A Christmas Visit

My mom and dad and sisters and nephew (and the newest niece/nephew, inside it's mommy's tummy!) all came to visit a few days before Christmas. It was a quick trip and a little crazy, but we all had fun-- especially the girlies! We ate yummy food, shopped for toys and clothes and more toys, decorated a Christmas tree, went swimming, saw 'The Princess and the Frog' and just generally played hard. Of course I didn't take any pictures (you would think I would be getting better at that!), but thankfully my family took a couple.

Thanks, Fam for the fun time and many gifts! We love you!

Ho, ho, ho!

Christmas Tree Decorating

(If any of you are looking for the Thanksgiving post-- there isn't one. Nothing to tell. Hubby was sick. I made my first turkey. NO ONE ate it. The end.)

For FHE tonight, the we decorated the Christmas tree and talked about the meaning of all things Christmas-y.

Kendi LOVES the tree, but didn't quite get the hang of putting things ON the tree. She kept taking them off and bringing them back to me, almost as fast the big girls were putting them on. Thankfully she can't reach the top of the tree. ;0) (And yes, I do realize that my daughter's gut is hanging out of her clothing. . . I can't keep her pants up to save myself! By evening I don't even try anymore. . .)

Merry Christmas!

Don't Tell Social Services. . .

but apparently I am starving my baby. This morning I was upstairs taking care of a few things (blogging). When I came downstairs at about 10:00am, Kendi was watching Peep with Kamber, gnawing on a Rice Krispie Treat that had been left out overnight and had gone into the trash earlier this morning.

A little while later she came to check on me (no, I was not still blogging, thank-you-very-much, I was in the shower-if you must know!) and she had found the ends of the bread loaves that had also been put in the trash this morning.

Huh. I wish I had her metabolism.

Consumer Report

Meet my new best friend:

The Swiffer SweeperVac! I do not know how I lived without this little baby for the last six years! It is awesome- incredible- works fabulous and keeps my floors looking so clean! And my girls can even use it! It vacuums my wood floors (it even picks up the Cheerios!) and the little lint thinger catches all the dust the vacuum leaves behind. Fabulous!

Now pair it with this:

And your floors will be looking as fantastic as mine! Hee, hee!

The Dinner Dilemna

I am sure that every mother in the history of the world has had this problem. . . but I am begining to HATE dinner time! Not one meal that I prepare is gratefully eaten. I always have to hear from one person or another how they do not like it. If I make something that Kira and Kamber like, Brandon hates it. If I make something Brandon likes, no one else eats it. If I make something I like (heaven forbid!), NO ONE likes it. And the kids are even starting to have differing views on what is acceptable for consumption. Kendi is the only one that eats most dinners. I don't know how my family would survive without boxed cereal. Really. How depressing.

Okay, now that I got that out of my system. . . time to figure out what to have for dinner. Wish me luck!

The Puzzle Queen

Oh, Kamber. . .what can I say? The poor kid is stuck at home ALL DAY with just me and the babe. Needless to say she gets a little bored. So this is one of the things we have come up with to do-- puzzles. And she rocks! 100 piece-ers are a breeze. . . 300 piece-ers, a little bit of a challenge. . . and just recently, she and I started taking on 1000 piece puzzles. And she does pretty good, even with those.

Anybody have any ideas for what I should do with her when she masters the puzzle thing?

Little Miss Agreeable

Kendi is a baby of few words, but one of the words she has masterd is "uh-huh." She says this to every question that is asked of her. "Do you want your water?" "Uh-huh." "What do you want to eat for dinner?" "Uh-huh." Where's your binky?" "Uh-huh." It is amazing the emotions she can put into that one little word. Just from an 'uh-huh' you can tell if she is happy, excited, sad, upset. . . whatever her mood might be. We are hoping she picks up on a few more words soon, but we sure love hearing her uh-huhs!

A Few of my Faves. . .

My good friend Brooke came to visit not too long ago (lucky me!) and while here, she shared her fabulous photography skills with us. . . Here are a few of my favorites: (Be prepared! There are lots!)

Now, all I have to do it decide my VERY favorites. . . Ya right!

And then she was five. . .

Where has the time gone? My little {big} girl is 5!!!! I still remember the night she came into the world. I was tired of being pregnant, so I was walking laps at the mall late evening. We went home, put Kira to bed and I went into labor. Grandma came to stay with Bug, Brandon and I went to the hospital and a few short {excruciating} hours later, little Kamber was born. She was so quiet in the hospital-- she just had her big eyes open, taking it all in. What a sweet little babe she was! I think part of it was just that I now knew what to expect (compared to the first one), but she really was an easy baby. Happy, content, and the cutest little toddler you ever did see!

And she has become a beautful, big girl! She is smart and smiley and a joy to have in our home. We love her so much! Happy Birthday, my little Kamber!

The Costumes

Yes, I finally finished the costumes-- with a couple days to spare even. And I am pretty happy with how they turned out. Now I just need to catch up on all the housework that has recieved only the bare essentials this past month. . .

