December Blogging

In case you didn't know, I'm a horrible blogger in December.  There's so much to do and blogging seems to take the back burner! We have our tree up.  The garland is up outside, but since my bows that I usually put up with the garland have faded to orange, I eliminated them this year and will hope to find some on clearance after Christmas.  I ordered my Christmas cards.  I have a bunch of Amazon boxes stacked next to my bed that are serving a double purpose as a nightstand.  One night I need to find some time, lock my bedroom, and door and sort through them.  I love Christmas time!

Fun with candy canes!

It's almost December

Ok, so it's one day away from December and it's time for me to think about my Christmas photo card.  I've been brewing up an idea all year for this year's theme.  I think I have a good one, but when it comes down to taking a group photo shot of seven children ages 6 months to 9 years old, the task seems impossible.  Here is my plan:  First I'm going to attempt to take a group photo.  I am mostly expecting it to be a flop.  So Plan B will include taking an individual photo of each child.  I plan to get my photo cards at Shutterfly.  I love Shutterfly.  For the past five years I've been using Shutterfly for my Christmas cards, Christmas photos, and Photo Books.  One thing I love about Shutterfly's photo cards is that they have options for cards with multiple pictures which will allow me to go with my Plan B, if needed.  Shutterfly has a few options for your Christmas needs:

1. Folded 5 x 7  Greeting Cards.  It's kind of expensive, but if you consider that you don't have to buy Christmas cards, a good deal.
2. Flat Photo Cards.  I use these the most because they are the most economical.  
3. Flat Stationary Cards.  These come in 5 x 5 and 5 x 7. Remember that 5 x 5 cards require extra postage!

I can't wait to use this one someday. But instead of the names of the months, we'll have the names of our children.

Oh the choices!  So tonight is the photo shoot and I will likely be on Shutterfly late in the night editing and making the perfect Christmas Card to keep in touch with my family and friends this Christmas Season!  Yay!

Are you a Blogger and do you want 50 Free photo cards?  Click here and sign up.  Happy Christmas Carding!

Neglect

No, I'm not talking about neglecting my kids. I'm admitting to the fact that I've been neglecting the blog. I've been a little inundated with things right now. Last week my husband was out of town.  This week is Thanksgiving.  I need to do our Christmas card photo shoot and that always stresses me out a bit. We showed our house this morning at 10 AM which means that it needed to be cleaned. We worked on our 72 hour kits this weekend.  Tonight was Mopping Monday.  There's more to the list, but I won't bore you.

Tonight was also Family Home Evening.  I was in charge of the activity and I chose a dance party.  We turned on some Pandora.com and danced to Stray Cats and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.  It was good exercise and fun for the whole family, except for Rachel because she kept getting trampled and it made her cry. And except for George because he was sleeping.  Five out of seven isn't bad.  Here are some pics:

Tonight George joined us for the first time at the dinner table.  It was quite the milestone for him.  He was so happy that he cried the whole time he was sitting in his highchair.  He wasn't too thrilled about the torn up bread pieces.  He likes the bottle and only the bottle.

Comment Jackpot

So the other day I logged into my Blogger account and there was a message at the top of my dashboard that was recommending that I should check my comments that were awaiting moderation.  For the past five months I had been oblivious that I had comments on some of my blog posts that were apparently marked as spam.  I guess Blogger thought I couldn't possibly be getting 12 comments on one post so it flagged the comments as "spam."

It was fun to check them, because as some of you other bloggers might understand, comments can feel like a boost of self esteem or a big giant hug. Most of them were from friends and family when I posted about my mom dying. I just wanted to take this post to thank those who sent a comment.  I can't believe I missed out on the love all these months.  It was a nice surprise though,  and they were very kind and thoughtful.  Thanks!

In other news....

There is none.  My life is very boring this week.  I've been educating myself on the United States Constitution.  I came to realize that I know very little about it.  I don't like the way the country is heading and I want to be an informed American.  I want to teach my kids about it too.  I have class with my oldest two every day at 1:30PM after lunch.  I have the following alliteration schedule:

Math Monday
Constitution Tuesday (It's technically not alliteration, but both words have the "too" sound.)
Writing Wednesday
Theatrical Thursday
Fun Friday

So every Tuesday I post on a different blog called www.constitutiontuesday.blogspot.com.  You are welcome to join me there and learn about the constitution with my children and me.  Today we learned about the Constitutional Convention.

