what's up butter cup

Daisy turns 1 Ta da.

2011-12-05T15:05:00.007-07:00

It's true. Our little baby - that was just barely born - turned one. Nearly a month ago.....

Max holding her back so I can get a shot of the birthday girl that isn't blurry. This little kid NEVER stops moving.

Inspecting Her own personal cake. She like to explore things..... a lot of things, with her 2 teeny fingers.

Her birthday candle cake. Looks tasty and cute, but it was a dud. I got a hair brained idea to flavor the frosting with a packet of strawberry lemonade kool-aid (I found it on Pinterest). It was a huge grand fail. It probably would have taste great in July, but not November. Nobody wants lemonade in Nov.

Except for maybe Daisy..... Who wants to feed herself, all the time. Good thing she's not very messy when she eats......:)

Opening presents. Very daintily.

One thing I love about Daisy is......EVERYTHING.....even the stuff that makes me tired. No really, I do. Except for maybe a few things.........

She has never stopped moving since the day she was born. First she would twist and scoot and maneuver her way off the blanket she would be laying on to spit up on the carpet. (thank heavens that phase is over) Then she would roll everywhere....and spit up on the carpet. Then she crawled....pulled herself up.....walked around furniture..... stood up in the middle of the room.... then on to full on walking at 9 months. It looks funny when any baby walks at 9 months, but especially funny when such a shrimpy one does it.

She weighs almost 22 lbs ( 63%) and is 30 inches long (78%). She has 9 teeth including a 15 month molar and another molar on the way. She says Mama, d'dee, and aut-oh whenever she drops something off her highchair, shopping cart or changing pad. She teases for loves and cuddles for a little second but we think she's just pausing to plan her next move.

Daisy is such a light and a joy in our little family. She keeps up on our toes and has us all wrapped around her little tiny finger.

First Day of school/ picture day 2011

2011-12-05T14:50:00.003-07:00

Yes, I did send my children off to school. I just have a Tasmanian Daisy who keeps my sort of frazzled and mostly blogless.

Maddy on the first day of 6th grade. She has a WONDERFUL teacher names Mrs Rawle. Mrs Rawle enjoys Maddy, Maddy's super cute hair and totally appreciates her good student manners.

Ruby and her first day of First grade. Her teacher is Mrs Hogan (who was in our Payson ward when Ru was born) Mrs Hogan was requested by me because Ruby's kindergarten teacher was less then...... Mrs Hogan LOVES LOVES LOVES her kids, but doesn't love telling parents what is expected of their students. It annoys this parent a little. But we LOVE her none the less.

Maddy's school picture face. We didn't order any school pictures because we were planning (and we did -- yeah) on taking our own pictures (by the best friend Em) instead.

Ruby's school picture face. Never mind that her hair is COMPLETELY different now.
The end....

Pet names?....

2011-10-26T10:00:00.009-06:00

So.....I seem to have super good names for my family members.....if they were animals.

Years ago when We moved to our townhouse and Max and I only had one Maddy for a kid, we had 2 sets of neighbors right across from us. They didn't have any kids just one dog each.....One was names Maddy and one was named Max. DOGS. Let me also say that Max is the #1 dog name E V E R. For reals.

Then, when Ruby came around, I told my friend that we were going to name her "Ruby" and she said "OH, I know a goat named Ruby". Let me also say that that same friend thinks there isn't a more perfect name for a baby then "Ruby" except for maybe "Roxie" (I know a dog named Roxie)

Ruby, the person. (at her dance recital that happened and I never blogged about)

Maddy the person.

Daisy, the person.

Now that we have a Daisy, there are 2 DOGS in my neighborhood named DAISY. One lives about 3 houses down from us and the other is my good friend Holly's dog. She says she feels bad every time she yells at her dog. In her defense her dog came first. Also, Max's cousin has a dog named Daisy. Daisy the person doesn't know what to think about this news.

bark bark bark and mehhhh. (what sound does a goat make anyway?)

That's all.

Ruby had a birthday.....a while ago.

2011-10-25T15:36:00.003-06:00

What a super bad Mom I am. Ruby had a birthday and I didn't even blog one word about it. Lots of other things happened this summer but nobody knows about those things either.

Without further ado. Ruby's 6th birthday extravaganza.

The wish making.....hmmmm now what should I wish for.

A PURPLE Mp3 player. Exactly what I wanted....what,,,,,, with songs already on it. (my Mom is so stinkin' smart) Are you serious?

(I won't mention that 2 days later her Mp3 player was taken from her by her evil Mom who didn't like the attitude that was oozing from her body about cleaning her room.)

Good thing we opened presents last. I'm busy jammin' out to my tunes. "I'm too sexy for the party...." "I;m a Barbie girl....."

Ruby told me (in January) that she was going to have a birthday party. So naturally we had one. Ashtynne, Ruby Breanne, Ashlee, Cassidy, and Rylan. We played games and ate cupcakes.

And WHOOOOSH.

6 things I love about RUBY.

1. Her face when she smiles....like REALLY smiles. It involves her whole entire head. I love it.

2. Her giggle. It makes her Dad and I giggle too. It's a thing of beauty.

3. How much she loves her sisters....not just the new one, Maddy too. She is constantly making arty stuff for them. Maddy might be overloaded with 6 year old art and MIGHT have to toss some of them sometimes.

4. How much she loves her Mom and Dad and how easy it is for her to forgive us our rottenness. (like when we take all her stuff after she sass's and doesn't mind... when it clearly isn't her fault)

5. How sweet she can be to her friends, even when Maddy and I think she's being left out or taken advantage of by her friends. She doesn't care, as long as they still play with her. She's a forgiver for sure.

and....

6. She's says the funniest things and doesn't even try.

Maddy is great.....

2011-09-14T21:17:00.004-06:00

I've always known that Maddy was great, it's just so fun when other people -strangers in the shoe store even- tell you how great she is.

Maddy wore long (like thigh high long) purple striped socks to school last week.....She did have a Levi skirt on with them and she was totally modest....... Well, the janitor (who is super cool in his own right) said to Maddy "Maddy, you are just your own person aren't you?"

She is and I love it.

As for the stranger in the shoe store. She asked Maddy if she acted? Like in plays, because how she was dressed (super cute) and her cute asymmetrical hair cut/colored hair. She told Maddy that she was the coolest 11 year old she'd ever met.

And she is.

I absolutely LOVE how she is and how she acts (mostly--everyone has their weaknesses-RUBY)

The end.

To Max, Our 16th!! anniversary......

2011-08-19T07:02:00.006-06:00

Happy anniversary to my fella. I first fell in love with you (on our first date) because you were so sweet to your baby sister, and am in more love with you today because how you love your own baby girls. You're the super best Dad that 3 beautiful little girls could ever dream of. I love you bigger than the whole sky. Most of the time... more, and sometimes less.

I love your guts, and your butt. But what's even better, is you love MY guts and MY butt................don't say "butt".

You're the cutest boy I've ever met. Before I met you, I asked my Mom "how will you know when you meet your husband?" She said "He'll look like Robert Redford", she said other stuff too but that Robert Redford comment is the only thing that stuck. I was terrified. I though "but don't think I like Robert Redford, he's OLD , and I don't want to marry someone who looks like him". Now, I get what she ment. Max, You're way better than Robert Redford.

You're the most honest and true husband that's ever lived. Even if you think it'll get you in trouble. You always think I'm beautiful, even if I'm a dirty jammie body. You always LOVE what I've made for dinner, and if you don't, you're always appreciative that I made you dinner. You tell my the house looks nice, even if just a little bit of it is clean.

You are very hard to argue with, even thought I try super hard sometimes. You really do try to see where I'm coming from. I've loved you till my heart hurts, and only a couple of time "hated" you with a vengeance. Bless your heart. You put up with my hair brained ideas and go with them even if they are hair brained, which come to find out (later) that they really are. It's a good thing we don't have to make our own ice cubes anymore :)

You're fun to hang out with, snuggle with (but only for a minute), talk to and be comforted by. I love you truly and forever.

That's all.

Nine months in/ nine months out.....

2011-08-16T16:17:00.011-06:00

It's true, The Daisy Renee is 9 months old. She is doing all sorts of naughty things. Maddy tells her "that's WRONG Daisy" when she does them, cause it is.

Some of the naughty stuff she does is, She started rolling around EVERYWHERE at 4 months, crawling at 5 months, pulling herself up to standing at 6 months, standing up in the middle of the room with out any help at 8 months and at 9 months has taken many steps, many times. The most we've counted is 8, no 11 no, a lot of steps in a row. She also does all this stuff at high speed. She acts like She's had a few cans of Mountain Dew.....which she hasn't.......just to be clear.

Oh, and she has 6 teeth. She got her 2 bottom ones first, then 2 top ones, but not the 2 middle top ones, the ones next to those so she was vampire baby for a couple of weeks before her 2 top middle ones grew in. She's 19 lbs 9 oz so she's gained exactly 10 lbs in 9 months.... I wish I had only gained 10 pounds in 9 months.

Holding Uncle Heed's hand at 7 months. How cute is that? It's super cute. That Uncle Heed, he's a big softy.

Patriotic pedicure by Dad at almost 8 months. Yes Dad.

7 months. She just thought of a funny joke. Or maybe she has a prize in her drawers.
Or maybe, she knows something we don't...

Almost 8 months with Dad and his Mt Dew shirt. Yummy yummy. She probably likes that shirt cause last fall I wore it to Bunko (8 months preggers) when my friend told us to wear our favorite "team" clothes. GO Team DEW. We don't watch sports and I'm pretty sure I don't look good in Camoflauged.

Just an 8th month old face. Wondering what Mom is doing saying "Daisy, Daisy, Daisy look over here. No over HERE. DAISY!". That's wrong. I think she can say "mama" cause sometimes she'll speed crawl after me saying "ma ma ma ma mamamamamamamama" But that could maybe be coinscience. She also said "Hi Dad", plain as day, about a month ago, but we aren't counting that for real.

She likes to crawl (at the speed of light) under things. Then get very stuck. How much do we love that her name is Daisy? There are Daisy things to buy EVERYWHERE. Don't mind the bag of trash in the background. We like to leave it there so she'll play in it.

Her family likes to put her IN things to keep her stationary for a few seconds. She might be trying to figure out how to call "the people" that help children who are being abused....... Does being put in a laundry tote count as abuse? At least we don't push her down the stairs in the laundry basket like my brothers did to me.

Her 9 month picture...... I sat her in the middle of the floor so I could take a nice sweet picture of her and by the time I got my camera from my hand to my eye, this is what I saw. Lightening fast and a bit rotten.

Afterwords, I got this fine picture. She doesn't sit still for anything!

We sure love this kid. Maddy's new saying is "oh Daisy, I love'a cause a coot" It sounds better when Maddy says it.

We do love'a. Daisy and you are coot.

The end.

PS You may have noticed that I've lost my funny bone. It is due to financial stress and a messy house and perhaps too many hours in the house with my children. School starts Monday.

The end.

Sisterly Love....

2011-07-18T15:22:00.003-06:00

Max took the girls camping over the weekend. This was one of the pictures they text ed to me....

Maddy swears that Ruby asked her to cover her in wet sand......

On to bigger and better days....

2011-07-04T08:52:00.009-06:00

Yup, our little Ruby Ru graduated from Kindergarten!

The poor little crumb ball was so sick, but she wasn't about to miss graduation -- and the last day of school. I don't remember what sickness she had, but we deemed her un-contagious and off she went.

Ruby and her super great teacher, Miss Halter. She was a bit strict and not as sweet as the other Kindergarten teacher, but in her defense, the other teacher could be in a Disney movie.

The walking to shake hands and receive her diploma picture. I was miles away and have since learned about shutter speed.

Since Ruby didn't feel ever so well, we stayed home for dinner and celebrated by decorating sugar cookies.

(that boy sitting next to her is Preston Carr-- he's in our ward and Ruby wrote in her daily journal about 6 different times saying "I like Preston". "Preston is my friend". "I love Preston" and other things like that. Maddy pointed out that Ruby only said she liked Maddy one time :)

Some things about Ruby and Kindergarten:

She's naturally funny, but doesn't really like people laughing at her. (who does)

She's taller than Maddy was at this age and wears stuff Maddy wore in 1st, 2nd or 3rd grade.

She was the only one in her class to score a 100% on her end of year testing!!

She doesn't LOVE reading.

She LOVES being read to. or too.

She'd rather do anything than go shopping. Even if we're buying stuff for her.

She learned to tie her shoe. But hasn't learned to ride her bike.

She LOVES to pick up and hold Daisy.... Daisy does NOT love to be picked up or held. BUT... Ruby can make Daisy laugh the fastest out of anyone.

For her birthday, she wants a water party, and She's been planning it for months.

She's so sweet, and is always making random crafty stuff for us.

She's messy. She's been called the Tasmanian Devil by her mother.

This year, she stuck a Lego up her nose.

She's ALWAYS cold unless she's HOT.

She never (and I mean NEVER) clears her dishes after meals.

She's a really super kid.

First Grade doesn't have a chance.

funk-ity funk

2011-06-07T16:40:00.006-06:00

I'm smack dab all out in a funk. Not just about blogging, about EVERYTHING. Housework, cooking dinner-lunch-breakfast, laundry, phone calls, housework, being nice, money, bills. And also, housework.

My crabbiness might be caused by my extreme lack of sleep. Not by my baby, but by my own self. I've been dreaming terrible horrible no good very bad dreams which make me wake up and nearly hyperventalate from fright. I won't bore you with the details, since I have inherritated my Mom's aversion to listening to other peoples dreams, but I will tell you that one of my dreams involved me running my car off the side of a bridge. And for the rest of the night - and all the next day I tried to figure out how I would save myself and what I would do if Daisy were in the car and why would I have left my purse in the back seat and do cell phones work under water.........

Today the girls and I were watching Yard Crashers (they never do what I would want them to do) when a Fathers Day comercial came on. It showed a Dad getting a sliver out of his little girl's foot and he said "this is why we wear shoes" I looked at Ru and said "YEAH Ruby, except for it's the Mom who gets all the slivers out" and she says, without missing a sassy beat "yeah, except for when you're SLEEPING". That KID.

Also, Daisy started to crawl--- at 5! months. Then after that, she learned to sit up.
Then she got 2 teeth, after that, she started pulling herself up to standing! And if that wasn't enough I found another tooth yesterday. It's been rough around these parts.

Maddy just wants to be a grown up, and thinks we need to go to (the clothing store) Forever 21. I tried to tell her that store was for older ladies who would like to be younger, not for eleven year olds who want to be older. Also, she is a reader pants. She reads stuff that I never would cause I wouldn't be able to follow the story.....don't tell her that. She thinks I can, and KNOW everything.

The end ...for now. I might blog about "6 months of Daisy" before she turns 7 months (but thats in 4 days) so maybe not.

Blogger won't spell check so I hope you've all had a good laugh.

Peace out

wats goin' on round these parts....

2011-05-07T09:39:00.005-06:00

My all time favorite (of the moment) picture of my little Daisy. Taken by Maddy. It's printed and framed on my wall. It's a shocker -- I know. I actually have pictures of all 3 of my children on my wall.

This kid is growing by leaps and bounds. This is what she looks like most of the time..... it really chaps my hide.

Yes, my friends she is trying her darndest to CRAWL. If you notice the date on the picture it's her 5 month birthday. I usually just take a face picture on her monthly birthday, but this month I took some of her doing this. Also, she started out on the blanket. We've since upgraded to a larger one. She also, enjoys moving just off any blanket and spitting up on the carpet. It's her favorite thing.

As you can see, I've been making baby food for Daisy. Probably you don't want to stick a wooden spoon in the blender while it's blending. Probably not......curses.

Peas and carrots, carrots and peas covering a 5 foot square area (underside of cabinets and microwave included)

Also, baby D enjoys eating her toes. She is SITTING upright in her highchair. Every morning while Max is changing her diaper (YIPPEE), he asks D if he can borrow her leg since her toes are always in her mouth. It pained me to do it, but I took her toe nail polish off. It didn't seem like a good thing for her to be eating.

These clowns are preparing for the end of the school year. Maddy is knee deep in end of year testing and Ruby is starting to bring all her cute artwork home. Ru planted a sunflower for a Mother's Day surprise but it got bent at school and broke clean off. She was very "pitiful Pearl" about it until she remembered she had a card for me.

