When Daddy's in charge

I went shopping ALL day on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving (thank you Jacob) with my friend, Laura. We had a great time, spent too much money, and had some much needed rest from our responsibilities. Meanwhile, here's what was happening at home.





Oh, and did you ever wonder why Dad's not given the job of doing Lucy's hair?

I love Santa Clause!

The only way I could get the hideous scowl off Lucy's face last sunday morning was to mention, "I wonder if Santa can see us right now?"

Happy Turkey Day!

I appologize for the lack of more inclusive photos. I do not have a picture of the whole group of feasters, The Turleys, The Evans's, The Andersons, and us. I do not have a picture of the table, but you can guess what we ate by playing "identify the slime" on Miles's shirt.

I do not have a picture of the turkey, but I do have a picture of us cleaning up from the mess.

Sorry. I'll have to make sure my photographer comes earlier next year. (We had a great time, ate like kings, and laughed until somebody, who shall remain nameless, squirted punch out their nose.)

A little about me

My sister-in-law, Leslie, did this on hers. Since I'm going to print this blog at the end of the year and make it into a family journal, I thought it was a great idea. That, and because I want to do everything Leslie does!

1- your worst habit? Loud mouth. I'm forever saying inappropriate things. It's like word-vomit. I know it's coming, I know it's not going to be pretty, but I just can't stop in time.
2- your best feature? Well, it's not my growing-out-from-post-baby-fall-out hair that resembles Chewbacca from Star Wars, and it's not my massive size 9 1/2 feet, although they are very awe inspiring. I'd say it's my height. You may not find that a great feature, but it's a great way to hide 60+ pounds of post-baby weight.
3- what you like most about your spouse? He's the nicest guy in the world. Except for when I was sad about being really pudgy from just having a baby and he said "hey, lots of people are fatter than you". Ooh, or when he said he liked dinner but I shouldn't make it for company. Oh, or the time I was thinking of getting a haircut and a pedicure and I said, "I need to go somewhere to get spruced up a little" to which his reply was, "Like a boob job?" Except for those times, he's the nicest guy in the world.
4- if you could travel anywhere, where would it be? Home to Arizona for Thanksgiving. It'd be really nice to sit down to eat with all my siblings (they're all there together without me!) and listen to what Eric has to say. His conversations are always the most lively. Like the time we were out to eat with Grandma Holmes and she was having a glass of wine. He leans over and says, "Hey Grandma, how many of those does it take to get you really bombed?" Grandma didn't quite understand, or maybe she did and was giving one of us ample time to kick Eric under the table. Either way, she simply said, "What?" "You know, how many glasses of wine before you start hitting on me?" I really miss Eric.
5- what do you admire most in a dear friend you have? Suzie's ability to make fun of herself. We have this thing going called the Mommy of the Year Award. Anything really hideous we do to our children can win us the award, like when Suzie forgot to strap her son into the high chair and he did a kamakazi onto the floor. Or the time I snapped at Lucy for whining at me for two days in a row and realized the next day that she'd gotten 4 molars in in one week.
Anyway, if you've got a minute, post your answers in the comments or on your own blog.

Miley's got a goatee!

Now that Miles is matured and wise beyond his year, he's decided to grow a goatee to match his hair. Almost the exact color as a matter of fact. Actually, I'd say it strongly resembles buttercream frosting.


Doesn't he look older and wiser?

That dump truck and the Legos in his hand were a birthday gift from his favorite people, the Turleys. The Winslow family came and brought him some great books (I don't know how well he enjoys the literary content so much as the taste.). We all ate cake and had a great time celebrating Miles's year-long survival in this family. Happy Birthday Miley.
(Our friends, Kristen and Shawn, showed up late after everyone had left but they really deserve honorable mention. Especially since Shawn showed us all his really cool military pictures.)

The Program is over!!!!

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The program for the Primary is finally over!!! Not that I didn't love seeing all the kids up there, but I'm a little less sane after having to organize the whole thing.

Jake (heathen that he is,) snuck in the camera and took video of Tate's part.
We're all very tired now.

A classy boy

At what age is it no longer socially acceptable to show up to your own birthday party with no pants on? And when does this look stop being cute? Probably about the same time as the other question.

Catching up on a crazy week

We're celebrating fall by collecting lots of colorful leaves and making things out of them. We've been sending some to Grandparents (I'm sure they can't figure out why we're sending yard clippings to them) and saving some for ourselves. Crunchy leaves are now a main staple in Miley's diet.

We went on a walk last Sunday with a few of the neighbor kids and had a great time finding "treasures". (about Tate -don't ask.)

Lucy was great but refused to sit in the stroller so it was a very sloooow walk.

Catherine, the next door neighbor, kept sticking leaves into Lucy's piggies. See if you can spot what doesn't belong in this next picture.

You might wonder what we do with all the leaves that fall each autumn, unless you've never lived in the northeast part of the country, because you'd have no idea that we end up with a pile bigger than our car. Well, everyone rakes them to the front of their lawn and leaves them in a giant pile. The city comes around with several big trucks and two tiny bobcat bulldozers and one big bulldozer and they do this ballet of sorts on the street. An army of guys with leaf blowers walks behind gathering strays and they work together so fast it's amazing. I'll try to catch it on video this year. The only problem is, you never know when they're coming. By the way, the thing that doesn't belong is a dead squirrel.


Lucy refused to wear gloves and kept pulling them off (she was all kinds of fun on this walk) but Catherine kept her hands warm.

We also went to the Zoo again this week. Tate and Jacob really loved the Bug Carousel, but I think that girl behind Tate is a little too big for it.

