A little Journal writing

Who me? I thought I was suppose to EAT the ink stamps!

Grandma Sammy sent the girls ink stamps for Valentine's Day. Of Course Shelby got a hold of them, 17 month olds are great like that. I find her with a stamp in hand and ink all over the face...she did look quite adorable I must say. A little scrubbing and she looked clean, just in time to get into them again. They are put up now, only for the older girls :)

Shelby has been walking around this last week...FINALLY at 17 1/2 months. She was able about 1 1/2 months ago...but has had no desire. She has some curiosity finally and has been walking most the days around the house.

She has some liking to toothpaste - strange I know. She would always get in my bathroom drawer, take the toothpaste out, flip open the lid and suck on it. I'd take it from her and she'd scream and throw one of her infamous tantrums. Well the last week or two, she's been a very smart cookie...and is sneaking the toothpaste. I bought a twist top instead so she wouldn't be able to get into it, but some how she still finds the others around. One day she had went down the stairs (she finally mastered that this month too) and was at the bottom stair when I saw her - two toothpastes in hand and a HUGE grin across her face...she knew exactly what she was doing and she knew she'd been caught. Then the other day she was hiding between my bed and the laundry basket, I thought she was playing peek-a-boo. But when I got closer, yes toothpaste in hand, same grin. Why would anyone want to suck on toothpaste I don't know...yuck!

We are all loving Shelbs right now, she is such a crack up. The girls and her get along well and they can't wait to get her out of her crib everyday to play. She waves bye-bye at night for bedtime and loves to give kisses. They are usually slobbery wet kisses, but I can't pass them up!

Shelby has always loved her sleep and has never really fought anytime I put her to bed. The last month or longer I have decided to spend more time with her for a bedtime routine like we do the other girls. I hold her and read a few books and sing. She just lays there on my shoulder and I LOVE it...she is my cuddler and I don't ever want to lose that. So now I look forward to that moment when she lays on my shoulder and I just hold her, sometimes I even try to sneak it in with naps. Mike has been picking up on it, so he put her to bed last night and she fell asleep on his shoulder. This never happens, and I just have to think how precious she is. I love her age right now, she is such a bundle of joy, love, and smiles!

Shelby likes:

1. toothpaste

2. her sippy

3. her crib

4. doritos and chocolate

5. playing chase and peek-a-boo

6. NOT traveling

Kamree loves her little playmate Shelby. Kamree has always played well by herself. She likes to 'take care of' her baby sister. Telling her 'NO', giving her food, sharing with her, hugging, and carrying her. Kamree is getting soo big...she is 30lbs. I love to listen to her talk. She says the funniest things in the cutest voice. My favorite is when she's doing a trick of some sort and she says: "Mom, watch me!...are you watching?"

She loves to watch movies and TV...I really have to be careful and limit it b/c she'd just lay there all day and not move if I let her!

The things Kamree loves most are:

1. her blanky

2. her baby dolls

3. C.A.N.D.Y!!

4. drinks

5. movies

6. Liv - her cousin

7. music in the car

8. NOT boys

9. go in daddy's work truck

Lexi is kicking butt in school. She brought home her report card and they get 1,2, and 3's. She got all 3's and it's only the 2nd quarter. She loves school and her class and teacher. She is reading so well and loves it. We have started The Boxcar Children series and she doesn't ever want me to stop reading.

Lexi asked if we had any coins to take to school...her class is raising money to send to Haiti. She is so giving and sweet. We have one of those 5 gal water bottles we throw extra change into. We always said when it was filled up we'd take a family trip. She took that $ for school. Then told me she wants to fill it up and instead of taking a trip, we could give it to the children in Haiti. What a sweet little spirit this giving girl has. I love her soo much. She is so kind and caring to others. She is very thoughtful.

Lexi loves to:

1. read books

2. sip mom's mountain dew

3. FHE - her Book of Mormon - Samuel the Lamanite

4. school

5. playing outside

6. going to Target with mom

7. playing 'mad robot' with dad

8. making her own p&b sandwiches

We love our little girls soo much, they make us very happy. Yesterday morning the girls are laying by eachother whispering. I hear Lexi kiss Kam.

Kam said "What was that for?" and Lexi said "Because I love you." They are sweet girls!

plastic swimming pools and high winds - dont match!

