Couldn't stop at the top 10 of 2010

Before we put the girls down for bed tonight, I decided it would be a fun idea for us to list some of our favorite memories from this year. It's been a good year for us. I haven't blogged about some of our favorites so this gives me a chance to quickly record them. I tried to be witty and do top 10 of 2010 but I couldn't leave some out so we are at 12. Some of our favorites included:

12) We completed our first year of Homeschool. I can't believe it. We did it! We are in our second year now. It feels good to have gotten this far. Onward ever onward.

11) Who can forget that Maia and Michaela whacked off Michaela's hair? Not us. Everyone loves the short do though. Maia still talks about the fact that she likes her hair long and how she doesn't want me to cut her hair short (the promised penalty for her cutting anyone's hair in the future.)Michaela before her ultra short do. Click on the link to see the after.

10) Staying with Grandma and Grandpa for the weekend. We haven't stayed with them since they moved and it was such a nice weekend. We went on Michaela's 3rd birthday weekend. Olivia sang in their sacrament meeting.

9)Olivia mentioned this one ALOT--going to Lagoon with Grandma, Grandpa and her cousin, Rachel. Olivia and Rachel are truly joined at the hip. They LOVE each other. They always ask when they will get together again before their present visit is over. She talked about riding the fun rides and seeing a lion for the first time. She went on and on about her memories associated with this one. This one was a biggie for her.



8) All the girls mentioned the fun times that their regular babysitter, Breanna, watched them. They love her. When they pretend to be teenagers, they call themselves Breanna. When they get a new baby doll or pretend to have a new baby, they call their new daughters Breanna. They can't get enough of her. They are so happy that Paisley has that middle name but also bummed that they don't have it. We are so blessed to have Breanna in our lives. She recently turned 16 and is no longer one of my class at church. I will miss that sweetheart in that regard. I appreciate her earnest and quiet,yet powerful comments.

7) One of my favorites are the landscaping classes at Thanksgiving Point I took this year. I learned so much and see the world thru new eyes because of them. I dream about planting season coming around and consequently need to start saving for some new plants to buy.

6) Olivia's baptism. Sniff. It was the most wonderful experience. I was struck with the magnitude and significance of the covenants that she made with the Lord on that day. She was a lovely and prepared sight to behold. Sam forgot to say her name and had to restart the baptismal prayer, she still talks about how warm and happy she felt. Her favorite part was receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. She said she loved being surrounded by all those priesthood holders who love her.

5) Flying on a plane for the first time. They girls did fantastically. We got lots of attention and comments on how full our hands were. And boy were they ever. I need to travel with less carryons next time. I have to give a shout out to Jauna and Corey who told me to trust them and take a carseat for Michaela to travel in...BLESS YOU. You all were so right.

4) Christmas in Louisiana. It was warm. I got to go outside and sit in the sun. I had the best Christmas day with my whole family. My sister, Traci, and I sat down at a table with the women on the family and wrote down the recipes to our all time favorite family recipes. I got to spend time MaMaMaw. She is still the wonderful woman I love despite the Alzheimers. I had the chance to sit in Tee Tee's kitchen, just like I did when I was a little girl, and it was like nothing had changed. We talked and talked about nothing and everything. I sang with and got an Auntie Judi kiss. We all ate ice cream in the kitchen and ate/stole each other's food. Mom took her grandkids on dates, had a bonfire in the backyard and spoiled us all rotten. Tem
pest was as sassy as ever. Taylor was too for that matter. Traci's presence reminded me of all the best times we had together as the 1s and 2nd kids. She also got me addicted to Words with Friends/Scrabble on an IPad. I think I need one of those things. I got to have a nice daddy/daughter talk while we took a ride in his new car. All my siblings were there. And boy were our kids loud..which leads me to #3.

3) I am no longer the sole mommy in my family now. All aboard the mothership! And thank goodness for that. I have been waiting for this day. My sisters are mothers!! It feels incredible to share this experience together. They are the sweetest most devoted mothers. There were 7 kids at my Mom's house this holiday. And I think my mom loved it despite the loud noise and messiness.

2) Sam and I celebrated 10 years of marriage. Have I mentioned that I love him? Cause I do. He really is the best decision I have ever made.I am grateful that Heavenly Father sent him into my my life and I am glad that I listened when He told me that marrying Sam would be a good choice. We celebrated by going on a family staycation. We alternate each year between couple getaways and "family birthday" stay-cations.

