Sisters

Sisters-
I have seven, so it's a relationship that I understand well, most of the time. Megan and Annika are only 15 months apart. They are the best of friends and the worst of enemies usually within 5 or 6 seconds time. They know how to push each other's buttons, how to play well and how to work together destroy things quietly and efficiantly. Here is a picture of the two of them playing nicely this afternoon.

A picture a day

A friend of mine (yo liss!) did this last month and I'm stealing her idea. I need to post more pictures of my cute kids and capture daily lives better. I heard this scene before I saw it. "Mommy!! Mommy!! Mommy!! Corinne awake!! Mommy!!" Yeah, not sure if she was awake and then they saw her or they woke her up- but she's so easy going she was happy either way. At least the two of them love her right?? Is it just me or does Corinne look a bit worried??

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...