Mysteries

1. For two nights in a row Catherine has broken out with a severe case of hives precisely at 9:00 pm. I have gone through everything in my brain and let me assure you -- no new food, no new soap, no new clothes, no new stuffed animals, no new anything-- she is on the bed with the old bedding, one night she took a bath, one night she didn't??? Maybe she is allergic to 9:00. I wish I were then every night I could take 2 benadryl and go to bed at 8:30.

2. I think there is a mouse stuck in the wall behind our bedroom. We had made it almost 10 months without any incidents and now this . . . but it is a weird sounding mouse so maybe it's not -- maybe it is a ghost-- or a rat. . . or a bird???? I don't know. Maybe some benadryl will help me sleep through the sound.

3. Adam's new thing is pushing all his little girl friends. He sees them and gets right over by them to give them a big shove. Why is he doing this?????

Oh well, some things we just may never know.

Madelyn's art

This is my favorite drawing stage. Madelyn just figured out how to draw people. She draws them a lot lately. It is as though she can finally represent the world around her from her point of view.

She drew this picture during church. She leaned over to Trent and I and said (pointing to the upper left hand figure), "This is you, Daddy and (then moving to the upper middle) this is Mommy and (the upper right hand figure) this is me."

And then pointing to the figure in the lower left she said, "And this is an octopus" (and then pointing to the last figure in the lower right) she said "And this is the Holy Ghost!"

Trent and I were laughing so hard. Trent said, "We sure hang out with some interesting characters!"

The Storybook Cottage

The 3 girls went to a birthday party on Saturday at a cute little place called the Storybook Cottage. When they arrived they got to select a fancy party dress, glittery shoes, a crown, a handbag and jewelery galore. Then they waited in line for nails and makeup.

Could she be any cuter?
Catherine --looking as fabulous as any red carpet Oscar nominee!
I just had to show this mistake of a picture, Julianne turned around just as I shot it, but don't you think she could be a hair model? She has the thickest, shiniest, most beautiful brown hair around!!!
Does life get any better than this?
The fashion show : Princess Catherine

Princess Madelyn
And Princess Julianne.
The whole party!
Here are the princesses back in their "real" clothes. With their fancy new head wreaths and wands!!!!

Spring Cleaning : Julianne and Catherine's Room

After working so hard on Madelyn's room cleaning and decorating and touching up and repairing, I have now started on Julianne and Catherine's room. For their room, first, I had to choose a new quilt. I found one I liked on EBAY and ordered 2 of them. A week later 2 quilts arrived -- but one quilt was the one I ordered and one quilt was similar but different. We are anxiously awaiting the 2nd quilt, which should be on its way. I love EBAY, but I hate it too. Once we knew which quilt we were going to use, the kids and I headed to Hobby Lobby to find matching paper to do Julianne and Catherine's names. (side note -- my new advice to parents -- choose short names)
The girls had a half day of school on Friday and my Mom came over and we worked as quite the team tracing, cutting, glueing, sanding, and modge podging.

Here are the letters on the new bedding. I promise I will take and post more pictures once the other quilt arrives. Waiting to go on the wall.

The final product, hanging on their walls. I still have a lot more work in their room still to do. I plan to post a list and update soon and my plan is to be done in a week. I'll let you know!

Sisterly Lovin'

I just don't think a sister could love a brother more than Madelyn loves Adam. She adores him. She wants to hold him and cuddle him and carry him. She wants to prepare his food and feed it to him. She wants to control what he plays with. She is always trying to keep him safe.

On the other hand. . .

I just don't think a brother could get more annoyed by a sister than Adam does with Madelyn. He runs away from her. He screams when she touches his toys. He won't let her near his food.

But . . . every once in a while he appeases her for just a tiny moment in time. He doesn't completely enjoy it, but he tolerates it. Here is one of those moments I was able to catch. He let Madelyn hold him for about 5 minutes while she was watching her favorite TV show, Max & Ruby. It made her day.

Madelyn loves Max & Ruby. The relationship between the 2 bunnies is the same relationship between Madelyn & Adam. It's no wonder why it is her favorite show.

FYI

The trend didn't hold. At 3:30 am, Julianne came in our room coughing. I put vap-o rub on her feet and then socks. She climbed into our bed and I suggested that Trent go sleep in the guest room so her coughing did not keep him up. He has been working long hours and was very tired. At 4:20 am, Madelyn came in our room and climbed into bed between Julianne and I. At least by now, the vap-o rub had been working for a while and Julianne had not been coughing and was fast asleep. At 5:30 am, Adam awoke. Trent went and got him and took him into the guest room and after some persuasion got him back to sleep for another hour. At 6:30, Adam and Catherine got up for the day.

It's a miracle

My Children have slept through the night 2 nights in a row. I can't believe it. Trent can't believe it! It is awesome. I have had the best 2 nights of sleep ever. I can't remember the last time this happened!!!!!!!

