MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!

 The kids loved making gingerbread graham cracker houses for family night.  We also made a countdown chain (not pictured). 

 From left to right:  Carter's, Lydia's, Meleah's, Cameron's. 

Favorite Gifts:  

Carter - "the wii" (shocker!)  He also LOVES his Spongebob MP3 player, and I've noticed that he does his chores a lot more cheerfully when he's listening to music.  His favorite songs that Santa put on are "Sweet Child of Mine" by Guns N' Roses (even though he thought it was a girl when he first heard it) and "Feeling Good" by Michael Buble. 

Lydia - "Barbies." I'm assuming this includes the dollhouse that Santa brought for her and Meleah to share.  

Meleah - "Zhu Zhu pets!"  Grandma spent lots of time setting up their Furry Frenzy track and they've played with it for HOURS.  

Cameron - Just gave me a blank stare when I asked what his favorite gift from Christmas was, but he's played with his Magna Doodle and Toy Story potato head set a lot.

 

We had a very fun week leading up to Christmas by having a "staycation" at Laura's house from Monday through Friday.  My Mom and Dad were here for the entire week, and it was so much fun to be with them.  The kids couldn't believe they got to have four sleepovers in a row!  During the week we went caroling to some of my grandparents good friends, saw the Christmas lights at temple square, made some Christmas goodies, sewed pajamas (technically I just cut out patterns and strung elastic waistbands), and had a great time being together.  Christmas Eve we had our usual Danish stuffed cabbage at Laura's, then exchanged gifts and went home to wait for Santa.  Grandma and Grandpa Brown and Jana and Rachel came to see what everybody got for Christmas and have some biscuits and gravy with us Christmas morning.  We played with the wii, our new board games, and play doh.  That evening we had a traditional Christmas dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Stewart's house and played games.  It was such a great Christmas and my only complaint is that it went by way too fast!

Carter's Christmas Correspondence

The best present I could ever give to my parents is for my Dad a mind control hat and I'll have the remote so I'll control my Dad.  That would make me happy.  So my dad won't kiss me.  And my mom the calendar that is under the tree.  I can't wait for my mom would be happy.  She actually needs a new calendar. 

Dear Santa Claus,
I want to have a puppy and a kitten for Christmas.  A ship, but make it blank so I can paint it the way I want it so I can fly it to school every day and drive it to vacation through Disneyland.
Your Child,
Carter

Dear Frosty,
It's really really frosty on my car in December 8th 2010.  Merry Christmas Frosty!  I can't wait for Christmas.  I have a family.  I have 2 sisters.  1 is named Lydia and my other sister is Meleah.  She bothers me.  I also have a brother.  His name is Cameron. 
Yours Truly,
Carter

Side note:  Why can't Carter ever ask for a normal gift from Santa?  Anybody that knows me knows that a puppy or a kitten ain't happenin'.  And as far as the space ship that can fly us to Disneyland...I'll have to have Randall look into it.  He'll also settle for a shrinking machine in case anyone knows where I can pick up one of those.  Last year he asked for a motorcycle that has 10,000 tires.  Really?!  Luckily Lydia asked for "all the girls stuff" and Meleah asked for "dollies" so at least someone will be happy Christmas morning.  I guess considering what he said about Meleah to Frosty and the fact that he still hates kisses from Daddy, Carter should just be grateful if he doesn't get coal from Santa this year! 

The List

Alright my friends, it's time for the list.  Not my Christmas list, not the naughty and nice list...the name list.  I need to name this baby girl!  Give me your input, even though I might not listen to you.  ;)  Just don't say you don't like any of them.  (I already got that response from my husband.)

Middle name: Rae  

Andrea

Ashlynn

Aubrey

Audrey

Carley

Cayla

Eden

Ella

Emmalynn

Emily 

Eva

Hannah

Julia

Savannah

Shannon

Shayla

Tamara

Vanessa

Violet

(...)?!

