Naps make everything better...

We had a bad morning here. Lots of crying, kicking and screaming, tantrum throwing... and that was just me. I'm not feeling very well today which leads to a lot of laying around moaning and ignoring the middle children (lucky Ashley got to go to school). Finally at 10 I decided we were all taking morning naps rather then afternoon naps. Aaaahh, much better. Of course this means that they're already awake and terorizing- but having had a nap I feel much better equipt to deal with it. I still feel crappy (literally- and now you know more then you wanted to) but I can sit up and observe the destruction a little bit without dozing. It's amazing how much a little nap can help.

Of course I had some weird dreams. My neighbors had come over to hang my blinds (both the husband and the wife and a random single neighbor from somewhere else) and I was talking to them about our dog issues. I kept explaining that their dog barked every morning at 6 am- and they kept insisting that they didn't have a dog. It was quite frustrating, but I didn't want to make them mad because I wanted blinds up, especially the blind in the window between the bathroom and my bedroom. (I don't really have a window there). To make matters worse the single neighbor kept hitting on the married guy next door and distracting him from putting up blinds! Odd, but entertaining.

Megan is having a trauma apparently- she just walked up to me and said, "my cookie broke, the chocolate is all gone, Annika is a dog and my leg hurts." Life is rough when you're 3.

I'll post a picture later.

So I lied...

As sometime (okay usually) happens I don't get to do all that I intended on the day I intend to do it.... So- I didn't finish the office today... Can I post before and 'half-way done' pictures???
Here's before:

Looks bad huh? This is where I'm at currently (and we moved that desk- swapped places with the filing cabinet).

It just seems that it's the 'dumping ground' (well, that and the garage) and we've not 'gotten' to it since moving in. Anyway, I've actually done a lot more work then it appears, I've sorted and thrown out a bunch of stuff (I can't believe how much paper Ashley brings home from school!)

Joy

So I'm finally decorating and putting up pictures and stuff. Mostly I'm just starting with Christmas decorations though. Here is the shelf we made at Super Saturday- we made a bunch of stuff to go on it too- but I figure since I don't have much horizontal space downstairs I'll need to rotate through holiday stuff on it as well. Here it is set up for Christmas:

The shelf is straight- but apparently I'm not since I took the picture leaning to the right. I need to find something better to put on the last peg and I think I'm going to take the holly berries off the letters. I also need to make a holiday stitchery- but that'll probably wait until next year since I need to get cracking on Christmas presents first. Here are my stockings:

And just to brag this is what I did yesterday:

All neat and tidy. Around the corner is more food storage. I hung up a bunch of hooks in the garage for coats and bags. That closet was so bad that you couldn't even walk into it. I'm working on the office currently- which is also bad- but lucky for you I took before pictures.

We had two families over for dessert tonight (Lindsay and Corey Pam). It was a lot of fun. I made an ice cream cake that was super yummy. We're trying to be super social and get to know a lot of people in the ward and I've set a goal to have two families over a week for dessert. I'm also making more of an effort to get to know people in the neighborhood. There are tons of young couples and TONS of little girls Megan and Annika's ages. We had a 'neighborhood' play day at our park last week and had a great time. I love meeting new people and being social and Steve indulges me. There is also a family that lives two doors down that is in the ward that has three little girls. They couldn't come tonight but are coming for FHE (family home evening) tomorrow. Her husband is out of town with work and will be for a month so I'm hoping we can help her out some. That would totally stink, I don't know what I'd do without Steve to relieve me!

Church is so hard though. SO HARD. It's a good thing we know that's where we need to be on a weekly basis because it'd be so much easier to quit going. Anyway- I'm promising before and after pictures of the office tomorrow- hound me if I don't post them, I need to get them done!

Mobile...

It's just a matter of time until Corinne is going full speed. Currently she's only moving backwards and in circles. She is so happy on the floor (as long as she's not being sat on or kicked) until she backs herself into a corner- or in this case under the couch.

I've been working hard today. I was going to do before and after pictures of my 'work' but I'm not quite ready for the after yet. So you'll get to see my beautifully clean and organized study tomorrow!

Ashley had a 'princess tea party' today. So she got to dress up and get her hair all beautiful. Here's a picture:















Of course Megan wanted to dress up like a princess too- so this is the outfit of choice:

HOT! Or as we like to say around here- hawt! And so Annika's not left out-

She wanted me to take a picture of her with the cup on her chin- but as I snapped the picture it fell off- leaving a beautiful white ring around her face. Seriously hilarious.

I'm trying to do better about finding the joy and humor in motherhood. It's been a long, hard couple of months and I'm thinking a lot of it is me just changing my attitude. Motherhood and stay-at-home momdom in general is so repetitive and mundane and there aren't many grateful people or even people noticing the work and effort you put into it. Heck, usually instead of being grateful that they get to eat dinner they're ungrateful for what you've made. Add to that all the cleaning and redoing the same things over and over as they get undone and it's down right frustrating. Anyway, I'm trying to get out of this rut of a time that I've been in since Corinne was born and we sold the house and moved and stuff. Hopefully when my girls are moms they'll realize what a sacrifice it is and will be grateful. Anyway, not sure how I got on this tangent- but I'm grateful for my mom staying home and raising us. It's hard, ungratifying work for sure. Thanks mom!!

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.