White Christmas after all!

For those of you that don't live in Utah, we were slammed with a huge snowstorm, it was sooooo icy cold. Our poor little Texas born children were icicles (holy crap, I just had to get online to figure out how to spell icicles), but the day after the huge storm they wanted to hit it hard, making snowballs, snowmen, snow angels, lets see, anything else they wanted to make with the word snow in front of it....nope, that was it. The best part of the day was when papa hopped on a four wheeler with a sled roped onto it and took them for sled rides. Ash was fine as long as he was on the four wheeler. Mars was fine as long as she never had to get off the sled. And Laine was fine as long as she never had to get on the sled (the 1 time she did she screamed until she could get off). The twins LOVED the sled rides and, despite the frozen noses and cheeks, still were dragged in the house kickin' and screamin'. Then we had (getting a stomach ache just thinking about this) a pizza and doughnut fest, along with some hot cocoa with marshmallows. Ugh. I really don't know if I ever want to eat pizza or doughnuts again. Ever. We are having so much fun with Jedders and Heathie, and we can't wait for Jare and Ryanne to come out. We always have a great time when everyone is home for the holidays. Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas! Only 4 days left! (High pitched squeal!)

Dancing girls

Mars and Laine are both attending dance classes, and this week we had a recital. We were lucky enough to have Nana, Crappy, Aunt Heather and Uncle Jed all attend, along with the regulars...they both did wonderfully and we were so proud of them. They especially liked wearing make-up and the flowers that grandma gave them afterward. Both of the girls have asked when they are performing on stage again, their next recital isn't until spring so we have awhile to brush up on the moves. :) We didn't get a great pic of Lainers (not for lack of trying) but we'll post one when we get the pics from grandmas and grandpas. We are so excited to have such talented dancers in the family!

Asher's fave game

Ash is about to turn 2 (can't believe it!) and is getting very involved with playing games with his sisters. Right now, hide & go seek is the best game EVER to these guys. Mind you, we have about 1100 square feet to work with here, there are truly not a lot of places to hide. But Ash has come up with his own way of hiding. I really do think that he thinks we can't see him when he puts his hands over his eyes...so funny and cute, I think every kid does this, don't they? At least all of mine have. Don't tell me if I'm wrong, I like to think that my kids are as normal as they come...even if I know better :) We have had a HECK of a week, sick kids and house hunting have about done me in. I really am hoping that everyone gets better in time for Christmas. Once we get the sick ball rolling around here, everyone gets something at least once before we pass it along to friends, other family, ward members, or random people that got our shopping cart at the store. Merry Christmas to all, and to all use a good hand sanitizer.

Reflecting on Reflections

I feel like I am able to take a deep breath again before running like mad to the next huge project on my list - buying a house. I idiotically signed up to be the independent commissioner for the PTA, thinking I was doing a great service. I ended up being in charge of the Reflections program. Let me just say it ended up being A LOT more work than I had bargained for, and I'm really glad it is done and over with. I really don't think that it would be a big deal to do again (even though I won't) now that I know the ropes, but jumping into it the way I tend to do really kicked my butt this time. I am really glad that I did it, it's just that combined with all the other things I have going on with my life right now it was poor timing. Not to mention that all of my hard work was appreciated by exactly 3 parents that actually showed up last night to claim their prizes. I really hope that someone will stop me next time before I get myself into something like that again...heaven knows I'm not going to do it!

The toothless wonder!

We had some exciting stuff happen tonight...first things first, Mars had her first official tooth loss. Let me explain. We have paid close to 2000 dollars OUT OF POCKET because of her tooth problems. She has had 2 pulled, and consequently, LOATHES going to the dentist. We had her teeth cleaned in August, you would have thought that we were pulling her toenails out with rusty pliers. She honestly (no exaggeration) screamed at the top of her lungs for 20 minutes, I had to pry her little fingers off the doorjamb on the way in. I would be horrified if I were a kid sitting in that waiting room, going to visit the dentist for the first time and here comes screaming mimi, being dragged in by her evil mother for heaven knows what kind of torture. Anyhow, she was wiggling her tooth with her tongue and out it came, she was so cute. She said that her legs wouldn't quit shaking, and that she believes in fairies, so she'll get a visit tonight for sure. She is getting so grown up in so many ways, I am very happy that she believes in magic and fairies and all that. I know she's only 5, but some kids are cynics at heart.