Yesterday my day started out with Kamree backing up into my newly bought full length mirror, braking it. I carried it out to the trash, but it was busting everywhere and I had to be careful with the pieces. I then put the trash out on the street. (garbage day would be today)

The girls and I got back home after it was dark last night and my gate to the backyard had blown open with the wind. I was home alone b/c Mike had taken the sailboat out for an overnight trip. I didn't want the gate open all night, so I realized Monday was a holiday, so the garbage truck wouldn't be coming as usual, so I moved the gargbage can up to block the gate (mirror inside).

The wind blew like crazy last night, and I woke up this morning to the noise of the garbage truck...guess Monday wasn't a day off for them. So I run out to move the trash out again and the lid was blown back, mirror pieces all over the driveway and gate open again. So I pick up as many of the pieces as I can and see little blue pieces of plastic everywhere. I start looking around and realize it's the swimming pool (pictured above) from my back yard and it's now clear down the street. WHOOPS - and how the heck did THAT happen? Nothing else was moved.

This happened 2 yrs ago, same cheap pool...brakes and cracks. So last year we decided to try it again and we'd be real good and store it in the garage over winter. As you can see, that didn't happen, so here we are in the same predictiment we are every summer it seems. I hate the blow up ones b/c they take effort, can get holes, and become moldy. But maybe that would be better for me this next summer! :) haha

meanwhile - I probably need to go down the street and retrieve my 'garbage' ...then again maybe not. It's now down past the other entrance in a man's yard who's got dogs. You don't like garbage? I don't like barking dogs!

J/K...I will do the goodly neighbor/person thing and go get it. :)

hope you all enjoyed this long, lame, story...maybe you'd laugh more at the picture of me getting the pool. It will either be me walking while carrying a pool, shelbs and kam....or me somehow throwing it on top of my honda. which one? :) LOL

our "could have been really bad, but wasn't" story

We've really been enjoying our big screen...a little too much. I asked Lexi to fold the laundry yesterday while watching her movie. I come back in and the laundry is on the floor and she's like this in the hamper watching TV! crazy girl :)

Around NYE I felt the carpet was wet near my green wall , I just thought the girls had spilt their water and thought nothing more about it. Then about 4 days later, Mike says the carpet is wet in the same spot. Fear strikes me, realizing this can't be good...also this is at 9pm at night. We start investigating and decided it is right where the drain pipe from up stairs is at. Quiet alot of carpet is soaked at this point and I'm freaking out b/c I don't want to pay to recarpet the downstairs. As we're talking, I touch an old nail hole we'd patched and ta-da...a hole opens...wet sheetrock falls apart. In a way this was a blessing because then Mike only had to cut this little square (maybe 8X8) instead of starting at the floor and moving up 5 feet. We sucked out all the water from the carpet (at 11:00pm) and put a fan on it over night. By morning the pipe was patched, carpet dry, and all is well. THANK GOODNESS! so now we just need a little sheetrock to patch up our hole, and luckily I still have my wonderful green paint :)

bit of advice: when a nail doesn't go into your wall, don't force a screw...that's what we did 4 yrs ago when we moved in, so we took the screw out in June and hung some new pictures up... this then started the slow leak for 7 months!

-getting back to normal-

We have had a fun and lazy vacation. I am definetly ready to get back to a schedule and normalcy. I bathed the kids today and did their hair...I think that's the first since Sunday. Bad, I know...but we haven't been doing anything and it's been nice. I took the girls sledding yesterday with Emily's family. The girls had a lot of fun in the snow. This is our first time in the 4+ years we have lived here.

I took Christmas down yesterday. I just needed to get the house cleaned up and furniture finalized. With the new TV, we needed to rearrange some things (it was about time for a change anyway, I can never keep it more than 3 months). Also Christmas gifts needed put away...now if I can find some time to get rid of old toys!

Shelby is going on 17 months and can walk but doesn't. She will take steps thru out the day here and there but still prefers to crawl everywhere. She throws these crazy tantrums when she's mad or frustrated...it's actually quiet entertaining. But watch out cause she swings her arms and literally throws herself down. She'll crawl a bit then throw herself, get up again, crawl some more, and then throw herself again. This goes on and on.

