2010 Highlights

I can't believe 2010 is over already - this year went by very fast. I've been thinking a lot for the last few days about this years highlights. Here they are:

I read 29 books this year

(The Red Queen, The White Queen, The Lady Elizabeth, Splendor, Dragonfly in Amber, Mockingjay, Catching Fire, Hunger Games (yes I read them twice this year), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Outlander, Pope Joan, Extras, Specials, Pretties, Uglies, The Book Thief, The Help, Same Kind of Different as me, The Last Olympian, The Battle of the Labyrith, The Titans Curse, The Sea of Monsters, The Lightning Thief, The Road, Catching Fire, Hunger Games, Rumors, Envy, & The Luxe)

Ran lots of miles (I didn't track them this year but I will be in 2011)

My biggest accomplishment this year was running Ragnar
(the race and "ragnar" leg)

We had our first stitches in the family

Baptized Tayson

My baby brother get married -
and was able to be in the temple with my husband, parents and all of my siblings.

Luke got a special award from school

Went back to STL and attended my 20 year high school reunion

Sent an an amazing man back to heaven.
Thank goodness we were able to make the trip to see great-grandpa one last time.

I have learned a lot and been stretched more than I thought was possible this year. I have felt the Lord's hand in my life leading me through all the hard times. I am loving the stage my kids are at right now - they are young enough to still be sweet and old enough to do fun stuff. 2010 was a great year!

Go Lakers!

I am married to a true Lakers fan and I work with all Jazz fans. So just to create a bit of fun and contention at work I wore Todd's Laker jersey to work on game day. The Lakers won game 2 that night. Go Team!!!

Dinner with the kids

Yesterday work ended up being absolutely crazy. The only thing I had time to eat was a yogurt so when I got home I was too famished to even think about finding something to fix for dinner. Luckily Tayson had a good day at school and got 4 +'s and no -'s. He wanted to celebrate by going to his favorite place Brick Oven. Since Todd is on HCG right now he couldn't come with us and Timmy ended up working late so I braved it alone. Me and 4 kids under 8.

Tayson promised to be a big helper since Todd couldn't come and he didn't disappoint. He was great the whole time and was such a good helper. Since it was Brick Oven we had to order the pasta and salad bar so I had to leave the kids at the table a few times. The first time was to get Tayson and Claire their pasta, then again for my salad and then one last time for my pasta. The people at the table next to me said "wow I can't believe you're here with 4 kids by yourself" but then when we left they were impressed at how good they were.

We tried to take a self portrait and only
Claire, Tayson, Myself and Luke's hand (peace fingers) made it in.

Maybe I really can do spring break by myself with all 4 kids. I mean really what's the difference between 1 hour at a restaurant and 2 days in the car?

Shorts in March?

The last week at Nu Skin has been shorts week to celebrate the trip to Hawaii that our top leaders are on. March in Utah is not optimal shorts weather but I thought that since it's supposed to hit 60 today and it's the last day....why not?

The Green Sippy Cup

Last night when I was downstairs tucking the boys in Claire got out of bed and asked for a drink. Since she had already brushed her teeth she could only have water to drink so Todd went and got her a drink. He didn't realize that she HATES the green sippy cups. She only drinks from the pink ones and Sophie can use the green ones. I just don't even try anymore because it's just not worth it.

When I got back upstairs I asked Todd what Claire was yelling about and he said she didn't like her water. We were sitting in our room Todd working on his laptop and I was folding laundry and she was going off for about 20 minutes. How much she hates water, she hates green, she hates daddy and just sounding all sorts of pissy. It was hilarious and we just sat there listening to her rant. Then she ended up just sitting there talking to her fox for a little while then finally fell asleep. Then around 3:00 am she came in our room because she needed to go potty so she came in to tell me before going (thanks). Then of course she couldn't put herself back to bed so I tucked her back in and asked her if she wanted a song. A few minutes after I got in bed I heard a big crash and she yelled "I hate water". She had thrown her sippy cup against the wall. So I went in there to calm her down and get her back to sleep. I went and got her some milk to get her back to sleep and she didn't want to hold it so I was going to put it on the back of her bed on the right side. She got all mad at me and said "NO it goes over there!" So I put it on the left side and she fell right asleep. The girl is so picky and so stubborn and so dang funny sometimes.

Someday I hope to be able to sleep through the night 2 nights in a row without any of my kids waking me up. Someday....

The Doctor's Office

Last night was a bad night. Both boys ended up sleeping on our floor and Sophie was up 4 times crying.....not just crying though she was screaming. When I went in to get her she was so upset she was shaking. I knew something was wrong with her so I decided to make a doctor's appointment for her this morning.

The doctor I've taken my kids to for almost 8 years (Dr. Baird) recently closed his office so this was our first visit to our new doctor. We switched to a doctor in AF who I have known since my freshman year at BYU. He was great. However, there is nothing wrong with Sophie she was just cutting one of her molars and it looked like it broke through just the night before. How embarrassing to take my kid to the doctors for the first visit for a false alarm. Oh well. Better safe than sorry I guess. On the way home I told Luke and Claire that since they were so good I would get them an ice cream cone. Sophie loved hers too. When she came in the house she still had her entire cone left and she was trying to give Shadow a lick of it and he grabbed the whole thing out of her hand and ate it (wrapper and all). It was so funny. I'm very glad he ate the whole thing - it would have sicked me out for her to eat it after he took a lick and she would have ended up making a huge mess.