The other exciting thing that occured tonight, and definitely takes a back burner to the tooth news is that Hillary and I went BY OURSELVES (sans children) to a private screening of Twilight. We got free tickets (thanks Rache and Brady!) and went to the movie at 5:30. That's right, folks, we got to see the movie an entire 6 1/2 hours before the lowlifes in the general public. Guess this is what its like being a celebrity...

Plugging my own blog...pathetic, I know

I've got to put a plug in for my own blog, I started this new one earlier this week to kinda keep an online book of the cards and stuff that I make. I also love to look at everyone else's crafty things, so that is a way to keep those blogs contained in the same spot. Anyhow, if you get a minute, stop by and check it out...if you don't, I will honestly never even know! www.brittsstampin.blogspot.com

Why oh why oh why oh why.....

Can anyone shed some light on something that has plagued me for 5 1/2 years? Why won't my kids go to bed? I am trying to do everything right, I read the stories, say the prayers...I even have Lainee include in her prayer for Marlee to go to sleep, and vice versa...I have COVERED my bases. I do the night time ritual, get them water to keep by the bed, go potty, brush teeth, you name it. I've begged, plead, and threatened. I've tried the Nanny 911 technique, my kids laughed at that one. I've been sweet, not sweet, and downright tyrannical. Nothing works on these kiddos. Marlee is especially a problem here. She will get up at 8:00 a.m., go all day long without a break, and I promise you if I would let her she'd stay up until 4:00 in the morning without batting an eye. I would so love to do the bedtime routine, tuck the kids in sweetly and say good-night and shut the door, check on them 5 minutes later to find them sleeping like little angels. In our house, its more the other way around, the kids say good night, shut my door, and 5 minutes later I'm off to la-la land, and heaven only knows what goes on after that. Any suggestions that don't involve the Vulcan neck pinch? Already tried it. Doesn't work.

Just a few more pics

ACK!!! Now I can't stop!!!

Ok, now I can't stop blogging! But Lainee just came in here and said something that made my eyes water, it was so dang sweet, so I thought I'd share it...she brought me in a 1 dollar bill and said, 'here mom, you can have this dollar and now you can go buy a house.' Awwwww....isn't that cute? She's a punkin. I don't know if everyone has heard about our housing woes, but we are looking right now and are hoping to be in a house by Christmas. If anyone has about 400 grand to spare so my 3 kids can have a home of their own (am I tugging on the ol' heart strings yet, anyone?) just email me and let me know where to send the thank you card. We are having a really hard time finding anything we like in our price range, Utah prices are still a little high, but are getting better. Wish us luck, and hopefully soon I can blog pics of our new place!

WORST BLOGGER EVER!!!

Here it is, already November, and my last post was...October 13th. I can't belive it, but Halloween ROCKED me, we went to party after party after gathering after corn maze after trunk or treat...I am not exaggerating when I say that we had half a trash bag full of candy. For the most part, the kids had fun. We didn't go to one function without at least a little whining, though. Grandma put together a fun Halloween party, but for some reason, there was a lot of caterwaulin' going on...the effort gets an A+ though. Marlee spotted a unicorn costume and it was love at first sight for her...despite the fact that it is 2 sizes too small, she is wearing that thing into the ground. This is going to be one of those things that she'll look back on and say 'why did you let me out of the house in that thing' and I want all of my readers (ok, ok, I know that my mom is probably the only one reading this) to back me up when I say that I tried desperately to get her interested in something else. Lainers was the all-original princess, Cinderella, and Asher was originally going to be a garden gnome, then we bought a rooster costume which he is terrified of, and ended up being Buzz Lightyear. He is nearly as attached to that costume as Marlee is to the scraggly unicorn. We had one group of trick or treaters at our place, and Lainee pitched a huge fit about giving away one piece of her candy, so the trick or treaters ended up giving some of theirs to her...maybe we should do it that way every year, huh? We'll stay home, you bring the candy to us. Sounds good to me. Either way, I am so glad that Halloween is done, now I can start getting stressed out about Thanksgiving and Christmas...

