Cheater blog post

I know I'm behind, but this week I'm just going to copy an email I'm sending to my brother's family. So sorry to my family who's getting a repeat.

Hi! Sorry I didn't write last week, I guess I could blame it on being exhausted from getting our yard ready to plant. We spent Saturday shoveling, hauling, smoothing, and a couple parties too. Plus, Nicki babysat for us while we went to the adult meeting for stake conference. I like the adult meeting because I never have to tell Farris to be reverent and he never asks for snacks or crayons. He doesn't throw fits either, I think I married the right man. Saturday morning I went yard saleing with Seth (he found a toy lawn mower and was happy) When I got back there was a huge pile of topsoil in our driveway and the boys were bubbling over with happiness. How much fun is a big dump truck coming to our house and leaving a gigantic pile of dirt to play in? They were very, very dirty the rest of the day. Felicity went to a birthday party and we started hauling the dirt to the back yard. The kids even helped filling their wagons and dumping it sort of where it was supposed to go. When Felicity got back from her party we enlisted her help too, and she was SO TIRED by the end of the day. WHY DID I HAVE TO WORK SO HARD??? Seth was a happy camper, he looked like he had a black eye with so much dirt on his face and he had dirt from his head to his diaper. And then some. After thinking we were going to get sod, then seed, then sod again, we've finally decided on hydroseed, which we'll hopefully get in this week. If it stops snowing anyway. The other big thing that's been going on happened on Wednesday. Farris plays basketball every Wednesday night from 9:00 to about 11:00 or 12:00. This time he came back about 10:00, limping. He knew it was pretty bad so on Thursday we took him into a foot doctor. He did a very bad ankle sprain, cracked one of his heel bones (it's a bone that is mostly cartilage, though, so he doesn't need a cast) and it's got some ugly bruises. He's got a huge boot to wear around for the next 6-8 weeks. He calls it his "bum kicker" and the kids run giggling away from him all the time. It's been hard to keep them from climbing up his leg, they're so used to their personal jungle gum. On Saturday he was going to take it easy, and then I woke up sick, sick, sick. I'm feeling better now after sleeping all day yesterday. So we didn't do much yesterday. Seth was actually in his pajamas all day long and he didn't mind a bit. Felicity had another busy day yesterday, her best friend Emmalee was baptized and then another friend had a birthday party at a Karate clinic. She thought it was great and is now trying to decide between karate and dance. I have to admit, I'm pulling for dance. I don't think I want to see Felicity break a board with her hand. Or head. For one thing I can see her crying after or even trying to break something else, such as a brothers head. She has been reading like crazy, it's getting hard to keep up with her. I'm afraid this summer we'll have to go to the library twice a week. Caleb is so excited that Kindergarten is almost done, he only has a few more weeks. He'll graduate on the 21st. Felicity will have one more week of school and then summer, yea!

So that's our two weeks in a nutshell. I'm planning on working at getting my camera to upload onto the computer again, maybe I"ll be able to post pictures of our freshly hydroseeded lawn this week! Or maybe just some more spring snowstorms =(

funny/cool/scary/SPRING!

Just a couple things that have happened lately that, as a mom, I thought were pretty funny/cool/scary:
Yesterday morning when I got up I walked into the boys' room, and there was Joseph laying on the bed. He smiles and the first thing he says to me is:"I'm not going to drive a car when I'm a kid." I had two thoughts: "That must have been some dream." and "That's one worry to cross off the list."

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Felicity has been mulling over my motherish need to know where she is at all times. Then her little thinking cap came up with a solution. I hope I can describe it to you so you can understand. First she wrote out a list of possible places and hung it on her bedroom door. It says:

Felicity is in here.

Felicity is at Idaho. (in case she got there without us knowing?)

Felicity is at church.

Felicity is at school.

Felicity is outside.

Felicity is in the house.

Felicity is at her friend's house.

