New Traditions

Well today was Ella's first day of preschool. Last night I told her that before bed Daddy would give her a Priesthood blessing for starting preschool (Daddy's tradition)- She immediately went to the table and pulled a chair around, sat down, and folded her arms. She seemed very proud to be getting ready for school just like her big brother had. This morning was the absolute worst weather. It was pouring cold rain and windy - not what I would have hoped for her first day. But she didn't care one bit!! When we got to the room we found her 'cubby- hole' and when I saw her name printed, laminated, and taped up I lost it inside, I choked up but held myself together. Seeing her name like that reminded me of the bassinet on wheels at the hospital where her name was taped inside. At the hospital, when they would wheel her into my room, I'd see her little face and the name printed and think "Wow I have a daughter" and the name that just a few months earlier was just an idea was now officially someone's name. Now seeing it taped up again as I left her at preschool I was overwhelmed. This time instead of someone wheeling her to me, she was walking away so condfidently.
On a sidenote I must have lost a few brain cells in the whole process because I stood up someone that I agreed to babysit for I just completely forgot, had it on the calendar, talked to Kyle about it last night, but come this morning nothing - just left my mind, scary- by time I got a hold of her she was home and had cancelled the appointment. I felt like such a jerk!! If you're reading this: SORRY again Beth.
Well Ella is home now, and she had a blast!! She said it was great and they had a puppet show and she made a puppet, in fact she hasn't stopped talking. So now its time for my tradition, First day of school cookies:)

Baby's best friend

Now that Maiya is eating in the highchair and gets the occasional biter biscuit - she has acquired a new friend!

Alien Portrait

Here is Benjamin's artwork depicting the aliens that live inside of him, its "Golden and Hawkin and all the stuff they can turn into."

We Miss You...

My Brother Tommy would have been 24 today. We miss him very much, even though he was good at annoying you, I still find it hard to believe he is gone. The kids hold Uncle Tommy very close to their hearts. And I know Tommy would have enjoyed every second with Maiya. We know he is now having a blast talking someone's ear off in the Spirit World. We love you Tommy.

Fun Weekend

Fun, fun for Benjamin and Ella and relaxation for Mommy and Daddy! - We had a candlelight dinner on Friday (yes Maiya joined us in the highchair) and on Saturday we went on a double date with a couple from church. Here are some pics of the kids' fun times...

The Children's Museum... In the 'echo' zone

"The Grocery Store"

"The Shadow Wall" - your shadow 'paints' the wall

"A Zessiscope to see the bad guys" according to Benjamin

Its pictures like this that make me realize how big they are getting!


Meg's cat "Mister" - doesn't he look like he has a little Tux on?

Happy Birthday MOM!!

Inside every older person is a younger person - wondering what the hell happened.

Cora Harvey Armstrong

Not to say that you're old or anything...

Thanks...

For the care package Nana - the kids loved all of their goodies (except the Valentine's Day package - I will make them wait:)
Ella's outfit is adorable I think it will be perfect for the first day of preschool!

We are getting ready to leave to meet Aunt Beth and Aunt Meg in "Willbimsburg" as Ella says - Mommy and Daddy are getting a 'date weekend' - Maiya would go too but a weekend of pumping breastmilk seems more daunting than her staying with us.

Best Wishes Sweetie!!

My mom's dog (also known as the cutest dachshund in the world) is having serious back problems and is on 'bedrest' and steroids. We wish you a speedy recovery Sweetie pie!!

Upside down chicken anyone?

So I am not a good housekeeper and apparently I am not a good cook either. I decided that cooking a whole chicken would be more frugal for us. Well I prepped it, then accidentally threw out the directions. Then I put it in the oven set the temp and the timer then walked away - 45 minutes later, I went to check it and realized I had never actually turned the oven ON!!
Back to square one.
After I finally cooked the thing I went to slice it and the dang thing wouldn't slice right, I told Kyle to come help because this chicken had extra bones in it or something. Well soon enough he figured out the problem - "You cooked it breast side down, Janie"
Amazing, I watch food network quite often yet it doesn't seem to help.