Do any of you fellow bloggers feel like you need to take an english refresher course to ensure that you're not making embarassing grammatical errors on a regular basis?  I know I'm horrible for run-on sentences, and I find myself using brackets, dot dot dots, and the exclaiming question mark all the time.  (I also don't remember if you're supposed to put the punctuation inside, or outside the brackets.)? So...I apologize to any of you that find my repetitive grammatical ignorance annoying. 

It's a...

Girl!

Halloween 2010

Introducing...

 DARTH CARTER

 "The mean witch that HATES princesses...

 ...but can sometimes be nice."

 The beautiful Rapunzel

 and the adorable Hunny Pot

 You can't tell, but this is an awesome devil jack-o-lantern.  Maybe by next year I'll know how to turn off the flash on my camera.

Classified Information

I told Carter this morning that Aunt Taryn heard about his powers on my blog and suggested that he could be a dynamic duo with his cousin Stryder (who can climb doorframes BTW).  He thought that sounded great, but then stated:

"Don't send any more blobs or I can't be a super hero anymore.  We have to protect my secret identity."

Of course I was very concerned and asked if he thought I should delete my "blob" from yesterday.  He said that I could keep it there "cause it could be information to him", and that I can also inform everyone that we found another power...jumping really far.   Unfortunately, this will be my last post on the matter as all further information is going to be considered CLASSIFIED.

Super Carter!

Earlier today Carter decided that...dun...duh...duh..duuuuh...he's becoming a super hero.  

Carter:  "Mom, can you put something in the green bucket?  Don't show me what it is!"

Mom:  "Okaaay...why?"

Carter:  "I have to see if that's one of my super powers.  I already know I have a sense cause earlier today Meleah was going to throw something at me and I sensed it even though she was standing behind me."

After 5 or 6 guesses (all of them wrong) he decided X-ray vision is not one of his powers.

Later, he was attempting to put his 12 year old cousin Caden into a headlock and found that super strength is also not one of his powers.   

After a day of experimenting we discovered that Carter's powers are:

1.  Running really fast.

2.  Having "a sense"

3.  Being a good helper.  

We're still on the lookout for more, so we'll keep you posted if we discover any new ones.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

When I drop Carter off at school, I make a point of saying "I love you" repeatedly. Carter boldly ignores me until I make a sad face.  Then he mumbles a begrudging "I love you too."  Today that was followed by "Stop trying to make me love you!"

"Belle was chasing me all day and I LIKED it."  

"I'm half an adult."

Instead of simply answering my questions, Carter prefers to give me clues -
Mom:  "Who spilled the rice crispies?" 
Carter:  "What is your youngest daughter's name?"

 "I'm gonna marry Heabenly Father."

"When I grow up I'm gonna get big boobs to feed my baby."

"Once shadow shotted London and he died for real life!"  I guess that's why she's afraid of shadows!

"Can I have some jello (aloe) on my sunburn?"  Can I have some jello (gel) in my hair today?"

Meleah thinks that bras are called shoulders (no, I haven't corrected her) so while we were walking through Kohls the other day she exclaimed, "Wow!  Look at all these shoulders!" 

Meleah is very excited for her next Birthday (even though it's not until May), but somehow we went from "On my next Birthday I'm gonna be in preschool/On my next Birthday I'm gonna be 4..." to "On my next Birthday I'm gonna be a Mom." or "On my next Birthday I'm gonna have big, big, big, big, big boobs!"  I sure hope not!

Meleah is afraid of loud noises and has become very adept at covering her ears with her hands.  I'm not just talking about motorcycles, fireworks, and gun ranges.  She covers her ears when Daddy's singing, Mommy's ralphing, Lydia's crying, etc.  In her defense, all those things can be pretty darn loud. 

Every day when I put Meleah down for a nap, I sing her 3 songs (unless she whines, then she only gets 2).  Every day I ask her which songs she would like me to sing, and every day she answers "I Love to See the Temple, The Wheels on the Bus, then The Itsy Bitsy Spider."  Don't even think about mixing them up, either! 

