I'll bet....

Alizah doesn't ever fly down the banister again!! We were at a Christmas Dinner and recieved a call from the babysitter, "Alizah fell down the stairs." I said, "Is there blood? -no, but a bump." We were about done anyway, so we rushed home. She was screaming still when I got there, but I couldn't see a real big bump. I was talking about what she hit her head on and the babysitter said the floor. I had been assuming she rolled down the stairs, when she actually was straddling the banister, sliding and fell from 7 feet onto her head. We watched her all night. I didn't sleep until about 8:00 this morning! About 3 in the morning was when the swollen forhead turned into the color, light purple, then darker, and darker. She can't see out of it, but refuses to take any medicine. She actually whimpered all night long. I can't imagine the headache she's got and there's nothing she'll let me do! She wanted to take the picture next to her christmas list because she says, "I'll be able to see before christmas right?" She's breakin my heart.....

Ahhhh! Open Wide

So, Piper is following in her sisters Alizah's footsteps. She has terrible teeth and refusing to brush. Well not anymore....she experienced the dentist and now has no problem brushing her teeth due to her not wanting to go back to the dentist. I noticed a few weeks ago some bad spots on her teeth. So off to the dentist we go. She wouldn't open up the first time, second "happy" visit was good so we atempted to drug and drug some more to get four cavities filled. I really didn't want to take her out of town due to our experience with Alizah, so I pushed to do it here in Moses. The cost was half and we can make payments, so wanted to try at least. The first "cocktail" didn't work, so we gave her another dose and she was pretty loopy with the gas too. The first cavity went well with her hardely flinching, but by the last three-she'd had enough. Dr. Jorgenson worked pretty hard for his money and I was so impressed. He kept working with her kicks, bites, and quick turns of her head. I had to hold her arms down and by the time the hour was over, was so tense that my head hurt for a few hours after. Piper was so drugged after cuz the two doses had completely kicked in that she was kneeling at the treasure box and head dived into it before the hygienist and I could catch her!! I felt really bad laughing, but everyone had to smile as she lumbered out of the office. She has recovered and hopefully won't remember the torture that she was put through. Brandon's turn is next. I'm afraid I'm going to have to dose him up with cocktails to get him to go. He's more afraid than the girls!!

Pretzels, cakes, and messes

The girls LOVE to cook. I had a few pics on my phone of their latest cooking adventures. If you notice these two do not have a parent in them. It's the girls' favorite people, their babysitter, Lindsay and their pretend older sister Ella. Lindsay babysits on Mondays and Fridays. Fridays are "Treat Fridays" where she brings them treats or makes something with them. They look forward to her every week. The second pic is of Ella making her famous pretzels with us. I did help with this, which did us no good, because we burnt them. They were supposed to be for Jerry down the street who always helps us. He did get some, but they weren't our best showing! Ella is so patient with the girls. Her and Hanna play models, photographers, and rock stars. I love that she includes the other two and seems to make everyone happy. We've looked into renting her on a monthly basis, but her mom wouldn't go for it! A funny story about Lindsay and her sister, McKenna (who sometimes babysits too) is that the girls play, "Lindsay and McKenna". One of them will be Lindsay and the other- McKenna and they will talk to each other as the girls and dance around. (They are both dancers and Lindsay is on Drill team-who we went to watch at a football game once.) It's pretty cute and I honestly can't think of two better role models. I love how much I trust them to babysit and it definately says something when the girls want me to leave so Lindsay can come over!!

O Christmas Tree....

"O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...." And keep singing those sames words for the next 1/2 hour!! That's what we listened to the whole night. I tried to get them to sing other carols, but Alizah said it had to be O Christmas Tree. And they didn't know any other lines, so they just repeated it over and over! Jerry brought down my favorite "skinny" tree, or as Korbi calls it my "charlie Brown tree". Now the kids call it that too. This year it is a little sparse on one side, but I think beautiful all the same. The kids had fun this year putting the ornaments up and I fixed them when they weren't looking! One room is now already for Christmas, boxes put away and the rest of the house needs some damage repair this morning. I also burned one batch of carmels already and need to try again tonight. At the gym, we are getting all of our parties and get togethers over this week, so it's busy for me doing cards, apprecation gifts, and getting ready for the dinner we are doing tomorrow. Christmas is coming and the kids are so excited!!

Turkey Day!

