some house pictures

A few of you have wanted to see some pictures of our house. Here are just a couple rooms although they're not put together yet. I have several things I plan on getting & then there's the stuff I already have that's still in boxes or piles just waiting to be hung. Sometime I'll get to it. I keep forgetting to take pictures of the other parts when the house is picked up. I snapped these ones before we moved Ellie's crib into Callie's room when Jonny came (Jan 18). Jonny's here till April so maybe once Ellie has her room back I'll get to the decorating part of it.

Ellie's room:

Callie's room:

Oh, the wall behind Callie's bed used to be a double door into the entryway. We added a new door (it's where I'm taking the first picture from so you can't actually see it) & filled in the old. I just thought it was kind of strange to have a kids' bedroom door go into the entryway & since we never plan on using the room as a den it made sense to put a doorway going into the hall by the other rooms.

The kids' bathroom with awesome hotel rod per Tara's request:

Straw Incident

How does this happen? The kids & I were eating dinner while Jeremiah was at a meeting. Callie was standing on her chair leaning over the table & for some reason her placemat was on the chair. She slipped & fell just the wrong way so that the straw in her cup went a little up her nose! I wasn't freaking out but I was definitely concerned! How would I know if it'd gone too far up? I sent Jeremiah a text to call home now! & he excused himself from the meeting & called right away. He said that if the straw had gone too far up she'd be dead so she was probably okay & to just put a tampon up her nose to stop the bleeding. Here's our happy girl! Kind of put a damper on the Italian Sodas!

good things

Some pictures of my smallest cutie pie:

(read the shirt)


And everything about this picture. The bread was awesome! Somebody in our ward (I'm assuming) made it & dropped it off on our doorstep & rang the bell & ran. We had thick slices of toast for breakfast with creamy honey twice. Check out Jack in the background. Love that boy!

Havalina, Javelina

Jeremiah and my brother Kenny went hunting for Javelina last weekend & smoked one! Jeremiah was stoked since AZ hunting has not always been good to him.





Sweet hat Kenny.

Callie & Jack were fascinated. I don't know how much of this they stayed & watched because it smelled really bad & I went back inside. Jeremiah gave the meat to one of the guys who works for him who made carnitas out of it. I tried it & it wasn't bad, but I'm not going to be requesting it. Jeremiah will be happy to know that when we visited my friend Tana a few days later her husband was looking at a javelina online & Callie knew exactly what it was!

Sunday, Sunday

We put the crazy in crazy! Jeremiah's in the stake YM & it's that wonderful time of year that is ward conferences so he won't be with me in Sacrament Mtg for the next several weeks. Today was day 1. Callie & Jack actually did pretty well in Sacrament other than Jack may have put his hands into some other peoples water cups? Ellie was the big offender. She had fallen asleep as we parked our car & I hoped she'd fall back asleep in my arms but that was too much to hope for. Instead she fought sleep & acted crazy the whole time. If you've been around my children you know that they all have a very special set of lungs. They do the highest pitched shrieks I (and most people) have ever heard! All 3 of them! So Ellie let out of couple of her mid-range shrieks just for fun. After Sacrament Jack took off & then Callie thought she was helping get him by chasing him. I got them to the primary room and they both cried. Today was my first day teaching the 7 year old class so one of the primary presidency members got Jack & calmed him down, Callie's teacher got her & calmed her down, & I took Ellie & made my way past 8 kids to the chair by the wall for opening exercises. 2 more kids joined my class & there weren't enough seats so kids were sharing & some rowdy boys had to be talked to & separated. Ellie fell asleep finally & then Jack came & wanted me to hold him too so as I tried to hoist him onto my lap I hit Ellie's head on the wall & woke her up & she let out some loud screams. After I got her back to sleep, I took her to this really nice woman who'd said she'd keep her for the rest of church for me. Then it was time to go to classes & Jack & Callie both cried again. And then Jack smacked the primary president because he was mad that she was trying to help me deal with him. I was pretty embarrassed & upset with Jack for doing that. He may occassionally hit but it's never been a problem & I can't believe that he'd hit another adult! I taught my class & tried to keep the crazy boys from getting out of control (out of the 10 kids, 8 were boys), and then it was time to go home. I collected my older 2 children & stopped off at the library to drop off my chalk & thought they were walking in behind me but Jack kept going & then Callie "helped" me again. She chased Jack almost all the way around the church! I was trying to walk as quickly as I could yet still be reverent to get my hooligans! I passed by the woman who'd taken Ellie for me & asked if she could keep her for another minute while I caught the 2 who'd got away. It was great to finally get the kids in the door when we got home.