And last, but not least, this little bundle belongs to my cutest friend, Shaunell. Calais (I don't recall her middle name) was born April 12th. She's perfect and and I was the first one (besides her parents and the nurses) to hold her. Sometimes, it payes to go to the hospital. I'm probably her favorite. I was so happy for Shaunell that I cried as soon as I hugged her....Which made her cry. Even better, her hubby got it all on film.

That's what's been going on. Well that and a bunch of stupid no Internet ruckus. I'm over it.

The end.

At least I didn't cry....

2011-05-04T09:23:00.009-06:00

Last Tuesday was my 37th birthday. On that day, Ruby said, "I hope you don't cry all day, like you did last year."

She is NOT my favorite child.

The end.

PS Last year, on my birthday, I was 8 weeks pregnant. This year I have the most darling, sweetest BABY on the planet. (the Ruby is slipping in the ratings)

The end....again

PS....again, I didn't get birthday shelves like the past 2 birthday years, I got a storm door so I can shed some light to our dungeon of an entry.

The end for reals.

Maddy's around here somewhere....

2011-04-08T09:56:00.010-06:00

We haven't forgotten about her, she's just not as care free as the 4th grade Maddy. This 5th grade business is kicking her trash. Her teacher (whom we adore) thinks that pestering his students about assignments is bad, he thinks they should turn them in on time without any reminding..... This gives Mads quite a bit of anxiety since she doesn't want to miss or turn in anything late EVER. She also tries to do all her assignments in class. She told me a few weeks ago that she hates Friday's because that's the day everything is due and "what if I miss something". Mads is a gem of a kid. Also, that same teacher (whom we still adore) gave her full credit on some assignments she hadn't finished from when she was sick all those days back in Jan/Feb. He was filling out report card for SEP's and he told her he knew she would get them finished, and he wasn't worried. I was a little worried.

Max's mom (whom I adore) had a birthday dinner for Mads. She made her chocolate cakes with a cheese cake filling. NOT TERRIBLE AT ALL. Her presents were BOOKS, her favorite.

Mads and Baby DAISY.

Max and Maddy went to a Daddy Daughter Date for Activity Days (HOORAY since I am released and didn't have to help). They made this "hot air" balloon contraption. They also made paper airplanes and had a contest to see which one flew the farthest and best...... theirs didn't win. . . . . too bad.

I'm SO BUGGED!

2011-03-28T12:56:00.006-06:00

Last week:

I get a phone bill $37.47
I pay the phone bill $37.47
They send me a letter saying I over paid by $37.47
They send me a reinburshment check for... yup $37.47
I "whu hoo" all the way to the bank to cash it.

This week:

I get a phone bill ......... for $37.47 PLUS $37.47 PLUS a dang late fee!

WHY!

The smoke coming out of my ears is a sure sign that I am ticked!

don't cross me today.

the end

ps I don't know how to spell "reinburshment" and neither does the compter.

The end ............. again

Max's Birthday.....

2011-03-19T09:46:00.003-06:00

My husband turned another year older yesterday. He's 36 like me. Whu hoo.

Max is an excellent Dad and loves all 3 (4 if you count me) of his girls best of all. Plus, he's pretty handsome. I love most everything about him, even the stuff that make me not get my way. He is a super provider, and an extremely hard worker. On the weekends and when work is slow, I'm happy he's home. He's kind, fair and not judgemental. He is even nice when he asked for a clean house for his Birthday. My reply was not as nice.

The famous candle blowing picture. With the traditional German Chocolate cake, cake. HOMEMADE EVERYTHING--I'm just sayin'. We only had 3 and 6 candles instead of 36 total -- cause I'm nice.

How my people really look. Why is Maddy still cute?

Happy Birthday, big fella, I love you most of all.

The end.

Some Ruby business....

2011-03-19T09:12:00.005-06:00

Do not adjust your glasses, it's true, you are seeing Ruby's Drinking Chart. Let me 'splain. She got super sick, (in the sickness that was called January and February 2011) and she wasn't drinking ANYTHING. We made her a drinking chart so there wasn't any dehydration or hospital visits. She got a sticker for every cup of liquid...water, kool-aid, Gatorade, juice, Mt Dew.....whatever I could get down her throat. That's all....

Then, she got a hole in her mouth. Her first tooth fell out, with a little help from her Mom, who couldn't stand the snaggle tooth any longer.

We're both so happy.

The Tooth Fairy didn't get to come for a few nights because Ru wanted to "look at her tooth still".

This is what Ruby's hair looked like on crazy hair/clothes day. (Dr Seuss' birthday week) Maddy's boy teacher didn't let them dress up cause they had a test that day and he thought it would be too distracting. Maddy's favorite day of the year is crazy hair/clothes day. At least she got to help with Ruby's outfit, which was equally as wack-a-doo.

This is what her head looked like after a wild night of sleeping. Pretty cute. Some people pay good money to get that from a salon.

That girl's a natural beauty, even with crazy hair.

THe end.

Daisy deserves better....

2011-03-14T21:05:00.004-06:00

Daisy rolled over for the very first time, on her four month birthday, and no one saw it. Maddy and Ruby were sitting no more than 2 feet away from her, Max and I were in the kitchen in direct view and NOBODY saw her amazing accomplishment.

I looked over and saw her on her tummy, asked if anyone put her that way, then said that we were a terrible family.

THEN! To make matters worse, she did it a second time... and nobody saw it.....again...

She was quite pitiful about it.

Later that night I saw her starting to roll over, so I told everyone "Don't look at D, we wouldn't want to see her roll over or anything."

We HAVE seen her roll over, but she thinks the thrill is gone. We better watch out she might sell us to the Gypsies.

For now, we just make her tired.

And yes, those are heart shaped "PEACE DUDE" sign's she's wearing.

all we need is love...

The eND.

Daisy stuff....

2011-02-26T16:03:00.009-07:00

Daisy is 3 months old and weighs 12 lbs 12 oz. Remember, She was our little runt baby at 9 lbs 9 oz at birth, then, cause she's one of our babies she lost a whole pound 3 days later. Jaundice-y fun.

Enjoying a "Bumbo seat"

When I use to feed D in the middle of the night, (now she's pretty good and usually sleeps until 5:30am or later) we had many speaks. One time she was getting on my very tired nerve. I told her that she wasn't very patient and perhaps she should work on that. A few middle of the nights later she was eating like a champ and Max rolled over and said "D's been working on her patience, hasn't she?"

Baby camo.

Her cute little blessing shoe-ed feet. And my Dad's feet too ^

Almost every middle of the night feeding I had to say "IT'S NEVER THERE" cause Daisy would try to eat my arm or elbow pit. You haven't lived until your baby has licked your arm. Gooood times.

Dad and the tent cot.

We've had a rough go of it this week, with germs and sickies running rampid. All the girls (even me) have been sick - but mostly Ru and Daisy. Ruby got it the worst and was out of school ALL week. She's still sick! Max set his tent cot up for Maddy to sleep in so Ruby wouldn't keep her up with all the coughing at night. Max got in it to take a nap this afternoon and got so excited about it that he couldn't sleep.

Daisy isn't the most charming of eaters. (she really needs to keep working on her patience) I always feed her on one side -burp - feed her on the other side and burp. Almost every time I start the burping part she freaks out. I finally had to tell her that burping was part of the program. I said "we eat ..burp ..eat ..and burp again. And that this was the burping part of the program. She understood -- but only sometimes.

Speaking of burbing, sometimes Daisy can burp so loud that I think her lips actually vibrate like Homer's drunken friend on the Simpson's.

Taa dah!

The Daisy blessing....

2011-02-26T15:39:00.004-07:00

We did it. We FINALLY got our little D blessed. Not that we took ANY pictures of our little family-- but we got her blessed. FINALLY. HOO-ray.

My cute Dad and Daisy. He gave her a great blessing. I wrote it down but I think the paper is still in Max's shirt pocket. Woopsie.

My darling Mom and Daisy. Daisy had about had it for the day and was about 5 minutes from a total meltdown. Thanks -baby- for being so good for SOOOO long.

We had her blessing at our church house, but only after all the wards had gone for the day. I tell you, that is the way to do it. I didn't even have to clean one thing at my house.

My cute Dad again.

And my cutest friend Shaunell and me. Everyone, even me, thinks we look like sisters. I'd take her in a heartbeat, she's one of those friends who you never EVER see (even thought you pinkie swear you will) and when you finally do get together it seems like you never left each other.

The other picture I took. I couldn't decide which picture was cutest so I posted them both.

Blessing done, over and out.

The end.

Maddy, the eleven year old....

2011-02-11T16:01:00.004-07:00

My first born turned 11 on Tuesday February 8th, 2011 I KNOW! I don't think I'm old enough to have an 11 year old either! Anyhow, She was born at exactly 11 am after a grueling hour 45 of pushing. I though it was HARD work (little did I know, her labor and recovery would be cake compared to my other two).

She was home sick on her actual birthday (bummer) so we were able to get an exact birthday minute photo. I'll discuss the puff ball coming out of her head at a later date.

Wendy's sour cream and chive (with extra "Daisy" sour cream) baked potato for breakfast. Her favorite.

A PEACE DUDE cake....

..... tie dyed and everything.

The smoke filled air and all the candles out at once! Only too bad for her, she forgot to make a wish.

Here's 11 12 or so things that make Maddy Grrrreat.

She has the sweetest smile
She LOVES her family (especially the new girl)
She's patient with MOST everyone. She tries to be patient with her little Ruby sister, even though Ruby gets into her things and moves stuff around. (It's only cause Maddy has such cool and interesting stuff)
She is "SUPER CUTE" and "super funny"
She's kind, she doesn't want to do or say anything that might make someone feel the teeniest bit bad.
She LOVES shoes, clothes, hats, jewelry, shopping and all things fashion.
She LOVES bugs, streams, rocks, dirt and shooting guns (especially at doves) She isn't afraid of putting a worm on a fishing hook. Even half a worm!
She THINKS she's my favorite child. ....wink....wink...
Her 5th grade teacher, Mr Bailey, LOVES LOVES LOVES her. In fact, he had tears in his eyes, telling me how great Maddy was, at our last Parent/Teacher conference. He talked about how much he needed her in his class (he's got a hard class this year) and how he wished he could have 5 more Maddys in there. It does a parent good to hear that kind of stuff.
She's really smart and tries so hard to do what's right. She even says her prayers every night when her own mother doesn't remember to say hers.
She makes up the best nick names for her sisters. She's got about 20 for Ruby and a few for Daisy already.
AND........
She still wants to hang out with her parents.

Ta DAH!

We love your short little guts Mads. Happy 11th Birthday girl.

Sick happens....

2011-02-04T09:02:00.007-07:00

2011 hasn't been much my favorite year so far. 2010 was super HARD but we got a cute baby Daisy at the end. TOTALLY worth the whole year. 2011 has been nothing but hospital bills (for Daisy), stress, money woe's and sickies.

First Ru was sick, then the next week Maddy took her VERY BAD turn with an awful cold, then pink eye and ear infections. She stayed home all week but by the middle of it she was well enough to follow me around being bored. Then Max got sick last Sunday and is suffering through while going to work still. He's a VERY tough cookie---until he gets home...then he's useless. <:Bless his Heart:> THEN, yesterday Ruby got sick AGAIN! With a temp of 102.3 in the night. While I was up in the night with Ru, Daisy woke up with the most pitiful snoggy nose you've ever met. Max then worried and worried that she's got RSV. She'll be fine. In fact, as soon as she gets over the pitifulness of me getting her boogers out, she's all smiles.

I am not sick *yet* but just tired tired tired. I've not been sleeping much for the past 3 days. Daisy is still in out room and usually sleeps GREAT, but this week (probably cause she's been fighting the germs) she has been waking up lots. I just give her a Binky and she goes right back to sleep. I, on the other hand, do not. I lay awake and wonder about stuff. We are suppose to be blessing the Daisy this Sunday but I don't think it's going to happen. I'm too busy with germs and my eyeballs not cooperating at night, maybe we'll bless her next week. We should do it soon since her dress might not fit her for much longer.

So that's what's been a happening in these parts. The end I'm going to have a nap.

Update: Sunday Feburary 6th PM I'm SICK. Monday Feb 7th Maddy's sick again. The end.

Christmas morning 2010

2011-01-19T15:11:00.006-07:00

Christmas was good. The girls had loads of fun during Christmas vacation. Mom didn't wanna run away from the girls even once during Christmas vacation. It was joyous and keen.

Christmas morning in new jammies. I told Mads that I didn't think I was going to buy pajamas for them this year since they really didn't need any. She got a little irate about that news, something about it being tradition.... blah blah blah. Fine. New JAMMIES.

And a new warm (and cute) robe for mom.

They DO love each other?

Just love that face.

Ruby didn't really ask for any presents. Oh except for a make-up kit. Not the play ones in the actual toy aisle, the ones that Wal-mart has around Christmas and are a 3 foot tall box full of cheap awful make-up. I told her that Santa and I talked and it wasn't gonna happen. It didn't... she was fine.

A Daisy for Christmas. She's more thrilled than this picture shows.

Maddy asked for Tie Dye duct tape. She got "tie dye" AND "peace dude". Spoiled.

This is Ruby's real actual face when they opened the Wii. Maddy had a good one too but switched when she saw the camera.

Daisy was super excited about the Wii too. She's just holding it inside.

I am NOT a Hoarder....

2011-01-09T16:43:00.007-07:00

The other day, I asked Ruby to clean up her craft mess. The girls had made paper flowers from cut out pages. She picked up the cut out leftovers and started heading to her room.

She said "I wanna keep these"

Before I could say anything she said "I AM NOT A HOARDER"

Also, we were at SAVERS, the thrift store, the other day and she asked why there was some random thing to buy (I think a bookcase) I told her that someone didn't need it so they gave it to Savers.

She said "yeah, prolly cause they're not a hoarder anymore".

Ruby gets her wisdom and funny from her Mom.

THE END

PS I didn't color her hair again, just old pictures.

Snow Day 2010.....

2011-01-06T14:18:00.007-07:00

On the last day of school before Christmas break (Tuesday Dec 21st) Santaquin got about 20ish inches of snow. FIRST the schools cancelled the bus route---(hmm if the bus can't get to school, how are the kids going to get there?) and said that parents could choose weather or not to send their children to school---then they cancelled school all together. Those people are smarties.

The girls and the Dad spend the day sledding down the MOUNTAIN across from our house.

Who cares if it's freezing and snowing on me and my hair looks like I just stepped out of the shower.... IT'S A SNOW DAY!!!

Not that I don't love my garbage can and want a picture of it on our blog... I'm just trying to show the full effect of the snow heaped at our house. Also, that's only ONE of our heaps.

Plus, 2 days earlier there wasn't a spec of snow on the ground.

Max and Ru got plastered with snow going down the sledding run.... Ruby came in to tell me all about her whoa is me......then the clod of snow fell of her head and landed on her foot.

This is the face I got next. From pitiful to goofy in 1.3 seconds. That's my Ru.

Before we knew that school was cancelled, Max started shoveling... I think he started at 5:30 am. He pretty much was sledding or shoveling all dang day. He was a pooped Dad by the end of the day. See how there's already an inch of snow where he just shoveled? Good times.

It's hard work having fun.

Hi there Mama.

The END

P S, the day before the Snow Day 2010, Ruby had a special "Polar Express" activity at school where they got to make their own train car (at home) and wear their pajamas to school. They invited anyone who wanted to come see all the Kindergarten classes walk around the school. her poor teacher, Miss Halter, was so sick that day. She said, "But you can't miss Polar Express day."

This is Ruby's car. It was not the most glamorous or fancy, but she decorated it EXACTLY how she wanted it (despite Maddy's suggestions). She was super cute.

The END again.

Daisy then and now...

2011-01-03T19:40:00.002-07:00

I figured I'd post a quick picture or 2 of baby Daisy then and now.

Daisy Renee at zero days old. November 11th 2010-- 9 lbs 9 oz 20.5 inches.

Daisy Renee at 6.5 weeks old. December 27th, 2010. 10 lbs 14 oz -- height unknown but definitely taller :)

The end.

Our Darling Little Daisy -- 7 weeks

2010-12-31T10:34:00.004-07:00

I can't believe Daisy is 7 weeks already! Why oh why doesn't pregnancy go by this fast?