Bathtime

Sophie is getting a cough so I thought I would give her a warm bath with the vapor bubbles last night before bed. Once the other kids heard the water and saw the bubbles they all stripped down and jumped in. They are getting a little big to all bath together in such a small bathtub but I think it's so cute how much they love it.




On a side note: We took the kids to Chili's for dinner tonight and when we sat down the server said "are they all yours?" to which I replied in a puzzled voice "yeah" and then he said "wow. they are all so close together." I guess these pictures and bath time show that they are pretty close together.

Let it snow

We had a huge snow storm that lasted about 24 hours total. In the morning everything was covered and white (and look I even shoveled the driveway) and the boys got all bundled up to go to school. They were very excited to make a snowman but the snow was gone by the time Tayson got home from school. You've got to love spring in Utah.

Reminders

Todd told Tayson that if he doesn't get any bad marks at school today he will take him on a train ride (trax) to Salt Lake to see an awesome 3D movie about fish (the new Sea one from the Planet Earth creators). Tayson was so excited that this morning at breakfast he asked me if I would put a fish on one hand and a small train on the other hand to remind him to be good. Then Sophie wanted me to draw on her hand so I put a smiley face on her hand then Luke wanted a heart on his hand to remind him that I loved him and an even bigger heart on the other hand and Claire wanted a geal (girl) on her hand. Not that I usually draw on my kids but this seemed like a good cause. We'll do anything to help Tayson behave at school. There wasn't much time so you can't even really see their hands...but they almost missed the bus so this will have to do.


I really need some art lessons. I suck at small stick figure drawings!

Notes

Lately the boys love to leave us notes. This morning when I got home from running Luke said "mom do you know where paper and a pencil are?" I found him some then he wrote me a note (more like a card because he taped another piece of paper on the front so that you had to open it) asking me if I'd seen his DS. Seems like he could have asked me that instead of about the paper. The note from Tayson was sitting on our dresser when we woke up yesterday and aren't sure when he brought it to us. Classic Tayson.



Luke's Note: have you sen my DS
Tayson's Note: I kant goto sleep From TA YSOn

I think it's so funny that Tayson wrote his name on 2 lines. He never takes the time to do it right. Oh well.

Church

Sundays are a funny day for me. They are the best and the worst most weeks. It is the only day I get to sleep in the whole week. Todd leaves for meetings early and the kids like to just sit around and play so I usually get to sleep until almost 9. Heaven. Then the kids and I always have a fun breakfast, usually it consists of waffles, strawberries and/or bananas and whip cream. If they eat all their waffles they even get one more squirt directly in their mouth. They LOVE that.

Then we rush to all get dressed, get hair fixed, snack bags put together, backpacks checked, shoes on and we're off to church. I like to be 10 minutes early for church (we make it about 90% of the time). Not bad for a mom and 4 kids, who has a hubby at meetings most of the time. However, more often that not in order to make it there early I end up getting frustrated because one of the kids is taking too long to put on their shoes or they are dawdling on their way into church.

Then church starts.....UGH! My kids are all so little and have so much energy trapped in their bodies that sacrament is just so hard. Luke and Claire can sit and color the whole meeting without making a sound. But if you put either of them by Tayson or Sophie then it doesn't work. We can usually separate Tayson from the other kids and he'll stay in one spot. He has a really hard time sitting still and I have to have something different for him to do every 20 minutes or so (snacks, mazes, drawing, cars, etc). He's a bit old for this...but I have to pick my battles. And then there is Sophie. She canNOT be contained. She drives everyone crazy by taking their stuff, coloring on their pages, stepping on them, pulling their hair, etc.

Yesterday I brought some new dress up dolls for Claire. I knew she would sit and play with these the whole time from after the sacrament until the end. I even thought that if there were 2 dolls Sophie would play a little. Silly me. In a split second Sophie grabbed the small open baggie of shoes and hats and while trying to steal them flung the entire bag up in the air. It was like a small explosion. Small magnetic wooden shoes and hats went flying way up in the air and then landed all over people in the pews around me. I heard bursts of giggles from kids and adults in all the pews behind me. I was so embarrassed. People came up to me for the next 2 hours of church telling me how funny their kids thought it was. Sophie single-handedly disrupted the entire meeting. Timmy took her out in the foyer and then Claire and Luke quietly played dress up with the dolls. Luckily we only lost 2 of the shoes.



After church is always a little stressful too. I usually get out of YW a little late so my kids are almost always the last ones in their classes. I have to check on their behavior and dread what Tayson's teacher is going to tell me. Then we rush home at 2:00 pm fix the kids lunch as fast as I can and put Sophie down for a long overdue nap. She either sleeps for 30 minutes and is horrible the rest of the night or sleeps until it's time to go to my parent's house for dinner and then isn't tired when it's bedtime.