The Mom Song

Jeremiah's grandma sent this to me. I love it! I hope it makes you chuckle too.

{the one I linked to before has been removed - this version is similar (not quite as good)}

Finally!

At long last I have decided to update my blog! And in case you're confused by the stuff that wasn't there before, I'm back-dating all my posts. Well this is a journal after all!

Oh, and if you're feeling bummed about not getting my Christmas card this year (I'm sure you're all just crying yourselves to sleep over it) cheer up - you're still on my list. I just didn't send any this year. I actually got them printed but there were technical difficulties & it just didn't work out. Sorry! I loved all the cards we received though - thank you for thinking of us!

Ringing in the new year!

We had a fun time with the Haws & Rupp families ringing in the new year! We ate way too many snacks & had lots of fun. The kids were wild until after our countdown at 10 when we put them in our room with a movie - they didn't last long once they got all snuggled in! Once the kids were in bed we played a million rounds of Scum & then a game of Oh Heck. Sweet Jeremiah let me sleep till 10 the next day (we went to bed at 2) and he got up at 8. Happy New Year to me!

December Pictures

Random pictures from the month:


I put Ellie in the tub (dry) with toys while I was getting ready. Somebody (I won't say it was Jack because I can't prove it) turned on the water (they say it was Ellie - & yes I was right next to them all). Ellie had a great time splashing around in the teensy bit of water that was around the drain.

Little Mommy loves to help. She begged & begged to help feed Ellie. Ellie wasn't as clean as usual after her meal, but Callie did a great job & has helped several times now.

Apparently we're out of the regular sized straws! (it's a snorkel)

9 months old!

The sweetest present!

Halloween pajamas, Callie's hat, rainboots, and a "horsey ride" around the yard.

She dressed herself. Can you see where Jack gets his fashion sense?

Family Night gingerbread house building. A Divis tradition.

I knew Jack was in my bathroom playing with some toys in the sink, but I didn't realize he was IN the sink! He was quite pleased with himself for giving himself a bath in the sink! lol!

Callie & one of her best friends Kenadee (who she gets to play with every Thursday).

The reindeer who never made the song.

Notice the angel at the back? Yeah, that's Callie. She cried & refused to participate with her classmates in their Christmas program at school.

For some reason Ellie loved crawling under the tree.

Christmas

Christmas morning was really fun this year because Callie is at a perfect age! She was really excited when she woke up Christmas morning to see what Santa had filled her stocking with. We had to wake Jack up because we just couldn't hold her back any longer. She was happy to see that Santa had eaten the piece of cheesecake (& milk) they'd left out. She was also really happy that he'd taken the little pictures with messages that she & Jack (who she'd helped) had left for him (which I remembered about just before I drifted off to sleep - thank goodness!).

Jeremiah grew up having piles of presents (meaning each child had a pile). I grew up where present opening could take days because we'd go around one at a time taking turns opening a present (and there were 6 kids!). Both ways are fine but this year we tried Jeremiah's way. Jeremiah's way is probably more fun for the kids - especially at this age!

After we did Christmas at our house we went to my mom & dad's where everyone was just getting up (at like 10:30!). We did presents again & had my family's traditional breakfast casserole (yum-o!) & hung out for a while. On Christmas day we snacked & had leftovers. On Christmas Eve we'd had our big dinner which was delicious- prime rib! Oh my gosh it was so good! It was really fun having all of my siblings here for Christmas since my brothers are both leaving for missions in a few months.

Most played with presents:
Callie: Cabbage Patch baby from Uncle Jason & Aunt Richelle, doll stuff & play baking set from Santa
Jack: electronic font-end loader from Papa & Nana, Imaginext dinosaurs, & electronic pirate pistol
Ellie: doll stroller that is a walking toy from Grandpa Ken & Grandma Darcy, & Bee Bop Band music set

Okay, Jer & I haven't played with either of these presents yet, but these are the ones that we're most excited about:
Jeremiah: SPOT from his mom & dad (I'm so stoked about this since he hunts & plays a lot).
Me: An awesome project table! I'd mentioned I loved the one from Pottery Barn & wanted to try & make a cheap version of it so he had this guy build it for me! I'll have to take a picture soon. I love it! I can't wait to do lots of projects on it!

Snow day in Kingman!

Which never happens. Well maybe once and rarely twice a year. But never like this! We woke up to snow & it snowed all morning. It eventually turned to rain (in the evening) and then sleet & snow again but by the next day lots had already melted.

8:40 am

9:27 am (they got themselves ready)(no, i didn't let them out like that)

3:37 pm

It took me a few minutes to shovel a pathway around the car & scrape enough snow off the top so that we could get in. How funny is it that 2 months ago I had a yard sale & got ride of a big snow/ice scraper that I'd had for years & then I had to use a broom for this! I couldn't believe how much more snow had come down before I even finished the job!