Nursing in the Secret Garden

We went the Children's Museum and Thanksgiving Point. We LOVE Thanksgiving Point Gardens. My favorite garden amongst all the gardens is the Secret Garden. I love that movie and they made that garden room feel exactly like you were there. And we captured some great shots from that "dayaway". We continued our tradition of renting a golf cart and driving down the paths. It was the best.I like to call this picture "Drinking and Driving"

1) Paisley. *Sigh* Our little peach pie. She is the best thing that happened to us this year. Olivia says that Paisey makes her better and calmer. All of my girls have become the best little caregivers. They love and protect her. They play with her, hold her and help her. It is like we have always known her. She fits in perfectly. Sam and I are soaking her up as much as we can. She could be our last baby. So weird. She is on the brink of full on walking (she is taking 3 or so steps at a time currently) and is teething up a storm these days. Note the "storm" part.



Her birth was also one of my favorite memories. It took a different turn than expected but I felt so loved, met the best people and was cared for so tenderly. I just can't do anything but cherish that experience. Paisley's pregnancy also granted me the gift of a baby shower given to my by my wonderful sisters both by blood and marriage. That shower reminded me that I am literally surrounded by angels who I am blessed to call my friends. My cup runneth over..

So that is our 2010 in a very brief nutshell.

Got Skills?

(I have never read nor have I heard of this book, just liked the picture. But now that I have heard of it...)

I am a homeschooling mom. You knew that. I have four kids. You knew that too. Four kids = equals more chaos that I bargained for. If you know me, you know that too.

Until further notice, I am going to declare Mondays "Get some Life Skills Day". Now I try to get my girls busy and involved in doing chores around the house but our Mondays are recovery days from the weekend--just like they are for many of you.

So, instead of dividing my time between my Weekly Home Blessing that really does last longer than an hour nowadays, wrangling a 9mos old baby who is trying her darndest to walk thereby affording her the luxury to get into more stuff, dealing with 3 yr old attitude and tantrum issues, a 5 yr old who is good at laying low and keeping her nose clean for the most part (except for the fact that she likes to cut almost anything in sight when she finds scissors) and a 8 yr old who is "talks" to me as if I was deaf (and blind for that matter...doesn't she know I can see her sassy face?) in addition to doing homeschool on Monday, we are going to be do some independent homeschool in the afternoons and in the mornings I am going to cheerfully work my little Cinderellas so they will have some skills when prince charming comes around. (Wheeze. WHEEZE! But you gotta admit that was a great run on sentence. )

They don't know this. Shhh. They always wanted to be Cinderella, right? See? What a nice mom I am? I am merely facilitating their life long dream to be an iconic Disney princess. I think I am going to work on introducing them to a new skill and let them practice along side me until they pass off that skill and are ready for another. That way, we clean, we learn and the house gets back into functioning order for the week. Also, if I make them work with me, they squabble less and get into less trouble. No kid cut her mom's curtains whilst swishing the toilet, right?

Now if you are like me, you want to make this a perfect science, right? Well, I ain't gonna.I don't have the energy for that kind of perfection, anyway. I am going to be free and flexible. I am going to just make a list of some skills that I want to focus on with my girls and fly by the seat of my pants. No pressure. No perfection. Just a designated day set aside to make my daughters into chicks with skills.

Are you a Looker?

A good looker? My mom was big on us being good "lookers". If she sent us into another room to get something and we came back saying we couldn't find it, she would tell us that if she went into said room and found it then she would know that we didn't do our best at looking. That stuck with me. I am hoping it will stick with my girls.

So, this afternoon, I was folding some laundry and having the girls put them away around the house. There was some lull time in between going to put away and coming back to me, of course, so I told them to bring me all the unmatched socks from their drawers so I could match them with the ones in the unmatched sock box in the laundry room. They both came back with one, maybe two. Well, I have been in their drawers recently and I knew there was more. I asked them if they did their best looking. They confirmed that they did. This momma knew better than that.

SO, I called them both back to me. I told them that they were to go back into their room and look in each others' drawer for stray socks. I told them that the one who brought back the most would win one chocolate chip for each sock brought back to me. I wish I had taken a picture. But then again, my camera transfer cord is broken so I couldn't transfer it anyway. But I digress. Their little honey and dark chocolate eyes got all starry and excitement started emanating from their mouth in the form of giggles and grins. Off they went. Olivia brought back 5 and Maia brought back 9. Nice! Score! High Five! ...