Nope, we weren't burglarized. We're just messy.

So today I didn't do anything productive. I really didn't. I fed my kids whenever they demanded it, and Marlee went to school. That's really about it. When Aaron goes out of town I kinda feel like a kid whose parents went away for the weekend. It's not like he has all these expectations for how the place is supposed to be kept or wants dinner on the table every night, he doesn't. And if he did we'd be long divorced by now. On Saturday I got on a cleaning kick. Gotta take advantage of those, they don't show up very often anymore. House was spotless, laundry done, mmmhmmm. Then, Sunday I didn't have to do anything (day of rest, people) cause the house was semi-clean. I think that hanging your church clothes up counts as work, am I right? Monday...the place is trashed. Not your 30 minutes, things are back in order trashed, I'm talking 'better start now so that by the time Aar gets back things might be back to normal' trashed. I think that if some real burglars showed up they would think that someone else got here and ransacked it first, so they'd probably leave. In fact, that was my plan all along...those 2 good for nothing weinie dogs aren't going to keep burglars away, so I gotta take some further action. This isn't a mess, this is home burglarization prevention.

On a downward spiral from Honey/Ranch Sandwiches...

You might think to yourselves that a Honey Ranch sandwich is pretty awful. Well, what if you could take it down another notch? Today after church I came into the kitchen after making our Sunday standard grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, and once again, our little chef Lainee was at the table eating tomato soup with candy corns floating in it. Ewwww. She loved it. I can't decide if she is more like Remy on Ratatouille (the little chef) for her creativity, or Emil, the brother who eats the garbage and thinks that it tastes great. Right now, I am leaning toward Emil...

Ok, so MAYBE I was trying to make the font colors look like Candy Corn. However, the white didn't show up very well on the background, so you'll all just have to use your imaginations a bit and pretend that they're the ones with the chocolate tips rather than the white ones.

Chef Lainee's New Creation

Ooh La La, we have a new chef in the family. Lainee is spreading her 4 year old wings and trying new things...things that may not be delicious to all, but perhaps to some. Her newest creation is - are you ready for this - wheat bread spread with honey and dipped in copious amounts of ranch dressing. YIKES. She keeps asking me to try it out, and although I want to encourage my childrens creative endeavours, I am not willing to play guinea pig. Sorry Bugsy. Love ya anyway. Ya never know, maybe someday there will be a big demand for honey and ranch sandwiches. And our Lainee will be able to say 'that was MY idea!'

Feeling a little WICKED...

I can't get enough of the Wicked soundtrack, and I sit there and think about the play various times during the day. It is just so GOOD! I don't know 1) if there's really anyone reading my blog but me, and 2) if anyone else that's seen it was borderline obsessive with it like I'm getting. I am at the point that I want to be Elphaba for Halloween...and go around singing the tunes from the play...and probably get egged for singing...All I have to say is that they are coming to SLC in April / May, and I had better be front and center for it. If you ever have the opportunity to go, I highly recommend it. At least look it up online, you can watch clips of the play, my 2 faves are 'Defying Gravity' and 'Popular'. Let me know what you think! Also, notice that the font color is......Wicked Green! See what I mean????

She's on a roll...or maybe I'm just getting delirious!

I don't know if it is just me feeling slap happy, or if this little girl is just on one tonight, but I haven't stopped giggling since she said this. I am updating my blog, she is playing with our 2 dachshunds, Woody and Dozer. This is what she said: "Mom, I know that Woody is a man now, but I just don't know about Dozer. Is he a kid or a man?" I don't know exactly how to answer this, as he is neither, but I just told her their ages and hope that answered the question. I think that I really, really need to go to bed.

Marlee being funny...again!