I think I am also going to start posting random photos on my boring days because posts are so much better when they include a photo.  So here is the random photo of the day:

September 24, 2010

This was on our drive back from CA. We stopped at some river in a forest in CO.  The water was freezing, but the kids enjoyed throwing rocks into it. It was navy blue shirt, khaki shorts, and pink shirt and white skirt day.

A picture with my dad.  Even my dad had on a navy blue polo. (But not on purpose.)

4th Annual Celebrate Day

Ok, so I think it's about time I post about our 4th Annual Celebrate Day which took place on October 27 this year.  If I don't post now, I will likely never will.  And since today was a rather uneventful day, aside from a good day at church, it's a good filler post.

What is Celebrate Day?  In 2007 as part of school, my husband had Emily and Bradley come up with their own holiday.  Bradley's was Celebrate Day to occur on the last Saturday of October.  It was a day to simply celebrate.  The only rule was that Mommy and Daddy had to spend the entire day with the kids.  No solo projects or work was to be done.  Over the past few years we have added some additional traditions to the day.  The only other strict rule is that we must eat French fries and a cold dessert.  The first year we also coincidentally listened to the song "Holiday" by Madonna because it came on the radio in the car, but I couldn't find my CD this year and we weren't lucky enough for it to be on the radio.

This year we spent the day playing games.  The kids woke up at 7:30 AM and we heard them thundering down the hall shouting, "It's Celebrate Day!!!"  It was like Christmas morning.  Here are some pictures of the games we played and the Wendy's Frosties we ate:

Jason picked Chutes and Ladders

Wendy picked Monkeys on the Bed

Sarah picked Apples to Apples.

Bradley picked Parcheesi and poor Emily didn't get a chance to pick a game because we had to go to Wendy's and grocery shopping.

 The Frosties

If you are wondering what holiday Emily created in 2007, hers was "Kid Parent Day".  It was a day when the kids are the parents and the parents are the kids.  That one didn't work out so well.

Quick Post

I'm going to write a quick post because I feel badly for not being diligent with blogging. Today I think I finished getting the kids' wardrobes winterized.  I did the girls winter clothes last Friday.  Now as of today, Bradley has long sleeved shirts and pants (or as Wendy would call them "long sleeved pants") in his dresser.  Jason is now wearing 4T clothes and I put away all the 3T.  All the children have winter church shoes available.  The girls have black shoes and Rachel has shoes that fit her.  (She was wearing a pair of black patent leather shoes that were 2 1/2 sizes too big for her to church every week.)  Thank goodness for people who hand down clothes to us!  I don't think I even have to buy much this year for my kids.

I have some leadership training to go to tomorrow morning for church at 8AM.  That's early.  Time for bed.....

Tuesday

Our local grocery store had Barilla pasta on sale this week - Buy Two Get Three Free.  That's seriously an awesome deal and it makes it $0.60 a box.  I noticed the deal on Saturday evening doing my regular grocery shopping and I loaded my cart with 60 boxes of pasta of all shapes and sizes.  The cashier rang me up and the cash register only took off 6 free boxes, because in the small print there was limit of 10.  They should really put the fine print on the sale tag by the pasta.  However, they didn't and she had to proceed to void off 50 boxes one by one. Then we did 5 more transactions with only 10 boxes of pasta each.  Since today is the last day of the sale, I went back this evening and bought 60 more boxes of pasta.  I would've bought more, but my cart was quite full.  I'm pretty sure they thought I was quite weird.  So that is about as exciting as my week has been so far.  It would be great if I could post a picture of all my pasta, but it's still in the car.

Satisfying Sunday

So this weekend was a good weekend.  I think I snapped out of my funk.  On Saturday I went to a women's conference thingy at church.  I wasn't really in the mood to go.  Sleeping in an extra hour sounded more enticing, but I went.  I always walk away from those events feeling uplifted with a boost of energy and spiritual power.  That evening I prepared a lesson to teach at church.  It was based on a talk by President Uchtdorf at General Conference this past October.  His talk was titled, "Of What Matters Most."  So what does matter most?  This:

God
Family
Fellowmen
Ourselves

If we take time to slow down our busy lives and focus on these four relationships (including a relationship with ourself) things have a way of working out and functioning more smoothly.  It all boils down to the Gospel of Jesus Christ as being the center of our life.  When it's at the center of our life, things fall into place.