BUSTED!! *Can you hear that scratched record sound?* Uh huh, because I sure did. Grin. They girls grinned too. They knew they weren't in trouble. But they knew they had not done their best. That must've boosted their egos because they decided they wanted to go another round. Olivia wanted to the most because she wanted chocolate chips. So they went back to one another's drawer. Olivia came back with 4 more and Maia came back with 4. I was impressed and shocked. Those socks were not only unmatched most of them were used and dirty. Ew. Who needs boys when I have my own mini-stinky sweets? And as you can tell, Olivia was the biggest offender although Maia was not far behind.

When I was handing out the chocolate (Michaela also got two for using the potty), I told them that we were going to do this each Monday and that it would be in their best interest to not only put their dirty, unmatched socks in the hamper so their sister would have nothing to find (and, by golly, did they get a gleam in their eye when I said that) but also to be good lookers. Just like their mom ;) who was trained by her mom and who, no doubt, was trained by hers. Let the tradition of being not only good looking but looking good never cease.

The Outcome

There is a story to all this. I will tell the full story once I can convince my camera to surrender the photos stored therein. All I will say is this...the moral of the story is never let your sister come near you with the scissors or markers or anything else for that matter.

Michaela likes to recount the real story to anyone who will listen. It goes something like this.

" I cut mine hair. Mommy was really mad." She said," Oh No!"

Taking Heart

If for a while the harder you try, the harder it gets, take heart. So it has been with the best people who ever lived. -Jeffery R. Holland

This is just what I needed to hear this fine Monday morning. I am going to do my best to make it a magnificent Monday. You can too. I think I will start by putting Paisley down for a nap and taking a quick shower. Perfect way to start, don't ya think?

I might even read a little out of this.

Therapy Session With Pictures

I have alot I need to catch up on blogwise and I am just not sure when that will happen. It will. One day. Maybe I will just keep typing. It is like therapy. So, here I am.

Our motto when it comes to Paisley is "I'm Bigger! I'm Growing!" Can you believe she is 6.5 mos old? Gasp. I can't. Being a mom to four kids is kicking my butt. I sure I hope it comes out shapely and good looking. ;) I kept thinking I might make it to being the mother of 5 creamy babies but in the last two weeks I have seriously been considering how it might be to have my tubes tied.

Not really(kinda), but the idea has its appeal these days. A vacation alone sounds nice though. ;) Just me and a book in a B&B in Prince Edward Island and maybe a pocket full of cash for some yard sales and flee marketing when the mood strikes.

We finished our first year of homeschool in July and started our first day of our second year last week. Woop! Woop! I am trying out the vegan life for the next 2 weeks. I finish the first week tomorrow. So far so good. I took a fun Landscaping Class in August and I am hoping to take one on Flower Bed Design and Spring Beds this week. We have been visiting lots of gardens this summer. We love it.

Michaela's getting into anything and everything sticky phase in our pause for the moment. Ever since I gave her a cold shower after her getting into the honey (she got into the syrup a few days before that) and pouring it all over her body (from head to toe, I tell ya!), she hasn't gotten into anything else. She just keeps saying things like," Don't get into the honey or you will get a cold shower! Mommy will be maad!" in a sing song voice as she verbally relives the experience with me. *Giggle* Memories.

Maia is getting more and more gorgeous. She is growing up! She is also become more and more deaf. Such a shame. I was hoping that turning 5 would turn her 4 yr old behavioral deafness into dreamy obedience. I told her that 5 yr olds were world class obeyers. She thinks that is nice and often talks about doing so. I fear she is clinging to the 4 yr old deaf thing. Alas, the kid is hilarious. Love her.

Olivia, my little sweet helper. She is dramatic sometimes but she is basically a dreamboat. She comes when I call her, she loves the things of the Spirit and her constantly singing primary songs and hymns is a balm to me. She is great with Paisley (and we even survived the recent accidental drop of Paisley). O is a huge help since Paisley sure can scream her head off when she wants to be held. I have hopes to nudge and mold that obvious determination for good purposes.

Sam and I celebrated our 10 yr anniversary back in July. Swoon. I love that man. He's a good one he is. I especially like that he has taken primary stewardship of the dishes. Like my old roommate, Betsy, said, "No woman ever wanted to kill her husband while he was washing the dishes."

We are blessed and definitely better than ever.

My computer apparently has only a smidgeon of memory. Something about only having 35 MG of memory and most new ones have like 300 something? My baby brother says that I need to get a new computer. Period. Forget adding memory. *Snap*

Well, I just need to burn some pictures off my computer and hopes that clears it up because I see no new computer in my future. Heck, I just bought this one..um...well...6 or so years ago? Shouldn't these things last longer than that? LOL. Oh well...So now you see why I don't have many new pictures. My computer is too full. Let me go see if there are some that I can add to this post.

