Eat Your Vegetables

I keep telling them, "Eat your vegetables"...

..."or one day you might need glasses."

Hard to tell which ones they like more.

Ultimate Mom "To Do" List Song

I love Hilary Weeks, and I just had to copy this from my friend's blog, because I loved it! Enjoy!

Confession

My mother-in-law came to visit for a few hours this last weekend, and while she was here, all the girls started playing with stuffed animals or dolls all around us. As I started getting dinner together, I kept finding the same little Care Bear outside the garage door, just laying on a rug on the top step. I blew it off the first time, thinking Kali dragged it out there or something, but when I found it again, I turned to throw it back into the house, and there was Emmrie, looking at me very upset, because I was obviously messing up what she was doing. My mother-in-law laughed, and I asked Emmrie, "Honey, why do you keep putting this outside?" She answered me, "Teddy bear, time out." My face turned red and my mother-in-law jokingly asked Emmrie, "Is that where Mommy puts you for time out?" All three of them answered her, "Yes!"

I got this idea from a friend (don't worry- I won't say your name...) who says it works great, because it's cold in the garage. And it does work pretty dang good! I don't yell nearly as much as I used to (and no - I don't make Kortney stay out there for 5 minutes)! So then, Grandma told the girls to put their stuffed animals in time out on the stairs instead, and this is what I found about 15 minutes later, when I realized what they were doing:

Looks like all their toys must be in big trouble...

Christmas 2008 in AZ

Okay. It's only 2 weeks late.

We went to AZ for Christmas this year, and it was so much fun. We took two days to make the drive, stopping in St. George overnight. Then, for the first time, we drove through Las Vegas, instead of Flagstaff. Oh my gosh! It was so much better, in case any of you are like us and have to drive these directions. We stayed at my sister, Tawnya's house, and my oldest sister, Tina, also stayed there with her family. They came all the way from PA. They flew. They're so smart. It was a great time. We got there on Christmas eve, in time to eat, stuff 21 stockings, send all the kids on a treasure hunt for them, watch them put on their annual nativity play,

and then have our traditional white elephant gift exchange. This year we actually had a white elephant in it. Christmas was just a day to open presents and hang out. I can't remember what we did the rest of that day. The next day we visited some good friends for lunch,

Saul and Tonya and their family, and in the evening I hung out with my friends from college, and it was so much fun! I forget how good it is just to talk and play with them. We all act like college kids again. We had a fun white elephant gift exchange, and caught up on what we've been up to.

Rachel and Tamra

Carla with the hat she's been needing for these frigid AZ winters!

Rachelle, Heather, Edith and me when Heather made her surprise visit

The day after that, we got to take lots of 4-wheelers and dirt bikes out to the desert to play. We had hotdogs and s'mores, and that was one of the coldest days there. The rest of the time was all t-shirt weather! I loved it!

Mom and Dad Clifford on their 4-wheeler (looks like Mom could use Carla's hat)

Modern-day 3 amigos: 3 of my brothers (I think- they all look alike in helmets)

Treavor and his family

Tina's a crazy driver!

My dad with a sleepy Emmrie

Neil's present was a round of golf, but when he found out it wasn't any more expensive to golf in AZ, he went four times. We played our family card game one night, called "Hand and Foot", I met my little brother's girlfriend for the first time, and she's awesome, I got to go shopping, we went out to dinner while my mom babysat for us, we went to my parents' ward for church, where I saw quite a few friends from days past, and for New Years, Neil hosted a game his Dad does for us every year: "Let's Make a Deal". It was so fun for the kids who stayed up late enough to play, and Neil had fun hosting it. I don't remember much else, but it was a blast, and I was sad to leave. Some days I wish we could move back, but we love where we are, dang it. We'll have to be snowbirds, I guess.