Hey take a picture of me too!!

V Smile ;)

Ella is all girl as most of you know ... and she hasn't really taken to the vsmile video game like her brother. She is even more dramatic than usual - if she messes up or worse messes up three times and has to start over - she is beyond devastated. She goes nuts wailing and the whole nine yards, I try to tell her its just a game, but its no use. So we have taken to playing a little bit when Benjamin is at school and there is less pressure and that works out a little bit better. But now someone else wants in the mix, Maiya is always stretching and reaching to touch the controller, so today I figured what the heck what can it hurt - when I gave it to her, she was as thrilled as a baby can be!!

Now for a Maiya update - She is now 7 months old!! She is sooo close to crawling - she is definitely mobile and usually gets to what she wants, but its no form of crawling yet. But the best milestone for mommy and daddy is how well she is sleeping - it has actually been good for a while but I didn't want to blog and jinx myself. There is a truly nothing better in the world than a cute baby that sleeps through the night and wakes up happy!

Toy store and Library

Whenever I make the kids' beds (yeah its not that often) I joke them about how much stuff they accumulate in their sheets. Ella its books - I always tease, "this isn't a bed its a library", and she just smiles. And with Benjamin its "this isn't a bed its a toy store" and he does the same. So last night I checked on them I thought the scenes as pictured said it all.

By the way -- Benjamin choose to sleep in his regular pants - you know the "itchy" thing with pj's.

Housekeeping

I had one of those sickening moments of realization -- I am a bad housekeeper!!
I have a matching set of towel bars and a TP holder that were supposed to be up ages ago, but I had similar luck to that of the curtains in the living room when I tried to put them up the first time, so needless to say we have been using TP sans holder. In the meantime I had just tossed the holder in a bucket in the bathroom then later I tossed one of the kids water guns in the bucket too. Well there was water left in the water gun that soaked one side of the TP holder. Then apparently after awhile the wood split and molded!! Yep that's right I put off a project so long that the dang thing molded. Sad really.
While I am on the subject of put off projects - there is a now infamous list of "THINGS TO DO BEFORE BABY" that I keep in my purse as motivation. Well three purses and a 6 month old later, we are only about 60% done. Now I know why my mom lived with green shag carpet and gold and green striped wallpaper for years and years - there is never enough time, energy or money - at least never at the same time.
My previous remodeling the old farmhouse dream has turned into a "move-in" ready house dream. It beats moldy toilet paper holders.

Brrrrrr....

It was cold at the bus stop!!

We miss you already!

We just dropped Daddy off at the airport and Ella boo-hooed the whole way home - yes she is just a little sensitive. (Kyle is in Dallas until wednesday) The one cool thing about waking up before a sensible hour was the kids saw the sunrise and then Ella noticed the full moon still out and the sun up at the same time - it blew her mind!!

Aliens, teeth, and illness

Well we have been busy as of late... So here are just a few stories and updates:
Maiya has another tooth, I could feel it before I could actually see it - and big brother is excited, he was trying to argue that she could have popcorn because she "has teeth" now.
Benjamin informed us a few nights back that he has two aliens residing inside of him. It dominated the conversation at dinner - He was full of details, one is red named Hawkin, and the other is golden and it is still growing and Matthew at school has a blue alien, but he has no name yet. Hawkin has fire alien power and sometimes fights with Matthew's alien, but only when they are at recess, because they're not sure but they think Ms. Mason doesn't like aliens and she might kill theirs. I was so impressed, I said wow Benjamin how do you make all this stuff up, and he gave me the biggest puppy dog face -- "This isn't made-up, its real mommy" -- I felt like such a jerk.
Ella is getting very excited about pre-school which will start on Jan 31st, in fact when I told her she got 'in' I found her five minutes later with shoes on waiting - "No sweetie, you will start in a few weeks" "but I want to go NOW, please mommy" ;(
She hasn't felt too hot for the past 24 hours, stomach bug, hopefully all will be well tomorrow.
It is stake conference tomorrow -- We really should go ... But it would be nice to miss one Sunday... I know I'm bad...