So it's 7:00 in the morning and I can't sleep. The one day to sleep in and I can't do it. So I'm snooping on all the blogs that I've missed in the passed few weeks. As I'm looking at everyone's blogs, I'm realizing I need to sit and take a few minutes and think about what I'm thankful for. After my past year, I've had a few things happen that don't necessarily bring the grateful mood into my life. But I'm going to try to refocus my thoughts with a start this quiet morning on what I am thankful for. Let's just say it's practice before I'm put on the spot at dinner this afternoon!

1. Family
Hanna-she is so tenderhearted and smart with a mind that doesn't stop. I am thankful for her deep thinking and questioning mind.
Alizah-she is a special girl with quirks that I do love. I am thankful for how hard she tries to be brave.
Piper-wants to be big girl and a baby at the same time. I am thankful for her desire to learn new things.
Brandon-I am thankful for the amount of effort he is putting into this family at this time.

2. My House
I love where we live and the land and neigborhood that that surrounds it. Every morning as the ducks fly over the creek, I think of what a lucky family we are to live here.

3. The Church
I am thankful for Heavenly Father for providing a church that is supportive and full of people that are willing to love. I am thankful for the Savior for giving his life for us to provide a way that we can repent of our mistakes and move on with Faith.

4. Friends
I am thankful for the many friends that I have that listen when I need them too with or without giving opinions back! I'm thankful that they they love me for who I am and are willing to help build me up.

5. Jobs
I am thankful for the opportunities I have to provide my family with the things that they need.


Ok, now for a few more thankful things that I'll just list in any given order....

dead mice,good customer service, drugs for dental work, ice cream, Maggie & The Ferocious Beast, DVD players for cars, cell phones, cheetos/oreos, computers/internet/email, i-phone, removable showerheads, Dyson vacuum cleaners, TEVO, contacts, employees that have workethic, dead mice-oh wait did I mention that already, better do it again, dead mice.

I have many, many things to be thankful for and I think that in my busy life that the negative can easily overpower me. My new year resolution (I might as well start early) is going to be to think more positively. I heard a technique yesterday that I'm going to try to start. It's called stop and redirect. When you are thinking something negative, you visualize a stop sign and redirect yourself into a positive thought. So I guess for Christmas presents, my friends might be getting stop signs to help me out with this!!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone and I hope you have many things to be thankful for also!! The kids are stirring and I need to start my assignments for the dinner before they get up. We are going to a friend's house this afternoon. The kids are excited and I'm not having to cook that much so I'm excited!

Deep Kindergarten comments

My kids in kindergarten have been talking about the election. Some of their comments that I heard were definitley one sided to each of the presidential candidates. After reading Korbi's blog, and the article about the terrible disgrace we have shown as a country to our current president, I couldn't help but get my thoughts out on the matter. I have never told a class who I vote for or which candidate I support. Instead I've tried to teach the kids that no matter what we think, there are other people out there that might think differently and if we think we are right, we still need to be considerate to other's opinions. The article on Korbi's blog is interesting in the light of the election that was just held. Even though I did not vote for Obama, I need to take into consideration that he is our President and until he proves otherwise he needs to be supported. I guess I'm so surprised how young these deep feelings of support, respect, etc. are fostered. For example, Hanna came home from school and told me that our new President kills kids. Well, after a few days I figured out that she has just been introduced to the topic of abortion. I now have to have this conversation with her and despite my thoughts on the matter, I was shocked at how second graders are percieving things that are happening in our country. I just hope that parents can be a little bit more aware of their comments and try to teach kids to think for themselves and not be persuaded by other's opinions. Children this young really should have no opinion because there is no way they could have all the information to make an educated decision. And I think this is the biggest problem with elections, conversations about politics (well anything for that matter), etc. is that many people don't have all the facts before they are making their opinions known. I myself need to be more educated in these matters and am trying to make it a point to read more information.

So, on lighter notes, I have another mouse-mice haunting (well not haunting because they are not dead...yet) me. I really feel their eyes on me when I walk down every morning for the past week and see the mouse traps LICKED CLEAN and not set off. I think they are probably making fun of me in their own sick way. So my neighbor, Jerry the hunter, has baited the traps with bacon rines tied to the traps with string. So they'll have to pull and pull and hopefully,....SNAP!!!!!!! Jerry is such a kind man. The kids even know that when we have a problem, we call Jerry. We are so blessed to have Jerry and Tedde down the street and I'm really not just talking about the mice right now. They are always available to help us and we so appreciate them.

Twilight Fever

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

I guess I'm not as excited about the new twilight movie coming out as my sisters are, but I do look forward to it. ( My Idaho sisters are going to a before party, a limo ride to the movie, and an after party!) So I had to take the quiz and see which character I was like. Maybe some of us Washington residents need to make plans to go to the show together. hint, hint....