Every morning Cameron brings me my robe, my glasses, and the remote while chanting either "umi umi" (team umizoomi) or "ues gues" (Blues Clues, with accompanying twinkle stars hands).  He then drags his blanket, pillow, and ba-ba in front of the TV and watches while I attempt to go back to sleep. 

Don't make Cameron angry or he'll yell while forcefully sticking his hand out at you (as if he has the force or something).

Cameron is an excellent dancer.  I need to catch it on film, because it's HILARIOUS.  When he gets his hips and shoulders going at the same time, I DIE laughing.

Ever since he was really little Cameron has raised his hand in response to Randall's questions like "Who missed Daddy?", "Who wants ice cream?", etc.  Now he not only raises his hand, but exclaims "Me!"  The funny thing is, he responds exactly the same no matter what the question is.  For example:  "Who has a stinky in his diaper?", "Who wants to go nigh-night?", "Who thinks Daddy is a doo-doo head?"... "Me!"

Bye Bye Baby Tooth!

Lydia realized yesterday morning that she had a loose tooth.  She's been waiting YEARS for this to happen, so she was super excited.  After a lot of diligent wiggling during church and many informative discussions with her older brother

Lydia:  Is it going to hurt?

Carter:  It feels like when you're gonna have a baby.

she started to get a little frustrated that it hadn't come out yet.  I tried to explain to her that sometimes it takes more than a day to get the tooth out, but she was determined to have to tooth fairy come that night.  Fortunately, after a little wiggling help from some cousins, Aunt Jenny came to the rescue with some dental floss and pulled it right out.  She didn't cry, scream or anything.  I wish I could say I was as brave when I've had my babies.  The tooth fairy even remembered to come by and bring $2, which she carried around all morning until it was time to go to school.

Owies

I've debated back and forth about whether I should write this post or not, but I've decided that these are memories.  Memories that keep me up at night thinking about what could have happened, but memories no less.  First of all...when I was really little, I seemed to have a propensity for getting burned.  One time I pushed a chair up to the stove to help my sister make dinner.  Unfortunately, I decided to stir the pot that was on the back burner and not the skillet that was in the front.  I reached over and of course, the skillet tipped onto my stomach and burned a half circle into my nightgown and through to my skin.

Another time I was helping put away dishes (see what a helpful child I was?).   I climbed onto the wet counter so that I could reach the top shelf.  Just as one of my siblings was opening the oven to get dinner, I slipped and fell right on top of the oven door.  Well, it appears that my children have the same tendencies when it comes to being around things that are "hot, hot, hot!" 

The first incident occurred when I was using what I used to consider an awesome end-of-the-island outlet to plug in my griddle and cook tortillas.  While I was on the phone with Randall, Cameron decided to come along and pull on the cord.  The skillet, tortillas and all came down right on top of him.  I was freaking out, and pretty much just screamed to Randall that Cameron had pulled a hot griddle onto himself before hanging up on him.  Luckily he was close to home, so he didn't have to wait too long to see how Cam was.  It took a while for Grandpa Stewart and I to see exactly where he was burned, and we were amazed that he didn't seem to have any large burns.  Luckily his shirt protected his chest, where the flat part of the skillet was resting, and it miraculously missed his face altogether.  He still has some interesting scars.  Carter calls the scar on his hand the winking smiley face scar.

