Allison said to me this morning "do you know who my boyfriend is that's a neighbor?" "Who?" I asked. "Tanner." (Tanner used to be a neighbor, now he and Alli go to preschool together.)

Last month Tanner's family was going to be coming over, and Alli was really excited. This was the conversation we had before they showed up:
Me: Alli, Tanner is coming over.
Alli: Yay! I'm so excited to see Tanner!
Alex: Is Tanner your boyfriend?
Alli: Yeah.
Me: You mean that he's your friend that's a boy, right?
Alli: Yeah. And he looks awesome, too.

Yikes.

Funny

My mom sent me this comic in the mail last week. I thought it was funny, especially considering the whole pencil/pen on the walls/sink situations we had last month. Thanks, Mom.

Why My Kids Are Laughing...

Unfortunately there is a little too much nudity to post a picture of this, but all 3 kids are in the bathtub together right now. Brynne is splashing up a storm and Allison and Holly think it's hilarious. Then Alli tries to make Brynne sit on her lap, but Brynne doesn't want to, so she starts doing full body splashes, which makes all of us crack up. I love my girls, and I love that they're all friends. I hope it stays that way!

I might also add that I love bathtime, because it's guilt-free computer time for me. I sit on the floor with my laptop and the girls have fun splashing (and getting clean!) It's a total win-win.

A Few Recent Pictures

Brynne was SO excited when Holly woke up a few mornings ago. She loves playing with her sisters, and she gets the most excited expression when they walk into the room.

This is how we found the girls last week. When we asked why they were (kind of) in the same bed the next morning, Alli said it was because Holly was scared, so she was helping her feel better. Two girls + one toddler bed=someone has to sleep on the floor.

Just a cute picture of Holly and Alex. I promise I love Alli and Brynne just as much as Holly . . . she just happens to be in all of these pictures today!

Late Sunday 10

1. Between visiting teaching, making dinner, having my sister and brother-in-law over for dinner and games, and pure exhaustion from having 11 4&5 year olds by myself for 2 hours of church yesterday, I just didn't feel like doing my Sunday 10. So there.
2. Shockingly, we had an amazing turnout for our choir performance yesterday. I wish I could say that our run-through before church was awesome and everyone knew the song . . . but we still pulled it off and it actually sounded really good. I genuinely enjoy being the choir director when it's time for the performance. It's all the weekday stuff I don't like. Practice, schmactice.
3. Last night we were getting the table set for dinner and Alex ran upstairs to wake Holly up from a nap. He was holding her with her head on his shoulder and all of a sudden she lifted her head up and barfed. Three times (or was it four?). It got all over Alex's back and ALL over the floor. Lovely. I think after that she felt better, and she's been acting fine ever since.
4. Thursday night we went to Pizza Factory with the Gardners. Afterward I went to Macey's and stocked up on cereal for about $1 a box. YAY! (For those who haven't seen my basement, I usually keep a ton of cereal in the storage room when I can get it on a good sale -- last Spring I bought close to 50 boxes for between .90 and $1 each and we finally ran out. Good timing for Macey's cereal sale!)
5. Saturday was spent out of the house while several people came to look at it. Thanks to the Gardners for letting us crash there for the afternoon.
6. On Friday I spent the whole day cleaning, particularly scrubbing down our shower which really needed some solid elbow grease. Cindy came over to keep me company in the afternoon, which I always enjoy. And we learned a very valuable lesson: If you ever need a romantic one-liner for your significant other, tell them to "climb the beanstalk of love". Don't ask.
7. Holly had her 3 year check up on Wednesday. She's healthy...and the doctor actually asked if her raspy voice bothered me. Interesting. I just told him I was sad that it was less raspy than it used to be. Apparently raspy, scratchy voices (or cool voices, as my sister calls them/smoker voices, as Alex calls them) can possibly mean enlarged adenoids.
8. I started trying to convert my blog to a book this week, but I decided I really don't like that Booksmart thing from blurb. Way too tedious. So for now I'm just converting it to a Word document, so at least I have it saved somewhere.
9. On Monday I went out with Chelsea, Lindsay, and Heather to see "Bride Wars". It was actually a really fun movie and not as girl fight-y as the previews made it look, though I couldn't stop from wanting to brush the bangs out of Kate Hudson's eyes the whole time...
10. When Cindy was here on Friday, she was pushing Brynne around in our little toy basket, and everytime she stopped Brynne would lean over and pull on her pant leg until she started pushing her again. It was so cute.