Sunday dinner is great. It's fun to all get together and hang out and have a nice big meal that I don't have to fix by myself. We stay there until it's time for bed. Which means hurrying to get everyone in bed which usually leads to yelling or fighting. I would really rather not end my Sabbath day like that ... but it just seems to always end like that.

Maybe when my kids get older Sunday will be a day of peace and reflection and rest. Maybe....

Fry Sauce

The kids cleaned, organized and vacuumed the playroom so as a treat we went to Carl's Jr. for lunch so they could eat and play at the play land. So worth it for them to do as much work as they did cleaning. Child labor at home is a great thing.

While we were there Sophie was dipping her fries and chicken stars in the fry sauce, licking it off, dipping them again, and occasionally taking a bite of the actual food. Then I look over at her and rather than spend time dipping she was just sucking the fry sauce right out of the cups. So gross and so funny. She loved it. I hurried and took the other 3 full cups away so that she wouldn't eat those too. Such a silly girl.


While we were there she didn't really want to play in the toddler area so either Tayson or Todd would help her get up the big kid area then she would run around up top and come down the slide. I knew where she was most of the time because of her Indian battle cry. She was so excited and had so much fun.

Makeover time

Claire got a fancy new makeup set at Chuck E. Cheese today. So after dinner we decided to have a makeover party.

Claire doing her kissy face

Sophie doing her kissy face (hilarious)

Now the girls are all set up to make me BEAutiful

I'm not going to lie....she pushed so hard it hurt my eye.

As soon as we were done showing off how beautiful we all looked to the boys in the house I hurried and put the girls in the bath and washed it off my face. Even after washing their faces with a washcloth they both still had rosy cheeks for the rest of the night. Oh how I love my girls!

My teenager

funny things about this picture:

• her diaper is hanging out the bottom of her miniskirt
• her nails are painted
• she looked like she was texting when I saw her on the phone

Lions Pride

Everyday Tayson comes home with a note from his teacher on his behavior that day. If he gets a + he gets to stay up late a - and he has to go to bed earlier. Luke on the other hand just goes to bed at the same time every night. I realize this isn't fair for him. It doesn't matter if he is good or not his bedtime is at 8:00. But let's be honestly you just can't parent each child the same. When I was a kid I found this horrible (Danny had totally different rules than I did cause he was a trouble maker...just ask him). Now as a parent I realize it is the only way to teach your children. You have to be willing to mix it up and find what works for each one. Simply put Luke is an easier kid so I don't have to be as creative with him. Hopefully someday my kids will understand this.

Anyway...every night when Luke says his prayers he always prays that Tayson will get all pluses and no minuses and that he will get a Lion's pride note (this is something his school does for something exceptional...so it's not an everyday thing). He came home with a Lion's pride note today and he was so happy. We even let him stay up until 9:15. Hopefully that will last the rest of the year for him.

Another funny thing Luke does is that he is always praying for somebody. Most nights it depends on who he sees when he peeks during his prayers.

A few funny ones he's said lately are:
*please bless Sophie that she won't be messy when she grows up
*please bless Sophie that she will behave better when she grows up
*please bless Amy to have her baby and everyone else who is having a baby too

Good Morning Sunshine

This morning I heard Sophie in her bed yelling for me when I walked in she was pulling her PJ shirt off. She had thrown everything (blankets, stuffed animals, binkies, pj's) out of her crib and undressed herself and was ready to get out of bed. She loves to take her clothes off. She also loves to put other people's clothes on. She can often be seen with a pair of Claire's panties over her pants or a second shirt over her head and always someones shoes or shoe on. Silly girl.



I'm sorry that almost every picture in my 2010 challenge is Sophie....but she does more funny things than anyone else in the house these days.

Sassy Sophie

Sophie hates being left out in the morning she almost always puts on shoes when the boys leave. This morning she put on one shoe and her sunglasses and was ready to go. She makes me smile so much. Sophie is just so happy and easy going and full of life. She cracks me up. This week we have started making her put her binky in her bed (obviously it's working since she has it in the picture....) but it has helped with her repeating and talking. She has been saying a lot more since we started trying to get her to put the binky back in the crib.

Shadow's New Bed

Todd came home from running errands with this fancy new dog bed. I have only seen Shadow in it a few times but the kids LOVE it! Sunday morning Tayson got up got dressed and came upstairs to watch a movie while resting in the dog bed.

Date Night

Todd and I went to see Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief tonight. It was a good movie, quite different from the book (not surprising), but well cast and entertaining. Then after the movie we went to Terra Mia for dinner and gelato. Yummy. When we were there Todd saw this sign and took a picture so we would have some new places to try on future dates. I love that we go out on a date every week! I am one lucky girl.

Straw Bowls

While shopping at Macey's a few weeks ago Claire and Luke talked me into buying straw bowls. I bought 4 in different colors so each kid would have their own and since we have cereal almost every morning before school we usually pull them straight out of the dishwasher. They LOVE their bowls and Sophie loves drinking out of the straw. She usually spills milk and cereal everywhere but she sure has fun.


I'm not sure why Luke has 2 spoons in his bowl. He doesn't like to use utensils - he prefers his hands for most foods.