Felicity is with Christy and Kendrick. (there's some love, Christy =)

Then next to it she made a little contraption. She took an old tin pencil case and stuck in the wider half of a plastic Easter egg, so the rounded top was sticking out. She pinched the edges of the pencil case in a little so it grips the egg to keep it from falling out, but it can still move up and down along the length of the case. On top of the egg she drew an arrow, pointing to her list. After she taped the case onto her door, she can move the egg inside the case so it points to where ever she is at that moment. How's that for 2nd grade ingenuity? And the list of all her possibilities makes me laugh.

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Seth is loving the warm weather. He cries whenever we bring him in the house. And, the little guy has figured out how to get out the door and down the steps all by himself. From there it's a short jaunt into the street. I might not make it out of his first two years without any gray hairs. Last night I gave him a bath, dressed him in his pjs. First he made it outside and into the street without us knowing. Then I had Caleb and Joseph in the bathtub while I was running about getting things ready for bed. I kept the bathroom in hearing distance, thankfully, because I heard Caleb laughing and saying "No Seth!" I started for the door, Seth likes to reach into the tub and splash and I didn't want to have to change his pajamas. Then I heard a splash and ran in. He was headfirst in the water. My heart about stopped, but I got him out and he was soaked but fine. Scared us silly. Yup, here come the gray hairs.

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We put together a bunkbed set for Caleb and Joseph on Saturday. I'm a little nervous...but we layed down some ground rules. I'll probably have to add some (like no throwing your brother off the top), but for now they're doing fine. Caleb is so excited about his birthday. It's not until the end of May, but he's been trying to decide what kind of party/cake he wants. He's stuck with an outer space theme the last few days, that might be what it ends up being. Any ideas?

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It's finally spring time and it's been gorgeous outside the last few days. I've heard some people saying they have their gardens all planted, but I'm not that brave yet, I've lived in Utah long enough to see those snowstorms come after two weeks of warm weather! But my tulips are out, trees are blossoming, and we're taking steps to plant grass in the backyard. Hallelujah, I've been waiting seven years for a grassy backyard. We'll have a big party when it's all in. But I might not let anyone step on it for awhile. Just look. =) Happy spring everyone!

Playing Spring Catch-up

Whew! It's been busy around here, but today I'll try to do the catch-up thing.
My brother's family came for a short visit on April Fools day, which was also little Michael's third birthday! He's such a cute little stinker, Joseph and him are going to get in a lot of trouble someday, they like to build on each others ideas (I can just see: "Hey! Let's go outside!" "ok, let's climb on things." "Ok, let's climb on the roof" "ok, let's run around on the roof" "ok, let's see if who can get off first" and etc.) My mom was also able to come, too, so we had a fun family party, with ice cream of course! And even though it was a Thursday we had pizza. Felicity was little put out, she kept telling me we couldn't have pizza until Friday. Farris had to continue his April Fools day tradition. He picked up the boxed theater candy, one box for each of the kids. They excitedly tore into it and ta-da! found rocks. It wasn't quite as good as last years fish joke, but the kids were giggling. I'm pretty sure Michael tried one of the rocks to see if it tasted good. But then Farris was nice and they all got their candy. And then we were picking up rocks off the floor for awhile...The kids had spring break that next week, so we headed to Idaho on Friday, staying at my sisters house in Ogden over night. Joseph went with Robert and Tasha, bless them. We caught conference on the radio and then at Chad and Tarilynn's house (well, Seth and I slept through the second session. It's a good thing they print everything in the Ensign). On Sunday after conference -and a yummy dinner, thanks Tarilynn! --Farris headed back home for his work week and we went to my parent's house. Mom and Dad are re-doing their kitchen, which turned into also redoing their pantry...so they had to re-do the bathroom to make the pantry bigger, and since they were taking out a wall for the kitchen, they had to redo some of the living room, and if they are doing all that, they might as well do the laundry room, too. Whew! It's starting to look great, if their house was here we'd move in. With most of the kitchen cabinets, the oven, stove, and flooring gone, Felicity just looked around, gasping, "How come Grandma and Grandpa ruined their kitchen?" I love the word aghast, so expressive, and that was Felicity. We're excited to go back this summer to see all the new improvements in place. The kids had fun playing all around the house with cousins, on grandpa's gigantic swing set, with all those the books (Felicity loved this cowboy chapter book, who knew the Princess/Fairy girl would like it so much?), and with all those toys in the family room. Caleb had so much fun playing with construx! We're looking on eBay for his birthday present now. We also got to eat lunch with grandma at the school. Felicity even stayed behind one day to help grandma clean up the cafeteria. On Thursday we met Farris in Twin and headed over to his family's house. Farris' family loves to play games, usually card games (well, and the wii, too. Caleb beat the pants off everyone bowling. He got a 200!). We played Pounce. Anybody ever tried that one? I'm thinking I'm going to have some Pounce parties here so I can practice. I need to beat Cindi! Or at least Sam and Geri. Or Farris. Someone, anyway. On Sunday we headed back home. Our daffodils have bloomed and our tulips are getting tall and budding out. The roses are leafing out, and the little seedlings we started in paper cups are getting long and leggy! They need to be planted soon, if it would stop snowing here, anyway. Spring is coming and I'm lovin' it.