Oh, and we're having Cookies N' Cream Icecream for breakfast to celebrate!!!!!!

Do you ever want to just get in a fight?

I was at Little Gym the other day and one Mom was complaining about their new schedule. Currently the classes are back to back and one group of kids is going in while the other is coming out. It makes it pretty chaotic. Also for the class going in there are no cubbies available for their shoes and the parking is lousy. We all commented that even a 5 minutes break would be preferable. The Mom said, "Well, I am gonna go complain. I am just looking for a fight today. I am just in the mood to argue and my husband did not want to so look out Little Gym."

Then later that day Trent commented that there was a man in one of his meeting that was just looking for a fight. He said that you could tell he just wanted to argue.

Why are we like this? I know sometimes I am the same way. I just need a reason.

But maybe this is a solution for you. . .

Julianne came home from school yesterday in that very same kind of mood. She was just looking for a fight. I had been tiptoeing around her for about 20 minutes trying not to set her off. It was raining, she was bored, nothing was right. Just then the doorbell rang and it was FedEx dropping off a package to Trent. It was some Office paraphenalia (a Michael Scott bobblehead and a worlds best boss mug) that his coworkers had given him for his birthday. I opened the package (as I knew what it was) and found an enormous amount of bubble wrap sorrounding the mug. My kids' eyes grew wide and I divided the bubble wrap into thirds and let them have it.

Julianne used every ounce of her aggression in popping each one of those bubbles. She was intense to watch. It was pretty loud for a while. Adam loved it! And when it was all done 10 minutes later-- Julianne was back to her sweeet nice self.

Maybe we all just need a little time playing with bubble wrap every once in a while? And . . . thanks to Trent's coworkers -- Trent loved the office stuff and I loved the bubble wrap. It is the gift that just keeps givin'!

President's day

It was my week to host our little "joy school" group. As it was presidents day I got out coins to look at, sort, and make pictures rubbings of the presidents. The girls heard me and ran upstairs and came down looking like this . . . it is after all "Princess day" Madelyn said. Oh well, I guess with 4 little girls everything degrades into princess play and princess and president are kind of similar!!!!

Happy Birthday to Trent

Trent turned 34 yesterday! He decided he wants to go to the Radio Music Theater to celebrate. We had all our in town family over for dinner.

Spring Cleaning -- Kitchen style

Today, in an effort to avoid the laundry, I started spring cleaning the kitchen. As I emptied all the drawers I was amazed at how many crumbs, dust, playdough pieces and more have made their home in the nether regions of these drawers -- and all under my careful, watchful, and pretty darn clean eye. Thank goodness for vaccuums. Also, I found a bunch of appliances and stuff that I hang onto even though I don't use them. I finally have been able to part with some, but here are a few that are still residing with me.
First, the electric knife. This was a wedding present. It does work great, but I never think to use it. It's just that I don't carve turkeys or slice massive loaves of bread very often. I don't know . . . what do you all think? Will I use it again? Should I hang onto the electric knife? Have you found any great uses for one?
Next, the hand mixer. I have a beautiful Kitchenaid stand mixer and have probably not used this since the day I got the kitechenaid, some 9 years ago. But it is a really nice one . . . and it still works great . . . and what if my Kitchenaid suddenly stops working??? I need to be prepared, right???? Oh, who am I kidding, if my Kitchenaid quits, I am getting a new one. So then why? why do I feel compelled to keep this? Should I? do any of you have both and use both?

Now, this is the drawer of useless things . . . 2 knife sharpeners, a melon baller, a small sifter, 2 silicone basters, a pastry cutter, and a thingy that lets you peel the rind off a lemon or lime . . . a zester. In my mind, I use these all the time for my homemade pies, beautiful melon salads, and gorgeous barbeque, but not one of these has been used in a year. . . I am keeping them . . . I think.

This is just the silverware drawer all clean and neatly polished. Just had to show you.

And this is all the stuff I am saying good-bye to. Adios, mi casa no es su casa anymore!

Babysitting in the dark

Tonight was the adult session of Stake Conference. (For all of my loyal readers who have no idea what that means -- at church every 6 months they have a big meeting that involves several congregations -- in the Mormon world a congregation is called a ward and a bunch of wards are called a stake-- thus the name -- Stake Conference --but really this is all very unimportant to the story -- what matters is that Trent and I both went to this meeting).

We had a very, very hard time finding a babysitter. Trent kept volunteering to stay home and let me go and I kept trying to find a babysitter. I gave up and finally called on my dear sweet mom to see if she would drive out here and watch her 4 sweet grandchildren. Naturally, she said, "Yes of course I would love to" or something like that and proceeded to arrive a half hour later so Trent and I could go.

We have been sitting in the meeting for approximately 5 minutes when Trent's cell phone starts buzzing and I can see that it is my Mom's cell phone calling.