We can nourish our relationship with God by praying and reading our scriptures.  We nourish our relationship with our family by spending time with them.  We nourish our relationship with our fellowmen by serving them.  We can nourish our relationship with ourselves by taking time to get to know ourselves better.  For example going for walk in nature, watching a sunrise (or I prefer a sunset), and pondering as we enjoy God's creation.

I love when I can snap out of a funk.  This week is going to be less busy, thank goodness.  This is a good week for me to slow down and focus on these things.

On another note, George is miserable.  He was born in May, it's 30 something degrees outside, 69 degrees inside and I think he's miserably cold.  All he wants to do is sleep snuggled up to me in my bed.  He cries when I put him in his crib.

On Wednesday my husband took the kids to Target and the candy was half price.  Since we didn't go trick or treating on Sunday, he let them all choose their favorite:

 Tootsie Rolls for Sarah

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups for Emily

Caramel Covered apple flavored suckers for Jason

Smarties for Rachel 

 Double Bubble for Wendy

Hershey Bars for Bradley

Bradley's Best Baptism Birthday

How is that for alliteration?  I love it.

So, yes, Bradley turned 8 today.  For his birthday he wanted to get baptized.  As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we believe age eight is the age of accountability and the age when a person is first eligible for baptism.  Basically children are innocent before they reach this age which can be a confusing concept for a parent because children of all ages can be quite naughty and annoying.  However, there is something about eight year olds that changes.  I think it's an age when the mind matures and is able to make more conscious decisions between right and wrong.  I noticed it with Emily.

Bradley had a great day.  I have to say, having a boy baptism is so much easier than a girl one because you don't have to worry about a white dress and what to do with the wet hair after.  Here are some pictures:

It was the kitchen floors.

So, I conclude it was totally the kitchen floors that was putting me in a bad mood.  My mood has improved greatly over the past couple of days, but it's been a busy week and I neglected to blog Tuesday.  I voted yesterday and I was glued to the TV watching the election results.  I love election day.  I think it is so fun to see Americans voice their opinion and make a difference.  I bet my mom would've loved yesterday.  I miss talking to her about politics.

Tomorrow is Bradley's 8th birthday and he will be getting baptized.  Woo hoo! I'm tired, but just wanted to let you know I am still here.  Pictures still to come....

I should blog, but...

I just don't want to blog right now.  I was in super-grump mode today for no apparent reason.  I have noticed a correlation between my mood and the cleanliness of my kitchen floor.  I haven't mopped my kitchen floor in over two weeks because I was sick last Monday and I only mop on Mopping Mondays (because I like alliteration.)  I mopped it this evening, so we'll see how my mood is tomorrow. It should improve. Or....it may have nothing to do with my floors and I might just be grumpy because it's nearing that time of the month and I have a lot to do this week.  Sigh.  I vote for clean kitchen floors to solve the problem because being grumpy is hard work and exhausting.  So this is my attempt tonight.  I have lots to talk about.  We had our 4th Annual Celebrate Day on Saturday.  Pictures later....

Trunk or Treat

Every year our church has a Trunk or Treat event for the kids.  The kids love it.  This year they dressed up as a rainbow with a pot of gold at the end.  The costume only works if the kids stick together, which of course they didn't, but it made a good picture.  I purchased the black plastic cauldron for $7 at Walmart.  I bought the shirts as well, but I don't totally count it as part of the costume budget, because they will be worn as regular clothes again.  It will be fun going out as a rainbow all the time.  (Just kidding.  Maybe just some of the time.)

The Rainbow

Bobbing for Donuts.

After the game was long done and the kids moved on to the next activity, I looked over and saw Wendy (in green) still standing all by herself underneath her swinging donut, trying to catch it in her mouth.  I'm happy that she was being so obedient by not using her hands.  She failed to catch on that the rest of the kids eventually ended up using their hands to scarf down their donuts.

Their faces were sugary messes after the game.

