Miscellaneous For Today

I thought that for fun I'd just post some miscellaneous pictures today.

The dogs are always using the pillows on the couch as their own personal pillows (or beds). It doesn't matter if the kids are using them, too. That just makes it a little more cozy! Just call her our wolf-girl. She's into anything that has to do with wolves. The blanket she's wrapped up in has wolves on it, too. She got them both for Christmas. This is another Christmas present. It's Noah's. He is loving his legos and was so excited to get the Pirates of the Caribbean--Queen Ann set. McKaylie helped him put it together. It is pretty cool and even comes with little skeleton pirates! Chad and I went to the ship's Christmas party. (We totally went for the door prizes--came home with nada) We've decided we're much too old for that kind of scene--Truth is, we've never been much for that kind of scene! Chad's ship is the USS Ponce and it's nickname is the Proud Lion and it's colors are purple and gold. This was the ice sculpture they had that night. It was really cool and never melted, which I haven't figured out how yet. It's really not unusual to see Vanilla laying on the floor like this. If she wants attention, she'll paw at the air, too. It's quite comical and apparently, it's a corgi thing. Grandma Jo sent the kids their names in vinyl lettering for the rooms. McKaylie and Noah were nice enough to pose for pictures.

NoahMcKaylie Another Christmas gift was nerf dart guns. Vance, McKaylie and Noah all got one, with extra darts. I really think that Santa should have thought this through a little better, because the kids are always trying to sneak up and shoot someone, resulting in a dart war. Chad has been in on the wars, on many occasions and now has his own nerf gun, that shoots discs. So, I find little darts and discs ALL over my house . . . in my purse . . . on the bookshelves . . . in the dogs water bowl . . . everywhere!

Crickets, Be Gone!!!

Wow, it's been even longer than I thought since I've been on my blog. Shame on me! I've once again been chastised for it's neglect, so I've decided to take action.

I'll start with a super quick summary of the last few months. We moved from Maine to Virginia (again). Can't say that I was thrilled about it--the kids definitely were not thrilled. Chad was out to sea for about 6 weeks right after we moved--did not help our happiness levels! However it's nice, now, after 16 months of living apart, to finally be under the same roof.

Had a fun, little Halloween, a nice, quiet Thanksgiving, and a good Christmas, too.

Now we're into a new year, hoping that this is a better year than our last, but it's not really starting out that way.

I'll finish posting pictures of our vacation we took in August, interspersed with more recent info as time goes by. I've made it a goal to do better about posting. I'll start by posting our Halloween pics, since they'll be the easiest.

Halloween 2011

Here's the kids carving away on their pumpkins

And the final result. We always have fun carving pumpkins!

Here's McKaylie and Noah trick-or-treating with some friends of ours. I realized later, that I didn't get a picture of just them--wasn't too happy with myself. McKaylie was a cowgirl and Noah was a hunter. I love it when they pick easy costumes!!!

Our friends invited us to their ward's Halloween trunk-or-treating, too. Here's McKaylie and her friend Ellen at that party. Our families met when these 2 girls were just starting nursery (18 months old) in Pensacola. Time has certainly flown by!

And here's Ellen's mom, Christy, and me. She's one of my sweetest, dearest friends and one of the few reasons I'm glad to be back in Virginia. I've missed her so much and it's so nice to live so close to her again!

Cowboy Boots

My aunt emailed me this little story and I had to share it on here

Anyone who has ever dressed a child will love this one!

Did you hear about the Texas teacher who was helping one of her kindergarten students put on his cowboy boots? He asked for help & she could see why.

Even with her pulling and him pushing, the little boots didn’t want to go on. Finally, when the 2^nd boot was on, she had worked up a sweat.

She almost cried when the little boy said, “Teacher, they’re on the wrong feet.” She looked and sure enough, they were. It wasn’t any easier pulling the boots off than it was putting them on. She managed to keep her cool as together they worked to get the boots back on, this time on the right feet.

He then announced, “These aren’t my boots.”

She bit her tongue rather than get right in his face and scream, “Why didn’t you say so?” like she wanted to. And, once again she struggled to help him pull the ill-fitting boots off his little feet.

No sooner had they got the boots off and he said, “They’re my brother’s boots. My Mom made me wear ‘em”

Now she didn’t know if she should laugh or cry. But, she mustered up the grace and courage she had left to wrestle the boots on his feet again.

Helping him into his coat, she asked, “Now, where are your mittens?”

He said, “I stuffed ‘em into the toes of my boots.”

Her trial starts next month……..

Catching Up a Little...............

I ended up taking McKaylie to the doctor last Thursday.........because of the rash.......AGAIN! I am so sick of that rash. The poor thing was covered practically head to foot. She was really itchy and giving her Benadryl helped with that, but it made McKaylie a mean little person! You can laugh, but it really did. She would get drousy and tired and grumpy and whiny and it was just ugly. There was a few times I considered not giving it to her, because it was just so hard to deal with her when she was taking it. The doctor suggested Claratin, which we tried and there was no difference. It helped with the itching, but she was still mean! She ended up staying home from school on Thursday and Friday. I've scrubbed and Lysoled my house more in the last month than in the last 6 months combined. We just can't seem to shake this virus. I'm wondering if they're not getting exposed to it over and over again at church or school or somewhere. It's very frustrating. Just when we think we're done with it, it comes back.

Our snow is melting and it makes me really excited for Spring. It's funny how seeing the ground and the brown grass, just makes you hopeful. I told was how excited I was that I could see the ground and it gave me this look, like "you are so pathetic, mom" and said, "you know it's going to snow again, right?" Yeah, I know it will probably snow again before spring is truly here, but I'm still getting extremely excited for spring, nonetheless.

I gave a talk in church yesterday. I think it went ok. I loved the subject, though, family prayer and family scripture study. It was a good reminder to get back to the basics. Without familly prayer and family scripture study, what good does everything else do? I am glad that my talk is over, though. I get very nervous until I'm actually up there giving it and then my nerves seem to calm down once I start. I thought I was doing pretty good, until they passed me the sacrament and I noticed that my hand was shaking. That little deacon probably thought I was crazy!

I printed off a bunch of stuff for Primary and only when I handed everthing out on Sunday, did I realize that instead of saying CUB SCOUTS, my sheet said, CUT SCOUTS. I guess I'll be doing that one again.

I saw this background and had to put it on my blog. I don't know if you can see all four monkeys on the sides (we have a wide screen monitor, so I'm not sure what shows up on the regular ones and what doesn't) but there are 4 monkeys swinging around, 2 bigger ones and two smaller ones. Just like my little monkeys as I refer to my kids often. So, I love this background! It's very fitting.

Chad's been reading the Twilight series lately. He's on the 4th book. I love that he's reading. It's nice to sit and bed and read together. When we were first married and didn't have a TV (oh those were the days) we used to read all the time. We also used to read out loud to each other and I loved that.

I have a busy week coming up. I have parent/teacher conferences, extra volunteer days at the school, speech, book fair, church activities, etc, etc. The list seems to go on and on. This week is our game night/date night with friends, though. That should be a very nice ending to a crazy week. I also get to pick up our portraits today. I'm excited to see them and get them on my wall!

Ahhhhh

Giveaway........

Here's another giveaway for you to check out. This poster looks so cool. I'd love to win it! Go see it here:
4 Kids No Dog and Living the American Dream