A couple of months later while we were camping in Manti, there was an even scarier situation.  We arrived to the campsite later than planned (as usual) so Randall had to set up the tent in the dark.  I was watching the kids by the fire/helping them roast marshmallows.  Needless to say, this was a pretty stressful task for me to do alone, so I immediately got up to take Cameron to the tent once I heard it was finished.  Lydia was sitting on the camp chair next to me roasting marshmallows, and I told her I'd be right back.  Less than a second later, I heard a crash and looked over to see Lydia IN THE FIRE.  She had tried to climb down from her camp chair, and it had collapsed and catapulted her into the fire.  I practically threw Cameron to the ground and grabbed Lydia as fast as I could (which seemed like hours).  It was really hard to see in the dark where she had been burned but in the end she only had a few tiny burns on her fingers and an inch long line on her wrist.  If any other kid had fallen into the fire like that it would have been much worse, but Lydia grabbed onto a big log that was sticking out of the coals and was able to hold herself up with her massive upper body strength.  I still can't believe how blessed we were that her hair didn't catch on fire even though it was down, and that she didn't have any serious burns.

On a side note, by the time we put the kids to bed that night Lydia had already asked me five times if we were going to be able to roast marshmallows again the next day.  She was obviously a little less traumatized than I was.   

Both of these situations could have been SO MUCH WORSE.  I keep thinking, what if it had been a crockpot full of hot stew instead of a griddle?  What if it had been a roaring fire instead of burned down coals?  Thoughts like these keep me up at night, and serve no purpose.  When I was little I was ALWAYS scared at bedtime.  I remember my Mom once telling me that there's no point to living in fear.  Most likely no one will break into our house and murder us (my fear as a child), so why waste your time thinking about what COULD happen?  If it's going to happen, it will happen whether you worry about it or not.  Although my fears have changed somewhat over the years (I'm still a little scared of being murdered in my sleep) they're still just as much of a waste of time as they were back then.  I think it's important that we try to be as careful as we can with our kids and try to prevent anything bad from happening to them, but in the end we don't know everything that will happen in their lives.  I've just got to have faith that Heavenly Father will get me and my kids through anything that we may have to face.  On that somewhat cryptic note, I'll leave you with a bit of advice...
1.  Don't ever plug ANYTHING into those end-of-the-island outlets!
2.  Don't let your kids sit too close to the fire!
3.  Don't let this post give you more things to incessantly worry about!  ;)

Lagoon

We had tons of fun at Lagoon on the Friday before school started (even though it was crazy busy).  I managed to hold down everything I ate that day, so that was awesome.  Grandma and Grandpa Stewart went with us, and I don't know what we would have done without them.  We probably would have left the park about 6 hours sooner than we did. 

It's so weird to see my kids on rides that I rode when I was their age.  If I wasn't so lazy, I would find some of the old family pics and do a little then and now comparison.  Maybe next year...

Meleah and Cameron pretty much only liked the cars and the boats.  I did force them on the whales a few times though...you know you've gotta get your money's worth!

Carter was pretty bored on the boats, but was not quite ready to go on Wicked or the Colossus.  He did like the Bat and the Dino Drop this year though.  Baby steps people!

 Grandma managed to capture a picture of us right before we got blasted by a waterfall.

Everyone was pretty tuckered out at the end of a very exciting day!

Back to School!

I'm SO SAD that summer is over, and I have to be a responsible mother again.  Honestly, how does the summer fly by so fast?  Fortunately, the kids are very happy to be back in school, and they have excellent teachers.  I had a minor panic attack thinking about how Lydia's going to get around in Kindergarten with only one teacher to help her (in preschool she had 3), but the teacher said everything went great today.  Here's to hoping that they continue to love school this much!

Lydia's Intuition

"I talked to Heavenly Father about a prayer and I asked if it was a baby girl and he said yes!"

My Little Linus...

Fun at the Pool

Jana and Rachel's apartment has a very nice pool, so we've been having lots of fun swimming this summer...

Carter had a great time with his goggles.  I had to keep "accidentally" dropping toys into the pool so that he could retrieve them for me.  He also told me that he and Raeleigh waved at each other under water and "it was like they were having a conversation UNDER WATER!"  Pretty cool.

 Lydia and Meleah loved to kick around the pool in their little floaties.  Meleah kept herself entertained by switching from the green star, to the blue star, to the green circle, to the yellow lifejacket, to the blue boat...

