:)

Second daughter was watching my feed oatmeal to the baby and I had been explaining to her a few days ago why we introduce only one new food to a baby at a time, to watch for allergies. So today as she was observing baby eat, she said, "When I was a baby and you fed me new things, did you realize that I wasn't allergic to anything?" I replied that we did realize that. :) "So you called me, "Allergic daughter nothing?"

Something like that...

Last week for FHE we were playing Jenga and when hubs took his turn and didn't knock down the tower, two-yr-old son exclaimed with much animation, "You're impressed, Daddy! Good job!"

He is still figuring out how to use "I'm, my, mine, you're," etc. correctly. :)

Baby has his six-month exam tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how he is progressing. At his four-month exam he was the exact same height that his older brother was at that age, but 3 lbs lighter, so he seems so much smaller to me. But I still get a lot of comments that he is a big boy and he has been wearing 12 month clothes for a month and a half now. He is such a sweetie.

The two youngest are sick with running noses and very nasty coughs. Hopefully, their chests will clear out soon and it won't turn into anything worse.

You know those days (or weeks, or months) when you feel like you are living life with your head just above water? What do you do to cope, so to speak? What are your outlets?

Randomness and a Question

Once I got all of these pics uploaded I was too lazy to rearrange them...sorry. Here are some of the cute, fun, and crafty things of late.

Older brother decided to wipe this Petshop Hamster's bottom while I changed the baby. Never too late to start practicing... :)

Love this little man. Six months in 2 days! Where does the time go?

A Christmas tradition for my hub's family: dipping homemade toffee and caramel in chocolate. The best part for the girls?...Hmm, I wonder?

Nativity on Christmas eve. The kids loved it because hubs and his brothers made it rather entertaining.

Thanksgiving in Utah at my sister's house. It was a wonderful time!

We stopped by Moab for a few days to visit hubby's family on his dad's side. The kids loved playing with all of the cousins and doing lots of rock climbing and exploring.

Best part of my life!!!!

My sis-in-law, Kailie, posted this idea on her blog (http://kbreit.blogspot.com/2012/01/diy-scrap-fabric-wreath.html), and I loved it so much, I decided to make one last night. Mine came out looking totally different because I used several different fabrics and they were heavier in weight, but I like how it turned out, just the same. Notice the cute little something poking out in the bottom left corner of the picture above. ;)

Remember these? I think they look much better!

Notice all the butterflies?

Over Christmas break, we went to Pacific Grove and enjoyed the beach and Monarch butterflies.

This was probably one of the most random posts ever, but hey, I posted right? With pics this time...

Finally, a question!!!

What do all you ladies do with your childrens' hand-me-downs, storage speaking? I have 10+ boxes of clothes sitting around, taking up valuable, limited closet space. I don't want to get rid of all the girls' clothes, in case our next child is a girl, but I hate storing all of it. Have any of you found a magical solution to dealing with hand-me-downs? I would love some advice!

Q & A

To my two-year-old son:

Q: What is your favorite fruit? A: Orange

Q: What is your favorite vegetable? A: Zebra

Q: What is your favorite toy? A: Helicopter

Q: What is your favorite animal: A: Hot chocolate

Q: What is your favorite color? A: Fishies

Q: What is your favorite letter? A: Christmas Tree

Q: What is your favorite number? A: Number 5!

On another note, we had a splendid time with my hub's family this year for Christmas (pics to come soon)!

Events included:

A tour to see the elephant seals in Santa Cruz.

A walk to see the monarch butterflies in Pacific Grove (it was too cold that day, so they weren't flying around, but it was still fun to see them all over the tree).

Dipping chocolates.

Decorating sugar cookies.

Playing Kinect (oldest daughter was in love!).

Learning to ride the new bikes from Santa.

Relaxing and eating yummy food.

A fabulously impressive 6-course French dinner put on by my very talented sis-in-law.

Crafting with my two sisters-in-law.

Going out to dinner with hubs to celebrate 8 wonderful years!

Going out to ice cream with other sis-in-law and having a nice chat.

Playing outside with the kids and going to the park.

Reading lots of books to the kids.

Crocheting doilies.

Visiting friends.

Playing at the beach and having a sand-castle-building-contest with oldest daughter.

Playing with playdough with second daughter.

Enjoying my amazing family!

A fondness for snails

On Saturday I went out onto the patio to open our little storage shed to get all of the Christmas stuff out...and to my surprise, saw that something had made the shed its' home. I had just been in the shed a few weeks ago, so it must have been recent. But this little mouse sure went to town! It chewed on just about everything plastic... all of our storage containers, making some good-sized holes in a few of them. But it was mostly a nibble here and a nibble there. It also managed to destroy Michael's golf bag and several of his golf balls, both of our air mattresses, the curtains that belong to the owners of our townhome (oops!), and desperately tried to get into two of our emergency buckets, but was luckily unsuccessful! He basically made his mark on almost everything out there, in one way or another. The one thing he basically did leave alone? My four boxes of books! :) Thank you, little mouse.

We had to pull everything out of the shed and figure out how he was getting in. He had a chewed a hole through the back of the shed in the corner and was sneaking in and out. We also found a scattering of empty snail shells. He is probably the same critter who stole the 2 of 3 tomatoes we got this year. :(

Let's just say hubby wasn't too happy about the whole thing.

Favorite Season

Fall is by far my favorite season...sweater weather, beautiful colors, warm fires, hot chocolate, crisp air, you get the drift. :)

I have a lot of childhood memories associated with fall. Raking leaves with my family, getting wheelbarrow rides from dad, making leaf houses with my sister (we would line up leaves to make connected rectangles and squares all over the yard for the rooms), and taking drives in the canyon on Sunday afternoons.

Daughter was busy "decorating" our house too, and wanted me to take a picture of her "pretending to play" with her set-up. I bet my sisters can't guess what part of her decor is my favorite. You gotta know my quirky sense of humor. :)

Happy Fall!!!

Fun, Fun, Fun

The kids picked out the "finest" pumpkin (according to older daughter) they could get at the pumpkin patch and we enjoyed carving it together...and eating apples. ;)

Don't you just want to kiss that little face? He made a very cute cow (or calf?)

Ready to head out to the Halloween Party at our church.

And finally, a sneak peek at my latest project (or nightmare, however you want to look at it)!

If you are ever considering painting chairs, call me first! :) You may think twice...at least if you pick chairs that look like these.

A few more

Younger daughter: "Mommy, you need to buy me a new leotard before I start gymnastics again."

Me: Nodding.

Daughter: "Why don't they let you wear necklaces at gymnastics?"

Me: "Because they can get tangled up when you are doing somersaults and flips and things. "

Daughter: "Do they let you have chapped lips at gymnastics?"

Me: "Yes, they do."

Daughter: "Because those don't get tangled up, right?"

Me: "No."

Older daughter made a cute drawing of a ghost to hang on our window and drew a large speech bubble coming from it's mouth, saying, "BOOB!" :)

Little man is a great talker, but there is one phrase that he says that always cracks me up. He uses it when he wants me to scoot in or out a chair, or to turn the music up in the car.

"Mommy, scool up a lip!"