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.
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.
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
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 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.
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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.
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.
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.
The kids spent the night at her house last Friday and they went sledding at a near by hill. 24 hours of heaven for me. I need a break every once in a while.
Back in December Cloe and Brody had a piano recital. They were feeling pretty crummy but went anyways. I didn't go because I was too sick. But I hear they played great.
Time Out for Woman in November. My mother in law took the girls. We stayed the night and had a lot of fun. It was a little stressful for me because Charlotte was recently diagnosed with diabetes and wasn't in my care, but she survived and I was spiritually uplifted. 
this burrito was huge. She is pregnant and skinny and had no problem just about finishing it!
Well I found some inspiration for the girls room re-do. I have always loved turquoise jewelry and actually don't own any, that's how much I apparently love it. I like that the style seems to be bold light blue and turquoise for decor but I'm not daring enough to give it a try. I thought I wanted to do pink and red in the girls room until I saw an image of this online 
I was reminded that I have always loved light blues with red and pink. My friend gave Charlotte a baby blanket that was light blue with pink cherry blossoms and it is one of my favs. While flipping through Better Homes and Gardens (because the lady that used to live here hasn't put in a forwarding address at the post office, so annoying, but I got to look through her magazine) I saw a page with a wall painted "ocean breeze" by Benjamin Moore (pg 39 if you have the mag).
This website made it look pretty green, but I promise it's a blue :)
Now, this is where you come in. Here is their room now.
No furniture will be painted, fyi.
do you think solid colored comforters? design? wall decor? I know I have talented friends that can do this better than me. and window coverings for sure, plain windows in a painted room don't work for me. I guess the proper word is textiles, I learned that from ikea. Or should I not paint the wall blue, paint it a white or neutral color and incorporate ocean breeze, red and pink with the decor?
Now I need help with another spot in the house, the shoes. It isn't working where it's at and I could use some help.
this is walking in from the garage, the way we always come in the house
this is the area inside the garage door
and then you go up these stairs. The rugs are there to prevent stuff being tract in because shoes are still on.
and turn left to this
I know we could go without some of these shoes in the basket, but that isn't the point, this is blocking a hallway. It needs to be moved but I don't know if I want the basket.
I wish I could convince Ryan to build me something like this but smaller of course
thanks friends, I knew I could count on you :)
It's reared it's ugly head around here long enough. So I will post about our new home, I finally put up our Valentine decorations. Okay that might not seem like something that was procrastinated but considering I usually take out my Valentine decorations as I am putting my Christmas stuff away, I procrastinated. And last but not least, my holiday weight gain. I almost posted a bunch of pictures of our house with all pride put aside with boxes and stuff still lying around. I decided against that because if I show you a bunch of pictures of my house, you still won't get the layout anyways. When we first moved in I was not happy because they did not leave it very clean. They did surface cleaning so that it appeared clean but there was so much deep cleaning to be done before we could really unpack, hence the long wait for pictures. But thanks to some friends and especially my mom who made the load lighter by coming over and helping out!! But now....it feels like home and I really enjoy the home. So much room. Here a few of the highlights.
The house. On the north side is the 3 car garage (the house faces east) and we are the second to last house on a dead end street. Don't you just love the Christmas lights, wagon wheels and water well decor left behind. As the snow is melting I found 2 plastic skeletons poking out from under the snow, into the trash can they went. I was also left with two bales of hay but I'll save those for the chickens. My favorite leftover decor wasn't the 2 American flags stuck in the ground but the grapevine twisty thing that framed the door with Autumn leaves tied in. Now to take out the hideous nails used to support the grape vines.
Are we having a 5th child? You betcha, with this tub! Can you imagine soaking in something like this in the last trimester and at the beginning of labor!! I have always wanted a big tub for pregnancy and that is pretty much it. Not much of a bather. It is Ryan's dream come true to come home after basketball and soak with a good book. Actually, I'm sure I will get a lot of use out of it when I start training more and my legs are dead tired.
(think of Oprah announcing this with her Oprah/Opera voice) "a toy rooooom!" It was all put together until it was played in and all I have to do is shut the door.
working on a little reading corner.
and the kitchen. So much space. The counter tops feel huge, I had minimal counter space at out other house. Plenty of storage but I do have one complaint, the sink is so shallow and the garbage disposal sink is tiny. It is an older house but I can cope.
This picture also shows some of the valentine stuff. I really wanted it to look like Valentine's had thrown up in my house because I just love Vday decorations but considering we have tripled our house size, my decor only filled the kitchen. Seeing the colors makes me happy, so I guess that means I should decorate with red more. Pink is a little much as a "house color" but red can work. I am redoing the girls room for their birthday which is in February because their walls are dark blue. Maybe I should do a pink red theme in there. But I don't want to get sick of it....But I think I'll love it....suggestions?
I feel like this house is a "blank canvas" and I have a bunch of ideas but don't know how to start them. One thing I really want to do is a picture wall and also photos of Italy throughout. Don't ask me why we have never had photos of Italy hanging in our home. But I am totally open to suggestions. Maybe we can take this room by room, so eventually i will post some pictures throughout the house.
I finally took my kids cross country skiing. Charlotte had the privilege of taking a nap at aunt Corine's.
We went with Grandma Brown and had a good time. Cloe said she didn't like it because she fell a lot but later admitted that she actually did enjoy herself. I kind of think that as the oldest she likes to be the first, the fastest and she wasn't. But she was trying and falling and getting frustrated. I think I'll take them again Saturday, I know she'll have the hang of it and redeem herself.
Oh did you want me to make mention of the holiday weight? Well I put on 4-5 pounds and I am running a half marathon in April so I wanted to drop the weight before I started training. I found a super easy diet, the slow-carb diet, and it has totally been working. Now I need to find the motivation to start running again, actually working out again.