I tried. I really tried to get a picture with them all looking normal. The reptile house had lots of these large statues all around and climbing was actually encouraged. It's not every day you see five little monkeys jumping on a lizard!

Tate and Jacob had so much fun together. They're either much more used to one another now, or they are just growing up because they never fight anymore. Laura and I are just loving that they get along so well.

My exact words were, "Okay, everybody smile!" This is what I get. When they're all in their 20's and 30's, they're going to complain that I don't have any good pictures of them and I'm going to tell them it's their own darn fault!

The leaves were gorgeous!!! Tate's pretty stinkin' handsome too.

What a sweet picture this would be if only I could photoshop out the green boogers. He got very tired from all that riding.

Speaking of tired, last week Lucy asked me if we could play babies. She wanted to be the baby and climbed into her doll crib. I stuck a pretend bottle in her mouth and went to answer the phone. By the time I returned, she was out cold. How come this never happens when I REALLY play house? I woke her after about an hour and she thought it was pretty funny.

Miley did this all on his own after we got Lucy out.

Target's dress ups were on clearance after Halloween so I shelled out 3 dollars for this "autumn fairy" dress. Lucy thinks the wings are pretty and wants to be able to see them when she wears it, so she wears it backwards. Miles is doing his thing: pulling all the spoons out.

Another reason I love fall

Since I don't dress stylishly myself (you'd be suprised how much it costs to cover 6 feet of mommy in recent fashion), I pour all my efforts into my children. Tate has usually destroyed any "look" I've attempted by the time he's in the car for school, and Miley has this bad habit of being a baby that tends to get in the way of most outfits. (You know, smashed food and boogers on the shirt aren't really "in" this year.) Lucy, however, loves to be all put together and adds her own flair. Here's the part I love about fall - Blazers on little girls!

Falling behind!

I'm at 525 and falling behind! You watch, I'll catch up today.

Halloween class party

Good grief! I can't believe how long and drawn out this Halloween was. The stinkin' holiday lasted 4 whole days here!



There was a parade in the morning of all the kids and teachers in their costumes. That's Tate's teacher, Mrs. M, on the right.
The kids also got to do the eating-donuts-with-no-hands-game.

You should have seen those kids attacking the donuts. (Hm, maybe I'll have to do that for some of our less popular dinner dishes. Shepherd's pie on a string or Taco Soup on a string. We'll have to see what I can come up with.) Tate really enjoyed that and even Mrs. M. got in on the fun.

I got to read a Halloween story to some of the kids and they were nice enough to pretend to listen when all they really wanted was another stab at the donut thing.

Lucy got a new coat!

This is her "little red robin hood" coat. Actually, it's not so much for stealing from the rich to give to the poor as it is for wearing to church.

sit-up update

I'm falling behind! I only have 325 done! How's everyone else doing?

Miley's little game

Miles and I have this little game we play. We've been playing it since he was about 6 months old and he'll only do it with me so far. Usually at the dinner table, I'll squint my eyes at him. He'll wait a second or two and do it back to me. I wait and send it back, then him, then me. It's really funny, because he won't just keep squinting, he waits for me to return it. I had a heck of a time trying to get a picture of it because he won't play every time and when he does, the delay on my camera makes it nearly impossible to time.

Sneaky little Lucy

After I bought several dozen donuts for Tate's class party, Jake showed up with two boxes of the little ones in case I needed them.(which were too small to use, so we had to eat them. darn) They were still in the car when Lucy and I got in to go to the bank and before I could walk around to buckle her in, she'd opened the box, picked her favorite, and taken a big bite. Kind of hard to hide the evidence with powdered donuts!

10,000 sit-ups by New Year's Eve!

My friend Sue started this idea of doing 10,000 sit-ups before the new year. You can do it! We have participants in Arizona, Connecticut, Utah, and Texas. Spread the word to your friends. Join with all of us who wish to banish the flab and start today. It's only about 178 a day if you start now. If you're super brave, take a "before" picture and send it along (all befores should be just midsections so we don't have to reveal true identities until the end). If you're chicken, take a "before" and don't send it until you have an "after" to send with it.

Pictures from Halloween

We let all the kids dump the candy onto the rug after trick or treating on our street Tuesday night. We just let them go crazy and eat whatever they want while watching some Halloween cartoon. Once they were in bed, we picked through the bags, kept all the good stuff, and donated the rest to the Halloween garbage fairy. Lucy and Landon both perfected to two handed candy clutch in order to maximize the sugar-to-tongue ratio. I figure they each got about 3 pounds of candy before wandering away murmering something about pain in the tummy and needing to throw up.

I was a little sugar-happy myself and thought everything Jake said was funny. Miles didn't appreciate all the wrappers on the candy, but found a way to enjoy the holiday none the less. I think he ate roughly 10 or 11 sucker wrappers that night.

This is at the beginning of the sugar fiesta and I only can tell that because the wrappers aren't strewn everywhere. Notice the extra fiber going into Miles's diet. What a healthy boy.

Jacob and Tate ate so much on Halloween night that they each ended up in a semi-conscious state on the couch. Some sort of sugar coma probably.


We spread out all the candy from the church Trunk or Treat and they each got to pick 5 pieces. Notice that they both picked their apples first.

One of the ladies from church gave out apples instead of candy much to the delight of my kiddos. While every other kid was taking one simply because their parents were watching and demanding politeness, my kids were thrilled and asked me if they could go back to that car. Go figure.


What a mummy really looks like without all the bandaids.