The Pot of Gold

Umm...

I'm not quite sure what to blog about today.  My neck is out of whack and I have a cold.  I'm not in the most comfortable state of being right now.  Hmmm.  That's about it.  I taught my kids some stuff today.  I'm trying to do better at teaching them penmanship.  Bradley writes like....like....I don't know.....like he doesn't care and is in a really big hurry.  I told him not to capitalize every word in a sentence.  He told me that he just likes to do it that way.  We're working on it. Sometimes it makes me feel like a homeschooling failure, but I know I'm not.  We have successes in other areas. I found a piece of paper that he brought home yesterday from church.  It read:

"Once I Brok a Piggy Bank.  I Hid It.  Mommy Foud It."

That is true.  At least I know my son is honest and repentent, even if every sentence he writes looks like a title to something.

Halloween Fun

I'm not a fan of Halloween, but if it is going to exist you might as well have some fun with a little innocent scare tactics.  On Saturday evening we went to Walmart and browsed the Halloween section.  Here is a clip:

Rachel is definitely my quietest child.  She doesn't talk a lot.  I think she might even have a future as a silent movie actress.

This is the mask that she silently screamed at:

Apology

My husband read my blog this morning and chastised me for writing a particular keyword search term on my last post.  I guess it shows my naivety in certain subject matters.  I hope none of you Googled "butt plug".  I'm sorry if you did and please don't if you didn't.  I asked him how he knew about it and he said he learned it from Beavis and Butthead in his college years.  So, I'm sorry.  I will not post anymore keywords that might be questionable.  I'm embarrassed.

It's Saturday.  Our house has been on the market for almost two weeks now and we've only had two people look at it so far.  It's kind of discouraging, but oh well.  As my mom would say, "If it's meant to be, it will sell."  Perhaps the perfect buyer will come and look at it at the perfect time, which I hope will not be until next spring.  I don't want to sell before Christmas because I wouldn't want to risk Santa not being able to find us. 

When I was eight years old my family moved from Western New York to California.  We flew out on December 9th, 1984.  I remember it was very exciting, but sad at the same time.  It was exciting because it was a new home in a new state and it was my first time on an airplane.  I was very excited to go to California and see movie stars and be able to swim all year long. (Much to my disappointment I learned that you cannot swim year round because it does get cold.)  It was sad because we were leaving our almost entire extended family including my maternal grandmother and cousins and others.  However, it was supposed to be a one year assignment for my dad and we were planning on returning back to our old home which was being rented.  I think we even left the furniture there.  I don't blame my parents for taking the opportunity.

My dad's company put us up in a nice hotel for what was probably a week or two while we waited for the moving truck to arrive at our new rental home.  I don't remember the exact date that we moved in, but needless to say it was right before Christmas.  I wish I could ask my mom right now if she was stressed that Christmas.  I'm sure she was, but I remember it as any other Christmas, fun and enjoyable.  I'm sure there were moving boxes still to be unpacked, but I don't remember them.  My parents have always done an excellent job at making Christmas the best time of the year.  I remember getting a Good Luck Bear Care Bear figurine in my stocking.  It was the same Care Bear figurine that I gave my best friend before we left.  I had seen that there was an extra one in one of the moving boxes.  It was that year that I realized Santa delivers presents to parents early on years that they move.

The point of the above story is to prove that Santa does not forget families that move.  But just so I don't leave you hanging.....My dad's assignment eventually turned into two years and then into a permanent position.  My parents sold the house in NY, they bought a house in CA in 1987 and that is where I grew up  for most of my childhood. I lived there until I was 23 when I met my Southern husband on the Internet. So I guess you could say I'm a California girl, but I'm not a native.  Sometimes I wish I had some solid roots to refer to as "home", but I enjoy my triad of state citizenship.

Putting our Buick on the moving truck in the winter snow.

 The Mayflower survived its voyage across the country.

 (That's me on the loading ramp waving.)

This is me in the pool in February.  That's as far as I got in.  If I got in any farther I would've risked the danger of hypothermia.