This month, Daisy --USUALLY-- sleeps from 10pm until 3 or 4 am. And then is up again to eat at 6 or 7am. She makes her parents so happy when she does that business. She weighs 10 pounds 14 ounces which is as much as Ruby weighed the minute she was born! She has blue blue eyes and dark hair (but only a little bit).

She's awake much more now and doesn't think she needs to be eating every minute that she is awake. How happy for mom. Big yawn. (picture by Maddy)

She SMILES and coos bunches. (especially for her Mother) In fact I've been taking a few video's of her and her jibber jabbering, just with my camera. Who knew I could do that?

Christmas morning. She does NOT want to suffer for beauty. Sporting some leg warmers from Santa. Mostly she just wanted to be put down for a nap. Maybe next year she will be more interested in what Santa brought.

A little smile for Maddy. Maddy takes A LOT of pictures of Daisy. Mostly I never know about them until I download them to the computer.

Daisy is so fun to have in our family. We're all super happy she's here to party with us.

Ruby's Christmas Dance Recital 2010

2010-12-27T16:48:00.007-07:00

The cutest girl had the cutest dance recital on December 14th. The recital lasted 45 whole minutes, it was during her normal class time, there were a total of 4! costume changes, and they danced about 325 dances...... Maybe not that many, but it sure seemed like it.

.....and was 100% worth all the trouble.

Showing off their mad "bar" skills.

Mostly this picture is about the eyelashes.

Mostly this one is about her photogenic abilities.

More mad dance skills.

This little angel dance really and truly made me cry, it was such a sweet little dance with all those cute little girls. (And we all know, I NEVER cry ;)

Mad dance skills....just not the right ones. Arms UP. Arms UP.

The end.

KENNON!......

2010-12-18T17:45:00.006-07:00

Kennon came to visit us last Saturday. She came to Utah for some work business but who cares about that? Pretty much we took pictures and visited and Kennon, the girls and Max played "Wig Out" while I fed Daisy. I did take a leave and went to Bunko, but in my defense it wasn't suppose to be on Saturday night, it was suppose to be on Thursday night. And since there were only 6 ladies there that night, I actually won one of the 5 prizes! Whu hoo!

Then, on Sunday we went to dinner at Max's parents house. Probably it's Kennon's parents house too. Anyway, we went to dinner and besides it being yummy, we did more sitting around and visiting. Daisy did what she LOVES best, and got held the entire night.

Grandfahr and his newest great granddaughter. I think he likes her.

Kennon getting her Daisy fix before she had to go back to Indiana.

LOVE this picture. Pretty sure Kennon LOVES this baby too.

Plus, there were MANY video clips taken of all three girls. Apparently Chris was very bugged that she was missing out. I know we were missing her. Kennon told us that Chris was very sad but being very grown up about her not getting to come out for a visit too......UNTIL she realized that there was a new baby Daisy to see. Then she wasn't so grown up about it anymore. It was my favorite story. We love that Chris loads and loads.

One Happy Baby. Kennon, we already miss you.

The end.

The Polar Express 2010.....

2010-12-13T17:23:00.007-07:00

We had the opportunity to go on the Polar Express ride in Lindon last Monday night. Sharon (Gwen's daughter) invited us. She had us over for biscuits and gravy (or jam) first. They have a family in their ward that's rigged a mini train all throughout their property. It's pretty dang amazing.

Max and Ru waiting for the ride to start.

All the gang (except Sharon).

The first stop was Santa's workshop where the girls got to tell Santa their most wanted presents this holiday season. Maddy said "books". Maddy wouldn't go sit on Santa's lap unless Ruby went with her.

After the workshop part they took us around the track where they has set up scenes from Jesus' life (like the manger scene and business like that) with all of Greg Olsen's paintings set up and pretty music playing. It was VERY cry baby emotional. And not just for me and my "just had a baby" hormones, other people cried too. I swear, it wasn't just me.

The family (minus Daisy) after the ride. Yes, I like making Maddy's arms do that.

The family (minus Daisy still) with Sharon's camera.

Sharon and Madds. She's such an awesome lady. We just love her...even if she didn't make me rolls and jam.

The view from the train.

Ru and Santa. She asked for a jewelry kit but forgot that instead she wanted a makeup kit. Too bad Santa doesn't love those things.

Grandma and Grandpa Smith came to Sharon and Clark's for dinner too. Then they watched Daisy so the rest of us could go on the train ride. I think Grandma Smith only came for the baby time.

We're waiting....we're waiting....

The end.

The rest of Thankful a day...... or not

2010-12-03T11:41:00.003-07:00

Thank heavens November is O.V.E.R?

I was thankful for bunches of stuff, I just can't remember so well.

The end.

Recent random pictures....

2010-11-21T12:04:00.003-07:00

Maddy is IN LOVE with Daisy. All she wants to do is hold her. I told her she needed to go to baby rehab.

Mads and Bailey at their D.A.R.E graduation. All the 5th graders participated in D.A.R.E. It was a big big deal. I think it stands for Drug Awareness Resistance Education but I'm not sure.

Best Mom EVER, right.

The ever popular D.A.R.E t-shirt. It was worn by most of the 5th grade the next day. Grandma Smith took her to her graduation. It was pretty neat, from what I hear.

Max and his new baby all smooshed in a ball. It's one of his favorite things to do with his newborns. He may need rehab too.

And lastly, Daisy taking a snooze. Most likely during the day since she likes to party at night.

Thankful a day (or every week or so) 2010....

2010-11-21T11:19:00.006-07:00

Friday November 12th, 2010

I am thankful for all the Doctors and cute nurses at the hospital who were so nice and sweet and helpful and caring to me, and also my visitors. I was NOT thankful that they ALL decided to show up on that day. I didn't get 5 minutes peace all day. I was POOPED.

Saturday November 13th

On this day I was thankful that people decided to leave me alone, also Carrot cake. I am thankful for the hospital room service carrot cake. It was DELIGHTFUL.

Sunday November 14th

I was thankful for the cute couple who came to give me the Sacrament. I haven't been to church much the past month or so and when I am there, apparently, I don't pay much attention about the Sacrament. I was thankful that they came and visited and cheered me up a bit. That morning, I had just been told that Daisy was JAUNDICE - like my other 2- and we had to stay in the hospital longer too clear out some of it. So the Sacrament reminded me that I wasn't alone in my sadness and that I am loved and important.

Plus also, I was thankful that my friend STILL brought dinner to us, she came right in our house and put it in the fridge so we could have it WHEN we got home that night. Remember how great my friends are? Max was thankful for her and her yummy food.

Monday November 15th

Max left to work out of town. NO, I was not thankful for that! I was thankful that he called his mom, and she was willing to be AT my house by 7am (and slept over too) to help get the girls off to school. She was also VERY helpful in the night when Miss Daisy decided she was NOT a sleep fan. I was thankful for her bossiness about me taking naps, even though she was just as awake in the night as I was. I've mentioned it before, but she loves me lots. I love her lots too.

Tuesday November 16th

I don't remember what I was thankful for on this day.

Wednesday November 17th

I was SUPER thankful that Max came home from out of town. I love and am grateful for my Mom-in-law (Heidi's) help but I LOVE Max so much and was missing him quite a bit. There's something to be said about having your baby's daddy home with you.

Thursday November 18th

More thankful for Mom help. This time MY Mom came to help. She is super and fun and bossy too. Moms are like that. My Mom came and brought us fun Christmas place mats and snacks and she made us dinner for that night. When it wasn't quite done she was so upset. You may think it's mean to be thankful for her upsettiness but to me it shows that she loves us and it's important to her to have a nice meal for us to eat- one that we didn't have to cook. You know, since she loves me best. Probably she loves Max best too. And Maddy (it's no secret how she loves Maddy) and Ruby, she does enjoy her Ruby. Plus, did I mention that she left my Dad in the hospital (he had throat surgery the same morning that I had Daisy) to come be with us for Daisy's arrival. So she's quite in love with Daisy too. Sorry Dad I'm sure she loves you second best.

Friday November 19th

I was thankful that my mom went to Grandparents day at Ruby's class, and took nearly 1,000 pictures, and blogged about it here. They have been working so hard to have Grandparents day and Ruby has been so excited about it.

Saturday November 20th

I was thankful that Max took the girls to Cabela's all morning and into the afternoon. I am also thankful that the reason he went was to buy his own Christmas present, so I wouldn't have to do it. He also brought me fudge. Boy oh boy was I thankful for that yummy stuff.

And today, Sunday November 21st

I am thankful that Daisy slept so great last night. I wonder if it was my bawling to her about how tired I was last night. At any rate, she slept. hooray for sleep.

I'm also thankful that Max took the girls to church even though he doesn't love church. It's important to me and so he went. I love that guy.

That'll be all until next time.

Presenting DAISY RENEE SMITH.......

2010-11-17T11:21:00.005-07:00

And while we're at it lets just call this Thankful a day for 11/11/10

The night before the big arrival. Probably, it's time.

Daisy Renee born 9:21am, on November 11th, 2010. Weighing in at a scrawny 9 lbs 9 oz and measuring at a whopping 20 inches long. ( this picture is Daisy's 5 minute birthday--check the clock)

Proud Daddy snapping pictures while Mom was being stitched up.

Hmmm let me consider.....

She's bored of this hospital business.

Well Hello there Dad.

Mom and Ru. Ru remembered to give Mom a love and not just baby Daisy.

Typical Smith baby picture. Billirubin and jaundice issues the day we planned to come home.

Preciousness.

And lastly, the view of the TV from my hospital bed. Super dooper.

The end.

Thankfulness speedy quick....

2010-11-10T17:26:00.006-07:00

Saturday Nov 6th

Ruby had her first "dance on a stage" today. It was for the super posh Santaquin Country Christmas Craft Fair. I am thankful that she actually participated. I won't go into how, later that day, I had to take a whole garbage bag of her stuff from her room , or that I actually spanked her bum and told (yelled at) her to get on her bed and not to move. I won't tell you that I did those things AFTER she shoved all her stuff in her closet and let me believe she had completely cleaned her room in 15 minutes. And when I found out she yelled and screamed at me and told me she hated me. (That sort of thing doesn't bother me since I didn't love her so much at that moment either). I won't go into that stuff. I'm just so thankful that she danced and every once in a while she waved her cute wave at me.

Sunday Nov. 7th

I am Thankful today that Max and the girls cleaned and vacuumed out my car in preparation for our new baby Daisy's arrival. It's sparkly, I tell you. Have I mentioned that Max has been super great lately? Apparently, I mention it to everyone but him. Oopsie.

Monday Nov 8th

I am thankful that my parents were willing to take me to Costco, since I don't have a card all my own, and also, we got to eat lunch together. Ruby ate nearly a whole Costco size piece of pizza, but that is another story. That kid eats WAY more than her big sister, or me.

Tuesday Nov. 9th

I should have been thankful for Alzabeth since it was her birthday, but instead I was thankful that I FINALLY went to our family Dr since I have been sick with a cold (I thought) since October 30th. I was not thankful that they tested my blood pressure and it was super high, so they tested my peeps which had some protein in it. That, with all my swelling equals Toxemia. I went to my baby Dr and my pressure was better so he put me on bed rest for 2 whole days. Oh plus, turns out I have strep throat. Good times.

Which brings us to today, Wednesday Nov. 10th

I am Thankful for my friends and how willing they are to help us out. I was less thankful that they all choose to call me today when my throat was so sore and hoarse. I absolutely LOVE my friends. They're so good to me. I'm also thankful that I get a baby in 13 hours.

Good night and that's all until for now, until I have 3 kids.

I forgot about November and Thankful a day.....

2010-11-05T10:09:00.004-06:00

And since I'm having a baby in 6 whole days I may not post every single day. And by me saying "may not" I really mean "I'm not posting every day people" Consider yourselves warned.

Monday November 1st... I am thankful that Halloween is OVER and not only can I say, I'm having a baby "THIS MONTH" but I can also say I'm having a baby NEXT WEEK" and that is WHU HOO.

Also, I am thankful for Max having a job, I am thankful for Max having a job, I am thankful for Max having a job....... Because he is going to have to go out of town for 2 different jobs right exactly BEFORE AND AFTER the baby comes. I'm freaking out a little.... I am thankful for Max having a job.....

Tuesday Nov 2nd.... I am thankful that I just realized that this baby is no longer sitting on my right bum cheek nerve and I can walk without thinking my right leg is going to fall off. How nice.

Wednesday Nov 3rd.... Early out day. I'm am not so much thankful for this day's entry as I thought it was just pretty dang funny. Ruby gets out of school at 11:15 (20 minutes earlier than normal) on Wednesday's. She has, every Wed, gotten off the bus, at 12:05, exactly 5 minutes earlier than a normal day. I know, go figure....Except for this Wed. This Wed. I went to the grocery store before she got home. Then, since I saw I had 20 minutes to get home (before 12:05) I thought I'd stop by Wendy's and get a lunch treat for us. When I got home my car clock said 11:57. Fewwwew, I made it, I thought. Only there was a Ruby standing on the porch with her hands on her hips, giving me the stink eye face. She was NOT excited to see me. I was so nervous of that crusty face that I didn't want to open my car door, even thought I had Wendy's for her. She then told EVERYONE that I left her "LOCKED out on the porch ALL DAY." Her dad egged it on even more by asking if she was waiting for HOURS and HOURS. He's not my favorite some days.

PS I had told her before, if by chance, I wasn't home she was to check both doors and then go to our neighbors house and call me. I asked her what happened to that rule, she said she didn't wanna do that. Hmmmm.

Thursday Nov 4th.... I am thankful for my Bunko ladies, who changed all 11 of their schedules so I could come to Bunko on the 4th instead of NOT on the 11th since I'll be in the Hospital with a new baby on that day. I am also thankful for my big mouth that said I needed a car seat that hadn't expired and my friend Janice who said "I have 2 if you want one"

And today - Friday Nov 5th.... I am thankful that I might actually not be dying from a cold I've had all week. My voice is pretty rotten still but I am on the mend. Hopefully I will stop coughing before Thursday, I don't think coughing and c-sections are good for one another.

That's all for now FOLKS.

Halloween 2010

2010-11-05T09:40:00.005-06:00

First of all we carved pumpkins. We invited Shan over since carving pumpkins is on her top 10 most favorite things to do list. Ruby's is the cat, Shan carved the monster and Maddy (like you were surprised) made the "Peace Dude" one.

I can't like carving pumpkins so I had my own activity which I didn't take a picture of. It was my Halloween costume, Shan's idea. I wore a black t-shirt with a baby skeleton printed on my tummy. It was pretty cute and got RAVE reviews from all.

Maddy's costume. An 80's person. I don't' recall making such goofy faces in the 80's but who knows. She wanted to Trick or Treat with her friends and not her little sister and Dad. Once again Ru got lots more candy than Mads did. When will she ever learn?

And Ruby the Gypsy. The only thing I bought for this costume was her skirt from the Thrift store, which I would have bought anyway - since it was so stinking cute.

Halloween night (on Saturday the 30th) was a bit iffy this year. It rained and rained all day long. Maddy was a mopey puppy cause of the weather. Just before dinner I asked her (half kidding) if she had said a prayer? She said "yup" and about 30 minutes later the sky cleared up, the sun came out and VOILA! Prayer works. I'm not sure if that's naughty to say or not, so I'm pleading stupidity.

And that was the end of Halloween 2010. Only Maddy was talking about what she wants to be for Halloween NEXT year ---2 days before Halloween THIS year.

Soccer......that ended in September

2010-10-28T13:43:00.004-06:00

Mads started her first year of soccer this year. She was on the same team as her BEST FRIEND BAILEY. It was not an accident. I pestered everyone (soccer involved) so they could be sure to be on the same team.

I told Mads that she had to do it again next year, even if she hated it, since it cost so much to get her started. (we even went to the Thrift Store for cleats and shorts) Good thing she didn't hate it.

It was so fun to see her out playing and the confidence she got (around the time the last game rolled around) while playing. Bailey was a soccer ROCK STAR at every game. We love both those girls.

Their coach was super fun and reminded them that winning wasn't the most important part. (They did win about half their games) Max was a total soccer Dad. He would cheer for ALL the kids, he even learned their names. I think some of the kids thought he was Coo Coo.

This was the best team picture we could get. The kid next to Maddy kills me. He REFUSED to smile or even look remotely happy to be there. It was a bummer, cause some of the players weren't there for the pictures. And, I didn't choose to buy any.