Now, that will put panic into the heart of anyone. My Mom is amazing and she can handle anything, so I am thinking horrible things must have happened that she had to call us in the middle of a church meeting.

I am running out of the meeting and quietly whisper, "Hello . . ."

"Where are your flashlights?" My mom says.

"What??? Is everyone OK???" I am baffled that she want my flashlights.

"Oh, we're fine, but the power is out and it is getting dark and the kids are kind of freaking out and crying . . . hysterically every now and then."

And that's when it hits me . . . Do we even own a flashlight? If so, where is it???? And are there batteries in it? Suddenly I remember the emergency radio, light, flashlight thingy that I am pretty sure my Mom gave me one year. I always put it in the nightstand by my bed just in case of emergencies like this one. But as I have never had an emergency like this one, I don't even know if it works. I tell her where to look and . . . . it worked!!!!!!!

This is when I am so glad my Mom is with the kids, my kids are great, but they can get a little panicky sometimes and they excel at getting scared easily . . . I am just not sure a teenager would have survived -- We would have been on our way home immediately. But . . .

My Mom had it all under control. The kids bathed in the moonlight. Pretended they were camping, read stories on Mom and Dad's bed (that is until the light started dimming -- see I knew the batteries were OLD) and both Adam and Madelyn fell asleep. (Adam is expected, but Madelyn falling asleep with any babysitter even Granny is pretty amazing). My Mom did explain that they had to move as a pack, with only 1 light, no one was about to get left in the dark, so they were all really close. It was a great bonding experience.

The lights came on an hour or so later and we got home a little after that.

Julianne and Catherine (although a little scared while going through the lights out) are sure proud to have survived such hardships.

Adam and Madelyn are still asleep . . . losing power has its rewards.

Maybe the next time we go out, we'll cut the power . . . Heck, we'll cut it every night!

Q & A

where are we on the google ads:) as of 30 seconds ago I have made $66.41 so we are coming along.

what do you do with your other kids while you're being so productive? The kids are right there next to me ruining everything helping to decrease my productivity. For example, when I was working on Madelyn's curtains, threading the ribbon through the buttonholes, Madelyn and Adam were unwinding every other spool of ribbon I own. Or when I was doing stuff with paper (all the mod podge stuff) Madelyn was creating her own paper crafts right next to me and her's were, well. . . . award winning.

Some funny Adam photos

This is Adam licking his plate clean! The picture is a little grainy because I had to zoom in and crop so much. He won't lick his plate if I am close to him or if anyone else is at the table, but if we walk away, and he cannot see us, he picks it up and licks to his heart's content. I guess you could say he is concerned about his manners????

I am not sure what we are looking at here, but isn't he cute?

Here is Adam with "his" camera. He is practicing to be a future blogger I am sure.

Today I found him sitting by himself upstairs in the rocking chair reading his books. Cute, Huh?

Our valentine's day

We had a great Valentine's day. We started the day with a fancy breakfast (pink heart shaped pancakes). Julianne and Catherine exchanged Valentines at school and Adam and Madelyn and I went shopping at HEB. It was a fun place to shop as they were demonstrating all sorts of fun dinners to make.

Aren't these flowers pretty?

Aren't these strawberries pretty? (and pretty pricey! $8.99 for 8 strawberries . . . but they looked so good)

I made our dinner, it was delicious.

The Menu

French Bread and butter
Spring mix salad with sunflower seeds and croutons with a cracked peppercorn vinagriette
Broccoli
Angel Hair pasta with a Feta, pink peppercorn alfredo sauce
Chocolate covered strawberries (of course)

The kids and I ate in courses (I told them it was because we are so fancy, but really it was because I was making it as we were eating.) I called them to the table for bread and then dismissed them. Then back for salad and then dismissed them, then back for broccoli, and then the pasta . . . you get the idea.) When Trent arrived home (about 7:30 -- yes it is busy season for CPA's) his plate was filled and ready and the kids and I sat down with him and ate our strawberries. . . I had every intention of waiting to eat with him, but as each course was ready I just was hungry . . . and so we all sat and enjoyed our strawberries while he ate the whole dinner.

It was a great day. We put the kid's to bed and when I came downstairs Trent had started watching a movie on TV called "The Baxter." It is a little offbeat and a little different but we found we enjoyed it quite a bit. And in case you are wondering . . . a baxter is "Mr. Wrong. A compromise to "true love". The epitome of settling"

How Catherine uses her camera!

Every time I go to download photos off of Catherine's camera I find that she has selected a book and taken a picture of every page of the book. She has always loved reading and I guess she see this as just another way to immortalize the very favorite books.

Grandpa's New (yellow) bike

The kid's (and mom and dad) sure had fun riding on Grandpa's new motorcycle. As far as motorcycles go, this one has everything. . . It is pretty cool.