Sooooo, anyone want to try Pounce?

Blecccchhh!

OK, if you're squeamish, don't look, but this is hilarious. In a slightly demented way...
http://sweetgrace.typepad.com/the_inadvertent_farmer/2010/03/freaky-friday-funniesmice-marinade.html#comments

So Sorry!

I just found out that one of my songs on my playlist was changed (NOT by me) to a horrible voice saying horrible things. I'm so sorry! I have no idea what happened. So, I removed the song list and I'm thinking I won't be putting it back until I figure out what happened. Sorry if you were offended, 'cause so was I!

What I've been up to...

The last of November and most of December I practically lived in our guest/storage/CRAFT room. Grrrr. I was a grumpy mom and my floors did not get mopped. So when I was all caught up with the current projects (I have several projects that are sitting and waiting, and waiting), I put the cover on my sewing machine and left. Then the last few weeks, babies started to be born all over the place (with more on the way. Luckily, none heading my way) and I found this cute tutorial for Eddy Caps:
http://mushroomvillagers.wordpress.com/the-eddie-cap-tutorial/
And now I've made three. Plus a couple pairs of baby booties, here's the tutorial for it, too:
http://heatherbailey.typepad.com/heather_bailey/2006/06/bitty_booties.html
My sister in law had an adorable girl named Charley so I added this flower to the hat: http://cuegly.blogspot.com/2010/03/craft-concoction-friday-burlap-ish.html
And of course I had to make it all harder on myself and I added my own spin to everything. The Eddy caps tutorial is for a four year old sized head, but I needed it for babies, so I reduced it down about a third. You can find average hat sizes all over on google if you can't measure a head before you make it. First, though, I made one for Joseph (he's close enough to four) to make sure it all went smoothly. I have silly pictures of him in it, but grrr, my camera is still not communicating with the computer, so no posting. I found out that where she says to baste, really, it's much easier on yourself if you actually do it. I hate basting, but sometimes it's important. And then I had the thought, why don't I line it and make it a reversible hat? So I figured it out (The trick is to make the two band strips the same width instead of one smaller, and then baste it all together so that you can stitch it so it looks nice on both sides. This will make more sense after you read the tutorial. Or come to my house and I'll show you! ) For the ribbon flower I used regular ribbon instead of burlap, and I sewed it instead of using the hot glue and glue dots, but then I hot glued the petals all together on a piece of ribbon, and added a circle of flannel with button on the front. Then, because I made the hat reversible, I sewed snaps onto both sides of the hat and a snap on the flower so you can move it to whichever side you want to show (I made sure to put the poky half of the snap on the flower so it wouldn't poke the poor baby's head). I'm going to make more of the flowers, they're easy and Felicity loved them. And I have a lot of cute nieces! Ohhhh, if I have green ribbon, I could make a St. Patrick's day one...hmmm, I better get on that.

ok, ok, just one more...

I know most of what I've been blogging about lately is the silly things that my kids say, but this one really made me laugh. I'd been explaining to Caleb what a Butler was. He mentioned it to Joseph, who (in shocked tones) said "CALEB! Say BUM-ler not BUT-ler!"
Hee-hee. Can you tell what we've been reminding Joseph not to say lately?