Naughty or Nice?

I love this child with all of my heart. I just don't know how I can survive another day of CONSTANT naughtiness, though. I'm about to duct tape her booty to a chair. You can't really tell in the picture but she has opened about 5 granola bars and is in the process of putting them in the microwave.

Oh Addy.....You're lucky you hold such a special place in my heart!

Monday Morning Musings

Addison has learned this great new trick. She has learned that she can push a chair over from the table to the kitchen cabinets and get virtually anything she wants. Like Saturday, when I walked in and found her peeling all the bananas. ALL the bananas. And don't worry, if what she is after is up in a cabinet and way too high, she has also mastered the art of climbing from the chair onto the counter and then opening the cabinet and taking what she wants.


Last Thursday, we scored some tickets to the biggest gig in town. Steve and I took Zac and Emily to the Conference Center to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Bell Ringing performance. It was so good and we had such a fun time.



Last Friday I turned 35. Yep. Thirty-five. My mom watched the kids that night so Steve and I could go out. Steve asked me what I wanted to do. I just looked at him with a look that says "Duh!". He knew exactly what that meant. Being that I am the last female on the planet who hasn't see Twilight, he agreed to force himself to sit through it for my benefit. After the movie we went out to eat. And since the kids were staying at my moms overnight, we played with their Christmas present until 2:00 in the morning. It was a lot of fun. We were sad to have to put it away the next morning before picking them up.


We have had so much snow here since Friday. Saturday morning Zac and his friend Garrett hit the "slopes". They spent hours playing in the snow.

Happy Birthday? Addy

I'm about to tell you a story. And you are gonna read it. And while you are reading it you are going to be horrified. Just try not to be too judgemental....

It was about a week before Thanksgiving and I told Steve, "Addy is going to be turning 2 soon. We need to plan a birthday party for her". I then asked him if he by chance knew what day her Birthday was. He didn't. I told him that I was pretty sure it was either the 27th or 28th of November but I wasn't quite sure. I then asked him how one would go about finding out when their child's birthday was if they were having trouble remembering, and all their official documents were packed away somewhere. He said you would ask her mother. Well....that made me feel even better about the whole thing.

Now, let me take you back to the week before Thanksgiving so you can have a better idea of how things were around here. Steve and I were in the process of slowly killing ourselves. Slaving day and night and night and day trying to get the house finished. My sister and her family were about to come into town and there wasn't any way possible that we could cram one more person into my mothers home, let alone 4. So like I said. Day and night, night and day. And on top of all that Steve was still trying to run a business and keep money coming in and I was trying to take care of 4 children, feed and bathe them, make sure homework got done, that they had clean clothes to wear, and trying to pack up at my mom's house so we could move into ours. Which we did. We moved in. And while trying to unpack here we were still frantically trying to finish the house and keep up with normal everyday life.

I thought about calling Addison's doctor and asking if they could tell me what day her birthday was on, but I thought they might flag her chart for possible neglect or horrible mother issues. Then one day when I was driving along I thought, "Hey! I can go back and check my blog and it will tell me what day she was born!". I put it into the back of my head that I needed to do that sometime before her birthday. Well, a few days later she got an ear infection. I took her to a doctor, not her regular doctor because that is too far away now that we moved, but a doctor close by our new house. He gave me a prescription and I took it to get it filled. The label on the bottle of medicine had her name and info on it and it said that her birthday was November 27th. Whew! Now I knew when her birthday was and I could go about planning her party. I knew we couldn't do a big, fabulous event. It just wasn't possible given the craziness going on about here.

I decided that we would go to lunch on her birthday, the day after Thanksgiving. We would go to McDonalds and eat and let the kids play in the playplace and have ice cream and open presents. Which we did. Addy had a very fun time eating her chicken McNuggets and playing. And what a bonus! She got presents too! (Sigh of relief) One more big thing down, without a hitch...

Now before I tell you the rest of the story I have to interject this one detail because I think it is funny. When we left the house and were on the way to McDonalds, Steve asked me which McD's we were going to. I told him the one in _______. (because it was the closest one to us) He said the only McD's he knew of there was in a gas station. I said, "Yeeeeaaaah.....". And he said, "That's the best we can do for our daughters birthday is a McDonalds in a gas station?". I just want to say that once you walk through the gas station to get to the McDonalds, it's just like a plain old regular McDonalds and you don't even know that there is the puming of gas going on right outside. You really don't.