We love her soo much, the girls are really enjoying her lately as she is getting older. Shelby is really into toys lately. She must be into movies a bit too b/c in Primary on Sunday she sat and watched the video on her own chair . She's a cutie :)

Kamree is growing up soo fast. We (I guess Mike really) decided to take her pull-ups away at night (sometime before Christmas) and see what the results would be. She has not had one accident. This proves to me her stubborness...she probably could have done this a while ago, but she has to decide when. She even got up at 5:30 the other morning and went pee. Love this girl - she is soo fun.

Lexi is learning and getting smarter everyday! I love that she can read and write. I can't believe how much joy this brings us as parents. She loves to read everything and is doing sooo well. She likes to write notes to people with her own spelling and sounding out of words. I'm really loving this stage she is in. She is so helpful and enjoys playing with her sisters and doing dishes. She's my little pal :)

Church has been keeping us busy. Our time changes to 11:00am this year...we are very excited to sleep in. Maybe we wont all be so onry anymore (except for shelbs, it will be nap time). Primary is fun, I'm actually enjoying it. Kam gets to be a sunbeam this year, so I will have her and Lexi with me. Kam's class has 16 kids in it....it's going to be crazy for the first month! Mike is still teaching Sunday school twice a month...so he helps with Shelbs at church on days he is not teaching...we get to take Shelbs to nursery in Feb.!!

We are getting ready for NYE tonight...it's going to be lots of fun....filled with family, PIZZA, pop, and lots of junk :)

Christmas Time!

Our First Turkey!

Shelby sucked on this candy necklace ALL morning long. She was fine as long as she had the necklace :)

Mike made the girls a tunnel out of boxes. They absolutely LOVED it. It was a mess in the living room for a few days, but worth it :)

Mike made the girls this cute doll house. Thanks to Lisa...we copied yours :)

Shelby's ballerina pose

We bought these reindeer ears the other day, Shelby loves when we put them on her. She chased the girls around...notice the clean stairs? Thank you new vacuum!!

We had the best Christmas yet at our house this year! The girls are old enough to really enjoy and anticipate Christmas time. Lexi carried around this long, skinny gift all week....dying to open it up. The girls asked everyday if they could open just ONE present. The girls were spoiled too much this year. But it was fun having our own traditions, watching Christmas movies, reading from the scriptures, singing, and sleeping in. We really enjoyed it :)

We had Kirk and his family over for Christmas dinner...I cooked my FIRST TURKEY EVER!! it turned out great and was really fun. My Dad said "you can't ruin a turkey" and he is right. It was a little stressful ... but rewarding.

My Dad came and stayed for a few days before Christmas. We enjoyed having him here and spending some time together. He brought us our Christmas gift early...a BIG screen TV!! We were soo excited and very thankful. He makes fun of me for my old tv's in the house...I think he bought it so that next time he comes we'll have a TV for him to watch :) We are watching WAY too much tv now days, I'm hoping it wears off soon. We are really enjoying it, especially my 3yr old. She loves it sooo much that she decided to touch it and smear her pretty lipgloss on the screen. Yes, it finally came off after alot of products...needless to say we'll be mounting it on the wall here shortly!

My Mom and Rob gave us a WII and that is hogging our time as well (we are loving it). Mike kicks my butt in Tennis, so I have an advantage of sneaking in some play time while he is working :) I find glee in kicking his butt in Golf though...so we're equal. Lexi however is awesome on bowling and really enjoys it. It's going to be a fun (and expensive) thing to have in our home!

MeRrY cHrIsTmAs!!

Nobody feel left out because you didn't receive a Christmas card...I just was a huge slacker this year and didn't get any done. :)

We are soo excited for Christmas this year. I had the presents done early and wrapped so we could enjoy the suspense a bit longer. I'm totally excited for the girls' gifts and can't wait to have them open them. I will also be attempting to cook my very first TURKEY...a little bit nervous because it involves feeding others. I will have to make extra potatoes just in case :)

Merry Christmas everyone!! Hope you have a fabulous one :)

**Watch blog**

My sister and I have started up a blog to sell beaded watch bands and watch faces:
watchful-girls.blogspot.com
Check it out...you can buy one of the ones pictured, or we can custom make you one!
Hurry and order for Christmas gifts :)