Marlee just said something that caught me as funny, so I thought I'd share: Marlee is really missing her Texas friends. We were looking at Erin's, Christa's and Caroline's blogspots, and she saw all of her friends. She then asked if we could find her friend Max too, so I tried to see if Teresa had a blogspot. I didn't find one, and I said, "Sorry honey, I guess Teresa doesn't have a blog." She said "His name isn't Blog, it's Max!"

Took a bite out of the Big Apple...Or did it take a bite out of me?

Well, I'm back. I really had a good time with Heathie and Jed. They are just a couple of New Yorkers now, I'm very proud of them for doing so well there. I really don't know if I could manage as well as they are managing. Today was fun, we went to 5th Avenue. If only I had 14 million dollars, I could have bought everything I wanted to today. Sigh. It was great though, we went to St. Patricks cathedral, Fao Schwartz, had a dirty water dog (ended up taking one bite and chucking the rest) and went to Dylan's Candy Bar (didn't buy a thing, though). Some of these stores are so huge you could spend an entire day in just one. But, I am glad to be home, I missed my kids badly, I know that it was just a few days, but it was a much needed break. Thanks to Aaron, Hillary, Poppa and Grandma for making sure everyone was taken care of! Here are a few pics of NYC, I'm sure some of them are nothing you haven't seen before, but deal with it the best way you know how!

I have fallen in love...with NYC!

I think that I may have a new favorite destination on my hands. I really really REALLY love NY. I love the busy-ness, the restaurants, the plays, the parks, the almost getting run over by cabbies (OK, I don't really LOVE that, but it's happened enough that I am getting used to it), the mixed cultures, I could go on and on but I won't. Heathie and I went to see Wicked today at the Gershwin Center. Oh my word, I don't know if I could possibly love a play more. I want the CD so that I can belt out the tunes, it was simply wonderful. Thank you to my honey Aaron, for putting this trip together for me, Wicked was just the cherry on top of the cake. I really can't believe you did that for Heathie and I, you really outdid yourself and I appreciate it so very much. :)

We walked so much today, good thing because I feel like I have eaten all day long. We went shopping, went to Cafe Metro for a little NY Pizza (I got spinach, grape tomato and feta cheese pizza), walked, shopped, went to Dale and Thomas for gourmet popcorn (carmel and chocolate chunk), walked, went to Wicked, walked, went to Central Park, walked, went to Rue 57 for dinner (Yum, I had filet mignon, garlic mashed potatoes, it was garnished with pearl onions, peas, and shaved black truffles) and then we walked to Magnolia bakery for cupcakes and banana pudding. I really wish I knew if I've burned off all the calories or not! It has been drizzley and rainy all day, I look like a poodle. A big, frizzy poodle. It is really lovely here, though, and if I didn't miss my kiddos so much I'd be tempted to stay longer! I'll post pics when I get back!

Lainee starting her school career in Preschool!

Lainee is so thrilled to go to Preschool, she absolutely adores Miss Amber, and wishes she could go everyday! I know that these are a little late, but I thought everyone would love to see Lainee's darling school and how dang cute she looked on her first day there!

Marlee's First Day of Kindergarten! (And the pains it took us to get her there)

Uh-oh, I think we may have a problem here. Is there a support group set up for people who can't stop blogging? Hi, my name is Brittney. I am a compulsive blogger...I think I may just be making up for lost time. Anyway, on to the post at hand.

Here are a few belated pics of Marlee's first day at school. 2 days before school started, I came into the room and saw that Lainee had cut long pieces of the back of Marlee's hair off. I didn't exactly love that she did that, but we went up to Cookie Cutters in SLC and got a brand new cut for school. This happened exactly 1 week after we went to Cookie Cutters and got a brand new cut for school. I asked if they had an accidental cut by a sibling discount, but no go. So, here are the pics of the 2 haircuts and the end result for her first day of Kindergarten as a big girl!

