stretching in the hall before it started. He was completely into it and that makes me so happy.

At the beginning when they were getting lined up, two of the girls were on the wrong side of the stage so he took it upon himself to get them into the right spot. It's very much Jake's personality. I got a snippet on video of the routine and thought that he did pretty good. I caught two of his cartwheels that he didn't have enough room to do and missed him doing the freestyle part of the routine where he did a pretty good High School Musical like maneuver.

I am proud that he has stuck with it and he has improved quite a bit! I wish you could see the dimples flash and the twinkle in his eye when he looks at his pictures and watches the video. He is proud of himself too. He's a good kid and we are lucky to have him!

Sammy was completely entertained by the night. He loved the lights, the music (he kept dancing), and the kids. He was too cute sitting on Gram's lap watching everyone.

President Hinckley

President Hinckley passed away tonight. No matter what your religion is, you can't deny that he was a good man that lived his life in service. I watched a special tonight about his life and his time as the prophet for the church. He was so easy to watch and spoke plainly and easy to understand and he was funny. Always cracking a joke here and there to the media or at conference. One of the things that struck me the most was his simple advice about life. He said that you get on your knees and pray to God and then you get up and go to work. It's the simplistic nature of this that stays with me. You can pray over anything that you want, but if you don't do your part, it's not going to miraculously happen.
I wonder if my kids will remember him. It will be an interesting next couple days. President Hinckley will be missed.

Fighting the Winter Blues

This winter has seemed to be extra gray and gloomy. Snowing consistently and not melting away in between storms. Yesterday, as I was walking to a neighbors house, I was struck with how quiet it was and how ominous the crows sounded. There are a lot of crows here right now. Dozens fly away when we open the front door. It's strange that they evoke such a dark feeling. The combination of the gray days and the crows just feels even more depressing. Everyday, I keep struggling with the overwhelming feeling to do nothing. Not clean, not do laundry, not make breakfast/lunch/dinner/snacks for my family, not get dressed. No motivation for anything. Except shopping.


I really, really want to shop for anything and everything. I think it's because the excitement of something new and fresh and shiny. The hopes of finding the deal of the day and dreaming of all the usefulness this "stuff" will bring to my life even though it's just more clutter for me to take care of. My mind turns to bigger items. New sofas, bookshelves, rugs, and pretty accessories. For example, while window shopping last week, I found the perfect wool rug for my front room at Target. Then this week, that same rug is on sale for 40% off! Oh how I really want to buy that rug!! It's even harder knowing that it is seasonal and will be gone soon when they replace the Global Bazaar with their outdoor stuff. It's so hard to ignore it.


In attempts to keep my body busy and create that new and improved feeling in my home, I have been cleaning out closets and drawers organizing the messes that I have made never assigning a place for anything after moving in. Understanding better the uses I want for our limited closet spaces. But it's not making me any happier. Yesterday, I found myself laying on the floor feeling blah. Thinking about taking a nap when I decided to make myself do something. I needed to move my front room around to perk it up and see if I could get it to feel right. The front room has never gelled for me. Thanks to some help from my neighbor friend, we pushed heavy furniture around to every possible configuration, carried a very heavy shelf up from the spare room, dug out pictures that have not been hung up and created a slightly improved space. It's a good start. I am happy to have some pictures on the wall and thinking about what pictures I would like to print out to update them.

Obviously, there are a few problems. Like the drapes being a good eight inches short or the lack of frame on the print that I taped to the wall anyway. I still need to find some matching fabric to add the length and the frame I want is $50 not including the mat. Ooo!! That means that I need to go shopping! Or, I could move the chair a few inches to the right and cover up the fact that they are way too short and spray paint the wall. And you know what would be really great in front room? That new rug from Target

Am I still tagged?

If you get tagged to do a meme but then the tagger loses their original meme entry and doesn't re-tag you, does that mean that you are still tagged? That is the question of the day.

Five random or weird facts about me:

1. All my siblings have been on world travels with my parents except me. They have been to France, Russia, and lived in Iran just to name a few. I was born just after they got back from Iran and they stopped traveling with the kiddos. The biggest trip that I have ever been on was a trip to Hawaii with the college Symphonic band right before I got married.