Boredom

For a moment today I was bored.  (Ok, so I wasn't actually bored, I was just avoiding my responsibilities.) So I checked my Google Analytics to see what keywords have brought people to my website.  Most of them aren't that exciting, but there are a few that make me laugh as I try to visualize somebody typing the phrases into their search engine.  Some of them I can't even repeat or I would have to rate my website R and that would be bad.  Then I wonder why in the world did this search term bring them to my site? Unfortunately sometimes I do understand why it brings them here.  Here are a few:

melinda rides a butt plug (Never.  What exactly is a butt plug?)

biggest bowel movement ever (No pictures, please.  I deal with plenty of feces on a daily basis.)

bought my husband a nightgown (Never)

bigboob dreams.com (This is a dream of mine.)

clowns and pie fights (This is a nightmare of mine.)

girls caught flashing (Umm.  No.  At least I was never caught.  JK.)

pregnant inhaling poopy diaper smell (Mmmm.  But I think I'd rather inhale a Sharpie.)

snow white potty training (Never thought about Snow White potty training, but it is an interesting thought.)

spongebob metaphor pubic pineapple (Are pineapples metaphorically pubic?)

what is a floppy and retroverted uterus? (Well, let me explain.  When you have seven children....)

reflexology farted

i got a massage and now i have gas
my foot massage gives me intestinal gas
foot massages make me fart

Ok, so I feel better now that I'm not the only one who has to fart when I get a massage.  I knew there was a connection!

To Blog or to Facebook, that is the question....

I joined Facebook two years ago.  I've been a Blogger for five years.  I love them both so much.  I think I understand how The Bachelor must feel when he has to make the decision to give out that final rose on the most dramatic season finale ever.  Don't worry, I will never say good bye to either social network, but I am struggling to find a balance between the two.  You see, I'm rarely at a loss for words, and my husband can attest to that.  It's so easy to walk by my computer in the kitchen and type a Facebook status stating my current mood, activity, kid quote, or accomplishment on my way to cleaning, cooking, or teaching my kids.  Blogging takes a little more time and effort to write a hopefully entertaining post for my followers and my posterity, which makes me more likely to skip a day of blogging.  I never skip a day of Facebook.  Facebook is also more socially interactive, and since I don't get out of the house a whole lot, it substitutes as my social life, and gives me the illusion that I'm going out to lunch, or shopping, or something with friends.

I have people who follow my blog that I'm not friends with on Facebook (because I don't know them personally.)  I have friends on Facebook that don't follow my blog.  And then I have friends who follow both.  So, I try to avoid posting the same thing on both because then my friends who follow both might get kind of annoyed and bored.  Sometimes I come across a picture or thought, and I'm faced with the dilemma, "Do I post this on Facebook or my blog?"  Oh, the stress! So I'm just getting this off my chest so you all can know the serious obstacles I face on a daily basis.  I think I'm coming to terms with it though, and I'm learning how to juggle it.  I'll be fine.

Tonight my husband took the children to their Wednesday night activities at church.  While I had the whole quiet house to myself, I was able to ponder these perplexities of life as I scrolled through my Facebook Newsfeed.  My mind was overstimulated today with education, potty training, social networking, cleaning, etc. and it was extremely nice to have some silence for a moment. However, my brain does not know how to function in silence and I ended up falling asleep on the couch.  When they got home I took some pictures of George.  This one is my favorite and is both Facebook and Blog worthy:

Typos

I just want to apologize for all the typos I've been typing for the past two months.  I just went through several of my posts from the past couple of months last night on my 20 something inch monitor, and realized that I've made a lot of what seems to be keyboarding mistakes in my posts.  How annoying and unprofessional!  I'm sure that there are grammatical errors as well, but I likely didn't catch those because my grammar isn't the greatest.  (I'm learning as I teach my own kids.)  Anyway, I just wanted to offer an explanation. For the past three months I have been mostly operating from my netbook which has a 10 inch screen.  I guess it's more difficult to detect typos on a smaller screen that requires more scrolling and squinting.  Or maybe my eyes are just getting old.  Or mabye itts jist mee because I cant ttype.

Also, I am still accepting more followers ------- >

Oops. I Skipped a Few Days

Ok, quick blog post.  Sometimes I get surprised at how many days have passed without me blogging. I was doing so good there for eight consecutive days.  We were out of town last week and traveling on Saturday.  I was exhuasted on Sunday, and so today I will blog.  Are those acceptible excuses?