The LION guy is the mascot for the REAL Salt Lake soccer team.

And that's all I have to say about Soccer.

Just another boring old weekend.......

2010-10-18T08:32:00.005-06:00

I thought the highlight of our weekend would be cutting Maddy's hair all off. Although it was fun, it was also sad sense she and I had PROMISED not to cut (except trims--and mullets) our hair until she was 11. She couldn't wait any longer. I have yet to cave----but I'm close.

The before, I had a normal picture of her face but I just like this one---it shows her TRUE personality.

And the after. Prolly she should style it a bit more. PS it also looks super cute straight.

Then on Sunday evening Shan appeared on our doorstep with this deliciousness:

It's a DIAPER CAKE. You would think THIS would be the highlight of our weekend. I should have been, we always LOVE Shan to come over, especially with presents. She made us a "diaper cake" with a SOCK cake topper and a body wash/baby lotion center. And cute Binky's too. Her friend asked her what kind of "Binky's" I liked and she said "the cute kind" She is correct. It's safe to say Shan is as excited for this baby as we are. It's true, ask her.

The REAL exciting part of our weekend started with this little monster ^. At 9:35 pm ONE hour and 35 minutes AFTER bedtime, Mads opened their door (PS they are sharing a room now ---you wouldn't know that since I never blog) and Ru was SCREAMING at the top of her lungs.

It seems that our precious 5 year old child had stuck a LEGO up her nose! Curses!

The paranoid parents that we are, looked and looked for it up her nose, couldn't see it, made sure she could breathe and sent her to bed. We did call the after hours DR. He said to take her to Instacare or the E.R. What does he know anyway? We sent her to bed.......

And then to school the next morning. hehe

That night, after Ru had calmed down a bit and could laugh about sticking a LEGO up her nose, she asked if Mads had ever done that when she was little. Max said "no, that really wasn't her forte." Then Ru smiled and said, "yeah, it's my speciality."

The LEGO was this small - - only grey. Don't worry, I took her to the regular Dr after school and he got it out. He dug up her nose with a long skinny plastic digger. She was extremely brave.

So instead of a HUGIE E.R. BILL we'll have a smallish $80 Dr bill instead. (gotta love personal insurance) We'll make up for all our Dr bill savings IN 3.5 WEEKS when our baby comes.

Ru was so brave we went to McDonalds for an ice cream sundae for her and a burger for me. Mostly because I was starving...I mean cause she was so brave.

Also this weekend, we --meaning Max ... did lots of baby chores in the house. It involved MANY holes in the walls. And lots of extra furniture to the basement. Not his favorite thing. He was a VERY good sport.

The end.

The best thing I ever taught Maddy.....

2010-10-11T10:14:00.002-06:00

Maddy's next lesson...... Beard trimming. It's hands down my least favorite hair to cut.

Pregnancy business.......arghhh

2010-09-23T09:50:00.005-06:00

As you can see, I'm in my final WEEKS (not months) before my little ball of estrogen arrives. (my Tiffany friend said that and I thought it was pretty funny)

Pregnancy started out just fine (as it always does....for me) I was pretty tired and (Max would say) moody, but what does he know, anyway? I vaguely remember bawling for half my birthday in Jackson Hole but I usually cry a little on my birthday so why does that mean I'm pregnant moody?

Then, the snoggy nose business started in. OH BOY! What a bad couple of months that was. Afrin addicted and still stuffed up. It was the pits. Around then, I started to doubt my even being pregnant. Yeah I know, I had had an ultrasound and heard heart beat and even felt some tiny movements but I doubted. I doubted because my cheep Wal-mart preg test "your pregnant" line had disappeared. Gone! I had a tiny freak out. Why did I keep it, you may ask. Just for that very reason, duh. I told my Dr, and he said to pee on it again, PS It didn't work.

Don't worry I think I'm pregnant still, either that or I have an Karate chopping alien that has taken over my body. Which ever it may be, there is DEFINITELY something in there.

I got my nose business taken care of (except for it's been bad again this last week) and then I started the great hip pains and ankle swelling. MY poor cute shoes are getting quite dusty on my shoe shelves. I do still have the cutest toenails that ever lived.

Then came the ultrasound, where we went to CONFIRM what we already knew (by about 147%) that we were having a boy...... Named Miles Reed....... (but only in my heart since Max despised the name Miles) Only too bad for us cause it wasn't a boy at all. SURPRISE! That was a whoa-is-me day (or 3) for me. But then I got over it and now I am pretty excited for my little pink bundle to arrive. Which even in the whoa is me days I still knew I would be excited for a girl. I just had been SO sure of the boy that it messed me up. Probably don't ask me to pick your lottery numbers or anything. I'm not a very good guesser.

I've had loads of people give me girl/baby stuff. Since I gave all my girl clothes to needy friends telling them "oh no, I don't need them back. I'm done having girls" Funny Funny me. I am set for the first 3 months for sure on clothes. I've even bought some diapers and wipes (what... had a coupon) the other day.

And now my newest pregnant fun is that I seem to have developed Gestational Diabetes. It's good times around here, I tell you. I had a whole day of sadness when I found out, then I got over it and started eating better. I went to the Diabetes clinic (thank you Jessie for watching Ru for a million hours that day) and learned all sorts of good eating ways. I have to poke my finger to test my blood sugar 6 times a day (at a dollar a test strip--thanks to my lame insurance) and eat 6 times a day. That means I'm eating a snack at 9:30 at night! 9:30 at night is sleepy time, not eating time. The protein has been the hardest for me to do, there isn't many choices that I like to eat. The good news is I don't feel as tired as I did and I'm not as thirsty either. The good news is also (as Tierney pointed out) that I'll be done before the holidays and can eat some yummy goodies. Plus I get a baby that may be smaller than 11 pounds! Here's hoping.

That's all. I have to go eat a snack. The end

Garden pests....

2010-09-17T08:28:00.003-06:00

Every year that we've lived in this WINDY city, we've had major struggles with our garden. This year was no exception. One year we had hoards of Grasshoppers, the next year it was squash bugs, then shield bugs, they suck all the moisture out of your plants so they just wither up and die before you even know whats going on. And of course, the wind. There is always the wind. Curse the wind.

As we all know, Max is garden obsessed. For reals. He doesn't like ANY help in the garden (unless it's pulling weeds). You could go as far to say he's downright anal about his garden. He babies the garden like crazy. He checks on it before work and after work every day. If he comes home DURING work he'll check on it again. We should have stock in bamboo skewers and Velcro tape for the amount he uses to stake his vines so the wind doesn't devastate them. His anal-ness usually pays off. This year NOTHING grew well but his tomatos and onions. His tomatos and onions were beautiful.

Which brings me to this year's pests..... CHILDREN---boys to be exact. First we had one little boy pull ALL our onions out of the soil and leave them by the garden box. Max about cried. That same little boy picked a bunch of tomatos (before they were ripe) off the vine and chucked them all over our yard. He did this a few times before Max had a talk with his Mom. Needless to say, he's not allowed over here anymore. We though the destruction was over.......We were so WRONG.

Last weekend we get a knock on our back door. It was 2 boys, and their parents coming to apologize. It seems the boys were having some tomato fun and had pulled ALL of Max's biggest tomatos off the vine and destroyed them. These weren't your average tomatos, these suckers were the size of a mans hand. I'm serious, Max had measured. He was waiting for them to be ABSOLUTELY perfect before he picked them. He was too late. Now they're gone.

What's worse is the mom of one of the boys told me that Max needed to "suck it up" and asked if we were REALLY going to eat all those tomatos (does it matter, and YES). She doesn't like tomatos and I think she thinks all tomatos are the same. She's wrong. Garden tomatos are HEAVEN. I tried to explain to her how he had been taking such careful good care of these particular tomatos and how he was so excited every day he checked on them, that none of them had cracked and how important they had been to his garden happiness etc etc. She didn't get it. Tomatos aren't her thing.

That night Maddy said "can we get an electric fence?" She's funny, and may be on to something.

Shan-tastic....

2010-09-06T08:31:00.005-06:00

My friend Shan sent me a picture text not too long ago. It was a picture of 3 white tee's (one being a tiny baby onsie) and a tie dye kit. Her text said: "Prolly, I'm the most favorite." Prolly, she is. Shan likes to come over and do "activities" with the girls, Shan has lots of friends and has been super busy this summer, the girls have had Shan-withdrawls. I think they forgot about they're neglected-ness once she walked through our door.

Getting started. Maddy was bouncing off the walls with excitement.

Ruby's a blur of excitement, making a shirt for Max with the extra dye.

Maddy would have liked to tie dye our whole house, she settled for a pair of her undies, and a pair of mine, I won't show you mine since that would be embarrassing. Maddy brought it on herself by INSISTING on tie dying my undies, I'm fine embarrassing her....times 10.

The finished undies. They are, pretty much-hands down, the cutest undies on the face of the earth.

Ruby, deep in concentration, mostly she squirted the dye straight out over the shirt and onto the plastic. She's got super squirty skills. Ruby was dressed all in black, so the dye wouldn't show up if it got on her clothes. I thought she looked like a Sprocket from Saturday Night Live. You should YOUtube "Sprocket SNL" if you don't know what the heck I'm talking about.

Shan, thanks for coming over and playing with the girls. We like you A-lot.

You really are Shan-tastic.

The end.

The Fifth grader and the Kindergardener.....

2010-08-31T09:08:00.009-06:00

The Maddy started 5th grade last Tuesday (on Heed's birthday). She was NOT looking forward to having a BOY (gasp) teacher (with not ONE of her friends in her class) until we went to meet him Monday afternoon. He won her over by telling her he was color blind. She thinks that's the coolest. I'm pretty sure Mr Bailey is gonna get teased by her this year. I think he's up for it. He's pretty cool himself.

That "5" is for "5th grade-- Not cause she's 5 years old. Do you like her monstrous backpack? It's nearly as big as her.

I can't believe how OLD she is. 10 1/2 to be exact. Why do they grow up -- And get all sassy and teenagery so quick?

AND THE RUBY...Ruby started real actual school today. And before any of you comment about the character print shirt she's wearing...... I was outnumbered and overruled at Target (by ONE Miss RUBY Elizabeth--she's was very firm about her style). There was nothing I could do.

Her teacher is Miss Halter. I hope she's ready for Ru. Her life may never be the same. Heck, the whole school may never be the same. This morning when I went into her room all she said was "its my second day of school, yeah" Then went to work (with Maddy's unwanted help) finding just the right clothes to wear.

And here are the 2 walking to the bus stop, holding hands (awwwh). Not even looking back. (GRRR) What's a mother to do? Oh maybe, I'll have another one who won't leave me for another 5 or 6 years. That'll teach them.

This is the Mads. She was feeling crummy, tummy ache, tired and didn't even want a Cinnamon roll for breakfast (!), but I made her go to school anyway. Someone had to take Ru to her class. :) She called me at 11 am to say she was feeling worse. She looked worse. (She was better by 3pm) And the MEAN MEAN Mom that I am, wouldn't let her go to soccer.

Oh and since it's taken me 3 days to write this post, I found out yesterday that the bus drops little Ru off right exactly at our front door! How great is that?!

The end.

15 years of wedded bliss.....

2010-08-20T09:45:00.004-06:00

Yesterday..... Yes, I said yesterday..... was our 15 year anniversary. We were duds about it.

I get him and he gets me.... I couldn't have married a better man for me. OK I totally didn't mean for that to rhyme. That's cheese ball. He loves me the very most and lately has said that I'm a pleasure even though I'm 6 months pregnant. Also, he doesn't lie.

He loves these girls with all his heart, and probably, they love him that much too. He's even super happy about having a 3rd little lady around here.

He is kind, loving, funny, (but not as funny as me) and pretty swell. He wears the funny stuff I buy him, without complaint. He paints tiny toenails and fingers, he even lets the girls paint his toes sometimes. Just as long as they're painted black....like all the cage fighters. He likes to swing on our swing set, play Chinese jump rope and is a very good sport when Ruby wants him to wear princess dress ups for dinner. He's very secure in his manliness.

Happy Anniversary fella. You're the best. And I love you the most.

The END.

Ruby's birthday celebration......

2010-08-11T06:52:00.004-06:00

You all know that I'm 6 months pregnant..and 36....and overweight by A LOT...not to mention old and moldy.

Because of all that business, poor Ruby had a bump on a log for a birthday mom this year. We didn't do much, but I think she was mostly happy, even though there has been a few grumblings about not going to Pirate Island.

The picture is blurry, but how cute is that face?

Aunt Kennon, this is what she was doing while talking to you on the phone.

The opening of the presents. A Dora the Explorer Leapster game, a zuzu pet with accessories, and a bike/basket. We wrapped the basket and had the Dad bring in the bike from the trunk afterwards.

The bump on a log mom continues here, Usually I decorate the house (Max's helps) with balloons, streamers and banners the night before the girls birthdays. This year, I was too darn tired, also, the Dad doesn't find it too important of a job to do himself. So on the way into church, Ruby starts saying "I wish you had decorated for my birthday, that's what I really want." I just smiled to myself and said "oh, I'm sorry" cause, Max and I had already planned to skip out on Sunday School (shhh) to decorate the house and frost her cake. When she walked in the house she was SO excited. I tell you, it was worth it to see that face.

She was pretty in love with that bike and the bike messenger. Max said she hugged him with her whole body. I didn't mention that it was my idea to actually buy the bike for her. (I prefer to suffer in silence)

4.5 seconds after we got home from church, Ruby went to change.......into her pajamas. It was 2:20 in the afternoon, I'm pretty sure. So birthday pictures in her jams! She also did her own hair.

And last but not least, the must have "Blowing out the candles" picture.

Happy Birthday Ruby Ruby Ru. We love you bigger than the whole sky.

That'll be all.

What happens in Smithfield......

2010-08-10T12:22:00.005-06:00

.............stays in Smithfield. Apparently it's true, since I didn't take ONE STINKING PICTURE of our visit.

This is Heed* and Patty. Heed is my "little" brother, his actual name is Bentley, but I just like "Heed" and that's all. "Patty" is not Patty's real actual name either, but she just like "Patty" and that's all. We like them both.

They invited us up to visit them last weekend. Heed has lived in Smithfield/Logan for about 10ish years. They've been married for 4. This was our first visit. Heed likes to remind us of that. Heed is somewhat of a hairball.

Max and I left the girls with his parents for the weekend. Whu hoo! And we left. We got up there Friday night and super quick went to dinner at the most glorious Mexican restaurant, Cafe Sabor. It was so yummy. Plus, I got a Pink Zebra drink that was delicious, and not to mention -- trendy.

There are no pictures of the restaurant, the food, the company or my drink.

There was, however, an Indian family that came in while we were waiting to be seated, that gave us a chuckle. The Dad asked a silly question. The hostess asked if they wanted to eat outside or inside. He asked her if it was cold outside. She replied: uhh it's just like it was when you came in. (10 seconds ago) I'm not sure if those were the exact words, but it was pretty stinkin' hilarious. We thought it was funny ALL weekend long.

After dinner we went to a pastry shop and bought goodies. MY FAVORITE. I bought 2 goodies and ate one later that night. I had the other one for breakfast with my turkey bacon and scrambled eggs. It was the perfect breakfast.

Nope, no pictures of that place either.

Saturday, we lazed around the house and then drove to visit a lake, it was not good fishing that day. We visited Heed's work and they bought me my first pair of CHOCO'S sandles. They are super cute. They will be even cuter on my feet once those feet aren't swollen anymore. Then, that night for dinner we ate at Hamilton's Steak House. It was also delicious. I got the salmon (I know, right?) Max got the Rib eye and shared with me. He's delightful.

We went to the same pastry shop that night too. This time I bought 3 treats. There is still 1/2 a lemon bar in my fridge.

That night the 2 boys and Patty played video games and then did a firework or two. Despite Heed's persistence, I did not participate in either of those activities. Which confirms that I am indeed more stubborn than Heed. He didn't enjoy that information.

At 3am (!) we went to bed. It was maybe a wee bit too late for me but we were having so much fun, I didn't want the party to end.

