Thanksgiving and such...

So Thanksgiving went well I thought. Everyone that was supposed to came, we ate good food, and most importantly we had good pie. I brined the turkey and then cooked it in a roaster oven upside down (breast side down) and I'm told it was good and very mosit (which is what I was going for). I'm also loving my table stuff, found the cutest paper plates ect. I thought the talbe clothes were all the green with the print on them, but when I opened the packages they weren't! I was mad but it was too late to do anything.
Here are some picture highlights:
Here is Ashley, posing and fake smiling for the camera. Lily, Corinne and Megan are in the background.

Here is megan stealing a chip and running from the camera. Ashley did her hair- cute huh?

Here is my brother-in-law matt... he didn't show up to my house with a huge hickey on his forehead- but my house can be dangerous... I think he learned his lesson about sticking large suction cups on the bottom of baby toys to his head. Good thing he's a good sport since we didn't let him live it down the rest of the night. I hope it's faded by now!

My cute table settings

The full effect plus a cute niece

Here is Annika at the park- I promise she was having fun in this picture:

I went shopping Friday morning with Katie and my mom to get fabric for my curtains. I got it 70% off- which makes a huge difference when you're buying 15 yards! I also got a rowenta iron for $50.00. I've still not purchased a single Christmas gift though... Go me?

here's the fabric:

We had a good weekend visiting with everyone though. My house really isn't that exciting- and we really are homebody's. It's just so much work to go anywhere with 4 kids! I hope no one was too bored. We did play a lot of games and stayed up way to late most nights. It took me a couple days to recover- I must be getting old! I did make balloon hats and animals one night for the kids, that was fun. I had a bad batch of balloons though since they kept popping! The kids had fun playing together and Aunt Barbara secured her spot as the favorite aunt by doing makeup on Ashley, Megan and Lily.

Happy thanksgiving...

Party on!
http://www.msn.americangreetings.com/view.pd?i=382219626&m=1652&rr=y

I hope your turkey is moist and your pies miss your thighs. Cook well. Eat lots.

The Holidays are upon us..

I volunteered to host Thanksgiving this year. I'm not sure what I was thinking at the time- but now I'm rethinking my state of mind. I'm feeling more ready now then I was before the weekend. It helped that I ran around like crazy on Saturday getting stuff for 'the big day'. I have a turkey thawing in my oven- which I"m not entirely sure what to do with- but that I plan to make spectacular. I also bought a ham while I was at Costco today. (Just for you Katie). I also bought a roasting oven... I admit it- it was an impulse purchase, but one that makes getting everything cooked seem possible if my oven isn't filled with turkey all day. Plus it was $30- not too bad a deal (right?)

So, Costco. We've been Sam's club shoppers for a while now. Ever since one was built behind us in our previous house. But now it's 20 minutes away, and it's always incredibly busy, and they built a Costco 10 minutes from here. So I signed up. We have a friend who's always raving about Costco, but the only one around was 25-30 minutes from our last house- so not worth it. But he whined and complained on a regular basis. Now I know why, I'm embarrassed to admit it but Costco is better then Sam's club. Here are some reasons that I noticed today:
*The customer service desk is well staffed and efficiant
*bigger
*They open at 6am (Sam's didn't open until 10am)
*The samples everywhere you look- really helps to hand treats to your kids every 5 steps
*They have cheap gas- at least today it was cheaper then I've seen anywhere for a long time. Sam's had cheaper gas, but it was never more then .05 cheaper then the place just up the street.

The beginning, the middle, the end....

Today started out fine.... until Steve decided to go to that place where he goes all day and does stuff and they pay him... it's not like it's something new- he tends to go to that place rather frequently, but for some reason today it made the terrible duo freak out. They kept freaking out the entire walk to school, and the entire walk home. I wasn't very happy about it mostly because I missed my extra 30 minutes of walking because of the screaming. To top it off Corinne (sweetest baby ever) isn't feeling very good. So my high aspirations of things to accomplish today was squashed before it even started.... we came home and I put both screaming, onery children in their rooms until the screaming stopped- for their own safety and my sanity.