Time

This post makes me sad. Sure, she's still adorable and hilarious and infinitely easier than she was during this stage, but this was such a fun age for her. I guess I never really realize how sad I am for my kids to grow older until I see things like this.

Last night before bed she said the prayer. It went exactly like this:

"Heavenly Father, thank you for today, thank you that I could have ice cream, in the name..." and then Alex interrupted her to remind her that she needed to have a slightly more meaningful prayer. See? She's still adorable and hilarious.

Sunday 10

1. I am SORE today! I went to a yoga class with Lindsay yesterday and worked some muscles that I evidently haven't used in awhile!
2. Yesterday afternoon we headed to our friends (the Cooks) house to watch the BYU basketball game. We had fun chatting and the kids had fun playing.
3. We came home, put Brynne down for a quick nap, then headed out with the Grimshaws for some bowling (my worst game ever. I'm ashamed) and minestrone soup at their house. It was a fun night!
4. Friday was a long, but fun day. After lunch I packed up the kids and we headed down to Springville to visit Joy. Thank goodness the kids decided to play together well so Joy and I could chat and I could see her new baby.
5. After Joy's, we went to Springville High School and watched Alex's sophomore game, then stayed for the Varsity game. It was a really long day, but my kids were amazing (considering the circumstances!) and we all managed to stay sane until I could get them home to bed, around 9:45. Yikes!
6. My kids have been begging me all winter to take them to the "big slide". The big slide is a huge play place at a local mini golf/fun center that the kids love. We went on Wednesday, and they had a blast. It's a fun place for me, too, because it's all enclosed so I don't have to spend every second making sure one of them isn't running off.
7. Wednesday night was choir, and we had about 8 people there. My kids entertained themselves by setting up about 30-40 little chairs in a giant train. Fun, huh?
8. I got a lot of organizing done around the house this week, including the basement bedroom closet, which I pretty much haven't touched since we moved in. It looks much prettier now. :)
9. We found out today that our ward is getting moved to the new building by our house in March, and we're getting bumped to 1:00 church. ARE YOU SERIOUS!?!?! Can't we enjoy 11:00 church for more than 2 months? You probably shouldn't bring up the subject around me. I'm really mad about it. Really.
10. After almost a week of being clear of it, pink eye returned to our house last night. While we were at the bowling alley, Alli walked up and her eye had a little bit of goop and was all red. AAH! Luckily this morning it was looking much better, but she still had to stay home from church.

The Not-So-Baby

Brynne playing with the big girls: Allison, Holly, and Brooke

Brynne is getting so big now. She's 10.5 months old, and it's shocking to me that when Alli was this age I was ready to be pregnant again! Brynne is a busy little baby and always keeping me on my toes. She always puts things in her mouth, and I'm having a much harder time keeping small things off the floor now thanks to my older kids and their little toys.

After months of waiting for more teeth to appear, she cut her third tooth around New Years Day, and she has two more on the top coming through right now.

And, my once very stoic baby is suddenly coming out of her shell. Where it once took an agonizing amount of time to make her laugh, it's now just a tickle or two away. She's babbling all the time and walking around the family room with her little push-walk toy.

She says baby-style versions of "more" (ma), "peekabo" (ka ka ka), "pattycake" (a ka) and she finally said "dada" today! She's been getting obsessed with Alex this past week, and it's so cute to see how excited she gets when he walks in the room. Before he got home from work today, I was laying on the floor playing with Brynne and I said "where's dada?" I had my hands on my stomach, and she lifted up one hand and shrieked "dada!" like she was trying to find him under my hand. It was funny.

Alli told me tonight that she was excited for Brynne to get bigger so she could play more with them, because "playing with just two kids is so boring." I had to remind her how much she loves playing with Holly, and that maybe she just meant that it would be even more fun playing with Brynne, too. She agreed, but also said she would be sad for Brynne to get bigger, because "she's just so cute with her ga-gas and ma-mas".

Aren't kids a blast?

