Cute Kids

Garrett is suppose to practice piano every day. He has been taking lessons for one year now and has gotten really good. Joy to the World and Deck the Halls were some tough ones but he pulled through and made them sound great! When it comes time to practice it's usually after school and Ben E is napping. But when Ben isn't asleep no matter where he is in the house he comes cruisin' to the living room to where Garrett is playing the piano. He usually is crawling and then stretches his arm and fingers up to play along with Garrett. At first Garrett was frustrated with this. I think he is finally getting used to it and thinks it's pretty cute.

We have always had probably the coolest cats ever. I'm sure some of you may remember our cat Stephen in Idaho. Drooled a lot, climbed rock walls. Well Summer Wheatley our cat now is pretty cool too. She has been with us for about 4 years now. She drools a bit. (nothing like Stephen did) and is good at playing fetch. We have NO mice or rabbit or gopher problem at all. The raccoons piss her off pretty good but not enough to where she wants to go take care of them. She is great with the kids too. The girls in the past have locked her in their room with them giving her the greatest of hair styles. (with hairspray, gel, and the works). Of course I was unaware and not happy with this when I found out what was happening. And even though the first time they got in trouble, they didn't quit.I still caught them in the act of Extreme Kitty Makeover the next couple of weeks. They have been a lot nicer to the cat and only seem to decorate her with stuff once in while.

I can't believe I just did a post about my cat....Man! Do I need something to do or something to happen!!!!

Update

Ben E and the girls all got new rides for Christmas. We were all a happy bunch this year. (Well, Sam was sulking because she didn't get a violin.) But we felt the Christmas spirit and had a nice Holiday.

I was kinda a scrooge when it came to taking down my Christmas stuff. I usually like to wait until after New Years...but...I got antsy to get my house back in order.

And I was even more antsy to get the kids back in school. Monday was a great day filled with lots of quiet and peace!!! Loved it! Even though we don't have a real routine...we have the basic schedule which is nice to get back onto.

As for New Years resolutions; I've never been good at those. I think its an everyday process to be a better person. But the one thing on my thoughts a lot right now is Elder Jeffrey R Hollands talk 'The Best is Yet to Be'. Look ahead and remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. (In our Sunday program pamphlet part was taken from this, and it's in this January Ensign and when I turned on BYU tv the other day it was being showed. So I was getting it from everywhere I turned.) You can read the talk HERE

A Very Busy Week.

It's been a countdown to Christmas this week at our place.


With so much to do at such a fast pace.

Aquinna has swimming which she thinks is great.

When it's time for her to go she really can't wait.

Garrett and Sam had a 'holiday' concert at school.

The crowd was a pain but their songs were so cool.

We decorated houses with graham crackers and sweets.

And on a firetruck Santa came down our street.

Garrett advanced on the wolf trail.

Such a proud moment for his Mom as well.

Sammy's dance stuff kept us on the go,

With pictures and practices and the big show.

Finally now we get to rest.

A few days 'til Christmas and we're all acting our best.

Just chillin' out in our holiday socks.

Merry Christmas to all..we hope your holiday rocks!!

December is Here

So of course, I waited 'til as long as possible to start my Christmas decorating. Sadly it started on the 5th of the month. (I know, such a long wait.) Riggles was ready to put the tree up...yet I was the one doing the work while he and Benny tried to figure out the instructions. Which is a picture of the tree with color names next to each layer of branches. This was after I all ready had half the tree up in the correct color order. Kinda easy if you put the biggest on first and work your way up with the smallest on top. And yet the boys gave up. In the end I was rewarded with a Merry kiss.

Mistletoe? We don't need no stinkin' mistletoe!

The decorating of the tree took a little over a week. I knew with a couple of crawling babies in the house it is gonna be quite a chore for everyone to keep them away from the ornaments. But for the kids' sake I pulled out the ornaments just as the got home from school to make some wonderful, lasting memories of tree decorating.