Emmrie with her favorite cousin, Gentry

The girls of our family: Tawnya (with 2 of her kids), Tina, me, and Mom

Neil hosting "Let's Make a Deal" for all the kids who stayed awake for the New Year

We stopped in St. George on the way back home, and since Neil had never been to Las Vegas before, I suggested we drive down the Strip at 8:00 Friday night. It took us way too long, and after passing several wedding chapels, tattoo shops, cash loan stores, and night clubs, we made it to the bright casino lights. It was cool for a while, until we got sick of the long traffic lights, and had seen enough of the mobile billboards for dancing girls on trucks and people. Wow, it's a crazy place. Been there, done that. No more, thanks! When we got home, we pulled into the garage to find that the door into the house was open. We had someone watch Kali while we were gone, and asked him to change her water so it wouldn't freeze, and let her in at night so she could sleep where it was warmer. Well, as I've found out from other friends and neighbors, Kali growled at him when he came to put her out the day after we left, and he got scared. So he decided to leave her in the house, and just keep the door open enough for her to go outside to poop. Good thing we found no poop in the house, I guess. But we found everything that had been on our counter, including the phone, mangled on the floor. And the thermostate was working overtime to keep our living room at 70 degrees. The bedrooms, whose doors were luckily closed before we left town, seemed to be boiling hot, and all I could think was, "I don't want to see our next gas bill after ten days of this." Lovely. Merry Christmas.

How Safe Are Our Schools?

What you get to pick up from school when you slide one big kid across the ice on his stomache smack into an unfortunately oblivious bystanding kindergartener at recess...

Added bonus: blood-stained laundry and the idea that she doesn't have to do any chores while she's home from school, because she's holding a paper towel on her lip.

9:00 am Church

Not so fun. Not that I liked going at 1:00, either, but when we go from 1:00 church to 9:00, it is SO hard to adjust. Especially for me. Yesterday was our first for the year at 9:00. I told the girls the night before that we would have to get up early to get ready on time, but did they care? Of course not. They still got to bed late, which meant that I did, too. And Rhett still got up about 20 times that night. So after I pushed snooze long enough, I finally got up at 7:00. All you early-bird moms are probably rolling your eyes at my "early" rise, but it was still dark outside, and I just did NOT want to get up! But I had sharing time to finish preparing, and a primary bulletin board to decorate before church, hopefully, so I needed to get going. I started waking up the girls who just grunted and rolled over, and then I made them some toast and scrambled eggs (I know you're thinking, "What a good mom! Making a hot breakfast for her kids!" But really it was because we got back from AZ Saturday night to a disaster house [I'll save that fun story for another post], and I forgot to run to the store for milk before bed. So, no cold cereal.). I finished getting myself all ready, then worked on the girls' hair as they ate their breakfast. Thankfully Rhett stayed asleep all morning for me (hmmm.... could it be because he's such a night owl?). Neil finally woke up and got in the shower (he drove the whole way home - that was his excuse), but things were going just fine. Everyone was cooperating nicely. Neil helped get the kids dressed, and all I needed to do was feed the boy before we headed out the door. I fed him halfway, and went to burp him. And, because this sort of thing only happens to me (wink, wink), he decided to spew all over me. All down the front of my shirt, and into my bra! Of course! Things were going way too good. It had to happen. So Neil laughed while I changed myself, and I decided I would just have to finish feeding him at church as I skipped out on sacrament meeting to put up this year's bulletin board. Obviously Heavenly Father didn't like my idea. We got into the church (I couldn't believe we were there before the meeting started- and so was everyone else! Dang mormons). Neil and the girls got a seat in the hard chairs in the back, and I lugged Rhett down the hall to the primary room. When I walked into the room, I reached into my primary bag to grab my closet keys... that weren't there. I forgot that I had given them to my secretary to use while I was out of town. Wonderful! I couldn't even get the stuff for the bulletin board. So I thought, "Oh well, it's just a bulletin board. The kids won't even know it's supposed to be redone, anyway." So I lugged Rhett into the Mother's lounge to finish feeding him. That's when he let out the hugest grunt, and then a rip I'd never heard before. Yep. He just blew out of his diaper. I checked the damage, and it was pretty bad. And guess what? Neil had the diaper bag. In sacrament meeting. I had nothing. We had to go home. Thankfully I had my car keys, which I never normally bring with me to church. So I wrapped up Rhett and cruised home. I changed his whole outfit as quick as I could, and got back to sacrament meeting. The rest of the day went so well, I can't complain. Taylor is now a cute little sunbeam, and she and Kortney had fun with their new classes and primary teachers. I still haven't put up the new bulletin board, but sharing time is over, and the new year of primary got a great start. I'm just glad Sunday is over. The end.