Patty's funny, she asked me how I slept both mornings and the second morning I just smiled and said "I don't know". I'm 6 months pregnant, I never sleep good. (Max had to be told not to ask me how I slept anymore, since I didn't want to be a downer every single morning.)
Sunday morning we lounged and video gamed some more. Then we went to breakfast at Village Inn. It was noon, so I got lunch instead. After that we lounged more, packed up and left for home. It was a sad time for all of us.

We loved our visit. We ate good food, had good conversations, laughed A LOT and were Merry. Thanks Heed and Patty for all the fun.

We made it home safe with both the girls, and didn't get dead in any ditches. Yippee.

No pictures of that business either.

* I named Heed, "HEED" when he was in high school and he decided to grow dreadlocks. It was not a pretty sight. (Heed, it wasn't) The movie So I Married an Ax Murderer was popular and quoted often at our house. So he, and his huge HEED got renamed, because he looked like an orange on a toothpick.

The end.

She's not 4andahalf anymore.....

2010-08-01T15:19:00.003-06:00

After 6 long months of being 4 and a half, this Ruby kid turned 5. Seriously, she told us she was 4 1/2 -- YESTERDAY.

RUBY: you are a pleasure of the highest amount. You are a squirrely little kid-- you take a breath between the LETTERS of your words, not the syllables. You throw the occasional hissy fit-which is not a pleasure. And you love your Dad the best of all---he is your "#1". (I'll get you back someday--let it be written)

Your Ruff Ruff (or Ruffy) is your best puppy ever. You like to sleep with only your Tinker Bell blanket on at night---but only until Mom and Dad go to bed, then you want us to cover you up with all your covers. You HAVE to have someone listen to you say your "pears" (prayers), mostly you want Mom to do it, and she wonders why you still love Dad best?

This is the face you made when you came home from church and saw the house decorated with banners and streamers and a ladybug cake.

You say and do the funniest stuff, but don't like people to laugh at you. You are extremely in love with your little sister that has yet to be born. You have to give good night hugs to Dad, Mom AND baby several times, before you can go to bed. You LOVE to watch Roughin' it Outdoors with your Dad, every Sunday morning.

Today has been a day of third person comments from you. "the birthday girl needs a little help with her dress", "Maddy is taking my.....the birthday girl's blanket" "the birthday girl is not berry happy" "can someone read the birthday girl the comics?" (the birthday girl is getting on her big sisters nerves)

The ladybug cake you requested......

The Ladybug cake, with her alterations, done by you-- with a little help from Maddy.

So Ruby, On this very day, 5 years ago, your scrawny 10 pound 14 ounce self joined our lives and wormed your way into our hearts.....

......And quite possibly wrapped your Daddy around your little finger.

We love you, kid.

Wednesday presents.....and bunkbeds

2010-07-17T07:55:00.003-06:00

First of all, I love that Shan. Shan brought All of the girls "Wednesday Presents*". She brought them to us ACTUALLY on Wednesday. Shan told me that maybe I needed to go shopping and see all the cute girl clothes to be more excited about my girl baby. (I'm excited now, but she said that on the night of our ultrasound) I haven't gone shopping yet, but she did. She brought me yummy new smelly Mary Kay sugar scrub, and these delicious clothes for our new girl, some for now and some for later. She brought Mads a Beatles notebook, and Ru a CUTE design your own fashion notebook thingie. I don't know what it's called but it's been a big hit with both the girlies.

We love that Shan, Shan is a pleasure.

*Wednesday Presents were first started by my Mom, she bought me a prize one day just because. When I asked her why, she said "because it's Wednesday" so presents bought 'just because' have been "Wednesday presents" ever since. PS you don't have to give them on Wednesday either.

And second......BUNK BEDS

After YEARS of sleeping on mattresses on the floor, my girls are now in real actual beds. I know, their spoiled, right.

My Little Jessica friend hooked us up with a lady in her neighborhood who sold them to us, for practially nothing. The girls are very pleased to have beds.

Here's what the head and foot boards look like. I would have bought these for not practially nothing, cuz they're so cute.

And the ever poser Ruby. When I put them up, I told them that if there was anything under their beds they were dead meat. So Maddy quickly got under Ru's bed and yelled "Mom, Ruby is DEAD MEAT!" Maddy is a hairball.

Hula hoops are acceptable under the bed items. Since, where do you keep those things other wise?

The End

And then there were three.......

2010-07-13T19:49:00.006-06:00

Yup, you're reading the correct blog. Today was the day we went to confirm our baby was a boy. Only the joke's on us-- cuz it's a girl instead.

I've cried and cried.

I'm not sad that we're having another girl. It's not that, I figured it out when I was talking to my friend Shan and I said "I'm not sad about a girl, I'm just mourning the loss of Miles". (Miles was my name for our boy-- only Max hates that name) I was so certain that we were having a boy that I had his name, and his little self all planned out. Only too bad cuz he's not here. So I am sad for him, but happy for my little girl who has yet to be named.

Also, too bad that I got rid of almost all of our baby girl clothes over the years. To be honest I don't want to dress our new baby in 10 year old onsies that have spit up stains on them. She need her own fresh clothes to spit up on.

She is healthy, with all her parts in all the right places. She weighs about 1 lb 15 oz and lets hope she doesn't follow in her big sisters and their big ideas and come out HUGE! A nice little 8 pounder would be glorious.

Max said today that he was following in Grandfahr's (who he was named after) footsteps. Grandhahr had 3 girls too. If he was going to be like anyone I couldn't have picked a better man.

So here's to girls. Yeah.

She must agree cuz it feels like she's doing back flips in my tummy. She's so cute.

The end.

Not to scary but somewhat distracting.....

2010-07-11T17:32:00.005-06:00

One Sunday morning a while back, we were woken up by the sound of our Carbon Monoxide detector going off -- right outside our bedroom door. It's done it before and usually we have blown out the dust, changed the battery and called it good.

This time we called these people. My good friend Little Jessica had had a similar thing happen about a week before us, only hers wasn't a dusty alarm or a used up battery. They had a real actual emergency. (they're all fine and safe) Having heard about her family, we called.

Santaquin fire Department doesn't have a full time staff. All the fire people are volunteers. It was Sunday morning about 8:30 and most of the guys that came to help, came from their church meetings.

These people weren't very worried, they look more like they were having a picnic. When we called the Fire people and they said to go outside as soon as we could. Ruby had to get dressed first and I didn't want them to waste away so I got snacks for them. We're not very speedy quick.

When they showed up in shirts and ties, I HAD to get my camera. I asked if I could go get it since it was right inside the door. One guy told me he'd get it for me, cuz of all the danger. He got my camera, then I made him pose for a picture.

The guy in the yellowy shirt told us that in his 12 years of serving he hasn't had one real Carbon Monoxide detector emergency. He also told us to ALWAYS call if it goes off. Better safe than sorry. The same guy asked if they could drag out this call so they could skip their church meetings.

Max thought that was a good idea.

breathing a sigh of relief.....

2010-07-10T18:44:00.004-06:00

After 4.5 long LONG LONG months. I can breathe. I tell you, it pays to take action (as fast as I did) and go to the Ear/Nose/Throat Doctor. It also would have payed much faster if I didn't FINALLY decide to go to the nose Doctor on the Forth of July weekend. At any rate, I went -and I am breathing like a normalish pregnant person. I can sleep, I can smell, I can even taste stuff (I wish I hadn't tasted Max's banana pudding at dinner last night- but frankly, no one should have tasted that stuff).Two most importantlies of all, ONE I am no longer consumed with my non-breathing self. I don't obsess about why I can't breathe, when I might be breathing again, why the nose spray won't work, and how long until I can take more nose spray. And TWO I am no longer doing 2 of my most pet peeves, Mouth Breathing and Snog Sniffling. Plus, I'm a much nicer person I believe.

If, in fact, I could be any nicer :)

PS ultrasound on Tuesday......stay tuned.

Last month.....

2010-07-04T08:09:00.003-06:00

Bailey came over to play ALL DAY LONG with Maddy. It was glorious. I didn't hear even one time "can I watch something" nor did I see any poutiness from a bored 10 year old. Bailey is coming over on July 14th to play (which is also, if you ask Maddy "Cow appreciation Day") Bailey needs to come over sooner than that. We love Bailey.

One of the activities they did was going to get their faces painted from my friend/neighbor who wanted some practice. She has been, and will set up a booth every weekend at various town celebrations. Santaquin has Orchard Days, Provo has the Freedom Festival, Payson has Onion Days (but I still don't know why). She needed some willing faces. We had 3.

Don't ask me why they're smiling all weird like that. Maybe they don't want to crinkle their artwork.

Ruby wanted pink and purple with sparkles, imagine that.

Did I mention, We Love Bailey.

Bailey, Mads and even Ruby did other stuff that day, as you can see, they played in the water, but this was the only thing exciting enough for me to get the camera out.

The End.

Woah is me......I'm over it.

2010-06-28T08:12:00.003-06:00

I'm not actually over all my woes but I think I'll stop complaining about them. I still have a VERY stuffy nose but I've found, since talking to other mothers, that sometimes stuffy noses are just part of being pregnant. In fact, one of my favorite mothers (who has had 8 children -by the way) said "oh I got that, you just have to suffer". I don't really want to suffer, I'm not a big fan of suffering, but I'll try. Any mostly in silence......we'll see.

I'm also still a boring mom, but I'm trying to remedy that too. Today I (along with Shan) am taking the girls to Toy Story 3. Maddy wasn't too thrilled to go at first, but once she saw a few clips with "KEN" she thought she might like to see it too ( not because he's dreamy, but because he wears funny Ken clothes). I need to mention that it was Shan's idea for the movie. At one point I wasn't even invited to go with her and the girls. But that was probably back when I was crabby.

Max has also helped with my whinniness cure. He has been super nice and helpful around the house, and not at all complainy. He's been doing all my weird "honey do's" like checking the dryer vent hose, even thought there was nothing wrong with it. Sorry honey. We even worked in the basement (uggh) on Saturday (even thought he probably had loads to do in the yard). So now it only looks like half a bomb went off and not a whole one. We cleaned so much that we have 6 trash bags full to donate, plus some boxes of stuff too. That makes me giddy with joy.

So there ya have it. I'm good.

Woah...is me...

2010-06-20T10:56:00.006-06:00

Why I haven't blogged today.

I haven't blogged because I'm in a funky funk.

I feel - not so great. This baby HAS to be a boy, because I've been having strange and unusual pregnancy symptoms. One is I seem to be allergic to this baby. I have had, basically, a head cold for the past 4 months. Stuffy nose, SINUS PRESSURE from my forehead to my nose holes. You can't take anything for that business. It's yucky. The past few days I have had leg and ankle swelling (ALREADY) and if you knew me when I was pregnant with my 2 girls - I GOT SWOLLEN. I mean REALLY SWOLLEN- but it didn't happen til much later. I'm only on month 4, I'm worried.

I haven't blogged because I don't sleep. Breathing is important and it doesn't happen so much, especially at night. My husband sleeps, my kids sleep and they wonder why I walk around in a daze all day. They ~~MAX~~ think I'm wussy cranky pregnant girl. Not enough sleep would make anyone cranky. Apparently, writing this information down makes my cry a little. Poor me.

I haven't blogged because I have no energy to do anything bloggy. We haven't gone to the pool, we tried last week but it was filled to capacity. We haven't had many friends over. We haven't gone anywhere fun. All we've done are JOBS, the kiddie pool and the slip -n-slide in the backyard. And Popsicles. Lots and lots of Popsicles.

I haven't blogged because if we do something remotely interesting, I forget to take pictures.

I haven't blogged because I feel my house is a disaster and I must TRY to make it live able, The kitchen is NEVER clean, the floors are grimy and sticky and I have to do laundry EVERY week! What the heck.

I haven't blogged because of my two little rodents named Maddy and Ruby. I FINALLY go to get on the computer and not 3 minutes later they start talking and asking me stuff. Some stuff they ask is "what are my jobs today" What the...... They never want jobs. Not until I'm doing something EXTREMELY important. If they aren't asking me stuff, they are sitting right exactly 3 inches from me READING what I am writing. Well, that's just Maddy, but if Ruby could read.....

I haven't blogged, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Maybe next time I won't be so glum.

The end.

Dream catchers and Birdies....

2010-06-12T16:00:00.004-06:00

Maddy has a new friend that moved in (basically) our back yard, a few months ago. We are so happy she's here. She's exactly 10 years old and is the sweetest and, not to mention polite, girl there is. Her bedroom in her new house is upstairs and all by its self (which I would have LOVED when I was 10). She was a bit afraid to be up there all alone so my sweet Maddy made her a dream catcher to make her feel better.

Tierney gave Max a dream catcher for when one of his ~~unimportant~~ girlfriends and him broke up. We've keep it all these years and Max gave it to Maddy when Liesel died. Maddy thought her friend would want one too.

As for Ruby, she made a birdie out of play-do and it was precious.

See, precious.

The END.

My birthday shelves.....2010

2010-05-30T15:44:00.005-06:00

Remember my birthday shoe shelves from last year? Well this year I decided to stick with the shelving theme again. Only I wanted shelves built for my food storage. Max was not happy.

Well, our friend Jason, who is very handy and extremely nice, offered to make me some. Plus, also, he already had most of the materials to build them. I love that guy.

My food storage shelving used to be a few of these metal shelves piled high with no organization what so ever. It was depressing to even go down there.

Here is an action shot of Jason and his mad skills. I made him pose for me since all my "real" action shots of him were blurry. He has super speedy mad skills.

Did I mention, his real actual job is his very own framing company? Yup, he builds churches and buildings and big stuff all over the place. I'm glad my measly food storage project wasn't to piddly for him.

And the finished product. Aren't they pretty? Aren't they the most wonderful shelves you've ever seen? I was GIDDY and probably a bit OCD about putting my food storage away. I wouldn't let Max even step in at all. Even though he tried REALLY hard to offer his "food placement expertise", I wasn't having it. THERE MINE, ALL MINE.

And since I am ALWAYS the one behind the camera there wasn't one picture of my smiley happy face to show you. So here is Max's. His face is happy cuz he didn't have to actually build them for me.

Me too, I'd still be waiting, I'm sure.

School daze....2009-2010

2010-05-27T08:55:00.004-06:00

I sent my wee little Maddy (my favorite child) off to her LAST day of 4th grade this morning. It seems like she was born 13 seconds ago, and now she'll be starting 5th grade in the fall.

This is the first day of 4th grade. She started the year with pierced ears and ended without. Don't mention that information to her as she is a little sad about it still.

Here's the last day of school (today). Notice the jacket at the end of MAY. This spring has been the weirdest weather. We're still growing hair out, and her hair is long enough for 2 little piggie tails in the back.....

**That's pretty much all she's done with her hair since she discovered it. I've threatened to cut off the piggies in the night. It's my biggest hair peeve when all people do is scrape it up in a pony (or piggie) tail every dang day. I MEAN why have long hair in the first place?**

Back to Maddy. Maddy really is a great kid. She is on reading level "Z" with is the equivalent of end of year 6th grade. She has LOVED school, her teacher (Mrs Dickie) has been very strict, (remember "AP fourth grade"?) but it's been really great for Mads. She LOVES a quite classroom and order and calm. She loves any and everything "peace dude". She use to only just love art, but now she loves GEOMETRY and science and everything in between. Her best friend is still Bailey (which we are VERY GLAD of). We love that kid so much. Lately all her friends (boys and girls) play Horse jail at recess. Which, from what I gather, is basically dragging people across the grass while they make as big of a struggle as they can. Grass stains are a priority. I curse "Horse Jail".

This summer Maddy is going to take tennis and then soccer in the fall. She told me this spring that she "Just wants to do something". She really wants to play piano, Max won't let us get a piano, something about moving it? I don't know, he's a buzz kill.

Mads has turned out to be a great kid, except for she actually came that way. She loves clothes (still) and her MP3 player. Her room isn't so orderly anymore, it looks more like a teenagers room. She can clean it up speedy quick, when I ask her too. She loves for my Mom to tell her stories, but who doesn't? Maddy is going to play with Bailey after the half day of school today. They played last year and apparently it's tradition.

And now for RUBY. She's my favorite child. Here's Ruby on her first day of her new pre-school with Ms Andy (and Ms Bristy). What a cute little squirt she is. We're growing her hair out too and it has grown approximately 3 millimeters since September 2009. Ruby loved her school and her teachers. She made lots of new friends and had a few boys fighting over her during the year, until one was caught kissing another girl in class, then she was over him. :). They are still friends though. About half our wards 4-5 year olds were in Ms Andy's class so it was fun for Ruby to see them and make new friends. One of her good friends is Emmalee. She lives in town -SO far away- but they have played a little and are such cute friends.