The Nutcracker!

I have loved The Nutcracker ballet ever since I was like 6 or 7 & my then grandmother took me to see it. I've dragged Jeremiah to it once or twice and he really can't hardly take it & is thrilled that having a daughter finally old enough to go with me means that he will never ever have to suffer through it again! I'd been planning on taking Callie for more than a year, so when I found out there was a community production of it in Boulder, NV which was way less expensive than a professional ballet, my friends & I decided to take our daughters & have a girls' night. Callie & I had the best time! We went up to Henderson in the afternoon to do a small amount of shopping & we met up with my good friend Tana & her girls Corinne & Ali (who were going with us) for dinner at Pei Wei. Summer & Kenadee, and Kate & Kiera both had a ward party to go to so they came up & met us at the theater. Callie had talked about seeing The Nutcracker (and about our girls' night) for weeks & weeks & was SO excited! I wasn't sure how much she'd actually like it though because a week before there was a live version (as opposed to Barbie or Carebears) on tv & Jeremiah told her what it was & she didn't believe that that was what it was since she'd only seen cartoon versions. I think she even told him it was boring! Anyway, from the moment they turned down the lights she was mesmerized. Seriously! Permagrin for like the first 20 minutes! About 45 minutes into it she said she loved it & asked if we could watch it again. I said sure - maybe next year & she said no, right after this! After the performance we were able to take pictures with some of the cast (who even gave all our girls flowers!) - they especially loved meeting "Clara". After The Nutcracker we took the girls to McDonald's & had ice cream. On the way to McD's Callie was on the phone with Jeremiah & he asked if The Nutcracker was good & she said, "Heck yeah it was good!" After ice cream Callie talked all about our girls' night for almost 30 minutes. She finally fell asleep on the drive home at 11:30! I'm so glad she had such a great girls' night! Oh, & one more cute thing is that some of the cast who played Clara's friends at the Christmas party in the first act were the ones handing out programs before the ballet began so since one of the girls handed Callie her program she treats that thing like gold & tells us how special it is!

12 on the 12th

Friday, December 12th:

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Up at 6:30 to head to the gym. It takes me almost 15 minutes to get there now & I meet Ashley (one of my good friends & awesome workout partner) at 7. Well I try to be there at 7! :) I'm usually within a couple of minutes.

Ellie was fascinated with the lights on the tree. Once we got the ornaments on she loved those too, but we only had lights up for a few days because I needed to buy more & didn't want to decorate before the rest of the lights were on. I did end up letting the kids just go nuts & decorate themselves (they loved it & it kept them busy for quite a while), then I took the ornaments off to add the new lights one night.

Callie loved this Strawberry Shortcake ornament that I had as a kid. I loved it then too! It's the only ornament that I kept from my childhood (maybe it was the only one that was just mine?). For the couple of days before we decorated the tree she would often pick it up & lovingly look at it.





I bed you didn't know one of my hidden talents is being a pancake artist (lol)! Our special order pancakes used to be the basic Mickey Mouse, but now I get requests for all kinds of things. Because we've all been in a holiday mood, Jack requested a star & Callie wanted a Christmas tree. I was hoping they would have requested an ornament! ;)



I love that Jack's such a little bookworm! He can often be found lying on his bed or sitting on the couch looking at books.

To the untrained eye this may just look like a pile of clothes, but a mother of a 4 year old girl will discover that it's not just any old clothes, it's dance clothes! Tights, skirt, leotard, & shrug. Callie has dance on Fridays & they've been getting ready for their Christmas recital! She loves her dance class!

This was from our first shoot for Christmas card pictures. Yes, I said first!

We had the company Christmas party at Golden Corral. This was the end of the evening but Callie had been a little sleepy the whole time so she had spent a good deal of time on my mom's lap. That was nice for Jeremiah & I because Jack on the other hand was a wild animal who could not be tamed!

I stopped to get gas on the way home from the Christmas party & was thrilled with the gas prices (even though my sisters have paid like 50 cents less!).

We pass by the kids' dentist office every time we drive "to town" and at least one of them each time happily sings "the dentist!" It always makes me laugh! I'm sure eventually they'll stop saying it, but it's been a month so far!

I decided to take the kids to look at Christmas lights on our way home & they were so excited at every house. This one was a favorite (we drive by it often but usually during the day). Some people really love their inflatables!

"How do dinosaurs learn to play? They romp & stomp the friendly way!" I got Jack a little pocket set of the How Do Dinosaurs... books & he loves them. I love that it's bedtime!