Grandma spent most of her time taking care of babies, whether she was in the pool or not.  Gotta love Grandma!

We spent hours and hours in the pool during the week that my mom was here and my back got totally FRIED.  It's 50 spf for me from now on.  Meleah and Carter got a little burnt too, even with the 50.  Who knew you had to reapply if you're going to be swimming for 5 hours?! 

Proud Mommy Moment

One of my kids apparently cleaned up a mess they'd made without me even asking them to!!!

A Little Announcement...

Vegas, Baby!

My kids were reminiscing about our trip to Las Vegas last Thanksgiving...

Meleah - "I throwed up in Las Begas!"

Lydia -  "Yeah, and I throwed up on the sidewalk!"

Carter - "I threw up in Lost Vegas too.  It splashed ALL OVER the bathroom floor!"  

Good Times

Human Digestion

On the way home from my sister's house at 10:30 pm...

Carter:  I'm sooo hungry Mom.  Can I please have something to eat?

Mom:  I don't have anything for you to eat.

Carter:  But I'm so hungry and if I don't eat something I could DIE!

Mom:  You're not going to die Carter, you've been eating all night.

Carter:  Yes huh, I'll digest myself!

Mom:  You can't digest yourself.

Carter:  Uh huh!  One time my stomache growled really loud and it hurt and I digested myself!

Mom:  Well, you've had plenty to eat today and it's bedtime when we get home.

Carter:  You don't take care of me, Mom!  You don't even care about your oldest son!

Cam

Cameron

 - likes to whack people to get their attention.  Pretty funny when he does it to Carter or Bob...not so funny when he does it to kids his own age. 

 - lays down on the ground with his face in his hands and his bum in the air if he's sad/in trouble.

 - has a very expressive face.  I can usually tell exactly what he's thinking with just a glance at his beautiful blue eyes.

 - loves to be chased.  Especially around the parked cars in our driveway where all of our neighbors can see me "run" after him.  

 - picks around the meat on his plate, no matter how much I try to mix it in.  This is probably why he was anemic for about 6 months.

 - brings me the remote, then plops down in front of the TV to watch Super Why or Backyardigans.  

-  loves music.  He dances around when there's music on TV, but when I put music on my computer he knows it's time to clean up and starts piling toys into any box/bin he can find. 

 - has an excited giggle when I get his bottle/sippy.  He did the same thing when I was about to nurse him, and I'm so glad that I still get to hear the giggle.  It's so cute!  Yes, I know he's too old for bottles.  He takes a sippy, I'm just slowly weening myself from the hour of "me-time" that I get when he's laying around slurping his bottle. 

- has always been kind of a noisy breather.  I could usually hear his little intake/outtake of air before he even entered the room.  Turns out he had a chronic sinus infection that caused it, but it was cute until we discovered that!

- always grabs a piece of food really quick before I take him out of his chair, no matter how long he's been sitting there staring at it. 

Cameron's Dictionary -
uh-oh - I just dropped something on purpose so that I can watch you struggle to bend over and pick it up.   And yes, I am going to drop it again if you're stupid enough to give it back to me. 

ahm/Ma-Ma - me!

Daddy - Randall (duh)

no, no, no - this should have been his first word along with uh-uh-uh because that's what he hears the most.

bah-bah - bottle, sippy...anything that he wants at the moment, but usually edible items.  For some reason he always says this in his most angelic, high-pitched voice. 

hee hee hee - said with crinkle nose and squinty eyes either when he's being mischievous or when he thinks someone is messing around with him. 

go-go - Let's go! 

ow - unfortunately he says this quite frequently.  My last two kids can be a little clumsy at times (pretty much whenever they're awake, and even sometimes when they're not.)

uh go? -  Where did it go?  (said with upturned hand and lifted shoulders)

Random

I've decided to write another post full of pointless random facts about me for all you poor fools that follow my blog to read.  Here they are -

I hate the words flesh, foggy, and moist.  I'm sure there are others, but those are the ones that come to mind right now. 