OK, so about a week after her birthday we were at church and they gave us all our family's records and it had all our important dates on it. One being Addy's birth date. Which it listed as November 28th! Not the 27th! I guess last time I filled a prescription for Addison at Walgreens I told them the wrong day. Oops. Then I started thinking that maybe I told people at church the wrong day and how were we ever going to know who was right? So I immediately came home, got on the internet and pulled this up. Now I am certain that her Birthday really is the 28th. I think that it is probably something I won't forget ever again. Although I'm not exactly sure because most times I can't even remember my kids names. But I am going to try really, really hard to never again forget my youngest child's birth date.

All said and done, I think Addison, for the most part, came out pretty much unscathed from the whole ordeal. Here are the pictures as proof.

A Modest Christmas List

Steve and I told the kids that this Christmas the majority of their presents would be coming in the form of a house and their own bedroom with an awesome view. We did ask them to give us a list of the top 3 gifts they would like to receive (within reason). Auntie Lauren always gets them a good gift and between us and Santa, I think we can handle 3 presents. Here is Emily's list that she composed last night:

• i-phone
• laptop
• wii
• dog
• moon shoes
• hair dying kit
• papa
• jewelry making kit
• Grandma S.
• i-dog
• new scooter
• Nintendo DS
• pix-os
• MP3 player (she already has an i-pod, why she needs this in addition, I can't quite say)
• tamagotchi
• guitar
• girl tech stylin' studio
• new back pack
• best Christmas ever movie
• Shrek the halls
• candy
• mission money
• bratz
• 4 wheeler
• air hockey table
• pool table

Sure Emily, let me just go right out and get that for you.....

Snow Angels

We have been enjoying absolutely beautiful weather around here lately. Like no coat kind

of weather, and that is just unheard of in the month of December in these here parts. I knew it was too good to last, and it finally broke yesterday. We had a beautiful snowfall. The first in our new house. Aubrey played in the snow for hours last night. And the first thing she wanted to do when she woke up this morning was go back outside. Addy wanted to join her. They had so much fun. They played for over an hour in the snow. Addy just kept throwing herself down in the snow and laughing. It was so cute.

Ladies And Gentlemen - It Is My Pleasure To Bring You The Return Of MONDAAAAY....MORNINNNNNG.....MUUUUSINNNNGS!

So, being the fabulous wife I am, I surprised my husband with tickets to see Glenn Beck live on his Christmas Sweater tour. It was so good and we had such a nice time. It was our first date since August, if you don't count all those long "date nights" we spent working on the house. After the program ended Steve and I high tailed it out of there and practically ran to our car, trying to avoid the traffic. We did great. We got in the car in record time. I looked at the clock on the dashboard as soon as Steve turned the car on. It said 10:02 PM. We pulled out of the parking space and drove about 5 feet. Then we stopped and didn't touch the gas pedal again until the clock on the dash read 10:36. At which time we were able to slowly nudge our way out of the parking lot. All I have to say is, if you are going to design a parking lot that big, you should have more than 1 exit. Seriously.

I am trying to talk Steve into going before Congress and saying something along these lines, "I am here on behalf of all Concrete Stainers, and I was wondering, since our economy is in the crapper, umm, could I get some money from the government, which government I know wasn't set up for this purpose and all, but uhhh, well (this is where they whiny 5 year old voice comes in) you gave the banks some money and it's not fair if you don't give the concrete stainers money too and so, well, if you don't give me money too, then I won't play with you anymore!" (huff, puff, arms fold across chest and right foot stomps). I think it's ridiculous what our government is turning into. I can't even watch the "news" anymore.

Steve and two of his friends do this thing every week where they each make their picks of who they think will win the football games. It is some very serious thinking they do before they make their selections. Which players are out this week, this team has won this many games, blah, blah, blah. So I thought it would be fun for me to make my picks too. This is how I do it. I don't like to be biased by others choices so I don't look at the paper. Steve calls out the teams playing and it takes me about 1/2 a second to tell him who I think will win. I, with my vast knowledge about football, couldn't even tell ya what team I picked to win 10 seconds after I picked them. Well, HA! HA! I always come within a point or two of the person who won their little boy game thing. Steve hasn't let me make my picks the last few weeks. Hmmmm, I wonder why that is?