The saddest thing about this year was that Ruby got the worst case of barfs the night before her graduation celebration. She was SOOOO sick and the first thing she said (in the middle of the night after her first of many barfs) was "I don't want to miss my graduation". But we did. She was the most pitifullest sight all that night and the next day.

We did meet up with Ms Andy for pictures that next week. Ms Andy is super. She loved all the kids so much and Ruby learned lots and lots all year. Ruby loves to play outside and dress just exactly how she wants, despite her mothers suggestions. You can't see in this picture, but she has on peachish velour pants with ruffles on the bum underneath her PINK dress... it was cold. In her yellow bag she's holding was a DVD of all the pictures from the whole year set to music, a binder of monthly info (height, weight etc) a graduation hat and a diploma from her teacher! I asked Andy how she made any money, she said "I don't make much".

Ruby is all set for kindergarten in the fall. She's going to take her first dance class starting fall too. Her dance class is up here in Summit Ridge so we drive by it a lot, Ruby always spots it and says "there's my dance class that I get to go to in the fall". She doesn't forget much. She's pretty cute.

Her room looks like a teenagers room too, and she still has troubles with it. Ruby says she doesn't want to learn how to read in kindergarten because she doesn't want to read "Maddy books" she says she just likes her books still. Ruby NEVER stops talking, especially when we're in the car. She's got lots to say, usually about everything she sees. She sees stuff I never do see (since I'm driving) but tell her I do so she'll not explain about it for 20 minutes. (is that wrong) She is a great rememberer and loves to play "I spy" in the car. She still loves her Ruff Ruff (or Ruffy) and her Tinkerbell blanket. She doesn't like to sleep with her closet doors open and mostly remembers to say her "pears" prayers at night. She's most always is a good kid and super good for a chuckle. She's my buddy and I'll miss her (some) while she's at big people school.

I'm so proud of my girls and I love both of them the very most.

The end.

A cake with girls jumping out of it....

2010-05-26T16:03:00.008-06:00

We were at our neighbor Jason's house one night, and he mentioned it was his birthday the next day. (Remember him, he's the one with the horses. On a side note, both my girls think he's the bee's knees) Well, he's a single dad so who, I ask you, was going to make him a birthday cake?

His daughter and I schemed to meet after school the next day to make him one, complete with my old neighbor Natalie's home made butter cream frosting. (Not that it has any butter in it) It's the very best.

So, the night before, I had asked him what kind of cake he liked. He said "one with girls jumping out of it". You have to know this boy, he is DEATHLY SHY of the ladies. His daughter had this brainy idea. ^ Polly Pockets were just the right size. You can see, we gave him a full selection of girls. Blond, brunette, red head, How's a boy to choose?

Then, because he's so nice, he invited us over to sing and have a piece of his cake. He's so great.

PS he's 35! That means I'm a whole year, minus one week, older than him. Is there anyone that I'm NOT older than? DON'T ANSWER THAT.

THE end.

ITS MAY.......

2010-05-24T08:37:00.008-06:00

Max woke me up (who am I kidding, I was already awake) at 5:30 this morning to show me this....

NOT only is it May, but it's MAY 24th, it's the last week of school until summer break!

For cryin' out loud. It's enough to hark a dog.

I feel this tree's pain.

Maddy was pretty irate about the whole situation. I tried to lighten her mood by telling her she could make a snow man today at recess, I don't think she was thrilled.

Merry Christmas? Memorial day is next week.

The END

Birthday's in Jackson Hole. . .

2010-05-06T09:41:00.004-06:00

I celebrated my *cough* 36th birthday in Jackson Hole. I was a bummer in the morning. I don't know exactly why but apparently you are suppose to cry on your birthday when you are in your 30's. I've done it for a few years now. This year I didn't wanna break tradition, I guess. Max was a sweety and made me french toast breakfast in bed. Then he took the girls to the grocery store and brought back this!

Maybe I cried because MY CAKE WAS ON FIRE. YUP they put 36 candles on it. How Rude is that?

Mads and Ru gave me a card that said "We both think you're pretty great on your Birthday" on the front. And on the inside it said "and one of us is always right". That's when Maddy tapped my on the shoulder and pulled this face. I'm pretty sure that means she thinks she's always right. Silly girl. She won't be 100 percent right until she's a teenager.

They also brought me these lovelies. We didn't bring home the left over cake (despite the wailing and pouting from 2 certain girls) but I did managed to bring my flowers home.

This was before the cake toss.

I managed to perk up and later we went to the shops at town square in Jackson. We bought a super cute glass serving bowl (yes people I DO need another bowl) with nubbs around the rim. That night for dinner, we went to (NOT Bubba's) "Q" a barbecue place that serves fried pickles (I still haven't decided if I like them) and tells you to throw peanut shells on the floor. I couldn't bring my self to do it so I just made a nice pile on the table and put them on my plate later. My heathen family didn't have a problem with peanutty floors. Especially Maddy.

And also, the lovely vase for my lovely fleurs.

THE END. . . . Til next year.

Jackson ACTION.....

2010-05-04T11:06:00.008-06:00

Max's parents are nice. They have a timeshare in Jackson Hole that they don't use every year. This year they invited us to use it. So we went. They're extremely nice.

On Sunday we drove around to see what we could see.

Here is as close as a truck would take us to the GRAND TETONS.

Even from far far away, aren't they pretty?

The Max and Ruby.

Maddy traipsing through the snow.......

then realizing that . SNOW . IS . COLD.

Poor Poor Mads.

We found an abandoned cabin that was out in the boonies. I just kept saying "people used to live here." It was right out of a Little House on the Prairie book, I tell you. This is also the Squirrel Mecca of Wyoming, but we'll visit that subject later.

Cute faces - not out of a Little House on the Prairie book.

This is mostly what we saw on our adventures. There was not many open roads to explore on or trip. We explored the shops and the river instead.

It wasn't warm and usually always breezy,

but we managed to entertain ourselves with whatever was available.

We stumbled on a few little neat churches that were perched in the middle of nowhere. This one had a super cool stained glass window in it. FYI....the bathrooms weren't open.

See the pretty window?

More pretty mountains.

TREE HUGGER!

More super interesting pine cones.

Some random bug eyed hoodlums.

Another tree hugger. Those guys are EVERYWHERE.

And lastly, this one's for you, MOM.

Although the weather was mostly pretty crummy, we didn't have hot water in our condo for a day and the beds were OOMPA LOOMPA sized, we still managed to have lots of fun. We ate out and in, watched movies, played games of the regular and video kind. We took loads of wildlife pictures and missed our DVR (only during GLEE). Mostly we didn't worry about school, work, house cleaning, laundry, and bedtimes. We just enjoyed being gone. And were GLAD when we came home too.

To be continued......

Next up, The Animal splendor, Squirrel attacks and my Birthday.

Wardrobe extravaganza......

2010-04-18T10:46:00.007-06:00

Oh the joy. My one Emily friend (from bunko) is awesome, nice and generous! Plus, so is her daughter. Her daughter is 10, like Mads but instead of being a pygmy (like Mads) she is a super model. Which means she had loads of clothes that are too small for her and just right for Maddy. Her mom emailed me a couple of weeks ago saying she'd cleaned out her daughters closet and did we want a huge bag of clothes? HECK YEAH. In the bag there was oodles of darling stuff.

Like this wonderful dress, it's only problem is that it's not my size. I swear I want this dress. Maddy was doing the Hula, by the way.

And these darling polka-dot shorts and "PEACE DUDE" shirt.

a few swim options that fit her PERFECT, I think the one she's wearing was a dance costume but Mads LOVES it the most and is going to wear it to the pool.

These Levi shorts, and cute green tank. Posing optional.

And also these shorts and "AERO" shirt.

And lastly, these are the things we are saving for later. They are a tiny bit too big or just plain wintery, so we are keeping them safe for the new school year. Thanks Emily and your darling offspring for all the cute clothes, our school shopping is half done already.

Also, It's a good thing she gave us these clothes this week, or Maddy would have been going to school naked all week. She has worn no less than 3 (usually 4) things a day from that bag of goodies.

Not much to bloggy.....

2010-04-14T11:20:00.005-06:00

I've been getting some complaints about my lack of blogginess.

My reasons are as follows:

I have no spit in my mouth, so that makes me not sleep at night, which makes me TIRED ALL OF THE TIME. Plus when I am asleep, Max decides to snor a little. My house is messy and the kids are hungry and the laundry is never finished and it's not snowy outside so I can see my neighbor friends again and American Idol is on, plus my car died a little and then it was Spring Break so, of course, we had to party everyday, and it was Easter and just vacuuming up Easter grass is enough excuse not to blog, and I'm thirsty since I have no spit, and finally, I don't have anything to blog about.

THE End

PS I will have something soon. And it is called "Wardrobe extravaganza"

April Fools Day is foolish....

2010-04-01T16:07:00.007-06:00

This is my front door. Very Springish.

This is our view from our front door this morning. Blah.

And the view from our backdoor. The wind has been blowing for 2 days straight in anticipation for this foolish storm. That's my swing. It was tipped over, turned backwards, and scooted about 15 feet. Ruby's big wheel was IN THE EMPTY LOT next door to us, along with all the sand toys and soccer balls. She rescued them yesterday. Perhaps we should clean up our backyard more often.

Our grill has about 8 inches of snow on it.

And our back door. It doesn't look very Eastery to me.

I love April Fool's Day about as much as I love Nicholas Sparks.

Plus I had to shovel the driveway. Shoveling the driveway is treacherous.

Ha HA funny funny...

2010-03-31T08:41:00.004-06:00

Our Jason neighbor, the one with the horses, stopped by last night. He was talking to Max and said, "Hillary's funny" Max said to him "she's not as funny when you live with her"

I told Max that my hilariousness was wasted on him.

The lesson for today....

2010-03-31T08:28:00.004-06:00

Here is our stove.

Here are some farm fresh eggs. Aren't they cute?

Here is the crack between our stove and counter. I've always hated that crack.

Max learned that it is the perfect size for a cracked egg to slip through.

I learned that cleaning up slimy egg off of sub-floor, from under the stove while Max continues to make breakfast, isn't very easy.

We probably didn't need to experience that lesson to actually LEARN it.

The end.

The absent minded Tooth Fairy.....

2010-03-24T19:23:00.003-06:00

Maddy lost a tooth a couple of weeks ago. After it had been nearly a week of Tooth Fairyless nights she wrote this note, and stuck it in the hallway. For some reason I transfered it to my very exact bathroom mirror. (I have no idea why I would do that)

And VIOLA! A dollar suddenly appeared under her pillow.

PS: FYI and totally off the subject, Ruby's belly button is TWICE the size of Maddy's.

The end.

Stuff Ruby said today.....

2010-03-23T19:08:00.005-06:00

Tonight, I made stir-fry for dinner. Ruby came into the kitchen and said "Mom, whats for dinner.............it smells like I don't like it."

Then after dinner the Ruby was telling the Maddy to spell words for her. Maddy told Ruby to spell "cat" Ruby said -almost yelling - "NO, MADS, that's a hard one!"

Plus, that picture is what she wore to pre-school one day. I tried, very kindly, to make her change one print to a solid - at least. SHE CRIED. A LOT. I did win the not wearing the brown argyle knee high socks with pictured outfit but only because it was extremely warm that day.

Plus, also. Interesting outfits are a regular thing around here. I finally told her teacher that I MAKE her wear that stuff (I had to tell Maddy's teachers the same thing).

The end

I love presents....

2010-03-23T08:44:00.003-06:00

My fortune from Tsing Tao in Payson read:

So.... Who's it gonna be? Mom, Shan, Alzabeth, Tierney, Maddy perhaps? Anyone? Anyone?

You mustn't upset the destiny of the fortune. I'm just sayin'

Who's kid is that......

2010-03-17T08:50:00.005-06:00

Other possible names for this post: What was I thinking?, Is that Stephanie from Lazy Town..., Where was that child's mother.... Is her name Candy.... Ruby wants to be like "PINK"-the singer- ( she does love to sing "so what, I'm still a rock star...." )

I seem to have a screw loose. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to turn Ruby's hair FUCHSIA.

She has been super dooper at doing her jobs lately, (it might be because she wants to play with a certain Jayton from her class, but that's another story for another time)

and she's been wanting her hair colored for a really long time.

So yesterday, I put 15 foils of "Raspberry" in this 4 -and a half- year old child's head. It would seem that 15 foils is about 12 foils too many. It would seem that it's......

REALLY REALLY pink and she REALLY REALLY loves it.

This is the face I got when I said we needed to strip some of the color out. I may need to go into hiding. The bad mom police will soon be knocking on my door. And perhaps the hair police too.

In my defence, and probably for the record, I've put this color on her head before (not 15 foils worth) and it didn't go this vibrant. Probably next time I won't add heat to it and leave it on for quite as long. What a bad hairstylist.

Something a little funny....

2010-03-15T12:44:00.004-06:00

I was taking the Mads to school this morning......curse you daylight savings...... when we saw a peculiar sight. An oldish man was pushing an empty wheel chair up the road, looking rather out of sorts. About half a block down the road was a nurse running like she had lost..... well, an oldish man and an empty wheelchair. And still another half block down the road is where the Latter day Assisted Living building is. Which I can only assume is where that oldie man belonged with his wheel chair.

Funny--- but only because he got safe.

PS the nurse was smiling as she huffed and puffed, I'm pretty sure she thought it was funny too. or maybe she was embarrassed, or maybe she was relieved to see the oldie man safe too.

Snow day...

2010-03-14T12:56:00.004-06:00

Yesterday morning it was sunny and warm. Then by the afternoon it was blizzardish outside. It didn't stop til today. Big heavy wet snow........ I'm bored of snow. It's MARCH for cryingoutloud.

Max likes everyone to keep him company while he shovels....Mostly because he can chuck snow at his children. Maddy's was thrilled.

He also likes to bury them in the snow. Ruby wasn't a fan.

Maybe she was, a little.

Action shot. See the snow flying? They're a bit claustrophobic I think. (of all the words I misspelled in this post "claustrophobic" wasn't one of them. HUHhh Go figure)

GRRRRR. "Maddy took some of my snow."

And one gigantic snow lady. Max and the girls made this lovely creation while I cleaned up breakfast. Max made a snow "ramp" cuz the middle snow ball was too heavy to lift. What a smarty pants I married.

Maddy said I had to actually come outside to "see the full effect". Right exactly as I was taking this picture, the snow lady's eye fell out. Maybe she was winking, who knows.

Maddy doing the always enjoyable bunny ears.

And big hugs. Don't ask me what Maddy is doing.....remember, she's 10.

Something to talk about....

2010-03-12T06:36:00.008-07:00

It was Dr Seuss week at school. Wednesday was wacky clothes and hair day. This is what Maddy came up with. I actually made her take off a few accessories cuz I thought they might be distracting. ( I had 4 misspelled words in that tiny paragraph-5 if you count "cuz'--and probably "paragraph") I'm a special speller.

FYI that's a Chinese jump rope around her leg AND her waist. Plus also, we straightened half her hair. It was the coolest idea ever.

Just a cute Ruby picture. She has hair issues.

I send the girls outside for some fresh air after church last Sunday. This is what they came up with, Rock People and their houses. Can you tell which are the houses?

Ruby's green tongue. She'd been eating a Lic-a-stik, or preparing for St Patty's Day. And also watching America's Best Dance Crew on MTV- but that's beside the point.

And finally my new toes. Which you will be seeing in Meg's toe book, if you happen to have made an appointment - as of Wednesday, she's book through June . Totally not the best picture of my pigs, but it WAS the best of the three that I took. Needless to say, I painted Mad's and Ru's toes the next day. Theirs look like watermelons but are not nearly as beauteous as Megs creations.

Maybe I'll post their toes soon. Don't hold your breath, since I'm not the most prompt blogger lady.

Tootles, and that's all.

Except for this is post #201. I'm just sayin'

The "What was I thinking" post.....

2010-03-06T07:06:00.006-07:00

Or more commonly known as, Maddy's stay-up-late party.

Last Friday Maddy had a party with some of her friends from school, and Eliza (her cousin). Except for Liza stayed up late AND slept over. It was a crazy blast.