2. At any time of the day, you will find at least 3 pairs of kiddies undies randomly strewn about my house. Right now, there is a pair of little girl panties next to the desk. I am not sure why?

3. I love zucchini but can't stand cucumber.

4. I used to be the one that all my friends came to for hair and makeup before the dance. So much that I didn't plan enough time for my own hair and makeup before my first prom and therefore have scary hair that reminds me of our old Shitzu dog Dhalie and very, very pink lips with my really ugly lilac dress. Really, really not good.

5. I can nurse and still type with both hands. TADA!

Now, I tag Jessica, Dawn, Kaylin and anyone else who reads this blog that would like to play along. Just link in my comments so I can learn five random things about you.

One scoop of you.......

These little cards are ready to go on their way to a Valentine swap. I had a completely different idea in mind until I saw these cards in a book. They looked so cute, I just wanted to make them. They are simpler than the originals, but still fun.

Girls

These girls.......

One minute they are playing happily, the next minute they are fighting over which side of the car they get to sit on. They are equally sassy and have their own ideas and agenda.

Here they are ready for crazy hair day at preschool. Lauren's hair is fabulous isn't it? Lauren's mom came over to take pictures of the two and they actually thought it was fun. They danced around and laughed and struck poses. They are too funny!

Lauren's mom and I went out and saw "Dan in Real Life" the other night. There is a scene in which Dans' 14-year-old daughter screams at the top of her lungs "You are a murderer of LOVE!!" with extreme dramatic flair. We just giggled over it because we could. We imagine our daughters having similar meltdowns and know we won't be giggling then. We'll look back and say what sweet 4-year-olds they were but knew it was coming. It's going to be interesting. Very, very interesting.

They are worth it though. Completely worth it.

Miss Aubri

Meet sweet Miss Aubri.I couldn't wait any longer to meet her. On Sunday night, I drove down with Sam to visit. It's not a short drive since she lives almost 75 miles away but it was completely worth it. Miss Aubri is so sweet. She is so tiny and bunchy and smells so good. She has tons of soft dark hair and long fingers. Brianne looks like she is doing wonderful.

Sam was fascinated with Aubri. He kept saying "bah-bah!" and trying to poke her eyes and take out her binky. Not that he would of succeeded getting her binky. She has such a powerful suck that I had a hard time trying to take it out of her mouth.

It was great to see her and I wanted to stay for two weeks not two hours. Unfortunately, we had to cut the visit a bit short since Sam got sick and threw up on her kitchen floor. Visiting a newborn baby and having your son throw up isn't exactly ideal. I still feel really bad!I. I hope to visit them soon except this time, without the vomiting.

A Christmas present

My sister Teryn makes us a CD of all of the family pictures that she has taken throughout the year and gives it to everyone for Christmas. It's a fabulous idea and I really enjoy them. As I was going through the 2007 CD today for the first time and found quite a few pictures on there that I loved. Here are a few:

More on Flickr.

Waiting to see baby Aubri

Hoping to go and see baby Aubri today. Hoping.....hoping....hoping. It's so hard to wait!

I just learned that you can get free tickets once a year for the Utah Symphony for your school age kids. Very cool!

Really liking this song:



Still waiting......

Snow Day

I like it when it snows like this. Where we can snuggle in our warm house and watch Daddy shovel the driveway. Mia hadn't been feeling to well so I settled that we would stay home for the day watching lots and lots of movies (Mia), folding mounds of laundry (me), teaching Sammy to go down the stairs, and dipping grilled cheese sandwiches in hot tomato soup while watching the fat flakes fall.

My most favorite thing after a big snowstorm is the bright light that fills the house when the sun comes out. It finally inspired me to paint the yellow tiled windowsills white. Only in the front room of course. I wouldn't want to go too crazy. And, I cleaned out the TV armoire. I know, crazy.

After school, I dropped the kids off at the babysitters and went to work. It's fun to work at a scrapbooking store because you get to scrapbook sample projects for the store. Often, there is a little stack of supplies in the front with a note that they want a layout and two cards or a mini book or frame. It's really nice to not worry, within reason of course, about how much money your project is costing. It wasn't too busy last night giving me a good chance to really look at the new papers and embellishments thinking about a Valentine swap that I need to get cracking on. I think that I have an idea of what I would like to do. I wasn't planning on doing a traditional paper Valentine, but there are so many pretty papers out right now.