And I finally finished my nativity. I would've loved to do it a lot sooner because I enjoy painting, but it's the mess that keeps me from it. If I didn't have to clean up I would have a lot more projects going on.

Stay tuned.....as with JoAnna, I am starting Gingerbread house building on the 15Th of Dec. I am sure to have plenty of pictures. And we received some Christmas socks to wear for our Christmas family picture....Hopefully that post with the next one too.

Ick! Messy Baby

I don't think it's possible to have clean floors, clean walls or anything clean in a house when you have a baby eating food. Even a clean baby. Everywhere I look I see crumbs, splatters, and gooey, crusty fingerprints all over the place. So right now I'm in the "why should I clean up when it's just going to be destroyed in five minutes" mode. Vanilla Wafers are one of Ben's favorites. But after him slobbering and drooling all over one, it all slimy and mushy, in between his fingers and in his hair. That is unless I don't clean it up right away, (which I haven't been) it becomes hard and extremely stuck to any surface it falls upon. I think he has been enjoying the messes he's been making. It's starting to make him feel like one of the other kids. He seems quite proud of himself after he's finished.

Samantha is Six!

Sammy has had a happening month so far. After weeks of wiggling, wriggling, pushing and prodding...she finally lost her first tooth. She was quite excited. That happened on Veteran's Day. So of course the tooth fairy didn't make it that night. (Something about taking holidays off.) And then the next night nothing. But luckily for Sam after two long nights without a dime, the tooth fairy left a reassuring note that she did not forget Sam and that she "had a flat wing' and was also excited that Sam lost her first tooth and left her some cash.

Quinna wasn't excited.
This is the second time Sam has received cash this week. Aunt Les sent her some for her birthday. But it's really pissing Aquinna off. Aquinna got cash for her birthday in May, which she claimed she didn't want anymore so she ripped up. Garrett's May birthday card never made it so aunt Les sent him a half birthday card with some mu la this month. Again, Quinna is upset. Quinna being upset and pissed isn't just that. Her being upset includes yelling, stomping, throwing herself on the floor, throwing items (especially remotes) across the room, pounding her feet loudly up the stairs etc., etc. So, by the time Sam opened up her birthday gifts on Friday two more had money in them which led to....yep you guessed, two more of Quinna's fits. (I've fixed two xbox remotes and the TV remote all this week. I'm quite handy when it comes to stuff like that.)

Samantha did have a great birthday. She had a little party with her friends from school. She received some neat presents and whined a lot.

These are the lightbulbs I got for Sam. (The Easybake Oven came later )

That's what happens when you are nice to your kids and do special things for them. They whine, fight and argue just so you forget why you spent time and money on them. Garrett is especially skilled in this area. But I keep on doing nice things because I love them and I love to see their smiles even if it's only for a moment. Somehow that moment is worth it.

November All Ready

Can you believe how fast October flew by? I must say I am super excited for November. I don't know why exactly. But all the Halloween decorations are down and all the Thanksgiving ones are up. I will be on the look out for more Thanksgiving stuff this year I think. I just don't have enough turkeys, leaves, pilgrims in my house. And I don't have any cornucopias. (I spellchecked that!)

The kids were completely excited for Halloween. Especially Aquinna. She was always talking about how many more sleeps it was until Trick or Treating. As you can tell from the picture, this year we had: Harry Potter, a Vampiress, a Black Cat and a Dragon. Garrett's favorite part was his black hair. He got quite the reaction from his friends on the school bus because of it. Though last years fog was a great touch for a spooky night of trick or treating this years' weather was perfect. NO RAIN!! ( And no snow!) And not too cold.

We've also tried out the Spooner Farms pumpkin patch/corn maze. The kids had a great time. Though next year the Mr and I are hoping to leave the kids with a sitter and head to a haunted corn maze. I really do miss the Pumpkin Walk in Logan. Someone needs to start something like that up here. (It won't be me.)

Anyways, there is the October update. Let's see what will happen in the next couple of weeks to hopefully post about later.