First, all the girls came and we ate pizza. And carrots and grapes. (just so you all know I fed them something healthy) I made all the girls eat some carrots, Liza ate about half the bowl herself. She's extremely healthy, and her eyesight is delightful.

From Maddy and going to the right is Vanessa (Nessa), Bailey, Katelyn, Liza, Savanna's back, and little Ru. Amnity and Janelly didn't come, and our cousin Kate decided that she was homesick and left with her Mom which made Ruby a bit gloomy.

After dinner we played the hula hoop game. I saw it in Family Fun magazine. All the girls got in a circle and I put a hula hoop on someones shoulder, then they all hold hands and try to get the hula hoop around the circle without letting go of any hands. It's pretty funny.

We got bored so we turned them all backwards and tried it that way. Backwards was fun too.

After some games of ZINGO! and Apples to Apples, we did a craft with foam butterfly shapes, stickers and pipe cleaners. No pictures of those though. After that, we decorated cupcakes. We created some masterpieces, I tell you.

They used almost NO frosting. wink wink. (That's Savanna real face behind Maddy)

Sorry Bailey, I just had to post this picture. It's your own fault for not smiling at me.

And they put hardly any CANDY on them. PS to Liza's parents, She didn't actually eat these.

Ruby and her frosting. Can you see by her stickered hand, we went to Wal-mart that day?

We had fun and were tired and frazzled at the end of the night. Maddy has told me countless times, "thanks for letting me have a party, Mom". Of course Mads.

It was crazy, but it was only 2 hours of crazy.

The good news is, I've almost stopped twitching.

stuff the girls say that may only be funny to me....

2010-03-02T08:41:00.005-07:00

The other night, Maddy was off to bed. I was sitting on our STATIC charged couch, and when she leaned down to kiss me, it shocked us. I said (teasingly) "Owww, how rude". She said.... "love hurts" and she walked away. HUmph.

I was tucking Ruby in the other night, I said "goodnight Ru, I love you". Ruby said: "I love Daddy!" I guess she didn't get the memo that if you are an 11 pound baby, you should be sweet to your mother ALL the rest of your life. PS I got that memo, Mom.

Another Ruby burn. we (meaning MAX) always asks Ruby who her #1 is. Last month at dinner, she said "Mama, what # are you?" I, of course, said "I"m your #1" With out skipping a beat said "no, that's Daddy".

Ruby was cleaning her room, (shocker) when she came out and told me she needed a fork. Apparently, she had gotten some small thing stuck under her bookcase and needed to fetch it. I told her OK, and to bring me the fork when she was finished. And I forgot about it. She, of course, didn't bring me the fork. That night, Max was tucking her in and I hear "Ru, why is there a fork in your bed?" Ruby said "I needed it for my bookcase". Then he tucked Maddy in, Maddy said "Dad, why do you have a fork in your hand". He said "it was in Ruby's bed."

Maddy muttered: "Of course it was."

Every night after dinner I ~~force~~ want the family to clean up together. Maddy is USUALLY super at it. She USUALLY is the only one who stays until everything is finished.

This night, as soon as dinner was over she went and cuddled with Max on our big red chair. I said "hey Mads, come clear your dishes". She looked at Max and said "When in doubt, SNORE" and then BOTH of them started to snore. DEAD MEAT, those people.

Ruby woke up one Saturday morning, and came running out into the living room. She said, all out of breath and flustered, "Mama, in the nighttime, 'P' fell on my head." We thought "pee" she meant the 'P' alphabet pictures that are all around the top of her room. It was mostly funny because we were wondering how pee fell on her head. That'd be gross.

And last but not least, I can put my super long hair* in a pony tail. (mostly the back, the front is all short and I just have to tuck it behind my ears) My hair was bugging me the other night so I put it in a pony. Ruby looked at me and said, "you look like that boy we saw once". We saw him at the TIRE STORE and he was ugly and dirty and his hair probably had cooties. I took my pony tail out.

*I have super long hair because Maddy wants to grow her hair out and we seem to never do it. She always chickens out at the in between length and I'm more than happy to snip it into a fabulous pixie cut. So, at the first of the school year, I told her that WE wouldn't cut our hair until she was 11. (yes we're trimming still) It's been 5 months. It's driving me insane.

And the winners......

2010-02-19T22:28:00.003-07:00

For the best parents of 2010 are.....

....these clowns.

Tonight, we were watching a little Planet Earth -- Deep Ocean. When, at five minutes to eight I told the girls that it was time for bed and to go brush their teeth (they were already in pajamas).

I heard them brushing.......

Next thing I knew, it was ten after nine.

Then, the next thing I new-- again-- it was 10:05 PM. And Max was saying "holy cow".

The TV screen was blue. The girls were asleep, probably dreaming of how they were going to plead with the courts for new parents. The tucking in process is a big one around here and we slept right through it. At least Ruby has Maddy, I'm pretty sure she tucked her in. Poor Maddy, the therapy she'll need after tonight.

PS how cute is US Olympic gold medal winner Evan Lysacek?

I'm just sayin'

Shaving cream, be nice and clean?

2010-02-19T06:44:00.005-07:00

Pretty much all Maddy wanted for her birthday was shaving cream. Not so she could shave anything, she just wanted to play with it. It's somewhere in the genes cuz her cousins Eliza and Kate asked for mustard and tinfoil for Christmas.

Anyway, My parents and Maddy's best friend, Bailey, gave her some. Bailey came to play the other day, and after a while of them doing nothing they asked if they could play in the tub with Maddy's shaving cream. :Sure", I said "change into one of Dads work shirts". Well, they changed into and some of Maddy's pajama shorts too, just to be safe.

Not to messy, this is fine. What a fun mom I am. twitch

Oh dear, at least the mess is all in the tub. twitch, twitch. I think I'm still fine.

I never learned, in beauty school, if shaving cream can double as a deep conditioner.
Uh, I'm getting a little worried. Since there is now shaving cream all over the toilet AND the cupboards.

Well that's it, Baileys mom is NEVER going to let her come play again. Am I still a fun mom? I think I'm having a mini stroke?

They had to clean up (of course) and take a, fully clothed, shower to de-gunk themselves. Which, by the way, set off the smoke alarm because of all the steam. (it wasn't their fault, the shower head in that bathroom is pretty much the cheapest one available)

They had loads of fun and they stayed in one place for over an hour. I think I still AM a fun mom, but I wasn't feeling it when I was re-cleaning the bathroom (it needed it anyway) the next morning. It's clean but there's still a slight shaving cream aroma in the air.

Mmmmmm, fresh.

Dead meat and other stuff...

2010-02-13T07:42:00.007-07:00

Yesterday, this kid was DEAD MEAT. Really, I was so mad I think smoke might have been coming out of my very ears.

Ruby was suppose to have been cleaning her, knee deep, messy room. To make that happen I have to set a timer for however many minutes per project. For example: "You have 10 minutes to pick up all your stuffed animals and books." That's the only way I've found that KIND OF works for her. Otherwise I end up with a gigantic bag of her stuff in my closet.

Back to the "suppose to be cleaning her room" part. The timer had been going all morning and we were an hour from her getting to go to her friends house and I heading out to help at Maddy's Valentine party in her class. She was nearly finished with her room, I told her what to do while I jumped in the shower. I went to her room freshly washed and dressed to find her rolling around her bed listening to Michael Jackson's Number Ones. She hadn't done a blooming thing. DEAD MEAT. So I set the timer. She still hadn't done a thing. Plus, time was ticking, and she was still in pajamas and her hair was crazy bed head. I set the timer for one more time. When I went to check on her, not only had she not cleaned one thing up, she had drawn all over her body AND her baby doll stroller with black PERMANENT marker! DEAD MEAT for real.

Needless to say, she didn't get to go play with her friend. I had to take her with me but she didn't get to have any fun. I made her sit on a chair and watch while all the kids made cute crafts and decorated valentine cookies. Oh, she did get to decorate a cookie but only cuz Bailey's mom is naughty and tried to sneak her away without me noticing. She's dead meat too :)

Ruby informed me this morning that "DEAD MEAT is not berry (very) nice to say to your child". And she doesn't want to be dead meat anymore.

The other stuff is that Max had to go out of town again but only for three days this time. He's coming home this afternoon, so we have to kick it in gear and clean up the house some. Not that the whole house is knee deep like Ruby's room.

These are Maddy's first attempt at cookie baking. She did everything herself and they were delicious.

Lastly and most importantly, my new toes. Aren't they the most excellent? Max said "they aren't for me" Well I hope so cuz they would be totally wasted on a boy. He never wears open toed shoes this time of year.

The end.

Maddy turned 10....a few days ago

2010-02-10T10:03:00.004-07:00

My teeny tiny baby (9lbs 12oz) turned ten on Monday. That means I've been a mother for a decade. I am not old enough to have been a mother for ten years. But that's another story for another day.

Maddy (Elasta Girl) is the best kid you've ever known. She is kind and caring, she loves to cuddle and her favorite thing in the whole world is to have her Grandma Snyder tell her stories. It is VERY annoying to me when I am trying to visit with my mom and Maddy keeps pat pat pat-ing her to continue with her story. (Ruby's caught on now too and now I have NO peace when I am with my mom)

Maddy has just as much fun going hunting and fishing with her dad as she has going shopping with me. She LOVES LOVES LOVES clothes and shoes, but also loves to be outdoors and will sit forever playing in a stream looking for cool rocks and interesting critters.

Turning 10 means Maddy gets to babysit her little sister some. I told her about 2 years ago that when she was ten she could start babysitting. I really was thinking that she'd NEVER turn 10, and that if she did, she wouldn't remember that I said she could babysit. She DID turn 10 and she DID remember. She has a very good long term memory. She is already a great babysitter, getting Ruby to bed right on time and then getting herself ready for bed. She is such a responsible and patient child.

Plus, a little goofy too.

Mads, I love you the very most. I am so happy to be your Mom. I know you're going to be the greatest grown up (just not so soon-please) I'm sorry they don't make high heals in your size yet. You are my favorite and my best.

Urban Dictionary say.....

2010-02-04T10:54:00.009-07:00

I looked on my sis-in-laws facebook last week, there was a comment about what her name ment on urban dictionary. Her's was exactly correct so I figured I'd check out mine.

My name said:

Hillary: Heaven Sent; also considered a Gift of God. A beautiful woman who graces those she meets with joy and loving kindness. Hillary is a friend, a lover, and an all around picture of perfection.(Did I mention she's more gorgeous than you, with perfect teeth and a killer ass?)
"Wow, Hillary is everything I've ever wanted to be..."

I have nothing more to add, except for: "don't say 'ass' "

Mermaid habitat...and other news

2010-02-04T10:11:00.007-07:00

About 5 months ago the girls thought it was very important to make a Mermaid habitat in their bathroom sink. No, I still haven't downloaded my pictures from my fancy new Christmas camera. That's why you're getting old pictures and blogs about them.

How sad is it that Mads looks WAY older now? Probably because she'll be turning 10 on Monday! But that's another story.

A blurry picture of a sunbathing mermaid. I don't think she knows that she's in a bathroom with no windows and the lights aren't really the sun.

Don't they look so happy in their new home? Aren't my kids cute? Yes, yes they are.

In other news, We've decided to let Maddy's ear holes grow in. They were getting infected for no reason -ALL the time. She would have me help her put her studs back in and would cry and pull away because she thought it MIGHT hurt and was basically annoying me, (is that mean?) so we are going to try it again sometime later. She is pretty sad about it. And me too because she has some stinking cute earrings.

I'm still sick with unexplained cheek humps. The Ear/nose/throat Dr was baffled and wanted to do a CT scan on my face. That procedure sounded really cheap to me so we're trying antibiotics first. Yes I'm downing the pro-biotics along with, so I don't gets anyone else's ugly germs.

Ruby celebrated her HALF birthday at school the other day and now she thinks she's older than Maddy. You can bet that bugs the heck out of Maddy. Maddy keeps saying stuff like "why do we keep talking about HALF birthdays when my REAL birthday is on Monday?" Yeah, I'm going to have a 10 year old running around! Any ideas about what we should get her?

Max got home safe and sound from working in Colorado. But now he's doing a side job after work all week, so he's still not home until after 8 every night. He hurt his back 2 days ago and, despite all my trying to keep him home, is still working. The nerve of some husbands.

We miss all of you that we never see- and those of you we do see, we'll see ya later.

The end.

A very long blog for not doing a dang thing....

2010-01-25T11:21:00.006-07:00

It's 11:21 in the morning and I haven't done a dang thing. Well, except for finish reading a book my Mom-in-law gave me at Christmas-assuring me that I'd love it- The phone rang when I had 3 pages left, I didn't answer because I was CRYING too much. That Heidi and I need to have speaks about what I can and can not read.

Last week went like this:

Monday: (Martin Luther day) get more blood taken to test for a disease even the nurse couldn't pronounce. Tests for my newest ailment, I have a new ailment by the way, my saliva glands (under the ears - along the jaw) have swollen up and I look like a retarded lopsided chipmunk. This happened about 2 and a half weeks ago. The first week I didn't go to church, but I have since lowered my vainness level and gone, chipmunky and all.

Tuesday: Max and I stared not speaking to each other. Something about him wanting to go on a weekend trip, then pack up and head to Colorado to work for a week. Hmmmm. Interesting.

Wednesday: still not speaking (we like to keep a good thing going).

Wednesday night/Thursday morning: Went to bed at 10:00. Ruby wakes up crying at 10:30. I thought she was just cold or having bad dreams, so I go in and start fixing her blankets.....NOPE she'd BARFED. Then again at 11:30, but this time I find her half hanging off her bed and doing her business in the bucket I set by her bed. It was the most pitifullest sight you ever saw. We met again at 12:30am for another round. I need more twin sheets and blankets, not to mention a quieter washing machine.

Thursday: Ruby's still sick but no more barfing. She reminds me that when she's sick she is suppose to get to eat with a tray on the couch while she watches TV.

Test results come back negative for the un-pronounceable disease. The Doctor is stumped and wants to send me to an Ear Nose and Throat Doctor. Oh goody. I can't wait for all the bills to start coming in .

Also, Thursday: Max and I make up and start saying stuff like "we weren't talking to each other so I couldn't tell you...." Plus also, I ask him if he's sick (he sounded snoggy) he says "yeah, since Monday" Shan said I should have told him "Well, I've been sick for 2 months" She's snarky like that, it's part of her charm. And mostly why I love her guts so much.

Friday: I get up and see that the clock says 6:45 am (he's been getting up for work at 5 something) and say to Max "IT'S 6:45!" He says "I don't have any work today" Then I say "why didn't you tell me" his reply was "we weren't talking"

Saturday: Ruby is all better and goes to her friends Star Wars birthday party. Max is NOT all better and requires lots of attention and hogs the TV and couch. I don't remind him about the TV tray.

Sunday: Church, where the girls and I sit in the cold bench for Sacrament meeting. For some reason there is a vent that BLOWS cold air out of it right exactly on my legs. Max is still sick but less so since he's us the Neti Pot.

And now it's Monday. Max left for Colorado. He's called twice, once to say he was safe and once to say he was feeling GREAT. Maddy's at school although she told me today she doesn't like school anymore. I'm looking into that later. Ruby is NOT cleaning her room (like usual) and I am blogging a monster blog about nothing. The rest of the week goes like this: laundry, house cleaning, Visiting Teachers, Visiting Teaching to finish, Activity Days (combined with the older girls), toe painting (yippy) and another Dr appointment (this time the OBGYN too see what the heck is going on), Enrichment night and a party to plan, along with Pre-school and homework, dinner and dishes. Then Friday Max comes home.

The end.

Only in Payson.....

2010-01-16T10:28:00.003-07:00

.....can you buy worms to go fishing, and flowers so your wife will LET you go fishing... all in the same place.

Genius, I tell you.

TA DAH!

2010-01-08T10:44:00.002-07:00

After a loooonnnnnggggg blogging break, here I am. If only for a minute.

Ruby's excellent glasses from her stocking on Christmas morning.

Maddy in her "cave" dug from the snow on ONE side of our driveway.

Max not helping the digging efforts. He kept adding snow to her pile. The NERVE

What one capful of Johnson's baby wash (borrowed from Tierney I bet) can do in the jetted tub at Grandma's house.