But...hmmm... I don't have a whole lot to say.  This is the first week that we've been home as a family without crazily getting the house ready to sell or traveling somewhere since July.  Today we pretty much worked on getting back into a homeschool schedule.  We failed by 8:00 AM when we didn't wake the children up.  They are supposed to be downstairs eating breakfast by 8:30 AM.  They were downstairs eating by 10 AM.  Not too bad.  We were still able to accomplish learning.  I'm thinking of dedicating a post to "A Day in the Life of Homeschooling" since so many people ask me about it.  We'll see.  I might not want to expose too much of my slackness.

That's about it.  I have some pictures to post, but I'm trying to get organized.  The day before we left on our trip I had to have the house ready to list on the market so it could be shown.  I basically shoved all odds and ends wherever there was a closet or cupboard door.  I feel very disorganized.  It's good to be home though.  I think.

Brochure Hoarders and Roller Rink

This week we are tagging along with my husband on a business trip.  Today I took the kids sight seeing and we stopped at a visitor's center.  They had two whole walls of brochures.  My son, Bradley, LOVES brochures and it was like heaven for him (and for me because I love brochures too).  We browsed the brochures and I took several for places that I thought we might be interested in seeing, if not this time, but possibly the next time we tagged along.  There was an older couple that ran the visitor center.  They looked a little annoyed when we walked in, but it didn't surprise me because it's a common expression on people's faces when a group of seven small children walk intp a room.  Usually people expect chaos, but end up pleasantly surprised that my children are relatively well-behaved.  Often people will even compliment them.  I was expecting a pleasant reaction from the couple because my children were behaving well, mostly because it was like an all-you-can-eat brochure buffet for them.  As Sarah took a brochure for some destination that looked cool, the woman said, "Maam, is she going to go there?"

Confused I said, "Um, no.  Probably not?"  

Then the woman said, "Can she put that brochure back?  Because we are running low on those."

They were probably running low because it's a great place to go and now I'm going to not know about it!  Obediently I told Sarah to put it back.  I didn't realize you had to actually plan to go to a destination in order to take a brochure.  If so, I'm in big trouble.  I could tell that this couple's annoyance was not transforming into pleasant surprise.  So, I continued to pull brochures, lots of them.  I congratulated Jason on all the brochures he collected for about 15 hotels that we were planning not to stay at.  I could hear the woman mumble to her husband, "Brochures aren't free, you know."  Then I heard the woman's voice, "Maam, will you sign our guest register?"  I was a little afraid to put my name, city, and state in fear that I would be hunted down for theft of free brochures,  But I signed it anyway.  

Finally with a fat stack of brochures in my hand I said, "Come on kids, it's time to go."  They all clamored to the exit and Bradley, Jason, and Rachel pushed the handicap automatic door button several times each.  Hahahaha! Now that really irritated her, but we were out of there as she was saying, "Don't...push....that....." and on our way to the gift shop.  I have to say I was a lot less stressed in the gift shop with lots of breakable things that cost a lot of money than I was being stared down in the visitor center/ brochure shop.

If you can imagine after two cross country trips, we have a quite the collection of brochures.  I'll have to take a picture of all of them when I get home.  What am I going to do with them?  I don't know yet.  Read them and plan my next vacation?  Or maybe go on a virtual vacation?  I'll be sure to recycle them when I'm finished.

************* 

Tonight we took the kids to a roller rink.  It was flashback to the 80's .  When I was 6, 7, and 9 years old I was quite the pro roller skater.  My kids?  Not so coordinated.  Bradley was so proud of himself about 1 hour into the evening.  He said, "Mommy!  I went around the whole rink, without the walker, and only fell five times!"  When we returned to the hotel Bradley said, "Tthat was so much fun.  When I was in the car, I had to pinch myself to make sure it wasn't a dream." 

Wow!  I didn't know they had that much fun while we were there, because they spent a lot of time crying from falling down and hurting themselves.  I guess my kids would've loved the 80's.  It was a pretty cool decade.  I told him he's probably going to wish it was a dream because he's going to be pretty sore and bruised tomorrow.

 Sarah using a walker.  It looks like I'm using one too, but I'm helping Rachel.

