Like Mother Like Daughter

Years ago when I was a Freshman at BYU I remember vividly decorating my dorm room and making it my space (anything to hide the cinder blocks).  I decorated it with pictures and posters and little sayings.  What I remember most about it though was how it was totally symmetrical.  And my roommate's half of the room was totally asymmetrical.  Neither is better than the other, just that was how we liked to decorate.  I think about this a lot when I decorate my own house now.  On one of my shelf spaces my cousin had to really convince me to put the wreath to the side and the vase next to it-instead of 2 vases flanking the wreath.  It looks good now, but like I said, it took some convincing.  Most every other part of my house is symmetrically decorated.

Now to the point of this post: Annabelle has the symmetrical gene.  The other day she and her friend, Hattie, were decorating door hangers and this is how Annie's came out:

I didn't help her at all, I didn't even offer any help when I saw that she was going for symmetry.  Her friend, on the other hand, was like my roommate and her door hanger was completely asymmetrical.  Again, nothing wrong with that, just the way her brain sees things.  I was pretty impressed with Annabelle's door hanger-beautiful just doesn't cover it. Even Callie agrees and is always trying to grab it.  I have never really thought to look at the boys in this way.  I wonder which they would prefer.

Pinewood Derby

That's right folks, we had our first experience building and racing a pinewood derby car for Cub Scouts.  It was a fun and educational experience.  I wish I got some photos of Nathan and Greg working on the car, but these will have to do:

 

 Nathan and Greg decided to stain the car, instead of paint it.  The screws on top are the eyes and we put washers on to get the right weight.  Perhaps it was wrong to have all the weight in the front.  We are no experts.  Below is Nathan doing the countdown and pushing the button to go.  The announcer was REALLY into it and REALLY chatty.  But, I think the boys all loved it.

While Nathan's car was no where near the fastest, it wasn't the slowest either.  We have some pretty intense dads in our pack-one at least who has his own track in his garage-so we are just happy that the car stayed on the track and Nathan had fun.
Callie is everywhere these days so I wasn't able to stay and watch the races.  I hung out in the hall or a toy room, getting drinks from the drinking fountain (and getting soaked), or just trying to keep her from falling into someone or something.  It was a long night.  The best part for me was the yummy treats I made-chocolate carmel bars-they were so chewy and delicious I just had to eat a couple, and a couple more today.

 

 

Daffodils

Yesterday was a BEAUTIFUL day.  I was outside for nearly 2 hours weeding around my gorgeous daffodils.  The kids were running around, they even asked to get out the swimming pool or to put water in the sand box.  It wasn't THAT warm, but to them it felt fabulous.  Callie came out and loved walking around.  I swear she can say "pretty flowers" and loves to look at them.  

Every year my bulbs come up in March.  I love the color and the spring feeling.  But outside right now it is raining and will most likely turn into snow.  It makes me sad that all of these beauties will wither away in the cold.  I had to take a picture just so I could remember how pretty they did look. 

St.Patrick's Day

Green milk.  Green water.  Green grapes.  Green toilet water.  Leprechaun traps.  How did it all start?!  A few years ago when I was an avid Family Fun subscriber we built our first leprechaun trap.  The leprechaun brought goodies and socks and turned our fridge green.  The kids LOVED it!  Thanks to that one day, and the school system which totally encourages the holiday, we are big on celebrating this strange and crazy green holiday.  As soon as the boys walked in the door they set out on making their traps.  Yes, that was plural.  This year Nathan, Ryan and Annabelle all wanted their own trap.  And a neighbor stopped by so he too wanted to make a trap.  Luckily the kids are getting older and I can just hand them a box of crafts and say "Go to town."  I had to intervene a little when they decided to put sticky tape along the whole bottom of their boxes.  I found some contact paper that made is quicker and cheaper.  I think that each trap turned out great and the kids were happy with their creations.

