Princesses and Babies

After breakfast this morning, the girls came back to the kitchen and very sweetly asked if there was anything they could do to help me. Oh boy, was there ever!! They picked up clutter, mopped floors, and wiped counters until the main floor looked great.
It turns out that they had talked it out together and decided that maybe if they helped me with all my jobs, then I'd have time to play with them. Great Thinking!!
After lunch I got to play "Princesses and Babies" with them. The first thing you have to do to play is don a princess dress. The girls were very surprised to find that I had one as nothing in their collection would even come close to fitting me. Of course, mine didn't fit quite like it did the last time I put it on. Goodness, that was 10+ years and four pregnancies ago. I am feeling good that I got that sucker over my hips. Luckily, I had a sweater to hid the fact that it is a sleeveless dress and the tiny little matter of the zipper not even coming close to zipping up all the way.
After we dressed, we took our babies and went to the royal ball where we danced with scarves to Vivaldi. Lovely time. Lovely.
Then we played a delightful game of tidy up the castle (yes, this was my idea). If you have never folded and put a way excessive amounts of laundry in you prom dress, you are so missing out! I think we should do it at least once a week. It was a fabulous way to put deposits in the emotional bank accounts of my girls and get my jobs done at the same time - BONUS!

Rock and Roll

Oh, the joys of motherhood!
My adorable little Gracie May blessed this evening by putting a rock up her nose. Oh, how we wished we were closer to Grandpa Byron tonight!! (He got to be quite a pro at removing items from eyes and noses thanks to Auntie Ky. Sometimes I think that Grace was supposed to be Auntie Ky's little girl, but she just couldn't wait to get here. Thank Goodness! I'm really glad she's mine!)
Anyway, in the absence of a loving Grandpa, we spent the evening at Primary Health waiting for the very nice PA to remove the rock. Grace was very brave and I pretended to be.
All is well that ends well.

Merry Christmas

We went to our ward Christmas Party on Saturday. I am sure that the Santa that was there was the "real" Santa. He was fabulous. He spent several minutes talking with each kid and never did ask them what they wanted for Christmas. He asked them things like what books did they like to read instead. It was great!


After the ward party (it was a breakfast party), we went to spread Christmas cheer with the Junior Jammers. The kids played their fiddles for two different care centers. It was so fun. The kids got to talk to the residents before and after the show and wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Caden made lots of old ladies happy with his cute smile and a few hugs.

After the fiddle shows, we went to Great Grandma's for a quick visit. She was putting up her Christmas tree and her house was all very festive with all her decorations. We couldn't help but take a few more pictures.
It was a very busy and fun day!

Gingerbread House

My friend Julie surprised us with this beautiful gingerbread house yesterday.  I love it.  It makes me smile every time I look at it.

Grace's "secret pocket"

We had a library book a few weeks ago called "Crafty Detectives."  In it the kids learned how to make secret pockets.  This morning Grace made one pretty much all by herself.  She's a pretty darn tricky three year old!

Can't even tell it's there, can ya?  

It is there - see.

Here is a close up of the "delicate" stitching.  It's made to look even more "delicate" by my use of the macro focus on the camera while wearing Caden on my back.   It is impossible to hold still enough with Caden wiggling on my back.  

Colin's Museum

This is what my stairs look like today.  Apparently it is a beautiful display in a museum.  It looks to me like it's one of those modern art displays.  There is a second display on the next set of stairs, however it is not open to the public yet.  

The other day he hung a sign in the front room that said, "employees only beyond this point."  I am glad that the museum doesn't have any signs like that because my bedroom and the kitchen are on different floors and I need access to them both.  :)  

brown eyes

These eyes make me melt like a popsicle on the 4th of July!

boys at bedtime

Aren't my boys adorable.  I love watching Colin be a big brother.  He is very good at it.  Colin likes to watch Caden for me as I finish getting the girls to bed or brush my teeth or whatever I need to do.  It is very helpful.  In these pictures they are working on cracking a code in the November Friend magazine.  The light was off and they were working by lamp light so I took one picture with the flash and one without.  It was very cozy looking in the dark.  

Lucky Socks

These are my brand new lucky socks.  Randy bought them for me at Fred Meyer's after Thanksgiving sale.   I love Randy and I love lucky socks, especially these.  They are very soft.  

"What makes them lucky socks?", You ask.  Well, I don't exactly know.  I've just always had a pair of not plain old white socks that I call my lucky socks.  With lucky socks on and a Ticonderoga pencil, I could pass any test given to me in high school.  Now there are no specific tests to take, but I still like a good pair of lucky socks.  :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have had a fabulous Thanksgiving.  We had Randy's parents, grandma, two brothers (Chris/Jack, and Jeremy), and sister Shelly and her family over for a lunch feast.  My turkey turned out very well and there was plenty of food to go with it.  Shelly out did herself with the pies bringing five different kinds and a pretzel salad.  Grandma's rolls were delicious and she did great with the sweet potatoes.  Great Grandma brought a yummy green bean casserole.  

We have been married eight Thanksgivings now and we are finally getting the hang of being adults.  I even had center pieces on the tables.  I am going to have to keep trying though - I forgot to turn the turkey drippings into gravy.  I am considering this year a great success even with the forgotten gravy.  Success being measured by the fact that the smoke alarm did not go off even once during the entire cooking process.  Wahoo!  Two years ago when we had Thanksgiving at my house, all the guests were waiting for the Turkey to be ready and as I slipped it back into the oven after checking it for about the tenth time, I spilled some drippings in the oven and we had to open all the windows and crank up all the fans to get the smoke out of the house.  Not pretty!  This year I had a meat thermometer so there was "no turkey tampering."  

I finished this hat while we were visiting.  It is so great to have children to inspire you to try new things.  

I wanted it to be my hat, but it is a little tight.  It fits Colin fabulously.  I will try again and we can have matching hats.