Tuesday, February 22, 2011

the replacements


charlotte has a designated shoe box that she is allowed to carry the baby chicks in. with supervision of course and they are up high now where she can't reach them. These ones should make it.


Notice we bought 3 this time. If she pulls the same stunt we will have one leftover. Just thinking ahead.

bedroom redo

Like I mentioned before, I was redoing the girls room for their birthday. Well Cloe's birthday was Friday and Abbey's was Sunday so Friday was devoted to finishing it. I did all the painting by myself so it took forever because I couldn't do it while the kids were asleep and it was so hard to do it while Charlotte was awake. Baby chicks and Abbey having the day off on Friday, kept Charlotte busy enough for me to finish. After getting the first coat down, yes the paint included primer but light blue over navy is tough work, it looked messy and I wasn't liking it. After the second coat, loved it. It is a big room so the walls feel a little empty, that will be a slow process to add decor to them but I have some ideas.

Here is the before



and the finished project. would you be surprised if I told you Ryan doesn't really like it? It's amazing how different our taste is.
I'm not stoked about the curtains. It was 4.99 total at Ikea but I didn't realize they would be so sheer. But they work for now.
I picked this fabric out and my mom the seamstress made them (I know, they are just pillow cases, but I'd rather not). The pillows inside were in the "as is" section of Ikea for 59 cents.
Cloe's bed
Abbey's bed

Sunday, February 20, 2011

9. seriously, she's 9!


Birthday's aren't too eventful on a school day but she had fun and felt special. Her menu was pancakes, home lunch, and pasta with fish. For her party she originaly wanted to go to build-a-bear workshop but I convinced her to go cross country skiing. Her cousin and friend (polygamist friend is how I seem to describe her) from school came. It was snowing but we had a lot of fun. We came home for lunch and chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Now, stop growing.

a day late and a buck short

a post from Cloe's blog today:



My chicks
Just a few minuets ago, Charlotte killed both of my sweet sweet baby chicks! There names where pip and lady. I had to throw them away and I couldn't bare hearing the crash they made hitting the bottom of the trash can. I'm so sad, I'm crying right now! Luckily, my mom said that tomorrow we will get maybe 3 chicks but of course, we will get more chicks.

She posted this shortly after the incident and I think it's cute that she felt the need to write down her feelings.
Here are some pictures from their short life, rest in peace little chickies, for tomorrow you will be replaced. (and carried away in the garbage truck because it is trash day)




Charlie and I bought them at IFA on Thursday and I'm surprised they weren't loved to death before today. They were held constantly and also pooped constantly. Charlotte went downstairs and tried to carry both chicks at the same time and one of them is (was) pretty active and I'm assuming it tried to climb out of her hand and she ended up squeezing them to death. Her shirt had tons of poop on it and their necks were limp in her hands. I about puked. blech. Brody was instantly crying hysterically and CLoe wasn't too phased. I wasn't thinking at the moment so I told Cloe to go throw them away. She first went for the kitchen trash and I told her no, outside. Of course she came back in, in tears. "I gave them one last kiss and then I could hear them thud at the bottom of the trash and it made me so sad". I felt like such a mean mom for making her do that. It build character. And tomorrow they will be replaced and soon forgotten.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

hearts day

<

I almost ran out of things to do to avoid cleaning up the kitchen. Charlotte has an appointment tomorrow in West Jordan so I should be getting ahead of myself since I will be gone all morning buuuut. I'm not, I just have to blog about V-day because I know you are dieing to know and I am dieing to find something to distract me from doing what I should be doing.
Remember when I blogged about not feeling organized? Well I kinda sorta forgot to prepare for Valentine's day. Luckily pink heart shaped pancakes are made from items I always have on hand. I just wish I would've bought more than one of these hear from the dollar section at Target years ago. It is handy but only having one on a school morning is not efficient. Due to my lack of organization and planning I didn't make them a cutsie v-day lunch, they bought school lunch.

Ryan surprised Cloe at school with a red rose (carnation) and a stuffed bear and took her to lunch at Red Robin. She loved it. I was in charge of her class party and right when I got there she told me all about it and I could see in her face how much she loved it. He also stopped by Abbey's class with a bear and rose (carnation).
For her class party I changed it last minute. My friend gave me a good idea, "minute to win it" games. They had to stack heart candies on their forehead and balance it and they had to balance pencils on the back of their hand and try to pull their hand out from under the pencils and catch them. To kill the rest of the time they made a craft.

Ryan told me he wanted me to make bread pudding for his valentine's gift. I haven't tasted much bread pudding nor have I ever made it. It turned out good but if you have a recipe you like send it my way. I thought it could've used some sort of sauce on top. Since he chose dessert, the kids chose their favorite dinner, "cat noodles with white sauce".

Cloe told me this was the best Valentine's ever. That makes me happy.
I have tried to throw away as much v-day treats as possible but it's like it multiplies. You cut it's head off and it grows back 2 more.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

mindless post.

Well I have wanted to blog but just can't seem to come up with anything to blog about. I usually get my blogging ideas when I clean or go running. Is that a clue of what I haven't been doing lately? I feel like my days are so busy and I have tried to think of ways to make them less busy, some days my kids don't get all of their homework done. But I don't feel like I have things that can be cut out of my day but while reading the Ensign (had to throw that in to remind you how spiritual I am) I realized I am not too busy, I am unorganized with my day. I grocery shop a week in advance, I have daily chores so the task of housework isn't too overwhelming but it isn't organized. So I started with a chore chart. ya, ya, those seem to come and go around my house but my kids are freaking old enough to help me clean the kitchen every evening and to have daily chores. And I am also going to experiment with morning scripture reading rather than evening. I know my day is far better when I start with reading my scriptures, why wouldn't it affect the kids as well.

I have also decided I don't video or photograph my kids enough. As much as I would like to believe that I will not forget "these days" and their little personality traits, we all know I will. So I am making more of an effort to take pictures of them and also those moments. That is what was so great about my picture a day blog, I was looking back on it and noticed that Abbey's face had slimmed out a little bit and realized how fast they change in little ways. So of course this is going to be followed by some of those recent moments.

family skate night with the kids school, despite the look on her face, she loved it.
Brody got brave and tried roller blades. He fell quite a bit but seemed to enjoy it. Abbey and Cloe attempted to skate and blade but were too frustrated, glad I brought the scooters.
oh the trampoline. Charlotte cries and cries to go jump on the trampoline. She gets all dressed up to stay warm and Brody usually ends up taking her. He is so in love with her, she can get him to do anything for her.


Abbey got her first list of spelling words this week.
helping me clean the bathrooms. We clean nude around here, I'll post a picture of myself cleaning someday.
easiest kid to potty train. It all started because when her blood sugar would get high, she would have a lot of sugar in her urine and it would cause a bad yeast rash. I was out of medicine and didn't want to hassle with the pharmacy (give me a break, wal mart isn't right behind us anymore). So I took her diaper off to air out her bum, the rash went away and she quickly figured out the whole toilet thing. She started yelling "I'm done" and I was surprised that she was going by herself, since then we've been all good. That is the real reason she is cleaning naked, I don't have to worry about her peeing on the floor trying to get her pants off in time.

To touch on my recent mention of my lack of running, I didn't make any resolutions this year. I just planned out my year up until July. Part of that plan includes a half marathon that is in April. Yeah, and I'm not running much. I think I will stick with Fall and Summer long distance races, I have no motivation to go out and run in the early morning darkness or the cold in general. I am going to die in April.