It just felt like a good day yesterday. Things were done that needed to be done for a long time. It was quiet and not stressful. My favorite kind of day.

And a whole lot of nuts.

I have a huge walnut tree in my front yard. It's a very loved tree since it's big enough to have three swings on it. Mia has spent many happy days swinging herself or with her little friends. Jacob and the boys climbed and crazily swung as well. Even Sam was happy to swing for a long time watching the kids play.

Then came Fall and all of the leaves and walnuts came falling down. Piles and piles and piles of leaves and walnuts that did not all get picked up. Not for us trying though. The kids and I squirrelled away as many walnuts as we could find. Three and a half big heavy bags of walnuts. What next? There are only so many walnuts that one could eat. Good thing that I have a very clever sister who actually gets to watch Martha Stewart's show and she remembered when she made this ornament. Perfect solution for Christmas and my excess of walnuts!

I set to making it as gifts for my sisters which in turn, just one sister got it, but there were my reasons for that. What I didn't realize is how huge this thing is! It calls for an 8 inch Styrofoam ball which used almost one whole bag of walnuts and something around 30 glue sticks to attach them to the ball. It weighed almost 10 pounds when I finished. I used some lovely red double sided satin ribbon that I got from Gap's Christmas displays that I put up in the store a few years back and some fake eucalyptus and gold paint. Did I mention lots and lots of hot glue? All I could think about while I was making it was how expensive it would be to make if I had to buy the walnuts. The form was surprisingly expensive at $13 (I got it half off due to my mad shopping skills) then the nice ribbon and gold paint. I think that is what frustrates me about Martha's crafts. They are all so beautiful, but so expensive. I was lucky enough to have what I had to make it.

I think that it turned out wonderful. There are so many mixed reactions to this ornament. My Papa said that it was the perfect balance of food storage and decoration. Even after I finished it, I was in awe of how cool it was and stumped of where I could actually use it. Still, I gave it to my sister Teryn and she was so impressed, she had me sign it. She has plans to put it out in her yard for the Holidays. She's good at finding a use for a rather large and heavy ball of walnuts.

Congratulations!

Big congratulations to my niece Brianne and her husband Jake. They had their 2nd child this morning. A girl, 7 lbs 19 inches. We can't wait to meet her! I guess I better get started on that sewing that I was just talking about. I was hoping for another week at least. These girls that have their babies early is just not fair.

*Edited* They did name her Aubri which is something Brianne has wanted since she was young. I still can't wait to meet her!!

When I found this photo, I gasped. I have been dreaming of this in my house.

Organize

It amazes me how quickly I want Christmas down. I thought for sure that I would keep it up until New Years, but I surprised myself by taking down most of it the day after Christmas. I left up a few snowmen and snowflakes and of course the tree. It's tradition to have the tree up for New Years.

I realized that I wanted the decorations down and out of the way so I could get on to getting the house in order. Notice that I didn't say back in order. Sure, there was a tiniest bit of organization going on, but not enough. Three days after Christmas, Ryan and I cleaned out our spare room and donated a whole car full of stuff that has just been sitting around since we moved in. The spare room has such a good start on it now and I just want to continue everywhere that I look. I have been cleaning out drawers here and there, making plans for each room in my mind, looking at organizational bins and baskets and all that fun stuff. Instead of feeling like I was getting a handle on it, it's been getting overwhelming. I don't have a plan. I keep jumping from one place to the next wanting to get it all done now. Finally sitting down last night and just wrote down a room at a time. It's a start. A good reference to have. I have known for a while that I can buy bins and shelves and baskets forever and ever and ever and they won't do me any good until I just plain out get rid of this excess that's plaguing our house.

I am really good at justifying keeping items. For now, I am really trying to be tough on myself and get rid of items that have been sitting around since we moved. Items that haven't been used or put in a home because I just don't know what to do with them but somehow, they seem invaluable. I dream of the perfectly put together, organized home. This won't happen with three kids, but at least I can do what I can. I want this out of the way so I can stop fussing over the messy house and feel like I can start a project. Sewing or scrapbooking or anything really. Maybe I will actually finish painting Mia's desk?