Well, my therapy session needs to come to a close as I have also been working on going to bed somewhere in the 10 o' clock hour. School day tomorrow, you know. Doesn't it seem ironic that since trying to go to bed earlier that Paise has been waking up more. It figures.

Anywho, it's a good life, a loud one (I really need to invest in some earplugs), a crazy one but I am grateful for it.

My new favorite quote for the week that I got from Olivia's literature book is:

"Gentle ways often prevail when rough ones fail"

Nice, huh? Yeah, I liked it.

Having a Little Drink

Sorry, I haven't been around. My camera will not let me download pictures to the computer. Good thing, Sammy took this picture on his Blackberry. Paisley likes her some ice water, she sees it and she MUST have it. She seemed to have really liked the lemon this time too. A girl after her mother's heart.

Maia the Dictionary

Maia: If you wanna be a racist, you have to do weird things...like THIS! (She lifts up her shirt.)

Me and Sam look at each other and laugh.

Me: A what, Maia?

Maia: A racist!

Me: What's a racist?

Olivia: She means an oasis!!!

ROFLMBO!!

Apparently, an oasis is weird and likes to show its belly button.

If you give a Mom some spray paint

(I don't think my picture has been taken since the baby blessing)

If you give a Mom, with a creative itch, a can of spray paint, a bit of magical splendor will occur. It might have come from getting caught up on all those issues of Garden Gate while laying around recovering from a c-section but even if that had not occurred a desire for spray paint and gardening gloves would still abound.

If you give a Mom, a limited budget and a longing for a glazed pot for her front step. She might pick up a $6 terra cotta pot from IKEA and try to make what she wants for cheap. She might look up instructions on the internet which will make her go to Lowe's to get some Clear Gloss Sealer by Valspar and Brown Hammered Spray Paint by Rustoleum. If she goes to Lowe's to buy the paint, she might come home with an extra can of Rustoleum's Oil Rubbed Bronze and a cute new houseplant too.
Once she comes home, she might let her big girls ride bikes in the cul-de-sac and dig in the dirt while the baby sits upwind in her carseat enjoying a nice breezy day while the Mommy sprays her $6 pot to make beauty.

If she knows she is going to spray this pot into a lovely transformation, she might take before and after pictures.
If the pot comes out well, she might get ambitious and want to spray the mismatching silver doorbell, the brassy handle of the storm door which might make her take off the kickplate and spray it to match. She might be scared to mess up the door hardware so her hubby might hand her a girl drill and some hex keys and tell her to do it anyway and assure he'll be there if she messes up.

If she starts to take apart the door, her baby brother might show up and watch her work her splendor. He might even document the occasion by taking some pictures of the baby sunning herself in the Boppy outside and hold her when she cries.

When the brother leaves and the kids are still happy, the mom might want to get bold and spray her mailbox match.
If the mailbox cleans up well, she will continue with the mailbox plot makeover and plant some fantastic perennials like shasta daisies, mums, daylilies, crimson dianthus and sedum ground cover that will bloom at various seasons and mulch them all up for maximum beauty and water retention. She might even let the kids eat chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and fresh fruit for lunch.
After she is finished with that, she might think that the 2 dollar pack of sticker house numbers might not set off her mailbox the way she wants so she might enlist her friend to make her some vinyl numbers with a decorative filigree to make it pop. She might even promise to take pictures when the vinyl arrives and is applied.
And while that Mom waits for the vinyl to made and mailed to her, she might take pictures of her progress and decide she needs to go back to IKEA this weekend and get another $6 terra cotta pot to make a matching pair.
If the Mom decides to do this, she might go back to the local springtime only nursery to get more lovely flowers with which to fill the second pot and since she will be out already, she might be reminded that she might need more Brown Hammered spray paint. ;)


(And she will probably come home and tell her handy hubby to return to Lowe's so they can price some slate and other necessities to prepare to tile the front steps. One thing always leads to another, doesn't it?)

The Many Faces of the Paisley Pie

What is this thing you are sticking in my face?

Can't you just hear that talkative baby coo? *heartbeat* She is a great talker.

Turning on the charm, in hopes that Mom will stop taking pictures and pick her up.

Um, Mom? Haven't I been sitting here long enough?

Pick me up, NOW!

OR put me in stitches by saying OH! OH! and putting your fingers in my armpits

I'm still in this chair and she still ain't picking me up.