We had a fun Halloween. KMart had a large trunk-or-treat and we went to the ward party/trunk-or-treat. Kendi didn't enjoy wearing most of her costume, but the big girls loved every minute of it! They are at such a fun age. I will so miss it when these little things don't excite them anymore. Hopefully it will last for a few more years. . .

Happy Halloween!

Motoring

I know you are all wondering where I have disappeared to. . . The start of school sickness finally hit me. Yuck! And I am swimming in a room full of fabric, trying desperately to finish six, seven-piece, elaborate Halloween costumes. Fun times. Anyway-- I thought I would share one last summer-y thought since it appears that we are already into winter here with no end in sight.

Our new home has given Brandon a new hobby-- the yard (lucky me!). He spent the last two months baby-ing his lawn-- fertilizing, edging, mowing, weeding, and on and on and on. The girls thought it was fantastic playing outside, watching Dad, "helping" Dad. When we first got the lawn mower, Brandon was trying to explain that it needed gas because it had a motor in it and the girls didn't quite get it. What they did get is that every Saturday and Tuesday, they got to play outside all day while Dad "motored" the yard.

Kendi's Breakfast

Milk-
Toast- (apparently she doesn't like the crust-- she starts in the middle!)

And binky (only every other bite)-

And just for added interest, here is what we woke up to this morning-

Yippee. (Can you hear the sarcasm?)

Octoberfest

Ummm, not sure exactly what it is or why we celebrate, but this weekend is the Octoberfest. I took the girls downtown today where they had blocked off Main Street and they had a little fair going on. The girls got to jump in the bounce houses and ride a miniature train-- all for free! WAY better than the fair.

And this is a clock. That is in downtown Twin. There is no real reason for it to be here in this blog post, except that is is cool. And I like it.

That's all. Have a happy Friday.

Hi, my name is CUTE!

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Originally uploaded by brown paper packages

Four Generations

When my grandmother passed away this summer, I was the lucky one who inherited all her crafty hordings from her 91 years of life. There are two large boxes sitting in my sewing room/play room full of her fabric, thread, lace, trims, ribbing, patterns-- well, you get the picture. As I was going through these things today Kamber was helping me sort when we came across a gold colored round tin that was full of buttons (along with several ziplocks full of MORE buttons!). Kamber told me they must be Great Grandma's because they smelled like her house. This brought a smile to my face-- that my little one, who only was in Grandma's home a few times, knew the distinct "grandma smell."


I told her that they were indeed Great Grandma's. She then proceeded to sort through all of the buttons, taking out her favorites. "All the pretty and cute ones," she told me. As I watched her sort, it brought back memories of me and my sisters doing very similar things with those exact same buttons. And then I remembered that Grandma told me several times that her boys had played with those same buttons. And then I remembered the story behind those buttons.


At some point in her life, my grandmother worked for some sort of thrift store. When there were clothing items that were donated that they could not sell, she and the other ladies that worked there would tear out the zippers and unpick the buttons to keep for later.


And now, more than 60 years later, her great-granddaughter is sorting through her pretty buttons, saved from thrift store unwanteds. . . Four generations. . . I can't help but smile!


******Note: My mom just corrected me-- this started with my grandmother's mother, making it FIVE generations!!!

Flordia T-Shirts

Aunt Lacey sent us some cute tees from her trip to Florida. Aren't we cute?

Thanks, Aunt Lacey!

Irony

A few nights ago, all of us headed to Target to purchase a few things. Rare that we are all together shopping and rare that we are all in the car together. So, we finished shopping, headed back to the car and realized. . . the keys were sitting on the seat INSIDE the locked car!!!

Ummm, crap! No cell phone, no extra keys, no friends, NADA. So walk it is. About 2 and a half miles. In the dark. With one toddler that needs to be carried and two (sometimes) whiny kids. Past bedtime. At this point, I was almost in tears.

So, we start the journey home. And we walked, and we walked, and we walked.

And suprisingly, no whining. We all survived and ironically, had a very enjoyable evening together.

Weird.

Gaga

Brandon's grandmother also passed away this summer. I only met her a few times, but everyone had very fond memories of her. She lived in Boise, and we were fortunate enough to have one last visit with her the day before she passed. I am hoping that my big girls might remember it just a little.

I was visiting my family during her funeral, but Brandon made it to the funeral, along with every one of her grandchildren. The grandsons were the pall bearers.



We will miss you, Gaga!

First Day of School!

I can not believe my baby is going to first grade!!! Here she is on her first day of school:

What a big girl! Doesn't she look smart in her uniform? I have been worrying so much about how Kamber is going to miss her and just the other day it hit me-- I am going to miss her, too!!! She is a sweetheart to have around and so much help with her sissies. But she is super excited to go to school (and ride the bus!). We love you, big girl!

Tickle Your Tastebuds

So, if any of you all are like me, you need new recipes to feed your family. A friend of mine has started a recipe blog here. Check it out! And if you have tons of great recipes to share, let me know and I will see if I can get you an invite to add to it.