The best big sister in all the land, reading Ruby her Christmas books from Grandfahr and Gwen on Christmas eve, while there were presents still to open. Either Maddy LOVES to read or she LOVES her little sis? (Or maybe it's both)

The end....

We're Baaack.

2009-12-28T14:03:00.002-07:00

We're home from our rip snorting good time at Max's families house. We totally miss every one of them already. We laughed, ate lots of yummy food, some of which I even made, (not that I would ever eat that bean dip!) and partied like it was 1999. It was a blast.

I didn't cut any ones hairs. (sorry Kennon and my very own 2 parents) I did, however, send detailed instructions as to what I would do to Kennon's hair. I hope that was OK.

And, about my last post, apparently I'm still sick. My feverishness temperature says so.

The end.

I shouldn't be blogging.....

2009-12-22T11:12:00.002-07:00

I have FAR too much to do to be blogging but my priorities are all messed, so I'm gonna blog.

I've been sick since, basically, Thanksgiving. I didn't bother to go to the Doctor until I had been sick for over 2 weeks. I just had a fever, a fever that went away when I took some ibuprofen. I took A LOT of ibuprofen. I had to, I'm the mom. Moms can't be sick. Its not accepted.

So I went to the DR, they drew blood and tested my peeps. (too much information?) Turns out I had an UTI. ( if you don't know what that is, ask a girl) The Dr gave me an antibiotic and sent me on my way. A week later, (because I didn't mind Shan) I wasn't feeling any better and somewhat sicker, cuz I was spewing now, I went back in to the Dr. They drew my blood and tested my peeps, again. My UTI wasn't any better so they gave me a different antibiotic which turns out I was TOTALLY allergic to. So after MUCH more spewing and a wicked bad case of the HIVES I am now on the MEND. Just in time for Christmas. Only too bad for me because I've been sick for a month and am NOT, in the least bit, ready.

Plus, we are packing up all our Christmas business and heading to Max's parents house. Not a small task, I tell you.

I have wrapped 4 pans of caramels in the past 12 hours and bagged them too. Now I am off to color my hair, wax my eyebrows, and if I have time, clean the house. Oh, and also pack our whole life.

So, that's where I've been.

Happy Holidays.....The end.

Tuesday December 8, 2009

2009-12-08T09:09:00.002-07:00

WHY I LOVE MY FAMILY....TODAY

Today I love Max because he is the hardest worker I know. Other people might think their spouse works the hardest, but they are wrong. Hands down, Max wins the prize.

Sunday night/Monday morning it started to snow. It was little snow / big snow, which means little flakes = big amounts. We got BIG amounts. My Max got up at 5:30 ish in the AM to shovel our treacherous driveway so I could leave - if I wanted to. I didn't want to. Then he drove himself an hour and a half to work (on account of all the snow). He worked all day in rotten weather, on a very ~~beautiful~~ hard house. Then, he drove himself home in equally rotten weather with all the other crazies coming home from work, just to start shoveling the driveway for another 2 hours.

It snowed ALL the dang day. He didn't complain, he didn't think I should shovel, on account of I have been feverish for about 2 weeks. He just came home and was happy and only just a little concerned about where he was going to put all that shovelly snow. The sides of our driveway are already 4 feet deep. (that's about as tall as Maddy if you were trying to picture) Then, as if that wasn't enough, he got up at 5:30ish AM and shoveled until nearly seven.

IT'S STILL SNOWING.

Plus, to top it off, he wears this cooky hat all the time. That's why I love Max, today.

NOW for Why I love Maddy....

Her teacher left this note on her desk yesterday morning. She was the only one who got one, Maddy is a pleasure. I love Maddy also because she didn't tell any of her friends about the note, on account of she didn't want to hurt anyone's feelers, I believe. (she might have told Bailey, cuz you must tell you best ever friend everything)

I love Maddy, but today I love her because she is a great little kid.
And her teacher thinks so too.

As for Miss RUBY....

Yesterday Ruby and I were wrapping presents. She is a teller of gifts. She kept asking who each present was for. I kept saying "I'm not telling you, because you'll tell them what it is" She said she wouldn't and I said "what will you say if they ask you what's in their present?"

She thought for a few seconds and then blurted out:

TUNA FISH!

And that's why I love Ruby today, she cracks me UP.

The end

November 30th Thankfulness....

2009-12-01T08:46:00.002-07:00

So yesterday, I was thankful for my Big brother, TRENT. Not that I have one picture of him in my thousands of pictures on my computer. It's probably because he is always bugging. And probably pulling faces or being pesty. WHY am I thankful for him, you say?

I am thankful for Trent because it was his big bad birthday yesterday, and I didn't call or blog or nothin'. Sorry brother. I thought about it. I am glad he's my brother. He's the best guy. He'll do anything for you, and do it at any hour of the day or night.

Long ago when my Dad was *away* Trent got home from his LDS mission, found a job and started paying for all sorts of stuff so we could live. Like whole entire house payments and business like that. I don't think he even thought about it, he just did it. That's the kind of fella he is. he's a pleasure.

He married the most fabulous woman imaginable, and he loves her the biggest and the most and sometimes, right to pieces. I might even love him more because he married Michelle. (I'm just saying') I love her a whole heap. He told me once that he didn't like it when they have a baby because it scares him, he doesn't want anything to happen to his 'sweetie' . He loves, loves, loves his children all the very same, not like my Mom, who loves me the best (snicker snicker) and takes time with each one of them. (He has seven of those little people around)

Trent has always looked out for me, especially when Taylor was being rotten. I think there might be a hole in the boy's bathroom door because of one such rottenness. And although, he use to to pull me off the couch, and down the stairs by my toes (I should blame him for my bum toe) and calls me "Haggus" I still love him.

Once, while we were in the bathroom brushing our teeth, and looked at me and said "yup, I'd marry you". It sounds creepy as I type it, but it wasn't, it was sweet and sincere cuz he thought 'I wasn't so bad', it's totally one of my favorite memories.

Happy birthday to you, big brother. I love your guts.

The END

Sunday November 29th Thankfulness....

2009-11-29T21:29:00.003-07:00

Today, I am thankful for my Mom.

I called my Mom today, because- apparently yesterday, she tried to have a fake heart attack , and she ended up cheering me up instead. She loves my with all her being and says she loves Max and Maddy the same as me but I know she's just trying to make them feel good. I am totally her favorite. She'll drop ANYTHING she's doing, if I'm coming in, even if it's for just an hour. Once, I even had to leave her at the Mall and my Dad had to come get her, because I had to leave for home that very minute. She is a good sport about stuff like that.

My mom is the best woman on the earth. I know other people thinks their moms are the best, but their wrong. Mine is. She stayed with me all the days we were at the hospital when Ruby was first born and having all her (fake) troubles. For all my Mom's wonderfulness, Ruby wouldn't love her, not even a little bit, for about 2 years. My Mom just kept on loving Ruby and Ruby finally gave in because, I think, she realized "Grandma tells stories". And she does tell the best stories, I still kinda believe my stuffed animals get up in the night and party, because of my Moms stories. She can make up a story about practically anything. Maddy found this out early and has PESTERED Grandma ever since. She "pat,pat,pats" her arm to keep Grandma on track with the story telling.

Today I was sad because at church EVERYONE is either pregnant or has just had a baby and I was feeling poor pitiful ME about it. My Mom told me all the things I already know, and just forgot. She made me feel better and more peaceful and calm. She is the perfect Mom for me.

I think I'll get a cheesy licence plate cover that says "my MOM is cooler than yours"

Thanksgiving thankfulness and beyond....

2009-11-29T21:13:00.003-07:00

On Thursday November 26th Thanksgiving Day I was thankful for Max and him taking the blame for the sucky rolls I tried to make. They were sucky rolls BEFORE he turned off the oven in the middle of their baking. But he told everyone he was to blame. What a sweetie-pie.

Also, I am thankful for my yams, that my sweet Mother-in-law said were the best yams she had ever eaten. She's a pleasure. And while I'm at it, I am thankful for Max's mom who made a whole big Thanksgiving dinner just so we could come over and eat it with them. It was a very good day.

So on FRIDAY November 27th I was thankful that I wasn't out in the madness of Black Friday. Have I mentioned, that I am finished with my Christmas shopping? Cuz I am.

Saturday November 28th I was thankful that I finally had the big bad "BOB" talk with Maddy. FEW!

Also, we got to party with my friend, Jessica and her daughter, Ashton, for Ashton's 10th birthday. We had YUMMY food and Cafe Fresh in Orem, and crafted our guts out at a do it yourself craft place, kinda like Color Me Mine. It was super dooper fun.

Wednesday, November 25th Thankfulness....

2009-11-25T11:38:00.001-07:00

It's de-licious. I blame Max.

Tuesday November 24th Thankfulness...

2009-11-25T11:16:00.004-07:00

Today I am thankful for RUBY. Ruby is HILARIOUS. She brings lots of joy to our family. I'm always glad to have her here with us, even when she is being, not at all, a pleasure. Then, I am grateful for time out and doors.

Some funny stuff Ruby says:

We were about to read books one morning and she says "wait, I have to get my wedgie out. (pause) I wonder where wedgies come from".

Last week she was eating a graham crackers and milk snack, when, she said she was thirsty but she didn't want "chunky milk" She wanted (pause) chocolate milk.

She was sitting on my lap a few months ago, when she busted up laughing, and said "wouldn't it be funny if I tooted?" She thinks toots are the funniest thing ever invented.

Ruby remembers EVERYTHING. We went bowling with Jimi and her boys at least 18 months ago. Well, she saw the bowling alley from the freeway, and said "Mama, remember when we went bowling with Jimi? I want to go bowling again... it's my destiny".

Apparently, she's a beauty. People tell me.

She loves her dad most of all. But I'm not worried, I have Maddy.

Plus, I'm pretty sure she'll come around.

Monday November 23rd Thankfullness....

2009-11-25T11:05:00.005-07:00

NEW MOON and dinner, with my friends.

Sunday November 22nd Thankfulness...

2009-11-22T12:05:00.004-07:00

Today I am thankful for SHAN. Today is her very birthday, she's a pleasure. I met Shan through my beauty school friend, little Jessica. Shan lives 9.5 miles away from my house. We're glad she lives so close, because this time of the year Max is gone quite a bit and we are lonely, Shan comes over lots. We like it. Shan loves everyone best, and in turn, Shan is everyones favorite.

About every time Shan comes over she brings an activity, in fact, Ruby expects it. She came over last night because Max said that she only comes over when he is gone, and he gets gypped out of Shan time. Last night she brought a gingerbread house for her and the girls to decorate. I think Max was jealous. I was glad I wasn't helping, I just got to enjoy the decorating view.

It is a masterpiece.

We love Shan best.

The end.

Saturday November 21st Thankfulness...

2009-11-22T11:55:00.004-07:00

I am thankful that it's Christmas time again. And that we put up all the decorations (minus the tree) yesterday. I am also thankful that I take money cash out of Max's pay checks every month and stash it away and never touch it and that is what we use for all things Christmas. Presents, caramels, decorations, and to help someone in need. I am thankful that, because I do that, Christmas is fun and non-stressy. Just don't ask me if I'm stressed as I am packing it all up to "move" to Max's parents house during to holiday. Once I'm there, I will be totally stress free.....

Hope yours is stress free too.

Friday November 20th Thankfulness...

2009-11-21T07:47:00.005-07:00

Today, I am grateful for Max. He's the best guy I've ever met. He's fun and silly with the girls, yet stern and patient when he needs to be. He grumbles about all my crazy ideas but usually goes along with them. He used to watch Gilmore Girls with me, not because he liked it but because he liked how much I liked it. He's very understanding and always tries to see others points of view. It's very hard to fight with him because he is always so understanding, but I do try. ;)

He lets me take the silliest pictures of him, knowing full well that I will blog about them.

He's also pretty easy on the eyes, and thinks I'm beautiful even with my extra *cough cough* chubs, wrinkles, gray hair, and stray chin furs.

My Mom said, on my first Thankfulness post, this about Max:

"I'm thankful for Max too but for a whole lot of different reasons. He's fair--always sees both sides. He thought of me on the WORST day of his life. He takes care of his three girls. He is a good worker. He's super nice and yet must have to be super stern to run a crew. He has a fun personality. I love his laugh. He's a super duper gardener. He's just a great guy, all around."

I read that comment, and thought to myself, "I think she might love Max best."

And yesterday my suspicions were confirmed when I was talking to my Mom on the phone. We were talking, as we most always do, about how much she loves me, and how I am her favorite. "Well", she adds "I love Maddy most too.....and I think I might love Max best" (Poor Ruby, right?) I don't know how I feel about sharing the favorite title with other people, even if they are my own personal family.

The HORROR.

He is a great father and a not to shabby hubby. It hurts me to think of live without him. I hope I never have to.

I love his guts and also his butt. Just kidding, but not really.

The end.

Thursday November 19th Thankfullness...

2009-11-21T07:45:00.004-07:00

I am thankful for lip chap.....

and not to mention, lip gloss.

The end.

Wednesday November 18th Thankfulness...

2009-11-21T07:11:00.003-07:00

Today I am thankful for Bailey. Bailey, as you know, is Maddy's best ever friend. Today is her 10 year old birthday. She isn't Maddys "BFF" (best friends forever) because they think that is "totally lame". They've made up some other letter sequence that I think is equally weird, but I'm not nine (or ten in Bailey's case).

Bailey is fun and kind to most everyone, she has a bit of a hard time being nice to all the boys who like her. She loves Maddy big time. She is outgoing and super cute and loves our family like her own. She send me a text, and an email, on Mother's Day this past year. The email said "Happy Mother's Day, you are like a second Mom to me." I love that kid. She has helped Maddy be more outgoing and less shy. They are both the best kids you'll ever find.

I also love her parents just as much as I love Bailey. They love Maddy and are so sweet and kind to her. They are fun people too. They live into town and have horses and TONS of land and lots of fun stuff to do whenever Maddy goes over there. These are the sock puppets they made one day after school. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I am not that fun.

I think I wrote about this picture. It's when they used this "bucket" for a swimming pool, and then had to get in the bathtub to warm up. The are totally crazy.

They both will never let me take a NORMAL picture of them. Bailey had an apple slice in her mouth and I caught Maddy just AFTER she had pulled a strange face.

I am so thankful that Maddy and Bailey found each other, and that they are such great friends already. I didn't meet my super dooper best friend, Emily, until 7th grade. What a waste of elementary school. I hope we can keep Bailey around forever. She's a pleasure, just like Maddy.

November 17th Thankfulness

2009-11-18T09:21:00.002-07:00

Today (yesterday) I am thankful for this kid. Maddy. She is a pleasure. She makes my day happier. Maddy is the best 9 almost 10 year old kid I have even met.

She's adventurous, kind, silly and a delight to be around. She is a good friend to everyone. She doesn't want to be mean or rotten EVER. Even to the people who are mean and rotten to her.

She wants to do what is right ALL of the time. Even if we haven't practiced her spelling and I tell her just to mark it off because we will practice doubly extra hard after school, she about has a heart attack. Then I have to drive her to school instead of her taking the bus so we can do her darn spelling....I'm not sure if that even ever happened. ;)

She is fun with her little sister, she is always conjuring up exciting stuff to do with her. It almost always involves dressing up and building something magical. Like a fairy garden in her room, or a mermaid paradise in the bathroom sink for the Polly Pocket dolls. Ruby is a pill A LOT of the time to Maddy, and Maddy is MOST ALWAYS patient and kind and CALM with her. I say she is mostly patient with Ru, cuz there is only so much a sister can take.

She will do anything you ask her and some that you don't. Yesterday was not my favorite day. After school, Maddy asked how my day had been (she always does), I said "not great" , she said she was sorry and that she thought so. And then she asked what she could do to help me. She cleaned up and folded the laundry and set the table all before I even noticed what she was doing. Max said that she was a good example to him because he saw her folding the laundry and putting her folded clothes away so he thought he could do that too.

And POOF, the laundry was put away-- and not by me.

Maddy adores fashion and jewelry and high heals. But love fishing and rocks and nature-y stuff just as much. She also loves books and plans what she is going to read 3 books in advance. She is GREAT.

I love Maddy. She's a pleasure.

November 16th Thankfulness...

2009-11-18T09:10:00.002-07:00

Monday November 16th: I am thankful that my Christmas shopping is almost finished. Thanks to shopping with my Mom (and Alz) today.