 

 

 

 Bright and early this morning the kids ran downstairs to see if they caught anything.  They were a little hesitant (afraid that they actually caught one) and cautiously peered into their traps.  This is what we found in the traps:

The leprechauns were not fooled by the chocolate money and escaped.  Luckily he had to use his hat to climb out of the trap, thus leaving it for our kids to find.  We must have had three leprechauns this year as we found three hats, one in each trap.  It was a fun morning with bags of goodies (green oreos, andes mints, green gum, and green gummies), and cereal with green milk.  Our after school snack will be green pudding and green pringles.  Grandpa is coming over later for my favorite part of this holiday: corned beef and cabbage.  YUM!!!  While it may be a bit of work to pull all of this off, it is a lot of fun to see how excited the kids get before and after the leprechauns come. Happy St. Patty's Day!

New Table

A few weeks ago there was a beautiful table at Costco.  I pointed it out to Greg and what was his response?  "I can fix the one we have."  The one we have was purchased back when we just had Nathan, for $100 (that was a lot back then) and from Shopko.  So it isn't the nicest thing.  I was not so sure about Greg's skills, but when he started looking at "how to's" on line and making trips to Home Depot, I knew he was serious.  We forgot to take a before picture, but this was taken a couple years ago.  You can see the burn marks and the scratches, at least I can. 

It took a few days and I was a bit nervous taht it just wouldn't turn out...but it did and I love it.  We have a brand new table!  I bought this vinyl covering for about $13 and it is totally worth it.  I can wash all the food stuffs off the table and not worry about scratching it or about the food getting in crevices (the table was practically glued together with food).  Thanks honey for all your hard work!!

Dance Night

What can I say?  We love to turn on some music and let loose.  These are the times I hope my kids will always remember.

Blankie Girl

Callie LOVES her blankets.  She has two that are her favorite.  They were my two favorites with Annabelle also.  A good friend, Whitney, gave them to me for Annie and they have definitely gotten a lot of love.  However, Callie is okay with just about any blanket, which is especially good when I put both in the wash and they aren't done by nap time.  She has a pair of PJs that look just like her jammies (good ol' Target) and she carried those around one day.  Then another day we had taken down a fort and a huge sheet was on the floor. She claimed it and tried very hard to drag it about with her.  But, when I show her one of the two favorites, she is so happy and cuddles up with them and lies down, no matter where she is.  I love it!

Famous!

 Almost a year ago in "The Friend" (a magazine for kids through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) they asked for funny pictures of how you read the Friend.  It was obviously summer time since the boys are in shorts and we took this fun picture and sent it off not knowing if we would ever see it again.  Well, a couple Sunday's ago a lady at church came up to us and showed us the picture.  We were so anxious to get our own copy a few days later.  The boys think it is pretty cool.  And now that they got a little taste of being "famous" they wanted more.  The boys and Annabelle drew these pictures on Sunday and can't wait to see them in the Friend.  Hopefully someday they will show up.  If not, they will be seen in an upcoming family book, and out in the blog world for all to enjoy.

!0 Month Stats

 

Callie is now close to 20 lbs.  She can take a few steps at a time.  She eats foods like macaroni and cheese and pizza crusts (don't worry she also eats rice cereal and mushy carrots).  Callie sleeps mostly through the night, unless she has a cold or teething, but even then a quick shove of the binkie to her mouth usually calms her down.  I know I have said it before, but Callie LOVES her brothers and sister.  She loves to laugh with them and climb on them.  Callie has discovered our front windows and loves to look outside.  She has made it outside on the few warm days we have had around here and she loves it.  Today she was putting dirty rocks in her mouth.  This summer is going to be an adventure for her.  Callie loves to climb stairs and especially loves it when one of us notice and start to chase her.  She starts laughing so cute-like and I love that sound more than anything.  Callie has also followed suit with the other kids and loves it when Daddy comes home.  Greg thinks Callie doesn't show him enough affection, but I am sure she will figure it out as she gets older, and whenever she hears his voice she turns and looks for him.  I can't believe our little baby is ten months.  Time really flies and we all love her tons!