Sunday 10...and a public plea

1. I guess I'll start right off with the public plea. Please, please, when you are browsing the RedBox looking for something new and interesting to watch, do not go near "The Visitor". I know it looks enticing, but you will regret your decision. Most boring movie I have ever seen.
2. We just finished up a fun night with the Gardners and Marshalls. We had some homemade Cafe Rio, hung out, and played Scrabble. We are so grateful for our good friends.
3. On Saturday we spent a majority of the day out. Alex and I took turns in the morning working out at the rec center. Then we headed down to Spanish Fork to see a nephew's basketball game and hung out with Alex's family for the afternoon. On the way home we stopped to get an oil change and pick up a few groceries.
4. Saturday night we enjoyed a quiet night in with the potential to be really nice until I decided to bring home "The Visitor". It was still nice to just hang out at home, though.
5. Holly and Brynne have had pink eye most of the week, so I've pretty much been stuck at home. So I was thrilled to get a babysitter Friday night to go the varsity basketball game and to Sizzler with the Gardners afterward. It makes it even better when I know my kids were really good for the babysitter. Brynne was asleep when I left and the older girls were in their pajamas and ready for bed. They just colored and watched t.v. for an hour and went right to sleep. I love when my kids are good for babysitters!
6. We hit up a local restaurant for dinner Thursday night and had some yummy ribs and salad, made even better by a coupon for free kids meals.
7. After dinner we went to the Marshalls for a bit so Alex could watch some football game (I have no idea what it was, except that some guy totally bent his knee the wrong way as he was going down...OUCH!).
8. As I said, we were stuck at home most of the week, which gave me plenty of time and motivation to start back up on my old cleaning system. Before I got pregnant with Brynne I had a great system that helped me really keep my house clean, but once I got pregnant I was so tired all the time that I just did whatever I needed to get by. That pretty much hasn't changed, so I decided this week that I need to get back into those old habits. So tomorrow is the day. Wish me luck.
9. My kids are really into this "Barbie and the Diamond Castle" movie right now. They are constantly singing the songs to it and it cracks me up.
10. It's been really fun to watch Holly in Primary now. She's totally learning the words to songs and this week was way better with sitting still than last week. She's getting so old!

Booster Seat Help

I need some help from anyone with older children. We're getting ready to move Alli from her 5-point harness carseat to a booster seat, but I can't seem to find any information about what kind is best. Does she need a high-back booster, or can I just get the seat without a back? Any recommendations for good booster seats? Thanks!

Tender Mercies

A few years ago there was a talk in the LDS General Conference called Tender Mercies. I love to think about how the Lord has directed even some of the smallest things that happen in our lives. Today was another example to me that God is watching over us and protecting us.

When Alli left for preschool, Holly, Brynne, and I got in the car and ran several errands. I was running late, so I called my nieghbor Mary and asked if she could just keep Alli at her house for a few minutes after she picked the girls up from preschool and I would come get her when I got home. On the way home Holly said she had to go potty really bad, so I pulled into the garage, let Holly in and told her to run to the bathroom, got Brynne in her high chair and gave her some crackers, and then ran across the street to get Alli. We came back into the garage and I grabbed two armloads of groceries and Alli told me that the garage door was locked. I started knocking for Holly to unlock it and she yelled back that she didn't know how (even though she was the one who had locked it). She kept trying to unlock it but couldn't quite do it. Then I remembered that I hadn't taken my purse in from the car yet, so I ran to grab my purse and get my keys out of it and just as I'm getting back to the door I hear a loud crash and Brynne screaming. My heart started pounding thinking that maybe she had somehow tipped her highchair over or something, and I frantically find the garage door key and open the door. I saw that she had pulled the table runner off the table, complete with my centerpiece (a vase with flowers and a bunch of clear beads) and everything had fallen down, all over the kitchen floor and her chair. I ran into the kitchen just in time to see her grab a bead and start putting it in her mouth. I screamed "NO BRYNNE!" and totally made her cry, which also made her put the bead down.

I'm so grateful that Alli was ready to go when I went to pick her up, and that I hadn't taken my purse in so I was able to open the garage door. It makes me sick to think of what could have happened if I had gotten in the house even one second later than I did. I'm extremely grateful that Brynne didn't pull down the vase earlier, and that we totally avoided any near-choking incident. I definitely know we're being watched over.

This is Why I Love My Girls...