Are you kidding me...

It wasn't supposed to be like this already. Benjamin has this new thing about clothes being "itchy" and has boycotted all fleece - yep no sweatpants or sweatshirts. Nana got him undershirts for Christmas which has solved the shirt problem, but no luck with the pants. So last night I just put up all of the sweatpants. Then this morning he refuses corduroy too. Oh come on... That leaves him with like 3 pairs of pants he will wear. Then Ella refuses to wear the shirt I laid out cuz the "flowers look funny on it".
Then we get downstairs and Benjamin doesn't want cereal - which is all I happen to have. Then Ella gets down and doesn't want milk on her cereal - which I have already poured!!
Shouldn't attitude hold off for a few more years? I can't do this every morning.

Gingerbread House

Fun family home evening (even though ours was on Friday) making a gingerbread house. Benjamin especially enjoyed himself when Kyle found him a half hour later sucking on the tube of icing like it was a bottle. He was sent to bed early. Which made him so mad he informed me that if the Polar Express happened to come to our house tonight and pick him up he wasn't going to come back. LOL

GRRRRAAAAHHHHHHH continued...

Well last night I enlisted Kyle in the Curtain brigade - and he had the next set up in like 5 minutes, so I choked down my pride and asked him to fix the other side, and, well he had as much trouble as me - apparently that one corner of our house must be fortified by concrete because he broke a few screws and nails too. - so we rigged it up another way only to have one bracket fall off when I put up the curtains, so I said "that's it get the super glue"
But instead of gluing a piece of the bracket back - I glued myself to the wall. Literally I was totally stuck like a fat female spiderman episode gone wrong.
I screamed for Kyle to get something to help me - and he screams 'ok I got something' and walks in with the camera!!
Then when he actually got some fingernail polish remover, he hands it to me, like I am supposed to grab it - "Uh I am stuck to the wall"
So after a few dabs I was still stuck so we just had to pour the remover on me and the wall. So overall I lost a little flesh, the wall lost a little paint, and we both lost a little sanity but the freakin' curtains are up!!

Boys

I was so glad Jessica got Benjamin Lincoln Logs for Christmas, I was hoping for him to have some gadget free toys besides his train and I had seen him enjoy some at a friends house. I also hoped to see him play with something less violent than most boy toys. It has taken him a little effort to get used to how to actually build with them, so I was impressed to walk in and see him creating something. I asked "so what is that?", "Oh its a garden" "really a garden? - that's nice Benjamin" and then he elaborates "Yeah its a Bomb garden and if you step on the wrong thing you get blowed up"
sigh.....
boys will be boys

GRRRRAAAAHHHHHHH

I used to have this romanticzed dream of buying this cool old farmhouse and renovating it from the ground up - and the dream ends with me sipping a cool drink on my wrap around porch watching the sunset and being so satisfied with my handy"chick" skills. But alas being an actual homeowner has taught me a few lessons -- I can't even hang curtains!!
I put Maiya down for afternoon nap and after I was sure she was asleep I made Benjamin and Ella have rest time too. I pondered what I would do with a moment to myself. I thought I'll clean this house - I have yet to get the house put back together and taking down Christmas decorations didn't even make a dent. But cleaning? No I decided putting up my new curtain rod would be more fun. Well....
Three broken screws, eight holes in the wall and a one crooked curtain later - I am ready to pull my hair out (but I would probably do that wrong too)
Broken screws I tell you - the first time, I thought wow I didn't know they could just break - that never happened to me before - well now I know they do apparently 3 out of 9 times!! and to top it all off, while I was losing my mind with the whole process, zeke came in from outside and walked all over the curtains with muddy feet!!

Merry Second Christmas

As we packed the van to leave for Nana's house, Ella yelled to the neighbors outside that we were leaving to go to second Christmas with Nana.
We had a good time and got some great gifts!! and Everyone got lots of smiles from Maiya.