(To the tune of London Bridge) Autumn leaves are falling down, falling down...you can figure out the rest

Well, people, it is officially fall. We took a drive up South Willow canyon on Sunday to check it out, and even though its just the very beginning of the season there were some gorgeous colors already! I have to say I didn't think the ol' minivan was up to the challenge, but it proved me wrong, way to go blue! We went up as far as you can drive, and passed a LOT of people going up and back. The kids were FREEZING, after all it was about 65 up there. My poor, poor Texas born children, they are in for a rude awakening this winter, aren't they? We played in a tiny creek, the kids thought that throwing the rocks in the water was the best thing ever. Marlee missed Lainee's head by about an inch with a really big rock, Laine bent down at the precise moment that Marles threw it so that was really really close. Woody hated the water and we couldn't keep Dozer out of it. I am so excited for fall, I really missed seeing the leaves turn!

Lainee's 4th Birthday!

I need to post some pics of the Chuck E. Cheese party we had for Lainee with Aaron's side of the family, all of the kids went crazy there, they loved it so much. Nana and Crappy were there, Aunt Nicole and Uncle Somebody (Robb), Hunter and Kailey. We had pizza and a Diamond Castle Barbie cake, per Lainee's request. Asher found a car to 'drive' and spent the rest of his time and tokens driving that, he probably used at least 3o tokens and still screamed when we had to rip his hands away from the steering wheel. Marlee loved the bike that you pedal fast and it makes the platform rise up about 5 feet or so...she got up there and was pedaling like a mad man and said "Look Mommy, I'm getting some exercise!" I never thought of Chuck E. Cheese as a real healthy place, but there ya go, another way of looking at things thanks to a 5 year old. :) Lainee loved a game that she and I played together, a lizard tongue that darts out and catches bugs. She cleaned up on presents, she got a darling tea set (from our good friends the Cummings', thanks you guys!) and from Nana, Crappy, Nicole, Robb and family she got a little book and tea set, a dress up box full of goodies, a darling puppy in a purse, and a Polly Pocket boat and tons of teensy tiny accessories. She LOVES those tiny toys! Thanks everyone, you did great and I'm sure that she was very excited and happy with her gifts. I'll post pics when I get home from New York so y'all can see her fun toys.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAINERBUGS!

Yes, I am using the pink font because (big surprise coming up) pink is Lainee's favorite color! This is a Happy Birthday shout out to our big ol' 4 year old lambie pie... Althought it is only the 24th, we already had the Thompson side family party, we went to the Ringling Brothers circus and to Olive Garden for dinner. Laine got not 1, but 2 Diamond Castle Barbies, a new tea set, a book with her picture in it, a Disney Princess keyboard (thank you Hall family!), a little toy horse and rider, and a new Cinderella dress...and that is only the 1st party!

Here are some of Lainee's loves: Tiny toys, she has a thing about cramming as many toys into her 2 little hands as humanly possible. Preschool, reading stories, spicy foods (especially chips and salsa), pink, Barbie toys, horses, flying unicorns, her sister and her brother.

Hates: Getting her hair combed out (I would too if I were her!), sharing her extra special toys, feeling like she is missing out, having to stop whatever she's doing for a potty break.

Anyway, ya gotta be proud for 2 posts in 1 night. I think that I'll take a year off now, that did me in. All right, all right, I will post some more and get some pics up as well.

OK, OK people, I get it. Time to get on the ol' bloggin wagon already!

For some reason, I am having an aversion to blogging. I love to read other peoples, it's just that every time I have 5 minutes to sit down and put this together, I really, really, REALLY don't want to...and now it's been 1 year, almost to the date that I started this. And here is my 2nd entry. Here is the DL on what is happening with us.

We have: moved to Utah, failed miserably at finding a great house at a decent price (still have our fingers crossed on that one), and sold one of our Texas houses. Marlee has started Kindergarten, (she loves it one day and detests it the next) Lainee has started Preschool (loves it all the time and wishes she could go everyday), and Asher has started his terrible twos. Only his little phase is WAY worse than the girls ever were, mainly because the kid is a lean mean wrestling machine. Doesn't matter who, doesn't matter where. He just wants to take you down and take you OUT. He fights dirty too, poor little Marbles and Lainers, getting taken down to the floor by the hair, gouging eyes, whatever it takes. Luckily when Dad gets home from work he can give Ash a run for his money. I am going to try to figure this out some more and maybe we can get some cool graphics going here...we'll see.