Holly: Mom, look what happened! (Shows me her broken headband that she just got for her birthday).
Me: Oh no! How did that happen?
Holly: I just did this (shows me how she stretched the ends as far as she could).
Me: Yeah, we can't stretch out our headbands like that or they will break. Let's throw it away now.
Holly: NO! I want to keep it forever. I love it!
Me: You got some money for your birthday. Why don't we go pick out a new headband at the store?
Holly: I just want this one to be fixed. Why don't we just tape it?
Me: That won't fix it.
Holly: That makes me sad. If Alli does silly things that will help me be happy.
Me: Alli, Holly is really sad that her new headband broke. She said if you do silly things it will help her be happy.
Alli: Okay! (While dancing silly) oooh bloo blee bloo blaaaaa.
Holly: That is a silly thing! That makes me be happy!

That just happened. And as I wrote this Alli and Holly continued to break the two pieces of headband into 8 total pieces.

Happy Birthday to Holly!

I just have to say a little about Holly. I have pretty easy kids so far, but Holly is definitely the most difficult of the three. But the things that make her difficult also make her so funny. That's always what people say about Holly: that she's funny. She's so stubborn and whenever she doesn't want to do something she goes completely limp and lies on the floor wherever she happens to be (always embarrassing when it's in a store...) So it's really frustrating, but without fail I laugh whenever she does it. It's also hard to discipline her because she tends to say something funny when she gets in trouble, and then I have a hard time staying serious.

Holly is one of the sweetest little girls. Whenever I put on a new shirt or new earrings, she says "Mommy, you look beautiful!" She also tells me at least a couple times a day that I'm her "best Mommy ever". She loves to cuddle, and she loves to help me pick out placemats for lunch and dinner everyday. She loves to have me curl her hair. She is really good at sharing, and we always have to tell Alli to share as good as Holly does. Sadly, Holly's raspy voice has gotten less raspy this past year. And no one is more disappointed than I am! She's such a fun daughter, and we're so blessed that she's ours.

So here are a few pictures from her birthday yesterday!

Paisley, Holly, and Alli swimming.

Opening presents

Thanking cousin Keira for her Snow White present.

Ballerina cake. Holly's only request for her cake was that it have sprinkles.

All the swimming and fun wore her out and she actually took a nap in the late afternoon.

Sunday 10

1. Happy New Year! We've had an eventful week. It started Monday with an ugly sweater party (which I unfortunately forgot to get pictures of, even though I had my camera in my purse...)
2. Tuesday was my niece Abby's 1st birthday! We wish we were closer to them to be able to see her on her birthday, but the phone will have to do for now.
3. Wednesday we went with the Gardners to take the kids to see The Tale of Desperoux (is that how you spell it?). Alli loved it, but the rest of us were a little too antsy through such a slow movie. Can't give that one great reviews, even for a kids show!
4. We spent Wednesday night at the Gardners, and the older 3 kids had a sleepover in Brooke's room. Getting them to all fall asleep while sharing a room was no easy task, but they had a great time. The rest of us, including the Hills who came over, stayed up way too late playing games and chatting, which made many tired people the next day!
5. Thursday morning Lindsay and I ran to the mall to check out the Bath and Body Works sale. Then Alex and I got the kids ready and went home. Unfortunately we walked into a freezing house, around 48 degrees. Our heater decided to stop working while we were gone. Thanks to some great neighbors we got a little help and some space heaters, and we've survived so far! We have someone coming in the morning, so hopefully it's a quick and easy (and cheap!) fix.
6. Friday was a long day... We found out someone was coming to see our house, so we had to get everything clean. Then we drove to Orem and did some birthday shopping for Holly, I dropped Alex off at basketball, then the girls and I had to drive to the boonies of Payson to pick something up. After a couple potty breaks for the kids (um, such a pain when I have to get all 3 kids out of the car so one can go to the bathroom!) we finally made it back to Mountain View for Alex's game. We stayed for all 3 games which was surprisingly less stressful than I thought it would be, especially because I was able to get Brynne to go to sleep for about a half hour.
7. Unfortunately, during that afternoon Brynne started getting red and oozing eyes, and it was ultimately determined she had pink eye. Thankfully, the after hours doctor just called in a prescription so I didn't have to take her in.
8. Yesterday Holly turned 3! She's seemed old to me for a long time, so it wasn't too hard for me to come to grips that she's a year older. (Okay, confession time...I tend to get a little sad when my kids have birthdays -- Alli is now trained to say that she knows I want her to stay little, but she just has to get bigger). Alex took them swimming at the Legacy Center and the kids had a blast. I stayed home with Brynne and made Holly's cake.
9. I have Alli in my primary class now, and Holly's officially in primary. So funny to watch both of them in primary.
10. Spare ribs for dinner tonight... yum!