Then the phone rang. It was a friend from my new ward. She was inviting us over to play. YAY!! I figured at least if I could get nothing done I should do it somewhere else other then my house and get in some good conversation. So I told her we'd be there in an hour and went to shower. When we got there no one answered the door. I called her to make sure I was at the right place (we've only been there once) and could hear the phone ringing inside- still no answer. So maybe she was in the shower? Maybe I was back in High School and she was playing a mean trick on me (crossed my mind briefly), maybe her kid had to go to the emergency room? I wasn't sure- but I loaded my now screaming children (who really wanted to play with someone fun) back into the car and she drove up. Phew. Apparenlty she ran to the store and had some issues and it was all okay. We spent 3 hours chatting and the kids played beautifully. Yay!

Then we came home. All was well for naptime, fed my family dinner and then Ashley decided to write a letter to her cousin... apparently writing letters includes markers. I told her very specifically she had to sit at the table and that she was NOT to let Annika (the cronic wall colorer) have any markers under any circumstance. I sat down to feed the sweetest, but grumpiest baby ever and can hear the coloring and pleasantness that was my children. Ahhh, peace, sisters being nice and kind and.... in walks Annika colored from head to toe with marker. Lovely. I told Ashley it was time to put away the markers since she didn't keep them away from Annika. Her response, "We didn't let Annika have them." When I asked how Annika got covered in marker she told me, "Megan and I did it." Beautiful. I guess I need to be a little more specific in my directions?? Until further notice there will me no more 'weapons of mass destruction' at my house. All markers, crayons, colored pencils, watercolors, pens ect have been put in a box and put in the top of a closet.

Pictures of my cute baby

Here is Corinne. Seriously the sweetest baby ever. These are the faces she was making at Ashley...

For Hope

Is this perspective better? It's a blessing dress, the round cake was to give it more demension.

I've been MIA

Sorry for all of you holding your breath waiting to find out what we've been doing here..

...waiting for the laughter to die down....

So anyway, I decided after chasing Megan around the house, pinning her down and fighting to change her diaper that it was time for potty training (again) and this time I was serious (and I mean it) we WERE going to be successfull (if it killed one or both of us). The good news is that she only refused to sit on the potty and continually peed her pants for two days, then I won the battle of the wills. We're still fighting the war- but if it kills me she won't go to college in diapers. She's actually doing really, really well. She's napping in panties (yes I said panties- if you have issues with that get over it) and staying dry, we've gone places and she's stayed dry ect. We're still working on the poop thing (and if you have ideas I'd love to hear them). But overall Megan is wearing panties all day every day (but not for bed) and is doing well. YAY!!

Annika really, really, really, wants to wear panties too. We tried for a week with her but she's just not physically ready yet. In the meantime we let her practice as much as she wants- but she has to wear pull-ups.

Other things we've been doing.. I've done a couple of cakes-
This one for a friend's baby blessing:

and this one for a little girls tea party birthday. Everything is made out of fondant. (Homemade fondant that is super yummy).

Corinne seems to be getting sick. She's had lots of clear drainage the last couple of days nd I was pretty sure that she was working on some teeth or something, but she just woke up from her nap with a fever. Poor baby!

Ashley is good. She's doing well at school and has made a couple friends in the neighborhood. She asks everyday to ride her bike to school- but the sidewalks aren't completed surrounding the schol so she'd have to ride in the street- so for now it's a no go. I wrote the mayor and my councilman about the issue yesterday- but I still haven't recieved a response. Hopefully (for their sake) I get a response by the end of the week- otherwise I may need to get more parents from the school involved. The peices that aren't completed are handicap ramps and a few random squares from the middle of the sidewalk- makes it impossible to push the stroller on the sidewalk- I have to brave traffic instead. The forms are all there- being held into place by 110 peices of rebar- which I pointed out in my letter. It's just a safety hazzard in general. Anyway...

Last week we saw Lacey and her girls (who look like their daddy) one afternoon which was really nice. Lilah was a bit scared of Megan and Annika- with good reason. We had a good time playing at the park though.

So apparently you need to see me too...

At least Grandma does. Here we are at the ward trunk-or-treat. I was a hippie...
this picture doesn't do my hair justice though...
my costume also looked better with my denim jacket ect...