I never do yard work.  My dislike of dirt, coupled with my fear of bugs keeps me away from it entirely.  I do love me some fresh veggies however, so I have been known to throw a few plants in the ground in the spring time (with heavy duty gloves on).  I don't weed it however, so only the strongest plants survive. 

I love the number 7.  I often find myself twisting the girls hair ties 7 times,  taking 7 swallows of water, brushing my teeth for 77 seconds, etc.  Weird, I know.  When I was in 1st grade my math teacher had a bunch of cartoon numbers posted on her wall.  The 7 was a princess, the 8 was the prince, and the 5 was the villain with a long curly mustache.   I've loved 7 ever since.  It doesn't hurt that there are 7 letters in all three of my names, my shoe and ring size is 7, I was born in the 7th month, and my mom was 27 when she had me.  I'm also going to have 7 kids.  Just kidding! 

I love variety puzzles.  I haven't had time to do them much lately, but I think the reason I love them is because they remind me a little bit of school.  I occasionally feel like my brain isn't fully being utilized by chasing kids, cleaning, and cooking all day.  I somehow feel more intellectually exercised when I'm doing pointless word games and crosswords. 

The outer rim of one of my ears is fat and the other is skinny.  It's almost like when I was made, too much cartilage went to one ear, leaving the other a little short.  Mine aren't quite as freakish as Tara's, but still worth mentioning.

I always want what I can't have.  Currently it's a house to decorate.  During the 6 years we lived in our house I didn't do a darn thing decoratively aside from painting and hanging up the latest pictures of my kids.  Now that we live with my in-laws I'm suddenly addicted to HGTV and can't wait to get back into our house so that I can put wainscoting, chair rails, and wood trim everywhere! 

I'm easily bored/distracted.  I blame my kids for not hearing sacrament meeting, but really I just don't focus well in the first place.

I hate when you're watching a TV show and they show you a five minute clip of what's coming up after the commercial.  Say...maybe I'll just watch that exact segment in 3 minutes, eh?  An even more grievous offense is when someone else has the remote and they don't fast-forward past that crap. 

As you can probably tell from that last statement, patience is not my strong suit.  I don't have any.  You'd think that having 4 kids (1 that takes 4 1/2 minutes to walk from the car to the house) would have helped me with this issue, but alas I'm just as grumpy as ever when someone has the audacity to make me wait. 

I hate when people touch my ears.  Aside from harming my family, a wet willie is pretty much the most heinous thing a person can do to me. Fortunately, now that I'm out of high-school and have my husband pretty well-trained, it's not something I've had to endure in recent years.  (Although I may be in trouble if said husband actually decides to read the family blog and sees that I called him "well-trained."  The chances of this are not great, however.)

I love laying in my husband's armpit.  It sounds disgusting, I know...but it's really comfortable!  It totally makes my hair smell like Old Spice,  but it's definitely worth it.

Schoooools out for summer!

I'm a little late posting (been a little busy taking care of a post-surgery child), but we had a very eventful end of the school year that I need to blog about. Carter had some fun dress-up days like -

Crazy Hair Day  He got teased a little for having "girl hair" (obviously the kids are a little to young to remember the mullet days), but what's a mom supposed to do for crazy hair day when their kid's hair is 1/4" long and they're not allowed to use color sprays? 

Wacky Outfit Day

Lydia GRADUATED from preschool! 

They all looked so adorable in their green gowns and home-made caps! 

Lydia hugging her AMAZING teacher Mrs. Cheryl

Ellie, Karley, and Lydia 

Ellie has cerebral palsey, and Karley has spina bifida like Lydia.  Aren't they SO adorable?  Lydia made lots of friends in her class, and I'm hoping that some of them will be in her Kindergarten class next year. 

The kids had tons of fun at school this year, but I'm SO happy to have them home with me (and not have to go to the school 3 times a day to drop them off/pick them up!)