 Couple's song.  Awww.

 Bradley and his walker.  He eventually ditched the walker and skated on his own.  It seems like every time I turned my head to look at him, he was sprawled splat on the floor.

Daddy taking Rachel for a spin as she put her feet up on the walker and went along for the ride.  She's waving to me.

Wendy didn't like skating on the wood because she fell down too much, but she did enjoy skating on the carpet. 

Emily did pretty good, but hurt her wrist.  While we were there I was thinking it was a good thing we have health insurance.  Thankfully I don't think we will need to use.

Pretty

Yesterday I was putting on my makeup.  Wendy asked, "Mommy, you put that on so you can be pretty?"  I told her, "Yes."  Then I was curious if my daughter thought there were times when I wasn't pretty, so I asked, "When am I not pretty?"  Her reply was, "Sometimes when your hair is crazy."  Then she paused for a moment and said, "..... and when you fart."  Awwww.  Sometimes I just can't help it.  Emily still has me beat though.  I'm sure she could win some contests.

Blog Meets Blog

I have this blog friend, Beth, who lives in Colorado.  She randomly found my blog a couple of years ago and we've been following each other's blogs ever since. She has seven children as well.  I've come to love this family by reading about their life as a big family, seeing pictures of their cute children, seeing before and after pictures of a messy and clean room, and other stuff that I can truly relate to.  On my drive home from California, my dad and I stopped in Denver and had the opportunity to meet Beth and her family in person.  It was so fun to make a virtual friendship become a reality!  For two years I've seen pictures of her house, her children, her yard and it was very cool to see it all in person.  It was kind of like being on a movie set.

We got our families together at their house, the kids played in the yard while the adults talked, and then we all went out for pizza.  We took a picture of 13 of the 14 kids before we left.  (One of her daughter's was at a friend's house.)  I got to meet her parents as well, who are also part of our blogging triangle.  That was exciting too.

Although I was very excited to meet them all, I have to admit I was a tiny bit nervous.  I guess I was self-conscious that they would think my real life personality didn't match my blog personality and that they would possibly be disappointed.  I am much shyer in person.  I think I sometimes have a tendency to try to act cool and sophisticated around people I don't know, which really isn't my style.  But I realized that they pretty much know who I am.  I don't hide much when it comes to blogging.  I think they already know that I'm not cool and sophisticated, so I didn't bother trying.  While I was there I witnessed something which validated why I like this family so much - their 2 year old was drinking chocolate milk out of a bottle.  I thought that was AWESOME, especially since he got the bottle, milk, and chocolate syrup all by himself.  I had a great time spending a couple of hours with them.  It's too bad we don't live closer and hang out more often with all 14 kids.  However, it is nice to have friends from random parts of the country.

The kids (minus 1)

Our little girls became instant friends.

The Bloggers

10-10-10

Jason turned 4 today. This will be his coolest birthday ever on 10-10-10.  We bought him a shirt with the #4 on it. He wore it to church.  We also got him a glow sword.  Over the years, I have learned that young children don't realize "value".  They are completely satisfied with a toy from the grocery store, and my wallet is satisfied too.

No birthday would be complete without a crown made by Emily.

His Glo Sword.  He was more excited about it than he looks in this picture.

My neighbor coincidentally saved my day.  I did not bake Jason a cake because we needed to clean the house to get it ready to put on the market on Monday.  I didn't want any extra dishes to wash.  My next door neighbor just happened to bring over a dozen cupcakes as a "Welcome Home" gift.  We stuck four candles in one and called it a "Birthday Cake".  

Last Day of Being Three

Today Jason graduated from the Terrible Threes.  He received an A.  Tomorrow he commences the Fabulous Fours. The previous four children were required to give up their pacifier for good on their 4th birthday, however, Jason was not a pacifier sucker.  We are going to require him to give up the temper tantrum.  Sometimes I wonder how this happy-go-lucky kid can be so rotten at times.  We have learned that if you just let him open the van door, life is so much easier.  

  A trot through the park.

His walking stick. 

We had a little early birthday party for him the last night my dad was here.

Jason ran his fingers in his empty ice cream bowl and sucked the ice cream off his fist.  It was his favorite flavor.  He calls it, "Cookies in the Cream."