I am not a foofy person. I never have been. Just ask my mother, who tried for my entire growing up years to make me that way. I just don't like foof. And I like to just get things done the easiest and fastest way possible. When it comes to my children's hair, it's no different. No foof, easy, fast. That is why I have shaved Zac bald for most of his life. And that is why I cut my girls hair short. But now, for some reason, my kids all feel like expressing their individuality and they won't let me do what I wanna do when it comes to their hair. They have all refused haircuts for months now. Finally on Saturday Steve and I told Zac that either I was going to shave him bald or I would take him somewhere to get his hair cut. We went and got it cut and he looks very handsome, indeed. Well for the past 2 days Aubrey has been begging me to braid her hair. So I broke down this morning. After receiving a tutorial from this blog, I mustered up as much courage as I could, armed myself with elastics, a spray bottle and a comb, and went to work. How bad of a mom would you think I am if I told you this is the first time I have braided one of my girls hair? Well, it was. And it was actually kind of fun. Here is the finished product.

I thought I would throw in a few more pictures of the house. This is the living room. In our old house, we had to bend the top of this Christmas tree over so it would fit and there was no room for the angel on top. It looks a little small for this house.

This is taken standing where the Christmas tree is and looking the other direction. We still need to paint the big steel beam. We just can't agree on what color to paint it. Steve thinks fire engine red, I think black lacquer or metallic silver to match the railing. What do you think?

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice. ~Meister Eckhart

I told you I had more pictures. My sister Farrah and her husband Bart and their two boys, Gabe and Matt, came to visit us for Thanksgiving. We enjoyed spending time with them, and their trip ended all too soon. Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving day.

Matt and Addison. There is only a months difference in their age. They gave each other a taste of their own medicine everytime they were together. Farrah and I, at one time, considered locking the two of them in a room together and seeing which one came out victorious. This is a picture of Addy trying to hug Matt. He would have none of that.

My sister Lauren. This is the only picture I have of her from the front because she ran away from me everytime I tried to take her picture. I should teach her a lesson and post some of those pictures. However, I am feeling rather nice this morning so I won't.

Allyson (that would be me) and Steve


Beano, Sara, Sam and Bart watching the uhhhh.....who was that that was playing......oh yeah, watching the Cowboys game. Sadly from home this time.

Gabe and Zac completely ignoring me.

Emily and Aubrey playing Stratego.

Aubrey drinking orange cream soda and telling Emily that it was a 2 that she attacked.

Me Mum

Farrah and Matt

Please Pass The Catch Up

So, I have been absent from the blogging world for a few weeks now. But I think I am back. Maybe. We'll see. A lot has happened in the past few weeks. We finished our house (mostly). We moved in. We unpacked (a little). We still have about 100 small things that still need to be finished on the house, but they are small and we are loving living in our new home. Here are some of the things that we have done in the last few weeks.

5 days later......

So........started that there post on Sunday and that's as far as I made it. Man. It has been a week. And it isn't over yet. We have had something major every day/night this week.




Here's the low down. In house. Love it. Love it so much don't mind living in construction. No. I don't have everything unpacked. So please stop asking me that. I know I might have led some of you to believe that I am superwoman. I'm sorry. I'm not. Ahhhh.....OK, maybe I am. We moved in. Two days later my sister and her family came to visit from the Big D. Thought we should spend some time with them. Thanksgiving. Set up/decorated 2 Christmas Trees. Something major every dang day. Still working on actually finishing the house. I MIGHT finish unpacking after Christmas. We'll see.


Right now. I'm about to give you some pretty major picture overload. You know you want it. Here it is:



Zac, AKA: JFK at his school Wax Museum project

Zac and his friend Garrett as who knows what for Halloween

Aubrey as a Vampire

Addy, AKA: Funshine Bear

Witchy Woman Emily

One day I put all the girls hair in pig tails. Zac didn't want to be left out.

Steve and I putting the back splash in the kitchen. I'm not in the picture because Zac was there and I told him to take a picture of us working minus my butt. So naturally he would only take a picture with the focal point being my unnaturally large behind. I'm not posting any of those. You're welcome.

Bart and Gabe riding ATV's around our house the day before Thanksgiving.

Sam

Gabe

The whole sha-bang-a-lang gang

Everyone has been wanting pictures of the house. It has been in an unpostable state until recently. Here are a few. First, this is the view out of my bedroom window.

Last night, for some reason, I felt the need to have a dinner party. Here is the lovely table I set.

My Cousin Kathy is in town for the weekend. We went to breakfast with her and my mom and my Aunt Verdene this morning.

Had enough? Too bad. There are more pictures to come. They just needed their own post. It will have to wait though. Off to the next major event........Dang. I guess I should make dinner first. Sigh......